It’s now been five weeks of shelter in place — besides grocery shopping walking Pasadena has been our only outdoors exercise. I have been walking 5 to 7 miles a day and have about run out of new neighborhoods to explore. Hope you enjoy some of the sights that I have uncovered.
It’s been 3 weeks since we have been under the states stay at home order. In the first week we were able to use golf courses – good walking exercise – but no longer. So to exercise I decided to walk 5-6 miles a day – I found some new neighborhoods that I didn’t know existed. This week southern california has received several days of much needed rain which has shortened my walks to breaks in the rain. While walking I snapped pictures of some of my favorite locals, houses and flowers — ENJOY.
On January 3rd we arrived in Dublin CA to spend a late Christmas and New Years celebration with our northern CA kids. In addition to enjoying family time we also were lucky to see a Chinese New Year display of lanterns in Pleasanton CA. On the 6th we arrived in Pasadena after a 3500 mile very enjoyable journey. We then agreed we will only have one more cross country drive – when we head back to Florida to be full time residents.
Lantern Light Carnival
A lot of snow along this stretch – we spent New Years Eve in Moab UT then 3 hours we won’t talk about in the mountains of UT finally ending up in Ely NV in a blinding snow storm. Our goal was to make Dublin CA on the 3rd of January and we were successful.
Colorado
Nevada
Early start on the 28th and headed to Bristol which is on the border on Tenn. and Virginia. We tried to see a specific park and trail for some exercise and found that our GPS was useless in this area. So we wandered along the border between states and found the cities train station which caught my eye. Moving through Tennessee we stopped at Cumberland Gap and drove the auto route to the gaps top overlooking the valley.
The gap is where the borders of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia converge, a path to new worlds appears. Early native Americans traveled through it along a game trail, before English-speaking settlers, including Daniel Boone, came through in the 1700s to carve out what became known as Wilderness Road. According to many accounts, between 200,000 and 300,000 settlers came through the Gap into Kentucky and beyond from 1775 to 1810.
Moving on we stopped at Cumberland Falls SP – for some much need exercise after driving the twisting and turning RT 90 along the mountains ridge line. Known as the “Niagara of the South,” the 125-foot wide curtain of water is dramatic day or night. But it’s only at night during a full moon that you can see the moonbow. The “moonbow,” also called a white rainbow or lunar rainbow, is formed just like a rainbow—light is refracted in tiny water droplets—and appears for the two or so days, as long as the sky is clear, on either end of the full moon.
Pushing on we enjoyed the back road scenery of Tennessee then for the next two days we cruised through Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Bristol Va.
Cumberland Gap and Cumberland Falls SP
Back Roads Tennessee
On the 27th we started our drive across country utilizing our preferred routing – off the interstates. We enjoyed the back roads of NC, a walk around the NC Zoo grounds to breakup the drive, a stop in Wilkesboro NC for lunch and a hike along The Cascades Falls Trail on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Wilkesboro is also the home of the legend of Tom Dooley (http://visitwilkesboronc.com/2013/05/23/the-tom-dooley-mystery/) – you should check it out — lunch at Dooleys Grill and Tavern was fantastic with sandwiches big enough for lunch and dinner.
Back Roads North Carolina
Cascades Falls Trail
As we spent a few days around Christmas celebrating with our family in North Carolina we decided to take several day and evening trips to explore the area. Our first stop was to see Vollis Simpson’s Famous Sculptures On Display In Historic Downtown Wilson. The Whirligigs were made over a 30 year period by Simpson and originally displayed about 11 miles from downtown before being transported downtown to develop the park. An excellent description of Simpson and the park can be found at: https://www.wilsonwhirligigpark.org/the-story
Vollis Simpson Sculpture Park
Leaving the sculpture garden we head to Wilson Botanical Gardens – The Wilson Botanical Gardens (WBG) were designed to showcase the diversity of plant material that can be used in the home landscape, and to educate and entertain visitors with youth and adult programs. It includes an extensive tree collection, turf grass demonstration plots, perennial beds, a children’s garden, and an exhibit of native plants.
Wilson Botanical Gardens
We made an evening trip the see the Piper Family Light show in Wake Forest. The family has been offering the display for the last 30 years. The display is spread over 7 acres and includes a drive-through, a train ride and a candy store. This year the family’s display appeared on ABC’s “The Great Christmas Light Fight” and won a $50,000 prize.
Piper Family Light show
Today we toured the hill towns of Blue Ridge, Helen, Ellijay and Dahlonega and hiked the 729 feet, Amicalola Falls the tallest cascading waterfall in the South. The loop trail is 2.1 miles and you must ascend about 600 stairs and a mildly steep quarter-mile incline to reach the top. The climb was well worth the effort, you enjoy an up close perspective of the falls and a stunning view of the mountains at the top of the falls.
Amicalola Falls
Finally have finished the documenting our year end trip from Florida to Pasadena — the opportunity to finish has been granted by the horrible Coronavirus. I hope this finds you all well and are handling cabin fever as we are. We were hoping to be back in Florida soon but alas the virus has put our home sale on hold and we will be in Pasadena until the market returns. I will be publishing the trip over the next several days — so enjoy.
I have upgraded my blog site and the URL is: peterskucma.photography — if you enjoy the posts please feel free invite others to join.
We are Back in Pasadena after a 3000 mile cross country trip enjoying the sites and roads of this country. Most importantly we were able to spend time with family in North Carolina and Northern California over the holidays. Our first leg was from OB to Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain GA.(https://www.callawaygardens.com/). We spent the day touring the gardens and the night at their Fantasy in Lights. Riding by open air tram in the low 30’s was more than invigorating.
The Gardens, Butterfly Center and Aviary
Fantasy in Lights
Travelling Photographer 