Time sure does fly by

 It really blows my mind to see how quickly the time between my posts goes by. I guess keeping busy with family, doctors, and the park has a lot to do with it. So I'll give you all the quick version of the past few weeks.

 Several weeks ago I had an in-grown toenail taken care of, but two days before my two week check up it got infected. So that resulted in the doctor removing the entire toenail. OUCH, so now I have to soak it daily for two or three weeks, and keep it wrapped until I go back for the two week check up which will be the second two week check up, but it doesn't hurt too much, (unless Marcia steps on it).

 Marcia had an annual physical and we are waiting on the blood tests to come back before we know anything, She will have a few other tests done before we leave the area. She also had an ingrown toenail taken care of, and because of the problems I have had with mine we are being extra careful treating hers.

 Marcia has wanted LASIK surgery on her eyes for years, and I have told her to do the research and have it done. Last week she had an appointment to see if LASIK would help her, and they scheduled the surgery for this past Friday. We got up really early and drove the 80 + or - miles to be there before 7 am. They let me watch the whole thing, and all I can say is, modern medicine has came a long way. Maybe I will do a separate blog on just the surgery?

 8 hours after the surgery we returned for a check up. (not two weeks) The doctor said she was doing great, and was seeing 20/30 and reading some of the 20/25 line. Now that doesn't sound really good until you think that they had put a lot of medicines in her eyes that day, and they cut a layer of her eye off and put it back after they took the laser to it. She has a follow up appointment Thursday.

 Marcia is really enjoying her duties at the CGNHP, and I have pretty much been a no show at the park leaving it all up to Marcia. I "might" help her out some when my toe gets better, or should I milk this out as long as I can???

 We are also getting to see family and friends a lot, getting Marcia's BINGO fix satisfied, and just enjoying life......................so until the next time....................

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

 Yesterday we mover the Kountry Star. It was a long drive, (about 5 miles) from the CGNHP Camp ground in VA, to a site close to the CGNHP Headquarters in Kentucky. The volunteers that were here left a day early due to stormy weather coming tomorrow.

 The park is located in three states, KY, TN, and VA. The massive 4 lane double tunnel goes through the park in KY and TN, one end is in KY and the other is in TN. The visitors center is in Middlesboro, also spelled Middlesborough, which is in KY. The Camp Ground is located in VA, and driving from the CG to the visitors center you must enter TN.

 Part of this explains how and why we confuse so many people when they ask "where you from". We were raised in KY about three miles from the point where you can stand in all three states at one time. Our tags are TN, because we use our son's address and he lives in TN about three miles from where you can stand in all three states at once. So being from KY it is natural to say KY when ask, and we are learning to say TN because of our tags.

 Our site for the next two months has full hook-ups, the satellite dish is in a very awkward position, but we get TV. We are also very close to or maybe in Bartlet Park in Middlesboro, so the view out the front windshield is a view of the park.

 We will start helping out where ever we can be used in the CGNHP this weekend. We aren't sure what or where we will be yet, but we know the staff is a great bunch of people, and they are fun to spend time with. So most of my blog posts will have something to say about the park for the next couple of months.........................stay tuned.............

Sea Salt

 As most of you know we just returned from a 7 day cruise, and I really have to warn everyone. The salt in the air from the sea will shrink all your clothes. I can't understand how it effects the clothes you don't take with you but it does. I think mine shrunk a size or two in just one week.

 Saturday 05-05-2012 we left the Thousand Trails Park in Clermont and drove over to Sumter Oaks RV Park near Bushnell. We were greeted by the Dub-U's Wanda and Wallace, Bennett and Bee, Fran and Sharron, Wayne and Diane, and several others in the park. We didn't even hook up the rig, Marcia just plugged in the electric so Leo wouldn't get too hot while we were away.

