It's the night of February 28th and the official end of the Slow Travel "February Bloggers." I've actually managed to post every single day of the month (fortunately a short month), and only posted late a handful of times.

I was one of the very first Slow Travel bloggers back in 2004, recruited by Pauline when we went on our long trip. Most people didn't even know what a blog was back then. My "Grand Tour" blog was like a diary, as I posted very detailed journal entries for much of the 14 months. I didn't post many photos at all back then. I didn't know how (!) and was working from internet cafes and over a phone line most of the time, and it was difficult to upload photos.

Then in 2006 I started this "Trails" blog, mainly to blog during our travels. I blogged consistently during our summer trips in 2006 and 2007 (and did post lots of photos), but I decided not to blog last summer. It made the trip more relaxing, but I missed the discipline of periodic blogging and even viewing my experiences from the perspective of what I might write about.

This month is the only time I've ever blogged about my daily life; my other blogging has always been about our travel experiences. Even though I've blogged about our travels, I've always been pretty open about sharing something of myself and our family interactions, but this month was something different. I experimented with several different kinds of topics, so my posts seem kind of all over the place. Sophie's visit at the beginning of the month created a little excitement, including our trip to Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry. I shared something of my past, my family, my friends, my work, and my city. I really enjoyed "the letter N," but I didn't do any other lists or quizzes. I didn't post any recipes (which I thought I might do if I ended up with "bloggers block"). I thought about joining in on the photohunts and maybe this is something I'll do later.

Here's what I enjoyed about my February blogging:

- I liked the interaction with the other bloggers very much. I enjoyed reading their blogs, leaving comments, and interacting with them when they commented on my posts. I learned more about some Slow Travel friends and got to know some new people I hadn't known before. It was definitely fun to be part of this February blogging community.

- I enjoyed writing again. I've missed it! I enjoyed coming up with an interesting topic every day and writing about it. I think that writing causes you to think introspectively and keeps your mind agile.

- I think I have a perspective and some interesting experiences to share beyond my travel stories.

- I did like the discipline of blogging every day. And because there was a group of us doing this together, I felt I had some accountability to keep it going.

Here's what was difficult for me:

- This was a stressful month for me and the daily blogging added a bit to the stress. This month I had my regular teaching, a non-credit class one night a week, a houseguest, a dinner party for 12 people, and an overnight trip. I had a lot to do for our summer tours and family trip. I started working on our taxes. Daily blogging definitely added to the load.

- I enjoyed the blogging much more than some other things I should have been doing... like grading those stacks of papers. It gave me another reason not to take the papers out of my case.

- I realized once again that I'm not that good at taking shortcuts. I'm somewhat obsessive. I can write quickly, but I like to edit and look up details. None of my posts were really quick and easy. I don't think I could work in a newsroom on deadline.

- I felt a little guilty about not getting around to everyone's else's blog on a regular basis, especially those people who were good about coming to mine.

- Blogging involved more time working on my computer when I could have been interacting with my husband and daughter. I think I spend too much time on the computer and internet already. (This is why I'm resisting Facebook and Twitter...)

Despite these difficulties, February blogging was a great experience for me. It wouldn't have been near as much fun alone, so thanks to my fellow bloggers and others who have been reading along with us.

I am going to continue regular blogging, though beginning tomorrow, I will no longer be a daily blogger. I admire those who can do it! My plan now is to try to post every weekend (on Friday, Saturday or Sunday) in March and April and occasionally more often if there's something to say. We leave on May 5 for our 2-1/2 months in Europe, and I will blog again while we are traveling. I also want to keep up with the blogs of all these friends I've gotten to know.

Here's to March and springtime!

Before wrapping up tonight, I want to announce a new blog just started by the Slow Travel Tours group. There are nine of us in the group, all Slow Travel members who lead small group tours in Europe that follow the slow travel philosophy. We've been communicating over the last year, sharing ideas and encouragement-- I've described the group as an "informal affiliation." With Pauline's help, we put up a simple webpage that lists all our tours and links to our individual websites. Now we have a blog too. Each week one of us will post to the blog, sharing some aspect of our approach, our trip, or the area where we base our group.

Last weekend's post was our first weekly post, written by me. I gave some background on the Slow Travel Tours group and our approach to travel. Bill Steiner of Adventures in Italy will be posting tomorrow. Charley and I met Bill and his wife Kristi at the Slow Travel Gathering in Savannah last spring and had a long lunch with them in Asheville last week. They are great people who offer unique weeks in Orvieto, Italy.

Check out our Slow Travel Tours blog every weekend-- you'll hear a new voice every week.

It was a pretty day in early April, late on the afternoon of Good Friday, just two years ago. We had returned a few weeks before from a great spring break trip to Provence. Kelly was 13 years old and had a holiday from school. She had a new ball glove and suggested that she and Charley go outside to play softball. They headed down to the open grassy area in the "glen" between the two dead-end streets of our neighborhood. I stayed at home, working in my office.

Charley and Kelly in Marseille (March 2007)

From my desk at the front of the house, I have a clear view of our little street just a few yards away. I happened to notice two white dogs trotting by, big dogs I hadn't seen before. They looked a bit like white chows, with big heads and pointed tails. I briefly wondered if Kelly would see the dogs. Although we no longer had our own dog, she was a big dog lover and never missed a chance to interact with dog owners and pet their dogs. I quickly turned back to my computer.

Some time later I became aware of a frantic screaming outside. Was it Kelly? I could not hear her clearly from inside I opened the front door and there she was, shrieking hysterically for help. "Don't let the big dog get Daddy!!!" Everything was happening in a blur. I saw Charley coming down the street... staggering down the street, it seemed, carrying a big rock. Our next door neighbor was running alongside, waving a cane. The two big white dogs were following behind.

Kelly and Charley came inside, and Charley went immediately to the bathroom. I saw that his hand was bleeding. Kelly was still screaming. I called 911 to report two stray dogs in the neighborhood that had apparently attacked my husband. The 911 operator told me that Animal Control was already on the scene. Did I need an ambulance? I didn't think so. I was more worried about the two stray dogs on the loose in our neighborhood than my husband's injury.

Charley called me to the bathroom. "I need to go to the emergency room," he said. "I can see the bone." He had wrapped his hand in two old towels. We live only five minutes from the hospital, the place where Kelly was born. The three of us quickly got in the car and headed out. Near the front of the neighborhood, I saw a group of neighbors clustered by near the doorway of a house. An Animal Control truck was nearby, a woman officer in the car. She was watching the two white dogs.

"Those dogs attacked my husband," I said. "I'm taking him to the emergency room." I vaguely remember asking her a few questions. I was worried about rabies, thinking that these were stray dogs. I had heard about shots in the stomach with long needles.

"I'm about to pass out," Charley said from the back seat.

A few minutes later we were at the emergency room. Kelly went in with Charley while I parked the car. Only when we were together in the emergency room did I see how badly he had been hurt. His blood pressure dropped terribly and he was ice cold. His left hand was ravaged, and he had been bitten on both arms. The doctors and nurses stabilized his blood pressure and then strangely left us alone. I had forgotten to bring my cell phone and was still focused on the possibility of rabies. I used Kelly's phone to leave a message for my parents and then to call a friend who was a top official in our county government, to try to connect with Animal Control and find out about the dogs.

