By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
Looks like it’s been about two years since I last wrote a rhyming post. Since April is National Poetry Month, here’s my April poem.
Old Man Winter
Today is the 18th of April,
Which means it’s been 29 days
Since the first day of spring was declared,
But, sadly, we’ve had some delays.
It snowed on the 15th of April,
It’s snowing today as I write,
The earth is supposed to be greening up,
But instead it’s totally white!
The birds are returning for summer,
They come at the same time each year,
They’re cold, they’re confused, and they’re starving,
I pray that they’ll all persevere.
The squirrels and the rabbits are hardy,
But they must be wondering, too,
If this winter will ever come to an end,
So that springtime can finally break through.
It appears that the Groundhog’s prediction
Was sadly and horribly wrong!
He said six more weeks of winter
But it’s gone on for twice that long!
Mother Earth, Father Time, can you help us?
We are weary of the winter without end!
Could you please send the Old Man packing,
So that Spring can become our new friend!
Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Shunpiking To Heaven Backroads Blog
Wednesday, April 18, 2018
Thursday, April 12, 2018
St John’s Church and Cemetery
By Ruth A. Ringelstetter
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
It was the third morning of our 2010 trip to North Carolina, but our first morning there in the mountains. It was raining heavily that morning as we arrived at our first stop -- the historic Mast General Store.
As soon as we finished at the store, we moved on. Our next stop was the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church and Cemetery. It was still raining a little when we arrived at the church, but at least it wasn’t pouring.
The little frame church, built in the Gothic style, with simple stained glass windows was completed in 1860. William West Skiles, who was a deacon, was the driving force behind the building of the church. The church was completed for a cost of $700, including $40 paid for the stained glass windows, shipped in from New York.
The church was consecrated two years later in August of 1862. This celebration was the last time William Skiles would see his beloved church as his health was failing and he died two short months later. He was buried in the churchyard.
In 1882, the church was removed in sections to a spot higher up on the Watauga River, and put together again. This is the spot where the church stands today. In 1889, the remains of Reverend Skiles were removed from the old site and moved to the new church and cemetery location.
Even though it was a rainy morning, we knew this could be our only visit to this church, so Joann made her way around the church photographing as she went. Behind the church, and unseen from the road, stands an old outhouse.
From the cemetery, you can look off into the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. The cemetery is small, but it is one of the oldest in the area.
The church went through several decades of neglect before it was totally restored and now is used for a Sunday mass from Memorial Day to Labor Day, as well as being a wedding venue. Summer concerts are also held in the church with a picnic supper afterwards.
Just across the road from the church was an old gambrel-roof barn. There didn’t appear to be any other remnants of a farm, and we just couldn’t resist taking some photos before moving on down the road.
If you get to the Valle Crucis area, be sure to do some backroads exploring. It would be well worth your time!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
It was the third morning of our 2010 trip to North Carolina, but our first morning there in the mountains. It was raining heavily that morning as we arrived at our first stop -- the historic Mast General Store.
As soon as we finished at the store, we moved on. Our next stop was the historic St. John’s Episcopal Church and Cemetery. It was still raining a little when we arrived at the church, but at least it wasn’t pouring.
The little frame church, built in the Gothic style, with simple stained glass windows was completed in 1860. William West Skiles, who was a deacon, was the driving force behind the building of the church. The church was completed for a cost of $700, including $40 paid for the stained glass windows, shipped in from New York.
The church was consecrated two years later in August of 1862. This celebration was the last time William Skiles would see his beloved church as his health was failing and he died two short months later. He was buried in the churchyard.
In 1882, the church was removed in sections to a spot higher up on the Watauga River, and put together again. This is the spot where the church stands today. In 1889, the remains of Reverend Skiles were removed from the old site and moved to the new church and cemetery location.
Even though it was a rainy morning, we knew this could be our only visit to this church, so Joann made her way around the church photographing as she went. Behind the church, and unseen from the road, stands an old outhouse.
From the cemetery, you can look off into the Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. The cemetery is small, but it is one of the oldest in the area.
The church went through several decades of neglect before it was totally restored and now is used for a Sunday mass from Memorial Day to Labor Day, as well as being a wedding venue. Summer concerts are also held in the church with a picnic supper afterwards.
