waiting

So we were staying in CT because we thought we may have a closing the last week of May ! Not sure that will happen so we are just visiting with friends and family. 

Kristin came up to visit a close friend and to see us to. We had a busy day with Gavin and Korin, Shady Glen, Waddell school, the toy store! 

Dave and I ran over to see my niece Brie. We met her two very energetic dogs  Tex and Dex and saw the work she has done in her home. Nice Job!

We were not happy with the survivor winner this season, but we are glad it's over ! I'm happy the sox are doing so well! We have walked a few times at Sophie's old haunt, Mansfield Hollow! She loves it! 

So other than going out with friends and family we are just enjoying some down time at the campground! 

In a couple weeks it will be June and we will be taking a trip out west! We can't wait!

That's all for now! 

Fun with Gavin!
 

Our spot for this week.🚍

No words needed! 

 

 Carpet is in

 Vanity is in!
 
 

The house in SC is really coming along
 

arrrrrggggghhhhhhtechnology

Nashville was great and the best thing was the UCONN Lady Huskies won their fourth straight NCAA championship! It was a great few days with my UCONN flag hanging on the front of the RV in Tennessee! WOO HOO !!!

 

We left for Memphis. We arrived too late in the day to go to Graceland so ended up staying two nights! Graceland was really an experience. I’m not saying I was ever a huge Elvis fan but I did like the music and I feel he really changed the music forever! He was the King . It was a very normal looking home but inside you could see a lot of what was important to him! His family his music and God! We had a great tour with headphones and Ipads and listening to John Stamos tell the story of Elvis. Elvis and his family are buried there and people still bring flowers to place at his grave almost 40 years later! A must see for all Elvis fans and really for anyone who can appreciate the greatness of the King of Rock and Roll!

 

Our second night in Memphis I was awakened at 130 AM to a guy yelling and banging at our neighbors door. I was a bit afraid and woke Dave up! The guy heard some sirens and he and his friend left. Then the police came to talk to the people living in the trailer! Needless to say, I got very little sleep after that and we were up bright and early and leaving for Branson MO. 

 

The drive through Arkansas was quite boring until after Little Rock as we headed up the mountains toward Branson. It was quite pretty and Spring had come to the Ozarks. One thing we did notice in all the little towns was they all had a sonic (burger joint) and a Dollar General.( I meant to google those two to see if they have the same parent company!)  We found a great RV park just outside of Branson and setteled in for about a week. We met some people we had met in Texas and some new people as well. We went to a cowboy church, an Amish gift shop and just poked around the town, Sophie got several walks at the state park near us and we made the decision then, to come back to CT for a little while. We had a few nights with our neighbors and a campfire and also got to show them the space station going across the night sky. It was a very relaxing time.

 

We also drove to Oklahoma one afternoon, just to say we had been there! We didn’t realize that once you got to the border it was all a toll road and the first exit was about 25 miles in! Oh the things that happen when you travel!

So then we decided that we would go to Michigan ( on our way back to CT) Now that is just funny! But anyway we had a few bad days of driving. 

 

1 . A bad accident in Missouri just outside of St Louis happened about 5 minutes after we drove through! The construction area was signed poorly and we had to come to a screeching halt along with many others but 3 trailer trucks were destroyed when they crashed No one was hurt! It was scary1 I did contact the Missouri DOT to tell them that we thought this area was very poorly signed!

 

2. On almost our one year on the road anniversary I could not find an open RV park and just as we pulled into a Wal-Mart, we got a phone call from an RV park I had called earlier in the day! Close call! 

 

3. Monroe Michigan was a great spot and we went to the village of the Henry Ford museum It was awesome! We saw a few structures from the New England area including the Phoenixville post office and the Daggert home from either Andover or Coventry. We got to ride in a 1914 Model T , a horse drawn carriage and a steam train! The place was great! 

