The final leg of the trip home

April 17, 2008, our eighth day on the road!
Today we are parked at the Oaks. When we awoke Frank asked Kay if she wanted to go to Denny’s for breakfast for eggs to which Kay said no so Frank had cereal again.Later Kay did the laundry while Frank read his book, though Kay swears he was sleeping. When Kay was finished with the laundry we took a walk to the store to get milk. On the way we saw the lean mean 13 ft alligator but were not able to get a picture of the critter, rather at another lake we saw a lean mean smaller alligator swimming in his own lake and Frank took his picture. We came back to the campground and had dinner.

After we dinner we walk around the campground and saw a 23 ft Award trailer so we stopped by and said hello. The couple was eating dinner but told us they would stop by and pass the time of day, which they did. They were a nice couple even though they were nudists. Kay found that out and told Frank after they left!

April 18, 2008, our ninth day on the road!
It is moving day! The WiFi has shut down and South of the Border does not have it. We left The Oaks after ten again and found that the SC roads are in deplorable shape. Frank said that they should raise the gas tax so they can fix the roads. He said that is the normal governmental fix for whenever the government does not do it job, namely raise taxes to cover the waste and sloppy spending of the revenues they receive. Kay just looked at him seeing as we had just spent $108.xx dollars for diesel at mile fifty-three in SC. We continued on to South of the Border, SC where we camped at Camp Pedro’s. Once Frank had connected the electric we went to the indoor pool in the Motel and enjoyed a swim. Both of us were disappointed because they had filled the hot tub with cement.

We spent more time roaming through the shops looking at the junk that is sold as souvenirs and noting that the evenings were getting warmer. Maybe it will be warm when we get home!

April 19, 2008, our tenth day on the road!
Once again it is moving day! Up early and on the road by 9:10AM as Frank was heard saying "Unreal". The roads in NC are better than the roads in SC, but not by much! NC has planted wild flowers in the meridian and they are "just beautiful". It should be noted that on the whole drive along I95 we never hit a traffic backup. That is a record for us and we could use more of them.

We got to the Lakeside Resort on Gaston Lake in VA and parked the rig on a paved lot. Frank hooked up and in doing so pulled all the pop rivets out of one of the compartment door hinges. He will not tell Kay how he did this! He went and got his pop rivets and found that he had forgotten his pop rivet gun. He was able to borrow a neighbor’s gun, which was lucky seeing as nobody was living in an Airstream meaning that they properly don’t have a great use for one.We then proceeded to rest before dinner! After dinner we walked the park, looked at Lake Gaston, and neighbored before retiring for the night. Frank noted that for being a resort the sites were very close together, but the view of the lake was great for those who had one. It should be noted that we use to come here when were going to Myrtle Beach on long vacations so the resort is not new to us. The resort is made up of two resorts in one, "The Club at Lake Gaston" and "Lakeside at Lake Gaston". When we first came we went to The Club and had the full use of the park, now you go to Lakeside are limited as to what you can use. We enjoyed neighboring!

April 20, 2008, our eleventh day on the road!
And the rains came as we are parked by Lake Gaston in VA, so it is off to Mass in Roanoke Rapids, NC just eighteen miles down the road. Once we got to Mass but before we got out of the truck the downpour began. We waited but to no avail so we got wet as we walk to the church door. When Mass was over the rains had stopped so we drove to Wal-Mart and did some shopping before heading back to the campground. Then we rested and talked on the phones before heading to the Kennon House for Franks Pork Chops. The restaurant has changed hands since the last time we were there in 1998 and the menu now has a French flair to it. Frank ordered the pork chops which were good but not as good as those he first had in 1994 and wrote about in that years Christmas letter. In 1994 we paid $12.30 for our meal while in 2008 we paid 36.34 for our meal, both prices included our tip. Now the restaurant is just another pricey restaurant in Frank’s mind. Oh yes the rains are back with a vengeance.

April 21, 2008, our twelfth day on the road!
We awoke to a cloudy day, so we had a leisurely breakfast before Frank went out to hook up and then the rains came. Frank got the black tank empty, and us hooked up but he got soaked. Frank got the black tank cleaned so he will be able to work on the toilet when we get home. Kay worked inside and stayed dry. We left the campground at 9:10AM only 10-min late but very wet. We drove down the road through a drizzle, which cleared up until, just before we got to Suffolk, VA where Frank wanted to get fuel. At that time the downpour came again but Frank was under a canopy and kept dry. We drove to the Bay Tunnel Bridge with out getting lost and crossed to DelMarVa where the rain quickly diminished showing us how great DelMarVa is. We arrived home after filling up once again at the outrageous prices that are being charged for diesel. Good to be home even if we are poorer!

