Leslie and David's Wanderings: 2022

Friday, November 25, 2022

24 November 2022 Thanksgiving Punt

We had planned to go to Cynthia’s house for Thanksgiving but we received a call Wednesday that she had come down with the flu that Felix was just getting over. So we all decided to put Thanksgiving off for a couple of days until she recovered. So we pulled a ham we had in the freezer out and made a trip to the store to pick up some sides and made ourselves a nice Ham, Augratan Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce and Green Bean Casserole feast. Hopefully Cynthia will feel better in a couple of days and the rest of us avoid getting the flu.

21 November 2022 Arlington to Conroe

The drive down to Conroe was uneventful. The last half of the drive was in the rain. We are staying at the Leisure Lane RV Resort ($21 per day monthly rate). We are in the exact same spot as last year. Seems our request for another spot was lost. But the major issue we had with the old spot, a noise pump, has gone away. We will be here until 1 March 2023. Now its time to get ready for the busy holidays. David also has several maintenance projects planned for out time here.

5 – 21 November 2022 Home Time

After getting settled in, David pulled out his suitcase and packed. He spent 6-11 December in Germany for work meetings. While there, he got his fill of wonderful German food and beer. Meantime, Leslie stayed in DFW and met up with her Mom and her best friend Mona several times. After David returned and had recovered from jet lag, we made a whirl wind tour of meeting up with friends, both our dentists, our financial advisor Eli, our Chiropractor Dr. Adams (should have heard the bones crunching!), and family. We managed to squeeze in lunch/dinners with Jim and Sharon, Diane and Donny, Mona and Wade, Rick, Ann and June, and Rick and Samantha.

German Beer!1

Oompha Band

Schwein Hosen!

Friday, November 4, 2022

4 November 2022 Sixth and Final Day of Power Drive 2022

Today we drove 225 miles from Texarkana to Arlington TX. So, we drove 1,545 miles in six days. The weather reports last night warned us bad weather was going to be going through Dallas and Fort Worth by 1PM. So, we were up early and on the road by 08:30AM. We pulled into the Dallas/Arlington KOA campground ($51 per night with KOA discount) just as the first round of heavy rain started coming down. When we followed our escort towards our site, we realized there were a couple of issues. First there was a low hanging tree branch across the narrow road to our site that had to be cut back. The second was the site they assigned us had a tree right on the corner and another directly across the road. There is no way we could make that corner with the limited room. So, in the pouring rain, they sent someone out to cut back the tree limb then had us pull through to a holding area while they figured out another site. By the time they figured out where they could park us, the first line of storms had passed through, so we were able to unhitch and get set up with just a light drizzle. Another round of severe thunderstorms rolled through about two hours later. We looked out the window and realized we were complete surrounded by water and there was a river running under the back of our rig. Turns out there is a drainage canal running around the property and when it rains hard, and gets full, it takes a short cut across the RV park. And for this privilege, we get to pay $50 a night.

Dallas/Arlington KOA Site

A river runs through it!

3 November 2022 Fifth Day of Power Drive 2022

Today we drove 280 miles from West Memphis AR to Texarkana TX. Today reinforced why we don’t like doing multiple back to back driving days. It’s boring, except when people do stupid things around us, its tiring, and it’s hard to keep the concentration on the road. We’re staying at the Shady Pine RV Park ($58 per night) on the southwest side of town. We really liked this RV Park. The roads and sites are concrete and made to handle big rigs. It is great being back in Texas. It always feels good to see that welcome to Texas sign. After we got set up, we headed out to get some groceries, fuel and most importantly, TexMex!!!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

2 November 2022 Fourth Day of Power Drive 2022

Today we drove 235 miles from Goodlettesville TN to West Memphis AR. Compared to yesterday, this was a much more relaxed drive. The traffic in Nashville and Memphis were a pain, as we expected. We arrived safely in West Memphis, right on the Mississippi River, after 4.5 hours. We are staying at the Tom Sawyer RV Park ($53 per night with GSC). We could look out our windows and see the tugboats and barges moving on the river. We were amazed by how low the river is. We heard that it was very low due to a drought up river, but were amazed to see it so low compared to when we passed this area in the spring. We wish we were staying longer to explore this area.

1 November 2022 Third Day of Power Drive 2022

Today we drove 325 miles from Flat Creek NC to Goodlettesville TN. The first 60 miles were stressful with 25 miles of construction (Narrow lanes, construction traffic, lane switching, and rough roads) followed by several steep and curvy climbs and downhills. Following the first stressful sections, the remainder was boring with long stretch of straight road. But the leaves are still colorful and beautiful. We arrived safely in Goodlettesville, north of Nashville, after 7.5 hours. We are staying at the Grand Ole RV Park ($49.71 per night) in Goodlette TN. We stayed here in the spring and liked the location. I did not get a picture of our site.

