Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum

Hi Friends,

Today I’m sharing a wonderful little side trip we took right off the bottom of the Blue Ridge Park Way in NC. We stopped at the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum.

http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/mfm.htm

There is a full farm here reconstructed from real farm buildings relocated from the Smokey Mountains.

First up was the beautiful Main house. It was so neat. A true log cabin.

The back and the meat house to the left.

 

A view across the field towards the barn at the back of the property.

My Husband putting on a mustache in front of the Black Smiths shop. Hahaha! He cracks me up!

Inside the shop.

Out buildings. Corn Cribs, Apple house.

A ranger working the garden.

Inside the barn.

The hay stack.

One of the Corn Cribs.

A beautiful fence.

It was a very cool step back in time.

I wonder if this era is really where I belonged? I think so. I would rather be washing clothes in the creek everyday than sitting behind this computer. ;o)

I hope you enjoyed!

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

Cherokee on Dwellable

Jonathan Creek ~ Maggie Valley, NC

Hi Friends…

I hope you aren’t tired of the beautiful scenery because I have more vacation water pics for you today!

When it’s hot… you don’t get on the bike…you go find water! So that’s just what we did.

Jonathan creek runs through Maggie Valley. It ran behind our campground and then across the street and behind Tammy and Bills Hotel. What to do?

GET IN!

This creek is raging! It’s awesome! And cold because it’s mountain water! Brrrrrr!

The creek forks right behind the hotel… Tammy and I explored both left and right. And this creek is ROCKY! not little rocks. Big rocks! Boulders under that raging water!! It was a workout!

Trying to keep my balance!

Just having a blast!

Thirsty?

Need to keep your tiny drinks from floating away?

Want to keep them cool? 

Build them a river cooler. ;o)

All natural! ;o)

What a perfect day!

You have to find just the right rocks!

 

Our cooler from the hotel balcony.

Now a tiny fishy sanctuary.

The leetle fishies came as soon as we built it.

They were so tiny and cute! I hope our little habitat is still there protecting them!

We always leave it as we found it… but this time we left a little extra for the wildlife!

 

The guys, Bill and Shane, watching us be silly in the creek! They hiked up the creek and climbed out onto that deck. While Tammy and I wasted our day away hiking the creek and building coolers/fishie habitats they wasted their day away sitting in chairs in the creek drinking beer.

Really… could you ask for a better vacation?

Um… no! Greatest ever!

What a beautiful place!

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

Maggie Valley on Dwellable

Our new to us camper ~ Yay!

Hi Friends,

So here is some big news… right before we left for vacation… the day before actually… we put a down payment on a 33.5 foot Toy Hauler. And the day after we got home we picked it up!

We have been looking for a toy hauler for a few years in hopes of adding to our ability to travel more often with our motorcycle and someone else… 

One of our cats, Tracy, has asthma and allergies and needs her inhaler every 12 hours and Claritin every day. She takes both easily with no effort… she is very trained and will let others give her her medication, but it’s hard for me to let go of that responsibility for very long. I need to know my baby is ok. What if her asthma flared in the care of a cat sitter and they did not know what to look for? What if they didnt know when to give her albuterol to save her life and open her airway?

So we only take one vacation a year together so that Shane or I can be home for Tracy. Yes, we are THOSE people. We care THAT much! She is our child. Finding someone to just feed the cats is easy but Tracy’s care has always held us back. No more!

Getting a real camper instead of our pop up camper enables us to take Tracy with us and makes it easy for us both to leave.

So yeah... we bought this camper for Tracy. >^..^<

And luckily… Tracy LOVES the camper! She truly enjoys hanging in the camper with mom. It makes her HAPPY!

Watching the birdies… and probably sticking her tongue out at the rest of the primcats up in the cat enclosure. Neener neener neener. ;o)

 

Happily making pushy pushy on the couch.

 

Hanging on the bunk watching the birds in the bushes! Look at those eyes! Focused!

(Disclaimer... I hope someday to take other cats in the camper as well as Tracy. For now... just Tracy. She is 100% trained, comes when called, obeys commands and is trustworthy. Yep. Trained cat! She is my cat-dog. She is not silly or aloof; She also would NEVER bolt from a camper like most other cats would. I do not trust any of my other cats at this point to safely travel in the truck to wherever we are going or to safely stay in the camper with us for extended periods of time without freaking out. So no need to comment that I'm being unfair to my other cats. I am not. What I am being is a safe responsible cat mom. Thank you for reading. ) (Added... yes, I was sent 2 private messages on facebook that I was being a terrible cat mom and playing favorites by taking only Tracy. Isn't that sad someone, 2 people even! actually took the time to tell me that?)

