Friday night we connected with Trish's Newfoundland family, Jacque and Craig, they  just moved  back from Gander and bought another house in Eastern Passage,  about 3 miles from our boondocking spot, we parked in their driveway for some free electricity, we had another great reunion. Saturday night we stopped at home in Chester , did some laundry then headed back to Ellenwood Park, the Hurricane Arthur clean-up was completed and we spent a great week at the park, Paul did his South Shore Storytelling a few times aroundt he campfires, we met a lot of nice people, and had a relaxing time! 

We slept outside the gate at Ellenwood Park, Yarmouth, then headed for Shearwater for another reunion for Paul's navy days, 27 guys showed up, slept in Shearwater parking lot, then the next night we slept in the # 1 boondocking place in North America, Cow Bay, Nova Scotia, just before you reach the gates to North America's oldest trap & skeet club, the Dartmouth club, you can park and just don't block access to the water for the clamdiggers, they park there and some launch their boats each day at low tide.
Sleep there free,  during the night , then during the day move half-a-mile to Rainbow Haven Beach, enjoy the beach, the toilets, and the outdoor shower and then park outside the gate once again for a beautiful sunset. Paul dug clams there 65 years ago, yes 65, it was a church picnic and the clams were the size of your fist!

Took delivery of the new camper on Friday and left for Yarmouth County on Sunday, stopped at Risser's Beach, the campground was closed due to Hurricane Arthur. We slept in the parking lot.  Arrived at Ellenwood Lake to discover it was also closed due to storm damage and no power.  Stayed at CampersHaven ,private campground, while we were checking in, standing beside me was a gentleman we met near Jacksonville, Florida in January, talk about co-incidence!  He had told us they were coming to Nova Scotia for the Tattoo, then seeing the province, before we left home I had mentioned to Trish that we gave our names to people in Florida and they may look us up this week, but we had to be away.  Then he is standing beside me in Yarmouth, they seen the Tattoo, did not look us up, but here we were checking into the same campground,, after supper they came to our camper and we chatted for an hour, they were on their way to the Cabot Trail, eventually.
Our first meal in the new camper was baloney and salad, have to economize to pay for it!  Trish hasn't smoked for 32 days, I told her if she stopped drinking, we could save even more money,  she said she is not giving up her wine, I said she was such a whiner, she said yes she was! 

We drove the camper home today, had a few friends drop in for the christening,(drinks), played a few game of cards, shot the shit, and dream't about no snow or ice for the rest of our lives, then again , only being allowed out of the country for 180 days due to medical coverage, we figure we can't avoid winter storms on one end or the other,  leave November 30th and you will probably encounter storms on the way to Florida, come back in May and still see snow on the way North, we hear some provinces are extending the time out of province, let's hope Nova Scotia does the same! Yes, we don't pay sales tax while out of the country, but let's use the motor home for an example, $10,000 was for sales tax alone! That's how medicare is paid for, it's not free!  A suggestion to Mr. Obama or his replacement, John Kerry ,just charge Americans 10 per cent on all  purchases other than food, that would cover all medical services , if your going to be unpopular anyway, do it right!

HAPPY  'FOURTH OF JULY'   TO ALL OUR AMERICAN FRIENDS, SEE 'YOU ALL' IN THE LATE FALL!

We sold our snow shovel and other winter paraphanalia in a yard sale, but we kept the long-handled snow brush, we find it comes in handy for knocking oranges out of the tree in Florida.  Getting the camper today, Trish hates it when I call it "the camper", she wants me to say, motor home,motor home or just home in our case!

"On the road Again"

We're on the road again, sounds like a good title for a country song, get the right guy to sing it, and we think it could be a big hit!  We are moving on up, into a Class "C" motor home, class "C" does not mean Country and Western, those are Class "A" , they have two bathrooms, we only have one, but we do have a dinky bathtub and dual back wheels!  Our first trip will be to Ellenwood Lake in Yarmouth county!  We are moving on up and moving out, we plan to live in the motor home year round!  Fulltiming it!!  Six months around the Gulf of Mexico and six months here in New Scotland, Canada! Please join us on www.homesweethighway.blogspot.com

Back before we had global warming and May was known as a warm month, we used to say, "Hooray, Hooray, it's the 1st of May, outdoor screwing starts today!"  We have been back for two weeks or more from the South and we have yet to experience a warm day. what the hell is going on!,We have already decided, next year we are going to Florida for March ,April and May, returning in June in hopes of warm weather where you can sit outside! We have not had one day since we returned where it was comfortable to sit on the deck, damn! First week of March 2015, we are dropping our income tax in the mail and driving South, fast!

Stayed in Calais for a night, too tired to even cross the border, then spent a day in high wind and rains making our way to Amherst, NS, we relaxed for three wonderful days at Karens, Pauls daughter, on Friday we made our way to Chester, all in all a great trip, but as for Sunny days, probably less than a month out of our three month trip was Sunny, we had lots of weather, cold and otherwise, but we weathered it and will now start to recall the great people and places we met and seen.  Thanks for following us!

