TravelStream™ news feed for member malbet on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/malbet en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:32:21 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1248366213/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1248366213/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1248366213/tpod.html Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:32:21 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Hudson, New York, United States

Hudson...on the Hudson River, named after Henry Hudson who in 1609 in his ship 'The Half Moon' sailed up the river in search of the North West Passage...Some really interesting stuff here;http://www.hudsonathenslighthouse.org/history.html This city hadn't really been on our list of things to do here, having picked up a leaflet about it, we thought it was worth a look and what a find it turned out to be. We spent a great afternoon wandering around, enjoying the atmosphere and architecture. It has been called "a finest dictionary of American architecture in New York State."and its easy to see why. We took loads of loads of photos… yeh… I know, you’re surprised aren’t you? It was a lazy, sunny afternoon and bemused residents gave us the odd glance as we clicked away. One chap stopped to chat and we discovered that at one time the area was settled by New England Whalers from Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and Providence, scared that the British would reclaim the colonies, they moved the 100 or so miles up the river. Here they dragged their cargo up the main street to be processed, hence the numerous references to whaling. He also told us that locals were dismayed at the buyers from NY City who come up and 'renovate’ properties - not always sympathetically. Many of the houses on the main street did indeed look in need of some TLC but somehow that only adds to their charm. However, leaving them will not preserve them either. It has rather a colourful past it seems, at one time there was about 50 bars and many houses of ‘ill repute’ when these were raided, many local officials and police were caught! After declining in the 60’s and 70’s the city has undergone quite a revival. Today it has become home to many antique dealers and their shops line Warren Street, adding to its considerable interest, many business owners have been active in the sensitive restoration of the city’s historic houses. There has been a local art project running, much the same as we have seen in other towns and cities; remember the horses in Ocala FL and the guitars in Austin TX, well here it is dogs, labs to be precise. Take a look at these, some of the ones that caught our eye… As a footnote I would mention that we did venture beyond the historic downtown looking for a supermarket as we needed some milk, once outside it we could have been anywhere, but we will always remember the charming downtown, bathed in sunlight, showing us its best, if somewhat peeling face!.Do take a look at the album to get a real flavour of Hudson
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1248137216/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1248137216/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1248137216/tpod.html Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:02:01 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Muncy, Pennsylvania, United States

Well often on the blog you have read – this was a Malc day, planes, trains anything engineering; or a day for me – usually gardens or nature reserves; of course we each enjoy whatever we do. This destination is definitely a Malc! As you know we are making our way up to NH in order to store our possessions before we fly home at the end of July, well this little detour is for the ‘carver’. Malc wanted to go to http://grizzly.com – this is a link that you girls may not want to bother with, but guys you feel free!Suffice it to say they have one or two tools, we found our way there having passed through several states - W. Virginia, Maryland etc- not ‘happiness, thoughtfulness etc! And Malc almost had the place to himself. I left him to wander at will, enjoying all the delights the store had to offer, whilst I wandered across the road to the nearby shopping mall. Isn’t it sooo much better to wander without having to think of, or be conscious that the other person may be tired or bored, Malc was much better off without me :)As planned we asked if we could overnight in Grizzly’s car park, we had been on the road for 7 hours, but unfortunately that was not allowed, the kindly sales assistant directed us to an empty parking lot just a few doors away. She said that’s where they usually send people, so that’s where we went. The area was safe and well lit and we ate our supper watching the bunnies play on the grass beside us, as we had tried unsuccessfully to pick up an internet connection, we popped into the MacDonald’s that was next to us for a hot choc before bed and to enquire about their free wi-fi. We woke early next morning and by 6.30 we had breakfasted and checked e mails using the code we had been given the night before. On our first trip, back in 2003 trying to get online had been very time consuming, not many campgrounds offered internet. This trip has been very different, we have been able to get a connection most places we have stayed; it’s only been when we have dry camped in a State park or a Wal Mart that we have struggled.So we were on our way again to a campsite in New York State, which was to be our last stop before our second ‘home’ in NH. This destination was about half way to NH and we picked it because there are several interesting things to do in the area. As it turned out we could easily have spent a week or more there, I think we may well return next time we are in the area especially since it’s only a couple of hours north of NY city which we would like to go back to and it's on the rail route in.We are in the Hudson valley, yes the Hudson River where that plane ‘landed’ safely earlier this year. Our campsite is very pleasant and we have met a couple of ‘newbies’ I’m sure they won’t mind being described as such, our common ground is that they have a lovely motorhome made by the same manufacturers as Bree. We spent a very enjoyable evening in their company and were sad to see them leave next morning. Our uncommon ground is that Linda is an extraordinarily talented lady, check out her work at http://www.midtel.net/~imaginee/ Some people just make you feel humble.  