Two sets of neighbors came by the emergency room to see us and were allowed to come back. One couple had been walking their dogs and the big white dogs had tried to attack them. They used pepper spray to drive the dogs away. They told us that the dogs had attacked another neighbor's pet, and that dog was seriously injured. (We later learned that a dog in another neighborhood had also been attacked.) The other neighbors lived next door to us, and the woman was the one who had been outside with Charley. Kelly had banged on their door, screaming that Charley had been attacked by a dog. Kelly hoped the husband could help, forgetting that he had broken his ankle and was using a cane. The wife ran out with the cane to help. The Animal Control officer was already in our neighborhood because they had received three calls about about these dogs.

I learned more from Kelly and Charley about what happened, and still more over the following days. The two dogs had appeared in the back grassy area where Charley and Kelly were tossing the softball. They seemed friendly and eventually approached my husband and daughter. Charley bent down to let the dog sniff his right hand, palm down and fingers curled. When he straightened up, the dog lunged for his left hand, the handd with the ball glove, knocking the glove off and fastening his teeth on Charley's left hand. The smaller dog laid down and just watched. Kelly began screaming and threw her ball at the big dog. At some point she ran for help. Charley said the dog was tossing his hand like it was a rope pull toy. He tripped on some rocks and fell backwards, the dog on top of him. The dog weighed about 100 pounds.

Charley is a strong man and somehow he found the strength to pull open the dog's jaw with his right hand and get his poor left hand out. The dog then began attacking both of Charley's arms. Charley grabbed one of the rocks and stood up. He thought he would kill the dog with the rock if he had to. He managed to make his way back to our street, where he met Kelly and our neighbor. The two dogs followed behind.

The dogs were Akitas, originally bred in Japan as fighting dogs. (I remembered the Akita only as the type of dog owned by Nicole Simpson when she was killed.) They are considered a highly dangerous breed of dogs. These dogs belonged to a family who lived six miles from our home. Their teenage son had been left in charge and left a door open and the dogs escaped. It was the next day before anyone realized they were gone. The dogs came across three of the busiest roads in Knoxville (including the interstate) to reach our little neighborhood, intersecting with Kelly and Charley the only time that they had ever played softball in the grassy area out behind our house.

After about five hours in the emergency room, Charley wounds were cleaned and bandaged and he was admitted to the hospital. His left hand was especially badly hurt, the most serious damage on the inside of his hand. My parents rushed to join us as soon as they got our message and were with us much of the next few days. Charley was in the hospital three nights, and had microsurgery on his hand the day after the attack. The doctor said the tendons weren't severed, but the damage was extensive. His two fingers (the two left fingers of his left hand) were almost ripped off.

After surgery, the day after the attack

We learned from Animal Control that the dogs weren't strays but did have owners and that their shots were current. So my initial concerns about rabies were at least set aside. The Animal Control officer told me there hadn't been a case of rabies in a human in our county for something like 40 years.

When Charley came home from the hospital, we had to change the dressings on his hand and arms twice a day, a process that took about 30 minutes each time until some of his wounds began to heal. He wasn't able to drive for the first ten days and had physical therapy three times a week for several months. About six months later he had a second surgery to remove scar tissue, outpatient this time, which was much more extensive than we had expected. Skin grafts were taken from the inside of his arm (where it bends) to repair his hand. The second surgery resulted in another round of major physical therapy.

After the second surgery, almost six months later

Charley had just turned 62 at the time of the attack. Although he spent most of his career in chemical sales and later worked as a stockbroker for several years, in recent years he's had a home renovation business. He has enjoyed using his woodworking skills, and he enjoys solving problems and helping people. For hobbies, he does woodworking (he's made several violins), plays piano and uses his computer. He's played the piano pretty much every day since he was a boy. See a theme? He makes his living and finds much of his pleasure using his hands. Because of his injury and the two surgeries, he wasn't able to work for most of 2007.

Now almost two years later, Charley's left hand is permanently damaged by the dog attack. His two left fingers are curled to the palm and other than some tingling, he has no feeling. They're useless. At one point he even talked about having them amputated, since they were useless and got in his way. In the year since his last surgery, he's found other ways to get things done (he never typed with 10 fingers anyway), but some things he'll never do the same. He's started playing the piano, learning to play again using only eight fingers. He can't lay his palm flat when he works and is unable to do projects that require full use of both hands. Two simple things-- he can't wear his wedding ring or hold my hand with his left hand.

We're are lucky, though, and so thankful that Charley wasn't more badly hurt. His fingers or hand could have been severed. The dog could have ravaged his right hand instead. (He is right handed.) The dog could have lunged for his throat while he was struggling on the rocks. His face could have been attacked. The second dog could have gotten involved. Charley could have been killed. Or the dog could have gone for our beloved Kelly, who so loved dogs, instead of Charley. Charley would have tried to save her, and who knows what would have happened. An older person, a weaker person, or a child would not have been able to defend themselves as Charley did. We hate what happened, but it could have been so much worse.

We just assumed that the dog would be destroyed. As you read this, you might assume that too. But that didn't happen. The dog (named Zeus) went to "trial" and was found to be "dangerous" (but not "vicious"). The owners actually appealed the "dangerous" verdict, which meant that they were supposed to use a muzzle to take the dog off their property and put a cover over the outdoor pen. We submitted a protest along with some photos, and the "dangerous" verdict was upheld. When we read the summary of the hearing (which we were not allowed to attend), it was obvious that the owners were highly distraught about their pet and the inconvenience to them-- not Charley's injuries and the impact on his life.

We ended up filing a lawsuit, since we had major medical bills, loss of income for about nine months, and Charley's permanent disability. At the time of the attack, we had private insurance with a high deductible, so our out-of-pocket medical expenses were significant. Our case was just settled out of court a month or so ago. The dog owners' were covered through their homeowners insurance company. We've been able to pay off the medical bills and some other debts that accumulated over that time. We're happy to have the money and get those bills behind us, but it wasn't a large amount considering how Charley's life was changed. Half of the settlement went to our health insurance companies (who paid most of the medical expense) and our attorney. (Note: The laws in Tennessee have since been strengthened to protect victims of dog attacks and hold owners more responsible.)

Our family is now extremely cautious of dogs. We definitely stay away from big dogs who aren't on leashes. When Charley goes for a walk, he carries a baseball bat, just in case. Kelly was initially extremely fearful of dogs and had a lot of guilt about leaving her dad down on the rocks with the attacking dog. She was shaken by the image of her strong father screaming after being knocked over by a big dog. We've assured her that she did the right thing to go get help, and she's worked through her issues in a very mature way. She now much prefers cats to dogs.

I have posted a few photos to show what happened to Charley that pretty April afternoon. You might be shocked, so please look at these pictures with caution. Don't feel you have to look. I thought the photos were important to share to give an idea of what a dog can do to a person.

In the emergency room

Four days later - palm

Four days later - top

Five weeks later

Two weeks after second surgery

For those who love dogs, as I always have, do be careful. Be especially careful around strange dogs or dogs who may be anxious. Watch young children around dogs. I never would have thought that a dog could change my husband's life in just an instant. And I'll always thank God for watching over Charley and Kelly that Good Friday afternoon.

This is an unusual time we're living in now... in 2009 and in the midst of a recession. Sometimes it seems that life is normal and times are good. We went out to eat last weekend and the restaurant was packed. There were plenty of people shopping at Target. But I know all around us, people are worried, even if they are not saying anything. And some people's lives have been affected deeply.

