Catching Up - Part 1

Yes, it has been a while since I've posted. So I'm going to start catching up with what's been going on in our lives.

I first have to tell a story. One Sunday afternoon, I was sitting at our picnic table getting the letters ready for the next update to the marquee out front. (Pictures later.) Two 10-year old girls who I've gotten to know from working in the store came walking by. Erica noticed our license plates were from Florida, so she asked if that's where we were from. I told her it was. She asked me "isn't it annoying to drive up here from Florida ever weekend?" I nearly fell off the bench, but tried to stay composed. I explained to her that we stayed up here all the time and wouldn't go back to Florida until October. It was a logical question from her - just about everyone at this park comes up for the weekend and then goes back home during the week. It still tickles me. She was so cute. "Out of the mouths of babes."

We are earning our keep. Most of my time is still spent in the store. We've got a schedule of 12 hours on the weekends. I work most of that, Julian spells me for lunch and potty breaks. He does several hours of mowing, too. We also keep the marquee up to date at the entrance to the park. I get the letters ready on Sunday, then we post the new info on Monday on our way to take our walk. Here's a picture of me "at work" a couple weeks ago.


On that same morning walk, we stopped to get a picture of some awesome rhododendron bushes. I tried to get Julian to stand by them for perspective, but he wouldn't have it. So I did the job so that you can see how huge they were.


Up until last Monday (6/22) we've had rain nearly every day. We took one of the "partly sunny" days to drive out east to just explore. We took PA-590 all the way to Lackawaxen on the Delaware River which separates Pennsylvania from New York. We circled around and came back to Hawley where we had lunch. We drove around Lake Wallenpaupak after talking to the Information guy. The lake is good for fishing, but you pretty much have to have a boat. (That lets us out!)

From there we went south to Promised Land State Park. The lake here was much smaller than Wallenpaupak and had a really nice picnic area and access to shore fishing.


This next picture was also taken at Promised Land and demonstrates how huge the trees are around here. At the base of that tree is a pavilion with a bunch of picnic tables inside. It looks so tiny next to those trees.


We haven't returned to Promised Land, but we will I'm sure. We could take Heidi and a picnic lunch and spend some quality fishing time there.

A couple days later, we had a day that wasn't too bad, weather-wise. So we went into Scranton and took the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour. Most coal mines are now closed, this one shut down in 1966. They've been running tours almost ever since. And it was a really interesting tour. It was an incredibly dangerous place to work, especially in the early days. Lots of men and boys died in those caverns. This is the shaft that took us 300 feet underground for the tour.


I've mentioned we brought our Wii on the trip. We've gotten to where we'll bowl a few games just about every evening before dinner. On the same day as our mine tour, we bowled for a bit as usual. Julian was HOT! He bowled this nearly perfect game.


At the time, that was my highest game as well. I've since gotten a 266 as my high. It's funny that now we can't be satisfied if we don't get over 200 on a game. In real life, I'm happy to hit 130.

And it's almost time for today's "sports hour", so I'll stop here for today. We are doing fine. The sunnier days of the past week have helped a bunch. I'll be working on Catching Up, Part 2 very soon.

This 'n' That (or Maybe Just Rambling)

The weather here continues to be less than what I would call perfect. We've only had a handful of sunny days since we got here and most of those seemed to be on the cool to chilly side. It's gloomy and raining again today. Will Summer ever come?

While there was a little sun this morning, Julian and Heidi went fishing on the lake. Julian said all he caught were the little ones, but he did have a good time. And so did Heidi - and here's proof.


One thing we have both enjoyed tremendously is the proliferation of flowers here. OMG, it's been SO beautiful. We've enjoyed the tulips and the lilacs which were everywhere. Now the peonies and irises are blooming out. I haven't seen any of those flowers since we left Colorado seven years ago. The rhododendrons have come into full bloom over the past week or so. They are everywhere and totally gorgeous, as you can see.


Since living so far south for the past seven years, I'd forgotten how early the sun comes up in the northern areas. By 5:30 am the sun is streaming into our bedroom window and it's not even the peak of the summer season. It's still light out at 9 pm. It makes for long days - especially when it gets so cloudy during so much of the day!

The Pocono mountains are quite different from other mountain ranges we are familiar with. The Rockies, of course, are very rocky and full of evergreen trees and aspens. The Smokies (where we've stayed the last couple of summers) are not rocky, but are filled with very tall lodge pole pine forests. What we've seen so far of the Poconos is filled with deciduous trees and only a few evergreens. The trees here are so thick that you never seem to get to see that mountain vista that you do in other places. I think the best of the Poconos are south of here where we haven't had a chance to explore yet (crappy weather!).