 

4. I know number 3 was good!  The day we went to leave Michigan the volts would not increase on the RV so we had a hard time getting the slides in and the levelers up! UGH. We thought about stopping in Toledo at Freightliner but decided to go to Youngstown Ohio. Welp they could not see us until maybe the day after tomorrow. We ended up at a truck stop but the guy told us all was fine!  Many thanks to my sister for making us some hotel reservations just in case we needed them! ONWARD

 

5. Pennsylvania, we thought we were all good! We could make it to CT in a couple of days! Driving I 80 and all of a sudden they take us off the highway! OK TOM –TOM , Help us with a route! Long story short we went about 40 miles on old farm roads with lots of Amish farms! Although it was a stressful day, it was really awesome to see how these people live….such a simple life!  At the end of the day we were only 200 miles from the Hartford Freightliner!

 

So on Thursday April 21 we dropped the RV off and thank goodness we have family we can stay with! We stayed with Barb and Charlie and then Korin and right now we are in the RV for the week. It will be repairedtomorrow while we wait and then we can continue our little trip! 

 

And in the meantime we celebrated one year on the road April 16^th! Sometimes it feels like yesterday but the last week or two it feels like 10 years! 

 

And because we are back here in New England we get to see some family, friends and of course we can never get enough of GAVIN!

 

I tried to post this blog but due to terrible Internet I can’t post it! I had it saved in a word document and now I will begin to add to it as we are still in CT.

 

We had Barbara and Charlie over for a hot dog roast and a campfire and Val and Mike showed up for a visit too!   We also shared a meal with Kathy at Shady Glen!  Its nice seeing friends and family. We checked out a new place in Mansfield called Toast and had breakfast for lunch with Sandy and Ed too!  They had just returned from Florida and looked great! 

 

Last weekend we had Gavin stay with us at the RV! He loved it as usual and had so many funny stories to tell! His laugh is infectious and when he saw Sophie jump on to the dashboard it just cracked him up! We played inside, as it was so raw and cold out! Actually it is the coolest weather we have had! What’s up with that Connecticut?

 

So at the beginning of the week we talked to the agent about our house closing and he spoke to the builder, and low and behold they think the closing will be the last week in May!  This really did not surprise us much as we have been getting updates twice a week from some friends and it seemed the house was really coming along faster than they had expected. 

 

So then the scramble began to figure out where we can stay!  Brialee has been able to accommodate us during the week, but we will have to move out this weekend, as they are full!  Our friends Gordon and Carolyn have always wanted a 40 foot RV in their driveway so that is where we will be on the weekend then we will come back to Brialee for the weekdays!  Dave and I also got to see Doxie, Jill Mary and Dolores this week! I LOVE that we still keep in touch!

 

The plan is to stay here until about the 22 and then head to SC for our closing, maybe bring a few boxes of our stuff down, stay a few days then head back up to CT!  we have a trip planned the first week of June that we do not want to miss! If we have not closed by then it will wait till we get back. 

 

So that is where we stand at this moment in time, but if you have been following us you know that this can change in a heartbeat! 

In the meantime we will try to get a few more visits in with some friends and family! 

 

Again my internet is poor so I am going to try to send this to my email and then go to DD and try to load it to Google! I gotta say my technological expertise is getting better but certainly I am no pro! I still have trouble loading any pictures…but I will try!  

 

Sorry this is so long!

 

 

PUPPIES AND KITTIES TO EVERYONE! 

road trip continues

We went home for Gavin’s birthday and had a great time! He is so much fun! We cannot believe he is 6! Where does the time go? Had a great visit with Korin Brian and Gavin! We did get to see some of our family members, but if we missed some of you and some friends we will catch up in July! We also got to visit with Kristin and she helped Dave do the taxes! So glad that chore is done!

We left CT/MA just before a bit of snow and we actually did have a coating of snow the day we left Kristin’s. Our trip back to Myrtle Beach was pretty cold and we did make it from Philly to the RV in one day but it takes a toll on us! We will have to find a place to stay on the way up and back; it’s just too much. 

We stayed at the same place on the beach in MB and we really liked it! Although it was busier than earlier when we were there the RV Park is wonderful! We were able to go check on the house building and see some friends who just closed on their house too! We started to get ready for our next road trip. And that is where we are now…ROAD TRIP

Our first stop was in Ashville NC in the mountains, Beautiful drive through smoky mountains and then up to Louisville KY. We visited the Louisville Slugger Museum and Churchill Downs, which was just awesome! It doesn’t open for racing til Derby week but the tour and museum at Churchill was very informative. The slugger museum was great, we learned a lot about the bats they make , and got to hold several bats…Cal Ripken, Jacoby Ellsbury to name a couple. A real fun place to visit and go to see the biggest bat!    