 Sunday morning 13 of us piled into two trucks and headed to Tampa. We dumped the bags out and waited on Wallace and Fran to park the trucks. Then we checked in, and boarded the ship. The first thing they told us was to go to deck 9 where the food was waiting on us. (they didn't have to tell us twice either)

 On deck 9 we found 6 different buffet lines full of food, one buffet line full of deserts, and three swimming pools. So needless to say we all started filling plates and stuffing our faces. After 1;30 we were able to put our carry on stuff in our rooms, and we had to check out our balcony.

We went back to deck 9 to watch the views as the ship took us through Tampa Bay towards the Gulf Of Mexico.

Here is Wanda and Wallace

Fran and Sharron

Wayne and Diane

Marcia and Myself

Bee and Bennett

And I didn't get pictures of Elaine, Don, and Elinor.

By now it was time to get ready for dinner, the fancy dinner where the waiter unfolds your napkin and places it in your lap. (I always try to beat him to that) We were all sitting at the same table, it was a long table. They ask for drink orders, then take appetizer and meal orders, someone brings bread, (hard bread) and after the the food is gone they take desert orders. You get to chose from a menu with several choices, and there is a menu for any day if you don't like the daily menu.

 After dinner there is always something going on if you want to do it, most nights we just hung out on the balcony. We did watch the comedy show one night, and the "love and marriage show" one evening. After the third night we quit going to the fancy dinner and just ate from one of the 6 buffets, the fancy dinner took too long and I was having a hard time sitting that long.

 On the ship there was a casino, several bars, gift shops, liquor store, main stage for events, a spa, three pools, three hot tubs, two or three dinning rooms, a gym, a water slide, and a bunch of staterooms. I'm sure I missed some of the things on the ship, but you get the idea that you can stay busy all week long just checking out the ship.

 Our first day was spent boarding the ship and leaving Tampa. Day two was at sea, day three we docked in Cozumel, day four we docked in Belize, day five was Mahogany Bay Honduras, Day six was Grand Cayman Island, and day seven was at sea. Sunday when we woke up the ship was cruising through Tampa Bay going back to the port.

 This is the quick version of the cruise, Marcia set supper on the table so I'll close this out and eat.....

Hommies Catch Up with us.

 After spending a few days with our boys, (and Miss Jaelynn) at Ft Stewart Ga where Jon is now stationed we headed south. Yea maybe the wrong direction this time of year but we do have the cruise and need to be in Tampa Sunday AM.

 Our first stop was a Passport America park between Titusville and New Smyrna Beach. It is a nice little park right off I-95. It has a clubhouse, pool, bath house, and full hook-ups, and the price is not too bad either.

 Marcia and I spent a couple days just playing on the beaches and relaxing.

 A couple of Marcia's closest running buddies from Kentucky were coming to FL to spend a few days, and they wound up pitching their tent at the same park. They said they were doing this trip on the cheap, so tenting it was the plan. I was having one of my days so I was in bed long before they arrived, but Marcia pointed them in the right direction and they had camp all set up by the time I crawled out of be the next morning.

Their day one was spent driving from KY to FL, but day two consisted of a trip to the beach. I elected to hang out at the rig and maybe drive over to the beach later. I know girls need their "girl" time.

Beth's niece, and Kristy's daughter frolicked in the Atlantic Ocean, they would let the waves wash them upon the beach, then they would roll back out with the returning waves.

And the "Three Amigos" lay in the sand watching.

That night was time to "unwind" so we broke out the "MARGARATOR" I really learned a lot by listening to those three, the more margaritas they had the better the stories got. We all managed to make through the night and the next day was moving day for us.

We packed up and rolled on over to the Thousand Trails Park in Clermont FL. When we checked in Marcia ask about the girls pitching their tent on our site, (remember they are on the cheap this trip) and to our surprise you can have two tents and ten people on a site. ( I hope I'm never on a site next to two adults and 8 screaming kids). So Marcia call Beth and told her she was welcome to pitch their tent next to us.

