2026 Year 7!

Shelter in Place Has its Positives

When I saw this quilt display in the Shipshewana Visitor Center it reminded me of family and friends and how we are all connected and intertwined, especially now during this Covid Crisis.  It also gave me the start for this blog since June was a month spent mainly with family and a  few friends.

First 2 weeks we spent with Amy, Scotty, Ty, Tessa, Avery, Jaden and Lacie.  This time we even had our own room WITH A DOOR as their house has been completed and they moved back in. This has been the positive about Shelter in Place cause we got to hunker down with the fam, not go anywhere or do anything. We did manage to connect with a few friends from Anthem, but certainly not like we have done in the past.

Amy’s new old/new house is like going into a HGTV episode.  Just beautiful. Scotty tends towards modern and Amy is more South West and the blend of the two styles works very well. Black wrought iron and barn wood. And who ever heard of a contractor finishing exactly on the date he said he would? 5 months to the date when he first sledged out the wall they were moving back in. Amazing.

1400 Miles Back to Pick up Wanda and She Won’t Budge!

Tyman decided he would travel back with us to IN, then head to Muskegon MI where Amy would join us the following week. 1400 miles is a long way for a teenage boy/man to travel with the Grands; however, Ty kept himself busy figuring out the map and also helping us with WAZES. We listened to 2 audio books: The Avenger series which surprisingly to me he really got into.

I really don’t believe that Wanda can actually hold a grudge, but it sure felt like it. Maybe Wanda was just trying to tell us that she doesn’t like to be left alone for so long. We finally made it to the Grand Design factory to pick Wanda up after some repairs, got there well after factory closing time, but Wanda was there and we were all excited to get hitched up and on the way to Muskegon. One of our nemesis is the hitching up part – remember the Up and Down? We just couldn’t get Wanda to connect with the truck. The fifth wheel mechanisms just wouldn’t engage. After a long period of time we discovered that the hitch had a broken bolt. Now it is Sunday and there is no one around at the GD factory, so I send an email to our customer representative telling her she will find us in the lot tomorrow (Monday) and need to get the bolt fixed.  That meant we were spending the night in the rig. Not exactly what Tyman had in mind.

Good thing we had the bolt problem because during the night after hooking up the electric and water we were awakened to the sound of water dripping – well more than just dripping, lets talk gushing. HMMM – that was supposed to be fixed.

What we didn’t know was the GD factory starts up about 4am – and that meant they read the email and were knocking on our door at 6am ready to haul Wanda back in for repairs. Yikes! Not expecting such quick service and I am still in my nighty. Into the shop Wanda went and we headed off to Shipshewana for the day. Tyman is in a summer school program and needs the wifi so he can attend the online classes, we head to the Visitor Center. Since everything is in lock down, they gladly let us sit on the veranda, use their wifi for 2 hours. Shipshewana is an Amish town and the majority of the people actually do get around town in horse and buggy. Tyman was amazed and this day not only was he online with his classmates he got to tell them about the Amish. Not something one sees every day. BTW, his online school is awesome! I listened in for the week and was very impressed with the lessons and how it was presented. Good Job Fairview!

GD ParkingLot TymanSchoolLunchBreak

What a Way to Spend my Birthday – Traffic Cop

Anyone who knows me, knows that I do love to celebrate my birthday, but waiting for repairs on Wanda is not how I like to celebrate. It was a pretty low-key day, I did not get the usual coffee and cake in bed, nor did I get the traditional wake-up “Happy Birthday” song with the birthday gifts. I was bummed as I sat waiting at the Visitor Center. Woes is me. We get the call that Wanda is fixed and waiting for pickup. Hitch was completely replaced (no charge) and the water leak? Turns out when they looked at it the water wasn’t leaking anywhere, but after the lines are filled with water (remember we heard it leaking in the middle of night) turns out there was a split in the T-valve somewhere in the bowels of Wanda; but now we are good to go. We get back to GD around 3pm – the factory is closed for day since it starts at 4am (goodness that is early) and Wanda is there all by her lonesome. We start to hitch up and What The Heck – we can’t get the mechanism to connect correctly.  This is a new hitch so we struggle to get it aligned and locked in which we finally do and start to drive out. We get about 50 yards, make a turn onto main road when the brakes of trailer engage and we are stopped dead. The hitch is all cockamamie, at a 180 angle which is not right.

 

Not Right Cockamamie

Factory closed, we are halfway in the main road and we are stuck. We flag 2 young guys driving by in a golf cart (they are workers at GD) and they look at it and inform us they know nothing about hitches, but they do know this isn’t right, they will try to find help. They take off and are gone for about 10 minutes and come back with a maintenance guy. He knows nada but will try to find someone. He comes back with Jay, who is a customer rep, and while he doesn’t work on the rigs he does know that something is seriously wrong. Then Mike is driving out on his way home and he stops. Yup, that ain’t right.

 

Between the 4 of us, plus the 2 guys in the cart and the maintenance guy just hanging around, it was determined that the wedge was not installed properly. All that needs to be done is get a big ol’ crescent wrench….

Jay: “Do you by any chance have a crescent wrench?”

Ty: “As a matter of fact I just bought one today at the hardware”

Side note: After Ty’s school, we went to the local hardware store – this was a real old fashion wood floor, packed to the gills place. Ty (big) sees this crescent wrench and tells me he should buy this just in case. He carries it around in the store with him, then decides – No really don’t need it. It is only $20 so buy it.  Ok, he buys. Coincidence or intuition?

Meanwhile, we are half in the drive half in main road and are having to direct traffic around us. There are garbage trucks trying to get into and out of the factory. Big haulers doing the same – and me being the traffic cop – on my birthday!!

5:30 pm all fixed and on the road to Muskegon which is only a 3-hour drive. Tyman was a trooper. Must give kudos to Jay and Mike for hanging with us to get the wedge installed correctly. These guys worked way beyond closing time and where not on the payroll for this. Also, to all the guys who didn’t know how to fix but found someone else who found someone who could.

PioneerParkMi

Muskegon MI Pioneer County Park

This is a jewel of a camping park. Big shady lots, right on the shore of Lake Michigan.

The first week we were there, Ty’s family came to visit us. Paul, Mark and Jen. Paul rented a small cabin next to park and stayed 2 days, Mark and Jen drove in for the day. Good to see family and catch up during these times. They all live in Chicago and said it was good to get away from all the crazy. We stayed 4 ft apart.

Second week Amy and Tessa joined us as well as Amy’s friend Wendy. Wendy’s husband brought down her trailer and they had the lot next to us. Good thing so Amy and Tessa had a place to sleep. Friend Leslie Welbourn was passing through with her camper and stopped in for a night – she brought along her friend C, whom is itching to buy a small rig and travel around. Just has to convince the hubby that’s what he wants to do. Sound familiar anyone?

amy tessa scarlet wendy Leslie and friend C Tyman chopping wood camp fitness Tessa Lake MI Ty school Me and my girls ty lake mi Tessa Makes Fire

NUDEY ALERT: one moonless evening Amy led the way to the beach. Water was so warm and calm, so we all went skinny dipping. That is pretty much a tradition for Amy and myself when we are at Lake MI and now, we’ve added Tessa.

16 year old Closet gocarts swimming The Ty generation

June Fun Ends – Tears Again

Amy left with Ty and Tessa on June 28. I cried and felt punky the whole day. We left on June 29 – final destination is to be the Catskills in New York for a couple of days then onto White Mountains New Hampshire where we will spend the rest of July roaming around.

It was very hard to say the good byes this time. Probably more so than ever. Having spent most of June with the family, I got use to it…waking up and having morning coffee and then kissing all good night. It has been hard to get pumped up to start up again on the Great Adventure.

Ty Sunset Lk MI Lake MI Sunset

Left Sunshine Holiday Campground in Ormond Beach Florida on May 2 and headed off to Elizabethtown Crossroads Campground where we intended to stay until May 18.  Then we need to move to Middlebury IN, home of the Grand Design factory for our much-needed repairs.  Here is how the best laid plans are executed….

Blow-Out!

We were about 6 hours into the journey, in the heart of downtown Atlanta when BAM! Blew a rear tire on Wanda. Have any of you had a tire blowout when under an overpass? Let me tell you that it will scare the beejeebees out of you. The noise is deafening and I swear my heart stopped for a full second. Ty and I both looked at each other and wondered if it was us. It definitely was not the truck, and Wanda wasn’t swerving or pulling so we didn’t think it was us until a driver pulls up alongside of us and waves indicating that we have a flat tire. Really it wasn’t a flat tire, it was a blow-out tire.  Mangled mess.

WalMart leaves the light on for  us

We pulled off I75 and found ourselves on a nice wide service drive alongside the freeway.  Called AAA and after an hour we were informed they couldn’t find a service company who could fix a RV tire. However, if we did, then AAA will reimburse (will see how that goes after filling out the the mound of paperwork and then having to mail that mound. You would think AAA would have caught up to the world of the internet and be paperless). 3030 repair comes makes it to us 10-minutes after we make the call and Phil had us up and running within 30 minutes. All told, about a 2 ½ hour delay which meant that it is getting dark soon so WalMart it is.

Elizabethtown

Cherry Blossoms blanket picnic table trail at Mammoth Cave

…is a surprising large place with lots of big box stores and restaurants. I am sure there would have been lots of shopping and sightseeing to be had if anything was open so we opted for several wonderful hikes. We are in the region of bourbon distilleries and caves so naturally one of the hikes was on the Jim Beam property and the smell of mash was whiffing in the air. Another hike was on the property of the Abby of Gethsemani, which is a monastery. Most outstanding about this hike, called Statues, was all of the statues that were placed along the path.  Mary, Joseph, St. Francis of Assis, one of the disciples waiting for Jesus while he was praying at Gethsemani (also a statue).  There was also a prayer hut where many many people left notes of prayers for themselves or loved ones. This was a most moving hike. We also hiked at the Mammoth Cave, Green River Trail which told the story of steamships fording up the stream to bring tourist to the cave and how the CCC had built many of the facilities at the park including the now defunk water treatment housing.

Spring has sprung in KenTicky (so named for the place where Ty got bit by the dog tick last year) and the wildflowers are everywhere.  I came across a free app, SEEK by iNaturalist.  You point and shoot a pic and it tells you what kind of flower you are looking at.  One of the hikes was only 2.5 miles long, which took us about 3 hours to do because I kept stopping to take a pic.  Anyone ever hike with the Sauls when the wildflowers are out?  Ty said it was like hiking with them – which I enjoyed very much!

Water Water Everywhere but leaking from the fresh water tank is not a good thing

 

Water is not a good thing for RVs. I am doing my exercise outside and am lying down where I can see underneath the rig. And I see water dripping down the outside of a plastic pipe, huge puddle underneath.

Middlebury Indiana, Grand Design Factory

GrandDesignFactoryLot hotel room

We called the Grand Design Factory explaining we now have a water leak and they encouraged us to come in ASAP.  We packed up that day and made the 300-mile trip to Middlebury. Spent the night in the factory parking lot and that was a real treat.  At 4am the gate where we were parked next to went “Beep Beep Beep” every time they brought a vehicle in and out.  Didn’t realize that the factory gets started at 4am and it sure was noisy.

Gave the repair folks the laundry list of repairs and headed off to Elkhart to find a hotel room for a couple of days.  It is scary to be in a hotel room during this crisis and we pretty much stayed to ourselves only going and getting carry out (3 times to White Castle) and then back into the room as there is nothing to do in Elkhart especially since it rained every day but one.

Tower at Notre Dame Lake of Notre Dame Grotto

On the one day it didn’t rain we toured  Notre Dame campus  on our bikes. Of course the campus is deserted of college students who evacuated in a hurry but left all their bikes! Rows and rows of bikes all locked up and no riders to claim them.  Kinda sad really.

Notre Dame campus is beautiful with it multiple churches, schools of learning, stadium and with a lake in the middle of campus with an interesting story which is the basis of its founding.  Land was donated and when the priest came to view the land (in the winter) he commented on the beautiful frozen lake where a campus could be located and not too far from St Joseph MI.

 

South Bend

Since it is still a beautiful day and the bike tour of ND over we went to see what downtown South Bend Indiana looked like on a Wednesday afternoon.  Eerily quite – felt like we were intruding.

 

Mt Baldy Map

Then off to the Indiana Dunes, Mt. Baldy a whopping 600ft elevation gain.  Spent the rest of afternoon there.  Day was beautiful and we just relaxed on the beach as we were not prepared for any hiking. The Indiana Dunes are the southern most dip of Lake Michigan.

Social Distancing

Home to Colorado

We had spent a rainy week in the hotel room and news of repairs going slow. Perhaps another 2-3 weeks. Decided that now is the time to go back to Colorado to be with the kids; celebrate Ty’s birthday; Avery’s (Scotty’s son) birthday; see the grandkids and a few Anthem folks (6ft apart of course).

Jumped into the truck, kissed Wanda good-bye and drove 1400 miles home.

Ty doesn’t add very often to the blog, but I love it when he has something to share.  Below is his contribution on how we spent our time during the “shelter-in-place”.

Greetings from Ty

Other than the fact that we are living in 300 square feet in the middle of an RV park in Florida I realize we are all basically living the same isolated lifestyle.  I still wanted to share a couple of thoughts with you.

I will call this:

 

Life in Slow Motion

Get up early each morning and get the coffee going then start reading the morning political news until depression sets in.  This may not be slow motion more like ground hog day where nothing ever changes except like in slow motion change comes very slowly. Often time tweet by tweet.

Time for exercise, go for a one-hour hike come back and think what a great 2-hour hike that was!  That’s what it feels like when hiking in slow motion around and around in a campground.  To make it interesting I sometimes really shake things up and walk counter clockwise around the park instead of clockwise.  Remember all the parks and beaches are closed.

So now it’s time for lunch…something to do. After lunch time goes by in slow motion again and what am I thinking?  Wonder what there is to eat. I can’t help but think about how slow everything is going now, will be nothing compared to how long it will take to lose all the weight I am gaining, that will really be slow motion.

It seems like months ago since we had great fun visiting with old friends from Michigan in Fort Myers Beach FL….no wait that was only last month, life in slow motion.

Since we have been here there is a flock of 6 or 8 crows hanging around our site.  For entertainment I sit and watch them and no it does not make time move any faster.  I’ll bet you didn’t know that crows make at least 7 distinctly different calls, they also appear to have what I am assuming is a nifty little mating dance. When time moves in slow motion you take your entertainment wherever you can find it.

We did have one incident that definitely speed things up.  We were visited by a Coral snake, it made Jane move very quickly.  Turns out that in addition to being very attractive they are very poisonous but not aggressive so very few bites recorded per year.  Of course, we didn’t know that.

Then of course there are all the isolation internet jokes…new normal day PJs come off at 3 to be replace by night PJs at 3:30.Political ones but I think a little humorous.  Like this one “having some states in lock down and others not locked down is like having a pee section in a swimming pool”.

On the bright side there is always happy hour.  Days in slow motion are so long that happy hour now starts at 2:00, on Sundays at noon.  Have even done a couple of Zoom happy hours that go by too fast.

On a serious note when Jane puts out her blog there are photos of my sister and my sister-in-law with their protective nursing gear on, very sobering.

In closing I hope everyone is staying healthy, stay positive and we will get through this.

TY

Boat Tail Gackle

April 1, we left the Atlantic oceanside and headed inland about 10 miles to find shade, and no salt spray.  While staying ocean side was fun for the month, it takes a terrible toll on the rig, bikes, car, your hair, and body.  The salt spray is relentless, there is always a breeze which is good because we had record highs in the 90’s for March, but it gets on and into everything.  It is good to try something once for a change.

We “sheltered-in-place” at Sunshine Holiday RV Resort.  Big place with nice sized lots and shade.  Beloved shade.  This park has room for well over 250 rigs, but when we got here, there were only about 150 and rigs left everyday (not allowing any newcomers for April).  By the time we left there were maybe 75 rigs left.  Felt very safe here, only ventured out to grocery shop every 10 days, did laundry right here in camp once a week,  lot of bike riding and walking.  We did take a ride to the “The Villages”, which is a well-known 55+ community that has its own shopping area, restaurants, dr’s (even saw a sign for PROCTOLOGY) and it even gets mentioned on the weather channel!  Most people get around on their golf carts which are all souped up and decked out…sort of like the “pimp my ride” sort of thing.  The actual villages are 25 square miles divided into several gated communities;  which we could not get into.  A known fact that The Villages have the highest incidents of STD’s of any 55+ community!

Deserted Camp

The highlight of the entire stay is one late afternoon while Ty and I were eating pizza at our site, a Coral Snake came slithering across in the grass. We chased it a bit, trying to steer it away from our rig then it finally found a hole in the ground and down it went!

 

Coral Snake Pine Needle Basket Crochet Shawl Repairs on Ladder

Our April was pretty much like yours was – did a lot of reading, I made 2 shawls, 3 hats, 3 headbands (will put them in the mail for you Chris for the Volunteer Club), started to write some short stories (anyone want to be a proof reader?) and because we sit under six pine trees in our beloved shade gathered some pine needles, got on YouTube and made a pine needle basket and another in the works.

Ty does the maintenance on the outside of the RV – notice how safety conscience he is when up on the ladder!

Renee

And a big God Bless You to my sister-in-law’s, Renee Stiers and Sandy Fouchey for being on the frontlines taking care of Covid patients.  Giving of yourselves, not being able to be with your families, and comforting the ill doing all you can through this time of great need is overwhelming.  Thank You both and all of your colleagues!

Sandy Barb Grant Smith

Lastly, Barb and Grant Smith, neighbors from the Beverly Beach camp has sent a pic for me to include.

We know that just about all of us knew someone or is 6 degrees from someone who has passed away from Covid-19.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to you for your loss of a family member, friend, or acquaintance.

I know that just about all of us knew someone or is 6 degrees from someone who has passed away from Covid-19.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to you for your loss of a family member, friend, or acquaintance.

 

This is what happens when you forget to bring in the drying when it rains and blows really hard.

Picking up sticks in May and moving northward.  If interested where we are going read about it in Where To Next in 2020

Headed over to Flagler Beach on the Atlantic side. Great site right on the ocean! Days are filled with hiking, biking, and sunbathing, all we can do right from our front door!

1^st Week

Daytona Bike Week is the first week in March – really crowded and noisy. We went into Daytona to watch the hitching up of the Clydesdale Horses for the parade then we left the area as too many people around.

Didn’t do too much the first week because it was bike week and everyplace was so packed with bikers and young ‘ens and besides we were really enjoying just sitting on the beach and relaxing – little did we know that that is what we would be doing very soon without choice.

Met some very nice RVers in this park: Trisann and Patrick Ferraro and Grant and Barbara Smith.  Unfortunately, I don’t have pics of these new friends as I usually take them the last day, but with the social distancing I never got the chance.  Maybe they will send a pic and I can update my photo gallery.  Patrick Ferraro has a book out Full Circle, The True Story of How God’s Angels Guided and Adoptee to His Birth Family.  I have not read the book yet, but he was so passionate about his journey that I think it is worth looking into.