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247682673/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247682673/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247682673/tpod.html Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:39:33 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Monticello, Virginia, United States

This a house we had wanted to visit as soon as we saw it in our guide book (as well as a huge recommendation from Larry) and we were not to be disappointed, the home of Thomas Jefferson sits atop a mountain, well hill really, Monticello means little mountain in Italian. He did in fact travel extensively and spent 5 years in France as the American ambassador. His father, a surveyor, owned the land and Thomas as a boy would play up on the hill, dreaming that one day he would build a house there. In order to build he had to reshape the hilltop, smoothing its summit and laying an ingenious set of circular roads following the contours so that goods and later guests could make their way up the slope easily. His plans for the house evolved over forty years into the building that we saw; the visitors' centre had brilliant exhibitions on all aspects of his life, with many of his personal items on display. Jefferson used Monticello as his personal laboratory and throughout the day we learned just how his thirst for knowledge and his brilliantly inventive mind has left a remarkable legacy.   We had checked on the website for details about opening hours etc and chose not to buy tickets on line, thinking that it shouldn’t be too busy. Although it is school holidays here, we thought if we got there fairly early all would be well. We had not anticipated how popular a venue it was though; as we pulled into the car park and struggled to find a spot we congratulated ourselves on not being in the motor home. One option had been to leave this visit for our journey as we left VA, to make a small detour from our route to Pennsylvania, spend the day there and then perhaps overnight in a Wal Mart and continue on our way the next morning. However once we saw how busy it was, how full the small RV parking spots were, we knew we had made the right decision to leave Bree back at the campsite for another night..Anyhow we joined a relatively short queue at the ticket counter, bought our tickets and were told that the next house tour with space was about a 40 minute wait – 'You’re busy today’ we said…’You’re lucky" replied the nice ticket seller, "Over the week end the wait was 3-4 hours” lucky it is then!I have to comment on how well everything was organised and how very pleasant and helpful all the staff were, but I suppose they are used to dealing with one or two tourists. Yes, its summer, Americans – and internationals are on holiday, the couple in front were from CA and the couple behind I think from Japan. Well I suppose Jefferson was a president…and I suppose he did draft the Declaration of Independence. The house tours were leaving the front porch every 5 mins and there were 20 in each group; but all credit to our tour guide and the others we had the pleasure of meeting, they were very knowledgeable and yet seemed to be telling their story for the very first time. We learned later that it takes them about a year to be trained for any of the tours and several of them can do more than one topic. Anyway, the house… although grand for its day with many innovations, had a cosy feel. Understandably we were not allowed to take photos inside, but there are lots on the web site. All the ‘service’ rooms – kitchen, stables, servant’s quarters etc were set below two terraces, with easy access to the house and positioned below the house and garden so as not to obstruct the view. We also took the garden tour (of course) and the Mulberry Row tour, which painted a very vivid picture of life as a slave. This was a ‘street’ 1000ft. long, a rough track lined with mulberry trees along about 100 slaves lived and worked at one time there were 17 buildings along it, but as they were mostly wooden structures, little survives today. It must have been a constant dilemma for Jefferson, he depended on slaves to run his plantation and estate and yet declared that “all men are created equal” and have right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” – perhaps he saw the plantation/gardens/his horticultural work as a calling that would one day benefit all of mankind, maybe that’s how he reconciled what to us, seems like a total contradiction. www.monticello.org The website can give you all the info you might want; here’s our take on it told of course in pictures!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247412644/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247412644/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247412644/tpod.html Sun, 12 Jul 2009 15:49:25 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Glen Maury Park, Virginia, United States

There are quite a few little videos in this blog, but we can't place them at the relevant places in the text, which is a shame, however do click on them it'll seem as if you were there too! (if you really were, the sound would have been better) Don't view as a slideshow as that doesn't allow you to start the videos (do that next time when you view again).It seems that by travelling in the summer months we get to do lots of extra things, when we called into the visitors bureau we had picked up a list of events in and around Lexington – here’s one item on the list that caught our eye; The Beuna Vista Fiddlers Convention we felt it was a must., especially as it featured 'flatfooting’ – no we didn’t have a clue either!. So on Saturday (20th) armed with a picnic and our chairs we headed for Maury Park where it was being held. There is a campsite there right by the river, but as it’s only 20 mins from our site there didn’t seem any point in moving. Probably just as well, because when we arrived the campsite was full, turns out this is quite an event and although most of the people there were from Virginia, there were a few from the Carolinas and I saw a few stray plates, Maryland and NY for example. The convention had actually started on Thursday evening with registration; "Blue grass individual contestants first 45 to sign up only to perform" gives you some idea of the size of this thing. The children’s competitions and some of the other classes like Blue Grass bands and Old Time bands had taken place on Friday evening and Saturday morning. The stage was at the end of a large open pavilion in the park; thankfully it meant we could all sit in the shade. The flat footing was just starting as we arrived, some of you who have been following us a while may remember when we were in Bryson City on the Blue Ridge Parkway last Sept and