Traveling Along

Bay View RV Park and a Really Big Tree

2012-02-02T10:35:00.000-05:00

We arrived at Bay View RV Resort on Saturday. We got all set up in site #155. The park is a little run down, but its our understanding that under the new management, they are working at making it better. We met a lot of wonderful people when we went for Karaoke that evening.

Sunday we took a ride into Rockport. We never thought about it being a Sunday. A lot of things were not opened. We walked around the marina area for a while.

Here are a few sculptures around the marina area. (Kim the turtle is for you)
We also drove over to Goose Island State Park to see “The Big Tree”.

These tree is a Coastal Oak tree and they are very prevalent is this area. This Big Tree is over 1000 years old and has a trunk circumference of 35 ‘ and a crown spread of 89’.

We plan to go into Corpus Christie to see the USS Lexington and Ed wants to do a little fishing. We have a couple of weeks so we will do it at a relaxing pace.

Houston Space Center

2012-01-29T19:18:00.000-05:00

Last Friday we were up early for our departure from Livingston. While I stayed back to pay our electricity usage, Ed drove the motorhome to get propane. I made it there just has he finished and while he drove on to get the motorhome inspected, I paid the bill. He was just about finished with the inspection when I got there. It all worked well and we were on the road to Houston about 9:30. Halfway there, we decided to stop for breakfast.

The Houston Space Center has been on my bucket list for a long time. Since its about 90 minutes from Livingston, we decided we would stop on our way south. We arrived just in time to make the 1:00 pm tram tour. The tram tour made a stop at Mission Control, the Training Facility and Rocket park.

Mission Control

The floor here in the training center is made of a special material that lets the training chair float like you would in space.

Approaching Rocket park on the tram, here are the Mercury rockets and the Gemini rockets. The building we went into was all about the Apollo Program. My father worked all his life for General Electric. During the “Race for the Moon” many of the GE employees were contracted out to NASA. We spent almost 3 years living in Huntsville, Alabama where my father worked on the Saturn Booster. It took 5 of them to lift off the Apollo rocket. Here is one. I couldn’t get far enough back to get all 5 together.

After the tram tour, we went into the Starship Gallery Museum. Here they had timelines of all the different space flights, starting the Mercury Program. (Unfortunately it was also very dark inside so my pictures didn’t come out.) It brought back memories of sitting in front of a TV during school (5th grade) and watching as Alan Shepard made history. Then again, when John Glenn first orbited the earth. I remember watching with my father as Ed White became the first person to walk in space during the Gemini flights. (By the way, they named it Gemini, because there where 2 astronauts). I remember Apollo I where we lost Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee as fire swept through the capsule while sitting on the launch pad.

And, I was one of those who were up in the middle of the night, clued to the TV, when Neil Armstrong first stepped on the surface of the moon, along with Buzz Aldrin. Each step in the space program, every flight, was a learning step that led to that moment. NASA is talking about going back to the moon. Someday we may have a colony on the moon to be used as a stepping off point on the way to Mars or further.

One last picture…. Memorial Grove

Each tree here is a tribute to those astronauts lost in the Challenger and Columbia Shuttle flights.

To infinity and beyond!!!

Busy days in Livingston

2012-01-19T18:59:00.000-05:00

We come to Livingston once a year. While here we have to get our vehicles inspected and have our yearly doctors appointments.

We had so much planned for the first day and woke up to a very strong thunderstorm. It really poured so we just stayed in the motorhome. Oh well, one day down.

We made it out on Tuesday and finally got to the car inspection. (In Texas, they can’t do inspections when its raining. When they test the brakes, its about stopping distance. Harder to do when the roads are wet.) I wanted to go to the local library but they were closed for inventory until the 19th! I also picked up my lab order from my doctor.

Wednesday I had to get my blood work done. (I wanted to do this before my actual appointment). Thursday we drove to Huntsville which is a town about 45 miles from Livingston. There is a very nice used book store there and it was time for us to stock up again. The weekend was spent watching football.
This past Monday we were in the repair shop again. This time we were having our roof resealed. We had developed a few leaks and needed to get them taken care of. Not sure they got them all, it rained a little since then, but only time will tell.

Tuesday was Ed’s appointment with his cardiologist. Ed has seen him every year since we retired. Since he as A Fib, he takes a blood thinner. Last April, we were able to get a machine to check this on a weekly basis. We call in the results which to company then relays to the doctor. It does fluctuate a lot. We thought it might be the machine, but the doctor assured us that it’s the nature of the Coumadin. Yesterday was Ed’s turn for blood work and the doctor also scheduled him an echocardiogram. On Friday we have to go to Lufkin to have a nuclear stress test done. He’s not happy about it, but his doctor wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything else wrong with his heart. I am thankful. We probably won’t know any results unless there is a problem. Let’s pray there are none.

My doctors appointment was today and everything is good. Found out that a lot of the body cramping I have experienced is a side effect of the cholesterol medicine I take. I really like my doctor here in Livingston. We sat and talked about my lab results for a good 45 minutes. Not many doctors will take that much time.

We are here until next week. I have wanted to go to the Houston Space Center every year we have been here and I think next Monday we will finally get there. Of course, there is the Bingo! We can play here in Livingston 5 times a week!! We’ve yet to win the big one, but we are winning enough to keep playing.

Hopefully, the weather will be good next week so we can get the motorhome washed and waxed before we head to Rockport for a couple weeks. There is a lot to see in that area. Looking forward to it!!

Done!

2012-01-06T07:17:00.000-05:00

We finished our last day of work for Amazon on Wednesday. It sure felt good to walk out that door for the last time for a while. We will be back in October for the 2012 peak season. It really hard to turn down this kind of pay. Yes the work is hard and yes the hours are long, but they really appreciate the campers. We have had a turkey dinner catered during one lunch and at another lunch we had baked potatoes and chili. Once a week they played bingo during lunch…you all know I love bingo!!

We are headed for Texas and will be in Livingston by Sunday. We should be there for a couple of weeks before we head toward San Antonio. We have been there before but we have heard a lot about the “hill country” that’s close to that area and we want to check it out. We will then spend a couple of weeks or so around Rockport, Padre Island and Harlingen. I want to head toward New Orleans and Biloxi before starting north again to be at Beech Bend in Bowling Green Kentucky for the summer.

It’s going to be great to be on the road again!!

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T02:00:00.001-05:00

For the first time since Thanksgiving, we have had 3 days off!! We will work for 3 more days before we head for Livingston on Friday. We have been here since October 5th and we are ready to move on. These last 2 weeks have been hard. The new job in ICQA (inventory control) is very hard on the body. We are down on the floor, then up on a stool, up and down what a workout!! So glad we weren’t doing this for the past 11 weeks!!! Friday we spent doing laundry (it had really built up because we only had 1 day off in the past 7). We took a ride Saturday to Elizabethtown to get our coffee (Dunkin Donuts) and then on to Sam’s Club to pick up a few items. Today, I will take down all the Christmas decorations while watching some football. We will have to tape the Rose Parade since we will be working on Monday.
The weather here has been very mild this year. However, we do have a couple of very cold days coming Monday and Tuesday, so we have filled our water tanks and have the small heater ready to go in case our pump freezes. There is no snow in the forecast thank goodness.

Our plan for the next couple of months is to tour Texas. There is still a lot there that we have not seen. Then possibly New Orleans and Biloxi before we head to Bowling Green, KY for our summer at Beech Bend Amusement park. This is going to be our year to save on fuel!

I also want to wish my son, Terry a very happy birthday. My New Year’s baby has grown into a wonderful man whom I am very proud.

Here he is with his sisters.

Love you Terry!!!

Here’s hoping 2012 will be a great year for everyone!!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T16:31:00.001-05:00

We have had a quite day here in Campbellsville. The RV park here is really thinning out. There are only about 40 rigs left. Some are people left to spend the holidays with family and are coming back next week to get there RV’s. Some are staying to work until the end of January. We hope to make it through until the 12th of January. We will be shifting jobs again and our shift days have changed. We will work Monday thru Thursday and will be working in ICQA. That’s Amazon speak for inventory control. Our charge is to count every single bin in the warehouse!! But, we work at our own pace so it shouldn’t be too bad. We will let you know.
Much love to all of our family and friends. Merry Christmas!!

We’re still here

2011-12-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

We are still here in Campbellsville, working, working and working. We switched to outbound in hopes of getting overtime, but it seems now that the inbound department is busiest and we are back on the receiving line. Which is okay by us, because we really weren’t happy in the packing department. Full time staff in inbound, just went to 60 hrs. but for us workampers its voluntary. I am working 50 hrs., Ed has been going in on Tuesdays just for 5 hr. so he is working 55 hr. Which is okay by us, because we really weren’t happy in the packing department.

We had a problem with our refrigerator about 2 weeks ago. The cooling unit went out and it was an expensive fix, so we are going to try to stay an extra couple of weeks here to help offset the cost.
The weather here has been warmer than last year, but we have had a lot of rain. We just got through 3 nights a really cold ( 20’s) weather but the forecast for the next 10 day looks promising with no below freezing nights and highs in the 50’s. Let’s hope we are not making a mistake in trying to stay. Really don’t want to have to drive out in snow!!

Check out this video. Most of the video was shot at the campground where we are. Notice the snow showers. This was done the weekend after Thanksgiving and yes we had some snow showers but nothing stuck. Campbellsville is really a very nice small town.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nightly-news/45619203#null
Video on msnbc.com: For some workers, hopscotching around the country for a paycheck is a lifestyle. When their work is done in one place, they’ll drive their vans to the next job. NBC’s Janet Shamlian reports

Until later…..

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T08:18:00.000-05:00

We want to wish all our friends a blessed Thanksgiving. We also give thanks for our family. We love you all and wish we could be together. We are cooking a turkey dinner for ourselves with all the trimmings. Because we only have a small oven its a very small 10 lb bird. We are watching the parade and then some football.

We are just relaxing before the overtime hits here at Amazon. They have hired a lot more workampers this year so it is doubtful we will have to go to 11 hour days. (Give thanks for this!!) We should be starting our 50 hour weeks next week. The week before Christmas they may go to a 60 hour week. But its only another 4 weeks so I think we will make it!!

New Job at Amazon

2011-11-17T11:39:00.000-05:00

We were given a chance to change departments at Amazon. Things like this usually don’t happen, once you are assigned a department you have to stay with that department.

We have changed from inbound receiving to outbound ‘single toys’. In this department we are putting things into boxes instead of removing items. They really have this process down. Remember all those items we were receiving and the stowers were putting away? We now have pickers (people who go around retrieving the items you have ordered). The pickers put the items into a tote and the conveyors bring them to us to be packed. There are 2 places those orders go. If it is only one item, it comes to us in singles, if more than one item is goes to Crisplant.

We have a station that is complete with boxes of all sizes, a tape machine that has buttons for the corresponding sizes of the boxes and a small printer for packing slips. Between each station if a big mesh basket that holds the plastic bubbles that go into the boxes. When we scan an item, the computer tells us what size box to use, we press the button on the tape machine and the tape comes out the right size and wet. Once the box is packed we put what Amazon calls a SPOO sticker in the left corner of the box. As this box goes down the conveyor, the SPOO sticker is read by the computer and it prints out your delivery information. Its then routed to the proper truck for delivery. Amazon expects us to be packing a box every minute or 60 per hour!

We will stay in the outbound department now until the end of our time here. We did this so that we can get in some overtime hours. Amazon has been bringing product into this warehouse since summer so there are not a lot of hours here for all the work campers in inbound. There were about 40 of us that switched departments. But outbound will be very busy soon.

Now we really feel like Santa’s elves!!

Back to work

2011-10-13T19:13:00.000-04:00

Working at Amazon is a great way to make some money in a short period of time, but it really is exhausting especially when you are not used to this kind of work. They give us a couple of weeks working 5 hours a day. This is what they call ‘hardening’ . And boy do we need this. Right now even the 5 hours is tiring.

