Betz RV Travels

I'm really bad

2012-01-31T09:22:00.000-08:00

about keeping the Blog up when we are parked for the winter.

We spent 4 nights in a campground in Blythe, CA so we could visit the RV show at Quartzside and also the Blue Grass Festival in Blythe. There were 8 rigs there and one of our group camped at the Festival. I bought a new GPS while there. It is one I have been looking at for a long time and was having a hard time deciding on because of the price. I finally bit the bullet and got it a the lowest price I have seen. You know, don't you, that when we got back to our winter park someone was selling one at a lower price! Oh well. It is a Rand McNally 7710 GPS. It is made specially for RV's. It is suppose to keep you off of roads with low clearance and bridges and tunnels that don't allow propane. So far, so good.

Here are some pics I took while we were there.

We're still here

2012-01-12T09:51:00.000-08:00

There hasn't been a lot going on so there haven't been any posts. We did spend New Years here at the park enjoying ourselves at the party. We had a great prime rib dinner and visiting some of our neighbors. We didn't make it to midnight but did wake up when the neighborhood behind us celebrated.

Last weekend we drove all the way over to Lake Elsinore, about 30 miles, to join the Camping Squares for our Jan campout. Bill decided to borrow our grand-dog for part of the weekend. It was fun having her with us but now we have a lot of hair to clean up. Lola is fun to have around. No, we are not going to get a dog.

The Rustlers had their New Years party. They had just over 21 squares join in. It was reported that everyone had a good time.

I have been busily working on the Betz and Hinkle family trees. I have found some interesting things and have also run up against a few road blocks. It certainly takes some time, especially when you get back into the early 1800's and the 1700's. Not many records were kept by the government, everything seems to be in family bibles and stories. So, learn what you can from the older generations and write it down! Pictures are also great.

That is all for now. Have fun. I'll write again soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2011-12-25T05:18:00.000-08:00

Here it is Christmas Morning, 5:00 AM to be exact, and I am up and blogging. What is going on? I couldn't sleep much last night. I am sore from all the baking we did today. On Wednesday morning I went to my folks house to start the holiday baking. Each year I say we aren't going to make as much, and I do cut down, but it is still a lot. Guess I need to teach my recipes to my nieces so they can take over. At least most of the dinner will be cooked at my niece's house!

Anyway, my dad made peanut butter fudge and peanut brittle earlier in the week. On Wednesday, I mixed up a double batch of butter cookie dough. Part was made into ladyfingers (butter cookies with candied cherries in them), which got baked. The other part was refrigerated for use on Saturday to make cookie cutter cookies. I also made a batch of marshmallow fudge. Peanut butter blossom cookies were next (peanut butter cookies with chocolate kisses on them). I tried something new this year, pretzels with Rolo candy warmed in the microwave and a nut pressed into it. I used pecans, walnuts and macadamia nuts. Really good. We planned out the rest of our goodies for Saturday baking. Mom had made a large pork roast so we warmed that up for dinner.

On Saturday we made the cookie cutter cookies and decorated them. We also made Rice Krispies Treats(Mom bought some brown rice krispies, wonder if the family will know the difference?). Another batch of fudge, this time with nuts and coconut in it (Dad did a lot of the beating involved). Deviled eggs were also created. Mom baked an apple and a cherry pie. I made a pumpkin and banana cream pie (which Bill helped with by making the pudding). I made a dish called 24 hour salad, which is a family favorite fruit salad. Is that all? I think so but who knows? It seems like all we did was cook and do dishes all day long! Oh yeah, we had lunch (tuna salad sandwiches) and dinner (spaghetti and garlic bread) also. Thank goodness we are done! I hope everyone enjoys it. I packed some up to take to Nick and Aimee.

So now I am waiting for the world to wake up and get going. We plan on visiting Nick & Aimee and Lola for a couple of hours this morning and then heading to Vanessa's house for dinner and goodies. I hope traffic isn't too bad! I think I have plotted a route that should be fine.

I hope all of our family back East and up North have great days and a very Merry Christmas!

A fun filled weekend

2011-12-13T10:11:00.000-08:00

Monday, Dec 13

Our son and his wife held a garage sale this weekend. We went down during the week to finish going through our stuff that is still stored there. The biggest thing was my Christmas ornaments. I have been collecting Hallmark ornaments since they first came out back in the 70's. I decided to keep a few of the series but am getting rid of everything else. We may have someone who is going to buy the entire collection. Of course that means we will sell at a lower price than we would get off of Ebay but we won't have to go through the process of photographing hundreds of ornaments. He will need to make a profit on what he sells too. They did pretty good at the sale getting rid of some items that have been around for awhile. The only big thing that didn't sell was a couch. One couple looked at the oak roll top desk and said they would think about it and come back. Yeah right. Well, they did come back! Yeah! That means I only have prictures and my Duncan Royale Santas left. Bill still has his trains.

We have decided to back away from one of our square dance clubs. We will still go into the monthly dances but won't be members anymore. I gave up the website that I have been doing for about 6 years. It was about time.

I hope to get all our Christmas shopping done this week. I mostly have gift cards left to get but do need to get presents for a couple of people.

It has been really cold this week. We even had frozen pipes at the beginning of last week. I hope it warms up soon.

So other than that we haven't been doing much. I have a small cold that I hope clears up soon. Mostly it is a stuffed up nose and scratchy throat. Bill is doing just fine.

So that is it for now. Have a good time.

Settling in

2011-12-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

We have been busy moving from the folks house to our site at Mountain Shadows and getting settled in. This year they were not as picky with the check-in as they have been in previous years. We certainly appreciate the folks letting us stay there while we had work done on the rig. I think Mom likes my cooking.

We also attended the Camping Squares Dec campout, which includes our Christmas party. Bill decided not to participate in the gift exchange but I did. I gave a $20 Walmart gift card and got a $20 gift card to Olive Garden. Good exchange for me. The weather cooperated, in that it didn't rain. It was cold in the shade and at night, reaching into the 30's but it was nice in the sun. We went out to dinner on Wednesday to an Italian restaurant. I enjoyed my meal, a couple of the group didn't but I would go back. On Thursday night we went to a local casino. I donated my $20 to them but did get to play for about an hour on it. I know that one person in our group won over $100. This place has a two for $20 prime rib dinner. It includes soup or salad, prime rib, potato, veggies, rolls and dessert. Bill and I really enjoyed it.

Saturday morning I was assigned breakfast, which I really, really, really didn't want (I have had it for the past 4 years) so the 3 assigned breakfast served cereal, fruit, doughnuts, milk and juice. I hope everyone enjoyed it. The potluck that night was good. We had turkey and ham for the main dish and many of the holiday favorite side dishes.

We drove back to the folks place on Sunday afternoon to stay the night before heading into Mountain Shadows. I have been working on Bill's mom's side of the family and we were able to get a step closer to figuring out the mystery of what happened to him. I probably won't get the whole story until I go back to PA next summer. I need to review some records in person.

So we are now settled in and are freezing! The night temps have been below freezing the last few nights. hey, I thought I was spending the winter in the Calif desert! We had to go out and get insulation for the water pipes outside as they have been frozen in the morning so we don't have running water without using the on-board system. It is suppose to warm up over the next few days.

That is all for now. See you soon.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

2011-11-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Nov 24

We had a great time at my niece's house where she hosted the big Thanksgiving meal. The entire family plus her husband's family was there and there was great food. I enjoyed talking to all the folks I have missed over the last few months.

I want to wish our North Carolina family a Happy Thanksgiving too. We are working on our plans to be there in June so we will see you then.

I hope everyone has a good meal and a great day.

Quartzsite and Hemet

2011-11-19T08:38:00.000-08:00

Thursday - Friday, Nov 17 - 18

Two travel days left. The run to Quartzsite was a couple hundred miles and we were in by 1:30 PM. It was mostly uneventful until we left the freeway. Junior, the GPS, got the directions wrong and we didn't wind up at the campground. I gave them a call and they directed us in. Seems we were a couple of blocks off.

After getting setup we took a drive to Blythe, CA. We are planning on a campout with friends there in January. The park that was selected doesn't get good reviews on rvparkreviews.com so we thought we would look into it. Some of their advertising is a bit deceptive as all of their sites don't have sewers but they do offer a honey wagon. It is suppose to be part fishing trip but the Colorado River is pretty low right now. Don't know if there will be enough water for fishing.

It was a quiet night as there is no cable or over the air TV in Quartzsite. I read and Bill checked things out on the computer until it was time to go to bed.

Friday morning we were up early and heading to California. We passed the agriculture check-point with no problems and then set our clocks back one hour. There was a bit of a breeze in Quartzsite but when we hit the Palm Springs area that turned into a real blow. This area is famous for its wind. It is one of the first places they ever put wind machines to generate power. I don't think there is ever a calm day here. It was pushing us around pretty good.

Once we passed through that we weren't that far from the folks house. We made it in, unloaded what we needed to and settled in for the night. So that is the end of this trip. I will post numbers as soon as I get them all. This also means I probably won't be posting every day while we are here. I will do a recap unless something exciting happens.

Enjoy the holidays!

Eloy, AZ

2011-11-16T19:41:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, Nov 16

Once more we are on the road to Hemet. Today was a planned short drive. It was also our last fuel stop. We plan on returning with the fuel tank close to empty so some maintenance can be done.

Tonight we are stopped at the Desert Valley RV park in Eloy, AZ. It has an interesting setup. The sites can be drive-thru or back to back, depending on how you enter them. There are 4 sets of hookups for each 2 sites. So you can use the front or the rear hookups.

A lot of times the setup for a Class A, like we have, and a 5th wheel or trailer need to be different. Our hookups are closer to the front when we have a car attached and a 5th wheel or trailer has them further back. This park is setup perfectly. Too bad it is out in the middle of the desert. I bet snow birds love this place.

Tomorrow we head to Quartzsite and will be in Hemet on Friday. We will be staying with my parents until we head to the December campout with the Camping Squares. Then we head into Mountain Shadows.

That is all for now.

Willcox, AZ

2011-11-16T08:10:00.000-08:00

Tuesday, Nov 15

We have a long day of driving today. At least it is long for us, around 250 miles. Since this drive is through Texas, New Mexico and Arizona it will be kinda boring. The landscape is a bit monotonous. Lots and lots of sagebrush and dirt.

We filled up at the PX gas station jsut outside the campground before taking off. Most bases don't have diesel but these guys did and it was only $3.61! A great price.

We stopped for the night at Fort Willcox RV in Willcox, AZ. It is a typical desert campground but safe and clean. They offer a waffle breakfast but I guess not during this time in the season. Bummer. Here are pics.

The campground had cable which meant we didn't have to struggle with the dish. Since we are only here for one night it is the best thing. That is all for now. Thanks.

El Paso

2011-11-15T07:05:00.000-08:00

Sunday - Monday, Nov 13-14

Sunday's drive into El Paso was long and boring, more of the Texas landscape. We also gained an hour as we are now on Mountain Time. We were headed towards Ft Bliss to stay. This Famcap doesn't take reservations, it is on a first come first serve basis. I called when we were about an hour out and was told there were three sites available. Fingers crossed, we headed in. We had picked a couple of alternate parks just in case. We got there in plenty of time and were assigned a site for the next couple of nights. We don't have a lot of plans here except to do some heavy duty cleaning and the laundry. I like this Famcamp.

Bill tried to put the satellite dish up and we ran into some problems. It just wouldn't lock onto the signal. A few others around came over to help but we decided it was something in the setup in the rig. After a lot of grief and wire changing it finally decided to work. Yeah! We did make a run to the commissary during all of this.

On Monday we cleaned the windows and the floor of the motorhome before I went to do the laundry. The price of the laundry is reasonable here. It is $1 to was and $.75 to dry. Now I don't have to do it until we get to Mom's house.

We did go check out the new PX here. It is a really nice place. It is more of a mall than a PX. We picked up a couple of things and then headed out to take a short drive. We did find that they have diesel at the PX gas stations, which is unusual. We plan on hitting it before we leave on Tuesday.

That was all. Have a good day.

Pecos, TX

2011-11-13T20:13:00.000-08:00

Saturday, Nov 12

Wind, win, everywhere wind. Todays travels were long and boring. We got on the road early. Bill had to spend a lot of time fighting the rig in the wind. We stopped twice for fuel, once in the morning and once just before pulling into the park. Speaking of the park, we stopped at an Escapee's park called TraPark in Pecos, TX. Not a place I would want to spend a lot of time but overnight is fine. The price was reasonable. The only thing was that the hookups were side by side so you wound up really close to your neighbors.

We have decided that New Jersey lives on Dunkin Doughnuts, there was one on just about every corner, and Texas lives on Dairy Queen. We have seen a bunch of those. So much that we decided we had to have ice cream after we got settled into the campground. I also tried to find a grocery store but couldn't so I settled for the Walmart food section, not a Super Walmart, just a regular one. I had to have milk and bread since we were out of both. Everything else will wait until we get to El Paso and the base there.

I am trying to use up everything in the fridge and freezer before we hit Hemet so we had shepard's pie that I had in the freezer. It didn't require any real cooking on my part. We went to bed early as we only had one TV channel and it had football on. That was it for today.

Happy Veterans Day

2011-11-11T18:41:00.000-08:00

Friday, Nov 11

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, WW1 ended. This was originally Armistice Day and in 1954 it became Veterans Day. A day to honor all veterans who served in our armed forces. So THANK YOU to all who served.

Our driving day was short today, about 120 miles. This is because of the way campgrounds are located along I20 and I10. We are stopped at Buck Creek RV to the east of Abilene, TX. There isn't much here but it satisfies our requirements for an overnight stop. It has been pretty windy today so Bill was happy to get off the highway.

This isn't a place I would come to for any length of time but works for overnight as it is easy to get in and easy to get out and close to the highway.

Tomorrow we face a drive of 240 miles. Again, this is due to placement of places to stop. If we want to get to El Paso we have to stop at least one time between here and there. I have picked Pecos for that stop.

So there is nothing else to add as nothing happened today. Have a nice night.

Happy Birthday Marines!

2011-11-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

Thursday, Nov 10

Today is the 236th Birthday of the United States Marine Corps, so HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We decided to stay another day and go into Fort Worth to check it out. Twice a day, every day (except Christmas, New Years and Thanksgiving) the Fort Worth Herd is driven through part of town. They have about a dozen Texas Longhorns that they drive a distance of about 3 city blocks. Hey, we watched them herd the ducks in Memphis, we needed to watch the cows in Fort Worth.

It was a really nice day, a bit cool but the sun was shining. We walked the main streets of the Historic District and did a little window shopping. We walked over to Billy Bob's but it wasn't open. We decided to stop for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Joe T Garcia's. The map we had made it look like it was just up the street but it turned out to be a bit further than that. So after a really long walk we finally got to the place. It covers an entire city block and can seat 1600 people! Wow!. We decided to have what they called the Family Meal. When we told the waiter we were going to split it he said it was for one person! We decided to go ahead and split it anyway. Here is what was included - 2 nachos (2 corn tortilla's that had melted cheese and salsa verde), 2 small tacos, 2 cheese enchiladas, rice, beans, guacamole, fresh tortillas and chips and salsa. Can you imagine one person eating all that? It turned out to be just right for us for lunch. When I went to pay they told us they don't accept credit cards so I had to dig out cash. Considering lunch cost us $10.01 for the two it wasn't bad. We had water to drink, I really needed that after the walk. Great bargain.

After lunch we headed back to the campground. I had put a roast in the crockpot before we left so dinner was done but we waited until much later in the evening to eat. We actually have a lot of leftovers since we weren't that hungry.

Tomorrow we move on across Texas. We have 3 more stops in the state before heading the rest of the way back to CA.

I also took pictures of the site at Cowtown RV. To get to the RV park you have to exit the freeway, make a U-turn under the freeway and head back east on the service road. Just as we were heading back would you believe a house pulled out on the service road and blocked the whole thing!?! They were able to detour cars through a parking lot but we wouldn't fit with our car attached. We had to pull over, unhook, enter a second parking lot and aim to get under a wire. It was a tight fit but we made it. Here is the park. It is really very nice and I would stay here again.

It has gotten quite cold tonight so we have the small heater running.

Here are all the pictures I took today.

Living life

2011-11-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

Tuesday-Wednesday, Nov 7-8

Tuesday we decided to visit the Lousiana Boardwalk, which is a big shopping center in town. It is open air so we went early since the skies looked like rain. It is suppose to rain this afternoon. The center was pretty empty, compared to what we are used to. It has a large selection of stores but no big "anchor stores", except for Bass Pro Shops. We spent a couple of hours wandering around. I like that they have a trolley running up and down the center. If you get to the other end and are tired you can ride back for free!

We decided to have lunch at Saltgrass Steak. I had a hamburger and Bill and soup and salad. All of the servings were really big but good.

We made it back to the rig before the rain hit and boy, did it hit. Turns out there were thunderstorm warnings, tornado watches and warnings and a lot of thunder and lightening. The camp host came by and said if we hear sirens to go to the office building. You betta! We got through the evening with no problems. We decided if it was still raining in the morning we would stay another day. The morning dawned with beautiful weather, a little cool but nice, so off we went.

On Wednesday we headed toward Arlington, TX, which is in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. At lunch I called the campground and it was a good thing I did. They were full! Oh no! So we went on-line and found a place a few miles further down the road. I think our second place is nicer than the first one was. We are at Cowtown RV in Aledo, TX (Just west of Fort Worth). We are going to stay for 2 nights and go into town for the day.

That is all for now. Enjoy the pictures.

Bossier City, LA

2011-11-08T07:57:00.000-08:00

Sunday - Monday, Oct 6-7

The drive today was good and short so we took our time in the morning. We pulled into Barksdale, LA around noon. This base doesn't allow reservations but when I called they said there were plenty of spaces available, and there were. We got a site right up front.

After getting settled in we made a trip around to the front of the base. (It seems they always put the campground in the back of the base). There we checked out the BX and did a little shopping at the commissary. We didn't need much besides perishables but it still came to $80.

