Lakeville, Massachusetts

After a great time at the Horvath's, we moved next door to Massachusetts to visit our good friends from MacDill, George Phippard, and his daughter and son in law.  Tim and Kathy live on Long Pond in Lakeville, MA and it was so nice seeing them again.  We had spent time together on the beach at MacDill when they came to visit George.  While we were there, George took me over to see Plymouth Rock and have some fresh seafood on the water.  Tim designed a fantastic patio/deck/dock/outdoor kitchen with both wood and propane fire pits.  What a great way to spend an evening (of course I brought my guitar...)  We were only there a couple days, but it sure was enjoyable.

Premium spot at the KOA in Lakeville.  We've had pretty good luck with these, patio furniture, swing, and fire ring included!

Hanging out lakeside with George, Tim, and Kathy.  Missy was standing on the stone seawall, looking down at the water a foot below.  Of course, several curious mallards swam right up to here to say "hello."  Missy must have thought water was solid enough to walk on, because the next thing we knew she was swimming back to shore.  Luckily, there's a small boat ramp to Laurie's left and she just doggy paddled right up to it and walked out of the water.  We're still not sure what lesson she learned...

Tim took us out for a great sunset cruise on their pontoon boat.  Of course, Missy took the helm for a turn.

Good buddy George.  He's a retired US Navy Seabee and has been a full time RVer for 20 years.

Plymouth Rock?  Really?  It's about 6 feet across and only a couple feet above the tide line.  It's an urban legend anyway, not mentioned in any writings until almost 100 years after they landed.  Nice area though!

The mooring field at Plymouth Harbor.  We had dinner right across the street.

Ledyard, Connecticut

After our nice stay in the mountains of Pennsylvania, we headed back down to the coast to visit good friends Yancey and Kris in Ledyard (pronounced lejerd).  On the way there, we had a very brief, grotesque, and hilarious encounter with a buzzard.  It came swooping out of the woods from the left, right in front of the windshield.  It probably didn't see us, because it banked left back into the woods suddenly, but not before spitting out whatever roadkill it was eating.  Again, right in front of us.  At least the rotten meat didn't hit the windshield, only the front and down the side of the RV and our car we tow.  All's well that washes off with soap and water, right?  We stayed 4 days at the Horvath residence, nice weather for most of it.  While we were there, Yancey took me to the nearby Groton Submarine Base to tour the Nautilus, our first nuclear sub.  We played trivia at The Spot, and checked out Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos nearby.  They've got a big stone fire pit in the back yard too, which made for nice warm evenings under the stars.  Thanks to Yancey and Kris for a great visit to coastal Connecticut!

Nice, red splat of roadkill.  The red streaks going down the side were less obvious...

Kris and Yancey are friends we made in Florida RVing.  This is their rig in its frequent summer home out back.  We were parked beside the house.  Parking, power and water for two RVs, pretty slick!

The Rain Maker sculpture, Foxwoods Casino.

The Gang

The Nautilus, first nuclear powered vessel, first sub to cross the North Pole, submerged the whole way.

That's me in the red T shirt.  I'm standing outside the sub museum under a "rib" that forms the frame of a submarine.  The big one comes from one of our ballistic missile submarines.  Huge!

At the Mohegan Sun casino, they have free concerts pretty much every night.  This is the band "Autograph."  These guys were a minor success for a short time in the 80's, two of them on stage are original members

Central Pennsylvania

After DC, we headed north into Pennsylvania.  First stop, the Gettysburg battlefield.  I’d read the book The Killer Angels as part of a military professional reading program, but seeing the battlefield with your own eyes really brings the fight to life.  Laurie drove on the auto tour so I could gawk and wonder.  The different individual skirmishes happened at incredibly close distance, and the amount of dead in such a small area must have been horrific.  After touring the battlefield, we did a quick overnight stop in Landisville, PA to visit Dennis and Sue McCaughey.  Dennis plays and sings tropical rock professionally, and is a good friend from our many stops in Key West.  He’s based out of PA, but plays Key West frequently.  Luckily, he was playing his home town so we stopped in for the show.  We were also lucky to meet Sue’s father, a WWII vet.  At 92, he’s still really spry.  He landed at Utah beach as a replacement on D-Day + 30 and fought through Europe until the end of the war.  We took in the show and then moved on to a nice hillside campground in the woods northeast of Harrisburg.  I don’t think there’s square mile of PA that’s flat.  Whenever we come up here, I’m constantly amazed at the hilly terrain.  Beautiful.  While we were there, we toured the oldest brewery in the country, Yuengling, in old historic Pottsville.  We also went to Hershey’s Chocolate World.  I didn’t realize that Mr. Hershey pretty much built that whole town from scratch.  Quite the story.  We were like kids in a candy store, har har.  After a weekend in PA, it was time to move on down the road, north by east…

We'd never visited the battlefield before, pretty gripping.

