We have watched a steady progression of rain squalls come through central Tennessee this week. We have been in some really nice state parks, one named after Davy Crockett near Lawrenceburg and now at Henry Horton State Park, near Lewisburg. This one is named after a Governor, (Henry H. Horton, Governor from 1927-1933).

We sit inside and watch the weather radar on the computer. When we see a break in the rain we throw on all of our layers and take off tromping through the damp woods. This park has a really nice nature loop, the Hickory Ridge Loop that wends its way through the limestone sink holes and mixed forest. We got to identify Sugar Maple, Post Oak, Spanish Oak, Eastern Red Cedar, (actually a Juniper), Dog Wood, Hackwood and Persimmon. I will post a couple photos on the web site of one of the sink holes and a gnarly old Maple that has been struck by lightning many times.

The literature indicated that this whole area was a series of subsistence farms after the original plantation and mills were broken up. After walking around the area all I can say is they must have been pretty stubborn people. This area is nothing but layers of limestone rock with a thin skiff of soil over it.

It is really fun exploring the nooks and crannies of this great nation. When we go to Nashville this weekend we will surely visit the “Grand Ole Opry,” a well known tourist destination. But I think I can honestly say that we enjoy a quiet walk in the woods even more. In the last few days we have seen a flock of wild turkeys and many deer including a three point buck. It is fun to watch their white flags dancing through the trees. Then they stop and freeze. They literally disappear right before our eyes. We have also seen hunters cruising the back roads, so we always wear our neon bright yellow-green jackets.

So don’t let the winter weather slow you down. Follow our example and get out and walk every day.

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and relatives where ever you are.

Love from Gary and Judy in Tennessee.

Judy with the Gnarly Oak Tree in Henry Horton State Park

Sink Hole in Henry Horton State Park

Tonight we are in a commercial campground in Garberville, CA. After we got camp set up, we walked back a mile into the Richardson Redwood Grove. The state campground was closed to traffic, but we were able to walk the trails and enjoy the trees. Today was bright and sunny. It still didn’t warm up very much. Winter is moving in, for sure.

We have no cell phone but the camp has wi-fi including a very complete weather station. Last nights low was 31.5 at 7:30 a.m. The day’s high was 47.7 at 3:24 p.m. We expect to be in Napa Sunday, perhaps it will be warmer there. We hope to spend a couple days and explore the Napa valley by bicycle.

From the California Redwoods, Bye from Gary and Judy.

Arcturus and Judy Look Small by These Redwoods

Blue Sky in the Rain Forest

What we were discovering was the history of the area. We were driving on roads with names like Mazurek, Ohnheiser, Mansik, Lidiak, Mazoch, Knape, Kallus and Guenther. These were the same names we also saw in the cemeteries at the churches we were visiting. The histories of these churches indicated that they were founded from 100 to 150 years ago by Czech and German immigrants. Early buildings were lost to hurricanes or fire, but the congregations repeatedly salvaged what they could and rebuilt again and again. We crossed trails with a tour at the 150 year old St. Mary’s in Praha Texas. The tour leader stopped to hand us some helpful literature and told us that his father had helped shape the stones that made up the walls of this church.

The roads themselves wandered around the countryside, past tidy farms and close cropped pastures. The land in this area of Texas is rolling countryside dotted with small ponds behind earthen dams. The live oak trees command the fringes and less tillable areas of the farms and some of them are huge spreading canopies with multiple trunks. The sweeping limbs frequently droop clear to the ground thirty or forty feet from the cluster of trunks. In parks it is not unusual to see these grand denizens of the forest supported by steel posts.

The churches themselves seemed outwardly to be of a common architecture. The construction varied from wood to stone to brick, but the form was a soaring bell tower with steeple above. Rectangular shape with a door in the middle of each side. Inside the arched ceiling was forty or fifty feet high and there was a balcony above the entryway which contained the pipe organ. At the opposite end, the chancel is set into the wall in a high arch. The sun was splashing through the stained glass windows in a glory of color only to be outdone by the elaborately decorated interiors of the Catholic churches. In stark contrast to these churches was the simple elegance of the interior decoration of the Lutheran church at Swiss Alp, Texas. Outwardly the building was nearly identical to all of the others.

