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Thank you for joining us this week as we finish our time in South Carolina!  

Hard to believe we have been here 23 days.  What a whirlwind of weather, sightseeing, visits with friends and just enjoying the history of the area.

I will say, we are excited to get on the road and head to Georgia.  Charleston is lovely, but I am very tired of the warm weather and the humidity.  Do I sound like a broken record?  Please forgive me.  I will get off my weather rant and just recap the things we really enjoyed.

The people are incredibly friendly and kind. We had an amazing time at the campground where they have the best camp hosts and employees. Everyone is incredibly helpful and wants to make sure you have the best experience. If you are an RVer and want to visit Charleston, please consider staying here! It is one of the top 3 KOA’s we have stayed in.

We loved visiting downtown Charleston.  The food tour we had was so fun.  The food was just ok, but the guide was so knowledgeable about the city’s history.  That’s what we love to do, as you know, when visiting a new area: learn the history of an area.

We walked along the Battery looking at the incredible homes and the Atlantic.  Truly beautiful homes that have been in families for generations.  Mansions everywhere!  

We got to experience the Charleston City Market. The history is amazing. I must share it with you!

In 1788, Charles Cotesworth Pinckney ceded the land to the City of Charleston for the express use as a public market, and he stipulated that the land must remain in use as a market for perpetuity.

To fulfill this requirement, the low buildings—sheds—that stretch from Market Hall to the waterfront were built between 1804 and the 1830s. These sheds originally housed meat, vegetable, and fish vendors; each booth rented for $1.00 per day, or $2.00 if the booth had a slab of marble used to keep the meat or fish cold. Butchers often threw meat scraps into the street, much to the delight of local buzzards, which were nicknamed Charleston Eagles. Over the years, the sheds have survived many disasters, including fires, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, and bombardment.

In 1841, three years after the Masonic Hall on the corner of Meeting and Market Streets was destroyed by fire, the current Market Hall was erected. Architect Edward Brickwell White was paid $300 to create the building’s blueprints, which paid homage to the Temple of the Wingless Victory in Athens. The resulting handsome structure was originally used by the Market Commissioners for meetings and social functions, while the space beneath the hall housed vendors.

Since the 1970s, the original sheds and surrounding neighborhood have housed many small and unique shops. Of special note are the more than 50 sweetgrass basket weavers who carry forth a special Charleston tradition.

The Charleston City Market, recognized as one of the oldest in the country, is part of a permanent exhibit entitled “Life in Coastal South Carolina c. 1840” at the American History Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C

We loved Sullivan’s Island and Isle of Palm. Enjoyed visiting two plantations, eating great bbq, fried pickles and lots and lots of shrimp! We even made our own low country boil! Here’s the recipe we used and will continue to use it wherever we go. It’s so easy!

We loved touring the Patriot Point museums.  I know that was the highlight for Jerry.  Taking the ferry to Fort Sumter.  And, we didn’t get seasick!  Trust me, that’s huge for both of us!  

Overall, we loved it here.  What’s not to love?  There’s so much to do and we did a lot, but, there’s so much more to see and do.  We will be back.

We had the best time visiting with friends who drove to Charleston to visit with us.  We felt so incredibly special that they would travel to see us!  Thank you David and Cindy. 

Annie and Elene came to grab lunch with us this week from Myrtle Beach.  We were fortunate enough to have been in the site next to them in Myrtle Beach for a week. They are full-time RVers who just started this adventure. We know we will keep in touch and hopefully see them down the road!

We had a great lunch together at the first funky restaurant we ate on the first day we arrived in Charleston. Seewee is a local place with the best fried pickles!!

Moving on…the night before we left, Jerry was checking the brake lights on the RV while hooked up to Hunky.  Guess what?  The left ones didn’t work.  Yep, another fun “adventure”.  Something was wrong with a wire in the outlet on the truck.  Thank goodness Jerry figured out how to plug the RV into another outlet on the truck, but only for the trip to Georgia.  He has to take the truck into the Dodge Service Center in Georgia where we are staying.  There’s always something.  Thank goodness my husband is so diligent when it comes to checking everything before we leave.  I will keep you updated on this “adventure”.

We will be in Georgia when you read this.  Very excited to be visiting with relatives on my mother’s side.  My cousin Susan (which we need to figure out how we are cousins) has invited us for Thanksgiving with lots of family I have not met.  We plan on spending a lot of time together as we will be there for 8 days.  She has many plans for us.  Looking forward to meeting with a relative that is doing a family tree.  

This will be our first Thanksgiving away from our family in CA, so the fact we can be with family is so important for us!  

The RV park we are staying at is very close to Atlanta.  We will definitely be going there to check it out.  Of course, driving Hunky in major cities is always a challenge.  We shall see how that turns out.  Trust me, you will be hearing all about it.

We want to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and know how grateful we are to each and every one of you!  

Just One More….State to put on the Map

Thanks so much for joining us this week as our adventures continue in Charleston, SC.  Jerry decided he would like to share his experience with you this week!

We have 5 more days to make sure we get all that Charleston has to offer, including hurricane and tornado watches. Yep, as Californians, we are so not used to having to continually watch the weather channel, and freak out every time we get a notification that there is a tropical storm warning or a tornado warning.  The last couple of days have been very interesting for us.  

Thank goodness Mt. Pleasant was not affected, except for heavy rains.  As mentioned in the past blogs and videos, the noise from the rain in the RV can be VERY loud on the slide outs.  So loud that we could not sleep Thursday night.  Of course, that’s no big deal compared to what people are dealing with in Florida.  Our hearts go out to everyone affected by Ian and Nicole.  

What we have realized is that we are definitely not east coast people.  Not only do the hurricane and tornado warnings stress us out, the humidity has been horrible.  I know, humidity is great for the skin as Susan has told me, but wearing shorts in November is not our thing. I know, whine, whine, whine.  Poor us! 

