Corinne and beaches

We detoured to Wilmington on our way to Mrytle Beach to spend some time with John's daughter Corinne. She had just returned from the Panther / Bills football game in Charlotte. She could barely talk after cheering on the Bills to a victory. We had a lovely dinner out and loked at all the great pictures she took.

After arriving at Mrytle Beach we took the dogs to see the ocean for the first time. To say they weren't impressed, is streaching it. They wanted nothing to do with that foamy stuff that chased them along the sand. We spent a few days just relaxing and enjoying the sunshine and warm weather before heading to Charleston South Carolina to spend some time with John's brother and his wife Terri.

The place is haunted

What a busy 2 weeks.
I couldn't look at the blue speckled wall paper beside the beige patterned couch and window treatments any longer. I sized and painted the walls a bright beige color in the living/dining areas and the bedroom a gray blue. I used the bedskirt that came with the bedspread and made bedroom curtains and recovered the window surround. Even John likes the difference.
We visited the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh. I especially liked the exhibit called "Village of Yesteryear". It was a building filled with artisians who displayed and demonstrated their talents in olden crafts such as rug hooking, tinsmithing, glass blowing, wood carving, pottery and many more. Very interesting and beautiful work.
We had several fireside dinners with our neighbors Diana and Harold Bowman from Maryland. I'm glad John didn't have his camera nearby when Diana and I went four-wheeling in the woods on a golf cart and ran out of energy. We had to push the thing up hill to get back home. We got our exercise that day.
Jessie, you would be proud of me. I played bingo one night and won 2 games for a total of $22.00.
Oh yes, the haunting...  The members of Sycamore Lodge create and run a "Haunted Forest" each halloween. They do it for 2 nights, Oct 30 & 31st. They charge $6.00 per person and all the proceeds go to Charity....  the Leukemia Fund to be exact. Working in the woods, creating the scary scenerios, and designing costumes takes a lot of time and dedicated volunteers. Today, everyone dressed up in costumes and drove to the surrounding towns handing out flyers advertizing the event. The place is full of witches and wizzards. The dogs don't know whats happening.
We attended another Pot Luck supper....  these are great ways to meet the people in the park and make new friends.
It really is a small world. At the dog park we got to talking to another couple only to discover Ed and Marla Keck live less than 6 miles from us near Cogan Station.
Monday we head out to Wilmington to see John's daughter Corinne and then off to Myrtle Beach for 2 days of ocean.

Carolina Bound

We just arrived at our Coast to Coast home port of Sycamore Lodge in Jackson Springs NC. We will be staying here for 2 weeks. By this time we should know what changes in "stuff placement" need to be made. In other words, it's time to make the RV "homey". We have put off doing that until we knew how to work everything, what the experts do and what ensures safety. We discovered we are a little over weight in the rear. I heard that comment. We need to do some "stuff rearranging" to even out the weight distribution. I have the need to personalize it a bit. That scares John.... cause it usually means spending money.
You never know just where you may meet your new best friends. We stopped at the North Carolina welcome center coming from Tennessee. John initiated a conversation with a gentleman walking a beautiful sheltie dog. Fifteen minutes later we are making arragements to stay at the same WalMart parking lot for the night as we were both heading in the same direction.  
That's how, Wayne, Elaine and Shelly (the Shelty) came into our lives. We spent that evening talking and sharing. We shopped togeather, exchanged emails and phone numbers. They are headed back to Ohio, they're home. We tried to convince Wayne to retire, after all he is 70. We will be keeping in touch and hopefully meet up with them again.... on the road.

Kentucky Kaves

WOW...  We were 310 feet below the surface of the earth. What an experience....and NO BATS. We took a 2 hour ranger guided tour starting at the historical site opening. The system has 365 miles of surveyed passageways and they believe there may be as many as 600. We did over 250 stairs coming up out of the cave. We used our new National Parks Senior Pass and only paid half price. The cost of the pass ($10.00) was recouped the first time we used it.

Our campsite (Diamond Caverns Resort and Golf Course) was nice, but the people were exceptional. The host and hostess were wonderful. We went to our first "Pot Luck" campground dinner and met some nice people. It didn't take me long on the road to run into a fellow nurse. Kathy is an agency nurse in Trauma and Oncology. We also met another couple who have been full-timers (in their RV) for about 2 years. He is retired Army so they get to stay at army bases free of charge.

The campground is immediately adjacent to the federal park, so we did some hiking. Sydney and Holly found their own cave since they couldn't come on our tour.

We had rain every day but one. Only one of those days was a complete washout though. We had tornado warnings that day also... an interesting first for us. How do you prepare / survive a tornado in an RV?

Family Time

Saturday and Sunday were spent with John's sister Bonnie and 2 of her children, Kim and Dave. We were updated on all the news about the nieces & nephews, as well as the grand nieces & nephews. We brought some video tape for Dave, of his grandfather, Rev John Mostoller, doing his "Percy the Clown" program. Dave is very active in his church, with the food bank, and is considering adding some of his grandfathers clown routines into his ministry. Bonnie cooked us all dinner. It was nice sharing news with family members too long neglected. Note to self... keep in touch more. Other Note to self... make sure the camera is set on pictures, not video, when taking family photos or nothing records.
Cardinal sin number 2.. mind your tow vehicle when attaching and unhitching. As I was gathering items from the RV to take with us to Bonnie's, John decided to unhitch the car from the RV. While towing, the car must be in neutral with the parking brake off. When disconnecting it you sometimes have to move the car to change the tension on the tow rods to get them separated. When I came out of the RV, John had removed the rods and cables. I proceeded to place these in the storage bag when I hear..."Oh Crap"... and look up to see John chasing our slowing, backward moving, car across a WalMart parking lot. Thank the Lord there weren't any other vehicles parked near us.
Next stop.... hopefully... Mammoth Cave National Park in South central Kentucky.

Gyspsy Journal Rally

After 2 nights at Roaring Run and 2 nights at WalMart parking lots, we arrived at Mercer County Fairgrounds in Celina Ohio for what we termed "Gypsy School".

About 230 others joined us to learn, share and HAVE FUN. Our friends John and Wendy Dreese were our first house guests in our RV. They came to the rally and bunked on the couch for 4 nights. The rally was sponsored and conducted by Nick and Terry Russell who live full time in their RV and publish an RV newspaper called the "Gypsy Journal". We went to classes, listened to stories and met some very nice people. One of the classes I attended was "Every RVer Needs a Blog", taught by "Geeks on Tour". I had intended to journal our adventures but they made blogging so easy that I decided to take the leap. I don't know how consistent I will be in adding postings, but I'm going to give it a try.

We thought we learned all the right things to do, but when leaving the fairgrounds John committed one of the basic cardinal sins. He pulled out without putting his antenna down. It caught in a tree branch 30 feet from our parking spot, so we didn't get far and we were still able to lower it. He had to tape it to the roof to make sure it didn't fly away while traveling and until we are parked long enough to repair it.

Next stop.. Hamilton Ohio... to visit with John's sister.