Sept 07- May 08

Utah

We moved out of our home in Spanish Fork, Utah in September of 2007. We embarked on our journey as full time RV’ers in a 29 1/2 foot Itasca Spirit with 2 slide outs. This was going to be our home for who knows how long. The situation wasn’t ideal but the sale on our home had fallen through and we had rented it to a very nice young couple and we felt comfortable with our budget.

Idaho

We left Spanish Fork, Utah on 6 September 2007. Our first destination was Twin Falls, Idaho to visit Chris’ father, Maurice. We arrived in Twin Falls and stayed at Anderson’s RV Camp just outside of the city. It was very convenient to Maurice’s. Chris and I visited with Maurice and Chris helped him take care of some personal business. Sunday morning before we left, we took Maurice out to breakfast at the IHop which borders the famous gulch bridge. Chris noticed a lot of activity so we drove over to take a look and got to watch several base jumbers leap off the bridge into the Snake River gulch. This is currently the only place in the US that still allows base jumping from the bridge surface. It was very exciting and we enjoyed our time together.
Oregon

September 9, 2007 we left Twin Falls, Idaho and headed towards Oregon City, Oregon to visit my sister Donna and her family. On the way there, we stopped for the first night in Baker City. Chris asked me when the Pendleton Round Up was held. I wasn’t sure, so I checked it out on the Internet and it was starting on the 10th. I checked on getting tickets and found that there were a few left, so Chris suggested that we stop for one of the rodeos. I called a couple of Pendleton RV parks for available rental sites but the first two were booked up. Luckily the third one I called had just had a cancellation. I tried to book it for a night or two but they only rented by the week…it was not part of our plan but we decided to go ahead and spend the entire week there and experience the full Pendleton Round Up.

Unfortunately the next morning as we were pulling out of Baker, we had our first serious mishap. Due to very tight parking space at our overnight site, I had pulled the jeep right up close to the trailer behind the RV. The next morning I settled Chico into the seat beside me in the RV and started to pull out. However I forgot that Chris was loading Buddy into the jeep behind me and how close the jeep was parked to the trailer. As I pulled forward I caught the open driver’s door with the bumper of the trailer. It jammed the door right into the trailer’s fender and we spent another hour getting the fender straightened out enough so we could even pull it. The door on the jeep was sprung completely and would not close properly. If this were the Oregon Trail of yesteryear we would have been left by the wagon train and the consequences could have been life or death. The incident increased our awareness of good communications and safety. We pulled out our stored hand radios and began using them right away.
We limped into Pendleton and got ourselves settled in the Lookout RV Park. I almost wrecked the trailer as I pulled into the RV site. The sites were tiered and as I swung the RV into the spot I ran the trailer wheel up onto the curb of the site below us. I was headed for the neighbor’s living room when Chris yelled into the walkie talkie for me to STOP! A near disaster was averted by our new and improved communications.

The week that we spent at the world famous Pendleton Round was OK. There is a very large Indian Institute available on the outskirts of Pendleton which sits in the middle of a federal reservation. We went there one afternoon and I felt it was a disappointment. The entire museum was depressing, as it concentrated only the Indian’s culture being destroyed by the white man. It had very little information about the Indian way of life. I don’t know if this was the intent but if it was, then it was a complete success. The Pendleton Mills was interesting but most of the Pendleton items were very expensive and unfortunately many of the “all American products”, shirts, etc, were made overseas.

We went to one of the day shows for the rodeo and quite frankly, we have seen rodeo’s that were as good if not better in our little town of Spanish Fork, Utah. The Indian bareback horse race was the most exciting and was certainly one of my favorites. We also enjoyed the Indian gathering at the end of the rodeo. There was a very large Indian village complete with several hundred Teepees’. Chris and I walked around the village. The local Indians had tents where they were selling jewelry and other items. It was nice. The BBQ meal included with our rodeo ticket was served in the park adjacent to the and was also very good.

We also went to the evening Happy Valley Canyon performance, which was billed as a Westward story of the Pioneers. It started off OK but once again the story strayed towards the complete decimation of the Indian culture and left me with bitterness about the destruction of the Indian culture by the white man. It was not a “feel good” show!

