Traveling again!
Feb 22, 2021 Wow, 2020 was one strange year. Yeah The Rona made it crazy, and the election was nuts, but that’s not the half of it. In late June, after we returned from Hilton Head Island (a great place and a fabulous trip, I’ll blog more about it when I have time) my darling wife Carol GOT SICK!!!
We’ve always been tremendously healthy people. We rarely (almost never) go to a doctor. Well, this past spring, Carol got a toothache and went to a dentist. The dentist was just reopening after The Rona shutdown, handled the presented problem (referred her to the oral surgeon next door who pulled the tooth) and life went on.
Shortly after, Carol started running a low grade fever that just never went away. We got Rona tested, negative. She went to the local ER, they sent her home. Went again a couple week later after no relief, they ran tests and determined she had a Staph infection in her blood (Sepsis). After a 5 day visit, they sent her home with antibiotics. Fever AGAIN… This time we went to University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville. Same diagnosis, more antibiotics, back home after a 4 day stay.
The fourth time Carol was fit to be tied, and let them know it. They brought in an Infectious Disease Specialist, he brought in a cardiac guy, they ran a ton of tests, and found this infection living on the mitral valve of her heart! This one needs a different antibiotic, so every time they cured it in her blood it was still active in her heart and would shortly return.
What started out as a bad tooth turned into open heart surgery! But God still smiles on us, and Carol is strong as a Polish mule. After another 18 day hospital stay and open heart surgery, everything is good. Followups and rehabilitation are done, and WE’RE GOING CAMPING!!!
In 2 days, we leave for the warmth and sunshine of Fort Myers, Florida. we’ll have a leisurely week to get there, 2 weeks at a marvelous RV resort, and however long we feel like taking to get back. We’re busy giving our Entegra a good cleaning, I’m busy taking care of some fixes that have been back burnered, she’s making a huge grocery list, the cupboards were quite bare. And Wednesday morning we’re gonna hook up the Jeep and rumble on out of here.
Magnolia RV Park, Kinard, SC
We’re on our way to spend a week on Hilton Head Island, and this place is exactly half-way. We’ve stayed here once before, I think on our way to Savannah. This is a short drive @ 200 miles from home. Often we make it further and stay in Columbia, but this was an ideal stop for this trip.
Magnolia is a pretty basic place. About half the park seems to be permanent residents, and the front half is one night stop overs. Magnolia is less than a mile off Interstate 26 at exit 60, access is easy. The front sites are various length pull-throughs, whole place is gravel, all sites have full hookups. We called an hour out, I think we got their last available site, and it was so short we had to unhook our jeep to fit. I’d recommend calling earlier. Both times we’ve stayed here, they didn’t ask for money to confirm our reservation, just a name.
This is a Good Sam Park, and I asked for and got a veterans discount of 10%. Our rate for the night was $46.66, on June 15, 2020. They have a small store, which came in very handy the last time we were here. The pool was closed, probably due to covid. We didn’t use any of their other facilities. I’ve no idea what’s around there, we just cooked dinner in our camper. Our dogs loved their dogpark. It was plenty big enough for the three of them to play, had some “agility thingies”, a bench, and poop bags and a garbage can.
This is a great place for a stop-over. We’ve stayed here before and would stay here again.
They get 3 stars, simply because that’s the best I’ll give a stop-over park, destinations could get more.
USS Kidd
Being a Navy Vet as well as a history buff, I’m into all things military, especially all things Navy. In our travels, we’ve toured 2 battleships and an aircraft carrier. (Alabama, Texas, and Lexington). The big ships are fun, but I prefer the “small fry”, as that’s where I served. As far as I know, there is only one Navy Destroyer protected as a museum.
The USS Kidd is a Fletcher class Destroyer, now permanently docked on The Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, LA. Fletcher was a small, fast, reliable, multi-job platform, and over 175 were built from 1942 to 1944. They had 5 5″ guns in turrets, a host of 20mm and 40mm anti aircraft guns, torpedo tubes, and depth charges. Fletcher class was one of the first ships with modern electronics. Radar gave her eyes over the horizon, as well as radar guidance for all her weapons.
Kidd served in the Pacific, playing a role in the “Island Hopping” campaign. She was hit by a Kamikaze during the invasion of Okinawa, and returned to the mainland US for repairs. 38 US Sailors died that day. Kidd was repaired and ready to rejoin the fleet for the invasion of Japan when atomic bombs brought the war to an end. All in all, it was a great day touring this historic Navy ship.
But that was not the only excitement on that day! Near the end of my tour, there was some unscheduled excitement. Someone on the ship started shouting about someone drowning! There was a young woman in the water! The quarterdeck watch tossed her a life ring, and one of the guys touring the ship jumped into the water to help her ashore. By the time the Baton Rouge rescue squad arrived, all was well and the woman was ashore.