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2^nd Week

Maureen and John Oswald came up from Ormond Beach the 2nd week and we took a 22 mile ride up the coast into a place called European Village, pizza for lunch and ride home.  They said they were worried about the virus spread (understandably so) and will be leaving Fl soon (they left on the 17^th). John and Sandy made the 5-hour trip up to our new site, just because they haven’t been to the east coast much.  We sat on the beach and enjoyed the day, next day Sandy and I went to a beach called Jungle Hut.  The most unusual outcropping of large boulders all along the beach and when the tide is low it is good shelling.

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3^rd Week

Flagler Beach, as in all the beaches in Flagler County, were closed and this included the RV park we were in.  It is patrolled twice a day!!  Am very torn about that because by this time all of the RVers were practicing the 6-foot rule, talking from a distance not playing cards, or having meals together and that went for our time spent on beach.  But we did have some Spring Breakers come in as a group and all rules were not for them, so the 80/20 rule prevails and it gets shut down for all.

Now what do we do?  It is a good thing Ty and I like each other and get along fairly well, but I do worry about those who can’t or don’t.   So here we are in isolation, not even getting together with other RVers – everyone is keeping their distance. Like everyone else, we are playing a lot of games, Spinner is our favorite, doing minor repairs on rig, cleaning rig, cleaning out cupboards, crocheting (made a shawl), beading and reading. Oh, and I am counting the number of times Ty hits his head on either the kingpin (that’s where he did major damage to his head), or the awning arms. So far in 2 months it is averaging 3 times a week. Heard him cursing to himself saying, “when am I ever going to learn? *&!@*&^*”

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4^th Week

Nothing much.

Thank HEAVENS for the internet (hope it doesn’t crash cause if it does there will be a lot of slashing of wrist) and ZOOM, Houseparty, Duo, Facetime – just doing it all.  Once you get use to the format it is pretty easy to use.  Had a couple of “birthday” celebrations, Tyman (little Ty but remember we don’t call him that anymore) turned 17 on March 30.  Sunday Fundays with the family exercising with Amy and her class.  Happy Hour with family and friends.  Kudos to Lois Leslie, the most non techie I know for showing me how to use Houseparty!!

April

Will be moving to a different site, about 15 miles inland.  Have found being right on the ocean is noisy (waves make a lot of noise), salty (everything is getting corroded) and HOT – no shade.  We are hoping to give our rig, skin, ears and sanity a break.  Will miss the sunrises tho.

Stay 6 feet away from everyone, wash, wash, wash to stay healthy.

You know the drill….

You know you are bored when you change all your passwords

Superman

Ft. Myers, FL

Left Colorado on Jan 26 had a non-eventful 2143-mile journey to Florida to get back to Wanda. The highlight was a stop in Metropolis, Il, home of Superman, so we snapped a pic.

Home for February was at Shady Acres RV Park; nice enough place; pretty typical retiree “heaven” with lots of snow birds from the northern states and Canada.  We managed to connect with friends and family while on the Gulf side. John and Sandy Hill, our postmasters, Kathy Fulgenzi, cousin Gloria and Lee Kinzle, Ty’s brother Paul, Anthem Ranch folks Doug and Regina Porter, Scotty’s folks Bob and Linda Nichols and of course, brother Will and bride Pam.

Hiking or biking was a challenge to find someplace where it wasn’t swampy or we wouldn’t get run off the road.  So we tired but I gave it up long before Ty and resorted to my videos for exercise.  There are lots of beautiful beaches to be found along the Gulf and we tried to make it to as many as possible.  Shelling and sunsets were terrific.

Paul Fouchey Kathy Fulgenzi Gulf Sunset Doug Regina Porter Kayaking with Hills Bob and Linda Nichols

We Be Bad

It’s no wonder we can’t lose any weight, as one of our favorite things to do is grab some fried chicken to go (Colonel is the best), wine and go watch a sunset.  Lovely way to spend an evening.

Bump/Lost/Sprain

Ty only managed to hit his head on the king pin 5 or 6 times during the month – so glad that I have encased it in foam so the damage was on to his pride, plus a little bump and much cursing.

I took a tumble on the first day of set-up, stepped off the pad and twisted my ankle.  Neighbor lady behind us saw me go down and told her hubby to find out if I was ok.  He and Ty showed up together finding me writhing on the ground in pain.  Just a sprain but hurt like the dickens (where does that word/phrase come from?) for the entire month.

The best was Ty’s brother Paul who lost his brand-new glasses.  I feel bad that he lost them, but I laugh every time I recall how he discovered it.  We had been kayaking in the Mangroves, seeing Manatees and having a nice time of it.  When we finished and pull our kayaks up to shore Paul says to me, “Do I have my glasses on?”  Now, I wondered to myself… hmm he wears glasses to see with and he is asking me if he has them on?  Isn’t his vision a little blurry that he would figure that out?  Anyway, somewhere on the route back thru the Mangroves, he got hung up and evidently his glasses came off and he didn’t realize it until he got on-shore.  Paul, maybe you don’t need glasses.  Hey you made the blog!  Thanks for providing the humor this month, takes Ty off the hook.

Kit Denise Mcquigan

College Reunion

Don’t you love it when you haven’t seen someone in ages and when you are finally reunited it is like you never missed a beat.  That is how it was with the McGuigan’s.  Denise and I went to college together and sat outside the classroom for each of our final exams with champagne to celebrate.  I saw a posting on Facebook from Kit that they were in Ft. Myers Beach.  Their regular hangout was OhLa’s on Ft. Myers Beach so we met up there.  And we met and we met and we met…spent many a day partying at OhLa’s where Jonnie Walker (Iowa Hall of Famer for guitar) played and Kit occasionally joined in. Kit has a great voice and personality to go with his performance. Ty was quite jealous as women bought Kit drinks and kept touching him or dancing in front of him while singing. Ty can’t sing, I am just as glad for that. Was sad/glad to say good-bye to Denise and Kit so our livers could recuperate.

Final Ft Myers Thoughts

Ft. Myers Beach is a haven for retirees during the day and the much younger groups in the evening, and there is very little overlap so you can always get a spot at the bar and a good table at the restaurants.

A good thing about being retired is you get started at the bars at 2 in the afternoon, eat at 5-6 and home in bed by 9 for a good night’s rest. The bad part is it is too easy to do too often.

A Very Merry Christmas

And

Happy New Year 2020

The most beautiful spot in Florida

Ty’s random thoughts on the past 9 months.

Southern Florida is hot and damp.  Every morning you get up and the truck looks like it has been sitting out in the rain it’s that humid.  The Florida state capital building is just a tall office building no history no interesting architecture etc.  The ocean is fun, the Keys are fun, Juniper Springs was the prettiest area I think on the whole trip but overall, I was ready to head north.

The southeast region of the United States is steeped in history.  The Revolutionary War, the Civil War, slavery etc.  It is not unusual to see confederate flags flying, bumper stickers with slogans like “succession is the answer”. Of course, you can’t forget that this is the bible belt with Baptist churches in every neighborhood and billboards encouraging everyone to dial 1 800 to hear the truth.

Contrary to Florida all the other capital building we visited were around 150 years old with tours touting their history where the statues, art, and stonework originated.  They discuss how their current state legislators’ functions for most part time meeting for 60 days per year, 90 during budget years.  Visiting this part of the country you can’t help relearning some things you already knew but forgot and then learn some new things.  For example, after the Civil war it was not unusual for a state to have a few black congressmen but by the mid 1890’s Jim Crow laws were invented which made it almost impossible for African Americans to vote.  As a result, there was no minority representation in these states until after approval of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Visiting Civil War memorials was very sobering.  Some battles many of us may have heard of like the Battle of Antietam but did you know that 23,000 men were killed or wounded in ONE day the deadliest battle in American history.  Another battle that I had never heard of was the Battle at Cold Harbor.  “Only” 2,000 men per day for 3 days were killed.  Grant regretted this battle because it had no impact on the war. We visited the confederate run prison camp at Andersonville where of the 45,000 Union prisoners 13,000 died from disease and malnutrition.  I was aware of Andersonville but I was unaware that there was a Union prisoner of war camp where an even larger percentage of confederate POW’s died.  Like that old song said, “war what’s it good for, absolutely nothing”.

I was pleased to see how various museums dealt openly about slavery and how the Civil War may have been about states’ rights but it was their right to own slaves no different than any other property.  After visiting the capital building in Columbia South Carolina, we noticed a street festival going on so we checked it out.  Turns out it was a gay pride festival…some parts of the south have come a long way.

Jane and I hadn’t been to Washington DC in 40 + years so we decided to visit.  We spent 5 days there and enjoyed every minute of it. We would visit a museum and plan to stay for an hour or 2 but ended up spending 4 or 5 hours.  The Washington Monument had been closed for repairs due to an earthquake turned out it opened the day we arrived so we were able to get to the top.  The Lincoln, FDR, MLK, Thomas Jefferson, WWll, Korean War, Viet Nam War memorials were very moving.  When you realize what our country has been through to get to where we are today it gives me hope that perhaps we will survive these tumultuous times as well.  By the way all the museums and exhibits are free to the public there is also a free bus system that is very efficient taking you to most of the attractions. We also tried moving around on electric scooters not free but fun.

If you haven’t been to DC in a while, I highly recommend it.

I could go on and on about our great adventure.  I mentioned in one of my early posts how freeing it was and from my perspective as we developed our rhythm it got freer.  Lunch was between 11 and 3, dinner was between 3 and 8 whenever we finished whatever we were doing.  How are we going to exercise today for how long, what sites should we visit?  Occasionally you had to schedule a day off.  Although we miss all our friends it’s not a bad lifestyle.

TY

Oct 3-24

It is Over

Hard to believe that we have reached the end of the Ty and Jane Great Adventure!  Not sure where the time went, it went by so fast!  Seems like we just got going, got into a routine, adjusted to each other’s idiosyncrasies (well not all but most), got use to the bugs, got into chill mode, figured out google maps, more comfortable hooking and unhooking Wanda. Now it is time to return to Colorado, get our family and friends fix, do some skiing and try to acclimate to the altitude.

Making our way South

Decided to head south since the time is quickly coming to an end.

First stop was Yemassee in South Carolina.  Nothing special but we did bike on the Spanish Moss Trail which was nice and back to looking at lighthouses.  Actually got to climb up the 176 stairs to the top, and what a view!

Next place was of Ocala National Forest for a 3 day stay, hiking everyday along the trails.  Came upon the Ocala Grasshopper, only found in the Ocala NF.  Look closely at the pic and you will see a smaller grasshopper on top of the larger one.  At first we thought it was only one grasshopper until I showed it to the Forest Ranger and she pointed out the smaller one on the top.  The female is the large one, and she carries around the male until they have mated, then she kills and eats him.

Next place was Osceola National Forest, Salt Springs Campground, Florida.  Really nice state park and we hiked every day along some pretty interesting trails.  This is heavy bear area, however, all we saw were the droppings.

Just as Dorian past over FL we made our way to Hudson FL which is on the gulf coast. The attached picture is what was left of Dorian off to the North East.  We really enjoyed our stay here, think mainly it was the tiki bar, Sam’s Beach Bar and Grill, which we frequented every night.  Right on the water, dancing, live band, just a fun place to hang in the evening.  During the day we hiked the Crystal River Archeological Park which had Indian burial mounds but what was most intriguing was the place created for ceremonies.  It had a park like setting with 2 “stages” on either end that were at least 10’x30’ and 50’ high made entirely out of clam shells.  That is a lot of clam shells.  We also hiked the Swamp Trail which ran along the coast in the marsh land area.  Kind of spooky as murky canals ran along both sides of us, and the brush was dense.  I was on the outlook for alligators which there are none, but we did see a deer loping across the trail and a very colorful insect.  Sunsets were just outstanding.

Repair stop is Lazy Days of Tampa Resort.  Pull in here for an overnight, cleaned up Wanda then Lazy Days did the repairs while we sat around the pool and waited for repairs to get finished. Life is really hard sometimes.

Then off to John and Sandy’s in Ft. Myers to collect our mail. And bed down Wanda in a storage lot for a couple of months.

Colorado Here We Come

I will be in Colorado on October 26.  Amy is having a total house remodel and needs to move out so I will help her pack up and move her out by Nov 2.

Ty will be driving out to Colorado, not sure when he will show up but sometime around the 31^st.

Will be staying with Amy until she moves into her temporary place on the 2^nd, then bunk in with Janis until around the 15^th of November then we will be guest of Sharon and Doug Craigs.  We will be there on and off until January 27 when we leave again for Part II of our adventure/

Thoughts About This Adventure

It went by way toooooo fast!

We love everything about this lifestyle – the carefree living, being able to pick up and go wherever, being full time tourist, not having to take care of a house and all that comes with it.

Really misjudged what we needed to survive as when we return to CO will be hauling still more stuff that we never used the entire 10 months.

Not ready to give up this lifestyle anytime soon.

Miss the companionship that we had at Anthem since it mostly has just been the two of us.

Miss the family greatly and the everyday life with them.  But we kept in contact almost daily and saw them 4 times.

I haven’t worn any makeup since June – only got my haircut 2 times.  My feet are in desperate need of a pedicure.

Did a lot of hiking and not so much biking as we would have liked.

We went to 9 states and District of Columbia, and made it to all but one State Capital

State Capitals of the states we were in

1. Florida – Tallahassee
2. Georgia – Atlanta
3. South Carolina – Columbia
4. North Carolina – Raleigh
5. Virginia – Richmond
6. West Virginia – Charleston
7. District of Columbia – Washington DC
8. Maryland – did not get to
9. Kentucky – Frankfort
10. Tennessee – Nashville

Friends and Family

We stayed with so many friends and family especially when we were in Florida, and made a few new friends which we stayed with or camped next to or just met along the trail or in a tiki bar.  Thanks to all of those who hosted us and making this great adventure truly GREAT.

Tyandjanegreatadventure 2020

Plans are to come back to Florida in February to get Wanda and spend 2 months in the warmth and sunshine.

Then we will travel North to finish off seeing the Eastern Seaboard.  Including the 8^th annual RV trip with brother Will and sista-in-law Pam, thinking of going to the Nova Scotia area.

We will end up back in Colorado again for the holidays then who knows what lies ahead.

Hope you have enjoyed the blog and our adventures of travel, the history and the lay of the land and how two people learn to live, travel and still love together.

Falling Waters Lock

Falling Waters West Virginia, Sept 26-Oct 3

We got colds

Night before (Brunswick Campground) we left for Falling Waters, I felt a cold coming on with a vengeance.  We pulled up stakes the next morning and headed for Falling Waters West Virginia with the thought of riding some more on the C&O Towpath.  We did eventually ride the path, however, I came down with cold first and it last 4 days.  While I was sick Ty rode, then he got the crud and I was feeling better so I then rode.  It is a really beautiful easy bike trail along the Potomac on one side and the canal on the other.  Saw a lot of “thru” bikers that picked up the trail at Pittsburgh and riding to Washington DC, about 180+ miles.  They were staying in hotels or bed and breakfast or even staying in the Lockkeepers house which some have been renovated by the Park Service.

Antietam National Battlefield

With both feeling better we toured this battleground of the civil war.  We came away with the same feeling as we had when we went to Andersonville.  Maybe more so as the battle strategies were explained in detail and it was so senseless to march straight into enemy fire. Antietam is not as famous as Gettysburg (mainly because that is where the Emancipation was read) but it is noted for being the single day most killed in battle; over 22,000!  It was not just one big battle, but several planned attacks throughout the day and it was noted that the battle of the Dover Church, 1000 union soldiers were killed in 15 minutes.  That statistic is unfathomable.

The picture of this bridge is where a 3 hour battle took place.  Pic is taken from the Confederate vantage point, they were able to just shoot down on the Union soldiers.  It wasn’t until to Confed ran out of ammunition then the Union soldiers stormed the bridge to win this battle.

The battlefield visitor center is very well done with an exceptional explanation of the battles that went on that day (we watched it twice), then you take a 16 mile driving tour around to the different sites and it is from these vantage points you can imagine the fighting that took place.

Antietam Survivors Antietam Bridge

Ty IS the MASTER at pulling this rig!!!

For those of you who have ever towed anything, you will appreciate this.  Leaving the Falling Waters campsite required us to back up 100 feet, across a road into a driveway.  Then turn and go forward.  But wait – there is a ditch on either side of this road and we can’t make the turn without putting the truck into the ditch.  Some guy from the campground, seeing our predicament comes running out and asks Ty if he trust him to help him out. He then directed Ty to position the truck so it is straddling the ditch (tires on either side of this Grand Canyon of a ditch) and make the turn and viola! we are on our way.  I was so stunned I couldn’t get a video in time.  Back of the guys’ shirt said “RV doctor” – I think he performed a miracle!

Columbia SC Capital

National Capital – Columbia

There is so much history in these capital buildings and beauty that it is hard to say which one is the best.  Like most capitals, this is the 3^rd in line.  First was located in Savannah, but was quickly realized not central enough. Moved to Columbia and a wooden structure was built.  City fathers having put out several fires decided to build a “fireproof” capital building and by some coincidence, just after moving all the important documents and such from the building, it burnt to the ground! What timing!!!  They start construction on the present building in 1860, civil war comes along and construction stops before the domed roof gets installed and the columns put in place, however it still can house the government.  Good Ole Sherman decides to shell the building when he rode thru, you can see 10-hole marks on the outside where it looks like a woodpecker had at it. Building doesn’t get finished till 1903, goes thru a 50-million-dollar renovation in 1998.  Unlike most capital renovation, this one didn’t preserve back to original, rather what it would have looked like in 1800’s as far as paint and embellishments.  It does have all the original granite and marble, and there is a lot of it.

Mailboxes still exist?

I try to mail a postcard every week to the grandkids back home – wonder if they read them?  Anyway, when at the capital building I asked the guard at desk if she knew where there was a mailbox.  If you could have seen her “deer in the headlight look” said “What now?”

I said “A mailbox, you know, those blue things on corners.  Want to mail this postcard.”

She says “I didn’t know they existed anymore”

Still holding onto postcard ‘cause I think she is right, they don’t exist in South Carolina.

Congaree National Park

Here we took a 4.7-mile hike thru this largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest in North America. Which also has some of the largest trees east of the Mississippi. Bald Cypress trees can live up to over 1,000 and are hundreds of feet in the air.  These trees produce “knees” (see pic small protruding) that rise up from the roots of the trees and are everywhere.  The exact purpose of the knees is unknown. The Loblolly Pine is a grand tree and it is unusual to find pine trees growing in an area so wet.  The Loblolly tolerate this condition and are the tallest trees in the Carolina’s.  Last was the Water Tupelos which only grow where water is plentiful.  The impressive height of the Congaree’s forest makes it one of the tallest deciduous forests in the world; average height is 130 feet.

Knees

ALL THE REST

Campground

Falling Waters Campground, Falling Waters WVA – I called ahead for reservations and they said to just come on in so we did.  When we got there, they had no record of call, nor any sites left.  Ty pulled the “wife sick” card and they took pity on us and put us in a site that is only for the full timers.  Then I pulled the “husband sick” card and they let us stay until well enough to move on.  Nice!

Little Cedar Creek Campground, Ridgeway South Carolina, 20 minutes north of Columbia: Really nice mom&pop place. $40 full hookup I would camp here again.

Animals/Insects

Red Belly Water Snake – in a small water stream on our walk in Congaree.

