Summertime of 2013 begins in Syracuse....

Rest Area just north of Exit 77 Linglestown PA on 81 N 

 We began our 55-day trip on May 19th, after having the starboard slide-out motor repaired and a new battery under the hood. We drove 522 miles northbound through overcast skies and typical drizzly Pennsylvania weather and overcrowded traffic. We pulled over just north of Linglestown PA's exit 77 on Route 81 to the rest area to shake the traffic and veg out for the remainder of the night. We have never stayed at a rest stop overnight before. We put out the bedroom slide and dined on shrimp scampi taken from the freezer. We watched reruns of Adam-12 and MASH and plugged our ears to the road traffic.

Sunday, May 20th the drizzles continued and became fog in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The roads are in desperate need of resurfacing and repair. We came to rest at Green Lakes State Park, just outside of Syracuse NY on site 115.  While here in Syracuse we have borrowed Dave's parents car. The Jeep rests quietly in NBNC.

From May 20 through June 13 we spent days helping Dave's parents in landscaping, cleaning and arranging for care so that they may continue to live in their home, although they face challenges of being elderly.

After several weeks of rain, rain and, yes, more rain, we headed westbound to Saint Louis, Missouri. But before venturing onto the interstates once again, we attended the Camping World/Good Sam Club Rally at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse. While there for the week we endured yet more rain. Thankfully we do not have to shovel rain but we sure did our best to straddle mud puddles. The unwarranted precipitation caused at least 400 rigs to park upcountry at the Destiny Mall parking lots. Although most days we overcast and drizzly, we attended many seminars and grazed through the buildings of vendors.    We attended two of the three evenings of entertainment; Friday night was Wayne Newton. As he approaches his 72nd birthday he was received well by the gathered crowd...and then he began to sing...he should have hung up  his ukulele thirty years ago! The second  night of entertainment was provided by Reba McIntire, who gave a great performance and received an encore.

While at The Rally we met up with fellow rver's and enjoyed sharing ceegars and scotch at our curbsides.  The evening before our departure a camping neighbor became trenched in mud. We prepared ourselves by pulling our rig forward and were able to get ourselves from being mud-bound by building bridges with our leveling blocks and propelling across the muddied trenches. Dave did a great job getting us from our mudcaked site.

After spending another week at Green Lakes we hit the road and arrived at site 76 at Sundermeier Campground in St. Charles Missouri. While here until July 7th we will be celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary with our son, Steve and his wife, Adrienne, and our daughter Carol and her husband Eric, and their sons (our grandsons) Alex and Kyle.

On July 7th we will begin our return to NBNC with our grandsons. Stay tuned!

Wilmington NC: April 21~28 with FHRV Club

Raising of the RV Club Flag

On Sunday, April 21 we began our trek southward to Wilmington North Carolina, after having had a great time with fellow Fairfield Harbour RVers at the Annual Open House and PotLuck in the Harbour. Weather on Sunday was chilly and very overcast. We arrived at the Wilmington KOA and set up on site 34.  

Then the Huebner’s and the Costello’s ventured into town to Front Street Brewery, Wilmington’s only microbrewery in a building that dates back to 1865. We found the menu and service to be wonderful. Our appetizers included very delicious pub fries, onion rings and beer nuggets. Dinners chosen for our table included fish n’ chips, classic Reuben and baby back ribs.

Eat, Drink, Camp

Staying warm at the fire

Eat, Drink, Laugh, Camp

Jeannie Beanie!

Fire-tending

Monday, April 22nd the remaining our our clubbers arrived at the campground and we all met around the campfire and shared hors d'oeuvres. Chilly night, but the campfire and good conversations kept us warm.

Tuesday morning we met around the campfire for donuts and coffee and planned our day. Wilmington is a small town blend of preserved historic areas and the striding into the 21st century of modernization and vision.

