Another fishing trip

Heather and I went fishing again today, this time to Grayson Lake. 

I prefer to come here because I catch a lot more fish on this lake. We even brought a couple home.

We kept catching fish until we ran out of bait and then just enjoyed a scenic ride down the lake.
 

Fishing trip

Heather and I went fishing this morning and discovered that Cave Run Lake is very high. This is the Scotts Creek launch, the highest launch area on the lake. About 2/3 of the ramp is under water and the dock is not really reachable, either. We got launched and fished some.

 This is Longbow ramp - at least, where it is supposed to be. The trees behind the street lights is where the launch ramp actually is. We didn't try to go in here. 

Back to Tims Ford State Park

We had stopped here in Tims Ford last year on our way back from the Keys. It is very close to Lynchburg, home of Jack Daniels. Downtown Lynchburg hasn't changed a lot since we were here the last time. We wandered around and looked in most of the shops in the town square.

We took the kyacks down to the lake and paddled around for most of the morning. It's a very pretty lake and also rather large. We stayed around the shoreline. It was still nice and quiet out on the water. School hasn't let out yet and it's a weekday.

The hiking trails were not crowded, either. We did an easy hike to see Short Falls. It's a pretty area.
 

Next trip: Noccalula Falls in Alabama

I got everything  loaded up and hooked up Saturday afternoon so we could leave when Natalie got home from work on Sunday.

We got there mid afternoon. We had all of "C" loop to ourselves. The campground just finished a $12 million dollar rebuild and everything was new, from the roads to the sites and bathhouses.

We wandered down to the falls after we set up the camper. It's very pretty.

Looking at it from the other side.

The next day, we hiked down to the bottom of the falls, seeing some great scenery on the way down.

It reminds me of AuSable Chasm in New York.

We ended up behind the falls and hung out for a little bit, getting a bit wet before heading back.

The next day, we went to Barber's Vintage Motorsports Museum.

It was mostly motorcycles, but they also had cars. There were 5 floors to wander through.

It's home to the world's largest collection of motorcycles.

Including this one. It's a V-48 cycle, the most cylinders ever put in or on a motorcycle. This one is in the Guinness book of records.

The Barber Driving School was also on the property and we got to watch some of the Porsches doing hot laps for a bit before we headed back to the camper.
 

Camping 2025 has begun

Camping has begun for 2025. We're hooked up and ready to go. Don't worry- I did fold the steps up.

This is our site at Grayson Lake State Park. It's only a little over an hour from home, but we always stay close for the first trip of the year in case something goes wrong.

The only issue we had was the distance to the water hydrant. We had 75 feet of hose and it was about 100 to the hookup. We had  to make a trip to the local hardware store and pick up another hose so we could reach.

We visited the Benko Glass Company in Milton West Virginia and took a tour. We saw the glass melting furnaces and mixing areas first. 

Then we went on the production floor and saw how the made the pieces, blowing some air into the molten glass so it would form each different piece they made.

They had a "garden of glass" in back of the visitor's center with the colors and different  things they made.

Sorry about the duplicate picture.

They also made glass bricks and panels for decorations.

They also did some beautiful stuff with making stained glass windows.

This is the room that they started the tour from with some amazing windows they made.
 

2025 garden started

 

It dried up enough to finally get the garden turned over today. We had a pleasant day, sunny and cool.

After it was ready to plant, I made a run to Rural King and got about 100 red onion sets and planted them all. I also put in some romaine and salad bowl lettuce, but not as much as last year. 

Another small update

With the skirting I had left over from the girls place, I replaced the south end of mine. It was the vented kind before, and we have had occasional issues with water lines freezing when there was too much wind with a cold front. This skirting is solid and will let less air through which should help with that.

Lisa and Jim are adding to their paved area up by the garage and had a trailer load of dirt/sod that was skimmed off to make room for the new blacktop. It took me a week or two to get it all shovelled off and put on the septic tank and lines. The weather was not helping me at all with rain then freezing it all together.

But I finished up up at the end of last week. The pipes are all covered and the grading of the hill around the tank has begun.