The AQS Show in Dayton Beach

 I am on day 3 of 4 of the AQS show and classes. I have one more to go to and I'm done. I guess I don't have the stamina for these things anymore and I am exhausted.

My first class, Wednesday morning was with Kathy Dunigan. She used to run an Acadamy of Applique every year and I so much wanted to go. It just never worked out as it was always out of town and the tuition alone was over $500 to work on one block all week long. On top of that there was airfare, hotels, food and other items. I just couldn't justify it. When I saw she was teaching here, I jumped at the chance to take 2 classes with her. One was on turned applique using a medium interfacing and the other was machine applique. I enjoyed both of them and learned a couple of new tricks.

During the machine applique class, I used a Brother sewing machine which I had never used before, and I really liked it. It had a lot of features that my almost 20 yr old Bernina doesn't have. It is sewing only, with no embroidery, but that's what I need right now. I always thought Brothers were very cheap, but this one seemed really nice. When they told me they had a show special for 1/2 the regular price, I decided to buy one. I also received a couple of other free items. I was ready for a different machine, but I didn't want to buy one for thousands at this point. If I need embroidery, I can always use my Bernina.

Three of my other classes were long arm classes with Julia Quiltoff. She is a sweet girl originally from Russia, that does beautiful quilt work. I really wanted to hear and see some fresh ideas and she was very good at sharing hers.

I have one more class in the morning and I'll be finished here. The vendor area was pretty busy. this year. From what I heard, last year was very quiet and attendance was down. I ran into 2 of my customers from Chattanooga. They were checking out the vendor booths. And in class I met three other people that have shopped at Chattanooga Quilts or had family there.

I tried to take pictures of some of the quilts in the show area.  There were so many that were over the top as far as design and quilting. I don't know how they come up with their ideas. Here are some that I really liked.

This is the lady that made this quilt out of wool rather than cotton. It was truly beautiful and had a lot of embellishments.

Carole Behan-Berry Wins 1st Place at AQS QuiltWeek - Daytona Beach 2024 (youtube.com)

The show certainly gives you plenty of inspiration.

By the end of Friday, I was so tired. I knew it was going to be a long week, but I did enjoy seeing so many gorgeous pieces of work.

When I got back to the motorhome, Abby and Bentley sat out side with me, they in their strollers  for a while until it started to rain. Then, it was in for the night and dinner time for the kids. Tomorrow will be another busy day.

IN DAYTONA BEACH FOR THE AQS SHOW.

 After Cordelle, we drove to a KOA campground in Kingsland, GA where one of my cousins' lives. We hadn't seen each other for several years and since it was kind of on the way, we stopped to visit for a day. It had been raining and everything was wet and muddy in the campground, but we finally got settled in. The kitties were happy to not be riding, and so were we. They both sat outside in their strollers, and then I took them for rides around the campground. Bentley was looking around at everything like his head was on a swivel. Once Abby relaxed, she was looking at the trees and woods all around.

The next day Debby and Tom came over to the MH to see Abby and Bentley. We sat outside for a while and talked & then went inside. I can't believe we didn't take any pictures. What was I thinking? Debby looked great and we had a good time talking out our pets, kids and grandkids. Then we went over to their house. They have a very nice lot in a nice quiet neighborhood. They have plenty of bedrooms, a really big screened in patio in the back and Tom has a great big workshop in the back. We also met Max, their bulldog. He was the friendliest and sweetest dog. He is a much bigger dog than their last bulldog Gus, and he loves attention. 

We went with Debby and Tom to a great seafood restaurant in St. Mary's called Seagle's Restaurant. The food was excellent, and we all had a great meal. Afterward, we went back to Tom & Debby's and chatted, & loved on Max. Their son Clark was there, and we got to meet him before heading home for the night.

I sure wish I had gotten pictures. The area was so beautiful and not so touristy as St Augustine.

The next day we headed for Daytona, which was only 2 hours away.

Bentley was eager to get there. Abby loves the bunk. We have to put her up there because her legs are too short for her to jump up.

After we arrived in the campground in Daytona, Abby, was amused. by the 4 large wild turkeys that kept walking around the campground. Bentley never saw them, but I'm sure he will see them tomorrow.

We went out to PetSmart to get some more cat litter and a special toy for Abigail, as it was her 9th birthday. I don't think she was impressed, but Happy Birthday to Abigail Cleocatra. Bentley helped to celebrate by getting a new toy too.

They are all settled in and ready for a good night's sleep.

