2nd Full Day at Camp LeJeune

   We woke up to overcast skies and a balmy 70 degrees.  It was so humid!!  We ate breakfast and then headed to the commissary on base to get our groceries.  It was packed.  We waited in line for about 20 minutes to check out.  But the prices are worth the wait!!  We came back to Harvey to put everything away and then John left to go pick up the items we had in storage...extra out door chairs, ladder golf, the cornhole game we bought in St Simon, the bicycles and bike rack.  My plan was to work on the blog while he was gone, but I wasn't able to get into it.  John will need to help me when he gets back.  So I think you can guess what I did instead.  You're right...I went to the beach to look for sharks teeth.  I went about 2:30 and John came down to check on me about 3:30.  He went back to Harvey to take a nap.  I left the beach at 5:00 and John met me with the Jeep at the bottom of the dunes.  He had woken up and since I wasn't back yet thought something had happened to me.  Nope, just can't seem to quit.  I think I'm addicted.  I'm actually becoming a shark tooth snob...I don't even pick up all the tiny little ones anymore!

Here's my collection today...about 75
of them and some sea glass, too!

 

Aren't these serrated ones neat?!?

  We came back to Harvey, cleaned up and then headed out to the sports bar, Heroz, here on base to watch the semi final NCAA football games with Clemson/Oklahoma and Alabama/Michigan St, but it was closed!  (We can't get the games in the CG)  So we went off base to the Carolina Ale House.  It, too, is a sports bar with a gazillion TV's.  Talked to Heather and Cooper and Bonnie on the way.  We were so glad to hear that some tests Ken had came out all right!!  He's still not feeling the best, though, and either is Bonnie.  Hope they start to feel better before they leave for Florida on Sunday!  We spent the whole evening there.  It was fun!  When we got back about 11:00 John went to bed and I worked on my blog till 1:30.  I totally forgot to watch the New Year celebrations on TV!

We're Back on the Road Again...Yea!!

   It has been a very busy and eventful Fall for us.  Busy with doctor appts, birthday celebrations, church activities, holiday celebrations and spending time with family.  And it was all good!!   Eventful because of craft shows, the birth of twins, a new pregnancy, the leaving of our church, Michele's remodeling, Heather's move to York, TW and Arlena's new home purchase, and our pug, Kylie's passing:(

Ellie and Emma playing hairdresser in
Michele's REAL salon...a little girl's dream!!

Alexandra is helping Bennett, Emma and Ellie
put a gingerbread house together.

Michele, the Thanksgiving hostess, at work
in the kitchen.

Dustin, Ellie and Bennett were the only ones to
 brave the new hot tub.  They had a blast!!




TW and Bennett enjoying my Dad's old pool
table that Michele bought from them before they
sold their house.  The red "felt" has been replaced
with gray and it looks much better!!  When John and I
played it brought back wonderful memories of when
Dad, Bonnie, and I used to play in the basement!

 

 

We made brownies at a "sleep-over".  Someone
had to lick the whisk!

Our sweet and precious Kyie Girl
adorning the Christmas tree.

Cooper just loves his Talking Tom! of course, it drives
Heather nuts.  (Ahhh, pay backs :)

Bennett with his triple drum set.  He loves his
drums, just like his Daddy!

John got a toilet golf set from Dustin.
As if he doesn't spend enough time
in the bathroom :)

Ellie looks so pretty in her Christmas dress!

The boys with their "lollipops".

Bonnie, Ken, John and I took a steak dinner
out to Mom and Dad at Masonic Home the day
after Christmas.  Don't they look great!!

 

 

   We left Mt Joy at 3:11 am on Wed morning, Dec 30 to head to the Camp Lejeune Air Station to pick up Harvey.  It was very foggy!  We hit the Washington DC area about 5:30 and couldn't believe how much traffic there was at that hour.  It was a good thing that we had decided to leave at 3:00 instead of 4:30!!  We stopped for breakfast at 8:30 at a Denny's diner in Chester, VA just south of Richmond.  We gassed up the Jeep and off we went.

 

How do you like these gas prices?!?

  Yea, we are already half way there!!  Bonnie called to see how the trip was going.  We made one more quick stop to potty and get coffee for John and we arrived at the Air station at 12:30.  When we drove out the road to the storage area it was closed...not a good sign!!  But we got some directions from a kind marine and found our way in.  It was so good to see Harvey (and we think he was happy to see us, too)!  I was on the phone with Aunt Barbara while John checked to make sure everything was working ok inside and outside Harvey.  No sign of mice, ants, raccoons or bears :)  The engine turned over and all the tires still had air!!  Unfortunately, the steps still don't work.  We left the air station about 1:00.  I followed John to Camp Lejeune.  It poured on the way but stopped just before we got on the base.    We arrived about 1:30 and were all set up by 2:15.  The temp was 77!  By 3:30 we were on the beach looking for sharks teeth. 