Back at the rig I decided to go ahead and get the laundry done. They only have 2 washers but have 4 dryers. Odd number. Anyway, since they were not in use I decided to take advantage.

While I was doing the last couple of loads I started pasta for dinner. It was interesting to work around going back and forth to the laundry but it worked out. Good thing we have a spot real close to it.

On Monday morning we went to a local place for breakfast. We didn't go the other day when I wanted to. After that we drove around a bit and located a Post Office to mail some things. We also found a drive-thru car wash. The car was pretty dusty and dirty after driving in the rain a couple of days ago. We checked out part of the town and then returned back to the RV. Today is going to be a resting day.

The base is home to a bomber squadron and the B52 pilots seem to be doing touch-and-gos. Or at least one of them is. Anyway they circle around and around over the campground. At least they only do it during the day as we are right under the landing pattern.

On the base is a SeaBee squadron and the directions to the campground say to turn at the second right after the Bee.

Tonight we saw tornado warnings on TV. Luckily it wasn't us but in Texas and north. We didn't even get rain. Tomorrow night we are suppose to get thunderstorms in the late afternoon. Good thing we are staying another day.

Here are all the pics.

Vicksburg National Military Park

2011-11-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Nov 5

Today's agenda got changed around a bit but we finally got on the road and headed to the Vicksburg National Military Park. This is the area where the battle for Vicksburg occurred. The Union knew that in order to win the Civil War they had to control the Mississippi River. By late summer of 1862 only Vicksburg, MS and Port Huron, LA blocked the Union control of the river.

President Lincoln called Vicksburg "the key". He believed "the war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket". In October 1862 Vicksburg was the focus of Major General US Grant. In many battles the Confederate forces turned Grant back. In May of 1863 Grant began a formal seige of Vicksburg. After 46 days of seige Lt Gen John Pemberton knew that he must soon surrender. His men were starving and sick. If not for this Vicksburg would have probably never have fallen.

The park has many memorials to each of the various state troops that participated. Here are some -

The tour of the battlefield also includes a museum of the USS Cairo, an ironclad gunboat. It is the first sunk by what we today call mines and what was called torpedos then.

It was a very interesting day. Here are all the pictures.

Vicksburg, MS

2011-11-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

Friday, Nov 4

We didn't have far to travel today, just about 150 miles to the other side of Mississippi. We are going to spend two nights in Vicksburg to visit the NPS Battlefield. I don't know much about this battle of the Civil War but I am sure I will learn about it at the park.

We are stopped at the Ameristar Casino along the river. It is a setup similar to Pechanga in CA. I don't think we will be visiting the casino but the park is fine. I will take pictures tomorrow. It is all pull-through sites with full hookups. Nothing fancy but it works for what we have planned. One odd thing is that you have to go into the office and check-out before you leave. They run it similar to a hotel.

After getting setup we went in search of the nearest Walmart. I need to get ink for my printer. It wasn't at the address that was listed on the website but by driving down the road, looking for a place to turn-around, we found it.

One reader asked why I look for parks with full-hookups. Well, it put it plainly, I am spoiled and don't like to ration my water usage. Remember, this is my home. We are in it every day. We do stay in parks that don't have sewer at the sites but I like to have a sewer hookup at least every other day. I prefer not to use the site bathhouse so that means conserving.

I plan on going out to breakfast in the morning since it has been awhile. Breakfast out is one of my favorite meals.

That is all for now.

Moving again

2011-11-03T19:20:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Nov 3

We headed out at a resonable time. More travel on I20. The day started out nice but it wasn't long before we hit rain. It was really heavy at times. We pulled into a Flying J for fuel and propane. It was barely raining when we got there but was really coming down when we left. Of course, you have to stand outside the rig while they pump propane and that was when it was really raining.

We have been experiencing a problem with one of our windshield wipers. It is a known problem with Monaco's but I am not sure what the problem is. The passengers side wiper will jump to the far right edge of the windshield and not come back to the middle. Bill has to go out and do something to it. This happened a couple of years ago but we thought it was fixed. Guess not.

We stopped in a rest area for awhile to wait out the rain and had lunch. That allowed us to turn on the generator for a bit and heat up stuff for lunch.

We are stopped for the night at the Benchmark Coach & RV park in Meridian, MS. The park is really full. I think there is a group here. This really neat 5th wheel came in but I don't think they got a site. Here is the pic.

I fixed steak for dinner along with baked potatoes. It was pretty good. I need to use up everything in my freezer so that when we get back to CA we can put the rig in the shop.

So it has been a quiet night. Tomorrow we head to the other side of Mississippi. Enjoy all the pictures.

Into Alabama

2011-11-03T06:44:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Nov 2

Another travel day. A lot of time people complain about the landscape when they drive through Texas, New Mexico, etc, but I noticed that in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama all have very similar landscape. It is a road running down the middle of a bunch of trees with a lake or two thrown in. At least the trees are turning so there is some variety.

It is getting warmer as we head west but the mornings are cool. We hope we can stay in front of any rain coming through.

We decided to stop for lunch at Cracker Barrel today. They said they had RV parking. Someone needs to teach CB what an RV spot should be. If your rig is 30 feet or shorter you might get in. They had 3 spots marked for RV's that were so close together you might have gotten 2 in there. There was also no way we would fit without blocking the travel lanes so we drove around back and parked across a bunch of car spots. By the time we walked to the front door 3 cars were parked in those RV spots.

We are stopped for the night at Anniston Army Depot in Anniston, AL. It is a small park with only 8 sites and most are used by people who work here. I will post pictures later today. After getting set up we drove down the road to the Camping World to pick up a couple of things. There was also an RV dealer there so we checked out their rigs. I saw a Monaco Diplomat that I liked but it was too much money. Oh well, guess I should go buy lottery tickets.

Since we had such a big lunch we picked up a small frozen pizza for dinner. And then settled in for the night.

Oh, this would be a great place to stay if you are into racing. Tahladega Speedway is just down the road.

That is all. Bye

State Park Camping

2011-11-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Nov 1

We woke up to the sun and no forecast of rain. It was cool, in the high 30’s, but promised to be a nice day. Our drive was uneventful with a nice stop for lunch at the Georgia Info center. We signed the guest book so we could be counted. Many states are closing rest areas and by letting them know we use and appreciate them, they might leave more open.

Our destination tonight is a GA state park. I-20 doesn’t have as many campgrounds along it as I40 does so we are staying in a couple of different type places. We don’t usually stay in state parks as most don’t have sewer connections but they seem to be the nicest (and cheapest) option on this trip. When we checked in the ranger gave us the senior discount, even though we are not GA residents. We are at AH Stephens Historical park in Crawfordville, GA. It is a very nice park and pretty much deserted during the week this time of year. We took a walk around and took some pictures. We have a nice pull-through site so we didn’t have to unhook the car. I will probably do that tomorrow just to drive it around a bit.

I fixed a nice dinner of stir-fry with chick, shrimp and a bunch of veggies. I used some of the peppers Bryant gave me from his garden and they were very good. We put the satellite dish up, even though it was only for one night, as tonight is most of our favorite shows. We at least got to record them for later viewing.

I talked to Lydia tonight and it was good to talk to her. I miss seeing her but will soon be back in CA.

That is all. Enjoy the pictures.

Happy (Wet) Halloween

2011-11-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

Monday, Oct 31

We pulled out of Cherry Point a little after 10 AM. A later start than we originally planned but no problem. We debated the direction we were headed until we reached I95 and headed south. Since it has been so cold up here we decided not to head west on I40 but to drop down to I20. It will also give us some new scenery. That does mean we won't be heading toward the RV bone yard but will hold that for some other time.

It started raining on us when we reached Fayetteville, NC and kept up the rest of the day. We are spending the night at the Swamp Fox Campground in Florence, SC. I can't tell you much about the campground other than it was a port in the storm. It is also a Passport America park so the price was right. It might be really nice when it isn't pouring. We had a lot of cable stations so we settled in for a boring night. At least I had Dancing With The Stars to look forward to.

Dinner was leftover mini turkey burgers and mac & cheese. It was fast and easy to fix so that is always good. I called the park we are planning on stopping at tomorrow and made reservations. It is a Georgia State Park so doesn't have sewer at the site. Well, the one we are at tonight has sewers but it is toward the back of the site so with the car hooked up we can't reach it. We will use the dump station at the state place on Wednesday morning.

I hope things are going good for everyone and that it is warmer there than it is here. Bye

Family time

2011-10-31T15:54:00.000-07:00

Friday - Sunday, Oct 28-30

We had to return the rental car on Friday. No big deal, just a drive down the road.

Thursday night we took Terri and Donnie out to dinner for Terri's birthday and we had a great visit. We will really miss this guys when we are gone. On Saturday we took Stormy and Bryant out. The company was great and we had a good time messing around with the waiter.

On Sunday we did a bunch of clean-up chores getting ready to pull out on Monday morning. We got all the laundry done as well as cleaning the inside of the rig. In the late afternoon we went over to Stormy's to get together with everyone. We will miss seeing them every couple of days.

Bryant got Bill on their John Deere riding mower. We took pictures to send to Nick, who took his turn mowing their lawn back in May.

As I said before, we leave here in the morning. Some of the RV's near us left on Sunday and hopefully nobody will be in the sites before we leave in the morning. That will make pulling out much easier. Because of the odd way they have the water and electric hook-ups here it makes pulling in and out difficult. With some of these places empty it gives us an additional place to pull into to get out.

Enjoy the pictures of the family that were taken.

More car saga

2011-10-28T07:37:00.000-07:00

Sunday - Thursday, Oct 23-24

It has been a quiet week during which we haven't done much. The car drove us crazy trying to get the work done. When we get back to CA I may visit the Suzuki headquarters in Brea to complain. The bearings got in just fine and it was the seals we were having a problem with. We wound up ordering them 4 different times and got the wrong thing 4 different times! Oh, and we ordered them from 3 different places. The final solution, on advise of Suzuki, was to reuse the old seals. The guy at Suzuki We will see what happens. At least we got it back and the car doesn't make that awful grinding noise anymore.

We saw the kids a couple of times during the week, along with the grand and great-grandkids. We are planning on leaving on Monday, Oct 31 to head back to CA. We have changed our route a couple of times. This morning (Friday) the news announced that it is snowing in Amarillo, TX so we will be dropping further south for the drive back. Now I have to reroute the trip. It is snowing further north so I guess we need to start planning to head south earlier.

So that was our week. Bye for now.

and the car saga continues

2011-10-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

Friday and Saturday, Oct 20 and 21

Friday morning Bill got up and drove over to Stormy's shop to wait for the delivery of the part. It was suppose to arrive between 9:00 and 11:00. Of course it came closer to 11:00. So he drove back to the base and dropped the car and part off at the service place. They said it should be a couple of hours. We waited all day and Bill finally went over there a little after 5:00 (they are open until 6:00). Turns out they didn't have a different part like they thought they did. Great! It is after 5:00 on a Friday. We got hold of Stormy and she was able to order it with minutes to spare. It won't be in until Wednesday so now we are without a car. Stormy was also able to get us a rental that will be picked up tomorrow. Ashley and Phil will pick Bill up at the main gate in the morning and take him to the rental place. What a pain!

Saturday Bill got ready to walk to the front gate. The kids picked him up and delivered him at the rental place on schedule. He got a Hyundia Santa Fe SUV at a really discounted rate (thank you Stormy). Then he had to return to the base and get a visitor's pass for the week, then pick me up. Busy morning. I didn't go with them to get the car as the kids had Nelson and his car seat in the car.

We drove down to the Speedway to see the car show that was going on. Bryant had entered his Mustang in the show. It is the first time he has shown it. Everyone keeps commenting on the paint job, which he did himself. He could make a lot of money on the side painting show cars but there is no interest there. His regular work is enough. We visited for a bit and then went back to the rig. That was our day. Hopefully we will get the car taken care of this week. I have to keep reminding myself that I like my car, I like my car. I just wish the parts weren't so hard to get.

repairs

2011-10-20T09:19:00.000-07:00

Tues, Wed, Thurs - Oct 18, 19, 20

I know they are a necessary evil but repairs are a pain in the rear. The Suzuki needs something to do with bearings in the rear but of course the part has to be special ordered. Bryant and Stormy can get it faster than the repair shop on base so they ordered it for us. It should be delivered on Friday and they will fix the car. I love the ease of towing the Suzuki but it seems like a lot of their parts require special ordering. And since there are fewer and fewer dealers it is hard to get anything. So Tuesday was spent diagnosing the problem, Wednesday was spent ordering parts and Thursday was spent waiting on the parts for the car.

Thursday morning we took the RV in to get the new air conditioner compressor installed. The heavy duty truck place had ordered it when we arrived here. They didn't take too long, about 2 1/2 hours to get it installed. Bill and I spent that time having breakfast and doing laundry. I know, exciting life we lead.

We are trying to only drive the car when we need to so we haven't really been anywhere the last few days. Hopefully next week will be better. At least we have a nice place to wait for all this work to get done.

updated

2011-10-17T16:32:00.000-07:00

Sat, Sun and Mon, Oct 15, 16 and 17

I got behind in the blog again. Oh well, not that there was a lot to write about.

Saturday afternoon we did some price checking on tires. It is time to put new ones on the Suzuki. I have benn 75,000 and 80,000 miles on them. That is both driving miles and towing miles. It looks like we are going to have it done on the base.

Saturday we also checked out the Havelock annual chili festival. They have a lot of booths and then a bunch of people making chili. It all had beans in it so it isn't really chili to me. Anyway, you get to taste the various chili's and then vote for your favorite. Since it was late in the afternoon when we got there some of the booths had already closed up, having run out of chili.

Saturday evening we went over to Stormy's house for a BBQ. Most everyone was there. We had a good time together. We will be getting together later this week.

Sunday we went looking for a part for my P-trap under the sink. I seem to have a leak down there. I hate plumbing problems. The afternoon was quiet.

Monday morning Bill got up and took the car over for tires. We have a little noise coming from the rear and we thought it was the tires. Looks like it might be the brakes instead. So back to the service shop tomorrow morning.

They made three of the rigs move out of the campground today to allow them to get rid of the tree that fell down. They were suppose to be done by noon but they didn't even show up until almost 3:00! They didn't finish either. There are still a couple of big pieces left to haul out. Two of the rigs decided to leave and the third is going to be allowed to stay as they work.

Well, that is all. Here are some pictures I took at the chili festival.

Catching up

2011-10-15T07:59:00.000-07:00

Thursday & Friday, Oct 13 & 14

Thursday morning we were up bright and early. Well, bright anyway. The sun was actually coming out so it looked like a nice day. We got all packed up and on the road to North Carolina. The drive down was uneventful until about half way down. It clouded up and started raining like mad! Hey, the weatherman said it would be nice today. I have a cover for the windshield that I put on when we tow the car. The only problem is that if it rains too heavy it drips into the car. I wind up with damp seats up front. Bummer.

We pulled into Stormy & Bryant's shop in the early afternoon. After a brief visit we drove down the road a bit to a big rig repair shop. They are going to order the compressor for the air conditioner and we will return when they have it in. That way we can have cool air in the RV when we cross the desert on the way to Calif.

We finally got into the base later in the afternoon. They stopped the RV for inspection but it didn't take long. We are parked in the same site we were in when we were here in July. Across from us was this -

Leftovers from hurricane Irene. I wouldn't want to be in that site when it fell. Notice that the light pole is also tipped over.

Later that evening we went over to see the kids. Ashley, Phillip and Nelson were there. Nelson is looking good. He is almost 7 pounds and growing quickly. Such a sweet little boy.

On Friday we had a few little chores to do. We need to replace the tires on my car so today was devoted to checking prices. We also stopped into the commissary to pick up some extra peanut butter. I hear the price is going up and I have peanut butter on my muffin every morning. Oh, and we had to pay for our site at the campground.

We checked four different places for tires, the base, WalMart, Sears and a Firestone store. The Sears or WalMart would be good since we could get problems taken care of anywhere across the country. The Firestone and Exchange would make that difficult. But the base has a much lower price than everyone else so I think that is where we will get them. They are even having a sale next week.

We stopped at Panera bread for lunch and had a nice soup and half sandwich meal. It has been a long time since we have stopped at Panera. We will have to try to stop there more often.

We spent the rest of the day at the campground. Parking is tight and someone pulled in across from us in the afternoon. We had to move the car and watch the front of the rig when he pulled in.

Have a good day

First Landing

2011-10-12T19:17:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Oct 12

We woke up to light rain today. It is also very cloudy/foggy. Hmm, guess that means we won't be doing a lot of outdoor exploring. We are just up the road from Virginia Beach so we headed down to Fort Story which is on Cape Henry. This is the area known as the "First Landing" area. Did you know that the place where the first permanant settlers first set foot on America was not at Jamestown but was at Cape Henry? I don't remember that being taught in the schools but it is true. There is a cross commemorating this event on the cape.

Cape Henry is also where one of the most important battles in the American Revolution took place and not one American was injured in the fighting. That is because the battle was a Naval battle between the British and French in the Chesapeake Bay. The French were on our side during this war.

Also in this area there are two, count them, two lighthouses. They are called the Cape Henry Lighthouse. The Old lighthouse was built in 1792. In 1872 the lighthouse developed cracks and was deemed unsafe. The New lighthouse was built in 1881 and it still operates today. To get to the base of the lighthouse you have to pay to climb it. Since there was no way I was going up all those stairs we didn't do that. I took pictures from the parking lot and later, down the road a bit.

It looks like one of them is leaning doesn't it? But individually they look to be standing straight. It is the land they are sitting on.

All the of the stuff we visited today is actually on Fort Story, an Army base. Since we have a sticker on our car and ID cards we were able to access the area with no problem. The public can also enter this area but must go through the visitor's center first.

We also walked up to a landing to look at the bay and the cape. The weather didn't cooporate and we were not able to see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge but here is the area.

Since it was still raining we decided to head back to the RV. Most of the other things in Norfolk are also outside and it was just too miserable of a day to stay out.