Found a year round RV Park as we left Pennsylvania, in New York, Conn. and Vermont and slept in a motel in Bennington, Vt. Through New Hampshire and slept in a Wal-Mart in Biddeford Maine.  That morning made a quick decision to travel the I-95, we never go near Interstates, we soon learned why, it's highway robbery, we turned left to go on the 95 in Biddeford, and were faced by a toll booth, only a dollar so we went, we were going to get off in Gray, Maine, decided to go a little further, another toll booth, this time 2.75 cents, 8 miles before we got to Augusta, we hit another toll booth, another 1.75, there were absolutely no warning signs to make you aware of toll booths, that's why we call it highway robbery, we are not used to tolls, but here in Nova Scotia, you get plenty of warning that a toll booth is ahead! Apoligys to our Maine friends, but we do want to thank you for the winter jacket Marge, Trish sure used it on the way home.

Last night was the first time we were asked to leave a Wal-Mart parking lot, the security guy explained, Wal-Mart only leased the land and the property owners wanted no overnight vehicles, he was very nice and showed us an even better place to sleep behind a Giant Tiger.  He had been to B.C. bear hunting ,so we had a great discussion. Talking about bears, the visitor center here in Pennsylvania has a mounted black
bear shot in 1993, 701 pounds, what a giant, at first I thought it was a Grizzly!
I looked over today and seen Trish crying, I asked what was wrong, she pointed to the snow piles left from ploughing, tomorrow we expect worse, some actual snow on the ground maybe as we approach Vermont? 

It's a Junk Yard but we had FREE electricity !

Elvis's birthplace in Tupelo, Mississippi.

This was even a little before Paul's time !

Me and the Dynasty !

Relaxing evening around the fire with our new friends and great entertainment in Corpus Christi, Texas !

Padre Island sunset !

So Trish & I got out a blanket and a bottle of Wine !

Our Camper door message says it all !

Here I am wrapped in Sonny's arms !

This Wild Pig is another reason other than the bugs that I stay in the camper !

It's been 83 degrees two days in a row here in Virginia, maybe we should just stop right here, what a quandary, continue home to snow, or relax here in the Sun, we are half way home from Texas, and friends tell us to turn around, go back, go back! But we have income tax to do, so the government will probably win.  We left Ashville, NC , road a bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway, then detoured off because of snow on the mountaintops, at least we got the sticker for the camper!  $50.00 for a campground site in Virginia, now we know we are traveling north, wine has gone up 3 dollars a box, beer costs more, gas cost more, just going to have to do more Wal-Mart sleepovers!

We seen a lot of white-water rafting today, along with the nuts that do it in kayaks, this area was the site of the 1996 Olympics for white water kayaking, the local people won an Olympic medal! Travelled through the Great Smokey Mountains, on our way to the Blue Ridge Parkway, 400 miles of mountains, through North Carolina into Virginia, all of it North East, Nova Scotia is NorthEast of Texas, any highway NE gets us home faster! We are relaxing in Ashville, NC, the temp is 83 degrees
at 6 PM, but we will encounter colder temps on our way NorthEast! 

Next night we stayed in a great campground on the Ten Tom waterway, watched barges chugging up the river all night, ,very relaxing, reminded us of staying in the Huckleberry Finn park one other time, the Mississippi, water transportation is a very important part of the American commerce.  Another Wal-Mart night in Scottsboro, Alabama. Then we did four States in four hours, we left Ala., crossed into Tenn.. then into Georgia, then into North Carolina, we stopped at a visitor center in a place called Andrews, NC, the lady phoned everywhere to find us a campground, we discovered, we are heading North, they don't open until May, she finally called her son who was in the house moving business, he set us up with electricity in a junkyard, this junkyard looked better than the Elvis Presley park,  he did wake us up early moving his bulldozer, but we slept well, we thanked him again and attempted to thank his mother again, but she was off work that day!

Two nights of thunder and lightning, heavy , heavy rain, heading for Tupelo ,Missippippi, up the Natchez Trace, went to see Elvis Presley 's birthplace, a house his father built, very small, then we went to Elvis Presley Lake, a campground run by the Missippippi Wildlife Division, they should get rid of this park, the most disgusting campground we have ever been in, and we have seen some bad ones, Paul is contacting the Missippippi Wildlife Division, the Mayor of Tupelo and Priscilla  Presley to remove his name from the park, it is an insult, it was bad, bad, bad, we did not stay there, a few nights later we ended up staying in a junkyard, we are not kidding, the only thing they had in common was electricity.

