Virginia is for Lovers - of U.S. History!

Not sure if Virginia really has an edge over the other states regarding its claim about "lovers", but it sure seems to have the edge in "leaders". Our recent whirlwind 3-week tour had our history heads spinning after just first stop -- central VA to see Jefferson's Monticello, Monroe's Montpelier, and Madison's Highland (US. Presidents #3, 4, & 5). Makes you want to name your house too, huh? 

Us at Monticello

We then moved closer to Washington D.C. to see the National Air & Space museum next to Washington Dulles airport -- and it was so big and extensive that it was tough to do in just a single day. 

Air and Space Museum (look at the center and you can see the nose of the Space Shuttle Discovery in the back room)

My aunt Helen also flew up from FL and the 3 of us visited my uncle Charlie's Columbarium resting place in Arlington National Cemetery as well as the graves of my maternal great-grandparents (unfortunately gone before I was born). 

My beloved uncle, Charlie Lavery

From there we drove to Mount Vernon, the home and burial place of General George Washington (U.S. President #1). My aunt and I are descendants of George's half-brother, so the museum about George's life and family was especially interesting. Unfortunately it wasn't until after Helen left that we decided to swing by George's birthplace. Forget George! This was the homestead of his great grandfather, John Washington -- the first Washington who immigrated to America in ~1656 and he is also my great great great great great great great great great great grandfather! The original home is gone but the National Park Service maintains a small museum and home built to represent the period. The family cemetery is still there and has John's grave and the graves of 3 additional generations that my aunt and I hail directly from, including that half-brother of George. Sadly, a recent storm toppled some trees and we weren't able to get to the cemetery itself in this visit. Oddly enough, while leaving the area, we stumbled on the locations of both Madison's and Monroe's birthplaces too. Quite fertile ground for U.S. Presidents!

Mount Vernon

As we started to trek further south of D.C. we made day trips to the Fredericksburg battleground, James Madison's Museum, and Richmond's Museum of Civil War & White House (confederate). Our final RV stop was down in Hampton, VA near Newport News and Norfolk. Turns out the RV park was right next to Fort Monroe, a decommissioned army base. When I say "fort", I mean FORT -- tall rock walls, a moat, and the largest coastal artillery cannons the military ever made. It is now being slowly converted to offices and homes/condos, but they still maintain a great museum within one the casement walls where you can actually stand in the cell where Confederate President Jefferson Davis was imprisoned after the Civil War. Goosebumps!

Fort Monroe (photo stolen from the internet)

Norfolk was loaded with attractions too -- the Nauticus museum, the Wisconsin (Iowa-class battleship), and General McArthur's Memorial/Museum. We even did a boat cruise that covered the huge naval base and shipyard. In Newport News we explored the Mariners Museum and found ourselves enveloped in the history of the Monitor (one if the first "ironclads"). It was sunk in a storm off of Cape Hatteras in 1862 and wasn't found until 1973. As it is rusting away quickly, a big operation was undertaken to recover it's odd looking turret and that now resides at this museum.
So much history in this area and so little time to see everything! We tackled the highlights and will just have to come back!

Three nuclear aircraft carriers being serviced at Norfolk naval base

Now to divert to "life on the road" experiences! Oddly enough, we are members of Costco. You'd think people who live in such a small space wouldn't find much use (or space) for purchases from a warehouse store like this, but we actually look for them as we travel.  They are always good for a car fill-up, a shrimp ring, and a huge cooked chicken, but Costco is also great for a few "Kirkland" staples that we use consistently. Conversations in our household are often something like: "Do we have enough chewy bars to get to the Costco near Detroit?".

Regarding Max, 'tis the season to be filthy with pollen no matter how hard we try to keep him looking spiffy. Certain outdoor maintenance items just have to wait until it lets up. Worse is to be under trees in a rainstorm. Unfortunately instead of washing off the pollen we just get more tree gunk glued to us! Tough lives, huh?  Another priority is keeping a close eye on the weather this time of year as it is often unpredictable. We'll choose to keep our slides "in" and live in a smaller space so that we have less noise from awnings flapping in the wind.

But our biggest challenge this month when we traveled from Florida to Virginia. We had a great annual service stop in Gaffney, SC to get oil changed, etc.  Technician even replaced our serpentine belt and fixed a small leak he heard in Max's air system (used to operate his air suspension and brakes when we are underway). Those are nice things to get fixed before they become bigger problems. Anyway, I digress!  While we were at Freightliner for this service, Jeffrey broke a tooth. Luckily, we were only a4-hour drive to Raleigh where we have dentist #2, so we modified our drive to VA to go through Raleigh and get it addressed.  We've been lucky to have medical issues happen at convenient times when we are near doctors we know -- and sure hope that trend continues!

