Relative visit in Richmond, Va

We are parked in a small mobile home park just outside of Richman. Not great place but we are 15 min away from my cousin's house. It is in the 90's here and of course it is humid. John is just soaking wet after he hooks up the motor home. Went with Patty and her husband Ron to have lunch downtown close to their new offices. Aunt Freda was there too. I'm not sure she knows who we are but she looks real good and her new apt. is real cute and she is happy there. Went to the new offices which are in an old tobacco where house. It is just amazing what re doing these buildings can look like. Sun, All of us went to church and then out for lunch to celebrate Aunt Freda's birthday. My other cousins Bob & Sandra came from the mountain and Patti's 2 sons and their families. Took Aunt Freda home and the rest of us visited at the house until early evening. Monday We drove the motor home around Washington DC here to Annapolis. We are in a park about 15 miles away. We met with Kevin in the evening and he took us on a city tour. We had a great buffet dinner with a lot of Southern dishes=a lot of seafood=crab, mussels, crawdads, clams and such. Afterward we went to a little ice cream shop. The people there kind of adopted him as part of their family. Ice cream was so good. Tues We met Kevin and Brian of a tour of Annapolis=Kevin has graduated and Brian is in his 2nd year. We toured the grounds and several buildings. Got to see what one of the rooms looks like and the dorm building is just huge. It is a beautiful building with marble floors and chandeliers. We got to watch all the guys join in the quad and march to lunch. It was quite a sight. We had lunch with Kevin in the cafe and he had to leave to go to a rowing trip, so we looked over the museum, did some shopping in the store and down town. They have a beautiful school and we feel quite proud to know 2 of the cadets there.

last days in Georgia

Drove into Savnnah and we saw several of the beautiful squares and drove across the bridge. We didn't do any tourist stuff since we have been here a couple of times. Clyde showed us several of his properties and houses they had lived in. Went to Crab Shack for lunch which really is a shack and not like our chain rest in Calif. Ginny had a plate of crawdad's, crab, shrimp, mussels, sausage, corn and potatoes. Cylde and I had crab and shrimp and John had a shrimp salad. Later when it cooled off John & Clyde went out on the lake and caught a few bass. Ginny & I fished from the dock house. She baited the hook with crickets, worms and minnows for me. I caught a few brille which are a type of perch. Every Thursday is fresh water fish day at the rest. so that's where all the fish go. Thurs, We went to breakfast with Clyde at his little place downtown where he has coffee and meets with the guys while Ginny gets to sleep in. Clyde showed us some peanut plants on the way home. We had lunch in their youngest son's restaurant. Went down the street from Keith's Restaurant and visited the Claxton Fruitcake Capital of the World. We ate the fish we caught the night before. Ginny & I went and got our nails done and than we drove to a little town and got some fresh green peanuts to make boiled peanuts with and 24 pounds of shrimp for $2.75 Lb. which Miss Ginny popped the heads off and put in the freezer. While the peanuts boiled John & Clyde tried fishing again but no luck this time. The peanuts were really good and nothing like the ones we have had before in the street stands. We met Clyde's oldest son Keith and his family and had a nice visit around the kitchen bar. We have had such a good time here learning to fish. eat Southern Food, enjoy their beautiful home and ponds and meet their family. We are moving our way up the coast to Virginia to see relatives tomorrow.

Georgia Days

Here we are at Metter Georgia at Clyde & Ginny's property. It is quite warm and humid here but it is beautiful. We can look out of our motorhome and see ponds everywhere with fish, birds and trees. John got to see a deer and wild turkeys on his ride yesterday. Clyde took us on a ride to see them harvesting tobacco and then went to the barns where they cook the leaves. Had lunch at their son's restaurant and had really good chicken and can't believe the fresh vegetables and food they serve there. I did some laundry and we all helped Ginny put 2 bushels of corn away in the freezer. That is ALOT of corn but they use it for their Low Country Boil for church and family. John has gone fishing two nights in a row and caught several nice bass.