After Duck Dynasty we went to a museum that let you get a 5 cent coke from the machine, the man who owned this house, was the first to bottle Coca-Cola back in 1894, we heard the history of coke, and Paul told the lady his favourite Coke Joke, ask him when we  get home, then we drove to Delhi, Louisiana, and had a fountain coke and cheeseburger and chips, probably the only fountain coke drugstore left in North America.  Paul worked at Henderson's  Drug store in 1954, on Barrington street, this soda fountain looked the same. Red  leather stools, red arborite counter and of course red Coca-Cola signs everywhere! We found free camping at Canton, Missippippi county park and watched some guys practice calf roping until dark.

We did the Wal-Mart thing in Ruston, Louisiana, then we did the Duck Dynasty thing in West Munroe, then camped in West Munroe, played pool, reminded us of Black Pearl and Moes in Wester Shore, no 8 ball , white ball with 8 marked on it, two number 2 balls, and the pay table ball return fell out, so all our other games were free, also pool cues had no tips, you chalked the wood!  We played "Rita's Rules".

We drove further today than ever in one day, 250 miles in one day, is it because were headed home , still only our average 30 miles an hour! Made Marquez Texas by 6 PM,  Bubba was there, he came a chatted for a while, we first stayed at Bubba's Country Comfort BBQ and RV Park, back in 2010, his son-in-law was on his way to work in Iraq as a civilian cook.  His second time there!  We gave them a picture of a Nova Scotia Whitetail deer, framed, at the time, it's still hanging there. 

What a relaxing week, look forward to "cocktail hour" each day at four, the gathering happens at Pat and Al's place. It started when we drove in and Al seen  "NAVY" on my t-shirt, he was also navy years ago! Then Pat arranged so that we could stay for a week in the site near them, she has a little influence at the office!
It's a very active RV Park, always something going on at the rec center, pot luck's, cards, horseshoes, then of course we eat, eat, and eat, Al and Pat took us to a buffet about 50 miles from here, all you can eat steak and shrimp for eleven dollars, unbelievable atmosphere, to die for desserts and of course great friends to enjoy the meal.  Then the next night it was a "fish fry" followed by a guitar gathering around a campfire. While waiting for the fish to fry, we were entertained by Al's cousin Mel playing his consatina, he owns more than one, the background music was exquisite!  
     We are writing a pro and con list this trip whether to winter in Florida or Texas, meeting these people puts a big pro beside being a Winter Texan.

We waltzed back to the Padre Island sea shore, but after a few days of relentless wind we headed for Corpus Christi Lake, still windy, but the trees calm it down a bit, settled into a great campground for a week, as soon as we stepped from our vehicle we were invited to "cocktail hour" with Al and Pat and friends, playing horseshoes, doing pot luck, and of course whining a lot!  Met other Canadians here from Ontario and Saskatchewan. Some Snowbirds from the U.S. North have been coming here for fifteen years. I often rave about the great Texas prison system, just read that they have 79 prisons ,none with air-conditioning, but they just spent three quarters of a million on A/C for the prison  pig pens!

We attended a pot luck at the campground rec hall this evening, Trish took her chili, explained to everyone that it didn't have any of that Texas Chili Powder (DO NOT SERVE TO WIMPS or WOMEN), in it! Very mild and everyone seemed to enjoy it!  Most people there were getting ready to go North, like us, we should be home first week in April!  Going to Waltz across Texas once again, slow waltz!

We spent a day at the Borderfest in Hidalgo, Texas, they had an Argentina contingent there, what great entertainment, cold beer, Mexican food, Argentine wines, Mariachi Bands, a parade at night , all the floats were lit up. What a wonderful day!
We are in Falcon Lake State Park for a week, we can see Mexico across the Rio Grande River, we can't get an English station on the radio, so we open our windows and listen to the Texicans camping around us play county music CD's on their truck radios!

We stayed in a park and a young couple from the State of  Washington came over with home made dessert, blackberrys, pineapple and pecans, a cobbler, delicious!  What nice people!  When we arrived the lady at the gate was a Newfy, right from St, John's, boy! 
The next day we passed a cattle drive minus the cattle, years ago they drove the cattle to Mercedes for auction, today they ship their cattle otherwise, then re-enact the trail ride for fun, takes seven days. We have some video of us passing them! 

The Ultimate in Sand Castles !

Beautiful Sunset on Padre Island !

Here I am in a Beach Wheelchair, the only way I could see the Beach.  Such a humbling experience to have Paul do this for me !

Our site on Padre Island.

Paul pulled one of these " With the hose on it ", 50 years ago every Wednesday afternoon 

at Army HQ. 

"Old Sparky" performed well for thirty years at Huntsville Prison in Texas !

Crossed over to Padre Island,Texas at Port Aransas, five minute ferry, drove down Island to The Padre Island National Seashore, camped for nothing for three days, what beautiful beaches, slept to the sound of waves each night.  The birds are extraordinary, pelicans, laughing gulls, cranes, herons, and many others, also a few sharks!  They had ballon wheel wheelchairs for the beach, so took Trish for a run on the beach, you can go for 55 miles but we only went .5 of a mile!  Ate at a restaurant where we watched fisherman on the pier, guys surfing and pelicans waiting for the fishermen to throw them their catch, it's against the rules, but we observed a few pelicans swallowing the evidence!

