Another one of those remarkably nice days that come so often in the spring. Up early to go for a nice walk in the park. Spent some of the day working on pictures and am still dealing with computer issues. That will be an ongoing process I'm afraid, turns out my trick with reloading iTunes wasn't 100% successful. It gave me a good starting point though, so it should be easier to deal with some of the issues I'm working on.

   Went to  the theatre this evening. Found a play at the college, UNC, here in Asheville while reading one of the local papers. Sounded like a nice way to spend the evening and as it turns out it was just a delight. The play was 'Tartuffe', or the 'Imposter', one I had never heard of before. Turns out it was written by the French playwright Moliere for King Louis XIV way back in 1664. A bit of a farce about a scoundrel taking advantage of a generous, though naive person, in this case a person impersonating a pious man, it was a wonderful production. Every student actor played their part so well that the audience was nearly rolling in the aisles at times. A fun time and all for the grand sum of $10.

   Below are a few of the pictures I worked on today. Tomorrow I'm going to take it easy and head over to Jonesbourough for a contra dance in the afternoon. Seems odd to me that it is less than 50 miles away. Still haven't gotten my sense of direction yet in this country. It's not like Colorado where you have 'Towards the Mountains' and 'Away from the Mountains' as a starting point. Here you have mountains every which direction. Sure makes for some pretty scenery though.

   One of the things I've heard from a few of my friends is what does the trailer I've been living in for the past 2 1/2 years look like. So with that in mind, here are a few pictures of the inside and outside of the trailer as well as the truck pulling it.

The complete rig on this trip; the truck is a 2004, F-150, 4-door 1/2 ton with a towing setup, the trailer is a 26', 2008 Salem by Forest River and the canoe is a 15'-8" single 'Rock Star' by Bell Canoes.

This view of the left side shows the slide out for the couch on the inside. At the rear is a bike rack to hold the bike as well as a couple of outdoor lounge chairs. Up front just behind the hitch is an electric jack to move the hitch up and down. Behind that is 2-30 lb propane tanks. This is usually enough for nearly a year if I'm not out in really cold weather. Directly behind the tanks, and still on the front 'A-frame' are two deep cell marine batteries. They run all the 12v DC lights, radio and water pump that are needed when I'm not plugged into shore power. With the new LED lights I've installed, and if I'm careful, I can go 5-6 days with out running out of power or using the generator. You can see the blue water hose connected up to the dockside port that uses regular water pressure to run the system. On the end is a pressure regulating valve to keep excessive pressure from blowing out the whole system. There is also a port to fill the 50 gal. fresh water tank inside under the bed. I only use that when camping off the grid and I keep it empty the rest of the time as 50 gal's of water weighs about 450 lb's. The drain ports for the grey and black water tanks are on this side also. This trailer has two, one in front of the wheels for the bathroom sink/shower, combined with the outlet from the toilet, the second near the rear bumper is for the kitchen sink. Finally, the shore power cable comes out of it's little port just in front of the front wheel. This trailer plugs into a 30 amp outlet usually, but most times I can plug into a standard 110 v outlet as I only use a small amount of elec energy.

The right side has two doors, the main one shown enters into the kitchen area and is the one I use most of the time, the other enters into the bedroom and is useful in case of a fire, but I don't use it much when I'm on my own.

The rear of the trailer has a lot going on, besides the bike rack there is also platform my brother-in-law, Mark, made for me which holds a Honda 3000 gas generator. I don't use it very often, and only when off the grid, but it will run all the electrical needs for the trailer and more importantly, will keep the batteries charged up. Also notice the scissors jack at each of the frame corners, a total of 4 on the trailer. The one in the picture is the one I recently had to replace after tearing the previous one off while going over a RR grade crossing.

The inside of the trailer; at the very rear end is the kitchen area. Starting on the left you have a fridge-freezer that runs on 110v AC power when plugged in or propane when you aren't. It's more than big enough for my needs and keeps me in ice cubes when I need them. To the right, starting at the bottom is the propane furnace, it works okay, but if I'm plugged in I have two small elec. heaters I plug in and use instead. Above that is a 3-burner propane stove with a real oven. It works very well and I can even make brownies if I feel a need for chocolate. Above that is a small micro-wave oven over a vent fan/light for the stove. I use the micro-wave a lot while plugged in as it uses 110v AC also. To the right is a small AM/FM/CD player with 4 speakers, not real high quality, but I have my iPod if I want anything else. A twin bowl sink with hot/cold water from a 6 gal propane hot water heater. Note the electric kettle on the far right, I use it for heating up water for tea or if I need only a small amount of hot water. Then there is kitchen storage in the cabinets above and below the sink as well as the two drawers on the side. The fan on the floor, one of two, is used when it gets warm and to keep the air moving since I managed to tear the air conditioning unit off the roof the first year I owned the trailer. (Sneaky damn tree!) 