Experiencing this lifestyle has shown us where we DO NOT want to live.  This is very important for us as we travel and experience the USA.  It has been an amazing experience so far!

We had a great time last weekend with friends that were visiting us here.  David W. drove 4 hours to come have lunch with us.  We know David from Susan’s Lazarex Cancer Foundation days.  David is a Marathon Maniac (yes, there is an actual organization).  He is a running freak in a very good way.  

David helped raise money for Lazarex during Susan’s time there.  He ran in The Big Sur and New York Marathons a few years ago for Lazarex.  Susan has maintained contact with David, and when he saw we were in SC, he wanted to come visit us. That was such a great lunch with amazing memories.  We were so blown away that he wanted to drive 4 hours to see us.  His mom is in an assisted living facility in Charleston, so he was able to visit with her as well.  

Another friend, Cindy, was in Parris Island and drove to meet us at Middleton Plantation for lunch. Cindy is a full-time RVer as well.  We knew her from Clayton, CA where we both used to live. We have amazing mutual friends, Carin and Howard, who came to visit us in Acadia National Park.  (We’ve talked about that visit in past blogs and videos)  Always great seeing friends!  

This week, as the history lessons continue in this amazing area, we visited the CV-10 USS Yorktown at Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum, Charleston SC. The tour was amazing! We were able to ramble all over the ship taking our time looking at the various compartments and exhibitions.

As an Army Veteran, I was impressed by the incredible size of the ship, from the flight deck to the boiler rooms and various compartments! The first was Yorktown. It sank at the battle of Midway during WWII, June 15, 1943. The battle of Midway was documented with photographs and stories of heroism!  This Yorktown was involved in the Pacific offensive starting in late 1943, and ending with Japan’s surrender in 1945. 

The Yorktown received the presidential unit citation and earned 11 battle stars for service in WWII! When we first went aboard, I visited the information desk and shook the hands of one of the navy volunteers, thanking him for his service! I told him Go Army Beat Navy! He laughed and said “you probably couldn’t qualify for the Navy.” He cracked me up!! 

The Yorktown was modernized in the early 50’s for jet aircraft and anti-submarine duty.  Serving with distinction in Vietnam (19654-68) earning 5 battle stars. The ship recovered the Apollo 8 astronauts and the capsule in December, 1968. The Yorktown was decommissioned in 1970 and placed in reserve! 

Overall the Yorktown was an amazing tour! I was impressed by the size and complexity! The ship had many fighter planes from WWII and Vietnam all restored! If you get a chance, visit and enjoy our country’s history! 

The last stop on the Yorktown was the fantail, where I stood trying to understand how a sailor felt being aboard the mighty Yorktown!  After we left the USS Yorktown we visited the Vietnam experience and museum. This was incredible, providing sound effects of helicopters flying in and taking off! 

There was video of various combat engagements with realistic sound. The highlight was the Khe Shan base that was under siege, but never overrun! The Air Force and Navy fighters, and B-52 bombers dropped more bombs during this battle than the entire WWII. President Johnson ordered the base to be saved no matter the cost! The video of this battle was shocking and amazing! 

This exhibit was well worth the time. I was in the Army from ‘73-’76 and recognized many of the vehicles and weapons in this museum! One of the memorable things was the music that played from the 60’s and 70’s! Susan said that, “we had the best music.”  I know our parents said the same thing!   

If you served in the Navy, thank you for your Service!  But, I still have to say, “GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY” 

As we finished touring Charleston, we were so happy we decided to stay as long as we did.  There is so much to do and learn here.  We are excited to get back on the road and head to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with Susan’s relatives.  More about that next week!

Just One More….Museum (we will be counting how many we have visited on this adventure).

Jerry’s turn this week!  His take on Charleston, SC!  Thanks for joining us!  

We are in the beautiful city of Charleston, South Carolina. We are staying at the Mt. Pleasant/Charleston KOA RV Campground, which is owned by the Oakland Plantation. The drive from St. Helena Island was relatively easy as we covered the same route going to Charleston. We were able to travel on secondary roads that were in excellent shape and not crowded.  Our GPS was awesome!  We arrived perfectly with no hysterics!!  Always a plus in our world now!

Charleston is a return to “Susan’s mother’s roots”.  For those of you who knew about Susan’s incredible mom, she was from Brooklyn but had a slew of relatives in Charleston. She would come visit them as a young girl. Last week Susan showed you the boulevard sign for her mom’s uncle, Sam Rittenberg, who was a state senator.  I guess he was Susan’s uncle also.  That was pretty cool for me to see!  

Susan was fortunate enough to meet many of the relatives when she was following her parents in their RV back in the 80’s.  If you do not know the story, Susan’s mom and dad were full-time RVers back in the day, towing a travel trailer. How the heck did they do it without GPS???? Using paper maps, of course!  That is how Susan knew she wanted to live this life.  

She has been to Charleston a few times in her life.  One other time was with her best friend, CJ, who lives in Southern California.  Ever since that time, she has wanted me to see Charleston.  

Susan dragged me to King Street on my birthday!  I say this because she had the entire day planned to celebrate my birthday which is great, however, she wanted to go to a store that is owned by a cast member of the Southern Charm reality show on Bravo! Sewing Down South.  It’s a pillow store. (What??)  Yes, Susan bought a pillow for my birthday.  Really?  Actually, it looks great in the RV.   

We then had a drink and ate at a restaurant that is featured on this show.  Hey, I thought it was my birthday?  Jokes aside, it was pretty cool. The restaurant is called Mesu, a really eclectic place that serves both Mexican and Sushi.  Yes, it was a great birthday dinner!  We also had a drink at another place that is owned by the same cast member called Republic.  Great outdoor bar!   She actually owns four restaurants on King Street.  I believe her name is Leva, but what do I know? 

