by | September 14, 2017 · 6:48 pm

Moving through the Midwest

(This blog was written before we heard the tragic news of our nephew Danny’s passing.  It’s hard to read this now – our hearts are clouded with grief and our easy-going happy blog exists in its own vacuum.  But life goes on in spite of pain so we decided to publish this blog today as we planned. )

We haven’t written much about our travel days – maybe because the scenery around Pennsylvania and then Ohio, and Indiana and now Illinois, was familiar – lots of green acres, farms, and two lane highways.  We left the rolling hills and softly rounded mountains when we drove west of Pennsylvania and noticed that Ohio and Indiana were flat.  It’s not that this part of the country isn’t pretty – the farms seem to be thriving and since it’s September – the crops are near harvest time.  But there is nothing remarkable about this scenery to us.  It looks just like the middle of New Jersey as you drive on the Turnpike, Parkway or Rt. 295.

But it isn’t boring.  We have passed some interesting things on this journey and here’s just a short list of them:

  • On Route 70, we drove past Xenia, Ohio, near where some of Doug’s mother’s relatives came from
  • In Talmage, PA we saw a sign advertising Lawn Chair Worship – thought that would be better than hard wooden pews at a church service some day
  • Saw a sign that said “Smile and give your frown a break”
  • I never thought about this, but Frederick the Great was the King in King of Prussia
  • Pennsylvania was a busy time for us – we met up with 29 family and friends!
  • In East Berlin, PA we sniggered (childishly) at the sign for Peepytown Road
  • We passed a sign near Hagerstown, Indiana for Wilbur Wright’s birthplace – causing us to wonder where Orville was born (Dayton, Ohio)
  • Loved the billboard on Rt. 70 in Ohio encouraging us to visit Watkins Glen, NY – just 607 miles away and then turn right

So our journey is not just looking at the highway lane in front of us, but also trying to get a feel for the country we are passing at 55 miles per hour.  Reading the place names, the billboards, the handmade signs, gives us a flavor and sense of the people who inhabit the area.

It feels like we are really on the move now.  We spent our last few days in Pennsylvania in the Madison/Pittsburgh KOA in Ruffs Dale.  From there we landed in Nashport, Ohio, our 28th state on this trip.  Doug had carefully planned this stop to get me to the BIGGEST BASKET IN THE WORLD!  We drove to Newark to what used to be the Longaberger Basket headquarters.  Dave Longaberger is the founder of the basket company famous all around the world.  The company was known for its great employment practices. The basketeers, mostly local women, were shareholders, had good benefits and enjoyed a compassionate workplace.  As the business grew, Dave created the iconic building to house his headquarters.  The building is shaped exactly like the company’s famous picnic basket, complete with two huge handles made of poured concrete.  Unfortunately, the company took a downward turn after Dave passed away and also because the demand for the baskets diminished.  So the giant basket building is now empty. But there it stands still – looking amazing!

It also seems like the factory and The Homestead is taking a downward turn.  We drove out to Frazeysburg and saw only a few cars at the factory’s employee parking lot.  Nearby is a huge complex of beautiful buildings and landscaping called The Homestead.  We parked our car in the enormous parking lot which that day held 5 other cars.  We walked through an impressive but empty welcome center and went into the main building which has 2 large floors of shopping.  I love baskets.  I never thought I would say this, but after wandering through all the rooms on both floors, I felt like I had seen too many baskets.  Longaberger baskets are known for their quality – each one has the name of the maker on the bottom.  True collectors know every shape and size and use for these baskets and they are willing to pay for the quality.  Longaberger baskets are pricey.  So, Doug and I headed to the sale floor, where we bought a small basket originally retailing for about $30, on sale for $17.  Still pricey.

But while we were on the sale floor, we found a dark corner filled with bins overflowing with the cloth liners that Longaberger sells to decorate the inside of the baskets.  This was where the real bargains were.  The signs on the table invited us to fill a bag (about 5 by 8”) for $1.00!  The liners were in all different sizes and patterns, made of really good quality material.  So I filled two bags with  lots of sewing projects in mind.  We also found 12 x 12” framed canvases for $1.00 each and some little “basket hangers” – little knickknacks for baskets – for $.50 each.  By sewing 2 identical liners together I made tote bags, shopping bags, and small Halloween baskets.  For $2.00 (including sales tax) I had a lot of fun.  So much so, that two days later, Doug and I went back to rummage through those bins again.  This time we left with five bags.  Doug got carried away with the savings and stuffed those bags way beyond the reasonable limit.  I made him go to the cashier alone.  But I now have a stash of projects, liners for our very own baskets that I can change with the seasons, and all for a total of $7.00!  Plus I got to see the BIGGEST BASKET IN THE WORLD!

We left Nashport, Ohio on Labor Day and stopped for a few days in the KOA in Richmond, Indiana (our 29th state).  Indiana was a short stay but we met some friendly people there.  Richmond is known for its antiquing but since we don’t have much need for anything else in our RV, we opted to skip the antiques and instead shopped at Fountain Acres, an Amish market.  We checked out the aisles of bulk food, a large selection of gluten free products, and some beautiful produce.  As I write this I smile at the memory of the delicious ruby red tomatoes I’ve been enjoying for dinner.  We also tried the dried kiwi – not too sweet but really tasty.  We have been nibbling the excellent cheese we bought – and now wish we had bought more!  We took home two blocks of cheese but had fun sampling many more.  I couldn’t resist a jar of sweet but spicy pickles – yum!

We drove through Indianapolis on I-70 which gave us a view of its skyline – some new construction amidst the old brick buildings.  We saw the Indianapolis Colts Lucas Oil Stadium and got a quick glimpse of the capital dome.

We are now calling this part of the country the Land of the Large because we have passed signs directing us to large things like:

  • the largest wind chime
  • the largest golf tee
  • the largest rocking chair
  • the largest catsup bottle
  • the largest horseshoe
  • the largest giant pink elephant
  • the largest covered wagon
  • and maybe not “the largest” but still impressively large – Paul Bunyan and other monstrosities

We are not stopping to see these marvels but I still hope to see the largest ball of twine someday.  No matter – my life is complete since I saw the BIGGEST BASKET IN THE WORLD!

Now we are in Sullivan, Illinois.  We are celebrating in this beautiful Army Corps of Engineer Park* – Forrest W. “Bo” Wood Park surrounding the blue crystal clear waters of Shelby Lake – our 30th state and our 100th campground since we started our journey.  We “checked in” with each other this morning and we are still excited about living in our RV, traveling the country and being the Wistful Wanderers.  So far, it still feels new and wonderful and we wouldn’t change a thing.

One of the ways we track our journey is with our map – we only put the state sticker on if we stay at least one night in our RV.  As you can see from this photo – we are filling our map in and if you read our blog, you know that our adventures fill our hearts as well as this map.

Every day is a journey and the journey itself is home.”

– Matsuo Basho

*Just a note here:  We love the Army Corps of Engineer Parks we have been in.  They typically are some of the prettiest campsites we stay at.  In this park, we have a large, gravel and grass site, 50 amps of electricity – all for $9.00 per night.  It would have cost the really reasonable rate of $18 but with my Senior Pass, we live here at half price.  Other than a free site, these COE parks are the best deals in the country.

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by | August 29, 2017 · 2:51 pm

Plenty of Possibilities in Pennsylvania!

[Note: Our last blog was a quiz.  We had a few people participate.  Most gave up too soon. Our winner was Ken Bilderback from Oregon – he guessed that the quiz was a bit of a trick.  He got two answers and then figured out that all of the answers were the same  – Lancaster, PA.  Ken has been sent our prize – a lovely postcard from the city of Lancaster.  Thanks, Ken.  We’re glad you won and happy that you enjoyed our little game.]

Our adventures keep getting better and better and Pennsylvania has been a long stay (36 days) with many exciting times during it.  We left our pretty site at Whispering Pines and found our new spot at Pinch Pond Campground in Manheim.  There was plenty to do around us but we started with a day of food shopping and laundry.

On our second full day in Manheim, we went to Hershey World and did the Chocolate Factory Tour.  It wasn’t the real factory – just a Disney-like ride but it was fun and we got a small piece of chocolate at the end.  We had fun shopping in the world’s largest candy store.  Then we drove through the town of Hershey which is a nice little town – how could you not like it?  It smells like chocolate!

Near the front entrance

On Friday, August 11th we drove over to Crystal Cave.  We mentioned that we will be volunteering at Kartchner Caverns in November and we are reading and researching about caves and bats.  It was interesting to see Crystal Caves – the inside is not nearly as large as Kartchner but it has similar features. We took the tour and learned about the long history of this “show” cave.  Many caves like this one have been damaged irreparably by tourists traipsing through them but this one has held up well.  I think my family visited here in the 50’s.  There is a family home movie with all of us going into and coming out of a cave which I think was Crystal Cave.  In this movie, my grandmother is wearing a beautiful shirtwaist dress and high wedgies.  It’s a wonder she didn’t turn her ankle on the slippery uneven surfaces of the walkways in this dark cave.  We enjoyed seeing the structures and getting a taste of another underground marvel.

A stalagmite inside Crystal Cave

On Saturday, we drove through bucolic Lancaster County.  The homes and farms were neat and pretty with lots of flowers.  As we drive all over Pennsylvania we can’t help but notice that the lawns are enormous and meticulously mowed and trimmed.  We imagine endless hours on tractor mowers to keep them so perfect.  We stopped in the Bird-in-Hand Farmers Market, which is an indoor mall with lots of booths, only one or two that actually sells produce.  We bought some cider, some tomatoes and cucumbers, shoo-fly pie and some little toys for our grandsons.

The City of Lancaster was our next day’s adventure and we did the Historic Walking Tour.  If you saw our last blog which was really a quiz, and if you read the note at the top of this blog, you will now know that Lancaster is a city filled with history.  As we did the walking tour, we frequently stopped to marvel that all this stuff happened in this relatively small, remote city in the middle of Pennsylvania.  We refer you back to our quiz to fully understand how much there was to learn there.  One thing we didn’t include was that Abraham Lincoln passed through Lancaster twice.  Once during his campaign and then again when the train carried his coffin.  We stood on that corner that is no longer a railroad track but still has the feel of history.