Here are the guns described below !

The rifle lying on the counter is an AR-15, choice of the American Armed Forces, and the Texas Prison System! The 12 Gauge Shotgun on the wall is called a Stage Coach gun and is the choice of the Hells Angels, fits well on a motorcycle !

We revisited Victoria ,Texas,  Coletto Creek Park, we seen eleven deer in a herd  and also a Crested Cara Cara, looks like a small eagle, and turkey vulture all in one, a beautiful bird! Turns out it is from South America and rarely seen in the southern US.

We camped in Livingston State park , they claim a 114 pound catfish was caught there many years ago, I fished , but caught nothing, you are allowed to fish without a license in any Texas State Park, but if you stay in a National Park in Texas, you need a license, go figure! 

Trish made so many pancakes, I ate them for days, pancakes with jam, pancakes with peanut butter and jam, pancakes with pickles and so on!  We visited the Texas State Prison Museum, we seen the electric chair that they used for 30 years before going to the needle to eliminate all the assholes. It was very interesting to me after my 25 years in the prison system.  When they showed the collection of weapons used to kill guards, I was able to identify with the T-Bone steak bone as a weapon, I had a friend stabbed in the throat with the same type of bone in Halifax, he could never speak or work again!  Also we never had T-Bone steaks on Sundays for supper again!  Also a Warden was killed one time with his own handgun in Texas!  No guns in the Canadian provincial systems, those guns in the Federal system, are few also, shotguns over the dining hall and gym with scatter shot to prevent other inmates from being killed and rifles in the wall turrets, with orders to shoot escapees only in the lower legs, the guards in the dining hall and gym are locked in a cage above the inmates.  The Texas guards over the years had guns while on horseback ,while supervising workers,,and manys the times the guns  were taken away from the guard, to execute him!

Well, today is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), in English, or as we know it home, Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Day.  We had to pass up the shenanigans with all our rowdy friends in Mamou, Louisiana, but we are celebrating by having pancakes for breakfast here in East Texas Whoopie yi a !, maybe this evening, we will wine a bit while playing cards, that will make us feel better!  We are off soon to Huntsville, Texas to see the Texas State Prison Museum, then down to the Padre Island National Seashore on the Gulf. We have had some weird weather, 80 degrees, then below freezing at night, then rain, thunder and lightning, very foggy, but you don't have to shovel any of it!

Wow! What fluctuations in the weather, we went from 80 degrees the other day to waking up today to freezing temps.   The only good thing is it keeps down the bugs, Trish is so bitten that we had to pass up the Mardi Gras in Mamou, she just wouldn't be able to enjoy it, with all her itching . So settled here in East Texas until it warms, then heading for the most southern part of Texas, Brownsville, just about the same latitude as Key West, Florida, surely these cold, cold days have to end soon!

Only in Texas, a bridge for each direction !

Too many BUGS, I have to stay inside !

We gave him lunch at a Rest stop and he wanted to come with us, but we were tough.

 

Welcome Centre entering Texas.

Flooding can be a problem in Texas, most houses are on stilts.

Oil tanker entering Cameron, Louisiana.

We left Lake Charles ,Louisiana for the coast, through Cameron, Holly Beach, and Constance Beach, all on the Gulf of Mexico, thought we might see an alligator, but instead seen sharks, at least half dozen sharks in Cameron frolicking near the shore!  The birds are unbelievable, pelicans, ducks, hawks, roseate spoonbills(pink like flamingos), egrets, black and white, cranes of every description, other shore birds, laughing gulls.  Then through Johnson Bayou to  ferry, then into Texas in a place called Port Arthur, dozens of oil refineries, more than dozens, very, very large oil ships.  Then we camped for the night in Sea Rim State Park, beautiful beach, woke up to the Sun after four days of rain!  Then we headed North again, up to Jasper ,Texas. Not too far from Leesville, we want to stay close to return to the Mamou Mardi Gras on Tuesday!  

The Bayou from our camper.

Our Camper from the Bayou.

Heading out tomorrow for a place called Holly Beach and Cameron , very south on the Gulf Coast, probably boondock (camp without electricity) for a night or two, then head over to Texas , travel up the border towns so that we are not far from Mamou Mardi Gras. Look up Mamou Mardi Gras on the internet, not just New Orleans has Mardi Gras, many other towns, cities ,even in other states, Alabama, Mississippi and Texas celebrate! At home the most we do is celebrate pancake Tuesday, here they do it up , much more than just pancakes!

Miss Ryleigh enjoying the Sun on her Grandma & Paw Paw's Patio !

Andy with the Tancook Lobster Trap !

We often say we can park in a tent site or with the Big Boys.  Here we are with the Big Boys !

Their last Ice Storm was twenty years ago !

