Home at last!

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Maggie driving the motorhome. Looks serious doesn't she.
Beware of crossing panthers. This was taken outside of Naples, Florida.

Dec 3 – Well, we finally made it home late last night. WHAT A TRIP! Of all the things we saw home seems to be among the best. We logged over 18,000 miles on the motorhome and 7,700 on Maggie’s, our tow car, in 8 months on our tour of North America.

I thought I’d give you a couple of final photos. These are rare sightings to be sure. We had never seen a sign warning us of panthers before.

We look forward to seeing you all again and sharing highlights of our trip and catching up on what’s happened in your life.

Happy Holidays to you all.

Still in Florida but heading for home

Nov 30 – We all went parasailing. It was pretty windy and they didn’t really need to move the boat for us to fly high. It was so windy they didn’t want to send anyone up by themselves so we all went tandem. First Val and Gary went then Maggie and Val went. Lucky Val got to go twice. Check out the photo.

We are currently in Tampa. We’ve been here for a few days. Some friends told us about this place called Lazy Days and that we just had to go. It’s 150 acres of RV park, pool, spa, tennis courts and more. It’s also a RV dealer and repair facility; reportedly the largest in the country. We were told that they sell 350 new and 250 used RVs in the average month. In January, their biggest month, they expect to sell over 600 new coaches. Believe me, that’s a lot.

A couple of days ago Gary received a phone call at 0530 to verify an attempted purchase from a firm in England. He said WHAT? He also said NO and immediately called their credit card company and told them about the call. As it turns out, while we were in Key West, someone got their credit card info and began charging. The creep attempted to charge about $1800 but did not succeed on most. They won’t be liable for any of it but the credit card company turned off their credit card. Arggghhhh! The upside of this is that Maggie will be paying for everything for the rest of the trip.

We’re leaving in the morning headed northwest. We hope to be home in about a week. We look forward to seeing all our friends in the San Antonio area again and sharing some of our favorite stories from our trip.

Key West, Florida

Nov 25 – Happy Thanks giving everyone! We have reached Key West, in the Florida Keys, the southernmost point of our journey. We left Maggie’s relative’s place and drove to Patrick AFB, on the coast by Melbourne. We needed to do some laundry, dump our holding tanks at their RV park and get some groceries before we headed out for the Keys. The drive was good with the exception of Miami traffic. It was pretty bad. We took a bypass route about 2 o’clock and it was still lots of stop and little go driving. We arrived at the campground after dark and could not check in for the night.

The next morning we checked in and got a spot right on the water at the end of a row. That meant we only had one neighbor and extra viewing space. It’s really something to look out the front window across the ocean and see small islands everywhere.

Last night we went to Mallory Square. Every evening they have a sunset celebration; kind of an excuse to get together and drink. They have lots of street artists entertaining the crowds with their talents. We saw jugglers, escape artists, unicycle jugglers, tumblers and several people sitting around singing and playing their guitars. Most of the acts were pretty good. One of the jugglers managed to get Gary to participate in one of his routines. Gary’s the one in the hat. There were three cruise ships in port that night so there were lots of people there. They also had those cut-out things you can stick your head into. I included a photo of Gary and Val as a Calypso couple.

Today we’re all going parasailing! Whoopee! Afterwards the campground is having a potluck Thanksgiving get together so we’ll be there stuffing our faces and meeting more people from all around the US.

Sunny Florida

Here we are enjoying the Fabulous Florida weather.


Here's a Manatee!


Nov 19 – We made it to Florida and are parked in a tropical park like setting at one of Maggie’s relatives. He has several acres, including an island, on the St. Johns River in central Florida. He has very large fountains, boat docks, diving boards, green houses and a really cool house and garage.

The weather here has been fabulous. It’s been in the mid to upper 70s and clear skies every day. Today we visited a place called Blue Springs. It is a spring that puts out over a hundred million gallons of crystal clear water per day. The water is 72 degrees and is home to many manatees. It was the first time we had seen these gentle giants in person. We had someone take a picture of us while we were there so you could see that we are still here and having a great time.

The Carolina's

Here's Gary and Val's version of the Cialis bathtub commerial.


Nov 15 – The Outer Banks were great. We visited Kitty Hawk, where the Wright brothers flew the first airplane; see photos. We also walked on a large tall sand dune and a few beaches. The wind was blowing really hard and the waves were big and crashing hard on the beach. We didn’t stay outdoors too long.