So for the past three days I have been pretty much a bachelor. Marcia and the girls have been visiting the Mouses House. Marcia got a deal on a four day, four park pass so they were taking advantage of it. Too bad they couldn't find a three day pass because three days is all we will have. We have to move to Bushnell to get ready for the cruise and the girls have to get back to KY.

I have really enjoyed having hommies around, and enjoyed being a bachelor during the days, and I know the Three Amigos and the two side kicks have enjoyed their time together. So tomorrow, (today really it is 3 am now) we will say good-bye, but like a lot of our RVing friends we know we will meet up again....

Been too long

  It has been a long time since my last blog post, but what can I say? Too much fun, or not much going on, or a little of both.

  I guess it has been a little of both. We have made it to Ft Stewart Ga where our son Jonathan will be stationed. We have no idea how long he will be here, there is a rumor floating around that his unit might be deploying to "the sand box" in September. Either way we will spend some time with him while we can.

 When we decided to spend a few extra days here our #2 son Corey decided to drive down with his daughter and spend a couple days with us. We are really happy that he did come, seeing and spending time with them is always special.

 Thursday we will pull out and point the nose towards the south. No set plans except to be in Bushnell Fl before the 6th of May when we get on the boat for our cruise. I do want to go down the coast before we cut across to Bushnell. But for now we will enjoy the company of Jon, Corey, and Miss Jaelynn..........

Kentucky Basketball

  The month of March is known as "March Madness", which is in reference to the NCAA's tournament which is held in March. The madness starts with the selection of which teams will be playing in the tournament, and what seed, (placement) they will get. Each team that wins their prospective division is an automatic, the rest comes from their record over the past year, and some how they have eight teams play and the winners of those four games get in the tournament.

  After the first four games you have 64 teams playing, 16 teams in four regions. These teams play the first week of the tournament, some Thursday, and some Friday, with the winners playing Saturday and Sunday. The winners of two games move on to the "sweet sixteen", where 16 teams play the following week, and the winners advance to the elite eight. The winners of the elite eight move on to the final four which is played the next week, with the two remaining winning teams playing the following Monday night for the National Championship.

 OK I said all that to lead up to us watching the March Madness. The first game we were in Del Rio and got the games on satellite TV. The next week we were somewhere else and I had to watch KY play on the PC because we couldn't get local channels where we were, so we moved the next day to a place that we could get local TV. And we wound up in New Orleans LA for the final four games, and it wasn't a coincident that the final four games were played in New Orleans.

  As most everyone knows I watch Kentucky Football and Kentucky Basketball, no other sports interest me. So to be in the same town that the final four was being played, and the fact that Kentucky was playing was very exciting for me. Although we didn't spend the $$ for tickets to see the games, ($350.00 - $7000.00 per ticket) we did get to mingle with the crowds in New Orleans. We did get to visit "Bracket Town" which was an area of the convention center set up with all kinds of activities and shows for the fans. Bracket Town is where I got placed in the middle of the Kentucky Wildcats. (the pic on the blog)

 Walking around The French Quarter we saw plenty of Kentucky fans, along with fans from Kansas, Ohio, and Louisville, which were the four teams playing in the final four. It was exciting just to be around that many fans. We had thought we might try to get some tickets to the championship game from some of the fans of the loosing two teams, but that thought went away after we saw how big the super dome was. You would need binoculars just to see the numbers on the players jersey, and I couldn't imagine trying to watch a game from that far away.

 We watched The Kentucky Wildcats knock off the Kansas Jayhawks in the National Championship game from the comforts of our home on the TV. New Orleans had some pretty bad storms just before the game and a lot of rain through out the night so we didn't go down town to celebrate with everyone, but we were celebrating, and we will continue to celebrate until football season starts this fall.

 Congratulations to Coach Cal, and THE KENTUCKY WILDCATS. and all the KY FANS.