Now the agenda will be to unpack the trailer, fix the toilet, buy a new TV for the trailer, by a Mac laptop for Kay and have Frank work on Kay’s list before heading to MN to see Cathy, Dave, Molly, Sarah, Kayla, Zack, and Emily in June. This will be the subject of another blog at a later date!

The Oaks at South Point Campground, Yemassee, SC

April 16, 2008, our seventh day on the road!
On the move again! We left King George’s RV resort at 10:25 AM after watching a video about strange things in Minnesota such as a large ball of yarn and a large collection of stuff. Kay had gotten the video from the campground and wanted to watch it before we left so we did.
It was a pleasant ride and we became aware that there was traffic on the road as GA was doing a lot of construction. Frank noted that FL has completed most of the their construction which was nicer. We stopped for lunch and found that we had forgotten to put the TV on the floor. The TV took care of the problem by putting itself on the floor. It cracked the case but the picture tube seems to be ok.
We arrived at The Oaks at Point South Campground in Yemassee, SC after a total of four hours on the road. Upon arriving we could see why it was called the Oaks, the campground is nestled in a large grove of oak trees and is very pretty. Once Frank had hooked up to the sewer, electric and water he discovered that the TV no longer had any sound. His solution is to replace the TV once he gets home. With the new changes coming down the pike it is time anyway.
Later we decided to take a walk around the park and found a path, which circled a lake, marked with a sign "Don’t feed the alligators". Frank noted that they seem to want the alligators hungry so that they would attack the humans so we kept our distance from the 13ft alligator that we saw.

The 13 foot mean hungry alligator

When we had gotten half way around the lake Frank saw a Denny’s and decided that we could have dinner now as it was 5:00PM. After dinner we finished our walk and came back to the campground where we met a couple of Airstreamers, James & Angela Tauras from Tolland, CT. We spent the evening talking and finding that we seemed to know many of the same people and had been to same parts of the country. Nice people!

Melbourne, FL

April 12,2008, our third day on the road!
We are still in Melbourne, FL at Wickham County Park. Today Kay took Jane to a meeting of WWII Waves where Jane gave a talk about her time in the service. Kay says that the talk was great and that Jane sold nine of her books. Frank stayed home and worked on the blog. It is a slow process when adding pictures to the blog or so he says. Later we went shopping in a Wal-Mart neighborhood store, which turned out to be a Wal-Mart grocery store only. One of the associates told us that this was the latest fad with Wal-Mart as they can place them right among other grocery stores. The prices seem a little higher than those at Supercenters, but not much higher.

KJ & Jane Baker

April 13, 2008, our fourth day on the road!
We are still in Melbourne, Fl at Wickham County Park. Today we joined Jane and drove to Mass. After Mass we had coffee and donuts before returning to the Baker home for a short visit. Then it was off to Wal-Mart for our final shopping tour in Melbourne. Kay found a cute outfit and Frank compared prices vs. prices at the neighborhood store. He found them to be equal, seems prices had gone up, just like diesel prices. Once we finished the shopping tour we went back to the campground where Frank did some maintenance chores after eating lunch. When Frank had finished he joined Kay for a pleasant walk around the park. Kay noted how busy the park was as it is city park with camping. It has swimming, walking, jogging, and playing golf with Frisbees and many other activities, which are happening before our eyes. After the walk we went to the Bakers for a Chinese dinner. After dinner it photo op time and a trip home noting that it had gotten cool. We turned on the heat and got ready for bed as we will be leaving the park early in the morning, or so Frank believes.

Our Melbourne, FL campsite!

April 14, 2008, our fifth day on the road!
It’s a moving day. We awoke, ate and tore down the campsite in order to get on the road early (9:20AM). It was a pleasant drive to Kingsland, GA; it seems that waiting this late to start home is a good idea because the traffic was not on the road. We stopped at most the rest stops so Kay could check out the rest rooms in order to add to her rating system. Frank just uses them! We arrived at King George’s RV resort five hours later and setup the campsite, as we will not leave until April 16th.

April 15, 2008, our sixth day on the road!
We are parked in King George’s RV Park, Kingsland, GA. We awoke to 40 degrees outside with a high of 63 degrees, which makes us wonder if we are going home too early. We took an early walk to the local connivance store and Frank noted he should have worn the hat with no holes for letting the air out as air was coming in.

Frank spent the day reading while Kay did rug hooking. In the evening once it had gotten warmer we went on a walk around the Resort. The resort is two rows of RV’s parked with a clubhouse and a pool. No one was swimming. Behind the resort is a new development that has all the roads in as well as all the utilities. Palms are planted and street signs are erected. It is our understanding that whole development is for sale as is. Just another sign of the housing slump. We walked through the development to the front road where we saw the completed sign with the name of the development on it.