Ed and I both work in the inbound department in receiving. We scan items (asins) into the inventory and put these items on juice carts (three tiered carts). These carts are then taken away and the items put (stowed) on shelves (bins). Amazon has their own language. The outbound department called pickers then go to those bins to pick what you ordered and send it to the shipping department to be boxed and mailed.

We are to be at “stand up” ready to work at 6am. Stand up is an area that all workers meet in the morning and after lunch for announcements and to do some brief stretching. We have our 1st 15 minute break at 8:30am, but it can take you 2.5 minutes to walk one way to the break room, as this is a huge facility ….. 1.25 million square feet.

When we start working a full 10 hours we will get lunch at 10:30.   We will get an afternoon break but not sure what time that will be.

Our commute is very short. We can see the Amazon warehouse from our motorhome. If the weather is nice we can walk and it takes about 7 minutes. If the weather is bad, we drive and it still takes us about 5 minutes!!

Place those orders now everyone!!!   We need the work!!!

Family visit, cheerleading and a milestone birthday!!

2011-10-02T21:20:00.000-04:00

We have been in Chesterfield Virginia visiting with Kim, Mark and Savannah. We attended 2 football games where Savannah is a cheerleader.
Notice the missing front teeth.
Savannah is on 2 different cheerleading teams. This one is for her school. They are the Crenshaw Cardinals.
She also goes to a regular cheerleading gym and they do competitions against other gyms.

This is last years picture.
She is one busy girl.

Tuesday was Kim’s birthday and I cooked her dinner. We watched Savannah on Wednesday and Mark took her out to dinner. On Friday she had her party at “Off the Hookah” in Richmond. Kim has provided day care for the owners, and got a great deal on the party. She had the patio for 2 hours and we had drinks and party platters. Mark had some surprises for her, (she really does not like surprises). He had M & Ms with her picture on some and Happy Birthday on others. He also had coozie cups made up for everyone to take home. After dinner, everyone went upstairs to the actual bar area. It's been a longgg time since I've been to anything like this!!!

      The picture above is with her Uncle Garry.
       That’s the hookah pipe.
       Never knew these places existed!!!


It’s been a great visit, always hard to leave, but now we are off to work again at Amazon!!

Unemployed again!!

2011-09-19T20:31:00.000-04:00

Our last day of work at Lake George Escape was Labor Day. We had planned to stay at the campground until the following Monday so that we could get some cleaning done. Again our best laid plans did not work out. In preparing for hurricane Irene, we pulled in our slides to protect the toppers. After the storm had passed, when we put the slides back out, the rubber seal pulled loose. This was something that we could not wait to fix, so after checking on the Winnebago website, we made a call to Diamond RV in West Hatfield, Massachusetts. Since our plan was to come to West Springfield this was our best option. So we said good bye to everyone on Wednesday and drove to West Hatfield to prepare for an 8 am appointment on Thursday.

Earlier in the month our air conditioner stopped working so we had them check on that also. We also had them change the windshield wipers because it had been so long since we drove in the rain that we did not realize how bad they were. Then I saw that they also did oil changes…Hey we needed that also!! We spent Thursday night in their back lot and the repairs were all finished on Friday. We had reservations for the campground starting Monday the 12th, so we called to see if we could get in early. No luck but they let us stay the weekend in their lot. We had 30 amp electric so we were good.

We spent a week at the campground and we were busy visiting friends. Ed played golf one day, while I ran some errands and did some laundry. We played some bingo and of course sang karaoke. It was a busy week but its good to be able to spend time with these friends. Not sure what next year will bring so this year means a lot to Ed.

We are now parked at Foxwoods Casino for a couple of day to visit more family in this area.

Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream

2011-08-24T20:39:00.018-04:00

Our last stop in Vermont was the Ben and Jerry’s factory.

In 1977 lifelong friends Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield completed a correspondence course on ice cream making from the Penn State 's school of Creamery. On May 5, 1978, with a $12,000investment the pair opened an ice cream parlor in a renovated gas station in downtown Burlington, Vermont. In 1979, they marked their anniversary by holding the first-ever free cone day, now an international annual celebration.

They helped form the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery in Vermont and they are the main supplier of their milk and cream. None of the farmers treat their cows with growth hormones used to increase milk production. 90% of the eggs used are from ‘cage free’or free range chickens.

Their ice cream is known for its swirls of different flavors and chucks of different things. There most famous flavor is Cherry Garcia but on the day of our tour we got samples of a new flavor that is taking over the number 1 spot. It was called Americone Dream and it was a vanilla ice cream with Carmel swirls and chucks of chocolate covered waffle cone. It was awesome!!!

That day we drove almost 250 miles! It was a very long day but one filled with lots of memories for Savannah. This was her summer of factory tours since before they arrived they stayed in Hershey and went to Chocolate World.

Vermont Teddy Bear Company

2011-08-20T11:35:00.000-04:00

When we went to Vermont with Kim, Mark and Savannah, we made a stop at The Vermont Teddy Bear Company.

The Vermont Teddy Bear company makes all there bears by hand. They make approximately 175 teddy bear a day. All of their bears are guaranteed against any kind of damage. Their bears have moveable arms and legs, even their heads will turn all the way around. The eyes of their bears have a patented device that tightens the eyes to the bear head the more they are pulled on making them very safe for small children. They also have the words “Born in Vermont” embedded in the eyes!!

You can have a bear custom made. You can have any color eyes and they have many different fur colors. Each bear is shipped in a box, with some kind of candy so the bear won’t get hungry on his trip. The bottom of the box warns the UPS man that the bear inside is upside down!

Back when Ed and I first met, he sent me a Vermont Teddy Bear for Valentine’s Day. It is the same bear that now sits on our dash and leads us around the country.

Riding the ferry to Vermont

2011-08-15T21:28:00.000-04:00

Tuesday was our day off and we took Kim, Mark and Savannah over to Vermont. We rode the ferry across from Crown Point, NY over to Chimney Rock, Vermont. This is a free ferry ride because they had to tear down the bridge and are rebuilding it. Several (lots) of years ago we had a family reunion at the state campground there.

Even on the short trip we were able to get out of the car to take these pictures.

We went to Burlington, Vermont and I was able to find the house I lived in many years ago. 115 Home Ave.

The streets sure seemed a lot smaller than I remembered. We then turned and went down the hill to the elementary school. (It sure seemed a lot steeper when I was a kid) I was really surprised to see that the building was still there although it is now an apt building.
The building looked larger than I remembered. There was only one classroom for each grade.
I went to this school for the last part of 5th grade and all of 6th grade. These classrooms were on the second floor. I remember sitting in the hallway watching the television when astronaut Alan Sheppard took his flight into space!! Oh boy what memories!!!

Family comes to visit

2011-08-12T19:50:00.000-04:00

We’ve been very busy this year working at Lake George Escape and for the last week Kim, Mark and Savannah came to visit and it made it even busier. But we did enjoy the visit and even though we had to work for some of the time they still had fun.
They did take one of our tubing trips.

And enjoyed some time in the pool.

Got to see other family.

We even found some time to enjoy a fire and roast some marshmallows!!

Grandma eats the outside and Savannah gets the middle!!

That’s all for now…

GUESS WHERE I’M GOING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON…

2011-07-12T20:51:00.000-04:00

I’m going to spend my holidays with the Amazon Seasonal Camper Program – and you can too!
The Amazon Seasonal Camper Program is ALIVE and BOOMING . They currently have hired TONS of campers like us for the Holiday Season….and want MORE!!!
THEY ARE STILL HIRING!!
So, what is the Amazon Seasonal Camper Program?
To meet customer demand during the holiday shopping season, October through December, they need more campers like us to come spend the holidays working a great job! There are 3 Amazon sites offering the Seasonal Camper Program – Campbellsville, KY, Coffeyville, KS, and Fernley, NV. Amazon has provided opportunities for Fall/Winter employment to the Work Camper community for several years. The Seasonal Camper program has been wildly successful in making Christmas very merry and is a tremendous work camping job opportunity for us during the Fall and Winter months.
Here’s some info if you wanna check out this fantastic opportunity:
The Jobs
Amazon jobs are pretty physical and fast-paced. They are warehouse positions ranging from receiving or stowing merchandise purchased off the website by customers to picking or shipping those same items. There is a lot of standing and walking and you will keep moving – your 10 hour shift is sometimes over in no time!
Benefits
Amazon picks up the cost of your FHU campsite and provides a fun living and working environment! Wages are great and there is opportunity for additional wages should you be placed on night or weekend shift, as well as OT. AND there is a bonus at the end of the season! This is an opportunity to make some good gas money for your spring and summer travels. You may choose a site from one of the area campgrounds and Amazon will be directly billed for the cost of your stay while employed.
So….. Amazon is where I will be this Fall… YOU can be too!
If you have interest in joining the program at any of the 3 sites, send an email about your interest to seasonal-camper@amazon.com... Someone will get back to you from the site of your choice and guide you thru the hiring process.
And hey, make sure you mention you heard this from my blog!

Natural Stone Bridge and Cave

2011-07-09T00:22:00.000-04:00

One of the benefits of working for Lake George Escape is that a lot of the local attractions give us free access. They do this so that we can promote their attractions to the campers. We also sell discounted tickets to the campers.  Last week, Ed and I went to Natural Stone Bridge and Cave.

This massive stone bridge arch is the LARGEST marble cave entrance in the east.   Unlike the slow forming limestone caverns, these marble caves were rapidly formed during the last ice age by an unusual East-West trending fault which exposed a layer of ancient marble to raging acidic floodwaters from melting glaciers.

That’s a big chuck of stone with a lot of marble in it that fell from the top in a 9,000 ton rockfall in 1956.



It was quite a hike and we arrived home very tired. It was a beautiful day for it though.

Happy Birthday to us

2011-07-06T16:36:00.000-04:00

Our friends had a birthday celebration for us last evening.

Mine and Mel’s birthdays fall on the same day. Doesn’t he look like Santa? In fact he is!!! This is just his summer job to get away from the elves. They drive him crazy. (this is the story we tell all the little campers, including my granddaughter who comes to visit soon)

David and Noreen Becker made fajitas for everyone.

Good food and good friends!!

Fun and family

2011-06-22T17:57:00.000-04:00

Last night we had another pot luck dinner at work. At this one, Tonya gave out pins for every season you return to work at LGE. This is our second season so we got our 2 year pins. This is Tonya along with Cooper, one of our exchange student workers.

Today we took a ride to Latham to go to Sam’s Club then stopped by to see my Uncle Vern and Connie. We had a nice lunch at the Farm, a very good place to get fresh vegetables, fruit and great sandwiches and fresh baked pies. We all had apple/raspberry pie and it was very good. It has rained here off and on all day long so I could not get pictures of the Farm but did get one of the two of us.

Now home for the evening and we begin a new work week tomorrow!

Life at Lake George Escape

2011-06-08T13:39:00.000-04:00

I have not been blogging much because when you sit in one place and work day to day, there just doesn’t seem like there is much to say.

Ed and I have been working a lot of hours. The park has had its problems this year because of the weather. We had an horrific Memorial Day weekend and had to evacuate a large portion of our park when a dam broke up river from us and started to flood the area. It was 2am before we got home that night. Things have started to dry up now so we are hoping that by July 4th we will have the whole park opened.

We have had a couple of pot luck dinners but I have no pictures. Forgot the camera! We stay at a park about 8 miles from where we work. This is ‘Home Sweet Home’ for the duration.

This park is a lot quieter than where we work. Only 145 sites verses 570 at Lake George Escape.
Here are some pictures of our visitors to our home.

I will try to update the blog more often

Traveling down memory lane

2011-05-08T11:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Ed and I took a trip to Saratoga Springs, NY. Our main goal was to go the new casino they have at the Harness track. But before we headed to the casino, I wanted to go by the house where I spent the first 10 years of my life.

It was a small house, only 3 bedrooms and one bathroom. My dad finished off the basement. The house is the same color it always was. I remember roller skating on the sidewalk, playing hopscotch, and playing red light green light in the yard.

The garage was not always there. I remember when they put the slab in for it. It made a great stage for us girls from the neighborhood to put on dance recitals and hula hoop contests. Sad to say there are fences up now between the houses. There were none when I was young. Guess that’s a sign of the times.

