Central Vermont

After Delaware, we made our way north a bit, staying a few days in the Pocono Mountain region of Pennsylvania.  Not much to report from there, just the normal relaxing time in the country.  We stayed a place called Secluded Acres, probably a mile down a gravel road after a couple hours of over hill and dale driving.  I had to drive out of the campground 15 minutes just to find good enough cell signal to check into my classroom.  Plenty of room for Missy to run around, though, and folks were having a great weekend away from the daily grind of work.  After that, we spent 2 full weeks at one of our favorite campgrounds, Lake Champagne in Randolph, VT.  Vermont is quiet and sparsely populated to begin with, so saying we had a nice, relaxing time in the hills is a little redundant.  That's apparently what one does in Vermont.  The scenery is something like out of The Sound of Music, rolling hills and farm country with lots and lots of trees.  Lake Champagne is just a great place to hang out and avoid the heat, for the most part.  Even New England has been in somewhat of a heatwave and drought this summer.  However, we got a lot of days with no air conditioning, either hanging out at the rig, visiting friends in the area, or just driving through the country to see what we could see.  Our friends Mark and Amy that we've known for over 20 years live near by, and we got to visit with the Paddocks, friends from Tampa.  Bob and I worked and traveled together in the Middle East several times, and he was a great mentor of regional dynamics for a newbie Air Force computer nerd trying to learn security cooperation.  Bob's recently retired and was in the area visiting family.  It was such a nice two weeks that we're going to circle back and stay another couple weeks the last half of August before we start to slowly work our way south in September.  Slowly.....

Right now we're just outside Montreal, Canada.  We had a smooth, quick border crossing and are looking forward to practicing our French for a couple days.  Pardonnez-moi, avez-vous un poupon gris?  Just two pictures from the last couple weeks, good grief.

We went out for a country drive in the Poconos and happened upon a Blue Grass band performing at a restaurant.  Of course, we had to stop

Lovely view for lunch one day.  Growing up, I had trout stream envy.

Delaware Seashore

Laurie scored 3 nights on the beach in Delaware after we left the Outer Banks.  It was a nice drive up to Hampton Roads, then over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel for the 2nd time.  We took this route up the coast back in 2012 during our first summer.  You avoid DC entirely and end up in some pretty nice beach country.  We pretty much blasted through Delaware's coast in 2012.  I mean, it only takes about an hour being so small, but this time we stopped for a few days.  It was great!  We camped at the north campground of the Delaware Seashore State Park.  During our three days on the beach, we sat on the beach all three days.  The weather was perfect, and we knew we were heading for inland New England, so we took advantage.  We explored the local towns of Bethany Beach and Dewey Beach.  I talked my way onstage to play guitar and sing a few Johnny Cash songs at the marina near us, walking distance actually to a very nice restaurant by the boat slips.  This is one of those accidental discoveries we made that had us thinking "...we'll be back."  Just a few pictures...

The beach.  The waves were great, lots of surfers and people enjoying cloudless, hot weather.  Missy stayed in the air conditioning!

Our beach rig.  This umbrella and these two chairs have seen some serious action.  In fact, we're on our 2nd versions of both.

I couldn't get a good shot of this light show, so I found one online.  This is the view from our campground, at night.  They light up the bridge over the inlet with blue lights, and it's just plain purdy...

Further Wanderings

Wow, it is so easy to slack off the blogging when we're just drifting around visiting friends.  After Indianapolis, we went to Pittsburgh and stayed in Dan and Michelle's driveway again, for the third time since we started this road trip.  We went "don ton" (Michelle's take on the 'burgh accent) for the art festival and, of course, it rained.  Apparently it always rains in mid-June in da burgh.  We also visited with friends Dan and Jane from MacDill while we were there.  After Pittsburgh, we headed up to a campground near Mansfield, PA for a few nights at a US Army Corps of Engineer park.  It was, again, blissful to be out in the country at a very nice park with plenty of room for Missy to run around.  Next stop was a return to a park near Ithaca, NY that we stayed at during our first summer in 2012.  We got the prize spot overlooking their pond.  I caught a couple bass in the lake too!  Snedacres campground is between Seneca and Cayuga lakes in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.  We had a very nice, relaxing time for 6 nights before moving south again.  We had to stop in and see musical friends Dennis and Sue, staying in their driveway outside Lancaster, PA for a night.  Moving south again, we stayed 3 nights at a military campground outside Washington, DC.  We thought about fighting traffic to get into town, but we've been there a few times so we just chilled out at the campground.  Next was a stop outside Raleigh at Falls Lake for a visit with John and Phyllis.  We're currently "camped" at Kevin and daughter Stephanie's place in Kill Devil Hills, NC, in the Outer Banks.  The Outer Banks (OBX) are their own little slice of heaven.  It's been a bit warm, but fun and great to see "the kids" again.  Some pictures from the last couple weeks...

