Wordle

This is Wordle a fun site to be creative. You can put any text into it and it will rearrange it into something quite amazing. It even will go into a blog and extract words. I plugged in this blog and the result was very fitting.
Your friends will think you're sooooooo inventive!

Just click on CREATE and have at it.

Hurricane Season...Relax!

Today is the first day of the Atlantic Hurricane Season.

I'm pleased to announce to the citizens of coastal South Carolina that they can relax. There's nothing to worry about. You don't have to go out to WalMart and put your hurricane kit together. Actually, everyone here waits until the damn storm is hours away to do that anyway, so ignore the last sentence.

The reason is because we still have the RV. As long as it's in our possession there will be no hurricanes in our vicinity. I know this because?

Because, we would be way too comfortable after the storm. Yep, we'd have a generator (people really envy you when YOU have power) a refrigerator, air conditioning, a stove, a HOT shower, running water...

Oh, how jealous I was of those who had a motor home parked in the driveway after HUGO! While we sweated in the humidity from Hell, stumbled around in the dark, tried to brew coffee on the gas grill, ate more peanut butter and jelly than I thought possible and generally went crazy without television, for two weeks, the people with RV's were living....NORMAL lives! The bastards.

So, every summer that we are in the position to be perfectly comfortable should lose all our material comforts, the years that we have a motor home during hurricane season....I sit back and RELAX.

Nope, none for Charleston this year, unless we sell it...

Let me see....are there fresh batteries in the flashlight?

In the Spring a Young Man's Fancy...

Okay, Lord Tennyson wasn't talking about lizards, but the result is the same....

Found these two on my downspout yesterday. They can't move while they're...um, locked in a romatic embrace, so to speak. It gives me the perfect opportunity to get up real close and use the macro. I swear the guy lizard was giving me dirty looks! A happy lizard is bright green, a stressed/unhappy lizard is brownish. Can you guess who is who here?

Still cleaning and unloading the RV. Hopefully, we'll be done by today. Jim is off golfing in Santee (yea!) and later today he and the son in law will start tiling room where the parrot ATE the carpet. We pulled it up before we left...

Time to clean RV carpets and upholstery...

Jackie: You are so right about taking stuff along that you don't need. You'd think that after 4 long trips we'd have that figured out! LOL.

Doris: I'm so glad you enjoyed the trip! That was my mom's name...

I've Been Eveyrwhere Man

"I've Been Everywhere"

JOHNNY CASH LYRICS


I was totin' my pack along the long dusty Winnemucca road,
When along came a semi with a high an' canvas-covered load.
"If you're goin' to Winnemucca, Mack, with me you can ride."
And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside.
He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand.
And I said, "Listen, I've traveled every road in this here land!


"I've been everywhere, man.I've been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man.
I've breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I've had my share, man.
I've been everywhere.


I've been to:Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota,Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota,Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma,Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma,Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo,Tocapillo, Baranquilla, and Perdilla, I'm a killer.


I've been everywhere, man.I've been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man.
I've breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I've had my share, man.
I've been everywhere.

I've been to: Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana,Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana,Monterey, Faraday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa,Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa,Tennessee, Hennessey, Chicopee, Spirit Lake,Grand Lake, Devils Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete's sake.

I've been everywhere, man.I've been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man.
I've breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I've had my share, man.
I've been everywhere.


I've been to:Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika,Schefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica,Pittsfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport,Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond du Lac, Davenport,Idaho, Jellico, Argentina, Diamantina,Pasadena, Catalina, see what I mean-a.


I've been everywhere, man.
I've been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man.
I've breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I've had my share, man.
I've been everywhere.



I've been to:Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelbourg, Colorado,Ellisburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, Eldorado,Larimore, Admore, Haverstraw, Chatanika,Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika,Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City,Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity.





Well...almost. If you consider all four RV trips and the one with the kids in the car, waaaay back, I guess. But, still no North Dakota, the only state we've not actually put our feet on the ground in. And unless we are on a plane that has to make an emergency landing in Fargo...I'm pretty sure that we'll always be one state short of the 50 list.



