One More Day on the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Blowing Rock

After a few relaxing days just hanging out at Tom Johnson,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

we decided to take one more drive up onto the Blue Ridge on Saturday, and check out the town of Blowing Rock.  Walt and Tina rode along with us.

We took Hwy 221 north, past Linville Falls, and onto the parkway.  We turned north toward Blowing Rock, and saw a family of turkeys crossing the road.

It was a beautiful day on the parkway – hardly any clouds in sight – and we enjoyed the view from a few overlooks.

 

We stopped for a look, but no hiking today!  OK, a little climb up to see a small waterfall, but no major hiking!

 

We picked up this hitchhiker somewhere, but he couldn’t hold on for long!

We found a lake in the mountains, too.

It looked like a peaceful place to spend the day,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

but we were moving on.  These kayakers were having a good day!

We arrived in Blowing Rock, and parked in the downtown business district.  We walked through the shops, and got Bryce a snack – because he’s ALWAYS hungry!  We managed to get past the snowcone shop without getting him one . . .

He managed to get a sample, though!

There were some beautiful old buildings in Blowing Rock,

and lots of beautiful spring flowers.

We walked through the park in the center of town, and there was a group serving lunch for donations.  They had subway sandwiches, hot dogs, corn on the cob, cookies, krispy kreme donuts and fruit.  Lunch as free – they were just accepting donations for the community center, so we all decided to have some lunch. 

After lunch, we went looking for the Blowing Rock Furniture Gallery,

where we had purchased our dining room and library furniture for our house.  It’s still a nice furniture store, but not the same company any more. 

From there, we went in search of THE blowing rock.  It was a little challenging to find, but we found it!

 

It’s another one of those  “touristy” destinations that has become a major money generator, but isn’t really worth the price of admission – $7 per person!

 

 

They could afford to build a really nice gift shop, though!

We all passed on viewing the rock, though.

 

There must have been a car show somewhere because we saw quite a few old hot rods like these as we drove out of town on the way back to Tom Johnson.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a nice day, and we enjoyed spending it with friends!

Yooper Country!

 

From Ontonagon, we travelled about 100 miles east on M-28, until we reached the little town of Ishpeming, just west of Marquette.

On previous trips through the U.P., we just breezed right on through Ishpeming, but it really is a nice little town!

We knew that our friends, Roger & Joyce, spend a good part of every summer at this RV Park, so we decided to try it out and hopefully meet up with them.  We called to check availability, and although we weren’t able to get a 50 amp FHU site, we were able to get a 30 amp W & E site, right behind where Roger & Joyce would be when they arrived!

Originally, they were going to be arriving on the day we left, but we were able to stay one more day, so we’d have time to catch up with them.  As a bonus, the “basic” sites were eligible for the 50% Passport America discount for all 4 nights!  At $19/ night, it was a really good deal . . . and pretty much the only park around with a pool!

We had some warm days coming up on the weekend, so we were going to be able to make use of it!

This is a really nice RV Park, with nice big sites with lots of room between them!    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We settled into site #93, and prepared for a weekend of relaxation!

The campground is part of a nice little “village” area – with a grocery store, meat store (we got a 10% off coupon at check-in!), movie theatre, laundromat, and a couple of restaurants . . . there were other businesses, but those are the ones we checked out.

One well-known business that calls Ishpeming home is “Da’ Yoopers Tourist Trap”.

You can’t miss it when you drive past, so we stopped to take a look around.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are lots of interesting “Yooper” vehicles!

 

Bryce liked this tractor,

and Nicolas thought this snowblower was awesome,

but my personal favorite was the Yooper Riding Mower . . . look closely – it really is a mower!

Outhouses also seem to be a common theme . . .

and fun places to take a rest!

