Laura's Retirement Journey

Is it a leaf or a Katydid? Amazing camouflage. The only way you know it is a Katydid is the legs. White Peacock Butterfly. Both beauties just outside the door of the condo.

Our great trip ends in Sarasota /Longboat Key. Checking on Mom (she is doing great), accounting, changing my mindset and getting ready for going home. 

We were meant to come to Dahlanega ... Our last stop belore heading to Florida and storing the trailer. Somehow we found Esther, a fiddlin', banjoist, cello player who came to Dahlalenga via New Haven. Esther introduced Keith to John, who arrived from West Texas and Anne who arrived from somewhere and brought old time music with her. Anyway playing on the porch (and in my case talking with Kathy in the garden) was the perfect end to our 6,000 mile journey. (Hear here my sigh of total contentment.) Now we head to Florida for a few weeks and home.

America's first gold rush wasn't in California. It was in in Dahlanega, GA and it was some of the purest gold the world's ever seen. It would have been great to have been there early on. Nuggets were literally lying around on the ground begging to be picked up and polished. And in the early days Mint was built in the town to press coins. More recently a University building costed it's room with Dahlanega gold. Now it's a charming mountain town and home of U of North  Georgia.

So what if it's still summer. It's in the American South. And makes zero sense at all. Let's turn our town in the mountains into a cartoon version of a Bavarian village and have an ongoing Octoberfest. People will come from far and wide. Buy thousands of yodelling hats and cause a run on German beer.  I only wish I had a pic of our neighbor who brought his lederhosen.

Sorry to say we only had one day in Chattenooga. But it is a lovely town nestled in the mountains on the Tennessee River. Parks were beautiful. This bridge was erected in 1891 and closed to traffic in the 1970s. After a decade of disuse, someone had the truly brilliant idea of converting it to a footbridge. We met up with these folks from Georgia. They are Democrats ... Just sayin. 

No matter where you go in Tennessee, the crime rate is amazingly high. Small Towns. Big towns. The rule applies. Apparently it is the combination of guns and drugs.  www.nashvillescene.com/tncms/asset/editorial/dbf4ba85-29a4-52f8-a199-803593c86fdb Perusing www.realtor.com, it appears real estate prices have doubled since 2019!!!!  Houses are comparable in price to Guilford, CT.

In Arkansas and Tennessee we've been following the Trail of Tears. Five tribes (Chactaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole, and Muskegon) were forced off their land and resettled in Indian Territory west of the Mississipi in the 1830s. This was Andrew Jackson's policy designed to free up land for the white settlers. Every treaty and agreement was broken repeatedly. They were exploited and starved on the route. By 1837, 47,000 people had been removed freeing up 25 million acres of land. Approximately 17,000 men and women and children starved, died if disease and exposure. And what does it boil down to...a National Historic Trail that is neither well marked nor well maintained. Not impressed.

Memphis has a lot going for it. Music, the National Civil Rights Museum and at least two exceptional urban parks... the Tom Lee Park by the water and Overland Park in midtown. In Overland's ancient forest, we met two college students pondering a puzzle. What are these things sitting in the middle of the woods? Perhaps the egg cups from an Alice in Wonderland tea party? Or dinosaur egg holder? A Memphis mystery. We also met Johnny in the trendy neighborhood Cooper Young. The Methodist church behind him was the site of his first performance. And peeked in the window of the first (and only) legal cat house in Memphis. Lots of murals too. Covid is getting on our way. Tennessee is on a major surge. No music clubs for us. Maybe next time.

Thar she is. We've been watching barges go up and down the river. This is sunrise.

What a fun day with the Arkansas Harveys. Got together with Rhonda, Jennifer and her boyfriend Jeremy, and Jon Luke (not pictured). For a visit to the Old Mill park and an Irish Music Jam at the Hiberian Bar in Little Rock. 

Turns out we can live quite comfortably in a 8'x25'x10' box! The key is a place for everything  and everything in its place. First of all the outdoors is our living room (or at least mine.) But airconditioning is indispensable since we haven't seen a day under 95°F in seven weeks. The other key is well organized storage. We have boxes and cubbies everywhere. Our junk drawer, Django's cabinet, even the fridge. Luckily hard to reach storage is under our bed and the dinette for the bulky winter clothes we will need for the trip home in Oct. I have learned a lesson from this experience. If I downsize and organize, we won't spend so much time looking for things. Except my glasses. I still lose those at least once a day.

