If you were sitting in the backseat, here's what your morning ride would have looked like as we counted down the hours and passed by familiar landmarks.
Willie sang "on the road again" and that's exactly how Becky and I spent six hours this morning! She pulled into the driveway at 6 a.m., we tossed all my stuff in the CRV, and then we hit the road for Williamsburg. If our Hondas could drive themselves, all we'd have to say would be, "take us to Gene's". If you were sitting in the backseat, here's what your morning ride would have looked like as we counted down the hours and passed by familiar landmarks. Greetings from Black Mountain! Wendy, the pups and I drove up to the Wee Cabin today to take care of some winter chores. Number one on the list was to order some heating oil and number two on the list was to clean leaves and pine needles off the roof. Both missions were accomplished successfully! We got burgers at the Ale House for lunch and then stopped in for a visit with our good friend Joye Durham at The Gingko Tree Gallery. You might remember the Postcard I sent you some while back about Joye and her incredible photography skills. She's an award-winning "artist with a camera" whose photos have been featured in magazines and in film and TV. I had taken a small project of mine to her last month for framing and really wasn't expecting to pick it up until after the first of the year. But it was ready and I just wanted to share it with you. I had a difficult time picking out nine SplashT@B photos to use, but I really like the way it turned out. I opted for plexiglass instead of plate glass to lighten it a bit for the T@B. Now, here's the Christmas gift part! Joye had kinda forgotten what all her fancy mat cutter would do and when she saw my project, she remembered that it had a feature to allow her to cut out letters just like mine. If you have kids, grandkids, dogs, love to travel or camp, support a favorite team, then let your imagination run wild here for a minute. Take a look at a few of the mats she's has recently produced... She's got every color of mat you could ever want, there are options with letter sizes, and the sky's the limit in terms of what she can produce for you. So if you are interested, here's Joye's information... P.S.....for all you campers coming to the Blue Ridge Rally in April, Joye will be there with her camera to do some T@B, T@DA, Airstream and R-pod portraits on Saturday of the rally!!
P.P.S.....you just gotta take a look at her photographs......they will blow you away! Check them out HERE. Those of you who attended last year's Blue Ridge Rally at Raccoon Holler Campground might recall seeing thousands of acres of Christmas trees in Ashe County. Those of us who live close to the North Carolina mountains know that there are about 70 choose-and-cut farms where we can purchase fresh Fraser firs, blue spruce or balsams. Many families make an annual pilgrimage to their favorite tree farm in the High Country for a day of hayrides, hot apple cider, activities, and selecting that perfect evergreen. It's quite the tradition in these parts. You'll see cars coming down the mountain with a tree tied on the roof even before Thanksgiving. An equally important occurrence that we Tar Heels like to brag about is the fact that a North Carolina Fraser fir has been selected as the White House Christmas tree a record-breaking 12 times! Just this past November, a 19-footer from Peak Farms in Jefferson was presented to First Lady Michelle Obama. Trees from Cool Springs Nursery in Banner Elk were also chosen for the vice president's home. This is the first time the White House tree and vice president's tree have come from the same state. I'd say that speaks volumes about the quality of trees available in North Carolina!
With the long Thanksgiving weekend behind us, we can now officially turn our attention to the Christmas holiday. It seems perfectly logical to me to kick that Yuletide season off with cake! After all, today is National Cake Day. On this day, we celebrate one of the world's favorite desserts... the cake. The cake we know and love today evolved from early leavened breads, which were sweetened with honey, fruits, and nuts. Did you know that the word "cake" comes from the Old Norse word, "kaka," meaning a baked flour confection? Just in case you wanted to know... 1. My all-time favorite cake to make is a Molasses Stack Cake. 2. My all-time favorite cake to eat is any Pound Cake made by Bec. 3. My all-time favorite cake memory is the one made by my Momma that had caramel icing.
Before this Thanksgiving Day comes to an end, I just wanted to say thanks to all of you who have faithfully dropped by over the years to pick up your Postcard. You have made my life richer through your friendship near and far!
Just another item to put on my "I'm Thankful For..." list. The Coffee Cup is a perfect fit in the carport! To read about our morning move, scoot over to The Coffee Cup.
