Leaves, Leaves, and Even More.....

Leaves!  Sounds like a B-rated horror movie doesn't it.   Happy Sunday everyone.  We sure hope your weekend has been grand.  If your in the path of Hurricane Sandy, please stay safe.  

Here in our neck of the woods, all we got from Sandy's travel up the East Coast was a cloudy Saturday morning, followed by a breezy, sunny afternoon, and a sunny, breezy Sunday.  The breezy (or wind) will be the biggest effect we feel from Sandy.  

Rob got out Saturday morning to clean-up the yard, and for about 30 minutes it looked good.  But the leaves were falling almost as fast as he could vacuum them up with the John Deere.  So he gave up, and went to Lowes instead.  

Sunday was even worse for leaves, with the breeze blowing steady. So Rob got in all the plants to be carried over for the winter (temps in the low 30's are forecast for our area for Monday night), and then took some pictures of the yard.  Even Tiger and Jackson got into the act, getting their picture taken also.

Here are two collages for you to enjoy.....

Thanks for checking by today.  Until next time, stay safe out there....-R,T,&J

Home from the Holler......

We know, the titles for the last couple of posts have been on the corny side, but we just couldn't resist.  We really didn't want to leave to come home today, but just had too.  In fact, we didn't pull-out of the campground until about 11:15 am.  We took the longer way home, which of course meant we had to drive on the BRP for about 18 or so miles.  It was a wonderful day for driving on the BRP, the sky was so clear we could see for miles into the distance.  Of course, the fall colors were just indescribable too.  

We are home, un-hooked, un-packed (mostly), laundry is going, and the truck has been washed too!  The dreaded Monday Morning Monster will be knocking on our door before we know it.  

Here are some more pictures for you to enjoy.......

Thanks for checking by today.  As always, until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J

Howdy from the HOLLER.....

Welcome back to our blog.  We had a wonderful day in the mountains.  After a huge breakfast of bacon, eggs, and honey-wheat bagels.  We were off to do some sight-seeing, and exploring the Blue Rigde Parkway. No matter how many times we travel the Parkway, we always see something new. 

Rob took lots of pictures of the colorful fall leaves.  The day was clear, crisp, and slighly breezy.  There were a lot of people out and about sight-seeing, but we still had a great time. 

In the afternoon it was back to the camper to hang-out, nap, etc.  Then we ran to The Mountain Aire Resturant not far from here for take-out fish sandwiches with onion-rings for dinner.  The we went for another ride on the parkway looking for deer, and to take a few more pictures. (Like we don't have enough!) 

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.....

 

 



Thanks for checking in today.  Of course we have to head home tomorrow, but that's ok too. 

 

Until next time, stay safe out there....-R,T,&J

Headin' to the Holler.......

Happy Thursday everyone!  As the title says, we're heading to the Holler, Raccoon Holler Campground that is. We're heading up Friday afternoon after school.  The weather is supposed to be perfect, and the leaves should be in full color.  

The camper is all ready, the fridge loaded, and our bags are mostly packed.  Check back again for updates and pictures.  Until then, stay safe out there...-R,T,&J

Autumn Leaves......

Happy Sunday evening.  We sure hope everyone had a great weekend, camping or not.  We didn't go camping, but took a day trip to the North Carolina Mountains to ride on the Blue Ridge Parkway to look at the autumn leaves.  We this time meaning, Trisha, Voncylle (Rob's mom), Jackson, and Rob.  We had a great time, and even had a picnic lunch.  **We even saw TWO pods in the wild!**

We pulled out about 8:45 this morning, and arrived back home about 4:30 this afternoon.  We traveled about 260 miles, but it was worth it to see the sights.  It was cloudy and overcast with occasional sun breaks, but all-in-all not a bad day.

Here are a few pictures for you to enjoy.....

Thanks for checking in today, until next time, stay safe out there...-R,T,&J.

Test Post

Happy Friday.  This is a test post with Rob's new phone. Woohoo! (It only took a week to figure this all out!)
Until next time, stay safe out there...-R,T&J.

Resistance Is Futile........

You WILL be assimilated!  All you Trekkies out there know what we're talking about!

 Happy Sunday everyone.  This past Friday, our contract was up on our old unloved (at least by us) cell phones.  We were at Best Buy in Kannapolis by 4:45 that afternoon.  We knew what we wanted, waited our turn, finishing up around 6:30.  Off to Chic-fil-A for dinner, Target for a few purchases, all capped off with a stop by Starbucks.

Our first experience with "smartphones" was with our BlackBerry Storm II phones.  We did like them, but after two years, they were both having issues.   We decided not to go with smartphones for the next two years.  It wasn't fun at all.

This time we jumped back into the smartphone world.  Trisha has had her heart set on an iPhone for quite sometime.  She wanted an iPhone 5, but since they weren't being available until the end of October (more or less) she went with the iPhone 4S.  I think it was the Siri feature she wanted most of all.  Since Rob is a non-Apple person, he is quite sure Trisha as been "assimilated."

Here is Trisha with her new phone.....

Can't you hear Trisha saying, "Resistance is Futile!"



Rob chose to go with the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx.  Here is a picture of his new phone.....

Trisha also got an "Otter Box" case for her new phone.  Rob got a holster to go with his.  It seems in a last desperate act of revenge,  our old hated phones wouldn't transfer our data (contacts, files,etc) to our new phones.   All of that is behind us now, and we are both enjoying our new phones.   

We hope everyone is enjoying their weekend.  Thanks for checking in today, and until next time, stay safe out there....-R,T,&J.

The Linn Cove Viaduct......

One of the most interesting parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway is the Linn Cove Viaduct.  It's not a very big part of the Parkway itself, but the amount of effort involved in it's creation was enormous.  Here is some interesting technical stuff from the internet about the Viaduct.

The last section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be constructed was on the slopes of Grandfather Mountain. This section presented engineers with the challenge of building a road 4,100 feet up, without cutting down any trees except those in the path of the road itself. The solution was the Linn Cove Viaduct, the most complicated segmental concrete bridge ever built. Completed in 1983 at a cost of almost $10 million, it is 1,243 feet long and contains 153 precast segments, no two alike and only one that is straight. The Viaduct's signature S-shape uses every geometric alignment ever used in bridge building, all within a radius of just 250 feet.

When we travel the Parkway, we sometimes stop at the visitor's center at the Viaduct.  This weekend we did and Rob actually hiked to short trail to underneath the Viaduct.  

Here are a few pictures he took....

He said to be able to take the last picture, one has to be about 4/5ths mountain goat!  

Since you can't actually walk out onto the Viaduct itself, we drove really slow and snapped a bunch of pictures.  It was a very foggy day, so this made some of the pictures very interesting.  

Here is a collage of a few of those pictures......

Thanks for checking in today.  We are off to get new cell phones tomorrow after school!  WOOHOO!!!  Until next time, stay safe out there...-R,T,&J.