Welcome  to Our Travels

Our adventure began many years ago when Evelyn said, "I could drive one of those," as she pointed to a Class B motorhome we were following. Fast forward several years. After many RV shows, You Tube videos, and other research, we decided to take the plunge and purchased a Class C motorhome that we affectionately named, "No Plan B." The name has two meanings, one is a line from a Carman song, "Jesus is my A and there's no plan B" and second, when people ask us what are we going to do if we don't like full-time RVing, we tell them, "We have no plan B!"

 

By January of 2022 we were both retired and ready to hit the road. We picked up our RV from Jim's Trailer Sales of Grafton, Ohio in April, but we had to wait until September before our tow vehicle was delivered. This gave Doug plenty of time to do comfort and techie upgrades to the RV. Once we had the tow vehicle and tow package added to the RV, we were ready to put the house on the market. God blessed us with a quick and profitable sale, which finally put us on the road in mid-November 2022.

 

On our first day of travel, November 13, 2022, we broke the rule about not traveling at night and traveled down a very narrow road, which would have freaked us out on the brightest day. However, we safely arrived at Cummins Ferry Campground in Salvisa, Kentucky only to setup after dark, breaking another rule, on an extremely unlevel site. Even though it was a crazy first day, God protected us two/too stupid people and we officially became full-time RVers.

 

On our second day, November 14, 2022, we hopped in our "toad" (slang term for a tow vehicle) and visited the Ark Encounter, a full-size replica of Noah's ship built at God's command according to Genesis 6 in the bible. It is an amazing ship that is around 500 feet from bow to stern and over 50 feet tall. It was quite a sight to see and had very informative displays inside.

 

On November 15, 2022 we traveled to Crossville, Tennessee, where we had our first lengthy stay at the Breckenridge RV Resort. While in Crossville, we visited The Huckabee Show, a Buc-ee's, and saw season 3, episodes 1 and 2 of The Chosen at a local theater.

 

On November 22, 2022 we arrived at Thunder Canyon Campground in Ider, Alabama. This campground is owned by The RV Odd Couple, a couple who we had watched on You Tube for years. Our campsite that was probably 1/2 acre large, overlooking the canyon and Baptismal Pond. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with our hosts and other campers. John Condon, the husband of The RV Odd Couple, provided us with a personal tour of the future location for privately owned lots.

 

On November 29, 2022 we headed farther south to Helena, Alabama and stayed at the Cherokee Campground. We met Tracie, a very kind neighbor who brought us a Christmas ornament as a welcome gift.  She also enlightened us about a UV fly catcher to help prevent Doug from sticking his head into our hanging fly strip (oh, yes, he did). The campground provided us with a very enjoyable one mile walk around a beautiful lake. Toward the end of our visit, we hooked up with Rebecca and Larry, a couple we had met at Thunder Canyon and had a nice Cajun seafood lunch just outside of Birmingham.

 

We traveled into Florida on December 6, 2022 and stayed at River's Edge RV Campground in Holt.  Even though we were in Florida, we had a couple nights of freeze warnings which meant we had to disconnect/purge our water hoses/filtration system and use our onboard water tanks with heaters. While in Holt, we visited the Air Force Armament Museum near Eglin Air Force Base and attended a Manna Church (a group that plants churches near military bases) in Niceville. To top it all off, we ate at our first Whataburger (the food pictures begin) and decorated our RV for Christmas.

 

On December 12, 2022 we continued across the pan handle of Florida to Suwannee River State Park in Live Oak. This was a beautiful state park that was steeped in history of the civil war and river steamboats. While in Live Oak we had our credit card information compromised by a Jamaican restaurant that had online ordering still active after the restaurant was closed up. We went to pick up our dinner, only to find the business vacant and dark. We were camped next to Mark and Sheila, a wonderful Christian couple who prayed for us before we headed out on the next leg of our journey.

 

As we continued South in our journey toward Vero Beach, Florida, we set up at the Central Park RV Resort in Haines City, Florida on December 16, 2022. Our location in the park gave Doug the lyrics for a parody of Stealers Wheel's song, Stuck in the Middle with You. "Cows to the left of me, gators to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you."  While at this resort we enjoyed the seasonal camper's Christmas golf cart parade, along with beautifully decorated RVs. Ours didn't compare, but we were happy anyway. But, best of all were the pizza rolls from Pizzano's Pizza and Grinders.  We have decided that anytime we are within a one-hour drive of Haines City, we will be having Pizzano's pizza rolls. They are absolutely the best.