The couch, the place where I spend a lot of time reading and watching movies on the computer. It's long enough for me to nap on, and I do all the time, but it will also fold down into a fairly good sized bed. Okay for one, cozy for two. I use the back of the couch for storing those things I don't use very often, my printer, guitar, sleeping bags etc. The two pillow looking things are insulated covers that fit up into the roof vents when it gets cold out.

The dining area has the two bench seats, good for 4, sort of, it also makes into a bed for really short people though I've never actually done that. As you can see I also use it for my desk, so I read, use the computer, work on models and plan for where I'm going next. Most of my non perishable food is stored in the cabinets above the table and under the two bench seats.

In the very front of the trailer is a queen size bed.... so they say. It's actually as wide as a real queen, but something like 4 inches shorter. Not a big deal for someone my height, but I'm sure a few people would find it annoying. I love my bed though, I put a separate down pad on over the mattress and it sleeps really well now. There are hanging closets on either side for shirts and such, as well as a total of 7 drawers for socks and underwear, swim suits and shorts. Lots of storage under the bed even with the 50 gal water tank that is located there. I use the space to store spare heaters/fans, modeling supplies and my dirty clothes basket.

Looking back towards the living room from the bedroom you can see the privacy curtain dividing the space from the bathroom area. There bathroom sink is located outside of the actual toilet/shower so it's handy if there is more than one person. There is a large double hanging closet in the hallway as well as 4 drawers I use for tools, repair kits, stationary etc. I have a plug in vacuum hanging on the bedroom wall and the shelf for the TV works well for holding every thing that comes out of my pants pockets. The item on the right is a 2'x5.5' model train layout that I have been working on this trip. The idea was to get the track laid and working and then leave it home and work on the model buildings and such on the next several trips. The problem is that it's to much fun running it now even without any buildings on it.

The actual bathroom is rather 'cozy'. The toilet works by using a lever to put water into the bowl, then there is a 2nd lever to use that flushes it. It works, it's better than going outdoors in the rain, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

The shower!!!! I don't think there was ever any intention to use this as a real bathtub, instead I think they just needed to have higher sides to keep the water in a little better. The shower works, the water is usually warm enough, but if there was one thing I'd change it would be  to have a bigger, better shower. Next time!

   So that's the old homestead, be it ever so humble. I have actually grown quite fond of the place and having lived out of tents and canoes for so many years, this sometimes seems like a real luxury. It also keeps me from buying or acquiring to much stuff, cuz there just isn't any place to store it all. I find myself going through the place every month or so and getting rid of books and other items that somehow miraculously show up. There are two things I do really crave after living like this for 2-3 years, the first of course is a bigger shower. Oh how I love long, hot showers in a facility that is big enough to turn around in. The second thing would be a nice big comfy arm chair. When I first considered doing this I knew I'd need someplace other than the dining table to read and relax in, hence the separate couch, but it's not the same as a nice, kick up your feet, lean back arm chair. Maybe in my next trailer, if there is one. I've already seen several models that meet both those needs and they are only about 1'-2' longer. Maybe in this case bigger is better?

    A beautiful day this morning, all sunny and warm. I was up early for a change, or as early as I get up these days, but that is beside the point. After breakfast and washing the dishes it was off to downtown Asheville to do some exploring. Walked around down there for several hours while looking at all the shops and cafes. The whole area reminded me a lot of the street mall in Boulder, Colorado, except on a bigger scale and with more hills. My one purchase of the day down there was a wrought iron (beer), bottle opener made by a local blacksmith. Otherwise I took a few pictures, read a few menu's and looked in a couple of shops, but there wasn't all that much else there of interest to me.

    Hopped in the truck and headed out to Chimney Rock State Park. First though I stopped and ate Chinese food at some buffet. It's one of my real weaknesses and since I try to eat out at least once a week I decided this would be it for this week. Adequate food, a couple news papers to read including Asheville's answer to Denver's 'Westword'. It was a pleasant enough dining experience.

   Chimney Rock is about 25 miles east of Asheville, up and over a very twisty road that crosses the 'eastern continental divide' at one point. I assumed this meant all water on the east went into the Atlantic, and all water on the west drained into the Gulf of Mexico. It was a nice drive and as you went up and down in elevation it was fun to watch spring start and stop depending on what elevation you were at.

