Where does the time go?

 It is hard to think about ten days passing by so fast, but then again it seams like we have been here forever. The days are passing us by but we are enjoying every moment of the days and nights. The weather is about as close to perfect as anyone could expect, highs around 85, and lows about 76.

 Our first couple days here we spent at the "rock pile", which is part of the RV park but it is the older section. The sites are a lot closer together and you are on a gravel site, there is four rows with the first row having a fantastic view of the water.

 Monday of last week they opened up "Trumbo" a dry camping area on the coast guard base. Trumbo is a lot closer to down town KW and many folks just go there and dry camp all winter. They avoid the "rotation" and can sit in one spot the entire time they are here. With the opening of Trumbo several spaces came open at the "back" part of the CG which is where we are now.

 The "back" is newest area of the CG, the sites are amazing, plenty of room, and your on a concrete pad large enough for the RV and a patio. There are twenty sites here with full hook ups and maybe a couple hundred sites for dry camping when all the full hook up sites are filled. There are maybe 100 FH sites in all, and they fill up in Dec and everyone (except the camp hosts) start a rotation. You get two weeks in FHs and then you rotate into dry camping until your number comes up, sometimes its a couple of days, and then in Jan or Feb it could be three weeks until your number comes up and you go back into FHs.

 Between the "back" and the "rock pile" there is Hollywood, another section of the RV park. Hollywood was built sometime between the rock pile and the back sections. The sites are larger than the rock pile but smaller than the back, and once the rotations start you have no idea of where you will get a site after you dry camping, but it will be full hook ups.

 Since we have been here Jenelle has visited for a few days. The airlines she was working for lost several contracts so they laid off a bunch of the employees, but they are a small part of another larger airlines and it still has flights all over the US. Part of her severance package was free flights for three months, and since she has no job she has been flying everywhere. Key West is one of the places she was able to fly to so it didn't cost her anything to fly in and spend a few days.

 Fantasy Fest is going full swing right now and the people on Duval street are amazing. Jenelle was able to see some of the "painted" bodies before she left, and every day there are more painted bodies with less clothes. They do have some amazing painters here and they can paint you to where everyone thinks you have clothes on, and you really have to look close to see that its just paint. I'll do a blog (with picture) after Fantasy Fest is over and I have rested up some.

 Marcia has a couple of her closest friends coming down to spend a few days with us, they will have fun and I will be able to rest some while they take Marcia down town to watch all the "crazies". So until the next time I will just keep watching the calender to see how fast the days are passing by.....

Key West Bound

 Two years ago we arrived in Key west in late Oct. just in time for the 7-10 day festivities they call Fantasy Fest. We had such a good time watching all the people we decided we would go back. Last year we went west (and froze) for the winter so no KW in late Oct. but this year we will be there.

 We left Escapase headed to KW but we had plenty of time to get there. We stopped off in St Louis and spent a night at the casino, then on to Cumberland Gap to visit friends and family one last time this year. From KY we stopped off in northern GA to visit friends, (even though some of them took off the day we arrived) and to wait out a front that brought plenty of rain.

 North Ga Led us to Southern Ga where we visited a cousin we hadn't seen in 11 years. After a couple days in Vidalia GA we continued on to Ft Stewart GA where we got to see our son Jonathan a couple times before he is deployed back to the sandbox. (Afghanistan) We could have spent more time there, but the three days we were there he was busy, and we wanted to get on into FL.

 The etch-a-sketch showed us stopping off in Kings Bay to check out the submarine base. I hear the fam-camp there is one of the best, but the etch-a-sketch got shaken up and we wound up in Mims Fl. Once in Mims we had to check out the Atlantic ocean,

While most of the US was hit by a cold front we enjoyed the FL warmth.

We were surprised when we found out Ron and Elaine has bought a lot in Titusville, it gave us a chance to spend an evening with them.

 

Tomorrow we will pack up and leave this PassPort America Park ( Seasons in the Sun) and head deeper south. Just before entering the Keys we will stop at a casino to spend the night. It is a little over 200 miles from here to Miami, and another 120+ to KW so we will make it a two day trip. If we are lucky at the casino we may make it a there day trip... I guess that is why we have all our plans on the etch-a-sketch...

FL Bound

 OK everyone that knows me knows that I do NOT do cold, and we got a small taste of cold while at the Escapade in Sedalia MO, it got down to 41 degrees one morning. So the only solution was to head south!!!!

