Family Campers & RVer's Retiree Rally

We spent the last week at the Ladson Exchange Park Fairgrounds in Ladson, South Carolina. Ladson is northwest of Charleston. There were over 300 RVer's including at least 2 tenters from as far away as Canada and there were 10 families from Colorado at this retiree rally. We spent the time doing things like playing games of all sorts, programs, eating, evening entertainment and meeting lots of new people. The rally had two evening dinners included, also a red hat luncheon and these were all catered by a local restaurant. The entertainment included gospel singers, a blue grass group, an Elvis impersonator and our own FCRV talent show. The rally was a week long and ended with a international parade of states and provinces that had attended the rally. Each state or province would parade across the stage and recited a cheer or song representing their state or province while making as much noise as possible. It was definitely a noise parade. A person had a really hard time hearing anything else since it was indoors. And of course that is the time that Tiffany called from Samoa. I had to exit the building to hear her and she opted to call back on Monday night.

We had a very good time and met famlies from Colorado, Canada and Illinois. I do believe that we will be doing this again next year which will be in Canton, Texas in March 2011.

Next stop is Nashville, Tennesse.

Augusta, Georgia

We spent a few days in Augusta, Georgia. We got to see a little of Augusta before the big event "The Masters". We visited Sandi's Aunt Nina and Uncle Wally who live in the town of Modoc, South Carolina which is not far from Augusta across the Savannah River. Modoc boosts a convience store, a gas station, post office and a soon to be paved road to the J. Strom Thurmond Lake. Nina & Wally gave us a guided tour of downtown Augusta including where the Masters will be played next month. It is good that we will be gone before the golf crowd comes to Augusta. Neither Joe nor I play golf but I like to watch it a little on TV but not get out there and actually swing a club.

Next stop is the FCRV Retiree Rally in Ladson, South Carolina which is just outside of Charleston.

Savannah, GA

I took the dogs for a walking tour through some of the downtown parks in Savannah. They are called "squares" and are located about every four blocks, and are surrounded by colonial houses and buildings. The squares have a lot of trees and spanish moss shading the walkways.

Back on Tybee Island we went to a restaurant called "The Crab Shack" they supposedly had 78 alligators, but we only saw a few baby alligators. The crab shack also had a "Cat Shack", and the cats actually used it. The cat shack was outside of the restaurant and the cats used it for dining just like people. We assume the restaurant worker feed the cats. The restaurant featured southern boils as thier speciality.

I went on a tour of the light house and old fort that has been on the island from colonial times through World War II. The last night on the island, and I took some pictures of the light house at night.

Tybee Island Light Station

Yesterday we arrived in Tybee Island which is near Savannah Georgia. Tybee Island is an small tourist town east of Savannah. There is a campground called Rivers End Campground is owned and operated by the City of Tybee. This campground is just like a typical commercial campground and a great place to stay. Rivers End Campground is the closest campground to downtown Savannah. Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day and Savannah boosts to have the second largest St Patrick's Day Parade. I remember Boston, Chicago, and Denver also claim to have large Saint Patrick's Day Parades.

One land mark on the island is the Tybee Island Light Station. Order by General Oglethorpe, Governor of the 13th colony in 1732, the Light Station has been guiding mariners safe into the Savannah River for over 270 years. This Light Station is one of America's most intact having all of its historic support building on its five acre site. The current Light Station displays its 1916 day mark with 178 steps and a First Order Fresnel lens which is nine feet tall. Tybee Island has a lot of great dinning and sea food restaurants, along with beaches on the Alantic Ocean, and Savannah River as it enters the Alanti c Ocean.

Geo Caching in New Orleans

We found that City Park has a lot of Caches most have been set since Katrina and are well maintained. City Park is north of the Downtown and French Quarter, and close to the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain.

The best cache and hiding place I have ever seen is a cache hidden as a lag bolt in a telephone pole. The actual cache is a mirco stainless pill capsule. The picture on the left shows the bolt head in the telephone pole. While the picture on the right shows me retrieving the capsule containing the log from behind the bolt head.

