Day 108-Thurs, 16 Apr-Sutton WV to Grove City, Penn

Well, this is the last night in the LuvMasheen. We've been gone nearly 4 months and it's been a fantastic adventure. We've seen so much....seals in California, incredible landscapes in Arizona, a birder's paradise in Texas, while sand in Florida and so much in between. It was every bit as wonderful a holiday as last year...and that was hard to beat. Tomorrow at this time we will be with Kim and Ty, and I can't think of a better way to finish it up.
The weather has been really crappy...rain, rain, fog, and more rain. The sun finally came out this afternoon and it warmed up. We stayed in the KAO in Sutton, West Virginia. It's owned by, and sits behind, the Days Hotel and was okay, but certainly not like the KOAs we are used to staying in. There was no internet or cable television so we watched a couple of movies and were in bed early.
I think I said last year that Virginia and West Virginia are two States that are worthy of spending a lot more time in and deserve to be a 'destination' rather than a 'drive through'. I'd like to spend 2 or 3 weeks just looping through them on secondary highways rather than the interstate highways. The mountain areas especially are so beautiful...green rolling hills...and given the amount of forested area, this would be a wonderful place to visit in the fall. There were no leaves on the trees yet but most of the flowering trees are in full bloom.
The funniest sight I saw today was an older truck camper (the ones that sit in the back of a truck) that was being used as a chicken coop. Perhaps when the LuvMasheen is no longer required, we could park it in the back yard and raise chickens!
I'm already in full 'gardening' mode and anxious to get at it...but with a bit more restraint than last year so I don't spend the rest of the summer flat on my back! At the campsite yesterday, I saw my first tulips, daffodils, and robins of the year...and not a speck of snow...so I'm good to go home.
I'm so excited to see my little sweetheart Ty. Both he and Kim have been so sick with bronchitis and we'll try to take over a bit of the cooking and Ty-entertaining so Tim & Kim can have a bit of a break. He knows we will be there tomorrow and told Kim it was "one more sleep until Honey & Poppa come".
Thanks to everyone for travelling with us on another trip. We should be home Tuesday and I expect life will get back to 'normal' very quickly. Until next time, and the next trip, love and hugs to all. xx

Day 106-Tues, 14 Apr- St Mathew, SC to Wytheville, VA

Well, the shorts and t-shirts are packed in the bag, the little heater in the van has been on...clear signs that we are on our way home! As much as we hated to leave Daytona, we are looking forward to getting home.
We left yesterday morning and did a reasonable day's drive before deciding about 3:30 that we needed to hit a grocery store for some fresh food to cover the next couple of days. We got off the interstate and had a choice of heading to St Matthews or Orangeburg. I made the call to give our tourist dollars to the former and ended up paying for it.
The girl at the South Carolina welcome centre had given us the name of a campground in the area which we wanted to stop...the Sweetwater Campground...and after spending an hour trying to find a damn grocery store, we realized the campground wasn't too far from where we ended up shopping....we'd go cross country vice going back to the interstate and save time....NOT! Unfortunately there were no directions, no signs, no nothing and even after stopping three times to ask where the heck it was, we got so lost. We drove some interesting back roads, saw some lovely SC landscape, and pulled in to the campground about 6:15 pm. It was pretty basic...that means we didn't shower or use the toilets more than ABSOLUTELY necessary but we were too tired and hungry to go anywhere else. By this time, it had started to rain...hard...which it had on and off most of the day.
St Matthews is in 'peanut' country and judging from the beautiful homes in this sleepy little town, there's money in them thar shells! I had said it was a nice place to perhaps drive through the next day until we heard the news this morning...some 12 year old had an arguement with his 11 year old nephew and shot him! We're outta here!
It rained off and on again today and there was a huge accident on another interstate which intersected with the one we were driving on. We switched on the CB radio to listen to the truckers to try and find out what had happened as the traffic was back up on the opposite side of the highway from us for miles and miles. We heard everything from an airplane crashing on the highway to a train derailment but still haven't heard the story.
We are staying at the KOA in Wytheville Virginia which is in the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mtns. At one point on the drive here, we started climbing and hit fog as thick as anything I've ever seen but disappeared as soon as we drove down the other side. We were here by 2:30 so it was a nice early day.
Happy Birthday to my darling Jennifer...hope she had a great one! As Ty says, "only 4 more sleeps" until we see him and then a few more until we are in our own house and our own beds! Take care, and until next time, love and hugs to all. xx

Day 103-Saturday, 11 Apr 09-Daytona Beach

Photos: (1) waiting for tide to go out to set up beach chairs. (2) dolphins fishing off the beach. (3) full moon at sunset

A very quiet day for us...a busy day on the beach. I decided that I'd better give my skin a break today and even had a nap in preparation for the road trip home next week.

