Stone Mountain, Atlanta, GA and home

Since we wanted to get near the Atlanta Speedway for the Good Sam Rally, we decided to spent a few days at Stone Mountain, GA. which is northeast of Atlanta. Most of the attractions were closed in the middle of the week, but we rode the tram to the top of the mountain...

and walked around the granite surface.

It was interesting to view the area from the top of the mountain.

When we returned to the bottom we spent some time walking through the museum. The history of the carving was impressive. This is the carving of Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, and Stonewall Jackson on the side of the mountain.

One of the displays inside compared the sizes of different monuments around the world to give perspective.

We took a hike around a nature trail that was much longer than we expected, so we were tired out at the end of the day.

Our final stop before getting home to Florida was the Good Sam Rally at the Atlanta Speedway. There were so many interesting seminars that we went to different ones and then shared the information. There were over 2700 coaches in attendance. Here's a shot of the entertainment stage with seminar tents in the background.

The entertainment was outstanding each night with the Beach Boys, Vince Gill, and the Vogues. Here's Vince Gill.

After his show they had  fireworks.

The weather wasn't perfect but there were beautiful sunsets while we were watching the shows.

In addition to many vendors in the tents there was a booth with ladies recruiting for next summer at Dollywood in TN. We spoke with them several times, asked lots of questions, applied, interviewed, and were hired to work on water attractions at the park. Dan will be on Dare Devil Falls, a log jammer ride, and I will work on River Battle, a ride where passengers are equipped with soaker guns to spray targets and people on the river banks. We'll camp about 1 and1/2 miles from the park. We're looking forward to this new experience. And the adventure continues.........

So after over 6000 miles and 5 and 1/2 months we are home in Spring Hill. We're up to our necks in the chores of unpacking, washing, cleaning, and reorganizing. We're thankful that we are healthy enough to venture out and explore the country.

South Carolina visits 9/27-10/15

We spent part of our time in SC at Myrtle Beach where our daughter Donna lives and the other part at Moncks Corner near Charleston where our son Doug lives. Fortunately we had lots of good quality time with both families.

At Myrtle Beach we attended a band competition where grandson Chris plays the tuba. Socastee High School did a magnificent job. In addition to visiting with Donna and family and friends from NC we enjoyed several walks on the beach. The weather cooperated with temperatures in the 70's and low humidity, just how we like it. Doug and family came up for the weekend to attend the motorcycle rally. Mary rode home on the back of Doug's bike and Nancy rode her motorcycle.

Meanwhile back at the RV, Daimen cremated Grandma in a game of Spite and Malace.

We drove south to the Navy campground where our campsite was on Lake Moultrie, the sight of beautiful sunsets.

What a relaxing scene for eating lunch.

We took a day trip to Charleston with Doug and friend Nancy to see the sights and enjoy lunch on the waterfront. Columbia was the destination on another day where Daimen, who plays the trumpet for Goose Creek High School, performed in a competition. We were impressed with their outstanding performance. As a bonus we enjoyed dinner at our nephew Bob's restaurant - delicious food and fantastic company! We realized that we should have taken more pictures while we were there.

Elkhart, IN to Myrtle Beach, SC

We spent Friday at the dealership where they replaced the shower pan and checked out the electric system. They replaced the Solenoid and said we were good to go. Since it was late in the day and they had free overnight parking, we decided to stay there for the extra night and leave the next morning. As we were setting up we discovered that our slides would not go out. Dan went back and told the serviceman who came over to check it out. After over an hour of troubleshooting and not finding a problem they told us to stay over the weekend and they would work on it on Monday. Not liking that answer, Dan convinced them to put on the old Solenoid. And thankfully that solved the problem of the slides. We were grateful that we had not driven down the road that evening and encountered the problem at a campground.

Our time in Ohio went by quickly. Visiting with friends and family took up the majority of the time. On a friend's suggestion we visited Warther Museum in Dover, OH where we learned about the life of the Warther family and saw magnificent carvings. Mooney Warther began by carving multiple sets of pliers from a block of wood.

