WE ARE HERE IN CREEL

We have made it to Creel and staying at the Hotel Villa Mexicana & Trailer Park, it's a lovely place, yea right. Rocks, dirt, Horse crap all over and no running water, just great. No, they are in the process of finishing the water faucets so the water should be back on in a couple hours, not that we plan on hooking up to it anyway, at least that's what Dave said. We will be here for 7 days, 3 will be down the copper canyon, so Dave thinks we can survive with the water that is in our holding tank, will see. Even if we do hook up it would only be for washing, showering and washing dishes, Huh, sorry no dishes I got paper plates and bowls for that stuff. When we got here the 1st sign you see is "Don't feed the dogs" great there are all kinds of lose dogs running around, mostly male so I'll have to be careful with Valley. Plus, it is raining, so now we have mud and horseshit soaking wet all around us, sorry have to remember the motto of this trip is to be flexible, so I'll just look at this as a new way to trash the inside of the motor home, ha ha. The drive here was interesting, some people here have a suicide wish, they were passing us on roads with lots of turns and doing it whether we were climbing hills or going down them. The drive went pretty smooth, after a rest stop our tail gunner in our pod forgot to turn his CB back on. When we got to a small town and got stopped by a traffic light, I jumped out of the RV and ran back 6 cars to tell him to turn it back on, I got back in time before the light changed. We left this morning at 8:30 and got to our destination at 1:30, wasn't that long of a drive but it was a tough one because of all the hills and curves. Tonight we had a buffet dinner, it was just OK, you would think being here in Mexico you could get good Mexican food, but nothing better then El Patio, in Simi, so far.
Tomorrow Dave and I are in the 1st group that goes down the copper canyon, to go 40 miles it is going to take us about 6 hours, doesn't make sense to me, I guess it is straight down on curves all the way. NO BANOS on the way either.

Chihuahua sight seeing day

We caught our sight seeing bus tour today at 8:30 a.m. We did a city tour of Chihuahua by our tour guide Eduardo, he was very informative and spoke good English. A couple of the things he told us was Chihuahua City has one of the lowest crime rates, unemployment is at 3.5% and their main industry is Gold. He also told us that Mexico City has one of the largest population, 23 million, boy that's a lot of people. Just some facts which I'm sure don't interest you but oh well. Like I said we had the city tour, which the city is very clean, we also visited Pancho Villa's home, the Government palace, a Cathedral and an Exotic Pottery and Basket place. We then had a buffet lunch then back to the RV park by 3pm. At 3:30 was the next days driving meeting and we will all be splitting up in 5 groups, leaving 15 minutes apart. This way so many coaches aren't grouped together, which we really weren't group up before that how most of us thought we were lost, but whatever. We have 4 in our group and we leave at 8:45am, we only drive a little over 150 miles so it should be a short day driving. At 6pm we caught the tour bus again and went out to dinner and before dinner the local college put on a Mexican Folk Dance showing us some of the local custom dances, that was a good show, the students were really good. That's it for now, will write when we get to Creel tomorrow.

DEL FRESNO PARADOR RV PARK

Hell of a day, Hell of a day. We are all here safe and sound at the RV park about 6 miles outside of Chihuahua. The driving had some really tough roads at first, but once we got to the toll roads it wasn't too bad. Some parts had some dips in them back to back that I thought our RV was going to break in halff. Going thru the border somce got pulled over some were waved thru, then there was the Customs Inspection, again some got pulled over but most got waved thru. Then 3 miles later we had to go thru the Military Checkpoint, there they waved everyone thru. The worst part of the drive was going thru parts of Chihuahua to the RV Park, we all got separated and believe me once we found the RV Park everyone wanted a drink. Construction everywhere, plus they drive crazy, but anyway we made it. Now it is 4pm we have been here an hour and it's time for a margarita party, which everyone needs. Will write tomorrow night again.

Sunday night and it's the last blog before heading into Mexico. Vicki decided to stick it out with the bad back, they had until 9:59am to cancel and get back all their money except $500, 250 would have been put as a credit for another caravan and the other 250 the company would pay for. She will just have to take it easy, but we all should have a good time. Lee, Dave and I went out for the Sunday morning breakfast then did some shopping. This afternoon we had a pizza social with the whole group and everyone introduced themselves again. After lunch we went over all our precautions for Mexico, not drinking the water, how to treat our water so we can take showers and do dishes, washing fruits and vegetables before eating, ect. ect. It was all sounding very scary so I made the comment that I guess for the next 41 days we don't eat or take showers, and Helena came back with, that we will be mean, lean machines when we come back. Then we did an orientation on the driving we will be doing tomorrow, rules, speeds, lights ect. Then we had an ice cream social after that, then everyone went back to their coaches, trailers, or 5th wheels and started getting ready. Dumping the black, dumping the grey, filling the fresh water tank to the limit it can hold, and showering for a long time for the last time for a while. I believe the next couple days we won't be hooking up to the water system, so our 100gallons is going to have to last us, I feel for the trailers and 5th wheels because they can't hold that much.
No more phone service, so everything will be done by email or blog.
P.S. I'm very proud of Mike for figuring out how to make comments on my blog. I'll try and drop a line everyday if not it will be every other.

Presidio Texas, what a hell hole
Talk about a place that is in the middle of no where, that's where we are. We arrived Thursday around 3:30pm, as soon as we parked the Tail gunners came over and wanted to talk to us. We weren't too happy about that because we needed to get set up 1st before we could stop and talk.
Happy hour was at 4 and all who had arrived so far got up and introduced themselves then we sat around and talked to about 5:30 then the weather was starting to go to freezing again. Friday morning the Tail gunner's wife, and the Wagon master's wife and the wife of the Tail gunner in training came by to give us all our paperwork for the trip. After they left the Tail gunner, Roger, and the in training Tail gunner, Bob, came by to do an inspection of the coach.
At 1pm a group of us left to go to the border to get our visa's and holograms. We were there for over 3 hours, Dave and I took about 45 min. then we had to wait for everyone else to finish their paperwork. You would think those people could speak some English, but hell no. Another thing is you would think our Wagon master could speak some Spanish to help with all the paperwork, hell no. He had pictures of Motorhomes, Trailers and 5th Wheels for us to show the border people.
After everyone was done with the paperwork, now we know why the Mexicans sneak over the border, paperwork takes too long, we headed for the bank in town to get Pecos. We got back to camp a 5pm and happy hour was going strong, I had to walk the dogs so Dave went over to happy hour. Forgot to mention Vicki yesterday morning threw her back out so around 11am they left for the emergency room because she couldn't move. Of course there is no hospital in Presidio so they had to drive 90 miles back to Alpine, TX so that's why I had to walk the dogs, I was watching Fleetwood their dog. After happy hour the group carpooled over to El Patio for dinner.

Marisa and Shawn you can have the cold weather.
Let me 1st say I'm sorry Marisa and Kelli, you guys had comments on my blog but I never got an email informing me of it, so they are published now. 12/23, 1/2 and 1/8 were the comment dates.

Anyway, back to the cold, here in Ozona it is 25 degrees and it's suppose to be this cold in Mexico too, at least for the 1st week. I am not made for cold weather, although you would think that the xtra insulation I carry around would keep me warm, NOT! Boy, Marisa please please please get lots of warm clothes, Shawn use to live there so he knows all about the warm clothes you need.

Ozona Texas and headed to Presidio Texas
Lee and Vicki made it to the RV Park a little after 5pm and about 6:30 we went to dinner. We went to Hitchin' Post Steakhouse, cute little restaurant, the drinks we ordered from the bar the bartender had to pull out her book to see how to make them. It's a small little hick town, we should have known better then to order something other then beer or wine.
Vicki and Lee got bad news yesterday, bummer on Lee's birthday, but their son is going to Iraq in March. He is in the marines and is a helicopter pilot, he will be stationed there for 7 months then gets to come back home, he will be flying at night so at least that's kind of good, they don't do ground firing at night. He is going to fly out for a week while we are in Mazatlan and stay with Vicki and Lee so we will get to meet him. God, I wish we could get out of Iraq, let's hope so in the near future, our prayers are for all those brave men and women over there and who will be going over in the future.
Later this morning we are headed for Presidio, but we do have to make a Wal-Mart stop in Fort Stockton on the way.

Ozona, Texas
We left Granbury Texas this morning and now have landed in Ozona Texas, waiting for our friends Lee, Vicki and Fleetwood to show up. By the way it is Lee's Birthday today so Happy Birthday Lee. Ozona is a hole in the wall place, it is David Crockett country, they even have a big statue of him, somewhere in town. We are actually staying about 6 miles from town at an RV Park right off the Freeway. But we will go into town tonight to take Lee out to dinner, oh boy, hope we can find a decent restaurant, I think they only have 3 main ones. The next thing they are famous for is their Deerfest, which they have the 1st Saturday of December, every year, and there you get wild game fest. Bear, crocodile, venison, turkey ect. ect. sounds like everything I wouldn't touch, well maybe the turkey I would.
We are just here for 1 night, tomorrow we head out for Presidio Texas to meet up with our fellow caravaners for our Mexico trip.

