Foggy and 48 degrees

Yep, that's what I woke up to yesterday. Summer appears to be over in this neck-o-the-woods. Glad we're headed south. It was pretty though. I'm enjoying just puttsing around the motorhome. Being alone is not a problem as long as I have computer stuff to do and books to read ... and naps to take :-). mmmmmmmm .... naps, my favorite. I gotta admit though, I'm not inclined to go sightseeing - that is something I much prefer to share. Jim says he wants to see the Mammoth Caves, so I'll wait for him to come back for that. Besides - I don't have a car - it's at the Lexington airport. I believe the caves are biking distance - I may take a ride if it's nice weather tomorrow. Today is drizzly. I did take a little bike ride around the park. Then I planned to just sit at the computer and do work & play. But, my Internet connection was so slow I couldn't upload web-pages or connect to remote client computers. I'll need to contact my satellite provider on Monday if it hasn't cleared up. Meanwhile - I was forced to read a book! Luckily, I have a great book - The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman. It's non-fiction about how technology and the opening-up of China and India is leveling the playing field for all types of workers world-wide. Here's a link to where you can buy it at Amazon if you're interested.

Separation

Once we were on our way again, Jim decided that he would go home for his Mom's funeral. So, we looked at the maps of where we were and where we were going and decided that Lexington, KY was our best bet of getting reasonable flights for Jim and a good place to park for me. I wanted a Thousand Trails park, since that's already paid - and we knew it would be a place where I'd be comfortable. Wouldn't ya know - there's not a one in Maryland, West Virginia or Kentucky!? But there is an RPI park about 120 miles from Lexington. Because of our Thousand Trails membership, we can stay at RPI parks for $8/night. We drove all the way thru West Virginia. It's a good thing we already have that on our map! Beautiful countryside. Almost heaven ... We drove as far as we could and finally pulled into a rest area in Kentucky at 10pm. We raised the Datastorm dish and got online to book an airline reservation. Jim found flights to Ft. Lauderdale for $650 ... ouch. He noticed that they all stop in Cincinatti first, so what if we drove to Cincinatti and he flew from there? Nope - that's even more expensive?!? Go figure. He found that, flying into West Palm Beach lowered the price by $200, so that's what he booked. He printed the reservation and we were set. Using our mapping program, we found the exact location of the airport and the nearest Walmart Supercenter. We plotted our course to park at Walmart. We'd unhook the car there. Jim would drive himself to the airport and leave the car parked. I would drive on to the campground. When he flew back, he could drive to meet me. So far, so good. Here we are in the Walmart parking lot and he's leaving me. That sure felt weird! I wanted to wait to hear from him at the airport before I hit the road, so I did a little grocery shopping at Walmart. Uh Oh ... they don't sell wine! WhatEVER am I going to do? Jim Instant Messaged me from the airport - they have free WiFi - and all was well. No lines, no hassle. He was checked in and the flight was confirmed. So, I stowed the dish and started driving. Two and a half hours later I pulled into Diamond Caverns Resort. The only problem was that I couldn't take any pictures of the beautiful Kentucky scenery! So, here's home for the next week:

C and O Canal Rails to Trails

Before leaving the campground in Hancock, MD - we tried another bicycle assault on the trail thru the woods. This time we were successful at reaching the paved bicycle path. As expected, it was only a hundred yards or so from where we gave up and turned around the evening before. Yes! This is my kind of bicycling. We will seek out more Rails to Trails on our journey. According to the website, there are 1,359 of them. We rode about 5 miles into town and met these guys who had been biking and camping along the trail for several days. They pulled this homemade trailer to carry all their camping supplies. Then we headed back. That last mile is a killer.

Frankie Guld 1923-2006

  My mom passed away peacefully on Monday, September 25 at home. She was born on Jan 10, 1923 to Fannie and William Copeland. She met my dad while serving in the Navy in Washington, DC. After traveling as a Navy wife and mother for 10 years, we moved to Long Beach Island, NJ where we owned and ran a gas station and later a successful restaurant. Mom and dad retired to Florida in 1980 where she enjoyed crafting and especially golfing. I know you will watch over us, Mom. 

Crazy Eights

I'm really good at the card game, Crazy Eights. It's been years since I've played, I don't even remember the rules ... something about 8's being wild cards. I like wild cards! All I remember is that I usually won. So, I figure it's a good omen that our odometer turned 88,888 today! When we bought the motorhome, it read: 53,594. That's 35,294 miles we've put on it. Sounds like a lot, but given the fact that it's been over 3 years - that's less than 1,000/month! We started out today on the Chesapeake Bay at Pru's. We took a walk and admired the peace and beauty. Then it was time to go. We wouldn't recommend driving a big rig on these roads. Then we headed north to the D.C. 'beltway' and around the north side, heading to highway 70 west in Maryland. Aren't green rolling hills inviting? We parked at a campground right next to the Patomac river and the C & O Canal National Historic Park. We thought this would be a great start to our biking career since this is the grandaddy of all 'Rails to Trails'. *thanx Glenn for reminding us* What we didn't count on is the *rough* trail from the campground to the paved bicycle trail. We didn't make it - but at least we have a picture to show we tried. Maybe we'll try again in the morning. g'night.