 

On December 21, 2022 we reached our family in Vero Beach, Florida. We stayed at the Savannas Recreation Area in Fort Pierce, which is about 1/2-hour South of Vero Beach. What a gorgeous place with beautiful wildlife. We saw Sandhill Cranes (we thought one was going to crawl up into our RV), White Ibis, Alligators and more Alligators. We enjoyed a presentation of the birth of Jesus Christ, performed by our grandchildren in their tipi (teepee) and watched a special from The Chosen on our outdoor big screen. Our two granddaughters made the trip down to Gramma and Papaw's campsite to experience the RV life. We ventured out to Pelican Island Wildlife Refuge, the first wildlife refuge in the USA and stopped at a beautiful beach away from the commercial areas on Vero Beach Island.

 

On one of our last days in the area, we visited the National Navy UDT-SEALS Museum, where we did a little basic training on the Burma Bridge and the Low Weaver, but we washed out and were ready to ring, "The Bell." There is a Black Hawk helicopter there from the operation in Mogadishu (see the movie Black Hawk Down) that the museum curator was able to talk the military out of destroying and giving it to the museum. Doug was able to show Evelyn approximately where his contactors were located on the aircraft, but the header on the ceiling prevented direct viewing. The best display of all was the actual lifeboat that Captain Phillips was rescued from when he was kidnapped by Somali Pirates. In our photos, we circled the bullet entry holes where the pirates were shot by SEAL sharpshooters (see the movie Captain Phillips). Doug took home a UH-60 Black Hawk t-shirt, which has become one of his favorite souvenirs.

 

Our longest stay to date commenced on January 4, 2023 at the Avon Park Camp, a Christ-Centered Christian Community in Avon Park Florida. We stayed at Avon Park through the 84th Annual Encampment and departed on February 15, 2023. The weather couldn’t have been more beautiful. We think it may have rained an hour twice during our entire stay. The camp is located on a beautiful lake in Central Florida that has many different tropical birds as its residents. We had an actual street address at the camp allowing for both package and mail delivery. Our RV was situated next to the camps memorial garden, which we enjoyed caring for during our stay. We quickly found out that many of the residents were early risers and would come knocking to drop off communications early in the morning (at least early for us), so we put out a couple of signs to indicate our morning routine.

 

We had many wonderful events occur while we were at Avon Park. One of our first wonderful happenings was breakfast at a local diner with old friends from Ohio, Doug and Pam, as they were traveling through Florida on their way to take their annual cruise. We all had a good laugh when we realized that the other Doug’s rental car was the exact same model as our tow vehicle, so we got a picture of Doug and Doug with their Chevy Sparks. While at the diner for breakfast we noticed they served fried green tomatoes, which generated a return visit later in our stay.

 

During our stay at Avon Park, we attended church at Grace Bible Church in Sebring, Florida. We fell in love with the bold and relatable preaching style of their Lead Pastor, Dustin Woods. Grace Bible Church is part of a group of local churches known as Abide 21. One of the churches is at the Avon Park Correctional Institution, a Florida Department of Corrections facility. On January 28, 2023 we experienced one of the most emotional and impactful worship services when we attended “Worship at the Fence” at the prison. All of the different Abide Churches came together to worship alongside the Abide Church inside of the prison. We knew God was in and at this event, as something like this even being permitted is so unusual. It was a such a wonderful thing to experience. We are the couple that is circled in the picture (see Photo Gallery) with the red and white lawn chairs.

 

Another fun thing at Avon Park is seeing launches from Cape Canaveral. Even though it is about 80 miles away (as the crow flies), you can see con-trails during a day launch and engine flames during night launches.

 

We have discovered interesting things in Florida, like the Gasteracantha cancriformis, a spiny orb-weaver spider and Tamarinds, a pod-like fruit that is sweet and tart, with multiple, triangular pits in each pod. We also found that Florida squirrels are just as curious as Ohio squirrels. Our local squirrel liked to sit on top of one of the camp’s network hubs and watch what we were doing.

