October 22, 2007 well, we made it home safe and sound. We left this morning at 7:15am and drove to Elizabethtown to catch Amtrak to Philly. What a nice train ride, I know I always make comments about amtrak coming off the tracks, but it was a smooth ride today. I really don't believe I have ever been on amtrak or any train ride, not for amusement, Knots ect. and it was nice. The seats are nice, kind of like on a plane, they lean back and have lights for reading. Anyway, to and from Philly was uneventful, just comfortable. When we got into Philly we had to catch their Septa Rail to take us into the city, close to the visitor center. Good thing Dave has experience buying tickets and reading there travel times and schedules because I would have been totally lost. We got to the visit center and checked it out and decided to do the free independence tours, you had to get tickets but it was free. We went and saw the Liberty Bell and read up on the history of that. Then our time for the Tour was 11 am so we did the Independence Hall and the Congress Hall. After that we went back to the visitor center and got tickets to do the double decker bus tour. The bus tour had 20 stops, Betsy Ross House, Chinatown, City Hall, Basilica of St. Peter & Paul, "Rocky Steps", Zoo, ect. which were interesting to see but the bus went too fast to take pictures. Since they have 20 stops to make in 90 min. they move pretty fast. What I noticed, in Philly, we did a lot of circles because everything is right in the middle of the town.(hope that makes sense) We did get off at stop 16 because then we were on the search for the best Philly Cheese steak sandwich, which I wanted to do. The 2 biggest places that people talk about, plus they have had on food network,( we seem to be following their recommendations if you haven't noticed from other blogs) is Gino's or Pat's Philly Cheese steaks. They were across the street from each other and just about had the same amount of people at each. We stopped at Gino's and got one cheese steak with onions and cheese whiz, then went to Pat's and got one cheese steak with onions and provolone cheese, well Gino's wins. We did half and half on the sandwiches and we both agreed that the cheese whiz was better. I still thought Gino's steak was tastier, but Dave didn't notice a difference, but the cheese whiz made a difference. All and all Dave said he could make a better cheese steak sandwich better then either one of them, and I would have to agree. But then again Dave isn't selling to the public, that makes a difference on the cost of things, Pat's and Gino's prices where very reasonable. If Dave made the sandwiches, the way he wanted to, he would have to charge a lot more.
Anyway, when we got off at stop 16 we had to walk 9 blocks to try those sandwiches, by the time we walked back the 9 blocks to re-catch another tour bus it had showed up early and we saw it go by. It was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to walk back to the train station. It ended up being 20 blocks that we had to walk to get to the train station, so 29 long blocks in all, hopefully we walked off those Philly Cheese steak sandwiches.
We got back to the coach at almost 6pm and Valley was a happy camper to see us again.
Tomorrow Amish country, will let you know about that.

October 21, 2007 today was play day. This morning we just kind of hung around, even tho it was Sunday morning we didn't do the breakfast thing. We decided to hang out till about noon then go and have breakfast/lunch then head out to Hershey Amusement Park. The park opened at 2 and the weather was in the high 70's if not the 80's, just beautiful. The place was decorated for Halloween and the rides names changed to match Halloween themes. None of the water rides were open, just couldn't understand that with the weather so warm.:) We were there, at the amusement park, 16 years ago with Uncle Bob. That's when we were back there when Kim was 8/9, you know the brain tumor year. Uncle Bob had flown out to see his daughter, Kathy, but 1st he had come and stayed with us in Gaithersburg Maryland for a few days. One of the days we took Uncle Bob to the amusement park and it was a lot of fun, even back in those days, to try and get him on those rides, he wasn't walking good even back then. I was really looking forward to going on the one ride, where trying to get Bob on it was a challenge, because the tram kept moving and you had to really jump on the ride, he had almost missed it. Anyway, when I mentioned it to Dave he reminded me it was a water ride where you really get wet. I had forgotten that part, but once he mentioned it I remembered, when the water splashed up it went down Bob's back and he screamed, too funny. Anyway, back to the park, we got to go on all the big rides and some of the small ones too, the longest wait was probably 15 min. and that was only on one. They had a costume contest for 12 and under so we saw some pretty cute outfits on the kids, I did fell sorry for them tho, 80 degrees and they had to walk around in those things. We left about 7:30pm and went to Red Robin for dinner then back to the coach, it was a very good day.
Tomorrow, we head out at 7am and drive to Elizabethtown to catch Amtrak for the 8am ride into Philadelphia. So if you don't see a blog from me by Tuesday night, or if you hear of an Amtrak crash, on it's way to Philly, remember Valentine is in the coach and needs to be taken care of. Just a little nervous being on Amtrak.:)
I think we will be doing another "History tour" in philly, but the history I'm really researching is "who has the best philly cheesesteak sandwich". That's it for now, I sure hope I undate the blog again soon.

October 20, 2007 boy we had a hell of a storm hit last night but today was mostly sunny. Today was a hang around the coach day and get caught up on my pictures, emails, laundry ect. No exciting news today, also trying to decide what we will go tour next week, maybe Philly but not sure yet. Tomorrow we are going to Hersheypark in the Dark, it's only open on weekends now and tomorrow the weather is suppose to be clear and warmer. The park is only open from 2pm to 9pm, I think we can handle that.
Hey, to change the subject, I just saw on the web that Dolly Parton went to the hospital to visit Porter Wagoner, an 80 yr old guy she used to sing duet with. When I pulled up the article Porter's picture looked familiar so I did back checking on my blog when we had gone to the Grand Ole Opry and we had seen him there that night. Sorry, that was very interesting to me, blogs come in handy to back check on things.

October 19, 2007 today we got headed out about 9:30am and went to the Green Dragon Farmers Market, that is only open on Fridays, which is stupid by the way. It is in Ephrata, which in its own way is a pretty cute town, but that Farmers Market is hugh. It was more like a giant swap meet, even the Amish or it could have been the Mennonite's, who knows maybe both, that where there selling their home grown vegetables and fruits. We stocked up on fruits and vegetables, well as much as we could keep in the motor home, we had some for dinner tonight and they were great. After the swap meet we headed for Lititz to the "Wilbur Chocolate Factory" another recommendations from our neighbor and the RV Park recommended. When we got out of the car it was noon and the church bell started ringing 12 times, then right after that we heard "Sunrise Sunset" playing and that was from the insurance company next door, it played thru out the town, really neat. We went into the Wilbur Chocolate place, they have people making molds in front of you but really not that big of a deal. They had one sample, which was very good, but we sure didn't need to purchase any, after all, we had just brought a bunch of veg. and fruit, trying to be healthy.:)
Down the road from the chocolate factory was the "Julius Sturgis Pretzel Tour", which the visitor center recommended we do. It was cute plus we learned to make a pretzel ourselves, we even received an "Official Pretzel Twister" certificate that shows we had a diploma in making pretzels. The guide told us we can show this to any pretzel factory we would like to work at and we should be able to get a job. It was a fun tour and it had an interesting history.
Then we drove to Strasburg to the Train Museum, which is much bigger then the train museum in Sacramento. With the different train museums, we have been to, none ever seem to mention the "Call Girls" which my Mom was. All they ever show are what the men do, but when we talk to the people that work there they all know about the "Call Girls" and they don't know why they aren't mentioned.
After the train museum it was time to head home, and grill up some of the veg. we had purchased, which I mentioned earlier and they were really good.

October 18, 2007 yesterday we drove to Gettysburg and stopped by the visitor center and checked it out. While there we went to an electric map show they had that showed the 3 days of battle that were the worst in history. Dave then purchased the 2 hr. audio w/map that we could play in the car for ourselves and do the drive at our leisure. They even have, for $45.00, a ranger that will drive in your car with you if you want and explain everything to you, but didn't want that. The more we kept driving around the more it came back to me that we had done this drive either 15 or 16 yrs earlier. It was when Kim was either 8 or 9 and we had gone back to Maryland for a year, remember that year, that's when she got the brain turmor. We had done the Gettysburg thing before that tho. Anyway, the weather was high 70's it wasn't that crowded, not many tour buses, so it was very enjoyable. We could take our time or rush thru what ever we wanted. We ended up getting back to the coach about 5pm so it was a good long day.
Today, just wait I know you are going to be jealous, we started out going to the "Seltzer's Bologna Factory" one of the local attractions, what a joke. We thought it was going to be a factory tour, or something, it was just a sandwich place that sold lots of different kinds of bologna. When we walked in they had some free samples then a sign to the side all ladies shirts and pullovers are all $2 today, so that's where I headed. Dave tracked me down after a short while and said "you are not buying thrift clothes, let's go" I said why not they are only $2. As we were walking out, without buying anything damn it, there was a DVD playing that showed how the Bologna Factory operated, when we got back in the car we looked closer at the AAA book and it said it was only a DVD to watch. I must say the bologna we did taste was good, but it looked more like salami so maybe it's better that we didn't see a tour of how it was made, god only knows what was in it.
Then we drove to Costco, for gas, then to hobby world, Dave's knew hobby is building sail boats, gets him off the computer, then on to "The National Civil War Museum"
That has to have been the best museum we have ever been at so far. If you ever get to Harrisburg it is a must see. Believe me right now I have had enough history to last me a life time but this one caught my interest. It has reading, audio and short films that you can watch along the way. It starts off in 1850 and basicly ends in 1865 when Lincoln gets shot by Booth. It does show some of the memorials later on that are put up in the Gettysburg battle, but it was interesting. I must confess tho, ask me next year about it and I won't be able to tell you anything, maybe even next week, history isn't my thing, but I'm trying to learn. I'm like the kids today, what is history is history, we need to work on the now and the future, what can I say, simple mind. It's my blog so I can say anything I want.

