Europe 2017

We are on another three month adventure in Europe! Our last one was three years ago. We left Austin on April 4th and are traveling with our friends Paula and Dave. So here's the catch up. Our flights were long but easy. Got to Lisbon around noon, found the rental car and were ready to start for a 4 hour drive to Armamar and our friends, Ana and Antonio Chaves. Ernie plugged in the GPS and tried to get the location set, because this place is really difficult to find. You actually have to use coordinates to find it. After much frustration, we determined that when I bought the Central Europe maps, they did not include the Iberian peninsula in Central Europe. So we had to go analog with maps. Of course, none of us have data on our phones. We got to the nearest town to their place and then drove around a bit trying to remember how to get to them since our last visit was 3 years ago. The heavens shone down on us and we found them.

We had planned on eating our dinners with the family so we didn't have to leave their house again that night. I did tell Paula and Dave that they eat on European times so dinner was served around 8. Thankfully Ana provides appetizers so that worked for All of us. After great conversation, food and wine, we all retired to our rooms around 10:30. Ana prepared a casserole of bacalau, bechamel, onions, & shoestring potatoes and it was marvelous.

The next day we toured wineries and Paula and Dave discovered the joys of tawny port. Had lunch in Pinhao and then one last winery were we got to take an audio tour through the vineyard.

Dinner that night, at 8 again, was a lovely pork roast and lots of wine. We all begged off at about 10:30 because we had a long drive the next day to Fatima (2.5 hours) and the Roman ruins at Coimbra. Dave and Paula loved it. We got home around 7:30 and thought we were probably just in time for dinner. Not so! Ana had to pick up her son and he was on the other side of the Valley. I think we ate at 9. Dinner that night was what they called dry soup. You cook a bunch of vegetables and various meats, cut them up and mix them up with the liquid left from the meats, put them in a casserole that is lined with bread and then top it with bread. Bake it all in the oven and eat. It was really good but some of the mystery meat was a challenge. I think we retired around 11 that night.

We decided we needed a slow day on our last full day with them so we took a 2 hour tour on the Duoro River in a Rabelo (I'll pick pics in the blog).

This was the rabelo we rode for two hours on the Duoro River.

Love the reflections on the water!

Love the reflections on the water!

Love the reflections on the water!

He actually caught something just after we passed him.

This is the new dam that is still under construction.

One of the many different rabelos. They were originally used to transport barrels of port wine to Porto for warehousing and bottling.

 

Love this photo of Paula!

We are doing a lot of laughing on this trip. Just a bunch of crazy Americans.

 

 

 

We road this train when we were here 3 years ago. This part of Portugal is absolutely stunning.

We are heading back into Pinhao for the end of our tour.

This fellow has the right idea!

This is a model of the boats and their original use.

So many folks fishing and just relaxing.

Had a lunch of fejoida made with tripe and all parts of the pig. Got back to the house around 2:30 and sat in the sun for the afternoon. Ana and Antonio invited our friends for dinner so we had a group of 16 for dinner. It was so good to see old friends who have become family. What fun! We ate (octopus and rice), drank great white wine courtesy of Toniño, Port from a private collection and laughed until midnight.

Can't believe we will be leaving here tomorrow. Oh well, all good things must come to an end!

 

 

 

 

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Pennsylvania

So we arrived on Sunday expecting lively temperatures and got 92 - hottest summer on record! Seems the climate is a'changin! Monday was a day of setting up, shopping and figuring out our plans while in this area. We found a fantastic Amish butcher just a few miles from the campground. What a treat! Real butchers! Hot dogs in casings, Delmonico steaks 1 ½ inches thick, any cut of meat we wanted and then some that we didn't, farmer fresh jumbo eggs for $1.79 a dozen. We even found scrapple and decided this was the time to finally try it. So scrapple is not on our list of but it again stuff. The taste was OK but the texture was total mush! Yuk! It was like making French toast using ooey-gooey white bread and letting it soak in the egg/milk mixture for too long. So the question is why would I want to pay for a meat product when I could just soak white bread and fry it. Ernie did the hot dogs on the grill and got them blackened and popped open just like I like them. Oh the memories - this is what we grew up with and you just can't get them in the South, without having to pay an arm and a leg for them.