 

While at the camp Evelyn enjoyed a lady’s event that had a spoof fashion show and humorous skits. Toward the end of our stay was the official Avon Park Holiness Encampment, where we heard great messages and testimonies. We heard about what God is doing in Uruguay from the Hamiltons of One Mission Society and how God is moving in Mexico from the Dunbars of World Gospel Missions. We had special opportunities to meet many of the different speakers and musicians (special guests Adams Voice) as they would stop in the tabernacle while we were helping with the daily cleaning.

 

OK, now let’s talk food. We found the best ever Mexican food at Taqueria Merlo, a grocery/butcher/diner. The food was absolutely amazing and about two-thirds the price of what Taco Bell calls Mexican food. If you are ever in Avon Park, Florida, don’t miss checking out this establishment.

 

After a lengthy and enjoyable stay at Avon Park Camp, we started our journey north and west on February 15, 2023. We stayed at our first true RV resort, The Springs RV Resort in Silver Springs, Florida. The resort had over 600 sites with a heated pool, tennis courts, billiards room, and more, but no water. To top that off, our slide would not go out. We now have two problems with the RV, the slide not going out and then when it does come in, it tips and causes the pantry corner to dig up the flooring. The fun of owning a home on wheels. We adapted, improvised and overcame by “living in the hallway.” We flipped the bed mattress to make two-thirds of the bed usable for Evelyn and Doug slept on the converted dinette. We also took the door off of the bathroom for easier access. We had to “live in the hallway” a few times as the slide failure was intermittent. We eventually discovered and fixed a loose connection on one of the slide motors. Even with all of the challenges, we enjoyed a great meal at Cody’s Steakhouse in “The Villages,” with other retired co-workers from TE Connectivity (Dick, Rita and David) who happened to be in central Florida at the same time we were.

 

On February 18, 2023, we had our first Harvest Host stay at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing in Ocala, Florida. Harvest Hosts are places that allow self-contained RVs (onboard water, sewer, and electric) to stay a single night on their business property with the understanding that the guest will support the host’s business during their stay. It was great. We were the only overnight guest and we were securely locked into the gated facility. On our day of arrival, we visited both the drag racing building and the antique car building. Don Garlit’s home was on the property too. Doug never realized how many “Swamp Rat” dragsters there were or that Don Garlits was a devout Christian.

 

After our Harvest Host visit, we headed up into the Florida Pan Handle on February 19, 2023, where we experienced our first less than savory campground. The Deerwood Inn and Madison Campground was rather run down with dilapidated RVs and piles of demolished mobile homes. But, with all of that, we met some of the nicest people. Guy was a Vietnam veteran who stopped at our site to welcome us and give us a crocheted cross which his wife, Julie makes for all of the new campers. We visited with them for a while and Doug helped them get their smart TV hooked up to the campgrounds Wi-Fi network. Another camper had the coolest looking Gypsy Wagon RV. During our stay, we enjoyed a meal at the Smakin Lips Diner.

 

On February 22, 2023, we headed farther West in the Florida Pan Handle to Bass Haven RV Campground in DeFuniak Springs, where we finally put up our United States travel decal and populated it with the states we had visited. While at Bass Haven we met the Knee Capbobs, Dot and Daniel, who are a talented couple who perform comedy and music. The gentleman that runs the campground is blind, but has a sense of humor about his disability. Jimmy wore t-shirts that read, “Blind Jimmy’s Sniper School – Training Storm Troopers since 1977” and “A blind man walks into a bar, then into a chair, then into a table…” We also learned that the old adage, “it doesn’t matter, we will never see these people again,” does not hold true. Doug ran into Levi, who moved his RV to Bass Haven from River’s Edge RV Campground in Holt, Florida, where we first met him.