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Wrapping up Winter 2017

February kicked off with attendance at our first Family Motor Coach Association rally in Lakeland, FL with 600 other "rigs".  Fair to say we were the youngest couple there by a few years at least, but we had a good time and it was both educational and entertaining. It was capped with a Super Bowl party on the last night with an amazing buffet of "bring a snack to share" that took up 40 feet of serving tables. Nobody left hungry!

We also enjoyed our last visit at Jonathan Dickinson (Jupiter) and Lake Louisa (Clermont) State Parks. Both are conveniently located near family and friends and we try to fill up our schedule with visits to see everyone. We took the opportunity to get a little maintenance done when we found ourselves on a nice flat paved parking space in Jupiter. One in particular involves me up on a ladder for hours at a time while I replace sealant along the roof edge -- hard to dig out old stuff -- easy to squeeze in new stuff. Being the caulk queen that I am, I finally convinced Jeffrey a year ago that I can do a better job than the $125/hr service technicians. Here is a picture of the heavens rewarding me for my efforts!

Max at the end of the rainbow

Date night on a lovely FL sunset cruise

As is our typical winter schedule, we moved Max up to near Gainesville at the beginning of March. It is getting harder and harder to get an RV spot in that area -- not that many RV parks and most are catering to RVers who spend 4-5 months in town, not just 5 weeks.  We are low man on the totem pole for sure. While there, we got to spend lots of time with Jeffrey's Dad and he fit us into his very busy schedule most days. Seriously, the guy rarely slows down! The three of us managed to get to Gator basketball, gymnastics, and softball home games and even the "spring" football debut and a regional track meet before it was time for us to drive north.

Track Meet

Gator Spring Football game

We did divert in the car for a week down to Orlando to see my parents (who love escaping the chilly NW this time of year). When they said they wanted to visit 5 theme parks in 5 days we actually thought they were joking! Thank goodness for "Fast Passes" and good tennis shoes -- we survived! Maybe visiting these parks during Spring Break wasn't the best plan, but we all had a good time and got to do most of the rides.

Jeffrey's favorite theme park picture

At the end of the week, they were supposed to peel off and visit friends who winter in SW Florida, but a big snowstorm in the US NE delayed their friends from arriving in time. Lucky for them, we "know a guy", so they joined Jeffrey's Dad in Gainesville for a few days.  It was very nice having all of our parents together with us -- something that hasn't happened since our wedding in 1988!

Parents and Offspring

As I write this, we are spending Easter in Gaffney, SC preparing to have our annual Max 8-gallon "oil change" tomorrow morning. Then on to Virgina for some history lessons!

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On the go go go!

On the go go go!

2016 went out with a bang -- or more accurately, the annual fireworks that we see from the campground at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Hobe Sound, Florida. We enjoy being in this park when the year changes as we not only have family nearby, but also several RV friends that swing through at the same time, giving us a chance to catch up on the past year's travel "happenings".  In this lifestyle, that is always a mix of "where have you traveled" and "what had to be fixed"!

Speaking of having to be fixed, the "bang" this year also included the sad demise of our RV refridgerator cooling unit. Lucky for us it didn't really "bang", but just quietly quit keeping things cold. We had to wait over the holidays for the new cooling unit to be shipped, but did okay living with a little dorm fridge we picked up at Target (and then promptly sold from our RV site for only $10 less).

As we can only stay in the Florida state parks for 2 weeks at a time, we crossed to the Florida west coast to stay at Myakka River State Park.  This is our second year here and, though it is a bit tight for our motorhome, it is a lovely place. Unlike Jonathan Dickinson, it has a lot of natural high growth and trees. The good part about this trip was seeing dear friends who live nearby.  We also had good enough weather to install our new window awning fabric ourselves. This park will definitely stay on the annual FL "swing". It is a good thing that Lazydays was only an hour away because we had to make day trips up there twice -- once to get the new cooling unit installed and AGAIN to have the toilet repaired. Jeffrey was not amused at all by the toilet as we had just replaced it but the new one had some sort of defect.

Max hiding in Myakka River State Park

Now for the BIG news! We were employed for a week! We were asked by the Escapees RV Club to help man their booth at the huge Tampa RV Supershow. They not only provided an RV spot for Max at the fairgrounds where the show was being held, but also gave us a daily stipend -- which we immediately spent on new LED lights we bought for Max along with other must-have items we couldn't pass up. We also had a chance to make new full-timer "Escapee" friends and, no surprise, learned some great tips from them! Jeffrey was happy to have LOTS of time to peruse the latest RV models, but thankfully didn't see anything he liked better than Max.