 The museum displayed several rooms of his  64 steam locomotives carved from ebony, ivory and walnut with movable parts. 

This is a replica of Abraham Lincoln's funeral train in 1865. On a close up view you can see him in the coffin.

This is an ivory carving of the meeting of the two sides of the Great Northern Railroad.

In one display case we saw the little parts that he carved for part of a train.

The guided tour was outstanding as well as the depiction of the life of this remarkable man. He also collected over 5000 arrowheads which were arranged in his workshop. We viewed the Button House where his wife arranged her collection of 73,000 buttons in beautiful designs on the walls and ceiling. The house and gardens were also included in the tour. We're glad we took time to visit and would recommend it to anyone in the area.

Before we left Ohio we drove down to Columbus with son Dan and family  to see grandson Mitch who is a freshman at Ohio State. We got to see his dorm room and campus and had a delicious lunch at Quaker Steak & Lube.

From OH we drove through WV and MD to Front Royal, VA. near the beginning of Skyline Drive and the Shenandoah National Park. The next day we drove through part of the park and checked out possibilities for our next summer adventure. The following day we drove another section of Skyline Drive and took a hike. The scenery was beautiful with many places to pull over and admire it.

Just a few of the leaves were beginning to change color, but it was mostly still green.....lots and lots of green! The Fox Hollow Trail that we took just went down through the woods and back up again.

After our visit to Shenandoah we packed up and headed for Myrtle Beach, SC to visit with daughter Donna and family and take some walks on the beach.

One last hike then on the road again

On our last day off we took a walk through Gardiner, a charming little city less that a mile from the campground. We enjoyed pizza here earlier in the summer.

Our favorite restaurant was Cowboys where they served up good BBQ.

This is the mall, Montana style.

The Flying Pig District was famous for zip line and rafting tours.

On the other side of the Yellowstone River we walked a trail that was an old railroad bed. Here is a view of the campground from that side.

And this is our campsite. The volume of water in the river has dropped dramatically since we arrived in May.

During the summer we saw lots of elk. One evening a few came down to the campground to visit.

One day on our way home from work there were a group of them in the river.

And one bull elk on the hillside.

On most days we saw them before and after work around Mammoth Hot Springs. They even brought a stuffed elk into the store shortly before we left.

 

 

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

 

On Monday morning we finished our last minute packing chores and began our journey home. We drove 477 miles through Montana, a little bit of Wyoming, and into South Dakota. It was an enjoyable travel day with sunshine and beautiful scenery. Tuesday was a repeat of Monday, but we logged 473 miles. As we drove through SD we fondly remembered all the sights we saw when we visited Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Badlands, and other attractions several years ago. We made it to western Iowa. Our drive through Iowa on Wednesday was also picture perfect. I'm sure if we took the time to get off the highway there would be lots of interesting things to explore, but mostly all we saw were cornfields, farms, and silos. After another 416 miles we stopped in central Illinois. On Thursday we drove just 172 miles to Elkhart, IN to get work done on the RV. I will save the RV repair story for the next blog.

Hike to Ice Lake & Visit to Norris Geyser Basin

We started out on a 4.5 mile hike to Ice Lake and planned to loop around to see Little Gibbon Falls before we returned. This area of the park between Norris and Canyon was badly burnt out during the fire of 1988. The path consisted of mostly dead logs, but new trees have taken their place.

The lake, named by hotel concessionaires who got their ice there in the early 1900's, was quite peaceful and beautiful.

At one point after a little climb I checked an app on my phone and discovered that we were at an altitude of 7945 ft.

We were surprised that there were spots that still had tall trees standing.

When we reached a creek we were glad that we had the hiking sticks to keep us balanced as we crossed. I was a little nervous but I made it!

