Sunday, October 24, 2010

Hello Florida

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Our trip was totally uneventful, which is just the way we like it.  Except for our trusty, can’t travel without it….. GPS.  Panama City came up as 230 miles  or so, but when I put in Tyndall AFB it added on 50 miles.  No matter how we looked at the maps it just did not seem possible.  Well, come to find out it wanted us to go 24 miles beyond our destination and make a U turn!  This is our newer one, put the info into the old one and it was right on the bottom.  The problem is that screen is so much smaller and have come to enjoy the larger screen. 

The fall colors were wonderful on the trip down, and most of the road were good.  we have put our jacks down at Tyndall AFB famcamp.  A very nice park, large spaces, literally a jungle between sites.  Large club house, breakfast Saturday, pot luck Tuesday night.  Both Kevin ad Chuck are hacking and coughing so they are not much fun.  Plus we noticed a squealing noise of sort coming from a wheel on our truck that we have to have checked out.  We did take a ride along the coast towards the east, Saturday, and some of the beaches were nice, but the little towns were not ready for tourists. 

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Arlene and I did find a great area to take a stroll in the water, and it was warm, hardly any one there.  We found a market selling fish and shrimp, and bought some rock shrimp, which we had never seen before.  Word of advice, don’t buy.  The shells are very hard, which makes it a real pain to shell and clean, and the taste was nothing like shrimp.  Have a feeling the locals do not eat these little rascals.

Today did a whole lot of nothing, the humidity has climbed today, rain is in the forecast.  The guys have a t-time in the morning, not sure if that will be a go.  We are planning on staying here till the 5th of November, and then we will move a bit more west. 

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Looks like a great “3 hour cruise” boat.  Life is good.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Defeated Creek, Tennessee

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We have thoroughly enjoyed the time we have spent in this beautiful setting. The campground is set around the lake, with the outer rim having FHU’s. Being as I was late to come to the party in making reservations, and it being fall break for school, we could only get 4 days. But once here we managed to come by one of the non-reservable sites and extend our stay. The rate is one of the lowest that we have paid over our years RVing, 9 dollars a night, FHU’s, with the Golden Age discount.

Lisa & her sweet husband Tony.

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They have out done themselves seeing that we have a good time. And they certainly have succeeded. Thank you Lisa for getting this set up. Think that we will have to make it a yearly “gathering”.

As usual our get togethers have consisted of “have ya et yet?”, and what’s the menu for tomorrow?

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We have taken a few outside trips, Olive Garden, Golden Dragon, and yesterday called for a trip to the original Cracker Barrel. Some of our trips consisted of just the girls, and Lisa was our chauffeur, driving her van, with I Love My Seniors. We did not realize that she was not referring to her students, but to us! LOL

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Some unusual scenery along the way one day. Kudzu, a plant brought in to fight erosion, and it has done one heck of a job of that. It covers everything, looks like something from outer space or Disneyland. But no erosion!defeated camp 039

Usually our nights are spent gazing in the campfire, enjoying the company.

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It has truly been a great relaxing retreat. Not that the life we are living is in any way stressful, but we will be leaving here feeling like we have had a full 10 day massage.

In a few days we will all be heading in different directions, we are dropping down to the Florida panhandle, no place special in mind, just checking it out.

In closing would like to take a moment to honor Bruce and Margie, who will be missed, tho we never met, still felt we knew them. So sad, reminds us that every day is precious.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

Hanging Loose

Touring Churchill Downs was the goal of the day.

Tuesday, 10/05/10

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kentucy 006 Coming out of the gate.

kentucy 008Whooo..their horses have no legs!

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The famous twin spirals.

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A retired race horse.  The little horse is fully grown, he is there for company, we were told,  horses do not like to be alone.  They said it does necessarily have to be a horse for company, a chicken, duck any animal will do.  Wish the horses were racing, guess we will have to plan it better next time.

