Savannah

We loved Savannah the first time we were here three years ago and we loved it again this time.  We intended to spend 3 or 4 nights in the area and wound up staying a week.  What’s not to love about strolling the many squares of the historic district with the moss covered oak trees.   Or the houses and other structures which in some cases date back to the Revolutionary War.  Or strolling the riverfront and the shops in the old warehouse buildings of River Street.

On To Savannah

Way overdue for a blog post.  It was a week ago Monday that we rolled out of Columbus.  Our next destination was Savannah, Georgia.  We weren’t planning to stop and explore anything in between.  Our usual travel days would have taken us three days to make the trip from Columbus to Savannah.  But it seemed a bit much to be on the road for three straight days so we decided to stretch and make it in two days.   Our first day of travel was 370 miles.  We know that for most people that doesn’t sound like a huge travel day, but for us it was by far the most miles we had ever traveled in a single day in the motor home.  Fortunately, it was an uneventful day of travel with no issues, just the way we like them.  I even drove the hills and hollers of southern West Virginny, but I also had some time to put my feet up literally and admire my new slippers.  We had to drive a couple of tunnels passing through Virginia. There is not a large margin of error taking a motor home through these.  We were expecting some peak Fall colors, but we were just a little too late.  There were still some bursts of color but a lot of trees already had dropped their leaves.

The first day our stop for the night was in Mt. Airy, North Carolina.  Just south of the Virginia border.  Mt. Airy.  The actor, Andy Griffith was born in Mt. Airy and the town is believed to have been the basis for Mayberry on the Andy Griffith Show and Mayberry RFD.  Our brief stop in Mt. Airy was at the Mayberry Campground and we even camped on Andy Taylor Street.

Our second day of travel also was an uneventful one.  We drove about 325 miles to get to our campground in South Carolina near Savannah.  North Carolina gave us a greeting on one of their road signs, but we had to share it with these Wilkesboro people, whoever they are.

The Tickle Giggles

We are wrapping up our fourth total week in Columbus.  This last one has been a bit of a bummer as Gary still has his cold and we were only able to see little Victor one last time.  But I have a great little video to try to post.  Let’s see if I can make it work.  This video is of Andy tickling Victor and he is a giggling and giggling.

Victor's Tickle Giggles

Gary could not get an appointment with his Doctor while we were in Michigan, so he had to make a quick trip in the car up to Ann Arbor.  At least he was able to see the Doctor while we were here.  Our insurance mandates an annual physical from our primary physicians.  Last year Gary couldn’t secure an appointment and we were subject to higher deductibles throughout 2014, but it didn’t really matter as we haven’t had any medical bills of any account anyway.  He obtained both a flu shot as well as a shingles vaccine   And there were the usual admonishments to lose weight and watch the salt intake.  We both now have completed our annual physicals in 2014 so we we be back on the regular deductibles next year.

While Gary was gone, I cleaned the inside of the motor home and……..carved another pumpkin.  I carved another happy guy and I liked him a little better than the earlier one.  I also purchased a fresher pumpkin so he lasted a few days this time.  But now he is across the fence of the campground and into the woods for the enjoyment of the squirrels.

We were going to leave Columbus on Saturday, but now we will roll out of here tomorrow.  A cold front rolled in and we were in the 20s last night.  Our route south will take us through the Appalachians and there was six inches of snow in parts of those mountains last night.  We certainly don’t need to be traveling through anywhere with snow.  The weather now looks good for our journey so we are off to Savannah and then Florida – AND WARMER WEATHER!

Back To Victorville

No, we didn’t make a sudden change of course and head west to California where Victorville is a town on the Interstate between LA and Vegas.  Our Victorville is Columbus, Ohio where our near four-month-old little grandson lives.

Tuesday night we went out to eat with Andy, Natasha, and Victor (well, Victor just hung out in his portable car seat).  We made plans to baby sit the little one on Thursday and Friday.  But then Wednesday morning Gary woke up with a sore throat – one he described as raw.  In our three years of traveling, we have avoided either one of us coming down with a nasty virus until now.  I sat with Victor by myself both Thursday and Friday.  Gary got to wave from a distance.  And this virus is a nasty one.  From the sore throat, in a couple of days it traveled into his head and sinuses.  And then after a couple more days it moved into his chest.  I sure hope I don’t catch this thing, much less the baby and his parents.  And here Victor wore his Grandpa shirt for the Grandpa who couldn’t get near him.

