Arrived at Salt Fork

  I am at the Trail Fest at Salt Fork State Park, Ohio, and all is well. Bill and Bob are in the Lyme Lounge (Bill's camper), Diane has the aqua tent, and I'm the orange one. Arrived in time to get it up before the rain started. Not serious rain... it would be nice if it stayed that way.

I did miss dinner, but they saved me a container. So, I got to eat about a half hour ago. Bill checked me in, but I signed up for the wrong hike, so I hope they let me change that. It doesn't return until 4 pm and I have something else I have to do in the afternoon.

Working backwards on the day... the closer I got the more iffy the weather looked. Here's a storm cloud coming in over the hills we are camping in. The car got a brief but nice bath.

The bulk of the day was spent dealing with this. The picture is after I threw the ruined tire back in the car. So you can see I did not exaggerate about shredded. The wheel was OK. Thank goodness for that.

I will not expound on the day. Bill and Diane got to listen to me rant on the phone quite a bit. Bill made the mistake of calling me at the apex of my irritation. It was not one of Joan's better attitude days. However, I have 4 new matching tires of the right size which are hopefully a step or two above crap (jury is still out on that). And I was able to make it to the Trail Fest yet today. Finally left Toledo area at 3:30 pm.

I have not missed an annual Conference, Celebration, Trail Fest or whatever other name it has gone by since 1995, and I wasn't going to miss this year's because of a stupid tire problem.

And now I am going to stop and go to bed.

See At Mariannes's

At Marianne's

 I think you are just going to get one picture. I am safely at Marianne's for the night, but not without one little adventure.

First of all I left home 4.5 hours later than I wanted to. OK, that's not too bad for me. But it did meant that I wouldn't quite make it to Marianne's before dark.

So, I'm under 10 miles from her place and one of my tires decides to expire. Not just go flat... it shredded. Now, I'm on the side of a 4 lane highway in the dark. I can see the Welcome to Ohio sign from where I am. But... what town should I call for service? And should I choose Michigan or Ohio? Didn't matter. The only numbers Google would give me were 800 numbers that just dispatch someone to wherever.

However, the guy I got spoke Spanglish so bad I couldn't understand him. When I finally figured out what he was saying, they can't take you anywhere unless you know where you want to go. What? I'm on a trip... I have no idea what places are in the area.

I called 911 thinking they might at least give me a couple of local numbers. I explained that there had not been an accident, and there was no health emergency, but I couldn't seem to get assistance. They said they would send someone, but wanted to know the address of where I was. Now, this seems odd to me. Last time I called 911 in a much more rural area, and I tried to tell them where I was, they said they just pulled the coordinates from my phone. So they can't do that in the greater metro Detroit-Toledo area? Weird.

But, it was easy to explain where I was. Southbound on US 23, right at the state line. I could literally see the sign. I offered to give them the coordinates, but they said they'd find me.

OK, let's clarify something. I know how to change a tire. But I wasn't interested in doing so in the dark on the edge of a busy highway. I am aware of way too many people who have died that way.

A huge SUV with flasher-flinger blue and red and white lights pulls up. I couldn't see a thing, but the guy finally comes far enough away that I could tell it was a Sheriff deputy.

Can you believe it!!!! He changed the tire. I had emptied the back of the car and gotten the tire out while I was waiting for them to come. Of course the car is loaded for a month of camping, right. But I succeeded. He said, "We don't usually do this..." Maybe looking like a little old lady was good for something tonight.

With the lights from his vehicle, we could see what we were doing, and the flashers kept traffic away from the edge of the road.

Anyway, I got to Marianne's an hour later than expected, and then we chatted for a while.

I'll deal with the tire in the morning. I hope I didn't ruin the wheel.

See On the Way to the Train

2026- Rock Garden Report #3

 There hasn't been a full rock garden report since May! Somehow, it wasn't a great year, although things are filling in quite nicely. I haven't weeded a third time, and that's not going to happen at all unless the weather is still cooperative in late October.

This angle made a nice-looking view today, though.

I'm not sure if it was the heat or what. I thought I was doing a good job of watering regurlarly when it didn't rain, but anyway, some of the sedums have nice blooms. This is 'Dazzleberry.'