Nope. Didn't find a diamond after 2 hours in 100°F heat. Not sure whether I'd have known it if I saw it. The process was fun though. Dig. Put dirt in bucket. Sift. Examine. even though you don't know what your looking for. At the end the ranger looks at the rock collection and tells you what you got. We found and saved a bunch of Jasper. Neat facts. The diamond mine was acquired by the State of Arkansas after Gov Bill Clinton commissioned a study of whether the mine was commercially viable. It wasn't. Instead it is a remarkable economic engine for this tiny town in nowhere Arkansas at the foot of the Ouchita (pronounced Ouseeta) Mountains. People find on average 2 diamonds a day. We saw cut Arkansas diamonds in town selling  $1,300. Natives pronounce Murfreesboro like they have a pile of Diamonds in their mouths.

Keith channeled his Grandpa Charlie today. In 1911, Charlie went to Alaska for the gold rush. He came back with  gold nugget he formed into a ring. The other nugget paid his fare back to New Hampshire. We were more successful. We are returning to CT with a haul of of crystals and 25 pounds of quartz.  The day started with our getting lost on the way to the mine. No GPS, no cell. No wifi. Not much of a road. And have you seen Ozark on Netfix? They're drug dealers in them thar hills. Finally we found Bee and Joe. They are leasing the mining rights so we can dig. And dig we did. Essentially it was a strip mine and we used garden implements and sand box toys to find our rocks. Keith hit pay-crystal. Two big ones and we both found lots of small ones.  Here's our haul. Crystals Quartz with crystals growing. Still working on cleaning Plus about 25 pounds of quartz. The most common rock on the earth.

I really enjoy these two original signed 4x6 collages I picked up in the Farmers Market. They are landscapes and the artist photographed them and turned them into cards.  After I purchased she said "I appreciate you." Made me feel good.

Camping people are lovely. By and large they are a relaxed group. Most enjoy the same things ... the fresh air and hanging away from home. Today was the first day I encountered Breaking Bad. Jesse Pinkman (he was a character in BB) announced his arrival by dragging the belly of he rotted-out RV along the road. His tow vehicle had flattening tires, no springs and was barely able hold up the front end of the trailer. Then out came his two pit bulls. They were beautifully trained (definitely in his plus column). Then I saw  him  teaching them to go for a rope hanging from a tree. I thought it was a drug dealer thing. It isn't. It's is a tug of war game used with dogs with exceptionally strong jaws. Anyway I will try not to be too judgy. He treated his dogs well, so maybe he was a nice guy.

The media: plants. Rocks. Bridges.Water. and Light. They change with the time of day and the seasons and each of the 40 different gardens are individual creations in their own right. Together they are 40 acres  planned around the shape of the land and to be looked at from every direction. My experience with botanical gardens is very limited. But I am now a fan. And I have a feeling this garden managed by U of Arkansas is world class. My pics don't do it justice.

Coal plant seen from campsite@ Lake Catherine State Park. Has absolutely nothing to do with this post. But rainbows and waterfalls are irresistible.  We are in a doldrum. Its 100°F every day.  The humidity's embracing us like a wet sweater. Both Keith and I picked up some kind of itchy toxin (mine was poison ivy). Keith thinks he was allergic to algae in the Buffalo River.  (Who knows.  It's as good a guess as any).  And we were go-go-going. Everything was so exciting. As a change of pace we are now in the middle of a 10-day stay at Lake Catherine State Park in Hot Springs; we have decided to keep our feet in Arkansas through Labor Day.  We'll go for short strolls, groom Django, read, and take it easy until we get bored.  Then we will maybe go for a swim once our itchies clear up. The best thing about Hot Springs is the hot springs. There are collection faucets all over town. Bring a jug and get 130F mineral-rich water.  For 10...

The two Democrats were camped next to us and when they saw our CT License plate, they made it a point to meet me.  We talked vaccines and masks and Obama. The said Trumpism is dividing their family. They both came down with Covid in January, then they got the vaccine. I thought it was just so funny that they made an effort to meet me 'cause I might talk Democrat.

In the spring the Buffalo National River is filled with canoes, kayaks and inner tubes taking advantage of spring rain and swelling currents. It's exciting, I'm sure. But it's mid August. The river is low, temperature is hot and humidity is high. The river is filled with middle age people floating to nowhere. Drinking their beers (no glass please.) It's is an Arkansas thing.   Not to be be outdone Keith and I headed to the River in our little phosphorescent $5 floaties. I envisioned a couple of hours in one place soaking up the sun. But no. Keith found the little current there was and we slowly headed down stream under the massive granite cliffs. I wasn't worried because the River was so shallow we could walk back up stream.. NOT. Turns out it was deep in the middle and we had to paddle our way back up stream in those ridiculous inner tubes that looked like tutus on five year old girls. I don't have a pictu...