The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

The Good, The Bad and the Ugly: the good being the trip up until Pigeon Forge. The Bad and the Ugly are most of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. Here are some pictures of "the bad and the ugly".

More horse farm pictures for all you horse lovers

Here are some more pictures from the horse farm for all you horse lovers! The first 3 pictures are of the 6-year-old stallion and the last picture is of the yearling.

Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg Days 6 & 7

After our horse farm tour we were driven back to the motel and shortly afterwards we left for Pigeon Forge, Kentucky. It was about a 4 hour drive. We stopped for lunch at a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Berea, KY. Then we went into town and shopped at some quaint shops. Once we got close to Pigeon Forge there was highway construction that caused us to experience bumper to bumper traffic. And when we finally hit Pigeon Forge, we were disappointed. What a tourist trap!! It is a Wisconsin Dells type of town and then some! It was raining, gloomy and dreary. But I have to say that the scenery was gorgeous. Today, Saturday/Halloween, we drove to Gatlinburg and the scenery and Fall colors were even more breath-taking...even though it was raining again. We stopped at some quaint craft shops but once we got to downtown Gatlinburg, it was another Wisconsin Dells. If you look carefully at the one picture, you can almost make out the chair lifts. We had hoped to do that in Gatlinburg, but unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate. We drove back to Pigeon Forge area and stopped at a huge Knife Works store and then a large scrapbook store. So both of us were happy. We are now back at the motel and tomorrow it is on to our final destination: Asheville.

American Saddlebred Horse Farm tour

While in Shelbyville, Kentucky, we took a tour of an American Saddlebred Horse Farm. It was a personal tour. Dick & I saw a sign in the motel saying to ask the desk manager about it. He then set it up for us. One of the people from the Tourism board of Shelbyville came in a mini-van and drove us to a working farm. We got a tour of the beautiful house as well as the farm. We were taken into the arena area and we stood in the middle while the horse went through his workout around us. We loved it! The horse was a 6-year-old stallion and went through his paces grandly. We were so happy that we had stayed in Shelbyville and got a personalized tour instead of going on to Lexington and ending up on a bus tour of a farm. We wouldn't have had the same 'front row' experience.

Scenic pictures

Here are some scenic pictures taken over the last couple of days.

Thursday in Shelbyville, Kentucky

We left Madison, Indiana at 11 and should have arrived in Shelbyville, Kentucky before noon. Unfortunately a confusing detour lengthened the trip. We had pulled over to look at the map and a man came drove across the road and asked if we needed help. He agreed that the detour signs were not very clear. So we turned around, did some back-tracking, and eventually we were back on track. We got to our destination at 12:30: Claudia Sanders Dinner House. Claudia was the wife of Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. Aunt/Uncle Paula & Joe Gerke had eaten there and recommended it to us. We had a delicious meal there. The hostess asked where we were from and when she heard it was Appleton, Wisconsin, said her niece was married to the former principal of Neenah Armstrong H.S. It truly is a small world! After lunch we checked out downtown Shelbyville...some historic markers and a lot of antique stores. Tomorrow we will have a tour at a American Saddlebred Horse farm. We are looking forward to that.

Wednesday afternoon, October 28, 2009

The weather was determined to stay gloomy, so we did an indoor activity by going to the Lanthier Winery. We tasted 5 wines and bought 3 of the ones we tried. In the evening we ate at an upscale restaurant. The food was outstanding. We were glad we had decided to splurge. It was worth every penny. This is our last night in Madison.

Day 4 of Asheville trip, Oct. 28, 2009

It is Wednesday morning and it is still gloomy & overcast. It will be awhile before the sun is supposed to shine, so I thought I would get caught up with some blogging & more pictures. I've included pictures of our room and the front view of Riverboat Inn. We are on the balcony 2nd floor, the farthest room on the left. As you can see, it is a beautiful room and so we are happy to have it for another night. We'll move slowly again this morning and we are happy to not be on a time schedule. We love letting each day unravel and be able to go with the flow. This is truly a vacation. I'm so glad we decided to have this type of road trip as our belated 40th wedding anniversary trip.

