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Bluegrass and Blue Ridge 5-12-21 (Knoxville, TN)

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We have not had great weather this entire trip, unseasonably cold and very little sunshine, but this morning is the wettest and coldest day so far…and we are headed for the highest elevation on the trip.  On the way to our first stop, we watched a Ken Burns video about the Great Smoky Mountains.  It was a good diversion from the foggy, rain covered bus windows that obscured our view as we traveled along the Blue Ridge Parkway. Up first this morning was the Museum of the Cherokee Indian.  With a mission “to preserve and perpetuate the history, culture, and stories of the Cherokee people”, the museum covers 13,000 years of their history.  Unfortunately we were not able to actually visit the museum as it was unexpectedly closed, something we discovered only after the majority of the bus had made their way to the museum doors.  There are a few advantages to being at the back of bus as we did not even make it off the bus! Onward to our next stop, the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
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Amazon Adventure 5-16-17 (Packing)

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All my packs are packed...NOT Making a list and checking it twice, or more.   I will probably over pack, but not needing to check luggage at the airport allows that freedom! Planning for most healthcare contingencies, I have packed a mobile pharmacy.  Should be able to treat most minor ailments without looking for a drugstore or visiting sick bay. We have completed all sewing projects (a pair of linen slacks, evening jackets, shortening the sleeves on a new top, etc). One recommendation was to apply permethrin to the clothing we will be wearing when hiking around the Amazon.  We completed that today as the weather conditions were finally favorable.  Both low humidity and calm winds are a rare combination in Indiana this time of year! I think we have finished shopping.  The list seemed never ending as items were being added almost daily during the last month.  But with the purchase of additional memory cards for the cameras, extra batteries, and a couple Misson Towels, all items have be
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Amazon Adventure 4-30-17 (Cruise Details)

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 We will be sailing on the Regent Seven Seas Navigator.  This is the same ship we sailed on our Alaskan cruise several years ago. The Navigator is a smaller ship with only 245 rooms and holds up to 500 passengers.  The Navigator will have just finished a 128 day around the world cruise shortly before we board. Regent is an all inclusive cruise line with the fare including all tips, all beverages (including alcohol and wines), specialty dining, and a selection of shore excursions in each port of call.  Also included is Internet access, round trip airfare and in some suites, a pre-cruise hotel accommodations. This particular cruise is also a Smithsonian Journey.  That means we will have a guest lecturer on board who is a specialist in the Amazon.  Our Alaskan cruise also had this feature and it provided an excellent opportunity to learn more about the ports we visited and the local flora and fauna. Our cruise will last 25 days, beginning in Miami, FL on May 23, 2017.  We plan on arriving
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Amazon Adventure 4-28-17 (Pre-Trip Prep)

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 We are now less than four weeks out from our adventure and beginning to be overwhelmed by all the details of preparing for a trip of this length! By way of an overview of our sojourn to the equator, we are driving to Miami, where we will board our cruise ship, the Regent Navigator.  The cruise itself is 25 days with several ports of call in the Caribbean on the way to the Amazon.  Sailing down the Amazon to the Brazilian city of Manaus and back to the Atlantic Ocean will take 7 days.  The return to the US includes stops at Devil's Island and a few additional Caribbean Islands and will have us back in Miami where we will pack up the car and drive back to Indy. Packing has begun....that means we have begun selecting items we THINK we want to take and stacking them on the bed in the spare bedroom.  We need to plan for the sun and surf of the Islands, the heat, humidity and BUGS of the Amazon, and the formal dress of the cruise ship.  Besides clothing, there are electronics (iPads, Ph
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Bluegrass to Blue Ridge 5-11-21 (Asheville, NC)

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Today is all about the Biltmore…the home and grounds. Matt, a local guide, joined us on the bus as we left the Biltmore Inn.  He shared with us the history of the Estate and how George Washington Vanderbilt, the grandson of Cornelius Vanderbilt, came to build in North Carolina.  The largest privately owned home in the US, it is still owned by descendants of George V.  The estate at one time consisted of 125,000 acres, but following his unexpected death in 1914, his wife completed the sale of 87,000 acres to the federal government.  This parcel is currently  included in the Pisgah National Forest as a condition of the sale was that it remain in its’ natural state for all to enjoy. The grounds surrounding the estate were designed by Frederick Law Olmstead, famous for designing Central Park in New York City.  In addition to formal gardens and landscaping surrounding the house, a large portion of the land was planted with 3.1 million trees.  White pine, white, oak and hemlock were cu
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Bluegrass to Blue Ridge 5-10-21 (Asheville, NC)

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Breakfast this morning was a little odd.  With the hotel under renovation, they have limited services and space, but the dining room was not really ready for us.  We were the first ones down at 7am and were told to take a seat.  We found plenty of open tables…in the dark.  It took several minutes before anyone could figure out how to turn the lights on. The young girl that took our orders was also working the Starbucks kiosk and running back and forth.  She did not write anything down when we gave her our orders and then she had to come back and get them again.  When the orders came out, only one order came, and that was packed in a bag as a “to go” order.  When other orders began coming out, they were in the “to go” containers, minus the paper bag.  Oh the joys of COVID travel; until our tour, they have only been doing carry out! Heading to Asheville, NC today, so the bus trip started with a Ken Burns video.  This short movie focused on the importance of the Cumberland Gap in the
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Bluegrass to Blue Ridge 5-9-21 (Lexington, KY)

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Horse Day Breakfast started with an other appetizer…Muesli…popular with a lot of Europeans, I can’t seem to enjoy it.  But as usual on a Tauck trip, there was plenty of other food to enjoy.  Today we move to Lexington, so bags needed to be ready by 7:30am and we were on the bus at 8:30am. With many outside activities planned today, the weather was a factor.  So far it has been unseasonably cold and overcast; today we added wind and rain.  First up on the agenda, Churchill Downs. Our visit comes just one week after the running of the 147th Kentucky Derby.  The Derby grounds have a very special feel, different from any other race track I have been to.  After a brief discussion regarding timing of the morning events, we headed straight outside to beat the rain. About a dozen horses were working out and we lined up along the “rail” and took pictures of the passing horses.  Back inside we headed up to the suites where we had great view of the grounds, the infield, the paddock, the
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