Moving Day to North Carolina

   We got up early to finish preparing for our trip to Forest Lake RV park in Advance, NC.  It will be our last stay at a park before leaving for home to PA on Friday.  John took our small load of dirty clothes down to the laundry while I cooked some leftovers for breakfast.  We ate, loaded up the Jeep and headed down to the office to fill up the propane tank.  Then we pulled in to the gas station on base to put air in Harvey's tires, but it didn't go up to 90 lbs.  So we hooked up the Jeep and off we went.  It was about 9:45 by now.  We had an 8 and 1/2hr trip ahead of us, so we were glad to be on the road.  We stopped about 4 and 1/2hrs into the trip... just over the SC line.  We let Kylie out to go potty, got a bite to eat, gassed up Harvey (for $2.09/gal), put air in his tires and washed his windshield.  We were there a little longer than we wanted to be, but it felt good to be out of Harvey for a while.  We got back on the road and got into a traffic jam around Charlotte.  We lost about 20 minutes and it was stressful for John, but he handled it very well!  We arrived at the CG at about 6:30 and were all set-up by 7:15.  We're getting pretty good at this!   We had some supper while I watched The Voice and John watched TV outside.  He came in about 8:45 because it was getting chilly.  He played on the computer for a while and I watched "Undateable" a new comedy show on NBC.  It was silly, but funny for the most part.  Some of the humor was a little questionable for an old fogie like me.  John was exhausted so he went to bed.  I worked on catching up on my blogs while watching an old movie, "The Three Faces of Eve".  I finished up about 1:00 and went to bed.  We'll explore the CG tomorrow.

We're Going Baby Ear Hunting Today!

We're going to Fernandina Beach today, so we had breakfast, packed a few snacks and were on the road by 10:00.  We got to the beach by 10:45 and it was beautiful!  It was about 70 degrees and sunny with a slight breeze.

It was a very pretty day and look at all those shells!!

  I was searching the shell laden beach for my baby ears while John took a walk.  I found 3 baby ears plus some other shells.  John came back and we played some Yahtzee and he read a little bit.  Then about 2:00 he went for another walk to the other end of the beach.  I texted some of my friends to rub it in that I was on the beach and just like that a huge ugly cloud hovered over, it got chilly and it started to drizzle!  It stopped almost as fast as it started, the cloud passed over and it got hot... almost 80 degrees!!

It was already starting to get cloudy when John started his walk.

 

Here comes the big, ugly cloud!

Now that's nasty looking!  It produced a little bit of showers,
but didn't last long.

The sun came out again so we could enjoy more
time on our last trip to the beach!

  I started looking for shells again and when John returned he said I had to come back and call Alexandra.  She had exciting news for us.  So I called her and she told me that she was accepted to the Lancaster School of Art and had even gotten a scholarship!  Even though she has changed her mind about her going to that school she was still so excited about being accepted!  We are very proud of her, too, especially for bringing up her GPA!!  She has decided since applying there to go to HACC to study to be an elementary teacher.  She recently got a job babysitting everyday after school and will continue with the family full-time over the summer.  I went shell hunting again for a while and I found 4 more baby ears!! 

I kept shell hunting up until the last minute before we left!

Some different shells...the fluted one in the middle is really neat!

My "baby ear" collection.  I was so excited to find 7 of them!!

Then we packed up and left about 4:45.  John wanted to get some outside work done in preparation for leaving tomorrow morning.  When we got back I cooked supper while John worked outside.  After supper I watched The Voice and John read and played on the computer.  We went to bed about 10:30. 

Another Sunny but Chilly Day

   We got up this morning about 8:00, ate breakfast and got ready for church.  The service started at 10:30 so we had plenty of time.  Good thing, because I really needed a shower...I smelled like smoke from last night's campfire.  There were only a handful of people, maybe 20, at the service.  We enjoyed it very much!  Afterward they had a pot luck lunch with fried chicken, salads, casseroles, fruit and dessert and drinks.  What a nice surprise!  We stopped at the commissary to get a few bargains to bring home. 


Look at the pretty mum I got.  I hope I can keep
it alive until we get home and I can plant it outside!







