Mount Mitchell

After easy summers at home, I fear the danger of rotting away. Our favorite time to go camping is fall. Two years ago we came upon this campground - Black Mountain Campground near Busick, NC - located by a stream, with clean single-stalled, heat-lamped hot showers, and it's the starting point of a 5.2-mile trail, with 3684 feet of vertical gain up to the top of Mount Mitchell. At 6684 feet above sea level, Mt Mitchell is the highest peak east of Mississippi. In the Andes such meager height can only be found in some crevice at the bottom of a canyon. But Mt Mitchell will have to do for now.

We watched the weather for a couple weeks and set out for the Black Mountain campground (3000') on a crisp Monday. To better gauge the degree of rot, the plan was for ascents on consecutive days.

Once we set up camp, we gathered enough firewood for the next three days. Two years ago we took the expedition too lightly. We wanted to be better prepared.

Well, we did it, be it at my tortoise pace. The first day may have been slightly faster than two years ago. The second day was slightly slower. All were well within 10% of each other. The ascent took ~4.25 hours and descent ~3.25 hours. While we fared better than two years ago, we suspect our fitness has declined from our South American peak. Still, we found the expedition so satisfying that we decided to make "consecutive ascents" of Mt Mitchell our biannual fitness test.

Sun-Ling keeps herself warm on our first evening at Black Mountain Campground.


Taking on fuel on the way up. ;-)


A gentle, covered uphill section of the trail which is part of the Mountains-to-Sea Trail.


Some snow and ice on a north slope near the summit.


The two of us at the top on the first day.


Looking back to Black Mountain Campground (near the golf course in the near middle) and to Linville Gorge (see the two bumps middle-left-back).


Lots of wild flowers along the trail. Also saw one deer, a ruffed grouse, and many, many chipmunks.

Dinner party May 21st

Back in Argentina we realized what we really needed is to do some drinking and eating with friends and family when we get back home. So,we are planning a dinner party on Saturday May 21 at our home in Raleigh. I will try out some new foods and drinks we learned from this trip.  I want to get started on menu planning. If we do not already know you are coming, please let us know. All future communications on this will be moved to email.

We are looking forward to lots of catching up!

At the airport pickup in Roanoke, Virgina.


The Dinner Table - May 21, 2011

Various updates

I've finished uploading the Indian Modern Architecture photos to flickr.

Bombay
Calcutta
Bhubaneswar
Pondicherry

Last month Sun-Ling And I took a trip to Western Virginia and West Virginia, visiting my brother's family in Sutton WV, my old high school buddy Tony and his family in Athens WV, and biking the New River Rail Trail near Galax VA.

Sun-Ling on the New River Trail


Spent last weekend at the beach with friends and Hurricane Bill. On Thursday I rescued a young boy from the rip currents. The sea was angry that day my friends. Well, it wasn't much of a rescue. I was standing in water up to my waist, jumping the waves in the pounding Outer Banks surf when I heard a boy crying for help. He was really "in over his head" in the raging waters clutching his boggie board. I was just a few steps away so I plucked him out and put him back on the beach in the arms of his mother.

Here's a photo from Saturday. The red flags were up and even the surfers were not in the water.


We are thinking about traveling to Egypt next Spring. Any tips?

That's all for now.

Back Home

First, let me clarify that the last video posted, The Chapati Stand, was taken in December of 2008. Sorry for any confusion. While on the road it would have been almost impossible to upload this 72Mb HD video file to flickr given bandwidth and availability in Myanmar and India. So while in China at the end of our trip, I uploaded this video as a test of flickr's new support for HD video. Then I used flickr's "BLOG THIS" feature to post the video to this blog. Got it?

We are now back home in Raleigh. It's been quite a journey since we retired in January of 2008. No reflections in this post, that will come later, but I do want to post two photos. The first, a self portrait taken at the Stone Forest in Kunming in January 2008. The second, a photo taken by our buddy Wayne at Element Fresh restaurant in Shanghai in April 2009. We look a bit thinner now don't you think?



We

Reflections on a summer at home

We started traveling on 1/1, came home on 5/30, and are leaving on 10/30. Just as our five months of traveling was a first for me (understandably, since we had never traveled for such an extended time), these last five months also turned out to be a first.

1. I lived the life a hermit. It was as if being home is an antidote for being on the road where we encountered the unfamiliar, were exposed to the elements, and subjected to the unpredictable. Most days this summer we stayed at home by ourselves, working on our house, studying and reading, and surfing on the Internet. Granted we did spend a whole month, in total, visiting family and friends out of town although we still have not managed to see all our friends around town. Before, we were always out doing things and getting together with friends....
2. The Danish word Hygge (hu-gah) is a feeling or mood that comes from taking genuine pleasure in making ordinary everyday things simply extraordinary. It's about owning things you only truly love or that inspire, being present in yourself and your life, putting effort into your home without being Martha Stewart or buying a bed in a bag. Words like cosiness, security, familiarity, comfort, reassurance, fellowship, simpleness and living well are often used to describe the idea of Hygge. -- Alex Beauchamp.
   

