Winter 2015 Trip Begins

Our first day, Wednesday, was a long drive from Sunrise to Sunset but we made our goal a Wal-Mart parking lot just outside of Asheville, NC. It was a 550 mile drive. Sunny but cool and light traffic. No problems except when I put on my Polaroid sun glasses and looked at my computer which displays a GPS map, it was black. No problem, as I have a big Garmin GPS. After a while I found out the screen on my new computer must also be Polarized because when I switched back to standard glasses everything was fine.
Our next stop was only 90 more miles and we got to Greg & Sandy Lewis’s about 9:30 AM. We found the nice little house that Greg designed himself on Lake Keowee in SC.






The community called the Reserve makes the big homes on Deep Creek Lake look like little cottages. One is bigger than the next and the views from his place are fantastic. 




On Thursday they drove us up to the highest waterfall East of the Rocky Mountains on the Whitewater River.

Big Weekend Wedding in Ottawa, IL

Peggy’s oldest niece Kim invited our family to her big wedding West of Chicago. Our three girls, without their husbands, drove up Friday to party with their family. Did I mention our girls like to party. We figured we could drive up early Saturday since it was a night time wedding and reception.
My daughters also like to see anything of interest along the way. They stopped in South Bend and took a campus tour of Notre Dame on their way to Ottawa, IL. On Saturday they were ready to visit the nearby Starved Rock State Park just when we arrived. So I went with Joan & Pam while Peggy & Meg rested up for the party.



The party goes past my bedtime but we manage to get an early start and are back in Westlake by 4 PM on Sunday. It was a whirlwind weekend but it was fun to party with Peggy’s family again.

By the way, Saturday was also our 56th wedding anniversary.

Almost Ready to Head South

Every year, since we leave before USA’s actual Thanksgiving Day, Peggy likes to put on a big Turkey Fest with the family. This year it was held on November 1st. Great fun, great food and a wonderful family.

We picked up our RV the next day. The weather here in Cleveland has been record setting warm. It has been in the 70oF for the past 5 days.

The first big job was to rid ourselves of the huge Yellow Jacket nest that was built behind our refrigerator. The bees found the top vent and for the past several months built a nest that was 2’ x 2’ x 4” thick, there were thousands of them.

Luckily Carl Homberg, where we store the RV over the summer, warned us. I went out there one cold night and sprayed the nest with Raid. This seems to have killed them all. We used a shop vac. to dispose of the nest and dead bees.

All our packing is done, the RV is checked out, my bikes and canoe are loaded. But this weekend we need to go west of Chicago for a family wedding. Peggy’s niece Kim is getting married and we need to wish them well.

Florida 2015-16 plans firming up

Many of our friends are surprised that we are not heading to Mexico again this winter. We have gone to the Yucatan for the last seven years in a row and have spent 14 winters altogether in Mexico. We will miss the beautiful beach at Xpu-Ha.

When our kids were young we used to go to Florida all the time, vacationing there 16 different times.

We have decide to fly home for the holidays just like we did the past few winters. We have a big family and hate not seeing all the grandkids for Christmas.

 

We will fly in and out of Orlando on Spirit Airlines, cheap but hopefully on-time, we have no luggage. Since we know those dates we have reserved a few campgrounds around that time. Looking at the maps that I posted in my last last blog, #13 & #14 in map2, and #3 and #6 in map3. After #6 we could head further south, if Florida is too cold for us.

Central Florida is great for paddling on its crystal clear spring fed rivers.

Maybe not as exciting as my kayaking.

We also hope to do lots of Hiking & Biking.

 

 

We May Head to Florida this Winter

Working on my itinerary for the "Real Florida". Canoeing, biking and forest settings.

It’s been 7 years since we have been to Florida. We are thinking of starting in South Carolina and slowly working our way south into Northern Florida.

We will then visit some of our favorite North Central FL parks, and end up near the Orlando Airport in time to fly home for Christmas with the family. We plan to leave the RV in a storage lot near the airport.

When we fly back in January we plan to head further south where it will be warmer, staying in a few of our favorite County Parks. Most have a 14 day limit and take no reservations which gives us a chance to get a campsite. At this time of year all the Florida state parks are booked for the rest of the winter once you get south of Orlando.

These plans are still tentative but we will firm them up in the next month.