Of course, I learned all about this from Susan.  The crazy thing is, outside the store there were a couple of women taking pictures of the store sign. Susan started talking to them about the show.  I, of course, was just standing there going…”Hello, birthday boy here.  It’s all about me, remember?”  

Susan and I toured the Boone Hall Plantation as part of my birthday celebration. We were amazed at the reenactors talent and story telling of the slaves of the Boone Hall Plantation. The plantation mansion was amazing and is an active house of the current owners. The plantation was bought by two German men as brick manufacturers. The plantation labor force was used to produce bricks for construction of Charleston and surrounding areas. Children were used to make bricks. In fact, there are places where small fingerprints can be seen on bricks all over the City!

We took a tour in a wagon towed by a John Deere tractor. The tour guide provided details of the history of the plantation.  The plantation is mainly a tourist destination and with a large u-pick vegetable business. The plantation grows produce for the local restaurants. We were enthralled by a lady who is a descendant of the slaves brought to the plantation in the 1600’s. Not only could this lady sing and give us chills, but her storytelling was captivating! I had to give her a hug at the end of her presentation! 

We learned that the name for the slaves was the Gullah Geechee and are known for preserving their language and cultural heritage. This group of people had their own language. They also used singing as a way to communicate what was happening, for example if a group of slaves were planning on escaping but the slave master knew about it. The slaves would sing about it while working the fields using phrases like “not tonight no go away not tonight going to go away.” This was a way to warn each other and avoid harsh punishment, which could even include being whipped or hung! We were educated to the point of tears as we heard the stories and saw the slave quarters. I had to give the amazing lady who entertained and educated us a big hug!

Overall, I had a great birthday in Charleston!  

We have been to Sullivan’s Island where Susan’s aunt had a home that she visited years ago.  What a beautiful beach. We had GREAT BBQ at this funky restaurant called Home Team.  They had the best shrimp tacos and pulled pork nachos!  Can you believe it?  The service was amazing.  Check it out! 

In Charleston there is so much history. We toured Fort Sumter and learned about the bombardment of the fort as the civil war started. Fascinating history and incredible artifacts on this man made island at the opening of the Charleston harbor. We walked around the really small fortress discovering three locations where cannon balls and rifled rounds are stuck in the brick walls. We saw bricks that had finger prints on them here as well.  We were told the bricks could have been from the Boone Farm Plantation slaves.

The Fort was where the first shots of the civil war were fired! After being relentlessly bombarded by the confederates, setting on fire and demolishing most of the fort, Major Anderson surrendered. Major Anderson was allowed to lower the flag and render a 100 gun salute and leave moving to New York where he was hailed as a hero! The fort was built as a 3 story fortress, however after the bombing by  the confederates the fort was reduced to a one story building.

We also enjoyed the Island of Palm Beach.  Another beautiful beach.  We are trying to hit all the beaches before we leave here.  I mean, it’s 77 degrees and sunny.  What else do you do during November in the south but hit the beach? 

Of course this is only a small sample of the history of Charleston!  We are experiencing so much more about the Civil War even after all the time we spent in Washington DC and Gettysburg there is still so much to learn!

We have many more tours we are going on.  Susan is an amazing concierge!  She plans everything we do in each city!  Stay tuned next week for more of our Charleston adventures!

Just One More…..history lesson (obviously, you cannot have too many)

Thank you for taking the time to read our blogs.  Not only is this a great way to keep in touch with everyone, but it is documenting our GREAT adventure.  When Jerry and I are settled somewhere, years from now, we will be able to look at our videos and read all the blogs saying to each other, “Do you remember that?”  It has been an amazing 16 months so far.  Can you believe on the 30th, it will be 16 months?  Unbelievable!

Last week Jerry told you about our friends, Donna and Brian, who live in Beaufort.  Let me fill you in on who Donna and Brian are; Quite a few years back, I was the Area Development Manager of a New York Clothing line.  The clothes were sold in stylist’s homes across the country by appointment. 

I was fortunate enough to have met Donna in Modesto, CA when she was looking to start selling the clothing line.  We hit it off immediately.  Donna had a heck of a business going in her area.  We had the best times while working together.  I got to know her husband, Brian and so many of her friends.  Whenever I stayed at their home, Brian, who is a fantastic cook, always cooked dinner for us as Donna had 20 – 40 appointments a day.  

Fast forward, we kept in touch as they retired to Beaufort, SC to build their dream home.  When we started our planning way back in 2020, I knew we had to visit them while on the East Coast. I knew if we didn’t, Donna would be so mad at me!  Heck, I would be mad at myself too.  There was no way we would be on the East Coast and not visit with them.  

Talk about the hostess with the mostest!  They insisted we spend a couple nights in their beautiful home so we wouldn’t have to drive back and forth to the campground.  We have only done this a couple of times since being on the road, like when we were with Jerry’s family in Texas.  It’s not something we would normally do as we really do not like to impose on people.  Also, even though we are RVing, it is our home with our custom mattress (you know how it is not sleeping in your own bed) and all of our belongings.  

Now, I’m not saying we don’t enjoy a much larger shower and unlimited hot water.  I mean, who doesn’t?  But, we have gotten quite used to quicker showers.  Even for an RV, our bathroom is pretty amazing.  If you have not seen the tour of our RV, please take a few minutes to understand what I’m saying. Our home is quite comfortable and we love it.  However, it is nice to be in a larger space with lots of room to walk around and their house is beautiful!  

They are right on the water with a boat dock.  They have a hot tub, which we truly enjoyed (shockingly, our RV does not have a hot tub) and their neighborhood is gorgeous.  We brought our e-bikes and had a wonderful bike ride to their local farmer’s market.  

Donna was kind enough to book tickets for us on a horse and carriage ride in historical Beaufort.  The houses are incredible.  Many movies have been filmed there.  The Big Chill, The Fugitive, Prince of Tides, Forrest Gump, GI Jane, just to name a few.  We were shown where Barbra Streisand stayed while filming there. 