Tuesday night, 10pm, we had a great two days with Butch and Sharon. We got here Monday about 2:30pm, Dave said it would take us 3 hours to get to Granbury more like 4 1/2 hours. Butch and Sharon live in a gated community called Pecan Plantation, and this place is hugh. It has a couple golf courses, tennis courts, camp grounds, beaches, 2400 acres of Pecan Trees, deer everywhere, believe me it is really big. When we first got close to the plantation, the police had the road blocked off making everyone take a detour, we don't know where the hell we are and our GPS's aren't happy with us taking a turn that they didn't tell us to take, well it ended up there was a big rig that had turned over in the road. Of course the detour is on small roads and we had to wait for the cars coming at us to clear before we could go, needless to say the cars behind us were not happy campers. We finally got to Butch's and we got all settled in at the campsite, walked Valley around then headed to their house. They have a really nice house, the window coverings are great, split packing boxes, their curtains will be in next week. Have to give them a break, they just moved in 2 weeks ago, the house is really great tho. Butch BBQ'd for dinner, we had a couple of bottles of wine and did a lot of talking, very nice evening.
Today, we all went to Costco, us, getting ready for Mexico, them just some things they needed, then we went to lunch. Lunch was at Fundruckers, haven't been to one of those places in years, boy, it was a great hamburger. Butch loaded his up so much that he had to eat it with a knife and fork, the cheese he put on the bun just soaked the bun so you couldn't pick it up, we had a lot of fun.
When we got back we dropped Butch and Sharon off at their house then Dave and I came back to the coach. We put all of the Costco stuff away, then I took Valley walking and Dave went to hit golf balls at the driving range. Which, I did get my walk with Valley in, but Dave didn't get to hit balls at the driving range, something about tokens and no one had any so he ended up hitting the golf balls we have in the campground.
We then went back to Butch and Sharon's for dinner, another great meal, a couple bottles of wine and great conversation. We talked about my mom, Butch's dad, Uncle Jay, uncle Bob, Aunt Ann, Evelyn and Auntie Bee, it was great memories. We left a little after 9pm, had to get back to Valley, plus finish getting really to hit the road again tomorrow.
Texas has good house prices, this place where Butch and Sharon live is pretty nice, I could see it turning into a place like in Florida call "The Villages" my kind of place to live.

Monday morning and it's 30 degrees, the car is frozen, our red car looks white. The other day while walking around with Valley, one of the rangers here stopped me and asked if I was from Alaska, because he was freezing and I was walking around in shorts with my sweat shirt wrapped around my stomach, little did he know I was having a hot flash then. Today we are headed out to Granbury Texas to spend a couple days with my cousins Butch and Sharon, they just moved here to Texas a couple weeks ago. Looking at the weather forecast it's even colder there and just as cold in Presidio Texas, which is the place we all get together before we head out into Mexico for our caravan for 41 days. 41 days, boy that's a long time, the more I think about it, hope we have a good group to hang out with or else the 41 days is going to feel like a life time.

OK, the body is a little sore today, mainly the lower back. Dave's shoulders, knees, and back are hurting him. Yesterday afternoon Dave went on a bike ride with me and it was a little over a mile but up hill all the way. Just getting over the hill in 1000 trails he just about quit on me, believe me it was a tough ride. I had done the ride the day before and I thought for sure he wouldn't make it, but he did. He knows all about switching the gears on the bikes and he had gone down to the lowest ones, but I'm stupid and hadn't known that the lower gears make it easier to peddle, so needless to say I was really working the 1st day. At least it was down hill all the way back, then we stopped and checked out pickle ball equipment, which is 2 paddles and a waffle ball. We watched them play in Orlando so we decided to try and play it, Woody, a guy who was sitting in the lodge said he would teach us how to play. It's like tennis but you play with paddles and a plastic ball. Woody went home to get his paddle so Dave and I went out and started hitting the ball. One time Dave went running for the ball, swung and missed then stepped on the ball by accident, game done, crushed ball. Then he remembered that if you put the plastic ball in hot water it regains it shape again. Woody came back and started teaching us, then it was Woody and Dave against me, then Dave's knee and shoulder were hurting so he said that Woody and I should play a game. Before we started and were just practicing I couldn't get a serve in, if my life depended on it, but once Woody and I started playing, game on. I ended up winning the game 11 to 7, it was fun, Woody and his friend travel around and get in competitions when ever they can so I felt pretty good that I beat him.
I also got over 9 miles of walking in, pretty good day, so I don't mind being sore.

Dave called me a liar this morning after reading my last blog. I said I would write once we got to our destination in Texas and I didn't. We are here in Thousand Trails Lake Conroe in Willis Texas we got here on January 9th.
January 9th was my Nephew Spanky's 30th B/day, so happy belated birthday.
Beautiful weather the 1st morning, 60 degrees, this morning is was 33 degrees, had to get out the warm stuff again to walk Valley around. It's a nice big RV Park, a couple ponds but one hugh lake, which is Lake Conroe but of course, it's not the season so we can't go out on the boats they have here. At least I get to do a lot of walking around and biking too.

We are in Lake Charles, Louisiana in the parking lot of a casino. They were having some break ins to the trailers in Jellystone RV Park, and I was tired of walking thru the place so we decided to cut our driving in half and leave today and finish the drive to Texas tomorrow. Nothing exciting to report, didn't make it to New Orleans because of the football game. New Orleans LSU was playing Ohio State and all the streets were blocked off and tons of partying and people decided it wasn't worth the hassle.
No power so can't stay on the blog long. will write when we get in tomorrow

Boy, am I bad at writing my blog lately. Well it's Sunday night and we are at a new place, we actually got here on Friday afternoon. We are now at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp and Resort in Robert Louisiana. We were actually here last year in February or March 2007. Of course again, we are here the wrong time of year so nothing here is open, pool, boats for going out on lake, beach area stuff, ect. The only good thing is that means there are no kids here either, well there were some on the weekend but after walking Valley around late this afternoon the kids are all gone now. With a grandchild on the way, we are going to have to get use to being around little ones again, family ones are OK, it's just the trailer trash ones we see on our travels that are monsters, not all just some.
Yesterday afternoon, while Dave and I were walking around the park, we saw a coach pull in that looked exactly like ours. They ended up parking right next to us and it was like looking at a mirror image of our coach. When we went and talked to the guy setting up it ended up being a guy Dave has been talking to on the Monaco forum for the last year. The only difference is they have 3 windows on the front slide where we have 2 big windows. It was fun seeing the changes they have made and they enjoyed seeing the upgrades we have done. They have taken out the dining room dinner table completely and just put in a small computer desk, so basically their whole slide out is empty, which gives their big German Shepard a lot of room to run and play. They have a small table they use to eat meals at that they put in front of the couch, it was interesting to see.
That's about all that's new with us, tomorrow we are going into New Orleans, so will write about that later.

We got back on the road again and now we are in Pine Lake RV Park in Fountain, Florida. We are back in the Central time zone so now we are only 2 hours ahead of you in California. We will stay here for 2 nights then head out to Louisiana again and will stay there for 5 nights.
Dave caught David Jr's cold while we were down at Christmas time and he is still sick. I ended up driving for a few hours today so he could nap, straight highway and I'm good but I hate it when I run into so much construction, driving next to those cement blocks makes me a nervous wreck. We made it with no incidents and didn't even get lost getting here, amazing. Nothing really to report except it is freezing here, high today was 40 degrees and tonight it is going to only be 18 degrees, will have to unhook our water hose so it doesn't freeze. This morning before we left Clermont we had ice on our slides, this damn cold front. I don't have clothes for this cold of weather. That's it for now.
Today was Vickey Alvis's birthday, Happy Birthday.

New Year's Eve, and I'm writing my last blog of the year. We had a great Christmas with the family, a lot of running around. Hope every one's Christmas was great.
We left Bakersfield on the 26th, Danny didn't even want to go out to breakfast for his birthday, he wanted John's Burger, so Kim went and picked up breakfast. After I finished laundry Dave packed up everything and we hit the road for Simi Valley. Dave left his leather jacket at David Jr's so we had to go pick that up, then we went to "The Hat" for pastrami sandwiches. Best pastrami in the world, we got 3 sandwiches, we split one for lunch, then headed for our hotel near LAX. We then split another one for dinner, and the 3rd one I packed in the suitcase. Our plane was late leaving on the 27th, which was no big deal to us because we had a 3 hour lay over in Denver, and it was snowing, we were stuck on the plane for 40 min. once we landed because they had no open gates that we could pull in to. We really started to worry about if we were going to be able to fly out of Denver anyway, but we did and it was only 1 hour late. We got to our hotel in Florida about 11:30pm as we headed for our room the fire alarm went off. Everyone was coming out of their rooms and we all headed to the parking lot, we put our suitcases in the car and headed for TGI Fridays. We sat at the bar until about 1am, after the fire department left the hotel, we headed for our room, and that's when we split the 3rd sandwich, I was so happy the bag handlers at the airport didn't steal my sandwich.
Anyway, Friday we picked up Valley and went and got the coach then drove back to 1000 Trails, where we will stay until 1/2/08 then it's back on the road again, headed for Texas. Yesterday we went to breakfast with Lee and Vicki then headed for the Disney Animal Park, the place was sooo crowded, it was a nightmare, we didn't stay long. Tonight we are walking over to Gene and Bobbie's coach and will BBQ and visit with them, that's our big New Years plans, I know we won't make it to midnight so will have to record the dropping of the ball.
Hope you have a nice and safe New Years.