When we reached the point where the trail made a right to the falls, there was a rope across the trail and a sign that said it was closed due to bear activity. Our choice was to turn around and return the way we came or hike another 20 miles. We turned back! We ended up walking over 6 miles, but we met several interesting couples on the way back.

Although we walked through Norris Geyser Basin last year we thought it would be interesting to see if there were any changes from what we remembered. This time it was not quite as crowded and just as beautiful. Here are a few pictures we took. The colors were quite impressive.

As we were climbing the last hill, a dark cloud appeared, and it looked like a storm was brewing.

So we took the hint and left before we got soaked.

Today, Sept 3, we are cleaning up the RV in anticipation of our trip home. We are off tomorrow, work 4 nights, and leave Monday morning, Sept 9. Our first stop is Elkhart, IN where we will get our shower floor replaced. Then we will make stops in OH, PA, VA, SC, and GA. After the Good Sam RV Rally near Atlanta in mid October we will head home to FL.

Trip to Glacier National Park

We took an extra day off so we could get to northern Montana and have time to see the park. We left after work and drove north to Great Falls to spend the night. The Montana scenery was interesting. Sometimes it was flat.

Then mountains appeared.

At one point we traveled through the Lewis and Clark National Forest.

After spending the night at Great Falls, we continued on our way and viewed more spectacular scenery in northern Montana.

Instead of a bison jam we encountered a cattle jam.

Our first stop at the eastern end of the park was the Many Glacier area which included about eight miles of scenic road. Part of it skirted Lake Sherburne.

This is our first sight of a glacier.

Sadly many of the glaciers have disappeared, and it is predicted that they will be all gone in another 15 years. Many of the areas that we thought were glaciers were only snow on the mountains. As we drove along the road we encountered a Red Tour Bus that was stopped on the other side of the road.

We soon discovered what the man was photographing.

A cinnamon black bear was munching berries in the bushes. I wasn't quick enough to get a complete picture. He was walking pretty fast and very close to the road.
As we traveled on toward the end of the road we saw the Many Glacier hotel across from a small lake.

Here are a few other scenes from our travel down that road. It was quite spectacular.

Next we entered the Going-to-the-Sun road from the eastern side at the St. Mary visitor center. The 51 mile road through the center of the park took three decades to construct and over $2,000,000. The first car drove the entire length in the fall of 1932, and it was dedicated in July of 1933. It is a marvel in engineering and labor. We took many pictures, and it's hard to decide which to post. Here are some.

This shows an area where trees are down from an avalanche.

The road was narrow and windy in spots. There were several waterfalls along the side of the road. Here are some children enjoying the spray of one of them.

We made reservations to take the Red Bus tour the next day so we didn't stop at all the lodges and visitor centers the first day. We spent the night at Whitefish, a city about 30 minutes from the park. After dinner there we were lucky enough to stumble upon a Farmer's Market where they sold a variety of foods and Montana crafts. Since we had never tasted a fresh huckleberry we bought a cup of them and enjoyed the tart flavor of the small round fruit. We brought the rest of them home to eat on cereal and in pancakes. Yummy!
The following day we picked up the Red Bus at the western side of the park and headed to Logan Pass. The driver/guide explained that we cold not stand up and look out the top of the bus unless it was completely stopped.

Before we left we took pleasure in viewing McDonald Lake.

It was a crisp clear morning. Here are a few pictures from the many that we took. As usual the pictures can't show the true beauty of the park. Here we are about to go through one of the tunnels.

We stopped at a scenic overlook.

The guide was very knowledgeable and interesting. This area is called the weeping wall because the water oozes out from inside the mountain.

Our turn around point was Logan Pass where we had time to check out the visitor center and walk around the area.

Although the park is noted for its bighorn sheep and mountain goats we did not see any while we were there except stuffed at one of the visitor centers. The view heading west gave a different perspective on the hillsides.

 The guide explained that glaciers cut U shaped valleys compared to the V shaped ones cut by rivers.

We wished that we had one more day to do some hiking on a few of the trails, but we were happy that we got to see and do as much as we did.