We boarded a local-owned trolley for an hour tour of the city that meandered through neighborhoods paved in brick-ways and listed in the National Register and along brick-lined and live oak treed streets reflecting eclectic styles of architecture and gardening.

After the tour we scattered like ants to various sites along the riverwalk. The Diligence, a Coast Guard Cutter, is homeported along Wilmington’s Cape Fear River. The Diligence is capable of performing missions that range from alien migrant interdiction operations, drug interdiction missions  and search and rescue.

   We  met as a group at Front Street Brewery for appetizers and happy hour, returning to our campsite for campfire. While sitting around the flames we were treated to seeing the space station go overhead as it was continuing its voyage in the neverending atmosphere.

Wednesday the rver’s embarked on their own smorgasbord of tours, shopping and sightseeing. Several of us boarded the Battleship North Carolina, which is a self-guided tour and can be a brief or as long a tour as you pace yourself. We began the walking tour after viewing the introductory movie and then meandering through the exhibit hall. 

As we began our walk up the gangway to board the ship one is struck by the size of ship. When the ship was commissioned in 1941 it was considered the world’s greatest weapon. 

 

As we walked on the main deck we saw the armament of  nine 16-inch/45 caliber guns in three turrets and twenty 5-inch/38 caliber guns in ten twin mounts. The weaponry is very formidable. During World War II the North Carolina was in the Pacific and earned 15 battle stars. 

The ship was decommissioned in 1947 and after being inactive for 14 years there were plans being made for its scrapping. There was a statewide campaign by citizens of North Carolina and bring her back to her home state. The Save Our Ship (SOS) campaign was successful and the Battleship arrived in her current berth in 1961 and in 1962 was dedicated as the State's memorial to its World War II veterans and the 10,000 North Carolinians who died during the war. We then met for a sunset dinner at Bridge Tender in Wrightsville Beach. Although there was no sun to see being set, we did enjoy a good meal and, again, great conversations. The evening brought us all to the fire circle to enjoy the sharing of laughter and guffaws.

Thursday our morning and midday brought us overcast skies, temperatures in the 60s and a few of our clubbers having to depart and hit the road. This evening will be happy hour and potluck.

Thursday, March 7 through Saturday, March 09, 2013: Returning to NBNC

Dekalb Farmers Market, Decatur Georgia

You say po-ta-tow, I say po-taa-tow, you say De-kall-b, I say Dee-kal-b…no matter how you say it, the DeKalb Farmers Market in Decatur Georgia was incredible. This 140,000-square-foot warehouse-looking building, a plain-jane on the outside is shopper’s mecca inside. There are aisles and aisles of spices, jams, salsas, pastas, oils and vinegars, nuts and dried fruits. Had we been driving ourselves I am pretty sure at least two of each product would have been in our shopping cart. And then we came to the fresh produce and fruits. Rows and rows of veggies and fruits I not only could not pronounce, but would not have known how to eat and/or cook. It was fun reading the labels and wondering how some of this stuff was harvested.  

Decatur Georgia, Dekalb Farmers Market

And then there is the bakery displaying wonderful loaves of brioche and challahs, Italian and French breads, and dozens of different croissant and muffin flavors. The daily baking begins about 1 a.m. and continues through until closing when the bakery teams begin yet another day’s work. We then continue down to the fresh seafood and meat counters. There are no unpleasant odors and you would not know, until you approach the counters, that the fish is so fresh there are even tanks where fish are trying to go upstream and where you may see live crawdads wiggling on the floor where they might have escaped from their watered containers. The extensive selection of fresh meats included Australian goat and lamb, organic beef, pork and poultry. This market was surprising and unexpected and we really enjoyed our brief visit.

South of the Border, Dillon SC

 On Friday we broke camp and travelled eastbound to our planned stop in Dillon SC-The South of the Border. We have driven past this touristy spot since the early 1980s and after all this time we decided to pitch the motorhome for the night. The campground was secured and allowed for spacious pull-through. Rates for full-hookup are very reasonable.