31 October 2022 Vanderbilts and Leaves

We had planned to get up early this morning and drive the Blue Ridge parkway before our tour time, but when the alarm went off, it was raining hard. So we decided to sleep in and let the rain blow through since the low clouds would have blocked the views. After breakfast we made our way to the Biltmore Estate for our 12:15 tour time ($100 a piece). Touring the Biltmore was one of Leslie’s bucket list items. So, we planned this break in our power drive so we could explore the estate of the Vanderbilts. We got lucky in that the house is 90% decorated for Christmas. It takes them 6-8 weeks for them to decorate the estate for Christmas. The main thing missing is the 35 foot fresh Douglas Fir which will arrive on Thursday and they will open for Christmas the following day. We spent about 3 hours touring the Biltmore. The craftsmanship is totally amazing. They started construction in 1895 and mostly complete in 1903. They wired the house for both AC and DC since it was not clear at the time whether Tesla or Edison would win the power war. They included two OTIS elevators, two bowling lanes, and indoor pool, central heating, multiple huge refrigerators, etc. All cutting edge technology at the time. The house is built of locally quarried stone, and iron. Very little wood was used in the structure to reduce the impact of fires. Even the roof trusses are iron. They built a railway spur to bring in the building supplies. There are 33 guest rooms, Mr. and Mrs. Vanderbilts private bedrooms, and 43 bathrooms. We were able to tour the public rooms, the private bedrooms, and some of the quest rooms. The house is over 175,000 square feet, 250 rooms total and 65 fireplaces. Incredible. The Christmas decorations were spectacular.

Following our tour of the mansion, we drove around the property and gardens until we came to the winery. We did not know we had to make reservations for the complimentary wine tasting included in our ticket price. Not wanting to wait, we went to the wine bar and did a flight of their wines each. North Carolina became our 18^th state where we have tasted wines. We found several wines we liked and walked away with a few bottles for the holidays.

By the time we finished our wine, the sun had come out and the day was beautiful. We left the estate and drove down US25 to the Blueridge Park Way. We jumped on the parkway heading east and drove about 15 miles east, stopping at the pull outs to marvel at the beautiful fall colors. We came upon two cars pulled over on the side of the road and as we drove past, Leslie called out BEAR!! So we turned around and came back to see a good sized black bear eating along the edge of the road and then heading onto the road. We took the opportunity of all the cars being stopped to turn around and continue on our way. After turning around at the 15 mile mark, we headed back to US25. As we came to the stretch of road where we had seen the Bear, we found it was still there at the edge of the road. It walked out in the middle of the road as we approached so we put on the emergency flashers and slowly followed the bear down the road snapping many pictures. It finally got tired of us following and turned off into the brush and out of sight. What a special day!

Entrance Sign to Biltmore

The Biltmore

The Billiards Room

Formal Dining Room

Christmas Tree outside the music room

The Music Room which was finished in 1976

The Main Balcony

View off the Balcony

The Tapestry Room

Christmas Trees

Private family dining room

Private Family living area

Indoor Pool

The Kitchen

Formal Gardens

Wine Flight

Blue Ridge Parkway

Black Bear

Blue Ridge Parkway

Visitor Center Sign

30 October 2022 Second Day of Power Drive 2022

Today we drove 200 miles from Greensboro to Flat Creek NC. As we started climbing into Appalachian Mountains the trees were showing their spectacular fall colors making it a very pretty drive. We are staying at the Lakewood RV Park ($62 per night with GSC) in Flat Rock NC. I did not get a picture of our site.

Sunday, October 30, 2022

29 October 2022 End of the East Coast Tour

We started our power drive back to Texas today. We will cover 1400 miles from the Outer Banks North Carolina to Arlington Texas in six days. We plan to take a day to do some leaf peeping in the Smokey Mountains and to tour the Biltmore Estate along the way. Our first stage is from Kill Devil Hills NC to Greensboro NC, 280 miles. We’re staying at the Greensboro KOA ($90, KOA Discount) for one night. The drive across the North Carolina Low Country was uneventful and longer than we had done in a while. Only issue we had was finding someplace to pull over to eat lunch as there were no rest areas along our route.

26 October 2022 Fort Raleigh

Looking for something to do with our last day in the Outer Banks, we found there was another national park unit nearby on Roanoke Island. We drove down to the Fort Raleigh National Historic Park with no real expectations of what we would find. This part of the island is where they believe the location of the first English Colony in Virginia, know as the lost colony, was located. Sir Walter Raleigh sponsored several exhibitions to the area now called the Outer Banks. In 1584, a small exploration party in two ships arrived. During their explorations of the area, they befriended the Algonquian Indians. The following year, a larger party of 600 colonists in 7 ships arrived and establish the first English Colony. The ships sailed back to England, leaving the colonists to fend for themselves. One of their first acts was to build a earthen fort to defend against attacks by the Spanish. After a hard year of building their colony, the colonists became more and more dependent on the Algonquian Indians for food. Their leader, Sir Richard Grenville sailed back to England to seek more supplies. The colonist became more desperate and ended up in battles with the Algonquin Indians. While he was gone, Sir Frances Drake stopped nearby after his raids on the Spanish Colonies. They accepted his offer to return to England and abandoned the colony in 1587, Sir Walter Raleigh organized another group to return to the abandoned colony. This group numbered only a 117 and included the wife and daughter of their leader, John White. With the Indians now hostile to settlers, the colonists had a rough time on the island. But, John White’s Daughter had the first English Baby born in the new world. When John White returned to England to seek more support, he was stuck because all available ships were impounded for the war with Spain. John White was not able to return until 1590. They found the colony abandoned and no sign of the 117 settlers. The fate of those 117 settlers has never been found. During the civil war, the Confederates fortified the area and wrote about the strange earthen works on the island. The Union assaulted Roanoke and took control in 1862. Escaped slaves heard about the Union control of the fort and flocked to the area. The Union established the first Freedmens Colony on the island. The colony was disbanded and the land returned to the original owners in 1867.