We are now parked in Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale AL. We will hang out here for a couple days before heading on to FL. We have about two weeks until we meet up with our son Jon in Ft Stewart GA. Jon is serving in the U S Army, and has returned from a tour in Korea, he will be stationed at Ft Stewart GA.

  If this blog post is a bit confusing you can blame it on me typing it at 3 am......................

Del Rio to Columbus

After we left Del Rio we fought the winds headed towards San Antonio. There was a huge storm coming and we wanted to get out of its way if we could. Friends had let us know they were close by so we checked our options as to where we could hunker down for a couple days. They were in Stonewall, which was too far north, and out of the way to take the rig so we wound up at Medina Lake Thousand Trails Park. The above picture was our sight.

I spotted this little creature rolling this mud ball around. It was comical watching it, it would position its rear legs on the ball and its front legs on the ground and start rolling it. Soon it would have to stop, climb up on top of the ball to look around. I guessed it was looking to see which way to go, and then it would start rolling the ball again, but the ball didn't always go the way the bug wanted it to so it would have to change directions after climbing up and looking around. You can always find something interesting if you slow down enough to look around.

This area of Texas is blessed, (or cursed if you a garden) with plenty of deer. The couple in the site across from us bought a bag of feed and would feed the deer. every time he left and returned in his jeep the deer would gather around. He almost had them eating out of his hand.

We hunkered down here while we waited on the storm to pass. It rained really hard, and a tornado hit about 50 miles south of us, but we were just fine hanging out with all the deer.

This is Medina Lake, or what was left of it at this end. You can see where the shore line used to be on the other side of the water that is there now. The day before I took this picture I could step across the water, but the rain the night before was filling the lake.

Here is Roger and Brenda, two of the greatest people we have met since we started full-timing. We took the jeep and drove to Stonewall to visit them on Wednesday. Roger drove us around showing us all the beautiful wild flowers. The blue bonnets that Texas is famous for were blooming, and since Roger spends a lot of time riding his motorcycle enjoying what ever area they are in he knew where some nice fields of blue bonnets were. We stopped at Coopers BBQ and had a terrific lunch, and when we got back to their rig Brenda had a very special desert waiting on us. Thanks Roger and Brenda for a great day.

This is one of the fancy gates we saw on the ride, and I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the flowers. Oh well....

We couldn't get CBS on our batwing antenna at Medina Lake and the NCAA tournament was going to be on CBS so we decided to get closer to a larger city so I could watch the games. As most of you know I'm no sports fan, but I try not to miss any Kentucky football or basketball games, and since the cats are #1 ranked this year I am not going to miss watching them play.

We were passing through San Antonio and Marcia needed the stamp for the Alamo, (she is trying to get a stamp from all the National Parks) so a stop was planned. To our surprise we saw a sign to Mission Concepcion NP.

We got educated that day, The Alamo is NOT part of the National Parks. We were told it has so much meaning to Texas, it is a state park. The National Park around San Antonio is Mission Conception, a series of 4 or 5 missions in the area. We got Marcia's stamp and learned a little that day, (and we didn't have to go down town San Antonio in the rig.

We made it to the Thousand Trails Park in Columbus Texas. Close to the park some group was having  a big shooting event. These guys and gals were all dressed as they dressed in the 1890's. It was a 4 day event for them so we got to hear a lot of gun fire going off all weekend.

I had to go check it out. It was cool seeing everyone dress up in their era outfits, and the guns were awesome. One guy even had a Gatling gun, and for $20 he would let you pop off 20 rounds. (that didn't take long)

Here is one of the families attending the weekend festivities.

Tomorrow, (today really) we will be moving to Dickson TX so we can visit with Neiel and Sue, a couple we met in Knoxville several years ago. Neiel has had a bad winter health wise, (Yuma don't have the best doctors) after having heart problems all winter in Yuma, he found out when he got back to Houston he has more problems. we will spend a couple days there before heading to The Big Easy for the weekend.......