Heading South

Hard to believe we have been gone for 10 months already!  So, time has come for us to start heading south in order to store Wanda for the winter in Ft. Myers.  Wanda has a fix ‘er up appointment at Lazy Days on Oct 24, which has set our time frame.  And I am flying back to Colorado on Oct 26 to help Amy pack up her house for her big remodel job.  Ty will take care of repairs, get Wanda stored and drive out to meet me.

Capital

Jefferson’s’ vision that the capital, all monuments and business buildings (old or new) should be magnificent and hold the spectator in awe, is exactly how he envisioned it.

Washington Lincoln MLK Jefferson Smithsonian

Quotes which moved us

Thomas Jefferson

Abraham Lincoln

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

National Capital

I can’t imagine how many daily visitors go thru the capital every day it has got to be a lot and the capital really has the tour system down!.  You are given a ticket with a time of your tour, then you line up and go into a theatre which has a short video of the capital.  Then you get in another line and are given headsets and a guide who then begins the tour.  It is a must to go through the capital building when in DC. Then we took another tour of the Senate chambers to see the art work which beauty is beyond explanation.

Library of Congress

Take a tunnel under 1^st street from the Capital.  Display of most of the books that Jefferson sold to the government to replace those lost when the capital was burned down in 1812.  Jefferson had a collection of over 9,000 books and he actually sold these books not out of the goodness of his heart, but because he was in such debt that he saw an opportunity to help relieve some of his debt at the time.  Oh Jeffy, the opportunist!

Washington Monument

We got to the monument at 8:15am and stood in line for about 45 minutes to get tickets for 5:30pm ride to top. It was the 1^st day that the monument opened after 3 year closure for repairs due to the earthquake which did damage.  We understood that some people were in line at 3am!!  Anyway, we showed up at 5:30, took the elevator to the top and saw the incredible views of the city.  Well worth the wait.

Smithsonian Visitor Center

Went to the original Smithsonian building built in 1820.  It is called the Castle.

Supreme Court Building

Ty’s take: lofty values…turned political.

Union Station (no pic)

Actually, a lot of history has passed thru this station.  Beautiful bustling building.

Memorials

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR, JFK, MLK, Korean, Vietnam, WWII

Vietnam where we found Ty’s friend, Dave Drob on the wall – RIP

FDR is a very interesting display as it takes you thru all 3 terms of his presidency.  Walls of granite engraved with his quotes.

Korean memorial was eerie; we went at night and it appears the soldiers walking in rice fields.

Tian Tian Bao Bao Snow Lepoard

National Zoo

Went early in the morning and we saw the Pandas and the two new baby Snow Leopards playing around.

SpaceStation

Air and Space Museum

I have a NASA Space Station app that alerts me when the space station flies over the area I am in.  I love to watch for it.  Finally got to see a replica of the station. This place is mammoth, took us all day to go thru.

C&O Towpath and we went POSTAL

After an exhausting week in DC we headed for Brunswick MD to ride the Chesapeake and Ohio Towpath.  We saw a local tv special about the C&O Towpath, 185 miles along the Potomac following the canals that were built in the 1800’s.  The trail is hard pack dirt, a little rocky on the ride from Great Falls to Georgetown, and smooth sailing on the 10 miles from campground to Harpers Ferry.  Alert Anthem bikers:  this would be a great bike trip especially in the fall for colors.  Fairly flat easy riding.  Saw a lot of “bike tour” vans that provided the transportation to and from trails as well as bikes.

First day we rode from Great Falls MD to Georgetown, for 14 miles. Saw a docile deer on the trail that just looked at us and kept on dining.  Our intent was to ride to Georgetown, spend the night, ride back.  Bad planning as we did not expect Georgetown to be so expensive.  One-night stay equals one week stay in campground!  And we looked at every app for last minute deals – oh we did find something but it was on the other side of DC another 7 miles.  We decided to ride back to Great Falls – total of 28 miles not exactly what we had in mind.  Now Great Falls is 45-minute car ride we looked for a place to stay, eat and celebrate our 49^th anniversary.  Landed at William Bolger Learning Center, in Potomac, a training center for postal workers.  Beautiful grounds for the post office; turns out it use to be a convent.

By the way, the ride along the towpath is beautiful as it has the Potomac on one side and the now defunct canals on the other side.  The miles and miles of canals were dug and used for shipping getting the boats up the river where the river isn’t navigable.  The Potomac has lots of falls, it drops something like 80 feet on its way to the ocean and in some spots very rocky, hence the need to canals.  Once the trains came in the canals were no longer needed.  Now they make wonderful bike, hike rides and in many spots, you can still see the locks and the lock keepers’ homes.  The National Park Service even rents out some of the houses for those riding or biking the path.

Harpers Ferry

Next day we rode 20 miles round trip from camp.  Situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.  Washington thought this was the perfect spot for gun making.  Never did figure out why, if it was the medal in the rock or what.  Much of the information kept talking about the location on water source to power the machinery also this being a hub of the industrial revolution (for gun production).

The big happening, of course, is John Brown’s insurgence.  Right idea, too soon and not enough support.  Harpers Ferry at the time had a mix of free and not free slaves.  Interesting note:  wherever we have been the slave population has always been called “enslaved population”  At HF it was always referred to as free slaves and slaves.  Whatever the term, slavery was and is evil.

C&O Canal towpath HarperFerrytunnel COlock metroescalator

Mastered the Metro – Thank Goodness for Scooters

The Metro is amazing!!  All the people, trains every couple of minutes, the escalators out (or in depending) are mammoth – we learned quickly to stand to the right and the yougin’ in a hurry pass you by.  Our campground was 9 miles from the Metro train station and had a nightly “class” on how to read the metro map, the sightseeing map, and the metro bus map.  Why couldn’t at least the sightseeing map and metro bus map be combined – ah well, just more to confuse the tourist.  Being the navigator, I really got the hang of reading all three and figuring out which stop to get off or on at…Ty learned to just go where I directed him.  Something to be said for 49 years of marriage.  AND being a Senior, we rode for ½ price.

Never again will I scoff at all these scooters all around since we are now scootering EXPERTS!!!! Touring around DC requires a LOT of walking, standing, shuffling, and not much sitting down.  First day we walked from place to place and I noticed all these scooters around and old geezesr riding them.  On the second day we downloaded the apps and off we went!  What a foot saver and only 25cents a minute, you can get a long way for 25cents.!

campview

Campground

DC:  Cherry Hill RV Park – no big deal place other than it is close to the Metro AND they provided a “how to tour DC” class plus they have bus tours that are very well done.  We took the evening tour of the Monuments.

Brunswick Family Campground: right on the Potomac River and the C&O Towpath.  Electric and water only.

 

Animals/Insects

Spider vs Stink Bug – bug is all wrapped up.  Shot this pic in afternoon, but the evening all was gone!

spiderstinkbug

Editor Correction:

All these tall statues are beginning to look alike!  In the last issue, the picture of the statue identified as Jefferson it is NOT as the inscription below the statue reads:”George Washington”

Sista Sue & fam Sista doin jello shots

Happy 80^th Birthday Sista Sue

Pulled into campground, Pocahontas State Park Richmond VA, on Thursday the 12^th and I flew out the next day to Windsor Ontario Canada to surprise my sister for her 80^th birthday celebration.  Amy flew in also because her skill was needed to decorate and pull it all together – she is a wonder at doing this!  I love surprises and this one was pulled off perfectly.  Amy and I were sitting on Colleen’s front porch and Colleen called Sue to come over and help set up, as Sue rolled down the street and she saw us, you could see on her face that she was really surprised to see Amy and me.  That started the party weekend!

Va Capital Jefferson

Capital of Virginia is in Richmond

Staying true to our mission to visit the state capitals, we spent a day in Richmond “touring around”.  What makes this capital building interesting is that Thomas Jefferson designed the capital, modeling after a Greek style building in France.  It has the notable Greek columns on the front and peaked portico’s over the doors which subsequent capitals also adopted. So far it is the only capital that we have toured that hasn’t burned down although it has been situated in 2 other locations.  It is a grand building and the Senate and House of Representatives still convene there.  And there is an exact replica of George Washington on display, George modeled for the artist even having a plaster cast of his face so forever one can actually see what he looked like.

From the capital we went to the Richmond History and Culture Museum is where we spent the rest of the day.  Museum is really well done with much emphasis spent of the enslaved.  We even had lunch at the museum, I got the best salad I think I have ever eaten.

Richmond National Battlefield Park

Next day we headed to the pay our respects to the Union soldiers who gave their lives fighting the Civil War at the Oakwood Cemetery.  What I did not know about the 2 major Civil War cemeteries in Richmond is that 99% of the graves are of Union soldiers.  Why?  After a battle, the Confederates took their dead back to be buried in their home towns.  Union did hasty burials usually at the site of the battles.  In 1865-67 there was an effort to go back to the battlefields, exhume and rebury in what is now cemeteries specifically for Union soldiers.  There are 2 such cemeteries in Richmond: Oakwood and Hollywood.

Officer, we were just following Google

As we were touring around decided to go to Fort Harrison, using google maps of course.  As we enter the Fort area, we can’t spot the visitor center and I am in need of a rest.  Following google and “she” tells us to turn down Maintenance road, so we do.  Well, it is obvious to us that this isn’t right so we follow the road to the turn around, make the turn where all the discarded vehicles sit, stop and talk about is this a good place for me to rest?  No drive up a bit to that trailer and I will rest there.  Ok!  That done and no one around we make our way out.  Wait!!! Is that a cop car behind us with his lights on?  OMG, I’m going to be ticketed for indecent behavior, oh %$#^  Officer Dade comes up and says, and I will add in his most unfriendly, stern, gruff voice “What are you doing in this restricted area?”

We say “Looking for the visitor center and google takes us back here”

Officer “You know you can’t trust Google.  You look very suspicious (who us?) with the slow driving and you stopped in the turn, then stop again just a little bit up here.  What are you doing?

Us: do we tell him I took a rest?  No we stick to the visitor center story

Officer “Can’t you see there’s no visitor center here and didn’t you see the Do Not Enter – Restricted area signs? License and vehicle registration.

Now here is the thing…we look suspicious?  Two old farts, driving around in a white truck, FL license plates.  He never asked if we had guns, or alcohol only did we have any outstanding warrants.  What did he think we were going to do? Blow up a civil war park (by the way, this park is out in the middle of nowhere and there is NO body around.  And where in the heck did he come from as we didn’t see him and I hope to begeezie I’m not on camera!

After a 15 minute wait while he checks us out (sorry to disappoint) he returns.

Officer: “Here is your license and this registration is for some sort of recreational vehicle.  No matter, let’s see your map.”  Now he is still talking gruff.

I showed him that we don’t have a map, just phone and he says in a 180 turnaround of voice

Officer: “Don’t you have the Richmond Battlefield Map?  I have on in my car, let me get it for you” Then he proceeded to tells us his favorite places to go, best way to get there, what to expect etc.  The most amazing part is now we are best buds!!!  No indecent ticket.  There are angels in this world.  I am going to stop drinking so much water when we are touring!

Gaines Mill and Cold Harbor Battlefields

Gaines Mills battle fought in 1862.  Union intent was to advance onto Richmond, but Lee had other plans.  GM was part of the Seven Days battles in which Lee out strategized Stonewall.  Lee also commandeered a house of an old lady to use as a field hospital.  She left before the battle, never to return as the house was full of bullet holes, glass broken and so much blood stains on the floor.

Cold Harbor battle of 1864 had a 1-mile walking trail following the trenches and foxholes that are still visible.  Then the open fields where the armies just marched into cannon fire.  Again the goal is Richmond, but the Union was defeated again and the casualties high, 2000 men a day died, battle lasted a couple of days.  Grant had regretted that he did it as it didn’t make any difference in the war.

Animals/Insects

Praying Mantas – spotted this little guy on the steps to the Culture Museum

Toilet Seat

You can always tell that the person who designed the toilet seat that came standard never had to clean it.  It has all these brackets on the underside which made cleaning it a real pain.  Ty tired of my cursing sighs so he went and got a replacement.  RV toilets are just not standard issue, so the seat kept sliding around (know what I mean?).  Long story short…we have had 2 replacements, neither have fit so now the toilet is seat less.  You can imagine what a balancing act that is now!!  I now empathize with jail cells toilets and the occupants.

Hunt is on for a seat that fits and doesn’t take you for a ride every time you have a sit!

Planter Fasciitis

Glad to report that this seems to under control.  Ice, stretch, ibprophen every morning so it only bothers me when I wake up in the morning.  Rested it a lot when visited sister.  Thank you to all of you with your helpful hints and tips.

Onto Washington DC

Next stop is Washington DC will spend some time here.

Art Jennie

P.S.

I forgot to mention while we were at Glen Maury City Park, we camped next to a wonderful couple, Art and Jennie from Rhode Island whom also started full timing this past January.  Most evenings we gathered around the fire and talked about our collective travels and next stops.  They will be wintering in AZ.

Virginia Aug 27 – Sept 12

Evacuate! Dorian Approaches

As the path for Dorian changed from Alabama to the Carolina’s, the campground we were at informed us that our site was most likely to be underwater so best to move on.  We decided to Virginia to be as far away from rain and wind as possible.  Turns out to be a good choice. Nothing but very hot and humid days.

Glen Maury Campground – lovely spot (although the restrooms need a lot of TLC) this is Buena Vista (city) owned.  A nice surprise when we pulled in was the website quoted only to have water and electric, but turns out there is a few full hook-ups – now the restroom issue doesn’t matter.  And the price was right $17.50 a night!

Baby Bear PeaHens

Animals/Insects

Little tiny black bugs – drive me insane!  They only appear once you are nice an sweaty on a hike and they buzz around you, especially around eyes and nose.  Inhaled a few too – ugh!

Black Bears!!! Yes, we saw a Momma with 3 cubs running across the road as we approached the trail head.  Out of nowhere and they came bounding out of the bush right in front of us.  We were so stunned we didn’t have time to pick up phone and take pic, except for the last little guy who was the straggler.

Pea Hens – this was a first for us to see, the bird itself is very beautiful, grey, plump looking; but they sure do make a most gawd awful noise.

Deer of course.  A fawn and momma came wandering across the road as I was driving down it one early morning.  These animals sure do need to look both ways before crossing!

Monticello

Museums went to a two while here:  Woodrow Wilson and Monticello.  Both of these museums spoke openly about the “enslaved” peoples which was a way of life for both the Jefferson’s and the Wilson’s.

Woodrow Wilson (focus of this museum is the household where he was born and on his parents and their life which shape Woodrow) father was a Presbyterian minister and in addition to the $1000 monthly salary he received for his services at the church in Staunton, the family also lived rent free in a beautiful, large home and had 3 full-time enslaved persons.  WW (as he referred to himself, actually his first name was Thomas, middle name Woodrow which he dropped  in favor of Woodrow which he felt sounded more prestigious) grew up having slaves as a child.  He was 10 years old when the Civil War began, and his values were already ingrained that slavery was a natural part of the South.  These beliefs continued into his presidency as Civil Rights took a reversal turn during his presidency and also women’s right to vote.  Although he relented in the passing of the 19^th amendment, he believed women should not be involved in politics.  Actually, I found this to be a quandary for WW because his 2^nd wife (1^st died in his first term) took over for him when he had a stroke while in his 2^nd term.  His attending physician documented that WW was “an extremely sick man”, but doc vowed not to disclose this information to the public while WW was alive.  So, Edith took over behind closed doors.

Monticello – Jefferson built a beautiful home, lived grandly on a fine estate employing over 600 enslaved persons during the 40 years that he lived there.  Again, the museum tour devoted entirely on the enslaved population at Monticello.  The question was posed: “What do you think Jefferson meant by saying “All men are created equal…” how would you interrupt his thoughts?”  I never thought about that, now I can’t stop thinking about it.  Slavery was vital to the South’s economic survival, to Jefferson’s survival of his lifestyle, yet “all men are created equal”.  He didn’t say “free men” or “white men” or “men with property” as these are all the scenarios that the tour attendees threw out as what he could possibly have meant – so it makes me ponder.  Jefferson lived large and died with a lot of debt left to his children – we always laugh and say I am going to leave my kids my credit card debt! And that is exactly what Jefferson did!  Kept expanding his house, imported expensive copper pots for his cooks to make French cuisine dishes, kept buying land and all the while going deeper and deeper into debt.  Think my next read will be the Jefferson biography.

Eats and Drinks

Lunch in Buchanan’s was at “The Fountain” established in 1952.  It still had the original soda fountain.  I had a sinful bacon, jelly and cheese grilled sandwich.  My mom use to make those and it tasted just like how she made them!

Cider – there are a lot of hard cider distilleries in this area so we decided to try a tasting.  The one I bought taste like a bubbly pinot grigio.  Delicious

Breweries – Devils Backbone (names after a ridge in the area) served up some very good IPA’s (Ty said) and I tried a couple different stouts.

diner TopColeMt Cole Mt hike ViewBluffMt

Hiking

Cole Mountain – beautiful 5-mile loop trail that is part of the Appalachia trail.  2.5 miles up, 2 across on the ridge .5 miles down.  The confusing part of this trail was the name.  All Trails and the information sheet we picked up from Visitor Center referred to it as Cold Mountain, but when we got to trail head, the description on the map was Cole Mountain.  The trail itself was the Old Hotel Trail.  We compared our path to the All Trails and it was the same, so go figure.

Bluff Mountain – 6 miles loop this time, 3 up and 3 down.  The view at the top at The Bald (trail name) was 360 degrees.  We were looking down into the town of Buena Vista and could actually see our campground!!  Again, the Appalachia Trail follows this trail for a bit.

Chessie Trail – 5 mile out and back along the James River.  Flat as it is an old train track.  Was nice to do on a hot and humid day.

Planter Fasciitis

I am bummed.  Woke up this morning and could not put any weight on my left foot what so ever.  Yesterday when we were touring the Wilson museum it was kind of achy on the heel but didn’t think anything about it.  Today is a different story.  Went to Urgent Care just to make sure I didn’t fracture my foot somehow, and Dr (great ole guy) said “Yup you got yerself case of the Planty”.  Ice, rest, ibuprofen and a lot of stretching exercises with a band should heal it, but will take some time. Oh and ditch the crocs and flipflops (these are the only shoes I have besides hiking boots).  So here I sit.

Richmond is next stop

On Thursday we pick up camp and go to Richmond to spend some time there exploring the capital (of Virginia) and the civil war battlefields.  And it is a bigger city than what we have been in so will look for shoes with some support.

broken chair

Layover in Knoxville

Ty went back to CO to finish up with the heart testing and the results are everything is back to normal.  Yea Yea.  Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers and good wishes.

Meanwhile, I stayed in the South Lake RV park and cleaned the RV, did the laundry and some errands. One of the errands was to return to the Knoxville Lazy Days to pick up the chair that broke (again).  I know RV dealers are busy, and this is peak season and all, but a little communication would be nice.  We notified them in July that the chair that they said they fixed broke the first time it was sat upon.  Told them we were returning to the area Aug 21 and could they please have a replacement chair.  Well, we never heard “Yes Ma’am or No Ma’am” as I am getting accustomed to in this sweet south – we just hear nothing.  We made repeated calls and of course all goes to voice mail.  I contacted the Grand Design and they authorized a chair replacement, just let them know where to send it.  More emails and voice mails.  On the 20^th we called, voice mail, to say we are in town and will be by tomorrow to pick up. Nothing.  On the 21^st call again, voice mail, so call to manager.  He looks around and says “Yes Ma’am, yuren chair is sittin’ right herein ready for yer to pick er up” (I swear that is what he said and how!).  SO…..