    Got to the park okay and went to check in only to find that the stairs and elevator up to the top of Chimney Rock were closed for repairs. But I went in anyway because I figured it would be a good chance to hike a little bit anyway. Took a few pictures of the rock from the upper parking lot before hiking the mile and a half out to Hickory Nut Falls. Nice little water fall and the trail was okay except for the hundreds of steps you had to walk up and down. At an elevation of nearly 2'500 feet it was soon obvious that I've spent way to much time down at sea level. A couple hours there, a few more pictures, a trip through the gift shop for a souvenir shot glass, I collect them since there isn't much room in the trailer for much more than that, and then it was time to head back to town.

   By the time I reached Asheville it had clouded up and was raining pretty heavily. Decided to go do some grocery shopping since I was in need of a few staples. A few bananas, some bread and tortillas and a roasted chicken for dinner. Hard to believe I was starting to get hungry again after lunch, but it smelled so good on the drive back to the trailer.

    Just been goofing off since getting back, left a couple of roof vents open, but didn't seem to get to much rain inside this time. Downloaded a few pictures and worked on them for a bit, they are posted below. Will probably read a bit later on or watch a movie on the computer, I still have one segment of  the 'Planet Earth' series to watch, that has been a very nice way to spend a few evenings.

This was an interesting house I noticed while going through the town of 'Bat Cave, NC' on the way to Chimney Rock State Park. I just liked the looks of it and it appears that they have turned it into a B&B.

This is the actual rock at Chimney Rock State Park. They have a trail and a look-out on top of it but it is closed for repairs at the moment.

One of several rustic wooden benches they had on the trail to Hickory Nut Falls. I like how they made it out of the outside slabs of old hardwoods with very little wood working involved. For all that they were very comfortable to sit in and watch the sun shadows drift through the new leaves on the trees.

Hickory Nut Falls in Chimney Rock State Park, NC. The falls are a total of 404' high from top to bottom. The day was warm enough that the mist off the falls felt nice and cool.

I saw this bush in downtown Asheville this morning while I was walking the streets. It's form made me think of some grassy plants I once saw on a river trip a very long time ago. The women who was along on that trip called them 'Blowing in the Wind Thing'es', and I've always thought of them as that since.

    Pretty easy day for me today. I love waking up to the sound of the water flowing by outside and lately all the birds singing in the trees. After breakfast and a shower it was off to take a short walk along the river here near the RV camp. There is a small riverside park only a mile or so down river so it was an easy walk there, around the park and then back. Nice morning to observe the caddis flies hatching on the river. Something was certainly slurpping them down, but couldn't really tell what.

     This little cabin is just down the road from where I'm camping and is about 100' back from the river. I love the native field stone it is made of, and while I know the moss on the roof isn't a good thing, I still love the look of it.

    Lot's of trees and bushes in bloom right now. These are just some common crab apple blossoms, but they looked pretty and smelled even better.

    It was time for lunch when I got back, so I ate, read my book and took a nap. I wanted to kill a little time before heading on into the downtown area of Asheville, but it worked a little to well though as it was nearly 5:00 when I woke up, so then it was on to plan 'B'. Ate a little dinner, got dressed and headed off to the local Thursday night contra dance up at Warren Wilson College. Got there just in time and even found the right building on campus, though it was probably by accident. It is a beautiful college all spread out on top of a hill north and east of Asheville in Swanannoa, have never heard anything about it, but liked the looks of it for some reason. Good turn out for the dance this evening, they had a special band in from the NE, Atlantic Crossing, and the caller was Diane Silver. Being at a college there were again a whole lot of young dancers there. There were a few more older, more experienced dancers though so it worked out a bit better than the last dance at Fall River. Also ran into a couple of people there I hadn't seen for a while, one was Robyn who I last danced with down on St Croix. Another was Jan whom I danced with at the Gypsy Meltdown dance a couple of weeks ago. There were a lot of others I at least knew by sight so it was a lot of fun to be able to walk into a dance and know a dozen or more dancers there.

   Going to post a few things, read my book a bit and then hit the rack. Even with the nap I'm still tired. Must be all that good exercise and dancing I did today.

  

   Up and on my way pretty early this morning. Travel days aren't my favorite days, usually because I've stayed up too late the night before and need to be up early enough to get out in a reasonable time. Might as well take a few moments and explain what that all entails.

   Once I'm up and showered, ( that didn't happen today because of the busted T&P valve in the hot water heater), there's time for a quick breakfast and a chance to check email, FB and read a few comics. I often start putting things 'away' the night before, but if not all the dishes, food, toaster, electric kettle, books and other misc stuff needs to be stowed somewhere so it won't go rolling around while the trailer is in motion. There are plenty of cabinets and under seat stowage, so it doesn't take long. All the windows and roof vents need to be closed, the trash taken out and the slide-in couch has to be brought in.