Bob Seger!
Carol is finally getting her bucket list Bob Seger Concert! Last time we chickened out because of the cost, and then he cancelled all the shows due to health problems. And then he announced his Second Annual LAST ROAD TRIP! We bought 2 good seats in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Main Floor, 5th row center! Show is today, October 10, 2019.
We tried really hard to preplan, something we’re terrible at, something that is generally required with this monster new bus of ours. With every campground everywhere virtually full all the time, we have to plan every stop to be sure they have room for us. As I write this, we’re sitting out on our patio, in the best biggest site in this place, a site we only have for 2 days because some sort of “stick and ball game” is going on this weekend. It’s 600-ish miles from Sevierville to Baton Rouge. The concert is on the tenth. Granddaughter Willow’s birthday party was on the 7th. So we left on the morning of the eighth and were supposed to have 2 easy 300 mile days to get here, right?
Wrong.
First, I screwed up and made our reservations here (Baton Rouge KOA) to arrive on 10-9 and leave on 10-11. Only 2 nights, arriving a day earlier than I’d wanted to. something about a game, and everything full over the weekend.
And then, I made our first stop in Gadsen, AL. I’d wanted to stay at http://www.noccalulafallspark.com/ But couldn’t reach their campground on the phone. We ended up at this little place next to a very small lake. Carol said it reminded her of a baseball field. It was new, and the trees hadn’t been planted yet.
I programmed the GPS for the next day, and it said FOUR HUNDRED FORTY FOUR MILES! And I said WHAT? But that was it. Due to our lack of skills at planning, we had a 200 mile day followed by an almost 450 mile day. But we survived.
The Baton Rouge KOA is really nice. The pool is still open. They have the typical KOA Dog Park. While most of the sites are a bit thin, Site 41 is amazing. An end site with a huge patio (concrete site and patio) table and chairs, brick firepit, and cute little pergola with a cute little swing.
I asked the office to watch for a vacancy. We have 2 loose days coming up. Our next hard stop is Gulf State Park, which could be a 1 day run, if they’d had an opening. But we’ll make it 3 with a stop outside Mobile. Unless we can stay here.
As I got a minute, I’d like to introduce you to Bruce. Bruce is our new Chicken, and he will come with us always. He gets a spot up front, and every camp site will feature a picture of Bruce.
I’m also gonna be trying to better organize this blog, learn my way around the new WordPress block editor (Gutenberg?) and add categories for Campground Reviews and Restaurant Reviews, and stuff like that.
And… I’m going to start each and every day by writing a blog post. Traveling or not, every day. I figure it will take me 2 years just to get caught up on all the campgrounds we’ve been in and restaurants we’ve eaten at. Every Day. Good day!
Full Timers Once Again
We are about to become full time RVer’s once again! Three years ago, after leaving Illinois and full timing for a year, we purchased a house on a lake in East Tennessee. The kids and grandkids followed us there from Illinois. And stayed. And stayed. LOL. Don’t get me wrong, I love having them near, but just not in the same house as me! Many great times were had at the lake house! Boat rides, jet ski rides, a vegetable garden every year, family meals and game nights and fun, visits from friends and family from Illinois. But alas, at the end of the day, home ownership is tough! You have to clean it, and mow the lawn, and paint it, and clean it some more, and remodel it, and clean it some more. Admittedly, we have been looking to buy a new (small) house in the area that’s nearer to Smoky Mountains National Park, as we always find ourselves going there. But so far, we haven’t been able to find our new Nirvana, after looking for months at this point. So, we will just stay in the camper and enjoy no responsibilities and see where the Good Lord takes us next! Could be Tennessee, could be Colorado, could be Arizona. The world is our oyster, and the possibilities are endless. And I can’t make a damn decision for the life of me. LOL
Where does the time go?
And why did I pause blogging again?
I did good until about 3/4 done with our Texas winter trip. We spent a total of thirty days at Gulf Waters RV Resort. This was the first time we’d payed attention to being in a “Fancy Ownership Resort” but it was really really nice, and the idea has stuck with us. (More later on that.)
Then on up to Pensacola, after a quick stop at Cajun Palms. We’d visited here on the way south, and it was as nice this second time. Pensacola has been a favorite for a long time. This time we sweetened it up a bit. We stayed on the Island (Pensacola Beach) at Pensacola Beach RV Resort. Right on the bay, right downtown, walking distance to everything, this place is prime. We spent 2 weeks there, with the bonus of our son Jake and his wife Samantha bringing our GrandBabies for a week of fun in the sun!