The city was founded in 1711.  It has maintained its antebellum architecture and small town atmosphere.  Our tour guide, Katie, was beyond awesome.  She really knew her stuff.  The homes were amazing and the gardens were gorgeous.   One particular home, The Tidalholm Mansion, was featured in The Big Chill movie.  Also the same home was in The Great Santini movie.  So much history and beauty.

Donna and Brian took us to a Seafood Festival in Bluffton, SC not too far from their home.  What a wonderful city Bluffton is.  I must say that fried seafood is the thing there.  And yes, I did enjoy some fried shrimp.  I mean, when in the South…

Brian cooked dinner for us for 3 nights.  What a treat!!  As I mentioned, he is an amazing cook. He made us shrimp and clams over pasta, pulled pork and the best roasted chicken!!  It was nice to sit around a table with friends over a meal.  Our RV does not have a dining table so we normally will eat outside when friends are over.  Being inside at a dining table was lovely!  

We went to Hunting Island Beach and enjoyed a beautiful walk then to a very funky place for lunch called Johnson Creek Tavern. Jerry and I experienced eating clusters of oysters for the first time ever.  They bring you a huge bucket of steamed oyster clusters and you have to shuck them yourself.  Now, we love raw oysters and never eat cooked or fried oysters, so we were a little apprehensive.  WE LOVED THEM!  We were both blown away at how incredibly delicious they were.  Of course, you had to work for your food, but it was so much fun and so good.  We are now looking for restaurants that sell the oyster clusters to eat again.

Our last day with Donna and Brian was on their boat.  It was a beautiful day on the water.  They invited another couple to join us and we had the best time.  We saw so many dolphins next to and behind the boat playing in the wakes.  It was so magical watching them.  We docked and had a lovely lunch in downtown Beaufort then back on the boat for more touring around.  We both get seasick but the water was so incredibly calm.  It was the best way to end our time with Donna and Brian.

The RV park we were staying at was called Tuck in the Woods.  It was a beautiful campground surrounded by trees.  The camp managers were so helpful and watched our RV while we were gone for those couple of nights.  We never worried one bit.  Highly recommend this campground if you are ever in the area!  It is the only one close to downtown Beaufort. 

Talk about southern hospitality!  Donna and Brian were so incredible and generous with their time showing us their Beaufort.  We will be back (not in the summer though, I can assure you) . We had the best weather, and were in shorts most of the time. 70’s is what we are looking for!!  

Now on to Charleston.  We are staying in one of the most beautiful KOA (Kampgrounds Of America) parks we have stayed in so far.  There is a lake, a pool, rec room, etc.  The sites are nice and large.  We even have a patio.  

A quick note!  My mother’s maiden name was Rittenberg.  Her uncle was a South Carolina State Senator named Sam Rittenberg. We saw that there is a boulevard  named after him.  How cool is it to see the sign of a relative??

We celebrated Jerry’s birthday this week at Boone Hall Plantation. More on that next week as there is so much to talk about what we learned on the Plantation and we are here until Nov 17th and cannot wait to explore all that Charleston has to offer.  I have many tours planned for us.  

Just One More…..history lesson for the Sappingtons

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)

Thank you for joining me again this week. I know last week was pretty stressful reading. Trust me, it was very stressful writing. Good news, we are good, nothing broke, we are still married and we survived. Let me continue the story.

New Jersey

As I mentioned last week, I met Dana and Joycee on Zoom in 2020, during the time we were all staying at home and Zooming.  I was a Coach for Weight Watchers, doing 11 workshops a week on Zoom.  Because it’s Zoom, I had people joining my workshops from all over the world.  London, Spain, Germany, etc.  Dana lived in New York at the time and her mom, Joycee, lived in New Jersey.  Now Dana has moved to New Jersey, very near Joycee.  

They would join as many workshops as they could during the week and we became friends outside of Weight Watchers.  As in, they would stay on after the meetings and we would talk and get to know each other as well as talk on the phone other times.  When I told them our plans to become full-time RVers, I told them we would come see them when we got to the East Coast.  I don’t think they believed me!  

15 months later, we showed up in New Jersey after our harrowing experience.  When we arrived on that infamous day, I wasn’t sure Jerry and I were up for company or had the ability to be decent company for a tour of the RV or dinner.  But I told Jerry, WE NEED TO GET SOME JOY IN OUR LIVES IMMEDIATELY!  

We are so glad we had everyone stop by first to see the RV which was so fun!  To be able to hug people, in person, after 2 years is amazing!  We love showing off our home and watching people’s faces when they enter!  Always fun.  We had the most amazing Italian food at this great little local restaurant.  But more importantly, we had a GREAT time.  It was the best thing we could have done for ourselves.  

We had the best time with everyone.  We loved spending time with their families.  Meeting Joycee’s husband, Dr. J, and Dana’s husband, John, and their two daughters, Gemma and Giana. Joycce and Dr. J had us at their beautiful home in Tom’s River.  Right on the water!  So lovely!   It was so incredible to spend time getting to know them away from Zoom.  We even participated in a fundraiser for their church.  We had so much fun meeting all their friends that had heard all about us.  Who knew we were so famous.  LOL

We ate the best pizza we have ever had!  I know that is such a huge statement.  Yes, we have had New York pizza and LOVED it.  But, this pizza was beyond.  The restaurant is called Shady Rest (yes, I know, sounds like like a funeral parlor).  

Honestly, we could not believe how incredible this pizza is.  It’s called Trenton, NJ Tomato Pie.  No judging!  It is thin crust, crunchy like pastry, cheesy wonderfulness!!  As Jerry says, it was unbelievable!  