 

We spoke with Bill, the guitar guy's wife when we got back to the CG and s he said Bill was looking for me in the community room a bit ago, but he was now visiting another camper.  I told her to come and get me when he was ready to do some singing.  About an hour later there was a knock on our door and Bill's wife said he was waiting for me.  John wanted to take a nap, so I went down about 2:00 and he said he would come down later and we could play cards.  Bill had mostly older country songs that I didn't know on his computer but we found enough to keep us entertained for about 2 hrs.

This is Bill.  He is a pretty good country singer!

  By this time John had come down and I was ready to stop singing and play some cards.  The camp host treated us to more cookies right out of the oven (I tried to resist, but I thought it would be rude not to eat some after all the trouble she went to!).  We got halfway through our game of Nerts and realized that we had forgotten to take Kylie out, so we left.  We had some leftovers for supper while watching the Duke/Gonzaga basketball game.  Duke pulled out a win.  Heather will be real happy!!  Bill wants me to come back tonight about 7:00 to entertain the group playing Hand and Foot, but I'm not sure I want to.  It really wasn't that much fun... he didn't have many songs I knew or enjoyed singing.  So John and I went down about 8:00 to play Hand and Foot.  It took me about and hour and a half to beat him! 

The group at the community center plays serious
 Hand and Foot!  They have a "Foot" holder necklace
 and a "Hand" holder.

Then a couple who just got to the CG came in and we chatted with them and Barbara, the camp host, for about an hour.  We headed back to Harvey and went to bed.  We're planning to go to Fernandina Beach tomorrow...yea!!!!

Beautiful Day but Chilly!

   I got up about 8:30 and John had already eaten some of our leftovers from yesterday's breakfast.  He was ready to go do his walking, so I ate breakfast and fixed myself up (that took a while) and then repainted my toenails.  When he got back about 11:30 he had gotten all his 10,000 steps in!  We decided to take all the rugs down to the laundry and play some Nerts while it was finishing up.  We left in the middle of the game (to be decided later) so we could get back to eat lunch and take Kylie for her nail trim.  The rugs weren't quite dry so we'll pick them up on our way out.  When John went in to the laundry to get the rugs, they weren't there, and there was laundry in the dryer we were using.  He asked a woman there if she had seen them, but she said," No."  Then a man came in and went to the dryer we had used and here he had put his laundry in without checking to see if it was empty.  Mystery solved!  We headed to the groomed/pet resort which was only a mile and a half away.  They were all so friendly and gentle with Kylie.  She didn't put up any fight at all.  We asked if they could recommend anything to keep Kylie smelling better between shampoos.  They GAVE us a can of dry shampoo and sold us a pet odor eliminator candle. 

Kylie almost looks happy, huh?!?

Then we stopped at Publix to get "a few" groceries, but ended up with about 6 bags full because they had a bunch of BOGOF specials that I couldn't resist.  Hey, we can take the stuff home with us!  We decided to start a fire and use our cast iron sandwich makers to make "hot pockets" with Pillsbury crescents and our leftover steak.  We chatted with the neighbors for a bit while the fire was getting ready. 

I wish you could see the rest of the dog.  He was shaved
Only from the middle of his back.  His hair was wirey
and full, and with the pomp on his tail
 he looked just like a lion!

The pockets were delicious!  We'll be doing that again!! (we should have taken a picture...you would think by this late in the game we would be better at that!!)  After supper we toasted marshmallows and made s'mores.  YUMMMM!!

I'm a happy camper... I'm making s'mores!!

  The fire burned out so we went down to the community room to play Nerts.  The camp host treated us to cookies and another camper, Bill, who plays the guitar invited me down tomorrow to do some singing.  John won Nerts, but it was a close one... 200-191!  We came back at 11:30 and went to bed.  We are planning to go to church on the base tomorrow morning.