 

We traveled across the Alabama peninsula to Gautier (go-shay), Mississippi, to stay at the Sioux Bayou RV Park on the Pascagoula River on March 1, 2023. More alligators and more good food, including a Pineapple Express pizza at the Glory Bound Gyro Company in Ocean Springs and carryout from Killer Crab and Seafood Company. Killer Crab was started by two brothers while still in high school. Their shop does a huge business and is super busy during the dinner hour (line out the door). After we enjoyed a wonderful meal of crab, shrimp, sausage, corn, potato, onion rings, and hushpuppies, we understood why they have so many customers. We also saw the Ingalls Shipyard, that builds military vessels. You can’t tour the shipyard, but you can get a view of it across the channel at the Pascagoula Point Park, where Evelyn drew her famous bunny in the white sand.

 

On March 8, 2023 we traveled into Louisiana to the Hidden Oaks Family Campground, just North of Lake Pontchartrain in Hammond. The campground had some beautiful peafowl and a cute brood of ducks that Evelyn loved to watch walk in formation. We met other campers from Ohio who responded when we called out “O-H.” Dennis was an air traffic controller at Mansfield-Lahm Airport and lived with his wife Krista in Columbus. Greg and Linda were from Mount Vernon where they had owned a body shop. Such a small world.

 

While at Hidden Oaks, we shot down to Ponchatoula, Louisiana to see Kliebert and Sons Gator Tour and saw the oldest alligator snapping turtle in captivity. The turtle had just awakened from months in homeostasis (similar to hibernation) due to the colder temperatures and was still covered in algae. Kliebert was also an animal sanctuary for unwanted exotic pets. They had two peahens named Harry and Lloyd (characters from the movie Dumb and Dumber) in honor of “the most annoying sound in the world,” which they make.

 

We also head North to Independence, Louisiana, to visit the Italian Festival and had some interesting Italian/Cajun food. We enjoyed more Louisiana cuisine from Ronnie’s Boudin and Cracklin. Boudin (boo-dah) is a mixture of pork, rice, bell peppers, and green onions stuffed in a sausage casing, which is boiled and then removed from the casing when served. Best of all was the chicken cracklins, which every bite tastes like the very first bite of a piece of fried chicken when you get the fried skin and breading. We are sure it’s probably not healthy, but thing that taste good never tend to be.

 

We continued across Louisiana on March 15, 2023, crossing over the Mississippi River and traveling on the 18.2-mile-long Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, to Quiet Oak RV Park in Kinder, Louisiana. We admired the pay phone at the campground, as we couldn’t remember the last time, we saw such a devise.

 

There wasn’t a lot of sights to see in the Kinder area, but the food was magnificent. We have decided if we ever want to stop traveling, we would live in Louisiana, if it was all about the food. When we ate at Fausto’s of Louisiana, we shared a large bowl of chicken and sausage gumbo (the best), a shrimp po-boy sandwich with fries, and sweet tea. Later in the week, we carried out from Fausto’s and had crawfish gumbo, Cajun rice, and onion rings. We also enjoyed chicken cracklins, crawfish boudin balls, smoked ribs and beignet fries from In-Laws Cajun Specialties. Oh, the food was so good.

 

On Sunday we visited The Grand Church, a repurposed lumber supply warehouse. The congregation was very friendly, the message was good, and the music very novel. We liked the lyrics from one song (Jesus Did It) that said, “when Christ got up, I got up too.” The interior design of the church was something to behold, including the Victorian styled waiting area in the women’s restroom (oh, yes, Evelyn took a picture, but no one else was in the restroom) and the wall mural, in the fellowship hall, of God speaking the universe into existence.

 

On March 22, 2023 we left Louisiana and headed to The Lone Star State. Our first stop was just South of Houston at the Mustang Bayou RV Park in Alvin, Texas. While in Alvin, we enjoyed an anniversary dinner at Olive Garden and hand-picked strawberries from Froberg’s Farm.

 

Our biggest day was when we traveled up to Houston to visit Space Center Houston. What a fun and informative day it was. We toured the replica space shuttle Independence, where it was mounted on top of the 747 that transported the space shuttles from Edwards Air Force Base in California to Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We also got to see how astronauts sleep attached to the wall. We saw the mock-up Lithium Hydroxide cannister from the command module, assembled by Mission Control to be used as the prototype instructions for building one in space, to work in the lunar module during the Apollo 13 emergency. Doug’s favorite displays were the Saturn 5 rocket used to launch the Apollo missions and a retired Space X Falcon 9 booster rocket that had flown multiple missions as a reusable booster, landing both on drone ships and at Cape Canaveral.

