Author: Susan Harrison

Blue Ridge Parkway Leaf Peeping

The color is starting to pop along the Blue Ridge Parkway north of Asheville. It was a lovely day for peeping — warm and spring-like. Certain ridges have pops of color on the southwest side, while the northern side stays green for contrast. The colorful swaths look like someone spilled gigantic Fruity Pebbles down the hill.

Walking the Grounds

Snapshots from an afternoon’s peaceful walk on the Biltmore Estate.

Hi there. Hey human, I got a job for ya…
scratch my head – yeah right there – yep mmm

 

The first of many birdhouses along the farm trail and walking paths.
My contact lens fell out right about here – keep looking, Phyllis.

 

Hello in there! I can seeee you.
You don’t see me. No little bugs hiding here – nope, nope, nope.

I see you too, little birdy. Thanks for letting us walk in your front yard.

 

Hiking as Cabin Fever Relief

We’re lucky, in so many ways, really. Today we got out of the house and went for a “falk in the worest” — about five miles on the MST. A fair few people and happy dogs were out, but the mosquitoes were not, and tromping through nature made the virus hysteria recede in our minds. While only the earliest spring growth had emerged, it was a cool, dry, lovely day to hike.

Big tree, downed by recent high winds?
Cozy fairy cottage
The fairy’s back porch
A lovers’ tree?
Michael says “Yay for hiking!”

8-Bit Wine Bottle Cozy Bag

While working on this project, Hubby asked “What’s with the 8-bit pattern?”  8-bit?  Oh, man.  Like those greeting cards we used to print on dot-matrix printers from a Commodore-64 in the ‘80s.  Fine – he’s not wrong.

BTW, I’ll add my thoughts on the pattern and yarns up front and keep the actual instructions short and sweet.  Who loves a verbose, stream-of-consciousness knitting pattern that prints across a dozen pages?  Nobody.  Definitely not me.

Traveling through the US on The Great Wander, Hubby and I came across a stylish and dog-friendly yarn shop in Charlottesville, VA.  Ewe Fine Fiber Goods welcomed us for knit night, and I found Green Mountain Spinnery Mewesic, Diamonds and Rust, on their sale table.  What a yummy auburn color with flecks of gold.  We were looking forward to living in a sticks and bricks with a top-loading washer, and I really wanted to felt something, since I’d only had front loaders since learning to knit.  This was an experiment, not exactly well planned, but the resulting bag seems nice enough to share.  Part of the lesson learned is that stranded knitting felts tighter than plain stockinette.  Duh.  Several inches of stockinette below the heavier stranded design could have sent this to the trash, but the piece arranged itself into little rings that give it a footing, almost an architectural touch.  Widening at the top with a tie to hold the fold flat balances the piece, rather like an artistic vase.  With a bow.

Download the pattern 8-Bit Wine Bottle Cozy Bag for free if you want to make your own.  Please do not sell this pattern or anything you make with it unless you get express, written permission from me, the pattern author.  (Send a message to Susan via the contact form or email in the PDF.)  Feel free to make bags for your friends, and give them a lovely chilled bottle.  The cozy will keep it cool along the way, and you’ll look extra cool presenting it.

Fruity Barrel Cactus

Traveling through Arizona in the spring, I fell in love with cacti bearing fruit and flower.  The squatty barrel cactus felt friendly, like a waggy dog you meet on a trail.  It’s medium sized, companionable, not one to loom threateningly overhead or to hold you at arm’s length.  It says, “Sit by me and gaze at the mountain range.”

Wanting to take the cactus home but knowing I couldn’t, I designed a replica to ride on the dash of our motor coach.  You can make one too, and enjoy the Southwest wherever you are.  The pattern is on Ravelry.

Keepin’ it 100 – fun with electricity

Recap:  Last night we pulled into a pretty camp in South Carolina, hooked up shore power and … nothin.  Would we have to sweat through the night and our shorts?  Would we share loudly rumbling diesel generator sounds and fumes with our neighbors?  Would the Hampton Inn take a mild-mannered Schnauzer?

The RV park had another 50 amp spot available and allowed / suggested we move there, to the edge of the campground where running the gennie all night would disturb other campers less.  They even offered us a refund, if we decided to go to a hotel instead, which was especially gracious and not something every park would do.  So Michael unplugged stuff, stowed the landing pads, and off we went to another spot.  Turn off the engine, the generator, and all air conditioners.  Plug in to this 50 amp pole, and wait for the fancy surge protector to run its checks.  It’s only 88° now but a zillion % humidity.  Wait.  And…. it works!  Happy, happy, joy, joy!  Turn on the cool air and break out the gin, ’cause the thing magically fixed itself!  OK, it didn’t really.  What probably happened, to get technical for a sec, is voltage dips at the old site made the transfer switch say “No way.”  South Carolina’s had flooding and a tornado recently, and maybe this power pole is corroded.  Contacts on our reel probably need cleaning too.  Many points of failure have to agree that today is not a good day to die, in order for the bus to have power.  It turned out fine, nothing caught fire, no misery this time.  Well, none apart from wondering whether essential utilities would function, after a day of driving with another travel day coming in the morning.

