Ducks

 As we were closing up the house to head south for the winter 2 pairs of Mallard Ducks showed up on our pond. We have tons of geese most of the year but ducks not so often. 

The males have the bright green heads.

The females are a mottled brown all over.

One of the males was busy cleaning his feathers, he'd dunk himself in the water than flap his wings to dry off.

With this post I'm finally up to date. I got behind in posts maybe 5 or 6 years ago and finally just caught up. Guess it's time to go out and take some more photos.
 

DFR 2025 part II

 

Our spring trips are usually a much bigger group than the fall. This fall trip we had maybe 50 cars total which was much smaller then the 6-pack group of Triumph TR6s that were at Fontana. This was from this saturday car show. 

After our saturday morning group roll out over the dragon we headed to Maryville for the Classic Hondas on the Dragon car show. It was amazing with probably 1,000 cars including the most S2000s I've ever seen in one place.

After lunch at Telico Grains, our fav bakery we drove the Cherohala Skyway. This is Bald River Falls from the new bridge just off the skyway.

The entire area around the Dragon was packed with different car clubs for the weekend. We tried to stop at Deals Gap but the lot was full and cars were parked all up and down 129 and 28. On our way back to Fontana we spotted some friends in the boat ramp lot and stopped to chat. By the time the sun went down we had a lot full of our friends.

Cars were not the only excitement for some of the group this weekend. (she said Yes!)

The cars are put away for the winter waiting for the spring trip.
 

Dragon Fall Run 2025

 Most summers end with our Dragon Fall Run to western North Carolina. This year we started in Wythville VA and spent several days driving fun roads in VA, WV, TN, and NC. This pretrip went well with the exception of a flat (ruined) tired and it's tough to find certain tires in the middle of nowhere WV. I spent a day in a hotel waiting for a tire then the rest of the trip went great.

After a quick stop in southern Ohio to get an oil change and inspection I met my friends at the Back of the Dragon and started the fun part of the trip. The first day was a bit rainy/foggy/overcast. This Big Walker Lookout, our favorite place to get awesome ice cream. This pretrip was a bit strange for us, 5 cars and no two alike.

Looking out over West Virginia.

Roads that look like this are why we come here, curves, curves, and more curves.

Looking Glass Falls on 276 on the way down from the Blue Ridge Parkway. We did a loop driving 215 up and over then 276 back.

Lunch at one of our new "favs" Hawg Wild BBQ, awesome lunch special, a lot of good food for 10 bucks.

Lunch at another of our "favs", fridays for Franklin and this is Cafe REL, the greatest french bistro you will ever find attached to a gas station. If you're ever in Franklin NC find the Hotspot gas station and eat at Cafe REL, you'll understand.

After the rain on the first day or so the rest of the weekend was beautiful fall weather, perfect for top down/off driving.

There were a ton of groups in the area. For our friday picnic at the top of Fontana Dam we shared the parking lot with the Honda Fit group.

Everyone is welcome, no matter what they drive (or ride).

The picnic was awesome and we had a ton of cars.

Not all roads are twisty and fun, part of them are crowded and we have to take them to get to the fun roads.

Mount Rainier National Park

 After Olympic we started our long trip home with our first stop Mt Rainier National Park. The last time we were there was 15 years ago and we never saw anything. The entire mountain was covered with clouds and fog and you couldn't see across the parking lot, let alone the top of the mountain. This trip we left the hotel in rain and clouds and didn't have much hope for seeing the mountain but the trip took longer than expected due to construction and by the time we got there, it was sunny.

 

Sunrise Visitor Center.

Sunrise Point. The road around the east side of the park started a months long construction closure the day we were there so we took the road up to Sunrise Point since the last time we were in the park we came in from the west entrance.

Our last view of the mountain before heading east to home, 3 days away.

After the Rainier the next 3 days were long driving from the west coast all the way to Michigan. Since it was right on the way we stopped at Indiana Dunes National Park. We didn't much of the park, we were only 4 hours from home and had been on the road 3 weeks so it was stop, take a few photos, then head home.

 

The Chicago skyline looking from one of the Indiana Dunes beaches across the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

And.... 4 hours later we were home and thus ends phase II of our national park trips. Phase I was Florida up the east coast to Maine, every park and state east of the Mississippi (except we missed a couple). Phase II was Michigan west to the Pacific Ocean and every park and state north of I-80 (we missed 1 because of weather, we'll get that next summer).

Total was 21 National Parks, 2 state parks, 30ish states, a national shoreline, 6 weeks, and 14,000 miles. Now I'm ready to head to Florida for the winter and relax and go back to riding my bike everyday. Almost, still have our Fall Dragon Run S2000 trip.

 

Olympic National Park - Ruby Beach

 After the ran forest we stopped at Ruby Beach. I wish we would have stayed another couple of days and spent time in the mountain part of the park but it had been a long trip.

After 3 weeks on the road we finally made it to the Pacific Ocean. Ruby Beach is beautiful and busy. As you can tell there were a lot of people. Once we waited to find a parking spot it was a very scenic walk on the beach.

This is one of the large sea stacks that Ruby Beach is known for.