On To Camp LeJeune, NC to Meet Friends and Collect Sharks Teeth!!

 Tuesday morning John woke me at 5:30 (much too early for me), so we could grab a quick breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then get back on the road.  By 7:00 we were on our way.  To pass the time John and I decided to debate some political and biblical issues.  It was pretty fun and interesting with no concrete answers, but some good discussions.  And it really did pass a lot of time!  I texted Jack and Lyn to ask them if they had arrived at Camp LeJeune yet.  They said they had arrived the day before and were anxiously awaiting our arrival.  I didn't let on that we were on our way because we wanted to surprise them. (we weren't supposed to get there until Friday)  Lyn happened to call me about 2 hours before we got to the base just to chat.  She said they were on their way to the commissary.   We were hoping to pull in at about 1:45 and get set up before they got back.  But as chance had it, just as we turned onto the road going back to the CG John said, "guess what, Lyn and Jack are behind us."  About that time my phone rang and it was Lyn.  She and Jack figured out that it was us when they saw the Jeep, the Bounder, and the PA license plate.  We all had a good laugh at our surprising them!!  We set up beside them and then went out to the beach to hunt for sharks teeth.  But the tide was in too far making it almost impossible to find any.  And it was very windy and almost cold and neither one of us had worn a sweatshirt.  We did brave it, though, for about 2 hrs.  We got showers and ate supper together about 7:00...Jack grilling brats and we supplying the side dishes.  We left their 5th wheel at 8:00 because John was beat and I wanted to watch The Voice.  John was in bed by 9:30 and I followed at 11:00 after watching Chicago Fire.  So our adventure begins with Jack and Lyn and shark teeth hunting at Camp LeJeune.

his is Jack and Lyn with one of their Corgy's, Daisy.
They also have Lizzie and Denver.

 

This is the name of the beach at Camp LeJeune

 

This sign was outside the office.  How perfect!! (and clever)

 

This is what we come to Onslow Beach to find!!

 

A view from the entrance to the CG.  We are
halfway down on the left.

 

There is a small convenience type store
just outside the entrance.

   Wednesday morning John cooked breakfast and then I got ready to go to the beach with Lyn.  John was going to hang around Harvey a bit because we were having some trouble with the 50 amp electric and the maintenance guy was coming by.  Low tide was at about 9:30, so I went over to get Lyn out of bed (she is a night owl and a late sleeper) and we took off to the beach.  It was a bright sunny day about 75 degrees, so there were a lot of people on the beach.  But it was pretty windy, so you needed a sweatshirt.

There's Lyn ready for the hunt!

 

There's me in my all too familiar stance!

  After about 2 hrs Jack showed up to check on us and bring us drinks.  He said that John was doing laundry while the maintenance guy was coming and going.  Gee, thanks, Honey!!  What a guy!  We hunted for teeth for about another 45 minutes and then the tide was messing with our search.  How rude!!  Lyn ended up with a bunch of shells and smooth rocks and about 60 small teeth.  I found about 120 but most of them were on the smaller side.  I found some sea glass, too.  There are some pretty wicked storms predicted for here tonight, so, hopefully, that will churn up some bigger teeth tomorrow!   We all got cleaned up and went out for supper to a Chinese Buffet just off base.  It was very good!  We were going to play some cards, but Jack and Lyn were tired.  So John and I played 1 game, and, of course, John won again!  How does he do it??  We are now at 34-39.  I might never catch up!!  Then John did some reading while I worked on the blog.  He went to bed about 11:00 and I went at 2:30.  I didn't even get the whole blog post done.  I think I was distracted by the TV.  That happens to me once in a while, huh, Honey!?!
   Thursday morning we drove in to the commissary and PX.  I put a little dent into the clearance racks, especially for our grandsons.  I always look at the girls things, but it is a lot harder to buy for our granddaughters.  Because they are older, they have much more definitive style choices and I'm afraid mine won't match theirs.  We ate some lunch and then headed down to the beach.  We didn't last long, though, because even though the sun was shining brightly and the temp was in the low 70's, the 40-50 mph wind gusts made it impossible.  The blowing sand really stung our legs, too.  We came back and played another game of cards.  Please don't make me say it.  It's 34-40 now.  I'm ashamed to say that I'm becoming sort of a bad sport.  Kindly, John pulled out 2 decks of playing cards, so we could change it up and play "Nerts.".  Finally, I was victorious.  WOW...1 in a row!!  Then I finished the previous blog while John took a nap.  Nerts must have worn him out!?! John grilled for supper and then Lyn and Jack came over.  We introduced them to 5 Crowns.  We played 1 game and, guess what...I won!!  We were in bed pretty early that night, but it was a tough night for sleeping because of the strong wind...it actually shook Harvey!!  The osprey planes flying overhead don't help either!!
    Friday morning the winds were even worse, so we didn't even attempt to go out on the beach.  It was sunny and warm, so John decided to wash and wax Harvey.  I stayed inside and cleaned up a bit and then prepared some food in preparation for the arrival of our granddaughter, Alexandra, her husband, Todd and their English Bull dog, Gunnar sometime tomorrow.  It was too windy to grill, so Lyn and Jack joined us for supper at Red Robin off of the base.  When we got back we introduced them to Pass the Pigs.  We played several games and had a blast!  The wind had died down by the time we went to bed, so hopefully we can finally get back on the beach tomorrow...I'm going thru withdrawal!
   Saturday morning was beautiful...calm, sunny and about 70 degrees!  We expected Todd and Alex about mid afternoon.  But at 8:12am we got a text that they had just left.  They live just off Langley AF Base in Newport News, NC, so they had about a 3 1/2 hr drive.  (Todd is an Air Force firefighter)  They arrived right on schedule at 11:45 in Alex's green VW Bug convertible.  It was so good to see them!  We had lunch and then headed for the beach.  We weren't there more than 10 minutes until John found 2 BIG sharks teeth among the rocks.  Then Todd found an even bigger one just laying on the beach near the water.  Alexandra was so excited.  We were so glad they found such a big one!  The hunt went pretty well for all of us that day.  It was a lot of fun.  Gunnar had a good time, too!