   On the outside the 4 scissors jack's need to be raised, the truck backed up and the hitch lowered, that's a job in itself if you're alone, the the hitch load levelers are put on and the anti sway bar hooked into place. Disconnect the water hose and coil it up, disconnect the shore power line and stow it and get ready to go. If you are at a site with a sewer hook up, you of course drain all your tanks, rinse the hose and stow it in the back trailer bumper. If there isn't a sewer hook-up you need to go to the dump station before leaving and do all of that there. Nothing real difficult about any of it most of the time, but it still takes 45-60 min's to get it all done and ready to go.

   Today was no different and I was on the road around 9:30. Took a minor side trip over to the Camping World RV store and picked up a new valve for the HW heater before getting on the highway headed west. Decided to do the interstate this morning even though I've been trying to stick to the side roads as much as possible. I've already been on a few of the roads up through these mountains and I'm not sure I want to be dragging a trailer on some of them. It was difficult enough just driving the highway this morning. Sure was a pretty morning to be up and about though. Seems like I'm going through spring once again as I moved up in elevation from where I was. The hardwoods are just starting to leaf out again and the Red Bud and Dogwoods are all in bloom again.

   Only took one wrong turn on the way up and it didn't turn out to bad, just took me in towards the downtown area of Asheville, it was fun getting back on the hwy though with the short, uphill entrance ramp right into a lane of traffic. My GPS, Emma, (cuz she has an english accent and reminds me of the charecter Emma Peel from the 60's show, 'The Avengers'), said I was 'there' before I was even close of course. Fortunately I knew the RV park was right on the river so I just went down the road a little farther until I found it. Kind of a neat little place, only one line of camping sites and those all back right up to the 'French Broad River'. Indeed my bumper is actually sticking out over the bank a couple of feet, very pretty though with a couple of ducks and geese to keep me company.

   Got all backed in okay, I'm getting much better at that these days, and unhooked and got all settled in. Essentially just a reversal of everything I did this morning. Took a little time to get my HW valve installed. A little Teflon tape, a big wrench and only a little cussing saw it all back in place and the gas turned back on. Time for a shower!

   Spent the remainder of the afternoon just goofing off. I'm finishing up a book my friends in Colorado gave me. It's 'The Journals of Patrick Gass', one of the men along on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Really a fascinating read for someone like me, but I can't help but wish I could of been along on that journey.... Also spent some more time working on the computer and getting it back up to speed. One problem I had was that all of the 'Playlists' I'd put together for my iPod were no longer on iTunes, nor were they available on my back up disk, or at least if they were, I didn't know where or how to access them. The one place they still were however was on my iPod, but how to get them back onto my computer since 'Apple' seems to think we shouldn't be able to manipulate any of our own music in any way except the way they allow. So I went online..... no problem finding some free shareware out there to do the job, and even some Youtube videos to walk you through the whole process. So that is done, now I just need to deal with all of the duplicated songs that I have inadvertently copied onto iTunes. That task is going to take a couple of days I'm afraid.

    Hope to be out and about tomorrow. Not sure what is in the area to look at other than the Biltmore Mansion of course. Will do that one of the days I'm here, but probably not until Monday or Tuesday. I think I'll go in and explore the down town area tomorrow. Maybe check on line and see if there is any good music or a play to go to and of course I need to check and see if there is any dancing to do here this week. Even retired it seems like there is way to much to do and to little time in which to do it. Still beats working though.

   Very nice morning today, sunny, not to warm, not to humid, kinda felt like Colorado. Noticed there was water dripping out of the outside door to my hot water heater when I went out to hook up and empty the grey and black water tanks on the trailer. Turns out the pressure-temperature relief valve was starting to fail. Rather than waiting until that happened I went to work trying to get the old one out. Easier said than done of course, as this was probably the original one that came new with the trailer 8 years ago. It wasn't until one of the other long term tenants came by with this huge honker of a crescent wrench that it finally twisted free. The best news is that I don't think I busted anything else getting it out either.

   Did some calling around, but so far no luck on a replacement. Will try 'Camping World' on my way to Asheville tomorrow. They had several in stock, but weren't sure it was the exact one I needed. Guess that means no shower for me tomorrow morning. Bummer!