South of the Border Site A111

 The souvenir shops we strolled through offered the usual ‘stuff’, albeit the winter crowd (us) were about the only ones on the streets. We assume there would be quite the summer crowd due to the number of restaurants, shops and arcades. Saturday morning brought us to temperature in the mid-40s, sunny skies and the wind at our tow. We arrived safely at home in NBNC (New Bern NC) after 2,220 miles, 66 days, and 380 gallons of fuel.

Join us in April when we join fellow Harbour RVers as we gather in Wilmington North Carolina. CYA on the blog! Dave and Karen

Wednesday, March 06, 2013: Atlanta Georgia

After a Winnie the Pooh blustery night and morning, we journeyed into downtown Atlanta for our Inside CNN Studio Tour, which is a 55-minute walking tour that descends 8 flights of stairs. 

Our tour guide, we learned, is from Syracuse, his family lives in the Sedgwick area and he is a graduate of Syracuse University. He happens to be flying to D.C. tomorrow to be at the S.U. vs. Georgetown – GO ORANGEMEN! 

We ascended the world’s largest free-standing escalator, riding upwards eight stories to have a behind –the-scenes glimpse into the news and broadcasting of CNN and HLN news bureaus. 

We saw and heard live production being prepared and broadcast from the studios, and learned how live feeds are received into our homes with immediacy.  

After our tour we visited Underground Atlanta, that covers six city blocks of shopping and restaurants. Underground Atlanta is a preserved area once a railroad depot that still shows original storefronts, marble, granite archways, cast iron pilasters, brickwork, and hand-carved wood posts that survived the Civil War and many reconstructions of the area.

After working up an appetite we headed to Cumberland and our very favorite restaurant, P.F. Chang’s, where we relaxed and enjoyed a delicious lunch and planned our tomorrow.  

February 24 through March 5: Florida to Georgia

Dave and Karen with Jean and Sam

The next segment of our trip brought us to Spring Hill RV Park in Spring Hill Florida, just north of New Port Richey. We were reserved at site 121 but then moved to site 118 because of a huge live oak blocking our satellite reception. We joined up with our good friends, The Jones’s-really, that is their name. We have known Jean and Sam since the early 1970s and have re-kindled that strong friendship during the past few months. While with Jean and Sam we visited New Port Richey and Hudson. 

Hidden Lake home with hangar

Sam took us through Hidden Lakes Estates Airpark, where the homes in the community have direct access to the runway, and all the streets are taxiways and aircraft have the right-of-way. A majority of the homes had hangars and the mailboxes were placed strategically for the planes to pass over. Jean and I spent an afternoon browsing Hobby Lobby and Lyons Head Antique Shop. We had a wonderful week with Jean and Sam and look forward to visiting The Biltmore with them in the Fall.

Welcoming porch at The Villages

We also traveled an hour northeast to The Villages, where we were placed under a spell of the ‘Disney-like’ senior community. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at The Lighthouse Restaurant and then boarded a tram for an hour tour of The Villages.

On Sunday morning we headed northbound to Atlanta South RV Park in McDonough Georgia. We traveled through strong headwinds and temperatures that did not exceed the low 40s.  A co-worker of Dave’s from the A-B brewery in Baldwinsville lives nearby and we reconnected with him for a few days. 

During this time we dined at Six Feet Under, a neighborhood restaurant overlooking historic Oakland Cemetery. The cemetery is one of the best views of Atlanta's skyline and is the final resting place of Atlanta’s most noted citizens like Margaret Mitchell., who wrote Gone with the Wind. There are many graves that are lavish monuments marking a prominent or wealthy family, as well as hundreds of small, simple headstones.