Another Gray Day in Paradise

   John made breakfast this morning and then we decided to wash all the bedding since the weather was preventing us from doing anything else.  We also decided to play "Nerts"  in the community room while waiting for the laundry to finish.  So we loaded up the laundry bags, packed up the cards and drinks and off we went.  Unbelievably, the laundry is FREE here.  The only hitch is that you can only use cold water.  Everyone else must have had the same idea that we had because most of the washers and dryers were already in use.  But we were only there a few minutes when all but the front loader opened up.  I wanted to use that for the bedspread so we had to wait for that one.  We got everything going and went into the community room to play cards.  There were 3 tables going with Bunco.  Had I known that was on the calendar I probably would have joined them.  I normally play that once a month with the girls from my old neighborhood.  Anyway, we went back and forth over to the laundry in between hands of "Nerts".  The game was pretty close until the end when I made my move and won.  I chatted with a man from NC for a while and John took the laundry back to Harvey.  Then we went to Zaxby's for lunch.  It's a restaurant a lot like KFC but better.  All the dinners and salads come with garlic Texas toast.  We filled up the Jeep with gas on base and went back to Harvey.  John took a nap while I worked on my blog and cooked chicken breasts to make chicken salad.  The cold front the weatherman is calling for is here and it's starting to rain.  I called a local pet place to see if I could get Kylie's nails trimmed and maybe a bath.  They won't do the bath because she's not up to date with all her shots but I'll be taking her there tomorrow after 1:00 for a nail trim.  John is going to head to the gym and I'm going to stay back and finish the chicken salad and repaint my toenails. (I bet you really wanted to know that, huh?!?). I'll remake the bed, too.   Then I might even touch up my gray roots.  Pretty energetic, aren't I?  I was going to play some Hand and Foot tonight, but that's been cancelled.  We made the bed before John left.  He got back about 7:30 and guess what... all I got done was the chicken salad!  I obviously wasn't as energetic as I thought.  Seems to happen a lot while RVing!!  John took a shower and then we decided to go down to the bowling alley on base... not to bowl, but they have a game room, pub, and Dominos pizza there.  We played 3 games of Skeeball and I was the champ!  Then we went to the pub to have a few drinks while watching the NCAA basketball games.  We ordered from Dominos, too.  The female bartender and I talked a bit about our hip/foot problems and she told me about some sandals, Reef brand, that have helped with her pain.  They sell them on base at the Px so I'm going to check them out tomorrow.  Looks like that trip to the pub will cost us more than the price of drinks!!  We left about 9:30 and played a game of Racko when we got back.  John "murderized" me! 

John's winning hand!

 I finished my blog while watching the Duke basketball game and then we went to bed.  John dozed off but I wanted to see the end of the game, so I stayed up till the bitter end about 12:30.     

 

Jekyll Island...Here We Come!!



   We got up early today so we could get to Jekyll before the rain comes.  We had breakfast, packed lunches and snacks and we were out the door by 9:10.  I put my bathing suit under my clothes, but John just dressed in shorts and a short sleeved shirt.  We did take sweatshirts, just in case it was cool by the water.   It was a bit foggy and very overcast even after we arrived at Jekyll at about 10:15.  

We were so excited to see the beautiful entrance
to Jekyll again.  We love it here!!

This is the walkway onto South Beach.

The thistles are flowering here already much to
the bumblebee's delight!

Look at the thick stem on this huge thistle!!!

 

We were the only people there with chairs!

It wasn't very hard to pick our spot!

My cane and thermos look a bit lonely, huh?!?

  But after about a half an hour it cleared up, the sun came out, and I was able to change into my shorts.  John took a long walk down the beach looking for his conch shells and I scoured the nearby shallow water and surf for whatever I could find.  It was hard to see the bottom because the water was dirty and the surf was covered with jellyfish and other weird stuff.

Most of the jellyfish were shaped weird and had
a hard rubber make-up (I pushed on them with my cane).  The doppled brown ball at the top was squishy and bounced across the ridges
in the sand.  Maybe someone can help identify it.

 

These were more traditional jellyfish.  I think they were dead.

 

 



This was hard like plastic when I pushed on it with my cane.
It was about 6 inches in diameter.  I have no idea what it is...HELP!

 

  I only found a couple of small shells.  When John got back he had 4 nice conch shells.  He said he had found a bunch more, but they all had "critters" in them, so he put them back.

John thinks "all the old ladies got to the beach
early and picked up all the good ones."