Each community was only five or ten miles from the next, and indeed the record speaks of circuit riding preachers before communities were able to build and support their own church. We traveled almost exclusively by narrow county roads. As we approached Dubina, Texas we were privileged to cross the single lane “Piano” bridge built in 1885 by the King Iron Bridge Company of Cleveland Ohio.

Now we were riding in John and Marie’s Dodge truck for this trip of exploration. The entire circuit was just over eighty miles. There were two factors that were stacked against us for our usual bicycling excursions. The distance was a bit longer than our best 63 mile ride this year, but more importantly, Path, our gallant green dragon tandem bicycle, is feeling poorly this week. Stress fractures caused our seats to become less than securely affixed to the frame of the bicycle. I have completed the replacement parts, and as soon as I get them painted we will be back in business.

Here is a collection of photos from our tour.

Sts. Cyril and Methodius, Dubina, TX	St. Mary's, Praha, TX
St. Mary's, High Hill, TX	Balcony and Organ, St. Mary's, Praha, TX
Bilingual Relief	Piano Bridge Near Dubina, TX

About noon there were probably 16 shooters set up in the ready area and the range officer started lining up the shooting order. The guns were neatly racked up and the skeet machines were all dialed in to throw their clay targets exactly 60 feet in a crossing pattern from opposite corners of the range semicircle. The first man up stepped up and at his call two targets arched across the infield and he deftly dispatched both. He shot perhaps a dozen straight targets before he missed one. I am thinking, yeah this is probably not that easy, but he sure makes it look easy. That prediction proved to be correct. There were all levels of skill in the group. One fellow used up his 25 shells as he advanced around the six stations and had only broken two or three targets. These guys ranged from young (relative term, anyone younger than I am, is “young”) to some real geezers. Now no one was using a walker, but I wouldn’t have been surprised. I did join the spectator group standing around admiring the fancy guns for a while.

Now I don’t expect to get involved in the sport, but as we travel it is interesting how often we get an opportunity to see something entirely new. Like Bluegrass in Arizona, the tractor pulls in Nova Scotia, the horse and oxen pulls in Main and the bicycle race in San Jose. I think it is good, as we experience this journey called life, to be open to new ideas, new experiences and new people.

Today the sun returned and we were able to get out our tandem bicycle and have a nice ride. We were able to locate a Geocache about five miles away on the shore of Laguna Salada. No that is not a fancy name for a three bean salad. It is a body of water, a lagoon, and it is salty. We also caught a glimpse of a roseate spoonbill flying overhead. I didn’t get a photo, but Judy did take a photo of an unusual wildflower with both yellow and pink flowers in the same cluster.

Once again we say adios from near Kingsville Texas right on the Gulf Coast.

Gary and Judy

Wildflower found near a Geocache Site in Kleberg County Texas

After negotiating about eight or ten of these ponds we stopped on a grassy knoll and just drank in the serenity of the area. We sat quietly for 20 minutes hoping to see some sign of the beavers, but nothing moved. Eventually we continued our exploration and reached the very spring that fed the stream. You could actually walk around the end of the stream and go down the other side.

Finally we retraced our steps and returned to the pathway down from the campground. We then decided to follow the stream on down to the lake. We found two or three more beaver dams along this stretch of the stream. We eventually made our way to the lake beach and found ourselves right back to the launch ramp where we had canoed two days earlier.

It was really interesting to see how the beavers constructed their dams. We only found one mound that would probably qualify as a beaver lodge. Is it possible that one family of beavers have created this series of dams, perhaps as many as sixteen, along a half mile stretch of creek? Some of the dams were no more than 12 inches high, others were six foot or more.

At no time did we get more than half a mile from the campground, but this was a delightful walk in the “Icky Woods” Below are a couple photos from our walk.

Good Bye again from South Carolina, and Judy and I send our love to all our friends and relatives everywhere.

Beaver Dam near Lake Hartwell, SC

Tree beside Beaver Dam near Lake Hartwell, SC

We have spent most of the past three days in Shenandoah National Park in the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia. Fall colors here are stunning. You can see one of our best pictures at the bottom of the page.

