Sweet Home Alabama

We are having a very nice ("sweeet") time in Alabama. First, we visited Dothan and our dear friends, Lynne and Rob. About 10 years, ago, Lynne chose being a Rabbi as a second career. She studied Hebrew intensively to pass the entrance exam, spent a year in Israel away from her husband and, after five years of study in rabbinic school, Lynne was ordainedas a rabbi. Her first synagogue is a 55 family congregation...oh yes, and we are the 55th family! We want to maintain membership in a synagogue while we're traveling so we decided that this way we can really have Rabbi Lynne (as her congregation calls her) as OUR rabbi.

It was a very special Shabbat at Lynne's synaogue as they had a Holocaust survivor, Anne Rosenheck, as the speaker. Anne was 13 years old when her family was transported to Aushweitz and that was the last she saw of her family. However, she survived and you could hear a pin drop as she retold her story of survival with several very close calls. Here's an article about the community event she also spoke at. http://www.dothaneagle.com/dea/lifestyles/local/article/holocaust_survivor_to_share_story/68820/ On Sat evening, we had a lovely dinner at Lynne's and Rob's home with Anne and her friend, John Stembridge, also at the dinner. John had incredible stories in his own right having once been Mayor of North Miami, Florida and quite involved in all sorts of different global experiences.

That didn't finish our experience with Lynne's synagogue - yesterday, we joined about 30 congregants to attend a AA baseball team, the Montgomery Biscuits. It was great fun - of course, I got some biscuits and gravy at the park! Afterward, we joined the group at Jason's Deli. The only downer of the day was that the Biscuits lost the game. We're returning to Dothan on Wed. to help with the synagogue's Deli Day fundraiser (they're selling 800 corned beef lunches) with plans to stay for another erev Shabbat.

And now we're camped at Gunter Hill COE campground. The COE is US Core of Engineers and that means that we're camped on land that's adjacent to a COE resevoir - well, actually, it is a beautiful lake. We have a wonderful view of the lake out our back windows and we had a really nice kayak outing late this afternoon. We were supposed to be touring the Civil Rights sights in Montgomery today but, somehow, got sidetracked and ended up just hanging around the lovely campground today...it was good to have a down day and we'll resume our sightseeing tomorrow. I'm sure that will give a lot to add to a future post.

This American Life LIVE

We just returned from Alpharetta (in the suburbs of Atlanta) where we attended the This American Life Live broadcast. I'm a huge fan of the Public Radio show, This American Life and what we saw tonight was a live show broadcast to movie theaters throughout the country. Some venues sold out but the Alpharetta movie theater only had about 50 people. The show was great - extremely moving at times as well as very funny. However, in my opinion, the highlight of the show was seeing Ira Glass being so cutely cumudgeonly at the sound board...can't see that on the radio! Oh - yes - one quirk in the evening was the satellite dropped out for about 10 minutes during what turned out to be a thunderstorm. Luckily, the cartoon that got interupted will be put on the website.

Another highlight of the show was Josh Whedon doing his first live musical performance of one of the songs in the "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog" director's commendy. Apparently, the whole director's commentary is done in song. We hadn't heard that, previously, and now plan to buy the DVD when we get a chance. Here's more on the Dr. Horrible phenomen.

Other stuff we did today was to celebrate our first day of warm weather by exchanging our summmer and winter clothing in the RV storage, replace my paddle lost in the kayak excitement (see post below), pick up a few things at the huge new Alpharetta Costco and I got my first pedicure of the season. Tomorrow we're off to Dothan, GA to visit with our friends Lynne and Rob. We haven't seen them in two years so it will be SO GREAT to see them!!

Wherever You Are, Be All There

Wow - we're really behind, already, in our blogging....we've been having some great days and our travels are just beginning.

Please see Geoff's flickr page for photos from the following....

We arrived in Dahlonega which is in the foothills of the northern Georgia mountains (hills compared to the Rockies, of course) on Monday afternoon. The weather is perfect and sunny and the trees that aren't blossoming are now bursting forth with their new leaves. Our first night, we went to listen to a singer-songwriter night at a local small music venue which was wonderful. Yummy dinner and great music in an very small venue. Yesterday, we went to the GA Racing Hall of Fame and then the Dawsonville Pool Hall for lunch. I'll let Geoff write about that.

