The Appalachians are filled with stories, none more convoluted and long-lasting than the Hatfield’s and the McCoy’s feud. Suffice to say they didn’t like each other much. The names of the protagonists are enough for most. They include: Squirrel Huntin’ Sam Hatfield, Devil Anse Hatfield,  Asa Harmon Mc Coy, Nancy McCoy Hatfield Phillips and husband “Bad” Frank Phillips.

Squirrel Huntin’ Sam Hatfield. Looks normal enough to me.

Moving right along. Last night I met Walter Brennan’s dad. Who on discovering I was from “Ustralya” barraged me with a sting of questions about Steve Irwin (who apparently was very big in “these here parts”).

Walter’s Dad: Is it true he was a legend in your country too.

Me: Well they named a road after him. But I don’t know if that counts.

Walter’s Dad: They say he used to sleep with a crocodile.

Me: That’s entirely possible. I could check with his wife next time I see her.

Walter’s Dad: All them critters he played with an he ended up dead cause he stood on a dad-blamed stinger-ray.

Me: I don’t think he actually stood on it.

Walter’s Dad: Is it true he was a legend in your country too.

Me: Could be.

Walter’s Dad: I met a fella from Queensland, he says the “Abrignals” got this thing they swing on a sting called a “digera somthin”.

Me: That would probably be a didgeridoo. Its a hollow piece of wood that they blow through to ………

Walter’s Dad: I love that Ustralian accent.

Me: Well your’s is quite special as well, much different to up North.

Walter’s Dad: We call em Yankees down here. Can’t unerstan a lick of what they say. Is it true that Steve Irwin ……………..

And so it went Walter’s dad was a dictionary of fascinating phrases some from Texas such as “gully washer” and “frog strangler” both of which relate to a heavy down pour of rain. Quite different to the Amish, “making down wet”.

Fascinating.

Below a few words from The South as opposed to Texas.

Bob War = Twisted wire interwoven with barbs. As in “stay away from the bob war”.

Retard = Stopped working. As in “I retard at 65”.

Fixin = Getting ready to do something. As in “fixin to leave”.

Fixins = Things required to do something. As in “git me dem fixins”.

Kilt = Not a Scottish item of clothing. As in “I kilt me a barr”.

Pitcher = Either a vessel for water, or a photograph.

Sichy-ayshun = Predicament . As in “How’n duh Sam Hill did you ever gicherself in a sichy-ayshun whirr duh fish er a-bitin’ an’ you ain’t got no pole?”

Yall = Self explanatory really. very popular similar to you-uns.

Tomorrow Harlan County.

Back on the Blue Ridge Pathway through the Appalachian Mountains the colours are so vivid they almost hurt.

Walking through a couple of short trails you can get a sense of what the early settlers had to contend with. This sense is augmented by the several displays and informational centres along the way. You could spend months on this trail and people do just that, walking the entire distance.

We left the trail a little early today with the plan to duck into Tennessee and then pick up the Great Smoky Mountains at the bottom of the Appalachian Mountains tomorrow.

A sign outside gun shop, gave us both cause for curiosity it read ”LOCAL HONEY FOR SALE” Being as how we are now entering the bible belt we decided it must be the bee variety.

Otter Lake Overlook

Otter Lake

The Simple Life. Simple and Hard

Down at The Old Mill

A couple of “good old boys” look after the mill.

The Appalachian Mountains are the scar that runs down the left hand side of the face of North America. That is to say the right hand side of the map, faces being viewed from the owners perspective.

The Appalachian range is actually mostly located in the US but extends into Canada, forming a zone from 100 to 300 mi (160 to 480 km) wide, running from Newfoundland to Central Alabama in the United States. The system is divided into a series of ranges, with the individual mountains averaging around 3,000 ft (910 m). The highest of the group is Mount Mitchell at 6,684 feet (2,037 m), which is the highest point in the United States east of the Mississippi River.

So, excitement plus there then!

Jen. On The Trail.

The Blue Ridge Parkway through the Appalachians.

On the rocks.

SNAKE!!!!!!! Red Tongued Snake.

Heading to the Cabin.

Back at The Cabin

Emergency, emergency,  there’s a time warp happening, there’s a time warp happening………. no it’s alright we have driven into Amish country.