Just across the road from the church was an old gambrel-roof barn. There didn’t appear to be any other remnants of a farm, and we just couldn’t resist taking some photos before moving on down the road.
If you get to the Valle Crucis area, be sure to do some backroads exploring. It would be well worth your time!
Happy Shunpiking!
Ruth
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Joann Lays an Easter Egg
By Joann M. Ringelstetter
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
On Saturday, April 19, 2014, the day before Easter Sunday, Ruth and I left home around 4:30 a.m. on a 9-day photography trip to the beautiful state of Kentucky. This means that we had both gotten out of bed at 2:00 a.m. in order to do last minute packing and food preparation, and for me to finish loading the car, then drive to Ruth’s where we would add her clothes, tons of research materials, and the food she had prepared. As we added her stuff, we had to reorganize the large cargo area, which had to be strategically packed to fit everything in for nine days on the road.
As I began to write this blog post, Ruth and I discussed the insanity of rising that early to get on the road. We were asking ourselves, “What were we thinking?!” But as we reviewed the photos from that day, we realized that we were on a mission to get to Moonshine, in southern Illinois, locally described as "a wide spot in the road" with a population of 2. For years, the only building in town was an old general store that was built around 1912 (if you don’t count the outhouse and storage sheds, that is). The Moonshine Store is famous for its Moonburger and other grilled sandwiches and the grill is shut off promptly at 12:30. After enjoying a delicious meal there, we headed towards Indiana.
It was 6:30 p.m. by the time we had photographed our way to the Indiana border. Well, actually, it was 7:30 p.m. because, at that point, we left the Central Time Zone and entered the Eastern Time Zone. But we forgot about the time change at first, which would cause an even later arrival at our motel than we were already afraid to admit.
Our first stop in Indiana was the city of Vincennes, which hugs the Wabash River running between the two states. It’s the oldest city in Indiana and is rich in architecture. When we pass through cities like this, we always look for old ghosted advertising signs, which are often on the sides of brick buildings. In this case, we located a very large sign for Holsum Bread, with a Coca Cola sign superimposed on it.
We left Vincennes around 9:00 p.m. and still had quite a ways to drive before getting to the motel in Mitchell, Indiana, where we had made a reservation. It was a small mom and pop motel with outside doors, which is our preference. And it was only a few minutes from Spring Mill State Park, which would be our starting point the next day at dawn. On the way, we talked with excitement about all the things we planned to photograph at the park. One of the subjects was the restored pioneer settlement there.
Another was the Hamer Cemetery, a pioneer cemetery located within the park. The land for this cemetery was set aside in 1832 by Colonel Hugh Hamer and his brother, Thomas, who were the owners of the village and its grist mill. According to the park service, the cemetery began out of immediate need when a traveler died in the night near this location. Hugh Hamer instructed his carpenters to build a coffin and bury the man in the woods. He later deeded the area including the grave to serve as a cemetery.
The Hamer Grist Mill is one of the largest mills in southern Indiana. It operated from 1817 until 1892. During that time, local farmers brought their corn to the mill for grinding. In exchange for this service, the Hamer brothers kept a portion of the corn for use in their distillery, which produced Old Hamer Whiskey.
We usually let the motel owners know that we often arrive late, but we decided we’d better make another courtesy call to inform them that it would be REALLY late this time. It was around 10:30 p.m. when we checked in, so we unloaded everything from the car, had a quick bite to eat, and fell into bed knowing that we would still be tired when the alarm went off at 5:00 a.m.
That night, a spring storm passed through the area and it rained heavily for a while. When we got up on Easter morning, we were happy to see that the storm had moved on and we would be able to photograph at first light in Spring Mill State Park. We planned to start at Spring Mill Inn, which was built in 1939. That year, the cost of the most expensive room, which included three meals, was $7.50 a day and admission to the park was 10 cents per person.
We got ourselves ready for the day and then I went out to the car to start loading my camera equipment and all the other stuff we had dragged into the room. As I unlocked the doors, I realized that when we pulled up to our motel room and unloaded the car after such a long and tiring day, I had left the car windows open. Talk about a sinking feeling, knowing how long it had rained during the night. I opened the driver’s door and looked at the drenched seats and wet floor. And the research materials that Ruth had left on her seat were a sopping mess.