One of many States that erected monuments to their fallen troops.

General Lee's memorial

When we're just parking overnight, any parking lot will do.  This was our spot for the night visiting Dennis and Sue.  Missy loved running around in that field.

The oldest brewery in the country, still in operation.

This was a lot of fun, really meant for kids but still interesting seeing a town that chocolate built.

Hershey chocolate tastes so good because the fresh milk they use comes from happy cows...

We had a lovely spot up in the hills, here's a foggy morning while walking Missy

The Carolinas and Virginia

Man, I really need to blog more often, and definitely take more pictures.  After Savannah, we headed north one state to South Carolina to visit good friends Dave and Karla.  Dave’s been stationed at Shaw AFB the past few years working security cooperation and foreign military affairs.  I met Dave at CENTCOM, and we’ve been family friends for almost 10 years now.  He’s retiring and moving back to Tampa, so we’ll see them more often in the winter from now on.  We spent two days in the woods at Poinsett State Park, very nice, before moving on to Virginia Beach.  I didn’t take a single picture!  It was great to meet Stephanie’s beau Kevin, and Laurie got a special Mother’s Day meal prepared fresh in the kitchen.  Kevin and Steph do a lot of cooking with organic, fresh ingredients, so we came back the next day and mooched another meal.  Steph and Kevin are great together.  After Virginia Beach, we had a very narrow window of opportunity to see Keith and Abby up in Dahlgren, VA.  We met them when Keith was working with CENTCOM a few winters ago, and I posted a picture of them in my Winter 2015-2016 post.  Of course, they’ve had another baby and I didn’t take a single picture!  They live on the Potomac, and were courteous enough to buy a house we could park behind.  We stayed two nights and had a wonderful visit before moving on to a couple nights of serenity at a lakefront spot on Kerr lake at a Corps of Engineer park.  Bliss!  However, we were just waiting a couple days before moving on to Raleigh to see John and Phyllis.  We had a great visit with them, and left them a parting gift of a giant hole in the yard when I found the only soft spot left after days of constant rain.  A little drama, but an hour and an assist from the tow truck later we were on the road.  Sorry about the crater guys!  They always take such good care of us.  After Raleigh, we moved to a very nice campground, Cherry Hill RV Park, just outside Washington DC in Maryland.  We haven’t spent a whole lot of time on the national mall, having visited before, be we were fortunate enough for several reunions.  Joel and Jenny were neighbors in Japan and great friends, and they hosted us for World Famous Homemade Pasta at their house in Alexandria.  Dan and Marlee were friends from way back in California at Vandenberg.  He’s now a project manager at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.  We met them for dinner one night.  Jeff Styers was able to come to the motorhome, but unfortunately Peggy is in Canada.  Poor planning on our part.  It’s been raining almost every day since we arrived in Virginia Beach weeks ago.  I’m sick of it!  It’s great seeing people and the green trees are great, but I think this is why we tend to spend summers out west.  Here’s some pictures of the last couple weeks:

Poinsett Park camping spot.  We love state parks.

Missy is getting bigger, exploring absolutely everything she sees and hears.

Keith and Abby let us park in the back yard, plugged into electricity.  So nice when friends have RV parks at their houses!

Lakefront on Kerr Lake in Virginia.  The dam is just out of frame to the left.

This was at the North Carolina agriculture expo we went to with John and Phyllis.  I asked a fellow standing outside if he'd hold my clothes while I went in.

They were running a lawn tractor pull at the expo, great fun in the mud.

Rich Canfield, Phyllis, Laurie, John, and me.  Rich is an old friend of the Perrys, but a friend of ours too for years now.

I didn't spin the tire or anything, just sank into the one clay area in the Perry's front yard.  Whoops!  A tow truck winched us out no problem.  It's always something...

We went to the National Archives to see the founding documents, really cool but they're really faded.

A selfie with the Schmicks.  Joel and Jenny were across the street neighbors for years when we lived in Japan.  Great folks.

Us with Dan and Marlee Franzen.  Dan and I were young co-workers in California in the late 90's.  Both just old retired guys now!  Marlee runs maintenance at the water department.

Chillin' Sumter style with Dave and Karla.  We had a couple days of good weather for this visit, so you take advantage.

Savannah, GA

Our first stop on this year's trip north was Savannah, GA.  As long as we've lived on the east coast, you'd think we'd have seen Savannah before, but for whatever reason we just never stopped in to check it out.  What a cool historic district!  The founding fathers did a great job laying out the town, with little parks (squares) every couple blocks.  We took the tourist trolley tour on Saturday, walked along the river walk, and had dinner on the patio.  The next day they were having a "Doggie Carnival" to raise money for the Humane Society.  They had food trucks and lots of fun games for the dogs and people to play.  Missy did really well among the mayhem, and it was cool seeing so many beautiful dog breeds.  Lots of puppies to pet as well, and Missy got her share of attention.  She's doing just great getting socialized and used to life on the run.  We're leaving with a great impression of Savannah and plans to stop again some day.  The weather has been perfect, which always improves your impression of a place.  Our camp spot is pretty relaxing too.  Here are some pictures.

