Merry Christmas!

We had a nice Christmas with all the kids and grandkids.  They all came up to the cabin, and we got our annual picture on the stairs.  We also took a picture of our new T-shirts from Neil and Pam.

Our Traditional Picture on the stairs

It's been raining every day this week, so we're sick of that, but we're having a lot of fun up in Helen.  We have a big New Year's Eve planned.  It's been unusually warm - it was sunny and 70 today - but is supposed to get cold again by the end of the week.

The time goes by so quickly; it's almost time for us to start packing up the bikes and head west.

SO SICK OF RAIN!

It has been raining every day since October 25th (except it didn't rain on the 30th and we got to go ride).

This RV park is a mudhole, and we have a new leak in the roof.  Mike had to tear the ceiling out in the bedroom to try and find where it's coming in.  We're trying to get it to dry, to make sure the leak is fixed before we put it all back together.  Will keep you posted on the progress.  It's not supposed to stop raining until sometime next week.  YUCK!!!

This is the view out of our window.  UGH

This is the bedroom ceiling

The leak is over on the left, we think!

Halloween

It looks like Taylor had to improvise because of the splint on his nose - he went as Spiderman.  Ella is cute in her nerdy Minnie Mouse outfit, and Livie is darling as Batgirl.  Where's Chase?

Jake went as a horse!

Miscellaneous Stuff

Well, we're wrapping up October and we've been pretty busy.

For Paw Paw's birthday we went to Neil and Pam's.  They got some golf practice in.

We got to go to a few of Chase's baseball games.  He was playing catcher in this game.

I've been helping Katie paint - this is the dining room in the new house.

Livie is helping Paw Paw install the new dishwasher.  She's holding the flashlight.

And now we have Halloween.   Live and Taylor are modeling their costumes.  Livie is Batgirl and Taylor is shadow.  Ella is going as a nerdy Minnie Mouse (complete with a tie and nerd glasses), but she didn't try her costume on for me.

And yesterday, Taylor had surgery to repair his broken nose.   Poor muffin will have to wear the splint through the weekend.  I hope his shadow costume won't hurt over his face!!  By the time we left yesterday, he felt so much better that he wanted to go outside and play!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we met Katie and Mike and the kids at Jaemor Farms.  We walked through the pumpkin patch, bought some fresh produce, and then came back to Leisure Acres for supper and s'mores.

Katie made a yummy pot of chili, and Ella made a birthday cake for Paw Paw.  We had such fun!

It got pretty cold in the evening, so we had a big fire.  And, Happy Birthday Paw Paw!!!

Taylor can't smile because he broke his nose on Friday and it hurts ;-(

The sun's going down and it's getting COLD!

Happy Birthday Paw Paw!

The Great Smokey Mountains

This week Mike and I decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather, and we took a little camping trip to the Smokey Mountains.   We camped in Townsend, TN - a great campground there.
The whole area was PACKED!  Evidently it was fall break for all of the schools in Tennessee.  The traffic was unbelievable!

We rode over from Cleveland, GA through Cherokee, North Carolina and through the park.  The colors were stunning, and it was a really fun ride; lots of twists.

On Wednesday, we thought we'd take a "quick run" through Cade's Cove (a one way 11 mile loop). HA!  It was stop and go, and at that rate would have taken 4 or 5 hours.   After about 30 minutes of that, there was a sign that said "cutoff to exit - 2 miles".  We took it!   WOW!!!! It turned into a dirt road, and we had to ford a stream - and we're not on the dirt bikes, baby!  Very exciting - luckily the road was in good shape and it was dry.

From there, we headed over to Gatlinburg via Pigeon Forge; again the traffic was unbelievable.  It doesn't look anything like the last time we were there (we took Katie skiing at Ober Gatlinburg when she was 8, so it's been a while).

We had a little racoon problem on Tuesday night.  The little turd actually got into the cooler and took the grapes.  We ended up having the strap the cooler closed with the tie downs.  I hope he got sick on them - he got the whole bunch!!!

On Thursday we rode over to Oak Ridge.   Mike lived there in the early 60's when he worked for IBM right out of college.   He had top secret clearance, and worked at Y-12, the atom smasher.  The NSA now has labs here, so there is lots of security.  He wanted to try and see where he worked, so we rode right up to the security gate.  Of course they wouldn't let us in, but they did want to know who we were.  They took our pictures, took copies of our driver licenses, and pictures of the tags on our bikes.  WE ARE NO LONGER OFF THE GRID!!  Rats.

Then yesterday we had a great ride home.  We took 411 to GA 52 out of Chatsworth - wow what a ride.   Beautiful scenery and lots of twistys.  Loved it.

We're exhausted, but had a great time.   Enjoy the pictures:

Parked at the top at one of the pull-outs

These pictures don't really show the stunning colors

Pancakes and sausage!

The traffic in Gatlinburg was unbelievable!