One thing I forgot to mention in my last entry in North Carolina was a place called Dismal Swamp. It’s like its name implies but through it they have a man-made canal that runs up the coast. It was dug by slaves many years ago and is still in use. It’s the only one of its kind. It looked funny to see sailboats parked at the docks in the jungle/swamp.

Another thing I didn’t mention was when we were staying at Gary and Val’s friends in Virginia Beach Val got up early one morning and their dog wanted outside. So, Val opened the door to discover they have an alarm system. Not only did she wake up everyone in the house but half the neighborhood too. All’s she could say was “sorry”. It was funny once things settled down.

We’ve been in South Carolina, outside Charleston, for a few days. We’re camped at a Navy recreation site on Lake Moultrie. The motorhome is backed up to the lake shore and we’re surrounded by big trees covered with Spanish moss; very southern. The weather has been great; mid 70s during the day. We’ve seen some great sun downs.

Today we toured Charleston; the old sections were pretty neat, lots of history here. We hate to leave but we’re heading south tomorrow.

Virginia - We're out a there

Nov 10 – Well, we entered the state of Virginia Oct 10th and left Nov 10th. We had a great time visiting all our families and friends. The last weekend in Richmond Maggie’s family had a bon fire and we all stood around the fire trying to keep warm: it was 38-40 degrees. Gary had another way to try and stay warm; drinking. He had a few beers and several Jell-O shots and really enjoyed himself. All of us had to take all the clothes we were wearing and put them in a plastic bag since they were full of smoke.

Our last stop was with some friends of Gary and Val named Carl and Mary Lou; they live in Virginia Beach. We spent one afternoon driving near the beaches. They had a friend that has a private collection of 60 airplanes as well as an airport and lots of other WWII memorabilia. I included a couple of photos; the one larger green airplane was one that Hitler used while he was in power. There were lots of other, smaller, planes and all were in excellent condition and are routinely flown.

On our way south we drove over a couple of draw bridges: I included one in a photo. We are spending the next few days camped at a Coast Guard station on the Chesapeake Bay. We’re about 40 feet from the water. It’s really nice.

Tomorrow we’ll be going to the “Outer Banks”, a chain of islands off the coast of North Carolina. The Wright Brothers made their first flight from one of the islands. Cape Hatteras is also there. We hope to have lots of photos from that excursion.

Still Outside Richmond

Nov 4 – We’ve been having a good time visiting Maggie’s family. We spent about a week with her brother and now have the motorhome parked in her mother’s front yard. Next we’re headed for Virginia Beach, VA to visit friends from when Gary attended the Naval Postgraduate School.

We did find time to do a little sightseeing in Richmond. We drove down Monument Avenue which has statues of several influential people from the area. We took a couple of photos. The guy on the horse is Robert E. Lee. The trees here have turned and are bright shades of yellow, red and amber.

We are all looking forward to the remaining stops down the east coast and Florida but December is in our sites and we all are looking forward to getting back home.

Richmond, VA

Oct 27 – Before we left the DC area we visited Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Forest. The fall tree colors were reported to be at their peak. I included a couple photos for you to see. The weather was pretty bad; clouds were sweeping across the mountains like thick fog and we had periods of rain. In spite of that we were able to get a few photos that captured some of the great fall foliage.

We’re now outside of Richmond, VA visiting several of Maggie’s family members. We’ll probably be here for a couple of weeks. They have a farm in the country and we plan on spending some time there too.

We are supposed to get some strong thunderstorms tonight with up to 2 inches of rain and high winds. We have the motorhome closed up tight so hopefully we’ll ride out the storm OK.

Hope you all are doing well.

Battlefield Correction

I said it was the battle of the bulge. I should have said Bull Run. Sorry for the mistake. Gary

Resting in VA

Oct 22 – We’ve been enjoying our “down time” at Loreann’s. It’s kind of nice to have a whole house to move around in and not be confined to the motorhome. The weather has been cool and breezy the entire time we’ve been here. It’s been pretty nice actually.

We really haven’t done much sightseeing since we’ve been here. We all have been to the major sights on previous trips to DC. However, we did walk around the battle grounds of the Battle of the Bulge in Manassas. We saw old cannons and a couple of large statues depicting famous generals like Stonewall Jackson. He apparently got his name from that battle. When the enemy was firing and charging towards him and his men he firmly kept his ground. One of his officers described the scene to someone else and said that in the face of grave danger he just stood there like a stone wall, hence his nickname of Stonewall Jackson.