we happened upon a band playing on the platform of the railway station, when lots of people got up and kind of ‘jigged’, well here we are again. So that’s called flatfooting… only this time it’s a competition, so you have to get up on stage by yourself and ‘flatfoot’ in front of the crowd and the judges. All day there were people like us, mum’s dad’s, teens, uncles etc - well no that’s not strictly true, because these were mostly people with astonishing musical talent – dancing, singing, playing instruments, some unfamiliar us, in front of an audience. (There are lots of video clips in the album) Many contestants entered more than one class. The atmosphere was brilliant; everyone was having a great time. Some bands were made up of families; some contestants had clearly been doing this for many years. Well, singing and playing for their own enjoyment with family and friends, it is obviously a major part of life here in the mountains. Here they were today, getting together to enjoy each others company and talents. Where else could you find categories such as, ‘under 9’s blue grass instrumental’ –  Or ‘banjo – claw hammer class’ still not sure about that one! Hang on …http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clawhammer  ain’t the interweb brilliant?We wished we’d seen some of the children’s entries because we’d obviously missed some real good stuff. There were ‘host bands too,  Hound Dog Hill, with lead banjo Cutch Tuttle (no not a made up name!) were great. http://www.glenmaurypark.com/mrfc/house_bands.htm There were a few vendors outside the pavilion, the one that took our interest was selling the most beautiful instruments, but not only that…take a look at this…(the clip is in the album - if you only look at one clip make it this one!)I think you’ll agree it’s pretty ‘awesome’.   Well we stayed well into the evening, by which time some local deer had come to join us and the fireflies were glowing, but we left before the 11pm end. It had been one of those experiences that made you wish you had just a little dusting of that talent, just a little bit would do. http://www.glenmaurypark.com/mrfc/ Our last visit in this area was to the Natural Bridge and Caverns, features which the locals are fiercely proud of. We had seen pictures of the bridge in the promotional material; we had even driven over it as it carries the main road, but nothing had prepared us for its immensity  It literally dwarfs you as you stand beneath it, higher than Niagara Falls.http://www.naturalbridgeva.com/bridge.  You will see from the link that there are other things to do, we walked the cedar creek trail and found the Indian village really interesting and as far as we could tell very authentic. The ‘squaw’ told us about the diet of the Monacan Indians who had lived in this area and how once they began to catch the turtles they had ‘bowls’ to use for stews. They had a very varied diet, using many local plants, berries nuts and fruits and small game. We returned in the evening for the Creation light show; I think Malc summed this up perfectly…it was the most unspectacular thing we have seen so far…sorry Natural Bridge & Co. There are lots of caverns in the locality, as the lady in the visitor centre had said you can go to the deepest, ours here at the Bridge or you can go to the ‘flashiest’. Well we went for deep and deep they were 35 stories down with the obligatory turning off of all the lights whilst we were down there.  We also managed the Wax works, we did these as a bit of an afterthought, but actually it was well worth it. Oh and the toy museum too, here’s the evidence…well some of it - there was loads to see, so if you are into toys take a look here; http://www.awesometoymuseum.com/
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247021259/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247021259/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1247021259/tpod.html Tue, 07 Jul 2009 23:58:27 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Roanoke, Virginia, United States

One of our excursions that took us a little further was south to Roanoke; it was to be a bit of a Malc day really – but as you will see I did find a couple of ‘girly’ shots to include. The main reason for going was to visit the transport museum there…I feel the boys’ anticipation building and the girls groaning! But in actual fact it was quite an interesting city.http://www.virginia.org/site/cities.asp?city=RoanokeWe headed straight for the museum and were pleased to find that we could park there for free – most everywhere else charged, which is unusual for us as we have very rarely had to pay to park (can you see Malc smiling?) when we discovered that there was a ‘railwalk’ behind the building we decided to do that first, so although it was baking hot we dutifully followed the train lines and literally walked through the rail history of the city…  This interactive walk was great fun, buttons and levers allowed us to activate loud bells, operate a level crossing, make the stop go lights change …you get the idea. Although it runs parallel to the actual line – which was VERY busy – all these have nothing to do with the existing railway – but it would be fun wouldn’t it?The end of the line brought us to another building we wanted to see, the Art museum, I know architecture again, but take a look at these – a pity about the guy sitting on the wall though! http://www.usatoday.com/travel/destinations/2008-11-04-roanoke-taubman-museum_N.htmAnyway all this had made us hungry – and thirsty, did I say it was sweltering? Since we had also read about this place, we decided to find it and try it out.http://www.texastavern-inc.com/  millionaires club eh? just the place for us. They serve 24/7 and get through about 30 gallons of chilli a day. The staff were really friendly and the food was tasty, we certainly couldn’t complain at the price! Check out the trivia on their web site. Actually, walking into the place we were expecting it to be bigger. Then the penny dropped, “seating 1000, 10 at a time – there were just 10 stools along the serving bar :) After suitable refreshment, we wandered back past the historic market square to the museum – yes we hadn’t actually made it in there yet!I will leave the pictures to tell the story, if you want to see even more (and there might be someone who does) go to this link. http://www.vmt.org/  There are plenty of exhibits inside but the main draw is the collection of old train engines and rolling stock outside. There are many still waiting to be restored but in a way being able to wander around these too just added to the attraction. Many of the exhibits were accessible and we were able to climb aboard, come with us… more pictures on our Picasa site: http://picasaweb.google.com/on.travels/RoanokeVirginiaMuseumOfTransportation?feat=directlink
