LIKE MY BLOG? Click below on "FOLLOW" and add yourself to the list of my followers!

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
All pictures (and blogposts) are copyrighted and may not be reproduced/used in any manner without my PRIOR approval. Thank you for respecting my hard work.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Journey: Day TWO and THREE

After spending two lovely nights in Coldwater, Michigan with our friends Julie and Mike, we knew we had to hit the road again further east and south. I have a sweet cousin and family who live in Savannah Georgia. They had asked us to come and visit them and I had always wanted to go there, so we included them in this trip south. I will post about that in my next Journey entry. To get there, we headed through Ohio. Here is the map of our Day two journey: (Just hit the minus sign a few times and you will see the route):


View Larger Map

No offense to anyone from Ohio, but there was no excitement on that part of the trip. Just a lot of flat farm type land. We did see some deer and a few wild turkeys on the trip, but we were in our car and going by too fast to catch a snapshot of them. (Can't you see me, pulling over on the interstate snapping photos of cows, deer and wild turkeys?) Of course, the bloggers going by would COMPLETELY understand!) ha

On day three, we knew we would be heading into more mountainous countryside and headed thru Virginia and West Virginia. This part of the trip I was waiting for, because I have never been in any type of mountains. I know one of my Kentucky readers thought the Appalchian Mountains weren't "really" mountains, but to me, I was thrilled to drive through them. I was not disappointed.

Here is the Day THREE map of our journey: (Again, click the minus (-) sign a few times to get a better idea of the route):


View Larger Map

You can see on the above terrain map that we were heading for some nice scenery.
But we weren't the normal travelers.
Oh. No.
Because we were pretty sick of just being on interstate highways, we told our TOMTOM GPS "no tollways" and "no interstates". Boy, we had an adventure! We actually ended up on tiny 2-way roads that hair-pinned and wrapped itself up and down the Appalchian mountains.
Once, we ended up in a state park road! But that was the best, because we came upon a "look out" over a spectacular gorge. We were the only ones that pulled into the road stop and hardly met any cars throughout the drive there. (I think the state park was closed for their winter season). Once, we ended up in someone's driveway that dead-ended. (What was the GPS thinking? We followed the instructions exactly!) But then we turned on a tiny county road (GET THIS: ONE LANE WIDE!) for about a mile and then hooked up with a small highway that got us out of the wilderness. I thought we would never be heard from again!
Here are some photos we took on Day THREE of our journey:


Yes, that is ME taking a picture from the car of the scenery!!

Here is one photo of just approaching the Appalchian mountains..







And these are some of a wonderful waterfall we saw along the way:





And here (my favorite!!) was the state park photos of the overlook to the gorge that I just loved. We had it all to ourselves up in the mountains!!!!












Have you ever drove UNDER and THROUGH a mountain? I hadn't!!! Here is two photos of us going through two different moutains!






The final shot I have for for you is an actual coal mine on the side of the road:



On the fourth day, we arrived in the beautiful city of Savannah, Georgia, which I will show you on my next blog post.

On the day I am writing this post, we are still in Madeira Beach Florida. The morning temperatures are still chilly, and then mid-day, it has been getting up into the low 70's. Tomorrow is supposed to be high 70's, so we hope to get to the beach for some photos.

Stay tuned for the rest of our journey...............

13 comments:

Rick (Ratty) said...

Reading this is the next best thing to being on a vacation myself. I've traveled in the very same direction though not as far. As I read this it brought back memories of my own trips. You have posted so many great photos here. I'd be tempted to stop on the side of the road and take pictures of animals in Ohio too, but I hear the police there really like handing out tickets.

Going Like Sixty said...

Hey, more memories. My wife's grandfather lived in Monroeville, IN, which you passed through and my Mother grew up in southern OH and worked in Dayton!

I agree, cornfields don't make for exciting roadtrips. I've lived all over the midwest and one cornfield is just like another.

I'm really happy you enjoyed the mountains of Kentucky!

Insanitykim said...

Yeah it's working!

For two days the comment box wouldn't show a word identification word! I have written to you like 800 times, so now I just have the energy to say, love ya, have fun!

Sara said...

Your pictures are so beatiful! It sounds like you had a great trip!

Have a great night
Sara

Loree said...