Jane’s Turn to Provide the Humor

I take a shower and wash my hair getting ready for the day.  It is SO humid down here that I bought some of those Velcro type curlers and I put one on both sides of head by ears and one on top to add a little poof.  Jump into the truck and off I go to Lazy Days.  March into manager’s office and he says (with a smirk on his pudgy face and I see his belly jiggling) “How can I help you Ma’am?”  I tell him about chair and also add about the poor communication and my thoughts about how to turn the customer service all around.  Oh, self-righteous me!  And he is just smiling and jiggling, damn him what is wrong with that man?

I return home with the chair, still fuming actually about the manager’s interchange with me and also the woman at the desk who had to write up the order (she kept looking at me so strangely) and I go into the bathroom and what do I see in the mirror?  Two curlers sticking out on the side of my head and one on top for the poof! Oh Sweet Mary in Heaven!

Linda

Linda – don’t know your last name

Sista-in-law Pam texted me and said if I was still in Knoxville to give her old, I mean previous, neighbor Linda a call and see if she will meet for lunch.  Now I met Linda once, maybe 15 years ago but thought what the heck I will give it a try.  I texted, she replied and we met up for dinner at a bbq.  Now I thought to myself, and I am sure she did to, what do two strangers talk about when their 6 degrees of separation is a mutual friend, Pam?  Well, let me tell you we had absolutely no problem finding things to talk about.  Especially about Pam!  Ha ha.  Actually, it was such a great evening talking to Linda about Will and Pam and my family and hers, life in Knoxville, life in general, I am glad that I made the initial call.  Pam – I don’t have Linda’s email so I hope you send it to me so I can include her on the blog! And that you will send this to her.

NCCapital

Raleigh and surrounding area

Stayed at a very nice state park, Falls Lake Recreation Area.  I called ahead to make reservations and was told there was only 3 sites left.  Boy, did we feel lucky to get one of those.  Drove in on a Friday afternoon and we are the only ones in the loop of 8 sites!  As we explore the campground, there are only 10 other campers in a camp area for 90 sites!  Can’t figure this one out, but it is nice to have a whole loop to one self!

Neuse River Trail – great bike ride that followed the Neuse Trail.  We haven’t been on our bikes in a month which limits how long one can ride (saddle problems) especially when I didn’t wear my bike shorts with the padding.  What was I thinking?  We did 10 miles and I wish I was better prepared because this was a wonderful bike ride.

Raleigh State Capital – staying true to our bucket list we knocked off another state capital.  Raleigh’s capital built in 1861 done in the Greek Revival style.  Extremely plain, but the information about the capital was so interesting it made up for the plainness.  The building itself is actually no longer used for political purposes as it is too small, but is open for tours and serves as a museum for how the capital came to existence.

Raleigh History Museum – took us 3 hours to go through this wonderfully done exhibit on North Carolina and its beginnings to present.  We were impressed with how much of the museum was devoted to slavery and women’s vote (13, 14 and 19^th amendments).  For a free museum, don’t know how they do that, it was the best we have gone thru so far.

Beasleys Fried Chicken – lunch.  I have been hunkering for fried chicken for a long time and this was, is, forever will be THE BEST

NC Beach Moon Jellies OBX Sunrise Bodie Island Ocraroke LH Ferry Fishing Boat Road to Cape Hatteras Lamar Grits Grill

North Carolina Outer Banks

Drove 7.5 hours from Raleigh to Twin Lakes RV & Camping Resort in Chocowinity NC which is out in the middle of NOWHERE.  It is one of our freebies so we thought we would take advantage of it.  Turns out we made a horrible mistake in navigation miles as the Outer Banks is 84 MORE miles away.  We drove the first day, then decided we will return but spend the night. So much for not spending any money.

ADVERTISMENT: Traveling Apps

There are 2 apps which I absolutely love for last minute stay overs.  These are must haves.

• Hotel Tonight – Amy told me about this one – it is for the very last minute and one can usually find a good deal.
• Trivago – who would have thought, but this one you can book a couple of days in advance and also some places will even allow cancellations without losing the entire payment.

We used Trivago and booked a room for an overnight stay in Nags Head.  $80, it was clean, cheap, king bed, right on ocean.  Perfect for one-night stay.

Outer Banks – OBX as it is known in these parts.  For those of you unfamiliar, OBX is a strip of land resembling a left parentheses ) of land.  One crosses over a 5-mile bridge, past Roanoke then onto the strip of land called Outer Banks.

Kitty Hawk – place where Orville and Wilbur Wright actually flew (Flyer was the “name” of the plane).  Nice visitor center where you can read all about it and then outside, there is a visual of stone markers that show the distance of the 4 flights on that fateful day December 17, 1903. Having the stone markers really put it into perspective.  Looking at the farthest marker, I could almost see the Wright brothers whooping it up!  It is quite remarkable.

Jockey Point Dunes – largest dune area in the lower Southeast. We toyed with taking a hang glider class, but you have to walk too far out in the dunes for that and it is HOT and humid here. Nonetheless these dunes are impressive.

Lighthouse – There 4 on the Outer Banks and we saw 3 of them: Bodie Island, Cape Hatteras and Ocracoke.  Actually, only saw Hatteras from a close distance and we were driving to it.  At the time we were also listening to a book on tape and 17 miles later I realized we missed our turn.  Oh well.  Interesting thing about Hatteras and Bodie is they were designed by the same person and both are painted black and white.  Bodie the strips are horizontal and Hatteras the strips are in a spiral pattern.

Wild Horses – Two herds of horses: Corolla Horses and Ocracoke Ponies. We didn’t see either, Corolla was too far north on the outer banks and we might go once we leave this campground but watching the weather, Dorian.  Ocracoke Ponies we did see their butts but that was all.  These horses are decedents from the Spaniards who ships wrecked off the coast and they swam ashore. In Ocracoke there were a few articles about the locals who would use these horses to patrol the seashore during WWII as spotters for submarines or any enemy invasion.  Short tough horses with very strong legs to be able to walk effortlessly through the sand.  The National Forest now controls the herd, they keep them at about 30 head.

Eats – it is always good to ask the locals where to go and eat.  This is what we did and dinner one night was at Taratoga’s – local, local bar with terrific seafood (Ty ordered steak and said it wasn’t very good – he is in a seafood place for gosh sake!), the owners wife was the artist who had these great paintings of real life women (see pic).  Breakfast at Grits Grill was suggested by us from the housekeeper (her son Lamar is the cook).  Sat at the counter and I had yummy shrimp and grits and Ty had French toast.  Then all hell broke loose and we had Krispy Kreme donuts, a brownie, and a coconut macaroon…all on the same day.  Our sugar level was so high then boom crash and we had to pull over from the sightseeing and take a nap!

Beach – I was surprised that I had missed the ocean and was glad we decided to spend the night in Nags Head.  Walked early morning to catch the sun rise and also all the Moon Jellies that got washed up on the shore.

Lost Colony – in 1593 a colony from England came to the Outer Banks and settled on Roanke Island.  All went well during the first 6 months, living peacefully with the Native American Indians then the colonialist decided that since there wasn’t enough food to go around (NAI were sharing their food since the settlers came in Aug and not enough time to plant crops) that the solution was to kill the Indians.  Not quite sure who came up with that plan, but certainly they didn’t think of the consequences.  Well, they didn’t kill them all and of course the Indians kept their food and then they went about eliminating the colonist one by one.  The leader of the colonialist (White) goes back to England to get supplies and reinforcements.  Unfortunately for the remaining colonist this took him 3 years (“I’ll be right back”) and when he returned everyone was gone, the housing was destroyed and the only hint of where they might have gone was the word CROATAN carved in a tree.  The plan was if the colonialist left, they would try and leave a “note”, hence the carving.  White went to Croatan which is farther down the island, but no sign of them.  All the literature goes on to say:”…it is a mystery of where they might have gone and why”.  No mention that 1) earlier they kill the Indian chief and some of the tribe for food 2) they had no food 3) Indians didn’t like them much and may have had something to do with their demise – duh.

Ocracoke to Swan Quarters Ferry – our travels to look at Ponies and lighthouses took us to the southern end of the OBX (81 miles to be exact).  Once we got out of the tourist land the OBX is just a narrow strip of land with a road down the middle and sand on either side, then the ocean and sound beyond that.  Because the route we were on was so much farther south than intended we decided to take the car ferry across to the mainland.  Not sure how the NC DOT does this, but it only cost $15 for the ride which was 2 hours and 45 minutes long.  It was a nice way to spend the rest of the day.

Conclusion of the OBX – We spent 3 very sunny, hot, humid and lovely days at the Outer Bank – which for the most part Nags Head, Roanoke Island, and Corolla are also wall to wall beach houses for rent.  The locals live in the inner part of the island and work the tourist.  This would be a great place to stay for a beach vacation.

Labor Day Weekend and back to the Golf Car Parade

We don’t like to travel on a holiday weekend so we will stay hunkered down at the Twin Lakes RV Resort in Chocowinity NC.  This is a nice park where we can relax, eat dogs (hot) and drink a beer all while watching all the regulars drive around and up and down the streets in their golf carts.  We do like the different cultures of the parks.

And then there is Dorian to contend with.  We were hoping to go back to Outer Banks to the Corella area, but will need to keep an eye on the weather.

Book

I just finished “The First Conspiracy – The Secret Plot to Kill George Washington”, by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch.  I am NOT a very big reader but I could not put this book down.  It is a must read.  Thanks, John Hill, for giving us (Ty read it too) this book.

Beach Ladies

Been Awhile

Haven’t written in awhile due to fact that time really does fly when you are having fun and it just got away from me.  Plus I forgot my computer and was unable to write to the blog on my tablet.

Update on Ty

Thank the Lord for Ty’s recovery – it really took awhile for him to get his strength back, the entire month of July.  We briefly were in Colorado for his regular physician to check out his kidney, liver, and blood levels which are all back to normal.  The cardio doc did a cursory check and declared all sounds good but would like to do an echo and stress test which the first available appointment is Aug 21.  Ty will return for those tests, just a quick in and out and I will stay with Wanda.

Lake Norman North Carolina

What a blast!!!  Scotty’s dad and step mom have a very, very nice condo on Lake Norman and we all converged for the week, including niece Colleen.  Scotty rented a speed boat with all the pull-alongs to go with it for the kids enjoyment and Linda (step mom) borrowed a pontoon boat which immediately was deemed the “party boat”.  For 5 days the regimen was, start moving around 9, on the water by 11, come in for dinner around 6:30, then to the pool for adults and kids back on the water.  Not a bad vacation.  Also had a graduation party for Cody (Scotty’s niece) where most of the Nichols side of family came, then a pool party on Linda’s daughters’.  We really enjoyed being with Scotty’s family for an extended period of time – they sure can party which is right up Ty and mine alley!  Even Lacie enjoyed riding on the tube!

The weather was in the high 90’s the entire week and the lake water was probably even warmer.  The thing to do if you wanted to get from boat to pontoon boat was you have to jump in and swim (and of course if you had to pee).  Surprisingly, the water was soooo warm that it was not really refreshing.

Lake Norman is a man-made lake, created by the local nuclear power plant which needs water to cool.  So back in 1959 the valley was flooded to create 585+ acres of lake.  Reminds me of a spider in shape with a main body and a lot of off shoots.  And the lake has the typical “cottage” homes now being overrun with mansions.  But still beautiful and we sure had fun.

We left Wanda safely stored at Danae and Blake Lawing (yes all Lawings’ come from North Carolina and are related to William Lawing) property near Lake Norman.  Thank you so much for allowing us to leave her there and then extending the time!

Grand Haven Michigan

Nothing beats getting away for some good old fashion fun, drinks, and heavy conversation than that with friends you have known for over 40 years.  I love my Sista girlfriends Lynn, Peg and Mary Ellen.  Always a laugh a moment.  First day  we pull up to our hotel, which by the way I arranged from afar, not remembering the area and just going off the internet, which was flanked by 2 liquor stores and had a dumpster diver rooting through the garbage.  Looking into the windows the curtains in many of the rooms were falling down – the place looked just disastrous.  “I’m not going in there,” I declared, Lynn says we will just all stick together and not go out at night.  Like NO.  We eat the first night lodging and head for someplace else – any place else.  Just not here.  We wind up in Grand Haven, lovely spot right on Lake Michigan full of tourist shops, a great chocolate candy store where I think I sampled all 45 offerings (we did buy 6 pieces of chocolate for $15!), a hat store where I tried on every hat – loved them all, and some great eateries.

Grand Haven has a nightly (summer only) laser light water fountain display that has been going on for over 40 years and is every bit as good as the Vegas display, maybe even better because it is observed by looking across the Grand River which makes it even more dramatic.  Music plays while the water jumps around and colored lights flash on and off.

Then the sunsets to die for – and we hit it on the night of the “buck moon” which was coming up as the sun was going down.  Incredible sight.

Leelanau Michigan

For over 30 years Ty has been sailing with Jerry LeAnderson on the Great Lakes.  Where ever the boat is moored, that’s where the sailing begins.  The boat is now in Leelanau (where Jerry and Michele have their beautiful home) and off Ty and Jerry go for a short couple of day sprint until weather came in, all while I was in Grand Haven.

After my week of fun with the girls, I rented a car and drove up to Leelanau to be with Ty, Jerry and Michele now that the sailing was over.  They have the most beautiful home in Little Traverse Lake up in the “pinky finger” of the Michigan mitt.  Our time was spent lazing around the lake, taking boat rides, watching the birds, watching the deer munch on all the beautiful plants Michele so painstakingly planted and the racoon feast on the grease of the bbq.  We did some bicycling on the TART trails which is a network of bicycle and pedestrian trails in the area.  A nice surprise was a garden that is sponsored by a non-profit in memory of a young woman who died unexpectedly.  This garden was right on the TART trail and was beautiful to walk thru.

More Sad News 

Dear Friend Mike Black passed away on Friday August 2, 2019.  The husband of Patty Black, whom is Doug Reilly (Amy’s ex) mother.  Even after the divorce, we and mostly Ty have remained good friends with Mike.  It was devastating to learn of his passing from a cardiac arrest riding his motorcycle as was his passion.

Mike you will be forever remembered, may you ride endlessly on the smooth roads of heaven.

Please hug and hold the one(s) you love, as you just don’t know.

Can We Mess Up Our Airline Tickets Anymore?

This section of our great adventure included a lot of air travel which we made the plans in March not anticipating the added trip to Colorado.  So here is a run down of our comedy of errors.

March – Ty and I make separate one-way plane trips on different airline from Charlotte to Detroit (me) and Traverse City (Ty).  We also made one-way plane trips from Traverse City back to Charlotte.  I took the travel insurance option and Ty opted out.  LESSON LEARNED:  never opt out!!!

July 13– a couple days before my flight, I discover that my SW flight is 5 hours long!!!  Ty’s, although on Delta is only 1.5 hours long.  Luckily, you can change with SW with no penalty so I cancel my SW flight and opt to get on same plane as Ty since his was going onto TC.  I did this 2 days before leaving for Michigan and I anxiously awaited for my boarding pass the day before leaving since Ty got his.  LESSON LEARNED: always try and book a flight that lets you cancel within 24 of booking!  About 15 minutes before the 24 hours is up, I check the Delta app and see this happy message (I am envisioning smiling emojis) that my flight will depart in 13 days and 7 hours. OMG I made it for the wrong Monday, yikes, my heart is beating fast, I call Delta, get put on hold, wait with the clock ticking and just as the time is up my call is answered!! “Hello this is Alice, and whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with?”  Screw Up Jane that’s who!! Luckily, I was able to get onto the correct flight.  Thanks Delta!

July 22 – It now occurs to us that we have to fly to Colorado for Ty to get his heart checked out and for Mike’s service.  What we have is a flight from Traverse City to Charlotte, then we will have to make travel plans to fly to CO.  Not a problem for me’cause I opted in for the flight insurance – Lesson Learned.  I cancel my plans, file for the reimbursement and happily make travel plans for CO.  Ty on the other hand had to fly to Charlotte, spend night and then fly to CO.

We need to get more flight savvy.

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Great Adventure Picks Up Again

Spent most time with our family, going to Tyman’s baseball games (he is terrific – but what else since he is so athletic), and making Marvel character costumes.  Having some alone time with Tessa, eating brunch and shopping, taking Lacie dog for walks and relaxing with Amy and Scotty’s friends (we have such a great time with them), late nights with Amy and Scotty, AND spinning my brains out in Amy’s spin class – yahoo!

Returned to North Carolina on August 7, and will be exploring the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Plan On Returning To Colorado

We still plan on coming home sans Wanda sometime in November and hitting the road again in end of January.  If anyone plans on being gone and want someone to watch over their home, we will be glad to oblige – just let us know.  We are hoping for a lot of snow so we can get some skiing in.

Will and Pam alex katie robinson yoga&beer bourbon barrels Lil Nis Elena Old UofL hospital Minnie Distillery KentuckyHorsePark Flight

Editor Note:

I usually write the blog as the days go on so I can recall the events of the day.  As you read this you begin to understand how the events transpired.

7^th Annual RV Adventure with Will and Pam June 14-

Ty and I arrived at the Kentucky Horsepark RV park on June 14 and my brother Will and his bride Pam showed up about an hour later.  Yahoo!  Our plans for this years’ adventure is to hit the Bourbon Trail (called the Bourbonucky Trail for all the bourbon distilleries in Kentucky), bakeries and Walmarts and of course the dead man stores.  This will be a shorter trip than the usual month long but will take anything we can get with Will and Pam.

Happy Birthday To ME!

Yes, Jane has turned the big 70!  And we celebrated in style…since we are in the heart of bourbon country what better place to celebrate.  We did the day by going to James E Pepper distillery for a grand tour and tasting.  Then lunch, ice cream and more distilleries – yahoo.  Finished up the evening at the rodeo and that was really exciting.  Two horses (the bucking horse and the rider/horse that retrieves the horse) collided with the retrieving horse actually going down, and rolling over the rider!  Both did get up, but the rider was really shaken as we didn’t see him the rest of the night.  Then a bull rider got knocked off (the term is bucked) and the bull ran over his shoulder – he got up but his shoulder was hanging down to his waist.  No injuries occurred during the Mutton Bustin’ – this is the event that kids 5 under ride the sheep.  That event always gets the crowd laughing.

Then the next day to more tasting in Lexington and then the evening at the Bear and Brew for dinner thanks to Amy and Scotty.  Table had a bottle of chilled Prosecco waiting and a $200 dinner gift certificate.  This place is only a local bar with pub food and we thought we could never go thru all of it.  Problem solved when we all decided to drink Blantons.  For those of you not familiar with this bourbon, it is made by Buffalo Trace, it is hard to get and can be expensive.  So we did the damage on the $200 and wound up owing just a few more $S’s.  And a BONUS as we finished off the bottle of Blantons is the tradition has it that if you take the last pour you are rewarded with the bottle and top (which is a horse).  The horses on the top all have letters and they spell out BLANTONS and if you line up the horses, they look like they are all running a horse race from start to finish.  I got an A – the horse is just getting his stride.