Today was the 'not so much fun' part of RVing. Unloading, ugh. I took at least three days to load the buggy up. Now, why Jim thinks we can unload and put everything back in the house in three hours is beyone me! But, then again, he's the type of traveler who has to unpack his suitcase and put things away before he can get to sleep...even if he got home in the wee hours of the morning. Me? Hah, I'm still putting unpacking my suitcase a week later.



Oh, and let's not forget the laundry and cleaning the RV. Today he did the outside, and it really needed it after the of love bugs yesterday. Later in the day I started the inside cleaning that, hopefully, we can finish tomorrow. You know the deep, back to showroom cleaning....like with a toothbrush cleaning. I got the stove, microwave, sink, and all the kitchen storage done. Tomorrow we'll do the carpets and upholstery. What fun!

All the way home yesterday I wanted to say something, but was afraid I'd jinx us. So when we finally pulled into the driveway I told Jim that in this entire trip (I'll figure the mileage soon) we'd not seen any SERIOUS accidents! A fender bender here and there....and a young motorcyclist on a crotch rocket who seconds before we came around a corner crossed our lane and hit an enbankment in the NC mountains...but was okay. Just amazing and we're so happy that we didn't wittness any tragedies.


So on that happy note I'll end this part of the blog. I'll keep it open, because if we don't get a buyer for the RV we'll be taking trips, not as long as this one, though! I'd also like to add a page with hints for traveling in RV's.

And once again I'd like to thank everyone who clicked in every day to share our adventures. All the gals on Dotti's, friends, family, cousins Jeannie and Barbara, and especially those who I have never met! To the loyal followers in:

Columbia, South Carolina
Flat Rock, Alabama
Mcminnville, Oregon
Lake Saint Louis, Missouri


Thanks for sticking with us!

There's No Place Like Home

Day 51 Dunedin Fl to Summerville SC
480 miles

The End of The Road!



We met friends, Gin and Bob for a brief visit, coffee and pastry and to thank them again for our trip to Busch Gardens before we left Clearwater. Jim really likes the area and is talking about spending some time there next winter...IF we still have the RV.

The weather again was on our side. It was

amazing how all the storms (and earthquakes) missed us by a day or two on this trip. The worst weather was the at the very beginning of the trip coming out of Nashville and even that cleared up within about an hour. The only thunder that we even heard was during the night in Houston. Unbelievable.

We took I275 to I4 to I95. Traffic wasn't all that bad for a holiday weekend. Orlando...well, anyone who is familiar with Orlando knows that there's always a traffic problem. So we just crawled through the city for a half hour or so. Just a little west of Orlando we encountered biblical swarms of love bugs. There's always a lot of them in Florida this time of year, but they were so thick for a while that he had to keep using the windshield wipers so he could see....it was like black snow. Only these little boogers stick!

I remember when we lived on St. Simon's Island in the early 90'sthe love bugs were bad that year. Here I was the only 'Yankee' around the proper southern ladies. One of the new neighbors from the NC mountains (where they didn't have love bugs) asked me if they bite. I told her, "No, they're just a nuisance...anyway they're too busy screwing to bite anybody!" Geez, you should have seen the looks I got.

After Orlando, the ride was easy. We like to take Rt9A around the east side Jacksonville instead of the I295 bypass to the west side. I think it's shorter and soooooo much more scenic.

Florida and almost all of Georgia are three lanes wide and it makes such a difference in traffic. One thing a bout Florida is that they have a much better highway system than most states. The highway project in Georgia (110 miles of I95) was started before we moved down to St. Simons in late 1991...and it's almost done.

We were happy to see the* Welcome to South Carolina *sign...although we always joke that it means 'welcome to SC...now you lose a lane of interstate'. We need a lot of highway improvements. They're always about 10 years behind, sigh.

