Went To Falmouth on Cape Cod Today

   John got up early again today (6:30) and went for a walk.  He just can't seem to sleep in.  I climbed out of bed at 8:15.  John cooked some eggs and bacon for breakfast.  We decided to go to Falmouth Beach which is located just over the Bourne Bridge into Cape Cod.  It should probably take us about 40 minutes to get there.  We would also like to walk around the downtown area, so we figure we'll probably eat a late lunch while we're there.  John didn't even put his bathing suit on, but I did, just in case I needed an "ocean fix".  We left about 10:45.  I spent almost 30 minutes on the phone with Dad's Urology office trying to verify an appt for him on Sept 8 then got cut off.  Jeez Louise!!  Then I called Masonic Village and they are going to try to straighten it out.  It was a perfect day for the beach... the sun was hot, but there was a really nice breeze coming in from the ocean.  We lucked out and found a part of the beach that had a free parking area.  Most of them in the area charge $10-$20 to park!!  John took a couple of walks while I just sat and enjoyed watching everyone on the beach...especially the kids playing in the water!  There were a lot of large boats going by also.  I played Yahtzee and did a Suduko puzzle, too.

This the Bourne Bridge into Cape Cod and Falmouth

 

Here we go!

 

The beach was small, but beautiful, as was the water!

 

 

These were geese!  We never saw geese in the ocean before.

 

This sailboat is so classy looking...

 

...but as the wind got stronger it looked like it was going to blow over!

 

This is the ferry... it was pretty hazy way out there.

 

John snapping pix with his fancy camera...

 

...playing Yahtzee...

 

...and saying, "Hi"

 

A typical house along the water.

 

A not so typical house along the water.

  By 3:00 the breeze had become wind and it was pelting us in the face, so we packed it up and drove to downtown Falmouth.

Is this Plymouth Rock?

  Our first stop was at a small Italian bistro.  We both had the "Pilgrim" wrap-turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mayo, lettuce, onion, and tomato.  It was good, not great, but it filled out tummies.  I left to go window shopping while John drank another cup of coffee.  I made 2 purchases, a top and a shell shaped wire container to hold all the sand dollars we found last year. 

Works pretty good, huh?

We left Falmouth about 6:00 and stopped at the Air National Guard "Joint" Base that John used to visit occasionally when he was stationed in Fall River.

We snuck up on some turkeys.

Oh, darn, they saw us or maybe they could smell
those turkey sandwiches we had for lunch!

One of the airplanes on display.

  Then we left to come home and get ready to watch Redland, PA play in the semi-final game of the Little League Baseball World Series in Williamsport.  We were going to go to a sports bar since we can't get ESPN in Harvey, but we decided to watch it in the Members Lounge.  We packed some snacks and drinks and headed down there at about 7:30.  We played a game of 500 Rummy while waiting for the game to start.  It was a nail-biter, but Redland beat Texas 3-0.  YAY!!  Bonnie and Ken and their fellow friends from Tennessee, Melissa and Chuck were there.  We looked for them, but couldn't find them in the 35,000+ crowd (;-).  We got back to Harvey about 10:20.  John pretty much went right to bed (he's still not feeling 100% and coughing) while I worked on the blog. 
Tomorrow we have reservations on Capt John's Whale Watching boat out of Plymouth.  Maybe we'll see the real Plymouth Rock!!

An "iffy" Day Turned Out to be Beautiful!

   John didn't get a very good night's sleep.  He didn't feel quite "right" when he went to bed... had a dry cough that felt like it was going into his chest.  He woke up about 1:30 and got up a while and watched TV.  Went back to bed and woke up at 6:30 and couldn't get back to sleep.  I, on the other hand, slept in until almost 9:00!!  John was just getting back from his walk when I got up.

A "sea" of pines!

 

Boat launch area... looks so peaceful, doesn't it!

 

Anybody want to go swimming...YIKES!!

 

Looks like it goes on forever, doesn't it!

 

This is a sign in the men's bathroom above the urinal.
The small print at the bottom says, "Please help to keep the floor dry."
I haven't been in the Women's yet... might have to check it out!

  We had breakfast and then decided to go to Onset Beach about 20 minutes from the CG.  It was small, but very nice.  There were lots of big boats anchored just beyond the swimming area.  The water was warm and clear, but not good for shell collecting.  We'll probably go back there again. 

 

Nice beach!

Closer look at the boats... and notice the puffy clouds!

The other end of the beach

The water was so clear and warm

Some neat houses along the road next to the beach

Is this Plymouth Rock??

We left at 3:00 and went back to Harvey to shower and get ready to go out to eat.  John's feeling a little better, but still has the cough.  We went to Lindsey's Family Restaurant in Buzzard's Bay (we saw it in an ad in the local newspaper).  It was fabulous!!  I had their famous seafood chowder and John had their equally famous clam chowder.  They were both scrumptious!  My soup had a whole crab claw piece of meat in it!  We shared onion rings that were thin, crispy and yummy and an order of lobster mac and cheese.

No words can describe how good this
Lobster mac and cheese was!

  Boy, was that good!  It was so full of big pieces of lobster that you could hardly have more than one macaroni with each hunk.  We could only eat a third of it.  Can't wait to eat it again another day.  We left the restaurant and drove about 5 miles down the road to the Cape Cod Canal.  We hoped to get pix of the sunset, but there were too many clouds.  The canal is a 6.5 mile waterway that connects many of the "finger-type" land areas along the coast of Cape Cod.  It was very pretty!  We stayed just long enough to get a few pictures and then headed back to the CG about 8:00.

This is an elevated railroad track. The middle accommodates
tall boats and is only lowered when a train uses it.

A beautiful large house across the canal.

Close up of the house.

Wish the sails would have been out!

Is this Plymouth Rock??

  We watched TV while I worked on the blog and John played on his tablet.  John turned in about 10:00 and I went to bed after finishing the blog at 11:15.  It was a GOOD day!!  The rest of the week is supposed to be gorgeous...YIPPEE!!And, by the way, we earned another state on our "camping across America" map. 

Doesn't look too impressive, but for just a year and a half, it's not bad!

We're On the Road Again!

   Since the last blog some exciting things have happened for our family.  Our oldest daughter, Heather, accepted a teaching position at a charter school in York, so she and our grandson, Cooper, will finally be moving closer...YAY!!  Our granddaughter, Alexandra, will be starting classes at Harrisburg Area Community College in the near future.  Her pre-admission testing went very well... only has to take one intermediate algebra course to catch up on math.  Way to go, Alex, we are very proud of you!  She thinks she wants to be a pediatric nurse and then maybe use that to enter the Air Force.  Grandpa sure likes that idea since he retired from there after 28 yrs!  Alex's boyfriend, Todd, just took his test today to possibly enter the Air Force, too.  Wow, do you think Grandpa has any influence.  Of course, he was a recruiter for 16 of those 28 years, so he some wonderful advice!!  Thanks, Gramps!!  Arlena's surrogate pregnancy is going well... every time I see her she seems to "pop out" another inch.  I guess twins do that, huh?!?  She and TW are also starting to look at homes in the York area.  Their's will be too small when they plan to expand their own family in a year or so.  I can hardly wait to help decorate... it's fun to spend other people's money :).  Michele's hairstyling business is booming.  She's getting ready to finally finish the outside patio areas.  I saw the plans and it will be beautiful.  Dustin's training job is going well and Cathy has already gone back to her teaching job.  Dad continues to do well and so does Mom.  John is still doing his walking. 
   We picked up Harvey from Manheim on Thursday, filled the propane tank at Molly's, and then filled the gas tank at Giant.  We had $2.60 in gas points from Giant, so we didn't have to pay anything for the first 25 gallons and got $.10 off of the next 25 gallons.  How cool is that!! 

$2.60/gallon gas reward...
 and gas was only $2.49/gallon...so...

 

...it didn't cost us anything...

 

...for the first 25 gallons... zero... zilch... nada!!!