We had a large rainstorm the night before we left and most of the day on our drive to Nashville! This town is fun! The first afternoon we got here we had tornado warnings/watches and had some thunderstorms and lots of rain, which meant MUD in the park! But since then we have had great weather and it appears the mud is finally gone! We found a really great dog park here! It actually has a great loop for dog owners to walk on and since Sophie is such a pack dog with us, she just walks on the path and thinks she is at Mansfield Hollow!  We have been over to the Gaylord Resort, took a few rides toward the city, got lost, took a paddle boat down the Cumberland River with brunch and a show!  We will stay here until April 6 then we will be heading to Memphis and Branson!  The real reason for us to stay was TV! I called several RV places in Memphis and they had no cable….antenna only!  WHAAAAT I could not miss my games so here we are!  You might think this is funny, but we have to remember, we are living in the RV not just taking a vacation! I guess I could have planned better!

So here we are in Nashville with some gorgeous weather and lots to do and nothing to do! We have both been retired a bit over a year and we are coming up on our anniversary of 1 year on the road! We still enjoy the travel and sightseeing and hope we can continue to travel! We are going to be continuing this road trip through Missouri, Iowa , SD, ND, MN and Wisconsin for a mini family get together in June! Then it is back to CT for July 1- September 15!  We will be in Ashford and hope to be able to get together with some of you!

Sorry folks , poor internet will not allow me to load pics...so you will have to wait!

The tides of change.......

When I blogged last we were in Texas and we thought we were going to stay there another month, OH HOW THINGS CHANGE!

Rockport was fun and we met some nice people, but we didn’t feel as though we wanted to stay there another month. We went a couple times down to Corpus Christi.

We started looking in to what other places we wanted to visit and the logistics of doing that and getting back up to the north east by mid March and realized we should go east and a bit north with a few stops on the way. Then we just started looking at different areas and real estate. We were looking mostly in the Charlotte NC area and then looked at SC WOW we were very surprised at prices and the low tax rate as well.  We contacted a realtor and we were fortunate enough to have people in the area that went to see a couple condos for us, and report back to us. The condos came pretty much furnished and were reasonable, but they had a fairly high monthly fee. Then we decided we couldn’t do anything sight unseen anyway so,  we  decided we would visit a friend in Georgia then head  to Myrtle Beach and see some other people we know  and look at the two condos!  The condos were actually very nice and quite functional and large, but considering we live in an RV anything looks big to us!  Then we discussed looking at homes in gated and golf communities with our realtor, Ray. He showed us a ton of homes and we looked on line as well. We saw older homes and new construction. Model homes, older homes, they all start to meld together. We decided that if we wanted to get MOST of the things we wanted in a home we would need to build… so we signed the papers to have a small home built outside of Myrtle Beach in Longs SC.

 

I know many of you could be surprised at this most recent event, but it has always been our intent to travel a year or two or more then settle somewhere warmer and with less taxes. This fits the bill. We will continue to travel for the spring and summer until the house is complete probably late summer.  Our plan would be to sell the large motor home we now have and buy something a bit smaller as we wont be living in it full time, only taking long trips!

In the mean time we are staying right on the beach in SC and although we have had some cool weather, heavy rain and wind at times, we have also had some absolutely lovely weather. We love walking the beach here and so does Sophie. She walks with big shells in her mouth and leaves them by the RV and picks them up again!  We like it so much we have extended again and will stay until March 4^th!

The shells and the sunsets have been awesome! We have seen our friends a couple times but mostly we just like walking on the beach and driving around getting lost! We figure from our new house in Longs, SC we will be about 15- 20 minutes to the beach. We may not love the traffic in the summer months at the beach but the off-season will be wonderful! There is every restaurant you could want, a DD for Dave a few big box stores grocery stores, entertainment within a half hour! I am pretty sure we will be having company while we live here!