Tuesday found us in Gettysburg. We had planned on going to the Visitor Center and getting the lay of the land and determining how we were going to tackle this phenomenal Civil War battlefield. We decided to hire a private guide for the afternoon. John drove our vehicle and spent the next 2 ½ hours making the battle of Gettysburg come alive. He was magnificent! His stories and understanding of the three day battle he was amazing! When we returned to the Visitor Center to drop him off, we both felt that going through the museum and seeing the diorama would have been anti-climatic and repetitive.

We decided to tour the Harley Davidson factory in York the next day. Even though we are not bike people ourselves, we found the tour to be sooooooo interesting. The degree of robotics (using optical fiber tape on the floors to provide computer directed paths for the robots) and the just in sequence build lines was incredible. The workers have 15 seconds in most stations to add their components before the bike moves on to the next station. As for the ergonomic component of factory work, the sleds carrying the bikes are all height adjustable to accommodate the worker. They also change places on the lines every hour to eliminate repetitive muscle use. The tour was almost an hour and a half and was worth every minute.

We've discovered that if you like plant tours, this part of Pennsylvania is plant tour heaven. Since Thursday was supposed to be a rainy and overcast day, we went on plant tours of Snyder's of Hanover and Utz (potato chips and other snack foods). While these kind of activities may not be for everyone, we really enjoy plant tours. Snyder's had a tour guide and Ernie and I had a private tour since no one else reserved at that time. They have an enclosed walkway over their operations and you can see everything but the mixing, shaping and baking of the pretzels and other snacks since these operations are in an enclosed system. Just wish we could have been on the floor to enjoy the smells and sounds. The Utz operation was similar but it was self-guided. We were able to watch the potatoes being taken off the trucks and conveyered (is there such a word?) through washers and peelers (actually machines that abrade the peels) into slicers, fryers, dryers, salters and then onto packing. It was soooo cool. Of course, each impact had an outlet store so we just had to stock up.

There is another potato chip company, Martin's, that provides tours on the floor. We're going to try that next week.

Good news, temperatures have dropped overnight and we got up to 60 degrees this morning. We might have a campfire tonight. Since this campground is an actual working farm, it's fun wandering around. They have an abundance of animals, horses, donkeys, geese, goats, llamas, cows, turkeys, etc. that we can visit. A nice miniature golf course, big swimming pool, an ample rec room and tons of trees.

Tomorrow we will go to the 22nd Annual McLain Celtic Festival and Highland Games. Looking forward to that. Our friend Annie (from the Dominican Republic and Barnegat New Jersey) is going to drive down next week and spend a few days visiting. Haven't seen her since last Fall in the DR. We're really excited about her visit.

We were originally planning on going on to visit more DR friends who live in Batavia NY, but found out that she died from a cardiac event. We are so going to miss her. Don't know if it was that, a long summer, or what but find that I'm ready to get home and settle in for a while. Can't wait to see the family and spend a little time catching up. Maybe the gypsy is wearing off a bit or maybe need to do shorter trips out and more frequent visits back to Texas. Not sure, just have to figure that out. Maybe pondering over a bit f wine will provide sone clarity ----- or not.

Y'all take care!

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August in Maggie Valley

So my last posting was from Mingus Mill in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We did go back into Cherokee one day to visit the Oconoluftee Indian Village bad see the outdoor drama 'Unto These Hills' which was about the resettlement of a large number of the Cherokee tribe in North Carolina to reservation lands in Oklahoma (referred to as the trail of tears) and the history of how a large number of the Cherokee were able to stay in North Carolina and establish the Qualla Nation. After being in this area and seeing what happened to the Cherokee, I don't think I will ever honor Andrew Jackson!