Michigan Visit Week 2

When you are back for a home visit, there isn’t a ton to blog about.  I guess we could describe each of our many meals out, but they were mainly eaten at our former favorite haunts without any fantastic new local delicacies to report on.  We could report on our various shopping trips, but JC Penny’s is not exactly new for us.

So, let’s see what I can blog about.  I carved a pumpkin.  This time I carved a happy face.  Unfortunately, when I went to clean the pumpkin I found it had quite a bit of softness and I only got about three nights of enjoyment from him.

 

 

 

 

I also decorated Alley Cat for Halloween.  Our friend Nancy gave us this colorful little costume.  Even though it attaches with the very same type of velcro straps that her regular holster employs, you would have thought she was pained to wear it by the way she barely slinked around in it.  Of course Gary was there to say he wanted to defend her dignity and released her from it.  But this one is going to get some additional wear by the end of the month.

Let me send out a request to Canadians – please come and take back your signature geese.   They foul everything and especially our campground. 

By the end of our Michigan stay it was just about at the peak of Fall colors.  The reds, yellows and oranges were beautiful.  But with those Fall colors came some Fall weather as we hit a low of 30 one night.  But by the middle of November we will be in Florida for our Winter stay.   We can still enjoy the colors of four seasons – at least in small doses.

We had to chance to go out to lunch one day with our friends from the brew club, the Kennedys.  I had the chance to see my sisters and parents several times and borrow their washing machine on a couple of visits.  We completed most of our appointments.  And we will be back at Christmas time as well.  It’s now back to Ohio for some more time with little Victor before we head off for some warmer weather.

A Week In Michigan

After our week of baby sitting, we rolled north into Michigan for what will be two weeks of visiting family and friends and a few appointments.

 

 

We were unable to stay at “Camp Bagman”, the RV storage spaces behind the warehouse full of bags.  The Bagman had all of his spaces rented and no one was going out on a trip during the period of our stay. Instead, we are camped in Sterling State Park on the western shoreline of Lake Erie near the town of Monroe and about 40 minutes south of downtown Detroit.  We have not stayed here before and it is working for us just fine and especially with 50 amp full hookup sites.  Electrical Power certainly should not be an issue here.  Just south of the Park is DTE Energy’s Monroe Power Plant.  It is the second largest coal power plant in the US.  Not far to the north of the Park is Fermi 2, DTE’s nuclear power plant.  And just for good measure, there is another nuclear plant on the south shore of Lake Erie in Ohio – the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station of FirstEnergy Corp.

We have caught up with my family of course and have seen a number of friends.  We have knocked a few things off our to-do lists as well.  One special treat was that we were able to attend a meeting of the Downriver Brewers Guild, the brew club that we belonged to before we went on the road.  There were about a dozen of us at the meeting.  We took a bottle of mead to share from storage in my sister’s basement. We made this mead nearly four years ago.  We did not know how well it might have held up with this amount of age.  If we say so ourselves, it not only had held up very well; it was very tasty too.

A Week Of Babysitting With Baby Victor

After we finished up at Zip Dee northwest of Chicago, we headed across Indiana spending one night in Fort Wayne at the Johnny Appleseed Campground in a city park.  At the turn onto the final road to take us into the campground, Samantha, the voice of our GPS system announced,  “turn left on Harry Baalz Drive”. I still laugh at that street name. The next day we rolled on to Columbus, Ohio.  The day after setting up camp, our son Andy brought our one and only Grandchild, Victor, out for his first visit to our motor home.  After we received some instructions over the weekend, we spent Andy and Natasha’s work week sitting for little Victor in their home.  Their regular sitter was off for the week and we were thrilled to take on the opportunity.  And while sitting, we also made them a home-cooked meal each day.  Andy said it was the only week that they had ever sat down every night of the week for a meal together at their home.

This was my first introduction to Victor.  Gary had flown back in July, a couple weeks after Victor was born on the 4th of July, but this was my first chance to see and hold him.  Why do I look more thrilled than Victor?

Our week went well and rather quickly.  I gave him his bottle feedings and gave Gary the diaper duty.  Wow, it has been a long time since we were last doing these jobs.  We still haven’t been able to successfully sit the parents and snap a picture of them with Victor, but we did manage more than a few other photos.  He sure is a growing boy at more than 15 pounds at three months old.