October 16, 2007 OK I haven't written in a couple days, am I bad or what. Before I get going I forgot to mention that on Saturday afternoon we had taken the dogs to the beach, about a mile from our campsite, and there was a dog that looked just like Valentine, and the dogs name was Clementine. They say everyone has a twin, I didn't know that was true for dogs too. :)
We left Salem Sunday morning and drove thru 5 states that day, we got to the Thousand Trails in Lebanon PA around 6:30pm. Very long day since we had left Salem at 7:30am, we had been in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, then Pennsylvania. We did go out of our way for lunch which added on amost 2 hours for us, driving wise and eating wise. There was a diner that was on Guy Fieri's Food Network show that we wanted to stop at, Eveready Diner in Hyde Park New York. Great looking place, very crowded and what I had was great. I did the lunch thing and Dave had the standard breakfast thing, pancakes, which were great, the bacon had no flavor and I mean no flavor and the sausage was boring. I had pastrami and swiss Panini style which was great.
OK, lets move on, when we got set-up Sunday night it was dark so didn't want to spend a lot of time doing it, so where we parked we got TV but no computers. Monday morning we walked around and someone was just getting ready to pull out of a perfect sight so we ran back unhooked everything and moved. After getting the TV and computer working and setting up everything we decided it was kick back and clean day. We cleaned just about everything, windows and screens inside and out. In the afternoon the weather was just perfect, 74 degrees we drove into town and had the cars oil changed and lubed, at Wal-Mart of course. While waiting we did some shopping and got Halloween decorations for the coach, when the car was done we came back and sat outside BBQ'd later and relaxed, god it was nice to do.
This morning after walking and breakfast we drove into "INTERCOURSE" to mail a package to my nephew, we wanted that postmark to be on the package. After that we did some walking around looking at shops and then got back on the road. It was almost 2 so we decided to stop at "Plain & Fancy" for lunch, our neighbor in the park recommended it, and we had the Amish Farm Feast. Very cool, food was nothing to write home about except the fried chicken, it was good food don't get me wrong, way too much food and the Shoofly pie was really good.
That's it, I'm all caught up, now I have to get caught up on the pictures.

2nd blog for today. Well we went to the night time walk with the other 300 people, they said they were going to break us up into 3 groups but they didn't, 2 groups. Our guide couldn't speak above a whisper so we went back to the store and demanded our money back. The lady said NO REFUNDS now get out of here, another couple tried to get their money back too and she said get out of here then closed the door on us. We paid with a credit card yesterday so Dave and Lee are just going to dispute the charge, let that lady fight with the credit card company. They did offer to let us go on the 10pm tour because so far they only had 100 tickets sold, we said get lost.
Tell everyone you know that ever goes to Salem, MA do not ever take the SPELLBOUND TOUR. I must say it was more interesting walking around and seeing all the costumes that people wore though, Salem does have the best costumes that you can purchase. There were so many people out that it kind of reminded me of New Orleans walking down Bourbon Street, everyone having a real good time.
OK I'm done bitching now, but I am still glad I got to come to Salem and see the place for myself, everyone else, in our group, is probably mad that I picked it but oh well.

October 13, 2007 we are in West Gloucester, MA which is about 25 min. from Salem MA. We got here yesterday afternoon and after getting set-up we headed into Salem. We got a combination ticket which was for the “Witch History Museum”, “Witch dungeon Museum”, and the “Pirate Museum”. We did the 1st 2 and this morning we did the Pirate one. After the Pirate Museum the town was having a Halloween Bix Baz, which is a fancy name for a street festival. There were all kinds of people dressed up in costumes, and some of the vendors had some pretty neat stuff. Good thing we don’t have room in the coach otherwise I probably would have purchased a bunch of stuff. Now tonight at 8pm we are going on a walking tour for 75 min. hopefully will see some ghosts. 
Now a quick recap since I last wrote, which was Oct. 9th. Last Wednesday Dave and I drove to Sagamore to Pairpoint which is a glass shop; they had some demos of glass blowing, no big deal. We then went to Cape Cod and found the Kennedy Compound and took pictures. Then we went to New Bedford to City Hall and got a copy of Dave’s mom and grandpa’s birth certificate, he has time on his hands now so I guess he is going to do a family history thing for the kids. OK that was Wednesday, on Thursday even though it was kind of rainy we all decided to go into Plymouth and do a tour of the Mayflower II and then we did the Plymouth Plantation. Both were very interesting to do, very informative.
Oh, almost forgot on the way back from Plymouth, while Dave and I were driving thru a small town as I came up to the light it turned yellow. Next thing I know I hear a siren so I pulled over thinking it was an ambulance or something, I look in my marrow and see flashing lights right behind me, then I could see it was a cop car. I then pull into the gas station which I was stopped in front of. She came up to my window and asked if I knew why she pulled me over, for one thing I was already stopped so she didn’t pull me over, but I said “no” she said I ran a red light. I said turned yellow when I crossed the cross walk, she said No it was red, and then Dave piped in with a nasty tone. She said since we were from Florida and probably just visiting she was just going to give me a warning and no ticket. Then she told Dave that he better watch his tone, she was only doing her job. Thank goodness no ticket, I haven’t had a ticket since I was 17.
Tomorrow we head out for Pennsylvania, it’s about 400 miles away, so will see how far we make it tomorrow.

October 9, 2007 Tuesday night, we are in Foxboro, Mass. and today we went touring around Boston. We ended up not going back into Kennebunkport, Maine because we had rain yesterday, bummer, it's only like the 2nd time we have had rain throughout the day. We got to Mass. about 2 pm set-up, walked around and checked out the place, which is very nice, 4 pools, 1 indoor, 3 Jacuzzis, gym room, baseball diamond, tennis and basketball courts ect. very nice campground, and not cheap either but a hell of a lot cheaper then staying at motels and buying meals out.
We went around Boston today, taking the trolley tour, which is you get on and off the trolley and see the things you want and jump back on another trolley to get to the next sight. What we actually did was the Freedom Trail tour. When we left this morning we had to drive to the "T" which is like Bart in San Francisco. That was a 40 min. ride into Boston then by 11am we were on the trolley and toured around until 5pm. Although it rained all night long, today was sunny, windy and sometimes a bit cool, but Dave and I stuck it out in shorts. We saw Paul Revere's House, and statue, the Old North Church, "Old Ironside" ship which is the USS Constitution, The Old State House Museum ect. pretty nice day. I'm not a history buff, if by myself I could have probably covered everything in about 1/2 the time, but I'm slowly learning to slow down and read and learn things. When you read some of the history stuff probably the stupidest things stick in my mind, like Paul Revere had 16 kids, 8 by the 1st wife, and when she died, shortly after the 8th kid, he remarried 5 months later and she had another 8 of his kids. My mind retains the unimportant stuff, not the history stuff, oh well, that's just me.
Tomorrow, I believe, we are going to go to Plymouth and check it out. We are planning on moving on Friday to Salem so we can tour around the witch hunt stuff, I mean it's almost Halloween and what a better time to check out this place.
I left out Thursday, that might be Cape Cod day or Boston again, will write about it later.

October 7, 2007 we are now in Kennebunkport, Maine in a RV Park called the "Red Apple" Campground. Nice place, a lot of Seasonals, but tomorrow the whole place closes down. Most of these places after this Holiday weekend close for the winter, so it's been fun trying to find places to stay. Although the weather is a heck of a lot warmer then it normally is it is still the time of year that they close down. After we left this morning we stopped in Gardiner Maine, because it is Sunday and that's out breakfast out day, and there was a place that Lee and Vicki had heard about from the show "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. It is one of the Guy Fieri's shows and it was a diner. Very neat place, very small, breakfast was great, but the waitresses needed to do a lot of work on their attitudes. There were only 6 tables that could hardly hold 4 people then there was the counter which on one side could seat 6 people and the other side 6 people. The place was split in half and each waitress only took care of the people on their half, because the place was crowded and they only had counter space Dave and I sat on 1/2 and Lee, Vicki and Ava sat on the other half. When more counter space opened up by Dave and I, Lee, Vicki and Ava moved over by us, well their waitress was upset with them because she lost out on her tip I guess. When our waitress brought us our breakfast Dave had asked for more coffee, which she gave to Dave and I then she walked right by Lee. Lee had to stop her and ask for more coffee even tho he was sitting right next to Dave then, she was getting the tip now I guess, she should have been happy to wait on him, who the heck knows. That is the only complaint that we all had, the food was great, but for such a small place the waitresses should really work together, who knows maybe they had a fight with each other. enough of that. Hope what I said makes some kind of sense.
After setting up camp we drove out to the "Bush Compound" where former President Bush lives, very impressive place to see from a distance. Daddy Bush was in town so the place was crawling with Secret Service, SUV's everywhere, and yes they were black ones. We then drove around town and went to the beach and walked around then back to the coaches and had a great seafood dinner that Dave had made. He had made the broth and vegetables yesterday and tonight he added the fresh mussels, clams (all in shell) then some white fish. Vicki and Ava made a salad and we also had some fresh baked bread and the dinner was great. We then sat by the fire, and thought about "what the un-retired folks are doing now", just kidding, it was a great evening. Tomorrow, we plan on going into town again, I didn't mention that when we drove thru today the place was packed with people, great weather and a Holiday weekend so we didn't get to stop and see anything. We will check it out tomorrow and then get back on the road again, we have to be in Foxboro, Maine tomorrow and will be there for the next 4 nights. Remember the place we are at tonight is closing down tomorrow, so we have to leave.

