Author Archives: Carolyn

by | August 4, 2019 · 7:53 pm

North Dakota – You Betcha!

On July 9th, we arrived in North Dakota – the 40th state we have been in on our three and a half year journey around the country.

Icelandic State Park was a perfect introduction to this new state for us.  We tried to visit the RSL #3 Missile Site but it wasn’t open so we explored the Pioneer Heritage buildings in the campground and learned of the Gunlogson family who staked their claim on this property.  We toured their homestead and sat for a while in the Stave Church.  We took a mile hike through the Gunlogson Nature Trail through the riparian forest – oaks, birches, lush undergrowth of ferns and flowering plants.

Hallson church at Icelandic State Park
Seen along the Gunlogson Nature Trail

Our next stop was Grahams Island State Park on Devil’s Lake.  On Saturday, July 13th we drove two hours to see the International Peace Gardens.  We took our time in the conservatory seeing hundreds of varieties of cacti and succulents.  The formal and sunken gardens were in perfect bloom.  We had some quiet time in the Peace Chapel reading the inspirational quotes etched on the stone walls.  The 9/11 tribute had massive metal girders from the fallen World Trade Center – in beautiful gardenscapes.  The Carillon was not singing that day but the bright sun and light breeze scented with roses made the day a perfect interlude of peace.  On the way out we re-entered the US and I used my passport for the first time.  It really is a peaceful border – going into the Peace Gardens was simply a pleasant greeting to welcome us and directions for touring the gardens.  We were in Manitoba, Canada – it was just that simple to cross a completely undefended border.  Entering the US coming home was just some pleasant conversation with the Border Patrol Officers.  The only small issue was a question about the feather the hangs from our rear-view mirror.  We had to pretend it was not a real hawk feather – must be some prohibition about that.    Such a great place to visit!

Inside the conservatory
The formal gardens
The international border runs right through the Peace Chapel

On the way to the Peace Gardens, we stopped for a few minutes in Rugby – the geographical center of North America.  In South Dakota we stopped in Belle Fourche – the geographical center of the United States.  In Rugby we also saw the Indian Talking Rock – a small rock on the corner of the little strip mall – but a stunning example of ancient petroglyphs.

Us at the center of North America

We took the next day to do our favorite thing – beach-sitting.  The small rocky beach on Devil’s Lake on Grahams Island was a pretty lakeside view of children playing in the lapping waves and boats cruising across the lake.  It may be a while until we can sit on sunny sand again.

Then we stayed in Bismarck just two nights but we made sure to visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan.  This was a large museum with excellent art and exhibits.  We’ve been to many Lewis and Clark sites but this one was certainly one of the best.  The tour through the reconstructed Fort Mandan was great.  We always learn new things about the Corps of Discovery.  In this museum we learned more about Sacagawea.  We have heard every possible pronunciation of her name, which is understandable since it is a phonetic transliteration of a Shoshone name that was never written down before the Corps entered it into their journals.  But this time we saw it spelled and pronounced differently.  It seems that the State of North Dakota spells it “Sakakawea” and says it that way – “sa ka’ ka way a”.  The fort was furnished with accurate reproductions of all the items used in the camp – cots with bear skins, metal dishes, barrels, clothing, etc. – all available for us to pick up and examine. We gained lots more information for us to add to our interesting travels along the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Part of the reconstructed Fort Mandan

This might be a good time to describe the drive through North Dakota.  This state is different from the Northern Woods of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  It is a prairie – enormous expanses of waving grasses.  There are some trees – riparian forests near lakes, streams, rivers and bogs.  Visiting here in July means you get to see almost everything in bloom.  Our nature walks were filled with colorful flowers – some we recognized like irises and daisies and many that were new to us.

The prairie is mostly flat.  Sometimes there are mound-like hills.  The large mountains here are the Turtle Mountains.  So we also saw lots of turtle images.  My favorite was the Giant Turtle made of tire wheels, called Weel’ Turtle.  It is a huge agricultural area – farms everywhere.  We have seen one kind of crop before and didn’t know what it was.  It is a short plant with a fluorescent yellow flower – so bright it doesn’t look natural.  We asked a ranger about it and found that it is rapeseed which when harvested is used to make canola oil.  Once you see this plant covering acres of land in the strangely bright yellow you don’t forget it.

The roads are straight and, considering the extreme winters, in great shape.  Winter is always looming here.  Even in the heat of these 90 degree days in July you hear mention of winter.  It seems to always be lurking around the corner, probably because it lasts for so many months.  We are happy to be here in the summer and have no intention of discovering just how bad winter can be.

We left Bismarck and traveled to Medora.  The roads are easy to travel on but the scenery is mostly flat green prairie with huge farms.  On I-94 we did see Salem Sue, claimed by the city of Salem to be the world’s largest Holstein.  There it was just hanging out – a huge plaster sculpture – in the middle of nowhere – on a hill.  As we approached Medora, we stopped at the Painted Canyon Rest Stop to get an overview of Theodore Roosevelt National Park and to gape at our first breathtaking view of the canyon’s rocky and colorful hills.  This would be our final stay in North Dakota and it turned out to be our favorite. 

The Painted Canyon

We camped at the Medora Campground – a beautiful park on the edge of the town of Medora with a view of the Painted Canyon escarpment.  The town itself is great – western and charming.  It is very small with a population of 132.  The motto is “Medora.  Explore it.  Adore it.”  And it is adorable.

We ate a delicious breakfast at the Rough Rider Inn in Theodore’s Room.  Doug had a huge plate of Ranchos Huevos and I had melt-in-your-mouth Lemon-Ricotta pancakes.  Then we spent time wandering around the streets and shops of Medora.  We do a lot of wandering down main streets in old, small towns so we have developed a rating system.  A town with public art, benches, no charge for parking, some charm – well, that town rates high.  Medora, in addition to all that, also has stunning views of the Painted Canyon cliffs. 

Gardens in front of the Medora Post Office

The South entrance to our destination of Theodore Roosevelt National Park is right in Medora so we decided to get our introduction at the visitor center where we watched a movie and read the displays.  One of the rangers gave us information on one of my favorite animals – the pronghorn.

That night we went to the Medora Musical – an outdoor performance that was Wild West, Las Vegas and Broadway all combined.  Going down the long escalator to our seats in the amphitheatre, we saw two bull elks on the nearby hillcrest.  They were eating and posing.  Magnificent!  The songs and stories told about Teddy Roosevelt’s love and exploration of this part of the country.  And there were stories about Medora’s founder and the current community leaders – all told with horses, colorful costumes, a great band, singers, dancers, a magician, and even fireworks.  The production was excellent – in quality, content and emotion.

A rainbow appeared during the Medora Musical

We followed that great day with a full day exploring the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park (TRNP).  As we traveled the scenic loop road (some of it closed due to rain damage) we stopped often to admire the well-organized habitat of the prairie dog towns, to glimpse the wild horses on the hills, to see the majesty of the bison walking along the road or further away in large herds.  We stopped to hike some of the short trails through the blooming prairie and into the Painted Canyon among the colorful rock walls.  We ended the day with a ranger-led geology talk that gave us some explanation of the processes that formed these beautiful Badlands.

