Jerry, on the Journey

Hey Gang!  

I know, I know, you’ve missed Jerry!!  It’s taken a couple of weeks for him to get his thoughts together after our experience in New Jersey.  Thanks for indulging us as we work through what happened, and allowing us to share with you.  This has helped us both get past this and move on to enjoying our incredible blessed life as full-time RVers.  

Susan filled you in about our travel adventures in New Jersey! That road trip was the worst experience we have had! I try to be retrospective when we participate in a good or horrific event. There is something to learn from our misadventures. I learned this from my career as the Chief Engineer at a hospital in Berkeley, CA. When we had an incident/failure we would bring everyone involved together and review what took place. The goal is not to find fault, but to examine what happened and learn how to prevent the incident from reoccurring! 

Our misadventure in New Jersey had Susan and I kicking the idea around of changing our fifth wheel for a class A RV! CLASS RV’s are much lower than 5^th wheels.  But, have you met Susan?  There was no way she was moving out of Madge (what we call our RV).  This is home and she has made it very well known that she LOVES our 5th Wheel.  It’s not going anywhere.  

Our New Jersey incident exposed a weakness in our preparations before we got on the road. Susan builds routes in our GPS apps, then I drive Hunky (what we call our truck) following the route pulling Madge. Seems straight forward right?  Not so fast my friend! Looking back at our misadventure I found a serious flaw! We do not spend any time reviewing the route before we hit the road!!! We implemented changes on our next trip after our New Jersey adventure. We review the GPS route on a large computer screen while comparing it with google maps. 

Before we hit the road, on our first trip after our misadventure, we drove the first forty miles of the next proposed route to confirm that the GPS app was correct. We have NEVER done this prior.  And, trust me, we don’t want to be doing this every time.  That’s a lot of fuel!  We were confirming the road did not have any low over passes! OUR BIGGEST CONCERN WHILE PULLING MADGE. We have a trucker’s atlas that lists the low overpasses in every state which helps, but we rely on our truckers GPS to keep us off roads with low overpasses. Fortunately, we did not have any disastrous outcomes from our New Jersey experience! We learned a lesson without having to suffer the consequences!!  Whewwww!!!  

While in Myrtle Beach, SC, we had the fortunate opportunity to meet a gentleman by the name of Ron.  Ron was introduced to us by Susan’s friend Sally from Virginia.  You might remember Sally from our Washington DC adventures.  Ron was kind enough to give us tickets to Brookgreen Gardens.  This is a MUST see when in Myrtle Beach.  The history alone is incredible, the sculptures amazing and the grounds so beautiful.  It even has a zoo of animals that have been injured or incapable of surviving on their own in the wild.  Please check it out! 

There is no doubt, our life has been enriched by meeting Ron.  What an interesting guy, and an amazing artist.  On our last day in Myrtle Beach, he showed us around the area.  He loves living in Myrtle Beach and it shows in his passion while giving us a quick tour.

We also had a great lunch with Susan’s Jr. High School friend Caron and her husband Milt who also live in Myrtle Beach.  We met up with them in Virginia Beach a few months back, as they were traveling through.  Susan and Caron had not seen each other in 50 years.  Pretty crazy, huh?  We met them at a funky restaurant in Merril Inlet, called Dead Dog Saloon.  What a beautiful view and great food.  Then we walked on the pier and solved all the problems in the world.  They also love living in Myrtle Beach.  There’s a pattern here, I’m thinking?  

Forward to our current location.  Tuck in the Wood Campground located on St Helena Island, South Carolina. This place is gorgeous! The trees have moss hanging from them just like an old southern plantation! We are very close to the Marine Recruit Depot at Parris Island, SC.

When we checked in I asked if there are relatives staying at the campground to watch their relatives graduate as a Marine! I asked the young man if he was a Marine and he said yes. I shook his hand and told him thank you for serving! Then I told him I was in the Army and said Go Army Beat Navy! We laughed. Each year, for the last 40 years, my buddy Battleship James and I wager on the Army Navy Game! My dream is to attend the Army Navy game in person! Whooo Raaaah! GO ARMY!! Just heard a F-18 fighter taking off from The Air Station – the sound of freedom!

Have you ever got a song stuck in your head? I’m listening to Garth Brooks “The Beaches of Cheyenne.” Love this song! Ok back to business! We are visiting a couple Susan developed a relationship with during her time as a manager of a clothing line.  Donna and Brian live in the Beaufort area.  We are excited to be spending the next 4 days with them as they show us around this beautiful area. They came to our campground yesterday and took us out to dinner. The Foolish Frog! I had my first shrimp and grits!!!! I could have picked the plate up and licked it! Slap My Mama, it was good! My next meal will be a bucket of seafood.  See the attached picture! I love southern cooking! 

My mom was from Texas and man can she cook! My dad built his own bbq smokers, we spent a lot of time drinking beer telling stories while smelling  smoke from his bbq’s! Damn, I miss my mom and dad! I know my parents would have hooked up a trailer and met us on the road! Now all I can do is re-live the rich memories my parents gave me! Living in Alaska, the Al-Can Highway, Camping in the Redwoods of Northern California……….! Susan and I both miss our parents. We definitely inherited the travel bug from them! 

We love meeting people and walking along the beach! It’s amazing the people we have visited so far on this journey. This is what this lifestyle is about for us. The people we have met and the people we are destined to meet along the way. Reach out to us in the comments, and maybe we can meet up! Thanks for reading about Madge and Hunky!

Just One More…..Shrimp and Grits (I could eat that every day)