from the porches

there is a god

 
Recently we took a vacation to Virginia to drive the Skyline Parkway and the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina.  The view was spectacular.  I would hang my head out the window, breathe in fresh air, and scream, "I can't get enough!" 

All in all, Truett and I drove 2220 miles in seven days, and we learned a few lessons along the way.  First, allow two weeks of moderate driving.  Second, stay in the valleys and take day tours to the parkway. As one girl said, "You can drive this highway or the parkway, but all you'll see up there is trees." 

"Well, yeah," I thought.

 
Yes, for seven days we averaged seven hours a day in our car, and that was way too much sitting in one seat, especially in the back seat watching reds, oranges, and yellows whizzing by the car.  But I had always wanted to drive the Skyline and the Blue Ridge Parkway so I didn't complain too much until one morning when we couldn't see the front of the car because of the fog.

"This is ridiculous!" I told Truett.  "We don't have to drive the parkway just because it's on our itinerary!"  Now, Truett is a smart man, so he headed to the Shenandoah Valley.

There is a God.

 
We wound our way through small towns and came upon The Pink Cadillac Diner.  Sherry and I were thrilled.  It was our kind of place.

 

 
The Pink Cadillac Diner was your typical greasy spoon diner, but the atmosphere was worth the price.  When we walked inside, every inch of wall space was covered with posters of Elvis and framed guitars, and being a 50's child, it was right up my alley.

 

While in the valley we saw pumpkin patches . . .

 
and row after row of fir trees.

 
We came across old country stores with chewing-tobacco locals watching me take photographs.  I bought a snack because I knew I was imposing and figured they were sick of tourists coming in with their cameras.

 
About mid-day we headed back to the Parkway and drove through tunnels.  Shall we?

 
 
Wheee!  That was fun!  I could just as well have been on Space Mountain.  The thrill was the same.

Most of my photographs are posted on my Facebook album, but here are a few pictures from our trip.

 

 

 
Finally, at our last night on the Blue Ridge Parkway, at Mount Pisgah, we were granted with a rainbow.

 
There is a God!

 

 

october leaves

 

blowing in the wind

 

blue ridge parkway

 

fall color

 
Fall leaves from the Skyline Parkway in Virginia.

virginia

 
I am certainly getting my retirement dream come true: to see full fall color, something I have not done since we moved to Florida in 1974.  After seven hours of driving today, we are finally in Staunton, Virginia. . . exhausted.

 

I am in love with beautiful Virginia farmland in the Shenandoah Valley.

 

Now it is time to crawl under the covers and dream about all the family I am blessed with.

 
Good night.
 

 

what's a camera for?

 
"What's a camera for?"

I've only been taking photographs for three  years and I have found the answer of  "What's a camera for?"

For me, having my camera with me at all times gives me the opportunity to  photograph things that jump out at me and scream, "Don't forget this image!!,"  i.e., the dinosaur at Cave City, Kentucky. . .

 

 
or... this building in Nashville, Tennessee.  No longer do I drive into Nashville and think of guitars and music, I drive into Nashville and think, "Where is that Bat Building?"

 

 For me, having my camera with me at all times gives  me the opportunity to remember beauty, sadness,ordinary things and the  quirkiness of  life here on Earth. 

Believe me.  When we passed the truck on the right as we were heading to Louisville, my heart did a quick two-step when I saw a semi heading toward us.  

 
 These Canadian Geese caught my eye . . .

 
as well as row after row of tombstones in Cave Hill Cemetary.

 

Merry Jennifer borrowed my camera to photograph this luscious Kentucky Derby pie. 

 
These potato pancakes at The Fish House could only be described best through a photograph.

 
I wanted to remember this woman and her child so I took a photograph as she walked away. 

 
This is a photograph of Hadley Pearl, my newphew's daughter.  Her eyes captivated me.

 

And finally, I took a photograph of Maddie (far right as you look at the picture) sitting outside of Olive Garden with her second cousins. 

