Winner Best Campground - East Lyme, Connecticut

 We arrived in East Lyme, Connecticut on September 8th. It was Day 62 of the adventure and we had driven a total of 8138 miles. Aces High RV Campground was an award winner from whomever it is that decides such things. We placed it in our “Best Of” category as well and think we all should meet up there next year. They have three big cabins for rent and a pond with a beach for swimming, fishing and boating. There is an easy hiking trail,a bridge over untroubled waters, wildlife and a playground for the child within. The weather was cool and the leaves were just starting to change.

Click here to see some pictures of the place.

From the road:

-robin

Shelby, Charlotte, Edinburg to Plainview

Monday  September 27 Day 74



We have been in the Smokey Mountains for a few days and tonight we are readying the coach to move on in the morning.  I am writing and editing pictures as I do laundry to try and get caught up on our adventures.  These dispatches are starting to feel like homework that I'm turning in late.  I hope reading them doesn't feel like grading papers to all of you. 


I'm guessing that if you are tired of it all, then you are not even reading this, so I will continue with Charlotte and the Shelby hamfest. 

Day 57 through Day 62

We attended a very large hamfest in a town called Dallas, North Carolina.  It was held at the Gaston County Fairgrounds where we shopped, spoke, and slept.  Fred rented a golf cart so he could get around to an almost endless supply of ham radio garage sale artifacts. You have to admit he elevates shopping to a high art form.  The pictures will show you the alpha and omega of this place. It was very pretty with a lake and ducks but it also had a porta john with an antennae and an endless supply of “artifacts.”

Ham radio artifacts for sale

On Sunday we drove into Charlotte and took another horse drawn carriage ride with no cigar and no company.  I didn't miss either one.  The pictures  show an East Indian street festival that we stumbled upon as well as a glimpse of downtown Charlotte.

Our next one day layover was at the Creekside Campground in Edinburg, Virginia.  Lots of history in the town and in the ducks. The campground owner told us all about each duck....You don't want to know. However, I must admit, it was much nicer there with a boring campground owner than it was sleeping in the Prevost bus company parking lot. We got a lube job. Fred got to watch and take pictures. He acted like it was Disneyland for goodness sakes.  My oh my he does love his bus.


Lots more pictures here...

From the road:
-robin    

The Quintessential South - Charming Charleston

Monday September 20 Day 74

We are on the road again after a lovely four day stay in Kennebunk, Maine. Ten days in Maine and I am days and days and adventures galore behind in my correspondence. We are just having too much fun to stop and write about it all. My last dispatch was about Savannah which means I should tell you about our time in Charleston and beyond.

September 3^rd Day 57 we arrived in Mount Pleasant, near Charleston, and were greeted by a gorgeous campground complete with a fully stocked lake. We made excellent bread dough balls tossed 'em in and Fred photographed the feeding frenzy. It was “catch and release” so why pull them up? Check fishing off the bucket list. We hiked the trail and noted signs telling us to stay on the path to avoid a confrontation with the camp alligator and poisonous snakes and plants. I was not sure the gator had read the sign so we were very careful during our walk.

There was a railroad caboose that had been re-purposed to serve as a rental cabin replete with air conditioning, indoor plumbing and a porch the overlooked the lake. Fred loves planes, trains, and automobiles so he played on it and made me take his picture multiple times. (Wait until you see the pictures of him on the swings in East Lyme, Connecticut.)

In Mount Pleasant US 17 is dotted with roadside stands displaying native sweetgrass baskets, a traditional art form started in that community more than 300 years ago. Slaves brought to the area from West Africa have passed the skill from generation to generation and today their descendants sell these hard to make, beautiful baskets. Maybe we'll save up to buy one next time we come back.

On the way to James Island (Walgreens RX run) we stumbled onto the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site. It was free and way more interesting than 7^th grade history class. This 28-acre site was once part of Charles' 715-acre plantation known as Snee Farm. Evidently this guy had a big role in the framing of the U.S. Constitution. Not the actual frame, frame. He lobbied for its creation and helped write it. The visitor center is in an 1828 farmhouse and has a lot of information about the Constitution, Lowcountry plantation life and slavery. I learned a lot about the Gullah dialect which I had never heard of before I came to the South.