I teach Business Strategy in the College of Business Administration at our state university. This is a new career for me, after 27 years in the corporate world, most of it as a VP of Human Resources. I pursued this type of work after our long trip to Europe because I wanted flexibility. I would have summers off to travel and we could have our little business on the side, running our small group trips in Provence and now other places. Initially I started teaching as an adjunct, but I'm now in my second year with a 75% faculty appointment. 75% means that I teach six classes a year and get benefits. I also do some project work that I get paid extra for, sort of like an in-house consultant. I make about 50% of what I made in my former corporate life, a trade-off I was willing to make to get summers off and much more flexibility.

I also have a different kind of "risk" in my work. After years being part of the "inner circle" in my corporate world, I'm now part of a second-tier group in the university world: a "non-tenure-track" faculty member. Sinice I don't have a PhD, I don't have the same kind of job security. People like me get a new contract every year. In today's world that can be an uncomfortable feeling. If my contract isn't renewed, I don't get severance pay. I'm not even sure if I would qualify for unemployment.

Because of the work I do, I'm immersed with the stories of the recession. My students and I read the Wall Street Journal every day. We start each class with a discussion of current events-- what's happening in the external environment that companies need to respond to? How are companies adjusting their strategies? Which companies are finding opportunities? Which are going out of business? After several students report a continuing saga of business downturns, I'll usually ask "Does anyone have any good news to share?"

My students are seniors in their last semester of college. Last year's seniors were busy interviewing, trying to decide between job offers. This year's graduates are facing a different job market. Many fewer recruiters are coming to campus. I've heard of very few offers. Some students are now planning to go directly to graduate school, and others hope they can at least continue working their retaurant or retail jobs. At least they don't have house payments.

Our state is in a budget crisis, and higher education is impacted. They are looking at a 25% cut across the entire state university system. At my campus, this will potentially mean a 9% tuition increase as well as a few hundred layoffs. Our heat has been turned down to 68, and travel has been eliminated. I'm lucky I got a new computer in August, as equipment purchases have now been frozen. I'm happy to have a job, as it appears that I am "safe" and will be continued next year.

The biggest impact on me personally is that my classes are much larger-- 50% over last semester. This is one way to cut costs-- make classes bigger which means fewer classes and teachers. In six previous semesters of teaching strategy, my classes have averaged about 30 students. This semester I'm teaching four sections (the most I've had before is three), averaging 45 students in each class. It's a heavily discussion-oriented class, with 20% of the grade is based on class participation. I now have 180 students, and I should know each student's name. I use name cards and try to use students names often. I've made up picture charts too, but it's very hard. Right now I might know half.

I enjoy the interaction with the students very much and I like the classroom teaching. I think I'm becoming a good teacher. The worst part-- the terrible part-- is grading. I have a grad student to grade my quizzes and enter the grades in a spreadsheet. But the written assignments need to be graded by me. There are four short papers-- how I wish I had constructed the syllabus to have only two! So figure this-- 180 papers to grade for each assignment. Even if I spend just 5 minutes on each paper, this is 900 minutes (15 hours!) to grade each lot. I make up little grading rubrics (kind of check sheets) to help me move through the process fairly and quickly. This is one of the most tedious thing I've ever done. Just between us-- I absolutely hate it.

Still, as I said, I'm happy to have a job these days, and what appear to be good prospects to continue it next year. My husband's home renovation business is slow, but he does have some work, and he's drawing social security too. We're in good health. We don't owe much money. Our European trips are remarkably mostly full for this year, and we are spending 2-1/2 months in Europe this summer.

My stepdaughter works in retail and her job as assistant manager was recently eliminated. She was given a chance to stay as a sales clerk with a pay cut, which she took. She's not happy, but she has a job.

My former company, where I was head of Human Resources for 10 years, recently closed abruptly when they lost their bank financing. This was a 65 year old company, an industry leader, employing 450 people. There was no notice, no severance pay, no vacation pay. Many people have been hired by competitors, but I know many are still out of work.

Elsewhere in our community, two other major companies have closed. Our boat companies have closed several plants. Our city newspaper had a layoff and did an across-the-board pay cut. And our community is in better shape than others.

These are challenging times we live in. I'm struggling with my realities right now (all those @%#! papers to grade), but at least I have a job... a family I love... and the flexibility to travel.

Here are ten more things you might not know about Knoxville. Come visit us here sometime!

11. Knoxville has been home to several people with literary connections: Cormac McCarthy (All the Pretty Horses), poet Nikki Giovanni, James Agee (A Death in the Family), Frances Hodgson Burnett (The Secret Garden). Writer Alex Haley (Roots) moved to the Knoxville area later in his life and was very active in the community. There is a 13-foot, 4,200 pound bronze statue of Alex Haley in a Knoxville park, thought to be the largest statue of an African American in the US.

12. These famous Knoxvillians have been involved in the world of movies and television: Patricia Neal, Polly Bergen, Quentin Tarantino, John Cullum, David Keith, Brad Renfro, and.... Johnny Knoxville. Tina Wesson, the winner of the second season of Survivor, is from Knoxville. (I met her at a fund raiser and had my picture made with her.) The movie October Sky was filmed in and around Knoxville.

13. The main campus of the University of Tennessee is located in Knoxville. The school was founded in 1794 and today has 26,400 students (20,400 undergraduate and 6,000 graduate). There are 8300 faculty and staff members, one of whom is me. There are over 400 different academic programs. U.S. News and World Report ranks UT Knoxville as 51 among all public universities. They ranked UT's College of Business Administration (where I teach) 24th in the nation among public universities.

14. The UT Football stadium (Neyland Stadium) is one of the largest in America, seating over 104,000 fans. The team is known as the Volunteers, the Vols and also the "Big Orange," and fans come to games dressed in bright orange. Hundreds of fans arrive by boat on the nearby river and are called the "Vol Navy." Peyton Manning was the quarterback of the Vols for four years beginning in 1994.

15. The University of Tennessee women's basketball team is known as the Lady Vols and is consistently one of the top women's basketball programs in the country. They have won the national title eight times, most recently in 2008. The team has been coached for 25 years by Pat Head Summit, who just won her 1000th game.

16. Knoxville is home to more than 20 museums, including the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. The world's largest basketball (10 tons) is locatd on one end of the building. The most interesting "museum" in this area is the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, Tennessee, which is a living museum showcasing life in this area in pioneer and frontier days.

17. Knoxville is 20 miles from Oak Ridge, a town built during World War II to develop the atomic bomb that ended the war. Today Oak Ridge is home to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which employs about 1600 scientists and engineers and is an international center for energy research and development. The laboratory occupies about 58 square miles of U.S. government land.

18. Two-thirds of the US population lives within a day's drive of Knoxville. (See here to see how far you are.) We are located where I-81, I-40 and I-75 come together.

19. The main street of downtown Knoxville is Gay Street. Two beautifully restored historic theaters are located on Gay Street: the Tennessee Theatre (1928) and the Bijou Theatre (1909). There is a real emphasis on downtown revitalization, highlighted by the opening of a very successful Mast General Store on Gay Street a few years ago.

20. Knoxville has a strong and varied economic base. National companies headquartered in this area include: Scripps Networks (HGTV, Food Network); Pilot Corporation (travel centers); Bush Brothers (baked beans); Regal Entertainment (movie theaters); Ruby Tuesday (restaurants) and Clayton Homes (manufactured homes). The boat industry has been a major industry in this area.