Taking photographs allows me to remember special moments in life.

changes

 
During our recent trip to Louisville, my husband and I were amazed at the changes in the city and suburbs of Louisville. 

Truett grew up in Louisville and I lived there for only a few years; but as we drove down the city streets we couldn't help but notice the changes. Some of the changes have only come about in the past two to three years.

Familiar buildings were being gutted as skyscrapers were being built where landmarks once stood. 

 
Some of the buildings that were once restauarants are now apartments.  Others that were department stores are now restaurants. 

Truett and I walked down memory lane in our conversation.  We talked about shopping here or meeting there. There was a lot of "Remember when"  in our conversation. It was sad in a way.  It felt like our memories were being chipped away.

 
I couldn't find the bank I once worked in.  The one where I sat day after day in the vault and counted  filthy money.  I used to count stacks and stacks of ones, fives, tens, twentys and hundreds until my finger tips were black.  Then I would wrap them up in a paper band and set them aside for the end of the day's total.  It was a stressful job for me spending eight hours in a dimly lit basement counting money.  The only real pleasure I got from it was reading notes scrawled across Benjamin Franklin's face.  Notes that said, "I love Robert" or "Follow this bill." 

One day I just up and left; and rather than lose me, I became a secretary on the teller's floor until October when I realized it was Columbus Day and no one in the bank knew it.  But I knew it for I had been a teacher and teachers remember these things. 

On that day in October I missed my replicas of the Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria as well as the third grade children's faces as they listened to me teach this bit of history. So it wasn't long before I found that banking was not my calling and I returned to education for life.

 
We drove through neighborhoods where Truett once lived.  We drove his paper route to the train tracks and Truett told stories.  One story was about him being ten years old and walking through the city and across the bridge to Indiana to get a bicycle from his aunt.  I thought that was pretty brave, and we all know that would never happen in today's times.

Meanwhile, Merry Jennifer recorded Truett's anecdotes while Maddie and I sat in the back seat of the car and made up stories about cats and goats and princesses. I imagined a story from an old building's view point and it's fear of being imploded or smashed to the ground with a giant iron ball.  Maybe I'll write that story.  Maybe the children save the building from the villain, Mean Old Progress.

 
This last photograph shows change in Louisville.  The old and the new side-by-side. 

Changes. 

lynn's paradise cafe

This morning a few members of our family went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe for breakfast.  I had been there before but had forgotten how unique this restaurant was.  Take a look:

 
Outside of the cafe was a board that Maddie and Truett just had to have their pictures taken in.  There was a little squabble about who got to be the tomato.  Maddie won of course.

 
 Lynn's Paradise Cafe is a heaven for visual learners, but I imagine would frustrate left brained customers.  So many stimulating, weird, odd and colorful sights awaited us inside.  Just up my alley!

 
Unique sunglasses.

 
Legs perched on the walls high above the tables.

 

Color!  Color!  Color!

 
Maddie liked this table game.  Tiny toys are in this plastic jar and the object is to find a dinosaur, whale, feather, etc. by twisting, shaking, or turning the jar.  A great way to keep children occupied.

 
One of my favorite hanging thing is this used tea bag lamp shade.  Who would have thought?

 
But we didn't go to Lynn's Paradise Cafe just for the atmosphere.  Check out this ginormous biscuit.  Delicious.

 

If you ever get to Louisville, you must eat at Lynn's Paradise Cafe.  You will come out all in a tizzy.  But I would rethink taking children with ADHD!

kentucky sights

Needless to say I am experiencing overload after our drive to Louisville.  I will only post a few photographs because I left my computer mouse in Manchester, Tennessee last night and I am way too impatient to deal with this sensitive keyboard.

Here are pictures that brought back fond memories of the years I lived in Louisville.

 
Park benches on hills

 
Kentucky hills

 
and wonderful old buildings.

More will follow when I have the time and a new mouse!