  He also saw a bunch of dolphins gathered in an inlet, but he didn't have his camera with him to take pictures, darn it.  We did some reading and had our lunch and it started to sprinkle.  It didn't last long, but it got rather chilly and very, very cloudy.  John started out for another walk in the other direction but it started to rain again.  I was so glad he came back because by now I was wrapped in towels and my sweatshirt.  I even had my hood up!  We were forced to leave at about 2:00.  We were bummed because we really wanted to spend the whole day there.  Oh, well, we'll be back for the whole month of October next year.  When we got back to Harvey and Kylie we both took naps.  We had leftovers for supper and then John went to the gym while I worked on my blog.  It rained hard most of the evening and we even had some thunder.  I oiled all my shells and we went to bed about 10:30.  It's supposed to rain most of the day tomorrow, too, so I'm not sure what are plans are.

Back to Fernandina Beach Today

   When we got up this morning it was still overcast but it didn't get as chilly overnight as last night.  The forecast is for mid 70's and clearing after noon time.  So we decided to go visit the Mayport Naval Base just south of Jacksonville and then head to Fernandina Beach.  We left about 10:30 and went out for breakfast to Denny's.  Then on to the Naval Base about 40 minutes away.

This is a bridge we went over near Jacksonville

  There are 2 CGs there... Pelican Roost and Osprey Cove.  We went to Pelican Roost first and were quite impressed.  There are 48 sites and 18 of them overlook the St. Johns River.  It is gorgeous!  Osprey Cove has 50 sites and is nice, too, but doesn't have the pretty view.  Either one would be fun to stay at.

This is one of many kittys we saw on the way to the CG.
There's something very majestic about him or her!

 

This is the view from one of the sites overlooking
the St. John's river

 

Hey, Terry... we found your RV at Osprey Cove, but unfortunately we weren't able to talk the owner down to $10K to get it for you!!!!

We drove over close to where some of the ships are docked and had a wonderful conversation with a Navy sailor.

We joked with sailor asking him if they were playing
"craps".  Notice the ship in the background.

This heron was keeping a watchful eye on us!

A Coast Guard ship out on the river

An inlet and docking area

John thinks this is a type of tug boat

  We drove around the base a bit more and found a ship (DDG-64: USS CARNEY) that John had ordered parts for while he was still working for the Navy in Mechanicsburg.  That was neat!! 

By 1:30 we were on our way to the beach about 40 miles away.  It still looked pretty threatening until we pulled into the parking lot.  There was some blue peeking through the clouds!  It was still a bit cool but getting warmer.  I talked with Bonnie for a while catching up on their adventures getting ready for their trip out west next month.  They have had quite a hectic schedule since returning to PA, but it's all good!  It was about 2:30 and the tide was going out, so quite a few shells were being revealed.  I am very hopeful that I will find my baby ear shells.  However, after about an hour and a half I still hadn't found any.  At one point a man walking along the water asked me if I was looking for sharks teeth.  He and his wife looked familiar and he asked if we knew each other.  We finally figured out that we had met at Lazy Days one morning while in the breakfast line and then had eaten together.  Small world, huh!  We talked a while and then I was back at the hunt.  John found a large patch of shells that had washed up so we took all our stuff there so I could sit among them and sort through them.

These piles of shells were about an inch thick!

I'm having a blast!!

Here's some of the shells we found.  The olive shells across
the top are really pretty!  John found the neat white
scallop shell in top right corner.  I still need to bleach the sand dollar.

I'm holding up one of those inside spiral pieces from a
conch shell.  I'm not sure why I like them so much.
 



My famous Hershey Kiss sweatshirt.  John gives me a
hard time every time I wear it.  I've had it a long time!

  I found 2 baby ears that weren't totally whole but was still excited.  I found a sand dollar and a bunch of other shells, too.   We left about 6:30 and on the way out I found a large pile of shells that was left on the beach.  When I sorted through it I found 2 more baby ears... oh happy day!!!  We got home about 7:30, grilled a steak for supper and then I worked on my blog while John watched some TV outside.  He showered and went to bed and I finished my blog.  Tomorrow we're headed to Jekyll Island for the day.  It's supposed to be sunny and near 80...yippee!!