Last Days of Yogi

Sun= Denny & Mary have today off so we all went into town to Huddle House and had breakfast. It reminded us of our Waffle House but maybe a step above. John did have his waffle and I had a very good chicken fried steak. We went to the Smoky Mountains National Park visitor center near there and went through their farming village. Went back to coaches and looked after the dogs until about 3 when we left for Pigeon Forge to go see Dolly Parton's show, the Dixie Stampede. We had a good dinner which you eat with your hands=chicken, pork, corn, potatoe, biscuit and apple turnover. The show is the North against the South, alot of beautiful horses, costumed riders and we all had a good time. We started home and found the only road through the mountains was closed. We waited in the visitor center for a while. decided if we would wait it out or not but never did get much information. We think they had a rock slide and road wasn't to be opened till morning so we drove back to Pidgeon Forge and took the long was home and got home by 10ish instead of 8:30. Thanks to John's GPS we did find one road which was a little short cut. Mon-had a quick breakfast and headed out with Clyde & Ginny to their place in Georgia. It was a long drive but got here about 6. It is real hot here in the 90's. Clyde took us for a short ride around the property before we turned in for the night. Thank you so much Denny and Mary for your hospitality, at the Yogi in the Smokies RV Park

Rainy Days and Friends

Thurs, 19th, Denny & Mary managed to get the afternoon off and then we all rode over to a restaurant in Georgia called The Dillard House. It is a family style Southern cooking and boy did we eat. We had fried and BBQ chicken, pork chops, ham, melon, tomatoes, cole slaw, creamed corn, fried okra, mashed acorn squash, lima beans, fried potatoes , pineapple fritters and for desert strawberry cobbler with ice cream. We stopped by a produce market on the way home and got some peaches, corn and tomatoes. It was raining when we came out of rest. but stopped by the time we got to the market.

Friday- We went to Cherokee Museum and saw the story of Trail of Tears where the Cherokee Indians were forced off their land and moved to Oklahoma. They were a peaceful nation of farmers and traders, had their own written language and half of them died on the way there. The schools here are beautiful and they are starting to teach the new generation of Cherokee their language and customs. Clyde & Ginny fixed a Low Country Boil for dinner which cooking corn, potatoes, sausage and shrimp in a big pot of boiling water. It was great and we had so much to eat and plenty for leftovers if we ever get time to eat them here. Afterwards we had a campfire, talked about fun times we've had on our trips and had fresh raspberry pie from the berries we picked in Michigan.

Sat John & I went into town for breakfast and went through a couple of shops before is started to rain. It rained all day so we kicked back in the motor home and let John rest. His cough is getting better each day. The rain sounded so nice on top of motor home along with the acorns banging on the top too. That afternoon we had Indian fry bread taco's for dinner. We took a ride around town a bit and then hiked up the 159 steps to the Mingus Falls. They were just beautiful and so glad we made the hike.

Yogi in the Smokies

As we drove into camp Yogi Bear in the Smokies it started to sprinkle and by the time we were done checking in it was raining. Denny and Mary (friends who work the RV camp) came back from lunch and Denny took us to our spot. We hooked up electricity and took a short nap while we could hear the rain on the roof. Ginny & Clyde are here from Georgia. We met them on a Fantasy Tour in the Canadian Maritime Providences and will go home with them to Georgia near Savanna, for a few days. We have some kind of tree that we are parked under that drops things on us. Sounds like marbles or rocks hitting the roof.

Wed- Clyde and Ginny took us on a ride through Smoky Mountains to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge about an hour away. Both towns are full of hotels, restaurants, water parks, all kinds of activities for the kids and shopping for us adults as well, shows like in Vegas or Branson. We drove to the end and went through the Smokey Mountain Knife Store. They had two floors of all kinds of knives, antique and new, swords of all kinds even from Lord of the Rings, a really nice kitchen shop with good knives, pans, food and novelty stuff. Then we went to a BBQ restaurant and had our big meal of the day. When we got home we sat around camp fire with wine and visited with Denny & Mary. John also had to have his smores and they were good.

Our camp is in the Cherokee Reservation thus the cities name of Cherokee. We are in the trees and next to a river where you can fish and tube down it. We saw a guy walk by with a big trout the other day (4 Lbs). We have a lot of beautiful big yellow butterflies in camp with an occasional orange or black. The Smokies are beautifully wooded mountains and when it gets hot the mist rises up the mountains and it looks like smoke. It is nice to hear the river when you open your door and we've had some kind of shower every day. The town is much bigger than I expected with all kind of Indian pottery, baskets and such and is interesting to hear their story (more about that later). The Indians have bears here that are painted like the horses we saw in Oklahoma and the Buffalo in the Black Hills.

North Carolina

Hi to all, We left Ann Arbor Michigan Monday morning the 16th. Drove through Ohio, and into Kentucky, about 375 miles. Tuesday we drove to Cherokee, North Carolina, and into Camp Yogi in the Smokies, where our friends, Denny and Mary are working for the summer. We will be here for 6 days and leave on Monday. I will post more later, we are heading out to go see Gatlinburg, about 1 hour over the mountains.