We actually left Pendleton early as I was expecting a lot more than I experienced and was rather disappointed. I was more than ready to get on wth our own adventure.

We drove straight through to the Hood River. We spent one night there at a very nice RV park by the river. The bridge going over the Hood River was very narrow and pretty exciting to navigate with the RV. The RV Park that we stayed at on the Washington side was excellent. It was small and rather expensive but very well appointeed.

We arrived in Oregon City and made it to my sister, Donna's, house. They have complete RV hook ups for their 40 foot Beaver coach. It was perfect. Our original plan was to visit my sister for a few weeks. However I was experiencing some pain in my left knee and my sister had a very good orthopedic surgeon whom I made an appointment with so he could examine my knee and give me another opinion. My family care doctor in Spanish Fork had said I would need arthroscopic surgery. After my exam by the new surgeon, I was pleased to find out that he did not recommend the surgery, rather some new injections to relieve the pain and help with the cushioning. After the approval process and the six weekly injections, we were well into the Holidays and so we decided to stay through Christmas and New Years. The time that we spent with Donna and Dan was wonderful. Their hospitality was truly above and beyond the call of family. We enjoyed getting to know them and the children so very much.

South Carolina/Pennsylvania

During our time in Oregon we made a trip out east in September 2007 to meet our newest grandchild-Addison Buckley. It was a whirlwind trip and we completely enjoyed ourselves. We flew into Philly and rented a car and immediately set out for South Carolina. Because of the time difference we felt great and drove until we began to get tired and began looking for a hotel. That was right outside of Manassas, VA...you know...the fall folage mecca. Every hotel along our route was booked solid...we finally found a 24 hour Wal-Mart about 2:00 AM, bought a sleeping bag, two pillows and slept in the car. In spite of the fact that this in not the first time we have experienced this no-hotel phonomena, my lovely wife continues to go places with me.

Chris had specifically asked Jason and Libby to let us keep Addison during the day for them through the week we were visiting...so they gave their Nanny the week off and we got to cuddle and play with a very cute little girl...such a good baby!! Libby and Jason also introduced us to WII...we didn't do quite so well but we got a very first hand demonstration of how competitive those two are...even with each other!! Libby kicked everyone's butt at bowling...and the next day, we(Lonnie and Chris) were as sore as if we had run a marathon. Jason took Thursday off and took us on a wonderful tour of oldtown Greenville...it was nice to watch him was he cared for Addison during the tour...what a great Dad he is!! On Friday we took off for Philadelphia to see the Pecor side of the kids.

Oregon/Washington

During our time in Oregon, we had two opportunities to get up to Washington State to visit Roger & Pauline Ferren, a fellow AAFES retiree and his wife. My sister and Dan were kind enough to watch our little dogs while we were gone. We had a wonderful time visiting Roger and Pauline and getting to know their 9 cats (Pauline oversees the "Cat Floor" at the local animal shelter and “rescues" many of the inmates herself)! They introduced us to several excellent local eateries and we chatted far into the evening about the past, our current lives, and our futures interests....wonderful friends and wonderful memories shared.

Oregon/California

We also took a trip down to see the Redwoods. We left Oregon and headed towards California on the 4th of Nov 2008. Chris and I spent a week wandering around looking at the magnificent trees. It was really a magical journey thru some of the old growth. So far, it remains one of the highlights of our journey.
We stopped at the Trees of Mystery on US 1. There we experienced one of the BEST American Indian museums either of us had ever seen! It was by far and away 100% better than the one that we had experienced in Pendleton, Oregon. This one was truly worth a visit by anyone interested in our Native American culture.

Oregon

On the way back from the Redwoods we met Dan and Donna in Lincoln City, OR and wandered for a day on the brisk winter beaches of the Pacific. The Oregon coast was a wonder to see and we enjoyed it as we made our way back from the Redwoods.

On the final leg of our trip back to Oregon City, we stopped to see a superb aeronautical museum in McMinnville, Oregon where Howard Hughes’ “The Spruce Goose" is kept. The Spruce Goose was and still is a wonder of aviation! We saw many world famous aircraft from every generation. There were Spads and Triplanes, Zero’s to Mosquitoes’. There were aircraft from every war America flew in. There was even a complete SR-71, The Blackbird. It was a superb museum.