A Prairie Dog!
A panorama along the scenic loop
The Little Missouri runs through the park

Seeing the huge healthy bison is always an incredible sight.  In 2016, President Obama signed a bill declaring bison the national mammal.  It’s nice to know they got some recognition.

A bison along the road

On Saturday, July 20th, we drove 60 miles through the flat prairies and farmlands to the North Unit of TRNP.  We noticed subtle differences between the two areas.  The north was greener with more water.  But we also saw the same colors and shapes that make this place a photographer’s dream.  On the north side we saw the Little Missouri River which carved the canyons and the Cannonball Concretions that decorate them and then we hiked right into the coulees.  We stopped for a long look at Oxbow Overlook, examining the Little Missouri River’s sharp oxbow bend at that point.

Cannonball Concretions
The view from the end of the North Unit Drive

Such a beautiful park!  We are grateful for its preservation and very happy that our journey brought us here.

We said good-bye to Medora and TRNP on July 21st and re-entered one of our favorite states – Montana!

Leave a Comment

Filed under North Dakota

by | July 22, 2019 · 5:15 pm

Left Michigan for Wisconsin and Minnesota

We said goodbye to Nelson and Lydia on June 26th and left Michigan the next day, arriving in Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin for four days and nights of just relaxing.

When we got to Burlington Bay RV Park in Two Harbors, Minnesota we were on the far western coast of Lake Superior.  Our view from our large front window showed us this magnificent lake with all its eccentricities – bright sun glittering on the placid water; fog and clouds hiding the expanse of the lake; the wind making small white crests of waves; and rain adding even more water to the already high lake.  And from early morning to the finale of sundown (at 10 pm!) the little beach was filled with people bathing, rockhounding, fishing, kayaking and canoeing and picnicking.

Our campsite view of Lake Superior
The lighthouse at Two Harbors

Minnesota is covered in trees and just imagining it in winter gives me chills.  As you drive along the highways you see snow markers on all the fire hydrants and for the first time we saw those long markers on park benches.  There are often snowmobile trails marked along the highways.  I guess you just forget about your cars since the snow gets so deep the plows make caverns along the roads and snowmobiles get you where you need to go better. 

Loons play a big role in these parts of the country – we even saw the biggest Loon on Highway 51 pretty close to the Loony Bean Coffee Shop in Mercer.  In Brule we saw a Giant Chair with a fishing pole, axe and arrow.  We also learned that Wild Rice is the thing to eat there.  One day we asked our waiter about wild rice and he explained that it is a good cash crop.  He and his father went out in a canoe once – in a boggy place among the rice plants – and they hit the plants with their oars to gather the grains in their canoe.  He said it was a lot of work and there were a lot of spiders but they made good money that day.  And I tried the Wild Rice Soup which was delicious.

Minnesotans also love the Voyageurs – the Vikings that explored the oceans.  We saw large statues of these ancient explorers everywhere.  And along with those large statues we saw a Giant Fisherman, a Giant Oar, a Giant Indian Head, and a large (not giant) Chicken.  We did not see any real moose but moose are favorite advertising icons – like at Mooselaneous – a small gift shop.

We did a little sightseeing at the Glensheen Mansion and its gardens.  We walked along a break wall on Lake Superior to a lighthouse and ate lunch at the Vanilla Bean.

Glensheen Mansion

The next day we traveled north to Gooseberry Falls State Park. This park has a great hike that lets you see all three spectacular falls as the Gooseberry River plummets through a narrow gorge. After the hike, we enjoyed lunch near the visitor center.

Upper Falls
Middle Falls
Lower Falls

After three nights, we said our farewells to Lake Superior and headed to Grand Rapids, Minnesota where we stayed at Pokegama Campground.  We hiked around the park and over the dam.  Just a two night stay but it was a great campground. While there we took a self-guided tour of the Judy Garland Museum and Home.  We read the displays which mainly focused on her young years.  The refurbished house had some of her family’s items and gave an authentic flavor to those early years of Judy dancing and singing with her sisters. 

Over (or Under) the Rainbow!
The original carriage from “The Wizard of Oz”
Sadly, the original ruby slippers were stolen from this pedestal.

Our last stop in Minnesota was the Bemidji Campground, another wonderful place for us to live for a few days.  The highlight of our stay was visiting the headwaters of the great Mississippi River. You can walk across it using the (slippery) stones – lots of people were doing it. The river is fed from Lake Itasca. The average flow is 45 gallons per second. At the mouth of the Mississippi it has increased to 5 MILLION gallons per second. We then drove to Lake Bemidji State Park where there is a fantastic bog walk. The nicely maintained trail guides you with interpretive signs that tell you all about the flora and fauna of a bog and how it differs form the surrounding area. Finally, we made a stop at the Bemidji Visitor Center to see the large statue of Paul Bunyan and Babe, The Blue Ox.  Bemidji is the (disputed) birthplace of Paul Bunyan. We also saw a bronze statue of Chief Bemidji nearby.  We walked through the Veterans Park and ate lunch on a nice bench in this beautiful park.

The headwaters of the Mississippi River
The headwaters are a popular place to visit!
The view from the Bog Walk
Paul Bunyan and Babe

Now on to a new state for us:  North Dakota!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Minnesota, Wisconsin

by | July 21, 2019 · 6:00 pm

The Great State of Michigan

The month of May was busy!  But June was exhausting…and exhilarating!  We left Hatfield, PA on June 1st after a wonderful month of visits with family and friends.  We rested at Hershey RV Resort and managed to squeeze in a nice lunch at Mangia, Mangia with our long-time friends, Lee and Jill.  Lunch and a quick hike gave us a least some time to hang out with them.

We then spent a few nights at the Madison-Pittsburgh KOA and two nights at the Cleveland KOA.  While there we visited Cuyahoga Valley National Park – the museum and the surrounding valley is filled with history.  Great visit.  Then one night in the Toledo KOA – so just a short stay in Ohio.

Brandywine Falls at Cuyahoga Valley National Park

Then the BIG ADVENTURE began.  We had Doug’s brother Nelson and his wife Lydia for dinner in the RV when we arrived at Haas Lake.  They showed us their videos of their recent trip to the Falkland Islands and other remote places on the globe.

Nelson and Lydia are world travelers; they are used to planning every minute of their amazing trips.  They planned the perfect guided tour for us through their beautiful State of Michigan.  Our first day was a pleasant change of pace with a Bavarian feel – Frankenmuth.  Bronner’s, the largest Christmas store in the world, kept us busy and the interesting quaint shops were fun to see.  After a delicious lunch at the Bavarian Inn, we ended the day at a Middle Eastern restaurant where we met Lydia’s sister, Renee.

