We Are Home

Arrived home safely although early. Things didn't totally work out as we had planned for our Kentucky trip and we decided home was the best place to be. We drove straight through and of course wound up in Atlanta at 5:00 pm. Fortunately we never got tied up in stopped traffic but it was very slow moving in several places.

Becasue of observance days and rain on the other days we only got in a short amount of motorcycle ride time in the mountains. On our first mountain ride (Jim drove!) we took our favorite route from Becknerville (which is where we stay) back down the mountain to the main highway and back up and on a side road we had never traveled. The road from Becknerville follows the Kentucky river and is super rural. Beautiful farms, trees, river ... The side road was much the same just without the river. It was fun, scarry, and exhilirating all at the same time. No Tiffany, we did not ride on Log Lick Road.

The weather was sensational (we could have done without the rain but oh well)! Temperatures during the day in the low to mid 70's and at night into the low to mid 40's. Some of the days were windy and felt colder but we bundled up or found places to get out of the wind and enjoyed the day. One night we went to bed it was 65 degrees and when we woke up it was 45 degrees. Quite a drop. A couple of nights Jim got chilled and we had trouble warming him up - I told him that is a side effect of the weight loss. Nights he could sit by the campfire and drosh with the guys were really good for him. The guys would sit by the campfire almost all night (and they say women talk a lot).

We got to reconnect with old friends and catch up on their families and of course made new friends.  Since we were the first to arrive in camp we got to witness everyone else arriving. It was fun to listen to the little girls scream with glee when they realized their friends had arrived. The boys were excited in their own ways but the girls were the cutest.  The kids played endlessly. I heard one little girl just crying her heart out one night when daddy said it was time to go on to bed. Through her tears she kept saying "it's not fair, it's not fair" and I'm sure daddy's heart was breaking but he knew she was already exhausted and needed a bit more rest. And, we were asked to use the electric hand blowers to dry our hands to save on paper towels. One afternoon while I was in the bathroom and washing my hands I turned to the electric dryer to dry and a little girl (she's probably 6) said to me I should be using the paper towels. I reminded her we needed to use the electric dryer to save the paper and she said "but don't you realize how many CO2s you release in the air when you use electricity?" Her daddy said she didn't think of those when she gets the spray cans of deodrant and air freshner going!  The little ones are learning and even though they may get the words wrong they are at least listening. Kite flying, unicycles, skateboards, scooters, volleyball and the playground were all favorites.

It was still too early for leaf change. The reds were very prominent and the yellows were coming on. Surprisingly enough there was more color in Tennessee than in Kentucky. As we drove south the temperatures rose considerably. By the time we were in Atlanta the temperature was up to 85 and stayed that way all the way home. Then of course the temperatures back in the high 90's here at home. We're liking the fall cast to the shadows here at home but we are looking for some of the cooler temperatures to go along with that.
 
It's always good to get away and always good to get home.

Work, Work, and more Work

I haven't blogged the last couple of weeks because, again, I think what we do as a normal course of days or weeks isn't part of our exploits and then I think they really are, just not as interesting as others.

We have continued to clean up around our place and it really does look great. Even the UPS guy commented on how nice things looked. We have cleared an eight acre piece that was totally overgrown and now is almost totally cleared, we have new fence in some areas and had others refenced, we hauled several tons of garbage to the dump (mostly from the 8 acres), rerouted electric and water lines in the yard etc. etc. etc.

This week begins the preparation for a long trip, something we haven't done since last November. We are leaving next week to go to Kentucky to celebrate sukkot (we will live in tents) with our friends from that area. And then we may be will stay over and help them work on their house. They are doing an addition. We'll see how that goes. However, this week Jim has been hard at work preparing the place for us to be gone. He has mowed, mowed, and mowed some more and I have to admit the place looks really nice.

I on the other hand have gone shopping with Tiffany, had my hair done, lunched with Marge, had dinner with my parents and generally goofed off. Sunday will be crunch time for me to be sure we have all the necessary items inventoried, cleaned, prepared, and ready to be packed up in order to leave out on time after sundown on Tuesday. Jim will be helping with the preparations also, no goof off time for him!

I'll try to find time to blog from the road. Kentucky should be into fall leaf change during the time we are there and we are taking the motorcycle to get some good ride time on the mountain roads. I can hardly wait.