PA Trip with Mom, Ruthie and Milt

On our way to PA, we stopped by SVA to see the family.  It was village student registration day. Claire, Easton, Jordan and Jackson enjoyed Milton's entertainment, pretending to sign up for intramurals.

Ryan in his office in the mask Carrie made for him

Our first morning there, we surprised Mom's good friend and neighbor, Jean, and their housekeeper.

She had a flower arrangement made to take to another neighbor, Bonnie, who lost her husband last month.

Sabbath morning we went for a walk downtown around the Genetti Hotel where we stayed.

Our room was big, so the five us us managed very nicely. We had a king, double and twin bed that they brought in for Mom. There were two wing back chairs, and two big dressers and a desk.

We had Sabbath dinner at Alan Freeman's cabin and visited with them at "our" cabin on the creek where we spent our days.  It's called the "Mary Lou" and she was there for the weekend with her son, Alan.  She's Coleman's sister.  Her husband died this summer.

Barkley (poodle/Bichon mix) was at the hotel front desk - right up on the counter.  Mom loved giving him attention each morning, and he ate it up.

We visited Coleman's grave.

Roasting marshmallows for s'mores was a nightly event almost.

Relaxing on rafts in the "CRIK" Sunday with Ruthie (that's how the locals pronounce it). The bottom was covered with slippery rocks which made it interesting at times. . . Lydia motored us around when she wasn't dunking Milton.

Jane George is left of Mom.  She and her husband Bob have a nice cabin next to the Mary Lou, and they're also part of the Woolever family.  They lent us their rafts Sunday to use in the creek with Lydia, Alan's 11-year old granddaughter.

Monday we met Amy n Jeremy in Harrisburg, at El Rodeo's for a tasty Mexican dinner that Jeremy bought for us.  I loved my potato enchilada.  We enjoyed visiting with them so much.

Time for a little cleaning in the sink on the porch, the only "running water" at the cabin.

Mom had the silk flower arrangement made for the top of the grave marker that we placed on Aug. 19, one year from the day Coleman passed away.

Tyler drove 33 hours straight so they could get back from their trip to Wyoming to see us before we left. We missed them at the picnic we had with Art, Karen, Scott, Caleb and Liz on Sunday.

We froze 5 dozen ears of Honey Select sweet corn from Schneider's in Montoursville and Ruthie did too.  We've looked all over this area and can't find a source where we can buy sweet corn from a farmer.

Randy de-cobbed the corn.  It sure will be worth it all this winter!  We got 39 pints.

 

Cherokee, NC Visit and Deep Creek Dip

On Mon., July 27, we headed to Cherokee, NC and enjoyed watching rafters and kayakers on the Ocoee River along the way.

We've taken a couple river rafting trips out west so it's no longer on our bucket list, but we do enjoy watching them.

We stopped at Deep Creek and had a picnic and then hiked to Indian Creek Falls and drove through the campground that we hadn't seen before, noting our favorite campsites for possible future reference.

We stayed in Cherokee at this Hampton Inn.  (We're not hot-weather campers when we can't have hook-ups with AC, like in the park.)   It was a 5 or 10-min. drive from the park entrance.  We enjoyed the pool Tues. afternoon after our visit to the park.  Of course, masks were required in the motel at all times.  They did serve a hot breakfast and had a lot of social distancing and precautions in place at the breakfast area.  It was in the 80's for highs and 60's for lows - but 80% chance of rain both days we were there so we didn't relish the idea of sitting in the hot trailer.  Fortunately the weather man was off again and we had very little rain.  It was a nice 3-day reprieve from hot/humid Collegedale. 

In Cherokee, NC we saw this cool masked carving in front of the museum.  

We hadn't explored the NC side of the park before this week.

Just inside the Oconaluftee River National Park entrance is this living farm museum that we enjoyed walking through Tues. morning. The Mountain Farm Museum includes farm buildings, most dating around 1900, that were moved from their original locations throughout the Great Smoky Mountain National Park to create an open-air museum.

Randy liked the wood storage shelter at the museum.

As we hiked the Oconaluftee River Trail in search of rhododendrons, this is all we found. Bummer - I was afraid it was the only rhododendrons I would see so we took the above picture to show Mom. 

However, up at higher elevations on our way to Clingman's Dome, we found a LOT along the road in full bloom!

It seems late for rhododendrons to be in bloom.  It was a friend's FB post who said they saw a lot of them in full bloom (just two weeks earlier) that inspired us to make this trip to the park.

Stopping to capture the rhododendron shots

I've always loved these beauties.  They are abundant there.

Bee Balm (they look like a perennial I want to try in my rock garden - Monarda didyma Jacob Cline beebalm) - these were all along the road on our way to Clingman's Dome. A lot were mixed in with black-eyed susan's.

We made it!  The trail is getting steeper I think.   A "50-something" guy passed us on the way up and, noting our gray or thinning hair and wrinkles, said something to the effect of "you're really doing well compared to a lot of younger folks." Randy thanked him and then said "You're doing pretty well yourself."  We're thankful we can still make the climb at any pace!  

Like our sombrero?

Another view from the top

The clouds were trying to take over the view from the Dome, but they hadn't quite managed to obliterate it yet when we got there.

An unusual wild flower  along the Clingman's Dome path that Randy liked

These were across from the pull-off on the way down from Clingman's Dome where we stopped briefly for a picnic - until a bear appeared down the road a short distance that inspired us to finish our tomato sandwiches IN the car!

There are so many elk on the NC side of the park and they aren't at all bothered by human traffic.

Mangus Mill near the Oconaluftee Visitor Center

We rented tubes for just $6/day and were cooled off in a hurry in Deep Creek Wed. morning.  It was definitely refreshing!

We hiked along the creek to this point where we launched our tubes. There was enough water in the creek that we had a good ride and only got hung up on a few rocks along the way.  We hung onto each other's tubes so our momentum helped nudge us off the rocks protruding from the water.

It went quite well for a couple oldsters!  We noticed there weren't any others of our "vintage" tubing. I had been assured before we went on this adventure that it was "safe" even for us.

We didn't have any trouble until we got out our last time.  We went further down than we had been advised was wise, so we would be closer to where we had parked.  But we thought it must be ok because others were also going down that far in tubes.  But when we tried to paddle to the side of the creek to get out, we weren't able to make any headway in that direction due to the swift current.  So we bailed out of our tubes to wade to the side we thought. . . A couple folks offered me a hand once they saw me struggling, and falling on the slippery rocks.  I felt like I looked my guardian angel in the face and thanked the man over and over for helping me.  If anybody had video'd it, what a riot it would be to see.  My bruised and bloody, banged up shins and knees are proof of the very real battle!  Randy lost his flip flops that went floating down the creek in the process - not a chance of retrieving them!  Randy said next time he'll just say "we'll see you in Florida" and float on downstream in search of calmer water before attempting to "de-tube." The experience makes me think about how important it is to lend a helping hand to people I see struggling through various circumstances.  I was so grateful for the two who came to my rescue when I flipped out of the tube and found myself being quickly swept along in the water on my belly bumping along the slippery rocks, until they helped me get my footing. We might still be struggling to safely reach the shore - as so many are in the storms of life without a Savior.