It was overcast and cloudy but it didn't stop the families determined to spend the day on the beach. We never listen to the weather report...we just check to see if the beach rental people are setting up umbrellas, chaise, ATVs, etc on the beach...if they are setting up, the sun will come out. They were busy getting their goods out by 8 am this morning and sure enough, the sun peaked out off and on all morning and was in full shine by lunch time.

I sat on the baloney and watched the comings and goings. The dolphins go by every morning, sometimes 2 or 3 times depending on the amount of fish. They were so close to shore this morning...even the lifeguard stood up when he saw them coming and I'd like to believe he was just curious vice checking to see if they were dolphins or sharks!! There has been a pair of Ospreys soaring the beach and one made quite a spectacular catch yesterday. There are lots of fish and often when we are swimming we will see a group of them dodging the legs of people in the water.

Sitting watching people all day has it's joys and tragedies. I love to watch the babies and small children enjoying the water. There are pools of water left behind in depressions on the sand when the tide goes out so it can be really warm. These are the places parents take the little guys to swim and play and they love it just like they love a bathtub. I'm appalled at the garbage that people leave behind. There is no lack of garbage cans which are emptied a couple of times a day but the cans, plastic bags, towels, take-out containers, chairs, etc that are left at the end of the day is awful and often goes out on the tide before it can be picked up. Dog shit is my biggest beef though and after watching people travelling with huge dogs, and often more than one, the ones who pick up after their pets are far fewer than those that don't. In the States, you aren't allowed to have animals near a pool but it doesn't stop people from walking them so close to the pool that you can smell the stuff they leave behind.

The old folks (us) took our boogie boards out yesterday and surfed the waves. Lots of fun but now I know how the real surfers feel when they have to sit and wait for that 'perfect' wave. I think I took a fair amount of skin off my knees when I'd jump on the board and only get dragged along the bottom instead of surfing the wave. It's lots of fun though.

Tonight we'll start to get stuff together and put the excess in the van in the morning. The afternoon will be given entirely to the beach, swimming, and boarding. We're down to the dregs in the fridge and will just buy what we need for the day instead of getting more than we need. We may get in one or two nights in the van before having to stay in hotels for the last few days and winterizing the van. However, I see that the weather is really starting to warm up at home and will get to 50 degrees next week. Note to Colin: if there's more than 6" of snow on the front lawn, I'm heading back South!

Happy Easter everyone...don't have a suger overload and for God's sake, don't let Carol & Sandra have any of those old fashioned hard covered eggs...they'll just get sick...everywhere...often. ha ha Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx

Day **100**-Wed, 8 Apr 09-Daytona Beach, FL

Photos: (1) St Augustine-fishing pier near marine (2) Coquina-limestone material made from seashells that hardens to concrete (3) one of the streets in Old Town (4) an old home in Old Town

Yesterday was pretty cool here and the wind was howling. It was certainly not a day to be sitting on the beach, even though the sun was shining. I did a couple of loads of wash but then figured that we had to get out and do something or the day would be lost. We decided we would get in the LuvMasheen and go to St Augustine, about 50 miles away.

If you have never been there, put it on your 'Top 10' places to visit. It's a delightful, historic, wonderful place that I knew exsisted but didn't realize it was all that it was. The city was founded in 1565. If you want to know the who, how, and why, google it. It's certainly interesting but the joy of it all is that the Spanish kept meticulous records about their early conquests; people kept diaries, letters, and other correspondence; and it's all resulted in houses from the 1600s still standing with the names of the original owners, and their business or position, on the front of every building in 'Old Town'.

Most of the building were constructed on 'coquina', which is something like limestone, and only found in Florida. It consists of shells that has been compacted (with dirt/sand) which the Spanish cut into blocks and let cure until it harded into blocks as hard as concrete. There's a fort which is entirely constructed of coquina and the Spanish found that during conflicts, cannon balls would imbed in the walls vice shattering them. It's amazing going through some of the old homes and seeing the same walls that were put up in the early 1600s.

Old Town is a beautiful place where the streets are one carriage wide, with cobblestone streets. Most of the building are now businesses but it all been done with careful consideration of the historical significance of the original house. Because they have been classified as 'historical', there are constrictions on how any construction can proceed, and in fact, St Augustine is the only city to have a full-time archeologist as part of the city council.

Over and above all the beautiful architecture, it's just a very pleasant place to be with lots of interesting shops. We had a fabulous supper at a seafood restaurant before heading home. The restaurant was on a pier over the water and they had small trap doors by the windows that you could drop bread (provided) to the fish. Of course the seagulls, aka Shit Hawks, fought for their share but it was fun.

