MEANDERING MOOSE

     If I asked "when is a door not a door" the obvious answer is "when its ajar."  Wrong!  The real answer is "when its a county."  Huh?  Thats right...Door County, Wisconsin was fabulous.  Door county is on a peninsula which juts out into Lake Michigan near Green Bay and prides itself as being "New England-like." We could see similarities...small, cute towns; farmland; pretty coastline, etc.; but a lot less people.  We found it very relaxing and quite beautiful. The peninsula is a mix of rocky shoreline and sandy beaches. Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Lighthouse. The peninsula is full of lighthouses.      Some interesting things about the county are that all the towns were located directly on the water and they coordinated their outdoor concerts, so you could be entertained with free music every night.  Since the weather was favorable for our visit, we took ample advantage of the entertainment. The ferry from the peninsula to Washingto

     As I reported in my last blog we seem to be chased by a giant, black rain cloud and since it looked like our luck would not change, we called an audible and diverted our trip to Connecticut.  So we abandoned our rig in Columbus, Ohio and set out on a road trip in the car.  We only had 6 days to spend in Connecticut, but made the most of it; spending time with Hazel; Bryce and Jarrod; and Darynn, Acacia and Adam.  Unfortunately, Darynn was a little under the weather, but she is such a pleasant, happy baby that she takes in everything with a big smile.  We are looking forward to spending more time with everybody when we return in August. Nancy with Darynn. Adam with Darynn. Darynn all decked out for a party.      So here's an interesting dilemma.  My mother, who will be 95 in August, goes to bed around 11, gets up around 6, still drives (locally), and is out and active 6-7 days a week; just informed us that she has starting feeling a little drowsy in the afternoon

Soco Falls: A unique double waterfall near Cherokee, NC.      I remember my children listening to the Raffi song which implores "Mr. Golden Sun" to "please shine down on me."  Since entering North Carolina "Mr. Golden Sun" has done nothing but cry!  It has rained every day for 2 weeks straight.  Although we had a couple of days with some breaks in the weather, the rain put a major damper (pun intended) on my hiking and mountain biking.  So here we now sit in eastern Tennessee awaiting the arrival of tropical storm "Alberto."  Normally, I would have run west, but this year our eastern obligations made an escape from the rain impossible. The general store in Saluda, NC. Downtown Asheville, NC.      To be sure, we made the most of the inclement weather and still had a great time.  We made a point to take advantage of "indoor sports."  Since we were in the Asheville area, which boasts 62 breweries, you can probably guess ou

     During our working years, when Nancy and I took vacations in the southeast, we would either stay along the ocean or hit the mountains and head down the Appalachians as far south as the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Since we always ignored north Georgia we decided to give it a try and, HOLY COW, we loved it!  The countryside here is very much like New England with mountains towering above 4,000', waterfalls, gorgeous streams, massive lakes, and cool towns. Springtime in North Georgia      Our first stop was Carter's Lake Corp of Engineers campground in Elijay, Georgia.  Our campsite overlooked the water and we took the opportunity to chill in this beautiful setting.  Nancy even took a plunge into the chilly lake water and floated around for an hour or 2. Carter's Lake Nancy taking a dip in Carter's Lake      We used the campground as a jumping off point to visit some of the local highlights.  One evening we toured Elijay which turned out to