   I found hygge - word I learned in Copenhagen - at home. Before, we spent our vacations traveling and our holidays visiting family. We were never around home enough, let alone hygge. This summer John and I both had lots of projects around the house, both big and small. Now I walk around the house feeling peace rather than anxiety.

The hallway.



Our corner desk.



Making yogurt.

Brother Daniel

Daniel S. Meckley
1961-2008

My younger brother Daniel passed away last week. He was 46. We will miss him.

Daniel and I almost share a birth date. His was born on September 20th and I on September 21st. One of my earliest memories is crossing the street in downtown Newport News, Virginia with my Grandmother,Great Aunt, and little brother Jim, on our way to the old Riverside Hospital to pick up my Mom and new baby brother Daniel.

Growing up, our birthdays would often be celebrated on the same day. We each had our own cake and presents but not own "day". No matter. It was fun and special to share a day. And as we moved into our twenties and thirties, the shared celebration was a good excuse to get together at Mom and Dad's for dinner and cake even though I had moved to North Carolina.

There were no September birthday get-togethers for the last 5 years or so. My wife and I were living in Florida and then China - too far to travel. Daniel, wife Cathy, and dog Chewy moved to Richmond. However, now that we were back in the States, we had planned to meet at the Outer Banks this month to renew the birthday ritual. In fact, I talked about it with him on the phone the day before he died.

Now, we won't have that birthday celebration and it will be a tough weekend of September 20/21.

Recently Daniel had not been well and was on oxygen and using a cane. In fact, he had medical problems all his life. As a family we learned two great lessons from this. One, parents' love can be spread equally among their children even though sometimes their attentions are not. Two, Daniel - kind, and generous to a fault - never complained about his illnesses; not because he was stoic, but because he accepted his lot in life. "You get what you get" said the Pastor at his funeral.

There are plenty of good memories. I'll relate just one here.

Daniel always had a way with the ladies. When we were kids, I called the neighborhood moms Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. Register. He called them Billie Joe and Myrtle and drank coffee with them.

And finally to quote my niece.

R.I.P. Uncle Daniel
Say hi to the Chewster for me.

Reflections on a Neglected House

When we moved to China almost 3 years years ago we decided to sell all our vehicles but keep our house. We did not rent it out but kept it unoccupied and full of our stuff. We hired someone to clean for an hour once a month. Others were hired to clean the gutters and cut the grass, and 2 sets of terrific neighbors periodically checked on things.

The house is 25 years old and beginning to show its age. Some of the appliances and systems are also 25 years old. Since we came back to the USA, the work on it has been almost constant.

It's been quite an adjustment for me. In China, I hardly did anything that could be called house work or yard work or home maintenance. We lived in apartments in a city with very cheap labor. I guess I did hang a picture or two but nothing else.

Now Sun-Ling and I are tackling a 5-year - we lived in Florida for two years before going to China - backlog of home maintenance projects on an aging house. I won't bore you with the list, but the amount of work is significant both in time and in money. I began to thing that it was a bad decision to leave the house unattended for so long.

However, after a few days of stewing on this thought, I've moved on. Lots of work means lots of accomplishments; lots of items crossed off the to-do list; and the physical nature of many of the jobs is good for the body and mind.

After a few more months the house will be ready for another 5 years of minimal maintenance. :-)

Borax.

Updates and Observations

Update:

Jet Lag has been conquered!

The new car is bought. A 2008 Subaru Forester. Our old car was a 2003 Forester so this one seems familiar. Getting along with just one car has been fine so far.

Spent a week at the beach with my parents. Have started the rounds of visits with friends and family.

The old microwave started making a loud noise so we bought a new one.

The refrigerator won't freeze and can barely keep food cool so we are buying a new one. It comes next Tuesday.

The upstairs AC was not keeping up on hot days so ... it needed 4 LBs of freon which is quite expensive these days. Ouch!

The old TV died and we decided not to replace it. No TV. No cable bill. No problem.

The new lawn mower is nice even though it took me 90 minutes to assemble it.

Yesterday I wore out our old 18" hedge trimmer so today we bought a new 22" model. Woohoo! It's nice.

The new printer and disk drive are set up. The new cell phone is operational. And we are about to purchase a new camera. If you remember, our old Canon bit the dust in Laos, and we had to buy a low end Panasonic Lumix for a not so low price.

We have made several trips to the dump to unload dead appliances and throw away old things we don't need. Sun-Ling is driving the effort to reduce.

We still have a to-do list that's a mile long but we are making progress.

The termite inspector came this morning and found evidence of termite activity under the front porch. It's a good thing we have termite insurance.

We have subscribed to the Sunday Paper. Observation: I never once thought about Parade Magazine when we were in China.

Observation: I still like mowing the lawn and trimming the hedges.

Observation: It's still hot and muggy in Raleigh during the summer. Whew!

Here's a photo of Sun-Ling and my parents at the beach.


Here's one of me with my new 22" hedge trimmer.