Wayne went off this morning to have the new brake pads re-checked as they were still squealing. He's been gone since 10 am (it's now 5 pm) so heaven knows what else came up. I hit the beach about 10 am and except for a quick run to the washroom/lunch, I stayed out until 4 pm. There was hardly any wind and it was just cool enough to be able to sit and enjoy the sun. I finished reading 'Marley & Me'...a really nice book, pretty predictable, but fun to read.

Time to think about supper. I've discovered Birds Eye Steamfresh dinners...enough for 2 with a small salad..and they are delicious! It's steamed, in the bag, in the microwave so no pots even. We'll be packing the LuvMasheen on Easter Sunday and heading for home Monday morning. After spending a few days with Tim & Kim, we expect to be back on Rainbow Crescent around 21 Apr. Until then, love and hugs to all. xx

Day 98-Mon, 6 Apr 09-Daytona Beach

Photos: (Bottom) Sunrise this morning and a long surf fisherman. (Top) Noon during the approaching thunderstorm. The lifeguard blew his whistle to get everyone out of the water and the rain came down!

It was a crazy day--weatherwise. We woke up to 'almost' sun, then hard, pounding rain, then sun, then whipping wind & sand, then sun again. I was either on the balconey or watching television for most of it. A group of kids spent most of the day building a big sand fort by the water but the tide washed it away pretty quickly. There has been unusually high tides here for the last couple of days but I notice that it's approaching a full moon so perhaps that's the reason.

After dark the other night, we were sitting on the balconey listening to the music from the patio DJ and I happened to look to our left and saw a rocket that had been launched from Cape Kennedy. It was a large glowing ball--it's the rocket booster I guess--and then the DJ announced that everyone should look back over the pier to see it as well. We watched for about 5 minutes before it eventually went up in to cloud cover. The last time we were here, a rocket was launched while we were doing a tour of Cape Kennedy and the whole bus shook. It happens frequently here which makes me wonder just how much 'space junk' is up there!

I've discovered another sure sign of 'maturity'. I bought a new t-shirt the other day and put it on this morning after removing the price tag. What I forgot to remove...after wearing the darn thing all day, was that long, sticky strip and has the size on it! It's not the first time, which makes it all the worse.

I found a great website today. There's a wildlife group in BC that has put live webcams on three different Bald Eagle nests. The birds have all layed eggs, which they caluculate should be hatching any moment/day. The site is: 3ws.hancockwildlife.org It's neat to watch and listening to what is happening and the clarity of the web feed is amazing. Check it out!

Not much else happening here. We head home on the 13th and figure it will be a 4-5 day drive to Tim and Kim's. We'll probably stop in to see Corky & Debbie as well as Scott and Brenda and see how winter has treated them. Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx

Day 96-4 Apr 09-Daytona Beach, FL

What an extraordinarily beautiful day! Warm sun, slight breeze and warm ocean was the order of the day. I was on the balcony by 8:30 am and came in at 3 pm. I just hated to leave the big waves and the warm water but enough was enough. We'll both sleep well tonight!

I was sitting outside this morning with my cuppa and thinking about Mom & Dad and how much they loved Daytona Beach. They used to come here before Dad had his stroke and they travelled around the area, missing very little. Mom loved the ocean and although Dad couldn't manage the waves because of his leg, he really enjoyed swimming in the pool. They would come home, both brown as anything, and talk about their next trip here. Whenever I see a lone woman on the beach, especially with silver blonde hair, I automatically think of Mom. I was just getting up to come in and make more coffee, when all these huge, beautiful soap bubbles started to float past me. Obviously someone above us was making them but it was a nice feeling to see them float past right at that time.

We sat on the patio for the better part of the day as there are tables with big umbrellas. I can sit in the sun for a while but I need shade occasionally and this fit the bill. They have a DJ here from 12 noon to 12 midnight on Fri and Sat so we listened to the music, ate lunch and just watched people. There is a couple here with twin girls, about 12-14 mos old, and they are adorable! They each wear big floppy hats and dance when the waves come in around their feet. So cute! Of course there's the usual older women in skimpy bikinis and guys with floppy bellies but they are all enjoying themselves.

We put a pizza in the oven tonight and it was a real treat after not having an oven for so long. It's funny how you really notice the small things when you're used to travelling in a van. We don't lack for much but every once in a while I think about the things I take for grantide at home.

I'm convinced salt water enhances tanning..my eyebrows have disappeared (they are white) and the rest of me is brown. Wayne's tan is spectacular but he's out walking the beach every day and doesn't seem to burn like I can. All in all, I think we look healthy. My back is a bit tight as I haven't been in the pool as much as I'd hoped but a few more days of skipping waves should either ease the tension or put me down...I think the former! Wayne's throat infection is done and he's on the last couple of pills. We're very thankful that we have so little health issues to deal with and plan to take advantage of that while we can.