 

ON OUR WAT TO THE AQS SHOW IN DAYTONA BEACH AND ST. AUGUSTINE

 Usually when we take plan a trip we plan to leave at a specific time, so that we can arrive at our first stop within 5-6 hrs. or drive no more than 300 miles. It never turns out that way. Since our motorhome is stored in Soddy Daisy, 45 minutes away, it takes us a while to get there. We always load up the MH the day before we leave, so that the day we leave we can just take the cats, get in the car, drive to Soddy Daisy, hook up the car and GO. It never works out, the way we plan since we always end up leaving 1 to 2 hrs. later than we plan. So, this trip, we loaded everything on Thursday. As soon as I left the shop on Friday we loaded the cats and a few items that we needed to take, drove to the motorhome, hooked up the car and drove to Rossville, GA, 1 mile over the TN/GA line. There is a new overnight RV stop there with full hook ups, & Wi-Fi. It would give us a chance to check everything out in the MH, de winterize and straighten everything out inside and get the cats settled in. No stress and it would put us going thru Atlanta on Saturday morning.

The kitties were so good. Bentley was right at home. When we pulled out of the storage lot, he jumped into the bed on the dashboard to see where we were headed.

Abigail got up on the back of the sofa to look out.

We arrived at the Hawkins Pointe RV Park and it was very nice, clean and quiet. The people there were so nice. The lady there had called me that morning to tell me she credited my credit card due to our Good Sam membership. Every little bit helps. The only problem was that it was COLD and windy and we had to back the MH up in order to reach the water spigot. So, I moved the car around to the front of the MH and this is what I saw.

He is such a sweetie. We slept really well with a nice electric blanket on the bed. Even, Bentley and Abigail got together in their bunk. Notice the look on Bentley's face. Not happy with Abigail in HIS bunk..

In the morning, we took our time leaving, thinking it would warm up, but it was still 35 degrees when we went to disconnect the electricity and water and get the car ready. Did I say it was COLD??? We wanted to go through Atlanta when the traffic wasn't too bad, and the timing couldn't have been better. There was just one area where the traffic was slow, but we breezed right through otherwise.

Our next stop was in Cordelle, GA at Love's RV Stops. It is another overnight stop at a Love's gas station. It was very clean, spacious parking, gated and full hook ups. You pick a site, pay in advance, they send you a gate code and the wi-fi password. We would definitely stay here again for $57.00. Even though the drive was only 4 hours, the kitties were tired. Abigail really hasn't found the place she wants to call her own. Some of the roads were very rough and she didn't like that at all. We didn't either. She did try out the dashboard and the sofa, but she didn't care for the riding.

I know she will settle down as soon as we are parked, and she has a chance to go outside in her stroller.

WEDNESDAY 9/13/23. OUR LAST FULL DAY IN ASHEVILLE.

 The people in Asheville are the friendliest we've ever encountered. In every store and every restaurant every person we met went out of their way to be friendly, chat and help us with whatever we needed. Usually, when we travel, we meet one or two people like that, but in Asheville everyone was that way.

On our last full day here, we decided not to cook breakfast here in the motorhome, but to give the Moose Cafe a chance at wowing us with their breakfast menu. It was after 10am and since they served breakfast all day it seemed like a good decision. And it certainly was!!!!!!!!

When we got to the Moose Cafe, the waitress brought over 2 LARGE BISUITS with apple sauce. Again, with those big biscuits. They were fresh and delicious.

David ordered a Western omelet with hashbrown casserole, and I ordered the veggie omelet with home fries. Look at the size of these omelets!!! The omelet was bigger than my plate. And they brought us another biscuit each. And-----it was delicious. Needless to say, we couldn't eat it all and took more than half home.

When we left the cafe, we noticed right next door was a Farmers Market, soi we drove through to see what they had. We could not believe the size of this market. Dozens of vendors selling locally grown vegetables and other things. We wish we had discovered it earlier. Everything looked so good, and they are open every day, year-round. We will have to visit when we come back to Asheville.

Your Guide to Asheville Farmers Markets (Summer 2023) - When In Asheville (wheninavl.com)

Next, we decided to drive over to Black Mountain, a little town east of Asheville. We had visited here many years ago and stayed in a campground near there. I seem to remember visiting a small quilt shop there, but I don't remember much else about the town.

It was a cute little town with lots of small shops. They had a General Store, ice cream shop, lots of pottery shops, art shop, pet supply shop, dress shops, restaurants, and a yarn shop.

We ended up getting a couple of Black Mountain T shirts, a new coffee cup and of course visiting the yarn shop. The shop was very nice. It wasn't cluttered and had a good selection of unusual brands and hand dyed yarns. I bought a couple of skeins of sock yarn. It was a nice discovery. I wonder what happened to the quilt shop that used to be here.

After our little excursion, we headed back to the motorhome for time with the kitties. They both really enjoyed sitting out in their strollers and smelling the fresh air and we enjoyed sitting out with them too.