Let us compare the controlled environment of a nice club to a walk in the “Icky Woods.” At the club you get to have modern machines, TV for entertainment, if you wish, a wide flat belt to walk on with never a rock to turn you ankle. The display tells you exactly how far you have walked and how many calories you have burned. I presume so you can go stoke up for the next run. Compare that to the conditions in the “Icky Woods.” Trails come in all styles, but the trails to the best waterfalls come with a built in canyon to climb down. Canyons seem to come with assorted gravel, rocks and boulders to climb over. Trees also grow in the canyons, and for some reason spiders think that the trees on each side of the trail are ideally suited for spinning sticky strands of web. I think they even calculate what the best height is to catch you in the face. Patooi. Then there is the weather. It was a marginal day, but we wanted to see these really great falls on Overall Run. By the way, for those of us from the west that would be a creek or a crick. Here they call these little streams runs. These folks have been naming things long before us, so we must have it wrong. Back home we probably should call it Scappoose Run. Anyway, we get down the run a ways and find the falls, but we can’t see them. We can hear them, but the fog is so thick we can’t really see anything. I finally got a peek between fog layers and that photo will be on the web page too. This brings up the third disadvantage of walking in the “Icky Woods”…getting home. Now we have to climb 1,000 feet back up this canyon. About half way back we decide to take this shortcut, you see. Only we read the map wrong. After-all it was a copy of a copy of a copy and just a little fuzzy. The long and the short of it is we took a mile long hike in the “Icky Woods” in the wrong direction. At this point, at the club, you just climb off the machine and go have a shower. In the “Icky Woods” we had to retrace our steps and then take the long cut back to camp. In the “Icky Woods” we also get to see wild creatures like golden mantel squirrels, various birds and white tail deer.

Come to think of it, first chance you get, go for a walk in the “Icky Woods,” just make sure you have a good map.

Judy and I send our love to all our friends and relations. Good bye for now.

Gary and Judy Dinsmore.

Fall Colors in Shenandoah National Park

Overall Run Waterfalls in Shenandoah National Park

We will once again be looking for a cyber café or library to do the e-mail and web update again tomorrow. If you get this you will know I was successful. It just a mater of logic that if you don’t get this, we were not successful. This is the same logic that my dad, Chester, used to use. The family would agree to meet along some creek for a picnic. He would always tell the other family to just watch along the road. “If we got to the spot where you turn off to go down to the creek first, we will hang a piece of toilet paper on the bush. If you get there first, take down the toilet paper.” It always seemed to make perfect sense when my dad said it.

We have found Ontario to be densely wooded, rolling hills and pocked with lakes. I guess you can take the “Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes” theme and multiply it by a few dozen. Everything around Lake Superior is very sparsely settled. The small towns pop up perhaps every 30 to 50 miles. Many of the roads are narrow and rough so you have to be very vigilant as you drive these big RV’s down the road. We have noticed that there is a local obsession with balancing rocks. There are many rock outcropping in this country. Perhaps there are four of five of these alongside the road for each mile of road that we travel. Perched precariously on top of the cut-bank will be an artistic pile of balanced rocks. They are obviously placed there intentionally by someone, and in a prominent place so they can be seen and admired as you pass by. Some have the shape of a gnome with two legs and a hat. Occasionally they will include sticks or twigs to develop the shape. Many are balanced quite precariously and each is unique unto itself. We have discovered that these are called Inukshuks and it is an Inuit traditional way of showing the way.

We have been doing a combination of some private parks along with the Provincial and National parks. All of the provincial parks jumped their prices this year, so they are actually more expensive than the private parks and offer fewer services. What you do get is elbow room. The sites are carved out of the forest and are parks with hiking trails and natural places. The private campgrounds are usually parking lots with a few strategically placed trees, horseshoe pits, boats for rent and a list of rules as long as your arm.

Judy and I send along our love to all our friends and relations. Bye for now.

Five Intrepid Hikers Resting in Pukaskawa National Park.

Likens and Succlents in Pukaskawa National Park, Ontario Canada.

This is going to be a series of short takes about our stay in Death Valley because we have no internet here at the bottom of the North American Continent.

Thursday, March 3, 2005: We are camped in Sunset Campground at Furnace Creek in the middle of Death Valley. We are 190 feet below sea level. It is warm and sunny, Wahoo!
So far we have explored three canyons, the Harmony Borax Works and Scotty’s Castle. The wildflowers are blooming their hundred year best, and half of the roads are washed out. We just returned from the 7:00 pm ranger talk at the Furnace Creek Visitor Center and Ranger Dale Housley is a wonderful, enthusiastic fountain of knowledge and lore about Death Valley. We first met him at the Harmony Borax Works, and then again tonight. Dale has his roots in St. Helens Oregon, and yes indeed he is related to the Housley’s and Nickelson’s that we ourselves know. What an incredibly small world it is.