Lots and lots of puppies in the park

Missy won a pumpkin based treat served in a tiny martini glass.  Yum yum.  Laurie's holding it down with her foot, not offering toes for desert...

All dressed up and ready to hit the carnival

River Street, Savannah

City Hall 

Nice, big, shaded spot at Savannah Oaks RV Resort.

Winter 2016-2017

Winter 2016-2017

Wow, I really need to start blogging over the winter.  6 months goes by pretty fast.  This was our 5^th winter season in the motorhome, most of it at MacDill.  It was a really pleasant, warm and dry winter.  We’re paying for it now as Florida has 106 wildfires burning per the news this morning.

We arrived in FL in early November, staying a week in the panhandle on the beach, right near the FL-AL border before heading to MacDill.  We had a great spot, 109, with afternoon shade near the beach and Seascapes, surrounded by friends we’ve made over the past 5 years.  It really is like coming home (only every year the neighborhood shifts around and you don’t know who your neighbor will be).

I got a few projects done on the rig.  I actually installed a new TV antenna myself, pretty proud of that, and Mom and I busted out the industrial sewing machine to repair the door awning.  Late in the season, the combo clothes washer dryer died, so we got a new one installed.  I had to be the apprentice when John from American RV arrived to install it.  Those things are heavy.  Other than that, the motorhome is in fine shape for this summer’s trip.

We had a few visitors and made a few side trips to keep things interesting.  I got to visit with Paul Lambeth.  Paul and I were Lieutenants together when we lived in Albuquerque.  He and Jan have hosted us at their house in Belgrage, MT twice now on our trips out west.  He was in Orlando for a convention so I went over to see him.  John and Phyllis came down from Raleigh so we got to visit with them for almost a week.  We got hotel rooms on St. Pete Beach and also stayed out at Universal Studios so they could ride the roller coasters.  Stephanie came down for a visit from Virginia Beach.  We drove up to Arkansas for Christmas, and Steph was able to fly in and join us.  We made our annual trek to Key West, this time with full time RV friends Kris and Yancey.  They stayed longer than we did, but we enjoyed our 2 weeks on the island. 

Meanwhile, Laurie had been looking for a new puppy.  She’d been surfing shelter websites for months, and also looking at puppies from breeders.  She found a breeder of mini Australian Shepherds in the Tampa area, so when we got back from Key West we went over an picked out a little cutie.  Laurie deliberated over several litters of puppies and picked out the cutest little black and white tri-color female.  We named her Missy and she instantly became the bell of the ball at the RV park.  I don’t know that I’ve ever seen a puppy get socialized to both dogs and people so quickly.  She’s growing like a weed, 6 months old now and seems to really enjoy the lifestyle.

Our son Eric moved into the house with brother Brad, making it much easier to visit them both.  Brad finished up his associates in citrus production, so we and Mom attended the commencement.  The boys babysat Missy while we took a cruise with friends from Newfoundland Fred and Loretta and Danny and Marlene.  It was just a quick 4 day jaunt out to the Bahamas, but we had a good time.  Fred’s down in his back, so we’re hoping he finds some relief. 

We also got to visit the growing tribe of former MacDill folks that have bought houses in The Villages, up near Ocala.  They helped me celebrate my 53^rd birthday in style.  Larry and Teresa, Roy and Nan, Eddie and Lois, and Martin and Wanda are all living it up zooming around on their golf carts, playing golf, and enjoying the good life.

Life at MacDill was pretty sweet.  I played a lot of guitar, and our trivia team was in the money most weeks.  This summer’s goal is a trip up the east coast again, same basic route as our first summer in 2012, but this time we’re hoping to go all the way up to Newfoundland.  Fred and Loretta are also motorhomers, and we’re looking forward to touring the island with them in July and August.  We’ll return to MacDill again in November to begin the fun cycle all over again.

We actually got all 3 grandkids together for Thanksgiving 2016

Christmas in Arkansas

Kris and Yancy, New Year's Eve

Probably getting closed to the ball dropping, judging by the smiles...

Missy, probably the day we brought her home

The Graduate

With John and Phyllis at Universal Studios

This is Laurie with Gerd Rube.  Gerd's a German dude who moved to Key West and is one of the local fixtures.  We've been listening to him every visit for years now.

Larry and the CoolMobile

Who me, 53?

I took this on a morning walk in Key West.  They're everywhere on Key West, and pretty unafraid of humans

Trivia teammate Kevin

Paul Lambeth and me 

Laurie and I celebrating the opening of my very own coconut stand on Grand Bahama island.

Mother and daughter, around Thanksgiving on St. Pete Beach

Cruising to the Bahamas with our Newfie pals