Here are all the pictures I took today, including a couple of the campground.

Taking care of business

2011-10-12T18:18:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Oct 11

And that business was chores. I spent the morning hours doing the laundry. I haven't done it in over a week as I was waiting until we got here. The military bases are usually cheaper places to do laundry than public campgrounds. It would have been over $3 a load at the KOA in PA and it is $2 a load here. Over time that price difference can add up. They only had 3 washers and dryers and I had 5 loads so it took awhile. The entire time I was at the laundry room it was lightly raining. That is what the weather is suppose to be for the next couple of days.

When I finally finished the laundry we headed over to the PX and commissary. My goodness they have a fancy PX. It is a two story building and really, really nice. It is one of the biggest PX's I have been in and this is a small base. I would have thought Norfolk Naval Base would have been the biggest. I did my grocery shopping but by the time we got half way through I was really tired. I got most everything I needed. After we got back to the rig we found out that the price of peanut butter is going up. Maybe I should have bought 2 or 3 jars.

I have been working on some genealogy stuff the last couple of days. I got some info from Bill's sister, Sue, about their grandmother that helped. I was surprised at how much info the baptismal certificate she found had on it. When I get back to CA I will spend some time with my Mom and maybe get further. Sue said she would be willing to do some footwork in York if I give her the info. Maybe we can solve the family
mystery.

By the time I got all the laundry and food put away it was too late to go out exploring and I was too tired. That was the end of our day. We even had a simple dinner of frozen chicken pot pies.

That is all for today.

Changing locations

2011-10-11T07:39:00.000-07:00

Monday, Oct 10

A long day today so most of it was spent on the road. We only stopped at a visitor's center for lunch and to get fuel once. I won't be scheduling days like that again. Neither one of us were thrilled with it. It was a nice day and the scenary was pretty. We are now on Little Creek Naval Station in Norfolk, VA. We will be doing some exploring over the next couple of days. Here are the pics I took on the drive.

Visiting family

2011-10-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Oct 9

We didn't attend the reunion brunch as we had a bunch of family to visit today. Bill had called his uncle Bobby earlier and found out they would be at a town festival on Sunday so that is where we met them. They were working a booth so we spent some time visiting with them. After a bit we walked around to see what there was to see. Different people and stores had little booths. There were also a lot food stands and a car show.

We decided to stop in a little Italian restaurant that Bill's cousin recommended. We split a pizza and it was good. We ordered what they call a personal pizza but I would easily call it a small. We are used to a personal pizza being under 6 inches round. This one was about 9 inches.

Before we left the campground I took a picture of the campground as people were leaving. I found out that Monday is a holiday back here, Columbus Day. I know we generally don't celebrate it on the West Coast. So that means that a lot of people won't be leaving until Monday.

We called Bill's brother, Skip, but he wasn't home. Bill left a message to have him call when he gets back. So we headed over to the house to see Sue for a bit. While we were there Sue showed me a baptism record for their Grandmother, who we have been looking for info on. She is going to get a copy for me and send it. I called my Mom and she is going to help me work on the genealogy this winter.

So back to the campground and getting ready to leave in the morning. We will be pulling out early as we have about 350 to go. I don't know how I did that. Here are some pics.

Dinner and dance

2011-10-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Oct 8

Another cold night but the day was beautiful. It is odd to have the heater on in the morning but use the air conditioner in the afternoon.

Today will be a busy day. There is a gathering at one of the classmates homes before the dinner dance tonight. We have decided not to attend that. We will be staying at the rig to hand out candy to the little kids instead. Also, we tried to find the house the other day and my GPS couldn't. It is down one of those streets that don't exist and you can't get there from here type places.

The park is having all sorts of things going on today. First, here is a picture of the row we are parked in.

We walked down to the center part of the park where some of the activities are taking place. They were having a pie eating contest. About a dozen brave souls took part. The object was to eat as much pie as you could in one minute. You could pick up the plate but not the pie.

Personally, I thought they should have divided the race into young kids and older people to be fair but it wasn't my contest. The winner split the entry fees with the park.

After that we walked around a bit and had lunch in the restaurant. Normally, I don't like to stay in a KOA campground but this one isn't bad. They keep it nice and the kids were well behaved. We stay here when we are in the area as it is the nicest park with full hookups around. This park also has an amusement park section but that won't be operating until later today.

We went back to the rig to catch a nap before tonight. We did wake up before the kids came around at 3:00 PM. Bill went in to get dressed for this evening while I passed out candy then we traded places. I was surprised that there were as many kids as there were. They do this every Saturday in October so if you have your rig parked here for the season you could come every weekend, send your kids around to trick or treat, and then have enough by the end of the month so that you don't have to buy any at home! Everyone gets into it. They also decorate their sites. I understand there is a contest for the best decorated site.

It soon became time to head into Pottsville for the reunion. It is being held at a private club in town called the Pottsville club. The building was nice. We arrived a few minutes early but were not the first ones here. We located the room and signed in. The committee had books made up that contained info on all the graduates, or at least those who responded. You also picked up your drink tickets at the front desk. Bill ran into some more people he knew and I think he was surprised that he had a good evening. Dinner was nice. I had chicken picatta and Bill had crab cake (I think someone messed up because I swore he ordered the beef). The people who sat with us were nice and I never got bored. The DJ was a little strange but hey, aren't all those artsy types? We did decide not to attend the brunch tomorrow. All the people at the table said the food wasn't that good there. The restaurant was changed when they got such a good response. I think the second one wasn't as good as the first. At least that is what the Yahoo reviews say. Maybe they won't get a many as they think.

Tomorrow we are visiting more family members.

And the Parties start

2011-10-09T02:52:00.000-07:00

Friday, Oct 7

Tonight is the first gathering of the Pottsville Class of '61. Since we knew the next few days would be busy we spent the day doing household chores. We won't have a lot of time to get those things done before we leave here. The weather is clearing up for the next few days. It is still really cold at night, getting down into the low 40's but the sun is out during the day. By Sunday is it suppose to get to 80 degrees! I wish the weather would make up its mind.

The gathering is at the Yuengling Brewery in town. Now to see how many of his gang Bill remembers. We drove in and found a parking spot. I was a little worried about parking as Pottsville, PA is a small town. They don't really have parking lots, you just find a place on the street. By the way, the streets are really narrow. I am glad we have the car with us.

Heading into the brewery you could hear people enjoying themselves. Luckily Bill knew the first person we ran into. It was a fun and interesting evening. Many people came up with the "I know the face but not the name" line. Bill was able to reconnect with many people. We did have a couple of people who thought he was someone named Frank. Ha Ha.

We had dinner at the campground restaurant before we headed to the party so we passed on the pizza and snacks that they served. We did have some birch beer which was good. You know us, wild party people drinking the hard stuff.

I forgot to take my camera in so I don't have any pictures of the group. We did talk to Dick Yuengling. He is a very nice man. It was great of him to allow the group to use the brewery for the evening and to supply the beer and other drinks. We stayed for a couple of hours and then headed home.

All week the campground has been pretty empty. We haven't had any rigs parked by us and I think there have only been about 8 or so in the entire section. Well that all changed today. One after another rigs started arriving. Mostly there are trailers and 5th wheels. In fact we were joking that we were the only motorhome in the 40 or so sites in this section. They finally did put a couple more up here but we are still in the minority. Everyone is getting ready for a great weekend. We found out the kids in the park would be trick or treating on Saturday afternoon so we had to stop on our way home from the party to pick up candy.

Invited to dinner

2011-10-07T11:14:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Oct 6

Our day started out quietly. We just hung around the rig until the afternoon. We called Bill's brother to see if he was home for a visit but he is sick. Hopefully he will be better before we leave. We also took the longer drive into town. On the way we tried to locate the house where the get-together is on Saturday evening but were unable to locate it. The GPS kept trying to get us there but roads she said were open were dead-ends. We will have to get exact directions on Friday night.

We did make a stop at the store to get a tie for Bill to wear Saturday night. He isn't happy about having to wear one but I said he had to.

After that we went to his cousin Carol's house for dinner. Wayne (another cousin) also came over so we had a nice family visit. We always visit these guys when we are here as they are really nice and easy to talk to.

It was late when we got back to the rig so we went to bed. Tomorrow evening starts the events for the reunion.

More visiting

2011-10-06T09:23:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Oct 5

Not much today. Bill decided to first visit Heisler's Dairy and get his CMP sundae. A CMP is made with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce, marshmallow cream, and peanuts, with a cherry on top. We don't see them very many places so it is always a necessity when we come here. His third thing to get we won't be getting. He likes candies from Mootz's candy. They had a problem with their building a year or so ago and are out of business. He will have to remove that from his must do list.

After our ice cream we drove into Tamaqua to see if Uncle Bobby was home. Nope, he wasn't. We will have to come back.

Since we had the time we drove out to Locus Lake to check out their campground. They have sites with 50 amp electric but no sewer or water hookups. We would stay here only if necessary. It has a lot of trees that might make getting in and out a problem. The trees are starting to turn colors but they really didn't come out in the pictures.

We headed home after that for a nice relaxing evening. There are no more pictures or anything else.

Pottsville

2011-10-06T09:03:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Oct 4

Our first full day in Pottsville. We took a ride into town to visit the Yuengling Brewery and take the tour. We have been there before but never taken the tour. Now remember, this facility is over 175 years old. Originally, the brewery was called Eagle Brewery and located in a different area of Pottsville. That place burned down and they built this one. The stained glass ceiling was put in to help with the reflection of the sun on the copper kettles. The cave was hand carved (no TNT was used) and that is where they aged the beer.

We had samples afterward, they give you two glasses for tasting. We will return here on Friday night for the first event of the reunion, pizza and beer.

The founder of Yuengling's, Daniel Yuengling, married Elizabeth Betz from Schuylkill County (where Pottsville is located) on Feb 14, 1841. I wonder if she is related?

Before the tour we stopped by Bill's favorite burger place called Coney Island to have that for lunch. They cook the burgers then they rest in water with onions. They are served with a chili topping. Greasy but good. We have them every time we are here.

We also visited the cemetary where Bill's parents, grandparents and sister is buried. Other family members are also here.

Our last stop was at his cousins house to visit. Bill's cousin Carol and her husband, Nick, are nice. We always visit them. We will be returning later in the week to see his cousin Wayne.

We stopped at the Dutch Kitchen for dinner. I had a turkey dinner and Bill had liver. The restaurant wasn't busy but the food was still fine. We watch a show called Restaurant Impossible, and now we check out all the places we visit to see if it would be a good candidate for the show.

Our last stop was at the house to see Sue and pick up Bill's suit. We also picked up all of his yearbooks and some from the Marine Corps.

It was late when we got back to the rig so off to bed we went. Enjoy the pictures.

Heading back to PA

2011-10-04T07:22:00.000-07:00

Monday, Oct 3

Moving on today. It was fairly sunny and warming up when we unhooked and packed up. Looks like it might turn out to be a good day after all. We weren't absolutely sure of the route we were taking this morning. The GPS said go one way, Yahoo maps said go another way and then there were the signs on the roads. We sort of followed the GPS and signs. We did make it onto the Interstate without having to double back at all. I call that a success.

We decided to stop at a Pilot before we left NJ as the prices are pretty good and we thought we could use the Flying J card there. The first one we stopped at had a line out to the street and we wouldn't fit in the car side. So we just got back on the highway. Down the road a bit we tried another one. The truck lanes were really busy here (meaning the trucks were backed up to the street) but they did have diesel in the car lanes and we would fit there. They pump your gas for you in NJ and turns out they don't take the Flying J card in NJ. Hmmm. We paid $3.79 for diesel. Still cheaper than in Calif.

We stopped at an Info center as soon as we paid the bridge toll to get into Pennsylvania. There was a Subway in the Pilot gas station so I picked up a sandwich that we had for lunch while sitting there. When we first pulled in it was pretty empty but when we came out it was full. We ate and Bill made a call to Terry on his first full day of retirement. Eventually we pulled out and down the road. Not too far into PA it started raining again. It rained off and on all the way to the campground. Luckily it was only sprinkling when we pulled into the campground. We are at the Twin Grove KOA in Pine Grove, PA. We will be here for a week while we visit family and attend Bill's reunion.

That is all for today. Have fun.

Just hanging out

2011-10-03T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Oct 2

Last day of our time here at Earle NWS. We have just been killing time until we head back to Pennsylvania for the reunion. We decided to take a drive over to McGuire AFB/Fort Dix Army base/Lakehurst NAS combo base to do a bit of shopping. I decided to go ahead and do my grocery shopping. Besides, it gave us something to do. It is about 38 miles one way. We checked out the Exchange first but only bought a battery for my alarm clock. I spent over $100 at the commissary but I picked up a lot of stuff for the bathroom. You know, shampoo, hair spray, asprin, all those expensive things. We did have lunch at the food court. We both decided to have Chinese sweet and sour pork with fried rice. Yummy.

That is it for the day. Tomorrow we head back to Pennsylvania.

Raining again.

2011-10-02T06:34:00.000-07:00

Friday & Saturday, Sept 30 & Oct 1

Friday we didn't have anything planned so we pretty much stayed home. It rained off and on all day so outdoor activities weren't a good idea. So much for Friday. I did take a picture of our campsite here.

Saturday we kept changing our plans. Originally we thought we might drive into Coney Island but the weather forecast was for more rain so we decided not to spend the ridiculous amounts on bridge crossings (one of them was $12!) and find something on this side of the bay. Everything on Coney Island is outside and we would have gotten soaked.

I did locate a movie theatre and we went to see Moneyball. It was better than I thought it would be. The theatre was located in a mall so we did some window shopping afterward. I bought a cardigan sweater. I have been needing something that wasn't real heavy and was a bit more dressy than my sweatshirts.

When we got back to the campground we drove around a bit. Bill has been taking his daily walks and told me there were a lot of deer on the base so we went to find them. We found some does and fawns. We eventually found a buck over by the campground.

Our friend Terry retired on Friday. He is now a free man. Next summer they are thinking about traveling with us for a bit. I hope we get to.

That is all for now. Enjoy the pictures.

Thomas Edison

2011-09-29T16:53:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Sept 29

Did you know Thomas Edison spent most of his adult life in New Jersey? He also invented many of his 1,093 inventions here. In 1887-88 he built a lab complex in West Orange, NJ. This is where the kinetograph (a motion picture camera) and kinetoscope (a boxlike device for viewing motion pictures through a peephole) along with the phonograph and incandescant light bulbs were invented.

The property is now a National Historic Park and you can visit to learn more. It is a self guided tour along with recorded info. The day was really overcast and we had hoped that it wouldn't rain until we got home. No such luck as it started raining while we were here. Luckily it stopped when we were in the three story lab so we didn't get too wet.

On the grounds of the lab you will find all kinds of interesting things. The first movie studio ever built is here. It is nicknamed the Black Maria and was built to that the roof could be opened to follow the sun. It was also built on rollers so it could be turned to follow that sun.

It was really interesting to visit the lab. Edison had a fabulous library with books on all types of things. There is also a story that when Edison died the large clock in the library stopped. Nobody will admit to stopping it but it has never been started again. You know the song - and the clock stopped, never to run again, when the old man died. There is also a time clock there that everyone used to clock in, even Edison!

Did you know Edison invented the first talking doll? It never really took off because it was too fragile.

We asked about visiting the home but it is only open on the weekends. Hey, that gives us something to come back to.

We then headed over to Bayonne, NJ to visit the 9/11 memorial in New Jersey. It was created by a Russian, Zurab Tsereteli and donated to the US by the Russian people. It was dedicated on Sept 11, 2006. It is called the teardrop and located in a park on a point in NJ that you can see NYC from.

It was cloudy and overcast but we could see the New York skyline from here as well as the Statue of Liberty. If you look close you can see the new World Trade Center under construction.

They also have a piece of steel from the tower on this site.

On the drive out there was a golf course along the water. We found out it cost $400,000 to join and $200,000 a year in membership fees! Hey Nick, want a membership?

So that was our day. I hope you had a good day. We certainly did. Enjoy all the photos.

The Jersey Shore

2011-09-28T03:38:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Sept 27

Plenty of things planned today. It would help if I could find them! We were heading first to the Post Office in Colts Neck to get our mail. No problem, I had the address. Well, the address I had was on state highway 34. Is that North Rt 34, South Rt 34, plain Rt 34 or what? Turns out we couldn't find it nor could the GPS. The Post Office here is not a separate building, it is in a strip mall. We had to go back to the rig so I could get the phone number and call them for directions. I keep telling myself we should take that info with us when we leave but I forgot. We eventually got there and got our mail. Nothing exciting in it but at least there were no bills.

We decided to head to Camping World, about 20 miles south of us. The hookups at this campground are a little weird. The sewer is in the middle of the concrete pad at the rear of the site. We had enough sewer hose but one section sprung a leak so we need to replace that. Off we went. One thing that has surprised us is the cost of gas. We are seeing prices ranging from $3.27 to $3.65. I plan on hitting one of the cheaper ones when the car needs gas. Diesel is running from $3.72 to $3.99. Who would have thought NJ would have such cheap fuel! We will have to fill up the motorhome before we leave the state. Oh yeah, they even pump your gas for you (actually it is the law).

We did find Camping World. It is a smaller store but I still found plenty to buy. They didn't have the chair I have been looking at but I got other stuff. I thought our President's Club membership had expired but they said I had until Nov. Goody! I will wait and renew it later.

After shopping we headed over to the Jersey Shore to check things out. It is foggy today so the view is a little limited. And it is cooler here than at the base.

The homes along the coast are huge! I wonder how much some of these go for. They are right across from the beach. We didn't see any houses that were right on the beach.

We were looking for a lighthouse. We missed it as there were no signs indicating the street it was down. We asked a couple of nice gentlemen while we were here and they gave us directions. We were only a couple of blocks off. We were looking for a tall structure, not a house with a light on top. This was built in 1896.

There were very few people on the beach or boardwalk. I guess Hurricane Irene did some damage to parts of the boardwalk as there were areas that were washed out.

