Greetings, Well we are finally home!!! John is ready to leave again as it is still very hot here in Florida. We really had such a great summer! Lots of new places and faces it was great! Next summer John wants to leave earlier and get back later.


We left Townsend, TN on Thursday, October 4, 2007 and headed up to Virginia to see John, Aimee and the grandkids, John (4) and Morgan (2). We stopped along the way at Roanoak/Salem, Virginia , and then on to Haymarket, VI which was not far from John and Aimee's. We had fun with them for the weekend, unfortunatally John was not able to come home from Columbus, Oh. as he had to work but we spent time with Aimee and the kids.

We left Virginia on Sunday morning, as you can see from the top photo, it was very foggy the morning that we left. Heading south we stopped at Fayetteville, NC for the night, the following night we decided to go to
Savannah, GA. We went downtown and walked around the waterfront for awhile and, of course, had to stop at Wet Willys for one of their slushy drinks! We sat and watched some of the boats along the river and then went to the Six

Tennessee

These pictures were supposed to be ojn the last blog. Candy

Townsend in the Fall

Greetings, We are still here in Townsend with our retired Pilot friends and their wives. We have had such great weather, not at all fall
like at all, warn sunny days and cool nights. I have to admit that this adventure has really been a wonderful experience! John can hardly wait to go again!!

The other day John and I took a drive through the Smoky Mountains again. We began our trip on the Foothills Parkway, which is an unusual road since it's located outside the park, but is administratively part of it, and offers a panoramic perspective found nowhere else.
The 18-mile drive follows the crest of the Chilhowee Mountain, an unusually long and uniform wrinkle in the plain beyond the Great Smokies. Chilhowee is an unusual mountain: one continuous narrow ridge almost 30 miles long and 2,700 feet high.
Along this drive you find no better views of the great bulk of the Smokies. The lowlands below are another of those relatively flat geologic oddities called a cove. Miller Cove- about 8 miles long and scarcely a mile wide- is a fertile lowland bounded by the abrupt rise of Chilhowee Mountain on one side and the knobby foothills of the Smokies on the other. The views were wonderful!

From the Foothills Parkway we ended up on Route 129, also called the Tail of the Dragon. This is a place that the bikers in the area love to ride as there are 318 curves in 11 miles. One really does not get to enjoy the view as you are so busy concentrating on the road ahead!!!

We then drove by the Fontana Dam and Lake. The water level is very low as they are also in a drought in this area. We finally came to the Newfound Gap Road. This drive across the mountains is the park's most traveled road. Once again the views are so memorable. As you follow the West Prong of the Little Pigeon River up from the 1,462-foot eleveation at Sugarlands to 5,046 feet above sea level at Newfound Gap, then descend 3,000 feet to Oconaluftee, 16 miles away. It's an easy ascent, although the road requires two tunnels and an unusual 360-degree loop over itself to make the climb.

We ended up in Gatlinburg, Tn. This is a real tourist town! John and I had stayed here on another trip that we took on the way home from attending a NASCAR Race in Martinsville, Va. We remembred the cute resturant that we had dinner in that night along the river, we were going to stop for a drink but they were not open so we continued on through Pigeon Forge and finally back to Townsend.

Last night we finally had some rain! We were going to leave today and head up to Virginia to see John, Aimee, John and Morgan, however last night we discovered a leak in the water system so we are waiting a repairman to see just what the problem is???? Just like boating, always something just when you think all is okay..... well stay tuned for more information later. We hope to be home by Monday or Tuesday.

Until later..... Candy and John

Townsend, Tennessee

Greetings from Tennessee!

We are the base of the Smoky Mountains. It is so beautiful here! We had once again met up with some of the pilot friends that we were with in Washington state. Needless to say we are having a fun time!

