kissalostsoul

Fürst Heinirch IV. Reuß died on 20.05.2012 at his home Ernstbrunn at the age of 92 yeats. he was sourronded by his children and grandchildren. Since 1945 he was the head of the Princely Family Reuß wo until 1918 reigned in todays Thuringia. This line of the Family had her seat at bad Köstrtz and the Summer Residence was Ernstbrunn Castle nr Vienna wo after 1945 became the Main Residence. After 1990 the Family came back to their former posessions and some of them ehere also returned because the Prince has trhe austrian nationality and not the german 8as he was born in Ernstbrunn). In 1954 Fürst Heinrich IV. married Princess Mrie Luise zu Salm-Horstmar wo survies him. Together they had 4 chidren: Heinrich XIV. wo succeeds him as the head of the Family, Johanetta, Caroline and Esperance. His funeral will take place on Sautrday 30.06.2012 at Ernstbrunn where he will be buried in the Park of the Castle. http://www.tlz.de/startseite/detail/-/specific/Der-letzte-Fuerst-Reuss-ist-mit-fast-93-J...

With temps topping out around 107* today, I wasn’t very interested in doing much of anything.  My patience wears very thin when it’s that hot.  The AC machine is as stressed as I feel, as it could only keep things down to 87 most of the day.  It was still 101 when I took a dip in the pool this evening around 7:45.  That settled me down quite a bit. I guess it’s a good thing that I can talk about yesterday afternoon’s trip, as I don’t want to talk about today.  When I finished the post last night, Emma and I were enjoying our lunch at a nice picnic area.  My plan was to take the Balsam Mountain Road on a loop around the southeastern part of the National Park.  I was not aware that this was an unpaved road once you left the picnic area.  As we took a little walk down the road, I was skeptical as to whether or not my little Ford Focus was up to this challenge.  I think it was a 28 mile drive to the town of Cherokee, and my guide said it would ta...

The forecast for today was temps at 100+*, so early on I packed up Emma and my lunch and headed for the mountains.  It turned out to be an excellent decision.  I wanted to visit some areas I hadn’t been to on my trip to the Great Smoky Mountains last week.  My destination was the Balsam Mountain Road in the North Carolina portion of the National Park.  Little did I know that it would involve 225 miles of driving, getting lost (once again), and a real adventure on some roads less traveled. Of course, I couldn’t resist stopping for some more stunning views of the Smokies along the way.  Photos just can’t really capture the magnitude and peacefulness of these old mountains that just roll on and on and on. In order to get to the road I wanted to investigate, I had to slip out of the National Park for a bit and traverse a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Yahoo!  One more thing checked off of my bucket list. What a great name for this parkwa...

I couldn’t pick Emma up yesterday from her stay in the kennel for two reasons.  First, I didn’t get home until after the pick up time, and secondly I wanted her to have a bath, nail clip, and gland expression (what ever the heck that means).  The groomer has Tuesdays off, so I opted for a Wednesday pick up.  She was happy to see me for about 30 seconds until she noticed others in the room.  That’s the way she is.  She’d readily go live with someone else, anyone else.  A Lab she’s not.  I suppose we fit well together since we’re both of a sort of independent nature.  It’s just that my nature has slowed down a bit, and she’s still gung ho no matter what.  Oh well, we headed back to the rig and she collapsed in the bedroom to sleep the afternoon away.  She always comes back exhausted from her stays at the ‘spa’.  She sure smells good, and her hair feels fluffy.  It’s kind of ironic that her stay in the kennel was more expensive ...

After my expensive, quiet motel last night, I decided to pass on having a room service breakfast since it would have cost me about $15.  Instead, I had a sausage McMuffin for $1.06.    I was leaving Lexington by eight in the morning and thought I’d take a little detour on my way back to check out the COE campground where my sister and I have made reservations for the second week in July.  It’s on Buckhorn Lake in Kentucky. “Jack-in-the-Box” agreed with the directions to get there in my COE book, so that was a good thing.  I imagined myself to be my brother-in-law, Stan, driving his motorhome since this is the route that he would take from the north.  Even in my car it was a slow up and down, very curvy, skinny 50+ miles through the mountains of eastern Kentucky.  Occasionally I went as fast as 40 mph, but most of the drive was in the 20-30 mph range.  When I finally found the campground, it was a little less than I expected for a COE park. ...