It's Christmas Morning and I'm up at 3am, stayed in bed to 4 but that's it, just can't sleep. It's now 5am and Kim and Dave just got up, Dave's normal time but not Kim's, unless it's Xmas day. Don't expect to see Danny for a while, he is not a morning person, but he better learn to be with a baby on the way.
Sunday morning I was in our shed looking for some pictures and paperwork that Dave needed and I lifted a box, while standing sideways, that was very heavy and pulled the muscle in my side. Dave said I should have waited for help, I'm 50 now and can't lift that shit anymore, at 49 yes, but not a 50 year old grandma. Needless to say I have been hobbling around for the last 2 days. Danny brought some stuff home from work, Bio freeze, which is a pain relieving gel, and it really helped last night. This morning it isn't as sore.
Busy day today, will go to David Jr's for breakfast, Danny's parents for a snack, then to my Brother Mike's for the big Christmas dinner, my once a year prime rib fix.
Tomorrow, December 26th is Danny's 26th birthday, we will take him to breakfast then he has to work. In the afternoon Dave and I head off for LAX and will spend the night there and catch our flight Thursday morning back to Orlando.
The 26th is also my nephew Jimmy's 40th Birthday, So Happy Birthday to Jimmy and Danny.
Merry Christmas to all, will write when we get back to Orlando.

We are here in Bakersfield, got in last Monday, and the weather is cold, I need my Florida weather.Haven't even been here a week and already my tan is gone. We have just been hanging out all week, finishing up Christmas shopping and visiting with Kim and Danny.
Yesterday was my surprise birthday party but it wasn't a surprise, of course I found out, they just don't know how to surprise me. All though, I must say, Kim and Danny did give Dave and I a BIG surprise when we got here, Kim is pregnant 10 weeks now. They told us Monday night, right before she left for her 1st night shift,7pm to 7am. I think my jaw was still hanging to the ground when she left, she thought we were mad, no just in shock. Not only was I turning 50 the next day, now I was going to be 50 and a grandma, no I'm too young for this, boy talk about getting old, all in one day. We are very happy for them, and us, and everyone else involved in this, Danny's parents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, ect. It is going to be a great addition to the family.
Then Dave and I started thinking and talking about how does this effect our travels? We both agreed our travels will be put on hold for the next couple years, we want to be here to help out with what we can. We started looking around at houses but we are leaning towards a mobile home, double wide, like what my parents lived in. We are looking for very cheap, but in a nice area, we don't plan on staying in Bakersfield we still plan on going to Arizona but just not right now.
Back to my surprise party, once the family was all here we then had to manage to get them all in one room so we could tell them the news. Dave and I were not allowed to tell anyone until the majority of the family was told. Anyway, the only way to get the family or just anyone at a party together in one room is to start the food line, that always works. Once everyone was in the kitchen/dining room Kim and Danny wanted me to tell everyone, I started off with a little story, boy was I nervous, and when I got to the part about Danny wanting me to talk to Kim's belly, everyone knew, and the tears starting rolling down faces, I didn't even get to finish my story. Everyone was hugging them and congratulating them, the party really started going then. It was a lot of fun having everyone together and sharing the news with them, Kim and Danny were at first going to wait until Christmas Day to tell everyone, but none of us could hold in that good news any longer.
Danny's sister, Bibiana, had made me a birthday cake with a motor home decorated on it, cute picture and great tasting cake, I swear she should go into the baking business. When the cake was brought out we all then remembered it was my birthday party, not the Kim and Danny baby party, just kidding.
Caught up on my blog again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.

From Dave
Since I have even more time on my hands being in Bakersfield I am going to add Feeds to the Blog. Since I have no idea how these feeds work I don't know what will happen. Just have to wait and see. Hope to see many of you while we are in California over the next 10 days.

Well today is Jeri's 50th birthday.

Happy Birthday Jeri

Sunday morning and nothing exciting to report. We are having tornado warnings around here but it missed us. Just lots of rain with thunder and lighting, I forgot to close the window by the couch so it got a little wet.
Dropped Valley off on Friday morning so I was a little depressed that day, just hope everything goes well with her. They took our coach again on Saturday and finished putting in our back camera, this time they put in a whole new system, will see if this one works.
That's it for now, after going to breakfast with Lee and Vicki this morning we will head out to the hotel, got all packed yesterday.
Don't know if I'll update the blog while we are gone, if not I'll write again when we get back.
Merry Christmas to all

It's Wednesday night and still here at Camp Monaco hanging out. Yesterday and today didn't get in much walking Valley is just worn out. Dave is either on his computer or checking on the RV so I have Valley all the time. Today he left for Wal-Mart and was gone almost 3 hours, it's against the law in Florida to leave your animal in the car so we both couldn't go. He ended up going to Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Staples ect. who the hell knows, but that's why he was gone so long. Sorry, I get a little stir crazy when I can't get away from Valley, 24 hours a day gets on my nerves.
We found out today our coach won't be done by Friday so we'll leave it here while we fly back to California. Something under the top step wasn't welded right and broke, that's why our step has been sinking in when you step on it. They ended up today taking out the steps that fold out when you open the door and they had to build us steps, which they did out of wood, so we would be able to get in and out of the coach, nice steps too, I'll get pictures. Valley likes them better then the ones we have, much easier for her to get in and out of the coach. The only good thing with the coach not being done is now we don't have to pay for a storage place to keep it while we are gone, Camp Monaco does it for free. With the way the stock market is going, anything we can get for free is great.
Lee and Vicki are going to Epcot tomorrow and leaving their dog, Fleetwood,at a kennel all day and over night they wanted us to go with them but since we are taking Valley to the hospital/kennel on Friday for the next 2 weeks there was no way I could take her to a kennel tomorrow. I know she is just a dog, but I can't do that to my Grand dog. The pet hotel that Lee and Vicki are using is really neat, the dogs have their own room, complete with a bed and I mean a real bed, head board and foot board, the cost is $32.00 a night, would love to leave Valley there the next two weeks but a bit to high for our budget. Anyway, that's it for now, will write again before we leave Camp Monaco on Sunday and go to the hotel so we can be at the airport bright and early on Monday.

It's Monday night and I thought I better do a little updating.
Saturday once we got to the Monaco plant we met a really nice couple, John and Barb who are full timing now too. They have an Endeavor, a little older then ours, and when John saw us pull in he was really liking our rig. They came over and Dave gave them a tour of the place, they were really interested in the new tile we had put in. They have 2 cats that travel with them and tile is something that really interest them and they would like to do. Barb went back home to finishing cleaning and John and Dave started talking computers, John then brought his computer over and Dave was trying to fix the sound on it but it didn't work. Then they started drinking wine, Barb was still cleaning and I was laying out then Vicki and Lee got here, the friends we travelled with in Canada. We all ended up getting together and sitting outside having a good time and talking, at 5:30, dusk, the mosquitoes came out and we were covered in no time, everyone went running for their coaches. That was the end of that get together, here at the repair facility is a really big pond, unkept, and has signs of warning about the alligators so I guess that's why all the bugs.
Sunday, we went out to breakfast with Lee and Vicki and drove around town, came back and hung around a little bit then drove over to "The Villages", which is a retirement community, or I should say an over 55 community, you have to have seen the commercials on TV. They talk about golfing free for the rest of your life on the Arnold Palmer and Nancy Lopez golf courses and parties and activities every day. Well it is all of that, we went and saw one of their real estate agents who took us around and showed us some of The Village. 10 years ago it only have 16,000 people there, it has now grown to 68,000 and they are still building. Just about everyone there drives golf carts, and they have some pretty fancy ones too. I would like somewhere like that to live, I think, because of all the sports stuff and activities, but I would like it to be a smaller community. Dave, I don't think, would like anything like that, he's not really into sports, walking hurts his knees, he does OK on bike riding, OK, lets face it, Dave doesn't like to work out. I told myself when I hit 60 I'm done too, not that all this walking is keeping me in good shape, my legs maybe, but wait, isn't Round a shape???
Today, Monday, they came and took the coach at 7:20am and we didn't get it back until almost 4pm, long damn day. This is the 1st time that we have been at a repair shop and Dave isn't working, now he is finding out how boring it is sitting around all day. There is no place to walk to, these places are always in the middle of nowhere, only large highways that you don't want to walk on or ride your bike on, plus you have your dog the whole time so it's not like you can go places, its a law in Florida that you can't leave pets in your car, but somehow I managed to walk 23,664 steps today, When I told Dave he said "Jeri" you are constantly walking around with the dog, you never relax. That probably explains why Valley was not walking around with me anymore after 3pm and she was very happy that we all went out to dinner tonight and she got alone time. We went out for Thai food in the "The Villages" and after walking around a little bit and seeing some of the entertainment, Vicki made a comment that it reminded her of being in a Stephen King Movie, just a weird feeling, and she hit the nail on the head. Before dinner we had stopped and talked to a couple that live in "The Villages" and they raved about the place, kind of sounded like the Stepford Wife's, Stephen King like Vicki said.
That's it for now, I've rambled on long enough.