Yesterday we drove up to Cades Cove. A "cove" in Smoky Mountain vernacular is a relatively flat valley between mountains or ridges. This particular cove is a showcase for showing life the way it used to be here in the mountains. The drive is an eleven mile loop with many places to see along the way. I am not sure how

many people lived here but there were three churches along the way. The Methodist Church, The Primitive
Baptist Church and the Missionary Baptist Church. The Methodist Church had the two doors. One was for the men to enter and sit and the other for the ladies to enter and sit on the other side. This Church did not follow that custom. The two doors were there because the Church borrowed the building plans of another church that did divide its congregation by gender.
One place along the trail was the Elijah Oliver Place. In the time and place of this family, more buildings were required for living than now. With no refrigerator or freezer, they needed the spring house to keep the milk and butter cool. They needed the smokehouse to store and preserve hams etc. for an entire year. They ate mostly pork because it was easier to preserve than other meats. They needed a corn crib to store enough corn for grinding into meal and last until the next harvest. They had to have a barn for the horses and store the hay, also a place to keep the wagons and buggy's. The old grist mill is still a working mill and on its original site. Notice that the barn is what they call a cantilever barn. Cantilever construction (counter weighted overhanging beams) originated centuries ago in Europe.

We will be here for about another week. John keeps watching the Florida weather and sees that it is still hot there. He is waiting for cooler weather before we head back. There is a lot more to see around here so we will have lots to do. This weekend there is an old timers art festival along with blue grass music. Should be fun!!!


That is all for now.... Until later Love, Candy and Johnny

Lebanon, Tennessee

Greetings,

We left Sikesville, MO. on Friday, Sept. 21. It was very early in the morning and the sun was just coming up and there was some ground fog which made for a beautiful morning drive across the countryside.
We drove from Missouri, across Illinois, into Kentucky and on into Tennessee. Yes, four states in about 15 minutes or so.

John wanted to stop in Lebanon, Tn. as he had attended High School at Castle Heights in Lebanon. We found that the school has been closed since 1986. The school, however is on the National Register of Historical Places, no, not because John went there!!! Anyway, many of the buildings have been torn down, but several are still there. They have turned the main building/dormitory into the new City Hall. John tried to see his old dorm but it had become and office and they would not let him in there. (He tells me that he wanted to go and see if the bottle of Gin that he had hidden in a place where there were some loose bricks just under and outside of the window in his room was still there! From the outside you could see where the new bricks had been placed so we do not know if the bottle of gin was still there or not!) He was just glad that some of the old buildings were still there. They do have a museum in the basement along with many old records. The old Commandants Quarters were still there, that had been turned into a restaurant. Inside they had a great many of the old photos on the walls. We ate lunch there and Johnny walked around and found his graduating class in one of the rooms! He even had to show it to our waitress.


From there we drove to the Hermitage, the old homestead of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States. It was a very interesting place. Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachael lived there and had a cotton plantation with many slaves to help run the place. (I have to admit that I really did not know much about the man himself.) Andrew Jackson ran for the president in 1824, he won the popular vote but not a majority of the electoral college (some things never change!!??!!) His second campaign in 1828 sent him to the White House and re-election kept him there until 1937. His wife, Rachael, however never got to live in the White House, she died on the eve of their departure for Washington in 1828.
One of the slaves that lived on the place was named Alfred. He stayed with Andrew Jackson until Jackson's death even after he was given his freedom. Alfred lived to be 101 years old. He is the only former slave to be buried on the grounds near Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachael.
The Hermitage has been preserved by the Ladies Hermitage Association since 1889. It was going to be torn down and sold. It is so sad that it takes a group of people to save so many of our heritage places.
That is all for now. Until later, Candy and Johnny

On The Way Home!

Greetings! We are on our way back to Florida.
We got to Park City/Heber, Utah on Friday afternoon. The weather there was beautiful! We took a drive on Sunday and drove over Guardsman Pass. I was so surprised to see that so many of the leaves had turned. It was so beautiful as you can see from the pictures. The bottom photo shows some of the ski runs at the Park City ski area.

We left Park City/Heber on Tuesday morning......very very early. It was still dark out when we left!!! John still likes to get an early start, especially when we are going to cross into another time zone the next day. Oh well.