September 6, 2007 When I told you we were in Ellsworth Maine I didn't mention the RV part we are staying at, it is Patton Pond Camping Resort, and it's a pretty nice place. We don't have paved roads but there is a lot of walking around you can do it looks nice and it has a really pretty pond you could go out in if we were here before the season closed.
Today, Dave and I left at 9am to go back to the Acadia National Park and see the things we missed, because of the camera problems. We told Lee and Vicki we wanted to see the sites then we were going to Bar Harbor to walk around and have lunch. They had said that was there plans too so we would call each other later and get together. Dave and I ended up seeing the sites we missed and were in Bar Harbor by noon. The place was crowded because they had 2 cruise ships in so Dave and I just windowed shopped. Around 1 we stopped at the Opera Cafe and had coffee, very cute place, it's a help yourself to coffee, danishes, chips, soups and different snacks, microwave available, juices, sodas they had all kinds of things. Oh, plus it was an Internet cafe too, on each table was a little note pad that you wrote down what you drank or ate and when you left you paid, very neat. Dave and I did more walking around and window shopping and ended up finding a new lamp for his desk. If gives off more light plus has a sailboat on the base, you would have to see it, it's cool.
Lee called us at 1:30 and said they had just gotten to Bar Harbor and were going to do shopping around and then eat a late lunch/early dinner about 4pm we said we would see them back at the Rv's. We wanted to have lunch then, my fault, they had said the day before a late lunch/early dinner, but since we had gotten going so early that was just a little to late for us. We ended up going to lunch at a place called "Chowdas" which one of the locals had recommended to us once we asked. It was a little out of town and had really good food she had said. Well she was right about the food, but we didn't know we were going to get it for free, if we had we would have ordered the full seafood meals, but we had just ordered 2 lbs of steamed clams and 2 cups of clam chowder. The only reason it was free is because when one of the waitresses had walk by, after cleaning off a table, she dumped some of the stuff off her tray on my back. It wasn't much, will see if the mark comes out of my skort, if not had just said this morning it had stains on it already and I was going to throw it out. Lucky thing, plus it was a great lunch. That's about it for today, we head out again tomorrow.

October 5, 2007 I guess I should update my blog especially after I bitched at my nephew for not updating his.
We are back in the USA, we are now in Ellsworth, Maine and will be here until Sunday morning. When we went thru the border this time they boarded the coach and this time only took the last 2 frozen chicken breasts that we had. When Lee and Vicki went thru they boarded their coach too and took their lemons, so I'm sure this time it was chicken fajitas instead of steak fajitas like last time.
Let me do a quick recap since I last wrote.
Last Sunday we got back into Canada at St. Andrews, beautiful place, wouldn't mine going back there again. In the afternoon we drove into St. Stephen to do some shopping and look around. Monday morning we went to Ministers Island Historic Site, we drove across "the bar" at low tide to see the summer residence of the visionary railway builder Sir William Van Horne. You can only drive your car over when the tide is low, when we went that was between 9am and 1pm, after that when the tide comes back in the road that you drove over is 18 feet under water. It was an interesting trip to make, it just doesn't have enough history, they would be better off selling the island to a private company and I'm sure they could make a great resort out of it, at least for the months of May thru September. At one time is was a hunting lodge, but it would be better as a resort. When we got back from that Vicki, Lee, Ava, and Fleetwood showed up, we were just leaving (Dave, Valley and I) for a walk so we went ahead and left because we knew they needed time to setup and get settled in.
Tuesday, we all went Whale watching at 1:30pm, which was great. We saw Fin Whales, Humpback Wales, Minke Whales, Porpoises, and seals. We were out there until 5:30pm then we rushed to a dinner reservation we had at the Rossmount Inn, not a cheap dinner but a great one.
Wednesday, since we were leaving Thursday, I did up all the laundry and we got things ready for travelling. In the afternoon Dave and I drove back to St. Steven to visit the chocolate factory. St. Stephen is famous for their chocolate, so since we were there we at least should visit what the towns are famous for, as long as they don't cost too much. It was a great tour, actually history, because we didn't get to see the factory, because it has moved now and it's only opened to the public 1 week out of the year, and that's the chocolate week in May. The history was neat to hear plus every corner you turned they had a plate of chocolate out, a big variety. They actually still have 4 women that hand roll the chocolate, just like in the I Love Lucy Show, very neat. That night it was nice enough to have a fire outside of our coaches, great day, a little foggy all day but still a nice day.
Thursday we got on the road at 9am, we really thought about staying because the fog was gone and very sunny and warm, but we had to get going.
That's it for the last 4 days, I'm all caught up.
Today we went to the Acadia National Park, the temp. was 78 degrees and hardly any wind, we have been so lucky with the weather. It's hard to explain the sites that we are seeing, it really is breath taking, pictures couldn't even do it justice but when we post them we try.
In the afternoon after on picnic lunch Dave's camera got condensation on the lens so we took off to Bar Harbor to see if they had a camera shop to fix it. Lee, Vicki and Ava were in their car so they kept going thru the National Park. Bar Harbor didn't have a camera shop, but boy what a place, we decided that tomorrow we are going back there just to walk around and window shop, yuck, mainly just to walk around and check things out. We ended up stopping at a Wal-Mart and buying a new camera on the way back to the coach. With all the sites we are seeing anyway, we really should have a back up camera.

September 30, 2007 can't believe 9 months have gone by already this year, boy it just flew by. We are back in Canaca again, this time we are at St. Andrews by the Sea Ocean Front Campground, in St. Andrews. Boy this place is beautiful, right in front of us is the Fundy Ocean, when the tide goes out you can walk out about 1/2 mile, I believe, then when the tides in it is right in front of us again. The weather today was clear but crisp, in the low 60's and not a lot of wind, I had on shorts, vest and ug boots, most of the time that was OK, when the sun went down boy did it cool off. Tomorrow Vicki and Lee will be here and I believe we will stay until Thursday, hopefully go on a whale watching tour, if not relaxing and riding/walking around St. Andrews is going to be great.
Starting with the next set of pictures, I will try and separate them by date that way you don't have to keep going thru the whole month to keep up with all the new pictures, I'll try, but Dave has to teach me right.

September 29, 2007, Saturday, had a nice day, went to the Cole Land Transportation Museum, which was great. It has almost every kind of transportation vehicle. From sleds, strollers, Fire Engines, cars, bikes, the 1st baby car seats, trains, vintage automobiles, hearses, ect just about anything you can think of, very interesting. The Cole Family also have a WWII Veterans Memorial, a Vietnam Veterans Memorial and a 1840's Era Covered Bridge, great place to visit. After that we went to Borders book store, Dave needed something on websites, then we went to the mall. We both had a pedicure, not that good, then I had a fill on my nails, not good either. I told Dave I hate mall nail places, you need to go to the strip malls for those things. The weather was great, sunny but cool, this afternoon the wind kicked up but no humidity, thank goodness.
Tomorrow we leave for St. Andrews, NB, Canada for 4 days, then that's it, we can say, "been there, done that" but give us the USA. Canada was nice to visit, just like any country we have been too, but we perfer the USA, we have just as beautiful places as all of those other places, plus I like our taxes, politics and people much better.

September 27, 2007 we are now at the "Pumpkin Patch RV Resort" in Hermon, Maine. I know I said we were going to Medway, Maine which we did do yesterday but again NO TV and this time NO COMPUTER, way too many trees, no way in hell could we live with that so we moved on to Bangor Maine. Hermon is right around the corner to Bangor Maine and yes we finally have TV and computers. We did do some running around today, 1st stop was Wal-Mart then driving the country side looking at the different country houses, some very nice some need a lot of work, the biggest thing is the changing of the colors on the trees, it is just breath taking. Then for dinner tonight we found a local place that the special was 2 lobsters for 19.95. These were 1 to 1 and 1/2 lbs of lobster each, the WHOLE lobster, a little messy work but between Dave and I those 4 lobsters didn't stand a chance. Great dinner really good lobster and the place was getting really packed with people, good thing we went early.
It's 10pm here and I need to do some updates on some stuff, so hopefully I get some time in the next day or so, I think I have some funnies for you to read.
bye for now

September 25, 2007 and the day is done for us now. After this mornings bitching I did we all left for Fortress of Louisbourg. Cool and windy day so it was a long pants day, I had on shorts to begin with then changed at the last minute when Lee had said someone had told him that it was like 10 degrees colder where we were going compared to where we are camping at. Thank goodness I listened, I would have froze. It still was a pretty day but this evening, now that we are back home, it is raining. OK, enough of the weather report, I guess I'm just looking at getting a new job.
The Fortress of Louisbourg was really something to see, very interesting, but it was built by the French and they are a, sorry to say, stupid group of people. When it was built they put all the canons on the water side so when the British, in 1745, attacked on land the French were history. In 1748-49 the British gave the Fortress back to the French for exchange for other land because the area was really too cold for the Brits. In 1758 the Brits decided they wanted the Fortress back again and the stupid French had only put a few guns on the land side but it wasn't enough so the Fortress was taken over again. In 1760 the Brits this time blow up the Fortress before giving it back to the French again in 1768. In 1928 the fortress is proclaimed a National Historic Site then in 1961 it was reconstructed to 1/5 of its original size.
OK so now you have had a short history lesson of the Fortress of Louisbourg.
After that we came back to the coach for the evening and started packing up things, Dave, Valley and I leave tomorrow for Medway, Maine for a few days. We will meet back up with Lee, Vicki and Fleetwood in Saint Andrews on Monday.
Pictures are posted already before I even did the blog.

September 25, 2007 one quick blog before the day gets started. I forgot to mention in the last blog you know everything here in Canada is Litres and Kilometer. I just found out yesterday the fuel is costing us $5.00 a gallon here, I'm telling you it is not the time, right now, to visit Canada because our dollar is equal to there dollar right now. They even said on the news this morning that visitors from the U.S. is way down and it is hurting them. Enough bitching for now, but I must add it is very peaceful and beautiful here.

September 24, 2007 we got going at 7:15am this morning to take the car in. It ended up that we needed a new Fan Clutch for the car so 4 hours and $804 later we were back on the road again. We did manage to go to, what they call a mall, at 10am while waiting for the car to be fixed. Very nice of them to drop us off at the mall and come and pick us up when the car was done. After that we came back to the coach and I walked Valley around then we headed for "Alexander Graham Bell Museum" in Baddeck. Baddeck is a cute little town we had stopped at a restaurant for some soup before heading back to the coach after the museum. The Bell museum was interesting, I had no idea he had accomplished so much, I thought he had only invented the telephone, wrong. His biggest thing was teaching deaf people to speak, he created man-carrying kites and airplanes, he also produced the fastest boat in the world, plus so much more, pretty amazing. He also, bad boy, married one of his students once she turned 18 and her family had a lot of money, so he was set for life, just kidding, but the money did help. After that we went and bought more mussels for dinner with Lee and Vicki tonight, and tomorrow we are headed for the Fortress of Louisbourg, which is suppose to be an all day event. Today ended up being a bad weather day, very windy and cold, and it did rain off and on, that's it for today's weather report.
P.S. Vicki and Lee had a good time with their friends.