Soldiers and Sailors Monument in downtown Lancaster

Just a note – we celebrated nineteen months on the road on August 13th!  Still going strong!

We didn’t want to leave Pennsylvania Dutch Country without learning more about the religious history that is still so evident here.  It’s not just horse-drawn buggies, old-fashioned clothing and amazing fruits and vegetables.  We stopped by the Mennonite Information Center and read about the Amish and the Mennonites.  We found that their differences are minor compared to their core beliefs.  The Old Order Amish and the Old Order Mennonites live their lives with a similar purpose of dedication to God and the strict traditions of centuries.

On Tuesday we moved our campsite to the Homestead Family Campground.  This area is very close to Plymouth Meeting/Valley Forge where Doug used to own his home.  One of our objectives in coming to this area was to visit Valley Forge Memorial Gardens to tend to Doug’s brother Creighton’s grave.  This cemetery is very peaceful and beautiful and after we put flowers on his grave, we lingered a bit to enjoy the serenity and remember Creighton.

The next day didn’t start out well.  Doug had installed sensors on all of our tires and first thing in the morning we heard the beeping.  One of the tires on our Honda CRV was loosing air.  We had planned to drive to New Jersey to see my brother Danny and his wife Lisa.  I was bringing lunch.  Doug put on the spare and eventually wound up getting all four tires replaced.  We are grateful that we were able to do this safely and not by getting a tire blown out on the turnpike.  But unfortunately, we were very late getting to my brother’s.   As soon as we arrived, we had to leave for his therapy appointment.  Danny has made amazing progress and it was good to see him getting back his strength and being able to use his arms and legs.  We managed to meet up with a bunch of my family – Steve, Sharon, Nico, Emily – in a wonderful restaurant in Collingswood – Sabrina’s.  It was great to sit next to Danny and see him enjoy a meal in a restaurant.  And, of course, it was a good time to be with my family.  We don’t plan on being back in Jersey for a while so this was a special time for us.  And, Collingswood, NJ is a great place to explore.  We were treated to an antique car show that we hadn’t even expected.

Having a good time in Collingswood!

Then it was the weekend of the Philadelphia Folk Festival!!!!  Thirty years ago, Doug and I spent the second half of our honeymoon at the Folk Fest.  This year we had the extreme pleasure of being at one of our favorite events and having our son, Jon and daughter, Becky with her wife Paola and two adorable sons, Benjo and Mati share the fun with us.

To start the weekend off right, Doug and I babysat for Benjo (3) and Mati (16 months) – in our RV.  It was a very rainy, thundering evening so Becky and Paola stayed for dinner.  As the weather cleared they left for the evening concert.  Our babies were the best – we all slept together in our king-size bed and by 8:30 pm we were all tucked in.  Of course, that didn’t last long – Mati was up a few times but always went back to sleep.  Benjo slept through Mati walking on his face and kicking him.  But we cuddled and loved them and we all woke up happy.  Becky, Paola and Jon came to the RV for breakfast and showers and then we all took off for our first day of Folk Fest Fun.  Doug and I walked around trying to find some shade as we reminisced about all the times we spent at the Folk Festival and how it stayed the same even though there were some changes.  We sat on our blanket under the stars for the evening concert.  We were looking forward to seeing Graham Nash, but before he came on there was some thunder and rain.  We must be getting old, because we didn’t hesitate to pick up our stuff and head to the shuttle which took us back to our car.  Jon and his friends made it back to the concert and everyone said they really enjoyed it.

Mati and Benjo enjoying a movie

View towards the Main Stage at the Folk Fest

Sunday, Doug and I took off early to get to the Folk Fest in time to bring lunch for everyone.  Becky, Paola and the boys were enjoying the shade and children’s activities in Dulcimer Grove so we set up a blanket there and shared lunch with Jon and his friends.  The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Camp Stage listening to Celtic Music while Benjo played and colored and Mati walked and walked all around the grassy area.  Becky and family left and we said our good-byes and then we braved the sun to listen to more afternoon concerts.

At four pm the traditional bag piper marched through the crowd and onto the stage to start the last concert.  The music was great – lots of dancing in the “aisles” and as it got dark, the glo-sticks and glo-hula hoops came out.  Then Taj Mahal came on stage and once again, we had a great time listening to their tunes.  It is always a little bittersweet when the last concert comes to a close and we pick up our blanket, put on our shoes, find the rest of our stuff in the dark and say our good-byes.  This time it was not just leaving the Folk Fest grounds but also saying good-bye to our kids and grandkids.  This was the 56th Philadelphia Folk Festival and we are confident that the Folksong Society will continue these festivals long into the future.  We always feel that we will be back someday!

Sunday night concert – view from the back of the audience

We spent Monday resting and doing some laundry.  It was the day of the Solar Eclipse so we went outside to experience it.  We didn’t have the special glasses so we didn’t look directly at it.  We noted that the small patches of sunlight coming through the trees were crescent-shaped and that was pretty cool.  While we were outside, we met another couple – Joan and Bob – who own the same model RV.  They came over to visit with us later that day.  We compared notes and shared tips and travel suggestions with them.

August 22nd was our 30th wedding anniversary.  It turned out to be a travel day – we moved from Homestead to Gettysburg Farm Campground.  We spent the day remembering our wedding and talking about us.  We had already celebrated by being at the Folk Festival and with all the stuff we had been up to, it was nice to just relax a bit when we got to our new site.  That first night brought enough rain to make deep puddles on our grassy site that lasted until we left.

After another day of just food shopping and cooking, we went to see Gettysburg National Military site.  The museum was very well done.  We walked up to a circular room, called a Cyclorama, where there was the largest oil painting on the surrounding walls.  The painting depicted the battle of Gettysburg.  The Ranger told us that it was very carefully researched and the number and placement of the soldiers was accurate.  The foreground had 3-dimensional objects like boulders and cannons and shoes and trees so you really felt like you were in the battle.  The rest of the museum was equally riveting.  As you walked through the displays, you could stop to see a short movie explaining the events of each day of battle.

A portion of the Cyclorama

After learning about this part of the war in the museum, we got in our car and for over an hour we drove from site to site along the auto tour.  We read the descriptions of the different sites and started to understand the progress of the battle.  We were amazed at the number and size of the memorials scattered through the battlefield area.  Each and every battalion and division from each state and locality has erected some kind of statue or memorial to honor the dead and remember the struggle.  It would have taken days to see them all.  We then went to the National (Soldiers’) Cemetery – veterans from all the wars since the Civil War were laid to rest there.  We walked around the grave sites and enjoyed seeing trees from all over the United States.  We stood approximately where Lincoln gave his address.  Gettysburg was the turning point in the war and for us, it was a sad place but one that also inspired us.  The values that our country fought over all those years ago – we are still struggling now to get it right.

The Pennsylvania memorial at Gettysburg (one of many)

On Friday night we were so happy to be able to visit our friends Lee and Jill.  Lee and Doug were in elementary though high school together – so their friendship has deep roots.  We met Jill about 8 years ago when they got married.  Doug was Lee’s best man and the wedding was lovely – but as usual with this kind of event – we didn’t have much time to get to know Jill.  So it was a great pleasure for the four of us to connect.  We had a fun dinner at their beautiful new home in Mechanicsburg.  We talked for hours and then they came to visit our RV the next day.  Another fun meal and a long walk around our campground and then more hanging out and talking.  We enjoyed our time together so much we are hoping that Lee and Jill can meet us somewhere on our travels.  For sure, we will be seeing them when we pass this way again.

Jill and Lee

On August 27th we left Gettysburg and headed west to the Pittsburgh area.  We are staying at the Madison/Pittsburgh KOA in Ruffs Dale, PA.  We have one of the best sites – a corner looking out at a pretty lake.

Yesterday, we did something that has been on my bucket-list.  We went to Fallingwater!  Frank Lloyd Wright built this magnificent home for the Kauffman family during the Depression.  To see it today is amazing.  Wright was so far ahead of his time that this home looks modern and the engineering involved in the iconic cantilevered patios is still being marveled at today.  It was Doug’s first Wright experience, but not mine.  I have been on the 3-hour tour at Taliesin West twice and in November I saw the Rosenbaum house in Florence, Alabama.  Taking these tours gives you an intimate look at the details, the structure, the order of the house and also gives you a deep look into the mind of a truly great architect.  Wright’s innovations stand the test of time.  I was thrilled to be able to be in this famous home.  What I hadn’t anticipated was that the home has been kept intact – including all the furniture and items that were the wealthy Kauffman’s.  I was up close and personal with a few Diego Rivera’s, a Picasso, some pre-Columbian art, and more.  It’s one thing to see art hanging in a museum.  It is a totally other experience to see famous art pieces hanging in a person’s home.  After the tour, we walked through the forest surrounding the home and stood looking at Bear Run, the powerful water that flows under the home.  A day to remember!

Iconic view of Fallingwater

Another view of Fallingwater

We will be leaving Pennsylvania this coming Thursday.  If you have read our blog, you can tell that we have done a lot in this state.  The weather has not always been great – some rain, lots of muggy days and overcast days.  But we can’t complain while we watch Hurricane Harvey destroy so much in Texas.  We now are having cooler temperatures that are hinting that Fall is coming.  We got to see lots of friends and family while we were in this state.  The only complaint we have is that the roads in Pennsylvania have been the worst we have experienced all over the country.  And some of the worst roads were tolls roads.  It really stinks to pay all that money and also put up with roads that clearly need repairs.  The RV with all its axles costs considerably more than a car – the last toll took $42.85 from us.  But with all the great things that we still want to see in this state – we will forget our complaints and be back.

We now turn westward.  Making our slow but steady trek towards Tucson.

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by | August 13, 2017 · 3:59 pm

A City Quiz

We love exploring cities and learning some history and interesting facts so we thought we would share some of our discoveries with you, our blog readers.  Enjoy the quiz.  Your clue is that your answer will be a city in Pennsylvania.  There are 57 municipalities in Pennsylvania that are called cities.  So good luck!