After spending some time at the beach we decided (or rather I did) to have lunch/dinner. I stopped at a place I saw on the drive in. It was called Rod's Irish Tavern. I don't know what was Irish about it but the food was good. They didn't have any of the standard Irish menu items. It was more of a steakhouse place. I have one of the specials of the day, beef burgundy on mashed potatoes and Bill had a hot turkey sandwich. They were both good and both big. We both left most of the mashed potatoes but ate the meats. It wasn't as expensive as we thought it might be, at least for lunch. Dinner could get a bit pricey. Bill said to show the restaurant to show that he does take me to nice places.

We drove north up the coast to find another lighthouse and I think we found the area the mob lives in. I have never seen so many million dollar homes in one place. Normally the GPS takes us through the less desirable places but not this time. The houses were gigantic. One question, where do these people work? There are no businesses around here. All the shopping areas are small shops. I guess they could take the train or ferry into NYC for work. We also noticed that there aren't any big grocery stores either. Since there is no commissary on base I need to get some stuff and was looking to see what chains are in the area. We saw a couple of Acme and A&P stores so I located one on our way back to the base.

Our next stop was a section of land called Sandy Hook. Today it is part National Park, part Coast Guard Station. Fort Hancock is located on this strip of land. It is an old Army fort that was built in 1859. It was used to defend NY harbor and decommissioned in 1974. It has been turned into a historic park. In this area is also Sandy Hook lighthouse, the oldest operating lighthouse in the US. It was built in 1764 and is still in use today. You can tour the lighthouse but I don't do that many steps.

There are mortar batteries around the fort that were the nation's first "disappearing batteries". Meaning the guns could be raised and lowered.

There is also an observation deck which you can climb and look across the harbor to New York City. Can't you see the lovely view?

We will have to come back if the fog ever lifts.

In case you are wondering, we aren't going into NYC. We thought about going to see the 9/11 memorial but you have to get tickets (they are free) to enter the site. You have to plan in advance as the first day they have available tickets for is Oct 27th! Maybe when we know months in advance that we will be in the area we can do that. We also have to figure out the ferry/train system and cabs.

We finally made it back to the campground around 6:30 pm. We didn't have dinner since we had such big and late lunches. Time to settle in for some TV tonight. Dancing with the Stars and NCIS. Enjoy the pictures.

Earle NWS, NJ

2011-09-28T01:45:00.000-07:00

Monday, Sept 26

Travel day. With only about 118 miles to go, we were not in a big hurry. We couldn't arrive at our next stop until after 11:00 am. In fact, it was almost that when we left Intercourse! This campground is a little tight so we were hoping that some of the people would be out site-seeing before we left. Nope, in fact some guests pulled in and made it even harder to maneuver. Luckily they noticed we were packing up and said to just let them know when we were leaving and they would move. We had already decided to pull across the road to a large parking lot to hook up the car instead of doing that in the campground.

The drive was uneventful. We did wind up on the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a bit. We normally don't use toll roads but it was either do that or add about 30 miles to the trip. I think it was worth the $11 we spent. It was also one of the smoothest roads we have been on in a long time.

We are now parked at Earle Naval Weapons Station just outside of Colts Neck, New Jersey. It is a very small base without many of the things we like on a base. No commissary and the PX is really just a shopette and uniform shop. Oh well, the sites are cheap. Once we arrived here I decided to do the laundry. This is one of the more expensive base laundries I have come across. At least it is done but I will probably do whatever there is on Sunday, just to get it out of the way.

Now we have to plan what we are going to do for the next week. I suspect it is not a lot. Let you know later. Bye.

Roll up the roads

2011-09-26T06:07:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Sept 25
Sundays around here are very, very quiet. Most everything is closed. Some of the new stores on the west side of town are open but nothing much in town. Even the big tourist restaurants are closed. All the little shops are closed. So all we did today was to take a drive through the country. I didn't take any pictures.

Sundays are Amish visiting days. There were a large number of buggies out and about. I was a little surprised that they were out late last night. We have two roads close to us and even at 11:00 pm I could hear the horses hooves on the blacktop. I haven't taken pictures of the Amish as they prefer that you don't.

So it was a quiet day for us. It has been warm and overcast. The humidity level is at 100%. It is foggy most of the day. Everything feels like I could wring water out of it.

That's all for now. Bye

More exploring Lancaster County

2011-09-24T16:53:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sept 24

And we were off again. First stop was the National Christmas Center. We are getting better with driving around the area and getting used to sharing the road with a horse and buggy.

The National Christmas Center is a museum and a gift shop. We have visited this place before but we don't remember going through the museum. The museum cost $12 for adults and I had a $1 off coupon. It was actually pretty interesting. I think I have some things they might enjoy having here. If the Hemet library ever gets tired of my reindeer they would fit in here really well. I ahve no idea how I would get them here.

Anyway, there were a lot of displays and I think we were in here for well over an hour. It is a walk through museum with different rooms with different displays. Things like Santa's, nativities, a five and dime, cards, ornaments and other things.

There was a really neat quilt hanging on one wall.

I saw some things that I know we have at my folks house.

After this we drove around looking for more covered bridges. We couldn't find one but did locate the other.

We drove through one small town that had a full size railroad. This weekend they had Thomas the Train here and it was crowded. Traffic was horrible. Remember, these streets are generally one lane each direction so it doesn't take much to create a traffic jam.

We finally located a Kohl's and I did a bit of shopping. I had to spend my $10 certificate, didn't I? I got another pair of jeans and a top. I was looking for a sweater but couldn't find anything I liked. There was a store next door to Kohl's called the Christmas Tree Store. We thought it was a Christmas shop but it turned out to be more like a Big Lots store. Weird.

After lunch we headed back to the campground but first stopped at a little shopping center on the corner leading to the campground. It was really interesting and we spent some time there. They had a lot of interesting things. The stores that sell jelly and stuff and a lot of samples to taste. Yummy. We decided that the next time we are in the area we are going to have to take a horse and buggy tour. What about it Lydia, next year?

Back at the campground there was a knock on the door. Some Amish children were selling baked goods. I bought a loaf of fresh bread for us. We were both checking out the pies but decided we didn't need them. I bet they taste great.

So enjoy all the pictures.

More rain

2011-09-24T16:24:00.000-07:00

Friday, Sept 23

Well it started raining around 6:30 am. We decided to go ahead and head out for a bit anyway. First we went to breakfast at a local restaurant, called the Intercourse Village Restaurant. It is next to the Best Western hotel. It was OK but I wanted waffles and they didn't have them so I had french toast instead. I was given a piece of coffee cake as part of my meal but forgot to pick up the to go box when we left.

We walked around a bit and visited the Intercourse Canning Company and the Intercourse Pretzel Company.

These are both places we visited when we were here with the Donner gang. The pretzel factory seemed smaller than I remembered.

Did you know that Intercourse was originally called Cross Keys? The name was changed in 1814 as part of a failed real estate scheme. The name change made sense as intercourse had a common usage referring to the pleasant mutual fellowship and frequent intermingling which were so common in the informal atmosphere of the quiet country village.

After that we drove around a bit and stopped at a few more stores. We also located two covered bridges.

The first one is still in use but the second one is no longer in use. By this time it was starting to rain pretty good. We decided to head home as it was getting dark because of the clouds. Most of the streets here don't have lights so it is safer at home, and it was really, really raining. It rained most of the day, not letting up until late in the evening. Since there has been so much rain around the area lately there were flood warnings out. The campground was fine though.

So that was today. Oh yeah, we did stop at a market and I bought a whoopie pie. It was really good. Tomorrow we are going to go exploring some more. Bye for now.

Rainy days

2011-09-23T03:56:00.000-07:00

Wednesday & Thursday, Sept 21 & 22

Wednesday didn't see much happening. We did take a drive into Carlisle to go to a Kohl's. They had some jeans on sale that I wanted. I was down to two pair that I was able to wear so I needed a couple more. Now I was looking at the same manufacturer, the same size, the same color, the only difference being that one type had some decoration on the pockets. Why, oh why did they all fit differently? It drove me nuts. I did get two pair as well as $10 in Kohl's dollars. Now I will have to find another one to spend that at, probably when we are in New Jersey.

Thursday was moving day but we only had about 80 miles to go. That meant we were not in a hurry. We didn't pull out until 11:00 am. So Terry, do you think you can wait that long to leave a campground?

The drive to Intercourse was pretty good. We did stop to fuel up and had a mess there. There were four rigs traveling together at the RV pumps. Two were getting fuel, one was dumping and one was just sitting there taking up space. Only one lady seemed to be doing all of this. That caused a backup at the area. It took forever for her to move the rigs out of the way. Now I ask you, where was everyone else? You know she wasn't driving all of those by herself! Anyway, we finally got our fuel and got out of there. Next time we head to the truck pumps!

The hardest part of the drive was when we got into Lancaster and Intercourse. The roads are narrow and you have to watch for horses and buggies. The turn off the main road onto the one headed to the campground was tight. I was surprised we made it because of the truck sitting there. Good driving, Bill.

We are in the Beacon Hill Adult Campground for the next four nights. No, not adult like XXX, it just means they don't allow kids. That will make it nice and quiet. I was surprised when I made the reservation that they are full for the weekend. I mean it is late September, vacation is over. I guess people are getting in those last few weekends before it gets really cold.

Actually, it has been warm and muggy the last few days. We have had rain off and on for a few days to everything feels damp. I think it is going to be like that for awhile. Fall is officially here.

Here are some pictures I took of the campground and surrounding area.

Gettysburg

2011-09-21T11:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, September 20

Four score and seven years ago….. We all remember those words. Well, this is the battlefield they were written for. The story goes that Lincoln wrote the speech on the back of an envelope during the trip to Gettysburg. Rather, he took great pains in writing the speech. He composed it while in Washington and revised it in Gettysburg the night before the dedication.

The battle of Gettysburg lasted three days and when it was over 51,000 soldiers lay dead, wounded or missing. The wounded and dying were crowded into nearly every building. Most of the dead lay in hastily dug and inadequate graves; some had not been buried at all.

The situation so distressed Pennsylvania’s governor, Andrew Curtin, he commissioned a local attorney to purchase land for a proper burial ground for Union dead. Within four months the dead were reinterred on the 17 acres that became Gettysburg National Cemetery. Following the war the remains of 3,320 Confederate soldiers were removed from the battlefield to cemeteries in the South.

The battle at Gettysburg was almost an accident. The two armies, the Confederates led by Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Union by Gen. Gordon Meade, actually didn’t know where each other was until they reached here. The main battle opened on July 1 with the Confederates attacking Union troops on McPherson Ridge west of town. Though outnumbered, the Union held their position until afternoon, when they were driven back, south of town.

Day 2, July 2, both armies battled back and forth but neither was overwhelmingly successful.

July 3 saw Lee’s artillery opened a two-hour bombardment of the Federal lines but this did not soften up the Union defensive position. Some 12,000 Confederates advanced across open fields toward the Federal center in an attack known as “Pickett’s Charge”. The attack failed and cost Lee over 5,000 soldiers in one hour. The battle was over.

Eternal Light Peace Memorial – at 1 pm Maj Gen Robert E Rodes’ Confederates attacked from this hill, threatening Union forces on McPherson and Oak ridges. 75 years later, over 1,800 Civil War veterans helped dedicate this memorial to “Peace Eternal in a Nation United.”

North Carolina Memorial – Early in the day, the Confederate army positioned itself on high ground here along Seminary Ridge, through town, and north of Cemetery and Culp’s hills, and along Cemetery Ridge south to the Round Tops. The lines of both armies formed two parallel “fishhooks.”

Little Round Top – Quick action by Brig. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, Meade’s chief engineer, alerted Union officers to the Confederate threat and brought Federal reinforcements to defend this position.

Pennsylvania Memorial – Union artillery held the line alone here on Cemetery Ridge late in the day as Meade called for infantry from Culp’s Hill and other areas to strengthen and hold the center of the Union Hill.

High Water Mark/Copse of Trees – Late in the afternoon, on July 3, after a two-hour cannonade, some 7,000 Union soldiers posted around the Copse of Trees, The Angle, and the Brian Barn, repulsed the bulk of the 12,000-man “Pickett’s Charge” against the Federal center. This was the climatic moment of the battle. On July 4, Lee’s army began retreating.

We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch. It was an Irish pub called the Garryowen Irish Pub. The food was good but the service was a bit slow. I had fish and chips and Bill had a BBQ pork sandwich. It also sprinkled off and on all day. One day we will have to come back and spend some time walking around town.

We last came to Gettysburg in 2000 with the Donner party gang. Things have changed a lot since then. The visitor’s center is new, the car tour has changed, and some places have been allowed to return to a natural state. This time we had a CD instead of a tape so we didn't have to listen to a chipmunk. In 2000 our tape player didn't work real well and that is what it sounded like.

When we got home we had a light dinner, Weight Watcher's meals, and watched some of the new season of show. I hope you enjoy all the pictures.

Just housekeeping

2011-09-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

Sunday & Monday, Sept 18 & 19

Sunday morning was filled with laundry. I think it had been 12 days since we last did laundry so we had a lot to do. The campground doesn't have a laundry room so we went into town to the laundromat. I was surprised at the number of people who were there on a Sunday morning. We purchased a paper from a store down the street and settled in to wait. We decided we are not going to wait that long again.

The campground was thinning out. Many people are packing up to leave today. The square dance group is gone. Our neighbors are all leaving tomorrow.

Not much else went on today. Bill did a little outside work on the rig. It is still cool and getting down in the 40's at night. What happened to fall?

Monday I defrosted both sides of my freezer and cleaned the refrigerator. When that was done I mopped the kitchen/bathroom floors. Now I have to vacumn the carpet.

Now the campground is pretty much empty. The seasonal sites sit quietly, waiting for the next weekend. We are the only ones in the row we are in. Bill took a walk around and says the place is a ghost-town. The campground will be closing on Nov 1.

It looks like rain but the weatherman says it isn't going to rain until the weekend. Tomorrow we plan on heading down to Gettysburg. We have been there before but what the heck, we will visit it again.

That is all for now. Getting ready to settle in for new TV tonight.

Dancing the night away

2011-09-18T11:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sept 17

We didn't do much during the day. We did drive 15 miles to the nearest grocery store, which was a Walmart Supercenter and do a little shopping. I was completely out of a few things.

Since it has been so cool in the evenings I decided to make potato cheese soup and sandwiches for dinner. It was nice to have some warm comfort food.

We did go down to the dance tonight and really enjoyed ourselves. We were surprised at how much we were able to remember. When he pulled out some basic stuff is when we had problems. We had thought that the dancers were coming here to dance but it turns out that they are a camping group and are spending the weekend! They dance about the same way the Camping Squares dance. At least we all just laughed and kept on dancing. After the dance we joined they around their campfire for awhile. It was a pleasant evening. Next time we are in the area we will have to see if they are around and dance with them again. Bill likes this group, he was one of the younges people there!

That's all.

Freezing

2011-09-17T12:55:00.000-07:00

Friday, Sept 16

Last night was freezing! We had to bring out another blanket and turn the house heater on this morning. We even got the electric heater out for when we were watching TV. Looks like summer is over and fall is absolutely here. Some of the trees are even starting to turn colors.

We stopped by the office before we left to see what time the square dance was tonight. Turns out there is a group that dances here this weekend. We hoped to join them both Friday and Saturday. Turned out that we got back from the RV show too late but we did stop by to see what time the dance is tomorrow. It was fun talking to everyone. We found out that two of the couples had purchased RV's at the show yesterday.

Most of our day was spent at the Hershey RV show. This is a really big show. It puts Pomona to shame. Even the number of vendors in the Giant Center was greater. Many of the vendors were from campgrounds and membership parks but there were plenty of others to visit. There were a couple of things I thought we should buy but Bill said No.

Most of the class A manufacturers were there. The really expensive ones weren't but we weren't interested in them anyway. There were a lot of rigs over 40 feet. I did find one 42ft one that I liked, an Ellipse by Itasca. I liked the 36ft Monaco Knight, the 36ft Itasca Meridian, the 36ft Thor Astoria, and parts of the Tiffins. If I could take the living room from the Challanger, the kitchen of a Tiffin, a Monaco bathroom and bedroom I would have the perfect coach. Of course, if we ever get another one it won't be brand new.

Fireplaces are now in a lot of rigs as are expandable couches.

We did have fun trying to get into the show. The signs on the roads weren't that good and I kept going the wrong way! We finally did get there. By the time we finished the show I was exhausted. My legs hurt, my hips hurt, my feet hurt, and my back hurt. We are not dancing tonight! But it was a fun day.

For dinner tonight we are going to stop at a restaurant in Harrisburg that I saw on Restaurant Impossible. The name of the place is Dodge City. This is the second RI place we have visited and I wasn't impressed with the other one. Let me tell you, Dodge City was great. They are keeping the remodel clean and updated. The food, mostly steaks, is very good and the service is excellent. I had hanger steak with a red wine demi glace. Bill had prime rib. We also got to talk to the owner's wife. She said they are so happy they were selected and for all the help Robert Irvine gave them. They are doing so much better. This restaurant had been there for 30 years and I hope it lasts for another 30. They deserve their success.

It was almost 9:00 pm when we got back to the campground. Since it is out in the middle of nowhere it was really, really dark. I am glad the GPS didn't have any trouble finding it. Otherwise who knows where we would have spent the night!

So here are all the other pictures I took. Enjoy.

Moving on to Pennsylvania

2011-09-16T07:16:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Sept 15

We woke up and it was still raining. We were not in a hurry and were glad when the rain let up while we were waiting. We only had 59 miles to go today, just about and hour. We made it to Dogwood Acres Campground with no trouble and got setup. We did have some more rain during the day so we didn't do much. We are a long way away from the highway here so it is at least 10 miles to go anywhere. One day we will have to drive into town to do the laundry.

