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We are camped at Barks Farm Campground. Way off the beaten path! Seem to have some plenty of permanently parked! But we are right on the river and the people are very interesting.

 

 

The owner of the camp also has a couple dogs that run around, Sadie and Bubba seem to have hit it off and are about the same size.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We took a drive out to Cades Cove in the Smokey Mountains and walked around a little. There are several original homesteads and lots a history.

 

There are several churches and cemeteries. The foundation is a bit rocky!!!

 

 

 

 

Not to mention wildlife…

We saw a black bear, but there were too many people and it was too far away to catch a photo.

 

 

Oh, and pretty flowers…

Once we left FL enroute to NJ for the June 13th party, we had some free time to travel around. So we took the opportunity to stop in Bowling Green, KY at T S Performance. They help diesel engines run better. Rob had bought a kit from them and he and Robert could never get it to connect, even ordered a different set of connectors. So when the tech’s came outside to take a look at what was ordered and what was in the coach, they said – “yep, that would’ve never worked”. Turns out we have an ’07 engine but it has ’10 heads and other components. The guys were having fun – made a special set of wires just for us. Then when they and Rob went to get it all tested, the computer wasn’t reading something correctly. Turns out that some wires were switched in which connector it went to… Big OOPS. That meant the guys in the shop had to recheck all the ones that were made for 2010’s. So Rob worked from behind the RV  up into the engine compartment and the tech’s worked from inside. Once it was all connected and reading correctly, we were off for a test ride – WEEEEEE.

Needless to say, Rob made sure to put the petal to the metal to see just what she could do! The techs sat on our bed with the motor compartment open, I sat in the middle of the coach to be the go between for communications and Rob had fun driving. He also made sure to stop well a few times!

I guess it had something to do with the people we hung out with. We enjoyed them so much the first time we stopped here and met them on the way to FL. As we are headed north we figured we should just backtrack and visit them again.

Of course we all met in the first place because of all the dogs!  They have 3 little ones – this cute little girl is Malonnie. 

The other 2 are Bodie and Oso.

The first time we got here and saw this, we didn’t know anything about it. We have learned a lot about it since then and I guess there is a huge craze on these. Only thing about Don’s is that inside this tent is anything but Big Green Egg cooker!

 

 

The weather has been warm but no humidity – YAY. However the bugs were definitely biting! Seems Genia gets almost as many bites as I do, almost!

They enjoyed Sadie, reminded them of one of their previous dogs. Aww.

Off we are in the morning, with a stop in Bowling Green KY for a little somethin somethin for the motor in our RV.  Just a stop over stay overnight, before heading to TN and see some friends we haven’t seen in about 15 years! SOOOO excited!

Not that it hasn’t been nice, but it has been humid and quite wet with some whopper rain storms, not to mention mosquitoes which seem to love me. I enjoyed the thunder and lightening, just not the mud Sadie brought in with her. There were a few decent days thrown in that allowed us to go out and about. But it is time for a change in scenery. So off we are, backtracking a little by stopping in to see some friends in Jemison AL first. Then we will move on after a few days.

The weather was nice, not hot nor humid, so we decided to adventure out.  First thing of interest was taking Sadie to a dog park where we played with a frisbee for the first time. She was actually able to catch it a few times. Some of the problem had to do with the delivery – I had a tendency to throw it at an angle and toward the ground! 

The next stop was a walk across the parking lot to another area that had a dog park fenced in on 3 sides. The 4th side was water! Since Sadie had been introduced to playing in water previously, we were pretty sure she would enjoy all of this. We were not disappointed. I think Sadie was quite pleased too!

I have many more pictures but I don’t want to overwhelm anyone, being the “Proud Parent” showing all those endless photos of their babies!!!

Our next stop was a drive out to Fort Pickens

Rob enjoying history liked this part of our day. Although he would have enjoyed getting out and walking the grounds, he knew that would tire him out too much so he took as much enjoyment as able driving through it all. Here are a few highlights

We also made a stop at a bicycle shop to look at bikes for Rob and a bike rack of sorts to use in the trailer and on the car. Well after looking at the types of racks and how they work, he had a light bulb above his head!  He figured out how to use one rack on both – he is so very talented, and cute! Well to me at least! Unfortunately he is getting his father’s lack of ass – boo hiss!

