Entrance to Shenandoah NP
If you followed my last post, I left Staunton sipping iced tea generously provided by my B&B hostess, singing “My Heart to Yours” over and over while driving into Shenandoah National Park. I was giddy, like a kid going on a secret treasure hunt. There was something magical about a road that is a park that you can only drive on after you have paid and gone through the Ranger kiosk. Continue reading
“I’m digging those boots,” said a man at the Staunton farmer’s market. My boots (see post “What’s with the boots?”) are still like a siren’s song drawing people to me but hopefully without dashing them to pieces on the rocks. It was too hot to wear them in Georgia and South Carolina and I missed them, but now they’re back!
Beautiful Virginia
Driving into Virginia I was struck by the clear air, it was as if I had cleaned off my dirty, smudged glasses and could see crispness again. There were sweet peas growing wild along the rolling-hilled highway, everything green and lush. But something about the atmosphere was welcoming and I embraced the feeling of coming home. Continue reading
Smoky’s from Cades Cove
I was all a twitter to be heading to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I made reservations at a Tripadvisor recommended motel in Townsend, TN. Let me just say that Tripadvisor has thus far, never steered me wrong. I have used it a lot on this trip for hotel and restaurant advice and can happily report to accurate data. It’s nice to have a reliable source for travel info when you pull into places you have never been before. Continue reading
Tonight’s musing spot
I sit here typing in a rocking chair on the porch of my motel in Townsend, TN, reminiscing about my last 3 days in Asheville, NC. Porch swings and rocking chairs are popular here in the south where the weather is sultry and languid, and I am getting rather attached to them. There’s nothing quite like swaying with the descending sun as the temperature thankfully drops a few degrees. Continue reading
Shem Creek, SC
I slept late the next morning enjoying the quiet of waking up in a neighborhood rather than a hotel. DeAnne has a screened-in back porch area with rocking chairs and a cute black cat named, Lily. Both were adored. My ankle was giving me more pain so I was ready to take it slower, and DeAnne had the day off and was happy to show me her neighborhood highlights. We went to Shem Creek for lunch and sat on a deck overlooking a heavily trafficked boating canal. Continue reading
Sunset from Pitt Street Bridge
I sit here rather dumbfounded and stunned. Once again my pathway has opened up into a beautiful sunlit sea, one filled with laughing gulls, blue crabs, dolphins, bridges, pelicans, tiny fiddler crabs that scuttle and hide every time I tried to take their photo, soft sandy beaches and shrimp boats. Continue reading
I passed a young man sitting on a wall on the Savannah waterfront. He was dressed in chef attire, those black and white, small-checkered pants, white shirt and a very interesting black and white hat. It looked like he was on a quick smoke break from his job at the nearby Hyatt Regency. We caught each other’s eyes and I smiled and said hello as I continued my brisk pace up the sidewalk and he said “you are beautiful.” Continue reading
View from my room
I chanced upon an internet special at the gorgeous Olde Harbour Inn in Savannah (I like that “Inn in,” such bad grammar). I have a two-story room all to myself, a kitchen, two TV’s (not a selling point for me as I have yet to turn any television on in any room that I have stayed at in the last 2 months), a view of the river, birds that sing chirping tunes with gusto outside the balcony, wine and cheese in the evening, breakfast every morning, and a resident ghost. I think I’m gonna like it here. Loveliness. Continue reading
With Mary and Andy outside Shakespeare Tavern
…is hot. I don’t know why the heat is getting to me here, must be the humidity or just being in a big city? I am missing the country, the mountains, the woods, anything away from traffic and the hectic life. I am staying with darling friends and have again displaced them from their beds and normal routine. I am honored to be given such royal treatment but I feel guilty too. It’s so much harder for me to receive than to give. Continue reading
Cheekwood Estate
Driving into the verdant green hills and mansions of Nashville from the poverty of Stone County, Arkansas was a shock to my senses. I found myself judging the wealth and wondering who was leading the better life, who was happier, the poor or the rich? My new-found, easy-going mountain friends were singing in my soul, and the contrasting, brick, two-story forbidding beauty of Nashville’s homes made me ache with the inequality of it all. But I continue to meet intriguing people unexpectedly around every corner and as the first part of my trip seemed to be about falling in love with nature again, this section I am discovering the depth of courage, beauty, and soul in human beings. Continue reading
meanderest 