Tag: #femalesolotraveller

Mothers’ Day

13 May 2018

Happy Mothers Day everyone!! Hope you enjoyed your day.

I was driving from Maryland to Atlantic City and can you believe I was looking for a fridge magnet for Delaware. I did finally find one without a run in with the Military or NSA.

Driving from Maryland to New Jersey I turned off the toll and motorways routes and once again found a gem of a town, Port Deposit. Even though the weather went from 32C (90F) yesterday to 11C (51F) and it was overcast I still enjoyed this charming town with a population of 650.

There are so many river and railroad towns that are part of the Civil War history and Port Deposit was one which was bypassed and had no damage.

Some of the homes.

The Paw Paw House

The Cactus Rose has a warning to unruly children.

The Water Witch Fire Station

I arrived at Atlantic City New Jersey and as this is a casino town, it is open 24 hours. I stayed in the Claridge Raddison, a hotel steeped in 1920s history.

I went to the rooftop bar and met this lovely family Marie, Juan and Wilber celebrating Mothers’ Day. Juan is from the Dominican Republic (DR) and I couldn’t resist asking his wife if she would permit me to dance bachata with her husband, as DR is the home of bachata. The barman put on latino music for us and we had some fun. This was the highlight of my Mothers’ Day.with Marie filming us.

Maryland

12 May 2018

My second time to embarrass myself with authority occurred as I crossed the border to Maryland. I had entered a stop in my GPS for a visitors centre so I could buy a fridge magnet.

When it directed me to the NSA Visitors Centre I knew Siri got it wrong. I drove up to the security and said, “oops. I am in the wrong place”. The cute guard said, “perhaps it might be the right place”. I said “I don’t think so unless you sell fridge magnets”. Yes. I know what you are all thinking. I am lucky I wasn’t arrested for stupidity. He asked me for my identification and if I knew anyone at NSA. I said I did but he was based in Hawaii now (sorry Paul but I didn’t give him your name). I was quite nervous but trying not to laugh at the same time at how stupid I must have looked. The guard just said politely “Mam. Please make a Uturn to the left to exit”. I have heard of people being questioned for hours when taking a wrong turn. I must have looked genuinely stupid. I did get my magnet just before I crossed the border to Delaware at a petrol station.

After my NSA excitement I found my airbnb, I was exhausted from driving from Pennsylvania and was going to have a rest. I was going through Meet up app and found a ballooning festival (Howard County Ballooning Festival) 50 minutes away. I contacted the host Dakota, confirmed the address, got changed and arrived at the festival 1 hour after I checked into my airbnb.

I met Dakota, Chas, James and their lovely friends.

I missed the hotdog eating competition and an hour after I got there, an announcement was made that the balloon glow was cancelled as a storm was coming through. This was the best photo I got of any of the balloons.

I was disappointed but I felt for all the children who were looking forward to the hot air balloons. It was a 3 day festival, free, but parking was $US20 each day and by looking at many of the people the parking would have been a lot of money for them, as it was for my limited budget. I didn’t return the next day as it rained all day.

Straight after the festival I found a salsa Meetup 45 minutes away. I arrived at Mr Mambo Salsa but was told by someone in the carpark that there was no dancing there ( I later found out I was on the wrong side of the building). I checked the Meetup and went to an alternate address 45 minutes the other way. I love when I cross borders my phone GPS announces “Welcome to …” in this case it was Virginia. I just drove 4 hours in the morning from Pennsylvania to Maryland and then all of a sudden I am in Washington DC crossing over to Virginia. I love this country!!

Arriving at the salsa venue I find out it is the wrong place and salsa was on where I was at previously. I know most of you would give up and go back to your accommodation ( mine was 40 minutes away) but it was Saturday night and I hadn’t danced since the cruise 3 weeks ago!! I went back to the previous venue and found salsa and bachatta!!

I got my fix of dancing and a pic with Mr Mambo

I got my fix for dancing but I do miss my Sydney dance venues and partners.

