Back to reality … or is it

We're home, after 2 1/2 months on the road, and over 6,000 miles.

 We woke up this morning in our camper van at Anastasia state park. It was 6:30am and the sky was just starting to get light. We were parked in the RV site that was closest to the beach so we could make the walk in time for sunrise at 7. 

It was so beautiful. I felt so connected. 

After 250 miles, and a couple of stops along the way, we pulled in to our parking spot at home at7 pm. The house was cool from the central air conditioning. We brought a few things in from the van, poured a glass of wine, and I plopped down on the couch and picked up the remote for the tv.

As I write this post, several weeks have actually gone by. Time just slips away when we're home. When we're traveling by RV, every day counts. Which one is reality?

Forest and ocean

In 2019 we started our tour with ocean and forest - Gamble Rogers Florida state park and Santee S Carolina state park., this year we're ending with it, Santee then Anastasia.

Such nice places! AND - we've come to a decision about staying in nice places for at least 2 nights. Unless we're in 'gotta-get-there' mode, 2 nights means we get to enjoy being there, not just passing through.

Santee State Park, North Carolina - the Forest

We stayed deep in beautiful forests here. Since we had just taught a session about how cool it is for Google Photos to make sweet little movies - that's what I did with the pictures and videos from our stay at Santee.

Anastasia State Park, Florida - the Ocean

This one has trees AND ocean. We scored the site that is closest to the ocean - it's still a walk - so we actually got up for sunrise to get some nice photos.

And, here's another little movie.

Big Mill Youtube studio

 Next stop along the way is our friend, Chloe, at her home and business in North Carolina. It's called Big Mill B&B and we've been there a couple of times before. It's always a delight to visit with Chloe. She is such a natural for the hospitality industry! Always ready to take you in and show you around.

And, she understands RVers. Two of her "rooms" are actually vintage Airstream trailers. We parked and hooked up right next to them.

Our stay happened to coincide with our scheduled Youtube show. She graciously let us take over her dining room and turn it into a YouTube studio for the afternoon. Here is  - Episode 218: 

How to Make Movies from Your Photos Quick and Easy Using Google Photos

Thanks Chloe!

Chesapeake and Norton Yachts

 The Chesapeake Bay area is so beautiful, and it's easy to plan our route through there.

My good friend Liz's son owns a marina in the Chesapeake area. It's been on my list to visit but I hadn't remembered it the last couple times we were in the area. This time I remembered! And I even found his phone number! And, he was there! He said, come on down!

The last time we saw Anton was at his wedding in 2009. Here's the blog post from October 2009. 

It was great to catch up with him and it was a great place to park. Jim took some drone video of our parking spot and the surrounding area. Here's the video. 

We spent a nice day exploring the area.

Hurricane Henri

We've been parked at our favorite driveway for a little over a week now. It's Located on LBI. (Long Beach Island) New Jersey. During that week it's been hot, cool, sunny, cloudy, and now it's a hurricane.

Just the outer bands of the tail end of a hurricane, but it's a pretty good storm. I'm lying here awake at 3 in the morning, listening to the rain on the roof of the van and feeling the wind rocking us just like if we were driving down the road. The occasional bolt of lightning lights up thru the Windows and I count the seconds before the thunder - CRACK - that one was instant. It was close!

In all the years we've been coming here in august (nearly 20) we've never had predictable weather. Unless you call a little bit of everything predictable. It can go from suffocating heat without a breath of air at noon, to windy and cool at 2, to perfectly gorgeous for the sunset at 8, to a hurricane at 3am.

I feel close to nature here. Maybe too close.😁

Morning after Henri - The ocean has calmed down but there's good surf!

Our spot