Moving On

We were very nervous about getting out of NJ.  We have a new GPS app called Co-Pilot that so far has been wonderful. Thanks to our new friends Jim and Liza.  Jim is a truck driver and a RVer and uses only Co-Pilot.  Great recommendation as far as we were concerned.    The first day we were freaking out a bit, but once we were out of the city, we felt so much more comfortable and arrived in Fredericksburg, VA with absolutely no issues!  What a relief.  Seriously, we both were so stressed out getting back in the truck and towing.  But, we both looked at each other and said, “this is nuts, we’ve been doing this for over 15 months, WE’VE GOT THIS, and we have each other.  We can do anything!”  And, we did!  

So far, the GPS is working.  It got us to Wilmington, NC and to Myrtle Beach, SC with no issues.  Of course, no GPS is infallible, but so far we are beyond happy.  Fingers crossed.

In Wilmington, we were there for 2 days.  We visited with my best friend, CJ’s niece, Cheryl and her husband Terry.  The beauty of this lifestyle!!!  We had the best time together over two incredible dinners at a couple of their favorite restaurants, PinPoint in historic Wilmington, and Roko’s Italian Restaurant. Highly recommend them if you are in Wilmington.

After dinner at PinPoint we walked a bit on the riverwalk.  It was a gorgeous evening.  Cheryl works for the Basilica of Saint Mary’s Church. She took us on a private tour of the church after dinner.  It was unbelievably beautiful.  I learned so much!

The next day, Jerry and I walked the Riverwalk.  The Battleship North Carolina is docked there.  Unfortunately we did not have time to take a tour.  Next time.  We had a great walk and truly enjoyed Wilmington.

Back on the Road  

We left Wilmington and headed to Myrtle Beach, SC.  It was only a 2 hour drive, thank goodness. Co-Pilot got us here with no problems.  Ok, so far so good!!    We arrived on Thursday and will be here until next Thursday.  Our RV Park is right on the beach. It is the largest RV Park we have been in so far.  We walk 100 yards right to the water!!   We are so happy to be here for a while as we need to decompress and relax as we continue our travels south!  

Oh, so excited to say, we went to Costco today.  No, we do not shop like we use to when living in a home, but we do love their produce and roasted chickens.  We haven’t been to Costco since June!!   West Virginia and Maine do not have Costco.  As I have mentioned before we have joined pretty much every grocery and big box store membership.  Sam’s Club, BJ’s Warehouse Store, Kroger’s, Shaws, Hannaford and I’m sure I’m missing some.  We like Sam’s Club just fine, but I have to say, I do love Costco.  

We are going to hang out at the beach, do a bit of sightseeing and just enjoy being in Myrtle Beach before we head to Beaufort, SC where more exciting adventures are in store with my friend Donna!!

Just One More….trip to Costco ( I’M SOOOO HAPPY)

Thanks for joining us this week!! When we last left off, Jerry was recapping our time in Maine.

We ended our weekend with a fun Saturday spent with Linda and Scott touring the Orono Fire Station, where their son, Aaron, is the Captain.  I had never toured a fire station before so I was completely enthralled with the day to day life of firemen. Jerry loved the big fire trucks!  He’s such a boy!  

After the fire station tour we went to a very fun and beautiful area for a civil war reenactment event.  There were beautiful horse and buggy rides, people making apple cider, biscuits, baked beans, showing how to make pottery, wood cutting, and on, and on.   People were really into their roles and costumes.  We truly enjoyed ourselves.  Check out this week’s YouTube video to see what I’m talking about!!!  

Needless to say, it was very difficult leaving Scott and Linda.  Yes, there were tears and many promises to keep in touch, and that we will be back!  We are hoping they will be spontaneous this winter and come visit us in Florida.  You just never know.

Time to move on as they say.  We left on Monday heading to Massachusetts for one night.  We stayed in Sturbridge, where we stayed on our way into New England way back in June.  We had dinner with our friends Ron and Carol who live not too far from our campground.   

It was pretty darn cold that night!  When we left Maine, they had a freeze warning and it went down to 28 degrees.  Thank goodness we use electric heaters.  Yes, we have central air/heating, but the electric heaters really do the trick.  We were quite bundled up at dinner as the restaurant was very cold inside as well.  We had a great evening with Ron and Carol as usual.  Just never enough time together.

Now comes the fun part… We left for New Jersey at 8:00 am after looking at the route the night before.  I think I have mentioned that I use 2 different RV GPS apps, as we cannot trust just one any longer.  The night prior to our departures, we always check the route to confirm we are comfortable.  We were told by numerous people to NOT cross over the GW (George Washington) Bridge by ANY means possible.  

We have heard horror stories of big rigs crossing with all the traffic and just the narrow lanes, etc.  I actually heard of someone pulling off after crossing and throwing up.  It’s that nerve wracking.  So, of course, we made sure the GPS was taking us over the Mario Cuomo Bridge instead.  We were set and ready to embark on this adventure to New Jersey.  (Do you feel the tension?)

We were having a great trip.  All was good.  The two GPS’s were in sync and then we hit New York State.  One of the GPS’s decided it was going to take us to the GW bridge and the other one said take highway 117 to the Mario Cuomo.  Of course, we wanted the Mario Cuomo Bridge so we started to turn on 117 and Jerry saw the sign saying, NO TRUCKS, PASSENGER CARS ONLY!  (now this is where it gets confusing!)  I thought it also said NO RV’S.  He pulled off the highway and we looked at the GPS’s and were completely unsettled as to what to do.  We didn’t want to go to the GW, but it looked like we had no choice.  I was starting to freak out as he continued back on the parkway.  Notice, I said PARKWAY (more on this in a minute)  As he’s driving on the parkway we see another sign saying “passenger cars only”.  By this time we are both completely stressed out and we come to an overpass that says 12’9”.  We are 13’7”.  I’m completely freaking the hell out by this time.