Next day, sans Ty as he is not feeling well, we hit the trail going to Buffalo Trace Distillery and snag ourselves a couple of Blantons and do the tour.  Then we go to Frankfort which is the capital of KY and tour around there.  End the day met up with my 3^rd cousin (?) Alex and his bride Katie for some beer yoga and dinner afterwards.  Thanks to Alex who also joined us at Buffalo Trace as he was able to get me another bottle of Blantons since you can only purchase one per person.

Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever!

Ty started to run a slight fever and chills on June 12, but it was mainly at night and during the day he felt ok but not great, he went to Urgent Care which diagnosed that he had a virus and let the virus run the course. June 16 fevers were getting worse so back to Urgent Care.  This time they did blood test to check for a tick virus.  On the 18^th, no word from Urgent Care, we packed up and went to Louisville – on the way the fever spiked so after we got into the campground Ty went to the University of Louisville Hospital and they admitted him.  It was pretty touch and go for a while as his blood counts dropped considerably, his liver and kidneys were struggling, and his heart rate was 150 and blood pressure way up.  First steps were to stabilize him, get the fever under control then figure out the cause.  He got a lot of attention from a great team of doctors all the way from the on-floor staff, cardiologist, and infectious disease.  By Saturday the 22^nd Ty was finally coming around.  Fever broke, blood counts started to rise, liver and kidneys began to function normally.  However, during all this his heart went into afib and that took longer to normalize.  Monday the 24^th he was released from the hospital but will need a lot of rest.  It has been confirmed that he got Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.  Surprisingly very common in the Southeast as it is carried by the dog tick.  It probably wasn’t from the one that got imbedded as the symptoms usually start anywhere from 2-14 days from the bite, and the imbedded one was April 22.  However, at the campground in Natchez Trace and at Piney we were constantly picking off ticks and it wasn’t only after hikes cause we were pretty well covered and deeted up.  It came from sitting around the campfire at night or just the daily activity of walking around.  TICKS ARE NASTY and they are EVERYWHERE/

Amy flew in on Friday and has been on godsend.  She started to keep a record of the minute by minute events, meds, drs, vitals so we could keep track.  It was a lot to try and remember and I don’t know what I would have done without her!!  I think it also helped her (and me) to stay calm and not fall to pieces because we were on top of it.

Jane Drives Wanda!

Ty and I hung around the RV camp in Louisville which basically was a parking lot (all gravel and asphalt tightly packed in) for the duration of Monday, then decided join my brother in Bardstown to try and salvage a little bit of the Bourbon Trail trip.  I managed to pack everything up which is quite a lot but when two of you are doing it the task doesn’t seem so big.  Inside which is my usual job is to houseclean, stow everything securely, made sure all windows and hatches are closed, wash the floors, then gather that stuff that is outside that goes inside.  Now for the outside stuff, empty the holding tanks, empty the water, disconnect the electric – put all that stuff away.  Secure the bikes, put away the mat, bring in the awnings.  Back up the truck to attach Wanda and pull away!

It is my virgin trip, so unfortunate that I didn’t insist that I learn to drive Wanda (which is 30ft long!!) before I actually had to.  Probably would have been a little less nerve wracking.  Here we go, out of the campground and head to Bardstown.  After I settled in and my palms stopped sweating, I was amazed how easy it was to pull, remember to make wide turns and give oneself plenty of stopping room.  After Ty wore out his brake on the passenger side, he finally fell asleep for most of the trip.  White Creek RV park was so much nicer place for Ty to start recovery.  Shaded, grass and wide spots.

Bourbon Tour Continues

Will and Pam continued to hit the bourbon spots in Louisville while Ty was in hospital so I had a lot of catching up to do.  Bardstown area has Four Roses, Makers Mark, and Jim Beam.  We got tired of the 1 hour tours as it is hot here and we got the idea of how the stuff is made, so we have only been opting for the tasting part.  For those of you who think all we do is drink, not so, as we) tour the area we are in always on the hunt for a bakery.  In Bardstown the court house (built in 1814) is in the middle of town situated on a roundabout; we also went to the Proto-Catholic St Joseph Church.  Interesting fact that there are more Catholic churches in this area than Baptist. As it turns out back in 1800’s there were 4 “areas” designated to have cathedrals and Bardstown was one of them.  Shows you how much Catholic influence in the area.  Still getting our religion on we visited the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani monastery.  Nice video that chronicles life of a monk and we were able to view the afternoon prayer sect.  I bought a fruitcake made by the monks that is supposed to be laden Straight Kentucky Bourbon – what else?  Next, we rode our bikes in Berheim Forest and saw many interesting wooden sculptures created by the same artist, Thomas Dambo, who also created the wooden sculpture in Breckenridge. Unfortunately, Ty remains in Wanda sleeping and trying to get well.

Renfro Valley

Concluded the trip at Renfro Valley, I got to pack up and drive again.  Told Ty that while he is in the passenger seat his job is to knit hats.  He said he’ll pass on that.  Renfro Valley claim to fame is a music hall which is dubbed the Grand Ole Opry of Kentucky.  We saw Confederate Railroad which was mostly loud as oppose to good.  Their big hit is “I Like My Women on the Trashy Side”.  Not much else going on in Renfro Valley and it is so blasted hot that we pretty much just hung out in rigs with air conditioner on full blast.  Was good for Ty as he is still trying to get some energy back.  Oh Brother Will picked off a tick that he must have picked up just around his rig.

Déjà vu

Some of you might recall a couple of rv trips ago with my brother Will we came back to the rig after a day of bike riding and his rig had filled with water as he left the water running in toilet but closed up the tanks.  We hauled all the stuff out of the living area and the storage places, disinfected everything, rented a shop vac to suck the water out of the carpeting and basically looked like white trash in this very nice RV Resort.  Took 2 days to dry out.

So we come back Friday from a day touring and what do we see?  Water pouring out of my brothers rig!!!!  WHAT the …..Same routine as last time.  I think Minnie (their rig) is nearing retirement.

Farewell

It is always sad to part ways with my brother and Pam.  It always is such a comfortable trip.  This year I am so thankful that they were with me when Ty took ill and have stayed for the duration of the planned 2 weeks.  Once Amy arrived, they were at least able to get about and tell us all the wonderful bourbon places that we will have to come back to.

Next stop for us – Knoxville to pick up Ty (grandson) and to have some repairs done on Wanda.  I get to drive again – yahoo I am actually loving it.  Then after that week Lake Norman where Scotty, Amy, Ty, Tessa, Avery, Jaden, Lacie, and niece Colleen all will spend a week with Scotty’s dad and stepmom.  Looking forward to it.

Which brings me to the somber point that we just don’t know about our own mortality, when our time is up.

Please hug and hold the one(s) you love, as you just don’t know.

Turtle on Trail Fish Teeth Wow Eiffel Tower Donuts & Leeches – Yum Green Bug

Tennessee June 6-14

Land Between Lakes

Those of you who have been following us might remember we spent time in Warm Springs GA. summer home and museum for FDR.  There was a whole list of programs that he created as part of his New Deal, one of them was the Tennessee Valley Association (TVA).  I am sure most of us have heard of the TVA and have some understanding of what it did and still does.  Where Jane and I have spent the last week has allowed us to experience firsthand how part of this program works.  Our campsite is right on the Tennessee River and a few miles to the west of the Cumberland River.  For years these rivers would flood the surrounding areas and in 1937 is was so severe it destroyed several towns.  One of the original efforts of the TVA was to dam the Tennessee just north of where we are in southern Kentucky, that dam, the Kentucky Dam, created the Kentucky Lake.  The Cumberland was dammed just a short distance from the Kentucky dam it is called the Barkley Dam and it created Lake Barkley.  The peninsula in between the two lakes a 30 mile narrow strip is called, get ready, The Land Between the Lakes {LBL} It is a National Recreation Area run by the Department of Agriculture.  By the way both rivers drain into the Ohio River just a few miles from the dams.  The Ohio then drains into the Mississippi.

The dams created by the TVA helped to minimize the annual flooding problem and at the same time created a nice recreational area.

Of course, the project was not without conflict as several hundred homes, (3 towns!) were flooded and families we forced to move, Eminent Domain.  In this case the project does seem to be for the “greater good”.

TY

PS:  We stayed for the entire 8 days at Piney Lake Campground which is by far the best camp site ever.  Right on the water, which we swam in several times.

Tics Tics Tics and NO Tocks

We certainly have had our share of tics while in TN.  Seems like we just walk outdoors and the little buggers jump aboard and hang on.  Ty takes a 3-mile hike and comes back with 3 ticss – that one tic a mile.  I wake up from a deep sleep and find one crawling around on my stomach – must have decided Ty was not good enough.  Yuck!  We mention the tick situation in the good ole’ boy coffee shop and Bobby Bo says “this ‘ere is a baaad seson for tics.”  No kidding!  Billy Bo say “u gotta use rubbin’ alcohol all over yer arms and legs before yer go out, then agin when yer come back before yer shower (they shower? Really surprised me).  That’ll do it”

LOOK OUT – Low Clearance 11’ 0”

Think it was Hal and Lois Leslie that warned us about the east and the low bridges and we found one.  Lucky for us, we had to turn left and not right to get to our campground, but by the looks of it not as many were as fortunate as us; including a big beautiful 5^th wheel that pulled in next lot over with its roof flapping and air conditioner hanging off.  Or the class C that was actually stuck.  Guess those drivers didn’t see the warning sign – Low Clearance 11’ 0”. When we left that campground, we had to divert our directions about 30 miles in order to avoid the low bridges.

Natchez Trace One Last Thing

If you ever get the chance to go to Natchez Trace don’t pass it up.  We really enjoyed our time there.  The biking is terrific, the hiking is great (minus the tics) and we even found a great swimming hole.  So if these are activities you like to do, then NT is a place to go.

We camped at the Natchez Trace 1000 Trails RV Resort – one of our freebies and had the nicest neighbors.  That is one of the bonus’ about our travels is the people you meet.  Jena and Kendall Stow (forgot to get picture) that are going to settle down in the area as soon as they found a place.  Their children will soon join them and then they will be one happy family again.  Makes me really miss my family, especially the Sunday Fundays.  Anyways, nice folks, we enjoyed our campfire chats and wish you much luck and happiness in your adventure.  Hope we didn’t wake you when we pulled out at O Dark Earlly.

RETIRED

Have officially retired the “Colorado Poking Stick”.  For those of you who have camped with us, we have always used a nice long stick that we picked up on our vacation to Colorado back in 1985.  The pokey end always got a new foil wrap, yearly and was only used to poke the fire around.  Decided that the stick is getting pretty old, and the pokey end flares up readily, hence, the retirement.  It is now proudly hanging in Wanda, forever to travel with us.

Places We’ve Been

We love the suggestions of places to go, so keep ‘em coming

• Muscle Shoals – can’t remember who told us to be sure not to miss this spot, so we went. Not sure why we shouldn’t miss it, but we did find a great restaurant on the water and we got a great waterfront table.  So that was worth it.
• Campsite – Think we hit the jackpot with the last campsite in TN. Piney Lake, which is a USDA (dept of agriculture) Forest Service area.  It has full hookups and our first come first serve spot is right on the lake!  The back of our rig is all windows and this is a back-in site so we are sitting in paradise. Campfires almost everynight.
• 2 of the dams of the Kentucky Lakes – Barkley Lake Dam and Kentucky Lake Dam
• Hikes: Land Between Lakes has some good rolly up and down trails
• Bike Rides: Land Between Lakes also has some good roads for biking, and also Natchez Trace. Would suggest Anthem riders look at the Trace, however, lodging is a problem.
• Historical Places: Capital of Tenn. which is in Nashville, bunch of civil war battlegrounds, and cemeteries.

NEXT UP

Meeting brother Willy and bride Pam for our annual RV Trek across America.  This time will be doing the Bourbonucky Trail in Kentucky and may swing south for some Tennessee Whiskey as there is a trail there too.

so happy we made it across Had to go to this HAPPY 72 Crossed this falls Natchez Trace 900 steps down to falls

Natchez Trace May 22 – June 6

Natchez Trace is 440 miles long stretching from Nashville Tennessee through a small section of Alabama ending in nowhere Mississippi.  Honest, looking at a map I can’t name a city at the south end of this road that most of us would recognize other than the town of Natchez.  Just know after you have gone 440 miles south of Nashville you are at the end of the Trace.

Having said all that Jane and I have enjoyed our stay here.  One of our first days reminded me of our old tent camping days.  We started with some exercise in the morning and then took a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon along the Buffalo River.  The river had a short rapid running through a boulder canal that dug the bottom out to chest high depth, it was great fun body surfing through it and then trying to walk back against the current. The water was fine obviously not a Colorado river.

The campground we are in is called Natchez Trace RV Park, a Thousand Trails run/owned establishment, which is in the middle of nowhere.  Nearest town is Holdenwald TN.  We are sure the kids call it “hole-in-the-wall”.   WIFI or cell data is almost impossible to find.  We have both a Verizon Jetpack hot spot and with the new truck with an On Star hot spot and neither one can be counted on for reliable WIFI or cell data. If congress ever gets its act together and does some infrastructure work I fully support bring technology to rural America. Our initial exposure to the campground was pretty negative.  It was Memorial Day weekend and the park was filled with campers driving ATV’s and golf carts most gas driven making them very loud.  Folks would drive them around the campground like they were in high school cruising Main Street on Friday night. To make matters worse they were all very friendly and waved as they went by.  We were going to need ice for our shoulders before the weekend was over.  To alleviate that problem, we turned our backs to the traffic flow and just put up with the noise.  Because of the holiday we couldn’t leave until Tuesday but all of a sudden everyone was gone Monday night and it was quite peaceful so we decided to stay.  Did I mention that our stay here was free?  Buying our RV through Lazy Days RV entitled us to 265 days of free camping at selected campgrounds and this was one of them! So we can put up with the “Cruisers” for another weekend – which was short and not as crowded.

Anyway, as I mentioned the Trace is 440 miles long and based on the 150 miles or so we have traveled the road is in excellent condition, no commercial trucks allowed, no harsh winters etc.  It is a twisty turney rolling hills very pretty ride.  Turns out when bike riding you are on the road, no shoulders not very wide a couple of signs tell bikers to take the whole lane.  I needed a few more of those signs to feel comfortable taking the whole lane but for the most part what few drivers there were, they were very courteous and patient.  Finally, a great biking experience one could go 440 miles if one liked.

Also found a good hike at the “Death and Burial” site for Merriweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame.  It is the place where he committed suicide and was buried.  Some folk think he was murdered because he shot himself twice, ouch.

In reality other than many historical sites along the road all of them clearly marked some of them very interesting some not so much there is not much here.  The scenery is very consistent with thick tree and vegetation along both sides of the road with very little variation.  Very peaceful very nice.

We will spend a couple of more days here and then move on to our next destination a National Forest area called Kentucky Lakes, as you might imagine in Kentucky.

Hope everyone everywhere is doing well.

Ty

1. Before Jane goes into detail, my latest mishap was a bridge fell out, which I did find a couple of day later, then a one-hour trip to find a dentist, problem solved.

Blog Editor notes

I had a really fun story about the “lost bridge” but since Ty took over writing the blog this time, decided to leave it alone.  Jane

Ty Turns 72

Funny how Ty didn’t mention anything about this big event – he is not in denial I am sure, but most of just slipped his mind – short term memory ya know.  Anyway, spent the day with me being the designated driver and started the day doing some short hikes to a couple of falls, then off to celebrate with lunch first at 55 in Franklin then off to try and get 4 satmps that are either wineries, distilleries, or breweries so we could qualify for a Master & Maker tee shirts.  Started out with a distillery, H&L Clark which is a very small place but learned the difference between a single batch and small batch (see definitions), then to a brewery (which was closed till 4pm – what??  It is 2 on a Friday afternoon).  OK let’s hit the winery, a beautiful location on rolling hills with some very nice whites (I am only a 1 sipper since I am the driver), then to another brewery called Mantra.  Now this was an interesting place as in the mornings it is a yoga studio???  All of the beers lead off with Mantra something, like downward dog, salutation, twisted torso – you get the jest.  Yeah – we have 4 stamps, off to Franklin (cute cute town) to the Visitor Center to claim our prize.  Unfortunately, they did not have one in Ty’s size – but they promised to mail one to us.  Will be on the lookout for a shirt.

Trails Not Clearly Marked – But we Persevere

The one thing that stands out to us is the trail system of marking where the trail head is and then when there is a fork in the road, which way to go.  Since we are in an area that cell data is nonexistent trying to use All Trails is impossible, so we are relying on the old fashion paper maps, thank goodness for these or we would still be wandering around.  Case in point, at the David (not Davey as I know) Crockett State Park we are trying to find the trail crossing a very swift river.  We’ve been told that we have to cross the river, that it is about 4” deep where we have to cross which is not the problem.  The problem we have is the trailhead is not clearly marked so we think we are on the trail and come to the water crossing, but it is at the top of waterfall – waist deep.  Don’t think this is spot.  Back to ranger station, explain situation…oh did we forget to mention that you cross over at bottom of waterfall? Ok, back to trail – let’s look for different spot and this looks really promising as we found the bottom of falls but can’t see where to get back onto trail once we cross over.  Hooray for some young kids who come walking past, thru the water and scramble up the bank and disappear.  Ok, here we go – it turns out to be a fun crossing just below falls, then up the bank into the abyss and we pop out to what looks like a trail.  So, we begin, come across a couple of forks in trail and get out the trusty map and hike on.  All in all, this 3-mile hike turned out to be over 5 miles (all the back and forth we did).  Good Hike!

DEFINITIONS

For those of you who have ever traveled with me, I am a Google nut.  I look up everything – so here is this week’s sampling

Single Batch – just as it sounds, but a limited amount of distilled whiskey all made from the same batch of grain.

Small Batch – limited amount of whiskey, however, this is a combination of several single batches.

Devil’s Cut – this is the dredges of the barrel (what’s left on the bottom).

Pike – referring to road, term used in Kentucky and Tennessee for a road that use to be a toll road or turnPIKE

Trace – the trail used first by animals, then Indians, and then the early settlers mainly from Ohio who brought goods down the rivers to Memphis, then walked back using the Trace.

Natchez – name of Indian tribe in Tennessee Valley area.

Natchez Trace – parkway named for the Indian and the road.

Trail of Tears – there are many, but all converge in Oklahoma and it was the force evacuation of the Indians to the reservations.

Natchez Trace May 22 – June 6

Natchez Trace is 440 miles long stretching from Nashville Tennessee through a small section of Alabama ending in nowhere Mississippi.  Honest, looking at a map I can’t name a city at the south end of this road that most of us would recognize other than the town of Natchez.  Just know after you have gone 440 miles south of Nashville you are at the end of the Trace.

Having said all that Jane and I have enjoyed our stay here.  One of our first days reminded me of our old tent camping days.  We started with some exercise in the morning and then took a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon along the Buffalo River.  The river had a short rapid running through a boulder canal that dug the bottom out to chest high depth, it was great fun body surfing through it and then trying to walk back against the current. The water was fine obviously not a Colorado river.

