Much of our time on our New England trip was spent visiting the many small fishing villages along the coast of Maine. We enjoyed these towns, the nearby islands, and the rocky beaches. We started our coastal trip up in Calais and completed our journey at the southwest tip of Maine near Salisbury Beach. The…
Life flows like a stream. When I walk next to a stream, it reminds me of life. I look at the moving water as an analogy with its twists, turns, and uncertainties along the way. It is amazing how streams are so different, as is our journey in life. Some streams start small and change course…
The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic 469-mile winding road from Shenandoah National Park in Virginia to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. We traveled on the top ridge of the mountains as we drove the southern end of the Parkway. The road twisted and turned and each new vista…
The Biltmore Estates located in Asheville, North Caroline is definitely a destination place to add to your list. The day we visited, we decided to get off the hiking trails for a new activity and have a play day in town. The Vanderbilt family built the magnificent 250-room French Renaissance chateau over a six-year period…
A Cove is a relative flat valley between mountains or ridges. Interestingly, Cades Cove is in the southern part of the Appalachian Mountain Range and also part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cades Cove is an 11-mile, one-way loop that winds in the valley. The wild life and an old community history can…
We did it! Our first bear sighting in the wild occurred and it did not happen when we were hiking. We will always remember the animals of the Great Smoky Mountains for this reason. Our sighting happened when we were safely in Alice! We had just finished our hike in the rain at Rainbow Falls…
After spending several days in the Great Smoky Mountains we were looking forward to driving from the mountains to Asheville, NC on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had been on the Blue Ridge Parkway in northern Virginia growing up so being back on this parkway was very special. We stopped to take a picture by…
The highest elevation in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is Clingmans Dome standing at 6,643 feet above sea level. This peak straddles two states and is the tallest peak in Tennessee and the third tallest peak in North Carolina. Clingmans Dome is also the highest peak on the 2,174 mile Appalachian Trail that runs…
We love Arapaho National Forest in Colorado and have been there many, many times over the years. Our problem is, we can’t decide which season we love the best in the Rockies. Summer is beautiful with all the mountain flowers and sunshine. Fall is magical, especially when the aspens are changing colors. Winter is wonderful…
Where do we store Alice when we are not using her? Alice is big and tiny at the same time. She is about 7 feet wide which is about the width of a large pickup truck. She is 24 feet long so she is too long for many normal parking spaces and about 11 feet…
Apostle Islands has been on our list of places to visit for several years. We lived in McFarland, Wisconsin (just south of Madison) for 3 years, and we spent our weekends traveling to many different parts of this beautiful state. However, we never made it all the way up north to the Apostle Islands. This…
It was a sunny and warm December day and we had been missing Alice so we got her and took a drive through the country outside of the Kansas City area. It was a joy to see Alice again after being in storage for 6 weeks! Since many people have asked us what Alice looks…
Steve and I spent some time last summer at the Apostle Islands in Northern Wisconsin and at Porcupine Mountain in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It was a beautiful trip and we highly recommend visiting the area. Copper Peak was one of the highlights of the entire trip. Bessemer, Michigan Being on the road for several days,…