Jerry pulls over at the entrance of the overpass blocking an off ramp!!!!!!!!!  We are stuck! (this happened to us in Dallas because of the GPS).  Needless to say I am in complete breakdown mode!!!  I’m having a meltdown while my poor husband is trying to figure out what the hell we are going to do.  He’s trying to calm me down while trying to see if we can get through.  He’s in and out of the truck in the oncoming traffic, which also freaks me out even more.  I’m yelling that we have to call 911 to help us.  He’s telling me I’m going to have to drive very slowly as he watches to make sure we don’t hit anything!!  Yes, you read that right!!  I have never driven while towing the RV all this time.  I completely lose my “you know what” and tell him there is no freaking way I’m going to do that as tears are streaming down my face as I am completely breaking down.  For those of you who know me, you understand what that means.  It’s not pretty!!!

To make a horrifying story short, my husband is the hero.  He realized that if he drove in the middle of the overpass we would make it.  This is after many minutes of him walking around the oncoming traffic, climbing on mounds of dirt to get a better look, etc.  Slowly he drives while I have my head in my lap crying and not looking. WE MADE IT THROUGH!!  

As we get off the parkway we see a construction worker.  Jerry stops and asks him how to get to the Mario Cuomo Bridge.  His name was Goose with a very strong NY accent.  The nicest guy.  He was very kind and told us that GPS’s are worthless around this area and he has seen truckers get stuck all the time.  He also said to avoid all parkways as they are for passenger cars only!  

Needless to say, he directed us to the bridge and we crossed over only to get on the Garden State Parkway.  We started freaking out again as a sign came up saying, “last stop for truckers, get off now”  ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME???    We get off and call the campground.  Mike, the owner, said, “You aren’t a truck, you are a RV”.  We look at each other and realize they meant commercial truckers.  Yep, we were having PTSD at this point.  So, back on the Garden State Parkway we went and sure enough the overpasses posted signs that were very low!!  At one point Jerry yells, “We are going to hit”.  We didn’t, thank goodness.  

What we did find out was that they have upgraded the overpasses and parkways, but NEVER took the NO TRUCKS signs off, and the signs with the height of the overpass are for the sides and not the middle.   WTH???  

This was the absolute worst travel day we have had in 15 months.  We are still dealing with the after effects of this day.  These are the things that make people STOP RVing!!  I can’t express how incredibly frightening this experience was.  I know we will look back and say we survived it and nothing was broken.  But, it will take time.  

What we learned?  Moving forward we are going to, not only look at the two GPS’s, but look at a Trucker GPS (if they can go on the road, so can we) and also get out an actual atlas of the area and highlight the route and have it in the truck with us at all times.  (just like in the old days when you went to AAA and they highlighted a trip tic.  (For those of you old enough to remember that)

We are excited to be in New Jersey as we are spending time with two families, Dana and her mom Joycee, that I met on Zoom while working for Weight Watchers.  They were members of mine and I promised them when we started this adventure we would come visit.  How incredible to meet people on Zoom and then to be able to give them a hug in person!   More about that next week!!  

We need to decompress and go walk on the beach.

Just One More…..Overpass that I never want to see again!!  

Jerry’s turn this week!!!  His final thoughts about leaving Maine!  Thanks for joining us!     

Good morning, Fans, Family and Friends! This is our last weekend in Maine. (Boo Hoo) We spent two months in Freeport, Maine and 6 weeks in Bangor, Maine. Love it, love it, love it! The scenery is beautiful, and Mainer’s are an interesting and incredible group of people as we have mentioned numerous times in the last 3.5 months. We will be very sorry to leave. We know we will be back, FOR SURE!!

The temperature has dropped to 34 degrees in the evenings!,…brrr! Susan and I are not suffering! Our RV, Madge, keeps us warm and cozy! Fall is in full swing and we are shameless leaf peepers! Mother nature has not let us down! Enjoy the pictures of the beautiful colors of the leaves! You too may become a leaf peeper!

DID SOMEONE SAY LOBSTAH? Susan and I ate our share of Lobster! Turns out lobsters can be bought from and cooked at the local grocery stores. We took full advantage several times! 😊  To say we had our fill of lobstah, is an understatement.  Seriously, I don’t think we have ever eaten as much lobster in our lives as we did these past few months.  Not complaining!  It was the best and every bite was wonderful.  

So many thoughts about Maine! We wanted to enjoy Acadia National Park.  After 5 visits, I think we did! Check out the videos of our visit! The rustic coastline is a great place to sit and contemplate the beauty of the scenery! Is it crowded? Yes! Does it spoil the experience? Nope! Acadia stands on its own as one of the most incredible National Parks in America! We rode our electric bikes, stopping often to take in the beautiful Flora and Fauna! Sitting on rocks at a Thunder Hole watching the ocean waves break on the shore was hypnotic! Trying to wrap our minds around the number of lobster trap buoys, was impossible! Walking along the ocean waterfront, while admiring the mansions in Bar Harbor was a treat! Great food and ice cream! Yup, Ice cream! CJ’s ice cream shop was our favorite, with multiple recipes that allow dairy intolerant persons to enjoy frozen treats!

We were adopted by Scott and Linda, as we have mentioned numerous times.  We are so sad to leave them.  They treated us like family.  We met their children and grandchildren!  We laughed out loud so many times. 

We found out that they had not visited the Observatory at Fort Knox before. We had such a great time at the Fort Knox Historic Observatory and Penobscot Narrows Bridge.  We were so privileged that they did the Observatory with us for their first time.  Fort Knox was beyond awesome and very, very interesting.

They also took us to Dover-Foxcroft, Maine for the day this past week.  Talk about a beautiful town.  Of course, Susan and I were geeking out at the colors changing!  Another cool first for them was walking around Brown’s Mill Park.  It was an absolutely incredibly gorgeous day!!   We had lunch at a restaurant called Chew 62.  According to Scott, it was one of the best burgers he has eaten.  If you’re in the area, we highly recommend it! 