Bill was talking to some guy while he was disconnecting the car and found out that there are sqaure dances here on Friday and Saturday nights. Looks like we will be dancing again. I hope they take it easy as we haven't danced in a long time.

This is a nice campground. Here are some pics.

On Friday we are going to the Hershey RV show. I will take my camera and post some pics. Have a good day.

Harpers Ferry

2011-09-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

September 14, 2011

Today didn't start out as good as I hoped. Using my GPS we started driving towards Harpers Ferry National Historic Park. Now Harpers Ferry is in West Virginia. The GPS took us towards Maryland. OK, I figured it was faster using the Interstate. The place we wound up going to was not the town or the historic area. We finally did get there but it was an interesting drive.
Harpers Ferry is famous for a couple of reasons. One, it was partially involved in the Battle of Antietam. Two, it is the site of the John Brown Raid.

John Brown believed he could free the slaves, and he selected Harpers Ferry as his starting point. Determined to seize the 100,000 weapons at the arsenal and to use the mountains for guerrilla warfare, abolitionist Brown began his raid on Sunday evening, October 16, 1859. His 21-man self-styled “army of liberation”, which included three of his sons and five free African Americans, seized the armory and several other strategic points. Thirty-six hours after the raid began, with most of his men killed or wounded, brown was captured in the armory fire enginehouse (now known as John Brown’s Fort) when US Marines stormed the building. Brought to trial at nearby Charles Town, Brown was found guilty of treason against the Commonwealth of Virginia, conspiring with slaves to rebel, and murder. He was hanged on December 2, 1859. John Brown’s short-lived raid failed, but his trial and execution focused the nation’s attention on the moral issue of slavery and headed the country toward civil war. Today John Brown’s Fort and the arsenal ruins are part of the legacy of the nation’s struggle with slavery.

Harpers Ferry sits on the point of land where the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers meet. It is surrounded by hills. During the Battle of Antietam this layout of the town allowed 2,000 Confederate soldiers to capture 10,000 Union soldiers and the town. If you hold the high ground here, you hold the town.

Charles Town was originally built by Charles Washington, brother to George. George owned a large amount of land in the area and many of his relatives moved here. They have a pretty nice little museum in town which we visited.

When we got back to the rig it started raining. There was also a lot of thunder and lightening. Of course it was raining, we plan on leaving tomorrow. We will be staying late as we only have 59 miles to go and check-in isn't until 2:00 pm. They charge you extra if you come in early.

So here are all the pictures I took.

Antietam Battlefield

2011-09-14T16:41:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Sept 12, 2011

23,000 Americans were killed in about 12 hours at the battle of Antietam during the Civil War. It was the first attempt of the South to take the battle to the North. At the time, September, 1862, the South was winning and a decisive win on Northern soil would lead to a quick end of the war. Lincoln told his general, George B McClellan, to destroy the Southern Army. So he set out to do just that.

I always thought Antietam was a town in Maryland. Nope, it is a creek. In fact, the South called it the Battle of Sharpsburg (which was in Virginia at the time). The terrain in the area is mostly rolling hills

Here is information on the battle from the National Park Service –

After his victory at the Second Battle of Manassas (Bull Run), Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee decided to move his army out of war-torn Virginia. On September 4, 1862, he led is over 40,000 Confederates across the Potomac River and through the lush Maryland countryside to Frederick.

Lee intended to keep moving north into Pennsylvania, but his line of supply and communication into Virginia was threatened by the 12,500-man Union garrison at Harpers Ferry, VA (now West Virginia). {more on this tomorrow}.

On Sept 13 a Union soldier found a copy of Lee’s Special Order 191, his plan of operations for the campaign. This “Lost Order” as it has become known, was taken to McClellan, who realized that his was the time to strike Lee’s divided forces. On the morning of September 14, Union soldiers engaged Confederates guarding the gaps on South Mountain. The day-long battle ended with the Confederates being forced from the gaps. Lee considered returning to Virginia, but on September 15, after learning that Harpers Ferry had fallen, he reevaluated his plans. He would make a stand at Sharpsburg, MD, a quiet, 100-year-old farming community of some 1,200 residents.

On Sept 15, 1862, Lee positioned is army along a ridge west of Antietam Creek. Confederate Gen. James Longstreet commanded the line’s center and right, and Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson held its left. Behind them a Potomac River ford allowed retreat to Virginia. On September 15 and 16 Union Gen. McClellan deployed his forces east of the creek. His plan: attack Lee’s left and when “matters looked favorably’ attack the Confederate right. Succeeding in either he hoped to strike Lee’s center. His plan was good but his instructions to commanders ambiguous.

The 12-hour battle began at dawn, September 17. Three morning Union attacks struck the Confederate left, north to south. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s First Corps made the initial assault, followed by Gen. Joseph Mansfield’s Twelfth Corps. Part of Gen. Edwin Sumner’s Second Corps made the final attack. McClellan’s battle plan broke down in uncoordinated advances.

From 6 am until 10 am savage combat raged across the Cornfield, East Woods, and West Woods. By late morning fighting shifted toward the Confederate center (Sunken Road) in a three-hour stalemate that left the road forever known as “Bloody Lane”. Most contested of the three bridges Union forces used to cross Antietam Creek was the lower. At 10 am Union Gen. Ambrose Burnside’s Ninth Corps began its assaults on the Lower Bridge. By 1pm Federals had driven Confederates from the bluff overlooking the creek. Over the next two hours Burnside moved his men across the bridge and deployed them. When he again advanced on the Confederate right, Gen. A.P. Hill’s reinforcements, arriving in late afternoon from Harpers Ferry, stopped him. The battle ended about 6 pm. The lines of battle had not shifted significantly from that morning. Of nearly 100,000 soldiers engaged in battle, about 23,000 were killed, wounded, or missing. Late on September 18, Lee forded the Potomac to Virginia. The Union Army held the field.

Here are some pictures I took.

Dunker Church – Built in 1852, this modest house of worship for pacifist German Baptist Brethren became a focal point for Union attacks the morning of the battle.

Cornfield – This 24-acre cornfield saw some of US history’s most horrific fighting. For nearly three hours Hooker and Mansfield’s Union forces battled Jackson’s Confederates. Many regiments on both sides were cut to pieces. Hays’ Louisiana Brigrade suffered 60-percent casualties in 30 minutes. (there is no corn in the field today and the famhouse you see did not exist at the time)

West Woods - Around 9:30 am Gen. Edwin Sumner’s Union soldiers advanced into the West Woods. The combined firepower of Confederate artillery and attacking infantry drove them back. In 20 minutes over 2,200 Union soldiers were killed or wounded.

Mumma Farm – The only deliberate destruction of property during the battle was the burning of this farm. Confederate Soldiers were ordered to burn these structures to prevent their use by Union sharpshooters. Fortunately, Samuel Mumma and his family had fled to safety before the battle. They rebuilt the home in 1863. (The bright white building is the springhouse, which survived the fire)

Sunken Road (Bloody Lane) – This farm lane served as a breastwork for the Confederate center. For about three hours 2,200 Confederate, later reinforced by additional troops, held off the attacks of a combined Union force numbering nearly 10,000. Finally, just after noon, this thin gray line collapsed and fell back several hundred yards to the Piper Farm. The Union attackers had suffered too many casualties to pursue their advantage.

Lower Bridge (Burnside Bridge) – 500 Confederate soldiers held the area overlooking the Lower Bridge for three hours. Burnside’s command finally captured the bridge and crossed Antietam Creek, which forced the Confederates back towards Sharpsburg.

I was surprised at the amount of time we spent here. We listened to a Park Service Ranger talk, saw a movie, checked out the museum, and drove through the battlefield. It was very informational and very sad.

Here are all the pictures I took.

I also took a couple of pics of the campground we are at. As you can see, the sites are pretty close together.

Falling Waters, WV

2011-09-13T19:20:00.000-07:00

Monday, Sept 12

Not much happened today except that we changed locations. We moved to Falling Waters, West Virginia and are staying at Falling Waters Campground. We are going to do a little exploring in the area for a couple of days. To get to where we were yesterday we drove from Ohio to Pennsylvania to West Virginia. Today we drove from West Virginia to Maryland, almost into Pennsylvania and back into West Virginia! Boy these states are close together.

The sites at this campground are a little strange. They are pull throughs but there is a front site and a back site. If you don't get the front site you have to back out to leave. They are also very close, at least in the area we are in. Oh well, they were the cheapest campground around and we don't hang around outside a lot.

On Tuesday we are going to the Antietam Battlefield so it may take me a day to so to get the blog updated. I promise I will work on it and get it posted as soon as I can.

Never Forget!

2011-09-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday, September 11, 2011

I am having trouble posting due to being in the mountains of West Virginia. I will update when we reach our next campground later this afternoon.

10 years. It seems like it was only yesterday. This country shows a lot about itself by honoring all the innocent victims of this horrific day. Will we ever live in a world in which there is no terrorism? I doubt it but pray for it.

Today was a travel day for us. We planned on leaving Cambridge, OH later in the morning as we didn’t have far to go to our next stop. We are only spending the night outside of Morgantown, WV at the Sand Springs Campground. It was a pretty easy drive but we did have showers off and on the whole trip. It wasn’t raining when we got to the campground but by the time we got to our site (we had to wait for the check-in person at the office for a bit) there was thunder and then started raining. For the rest of the day it rained so we didn’t get a chance to walk around. I took pictures the next morning of the place. I didn’t get the pool or office. The pool was covered anyway. They tend to close pools here right after Labor Day to prepare for the winter.

I must wish Terry a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Welcome to the Social Security world. Now you can join us in worrying about what Congress is going to do! No really, we hope you had a good day and look forward to traveling with you next year.

For Don - the corporate office for Longaberger is about 20 miles or so away from the Homestead in Newark, OH. We decided not to do the drive. The pictures of the basket building are really neat.

Longaberger Basket

2011-09-11T07:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sept 10

An hours drive, or there abouts, we arrived at the Longaberger Homestead. This is the site of the original family farm, now converted to a place for fans of Longaberger baskets to visit and experience things. Longaberger Basket hand makes baskets here in Ohio. In 1973 Dave Longaberger built the company. His grandfather originally made baskets for local farmers and Dave took the company larger. You can buy their products on-line, in their stores or even become a consultant for them and host basket parties. The baskets are beautiful and well made. The range from very small to really big. And they are all hand made.

There is a collectors club for Longaberger baskets and they were having different displays for them. One thing everyone can do when at the Homestead is build your own basket. They have experts there to help you.

On-site they have the world's largest apple basket, standing some 20 feet tall. We ate at their restaurant for dinner. It was interesting to see these very expensive baskets to be used as trash cans in the restaurant bathrooms. I guess when you make them you can use a lot of them.

We enjoyed our visit to the facility but did not purchase anything. I thought about it but couldn't figure out where to put it in the rig.

Enjoy all the pictures.

Exploring Cambridge, OH

2011-09-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Friday, Sept 9

Cambridge, OH is, or was, a major glass glass manufacturing town. Cambridge Glass was established in the early 1900's and became one of the countries premier glass companies. Boyd glass still manufactures here as does Mosser glass. We weren't able to find out why this area is so big for glass. We don't think it was for sand, which doesn't seem to be here. I did read that one reason was because there was a lot of coal and natural gas which is needed for the process. There are at least 3 different glass museums in town. We chose to visit the Cambridge Glass National Museum. It is very well done and we even had our own private tour guide. If you were a glass collector you would enjoy this. Some of the details were a bit much for us and got a little boring but over all we enjoyed the place. There was some very pretty glass.

Some of these pieces are very expensive. Guess I will have to go through some of my mom's glassware before we sell it at a garage sale to see if she has any.

We did drive over to check out the Hopalong Cassidy museum but the building looked closed and falling apart so we didn't stop.

We did drive downtown and checked out a farmer's market they had going on but it was late and most of the stuff was gone. We did pick a local restaurant to have a meal at. We both decided to have breakfast instead of lunch. Our meals were good. I like dining at little local places instead of the big chain restaurants.

We made it back to the campground and took a little walk around. It is pretty nice and it is big! There are a lot of seasonals but they also get a lot of overnighters.

We leave here on Sunday and head east some more. We are slowly making our way to Pottsville, PA for the reunion. I think we have about 3 weeks before we have to be there. I have made plans for campgrounds along the way. I don't usually do that this far ahead but lately it seems like every place I have called has been full. I am surprised by that since all the kids are back in school. Everyone seems to be camping on the weekends. I guess they are getting their last times in before the bad weather hits. It has cooled off a lot and we are getting clouds and some rain. We are headed towards Hershey, PA and we just heard there is some flooding going on there. Our campground is OK and we heard the RV show is still scheduled to go on.

Here are all the pictures I took

Cambridge, OH

2011-09-09T16:24:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Sept 8

When we woke up this morning it was still raining but mostly it was just sprinkling. Still, you got pretty damp un-hooking the RV and getting ready to leave. It rained most of the east on I70. About 10 miles from our destination it finally stopped. Yeah! That meant we got to setup without getting wet.

We are currently staying at Spring Valley Campground in Cambridge, OH. The campground is located next to the highway but you really don't notice the noise from it. I will be taking pictures tomorrow to show you.

We will be doing some exploring for the next couple of days so check back for more info.

Kitchen Aid Tour

2011-09-07T13:57:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Sept 7

Even though it started raining again last night and continued into today, we decided to go ahead and visit the Kitchen Aid factory and store. They are not in the same place but about 5 miles apart. The factory tour only takes place at 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Since they were about 50 miles away we weren't going to make the 10:00 tour. We decided to visit the Kitchen Aid store first. They have all the counter top appliances that they make. If I still had my kitchen I might have bought more. I did pick up a couple of things for gifts and I replaced Aimee's mixer bowl. They also had a small museum of old Kitchen Aid items. I didn't take my camera into the store so I don't have those pictures. After we left that store we walked down the street to a Hallmark store. I bought an ornament my Mom needs and we browsed a bit. Soon it was time to head over to the factory.

They do a pretty good tour here. It does cost $5 per person which is something we haven't had to pay before. They give you a headset so the tour guide doesn't have to yell, which is a good idea. They do a pretty complete tour and you get to see most of the production line. This is the plant where the mixers, food processors, and blenders are all made. Good old made in America products. They run three shifts and are just starting weekend shifts so they will soon be working 24/7. There are over 800 permanent workers at the plant. It is a big employer in Greenville, OH.

That is about all we did except get things ready in the rig to move on tomorrow. Now if only the rain would stop.

Changing plans

2011-09-06T16:12:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Sept 6

I got yesterday updated so scroll down to check it out.

Originally we planned on driving over to the Kitchen Aid Factory. Since we planned on leaving here on Wednesday we decided not to do that. I wanted to do a quick visit to the commissary and get some laundry done instead. I also called the next few campgrounds to make arrangements. Turns out I needed to slide everything a day to get reservations over the weekend so we are staying here until Thursday morning. We moved over a couple a spots to accommodate that. We also found a place for me to get my blood work taken care of so that took an hour or so. I did get the grocery shopping and laundry taken care of.

It has been cloudy and cold still. Over the holiday weekend they set 3 different weather records here. On Saturday it was the hottest, on Sunday they had the most rain in one day, and Monday was the coldest Labor Day on record. What a roller coaster! I think it is going to rain again tonight and tomorrow. Maybe it is a good thing we are staying another day.

So even though it has been a quiet day we got a lot of things done. I think we have decided to visit Kitchen Aid tomorrow since we have the time.

Here are some pictures of the campground and some deer we saw. Have a good day.

Labor Day

2011-09-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Sept 5

It looks terrible outside. It looks like it might rain any minute but the weatherman says it isn't going to. We decided to head out and check out a couple of things in the area.

Our first destination was the Huffman Prairie Flying Field that is in the C section of the base. We could see it as we drove but had to leave the A section to get there. Anyway, the Huffman Prairie Flying Field is where the Wright Bros returned to after their flights in Kittyhawk to perfect their plane. They created the first airport in this location. This is where they taught others to fly. Now the field is just a field with some information plaques. There is a reproduction of their workshop and of the catapult they used to launch their planes.

A little further down the road is a National Park interperative center dedicated to the Wright Bros and their connection to Wright-Patterson AFB. We enjoyed our time here.

It was really cold and windy while we were here. Actually, every time we are at a Wright Bros location it is cold and windy. I bet that this why they were there.

In connection with the Air Force Museum there are two hangers that are not on the museum grounds. They are actually in area B of Wright-Patterson. If you do not have the ability to access a base you can take a bus from the museum. Since we can go on base we drove there ourselves. Located in these hangers are Presidential Airplanes and experimental planes. They have planes that Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter used. They have the actual plane that Kennedy flew to Dallas in and that was used to fly his body back to Washington. Johnson was sworn in as President in this plane.

Prior to Kennedy, the Presidents named their planes. Kennedy didn't and that is when the Presidential plane started being call Air Force One. Originally the plane was called by its tail number. Remember, it is only Air Force One when the President is actually on board.

They had some interesting experimental planes also. There was a really big one, a bunch of really small ones. some helicopters and rockets.

When we returned to the rig we got ready for a holiday potluck one of the couples organized. I made brownies and deviled eggs. We took hot dogs to cook as our protein. We had a really good time visiting with the other campers. We had a fire that kept us all warm. We did put jeans and jackets on before going out as it was cold! The potluck was good, everyone brought some good food. Bill and I are back on our diet as we have been eating all the wrong things lately.

Enjoy all the pictures.

A turn in the weather

2011-09-06T07:02:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Sept 4

Yesterday it was boiling hot. Today it is pouring down rain and cool. Tomorrow is suppose to be overcast and cold. Looks like fall has arrived, at least in Ohio.

Because of the rain we didn't do much today. In the afternoon it let up a bit and we ventured out to the store. There is something weird about this base. On the weekend all the gates are closed except for one in each section. There are also very few people on the base except at the golf course. Nobody seems to live in the barracks or works on the weekend. For the section of the base the campground is on we have to drive all the way around the flight line and out to the main gate (which is numbered 12A, not 1A, that is another gate) to leave the base. A long way to go. Oh well, it is worth the drive to pay the price for the campground.