September 23, 2007 we left this morning at 9:50am and arrived at "Arm of Gold" campground at Bras d'Or, Cape Breton. Our new resting stop until Wednesday, after setting up, again no TV, we headed out for lunch and a grocery store. We stopped and had fish chowder and a sandwich and went grocery shopping and got more mussels. Mussels are so cheap here, less then a dollar a pound, since we have been here Lee has cooked them about 4 times and now Dave is making a batch tonight. Can't even guess how many times we have had them when we go out to eat, cheap good stuff. Tomorrow morning at 8am we will have my car at the GMC dealership, now Dave thinks it's the fan, but I guess we will find out tomorrow. If they need to keep it we are going to rent a car for the next couple days. Tomorrow Lee and Vicki are meeting up with some friends that will be arriving by cruise ship and take them around until there ship takes off again, I believe sometime in the evening, we have touring to do too so that's why we might get a rental car. That's it for now, Dave and I are hanging around the coach tonight and enjoying the lake view we have. Vicki and Lee had some shopping to do and wanted to check to see where the cruise ship comes in at.

September 22, 2007 today we had beautiful weather again, about 71 degrees but a bummer of a driving day. We stopped at Inverness, which is a small town and had breakfast at Coal Miners Cafe, very cute cafe. Small town, we were going to go to the Coal Miners Museum but it was closed for the season. Then it was just driving and driving, no where really to stop and walk around or take pictures. We did stop in Glenville and go to the Glenora Whiskey Distillery there, which is the only one in Nova Scotia, I think, boring tour guide, not as good as the one we saw in Tenn. the Dickey distillery. After that we drove to Port Hawkesbury and we went into a McDonald's and Lee got the "McLobster" sandwich. It was on a small hotdog bun and it was lobster with lots of mayo and celery, I think. At least we can all say, except Vicki, we have tried the McLobster sandwich from McDonalds.
After that we drove back to the coach, and on the way my car was breaking down. It sounds really funny and I guess what it is, is the transmission is slipping. We leave tomorrow so hopefully we can find a mechanic on Monday somewhere in Sydney, because that's where we are headed.

September 21, 2007 another stunning day, hope I spelled that right. I had heard on the local channel here that today was just like a July day, and boy were they right. We left this morning and drove thru the National Park which was just beautiful. We made stops all along the way on the turnouts to take pictures. We stopped at "Bog" which was walking on a boardwalk seeing orchhids, insect-eating plants and moose. Never did see the moose. While on this drive we kept going in and out of the National Park, like we turned off and went to Wesley's Harbor. In the harbor I spotted 2 Bald Eagles and were just sitting on the jetty, amazing to see, check out the pictures when I get them posted. After the pictures we got back in the car and back to the park and made another stop at "Lone Shieling" which had a replica of a Scottish crofter's hut plus 350 year-old surgar maple trees, very pretty. Then we left the park again and drove to "Meat Cove" didn't find any meat there except the stuff we brought with us for lunch. We sat on the cliff's over looking the ocean at a picnic bench we paid $2.00 to sit at. The knats were very bad so Vicki and I sat in the car to eat what we had brought. When the wind picked up the knats went away, but only for a little while. I had on my binoculers but didn't see any whales, one of the ads say come to Meat Cove and see where the whales play or something like that, but no whales just like no moose.
Then we drove to Neils Harbor and I spotted another bald eagle, I can spot things when I'm not looking for them, so maybe if I stop hunting for moose and whales they might show up, we ended up with the eagle landing close to us and hopefully Dave got some great pictures.
When we got back and had taken the dogs for a walk we then went out to dinner to an Acadian Restaurant, good old fashion cooking. I had beef stew, Dave had cod and fries, Lee had stewed chicken and Vicki had meat pie, good food with the homey atmosphere.
Forgot to mention yesterday afternoon Dave and I went and hit golf balls at the driving range, Dave did really good, for him, I did OK. After that we all BBQ'd dinner then at about 9pm Dave and I went to the local talent show, but I guess they have no talented people in town because no one got up to entertain everyone that was there. Alot of people but the 3 man band just kept on playing.

September 20, 2007 let me start off with "Happy Birthday" David Jr. 38, holy crap, boy times flies by fast when your having fun.
Yesterday we left Woodhaven about 8am in the morning and I think 5 min. later we had lost each other. Dave and I were able to make a left out of the park but right after that a row of cars showed up and we didn't see Lee, Vicki and Fleetwood again until 9:30am. Dave and Lee had driven around the night before to decide on what gas station was the easiest to get in and out of for diesel. Lee didn't need fuel so we had 1st said that Dave and I would leave 15 min. before them then meet up. Later in the evening Lee came over and told Dave that he would leave at the same time as us and get more fuel anyway, well that's when they should have discussed which gas station each of them was going to. Dave had one in mind and Lee had another and that's how we got separated. We reached each other on the walkie talkies and Lee was stuck behind a truck at his gas station so we said we would start on ahead and drive slow until they caught up, which we did at 9:30am. It was another beautiful day, some fog when we got going for awhile then cleared up. We got to Plage St-Pierre in Cheticamp in the afternoon which was a hell of a drive here, very small roads which for shoulders to speak of. The site was suppose to have 50 amp, which they didn't plus had rocks and sand, although it is on the beach, very pretty. After setting up we drove to the National Park campground then decided to move there tomorrow because it was grass and paved roads, much better for biking, hiking and walking/jogging. We packed up this morning got to the National Park and the only place we can park at was covered with fruit flies, and I mean tons of them. We turned around and came right back to where we were before, we will just have to put up with the rocks and sand, at least there is grass around. After setting up, Lee went golfing, I walked Valley around then went bike riding, Dave fought with Verizon Wireless on the phone and Vicki walked Fleetwood then went jogging. When Dave was off the phone we ran into town to the post office and mailed some stuff then came back and had lunch. So that's it for now, oh by the way, neither of us have TV, I guess we are just too far north and we can't get the satelites to work, but luckily Dave's dish for the computer works.

September 18, 2007 It's been a month since the wedding and it now seems like it was ages ago, we have done a lot in the last month.
Yesterday, the weather was beautiful so like I said in the last blog we had planned on biking, and golfing. 1st when we took off we went to a kayaking place to check it out but the place was closed down for the week. We went to a tourist place and the guy there tracked down a guy who does kayaking tours for 3 hours and for only $40.00 a person, so we decided to do that. We drove out to Crescent Beach, which was about a 40 min. drive and got lessons from Joe on how to use the paddles. Now, Dave and I have kayaked once before in Alaska, and we were going out for 3 hours, are we crazy or what. Joe had 3 singles and 1 double kayak, so Dave and I took the double. The day was just perfect and we all had a great time, Vicki's paddle was too short for her and was working her ass off trying to get moving so Lee finally switched paddles and she moved a lot faster then. We stopped at a sandy beach and had some snacks and Joe pointed out things to us and we got to take some pictures. When we got back at 3 Joe gave us a map of where we had been and told us we had kayaked for 7 miles. Believe me we were all feeling it in either or backs or shoulders. I thought for sure when we got up this morning we would be really hurting, but it isn't too bad, maybe tomorrow. Anyway, after that we drove to Lundenburg and stopped and had a beer and some fish chowder, too tired to go bike riding plus it was getting too late. We got back to the coaches at almost 6pm so the dogs were very happy campers to see us. We BBQ'd, cleaned up then had a fire going and roasted marshmallows, it was a great day.
This morning Vicki and I took the dogs for a 3 1/2 mile walk/jog thru the beautiful neighborhood we had gone to the other day, these houses are very very nice, you can spell the money these people have. When we got back we were planning on going to go hit golf balls but Lee's back was kind of hurting and Dave's shoulders were hurting so since we are leaving here tomorrow, we all just stayed home and cleaned the inside and outside of the coaches. Dave and I did manage to make a trip to Costco in the afternoon and Vicki and I got away and went to the doggy ice cream place and got Valley and Fleetwood some doggy ice cream. Tonight we will BBQ again then hit the road early in the morning for our 200 mile drive towards Sydney. We still have lots to see and are running out of time, so move move move, let's get this show on the road.
P.S. Happy 1 month anniversary Kim and Danny Gonzalez

Monday September 17, 2007 I must do a correction from the last blog, Inara Grace Tomlinson was born on September 15 at 12:58a.m. Not on the 14th and baby and mommy doing well, congrats again.
Yesterday was another nice day a little cooler and some clouds but other wise very nice. About 8am we went for a long walk/jog with the dogs, Vicki and I did anyway. At 10 we drove into Halifax and had breakfast at the Bluenose II, and then we went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Very nice museum, we stayed there a couple hours, and Vicki and Lee still wanted to stay longer so Dave and I went walking the pier hand in hand, oh how romantic, (I know Danny would love that) but it was nice weather and a great walk seeing all the boats was nice. We all met back up at 2:30 and went to the movies to see the Jodie Foster new movie “The Brave One”. Really good movie, it keeps you very interested, NO nap for Dave, so you know it was a good movie, and of course popcorn helps too.
I mentioned all the other stuff we had done on the last blog and was suppose to get caught up on everything but it’s not going to happen. I have to do the blog daily or else I get too stressed about falling behind. I’ll just mention a couple things and the rest you’ll just have to see the pictures. Peggy’s Cove has a population of 40 and was founded in 1811. It has a beautiful Lighthouse that was built on the rocks and is the only Lighthouse that has an operating Post Office inside. This place was great too see, then we went to a little local shop and sat outside and had a cup of coffee and enjoyed the view and weather.
The Halifax Citadel is a National Historic site of Canada and the one we toured thru was the 4th Citadel that was built and it never saw any action. It is on a perfect spot on the hill that over looks the harbor.
That’s it for the recap, now I have to caption the pictures and get them posted.
Today is nice and sunny again so I think we are going bike riding, hitting golf balls and maybe kayaking, will see.