Todd and Alex's first go at shark tooth hunting.

 


Gunnar was a little apprehensive at first, but
by the end of the day he loved the water!

 

Let's see...is it a tooth or just a rock??

 


No doubt about these!  The 2nd one from the left
 the big one that Todd found. 

The rising tide ended our day on the beach, so we came back and John grilled steak for supper.  Then we played Pass the Pigs and Nine Hole Golf.  What a wonderful day!!  We were all tired, so we were in bed by 11:00.
   Sunday was even more beautiful than Saturday, but low tide wasn't until almost 2:00.  So I made a late pancake and bacon breakfast and then we drove in to the PX and around the base so Todd could take a look at it.  Then back to Harvey to change into our suits and Head to the beach.  We left Gunnar at home this time.  We got out to the beach at about noon and Jack and Lyn joined us later.  The kids wanted to be on the road by 4:00, so we stayed until about 3:15 trying our darnedest to find some big teeth again, but didn't have near as much luck as the day before.  We said our goodbyes and they left right on schedule.  It was so neat to have the 3 of them with us.  And they fell in love with Camp Lejeune.  They will probably come back to rent one of the places along the beach sometime in the near future.

There are appartments...

...houses...

 

...lodges...

 

...and cabanas overlooking...

 

...this gorgeous beach.

 

Why wouldn't they want to come back!!

  Later that evening we went over to Lyn and Jack's 5th wheel to play Sequence.  We didn't stay too long...we were both tired.
   Monday morning Lyn and I went Thrift Shop shopping.  We are kind of dangerous together!!  At the thrift shop on base I found cutest wooden kitchen for the Tent-type Camper we bought for the grandkids this past Christmas.  I thought John might kill me for buying something so big to have to bring home.  But since we were going home on Wed he wasn't upset at all.  He loved it!!  (If I would have bought it earlier in the trip he might have been upset!)

How cute is that!!  And it's a Melissa and Doug brand
so you know it's well made.   And it was only $10.
How's that for a bargain!!!

 

This is the camper-tent we got for the grandkids
from the Land of Nod catalog.

  We went to 4 different shops and had a really fun time even though we didn't find many treasures.  We got back about 2:30 and then headed to the beach.  It was another gorgeous day and we found a lot of smaller sharks teeth.  We had supper and then Jack and Lyn came over to play Hand and Foot.  The men won the first game and the women won the 2nd one.  They left about 9:15 and I watched the rest of The Voice.  Then we went to bed.
    Tuesday morning we had breakfast and then put some things away to get ready for our departure tomorrow.  I did a load of wash and then we headed to the beach for the last time :(  It was another beautiful day and we stayed until about 4:00.  We found a lot of nice sized teeth.  Then we ordered pizza and John went to pick it up.  I showered while he was gone because he planned on unhooking the water and cleaning up the sewer hoses tonight.  After supper John unhooked everything but the electric, so he didn't have to do it in the morning.  Then he went down to the bath house to shower.  Jack and Lyn came over about 8:00 and we played a game of 5 Crowns.  Jack won that one.  We had some cake and then they left about 9:30.