 

We headed toward Corpus Christi, Texas on March 29, 2023, where we stayed at Mobil Village RV Park in Aransas Pass, Texas. Our main goal in Corpus Christi was to attend the XO Marriage conference at Church Unlimited. It was a great conference with wonderful speakers who challenged couples to work through their issues and no matter what, “Keep Going.” At the end of the conference couples were given the opportunity to renew their vows. We talked about how glad we were that we had stayed together for the last 35 years and how it truly gets better and better.

 

We attended two Sundays at Church Unlimited Rockport Campus, which was closer to Aransas Pass than Corpus Christi.  The campus Pastor, praise team and congregation were wonderful. Doug was invited to their men’s group where after telling the other men about our travels in a smaller motorhome, one of them stated, “You must really like your wife.” We laugh about it every time we tell the story.

 

The two week stay in Aransas Pass allowed us extra time to relax and get things done around the RV, like a good washing, applying UV protectant to the roof, oil change, and exercising the generator. Doug’s boot leather was drying out, so we went in search of Neatsfoot Oil. We found the oil at Stetson’s Army/Navy Store, which had one of the largest displays of cowboy boots that we had ever seen.

 

On April 12, 2023 we headed North to Pecan Park Riverside RV Park in San Marcos, Texas, where we had fun spending time with Evelyn’s friend from high school and her husband, Barb and Rich. They took us to the famous Austin wall mural for pictures, to a ranch with Longhorn Steers, and to Salt Lick BBQ, a famous BBQ restaurant with a parking lot that looked as big as a county fair’s parking lot. But the most unusual attraction, was the bat boat tour. Austin has a famous bridge, over Lady Bird Lake, that bats roost in during the day and come streaming out of at dark. The boat tour started by highlighting the Austin cityscape and then at dark took us right up to the “bat bridge,” which was line by spectators to watch the departure of the bats. The tour guide told us that the bats were so beneficial in keeping the insect population down on the lake, that they were building more bridges with the same design to attract bats for insect control. We were the envy of all of the people on the tour boat as we were sporting embroidered t-shirts that Barb had created. Barb also made Evelyn a special embroidered t-shirt with bunnies and the grandchildren’s names.

 

With San Antonio being only an hour away from San Marcos, we decided to go visit the city’s river walk and The Alamo. The Alamo wasn’t what we expected, yet the history behind it was so interesting. We definitely learned more about it then what we remembered from American History class.

 

Our next travel day, April 19, 2023, took us to Shiloh on The Lake at Malakoff, Texas. Our visit in this area was all about The Chosen. Being close to Dallas, Texas allowed us to visit both Capernaum Studios in Poolville and Camp Hoblitzelle in Midlothian, where filming has and is being done for The Chosen.

 

Capernaum Studios was used for filming season one of The Chosen. It was exciting to walk the streets of the set and see things like the tavern where Jesus called Mary (episode 1); the cell that John the Baptist was in when speaking to Nicodemus (episode 5); the roof top where the paralytic was lowered down to Jesus for healing (episode 6); The tax booth Matthew was in when called by Jesus (episode 7); and the fountain where the disciples met to travel with Jesus (episode 8). We also saw other sets at Capernaum Studio’s, including Washington’s Armor tavern filmset and main street America.

 

Camp Hoblitzelle is a Salvation Army camp that allowed The Chosen to build a set and sound stage of their property. We couldn’t get close to the filming as it was gated off, but we did get a picture of the sound stage at a distance, across the field. We are huge fans of The Chosen and want everyone to enjoy the beautiful telling of Jesus’s ministry. The app for viewing is available for Android and Apple and most of your streaming platforms. The episodes are free to watch.

 

While at Shiloh on The Lake, we experienced a couple of days of rain. So as not to get bored, we went to Dollar General and bought a puzzle. After 35 years of marriage, we discovered we don’t apply the same strategies when assembling a puzzle. We finally teamed up and conquered the autumn foliage part of the puzzle. After admiring our work, we broke the puzzle down and left in the campground recreation area for other campers.

