Visiting Devyn and Dan in NC

We made a long tow of 7 hours to Selma, NC after sitting in Cleveland, GA for 10 weeks.  We stayed at RVacation Campground just a few miles from their home in Smithfield which is halfway between Seymour Johnson AFB where Dan is stationed and Campbell University where Devyn is a sophomore.

Dan took us onto the base for a tour where he's an aircraft mechanic on the F15 fighter.

 

One evening we went to the Rudy theater in Selma for some musical entertainment.  We all enjoyed it but Judy really likes these things.

 

 

We made the easy decision to leave Selma a day early, Monday, due to hurricane Florence which was predicted to head straight toward us later this week and make landfall Thursday.  We went to Hardeeville, SC for one night and continued the next day to St Augustine.  The NC roads from the coast were going to be made one way west to evacuate over one million people and we wanted nothing of that.

Playing on Lake Lanier

Devyn & Dan returned to Jody & Renato's for the Labor Day holiday so everyone got to play again while Renato cooked out for us on the dock's upstairs deck.  He would rather cook than play!

 

 

 

Good weather, good food and good family.  Meanwhile Randy was home in Brooklyn sizing up home improvements and putting some miles on his Harley.  Devyn & Dan returned to NC Monday and we left Tuesday for Selma, NC for a week with them at their place.

 

9 week nap........

It's been 9 weeks since my last blog post, nice long nap.  We have spent the last several summers with Randy in his pasture but he sold the place last year.  We wanted to checkout the NE Georgia mountains to see if it's cooler in the summer than Foley, AL.  If so we'd consider parking the HitchHiker up here for summer use but it's not that much cooler so we've decided to sell it after we move into the house late this year.  This summer has been pretty much spend with Jody and Renato and the kids with lots of visits from friends and family as you'll see below. 

We see the kids and grand kids every week end, we usually go to Flowey Branch but they occasionally come up here to let the kids swim in the pool.  

One day we spent lounging on the kids dock on Lake Lanier while the kids swam and Renato made an excellent meal, sausage and steak sliced so we can use our fingers to eat and fresh sweet corn all on the upstairs dock grill. 

Judy spent on afternoon tubing with the Brasil's in Helen on the Chattahoochee River.  The kids had so much fun they did it again a few weeks later after some heavy rains when the river was running wild. 

We stayed home with Dustin and Brianna, Judy took Brianna to the Cabbage Patch doll nursery.

We also celebrated Jody's 49th birthday along with Devyn and Dan's wedding. 

Dan and Devyn, the newlyweds, spent several days in Flowery Branch and even a night with us in the HitchHiker. 

Dan had 10 days off from the USAF to move into a rental house in Smithfield, NC but the house wasn't ready yet so they came visiting.  Smithfield is centrally located between Seymour Johnson Air Force Base for Dan and Campbell University for Devyn. 

Randy was also down here, he brought Devyn down with a trailer with her stuff and his bike.  He had some business in TN and NC so he made it into a nice working vacation.  I think he had a real good time with the family and got a lot of riding in in NC and TN.  He's got a big decision to made.....stay in MI a couple more years promoted to managing KLA's US service department or move south, he even checked out some houseboats while he was here.  Flash......he's staying in MI and has bought a small house on White Lake near Brooklyn. 

Don and Zola stopped by and spent a couple days in Helen so we got to visit with them several times and ate in a couple of Helen's German restaurants.

On Tuesday August 7th Dustin and Brianna started school in kindergarten and the 3rd grade.

We, of course, had a couple breakfasts at Krystals.  The kids even had a double cheeseburger and liked them!  Where would the kids be without Gramps and fast food binges?

Jody and Renato had several days in Bermuda so we watched the kids for five days.  I'm amazed at the energy Judy had playing and taking care of the kids and getting off to the school bus and back home in the afternoon.  Me......I held the recliner down.

One night I made Gramp's chicken for dinner, it was a hit.

We are down to less than 2 weeks before we depart the day after Labor Day.  We'll spend time in NC with Devyn and Dan then head to FL to see Clayton and Pat and then Bev before heading to Gulf Shores for the winter and to settle down.

Very sad news, Patches health has been failing and we had her to the vets for 2 days.  She has pancreatitis with diarrhea and vomiting in addition to what looks like some difficulty walking.  She just doesn't look comfortable.  We gave her the vets meds but at 17 she's failing.  She spent 12  hours outside on her last day so I think she enjoyed that.  She died at the vets on Wednesday August 15th.