The campground we are in is called Natchez Trace RV Park, a Thousand Trails run/owned establishment, which is in the middle of nowhere.  Nearest town is Holdenwald TN.  We are sure the kids call it “hole-in-the-wall”.   WIFI or cell data is almost impossible to find.  We have both a Verizon Jetpack hot spot and with the new truck with an On Star hot spot and neither one can be counted on for reliable WIFI or cell data. If congress ever gets its act together and does some infrastructure work I fully support bring technology to rural America. Our initial exposure to the campground was pretty negative.  It was Memorial Day weekend and the park was filled with campers driving ATV’s and golf carts most gas driven making them very loud.  Folks would drive them around the campground like they were in high school cruising Main Street on Friday night. To make matters worse they were all very friendly and waved as they went by.  We were going to need ice for our shoulders before the weekend was over.  To alleviate that problem, we turned our backs to the traffic flow and just put up with the noise.  Because of the holiday we couldn’t leave until Tuesday but all of a sudden everyone was gone Monday night and it was quite peaceful so we decided to stay.  Did I mention that our stay here was free?  Buying our RV through Lazy Days RV entitled us to 265 days of free camping at selected campgrounds and this was one of them! So we can put up with the “Cruisers” for another weekend – which was short and not as crowded.

Anyway, as I mentioned the Trace is 440 miles long and based on the 150 miles or so we have traveled the road is in excellent condition, no commercial trucks allowed, no harsh winters etc.  It is a twisty turney rolling hills very pretty ride.  Turns out when bike riding you are on the road, no shoulders not very wide a couple of signs tell bikers to take the whole lane.  I needed a few more of those signs to feel comfortable taking the whole lane but for the most part what few drivers there were, they were very courteous and patient.  Finally, a great biking experience one could go 440 miles if one liked.

Also found a good hike at the “Death and Burial” site for Merriweather Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame.  It is the place where he committed suicide and was buried.  Some folk think he was murdered because he shot himself twice, ouch.

In reality other than many historical sites along the road all of them clearly marked some of them very interesting some not so much there is not much here.  The scenery is very consistent with thick tree and vegetation along both sides of the road with very little variation.  Very peaceful very nice.

We will spend a couple of more days here and then move on to our next destination a National Forest area called Kentucky Lakes, as you might imagine in Kentucky.

Hope everyone everywhere is doing well.

Ty

1. Before Jane goes into detail, my latest mishap was a bridge fell out, which I did find a couple of day later, then a one-hour trip to find a dentist, problem solved.

Blog Editor notes

I had a really fun story about the “lost bridge” but since Ty took over writing the blog this time, decided to leave it alone.  Jane

Ty Turns 72

Funny how Ty didn’t mention anything about this big event – he is not in denial I am sure, but most of just slipped his mind – short term memory ya know.  Anyway, spent the day with me being the designated driver and started the day doing some short hikes to a couple of falls, then off to celebrate with lunch first at 55 in Franklin then off to try and get 4 satmps that are either wineries, distilleries, or breweries so we could qualify for a Master & Maker tee shirts.  Started out with a distillery, H&L Clark which is a very small place but learned the difference between a single batch and small batch (see definitions), then to a brewery (which was closed till 4pm – what??  It is 2 on a Friday afternoon).  OK let’s hit the winery, a beautiful location on rolling hills with some very nice whites (I am only a 1 sipper since I am the driver), then to another brewery called Mantra.  Now this was an interesting place as in the mornings it is a yoga studio???  All of the beers lead off with Mantra something, like downward dog, salutation, twisted torso – you get the jest.  Yeah – we have 4 stamps, off to Franklin (cute cute town) to the Visitor Center to claim our prize.  Unfortunately, they did not have one in Ty’s size – but they promised to mail one to us.  Will be on the lookout for a shirt.

Trails Not Clearly Marked – But we Persevere

The one thing that stands out to us is the trail system of marking where the trail head is and then when there is a fork in the road, which way to go.  Since we are in an area that cell data is nonexistent trying to use All Trails is impossible, so we are relying on the old fashion paper maps, thank goodness for these or we would still be wandering around.  Case in point, at the David (not Davey as I know) Crockett State Park we are trying to find the trail crossing a very swift river.  We’ve been told that we have to cross the river, that it is about 4” deep where we have to cross which is not the problem.  The problem we have is the trailhead is not clearly marked so we think we are on the trail and come to the water crossing, but it is at the top of waterfall – waist deep.  Don’t think this is spot.  Back to ranger station, explain situation…oh did we forget to mention that you cross over at bottom of waterfall? Ok, back to trail – let’s look for different spot and this looks really promising as we found the bottom of falls but can’t see where to get back onto trail once we cross over.  Hooray for some young kids who come walking past, thru the water and scramble up the bank and disappear.  Ok, here we go – it turns out to be a fun crossing just below falls, then up the bank into the abyss and we pop out to what looks like a trail.  So, we begin, come across a couple of forks in trail and get out the trusty map and hike on.  All in all, this 3-mile hike turned out to be over 5 miles (all the back and forth we did).  Good Hike!

DEFINITIONS

For those of you who have ever traveled with me, I am a Google nut.  I look up everything – so here is this week’s sampling

Single Batch – just as it sounds, but a limited amount of distilled whiskey all made from the same batch of grain.

Small Batch – limited amount of whiskey, however, this is a combination of several single batches.

Devil’s Cut – this is the dredges of the barrel (what’s left on the bottom).

Pike – referring to road, term used in Kentucky and Tennessee for a road that use to be a toll road or turnPIKE

Trace – the trail used first by animals, then Indians, and then the early settlers mainly from Ohio who brought goods down the rivers to Memphis, then walked back using the Trace.

Natchez – name of Indian tribe in Tennessee Valley area.

Natchez Trace – parkway named for the Indian and the road.

Trail of Tears – there are many, but all converge in Oklahoma and it was the force evacuation of the Indians to the reservations.

Cummins Falls Amy & Me Yummy Lunch

May 8-22

We Got A Truck

Chevy Silverado 1500 truck just wasn’t getting it as far as towing was concerned.  We are maxed out on the weight and in trying to cut down was forced to give up some of my comforts, like my lounge chair, some weights that I have been using and a very heavy safe.  And while we were just under the weight allowed, felt the truck struggle.  Once we got to Nashville we decided to upgrade the truck to a 2500.

Now for the problems:

There is the 5^th wheel hitch which needs to be taken out of the old truck and put into the new.  Easy right?  Same basic model of truck, but nooo Lazy Days will not install “used” hitches even tho we purchased this through them.  So now we have to find some kind of shop to do this.  Found! But they can’t do it for 2 weeks.  No problem, but could they just take out the old hitch so we can turn in the truck?  Sure – in 2 weeks!  Back to dealer, can we hold off buying truck for 2 weeks?  Sure, but we already put the paperwork in so how about just consider the old truck a loaner?  Great, and can you switch the back-bed cover over to new truck?  Sure – in 2 weeks.  What’s with the 2 weeks? Oh and one more thing – we need to order new rails for the hitch and guess how long?  Nope – 2 days!!  Basically, that’s is why we have been in Nashville for so long – however, it all turns out for the good.

Hidey Hole

This will be quick – Ty has a million (no exaggeration!) hidey holes in Wanda and I just gave up trying to figure out the rhythm or reason for what he puts where.  We have a portable generator in the bed of truck that has to transfer to new truck.  Problem is, Ty has put a lock on it (did this when we left CO) and put the key in the hidey hole.  During this 2-week business he has been searching for the key.  Now his solution is to just cut it off and buy a new one, me be the logical thinker of the two say: “Look, you had to have the key when we left CO – it has to be in one of your hidey holes.  Just think back and you probably remember that you put it for safekeeping and this is a logical place for it”.  Well that thinking worked and keys were found in his BIKE PACK.  Now I ask you: WHAT KIND OF INSANE LOGIC IS THAT?  WHY IN THE BIKE PACK AND NOT ON THE KEY RING WITH ALL THE OTHER KEYS???  Ty Ty Ty

Ty Brothers Weekend and Amy In – Yahoo

Ty went to Chicago for his annual Brothers Weekend.  What a wonderful tradition that has been going on for as long as I can remember, brothers who actually really like each other and get along and have fun doing whatever they do.

Amy fills the void here in Nashville and comes in while Ty is gone.  I love our mother-daughter relationship which has gotten so much stronger and I think this may be the first time it has just been the two of us – why did we ever wait so long?  While we text every day, it is just not the same as having her with me.  Of course, while here she took over driving (I am going to lose my driving skills soon) while we went everywhere in Nashville.  Went to Broadway Street, walked the alleys at night (yes there are rats in this town!), took a terrific hike (again it is straight up for a mile) at Radnor Lake, visited the Carnton Plantation House, civil war home taken over for a medical hospital during Battle of Franklin and site of over 1200 Confederate soldiers buried), Battle at Nashville monument, lunch in Franklin at a Chinese place that served the most outstanding crab-lobster noodle something, went to the Grand Ole Opry, toured some antique shops in Goodlettsville, had dinner at the Cock in the Walk (what a name! but served the best steaks) and listened to some good ole boy music at the campsite lodge.  The visit was too short, too much bourbon consumed but I wouldn’t trade it for anything!  Love you Amy

While in Nashville

While much of our time has been spent dealing with the truck and hitch situation, we have managed to visit a few sites in town.

• Tennessee State Capital – beautiful building with most of its tour history about the occupation of the North during Civil War. Fact: TN was the last state to succeed and the first to fall to the North.
• Downtown: we did walk around and visit the hot spots
  • Printers Alley
  • Skulls
  • Broadstreet
• Grand Ole Opry (I went with Amy and Ty)
  • First one was the typical Saturday Night Broadcast – lots of gray hairs performing
  • Then with Ty on a Tuesday which was dedicated to the service men and women with 8 acts that were great. Did you know the song “Proud To Be An American” was written and 1^st performed 35 years ago!
• Cummins Falls: this hike is reminiscent of the Narrows in Zion. Easy water hike with a spectacular ending of the falls.
• Wildlife: not too much – rat in downtown Nashville, small water snake and lots of little barky dogs in the RV Park.
• Topography: TN is beautiful rolling hills and limestone cliffs and straight up hikes.
• Grand Ole RV Park: love this RV spot.  Located 20 miles north of Nashville in Goodlettsville a mom and pop now the kids have taken over operation.  Best part?  Every night they have some artist/group come and play music for 2-1/2 hours.  I swear it is better than the Grand Ole Opry on a Saturday night.  And they have breakfast and dinner.  Can’t beat it for the price.

Cell Phone Waiting Lot at Nashville Airport

Since I am now a master at waiting at this airport, I want to know who is the mastermind behind this insane design of a lot.  Now picture this, it has room for only 25 cars, there is only one way in and the same way out.  IF the lot is full and you pull into the area because you have no way of knowing the lot is full, you are stuck until someone pulls out of a parking space because there is NO PLACE to turnaround to exit because remember it is the same %$#^% way you came in!  And of course, there is always the yahoo who starts the honking like you have somewhere to go.  I tell you where I am going, right up the front of your car with this big ass truck if you don’t stop being such an idiot!!  I finally get into a spot (oh and if a person that you are blocking wants to get out, you can’t move because there are cars in front and back of you now everyone is stuck), then I get the call to pick up and I have to back out, oh man.  Thank goodness for these 2 good ole’ boys who helped me maneuver without hitting anything.

Next Stops

We leave here on Thursday morning headed for Natchez Trace for a week.

MountainLaurel Appalachian Trail Ty on App Trail Dennis Ouellette

 

We said good-bye to the gecko’s, the palms, the nasty iguana, crocs and all the beautiful shore birds.  We are now enjoying all the deciduous trees, pine and fir trees, and North Carolina is full on bloom!  Instead of geckos we are seeing all sorts of salamanders (did you know that the Great Smokies have the highest number of salems?) and lots of turtles!.  Waterfalls abound, deer, birds and other small animals are plentiful.  We’ve been staying in some secluded campgrounds which are quiet, dark at night and forested – its wonderful.It has rained everyday and most nights since we left Atlanta Georgia and have made our way to the Great Smokey Mountains

We have gotten in some great hikes along the way too.  We’ve mostly been sticking to 4 miles because of my hip however, Ty picked out a 5 mile hike which turned out to be 6.5 and 2 of that was straight up!), then another hike up to the Appalachia Trail, 2.5 one way straight up 2,000+ elevation gain plus another 1/2 mile on the trail.  I am pooped.  With all the rains we’ve had for the last 2 days the streams are running fast and high which makes for some spectacular waterfalls.

The Great Smokey Mountains are a sight to see – so majestic, vast, green (should be it has rained for 5 days!) and back country. To give you an idea of the blooms, attached is Mountain Laurel and me along the trail.

We encountered our first detour in plans pulling the rig because of roads and low bridges.  We are staying south of the Great Smokies and we intended to take the main road thru up to Gatlinburg TN.  But as we traveled sans Wanda we encountered 3 tunnels with height clearance of 13’6″ IF you drive down the center.  Wanda is 13′ – too close for comfort.  No worries, we will just drive up this back road on the east side of GSM and head to Knoxville.  So as we traveled without Wanda we took that road and there is huge sign NO TRAILERS TO EXCEED 30 FEET.  Well, Wanda is a “big girl” then you add the truck; this will not work.  And we saw why, twisty, tourney, up and down and around – it was a wild ride; thank goodness we decided to check it out!  So change of plans and we headed east as there are plenty of options, just added a few extra miles.

I end this post on a sad note, my youngest brother Dennis, passed away on May 5 after a long illness. My bro with always a smile on his face, love of a good scotch whiskey, loved kids, especially the littler the better and was the only one whom Beth would let tease her.  Dennis, you will be missed dearly. 

Rest In Peace

 

 

I’m cute, right? This limestone pool looks like it belongs in a Japanese garden, not Georgia Good Morning Key West. Roosters everywhere A smile for the camera Couple of neighbors over for breakfast Frog wants to go for ride Jane 1st (and last) oyster Ty’s favorite road sign. Translate to Hot Man Crossing

Greetings

It has been a while sense I made a comment on Jane’s blog so I thought I would take a turn.

First of all I am glad to have provided content for the blog  .I started by walking into the wrong house in Destine, it could have gone bad you know Florida has that “Stand Your Ground” law, then I had my bike stolen in South Beach Miami, followed by 3 staples in my forehead after walking into the RV hitch and finally having to go to Urgent Care to have a tick removed from my, well, if you’re a constant reader you know the tick was on the part of the body where the sun doesn’t shine.

As I think back on the last 4 months some things stand out.  Florida…we were originally going to leave around 2/16 and head for the Gulf Coast then it was 3/1 then 3/15 then we invited the grand kids to join us the last week of March for their spring break.  The real truth is Jane loved the heat and humidity while I was ready to head north. Anyone married for close for 49 years knows how that discussion went.

My biggest concern with Florida was I had a hard time finding a longer hiking or biking trail.  I would eventually find them but it was as we were about to move on.  Not being a runner, nor able to find the slightest hill, I never once got out of breadth…unlike Colorado where most hikes or biking resulted in being completely winded.

Some of the things we said we were going to do on the adventure included visiting national parks, presidential libraries, state capital buildings attend local theater.  We did visit one state capital in Tallahassee Florida and it was a bust just a big tall white office building. On the presidential front we did visit the Truman’s Summer White House in Key West which was a welcoming smaller unassuming home.  Then in the past 3 days we visited a Jimmy Carter museum in Plains GA, in a converted former high school. The Carter home in Plains is their original home and where they still live when in town. We then visited Warm Springs GA., home of the FDR “Little White House”.  They were all interesting but FDR’s was by far the most informative.  I guess when you are in office for 12 years during the great depression and WW ll you have time to make things happen.   I knew he enacted many social programs such as Social Security and Unemployment Compensation, remember 13 million mostly men were out of work, the CCC, himself being a victim of Polio he started the March of Dimes and many more.  He also is responsible for FDIC the SEC the National Labor Relations Board the FCC and many more.  Anyway, it turns out his time spent in Warm Springs introduced him to a segment of the population he never met while growing up in the very upscale community of Hyde Park NY. namely farmers and blue-collar workers which greatly influenced his policy agenda.

Now I am probable steeling a little of Jane’s thunder.  The most impactful emotional experience we have had was visiting the Andersonville National Historic Cemetery a Confederate POW prison from Feb.1864 to April 1865.  During that time there were approximately 45,000 prisoners of which 13,000 died.  It also detailed horrific conditions in northern POW camps like Elmira Prison in Elmira NY where thousands of Confederate soldiers died.  All told 30,000 Union and 26,000 Confederate captives died in captivity. The site takes you through POW experiences, some first-person interviews, at successive wars, WWl, WWll, Korea and Viet Nam. Very disturbing.  I think President Trump should visit this site it may change his opinion about POWs

In conclusion we are finally out of Florida, hooray, and in Georgia.  Georgia has hills and valley’s and cool nights and warm low humidity days, at least for a few more weeks.  Jane and I took a great hike on Pine Mountain and so on.  Who would have thought I would enjoy Georgia.

The full-time RVing life style seems to be kind of addicting. Something different most every day. I consider it freeing in many ways.  The biggest challenge is trying to decide what part of the country or what interesting place you would like to visit next.

I have also attached some pictures which I found fun in some way or another.TY

MissBeth

Back Home to Colorado

April 9-18

Beth Remembered

Hard to believe that a year has gone by since Beth’s passing   but it has.  So dearly missed by us.  Just us (Ty, Amy Scotty Tyman Tessa Lacie and me) spent the snowy day watching Harry Potter movies which were Beth’s favorite.  I give these books credit for Beth actually learning to read and comprehend; when the books came out, she was obsessed with them.  And you know how many pages are in these books and she said she read them.  I doubted her until the movies came out and when we watched them, she would say “No, that didn’t happen that way! Or What happened to such and such?”  So, I was amazed that she was actually reading and comprehending!!!  It was a somber day, lonesome actually.  The grieving process is a long one, but as time passes the pain does ease a little.   Oh sweet Miss Beth how we all miss your smiling face and love of life.  We will all try to go on

Sunday Fun Day all Week Long

Before this Great Adventure we would spend 99% of our Sunday’s together in what we call Sunday Fun Day.  Miss those times so it was a week full of togetherness just having fun.  The only disappointment was Tyman’s basketball game was postponed due to the school shut down due to the school threat so we were not able to attend.  Other than that, it was a week filled with family dinners, picking up kids from school, walking Lacie, going to Amy’s killer exercise classes (thanks Amy, you really gave me a jump start to exercise), moving Scotty’s office (really tough move about 50ft) and the late night’s around the kitchen counter playing DJ wars and dancing.  This is the hard part of the Great Adventure – not having the Sunday Fun Days.  Amy’s friend, Sara (no h),  gave us a little traveling Buddha which we thanked when a car ran a stop light as we were pulling out.  Thanks all around for brakes and quick reactions as no damage no hurt.

Some Anthem Visits

I did get in a morning of ping pong in and they showed no mercy on me not having played in 3 months.  Thanks and Good Game Girls!  We also got to see a few friends in the week – just not as many as we wish we could have visited.  However, we have decided to come back to CO for Thanksgiving and stay until the 3^rd week in January, so hopefully we can see everyone!  Still looking for a place to “house site” for this time if anyone out there in Anthem is willing…..

