I sure don't know where the first 3 months of this year went. People so often ask, "what do you do in the Domincan Republic for 3 months". The answer is, "not much". And the funny thing is, at the end of the day, we're tired!
We arrived back in Ft. Lauderdale March 30th. Since it was late in the day by the time we went thru customs & picked up the car, we decided to stay there overnight. The next day we returned to Orlando & reclaimed "our home". We're always a little concerned when we open the door as to whether we've had visitors, such as mice or bugs. Happily, everything was fine & we settled in quickly. Of course, there was shopping to do, & plenty of dusting & vacuuming. We were staying in the same park for a week, so we had plenty of time.
While we were there, we had a visit from Collins' best friend from high school (50 plus years ago), Pete Ambraz & his wife Linda. They were nice enough to drive over from Tampa. After a few hours of catching up, we went out for a casual dinner. It was great seeing them, especially since we don't know when we'll be back in FL. They just don't age.
We also had a chance to take in one of Blake's (our great grandson) Tball games. He really loves sports & plays well for a 6 yr old.
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| Great Granddad & Blake |
After the game we went to dinner with Collina & Mike, Brittany & Lexi (our granddaughters). Then it was time to say goodbye, because we were leaving FL the next morning. Between Christmas & this past week's visit, we really enjoyed the time we were able to spend with all of them & hopefully see them all again soon.
We're on our way back to IL for at least part of the summer, but are making some stops along the way. We've wanted to see the east coast spring flowers such as azaleas & rhododendrons. We thought our timing would be perfect & decided to stop near Augusta, GA because they always showed the beautiful flowers during the Masters Tournament, which has been here for a few years.
So, our first stop was the State Botanical Gardens of GA. We were so disappointed.
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| The ball is actually spinning in the water |
The gardens themselves were very nice, but due to the warm winter, all the flowers we wanted to see were just about finished blooming.
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| A few flowering dogwoods |
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| This was called a Sunflower Sculpture |
On the plus side, we're in a very nice RV park, on a huge lake. It's the Pointes West Army Resort in Appling, GA. The grounds are very pretty & we've been enjoying daily bike rides.
April 18th. As Collins often likes to remind me, Man plans & God laughs. As I mentioned earlier, we had hoped to see the beautiful southern flowers (azaleas & rhododendrons) as we made our way north. Unfortunately, the winter was so warm most of the flowers bloomed early this year & we've only caught the tail end of them. Our travel plans were meant to coincide with the blooming, but that didn't happen. Our stay in North Carolina between Charlotte & Spartanburg was to allow us to visit gardens in both places.
Since the flowers are no longer in bloom, we've spent the time doing minor repairs & did take a visit to Cowpens National Monument.
The Battle of Cowpens was an engagement between Patriot forces under Brigadier General Daniel Morgan and British forces under Sir Banastre Tarleton fought on January 17, 1781. The park offered an interesting short film about the battle & a nice walking trail along the battle ground. Some believe this battle was the beginning of the end for the British. As I've mentioned before, it's always sobering when you're walking on an actual battleground. Sometimes I feel as tho you can see & hear the fighting around you.
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| Monument commemorating the battle of Cowpens |
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| Grasshopper Cannon |
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| Battlefield |
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| Washington Light Monument |
A few pretty flowers left for us to admire.
I forgot to mention that while driving on a two lane highway in FL we hit a horrible pothole which caused a small crack in our windshield. Later we parked, put our screen & foil insulation in the front window to block the heat (it was FL & we were facing West), leveled the RV & forgot about the crack. About 5 days later, we were getting ready to leave & removed everything from the front window.
You can't imagine how surprised we were to see that the "little crack" had become huge & spread across the windshield. Now there are cracks on both sides of the window. We've been told the heat & leveling was the cause.
Of course, we called our insurance company & they tried to make arrangements for it to be repaired at our next stop. That didn't work, so we tried for the stop after that. It's not easy finding a glass shop that can replace a piece approximately 55" high by 110" wide. We thought our stop in Forest City, NC was going to be the place, but things didn't work out there either. Today, (4/27/17) we finally found a place in Elkhart, IN that can do the work. We'll be headed there next week for an RV Rally and, since it is the RV capital of the U.S., we should have just aimed for there in the first place. Our only concern in driving that far is that every time we hit a huge bump in the road, it gets a little worse. Right now, we have clear gorilla tape on all the cracks.
Being close to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, we decided to take a short drive today hoping to see more flowers in bloom. The Blue Ridge Parkway is a National Parkway known for it's scenic beauty. It runs 469 miles thru North Carolina & Virginia. Unlike the Natchez Trace Parkway, the Blue Ridge is mountainous & curvy; this isn't a drive for most RV's.
We did see a few things in bloom.
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| Flowering Dogwood |
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| Table top mountain in the background |
but unfortunately, like most of the days we've been in North Carolina, it was overcast & drizzly.
In spite of our disappointment over the lack of flowers, we did enjoy our jaunt thru the Blue Ridge. And we had a nice campground, so we just kicked back & enjoyed our time.