Our house was within walking distance of the back side of Saratoga’s Thoroughbred track and we always rented the house for the month of August. My parents would make enough to pay their mortgage for almost 6 months. I think I remember my mother telling me they paid about $6,000 for the house in 1952!!

We didn’t have much luck at the casino and probably won’t be going back. I do want to go back to Saratoga though for the races in August. Hopefully, we will get a chance to do that.

I feel another trip coming, maybe to Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream factory in Vermont. I think we will take the ferry across to Vermont. Maybe I can find the house we used to live in when we lived in Burlington!!

ABCD Day May 1st, 1011

2011-05-01T14:59:00.000-04:00

Back in April a friend of ours told us about ABCD - A Bloggers Centerline Day. We were to go out on May 1st and take a picture of ourselves (or in my case had someone take it) on the centerline of any road we wanted.

So for ABCD - A Bloggers Centerline Day here is the picture I choose to have taken.
.

This picture was taken on County Route 11 in Bolton Landing, New York. County Route 11 comes off Interstate 87. This road will take you to Route 9N which runs from Lake George Village north to Ticonderoga New York. Route 9N goes through the towns of Diamond Point, Bolton Landing and Hague before entering Ticonderoga.

We are spending the summer up here working at a campsite along the Schroon River. I grew up in this area and when I heard about this day, I knew exactly the picture I wanted to take. I have always loved this view of the lake.

Happy May Day!!

Waterfront Property

2011-04-30T09:45:00.000-04:00

We have arrived at our summer work site, Lake George Escape RV Park. The park actually sits along the Schroon River.

This is the result of a snow filled winter in the Adirondack Mountains.

That white spot in this picture is actually an electrical box from a campsite.
Last October they prepared for this scenario by removing all the breakers so it is not dangerous.

Playground

Badminton court

The Schroon River reaches flood stage at 7 ft. Right now the river is at 10.9. It’s expected to start going down, but we have campers scheduled to start arriving in a couple of weeks. Think we will be able to get this park ready??

Play Ball

2011-04-26T21:05:00.000-04:00

The storms stayed away so Savannah’s game was on!! The team consists of girls ages 6-8 years old. Savannah is one of the youngest girls on the team. At this age they are really just learning the game so they don’t keep score and the coaches have an agreement that the girls only take 2 bases at the most. The pitcher pitches 4 times then the coaches come out and pitch to the girls. ( I remember when my kids played softball, after 4 pitches they hit off a tee).



Savannah hit the ball and its on to first base!!!   She was the first on her team to score!! Good Job!!



It's been a great visit!

Easter Weekend

2011-04-25T21:57:00.000-04:00

Saturday we had an Easter Egg Hunt at one of the parks in Chesterfield. SIL Mark works for Chesterfield Parks and Rec and this was his event to run.

Savannah getting a balloon wrist flower.

      With the Easter Bunny

   She found 3 winning eggs and received these prize baskets

On home for the coloring of the eggs



And then on Easter….finding the hidden eggs.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. We had a great weekend.

Catching up

2011-04-18T19:24:00.002-04:00

It’s hard to believe that its been over 2 weeks since I last updated this blog. Nothing much to blog about. We were busy cleaning the motorhome and doing some maintenance that needed to be done. Here’s Ed fixing a leak we developed in our windshield. We spent some money, putting almost $2,000 into the back end of the car with new hubs, shocks and tires. It sure does ride good now. Hopefully the car will go another 100,000 miles now. (I had previously 100 miles.Thanks Marsha)

Ed washed and waxed the motorhome and I cleaned all the windows inside and washed the screens. I think we finally have all the dust from the desert out of the nooks and crannies.

We also found time to play bingo. We started out going to the VFW hall on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Then we also discovered the American Legion hall had Bingo on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays. We only ended up going to the AL a couple of times and didn’t really feel confortable there.

Here we went with friends Paul and Marsha Weaver.

Ed won that night!!

They also came over to our place to watch the ball game. The Red Sox lost again!! Marsha is a very big Cleveland Indians fan and she never stopped letting us know that they were in first place. That’s okay Marsha. The Red Sox will come back! (I hope)

Paul also figured out how I could get my camera set on a timer. Thanks Paul. Now we can take pictures of ourselves. Maybe I’ll invest in a small tripod now.

We are now on our way to Virginia so spend Easter with Savannah.

Best Visits are Spontaneous

2011-04-02T12:46:00.000-04:00

Noreen and David Becker are friends who we met last year when we worked in Lake George, NY. They live a little south of Houston. We knew they were leaving the 1st of April to start up to New York. We were coming through Houston and decided to give them a call to see how far they had gotten.
Much to our surprise, they were only about 30 minutes a head of us. We decided to meet up for a short visit. They decided to spend the evening with us and were able to get a one night stay here in Livingston. We had a great visit and went to the local VFW to play bingo. Sorry to tell you Jeri, they hadn’t played bingo in years and they won also!! Guess we will have to take you someplace else to play instead of the casinos!!
This was something that was not planned but it sure worked out great. They left this morning to continue their trek north. There is still a lot of snow up in that area. We won’t get there until the end of the month. Sure hope its gone by then!!!

Busy times

2011-03-26T13:05:00.000-04:00

It’s very hard to believe that we have been here in Acton, CA for 2 weeks already but its true. Tomorrow morning we leave and start heading back to Livingston, Texas to take care of some business there.
The only bad thing about this park is that it is a little far away from everywhere we need to be. It’s 20 miles down the freeway to Santa Clarita where we have seen Ed’s brother and our karaoke buddies, Terry and Sharon. Last Wednesday we had a very nice dinner with Jim and Debbie. Debbie is a great cook and dinner was wonderful. Then on Thursday it was Sharon who cooked and it was great also. Friday we drove another extra 30 miles to Northridge to son Terry’s house. They had there annual St. Patrick’s Day party and party we did!! Great food!! Saved me from cooking corned beef this year!! Daughter Stacy and her family was here also, so Saturday we were on a quest to find a prom dress for 17 year old granddaughter Ciera. But before we could do that, we stopped at a go cart racing place so that the boys could compete.

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Then it was on to the mall.
Four stores and with the help of Mom, Grandma and Aunt Sarah, Ciera finally found the perfect dress. She didn’t want long and she didn’t want poofy.

Winner!!

Sunday we had a big storm come through here. It’s been cold and rainy just about every day since. Tuesday we had one more dinner with son Terry and wife Sarah. Wednesday we drove another 96 miles south to Laguna Hills to have dinner with Ed’s sister Jeannie and husband Bill. Thursday it was dinner and karaoke night with Terry and Sharon. Friday it was dinner with Ed’s brother Jim and wife Debbie.
The two weeks have flown by. It’s been great to see everyone again, but I am really ready to start traveling where it is warm again.

This is what we have been looking at since last Sunday’s storm.

Of course, the weather for next week is predicted to be in the 70’s!!!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

2011-03-17T12:28:00.000-04:00

We are in Acton, California staying at the Thousand Trails park. This park is not one of the best we have stayed at, but its about 20 minutes away from Santa Clarita, where we used to live. We are spending time visiting family and friends.

Today, I need to catch up on laundry. Funny how the clothes don’t clean themselves!

Have a great day and don’t forget to wear your green!!

Happy Birthday Ciera

2011-03-12T11:43:00.000-05:00

Today our lovely granddaughter turns 17. So very proud of the young lady she has become….as beautiful on the inside as out.

Leaving Las Vegas

2011-03-06T21:23:00.000-05:00

This morning we left Las Vegas. We have spent the past week with friends and family. We had a lot of fun. They all arrived on Tuesday and the first order of business…2 for one buffets.

We gambled a little there at Terribles but no one had really good luck.

Wednesday evening we provided dinner for the group and then took Terry and Jeri on to Fremont Street. They have never spent any time in the Las Vegas area so this was something that we told them they had to see.
Look what Ed found…
Fremont Street is the old Las Vegas. About 15 years ago they closed off the street to traffic, put a cover over it and each night they have laser light shows.

Thursday night we met everyone at a casino called Ellis Island. A very small casino off strip that Steve and Carol found. One of our group had won big the night before and we all wanted our chance. We walked out with an extra $100 of the casino’s money!!
Friday we went to Boulder Station to sing Karaoke. Janice and Jerry had heard us sing when they were at Emerald Cove. But the rest of the group wanted to hear.

They said the enjoyed it. Ed sang 2 songs and together we sang one.
All the singers that night were very good.

Saturday I was able to connect with my cousin Bill and his wife Toni. We have not seen each other in about 12 years. I wanted them to take us to their favorite hangout and guess what…..we ended up back at Boulder Station. It was wonderful to reconnect and catch up. They treated us to a fantastic meal at the steakhouse in the casino and we played video poker at their favorite bar.
All in all we didn’t leave too much of our money in Las Vegas. We now are in Needles which is close to Laughlin and we will be playing bingo and going to the casinos there. Lets see if our luck holds!!

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess

2011-03-02T13:27:00.000-05:00

I’ve posted this before but my granddaughter is celebrating Dr. Suess’ birthday today in her kindergarten class. They all had to dress as there favorite storybook character. Savannah chose Curious George!

So to honor Dr. Suess…..here it is again!

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on March 2, 1904. In Springfield there is a National Memorial Sculpture Garden in his honor. Since Ed grew up in Springfield we usually take a trip back to the area. I like to visit this special place when we do.

Dr. Seuss at his desk with The Cat in the Hat watching.

The Grinch and
his dog Max.

Horton

Yertle the Turtle

Hoover Dam and Mel’s Diner

2011-03-01T16:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we met up with friends, Jeri and Terry and Steve and Carol and went out to Hoover Dam. In all the times I’ve been to Vegas I’d never been out to see Hoover Dam. It was amazing. Hoover Dam was built in the 1930’s and was the largest government work program during the depression. The dam was finished in 1935 and first started to generate electricity in 1936. Today there are 9 generators on the Nevada side and 8 on the Arizona side.

It’s so large I couldn’t get it into one picture.
These generators provide electricity for Nevada, Arizona and California.
It’s one of the largest hydroelectric power facility in the US.

Lake Mead is the reservoir formed by the dam.
As you can see from the water lines, the lake is very low. While talking to guide during the tour we took, they are beginning to worry. Snow melt in Colorado and Wyoming is what feeds the river so it should be good this year but they need several years to totally fill the lake. In all the years, only once have they had to release water over the spillway. This water helps provide irrigation for crops in California, Nevada and Arizona.

Now they have a new marvel at the Hoover Dam. Highway 93 runs across the dam and to get to Arizona you had to cross the dam. However, its only a 2 lane road and it sometimes took several hours to get across. They now have a bridge that crosses the river. It’s a longggg way down!!!

After spending several hours touring the dam, we were hungry. We went back into Boulder City to Mel’s Diner. Ed always gets a kick out of this since the actress who played Alice was named Linda Lavin. It’s a very small little diner and we were lucky to get in because they closed at 3pm. Only open for breakfast and lunch. Food was very good and the company even better.

Group picture at the Lake Mead Overlook.

Family weekend at Emerald Cove

2011-02-22T15:08:00.000-05:00

Stacy and her family arrived around noon on Friday. After getting them settled in the trailer, we went up to the bar to get something to eat. We had a wonderful afternoon, Jason took Ramey dirt bike riding. After Pizza for dinner, we headed back to the bar for Karaoke.

Here is Ed singing
“My Special Angel” to Ciera.

It started raining during the night and continued to rain into Saturday morning. Jason’s parents were boondocking up in Lake Havasu across from the park where the Winter Blast was to be. With all the rain, they didn’t want to stay up there, so we were able to bring them into Emerald Cove as our guests.

It’s not very often that Ciera has both her grandmothers together so she wanted this opportunity to get a picture.
The weekend is over now. Everyone had a great time.
Looking forward to seeing them again in about 3 weeks.
I’ll get more pictures then.

We have less than a week left here at Emerald Cove. We are moving on to Las Vegas where we will meet up again with friends.
Gonna by fun!!