Scott and his son Aaron acquired this amazing piece of land. I was invited to clear a path through a forest to a stream. I got to run chainsaws and get my hands dirty!  It felt good to be doing something productive; not that driving Ms. Susan isn’t productive!  You get what I’m saying!  It’s been a while since I’ve picked up heavy machinery other than working on the RV and Truck.  The land is gorgeous and I was lucky enough to do a little fishing in their stream!!  

Susan and I will never officially be Mainers, as we have mentioned before. You must be born in Maine to qualify. Mainers are not shy. If you ask a question, you will get an answer! Mainers are proud of their beautiful state and way of life! When we asked about the winters, we were told, “We deal with it!” Very practical and straightforward! If you need help, they will drop what they are doing and help you!  We love this state very much and know that we will have so many incredible memories of it.  Trust me, we will be back.  We are looking at Spring of 2024.  Maine is a State of Mind.  Great saying uh??   

Right now, our major concern is the condition of the RV Resort we are heading to in St. Augustine, FL after hurricane Ian came through! It’s all part of the journey, some things are fun, and some are not so fun!  Not just there, but our plans are to stay in NC, SC and GA even before we get to St. Augustine have been affected.  Good news! Our home is on wheels!!  

We are heading to Massachusetts on Monday, Oct 3rd, first for one night, then on to New Jersey for 6 nights.  We will be visiting new and long time friends and family along the way to St. Augustine!  We are hoping our plans do not change.  Of course, our hearts and prayers go out to all the people, business, first responders, etc. that have been affected by Ian.  We know how fortunate we are for having been in Maine.  

Just One More…..time to say, “we will be back”

PS. As I am writing this, my heart is cracking as it is my niece’s wedding day in Northern California. This is the difficult part of this lifestyle being away from family. Especially when flights are so difficult to find. It has truly been a nightmare which ended up not working out at all. We have a family member that is a travel agent who was trying to get us flights all the way up to the last few weeks. What a complete mess. To say how disappointed and sad we are not able to be there is understatement. The number one “con” of living this lifestyle these days. When we started this adventure, we told our families, we would just jump on a plane and be there…..NOPE!!!

Gotta Get Everything In Before We Leave Maine

Welcome back to Just One More’s weekly blog. We appreciate you all!

Yes, we are still in Maine!  We have 9 days left as you are reading this.  To say we will be sad leaving Maine is an understatement.  But, we know we are not equipped to be here during their winter.  So, as much as it will be very hard, we know we need to head South for the winter.  Yes, we will be “Snow Birds”.  How exciting!  

We have had the best week!  We are making sure we get everything in before we leave.  Yes, we are tourists beyond words!  

Linda and Scott took us back to Acadia for an unbelievable day.  Since they are locals, we saw and experienced things we wouldn’t have known about.  We went to the Seal Cove Auto Museum that was having a great historical exhibit on women and their influence with cars along with the suffragette movement for the right to vote. Highly suggest if you are in the Acadia National Park to take the time to visit this museum. 

They then took us to Thunder Hole and Otter’s Cove in Acadia.  Talk about gorgeous!  Interesting fact: There are no otters at the cove!  Here is something we keep saying about Maine; the air quality is amazing. The ocean and the skies are so blue. It is truly a beautiful state!  

We had lunch at one of Linda and Scott’s favorite places in Bar Harbor, called Geddy’s.  Great location and great food.  We have been loving the mussels here in Maine. The day was so windy and very chilly.  It was crazy how, overnight, it went from 85 degrees to 63 degrees,  but  we didn’t care!  We were out and loving every minute of it!

Talking about the weather change.  We have our seasonal clothing in storage under the RV.  Fall came so quickly, we had to get the clothes exchanged in our closet in one day.  It really turned quite cold (for us weenies from CA).  I mean, come on, 43 degrees at night is cold, don’t you agree?  As I’m writing this, it has been pouring all day.  We were awakened this morning by rolling thunderstorms and lightning.  It was quite epic! 

Back to our adventures! We also went to the Bangor Police Department this week to see the “Duck of Justice”.  Yep, it’s a thing!  Check out our YouTube video this week and check it out.  Here is a link to go into more detail. 

On another note, a very exciting event happened this week. We had friends come visit from California! Carin and Howard live in Clayton, CA, where Jerry and I used to live.  In fact, Jerry worked with Carin for a few years at Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley.  When we moved to Clayton, they were our first friends.  We were so excited to hear that they had planned a trip to New England when we were still in the area!  

They wanted to go to Acadia. It was our 5th time there, but who is counting? We LOVE it! Of course, we took them to our favorite hike, The Jordan Pond Loop and had lunch at the Jordan Pond Restaurant.  The craziest thing happened when we were walking on the trail.  We ran into a couple, Kathy and Stan, who we met in Albuquerque, NM at the Balloon Festival last Oct.  Kathy was right behind us and said, “Hey, we met you at the balloon festival!”  OMG!  How crazy is that??????  We hadn’t seen nor talked to them since October of last year!  We are hoping to get together before they leave the area on October 2nd.  What a crazy small world, uh??  

We then took Carin and Howard to the tour Linda and Scott took us on to Thunder Hole and all around The Park Loop.  Then we went to Bar Harbor for Jerry’s favorite ice cream at CJ’s Big Dipper.  I believe I have mentioned this place before. I have never seen so many different allergy friendly selections of ice cream along with, according to Jerry, the best regular ice cream!  Another highly suggested place to visit while in Bar Harbor. We took them on the Shore Park walk in Bar Harbor along the ocean.  It was lovely.  Overall, it was a wonderful day spent with good friends from California. Yes, we miss our friends and family.  