September 15, 2007 Before I begin anything let me say Congratulations to my niece and nephew, Marisa and Shawn, Inara Grace Tomlinson was born on Friday 9/14 not sure of the time yet but it was close to midnight as Kim tells me. All are doing fine I hear and Marisa ended up having a "C" section, just hope it was a bikini cut, ha ha because I had one and there was still no way I was going to wear a bikini but of course Marisa could if she wanted to, but somehow I don't think she wants to, but I'm just guessing.
It's going on 11 pm right now and I know I won't finish this blog tonight, but I'll get started anyway.
Today is Saturday and it was raining just about all day, we have been lucky with the weather so far so a little rain doesn't hurt, gives you time to get caught up on stuff at home. Let's see I didn't get my blog caught up or get the pictures captioned, so I really don't know what the hell I did all morning but it sure went by fast. We all did manage to go to Wal-Mart and do some shopping in between the rain showers but when we got home it was 1:30pm and we had to leave again by 2:30pm that's when I realized, "where the hell did the morning go" Dave and I did sleep in until 7am which is amazing but after that who knows.
At 4pm today we went to the musical "DRUM" which was fabulous. It celebrates the 4 Nova Scotias founding cultures: Aboriginal, Black, Celtia and Acadian. We all had such an enjoyable time, really upbeat and kept you clapping or stamping your feet. After that we went to dinner at a great Italian Restaurant called "Cafe Chianti" very good food and right next door was "Tomavino's" close to my maiden name but no cupie doll, what ever the hell that means.
OK, so I finally got today updated tomorow I'll have to work on the other past days that I missed, like Thursday, which was Mahone Bay, Farmers Market, Horse Drawn Wagon ride, Fishing Museum and Quilt shop. Then there was Friday the "Swiss Flight III" memorial, Peggy Cove's, and the Halifax Citadel" where we had lunch and toured around. 11:30 now and it is way past my bed time.

September 12, 2007 Correction from either the last blog or the one before. I was wrong on the taxes for Canada they do still have Federal Income tax 15 to 29% and State Income tax of 9 to 14%. I also was wrong on our Democrats giving up our State Income tax, when it comes to politics I normally keep my mouth shut, and that just proves why, I don't know diddy shit about any of that stuff. Sorry about that!!! The only thing I was right on was about Canada's taxes on everything, they are very high.

We did move today and now we are at Woodhaven R.V. Park in Hammonds Plains, Nova Scotia, it is about 4 miles away from Halifax which is the biggest city in Nova Scotia. The sun ended up coming out today and after we got kind of set up today we ran into Halifax to check it out. I said "Kind Of" because we have no TV, we even moved to another sight in front of Lee and Vicki, with No trees but it didn't work either. Tomorrow morning Dave is going to get on the roof of the RV and see if he can manually move the DirectTV antenna by hand to get a signal for us, he has done it before. I told him we can live without TV as long as we have computer service I can watch any TV shows I want on my computer, but I think he can't handle going without "Fox News", I do have my shows too so I can't blame him. Damn we have become so spoiled with all of this modern stuff. If my niece and nephew, Marisa and Shawn, plus all the other young adults like, Kim, Danny, David Jr., Jodi, Jeff, ect. should really get in the habit of going out camping and getting away from the hussle and bussle and enjoy the quiet and countryside. I really wish, now, we had done more camping and outdoors stuff, it really is good for a family to stay close and active. Hind site as the say is 20 20 what ever the hell that means. Maybe if we had done more camping I wouldn't be so afraid of bugs.
Back to going and seeing Halifax, we got Theater tickets for "Drum" for a Saturday show at 4pm then will go to dinner afterward. We then walked around the harbor, great weather, and stopped at Stayners of the Wharf and had a beer and some appitizers. It was after 5pm when we left and decided it was too late to go back and cook dinner so we went to a Sushi Place we had read about, Hamachi House, pretty good, but their ad was more impressive. After that we came back, tomorrow, Thursday, is suppose to be a big driving and touring day, will have to wait and see.

September 12, 2007 It rained a lot last night and I was killing bugs everytime I turned around. This morning it's overcast but pretty warm, I walked Valley around checking out more of the RV park and dodging the puddles.
One clue if you ever decide to get a motor home, invest a little more money and get the kind that you can level on airbags and not have to put down the electronic leveling system. We got up this morning and the nose of our coach is kind of tilted down towards the stream, so needless to say the front jack has sunk down into the ground, we thought we were on gravel pads, wrong, underneath the gravel, dirt. With all the rain that had been going on we just sunk, luckily, Dave was able to get the jack back up so I believe we will be leaving this campsite today, Lee and Vicki want out of here too.
Another clue,if you ever decide to vacation in Canada, which it is beautiful and lots to see, be prepared to spend lots of money. Taxes on everything, even grocery items, are like 14 to 18%. We bought 2 post cards for $1.00 and the stamps to mail them cost $1.04. The reason everything is so expensive is because of the medical, you know where everyone has medical and the government pays for it, like the Democrats want to do with the U.S. If that ever happens believe me we are all going to go broke. Of course they don't have any income tax so maybe everything will wash it self out, but I don't know.
OK, that's my bitch session for now.
Oh, one more thing, if we want Kim to mail us stuff, like from UPS, Fedex and have 3 day delivery it's only $97.00 so needless to say I'll have to wait and get my prescription refill until we get back to the U.S.

September 11, 2007 we are now in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia at Rayport Campground. This campground is all dirt and rocks unfortunately, but where we are parked it is right in front of a creek. We are all surrounded by trees which is very pretty, and luckily we do have TV and computers but no phone service. I think maybe tomorrow as we are touring around we will look for another campsite. The place here wants us to stay though, they offered us 7 nights for the price of 5, but they also said they wouldn't charge our credit cards until we left, I think they kind of know. It is beautiful but not a good place to walk dogs around, especially when it rains, which it is doing today. Vicki and I were trying to walk the dogs around and all there is are large puddles and rocks, not good with Valley's paws, and Fleetwood, Vicki's dog which is a Miniature Schnauzer, came back looking like a wet rat. Not a good thing when you live Fulltime in a Motorhome.

Recap time:

Sunday morning we decided to go out to breakfast, neither one of us had done that in the last 2 weeks and we needed a change. We ended up at Maid Marians, there were a lot of cars there so we figured it was a town hit. Well, breakfast was in a great price range, nothing to write home about. Eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, toast, potatoes to pick from that was about it, but it was a great price and the cheapest meal we have had so far. After breakfast we started our driving tour the countryside here is beautiful you can see from the pictures we posted. While driving we stopped at a roadside vegetable stand which was in a covered wagon, very cute and great veg. Then we drove to and walked around the Point Prim Light House, it is the only round brick light house in Canada. Then we stopped at Pinette Harbor and took a picture of the Birds on the pilings and boats. Next stop was at a house off of the beaten road which had a sign that said Pottery. We stopped and the lady had a dog that came running up to us, just a 10 month old puppy which managed to rip my finger nail off. It wasn't his fault I was going to pet him when he jumped up and since I haven't had my nails done in 3 weeks they were a bit long, his jaw bone hit my nail and just lifted the whole thing up. That f---king hurt so much, with blood coming out of my nail then he managed to jump up and his tooth caught my bracelet and bent it, not having a good day with that dog.
After we left we stopped at a farm house that was selling fresh blueberries, on the honor system, plus they had a ghost as a scarecrow. Then on to Cape Bear Light House, and finally stopped at Murray Harbour for lunch, sitting at a bench in the pier area. Very pretty bay and perfect weather. OK, enough of Sunday.
Monday Vicki made blueberry pancakes using Marty's pancake mix and we BBQ'd up a ham steak. After breakfast Vicki and Lee went there way and we went ours. Dave and I had haircuts, walked around Charlottetown, then I had my nails done, of course not the one that is barely holding on, then did some grocery shopping. That night we all went to dinner at Flex Mussels, which serves mussels in like 30 different sauces, very good, then went to the movies and saw "3:10 to Yuma", which is a Russel Crow movie, it was pretty good too.
I believe that's it, I'm all caught up.

September 8, 2007 we got going about 9am and went to the Farmers Market in town, which was OK, lots of vegetables, spices and herbs but no fruit. The one thing I was needing was fruit, oh well, guess I'll have to go to a store if we don't find someone on one of the roads selling them soon. After that we went back to the coaches and walked the dogs then hit the road again to go bike riding. We parked next to the Farmers Market then got on confederation trail and went riding. The weather was windy but warm, it was great for riding. We stopped at the pier and ate lunch then when we went to get going again Dave had a flat tire. Dave and I walked our bikes to the bike shop to get the tire fixed then met up with Lee and Vicki later. After riding more we then decided to stop at the yacht club to have a beer. We then rode some more then headed back home to cook dinner, we were doing sausages, salad and Lee had made Ratoutuie, which is a mixture of vegetables. Dinner was great, then afterward we took off to see the car races, which was close to the RV park. The most boring and quite group of people we have ever seen, the Canada group that we saw acted like it was torture to be sitting there. The 4 of us were the only ones yelling and cheering for the drivers and cars, it was fun and a good ending for a nice day. Hope tomorrow has good weather too, we plan of doing a driving tour again and it's much better viewing things when the weather is clear instead of raining.