We parked Harvey in the overflow lot in our development and loaded him up a bit each day.  We also started up the fridge on Saturday so we could be completely done by Sunday night.  We want to get an early start on Monday.  John is so good at getting everything ready.  He takes lots of trips with my childhood "little red wagon".
   So we got up this morning at 3:00 am so we could be on the road with Harvey (and Kylie) to Cape Cod by 4:00.  We almost made it!  We left at 4:15.  We made our first stop at Exit 8 off of route 84 after about 2 and 1/2 hrs of traveling.  We wanted to get gas before leaving PA because it was cheaper than NY or Connecticut.  We also grabbed some breakfast sandwiches at the Burger King there.  Then back on the road for another 3 and 1/2 hrs to Exit 71 again off 84 but now in Connecticut.  We just got out and stretched and let Kylie go potty.  It drizzled off and on and there were some places that we could tell had gotten down pours before we got there, so we were lucky to have avoided those!  We arrived at the CG in Cape Cod about 1:45.  There were huge puddles all over from an obvious downpour they had gotten before we arrived.  But it was sunny and unfortunately very "steamy" when we got out of the RV.  We drove around to pick a spot... there were only 2 available!  We found a nice "pull-through" and were all set up by 3:00.  It went really well, but John was soaked from sweating by the time he was done.

 

Nice site, huh? 

  I opened up the fridge to get some things out for lunch and saw some pink liquid on the bottom of the fridge.  One of my wine coolers had opened and spilled all over... what a mess!  After cleaning that up we finally ate lunch and then took a look around the CG.  It reminds us of Sea Pines in Cape May... lots of pine trees.  John showered and we just chilled a bit.  He took a short nap before we went to the grocery store to get a few things.  On the way back we tried to check out Onset Beach, but we couldn't find it!  We had a quick supper when we got back and then played Racko.  John won, but it was close!  We got ready for bed at 10:00...we were both exhausted!!  The weather is supposed to be "iffy" tomorrow, so we might do some sight seeing.  Stay tuned!

Time to Say Goodbye to Circle M :(

  We didn't feel the need to get up too early because all the other campers told us that because this is considered to be a "low occupancy" CG we can pretty much leave anytime and not worry about the 10:00 check-out time.  We had some breakfast and then we took our time getting everything cleaned up, locked down and stored away.   It was hard to leave, as a matter of fact, we talked about staying until Saturday.  We had such a good time here with all the kids and grandkids and other campers.  We will definitely be back!!  We didn't hook up the Jeep because of the short ride back to Mount Joy.  We left the CG about 11:15 and pulled in the parking lot at home about 12:00.  We were all unpacked, had things put away, and had the first load of wash going by 1:15!  We were supposed to take Harvey to Camping world in Hanover tomorrow morning, but the flooring still hasn't come in.  So we're going to wait until sometime in Sept to get all the work done.  We have 2 & 1/2 weeks at home and then we're off to Cape Cod on Aug 24.  We'll be gone about a week and a half coming home thru Conn and RI.  We gotta get those state stickers on our map, you know!!  Stay tuned for our continuing saga!!

Another Delightful Day at Circle M CG!

  John got up about 7:30 and started breakfast.  The girls and I didn't rouse until about 8:00.  Ellie got herself dressed right away while Emma and I lounged in our pj's.  We decided to have our blueberry pancakes and bacon out on the picnic table, so Emma and I were forced to get dressed, darn it!  The girls helped me set the table and then we all enjoyed Grandpa's breakfast.  He loves to cook breakfast and I really appreciate it as did the girls!!  We cleaned up the dishes, brushed our "toophers" and changed into our bathing suits. We were at the pool by about 10:45, did some swimming, and by 11:45, Dustin and Cathy arrived.  They took the girls over to the water park while John and I stayed by the outdoor pool and did some reading.  When they came back over we all got into the pool and swam for another hour or so. 

Emma is getting ready to push off Grandpa and doggie paddle
across the pool to Daddy's waiting arms.  This is the first
time she has tried it without her "floatie". 

 

Look at her go!

 

Yay... she made it!!

 

Daddy adores her!

 

Mommy's turn to provide the push off.

 

Wow... Daddy threw Emma "to the sky" as
Bennett would say.

