Trip Report, Part 2

Before we left Maggie Valley, we stopped at Wheels Through Time, a short walk down the street.  This is wonderful museum of American cars and motorcycles.  I've been through a lot of car and bike museums before, but this was less like a museum and more like walking through an organized garage of a successful collector.  There were cars and bikes and parts of bikes, and oil cans and racing suits and all sorts of transportation based stuff all over the place.  It also included one of the strangest two-seater bicycle I've ever seen.  I don't think this would be a comfortable ride.

We spent a few hours there, but I think it's a place I could visit again and again.










After the museum, we headed to Ashville.  We spent the next day touring the Biltmore.  This is an amazing house.  We took the self-guided tour through the building and spent the extra money to take the architect's tour.  This took us to a few more rooms on the upper level, including one that had the architect's model of the home.  Is also took us up to the roof and onto the catwalk of that front peak where we had terrific views and could see some of the gargoyles up close.

The Biltmore and grounds were beautiful, but I was a bit put off by the price of everything and the many extras they were suggesting you purchase at every turn.  I was glad to have visited once, but I think that's enough.

The day we visited the Biltmore was our anniversary, and the day before Father's day.  We have some friends who live in NC, and they came out to Ashville to visit with us.  We went out to dinner and then to the Highland brewery for after dinner beers and more conversation.  I love meeting up with old friends.  It's always as if time and distance evaporate and we take up where we left off when we last met.  The time with them was the highlight of our Ashville visit.

Our next stop was the trip was Johnson City, TN for the COG (Concours Owners' Group, which is the bike DH rides) rally, which was the main reason for this entire trip.

This was the 25th anniversary of the group and we had over 500 people in attendance from all over the US and a few from abroad (Holland).  Besides the people I know from this area (The northeast), I met folks from Chicago, Seattle, Florida and Colorado.  We took over the entire Holiday Inn in Johnson City and still had more in hotels a camp ground near by.  Kawasaki brought in a trailer with new biked for test rides.  This week just flew by.  We ate terrific BBQ, had shrimp and grits (a novelty for this northerner), vinegar pie and boiled peanuts from a road-side stand.  We visited a cavern, an animal sanctuary where they raised wolves and saw wolf puppies, watched an movie with one of the stars of the movie (The Lords of Flatbush with Perry King), saw lots of beautiful quilt blocks painted on barns, did a lot of riding and saw beautiful scenery, visited Davey Corckett's birhtplace, and even visited a quilt store.











All too soon the week was over and we were on the road again.  We traveled north through WV stopping at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine.

 We took a tour of what used to be a privately held coal mine and buildings that used to be in a coal camp, including a family house, an owner's house, a church, bachelor's camp and a school house.  It was a very well done museum.

Our next stop was the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in Weston. This beautiful and huge building is no longer in use as a hospital.  It was bought by a private party and is being restored.  They hold tours that tall about it's fascinating history as well as some of the history of how mental health and other diseases were treated during it's history.    I wish we had more time to spend here.

As we traveled through PA we made stops at the Flight 93 memorial park (a very moving place), the oldest continually owned gas station in the states and a terrific tree house in Scranton.

Then we finally arrived home, safe and happy to sleep in my own bed.

It was a wonderful trip full of new experiences and new places.  We're already talking about our destination for next year's trip.

Trip Report

We set out in early June to go to the COG (Concours Owner's Group) National Rally in Johnson City, TN.  We decided to take out time traveling to and from the rally to explore a bit of the US that we hadn't visited before.  (The Concours is the model of motorcycle that Wayne rides.  I ride a Suzuki Intruder.)

Our 20 day trek on our motorcycles took us to 9 states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee and North Carolina) and approximately 3,500 miles.  This is the longest vacation I've ever taken, the longest time I've traveled on motorcycle and the most miles I've logged in the saddle.  We had a few very minor mishaps along the way, but nothing that couldn't be fixed.  We did a lot of planning before the trip on places we wanted to see and what needed to be attended to at home.  All that paid off.  Our only surprise was that our car battery had died in the three weeks of sitting.  Apparently the electronics that listen for the key fob to unlock the doors and trunk use enough juice to drain the battery.