Luckily, nothing else got ruined because we had taken most of our possessions into the room with us. We grabbed some towels from the motel and started sopping up the water. Luckily, my car has leather seats, so they could be dried off to a certain extent. We always try to be at our first location at first light in order to take advantage of the beautiful dawn light before the sun comes up, so we knew we had to hurry with this cleanup effort. After drying things off as much as we could without wasting too much time, we quickly transferred everything back into the car and, after laying the motel room key on the desk, I slammed the door shut and we were off.
But WAIT! Where was my tripod? Oh, no! In my hurry to hit the road and be in the park by first light, I had accidentally left my tripod leaning in the corner of the motel room. What to do? We could go to the park without it and come back in a couple of hours to retrieve it, but it’s an expensive piece of equipment. And it’s necessary in order to take pictures before the sun is up. After some deliberation, I got up the courage to ring the bell at the motel office, knowing that I would be waking up the poor owner in the pre-dawn of Easter morning. Shameful, wouldn’t you say?
The owner was a lovely woman, who responded to the bell in her pajamas with her eyes half closed. She let me back into the room while I thanked her and profusely apologized for my absent-mindedness. As the title says, I laid an egg on that Easter weekend in 2014.
Today is Easter Sunday, but it’s also April Fools Day. So, what do you think? Is any of this true?
I’d like to tell you that I made it all up, but that would be a lie. I did make up the part about it raining all night and the car getting flooded, so I may have fooled you on that. But, unfortunately, the part about our 21-hour day is true. The part about leaving the windows open all night is true (it just happened on a different trip). The part about slamming the motel room door with the key left inside and then realizing that my tripod was still in there is true. And, worst of all, the part about dragging the motel owner out of bed at 6:00 a.m. on Easter morning to open the motel room door in her pajamas is also true.
In case you’re wondering, we did make it to the park in time to capture this dawn view of the restored flume, which carries the water from Hamer's cave to the mill.
Happy Easter, everybody, and Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes. Just click on the desired photo and look for the blue “BUY” button.
On Saturday, April 19, 2014, the day before Easter Sunday, Ruth and I left home around 4:30 a.m. on a 9-day photography trip to the beautiful state of Kentucky. This means that we had both gotten out of bed at 2:00 a.m. in order to do last minute packing and food preparation, and for me to finish loading the car, then drive to Ruth’s where we would add her clothes, tons of research materials, and the food she had prepared. As we added her stuff, we had to reorganize the large cargo area, which had to be strategically packed to fit everything in for nine days on the road.
As I began to write this blog post, Ruth and I discussed the insanity of rising that early to get on the road. We were asking ourselves, “What were we thinking?!” But as we reviewed the photos from that day, we realized that we were on a mission to get to Moonshine, in southern Illinois, locally described as "a wide spot in the road" with a population of 2. For years, the only building in town was an old general store that was built around 1912 (if you don’t count the outhouse and storage sheds, that is). The Moonshine Store is famous for its Moonburger and other grilled sandwiches and the grill is shut off promptly at 12:30. After enjoying a delicious meal there, we headed towards Indiana.
It was 6:30 p.m. by the time we had photographed our way to the Indiana border. Well, actually, it was 7:30 p.m. because, at that point, we left the Central Time Zone and entered the Eastern Time Zone. But we forgot about the time change at first, which would cause an even later arrival at our motel than we were already afraid to admit.
Our first stop in Indiana was the city of Vincennes, which hugs the Wabash River running between the two states. It’s the oldest city in Indiana and is rich in architecture. When we pass through cities like this, we always look for old ghosted advertising signs, which are often on the sides of brick buildings. In this case, we located a very large sign for Holsum Bread, with a Coca Cola sign superimposed on it.
We left Vincennes around 9:00 p.m. and still had quite a ways to drive before getting to the motel in Mitchell, Indiana, where we had made a reservation. It was a small mom and pop motel with outside doors, which is our preference. And it was only a few minutes from Spring Mill State Park, which would be our starting point the next day at dawn. On the way, we talked with excitement about all the things we planned to photograph at the park. One of the subjects was the restored pioneer settlement there.