September 7, 2007 Friday afternoon and we are now at Vacationland R.V. Park in Brackley Beach, still on P.E.I. This place is about 45 min. from where we were and puts us closer to the Ferry for when we leave here and go to Nova Scotia, in about 4 days.
I ended, the last blog, with us arriving at the Twin Shores RV park on Tuesday night. Wednesday morning it was raining and raining, after all the nice weather we had been having. About 11am it had quit raining and we decided to go tour around. We stopped and toured the Museum of Anne of Green Gables, then we went to lunch at Carrs Oyster Bar, then to the Haunted House, pretty cute. For dinner we went to St. Ann's Church Lobster Supper, 5 course meal, but the service or cooks were very slow and we had to hurry and rush through dinner. We had to hurry to get to the play/musical in time which started at 8pm, it was "Anne & Gilbert The Musical" Which was about Anne of Green Gables in love, very famous person around here from all the books. Great songs, music and story, everything was quite good.
Thursday we did a driving tour and made a few stops on the way. Now don't get jealous but we saw the PEI Potato Museum, it was very interesting, then we stopped at the MacAusland's Woollen Mills, now this was very good it was a self guided tour of the yarn, wool ect being made. Plus we even saw the fresh stuff just shaven off the sheep that had to be washed, brushed, washed again and so on and so on, believe it or not it was interesting to see. On the way back home we stopped at a quilt shop, nice stuff but very expensive, a couple of the ones I liked were 1K to 2K, the store said they had quilts from $300 to $3,000 I never saw the $300 dollar ones. When we got back to the coaches it was too windy to BBQ so we all just went back to our coaches and relaxed and ate in.
Today, we got back on the road again. On the way to this RV Park we stopped and got some home made bread then stopped at Carrs for some mussels to steam. We got 10.5 pounds of mussels for 13.00, hell of a bargain plus a cheap meal for 4 of us. Lee cooked a little over half of the mussels so we will get another dinner out of it, right on love mussels. While we were eating dinner tonight, after driving around Charlottetown checking things out, the mosquitoes came out and they ate Lee and Dave a live, normally it's me and Vicki, will know for sure tomorrow but Dave said he had welts on his legs and I could see the welts on Lee's head. After dinner we got all caught up on Big Brother.
Tomorrow we plan on going to Charlottetown again and going to the Farmers Market then if the weather is good we are going bike riding on Federation Trail, or Confederation Trail, not sure of the name, then maybe go hit some golf balls.

September 4, 2007 we arrived this evening at Twin Shores Camping Area at Darnley Beach, Prince Edward Island, Canada. We are parked near the beach, and boy is it windy here, wasn't too cold, just windy. The drive here was not even 200 miles, I believe, but we had made a stop in Moncton to go shopping at Costco, then to a grocery store, then trying to find a gas station to get diesel, then getting lost while trying to find this place that's why we got here so late. Oh, besides getting lost we did stop at the visitor center so that killed some time too. One of the pictures that Dave has posted was one of us following Lee and Vicki's coach, I wanted the caption to say that if you aren't the lead dog the view is always the same, after today and Dave being the leader and us getting lost, I would much prefer being the follower. If I get my way that's the way it will be from now on, we just fight too much when we are the leaders. Anyway, after getting here it was too late to go touring so we all just did our own thing and will get to the touring tomorrow.

September 3, 2007 we drove for about 70 miles to another campground. We are now at Three Bears Family Camping & RV Park in Penobsquis, New Brunswick. We drove thru Fundy National Park to get to Hopewell Rocks (thehopewellrocks.ca), which is a place that has the highest tides in the world. Lovers Arch formation you can walk under and all around it then when the tide comes back it 1/2 of the arches are underwater the tide rises 4 stories, really neat. When leaving we stopped in the town of Alma to buy Lobster at the Alma Lobster Shop, tons of lobster there. When we first had driven thru the town, before going to Hopewell Rocks, the fishing boats there where all beached, it really looked like they were dry docked. Then after leaving to head back to the coaches the boats were all floating on the water again because the tide had come in.
Sunday we had gone to the Historical Settlement in Kings Landing, old time houses, black smiths, saw mills, all the 1700 and 1800's, very cool place.
Dave has all the pictures posted now so take a look see.

September 2, 2007 1st off let me say "Happy Birthday" to Jayden, our granddaughter, Jeff's youngest, she is 4 today.
August 31st we arrived to Hardings Point Campground in New Brunswick and met up with Lee, Vicki and Fleetwood, finally. We can now slow down and really start enjoying things. Yesterday we drove into Saint John and toured around and even took a boat ride tour, we had great weather. There was a cruise ship in, Carnival ship, but the town still wasn't crowded. Before we came back to the coaches we went to the Market Place, great place, fruits, veg., meats, fish, shirts, jewelery, ect. we got some great freshly grown fruits and veg. We have computer service but no TV so Dave started working on that again, he thought it was our receiver but ended up hooking up to Lee's TV and it works, so it's not the receiver must just be a tree in the way. Kim and Danny were opening up the wedding gifts yesterday in Bakersfield, Danny's family was there and David Jr. and Jodi went up too. Can't wait to hear about all the stuff they got.
That's it for now

August 30, 2007 we are now at a KOA in Saint - Nicolas, Levis Quebec Canada. We only drove 4 hours today so we could go into Old Town Quebec and check it out, we had heard it was worth a look see, which it was. Dave took pictures and he will post later, but so nice to see all the old buildings and coble stone sidewalks, the streets aren't coble stone though. Everything here is in French, well almost everything, the rest of Canada is printed in English and French, road signs, construction signs, ect. One thing about the truckers though is they don't warn all the other truckers about where all the police are, very strange. We have listened to a few of them speaking in French, kind of like the U.S. you hear a few speak Spanish.
Last night we couldn't get any internet service because a tree was in our way, now tonight we have internet but no TV service, thank goodness we have DVD's with us, but the big bummer is this is Big Brother Night, I'm not a happy camper. Anyway, last night we stayed at Lakeview Campsite in Stomont Quebec Canada, very small park and everyone there had to come by and see the big RV, they didn't talk to us but they did walk by.
Tomorrow we have a really long drive, if we leave by 7am if we are lucky we will get to the next campsite at 6pm, that's where we are meeting our friends, Lee and Vicki plus their dog Fleetwood. It's only a long day because we wanted to stop and check out Old Town Quebec. The rain started last night and we had some today, but walking around Quebec it was just overcast, but had to where long pants, which I hate to do, plus where jackets.
That's about it for now.

Here we are getting wet at Niagara Falls. Boy is this is an impressive place. All of the pictures are posted at the Picasa web albums site. Just click on the picture below of us at Rushmore to see our pictures from the month of August.

August 2007

August 28, 2007 we are staying at Four Mile Creek State Campground in Youngstown, New York. We got here about 10:30am, it took us almost an hour to get thru the U.S. Border from Canada. They were having cars and trailers pulling off to the side to really inspect the vehicles. We knew we were going to be pulled over so Dave is quizzing me on everything that we had in the coach, alcohol, food ect. he was going to tell them everything we had, he said what they are mainly looking for is the alcohol and not paying the taxes on it. We didn't even go into a store in Canada so we were going to be screwed on the stuff we already had. We gave them our drivers license plus passports, told them we were just driving to Niagara Falls thru Canada from Illinois and they said Thank you very much you can go, yea.
Anyway, we went to Niagara Falls as soon as we got to the campground and boy did we have a lot of fun. What an amazing thing to see,just amazing really, plus we had great weather, in the low 80's, it was a perfect day. We will post pictures soon, Dave took a ton of them.
A couple stories, I want to share. Last Sunday we stopped at a Flying J for fuel, of course, and since it was Sunday and we didn't go out for breakfast, that's our rule every since being on the road, we decided to stop and have lunch. When Dave pulled into the truckers side, right between 2 big rigs I had asked him to turn on the generator so we could put the air conditioner on for Valley while we had lunch, it was still pretty warm outside and in the rig. I started walking towards the back of the coach then turned around and asked Dave if we were moving, he said "NO" it was the rig next to us that was leaving. I said seeing the movement out the windows was making me sick and I couldn't look so I turned around and starting walking to the back of the rig (no windows to see from) The next thing I almost fall because Dave slammed on the brakes, I thought something hit us, he said it was us moving he had forgotten to put the brake on, he put it in neutrol but didn't put the brake on and it was us moving. Thank goodness no damage done, just a good scare, ever since then every time we stop I ask Dave "did you put the brake on"?
With the CB Radio we get to listen to the truckers so we are slowly learning the Ling-go like "Evel Knievel" is a motorcycle cop, "Bear" is a marked car officer and "Plain White Wrapper" is a white cop car unmarked. They really get on the CB's informing all the other drivers about where they are too, and by the way if the cops have someone pulled over you know that to, because they say they have a "customer" and are busy right now. If you screw up driving in anyway with the truckers they get on their CB's with that too, to tell the others. We know this because Dave was passing some trucks then got back in behind another truck because there was a car behind him, which I knew was stupid because the truck he got behind was going to slow, anyway he had to hit his brakes because, like I said the truck he got behind was too slow. Needless to say when we got back in the trucker behind us that we had passed had gotten on the CB and said to the others that the Asshole motorhome passes him then cuts back in and hits his brakes, well Dave hears this and tells the trucker to watch his language and the trucker gets back on and says "Fuckyou". I tell Dave "please don't get in fights with the truckers" I did it nicely, yea right. He was wrong and I told him so, and please don't fuck with the truckers.
On the highway in Indiana it is posted "hit a highway worker there is a $10,000 fine and 14 years in jail" in Michigan the fine is $7,500.00 and 15 years in prison, we sure as hell don't post anything like that in California.
This has been long enough, we hit the road again tomorrow, we were suppose to stay 2 days but we still have 1000 miles to drive to meet our friends in New Brunswick, Canada on Friday. So back to Canada driving tomorrow.

August 27, 2007 we are at Clearville Park Municipality of Chathm-Kent in Canada somewhere. Finding a RV park after driving all day was a nightmare, but this place is beautiful, right on the water and the weather is great. Drove all day and got here too late to really update my blog, but I'm keeping notes so hopefully I won't forget what I want to share. We will leave early in the morning and get to Niagra Falls, NY early tomorrow so we can do some touring around. Can't wait to meet up with our friends in New Brunswick Canada so we can finally slow down and enjoy this travelling, which will be on August 31st.

August 26, 2007 we just stopped for the night at Utica, Illinois at a campground called Hickory Hollow. I must say driving thru Iowa they will never be short on corn. It seems like their lands are filled with rows and rows of corn fields. When we crossed over into Illinois I was seeing the same thing. When we stopped at the Flying J for Diesel Fuel Kim called, they are having a great time and had taken a plane over to Oahu to Honolulu and taken a tour of Pearl Harbor. I had told her even though she had seen it Danny really needed to see it for himself. They took the tour of that and the Missouri then Danielle came and picked them up and drove them around to see the island. Danielle was one of Kim's bridesmaid that had flown in for the wedding, she is in the navy and is stationed in Oahu, I know, tough life. I'm on Dave's computer right now because where we are we can't get my computer working, so I'm going to end now so this gets posted. Hopefully tomorrow I can complete my writings, I do have some funny stuff to tell you.