Tomorrow we plan on doing some more exploring so there will be more. Have a good day.

Airplanes everywhere

2011-09-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Sept 3

The sun was up bright and early today and it continued to shine all day long. It got really, really hot. We ventured out anyway. Our first stop was the National Museum of the Air Force. We weren't going in the museum first but on the grounds of the museum there was a model airplane show going on. It was a giant model show. I don't know what scale that is but I think it was varying scales. We brought our chairs and an umbrella and got comfortable. My Dad would have really enjoyed the day. The pilots were really good. Here are a couple of the planes.

After a couple of hours we headed back over to the entrance of the museum. This is a very large facility and very well done. They have a huge assortment of planes from the first ones made to rockets. We didn't get to finish the entire museum. They have an entire collection of presidential planes in another area. We didn't get to that part yet, maybe tomorrow or the next day.

By the time we finished this part of the museum I was exhausted so I told Bill I wasn't cooking. We found a restaurant to have dinner, the Longhorn Steakhouse. It was really good. In fact, we both ate too much. Back on the diet tomorrow.

Just before we went to bed a thunderstorm started. It was a very noisy night. Just as we started to fall asleep the thunder would start up again. And it wasn't quiet either. Walls and windows rattled.

There are a lot of pictures that I hope you enjoy.

Turning warm

2011-09-03T15:48:00.000-07:00

Friday, Sept 2

Not much happening today. We did the laundry here on base. It was a good choice as it was $1 to wash and $.50 to dry. I will probably wash whatever collects between now and Tuesday. We leave on Wednesday and it would be a good idea to get everything done here.

I also cleaned the floors in the rig and Bill did a quick wash down of the rig. Time to get everything nice and shiney. We also got the car washed in town and picked up our mail. We got invited to a Labor Day potluck so we made a quick stop at the commissary while in town to pick up a couple of things to make.

The weather here has gotten really hot. It is just a degree or two less and 100. And it is really, really muggy. We are back to keeping everything closed up and the air conditioner running.

That was it for the day. Have a good one.

Airstream

2011-09-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Sept 1

On our way down I75 from Michigan we passed an exit sign that said "Airstream Plant Tour". Neither one of us had looked up the factory tours in this direction but it turns out we weren't a unreasonable distance to go visit this. We had a leisurely morning, as the tour is only once a day, at 2:00 PM. We took the car through a car wash and got our mail from the Post Office. Nothing important in the mail. Soon we were headed back north on the freeway.

We are still used to LA traffic so we left plenty of time to get there, way too much time. I had called to check on the tour and was told it was still going to happen today and had asked if there was a restaurant in town. The lady directed me to one by the freeway. So when we got there we still had a lot of time to kill. We drove around the little town (village, spot in the road) and finally made our way back to the restaurant. Well, it was really a tavern. Look at the fance places Bill takes me to lunch -

You don't see all the trucks and motorcycles in this picture. The food was good and we were able to kill a lot of time. I ordered a chicken sandwich and he had a fried chicken breast, both with fries. His took awhile since they had just put the chicken in so that helped with the time thing.

It was after 1:00 when we finally headed towards Airstream. It is in Jackson Center, OH. The tour does not allow photography in the factory area but you can take pictures in selected places. This motorcycle was built by Jesse James for his then-wife, Sandra Bullock. Pretty neat looking.

They have a little campground that you can stay at if they are working on your rig and even if you are just visiting the factory in your Airstream.

The factory is not very automated, with a lot of the work being done by hand. It is interesting and the tour lasts about 2 hours. Other than the warm weather, the factory is not air conditioned, we had a good time. I have always liked the looks of Airstreams but couldn't live with a travel trailer instead of a motorhome. BTW - did you know that Thor owns Airstream?

Once we left the factory we headed back to Wright-Patterson. There is really only one main road around here, I75. A few miles down the road it came to a dead stop! We sat there for about 45 minutes before moving. Turns out something caught fire a couple of miles up the road. All that was left when we reached that point was a black mark on the road and some foam. There were no further problems and we made it back to the base before the back gate closed. If you come in after 6:00 PM you have to drive to the front gate and then drive all the way around the flight line to get to the FAMCAMP. The back gate is just a couple of blocks away. Oh, I did make a stop at the veggie stand at the end of the off ramp.

We really weren't hungry for dinner so I made quesidilla's. That was filling enough. We did enjoy some canteloupe along with it.

Here are the pictures I did get to take. One thing, we have been looking for this little part for our shower forever. We have checked on line, at the various Monaco dealers and even at the surplus store. Never could find it. Well, there they were, sitting in the parts section of Airstream. So we bought that as our souvenier.

Heading South

2011-08-31T17:01:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 31

Not much happened today but we did move away from the Great Lakes area. We are spending the next week at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base outside of Dayton, OH. We have discovered the the military bases are great places to spend holidays. They are not really destination parks so there is usually an opening for the holiday. It was about 170 miles south of where we were to here. We will be spending some time doing exciting things like the laundry, and grocery shopping but I will post and let you know.

When we got here we did go do some grocery shopping as we were out of stuff. I had been waiting to buy things until we got here. It is much warmer here than by the water so I have the air on for the first time in a bit.

We had leftovers for dinner since I didn't feel like cooking tonight. Beside, they had to be eaten.

I posted my blog for yesterday so scroll down and check it out!

The Henry Ford

2011-08-31T16:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 30

A drive about 30 miles up the road was on our schedule today. In Dearborn, MI there is a complex called the Henry Ford. It contains the Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, an IMAX theatre and is the starting point for the Ford Rouge Factory Tour. It is a very large complex. Luckily the complex is located close to the freeway so I didn't have to find it using local roads.

We decided to visit the museum and the factory tour today. You could easily spend a couple of days exploring everything they have to offer here. We just missed the bus to the factory tour so we checked out the gift shop and took a few pictures before the next one. They run every 20 minutes or so. Here is the clocktower at the museum.

Soon we were getting on the bus to head to the factory tour. The ride takes a few minutes as it is not right next door but a couple of miles away. We arrived at the factory around 11:00 AM and the tour person advised us to skip the theatres and head straight to the assembly plant so we could see it in operation. They shut down for lunch at noon and all manufacturing stops until they come back. So off we went. You are not allowed to take pictures in the assembly plant or in the theatres so I don't have any from there. This plant was built over 100 years ago and was a modern marvel when done. It was a model for its time with vertical integration and the first mass production line for cars. Today they are as environmentally friendly as possible. They recycle and even have a living roof. Yep, those are plants growing on the roof!

After the assembly plant tour we headed back to the theaters. There are two, one is the legacy theatre where you see a film about the triumphs and tragedies surrounding the Rouge. The other is the Art of Manufacturing. It is a multisensory theater where you see, feel, and hear. It was cool.

There were also some of the favorite old Ford cars on display. They had a '56 T-bird, which is a car I always wanted. Of course there was a Mustang, too. Check out the slide show at the end of the post.

After spending almost 2 hours here we took the bus back to the Henry Ford. It was now lunch time for us so we decided to eat at their cafe instead of leaving and coming back. It was just OK. Bill had a open face meatloaf sandwich and I had a beef pasty. A pasty is like the original Hot Pocket and a common meal here in Michigan.

After lunch we entered the museum. My goodness you could spend a full day just in here! There are cars, trains, airplanes, presidential limos, a display on furniture, a display on America's enduring struggles for freedom, an agriculture equipment display, an exhibit about the various decades, and the gallery with a changing series of touring shows with the current on being on the Civil War. Whew! They have the limo JFK was riding in when he was shot, Regan's limo he was pushed into when he was shot, Henry Fords first self-propelled gasoline-powered vehicle, the bus Rosa Parks rode on, my favorite vehicle-the Weinermobile, the largest locomotive ever built-the Allegheny, the Dynamation house (an all-aluminum house) and many, many more items. Check out all my pictures.

When we finally left I was really tired. Back at the RV I rested a bit before fixing a quick dinner of spaghetti. We also had to start putting things away as we are leaving in the morning. It was a very tiring but interesting day. If you are ever in this area I really recommend you visit the Henry Ford. One of these days we will visit the rest of the parts but we ran out of time this trip. Enjoy all the pictures.

Lake Erie

2011-08-30T15:16:00.000-07:00

Monday, Aug 29

So here is a picture of our redneck awning. Do you like all the duct tape?

Hopefully it will last until we get home. We will have to have the fabric replaced. We had hoped to be able to sew it back up but we thing the material is too worn out to do that.

We are now settled into the Harbortown RV park in Monroe, MI. It is on the shore of Lake Erie and south of Detroit. After getting setup we decided to take a drive over to the lake. The RV park is about 1/2 a mile or so from the lake. As with all the Great Lakes, most of the coastline is privately owned. That means very few places for the general public. We did find one old dock where we could access the lake. There were people fishing, but not catching out there. Here are a couple of pictures.

On our way back to the resort we stopped at an outlet center. I wanted to check out the jewelry at Dress Barn. I finally found something I wanted for the reunion party. I also picked up a couple of tops from the clearance racks. Back here they have separate wardrobes for summer and winter. In CA we wear summer clothes most of the time so it is great to be able to get some cheap.

The resort we are at is very nice. It is a Passport America park that allows 2 nights at half price, so that is how long we are staying. The regular price is $46 a night. It is close to I75 but you really don't hear the noise and I haven't seen a lot of bugs. There is a train track close by and I thought it wasn't a problem but that changed after we went to bed. It seemed that the trains didn't blow their whistles during the day, but boy do they at night! You have to close your windows and turn on the air to drown them out. Other than that it is a nice place. The weather has been great the last few days so I was disappointed that I couldn't sleep with the windows open. Here are a couple of pics -

The park has a nice pool, volleyball court, basketball court, playground and other amenities. Next door is a mini golf, batting cage, and go-cart course. A great, but expensive, place for kids.

So that was it for today. big plans tomorrow.

Congratulations Huntington Beach

2011-08-29T05:11:00.000-07:00

Saturday & Sunday, Aug 27 & 28

It was a quiet weekend for us. We spent it watching the Little League World series. On Saturday it was the International and National finals. Japan beat Mexico in an exciting game. The series is a double elimination series meaning you get to lose 2 games before you are eliminated, except in the finals. Well, Mexico had beat Japan earlier in the week so many people thought they would win again. Nope, the tiny Japan boys played a good technical game and beat them. The boys have to be between 11 and 13 to play. Many of the teams have boys that are really big but not Japan. This was a case of size doesn't matter. This meant Japan would move to the Championship game against the US champion on Sunday. The only question was, who would it be?

The second game on Saturday was the US final. Montana versus California. The California team was from Huntington Beach. Yeah, an OC team. Montana was undefeated going into this game. They had even beat California earlier in the series. Who would win? It was a pitchers duel and an exciting game. California finally went ahead in the second and stayed there. At times it was a nail biter but California hung on and won. Japan vs California in the Championship.

As I am sure many of you know there was a hurricane on the East Coast this weekend. The footprint of the storm was big enough that it was raining in Williamsport, PA on Saturday into Sunday. This caused the schedule to be changed a couple of times. The consolation game between Mexico and Montana was cancelled and the final game was eventually played in its original time. It was a real pitchers duel and the final score was 2-1 - CALIFORNIA! It came down to the last out of the last inning. Wow! We have been to the series before and want to go again.

Our family in North Carolina is fine. Between power outages and cell phone problems we haven't been able to talk to them much. We understand there is some damage to Stormy's house but contained to the garage area. Everyone is unhurt and getting on with things. Hopefully we will talk later today.

Not much went on this weekend. I got a haircut and picked up some shorts from the clearance rack at Walmart. Hey, in CA we wear shorts most of the year. Sunday night we started putting things away to prepare to travel on Monday. Have a good day.

Still in Michigan

2011-08-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

Wednesday - Friday, Aug 24 - 26

Wednesday we really didn't do anything as we had to wait around the rig for my medication to arrive. That took up over half the day. We just rested and did a little cleaning.

Thursday we had an exciting day planned. First we went to do the laundry. My once a week thrill. After that we went to lunch. Now lunch was interesting. We drove up the road a few miles to an Uno's Pizza. This is deep dish Chicago style pizza. It isn't as good as Lou Malgnati's but it is my second choice when in Chicago. Since this is as close as I am going to get we decided to eat here. On the way back we stopped at Walmart and picked up a couple of things.

Back on the road we pulled into a fruit and veggie stand where I got some more tomatoes. They taste so much better. I may have to go back and get some more stuff when I finish off what we have. We didn't have dinner as we were still full from lunch.

Friday we decided to take a drive along the coast. I got some pictures of Lake Huron. Coastlines here are not like Calif. There are a bunch of trees so you can't see the lake and most of the land is privately owned with summer houses on it so you can't access the beach except in very few places. We finally did manage to find a place and take a few pictures.

One of the towns up here is pretty famous for its cheese. We stopped at one of the cheese stores and picked up some. One thing we did get was chocolate cheese. I have seen this made before but have never tasted it. I will let you know how it is after I do.

We have been in contact with the family in NC and they are all hunkered down for the weekend. Poor Ashley, her baby shower was suppose to be on Saturday but has been postponed until next weekend due to Irene. They should be fine, they have all the supplies and a generator at the house. We hope everything will be fine.

We have been watching the Little League World Series. It is fun to watch the little kids play. We had problems trying to decide between Pennsylvania and California when they were playing. Both teams were good and I am sure they had fun. We went to the LLWS back in 2008 and really enjoyed ourselves there. We will go back one day.

That is all for now. Enjoy the pictures.

Frankenmuth, MI

2011-08-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Aug 23

So there was an earthquake on the East Coast today. It was supposedly felt in North Carolina but nobody in the family felt it. It was a 5.8 with is an decent size but not too bad. Gee, the reason most of the relatives give for not visiting Calif is the earthquakes. I guess that excuse is no good anymore since they have them now. We do know that NC is awaiting a hurricane this weekend. We are keeping an eye on the weather channel as it is suppose to hit there on Sat. We hope everyone will be fine.

Today we drove to Frankenmuth, MI to visit the "world's largest Christmas store", called Bronner's. It was about 20 miles away and a nice drive through the farmland. I saw a number of veggies stands that I will be visiting this week. Frankenmuth is known as the Bavaria of Michigan. It is similar to Solvang in Calif but not as centrally located. It isn't as easy of a walking town. We didn't visit all of downtown, we may go back later this week. We planned on visiting Bronner's and an RV dealer we thought we remembered. Turns out we were wrong on the RV dealer but did get to the store. It really is big and there are all kinds of things inside. Luckily, I couldn't buy stuff as I don't have anywhere to put it. You could easily spend a couple of hours here. I took some pictures of the outside and inside of the store.

It rained last night and the wind got to blowing pretty good so we brought the slide in when we went to bed. Better to be safe than sorry.

We had beef short ribs for dinner last night. I had made them before but thought they were pretty fatty so I bought some at Yoder's thinking they would be better. Nope, still too fatty for us. Guess I won't be buying those again.

So that is it for today. Have a good day.

Now in Michigan.

2011-08-24T08:02:00.000-07:00

Monday, Aug 22

Moving on up the road. We are heading up to Essexville, MI, which is close to Bay City and the Saginaw Bay. We are staying in a county park that is very close to the bay but does not have water access. One day when we are here we will drive over to the city park and check out the bay. We do have full hookups at $16 a day. The park is really nice, just not a lot of amenities. We also get to mark off another state on our states visited map.

It was a long trip for us today, about 230 miles. I think that is the longest we have done in one day in awhile. We have one more problem with the rig. The awning that is on the slideout came loose. It is not ripped but the seam came undone and slipped out of the metal cover. Bill has taped it with good old duct tape. Hopefully it will be OK until we get back to Calif. I think I can fix it by sewing up the seam on Dad's industrial sewing machine. Until then we will just baby it.

We don't have a lot planned for this week, we are just kinda killing time so there may be days without posts. Guess this is a good time to do the laundry, find a place to get a haircut, do some cleaning, etc. Since we are parked for a bit I can have my shots delivered. So that is all for now, bye.

More exploring

2011-08-21T19:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Aug 21

We took off this morning to try and locate an RV show that was in town. It took a bit of doing but we finally located it. Unfortunately they only had 2 class A's at the show. Everything else was a travel trailer or a 5th wheel. Bummer, especially since we had to pay to get in! Once you leave the west coast you don't find a lot of motorhomes at RV dealers.

After that fiasco we headed over to the city of South Bend. Why, you ask? Well, the Studebaker museum is located there. It was only about 20 miles away and it was open on Sunday so why not? Bill owned a Studebaker Lark in his younger days. Did you know the Studebaker company started out as a wagon building company back in the 1800's? They moved with the times and went from building wagons to carriages to cars. They finally went out of business in 1966. Their main factory was in South Bend. During the war years they made wagons and other vehicles for the services. They also made airplane engines.

The museum was really well done. They had a display on some of the President's carriages. Not all of them were made by Studebaker but they had a good collection. They have the carriage that President Lincoln rode in the night he was assassinated.

They also had a small display of Italian cars.

When we finished the museum we headed back to the campground. We leave here tomorrow morning and head into Michigan. I hope you enjoy all the pictures. Remember, you can double click on the slideshow and get to larger versions of the pictures.

Shopping in Amish country

2011-08-21T07:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday, August 20

The day started out overcast and cloudy and stayed that way for most of the day. In fact, it started raining around 1:30 pm and rained off and on the rest of the day.

I wanted to go shopping at Yoder's Meat and Cheese in Shipshewana. I had bought a bunch of stuff there last year. I got some steaks, sausage, short ribs, summer sausage and cheese. A good haul. Dad, I got you a summer sausage stick and it is in the freezer until we get home. We had some of the cheese and summer sausage for dinner as we had a really big lunch.