This picture is on our walking route. This is a two lane road and it shows how tall the trees are.


We have been keeping up with our walking pretty well. I've pulled a groin muscle, probably from walking up these nasty hills around here. So I'm taking a break. Julian gets some of his exercise behind a lawn mower. He tries not to walk on days that he will be mowing and trimming.

Any of you who live(d) in Nebraska are familiar with the squared off road system. Even the dirt country roads are one mile square and run true north/south and east/west. Well, Pennsylvania just doesn't do anything like that. (I imagine the terrain has something to do with that, but it's still annoying.) I'm telling you, without our GPS in the car we would have been lost forever within a day of arriving here. We have finally figured out how to get to US6, but not how to navigate through Archbald to get to the main drag where we do our shopping. We did find our post office yesterday without GPS help. But we've been here nearly three weeks and that's the best I can say!

Along that same theme, we drove into downtown Scranton for the first time the other day. I swear, these people don't know where North is. The streets there are pretty much square but at 45 degrees off true north. Again, we're glad we have a GPS. The best part of that trip was finding a really good Thai restaurant (with the help of our boss's son). We'll be eating there again!

After our lunch, we drove out to Frances Slocum State Park, west of Scranton. It was very pretty out there, with lots of picnic tables throughout the park. We stopped at the lake and walked around for a bit, taking in the green. One of these guys caught a bluegill while we were there.


Lest you think we aren't earning our keep, one of our assignments is to keep up the marquee at the entrance of our campground. Julian snapped this picture the other day after we got it all set up for the weekend.


This is a similar view looking down into Clayton Park. You can get a sense of how hilly it is and how thick the trees are across the lake. The coach farthest to the right is ours.


I've been working in the store on the weekends. So far, there are few people here during the week. My first day was a bit rocky, but I've got four days under my belt and now I'm not making as many mistakes.

We bought ourselves a Wii before leaving home. We have TOTALLY enjoyed having it. We bowled 4 or 5 games yesterday and Julian was over 200 on all but one. He even pulled out a 230 on one game. My best so far is only 203, BUT yesterday I picked up a 7-10 split which is nearly impossible to do. So I feel REALLY good about that!

OK, I guess I really did get into a rambling mode here. But until we can start playing tourist (which requires better weather), I don't have much else to report than the day-to-day miscellanea. So help me pray for sunny, warm weather during the weekdays. Then you'll see more photos and get (hopefully) more interesting commentary.

Our Summer Begins

OK. I know we’ve been out ten days already. But there really hasn’t been anything too exciting to report as yet. We took our first exploratory trip yesterday, but I’ll get to that a little later.

We left home on Tuesday, May 12, as planned. In fact everything on the drive up here went pretty much as planned. We spent our first night in our favorite “first night” place in South Carolina. This was at least our third (if not fourth) year stopping there.

Our second night was just outside Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. This was a nearly brand new campground and very nice. There were no trees to be found, but the sites were very level and spacious.

Most of the trip to this point was on the interstate – not very exciting stuff. But our friends, Mary & Gary, told us how to get around Washington, DC, on decent roads. It was great and a very pretty drive through northern Virginia. We stopped in Leesburg, VA, for lunch. Then it was on through Maryland and into Gettysburg, PA, for the night. We got there early enough to get out and drive around a bit. We went past the famed battlefield and drove around the town. We had a beer at a local pub and enjoyed the ambiance.

Friday brought us the rest of the way here, to Clayton Park, just outside of Scranton, PA. (In case you weren’t aware: we are work-camping here for four months. We will do 20 hours a week between us and get our campsite for free.) We met our bosses, Sonya and Maurice, and Sonya’s son, Jonathan. They are very nice people and we should enjoy our time here.

Over the weekend we mostly just got settled and acclimated. The weather turned nasty, too. We actually had the furnace running at night. It got below freezing for several hours one night. Last week in Florida we were in 95-degree weather and come up here and we get highs of 50. What’s wrong with that picture! Fortunately, it’s in the 80s the last couple of days and we’re fine with that.

We are super grateful for our GPS in the car. We’ve been into town several times already, but we still don’t have parts of it figured out. There are lots of turns through a residential area before we get onto the road that brings us back out here. But we have four months to get better at that. And we will.

Since the weather was so bad and we weren’t working yet, we found the nearest casino on Sunday. We didn’t win anything huge, but we came home with half our budget still in our pockets, so that was a big plus.

Julian spent a couple hours earlier in the week mowing. This place is much bigger than it might appear and there’s lots of grass. There is a riding mower to do the big areas, but he was using the walking mower for this time.