A few rules for Amish speak;

Sounds of “w” are pronounced as “v” as in “ve” for “we,” “b” is replaced by “p” as in “sop” for “sob,” hard “g” is replaced by “k” as in “dick” for “dig,” and “f” often substitutes for the sound of “v” in words like “liff” for “live.” But, wait, there’s more: “g” is substituted by “ch” as with “cheneration” for “generation,” “ch” can also substitute for the “j” sound, as a short “o” disappears so the “u” can replace it such as saying “cummin” for “common” as in “cummin sense,” “grudge” is more commonly pronounced as “crutch,” and “mouth” actually sounds a whole lot more like “mawth.”
It could actually,”make down wet” in the next few days. So we will keep an eye out for that.

The Amish Faith Actually Started In Switzerland: The church was created after Amish founder Jakob Ammann separated from a group of Swiss Anabaptists in the late 1600s. The Amish followed the teachings of the Mennonite faith, but split away from the Mennonites in the late 17th century because they felt the Mennonites weren’t disciplined enough. Even so, in the U.S. today, sects generally vary in dress and style of worship.

The Amish Have Their Own Language: It’s called Pennsylvania Dutch, owing to the fact that so many Amish settled in Pennsylvania and is an amalgam of German, Dutch and English.

You Can’t Just Join: There are around 180,000 members in the U.S. — and they’re not really looking to recruit. Members are born and raised into the faith — and they take very few converts.

Amish Women Aren’t Married In White: What non-Amish consider traditional, Amish consider downright weird. Women are married in blue or purple gowns, and don’t wear make up or jewelery.

Children In Amish Communities Typically Don’t Receive Higher Education: A 1972 Supreme Court (Wisconsin V. Yoder) ruling deemed that Amish families weren’t required to educate their children past the 8th grade, and were protected under the freedom of religion clause. Some families do choose, however, to pursue higher education. Most of the time, though, kids are required to help around the house and farm.

While They Don’t Own Cars, They Are Allowed To Ride In Them: The Amish generally don’t permit motorized automobiles in their communities, but they are allowed to accept rides from non-Amish people, whom they call Englishers.

Are they a peaceful and loving bunch of folk. Well maybe, or does their religion have the same inflexible principles as so many others. This legal battle just finished…..Conflicts between subgroups of Amish have resulted in instances of “beard cutting” attacks on members of the Amish community. Due to the cloistered nature of Amish lifestyle, they are often reluctant to bring complaints to local police who describe the attacks as “very rare”. In September 2012, a group of 16 Amish men and women from Bergholz, Ohio, were convicted on Federal hate-crime and conspiracy charges, including Samuel Mullet Snr., who did not participate in the five hair and beard-cutting attacks but was tried as the leader of the campaign. Samuel Mullet Sr. was sentenced to 15 years in prison on February 8, 2013. Fifteen others were given lighter sentences ranging from one year and one day to seven years. These convictions were overturned in August 2014.

Frustrated barbers or religious fanatics, you tell me.

Below: Jen snapped a few locals.

Amish Limo

Back of Amish Limo

Saving for an Amish Limo

Das is nicht for gerfingerpoken. Or don’t touch the glassware unless you have the cash to pay for it.

Schucplatting, for your next trivia session is a dance which involves slapping the bottom of ones foot while mincing about in a generally gay (that is, happy) sort of way.

Consider noise. Ear shattering, skull splitting, teenage girls watching “Friday the Thirteenth’ or “Halloween” type noise.

Now consider space. Squishy, sardine can, no room left, walls crashing in, can’t breath, kind of space.

If you can imagine the above then congratulations, you have saved yourself the trouble of taking the Statue of Liberty Cruise.

By luck alone we managed to miss the experience of being crammed on a small overloaded ferry and herded around Liberty and Ellis Islands and we are much happier for not having had the experience.

This is not the only experience we didn’t have, we also didn’t pay a couple of hundred bucks to go through airport like security to travel with another herd of people to the top of the Empire State building. Call me a cheap skate, and I know you will, however it was a joint decision not to be subjected to the same level of comfort and length of queue we could experience for two bucks fifty on the subway. For the record, the Chrysler Building leaves the Empire State building for dead in the architecture stakes.