  1. What city served as the U.S. capitol for one day – September 27, 1777?
  2. In what city was the first turnpike chartered?
  3. Where did Conestoga wagons originate?
  4. Before he established the town of Hershey, where did Milton Hershey operate his first factory which made caramels? (Hint:  these caramels still bear the city’s name.)
  5. Where was the oldest operating tobacconist in America? It opened in 1770 and closed in 2011.
  6. In what city was Barbara Fritchie baptized in the First Reformed Church in 1766? She was the Civil War heroine immortalized in John Greenleaf Whittier’s poem – “Shoot, if you must, this old gray head, But spare your country’s flag, she said….”
  7. In what city did Rev. Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg serve as pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church from 1780 to 1815? You will remember him as the noteworthy botanist who discovered the smallest turtle in America – the Bog Turtle.
  8. In what city did the first commercial telegraph line in the U.S. run? (Hint:  It ran along the railroad right-of-way and the first message it relayed was “Why don’t you write, you rascals?” which was received in 1846.)
  9. What city claims to be the site of the first successful Woolworth’s “five and dime” store? It opened in 1879.
  10. Where is the Fulton Theatre – the oldest continuously operating theater in the U.S.? It was called Fulton Hall when it opened in 1852.  And, yes, it is named after Robert Fulton of steamboat fame.
  11. Where did Francis Bailey reside? He was the printer who, in 1779, was the first to refer to George Washington as the “father of his country”.  He also printed the first copies of the Articles of Confederation.
  12. What U.S. city was first known by the names Hickory Town and Gibson’s Pasture and eventually was named after a city in England?

The answers will be in our next blog.  So keep tuning in

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by | August 8, 2017 · 10:35 am

Connecting to Connecticut: Then Home to Pennsylvania

Connecticut was the 26th state on our trip.  We stayed at a Corps of Engineers park called West Thompson Lake Campground.  It was one of the prettiest wooded sites we have stayed in but we couldn’t enjoy it much because of the many, many gnats, mosquitoes and other pesky things flying in our faces.  I had put out a nice cloth on the picnic table but when I went to take it off I found not just one but a half dozen daddy-long-legs attached to the back of it.  Yuck!

West Thompson Lake

But once we left the campground, we were able to enjoy the sunny cool days.  Our first adventure was the French River Walk in Grosevenordale.  We try to get in as many walks and hikes as we can and if we are not walking around our campground we look for some place new to explore while we get our exercise.  The French River is a small but pretty river and the path along it was perfect for us.

On Wednesday, July 19th, we spent the day at Old Sturbridge Village, immersing ourselves into the lifestyle of the rural 1880’s.  We saw every aspect of life in this large preserved village.  I especially liked to see the fruit and herbs drying on the strings stretched across the kitchens.  I carded wool while watching a huge antique machine doing the same job much better.  Doug liked the blacksmith shop and seeing the architecture of the buildings.  Neither of us wanted to wear the period clothing.  It was a hot humid day and just the thought of putting on so many layers of underclothes and heavy outer wear drove us to the little shop that served yummy handmade ice cream.  We walked through the entire village, appreciating the hard work of living during that time but also the sweetness of the simplicity you could feel in Old Sturbridge.

Homes at Old Sturbridge Village

View from the Riverboat trip

Bank at Old Sturbridge Village

That Friday we left West Thompson Lake (and said good-bye to the flying pests) and set up our RV in Bear Creek Campground in Bristol, our second stop in Connecticut.  No more flying nuisances, just a little rain.  On Saturday we took the tour of the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford.  We were surprised by the opulence of his home.  I guess we were thinking about the raft trip of Huck Finn and the simple cottage with the white fence that Tom Sawyer lived in, but Sam Clemens and his family lived 17 years in luxury thanks to his wife’s family.  The furniture, the wallpaper, and the decorations from around the world, were all in the elaborate style of Victorian America.  If you are in Hartford, this is a must see and the tour is worth the price – you could also combine it with a tour of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s house next door.  It was pretty exciting to be up in the Billiards Room where Clemens’ little desk is pushed up against the corner window.  It was there that he got away from the bluster of his children and turned his back on his obsession with playing pool, and there where he finished Tom Sawyer, wrote Huckleberry Finn and most of his other famous works. Hopefully, if you take the tour, you won’t have to put up with two rude and interrupting children.  We usually enjoy having children around us but these two were most annoying.

Mark Twain’s home in Hartford, CT

After only two nights in Bristol, we headed to our next stop.  Arriving in Pennsylvania at Timothy Lake Campground near East Stroudsburg, we felt like we were coming home.  Pennsylvania is our 27th state and Doug’s birthplace.  The drive here is pretty and there were lots of interesting place names and signs along the road.  “Beer From Here, Food From Near” – a clear sign of respect for bioregionalism.  We considered the flavor possibilities of Llama Ice Cream and on a pub – a sign reading “We prefer our kale with silent ‘e’.”  I haven’t had a chance to research it, but I’m intrigued by the evidence of Marshall’s Creek mastodon.

We enjoyed the rolling hills and green mountains of the Poconos, a place I had visited often as a child.  My family spent some memorable vacations at Henryville Lodge (think Dirty Dancing only the Poconos, not the Catskills.)  Doug and I made two trips to the Poconos the year before we were married and on one of them we purchased items for our wedding at the American Candle Factory.  So, on this trip we went back there to see what had changed over the last 30 years.  It hardly resembled the same store but it was fun to remember those special days before our marriage started.

We had also spent a long weekend at a Buddhist Retreat called White Cloud.  There, we wrote our wedding service, contemplated our vows and came together on all the plans for our wedding.  We’ve always looked back on those few days as the foundation of our marriage – taking time away from the rest of the world, concentrating on each other and finding our way to plan and compromise together.  We also have really amazing memories of the great vegan food we ate there.  We tried the Cashew Nut Soup on the first night and then ordered it again and again.  I got the recipe and tried to make it a few times but it was never quite as good as the original at White Cloud.

On our first day of exploring we had planned on an extensive shopping trip, something Doug wasn’t exactly looking forward to.  But Doug surprised me with a side trip that rates as one of my very top favorite places!

He had been looking at a website called Atlas Obscura and discovered a place called Columcille Megalith Park.  Wow!  With my love of rocks and ancient places that have centuries of spirituality and earth power – this lovely little park was my happy place.

It was established in 1979, next door to a monastery and retreat house, when a group of dedicated (and strong) people designed the park to be a place of worship and peace.  They moved the giant boulders to resemble Stonehenge, created paths through the woods and built a few rock structures.  First we went into the tower and then we walked to the Celtic Chapel.  The energy coming from the center stone in the chapel was palpable.  My reiki hands were treated to intense vibrations as the earth energy streamed through that sacred space.  We walked through a Pi-shaped arch along a wooded path, around a little pond – with megaliths scattered around.  We left a 5-stone cairn – representing our five children, who must have felt the energy and love we were sending their way that day.  We finished our walk at the tiny Voyager’s Lounge cabin where we looked at the collection of books and we found 3 special stones to take with us (leaving our donation through a slot in a door).  Usually, I’m not a big fan of walking around in the rain but in spite of a pretty steady downpour and muddy grass, my heart was smiling the whole time.  Thank you, Doug, for finding this place and knowing how happy it would make me.

Rock Formations at Columcille Megalith

Thor’s Gate Trilithon

Inside the St. Columba Chapel

St. Oran Bell Tower

Our next stop was the American Candle Factory, then an Outlet Store, followed by a big shopping center called The Crossings.  We bought candy at the Candle Factory, a few odds and ends at the outlet store, went into two stores at The Crossings and only purchased a drink there.  So much for a big day of shopping.  I think Columcille was so special I couldn’t distract myself out of that mode into a shopping experience.

The next day we drove to Dingman’s Falls and admired the beauty of the Delaware Water Gap as we hiked around the falls.  The trail there was a long boardwalk.  As we walked on it I started noticing the many varieties of mushrooms.  I counted a dozen different kinds of fungi.  If I haven’t mentioned this before, this seems the perfect time to reveal one of our silly conversations.  For many years now, when we see fungi, I tell Doug he’s a Fun Guy.  Then he calls me his Fun Gal.  Yes, it’s corny and hard to believe we have said that more than once, but it’s one of our ways of touching base with each other with a little bit of silliness.  The next day we drove along the Delaware Water Gap.

Dingman’s Falls at the Delaware Water Gap

Another Falls that we hiked to

Now we are still in Pennsylvania at Whispering Pines Campground in Stillwater.  This is a really wonderful campground – well maintained, quiet, with huge grassy sites.  Our site is particularly pretty with woods behind us and a large open tract of land in front of us.  This stop, though, is not about the campground.  We are here to be with family at the Patterson Grove Methodist Camp Meeting in Shickshinny.

Doug’s parents have been coming to this place for about 15 years and Doug’s mother Mary, who passed away a few years ago, loved it here.  “The Grove” as it is affectionately known, is a seasonal retreat with about 70 small cottages occupied by families that have been coming here for generations.  Mary’s brother Ken and his family have played an important role in the running of the camp.  Ken served as a Trustee for many years and continues to help in his role as treasurer.  Ken’s children have made this their family reunion site as often as the four of them can get their families here.  So coming to Patterson Grove is a time of catching up with family and renewing acquaintances with old friends.  Doug and I have been here a few times and each time we try to adjust to this “place apart”.

You see, this meeting site was designed as a place of worship and fellowship.  All the activities revolve around the large open-air tabernacle in the center of the grove – vespers every night and two services on Sundays.  There we go to sing psalms together, pray and listen to sermons.  This year we are here during the camp meeting – a time set apart in the season, a time that the most families are here and the time of Vacation Bible School.  So it is busy and a bit crowded and there are lots of children attending classes, swimming in the ponds, catching fireflies at night and just having a great time.