This is where we ate in Frankenmuth
Seen outside one of the shops

Then it was Ford day – starting with a factory tour where we saw F-150’s coming off the line.  After a burger lunch at Ford’s Garage, we spent the afternoon at the Henry Ford Museum – called the world’s “coolest” museum – so much to see – a really great museum.  Then a wonderful Spanish-themed tapas dinner with Lydia’s other sister Andrea and her husband John.

No pictures allowed inside the factory – but here’s the factory Living Roof
The JFK limo at the Henry Ford museum

On Sunday we got to explore some of Detroit – something I’ve wanted to do for years and there are no better guides to see it with than Nelson and Lydia.  We started with a tour of the Motown Museum!  Yes, the very home in which Berry Gordy recorded the artists of my youth.  We heard stories of the Supremes, “Little” Stevie Wonder and all the rest.  We ended our tour dancing and singing to “My Girl” in the actual recording studio.  WOW!

Motown aka Hitsville, USA
The Motown recording studio where it all happened!

Then a walk to Greektown and a fabulous lunch at Pegasus.  To complete a perfect day in the Motor City, we spent the afternoon at the Detroit Institute of the Arts – a true treasure!  I stood awestruck in the midst of Diego Rivera’s famous mural.  And wandering through the beautiful building, we saw enough art to fill my soul.  Even with all the masters surrounding me, I got emotional viewing a small piece from my favorite sculptor, Constantin Brancusi.  Certainly one of the very best art museums I have ever seen,

Part of Diego Rivera’s mural at DIA

We camped in Traverse City the next day and met Nelson and Lydia for dinner at the Traverse City Plaza.  It’s a wonderful city filled with rainbows to celebrate Pride Month. 

Traverse City Pride

On Tuesday, we climbed Sleeping Bear Dune!!  I made it up to the top (of the main dune) with a lot of stopping and panting but I made it up!  And down!  After a great lunch at the Cherry Republic – getting a taste of their famous cherries in my chicken salad sandwich, we saw Lake Michigan from Pelican Point.  It was an eye-opening experience for me – so much watery expanse – such a beautiful view.

Here’s the dune that we climbed
More dune-scapes!

Our last day near Traverse City, we went to Mission Point Lighthouse and then went on the Michigan Wine Trail, touring some of the prettiest wineries I’ve ever seen.  The views were spectacular and the tour of one of the wineries was really interesting.  We ended this idyllic day with a dinner at Poppycock.

We’re halfway to the North Pole!
Mission Point Lighthouse
One of the many vineyards we saw

Another bucket list item was checked off the next day as we crossed the Mighty Mac – the Mackinac Bridge.  We were finally on the Upper Peninsula!  We had an easy ride across even in our big rig with tow – no winds and a clear day to drive for almost five miles across this feat of engineering.

The Mighty Mac from below

Does this trip in Michigan sound exciting so far?  Well, then came the Best Day Ever!  We took the ferry to Mackinac Island.  The ferry ride was a great introduction to it all – seeing the great bridge from below it and glimpsing the Grand Hotel from the waters of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.  Then we landed on the loveliest of all islands – in another place and time!  It was very much like a dream – a dream scented with lilacs and then hearing the clop-clop of horses pulling carriages.  I will never forget the delicious lunch buffet in the Grand Hotel and sitting on the famed porch!  So pretty!  We also toured Fort Mackinac – an extensive reconstructed fort – amazing!  Of course, we bought some of the Island’s famous fudge.

The Grand Hotel viewed from the ferry
On the way to the Brunch
Hanging out on the porch
View of the harbor from Fort Mackinac

Saturday, June 22nd was a very busy day, starting with the Maritime Museum Lighthouse tour.  We ate pasties for lunch – our hosts even found a place that served veggie pasties for Doug.  We drove quickly through a quirky Lakenland – huge welded metal sculptures.  And we got to see a view of Lake Superior from a rocky beach.  We ate some tacos for lunch and then – a boat tour of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore – iconic colorful rocks sculpted by wind and water.  The only way to actually view these cliffs is from the waters of Lake Superior.

The Maritime Museum Lighthouse
One of the sculptures at Lakenland
Pictured Rocks
Pictured Rocks from the boat tour

Sunday we went to the Shipwreck Museum where we learned about the deadly waters of Lake Superior and the infamous wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.  The lake is stunning from every viewpoint, but we especially loved it at Whitefish Point.  A great lunch at Taquahemon Falls State Park and a nice hike to the falls, completed another wonderful day.  These falls are second only in size to Niagara in the states.

The ship’s bell recovered from the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
The lighthouse at Whitefish Point
One of the falls at Taquahemon Falls State Park

We traveled on Monday from Newberry to the City of Hancock – both really nice campgrounds.  After a short day of driving we met up with Nelson and Lydia for Chinese food at Hunan Garden.

All this eating kept us fortified for more busy days.  On Tuesday we went to the pretty town of Calumet.  We did a self-guided tour of the Calumet Theatre, giving us insight into the history of this town, then had a great lunch at the Michigan House Café.  We took a tour of the Quincy Copper Mine – deep into the earth and through the mine buildings.  There was a great museum to explore and we learned much about copper mining.

The ride down to the mine entrance on the cog-rail tram
Our transportation inside the mine
Enjoying the day!

Not leaving anything undone – we spent our last day with our hosts in Copper Country on the Keewenaw Peninsula.  This day was spent on a self guided tour of the Delaware Copper Mine.  We ended at another lighthouse and an absolutely beautiful view of Lake Superior.  This lake is so big and so sparkling!  When we left Michigan, we followed a portion of this lake through Wisconsin and then finally said good-bye to it in Duluth, Minnesota!  The term “lake” just isn’t enough – I prefer “Great Waters” or “Gitchee Gumi” – it is breathtaking.  We are so glad we got to see these marvels and are so grateful to Nelson and Lydia for the care they took of us and the wonders we saw with them. 

Ready for the mine tour
Walking down into the Delaware Copper Mine
Our hosts
“Gitchee Gumi”

Leave a Comment

Filed under Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin

by | July 10, 2019 · 1:05 pm

The Memorable Month of May

I wrote a whole LONG blog about the month of May and all the family and friends happenings complete with who was there and what we ate.  It was too boring and too long for me to even re-read.  So here is a new format, developed to preserve our memorable month of May without the long-winded descriptions.  Just to be clear, every happening went perfectly (really!) and we enjoyed every moment with these wonderful people, and the food was amazing!

The spreadsheet seemed too dry so I book-ended it with quotes from two of our family’s favorite authors:

J.K. ROWLINGS:       Family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.

blog-month-of-may-1A

MARIO PUZO:  The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other.

The month is over.  We are grateful to everyone for spending time with us.  We miss everyone!  We need to work off all that good food!  Now on to other adventures.