Now… the thing that held us back over the years on getting what we wanted, a toy hauler, was of course, price.

We are not by any means wealthy. We both work but we don’t have money to throw away on very expensive extra’s like a Toy Hauler. And even a SMALL Toy Hauler runs thousands more than a regular small camper. Larger ones (like the one we got) run Tens of thousands more just because you can put toys in them. Prices on Haulers are off the charts. So we have been waiting years for a deal to come along… and a deal finally did.

The camper we bought came from a Repo Auction. A dealer bought it and on the way back to the dealership… a giant piece of fiberglass ripped off the side. I mean giant. Roof leak. Delaminated side. They no longer wanted to deal with it and they just wanted to unload it. The same day they brought it back… Shane called to check their inventory. And the dream was set in motion.

Why is a jacked up camper with a roof leak and missing side the best thing we could ever find you ask?

Well because Mr. Primcat is an auto body, paint and customization master! And my best friends husband works on big ol’ busses for a living. Between the two of them… they fixed this...

They repaired the roof leak and fixed the side. Yep… perfect. Can’t even tell they fixed it. Blended that baby like butter. Dang he’s good.

Sorry for the bragging… but I have to. ;o)

He really impressed me here. 

The last 2 weeks have been spent out in the camper cleaning and getting ready for our first camping trip with Tracy. We are both super excited about it!

I will share interior pics soon! You know there's a crock in there now... right next to the diamond plate back splash in the kitchen! ! ;o) 

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

Soco Falls

Hi Friends,

More pics from our vacation!

It was so hot on vacation we decided to find some water to play in. Near Maggie Valley, only about a 10 minute trip away is Soco Falls. A beautiful waterfall in the mountains. We decided to head up and play in it for a few hours.

It was beautiful!!!! You can see how BIG it is by how tiny the people are in this pic.

A great pic of Tammy and I! A framer for sure!

So I guess this is my big weight loss reveal… because you are about to see me in a swimsuit.

Getting ready to get in! The guys stayed up top and watched us play!

Exploring… We love exploring!

Hi guys!!!!!!

These last 3 pics are a funny series of an argument we were having about WHO was going to get in that ice cold mountain waterfall?!? We were cracking up!

Me yelling… “YOU!”

Switching places…

Her yelling… “No, YOU!”

   

Gosh we are silly! In the end we both got wet because Shane threw a drink over the waterfall and I had to get it while Tammy held me steady. Holy moly that was cold!

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the water enjoying the day. Oh how I love playing in creeks!

From the web and oh so true. If only kids today understood this. I know I sure do!

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

~ Vacation with my favorite people! ~ and Weigh in Wednesday ~

Hi friends,

Wow… I have been gone to long! Lets get caught up!

A few weeks ago Shane and I took off for our yearly motorcycle vacation. Hooked up the camper to the bike and off we go! Yep… during this heat wave. Man it was HOT! But we went anyway!

We headed down the Smokey Mountains to Maggie Valley, NC.

We spend our vacation here every year riding in the mountains.

Lovebirds. ♥

 

But this year was special! This year we met up with my best friend of 33 years, Tammy, and her husband, Bill, and spent the whole week with them!

This is Tammy and I up in the mountains!     

HOT! It was 100 degrees everyday if we left the valley! SO we tried to stay in it as much as we could!

 

Me… being a giant dork! HOT panting!

Beautiful lilies.

Besties forever!

 

Bill and Shane doing what they do… fixing stuff. They never stop! Tammy and I have a love/hate with their need to repair at all times!

I will be back soon with more vacation adventures! We rode the Blue Ridge Parkway, the Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway. We spent a day at Soco Waterfall and then another day in Jonathan Creek! So much fun!

Until next time…

Carmen and the Primcats

PS… Weigh in Wednesday catchup! I’m down 25 pounds since January 9th, 2012. I am still working out hard in Zumba, doing personal training and working on losing that last 10 pounds. :) I’m keeping at it!

Never quit!

I'm still here! :o)

Hi Friends, 

I hope everyone has had a nice few weeks. 

We sure have! We were on vacation. I will share pics as soon as I find a few spare minutes! 

Just wanted to pop in and say hello! I will have lots to share when I have time! 

If you want to keep up with me until then... follow me on facebook. I keep up there everyday. The link is on the right. 

True. Meowy true. 

>^..^< 

Until next time... 

Carmen and the Primcats