Paradise Valley; Cleveland, GA

We made a two day tow from Summerdale, AL and overnighted in Columbus, GA.  When we set up the bed side wouldn't go out so we spent the afternoon trying to get it fixed with no luck.  With the slide in there was no room for fat me to get in there to do much.  After emptying stuff from under the bed we couldn't get the false floor out which covers the slide mechanics so we went to Walmart and purchased a jig saw and cut the false floor into two small manageable pieces.  Still no luck and I was like a sardine in a very small tin trying to work on it so we quit.   Bless Judy's heart, she worked hard for a couple hours trying to find the problem.  We arrived the next day, June 9, at a 55+ community campground in Cleveland, GA which is a little over an hour north of Jody & Renato's home in Flowery Branch.  We reserved a site for 3 months to visit the kids and check out the area.  Monday morning we called a recommended mobile RV repair service and they were here in a few hours and had the slide fixed in 15 minutes.  The fellows pushed the slide out and found a broken bolt and I had a spare.  $100 later we were happy campers, MUCH better than a major slide problem like we had 2 years ago with the large living room slide.  The tourist area here is nice and green and hilly but the campground roads are narrow single lane and twisty turny.  Judy has been doing water aerobics and some neighbor visiting.  
Jody & Renato & the kids are in FL on a working vacation so we are planning on seeing them Monday. 

That's the property owners cabin next to us, our site is for sale so who knows...….we might be evicted before the summer is over!

 

Summerdale, AL Escapee Plantation park

We made the final 310 miles to AL Thursday 5/17 and set up mid afternoon at the Escapees Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale..  We like this park because the grass sites are large and it's in the boonies so it's quiet and dark at night.  Judy likes the large pool for water aerobics.

We returned to Alabama to finalize the details on our home.  There were several issues to resolve, the major one was the back porch.  We want a 12 foot wide sun room and porch and the manufacturer (Champion) that Patrick, The Groves Sales Manager, wanted to use came back saying they would only build one 8 foot wide.  Patrick asked them to reduce their price so he could build the porch we wanted but they wouldn't.  So, we will be getting a home from Jacobsen which is fine with us  We met with Patrick twice and then on Friday June 1 Judy signed the print and specifications so the home is now on order.  After the signing we attended a Memorial Day party (it was postponed due to tropical storm Alberto) at the clubhouse.  We visited with a couple who have lived here 9 years that we met our first year on the road.  We met them at a rally in MO.  Judy also saw in the directory a couple from Saline that we knew from St Marks church.  Small world.  We are looking forward to the home at The Grove.
ETA is 3 to 4 months and Patrick will take about 2 months for the site prep work and finishing the home.  His team does the home assembly work, flooring, painting, ramp and steps, concrete, car port, landscaping work.  We will return to Gulf Shores in October and wait for our home to be completed, hopefully moving in in November.  We'll stay at Gulf Breeze RV (about 4 miles from The Grove) and casually move from the HitchHiker into the home.

One afternoon we went to Pensacola to meet David and Shirley, HH friends, for lunch at Joey Patties Seafood.  We have heard of this place for years but never been there.  They were staying at a National Seashore CG near Pensacola.  The clam chowder was so so at best but the fish and shrimp were good.  Bottom line......we can get seafood that's just as good and closer here in Gulf Shores.

We also had new tires installed on the HH.  The old ones are 5 years old and that's as long as I want to run them for fear of blowouts damaging the HH.  I went with Sailun rather than Goodyear as they were $900 vs $2200, have a good reputation, and we will not be travel near as much as in the past.  All I can see in my crystal ball today is AL to GA to NC to FL to AL this year.  Next we'll either park the HH where the summers are cooler or sell it.  We used a fellow that comes to us!  He has equipment in his van allowing him to mount, dismount and balance tires!  He uses air bags to raise vehicles but I used the Big Foot system to lift the HH up.  He makes it easy to get tires work done.

 

Alabama here we come.

Sunday morning we pulled up stakes for some heavy duty travel.  We ended Sunday afternoon in Joplin, MO at Downstream Casino after 273 miles.  Judy was happy, she got us a free FHU paved campsite, and she had a free lunch and broke even financially.  Monday we were on the road again doing 275 miles and ended up in downtown Little Rock, AR at the Downtown Riverside RV Park.

 

On Tuesday we traveled 268 miles to Vidalia, LA for two nights at River View RV Park on the Mississippi.  We were here in June 2007 when we first started our RV adventure.  We set up next to Don & Mary Lynn who were at the Texas rally in April.  We all went out for dinner at the Butt Hut and had some very good pulled pork BBQ.

Wednesday Judy and I went to Mammy's for lunch.  It's located in a unique 1943 building.  She found Mammy's on Roadside America and had to go, they are open from 11am to 2pm only.  

Other than that Judy did some laundry and I did some maintenance on the HitchHiker in preparation tomorrow for our journey's final leg back to Alabama.

 

 

 

Abilene KS

Today we rode into Abilene to take a ride on the Abilene and Smoky Valley Railroad.  It was a nice relaxing almost 2 hour ride in farmlands which started along Old Abilene and the county museum.  We rode in the yellow AIR CONDITIONED car rather than the open HOT gondola cars.  Mama didn't raise on fools.

Here's the engineer checking the train tires for proper inflation......just like I do on our RV and truck.

We also got to see a gunfight, here's the boys standing around an open air bar at the bar for some refreshments.

Here's the sheriff on the march, one down a few to go.

But this is what we have after a few words are spoken in anger...…

Here's a real Abilene log cabin constructed in the 1800s.  I think our HitchHiker is roomier, certainly has more windows.

At 5pm we met all the rally attendees at Bellview Hotel & Restaurant for an excellent family style chicken dinner.