I found my frogs on the couch like this after
Lyn and Jack left.  She is so bad!!!

  We finished putting everything away and locking stuff up and packing a few things that we would need tomorrow night when we got home and then we went to bed. 
    We left the CG at 7:30 figuring we would have about an 11 1/2 hr drive including 2 stops.  Our plan to get home was to get off I-95 just above Richmond and take 66Wto 15N in order to go around Washington DC.  At about 12:40 just before we got on 66 we stopped at a Pilot for gas but it was really busy, so we went across the road to a Mr  Fuel.  We weren't very hungry, so we decided to wait about a half hour and stop again for something to eat.  Well, we couldn't find anything, and before we knew it we were on 15.  Just after going through Leesburg, VA we got into a terrible traffic jam.  We just crawled for about an hour.  And, of course, there was no place to pull off to eat.  The roadkill started to look pretty good:) 

Pulled up behind this garbage truck,  That's the
same frog that I have tattooed on my ankle!!

By the time we hit PA it was about 6:00.  I googled restaurants near us and found a diner in Dillsburg right off 15 called Baker's.  We pulled in their at about 7:00.  Whew!!  It sure was good to get out of Harvey and eat something.  It was actually pretty lousy, but it WAS food!!  We got home at about 8:30, unhooked the Jeep, parked Harvey and brought in only the few items we had packed.  Surprisingly, after 13 1/2 hours behind the wheel John didn't go to bed until almost midnight.  I guess he needed to unwind.  I stayed up a bit longer going thru mail.  It sure was nice to sleep in our king-sized bed.  AND even though we had an absolutely wonderful trip it was great to be home!!  Tomorrow morning we will be back to the "Real World" again.  But I guess that really isn't so bad.  We are truly blessed any which way you look at it!!!!!!!!!!!   Oh, and by the way, HAPPY EASTER!

Had to share these pics of my sister, Bonnie
and I celebrating our Dad's 93rd birthday!

 

Mom and Dad

 

The happy family reunited after 3 months.
(John and Bonnie's husband, Ken were there, too)

       We'll catch up with y'all later this summer.  Bye for now.

Added 2 More States to Our Map!

   We left Tinker AFB about 9am and headed to an Army Corp of Engineers park in Little Rock Arkansas.  It's about a 5 1/2 hour drive.  All went well except that twice when we stopped at an "RV friendly" gas station (accd'g to our Next Exit book) we had to drive right out because the pumps were either too close to the customer parking or there was no place to park after getting gas, so we could get something to eat.  We are starting to think that the Next Exit book thinks all RV's are diesel.  Those pumps are almost always easy access because of tractor trailer trucks!  That's my story and I'm sticking to it! 

We arrived at the park just after 4:00.  It was a lot bigger and more beautiful than either one of us imagined!!  We had a pull in spot that was parallel to the road and the Arkansas River.  The scenery was gorgeous.  And there was a big marina at the end of the park with gigantic yachts.

That's the Arkansas River just 50 feet from our site!

The park is so pretty and well kept.

 

That's the marina.

Can't get thru the gate unless you are a member.

Nice size speed boat...

...until you compare it to its neighbors!!

This is what they use to lift the boats out of the water.

There were no sewer hook ups here except for the medical sites.  But the bath house was just across the road from our site...how perfect.  

Never saw this before, but, then, we never stayed at
a COE park before.  It is for campers that
have family members at the Univ of Arkansas
Medical Center.

 

The walk to the bath house goes right to our site
on the other side of the road.  Convenient, huh?!?

After an easy set up we headed out to a Kroger grocery store we passed on the way in.  It was so neat...reminded us a lot of the Wegmans we have at home. 

We spotted these homes way up near
 the top of the mountain.

When we got back we took a quick bike ride around the CG.  We just kept commenting how nice the CG is.  We had some leftovers for supper (we are only here 2 nights, so John didn't want to get the grill out) and then played 5 Crowns.  Obviously, John is still cheating somehow because he won 2 out of the 3 games!  John is ahead 35-31.  UGH!!    After breakfast on Friday we went to the Little Rock AFB to look around.  As always, we visited the commissary and PX and, as usual, found a few things.  We stopped for a late lunch at a Firehouse Sub shop.  We had never eaten at one of these.  It was good, but not great.  I really wanted roast beef, but they "didn't slice enough" and were out of it.  Really?!?!?  We stopped at a Kirklands to return something I had gotten in Texas and then went back to the CG. 

We had to put our 18th state sticker on our map
before we left for the base.

A plane at the entrance to the Little Rock AFB.

UH OH...someone buried the rest of the plane!