We really didn't do much sightseeing after that because we spent the next two weeks square dancing - morning, noon and night! We started dancing Sunday evening and continued with morning and afternoon workshops and evening dances through Thursday - for two weeks. We were exhausted but what fun. Met some really great folks and some old friends from Austin who were there for the dances.

Drove to the nearby Cataloochie Valley one afternoon to see the elk. There are two very large beards of elk in this part of NC. While we didn't see many elk, we did see the wild turkey and a black bear that decided he need some apples. So of course, he climbed the tree to get yo the fruit. We watched him for at least half an hour and then he had his fill. He climbed down and was staking his area when a mama elk started to cone closer to the tree. The bear stood his ground for a little bit and then decided that she was much bigger than him and he took off line a shot.

We left that area and started the drive back to the campground when we came up on this bull! He was beautiful and didn't mind us at all.

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Stopped a scenic overlook on the way back to the campground. You know, I've seen the Rockies and the Alps and they are breathtaking; but to me, the Smoky Mountains are peace, calm and home!

 

We're now in Dover Pennsylvania getting ready to spend the next two weeks visiting Gettysburg, York and Hershey. We were just told this morning that this is the hottest summer on record in this area. We were at 91 yesterday. Go figure! Relaxing today after two days of driving and going to start touring tomorrow.

 

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Mingus Mill

Visited the Mingus Mill the other day. It seems that the Mingus family moved to the Oconaluftee Valley in the 1790s and built an earlier mill powered by an overshot waterwheel. As the community grew, the old mill wore out and Dr. Mingus contracted with Sion T. Early to build the present structure. Early was a millwright from Virginia and agreed to do the job in three months for $600. His initials, STE, are cut in the front gable just under the eaves. The mill remained in the Mingus family until acquired by the Great Smoky National Park in the 1930s.

During the summer season, the Park Service actually runs the mill and sells whole wheat flour and corn meal. We got a bag of each and will try their bread recipe and make some corn bread and/or hoe cakes.

 

Not much in the way of insulation!

Love how they're supporting the building.

This was the walkway to the mill.

Stopped into the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum before the dance on Friday night. It is in the old Macon County Jail, built in 1850 and in use until 1972. They still have several cells upstairs. Tiny little museum with big museum content. So glad we stopped in.

Thinking of going to Cherokee tomorrow to visit the Cherokee Indian Museum and go to the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills. Haven't seen this in years and have been told that the script has been updated to be more accurate to the plight of the Cherokee. Looking forward to that and still enjoying the pleasant weather.

 

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Mingus Mill

Visited the Mingus Mill the other day. It seems that the Mingus family moved to the Oconaluftee Valley in the 1790s and built an earlier mill powered by an overshot waterwheel. As the community grew, the old mill wore out and Dr. Mingus contracted with Sion T. Early to build the present structure. Early was a millwright from Virginia and agreed to do the job in three months for $600. His initials, STE, are cut in the front gable just under the eaves. The mill remained in the Mingus family until acquired by the Great Smoky National Park in the 1930s.

During the summer season, the Park Service actually runs the mill and sells whole wheat flour and corn meal. We got a bag of each and will try their bread recipe and make some corn bread and/or hoe cakes.

 

Not much in the way of insulation!

Love how they're supporting the building.

This was the walkway to the mill.

Stopped into the Franklin Gem and Mineral Museum before the dance on Friday night. It is in the old Macon County Jail, built in 1850 and in use until 1972. They still have several cells upstairs. Tiny little museum with big museum content. So glad we stopped in.

Thinking of going to Cherokee tomorrow to visit the Cherokee Indian Museum and go to the outdoor drama, Unto These Hills. Haven't seen this in years and have been told that the script has been updated to be more accurate to the plight of the Cherokee. Looking forward to that and still enjoying the pleasant weather.

 

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