   With that out of the way for the moment I went over and did a 'Boy's Night out at the Movies' trip and saw the new movie 'The Hunger Games'. Very interesting plot and well filmed. I couldn't help but think that the plot was somewhat smiler to a couple other movies I've seen, ie; The Time Machine, The Running Man, that episode of Star Trek where two planets were at war, but instead of actually fighting, they let a computer decide how many people on each side would theoretically be killed if it was real, and then they marched them off to be slaughtered by their own people, and probably several others I'll think about later. Still, it was entertaining enough and that was all I was looking for.

I hear that they are already starting to have wildfires back in Colorado. One SW of Denver had burned more than 3,000 acres already and killed a couple people as of this morning. I wonder if my brother Larry is involved with it in anyway? I'm sure he wants to be if he isn't.

   

    So this is the pedestrian bridge I was talking about yesterday. It's located at River Falls Park in downtown Greenville, SC and spans the Reedy River and the main falls on the river there. Looking at the picture you can see two support posts on the right hand side. Other than the abutment at each end of the bridge these are the only supports to hold the bridge up off the ground. So my first question was, where are the supports for holding up the 'other side' of the bridge?

  Looking up from the bottom you can see 3 large diameter cables running along the right side of the bridge. You can also see that the secondary support cables running down from the main suspension cable also come in on this side of the bridge. The other thing to notice is that the framework of the bridge deck is made up of triangular shaped metal trusses with the deep side also on this right side.

    So my thought is that the 3 cables, which run from one end of the bridge to the other, are under a very high tension load, which in effect wants to take the arched shape of the bridge and flatten it out or rotate it. Since these cables are at the bottom of the truss they would tend to try and tilt the left side of the bridge up but since the suspension cables are under tension from holding the weight of the structure up they want to tilt the left side of the bridge down. Hence the rotational up force from the 3 lower cables and the down force of the weight as well as the rotational force from the suspension cables the whole thing is in equilibrium. What an amazing balancing act... and who would of come up with this idea in the first place. I hope they got an award of some kind for it.

  So a final look from the top side and you can see part of the cable stay design. I must admit that you could feel vibration in the whole structure even when only a few people were walking on it. The whole project was wonderful done, the bridge is really beautiful, it spans across the river just downstream from the main falls and it's arc'd design makes sure the view of them is framed perfectly. The best part is I doubt 1 person in a 100, if that many, understands what a unique structure it is.

   Day two and it still seems odd to be doing this.... Spent most of the day hanging out around the downtown area of Greenville. Drove over to the zoo first and visited that... I'm not much of a zoo person, and this one wasn't a real great one, but there is always something at them to keep me interested.

   From there I walked up the 'Swamp Rabbit Trail' along the Reedy River and into Fall River Park in downtown Greenville. Very nice trail and park and the most amazing pedestrian suspension bridge I've ever seen. Will try to post some pictures of it once I figure out how to do that.

    May as well say a little bit about my 'usual' routine around here. Most mornings I get up somewhere between 9-10 am. I make no apologises for this, I spent way to many years getting up at 4, 5 or 6 am and I'm just tired of it if I don't have to. Besides, my normal circadian rhythm seems to work out to be more nighttime sided. I rarely get to bed any time before midnight and often it isn't until 1 or 2 pm.

   But I digress; once up and showered there is usually a breakfast of cereal and milk, with a banana, and maybe an english muffin. At least once a week I cook some kind of breakfast, pancakes, french toast or my favorite, some type of stir-fried breakfast burrito. That way I can use up any left over veggies and other stuff that needs to be eaten. While eating, I check email, FB and then read the comics on the computer. It's a pleasant way to wake up in the morning. Afterwards I can get on with what ever it is that is planned for the day. Sometimes this means a road trip somewhere, sometimes a hike or bike ride and sometimes nothing more than sitting around, preferably outside, with a good book. It is a hard life as they say, but I'm willing to take it on if I must. ;-)

Goin' Mobile - A Dance Gypsy's tour of the country.

Sunday March 25, 2012   

   Wow!  And just like that I'm now a blogger. Seems much easier than I thought it would be, and way scarier than anyone would ever guess it could be. But it is now done and I need to come to grips with the idea of other people out there, if any, reading what I'm writing.

   My original intent was to give some friends of mine, who won't join Facebook, a place to follow my travels and post a few photo's. It will also give me a place to write a little more about what has been happening since I first took off a couple years ago and started roaming around the country. Don't worry, I have no intention of trying to 'catch up' on all of that time in these first few posts. Can't think of a better way to bore other people, as well as myself, than to write page after page of what has already happened. On the other hand a lot of it will probably come up as this goes on, but I hope there is enough new posts and pictures and stuff to keep everyone interested.

   One last thing; please forgive me in advance for poorly written and composed posts as well as the many mangled spelling errors that I am sure will occur even if there isn't a spell check somewhere on this site.