Wednesday   We got left behind at “Grandma’s”, as we watched Mac & Netters and Kevin & Arlene pull out.  There was no tourist outing that we wanted to engage in, so we went shopping.  Hit Sam’s, Best Buy, Wal-mart and then looked for a movie.  But there was nothing showing in our time frame, so just came home.  Fixed dinner and watched Survivor.  The next day washed and polished on the rig, did some laundry.  Later in the afternoon Darrell and Judy pulled in next to us.  After they were set-up we went in search of dinner, found a great Mexican restaurant with even greater margaritas.  Enjoyed getting to spend some time with them, and hope we will cross trails again soon.  Mentioned Zappo’s sale, so a trip there was in order.  I found a cute pair of comfy sandals, but decided that I did not need them and Judy decided she did.  So Glad. Would have hated the thought that they were left for a stranger.  Darrell & Judy were off bright and early the next morning.

Used that day to get my toes, nails and hair taken care of.  Good for another few weeks.  Met a couple with a Montana and we spent the rest of the afternoon telling tall tales and small lies.  Nice couple, they had been to the Montana rally a few years ago, but decided to miss this one. Being as they are not full time, vacations have to be put to good use.

And that brings me to today, Saturday, October 9th.  Chuck finally decided to play golf, I was getting a little worried that he had lost his interest in it.  Been over a month, and he was not twitching or anything.  Being as we live in this tin box 24/7 the alone time when we are apart is pretty darn precious!  Love him dearly, but some times well………….

Tomorrow we make the trek to Defeated Creek, Tennessee, can’t wait, everyone there is raving how beautiful it is.

Till next time, life is good.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Surprising Neighbors & Tours

We left the Indianapolis State Fairgrounds campground, around 10, after having a problem with the jacks.  Seems we got them way too low and they wouldn’t connect to raise them.  Chuck came up with the idea of getting one of the forklift drivers to lift the front end of the 5’er and then they were able to extend.  With that fixed we were on the road.  Talked to Barb & Bob, who are in North Carolina, getting their rig “road able”.  She recommended Grandma’s RV, so I called and got a reservation.  When we were pulling in , low and behold, there sat a Landmark with a golf cart, knew it was Mac & Netters right away, and Grandpa said go park where ever you want.  So we are next to them and yesterday Kevin and Arlene pulled in.

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Saturday: We started off with a tour of the Jim Beam plant, which was very interesting. 

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Old time “still” replica.

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There is a lot more than 99 barrels in this building.  The black on the building is a chemical reaction that occurs because of the evaporation.  All the trees are covered with the black film.  People have to constantly fight to keep it off the cars and houses.  There are hundreds of these storage building through the country side.  Not gold in them there hills, it’s bourbon.

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From the Jim Beam plant we told Tom-tom to take us to the Makers Mark plant.  Which turned into an adventure, as our road kept getting smaller and smaller, till we were on a one lane trail. But we did come across men harvesting tobacco, which I had not seen before.

brewreys 036   And just about when we were beginning to worry, we were there. 

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Makers Mark is a much small distillery, and the tour was right into the production area.  We were disappointed that it being Saturday they were not dipping the bottles in the red wax that they are known for. 

brewreys 053   Of course we had the samples at the end of the tour, and being as none of us were to keen on straight bourbon, but the candy was great!  We made our way back, with written instructions that they passed out, seems we were not the only ones to have trouble getting there. 

Yesterday we laid around, knew that Kevin and Arlene would be here, so planned dinner for the six of us.  Threw everything in the crock pot, took a nap, powdered my nose with flour, (just so they would know that I’d been cooking all day) and we had a great meal.  Actually pulled out our new table to the center of the living room, added the leaf and sat 6 comfortably.  Love it! 

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Today we took in the Slugger Bat Company.  It also was quite interesting, and the sample at the end of the tour was a little bat.

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Of course there was the gift shop, so having a grandson who is a avid ball player, there were a few things we had to pick up.

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Mac on his horse.

Ended the day with a 60 percent off sale at Zappos.  The warehouse is very close to here, but think the sale had been going on for a few days, only managed to find two pair!

Life is Good!