Replica Earthen Fort on the site of the 1585 original

Entrance Sign

Sea Side theater where they perform the First Colony play every summer

Marker for the first English Child in the New World

Thursday, October 27, 2022

26 October 2022 Corolla Mustangs

One of Leslie’s bucket list items was to see the wild mustangs in the northern portions of the Outer Banks. We had visions of herds of wild horses running down the beach with spray flying up from their hoofs. The wild horses are the descendants of horses that the Spanish explorers left on the island in the early 1500s. By the 1980s, they numbered between 5 and 6 thousand. Then the federal government got involved and declared them an invasive species and started removing them. They currently number only 107. We met up with our tour guide ($50 each), Brandon, in the town of Corolla, just a couple of miles from where the pave road ends. Brandon explained that the county road continues for 50 miles on the beach all the way up to the Virginia Border. This was our first clue that our expectations were out of line with reality. Brandon went on to explain that there were hundreds of homes along this stretch of beach highway. Many of these houses are large million dollar plus homes. But no commercial properties are allowed. As we sped down the beach, there were dozens of vehicles driving the beach and even more parked along the surf fishing. Brandon turned off the beach and drove into a “neighborhood” of large beach houses nestled in the sand dunes with sand roads and driveways. The first “Wild” Mustangs we saw were standing just off the road in a yard of one of those homes. Brandon explained that they have large bellies because they suffer from bloat since all of their food is coated in salt from the ocean mists. No herds frolicking in the surf, instead, small family units in the yards of massive homes. We even saw one mustang in a garage enjoying the shade. In total we only saw about 6 horses and the tail of one in a garage. To say our expectations were shattered would be an understatement. But the folks we met on the tour were fun and the drive along the beach was beautiful.

Corolla Mustang

Mustang headed for the garage

Corolla Mustang

Beach highway

Corolla mustang

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

24 October 2022 Cape Hatteras

We packed a lunch and drove down the length of Cape Hatteras National Seashore down to where the car ferry takes you to the next island. We did not get to the car ferry until 4 PM so we decided to turn around there. We stopped at the Bodie Island Lighthouse and visitor center. After exploring the exhibits and walking out to the lighthouse (it was closed for renovations) for some good pictures. We then drove down past the Soros area of the park and found a place where we could walk to the beach and enjoy our picnic lunch on the beach. The view was beautiful. Then we continued on south to the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. There we went through the museum which explained to role of the light house during the civil war, WWI and WWII. Both light houses were built during the early 1870s after there predecessors had been destroyed by the Confederates. Both were electrified in the late 1930s but manned through the end of WWII. The drive down the island is on a scenic byway, but with large sand dunes on the sea side and heavy brush on the leeward side, there is really not a lot of scenery to see from the road.

22 October 2022 First Flight and Light Houses

The RV Park is just down the road from the Wright Brothers National Memorial. On Dec. 17 1903, the Wright brothers flew the first controlled heavier than air flights in the world. Other inventors had flown powered flights but they could not control the aircraft and they all crashed. The Wright brothers had traveled to Kill Devil Hills for a period of time for four years testing their kites, then gliders, and then finally the first powered aircraft. In 1902, they built a glider and flew over 1000 glider flights from the top of Kill Devil Hill. During the glider flights, they learned how to control the aircraft and becoming the first pilots. When they flew in 1903, they had trouble getting comfortable with the revised elevator they had built into the Wright Flyer to help compensate for the additional weight of the engine and propellers. The result is that all four flights thar day ended because they induced oscillations which caused the aircraft to stall. We arrived at the National Memorial just in time to catch a Ranger led tour. After the ranger talk, we walked the Flight path and stopped at each of the landing sites. After the last flight, the flyer was damaged by a hard landing. The damage was going to take two days to repair, but that night a strong wind flipped the flyer and damaged it beyond repair. We then toured the museum before driving over to Kill Devil Hill and climbing up to the top where the Wright Brothers Memorial Monolith is located.

After the national memorial, we continued north along the island to the small town of Corolla. We stopped at the Currituck Beach Light House built in 1875. They want $12 a person for the privilege of climbing the 220 steps to the top. We passed. But we were able to pick up information on the other four light houses on the Outer Banks that we would like to visit. We then drove north to the end of the road where it drops you on to the beach. We turned around since we did not want to take a chance on getting stuck in the sand with the tide coming in. But we made reservations for later in the week to take a tour that would take us further up the island to see the wild mustangs.