When we left Colorado to continue on we decided we needed to:

1. cut out the sugar (wayyyyy too many deserts)
2. try and go dry for at least 2 weeks to give our livers a chance to dry out.

Now when one makes those kinds of resolutions and it’s not New Years or Lent, you know you’ve had a good visit!

oyster beds Jason Lisa & kids Life RV style

Georgia – Here we come

Now we are onto Georgia and it feels good to finally be out of Florida as there are just so many gators one can take.  First stop was the Golden Isles which is on the southern coast of Georgia and is comprised of several islands: Blythe (where we stayed), St Simone, Little St Simone, and Jekyll.  These are the main islands that you can actually get to, others not named are private.  History of these islands is filled with British, Spanish, American Indians all fighting each other for control – which we know how this all ended.  Did a lot of kayaking while in the Golden Isles and FINALLY the last guide got it that I need the “Princess Seat” as he described it when we wanted to have a 2-man kayak.  I tipped him generously.  We then headed up to Savanah area staying at Fort McAllister State Park on Savage Island and again it’s the British, Spanish, and Native Americans battling it out.

Was able to squeeze in a quick dinner with nephew Jason Ouellette and his family Lisa (bride), Connor and Ethan.  Now Connor, who is in 6^th grade stole the whole visit!  Never met such a young man who is so comfortable engaging in adult conversation with interesting and factual information.  The only time he reverted to a kid is when the children’s menu, the coloring kind, was placed in front of him and he was absorbed with that.  Only then were we able to catch up with Jason and Lisa.  But I am actually in awe of Connor – will be keeping my eye on him as here is one who is going to go far – love you Connor.  Ethan was the shy one, enjoying his video game, starving but doesn’t eat much and jumping in when he can – he is adorable.

Savannah started as a bust however in the end we conquered!  GPS took us in a major loop trying to get to the visitor center so we decided just to park in the vicinity and hoof it.  Had to pay for parking at one of those kiosk which I think the city has rigged as you have to press the up (dam up’s again) to adjust how much time – what the instruction DON’T say is to press OK when the amount of time you want is displayed – so the city got 2 extra hours from us.  Oh well, onto the visitor center (and the facilities if you know what I mean) and WHATTTTT – it’s closed for remodeling???  And the facilities are closed too.  This is just p&^57 poor timing.  Ok, find a hotel when is about a block away.  That done, let’s take the trolley tour.  At the kiosk with all the info we need and “Sorry sir, my machine is broke, I can only take cash.  There is an ATM machine right over there.”  No problem, except the ATM is out of money. Where is next kiosk?  Only 3 blocks and one cliff climb away – no problem.  We finally settle onto the trolley which thank the powers that be that you can jump on jump off anytime.  The first driver/guide you could not understand, so jump off get some Leopold Ice Cream (voted #2 in nation and it was some creamy stuff), jump on the next one – no wait, I know I am standing right on curb, I am the next one in line but as soon as the bus comes up and couple just shashsas up and take the only 2 seats left! TOURIST!  If you get to Savannah take the trolley, and get off and on often.  You will get different info each time, the city is beautiful, old, with lots of history.

Crystal Beer Parlor was a good suggestion for lunch

Georgia’s Bugs

These “no see ums” are driving me crazy – enough said

Georgia’s Wildlife

So far, we have seen the Wild Boar that is so prevalent here – big beast that I don’t want to tangle with and the Armadillo.  Seems everyone here hates these prehistoric creatures.  I relate the feeling towards the Armadillo the same as the Anthem rabbits.  Lots of Cardinals, which we have been missing since our MI days.

Georgia’s Oceanlife

Oysters Beds are amazing.  I thought  they just laid around on the ocean floor or washed up on shore.  Didn’t realize that they grow in clumps along the banks or where-ever they can grab hold.

Georgia’s Foliage

Everything is starting to bloom and the fragrance is wonderful.  The honeysuckle is outstanding.  As we move North leaving the Palm trees behind (there are some in the Savanah area) and now getting into the deciduous trees.

 

So How Are You Really Liking This Lifestyle?

We were asked this a lot when we came home and our answer was unanimous…we absolutely love it!!!  We don’t have much of a calendar to follow other than remembering what RV place we’ve made reservations for and when.  We do anything we want, when we want to.  We have come to the realization that we do have to slot in some AWAY FROM EACH OTHER time (this is when I usually write the blog).  We have established sort of a exercise routine where I like to exercise to my tapes and Ty likes to hike.  It is easier for me to exercise than for Ty to find decent hikes close by.  He usually winds up doing a short loop multiple time.  When I exercise it has to be outside next to rig and I sure to get the looks.  I think they are all jealous that they didn’t think of this first – that’s what I like to think they are thinking but I know they are thinking – wow is she nuts or what?!?!?

We try to eat the majority of meals in the rig if only because it is $$$$ and fattening to eat out all the time.  Besides I love my insta pot!.  Watch TV in the evenings as we’ve not been at campgrounds with campfires although that is changing now that we are in GA.  Had our first fire the other night – very nice. Few bills to pay (yahoo), we have a Verizon Hot Spot so we do have internet anywhere we go.  It is so relaxing and freeing lifestyle although we do miss getting together with friends occasionally to play cards or have dinner.

Where are we off to next

April will be finished off by visiting Savanah and Andersonville GA (Civil War History) and FDR Little Whitehouse and hopefully make it to the capital, Atlanta.  Then make our way up to Great Smokey Mountains.

May will find us in Kentucky and Tennessee.  Will be meeting the Welbourn’s in Lexington May 9-14, to do some of the BourbonUckty Trail and Mammoth Cave, then I will be in Nashville area and Amy will come in for a weekend while Ty goes and does his “Brothers Weekend”.  When he comes back, we will roam around Kentucky, Tennessee and who knows where else until the end of June when brother Will and bride Pam join us back in Kentucky for the BourbonUckty Trail.

July will find us in Lake Norman NC 7/6-14, with the fam and with Scotty’s family.  Sounds like a fun family reunion.  Then fly up to Michigan for Ty to sail and me to get some girl time.  I hope to squeeze in some Sister time, Sue if you are reading this are you available?  Let’s talk.

No plans for August until Thanksgiving when we will be flying back to Colorado.

If any of you plan to be some where close to where we are in April – August, let us know, perhaps we can meet up.  Or if some place sounds like fun to you and you want to join us, let’s talk!

Now that’s a real Tick in the @ss

Ty: “Jane, will you look at this bump on my bum”

Jane: “I need a magnify glass to see it”  Did you know that there is an App on your phone for this?

Ty: “Well?”

Jane: “Ty, you have a tick on your butt check”

Urgent Care again.  Ticky all gone, Ty on antibiotics (Lynne disease is not an issue here but just in case)

Editor’s Note:  due to the sensitive nature of the tick placement, no photo.

Bird Jellyfish Juniper Springs Gator Minnows

April 1-9

Peace and Quiet in Ormond Beach

A quiet week in Ormond Beach and the Florida portion of the trip comes to a close.  Stayed in a nice RV Park, friendly neighbors, relaxing pool and shady spot to park Wanda and unwind.

Truck Keys MIA – twice

Getting ready to bike to Lehigh trail, we load up the bikes and our gear and jump into truck.  Where are the keys?  Ty usually takes charge of the keys so we begin the hunt for the keys looking in Wanda, in the ignition, tailgate, bike bags.  After about 20 minutes Ty looked down in front of him and there where his keys tucked into the waistband of his biking pants (no pockets).  We had a good laugh at that one and related it to the “Eyeglasses Incident”.  Off to a great bike ride, 16 miles on a paved Rails-To-Trails that followed a canal somewhat, but for the most part was is a shaded grove.  Great ride.  Back to the truck to load up the bikes and then off to Ormond Beach to swim.  Wait, where are the keys?  Come on, we just opened the truck up where could they have possible gone?  45 minutes later and we completely pulled everything out of the front and back seat (looked like a yard sale), numerous rechecks looking in the biking gear bags, under truck, through the grass and in Ty’s pants, the keys were not to be found.  We reasoned that we actually forgot to lock the truck that it was already opened and the keys must have dropped out on the trail someplace.  Instead of retracing our entire bike ride we decided to split up, Ty would start to ride the trail and I would drive (using the spare keys we keep in truck) to the rest area where Ty used the facility and perhaps, they dropped out of waistband since that seems to be the new spot for keys.  Good plan.  Ty gets on his bike and I hop in car, move the water bottle out of way in cup holder and what do my little eyes spy?  KEYS  THE KEYS!!!  How did they jump into the cup holder, then get topped off with the water bottle?  Those old age elves!!!!!

It’s a shame

Florida is not the cleanest state we’ve been in; we even saw a person heave a bag of trash out the driver side window on the highway.  Just too bad that people just trash where they live or visit.  Case in point, we had taken a long hike in Juniper Springs and I decided to soak my feet in this pond in the area.  Let me step back to tell you that Juniper Springs has a natural hot springs that bubble up in the streams.  There is this one stream that was dammed up during CCC (Civilian Conversation Corps) era that created this wonderful pool now used to actually snorkel in or swim around.  The water is warmed by the numerous hot springs that are bubbling up all around inside this pool.  Anyway, I go down to soak my feet and right at the steps down to the pool someone has dumped a ½ tire into the water.  Just a real shame that they ruined this sight of this beautiful pool with their thoughtlessness.  But it is right at the steps so I sit down and put my feet in and let the minnows nibble at my feet and enjoy the surroundings.  After a little while some movement in the pool by the tire catch my eye – the tire is moving.  OH MY that’s no tire that’s an EEL!!  Turns out they have 2 resident eels living in that pool.  I swear it looked just like a tire!!

All By Hand

Did you know that they pick all those oranges by hand?  Well they do! Then they pour all the oranges into the bins and load them into truck – see video.

Florida Residence Complete

Monday April 8, we drove 4 hours to Ft Myers to get the license plate for truck.  You can only register truck in county where you are a resident.  That accomplished, we drove back 3 hours to Orlando to fly out to Colorado on Tuesday to be with Amy, Scott, Ty, Tessa, Avery, and Jaden AND Lacey for the week.  On April 10 we will be remembering the sad day that Beth left us.

Approximately 7200 miles of Florida fun!

Never expected to stay this long in Florida and we circled the state twice.  Turns out I liked the warmth much more than Ty but he was willing to hang around Florida and besides, Ty and Tessa got to visit with us so that was worth hanging around for. When we started this adventure, we had a “bucket list” of things we would do in each state we visited.

• State Capital: Tallahassee not a very inspiring capital
• Federal and State Parks: Biscayne National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Juniper Springs, Big Cypress National Preserve (last week found the largest python of 21 feet with 72 eggs inside!)
• Nature Preserves: Bird Sanctuary, Turtle preserve, Naples Zoo, Sea Aquarium in Miami
• Theatre: Daytona Beach Theatre (say Man from La Mancha), Rodeo in Arcadia
• Visited numerous friends (some more than once) and family
• Saw numerous sunrises and sunsets
• Wildlife: alligators, snakes, geckos, all sorts of cranes, wild turkeys, fish, eels, peacocks, eagles, pelicans, seagulls, ospreys, the list just goes on
• Topography: we watch the area turn green and flowers start to bloom. Never realized that there are hundred different varieties of palm trees.
• Said our farewells to Polly and thanked her for being such a great trailer and said HELLO to Wanda who will take us on our Great Adventure.

Leaving Florida

Arrived! Airboat Biking Shark Valley 2Ty’s Sleepers Grandma&Tessa Little Cold after snorkeling

March 24-March 31

Ty and Tessa Visit!

We made our way down to Homestead FL to get ready for Ty and Tessa to come in and visit for the week.  I am happy to report that we managed to get the Ups and Downs correct and got Wanda hitched up with no problems.  Bid adieu to Arcadia and off we went.  Arrived in Homestead and what do we encounter when we pull up to the gate? No record of our reservations.  No one in the front office works on the weekends so the security guard had to make a lot of phone calls to find someone to help us which after a ½ hour the maintenance guy pulls up and directs us to our site – and what do we encounter there?  Another RV parked and well established with screen tent and bike and BBQ scattered around.  So, the maintenance guy goes and talks to them and it turns out they were supposed to leave this day, but decided to stay on another day or two.  No can do explains the maintenance guy.  So, these people had to pack up everything and leave while we are parked in front.  Takes them about an hour – heck, we got nothing to do so I knit and Ty snoozes in-between the book he is reading.  We actually felt bad kicking these people out as there were no other sites available.

Ty and Tessa Adventure

Think it was important to plan out the week with T&T because they are teenagers and boredom can come up quickly overcome a visit with the “old folk” as Tessa refers to us.  And this being spring break many of the activities we did needed reservations.  I was informed from Amy (T&T mother) that the kids like to sleep in so don’t plan anything early in the day.  Most activities were planned for the afternoons and the T&T usually got up around 8 or 9, got immediately on their devices, then gradually woke up ate cleaned up and we were ready to roll out of rig by 11.

First up was a terrific air boat ride in the everglades and this one is just like I imagined as it was out on the swamp grass.  What was amazing is our guide/boat captain was definitely a swamp boy and he would stop the boat then call the gators and sure enough they gators would come out of no where and up to the boat.  Same thing happened when he called his favorite bird to feed it these little mealy worms.  I was convinced that he goes out there when not on tour and feeds the gators and birds so they come when called but he insisted on not – bet he has some swamp land I can buy.  Oh we also hit the beach for a quick sunburn.

Next, we rode bikes in Shark Valley where we saw at least 38 gators all just lying around and an immense number of birds.

Then we kayaked in the keys – which Tessa did not want to do and it was pretty hard as the wind was head on coming back in.  Tyman is stronger on the left side than right which I had to compensate by doing a lot of rudder steering to keep us straight.  Wish I counted the number of times he said “Uh Grandma….”  And I think I already explained my preference when canoeing or kayaking.

Finally, we snorkeled in Key Biscayne National Park.  Was a cloudy windy day, with a little rain so instead of the tour being in the coral reefs we went to a Mangrove on Billie’s Point which was a little calmer.  It is strange to snorkel with your head in water and to feel the rain on the back of your head and back.  You almost want to stop so you don’t get wet – oh wait, you’re in the water!  Saw lots of baby fish, jelly fish and baby sharks.  Tyman was very nervous but once they said it was in so shallow of water you could stand in it (not recommended) he gave it a try.  He did good!

Tyman’s Birthday! Sweet Sixteen and he wanted to go to the Miami Sea Aquarium which was a good choice since we had a very busy week and this was more laid back.  It was like going to SeaWorld as we saw a lot of shows where the dolphins, and sea lions performed, the Manatee’s not so much. Back to beach so Tessa could even out her sunburn.

Getting up at 2:30am to go to airport for a 6am flight was more of a challenge for me than T&T which surprised me.  Sad to see them leave so on the ride to airport we did a bubble up (what happened or feeling did you have that gave you happy feelings) and surprise surprise Tessa says the kayaking!  She even said “Now Grandma don’t say “I Told You So” when I say my bubble up”.  Told You So.

Speaking of “I Told You So”

I have learned (finally) that you can’t tell a teenager anything because they know better.  Before I learned this, I tried to get Tessa to use sunscreen, that she will get tan with it.  But no, she wants to get a tan fast so no sunscreen.  Now here is a post from Tessa that she posted on Instagram:

“#beach#family#sunburn#tan You know that time where you tell your grandparents that you don’t need sunscreen because you don’t get sunburned, and they keep yelling at you to put it on and you don’t listen, but then that night you look at your legs and arms and see red and then it starts burning but you can’t tell them because you needed to prove a point but you know that they will find out and all along they were right,,,,well…”

So from now on, I will make the suggestion (not yell – didn’t think I was yelling, nagging yes, yelling no) and let it go at that…..

Onto Ormond Beach

After we put T&T on the plane, we packed up Wanda and headed to Ormond Beach for our last week in Florida.

Plans are to recuperate from a very busy week, do a lot of laundry (as I write this), make some repairs to Wanda, and look for a place to stay in this area for next year February and March.  I love the weather and warmth (Ty is so missing the cold and mountains I’ve offered that he could stay back those months – will see).

2020 Already?

Can’t believe that we are actually thinking about next year, but if you want an RV site in FL for any extended period of time you have to reserve it now.  We are thinking of coming to Colorado for November (starting around Thanksgiving) and staying until the last week of January.  That way we can get our winter fix, do some skiing but then head out for the warmth.

Anyone know of a place we can rent for 2 months?

Lois Leslie – “You Told Me So!”

Wanda Booboo Ty Booboo NoodleFix Trail Ends Hog ruts Hog Cage Luna Owl Our Set Up

March 10-March 23

1 Boo-Boo 2 Boo Boo

Driving down the road, Ty is looking in the side view mirror and exclaims: “Ohh fudggggge”  just like right out of Christmas Story – which we all know isn’t “fudge”.  “What?” says I.  “There is a big piece of stripping falling off Wanda,” says Ty.  So, we pull off the major interstate 75 on an exit to assess the situation and make the repair with duct tape – good ole duct tape.  Making too sharp of a turn results in Wanda riding up the truck cover and ripping off a bit of edging which we did when we were parking in Venice and had forgotten all about it until the freeway incident.  Boo Boo number one.

“Ohh fudggeee, shi^&%%, %$&^%. Jane I need a rag”

“What?  I am in the bathroom”

“I need a rag! A rag! Now”

Pull up my pants, rush out the door with a towel and what do I see?  Ty bleeding profusely from the top of his head.  Ouch – take a quick look and tell him he needs stitches, let’s go.  I don’t need stitches.  Yes you do, no I don’t (you know the routine).  So at least go and get a tetanus shot!  Ok off we go.  Now I hate to sit in those Walk-In Clinics and it’s not that I don’t have any sympathy towards Ty, but I have to admit I did drop him off and went shopping.  Call me when you are ready, hon!  He got 3 STAPLES then off to Walgreen for the tetanus shot – again I drop him off.

Boo Boo number two came about because the front of Wanda is the hitch with a big pin attachment hanging down.  The front is a perfect spot to store the chairs and such in case of rain.  Which was the case, it was starting to rain and Ty was storing all the stuff when he turned around and stood up too soon. Wham…..To add insult to the injury, the night before Ty made the midnight trip to the bathroom and dinged his head on an open cupboard and had a nasty gauge.  The latest gash wasn’t too far away.  The ER doc asks Ty

“Looks like you are running into things with your head…need me to send you home with some extra staples?”

Swim Noodles not just for Swimming

Dollar Tree to the rescue!  Bought 2 noodles and Ty has made a “cushion” of sorts to go around the pin of Wanda and also around the sharp edges that are just grabbing for his head.  The other one will use on the chair edge that we can’t seem to get secure enough when traveling and it is rubbing against the kitchen island.  What an invention these noodles are – almost as good as duct tape!

Brother Will and bride Pam Make a Visit

Just a quick visit to see Wanda and spend the night.  They brought with them a much-welcomed Rig Gift of a bottle of Schnapps – which had none.  History of Schnapps.  When we bought our first RV (a class C named Ruby) we started the tradition of setting up then taking a swig of Schnapps to bless the event.  We have had many a good Schnapps with our camping friends; Hal and Lois, Bill and Sharon, John and Maureen and brother Will and Pam.  With our many trips with Will and Pam, with the many setups we’ve had as we traveled from spot to spot we have gone thru a lot of Schnapps.  So a welcomed gift!!!