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1246654949/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1246654949/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1246654949/tpod.html Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:01:26 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Lexington, Virginia, United States

Although Doug & Trish have headed home to NH and we are back at our Lexington campsite, as we said, we are staying in the area a while as there is lots to see and do. Also we have slowed down a bit from our frantic travel pace of the first leg :) So this entry is going to cover several of the visits we have made in and around Lexington even though they might only be ‘popping in’ somewhere I have included them as I think they give a feel for this area and we can’t let you miss out on what we have been up to.We are very close to the Virginia Horse Centre which is a superb facility hosting shows and events for 50 weeks a year. Although they have no stock of their own, the some 6 huge stable blocks are usually home to many of the visiting event horses. Now ever since Gettysburg Malc has had this belief (misguided I think) that we should/could have a horse farm. He has an affinity with the animals and I think sees past the hours and hours of grooming and care that they need, to a picture of himself ’riding the range’. As many of you know I have long supported him in whatever he wants to do, but I have to say I have drawn a line here. I love them too, but have no desire to own one, let alone several.  So we visited the centre to look and in Malc’s case probably to dream, we chose to go when the Shenandoah Arabian Classic Championships was on. The place is huge 600 acres in all, with several arenas and show rings, plus 3 campsites for competitors to use. We were a bit surprised to find that during the judging there was hardly anyone in the audience – maybe mid week made a difference, maybe it wasn’t a large show. Anyway we enjoyed watching, but we weren’t much good at picking the winners I’m afraid – perhaps that’s a lesson to heed! http://www.horsecenter.org/view.asp?id=home We also took a look at a couple of antique malls that line the 11 down into Lexington. Now in our experience over here so far ‘antique’ can mean anything old – so it could be just an old kitchen chair or some ordinary enamel kitchen ware (like our mums used to have) or even the fridges that they leave on the front lawn when they’re no longer any use;  therefore we didn’t have high expectations. Well, in this case we were pleasantly surprised, though I have to say it’s a bit like wandering through a gallery or museum in that after a while you reach overload!   Some of the items were things I have thrown away at home (isn’t that always the case you throw something that becomes collectable and hang onto other stuff that you hope will be in the future – but it never does!) others were things that I don’t think you would see on display in the UK. Malc particularly liked the tools – he has often remarked that some of the tools he has seen – old and new – he hasn’t seen since he was an apprentice at Rolls Royce! But many are in regular use here.  As you know we have from time to time included things that make us smile – well I’ll leave you to make up your own mind about this one …(Foamhenge)   http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9209As you also know we have from time to time encountered the odd snake; well not to disappoint we saw this chap on a walk beside the Maury river that runs through Lexington. After a good deal of research we decided that he is a Northern racer, but he may well have been a King snake. Whatever he is, it was enough to stop me in my tracks as he was on the footpath right in front of me!  The other large academic institution in Lexington is the VMI – the Virginia Military Institute. This too has a long and interesting history, with many notable former students, as well as a strong tradition through families. The building itself is quite striking and its roof tops dominate the town as you drive in. At the moment there are only a few students here for summer schools so town is fairly quiet. Unfortunately we missed the last parade as we didn’t know about it until too late. I’m sure it would have been quite a spectacle. Cadets from here have been part of every presidential inauguration, including Obama’s earlier this year. The campus, like W&L is open to the public, in fact they welcome visitors. VMI has its own museum which though small, proved to be very interesting. About 46% of the students join the military (most of these I would think have been on military scholarships) but all are subject to the same strict regime… I gather that it has its own barber and students are expected to have weekly trims!! Another anecdote; one student not wishing to fold and precisely place his clothes on the shelf each day got his mum to prepare a full set which he unpacked and left in place for the whole semester – lazy or clever? The palaver that one has to go through to get a permit for say an evening out or a week end pass or even permission for a vehicle seems long and laborious, but very necessary I’m sure – it’s all about training and I apologise unreservedly  if I seem flippant in any way. Perhaps this is the place to comment again on how very proud the Americans are of their military and how they are not afraid to show it. An example that some minorities at home would do well to emulate. http://www.vmi.edu/About 6 miles from Lexington is the small town of Buena Vista (pronounced Boona Vista) at first glance it appears to be like so many we have seen all over the States, sad and tired, a relic of its former glory. Behind the main street we found some lovely houses that were a sign of days gone by. Well, having chatted to a local councillor (more about that in a minute) we discovered that it was once an important manufacturing town. In the days when iron ore was mined in the hills behind it, there were many small factories along the river, the Maury that flows from Lexington. There was a large hotel, which is now South Virginia University and the town flourished until the river flooded in 1969(just over 5’ in the downtown area, a flood related to hurricane Camille) Most of the factories were destroyed and the town began a downward spiral. Despite the building of a levee in the 80’s it has never regained its place. Today the community is trying its best to do what it can; on the Friday night that we were there the main street was closed for a music evening for the youngsters and to keep all happy there was also a car event, which was what we had gone for… The corvette that drew our attention, a 1968 model, is