Pennsylvania

11 May 2018

Ohiopyle Falls!! Why didn’t I know about this place? Thank you to the Park officer at Fort Necessity who mentioned this gem of a place. This is a place I want to return to for a few days and do some whitewater rafting and hiking.

Just down the road is Cucumber Falls.

Ohiopyle Falls were previously known as Falls City and located 25 minutes from the little town of Hopwood (this is my current airbnb) Hopwood has a population of 1,900 and, as many parts of the USA, abounds with history.

Fort Necessity is the location of George Washington”s first battle and defeat. He was 22 years old.

The George Washington Tavern was a stagecoach stop, just down the road from Fort Necessity.

I had the privilege of being given a private tour of the Bruderhof New Meadow Run Community in Farmington. The Bruderhof is a self sustaining Christian community with about 230 members. There are settlements in Germany, England and Australia. The Australian one is set in Inverell, NSW.

They are a passive community where their children are schooled within the community and they have a high school in Upstate New York.

They have a wood furniture factory in their community and also publish books which are free. Thank you to Ben for showing me around and Frances for giving me a female perspective on the community.

The impressive Great Cross of Christ sits on the mountain at Jumonville. It stands 18.2 metres (60 feet) high, 756 metres (2480 feet) above sea level and was built after WWII.

Charleston West Virginia

10 May 2018

Today I really wasn’t into doing much but had to find a fridge magnet for West Virginia (WV). My stop at the capital of WV, Charleston, had a gift shop in the West Virginia State Museum where I succeeded in finding my magnet.

This museum has one of the best displays of history. I was very moved in many parts, especially at the end of the tour with the song“Take me home country road, to the place, I belong. West Virginia.Mountain Mamma. Take me home“. This museum covered railroads and coal mining, marching bands and immigration, a pumpkin festival and Italian festival and of course the Civil War and much more.

The quirky post today is this display in the museum. The Dressed Fleas Emmiline and Alexander.

The Capitol Building in Charleston WV.

Charleston University

Some of the houses on the Ohio River who have a direct view of the Capitol Building.

My highlight for today was cooking for my airbnb hosts in Pennsylvania, Keith and Shanda. I have been missing my home cooking and cooked potato and carrot soup, pasta sauce “a la Edi” and tomorrow I will cook my brocolli soup and tortellini carbonara.

Augusta Ohio/Huntington West Virginia

The road from Cincinatti Ohio to West Virginia runs through beautiful green lush country side. The treescape makes for a pleasant drive as was the scenery through Kentucky, Virginia, North and South Carolina. The roadkill through those states has been significant compared to what I see on my roadtrips driving from New South Wales to Queensland.

The roadkill I have seen is around 50 animals per hour, often small, which I expect would be squirrels and birds, and larger raccoons, possums, small pigs or hogs and a few larger furry animals I could not discern. I prefer not to drive at night as I expect I would encounter more live animals on the road at that time than I do through the day. I am thankful the animals I have almost hit were on roads where I was travelling slow enough to miss them without putting myself in danger. A few orange birds which I think are the Northern Cardinal (the state bird of Kentucky) have played chicken with my car several times, I had to stop several times for squirrels, twice for beaver and once for a turkey. I have no intention or wish to hit any animal, for theirs and my safety. This country has lots of wild animals. I have yet to see a bear and would enjoy that so long as he or she isn’t hungry and is not coming in my direction.

I didn’t do much sightseeing today but I stopped off at Augusta Kentucky (there are several States where you continually cross their borders as the road winds in and out of the State).

I saw a documentary with George Clooney about this town of 1,100. He went to Augusta University and his aunt, the actress, singer, Rosemary Clooney lived in Augusta.

Augusta’s history dates back to 1787

and has a ferry which takes cars across the Ohio River for $5US.

Some of their historical buildings

On arriving in Huntington WV fatigue has set in and I will have a rest for the remainder of today.

I will take this opportunity to provide some information which might be of use for others who are planning a roadtrip.

Travelmath.com is a trip calculator for distances in kilometres and miles, travel time between 2 cities and naming cities or towns to stop in between.