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to look up a motel to stay in for tonight.  Thankfully, Dennis refreshed my memory about how to go about doing that.  Being the frugal person I am, I told Robyn I was choosing the cheapest place listed ($42) to stay in Lexington, KY.  I’m taking two days to get back to the rig, and Lexington was a distance of about 330 miles.  Before I made the reservation, Robyn suggested that I read the reviews on this particular motel (Microtel).  I certainly don’t have dumb kids.  Here’s what I found: Buddy D. from Elkhorn City, KY – Wouldn't stay again Stayed Jun 2008, 1 day Close Full Review > I should have know before checking in here witnessing a man enter his room with what appeared to be a prostitute. Mind you this was really late at night so it more then likely was. Room was way too much for the room and amenities offered. Would recommend the motel 6 super 8 or even knights inn at this same exit. These are all cheaper cle...

You can probably guess how I spent my time for the last three days.  Friday was busy getting everything ready for Robyn’s retirement party, Saturday was the party, and today was cleanup from the party.  Whew! One of the things I helped set up was the remembrance table.  Robyn had kept a scrapbook of her Army years, there were a couple of framed pictures, and we configured the soldier saluting the flag in the middle.  On Friday night, my oldest son Dan with his wife Crystal, my youngest son Andy with his daughter Ruby, and my ex-husband arrived from Minnesota.  Dan and Crystal camped out in a tent in the back yard while Andy and Ruby joined us to sleep inside the house.  We had quite the boisterous group, and I had all three kids to visit with. We put up a canopy in the driveway with tables and chairs underneath.  There were more tables in the garage, and plenty of seating in the back yard around the pool.  The décor was decidedly patriotic...

My trip here yesterday was long, 515 miles, but I made it in one day.  I know I would have never done that if I had been driving the rig.  The roads in places were less than wonderful, and the wind would have been a factor in a high profile vehicle.  I had a couple of offers of places to stay for the night along the road, but once I had John Denver and Peter, Paul, and Mary belting out their tunes, I sang my way through the last 250 miles.  I truly appreciated the offers, but wasn’t ready to stop at two in the afternoon. Shortly after 5:00, I found myself in Robyn’s driveway.  I think just about any meal I don’t have to prepare myself is delicious, so it was a treat to sit down to a meal brought in by Dennis’ mother.  A dip in their pool with the grandgirls in the early evening went a long way to relax the stiff joints from the long drive. First thing this morning, grandgirls Avery and Phoebe pointed out the mama and papa geese across the road and all...

Emma and I were out for a walk and a stop at the dog yard pretty early this morning.  Since temps will be hovering in the 90’s this week, it’s the best time to be out.  Wonder of wonders, another dog even joined us, and they ran around together for a bit.  There’s finally another dog here that isn’t one of those teeny weenie little things.  Their owners tend to avoid Emma’s exuberance (and rightly so).  “Ginger” was bigger, older, and wiser than Ms. Em, so it was good for both dogs. I’m going to toss in a couple of my other ‘smoky’ photos, from the other day, tonight.  It’s been hot enough here the last few days that I’m presently sitting inside with the AC going, and I took off my shoes and socks!  One of the rarest sights on earth is for me to be found without my shoes and socks on during daylight hours.   I’m just not one of your flip-flop types of girls.  Never have been, and never will be.  It’s a challenge for me to walk to the...

This National Park has been on my to see list for a long time, so this morning I headed out to get there.  In the Escapees’ park guide, it says it’s an hour away.  Well, it’s a little more than that because you have to travel through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg to get there.  That involves about twenty miles of slow travel through tourist heaven.  FOR ME, I just don’t know what sharks, an upside down mansion looking thing, a wax museum with Godzilla clinging to a replica of the Empire State Building on the outside, and the Titanic have to do with the Great Smoky Mountains, but then I’m not Dolly Parton.  I slid past the turn for Dollywood as well. Eventually I made it to the park.  It was a small feat for me to get into this picture before the timer went off with the present hitch in my get along, but I managed.  I also don’t understand why people have to deface entrance signs like this by carving their names in it.  ...