'Coraljade'- one of my favorites because it changes a lot over the season.

This one was new last year, and I'm also happy with it. 'Oriental Dancer.' It's spread quite a bit.

Here's the one from friend Margaret that seems to be reliable. The tall sedums are mostly renamed as Hylotelephium. I think this is 'Rosenteller.'

Perhaps the best looking one this year is 'Vera Jameson,' from my friend Betty.

This is not rock garden, but the Coleus have held their own, and certainly look better than nothing in that part of the front bed.

This has been a fast, no-frills report, but I'm in flat-out panic mode now. I was doing well, but several things this morning took way longer than I expected, and now I'm in a rush. And it looks like I'll have to pack the car in the rain in the morning. O well.

In other news: errands all morning, including a chance for a short visit with my friend Betty who has had some serious health concerns this year. None of us is getting younger.

I finished the mowing in a light drizzle. I finished one of my major projects, and am within an hour of finishing the other one.

All the stuff to go in the car is in the middle of the kitchen, but it is not packed or organized yet. And there are a couple of things I have not been able to find. Not so happy about that. Nevertheless, I will leave mid-day tomorrow!

See 2026- Rock Garden Report #2

Reptiles, Living History, Kayak, Rock, Arch

 September 21, 2019. On this day we did a couple of touristy things, but two of them pretty much happened by accident. Perhaps you can tell from the title that we packed the day full.

The first one was purposeful. We went to a museum that had reptiles of Kentucky. It was pretty interesting, but most of the critters weren't labeled. You know how I feel about that. These might be a red-eared sliders.

Then we happened to stumble on a living history day. This was really interesting. It was at a reconstructed log house at Gladie. There were all kinds of displays of historic crafts, and lots of Native American crafts as well. Kids got to start a fire without matches, try their hands at grinding corn by hand, etc.

Here are some woven mats.

This is the interior of the Gladie Cabin. The event was huge, and free to the public. We could have stayed much longer, but...

We had stumbled on this opportunity the day before, and even though it was pricey, we decided that would be our big splurge. This is a kayak tour through an old limestone mine, all underground.

The day was fading, but that was perfect to visit Chimney Top Rock because the late light was hitting it nicely. This was only a short walk from the car.

And... we still had time to squeeze in one more arch, another very short walk. This one is Princess Arch.

You can never say that we don't know how to pack a day!

This will end my series on Kentucky for now. We hiked one more day on interesting trails, but nothing as spectacular, and visited a couple of places on the way home.

I think tomorrow I'll share the end of season garden goodies, and then I'll be on my way on Wednesday!

In news at home: I am within sight of completing the two big paperwork/computer projects! Errands, laundry, mowed (just one more piece to go tomorrow), some dealing with plants because it will certainly frost once or twice before I get home, some packing (that's also almost done but is awaiting a few odds and ends). I also got to spend about an hour with Cathy. Her girls are all there and are acting as gatekeepers because all kinds of people want to come by and help do something. Doug was much loved in the community. But Bekah let me know that Cathy would like to see me before I left. She's doing as well as can be expected.

See Auxier Ridge Trail

Auxier Ridge Trail

  September 20, 2019. We decided to take on a longer, hillier hike. We did the Auxier Ridge Trail- about six miles along a rdige, then down into the central valley and then back up again. There are two interesting, named rocks you see from the trail. This is Haystack.

And this one is called Courthouse Rock.

This is another hike from which you get awesome views of the Red River Gorge.

After you climb back up the other side, you visit Double Arch. See the narrow slit above the main arch? This view is actually from the first ridge, because once you are under the arch, you can't see the slit.

The climbs down and up are so steep there are a lot of stairs to accomplish the elevation changes.

Here we are with the view from Double Arch behind us.

We felt pretty good about this challenging hike.

In other news today: Things are getting real about needing to be ready to leave. I worked on my projects, I mowed half the yard, I got almost all my gear checked in. I crossed another big item off my list, but all I really did is put it away because I've lost a computer file I needed to do it right. It must have been one of the things I truly lost in the great computer crash that happened on the trip I'm showing you today. I'll have to rebuild it, and that isn't happening in the next two days.

See Natural Bridge and Rocks