A Trip Along Alt 74 in NC

 From the twists and turns of Ms. Pac-Man at the PinBall Museum ....

To the twists and turns of Alt. 74 between Asheville and Chimney Rock, NC.

This was always our favorite route from Lake Lure area to Asheville.

The Mister loves driving the curves.

Although Google Maps showed the route being open, 

we may or may not have slipped through a barrier 

showing the road was closed to all but local traffic.

Well, we were kinda local, right?! 

Areas of the road were reduced to a single lane due to undermining of the road

from the waters of Hurricane Helene.

There were three areas manned controlled by stoplights. 

You could see some of the washed out areas,

but what you couldn't see, unless you knew the area, were the washed away buildings.

Many of them.

Parts of the highway have been shored up and rebuilt.

Other parts have been created along new paths where what remained of the

valley was too steep or narrow to carve out a new section of road.

The road used to be on the far left of the picture, 

near the buildings you can see. There's not enough room to remake the road there. 

You can see a bit of the former highway on the left, 

its destination is now covered by a dirt slide. 

The reshaping of this valley, 

the moonscape that has been left,

is hard to stomach. 

One wonders if its beauty will ever return....

probably not in my lifetime.

And to think that this is only one small area of North Carolina 

that suffered such destruction from the storm. 

The story is retold in countless other villages and towns that were

flooded and lost structures and infrastructure. 

Pinball Wizards

Who knew that Asheville has a Pinball Museum? 

Our kids discovered it. 

Who knew that it was the perfect 3-generation venue? 

We all had fun playing a variety of pinball games and vintage video games. I, for one, could have stayed longer, but the littles wanted to move on! Seriously??? Leave all of the dazzling lights, bells and buzzers and flipper action??!!

Chris plays while our granddaughter looks on

Grandson playing and Zoe is in the background on the neighboring machine.

There are at least 40 (according to website) pinball machines that are playable.

Others, including some of the earliest models where small nails (pins) direct or obstruct the balls, are on display. I kinda felt like I was going back in time to college days, stopping by the 'arcade' behind the student union to lose a few quarters in the machines. 

Some of the machines were very simplistic, 
with bumpers that would push the ball around.

Others were quite complex, with chutes or 'underground' 
levels redirecting the balls. 

Chris seems pleased with his score. 

I noticed that the players, including our granddaughter,
show a lot of concentration and almost no emotion while playing. 
It was hard to get pictures with the machines lined up,
without trying to wedge oneself between machines,
possibly causing a 'tilt' error! 

The video console games were in a second room of the museum. Again, I took a time-travel trip back to playing PacMan or Tetris, and even the original Pong from days of yore!

Sketchy Times!

I am excited!

I LOVE participating in the Sketchbook Revival!

One might even say that the reason my blog posting dropped off ten years ago, or so, can be blamed on the first Sketchbook Revival that I followed. In 2018 I happened upon the Sketchbook Revival. Seeing the videos posted each day opened my eyes to a whole new way of thinking about sketchbooks an sketching. Up to that point I really thought of them, and had a few myself, with some rough pencil sketches. Nothing unusual about them! But, the artists showcased in the revival showed me new, unusual, artful ways of using a sketchbook, and I was hooked. Here are a few pictures of some of my sketchbook pages from the past:

The guest artists from the revival demonstrated many different styles of 'sketchbooks' and art. Some strictly use pencils, others invite collage and the use of mixed media. I enjoyed 'sketching' with watercolor and ink. 

I practiced a lot in 2018 and took a sketchbook and tiny watercolor set with me to Europe. I sketched images from our riverboat trip that year. That sketchbook is now such a great souvenir of our trip. I enjoy looking back through it...kinda like looking back through blog posts! 

Durnstein

The Daily Program with scenes from Passau

The city gate at Prague

If you are at all curious about the Sketchbook Revival (it's free) click here for more information. 

 

Elephant Pipe

 We have owned 12 acres on the side of a mountain (a very small mountain) in North Carolina since our 25th wedding anniversary. Traditional 25th Wedding Anniversary gifts are usually something in silver....generally not land! 

At the time we bought the property our intent was to use it as a camp. We had an old camper hauled up to a beautiful spot on the hillside, and spent many weekends there as well as time in the summer. We had no electricity (other than the 12 volt lights in the camper), we had no running water, no TV, no Internet, no cell phone coverage. It was a very peaceful place. 

As I was approaching retirement we found a floor plan for a retirement cottage that would be perfect on our property.  The plans were from Canada and had to be redrawn by a US architect. We met with one, shared some changes we'd like,  and were ready to sign a contract with him to prepare the plans. But first, we had to take our younger son to Colorado to visit two colleges.  We all fell in love with Colorado. Our son picked the Colorado School of Mines to pursue his mechanical engineering degree, and we decided to find a home there where we could have horses, and become residents so our son's tuition would be reduced to 'in-state' charges. The NC retirement cottage did not happen.

Our property sat for over 15 years. We would visit it occasionally, working on the ditches on either side of the drive, and cutting down emerging trees, to preserve the roadway, and reminiscing about the enjoyment we derived on the property in the past.  Two years ago we were heading across country in our motorhome and stopped in the area to talk with a realtor. We had decided it was time to put the property on the market.  The Mister arranged for the driveway to be cleared and we were able to, once again, drive to the former camp location. It was love all over again. Everything that attracted us to the property when we were young, still made the property special. We couldn't sell it. So instead, that summer we worked on clearing and sprucing up the land. We hired a logger to remove the large trees in the immediate area of the camping spot. 

