As the days begin to get slightly longer some of us are craving the warmth of Spring.  I have chosen images that will remind us of those days.  On a warm April day in 2008 we took our dog Mya to a local state park, Quail Hollow.  She is an Aussie Shephard/Border Collie mix, who delights in chasing squirrels and herding whatever creatures may be around particularly my husband and me.  April is a good month in northeast Ohio.  The winter has come to an end (per the calendar) the snows we do get melt a lot faster and there are many warmer days.  This was a warm day, the sun was shining and the air had the scent of warm earth.  Anyone who lives in Ohio knows what I am talking about, the smell of dirt and grass coming out of the deep freeze- fresh and musty all rolled into one.  There are buds, new blooms and sprouts everywhere.  The world becomes green again!  A person can take a deep breath without the bitter cold burning ones lungs.  We are lucky here in the fact that we have so many great state parks and recreational areas to enjoy.  I am getting a little antsy this winter myself and can’t wait for there to be more warmer days than colder ones, and to shake off the cabin fever.  Hang in there fellow Ohioans Spring is just around the corner!

Quail Hollow is a very state park on the north side of Hartville, Ohio (a lot of family history in Hartville for us, but that is a story for another day).  The park has bike trails, horse trails and plenty of hiking trails.  

It was a bitter cold January 2009 and we found ourselves in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a little gig called DJ Junior’s Rockabilly Riot.  My husband’s band at the time (Rumbledaddy) was playing this event.  A lot of our travels revolve around gigs, which is convenient when you get a little cash to hit the road.  We are relatively early risers so even though we hit the bed around 4 am we often are up very early the next day and venturing out into the nuances of whatever little area we are in.  Now this is just one of several trips to the Pittsburgh music scene, ah there are so many great memories and pictures, but only two for today.  After our complimentary breakfast we began our adventure.  This was pre-motorhome time so we stayed in only the finest of hotels such as the Comfort Inn.  We had decided we needed to check out the Duquesne Incline and an area called the South Side. Now my Parents had taken my Brother and I to Pittsburgh in our travels when we were young.   I don’t remember much about the trip except the Incline was in my memory a giant track that went up a mountain!  Now we all know better than this, but in a child’s eyes it is pretty spectacular, and in my grown up eyes it was just as spectacular.  Oh my, the tracks-the lines-the history- the architecture-the cables and gears.   My mind raced with images, it was like candy for my brain.  This particular image is of the room at the top where the giant cables are.  The room smelled of metal and oil, the smooth whirring of the cables was music to my ears. 

I really enjoy the sights and sounds of Pittsburgh.  After we left the incline we headed over to the Church Brew Works to warm up and fill our bellies with some delicious food.  There will be more stories and more photos from different trips to Pittsburgh in the future.

Last summer we had a little trip out to Sturgis, South Dakota.   This little story is not so much about that as it is about the return trip.  This trip wasn’t made in our motorhome, due to time and fuel we had to motor out quickly so it was made in our little escape.  We stayed and traveled in our friend’s motorhome once we got there, but to and fro were in the escape.  Now we are not the kind of people that like to take the highway, we like to meander around the back roads.  This makes the trip more interesting and most always turns into some kind of adventure.  Well on our trip back we stopped in a little town called Boonville, Missouri.  Boonville is on the Missouri River, so perfect place to stop and stretch the legs.  We thought we would move around a bit then head back out, but this little town caught our interest.  The Missouri River was spectacular!  To get this picture I had to deal with some serious arachnophobia.  What you don’t see in this picture is we are standing on another bridge.  On the bridge we are standing on are thousands of these disgusting spiders with webs everywhere, I wanted to remember that sunset over the river but holy Toledo there were a lot of spiders!  Well the sun was going down quickly and you can bet I wanted off that bridge while I could still see where those spiders were.

We were hungry and tired and as we pulled away we drove by this old hotel, The Hotel Frederick, it was if time had stood still, we drove by again and decided just to see how much a room was, well it was affordable and the decision was made we were staying at The Hotel Frederick.  We signed in and received a key, yes a real key, this was an old hotel.  We lugged stuff in, by stuff I mean guitars, road clothes and camera equipment.  We went up the old elevator and stepped off into beautiful wooden hallways.  The room was luxurious and after 3 weeks plus on the road a gourmet meal and a Jacuzzi tub were just what the doctor ordered!  I cannot say enough about the hotel or the restaurant.  They took us in, wearing our dusty cowboy boots and treated us like royalty.  When we got up in the morning we decided to enjoy the complimentary breakfast, wow, it was if it was 1901, everyone set around a large dining room table there was fruit and rolls, we helped ourselves.   After this we loaded the equipment back in the little escape and hit the road.

I don't have many words tonight.  In February of 2012 we took an unexpected and  bittersweet trip to Richmond, Virginia when my husband Steve's Uncle Rob had passed.   After the funeral we headed down to Smithfield, Virginia to see our Grandson.  We were sad, and in memory of Uncle Rob we made a decision.  Uncle Rob had been many places from West Coast to East Coast, North to South seeing many things along the way.  We decided to take the long way home meandering through towns and seeing different things.  From this choice came photos, and a song "The Old Coal Trail".   I chose this picture of all the pictures I had because it is such a graphic image of the desolation and deterioration of some of the areas we drove through. I think what suprised me the most were the houses, settling into the cold ground with broken railings, missing windows, and sagging roofs.  People were living in them,these were their homes.  They  peered from around curtains as my shutter clicked, watching us as we watched them.  I wanted to talk to them to find out their stories, but this was not the trip nor the time.

The Old Coal Trail