Up until this month, my blogging always focused on our European travels. I know a lot about many places in Europe, especially about Provence. To be honest, I know more about the Luberon than I do about Knoxville, Tennessee, which has been my home for most of my adult life. Last year I did a lot of research on Savannah, Georgia for the Slow Travel Gathering and helped write a whole series of weekly posts about Savannah for the Slow Travel message board. I felt a little embarrassed that I knew much more about another US city where I've never lived than I knew about my own city.

I'm actually a transplant to Knoxville and East Tennessee. I first came to Tennessee from the Baltimore-Washington area when I was 17 years old, to a small college about 70 miles east of Knoxville. Except for a year and a half in Philadelphia for grad school and our 14 months in Europe a few years ago, I've been here ever since. I'm proud of many things about this area, but I've never written much about it.

Earlier this month we hosted our friend Sophie from France and tried to share the best of our city and state with her. In my opinion, Tennessee is often a very misunderstood state, and most people don't know anything about Knoxville at all. So I thought I'd use the next two posts to share some interesting things about my city of Knoxville, Tennessee.

1. Knoxville was founded in 1786, by James White, who came here from North Carolina. His fort has been restored and sits on a bluff just adjacent to downtown Knoxville. The oldest house in Knoxville is Blount Mansion, which dates to 1792.

2. Knoxville is named for Henry Knox, President George Washington's Secretary of War. (But we have nothing to do with Fort Knox.)

3. During the Civil War, Tennessee seceded from the Union and aligned with the Confederacy, although there were some strong alliances with the Union in East Tennessee. Knoxville was a major trading center of some strategic importance, and several key battles were fought in the Knoxville area. The Union forces defeated the Confederate army at the Battle of Fort Sanders in December 1863 and controlled Knoxville for the rest of the war.

4. Knoxville is situated on the Tennessee River and Fort Loudon Lake. The Tennessee River is formed where the French Broad River and Holston River come together, just east of Knoxville.

5. Many of Tennessee's rivers were dammed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) during Roosevelt's "New Deal" to stimulate the economy after the depression. As a result, there are many beautiful lakes in this area. There are seven large TVA lakes within 30 minutes or so of Knoxville. The lakes provide some wonderful recreation and scenery but are also used for transportation. TVA corporate headquarters are in Knoxville.

6. There are about 180,000 people in the city of Knoxville, making it the 123rd largest city in the USA and the third largest city in Tennessee. Knoxville is the county seat of Knox County, which has a population of about 420,000. (My address is Knoxville, but I live in the county-- not the city.)

7. The mayor of Knoxville is Bill Haslam, who recently announced that he is running for Governor of Tennessee. He is a down-to-earth guy with a lot of integrity. Bill was a businessman before he entered politics just a few years ago. He is from one of Knoxville's most prominent and philanthropic families.

8. Knoxville is 37 miles from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the most visited park in the US park system (8-10 million visitors annually). The park is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year. The park covers 814 square miles and has 800 miles of trails, including a 70 mile stretch of the Appalachian Trail. The highest point is Clingman's Dome at 6,643 feet.

9. The 1982 World's Fair was held in Knoxville and did a lot to help with road construction and redevelopment in the downtown area. There were 11,127,786 visitors. This was the last successful World's Fair in America. The 266 foot Sunsphere was the "theme" structure of the fair and provides a unique element in the Knoxville skyline today.

10. Knoxville is considered the "cradle of country music," and many famous stars such as Dolly Parton, Roy Acuff, Chet Atkins and the Everly Brothers got their start here. Country western star Hank Williams Sr. spent the last night of his life at the old Andrew Johnson Hotel in downtown Knoxville, dying somewhat mysteriously on December 31, 1952.

A few days ago I posted a list of ten things I love that start with the letter "N." This was a fun project to do, and I really put a lot of thought into the ten things that I picked.

But now I have a conflict between two of the things on the list!

It is not between Nieces and Nephews and our cat Nicolette, or a choice to visit North Carolina vs. Neuschwanstein Castle.

It's a dilemma involving my beloved Netflix and our family's favorite show, NCIS.

We got involved with NCIS a few months ago. Kelly had been watching it, and somehow Charley and I got pulled in. There are two cable channels (USA and Ion) that play NCIS re-runs, sometimes three in a row. Kelly watched on the small TV on our eating bar. We watched an episode or two as a family and boom-- we were addicted! I haven't really been interested in a tv show for a while, so it was nice to find something again, especially a show we all enjoyed and could watch as a family. We've been watching the new episodes on Tuesday nights and then the reruns on these other channels.

When Sophie came to visit from France, she arrived on a Tuesday and we suggested watching NCIS together that night. To our surprise, we learned that NCIS was Sophie's favorite show too. She watches in France. During the time she was with us, she also watched some reruns and discovered that she could watch the current season episodes on the internet. Whenever she had some downtime during her stay with us, she was watching NCIS.

Sophie left us to stay with other friends in New Mexico, and a few days later I got a message from her. "I've just done something completely silly ... I was on amazon getting French grammar books for my friends here in NM & guess what? there was a bargain today on NCIS 5 season set ..... so I ordered it .... and you should get it by the end of next week or maybe the following Monday, Feb. 24."

Our family was thrilled, especially Kelly. I had thought about buying Kelly one of the season sets, and now we were getting Season 5. Kelly started checking the mailbox every day to see if Sophie's gift had arrived.

The package from Amazon arrived this past Friday. I thought it was going to be Season 5, but I misunderstood Sophie's message-- it was ALL FIVE of the first five seasons of NCIS! We have EIGHTY HOURS of NCIS episodes to watch! Sophie was far too generous and we have thanked her profusely. What a great friend! On Saturday night we had a family NCIS marathon and watched five episodes from Season 1, plus one of the special features. Sophie was with us in spirit!

Meanwhile my red Netflix envelopes are lying on the table in our little family room, unwatched now since before Sophie's visit. We have enjoyed our Netflix movie-watching so much, but who wants to watch these movies now that we have NCIS to watch?! And we're all so busy these days with homework, school prep, Slow Travel (!)... we barely have any time to hang out in our little room together anyway.

I decided this was an opportunity to save a little money. I switched my "three at a time" Netflix subscription to "one at a time" until we are caught up on our NCIS watching. That might be sometime this fall, after our summer trip to Europe-- the remaining 76 hours of NCIS will keep us busy for quite a while. We'll use our Netflix to watch an occasional new release movie or something really special we're all interested in seeing. And we'll save about ten dollars a month.

Kelly has just informed me that we're meeting in the little room in eight minutes to watch an NCIS episode before bedtime. I'm glad we've found a show that we can all enjoy together. And that we have such a special friend like Sophie who found just the perfect gift for us.

I've been enjoying my "nostalgia" posts, and I have another story tonight.

A few weeks ago Kelly went to her first big dance-- the winter semi-formal at her school. She didn't have a date and went with a group of friends. It was a big deal with a new dress and shoes and makeup for the first time. The dance was at a country club, and she and her friends went to a French restaurant for dinner before the dance.

Kelly decided to wear gold shoes, so this seemed the time to pass on my mother's gold evening bag to the next generation. I brought the bag out to show Kelly a few days before the dance and told her the story of the bag.