What gorgeous scenery. When I was 18 I had this crazy dream that I would drive across America on a Harley. It hasn't happened yet but who knows...maybe when my husband and I retire :) I couldn't post a comment for anything yesterday but there must've been something wrong with Google because I was having trouble with all their services.

rainfield61 said...

Hai, don't be surprise to find me sitting besides you the next day.
Looks like I am traveling with you from day to day. No excitement to come...

The Retired One said...

Ratty: Hi you! Glad you liked the pictures. It was so fun taking them and knowing my blogger friends can share them with me.

GoingLikeSixty: We didn't travel through Indiana, but close! And, we didn't go thru Kentucky (yet!) Maybe when we head back north to home (we are going back a different way than we came down). Stay tuned!
If we go thru Kentucky, I will take some more pictures and post them for you.

Insanity Kim: I was wondering too, because I have read all of your blogs and tried to comment and it wouldn't let me. I thought it was because we were at hotels or using someone else's wireless.
Whew! I was going to PANIC. ha

Sara: Yes, we have been blessed with the beauty of the trip and the weather. We only had one rainy/freezing rain morning and all the rest of the days have been sunny. Today in Florida it is warming up to 70's and the next 3 days are going to be close to 80's! We can FINALLY go to the beach! (Then we will have to start heading on our trip back to Michigan). I will be depressed!

Loree: I always think I am taking too many photos in one spot and then when I went to post them, I wish I had taken more of the mountains. The Harley idea has always been one of mine too, but I am too chicken to learn how to drive one. (Plus I don't look good with bugs in my teeth!) ha
I had trouble posting comments too and was starting to really get worried.

Rainfield 61: I will try my best to scoot over so you can sit next to the window. But you gotta promise to hang out and take photos for me. *wink*
My husband kept telling me: "At least put the camera strap around your neck! You are going to lose the camera! Hang on to the camera!" It got to be funny after the first ten times!

Lesley said...

I'm looking forward to seeing your pictures of Savannah! I've always wanted to visit there.

It's nice to see some beautiful scenery. I don't miss the weather up north, but I have to admit that Texas just does not compare. The malls down here are pretty spectacular, though.

The Retired One said...

Lesley: Stay tuned, I am working on that post today and hope to get it up by tonight or tomorrow morning. You will have to take photos of the mall and put them on your blog. Although I would rather be in nature than at a mall anyday! (You can't buy what nature gives us for free!) nature? Priceless!!

Brittany said...

I keep trying to comment and it hates me!!! Hopefully this one will go through -- I just wanted to say I am loving the pictures and I hope you are having a great trip. Have a safe, very safe trip on the way home! You are the best!

The Retired One said...

Brittany: I know! People have been telling me they are trying to get through and they are having problems. I tried to leave some on other blogs,too..and had problems. Hope they have it together now!!!!
We went out to eat (and to the beach to get sunset pictures) tonight so I probably won't get the Savannah pictures up until tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Dude, I had something all witty like to put here in response to losing readers and the comment thingy was broken.

I gave up after the 900th try, because I am hopefully one of your "neat" friends.

I think I was trying to say something to the extent of "the trick is to ignore them or else you will give them a complex and they shall never comment ever. True story".

It's not so witty the 901th time, however.

Glad you're having fun.

The Retired One said...

Kearsie: Others told me that they had a few days of trouble leaving comments, but it seems okay now! You are always witty!!!! (and love your sarcasm is the BEST!) Keep trying to comment and if you can't send me an e-mail if you keep having trouble? I am going to have to kick some ass!!! haha

REMINDER: All photographs on this blog are COPYRIGHTED.

REMINDER: All photographs on this blog are COPYRIGHTED.
Please do not copy any of my photographs (or narratives) without my permission! All pictures will be tracked for copyright violations.

Lijit Search

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin

About Me

My photo
I retired in June 2008 and started my blog in November 2008. I worked at several jobs as a Registered Nurse prior to retirement. I LOVE being retired! Blogging has offered me a whole new venue to start writing again and to share new hobbies such as gardening, birdwatching and sharing my nature photography. If you like my blog, PLEASE click on "follow this blog". Having a lot of followers reading my blog gives me incentive to continue to do photography and to continue to write. I also LOVE comments, so I encourage you to leave me a comment after you read my posts. Thanks everyone, for taking the time to read me!!

Blog Archive

ultimate translation selector

To get more traffic to your blog: