We're On The Road Again!!

  It's been 2 months since my last blog post (one that I didn't even finish...sorry...I got busy!)  I had Praise Team practice the Thursday night we got home and the first of 4 holiday craft shows with my pins and scarves that Saturday.  We celebrated Ellie's 6th birthday, Mom's 87th birthday, and I did 3 more craft shows.  We got together with family and friends, hosted Thanksgiving Day dinner, had doctor and dentist appts., decorated for Christmas, hosted Trivia with the Frogettes, finished Christmas shopping, and celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  WHEW!!  Now you know why I didn't get around to the blog.  A few more exciting things happened during the 2 months we were home.  John and I decided to stick to a low carb diet.  John lost 21 lbs and I lost 15 lbs.  Also, on Christmas Day we found out that Arlena and TW are pregnant.  They will be blessing us with our 7th grandchild in mid August!  And last, but not least, yours truly signed up for Social Security.  I guess that means I am officially old (or does that come when I get Medicare??) 



 

Ellie is "Queen for a Day."

 

Emma and their new French Bull dog puppy, Finn.

 

Jack provided a true "Kodak" moment!

 

Alexandra and new hubby, Todd.  Cooper (below), who is
obsessed with fire engines, calls him, "Firefighter, Todd." 
Notice Bennett's shirt.  It says, "I'm the Big Brother."
It's how TW and Arlena told us they were pregnant.

 

Cooper sure enjoyed opening his presents!

Our last week in Mount Joy was hectic.  Michele, Lawn, TW, Arlena, Bennett and Cooper came over on New Years Day for "lucky" pork and sauerkraut.

This was our "big" Christmas gift to all the young
grandkids...an RV tent.

Cooper and Bennett roasting marshmellows and hot dogs
around the campfire.

 The boys stayed overnight and then Heather and Jack came over Monday night to watch the Rose Bowl football game between Penn State and USC.  WOW...what a game!!  We got together with church buddies, Rod and Joyce on Tuesday morning.  I took Mom out for the day on Wednesday while John cooked a Flat Iron steak meal for Dad at Masonic.

Mom and Dad look pretty darn good for 87 and 92, huh?!?

  The Frogettes had their Christmas Trivia on Thursday afternoon.  We celebrated Pat's 70th birthday.  If you noticed, we have our get-togethers during the day now because we're getting too old to stay up late on Friday nights:)

Sue (aka Babs) and Patti (aka Betty)

Susie (aka Lucy) and Jane (aka Jewels)

Our birthday girl, Pat (aka Becki)  Who would ever
guess she is 70!!!

  John and I finished packing and loading the Jeep for our trip during the day on Friday, then he went to York to get the girls off the bus after school and take them for a treat while, as part of her Christmas present,  I took Michele to the Dutch Apple Dinner Theater to see "Shear Madness," a hilarious murder mystery.  It was so fun!!
   We got up early Saturday and were on the road to the Holiday Inn Express in Florence, SC by 7:40am.  We decided to take I-95 figuring the larger highway might get more attention when we hit the snow storms forecast for VA and NC.  It started snowing by the time we got to Washington DC and the snow plows were already lined up!!  By the time we got into VA the snow was coming down pretty fast and the roads were quickly becoming snow and ice covered.  There were cars and trucks off the road all over the place!  Our 8 hr drive ended up taking 11 and 1/2 hrs!!  We finally got to our hotel just over the SC line at 5:20pm.  John and Jeepy did a great job keeping us safe! 

Love this big sign outside the Phillip Morris Co
just north of Richmond.  It was already
snowing pretty hard.

 

Who the heck figures out all these overpasses??

 

Just one of the many accidents we passed.

 

 

The snowplows were out in full force until we hit NC.
There were none to be found and the roads were a mess

 

Visibility was awful!

 

These figures were outside one of the gas stations/
snack mart we stopped at.

 

 

   We left the hotel at 9:00am on Sunday and headed to King's Bay, SC to pick up Harvey.  It was sunny, but very cold!  We arrived about 1:00pm.  We went to the CG to pick up the key for the storage, but Lyn and Jack (our friends from the Corning, NY trip) had arrived just before us and they had the key.  So we drove over to where they had their 5th wheel stored and got the key.  Well, guess what...it didn't work in the lock where we had our RV stored!  The gal in the office didn't have a key and she said we would have to wait until tomorrow to get one.  Well, by the grace of God a police officer drove by and we were able to flag him down.  He called security and a nice young gentleman brought the key.  BUT...it didn't work either.  So...he called security again and had them bring ALL the keys.  After about an hour we were finally able to get into Harvey.  He was so happy to see us!!  He started right up and we were on our way back to the CG.  We were right across from Lyn and Jack!

Jack and Lyn.  They are great people.  We feel
so fortunate to have met them!

  We got set up and then went to the commissary for groceries.  Then the 4 of us went out for supper to Wee Pub down route 40.  It was very good.  We went to bed fairly early...John was especially beat after the 2 days of driving. 
   John washed all the snow and salt off of Jeepy in the morning and then Lyn and I went thrift and antique store shopping.  We are kind of bad for each other that way!!  We got home about 4:30.  John grilled steaks for supper and then we settled in to watch the National Championship football game.  Much to our surprise, the cable here did not include ESPN...now what??  Luckily, Jack and Lyn have a dish, so we went over to their rig to watch it.  It looked like Alabama was going to run away with the game, so we left at halftime and went to bed.  Were we ever surprised the next morning when we heard that Clemson won in the last few seconds!!            
     Tuesday we went to the NEX and commissary after breakfast, then took a walk around the CG and made plans with Jack and Lyn to go out to supper at St, Mary's Seafood House.  We left at 4:00 because Lyn wanted to go back to one of the thrift shops to buy a bowl she had seen and we decided to buy a little ceramic heater I had seen there to use in the bedroom.  Even though it warmed up today the nights still get chilly.  We can save our propane with the electric heater by using the electricity the CG provides.  When we got back we did laundry and played 5 Crowns in the community building.  John beat me by 3 pts. on the last hand :(  There was also a sing-a-long, but it was mostly country songs that I didn't know.  When we got back to Harvey John watched TV and I edited pictures from the camera to use on the blog.  We turned in about 10:30. 
   Jack and Lynn and their 3 Corgy's, Denver, Daisy and Lizzie left about 9:30 on Wed morning.  It sure was nice to spend time with them again!  Hopefully, we will hook up with them again in April at Camp Lejeune.  After stopping at the NEX we headed for Fernandina Beach to look for "baby ear" shells.  We arrived about 11:30.  It was a beautiful day!!  Unfortunately, I only found 9 baby ear shells.

We never spend much time in our chairs on this beach
because John likes to walk and I...

...like to look for "baby ears".

It was a perfect day for the beach, but the water was COLD!!

 We left at 3:45 and stopped at Lowe's on the way home to pick up a couple of things to fix some molding that came loose in Harvey.  We got showers and then headed to one of our favorite eating spots...Sonnys Bar-B-Q.

Did we mention that we LOVE Sonny's??

   I talked to Alexandra on the way.  She started a new job as a lead house supervisor at a group home just off the base.  Todd's boss gave him the night off for working so hard at the fire station today.  Alex was excited to have 2 consecutive evenings with her new hubby!! 

Sonny's sure didn't disappoint...it was so yummy!!  On the way back to the CG we almost hit an armadillo.  We spent the rest of the evening working on the molding, watching some TV and then John hit the sack while I worked on my blog.  It took me forever...I guess I've gotten rusty (and a bit long winded!)

   We'll be heading out tomorrow morning for a military CG in Alabama.  Even though we are very excited to be travelling across the USA on our way to Texas(and getting new states for our map) we are sorry to be leaving King's Bay so soon.  We really enjoy our time here!

 


BTW...these are the baby ears, etc, we found at
Fernandina beach LAST October. I only found 9 today.
John found a few small sharks teeth.

 

These are the "baby ears" close up.