We made a short stop in KY so Karen could check in on her mother. Unfortunately, there are no campgrounds within 40 min of her, so we spent 3 nights in the local Walmart Parking Lot (with their permission of course). It was good to see her, but the time was too short.
Our next stop was Elkhart, IN. Our mission there was two fold. First & foremost, we had to get our RV windshield replaced. That's a big job & they don't want you to move the RV for 2 days afterward, so we spent two nights in Duncan RV Repair's parking lot. Since they do so many RV repairs, they were kind enough to furnish us with electric & water at our parking spot. That worked fine for us.
After leaving Duncan's, we moved a few miles so we could attend an RV Maintenance Rally. You would think after 7 years of living in our RV, & maintaining a thorough maintenance schedule, we wouldn't learn a lot from this type of rally. Boy were we surprised at all the new things we learned. It was also a good place to buy a few things we needed for the RV & to get a few other things repaired by the very same people that originally built it.
In addition to learning, we also had a couple of fun side trips.
One day, we went to the factory where they paint RV's. Most of the ones they do are brand new, but they also repaint older ones. Collins is always talking about the colors he would want WHEN we get ours repainted. However, that will wait awhile, It's a very expensive process & ours is still looking pretty darn good.
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| Ours will Not be this color |
We also went to a play in a Round Barn, built in 1911, & dismantled & relocated in 1998.
It's 60' in diameter & 60' tall to the copula. It was kind of impressive to sit there & look up to the top
We enjoyed a humorous play & had a nice dinner with many others from the group
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| Paula & Pam "helping" Aaron cook dinner |
After leaving Indiana, we were off to Illinois. We arrived in time for Mother's Day. Pam invited us all to a Barbecue.
Katie is a cheerleader & has been learning to do a back-flip.
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| Tyler & Ryan looking "cool" |
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| Paula, Katie, Karen, Pam & Becca |
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| Becca & Granddad |
Becca was just finishing her Freshman year at Elmhurst College & needed some help getting the rest of her things moved home. We offered to help & while there she gave us a tour of her campus. It's small, but seemed very nice.
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| "Old Main", the oldest building on campus |
June & most of July were pretty uneventful months for us. We were in IL all summer. Since we thought one of our long term tenants was going to move out, we planned on doing some updating. Instead, they decided to stay another year so rather than doing one big job we did numerous small tasks at several of our properties, employing some of the grand-kids along the way.
I thought I'd be having knee replacement, but decided to postpone for awhile. In hindsight, I probably should have had it done, but will see about scheduling it this Fall. In the meantime, we caught up on our Dr appts & some misc things we needed to do around the RV. Collins managed to have the ladder tip over while polishing the upper half of the RV & badly sprained his ankle. He could barely put weight on it & walked with crutches for over 2 weeks. It's still swollen, but at least he can walk. He also managed to do something to his back shortly after his foot started healing. For over 2 weeks he did battle with that & I finally convinced him to see a chiropractor. One of his favorite sayings is "getting old's a bitch & then you die". After he was feeling better from those 2 things, he got busy & painted Paula's kitchen & 2 story foyer. That was a job.
We also celebrated our son Doug's, birthday, going out to dinner with his family.
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| Doug & Kerry |
We did have a chance to have lunch with our "first RV friends", Brad & Sonja Kreiter. It was a lot of fun catching up on things we'd all been doing over the years.
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| Brother Rob & Niece Megan |
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| Here comes the bride |
For the first time in almost 10 years, all my brothers & sisters were together. There are 8 of us living all over the country & my one brother lives in Taiwan. Since we all brought our kids & grand-kids, it was a lot of fun seeing everyone. The wedding was for my brother Rob's daughter Megan. She was a beautiful bride.
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| Mom with my brother Hal |
My mom flew in a few days early, so we got to spend some time with her too. She's almost 92 & other than having a little trouble getting around, she is very "with" it.
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| Mom with all 8 of her children. What a group! |
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| Falls Family |
I think someone said there were 63 people in this picture. This is a large part of my family, but there are still many missing.
Collins had surgery on his hand the middle of August fixing two trigger fingers & carpel tunnel in his right hand. Having been in one place for several months (IL) & since Collins couldn't do anything for at least a week, we decided to "run away from home". Immediately after his surgery at the Hines VA hospital, we took off for Michigan for a couple of weeks.
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| Windmill Island |
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| Snuggles was taking a rest amid the flowers |
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| Wooden Street Organ |
Our destination of Holland, Michigan is a beautiful, quaint town with good restaurants, darling little shops
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| Collins & Snuggles blend with the street art |
and a very nice, crystal clear water beach along Lake Michigan.
There is a Farmer's Market every Wed & Saturday. We bought some fresh blueberries.
Since our campground has a pool, we enjoyed it several days, as well as one day at the beach. It was really nice just to have a change of scenery & kick back schedule. We're heading back to IL tomorrow.
It's time to get ready for our trip to Europe, Sept 13th. Our next installment will give you all the scoop on that,
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