I just took some pictures around here and I’ll share those now. Here’s the boat dock. It seems to be a pretty popular place, too. I’m sure we’ll see tons of boats this holiday weekend.

This is a good shot across the lake.


Here are some of the sites along the lake frontage. People have their units here permanently and come out off and on all summer, I guess.


This is the main building. The owners live on the top floor. The middle floor is used for piano lessons and recitals. I think Sonya’s mom has taught for years and is still at it.


The bottom level is the office and store. That’s where I’ll be spending a good part of my working hours. Oh, and that happens to be Julian on the porch on the middle level. We have little or no cell coverage at our campsite, so he’s up there using his phone.

Here are a couple views of our home for the next few months.



Yesterday was our first day of exploring for fun. We sort of arbitrarily picked a place out of our PA tourist book and went for it. We drove east, almost to New York actually. It’s called Shohola Falls. We took Heidi with us and had a picnic after viewing the falls. (Be sure to click on the panorama to see all the cool detail.)



With this being Memorial Day weekend, our work will begin in earnest. I’ve got 9 hours scheduled in the store on Saturday and Sunday. Julian will be manning the guard shack for an hour or two tonight and a portion of the weekend, too. The place is pretty deserted right now so it’s hard to imagine the pace we’ve been warned about. But this will be the official start of summer, so we’ll be ready for it.

Christmas Trip

On Tuesday, December 23, we took off in the RV for Cortez, FL. This is on the Gulf coast, between Tampa/St. Pete and Sarasota and only about 120 miles from home. We had been to Holiday Cove RV Park before, a couple of years ago, but it was quite different now. They have done a complete makeover, including brick pavers on every site. It’s beautiful, but in the process they had to remove most of the trees which were large and gave plenty of shade. It was sad to see so few large trees left on the property.

Our friends, Gary & Mary, arrived shortly after we did. We had a drink and munchies and then walked to dinner at the Seafood Shack. Outstanding food!

On Wednesday, the four of us went to the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. Yes, Ringling as in Circus. Our first stop was Cà d’Zan, the mansion they built right on Sarasota Bay. It’s a beautiful house, fashioned after those in Venice, Italy. It was to cost about $100,000, but ended up at $1.5 million. Wow! This is the front of the house.

This is a photo of the rear of the house, taken from the terrace. You can definitely see a Venetian influence.

And a view of the terrace and the bay from the side of the house.

Here are our friends by the banyan tree outside the mansion.

From there we went to the Circus Museum. There were costumes and some props, but mostly wagons and even the private train car used by John & Mable Ringling when traveling.

And we HAD to have a photo of this:

Our next stop was the Museum of Art. Julian and I walked through very quickly as we were getting very tired. But when we got out into the courtyard, we had to slow down. It was beautiful.

I crashed when we got home as my back was really bothering me from being on my feet so much. Plus, Julian and I walked three miles that morning before we left on this excursion. Not the brightest thing to do, but … what can I say?

After some rejuvenation, some cards, some appetizers and some drinks, we all headed out to dinner at the MarVista Pub. We’d eaten here on our previous trip and it was even better than we’d remembered. We ate outside, overlooking the water and really enjoyed it all.

On Christmas morning, Julian and I drove the mile or so to the Gulf beaches and did some fishing. We had a great time and the weather couldn’t have been nicer. Yes, we each caught a fish, but neither one was large enough to keep. But here’s Julian working it.

We spent the afternoon relaxing and then played cards, etc., with our friends. We brought food to make for dinner, assuming that it would be difficult to find a restaurant open on Christmas Day. We ate very well and really enjoyed each other’s company.

On Friday our friends went to the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg. Not being a fan, Julian and I opted to go to the South Florida Museum. It could be called small, but it had very nice displays and exhibits. The wildlife dioramas were particularly good.

They also have a small aquarium where Snooty lives. He is the oldest know manatee anywhere and has lived his 60 years at this aquarium. We got in on one of their presentations and met all four of the manatees staying there right now. The other three are passing through, getting rehabilitation before being released back into the wild. But Snooty is the BMOC and demands attention. He’s fed by hand and here’s proof.

We also went to the planetarium while there. It was a great production, but we both felt it was way over our heads (no pun intended). It was called Extreme Planets and talked about finding new planets and stars and how they do it. Mind boggling!

We walked a couple of blocks to a restaurant in the middle of the marina. It was another beautiful day in Paradise and it was great fun to look at all the boats, many of which were for sale. They were into the Christmas spirit and we particularly liked the decorations at this gate to one set of slips.

We ate on the terrace behind the building in this picture. We had another yummy meal while enjoying the view of the Manatee River.

