Everybody's Got the Blues...

Sometimes it's impossible to work around "Real Life" Lemons--- Lemonade---

In prep for my big trip I decided to give all 3 of my dogs a soapy long overdue bath!  Even Jimmy my sisters dog got one too! BUT when we were drying Annie off I found a tumor on her! It's located just above her rectum--I mean It's not a place I normally check--it's about the size of a marble...That was Friday....So on Saturday I got up early and took her to the vet.  He said it is a tumor and it needs to be removed due to its location.  So I scheduled her for the first available opening they had on their surgery calendar, Aug 15th.  So instead of my long awaited and  planned trip I get only one week before her surgery so Annie is with me...we'll get as far as we can and will return home on the 13th...Casey and Floss are home with sis and mom... I just wanted to get this special one to one time with Annie before this operation.  The tumor will be sent for testing and so I am just holding my breath.  BUT for now she and I are having a week together tripping and we are having a great time.  When she is well enough to either go with me or leave with Sis I will get back on my journey...sometimes you have to be flexible! SO I don't know If I will get to finish my original trip or not it's wait and see... BUT living in the moment is the only way to deal with this bad news....

As I said right away get as high as we can so we hit the Blue Ridge Parkway can't go wrong with this special place! 

When we left it was so humid you could stand a fork up in the air...no lie... and as soon as I climbed the first mountain I was able to roll the windows down and the AC has not been back on yet. We left Sunday it is now Tuesday...and I'm trying to not have second thoughts and just keeping going and pretend Annie is as fine as she appears to be ANY suggestions are appreciated...I just hate the idea of Anne going thru this surgery it's breaking my heart...

We have blue sad hearts but look we were rewarded by the cool air and the wildflowers along the roadside...which brings in butterflies!

I have seen millions of nectaring butterflies! My next post I will share millions of photos of them..:o)

I enjoy seeing the Blue Green fields of cabbage and maybe its broccoli too

Annie is a seasoned roadie she is no trouble she does bark if people get too close to the van which today a kid didn't know I was watching and he was teasing her through the open window! I was showering at a forest service public shower and left Annie in the shade but I left all the windows down she cant jump out the way I have her access to the front blocked...but he was running around my van sticking his head and hands into the open windows...I yelled at the little brat and told him stop teasing my dog! His father who watched the whole thing tried to say he was only curious...I said "why are you making excuses for his bad behavior?" I am NOT a people person...however I love flowers!

SO many kinds I couldn't begin to name them all but this looks like a Turks Cap to me, 

So we got on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Fancy Gap in VA, and headed north...I have blogged this mill before in fall color but I wanted to see it in summer green so here is Mabry Mill it is an iconic structure along the Parkway.

 I camped at Rocky Knob campground its $8 with senior pass, and I've stayed here before it was nearly empty! After getting a site Annie and I stopped at the Rocky Knob Visitors Center...it is housed in this old 1950's gas station building! SO charming...and the Ranger inside told me of a short one mile loop that Annie and I might enjoy and so we took off...no one was around so I allowed Annie some freedom...

she has been so good she has not offered to run off and leave me, she doesn't have Floss along to show off for!!

the hike took us past this old crumbling building it has seen it's best day for sure!

I almost expected to see Gnomes living in here....the scenery all around is just breath taking...

here is our little camp site it was a tight fit....but we managed...

I always take a tent site to save the larger sites for the people with large RV's and such, plenty of bigger spaces were available, but I've found its quieter in the tent section no generators. 

I'm beginning to think Annie doesn't like her photo taken she always looks away....

 The night was chilly and the rain started about 10 pm and it never stopped....next day we continued North on the Blue Ridge Parkway...into the fog!  Hopefully I'll have internet to tell you all about it!

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

YES!! and oh nooooo...

I want to choke my own self!! Remember when I changed the Pixel Size in my camera to help with the data usage? Well I forgot to turn it back to full size today when I left home for my 3 day trip!! Therefore my first day photos stink!!

Had a one hr delay due to roadworker's picking up lane closure cones!! UGHHH

SO did the traffic!! The first leg of this trip was to head straight up I-77 north and then go west on I-40 and exit onto Sharon School Road, and onto the Lookout Shoals Lake and the Boat Access area just around Statesville, NC. 

I needed to walk around the edge of the lake on a very overused and abused trail 

littered with trash and illegal firepits...did see this one pretty flower..reminds me of a Cherokee Rose but Im not certain on that ID. 

Watched this man try out his home made paddle board---he fell into the water at least 6 times while I watched...but I couldn't get him actually falling Darn it! 

I scared a few black vultures....up into the trees, they were picking through all the trash...

SO I kept going to the spot I was looking for...here across this lake

I put this red arrow to show you the area of my interest! I know its FAR...MAN I wanted a kayak and a scope so much today...only a short paddle would have gotten me closer..to this graffiti covered rock!!

No...I didnt drive up here to see Natalie's name in white paint look to the right and just above the line of the graffiti, can you see it?  Okay enough of this mystery hunt n seek its a RARE BIRD!

 

The BROWN BOOBY! It may not be rare where you are but this one is over 200 miles inland on this ledge in this lake in central NC!  And check out the white "thing" just above this booby to the right? That appeared when I went back to the car to get my tripod, I hadn't figured out why my camera was doing such a bad job zooming in on the bird normally it can do much better.... thought of the photo size thing LATER..aww (my foot won't reach or I would kick my own **s)

Here is the first photo heavy crop...see no other white bird looking object..

but then look when I got back what is that???