Things to see around Emerald Cove

2011-02-16T11:40:00.000-05:00

Here are just a few of the things we see when we drive around the area.

This is Parker Dam. This is the dam that forms Lake Havasu.

There are wild burros all over the BLM land between Emerald Cove and Parker Dam. You really have to careful driving because they sometimes are right in the middle of the road.

This is the golf course here at Emerald Cove. It’s called “Jackass Flats” in reference to the above wild burros. That’s not grass you see, its astro turf. Lots of people play this little 9 hole golf course but it’s not for Ed.

This is one of the pools, jacuzzi and one side of the Oasis Bar.
On the other side of the bar there is another pool, jacuzzi and a small pool that is a foot deep for little children.

These are just a few of the things we see every day as we ‘winter’ at Emerald Cove.

Life at Emerald Cove

2011-02-03T16:53:00.002-05:00

We are still at Emerald Cove. Hard to believe we’ve already been here almost 2 weeks. Time flies when your having fun!! There are a lot of things we like to do while we are here. I have been going to line dancing on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they have Bingo on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. (However, this month they are having FREE bingo for seniors at the Blue Water Casino so we have been going there) They also do water aerobics on Monday Wednesday and Fridays. I am hoping that the weather will be warm enough tomorrow to do that. They have a fun little miniature golf course here but we have yet to try that. It’s the only golf where I have a chance to beat Ed!!

Ed has been playing in poker tournaments. They play on Wednesday afternoons and Saturday mornings. He hasn’t won anything yet but he gets to the final table. And of course, they have Karaoke on Friday and Saturday evenings. We really had some fun last weekend. This Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday so everyone will be up it the clubhouse for that!! They will be having raffles, food and the betting pools. I think we may have some possibility this year. We’ve pulled some good numbers.

It has been very cold here these past few days as it has been all over the country. It got down to 28 degree last night and I don’t ever remember it being that cold here in February. It needs to start getting warm here so we can finish doing our spring cleaning. After being in the desert for over a week we really need to clean out our storage bays. Just know if we get the sand out, we won’t weigh as much!!

Such is our life here at Emerald Cove!!

Yearly trip to the Desert Bar

2011-01-30T14:26:00.000-05:00

We met friends at the Desert Bar Saturday. It’s a unique place and we usually end up going once a year. It’s off of route 95 just about 4 miles outside of Parker, Arizona. You make a right turn onto a road that immediately turns to dirt. You drive and drive and drive and think you are never going to get there. It’s about 5 miles on a dirt road that sometimes is a single lane. But then you come around the last turn and you know you have finally arrived.

You walk over a covered walkway and this is a picture of the bar. Notice the solar panels on the roof. This bar is completely powered by solar! It is only open from noon until sundown on Saturday and Sunday and only during the winter months.

They have a band that plays and the place is really packed with people. They cook hamburgers and hotdogs and chili and chips. They have a full bar and of course sell T-Shirts.

Hot water tank and a cooling tower. Water drips from the top and cools like what we used to call a swamp cooler.

There are sculptures all around made from horseshoes and other metals.

It was a fun day with good friends.

Fun in the desert

2011-01-20T18:12:00.002-05:00

We have been dry camping in the desert outside Yuma Arizona since Monday. There is a group of about 15 rigs. We have had pot luck dinners, gone to DaBoyz (An Italian place in Yuma). Yesterday we went to what we call an oasis in the desert…natural hot springs. First picture is a hot shower. Second is a cement pool about 5 ft deep and about 120 degrees. To hot for me. Third picture is the smaller pool, 3 ft deep and about 95 degrees.

It was a fun outing and we all got clean since when we dry camp we are conserving water to try to stay 7 days without moving.

Today we ventured into Mexico. We parked in the US and walked across the border. A lot of people from the Yuma area go into Mexico for eyeglasses and dental work. Everywhere you look there are dentists offices and optical stores. Of course, they also have the normal hawkers of jewelry, leather and pottery.

Here are some pictures of our group.

The weather here has been wonderful. It’s been in the mid 80’s until last night. The wind came up and today it has cooled to about 75. Hopefully, the wind will die down so that we can get enjoy the company. Everyone will be going in different directions come Sunday.

We are in Yuma

2011-01-12T13:47:00.000-05:00

We arrived at Yuma Lakes RV Park on Sunday and have settled in for a week. First on our agenda was to finally meet up with MsKay and Dan. They are part of our class of 2008 but they never made it to Quartzite for our first meeting. They followed us around Iowa the summer of 2009, but we never got a chance to meet. Monday we finally did, along with Terry and Jeri Williams. Of course it was over food. We met at Coco’s for lunch. It was a great time.
Dan and Ed have gone to play golf this morning and I am left to do some laundry. Tomorrow we are meeting at the local swap meet for a little shopping. Fun times!!

Leaving Livingston

2011-01-07T13:09:00.001-05:00

We left Livingston, Texas last Tuesday and after getting the motorhome inspected, we were able to still drive about 250 miles to stay at the Walmart in Seguin, Texas. That was night 1. We left Seguin and drove 350 miles on Wednesday and arrived at the Walmart in Fort Stockton. That was night 2. We still had 245 miles to go on Thursday to get to El Paso, Texas and then another 80 once we crossed into New Mexico. We now sit in Deming, New Mexico resting for a day before we start again to our final destination of Yuma, Arizona. I hate the drive across west Texas, but there are not many choices this time of year since going a northern route might lead you into some severe storms. Here is a picture of what you see…

for approximately 700 miles!!! Boring!!!! I finished one book and got halfway through another!!!
We are staying at Dream Catchers RV park. It’s an Escapee park like we stayed at in Livingston. We pulled in yesterday afternoon and the first thing Ed did was wash the road crime off the car and motorhome. We were clean when we left Livingston, but we ran into some drizzling rain in Houston and that really made a mess out of things. A hard rain would have been better. Today, Ed has left to play a round of golf and I need to get busy doing a couple loads of laundry. Tomorrow we leave and will make one overnight stop before we arrive in Yuma. Looking forward to seeing friends that are also staying in the area and in another week we will move out to some BLM land (free camping) to boondock (camp without hookups) with about 15 other couples. There will be a lot of eating and catching up. Fun times ahead!!

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T16:15:00.002-05:00

It’s been a good year for us and for that we are thankful. We covered a lot of miles without any major incidents. Let’s hope our luck holds for 2011.

Everyone in our family is healthy and well. We plan to spend the first months of the new year in Arizona and California visiting friends and family there. In April we will be heading back east. We will be working again in Lake George New York for the summer and plan to be working again for Amazon.com in Kentucky beginning in October. Pray 2011 will go as smoothly as 2010.

Happy New Year to you!
May every great new day
Bring you sweet surprises--
A happiness buffet.

Happy New Year to you,
And when the new year’s done,
May the next year be even better,
Full of pleasure, joy and fun.

"May God be on your road every way you go."

Happy Birthday Terry

Hope you have a great day!!

Love Ya

Merry Christmas

2010-12-24T17:15:00.001-05:00

We are on the road on our way to Livingston Texas. We should be pulling in tomorrow. For all our friends and family…….

We love you all

On the road again

2010-12-22T21:02:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was our last day at Amazon. Today we did some laundry and just started packing up. Tomorrow we are on the road to hopefully warmer weather. If all goes according to plan, we should be pulling in the Livingston on Christmas day.

The RV park here has emptied fast. Some shifts last day was last Friday so many left Saturday. We have signed letters of intent to return next season and have reserved our spot here at the park. Jeff and Beth have made the experience here easy by letting us receive mail here and by arranging for propane to be delivered. They also gave us a potluck going away party!! Hopefully the weather will be better next year.

Amazon really appreciates the workampers and when we left we received many hugs from the workers who told us that this was the easiest peak season they have ever worked. Each day we made goal we picked from a grab bag of lottery tickets or gift cards from local businesses. At our exit meeting, we were told by all the managers how much they appreciated us and gave us bags of candy, cookies and goodies. Amazon is looking to increase the workamper program next year to 1000 campers!! Anyone interested???

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas

2010-12-12T17:55:00.000-05:00

Complete with snow!!
Here are some of the pictures.

Our tree….

Temp outside now is 24 and its going down to 17. Again not to go above 30 until Wednesday.
Praying for good weather on the 23rd so we can head south!!

Brrrr its cold!!

2010-12-09T15:41:00.000-05:00

It’s been really cold here in Campbellsville, Kentucky. Guess its even been really cold in Florida too.

For the past 5 days it has not gotten above freezing during the day and has dropped to the low teens at night. We have been getting our water from our fresh water tank. When we get up at 3:15 am our pump has worked, however, when we get home after 11 hours of work it is frozen. Ed has set up a little heater in the compartment and after 5 minutes we have it thawed, then we turn it off. We keep the hoses inside the shower and only take them out when we have to fill the fresh water tank (or take a shower). We aren’t trying to be careful with our water so we are filling just about every 3 days. Tuesday morning we had about an inch of snow when we went to work!! They delivered propane to us a week ago and hope we don’t need it again before we leave. Even our 2 little space heaters can’t keep it very warm.

Looks like the next 3 days are going to be in the 40’s with lows around 30, so we put the hose back out. But on Saturday, the high will be about 23 and the low into the single digits with a possibility of more snow. Good thing we don’t have far to drive.

Except for the cold weather, which Amazon can’t control, the work here has been much better. They really appreciate all of the workers and when we break records they come around with a grab bag of little gifts. We have had $5 gift certificates to a local bakery, flower shop, a local restaurant and even a couple of lottery scratch tickets! Might not seem like much, but its nice to know they appreciate the workers. The days are long and I wish we didn’t have lunch at 9:30. The afternoon really drags since we have a last break at 12:15. We do get a short 10 minutes at 2:30 too.

We only have 10 days more of work and then we will be headed for some warmer weather I hope. Keep looking at the weather in Texas and it seems to be good. Should be there for a week or two and then on to Yuma where the really warm weather is, I hope!!

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T06:50:00.000-05:00

Ed and I want to take this time to give thanks for all the new friends we have met on our journey the past 2 years. We also give thanks for our family. We love you all and wish we could be together today. We are cooking a turkey dinner for ourselves with all the trimmings. Because we only have a small oven its a very small 9 lb bird. We will be watching the parade and the Patriots play.

May your stuffing be tasty,

May your turkey be plump.

May your potatoes ‘n gravy have nary a lump.

May your yams be delicious,

May your pies take the prize,

May your Thanksgiving dinner stay off of your thighs!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Update

2010-11-24T14:26:00.000-05:00

I know I have been really lazy about keeping this blog updated. We have been working a lot and on our days off we have the normal things to do like laundry, grocery shopping and just trying to rest before it all starts again. Last week we had to take the motorhome to have another recall on our refrigerator taken care off and we also had a problem with our microwave/convection oven and we were able to get that taken care off.
Things are a little easier here in Kentucky than they were last year in Kansas. We are only working 10 hours a day. This time last year we were working 11 hour days and they still wanted a 5th day. You wouldn’t think that one extra hour would make a difference, but it does when you are doing physical work like we are here. It’s not our feet that hurt when we get home but our upper backs. We work on a waist high table and although the boxes come down a conveyer, you still need to get them to the table. The challenge come with the larger boxes. Some are heavy but most are just bulky and sometimes its hard to get the merchandise out of them.
But the people here are so nice. The training has been great and they treat the workampers really well. We are not expected to work overtime, its voluntary. Last week we worked an overtime day but this week we decided to take our 3 days over the holiday and really relax. Maybe we will work some overtime next week.
Right now its raining and I have pumpkin bread in the oven. It’s weather like this that I like to bake. Maybe I’ll make some cookies too!

