Smokies Motorcycle Ride

A group of motorcycle friends from Louisiana arranged their annual ride in the Smokey Mountains. Tony and I were invited to come along, so we rode up to join them for a couple of days.
After we got there and they got back from their day's ride, we sat on the porch.

Pat rides a custom bike he built himself.

Gene rides a regular bike. Except for the flags and bear.

This is the house we stayed in.

In the morning, an elk family wandered by. This is the baby.

During the night, some stealthy person wrapped Milford's Gold Wing with crime scene tape. After Milford cut it all off, it somehow found its way into Tim and Rick's side bags.

Bob and Chris and Tony waited for time to head to breakfast.

Afterwards, we stopped by a store so Alvin could shop for a replacement helmet.

The whole group. Except we seem to be missing one.

Pat.

Gene.

We got to sit and wait for the one-way ferry truck at a road repair job.

We had lunch at a really good restaurant in Hot Springs, NC.

Getting ready to ride after lunch.

Another road repair.

We visited another store, which sold Indian motorcycles and Polaris Slingshots.

On our way home on Thursday, we stopped by Cherokee to visit Wilder, one of Tony's students. He is running the sound system at the outdoor drama "Unto These Hills".

We had a very enjoyable time.

Back Yard After Trip

This was our newly planted Zoysia grass back yard...after our 4 week trip, during which we had record rainfall.

Fortunately, the grass underneath all the weeds was fine. After mowing a couple of times, it is looking much better.

Also fortunately, we have great neighbors, one of whom mowed the front while we were gone.

Granddaughter1 and Us

From Naomi's Baptism Pizza Lunch...

First Flight

Waiting

I wish someone would post something on this blog.

Over There - Twenty Third Day

Here is a view of the nearby pub, from the front porch.

It really is 'just across the street'. They have really good hamburgers.

Over There - Eighteenth Day

This is the story of the hedge at the back of the garden.

1. There was a wood fence, behind which was a hedge about 8 feet in depth. The view over the fields was blocked. Mark started by removing the fence panels and posts.

 Next, we started removing the hedge. This is Hedge Day 1.

 After Hedge Day 2, it was about half gone.

 By Hedge Day 3, only the breeze block wall remained between us and the view.

 Finally, Hedge Day 5, just a bit of the wall remains. It awaits a future burst of energy. The dirt mound behind the wall was filled with all kinds of rubble, including pieces of asbestos-concrete roofing material.

Arthur did his part to help, by tending the Garden Waste bags full of Hedge Clippings.

He and his Dad took a stroll around the garden before bath time.

Over There - Fifteenth Day

We all went for an outing to the Devon Railroad Center. It is the site of a former railroad stop at the village of Bickleigh. There are small trains to ride, and model train layouts installed in old passenger rail cars.

 There was a small "drive it yourself" train for kids. Ada and her half-cousin enjoyed the ride.

Ada also demonstrated her skill on the climbing wall in the playground.

 Her Dad likes to give her other kinds of wild rides!

 Afterwards, we had lunch at Fisherman's Cot pub in Bickleigh. It is situated on the bank of the Exe River, next to a nice old stone bridge.

Ada sorted the ice cubes from her orange juice. She likes multiple straws in her beverages.

 Everyone had a good time.

Over There - Eleventh Day

The weather turned really nice over the weekend. Mark took full advantage, and made huge progress in cleaning up the back yard. Three of four old fence panels - Down!

Meanwhile, Arthur was working with Tissue Origami.

Over There - Tenth Day

On Sunday, Ada was ready to head to Nanny's house for an egg hunt.

So was Arthur.

The egg hunt was a great success. Nanny has a wonderful yard for hiding eggs.

(The Easter Nanny had the foresight to make a map, so all the chocolate was eventually located.)

Arthur enjoyed sitting on Nanny's stairs with Mimi. "So this is what Baby Jail feels like!"

Later, Arthur practiced standing and leaning on the table.

"Look, Mimi! No hands!"

Over There - Forth Day

The first week or so was chilly and rainy, so Mark kept us warm with the stove.

We went shopping in nearby Nailsea.

Ada's Grandma Nanny gave her a very nice art kit for Christmas. One of the best parts were some Frozen ink stamps. She soon had Elsa stamps all over herself!

Over There - Third Day

We had good flights and arrived in reasonably good shape, vis-à-vis jetlag.
However, a good nap is always in order when Mimi arrives.

(Note: Days one and two were mostly rest and settle in days.)

At first, Arthur would only associate with Mimi. Pa had to wait a while...too scary looking in person.

Cardboard

I posted a description of our Google Cardboard experimentation on Azure Engineering blog.
We will take these with us when we go see M & J & A & A next week!

Suggested Reading - Where Technology Is Leading Us

This is an easy-to-read analysis of the effect our new technologies are having on us as individuals and on our culture. The impact is greater than most people imagine - we may be losing our ability to think about important things in the way that make humans unique.

Worth a read, IMHO. (Oops...there I go!)

Snow

Last week, we had an unusually pretty snowfall.

(note the Really Clear window  :)

Snowy berries.

Belated snow creature.

As usual, it lasted about a day.

Windows

Our 20 year-old double pane windows were mostly all deteriorated and fogged between the panes. So we finally ordered replacements.

Miguel and his two sons gently removed the old windows...

and installed new ones. It was a pleasure seeing a father and sons working together as a team.

Look, Mom - no dividers!

Office after.