Dad’s cottage at Patterson Grove Campground

The Boardwalk

Doug’s dad, Creighton, goes to the trouble of getting his cable connected, but most of the cottages don’t have televisions, only one or two have any internet capabilities.  There is a hot spot near a telephone pole a few cottages away from us and one at the end of the cornfield.  Both areas have very spotty coverage, so making a phone call out of here is a futile experience for the most part.  Our neighbors eschew any form of electronic entertainment, but I download some crossword puzzles and Facebook and Doug downloads some books.  It’s a long quiet day without some data flowing through our phones.

But otherwise it is a very busy place and sitting on Dad’s enclosed porch we get a view of everything that happens here – people passing by to go to bible study morning and evening; children’s VBS classes and activities, the trek to the pond for a swim; breakfast, lunch and dinner at the Boarding House, choir practice, committee meetings, and vespers every evening at 7:15 pm.  Most of these events are announced by the ringing of THE BELL and almost everyone that passes by the cottage waves hello or stops by for a few minutes.

The view from Dad’s porch

The Pond at Patterson Grove

The activity level increases at night.  After vespers – a long service with many songs and a sermon, plus the after-service conversations – almost everyone heads up the Boarding House.  The snack shop does a good business serving French fries and savory snacks, but their biggest business is in their delicious ice cream.  We often join the crowds milling around the Boarding House porch, in rocking chairs and comparing ice cream flavors.  Then for about two hours after vespers the Centennial Shop is open for business – a tiny, crammed  room filled with knick-knacks, little toys, dishes and other invaluable stuff – most priced under $.25.  Doug and I usually leave his dad around 9:30 pm and after a short drive on mountain roads in the pitch dark avoiding deer and skunk, we are exhausted.

The Boarding House, Dining Hall, Snack Shop, and Centennial Shop

We were so happy to reconnect this year with Doug’s cousins – Jeff and his wife Christie, Philip and his wife Beth and their children, Pam and her husband Jim and their children, and Kim and her husband Todd and their children.  Since our RV was close by, we had the pleasure of visiting with them in our home.  We treasure all our company and having them over for iced tea and cookies was really special for us.  We also were able to have Uncle Ken and Aunt Charlotte join Dad, Doug and I for a lunch in our RV one day.  We love to show off our unit and it was especially nice to bring this part of our family together in it.  We hope our future holds more times with our cousins – maybe meeting them somewhere on our journey.

Camp meeting spans two weeks.  This year, Doug’s sister Beverly and her husband Barry, accompanied Dad on his flights here from Portland, Oregon.  They kept him company for the first week and took him to see his old homestead, the sights of Shickshinny (which means Five Mountains) and Nanticoke, the family plot in the cemetery and other favorite places.  We spent the second week with him and one day we took Dad to Lake Jean for a picnic lunch – stopping that morning in Benton to get him his favorite hoagie.  Lake Jean was beautiful and filled with happy swimming families – until the first giant thunderclap and the buckets of rain that followed it.  By the time we got to our car, we were soaked through our clothes.  The nice pleasant cool weather we had for a few days, had changed to warm, humid days with rain clouds every afternoon and sometimes a wet walk to vespers.

We are all getting super excited about next year here at The Grove – the 150th anniversary.  Cottage owners were all given a muslin square to create a block for the memorial quilt.  We also have all been encouraged to wear period clothing next year – we saw some samples of what to wear last night at the service and Dad and Doug don’t seem to be on board with that.

Bev and Barry returned from their short vacation to 1000 Lakes, NY and Jim Thorpe, PA and we all spent some time together, taking a trip together to visit Uncle Fred in New Jersey.  On the last night of vespers we “Walked to Zion” – a Grove tradition that honors the trustees of the campground and looks to the promised land of Zion.  Holding lighted candles the entire community marches around the tabernacle and forms a circle around the outside of it, while singing Marching to Zion.  I participate in all things Patterson Grove with a lot of love of family and tradition in my heart.  Somehow, just being in this place of sweet spirituality renews my Judaism and it seemed somehow appropriate to be a Jew “marching” to Zion and walking and singing next to Doug made it even sweeter.

Dad and Uncle Fred

Bev, Barry and Dad headed back to Portland on Tuesday.  Doug and I will continue our trip with another campground in Pennsylvania.  We will leave The Grove again – remembering our time together and our time “apart”.  We never know if a return to Patterson Grove is in our future.  We turned in our quilt block but we may not get to see next year’s special quilt.  Our lives will get complicated but we will probably remember next year that Camp Meeting is going on whether or not we are there and we will smile thinking of everyone walking around in long dresses and aprons and high collared shirts and top hats.  Patterson Grove will continue its mission of worship and fellowship and a little bit of it will always be with those of us who have spent time here.

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by | July 15, 2017 · 2:20 pm

Maine – Vacationland

This blog starts with a big THANK YOU to L.L.Bean (and no, we are not getting any kickbacks for this).  First, a thank you for saving us a lot of money at their outlet store in Freeport, Maine.  We have been on the hunt for pants and shorts to wear at our volunteer position (more about that later) and it was pretty exciting to just wander into L.L. Bean’s gigantic outlet store (located right next to their enormous flagship store) and find the exact pants we need for 70% off.  We purchased 4 pairs of pants and one pair of shorts for under $100 and even found one of those pairs for $6.00.  We don’t do a lot of shopping for clothes and it usually isn’t very exciting, but this time we got a big kick out of it.  And so did the hundreds of other shoppers we saw there.

Our second and biggest thank you to L.L. Bean is for their community spirit and generosity in funding shuttle buses throughout Mt. Desert Island and Acadia.  This was by far the best public transportation we have used.  The buses ran every half hour, stopped at all the sites and were staffed by the nicest, most accommodating drivers.  Acadia is a very busy park and one of the problems you run into when you visit any national park during the summer is that the parking lots are sometimes filled to capacity.  This means that you drive (often long distances) with the intention of parking at a visitor center or a park attraction or a trail head and then you  can’t find a space to park your car.  Often you have two choices, drive around and around the parking lot, hoping to land a space or else swallow your disappointment and drive to another site.  Having these buses greatly reduces this problem and waiting a few minutes or standing on a crowded bus is just a minor inconvenience.

These buses are not only running in the National Park but also all over Mt. Desert Island, stopping at all the major hotels and campgrounds.  We had the pleasure of walking a very short distance to the bus stop in our campground and catching a ride right to the Acadia Visitor Center, where we could transfer to another shuttle to get around the park.  One day we were able to get a ride to an event that wasn’t on the regular bus route because the driver figured out a way to drop us off in a safe spot near the event.

The convenience was wonderful and we are grateful for that but the incalculable benefit of reduced pollution to that beautiful area of our country is something we have even more gratitude for.  The bus rides were often crowded, the roads were under construction which made the ride pretty bumpy, but no one ever complained and we often heard our fellow riders expressing how thankful they were for this amazing gift from L.L. Bean.  We don’t buy a lot of clothes any more and our needs have been simplified enough to make most purchases unnecessary, but you can be sure that if we decide to buy something – we’ll check out L.L. Bean first.

As mentioned, our first stop in Maine was Freeport.  We only had one full day there and we spent it doing what most people do in Freeport – wander through all the shops and eat in nice restaurants.  Maine is our 25th state on this trip and we were already anticipating a really great time in one of our favorite states.

LL Bean Bootmobile

On July 5th, we moved to Hadley’s Point Campground – right on Mt. Desert Island and near Bar Harbor.  We loved this campground, not only because this is the one with the convenient bus stop, but also because we met some interesting campers and from talking to them we gathered helpful information.

We did have an uncomfortable encounter with one of our neighbors at this campground which resulted in a few chips in our motorhome paint job due to her car door hitting us (repeatedly!)– but we realized that this is first time in 88 campgrounds that we have had even the slightest problem.  It didn’t keep us from enjoying all the wonderful things we did from that campground.

We had a very busy first day visiting Acadia.  We had been there on a camping trip a long time ago and had always planned to return to see more of the park.  So on this day we traveled the Park Loop Road on the shuttle.  We spent a few hours at Sand Beach, eating our lunch and marveling at the beautiful view of the cliffs, the rocks and the ocean.  We hiked along an easy trail to Thunder Hole, where there wasn’t much action due to the low tide level but again, the view there and along the trail were amazing.  We hopped back on the shuttle to Jordan Pond – took a hike along the perimeter trail and after a pretty exhausting day, got back on the shuttle to the visitor center and finally home.

Sand Beach at Acadia National Park

View at Thunder Hole

Jordan Pond

On Friday, we drove our car (no shuttle due to the narrow winding road) up to Cadillac Mountain – the highest east coast peak – and spent our time there walking on trails and scrambling over the boulders.  That night, we took the shuttle into Bar Harbor and joined the crowds wandering in and out of galleries and shops on their weekly Art Walk.  The gallery owners treated their guests to wine and cheese, cakes and snacks and eyefuls of beautiful art.  Another tiring but satisfying day.

View of Bar Harbor from Cadillac Mountain

Bar Harbor

On Saturday, we shuttled to the Native American Basket Festival.  We saw some incredibly intricate styles of basket weaving and listened to beautiful flute music.  The following Monday we drove over to the quiet side of Mt. Desert Island and toured Somes Sound.  This waterway is the only fjard (or fiard) in this country.  It is a smaller version of a fjord – a deep narrow channel.  We walked through Northeast Harbor – quaint and tiny.  On our last day on Mt. Desert Island we drove to the Schoodic Peninsula.  We watched the boats and the gulls and enjoyed the cool sea breezes.   The geology of this part of Maine is all about the ancient glaciers that passed over it.  The results of the movement of the massive ice forms left softly sculpted mountains, deep lakes and puzzling erratics – large boulders dropped randomly throughout the landscape.  We contemplated the marvel of how this huge monster of ice and rock could leave such loveliness in its wake.

View From Schoodic Point

Our next stop was Scarborough, ME at the Wild Duck Campground – where the ducks were too friendly to be wild and where we met more campers who shared their stories with us.  We had some routine maintenance done on our rig at a Freightliner Service Center.  We got some laundry done at the nice facility at the campground and then on Saturday we went to the beach.  We made sure we got our fill of sand and surf at this pretty Crescent Beach.  It will be the last time we see the ocean for a very long time.

