Springtime Travels - Flexibiity is Key

I left off the last blog promising plans of travel to the 2 southern states we hadn’t yet visited: Arkansas and Louisiana. Well, best laid plans had to be changed again! I saw my doctor on March 6 and got the go ahead for travel. We were already packed and ready to go. Can you tell we were anxious to head south again and warm up?

We left that afternoon and headed to Zanesville, OH to visit some friends before heading towards Arkansas. After a very nice visit, good dinner and competitive Euchre games, we went to sleep with plans to get on the road in the morning. Our friends called while we were having breakfast to ask if we had seen the weather forecast. Severe storms were coming up through the part of the country where we were heading with some tornados expected. Somehow when we travel in the spring, we seem to always experience this issue. We thought going in March would be before the stormy season. Oh well, that is our bad luck. Good thing we are flexible and willing to change our plans. Those 2 states will have to wait for another trip.

So new plans were made. We decided to travel south a little further east and go to Asheville, North Carolina. That side of the mountains was expecting some rain but no severe storms like further west was going to get. Tim suggested we avoid the interstates and take a more scenic route on state roads and US highways. We mapped out a route south through Ohio and West Virginia then into Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and into the western side of North Carolina. It was a very pretty and relaxing drive and the weather was even pretty nice - a little overcast at times but no rain. While it took a bit longer, we both said we would travel that way again.

Unfortunately, we didn’t really stop any where to get pictures along the way. We wanted to get down close to Asheville before stopping for the night so it was not a good day to go touring; we just enjoyed the drive. If we go back, we plan to make a stop in Pikeville, KY to do the Hatfield McCoy Historic Feud Driving Tour. That was a very pretty area in the mountains and looked like a fun place to stop. Hopefully sometime in the future.

After an overnight stop in Tennessee, we drove into Asheville and found a nice Best Western that had a room available that we could get into at 11 AM when we arrived and the price was really reasonable. Yes, we stayed at a hotel instead of in the van. We felt the van just wasn’t quite ready yet to stay, and after my recent surgery, didn’t want to push it. We hope to stay in it when we head back North.

After a quick lunch, Tim and Trent rested at the hotel and I spent the afternoon touring the Biltmore Estate. Wow, what a beautiful house and wonderful location surrounded by the mountains. The paperwork said it is the largest home in America and after seeing it, I believe that. It is huge and very beautiful. I decided on the house and garden tour which took me about 2.5 hours. It was well worth the cost for me. I am sure it would have been too much walking for Tim and Trent. Trent has some problems with his paws that I will get into at the end of this post.

It was a bit of a cloudy, rainy day but not a total washout, so I was able to enjoy the outside gardens after the tour of the house. I really loved the Conservatory and some of the plants in the outside gardens were starting to bloom. I am sure it is even more beautiful now with a full bloom of the spring flowers. I hope you enjoy the pictures of both the house and the gardens.

that is a triple fireplace in this dining room

the library was one of my favorite rooms

While I was on the tour, Kim called to say that she and Greg were coming to Asheville for a few days. We decided to stay 2 more nights so we could spend some time with them. Their trip was unexpected - they were on vacation and had a trip planned to a resort in Cancun which they had to cancel last minute because one of their dogs got sick. Since she was doing a little better, they decided to get away somewhere closer to home where they could take the dogs.

We spent the next day exploring the area and drove part of the Blue Ridge Parkway. That was a beautiful drive even though part of the road is still closed and you could still see the damage from last year’s storms in the parts that we drove. We enjoyed the day and then met Kim and Greg for dinner at a brewery near where they were staying. The last day, we spent in town walking around the Grove Arcade which is a beautifully restored historic indoor shopping/business area in downtown. After some shopping and lunch we visited another brewery before heading back to their place to relax. We left the next morning to drive to Florida and they stayed for a few more days. All in all, it was a great visit.

day 2 brought nice weather for a drive on the blue ridge parkway

Another long day on the road and we arrived in Florida. We decided to spent the night on Amelia Island and check out the ocean before heading over to campground. We stayed at the Amelia Hotel and scored a room with an ocean view. It was a perfect place to stop for a night. There was a tiki bar/ restaurant across the street right on the beach so we were able to enjoy an ocean view while we had dinner, listen to a little music from the tiki bar as well as the gentle surf rolling in. We were up early and I walked over to the beach to watch the sunrise before breakfast.

the sun coming up more and getting quite red

it got redder as the sun came up more. Such a beautiful way to start the day.

Unfortunately the rainy weather finally caught up to us. We had somewhat heavy rain for our drive to Wildwood and had to set up the camper in the rain. It was a bit rainy and cool for the first week or two here but then the weather cleared and we have had beautiful days ever since. We really haven’t gone anywhere much since getting here. Just settled in to life in the campground as well as spending time in Inverness with Aunt Tish. We got out for lunch one day at Big Bass Grill on Lake Panasoffkee which isn’t too far from here. It was nice to sit outside with a water view and enjoy some fried catfish. We also went over to Winter Garden once to meet Sue and Greg and enjoy the Farmer’s market. So far, life in Florida is good!

We are now into April and have a little vacation planned. Katie and Rosie are joining us this weekend and we are spending a few days with them in Crystal River. Look for updates on our trip in the next blog post.

Now for an update on Trent. I am sure I mentioned in posts in December that he was having some problems where he seems to be in pain and starts limping. After a couple trips to the emergency vet in Florida, they could not figure out what was wrong with him. We called our vet in PA and she reminded us that he had tested positive for Anaplasmosis in the past and she thought that was the problem. She called in a script for Doxycyline and after a few days of that treatment, he was doing better. We thought we had the issue solved. While we were back in Pittsburgh, he started limping again. The vet felt it was the same issue as well as irritation due to the cold and salt on the sidewalks.

It seemed like he was getting better after finishing the 30 days on the antibiotic, but then he started having a couple of his nails break. Back to the vet we went. This time they diagnosed him with a rare autoimmune disease, Symmetric Lupoid Onychodystrophy. Basically, his nails die as they are growing and it gets very painful. It explains why he has been licking his paws so much and limping. They removed a couple nails and cut all of the rest back pretty far. He seemed to be doing better with the treatment they prescribed and we thought he was getting better but he still seems to be in pain at times. We think another nail broke so heading to a vet here tomorrow. Hope to get this under control, although he will be on maintenance dosage of Doxycycline and Omega Amino Acid for the rest of his life. We are hoping we will get this under control soon, and he will be able to grow healthy nails once on this treatment for a few months. More to come in future posts.

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Springtime Travels - Flexibiity is Key

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