St Louis

I have these photos in backwards order so bare with me.
First I want to say that the Quilt Museum in Paducah was wonderful. You can't take photos because of copyright issues so I don't have anything to share here. The word museum is a bit of a misnomer since their oldest quilt is 20 years old, but awesome quilts none the less.

We left Kentucky, on thru Illinois to St Louis. This morning we went to see the Cahokia Mounds. It is the largest prehistoric Indian site north of Mexico. Nice museum and grounds. Someone important was probably buried in this mound.

Last evening we went to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. Here is a photo from the top, 630 feet high. We rode a tram to the top (inside the arch).

This morning in the daylight I took this as we were leaving town. Nice puffy clouds. We were concerned about weather today. We were suppose to get into thunder showers on the way to Kansas City but were fortunate to miss the storm. Tonight we are in St Joseph MO. More about that tomorrow. +589=6395

Nashville, TN to Paducah, KY

+176=5806
We went to Nashville to see what it is all about. We got there Sunday afternoon just as the CMA Festival was ending. Lots of people in town. The only show was the closing concert with many name artists so it was sold out of course. We went downtown and listened to several bands in the bars on Broadway. Monday morning we walked through the gardens of the Opryland Hotel. It covers 9 acres. Big waterfalls and bigger trees.

On to Mammoth Cave. It lives up to its name. Very different than the other caves we have been in. Huge rooms that are difficult to photograph. We went through some very tight spaces.

We arrived in Paducah, KY this afternoon. It was too late to visit the National Quilt Museum (will go there tomorrow) so went to a very large quilt shop, Hancocks of Paducah. I looked at most all their fabric and finally decided on a little to purchase as they were closing. We then went downtown. This is the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers. There is a lot of barge traffic here.

There is a flood wall along the river. They have beautiful murals painted all along that show the history of the city. A very interesting city.

A week in western North Carolina

We had a wonderful week in western North Carolina after the wedding. We stumbled upon the Quilt Trail. It is mostly in northeast Tennessee but I think there are parts of it in other places. Mostly they are on barns and scattered all around the countryside. If you are interested in knowing more, www.quilttrail.org has more info. We were always watching for a new quilt block to appear. We drove both north and south of Boone on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Here we are, Shupes, Edwards and Wagenblasts. We did a few hikes to spectacular views. I wish you could see all the layers of mountains in the background of this photo. It is amazing.

Happy 38th Anniversary. We hiked down to Crabtree Falls. It was a beautiful 70' falls. Sunny going down, thunderstorm coming up. We were under the tree canopy so didn't get wet. Fortunately, the storm didn't go right over the top of us. Seems there was a thunderstorm every afternoon.

Here we are relaxing at the log cabin by the stream. It was a wonderful place to just sit, play horseshoes, eat, etc. We watched several hummingbirds during the day and synchronized fire-flys after dark. During mating season they all blink on and off at the same time.

Here is the deck overlooking the stream.

This was a fun evening. We went to the Todd General Store for dinner and performance by the Creek Side Grass Band. Basically we were in an antique/general store that set up tables in the middle of the store, served dinner followed by live entertainment. This was an entertaining blue grass band. Not in the photo was a banjo player and a bass fiddle player. The next night we went to a restaurant called Carolina BBQ that had a live country band, Distant Gold. We even got out on the dance floor.

We played "Sequence" 3 evenings this week. Oh my, do we have some with a competitive spirit. Ended up the girls won and have the title until we are all together again, 2 years from now.

Great Smoky Mountains

We had a beautiful drive today. We drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway and then across the Great Smoky Mountains. Since the mountains are smoky the photos don't show the scenery as clearly as we saw it in person. It really isn't smoke but moisture given off by the trees.

We took a tour of the Oconaluftee Indian Village. We saw demonstrations of native crafts and heard stories about the Cherokee tribe. The demonstrators were making beautiful baskets, pottery, bead work.
Tonight we are in Pigeon Forge, TN. We will go to a musical variety show this evening. When we leave in the morning we are headed back to Boone, NC and will stay with friends at a mountain cabin. We will not have cell or internet service so I am signing off until next Sunday evening.

Biltmore, Ashville, NC

Dave and Becky are showing off their summer home, the largest home in the US. Today we toured the Vanderbilt estate, Biltmore, in Ashville, NC. We toured the home, gardens and winery.

Everything about the home and grounds is bigger than life. This lion, at the front entrance sets the perspective of scale for the entire estate. There are 250 rooms, over 175,000 square feet. The dining room is 3 stories tall with an entire pipe organ in the room.

Here are the Tri-Cities friends enjoying ourselves during our self-guided tour of this very large, ornate, beautiful home. Sanders, Shupes & Wagenblasts.

Wedding Day in Boone, NC

We made it to the wedding. It was a lovely wedding and reception. The family below is Steve and Barb Edwards, the bride Ginna and their son, the groom, Luke. On the left is their son Josh and his wife Allison. On the right is their daughter Sarah and her husband Craig. Steves aunt Phyllis was an honorary grandma for the wedding.

Luke was all smiles today.

They had a cool get away car for the trip to the reception in the nearby town of Blowing Rock. This is the 3rd wedding for the Edwards family. We have enjoyed getting aquainted with some of the other guests at all 3 weddings.
Getting to Boone, NC we added Georgia and S. Carolina to the map. +209=4923. Boone is in the mountains, the KOA is 4000 ft. It is cooler and not humid. We have enjoyed our stay here and have had time to relax.

Catch up

Today was a travel day +314=4714. Below is a map that is stuck to the side of the trailer. Gary adds the colored states as we pass thru. Today he can add Georgia and South Carolina. It was 102 as we went thru Atlanta. It is hot here near Greenville, SC. Thank goodness our air conditioner works well. We had a nice break from the heat at the campground in Huntsville. It was on a mountain (hill) in the trees so cooler. As we were walking in the campground after dark last evening we saw lots of fireflies. Karen, I thought of you.
We stopped at a produce stand this morning and got a watermelon, cantaloupe and peaches. George had taken us around his area looking for a watermelon, finally we have one. Yummm. The couple at the stand were really entertaining. They were who you would expect to have just come out of the hills. Thanks too George, for teaching us about Arizona tea. I have now been having iced tea for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
We saw a lot of tornado damage today while we were in Alabama. Especially along highway 431 near Gundersville.
We have had a swim, done the laundry and had dinner. Tomorrow we rendezvous with our Tri-City friends and the Edwards family in Boone, NC. Yippee.