These past two weeks have certainly helped with homesickness. I have heard from some other friends and family that they might come visit us in St. Augustine. I was so excited to hear from friends from our neighborhood in Brentwood, Joanne and Paul, who are coming in February to St. Augustine for a visit. It’s so exciting when people come to visit wherever we are.

We are going to spend the next week doing everything we need to do before we leave Maine.  Yes, that means MORE lobstah!!!  One thing we are doing is going to a country fair this weekend.  It’s called the Common Ground Country Fair.  We are very excited about this.  It should be Americana at its best.   Before we leave we will visit our favorite restaurants, and of course, spend as much time with Scott and Linda and their family.

Can’t wait to share our last week with you next Saturday!!  

Just One More…touristy thing to do in Maine (trust me, I will find them all) 

It’s always so much fun when we get comments on our blog and YouTube Channel.  We know we keep thanking you for reading/watching our adventures because it means so much to us.  It always feels like we are connecting with you as we travel and experience all America has to offer.  So, from our hearts, we thank each and every one of you!

When last Jerry wrote, we had just picked up my sister Betsy, Gladys and Jan from the airport.  As Jerry had mentioned, Gladys was so kind to bring him 2 loaves of San Francisco sourdough bread. As I am gluten free, I enjoyed it vicariously through Jerry.  Trust me it was gone in a few days!  He was in heaven.

I had not seen everyone in over 9 months since the holidays last year.  That is the longest I have not seen my sister in a very long time. I have not seen my nephew or niece since then as well. Thank goodness for FaceTime and Zoom!  That’s the tough part about full-time RVing.  Especially being on the East Coast.  

We understood this as we were planning, but the reality is completely different.  That is why it was so wonderful having Betsy, Gladys and Jan here for a few days.  And we sure had a great time.  What did we do, you might be wondering? Well, let me tell you!

The first night, since they arrived at 6:30 as Jerry mentioned last week, we took them to Mason’s Brewery.  It is our favorite restaurant in Bangar for sure.  Highly recommend this place if you are in the Bangor area.  They were very tired after traveling across the country so after dinner they went back to their VRBO.  I had stocked their refrigerator with food and drinks so they would have breakfast and snacks during their stay.  I know, I know, what a great sister I am.  

The next day, joined by Scott and Linda (our Maine friends), we went to Treworgy Family Orchards. It was beautiful. We all picked apples, blueberries and raspberries.  We are still eating the apples we picked, but the berries went in a day. I’m baking all different apple recipes as we picked A LOT!!

We then took them back to Mason’s Brewery for lunch. After lunch we did the river walk, and then Linda and I played Bangor tour guides and showed them Stephen King’s home and Paul Bunyon (I mean, those are the top two things listed on TripAdvisor for Bangor, we had to show them). We then did the Bog Loop walk which is very cool!  (also in the YouTube video) 

That evening we had everyone over to the campground, along with Linda and Scott, for a lobster/seafood boil dinner!  Jerry and I went to a few different stores to pick up the seafood, thanks to Linda and Scott’s recommendations.  We had lobster, little neck clams, mussels and shrimp.  Also added was corn and potatoes and turkey kielbasa.  Jerry did an amazing job in cooking everything.  You can watch the cooking on this week’s YouTube video at the end of the blog!

Everything was delicious. It was so fun watching everyone get after the lobster!  Especially Gladys and Betsy. Each lobster was about 1 & 1/4 pounds each.  Fun was had by all!  We talked about doing it again before we leave Maine.  I think we have to, don’t you??

The next day was a girl’s day.  We went to the town of Belfast.  It’s a beautiful coastal town with a highly recommended lobster pound.  Ok, here’s a bit of lobster information for all you “away” people (which is what we are called if you are not born in Maine).  A lobster pound is a place to purchase lobsters that are on the water and keeps the lobsters fresh in the water.  A lobster shack can be anywhere. I had no idea.  

Young’s Lobster Pound was recommended to us by Liza and Jim, who we met in Freeport, Maine.  Liza is a foodie and every recommendation so far has been stellar!  It did not disappoint.  The lobster was super good and everyone enjoyed it.  I must admit that I had steamed shrimp instead as we have been here since August 19th and have eaten quite a bit of lobster.  But everyone else enjoyed it!  

After lunch we walked around the adorable town and just had the best day.  We went on a coastal walk looking at the beautiful Atlantic Ocean.  We went into a few shops, did some retail therapy, and just had fun.

That night we went out for Mexican food with Linda and Scott as Gladys was leaving the next morning for Virginia to spend some time with her daughter and grandchildren.  Linda was so kind and drove Gladys to the airport Saturday morning.  The airport was 5 minutes from their VRBO which was so convenient.  

Here’s the fun part of this story.  Gladys went to the local grocery store and bought 10 lobsters.  She had them steamed and packed them in her bag and took them to Virginia.  That night she and her family enjoyed Maine lobster in Virginia!  So much cheaper than having them shipped, that’s for sure!

On Saturday Betsy, Jan, Jerry and I drove to Acadia National Park.  Betsy and Jan had a friend, Dave and his wife Carol who were camping there meet us to show us a hike.  They hadn’t seen each other in 31 years!!  It was a very fun reunion!  We had the best hike and lunch together.  We love Acadia.  (more on that next week)

That evening Betsy and Jan came over for leftovers and to hang around the campfire as they were leaving for Boston the next day for more sightseeing.  We told stories and laughed so hard we cried.  It was a great last evening together.  Betsy talked about her, Gladys, and my brother-in-law Marty, coming to visit us while we are in St Augustine, FL for three months.  I’m hoping I can convince more family and friends to come visit!!!  

Overall, it was an amazing week!  We so enjoyed the company and including Linda and Scott in the mix was so much fun!  

Do you want to come visit us or will you be in Florida this winter?  Let us know!!  We would love that!!!  

Just One More….time with family (it’s the toughest thing being away from family and long time friends)