10 May 2017, Wednesday Thankfully, our pre-departure weather forecast of rain for today was wrong. The morning is cool and fair, with blue sky. We cook up our breakfast shortcake which we eat with jam, and then we depart for the Auxier Ridge – Courthouse Rock Trail. We drive a bit south on Kentucky Rt 15 and then turn onto Tunnel Ridge Road, a gravel Forest Service road. We stop
9 May 2017, Tuesday I am awakened about 2 am by a sudden down-pouring of rain drumming on the tent fly. Shortly afterward I note an occasional drip of water on my face…not a good sign. I sit up to feel the top of the mesh seam overhead. It is wet, but I feel no moisture anywhere else. O wakes as I move around, and asks what is going on.
8 May 2017, Monday After breakfast at the Morgantown Quality Inn we are once again heading westward. The sky is a bright and cloudless blue and the mountains are decked out in their new spring finery in every shade of green. About 174 miles down the road G suddenly realizes she left her coat with wallet and ID back at the motel. I call and explain what happened to Clint,
More Wandering 2017 Red River Gorge, Kentucky, May 7-14 7 May 2017, Sunday After much preparation we are on the road at 1 pm for our shakedown journey aboard Vincent…VanGo, that is… our new 4 wheel drive Sprinter cargo van. O and I are accompanied on this trip by G, now a New York City refugee seeking new paths forward. Since this is a short trip I researched places not
29 October 2016, Saturday Home and unpacking! My new T-shirt kind of sums it up.
28 October 2016, Friday Today’s destination is Bethlehem, PA where we plan to attend a concert celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Godfrey Daniels Coffee House. John McCutcheon and Tom Paxton are playing, accompanied by Robin Bullock. We arrive in Bethlehem a bit early, which is good because it takes us awhile to find a parking space that doesn’t have a ‘permit required’ sign posted. Then we need to get
27 October 2016, Thursday Today we visit Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Seems like near Cleveland the name is pronounced Cuyahoga (rhymes with sky-a-toga,) but in a film about the park the name seems to be pronounced k’hogga, with a short “o.” The park was established in 1974 to preserve the river valley, canal system and surrounding lands. It is a place I would visit frequently if I lived in the
25 October 2016, Tuesday We are up at sunrise this morning and get to the washrooms before they are closed. Our tent is dry as we pack it for the last time. Breakfast is in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin at a restaurant called Huckleberry’s. We drive… to Notre Dame, Indiana, back to the eastern time zone. Dinner is at Evil Czech Brewery and is very good. We decide to stop
24 October 2016, Monday Today is our last day of car camping for this trip, and a fine day it is! The forecast for our next few stops on the way home is for rain and somehow, the thought of tent camping in cold October rains is unappealing to both of us. We abandon plans to stop at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore tomorrow. That will have to wait for a
23 October 2016, Sunday We leave Jackson, Minnesota driving east and then southeast to Pike’s Peak State Park in Iowa. Yes, that’s Iowa, not Colorado, but it is the same Zebulon Pike. He was sent to scout out a location for a fort along the Mississippi in 1805 and chose these high bluffs. The military, however, had other ideas and chose the eastern shore of the river for the fort