owned by the councillor I mentioned earlier. Maury Park at the edge of town offers camping, golf and swimming. It is a lovely setting and one that we will return to in another entry – all to do with fiddling – just to make you curious… http://www.bvcity.org/history.htmWhilst writing one of the blogs I was searching for a suitable link to add (I wonder if any of you ever click on them and look?) any way, I digress – did I ever mention that is Malc’s usual trick?Tangent should have been his middle name :)Anyway I brought up the tourist information site and happen to notice that there was a concert that evening in a small park in Lexington – not any old concert but one that seemed intriguing enough to go to. It proved to be very moving; it was given by the 8th Regiment…These are a group of fine musicians who also happen to be history buffs too; they describe themselves as a living museum. They try to keep the history of the civil war era alive through the music of the time, many of their instruments are original and much of the music they play is either the actual scores of the time or adaptations thereof. Formed in 1986 there are three of the original players still there, John Carruth their conductor is also the narrator. Looking every inch the part he eloquently sets the scene before each piece, eager to correct any misconceptions or even “correct” the history books along the way. His passion is infectious and although a small audience, we were treated to a unique evening. They have played in Lexington before, at Lee Chapel but an unfortunate administrative mix up meant they didn’t have that as a venue this time. It seems right and fitting that they will return there next time – they had just come from Gettysburg – another great venue for them. They take up whichever uniform, blue or grey that is befitting the occasion, travel on their own time and are funded by donation and CD sales, they have even appeared in films. We drove back up Lee Highway with brass band music pouring from our windows, buying a CD seemed the least we could do! – Malc gets his wallet out again – I will check for that bump…http://www.eighthregimentband.com/2aboutus.htm - click on the music section and you can listen to them - a bit better than our movie :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1246228759/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1246228759/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1246228759/tpod.html Mon, 29 Jun 2009 00:50:06 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Mabry Mill, Virginia, United States

I know you won't think it’s me or maybe I had a bit of a knock on the head but this instalment of our adventure involved paying for something twice! We have paid for a month here at Lee-Hi campground but today we took off in order to go and meet up with our friend Larry for a few days camping so we will end up paying again – I can’t feel any bumps! You may remember we stayed with Larry a little while back, parked on his drive down near Charlotte (NC) and now he really did want to share some camping with us as his motorhome has just been in storage for a while. We were going to meet up about halfway between here and his house, so a fairly short trip for both of us – about 150miles each. We pulled into the campsite, Lake Ridge RV (resort – no less), Hillsville, Virginia, at about lunchtime, asking for a pitch that would allow Larry to park beside us when he arrived, he was due to get here late afternoon. We had a great run down, sunshine all the way and this is a part of the Blue Ridge Mountains/Parkway that we had missed last time so we were looking forward to going on a hike or two. By about 4pm we were wondering where Larry was so a quick Skype call to his cell ascertained he was about an hour away and as I thought the office closed at 5 I offered to nip in and pay for his slot so that he could just pull straight in. It’s ok they assured me – "let him pay for himself, we’re open 'till 7". We had got one of those huge pizza’s for a snack when he arrived, I think they are about 16” but they seem more like 3ft diameter. Betsy cut a couple of portions to cook for us as Larry had said he had already eaten on the road (dirty habit that…). Whilst we were eating, waiting for Larry to arrive, the skies blackened and a sudden but fairly violent thunderstorm hit us, lightning hitting a ridge mere yards away from us – it was all over within minutes though – wow!5 o’ clock came round and so did 6 but still no Larry, a little while later we got the call “ I’ve broken down!”. He had just managed to pull off the freeway and into the car park of a hotel, he was only about 10 miles from us but couldn’t limp on any further with an air leak he had lost all suspension and would soon loose brakes! We drove over to meet up with him – he had already spoken to a repair service garage nearby and they had arranged to come out and have a look first thing in the morning and the hotel had given him the ok to overnight in their car park – you see it’s a good job I didn’t pay for his campsite after all :). Whilst visiting, the skies blackened over and the heavens opened, a tremendous thunderstorm, very violent, complete with winds that were blowing small trees down the road and lightning hitting the top of a ridge just a matter of a few yards away (deja-vu or do, do, do?). It too was short lived and as the rain subsided we wished him good luck for a small and inexpensive repair that could be completed the next morning and that we would still try and keep the site next to us for him. It was, we did and he turned up just before lunchtime – break off another chunk from the 6ft pizza :) Just one more thing before I can get on to a travelling blog. When we got back to our campground after visiting Larry in his hotel car park/campsite we couldn’t log on to the internet – the connection just didn’t exist any more… and this was the main reason we had chosen this campground in the first place, because of the internet connection, oh yes and the fact that it is Passport America (we get a 50% discount – that’s more like Malc I hear you say). We found out the next morning that their wi-fi antenna had taken a direct hit from the storm whilst we were out – it had fried their whole system, computer hard drives and phone too.The morning had been sunny again but the forecast wasn’t good so we abandoned hiking in the mountains for a drive along the parkway and a visit to the Mabry Mill http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1533339/mabry_mill.html Turned out to be a fantastic choice; I got my fill of an old mechanical marvel, Betsy enjoyed the lovely setting and Larry seemed be enthralled by the stories of how Chestnut trees are now all but gone… and we all had our fill of the yummy buckwheat pancakes served in the mill restaurant.  