Take care everyone. Kisses and hugs to my 6 kids, my Ty-man, and lots left over for everyone else. Until next time, we love you. xx

Day 95-Fri, 3 Apr 09-Daytona Beach, FL

Another busy, lazy, sun-soaking day in Daytona.
Wayne actually slept until 7:45 am, a nice change for him, and we were out the door to the flea market by 9:30. We had been there years ago and I was awed by the size of it. If anything, it's grown and even though there are duplicate and triplicate booths, all selling the same stuff, I can't think of anything you'd ever want that wasn't available. It's about 4 miles of booths and laid out in grids--A2,B3,C3, etc. We lasted about 2 hours--the sun had come out and it was getting hot and crowded, so we left.
It was really overcast this morning and had sputtered rain a bit on the way there. However, as most often happens along the ocean coastline, the clouds parted and a very hot sun emerged, complete with that wonderful breeze.
We headed for the beach which soon started to get crowded. There seems to be 2 or 3 areas (that we can see from our hotel) along the beach which is the most popular, and the front of our hotel is one. Perhaps the lone lifeguard has something to do with it although the beach patrol has a couple of vehicles that also patrol the shore.
It only took a short time before the water started to look appealing and we both headed out in to the waves. The water was warmer than the pool and it was wonderful. We ended up going back in a few times to cool off, or just have fun trying to jump over or stay standing in the huge waves. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm again and I seem to remember boogie boards in the grocery store for $5 so we may have to invest in a couple for the remainder of our trip.
I love watching the kids sliding through the water on very thin boards along the shoreline. Just as the waves is lapping the shore, the kids toss the board so that it's sliding through the water. It only goes a few feet before they jump on it and 'surf' along the shore, sometimes doing some impressive twists and twirls.
Tomorrow there's a big crawdaddy party downtown. The paper said some guy is bringing in thousands of pounds of crawfish from Louisianna and there will be a block party. We've had our big feed already and I expect we'll be like the rest of the old folks here...we'll leave the hot sun, cold beer, and crawfish to the teenagers.
Today is Cousin Sandy's 60th birthday and she's celebrating again in Barbados....Happy Birthday 'Tony'. Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx

Day 94-Thurs, 2 Apr 09-Daytona Beach, FL

Despite a cloudy day yesterday, and warnings of a tornado just west of here last night, today was a beautiful sunny day and we made the most of it. By 9 am, I was sitting on the balcony in my bathing suit with my coffee. It doesn't get much better than that!
We get the morning sun on the balcony, which is nice and if we want to really heat it up, we go down to the beach in the afternoon. I actually got up to my thighs in the ocean today and was quite surprised at how warm-ish it was. Wayne went in swimming twice and if it's as hot and sunny as forecasted for the weekend, I expect I'll be in for sure. I tend to be quite happy wandering the beach as there is always a breeze so it doesn't feel hot. However, you have to be very careful as you can get a real burn if you're not careful. The beach was quite busy with families today so I guess it's another spring break somewhere. It clouded over early in the afternoon and I came in for a nap. When I got up the sun had come back out but not all the people.
We put the van in yesterday to have the oil changed and on the way back we stopped downtown to check out the pier. It's obvious we haven't been here for a long time as I was shocked to see they charge $1.50 just to walk out to the end. Don't need to see it that bad! We went to 'Hog Heaven' for supper and had the best pork ribs I EVER had in my life and I see a return trip for more before we leave Daytona Beach.
Wayne met a fellow surf fishing on his morning walk. Turns out the guy is from Orleans....small world...and has been coming here for 13 years. He's in a condo just down the road and said it's quite nice...1 bdrm for $1200 a month. We are going over tomorrow to have a look at what's available in that bldg as well as a couple of others while we are here. We'd like a 2 bdrm as I can see the Ty-man out on that beach..he could run and play and have so much fun. We'd love to be able to have the kids come down to visit while we were here...or where-ever.
Tomorrow is flea market day. Nope, can't think of a thing we need but as I'm always telling Wayne, looking is half the fun. We'll go early in the morning in case the weather is better than forecasted, which is most often the case.
Carol sent a picture of grandson Sawyer's first haircut on his 1st Birthday. I laughed when I saw it because it was so cute. It doesn't seem like a year ago that we were anxiously waiting for an e-mail to find out when Melanie had the baby! Too fast, too fast, too fast...as in time passes!
Sounds like Spring is slowly arriving at home. Al & Sue are heading to the cottage for the weekend and Carol & Bob are raking outside. We have lots to look forward to and will be anxious to sleep in our own beds.
Until next time, love and hugs to all. xx