Solomons Island

We've come here to visit Pru. Pru is the woman we met on our Fiji trip. When we learned she lived in Solomons Island, and that's where Jim was born, she said, "you must come visit me." You gotta be careful when you say that to us. Cuz, we'll come! Here's the road to Pru's. Can you tell how steep it is? We had to stop at the top and gather our courage (and switch to a lower gear), but we made it just fine. and, here we are all comfy in her driveway. Then we took a walk on the beach near her house. I asked her if big bonfires were common on the beach and she said this particular pile was a result of cleaning up after hurricane (ok, tropical storm) Ernesto. Half of the kayaks and canoes on the edge of the beach didn't belong here - they washed up during the 11 hours that Ernesto blew 60+ mph winds. As you probably know, Maryland is known for it's crab cakes. I don't want to get into any dispute by saying these were the best crabcakes anywhere ... but they sure were good ... now, what was the name of that restaurant we went to? geez - I wouldn't remember anything if it weren't for pictures and this blog! Anyway - we had a great lunch by the bay. Then we went to a nearby marina to visit their trawler. Oooh - nice. Hey, what's this? WiFi is everywhere.

Back on the Road - Cheap Gas

Yes, we finally tore ourselves away from Long Beach Island. Not without some damp eyes. I'm sure we'll be back - just don't know when. Meanwhile the road is much more appealing with lower gas prices. Check this out ... exit 10 on 295 in South Jersey ... just north of the Delaware Memorial Bridge ... $1.88. We haven't seen prices like that since our first year on the road! And we haven't seen any more like it yet - most gas prices are 2.30 - 2.40. But, you can bet we filled up here! Or, rather, they filled us up - you're not allowed to pump your own gas in New Jersey. Then we planned to stay at a state park in Delaware for the night. We wanted to make honest RVers out of us - you see, we put Delaware on our map even though we didn't spend a night here. But, we didn't reckon on it being race week in Dover. No space at the park. So, we kept driving and found a park with one space left, just over the Maryland border. Pretty trees. I didn't even try raising the dish here - no way it would work thru these trees. And, no way we can ask for another site - they're taken! We got an early start this morning since we couldn't check email! Over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge we go ..

Bicycles and Giant Clam Shells

We did it - we bought bicycles. We *need* more exercise as we travel and we decided that bicycles would be a good way, so we've been in the market for bicycles. There are several bicycle rental places here on the island that sell their rentals at the end of the summer season. We figured that might be a good way to go ... and I think we found some good bikes. They're Fuji, which is supposed to be a pretty good name, and they weren't even rentals, they were just floor models. So, we got them for $150 each which we understand is about half the retail price. What I really like about it is that, even tho it only has 7 speeds, the lowest one is *really* low. I might even be able to get up a small hill without walking it! Here they are: And then we had to get a bike rack that fit over our spare tire on the back. It seems to work really well. OK - now ... we gotta use 'em! If you don't see pictures of us riding these please YELL at us! Leave a comment and shame us into riding - ok?. On our way home we stopped at 'Things a Drift' a nautical gift shop owned by Cheryl. Jim repaired her computer last week and we wanted to check in on her. She has a giant clam shell that she says is larger than one in the Smithsonian. Pretty cool. That's it for the island this year. We're packing up to hit the road today. Headed south before it gets too cold. Thanx for everything Jimmy. You're the best! ... we'll be back

Full-time RVing and walks on the beach

I need 'last minutes'. The pressure of time is very motivating for me. Since we got here I've been saying I wanted to walk on the beach at sunrise. But, every morning ... I just roll over and go back to sleep. Well - we leave tomorrow - so I was motivated to get up and go to the beach this morning. That's something I adore about the RV lifestyle - we get a lot of 'last minutes' - so we make the most of everywhere we go. It's like the classic question, "If you knew you only had one more day to live, what would you do?" You don't even have to be that drastic, how about, "If you knew you were leaving your home town and all your friends tomorrow, what would you do?" You'd probably visit everyone you knew and give them a big hug ... and go take that walk on the beach you've been talking about! Here's mine: I gotta add though, that I really like hanging around for a while also. There's no way we could have put that Picasa seminar together if we were just here for a couple days. There's no way we would have gotten around to washing and waxing the rig either. The pressure of the last minute needs to build up for a while to have a sufficient power! We love the fulltime RV Lifestyle!

Cool Tools

It's been on our list to wash and wax the rig while we were staying here. That's something that gets put off to the last minute! But it's really important to get it done because we have access to cool tools here. We haven't cleaned the roof in a long time ... and a pressure cleaner does such a good job! Can you see how black it was ... and how white it's becoming? And, a buffer makes short work of the waxing! I've heard some people say that using the pressure cleaner is not good for the roof ... oooh but it does such a good job. What do you think? Click here to take my survey. I'm trying out SurveyMonkey to see how this works. I'll let you know the results in a subsequent post. It was *cold* this morning. 53 degrees! But it turned into a beautiful sunny day. Odie finds the good spots.

Ooohhhhhh Ahhhhhhhh

Here's what awaited us after returning from Crabbing out in the protected wetlands of the bay. Another mesmerizing sunset here at Sea Lyon Bayfront Family Resort!