Having bought a bag of the buckwheat flour, Larry offered to cook us more of the pancakes for breakfast the next day. The afternoon was rounded off with a nice drive along the parkway, a couple of exploratory drives around other campsites (for future reference you see :) and a horrible drive back to the campsite in yet another thunderstorm – who’d want to live here? We decided to stay a third night so as to have a full day on the Thursday although yet again rain was expected in the afternoon so, again we decided no hiking in the woods/mountains.We went to Mount Airy http://www.visitmayberry.com/ , a town famous for a TV serial starring Andy Griffiths as a small town cop in the 1960’s http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/andygriffith/andygriffith.htm – the show aired 249 episodes and I think I have seen most of them by now as it always seems to be showing re-runs whenever we have TV reception. (Something we don’t get now anyway since the US has gone completely digital, it’s ok when we have cable at the campsite though). Or at least I have seen the same episode 249 times???We headed for the downtown district, many of the shows had been filmed here as the fictitious town of Mayberry so we got to check out a few of the locations, though none of us were actually fans we did “bump into” many people who were, if you want to see what all the Andy Griffith hype is all about http://www.tvland.com/fullepisodes/andygriffith/ or I am sure you can see some of the shows on you tube. Whilst in the tourist office, our ever favourite “first stop”, would you believe, the skies blackened and the heavens opened – you guessed it – we stayed in ‘till it cleared, well nearly, it eased off a bit and we made a mad dash for the museum a few yards away. Loads more interesting stuff about the area and of course Andy Griffith – he lived here, had gone to school here too. But also the Siamese twins, Eng and Chang ended up living here. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0606/feature6/index.html This is a sort of intriguing story of the two (born in Siam and hence the term Siamese twins). After touring as a “show” both in Europe and the USA they “retired” to a farm nearby where they married, even had a double wedding, and had 21 children between them, so to speak. Their names translate as, left and right.Down in the basement there were a couple of fire trucks and a great lump of granite that had been left as part of the foundation as it was too difficult to remove at the time of building, neatly bringing me round to lunchtime, well late afternoon really. For our picnic “lunch” we set off to the viewing point that overlooks the world’s largest open granite quarry http://www.ncgranite.com/largestquarry.asp – just up the road, the Andy Griffith show even gets a mention on this quarry website. We had learnt about this from our visit in the museum. I think we managed to finish off the last of that 10ft pizza :) It was granite from here that was used for the Wright brothers memorial - remember that? On the way home we checked out another campsite; Eng and Chang’s farm, their farm is now a campsite would you believe, so we had to go and look around. The following morning we bade farewell to Larry as he set of before us, wishing him a trouble free journey home, which he had. We also arrived back at Le-Hi later that day, safe and sound from our little interlude in the rain! – All good though, Larry’s breakdown by the way was a small exhaust leak that allowed hot gasses to have burnt through an airline. The garage replaced part of the exhaust and put in a new airline, re-routing it so that the same thing couldn’t happen again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245863383/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245863383/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245863383/tpod.html Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:43:24 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Washington&Lee University Lexington, Virginia, United States

We are told that only 25% of this years American graduates have been able to get a job, thankfully Melissa is one of them. She is joining the staff here at the university straight after graduation, so she will be staying in the area. This means she is moving from a student apartment to a 'proper' one…ah…house move could there have been an ulterior motive here? Well, with the convoy of Doug, Matt (Melissa’s fiancé) Melissa herself and Toad we managed it in two journeys. Most rentals here are unfurnished so it meant moving everything that she has acquired over her 3 yrs + some extras Mum and Dad had brought. Exciting times for her, new apartment, new job and when Matt leaves the navy in Feb next year new flat mate!! Preparations for the graduation began early at Washington & Lee; it is tradition for the ceremonies to take place on the lawn in front of Lee Chapel. The whole campus is very striking and there was an air of expectation as we got a personal tour from Melissa. At the Baccalaureate service the graduates and audience listened to excellent addresses from the President of the Uni Kenneth Ruscio and from Jennifer Strawbridge a former graduate of W&L who is now continuing her studies at Oxford. Much emphasis was placed on ‘the family of W&L’ what it stands for and how the graduates take those values into world with them. They operate an honour system – you are able to leave anything anywhere without fear of it being stolen, honesty is prized as much as the degree. It seems that universities run in families so to speak, in that many of the students have relatives that have studied here, but I suppose that happens everywhere. In true American tradition the fraternity and sorority bonds are strong carried with the graduates for the rest of their lives. On Wednesday, the day of the service it was baking hot – I mean baking! The lawn in front of Lee Chapel was bedecked with hundreds of chairs in preparation, 400+ for the graduating students and hundreds more for their families and friends; we took our seats and waited for the proceedings to begin. As we cooked in the June sunshine (where were our hats? -back in Bree!) it was fascinating to watch all the proud parents, some who had clearly sacrificed much in order for their offspring to be able to study here and others in their designer outfits for whom that process had been just a formality. For some international students it was the first time their parents had been to the States. The proceedings were by nature somewhat formal, the procession of academic staff solemnly made its way to the platform, followed by the ‘grads’. Some looking rather apprehensive, though whether this was from a) the effect of celebrations the night before b) the thought of the ceremony or c) the thought of life after uni I’m not sure. Others delighted because;a) they were still celebrating from the night before!b) their studies were over orc) the thought of things to come – who knows?Anyway it was an enjoyable morning, followed by an excellent, outdoor, buffet lunch – though the sun was even hotter by now.The following day was the graduation ceremony itself, again preparations had been made for it to happen on the lawn, however today, in place of the bottles of water beneath the seats were plastic ponchos – no, not for some weird custom but for the threat of rain. (We were better prepared, we had brought brollies!)The forecast was as disappointing as the skies and before long the heavens opened. A field of umbrellas shot up over the audience as the grads struggled to get their ‘protective’ plastic over their mortars.  