Crescent Beach State Park

*  *  *

Just a note here about our future:  We have been considering volunteer opportunities as part of our time on the road.  We have explored a few possibilities and recently we applied for volunteer positions at Kartchner Caverns State Park near Tucson, Arizona.  Since our son Josh and his family and our daughter Amy are living in Tucson, this seemed like the perfect place to spend a few winter months.  The application process was a little more intense than we thought it would be – a joint application with a joint resume; a joint hour-long interview, submitting professional references and then a full background check.  And then we got the news from Ranger Curtis that we were accepted.  We will be working in Visitor Services from November through April.  We are pretty excited about this.  We have a dress code (beige, brown or gray pants or shorts – with a special volunteer shirt given to us by the park) and lots of rules to follow – all listed in a huge handbook we have to go through.  We are studying up on the history of Kartchner Caverns as well as all we can find on bats and caves.  We have committed to working 20 hours each per week and for that we get a free campsite with hook-ups, a year-long AZ state park pass and some discounts at our park.  We are looking forward to being with our family for the holidays (although we agreed to work on Thanksgiving) and living back in the Sonoran Desert.  The caverns are about 40 minutes from Tucson and much closer to Benson.  We aren’t sure how it will feel to be committed to a work schedule again.  Our lives are pretty much in our own hands right now with no real time commitments except the ones we make for ourselves.  But we want to experience this to see if more volunteering will be in our future.  And landing a job at this really amazing state park is a great way to experiment.  This will be our first chance to give back – to say our first thank you as a volunteer – to the Arizona State Park system which has given us so much.

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by | June 30, 2017 · 2:23 pm

Family Filled Time

It’s the end of June as I write this and I am astonished at how fast these last two months have flown by.  May and June have been filled with family togetherness.  In our last blog we listed many events that were planned and eagerly anticipated in NJ.  But sometimes we have to be flexible and change in mid-stream.  So when our son Josh needed some help, I flew to Tucson to be with him.  His situation is resolving well now but I am happy that I got to spend lots of time with Josh, his wife Liz, our two grandchildren Sawyer and Sarah and our daughter Amy.  Josh, Amy and I hung out binge watching our favorite shows, checking out our favorite local restaurants, and got to just be with each other for over a week.  Josh and I bonded in a special way and staying at Amy’s nice new apartment provided the space to relax together.  I explored Amy’s new neighborhood walking her dog Selena.  It was a special interlude with a good outcome for Josh but I did miss out on some of our plans in New Jersey and especially spending time with our children and grandchildren.  Doug was able to have a sleep-over in our RV with our nephew Nico.  And then when I returned to NJ, we were thrilled to be able to see most of our family at a BBQ at Emily and Claude’s home.

Then we left NJ, our 22nd state, to spend just two nights in Woodstock, NY (our 23rd state).  We drove through pretty green mountains to Foxboro, Massachusetts (our 24th state).  The campground in Foxboro, Normandy Farms, was the best location for us to camp and store our RV while we headed to Portland, OR by plane.  We were a little nervous about putting our home in storage, but Normandy Farms was a secure place to do this.  We emptied our refrigerator and freezer, put things away, cleaned and did everything necessary to safely store our home and just about everything we own.

Doug made the whole process look easy, but it took lots of planning and coordination to get us to the airport in Boston, where we took a long flight to Portland.  After an endless travel day on Saturday, we were grateful for Bev and Barry’s pick up at the airport.  And we were very grateful that we could spend Sunday settling in and getting our 18 month old Paisley used to us.  She hasn’t seen much of us except on Facetime, but she was comfortable right away and led us on a long walk through her favorite park.  This was great since Julie went into labor that night and Doug was alone with Paisley the next day.  Don’t tell her parents, but Paisley never seemed to care that Mom and Dad were absent as she pleasantly went through her normal routines with Doug.

Griffin was born at 2:25 pm on Monday, June 5th.  Although it was predicted that he would be a very large baby, he was 7 lbs, 10 oz and 21”.  He seemed tiny when we first saw him and he looked just like his sister.  Julie said she felt like she had given birth to twins eighteen months apart.  Julie and Jake once again accomplished a birth with love strength and stamina.  Griffin, or Finn as we sometimes call him, is sweet and calm.  He hardly cries and sleeps well.  His chill-ness is evident as he stretches his long arms and legs.  He is missing the pudge that endeared Paisley’s thighs to us but he has her charm and cuddliness.

Griffin

Paisley

We are so lucky to have been present for his birth.  I will always treasure the gift I was given to be able to see this child born.  And Doug will always think of those special hours alone with Paisley as moments to be cherished.

We celebrated Griffin’s birth and Father’s Day with a family party.  The theme was Harry Potter (Julie’s choice) and we ate magic wands, wizard cupcakes, winged snitches, and drank a Potion Punch.  We snuggled our new little muggle and blessed him with the warmth of wonderful family and friends.

Some of the Harry Potter themed food at Griffin’s Welcoming Party

There was lots of time in our three weeks in the Portland area to be with family.  We saw even more extended family at the retirement BBQ Bev threw for Barry.  Jake’s family came into town giving us all time to catch up with each other as we took turns holding a sleepy infant and playing with Paisley.  We had a great day with our great-nephew Trekker, who is just a little older than Paisley. We took lots of walks, ate at Burgerville and Red Robin (our favorites) and went to a few play times at local libraries.  Jake and Julie treated us to a wonderful dinner at Spaghetti Factory and Doug and I ate a great Thai dinner by ourselves in Forest Grove.   Happily Doug and I got to spend lots of time with his Dad.  We even got to have lunch with Josh and Jenn at a picnic site near their boat.  It was a bit of a whirlwind of happy family times.

Paisley enjoying the splash pad

Then we flew back to Foxboro, MA to get our RV out of storage, restock food and supplies and then after just one more day at Normandy Farms, we relocated to the Minuteman Campground in Littleton, MA where we now have to readjust to being alone with each other.  We both miss our loved ones and remind each other of the fun and special times we spent with them in Portland, Tucson and New Jersey, but we both agree that it is also nice to come back to just the two of us enjoying our adventure together.

On Wednesday, June 28th we toured Walden Pond in Concord.  Since I first read Thoreau in the early 70’s I have wanted to see this lovely place.  We got to walk through the woods, sit on the sandy beach and feel the peace and serenity that inspired Thoreau’s words. The beach at the pond was lively with summer day-trippers but this didn’t spoil the essence of this place.  I am currently reading Walden again for a full Thoreau experience and our son Jon recommended a passage by Thoreau about his time in the Maine woods (where we are headed next).   This time at Walden Pond will be a day I will always remember.

Reproduction of Thoreau’s house on Walden Pond

Original site of Thoreau’s home

Yesterday, we got up early and drove to the nearest T stop, where we boarded the commuter train to the heart of Boston.  The T is a great public service which was well worth the cost.  The train cars are clean and the ride is pleasant.  It was $9.25 per person each way, plus a $5 parking fee.  Parking in Boston would have been much higher and the biggest benefit is that we didn’t have to fight traffic and avoid the crowds of pedestrians walking in the narrow cobbled streets.

It was a busy and energetic day, putting 14,366 steps on my chart.  Boston is a walking city – proved by gridlocked traffic on both the small winding streets and the larger highways.  We tramped through most of The Freedom Trail, starting at the Old North Church and ending up in Boston Common, where the water park was filled with dancing, running and laughing children.  We were far from alone as we tried to keep our feet on the red brick trail through the historic cobbles.

Old North Church

Old City Hall in Boston along Freedom Trail

Of course, we stopped for lunch at Fanuiel Hall where I lovingly ate a cup of New England Clam “Chowda” and a buttered lobster roll.  Doug had some delicious potato curry, enjoying Indian food in the rotunda of Quincy Market.  Our feet were sore as we climbed back on the T to get us back to our car.  Doug and I have each visited Boston but this was the first time we shared it together – a great day!

It’s hot and muggy here, but that didn’t stop us from spending a day exploring Lexington and Concord.  After visiting the Visitors Center in Lexington, we walked through the streets seeing historic houses, reading informative plaques.  We stopped to talk to Alan on the Green, who was dressed in Colonial garb and who shared his knowledge of the local battle lore.  When we needed to cool down, we got back in the car and drove to the Minuteman Visitors Center and enjoyed a 45 minute presentation on the start of the battle that began the Revolutionary War.  Later we saw the spot where Paul Revere was captured and we drove alone the Battle Road.

Location on The Battle Road  where Paul Revere was captured by the British (and shortly thereafter released)

To put the perfect touch on our day, we stopped at The Orchard on Battle Road in Concord, one of the childhood homes of Louisa May Alcott.  This is the home where Alcott wrote Little Women and I had the thrill of standing next to the little white desk where she actually wrote her most famous novel.  Most of the artifacts in the home were authentic.  We saw the wedding gown Louisa’s older sister wore to her wedding, we saw many of the sketches and oil paintings done by her younger artist sister, and we saw the little piano next to a portrait of her sister who had passed away.  These items touched me since Little Women was very much autobiographical and having read it many, many times, I know the details and objects and relationships described in that book as if they were part of my own family memories.  The guide seemed to know everything about the author and her family so we felt we received intimate details of Louisa’s life.  Walking around this home brought back the hours and hours I spent deep in the middle of Jo March’s life.  Looking through the bookstore there, I confirmed that I have diligently read most of Alcott’s treasures.  I say most, because it seems I keep uncovering something I missed.  My last discovery was her descriptions of a really different part of the March’s lives while they lived at Fruitland.  So much more to enjoy, I’m sure!

The Orchard House

Our time here in Massachusetts is coming to a close, but we feel like it all came together when we saw Thoreau’s portrait in Alcott’s house and we learned the amazing connectivity of their lives.

Now we spend some time doing the mundane tasks of living – laundry, cleaning, shopping – and get ready to move on to our next location in Maine.