This hardwood was ice filled, blocking the Natchez Park exit !

Branches that fell through the nite, luckily on next site !

In Natchez State Park, trees were all full of ice around our site !

Settled in Sam Houston Jones State Park for a few days, watching a large family of deer dining on the edge of the swamp, Trish keeps watch for an alligator, planning to shout if she sees them before the deer do! We are parked right beside a bayou, very interesting!  Haven't seen the Sun for two days , but the temps are still up to 69 during the day.  Had a great week at the Laverty's, great food, great fun and great conversations, front porch and back!  They consider this winter and the temps were up to 74 degrees for five days in a row, great winter is what we say! Of course, when summer does come they suffer through it, staying in the air/conditioning or dipping in the pool and making sure the beer is extra cold! we had wonderful week, always a satisfying stop during our winter travels. Will stay in Louisiana for about a week, until after Mardi Gras, then off to Texas for the month of March.

Now we are "Somewhere and  80 degrees", it's 78 outside but 80 in the house, so Andy had to turn the A/C on!  We did our replenishment run to Wally-world, can't beleive the prices, that's why I keep repeating them, 40 pounder  $18.00, compared to 58. at home, 24 beer, $18.00, you know what a 24 costs in Nova Scotia, wine is the most unbelievable , at home 4 liters cost $40.00, here 5 liters for $10.00 bucks. Cigarettes are around 50 bucks a carton, then they have cheaper cigs at $28.00 a carton!  Wal-Mart sells every type of liquor you could ever want! Well,time for another cold Bud!

It's not a beach, but it is "Somewhere and Seventy-five" as the song says!  Lounging at the Laverty's, enjoying the Sunshine, a little threat of rain tonight, but generally very nice.  So far the menu has included  Gumbo, Etoufee', Beaudin, Key Lemon pie, King Cake, Back-yard smoked Pork loin, no end to the  tasty delights! We don't just eat, we drink, smoke, and  great conversations.  Andy and Lucy go to work here and there and we lay back with the pit bulls, Trish feeds them cookies and I scratch their backs, while we watch the many colourful cardinals attempt to steal the dog's food.    

Sunday, Andy and I hit the Wal-Mart to replenish the liquor stock, we had to wait until 12 PM for them to sell liquor in 24 hour Wal*Mart, then our clerk at the cashier was too young to ring it in, so he had to get a manager!  Then Crystal and Lucy's son Adam arrived with another grandchild, Ryleigh, she is nearly three, and entertained us all day with her quiet antics, she is the center of all attention in Pawpaw and Grandma's house, Andy assembled her new bicycle, we tried to trade her for her monkey(read blankie),for a Canadian beaver we brought from home for her, no way she was giving up that monkey!  We had a great relaxing day and supper was Etoufee, I know I am not spelling that right, but no matter, it was delicious, then for dessert we had Louisiana King Cake. Deliciousssss!

Saturday saw us in in Lafayette at a birthday party, in a Sunny park, for a Laverty grandchild, Cameron by name, he was two years old, when we were here two years ago we attended his baptism! A mickey mouse birthday cake, mickey mouse tattoos, smartie cookies  ,Trish and I had a great time and I am not joking, we enjoyed seeing many young Louisiana families with children up to ten and three that were only months old, including a new grandchild for Lucy and Andy, a brother for Cameron named Chase!  We must have all had a great time, we were back in Leesville and all in bed by 9 pm on a Saturday night.

We're laid back at the Laverty's in Leesville , Louisiana, lounging on the front porch and then the back porch, the LSU porch!  Little too early for the pool, but we did bring the Sun and 75 degree weather from Florida! Seventy-five for the next six days according to the weather man, we are sucking up the heat and the hospitality, some people can wind you up, but Lucy and Andy know how to wind you down, the first night here, we polished off a  bottle of Southern Comfort, dined on chicken and sausage gumbo , then had a delicious sleep after about a month on the road through, Florida, Alabama, ippississiM , three quarters of Louisiana, many days of rain, an ice storm, no power campgrounds, at least two Wal-Mart parking lots and many backroads!

Two years ago when we camped on the Mira and it rained for days, Trish swore she was getting rubber boots,  she got nice polka dot ones, never wore them the next year on the Mira, no rain, never wore them during our month in Newfoundland, never wore them on our many trips within Nova Scotia. but yesterday, here in Marksville, Louisiana, she had to wear them in case she stepped off the concrete pads, rained here for days before we arrived, what a phenomena this morning when all the ice on the trees melted within 30 minutes. Pouring rain in the surrounding woods, but Sunny in the park!

Also today we did our laundry, played pool and watched all the crazy snowstorms on TV. Coming out of the laundry we spied a Nova Scotia licence plate, they are from Inverness and we knew people in common, small world!  Tomorrow we arrive in Leesville, our (northern) destination. We understand it's chicken and sausage gumbo for Supper, we brought moose meat for them along with donair meat, hope they like it? Last time we were here two years ago we brought lobsters and a lobster trap from Tancook, yes a wooden one with Nova Scotia rocks in it!