We stopped at Das Dutchman Essenhaus Restaurant in Middleburg for lunch/dinner. Last year we ate here and had the family style meal (check out the pictures for Aug 17, 2010 and the blog entry). This time we decided to eat in the menu dining hall. Bill had something called a Manhattan, which resembled a hot turkey sandwich. I had chicken and biscuits, a creamy chicken dish served over a biscuit with mashed potatoes. We both had a 1/2 size meal so we could have dessert. Bill had a fresh blueberry pie and I had a double crust blackberry pie. At lease it was suppose to be blackberry but I think I actually got raspberry.

We also shopped in some of the smaller shops around and came across what was suppose to be doll furniture but we were thinking that Nelson would fit in them. Here is the picture. Notice that they are sitting under a card table for comparison.

That is the only picture I took today. Maybe I will do better on Sunday.

We also stopped at a farmer's veggie stand and I got some corn, tomatoes, and peaches. Yummy, yummy.

OK that is it for today. Enjoy.

A bit of this, a bit of that

2011-08-19T16:04:00.000-07:00

Wednesday - Friday, Aug 17-19

We haven't been doing much, just some exciting things like laundry, vacuuming, washing windows, etc. I know, I know, not things you want to hear about. We kept having dark skies but no rain or big winds. The weather has actually been pretty nice, in the high 80's.

Friday morning we packed up to leave. We had an appointment with an RV service place down the road. When we arrived at the base our belt for the dash air conditioner compressor had broken. Bill had another belt but couldn't break the bolts loose so we made the appointment. We dropped the rig off and went down the street to have breakfast while they worked on it. Turns out the compressor had seized up. Bummer! We decided not to have them do anything about it. I will just have to use the generator and house air while driving down the road if we need it. A new part will need to be ordered so that will take time waiting. I think we are just going to wait until we return to Calif. See Terry, everything isn't all peaches and cream all the time.

We are now in Elkhart, IN at the Elkhart Campground. We will be here for the weekend and then head into Michigan for a few days. We went to one of the surplus places today but didn't find anything we wanted. We are going to do some exploring tomorrow and Sunday. After the surplus place we picked up some groceries and I fixed dinner when we got home.

So we haven't been doing much but have plans for the next two days. I hope you have fun.

Siteseeing

2011-08-18T07:55:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Aug 16

Two different destinations were on our schedule today. First was a visit to the home of President Benjamin Harrison. He was a successful lawyer before becoming President and built this home in Indianapolis in 1875. It is a very large house even by today's standards. Over 75% of furnishings are original to the house. The wallpaper is an exact duplicate as they had the original to use.

Harrison's grandfather served as President also but only served 31 days. He died of pneumonia after giving the longest inaugrial speach in history on one of the coldest days in history without wearing a coat or hat. Benjamin Harrison only served one term. His wife died during his last year in office and he spent the time by her bedside instead of campaigning. He returned to this house after he left office and continued his law career. Back then the President didn't get a pension and had to support themselves. We spent quite a bit of time here with a guide who really knew his subject.

After we finished here we drove across town to a restaurant for lunch. I like to watch the Food Network and the show Restaurant Impossible. They redo a failing restaurant. Well, one of those just happened to be here in town so we went. It is called The Snooty Fox.

It is stuck back in the corner of a strip mall. I was not impressed with the restaurant. They do not serve Robert Irvine's menu for lunch, only dinner. It is suppose to be like an English Pub. The food was mediocre and the service wasn't good. They don't seem to have any pride of ownership either. I doubt they will be in business long.

After lunch we drove to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This is where they run the Indianapolist 500 and the Brickyard 400. Did you know they only hold about 4 races a year in this facility? It seems a waste but I guess this is the way it is with race tracks. Anyway, it is a very nice museum and you can also take a bus tour around the track. They have a bunch of the winning cars from the 500 starting with the first one up until 2006 (at least that was the most current one I saw).

There are also old motorcycles and Nascar cars. The track was interesting to ride around. No, we didn't go fast. The nickname of the track is the Brickyard. This is because the track used to be all bricks. Most of the bricks are still there, jsut covered with asphalt. There is a 3 foot strip still showing that they use as the starting/finish line.

It was a very nice day and took most of it to visit these locations. Here are all the pictures.

Catching up

2011-08-15T16:16:00.000-07:00

Saturday-Monday, Aug 13, 14, 15

We didn't do a lot over these days. We visited the outlet mall in Edinburg on Saturday. I tried on some slacks and was surprised that I had to get a size 14! Yeah! Down another size. We sat outside at the neighbor's campfire on Saturday. They are planning on becoming fulltimers in a few years. We gave them a few hints on things to do before they do and things to think about.

Sunday we really didn't do anything but we did have our own fire in the evening. I got bit on my legs a bunch. I think it was ants as I did kill a couple of them on my legs. I couldn't see a bunch on the ground though. Bill and I spent quite a bit of time working on our schedule for the next few weeks. We are planning on attending the big RV show in Hershey, PA in the middle of next month so we had to plan our route and what campgrounds we want to stay in. I have us scheduled up until Sept 22. Don't know where we will go until we are scheduled to be in town for the reunion.

Monday Bill washed the rig. It has needed it for awhile. We were oringinally going to go to the club for pizza for dinner but decided to go into town to eat at Cracker Barrel instead. The bites on my legs are driving me nuts today. I keep slathering anti-itch medicine on them which helps for a bit.

Tomorrow we are planning on heading into town to do a little site seeing. Have a great day.

Cooling off

2011-08-13T05:54:00.000-07:00

Friday, Aug 12

Moving day again. We left Ft Knox on our way north toward Indianapolis, IN. We are actually about 40 miles south of the city on Camp Atterbury next to a town called Edinburg, IN. We will be here for a week. This is a small base but the campsites are pretty big. Not a lot of shade but at hasn't been in the 90's the last few days. It is suppose to stay in the low 80's for a few days, at least.

After we got set up I was sitting at the computer desk and looked out the window. What did I see? This -

And it was still in the middle of the afternoon! I wonder if we will see them again. The camp also has a small catch and release pon, a playground and a small rec hall. Take a look at the pictures.

That is all for now. Have fun.

All plans were a bust

2011-08-12T07:34:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Aug 11

I had a number of plans to visit places today but it turned out that we couldn't visit any of them. There were two hiking paths, on to Tioga Falls and one to the Bridges of the Past walking tour. I checked their website to get an address for the GPS and found out the area was closed do to work on the train tracks. One of those you can't get there from here things. Oh well, how about we go into Elizabethtown and visit the Schmidt Museum of Coca-Cola. I went to their website and guess what? That places is closed too! The owner has passed on and the family is selling off the stock. Gee, what luck I have. We have been to the other things in the area last year when we were here.

At least we got some cleaning done today. Windows were washed, floors were mopped and carpets vacumned. After a bit I thought maybe we could go to the movies. We looked one up and it wasn't that far away. The only thing they had that we might want to see was the Planet of the Apes movie. OK, let's go there. I was pleasantly surprised by the movie. It was a very thought provoking and showed what happened leading up to the first movie. Even if you didn't know the story of the movie you could still enjoy this one.

Back at the rig we had a nice dinner of country ribs, which I had in the crockpot, and leftover side dishes. After that Bill went for his evening walk. While he has been walking this week he kept seeing a groundhog. Today he took the camera and go some pictures. I will leave you with those.

Churchill Downs

2011-08-10T15:22:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Aug 10

Last year when we were in the area we didn’t get a chance to visit Churchill Downs so that was our destination today. There aren’t any races going on now but the museum is open. I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the museum. We started checking out the displays when the 360 degree movie started so we headed in. The movie gives you a feeling of Derby Day. This year over 150,000 people attended the Kentucky Derby. I didn’t know that Derby activities cover about 2 weeks leading up to race day. There is a queen of the Derby.

Most of the women deck themselves out and wear hats to the race.

The day before the Derby is the Kentucky Oaks, a race for fillies. The day before that is Opening Day for Churchill Downs. A lot of people go through this place in three days.

The Derby has been run for 137 years. Of all the winners only 13 have won the Triple Crown. There hasn’t been a Triple Crown winner since the 70’s.

Part of the museum fees also includes a short walking tour that takes you out to the track and grandstands.

You also have a chance to visit a retired racehorse and Winston, a miniature horse. It is Winston’s house, they change the racehorse every few months.

We really enjoyed the museum. When we were done with the walking tour and the bottom floor of the museum, we decided to have lunch in the café. The food was very, very good. I had a chicken salad sandwich and Bill had a BBQ pork sandwich. They were both served with chips. We didn’t get a mint julep but they did have them on the menu. I would recommend this café to anyone.

At the gift shop they had some neat looking hats. I could just see my daughter-in-law, Aimee, wearing one of these and dressed to the 9’s, sipping a Mint Julep.

After lunch we went upstairs where they had exhibits on the jockeys, owners, trainers and other back stage people. All in all, I think we spent about 3 hours here.

Enjoy all the pictures.

A Day to Work at Home

2011-08-10T14:37:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Aug 9

Today was one of the fun ones. Ha Ha. First thing we did was the laundry. The laundry room here is very nice. There are 8 washers and dryers here. The room is really clean. It is attached to the restroom/showers and a room for hanging out in. All are spotless. The laundry could use 2 things, carts to hold the laundry in and a place to hang things. The best part is that it is $1.00 to wash and $1.00 to dry!

When the laundry was done we headed into the base to do our grocery shopping. I like to do my big shopping at the commissary because of the prices. The way the government is going we will probably lose that benefit soon. I got most of what I needed/wanted, so that chore is done for a while.

I was also able to make some reservations for the next few weeks. That takes us through the Labor Day weekend. The holidays are the hardest to get spaces at, especially if you are near water or a tourist spot. We are heading up to Michigan and the great lakes but couldn’t find anything over that weekend that wasn’t a fortune. We weren’t going to pay $100 a night for some campground. Now we only have about 3 weeks to fill before we get to Pottsville and the reunion.

We took a walk through the campground after dinner, when it cooled down. I took some pictures. There is a hall here that is really nice as well as a number of cabins that can be rented. A group was having a party at the picnic grounds when we went through. Here are the pics -

Ft Knox

2011-08-08T15:44:00.000-07:00

Monday, Aug 8

We moved from Nashville, TN to Fort Knox, KY today. 160 miles up I65. The drive was pretty uneventful except for a part in Kentucky where there was road construction and a traffic accident at the same time. It was right outside of a rest area we had pulled into to have lunch. It was a really nice rest area, too. We always try to park away from the trucks if we can and this lot was so big everyone could have 4-5 sites to themselves.

We are in the Camp Carlson Famcamp outside of Ft Knox. No, they don't give samples out. You can't get within 1/2 mile of the gold repository. Anyway, the park is very nice. They don't take reservations but I had called on Saturday to see how full they were. I was pretty sure we could get in so we came ahead. We have a 50 amp, full hookup site. On our way here I was also able to get reservations at Camp Atterbury, IN for the week after we leave here. We have to decide where we will be for Labor Day and get those reservations made.

So we are settled in for the night. We plan on doing a little exploring the next couple of days so I will have pictures then. Bye for now.

Doing things

2011-08-08T15:24:00.000-07:00

Sunday, Aug 7

We got up early in the morning, well, early for us, and headed over to the Loveless Cafe for breakfast. It is a landmark in Nashville. It is the home of the 'biscuit lady". She has passed on since our last visit here but the biscuits are just as good. I was disappointed in the rest of the food. The gravy wasn't as good as I remembered it. We also have about a 45 minute wait to get in. When we were waiting the wait time got to be about an hour and a half!

On our way back we decided to go to a movie. Bill located a theatre on the route and called for the times. We wouldn't have much of a wait so we headed on over. We saw the movie Cowboys and Aliens. It was a fun show and pretty good. It was a really big theatre with 16 screens.

It sprinkled off and on over the morning but it did clear up in the afternoon and turned really hot and muggy. It is suppose to cool down into the high 80's later this week.

Here are a couple of pictures of some wild turkeys that were in the woods behind our site.

So we will be preparing to leave Nashville tomorrow. I am sure we will be back again.

The Oak Ridge Boys

2011-08-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday, Aug 6

All day long all it did was rain. And there were some very heavy downpours. That pretty much kept us in most of the day. Opry Mills Mall is still closed so that was out as an option for spending the day. I did see a sign saying it will reopen in the Spring of 2012. That is good news. It has been closed since May of 2010 and the great flood.

Later in the afternoon we left the campground and decided to spend a little time at Camping World. We didn't spend any money but did check out a couple of things. After that we headed over to the Opry House to pick up our tickets and look at stuff in the store. We were soon let into the hall and we settled down to enjoy the show.

We knew that the Oak Ridge Boys were being inducted into the Opry tonight and were expecting most of the evening to be devoted to that. Turned out that they were only involved in the last half hour. The rest of the show was just a regular show. There were a number of older Opry stars, some of whom we have seen before, and there were a couple of new guys on their first appearance. I didn't know either of them but enjoyed both. One was from Australia and it was funny to hear him sing with no accent and then talk with a very heavy one.

The Oaks sang two songs, Bobbie Sue and Elvira, before the presentation of their awards and induction into the Opry. I had always assumed that they had been members long before this. I am really glad the Opry corrected this tonight. There was also a video congratulating them from President Bush (41). During the show the Oaks were honored with 3 standing ovations. A really good night for them.

We were sitting up in the second balcony so I had to use the zoom on my camera. I am really glad I got the new camera. I don't think my old camera would have given me any decent pictures. Here are all the people we saw perform.

Moving to Nashville

2011-08-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Friday, Aug 5

Moving day and since we only had 100 miles or so to go we just piddled around in the morning. On the way, since we had the time, we decided to stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch. They usually have parking for RV's. Well, they had a bunch of spaces but they were all full of cars! So we went to the side and filled up around 10 car spaces! We felt like parking right behind the cars in the RV spaces so they would have a harder time getting out. Can't these people read? There were 3 signs that said RV/Bus parking right in front of them. It's not like there weren't other spaces available, since we found them. One day I am going to print up a bunch of tickets that say things like, "what, can't you read, since when is this car an RV, Stupid is as stupid does," and stuff like that. It's not like we have a lot of choices when it comes to parking but the cars do. OK, rant over.

About 20 minutes out from the campground it started raining. It kinda drizzled off and on the rest of the day. Looks like the park is going to be full tonight. There is a sign at the entrance saying so.

Nothing else much happened today.

More looking

2011-08-05T07:26:00.000-07:00

Thursday, Aug 4

I am not much of a shopper. We went out to check out more of the sale. Yep, still the same old same old. There are more people shopping today than yesterday. Parking is a little more difficult. I bet this weekend is going to be miserable. I wonder how many accidents occur on this highway on this weekend. The one thing I was surprised not to see was fruits and veggies. I thought there would be a number of them due to the farms and gardens around here.

I finally remembered to take a couple of pictures of the campground. Our site is number 36. I also took a picture looking up toward the office.

The park is pretty full because of the sale this weekend. I guess I should start doing the packing up thing as we are moving. More later.

Sgt York

2011-08-04T00:49:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, Aug 3

The summer of heat doesn't look like it is going to stop anytime soon. Today's temps are heading for the upper 90's again. Whew!

We decided to visit the home of a WW1 hero, Sgt Alvin C York. He lived in the mountains about 45 miles from where we are camped. Sgt York was the highest decorated soldier of WW1. He received the Medal Of Honor for his actions in France. Here is the part of the description of his actions.

On October 8, 1918, after being pinned down in an attempt to capture a narrow-gauge railroad, York took his fateful walk into history. As the company sharp-shooter, he and 16 other soldiers under the command of Acting Sergeant Bernard Early were given the unenviable task of silencing the machine guns that halted the advance the day before. It was a cold, wet morning. Rain mixed with sleet added to the gloom of the fog that draped the landscape. As the soldiers worked their way around the hill, the men on the left flank stood exposed in the creek bottom. German machine gunners opened fire, wounding or killing nine Americans, including York's best friend Murray Savage. York was on the right flank beneath the crest of the hill in a natural depression, which he used to kill nine of the men who operated the guns. In the meantime, his comrades opened fire on the Germans, and in a few minutes 25 were dead. The Germans surrendered to what they thought was a superior force, and York and the American survivors escorted 132 prisoners to American forces at Varennes some 10 miles away.

He was also awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, World War I Victory Medal, American Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, French Légion d'honneur, French Croix de guerre with Palm, Italian Croce di Guerra, Montenegrin War Medal. Pretty good for an old country boy. There was a movie made of his life starring Gary Cooper. Turns out he was a pretty enterprising man and went from nothing to owning the town general store, the grist mill, and even opening a school nearby. The family home was built for him and his wife when he decided to return home instead of touring the country giving speeches. The local Rotarian's gathered pledges to help pay for the mortgage. Some of these were not paid and the York's were left with the bill. They did OK and lived in the house until his death.

We brought a picnic lunch with us and the area of the grist mill has a very nice little park. We stopped there to enjoy the lunch. It was shady and there was a bit of a breeze so it didn't feel the 98 degrees they say it was. But boy, when you left the shade it was hot. In the park were some booths of the longest yard sale so we checked it out for a bit.

Even though this is the world's longest yard sale they still have basically the same things for sale. Lots of clothes, glassware, tools, and assorted junk. Some stands have new stuff or craft stuff. All along the 45 mile drive we passed people with things for sale. We did stop at a couple other places but were able to pass on buying anything. Our thrift store shopping friends would have a ball here. I wonder how much of the 5 state sale they would be able to cover?

It turned out to be a nice trip and we were both tired when we got home.

Later that evening we had a really big thunderstorm come through. It is hard for me to think of rain and one of the hottest days of the year happening in the same day. Rain to those of us from California usually means cool weather, not here.

So that was our day. Enjoy all of the pictures.

Movin' On

2011-08-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, Aug 2

With only 100 miles, or so, to go we weren't in a big hurry. And all of it was on I40, so we were at top speed. We waited until right at checkout time to move. Oh yeah, we also gained an hour on this trip. We are back on Central Time. We almost could have gotten to the new campground before we left the old one!