Another was the Hamer Cemetery, a pioneer cemetery located within the park. The land for this cemetery was set aside in 1832 by Colonel Hugh Hamer and his brother, Thomas, who were the owners of the village and its grist mill. According to the park service, the cemetery began out of immediate need when a traveler died in the night near this location. Hugh Hamer instructed his carpenters to build a coffin and bury the man in the woods. He later deeded the area including the grave to serve as a cemetery.
The Hamer Grist Mill is one of the largest mills in southern Indiana. It operated from 1817 until 1892. During that time, local farmers brought their corn to the mill for grinding. In exchange for this service, the Hamer brothers kept a portion of the corn for use in their distillery, which produced Old Hamer Whiskey.
We usually let the motel owners know that we often arrive late, but we decided we’d better make another courtesy call to inform them that it would be REALLY late this time. It was around 10:30 p.m. when we checked in, so we unloaded everything from the car, had a quick bite to eat, and fell into bed knowing that we would still be tired when the alarm went off at 5:00 a.m.
That night, a spring storm passed through the area and it rained heavily for a while. When we got up on Easter morning, we were happy to see that the storm had moved on and we would be able to photograph at first light in Spring Mill State Park. We planned to start at Spring Mill Inn, which was built in 1939. That year, the cost of the most expensive room, which included three meals, was $7.50 a day and admission to the park was 10 cents per person.
We got ourselves ready for the day and then I went out to the car to start loading my camera equipment and all the other stuff we had dragged into the room. As I unlocked the doors, I realized that when we pulled up to our motel room and unloaded the car after such a long and tiring day, I had left the car windows open. Talk about a sinking feeling, knowing how long it had rained during the night. I opened the driver’s door and looked at the drenched seats and wet floor. And the research materials that Ruth had left on her seat were a sopping mess.
Luckily, nothing else got ruined because we had taken most of our possessions into the room with us. We grabbed some towels from the motel and started sopping up the water. Luckily, my car has leather seats, so they could be dried off to a certain extent. We always try to be at our first location at first light in order to take advantage of the beautiful dawn light before the sun comes up, so we knew we had to hurry with this cleanup effort. After drying things off as much as we could without wasting too much time, we quickly transferred everything back into the car and, after laying the motel room key on the desk, I slammed the door shut and we were off.
But WAIT! Where was my tripod? Oh, no! In my hurry to hit the road and be in the park by first light, I had accidentally left my tripod leaning in the corner of the motel room. What to do? We could go to the park without it and come back in a couple of hours to retrieve it, but it’s an expensive piece of equipment. And it’s necessary in order to take pictures before the sun is up. After some deliberation, I got up the courage to ring the bell at the motel office, knowing that I would be waking up the poor owner in the pre-dawn of Easter morning. Shameful, wouldn’t you say?
The owner was a lovely woman, who responded to the bell in her pajamas with her eyes half closed. She let me back into the room while I thanked her and profusely apologized for my absent-mindedness. As the title says, I laid an egg on that Easter weekend in 2014.
Today is Easter Sunday, but it’s also April Fools Day. So, what do you think? Is any of this true?
I’d like to tell you that I made it all up, but that would be a lie. I did make up the part about it raining all night and the car getting flooded, so I may have fooled you on that. But, unfortunately, the part about our 21-hour day is true. The part about leaving the windows open all night is true (it just happened on a different trip). The part about slamming the motel room door with the key left inside and then realizing that my tripod was still in there is true. And, worst of all, the part about dragging the motel owner out of bed at 6:00 a.m. on Easter morning to open the motel room door in her pajamas is also true.
In case you’re wondering, we did make it to the park in time to capture this dawn view of the restored flume, which carries the water from Hamer's cave to the mill.
Happy Easter, everybody, and Happy Shunpiking!
Joann
Photos in this blog post can be purchased as wall art, paper prints, downloads, phone cases, and keepsakes by clicking on the photo. You will be taken to the gallery website where you will see a big blue "BUY" button. Or to see all photos available, click on the "Browse Galleries" button on the menu at the top of this page. Thank you for your interest!
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