It was a rainy day, so we all trooped down to Arcadia to wander around (and Ty I promise this whole trip I will not ask you to go into an Antique Shop again) and all this town has is at least 15 antique stores, one coffee shop and 2 banks.  It is depressing to see stuff I have in storage is now considered an Antique. Of course, brother Willy has a passion for the Dead Man stores so we managed 1 of those.  Evening finds us at the Moose Lodge (never heard of these places till we arrived in FL – cheap booze, cheap dinners and cheap entertainment – we might join!) and guess what!  SMOKERS abound.  Seems FL still allows private clubs to allow smoking if it is separated from the dining area and/or if the bar food sales is 3% or less.  Maybe we won’t join after all.

Life in Arcadia

Once again, we are in an RV Resort that is 80% French speaking.  This is a big place with over 300 sites so that’s a lot of French.

Arcadia is in more central Florida in the middle of nowhere.  We have been exploring the area doing some hiking, biking and canoeing.  And for my Michigan canoeing friends I was sad when we rented our canoes that they did not provide a lounge chair, which you know is my canoeing style.  Instead, I got a seat back AND a paddle of which I was totally unaware how to use.  But I braved up and took up the paddle position and dipped in a time or two.  The river lived up to its name Peace River as it was a slow meandering body of water.  So down we floated spying at least 10 gators along the way.  I am getting use to them sitting on the banks, but don’t like it so much when they swim across the bow of the boat then disappear.  Just where did he go and how many more are there down there?

Biking is scarce here but we did manage to make a 14-mile trip out of nothing – as we were riding along, we came to sign that said “Trail Ends” and they meant it.

Will spend the rest of this rainy and cold (64 degrees – yikes I am not use to this) week doing our taxes, trying to get license plates for the car, getting the staples out of Ty’s head, and exercising by bike riding and hiking.  Would like to explore the orange groves around here, as every morning (when not raining) the fragrance is sweet.  There are a few orange processing plants, but haven’t found any tours – think we will just show up and see if they will take us through.

Animal Life

OK – is a snake an animal?  We were not 10 feet into a hike at Myaaka River State Park when this big black slithering thing on MY side of the trail slithers away.  Took me about a ½ hour for my adrenaline to come down.  NO PICTURE OF THIS CRITTER.  They do have wild hogs (Sus scrofa) in FL and they are very destructive.  They dig up a trail looking for roots to feed on leaving the area look like it was plowed.  Conservation efforts are trying to capture them in big pens which there were a number of them along our 4-mile journey.

We also made a visit to a Bird Sanctuary in Punta Gorda.  Very nicely done.  With most birds, they try to rehabilitate and return to the wild; those that can’t find a home here.  Most interesting was Luna the Eastern Screech Owl.  This owl was born with Leucism (/ˈluːsɪzəm, -kɪz-/) is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes.  This owl was pushed out of the nest so has found a home in Punta Gorda. Luna should have brown feathers.

Our Casa

For those of you wondering what our Casa digs look like here it is.  Wanda of course, then we have our Lanai (screen tent if not in FL) that we have our chairs and a table set up in.  Usually there is a picnic table at the sites.  Home life is sweet and simple. See pic

GKids

Looking forward to having Ty and Tessa with us next week.  Will be in Homestead and will be snorkeling, air boat tours, beaching, riding bikes in Shark Valley and hitting the tourist traps.

SunSetVenice jerrymichele Capt Bob in back rodeo frogcatchingride SandHillCranes turkeyoncar gopherturtle

March 2-March 10

One Step At A Time

Remember the last time about Up is Down and Down is Up? Well, I think we got that figured out, now to work on the backing in thing.  Pulled into this very quaint mobile home park, Venice Ranch, where most of the homes here are probably 20 years old.  Of course, the first spot we were directed to would not do so Ty had to back up a whole block and turn ‘er around to go down another street to another spot.  And then the lawn chairs come out and people sit with their drinks to watch the show.  Following the YouTube videos, we get out inspect the site and planned our attack.  If it weren’t for mailboxes we would have been in in a snap.  But no, pull in pull out can’t make the turn, yikes where did that palm tree come from.  Finally, Bob (another Bob but this one speaks English) tells us that most people pull in from the other direction because they don’t have to fight with the mailboxes or tree.  We try that and it is no problem.  We’ll get it before the year is up.

Last But Not Least

Spent the night with Jerry and Michele LeAnderson on Englewood Island.  Jerry is Ty’s sailing buddy and they have a beautiful home on Leelanau Peninsula Michigan, but it’s too cold there right now so they are in sunny Florida for a spell.  Englewood Island is on the gulf side and the only way to get onto the island is by ferry.  We chose to ride our bikes on the ferry because it is only $10 each as oppose to $55 for car.  Besides, the island is small with only one restaurant and a small convenience store that Ty was able to get a 6-pack of Corona for $19!!!!!  I might have to take away his credit card for awhile if he keeps that spending up. Anyway, had a nice visit albeit too short however we made summer plans for sailing and visiting longer.

Had another overnight stay with John and Sandy to pick up our mail and some packages that we had delivered.  It is really hard to go completely paperless when we make the request to only use our email, we then get a mailed confirmation notice to go paperless.  Not sure what yahoo thought up that process. Anyway John’s friend, Capt’n Bob takes us on a nice boat ride down the river that cuts through Fl.  Did you know that Fl bottom half is a island?  By definition an island is surrounded by water and that is the case with Fl.  Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and a river/canal that was man made that extends from the Atlantic to the Gulf.  Trivia answer for you!  And we went to the rodeo – there is no rest when with John and Sandy.

Jerry and Michele conclude our visits with friends in Florida.  Since we are hanging around this sunny warm weather till April will hopefully see my brother and wife, John and Sandy and hopefully John and Sylvia who are in the Keys as Ty and Tessa are coming down for spring break the last week of March and we will be staying in Homestead.

Venice is nice, has restaurants all along Main Street with lots of out door seating, we actually took advantage of watching sunsets then eating afterwards indoors.  Found a nice 5 mile hike and rode our bikes for 18 miles down a Rails-To-Trails.  Venice has a knock out train station that has been freshly painted but it is for looks only as you can’t get in, no trains anymore and no other transportation uses the facility.  It is a shame really as it is so beautiful that I am sure a restaurant or something could make a go of it.

Make New Friends, Some Are Silver and Some Are Gold

Learned that saying in Girl Scouts – can’t really distinguish between the silvers and gold friends because to us they are all Platinum.  Traveling around FL visiting all of our friends, the ones from old neighborhoods, new neighborhoods, no neighborhoods but friends of friends, enjoying every stay getting to know them, some again and some for the first time. Hearing about what they are up to, their families, their beliefs, their illnesses– it is what makes us blessed.  Thankful really that they are all so different, many have very different point of views than us, many are much more religious than us, many are much more conservative than us and yet we love them all very much and they make us better for what they bring to our table.  Good to know you friends and thankful you are in our lives.

Animal Life

We are intrigued by the birds and reptiles that we have come across.  The Wood Storks and their croaky squawk, the Ibis as they roam around like chickens everywhere, the Sandhill Cranes – which are one huge bird, Turkeys on cars and Ospreys (watched one dive into shallows, come up with fish but was too big to carry off).  Can’t forget the silly Pelicans with their nose dives but are so elegant to watch when they are in a flock just skimming over the ocean.

You know my thought on the Iguanas but we haven’t seen many here in Venice, maybe too far north which I don’t mind.  We have seen a lot of Gopher Tortoise which actually dig holes in the ground and live there.  Ty uncovered his bike to go riding and a toad was attached to his handlebars.

Still lots of alligators

Ahh Sunny Fresh

Many have asked what do we do about laundry.  Most campsites have laundry facilities with washer and dryers AND clothes lines.  I finally tried my hand in hanging up clothes (mainly because I didn’t have enough change for the dryer) and was pleasantly surprised how wonderful the clothes come out!!  The sun is mighty hot here and a nice breeze make for a great drying combo.  I don’t think I ever hung out clothes like underwear, socks, shirts etc before – always been a dryer lady.

Was It Up?  No Down!

Will go to Arcadia FL for two weeks – it is more inland so we will begin to explore and hopefully do more hiking and biking.  But before we could get there we had to hitch up Wanda.  So we debate, up or down and down is the winner but by how much and where is the point to start measuring.  So after Ty gets the truck backed in straight (he must be only looking out of one eye cause it took several trips to line up, I’d volunteer to do it, but this is the “man’s portion of the job”, we gingerly started the “coupling” process and figuring out just how far down really is.  45 minutes later (this should be a 5 minute procedure) and very sweaty from the heat we start down the road – and we learned to stow all the fly-aways inside the cab of truck. Who says you can’t train an old dog!!!

Mark Your Calendars!

April 9-16 will be in Colorado visiting family and anyone else that wants to see us.  Plus, will be slepping back more stuff that we brought with us, but don’t need.  We’ve already sent back our primitive camping stuff and will bring back the tent.  Ty doesn’t think we will use it (thank the powers that be on that one!)

Pat and Bob Candy Store Chandeliers Carrie B Beach at Pompano

February 23 – March 2

Ouch

New digs means new ouchies..As we are trying to settle into our new “home” and it seems every day our heads have found the edge of every cupboard.  We are about to look like Les Nesmen from WKPR Cincinnati with all the cuts and bruises.  Hung up some towel bars and hooks so we can tuck everything away and of course rearranging means ANOTHER trip to the thrift store.  We have discovered that Polly (the old and smaller rig) was able to hold more stuff than the bigger Wanda – go figure

Jurassic Park

Taken for surprise when a herd of Iguanas jumped out and ran across the bike path right in front of me while we were on a 20-mile bike ride on the Cypress Creek which is along a canal.  These little prehistoric dinosaurs were everywhere and I understand that they are open game as they are not indigenous to Florida.  Therefore, these little beasts if found in a yard has the same fate as the rabbits in Anthem   Bye Bye.  They are ugly creatures with spiny backs, little legs and BIG teeth.  I don’t mind the geckos because they don’t do damage but if one should run into an iguana that would be disastrous.

How to you translate that?

We’ve noticed some interesting signs that we thought we would share…

 

This sign translates “Crossing Hot Guys”  what’s your take

 

This sign is for a Senior Center – is it the fountain of youth?

 

Pat and Bob Tomizac – Ohio Friends

We had the good fortune to meet up with Pat and Bob in Weston FL.  We know Pat and Bob from our brief stay in Ohio back in the 80’s.  After we left Ohio, we got out of touch with these fine people but as fate would have it our paths reconnected after we moved out to Colorado as Pat and Bob had a time share in Beaver Creek and we again reconnected for one night in the early fall.  But alas, again we lost touch but Facebook to the rescue and Pat reached out after seeing the Great Adventure blog.  So once again we meet up for a day.  Started out in Weston, then went to Ft Lauderdale for a boat tour on the Carrie B up and down the New River where the viewing consists of gawking at all the beautiful mansions and huge yachts of the rich and famous.  Story that the guide told was some rich person who had a 17,000 sq feet, 17,000!!!! was having a baby so the house is up for sale as they need more room!!!  Then off to the Southport Raw Seaford Bar for some peel & eat shrimp, clam chowder, fish and chips and lots of wine.  Somehow when we are with Pat and Bob we always drink way too much wine so we really needed to eat to soak it all up.  Nice visit – Thanks Pat and Bob.  Keep in touch.

Unhook Up – Hook Up Down

Why can’t we remember that?  Ok, getting ready to hook up Wanda to move onto Venice and Arcacia Fl for the next couple of weeks and we are pretty nervous and have found a You Tube video which shows us how.  So, we review it a couple of times, but disagree on should the Kingpin be above the plate or below.  Agreement settled on 1” above.  Well that is wrong, very very very wrong (quoting the French guy across the street who finally came to rescue).  We connected with the Kingpin 1” higher and got it wedged in the plate and spent the next hour trying to unwedge it.  We even made a useless phone call to LazyDays support which told us that sounds like we did it right and must be connected.  Well we are connected just the wrong way and now we can’t unconnected.  Finally, a neighbor comes out and says (now you have to read this in French accent)

• “Voud u leek me to geat Robert?”
• “YES YES OUI OUI”
• Rober “Ohh tees is very very very wrong very bad”

Oh Dear

But he manages to get it fixed then says “Always remember – unhook UP, hook up DOWN”

Oh great – something we 70 year old’s have to remember

Ah Ty

Driving along Alligator Alley I look out the side mirror

• “Ah Ty we forgot to close the door bar (there is a bar-handle by the steps that should be flush with rig while driving)”
• Ty “Ok – I won’t get too close to anyone on right – it will be ok”
• “Ah Ty – the door is opening and closing too”

Shit – pull over, close door, flush up the bar – how long have we’ve been driving around like that?

John Maureen Oswald Bridge we road over Ormond Beach Bourbon Wild Woman Maple Bacon Glazed Wandering Wanda

Circling Back Around

February 13-19, 2019

We are back at John and Maureen Oswald’s again for the second time.  This time we are not flying in and out again – rather staying a week which has been just a fun filled, full of exercise week.  John and Maureen are rather were neighbors of ours in Anthem on Torreys.  We really didn’t get together too much, other than a few camping excursions and an occasional sunset viewing and when they offered to come and visit we gladly accepted.  It is too bad that we didn’t get together more often as this is one fun couple!!!  We really hope that our paths will cross again one day.

First off while we were in Ormond Beach we went up to St. Augustine with a stop over at Fort Matanzas (in Spanish means “slaughter”) which the Spaniards did to the French in 1540’s.  Something that I have learned is placement for forts is that it is crucial for defense and this is a great example of the obvious.  Ft. Matanzas is located on the southern end of the river which is now the inter-coastal waterway from St. Augustine which is also inhabited by the Spaniards.  Now the enemy cannot slip in up the river and attack St. A because the fort is there to fend off.  Pretty smart.

Then we went onto to St. Augustine established by the Spaniards.  Lots of history here with another fort named Castillo St. Augustine.  The Castillo is a masonry star fort made of a stone called coquina (Spanish for “small shells“), which consists of ancient shells that have bonded together to form a sedimentary rock similar to limestone.  It also has a moat around the fort that is filled with water when there is an impending enemy attack – which there were very few.  Enough of the fort, then walk the streets with a walk by Flagler College which originally was a hotel with Tiffany glass.  Then walk on to get pizza at St. Auggie’s and a DONUT – maple glaze, bacon topped donut.  Yummy.  Valentine treats.  Next a tour at a bourbon distillery.  The bourbon is just OK, but the tour guide was one wild lady.  Her antics, loud voice and crazy demeanor made this one of the best tours we’ve ever been at.

John led us on a 18 miles tour on bikes around Daytona Beach – the big hill was up a bridge and I can tell my red blood cells are getting thinner as it was a climb.  Walked the beach several times, had dinner with Maureen’s sister Barbara,  hubby John and Peggy her MOM!!! What a great lady she is. Oh and we meet Polly’s landlord Mikey and Donna!  Had dinner with these gracious couple who are doing a bit of traveling themselves.  And of course, a couple of relaxing beach days while John smoked his cigars – wish I was drinking scotch.  All in all, it was such a great relaxing beach fun with the Oswald’s.  THANKS

We Have A Home

February 19-22, 2018

After at least 6 RV dealerships and one RV show we have finally made a purchase, Yahoo.

Wandering Wanda is a 30 foot 5^th wheel with 2 slides made by Grand Design

If you’d like to take a 360 degree tour of Wanda – click on the link (hopefully you will get to the Grand Design site)

295RL

https://www.granddesignrv.com/showroom/2019/fifth-wheel/ref . . .

LazyDays RV in Tampa has a wonderful set-up, 23 acres of new RV’s used RV’s, Service Area, 2 places to eat, an inventory pick-up/staging area, and a campground!  We bought our RV on our way to John and Maureen’s so when we left, we then retrieved Polly and took her on her final voyage to Tampa to make the trade.  What LazyDays does is set you up side-by-side with the new rig and the old rig.  That way you can transfer all your stuff from old to new.  Plus, you stay in this spot, dry camping, so you can test everything out.  We stayed 3 days – that’s how long it took us to transfer all our stuff over and learn all the tricks of the new one.  Let me just acknowledge right now that I have packed a lot of stuff into Polly, so once again had to downsize and another trip to Goodwill with a car full of stuff and we still have too much.  I see another Goodwill in our future. Plus, I don’t know how many trips down Polly’s steps, up Wanda’s, down Wanda’s, up Polly’s.  Certainly, got a glut and calf workout.

What Hose You Talkin’ About Fellar?

February 22

Maiden Voyage

LazyDays has told us ever so politely that time for LazyDays to show us how to hook up and unhook the Wanda.  This was a nice way for them to let us know that it is time to go.  Lessons commence, we tried it a few times with the instructor – then he goes away and tells us to practice. BUT we get interrupted because there is a last-minute fix to the inside of the rig that we must look at.  Then we go back out and have promptly forgotten how to do anything.  Thank goodness for the internet and that I don’t mind reading instructions as oppose to Ty who as a typical male just wings it.  Does the plate go up or down?  How do we get it to pull off the plate, don’t forget to lower the truck back hatch, attach the cords, raise it up, on and on and on…There was a lot to remember!!  OK, so we finally pull out of the lot at 1:30 pm (we have been at this since 8:30 am!!!) for the Maiden Voyage to Breezy RV Resort in Pompano Beach, which is about a 4-hour drive.  And not without some adventure – driving down the road, Ty looks out the back window and what does his tiny eye spy?  My yoga mat creeping up and ready to jump out the back.  Pull over quickly to tuck the mat into the cab of truck.  Ok merrily going along with all of these crazy drivers scooting all around us and what’s that?  Is someone honking at us?

Roll down window, truck driver yells “Darlin’ you lost your hose”

“What?” I say

Trucker “Yourin hose”

Me “My Hose?”

Trucker “Darlin’ your pooper hose”

Another pull over, Ty unhitches his bike and rides back about a block and sure enough, there it is in the road, flat as a pancake.  I see Camping World in the immediate future (we buy new hose, and a barbeque)

The French To The Rescue

Breezy RV Resort – Pompano Beach FL

Now this is STILL the same day and I am exhausted and stressed (we made 3 U-turns, 4 stops (2 for gas, 2 to pick up stuff, and 1 shopping experience)).  Finally, at 6:15 pm (4-hour drive, HA) we roll into Breezy and yikes! These sites are close and this is our first time trying to back into a site.  But no worries and I wish I had my video going– 6 guys having cocktails see our dilemma and rush over to give directions.  All six talking and waving their arms, giving directions and what is that language as I can’t understand any of it.  It is French!  These guys were so funny running around the truck and Wanda with drinks (I really wanted to snatch one and just gulp it down) waving and pointing and talking so fast I had to stand back and just chuckle.    Ty finally says hey one at a time and English.  These guys have ridden this rodeo before and in a heartbeat, they get us into this very teensy tiny spot.  “Longue vie le FRENCH”

Ty’s brother, Paul, stops in for an overnight visit.  His stay is too short as he is anxious to get back to Chicago and the freezing weather.  Tried to talk him into staying for a while, but home calls. Actually, in all fairness, he has been in FL for awhile and stayed an extra day to visit with us.  It was short but sweet.