 As it turned out the cold only lasted a couple days, and then the warmth came right back so the trip south could wait a few more days. With the warmth back we left Sedalia after the Escapade was over and headed east. The "etch-a-sketch" showed us at the outer banks of NC, but the bumpy roads changed that really quick, or maybe it was the distance the outer banks took us out of path to Key West.

 Our first night after the Escapade was spent at a casino near St Louis. Marcia loves her casinos and she had some "birthday" money burning holes in her pockets. It didn't take long for the casino to take that $$ from her, but we had a good time, a place to park the rig for a night and an awesome buffet for $7.77.

 The next day we headed for Middlesboro KY. A couple things we wanted to take care of and another chance to see the kids and friends made Middlesboro a pretty good choice. Leaving St Louis we had rain, just enough to mess up the rig and the poor jeep caught all the spray and was covered with a fine filth you didn't want to see or touch.

 We took the southern route dropping down into KY as soon as we could just so we could see something we had never seen before. (that part of KY) Dropping down slowed the trip down but then we are in no hurry anyway. We stopped at the "Outback Steakhouse" in Bowling Green KY for supper with the intentions of trying to make Somerset before we stopped for the night, but someone bumped the etch-a-sketch while we were enjoying a nice 6 oz steak, or it could have been the steak and full bellies that changed the plans. We stayed around the corner of the steakhouse in a Sam's parking lot.

 The next day we made it to CGNHP campground. When we stopped for fuel in Middlesboro we were greeted by Corey, Miss Jaelynn, and Beth so Beth and Miss Jaelynn rode with us in the rv from Middlesboro to the park in VA. We had a nice time visiting for the few days we were there and hated to leave but I know the frosty mornings will be there anytime now and I really don't want to see frost unless it is on a mug of root beer.

 Saturday morning I had the rig almost ready to roll when Marcia, Beth and Corey finished their morning hike. Just a few things Marcia had to put away and good-byes said and we were off again. Raccoon Valley RV Park was our destination, Escapee parks are about the only parks that allow you to wash your rig there and ours was a mess after the rain in St Louis. We got set up before noon and Jenelle came by to see us for a few min. She had just returned from a trip to Vegas and we had her spare keys to get into her house. She had spent the night in an airport somewhere between Knoxville and Vegas.

 Marcia and I was feeling pretty good because we started washing the jeep somewhere around 2 pm and by 4:30 we had washed and dried the jeep and the entire motorhome. I didn't think it could be done in one day let alone 2 and 1/2 hours. But we now had a clean and shining jeep and motorhome, and with the new wheels it was looking really good.

 After we finished off some left-overs for supper I walked over to the clubhouse only to find it locked up. What is up with the clubhouse being locked at 6 pm on a Saturday???? I started walking around the park when I saw Fran and Sharon, what I surprise. Then Grace that we knew from FL was there too. It was good seeing them all and we talked about how bad the current manager at the park is doing.

 The locked clubhouse was part of the reason we chose to leave Sunday am, although the manager assured us he would leave it open later for a while since the park was almost full. But we really wanted beat the rain that was forecast. It was head to Ga to wait out the rain or wait there in Knoxville. Ga is further south so I wanted to go.

 We arrived in Lyerly GA just in time to crash Bea and Bennett, and Wanda and Wallace's family reunion. I have always wanted to just walk up to a group having a reunion and invite myself to eat, so that is pretty much what we did. Thanks to Wanda and Bea and their great family we just parked the rv and joined in as if we had known everyone all our life.

 Bea and Bennett have put three rv sites with FULL HOOK UPS on their property and had invited us to come and stay anytime so we are taking them up on their offer. They had to leave Sunday afternoon to return to RedBay AL to have repairs done on their motorhome, so that left us here with the Dub U's Wanda and Wallace. They are four people that we have met since we started living in a house on wheels that is such an honor to know and call friends.

 Today it rained almost all day but tomorrow should be just cloudy skies so we will say good-bye to Lyerly and head south. We want to visit a cousin in southern GA before we see our son Jonathan at Ft Stewart. He is due to deploy to the sandbox next month and we want to see him before he leaves, so we must roll the wheels and pass on fun times here in Lyerly with the Dub-U's....... Thanks B & B, and W & W............