Dan, Michelle, Laurie and me.  We've been friends since late 1986!

Dennis singing the favorites in E-Town, PA

Panoramic view of our "porch" at Snedacres

While we were in New York, we caught a really good Johnny Cash tribute band

View from the RV at Fort Belvoir, on the Potomac downstream from DC

Great little spot at Holly Point Campground outside Raleigh

Kill Devil Hills on July 4th.  Packed!

Laurie and Steph

4th of July in OBX

Steph lives minutes from where the Wright Brother's made their first flight

Indianapolis

After Missouri, we jumped on I-70 and headed east.  We'd never spent any time in the Indianapolis area, so we stopped in two different campgrounds and spent a week hanging out.  The only real noteworthy tourist attraction was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  We went to the museum in the infield.  The place is huge.  There are several holes of a golf in the infield as well.  Most tracks you can see the entire infield, and RVs will park down there for the race.  Not this place.  The museum was interesting, with winning cars from many of the races on display.  They had a lot of space to the Unser family, big winners at this track.  Our first park was a couple nights on the west side of town.  Then, we moved to a really nice spot at a KOA east of town, near Muncie.  It was beautiful, with a long trail through the woods for Missy to run on.  She just loves running wild off the leash.  I do have to report that Indiana had the worst roads we've ever been on in the Lower 48.  Even worse than Newfoundland.  Here are a couple pictures from the museum:

The permanent display of winning cars

Pretty stark contrast and a great example of 100 years of technological evolution.  Here's the winning car from one of the first big races in 1911...

...and a century later here's the winner from 2011.

Arkansas and Missouri

We kept the motorhome at good old Little Rock Air Force Base for a few weeks in May.  No major news to report, but we did have some fun.  We celebrated Mother's Day with Laurie's family.  I got to go shooting with my friend Tom.  I did some work on the rig and a lot of school work.  After Little Rock, we headed to Table Rock Lake outside Branson, MO to visit our friend Kevin at the Ozarks RV Resort on Table Rock Lake.  It sits on the shore just inside Arkansas.  We took in a couple country music shows and spent a day on the lake with Kevin in his pontoon boat.  Kevin took me fishing one morning and I returned the favor by catching five fish while he and friend Dave got skunked.  Guess I picked the lucky fishing pole.  After that, we stopped in Richland, MO to visit with Carmen, a great friend from MacDill who moved back home after retiring as a Sergeant Major from the Army.  I played a few sets at her place, Daugherty's Pub and Grub, in return for a free camping spot next door.  We went over to Lake of the Ozarks with Carmen and Kevin for lunch and site seeing.  The fish below the dam were going nuts.  All in all, a good start to Summer 2018!

The Famcamp at LRAFB.  They were building 12 new spots while we were there.

The view of the Ozarks RV Resort from our patio.  Super nice

It was great to see Kevin again.  We've been trivia teammates at MacDill since 2012.  We stopped here in summer 2014 also, still just as fun and beautiful.

Laurie and I had a spot across from the waterfall and pond with a great view of the lake.  This is a panoramic shot including our patio.

When we visited Carmen in Richland, MO, her beau Kevin took us for a drive through the country.  This is the oldest suspension bridge in Missouri.  It's really just a bunch of rusty bailing wire and pine boards, but we drove across it in an F-150...twice!

The whole bridge is just a collection of rusty coat hangar sized wire.  

Laurie, Carmen and I walk across going back, huge gaps in the decking.