But I have to applaud everyone’s stoicism, the president battled on with his address (he was under shelter though) and thankfully the rain eased off just before the first graduate was presented with their scroll. Many of the guests had escaped to the shelter of the terrace but this didn’t spoil the proceedings and despite not being as colourful as English ceremonies in that the graduate’s gowns are plain black with no distinguishing hoods/collars, it was a great experience. Later in the day we toured the president’s house (which was once occupied by Lee himself) Mr.& Mrs. Ruscio were at the door to greet everyone, though I think they may have been a little surprised to hear us introduced as Melissa’s ‘surrogate parents’!Again, congratulations Melissa and well done mum and dad too (the real ones).http://www.wlu.edu/
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245611952/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245611952/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245611952/tpod.html Sun, 21 Jun 2009 21:32:19 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Lexington, Virginia, United States

So we left our spot near the Banks and have headed inland towards Lexington Virginia, a distance of some 275 miles. There were some 'confusing signs' along the way…  As we crossed the Blue Ridge mountains, we hit fog; this was probably the first time we have driven the rig in such conditions and it required extra concentration – just ‘cos I’m not actually driving doesn’t mean to say I’m not concentrating too! Luckily it didn’t last very long. We have passed here before, not long ago when we drove down to FL with Doug & Trish. Anyway the plan now is to camp just north of Lexington and wait for them to join us. We chose this campsite because it is very convenient for the town – Melissa, their daughter, is graduating from Washington & Lee University and we have kindly been invited to join in. We have stopped in truck stops before, usually in the early days for fuel as they have lots of room and plenty of turning space, now we are much more confident with using ordinary petrol (gas) stations. Some campers do stay overnight in truck stops, in much the same way as we use Wal Mart, but we have never favoured them for sleeping because the truckers usually leave their engines running all night so it can be very noisy.This particular truck stop is an independent and if you take a look at their web site, you will see it does have some unique bits. www.leehi.com go to the Berkley’s restaurant section – it’s really interesting. Anyhow we found a pitch (you see it's a campsite too) overlooking the truck stop, which as it turned out isn’t noisy from up here. The campsite seems to cater for overnighters mainly as it is just off the main I-81, it has no campground office, so to book in you have to wait in line with the truckers paying for their fuel; these trucks average 100 gallons of diesel a day by the way and they could be putting 200 gal. a time, so sometimes the queue is slow moving. Judging by the 24hr constant stream of trucks I can’t even begin to guess how much they get through a day. Although it seems improbable we are seeing lots of birds, in fact just across the road there is a pair of nesting killdeers – now these are plovers – shore birds so I think they are a bit off track! They lay their eggs on open ground, bit daft in this location; anyway the grounds man here has placed some protective stones around their eggs. The poor birds are forever feigning injury and broken wings every time anything or anybody comes near and they try to draw the threat away. Squirrels seem to be particularly irksome. They must be stressed out all the time! We carefully – and with a zoom lens – got this piccie for you. We will watch their progress and keep you up dated; we’re nearly as stressed as them when campers take their dogs a walk! The night we arrived there was a ‘do’ a group entertained from a permanent stage just below us, Sue the manager had warned us about possible noise –‘some people don’t like it ‘ she had said ‘come on down if you want to’…well we don’t need to be asked twice! And very good they were too, we later found out it was a graduation party for some high school students (every stage seems to graduate over here) Malc took the opportunity to carry on with his whittling, this time with some sweet gum that Larry had cut from his front garden. What do you think? Lexington is very pretty and steeped in history, we took a walk around (after consulting the 'very helpful lady' in the visitiors centre of course! Doug and Trish arrived after a rather longer journey than ours and pulled in beside us. Good to be together again. We look forward to next weeks festivities. Don't forget to check out the video from our first night at the campsite.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245038400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245038400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/malbet/2/1245038400/tpod.html Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:51:11 -0400 Leg 4 Back in the USA

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Elizabeth City, North Carolina, United States