Although my mother was only 18 when she married my dad, she had actually been engaged to another boy at the time she met my dad. My mom's family lived on Long Island, and Johnny was was a rich boy who (I think) went to Williams. The evening bag had been a gift from Johnny. My mom broke off the engagement and married my dad instead, but in those early years my dad was always very sensitive to any mention of Johnny. My mom gave the gold evening bag to her mother for safekeeping.

My mom at about the age she received the evening bag

I might have been about eight years old, and one day a package arrived for my mom from my grandmother. In the box were two evening bags, one of which was the beautiful gold bag. Somehow, even at that age, I knew a bit about the old boyfriend Johnny, and my mother confided in me that the bag had been a gift from Johnny. She told me not to say anything to Dad.

What in the world was I thinking? When my dad came home from work, I went running outside to greet him. "Dad, Dad! Mom got a package with an evening bag, and it was an old present from Johnny!"

After that we lived in Australia for four years, and our life was much more glamorous than it was Laurel, Maryland. My dad was attached to the US Consulate in Melbourne, and my parents went to many big parties, my mom in a long evening gown or cocktail dress and my dad in a tuxedo or white dinner jacket. Mom often carried the little gold evening bag, though my dad didn't really like it and we never mentioned the name of Johnny.

After we returned to the USA, the days of fancy parties and evening clothes came to an end. My mom returned to her life as a suburban housewife, and the gold evening bag stayed in her dresser drawer. Some years later, after I had graduated from college, she gave me the bag. I carried it a couple of times to special parties and dances, but it's been a while since I've gotten really dressed up too. The bag has been sitting in my closet for several years, waiting for its next owner. The bag must be at least 56 years old.

Our Evening Bag

I wasn't sure how Kelly would respond to the bag. She isn't always interested in things I offer to lend her... my taste may be too conventional or from another time. But I told her the story of the bag and talked about how vintage bags are now very popular. Kelly got on the internet and found that yes, they are quite in demand and valuable too. She proudly carried the bag to her first winter semi-formal, though unfortunately I don't have a photo of her with it. I'm sure there will be a next time-- and hopefully future generations too.

Our beautiful daughter headed to her first big dance

The evening bag is a Whiting and Davis bag, very much like this one being sold on E-Bay for $185, just without the little change purse.

I happened to see a little item on my AOL homepage today, noting that this is the 50th anniversary of Barbie. There was a link to this slide show that showed Barbie's fashion evolution over the years (69 slides), which brought back some great memories.

When I was growing up, kids didn't seem to have as much-- at least not in my family or the kids I knew. My sister, brother and I got a few presents at Christmas and our birthdays and saved our allowance and occasional small monetary gifts from grandparents to buy something special at other times of year. Our parents didn't buy us "stuff" throughout the year like many parents (okay... me) do now. We also relied much more on "toys" instead of television, videos, computers and electronic games for entertainment. I think we stayed kids much longer than kids do today.

Here are some of my favorite childhood possessions:

1) Barbie dolls. I must have gotten my first Barbie doll (and a Ken too) a few years after they came out, perhaps when I was about six or seven. They were a Christmas gift from my grandparents. Over the years my sister and I ended up with about 11 different dolls in the Barbie family. I think we had two Barbies (one blonde, one brunette), Ken, Midge, Allen, Skipper, Scooter, Francine. Was there maybe a Ricky? (a boy that went with Skipper and Scooter?) And some little kids, perhaps Tutti and Todd? I had an old Barbie dream house (complete with a hi-fi system and record albums) and a simplee car. I played with my Barbie dolls all the time, until I was maybe 12 years old. In the slide show link above, I know I had that red velvety coat and maybe the slinky nightclub singer outfit too.

2. Chatty Cathy. This was a gift from my grandparents too. I wanted this doll because her name was Cathy, even though she spelled it the "wrong" way. You pulled a thing in the back of her neck and she said some simple phrases, maybe 10 different things. My Cathy had blonde hair.

3. My stuffed bear Barli. This was a baby present, given to me as a baby in Germany by the German landlady I think. I didn't have lots of stuffed animals like most kids do today-- I think just this one bear. I slept with him for a long time and he traveled to and from Australia with me. Our family dog chewed off part of his lip when I was a teenager, but my mother fixed him. I saved him into adulthood, and when I had my own daughter, this was one of the childhood treasures that I passed onto her. Kelly has had lots and lots of stuffed animals, but this is the one she has kept with her in bed and treasures the most. This means a lot to me.

Beloved Barli-- not bad after 53 years of love!

4. Paper Dolls. I loved playing with paper dolls, and my mom enjoyed playing paper dolls with me too. When I was about nine or ten she gave me a set of historical paper dolls from the Civil War era. The next year I got a larger set of Colonial Paper Dolls. I loved the elaborate costumes and spent hours putting clothes on and off and imagining conversations and stories. I liked the historical aspect a lot. I still have these paper dolls, though Kelly never took an interest in them.

My old paper dolls

5. Books. I was a huge reader as a girl and loved getting books as gifts. My mom was a reader too (as is Kelly), and she gave me some of her childhood books, which I still have. I kept all these books for Kelly, and they're in bookcases still in our house. She has read a few but quickly moved onto books like Harry Potter instead. I liked a lot of series: Bobbsey Twins, Nancy Drew, Pollyanna (a series from my mom that I loved), the Five Little Peppers (another from my Mom), What Katy Did; Betsy, Tacy and Tib... so many!

Part of my Bobbsey Twins collection

6. Board Games. Our family played a lot of board games. Some that we especially enjoyed were Monopoly, Life, Park & Shop, Go to the Head of the Class. I played the game of Life a lot by myself. I liked seeing what job you got and how much money you could collect.

7. Tinker Toys. These were fun and our whole family enjoyed sitting on the floor and constructing the more complicated things like the ferris wheel. I liked these much more than Lincoln Logs.

8. Crayons and Coloring Books. We had a set of 64 crayons and quite a few coloring books. My mom liked to color with us too. She and I made a lot of clothes for another set of paper dolls.

9. Roller skates. I had the kind of roller skates that fixed to your heavy shoes using a key. We lived on a dead end street and really enjoyed skating.

10. Dress-ups. My mom gave us her old clothes (including hats and costume jewelry), and my sister and I used to love to play dress up. We would make up elaborate games and play for hours, often involving our younger brother (and sometimes dressing him up too). When we were a little older, I wrote plays and involved other neighborhood kids in putting on performance for our parents.

It didn't take much to have fun back then. I have really good memories of my childhood and of our family growing up.

I was born in Munich, Germany.

Okay, I'm not really German and I speak only a little tourist German, but I've always loved saying that I was born in Germany. My young parents were American and I was born in a US Army hospital. My dad was a soldier in the US Army, stationed about 35 miles southeast of Munich. He was just 22 when I was born, and he and my mom (only 20) had been married almost two years. They had eloped just a few weeks after they met, much to my mother's parents horror.

My young parents before I was born

Not long after they were married, my dad was shipped overseas. My mom moved back with her parents for several months and worked to earn money to join Dad in Germany. They lived off-base in the village of Bad Aibling, about halfway between Munich and Salzburg. They didn't have any money really at all and rented a small apartment in a German woman's house. Instead of a crib, I slept in a wicker laundry basket.

Their best souvenir from living in Germany-- me!

My mother's father was a manager with Shell Oil. During the time my parents were living in Bad Aibling, before I was born, my grandfather also had a European job assignment, and he and my grandmother spent about six months in Amsterdam. My grandparents met up with my parents several times and took them around Bavaria and to Paris and Venice, maybe other places too. I think my grandparents paid all the bills, because otherwise it would have been very difficult to my parents to see much of Europe.