We have been sitting here and watching the rain for the past week. Now, not all day, but off and on everyday. Some storms have been severe. I am attaching a blip from a video I took, off course the sound of the thunder is soooo much less than actual. Also the sky looked purple at one point. In order to get the video on here, I had to shorten it and turn it, even though I took it upright. So to see it, it says to download it. I know that on android it doesn’t actually stay on your device from what another told me when they did it. So good luck.

 

We did get Sadie out to play. 

 

 

 

 

 

One day we even went out for a ride. Blackriver State Park is in the area. One stop was at the Bear Lake camping area. I had other photos from this day, but I can’t find them now, bummer.

 

 

 

 

 

We did have some interesting rigs pull in here.

 

Oh, one of the last things was something we saw in Indiana.

Now most of you know I love purple, but even I thought this was a little too much.

We are settling in here in FL. Spent the first week at a great KOA in Milton.  So far we have our new mail forwarding address, our DL’s, and took our CWL class.

While at the range, our instructor was telling us about some of the FL laws and regulations. One odd thing has to do with protecting your property if you have chickens. Well, not only did he have chickens, but he was all egged out and offered us some. He gave us an 18 pack and said we were welcome to have more.  I have to say that they were very good!

 

One of the quirks in FL is that you have to have any vehicle you bring to the state for registration get a VIN verification.  In the course of one day, we had our fingerprints done at the city police department, but had to have the county sheriff come out to do our vehicle VIN’s since that was easier than us taking them all to the officers. And, it’s always helpful to be up front with the officers. Once he found the VIN’s and wrote them down, along with the license plates, he went to his car and had them run to verify our information. Being that CA is so efficient, as soon as we changed the insurance to a FL provider and address, they sent out a notice and suspended the registrations for being uninsured! I just love the government offices and their choices of being efficient and timely.

While parked over at the KOA some of you saw pics of one of our overnight neighbor already, but I am going to share it here. He came in late, left early – barely got pictures to prove his existence.

 

 

Then while doing some grocery shopping, we came across an interesting shaped gallon of milk at Costco. What do you think????

 

Everyday is just a little piddling around here and there. Pretty boring right now. We have a massage on saturday down in Destin, plan on driving around a little, maybe hit a dog beach with sadie too!

Oh, and Happy Easter – don’t eat too  much candy! LOL

WOO HOO

Sorry about this, my original message had other ideas than I did and when I posted, nothing was there….  I will try to recapture my previous thoughts and wit!

After leaving MI, we stopped and saw the brothers and families in Ft Wayne, IN – again. Makes for a nice stopping place, rest, visit, and do laundry of course. Logan and Sadie seemed happy to have time to visit and play also. Upon our return to our “home” we found all was still in tact and functioning. Always a good thing. We were told of a great ice storm that we missed – oh Darn – NOT!

We finalized our time with the Red Bay Experience by getting the back end buffed – the coach, not Rob; paid our bills; and said good bye to some new friends. We took the RV, car, and trailer to the scales that are at the dog food plant and did some weighing – the whole and parts. We have determined when all said and done, we’re not quite 3,000 lbs over weight. Our friends Jami & Shane would shake their heads at us to get it down. Guess we will need to trim some more weight, in other words “stuff”. We keep doing this when we have an opportunity which we did before leaving Red Bay. We took all our bins and buckets down in the trailer, swapped out some winter and summer clothes inside the coach, and got rid of a handful more things.

We left Red Bay on Friday late morning in the rainy weather and drove all the way down to Jemison AL, which is between Birmingham and Montgomery. Kudos to the techs for sealing up the rear passenger side under the floor. When we parked, the carpet was not wet at all! We already met some of the neighbors in the park, enjoyed their fire pit along with conversation and lots of laughs last night until the rain forced us under their awning to gaze longingly at the fire. The laughs and drinks continued on…

Research and options weighed, we have decided to make our domicile in FL instead of SD as we previously planned. We are coming up against some hurdles that we can’t get around. Hence the trip southward, but only as far as the panhandle area. For the next several weeks we will take care of getting the mail services set up, then it will be DMV and voting. Lastly we are going to be taking a class and obtain our CCW License aka CWL, depending on who you ask.