I have been checking the reports every day on ebird hoping he would keep hanging till I could get there and he did!!  SO Happy cause the only hope I'd have of seeing this bird would be a Pelagic trip which I can NOT do I get sea sick just thinking of going on a ship in the Ocean...have found that out a few times.

The bird did not dive while I was watching it did move around and change positions a few times...

SCORE! I'm really happy I was able to find it and I got a good look at it via my binoculars!!  So I left the area on I-40 only this time traveling east and I drove as long as I could to make it almost to the coast of NC...

I didn't camp tonight as major rain has been moving in and out and all around

the sky this afternoon, right before the bottom fell out! 

So I'm moteling in Wilson, NC and I have FREE WiFi  I could have uploaded the largest photos EVER...grrrrrr 

Tomorrow I have about a 45 min drive to get me to Lake Mattamuskeet, Alligator NWR, and Pocosin Lakes NWR, I hope there is something there, winter is the time to visit  for waterfowl, but I went to FL on my winter trip so I hope to see some shorebirds maybe...either way its always fun to get out and see what I can find!! Oh, and I have already put the pixels back up in the camera! 

AND I'm watching my favorite TV show (I can no longer get on the antenna)

 Ancient Aliens!!
 LOVE Giorgo Tsoukalos (soo-ka-los) ...not quite as attractive as the Brown Booby tho!!!

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

America--Alive and Well!

I had hoped to be able to update daily from the road but I've been off the grid so just now have the "power"...NO hook ups is the word...but tonight I do..I'm still on the road, from the beach I headed north up I-77 and then to the Blue Ridge Parkway! IN search of Fall Color and I found it!

I spent my first night at Rocky Knob after I had to stay in a Motel on the rainiest night in NC!! IT poured rain on Tuesday so I got a motel to dry out...Wednesday I headed right for the parkway! 

I had a wonderful conversation with this handsome grey eyed pumpkin farmer!! I tried to pretend to be photographing the pumpkins....

He tried to convince me I did have room in my van for one of his gigantic Pumpkins..I did however point out my favorite one... the one nearest him...I had to walk over and touch it...that one with green marbling on it what a genuine and lovely man, he lives in Meadows of Dan, VA by the way a quaint small town right off the parkway. OH and he also told me he travels to Columbia, SC to the farmers market there...and maybe I should stop by and see him... ;o)

 Okay back to the road trip....

I think I caught the leaf color just right some oaks are stubbornly green but it is gorgeous!!  I love the Americana of the Southern Appalachians...

Including all these preserved  homestead cabins...this is Ma Puckett's cabin she was a midwife who lived in this area her whole life...she delivered like....1000 babies'--

Casey at Ma Pucketts 

And they used the local stone to build all sorts of structures 

Farms dot the hill sides everywhere!  Clouds hung around but leaf color is more saturated on dull days...

I just can't get enough of the landscapes...and the rail fences are all along the parkway which is 469 miles in length! It actually comes very close to SC on the southern end the northern terminus is at Shenandoah National Park, in VA.  Many of the amenities close around Nov 1, so if you're planning a trip make it before that. 

So I drove from the SC line to Mabry Mill, VA the handsome farmer jokingly told me they call it "Mayberry" Mill I think he was making fun of us "tourans" but it sure is a pretty little mill! So I did my part as a tourist to this area I took LOTS of photos and I spent a total of 52 cents while there...I had to have one of these...

I collect them! Not everyplace has one of these machines, you put in 2 quarters and a new penny and turn the wheel it flattens out the penny and imprints an image on the penny! This one says Mabry Mill, Blue Ridge Parkway, and now I see they have pennycollector.com on the penny so maybe I can order ones of past places I have visited?  You can chose from 4 different scenes,  Now I wish I had done all 4....:o(   I'm a tight wad in case you hadn't noticed!!  This is my fav shot of the ones I took.

I enjoyed trying to get a long exposure photo of the water zooming through the sluice, it had leaves traveling along in it too...

YAHOO boy that water was COLD! Don't stick your head out too far tho---^---

after I took this photo the guy told me Visitors are not allowed in that window...yikes! SO this is one shot probably no other tourists have of the mill in action!! What do they say, try to get a juxtaposition that no one else has to make your photo unique.~

there is a cute visitors center and a cafe here and you can buy grits, buckwheat and corn meal too!

and just one more pumpkin photo...

T.B.C.

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.

On the Road Again...

ITs been a very busy spring here getting my garden in, and taking care of the yard now just in time for me to decided Im going away for 3 weeks!! I hear Willie Nelson singing in the background..."on the road again, I just cant wait to get on the road again..."
YES its time for a road trip. Mom is doing very well right now just had her latest Drs. appt and he said she looks good so if Im going to get in a trip this spring better get moving now!! SO Ive been getting all my things gathered this time Im driving--so that means more packing---Im taking all my camping gear too.

Im going to Arizona, Colorado, and Utah not necessarily in that order. Its a 2,000 mile drive over....to my friend who lives near Phoenix and she and I plan to do some desert camping...she needs a break from her living arrangements and Ive never turned down the opportunity to spend time outdoors--So Ive packed my tent which smelled pretty rank when I set it up to air--better now after a wash with the hose and a day in the sun. So today its a supply run at Walmart and then off first thing in the morning--
After I spend a few days with my friend Im headed up into the rocky mountains to stay with my sister for a while and we have planned a trip at the end of my stay in Zion National Park...we didnt get time to check it out last yr so I really wanted to go back...then I will head back in time to attend the Body Builders show my son is participating in...
I am taking my laptop and my camera so expect some updates from me...