Mo' Better Plans.

Now that retirement has fully kicked in I have begun to get my ducks in a row as far as planning trips is concerned. So far, we're staying relatively close to home, but are forming up our plots for trips farther afield. There's Colorado coming up when Carole takes her own retirement. But that's almost two years away. The trip to Italy will precede that (I hope). Until then we're looking at jaunts to Pennsylvania to visit both historic and wilderness sites; and to the Adirondacks in New York so that I can do some trekking in the High Peaks region while I'm still able to do that kind of thing. Also, Carole has mentioned that she wants to see Maine again, so we'll likely fly up for that and rent a car out of Boston. We'll see.

We just got back from Myrtle Beach, a trip I took reluctantly. I have to say that I cannot stand what they call "the Grand Strand". While it may be a strand, it is in no way grand. It is an overbuilt monstrosity of beachfront towers and vile amusement parks and residential areas packed cheek by jowl in front of eroding beaches where all of it is at the mercy of Atlantic storms and unceasing winds and tides. The place has become so urbanized over the years that it suffers full-on traffic jams every morning and afternoon just as things are in places like Charlotte and Atlanta. Screw that. I've never understood the appeal of that horrible blot on the map. While down there for four days I had about as miserable a time as I had feared, and I can here and now promise that my shadow will never again darken the pathetic dirt of the Myrtle Beach area. Sometimes you really can say "never".

As soon as we got back home yesterday I reserved our campsite for a week in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the last week of October and the first couple of days of November. The Fall colors will be at about their peak, I would think. But so was demand for camping space inside the Park. So by yesterday afternoon when we unloaded from the beach trip there were only about six spots remaining in the campground we wanted to use (Elkmont). Fortunately, I was able to grab one of them before it was gone.

I'm looking forward to this trip, since we haven't been to the Smoky Mountains in quite a while. I want to hike some familiar trails (I'll probably climb Mount LeConte for the tenth or eleventh time), and explore some trails where I've never hiked. We do have a hay-ride to take in Cades Cove, a place that I tend to avoid because of the crowds. But this will be a different kind of experience with no driving to do in bumper-to-bumper traffic. We'll be on the back of a wagon as it's pulled leisurely along by, I assume, a tractor of some sort. Sometimes I dream that all automobile access to Cades Cove will be banned. A dream, yes, but it would be so nice to see it happen.

For November into January I'll likely be doing a lot of hiking and will squeeze some solo backpacking trips in as we figure out just exactly when we want to see places in Pennsylvania that are on our bag-list. These trips, too, will likely be in the NC/TN/VA mountains, but I have had a bit of an urge to retrace some of the Appalachian Trail in Georgia, which I have not backpacked in decades. So maybe I'll go backpacking down in Georgia when the weather cools off.

I have begun wondering, and have even read, that we are among the last generation of US working class citizens who can honestly look forward to retirement and spending leisure time traveling and enjoying our twilight years. It does seem so, and it's sad to contemplate, but we're going to enjoy what we have while we have it.

A brief moment of beauty near the horrid "Grand Strand". Specifically in Calabash (just across the SC border in NC). We ate supper at this location in a restaurant on the waterfront. While the food was decent, I am pretty damned sure it is the last time I will ever see that place. No more Myrtle Beach environs for this southerner. The rest of you are welcome to it.