North Carolina

We are currently in the mountains of North Carolina, east of a town named Spruce Pine. We are located about 1 mile off of the Blue Ridge Parkway, elevation around 3000 feet. The campground is located in the middle of 400 acres with approximately 125 sites, cabins, and camping cabins (a glorified tent) 4 walls and a roof, and beds, you bring the bedding. Below is a video of the drive from the Parkway up to our camper. We have not had the best internet so posting pictures and writing on the blog depends on the weather up here. Speaking of weather, we are about 10 degrees cooler at this elevation then the people 20 mile away. We have been keeping busy with work, we do 4 days on and 2 days off, then it's time to go exploring the area and hiking some trails. We went up to Grandfathers Mountain a couple of days ago and have a very enjoyable day. If you see the pictures I have attached, you will see that the swinging bridge was quite a nice walk above the ground and the view was spectacular on the other side, and yes we Both hiked out to the edge of the rocks. One thing for sure is this definatley outdoor camping in the mountains. There are no light up here other than what the campers have on at night. The roads twist and turn and go up and go down, one night I was out making the rounds at around 10 o'clock with a very heavy fog and it was all you could do to see the road ahead. There was a point when I thought Cindy was going to have a heart attack because she thought I was driving over the edge of the road into a bottomless pit, ( oh the fun you can have at night up here).

Visit with the family !

It’s the first week of February and I realized that I have not posted the pictures of Aaron, Laura, Gavin, and David’s’ visit. David flew down on the 7th of January and Aaron and family came on the 8th after they both ran in the Disney marathon. Aaron ran the half on Saturday and Laura ran the full on Sunday. We had a great visit with everyone and enjoyed the bountiful sunshine and warm weather together.

Grandpa and Grandma got the joy of keeping Gavin with us during the night while they were here. We sure enjoyed all of them together here and had a wonderful time together. This was the first time in a little of a year and half that both of the boys and us were together.

There wasn’t a whole lot of activity planned other than going to the beach, laying around the pool and taking it easy. We could not believe how much Gavin had changed from when we were with him in September and now. The little tyke is crawling all over the place ( and in our rv ) that isn’t much, but he sure knew how to keep us on our toes. The only issue we had with the stay was it went way too fast and Wednesday, the 11th, everyone headed back to their homes. Aaron and Laura drove back to Orlando to catch their flight and we took David back to Tampa airport ( a short 20 minute drive). All in all it was a memorable time we had to spend with all of them.

December 2011

It’s hard to believe that Christmas is only 10 days away, no snowy, cold, wet miserable weather upon us. I will have to say it sure is different hanging lights on palm trees instead of pine trees. The people in the park have all of their lights and displays set up, so we have decided to enjoy theirs instead of decorating the rv. We have a very limited number of decorations ( zero) stored away so why not look at the ones around us.

We have been enjoying the time here and the sightseeing we have done. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Aaron, Laura , and Gavin In January. We get to see him sometimes when we talk with them through the video camera, so it’s nice that way, but not like holding him. They will get to spend a few days with us then back to Wisconsin they go.

We are in the process of looking for our next job for the upcoming summer. We’re thinking of staying here in the south somewhere around North or South Carolina, but nothing is set just yet. We have 2 places we are talking with that want us to work for them, we just haven’t committed yet. A lot of things can change between now and April but we still like to have our summer job lined up before the first of the year. Cindy and I have been doing a little "beach combing" before the crowds get here. You'll see some of our finds, sand dollar, star fish, something that looks like a baby squid or octopus attached to a shell, some very rough water due to a cold front that blew through, beautiful sunsets, and numerous other things.There is nothing more relaxing than walking on the beach (when no one is there) and just listening to the sounds of the gulf.

We want to send our love to each and everyone of you and wish you all a Merry Christmas.

Remember to double click the slideshow for a full view of the pictures!!

Florida

It’s the 16th of November and we have been in Largo, Florida for about a month. We’re finding our way around this very busy town and plenty of traffic. I have been doing all sorts of outside work, planting a very large amount of shrubs, getting the pool ready to open, pruning palm trees, etc. The days I work I can stay busy the whole 8 hours. The weather here has just been absolutely beautiful with temps in the high 70’ s and low 80’s.