All this put us in the mood for some Southern cooking. The guide directed us to a local traditional Gullah restaurant. We were the only white people in the place but the guy at the table next to us took me under his wing and explained what I was eating. He told me to eat several helpings of the beans and that, to him, they were worth his extra diabetes pill. The beans were fabulous and the fried chicken was as good as my Southern Grandma's chicken. Fred would like me to mention that he recognized everything on the buffet since he is from the South, Hey, I just wanted to talk to someone new by day 57.

So, we get back on the road to go to James Island to pick up my meds. We grumbled as we passed multiple Walgreens since we thought we had ordered them from the closest one. Fred stopped complaining when we stumbled upon a farmers market with boiled peanuts that he had been craving. Next we stumble on to Folly Beach whose slogan is “The Edge of America.” It was very “Jimmy Buffet” with all the surfers trying to catch hurricane waves, live music and lots of adult beverages.

We drove home at the end of the day having done nothing we actually planned except going to Walgreens. It was a lovely day.

I know this dispatch is long but I can't end without telling you about the houses in Charleston. I think you all know that Fred looks at everything through the lens of his camera. I'm pretty sure he thinks in pixels. The scenery in south Carolina was vast and varied especially with hurricane Earl adding a unique dimension to the surf. There were so many architectural gems from the 18^th and 19^th centuries that he just went crazy trying to capture their beauty. He took over 300 pictures in Charleston and vicinity and most of them were keepers! We picked about 50 of the best for the online album. Many have captions describing where they were taken.

One of my favorite homes was the Two Meeting Street Inn. It is a Queen Anne mansion completed in 1892 and it gleams like a pearl. The arched piazzas provide a panoramic view of the Historic Battery, the waterfront and the lush gardens. They serve a “gracious southern breakfast,” afternoon tea and evening sherry. My kind of place until I saw the price tag....$225.00 to $479.00 per night depending upon, evidently, the ceiling height of your room. We slept in the bus.

At some point we donned our hats and flip flops and headed to Isle of Palms Beach. The pictures will show the long lawns of the houses backing up to the beach. They don't show all the cars of beach goers that are parked in their front lawns.

There was so much else to do here but we just didn't have enough time. Fred was really sorry we missed the Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum. He wanted to tour the USS Yorktown, an aircraft carrier that served in World War II and Vietnam. I wanted to visit Boone Hall Plantation and Gardens until I found out they don't produce Boone's Farm Wine.

You should visit this place!        Click here to see the rest of the photos...

From the road:

-robin

A Taste of Savannah

Hi everyone,
It is September 14, and we are in Trenton, Maine buying REAL maple syrup from Vermont (it is cheaper) searching for colorful changing leaves (we arrived too early) and waiting for the rain to stop so we can explore Acadia National Park. We have traveled 1,935 miles since we left Florida so I have a lot of catching up to do in the dispatch department.

I have always wanted to travel to where the trees are draped with moss and words drip from folks mouths like syrup. I found that place  in Savannah, Georgia on day 53 and it was delightful.
We did not arrive in the rain, our campground was lush and the food and drinks were great.  Many of my visions of the South came from movies and I was glad that I was not disappointed.  You all know how much Fred and I love movie trivia so it was a special treat to eat in the pub where a few scenes were filmed in one of my favorite movies, “Something to Talk About.”  Savannah was steeped in history and we loved reading about it on a walking tour.

It was dark and we were looking for fun so we decided to take a narrated, horse drawn carriage ride through the old town squares.  Fred had just lit up a cigar and while booking the ride, he specifically asked if smoking would be OK. He was assured that it would be fine and that we could even bring drinks from a local tavern to make it even more fun.

The wagon held about 10 people but only two others, a couple of women, joined us.  Being polite, we asked them if they would like to have the front seat in light of the cigar smoke.  The older woman was very insistent that it was perfectly okay and that she wouldn't mind sitting in the back.  She added, “ I   love the smell of a cigar.”  Her words were, “If you can't smoke outside then where can you smoke?”  All was well as the ride began but within minutes, the younger woman asked Fred if he would put it out, as the smoke was bothering her.   Apparently she didn't want to be on the ride in the first place since she spent the entire time tapping away at her phone on Facebook and talking over the guide.