Val had a filling come out of one of her teeth so had to make an appointment with a local dentist. It’s a two step process, I guess, and she has to go back next Tuesday, Oct 26th for the final treatment. We’ll leave for the Richmond, VA area after she’s finished with that.

Philadephia, Penn

Oct 11 – Sorry it’s been so long since the last posting. Since then we visited Val’s youngest sister, Melanie, and her family; spent a few days in Philadelphia and visited with a couple of old friends from Gary’s graduate school days. The visits with friends and family were great.

Philadelphia is a very large and busy city. We tried to visit a couple of restaurants listed in Guy Fieri’s book: one was closed and the other one we were disappointed in: so much for that. We took a day and toured the historic downtown section of the city; Liberty Bell, Independence and Constitution Halls and other buildings. It was really something to be in the same room where, 200 years ago, our founding fathers discussed and created the foundation of our country.

We also found out that Betsy Ross was married three times; they all ended in the death of the husband. Nothing suspicious mind you; a war; an accident at sea and old age were the causes.

We’re now in Manassas, Virginia visiting Gary and Val’s oldest daughter, Loreann. We plan on staying here a couple of weeks and letting some of the “road” wear off.

New York City

Oct 2 – We just got back from a long day of touring New York City. We bought two-day bus packages that took us all over Up and Downtown New York including Brooklyn and Harlem. We even visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We did two day trips and one night trip: so we could see the lights. There is a huge difference between day and night. The streets are busy during the day but at night they come completely alive. There must be twice as many people. I included a couple of photos for your viewing enjoyment.

We primarily ate at little diners and street corners while in the city. It part of the local life style. We’ve had gyros, hot dogs, Philly cheese steaks and a few other things. We had an interesting thing happen tonight at dinner. We were eating and this lady came in ranting about wanting some food. She threw a dollar at one of the servers and he told her she’d have to wait her turn. She got angry and started to go behind the serving area. One of the guys stopped her. She then turned and grabbed some food off a ladies plate and threw it at the server. Then he came around the corner to show her the door and she hit him. He was about to hit her back when another patron stepped up and said “Now don’t you be hitting a woman.” That was an issue I think most people would not have considered. She was not acting like a lady. Some of the people eating moved away in case things got ugly. We watched in amazement as things slowly settled down and the lady left. So, for the price of dinner got also got a free show; New York style. Can’t beat that!

After dinner we went on the night bus tour. Time Square was full of people. There were thousands of them. While riding the bus a funny thing happened to Val. All of a sudden she felt something wet on her face. It wasn’t raining so can you guess what happened? Here we are, 8:00 at night riding on an open top double decker bus enjoying the ride. What could it have been? It was bird poop. Yup, some bird must have taken aim and WHAM. It hit her on the forehead, splashed on the inside of her glasses, dribbled down her cheek and stopped on the lapel of her jacket. She was so surprised. When we stopped laughing we were able to give he a Kleenex to wipe it all off.

All in all we enjoyed our trip to the Big Apple. We all agreed that there is no way we could live there but it was an interesting couple of days and we are all glad we did it.

One photo is of the Statue of Liberty with Manhattan in the background. Another picture is of Time Square at night and the third photo is of an exhibit they had at Ellis Island. It was comprised of prism like surfaces that from one angle you say a face of one of the immigrants that passed through and on the other surface was the American flag. In the photo you can see a little of both.

Tomorrow we go a little further south.

Cape Cod and Rhode Is

Sep 30 – We left the Boston area and drove to Rhode Island but not before checking out Cape Cod. We had heard many things about it and wanted to see for ourselves. The weather wasn’t the best. We had quite a bit of fog: you can see it in the photo of the lighthouse. They have a great museum there with history and info on how the peninsula was formed and all that stuff. We had lunch at a neat little place called the Optimist Café; wonderful food and cute old house to boot.

After that we spent a day in Providence. There are some super old buildings there. There is a street called Benefit Street that has the largest accumulation of colonial homes in America. They were from the 1700s and up; unbelievable. We got a little turned around and got lost. While trying to find our way back I stopped to ask a policeman how to get back to the downtown area. He asked me what the heck we were doing in that neighborhood. I told him we were lost and he said “you’re in the ghetto now and you’d better get out quick”. I asked him if it was dangerous and he said yeah they’d had several shootings lately even in the daytime so we had better leave ASAP. He told us how to get back downtown and we promptly left.

We also spent some time in Newport, across the harbor from Providence. They have a street that is full of the largest and most gorgeous mansions you’ve ever seen. We took a photo of one place that had its own private harbor where they moored their boat and set lobster traps. It wasn’t one of the bigger places but it was right on the coast. Val and Maggie viewed a wonderful topiary garden; I stayed in the car.