We visited Grant Park where The Cyclorama painting, a work of art painted in 1885 is 42 feet tall and 358 feet in circumference and weighs more than 9,000 pounds. It is said to be the largest painting in the world. The painting depicts the Battle of Atlanta. The presentation placed us on a grandstand that turned very slowly as detailed description of the Civil War conflict was fought in Atlanta was shared.  After the presentation we toured the museum and then we travelled westbound to Patak’s in Austell.  Patak’s is a small store that sells its own fresh, smoked, and dry cured meats and sausages. There were also fresh breads and east European cookies, jams and condiments. Patak’s has two smokehouses, that produce up to 20,000 pounds of product per day. All Patak sausages are hand-made, twisted and smoked in their on-site factory. Needless to say, the moment we walked in to this shop we began to drool.

On Wednesday Dave and I will be visiting CNN’s Studio and the Atlanta Underground.

February 16 through 23rd: Frostproof Florida

After thirty days on site 804 in Florida City we traveled north on US 27 running parallel to the Miami Canal, passing by wetlands and along the shores of Lake Okeechobee. It was interesting to see the change of landscape as we continued past cane fields owned by Domino Sugar and by sprawling cattle ranches. The familiarity of vast acres of citrus groves welcomed our return to central Florida. We are now residents on site 453 at Rainbow RV Resort in Frostproof.

Unfortunately, Dave was sick for the first four days of our stay so we laid low while he recuperated. By Wednesday Dave began to once again feel better and we drove to Lake Wales and Frostproof to check out these little towns and visit the grocery store.

Tampa Bay on horizon

Avis and Jim Brown

 On Thursday we joined the Brown’s on a drive through the countryside to Balm, Florida, where Goodson’s Farm Market, in business since 1988, serves up flavorful Cuban sandwiches and titanic-portioned strawberry shortcakes. The strawberries are as fresh as walking thirty feet to the acres and acres of strawberries. Once sated we continued our drive westward. Along the way we passed through small towns including Fort Meade, Wimauma and mammoth cranes mining for phosphate. 

Manatee tailfin

We stopped at the Florida Power Plant just north of Apollo Beach where manatees, enjoying the warm water outflow, looked like stepping stones throughout the canal. Another check-off on our ‘life list’; seeing these homely looking animals so agile in the waterway as they move unhurriedly using their paddle-like flippers to navigate to their next lunch counter. The manatees act as lawnmowers in the canals where they keep the weeds cleared and the tourists clicking cameras hoping for a good picture. We continued to Apollo Beach where we could see the horizon cityscape views of Tampa and St. Petersburg. The Brown’s were our guests at site 453 for a dinner of shrimp scampi and strawberry shortcake

Airboat on Lake Kissimmee

Alley-gator

Grazing in the river

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Baby Gators

We had an invasion of sugar ants into the motorhome. They followed their scouts into the most minuscule pathway under the kitchen slideout and made themselves welcome in the cupboards above the kitchen. The Brown’s had some insect killer spray we borrowed and after nearly three hours of removing all the contents from the cupboards and washing everything off we were confident that these little buggers were squashed. NOT! The motorhome exterior was covered. We feel that we have pitched our tent on the mothership of ant hills. A trip to Lowe’s is scheduled for the morning.

Bald Eagle Perched above marshland

On Friday Dave went to Lowe’s and came back with the tools to make sure would not be visiting again. We also had the motorhome washed and waxed and now looks real spiffy.  We joined the Brown’s for a drive eastward to Lake Kissimmee to Grape Hammock Fish Camp and Gator Country Airboat Tours, where we boarded a small airboat to see the "Real Florida". This was a great experience. Our captain, a native of Lake Kissimmee, seated us and we took off on a one-hour tour of the marshlands hugging the lake shore. There were a number of fishermen looking for ‘the one that got away’. We floated over lily pads, hydrilla, sea grasses and were again up close to snoozing alligators, deer, hogs, and many species of birds.

Alligator Snoozing

Friday night we began humming “the ants go marching….” as they returned enmass again. This time we were prepared with insecticide and have now put as much as possible into Ziploc bags. We really enjoy Florida, but when the bugs outnumber humans it is not the place to live.