Fred declined to extinguish the newly purchased $10.00 cigar and instead, she and the older woman switched seats.  That seemed to placate her for a while until she insisted he put it out because the smell made her sick.  “Oh well,” Fred said, “What a shame because it was an excellent cigar, right down to the nub.” It had been out for 10 minutes.  Guess they should have taken the front seat we offered.

 I am going to let you see Savannah through the camera lens so I can move on to the Charleston dispatch.

Click here to see our Savannah photo album...

Surprises: Panhandlers on every corner with creative ways to skirt the no panhandling laws
Celebrations: The sun came out 
Disappointments: The irritating lady who joined our narrated carriage ride and no wifi in camp.

from the road:
robin

Clearwater, Florida – August 23-29   Days 46-52

The Sunshine state

We had a GRAND time in Clearwater Florida.  We arrived in a downpour and had to park at the campground filling up with water. Our friend Chris Noell suggested a campground that actually bordered his property where he and Cheryl and their dog, HollyRaisin live. Chris showed up to laugh hysterically while Fred and I worked in the rain to park and hook up electricity, water, sewer and cable
 We couldn't make the sharp right turn towing the car so Fred went out and unhooked the jeep....first soaking.  Then he tried to back into the spot and needed me to guide him in so that was my first soaking. I tried to use an umbrella and that turned out to be so ill conceived that I'm embarrassed to mention it.  We are talking POURING, DUMPING, rain.  Then I had to go retrieve the jeep, third soaking.  Trisha and Robert drove up to take us to dinner and they started laughing too.  It was finally decided that since we were unworthy of taking to a restaurant, that we should all gather at Cheryl and Chris' house for a spaghetti dinner. Yummo!  I looked like a drowned poodle but no one mentioned it and we were so glad to be with true friends that we were thrilled! I wanted to cry I was so happy to be with people that knew me and loved me (there are not that many!)  I have been so lonely for all my friends that I was about to tear up each day.  I truly did not know what close friends meant to me until they are far away. We had a marvelous time with everyone and Cheryl's brother and dog also.  I felt like I had come home even though I was thousands of miles away. 
We checked out all the towns and landed on the beach of Fred's youth on Tuesday.  I checked and his name was not  spray painted on  the girls bathroom wall. Trish fed us at her house Tuesday night and then wisked me away on Wednesday morning to have my hair cut and colored.  The girl who did it was from Ethiopia and had a fabulous story to tell.  The result, not so normal for me, very trendy for the world to day.  Fred had to work and went to one of our moderator's homes to interview him and check out his ham radio set up.


We toured the area, shopped in Dunedin (I bought a purse you will all covet) and got rained on.  The streets of Dunedin were so flooded I was afraid the jeep wouldn't even get through the intersection. And they call this “The Sunshine State.”

We were wined and dined by the Noells like we were royalty.  It was fabulous to have  friends close by.  Chris and Robert's dad, Bobby, took us out on his boat for a day and we were thrilled.  It was too fun. Lots of pictures with captions  follow....somewhere....I still have to have Fred figure this whole blog thing out.  Would you all rather just get an email or is the blog working for you?

We just got word that Jaime was in a car wreck that totaled her car.  She and the other person are unharmed due to lots of airbags. If anyone has a car they are selling, I know someone who is buying.


Surprises: We never saw an alligator
Celebrations : Spending time with good friends
Disappointments: It rained 6 of the 7 days we were in Florida


Thanks and check out this collection of 27 pictures...

from the road:
robin

The Huge Huntsville Hamfest

The Huntsville Hamfest, August 21, Day  44
 
This event turned out to be much larger than we anticipated. Our longtime advertiser, Robby Spears owns Giga Parts and let us camp behind his store.  Giga Parts had the largest, busiest booth at the show so we  hung the QRZ.com  banner and opened for business.  I was schmoozing, answering questions and solving problems for  QRZ subscribers.  Fred met with current and prospective advertisers and shopped....a lot.  He bought a telescoping pole, his second, which was a big thing judging by the oohs and aahs from the guys in the booth. I admit, I still don't get it. Evidently its a ham radio antenna thingy. 

