Mayport at Last

PA Campground

We got to Mayport yesterday about 12:30.  Brad left the campground about 10:00 and headed over to get his new id, he called checked in at the gate and was headed to PSD, so I left
about 11:00 and headed over with the RV.  I get out side the gate and called Brad, no answer, I get half way to the campground, pull into a parking lot and call again, still no answer (I swear at this point I am going to throw his phone in the ocean).  So I head back to the campground and my phone rings (no cell phones while driving on base allowed), so I grab it put it on speaker and yell that I am outside the office

Mayport, Florida

......look outside.  Well, we finally hook up and they take us over to Osprey park, about 3 blocks from the ocean front camp ground....but hey, I think we like this one better.  Bigger sites, quieter and very nice neighbors. 

We get hooked up, have something to eat and I stretch out on the sofa, where I managed to nap most of the afternoon.  Brad did some laundry, stayed out side (away from me) and made burgers for dinner, then I was back on the sofa.  I think I headed to bed about 8:45  all propped up with about 4 pillows, just so I can breath. 

Walk/Drive-up Starbucks

We got up this morning and go outside, enjoying the sun and warm weather, first we have been able to since we left PA.  We had breakfast, and then headed out, first to the only drive-thru, walk-up only Starbucks, on the east coast, a little strange, then off to Camping World of Jacksonville, FL to look at a couple of RV.....nothing exciting.  Stopped and had lunch at a drive through BBQ place, not bad, then Wal-mart, yuk, then last but not least the Fresh Market.  We get back to camp, 2 more loads of laundry and grilled cheese w/tomato soup for dinner.  We are both wore out and exhausted and it's only 7:00.  Early to bed again, maybe we'll feel better in the morning.  Diane



Florida or bust

We finally made it.  We got to our campground, right over the Florida border about 4:00 this afternoon.  We left South of the Border about 10:30 and were headed to Lake Harmony Campground in Georgia, when we had a blow out on 95.  About 1:00 the outside rear tire on the passenger side blew, luckily we were only about 1/2 mile from a rest area.  We pulled in, called the Good Sam Road Side assistance and they were to be there by 2:15.  We waited until about 2:30 when Brad called again and, oh no, everybody thought somebody was doing something when nobody was doing anything.  So we started the clock all over again.  OK now the time is 3:30 until they should be there. But, wait the guy is now on another call he can't make until 4:30.   We called Lake Harmony and explained our situation, no problem, then disconnected the car and I head south to find the first campground to pull in.  I left Brad and found a KOA about 15 miles down the road, checked in and parked in our campsite.   Back out, no grocery store, drug stores for 20 miles down 95....no I did not go.  I stopped at the gas station and got Brad some Coors Light and put it on ice.  Back to the campground to wait.  I called my dad and talked with him for about 1/2 hour when Brad finally called(5:30) and said he was heading down the road.  I called dad back with the status then went up to the office to wait for Brad.  He finally arrived about 5:45, got set up, then up to the office to order a pizza, no chicken on the grill for us tonight. 

 

Well we survived.  I have been fighting a dreadful cold and after a couple of beers settled on green tea and bed at 9:00.  We got up today and didn't head out until about noon, Brad now has a sore throat so we are both moving slow.  We finally make it out of SC and even manage to get through GA, where I did see my token armadillo and then hit Florida about 3:30.  Our camp ground is only about 10 miles inside the border, so we park, get set up and I head off to the grocery store while Brad stayed behind to hook up the grill and get dinner started (yes chicken tonight).  We finally get to eat about 6:00 and now are both just sitting here vegging, fighting these colds is no fun. 