Leave a Comment

Filed under New Jersey, Pennsylvania

by | June 1, 2019 · 4:56 pm

West Virginia to Pennsylvania

We didn’t stay long in West Virginia – just two nights in Harper’s Ferry KOA.  Last time we traveled this way we didn’t actually spend a night in West Virginia but we did spend the day in Harper’s Ferry.  So we added a state to our map – #38 and we went back to see Harper’s Ferry again.  Our campground was right at the entrance to the National Park there so we drove to the parking lot, got on a shuttle bus which took us to the lower end of Harper’s Ferry.  It was a nice day – no rain – so we enjoyed seeing this old town filled with history.

On Friday, April 19th we drove to Gettysburg Farms RV Campground.  Along the way, on Highway 7 in Virginia, we passed the world’s largest bottle of Car Engine Oil.  We weren’t on the road very long on this particular travel day but it was remarkable since in a one hour span we drove from West Virginia, through Virginia then Maryland to land in Pennsylvania.

Gettysburg Farms is a Thousand Trails park so our twelve night stay was free.  We stayed at this park two years ago.  It is a farm with horses, llamas, donkeys, goats, chickens, roosters, turkeys and rabbits.  There is lots to do, especially for children – two playgrounds, fishing in the river, a mini golf course, huge expanses of grass to play on, crafts, movies, candy bingo, petty zoo and more.  I took advantage of a few of the craft activities and created a dreamcatcher and a sand art eagle picture.  They have a great laundry, a nicely stocked Trading Post, and a good selection of books and magazines. 

Miniature Golf at Gettysburg Farms

We had a few weather scares during our stay – tornado watches, thunderstorm/hail warnings, high winds.  Luckily we were spared the worst and only had to contend with lots of rainy days.  The sites here are nice but seem to always be muddy.  Even with a good sprinkling of gravel where our car sits, the ground under the gravel is mushy all the time.  Some sites have huge gouges where the vehicles slid through the mud.  In twelve days, we only had a few hours where we could sit outside and feel a little sun.  On the few days it wasn’t raining, it was very cold.  It’s almost May and I am missing the dry heat and lovely hot sun of Arizona.  It’s nice to see and smell grass and there are some pretty flowers here but this has been a very wet spring.

We had a very low key Easter/Passover.  We traveled on Passover and then were worried about the rotating wind on Easter which was also Doug’s birthday, so we just kept it simple.  Doug had found a restaurant we wanted to try but it was closed that Sunday and Monday (my birthday and Earth Day), so we dragged out our birthday celebrations by seeing a movie on Monday – “Best of Enemies” which was a timely addition to our recent visit to the Civil Rights Museum.  And then we had a wonderful Italian dinner on Tuesday night at the Moonlight Café in Dover.  We didn’t think to make reservations but we were lucky to get in and get served.  It seems to be the most popular place in town.  And any reputation it has is well deserved – the food was great.  Doug gobbled up his gnocchi and cheesecake while I didn’t leave a speck of my manicotti and tiramisu.  All in all, we feel like our birthdays were done right.

We did get out another day to visit the Utz Factory and to take their tour to watch potato chips being made.  If you aren’t from the NJ/PA area you might not have heard of this brand but their chips and pretzels are great.  This is our second potato chip factory tour.  The last one on Prince Edward Island ended with samples of warm chips right on the production line.  This one was just as interesting and we got a bag of chips at the end.  We found out that Pennsylvania is the largest producer of potatoes that wind up as chips.  We didn’t know that.  We add it to the information we gleaned about the potato industry on PEI and Blackfoot Idaho (where in both places we went to their Potato Museums).  And we add it to what we learned in Washington – that the Tri-Cities area is the French fry potato capitol of the world.  Doug loves his spuds so we will continue to visit these places.  We also checked out the factory store where we bought lots of snacks at really nice prices.

On Saturday, April 27 we had a really special dinner with our friends Lee and Jill who live near here.  Lee and Doug have been friends forever and Jill and I love to explore how much we have in common.  Our dinner at Warehouse Gourmet Bistro in Hanover was a few hours of great conversation and yummy food.  We hope to see Lee and Jill again in June when we will be in Hershey.  We love spending time with them.

On our little adventures through this part of Pennsylvania we once again comment on the huge expanses of perfectly manicured lawns.  You just don’t see that attention to lawns in other places.  We see something else here we don’t see much of in other parts of the country – bible signs in farm fields.  Among the “Keep PA Beautiful”, “Thank You, Jesus” and election signs for the sheriff and judges, there are painted wooden signs with bible passages:  John 3:16 “God’s only son died for you.”  “Return unto the Lord.”  “Watch ye stand fast in the faith.”  Matthew 22:37-40 (I looked this one up.) 

Tomorrow we leave Gettysburg Farms for Hatfield, PA.  We will be close to Philadelphia and we are preparing ourselves to a full month of fun with all our family and friends near there.  We already have a full calendar of events to look forward to.  There will be lots of entertaining in our RV and plenty of visiting our children, grandchildren, my brothers and their families and good friends. 

Looking forward to every minute of this!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Pennsylvania, West Virginia

by | April 20, 2019 · 9:00 am

SPRING IN NORTH CAROLINA AND VIRGINIA

I’ve been thinking a lot about Spring lately.  It used to be my favorite season.  When I lived in New Jersey, It was the best days ever after the cold dreariness of winter to see a sunny sky, feel that new warmth in the air, delight in the blooms – azaleas and rhododendrons, tulips, daffodils and crocuses, mountain laurel….

Then we spent 18 years in Tucson, Arizona.  It took a while to learn the subtle seasonal changes.  You feel that spring feeling often in February when the temperatures get warmer.  But, except for an occasional penstemon, you must wait until May to see any color.  Palo Verde and Mesquite trees are covered in yellow buds; barrel cacti sprout their yellow fruit and prickly pear explode with yellow and light peachy flowers.  May is Yellow Month, but it’s not that dramatic a season change as in the northeast.

Now I see Spring much differently.  Living in an RV and traveling during the spring months, I’ve learned to be suspicious of this seasonal change.  As I look forward to warmer temperatures, I fear the spring storms that have dangerous winds, giant hail, scary lightning, flooded waterways and the inevitable and terrifying tornado watches and warnings.  No matter how hard Doug tries to avoid this scary weather, we find ourselves listening for the screechy obnoxious warnings on our weather radio and our phones.  We learn what county we are in.  We sit glued to a local TV station watching the yellow-red-purple blobs of radar-tracked fronts moving through enormous areas of the country as we try to become familiar with surrounding town names.  We can’t drive fast enough to get out of the whole swatch of the possible problem area, so we hunker down and wait it out.

We keep a “go bag” ready – water, granola bars, meds, flashlights, phone chargers, important documents.  We check out the nearest sturdy-looking structure in every campground and we know the quickest way to get there.  I don’t sleep well (or at all) on bad nights, but I make sure I go to bed in pants and a t-shirt, not a nightgown I don’t want to run through a campground in.  My new mantra on these nights is to keep my bladder empty.  Yes, I don’t want to have that kind of accident!  I’ve gotten better (than I was) about controlling my panic.  I now only worry about Doug and me.  The RV and car are insured and nothing in them is worth worrying about.  Everything can be replaced.  When you’ve gotten rid of as much as we have, things and stuff lose importance.  So, I limit my worry time to making sure Doug and I will be okay.  The universe has been good to us and we’ve stayed out of any real trouble, even though it’s scary to watch those storms swirl nearby us.