Geoff: The first thing I noticed about the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame was that it was also the Dawsonville City Hall. I guess that pretty much nails its importance to the city. For those who are not racing fans, Dawsonville is famous for being the home town of many early stock car racers, but most notably, Bill Elliott, who was mostly prominent in NASCAR in the 80’s and the 90’s, although he still races today on occasion. The hall has many of Bill’s race cars, but also has cars from other racers from Georgia, as well as some notable ones from famous racers not from Georgia. We sat and watched a movie on the start of NASCAR and many of the racers in the sport who called Georgia home. One of the gentlemen talking about the history was Gordon Pirkle, a racing enthusiast who was also the owner of one of the most popular eating spots in Dawsonville, The Pool Room. Well, as I was looking over some of the cars, he walks by and says hi. We talked for a bit and he said that they had just gotten one of Davy Allison’s cars in. He also mentioned that they were not as interactive as they had been because of cut backs in funding, but they are still open every day and free to the public.

Later, I told Ellyn about talking with him when we were eating at the Pool Room, and then as we walked out, there he was. So we stopped and talked with him again and told him how much we liked the Hall of Fame and the food at the Pool Room and he was very happy that we enjoyed it. When we mentioned we were from CT and had heard of Jerry Nadeau, he went in the back and brought us each a Jerry Nadeau keychain.

Today we did a ton of things.....waterfall hike, lunch by a river in "Bavarian" Helen, bought grits at an operating Grist Mill, flea market, Appalachian Trail Mountain Crossing, Cabbage Patch Kids Babyland Hospital. We saw a sign at the Mountain Crossing (which is the only portion of the AT that goes inside) that said "Wherever you are, be all there" and that pretty sums up how Geoff and I are trying to live each of the days we'll of this extended traveling.

Tonight, we're off to the boarding house style dinner at The Smith House and tomorrow afternoon/evening we'll go down to Alpharetta to see the "This American Life" Live viewings at the movie theater. It's supposed to be 80F which will be amazing. I already gave my legs their first shaving of the spring and I'm going to try to squeeze in a pedicure tomorrow.

Kayak Tumble & Cowboy Boots

Well - today almost matches yesterday's home sale in terms of being extremely memorable.

This is how our kayak outing was supposed to go:
Step one: Place Geoff's bike at Hominy Creek River Park
Step two: Put in Kayaks at Bent River Creek Park
Step three: Enjoy gentle flowing French Broad River as we paddle 7 miles past Biltmore Estate
Step four: After arriving at Hominy Creek River Park, Geoff rides his bike 4miles back to retrieve the car at Bent River Creek Park

All went well as we put the kayaks into the river, then we noticed little patches of rapids which were a bit more exhilarating than we've paddled previously. We came to a highway overpass with a good patch of rapids all across the river between the highway supports. The current rushed me towards one of the pillers and YIKES!!! I was heading fast for the pillar and feared breaking an arm against it but instead I "just" ended in the water. This is the first time is our several years of kayaking that one of us ended in the water. Luckily, the river was refreshing but not too cold and not too deep but was rushing. Between the river not being too deep and me hanging onto Geoff's kayak, we made it over to the shore without me tipping over Geoff's kayak.

The force of the river had my kayak still pinned onto the highway pillar with me glad that I wasn't pinned between the kayak and the pillar! Geoff went back and heroically maneuvered the rapids (very impressively) to loosen my kayak but it would not budge. Finally, he got into the river to push the kayak loose then got back into his kayak and pulled my kayak over to the side of the river to where I was sitting. Oh yes, while I sitting there, another kayaker hit the pillar and fell in the water as I had but was taller than me so he was able to pop right back into his kayak and went off paddling.

The one thing we lost in my tumble was my paddle - which on a calm river wouldn't have been a problem since Geoff could easily tow me. However, without me having a paddle on this river, it would be a problem whenever we hit another rough patch. And we still had over six more miles of paddling til our planned endpoint. (Are you starting to wonder what this has to do with cowboy boots? That's coming up soon, don't worry.) Even so, we decided to try Geoff towing me which went well for about 10 minutes but then we came to another small rapid and I panicked at the thought of going through it towed by Geoff. We went to the side of the river so I could walk around it and then I realized that there was a path at the top of the river bank. So I scrambled up the muddy river bank to walk my way out while Geoff continued down the river to the planned end point.