When we finally got “up North” to East Tennessee, we found the spring rains had washed out the road going into our Dandridge house! As I write this on June 4, we still haven’t taken our RV over that road. We spent 2 months at Clabough’s in Pigeon Forge, then did our annual trip north, visiting relatives and customers throughout the Midwest. It was great seeing everyone, especially meeting Kayla’s new son Brett and Sarah’s new son Jimmy. So cute!!!
Back in Tennessee, we spent a short week or two at The Dell Motorcoach Resort. We really like this place. It’s a very small (maybe 16 sites?) ownership resort that is part of Hidden Mountain, a huge (mostly rental cabin) resort in Sevierville. The sites are big and beautiful, the neighborhood is very small, and the amenities are wonderful.
But wait! We’re not done traveling yet. It’s June, and the Rhododendrons are blooming on Roan Mountain! We’re here at Roan Mountain State Park Campground for a few days. There’s enough altitude here for cool days, I’m enjoying that as are our dogs.
Friday we head back to Dandridge, for the first time since New Years Day.
A Day Out To Aransas Pass
…And this is why we travel. It’s the places that we get to see, and the people that we get to meet along the way that makes this lifestyle so addictive. You just never know who/what you’re going to see/do next, and life is a new adventure every day! I love to travel and I honestly don’t think I could EVER go back to a 9-5 job and one one-week vacation every year.
Yesterday we woke up in the morning and decided we needed to go out and find more albums in antique stores. Jim bought me a turntable for Christmas, and while he did also buy me a couple of albums on Amazon at the time, finding the old ones in original covers, with original, worn jackets, and the original owners name or phone number written on them in the antique stores is way more fun! We love going into antique shops or “resale shops” (aka junk stores) and flipping through the crates of albums looking for treasures. It’s so great when you find an old album that was a favorite in your teenage years – the memories it conjures up are priceless (still looking for Neil Diamond’s greatest hits so I can sit and remember my Mom – Neil was her favorite!). Yesterday we found Peter, Paul & Mary and Seals & Crofts. Good stuff!
In order to get to Aransas Pass where the antique stores were, we had to ride the ferry across the Intracoastal Waterway that connects Port Aransas with Aransas Pass. We’ve wondered why they didn’t just build a bridge instead of running 6 FREE (yes, the ride is free) ferries across the waterway all day and night, but I think we’ve got it figured out. The waterway there is very skinny – it’s only about a 4 minute ferry ride to get from one side to the other, so we’re guessing there just wasn’t enough room to make a bridge that would be tall enough so that the ships could still pass through it to get into the shipping channel there. And because the ferry is more fun than a bridge would have been!
So we found our way to downtown Aransas Pass, which is a cute little downtown area with shops and restaurants, and decided we were a little hungry. We stopped in a little cafe downtown called Carmella’s Coffee and Teas. Not exactly Jim’s kind of place – it looked like they served girlie sandwiches and fancy coffees (he only likes his black and strong). But we went in anyways and had a great tuna sandwich (or salad in my case since I can’t eat bread), and met Violet, the highlight of our day. Violet is 4 years old and helps her Nana out in the cafe (Nana being Carmella I would guess?). She was quite the little hostess, bringing Jim a penny and drawing him a picture, and gifting me with an empty take-out box and a Sponge Bob Square Pants Valentine. Violet’s Nana then informed us that Violet had a heart transplant at 7 days old! Oh wow, another heart baby!! So we exchanged heart baby stories, promised to pray for one another and gave big hugs and went on our way. Such a special, loving family. I wish them nothing but the best!
As if our day wasn’t great enough already, on the way back on the ferry we got to watch a pod of dolphins playing in the water beside our ferry boat. Fun!! Then it was off to dinner with Kathy and Daryl – friends Jim had “met” online on the RV forum that he’s always on. Turns out they are camping here in the same RV resort as we are! It’s always fun to meet new people. We had some great food and great conversation (Kathy is 100% Dutch from the same area Jim’s family is from in Holland – for all we know they’re 3rd cousins 4 times removed or something!) Dinner and drinks were delicious!
All in all it was a great day!! Just another day in Paradise!!
USS Lexington Tour
On Thursday the seventeenth, we drove into Corpus Christi to tour the aircraft carrier USS Lexington, CV-16. Lex is moored in Corpus Christi Bay, across the shipping channel from downtown, in the area known as North Beach.
Lexington was commissioned in 1943, and served in the Pacific Theater during World War 2. She was damaged twice, once by a bomb, and the second time by a Kamikaze. After the kamakazi hit, she was able to resume full flight operations in 45 minutes, and remained with the fleet for 2 weeks before retiring for repairs.