So, with all our recent spring weather issues, it has been a nice experience to find something to celebrate in this season of change:  redbuds!  All along the North Carolina highways we saw some wisteria and this pretty, purple tree I learned was a redbud.  Now, driving through Virginia, both sides and the median of the highway is an exciting splash of purply wonder.  My new favorite spring bloom – the prolific, pretty, purple present of the redbud.

The ubiquitous Redbud

We got to add another state to our map – North Carolina.  Now we have been in 37 states in our RV since we started living full time on the road in January of 2016.  It now is easier to name the states we haven’t been in:  Alaska and Hawaii, Vermont, New Hampshire, Delaware, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Louisiana, Kansas, Michigan, North Dakota, Idaho and Utah.  On our way to our month-long stay in Pennsylvania this May, we will add West Virginia.  Then we have two exciting weeks reserved on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  As we pass through the northern states to see our kids and family in Portland, Oregon, we will add North Dakota.  And then as we head to our winter in Southeast Arizona, we will stay in Idaho and Utah.  So, after that wide swing through the states we will have only eight more to hit.  We haven’t figured out when to visit Alaska but will probably do that one year.  We will not be RVing in Hawaii – the RV won’t do well crossing the ocean.  That will leave Louisiana, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Delaware and Kansas.  We figure at some point we can cross the country through Kansas.  There must be some season when we feel safe enough from tornadoes to visit that state.  We definitely want to spend more time in Texas so that will make a trip to Louisiana easy.  And since we plan to visit family in the Philadelphia area often, we’ll catch up on those missing little East Coast states on one of those trips.  Maine and the Atlantic Provinces of Canada are always a draw for us so that’s when we can plan to spend time in Vermont and New Hampshire.  So someday, not too far away, our state map will be almost full!

One of the patchwork place mats I made

We arrived in Fayetteville, North Carolina on Wednesday, March 27th.  We stayed at the Fayetteville RV Resort – a really great campground in the town of Wade.  I liked the laundry so much I visited it three times.  We are traveling slowly so our seven nights in this campground were relaxing.  I had started a big sewing project – making Easter patchwork place mats for our grandchildren and an Easter patchwork table runner for the RV.  It was a nice long stay to take out the sewing machine and have fun with this project.  Doug worked on a project to cleanup the added wiring on our Honda so the lights and brake can be controlled from the motorhome while it is being towed.. 

The next stop was another really nice campground – Forest Lake Thousand Trails Resort in Advance, North Carolina.  I had a little problem on the drive here – something really upset my stomach and it wasn’t a pretty sight to see me being sick as we drove into this new campground.  So, we didn’t get to explore the campground on our first day.  Then our second day was raining and cold – I recovered indoors, and Doug stuck around with me.  Luckily, we reserved this campground for ten nights, giving us lots of time to enjoy a whole resort full of things to do.  We are still dealing with rain and cold days, but we had some hours of sunshine that we took advantage of and sat outside on our site.  We have a nice view of the lake and enough room for me to sit with the sun warming me and Doug to sit in the shade.  There are lots of community buildings in this place and during the high season, I’m sure they are filled with campers.  Right now, the sites are almost full and although the store and pool are not open and there are no activities on the calendar, there are pool tables, ping pong tables, puzzles, arcade games and two free lending libraries.  We had an hour or so of sun today, so we took a quick walk around the recreation halls and through the cabin area.  We are expecting more rain today and tomorrow but every once in a while, the sun comes through the clouds and I feel like I should run outside and enjoy it.  But as soon as I put my shoes on, the sky darkens again.  Oh well.

The view from our site at Forest Lake Resort

We ventured out to a flea market in Lexington.  Not very exciting because it’s too early for produce, but we picked up some odds and ends for a few bucks.  We went to Thomasville – what used to be the furniture capital of the world.  Now that notoriety is assigned to High Point.  But the world’s largest chair is still in Thomasville and although there are many boarded up, empty stores, it still has a nice downtown Main Street, complete with an emporium of second-hand stuff, tulips, and murals.

Purportedly the world’s largest chair
One of the many chairs in Thomasville
A beach chair!
Thomasville street mural

Greensboro was much better – as small-town historic downtowns go, this one was pretty cool.  Greensboro, the Gate City, is also now “Jeansboro” – with larger-than-life painted jeans sculptures all over town.  The “Jeansboro” public art project celebrates Greensboro’s denim and textile industry history.  It’s a nice to city to walk through with large, pretty green spaces, one of which has a huge netted sculpture flying overhead.  The best part of this town is the International Museum of Civil Rights which is located on the exact site of the 1960 F.W. Woolworth lunch counter sit in.  On February 1, 1960, four college freshmen sat down at the counter that was for “whites only” and quietly asked for service.  It didn’t happen overnight.  These four men, and then local citizens, high school students, and sympathizers from other parts of the country, sat – and came back day after day and just sat – and their courageous, non-violent protest helped fuel the fire of other protests against segregation across the country.  The street is named February One.  The Woolworth lunch counter is still where it was in 1960 (we couldn’t take pictures inside).  Our tour guide led us through the displays with stories of the South, including his home town of Durham.  For us, it gave us another historic point in our journey through the history of the civil rights movement.  We connected this experience to other sites like the Civil Rights Museum in Atlanta, Ebenezer Baptist Church, Little Rock Central High School and John Brown’s abolitionist raid in Harper’s Ferry.  We hung out to see a little bit more of Greensboro and had a good slice of pizza at L’Italiano’s.

February One Street by the International Museum of Civil Rights
The original Woolworth’s storefront
One of the many “Jeansboro” sculptures
An overhead sculpture in Greensboro – a tribute to its textile history

We left Advance, North Carolina and arrived in Fort Chiswell RV Park in Max Meadows, Virginia.  In between the rainy weather, we found a nice day to tour our next little town – Wytheville.  It is famous for being Edith Bolling Wilson’s birthplace (First Lady and wife of Woodrow Wilson) and its centerpiece is the Bolling Wilson Hotel.  We stopped in a fabric store, Batiks Etcetera and Sewwhat Fabrics, so I could pick up a stabilizer for a quilt I am planning.  I am proud of myself for only buying 3 fat quarters of their beautiful batiks, in spite of seeing thousands of amazing colors all over their crowded, but cool store.  One of the highlights of Wytheville is the Big Pencil.  It’s a 30-foot-long metal sculpture that hangs high over the entrance to Wytheville Office Supply.  It’s been there since its construction in the 1950’s.  We love seeing these larger-than-life structures that appear all over America.