Second year at Amazon.com

2010-10-27T19:33:00.000-04:00

We’ve started our second year working for Amazon.com. I know we said last year that we would never do this again (never say never) but, this year we decided we would try Campbellsville, Kentucky instead of Kansas to see if it would be different. So far so good!
We do have a better park. They will deliver propane to us, we are level, FHU’s, great water pressure and 50 amp power. We can also get our mail right here at the park. However, it is a new park so it is all gravel with no trees. With the storm that came through yesterday, there is still some standing water but nothing like the swamp we had in front of our door last year!
We have had our orientation yesterday and today we started our training. Our training here is much better than it was last year. Last year we were taken to the receiving department and had a few hours of training on the fly. Here they are really taking the time to train in the reasons why we do things the way they do. Much easier to understand. We have 2 more days of training…working only 5 hrs a day. We then will be working another 3 days at 5 hrs a day before we start working our 10 hr days. They call this ‘conditioning’. Maybe it will help. By the time we start working our 4 10 hr days, we almost expect the be working an extra 10 hr day for overtime. Amazon’s peak will be mid Nov to the week of Christmas.
So far, the weather has been great (except for the storm that went through here yesterday). The area around Campbellsville is much nicer than the area in Kansas. I will try to get some pictures of the area in later blogs. We have also been able to reconnect with some of the people we worked with last year. That’s always a great perk!
So go to Amazon’s web page and take a look at some of the items available. There’s not much you can’t get from Amazon.com!!
Till next time…..

Just another day in Kentucky

2010-10-18T17:09:00.001-04:00

We are in Campbellsville, Kentucky waiting to start our winter job at Amazon.com. Today we had to drive to Bardstown for a drug test and since we were in the area, stopped at My Old Kentucky Home State Park.

It’s claimed that Stephen Foster wrote the song after visiting this home. I think the original lyrics were changed to the current version when it became the state song of Kentucky.
A short film we saw seems to indicate that he wrote the song after reading Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

It was a song sung by slaves.. after having been sold ..had to leave the Kentucky Home they knew.
Fredrick Douglas thought the song brought a new awareness in the northern states about slavery.
Stephen Foster also wrote Oh Susanna, Old Folks at Home (Swannee River), Jeannie with the Light Brown Hair (said to be written for his wife) and Beautiful Dreamer.

Appomattox, Virginia

2010-10-14T20:55:00.001-04:00

On our way out of Chesterfield, Virginia we stopped at Appomattox. After retreating from Petersburg and Richmond, Lee found himself outside Appomattox Court House. Grant had sent word to Lee asking for his surrender but Lee thought he could make it to the railroad to get supplies. Grant cut off this route and Lee had no choice. He sent his aide, Lt. Col. Charles Marshall to find an appropriate place to meet with Grant. It was Palm Sunday and the Court House was closed. He finally approached Wilmer McLean and was told that they could use his parlor.

In the terms of surrender, Grant only asked that the confederates pledge not to take up arms against the United States. Officers were allowed to keep their side arms and any confederate soldier who owned a horse was allowed to take it home with him. These generous terms began the process of reunification. Signs along the road before you get to Appomattox claim it as the ‘place where the country reunited’.

Printing presses where set up in the Clover Hill Tavern. Printers worked in relays to print 30,000 blank parole forms. These parole passes were given to all the soldiers, so they could return to their homes and not be stopped as a deserter.

This person was in period dress. He was a local doctor who lived in Appomattox at the time. He spoke about the town before the war. It was a farming community. Most had slaves and grew mainly tobacco. There were no battles ever fought in the area until the end. At one time during the war the Union Army was getting close so the townspeople went out and burned the bridges across the river! These people dressed in period dress are always fun to listen to.

It was a good day and well worth the time.

Family Visit

2010-10-12T08:07:00.000-04:00

We have been in Chesterfield, Virginia visiting with daughter Kim, SIL Mark and granddaughter Savannah. It’s been a good 10 days. We’ve been able to see Savannah cheer at 2 football games, go to the Pumpkin Patch and play a couple of games of Rumikube.
While its always sad to leave, we know that we will be back through here again in April on our way back to New York. Hopefully, we will be able to see her softball game at that time.

Valley Forge, PA

2010-10-03T21:45:00.001-04:00

We had wanted to see Valley Forge for sometime and I had been looking for campgrounds close. I could never find anything and then realized it was only 70 miles from Hershey. So on our last day, we packed a picnic lunch and took off.

Our first stop was the main Visitor Center. They have a good short film, and extensive displays. We picked up a map and took the driving tour. Didn’t realize that it was so big. They have different stops along the route with ample parking for cars.

Washington choose to winter at Valley Forge because of its close proximity to Philadelphia. Only 20 miles away, it was close enough to put pressure on the British but far enough way to prevent a surprise attack. Valley Forge got its name from the iron forge built along Valley Creek. Washington refers to it as ‘Valley of the Forge’.
Upon arrival, the men started to build huts. There are several on them all around the park. Each brigade had its own area.

Each of these huts slept 12 men. It wasn’t the cold or hunger that killed many of the men…it was disease. Most common were influenza, typhoid and dysentery. Most died in the spring months when supplies were more abundant.

Washington rented this house from Issac Potts who was a local ironmaster.
Unlike the British, Washington paid 100 pounds for the use of the house for the winter.
There were several rooms where his aides worked with him. Upstairs there were 2 bedrooms. The attic was used for the servants. The small attached building was the kitchen.

In February, Baron von Steuben arrived and started a training program for the men that would help them become a more proficient army. The men worked hard at this and Valley Forge became the place where the men gained a new sense of purpose that helped sustain them through the remainder of the war.

This monument commemorates the “patience and fidelity” of the soldiers who wintered at Valley Forge.

Small marker for the “Unknown Soldiers”

It was a good day.

What do you do when it rains?

2010-09-28T13:58:00.002-04:00

We are back at the Thousand Trails Preserve in Hershey, Pennsylvania and its raining. We had already been to Chocolate World and didn’t want to see that again. Someone told us there was a classic car show in the area so, after searching the internet we found the Antique Auto Museum. Excellent museum. The museum was not only filled with all kinds of cars, but also told the history of the automobile from Henry Ford’s machine shop to cars of today. Each area was a different decade with a description of what developed during the decade and then displays of cars of the decade. The bottom level of the museum housed a display of old busses and motorcycles. The top floor held cases of classic car hood ornaments.

Classic gas station display. They also have cars in an old drive-in theatre setting and also displayed outside a display of a roadside diner.

A woman invents the windshield wipers!! They had several of these "You can do it" displays. Henry Ford employed women in his factories and even payed the same wage as a man! But, he only hired women that were single or widowed! He believed married women should be at home!!

Cadillac bought by Allen Ludden for Betty White. Car was also used in a few episodes of Mama’s Family.

It was a very enjoyable 3 hours spent out of the rain.

Hyde Park, New York

2010-09-26T19:19:00.001-04:00

Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his Presidential Library. We started our tour with a 30 minute movie about the Roosevelt’s. We then took a guided tour through FDR’s house.

Franklin was born in this house. At the time of his birth, the original house was just the middle and only 2 stories. After he and Eleanor were married and started a family, he added the third floor and a wing on each side. The wing to the right was for servants. To the left was a family room downstairs and bedrooms upstairs. The third floor was used for the children.

The house was never changed in anyway to accommodate FDR’s paralysis. There was already a dumb waiter in the house and because his wheelchairs were more like a kitchen chair on wheels, he was able to use it as an elevator. He would enter and pull the rope and move himself from floor to floor. He had amazing upper body strength. I really wish we could have taken pictures inside. This was a house that was lived in. They had pictures from their travels all over the walls. We did not have time to go to Val-Kill, which was Eleanor’s home. She always thought of the big house as her mother in laws home. Since FDR wanted the house given to the state upon his death, Val-Kill was where Eleanor lived until her death. They are both buried in the Rose Garden at Hyde Park.

We then took the self guided tour of the Library itself. FDR built and used this library while he was still President. He had an office in the library and used it for several of his fireside chats.

He was a much loved president who led the country out of a depression and through most of WWII. He was the only president to serve more than 2 terms. He died during his 4th term.

During his first 100 days in office he signed an Emergency Bank Act and created the Civilian Conservation Corp, the WPA (Workers Program) and the Tennessee Valley Water Authority. These were some of the programs part of his ‘New Deal’. They helped to bring the country out of the depression. He also created Social Security believing that everyone needed a pension of sorts when they were no longer able to work or lost their job because of age.

During WWII, FDR gave strong diplomatic and financial support to China and Britain, while remaining officially neutral. His goal was to make America the "Arsenal of Democracy" which would supply munitions to the Allies. Of course all that changed when on December 7, 1941, Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.

This is the 4th Presidential Library we’ve been to…only 8 more to go!!

Lebanon, CT

2010-09-24T16:38:00.002-04:00

This afternoon we took a ride to the historic town of Lebanon, Ct.
In May of 1775 the General Assembly established a Council of Safety to plan the defense of the colonies during the revolutionary war. Being on the cross roads of the routes between Norwich to Hartford and Boston to New York, Lebanon was the logical place to meet.

This is a picture of Governor Jonathan Trumbull’s House. He was the only governor to support the war for independence. Under his leadership, Connecticut was credited with providing a substantial proportion of the provisions to the continental army. General Washington himself considered Governor Trumbull invaluable to the success of the struggle for independence.

Governor Trumbull’s store became the War Office. Nearly 1200 sessions of the Council of Safety met here. Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and William Williams, Connecticut’s signer of the Declaration of Independence met here at various times.

The First Congregational Church was built in 1706 and was designed by John Trumbull, Jr who became a revolutionary war artist. It’s his portrait of Hamilton that appears on the ten dollar bill.

These buildings all surround an area called “The Green”. French troops were quartered here during the winter of 1780-1781.
Another interesting part of Connecticut’s history.

USS Nautilus

2010-09-22T22:16:00.001-04:00

We spent today doing some sightseeing around New London, CT. First place was the Historic Ship Nautilus and the Submarine Force Museum. The Nautilus was the first nuclear powered submarine and began its maiden voyage on January 17, 1955.

The Nautilus departed Pearl Harbor on July 23, 1958 to begin “Operation Sunshine” the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship.
On August 3, 1958 the Nautilus had accomplished the impossible – reaching geographic North Pole.

When we started the self guided tour, we were handed a phone like recorder. At various spots during the tour, we would press a number and listen as we toured that area.

This museum is very well done and its all free!!

We also visited the National Submarine Memorial. This is a memorial to all the submarines and crews that went down during World War II.

I’ve mentioned before that my uncle was a submariner. He served during WWII and lost many good friends. He was very instrumental in getting this memorial built, so it was important to me to see what he was so very proud of.

At each flag, is the name of the submarine and the date it went down.
Then around the side is a black wall, similar to the Viet Nam Memorial, with all the names of those lost during WWII on a submarine.

It was a good day.

Eastern States Exposition

2010-09-19T14:06:00.000-04:00

Friday was opening day at the “Big E” and we decided to go. The Big E is a combination state fair of the New England States. Each state has a house which is modeled after its capital building. Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island.
Each building has information, crafts and foods that come from these states.

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People from all the states compete in the normal categories most state fairs have. We walked through the buildings full of cows, sheep, chickens and other small animals.
One of the highlights for me was sitting (after all the walking) and seeing Mark Lindsay from Paul Revere and the Raiders. Who remembers coming home from school to watch “Where the Action Is”? If you watched the show you would remember this group. Ed enjoyed watching me bop and sing to the old songs.

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He still sounds good after all these years!

Visiting Springfield Mass

2010-09-18T09:11:00.002-04:00

We have been in the Springfield, Mass area for the past week. It’s been good connecting with friends again. It’s been a very busy week and today is our only down day so will try to catch up the blog.
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield and there is a National Memorial Sculpture Garden in his honor.

Dr. Seuss at his desk with The Cat in the Hat watching.

The Grinch and
his dog Max.

Horton

Yertle the Turtle Statue

Always loved Dr. Seuss.

What would you do for TV?

2010-09-13T15:55:00.000-04:00

Today we finally hit the road and are now in the mountains of Massachusetts.
So many trees around, this was the only place Ed could put the dish.

You know your a redneck when……..