Day 3 of Asheville Trip, Oct. 27, 2009

We woke-up to a gloomy, overcast day on Tuesday. It soon turned into rain. So taking the mansion tour seemed like the right thing to do. We ate lunch downtown and then drove around a bit first. We fountain and walked around and took some pictures of the beautiful trees. Then we went on to the Lanier Mansion and enjoyed that tour. The view from the back of the mansion is of the Ohio River and our Riverboat Inn is just down the road where we also have a similar view.

After the tour we went back to the Inn. My stomach was acting up and so I took the opportunity to rest and recover. I know that I'm still recovering from all the activity from last week. We found a quaint little restaurant that served Italian food and ate there for supper. By the time we returned to the Inn, the rain was really hitting harder.

We decided that since the weather wasn't the greatest, that we would stay another night. The weather forecast is for sun on Wed. afternoon and temperatures at 60. But Thursday is is supposed to be in the high 70's. So we look forward to sticking around here more. Even in spite of the rain, the scenery is still beautiful and we are enjoying that and the opportunity to relax here.

Asheville Trip Day 2, Oct. 26, 2009

We arrived in Madison, Indiana with the temperature at 68 degrees. We have not had our jackets on since Freeport. The sun was shining and the colors beautiful as we settled into the Riverboat Inn right on the Ohio River. This is one of the views. There is a river walk/brick path right along the river and it was wonderful to walk. We were outside as long as possible, knowing the weather was to change.

Our trip begins: Oct. 25, 2009

After a week of packing, a dress rehearsal and concert with White Heron Chorale, we finally hit the road for our 2-week road trip. Our goal was to leave by 7:45 a.m. We almost left without our cell phone though. I can't remember what prompted us to think of it when we got in the car, but we're sure glad we remembered. Our first stop was Freeport, Illinois to visit Paul/Dick's Mom. She is in the Skilled Nursing Unit, working hard with physical therapy to recover from surgery for both hips. As you can see from the pictures, Elaine had to be put in a canvas sling and lifted up from her bed into her chair. It was quite an experience to see. The social worker said that Elaine might be moved to Lena Living Center this week for the rest of her recovery. So we're waiting to hear about that. We had a nice visit with Elaine and had lunch with her youngest sister Paula and husband Joe. They had just returned from Switzerland and so we were able to hear about their trip. They gave us some Swiss Chocolate. YUM! After going back upstairs to visit with Elaine more, we finally said goodbye and set out for Springfield, Illinois as our first stop. We got there by 5:30 and crashed in our motel room. Monday, it was onward to Madison, Indiana.

Asheville Trip Prep

We are busy with packing for our upcoming 2-week road trip. We will leave Wisconsin on Sunday, October 25th and make a stop in Freeport, Illinois to visit mother-in-law Elaine Neebel. She is in the hospital there, working hard doing physical therapy, having had surgery on 2 broken hips. If all is going well there, we will continue on with our planned trip. We will continue on to Springfield,IL, then Madison, IN, Tennessee and finally Asheville, NC. We are looking forward to the flexibility of our trip.The only reservations we have are at Sourwood Inn outside of Asheville, NC, from Nov. 1-5. We plan to check-out early on the 5th and start our drive back to Wisconsin, hoping to be back by Nov. 8th if at all possible. And so our venture will soon begin. :-)

June 13, 2009

The day after returning from Door County, we attended Appleton's annual Flag Day parade with one of our grandson's, Joren Eickelberg. I was proud of my personal Vietnam Veteran, Richard Paul, as well as all those in the parade.

June 12, 2009

Trying to catch up again with our blog page! When we arrived home from our anniversary time up in Door County, our son-in-law Rich Tegge was working on the new steps he had built for us. When the grandkids came over, I took a picture of them on the new steps.