King George's RV Resort

On the trip back Kay diverted our path into the woods where we discovered a long dock that is part of the development. Someone had removed a board from a gate that had closed the dock so Frank climbed through. Kay allowed that she was going to wait as Frank walked to the end of the dock. When Frank got to the end and started down a gangplank it was too much for Kay’s curiosity so she climbed through. Kay wondered were the birds were as she walked along the dock to join Frank on a small float at the end of the dock.
After climbing back through the gate we headed home for dinner and sleep for next day’s trip to Yemassee, SC

The Name of the Development Sign

Coming through!

Kay is up!

The float!

On the way home.

Our 2008 winter in FL

We had a great time this year in Sunny FL. The weather was fairly warm all the time; the rains mostly came at night!

Kay chaired the bird watching group, she joined the rug-hooking group and is now actively hooking a rug as well as neighboring through out the park. Frank had his hernia operation and recuperated. He worked at the Snack Shack for the last two weeks of the season, went to the camera club and computer club meetings and hung out with Boots.

We visited Frank’s sister, MaryJo at her home in Lake Wales and took a boat ride on Lake Pierce, FL looking for alligators which could not be found but we enjoyed the ride taking pictures of the lake.

MaryJo on the lake!

We spent Easter with Frank’s niece Mary Frances and had Easter dinner with Frank’s Florida family, i.e.: his son Larry, granddaughter Larrisa, and sister MaryJo plus others.

Mary Frances in her home!

Kay, Frank, son Larry, and Granddaughter Larisa!

MaryJo and Ellie visited us at Travelers Rest so we show them kumquats on the tree. They have orange and grapefruit trees but no kumquats. Now they want two kumquat trees and we are not able to find any.

Kay, MaryJo & Ellie and a Kumquat Tree!

After the season was over we met with son-in-law Dave Blaeser in Orlando and took him to the Orlando wetlands to see the birds and alligators. All the alligators were in the water, but they were still alligators and some were large.

The Bird watchers Dave & Kay!

MaryJo and her friend Ellie visited us while we were still at Traveler’s Rest. We took them around the park to show them Kumquat Trees, MaryJo grows Orange and Grapefruit Trees but had not seen Kumquat Trees. Now she wants two Kumquat Trees but they have become hard to get.

We went to Tarpon Springs, FL (the sponge capitol of the world) with Carl and Margaret Morris. We had an excellent Greek lunch and took a boat tour to see how the sponges were harvested in the days of yesteryear using the old time deep-sea diving suit. We also went through most of the local shops before coming home happy and tired.

Tarpon Springs Diver Statue!

A Sign about the next picture!

An old Sponge boat!

The diver posing for pictures!

The Diver getting into the water!

The diver surfacing with a sponge in hand!

Now it is time to come home facing the high price of diesel and working to arrive home when the sun has returned to heat up the day. Our plans are:

• We leave the park on 4/10/08 and go to Wickman Park in Melbourne, 129 miles.
• We leave Wickman Park on 4/14/08 and go to King George's Resort in GA, 209 miles.
• We leave King George’s Resort on 4/16/08 and go to The Oaks in SC, 139 miles.
• We leave The Oaks on 4/18/08 and go to Camp Pedro, 167 miles.
• We leave Camp Pedro on 4/19/08 and go to Lake Gaston Lakeview Resort, 154 miles.
• We leave Lake Gaston on 4/21/08 and go to the Tunnel/Bridge Rest stop, 140 miles.
• We leave the Rest Stop on 4/22/08 and arrive home that same day, 124 miles.
• Total days to get home 13 - we will not be rushing! A total of 1101 miles and a lot of diesel.

April 10, 2008 our first day on the road!

We left at 10:00 AM and had a pleasant drive through the center of FL in order to get to the East Coast where we camped in Wickham County Park a very pleasant campground. When we arrived at the park, Frank discovered that the front of the trailer did not have electricity. Frank was able to find and fix the problem by unloading all his tools to find that one which he needed. Then it was the normal hook-up chores including the connecting of the Direct TV antenna. The latter took longer than usual as Frank had forgotten the procedure so he was searching for the wrong Satellite. Once he re-learned the process everything moved along smoothly.

After setting up we went to the office where we sat outside and used the WiFi to get our mail. Once that was done we went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant for an excellent dinner. After dinner we explored the shopping center before heading home for the evening.

April 11, 2008, our second day on the road!

We are still in Melbourne, FL Park at Wickham County Park. We visited KJ and Jane Baker in the morning. KJ had a massive stroke earlier this year but has quickly responded to therapy, to the point that his speech is clear and he is able to walk with a walker. He is getting better day by day and his spirits are high.

We then went home for lunch before heading to the Post Office to get forever stamps. From the Post Office we went to the beach and walked along the edge of the water seeing many birds and beach scenes. We got our feet wet and enjoyed the sea air and felt connected to the Delaware Beaches.

A beach scene!

Pelicans over the beach!