It's Saturday now and we are at a new location, we now are at the Monaco Repair Facility in Wildwood, Fl. We came a day early because Dave started worrying about getting an RV site to camp in. This place isn't like the one in Oregon we normally go to, this one doesn't have assigned sites. Some people where we were staying said you better not wait until Sunday because that's when the people with the Monday appointments show up, some said we would have no problems waiting until Sunday. We didn't want to take a chance so we came today, and there are plenty of spots open, will see how it is tomorrow. We only have water and electric here so it's almost like dry camping.
Wednesday we did go to MGM and boy was it crowded. The place was OK mainly eating places and shops everywhere, the rides they did, which wasn't many, were OK one that was great we went on twice. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was the one we went on twice. The Rock 'n' Roller Coaster with Aerosmith was great too. The Drew Carey Show was stupid, anyway, we hung out there until around 3 then headed back to Disneyland to ride the stuff we missed. It's a small world, 3D Movie and the Hall of Presidents. We didn't stick around for the fireworks again, we wanted to beat the crowd out of the park.
Thursday we cleaned the outside of the coach and shopped. We were going to go see the Space Shuttle off but they keep having problems with it, I believe tomorrow is the last day they can try and get it off or else they have to wait for January.
Friday Dave finished the outside of the coach and we got it ready for today's travels. Last night we got together with some people we met a year ago last March at the Monaco Repair place in Oregon. Gene and Bobbie, great people, we are going to spend New Years with them at the Thousand Trails park we were just at. They have been full time RV'ers for 12 years now, so I want to talk to them about it, how they stay busy ect. Dave is having a hard time with not having anything to do so maybe they will have some tips for him.
That's it for now.

Its Tuesday night and I'm finally getting to relax. Today was clean day, since it didn't get done on Saturday or Sunday. Sunday, we went to check out the town of Clermont, we went to breakfast then did the Farmer's Market, got a few things, not much. Drove around town a little bit then came back home, jumped on our bikes and went checking out the new neighborhoods that are being built around here. One section is called Motor Home Houses, wait till you see the pictures, when Dave gets them posted. They are houses with very large carport things attached and that's where you park your RV, they have sewer, water and electric hookups and you can even open your slides, very neat.
Like I said earlier, today was cleaning day and I started out with defrosting the freezer. I'm standing there with the hair dryer, for heat, and chipping away at the ice build up in the freezer and I look over at Dave and he is ironing. I started laughing and he says "what?" I said here I am in the freezer chipping away and you are ironing? He said don't even put that in the blog, yea right, not me. Then I went out changed the oil in the car and Dave was sewing. Just kidding!!! couldn't resist.
We did work together and cleaned the inside of the coach, Thursday we will start on the outside.
Yesterday we did the touring thing again and went back to the Kennedy Space Center. we went and saw all the things we missed, the Imax movie was great. After leaving we hit the Astronaut Hall of Fame Museum which was very interesting to see. We even went on 2 rides they have there, the "G" forces you hit were something I've never done before.
Tomorrow, we are hitting MGM, will let you know how it all turns out.

Today is my sister-in-laws birthday, Happy Birthday Trini, 63 I believe, and you don't look a day older then 50. (do I get bonus points now)
Today is Saturday and yesterday we did go to Epcot all day, we got there when it opened at 9am and got back to the coach at 2pm. We stayed home for 2 hours, had a snack, I walked Valley around then we got back to Epcot at 4:30pm. We walked really fast to the Candlelight Processional and Massed Choir Program, which is in the American Gardens Theatre. They have a guest performer every 3 days to narrate the story of the Nativity, which we got to see Neil Patrick Harris, (Doogie Howser, M.D., or the show How I met your Mother" Very good show. They had over 400 performers including band members, the show was amazing. The fireworks show was on at 9:30pm which was very good and then we got home about 10:30 pm.
SORRY MIKE, I'M EMBARRASSING YOU BY BEING A TOURIST, we will be stopping this. We are spending a lot more money each month then want we are getting in. So needless to say, this Xmas is going to be small. The stock market isn't helping either, it's killing us right now.
Today was kick back day, was planning on cleaning but it just so happened it was garage sale day at 1000 trails. So Dave and I went walking around looking at stuff, got golf balls and a flag to hang outside the coach. Then we went bike riding around the park to look at the other people trying to get rid of their junk, met some folks that told us about a car show in Kissimmee. We went there this afternoon and had a good time, Dave will post pictures later, but they had some really neat cars, plus old town Kissimmee was kool to see.

Behind again in writing, oh well.
Last Monday we went to Disney World all day, quite a few people there too. We did "fast trac" on some of the rides which was nice, after the 3pm parade we came back to the coach to walk Valley around and have a quick dinner then head back out to Disney World again. We got to go on the rest of the rides we missed, people were lining up for the 7pm parade so there was no one in line for the rides, which was great. We watched the parade, different from the 3pm parade, then the fireworks show then headed back home.
Tuesday, was hang around day and try and find a kennel to put Valley in for over the holidays, when we fly home. Most of the kennels here are at Vet. Hospitals, which surprised me. We drove around to about 4 or 5 of them, not cheap. One place we called but didn't go by was $70.00 a night, on the phone Dave said "we are talking about a dog, you know ruff ruff" they said yes sir we know but it's $70 a night. We found one close to the airport so we can pick her up 1st thing in the morning after we get back, if she lives thru those 2 weeks without me. If she breaks out in hives at least she will be right there with the vet.
Wednesday we went to the Kennedy Space Center, very long drive there, we went on the NASA tour, which is a bus that takes you all around the launch pads, takes you to where they put the shuttle together, and a bunch of other places you do get to get out and walk around too. The shuttle is suppose to launch 12/6 so it is already out on launch pad 39A, pretty neat to see. After the tour we didn't get back to the Kennedy Center until 3pm and with such a long drive we decided to just come back again next week. The tickets we purchased are good for 7 days, so maybe next Monday or Tuesday.
Thursday was hang around day again, did some shopping and I got to lay out in the sun. In the late afternoon the sun was out but it was pouring rain, very strange, kind of like Hawaii.
Today is Epcot day, so more later.

We have landed into a new spot today. We are now in Thousand Trails Orlando RV Park in Clermont which is like 13 miles from Disney World in Orlando. What a hugh park and very nice, nothing like the other 1000 Trail parks we have been to. They have normaly been way out in the hillsides with lots of trees and miles and miles from the city, this one is great. We got here around 11:30 and got all set up then Dave and I went out to lunch, it's Sunday and we missed our out to breakfast day because we were travelling. Anyway, when we got back I got to lay out in the sun then in the late afternoon Valley and I went walking. We chased some squirrels then we found an armadillo and started chasing it then it stop cold, I have no idea what armadillos do so Valley and I stopped too. I know pocupines through their needles but I have no idea about armadillos, will have to do some research on that. I had the map of the park with me but didn't bring my glasses so when I was lost the map didn't do me any good. I just knew it was 5:00pm and was going to be dark at 5:30 and I needed to find by way back, which I did, got back at 5:15 so I wasn't that far away. I thought Dave would be mad because we had been gone for 45 min. but NOOOO, he was still on the phone with the verizon girl working out problems with his phone and computer. I can't believe my husband has phone affairs right in front of me, he makes these little jokes with the girls, god the things you do when you get old!!!

It's Friday night and I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Dave's turkey and everything else he fixed turned out great. He thought the turkey should have been cooked a little less but it was still very good. He cooked turkey, sweet potatoes, corn on the cob, stuffing, and we had rolls and salad. It was really good with lots of turkey left over, the rest of the other stuff we didn't save. Talked to Kim and Danny and Danny was trying to cook a turkey for the very 1st time, his work had given the employees one for free. We told Danny you have nothing to lose go ahead and try to cook one, well theirs didn't come out right. I guess they had gotten a turkey bag and it had torn on the bottom so the top half cooked but not the bottom half, he or they get an "A" for effort. So they went out to dinner somewhere.
We had rain here in Florida, which I guess they need, so it was a good thing it was Thanksgiving, because we just planned on hanging out anyway.
Today, Friday, we drove to Green Cove Springs, to see where the state of Florida thinks we live and pick up our mail, but they were closed. I wanted to get a picture of our mail box and say "this is our home" no such luck.
We came back, I got caught up on Desperate Housewives and Dave went and hit golf balls.

