Home, again

Sunrise...OB

ORMOND BEACH, FL - - Well, here we are.  Back at home in Ormond Beach.  We've cleaned out our VW "Bus" and again marveled at what we had stuffed inside.  You would think after six (five month) trips out West we would have packing down to a science.  Close, but not quite. 
     You could say that things are about back to normal...what ever that is.  We've been out to a couple of our bird locations.  It looks like our feathered friends are still on vacation.  So we'll take it easy and wait a bit for the weather to cool down (80's) before checking again.  Fortunately we know our favorite restaurants are still open.

1498; 1499; 1500

WEST END, NC - -  I know there were doubters out there.  Too many pieces; they won't finish the puzzle.  Here it is all done.  1500 pieces, no empty holes.  Now, what do we do with it??

Blue skies

French streetscape

John Burroughs two story cabin

Saugerties lighthouse

SOUTHERN PINES, NC - - After 10 days of rain, grey skies, more rain and mostly miserable weather, today the skies are blue.  Thankfully, there was no serious flooding where we are like there was in South Carolina.  So, what do you do when the weather is crappy: hang out in our favorite coffe house; spend lots of time (Lydia) on a 1,500 piece jig saw puzzle or grab an Amtrack train to Poughkeepsie, NY to visit my mother and brother.
     Some of the weather followed us tp Pok but we went out exploring just the same.  John Burroughs was a literary naturalist who liked to hang out in the woods.  His two story cabin, called 'slabsides' because of the rough-sided wood he used to build it, is now  nature center.
     The Saugerties Lighthouse went into use in 1869 and continued until 1950.  It is only 46 feet tall and was used to cover a very narrow section of the Hudson River.  It is now maintained by a local lighthouse association and functions as a two unit bed and breakfast.  The nature trail you traverse to reach the lighthouse could be termed 'interesting.'
    Last Sunday we were in Penn Station in NYC ready to hop on our train but aware of the bad weather in the Carolinas.  Thirty minutes to go and one moment the schedule board says our train is on time and the next minute "CANCELLED."  (In all, it was cancelled four days straight.)  We got lucky and were able to get on another train headed to New Orleans, but going through Greensboro.  The train stopped at 12:15am and Lydia's brother picked us us.  Luckily we got near our destination.  Not sure how a lot of the other cancelled passengers fared.  (Our route home to OB...I-95...ended up having 75 miles closed for a period of time but we still have a couple of days yet before we're due back.)