Another bump in the road 4/21/2017

I haven't posted here in a while because our travels have been limited. The long and short of it is that I've had some health issues. Back in December 2016, I started to feel tired and lacked an appetite. There were a couple of times when I almost passed out just to stand. A trip to the ER in early January confirmed that I had a blood clot in each lung. Yikes! Where'd they come from? There was no ostensible reason for their appearance. Prior to the PE (pulmonary embolisms), I was walking 4 miles a day at a 4 + mph clip. Post-PE, I was a Tim Conway "Old Man" clone--(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-QqmJimv_U), walking in a shuffle!

So for the first 3 months of 2017, the $64,000 question was where'd the PE come from? I bounced from one specialty doctor to another,  none of whom seemed to have an answer. And in the meantime, I was developing a compendium of seemingly unrelated symptoms: My hands were frequently numb, my feet had shooting pains, my stomach felt awful, and I was losing weight. I was anemic, my sinuses were always clogged, I had night sweats... What the hell????? Towards the end of March, in the evening, I mentioned to Ray that all of a sudden I was seeing double. I decided that maybe I was just tired and would go to bed and that in the morning I would be better. Not so much. With the double vision persisting in the morning, we trucked over to the ER, where after a battery of tests and blood work, I was admitted to the hospital, because it appeared that my kidneys were in failure. (Holy crap!!) Several days, tests, (renal biopsy) and blood tests later, the answer became apparent to the doctors. I have vasculitis. 

Vasculitis is a really screwy "condition" where inflammation can be present in the entire body.  My version (there are several) affects the upper (sinuses and nose), and lower (lungs), respiratory system and frequently involves the kidneys, lungs, eyes, ears, throat, skin and other body organs.  For unclear reasons, blood vessels in affected areas may become inflamed, and clusters of certain cells  may occur. Back in the 1970s, this was almost always fatal. But God is good, and there are now treatments that can put me in remission. I am now taking Prednisone, and soon will get chemo infusions of an auto-immune drug.

I still see double and my left hand doesn't work very well, but otherwise, I'm feeling better. I can walk better as the PE resolves (I can walk 1/4 mile) I'm the lightest I've been since my 20s. What a crappy way to lose weight! (I don't recommend it!!!) Hopefully, Ray and I will be back on the road in our RV very soon!!

Visiting an old friend 10/25/2016

500+ mum flowers all from 1 plant, and on 1 stem!

Whenever we're in the neighborhood (within 50-100 miles), we take the opportunity to stop in to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA (just north of Wilmington, DE). Every season, every year is different and a sensory treat. This year, we had looked forward to seeing a somewhat revised version of a nighttime light and sound show here that we had seen twice last year. Unfortunately, we discovered that the light show was only offered from Wednesday through Sunday, and we were visiting on Monday. But this was the start of Longwood's Chrysanthemum Festival in the conservatories, and we had never seen that, so we went anyway. Wow! More than 17,000 chrysanthemum plants were grown into ball, spiral, column, and pagoda shapes, and other forms as well. The amazing thing is that these forms are all trained from single stems! Longwood has one of the oldest chrysanthemum collections in North America, consisting of 230 different types. Since we were there early in the festival run, many of the plants were not in full bloom, and the 1000 + bloom chrysanthemum (on 1 stem in ball form) had not yet been put in place. It was going to be delivered from the greenhouse on the next day.

While in the Conservatories, we stopped in to see the fabulous Orchid Room, the Acacia Passageway, the fern wall room and the Chrysanthemum Bonsai (you have to see them to believe them).

One Chrysanthemum plant  that has been wrapped around a column. We were told it would be in full bloom within a week or 2.

Outside, we took a few hours to stroll among the trees, which are for us some of the most interesting features of Longwood Gardens, home to many National

and State Champion trees (the largest of their species). It is such a blessing to be able to walk among these perfect giants in the quiet of such a beautiful setting.