New Orleans

We spent several days in "The Big Easy". We visited the French Quarter. We walked down a lot of the streets, including Bourbon St, and I enjoyed lunch of a muffuletta and Joe tried boudin. I can not imagine Mardi Gras in these little streets and all the people crowded together. This time of year it was pretty quiet. We also toured the city to see all of the reconstruction/damage done by Katrina. It is hard to imagine all the damage done. We drove down streets and would see one house was repaired and the next was boarded up. It appears that raising houses is really big business. It is hard to imagine all of the water that was in New Orleans from Katrina. South of the French Quarter is the Mississippi River and on the North side of New Orleans is Lake Pontchartrain. Both the river and lake are higher than some parts of New Orleans, and the city is only protected by the levee's.

Kumbaya too

Joe introduced Laynie & Jay to a colorful fire, which we put what we call colorators in the fire. For those who do not know what a colorator is, it is a copper tube with holes and a vinyl garden hose inside. We throw the colorators in the fire and when the copper and vinyl hose burn they produce lots of color like blues, greens, purples and reds.

The dogs were introduced to some cows from afar. We did not let them get to close. The cows could not figure out why they were barking and definitely not afraid of them.

Kumbaya

We traveled to Dallas, but only stayed a few days. We spent time with a friend Laynie and went geocaching too while we were there. We then went to Crawford TX and stayed at Laynie & Jay's new RV resort at their land & cabin called Kumbaya. We introduced Laynie & Jay to geocaching by letting them find caches around their land. I think we created more converts to geocaching.

Kyoto thought she would help me do dishes. She cleaned off that pesky residue left on a fork before I washed it. I think that Osaka and Kyoto are adjusting just fine to the life of travel. They do enjoy all the smells.

Our next stop will be New Orleans

Potluck baskets

We stayed at a campground call Hill Country RV Resort in New Braunfels and we really liked it there. The people were very friendly and there were so many activities. We went to one potluck and there were a number of things (whatever they were called) that carried all of their place settings things needed for a potluck. I commented that I thought it was a really good idea and that I would like to look at them closer to see how they were made. It just so happened that the person who heard that comment was the lady who not only knew how to make them but made all of them. Her name is Mary Davis and she said that she made them and gave them to only the people that were coming back to Hill Country every year. I told her that I belonged to a camping organization called FCRV and in the state of Colorado it had 800 family campers who would love to do a project like making these baskets, that is what she called them. She decided to tell me how they were made and gave me a few hints. I took notes, but they really did not make sense until she gave me a basket that had been given back to her for repairs to look at. Needless to say, I set about trying to write a complete set of instructions. I also wanted to make a basket before I left New Braunfels. Well guess what? I made the basket, but the handles are knitted and I do not know how to knit! I have figured out how to do the knit & purl stitches, but the starting and finishing seems beyond me at this time. Mary gave me 2 handles that she knitted for me, so my basket is complete. I guess I will keep working on learning to knit or subsitute a web strap in its place. Anyway I will have a potluck basket to bring home.

We met another couple from Michigan, Elaine & Mel Winters at the potluck. Elaine wanted to make a potluck basket too, so I gave her what instructions I had written at that time with pictures of my step by step process of making my basket. Together I think they make sense. I told her to be careful as the basket info was guarded info. To continue to with the small world concept, Mel works for the Sheriff's dept in Berrin Springs, Michigan and will be patrolling the FCRV national campvention this summer. We left literature with Don & Kay McDermed to give them about FCRV.

Our next stop will be Dallas.

Last Saturday we met Patty, Larry and Sierra at Cabela's and did a little shopping. This was Sierra's first visit to a Cabela's and she spent some time feeding the fish. Patty and Larry then took us to a restaurant call the Salt Lick. It is a barbeque restaurant and I knew it had to be good because there were lots and lots of people waiting outside for a table. It turned out that our wait was 35 to 40 minutes. And was it good you might ask? Was the wait worth it you might ask also? The answer is YES!!! It was very good. That is why everyone was willing to wait for their table.

I think everyone knows that Texas is known for it's barbeque. New Braunfels has a hugh German influence too. So if we were eating out it was either barbeque or german foods. One could gain a lot of weight here.

On Sunday we took Patty, nephew Gene and Renae and Gene's daughter Sierra on a short geocaching experience/lesson. There is nothing like the actual event in geocaching. Reading about it and actually doing it are definitely two different things. The first two caches that we took them to, we could not find them. The caches were supposed to be located in a high people traffic park. They were probably removed by "muggles" who did not know what they were for. We then took them up the canyon and let them find some caches that we had already found and I think they were hooked. I don't think it will be long before they buy their first GPS unit and are on their own way to geocaching.