Last days at LGE

2010-09-04T20:55:00.000-04:00

Labor Day weekend is our last working weekend here at Lake George Escape. Last May when we started it seemed it would never end and we had lots of time to do the things we wanted to do. We had hoped to be able to spend more time with family in the area but, working 5 days a week, time just seemed to get away from us. We usually had Thursdays and Fridays off, but because our last day is Sunday, they had me working those days. It was the first Friday I had ever worked and we had over 300 check in Friday!! We had our express check in booth opened.
Here is Nellie, who helped me run to the vehicles, and Darlene inside handing us the information. It works really well because people don’t have to get out of the vehicles. We can get them checked in and moving towards their sites in a matter of minutes.

If we let them go into the lodge to check in they might end up wandering through the store and it clogs up the driveway.

In the driveway we can stack them 3 wide and at least 3 deep before they overflow onto the street. We work really hard at keeping the traffic moving. Yesterday along with the 3 of us on express check in, we also had 2 gate people helping direct the traffic.
One of the biggest hits of the park is our nightly wagon ride. They go all over the park and usually have several kids on bikes following along.

LGE also offers its guests a shuttle service into Lake George Village. Here are a few pictures of one of their best drivers.

It’s been a good summer…we are planning on coming back again next year.

Birthday Dinner Cruise

2010-08-20T18:34:00.000-04:00

Monday was Ed’s birthday and he wanted to go on a dinner cruise. Lake George Steamboat Company has a ship that does dinner cruises.

We boarded the Saint Sacrement at 5:30 pm. We were assigned a small table by the window and we had a great view of the lake.   We enjoyed cocktails before we joined the dinner line. The buffet was very good. Choices of beef, chicken and white fish along with vegetables and seasoned red potatoes. They also had a good salad bar and dinner rolls. We were on board for 3 hours. We cruised about half way up the lake before turning around and coming back down the other side. The eastern shore of the lake has an abundance of houses on the lake.

Here are some additional pictures of the trip.

This picture is of the Sagamore Hotel. Verrrry expensive!!!!!
Here we are at our table and up on deck.

Sunset

There was very good entertainment. A guy playing a keyboard and a woman singer. They had a computer that they used for the percussion sounds. Ed had to ask to sing. And they let him….He sang ‘Twelve of Never” one of the few songs he knows by heart. Karaoke has spoiled him. He used to know the words to all the songs from the 50’s but since singing karaoke, he now looks for the words.

I was standing back with Nancy, the other singer and they were both pleasantly surprised that he could sing!!   I think he had a good birthday!!!

Halloween in August

2010-08-17T20:03:00.001-04:00

For the last 2 weeks the theme has been Halloween at Lake George Escape. The kids really enjoy this theme and even the campers get into decorating their sites.

The highlight of the week is a haunted hayride. We had staff at various parts of the campground laying it wait for the hayride to go by. The reservation staff dressed as witches and we were the first stop.

Here we are getting ready…

Do we look scary???

We had a graveyard and this was one scary fellow.

There was also a guy with a chainsaw and several ghosts and goblins spread around.

We were out there for 3 hours…they had 3 wagons that each went around the park 5 times with different guests. It made for a very long night.

Vermont Country Store

2010-08-13T18:54:00.000-04:00

We had to make another trip over to Rutland, Vermont to fill one more prescription. “Why go to Vermont?” you ask. Because when you fill an out of state prescription in New York State, they take away all of your refills!! So we have made 3 trips to Rutland, Vermont to get our refills.
After we had finished at Walmart, we drove another 25 miles to see the Vermont Country Store. This store is huge and they have everything from Vermont Maple Syrup to old time candies. We spent about an hour just wandering around the store saying “ I remember these!!” It was a very nice drive. Check out there web page….http://www.vermontcountrystore.com/Shop
The front of the store.                                                        The back.

A nice garden in the back for picnics.                     We had ice cream at “Mildred's”

For most of the way we followed this stream. More rocks than water!

Across the road was another little store. These banners were hanging outside. Guess Vermont can’t choose a team.

Almost bought a shirt that said
“What happens in Vermont, Stays in Vermont”
“But nothing ever happens in Vermont!”

We’re still here

2010-08-03T21:44:00.000-04:00

Haven’t had much to blog about. Our days off are filled with the normal….laundry, shopping….and doctors appointments for Ed. He’s having foot issues again and we have found a good podiatrist in Glens Falls that he has been seeing.
We did get up to see my cousin Ron and his wife Claire. This is the first time we’ve seen their house. Ron and Ed went to play a quick 9 holes of golf while Claire and I solved the problems of the world and bemoaned the cancelling of another one our favorite daytime soaps!!! She cooked a wonderful meal of ham, potato salad, broccoli soufflé, and homemade rolls. Claire is a great cook.
Hard to believe that we only have another month to go. There are still so many things that we would like to do and not sure we will have the time. The jobs have been good and we have made a lot of new friends. We are contemplating coming back again next summer. I have learned how to use a program called Campground Manager. Most campgrounds use it so this knowledge will be helpful in the future. And I am going to try to be more patient when checking into campgrounds, for I now know how hard it is to be on the other end. We are celebrating Halloween the next two weeks here at LGE. Saturday night we will dressing is costumes to scare the people on our “Haunted Hayride”. This has been so popular in the past, they are having it for 2 weeks!! People decorate their sites and we will have a contest for the best sites. I will try to get some pictures of everyone.
We have had several birthdays celebrated. Always with a cook out potluck. Here are some pics of the group.

That’s about all for now.

Founder’s Day on Chilson Hill

2010-07-18T19:26:00.000-04:00

Today marked the first Founder’s Day on Chilson Hill. The day started with a church service. This very small church was where my mother’s family attended church when she was young.

After the church service, everyone went to the community center (about a mile from the church). While the dinner was cooking, everyone was treated to coffee and donuts. We also took a tour of the cemetery. I have walked this several times but this time we had people speaking at different places about some of the original founders of this community. This tree had been planted in memory of this first founders day.

We had a great dinner and a lot of good music. Inside the community house were several old pictures of the area and a huge (at least 5’ by 4’) family tree. 7 generations were traced on that family tree.

One of the last things we did was listen to a very old tape recording over 45 years old. Recorded at a family party, it was of local musicians (several my mothers uncles) playing and one calling a square dance.
It was a great day and I was very glad we were in the area to attend.

More from Ticonderoga, NY

2010-07-15T10:37:00.000-04:00

Last week we went to visit Fort Ticonderoga and while there toured around the rest of this village.
The La Chute River connects Lake George to Lake Champlain and runs through Ticonderoga. However, it is not a river you can navigate in a boat. Ticonderoga at the end of Lake George is higher in elevation that it is when it joins Lake Champlain so the river has many falls in the town.

We took time to explore this little park.

This covered bridge was called the “Kissing Bridge”. I’m wondering if perhaps my parents walked over this bridge when they first met???

Fort Ticonderoga

2010-07-09T21:24:00.000-04:00

Fort Ticonderoga, originally Fort Carillon, was built by the French military between 1755 and 1759. One of a series the French built to control Lake Champlain. The site looks over Lake Champlain at a point where it narrows and the shore of Vermont is a mere cannon shot away. It is at this point, too, that the waters from Lake George enter Lake Champlain via the La Chute River. Control of this strategic narrows meant control of the north-south water "highway". The French and British fought many times for control of the fort. In 1759, the British finally drove out the French troops but not before blowing up the powder magazine and warehouse as they went. The British rebuilt the fort out of stone.
At the outset of the American Revolution a small company of British soldiers still manned the Fort. On May 10, 1775, Ethan Allen, Benedict Arnold, and the Green Mountain Boys crossed Lake Champlain from Vermont and at dawn surprised and captured the sleeping garrison. This was the first American victory of the Revolutionary War. At this point, Ethan Allen renamed Fort Carillon, Fort Ticonderoga. From then until July 1777, Fort Ticonderoga served as an important staging area for the American Army while invading Canada and holding the territory against the British forces.
Overlooking Lake Champlain…

These muskets where heavy….

Stay turned for more of our trip to Ticonderoga.

Holiday visit

2010-07-05T22:21:00.000-04:00

Daughter Kim and family came from Virginia to visit for the weekend. They arrived on Friday and we had a good cookout to begin the visit. Saturday, they came over to the park so that they could take advantage of all the activities. Savannah rode pedal carts around, got her face painted and did some mining.

And of course a picture with Honey Bear!!

There were over 2000 people in our park over the weekend. Glad we only have one more holiday to go!!

Birthplace of the US Navy

2010-07-01T20:48:00.000-04:00

Whitehall NY was first settled in 1759 as the colonial town of Skenesborough by British Army Captain Philip Skene. It became the first permanent settlement on Lake Champlain. Skene was a British loyalist and while he was in England petitioning the Crown, the revolution began.
In 1975, Skenesborough was captured by American forces and Captain Skene’s trading schooner Katharine became the first ship of the US Navy when it was taken to Crown Point and armed. Used under the leadership of Benedict Arnold they captured the British ship the Enterprise on May 18th. He then joined Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys in the taking of Fort Ticonderoga. Congress ordered General Philip Schuyler to construct a fleet of ships capable of countering an expected British invasion. The first US Naval fleet consisted of 13 ships . Led by Benedict Arnold, the fleet patrolled Lake Champlain up through Quebec. The Battle of Valcour caused a delaying action that saved the Americans at Saratoga.

Not wanting to be associated with a british loyalist they renamed the town Whitehall after 2 families in the area.

Fort William Henry

2010-06-18T21:42:00.000-04:00

There is a lot of history in this part of New York. Today we visited Fort William Henry. This fort was reconstructed according to the original English plans of 1755. The original fort was destroyed in August 1757 during the French and Indian War. The original fort was built out of wood with 3 foot thick walls filled with dirt and rock.
After several attempts to capture the fort, the Marquis de Montcalm along with a French regulars and Indian allies began a 6 day seige and bombardment. The British finally surrendered. On August 9, 1757, Colonel George Munro surrendered.
Montcalm granted generous terms of surrender but the Indians felt cheated and soon entered the fort and murdered the women and the sick. The British were on their way to Fort Edward when more Indians attacked. Most where killed before General Montcalm finally regained controll over the Indians.
The movie “Last of the Mohicans” is based on the surrender of Fort William Henry and the carnage that happened after.

Three flags fly over Fort William Henry…an American Flag in the middle and a flag of England and the French flag.

A view of Lake George from the fort.

Americade

2010-06-15T21:21:00.000-04:00

Picture in your mind ….. Quartzsite Arizona in January.
Now imagine that all the cars bumper to bumper are now motorcycles.
That’s what happened to our quiet little village last week. We were taken over by thousands of motorcycles. Some of them were camping at our campground. They come to stay in our cabins and rentals, or some bring their own campers. Some purchase tents when they arrive and leave them when they go. (We now own a tent)
There were all kinds of vendors all over town, just like Quartzsite. Ed had been driving our shuttle van all day going back and forth to the village and agreed to drive me back into town so I could get some pictures.





Americade happens every year, the first full week in June. It was really amazing to see, but I’m glad that things are quiet now for a little while. We need to enjoy it now because after next weekend our schedules go full time. Kids will be out of school. Let the summer begin!!

Our little visitors

2010-06-12T10:41:00.000-04:00

We have our bird feeders out so we have been seeing all types of birds around it.

This Blue Jay is a little large for the feeder but he finds a way to get the seed.

Of course, we always have hummingbirds around wherever we are.

This is chipper the chipmunk and he is our vacuum cleaner of the seed that falls on the ground. Ed even got him to come to him and take the food from his hand.

I try to get pictures of the other birds, but they are fast. Need to sit and have the camera ready when they come.

Group Dinner

2010-06-08T21:31:00.000-04:00

As always, when a group of us gets together it involves food. We had 8 couples go out to eat at a little place called George Henry’s in Warrensburg. Tonight was all you could eat chicken wings and they had everything from mild to crazy. They also had BBQ and Sesame Terriaki. They had a good menu with burgers and other sandwiches too. It was a fun filled evening as always when friends get together.
Here’s the group..

After all we ate, we still walked across the street to Stewart’s for ice cream.. roll me home!!!

More Pictures from the area

2010-06-06T21:20:00.001-04:00

This is what it takes to get your satelite dish up high enough to get over the trees!!