Then Hurricane Helene hit. We were no longer able to get back and forth easily. 

Then winter came. Camping in the mountains was not something we cared to do. 

Then we bought a house in Florida with 6 acres, and a long list of improvements we wanted to make. Any improvements we had planned for NC were put on the back burner.

So...now we are back in NC, and faced with our property and so much new growth due to removing its canopy provided by the hardwoods. We have begun clearing...a bit. When faced with what seems like an immovable obstacle I often think of the saying, "How do you eat an elephant?" with the answer, "one bite at a time!" So...as I cut a few saplings, and rake some leaves, and clear one tiny area....I keep thinking of taking one small bite at a time. And I think, where there's a will...there's a way. But a little voice in the very back of my mind, sometimes pipes up suggesting that perhaps all of this is a pipe dream? 

Happy Easter

 It's a drizzly, rainy day in Lake Lure, NC this morning. The family is on a plane, flying from San Francisco to Charlotte. Depending on when they land and are reacquainted with their luggage, we may meet up with them on their way to Asheville for dinner this evening.

If that doesn't work out, we will see them on Monday.

At some point this week I will play "Easter Bunny" 

and hide their gift bags filled with Easter goodies. 

They can enjoy a delightful romp through the campground

hunting for their treasures. 

They can find their bags, eat the candies,

and we can send them home with Mom and Dad! 

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter and

can enjoy the wonders of spring as it arrives 

in different areas of our country. 

Diverging Diamonds

We loaded the RV and turned north to enjoy spring break with our son, DIL and our two grandkids, and to take a break from yard/house work and projects ourselves. They are flying into NC to spend a week in Asheville, which is less than an hour from our camping oasis near Lake Lure (now that the road is open*!)

We generally skirt Jacksonville by taking Rt 301 from Ocala north, crossing I-10 and going through Eulee, FL to get to I-95 north. This year we were greeted by a new (and improved?) interchange to get onto I-95. They have constructed a Diverging Diamond Intersection here.  I think of it as 'Chris-cross applesauce'! 

Instead of the right lane staying to the right, the two lanes swap positions. Here's an Apple map view of a DDI that was constructed near Ft Myers. When we used to live there we tried to avoid this intersection at all costs....even before they began construction. After 4 1/2 painful years (delays caused by Covid, supply chain issues, hurricanes, etc) that intersection is finally complete and traffic is flowing, as is the one we traversed in Eulee.

According to Mr. Albert "I"n- stein, a DDI can increase traffic capacity by 33 1/3%

I guess that makes the construction phase worth it

* Hwy 74A between Chimney Rock and Bat Cave, NC has been closed since the 2024 raging flood waters of Hurricane Helene ran amok through the gorge, wiping out bridges, roads, shops, cars, and homes as well as denuding the beautiful tree-lined mountain sides leaving a boulder-strewn field in its wake. The new road opened last week...just in time for our visit! 

 

Changing the Rules Mid-Game

Today was the CCCQ monthly meeting, whereat I provide an update on the annual Quilt Challenge. I've posted several times about the inception of this challenge and my progress:

January:  Stepping up to the plate

February: Introducing the Challenge to the Guild

March:  My "Big Book" about the challenge: Milt

Sew...what should I do next? I thunk, and I thunk, and I thunk a bit more.

Then, I discovered/realized that we would be meeting on April Fool's Day. I could have some fun with that!

When it was my turn to speak I said something like this:  

"Ladies,  I have received some feedback from others. Some folks are saying my "Challenge" isn't much of a challenge. Heck, a person could take a quilt they made 10 years ago that had tan and green in it and declare that it was a quilt representing New Mexico because it has tan for the desert sand and green for the cacti." 

I went on to say:

"I received some suggestions that I provide a fat quarter of fabric (for the uninitiated a fat quarter is approximately 22" X 18" - it's a 1/2 yard piece cut in half on the fold) so I hunted for something that would work fairly easily with everyone's projects. Something that's....oh, how do you say it?..."

"Oh, yeah. Something that's kinda "neutral". Something that would go with any color. Oh, and by the way, since I had to use some of my budget to buy the fabric,  the prize money will be changed a bit. Instead of $75 for first place, that will now be $45. 2nd Place, instead of $50 will be $30 and third place will be $15 instead of $25."

Maybe they weren't too happy about the prize money changes!

Then I rummaged in my bag and brought out the length of fabric that I brought with me, which would be rather ugly in most quilts. It's a Route 66 themed material that I have on hand to make some journal covers for a Route 66 trip we are taking later this year.  As I held it up I explained,

"It has every color in the rainbow; red, green, blue...and oh yeah, it has some highway signs and sections of maps. It's perfect!" I said as I walked around the room showing the fabric. 

There were only a few ladies who were laughing.

Everyone else was less than impressed!

I explained that I wasn't able to get enough of that one cut of fabric, but found another with similar colors that would work just as well, and participants could pick which fat quarter they preferred. 

That's when I rummaged in my bag and pulled out the next piece:

Our guild president is in the background, laughing,

As were most of the ladies in the room by this time!

(Thanks to my bff for suggesting the sign!)

It was all fun. No harm. No foul. 

Now my only problem is...what can I do next month to inspire, instill enthusiasm, keep folks interested in participating? If you have any ideas, I am open to suggestions!