Everything was so GREEN. We did have leaves and blossoms when we left but it's more lush now. This has been a great year for gardens, cool nights and frequent rains. Usually we're getting into the muggies by now.

The last 45 minutes of the trip was on country roads and we finally snaked our way into our subdivision. The yard looked great, and to my delight my oldest son had planted a garden for me! I'd felt so bad that I wouldn't have any garden tomatoes this year because I wouldn't be here to tend to it...but he planted and has come over to take care of it. What a great surprise!

The kids came over and took us out to dinner. It was great to see our family again.

Traveling is a blast, but there's no place like home!

Busch Gardens and a Little Bit of Greece

Day 50 Dunedin and Tampa FL

Hot and muggy today, hard to believe it was just last Sunday were were shivering in Chicago.

We went to Busch Gardens today. It was quite warm but the park provides plenty of shade and breezes. The two week old baby rhino is the cutest thing! He was prancing around behind his mother....cute little rhino butt! Our days of scary roller coasters are over, Jim kept watching the one that drops so dramatically, but there aren't too many people of , ahem...our age on them. I've read how those type of rides can spike blood pressure incredibly. Now me, with the heart thing...nah. My brain knows I'm on a ride and it's all safe. But at the same time it will also think, "Holy Mother of God, we are falling face first, 200 feet to the ground...we will be dead in a few seconds!" Nope, I'll stick with the tamer things.

I got a stinker of a headache in the heat so we came back to the RV, took care of the dogs and I chilled out for a bit. Later on we took a ride over the causeway to see what the beach looked like down the street, really nice. Maybe on another trip we'll take the ferry over to the 'best beach in the country', Caladesi Beach.

Then we took a ride to 'little Greece', or Tarpin Springs. They have fishing boats, shops and restaurants. Well, when in Rome....or Greece....eat Greek food! So we stopped in Hellas and I had Spanokopita, and Jim had a Gyro dish. The huge bakery next door had the most incredible desserts, but thankfully, we were stuffed and just peeked at a few. Jim kept giving me 'the look' when I stopped to look at them. Geez, I just wanted to see what pretty pastry is supposed to look like...I do like to bake! Consider it 'instructional'.

I knew one amusement park would be enough for him and the he'd want to get back home tomorrow. I was right, tomorrow we'll head for home. Yesterday was the end of the seventh week, we're ready. I miss my kids and grandkids. Oh yeah and my KING size bed!

It' been a fabulous trip, but all good thing must come to an end.

So tomorrow is the end of the road.

This is One Long Ass State!

Day 49 Navarre FL - Dunedin FL


427 miles

The title is Jim's eloquent description of Florida...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It rained overnight, but it was sunny when we pulled out of the Navarre Beach Campground at 8:30am. We took US87 north to I10. Traffic was lighter that we expected as we headed east toward Tallahassee. The Tom Tom and computer were directing us to use I10 and II75 to get to the Tampa area. We decided against all interstate driving, took I10 for part of the day and then took US19 south (Florida/Georgia Pky) just east of Tallahassee, it was also 50 miles shorter. We are so glad we did...we've been on this road before but for what a nice highway it is. Four lanes and divided, way off the beaten path and the northern part of it is the 'old Florida' of tall, moss draped live oaks, and sleepy towns that time seems to have forgotten. . until it gets closer and closer to the greater Tampa area and then it turns into the multi- laned,endless strip mall thing,that is.

We're in Dunedin, between Clearwater and Tarpon Springs, and back to Dunkin Donut land. We were really road weary and the last thing we wanted to do was cook and clean up a meal. We know there is an Italian and Greek population in this area so we knew we could find a good meal. We had a late dinner at Bambino's Pizza and it was very good.

This is a lovely area and the causeway to the islands is almost across the street. I hope we get the time to explore a little. We've passed through this area many times on the way to other places, but have never really seen much of the shoreline and islands here.

We're tired, after a long day and are going to bed early. Tomorrow we're going to Busch Gardens. A Saturday on a holiday weekend...can you say crowded?