After reading and relaxing in the afternoon, the four of us again ventured out to dinner. We picked the Anna Maria City Pier Restaurant. We had eaten here 2 years ago, too, and it was no less wonderful this time. We have to quit eating like this!

After a great breakfast just across the street from the RV park, we “broke camp” and headed back home. We’d had a great time and a very happy Christmas week.

Here’s hoping you did, too!

Thanksgiving Trip

On Wednesday, November 26, we took off in the coach for several days in Ft. Myers Beach. We have been there before, but this was our first stay at San Carlos RV Park & Island Resort. This was a fairly small park situated right on Hurricane Bay, a waterway separating the mainland of Ft. Myers Beach from San Carlos Island. The photo on the home page of their web site shows how it's all laid out.

Our neighbors, whom we've traveled with frequently, also joined us there. The guys spent every free moment fishing the waters directly behind our coaches. One morning, this heron decided he wanted some of the fish the guys had caught. We shoo-ed him away repeatedly, but once our backs were turned he actually got his beak down into the bucket and took off with the largest fish that was in there!

Here's another view of the water. It was really beautiful there.

We had dinner at Snug Harbor Restaurant on Thanksgiving Day. We had requested a table near the window, which we certainly enjoyed. And the food was excellent. We'll have to eat there again on a future visit.

On Friday, we all went into the beach area of Ft. Myers Beach, on Estero Island. We had a great lunch overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. The weather was awesome and the food was pretty good too.

Afterwards, Julian went to the fish cleaning table to fillet all the fish that had been caught.

The birds were plentiful, snarfing up all the left-overs from the cleaned fish.

They seemed pretty used to people and let me get some really close shots.

We returned home on Saturday morning. It was a fairly short trip, but we sure had a good time.

Now it's time to plan our Christmas outing! Stay tuned!

South Carolina, Georgia and ...

Our next stop was in North Myrtle Beach, SC. We stayed at Briarcliffe, a very nice campground a mile or so off the beach.


This RV resort happened to share a boundary with Barefoot Landing, a large outdoor mall with lots of shops and restaurants. When we took our morning walks, we wandered throughout the mall and easily did about 2.5 miles each time.

We did a lot of exploring of the various fishing piers all over the area. One day we drove north into North Carolina. We didn't find the perfect place to fish, but we did find a great lunch.

We were able to find a great sports bar where we could watch the Sunday Denver Bronco games. This place even had individual TVs at some of the booths. So we were able to see and hear it all, one win and one ugly loss.

We went gambling a couple of times, once on the SunCruz ship which we didn't really enjoy that much. The second time, we took the Big M. It's a smaller boat, but much nicer. Plus, we actually made money on this jaunt, so we really did have a good time.


After talking with a guy who was working on the landscaping at Barefoot Landing, we found the place he recommended for fishing. It's a public park with boardwalks out to the Intercoastal Waterway. So we took our fishing poles and gave it a try.



We both got several bites and Julian actually caught a couple of crabs. But in the end, we didn't bring anything home. We really did enjoy the time spent out there, though.

Another day we went to the beach and tried surf fishing. Julian has good form, don't you think?


Julian did catch a fish, but it was too small to keep. Seems to be the story of our life! We also tried fishing from one of the piers on another day, but that proved fruitless as well.

On October 2, we got up early and headed south again. Our next stop was at King George RV about seven miles north of the Florida-Georgia border. It was a very long drive, but uneventful.

We took a drive to Jekyll Island, a place I've wanted to see for quite some time. It turned out to be a really beautiful place - one that we will return to again one day. We had lunch at the restaurant on this little pier and it was very good.


We drove to another part of the island where we found this fishing pier.


It is made of concrete and was so inviting! One of the fishermen out there commented that we "would be back". He said once people see Jekyll Island, they always return. I know he's right in our case.

Our neighbors drove their coach up to stay in the same park for the weekend. So on Saturday, the four of us went to St. Mary's for the Rock Shrimp Festival. We got started with a parade - not unlike those we'd seen in other small towns earlier in the summer.





I don't know if the main target of this photo is the dog or the hottie walking towards the photographer (aka Julian).


There were booths with all types of arts and crafts, but interestingly there was no place to actually buy rock shrimp - the thing that the festival was about! However, we did get some in our dinner, along with peel-n-eat shrimp, fried fish, cole slaw and hush puppies. It was all pretty good.

That night I shot this picture from the restaurant where we had our final dinner out.


It's a fitting final photo as it really was the sunset of our trip.

We drove the remaining 180 miles or so, and arrived home at about 12:30pm on Sunday, October 5, 2008. In 109 days, we drove through 12 states and about 3500 miles.

So, until next time, happy trails to you all.