Also while at the museum, we had the opportunity to talk to several pilots from various eras. The museum had a special WWII event going on and had arranged for pilots to be on hand to talk to the general public about their aircraft. Our favorite was a young pilot (80+ years) who had actually flown a B-29 over Nazi Germany during WWII. He was wonderful to talk to and had a bunch of stories to tell. The aviation museum is well worth a visit.

Idaho

Just before Christmas 2007, we returned to Idaho to visit Chris’ Dad, Maurice, for the holidays. While going to Twin Falls, we were delayed for two days in Baker City, OR due to an interstate closure. The state police closed the highway due to snowy conditions! Thank God, we were not driving our RV. We hunkered down in a motel, and watched TV for two days. During our week in Twin Falls, ID, we shopped and visited with Maurice and had a very enjoyable dinner with him, Larry, and Chris's sister Janet at the Outback Restaurant there. We finally returned to Oregon with the threat of another blizzard on our heels all the way.

Oregon

We spent Christmas and New Years in Oregon. The holidays were nice and we had a good time visiting with Donna, Dan Rebecca and Jeremy. It actually snowed(very rare!) on Christmas day in Oregon City, Oregon.

Mexican Riviera Cruise

We had booked a Mexican Rivera cruise for the first part of February, 2008 and my wonderful sister volunteered to watch our little dogs while we went for our jaunt. So, Chris and I flew to San Diego on the 10th of Feb and our cruise took us to Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan and Puerto Vallarta. The 7 days went by very fast and the sights we saw were wonderful. We traveled with some old friends from Dallas and really enjoyed ourselves visiting with them in the evenings over dinner. We returned to Oregon on the 17th of Feb.

Oregon/

By the end of February, the Pacific Northwest winter seemed to be loosing its grip. Chris and I decided to make a break for Yuma, Arizona to visit her Mom. We decided to go though California and not backtrack into Utah. The weather had been very unpredictable in Idaho & Utah during the 2007 winter and we just didn’t want to chance traveling through them especially the Siskiyou Mountains in southern Oregon which are notorious for snow storms and closures.

On the 4th of March 2008 we left Oregon City and made it to Ashland, Oregon. We stayed at a nice RV camp north of the mountain climb. It was clear and sunny the next morning as we began packing up. We began our ascent of the Siskiyou by promptly following our usually reliable GPS up the old road towards the mountain pass. We climbed and climbed and finally started to see snow on the ground. Fortunately the road was clear. After a steady climb we came to the freeway entrance and the final 100 feet of the ascent. We had taken the original road out and over the pass!

California

Without any delays we made it into California. Northern California is filled with farming and acres and acres of vineyards. I was amazed at the amount of agriculture that the state had going on. We stayed in Bakersfield, Sacramento and in the Hemet Valley. We both really liked southern California. It was clean, and beautiful.
However Los Angles was not my cup of tea. The traffic was a killer and it’s not someplace you want to be towing anything! Our only adventure in LA was due to my dropping my walkie talkie into the door well and I couldn’t talk to Chris. She was leading and giving me directions. Naturally I took a wrong turn and we were on our way on the I-5 instead of the bypass on 210. We didn’t go through LA but I experienced enough to want to stay away! I did get to see Burbank!
We made it through Los Angeles and pulled into San Diego without any mishaps. We stayed at an RV park in La Mesa right off the I-8 going west. It had easy access to the interstate so we took a drive into San Diego and also went to the San Diego Zoo. The San Diego Zoo was huge and we walked and walked. However, the sky tram was working and we also took it over the entire park. The Zoo was very nice but a tremendous amount of walking!
Our next stop was Yuma. We headed out of San Diego on the 11th of March. The climb out of the San Diego was a monster.


Arizona

We arrived with no problems in Yuma on the 11th of March. We stayed in Yuma until the 5th of April. We played some golf and got some much needed maintenance done on our RV.

The weather in Yuma was terrific. Nice and warm and dry! It was very enjoyable. We visited with Chris’ Mom every day and had some wonderful visits with her Uncle’s and Aunt’s. One day we spent visiting the Yuma Territorial Prison. Thank God I wasn’t alive and in jail during those days! The cells held 6 men or women! Not enough room to even stretch. No heat or A/C. I would have never survived.