Speaking of the morning, guess what?  The generator didn’t feel like it, so it went … On?  …no, how about Off.  Ha ha!  *sigh*  No gennie while driving means no AC in the bus while driving six hours in upper 90° temps, except what blows out of the dash.  Trust me, that won’t cut it.  Parboiled ain’t a good look for Chip.  Experience told Michael to force a hard reboot on the generator’s brain.  Is there a switch for that?  Yeah right.  Here’s the switch: pull open the gennie drawer, take the cover off, remove a coolant reservoir, release a catch with a screwdriver, then lever a ribbon cable off the computer, count to five, and reconnect everything.  That’s how you reboot.  Thankfully, it did the trick and appeased the motor gods.  For now.

It’s another fun filled day of driving along the interstate.  What could go wrong?  Shush.

Keepin’ it 100

…as in keeping it real and honest.  Until now, we have posted mainly happy photos and fun discoveries here on The Great Wander.  Do you want nothing but sunshine and buttercups blown up your hind end?  Hmm, go watch a Disney movie, only not Toy Story 4 because that’s supposedly a tear jerker.  The last thing this big kid needs is more tears.  To all the people we meet who say they’ve always wanted to travel the country in an RV and how amazing it must be, sure, sometimes it’s great.  No, it’s not all gleeful, wacky Hollywood schadenfreude spectacle.  Now and then, usually on travel days, the bad thing happens to you, and that’s not so funny, is it chucklehead?

Today’s RV adventure is electrical.  We arrive in South Carolina (state #19 – whee) on a 90 degree day at a camp wooded with majestic pines and a wonderfully long and level pull-thru site reserved for us.  We’re only staying one night, but we have full hookups with 50 amp electric.  The dog park beckons, and we have fresh peaches, tomatoes, and cobbler in a jar bought this afternoon to entertain us before a long drive tomorrow.  Great!  Michael hooks up electric and water, Susan pushes the Auto Level button, Fay does her magic, no problem.  Turn off the air conditioning units, let the generator run a couple more minutes to cool, check for 50 Amp Service on the monitor panel in the cockpit, then switch the cool air back on.  Thump!  thump-thump—thump.  Nope.  No Service.  An hour and 20 later, after phone calls and Internet searches, we got nothin’.  Stay tuned to hear how tonight’s adventure ends.

Ride the Dentzel Carousel in Meridian MS

If you find yourself in Meridian, Mississippi you’ll see pretty carousel horses around town – in front of shops, the train station, City Hall – all over. Plenty of towns have painted statuary animals, like the buffalo in Custer, SD and cats in Catskills, NY, but Meridian actually has a working carousel. It’s not a recent thing dreamed up by a tourism bureau, either. The Dentzel Carousel in Highland Park is over a century old, and the best part is you can still ride it. Whee!

Gustav Dentzel built the grand old carousel in 1896 for the 1904 St. Louis Exposition. The city of Meridian was a happening place in 1909, full of culture and commerce, when they bought the carousel and had it installed in its own special house, made from a Dentzel blueprint. Generations have grown up riding the carousel horses at birthday parties and on happy summer days just ’cause. In 1977 the carousel, Carousel House, and Highland Park were placed on the National Register of Historic Places, and they became National Historic Landmarks in 1986. Highland Park, with its gazebos, duck pond, swimming pool, and Jimmie Rodgers museum, is worth a stroll, remembering the gentlemen in suits and ladies wearing long dresses and feathered hats who used to promenade along the paths when the Queen City enjoyed prosperity.

Follow this link above for more information on the carousel and when it’s open as well as the Wikipedia and InYourState pages.

For more pictures of the carousel 110 years after it arrived in Meridian, head over here.

While you’re in Meridian, check out the shrimp and grits at Weidmann’s or a refreshing salad at the Harvest Grill. The Soulé Steam Feed Works is pretty awesome if you have time for a tour, and the belt-driven machines look a whole lot like the carousel’s works. If you only have a few minutes on a weekend afternoon or a summer day when the carousel is open, you gotta ride the horses – or the antelope, or even the lion.