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by | May 8, 2017 · 10:04 am

Visiting Civil War Sites on the Way to NJ

Tennessee was an interesting and beautiful state to visit.  After we left Nashville, we were in the Riverside RV Park in Seiverville, TN.  This is a good time to share with our readers our fun with trying to discern how to pronounce place names.  Seiverville, which we thought would be pronounced “see ver ville”, turns out to be pronounced “sa veer ville”.  We know that is the official pronunciation because Dolly Parton comes on the news all the time inviting all of us to visit her hometown of Sa veer ville.  We think this trend of misleading newcomers is a way of distinguishing us from the locals.  For instance, the town of Celena, which we thought was “sa leen a” turns out to be “sell a na”.  Staunton is not “staw ton” but “stan ton”.  So we try to adjust as we travel through the country.

The Riverside RV Park is a Baptist mission with a large open-air church.  It turned out to be a good choice as we celebrated Easter there and joined other campers and the local congregation.  The service was not what Doug is used to but it was a lovely service enhanced by the minister’s four charming granddaughters singing “Jesus Loves Me”.  The tiniest child was not even two years old and the oldest was about 8 years old.  It was a good Easter experience to enjoy these pretty children’s voices.  I have to note that I was unable to find a single box of matzah to eat for Passover, but the lesson for next year is to look for it earlier.

We made sure to visit Pigeon Forge which was a fun day of miles of walking as we checked out the crazy wild rides, the junk food stands, and endless cheap t-shirt stores.  We decided it was like a boardwalk without the ocean.  We walked the River Walk, spent time in the Christmas Place, and found my favorite store – Old Time Pottery.

The Old Mill in Pigeon Forge

We also saw Gaitlinburg and the devastated area where the fires destroyed homes, hotels and business.  All that was left for many of these establishments were the chimneys.  This mountain area is still just beautiful and as we drove through the Great Smoky Mountains we relived our first camping trip there in 1996 with two little girls and our fairly new pop-up tent trailer.

Being away from mountains for a long time made the first glimpse of the Great Smoky Mountains pretty exciting.  One of the first places we visited was Newfound Gap where we hiked along the Nature Road Trail.  We enjoyed every inch of our drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The Great Smoky Mountains

Cabin along Auto Trail in the Smokies

We only took a few steps into into NC!

Cades Cove in the Smokies was one of the places I had been looking forward to visiting again.  The old buildings, the wide expanse of grassy meadows and rolling hills, with large swaths of forest weaving through the countryside, was just as I had remembered it and just as wonderful to wander through again.  I love that spot.

Scenes along the Cades Cove Loop Road

Scenes along the Cades Cove Loop Road

Scenes along the Cades Cove Loop Road

We did some easy hiking, lots of interesting auto tours and a few picnic lunches that were leisurely times to enjoy these old, lovely mountains.  The smell of the woods immediately brings me to my happy place.  We even walked a little bit of the Appalachian Trail just where North Carolina meets Tennessee – a very little bit, actually.

We hiked on the AT for a few minutes!

After leaving Seiverville, we checked into Hungry Mother State Park in Marion, Virginia.  If you’ve been following our blog and counting states with us Virginia is the 20th state on our journey.  Here’s the perfect spot to tell The Legend of Hungry Mother which captured our imagination.  A long time ago, some settlements on the New River south of the park were raided and two survivors, Molly Marley and her small child were first taken prisoner and then they escaped.  They wandered through the wilderness eating berries.  Molly collapsed and her child followed a creek until she found help.  The child was traumatized and the only words uttered were “Hungry Mother”.  The search party eventually found Molly, but she was dead.  Today, the mountain is called “Molly’s Knob” and the stream the child wandered down is now known as “Hungry Mother’s Creek”.  In the 1930’s, the surrounding area was turned into a park and the creek was dammed to form Hungry Mother Lake.  Learning this type of local lore adds interest and fun to our nomadic lives.

We left Marion, VA for Walnut Hills KOA in Staunton, VA.  This area of Virginia is just such beautiful country.  On our first full day there we took Skyline Drive and enjoyed the scenery along this famous road.  We stopped at Big Meadows Campground in Shenandoah National Park.  Years ago we had one of our favorite vacations with the kids camping in this campground.  It brought back great memories.

View from Skyline Drive

Our road trip continued into Maryland, our 21st state.  We stayed at a very large and very family-oriented Jellystone Campground.  Yes, there were lots of Yogi Bear and Ranger Smith references all over the campground.  On the weekend it was filled with families.  We are often in very quiet campgrounds so we get a kick out of all the kids running around and all the noises they bring to our own life.

On April 26th, we toured Antietam Battlefield.  The auto tour takes you to the buildings which still stand, actual battle sites and lots of informative markers and monuments along the way.  Thinking about the bloody confrontations is in great contrast to the serenity of the countryside.   We are absorbing lots of information about the Civil War in this part of the country and trying to put it together with what we learned in Missouri, Georgia and other states.  We’ll keep up this learning adventure as we head north, probably getting a completely different perspective.

Burnside Bridge at Antietam Battlefield

One of the many memorials at the battlefield

Harper’s Ferry National Park in West Virginia gave us even more of the Civil War experience.  (Just a note here:  we only officially count states that we overnight in, so we don’t add West Virginia to our state count.)  The displays about John Brown’s efforts to free the slaves gave us another episode to add to our education.  Harper’s Ferry and the walk we took from the Visitor Center to the old town made for a really great day.

Railroad and Pedestrian bridge across the Potomac at Harper’s Ferry

A few of the 100’s of “Love Padlocks” we saw along this bridge

They were here!

On Saturday, April 29th, we explored a canal – the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in the town of Williamsport.  It happened to be a day when volunteers were cleaning up the park and we saw first hand the love and care they gave to this historic and one-time very valuable part of our history.  We walked along the tow path and really got up close to look at the lock system.  Industry along the canal thrived because of the canals.

The C&O Canal near Williamsport, MD

Finally, after many miles of travel, we arrived at Timberlane RV Park in Clarksboro, New Jersey.  This is a homecoming for us.  I grew up in NJ and Doug and I lived in South Jersey for 10 years.  We are in this part of the state to be near my brother Dan who is recuperating from an illness.  We dropped in on him and his wife, Lisa, the first day we got here and expect to spend lots of time hanging out with them.

This part of our trip will be filled with family and friends.  Our daughter, Becky and her wife, Paolo and their adorable sons, Benjo and Mati are nearby.  Our son, Jon is close by in Philadelphia.  We are seeing lots of them too – Mati’s first birthday party yesterday gave us a chance to be with lots of family and friends and today we walked through historic sites in Philly with Jon.  We had a chance to visit with neighbors, Genni and Sal; we’ve made plans to see my cousin, Diane and her husband John.  Tomorrow, my brother Steve, his wife Sharon and our nephew Nico will come for dinner.  Next weekend we’ll see my brother’s whole family at his grandson, Christian’s birthday party.  I learned how to decorate a Parisian Floral cake at my sister-in-law Sharon’s new cake decorating business, Sugar Plum Studio in Cherry Hill.  Our nephew Andrew will be graduating from Thomas Jefferson Medical School and we will have dinner with him and his parents while they are visiting.  Next week we eat dinner with our niece Emily and her fiancé Claude.  There are many more events scheduled – in fact, our calendar is happily filled.  We will be here for almost a full month and we will be sure to see everyone and make this a truly special part of our trip.

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Filed under Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia

by | April 18, 2017 · 9:16 am

Storm Shelters and Confederate Flags

If you have been reading our blog, you probably noticed that we are usually positive and upbeat about the places and sights we’re visiting.  This isn’t an attempt to just have a happy blog.  Doug does most of the planning and we can go wherever we please and do whatever we want (for the most part) so it stands to reason that we are going to like everything.  One of the reasons we are committed to this lifestyle is because we want to see this country and experience all the things it has to offer.  We are not in this to critique but to observe and learn.  And so we usually accept what is around us and enjoy.

With that said, today’s blog may not be so Pollyanna-ish.  In spite of Doug’s efforts to avoid tornadoes, we have stumbled upon an early and unpredictable tornado season.  We have had to confront the real possibility of being in a tornado-prone area.  We’ve learned that a Tornado Watch is the first step in the weather forecasting process.  The Watch covers a large swatch of land – sometimes a whole state or a bunch of counties.  This means that we can’t really get around it.  We can’t just start driving and hope we land in a safe space that has a site for us.  So we just keep watching the weather reports and hope for the best.  For me, these watches usually mean sleepless nights.

When the Watch turns to a Warning, it means that there is a likely chance of a tornado coming your way.  The weather reports get very specific and can tell you almost to the minute when you should “go to your safe space”.  We now know that a safe space can be a basement or an inner first floor room in your house without windows.  Not anything that exists in an RV.  And we’ve all seen the photos of how devastating tornadoes are to RVs and mobile home parks.  This is when my anxiety goes crazy.  So we have had to check out storm shelters.  We took a few photos – until we hit Oklahoma I had never seen a shelter like this except for the one Aunty Em went into when the twister took Dorothy to OZ.

Tornado Shelter at our campground

Tornado Shelter at our campground

The shelters are almost as frightening to me as the impending storm.  We did see some that are above ground and can hold up to 60 people.  But we also saw these reinforced holes dug into mounds of dirt with air pipes sticking out of them.  Some of these are designed for maybe 4 people.  I think that the tornado wind would have to actually push me into one of these in order for me to get in it.  So we don’t like being in this weather!

City Shelter in Red Bay, AL

Shelter seen on one of our drives

We do know of one beautiful storm shelter.  Our friends the Chatfields in the Osage Forest of Peace have constructed an underground shelter and commissioned an artist to turn it into a place of peace and serenity.  It is truly beautiful and since we left there, every time we have had to deal with twister worries, I think of that peaceful retreat and wish we could have that near us as we travel through tornado country.