After Newport we left and drove further south, down the coast and are now in New Jersey and plan on spending the next few days touring the Big Apple, New York City. Will write more later.

We're in Bo Austin, Mass

Sep 26 – We arrived in the Boston area last Wednesday the 22nd. We’re staying in the campground at Hanscom AFB. We needed to have access to electricity for a while to recharge our coach batteries. Prior to arriving in Maine we would drive almost all day then stay for a night or two and leave again. Once we arrived at the coast of Maine there’s been so much to see we’ve been staying 3-4 days then driving an hour or two to the next location. It hasn’t been enough to fully re-charge the coach batteries.

The weather here has been nice, in the upper 80s most days. The trees still haven't changed much. I guess they're waiting for colder weather.

We took the subway into the city (Who in his/her right mind wants to drive or find parking in Boston?) and did the tourist thing. We took a trolley to most of the top sights. There are several companies here that offer trolley tours. We went to Cheers, the USS Constitution, Paul Revere’s house, had a great lunch in little Italy and thoroughly enjoyed walking around the old buildings. They have a graveyard with several of our founding fathers buried there. Tons of history here.

They also have some great parks. The person that designed New York’s Central Park did these. The area known as Boston Common’s is nice as well as the park across the street. They have an unusual statue of a bunch of ducks walking on a sidewalk. We had to take a picture of that; it was so cute.

We plan on leaving tomorrow morning and stopping in the area of Providence, Rhode Island next.

Still More Maine

Sep 20 – Boothbay Harbor was really nice but it wasn’t Cabot Cove. They had more tall mast wooden ships there. They sure are something to look at. We visited lots of touristy shops selling the same things. They’re all starting to look the same. We walked over a long foot bridge over the harbor and ate at a small seafood restaurant on the docks. On the way back we came across a couple walking to a church across the street. It was the father and bride and bride’s maids in a line being led by a guy in kilts playing bagpipes. They had just gotten off a boat. These lobster men really know how to live.

There was a small diner (A-1) in a nearby town that Guy Fieri, the Diner’s Drive-in and Dive’s host, had visited. It was an old train car. Kind of cool. On the way there Maggie’s car started running rough and the “Check Engine” light came on. Luckily we were just a few miles from a dealer so we turned around. They checked it out and found out that the coil was faulty. After a couple of hours we were back on the road. A little lighter in the wallet but you’ve got to get it fixed so. . . .

Monday morning we left and drove to Portland. It is a large shipping port, nothing like the things we’ve been seeing. We took a narrated trolley ride through the old port area and then a cruise on a boat of the harbor and neighboring lighthouses. Kind of windy and cold but nice to see all the stuff we don’t have in Texas.

When we were riding the tour trolley the guide told us that Guy Fieri was in town a couple of weeks ago and did a piece on one of their local restaurants, Becky’s. So guess where we had dinner. It too was good. They had a blue lobster in their lobster tank. They are pretty rare. We had never seen one before. They look kind of weird. I wonder what color they turn when you cook them?

We saw something in a magazine about a life size chocolate moose and had to investigate that. We saw it; check out the photos. They had a chocolate mama bear and two cubs too. All of the animals were around a small pond of white chocolate. It was truly amazing. Val wanted to take a bite out of the moose’s antler but the store clerks watched her closely so she didn’t.

We’ll likely stay another day or two in Portland and then keep moving south. Stay in touch.

More of Maine

Sep 16 – Yesterday Maggie and Gary decided to take our inflatable canoe to the Rockport harbor and paddle around a bit and check out the boats. They had a good time except it got pretty windy later in the day and they had to work a little harder than normal to paddle up wind to get back to the docks.

We arrived in Brunswick this afternoon. We had hoped to get a prescription filled at the Naval Station they have here but they closed the medical clinic several months ago. I tell you, this shrinking military stinks. We drove past a small food stand on the side of the road a few miles outside of where we’re staying. It had a line 50 feet long of people waiting for whatever the place was selling. We’re planning on going back there to see what everyone thinks is so hot.

We drove out to the tip of a small chain of islands. The temp was 61 degrees with a strong breeze. We all had our jackets on. Those of you living in San Antonio probably can’t believe it but there are places where it’s not hot all the time. Anyway, we saw several small harbors and lots more coastal cottages.