Us with fellow Escapees on the first day of the Tampa RV Show

As I write this post, we are back in Jonathan Dickinson State Park for just a week and then travel to Lakeland, Forida, for our first FMCA (Family Motor Coach Association) rally. No doubt we'll have some interesting stories to tell from that!

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Back and forth we go!

When we arrive back in Austin, TX, in August we always feel as though we have LOTS of time until we leave mid-November -- so how come this visit always flies by so fast?  Guess that must mean we are having fun?

Before we left we managed to enjoy "swamp-hosting" 10 Gator football games and spearheading our Gator Club's fall scholarship fundraiser, knocking off bi-annual dentist and annual doctor visits, chasing around a white ball while pretending to play golf weekly, and catching up wth as many friends who would put up with us.

The Gator "bye" week in October is our chance to skip town for a short trip and this year we flew to the NW for a quick visit with my parents in Burlington, WA, before jumping aboard a 1-week cruise down the CA-CA (Canada and California) coastline.  We carried shorts with us but didn't actually use them much as the weather was cooler than we anticipated (duh... it was the NW).  The ports were lovely -- 2 ports in Canada (Vancouver and Nanimo) and 4 in the US (Astoria, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles).  Cousin Sally Cole even met us at the Seattle port and drove us out to see the impressive nearby Snoqualmie Falls which were really overflowing from recent rains.

Us at Snoqualmie Falls

We always save the last few weeks in Austin to do maintenance work on "Max" the motorhome -- the biggest items being a full body wash and wax.  This is no small feat, believe me, but we get better and faster at it every time we do it.  The only "ick factor" is having to be on his 13-foot tall roof for part of the washing, but using our new Little Giant ladder made the waxing process easier this time around.  We also tackled a little underbody rust-proofing and unfortunately discovered a collection of Brown Widow spider egg sacks and momma herself in our generator compartment (related to Black Widow).  Needless to say they didn't survive the vacuum.  So glad they never found their way into the "house" area.

Clean Max 

By mid-November we drive clean and shiny Max to Florida to spend the winter months.  After a brief stop in Pensacola to watch the Gators whoop up on LSU with the local Gator Club and Jeffrey's brother John and wife Susan, we carried on to spend Thanksgiving in Gainesville with Jeffrey's dad and brother Richard and wife Cathie.

We braved the post-holiday traffic to get Max to Lazydays in Seffner (near Tampa) for an appointment to fix a few items. Our extended warranty picked up most of them and "paid for itself" as of this trip :-)  We aren't huge fans of extended warranties, but I don't think we'd ever buy another motorhome without one.  Too many things can go wrong when you drive your house through an earthquake many days a year.  It was all pretty mundane stuff really -- toilet seal, side mirrors, slide seals, and chassis battery isolator replaced. We also got two of our ACs serviced -- just like you need to do in a house.  We only spend 2 nights sleeping in Max in the service bay and the rest in the attached campground (a novelty as they deliver a newspaper to us every morning). Jeffrey also got to feed his fetish and roam around through the motorhomes that were for sale.  He loves to look even though I insist I am totally happy with the one we have.

As I write this blog post, Max is in a storage place in Tampa as we flew out to Phoenix to spend 10 days exploring the area with my parents (who were thrilled to escape the very cold and snowy NW). While figuring out their highway system, we checked out Tortilla Flat, Butterfly Wonderland, nearby Wildlife World, the Capitol Museum, and even took a day trip to Sedona.  Jeffrey and I even connected with Wendy and Ken Zitterich, full-time RV friends who are wintering in Parker, AR - and my mom, Sheila, is connecting with a college friend she hasn't seen in many years!

The 3 Nelsons and 1 Martin at the viewpoint atop the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona

The best Sedona view in town -- from the local airport!

That said, I hope you are all "connecting" with family and friends as 2016 rushes to a close. Happy Holidays!

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Miles and Smiles :-)

The last few months have been packed with activities and "driving days" -- typical for us this time of year. Avoiding the big cities on the east, we dodged across Virginia to get on i81 and connect to i84 in Pennsylvania on our way to Newburgh, NY for an RV event. 

Forty rigs containing 80 "Escapees" (the name of the RV club that organized the event) met at the local KOA for 3 days of sightseeing in New York City and the Hudson Valley area. We left the rigs in the campground and boarded tour buses to visit NYC's Liberty Island, Times Square, the Empire State Building, the 911 Memorial and Museum, and catch a Jersey Boys performance on Broadway. Even spread over 2 days, it was tough to squeeze all of this in.