We have said it before, you never know where life is going to take you!  Because of the ice storm and no power in other campgrounds we ended up in Marksville, Louisiana, a huge native Casino with RV Park, we had stayed here for one night 4 years ago.  Camping is only 20 bucks, for elec, water ,sewer and a bus comes to your site to drive you to the Casino.  We went for supper, put a few dollar bills in machines and they spit them back out, that was the extent of our gambling, but the buffet was out of this world!  Live alligators in the hotel lobby, along with fish and turtles, four gators about 5 feet long and seven more about two feet long.  Seven restaurants in the Casino!  The Sun was shining today and the temperature was 22 degrees higher that yesterday, still only 53 degrees though! We sat behind the camper out of the wind and it was delightful!

Shades of Vietnam & John Wayne !

Checked into Natchez State Park for a two day stay,  in the office they had a largemouth bass mounted that died trying to swallow a catfish, guess this phenomenon is common! During the night we lost power due to a ice storm, we were warm with propane, but trees kept falling around us all night, difficult to sleep, left in the morning, got our money back, now searching for a campground with power, had to settle for a MacDonalds breakfast, this was to be Trish's pancake day, maybe tomorrow morning in Louisiana.

Crossed into Alabama at a place called Florella, then camped near a place called Oops, Oops, I mean Opp!  We camped near Oops, that is where Paul found the Pickeral that died swallowing a perch, OOPS!    Logging is a big business here, we seen dozens and dozens and dozens of logging trucks, sometimes three and four travelling together.

Relaxing on the Beach, the Real Florida !

One of the many amazing Sunsets we have enjoyed !

Sandhill Cranes in Orange City, Florida. 

Destination of Waterfall is this bottomless Sink Hole !

Paul took this video walking down the steps to view the waterfall at Falling Waters State Park

This plant seems to be reaching for the water in the rain gutter !

This Pickerel died swallowing a Perch Paul found this while fishing in Alabama.

Yesterday, we had the experience of a lifetime, we pulled into a little picnic park at a place called Pitt Spring in the Florida Panhandle, we got into the parking lot and every space was filled, we did not have room to turn around, while in the process of backing up very carefully, a lady came up to the truck, she apologized because the parking was full, we asked her what her group was! She stated today was her sister's birthday and the whole family was celebrating with a picnic. She then invited us to join them for lunch, we did! Wow, what food, home made fried chicken, two different potato salads, other salads, pop, sweet tea, water, and the desserts, pound cake, lemon cake, it went on and on.  She introduced us to her mother,(92 years old), and explained she was almost blind! We had a wonderful pit stop, while we ate, Miss Lovey regaled us with stories from the time she was a little girl on the farm, when she worked is a drugstore soda fountain during the war, how she waited for her fiancée to return from the Pacific for three years, then how she raised her five children, the gathering involved al her family and great grand-children. One of her son-in-laws was at our table, we loved his stories also, he was retired from a nuclear plant in Alabama.  His best story:  He told a friend at work that he had a dog that ate turnip, the friend said he tried feeding his dog turnip and the dog would have nothing to do with it, Gary explained that his dog wouldn't eat them either for the first six or seven days! We think the family's name was MacDougal, and Miss Lovey,s name we thin was Luckett. They were from Blounstown, Florida and they certainly showed us what Southern Hospitality means!    

We stayed at another state park on Lake Manatee,just beautiful, left there for the mini-re-union at Madiera Beach Legion on the Gulf Coast, this legion has 9000 members, food is served from 8 am to 8 pm, beautiful deck facing the Sunset and watched porpoises jumping while the jugs of beer flowed!  Eight guys from Paul's Shearwater days attended, some he had'n't seen for forty years.  Sat inside the legion with an 80 something man who was in the Israeli army and the American  army. Initially I ad asked him what he did in the army. His answer," I was a killer!" After I got over that remark we had a great chat, he worked with the Australian Underground as an Israeli soldier, turned out he was a medic, same as me, in the American Army!  Heading out tomorrow from Perry, Florida to a park that has the highest waterfall n Florida and a butterfly garden, we are betting it doesn't compare with the Butterfly pavilion in Deer Lake ,Newfoundland last summer. but we will see! Temps are lowering as we drive north in Florida, tempted to turn back south, but we have friends to see in Louisiana, I guess we can give up the eighties for a little while!  

No racing on beach today, very high tide !

300 year old oaks times two !

Mirror image on Tomoka River, Florida

This a visitor to our site at Ormond Beach, Florida

One of the rules in State parks in the South  is that you are not allowed to walk your dog on boardwalks because of alligators.  I think dogs should have more rights, if they are allowed into parks to constantly yap and bark, they should also be allowed to walk near the water,or even swim if they choose!