I haven’t done much in the way of photos since there hasn’t been a lot to see other than rain, rain, and you guessed it, rain. We have been good homebodies, doing indoor projects for ourselves, playing cards, cooking and baking. Occasionally we did have to venture outside of course to let Sadie water and fertilize the ground.  It is definitely spring here as the pollen is making things yellow and the mosquitoes are a biting.

Whew, the wedding done and all the people have flown home. We left MI and drove to IN for a stopping place. Did laundry and relaxing before driving back to our home parked in AL.

I was able to download pics from Buddy’s camera and he got a few of the ceremony as well as a few other candid moments. This 1st one was during the ceremony when the parents and brothers each tied a ribbon around their hands clasped together. So they are now bound together.

Next we have the photo of the the deal being sealed with a kiss.

 

A few more candid shots that were good.

 

 

 

Rob, Robert & I in the kitchen helping cook up the taco dinner.

 

We also had a mini celebration for Robert’s birthday while we were all together. He won’t actually turn 28 until March 16th, at which time the grandparents in CA hope to take him out to dinner then.  We put one candle into his desert and sang. I was a little slow with the camera so he had to “pose” and be his silly self.

This past week and weekend has been about our daughter Jennifer getting married. We drove to central MI, arriving Tuesday evening. We were served a wonderful fish chowder she made for dinner. Now I am not much of a fish person, but I have to admit, I enjoyed it until I found the small bone, which seems to be my lot in life. I am always a little more cautious and leery when eating after that occurs. But I was lucky as no more surfaced.

Wednesday we took our first drive of many to Bay City Saginaw airport to pick up the Rob’s folks from CA. We stopped off at the hospital in Midland on our way back to Mt Pleasant to see Jen at work! She looked the professional and happy. A little visiting and some dinner and the day was done. Thursday morning we dropped Sadie off at the Pet Bed & Biscuit center. I was nervous about leaving her of course, but was assured she would be loved! Then it was the next trip to the BCS airport to pickup G’ma Rose from NJ. Again we stopped to see Jen in action. Took her to the B&B as well. Robert was the next for our family to arrive. He and Cher (the future MIL) were on the same flight from Chicago to BCS, so we set them up to share the ride together. However, as it would happen with flights, Robert’s plane sat on the tarmac for nearly an hour waiting for a gate so that they can unload. You guessed it, Robert did not make his next flight. He did not get to meet Cher and enjoy her company of a ride. He was placed on the next flight, so we ate dinner quickly and had Rob & Bud take the additional trip to the airport. Once they returned, we were all under one happy roof.

Friday the preparations began. Flowers were delivered and placed above all the windows to make the room festive. Note the before and after.

 

Next was some shopping and then the beloved Taco dinner that all enjoyed immensely. Cher cooked with her assistants of Robert and Rob.

There was some normal, or not so normal, fun by father & son – which was good for the soul to see…

Breakfast was again outstanding by our hosts – more food than you could eat in several settings and it was all sooo good.

The ceremony itself was small and beautiful. There were mementos on an “alter” type of table to symbolize those grandparents that have passed on and were not with us today. Steven explained his 3 and Jen her one. There was also a “dharuma” that was a symbolic thing for Steven in that you make a wish and color in one eye. When the wish comes true, you color in the other. He was extremely happy to share with us that his wish for someone to love and cherish the rest of his life had come true. They happy couple are not as equally excited, but very supportive of each other on this one.

From the ceremony, we went to the photographer’s studio and took many many posed, grouped pictures. Then back to the B&B for a catered dinner galore. While we awaited more food, which smelled wonderful, the happy newlyweds opened some cards and a few gifts.

Some jokes were had – hence the dinner salad covered in croutons for Steve. Steven making the most unusual faces as normal. Of course the wine flowed abundantly, food coma’s ensued, and then some games were played.

I will leave you with a few other random shots I enjoyed of the people and then also of the scenery.