Us with Lady Liberty

We spent a separate day visiting FDR's home, one of the Vanderbilt mansions, and West Point. The latter was especially interesting as both of us have relatives who graduated from this amazing institution -- and I even have a grandfather and great-grandfather (plus their devoted wives) buried in it's cemetery. Luckily the tour included a fascinating walk through the cemetery to see some of its many famous residents, giving Jeffrey and I a chance sneak away and locate the graves of my relatives so we could pay our respects.

After waving a temporary goodbye to new RV friends, we drove north to the Adirondaks to connect with friends and former Austin neighbors, Chris and Sheila Blaicher. It was wonderful to see their beautiful property and their adorable log cabin home. They spoiled us with their fabulous cooking and shared the wonders of the area they live in -- Lake Placid, Whiteface Mountain, Fort Ticonderoga, and on and on.  Lots to see in this area so we'll just have to come back!

Us with our friends Chris and Sheila Blaicher

The fabulous view from Mount Defiance looking at Fort Ticonderoga

Our next destination was in Essex Junction, Vermont, so Max braved his first ferry ride to cross Lake Champlain.  We then spent a week at our first "Escapade", the annual RV Rally for us "Escapees". Our weather was lovely and we really enjoyed the days of educational seminars, entertainment, happy hours, and visiting with other like-minded full- and part-time RVers. Though we have lived this lifestyle for over 4 years now, we continue to learn new things.  We also both enjoyed sightseeing in the area -- especially the Ben & Jerry's factory tour :-)

Max's first ferry ride

With summer travel time growing short, we opted to adjust our "return to Texas" plan and swing south through Gainesville, FL on the way. This gave us a chance to get another visit with Jeffrey's dad as well as pig out on the Olympic coverage (and Sonny's BBQ).  We also got to tag along on a tour of the University of Florida's new state-of-the art academic facility for its athletes. VERY impressive indeed.  If I were a parent sending my athlete kid off to college, I would certainly cast my vote for UF as they certainly are working hard to help these kids get an education and graduate.

The time finally came to bolt back across the gulf states to Texas and we had to swing a bit more north than usual because of all the Louisiana flooding. With food and fuel shortages as well as power outages and closed roads, we figured the last thing they needed was transient RVers poking our way through it all. This did give us a chance to see a few new towns, including Monroe, LA, where we greatly enjoyed the Chennault Aviation and Military museum, mostly dedicated to their town hero, General Claire Chennault.  His contribution to history is really interesting: www.chennaultmuseum.org

We made it back to Texas late August and were surprised the temperatures were staying under 100 degrees. Having gotten the Gator Club activities launched and other "while in Austin" projects kicked off, I'm finally finding time to post to this blog! For those of you who know about my Dad's recent health scare, I am happy to report he is finally out of the hospital and getting back to his very happy home life with his bride of over 40 years Sheila. The doctors are still telling him to take it easy and heal for awhile, but his recovery is really a miracle to them and us too.

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Everything is going according to plan...

You are no doubt wondering why I haven't posted an update in awhile. In our family we have a saying: "Everything is going according to plan. Plans are made to be changed. Everything has changed. Therefore everything is going according to plan".

That saying pretty much sums up our last 4+ months. You may already know that Jeffrey's dear mom, Evelyn, passed away in February. We were thankfully still in Florida and changed our plans to get to Gainesville for her final days and wonderful memorial service. Our annual regular March Gainesville visit was definitely missing her sweet presence.

While at our next stop in Jacksonville, we flew to VA and Arlington National Cemetery for the internment of my uncle, Charlie Lavery, who passed away last October. His country honored his service as a 1st Lieutenant in the US Army with a beautiful and moving military ceremony. Though it was a very emotional day, it was special to share it with his beloved wife (my aunt Helen) and with my other aunts and uncles.

With heavy hearts we left Florida and began our trek north. Our path to Raleigh wove us through Gaffney, SC, for Max's annual engine/generator service and a new set of tires ($ ouch). We also did a car-only side trip to Cashiers, NC, to see the beautiful mountain home of Susie and Johnny Wean, cousins of my mom. Once in Raleigh we reconnected with our family and friends in the area and even ventured into western NC in the car for a long weekend in a cabin near Asheville with college friend Mary and her husband (and Jeffrey's brother) David.

For those of you who have been there, it is no surprise that we spent an entire day at the Biltmore estate. We also managed to enjoy a few wineries, the release of a new beer at the Highland Brewing Company, and attending the special event "Fiber Day" at the local Folk Art Center. Nope, it wasn't about eating the right cereals! It is about using fiber materials in the making of clothing and art. Ever see a sheep sheared? We did! Oddly enough we were standing in a small crowd of onlookers that included (Academy, Tony, and Daytime Emmy Award winning) actress Frances McDermand. 

