Last week I went to New York City for the first time ever. I know, I know...I've been all over but I'd never made it there before. I went to visit my friends, Jen and Ryan, who live a block from Union Square. My journey started with going to Charlotte to stay at Helen and Doug's place while they were at the beach and then flying into Laguardia on Tuesday. I took the M60 bus to the 125th Street Station, figured out the not-so-logical Subway system, and Jen came to find me. We headed out into the cold, rainy day to [View Full Entry]

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I decided late on Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend to take a little holiday to western Virginia with my bike. There's a trail that runs from Abingdon to just past Whitetop, through Damascus, called the Virginia Creeper Trail. It's about 34 miles long and follows the old railroad bed of the Virginia Carolina Railroad. It's a great shared-use National Recreation Trail that goes through the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in the Jefferson National Forest. I got up Sunday and took the scenic route to Damascus where I started my ride to White [View Full Entry]

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I have a snow day today so I've decided to take some time and tell you what I've been up to recently. Just after the first of the year, I was having difficulty finding a renter through the couple places I had advertised, so I decided to post my extra room on one more site. It was a winner. My post included details about the room and rent, and also a few specifications as to the person--non-smoker, female, etc. But, a guy emailed me. His name was Fred and he told me that he had just arrived from France to start [View Full Entry]

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Well, it's been 14 months since I closed on my house and 13 since I moved in. It's been a busy year but figured it was time to send some pictures of the most recent changes (and also what it started out looking like) for those of you who haven't been here to see it. There are still lots of things on my mental list to work on, but for the most part, the first level is done. Upstairs needs more furniture and some finishing touches--and I'm already planning to repaint my room. I continue to work at the same school [View Full Entry]

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The view from Biltmore Estate Me in front of Biltmore House It's been a wonderful weekend for travel here in NC! I headed to Asheville, in the western part of North Carolina, to see what I could see between Saturday and Sunday. My friend Jenny came down from Ohio to go with me and we had an absolute blast! I picked her up in Raleigh Friday night after having a wonderful dinner with Joni and [View Full Entry]

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The Golden Gate Bridge covered in fog. We spent the night in Petaluma, about an hour north of San Francisco, and were lucky enough to find a great Indian restaurant within walking distance of our hotel. We also made friends with the guy working the front desk so that we could get some info about how long we should actually allow to get into SF with traffic and everything. GoogleMaps are great, but don't always account for traffic. He said it would take at least an hour and would probably [View Full Entry]

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This is gonna be a short one! Also, just a reminder, to contact me privately all you have to do is click the button at the bottom that says Contact MaryMPool OR Send Private Message. If you wanna just make a comment for everyone to see, click on Add Public Comment. I love to hear what you're up to even though I may not see you all the time...or even if I do see you all the time, I still like getting email and comments! After leaving Yosemite, we drove along many two lane roads going at a snail's pace...or at [View Full Entry]

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<-- Check out the video Amy took! There is also a second page of pics so don't miss those! We left our hotel just outside Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park early Monday morning so that we could get to Yosemite National Park in time to do some sightseeing before darkness fell. We knew we had two days to fit in all that Yosemite had to offer and we had to get a move on! Our drive to Yosemite was uneventful...I believe there was quite a bit of napping going on for the backseat passengers, but then again, just about anytime [View Full Entry]

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Oh, what an early start to the day. We got all our stuff packed into the Pacifica and went to Albertsons for the remainder of our essential supplies. Peanut butter, fruit, sunscreen, ice, and a cooler later, we hit the road by 8:15am. I drove us out of LA and then Allyn took over for the rest of the day. Traffic wasn't bad at all for which we were all hugely thankful. Then we got off the main highway and headed cross country on California SR 245. This was a tremendously hilly and curvy road. We climbed from a very flat [View Full Entry]

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We woke up early and showered by about 8am. During breakfast, Lauren and Allyn wanted coffee so Amy went next door and borrowed the neighbors' coffee machine. While she was gone, Allyn and Lauren went out onto the patio. A very loud alarm sounded! They weren't sure what was going on so we all traipsed upstairs and asked Amy what was going on. "Ok, they're testing the fire alarms this morning at 8am. Sorry, I forgot." Throughout breakfast, numerous apartment alarms went off through the building. But Peanut Butter Puffins and coffee made everyone happy to start the day. We set [View Full Entry]

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