Our first interesting stop was in Pottsville, PA at the Yuengling  brewery.  It was an interesting tour through the hand dug caves where the beer was stored.  It's got interesting history about how they survived prohibition by making ice cream and making porter which could be legally purchased with a doctor's prescription.

Our next stop was the Haines Shoe House in Hallam, PA.  This was built by show salesman Mahlon Haines in 1948 as an advertisement.  The house still holds tours and sells souvenirs and ice cream on the bottom floor.  It was a pleasant place to stop for a rest and a snack.

After that, we traveled on Skyline Drive then the Blue Ridge Parkway for the next 3 days.  For motorcycling, these are the prefect roads (in my opinion).  There are no stop signs or lights, there is limited access to the roads, the speed limit is 45 or so and the views are spectacular.  We found the roads to relatively uncrowded and all the drivers we encountered to be friendly and respectful.  One of the things I enjoy about traveling by motorcycle (especially as a couple) is that people feel you are approachable.  Folks who would never even take a second look at you at an overlook if you are traveling by car will start a conversation about your trip, the view or whatever.  It's all small talk, but it's always nice to know that people aren't afraid of folks on motorcycles.

Three stops we made along the Blue Ridge parkway that i really enjoyed were the Music Center, the Moses Cone Memorial Park and the Folk Art Center.

The Music Center had live musicians playing and a terrific museum about the history of local music and musical instruments.

The Moses Cone Memorial Park was a beautiful building with an amazing view and beautiful hand crafted items for sale.  I spend quite a bit of time with a very nice woman named Pam Etheredge who makes handmade pine needle baskets in the tradition of her grandmother's tribe of the Choctaw in Mississippi.  I wish I lived closer to her because she teaches this beautiful craft and I think she would be a good teacher.

The Folk Art Center was full of hand crafted items - some for sale.  It had beautiful jewelry, quilts, furniture, scarves, pottery and all manner of handmade items.  It's a good thing we were traveling by bike, or my bank account may have suffered.

After traveling the full length of the Blue Ridge Parkway, we settled into Maggie Valley, NC for a few days.   We chose to stay at the Smoky Falls Lodge because it's motorcycle friendly, and is in close proximity to The Tail of the Dragon, a twisty road that seems to be on every motorcyclist's bucket list.  Upon arrival, we saw other bikes like mine (but a bit newer) and found that we had happened upon an Intruder rally.  We met lots of nice folks, chatted about bikes and had a good warm up for the larger rally that would happen later in our trip.

The following day, we made our way over to the Dragon.  It was a rainy day and I was scared.  The Dragon is part of route 129 in the Great Smoky Mountains on the NC/TN state line.  It's advertised as 318 curves in 11 miles and is known for folks who like to travel at high speed.  I wanted to travel this road to say I had - not to break any speed records.  So, when the weather prediction for the day was rain, I almost  cancelled.  But, we decided to go to the start and make our decision then.  It was still raining when we arrived and we looked at all the cyclists who were waiting for the rain to stop.  We decided to stick with our plan and do the ride because the road was probably be as empty as was ever going to be.  After a few miles into it, Wayne's voice came over the communications and let me know we were about a quarter way through the road.  That's when I realized that I could do this safely, and started to enjoy the ride.  I understand why this road attracts riders.  It's banked well and the bike responds to the curves.  I did it, I enjoyed it, I got the sticker and it's off my bucket list.

That's the first week of the trip.  I'll add the rest later.

Catching Up

A lot has gone on since I last blogged. This being retired stuff is exhausting.  I have no idea how I ever found the time to go to work.

First off, I finished the baby quilt I started at the quilt retreat.  It will be delivered on Sunday to the mother-to-be.  It was at my guild's show this weekend.

And, since the last time I wrote a blog post we took a trip to Fall River MA to Battleship Cove.

We went to two Red Sox games, including opening day where the players were presented their world series rings from 2013 and players from the Celtics and Patriots came out with their trophies.