Mornin' everyone! I hope you had a fine weekend and are ready for this Thanksgiving week. It doesn't have to be Thanksgiving for me to give out a shout of thanks to my good friend Ella and also to Tom and Becky for all their help last week! Ella has a Weebly blog called "streamin" that chronicles adventures in their Bambi Airstream. On Saturday evening, she wrote a blog called "My Side of the Story" where she recounted our week in Van Wert and Jackson. I'd love for you to scoot over there and take a look at it! Here's my version of Ella and her side of the story... So thanks are in order to Ella for being there with her camera, for potato soup and chicken sandwiches for supper, for opening her home for two sleep-overs, for being a calm presence throughout the week, for driving us to Cabela's and around Jackson, for some cool coffee fabric, and for her priceless friendship! Thanks to Tom for making a Friday night pizza run, for backing The Cup safely into the driveway, and sharing teacher stories and laughs and hospitality! Thanks to Becky for putting up with me for the past year as I waited, sometimes impatiently, for the Coffee Cup to be ready, for going junkin' with me in search of java treasures, for sharing the driving to and from Ohio, and for being the best sister anyone could ever need or want! "Camping and Coffee, Ella and Tom and Becky . . . Life Is Good!"
Our Saturday started out pretty early because we knew it was going to be a long, long day. After breakfast with Ella and Tom and goodbyes in the driveway, I slowly pulled out of the driveway with The Coffee Cup behind me at 7 a.m. on the dot. In all six camping seasons with SplashT@B, I've never left before sunrise, nor arrived home after sunset. Yesterday we did both! The Ohio countryside was beautiful and it was pretty neat watching the day wake up as we drove along. Becky snapped a few photos for me. We decided to avoid the interstates around Columbus and take a northern jog around the city. Once again, we were treated to enjoyable scenery. It would probably surprise you to know that I didn't take one single photo of The Cup when we stopped for gas or for something to eat along the way. It surprises ME! I was so intent on watching out the side windows for sway, listening to road noises, and generally being a nervous-nellie, that I forgot to take pictures. Not until we got back into North Carolina and watched an incredible sunset unfold to welcome us home did I pull the camera back out! At 7 p.m. on the dot, we pulled into the driveway. It is too special for words to look out into the driveway and see her sitting there! Thanks to all of you who sent us traveling prayers and who have watched, along with us, this whole Java Journey unfold.
Evening everyone! Tonight's Postcard comes to you from the Tom & Ella Brown Inn in Van Wert, Ohio! Here's the best way for me to tell you about my day... How did she handle? Like a dream! Any sway? Nope, not a bit! Did I have a huge learning curve with the electric brakes and sway bar? Not in the least! Was I nervous? Oh yes...LOL.
While The Cup is spending her first night out of Michigan, Becky and I are spending our last night with Tom and Ella. Pizza, camper talk, and computer time has filled our evening. We'll head out early in the morning for our long drive home. Thanks so much for dropping by this week to pick up your Java Postcard. I'll be talking to you again on Monday. Have a fine weekend y'all. When the phone rang this morning at 8:00, I knew immediately who it was...Tony. If you've been following my Java Journey with The Coffee Cup, then you know that I've experienced delay after delay. So it shouldn't surprise you in the least to find out that he found some other things on my list that he still needed to do. LOL...I knew it! I just knew it! At that point, I realized that there was a real possibility of having to stay in Jackson another night. Because there was no point in going back over to the shop before lunch, we made plans for the day...breakfast at Starbucks, shopping at Cabela's, back to Tony's after lunch. Ella didn't know that Cabela's was only 45 minutes from Jackson and was thrilled at the possibility of going there. We tried out every camping chair in the store, bought cute Christmas cotton sweaters, and ate lunch on the balcony overlooking the entire store with its stuffed, wild animals on display. We got back to Tony's about 2 o'clock to check on his progress. And guess what? He wasn't going to be finished in time for us to do a walk-thru, go over all the systems, go through the paperwork, hitch up and leave for Van Wert before dark. Surprise, surprise. I'm totally OK with this because at this point I don't want to rush things. I want to be on the road home feeling confident about the electric brakes, the sway bar, and towing something new. Let me share a few more photos of The Cup with you on this second evening in Jackson, Michigan. Have a good evening y'all. |
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