We left drove to Sidney, Nebraska. It was a beautiful drive, but there really not much in Nebraska. Lots of scrub brush and not much agriculture. We did see lots of elk and cattle. During the drive we did cross over the Continental Divide. We were at 7000 feet. We found a nice campground at Cabela's RV Campground. As you
may or may not know, Cabela's is a huge outdoor sporting store. They have everything that you would ever need for camping, fishing, hunting etc. This was the biggest Cabela's I had ever seen!!

We left Sidney, NE on Wednesday and drove to Platte City, MO, near Kansas City. Again we did not see much along the way although near the Missouri boarder we did see more corn fields and of course Missouri has lots of corn. Thursday we left Platte City and drove across Missouri to Sidney, MO. We were just south of St. Louis. The weather again was very good! We have been so lucky not to have had to drive in the rain.

From Sidney we headed to Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains. We meet up with some of our friends that we were with in Wa.

Well, that is about all for now. Hope all is well with everyone. We love and miss you all.
Until later, Candy and Johnny

Hi All, we are back on line!!!
We left Winchester Bay, Ore. on Sept. 6 and drove over to Medford, Ore. As you can see by the first two photos it was foggy for the drive over the mountains, although very beautiful.
Medford was a very nice little town. We got there about noon so decided to go out and explore the area. We found several wineries to check out. The first one, Del Rio was very good. Excellent wines, they are known for their red wines but also had a very nice Chardonnay. From there we stopped in to see the Rogue Creamery. They make some excellent cheeses. They even won a world championship for one of there blue cheeses. We had been told about their cheese while visiting some wineries in McMinnville. They are not cheep but are they wonderful. Then we pressed on to the RoxyAnn winery. Their wines were okay, nothing to really write home a about.
The next day, Sept. 7, we were on our way to Susanville, Ca. It was a beautiful drive around Mt. Shasta. As we got closer to Susanville, there seemed to be a great deal of haze in the air. By the time we got to town we could smell the smoke. There was a huge forest fire just south of the area. The air was so heavy with smoke that we decided to continue on to Reno. We heard later that two towns south of Susanville had been evacuated and the people of Susanville were told to try and stay in doors.


We arrived in Reno and the air quality was much better, you could see the smoke from the fire down the mountains to the west. As the Northwest Retired Pilots Assoc. Convention did not begin until Monday the 10th we spent a very relaxing weekend. Got caught up on some reading and the wash.... always chores to do!!!

We went over and checked in to the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino on Monday. We checked in and later that evening there was a cocktail party get together. So many old friends, so many laughs and lots of old stories. Most agreed that we were happy to be retired from Northwest and not going through all the problems that they are having now.
On Tuesday morning we all boarded buses and headed over to Virginia City for some sightseeing and lunch. Virginia City is an old mining town. We took a train ride and saw many of the old mine shafts. There was even an old hangman's gallows there. We had a good lunch, tried some slot machines and then back on the buses to continue over to Carson City, Capitol of Nevada. We got a tour through the old Carson City mint. They no longer mint silver dollars there but they do make commemorative coins. They press to make the coins was still operational. Interesting to see. We then got back on the buses and back to Reno. We had Wednesday morning free, John and I went back over to the coach as the we had discovered that the belt on the car had a crack so it had to be replaced. So we took the car to the Chrysler dealership to be repaired. That night there was a big banquet....more stories and laughs with old friends.

We left Reno and headed east. I have to admit that driving across Nevada there is really not much to see. Mostly brown hills and scrub brush. We stopped at Elko, NV for the night. Not much to this small town but they do have casino after casino. Gambling is such a big part of this state, they even offered a free ride to the local casino if you desired!
Friday, Sept 14th we were off again...through the rest of Nevada and into Utah. As we entered Utah you could see the great salt flats. It is so while that it almost looked like snow on the ground. It really sparkles when the sun shines on the salt crystals. Miles and miles of salt flats. We went by the Morton Salt factory, there were huge piles of salt!!!! They we came to the great Salt Lake. The water is down very low. It was difficult to see much of the water from the road. We drove right through Salt Lake City and up the mountain to Park City and around some mountain to the town of Heber. We are staying right near the Jordenelle Dam. We will be here until Tuesday the18 of September.