 

On April 26, 2023 we exited Texas to the North and setup camp at K River Campground in Moyer, Oklahoma. Unbeknownst to us, we had booked our stay during a motorcycle rally. Luckily our site was a distance from most of the activity. We did stop down to the bandstand on the first night and listened to the DJ for a short bit. The pavilion (aka beer garden) next to the bandstand had a free-standing bar where liquor was flowing freely and enjoyed by many. There was lots of smoke in the air, so we didn’t hangout too long.

 

On our last day at K River, Evelyn introduced herself to Kale, one of the bikers. He generously allowed Evelyn to take a picture of our traveling bunny on a Harley-Davidson. Kale shared with us how he used to spend his summer with his grandparents in their RV. We all prayed together for the safety of all of the bikers before we parted ways.

 

We arrived at Country Hollow Campground in Shawnee, Oklahoma on April 29, 2023. We were greeted by the campground Guinea, which loved our chrome wheel covers and would peck at them as long as we weren’t moving. We assumed it didn’t like “the other Guinea” it was seeing. We were thankful for our Power Watchdog (power monitoring system) that alerted us to swapped electrical polarities. The new campground owner appreciated knowing of this condition and moved us to a different site that wouldn’t cause possible damage to our RVs electrical circuits.

 

Being in tornado country, we checked for storm shelters first thing. The campground had one that was a few sites away. It looked like a large concrete slab with a metal door in the corner, laying flat on the slab. But, open the door and steps were revealed, descending down into a large cement vault. Thankfully, we never had to utilize the storm shelter.

 

One nice thing about this campground was that it had been a mobile home park at one time, so each site actually had a mailing address. We were able to get a memory foam mattress topper shipped directly to our door step. FYI, RV mattresses are not the most comfortable mattresses made and ours, being of a special design, no one makes a replacement aftermarket mattress. The topper is very comfortable and it made a huge difference in our sleep.

 

Our main focus in Shawnee was to visit Evelyn’s life long friend, Yonna. Most of our time was spent catching up on what has been happening in each other’s lives. While visiting, we were able to get our teeth cleaned, which is a challenge for full-time RVers as most dentists aren’t interested in seeing transients. Thankfully, Yonna’s daughter, a dental hygienist and the doctor she works for, welcomed us. Our two week stay in Shawnee provided us with extra time to change the oil in the RV’s power generator.

 

One night, while visiting with Evelyn’s friend, a front with multiple tornados was heading toward Shawnee. We had the opportunity to watch the real-time, highly informative storm coverage that they have in Oklahoma. Praise God, the front split into two bands of tornados and went around Shawnee. Besides, Shawnee didn’t need more tornados as they were still recovering from a hit that occurred two weeks earlier.

 

Doug had to get a picture of the historical Route 66 sign while we were touring around the area. We are sure we will be on US 66 many more times as we travel the United States. We also drove over to Norman, Oklahoma to visit with Evelyn and Yonna’s friends from high school, Kim and Jeff. We had a wonderful dinner and great fellowship. Doug enjoyed watching their dog sit at the table (literally) in hopes of getting a little food for himself. The sad part was he ended up sitting at the wrong table. Evelyn loved Kim’s organized storage area that included totes with QR codes on the outside to tell what was inside.

 

On our last night in Oklahoma, we were able to get a picture of the “canine night watch.” We have no idea why the local dogs in this short stretch of road hung out by the street, but we saw numerous dogs, just sitting on both sides of the road. It was really interesting, but strange and creepy at the same time.

 

We left Oklahoma on May 13, 2023 and traveled to Spring Lake RV Resort in Halstead, Kansas. We didn’t have much of an agenda for Kansas, but were blessed by a wonderful RV resort that had an ice cream sundae night and site service (like room service) for breakfast. It rained most of the time during our stay, but we had the opportunity to run into town and get Doug’s picture taken for his passport renewal.

 

We continue north on May 16, 2023 to Happy Joy Acres in Oskaloosa, Kansas. Doug’s knee, for no apparent reason, started giving him some problems and he could not bare weight. We considered a trip to the ER, but decided to pray and wait overnight. Praise God, it was getting better the next morning. We used the days we were there for respite and to do additional trip planning.