More photos here: https://goo.gl/photos/Vqj8g5bCyN5kVFm29

Minnewaska State Park 10/25/2016

Although the day was blustery and threatening to rain, we headed to Minnewaska State Park in the Shawangunk Range of the Catskills, with the goal of hiking to Sam's Point and the Ice Caves. Sam's Point is an overlook of thOn this day, the mountains were in peak fall color, and gave a spectacular display. From Sam's Point, we continued on up Ice Cave Road to the Ice Cave Trail. we had done this trail a few years ago and toroughly enjoyed it. This time, the road was lined with blueberry bushes in bright red fall foliage. In April of this year, there had been a 2000 acre fire that destroyed much of the tree cover here.. But the fire allowed the blueberries to thrive in the increased sunshine, resulting in carpets of red on both sides of the road. Gorgeous! The ice caves trail is an easy hike that takes you through a rock fall that created caves along the side of the mountain. Although the trail is very narrow and steep in places, it is a fun walk.

Here are some more pictures: https://goo.gl/photos/AAHS8Bgopr2P6SHt8

NY--Walk across the Hudson and Storm King 10/25/2016

I'm so glad we decided to come back north in October. By the time we got here, all the foliage was at

View from the Walkway: The Mid-Hudson Bridge

peak color, providing us the experience we would never have had this year if we had stayed home.
Since we had never done the walk across the Hudson, we headed there first. The Walk across the Hudson is a former railroad bridge that has been converted to a walking/biking trail. The bridge runs between Highland and Poughkeepsie NY and offers fabulous views north and south. Another day in the 70s made for a delightful stroll.

Pictures are here: https://goo.gl/photos/vXYDm33DEBYaX4Xu9

Alternative Landscape Components

We then headed over to Storm King Art Center, an open air museum in Mountainville, NY. It purportedly has the largest collection of contemporary outdoor sculptures in the US. It is about an hour drive north of NYC and sits on 500 acres. The sculptures are situated in locations all around the landscape: some in the woods, some on hills, some in open grassy areas, and all situated exactly per the artist's wishes. Although the landscape looks natural, each installation was carefully crafted according to the wishes of each artist. Truthfully, my taste and understanding of art had me scratching my head at some of the works. One of those was a piece called "Alternative Landscape Components", trees, rocks, and bushes made of plastic pipes, and steel drums.

In the visitor center, we experienced the Dennis Oppenheim exhibition "Terrestrial Studio", which included a piece called "Two Jumps for Dead Dog Creek", an installation of 2 x 4s and sand

Two Jumps...

imprinted with footprints. I may be obtuse, but this does not compute as art, unless art is whatever the artist says it is. Hey, at the MOMA in NYC, we saw the iconic blank framed canvas. Brilliant art, or big joke? In another room of the center museum, a video screen showed a video recording of Mr. Oppenheim walking in the woods and attaching sticks and brush to his body. Title of the piece was "Toward Becoming a Scarecrow". Yaaaaaaaaaawwwn.

But many other works were interesting. "Sea Change", 2 curving stainless steel poles that turn slowly in opposite directions, was mesmerizing. Another work, (title unknown) was composed of 3 giant frames mounted on 10-12 foot high poles. When you lie on the ground under each piece, the sky is the framed piece of art.

There are so many monumental sculptures, it's hard to see them all as you wander throughout the Storm King property. It's definitely worth a visit.

There are more pictures here: https://goo.gl/photos/3zP1ckEh6QWojphCA

Short trip north--Smokies 10/25/2016

We left Florida on the 10th on a little jaunt north to see family and friends, and get a taste of autumn. Mission accomplished! Our first stop was Smoky Mountain National Park. While the park was not at peak for autumn color, it was beautiful as usual. Mountain ash had lost their leaves and were sporting large clusters of bright red berries. The skies were bright blue and temps were in the 70s, and the hiking was fabulous. We walked up Clingman's Dome and then took the hike to Andrews Bald, the highest grassy bald in Smoky Mountain National Park, and a ridge that offers amazing views of the mountains. We stayed in a campground in Pigeon Forge, TN. Pigeon Forge, like Gatlinburg is a succession of dinner theaters, restaurants, gas stations, and every national chain establishment ever established. (It is also the home of Dollywood, and is Dolly Parton's home town.) Driving down the main drag in town, you pass, in rapid succession, Wonderworks, The Titanic Museum, Hatfields and McCoys show, Hollywood Wax Museum, Dixie Stampede, Biblical Times, etc. etc...

Love the mountains, Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg--not so much. Traffic is horrendous.

Here are some photos we took on our visit there.