So what did we do? Well we caught the Staten Island Ferry and saw Ms. Liberty for free. We visited Battery Park, China Town, Little Italy, Greenwich Village, Time Square, Grand Central Station, and a thousand sights in between. Picked up sushi for tea, navigated the overcrowded subway back to our new favourite place, The Bronx, with some of our new friends.

All this and didn’t get mugged once.

New York is a seriously big city. Lots of stuff here is bigger than anywhere else on the planet. It’s also noisy and crowded and demonstrates all the excesses and privations of what is arguably the richest country in the world. The economic boom years afforded enormous development opportunities for the USA and New York certainly took advantage of them. Like the rest of the developed world however (Australia included), the USA is losing it’s industry to overseas cheap manufacturers. Nearly everything is made off shore. There are increasing political rumblings here that China and other “cheap labour” economies, where currencies are held at an artificially low-level, are destroying the manufacturing capabilities of developed nations. Designed in the home country and made offshore may not work in  the long run.  Note to Self…lighten up, we’re all having fun right?

Anyway it’s picture time.

Self Explanatory

Break Dancer

Mural In Little Italy

Grand Central

Forget the Empire State. This is THE Building

The Jolly Green Giant’s Mum.

Noodle Face

Jekyll, Hyde and Rabbit

Pick the locals.

A tiny coffee shop, with an inconspicuous sign saying “espresso”, on Park Avenue New York. Who would have thought it. Removed from the mediocrity of Starbuck’s “pumpkin, cinnamon, squirrel infusion, latte” and at $4.00 (that’s $5.00 au) a hit served in a tulip cup on whole milk. Woo Hoo!

Real Coffee. Real cups. Real Muppets.

Chrysler Building.

New York, “The Empire State” has It’s own building.

Jen’s squirrel.

Jen’s Subway.

Jen’s Rasta Man. “Wasup doorkeep”

The New York subway system mimics the city in many ways. It’s noisy, crowded, a little run down, a little grubby, and in need of some tender loving care. That said it still works, rattling, squealing and snaking beneath the streets like a giant alien worm.

So we took the 5 from 149th and 3rd downtown to Central Park North (see how we have blended right in to the Bronx), scoped the Met, the Guggenheim, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, all the time drifting in and out of the park. We also tried the Knish and Giant Pretzel from the street vendors and pronounced them less than average.

One other thing we did was check out the Frick collection which, from what I can see, is a collection of very old photographs by novice photographers who, for reasons I will never understand, have achieved some notoriety. Mr. Frick, who lived in a very big house just off Fifth Avenue, collected hundreds of these pics plus other stuff over many years probably to impress his friends. Or maybe he just enjoyed early photographs.

Photography is banned in the Frick Museum so this is a small sample of what you would see if you took photos.

Theo Rousseau’s the road to town definitely shows promise.

Tom Gainsborough’s best friend.

Pierre Renoir’s mum and kids.

Pete Rubens. He needs to sharpen his game a little. I mean, look at the collar on this guy.

Joey Turner. He’s big on boats and has clicked a beauty here.

Jimmy Whistler took this one . Not his Mum obviously.

Frank Boucher. I like this, good contrast depth of field etc.

Johnny Constable’s church picture. The trees get in the way a bit, but not bad.

Tony van Dyck. Not a bad effort.

Claude (Oscar) Monet’s offering. A little washed out perhaps?

Gio Bellini’s whats the fuss about

In conclusion, I’m with Gio on this, I don’t see what the fuss is about either.

Lyndal, if you ever see this blog you will notice that none of your famous early photographers used black and white film. Just saying that’s all!

(Note to self. Lighten up, it’s not Niagara Falls’ fault!)

Watkins Glen International (nicknamed “The Glen”) is  located near Watkins Glen, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake, New York State. The circuit is known as the Mecca of North American road racing and is famous world-wide. Since 1948 thousands of races including formula one have been held at “The Glen”.

But that’s not why we are here is it. Were here to see the “Watkins Glen Ten Thousand” that is the gorge that has been cut through the shale over ten thousand years to produce the following result. Not quite as fast but very nice.

The Gorge

Autumn

Waterfall

The Heart

Shale Layers

The Bridge