Table Rock State Park

My first full day at Branson. After breakfast, I started planning a bicycle ride. Checked the internet then headed to Downhill Bikes.
Craig recommended I ride at Table Rock State Park. He said the Red Loop should just what I was looking for. I drove back at the hotel, changed clothes (into my riding kit) and loaded the trail bike on the car.
The first section of the trail was a nice, flowing singletrack/ No Problems riding it. Soon, I was walking the bike up/down grades with lots of rocks and roots.
After a miles, the trail tamed down and back into easy singletrack. (Top photo) I knew it was too good to think the trail would be like that all the way to the car.
In no time, I was back climbing and descending a rocky trail. The lower photo is one of the most challenging section - just to walk!

Like the start of the trail, the last few hundred feet are nearly level, easy, flowing singletrack. I was really tired when I got back to the car. One of the reunion guys said I looked like i had been through the wringer.
Lots of photos. All-in-all a good ride. No speed records - 2.8 miles in 1 hour!

Quick Look III: Flowers, History, and Lighthouses

Our day of exploration took us to Roanoke Island, which lies between mainland North Carolina and the islands that I refer to as the outer Outer Banks.  Specifically, we explored sights in Manteo.

Our 8:00a departure from the campground made for perfect timing.  We arrived in Manteo an hour later, just as the places on our sightseeing list were opening their doors.  Our plans called for starting out in Fort Raleigh, but when we saw three busloads of kids in the parking lot, we made a quick adjustment to the order of our sightseeing stops.  All in all, our day worked out quite nicely.

In the morning, we visited …

The Elizabethan Gardens
(above and below)

Fort Raleigh ... Home of the Lost ColonY
(image from an informational poster in the visitor center)

Although we’d packed a picnic lunch, we toyed with the idea of eating at a restaurant on the Manteo Waterfront instead.  Once there, however, we had another change of heart (actually, I did; but Mui didn’t put up much of a fight).  Spotting a gazebo jutting out into the water, we headed there for an al fresco meal.

My hat stands in for me for the lunch photo op.

The Roanoke Marshes Lighthouse … the view from our lunch spot.

We had planned to spend the afternoon at the North Carolina Aquarium.  That was before we learned that there were several busloads of kids there intent on doing the same thing.  Switching gears, we rounded out our afternoon in Manteo at …

The Roanoke Island Festival Park
(celebrating the first English Settlement in America)

And, on our way back to the campground, we capped off our day with a stop at the last of the four Outer Banks lighthouses …

Bodie  [pronounced “Body”]  Lighthouse

We were back at the coach around 5:00p.  A few minutes to check our emails; another hour to prepare and eat our steak and shrimp dinner (cooked to perfection in our microwave/convection oven since there are no grills at Camp Hatteras, and we’ve not yet bought one for the coach).  It was 6:30p before we knew it.

Although the clouds had moved in and the winds had picked up, we decided to walk over to the section of the campground that overlooks Pamlico Sound to watch the sunset.  Unfortunately, the stiff wind made it impossible to wait until 7:38p to see the sun disappear over the horizon.  Slightly chilled, and more than a little disheveled, we returned to the coach to enjoy a quiet evening at home.

Happy Easter!