From Yuma we then headed towards Sedona, Arizona. We had heard that Sedona was a wonderful place to visit from one of our Dahn Thai Chi instructors in Oregon. We actually were able to take a couple of weeks of Thai Chi classes to maintain our sanity while it was raining every day!
We arrived in Sedona filled with visions of beautiful red rock and incredible rock formations. The next morning I drove around a while on a road that was for 4x4 vehicles only. I was amazed at the beauty of the rock formations as the early morning light hit upon the red rock, after checking into the RV Park we decided to extend our stay. We needed to recharge our batteries and we really enjoyed our stay in this magical area of America. This is an area that we highly recommend for everyone to visit and to experience. It’s a great destination for seniors and youngsters.

Part of our enjoyment of Sedona was our tour of the Sedona Vortex’s. A vortex is an area on the planet where one’s own energy is enhanced because of the energy of the earth. Sedona is known worldwide by the vortex’s among the red rocks.
Chris and I were able to experience the vortex’s on a very personal level. Each of us had a wonderful time relaxing and meditating on the red rocks and brought away feels of the raw energy that is in each of us.

New Mexico

From Sedona we made our way to Albuquerque, NM. A couple more of our AAFES retiree friends, Chris Woodward and her brother, Rick Reznik live in Albuquerque. We got into a nice RV park and made arrangements to go out to dinner with them on the 10th of April.
We needed to mail our tax info to the IRS so we asked them to stop by a Post Office to get the package mailed. While in the Post Office I asked about directions to the local Flying J where Rick recommended the buffet. Chris W also asked another guy for directions. So, using our new directions, Rick headed towards the highway and we went west. Naturally, after a ½ hour on the road we didn’t see the Flying J so we decided that it must be in the opposite direction. Yup-it was just behind the Post Office where Chris W and I got directions. We both swore that these two guys had given us bogus directions. Fortunately, the buffet was excellent; we ate our fill and no one was ill from the meal.
The next day was Rick’s birthday and we were invited to meet at Chris’ house for a nice meal. Rick and I were planning on playing some golf and Chris W was going to pick Chris up at our RV after her Salsa dancing lessons.I drove over and met up with Rick and we went out to drive some golf balls at the local range. It was fun and we went back to the house so he could show me some guitar chords. After hearing my guitar, Rick said I needed some new strings! Off we went to a local music store and got some replacements. The music store was terrific. A band was playing and there were plenty of happy customers in the store. We returned to his place and Rick restrung my guitar. I never heard it sounding so good!
Chris W had bought a used washer at a local yard sale and Rick was washing the first load of clothing. I needed to go outside to my car for something and I saw a pool of water gushing from the washing machine. The drain hose had come off! Rick and I spent a few hours cleaning up the water and about that time Chris and Chris showed up! Chris W asked me what had happened. I immediately ratted out Rick!! I would not last long under torture. I would spill my guts in a matter of nano seconds! We all had a great dinner that evening and our little dogs enjoyed themselves with Chris W’s Sheltie.
It was fantastic visiting with Chris and Rick. They are so fit and the best we can do to keep up with them is to eat healthy!
The next morning before we took off, Chris and I went down shopping in old town. San Felipe drive is the main shopping area and it’s filled with jewelry shops and arts and crafts stores. We found some interesting places and got what we wanted.

Texas

After shopping we pulled out for our next major stop-Dallas, Texas. We made our first stop in Amarillo, Texas and the second stop was in Wichita Falls, Texas. The days were very, very windy and both Chris and I were exhausted after driving in the windy conditions.
On the 15th of April we pulled into Traders Village RV Park in Grand Prairie, Texas. We stayed in Dallas until the 22nd. During our stay we visited with old friends, and ate! Typical Dallas. Eat out! We saw our old friends, Marty and Rick Henry (Friday), Jim Sawyer and his wife Sue (Thursday). On Saturday, Jim and I went trap shooting at the Alpine range in Ft Worth while Chris went to a Dog Rescue Event with her friend Becky Folse and that evening we went over to Becky and Kirk Folse’s home for a nice dinner and our dogs played with their dogs. Sunday we went out to dinner at the new restaurant(Pappdeaux’s) in Duncanville with Toni and Jimmy Mooney and George and Peggy Owens. On our last day (Monday) we went out to Connie Ward’s home (Midlothian) in the afternoon to visit and our little dogs had the opportunity to be herded around by her Border Collie-Tess! That evening John and Alyce McCarron went out to dinner with us and visited at our RV. After a very busy schedule of visiting old friends we took off for our next destination- Ft. Rucker, Alabama.

