German Festival

This weekend was a big festival for the Scherden's village of Fockenberg-Limbach.  I don't understand it fully....but it was something about the teenagers "coming of age."  For 3 days and well into the nights the people of the village lived it up with music and drinking!  There was a parade of the tractors on Sunday afternoon that was fun.

 Love this picture of Jason and Emily!

 Festive German music from the two-man band!

 This is the pole that will be placed on a building (below)

 Jackson and Grace got a ride in the parade!

 After the decorated pole was placed, the young man climbed the ladder and told funny stories for a long time about people in the village.  We couldn't understand anything, but there was a lot of laughter and the people enjoyed what he had to say.

A few days later the teenagers (ones in the turquoise shirts) came by with a wagon collecting "anything" from the homes in the village.  He kept saying "anything" and that is what he meant.  I went out and looked in the wagon and there was a watermelon, wine, paint, olives, to name a few!!!

Monkey Hardware - Tree Climbing!!

The Scherden's neighbor, Franz, has developed and patented equipment for climbing trees!  Last Saturday he asked the guys to go and try it out!  It is a short drive from their home.  Emily, Grace and I dropped the guys off and picked them up a couple of hours later.  When we went back, Grace and Emily joined in the fun.  Franz has sold the equipment to many countries here in Europe.  Just this month he went to Washington, D.C. to work on a climbing park there.  

 Jackson....with a big smile and ready to climb.

 Grace  had fun, but didn't climb up too far.  She like swinging around on the rope more.

 Jackson did great...climbed all the way up and rang the bell.

 I think Jackson enjoyed rappelling down as much as climbing up.

 Even Don gave it a try.

 Emily turns out to be quite a climber!  She said she just didn't look down.

 Emily made it all the way to the top and rang the bell.

 What a cute tree-climber.

 Franz giving Grace an upside-down ride on the ropes.

 Jason tried climbing using an ice pick to grab hold.

 The setting....a beautiful German forest.

 This is Franz...He was so nice to take us tree climbing!

Dinosaur Park, Germany-August 2013

Don, Emily, Jackson, Luke (a friend of Jackson's), Grace and I spent a day at Dinosaur Park.  It was so much fun!  What a great place for kids to play and parents to enjoy watching them.   We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed the whole day.  There was a little stream that ran through the park the kids could play in and a pond with minnows they could catch--and then release.

 Daddy Don relaxing...

 The park had some fun things to play on...different from American parks.

 A BIG basket!  Kids can crawl up inside or hang on the outside.

 The park was getting ready for the Fall Festival!  There were gourds and pumpkins everywhere.  I loved the western theme--pumpkin saguaro cactus, gourd covered bison and horses.  Teepees with pumpkins.

 These dinosaurs are actual size!

 The kids loved the skate park.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park and Arkansas

Here we are on the AT.  This is a where Lee hiked, so we were excited to be on the path he was on a few years ago!

Don on the AT

Can you see the snake-?-a very little one.  We also saw a big one on the trail--looked like a copperhead, but I don't think they have those in GSMNP

This is on the hike up to Alum Bluffs Cave.  It was a great hike!

As you can see it is a HUGE bluff--see me in the red shirt?

We took the Cade's Cove Loop Drive.  It was only 11 miles long, but it took us nearly 5 hours! 

A cantilever barn

This is a cabin in Cades' Cove (where a community of people lived before this became a national park).  Very interesting to see the construction.  

 

Black Bear!  We saw 3 in Cade's Cove. 

Don with his morning coffee sitting by the campfire and mountain stream--his "happy place"

One of many beautiful sights

We met a couple at the Blanchard Springs Campground in Arkansas who had this little trailer.  He had built it and pulls it with his VW Bug.  Now if I can just get Don to build one for us!  It is built on a 4 x 8 trailer he bought at Harbor Freight--we have one of those!!!!!

Blanchard Springs Caverns--Beautiful!  This nature sculpture is 65 feet tall!

As you can see the formations were amazing.  This is the most beautiful cave we have ever seen! 

You see the staircase and handrail on the left so you can tell how huge these stalagtites are.

The ceiling was filled with hundreds or thousands of little "soda straw" formations

 As of today, we have driven about 7,600 miles.  In the past 7 1/2 weeks we have been so many places.  What a blessing to be able to take a trip like this!   I told Don that, for me, this is the best way to take a trip--camp in beautiful national parks, state parks, on beaches and islands; stay a night in a hotel every once in a while; visit friends--Pat and Carol Scherden in Michigan, and relax at a timeshare.  We just mixed it all up!  I have to say that I am a little partial to the tent and enjoying nature.   Since Don turned 62, he was happy to get his Golden Pass to National Parks, so we got in to the parks free and discounts on camping....very nice.  We take advantage of all those discounts we can get. 

 Now we have spent the week in Branson and enjoyed kicking back in our comfortable timeshare here.  We are going to see the show "Six" tomorrow night.  Friday morning we will head to East Texas--got to see our grandkids (oh, Lee and Rebekah, too!).  I have missed them all so much.

Our August-September vacations are becoming an annual event.  We like to escape the Texas heat!  2013 we plan to visit the Scherdens in Germany.  2014--maybe a trip to Alaska--???

Grayson Highlands State Park, Virginia

On a tip from a fellow camper in Shenandoah, we drove to Grayson Highlands State Park, Virginia, on our way to the Smoky Mountains.  We really enjoyed it.  We took a nice hike to Mt. Rogers.  A portion of the hike was on the Appalachian Trail.  I was most interested in seeing the wild ponies that live in the park and in the national recreation area of Mt. Rogers.  The ponies are not really "wild"--they can be pretty friendly and can be approached without running away.  They are called wild only because they roam the area finding their own food and no one owns them.  I included this picture so you can see that they are small horses.  I would have loved to have seen a very young one.

The black pony with the white mane and tail has been named "Fabio."  They were very busy grazing so I didn't get many pictures of them with their heads up.   Fabio finally raised his head and stared at me for about a minute so I got some good ones of him.  Looks like he has a wig on!

Beautiful Monarch

Catching up on the news at the campground

I love theses fences!

There were SO many Christmas tree farms in North Carolina!

Along the Blue Ridge Parkway--a beautiful drive!