Hart Ranch

It's been a while since I posted, and we wrapped up our stay at Hart Ranch on Oct 1st when we headed out for Georgia.

Sally and I had a fun road trip to Devil's Tower, and of course I had to get a shot of her with the Sundance Kid in Sundance, WY. 

You can barely see the kid - the sun wasn't in the right spot!

We also took our last Black Hills ride and stopped by the Full Throttle Saloon just to see for ourselves.   Yikes!!  That keg is where the fire started - it crimped a wire.  Good thing this didn't happen during Sturgis Bike Week.

And, we ordered a brick for the Hart Ranch Heritage Walkway - I love this!!!

Homestake Mine/Sanford Lab Tour - Lead, South Dakota

This week we took a short ride over to Lead and took the mine tour, which we've wanted to do for a while.

Lead is the home of an old Homestake gold mine (they also got silver and copper out of the mine), and a huge open cut by the center of town.  Google Lead, SD for the history of the town and mine.

A few years ago, Homestake sold their holdings to Barrett Gold, and the State of SD bought part of the Lead holdings.   The State said there wouldn't be any more mining in Lead, and the old mine (which is 8,000 feet deep) has been turned into the Sanford Laboratory (Sanford Lab - About Us).   They are searching for Neutrinos (google that).  Our guide said that an experiment is going on now where a lab in Chicago (the Fermilab) is shooting a beam underground to the Sanford Lab.  They're hoping to find proof of Neutrinos.  Way over my head.  Here's a link to the article:   http://www.sanfordlab.org/article/2414

The lab itself is only 4800 feet deep - below that it is full of water.  We've had so much rain this year that they have to keep pumping water out to keep the lab from flooding.

The visitor center has a 3-D model of the mine - you wouldn't believe all of the tunnels and shafts.  It's really interesting.  If you ever get a chance, check it out!

We had to wear hard hats

This is part of the mine on the opposite side of the open cut.  Notice the shaft for lowering miners.

This is a close up of that shaft.  We went in the Yates shaft which is opposite this one.

This is the spool of cable actually running to bring scientists up from the lab.  It was surprisingly quiet!

Carhenge - Alliance, Nebraska

Today we rode to Alliance, Nebraska to see Carhenge.  You've heard of Stonehenge?   This is the same thing only made out of cars!  They even celebrate the summer and winter Solstice - just like Stonehenge.  It's in the middle of a corn field.  Google it - they have a visitor center and everything!

It was an awesome ride.  Just about 350 miles - a long day - but really awesome.  We rode South through Hot Springs and into Chadron, and south on 385 to Alliance.  On the way back we cut over to Crawford and then up to Hot Springs.  We rode by the Wild Horse sanctuary - and saw the Spanish Mustangs out there.  It was really beautiful - and still so green from all the rain this summer.

We had supper and "Chops and Hops" in Hot Springs, and then got home just in time before it started raining. 

We're going to go back to Crawford to go to the Fort Robinson museum - we didn't have time for that today.

Carhenge

An old Cadillac

I love this one - Vera Valiant!   I used to drive one of these - push button transmission and everything!

Paw Paw in front of a spawning salmon - made out of car parts!

75th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

This week is the 75th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally!   You can't believe all of the motorcycles in the Black Hills this year - they're estimating 1.2 million people will attend this week.

We usually do the Dakota Thunder ride, but this year the were limiting it to Military ID holders only. 

We'd heard that the traffic is terrible, so we didn't want to ride in.  I decided I had to say I was there, so today I drove in with good pals Sally and Teresa.  (Girls day in Sturgis - whoo-hoo!!!)

This year they have a park and ride - great idea!  We parked, got dropped off at 4th and Sherman, and we were on our way!   Sally had never been during bike week, so this was a good break-in for her.   We ran into Annette and Mike Yarusso on Main street (what are the odds) - they're here for the week.

We did some T-shirt shopping at Hot Leathers, had lunch at the Loud American (legendary steak tips), and just walked around gawking.   What a blast!  So glad we went.  Tomorrow is the motorcycle parade here at Hart Ranch - we're trying to get "75 for the 75th".  We'll see.....

Teresa and Sally at the new Harley Square at the corner of Main St and Harley Davidson Way

The Girls in Harley Davidson Square

Lunch at the Loud American

Can you believe this trike????

Here's the front....

Main Street

Camping in Deadwood

We rode to Deadwood today, it was a nice ride.  We got set up, had a picnic, and now we're witting in the tent - it's pouring rain, windy, hailing, lightning, thundering.  YIKES!!!!

We're in the same campground that we were at in April 2006 when we were snowed in for a week.  This time, Mike is standing on the picnic table and his feet are showing.  Last time, the snow was up to his ankles on the picnic table!!!!

Hart Ranch Golf Course Flooding

Mike rode over to the golf course, and here are pictures of the flooding there.  The pictures show the first fairway, and the bridge from the tee to the fairway.   Now THAT is casual water!!