The “Big Pencil” in Wytheville, VA

In this campground, we sheltered from a tornado watch that went around us.  The campground was busy – lots of snowbirds traveling through with one- or two-night stays.  Outside our window was a great view of a grassy hill sprinkled daily with noisy sheep.  So bucolic!  I worried about those sheep.  Where did they go to shelter from a storm?  Well, we only got lots of rain, a little wind, no hail and the rotation (not really a tornado) was a few miles away.  Because we didn’t want to drive in the predicted high winds the next day, we stayed here an extra night, leaving us just one night at Walnut Hills Campground in Staunton (pronounced “Stanton”), Virginia.  We’ve been in this campground before when it was a KOA.  Doug used to remember all the campsites in great detail.  This one we have only vague memories of, but it is a nice campground with a small lake, a meandering rivulet, and nice folks in the office.  It was great to be able to walk around the lake in the afternoon with a bright sky and brisk but not cold temperatures.  Tomorrow we leave Virginia to get to our next state – West Virginia – number 38!

Leave a Comment

Filed under North Carolina, Virginia

by | April 9, 2019 · 11:54 am

Charleston Charm

We’ve been planning for months to include a visit to my Aunt Camille this leg of our journey.  Her beautiful home in Mt. Pleasant is close to Charleston, South Carolina, a city we have been wanting to explore.  Aunt Camille proved to be the perfect tour guide as she showed us the charming city she dearly loves.

Just by coincidence, her sister Maureen and husband Jon were visiting at the same time we were.  The five of us wandered through the spectacular, never-ending Charleston Market – where we saw many examples of sweet grass baskets, jewelry, art and everything else that Charlestonians can craft.  We tasted Benne cookies – a melt-in-your mouth delicacy.  We savored the best pizza we’ve had in years at di Giovanni’s Pizza – thin crust, huge slices, chewy greasy cheese and perfect sauce!  We loved the Southern charm, lovely architecture and nice weather of Charleston.

With my Aunt Camille

We brought Aunt Camille to our RV where we served her a lemon chicken and rice meal.  She loved our home and then the next day the five of us sat down for a quick lunch.  It is a great treat for us to show folks our home on wheels and when they have no experience with RVs or campgrounds, we can share our happy existence and know that they leave having learned something new for them.

We got to see Charleston and walked on original slate and cobblestone sidewalks to Waterfront Park to see the ships in the harbor, the famous Pineapple Fountain and lots of horse-drawn carriages clomping through the immaculate streets.

Pineapple Fountain

Aunt Camille is a theater lover in a city with many old and excellent stages with modern productions.  As a volunteer usher in many of the theaters, she knows the performers, the best seats and the greatest current plays.  She treated us to a lovely night at a very popular rendition of a Southern classic – “Steel Magnolias”.  It was amazing to see a favorite story portrayed by six talented women in a simple but meaningful set design while we were surrounded by other theater goers chatting in various Southern accents.  It all made for a wonderful evening.

A park near Battery Point

It was great to share memories with Aunt Camille and even better to know that we are all enjoying our current lifestyles.  We hope to pass her way again in a few years.

On the streets of Charleston

The KOA where we stayed for this visit was only about 10 minutes from Aunt Camille’s home, but it was also a beautiful campground.  Our large front window was positioned to look out on a lake – serene blue sparkling water, Canada geese and herons and egrets.  Our site was large and grassy – a little expensive.  The weather was cooler than we like but still a very nice stay.

The view from our campsite at the Mt Pleasant KOA

Doug is meticulous about preparation and safety but even so sometimes stuff happens.  We planned on leaving the KOA at exactly the check out time so that we could arrive at our next site at their check in time.  We don’t usually wait until the last minute to leave.  Of course, the one time we did, we had problems.  I was checking the lights on the Toad and one was out.  Doug repaired the connection and eventually that problem was fixed.  Now we were a few minutes after check out and one of the staff was telling us that another camper was moving to our site and ready to pull in.  As we got in the RV to leave, the stairs by the door suddenly groaned and shuddered and now we had another problem.  We pulled onto the campground road to let the next RV pull into our site, but we couldn’t drive on the highway with our steps stuck out.  So, Doug crawled under the motor home and disengaged the motor and secured the steps in with bungee cords.  Thanks to Doug being able to fix anything, he ordered the parts and had it fixed in a few days. Until then, we had a huge first step!

We had five nights at Huntington Beach State Park just a little south of Myrtle Beach.  We had planned on checking out Myrtle Beach but the beach in this campground was so quiet, huge and pristine that we spent our beach time there.  We had a large pretty campsite in the North Campground, a 15-minute hike on a pretty woodsy trail and over a lush dune to our beach.  We walked there a few times and had one perfect day of beach-sitting in fairly warm temperatures.  One rainy day was a good chance to do some grocery shopping.

Huntington Beach

Sometimes, the campground itself is the destination to enjoy.  When we plan our traveling route, Doug looks to land in a spot that has things to do – a big city to explore, a nature attraction with hikes or waterfalls, a special historical site or a museum.  But always we hope for a beautiful beach – to sit on and watch the waves and dig our toes in the warm sand.  Huntington Beach State Park is a destination in itself.  We had five days of reservations there and we spent the whole five days right in that park.  We’ve seen some wonderful State Parks in the South and this park is one of the best.

The only alligator we’ve seen this whole winter

One day we walked over to the Atalaya Castle and toured through this strangely beautiful home.  Mr. Huntington built it for his wife who was a sculptor and he fashioned it to resemble Moorish architecture – red brick walls, narrow corridors, wrought iron on the windows and large areas for horses, dogs and bears.  Definitely a strange but intriguing home to visit.  We had a great conversation with Jane, the volunteer, who shared her vast knowledge of this home and its occupants with us.  Once again, we found an interesting volunteer opportunity to consider.

Atalaya Castle
One of the hallways in the “castle”

We loved this park.  We managed to easily live comfortably with 30 amps and no sewer.  We’ve got this stuff down now and with a little adjustment to our usual routine we are fine.

Now on to a new state for our map – North Carolina, number 37!

Leave a Comment

Filed under South Carolina

by | · 11:54 am

On the Road from Florida to “Peachy In Perry” Rally

All packed up and ready for the road, we left North Miami Beach.  We managed to get through to the highway without much traffic and no horn-blowing.  We had an easy ride to Vero Beach where we stayed at Sunshine Travel Resort for one night.

Then we drove an even shorter distance to Orlando RV Resort, a Thousand Trails park we stay in for free.  The two nights there gave us time to buy lots of groceries and do a few loads of laundry.  I like this laundry room – clean, good machines (with separate machines for campers with pets).  We were preparing for a few more days on the road and then our stay at the rally where we will not have water or sewer and we don’t want to leave the rally for groceries.

In Orlando, our next site campers, Bill and Karen, were also going to the rally.  This will be the largest RV rally we have attended – the International Family Motor Coach Association – with almost 2000 rigs attending.