My parents in Venice. Notice my mom's maternity top-- this was my first visit to Venice too!

I don't have any memories of living in Germany because we moved to the USA before my first birthday. But I do have special memories of growing up in a house with parents whose lives and view of the world were shaped by those two years they lived in Europe. We learned German drinking songs, and our house was decorated with hummels and beer steins and some nice artwork my parents brought back. Every few months my dad would set up the slide projector and we would look at their slides of their travels, pictures of Paris and Neuschwanstein Castle, of the village of Bad Aibling, my young mother and father in Salt Miners clothes, baby me in the laundry basket. Later-- from when I was 8 until almost 13-- we had the opportunity to live in Melbourne, Australia because of my dad's work. (That's a good subject for another post.) I remember our four years in Australia well, and it's a big part of why I wanted to spend the extended time in Europe at a similar time in Kelly's life.

Because of my German birth and my parents experiences living in Europe, my dreams of going to Europe began when I was very young. It took me 35 years to finally get back, but once I had the chance to experience Europe, the burning ember turned into a flame!

I've always felt a strong connection to Munich, Salzburg and the Bavarian Alps. This area is so incredibly beautiful and there's a liveliness we enjoy too. But I know my connection is also related to my personal history. It's special to know that this is the area where I was born and this was where my parents lived in their early years of marriage. They have now been married 55 years and have traveled all over the world.

I've been to Munich five times as an adult, though I've never tried to find that Army hospital where I was born. I've stopped in at Bad Aibling three times over the years, to see the place where I lived when I was a baby, to show it to Charley and Kelly. My parents went back to Bad Aibling several years ago, and they said the house where they lived isn't there any more. The Bad Aibling station, the intelligence center for the National Security Agency where my dad was stationed, closed in 2004.

Today Bad Aibling is a pretty town of about 18,000 people. There's an ornate church with an onion-domed spire, painted buildings, and a "little Venice" area (called "Klein Venedig") where a river runs through the town. It's not a major destination for American tourists (except perhaps for people who were stationed at the base over some 50 years), but it is known for its spas, mineral baths and "peat pulp" baths. ("Bad" means "bath.") We've never stayed in Bad Aibling overnight, but sometime we should do this and experience a peat pulp bath!

Here are some photos from our last visit to Bad Aibling in 2005.

Have you ever wondered about the stone structure in the photo on my blog header? This is a place that's very special to us, and I thought I would tell its story today-- at least as it relates to us.

The building is a "borie," a type of stone hut that is found throughout the Luberon area of Provence. The huts were constructed of stones cleared from the surrounding fields, made without mortar, the stones stacked a certain way to make them sturdy against the Mistral winds. Some of the bories were used as shepherds' dwellings, a place to shelter while they were tending to sheep or goats in remote areas. Others were used as animal pens, to store tools, or to protect a water source. Many bories stand alone, but some bories are clustered in settlements. (See this blog post about L'Enclos des Bories near Bonnieux.)

We've spotted many bories in our travels around Provence, especially while hiking. I'm not sure why, but I have a real fascination with bories. I've read that the earliest bories date to the Neolithic Age. (I'm sure these are now just piles of stone.) Most of the bories that still remain are from the 18th and 19th century, when there was a big emphasis on agricultural development and new fields were cleared of stone. There are a few thousand bories in Provence, and they are protected and catalogued in the Parc Naturel Regional du Luberon as an important part of the patrimoine. The Parc's logo is a borie.

We discovered the borie in my blog header photo while hiking near the village of Saignon in July 2006. Our trail emerged from the woods into a field, and there on the right at the end of a field was this beautiful borie. It was almost a magical moment

The first time we saw the borie

I'd actually admired this borie before-- on calendars and postcards, surrounded by lavender. Although there was some lavender nearby the first time we saw the borie, there's not much lavender in the field these days... just wildflowers. We visit the borie a couple times a year and I always take photos. It's just is a short walk off a little road in an isolated area, but you have to know that it's there. You can't see it from the road and there's definitely not a sign. The borie seems different depending on the season, the weather and even the time of day. The photo at the top of my blog was taken in May, the field dotted with colorful wildflowers; by September the field is dry and brown. I want visit the borie in winter, to see it in a field of snow. Sometime I will live in Provence again in winter.

I'd love to know the story of this borie. When was it built? Has it been restored? It's so perfectly constructed, with its pointed spike at the top. There's a sizeable well and a bit of a wall. Did a shepherd make his home here a few hundred years ago, tending to his sheep in solitude? Who owns the field now? I wish I could let them know how much this special place means to me.

I was very interested in Marcia's post yesterday about her group of friends. Marcia's group went all the way back to grade school, which I think is so great. Friends for almost 50 years! I also liked Jan's recent post about her book group-- they have been getting together for going on 17 years.

I have been wanting to post about my special friends too, and today is a good time because we just got together for dinner last night. Our group is called the Cookie Day Girls. I don't usually describe myself as a "girl," but it fits for this group. Sometimes I'll call us the "Cookie Day Friends" or the "Cookie Day group," but we're really the "Cookie Day Girls."

Cookie Day started back at Christmas 1980. There were four of us: Val, Becky, Sandy and me. We were all a few years out of college or grad school and we were all working at Union Carbide, living in the Knoxville area. None of us had family here, and somehow we all connected early in 1980. Initially we were all single, though I think Sandy was actually a newlywed at the time of the first Cookie Day. That first year we got together at my apartment a week or two before Christmas to bake cookies, drink too much wine, and talk about life.

The First Cookie Day: Kathy, Valerie and Becky

28 years later we are still getting together for Cookie Day and a couple of times during the year too. In some ways this is a group that is as close as family, even though we may not see each other as a group all that much.

In the mid 1980's the group expanded to include Mary and another Kathy. Mary moved to Texas a few years later, but we've taken Cookie Day to Texas twice and she's come here several times too. In 1990 Jeanne joined our group. The rest of us are all within 15 months of age (most were born in 1955), but Jeanne is about 15 years older. She is very very special in our group.

We have seen each other through so many life changes. In the beginning we were in our mid 20's and single, dealing with dating and love affairs. We've been together for weddings and the birth of children, the purchase of our homes. We've held hands through disappointments in love and a few divorces. One friend got remarried and then divorced again. Only three of the seven of us still have our original husbands. One friend wasn't able to have the child she wanted so much. Five of us have one child, and Mary has three. Some have stepchildren too. There have been a few health issues, financial struggles, and job changes, though four of the seven will spend their whole careers at the plants in Oak Ridge. I quit my job and went to Europe for a year. Several have experienced the deaths of parents, one just two weeks ago. One friend also had the very unexpected loss of a significant other. We've had many moments of happiness, travel, and now also the marriage of children and the possibility of grandchildren. And one friend (my age!) just retired. Now she is going to go live with her boyfriend on a boat. You see each other through a lot in 28 years.

For Cookie Day 2007 we went away for a weekend and rented a big house in Blowing Rock, NC. We made a gingerbread house instead of baking cookies.

This past Christmas we got together at Sandy's house on a Friday afternoon for Cookie Day. Mary was here as a surprise for Val's retirement, and I put together a slide show with music in honor of Val. Most of us spent the night. We do still drink wine (though not as much as we once did) and we still bake some cookies (though not as many as we once did). We always exchange gifts, the same gift for each person, this year a $10 per person max. If you visit any of our houses, you'll find the same Cookie Day gifts from the years in various places.