It poured rain and was still steamy when we took off that night to get a little road under the tires before we retired in a rest stop somewhere in Alabama...I don't know where.  I do know that sometime during the night, something took the whole QRZ site down. I awoke to find an ashen Fred frantically trying to figure out what caused the failure.  He had planned an unusually hard day and a half of driving to get to Clearwater, Florida by Sunday. He was scheduled to speak to the Tampa Amateur Radio Club on Monday night.  We had to stop several times during the day to log in to the site and talk to the network engineers in Phoenix so we only got as far as Dothan, Alabama.  At one point, it looked as if Fred was going to park  me and the bus in Florida and fly home to solve the problem.  Thank goodness for his experience at Sun Microsystems managing remote servers.  He supervised long distance and was able to configure a temporary fix so he didn't have to abandon me.  The temporary fix is still holding and we are still married. Fred ordered some new equipment online, had it delivered to the house and Peter delivered it to the network engineers in downtown Phoenix. 

Some of you know Peter and some don't.  He is our friend and the keyboardist in Desert Voodoo.   He  has moved into our house while we are on the road and has assumed many of our day to day duties. He and Prudence, his cat, are keeping the dogs fed and out of trouble, doing our banking, sorting mail, running to the post office, watering plants, spa and pool duties and the ever necessary poop patrol. I guess you could say we now have an English butler.  We think we'll keep him when we get home.  Our grand adventure could not have happened without his contribution.  Peter also has an assistant; our neighbor, Deb Fisher.  She has been busy walking our dogs, driving them to the beauty parlor, fixing sprinklers, cleaning up the dead plants and housing Peter and Prudence when they lock themselves out of the house. Jaime came to their rescue with her key. As they say...it takes a village.

Road signs that made us smile:     Little Pecker's Wing House
                    Cuckold Landing
                    Fancy Gap

Animals spotted in the wild, in flea markets and roadside:  Lots and lots of possums who we are sure were NOT playing possum, alpaca, turtle, swan, geese, egret, gray and brown pelican, koi, frog, antelope, fox, armadillo, skunk (duh), seagulls, dog, raccoon, cat, chickens, deer, squirrel, rabbit, badger, macaw, parrot, parakeet, crow, stork, osprey, horses, cows, mountain goats, big horn sheep, lizards, many fish of indeterminate type, porpoise, porcupine and hundreds of frigates.  We were told that the frigates flew in and swarmed on an island in near the shore in Florida to escape Hurricane Earl.
To see what a BIG hamfest looks like, Click Here...

Up next.....Florida!
From the road
-robin

River is rising in Nashville, Tennessee

Friday September 3, Labor Day Weekend 2010

Hi again everybody,

Although today marks 57 days on the road, I need to do some backtracking to day 38 of our journey. We rolled into Nashville on August 15^th and it was hot and... you guessed it... raining. By then we had learned how to have fun in the rain so we ventured forth. We went on a bar crawl, listened to some good music and had the best barbeque so far. Check out the pictures. I think the guys in the second band were better looking than the first but it might have been the beer. We never even took pictures in the third or fourth bar. They had girl signers who I remember were very talented and beautiful. I told Fred to holster his camera. We also continued our search for good Mexican food. Once again it was very different, due, in part, to a lack of Mexicans. Nashville is still rebuilding after the May flood so the big attractions were closed. The campground we stayed in bordered the Cumberland River as did the nearby homes and all had been flooded. Many of the campers were construction folks working to restore the Grand Old Opry, the Gaylord Hotel and the Opryland shopping center. I'm including pictures of the river with this dispatch and you can see the change from one day to the next. As the rain fell, we stood in a park watching the river rise with people who had just gotten back in their homes. They were so scared that it was going to happen again and for a few hours it looked like it might. After five days of steam heat in Nashville, we took off for a hamfest in Huntsville, Alabama. I hope you get a taste of Nashville from the photos that Fred took and the captions I wrote.

Click Here for Photos

From the road

-robin