 

Tomorrow we are heading in to Mayport Navy base, Brad first to get a new ID card and me, I'll follow about an hour later with the RV.  Wish us luck, Diane

South of the Border, SC

We left NC yesterday after packing up, getting propane and hooking up the car we finally got on the road at 10:30.  The weather report was 30% chance of rain, which started as soon as we were on the road, just a rainy gray day.  We were heading to Joint Base Charleston when I remembered that Brad's Military ID is expired, so we needed to change plans.  While on the road, Brad notices a sign for a Camp World in Fayetteville, NC, so I get on the internet and doesn't it figure, they have a RV we want to look at.  So the new place we picked is South of the Border, SC. we pulled in and scheduled a two night stay.  Not to bad of a place, rather old and showing it's age, but great spots and lots of shops and restaurants to walk to.  We had dinner early about 4:30, then headed back to camp in the pouring rain.  We were all set up so we gathered up the laundry and through a load in the washer.  After that we were walking the loop around the park, finding many people from Canada who could only nod after they said 'Hello', because they only spoke French (I want to know how they checked into the park).  We were at the far end of the park and guess what.....yes the rain started again, but we were already damp, so no need to hurry.

 

 Monday, 7 Jan.2013

It was nice today. Sunny almost 60, actually 57, but it felt good.  We had breakfast at the SOB dinner. The food was good, but nothing special, and then we headed up route 301 to look at some rv's at Fayetteville RV.  The ride was really nice, the RV's  very, very limited.  We returned cleaned up the RV, yesterday I found a nest (mouse or something) in the one storage bin.  Plus with the rain we had tracked a lot dirt in the RV.  Brad made burgers on the grill.  The first time grilling since Oct.  It was nice.  Tomorrow we are headed to Fort Hunter out side of Savannah.

 

 

 

Roanoke Rapids, NC

Well yesterday we got up moving slow after the drive and hook-up problems the night before.  We didn't go look at any of the RV's we had listed, but we did do a tour of Roanoke Rapids (not much to see).

We stopped and ate lunch at a place called Mayflower Seafood in Roanoke Rapids.  It was about 1:30 and we were hungry but even Brad got a little bit more than he expected.  Hidden on this plate, are french fries, hush puppies rings, white fish, all buried under the pile of small shrimp.  He managed to eat the fish, shrimp and I helped with the hush puppies, the french fries were not touched.  I only ordered a serving of shrimp, so it all worked out.  Needless to say, we only had a light snack for dinner.

Our plans changed a little bit as we wanted to go look at RV's on Friday, but we weren't moving very fast, so plan on that tomorrow.

Saturday we got up had breakfast and made the 2.5 hour drive to the RV dealer.  We had 4 or 5 we were interested in looking at.  We decided that they have a pretty good photo guy, as he must have touched-up the originals, they looked great on the compute, but in person......ugh.  Not a bad day, we took one route out and a different one back, enjoying the ride.  Back home we had chicken wraps for dinner and plan on heading further south tomorrow. 

On the Road Again

We we survived our cold stay in PA.  We arrived in Dillsburg in early November, and from there Brad went up to the Ochenrider Camp and did a week of archery hunting (no luck).  Then back to Dillsburg, a Lasagna dinner with the O'Donnell clan, and hanging out for Thanksgiving (Great dinner at Debs).  Then back to the Ochenrider Camp for the first day of rifle season.  Tony and Glen were there Monday and Tuesday and Brad and I stayed until Thursday.  Brad managed to get a doe....me I missed.  We were back up for the last weekend, but again, no luck.  Oh well, the Brown family just didn't get as much venison as they had hoped.

In the mean time Brad worked a couple of days at the tree farm, always an enjoyable time, and me, I finished the Christmas Shopping, Cookie Baking and the dreaded wrapping.  Things got shipped to the kids in Florida, packed by the FedEx store, and the only time we had things break in transit (lesson learned, pack them myself).  Christmas and dinner with Shane, Alysha and the Brown Family one day, then the Angeli Family Dinner the next day, lots of cooking and good food and time spent with family and friends.  (a Special 'Thank You' to the Shirk's for allowing us to use their house for entertaining the O'donnell's and the having Christmas with Shane and the Browns)

We had a very nice New Years Eve with the Shirk's and the traditional pork and sauerkraut dinner at Christine and Thom's on New Years Day, all very good and another enjoyable time with family and friends.  We managed to get a few other visits in before we left and I had a couple of teary good-byes. 