Abby and Bentley both just chilled out, sleeping in their strollers.

  Inside, Bentley was able to jump up in the back window to look out and see behind the motorhome. Poor Abby is just too fat and can't get there or up into the top bunk bed, which gives Bentley a place just for him.

We had the best sleep we have both had in a very long time. I don't know if it was the motorhome, the cool mountain air coming in the window, the Fall temperatures, or what. One morning we slept until 8am. At home, I'm awake at 3:30 and up at 4am. Maybe it's just that we didn't have anything on our schedule.

Our trip to Asheville was great and we wished we had scheduled more time here to do nothing.

HANGING OUT IN ASHEVIILE

 On Sunday morning we made a big breakfast in the MH with eggs, bacon and fried potatoes. It was excellent. We hung out in the MH and took the kitties out in the strollers.

 Then on Monday morning we went to the yarn shop. Friends and Fiberworks. The owner, Lisa was away with a yarn group on a cruise to the UK, Scotland, England and Ireland. What a lucky girl. The people in the shop were so nice and helpful in answering questions and finding what I was looking for. I bought a few skeins of yarn, but the shop was just overwhelming with 4000 sq ft of yarn. And the place was packed full.

After that we went to Home Depot to buy a new faucet for the bathroom. The old one worked fine, but every time you disconnected from the city water it got air in the line, of course and the next time you turned the water on, it blew water all over you until the air ran out. We were tired of being wet. The new one is much nicer.

Abby has certainly made herself at home in the MH. She is very relaxed now.

She loves sleeping in our bed.

And, she loves sleeping on the steps to get a nice breeze and fresh air.

She and Bentley are getting along better. In the past when we had 3 kitties, they always seemed to get along better in the MH than at home for some reason.

On Tuesday morning we went to Asheville Cotton, a quilt shop here in Asheville. I had been here once before when Chattanooga Quilts did a quilt bus tour last year and this was the shop in Asheville that we visited. It is a very nice shop. I found a few fat quarters for a quilt I'd like to make, and David found a cute little kitty panel with coordinating fat quarters. The people in the shop were all super helpful.

In the afternoon, Bentley went for a nice walk in the stroller and saw a few squirrels. he sure loves his stroller rides. Afterward I decided to get out the sewing machine and work on the quilt shop sunflower sample quilt for the shop. I made about 6 blocks and put it away for now. I just need more workspace to trim the blocks. I'll finish it when I get home.

For dinner, we went to Haus Heidelburg, a Germain restaurant for dinner that Cindy had recommended. 

The food was excellent and there was lots of it. David ordered the sausage sampler which came with 1/2 sausage links of all of their sausages, red cabbage and hot potato salad. I ordered the Octoberfest Sampler, which was way too much, but included, 2 sausages, hot potato salad, red cabbage, sauerkraut, spaetzle and a large piece of sauerbraten. Everything was so good, except the sauerkraut. The taste was a little too strong for me, but the sauerbraten was to die for. I forgot to take a picture of my meal, but this is what was left at the end to bring home. Good grief, enough for 2 people.

                                                           And David had a beer of course.

                It was definitely a great place to eat, although the interior was a little odd.

Afterwards, we came home and took the kitties out in their strollers for a nice go out to look for bugs, birdies and squirrels.

                                                                  It was a good day.

. 

Visiting Asheville, NC

 We have not had a MH trip since we went to SA in May, and we were due for one. After we got home from SA, the refrigerator in the MH would not get cool enough. After multiple attempts to repair on our own we called the service people we bought out home refrigerator from and they said there was a leak in the freon, and it couldn't be repaired. Well, it was 10 years old, and I guess that's about how long appliances last these days.

We ended up getting one like the one we have at home, but with a few more bells and whistles. It is another French door with water and ice in the door. At least we have a working refrig now. On with our travels.

We decided to go to Asheville, NC. It wasn't too long a drive, and it would be Abby's first trip in the MH and Bentley's first trip without his brothers. We hadn't been to Asheville in several years and it's such a nice place. I like it because they have a wonderful yarn shop that I go to when I am here, and they have moved into a new place with a 4000 sq ft shop. You can't beat that.

We left Saturday morning, driving down I -75 to I- 40. As we got closer to Asheville, the Smoky Mountains came into view. It was a beautiful drive, but the roads were a bit curvy for my taste.

Bentley was enjoying the ride up front.

Abby was riding on the steps, since she knew that was the way out. Every little noise was scary to her.

We were staying at the Bear Creek RV Campground. There were no bears or creek in site, but it was a good location as it was on the west side of Asheville. Our site was a back in and not terribly spacious, but we did have a mountain view as we were on the top level.

Home - Asheville Bear Creek Rv and Campground

 

After we settled in, we took the kitties out in their strollers. They both enjoyed the fresh air and watching the birds, bugs and people.