We are finally home, back in Florida where the state of Florida believes we live. We are actually about 29 miles away from where our mailbox/physical address is, so while we are here we might even go by on Friday to see if we have any mail. Where we are now is Starke, Florida in a KOA. Dave was able to find another campsite that wasn't all booked for the Holiday weekend. We will stay here until Sunday then head out for Orlando for Disneyland, Busch Gardens, ect. While here in Starke we will have Thanksgiving here and just relax, ride bikes, hit golf balls and give Valley a bath, plus I will work on getting my tan back. If you can't tell there is nothing close to Starke except Jacksonville, and that's just another big city 45 miles away and we need a break from big city's. Once we got settled in Dave found out from the KOA office that they are having a Thanksgiving Dinner at 2pm for $7.49 a person, or the steak house down the street is having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for $10.99 but Dave has decided that we can cook our own Turkey dinner. Which sounds great to me love leftover turkey, so we headed out for Wal-Mart, which is a mile away, and we were lucky enough to find a 12 lb. turkey, looking for a 10 pounder but no luck. So tomorrow we will cook turkey, sweet potatoes, corn, stuffing, rolls and have a salad. There are 2 of us, if you count Valley 3, but I'm thinking we just might have a bit much on the leftovers, my refrig. isn't that big, will see what happens. Got to remember, Dave has never done a turkey on is little BBQ so we might still be going out to dinner somewhere. Will let you know how it turns out, anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Today we did the Fort Sumter tour, it was a 2 hour tour, a 2 hour tour. (get it) The weather didn't even get rough it was very calm and beautiful, high today I believe was 78 degrees. Back to shorts and tank tops, boy I really need to shave my legs. It was a 1/2 hour boat ride to the fort, 1 hour on the fort, then 1/2 hour back, and believe me that was plenty of time. Fort Sumter was the start of the Civil War, it fired the 1st shot on April 12, 1861, then it ended on February 17, 1865 that's when the Confederates evacuated. OK Enough History.
The fort was neat to see but pretty small, surprising they lasted that long. After that we drove to one of the plantations but no way were we going to pay $36.00 per person to have a tour, have seen enough history stuff and houses that we don't need to feed these places more money. Came back to the coach, I watched 2 out of 7 "Desperate Housewife's" shows I have recorded and Dave went to the driving range to hit golf balls, really was a nice day.

We are now in Charleston, South Carolina in an RV Park called Oak Plantation. When we got here we found out that the girl Dave had talked to on Saturday lied to him. She said it was 1st come no reserving sites, wrong not on Holidays. The park is booked up for the Thanksgiving week starting on Wednesday except for 3 back-in sites. So we checked out the 3 sites and none of them could we get computer and only one we could get the TV satilite to work, but that site was so small that once the slideouts were out you would almost be touching your neighbors. We said to heck with it, we asked for a pull thru for 2 nights will leave here on Wednesday and head towards Orlando Florida. We had reservations at a Plantation for Thanksgiving dinner but now I guess we will be parked in a Wal-Mart, somewhere, and eat what ever food they serve there, you know McDonalds or Sub-Way who knows. Enough of crying the blues
just kidding, everything will be just fine. Anyway, once we finally got set up today we headed for the visitor center in Charleston. We got the self walking tour map and headed out for a 3 mile walk. The historical sites were great to see, and most now are owned by private residents. I give them credit for buying one of those houses or buildings because you can't do anything with the outside of your place without their (historical society) permission, and what ever you do has to not change how it looked over a 100 years ago. You can change the insides anyway you want but the outsides must stay original.
Tomorrow, we are doing the history thing again, I don't need Kool-Aid, I've had enough of a break, we will go to Fort Sumter and then touring around some Plantations. That's it for now. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, just in case I don't write again before that.

Dummy me, I just realized that I start out with the date on my blog but the blog dates itself, on the top, hope that makes sense.
We don’t have computer service, as of this writing, so I’m writing this in Word and will post it to the blog when we get computer service. Dave is going to be hooking up his phone to the computers so we can check our emails, but we will be moving in a couple days to a place where we can get computer, TV, which we do have, and phone service. God knows we can’t live without those things, this is our house right now and we would require all of those services if we were in a house that wasn’t on wheels, so why not now?
We left North Carolina On November 14th and the next stop was South Carolina at an RV Park called “Barnyard RV Park” which was kind of a scary name, makes you wonder what you will see when you get there. We were in Lexington, SC right outside of Columbia, SC which is the Capitol of South Carolina. We went there; I think I mentioned before, to meet up with some people we had met last March in Macon Georgia. We had actually met them at the Holiday Rambler Pre-Rally right before the big FMCA Rally and boy were they surprised that we actually came by to visit them. People you meet at these things say they will visit you, but never do, so they were very happy to see us. Anyway, after arriving Wednesday I called Shirley and Fred and they came by that night to see all the changes we had made on the RV last May, (carpet, flooring, new wood work ect) and to see Valley then we went to dinner. On Thursday they picked us up and took us all around Columbia and showed us just about everything, I think, which was really nice of them. We saw Old Town, Court Houses, the colleges, basketball stadium, football stadium, which was really interesting because right inside the stadium parking lot are railroad cars, which people own and use for their tailgate parties. There were probably 20 old railroad cars, if not more, and Fred told us some of the people have converted them into bars. We then drove out to met up with Shirley’s brother, Bobby, and his wife Louise, which were also at the Rally and we had met last March.
Friday we headed out to Yemassee, SC to stay for a week, but we couldn’t get computer service because of all the trees so we went into Charleston to check out RV Parks there. We found one and will move on Monday to it and stay until next Saturday. We wanted to do more touring around Charleston and Yemassee is way to far away, so it’s a good thing we are moving.
Sunday we drove into Savannah Georgia and drove around old town then went and had brunch. We walked along the water front and checked out the stores and decided next March 2008 after the rally we are going to, to come back to Savannah and stay a couple days. One of the restaurants on the water was called “Spanky’s” which was in Italian place, we call my nephew “Spanky” and we are Italian.
Then we drove back to the coach and picked up Valley and brought her with us to check out Beaufort, another old city. We did a walking tour around checking out the old houses and the trees were unbelievable, you will have to see the pictures, when Dave gets them posted. Valley was only interested in the squirrels, and there were a lot, it was just a nice relaxing day. Tomorrow we head out to Charleston, hopefully I’ll have more exciting stuff to talk about.
When we got back to the RV on Saturday afternoon the guys who were parked behind us had left so we unhooked and closed up everything and backed up to their spot. You guessed it in that spot we got the computer to work but it was too late we had already decided to move to Charleston. Let’s just hope that when we get there tomorrow someone hasn’t already taken the spots that we had picked out. The park takes reservations but not on spots in the park, it’s 1st come.

November 14, 2007 today is another travel day, this time we are headed for Columbia South Carolina to visit some people we met last March in Macon Georgia at the FMCA Rally.
Yesterday morning Dave and I took off for "Mel's Diner" which his friend had suggested for breakfast, which was a cute diner. The corn beef hash was more expensive then the steak and eggs, so I thought, maybe, the corn beef hash is locally made, wrong, from a can, which I love anyway. Dave ordered the eggs and ham steak, best ham I have had for a long time. Most of the ham we get doesn't really have any flavor, so that's why I don't like ham, but this was really good. After breakfast we took off driving to Beaufort, which is in the beach area, the weather was in the 70's so back to shorts again. By the way, Beaufort is where Black beard, the pirate, used to live. Anyway, we drove around the beach area, walked some but everything is closed, until next spring. It was a nice drive some really beautiful houses and the area are amazing, it would be a nice area to live in. We then went back into town to the Pepsi Store where Pepsi was invented, had a soda at the soda fountain, then back to coach for packing up.

November 12, 2007 we have moved again and now we are in New Bern, North Carolina at a KOA. I must admit I believe this is the 1st time we drove to an RV Park and didn't get lost, even inside the park only because they guided us to our site, we didn't fight at all, boring, the dog was even shocked. We are here visiting a guy that Dave has known and worked with, over phone lines, for years. Bob has retired from Civil Service too and went to work for the company Dave use to work for. Bob came by about 3:30, we visited for awhile then he took us driving around New Bern. What a great place to visit, they are re-building the "Old Town" to look like the original way it use to look like in the late 1700's early 1800's. The houses are hugh and beautiful, they are even going back to cobblestone streets, very cool. One little thing of history, this is where "Pepsi Cola" was invented, by Caleb Bradham, a Pharmacist and it was first called "Brad's Drink" In 1898 and later on it was changed to Pepsi Cola, yea my kind of history.
We leave here on Wednesday morning so will have to update tomorrow night on the running around we do tomorrow.

