For the Moms

I'm sure many of you have already seen this, but I love it. Since it is Mother's Day weekend and since I have nothing of substance to post about today (I know...you're thinking, "Isn't that everyday!"). Here is Anita Renfroe

Give me a sign!

From the last of the North Carolina photos I give you:

"Road signs you will not find in Indiana"
(At least my part of Indiana)

Nope, not going to find a tunnel. The closest thing to a tunnel that you might find around here is driving on a rural road between 2 corn fields in August.

Semis just do not travel at that angle around here

I've never even seen this sign until now. My first thought was, "Wow! What kind of horrific accident happened here that the police felt the need to put up a permanent sign!" I'm having thoughts of CSI teams searching the area. I kid you not! Then I saw the place on the side of the road where you could pull over and examine any damage to your vehicle without being taken out by trucks careening down the mountain. DUH!!

Now we do have a variation of this in Indiana, but this sign is at EVERY bridge and over pass south of the Kentucky state line. Here you don't really need the sign because everything is iced over here. The bridge, the road, the driveway, the lock to your car. You get the picture.

As a side note, after this weekend I have a new pet peeve - 10 miles of construction zone where there is absolutely NO construction. No trucks, no equipment, no workers, NOTHING. Just 4 or 5 construction barrels out in the median. But there may be a cop, so you had better follow the rules and slow down.

And now for my favorite sign of all, and these are in Indiana

When I see this sign I hear a voice in my head that sounds a lot like Darrell Waltrip and it says, "Boogedy, Boogedy, Boogedy, let's go racing boys!"

Adventures in driving with a camera

Hello, my name is Heidi, and I take photos while driving. Not a lot, but on rare occasions I will snap something fast. Having said that I would also like to point out that most of these I took from the passenger side of the car. This is the view from the road in North Carolina. The photo doesn't do it justice. Beautiful sunshine hitting the mountains and puffy white clouds.

It's beautiful isn't it. This is what my husband was doing

Yep...studying

This is my new definition of "White-knuckle driving"! Shooting down the interstate and down the mountain, picking up speed, sandwiched between an immovable concrete barrier and an immovable semi-truck while taking a curve at what seemed like a 90 degree angle.

No - I wasn't driving. I may be wierd, but I'm not insane!

And now a few random things along the interstate for your enjoyment

Hmmm, I thought I smelled something

Ahh, Barbourville, Kentucky. This is for Mom and Dad. About 15 years ago our family went to check out a church that needed a pastor in that area. Here is where we learned that we Illinois people did not belong in Southeastern Kentucky. It's a funny story, ask me sometime!!

Now in the "Things that make you go, Hmmmm" category. Notice the HUGE cross on the left. Notice the adult bookstore on the right. Wonder how the people feel exiting the store to a huge cross staring them in the face. I hope that cross is lit up like a torch at night!!

NC - Part 2

Let's see where were we? After the afternoon at the arboretum we headed to downtown Asheville. Heather had recommended the Tupelo Honey Cafe for dinner. It had been featured on a Rachael Ray show that I happened to see so I was familiar with the name.

Not my photo by the way

So to make Heather proud I ordered the blackened cajun catfish, goat cheese grits, biscuits with whipped peach butter and tupelo honey and a big glass of sweet tea. Let me just say Mmmmmmmm!!! It was Southern cooking at its finest. Dusty had....drumroll please.....a burger and an orange soda. Once again, I accused him of sucking all of the fun out of the room. He said something about not liking grits or goat cheese or something like that. I couldn't really hear him because I was eating and going "Mmmmmmmmmm" :)

We spent some time walking around downtown looking at all of the shops. Then out of nowhere the sidewalk jumped up and viciously attacked me. OK..that may be an exaggeration. I was walking along minding my own business and my foot slipped off a 1-inch raised section of the sidewalk. I rolled my foot and went down. I got right back up trying to look as cool as possible, but the damage was done. About one block later I thought, "Hmmm...that's starting to hurt." A couple hours later I'm thinking, "This is getting really sore." By 10:00 that night I couldn't put any weight on it without severe pain. After briefly considering if we should have it looked at, I decided to wait it out, elevate the foot, numb it with ice, numb myself with a painkiller and try to sleep. The next morning it was better, but still almost impossible to walk on. So I ended up at Walgreen's buying Advil, an Ace bandage, and a pair of crutches while being pushed around in a wheelchair.

Throughout this ordeal I was reminded that my husband is very supportive and takes great care of me. He just isn't the world's best wheelchair driver. :)

Oh and FYI I'm off the crutches and walking semi-normally. Tomorrow's post - Adventures in driving with a photography enthusiast and a new definition of "White-knuckle Driving!"

NC - Part 1

After arriving in Asheville we spent the afternoon at the North Carolina Arboretum. The scenery was beautiful. This Illinois-raised central Indiana girl loves to go to the mountains. Now I know my friend Sarah, who is from Colorado would disagree on the definition of North Carolina "mountains". Since I'm from Illinois where we had trouble finding a good sledding hill, North Carolina is mountains. :) The flowers were beautiful. I loved how these were planted in a pattern to resemble a quilt.

This little guy was fun as well - It's tiny in the photo but there is a monarch butterfly on my hand.

Then we decided to walk some trails. Here's what I had with me in the way of foot gear.

FYI - These are not really acceptable for walking on trails. Hoofing through Wal-mart maybe, but these in particular have almost outlived their usefulness. But we continued on! After a short little walk I decided that it was time to wade in the stream.

I asked Dusty, "Aren't you going to wade in with me. We're in North Carolina, you have to wade in a mountain stream!" (I don't think that's an actual rule, but it sounded good.) His reply, "Heidi there are streams in Indiana." After which I accused him of sucking all of the fun out of the place. He just stood on the bank looking like this

I went back to taking photos of the stream with varying shutter speeds and apertures trying to be artistic. I also took a photo of this:

I know at this point you're thinking 2 things: 1.) Good grief girl! Fix the nail polish on your toes! and 2.) Why the feet? Why...Why..for the love of Pete, why! And the answers - 1.) Did it tonight and 2.) I've got a theme going and you'll have to wait for part #2 of the story for more on that.

Asheville

We're back from our weekend trip. Dusty and I went out to Asheville, North Carolina. I have some photos to post later, but in reality they are just silliness and nonsense compared to why we went. Our good friend Paul's mother, Donna, passed away last week after a battle with cancer. We went to attend her memorial service. It was a beautiful and touching service for woman who was greatly loved and respected by her family, friends, and all those touched by her ministry. Seeing the many people who filled the sanctuary for the service, it is so evident that she will be deeply missed by everyone who knew her.

Silly Girls

Rachel played with her cousin Madelyn this morning. We took a short walk to a rummage sale and picked up a few items including a snazzy Dora the Explorer umbrella that Rachel didn't put down hardly all day. Rachel and Madelyn always have a lot of fun together.

I'll be away from the computer until Monday, so I'll catch up with you then. Happy Weekend!