Another Gray Weather Day

   We woke up to a chilly, rainy day this morning.  We had breakfast.  I called my fellow Frogette, Jane and wished her a Happy Birthday and chatted a while.  We decided it was a good day to do laundry so John took it down while I worked on my blog.  He didn't come back for a while and I figured he was taking a walk while the clothes were getting clean.  But that wasn't the case...I guess everyone thought it was a good laundry day because he had to wait for a washing machine to become available.  He went down later to switch it over and then I joined him to help do the folding when it was done.  After we put the laundry away John had his leftovers from the Italian restaurant.  I was watching 3 episodes of Extreme Makeovers where they build a new house for families that are down and out but give of themselves anyway.  I was in tears for about 3 hrs... it was so moving!  Then we headed for the fitness center on base.  Yes, I went too!!  I just did about a half hour on the bicycle and then went over to the Px to shop.  John joined me about 45 minutes later. (I needed his wallet!). We had bought some wood at the office this morning, so we had to go to the commissary to get supplies to make s'mores.  And they had butter for $1.99, so I got several of those, too!  When we got back from there John showered and took a short nap.  I finished my blog, watched some TV and groomed Kylie.  Then John grilled a ham steak for supper.  We felt like we needed to leave the base, so we found a Dairy Queen and each got a Blizzard.  We brought them back to eat while watching The Voice.  I got a shower and we went to bed.  I played Word Twist for a while before my head hit the pillow.  We hope to get to a beach tomorrow!

This "Strategic Weapons Facility Atlantic" is on the
road on the way back to the CG.  It's where they
make them and manage them.

A Rainy Day in Georgia!

   It started raining shortly after we went to bed last night, sometimes very hard.  Temps were in the 50's when we got up and not expected to get out of the low 60's today.  Oh, well, sometimes into the sunshine some clouds must appear.  We really have been blessed with great weather most of our trip.  The rest of the week is supposed to be better.  I hope so... we're losing our tans!  John went down to the gym while I prepared pancakes and bacon for breakfast.  I even made a bananas foster sauce to put over the pancakes.  John got back about an hour later and we ate.  It was yummy if I do say so myself.  I cleaned the shells I got yesterday and worked on my blog.  John took a nap.  Heather called and I talked with her and Cooper for a while.  When John got up we talked about seeing a movie and decided on "Do You Believe".  It's a Christian movie made by the same people who made "God is Not Dead".   I called AT&T to have a charge taken off our bill and then we left for the 1:45 show.  We had to go to Florida to see the movie, but it was only 30 minutes away.  It was gorgeous!  We didn't get anything to eat or drink, but you could put your own butter on your popcorn and you got your own drinks from those new machines like that have in some Burger King's now.  And the matinee price was only $7.00!  Everything was digital so the picture and sound was amazing!  The movie was wonderful... so inspiring and thought provoking and moving.  If you go see it take plenty of tissues!!!  John and I were both crying, even after we got to the car!  After the movie we stopped at the bank, Petco and CVS.  Then we went to supper.  We'll let you guess where by the pictures.  As usual, it was delicious.

Our appetizer, red neck egg rolls

 

John's entree

 

My sandwich

 

It was so good and I was so hungry...I ate'r all!!

  When we got back I worked on my blog and John went next door to talk with a couple in a trailer that came in while we were gone.  It had a PA license plate and a sticker in the back window... retired Air Force.  Turns out they are an 80 yr old couple from Schuylkill Co just next to the town that John grew up in!  They have been RVing for 17 yrs and stay in only military parks.  They mentioned that there was an ice cream social down at the community bldg. so we went down with them to be social (even though we were still full from supper).  We came back just before 8:00 so I could watch The Voice.  Dustin called about 8:30 and we talked with the whole family for about 20 minutes.  Emma signed up for softball and Ellie signed up for soccer.  We're looking forward to going to watch them play!  I watched my show while John read one of the books he bought at the seminar at Lazy Days.  



 

Wow... he's really engrossed, huh?!?



Look at John's hair...I think he's going for the "hippie" look!

We went to bed after my show and I finished my book, "The Time of My Life" by Patrick Swayze, and John read another one of the seminar books about "holding tanks". (how exciting, huh?!?). Tomorrow sounds like another wash-out, so I don't know what our plans are.