The Gathering Place, Maggie Valley NC

While I'm not traveling, here is a post from an earlier trip that originally appeared on another of my sites on October 18, 2008.

I'm writing this on Friday, October 17th while sitting in the West Carolina Internet Cafe in Dillsboro, NC and using their free (if you bring your own laptop) Wi-Fi. I chose WCIF because they also offer printing and faxing services and I needed to use both in connection with my employer. Earlier today we took a stroll through downtown Sylva, which is about 15 miles west of our campground and then drove here to Dillsboro which is just a couple of miles beyond Sylva so I could use WCIF, and afterward we drove another 15 miles northwest to Bryson City.

So, driving around on the "donut" spare was not something I wanted to do a lot of, but we had an opportunity we could not pass up. My in-laws have been telling us for a while about a very charming bed & breakfast in Maggie Valley called The Gathering Place and in fact Cindy's aunt and uncle were staying there on Wednesday, so we were invited to join them for breakfast at the B & B and meet the owner, Laura, who my father-in-law refers to as his "second daughter."

We had a delightful time! Laura is a sweetheart who owns and runs the B & B as well as housing abused dogs and horses on the lodge property. She is one of those few folks that I've met and liked from the moment we were introduced. Enjoying breakfast with her, my in-laws, Cindy's parents and two other guests just reinforced that affection. Later, Laura took Cindy and I on a tour of the B & B and we talked a lot about what work had gone into the B & B and our upcoming cabin construction.

I took two pictures of Laura to use on the  blog and somehow both came out with her eyes closed, which I couldn't see on the small viewscreen of my camera when I checked the photos. But here is one of the B & B from the small lake with Cindy and Laura standing on one of the decks talking.

Iowa Wind Farms

While I'm not traveling, here is a post from an earlier trip that originally appeared on another of my sites on September 6, 2008.

One of the startling things you see when you first arrive in Iowa (if you're from someplace like the Southeastern US where these are few and far between, if they exist at all) is a wind farm.

You expect to see a corn farm, soybean farm, or dairy farm; but who has a wind farm? Actually, all of the above kinds of farmers have wind farms. They install these behemoths right in the midst of those fields and let the wind generate electrical power for their farms and local electric companies.

The first time I saw one was from quite a few miles away (the land is mostly flat here and you can see across that flat expanse very well) while driving down the Interstate. Even from a distance they can be mesmerizing. The next time I saw them I was driving right next to the field they were in. Up close they look positively alien, evoking a feeling of some kind of otherworldly invasion. If they suddenly sprouted mechanical legs and began striding across the corn fields firing laser-death beams, it would seem perfectly in tune with the atmosphere they engender.

That doesn't seem to come through in the photographs, perhaps because the motion of the blades turning isn't captured in the pictures. When you're standing there watching them rotate silently, it is a completely different feeling that just doesn't come across in pictures. Still, they're awesome to see in any format.

One of the most amazing things about Wind Farms came to light during the weather forecast section of a news broadcast one night right after I arrived. The meteorologist showed a radar shot of Iowa and was talking about how clear it was...except for a section that looked like a massive system sitting over part of the state. He very casually said, "Oh and don't worry about that big spot there, it's just a false echo created by the wind farms in the area and all the movement of those turbine blades."

Iowa has 600 wind turbines that generate enough electricity to power 140,000 homes and the turbines around here are 240 feet tall.

This might give you a better idea of the size of these things.