4-wheel Adventure

Our 4-wheeling adventrue for this weekend takes place in Ocotillo Wells on the east side of Anza Borrego. Jim found a place online called Sandstone Canyon that he wanted to go to. Here are some pictures of the Canyon:



I love the high walled canyon. It was very cool! On our way out of the canyon we came across a sign that said "Wind Caves." So we stopped. It was a 1 mile hike over steep terrain, but it was an amazing place.



It was very FUN! We had the entire place to ourselves to explore!



Also, the view of Anza Borrego from up here was spectacular!

I hope that everyone has as much fun this weekend as we did. Thanks for stopping by!

4-wheel Adventure

I'm here to share pictures of our last 4-wheeling adventure to the Cloghorn trail. Here we go... Chris is studying, so he stayed home...

It's really gorgeous out here!

Look, Jena found a stick:

That's where we're headed!

Which road do we take?

This is what happens when you take the wrong road:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hw5t_ky4D4&feature=youtu.be

YAY! We made it!!!

Look, Jena found another stick!!!

It's been quite an adventure!

Going Home...

It's our last day in North Carolina. In the week we've been here, the trees at Uncle George's house have started turning color.

We hung around the house this morning... Feeding the chickens...

And gathering EGGS... uh, well, EGG, and I got to do the gathering!

We reminisced with Colonel George...

He has been all over the world and says that there is no other place that he would want to live than right there in North Carolina.

Time to say good-bye to Joann and Mitzi...

And to Uncle George...

Good-bye, Uncle George! We LOVE you!!!

On the Hunt for Fall Color - North NC

We are on the road again, heading straight into the heart of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park all the way to Tennessee!

Brrr... it's chilly up in those mountains!

We pulled over to take a walk through all the natural beauty. As I was picking up pretty leaves, I found a cell phone! It belonged to a couple visiting from Florida. When we got home, I dropped it in the mail to them. I hope that they got it...

Anyway, back to the trip... We drove all the way up to the highest peak. Clingman's Dome. It was so high up, it was above the color line. No leaves left here except on the pine trees...

We've have a really quiet week traffic and tourist-wise, but today the tourists were out in FORCE! Clingman's Dome was packed! Thank goodness for Uncle George's handicap placard. When we reached Gatlinburg, Tennessee, streets were packed with cars, sidewalks were packed with people, traffic was terrible! There was no way we could stop, so we turned around and headed back to North Carolina.

Now here's a pretty little spot...

What are we doing here Uncle George?

We are picking out a new rock for Uncle George's rock garden. Uncle George has rocks from around the world! Here is what it was like picking a rock for the rock garden...

Uncle George: Find one between an ostrich egg and a football.

Jim: Here's one.

Me: Not that one... the brown one!

Jim: Which brown one?

Me: That brown one!

Jim: How am I supposed to reach that? (rolling eyes)

Me: But it's special! (pout)

Doesn't it look great? See, I told you it was special!

That's it for our drive through the Great Smoky Mountains... Tomorrow it's time to head home.

On the Hunt for Fall Color - East NC

Today is misty rainy, and Jim and I are headed East. Not all the way East to Jim's brother's house, but just as far as Ashville, NC. Our plan was to see the Biltmore House. This is as far as we got... the gate house:

It costs $59 per person just to get into the grounds. THEN it costs $10 more per person to get into the Biltmore House itself. I kid you not, $70 to take a self-guided tour of a house! We passed on the outrageously expensive house tour and asked Garmina to find us another nearby attraction.

She took us to Jumping Off Rock in Hendersonville. It has historical significance because a Cherokee woman jumped off the rock to her death when she heard that her lover died in battle. Kind of morbid, but what a gorgeous place! We took a hiking trail through the woods. Look at these photos! I think the color pops even more because the day was overcast.

We took the Blue Ridge Parkway back, stopping off at the Blue Ridge Folk Art Center. It is supposed to be THE place for authentic Appalachian Arts and Crafts. We didn't buy anything...

But, time to head back to Otto to go out to dinner with Uncle George. He took us to the Blue Ridge Roadhouse in Franklin. Very cute decor and great food!

Have a great day, everyone! Tomorrow we head North through the Great Smoky Mountains into Tennessee.

On the Hunt for Fall Color - South West NC

Uncle George took us on a tour through south-west North Carolina. Our first stop was Wayah Bald tower. At 5342' in elevation, it used to be a lookout tower. Now it's a place for fabulous views!

We also took a tour of the beautiful waterfalls in the area. Bridal Veil Falls (you can drive under), Dry Falls (you can walk under), and Cullasaja Falls (you can see from the highway).

We also stopped at the Blue Canyon Overlook. This was another place with great views and lots of Fall color!

Tomorrow we head East in search of more Fall color!

North Carolina Here We Come...

We have discovered that Atlanta has a fondness for the street name PeachTree... PeachTree Road, PeachTree Street, West PeachTree, Old PeachTree Road, New PeachTree Road, PeachTree Industrial Blvd... and we have been on them all between downtown Atlanta and the SouthEastern Railway Museum. The museum was closed, BTW. Apparently, tourist attractions in Georgia are only open on the weekends.

Thank goodness for Garmina (our friendly Garmin-Nuvi). She got us navigated through all the PeachTree streets... all the way to North Carolina!

... and on to George and Joann's house in Otto, North Carolina.

Say, "Hi, Uncle George!"

Here's a surprise! Joann's son's are visiting too! Here we all are settling down for a family dinner. Joann is a fabulous cook!

On our second day, we went gem stone mining. Here are some highlights:

What surprised me is that gem stones are nothing more than... stones... rocks... Picking a gem stone out of a pile a rocks is beyond our ability, lol! But thanks to our host, we found a sapphire, two small garnets, and several small rubies.

Look for some North Carolina color tomorrow!

Sight-Seeing Atlanta

Even with the time change we were up and about early in the morning. Since it was weekend, we thought that the aquarium would be crowded, so wanted to get there early.

After a Subway breakfast sandwich, we walked to the aquarium:

No lines... no waiting... we walked right in!

It's a very nice aquarium. We saw the dolphin show. It was a fun show, but it was weird seeing a dolphin show inside. I guess we are so used to Sea World. The tanks were HUGE and BEAUTIFUL!

Can you see the whale shark and manta ray in this picture?

How about a beluga whale?

We left the aquarium just as it started to get crowded and walked across the courtyard to the World of Coke.

I think the World of Coke is competing with Disneyland for the title, "The Happiest Place on Earth." After watching a happy movie with a cute fuzzy character falling in love with a dandelion, we entered the World of Coke... full of bright happy music, cute decor and of course the polar bear.

After tasting over 60 different flavors of coke from around the world, we walked through the CNN tower and the Atlanta Underground. Both forgettable experiences.

Our last adventure was trying to find some place to eat just as the Falcons vs Raiders game let out at the Georgia Dome. WOW! People in Georgia really like their football! There were thousands of fans in costume roaming the streets and filling all the restaurants.

That is it for our day in Atlanta. Tomorrow, we head to North Carolina!