As we drove to our next quick stop at Stephen Foster State Park, we saw lots of rigs heading the same way we were.  We stopped on Monday for gas at a Pilot truck stop.  Pulled up next to us was another Tiffin like ours.  With so many motor homes heading to Perry, it was an easy conversation that we would all be attending the rally.  This couple, Martha and Bill, were also spending that night at Twin Oaks Campground.  Martha and I briefly spoke, I gave her our card, and we agreed to find each other after we parked at the rally.  Casual friendships happen like this all the time on the road.

The Carillon Tower at Stephen Foster State Park

We arrived right on time for our scheduled rally parking.  There was a short delay getting us into our site, but we liked the convenient location we had in Lot #1, just a few rows down from the end of the lot.  We hooked up the electric (no sewer, no water so we were using our holding tanks – which is really not a problem for a few days).  Martha and Bill were camping a few rows over from us.

Martha called and we agreed to get together that afternoon at our RV site.  They brought over their chairs and drinks and we had a few hours of conversation and camaraderie on a beautiful Perry, Georgia afternoon.  They have attended more rallies than we have and shared their knowledge and expectations with us.

Martha and I had tickets for the Ladies Luncheon, and we agreed to go together.  It’s always a good approach to enter one of these things with at least one other person.  Neither of us is shy but it is intimidating to find a table to sit at when it seems like everyone else is holding seats for their friends.  Martha had also arranged to go with a friendly vendor and I had asked Gloria whose RV was across from us.  Then the four of us befriended a woman sitting alone who was very happy to sit with such a nice group of women.  I think the simple bonding we did before the lunch made it one of the best of these events I have attended.  Such pleasant, up-beat conversations we had, along with good food and music.

Our “site” at the Perry Rally

These rallies are jam-packed with seminars, entertainment and vendor displays.  Doug and I spent hours pouring over the offerings and planning our separate days.  There were way too many good seminars to attend – we had to divide and conquer.  Plus, while Doug went to the technical workshops, I found some great crafting groups to meet with – new ideas for quilts on the road, a fiber artists group that may expand into on on-line group, diamond painting (something new for me) and a greeting card seminar.

The greeting cards I made
Pondering over which seminars to attend

Doug and I managed to meet for lunch in the Town Center Square Tent every day (and listened to the bands and choral groups that entertained then).  We started some days with donuts and coffee and more entertainment while we went over our ever-changing schedules.

The clock tower at the town square
The lake by the town square at the rally

We ate at our RV for dinners, while we compared notes on our day’s fun and rested up for the evening festivities.  We laughed with a humorist on Wednesday night, enjoyed the Coasters, the Drifters and the Platters on Friday night and listened to the horns and swing music of Louis Prima, Jr. on Saturday night.

The amount of walking we did more than took care of the donut and ice cream calories.  From Tuesday afternoon through Sunday morning, I tracked well over 21 miles walking around the beautiful Perry Fairgrounds and back and forth to our RV.  It is well-known that I have a poor sense of direction and some of those miles were me being lost between seminars.

We learned a lot, met wonderful fellow travelers, joined RVillage and Tiffin Motorhomes Lifestyle Facebook groups and considered joining the Full Timers Chapter.  Some folks travel from rally to rally but we’re not in the category.  We’ve agreed they are valuable activities in our life, but will probably go to one large rally every other year.  It’s tempting to attend many – for instance the next big FMCA rally is the 100th year anniversary in Minot, North Dakota, but our planned travel misses that by a month and there is another rally in Tucson which we may attend on a day pass depending on our volunteer work schedule.  So much to see and do – so many plans – we just can’t fit it all in nor do we want to fill our time that intensely.  So we enjoyed this Peachy in Perry Rally and we’ll see what happens in the future.

After all that fun, we needed a rest and Camp Lake Jasper in Hardeesville, South Carolina was just the place to do it.  We filled in our food supplies and got our laundry done.  The weather has been spotty with a nice warm and sunny day in between cold, damp and rainy days.  We take the good with the bad and try to enjoy seeing this part of the county.

Our next big excitement is visiting my Aunt Camille in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina.  Can’t wait to spend time with her!

Leave a Comment

Filed under Florida, Georgia, South Carolina

by | March 8, 2019 · 2:04 pm

Leaving Oleta River State Park

We just finished our volunteer stint at Oleta River State Park.  We had been at Oleta since early December and it feels just right to hit the road again.  After a few months in one spot, we can’t wait to travel again.

View from the south end of Oleta River State Park

I finally was able to really enjoy my job at the Gatehouse.  There was so much to learn and it’s so fast-paced – but I loved greeting the guests – who, in spite of 40 seconds of interaction, I became friendly with.  One weekend I worked both mornings and it was very busy.  On that Sunday, there were four pavilions rented for large events and a day camp in session.  That meant hundreds of people entering the park in addition to the sunny weather bringing in many hundreds more.  I work with lots of cash, plus credit cards, so I have to be on my toes to be accurate. 

Carolyn at the gatehouse

I think I mostly enjoyed the challenge of this job.  I’m happy that I’m physically able to stand on my feet for four hours and walk back and forth from the cars to the register.  I’m happy I have the mental capability to make change, answer questions, and still continue to smile.  I’ve had lots of support from the staff here and I’m grateful to them for all their patient help.

Doug has been involved in a maintenance project that has brought him some satisfaction.  He designed and built fold-down tables for the 14 cabins in the park.  The design is great and he managed to get them all installed before we left.  It wasn’t that easy since our cabins are very popular and he had to squeeze in the installations between check-outs and check-ins.  In addition to the washing machine, he has fixed a Gator or two, the front gate, a power source for the gate camera and still did a field shift once in a while.  You can be certain that when he was done with his shift, that area of the park was free of trash.

Doug at the maintenance shop

In February we were treated to a really nice Volunteer Appreciation Day. Our supervisor Chelsea rented a car to take us and another volunteer couple to Bill Baggs State Park. We were served a very nice breakfast and lunch and were given tickets for a lighthouse tour, a boat tour, beach chairs, beach umbrellas and bike rides. The park itself is beautiful with lush sandy dunes on a sparkling white beach. Doug and I spent our time walking on the beach and we rented a two-seater surrey (bike) to really get to see the park. There was an award ceremony and through that we learned about the other Southeastern Florida State Parks and some of the unique volunteer opportunities with them. It was a beautiful day that showed off the impressive contributions of volunteers in this state.

Enjoying Bill Baggs State Park
On the surrey bicycle

This last month we’ve spent more time with my brother Dan and his wife Lisa.  Dan has had some health issues but is improving.  He was able to walk to the beach on our lagoon last week with just a little stabilizing help from us.  We drove to their home in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea to indulge in Taco Tuesday at our new favorite restaurant –Taco Craft.  We also met his high school friend Nancy there and those tacos we all shared were amazing.  On our last night, Dan, Lisa and Emily came our way to eat.  We planned to eat at a Thai restaurant here in North Miami Beach but switched to our new favorite – Kabobji, a Middle Eastern Restaurant.