There is quite a bit to see in this area so we should be here several days. Boothbay Harbor is nearby and is reported to be the place they used for the outdoor scenes of the TV show Mystery She Wrote: the place on TV was called Cabot’s Cove. We’re all looking forward to seeing it for ourselves.

Baa Habba Maine

Sep 13 – We arrived at the coast (near Ellsworth) and have been here for several days. When we got to town we were having difficulty locating the local Wal-Mart. So, we pulled into a small strip mall and were trying to get the GPS to help us out. A small shuttle bus pulled alongside and said “What part of Texas are you folks from?” I told him San Antonio and he said that where he lives too. He comes up here in the summer to escape the hot weather and drives the bus for something to do. He asked if we were having problems. I said no, we were trying to find the local Wal-Mart. He said “Follow me”. The guy actually led us to the Wal-Mart store. Ah that Texas hospitality is great isn’t it?

Talking about Texas, I included a photo I took of Maggie riding a horse she found in a field. You can take the girl out of Texas but you can’t take the Texas out of the girl.

Since we got settled we’ve seen the Acadia National Park, Bar Harbor (which the local pronounce “Ba Habba”) and several other small fishing villages. We’ve seen lots of small harbors, fishing boats and rugged shoreline and are looking forward to seeing much more. I’ve included a couple of pictures of the local sights.

We did the obligatory Lobster, clam eating. We were driving down the road and saw a sign that said “Rats, lobster, clams, cherry stones, turn here”. Our curiosity got the best of us. We didn’t know what cherry stones were and we had to see if this place was selling rats or not. We drove back in the woods about ¾ of a mile and found the place. I asked about the rats and was told it was her husband’s nick name. His name was Robert A. Timmons and everyone called him Rat. So, naturally his stand would be called Rats. We bought a couple of lobsters and she gave us some clams. Boy those lobsters are a mess to eat. Notice the photo of Val dropping the little buggers in the boiling water. Yum.

That’s it for now. We’re off to another port. For the next couple of months we’ll be heading south and I think we’re taking highway one along the coast most of the way, should be scenic. Hope you all are doing well.

The Maine Event

Sep 9 – We’ve spent our first few days in the lovely state of Maine. It’s a lot like Vermont and New Hampshire so far. As I mentioned before the trees are just starting to change so the main attraction is yet to come. I included a couple of photos of a small tree and some ferns that had already changed.

We took a scenic drive through some mountains passing several lakes and rivers. This place is really nice to look at this time of year; very tempting to want a little place on a lake up here. Thinking about snow on the ground 5 months of the year keeps us on track though. Seriously there is a lot of property for sale. It seems like 20% of the places we go by are for sale. Sign of the times I guess.

Maine takes a lot of pride in their lobster heritage. Everything is lobster. We haven’t reached the coast yet but came across an ice cream shop that had “Lobster Bit” ice cream. We had to try it. You can see by the photo that Val and Maggie like it a lot: me too.

Tomorrow we leave headed for the coast. Hope to eat our fill of lobster, scallops, crabs and clams in the next few weeks. We’re going to have to take our time going through the small fishing villages and light houses along the coast while we wait for the trees to change color; can’t think of a better place to be right now.

Our week in Bethlehem

Sep 6 – After spending a little over a week in the small town of Bethlehem, New Hampshire it’s time to move on. We had planned to leave for Maine earlier but decided to wait until hurricane Earl and the holiday weekend had passed. Hard to get a spot to park a big RV on a holiday weekend if you didn’t make a reservation. Last week, when it was still warm, Maggie and I went to a small river nearby and cooled off a bit. Here is a photo of the river.

We went to a place called “Castle in the Clouds” a couple of days ago. It is a large home built near the top of a mountain. It overlooks a very large lake. They guy bought all the land between his house and the lake (6500 acres) so he could preserve it. He made millions in the 1920s but living like a king quickly drained his holdings and he died a pauper. The house alone cost more than a million to build and the second owner got the entire property for $175k in taxes.

This morning we rode a tram to the top of Mt Cannon. The sky was hazy for most of the time we’ve been here but today it was clear. According to the guy operating the tram we could see for more than 60 miles. We saw mountain tops in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York.

They had a ski museum at the bottom of the mountain and we got to see Bode Miller’s Olympic medals from the 2002 and 2010 Winter Olympics. Turns out he was raised in the town of Franconia (a couple miles away) and learned to ski on those mountains. I guess it’s a good place to learn how to ski with snow on the ground half the year.

Tomorrow, Tuesday morning, we're leaving for Maine.