Travel and timeshares

It has been a while since I have been able to write, so here is what has happened.

Taxes followed by the end of school seemed to overwhelm us. My wife was overloaded with work, closing down her new program for summer and doing exams. I had my hands full opening new avenues of revenue on my web stores, and both of us getting ready for a two week trip to North Carolina. We were heading up to Blowing Rock to watch Joycee’s grand neice ride in the horse show there. We stayed at Blue Ridge Village, an RCI timeshare place where we stayed last year. It is a great place and has lots of amenities. There is a large pool and spa in an enlclosed area, putt putt golf, a fishing pond with paddle boats and much more. Try it, you will like it.

Other than the horse show, which is the oldest continous annual horse in the country, the highlight of the trip is the bike ride down the “Virginia Creeper Rail Line trail”. The trail is a former narrow rail line that hauled freight and I belive coal line that traveled for about 30 miles on a grade that averages 3%. In the middle of the trail is the town of Damascus, Virginia. If you look for it, it is at the corner of Virginia,Tennasee, and North Carilona. From there you can go up or down the trail. When we arrive there we (there were 8 of us) rent our bikes, and helmets and are given a bottle of water. The bikes are loaded on a trailer pulled by a van into which we all climed, for the ride to the top of the trail. At the top we get our bikes and coast 17 miles down the trail back to Damascus. The ride runs thru the mountains, along steams with trout, along cliffs, paralleling the Appalacian Trail. It is wonderful and reminds me of riding my bike along the fire trails and logging roads of these same Blue Ridge Mountains,up further North, in Shenandoah County back when I was a kid, except I had to ride up first. (At my age now its easier to go down the path rather than up.)

The horse show was great and Tory won several ribbons and we all had a great time
I also spent time with my twin sister and her husband, in Martinsville, Virginia, and each of her children, Mark and Jennifer and their families, on the trip so it could not have been better.

So now we have been home for three weeks and leave Wednesday for a holiday in the Carribean. We will go to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. For one week we will be sailing on our Festiva timeshare yacht with three other couples, a Captain and a hostess/Chef. On each end of the sail we will spend three days in a small beach hotel on St Vincent to acclimate. We have found we enjoy this plan better than running in and out. You might want to try it.

Yes, we have timeshares. We find them very convenient and give us a great deal of freedom. We have used them in the islands, Europe, Central America, and of course here in the states.They also save us money, which in these times is always helpful. We have never had a time when we were not able to get what we wanted when we choose to use them. We choose not to use them sometimes, like last year when we went to Grand Turk, and wanted to stay specifically at the Salt Raker Inn. I love that place. It is so origional and fun. By the way...the diving on the wall is the best I have ever done. Blue Water Divers have been there over 20 years and are the people to go with. PS; I don’t get a commission from any of these people for recommending them. I’m just giving you a recommendation based on my experience.

I get back to you in two weeks, when I return.