My beautiful and wonderful daughter called me at 2am [Texas time] to tell me we all lost her beautiful, wonderful, kind and brave boyfriend; Finn Finnegan. He suddenly collapsed and died in their hotel room on Kauai during their two week vacation in the Islands. He had been bravely and positively fighting cancer.

I am devastated, we are all devastated. Anyone who knew Finn or Miriam is devastated. My dear husband drove me to the Houston airport, said good-bye, put me on a plane and began his 11 day trip with Worf, Trixie and the towed Puddle Jumper from Texas through New Mexico and Arizona and home to Pacifica, California.

We all miss him and are taking care of Miriam. I will direct you to their blog @ http://finnandmiriam.wordpress.com/

November 14: I am with my sister Nan, brother-in-law George and my dear Miriam in Bodega Bay taking a little break. Mimi is strong, brave and sad. Give her a text, email or call just to check in.

Vinton, TX, Drove from New Orleans to Texas and stopped at a city park in Vinton, TX. More mosquitoes here than I have seen anywhere and very hungry. Stayed at a city park on a river where fishing is king. There were two pens with some interesting animals, photos follow.

Friday and Saturday, October 28 and 29

Columbus, TX, Nice KOA and an interesting town. There is a lot of Texas history. We did a bit of a walking tour and saw some Civil War monuments, old homes and a nice park on the Colorado River. We also spent some time in the local library and decided we really like doing that and may continue that in our future travels. We just looked at the library’s exhibit [many dolls from pioneer and recent history, kind of spooky]. Then we looked in the stacks, found a book each and read for a while. Very pleasant. Afterwards we did that tour and I found myself in a toystore that was so interesting. Unfortunately, the proprietor was a bit chatty and I was unable to see anything as he found out I was from California and proceeded to lecture on all things wrong with California [read Hollywood] and correct with his Tea Party. Interestingly though, he had also been a professional musician and played with Tito Puente [http://www.last.fm/music/Tito+Puente]. He said he loved the Spanish language, he just didn’t want it to be the official language of the country.

That night we were back in the RV park, had some dinner. I went on a walk with the pooch and we watched another episode of Hop Along Cassidy from the dvd we bought at some store along the way.

We left Alabama and went through Mississippi. Some photos follow

Then we went through part of Louisiana and ended in the French Quarter RV Park. Photos follow. This is a great RV park. Kinda skimpy on trees and quiet, but centrally located a couple of blocks from the French Quarter in New Orleans! The first thing we did was go to Sally’s best friend Pat’s for dinner. We also had dinner with her son and her grand daughter. They were so so so nice to have us over and cooked a fantastic meal. Vegetarian! It was so sweet of Pat to do this. Their home is beautiful. It is an old New Orleans house and is just gorgeous! Wish we still built homes like that. Pat’s son David told us about some great places to eat. Maybe not hard to do in New Orleans but it was wonderful to talk to someone who knew the restaurants. It was wonderful to see Pat and David again and to meet Pat’s grand daughter!

We ate at the Green Goddess and it was great. After the first day in New Orleans we decided to stay another day!

There are more than 50 photos below.

The Gulf of Mexico! And Alabama! And Dauphin Island. Wow, what a great place. Unfortunately, we took the advice of the RV park owners and dined at Barnacle Bill’s the first night. Please some food that has just been cooked; not slathered, smothered, buried and beige. Oh well.

But the park is wonderful! Right on the beach and the sand is white and water is blue. Plus, there is an entrance to the Audubon Bird Sanctuary [as you Facebooker’s have already noticed] right from the park. And there is a private beach and we went swimming in the Gulf! Hooray, photos follow and more photos of the Audubon Bird Sanctuary walk.

Only one night in Georgia [Wednesday, the 19th] and not A Rainy Night. Drove to Alabama for our first stop there. Gunter Hill Campground [a Corps of Engineering Campground]. Right on the Alabama River. Kind of smelly but pretty. We hiked a morning hike with fog on the river before breakfast. We took lots of photos and it was really interesting to see the swampy kind of river.

Photos follow:

Made it to Georgia! After Lake Powhatan we drove to the only stop in Georgia: Redtop Mountain Park. We wanted to stay two nights but there was only one night available! The park has lots of trails on the Allatoonas River. All we did was walk around the campground loop. But we did meet some really, really nice people who wanted us to stay and have dinner with them. They had cooked beef vegetable soup hanging in an iron skillet over a campfire. Sometimes I am not happy to be a vegetarian.

Photos below.

Did laundry at Raccoon Holler and ate a really great breakfast at the Winner’s Circle Cafe in Glenville, NC. Looked for a yarn store, but to no avail. There was a great hardware store though. I wanted to buy a clock for my sister-in-law Sally that was just like the bird clocks that chime a different bird on the hour, but this one was a cat clock that chimed a different meow on the hour. Jack talked me out of it. I still think it was a great idea. Sort of a peacepipe from Trixie to Sally’s cat Penny who had to put up with Trixie for many weeks.

We drove Tuesday through North Carolina to an RV park outside of Ashville called Lake Powhatan Recreation Area. There was a pretty lake that we walked around. Jack talked me out of swimming as there was lightning and thunder predicted. Gives me the shakes to swim with lightning. We got back to our campsite just before the skies opened up and poured. Not much lightning, but I guess it is better to be safe.

First some photos of Raccoon Holler, then the trip to Ashville, North Carolina. Lake Powhatan photos in the next post.

Left Daddy Rabbit’s, Virginia for Raccoon Holler, North Carolina. Beautiful day and scenery. When we got to Raccoon Holler, I had to write a check for our stay since they didn’t take plastic. I thought it was Raccoon Hollow and everyone pronounced it Raccoon Holler, but actually the name of the RV place is Raccoon Holler. The road it is on is called Raccoon Hollow.

Seems hollows are the little valleys in the Blue Ridge. Back in the 20’s and 30’s the people living along the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Ridge Mountains were relocated “for their own good.” The US government sent out educated sociologists who studied the folks there and said they were too poor and uneducated to stay by themselves and needed to relocate for educational purposes. One old holdout said it was just so business could get in the wallets of tourists. So we went to the Nature Centers along the way and emptied our wallets.

Back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We stopped for lunch at a place called Peaks of Otter. Very pretty and our first southern buffet. I scarfed the MacNCheese and the rest of it. Berry cobbler for dessert. Then on to our next overnight stop: Daddy Rabbits! It was a great place. Really quiet and beautiful. But here are some photos of the Parkway and Peaks of Otter.

Spent the next two nights at Natural Bridge, Virginia. It was a KOA and it was raining leaves. All the trees were in color and it was really windy so it seemed like it was raining leaves. Really beautiful. Always nice to stay two nights at a place so there is a day to rest from driving and packing and unpacking and setting up Worf and breaking him down again. We went for a walk in the hills and got a bit lost. We were looking for Devil’s Marble Yard. Never did find it but it looks like this: http://www.midatlantichikes.com/devilsmarbleyard.htm

Anywho, it was a great trail up the mountain but a little taxing. Afterwards, we decided to take in Foamhenge, a full scale version of Stonehenge made out of foam. I have photos below, but you can read all about it at: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/9209