They needed to leave to get back for Emma's visit with her father.  We said our good-byes and they left about 1:00.  We had a really good time with the girls and their Mommy and Daddy.  We are so fortunate to have all of our grandchildren fairly close by so we can include them in our RVing adventure!!  John and I stayed at the pool until about 4:00.  On the way back to Harvey one of our "neighbors" had a big pot of something cooking on a tripod over his campfire.  I jokingly said, "what's for supper"?  He said he had chili cooking.  Wouldn't you know it, about 15 minutes later he came over and invited us for supper.  He said a bunch of the neighbors we also coming and we were more than welcome.  That is one of the things we like best about camping... everyone is so friendly!  We were planning on grilling some steaks and corn on the cob that we bought earlier in the week, so we cooked them and took them along over.  We ate a t 5:30.  It was a delightful evening, meeting new people, eating delicious chili, and playing corn hole (bean bag toss).  One of the guys even made homemade ice cream!  We stayed until about 9:00 and then headed back over to Harvey.  John cleaned up some things outside to ready for our departure in the morning while I cut all the leftover corn off the cob and froze it.  We watched some TV and then went to bed.  We were so glad we decided to stay another day! 

Emma and Ellie are Coming Today

   My phone woke me up at 8:15 this morning, but I missed the call.  Darn it... it was from Dr. Rommel's office.  I assumed he was calling me, so I called back in and told the operator that I just missed his call.  I ended up talking with his physician's assistant who said the Dr. would call me when he was done with the patient he was with.  I saw I had a voicemail message and it was from Dr. Rommel's surgery scheduler, Erma, not Dr. Rommel!  So I called her back right away.  She wanted to know if I had heard from the doctor yet.  When I told her I hadn't, she said that he told her that Dad needs a nephrostomy tube inserted into his kidney through his back before he can put a stent back in.  She would schedule it and get back to me.  OK...finally some progress!!!  We had some breakfast and then John did some of his chores outside while I got dressed and ready to go to the corn wagon to pick up some corn for supper.  It was packed with people!!  There were 3 large wagons full of freshly pulled corn... some bi-color and some white.  They sell it for 13 ears for $2, so I got half bi-color and half white.  On the way back to the CG we discussed staying another day.  We were planning to leave on Wednesday morning and taking the girls home to our house in Harvey.  But we're having such a good time and the weather is to continue to be perfect, so what the heck... we're staying until
Thursday morning.  When we got back to the CG we decided to play the "bully" miniature golf game.  John beat me by 1 stroke!  Then we played some shuffleboard, but I had to stop.  It hurt my back because the courts weren't fast enough and I just couldn't get enough power behind my shots.  We played some pinball in the arcade and then went back to Harvey, got into our bathing suits and walked down to the pool.  Dustin and Cathy dropped the girls off about 1:30.  We chatted a while about their trip to Disney World (they just got back yesterday) and then Dustin and Cathy left.  Since we decided to stay an extra day they are going to join us for a couple of hours tomorrow when they pick up the girls.  The four of us got into the pool and swam for about an hour.  Then we went over to the water park/indoor pool.  The girls had a ball! Ellie especially liked the sliding board and Emma had fun with the floating wagon wheels and cargo net.  She was a pro at that.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of that because the battery ran out of power :(.  She and Grandpa went down the big slide several times, too!  We were there for about an hour then we got into the indoor pool for about a half hour. 

Look out, Emma, Grandpa's going to dunk you!

  

Emma and Ellie adore each other.  Big sis is always
there to help!

 
 

Grandpa got a good throw in!

 


Emma is getting big for this slide!

Ellie is all smiles coming out of the tube!

She loved the pirate ship...

...and the sliding board!!

The proud Grandpa (Ellie apparently didn't want her picture taken)!

As we were leaving I got a call from Erma at Dr. Rommel's office.  Dad has an out-patient appt. with interventional radiology at the hospital on Monday.  YAY!!!!  At a later date the stent will be put back in.  I hope that appt. doesn't cause as much consternation as this one did!  We headed back to Harvey, got dressed, and I started supper.  I made pizzas on stone baked Naan bread and corn on the cob.  We ate out on the picnic table.  We all enjoyed it very much.  John started a fire and about an hour later we were toasting marshmallows and making s'mores.  Emma had 2 plus some chocolate!!  By this time it was about 10:00, so we all got ready for bed.  It didn't take very long before the girls were "out".  John and I read a while in bed and then went nitey night, too.