We were within a week of leaving Raleigh when we got an unexpected call from my 2nd-mom, Sheila. Dad was in the hospital and about to have emergency surgery for an ischemic intestine with only a 30% chance of survival. We were lucky to get flights out to Wash. St. early the next morning and were relieved to find him alive but unfortunately very very ill in ICU. Our original plan had been to be spending most of June with them on a cruise seeing the coast of Norway, so plans were changed to instead spend it with them in the fantastic Bellingham hospital that saved his life. 

As I write this post, he is still endearing himself to every nurse, doctor, and therapist that is caring for him, but he is a good healer and getting stronger every day so we hope he gets to go home soon. As a special bonus, Sheila was able to get her own surgery for Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus moved up in the schedule to happen while we were there.  She is already feeling stronger and better able to take care of herself and Dad.

We returned to Max in Raleigh a few days ago and miss seeing Dad and Sheila every day, but are very glad we were able to be with them and help however we could -- even if some days it was just keeping them company and sharing laughs over the newspaper comics.  Below is a picture that family friends, Bill and Laura, took of us in Bellingham.

Waterfront in Bellingham, WA -- Mount Baker in the background

I realize I haven't offered many pictures in this post, so I'll leave you with this... 

The only surprise that we found in Max after leaving him alone for 5 weeks was the critter pictured below hiding outside in the cover to our water softener. Hey, at least it wasn't INSIDE!

"Brown" Widow Spider (hanging upside down)

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Swimming into 2016

Our first 6 weeks in our "winter" state of Florida have flown by. After returning from our sailboat trip, we spent 10 days at an RV park in the Seminole Tribe lands south of Clewiston. This is the most remote park we've ever been at -- the grocery store was a 40-minute drive away! However, the other RVers at this park were wonderful and friendly, having almost daily 4pm "social hours". Basically, you just grab your chair and a drink and go hunting for whatever site it is at that day. 20-25 folks all show up within 10 minutes, gab for an hour, and go to their respective homes promptly at 5pm before the mosquitoes start swarming around. We also saw lots of alligators and water birds of all types. While we were away on our trip the park also had wild bear and panther sightings (sorry we missed those!).

We then began our annual "tour of Florida state parks" at one of our favorites, Jonathan Dickinson. It is well positioned to family and friends we have both north and south of its Hobe Sound location, plus we got to reconnect with two RV couples we had met previously and formed fast friendships -- keeping track of each other as we all move around during the year. It is fun catching up on "where have you been, where are you going, what have you seen, what have you fixed etc. etc"!

The Martins and the Marlins at the Kennel Club

From there we moved across the state to Myakka River State Park near Sarasota.  It was our first time here and is a cool park full of lots of trails, wildlife, and fun activities to do. This location was also near several close Gator friends, family in St. Petersburg, and the annual Tampa RV Supershow. We managed to fit it all in as well as washing our window awnings, replacing some RV roof antennae, and reorganizing our "basement" storage areas to fit a new ladder that we bought at the show. To Jeffrey's dismay, I want to do some annual RV roof edge maintenance myself instead of continuing to pay others. We didn't have a ladder that would safely get me 13 feet "up" -- but we do now! Not many girls can say their Valentine's Day present is a "Little Giant" ladder :-)  We'll get our first chance to use it next month when we try to replace our new slide topper awnings ourselves.

Speaking of the RV show, this one is one of the biggest in the country with over 1000 RVs on display and several hundred vendors selling all types of supplies and services.  It is a great place to have our Blue Ox hitch serviced (what we tow the car with), purchase any RV supplies we need, and peek at the new RV models. We are happy to report that we haven't seen anything yet that tempts us away from Max.  We still find him a great fit for our traveling and living needs.

Two happy campers!

Like most of the country, we've had some unexpected nasty weather both on the west and east coast of this state, most notably tornadoes that thankfully missed us -- sweeping just north or south of us while we were in the Myakka park. As typical, these things happen in the middle of the night, forcing us to get up and dressed at 3am and prepped to run to the concrete-block bath house nearby.  Did you know that, even when in airplane mode, your cell phone will receive the severe weather alerts? Why was I in airplane mode?  Because the cell service was so bad in this park that my battery would burn down quickly overnight trying desperately to hold onto a too-distant cell tower :-/  Anyhow, we lived through the rainiest January on record in Florida! Hopefully February will be dryer!

Maren & Jeffrey

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