Done for now 8/15/2016

As we head home (odd to be heading south...), I can't help but think about these last six weeks, and what we've seen. We've passed by Michigan and Minnesota fields of soybeans, Montana's wheat and canola fields, Kansas corn and sorghum, Georgia pecan and peach groves, and Florida orange groves. We've hiked at 8800 feet and at 300 feet elevation, and lots in between. We started in humidity, traveled through moderation to dry climates, and back.

We learned a lot about the ins and outs of RV travel along the way. We laughed at our screwups (hopefully the Elantra will survive them!), and the value of making checklists.  We found out why our refrigerator never needed defrosting (wonderful!). We know that traveling this way takes longer and also that we've got to take a  bigger step ladder with us to clean the windshield when we stop to get gas.

We reaffirmed our affection for Kansas and Missouri (our unabashed love of Montana needs no affirmation...).

We met some cool people as well, most of them fellow RVers, others just fellow travelers (like the biker who almost drowned in St. Mary Lake at Glacier the day before we met).

And we're already making plans for a trip out west next summer, and many more smaller trips in between.

Having spent all of 10 days in our new home in Florida before this trip, yesterday, as we drove south through Georgia toward Florida, he put it well: "We're on our way to a new life." Another adventure. Can't wait.

Party Barges! 8/14/2016

Cheekwood is a privately funded 55-acre estate on the western edge of Nashville that houses the Cheekwood Botanical Garden and Museum of Art. That was our first stop today. The history of Cheekwood is intertwined with the Maxwell House Coffee brand. The cousin of the mansion's builder developed a superior blend of coffee that was marketed through the best hotel in Nashville, the Maxwell House. His extended family, including Leslie and Mabel Cheek, were investors. In 1928, Postum (now General Foods) purchased Maxwell House's parent company, Cheek-Neal Coffee, for more than $40 million. It was this money that allowed the owners to build this estate. One of the Cheek daughters opened it in 1960 as a botanical garden and art museum.

They placed the house at the top of a hill near a former plantation (Belle Meade), ensuring that their views in that direction would never be spoiled. The house itself was built by artisans from the area, and most of the house that the public can see is as it was when it was constructed, minus some of the

furnishings. The only thing that didn't seem to fit was a chandelier that had been gifted to the museum

by some donors. The chandelier consisted of many optical fibers hung from the ceiling a few floors above where it hung. At the end of each filament was an LED light. It had an interesting effect, but hardly fit the character of the house, built in 1929-32. The other house details were notable: intricate hardware on the doors, beautiful custom crown molding, wrought iron, limestone floors, and hand-carved oak doors.

The third floor of the house had been turned into an art gallery per the wishes of the Cheek family,

and there is also a scuplture walk on the property. I must confess that the sculpture along the woodland trail stretched my ability to understand it. One piece was a block of stone.  Another (an homage to aboriginal peoples per the description) was a bunch of dead trees

"Memorial to the Aboriginal People of this Land who lived in these Forests", or "A Bunch of Dead Trees"?

pushed into a pile. Another was a white stone bench. OK then.

After a lovely afternoon at Cheekwood, we headed over to the Parthenon, a full-scale replica of the original Parthenon in Athens. It was built in 1897 as part of the Tennessee Centennial Exhibition. Today it functions as an art museum, the centerpiece of Centennial Park, a large municipal park in Nashville. As it happened, they were

having a music festival there with performing artists. So we walked over to the venue and laid on the grass to listen for a while.

We stayed long enough to listen to one band, and then decided to try to find a place to park to cruise some of the music bars on Broadway, Nashville's lounge district downtown. Live music is the order of the day here. The bars are chock-a-block, one after the other,  on both sides of the street for 6 blocks. All have their doors open, and as you proceed down the street, you can hear snippets of each of the performers. That, combined with the thousands of people  cramming those bars and walking the street,  make quite a din. To add to the roar, there are "party barges": imagine a haywagon without the hay, full of people  who are drinking and singing along to recorded music at the top of their lungs. Then there are the pedal taverns--large wagons powered by the 10-15 people onboard who are pedaling. They were drinking as well, and singing along to music being played on their conveyance. apparently you can BYOB on those. They provide the ice and cups. The Party Barges looked like they would be fun to take with a group of people you know. Hey--BC people--want to meet in Nashville in October?

It turned out that not only were the Titans, Tennessee's NFL team, playing yesterday, but the Symphony was performing, and both institutions are within a few blocks of the downtown, making it impossible to find a single parking space. So we cruised down Broadway, and called it  a day.