We always take photos and we love to reminise. We appreciate these friendships so much these days. Somehow I've ended up to be the "historian," so I'll share a few more photos from over the years.

Cookie Day 1987

Cookie Day 1993. The baby is Kelly. Mary came and gave us all special Cookie Day aprons.

Cookie Day 2000

Cookie Day 2006 at my house. Mary came and gave us all these crazy Santa hats. Notice that most of us are still wearing the aprons from 1993.

Cookie Day 2008. Mary came and gave us all these sweaters. She swears she got them at an outlet store, had a coupon and only paid $10 a person.

I can't imagine ever not having Cookie Day or these special friends in my life. It's about so much more than the cookies.

After I posted some old photos on my blog a few days ago, Barb Cabot e-mailed me to say that I reminded her of someone famous.

Actually, back in my past (my younger, much thinner days), people used to say quite often that I resembled this same person. Given who this person was, and how famous she was at the time, I considered these comments as incredible compliments. I didn't really think I looked like her, but occasionally in a photo you could see some similarity.

What do you think? These are photos from the mid 1980's, when I was about 30 years old (and I think about a size 5 or 7).

Maid of Honor at my sister's wedding

With my sister the following year

My sister is two years younger than me. We've looked a lot alike our whole lives, but she's not the famous woman Barb wrote me about.

Click on "Continue reading" to see if you are thinking of the same person.

I saw a post on Kim's blog (the letter "R") that she got from Girasoli's blog (the letter "G"), which came from someone else's blog. I thought it was very neat and ended up asking Girasoli to assign me a letter. I got the letter "N." I was relieved it wasn't "Z" or "X" but initially I was taken aback by my "N." For some reason I couldn't think of anything that started with "N," much less something important to me. I started Googling around, looking at dictionaries, lists of various things, and soon I had a list of 44 things that all were possible contenders for 10 things I love that start with an "N." Then my challenge became to narrow down to only 10! I had 15 finalists and then let it sit for a few days. Tonight it was suddenly easier to chose the 10.

Drum roll!

1. Nicolette This one is easy. Nicolette is the fourth member of our family, the sweet little black cat who has been with our family now for three years. We got her at the animal shelter; she has a French name, but this is the name she was given at the shelter. Nicky is the first cat I've ever had (I've always been a dog person), and I can't imagine a better cat. Here she is sitting among the presents under the Christmas tree.

2. Nativity scenes. I love Christmas decorations and I'm sentimental about them. We have two important ones in our living room at Christmas, both of which are special to me. The first is an elaborate set of Fontanini, a collectible that originated in Tuscany. We must have at least 50 figures (plus animals), and a couple of buildings and all sorts of accessories. Our second nativity set is from Provence: a handmade creche and handpainted santons ("little saints") that we started collecting when we lived there. I add another santon or two to our collection every year.

3. NCIS. This is our family's new favorite show. We are honestly addicted. In fact, Kelly and I are watching a re-run at this very minute. My favorite character? Well I love Gibbs, but also DiNuzzo, McGee, Ducky, Abby, Ziva... all of them actually.

4. Nephew and Nieces. I have one nephew and four nieces... all very special young people. We enjoy getting together with my family and I'm happy Kelly has grown up knowing her cousins. Here is the group with my dad at his 75th birthday celebration this past summer.

5. Newspapers. I read the local newspaper every morning while I drink my coffee. I love newspapers-- real newspapers! I do a case study on the newspaper industry in my business strategy class and the last two semesters I've taken my students on a field trip to our local paper. I feel sad about what's happening to newspapers-- how many will there be 10 years from now?

6. Napkins. I love a beautifully-set table, and the napkins are important. I have lots of cloth napkins, and Kelly knows how to fold them special ways. I also like to buy nice paper napkins. I usually bring several packages of paper napkins home from France.

7. North Carolina . I think this is my favorite US state. We've vacationed in North Carolina a lot, on the Outer Banks and also in the mountains not far from where we live. I love Asheville and the little towns and villages in the western mountains: Brevard, Cashiers, Highlands, Bryson City, Blowing Rock, Hendersonville. I'd really like to retire to one of these towns.

8. Netflix. I truly do love Netflix! We enjoy watching movies as a family and Netflix works really well for us. Right now I have 148 movies in my queue. I use a Harvard case on Netflix in my strategy class, and I love teaching this session. Here is an interesting fact from the Netflix website: "If you stacked every movie Netflix ships (on average, 2 million DVDs a day) in a single pile, the stack would be taller than Mt. Everest within a week."

9. Neuschwanstein Castle. My parents lived near this famous castle in the Bavarian Alps when I was born, so I grew up knowing about the incredible castles of King Ludwig II. It was such a thrill the first time I visited the castle (though quite a hike up the hill to get there before closing time), and I've been back now three or four times. The view of the castle from the Marienbrucke (seen below in April 2005) is so spectacular.

10. Nyons olives (and Salade Nicoise). I wanted to have something I love from Provence, and there really aren't many things that start with "N." (If someone thinks of others, let me know!) But I do love these wonderful olives from the Drôme, and I also love a Salade Nicoise in a hot summer day. We visited Nyons for the first time last March.

Other contenders for my "N" list: Neighborhood and neighbors, Notting Hill (the place and the Hugh Grant movie), Nashville, novels, nuts (especially cashews), noodles (spicy noodles from the Stir Fry Cafe), nature, Nova Scotia, nachos, New York City, notecards, and the Nutcracker Suite.

I also thought of several things that start with "N" that I definitely do NOT like. Here are a few: the NRA, negative and narrow-minded people, Nazis, the movie "Night of the Living Dead," and nail polish in colors like blue, green and black.

Beynac Castle in the Dordogne - we'll be back this summer

I always love planning a trip and feel a little bit bored when I don't have a trip I'm working on. I really enjoy the travel research and seeing a trip come together.

After lots of discussion among the three of us, we recently finalized a plan for our summer travels in Europe, and now I'm busy working on the details. Charley and I will be in Europe for 2-1/2 months and Kelly for two months. One of the "perks" of being a college professor is having summers off. And we can plan our personal travel around our work on the Experience trips, which helps make our travel less expensive too.

The last two summers Kelly has gone to three-week summer camps through the Duke TIP program, a special program for academically-gifted students in grade 7-12. Because she was away, I went to French language school in Aix-en-Provence both summers during the same time. Charley was on his own. Charley and I assumed that Kelly would want to go to camp again this summer, since she had such a great time the other two years, but she surprised us and said she didn't want to go. There wasn't a camp that really interested her, and she said the program too expensive. I think she also wants to be with us. As we are starting to think about college, we know there may not be many more family summers together, so we are excited to have more time together this summer.

Kelly is going to fly over to Europe without us for the first time. She is much more capable to fly alone than some adults, and we think this is a good growth experience for her. She will also have a friend with her, a classmate named Becka, who will be with us for almost four weeks on her first trip to Europe. The two girls are very compatible.

Kelly, Charley and I talked about several possibilities for the summer. Part of our schedule is committed with our Luberon Experience trips in Provence (three weeks) and our new trips, The Salzkammergut Experience (one week in St. Gilgen, Austria) and The Bavarian Experience (one week in Garmisch, Germany). We definitely wanted to do another long-distance walk, to include some physical exercise in our summer, And we hoped to spend a week or two in a place we've been before and loved, so that we could research another Experience trip to potentially offer in the summer of 2010.