It was such a gorgeous day in the mid 70's we sat outside and did some reading and enjoyed all the wildlife. 

Squirrels were EVERYWHERE, but surprisingly
they were not comfortable around people.
 

I caught this bird, whatever it is, (it had red spots
under its wings) just as it decided to fly away.

This was our patio area complete with a high top table!

These little sprouts were coming out all over the ground.

This is what the little sprouts grow up to be.

A barge happened to float by.

John caught this beautiful sunset.

We had some hot dogs for supper, watched some TV, played cards, and then went to bed.  We each won a game so now John is up 36-32.  I'm not making much head way, am I?  We plan on leaving tomorrow morning by 9:30. 
   Saturday morning we got up at 7:30, had our ceremonial "departure day" cereal and drove off to the dump station at 9:00.  We dumped, hooked up the Jeep and were on the road by 9:15.  We have a 6 1/2 hr drive to Natchez Trace CG in Hohenwald, TN.  John did a great job driving and our trip was pretty uneventful, except for 1 thing.  tee hee  Today is April 1st and I just had to pull an April Fools joke on someone.  So I picked on my sister, Bonnie.  I called her and when she asked me how our trip was going I told her we were stopped on I-40 waiting for a state trooper because someone had "barreled" out of an entrance ramp and hit our Jeep.  I kept up with the story as long as I could and then I said, "April Fools!"  I can't repeat what she said back to me.  Actually, all she said was, "You little stinker and I was feeling all sorry for you!"  I had her hook, line, and sinker...how fun!!  They had left Florida at 5:30am and were on their way to Jekyll Island, GA. 

Crossing the Tennessee line into Memphis.
The pyramid shaped building on the left is
Bass Pro Shop.

We arrived at our CG at 5:00.  We were excited about this CG because of the pictures on line and the descriptions complete with cable, full hook ups, swimming pool and pickleball.  It sure was different when we got there!!  It was way back in the boonies, no cable, no water in the pool, horrible pickleball courts, and no reception for our phones.  The ride back to our site was like a roller coaster with large pot holes.  Thank goodness it was a Thousand Trails park and we used some of our free nights!  And poor John was feeling bad that it was so far from Nashville...1 hr and 45 minutes.  Hohenwald is a big rural area and the park is in the farthest corner away from Nashville.  Then to make matters worse we got heavy, heavy rain and wind after 10:00.  I slept terrible because of the sound it makes on the roof of Harvey.  John pretty much slept thru it.  He was exhausted because of all the driving he has done the last few day.

Adding another state...Tennessee.

We now have 20 states on our map!!
Wonder how long it will take us to get all the rest??

   We were supposed to be here 5 nights, but Sunday morning decided to leave tomorrow morning instead so we could spend more time at
Camp Lejeune with Jack and Lynn.  We had breakfast and then drove to Nashville to take a tour of The Grand Ole Opry.  It was so fun! 

Just outside the building.  It would sure
take a lot to strum that thing!!

 

The pansies were gorgeous.

 

 

And the tulips were almost over already.

 

This is the huge entrance.

 

Cutie pie, Blake Shelton was our video host.

 

This is the microphone used on stage by all the performers.

 

This is a statue of Minnie Pearl when she was a child.
When she passed away her family donated it.  It sits
beside the entrance that all the performers use.

 

These are props used for the TV show Nashville.
It is filmed here.

 

That is our hostess, Michele, showing us all the GOO
member's mailboxes.

 


These are 2 of my favorite member's names
on the wall of fame.

 

 

These are all the dressing rooms that performers
can choose from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture is on the wall above.  Guess who it is.

 

This is the favorite room of most of the female performers.

 

 

This mural is in a gathering room where the performers
get together to "jam".  Notice the dark strip that goes thru the
the guys red pants.  Nashville got flooded in 2004 and that
is the flood line.  The whole building had to be refurbished.
Another interesting note is that no alcohol is allowed in the building. 

 

This is Little Jimmy Dickens, one of the first members.
He was only 4' 11" tall.

 

His dressing room has a custom made couch
so his feet touch the floor when sitting on it.

 

Backstage getting ready for a show in 2 days.

 

Out front getting ready.

 

 

 

John MADE me do it!
BTW...the picture I had you guess about earlier
is a clean shaven and short haired Willie Nelson.
I bet you're going to go back to check it, HUH!!

Then we drove into the city to check out all the honky tonk bars and budding musicians.  That was very fun, too. 

This is Broadway St.

This crew was celebrating a birthday while pedaling.

These guys were just drinking while pedaling.

There were lots of rooftop bars.