Singing my heart out

Bagnell Dam overlook.  The American Paddlefish were going nuts, great big 4-5 footers that looked something like sturgeon.

Hitting the Road

After Marathon, we made a couple more stops in Florida.  The first was a few nights at a very nice resort called Gulf Waters in Fort Myers Beach.  We enjoyed time on Ft. Myers Beach and Siesta Key.  Missy had a big day on the dog friendly beach.  After that, we stopped at Falling Waters State Park in the Florida Panhandle.  It was just a very nice spot in the woods, with its claim to fame being the highest waterfall in Florida.  It's high because the little stream ends at a sink hole, where the water falls down, down, down.  I'm sure more than a few woodland creatures have accidentally slipped into that one.  We're in Arkansas for the past couple weeks, planning out the rest of the summer.  It's a tentative plan, maybe up through Pennsylvania into New York and then back down to see friends in the North Carolina/Virginia area.  Here are a couple pictures.

Having lunch on a Bee You Tea Full day on Fort Myers Beach.

Gotta work on my selfie skills.  Falling Waters waterfall.

Chris (Laurie's cousin) and Whitney's daughter Zoe turning six.  Time flies!

6th Winter at MacDill

Well, all good things must come to an end.  I can't believe we've spent 6 winters at the MacDill Summer Camp for Military Retirees.  Time sure flies when you're having fun.  So, we checked in November 1st and I know we did some stuff, so let me think back to how we spent the winter.  We drove up to Kill Devil Hills for Thanksgiving with Stephanie and Kevin.  That was a fun trip, didn't even need to wear pants (a big deal for me).  Laurie flew home for Christmas shopping time with her Mom.  We spent Christmas at Mom's, and Brad and Eric joined us.  The next day we headed to Key West for our annual New Year's Eve trip.  That got cut just a little short when we blew out our water heater after 10 days (and we were in a hook up spot!)  Back to MacDill where Mel helped me replace the water heater.  Keith and Abby came down with the kids for a weekend, wonderful to see them.  Our friends Kris and Yancey from CT came down for a month or so in their motorhome.  We had a ton of fun with them including the Super Bowl.  In March, we went on a 10 day cruise with John and Phyllis, awesome.  We flew out to Denver for a doctoral symposium, my 3rd of 4 required, in April, still lots of snow on the mountain peaks and we got a few flurries.  I had to wear pants!  Then, we left MacDill for a few quick stops elsewhere in Florida.  Mark and Amy were down for a wedding in Sarasota in April, so we stayed near Siesta Key at Sarasota Sunny South RV park.  Then, Laurie scored 4 nights at one of 4 spots at the US Coast Guard Station, Marathon, FL.  Very nice place by the water.  We're there now with a couple other stops in mind before we start drifting north for the summer.  Here are some pictures:

Sunset on the beach at MacDill.  We get them like this pretty much every night, all winter long.  Just another reason we keep coming back.

The gang assembled for Thanksgiving Dinner, thanks Steph and Kevin!

My buddy George from Lakeville, MA

Christmas at Grandma's House

Our spot for New Year's, Sigsbee RV park Key West.  We were here a few nights when the water heater failed.  Darn.

The Hammack Family

Superbowl revelry

Missy loves Yancey

We watch cruise ships leaving Tampa all the time, the view from our beach

Last season, the base opened up the end of the beach for dogs.  On a calm day, if we wait long enough, she'll go in up to her knees

We get into the Valspar Championship, a stop on the PGA tour, every year.  Tiger Woods was there this year, came in tied for 2nd.

Lunch on the deck in Antigua (I think, these islands start to run together)

Not a mirror.  Our ship on the left, Celebrity Reflection, and an exact copy sister ship were docked at the same time

Bon Voyage!

The Doerfel kids, aka Fuel on Fire at the State Fair.  We've been watching them for years in Key West.  The Buffalo Sabres jersey has been in a closet for 20 years, since Brad was a young hockey player.  These guys are from Buffalo, NY, as they always introduce themselves, so we gifted the jersey. I think Ben, the lead guitar player in between Laurie and me, claimed it.

New Year's Eve at our friend Jared's place, the Tiki House.

New Year's lighting at the Key West Bite.

My buddy Mel, posing for a victory picture after the water heater job