August 25, 2007 we just stopped at a Casino parking lot right outside of Sioux City Iowa.
I'm just not going to get a chance to really get caught up on everything so I'm just going to do a recap of the last week, your probably saying "thank goodness" we now won't have to read a long blog.
August 18th, Kim and Danny's wedding went by so fast, it was almost perfect, we had forgotten to give Barbara, the lady that kept everything running smoothly, where the table numbers should have been. So needless to say some of my family members were put in the other room where they couldn't see everything at dinner time when they should have been in the opposite room. The lower number tables should have been in the same room as the wedding party but they weren't, sorry that was our fault. Plus, Rosie and Bob Miller were suppose to be seating at Trini's table but I heard they moved to a table were they knew no one because Rosie wanted to be close to the door for the cool night air.
Sunday, was brunch at El Patio with family and some of the wedding party, I believe that went very smooth too.
Dave and I got on the road about 1pm and stopped in Primm Nevada and dry camped at Buffalo Bills. As soon as we parked my brother, Vance, had called me and asked where we were because my niece, Caryn, had been in a car accident in Lancaster and their car was totalled. Thank God Caryn, Joe and Carlee were all OK, but Vance said "shit" you are farther away then I am, so we couldn't help them. They ended up at a motel for the night and getting a rent a car for their drive back to Bishop.
Monday we got going early and stopped in St. George, Utah and had breakfast with my Aunt Evelyn. All we did was talk and laugh for the next couple hours until we had to get back on the road again. We stopped Monday night at Fillmore, Utah nice little park. We, of course, got going early on Tuesday and stopped in Deer Creek, Utah and visited with Stan and Ginger, who we had met in Oregon at the Monaco facility last year, sorry can't forget Katie Girl, their dog who loves Valley too. Once we got back on the road we ended up stopping for the night at the Western Hills Campground, in Rawlins, Wyoming and we had gotten the last full hook-up so that tells you how full they were.
That brings us up to Hart Ranch in Black Hills South Dakota, where I last wrote. We went to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse on Thursday then that night we went back to Mt. Rushmore to watch they show they put on and see the presidents lit up in the lights. I wouldn't recommend the night show because they don't have enough lights but seeing it during the day and taking the ranger tour was great. Crazy Horse was not worth the money, $20.00 to get in and it's not even close to being done. Seeing Mt. Rushmore was only $8.00 and well worth it. Friday we did driving all day through the country side, where the buffalo, deer, antalope and donkeys were right in the road and you would have to sit and wait for them to move. We stopped at Wind Cave and did an 1 1/2 tour with the ranger which was a great cave, the 4th largest in the world, I believe. South Dakota, very neat place to come and visit, but only to visit. By the way, on our drive today we stopped off and saw "The Corn Palace" as a matter of fact we got to the town in the middle of the corn festival. Tonight Weird Al Yankovic was performing, sure sorry we had to miss that.:)
Sorry for the fast recap, but I don't have the time and I'm sure either do you to read everything I wanted to write.

Went to visit the monument today it is a sight. Tonight we will go back for the night light show. Here is my best picture of the monumnet.

August 22, 2007 Just a quick note so everyone knows where we are. We are now in Black Hills, South Dakato and will be here until Saturday morning. Hopefully I can finish going thru all of my emails and get caught up on my blog, you know it will be a long one so I might just have to break it up in a few parts. Danny called and left a message on my phone "Hi, mother-inlaw, this is your son-inlaw, just wanted to say hi and that Kim and him had gone parasailing, they both made it through it and are having fun" I tried to call them but just get Danny's voice mail, twice now, Kim's goes straight to her voice mail so don't know if she took her phone, or if they did I hope they brought their chargers. We are in mountain time zone now, so an hour ahead of Calif. tomorrow will go to Mt. Rushmore then to Crazy Horse and what ever else we can squeeze in. Sorry about Dave's spelling on his blog update but I was just too tired to sit and write, plus, 160 emails to go through.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TOMORROW, MARISA. You are catching up to me, because I know damn well I'm not getting any older, at least in my mind, the body has another opinion.

Wedding Pictures
Well David Jr work hard the night of Kim and Danny's wedding and manged to get some pictures on line before he left for Alaska. There is a link to the pictures in the link section of this blog it is on the left. I tried the link and you will need to install an activeX control and agree to terms and conditions for the photo site. These are very ruff I know David will have final picture on line once he gets back. You will be able to buy copies if you want.

Jeri is still trying to get caught up on all her emails, blog posting and other stuff. Right now we are driving most all day and just stopping to get fuel, eat and sleep so not much on line time. Tomorrow we reach Rapid City South Dakota so she may have time to write her blog. I know she has a lot to tell everyone.

We are having a good time with me retired we do not have to stay put during the week and we can start and stop when we please.

Hi all just a quick note from Dave. Marisa was right in her comment disasters before the wedding did lead to a great wedding. Everyone had fun and the bride and groom are very happy. We hit the road following a brunch on Sunday with the familys. We are in Primm Nevada tonight and will be heading on towards Rapid City SD tomorrow. You will have to wait for Jeri to hear the details.

August 15, 2007 Oh yes, more disasters are happening but we are tackling them as they come along. Can't remember if I put in another blog but Kim and Danny's wedding bands were too big when they put them on last week. Danny picked both rings up when we came down for the final count with the golf course, August 4th. That's when he picked them up and supposedly he had tried his on but Kim wasn't with him at the time, she was having her hair done by the lady that is doing all of hair for the wedding. Anyway, last Friday Danny called the jeweler and said they were too big and Pauline said bring them by Thursday when you come down and she will make sure they get fixed, if they really needed it. We left before them and when they got to Simi they went straight to the jewelers and Pauline had the day off and the owner that we know is on vacation. The jeweler has 2 shops and the one that helps Tom, the owner, was at the other shop on the other side of Simi. Kim's ring was suppose to be a size 6 1/2 but when measured it was 7 1/4 and Danny's was suppose to be size 9 but measured 10, boy did the jeweler screw up, which has never happened to us in the 20 years we have been going to them. There isn't enough time to fix them right so they ended up putting in fillers so they won't fall off their fingers and will have to fix them right after the honeymoon. That was disaster 1.
Disaster 2
Dave and Danny went to Northridge to pick up their tuxes, well, Dave's tux pants are CAPRI'S. They measure from the waist down and the measurement was suppose to be 43 inches but they made them 34 inches. Luckily, there was a lot of pant leg that they had seamed up so Dave had to leave it and they said by the time Danny comes back tonight with the best man Dave's pants should be fixed.
Disaster 3 (almost)
We left Valentine, our dog, at David Jr's this afternoon, their dog hutch we didn't think would be a problem. When we went by at 5, when they got home from work, Valley was in the house but Hutch was outside. David said that Hutch was being mean to Valley and wouldn't let her in the garage to lay down, that's why he was staying outside and Valley was in the house. I then took Valley to the coach, we have it parked at David's, to try and feed her. She didn't finish so we went back into David's and Jodi was just feeding Hutch in the kitchen so I put the rest of Valley's food down in another room. Hutch came running in so I went to pick up Valley's food and Hutch just attacked Valley but ended up biting me. I think Hutch was just doing a dominate thing, which the house is his territory, but thank goodness he didn't break the skin. Jodie and David felt so bad but it wasn't their fault, I called Joann, Vickey's mom, because she had said if we needed Valley could stay there, so that's where she is now. No other dogs, Joann has a doggy door so Valley can go in and out plus she gets to sleep in the bedroom with Joann.
That's it for now, Dave and I are in the hotel and Kim is in the ajoining room writing her vows. She and Danny met with the pastor tonight, we didn't get to go because of the ring screw up, Danny had the pastor while growing up and this was the 1st time Kim met him.
Let's see what happens tomorrow, I just can't wait.

August 15, 2007 another post. 1st of, I'm sure, many more almost disasters to happen, Danielle, one of the brides maids that flew in from Hawaii last night tried on her dress and it didn't fit. I believe a few blogs back I had mentioned that we picked the dress up in Northridge on our way to the bacheloreete party, that turned into a disaster. Danielle guessed on the size and she was really wrong, but thank goodness David's Bridal had one more dress like it and it was Danielle's size. One disaster avoided, how do you like my new word, disaster? Hope it's spelled right.
Picked up Kim's dress and they showed me how to tie up the back train, the slip part will be no problem it's the lace part that is a challenge, hopefully my niece, Marisa, will be able to help me.

August 15, 2007 I believe this will be my last blog for a little while. I know after the last blog I should have had writers cramps and taken at least another week off, no such luck. Yesterday, after the urgent care visit for Dave he then went to Kim's and started wrapping the presents, he didn't finish so he is there today finishing up. He did go to AAA and got the stuff for the airlines, so that's done and Kim doesn't havr to worry anymore. In the afternoon Kim and I had our hair done then Dave and I took Kim out to dinner, you know to talk about the "Birds and the Bees", ya, right, she still hasn't told us everything she knows.:) We just told her she is very lucky, Danny is a great guy, and we will always be there for her if anything should come up, except money issues, then they can call Danny's parents. Just kidding, they have to try and find us 1st. Anyway, it was a nice dinner and good conversation and all agreed very nervous. She still hasn't written down her vows yet, she said she has them in her head, but just hasn't written them down yet. Dave read me his speech again with the funny lines in it and he still couldn't get through it without tears. He said maybe after reading it a few more times he will get through it, sure but not at the wedding he won't. Kim has nails put on this afternoon then at 5pm we go and pick up her dress. Tonight we go over to the house and load up my car with all the wedding stuff then drive down to Simi tomorrow. I think that's about it, will write again after the wedding.