Do you think these people are catching anything?

One of my favorite views of Lake George. Taken from a vista point on 9N.

A visit with the past

2010-05-28T20:10:00.000-04:00

Ed had to go into work this afternoon and again I took off in the car. This time my mission was to visit Valley View Cemetery. My parents were married in the chapel at the cemetery. That may seem weird to some people but this is a lovely old stone church high on a hill that overlooks the cemetery.

I then went across the street to the cemetery itself. Here is where my mothers parents are buried along with her younger brother who died much too young. I made my way around paying my respects to those relatives who have gone before us. I then went down the hill to a small creek that runs behind the cemetery. This was the place where my parents wanted their ashes spread. My brother and I did this several years ago, and whenever I am in the area I return to this peaceful spot.

On this Memorial Day weekend please take a moment to remember those servicemen and women who have sacrificed there lives for the freedoms we enjoy.

Cruises on Lake George

2010-05-23T15:46:00.000-04:00

There are three different boats that cruise the lake. The largest is the Lac Du Saint Sacrement. This boat is the largest and they mainly do dinner cruises and a brunch cruise on Sundays.

The next one is call the Mohican. They do an Island Exploration cruise and they are the only one to cruise the entire 32 miles of the lake in what’s called the Discovery Tour cruise.

The last one is called Minne-Ha-Ha. This is the smallest paddlewheel boat that does short hour long cruises. They also do a moonlight cruise with live entertainment.

The Mohican and Minne-Ha-Ha have been around for a longggg time. I remember my grandparents taking my cousins and me on the Mohican. (Remember that Mike?)
The Lac Du Saint Sacrement is the newest and replaced one that was called Ticonderoga.
Ed and I can buy discount tickets from the park and I may take him on the Discovery Tour that the Mohican has. However, I think we will wait until the weather warms up a little more. It gets cold out on the lake.

Around the area

2010-05-21T18:03:00.000-04:00

Ed had to work this afternoon so I decided to take the car and drive around with my camera. If you ever get the chance to be in this area, please don’t drive the Northway (87). Get off somewhere around exit 19 and drive Rt 9 and 9N up the shoreline of Lake George. You will pass through Lake George Village and through the small towns of Diamond Point and Bolton Landing. Continue on 9N and you will go through Silver Bay, Haugh and then into Ticonderoga. Its a beautiful drive on a red road. Here are some pictures I took.
This was a church at one time and now it houses the Bolton Landing Museum.

Lake George Village

Warren County Courthouse in Lake George.

This picture of Lake George was taken as you exit the Northway and approach 9N. Its a steep hill and I stopped to take this picture.

This was taken from the Lake George Village, the most southern part of the lake. 32 miles to the north is Ticonderoga.

That’s just a few…stay tuned for more at a later date.

Around Warrensburg, NY and Schroon Valley Campground

2010-05-17T09:34:00.002-04:00

We’ve been in the area now for a couple of weeks and the weather is finally warming up. It got to 70 yesterday and after a week of 40’s & 50’s it felt balmy.
I started my day by trying to find a pay phone. Many of you know that my brother lives in Germany and Friday was his birthday. I have an AT&T phone card that I use to call him, but I need a pay phone to use it. They have a pay phone here at the park but when I went to use it, it seems it was disconnected. I finally found a pay phone yesterday so I had a great time talking with Doug and catching up. (We do email but it was good to hear his voice) After I took a drive through town (2 stop lights) and took these pictures. One is a B & B that I thought was just lovely and the other is off the town square.

First week of work for me went good. It’s a lot easier physically than Amazon.com but here we deal with the public and sometimes that can be challenging. So we will see which is actually easier.
These are a few pictures around the campground we a staying at. There are a few campsites around the river. They are small, great tent sites or maybe a pop up camper. The river is so clear.

Here is the clubhouse and our campsite.

I’ll try to remember to take my camera with us when ever we go out. I am from this area so the things I see aren’t new to me but hopefully they will interesting to those who read this blog. Stay tuned……

Do you believe in Magic

2010-05-13T22:38:00.001-04:00

We were able to drive up to Ticonderoga this evening to see family and enjoy seeing Zach (my cousin Kelly’s oldest boy) perform his magic. He was giving a benefit for St. Mary’s school. Zach has been doing magic since he was a small boy of 5. At 7 he was doing magic for family any chance he got. Tonight I had the joy of seeing this young man give a wonderful show. The children were thrilled and he was even able to get a few adults in the audience to participate.
It was great to see family and look forward to seeing more of them during the summer.
Here is a link to Zach’s web site and a picture. Kelly and Alex, you have every reason to be very proud of this young man!!

http://www.zachivins.com/

Stewart’s Shoppe

2010-05-11T21:06:00.000-04:00

As far back as I can remember we always had a Stewart’s Shoppe nearby. My grandparents would take me to Stewart’s to get ice cream sundae’s. I remember getting the dishes of ice cream and all the different toppings would be on the table and you would make your own sundae. This was the first place I ever had chocolate ice cream with marshmallow topping! Yummmm!
We used to be able to get their soda’s (they have the best Root Beer and Orange soda ever!) in quart bottles in a case of 12 that you would mix and match. If you took the empty bottles back, you didn’t have to pay the deposit again. Now they package it in cans.

From their website…
“Stewart's is an employee and family-owned convenience store chain based in Saratoga Springs, NY. Stewart's is known for milk, ice cream, coffee, food to go, gasoline, and more. Our success comes from the integration of our manufacturing and distribution systems. We make and/or distribute ¾ of what we sell in our shops at our plant in Greenfield, NY. Today there are 327 Stewart's Shops located in over 30 counties across upstate New York and southern Vermont.”

I am so looking forward to my summer in New York. It’s a good thing I’m working so I can work off the calories in my ice cream…”Crumbs along the Mohawk”! It’s a graham cracker flavored ice cream with chucks of graham cracker and caramel. Can’t get it anywhere but from Stewart’s. YUMMY!!

Settling in

2010-05-08T20:01:00.000-04:00

We arrived here in Lake George on Thursday. We had to wait to get into our assigned site because there was a rental trailer that maintenance had to move. They got the trailer pulled out around 2:30 and we were then able to get started. We had purchased some boards for under our tires the day before at Lowes so that was the first step. (We like to do this whenever we are going to be somewhere for this extended length of time) The site is very level already so we really just needed to put our jacks down to stabilize us.
Once we were level and the slides extended, Ed goes about fixing the outside and I start on the inside. Since we are going to be here for 4 months, we put everything up. The awning comes out and is tied down…we even have the first arm of the awning down so we are not hitting it as we go in and out the door. We are thinking about putting out our lights also. We also had to use our portable dish since we have a lot of trees around us. But we were not going to go all summer without our direct tv since we have purchased MLB for the summer.
Once I get everything set up, I will take some pictures. Also want to get some plants but think I will wait a bit for those. They are calling for snow showers tomorrow night!!
We have been familiarizing ourselves with the area. Warrensburg is a very small town, they have a grocery store, hardware store and a sporting general store (hunting and fishing). But about 25 miles away is a Walmart and we found a Super K Mart. Never been in one of those. They had groceries, and the normal K mart items and also sold appliances!

Today we went and had a great visit with my uncle. He’s one of the reasons we took this job and we are hoping that we can spend a lot of time visiting.
I start work on Monday. If the weather is good tomorrow (not raining) I will try to get some pictures of the campground and the river.

The Sweet World of Chocolate

2010-05-02T15:19:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we went to Hershey. The first place we went to was The Hershey Story museum. Milton Hershey started out as a caramel candy maker in Lancaster. He started making his chocolate in that factory. He sold his company for over a million dollars and went looking for a spot to build a new factory to make his chocolate. He decided on Hershey because of its proximity to the dairy farms. He also started building homes around the area for his workers. He encouraged them to purchase the homes and even held the bank notes on them. He wanted a community that was well rounded so he also built a theater, sports complex and community building. When he died he left a majority of his fortune to the Hershey Technical School which was an orphanage for boys.
Here is the secret that makes his chocolate so smooth…its called conching!
The chocolate is mixed with these granite rollers for 3 days! The whole museum was very interesting. We must have spent a couple of hours there just reading about making chocolate.
We also went to Hershey’s Chocolate World. This a fun family place with a 3D movie and a ride that tells about Hershey’s Chocolate and of course there is a store with all the candy they make.

That’s one LARGE candy bar! No we did not buy that but we did buy our share of chocolate.
I really liked the street lights on Chocolate Avenue.

Fun Day!

Computer problems and Amish Country

2010-05-01T18:11:00.000-04:00

We arrived at this Thousand Trails park last Wednesday. Once I get everything set up in the motorhome, I sit down and turn on my computer. Well…..this time when I turned the computer on I got an error message I didn’t pay attention to and up came the dell background picture. I went to check my documents folder and everything was gone! GONE!! After I spent about 10 minutes in panic mode, I got out Ed’s computer. (Thank god we have his as a backup) I got on line and started looking for computer repair places. I got very lucky and found a company, RDCS in Lebanon. They were opened and off we went. It seems my profile somehow go corrupted. All the files were still there I just couldn’t access them. I picked it up today and I now have a new profile with all my documents and a new anti virus program he recommended. Avira is cheaper than Norton and not as cumbersome. He also set up my backup drive to backup once a week! He was awesome and very patient explaining everything. And all this for a flat fee of $74.00!! He does not charge per hour but per job!!
Thursday we drove to Lancaster County to see the Amish farms in the area. We went through Bird-in-Hand and Intercourse PA. We shopped at little village in Intercourse and went for a tour of an Amish Farm.
Here are some farmer plowing the fields getting ready to plant.

We did see a buggy on the road but I couldn’t get a good picture so here is one we took at the Amish Farm.

This is what they call a market wagon because the back seat come out so they can put in all the purchases.
Friday, Ed played golf and I did a few chores around here. I cleaned the bathroom and defrosted the freezer.
Stay turned!

Savannah plays softball

2010-04-27T22:01:00.000-04:00

Yes, 5 year old little girls do play softball. The school, where she will go next year for kindergarten, has different sports and this is softball season. They usually have a 6 and under team but there weren’t enough girls so she is on a team that’s 8 and under. There are 3 girls who are 5 on the team. Tonight she got her first hit and made it to second base before the team got out.

She was out there on second base doing the potty dance! They got her a runner and she took off for the bathroom faster than she ran to 1st base after her hit!!

Ready in the outfield. Waiting for that ball to come her way!! And playing catcher with coach.
The way this works…the girls pitch 4 pitches and then the coach comes in to throw to the girls. They must swing at those pitches. They get 4 tries. Savannah isn’t really catching but standing beside the coach who is catching.
I was really impressed with the coaches out there tonight. It didn’t matter which team they were on, all the coaches told all the girls what great jobs they were doing.
Of course a visit to Virginia isn’t complete without a trip to Brewster’s for ice cream.

Stone Mountain

2010-04-21T20:25:00.000-04:00

We went to Stone Mountain today. There is a very large park there but we went mainly to see carving and the museum.
We saw a short film about the men who did the carving. In 1916 the Daughters of the Confederacy commissioned Gutzon Borglum to start the carving. It started out to be just a carving of General Robert E. Lee. He abandoned the project in 1923 and later went on to complete Mount Rushmore. Augustus Lukeman continued the work until 1928 when work stopped for the next 30 years. In 1963, Walker Hancock was selected to complete the carving, and work began in 1964. The carving was completed by Roy Faulkner. Stone Mountain is solid granite and the carving process employed many local stone workers from the area quarries.
The finished carving now depicts three Confederate leaders of the Civil War, President Jefferson Davis and Generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson (and their favorite horses, "Blackjack", "Traveller", and "Little Sorrel", respectively).
Here is a picture of the mountain and a close-up of the carving.

Another good day.

Fishing -- Lake Lanier Georgia

2010-04-20T16:22:00.000-04:00

Ed was fishing off the shore this morning and a little later ended up going out on the lake fishing. Seems our neighbor here had a boat and invited Ed to go along. Didn’t take him long to say…..”hell yeah”!!
He had a wonderful time and finally caught a Bass. In fact, between the two of them they caught about 13 fish.