After a nearly a half a century of active service, Lexington was decommissioned in 1991, and brought to her present location in 1992, where she has served as a floating museum of Naval Air Power. As I’m a Navy Veteran, and served in the far east on a cruiser escorting a carrier, these tours always mean a lot to me. While I’ve toured several battleships, this is the first carrier. These things are HUGE! The hanger deck, where the planes are stored and serviced, is giant, just a huge open space inside this great ship. After touring the hanger deck and forward spaces, we went up on the flightdeck, it was so big we may as well have been ashore. It’s hard to imagine a man made floating object this size. Parked on the flight deck is a collection of Naval Aircraft, including an F/A 18 used by the Blue Angels, an F14 fighter, A4 and A6 attack aircraft, and a scattering of older flying machines. Notably missing but hopefully on their way was an F4 Phantom and F6F Hellcat. Both were in the hanger deck being restored. We also went up to the bridge, and saw the ship’s wheel and engine order telegraph, as well as the plotting room where the quartermasters kept track of where the ship was.
Next was below decks. We basically ran through this, as it was getting late, and they kept announcing it was getting close to closing time. This floating city had it’s own Post Office, Hospital, Dentist office, barber shop, even a church. Everything you would expect to exist in a small town, or actually a large town was there. The crew numbered over 3000, plus another 2 thousand for the Air Wing! One really cool “added for display” room displayed hundreds of models. There must have been 2 each of every airplane ever, as well as a good number of ships and submarines, all in giant glass cases. Hurrying to get to the gift shop before closing, we finally found our way out of the ship and back into the sun. Of five tours, we did 2 1/2 that afternoon. I can’t really count the below decks tours, as we ran through most of it.
Once we made it back to solid ground, we went next door to Pier 99 for dinner. I’m betting this is a really hopping place in the summer, with a huge restaurant, giant outdoor bar, and huge patio. We sat outside with a great view of Lady Lex as well as the shipping channel. Lots of traffic in the shipping channel all day long, empty tankers coming in, loaded tankers coming out. American Oil heading off to anywhere. I had jalenpno stuffed shrimp and a burger. They made Carol a great Gluten Free chicken dinner.
Hopefully while we’re here for not quite 2 more weeks, we’ll get to go finish the tours.
Some Old Time Rock and Roll!
Carol and I have always liked us some good ole Classic Rock. They just don’t make music like that anymore! And yea sure, I’m new age, got my satellite radio, even listen to my own classic rock stations on Pandora on my phone.
But it just ain’t Classic Rock without that vinyl disk going round and round!
We’ve been eyeballing turntables for a while now. In case you haven’t been paying attention, records are becoming a thing! There’s a ton of cheap new turntables available, old records are being remastered and remade in new vinyl, and of course the old original records are still out there.
So for Christmas, I got Carol a turntable and some records! Since we live in this bus, we’re kinda limited on equipment. The turntable I got has bluetooth out as well as builtin speakers. The speakers ain’t great, but they’ll do. It lives on the counter behind the table in our Entegra, and fits nice there.
Our first batch were new records, at $20 plus each, I got us some Seger, and stuff Carol likes, Styx and Prince and Supertramp. Yesterday we went to Corpus Christi and hunted through some antique stores. First store wanted $15 each, and didn’t have anything we just had to have. Second store was more better. Found another Bob Seger for $8.95, and a Monkeys Greatest Hits that I just had to have even at $20. And in the next room we hit the mother lode! Album after album for 2 or 3 dollars! So we walked off with 6 new records for $36, happy as can be.
Played them all today, and they all play pretty well for forty year old plastic.
Beach kite and Mexican food!
We’ve been here at Gulf Waters RV Resort for over a week now, and we’ve been having a great time exploring the area. The other day we got bored in the coach and went out ‘splorin. We drove around town, explored the harbor area, saw a bunch of cop cars and flashing lights up by the High School (no idea why) and drove around the beach on the north end of the island.
We saw this guy Kite Surfing in what was basically a puddle on the beach! Guy was hammering it, to. The puddle was a few hundred feet long, maybe a hundred feet wide. Carol had to get out and take some pictures.
After we got tons of pictures (Carol will send them to “Stock”, action pics sell good.) we decided to be hungry. Eating out around here is gonna kill us, no shortage of great restaurants. Tonight we went to La Playa. La Playa is an eclectic little tex-mex seafood joint in central Port Aransas. Click on this link to see their website and a pic of the outside. It’s a totally cool little place. Table made Guacamole rocks. Great margarita’s rock. So far, we’ve sampled their loaded nachos, shrimp enchaladas, steak fajitas (Carol says best fajita meat ever!) and shrimp diablo. Everything is good good good. I can’t wait to go back again, and continue to work my way through the menu. Note, the place is dinner only, opens at 5pm, and it’s cash only, with an ATM by the bar.