Ahhh...my happy place!!



It was overcast and misty, but I persevered!!

I searched for sharks teeth till almost sundown!

Over a hundred shark teeth, some sea glass
and a disintegrated penny!  Not bad
for the first day huh?!?

John headed back to Harvey to finish some more of the set up and I came back about 5:30.  We cleaned up and went to supper.  We wanted pizza from Pizza Hut, but it was closed, so we ended up at Jimmy Johns and had subs.  They were very good!  We stopped at Food Lion on the way back to get a few things for breakfast.  We watched a little TV and went to bed about 10:00.  We were both exhausted!!  It rained most of the evening and overnight.  It always seems to rain when we are here :(            

First Full Day at Camp LeJeune

   It was chilly when we got up this morning...47 degrees!  We had to turn the heat on.  After breakfast we headed to the nearby Air Station to check out the RV storage area where we will be storing Harvey for Nov and Dec.  The storage area is located by the marina which is gorgeous!

On the way out of the CG we got stopped on the
drawbridge to let this sailboat go through.

 

This drawbridge is different in that it doesn't raise up
in the middle like most.  The road way pivots in the
 middle and turns 90 degrees.  This is the edge of the
roadway coming back together.

 

 

This is the main docking area.  The sign below is posted there.

 

We didn't see any... that's a negative and a positive!

 

The year old office building is gorgeous!

 

This was painted inside on the wall.

 

Lots od Adirondack chairs are set up to view the water.

 

It's a beautiful setting! (No, that's not the Loch Ness Monster
in the water.  There was something on the lens of the camera.)

  We spent about an hour there and then went to their PX and commissary to get a few things.  We also had lunch at Subway.

These are called "Osprey" airplanes.
Notice how perfectly they are lined up!

This was a parking area full of helicopters.

This was just inside the Air Station.

  On the way back Alexandra sent us a few pix from Penn State.  She and her boyfriend, Todd went up for the game.  We are big Penn State fans, so it was nice that she thought of us!  She kept us posted on the score. When we got back we changed into our beach wear. At about 2:00 I headed down to the beach to look for sharks teeth and John stayed back to work on a couple of things in Harvey.  He joined me later.  He walked much farther up the beach to get his steps in and we met up again at about 5:00.

It's a really pretty beach!  Unfortunately, a lot
of the dunes have been washed away during October.

The clouds look like cotton balls.

This looks like some e sort of Puffer fish.  He was dead :(

  He headed back and I stayed out because I have a hard time stopping.  I didn't find very many nice sharks teeth, but I found a lot of shell pieces for Bonnie to use for her jewelry making.  I did find a penny, some sea glass, and some shell casings which kept it interesting!  

My treasures from today.

I finally came in about 6:00 because it was getting dark and I still had my prescription sun glasses on.  When I entered the CG I could see that my wonderful husband had strung up the froggie lights around the screen house and hung the light in the middle.  It really looked neat!!

John did all the decorating himself... what a guy!

  John grilled hamburgers and mini meatloaves.  They were so good especially since we finally found Martin's potato rolls at the commissary!!  After supper we played 2 games of Five Crowns...I won them both.  We watched a little TV and then went to bed about 11:00. 

Travel Day to Camp LeJeune, NC

   We got up at 6:00 to do all the final preparations to leave Jekyll by 7:30.  Well, "best land plans"... we didn't leave until 7:45.  (I think John always leaves a little "wiggle" room because I have some trouble sticking to schedules)!  We stopped for gas at Shell near I-95 because we had $.18 off per gallon thanks to Winn Dixie purchases.  We paid $1.74/gallon, but we could only get 20 gallons.  We'll fill up in SC where gas is even cheaper!  We needed to return the table we bought at Camping World , so we headed toward the CW in Savannah.  Well, that was a mistake!!  It was very small and the flow of traffic was awful!!  We had to wait a half an hour just o move because of a traffic jam. Don't ever go there with your motor home... it's impossible to maneuver!!  We stopped for gas at a Flying J at Exit 77.  They had pumps off to the side just for RV's...gas or diesel!  They even had long-handled squeegees to wash your windshield!  It was so easy!!! And gas was only $1.81...$1.78 with our Good Sam $.03 discount.  And the best thing of all...Cinnabons!!!!!  John's coffee was good, too.  Back on the road and we really didn't hit any traffic until about 3:30 in NC.  I talked to Mom and Bonnie.  Everyone is doing well!  We pulled into the Camp Lejeune CG at 5:00..about an hour later than we had hoped.  And guess what... our steps would not come down.  We just had them replaced about a month ago.  UGH!!  I guess it could be a lot worse.  We DO have a ladder we can use to get in and out.  It's just so darn inconvenient!  We had hoped to go over to the beach to look for sharks teeth after we got here, but it took a while to check in and until we got all set up it was almost 7:00.  The sharks teeth hunt will just have to wait until tomorrow.  We were also disappointed that Claudia and Larry weren't here.  I actually hadn't heard anything from them the last 4 days, so I was a bit concerned.  I texted her and she said they were considering buying a new motor home and had spent the last few days working on that.  But in the end they decided to keep theirs.  She said they were coming but it wouldn't be until Sunday.  We are looking forward to spending time with them and getting to know them better!  We planned on having spare ribs for supper, but they were spoiled, so we had a ham slice, mashed potatoes, and veggies for supper.  It was yummy!  We watched just a little TV and then went to bed.  We were both exhausted!  Sorry, no pix today.