Our favorite canyon so far is Mosaic Canyon near Stovepipe Wells. We were able to walk a little over a mile into the canyon, crawling up and over sand/water polished marble. It was indeed much easier coming back down. Many of the chutes were as polished and slick as a slide in the park. You just sit down and scoot down the chute. Boy are we sleeping well at night. While in the canyon we were treated to an air show. Two military jets, (I think they were F-14′s), came roaring over the canyon at a middle altitude, about 10,000 feet. They started doing simulated combat right over our heads. Twisting and turning, looping and chasing each other for perhaps five minutes. The thunder was reverberating off the walls of the canyon. Suddenly one of them tucked his wings back in and punched it and the second jet followed. As quickly as it started it was all over.

We spent part of the day Friday on a Wildflower, nature walk. The volunteer showed us about twenty species of wildflowers in the space of a one hour walk. I will include some of our favorites below.

Saturday was another heavy duty bicycle ride and a walk up into a canyon again. This time we rode thirteen miles out to Natural Bridge Canyon. The problem with this canyon is the road into the canyon trail parking lot works its way up the alluvial fan deposit from the canyon for a mile and a half. Think about what it would be like to ride up the side of a gigantic gravel pile. We went from minus 200 feet to plus 600 feet. That is an average grade of 10 percent and the first half was more gentle than the upper half. We finally ditched the bicycle about half way up and packed in from there. Cars and trucks were spinning tires in the washboard gravel. The natural bridge was impressive enough, but Mosaic Canyon is still our favorite. The forecast of 20% chance of rain didn’t materialize and the temperature was just above 80 when we got back to the coach. We finally have had our touch of warm sunshine.

A warm greeting to all our friends and relations back home from Gary and Judy.

Judy in the Wildflower Patch, Death Valley CA

Two Desert Five Spots and a Rock, Death Valley CA

Desert Chicory, Death Valley CA

Natures Bouquet on a Gravel Bar, Death Valley CA

We are making new friends every day. They keep saying, “Bluegrass people are the nicest people.” It is easy to believe that. They typically have a couple RV’s parked head to toe and then wall it in with tarps. They either have a washing machine basket and a fire, or they have propane heaters to take the chill off. The players and observers sit inside and make music all evening. I have to think this is what our forbearers did before we invented mass media and platinum albums. Perhaps some of our heritage is slipping away.

We have heard that the Death Valley Desert is blooming the best in a hundred years, so we are pulling up stakes this morning and headed back over to California and Furnace Creek.

Meanwhile we send our love to all of our friends.

Gary and Judy.

Gary Takes the Vocal Lead

L-R Britany, Frita, Gary, Carol, Cheryl (Bass), Samy, Micah and Roy

We were invited to join a “Wild Flower Walk” by the park ranger here at Windsor Beach on Saturday. Ranger Tim was able to point out many desert wild flowers including Lupine, Desert Lilies, Desert Milkweed, Scorpion flowers and Creosote bush. The desert is so green and it appears that virtually every species will be blooming shortly. This is really the silver lining for all of the rain clouds we have been enduring.

Judy and her sister, Sonja, are creating a bed quilt masterpiece. It has stripes and flowers with squares and diamonds. They have run out of fabric a couple times already. Over the previous few weeks we have shopped regularly trying to match the original fabrics. We were even exchanging photos with daughter-in-law, Barb, so she could shop in Morgan Hill for matching fabric. That means this is a two state search by now. At this moment they are trying to pin this whole thing together on our dining table. Remember that this is a 34 foot motor home. The dining table is about 24 by 48 inches in its glorious fully extended mode. They have pieces propped on the chairs and hanging onto the floor. They are trying to match up the pieces of fabric so that the stripes line up with each other. They hold up one piece over their heads and pin parts together then pull out the next section to see how that lines up. Me, I am just hiding out over here in the corner hoping the thing doesn’t rare back and say “Feed me!”

Well that is what it is like to hang out in Lake Havasu City. Judy and I send our love to all of our friends and relatives that are following our adventures through this e-mail each week.

Desert Lilly in Front of Prickly Pear Cactus

Scott and Judy Priebe's Half Orange Tree