We finally got on the road Thursday morning about 10:30.  Not a good start, things are frozen, very little water in the holding tank and the hoses were to frozen to fill, but we left and made it to NC.  We parked Brad hooked up utilities and stepped in that reddish  clay mud.  I cleaned that up and then noticed that we had  no electric in half of the receptacles.  Brad worked for a hour before dinner and a hour after dinner, first it was the receptacle, then breaker, then with receptacles hanging out of the wall and the panel box half tore apart when Brad figured out it was the plug on the power pole.  Never was anything wrong with our camper.  Anyway we are in Roanoke Rapids for two nights then headed south to ?????, (we haven't decided yet).  I'll try to keep posting and get some pictures for the blog, it is good to be back.  Diane

Ives Run to Dillsburg

Hi, I'm back.  It is November 1st and we are in Dillsburg.  I had a wedding to go to on Saturday and I came down on Thursday, Brad ended up bringing the RV down Saturday.  The original plan was that he was to stay in Tioga County unit Monday, but they closed the CG early due to the storm.  We are parked at Walmar Manor and are schedule to be there through the end of November. 

We rode out the storm well, closed up the camper, all slides in and hung out at Lynne and Rick's.  The are off on vacation and we are house and dog sitting.  We were prepared, water to flush with, Tuna and other canned foods, all for naught.  But I'm not complaining, NY and NJ are in pretty bad shape.

Brad is now getting ready to go hunting at the Ochenrider camp for a week and tonight I am going out with dad.  Brit and Aly are doing an 'Evening in Paris', so we are going to that.  Brad got his hair cut, and is headed up to the storage unit to go through the rest of the hunting stuff, then off to the RV to gather clothes and fill up the propane tank.....so I have heat next week while he is gone. 

Well that is it for now, not much of a catch up, but I think the storm has just kept us locked up in the house for wayyyyyy to many days.

Later,
Diane

Last Week at Ives Run

Monday we worked all day.  There were a lot of campfire rings that needed cleaned out and a lot of trash had blown around from the strong winds we had.  There were almost one hundred campers here and a lot of them left Monday morning.  After that we just had dinner here while I packed up all the decorations from outside.

Tuesday it rained all day, so into town to do laundry and grocery shop.  It was a slow day, we never left the cg until about 1:00 and got back by 4:30.  I made spaghetti for dinner..helps to warm up the camper when I cook inside.    Hoping tomorrow the rain is gone.

We got up Wednesday to a gray, rainy morning.  It finally started to clear up about 10:30, so over for the gator and off to work.  On the way back from the getting the gator Brad saw a Spotted Salamander (mole salamander), rarely above ground, except usually after a rain (hit that one right).     We got through the camp ground and then headed over to Pine Knoll, (the tent sites) and picked up about 3 buckets of trash.  We quit work about 3:30, got cleaned up and headed to the VFW for subs.  Wednesday is sub night and trivia night.  Normally we don't stay for the trivia, but the place was fairly empty, so we stayed and were entertained by the players. 

Today is Thursday and we are packing up for me to head down state.  We got the hunting clothes cleaned up, the ladder on the back of the RV and everything outside is cleaned up and put away.  It is to be nice today and tomorrow, but then after that rain, rain, rain.  We have already gotten the gator and Brad is getting ready to go to work, while I work on the blog and get my clothes and things ready  for the trip down state.  Brad is here until Monday and then he'll be down, reservations at the Walmar Manor CG in Dillsburg.  He will keep an eye on the storm, depending on how it tracks, he might be down on Sunday.

More to come later,
Diane