Our Last Full Day on Jekyll

   I woke up early this morning at about 7:30.  John was just getting ready to go out for his walk.  I did my exercises and got up and got busy.  I sorted laundry to take down to wash, cleaned and oiled some shells, made tea and readied the beach bag for later.  Then I cooked bacon and got pancakes ready to make for when John got back.

The spoon bill showed up again...

 

...I guess so John could say, "good-bye"

 

 

This big deer posed for him...

 

...and so did this neat mushroom!

 

These were 2 of the paths he had to take today,
because his regular ones were still closed for clean-up
from the flooding.

 

Our plans for the day were to drive our bikes down to the historic district to check out the bookstore and ride along the bike trail that we saw Wally the gator on last year.  After our yummy pumpkin pancake breakfast we headed "downtown" at about 11:00.  We parked and then hopped on our bikes.  First stop, the bookstore.  I bought something to use for the annual Frogette (my girlfriends from home) picture we always take while at Ocean City, Maryland.  (I can't say what because some of them read this.). Then we hit the trail in search of Wally.  We didn't see him at first, but then I spied him across the marshy water.  Just call me, "eagle-eye" or more appropriately, "gator-eye."

Heeeeere's Wally!!

We headed back to the car, loaded the bikes and drove back to Harvey.  On the way there were some cops and several people in fluorescent vests along the road.  There were also many vans and a car equipped with some sort of boom type camera on the top.  We were just too curious and finally asked one of the cops what was going on.  He told us that the new Ben Affleck movie, "Live By Night", was filming a scene along the marsh on this stretch of road.  I had heard that there was a movie set in downtown Brunswick for filming this week, but I didn't know about Jekyll!  When we got back to the CG I asked John what he did with the bag from the bookstore.  He said he had put it on the back fender of the Jeep and he thought I had picked it up.  Well, I hadn't.  So I got back in the Jeep and high-tailed it back to the shop.  But I couldn't get thru because of the filming and had to turn around and go back the other way.  By the time I got back to the parking lot, which we figured was where it probably fell off, the package was gone!  I checked at the nearby Turtle Center and the Admin Bldg lost and found, but no luck.  Then I drove back over the road we took back to the CG to see if it was along the road, but, again, no luck.  So I drove back to the bookstore to buy another one and guess what...I had bought the last one!  Shucks!!  I was really disappointed, but decided it wasn't that big a deal.  I can probably find it on line.  So I checked and I did find it on Amazon.  Problem solved.  On the way back I'm sure I caught a glimpse of Ben Affleck and some actors in costume.  I guess you'll have to just take my word for it, because I couldn't stop to take pictures.  By the time I got back to the CG John had already been up on the roof of Harvey to clean off the debris and hose it down,  cleaned up all the chairs, and packed up all the other stuff we had outside.  I helped him hose down the big rug, take down the lights, and gather up all our "lawn ornaments".  Needless to say, we never made it to the beach.  Oh, well, we'll have Camp Lejeune to satisfy our beach cravings!  We cleaned ourselves up and went to Sonny's Barbeque for supper and then to Home Depot for a new toilet seat.  Mine cracked in half yesterday for some reason.  OK, OK, enough with all the things you're thinking right now!!  Cooper called while we were there.  When we got back Sandy and Sadie, the pug, from the RV across from us were taking a walk past our RV, so we said our chatted a bit and said our good-byes.  Then we went down to the laundry.  I took a shower when we got back and John finished up outside, emptying tanks, etc.  He worked really hard!!  He went down and switched the laundry into the dryers.  I cleaned up inside.  Then I went down and finished the laundry.  John came down to help me bring it back. Thanks, Honey!!  We watched some football and then went to bed.  We are in real good shape for our 7:30am departure tomorrow morning!