This past week I had the opportunity to go out fishing with one of guys from Canada. We went 9 miles out and were fishing for grouper. For those of you who know me very well, rough water and I do not go together. Fortunately the morning started out pretty smooth on the water but by noon we were getting into some rough waters. I’d like to pat myself on the back and say I survived the rough waters without losing my breakfast. We ended up bringing back 4 real nice groupers ( 24-30 inch) and somewhere between 25-30 white grunt, all in all, a very good day fishing. Staying in a 55 and over rv park has been a little bit of an adjustment for us. We both love the wide open areas, the mountains, and sparsely populated areas,(Cindy always said I was a hemit) so to come here to an rv park where the persons house next to you is very close, has taken some getting use to. The park here has 200 sites, very well kept, and they tell us 80% of the people here are from Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, truly northern snowbirds. The people here are very friendly and make you feel right at home.

We had the chance to go and visit a girl I went to school and graduated with the other night (Judy Strickland). She lives in Tampa, just about 30 minutes away. We had a great time with her and husband Wally.

This last couple of days we have driven to see the Sky Way Bridge ( pictures here on the blog), done some fishing in the bay, and all around just more site-seeing. Cindy caught her first lizard fish and her first puffer fish,(second most poisonous vertebra in the world), so there definitely some interesting looking fish around here.

We are enjoying ourselves in the warmth and sunny Florida. As the winter proceeds I have promised myself not to let you know the temperatures and how much sunshine we are having.

“Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them”

Summer Update

Guess I haven’t been keeping anyone out there up to date on our travels (sorry). We finished the summer in Wisconsin working at a state park just 5 miles from our new grandson Gavin. We had a wonderful summer there and were blessed to be able to watch him for the last 2 months we were there. We had him 5 days a week for half the day in July, in August we watched him on Thursday and Friday all day. It was pretty hard leaving Aaron, Laura and Gavin but we both knew he was going to be in excellent hands with Aaron and Laura We came back to the house in Sharpsville and camped out in the back yard for the month of September and part of October. While home we enjoyed attending grandparents day with Jamie at Tri-Central and showing her teacher a card trick I taught her. We did a lot of work on the house while there, removed the balcony, painted the whole thing, had a new roof put on and made a decision we have talked about for the past several years. We put the house on the market for sale and are hoping to have a quick sale.




We left home on October 11th and headed for Largo, Florida to work for the winter. This is our first time to spend the season in a 55 and older park, so it will be interesting to see how living in an RV park will be. We have a lot of things we would like to see and do while here and want to see how spending the winter months here will be. We arrived here on Thursday 13th and have the rest of the week to get settled in and kick back and relax ( which we both needed after working on the house).

Visit From Randy and Family

June 5th Aaron & Laura had Gavin baptized and Cindy and I were there for the service. The following pictures are some taken during the service. The weekend of June 10th we had the chance to see Randy,April,Connor and Dylan. They made a 4 day weekend and drove up to stay with Aaron and Laura. They stopped here at the campground on Friday morning and Aaron & Laura stopped by around noon. We all had a great time crammed into the camper eating lunch and visiting. We went back to Aaron & Laura’s ( where there was just a little more room) and ate pizza that they fixed on the grill, had a nice campfire, then called it a night.


Saturday all of us went and done some hiking, visited Fastenal, and went to Lark Toy Museum for some reminiscing looking at toys we all use to have as children. I know that some of you must be thinking those would be antiques that I had and not just old, ha ha! Went back to Aaron & Laura’s and had another bonfire.

Sunday the old people stayed at home for a while and let the young ones do some serious hiking, then we all met up at Aaron’s again for supper and just hanging out and visiting. Monday we headed back to Aaron’s house and waited on the repairman to show up so they could have water. Sometime Sunday night their pump quit and they had to call a repairman to come out and fix it. Thankfully it wasn’t anything too serious and they got the water back on for them. We went to La Crosse to eat out. Randy’s gift to me for fathers day. After eating we came to the point that I do not like, saying our goodbyes and watching the four of them head back to Colorado. It was really nice that we were here this summer and had the chance to see them again. The last time we visited was way back in October of 2010, seems like a long long time ago.

Prairie Island Park

We moved from our location in Wisconsin to a location on the Mississippi river. Our site sits facing the river, which is real convenient for me to go fishing. I caught my first fish in Minnesota, a 12-15 inch sheep-head, at home we call them a drum. Cindy and I are watching Gavin in the morning and enjoying every minute of it. We will be here until the end of June then we are going back across the river to a state park in Wisconsin for July and August, where we will camp-host and watch Gavin 2 days a week. We’re excited about Randy and family coming up to visit in a couple of weeks. We last saw them way back in October of 2010, so we’re looking forward to their visit. I think we are going to try and come back for the “Slavey” reunion at Debbie’s house the last week of July. Plans are still up in the air but we are working on them and hope it will all work out.