So our next step will be to take a road trip through Tennessee, Missouri, Iowa , SD, ND, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan and ending up in the northeast for the month of July until the house here is finished! But first we will take a short trip by car only to visit Kristin for her birthday and Korin and Brian for Gavin’s birthday! 

our house plan

 our new neighborhood

our new neighbor 

 heed the warnings at our RV park!

 foam at the beach

 sunset Myrtle Beach

sunsets

 Sophie and the shell

 so many shells

 a lovely morning

 a funny picture

More to come on that trip! I just wanted to post something as people tell me they look forward to the blog entries ….Oh and by the way , today we went to AAA and got the trip route for our next adventure…WOW that’s a lotta books and maps!

Rockport Texas

We have been in Rockport, Texas almost a month and one more month to go! We have settled in to the campground. I have been trying to do the exercise classes 3 times a week and we have been walking Sophie at least a mile or two every day! I actually used my phone and U tube to show a chair yoga video when one of the other gals was away from the campground. There are a lot of group activities most involve card games or food! We have been to a few, Taco night, soup and potato dinner and of course the ice cream social!  We also went to the wiener roast last week! But it was so cold out no one stayed too long. One thing I have not been happy about is that the pool is not open. They say that it is under renovations and there is no real estimate of when it will open. I may try the heated community pool this weekend as we are supposed to be getting some warm weather.

Speaking of weather we have had to use the heat most mornings and sometimes in the evening, but a lot of the days here have been warm …60’s to 70 pleasant. There are lots of windy days and nights and you will see branches down all over the park, BUT NO SNOW!  One night a thick fog rolled in and along with it the smell of a campfire somewhere; we could barely see our neighbor’s rigs!  We went to the beach last week for some sun, while our friends and relatives in CT, PA and MA were cleaning up the snowstorm! Kristin got over 2 feet of snow! It was a bit breezy so it wasn’t like a real beach day, but it was beautiful! Dave went in the water saw some jellyfish and we sat and watched the people for an hour or so.

We have gone to Corpus Christi two or three times now. We walked the beach area one day, went to the South Texas Botanical Garden and then another day we toured the USS Lexington an aircraft carrier, which is now a floating museum. That was very interesting to see and tour. We took a lot of pictures of airplanes and made a little book and story, which we sent to Gavin! This RV park is near a naval training field so we always have airplanes going over! Gavin would love it!

We have found two great places to take Sophie one is a hike and bike path about 2 miles and the other is a park with a lake and lots of birds. We really only found the park this week so we will do some more exploring! All in all we keep busy and sometimes we just do NOTHING and it feels great!   

There are many other things we intend to do in this area before we head up towards Austin in March. We should be wearing boots and hats  and saying y’all by then!

Until I write again, stay warm and remember SPRING comes after winter! We need to get out of the south before it gets too hot!

orchid room at the botanical garden

a shrimpin boat

more orchids

some of the planes on the Lexington

deer on our walk

Sophie at the beach

following the guys as they hold the wires up for the tall and extra large load

look at Dave and some ducks
a tufted duck

Thanksgiving, Christmas and the trip back to Texas!

OK I know I have not blogged in forever…..Last time we were on our way to Texas from Arizona! What a state! Not as big as Alaska but formidable in its own right. We drove through cattle land, more cotton fields and endless acres of ranch land. We saw many border patrol vehicles on the side of the road, we were stopped like everyone else and asked questions regarding our citizenship and what we had in the RV! Once the drug and people-sniffing dog had gone around the entire perimeter of the RV we were on our way! The biggest thing we noticed in Texas was the decrease in diesel and gas prices! It was wonderful.

We arrived at Wilderness Oaks RV Park around The 20^th of November and stayed for 2 nights. We used up all our food and drink, packed a lot of stuff under the RV and parked it in a spot for storage while we went on to the Northeast for the holidays. We didn’t have much time to take in any of the park activities but did meet some nice folks who will be here for most of the winter!

Our drive to PA was a blur…Thank goodness for Joanne helping us with our reservations, there were some nights we got to the hotel and couldn’t even think straight. We drove 1800 miles in the truck in about 3 and half days. This was after a thousand miles in 4 days in the RV.   We only stopped for meals and sleep and to let the dog have a walk or two. Exhausting!