We are out on a small peninsula here at our site so it wasn’t far to go down to the dock when they came back to get these pictures.
Here is our campsite.

This park is very nice and we will keep the information on file in case we ever get by here again.

FDR’s Little White House

2010-04-19T20:16:00.000-04:00

We took a detour today to Warm Springs, GA to see FDR's Little White House.
Roosevelt found Warm Springs in 1924 when searching for relief from polio. He came there to swim in the springs naturally heated water. He love the area so that he built a simple cottage while running for president in 1932. This area of Georgia was a rural farming community, and he spent many hours visiting neighbors and learning of their difficulties especially since the beginning of the depression. These visits gave him insight to the lives of the average families and helped him develop New Deal policies such as the Rural Electrification Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps (I had a uncle who worked for this project in upstate New York).
We couldn’t go inside the house today because they were filming a new documentary film. But we did tour the museum and could walk down and I was able to get this picture of the outside of the house. It was not a very big house.

Roosevelt died here on April 12, 1945 while posing for a portrait. Here is a picture of the unfinished portrait just as the artist left it. Later the artist did indeed finish the portrait by memory.

Nearby is Roosevelt’s Warm Springs Institute. He founded this institute for people suffering from polio. They could come and enjoy the same relief he got. Since the Salk Vaccine was approved in 1955, polio is no longer the focus of the institute. They now help all people with different disabilities, teaching them to become self sufficient adults and the museum hires many of them.
It was a good stop and is worth the 60 mile detour off I85.

USS Alabama

2010-04-16T22:20:00.002-04:00

Today we went to Battleship Park. This is where the USS Alabama is located and they also have a submarine, the USS Drum. There are also a lot of other planes and small boats. But the USS Alabama is what we went to see and boy did we see it. It was a three part self guided tour. Everything is well marked and you follow along with a map. We spent about 3 hours on this ship alone!!

Ed was a radio man in the Navy, so he always looks for the radio room. This is where he would have sat with headphones on, listening to the morse code and typing the message.

Taken from the bow those are some big guns!!

This battleship fired over 1,250 16 in (410 mm) shells on the enemy during supporting bombardments, shot down 22 enemy aircraft and never incurred any damage due to enemy action. She earned the nickname the "Lucky A" because they never lost a single man due to enemy action.

We then spent some time walking around the different aircraft they had there before going on board the sub. I had an uncle who served in the Navy on submarines. He was over 6 foot tall and it always amazes me to see the tight spaces on these old subs and wonder how he ever made it.

It was a good day.

Bellingrath Gardens

2010-04-15T10:59:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we went to Bellingrath Gardens. This morning I loaded all the pictures and then proceeded to hit a wrong button and deleted them all! So here’s a list of the blooming flowers from their webpage. There are 3 different tours you can do at the gardens. The house, gardens and a river cruise, or you can just do the gardens and the river cruise, or you can just do the gardens. We opted just to do the gardens, since we have been done several other southern home tours.

It was a beautiful day and the walk in the gardens were very nice however, we were a little disappointed in it. Every botanical garden we have ever been in always has little signs identifying the flowers and trees. This garden did not have them. Guess I should have taken this picture along with me. We saw mostly Azaleas. If you don’t take the tour in April you wouldn’t even see them. Even yesterday the blooms were starting to drop. It just seemed that they weren’t keeping up these gardens along the walk. However, the closer you got to the house, there were pretty fountains with seasonal plantings around. This is where they had all the Easter lilies and some other spring plantings.

Ed is off to play golf today and tomorrow we plan to go to Battleship Park to see the Alabama.

Livingston City Park

2010-04-07T18:55:00.001-04:00

We have discovered a city run park in Livingston. Today we went there to play the small 9 hole golf course. It was a challenging course with a couple of par 5 holes and a couple of par 4 holes. I have not played golf in a longgggg time. I didn’t do very well but I did have fun. Maybe I would play more if we could find small 9 hole courses.

The park also has a pool, tennis courts and playgrounds. They also have a half mile walking trail.

Maybe we will go back tomorrow to play again.

Beautiful Weather in Livingston

2010-04-04T11:30:00.002-04:00

We have been having beautiful weather here in Livingston. Days have been sunny, at times a little breezy, with the nightly lows in the high 50’s – high 60’s which make for wonderful sleeping.

We’ve taken care of some doctors appointments and still have a few this coming week. Ed has been playing poker with some of the guys here and played golf at the small 9 hole course the city maintains. I’m even going to go attempt to play golf with him one day next week. We’ve washed the motorhome once…might do it again before we leave here since the pine trees here are in bloom and yellow pollen is all over everything.

This is our site here at Rainbow’s End. It a very large site the backs up to a wooded area. We really like this part of the park, called the Hill Section. (Don’t know why its called that…the whole park is flat.) We are close to the activity center and its just a short walk to the clubhouse and to get our mail. And the laundry room is also very close.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter. We are just going to be relaxing today watching golf and later this evening….BASEBALL opening day….RED SOX vs YANKEES. GO SOX!!!

Happy Birthday Stacy

2010-03-31T18:48:00.005-04:00

Stacy is our youngest daughter...no I won't tell you how old she is!

She is a wonderful young lady and we are very proud of her.

Home park..Rainbow's End

2010-03-29T09:47:00.003-04:00

We finally made it to Livingston, Texas yesterday after a very scary journey the past couple of days. It was very windy from the time we left I40 in Amarillo, Texas and headed south on State highway 278. By the time we got to Childress, Texas for the first night the wind was so strong we couldn't put up our satelite or extend our slides. Didn't have to worry about the truck noise since the wind sounds were louder. Very little sleep that night. We headed out that morning and had to go less than 300 miles to Corsicana, Texas. Again the wind was strong and again we didn't put up the satelite however we were able to extend the bedroom slide. The wind seemed to die down a little during the night so we did get some sleep. Yesterday was an easy drive...only 180 miles...but at times the wind was still strong.

But we made it...and are now parked at Rainbow's End...the Escapee park in Livingston. Guess you could call this our 'home park' since this is where our mail goes. We are staying in what they call the 'Hill' section. We have never stayed in this section of the park so when friends Paul and Marsha Weaver said there was a spot next to them, we decided to grab it. We really like this section...the sites are big and grass covered. I will post pictures later.

During the next couple of weeks we will be having doctor appointments and washing the motorhome. Weather is warming during the day but still a little cool at night.

Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona

2010-03-24T22:54:00.002-04:00

Not really...but words to a song. Name that Tune!!!

We left Needles this morning headed for Kingman to get our oil changed. I had checked the RV Service Review website and located a truck stop in Kingman. The reviews were all good so we thought that it would be a simple matter to stop there and get the job done. How wrong we were!!

We arrived at 10:30am and we were told that they could get to us in about 1/2 hour. Off we went to Dennys for breakfast. At 11:00 they called us with an estimate of the job. More than we thought but it had to be done so we said start. They said it was 1 1/2 to 2 hour job. At 2:00pm still not a word from them. At this time we are sitting in their waiting room and Ed finally went to see what the hold up was. It seems they had been finished since 12:30 and couldn't get it started!!! We were very angry. Here we are at a Freightliner repair facility and they couldn't get our motorhome started after they changed the oil!! They got air in the fuel line somehow! At 3:00 I noticed that the motorhome was out of the shop and sitting in their lot. At 3:30 Ed went back to see what was going on and they said "Oh its done!!!" Then they had the nerve to try to charge us the labor for trying to get it started again!! Needless to say, we had that removed from the final bill. Stay away from Great West Truck Center in Kingman Arizona!!!

It's over now, and its done for another 10,000 miles. Sure could tell the difference in climbing over the mountains though. Tomorrow I'll do a milage check to see how we are doing.

We are now in Walmart in Winslow Arizona and hope to make it to Santa Rosa, New Mexico tomorrow. Hope to be in Livingston by Saturday.

We are back on line

2010-03-21T17:17:00.002-04:00

We have been boondocking at Avi Casino outside of Laughlin, Nevada. We had planned on staying at Northshore RV park, part of our Colorado River Adventures membership. But when I called last week when we left San Francisco, they said they were booked until Sunday (today). I knew that in Arizona, we have problems with our Verizon internet and cell phones, but since Avi is on the Nevada side of the river, I didn't think we would have a problem. Wronggg! 2 days without internet..I was going crazy!!!

Avi Casino has a hugh dirt lot where everyone boondocks. You can stay 3 days and then you are supposed to and reapply for a permit. They check your players card to make sure you have been playing at the casino before they issue another 3 day pass. We didn't need to worry about that since we were only staying 3 days. When you sign up at the security desk for the first permit, they bring you back to your rig to check to see if you are leaking any fluids. Rigs were supposed to be less than 10 years old also, but there were some there that we knew were older than 10 years. A lot of restrictions to park with no hookups but it was okay.

We played a little in the casino there and then went into Laughlin to the casinos. We may go back to Laughlin on Tuesday after we get the laundry done.

We got up early this morning and moved over to Northshore RV park. We will only be here for a couple of days before we head east. Ed will play golf tomorrow, while I get to do a good cleaning of the inside (aren't I lucky).

Weather has been wonderful, Ed says he is finally thawing out after the cold in Pahrump, Nevada and the wind in San Francisco.

Jelly Belly Factory Tour

2010-03-17T21:42:00.005-04:00

We left San Francisco this morning and made a stop at the Jelly Belly Factory before we started south.

They really do a great tour, it's free but then they want you to save your money to spend in the store afterwards.

They make everyone where these hats. Not sure why.

It takes 20 days to make a jelly bean. The first process is the inside of the jelly bean. Then after that process cures for 3 days it goes to the second process for the outer coating. Again it cures for 3 days. They then go to polishing and again cures for a couple of days. The final process is to run through a machine that separates out all the jelly beans that are either to small or to large. These are called "jelly flops" and you can buy these in bags at the store for $9.00 a bag..its a bigggg bag! Then they are stamped with the name. We were able to try different flavors at each process. We had the newest flavor..honey, we also had strawberry blonde (tastes like strawberry ice cream) and 7-up.

Everyone knows that Ronald Reagan loved jelly beans. He was truly responsible for the Jelly Belly company becoming so big. As governor and as president, he always had a large jar of jelly beans on his desk. For his presidential inauguration, they had to come up with a blue jelly bean (blueberry) so that there could be red, white and blue jelly beans in the jar! Here is his picture in jelly beans.

It was a good tour and we spent our share in the store to pay for it.

Sailing San Francisco Bay

2010-03-15T23:50:00.002-04:00

Yesterday we went sailing. Tina and Jay live on a 35 foot sailboat. Jay has been sailing his whole life so we felt pretty safe with him. We were on the water about 6 hours. Here are some of the pictures I took while sailing around Alcatraz and to the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alcatraz Island

Golden Gate

San Francisco from the water

Sailboat Race

Tina and Ed

Golden Gate

It was a nice sunny day, however it was windy on the water. But then, when your sailing you need the wind. It was a good day.

Streets of San Francisco

2010-03-14T00:05:00.002-05:00

We’ve been playing tourist in San Francisco with Tina and her boyfriend Jay. Jay grew up here and can get us around on the public transportation here. They have many ways of transportation….buses, trolleys and of course the cable cars.

Look at those hills!! We found the Cable Car Museum. The cable cars used to be all over the city but after the earthquake and fire of 1908, they rebuilt using electric trolleys.

There are only 4 left. The museum actually is where the cables run.

California and Mason are the names of 2 of the streets where the cable cars run.

After the museum, we found Lombard Street. Here is the part that ‘crookedest street’

We have been having a good time. Tomorrow we go out on the sailboat!! Stay tuned for pictures of the Golden Gate and Alcatraz.

Our granddaughter turns 16!!

2010-03-12T10:21:00.002-05:00

Ciera Lynn Griffin

Turns 16 years old today.

Our granddaughter is growing up.

Where does the time go!

We are so proud of the beautiful young lady

she has become.

Enjoy your day, Ciera. Love ya!!