Mississippi

We stopped at Ruston, Louisiana and Meridian, Mississippi enroute to Alabama. The RV Park in Ruston was a state park at a beautiful little lake. It was so very quiet and restful we could have easily spent a week there.

Alabama

I(Lonnie) was stationed at Ft. Rucker 22 years ago. Ft Rucker is the home of Army Aviation and I was looking forward to seeing some of the old haunts. Our trip out to Ft Rucker took us three days. We drove through Selma, Alabama where the civil rights movement began. I stopped and left Chris with the dogs in the RV and wandered the town checking out the historic areas and taking pictures. To think that the place was so important to the entire civil rights movement was pretty cool.
We pulled into Ozark, Alabama where we checked into the Ozark Travel Park on the 24th of April. It is a part of the Best Parks in America club and is one of the nicer parks that we have stayed at.
It’s been about 22 years since I have been around this area. The greatest change that I have seen is the heighten level of security. All of the dirt roads going into the military installation have been blocked off with heavy metal gates and fences. The gates for major thoroughfares have changed from open access to completely locked down with security guards checking each vehicle going in.
I spent the 25th meeting Ronnie Rakestraw in Enterprise and then checking out where we lived when I was assigned here. The house is still standing even though the entire area had been hit pretty badly with a tornado in 2007. Kathy Rakestraw’s Mother was killed by the tornado in her home in Enterprise. I saw a bunch of new construction in the area where we had lived. The old neighborhood was a combination of new construction and older homes still in good shape.
I went out to the PX and went into the store. It has not been upgraded in a number of years and the carpets are tattered and torn and the place just looks kinda shabby! The old adage is true. One can never go back! The entire Fort is under lock and key. You have to get a visitors pass to get onto the installation. It’s only good for one day.
The best part of returning to places where you have lived and worked are the wonderful friends that you get reacquainted with. On Saturday Ronnie and I met at his home. He has a beautiful home on 121 acres of land right outside of Enterprise. Ronnie took me around Enterprise to see the damage that the tornado had wrought upon the city last year. It was devastating! There were dozens of homes that were completely destroyed.
The High School where Kathy was working on the day of the tornado was hit particularly badly. There were 7 students who were killed. The school is still operating out of FEMA trailers. It’s always a shocker to see the real thing vs. to see it on TV. Its always one thing to see a disaster on the news, but its quite another to see the scene in real time. Many of the homes around where I had lived 22 years ago were destroyed.
The tour was a grim reminder of just how powerful Mother Nature is and how we mere humans have very little chance whenever her ire is raised.
The following day Chris and I were invited to dinner with the Rakestraw’s. At 530 PM we made our way to their home. Chris had never met them and was looking forward to it, because I had talked about them for so many years.
We got to their home and Ronnie met us outside and as Chris opened her side of the Jeep, Chico and Buddy made their way to the fence to visit with the Rakestraw’s dogs. Ronnie opened the gate and they all quickly mingled and settled right down. Chico and the Rakestraw’s little Chinese Crescent, Cupcake are about the same size and were fine together. Buddy and their other dog were indifferent to each other and they too were fine.
Dinner was excellent and it was fun getting to know their children, who are now young adults. We had a great meal and the evening went by way too fast. We finally left at about 930 PM, which is late for us.
The next morning Chris and I met Ann Gallimore and her husband, Bill for breakfast. We were meeting at McDonalds. As Chris and I were ordering a woman said hello to me and told me than Ann was on her way. She looked familiar but I was unable to place a face with a name until Ann came in and told me that she had invited Judy! Of course, then it all came back.
It was fun getting together with them and we exchanged fun stories of the days gone by. We updated each other to our latest and greatest ills and surgeries! Yup-we have become those dreaded people who discuss those issues. Not too long mind you but just enough to remind us, that we are not the only ones suffering some illness or malady!
Once again the time flew by and we had to say our goodbyes and promises for more time in the future.
So, once again we were on our way to Florida. Our first stop in Florida was to be about 175 miles away from Ft Rucker. The going was slow until we got to Interstate
10. Traffic was flying like there was no speed limit! Floridians were passing us like we were standing still. Our journey to our next stop was quite fast in spite of the distance. We arrived quickly and got ourselves set up quickly and easily.