As we move through the deep south trying to avoid tornadoes, we can’t avoid the Confederate flags.  They are flown from trucks and in front of homes and businesses.  I recognize that we are both Northerners who don’t have any personal history with this symbol and to us it seems to say “let’s go back to the pre-Civil War days” and all that implies.  A sighting of that flag leaves us uncomfortable and squirming.  We didn’t want to take any pictures of these flags. Now the people we’ve met here in the South are pleasant and welcoming to us, but we can’t forget that we are white and their welcome may be different if we were different.

On a lighter note, our conversations with the local folks in Alabama, Florida, George, and Mississippi are amusing.  If I ask a question, I invariably hear “Where y’all from?”  It’s hard to get a real answer as we clumsily try to understand each other. We can’t seem to adjust to their heavy accents and colloquialisms.  We do feel like foreigners here.

And then there is the kudzu.  It’s a plant that has been described as the “plant that ate the South.”  It is a viney, twiggy mess that covers other plants, trees and buildings.  I looked it up and saw that it often has pretty purple flowers on it, but at this time of year, it is a gray tangled web of ugliness.  Its rampant and rapid growth makes it hard to control and driving through the back roads you can see how it just takes over everything.  Between the kudzu and some pretty run down buildings surrounded by all kinds of rusted and ruined stuff made for some depressing drives.

Kudzu by side of road

Kudzu on old cottage

So, given all that, this is the first time that we eagerly turned away from an area.

After our stay at McKinney Campground, we went to the Hidden Cove RV Park in Arley, Alabama.  Now Arley was a really small town, a little run down but our campground was really nice with a new large covered deck on the lake.  We hit lots of rainy weather while we stayed there but one nice day we went to the Clarkson Covered Bridge and had a picnic lunch there.  I shopped at Son’s of Arley Food Market – where there was lots of meat, a little produce and a full aisle of fishing equipment.

Deck overlooking lake at Hidden Cove RV Park

Clarkson Covered Bridge

Then we went to Red Bay – back in the Tiffin campground where we had some work done on the RV. It was a pretty uneventful time there but one day when we couldn’t get into the RV to eat we took the recommendations about a good Mexican restaurant in nearby Belmont.  We didn’t hold out much hope. After all we consider that our 18 years in Tucson have made us into food snobs about really good Mexican food.  But, we learned a lesson – you can find excellent Mexican food even in a tiny town in Alabama.  We ate at Costa Oaxaqueno.

During the week we had to stay on call to be brought into the repair bays but we took advantage of the weekends.  On  April 1st, Saturday, we drove to Tupelo, MS to see Elvis’ birthplace.  It was a sweet tour of the two-room home he was born in and a nice walk around Tupelo.  We thought we would eat lunch at Johnny’s Drive In where Elvis liked to eat burgers, but it was too crowded to even park. Sometimes, it’s good not have a plan.  We wound up eating a terrific lunch at Nautical Whimsy on Main Street in Tupelo in a picturesque alley with really good food.  Doug ate a gigantic plate of yummy homemade raviolis while I munch down on a seriously wonderful muffalatto sandwich.  Jason, our server, was excellent and we hope to go back there someday.  On Sunday, we explored Tishomingo State Park.  We ate lunch near Swinging Bridge, did a little hiking and then drove a bit on Natchez Trace Parkway.

Elvis’ Birthplace

Elvis bought his first guitar at this Tupelo hardware store

Swinging Bridge at Tishomingo State Park

Our rig was finished a little early, so we happily left Alabama and on April 5th landed at Nashville East KOA in Lebanon, Tennessee.  Tennessee is our 19th state on this trip.  We loved Nashville and walked around the Grand Ole Opry and enjoyed lunch at a food court that had a Which Wich – a fast food sandwich place that brought back nice memories of eating at one by the University of Arizona with our daughters and Doug’s parents.  We also saw a good movie – Kong on Skull Island (I am a great fan of Kong movies and I don’t think I’ve missed one of them).

Grand Ole Opry

On grounds of the Grand Ole Opry

It is one of the pleasures of this trip to get to see friends and family around the country and here in Nashville we met up with Nick and Chelsea, our nephew and his wife.  We had to miss their wedding 2 years ago due to a medical issue and this encounter was a wonderful way to meet Chelsea and enjoy a great dinner with them.

We spent a pretty day in Centennial Park smack in the middle of Nashville.  The park is really nice and its major attraction is spectacular – an exact replica of the Parthenon.  Yes, there it stood in all its splendor – complete with gryphons and reliefs of the Greek gods and goddesses.  And then, inside is a gigantic replication of a statue of Athena.  Looking up at her greatness was breathtaking.  We enjoyed the art collection inside this museum – lots of landscapes that were beautiful.

Parthenon (Nashville)

Athena Parthenos Statue gilded with 8 pounds of gold

Gryphon at the Parthenon

Next blog – More of the Volunteer State of Tennessee – as we head north and east towards our family in New Jersey.

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by | March 18, 2017 · 7:10 pm

Rain, Cold and Inspiration

We are exploring Georgia now. It’s the 18th state we visited since we took off in the RV over a year ago. We thought we had turned away from the beaches once we left Florida, but our first campground in Georgia’s Reed Bingham State Park had a small lake with a nice beach. We managed to spend one day enjoying the lake and having a picnic lunch on the sandy beach. We drove through the tiny town of Adel which had suffered from tornado damage in mid January. Luckily we had no twister threats.

Beach at Reed Bingham State Park

But the weather definitely changed. We’ve had two weeks of rain, clouds and cold temperatures. Our RV stays nice and toasty and we have the luxury of just staying inside if we don’t want to go out in the icy temperatures.

After we left Adel, we went to another small but prettier little town called Elko. There we stayed at Twin Oaks Campground. The owners of this RV Park were very conscientious – great sites, outdoor artwork everywhere, spotlessly clean facilities and a really nice laundry room next to a big, comfy lounge. As we drove up, the owner seemed to know immediately who we were and informed us that our packages had arrived. She then delivered them to our site. We had also planned to pick up our mail at the local post office in Elko.

This is probably a good place to explain our mail situation. Whenever we mention to folks that we are full-timing, the first questions are about our mail delivery. Before we even bought the RV we flew to South Dakota to establish our residency there. We registered with a mail service called Dakota Post. Their facility is our legal address so that’s where our mail goes. They provide lots of services to us but the one we use the most involves our mail. We can logon and see our recent mail – we can see an image of each envelope. We decide if we want them to forward a piece or shred it. If we want more info, we ask them to open and scan it.

The next piece of the puzzle is deciding where to forward those envelopes we decided we needed. Doug looks ahead to see where we will be and either asks the campground if they will accept our mail or he looks up the nearest Post Office that accepts General Delivery Mail – the mail can be held there for up to 6 weeks. If we are near family, we might have some mail or packages forwarded to them. So far this has all worked very well for us. Of course, we started this whole process by eliminating as much mail as we could. We pay our bills online, have no magazine subscriptions, and opted to have our mail service get rid of all junk mail. This reduction has paid off since we do pay postage and a small fee for each “package of mail” we have forwarded.

Getting the mail from General Delivery at a Post Office is usually a quick uneventful trip. We stand on line (these are small places with friendly people who seem to immediately recognize that we are strangers and not among the local regulars). We show our IDs and the clerks go in the back, retrieve our mail, and after a few pleasantries, off we go.

Elko proved to be a little different. First we tried to pick up the mail on Tuesday but we missed out because that Post Office is only open from 9 am to 12 noon. So we went back the next day. There was one customer ahead of us who was chatting with the clerk. They both smiled at us as we walked in and the clerk turned her attention to us. We barely said General Delivery – didn’t even get our names out – and she told us that we had some mail and since we hadn’t picked it up yet, she had instructed the delivery person to check at the campground to see if we were registered there. So what must you deduce from this? We apparently are the only strangers in town (that get mail). We apparently are staying at the only place for transients – Twin Oaks Campground – no motels? And we are somehow delinquent in picking up our mail.

We mumbled something about just getting into town, the office was closed, etc. The clerk went back and gave us the envelope. We thanked her for her excellent customer service and chuckled in the car about being the notorious strangers in Elko. We just are not used to these small towns, but obviously they are not used to us.

Elko was a good place to venture around Georgia. Our first full day was spent touring the Museum of Aviation at Warner-Robins AFB. There we saw hangers filled with planes, helicopters and related vehicles from all the wars. We’ve seen exhibits like this before and I’m finding some of the most interesting exhibits are the ones that display the uniforms and how they changed over the years. The best part was locating a plane like the one Doug had been in for a test flight a few years ago. It was much smaller than I had expected.

T39 Sabreliner Training Jet

We went to Jimmy Carter’s birthplace, toured his family’s peanut farm, and visited the high school Jimmy went to which is now a museum. And we saw Plains, where we devoured some peanut butter ice cream in a quaint general store that has been there forever.

Jimmy Carter Boyhood Farm

Jimmy Carter High School

Enjoying peanut butter ice cream in Plains, GA

We also went to Andersonville – the site of the fort that held Union prisoners of war toward the end of the Civil War. This is also a National Cemetery and a museum dedicated to prisoners of all wars. It was an interesting day filled with the horror of prison life and balanced with the lovely simplicity of the Carters’ lives.

Our next stop was the parking lot of Safety Plus. We had some equipment installed in the Safety Plus facility in Austell. They were happy to let us stay the night in their lot. It was weird but we don’t do a lot of this kind of dry camping. We managed quite well and have learned to be flexible.

We then spent 8 nights in Acworth at the McKinney Corps of Engineers Campground. We like staying in COE parks since so far they have been beautiful places to stay at a really inexpensive price. Usually the cost was already low at about $24 a night but with my senior discount we pay half that price. And this campground was really nice – our site was big with oak and pine trees and a view of the large lake from both sides of our RV. But the weather was rainy and very cold while we were at this campground so we didn’t get out and walk around much.

We did get a few chances to check out Atlanta. Other than the really awful traffic getting in and out of the big city, we enjoyed Atlanta. One day we went to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center and the Ebenezer Baptist Church. We walked around the Sweet Auburn Market (ate a great lunch at a Venezuelan shop) and saw a bit of the Sweet Auburn neighborhood that Dr. King lived and worked in.