 

 

Besides all the fun stuff to look at outside, there really is a business here – a typical “touristy” giftshop where you can get “Da Yoopers” musical CDs as well as T-shirts and other souvenirs – and also a Rock Shop.    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked through the shops, and Tom finally found “UP” stickers to add to the collection on the car and truck.  Definitely a fun and entertaining place to visit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Monday, our friends Joyce and Roger arrived and got set up on the site just across from us, and they introduced us to one of their favorite places in Ishpeming – Congress Pizza – and we enjoyed a wonderful dinner together.  Back at the RV, we sat outside until the mosquitos chased us inside, and our friends Lynn & Dave stopped by, too . . . they had just arrived Monday, also, to a campground just a few miles down the road from us.

Joyce & Roger

Dave & Lynn

It was a great evening of catching up with friends and sharing camping stories!

Avenue of the Giants and coastal northern California

The RV Park in Napa Valley was fully booked for the Memorial Day weekend, so it was time to continue our journey north to a park we could get into for the weekend.  Tom called around and found a small Passport America park, Richardson Grove RV Park, at the southern end of the Coastal Redwood region.  It was an easy drive, and we were quickly set for the weekend.

We had no TV signal, no Verizon coverage, and marginal campground wifi . . . it was going to be an “unplugged” weekend!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were surrounded by giant redwoods, and just down the road from the “Avenue of Giants” in the Humboldt Redwood State Park.

 

Coastal redwoods are taller than any other living thing.  They can live over 2000 years and withstand fires, floods and insects.  Many of the groves along the Avenue of Giants have never been logged.  They are old growth coastal redwoods.  Their average age is 400 – 600 years old.

We started the Auto Tour at Phillipsville, winding our way through the giant trees.

 

We stopped at many of the pullouts to admire the majestic trees.

 

Many of the trees have interesting shapes and sizes, and some have these growths on them called burls.  The burls are a result of the tree undergoing some kind of stress.

Years ago, there was a lot of logging of redwoods going on, and these rare forests were at risk of being wiped out.  Many people saw the value of preserving these old trees, and founded an organization to save them.

The Founders Grove is named for them, as many other groves in the area are named for families that contributed to the preservation of the redwoods.  We stopped at the Founders Grove to walk the trail through some of the oldest trees in this area.

 

Walking through the woods here felt like walking in a jungle – there were ferns growing everywhere, an moss on many of the trees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the center of Founders Grove, there are several really huge fallen logs, including the Dyersville Giant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were some of the oldest and tallest trees in the area, until they were knocked down during a storm in 1991.  Now they are nurturing the growth of new redwoods by allowing light to get into the forest.  There is even a redwood growing out of the stump of the Dyersville Giant!

 

 

 

 

 

The giant redwoods and giant sequoias that we saw a few weeks ago are very similar – they belong to the same family – the redwoods get a little taller and thrive in the moist atmosphere of the coast, and the sequoias get bigger in diameter and grown only above 6000 feet in the mountains of the Sierra Nevadas.

 

The redwoods are just as amazing as the sequoias, and we enjoyed our tour through the Avenue of Giants!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the end of the avenue, we travelled through dairy farms and cattle ranches,    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

until we reached the little Victorian town of Ferndale.

It was a cute little town with quaint shops and restaurants, and I would have liked to explore it some more, but the kids wanted to drive the coastal loop back around to Garberville, where we were going to church that afternoon.

We found the turnoff for the loop road, and started driving up into the mountains.  The roads were steep and narrow going through the woods, and as we got closer to the coast, we were going in and out of a dense fog.

 

We eventually drove through the fog, though, and reached the top of a bluff overlooking the ocean – it was really beautiful!

At the bottom of the hill was a ranch, and there were cattle all around us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had only driven about 10 miles of the loop road so far, and it took us over half an hour, so we decided that we should probably turn around and take 101 back to Garberville, or we’d never make it to mass on time . . . as it was we still ended up being 5 minutes late!

Back at the RV Park, Tom and I wandered over to check out the tourist traps across the street.

 

Many of the really big, old trees are on private property and have been turned into these type of hokey tourist stops – including all of the “drive thru” trees – but fortunately many more are included in the Redwood National and State Parks, so they will be preserved . . . and not turned into uncomfortable bear chairs!