I walked for about 30 minutes on what I soon figured was a Biltmore Estate bridle path. I felt a little strange walking along drenching wet and still wearing my PFD (life jacket). Eventually, came to a pasture with a few beautiful horses being fed by what I learned were Bilmore staff. I told them my story and the young horsewoman, Elizabeth, was about to end her shift so she agreed to drive me to Geoff's and my meeting point. And one of those staff members feeding the horses had on knee high blue cowboy boots. I didn't realize anybody that actually worked with animals wore flashy boots like those. I wished I had my camera. While I waited 10 minutes or so for Elizabeth to finish feeding the horses, I sat on a log in the middle of that beautiful pasture and felt amazed at what a different experience I was having than the one we had planned.

Elizabeth wasn't sure where the park was so she checked the web from her cell phone but then it turned out that she was bringing me in the wrong direction so we stopped someplace for directions. They had no idea but I did get to use the rest room there and then I found out the my luck was really odd, this afternoon, because the toilet wouldn't flush. Uggh....but then we got through to Geoff on the phone. He had successfully completed the kayaking and was at the location of his bike. he asked Elizabeth to take me to where our car was and that he would ride the bike to meet me. And that's just what happened and we were reunited.

Now we'll need to get a new paddle for me....and we think we'll stick to calm predictable lakes from now on! Phew!!

Addendum from Geoff:

Whew, I'm pooped. After I got Ellyn's kayak loose, chased it down, emptied the wter out of it, hooked it up to the back of mine, I was about a quarter mile down stream from where I dropped her off. Trying to paddle back up against the current was not working, so I got over to the side of the river and got out and walked, dragging both kayaks behind me. I caught up just in time to see another kayaker go into the drink right in the same spot, but he was able to get righted and go on.

After Ellyn went up the bank and found the Biltmore trail, I towed her kayak on downstream toward the park where my bike was parked. This took another hour and a quarter. Ellyn said she would try to call me but I had no cell signal while on the river. After I got out, and got both kayaks out, and locked them up with my bike lock, and strapped the rest of our gear to the back of my bike, I checked the phone and found I had a couple of calls from a strange number. I called it back and asked if Ellyn was there. She was but not with the person who was helping her. They could not find the park I was at but I asked her to take Ellyn to the other park where the car was parked. 

I had no doubt I could make the ride, but I had used up a lot more of my energy in the kayak than I had expected when we put out onto the water. I had to get off and walk a few times on hills when my legs got too rubbery but I made the 5.9 mile ride in just under 44 minutes. Then we had to go back and load the kayaks. Ugh! There was a group of kayak fishermen there who had seen me trying to get the kayak off the bridge piling and they helped me put one of the kayaks up on the car.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a rain day. I can use a break. 

And Now For Something Completely Different

Today we got the official word from our real estate attorney that the closing on our house sale will be Friday at 3:00 PM. So now we can celebrate, and just in time too, since tomorrow is our 31st Anniversary.

Yesterday, we headed out on our newest adventure in our year-old RV. We cleaned the last of the stuff out of our house in Danbury and pulled out of Claremont Avenue for the last time. Twenty two years and seven months we lived there, the longest either of us have had the same mailing address in our lives. Now we are living a mobile lifestyle.

It isn’t perfect yet. We moved way too much stuff into the RV from the house and are going to have to get rid of a lot of it. We were able to drop off some old electronics at Ellyn’s brother’s house yesterday which he will take to their town’s recycling event in a few weeks.

Tonight, we are at the Walnut Hills Campground near Staunton, VA, for an overnight stay and then on to Asheville, NC, where we will get to really relax for 4 days. Ahhhh.

Amazement and Mystery

Amazing - we are actually moved totally out of our home of 22 years. Due to arrive within an hour in Baltimore for my eye appt. And we're trying not to worry that the closing of the house is inexplicably not yet scheduled. Our Realtor tells us that the buyers realtor and lender say it's all go which is why it's a mystery that it's not scheduled.

Tuesday or Wednesday

Closing getting closer....we hear it will be Tues or Wed of this week!!

So Close We Can Taste It

Ok, we are now getting serious. The final clean out of the house is in progress. Items are being sorted into "Freecycle", "Goodwill", "Dump", and "RV" piles. The last load has gone to storage the rest is out or we find room to carry it with us. Monday we head south come hell or high water. This better happen.

The Sale Seems to be Approaching

We definitely don't want to count our chickens too soon before we cross the bridge but, finally, today we did hear that our buyers have a loan commitment to buy our home. The closing is set for only SEVEN DAYS away!!

We'll keep you all posted.