Original Ebenezer Baptist Church

I was especially excited to go on the CNN Studio Tour. We don’t get much cable TV while we are traveling around so I miss checking in with my favorite CNN hosts and pundits.  It was a thrill to see the newsroom in action and to learn how the studios work. The building itself was amazing – it used to be an Omni Hotel until Ted Turner turned it into a functioning news organization. The bottom floor is a really large food court and the escalator is the longest free standing one in the world. Great tour. We walked across the Centennial Olympic Park (in icy wind) to the Center for Civil and Human Rights. We feel like we’ve learned a great deal and were able to tie together the work of King and Carter and their cohorts who fought against hatred and complacency and brought this country to greatness. It was inspirational.

Carolyn watching CNN at CNN Center

CNN Center

Olympic Plaza

Mural at the Center for Civil and Human Rights

We had a great visit from my sister-in-law Lisa who is driving from Florida to Illinois to take care of some family stuff. She shared breakfast with us which was a real treat for us. We don’t have much in the way of company in this lifestyle so her visit was great. We hope the rest of her trip goes well.

We fought the traffic one more time to see the Jimmy Carter Museum and Library. I feel like we know this man and his family from all the exhibits we’ve enjoyed. My favorite anecdote is that Rosalyn Carter chose to wear the same gown for both the governor’s inauguration ball and the presidential ball. She said that she was nostalgic about it. That impressed me. Instead of spending a ridiculous amount of money on her gown, she wore the same one twice. That symbolized to me the lifestyle the Carters live and breathe. They still live in Plains. They still go to a different country once a month to either do some life-saving health program or observe an election. Once a year, they spend a week building a home for Habitat for Humanity. When they are in their small, simple home in Plains, Rosalyn cooks their meals – mostly homegrown fruits and veggies with only occasional meat. They live their lives focused on learning, teaching, health initiatives and helping others. They are authentic. They are refreshing!

Carter Center and Museum

Replica of Oval Office; Sign on desk reads “The buck stops here”

Tomorrow – March 19th – we leave McKinney to go to the Hidden Cove RV Park in Arley, AL. We are expecting to be off the grid – not much in the way of cable, internet, TV reception, etc. We are hoping for good weather so we can keep busy outdoors.

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by | March 2, 2017 · 10:46 am

Living in Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park site

Looking out our RV windows, all we can see is dense Florida jungle.  Low palm trees, gigantic oaks, thick bushes – all crammed together on sandy soil.  We are in beautiful Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park and Campground.  The sites are trimmed just enough to fit an RV and you can barely see your neighbor through the bush.  At any time, I expect to see raptors or something larger leering at me through the trees.  So far, I’ve only seen a mosquito or two, but it feels like it should be buggy here.  Doug’s walking carefully as he watches for snakes.  There is some humidity here but that’s probably because we are so close to the beach.  Yesterday we walked the half mile to the beach along the roads.  A long boardwalk took us over the lush dunes that protect the beach.  It really is pretty here and we just have to get used to this new landscaping.  And this beach was almost empty, had gentle waves, and a wide flat sandy shore.

Our travels through Florida have been leisurely.  We are not rushing north just yet.  The warm weather, which is breaking all records and the low humidity is just too nice to drive away from.

Our last blog ended near Tampa.  We took advantage of the proximity to that big city and spent a day strolling on the Tampa River Walk which took us along the Hillsborough River.  We also spent a day on Honeymoon Beach before we left Wesley Chapel.

Tampa River Walk

Then we did something very different for us.  We attended our first rally.  We are members of the Family Motor Coach Association.  Their rally was held at the Lakeland/Linder Airport.  Over 700 rigs were in attendance with about 1400 RVers enjoying the activities.  After months of living a bit isolated with only each other for company, we found ourselves among lots of friendly people who love the lifestyle we as much as we do.

I attended the “Ladies Lunch” – and yes, it was just women and it was exactly what I was expecting – a light lunch of salads and desserts, with decorated tables, endless doorprizes, and even the inevitable fashion show.  But this fashion show was happily different.  We were treated to fashions that were chosen by an amazing young entrepeneur, who as a Down Syndrome woman, displayed clothes that met the needs of other Down Syndrome women and, by the way, also were the perfect size and shape for most of us in attendance.  The food was good, the company was interesting and Ashley’s designs were inspiring.

Doug chose not to attend the ROMEO Lunch, (Retired Old Men Eating Out), but we went to all the other large activities and many of the instructional seminars.  At each of the events, we met other couples who shared their experiences and listened to our tales of full-timing.  Sometimes we split up to cover multiple workshops.  There was a lot to learn and we got a lot out of four days there.

Outdoor Oldies Concert

A highlight was the Saturday Box Lunch Outdoor Oldies Concert.   At the Ice Cream Social on Sunday afternoon we met a nice couple who were thinking about full-timing.  We invited them to our RV for our private Superbowl celebration.  None of us wanted to go back to the huge hanger to see the game (hard chairs, small screens, noisy fans).  We talked with them for hours and yet never got their full names.  (But if you are reading this, we would love to hear from you!)  In the generous manner of many RVers we have met, they “sold” us a great set of tire covers for a really low price.

A few of the rigs at the FMCA Rally

Our first rally was a success.  We bought some supplies from the vendors and soon our big purchase will be delivered – a custom-made magnetic sun shield for our giant windshield.  We know this will be invaluable since we obviously want to stay in the bright sunshine as much as we can.

After leaving the rally, we drove just a short distance to the Orlando RV Resort.  This is a very large RV Park.  Here we took advantage of our Thousand Trails membership which gives us 30 nights free as well as other deep discounts in member parks.  This was our second Thousand Trails stay and our 13 nights there were absolutely free.  This park had excellent laundry facilities, all kinds of activities and gatherings.  We had a nice view of a peaceful meadow inhabited by an occasional cow and were visited by giant herons who woke us up in the mornings.  All around the park were protected holes dug by native tortoises.  Those big guys had the “run” of the park.

During our stay at the Orlanda RV Resort, I took a quick plane trip to Philadelphia to see my brother Dan.  It was great to hang out with him while he recuperates.  I was able to go with him to his PT and OT therapy and his wife Lisa and I slept over in the hospitality rooms in the rehab center.  I got to see my other brother Steve and my nephew Nico, my nieces and nephew and Dan’s grandsons.  Spending time with my son Jon, my daughters Becky and Paola and my adorable grandsons was just wonderful and by staying in the rehab facility I barely had to venture out into the frigid cold weather I had been dreading.  It was a good family visit.

Before we left the Space Coast , we made an attempt to see the Spacex Shuttle launch. Unfortunately, the launch was scrubbed with just 13 seconds to go.  It was still really cool to see how many people come out early in the morning to watch what is happening in our space program.  The highways were lined with cars and folks set up hoping to see a launch.  The launch did go up successfully the next morning, but we were on our way to our next destination so we couldn’t observe it.  The day of the launch was a busy one for us.  We spent some time on the beach resting and eating lunch and  then we went to a Resistance Rally outside of the Melbourne Airport.  We held up our signs along with about 900 other resisters for five hours in the hot sun – showing up to “resist and persist” in our opposition to the current administration.

Patriotic Protesters

After we recuperated from the Philadelphia trip and our Resistance Rally, we left Orlando and went back to the Stephen Foster Cultural Center and Campground.  We had been there before Christmas and on this stay we saw the beginnings of spring with azaleas and wild flowers starting to bloom.  We love this park and plan one more trip there before we leave Florida.

And that brings us to our current residence near Jacksonville (known as Jax to the locals) at the Kathryn Abbey Hanna primeval forest.  Still loving Florida!  We spent three days on the perfect beach that was just a half mile from our campsite.  The walk to the beach through the jungle was a good way to get our exercise.  This beach was busier than most of the beaches we’ve been on.  Kite-flying, fishing, soccer, Frisbee, shell-finding, surfing, swimming, bicycle riding, picnicking, jogging – all were happening around us as we sat and read and enjoyed the sun and gentle ocean waves.

St. Augustine Beach

We couldn’t resist spending one day on one of the 10 most beautiful beaches in the world – St. Augustine Beach.  St. Augustine is the oldest city in this country and beach access is easy.  Lots of free parking with restrooms and boardwalks over the dunes to the pretty sandy shore.  The weather was great – low humidity, cool ocean breeze and bright sun.

We know we are obsessed with beaches.  It’s our hobby!  And we’ve made it very easy to spend a day of relaxation without all the fuss of getting ready.  After breakfast, I pack a picnic lunch – one clean up instead of cleaning up after two meals.  The lunch goes into a small cloth bag with ice packs.  We keep an insulated collapsible cooler in our car – so the small bag goes in there – ready for us to pull it out when we get to the beach.  Our folding chairs are always in our car trunk and so are our beach towels.  Sunblock, hat, reading materials are all ready to go.  Neither of us does more than get our ankles wet so we don’t have all that wet, sandy stuff to clean up.  We just brush off our feet and put everything away – ready for our next beach day.

But we are now turning westward – inland – and won’t see another beach for quite a while.  We scheduled another two nights at one of our favorite places – Stephen Foster Cultural Center and Campground.  The trees are pretty thick here and the Spanish Moss hangs low from all the oaks, but it just doesn’t feel as dense and steamy as the jungle we just left.  And even though we were just here less than a week ago, we were surprised by the amount of azaleas that are now in bloom all over this park.  We thought we would dry out our stuff here but we had a long downpour last night.  So today we are hoping for lots of sunshine and time to get the laundry done.  It is remarkable that this campground, which is very rustic, has nice restrooms with 2 washers and 2 dryers in each of these buildings.  Best of all, the cost is $1.00 per washer load and $1.00 per dryer load.  We are taking advantage of this low price to get all our laundry done.  The last laundry we did cost us $3.00 for each machine.  That was the most expensive.  We are averaging about $2.00 each machine.  We are just spending 2 nights here, then we leave Florida.  We have spent 87 nights in this state in 18 separate stops.  That is a record for us.  We head to Georgia tomorrow – our 18th state.

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