Sunday, were in Sebring and settling into another State Park for a few days! Seen a great sign on a redneck trailer,  "It is illegal to bait deer in this county, this bait is for squirrels, quail, etc. Any deer seen eating this bait WILL be shot!"  Visited the VFW (Veterans of Foriegn Wars), similiar to Legion, nearby a couple times, Trish is in her glory, you can drink,smoke and wear a baseball cap. They have shuffleboard, washer toss and the Cornhole championships are Sunday!

Left the Atlantic coastline in Ft. Pierce, then once around Lake Okeechobee, that was not the plan, we passed six campgrounds to get to a place we stayed before, six o'clock surprise, it was closed down a few years ago. Then the fun began, not one to go backwards, we headed for the parks marked on our map, pulled into the first one, saw a drunk with a big dog, asked if he knew where the office was, He said, "Your're looking at it", he had one site but right beside the highway, no thanks, the next two parks, we could not find an office, all the way to Okeechobee,couldn't find another that we had stayed in before, others were full, a Wal-Mart night follwed, next day we found the one we were looking for, got the same site we had four years ago and settled in for $15.00 a night.  Some of these parks have atmosphere, some of these people came to fish thirty years ago and they are still here, you can tell by the moss on their campers!

Left Lake Helen after a great breakfast and a rousing game of buttons(cards),before noon, before we drove 50 miles south, the temp read 80 degrees, drove on New Smyrna Beach for a short bit, then down HWY #1 to Sebastian Inlet, found a county campground, settled in, changed into bathing suits ,then the Sun went behind some clouds,people next to us were very friendly, turns out they a real Floridians from Orlando, they both lived there before Walt Disney arrived.  We ended up around their campfire, then they insisted we join them for Blue Cheese burgers ,and Budweiser!  He was an avid hunter,so the stories were many, he hunts in Alabama, mostly,while we are talking a buddy phoned from his property in Alabama to brag he shot a deer, the biggest yet on the property!

Still relaxing in Lake Helen , shopping, had to take the truck to the Ford dealer, my window wouldn't go down.  Drove around to see where my sister Elaine used to own a place in Orange City!  I've lost a few card games, so we are being tolerated a little better, ha, ha, !  Heading a little further South tomorrow, probably the northern end of Lake Okochobee, then up to Sebring!

We just thought we were decompressing when we stayed at the 3 state parks for a few weeks, we are in Paradise here at Jim & Marge's place in Lake Helen.  They are from Maine, they follow the Maine State motto: "The Way Life Should Be"  , four months in Maine and eight months in Florida. They have been doing that for 21 years!  We are so relaxed,can't sit out because it's so cold, but that gets us playing cards and having a ball! Florida is not living up to their motto: The Sunshine State, but we are not complaining, none of that white sh-t, to shovel!  Right now, looking forward to a small re-union with guys from Navy days at an American Legion branch on the Gulf Coast, a place called Madiera Beach!  Last night we broiled moose meat that Trish and I brought from home, taking moose meat to Leesville, Louisiana, also, long with Donair meat and sauce for Andy and Lucy. Aiming for Leesville around Valentine's Day!

Tomoka State Park is nice, fishing in the river at daybreak, met some people from Windsor, Ontario, had met them at another park, we shared a few stories around the campfire last evening.  We have an invite to ditch the camper for a few days with friends near New Smyrna Beach, look forward to not having to camperdance for a short while!  Working on a navy reunion near St. Petersburg at Madiera Beach Legion, this legion has over 9000 members, yes nine-thousand.  Four other guys from Shearwater all winter near there, looking forward to cold beer!  Salamanders, squirrels, red and gray, and mourning doves all around the park.  Will take a short drive on Daytona Beach tomorrow.

Were off to another State Park , closer to Daytona Beach, looking forward to tying up with friends from Maine!  Talking  to a Snowbird from New Jersey, he gave us a great quote, "America belongs to the very rich, and isn't wonderful that they let the rest of us live here!"  Sonny flies by each day and daily we see our hawks, today it was pelicans without the bag on their beak!  The park wants every RV lined up perfectly straight in the slots, we watched the Nazi park cop knock on a guy's trailer and ask him to straighten it up a bit more! Couldn't believe it!  They say it's so everyone can have the best view of the water, you can't see the water anyway,unless you go up on a deck, go figure!

Sleeping to the sound of the surf each night, so soothing!  When we said decompressing, actually we are vegetating, going to book a few more nights here on Flagler Beach, only a few miles above Daytona, of course we will drive on Daytona Beach for a while,like other years.  Wehave our own deck behind the campe overlooking the Atlantic!  Trish uses the glazed doughnut candle from Brian & Cathy to hide in the camper bathroom and puff away,rather then go out in the dark! We are staying in Florida until they run out of wine!

See Paul's footprints in the sand, he was jogging so fast ,I missed him!