For dinner, we wanted to go somewhere close by, and we saw this place on the map called the Moose Cafe. 

Wow, I wish I had taken pictures of the food they served. It was kind of like a Cracker Barrel, but more Mom and Pop. Before we even ordered they brought out 2 of the largest homemade biscuits I have ever seen. They must have been 4" square and 4" tall. I ordered their meatloaf with mashed potatoes and collards. David ordered the spicy stuffed pepper with mac n cheese and pinto beans. OH LORD, the serving sizes were ridiculous. My meatloaf was almost 3" thick and 5" x 5". I couldn't eat it all. We bought the leftovers home and made 2 meatloaf sandwiches out of it the next day. Good grief it was too much food. We'll have to go back for their breakfast one day before we leave. LOL

A NEW ADDITION TO THE FAMILY

 When we lost Nickie and Finny, our hearts were broken. Bentley was just as sad and grieving just as much as we were. He went around the house crying out, calling them and looking in every space inside and constantly looking outside for them.

We thought another kitty, but not a kitten would help ease his sadness. We were probably wrong, because it was too soon, but we did it anyway because we were all sad. We went to the Naughty Cat Cafe, where they had cats for adoption in a no cage and relaxed environment. It was like a home with sofas, chairs, low level lighting and cats just laying around looking for loving and attention. At least you knew they were socialized and could mix with other cats. They would only let in 15 people at a time to love on the cats. The husband and wife that ran the place would share info about the individual cats to ty and help you find one that fit your needs. They were all nice, but none stood out for us. We spoke with Whitney and explained our situation. She called the Pet Placement Center, another rescue place and they had 4 cats 6 to 8 years old that we might look at and she told them we were coming over.

This place was nothing like the Naught Cat Cafe. All the cats, their litter boxes and food were in one room. The places smelled terrible, but all of the cats were getting along.

As soon as we walked into the cat area David spotted this cat high in the cat tree. As soon as he reached up to pet her, she started purring and wouldn't stop. He said, "she has Nickie's face". She was long hair, but not a Maine Coon.  I looked around at the others, that were all nice, but David had already chosen her. We spoke with the lady there and she said this cat, Bingley, was 8 years old and her owners had taken her to the vet to have her euthanized. We couldn't believe anyone would do that to a cat and neither could the vet that refused to do it. We wanted to pick her up, but she was high up on the cat tree and didn't want to come down. She looked very sweet and thought she might fit in well with Bentley. They told us we would have to fill out an application to adopt her and it would take a few days to process. So, we went home an filled out the application on-line. As soon as they got the application----in minutes------they called and asked if we wanted to come get her, So, we did.

They got her down from the cat tree and she was a BIG GIRL 18 lbs. Her normal weight probably should have been about 8-9 lbs. They gave us her paperwork which had records from 2018 to present. She was spayed and up to date on all her shots and no diseases.

I sat in the back seat with her, so she was more comfortable and read through her paperwork. THEN iI discovered why the previous owner wanted to get rid of her. It was a husband and wife with a 3 yr. old, a 4-month-old, 2 dogs and another cat. Bingly had an ongoing problem with pooping outside her litter box. Good grief!!!!!!!!!!! She was on shaky ground with us already with that info. We thought the problem was most likely stress related since they had had her since she was a kitten and now the kids and other animal were taking her attention and space. Plus, they had moved back and forth from Chattanooga to Oak Ridge and back to Chattanooga. Well, we would give it a try and see how it worked out, but if not, we would bring her back for sure.

We put her in our bathroom for a few days until Bentley could get used to her. She was definitely affectionate and talkative. Due to her huge size, she was very hard to pick up, but she was happy and used her litter box at first.

On the 3rd day, she pooped in the bathtub and then on my dining room carpet. We changed the cat litter to unscented and added a litter attractant to it. She did great for a few weeks. Then it happened again. I noticed she seemed to be constipated. We had a free visit with the vet at the Cat Clinic where the owners had taken her to be euthanized and she said to give her 1/4 ts of MiraLAX. Unfortunately, she doesn't eat wet food at all, so I put it in some broth and give it to her before she has access to her dry food. She has been drinking all the broth and doesn't poop on the floor. She is a super sweet cat. She still doesn't get along well with Bentley, but maybe time will help that.

We couldn't call her Bingly, because we already have a Bentley, so we named her Abigail Cleocatra and we call her Abby. She looks like an Abby girl.

                                                 She and Bentley both love their cat grass.

We have to get her used to all of our routines, like stroller rides and nail trimming and camping. 

So far, so good for Abby Girl. We haven't had a female cat since Jennifer. It's going to be hard to get used to after so many boys.