 BUT we made it to Kristin’s the night before Thanksgiving and got to have a wonderful holiday with her and Rod!  We stayed not to far from them and got to help a bit with the meal prep, but wow that’s a lot of work! We were glad Kristin did the cooking and we could sit back and enjoy! So many good times with all the Snyder’s for the dinner! It was also nice to see the cats, although I do not think they were happy to see us…..I think it had to do with Sophie! We didn’t do any shopping on Black Friday; we just hung out and had some fun!

Saturday we headed to Massachusetts to spend time with Korin, Brian and Gavin. We did so many fun things while we were there including the Polar Express, helping with the decorating and wrapping gifts. It is truly a magical time of year when seen through the eyes of a 5 year old. Listening to Gavin sing all the Christmas carols, teaching him new ones, watching the Christmas shows and reading the Christmas books! It was great. Hearing Gavin say things when opening his gifts like I wanted one of these my whole life…that is just priceless!  I did get a bad cold early in our visit and that kept me from seeing everyone that I had wanted to see, but I was able to get in a lot of visiting and cookie making. We made our annual trip down to Essex to the Griswold Inn for a wonderful dinner with Cindy, Stephanie, Barbara and Charlie! Always a fun time there.  Christmas Eve we went over to Kevin’s house and had a great time. It is so funny because now there are so many kids again running around and having fun, it reminds me of when Kristin and Korin were little and all the Eves we spent there!  December in the Northeast was extremely warm and we were waiting for snow and cold. We did get a little bit of snow after Christmas. We stayed until New Years Day and then we were on the road again!

 We had to keep watching weather reports due to all the flooding and storms but we finally decided we could go back the same way we came up!  Our first day on the road we made it to Kristin’s in near record-breaking time and had a great afternoon!  Rod had gone to NYC so we will have to see him again another time. We left Kristin’s and drove to near Harrisburg. The next day we drove to Virginia and saw Dave’s sister Debbie and his niece Jennie. We have not seen Debbie in quite a long time and it was great to catch up. We realized after she left, we didn’t take any pictures.

After that it was just driving driving driving, but we did make a stop in NOLA so that Dave could see the city, the French Quarter, and have a beignet. Even Sophie got in on the action! I know everyone raves about NOLA but I find it to be a very dirty city! I have seen it twice, once in the heat of July and now in January! I have found it that way both times. Sorry ….

We decided to make a push from NOLA to get to our RV the next day and although it was a long day and a lot of driving we did get to the Wilderness Oaks park on Tuesday eve a little after 5! Our RV was still here, no problems no leaks no critters and it felt good to be “home”.

Wednesday we spent moving to our spot that we will be staying on until March. We actually had an escort in to the site, he had to go get the chainsaw on a stick and cut off several large branches, but we made it in, met some of our neighbors and settled in a little. Since then we have been checking out some of the activities here. I have been going to exercise and we went to an ice cream social (defeats the exercise I guess) and last night we went to social hour. We met some more people from Kansas and Missouri. We have found a great walking path and Sophie loves going there so we have been walking nearly every day. The weather has been ok, we did have a few really cool nights in the 30s but it seems to be followed by some nice warm days! Yesterday was 62 and beautiful! We are finding our way around town, I found the church, Dave found a donut place and we have just been relaxing!  Maybe I will get into blogging a bit more now that we are settled in again!

Happy New Year! 2016 will be a year of more fun places for us to visit! 

 one of Sophie's motels

 Sophie in black and white thanks rod

 Kai on top of Sophie

 self explanatory

 Sophie so happy at the hollow

 Z BEST PIZZA

 The Polar Express

 Shady Glen

 He liked it

 Christmas Eve

 I wanted one of these my whole life

 Gavin wanted my old slippers

 Hawk

 The bike path

 Rolling the money so Gavin could open an account

 AWW BEST FRIENDS

 Sunset 1/1/16

 Sunrise 1/2/16

 NOLA

 HOME sweet HOME

 our new walk

Sophie hoping to catch a TEXAS Squirrel