Picture of Paul honouring the Sun God!  He shouldn't be this white in a few days, off comes the sweater from the Great White North.  We are going under cover again for a few days, place called Gamble Rogers State Park on a white,white beach, Gamble Rogers was a famous Florida Folk Singer!  Sitting in a beachside beanery using the wi-fi and eating almost vegetarian!  Aiming for Leesville ,Louisiana on Valentines Day!

We're Back, seven days off the grid as Trish calls it!  Last Monday we drove for fifty miles and seen nothing but gated communities, so where do we end up? In a gated community, guards with sidearms, it was great, it's called a Florida State Park, lots of wildlife, lots of wild weather, torrential rains a few nights but all in all very restful. After the ten day drive  to Florida the week in the park was very welcome!  Except for two nights of Arctic Air, which was blamed on us, we had normal temperatures , seventy degrees each day!       Air-conditioning on today in truck as we head for St. Augustine for another couple of days in another state park.
      Trish is waxing poetic:  "After all visitations and tribulations
                                           Our vacation in the Sun, has begun"

Yum, yum, enjoyed an Orange for breakfast, picked right outside our camper last evening, in Yulee! You may not hear from us for a few days, no wi-fi in the state park, we are heading to Little Talbot Island State Park to decompress, no traffic noises, no internet, no noisy Cornhole players, see you in a few days. Keep those comments coming, love them!

Yippee!,  we are in Yulee, Florida, just across the border from Georgia. All that way on backroads, then we were forced on to the I-95 Interstate to cross into the Sunshine State, the bridge was out on #17 highway,but the Sun was out and exactly 70 degrees when we crossed the St. Mary's  river,Yippee again! Saw many hawks during the day, liquor outlets were all closed Sunday morning in Georgia, we seen a antique place that advertised,  "Dead people's Stuff for Sale"! No trouble finding the wine store in Florida, right next to the campground!  Sat outside in the Sun for two hours, sipping,smoking,and shooting the shit about our ten days of cold days and nights to get here! Just knocked two oranges out of the tree with our snow brush,comes in handy even in the warm weather, we also got two lemons, larger than the oranges! While we sat and sipped we watched our neighbours play Cornhole, we plan to introduce Cornhole to Chester next summer!

Another day ,another State, we are in Georgia, the Peach State, will be looking for a peach for breakfast, last time we tried, we drove into an advertised stand, they said the peach man died, they were all pretty well-dressed, the funeral meal was taking place behind the stand.
We saw a Cardinal, the state bird and eight hawks, we have seen a hawk each day since Maine. Cotton is bundled in the fields , some the size of our hay bundles and then some the size of a tractor-trailer, those carried on the trucks lose pieces along the road, it's everywhere!  Unpicked  cotton  fields look like snow, ugh!  60 ounces of wine, bread, toilet paper, paper towels, eggs, and two cans of lasagna,all for under twenty dollars! We saw a large fox with a baby raccoon in it's mouth!  Sleeping in Statesboro, Georgia, this is the ninth day,since we entered the US of A!

The pumps were closed when we got here  !

Can you guess which Wally World Star we are sleeping under tonight ?

No hangover this New Years Day, on the road by noon.  Very little snow in Pennsylvania, none in Virginia, hopefully we have finally left it behind!  Seen a sign, turn left for Norfolk, reminds me of Navy days when we said,  "We are the girls from Norfolk, we don't drink, smoke, Norfolk!"  What a sight ,a group of Harleys
out for the day on Jan 1st, we are getting warmer.  Found the Wal-Mart in Raleigh,North Carolina, run out of propane in the middle of the night, hooked up the spare and bought a new bottle for $20.00 at Wally World,in the morning, $34.00 in Chester! We want to really thank the followers for their comments, nice to know someone is watching!  Trish went out for her first smoke of the morning, and the Jehovah Witness's got her,right there in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Trish can't wait to eventually get to Louisiana, where she becomes "Miss Trish", what is that about, age,wisdom,respect ??????
In South Carolina at noon,saw our first palm trees beside a sign to Myrtle Beach!
Staying two nights at a military campground, doing the laundry, resting up for Georgia!We were able to clean up all dishes, Trish re-organized all the cupboards,I cleaned the camper outside, it was filthy with Northern slush!  Hundreds of Canada Geese on the lake at Sunset!      

Slept in a Ski-Lodge in Vermont, charged up the camper battery, then two nights at Wally-World, Binghamton, New York, then Mechanicsburg, PA, next day into Virginia. "VIRGINIA is for LOVERS", So spent New Year's Eve under the covers, we did go to a nearby restaurant, but were back in bed before the Midnight hour!  Experienced snow for about one half hour in New York, have had great weather, head out today for North Carolina, cold weather, but none of that damned white stuff!  Really enjoying our new thermal coffee mugs.  Jimmy Flynn sez the best invention ever, was the "termos bottle", keeps hot stuff hot and keeps cold stuff cold, but he always puzzled, "How does it know which is which"