Florida

Our first stop in Florida was at Lamont. The park was called A Campers World. Well, like most of the RV parks, the name sounds terrific and you wince when you arrive. It was rustic, but close to the Interstate. The price was ok, $27 for an evening. So, we really couldn’t complain.
From Lamont we were off the next morning to Green Cove Springs, Florida. Our new home consists of a mail forwarding service but we needed to get there before the end of the month so we could register our RV before the Utah plates expired at the end of the month.
We arrived and finally found the county administration building where we would register the vehicles. The people in the tax collectors office were very accommodating. A woman came out and verified the VIN number of our RV. This was a requirement. Then, I completed the remainder of the paperwork and found out that we would only receive temporary plates until the bank that had a lien on the RV would submit the title to the state of Florida. That could take up to 4 week. Oh well…at least we had current plates even though they were temporary.
We left the admin building and made our way to Saint Augustine. We were going to stay fro a week to get things together, however this KOA site wanted $70 per night. It was too steep for our budget. We stayed one night and then moved to another site which turned out to be as nice and ½ the price. We got our selves set up and pulled out our direct TV satellite. After a short time adjusting the direction we got everything set up and turned in for the night.
The next day we set off to register the other two vehicles. We got that accomplished without any problems. Then we went down to get our Florida drivers licenses. Ooops…we didn’t have our birth certificates or passports with us, so we had to return at a later date. The following day we got our passports and off we went to get our drivers licenses. Chris had made appointments on line and we got there and there was no line! Not only that but we had our licenses within 10 minutes and we were on our way back to our RV. So far we had not encountered any difficulties with getting our vehicles registered or obtaining our Florida drivers licenses. Hurray!!
Chris’ daughter and family stopped by to see us as they were on their way to Disneyworld for a family vacation. The grandchildren are getting soo big! I am sure that we are looking older but they are growing up so very quickly. Even though their visit was very short it was wonderful to visit with them. We met them again on their way back north at Cracker Barrel restaurant for breakfast. As always, Cracker Barrel was jammed packed with folks, so it was a good thing that we arrived there early. By the time that the Daugherty’s arrived, Chris and I had just gotten the table. As we were leaving there were over 50 people lined up waiting outside for seats. We had managed to arrive, eat and get the kids back on the road before the crowds arrived.
After we said our goodbyes, Chris and I went for a ride around Saint Augustine. It was a beautiful day and the city is very interesting. We intend to return and spend time exploring the narrow streets filled with interesting looking shops and eateries. We made our way up I-95 thru the great state of GA
Georgia
Monday we rested and got things ready for departure. On the 6th of May we hooked up the trailer, loaded up the dogs and headed towards Columbia, SC. We were stopping by Columbia so we can get a “Clean Dump: system installed on our RV at Camping World. It’s a system where the waste is ground up by a macerator pump which is permanently connected to the sewer system of the unit. This is supposed to be able to even pump uphill and we can dump into any home sewer cleanout. The system is a very clean and is the most sanitary method for disposal.
Our first stop on our way to SC was at a Campclub USA park. It was in St. George, SC. The park was small but EXCELLENT. We purchased Campclub through Camping World and so far we have stayed at two RV Parks and they both have been excellent.