Something very frustrating in the USA is mobile phone reception for data and/or calls. For a country which sends people to the moon and into space it has not mastered phone and data service in all parts of their country. I have been without reception in Mississippi and now in Huntington West Virginia (WV), the second largest city in WV, I have no reception. Whistleout is an excellent site which shows you the coverage for providers and not one covers all the USA.

Kentucky to Ohio

7 May 2018

Every time I cross another border I am amazed at what I see. I seem to continually say “it is soo pretty” or “WTF, how big can these houses get!” I have to say these to myself as I cannot call my friends because of the time difference in Australia or unless they are here in the moment it just is not the same or they get annoyed that it is a reminder they are at work and I am not. It is probably the worst part of travelling alone, not having someone to share the moment, but it doesn’t make me want to change anything. I would be happy for someone to join me but I am really enjoying the whole experience, even the melancholy moments, which do not last for long.

There are people around whom I can have a chat with, whether it is the hotel manager who works the late shift that I had a late night snack with or the elderly man who insisted on escorting me across the Roebling Suspension Bridge from Kentucky to Ohio.

Or the person who filmed this crazy 50+ year old climbing the flying pigs sculpture in Cincinatti.

There’s always someone who will fulfill my need to have a chat.

Cincinatti was known as “porcopolis” in the 1800s so they have a Flying Pigs Marathon and flying pigs to welcome you to the riverfront.

Cincinatti is known as the Queen City of Ohio. A Queen City is the largest city of a State or province which isn’t the capital.

Then there are the people dancing on the keyboard of the Smale Park Foot Piano.

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The Smale Park tulips in the Alzheimer’s Garden.

The Roebling Covington Floodwall murals on the Kentucky side of the Roebling Suspension Bridge.

And I went to my first baseball game in the USA at the Great American Ballpark the home of the Cincinatti REDS. What a lot of fun these games are, not just to enjoy the game but the audience fun with Kiss Cam and shooting T-shirts out of a cannon into the audience and general fun capturing the audience on screen.

I got a certificate for my first baseball game and had the obligatory photo with a police officer and the REDS mascot.

Thank you Amber for the great night.

Pikeville Kentucky

6 May 2018

I woke up to a heavy rain but decided no matter what, I was going sightseeing.

I drove to Pauley Bridge (the bridge to nowhere) and just as I stepped onto the bridge the sun came out and the rain stopped.

The Breaks known as the Grand Canyon of the South is on the border of Virginia (Virginia is for Lovers) and Kentucky, 48 km (30 miles) from Pikeville.

This is the vista from the Kentucky side overlooking the Russell Fork River, which is popular for whitewater rafting.

I then drove to the Stateline Lookout on the Virginia side of The Breaks.

The Breaks Stateline Lookout Virginia

I thought these Elk were cute in Elkhorn City.

The Hatfield and McCoy feud is a very big part of Pikeville history and could be compared in some ways to Australia’s Ned Kelly story. The town has a historical trail of the Feud including the resting place of some involved in the feud.

I have been complaining about the weight I am gaining because I am driving so much and not dancing. I heard about the 99 steps of UPike (University of Pikeville). “UPike climb of 99” . So I decided to do this walk for some exercise. This climb is also part of an initiation for Freshmen.

What a surprise when I got to the top that I was given a goodies bag as congratulations.

Did I say I did the walk because of my weight gain?

These cute bear structures are scattered around Pikeville.

AS a volunteer for the Red Cross Emergency Services I am keen to meet up with other volunteers around the world. When I found this sign for the Red Cross I asked where the volunteer office was located. Someone in uniform advised me that they were located on the 4th floor. No-one was in the office but I soon realised I was in the local gaol.

Behind the corrections facility you will find the Pikeville Drag Racing track.

I ended my time in Pikeville with this sad story of Octavia Hatcher

Kentucky

5 May 2018

Today I left North Carolina for Pikeville Kentucky. I randomly chose Pikeville as a stop as it was just over three (3) hours drive from Asheville.