August 14, 2007 for once I have new news within the last couple days, you don't have to wait a week to hear from us. I left off on the last blog that we were going to Kim's for dinner, which we did, and went over everything we could think of. Wrapping the gifts for the wedding party, Dave's job, only because when he was a teen he had a job at a store where he worked in the wrapping department. Plus, if you really know Kim and I you know we prefer to give gifts in brown paper bags. We went over the sitting chart for the wedding and finalized it so Sunday Dave could take it to Kinko's to have it printed up.
Saturday we drove down for Marisa's baby shower, it took 3 hours to drive down, boy we hate that L.A. traffic, we stayed 3 hours and we got lucky on the way back and it took only 2 hours. The shower was very nice, just sorry we couldn't stay for the whole thing, but when you live so far away and have dogs waiting for you, oh well. We did have a great visit with people, and for at least 1 of the 3 hours we were there it took my mind off of the wedding. Talking to my brother Mike is always a good time. I even heard a story of Mike's nuts hanging out of his shorts at an Arborne party that Spanky thru at his house. Of course, Mike's comment was "Why was the bitch looking at my croutch anyway" it's my house and I can sit anyway I want. The bitch was Spanky's X - boss so who really cares anyway, but after that comment from Mike, Dave asked Mike not to wear shorts to the wedding.
Mike was asking "Danny" if he was going to be safe at the wedding with all of his family coming, Danny said "yea" just have a knife on you. Mike then told him he was going to come dressed as a Border Patrol Officer or an Immigration Officer, boy did we all laugh. On the drive home, after the shower, Danny made a comment that he didn't think that Uncle Mike liked him at first, Kim told him with the kidding that Uncle Mike is giving him, he is more then welcome in the family. That's what Danny thought too, when Mike doesn't give you a bad time "that means you are not welcome"
Sunday, I went over to Kim's early and we starting doing house cleaning, this way they don't have to come home to a dirty house. Our job was cleaning, Dave was going to Kinko's, then Dave and Danny worked on the plumbing/electrical stuff to get ready for the new Refrig. that Kim and Danny purchased. That night they came to our RV for dinner and go over everything again, this seems to be an never ending thing to do.
Today, Monday, at 8:30am we took Valley into the vet for a check-up and get her papers for Canada. Since we need original papers for her Rabies shot and we only had a copy faxed from our vet in Simi, which was good until April 2008, Dave said lets go ahead and get another shot for her a year early and have the original papers like we need. Valley had also started digging at her ear so when we took her in the vet looked at that too plus cut her nails. When we left Valley was acting very strange, she kept digging at her ear, kicking her legs, ect. very strange for her. When we got back to the coach she would run, lay down, kick her legs, run more, and pant a lot. I thought the vets had just really dug too much at her ear, and it was really bothering her. When we closed up the coach to take it to Stier’s RV, Valley ran back in the coach and left me standing outside, she has never done that. We were in a hurry so Dave said I'm leaving with Valley in the coach and I followed behind. When we got to Stier’s, he got out of the coach and said there is something wrong with Valley, she just can't hold still. He went into the Service Department and I went in to check on Valley, she was running back and forth and I saw blood on the floor. I checked her nails, thinking maybe the vet had cut them to short and she was bleeding from them but that wasn't it.(If you don't know, Dogs can bleed a lot, if you cut their nails too short) It was her left back paw she had split open because she kept kicking her legs out because she couldn't sit still. I got the leash on her and got her outside of the coach and she was a wild dog, I could not stop her movements. Dave was in the Service Department of Stier’s and I called him and said I was rushing Valley back to the Vets. I threw Valley in the back of the car and was trying to calm her down; when I grabbed her collar I could barely put my fingers between the collar and her skin. That's when it dawned on me she was having a reaction from the shot she had gotten. I looked at her and she was doubling in size, when we got back to the vets, we almost knocked some lady over because she was in the door way, I was yelling that Valley was having a reaction, they took one look and ran her to the back. Benadryl and cortisone shots and 30 minutes later Valley is a new dog, relaxed and sleepy. Most of the swelling had gone away except her paws, they looked like the size of a bears paws, and the vet said they will go back to normal after a couple hours.
Then we went to Kim's to drop Valley off and went to AAA to check on their airline flight, Kim was panicking about it, so we said we would check it out for her. Good thing too, after waiting forever, it seemed like, we finally got together with her travel agent and their airline package hadn't been shipped yet to AAA. Well, supposedly people with travel plans on that day had a computer glitch, and some of them didn't print out and of course Kim and Danny were one of them. They are over nighting them and will be in tomorrow, AAA will call us to come pick them up. Good thing Kim panicked. After that we went back to Kim’s and Dave mowed the lawn for Danny and I did some more cleaning for Kim. Then I loaded stuff up in the truck so we could take it to the dump for them. At the dump a door that we were throwing away fell out right on top of Dave’s foot, and of course we were both in sandals, it cut his toes. On the way back we stopped off at the insurance company to sign some papers. By the way, when we picked up our coach at 5pm they weren’t able to fix the awning either and wanted us to bring it back again, Dave said forget it, Monaco can fix it in December.
This morning when we got up Dave’s foot was all swollen and black and blue, he decided to go to urgent care to make sure it wasn’t broken, which I knew it wasn’t but better safe then sorry. The doctor said it was just badly bruised and if he is lucky the swelling will go down by Saturday, but doesn’t advise wearing the shoes the tux shop offers, great. Kim is going to shit when she hears this, she doesn’t know yet.
Today at 4 Kim and I are having our hair cut and I’m getting mine colored, tonight we take Kim to dinner, neither one of them would go for just Dad and Daughter dinner, so I guess I have to go.
That’s it for now.

August 10, 2007 Let me start off with "Happy Birthday Pop" hope you and mom are having a great time up in heaven. I know you guys will be watching over Kim and Danny next week when they get married, wish you both were still here.
Well, another week has gone by here in beautiful Bakersfield, 1 week and 1 day left before the wedding. I am getting to be a wreck, as soon as the eyes open in the morning the mind starts thinking wedding and there is no way in hell to get back to sleep, even if it is 4am. Oh, by the way, I'm not writing from the poor house yet because the golf course still hasn't sent me the final invoice, I'm sure I will probably get it later today. We did get the cake, DJ, Florist and Photographer paid in full, so my foot is only partly in the poor house, the golf course bill will put me all the way in.
On Tuesday we had taken the RV in again for the awning, which they couldn't figure out how to fix so Dave told them to put it back the way it was and we went and got it. This Monday Stiers RV is going to take a look at it and see if they can fix it, if not I guess next December when we are at the Monaco Facility in Florida they will have to fix it. I took my dress in to get pressed, we got the jelly belly's for the favors and tonight we go to Kim and Danny's to go over everything to make sure we are not missing anything. Next Wednesday we will load up my car with everything for the wedding and bring it all down with us on Thursday morning. Tuesday I have my hair cut and colored, Wednesday night we pick up Kim's dress. If anyone that reads this can think of anything that we might be forgetting please let us know.

August 3, 2007 at 3:00pm Dave was officially out of work and now retired. His last phone call was at 2:30pm and when that was done the owner of the company finally called him to wish him well, I guess. He offered to send the laptop back to the company that he has been using and she told him "no" you can keep it, big of her.
Tomorrow we head down to Simi Valley to meet with the Florist, to pay, the DJ, to pay, the cake baker, to pay, the photographer, to pay, the golf course, to pay, so needless to say on Monday I'll be going to Wal-mart to apply for a greeters job, or maybe just collect carts for them since I like to be outside. (just kidding, it's too hot in Bakersfield to be outside)
Dave wrote his 1st draft of his speech he is going to give at the wedding. He handed it to me and asked me to read it and he had left the room. After reading it, for a 1st draft it was very good, just needed some touch up, but I thought to myself, he will never get through this. When he came back I asked him to read it out loud to me so he could see the few mistakes for himself. As he was going through it he caught most of the mistakes, when he was done he put the paper down and started playing with his computer. He then turns to me and said "I'll never get through this" he already had tears in his eyes. I told him I knew he wasn't going to be able to so what he needs to do is add funny lines to it, which you know I'm good at, since I learned from the best, my brother Mike. He said he would try, so I'm sure I am going to maybe have to chip in with all the funny lines, but then again I'm sure I'll be crying too. We couldn't even make it through College Graduation without tears, I know we are big babies. This should be very interesting, I told Dave that I would like for Kim and I to give a speech too, together, but he said if we do something like that we had to do it sober, well that's out of the question on this big day, so I guess no speech. Let's see, if I remember right don't people give their speeches after dinner, let's see Dave make it that far into the wedding without a drink, we are going to be nervous wrecks.
I think that's it for now, Kim and Danny are coming over for dinner tonight to go over the final counts and celebrate Dave's retirement. I'll write later from the poor house.

August 2, 2007 Well tomorrow is the big day, "DAVE'S LAST DAY OF WORK". We all know he retired from his government job 5 years ago, after 36 yrs, but went right back to work the next day for a private contractor with the government doing the very same thing he was doing before. The reasons he went back to work were:
1. He was way too young to retire
2. Kim was still in college and we needed to pay for that
3. There was "NO WAY IN HELL" I was going to keep on working and support his ass.
So needless to say he said he would work for 5 more years until Kim was out of school. Last June was 5 years so he actually worked 2 months longer then he said he would, so tomorrow is the big day. What really pisses me off is he helped the 2 owners start this company off and do you think either one has called him, hell no. He is so fed up with everything, and I don't blame him, Allie the major owner(51%) is the one who really helped her get things started, it's just too bad she doesn't really realize what she is losing. He tried to get in touch with her, but she is such a spoiled bitch,what ever it's her loss.
Dave made the comment today to me that for the last 41 years every morning he knew what he had to do, even if it was a Saturday morning he knew he had to go back to work in 2 days. I told him, Saturday we go to Simi to finalize the wedding stuff and pay the cost for everything, Sunday is brunch, but he said the weekend isn't the big deal, it's going to be Monday.
Monday he is going to be totally lost and now the challange begins, I not only have to keep the dog and me entertained now I have to keep Dave entertained too.
Last April 1st was our 29th wedding anniversay, let us now see if we can make it to 30 years.