A trip to Delaware and Pennsylvania to visit family and our alma mater (University of Delaware).  We visited Maine with some of our riding buddies and took a beautiful ride along the coast.

Took a trip to Cape Cod and visited a few more lighthouses in Eastham.

Celebrated my birthday.  Visited the home of the Yankee Siege trebuchet (winner of the adult trebuchet division in the 2013 Punkin Chunkin world championship).

And finished a pair of socks.

And then there was a ton of yard work, a visit to an air museum with a motorcycle show, a bunch of visits with friends, a Kentucky Derby Party, a showing of SpamALot and general life.

I think this pretty much catches everybody up to my life so far.  I'm tired.  I think I'll take a nap.

Quilting Retreat!

I love quilting retreats!  My guild sets up 3 or 4 of them every year (probably more that I'm not aware of) and I can usually manage to get to one a year.  I love being in a room full of people indulging in their craft.  Seeing all the projects, all the colors, all the ideas and beautiful workmanship is very inspiring.  I always bring much more with me than I can ever complete in the time frame, but I always manage to do more than I really expect.  This weekend was no exception.

I had a delay in getting to the event, but once I was there I went straight to work.  I brought all the blocks I had completed for Scrapitude.  I don't really have the space at home to set up a design wall, so this is the perfect venue to try different designs (the Franciscan Guest House supplies tables, irons and ironing boards and design walls.)  I set everything up and stitched it all together.

This is the lay-out prior to stitching is all together.  I put them up at random and only had one block that got moved around.  I still have to decide on borders once I figure out the size I want.  I was afraid that some of the reds I chose would stand out too much, but I have to agree with Charlotte that all the scraps just go together.




My next project was a baby quilt for a friend.  I had won most of the blocks from a guild block of the month, but had to make 10 or so to make the top this size.  I didn't take a picture of this, but will once it is quilted (in the next week or so.)

Then I moved on to some very old UFOs.  My quilting 'resolution' for this year was to do something with three particularly old UFOs.  The first is a fractured landscape design.  This was a project from a class I took probably close to 20 years ago.  It's been sitting in a bag in the closet for that long.  My goal was to get it out and decide whether to finish, donate or chuck it.  I got all the blocks ironed and took a close look at what I had done.  The entire piece is probably 30" wide by 26" tall.  In order to make this a usable piece I would have to add a lot more sky pieces at the top (it's supposed to be sort of a forest scene and have a lightening bolt appliqued down the center.)  Many of the women around me were trying to convince me to save it - it does have quite a bit of work in it already.  I decided not to finish the piece.  Then they tried to convince me to donate it as a project in the next UFO auction.  But, I decided to toss the project and here's why.  The one thing I learned from this is that I do not enjoy putting things up on a design wall and forever fiddling with it.  I would much rather put a design on paper and execute once I have it all decided upon.  Moving fabric around, stepping back and moving more pieces has absolutely no appeal to me.  Once I get to the fabric part, I want  it to be a sewing project, not a design project.  That's why one reason I decided not to finish this myself.  Then, when I looked at the blocks, I thought they were not very well constructed.  And that's why I decided to let this one go.  Not every project deserves to take up space in my closet or my head.  I learned what I learned from it and let it go.

And, on to the next.  This curved star pattern was also started decades ago.  It was a hand project I carried with me to softball games, gymnastic classes and many evenings of stitching on a winter's night.  I think I got the top completed a year or so ago and put it into that seemingly endless closet to rest while I figured out what to do next.  This weekend my goal for the top was to get borders basted on so I can hand applique the curved pieces at the edges.   I like the top a lot more with the squared edges and will start the applique once I get the socks I'm knitting completed.

This last project I worked on that weekend will be a charity quilt for my guild.  One of our members must have a die cut machine and she makes up packets of cut fabrics for members to take home and sew.  This is another project that has been sitting in my sewing room for a while (months, not years) and I've been putting off working on it because I don't have a design wall, and because (as I've just learned) I don't like tinkering on a design wall.  So I pulled in a friend and we both played with it for a while.  I did learn her process  of arranging a scrappy quilt; how she approaches it and her thoughts.   I have to admit, working on the arrangement with a friend was actually enjoyable. I guess in a social setting, I could get used to using a design wall.