November 11, 2007 today is Valentine’s Birthday, she is 11 years old now, plus it is also Kim and Danny’s 1st anniversary of when Danny proposed to Kim. OK enough about the kids and dog. We leave tomorrow so last min. running around today.
I’m not writing every day now because we have slowed down on our touring around, we can finally relax in a spot and take our time seeing things, tour one day and relax the next.
Recap of the last week:
I last left off on Tuesday morning, kick back day rainy ect. In between the rain Valley and I managed to get in about 2.5 miles walking. Dave did planning on his computer and I played with stuff on mine, later on we went into Gloucester to Wal-mart and did some grocery shopping and also started doing Christmas shopping. We will be flying back for Christmas so the stuff we buy we will have to ship back to Kim’s before leaving Florida. When we got back to the coach the rain had stopped and the sun was out, seemed like a good time to shave Valley. Dave had purchased a shaver a couple weeks ago, so it was time to try it out, Valley’s hair had finally grown back in and she was shedding again in the coach. When Dave was done with her she looked like a corn field that had just been plowed, poor thing, but it works. So that was Tuesday.
Wednesday we headed for Yorktown, we first did the Victory Center, which is where we saw a film, but then still had a 40 minute wait for the Ranger tour, so we went ahead and did the Battlefield Drive. We rushed thru the drive because we wanted to make the Ranger talk and got back just in time. The Ranger was very informative and I must admit the history stuff is starting to sink into my brain, but that’s about it, after it sinks in it sinks right back out again. 
Thursday, when we got up at 6am it was 32 degrees, when Valley and I went for a walk at 7am it was 31 degrees, darn it was getting colder. Valley and I had to keep moving fast so we wouldn’t freeze. When the walk was done Dave and I watched some of the shows we have been recording for weeks. In the afternoon we drove to Urbanna, where the oyster festival was and that town cleans up real well. I was hoping to find a good seafood restaurant for some “She Crab Soup” but they were all closed. I guess after the festival the town closes up, the biggest crowd that we could see was at a pizza parlor, we weren’t interested. We went back to the RV and hung out.
Friday, we went to Williamsburg, the place is hugh and there is no way you can see everything in 1 day so we got a two day pass. We got a tour of the Governor’s Palace then listened to some play actors doing an exchange between them. It was Patrick Henry, who was Governor at that time of Virginia, Treasurer Mr. Nicholas and a Jr. Delegate Capt. Woods. Starting at 2:30pm they have play acting at different locations for the next 2 hours.
Saturday, raining in the morning but then cleared up so we took off for Williamsburg again. Did more touring around there for a few hours and then we both decided we have had enough history to last a life time. I told Dave the next place I’m going to is Jonestown to drink some Kool-Aid.

November 6, 2007 Tuesday morning and it's cold and rainy. Today is a kick back day, give Valley a bath and a shave hopefully, but not unless it warms up some.
ReCap Time:
Sunday morning we ended up having breakfast right here at Thousand Trails, the last meal they were fixing until next March, the seasons done now. We got to look at the local newspaper and it reported that they had 100 thousand people at the Oyster Festival between Friday and Saturday, I told you there were tons of people. Last year they had 65 Thousand so this thing is really growing. After breakfast we headed into Gloucester, VA and walked around old town and checked out the visitors center. The lady there had suggested we check out Matthew too to see a small town that is really rural plus they have a lighthouse there we could see. We drove to Matthew, which was a long ways, and we didn't think the town was that small, well spread out though. While taking pictures of the lighthouse a guy on a kayak came riding in and had been out there fishing, caught tons of fish too. He is a school teacher in Gloucester and told us about Jamestown and Williamsburg, how to get there, things to see ect.
Monday we drove into Jamestown. We 1st went to Colonial National Historical Park Jamestown, hung out there for awhile. We then went to a glass blowing shop and watched the demos there then headed to Jamestown Settlement. This whole Jamestown thing is a really big deal right now because they are celebrating their 400 anniversary, remember the Queen came here back in April. Anyway, the Settlement we ran out of time to see everything, we should have gone there 1st. We still have to do Williamsburg and I'll tell you I have had enough history to last me the rest of my life. On our drive back I saw a sign for a Peanut Factory Tour, now that's my kind of history.

November 3, 2007 we are now at Thousand Trails Chesapeake Bay Preserve in Gloucester, Virginia. Before we left the RV Park, we were at, we went to IKEA to look for a new recliner chair/computer chair for Dave and also get a new kitchen rug and trash can, well we left with the rug and trash can but no chair. The chair that came with the coach is nice he just wishes it would go a little bit straighter for when he is on the computer. Anyway, while we were there they had a $1.99 breakfast special so we went for it. Scramble eggs(I think, at least that's what it said) home potatoes, 3 pieces of bacon and 3 sticks of french toast. Coffee came with it for free, $4.18 for breakfast for two can't beat that.
We got on the road at 11am, we arrived at TT at 2:45, can't say it went smoothly, I don't think anytime we have ever travelled it has gone smoothly. We either fight at the beginning, end, middle or all three. I think I said the last place we stayed at, Cherry Hill, went with no problems, I lied, we got lost driving to the RV spot we were assigned to, Dave missed the 1st turn ect. ect.
This time we didn't set up any GPS's we went by the "Streets and Trips" print out, another program Dave has. When we were close Dave turned left, I asked why he turned and he said it said 33 east. I said the print out says "Turn LEFT (East) onto SR-198[SR-33] for 21 YARDS. He said he just remembered the 33 east, so we went at least 5 miles out of our way to get back to where we should be. I guess if we didn't have these mishaps life would be very boring, besides that the dog was way to comfy and she panics when we fight and she needed some excitement. OK enough of the drive
When we got set up we went into Urbanna to the 50th Oyster Festival, had no idea it was so big. The whole town closes down and thousands of people show up, wait till you see some of the pics. I just don't understand why it starts on Friday and ends on Saturday, I could see, maybe, if they had carnival rides starting on Friday night, then ending on Sunday, but they had no rides. This darn Oyster Festival starts Friday morning and ends Saturday night, weird. We must have walked 2 miles, after we parked just to get to the town, then seeing the whole town taken over was really neat. The first stop was the bathroom for Dave, as we were standing in line I had asked Dave if he was going to have one of the oyster sandwiches, the guy in front of us, big time biker, tattoos, leather, long hair ect. said to us we just had to try the booth up the street. They were the best fried oyster sandwiches anywhere, he had eaten 2 himself and his wife had tried the "she crab soup" and it was great too. He was a very nice guy and we had talked awhile with him waiting for the outhouses. After Dave's bathroom stop we walked back to get a oyster sandwich, which was very good, I have never really eaten an oyster and it being lightly fried wasn't bad, but I only took 2 bites. What I'm building up to is, after walking around for another 30 min. we saw the biker guy again, he was on a electric cart with 3 cops, I said Dave that's they guy we talked to, we need to tell him thanks for the recommendation on the oyster sandwich. Dave said no he is in handcuffs on that cart, I look over and could see the guys hands were behind his back, Dave said he wouldn't be riding that way if he wasn't handcuffed. Too bad the guy seemed so nice and wasn't drunk or anything so have no idea what went wrong.
We walked around some more, got some jambalaya, and as we were leaving we stopped and got a cup of the "she crab soup" which was very good. It was very entertaining, and one heck of a festival, wouldn't mind coming back again.

November 2, 2007 it's time to do catching up again since we head out tomorrow for Virginia. Tuesday, after getting set-up, we drove to Costco to get a few things, other then that we came back to the coach and BBQ'd dinner.
Wednesday, Oct. 31st we drove to the new National Air and Space Museum in Chantilly, Virginia. What a site to see, the hanger that you walk thru is 1000 feet long and 10 stories high, and when complete they plan on having 200 aircraft displayed, I believe right now they have about 140. When it is all complete it will be approximately 760,000 square feet. When you first arrive you see the observation tower, we saw a movie in the Imax Theatre called "Fighter Pilot" which was very good, then went up to the tower. The 7th floor, where you 1st get off, you can see, on a clear day, up to 70 miles. You also can watch the Dulles Airport with planes landing and taking off, we had a pretty clear day the only thing was Dulles's slow time is between 10:30 and 12:30 so all we saw was 1 plane landing. Then we went down to the 6th floor which is a replica of an aviation tower running now in one section you actually listen to Newark tower that is going on right then. That is one hell of a job to guide all those planes in the air and airports, believe me those people deserve a lot of credit. After that we then did a tour with a guide that explains a lot about the planes that are on display. The tour last about and hour to 1 1/2, ours lasted 2 hours. The guide we had was a fighter pilot in his younger days and has long since retired and volunteers his time to do these tours and he is very passionate about it. Anyway, good tour, then we did the walk thru ourselves after we went back to the car and ate the lunch I had brought for us. They have in the monster hanger every kind of flying machine it was amazing. We went thru the "Wright Brothers" to the "Space Shuttle" and everything in between. It is a must see. We stayed to late for the Virginia/D.C. traffic so needless to say we sat in traffic for over an hour, once we were getting close to the RV Park. By the time we got back, walking Valley around, cooking dinner it was 8pm so there was no way we were driving anywhere for Halloween, so we stayed in the rest of the night.
Thursday, November 1st, we drove to the "Metro" the train service here, and rode into D.C. We walked to "The National Archives and toured thru that, the main reason Dave wanted to go is because the Original Bill Of Rights has a new display there. He saw a show a while back where it took them 4 years to take out the Original "Bill of Rights" to a more protected and would keep them better preserved case, which it really needed the ink is getting so light. We also walked thru the Vault section which was neat too, all the records that they have to keep, movie reels since the beginning, anything that has to do with history, school rules even, amazing.
After that we walked the "Mall" that's the D.C. parkway which I'm sure you have heard of. It was great weather, joggers were out and a lot of people on their lunch breaks walking around. We went to the "World War II Memorial" which we have not been too, I believe it was completed 4 years ago. Great memorial right in between the "Washington" and "Lincoln" Memorials. We sat at a park bench and ate the snack we had brought with us then at 1pm the park ranger gave a short tour and talk about the WWII Memorial. Come to find out that within the Memorial is a lot of things from WWII, boots, dog tags, scarfs, hats ect. the workers had planted these things inside the walls thinking hundred of years from now the archaeologist will break thru these walls and find these things and do studies on them, pretty clever. After that we went back to the Metro and took it back to the station and went back home. At 5pm we drove into Crystal City and met up with Dave's ex boss and his girlfriend and had dinner together. He asked Dave if he wanted to come back to work and Dave said NO WAY. Tim, his ex boss, his girlfriend sales Arbonne which her and I talked about, me telling her about my niece, Marisa, and nephew, Michael, and her telling how Arbonne hasn't taken off at all in D.C. We did talk about there wedding she is working on for next year, it was a very nice evening. I must admit I didn't want to go to dinner because I thought Dave and Tim would talk shop but that didn't really happen at all, very enjoyable.
Today, November 2, we drove to Mount Vernon, the home of George and Martha Washington. I must say they lived very nicely, at it's biggest point they had 8,000 acres. George was very lucky, he married Martha who was a rich widow with 2 kids, and where they lived Martha paid for, he just made it bigger and built it up. I won't go into details with this place, the blog is long enough right now, but I will say it is another must see.
I'm sure you have noticed we didn't go see the White House, and most of the Monuments because we have been here so much because of Dave's career that we have no interest of seeing them again. Anyway, the main thing to see is the Smithsonian's because they change those all the time, we just didn't have time but really not interested right now.
That's it, we will leave tomorrow around 10am once the traffic has cleared and head for Virginia, Jamestown touring is next.