South Carolina

We finally got a Clean Dump sewer system installed. It was installed on the undercarriage of the RV. While it is not the preferred place for installation we shall see if it performs as its intended. The installation took a lot longer than anyone anticipated. After 4 ½ hours it was finally completed and we were once again on the road. We still had 2 hours of driving to reach the RV Park in Simpsonville, SC where we were going to settle in for a night or two.
We arrived in the evening and it was drizzling a little. The park wasn’t real well marked and we missed it the first time around. I pulled into a school parking lot while Chris went back to recon the area. She found the entrance and called me on our walkie. I took off and reached the correct turn off and went onto a horrible road that had not even been smoothed out let alone ever paved! I then encountered a gaggle of ducks and several geese walking along the side. All were honking loudly. As we proceeded further up the site we found the site and had to swing around so I could pull in on the side where we would be able to hook up the connections. The road was still horrible and we were bouncing stuff all around.
We finally got parked and I got out and hooked up the connections. The area was not gravel, or even level. Never the less we settled in for the night.
The next morning Chris and I both were disgusted with the site so decided to find another RV park. The only reason that we had selected this one was because it was close to Dawna’s. We ended up at a RV park about 15 miles away. This site was OK. Nothing special. The owner was dyslexic or something because when Chris got the site number from the guy he told her our site was 87. We drove all around looking for the site but the spaces only went up to 67. Chris went back and asked him for the second time and he told her again that we were looking for site number 67. NOTHING! After 4 trips around the park looking for a nonexistent space I told Chris to tell the idiot there was NOT a 67! He then told her, I said 47! Thanks a lot! We found it easily and backed into the site.
We went over to Dawna’s for dinner on the evening of the 7th of May.
Libby, Jason and Addison came too. The baby is so pretty. She is a little doll and completely attached to Mommy and Daddy! Cried and didn’t want to have anything to do with Chris or me.
The next day we went over to Jason and Libby’s home for a nice evening and we enjoyed our evening with them tremendously. They have done some work on their home and it looks very nice and homey.
We all went out to dinner at a very nice restaurant for Mother’s Day. The kids treated and it was a wonderful meal and very fun gathering.
We really enjoyed our short stay in SC and then we were on our to visit my step-Mom in VA
From Virginia we made our way to Maryland to visit Eric, Christie and the newest Pecor-Landon.

Maryland


Our trip to Maryland was through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Neither Chris nor I had ever been through it and we were looking forward to it. I had called the bridge authority to insure that we would be able to travel through with weapons and propane and I was told that as long as the tanks were physically turned off and the weapons were not loaded there would be no problems. It was a nice clear day and the trip through was excellent.
I had pulled off at the rest stop area and for a short time I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to turn the rig around but we were able to maneuver it without any hitches and got turned around and underway easily.
We made one stop before getting into Eric and Christie’s at an ok RV park in Maryland and one very nice Jellystone one in VA.
We arrived in Stevensville at a reasonable hour and waited for a few hours until Eric and Christie arrived home. Here is a picture of our first time meeting Landon. He wasn’t as small as I though he would be but he was still little. But…so cute! We then backed our RV up close to their home and got ourselves settled in.

I had one opportunity for Eric to take me for a motorcycle ride. We went over the Relay for Life which was a Cancer fund drive. I am sure that I embarrassed him because I was riding with camo shorts, brown shoes and white socks! But I had a helmet on!

Our visit at the Pecor home in Stevensville, MD was very nice. Eric and Christie went out of their way to make us feel very comfortable and welcome. Eric and his friend Mark put in a 30 amp outlet for our use and we were completely set up. Our time with the newest Pecor was fun. We are enjoying being grandparents. Landon is so cute. He is learning and developing so much each and every day.

Pennsylvania

From Maryland we made our way to Erin and Andy’s in Collegeville, PA. Our accommodations at the PA RV Park were just ok. We had made an overnight trip up while we were in Maryland to check out this site. At first it seemed ok but after we arrived we realized that the site that we were in wasn’t really that developed. We had to pull straight in because the electric and water were too far over next to a permanent resident. This guy proved to be a real pain in the butt. After we pulled in he came over and accused us of running into his red pickup truck. The guy was a real jerk about it so I became as belligerent as he was and told him in no uncertain terms that we never touched his truck and if we had there would be some evidence on it, like red paint. He looked around on our RV and couldn’t find any. While he stopped his nonsense he still wasn’t a happy camper and then entire time we stayed I was on edge.
While in PA we had some wonderful visits with Erin, Andy and Grayson. We also celebrated Erin and Christie’s birthdays together. We also got the opportunity to go into Philadelphia to see the Liberty Bell, play a round of golf and get up to New York to have lunch with Alex and Donnie.