For Trailwalker’s birthday, I planned a surprise weekend getaway to the New Jersey shore. I went online and made reservations at a bed and breakfast in Cape May, but I didn’t tell Trailwalker where we were going. We stopped for gas and snacks, and Trailwalker picked up a copy of Southern Living magazine to read along the way. I wanted to start the weekend with a trip across the Cape May - Lewis Ferry, so we started driving south through Delaware.
After four weeks of rigorous training, we made the two-day hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. NOT! Actually, we took the bus trip from Las Vegas to the South Rim. Our first stop was lunch at Max and Thelma’s buffet in Williams, Arizona.
We spent a fun and relaxing vacation in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. For the first few days we stayed in Gatlinburg at the Glenstone Lodge. Gatlinburg is situated on the edge of the National Park, squeezed in a tiny valley, and has been a tourist destination for many years. It was our first visit. The town itself is quite small, and businesses are packed onto the main Parkway and a few side streets. Walking is the expected mode of transportation, so pedestrian traffic always has the right of way.
We spent the Fourth of July weekend camping at a family resort in Virginia. The weather was perfect for relaxing by the pool with temps in the 80’s, just a few high clouds, and low humidity. We enjoyed the usual activities: swimming, walking, reading, outdoor cooking, and listening to the baseball games on the radio in the dark. We also participated in several camp activities, including a dance on Saturday night, an impromptu campfire sing-along and marshmallow roast, and karaoke night in the social hall.
The social hall is quite a large room, and on this night there were well over a hundred people there. Karaoke is a family event, and children are encouraged to sing. People sit at their tables, clapping, singing along, talking amongst themselves, eating and drinking whatever refreshements they brought, while the karaoke continues non-stop onstage. It was then that we had our memorable Independence Day moment. The MC announced that someone was going to sing The Star Spangled Banner. The singer was a girl of about 12 years old. There was no fanfare, no rehearsal, no special request for attention, but when the music came up with that familiar introduction, the entire room went silent, and everyone stood up in unison and started singing on the first note. It didn’t matter that you could hardly hear the girl onstage. It was just one of those moments that make our national birthday memorable.
Sometimes it’s seeing a uniformed veteran carrying the flag in a parade, or hearing the high school band strike up a Sousa march, or seeing that first burst of fireworks. But for us this year, it was a young girl volunteering to sing our National Anthem. Thank you, Casey.
On a blustery January weekend, we packed our bags and headed west from Baltimore on I-70. We passed Frederick, passed Hagerstown, and just kept driving, with only a vague notion of a destination somewhere in western Maryland. On the far side of Hancock, we turned onto I-68 and approached the man-made mountain pass called Sideling Hill, one of the best geologic exposures of rock in the northeastern US.
Two weeks before Christmas we drove to Cumberland, Maryland, to visit the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad. We left on Saturday morning. We made arrangements for a lodge room in West Virginia, less than an hour’s drive from Cumberland. The hills and mountains were covered with just a dusting of snow, which was more than we’d seen back home.