We are extremely grateful for our loyal blogging pals. We just love you all and thank you for your generous comments. Sometimes "life" can get in the way of the fun we have here and nudge us in other directions. First, the pooter as well as our provider had problems about ten days ago. Well, things were fixed, alright, but... for the past week and the next, grandpeeps are out of school and they will be hangin' over here with me and Mom - yay! (But again, Mom says that there won't be much time fer here til the end of this week - boooo!) We have gotten a cool tag and also an award and want to thank some wonderful friends for these. From Riley and Star as well as from Maggy and Zoey at Zoolatry (please visit a special blog tribute created by Ann for Helen, her Mom, who passed away on Friday).We've done this cool meme, but not for a long time. The rules are: Open your first photo file folder. Go to the tenth photo. Post that photo. Tell the story of that photo. Tag 5 other blogger friends to do the same!
This is the 10th photo from our newest photo file named, "Easter Emma." Emma is our youngest granddaughter and in this picture, she'd just participated in her first HUNT for eggs. Afterwards, there was a party, complete with African drumming (she was dancing here and so was I heheh!), a bouncy house and soccer balls everywhere with a net. I had a great time, decked out in my special Easter neckwear. I would like to tag Sam and Marge, The Feisty Three, KB and the Gang, June and Samantha and Cabana.
I was honored to get this very cool award from Miley and Alfie - humongous thanks!
Here are the rules: I have to post the award on my blog and list the 12 blogs that have brought sunshine into my life and leave a comment on their blog telling them about the award. And in order for them to accept the award, they have to pass the award on to 12 of their sunshine bloggers. Everybloggie friend of mine always brings Sunshine into my world, so it would be furry hard to pick just 12. I'm going to be horribly lazy, but I really want to get to your posts and barks woofs out! So... fur anybuddy who does not have this award, PLEASE (and I mean it!) lift it from my blog and spread the sunshine out there! Happy Easter!

Toasted Legs

Weather forecast is for rain/storms for the next couple days. That's great because my legs need a break.
Sunday was climbing Dumfries hills on the Wabash trace (first time for the season). Monday was struggling up Indian Creek Trail into 15-20 mph wind.
Did it again Tuesday, just further. Rode the Manawa, Indian Creek, bike shop, Trace trailhead loop. Over 3 miles into the wind. Stopped for rest and visit at Xtreme Wheels.
Met another cyclist/photographer (LandonRayburn.com). Had a nice visit.
Greatest park of Tuesday ride was flying down Harry Langdon and South Ave riding the wind!
Yesterday I header off to the Western Historic Trails Center. Went past to I-80. Stopped at the Center and visited a little.
On the way back to the car, I stopped by Leach Camper to see what I can do to sell the RV. I might get $2-3K from Leach, could get $4-5k through Craig's List or such. In any way, Think I need to try getting it running to be able to sell it. Doubt I could get much to get it "as is".
Back to the ride. By the time I turned off Veteran's Memorial Trail, heading back to the car on Lake Manawa Trail, my legs were getting tired. Had the ride been a mile or two longer, I would not have made it. My legs were "toast".
I could hardly move last night. Looking forward at a couple days off the bike.
Today's photo was taken yesterday on Western Historic Trail at the baseball fields. No photo taken during Tuesday ride.

Pink- A -Phobic

Were there too many pink rooms in my Boomer childhood, too many pink sheets and towels piled high at bridal showers, with subsequent weddings themed Blush & Bashful? Could it have been an overdose of girly gift shopping in the Pink aisle of the toy store? Whatever the reason, I can put up with a small amount of this color, but I don’t love it … yet it appears uninvited all over my garden.
Nature is against me: A group of white dianthus plants may suddenly display a pink heart, as the default-color seedlings sprout and bloom, their roots too entangled to separate. All the peachy, yellow, white and dark purple verbena will die, but the neon pink plant thrives and lives through the winter, ready to resume its battle with the pale yellow Ladybanks rose. The seed packet shows vibrant purple zinnias, not the actual washed-out pink ones that appear. The skullcap tags read ‘Cherry red’ but the plant shouts pink!
Back in .., as we pulled in the driveway of our just-purchased home, the very air seemed to have a roseate cast to it. The crepe myrtles were in hot pink bloom, lightly frosted with the powdery mildew that usually accompanies the flowers. Our neighbors to the North had several large trees; the East-side neighbors grew a row of 15-footers along our mutual back fence, while the South-side neighbor had a mere half-dozen in his yard. More crepes sprinkled across the street added to the spectacle. On our quarter-acre we counted twenty-two Lagerstroemia “WayTooPink”. Our guess is that the eight largest trees were intentionally planted. The rest were 4 to 7 feet in height, apparently seedlings that had been allowed to grow against the windows, inside the boughs of flowering shrubs, and right on top of the few existing roses.
We took out many of the pink myrtles, pruned and cared for the rest, and as you can see, they're blooming again. Over time the numbers were reduced to 7 trees. Last year we released two semi-dwarf, mildew resistant crepe myrtles from the deck containers where they’d sulked for years, planting them into the yellow/blue/purple border, where they are now opening white flowers.
Once rescued and revived, the climbing rose bloomed pink.
I love it.