Wish we could have seen these lit up at night.
I can just imagine that it looks like Vegas.

Of course, it wouldn't be complete
without Elvis!!

We passed the Country Music Hall of Fame
on the way out of the city.

Then on to the Loveless Café, the highlight of our day.  It was recommended to us by Bonnie especially because of the delicious biscuits they serve.  It is a popular place!!  We got there about 3pm and still had an hour wait!  The family had lived in the house that was now the restaurant (since 1951) and they bought the motel next door and turned the rooms into shops.  John and I shopped and played cornhole while we waited.  Well...it was certainly worth the wait!!  We think it was possibly the best restaurant we have ever eaten at.  And the biscuits WERE scrumptious!  We both ate only a third of our meal.  Of course, we had pigged out on the biscuits before the meal...DUH!! 

The smokehouse.

The famous biscuits and jams.  They were scrumptious!!

I had a sampler platter...pulled pork barbecue, meatloaf and fried chicken,
creamed corn and cole slaw. (and all the biscuits you could eat)
All for $17.99!  Then we shared a banana pudding.  All made from
scratch...even the vanilla wafers!  YUMMY!!

They serve over 7000 biscuits daily!

We drove back to the CG by way of the Natchez Trace Parkway.  What a beautiful drive!! 

A stunning view from a high overpass.

Everything is so green and many of the trees were
blooming gorgeous pinks, purples and whites.

Here you can see the leftover fall/winter growth
and the spring blooms.

The rock walls were pretty, too!

We saw a lot of turkeys and some deer.

And some waterfalls.

This fence was along most of the parkway.

When we got back to the CG our neighbors were sitting out at a campfire and they asked us to join them.  We had a great night chatting with Joe and Tina, full timers since August.  They had lived in California.  After we left we went down to the bathhouse to take showers so John wouldn't have to bother dumping  the tanks.  Besides, something was up with our hot water heater.  We were having trouble getting hot water on electric or propane. So what's up with that??   We exchanged info with Joe and Tina Monday morning, left the CG around 10:00 and made our way to NC.  We knew we would have to stay overnight at a Cracker Barrel because it was a 13 1/2 hr drive to Camp LeJeune.

 

Just after pulling out of the CG we saw this field
of "mustard plants".  It looked like a yellow carpet!

 

Wish we could have seen the rest of this "castle!"

 

  After 2 stops for gas, the ESTime change at 2:37 in Roane, TN, and 7 hrs on mountainous, windy roads we arrived at the Cracker Barrel in Morganton, NC at about 7:30pm. 

It WAS a very pretty drive.  Those are the Smoky Mtns in the background

Ah, yes, we are finally in North Carolina!

The truck traffic was very heavy and a bit scary
on the windy, downhill areas!!

The sky was so pretty...

...and so was the sunset.

John tried so hard to get The Voice to come in for me, but to no avail.  So he fooled around on the computer and I watched a PBS special about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elem in Newtown, CT.  How sad that was!!  But before it was over we went to bed.  We were both so tired! 
   Tuesday morning John woke me at 5:30 (much too early for me), so we could grab a quick breakfast at Cracker Barrel and then get back on the road.  By 7:00 we were on our way.  To pass the time John and I decided to debate some political and biblical issues.  It was pretty fun and interesting with no concrete answers, but some good discussions.  And it really did pass a lot of time!  I texted Jack and Lyn to ask them if they had arrived at Camp LeJeune yet.  They said they had arrived the day before and were anxiously awaiting our arrival.  I didn't let on that we were on our way because we wanted to surprise them. (we weren't supposed to get there until Friday)  Lyn happened to call me about 2 hours before we got to the base just to chat.  She said they were on their way to the commissary.   We were hoping to pull in at about 1:45 and get set up before they got back.  But as chance had it, just as we turned onto the road going back to the CG John said, "guess what, Lyn and Jack are behind us."  About that time my phone rang and it was Lyn.  She and Jack figured out that it was us when they saw the Jeep, the Bounder, and the PA license plate.  We all had a good laugh at our surprising them!!  We set up beside them and then went out to the beach to hunt for sharks teeth.  But the tide was in too far making it almost impossible to find any.  And it was very windy and almost cold and neither one of us had worn a sweatshirt.  We did brave it, though, for about 2 hrs.  We got showers and ate supper together about 7:00...Jack grilling brats and we supplying the side dishes.  We left their 5th wheel at 8:00 because John was beat and I wanted to watch The Voice.  John was in bed by 9:30 and I followed at 11:00 after watching Chicago Fire.  So our adventure begins with Jack and Lyn and shark teeth hunting at Camp LeJeune.