October 30, 2007 we are now at Cherry Hill Park in College Park, Maryland. We went out to breakfast and then got on the road about 10:30am. We arrived at the RV Park about 3:30pm, not a bad drive this time we didn't get lost at all, thank goodness the GPS worked this time. I need to do a recap of New York because tomorrow we start touring D.C.
I left off with us getting tickets to see Altar Boyz, and stopping and having a beer and burger to kill time but I forgot to mention that while walking around the streets we got to see Jennifer Garner and posted pictures. She is in New York doing a play, sorry didn't catch the name of it, we just saw people crowding around so we joined in and took pics. The play Altar Boyz was great, it is a musical comedy about a Catholic boy band, the lead guy in the musical was the runner-up on "Grease: You're the one that I want" reality show, which Dave and I tried to watch every week. It was funny and very entertaining, thanks Spanky for the recommendation. We didn't get back to the coach that night until 11pm and boy was Valley happy to see us. It was also a big Halloween party night so there were a lot of people dressed up walking the streets looking for the perfect bar to party at.
Sunday, we hung out at the coach until around 11am then went and caught "Path" to 33rd street. When we got to 7th & 50th street they were having a street fair going on, about a miles worth I think, food vendors selling products ect. We walked around until almost 2pm then headed for our next musical, which was "Spring Awakening". Another very good musical, Dave said he liked that one better then Altar Boyz, probably because he got to see breasts in this one, just kidding, but not about the breasts. Again, thank you Spanky, this one is about young teenagers in the 1890's in Germany that are just learning about their sexuality, when the one character kills himself, I got all tiery eyed, I really liked him, didn't want to see him go. Anyway, very good and makes you think about how you have to tell your kids about the birds and the bees or hope someone does.:)
Monday, we went back to the city again, Dave wanted to look at the camera shops and check out his xmas present. He did research Sunday night when we had gotten home and knew what he wanted. After talking to the sales guy we left without buying anything, amazing. He then got on the phone with David Jr. to ask him about the camera Dave wanted, which he said was good. We walked to Central Park walked around it, it seemed like every corner you turned someone was doing filming. The kids in the park you could tell it was the nanny's taking care of them, all the horse carriages were neat to see. The cost was $34 for 20 min. to pricey for my blood, Dave did get a picture of me jogging in Central Park. We found our way to Strawberry Hill. which is a section of the park dedicated to John Lennon, that's why it is named that, we got pics of that too. Dave will shoot me if I don't mention this, but I was the only person in New York City with shorts on. Honestly, I was even shocked I didn't see anyone, before we left the coach I said I would bet him, because the sun is out, that people will wear shorts, it just wasn't happening. It was probably 50 degrees, and the only thing cold were my fingers, I think my legs must have been numb because I didn't feel anything, or else the hot flashes were really kicking in. After the park we did go back to the camera shop and Dave did get a new camera, now I don't have to do any xmas shopping for him, because that is it!
I thing that about sums everything up, I know I left stuff off, that's what happens when you get a few days behind. Anyway, new adventures start tomorrow.
Happy Halloween, because I believe we will be out late tomorrow, Halloween in George Town.
Spanky, do you want me to save you the Playbill's?

October 29, 2007 well, it has been a very fun and eventful time in New York. So much to see and do that we didn’t even see or scratch the tip of the iceberg, will have to come back but not stay in this RV Park. I shouldn’t say that, if I didn’t have a dog and want to take a shower everyday, then maybe I would stay here again, it really wasn’t that bad, just the driving here was. “PICTURES ARE POSTED” by the way.
Well, recap time;
Saturday, it did rain all morning but we took off for the Statue of Liberty anyway. The 1st boat was leaving at 9:30am and we were only 5 min. away from the park where it took off from. We left at 9:10am it was raining and off season so there shouldn’t be that many people there, wrong. We saw so many people and panicked but as we got closer to the ticket office we realized there was a diabetes walk-a-thon going on and most of the people were there. Because of all the security checks we just missed the 1st boat by 2 min., that’s when Dave said “you know we weren’t meant to see the Statue” but there was no way I was leaving now. We did catch the next boat at 10:15am and got off at Ellis Island. I called my brother, Mike, to ask him what Grandpa Tomaselli’s first name was, I knew I had heard it before but just couldn’t think of it. Dave and I wanted to look up what boat my Dad’s parents had come over on when they left Austria/Italy. Ellis Island has a library to look up this stuff from 1890 thru 1924, for a small fee, we paid the fee and started the research, Mike had given me some info, after calling him 5 times because I kept losing the connection, but we weren’t finding any info. I then tried to call our Uncle Renzo, my Dad’s brother, but he wasn’t home, it ended up we checked from 1890 to 1924 and didn’t find anything. We decided or figured out that my Grandpa Tomaselli didn’t come over on a boat to Ellis Island, where all the emigrants were suppose too, so he must have crossed over illegally and landed somewhere else. Thank goodness my Dad and Uncle were born here or else they would have been illegal too.  After Ellis Island we caught the ferry to the “Statue of Liberty”, really something to see. We joined up with a tour that was already going on and hearing the Ranger speak and give the details was very interesting. It just amazes me, that way back then, someone would say I want to build a statue and this is what I want to build and this is where I want to put it. Just like in South Dakota the guy that did Mount Rushmore, there is “NO WAY” in these days could anyone do or build anything like that without going thru “Hell” to get approval.
After the Statue of Liberty we came back to the coach for about 45 min. walked Valley around then hit the road again about 3pm. We took the train “Path” then tried their subway system, which was a bad day to do it. It was really hot in the subway, and crowded, and the damn thing kept stopping, then they finally they made an announcement that 3 trains ahead of us there was a sick person so we were going to have to wait. In the mean time this man, who had gotten on our subway, started talking out loud to himself, while doing so he was rolling joints. Everyone was trying, well not everyone, but most were trying to get away from him. Anyway, when we finally got to Broadway and 34th we got off of the subway. We started walking around and I was taking pictures, Spanky, my nephew asked me to, crowds of people and very entertaining. Sorry I didn’t get the picture, but there was a girl ½ naked in the middle of Broadway that was playing a guitar, what she had on was short shorts and tassels on her nipples. We kept walking around because we wanted to see where the play we were going to see on Sunday was going to be, “Spring Awakening”. While walking around we heard some guy offering ½ price tickets to “Alter Boys” which was one of the off Broadway musicals my nephew had recommended to us. We decided to go ahead and buy the tickets and go to the play, the only bad thing was it was 5pm and the musical didn’t start until 8pm. There was no way we were going to go back to the coach 1st so all we could hope for was that Valley had a strong bladder and could do without dinner for a long time. Really the dinner part wasn’t a problem and the bladder wasn’t either but I just hate putting her through that because she is 11 yrs old, but oh well. We walked around some more then stopped in an Irish Pub, had a beer and a burger then headed for the musical.
Better cut off now, and on the next blog do the review and recap of Sunday and Monday.