Since Malc has discovered the new Google Streets that allows you to zoom in and actually see roads, buildings etc he likes nothing more than 'taking a look' at where we are going (helps with that old navigation too). We have used it to preview campgrounds and to ‘suss’ out whether we want to go somewhere. So we took a look at Elizabeth City, which is the largest town near us, 17 miles away. It looked rather drab and run down, so we weren’t too excited about it, in fact we nearly didn’t bother. What a shame that would have been, every now and than we kind of stumble on a gem, ‘Lizzie’ you did us proud.We parked Toad and took a wander through the streets of the ‘historic district’ – you remember those don’t you Gill? Some of grand buildings we found were evidence of an important past –founded 400 years ago, it was once an important seaport with four masted ships carrying goods to and from the new world. But those Outer banks that we like so much were in fact a considerable drawback to the regions development. The building of the ‘Dismal Swamp Canal’ (isn’t that just a great name!) did connect this region with Virginia and for a time was a very important waterway. Today it is used mainly by pleasure craft and is part of the 5000 or so miles of inter-coastal waterways that stretch down this eastern coast line. www.DismalSwamp.comMariner’s Wharf in Elizabeth City is a pretty harbour where boats can moor for 48 hours free, yes…free. Can’t really see that happening in the Solent or Poole Harbour can you? And here’s a thing, any ladies aboard visiting sailboats are greeted with a rose – almost makes sailing sound attractive. (No doubt when Malc reads/edits this entry he will have some thing to add here :-) – she’s right, as you know I have done my fair share of sailing and I don’t know of any other place where you can tie up, dockside, almost in the middle of town and stay overnight FREE, let alone two nights (I bet if they aren’t busy they wouldn’t say no to even more :-) "Malc the Talc"  put this one on your itinerary! This practice was started by… Isn’t it a wonderful idea?Whilst wandering along the Wharf we were struck by how dark the water looked no beautiful blue waters here. On inspection it appeared almost black so we decided to collect some in an empty water bottle so we could share it with all of you. See the lengths we go to, to make it feel as though you are with us?   Anyway, as Malc was doing just that a guy (sorry) came over and started chatting about what made it so…it’s the Cyprus trees… the freshwater upstream from here was used by the old sailing ships as it stayed fresher, longer, in barrels onboard. We stood and talked for some time. He introduced himself as Len Outlaw (you may remember we mentioned him in the last blog) and it was he who told us about the encroaching coastline on the Banks and that his grandfather had built one of the first 13 homes on the Outer Banks. He recalled how until a bridge was built in the 1930’s a small ferry would take people and goods to and fro, though I doubt he actually remembered as he only looked about our age – far too young :), maybe his parents told him about it - see we told you we got to know an "outlaw". This made us realize how laborious it must have been for the Wright brothers, they had come to Elizabeth City to stock up with provisions before camping on the Banks and then had to take everything over there by boat. We learnt too that in places the harbour here is about 30’ deep and that amongst other water sports it’s the location for the Carolina Cup regatta club and that Leonard is passionate about his racing. He invited us back for the next race telling us there would be a warm welcome for us and Bree! Again we are struck by the friendliness and hospitality that is offered to us. http://www.carolinacupregatta.com/  As we turned to leave him, we saw a large modern building on the other side of the road – rather out of keeping with the old town in general…   It turned out to be a new, well 3 yr old, museum of the Albemarle, it looked intriguing. Indeed it turned out to be one of the nicest provincial ones we have visited. Its display is organized chronologically and the winding walkway leads you through the development of the surrounding areas. The presentations were really good, the quality and range of the artifacts amazing. http://www.museumofthealbemarle.com/home.htmWho could have known that this was the waterfowl capital of the world .Between 1870 -1920 over 100 gun clubs were in operation in the area and it seems it was not a poor man’s sport. Fees could be as much as $5000. Quite an industry was built around it in fact, the carving of decoys being one of the more interesting. Fascinating stuff! There were a few artifacts from the Wrights too and even a canon thought to be from Blackbeard’s vessel. We enjoyed wandering around the museum and regretted not going in earlier in the day as we only had an hour or so before it closed, incidentally it was free (our favorite fee). So, hidden gems but the best is yet to come. As we had walked around the streets we came across what looked like an old run down cinema – apologies to all residents of Elizabeth City we don’t mean to offend. However, it couldn’t be derelict because that very night they were showing ‘Terminator Salvation’ opens at 6 movie at 7 (it was just after 5 by the way). Malc was keen to see this, me…not quite so keen, but I said I would keep him company. Well we didn’t fancy sitting in there watching trailers for an hour before the show, so we headed back to the park along the wharf and enjoyed a small picnic – the melon was delicious and most welcome on a very hot afternoon. We sauntered back to the cinema at about 6.30 only to find the doors locked. Perhaps we had been right after all? The box office – a tiny kiosk at the front right on the pavement (I know – sidewalk…) was empty, but there were lights on inside. No sooner had we tried the door than a young man came scurrying out to serve us; we bought our tickets, walked past the small popcorn counter in the foyer and went into the cinema. We stopped short as we thought we had made some kind of mistake, because as we entered what we expected to be the auditorium with rows of cinema seats, we were faced with rows of dining tables laid for dinner and lit by cozy table lamps. Some were occupied and the whole place had a relaxed air about it. Erm…there was a cinema screen though erm…Another young chap came over to assist us – we were I’m sure, looking rather uncertain at this point! “We came to watch a film, not to eat” offered Malc. “That’s fine” he replied, “If you would like a drink or a bite to eat then choose a table, when you have chosen from the menu, pick up the phone that is on the table, dial 0 and give them your order. If you don’t want to do that there are rows of seats at the front and you can just watch the movie”Well picnic or no picnic we couldn’t pass up this unique opportunity, so with a pint in hand and a large platter of nachos and a selection of dips between us we settled down to watch the film. I have to say the whole experience made watching a Terminator movie that much more enjoyable! What a great idea, don’t you think? So glad we didn’t go by the street pictures from Google, you see for all our pictures we share, you just can’t beat being here – we do try to include you though :)http://www.discoverec.org/visitorinfo-about.html
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