That is all for now, it is nice to be back on line. We are still having such a wonderful time but I am glad to be heading back home.
Our love to all,
Candy and Johnny

Hi All, Well another day of adventure! We are still at Winchester Bay, Ore. Yesterday we drove down to Coos Bay and then on to

Bandon. The light house at Bandon is under construction as you can see by the photo. They have a three year plan to fix it back to original beauty. It is open and we were able to go inside but not climb to the top. It will take them about three years to repair the light house. With the advent of the GPS, light houses have gone by the way side. The US Coast Guard has let them go into disrepair. That is really too bad, fortunately the local citizens have taken over the project to oversee their preservation. That is so great! I for one love to visit them and see the way things were from days gone by.

The Beach at Bandon really had so much drift wood. I suppose the wood is left over from the logging past from around the area. It really makes for a beautiful beach.



The bottom photo is of the light house at Coos Bay. It is no longer used and the Coast Guard once again they just left it to nature. You can not get out to this light house as the bridge to the island is no longer safe, or so we were told. We did not even know that there was a light house at Coos Bay until we stopped at a beautiful beach and I looked up and there it was in view!!! At least I did get a photo. Maybe someday it too will be saved from disrepair.

Tomorrow we are heading off to Reno. We will only go about half way, I don't like to drive too far in one day if
we don't have to.... stay tuned for more later.
Our love to all,

Candy and Johnny

Greetings, Today we went to the Umpqua Lighthouse. We took the tour and were able to go up into the lens. Fascinating! We have been up in lighthouses before but never like this. The light here blinks 24/7. As you may know, each light house has it's own signal. This lighthouse blinks 1 second white, 1 second white, one second red. There were 58 steps to the top, so not the tallest light house that we have climbed.

As you can see the weather is beautiful again today!

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. Can't believe it is the last weekend of the summer!!!!

Candy and Johnny

Thursday, 8/30/2007

Hi All, Hope all is well with everyone. We are still having a wonderful time here along the Oregon Coast!! The coast is so beautiful weather the sun is shining bright or the coast is shrouded in fog.

Yesterday we drove up to the city of Lincoln to go to the outlet mall there for a little shopping. That was fun!!

On the way back home we stopped in the small town of Depoe. It is right on the ocean and is known for whale watching and the world's smallest harbour. We did spot two whales not too far off the shore line. I understand that there is a pod of whales that live there most of the year. We also saw several sea lions and of course many birds.

The world's smallest harbour is exactly that... a very small harbour. You come in straight off the ocean and the opening is very narrow, you do not back off the power until you are past the entrance, where you have to make a tight left turn under the bridge and then into the small harbour.
We watched several boats going in and out and were glad that it was not us on the boats!!!

On the way back to Newport Bay the fog was rolling in off shore. You can see the light house in the distance in the last picture. I tried to catch the light in my picture, but it was not to be... oh well.

When we got back to Newport Bay, the sun was shining but the fog bank was still sitting off shore. We went to dinner at the Rogue Brew House with our friends, Chris and Jan Hanks. A good time was had by all!!!!


Hope all is well with everyone. We love and miss you all. Keep in touch, we love to her from you. Candy and Johnny

Aug. 29, 2007

Hi, Another beautiful day here on the Oregon coast!! Today we went over to the OregonCoast Aquarium.. It is not a big place but it
was fun anyway.

They had sea lions, Otters, and lot of fish and crabs and underwater animals. They have the tunnel where you walk through and the fish and sharks and stingrays swim all around and over you. They had lots of different crabs. There was a large spider crab that comes from Japan that can grow up to about 13 feet and live a long time. They have a tidal pool where you can touch the star fish.
We had a good time looking at all the animals.

After that we drove to the historic distric again as I had some shopping that I wanted do. John goes along with me but not too willingly....

Not sure what tomorrow will bring, hopefully another beautiful day here.

I hope all is well with all of you.
Our love to all,

Candy and Johnny