October 27, 2007
Yesterday we left Lebanon Pennsylvania and headed out for our next stop, which was Liberty Harbor RV in Jersey City, New Jersey. The drive was only suppose to take about 3 hours, well we left at 9:15am and arrived at the RV/Yacht Harbor at 2pm, that was well over the 3 hours. What we went thru I would have bet we would have never arrived, but thank goodness for a guy on his bike. (I’ll get back to that)
When we left in the morning we used 2 different GPS’s, Dave’s computer one then we took the one out of our car and hooked that one up too. Should have known after 1 ½ hours when they disagreed on which highway to take, this was not going to be a good day. You have to understand when Dave is driving and a GPS is on he believes what it shows but when it talks, especially in a female voice, he doesn’t believe what it says. After the one incident last year when we drove 5 miles out of our way then he realized it was taking us to the next destination, my brother Mike still laughs about that. Anyway, once we were in New Jersey, and going thru one of the toll roads, the car GPS said, “stay on the same road” (which was I believe 78 East) now the computer one was saying stay on 78 East, same thing right? When you looked at the signs it showed 78 East 95 Holland Tunnel, which Dave said there is no way I’m going thru that tunnel because then we will be in New York City, NO WAY. So we took the other Hwy, which makes the GPS’s recalculate and try to figure out a new way to get to the RV Park. That’s when the car GPS really said something totally different then the computer one, so I said to Dave we are going to go by the computer one because it knows we are an RV the car one thinks we are just a car. (You can program the computer one so it knows the size of your vehicle, for tunnels, bridges; ect. the car one doesn’t have that option) As we are driving in the corner of my eye I can see Dave keep grabbing himself, and I don’t dare say anything because I know what that means. Normally what I do, when I know he has to go is crack a joke and really make him suffer, but not this time to stressful time right then. After going back and forth on very small streets, Dave just stops at one corner, where no one was behind us, and puts the RV in park runs to the back and pees in the bathroom, he just couldn’t hold on any more. Then when we took off again, we took a road we hadn’t already taken, which the GPS was happy with, finally! As we were driving up these little streets dodging cars that were double parked, we heard some guy on a bike yelling at us, when Dave opened the window, the guy was asking us if we were on our way to Liberty Harbor RV Park and we said “yes” he said follow me. Which we did for the next 2 miles, the guy got us there and we gave him $20 and it was well worth it, what a nightmare of an RV Park to get to, would not recommend it, with all the construction going on. Besides that construction, you don’t have sewer plus no grass and the cost is very high, find another place to stay is all I’m going to say.
After getting set-up we drove to the Liberty Park and missed the last boat to the Statue of Liberty by 3 min., the same thing that happened to us 17 yrs ago., this time though, we will be here for 4 days so we have another chance of seeing it, the last time we were just driving thru when we missed it. We then decided to go into New York City, so we drove to the train station and parked then got on the train to New York City. Why anyone would want to live here is beyond me, the bumper to bumper traffic, tons of people on the street, horns honking, it was very stressful and entertaining. Police cars with sirens going trying to get thru the traffic, which was a joke, then it starts raining and of course we left our umbrellas back in the car. Dave and I kept walking around, it wasn’t a hard rain, dodging umbrellas trying not to get our eyes poked out. We stopped in a Irish Pub to dry off and have a beer then Dave asked the bartender about a good Italian restaurant. The bartender went and asked some guy sitting at the end of the bar and this guy told him about 1 that he has been going to for 20 yrs the best in New York called “John’s”. We walked there and the food was OK but we have definitely had better. We should have trusted our guts when an Italian restaurant is named “John” After that we caught a cab to take us back to the world trade center to catch our train back to Jersey. The taxi ride was very interesting it was an E-Ticket all the way, almost as good as the taxi’s in Italy. Anyway, that was our day, today, Saturday, it is suppose to rain all day, will see what we end up doing.

Amish Blog.
We decided to do the 4 hour Amish thing. What it included was a 45 min. tour of a 9 room Amish house, very interesting, you got to see how they live without electricity because they have stoves, ovens, refrigerators ect, you learned about their clothing, every day stuff and Sunday wear. The different hats and hair covers, the colors they must be and what age the colors change.
We also saw a 30 minute virtual film on an Amish boy trying to decide if he was going to be baptized Amish or live in our world. Every child, boy or girl, must make that decision after, I believe they are done with school. School, by the way, only goes to the 8th grade, then you are done, the Amish don’t believe anymore schooling is needed. The law here in Pennsylvania says that children must be in school until the age of 16 so in the 8th grade they are normally age 14 so the last years of schooling (until they are 16) is vocational, which means they work in the fields. They do have to go to school for 3 hours every Saturday with an Amish school teacher, which, by the way, only has the education of an 8th grader, very interesting. The kids can own cars, when of age, and do everything the outside world does, if they don’t decide to become Amish they are not shunned from the family, but of course if they don’t become Amish they normally leave. 5% of the children do leave by the way. If they decide to stay with the Amish way of life then they are baptized but if they should decide to leave after that then they will be shunned from the family.
We thought the Mennonite’s broke away from the Amish but it was the other way around. They were still as one back in the 1600’s but in 1690 the Amish became to be because they thought the Mennonite’s were getting to modern, how they hell do you get modern in 1690? Anyway, a few differences between the 2 groups are Mennonites have cars, churches, electricity, ect didn’t do any touring of Mennonite’s so can’t say too much about them.
Also on our tour was a bus ride for 2 hours thru the Amish, Mennonite, and our communities. Can’t just say Amish communities because they live, out here, among everyone the only way to tell if it is an Amish house is they have no wires for electricity. Some of the houses have what looks like an outhouse on the property but that is where they have their telephones. They at one time were allowed to have phones in the houses but the bishops found out that they were spending too much time on the phones then heard that people were gossiping and all phones where then banned from homes. Not every family has a phone some of them just share with their neighbors. While on the bus we passed a farm that had a bunch of carriages and all the horses were under a tent. Well, it was an Amish wedding going on, carriages are put to one side and the horses go under cover, so nice to see them treated well. Anyway, the Amish only have weddings on Tuesday and Thursday’s and only at the end of October thru the end of December. That is the off season time for farming so that’s the only time they are allowed. The wedding night is spent with the bride’s family then after that they either move into the bride’s or groom’s family’s house. There is no honeymoon and they stay until spring then they can move into their own home which they have either built or purchased and start their own farming of their fields. Wedding gifts are received by the bride and groom when they visit the people’s homes on weekends and each visit includes a meal. They said some of the Amish newlyweds will visit 3 to 4 homes each Saturday and Sunday to receive their gifts, but remember they have to eat a full meal each time; they probably start out fat then all the work in the fields they lose it all. Once married the men have to grow beards, that’s how you know a man is married, women there are no way of knowing.
I could go on and on but I’ll just give a few more highlights. Amish do pay taxes and believe in all medical care, they just don’t pay any Social Security Taxes and have signed their rights away to ever receive any Social Security payments. On the medical stuff they have no medical insurance so when they need medical care, doctor’s check-ups, surgery, anything they just pay cash. Either they pay it or their congregation helps them pay it. The Amish don’t believe in a church so their religionist meetings are held every other week in a family’s house. Each community consists of like 30 families but they share the bishops. The bishops have church every week because they have to keep switching off the communities. The services last about 3 hours long and they are held at a different house so the family that hosts the service that day then has to feed everyone. I forgot to mention each family has a minimum of 7 kids so that’s a lot of people at one house, good thing the communities are only 30 families. What the host ends up doing is clearing out rooms and then they bring in the benches to line up in each room, girls on one side men on the other, they also have like 3 bishops that come to the houses, I guess one for each room.
The Amish school teacher receives $1.00 a day per student; there are only 20 to 30 students, at the most, in the one room school thru the 8th grade. There are many Amish schools around because the Amish don’t believe a child should have to travel more then a mile away from home. Amish can ride scooters, no bikes, because they believe you can’t get to far away from home on a scooter.
I could go on and on, very interesting to me, a different culture living among us but living so simple and not stressed, how welcome would that be.

October 25, 2007 today we went to Hershey Chocolate World, last thing we were going to tour before we leave. We took the virtual tour, which was a little ride telling you about how the chocolate is made when you got off you got a little package of chocolate, today was "kissable". I have never heard of these before and I asked how long that they have been out and they said about a year now. They are just like M&M's, the only difference is they are shaped like Hershey kisses. Then you walk thru the Hershey Store, every kind of chocolate in every shape and flavor, even the stuff Hershey makes that isn't chocolate. Walking thru there was like dieing and going to chocolate heaven. You could even have your picture put on a chocolate Hershey bar, believe me they had everything, it is a must see if you ever get here. We were good we only spent $3.19 on some new Hershey stuff we had never seen before so of course you have to taste it, why not how offend will I be here. It was a rainy day in the morning so it was a good day to go to the chocolate world, then it was back home to clean up the campsite and get ready to leave tomorrow morning.
Yesterday it was rainy all day so it was a hang out in the morning then a run to Costco and Walmart. Walmart to get my nails and toes done and Dave got his hair cut, Costco was to get some groceries, not much anymore because I swear they package their stuff even bigger now. Last two days not to exciting, now Tuesday we did the Amish thing. I'm going to end this blog now and do another one on the Amish, to me it was very interesting, so I'm doing a whole blog on it. You pick and choose what you want to read.

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.