Snow Day, Sew Day

Another snowy day in New England means another sewing day for me.

It was a nice. lazy day.  DH ran a few errands in the morning before the snow got too bad, then we spent the rest of the day indulging in hobbies.  We both did some reading.  DH spend some quality time on the laptop entering interesting places to visit.  I machine quilted the heart scroll table runner and got the binding stitched.  DH brewed some beer and I baked red velvet brownies (alas, without red food coloring).

I'm very happy with the table runner.  It's about 36" x 13" and fits the table just fine.

The rest of the week I finished up a few smaller projects.  I enlarged the pattern for the little pouch and made a sample.  I like that size a lot better.

It's small, but large enough to hold my nail supplies.  I still wanted something to hold a hand piecing project for the road.  I won't have a lot of extra room in my bags on the bike when we go south this summer, but I like to have a stitching project with me.  I've been wanting to make these bird applique's for some time now.  I've made the chickadee a few times but have gifted them.  They are the right size for this little bag.

I guess the bag could have been slightly bigger.  It's pretty stuffed with the spool patches I have cut out so far.

The other accomplishment this week was ripping and resewing the green background for the frog quilt.  When I showed it to DH, he said it looked skewed, and indeed it was.  The problem came from sewing all those long strips from the same edge.  Being off by even 1/32 of a inch meant that sewing all those strips made one edge 1/2" longer than the other.  I took off 7 strips and resewed them making sure the top and bottom edge were even.  It resulted in a better finish.  Now it's time for frogs.

Real Snow Day Activity

Yesterday we had a real snow day.  It was snowing when I woke up and snowed most of the day.  We got about a foot of the really light, fluffy snow.  We (and by we I mean DH) cleared most of it late yesterday afternoon and we (and by we I mean both of us) finished the job today.

But, while it was snowing, I used the excuse to spend a good part of the day sewing.

I started the day with this little bag.  I saw the pattern offered here and stored it away because I thought they were cute.  They are adorable.  I was looking for a little bag that I can use as my portable bag for the spools.  I want something about 8" square to fit the fabric, a few needles, a small pair of scissors, a thimble and some thread.  This bag is only about 8" x 3 1/3".  I need to find something larger to fit my needs.

This heart scroll is all hand applique'd and will be a table runner for us.  I would like to have this completed before St. Valentine's day.  I expect to complete the applique this week and am planning to machine quilt it, so the deadline seams reasonable.

This green quilt will be a gift for the newest grand nephew who is expected in March.  This will have colorful frogs applique'd onto it.  I'm probably going to do machine applique to make it more durable, but after the heart scroll, I don't have an applique project planned, so hand stitching the frogs sounds appealing.

And these 9-patches are the next round in the 9-patch exchange for my guild.  This has been going on since October.  I should have over 100 by the end of the guild year calendar and I will do some sort of scrappy quilt, but I don't know exactly what yet.  That's pretty far down on the to-do list.

Yep, four projects.  That seams to be a comfortable number for me.

Snow Day Activity on a non-Snow Day

I expected to have a snow day yesterday, so I was mentally preparing for a lazy day of sewing and watching the weather from the safe, warm confines of my sewing room.  But, the 4-8 inches of white, fluffy snow the weather forecasters predicted for my area turned out to be about 1/2" which all fell before dawn.  So, I have no excuse to sit inside and sew.

But, then I remembered that I'm retired and I don't need weather as an excuse.  So, after making a couple of needed phone calls and doing one chore that was on my to-do list, I spend the most of the rest of the day sewing, ironing and sewing some more.  I nearly finished all of the latest steps to Scrapitude.

I was looking at the pieces as I sewed them together thinking that I had lots of really unattractive fabrics in this quilt.  I feared that all this work was going to make a really ugly quilt.  But, each of the blocks are nice.  The uglies just blend together.  I'm looking forward to seeing this top completed.