Kelly lobbied hard for visiting some "new" places, and I worked for one long night trying to figure out how to include Amsterdam, Copenhagen and possibly Berlin. We were going to spend a lot of time and money traveling between these cities, and we finally decided to put these aside for another time when we could stay longer.

We had a couple of ideas for the walking trip and agreed that we wanted to walk two weeks again. I researched long-distance walks in England (maybe the Southwest Coastal Path or the Pennine Way), the Alps (the Mont Blanc circuit) and France (the Dordogne, Brittany or the Loire Valley). We really wanted to do Mont Blanc, which would take us through France, Switzerland and Italy, but we couldn't get the logistics to work out. I was also worried that it might be too challenging for me because of so much elevation change.

Another idea I had was that we might attend a language school together. I thought it would be fun to do this as a family. We would probably be in three different classes, and we could spend the afternoons and weekends together, visiting a new area. I was interested in going to school in Tours, so we could visit the Loire Valley. When we broached the idea with Kelly, she quickly shot it down. She does love her French studies, but says she goes to French class every day of the week. That wasn't her idea of something fun to do on vacation!

So finally we have an itinerary we have all agreed on, and now I'm working on accommodations and transportation logistics. I've booked our airline reservations, our two-week rental in the Cotswolds, our walking trip and a few of our hotels. We will be visiting mostly places where we've been before (which is something we do enjoy doing), but we'll also be exploring some new areas.

May 6 - 30: Bonnieux (Provence) for three weeks of Luberon Experience groups. Kelly and Becka will arrive on May 26. We always love being back in Bonnieux.

May 30 - June 3: Travel to St. Gilgen, Austria via the Cote d'Azur, Lake Orta in Italy, and the Engadine in Switzerland. This will all be "new territory" for us. I have hotels picked out andd need to finalize these bookings.

June 3 - 13: Salzkammergut Experience group in St. Gilgen, Austria. We'll have a couple of days on the front end to get organized.

June 13-20: Bavarian Experience in Garmisch, Germany. We'll drop Kelly's friend at the Munich airport on June 20 and take the train to Paris.

June 20-21: Overnight in Paris. Travel to the Dordogne by train.

June 21 - July 3: 133-mile walking trip in the Dordogne. I posted about our itinerary on Slow Travel here. We stayed near this area in 2004 during our long trip, and we're looking forward to getting to know it much better.

July 4 - 6 or 7 (TBD): Visit with our friends Dennis and Gloria, who live in the Dordogne. Then we'll take the train from Brive to Paris.

July 7: Eurostar from Paris to London. I get claustrophobic, so I'm a little nervous about the Chunnel.

July 7 - 10: London. We're using Marriott points to stay at the Renaissance Chancery Court. We stayed at this hotel in 2002 when it first opened, also on points. This is a five-star hotel, a splurge thanks to points! We plan to get tickets to see Mamma Mia. We haven't been to London since the beginning of our long trip in 2004, and we're excited about being back.

July 10-24: Cottage rental in Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds. We will research a possible "Cotswolds Experience" trip while we're there. We love the Cotswolds and are looking forward to a leisurely two-week stay. This will be our fourth trip to the Cotswolds.

July 24-25: Overnight near Gatwick. I've booked at The Turret based on a Slow Travel review.

July 25: Home to Knoxville and a few weeks off before school starts.

I've posted a few more photos below of some of the places we'll be this summer.

Our summer plan is coming together, and it's one we're all happy about. The biggest challenge: packing for 2-1/2 months of varied activities with only a moderately-sized suitcase and a backpack each!

Our beautiful village of Bonnieux, in Provence

We're looking forward to being back in St. Gilgen for the third time

And Garmisch too... I especially love this little street

On our walk we'll spend a night in the pilgrimage village of Rocamadour

I really love the countryside in the Cotswolds! This is one of my favorite photos of Charley and Kelly from our long trip.

I loved the story and photos Barb Cabot posted on her blog, of how she and her husband Mike met. They've been together over 30 years, and it was fun to see the "then" and "now" photos. I also loved the romantic story shared by Palma, and the photo of her with Brad in their early days. They inspired me today-- Valentine's Day-- to share the story of how Charley and I met and share a couple of our old photos too.

Charley and I found each other later in life. We met in August 1991 when he was 46 and just before I turned 36. He had been divorced about five years after a 20-year marriage to his college girlfriend, and had two daughters, age 16 and 21.

I was a very driven career woman and had never been married. I was engaged briefly when I was only 18 to my high school boyfriend (thank goodness that didn't work out!) and lived with my college boyfriend while we were in graduate school together in Philadelphia. We didn't end up taking jobs in the same city and drifted apart. Later I had a couple of relationships with older men, one of which lasted on-and-off for maybe eight years until finally he married someone else, a woman his own age. As I approached my 36th birthday, I had many close friends, a loving family (all 500 miles away), a great job, decent money, a nice home, but not that special person to love.

I decided to buy a brand-new BMW and worked with a salesman named Dan to make the purchase. The car I ordered was being shipped in from another state, and I made an appointment with Dan to go and pick it up. When I arrived at the dealership, Dan was waiting for me. "I have another appointment," he said. "But Charley will go over the car with you."

I didin't understand why Dan would make an appointment with me and then make another appointment at the same time, but I was very excited about this fancy car. So I shook hands with Charley and got in the car while he spent at least 30 minutes showing how everything worked. When I got out of the car, there was Dan.

"Well, what did you think?!" he asked. He was very excited.

"I love the car. It's great," I said.

"No, no! Not the car! Charley! What did you think about Charley??!"

Dan told me that Charley had seen me visiting the dealership and wanted to ask me out. Could he give Charley my phone number? (There was no other appointment...)

"Is he single?" I asked, a little bit wary based on past experience.

Yes, Charley was single, divorced for several years. The whole idea of a car salesman was a little concerning to me, but I thought back to a conversation I had with a friend just a few weeks ago. "You need to be more open to different sorts of men," she told me. "Everyone isn't defined by their job."

So I told Dan to give Charley my phone number. We had dinner a few weeks later and about six-and-a-half weeks after that we were engaged. My friends couldn't believe that I was marrying a man I had only known six weeks, and a car salesman too! The reality was that Charley was (and is) a very special man, with unusual talents and so many interests. He had spent most of his career in chemical sales and took the job selling BMWs as an interim job to get away from a job that involved 100% travel. Who would have ever thought I would find my soulmate while buying a BMW?! Neither of us were really looking for love just then, but we sure did find it.

I drove that BMW for 12 years. It had such a strong sentimental value to me, plus it was a very good car. And I still drive a BMW today.

We met in August 1991, had our first date in September, got engaged in November. We got married in May 1992 and had Kelly in July 1993. In less than two years my life really changed-- a husband, a roommate, a baby, a family. We went to London on our honeymoon, and that was the beginning of another new passion for both of us. We never would have dreamed the life that we've had together the past (almost) 17 years.

Here are a couple of old photos from our early years:

November 1991. A first photo so my parents could see their future son-in-law.

May 2, 1992. The first dance at our wedding.

September 18, 1993 (my 38th birthday). With baby Kelly, 8 weeks old.

May 2007 in Provence