A reminder that the goal of my trip is to visit the States I have not yet been to, today I started in North Carolina and to my excitement within three (3) hours I drove through Tennessee, West Virginia and Virginia to get to Kentucky. So today I could mark off three (3) more States. Although I won’t count them until I have stopped at some spot of interest.

The drive got a bit scary at times. It started raining as I crossed into Kentucky. It was pelting down and at times the car aquaplaned. The road was very steep and winds through the Appalachian mountains and there were many spots where the water funneled across the road rather than down the side of the road. Thankfully the drivers here aren’t like the aggressive Floridians.

Arrived at my motel, the Daniel Boone Motor Inn, yep, he was a real person, not just in the TV show. He is famous for exploring and settling one of the first American townshipswest of the Appalachians, Boonesborough, Kentucky. I took it easy the first night in Pikeville as the rain has not let up.

Tybee Island Day 2

2 May 2018

I loved Tybee Island so much and I pneeded to rest so I decided to do that at the beach and enjoy this feel good spot in Savannah.

On the way there, something in my rear vision mirror caught my attention. I had been watching the news earlier and there was a discussion about tornadoes. My first reaction to the black shape in the distance was that it could be a tornado. When I got to stop at the lights I realised it was smoke. I made a mental note to check if it was a bushfire or something else.

When I arrived at the beach I hired a beach chair for $US5, paid $US6 for parking and just had a nap in between watching the school children again frolicking in the water and digging in the sand to China.

I didn’t give the smoke another thought until a news report popped up on Google that a National Guard plane crashed on a road just outside Savannah Hilton Head International Airport. None of the 9 passengers survived but miraculously the plane did not hit any vehicles or homes when it crashed on the Savannah 21. Very sad for the families of the deceased.

In the evening I revisited the Doubles Nightclub for some “shag” dancing. I danced with some people I met there 3 years ago. Thank you to Barbara and Mary Ann for making me feel welcome.

A lovely way to end my second visit to one of my favourite cities.

Tybee Island Georgia

1 May 2018 Already!!

The start of my third month of travel. Can you believe it!! I have only visited 2 of the 30 States I plan on doing on this trip. I have had to cross other States I have already done to do that but soon I will be venturing to more States not yet touched.

Today I explored Tybee Island Georgia for the first time. What a pretty place. The sand isn’t the sparkling white of the Gulf Coast but the whole place has a good vibe with a pavillion and several wooden fishing piers and quaint wooden swing benches dotted along the beach.

There is a Marine Science Centre near the beach and there were many (Primary) elementary school kids on excursion. It was so beautiful watching them enjoy the sand and surf.

A teacher told me it was the first time at the beach for many of the children. They were given small kitchen sieves to dig the sand in the water to find shells and they are taught about looking after the environment for the animals such as birds and turtles.

I met a lovely couple, Janice and Mike who recommended some places in Maine and Michigan for me to visit. Someone thought we were friends and took this pic, pointing out she wanted to include the wording on the fence. “I love life”. Messages everywhere for me!

Something I would like to see implemented in Sydney is the Park and Pay system on the island. You pay for a parking ticket which can be used anywhere on the island, not just one place, for whatever time period you pay for.

I could have stayed at the beach all day, but I had exploring to do.

Fort Screven

Tybee Island Lighthouse

And some colourful moments around the island

Back in Savannah I have been sitting in this lovely park, Forsyth Park (one of 2 largest in Savannah) updating my blog.

The city encourages people to hang hammocks and slack lines across the park trees. Another thing Sydney needs to loosen up on.

The oldest, most expensive hotel in Savannah, Manion on Forsyth Park has a display of hats covering the period from 1860s.

The elegant Ladies Restroom.

Savannah’s Jones Street is said to be the origin of the saying “keeping up with the Jones’ “.

So many places I have been to in the USA have beautiful decorations and furniture outside their homes. How lovely to be able to do this without vandalism and theft marring the neighbourhoods.

I found a trivia group held on Tuesdays in Wild Wings Cafe in Pooler on Meet Ups with an East Londoner host. Missing my trivia friends and family in Sydney.

We came 1st!!