After The Rant

After my rant of a few days ago, I thought I'd give you an update. I'm in a much better frame of mind today. The reason being that my DH took our daughter everywhere she needed to go yesterday. I didn't leave my house one time. Woo Hoo! I got an amazing number of things accomplished; mostly housework, ironing, repairing, and the like. I have a hard time trying to create something when the house is a mess. My goal this summer is to decrease my stack of clothing repairs to be made, ironing basket all ironed, and all superfluous papers put away/thrown away. I'm making good progress. I'd dominate these things if I could stay home every day. I hope that by the time school starts in August I'm ready to tackle some big projects.
I downloaded Dracula by Bram Stoker on my Iphone and listened to it while ironing and repairing. I really enjoyed it and was surprised by the Christian overtones. It reminded me of Frankenstein in that way. I'm searching for a movie that closely stays with the Dracula book. The Frankenstein movie with Kenneth Branaugh did, and I thought it was really, really good. I'm trying to listen to more classics while I do my housework. Right now I'm downloading The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. My husband and I took a trip a few years ago to the Hudson River Valley in New York state. We went to Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and visited Irvings house on the river. It was the cutest, romantic cottage. I love the cottage architecture from the mid-1800's. It reminded me of Sir Walter Scott's house in Scotland; same sort of feel.
P.S. The cottage in the photo isn't Washington Irving's but the caretaker's cottage at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia where our son is attending. The books are in the library there. I'm not planning on reading deep philosophical tomes anytime soon. I'll let Dylan, our scholarly son, give me the auditory, abbreviated version. Right now I'm settling for lighter fare; like Dracula.

A Working Weekend, That's Fur Shore!

It's very hard to woof with your mouth full, but we gotta turn this bloggerino into a braggerino today. Me? Nahhhhh... I 'nq-ed in my Open B class and luckily there weren't any photos. Jes' didn't feel like dropping on the recall, if you know what I mean. Today, it meant that Momma expected me to come running towards her at 122 m.p.h. and... any time now, Mom.... yell "DOWN" in a loud voice, which is what I am supposed to do - yeah... like in motion - hah! I crouched intead of "downed" and flunked. Anyway, here to tell another story.
See my sister, Avalon up above there? She qualified in her ginormous Novice B class and guess what? She earned her third leg and got her CD title! Congrats Avalon! She got that nice little medallion! And there's more...
Above is a picture of Ronan, Avalon's brother, who qualified in his Novice Rally class on Saturday afternoon, then today, got second in the same class! Congrats to Ronan! There is more...
Above, right (in an awful picture... c'mon Momma!), is a photo of River. Well today, he got a second prize in a runoff in that ginormous Novice B class that Avalon was in. We are so furry proud of him! Congrats River!
And in the picture above... is Sporty (Mom - that's a terrible picture of Avalon's purty Momma) who is River's, Ronan's and Avalon's Momma standing next to Christine! Congrats to Sporty! She got a second in her Novice class and earned her CD title as well today!!!
Twin CDs - mom and daughter! Thanks to Don McKee of Topflight Photography for providing the above photograph!
So cool! Congrats to everybuddy! And.....
... last, but certainly not least, here is our pal, Shanti, who already has her UDX, but is working on her OTCH and will probably get it soon. She passed 10 UD trials in a row - yikes! In another Utility class today, she nailed a fourth - congrats to Shanti and Sue! What a weekend! Thanks for letting us braggerino!