A busy day at the beach

We discovered Kabobji when Doug’s brother, Nelson and his wife were on a few days’ layover in Miami on their way to Buenos Aires, the Falklands, and the Sandwich Islands.  We experimented with Kabobji’s and were excited to have such a great meal – fresh baked pita, luscious hummus, fluffy rice with toasted almonds, shwarma, kabobs, falafel, wraps – all delicious!  So good, in fact, that Doug and I went back the next day for lunch and then brought our family there again.  We are sorry we discovered it so late in our stay!

It will be hard to say good-bye to Dan and Lisa since we are not sure when we’ll see them again.  But we are hoping they take their beautiful RoadTrek to visit us in Arizona next winter.

Two years ago we spent 2 months in Florida and had beautiful weather.  This winter was not as good – much more rain and overcast days in between high humidity, which means more bugs.  We are still being bitten by no-seeums and are now seeing some mosquito bites too.  I have two fire ant bites on my ankles which are over 6 weeks old and still look scabby and itch.  So leaving this beautiful mangrove and sea grape jungle will mean our skin will heal and we won’t have to slather ourselves in lotions and oils just to exit our RV.

Sea Grape

We will be saying good-bye to the staff and other volunteers here too.  We’ve made connections with some of them and hope they keep in touch.

One of the hard parts of leaving a long-term stay is getting the RV back to travel mode.  We found that when we are stationary we accumulate – extra food – more clothes – STUFF.  So a purge and a thorough cleaning had to happen before we left.  We ate whatever was in the pantry and refrigerator and I prepared food to freeze for easy meals on the road.  We made one last charity donation as we weeded through our closet, drawers and cabinets. 

We will definitely miss the free washer and dryer we had access to here.  The first two months we were here the washer wasn’t working, but Doug fixed it and we figure it saved us about $10 per week in laundry costs.  I will definitely miss that Doug left for work at the shop with a bag of dirty laundry and returned with clean laundry.  All I had to do was fold and put it away.  Once we are on the road, laundry is usually my job.  But I enjoy using the campground facilities when available.  That’s where I meet like-minded travelers who share their journeys and ideas with me.  Doug and I enjoy the times when it’s just us.  We settle into a gentle and comfortable routine.  But once in a while I need a little bit of conversation from someone else.

So it was a busy week of getting ready to leave, but the lure of the road ahead was great incentive as always.

3 Comments

Filed under Florida

by | February 28, 2019 · 5:15 pm

Halfway Through Our Florida Adventure

The month of January had us working our volunteer jobs at Oleta River State Park.  Doug is now doing more maintenance – fixing things and building things and occasionally helping with trash pick up.  I am feeling more comfortable at the Gatehouse and have come to love the busy mornings when I feel like I am dancing between the cars coming in and the phone ringing.  I have made a few mistakes (ugh!) but everyone has been great to work with.

Our daughters, Becky and Paola, and our grandsons, Benjo and Mati, spent a week with us.  It was wonderful!  We celebrated Christmas and New Year’s Eve together (just a little late!).  We had a Sunday Dinner with my brother, Dan and his wife Lisa.  We had a picnic on the beach with my sister-in-law Theresa.  Doug took them to Secret Woods where they caught a glimpse of a manatee.  We spent some perfect days on the beach digging in the sand and playing in the quiet water of the lagoon.  Becky and Paola enjoyed a moonlight kayak tour and also spent a night in a cabin in the park during the beautiful Wolf Blood Moon/Eclipse.  We ate a lot and enjoyed every minute with them.  We miss them and look forward to more time at their home in Philadelphia this May.

Christmas in January!

Waiting for a manatee to pass by on the New River

Grandpa and the boys

Nana and Mati

The highlight of their visit with us was the boys’ Junior Ranger Induction Ceremony.  Ranger Chelsie swore them in, gave them their badges and certificates and they took their responsibilities seriously.  We showed them how to use the Grabber and every time we went out to play, hike or go to the beach, we took the Grabber and a plastic grocery bag.  The boys, even at almost 5 and almost 3, recognized trash when they saw it and pounced on it like good stewards of the Earth.  We lost track of the number of bags of trash they disposed of.  The Nature Trail and the Beach were cleaner after Benjo and Mati passed by.  The very first day we did this, we were walking from the parking lot to the beach and Benjo spotted his first piece of trash – he enthusiastically ran to it but tripped and scraped his knee.  He was wounded in the line of duty, but he picked himself up and continued his quest!  We are so proud of them!  They truly earned their Junior Ranger Vests and badges!

Playing on the lagoon beach

Proud New Junior Rangers

The whole family

We have been able to visit Dan and Lisa in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea a few more times and we fall in love with that area more each time.  We’ve had some memorable meals in the fun sidewalk restaurants and have heard a few bands while sitting near the beach.  We are so happy that they have found the perfect place to enjoy their retirement.  We even got to spend one night with their daughter, Emily, who visited them for her birthday.

We have about one month to go here at Oleta River.  New adventures await.  We will be supervising a Beach Clean Up for a volunteer group this month.  I love the opportunity to share my love for the park and public lands while teaching them to be good citizens of the Earth.  I love greeting the regular park-goers as they enter almost every morning to bike, kayak, walk, or sit on the beach.  Their warm and pleasant greetings to me make my day.  I even have some favorite dogs that sweetly say good morning to me too.

There has been quite a bit of rain this past month, so we take advantage of any sunny days to beach-sit.  Our lives are in a nice pattern – a trip to a really good laundromat about every two weeks keeps our clothes and towels clean and we don’t mind all the quarters we spend since we are only there about 1 ½ hours.  I have come to enjoy shopping at the nearby Winn-Dixie.  It has the most diverse selection of food I’ve ever seen.  We’ve tried both the Cubano and Puerto Rican bread, experimented with some Jewish food whose packaging was in Hebrew so I’m not sure what it is called but it was all good, and I can’t resist the spicy Jamaican beef patties.  I notice something new each time I go.

We are starting to plan our trip north.  We are attending a Family Motor Coach Association Rally – “Peachy in Perry”, in Georgia.  Then a few days with my Aunt Camille near Charleston, SC.  We’ll take our time heading to Philadelphia with lots of leisure camping time so we can keep avoiding winter.  We look forward to a busy May near Philadelphia where we will see family and friends.

Once we leave Philadelphia we head towards Michigan where we can’t wait to spend time with Doug’s brother Nelson and his wife Lydia exploring the Upper Peninsula in Michigan.  We expect to get to North Dakota for the first time.    We’ll continue out to Portland, Oregon for a visit to our family there.

We will finally spend a few nights in Idaho and Utah – the first time for this RV trip so we will be adding a few more states to our map.  We’ll continue down to Arizona for a long stay there.  We will take care of doctors and dentists and other necessities and then spend the winter volunteering at Kartchner Caverns State Park.  When I wrote it out like this it sounds like a whirlwind tour through America, but our travels are not rushed; there is much to see and do with plenty of lazy days in between.

We really love this life!  Thanks for reading our blog!  We feel like this is a good way for us to keep in touch and for all of you to know how we are doing and where we are.  Hope you all are well and happy too!

2 Comments

Filed under Florida