We are spending the next couple of days at the Bean Pot Campground in Crossville, TN. After getting checked in it was cleaning time. I swept the floor and mopped the kitchen/bathroom floors. We had lunch (leftover spaghetti) and then went to the laundry room to do the laundry. They only had 3 washers but 4 dryers but I got everything done. Bill spent some time checking out a book they had in there with brochures of things to do and restaurant menus. He found one for a place called the Beef and Barrel and they had an early bird dinner that sounded pretty good. You get a salad or soup, bread, the entree with a starch and vegetable, a drink and dessert (ice cream), all for $10. He suggested we go there so once we finished the laundry off we went. Dinner was pretty good. I had roasted pork loin and he had liver and onions.

After dinner we drove around a bit to check out the town and find the Post Office to mail a letter. They are already setting up booths and selling stuff on 127, the road with the World's Longest Yard Sale. Tomorrow we will visit a couple of places along with visiting the Sgt York State Park and Home.

Until then, have fun.

Not much

2011-08-02T03:18:00.000-07:00

Sunday & Monday, July 31 & Aug 1

We really didn't do much these days. It was too hot to go to Dollywood and I didn't feel like spending the money. We did get our mail on Monday and that took about an hour and a half. We thought we would take the scenic route to Sevierville but the map we were using must be wrong. We couldn't find the cutoff road and had to back track. When we got to the Post Office in Sevierville they didn't have our mail and couldn't figure out why the person in Pigeon Forge said it would be there. We went back to the Pigeon Forge Post Office and our mail was there! Grrr. What a waste of time, gas and energy.

I did call the next campground we planned on going to for a reservation. Turns out they are full because of the "World's Longest Yard Sale" which is next weekend. We looked at others campgrounds and finally located one that had an opening. I guess we might as well check this thing out on Thursday when we are there.

So that is all for the last two days.

Roaring Forks Nature Trail

2011-07-31T12:29:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 30

Our first stop today was the Post Office but it turns out the one in Pigeon Forge doesn't accept general delivery mail. This is the first time I haven't called a Post Office before having mail sent. Guess that won't happen again. We have to go to Sevierville to get our mail. Since that is in the opposite direction than where we were going we will have to wait until Monday.

Today we were headed to Gatlinburg. We thought we would walk around town a bit. Bad decision. It was Saturday on a summer weekend. It was also one of the hottest days. There was no parking that didn't want to charge an arm and a leg so we went to our next destination.

We decided to tour a section of the Great Smokey Mountains that I didn't think we had been before. Once we got back to the rig and I looked it up I found out we had. Oh well, the plants looked different. We did walk one trail that was suppose to be 3/4 mile long and an easy walk. It would have been easy if there hadn't been a billions rocks you had to walk on.

The part of the park we drove was the Roaring Fork Auto Tour. It is a 5 mile drive and takes about an hour, depending on how long you spend at each stop.

When we finished the drive we took the long scenic way back to Pigeon Forge. We stopped at the Old Mill Restaurant for our main meal of the day. It was really busy and we had about a 15 minute wait. The food was pretty good. They served fritters with the soup and they were good along with a maple butter they had. Bill had chicken and dumplings and I had the turkey dinner. Afterward we walked around a bit before heading back to the campground.

It rained a bit later in the day. Not as much as they had been saying on the news but enough to cool it down a bit.

That was our day. I hope you had a good one.

Bean, Beans

2011-07-30T06:43:00.000-07:00

Friday, July 29

Today we decided to go visit a local company that we didn't even realize was so close. The company, Bush's Beans! It is about 15 miles down the road. You don't get to tour the actual factory, which is across the street from the Visitor's Center. It was a nice drive to get there once you got outside of Pigeon Forge. Talk about traffic.

When you enter the center you see, what else, Duke's doghouse.

Then you get to see two movies. One is a virtual tour of the plant and the other is a cute movie with Jay and Duke on the history of grilling. Then you can take a self guided tour of the center and even get your picture taken at the end.

There is a cafe on the grounds. We stepped in to see what they have a decided it was way too crowded so we went down the road to a place called the Taste of Tennessee. It was OK. Kind of empty but it was around 2:00 PM.

On the way back to the rig we stopped at the Christmas store. I didn't buy anything but they had some really cute stuff.

I had put a roast in the crockpot before we left and had a nice simple dinner later in the day. It is still way too hot but I understand tomorrow should be cooler.

That is all for now. Have a good day.

Well, I thought it was fixed.

2011-07-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

Thursday, July 28

We got up and were happy to be moving today. Goodbye Marion! At least we thought it was goodbye. When Bill was outside disconnecting the water and stuff I was getting the inside ready. I pressed the button to raise the jacks but the warning bell and light wasn't stopping. Hmm. I tried lowering and then raising them again. Nope. So out I went to check to see that they were up. Yep, all jacks are retracted but the alarm is still ringing. OK, Bill quickly finished his stuff and over to the service shop we went. I bet Dale was not happy to see us walk in the door! Anyway, I guess they didn't refill the hydraulic fluid when they replaced the jack or something. It took them about 45 minutes and everything was great. We were finally off.

Today's drive wasn't that long and we were soon in Pigeon Forge, TN. We have to decide what we are doing while we are here. The only problem, it is HOT here. We passed a sign that said 95 degrees and when you add the humidity the heat index is over 100 degrees. It is suppose to get cooler this weekend so I think we will hold off on Dollywood until Monday. Also, I hope there won't be as many people as there would be on the weekend.

So we didn't do much the rest of the day. Touring starts tomorrow.

It's fixed!

2011-07-27T21:13:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 27

Yeah! Our jack has arrived and was installed this afternoon! Not that this isn't a nice place, it is just that we are tired of it! It will be nice to be on our own schedule again. So that means we didn't do much today except wait to take the rig in for service, wait to have it serviced, pay for it (and shock my credit card) and then hook up again. We also made a quick trip to the grocery store so that we can take off tomorrow morning. We decided to head to Pigeon Forge, you know, the place with Dollywood. Yes, we have been there before but we can always find something to do. The park we are staying in is the same one we stayed in during 2008 but since it is a Passport America park the price is right. I don't know if we will visit the park, that will depend on a couple of things. One of those things will be the weather. I am pretty sure we won't be going on the weekend.

I see from Facebook postings that our great-grandson Nelson is doing pretty good. They are letting him wear clothes and he looks so cute. Can't wait to see him again.

Nick tells me there have been a few people looking at our house but no offers yet. Keep your fingers crossed that we sell it soon.

So that is all for tonight. Tomorrow we head to Pigeon Forge.

Getting parts

2011-07-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Monday & Tuesday, July 25 & 26

We extended our stay for two more days as we knew it would be at least until Wednesday before the parts show up. We had to move our site as someone had booked the one we were in. So we moved from site 59 to site 21, which I think I like better. They promised not to book anyone in this one for a few days in case we have to extend again. When Bill went to the office to see if they had a date and cost yet he found out that the jack company had not returned any of the phone calls. When he got back to the rig he called and left a couple of messages. I decided to check rv.net (a forum we read). Back in Dec a guy was complaining that he couldn't reach them either. The company is RVA in Escondido, CA. I was ready to send Nick down to get the part in person! I posted on the forum and a person there took it upon himself to try to contact them. He finally got through and told the guy to call our service center! The guy at RVA was complaining that they have suddenly gotten busy and haven't been able to hire someone to answer the phones. Yeah right, like there aren't any out of work people in Escondido that would take a job at minimum wage. Anyway, we finally got the part ordered and it should be here Wednesday, hopefully. If it shows up we have an appointment that afternoon to get it repaired. We will stay here until Thursday morning. Then we hope to head to Pigeon Forge, TN.

We had a really big thunder storm on Monday afternoon. It rained really hard for awhile. Then it spent a couple of hours just raining lightly. We spent part of the afternoon before the rain driving around town checking out laundromats so we can do our laundry tomorrow.

This morning we got up and went to do the laundry. When we finished we returned home and had lunch. I know, exciting. Actually we did go for a drive to the next town over, Old Fort to check out a geyser. Turned out to really be a fountain but hey, it got us out for a bit. The town also has a big stone arrowhead at the main intersection. We did see a deer by the side of the road.

We went out to dinner to a local BBQ restaurant. It really was a regular family restaurant that also serves BBQ. Tonight's special was ribs so that is what we had. They were pretty good, not great, but good.

So keep your fingers crossed that our jack shows up tomorrow and we get out of here soon! Marion, NC is a small town and we have just about run out of things to do.

Lazy Day

2011-07-25T06:17:00.000-07:00

Sunday, July 24

First off I want to wish my big sister a Happy Birthday. Hope you had fun, Rose.

We didn't have any plans today, having spent Saturday doing a lot of touring. I am surprised at the number of rigs in the campground. This is a nice place but I don't think I would stay over a weekend for relaxation. Of course, it is quiet and clean.

We did drive down to the gas station and get the Sunday paper, so reading that took some time. I decided to make tacos for dinner since we haven't had them in awhile (since Branson). We have to get our rears in gear and decide where we are going from here. Until we find out how long it will be to get the jack that is hard to do. We have a drop dead date next week so that we can get to Nashville but until then we are just waiting. We may take off and return here later to get the jack if we have to. The only problem there will be if we get into a spot that is really not level.

We didn't do much else. I updated the Rustlers website so that took a bit a time. Bill took a couple of walks but the sales department is not open on Sunday so he couldn't tour the mortorhomes. It is still hot so most people here are staying inside. In the afternoon we had a good downpour during a thunderstorm but other than that, nothing much. I see on the weather page that we are in for thunderstorms for the next few days.

I saw on Facebook that Nelson is now allowed to wear clothes! Yeah, another milestone. He is also sucking on his pacifier! Preemies often have a problem learning to suck. Good going, Nelson. I know you will be home when we return.

So that is all for now. I hope you had a good weekend.

Visiting Grandfather Mountain

2011-07-24T12:13:00.000-07:00

Saturday, July 23

Today was scheduled to be an exploring day. And boy was it! We had plans that would take us over 8 hours or so. This meant we were not taking off too early during the day. In fact, we decided to wait until after lunch.

Our first destination was Grandfather Mountain. It was originally called that as some of the views of the mountain show a face of an old man. I personally never saw that but who am I to question the name? We decided it would be cooler up here than down in the campground. Exploring the mountain requires driving a 2.5 mile drive to get to the top. You can also hike in many of the areas. There is a small nature museum and animal habitats. Entrance fees are a bit high, being $13 each for seniors. (I think I was insulted as I drove up to the entrance the lady said, "2 seniors?" before I ever said anything. Oh well, a discount is a discount.) If you have a large family it could be expensive.

At the top of the mountain is the Mile High Swinging Bridge (elevation 5,280 feet). As we were driving up the weather started to turn bad. The clouds rolled in and the thunder and lightening started. The road is really twisty and turny. When we got to the top and found a parking spot the skies opened up! We stayed in the car until the rain let up.

There is a gift shop you enter and then go up to the bridge. We had to wait inside for the weather to clear up a bit. You do not want to be a mile in the sky on a metal bridge during a thunderstorm! They finally let us out into the bridge area but just as we got to the other side and had been there a minute there was a really big clap of thunder and the rain started again. Bill and I hurried back across and back into the building. We still got pretty wet.

We drove back down and out of the park. We picked up the Blue Ridge Parkway and headed south. The Parkway is a two land road that has beautiful views and not a lot of traffic. They don't allow commercial vehicles on the Parkway.

It is also a twisty road. We didn't see a lot of traffic. At one point we passed a place called The Orchard. This is a building where they sell home made items and during the fall, apples. Today they had a band performing and people dancing. We had an ice cream and listened for awhile.

Back on the Parkway we headed towards Little Switzerland. This is a small town in the mountains. They advertised a square dance tonight and we thought we would go. We checked out the few stores and then asked about a place to have dinner. One was the Switzerland Inn, the other was a place called the Mountain View, and the third was the golf course restaurant. We chose the golf course and it was a great choice. The special for tonight was prime rib. And it was really, really good. We had a leisurely meal and then headed back to Little Switzerland. Turns out we were early and spoke to the gentleman setting up for the dance. They don't have a square dance like we think of one, but a mountain dance. Even though it was suppose to start at 8:00 PM he said most people didn't get there until 9:00 PM. We decided not to wait that long and headed home.

It was a long but good day. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Waiting

2011-07-22T16:09:00.000-07:00

Thursday & Friday, July 21 & 22

Thursday we weren't in a big hurry to leave the campground as we only had about 135 miles to go. We are headed back to Tom Johnson RV Service and Campground in Marion, NC. We plan on having our jack looked at here. I have made reservations to keep us there until Monday but I bet we have to stay longer.

The drive here was easy but still hot. It might be 5 degrees cooler than it was in New Bern but I am not sure. We got parked and checked in with no problems. We tried not to take a lot of stuff out as we have an appointment tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM to get the rig looked at. We had leftover pasta for dinner so I didn't have to cook much.

We spent the evening watching TV shows that had been recorded. Not much else went on.

On Friday morning we got up and secured everything in the rig so we could take it over to service. Since it was early we decided to have breakfast in the cafe. The food was good and then we moved over to the customer waiting area to wait. And wait. And wait. We had brought the computer and my Kindle in with us. We worked on a schedule for the next few weeks. Turns out that is a moot point since we will be spending a little more time here. The jack has to be replaced and we are not sure when the part will get here. Hopefully we will know more on Monday. They are waiting for the company to call back.

One thing we did do was decide to go to Nashville. I was able to get tickets to the induction of the Oak Ridge Boys into the Opry! I was surprised that they were not already members but am thrilled we get to be there. It is about 350 miles away from here so I hope they get the parts before we have to leave. I already booked a site at the Corps of Engineers Park at Seven Points. We stayed there last year and enjoyed it. I got the last available site for the weekend of Aug 5, 6, 7. Turns out it is the same one we stayed in last year! We will be going to the Opry on the 6th.

So most of today was spent waiting for info. We did visit a local Visitor's Center and picked up some paperwork on things to do in the area. Tomorrow we take off on a road trip. Get ready for some pictures!

Pulling Out

2011-07-21T06:12:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 19

Whew, it was warm this morning when we got ready to leave. It is suppose to be close to 100 all across the state for the next 5 or 6 days. Hopefully it will be a degree or two cooler in Marion, NC, where we will spend the weekend, as it is a little higher in altitude. The jack was nice and stayed in the stored position during our trip. The drive was uneventful but long in the heat. We traveled about 220 miles. We decided to stay overnight at Zooland in Asheboro, NC. We stayed here on our way East.

Once we got setup we turned both airconditioners on full blast to cool it down. We took a little nap and then took a walk up to the pool. That finished cooling us off as it was not heated but nice and cool. A diiner of left over pasta was about the only other thing we did. Too darn hot.

Here is a picture of Nelson I copied off of Ashley's Facebook page. It looks like he is waving.

That is all for today. Tomorrow - Marion, NC.

2011-07-20T05:31:00.000-07:00

Sunday - Tuesday, July 17 - 19

Late Sunday morning Bill and I made the drive to Greenville to see little Nelson. He is sure growing like gang busters! Since he is off the ventilator he is more active. The nurses say he is very active! He is practicing to be a magician but slipping out of his snuggie all the time. When we were there it looked like he was trying to do push ups. His weight was 2 lbs 5 oz and he is doing great. I am amazed by his progress. We did tell him that we don't want to see him in the hospital when we return in Oct so he better hurry and grow. Here are a couple of pictures I took. Preemie babies don't like bright lights so they are taken without a flash.

When we got back to the base we remembered that they were showing a sneak preview of the movie Captain America. The movie was suppose to start at 6:00 PM and when we drove past at 5:00 PM the parking lot at the theatre was over half full. We quickly had a bite to eat and then headed over. By this time people were parking in the overflow lot. Luckily we found a spot in Handicapped, right up front. The theatre is huge and could easily seat 1200 people. Most every seat was taken by the time the movie started. I tried to get popcorn but the line was so long there was no way I could some before the movie started. That is the second free movie we have seen on base. I liked the movie. If you saw the Iron Man shows (especially #2) you could see some tie-ins between the two. I think they are going to do an Avengers movie soon. It was also fun to spot Stan Lee (the creator of the Captain America comics) in a bit part.

Monday and Tuesday were spent preparing to move out of here on Wednesday. We did go see the family each night and spent time with them. We will be back in a couple of months and will be staying for 25 days so we will see a lot of them then. Maybe by then our house will have sold and Nick & Aimee will be here. Fingers crossed.

That is all for now. When we figure out where we are going after we get the jack looked at I'll let you know.

I have been lazy...

2011-07-16T10:41:00.000-07:00

Saturday - Saturday, July 9 - 16

First off here is a picture of Nelson taken on Sunday when we went to the hospital. He is doing much better. They were scheduled to take him off the ventilator on Friday night (7/15). I hope they did. They are not going to have to operate on his heart for the murmur, a good thing. Ashley got to hold him for the first time this week. Another good sign. If he keeps on this schedule things should be good soon.

We plan on visiting him at least one more time before we leave on Wednesday. He is growing and will soon catch up with his due date.

Bill and I haven't been doing much this week. The base theatre was showing Part one of the Deathly Hallows before the release of part two so we went to see it to catch back up on the movie. Turned out to be a free show so that was good. We did go see part two on Friday afternoon. It was really good and we both enjoyed it. If you are into the series go see it. We did not see it in 3D and didn't miss that at all. I haven't seen many 3D shows that are worth it. Seems to me that they always put extra stuff in just for 3D.

We have developed a leak or something in one of our jacks and it won't hold anymore. We plan on getting it fixed next week. We decided to head back to Tom Johnson RV in Marion, NC for that. We can camp there and will stay over the weekend in case they have to order parts or anything. I think we will explore part of the Blue Ridge Parkway while we are there. Then we plan on heading North and into West Virginia for a bit. Still firming up plans for that.

The hot weather has let up for a couple of days and it has been pretty nice. It is suppose to get hot again just in time for us to leave here. We haven't had any really smokey days either. They have most of the fires close to being under control.

OK that is all for now. We are heading to the beach for a bit.