Home Sweet Home!

We arrived home safely in good health and motor home ran great. We have been busy unpacking motor home, doing laundry and getting back into routine at home. We had a great time seeing friends and relatives. Weather was mostly hot & humid. We enjoyed our cool weather in Washington and Upper Michigan. We never did find the perfect tomato but did have some good ones. Patti (my cousin in Virginia) had the best homegrown from a friend. Our favorite place we visited was Michigan. We did enjoy Traverse City, Mackinaw City and Island. The water was so clear and blue just like Hawaii. We saw Lake Michigan, Superior, and Huron.

Enjoyed seeing my 94 year old uncle and his wife in Chicago and my 90 year old Aunt in Virginia.

John enjoyed his hunting gophers in Montana and riding a horse in Virginia although he has now decided his horse days are about over (not too easy on his back). We saw some fall leaves starting to turn in the East and saw a great stretch of gold, red and orange in North Carolina. Want to thank everyone we visited for their hospitality and friendship. You were all wonderful and make our vacation very memorable. Next year is going to be different, I have some idea's but still have to put it all together. Love you all. John & Virginia

traveling west

Spent the night here in Amarillo Texas at Wonderland RV Park where we have camped before. It is pretty nice outside. We went to the Texan Rest. and and had our steak dinner and watched a young fellow eat his 72 oz steak, roll, salad and another side in an hour, so he got his dinner free. $72 for that big steak. I'm sure I'd be sick after all that. Today is Monday and we did another 300 mile drive to Albuquerque, New Mexico. It is overcast here and may get some thundershowers and in the 80's. We're going to spend today and tomorrow here to rest up before we finish up our trip home. Probably be home on Thursday. John wants to have some New Mexican food which consists of red & green chiles (nothing like our Mexican food).

Oklahoma City

We left Arkansa this morning of Sept 11th and ran into a few rain showers. We have had a nice visit here with Floyd and Sissy. We set up our motorhome in front of their garage/shop and had a lunch. Floyd took us on a ride in the farm country. We checked out the rice and soybean fields and cotton. Not a lot of cotton like there use to be. We had our catfish dinner and fried dill pickles so we are happy campers. Sissy and I drove into Little Rock to have lunch the next day and do a Walmart shopping while the guys went to a sporting goods store and McDonald's for lunch. We had a good Southern BBQ dinner of ribs and pork sandwich and Sissy's yummy banana pudding for desert. It was good to be here and visit with them and their family. Charles (john's other cousin has just had surgery and is in his mountain home recovering and not up to company yet so we didn't get to see them, at this time. Weather here has been hot and humid and mosquitoes just love me.

Sat. Sept 11 we are here in Rcokwell RV park, Oklahoma City where we have stayed before. It is quite warm here but a breeze so not quite so hot. Traveled over 300 miles today so glad to stop for a while before heading on to Amarillo Texas tomorrow. Our heart's go out to all the families of the 911 attack on this very special day, may God bless them and give them peace.

Heading HOME

SUN., We are here at Bob's in the country and Ron, Patti and Aunt Freda came up for the day. Bob BBQ'ed steaks and we had a great visit and food. They all hadn't seen the house so they were impressed with all that been done. We got Aunt Freda into the cart and took her over there. I had fixed a fresh peach pie and we finished eating that before they left for home and we played another game of golf. Mon After breakfast we packed up a lunch and headed over to the ranch where Ripley is boarded. John got a good lesson on brushing and getting horses ready to ride and he took a ride with Sandra. The brown horse is Sandra's Ripley and John's white horse if Sarri. They had a good ride while Bob & I played a game of cribbage and looked at magazines. We had BBQ'ed chicken and left overs for dinner and headed for the porch on the new house for some wine, sunset and visiting. Our weather has been perfect while we have been here-so nice to have some cool air for a change. We've enjoyed visiting everybody here in Virginia. Today we left early for our trip home. Sandra fixed a good breakfast to start us on our way. We are camped here tonight in Tennessee and have a good days drive again tomorrow. Headed for Little Rock to see John's cousins and have some cat fish. Today is in the 90's again with clouds so we may have thunder showers tonight.

Virginia Days

Thurs, Ron & Patti, who live in Richmond, Virginia took the day off and we started off by doing some shopping. Ron & John went to Northern Tool Supply and Dad didn't buy a thing. Patti and I went to Ben Franklin and Stein Mart and we did buy. Next we had lunch at Olive Garden and went to see Aunt Freda. Ron & Patti came to see our motor home and we took care of the dogs dinner and potty break. We met them for pizza down town and had a lovely dinner out on the patio. Friday we arrived here at cousin Bob's, in the country. We had wine time and dinner and checked out the progress at the Big House they are building. Took John & Bob a while to hook us up to electricity but a cool front has come through and it is so nice outside. Only in the 70's and 50's at night. The breeze is so cool and nice and great to have the windows open and no humidity. We're still working on John's cough. Sat took a ride but weren't too successful with our plans. We first visited a grinding water mill but not enough water in the stream to make it work, off to see a general store in another town and it is out of business. Looked for a place to eat lunch and had to settle for a Hardee's ( like our Carls Jr.) but food was cold and lousy. Next we drove to an apple farm and we did get apples but quite expensive (a tourist place). Arrived home and rested before we went over to New House sat on front porch and watched the sun set. We had a late dinner and showed them how to play golf.

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.