 

On May 19, 2023 we exited Kansas and headed east across northern Missouri to the Catfish Place Campground near Memphis, Missouri. The Catfish Place Campground was a beautiful place and the home of the Catfish Place Restaurant that had a buffet dinner with tasty fried catfish and exquisite corn hushpuppies (sorry, no pictures). We also loved the picnic table on one of the permanent campsites that had carved bears on the ends of the bench seats. We couldn’t believe something so beautiful was outside.

 

Our primary reason for stopping in Memphis was to visit two of Evelyn’s classmates, Becky and Jack. Jack is a pastor at the First Christian Church in Memphis. Jack liked Doug’s, “I don’t know Jack,” shirt so much that he invited him up in front of the congregation and introduced us as his homeless friends. We enjoyed a great church service, potluck lunch, and an afternoon of fishing. Evelyn was so thrilled when she caught her first fish ever. Jack and Doug fished one side of the pond, while Becky and Evelyn fished the other side. Together we caught a total of 24 fish in about an hour. We won’t say which group caught the most.

 

We have found that God takes us places we had never planned or imagined to go. The restored Sinclair Service Station in Memphis was one of those places. We just happened across this small piece of history while we were driving to the post office to mail a letter. Doug was so excited, as his grandfather had owned a Sinclair Service Station in Illinois and it brought back wonderful childhood memories.

 

Jack and Becky also took us to a huge Mennonite market and a dairy that was famous for their flavored ice creams. We enjoyed many meals together over our 3 day stay and were sent off with a, “love lives here,” plaque, filleted fish from our fishing trip, and numerous packages of deer meat from Jack and Becky's wild game freezer. We had an absolute wonderful time and look forward to our next visit with our new fishing buddies.

 

We departed Missouri and headed to The Land of Lincoln on May 23, 2023. Springfield, Illinois brings back fond memories for Doug as he grew up in the small farm town of Rochester, located several miles away.

 

After settling in at Riverside Park Campground, we headed to Doug’s childhood home at 333 North Water Street, Rochester, Illinois. The neighborhood looked the same from street side, but what used to be a field behind his old house, now is a large development with newer homes. Rochester has double to tripled in population since Doug’s family left in 1969.

 

In town, Doug recognized the exterior of many of the buildings, but what they housed inside was quite different. The bowling alley had been converted to a hardware store, tattoo parlor, and Subway sub shop. The old grocery store housed a stock brokerage office and tavern. The post office had become a veterinarian’s office and the old concrete grain silo housed various businesses, with a tethered rock-climbing wall on the outside. The school that Doug used to have to walk miles (1/2 mile) to, in knee deep snow, uphill both ways, was a playground and had been replaced with new modern buildings. How things change over 50 plus years. The only building that looked the same was his families church, however, it was now a day care.

 

When is Springfield, you must eat as a Springfieldian, so Doug took us to D’Arcy’s Pint, a restaurant that serves Horseshoe Sandwiches, a cuisine made famous by the Leland Hotel. The dinner reminded Doug of his mother, as she used to make Horseshoe Sandwiches for weekend lunches during his childhood.

 

Our next Springfield adventure took us back in history to the time of the Civil War. We visited Abraham Lincoln’s home. Doug compared the 3-hole outhouse to today’s homes with multiple bathrooms. During our tour we learned two interesting facts about our 16th president, he was a champion wrestler and a cat collector. Lincoln had wrestled in about 300 matches and is reported to have had only one loss. In 1992 he was officially recognized by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. Lincoln was also a cat lover. Many times, he would pick-up stray cats on his way home from his law office. Lincoln was the first president to bring cats into The White House.

 

We continued our historical adventure by visiting Oak Ridge Cemetery where Lincoln’s tomb is located. Inside the tomb housing there are many beautiful statues and, on the outside, we touched Lincoln’s nose on his bust statue, as it is said to bring good luck.

 

As we exited Springfield, Doug took a picture of the Springfield power plant. Doug said, when he was little, he called it the battleship because the smoke that was emitted from the chimneys of the coal burning plant, looked like an old battleship in the distance.

 

On May 30, 2023 we headed a little further east in Illinois to Mattoon, where Doug was born and the home of Rural King. We stayed at Lake Mattoon Campground, a beautiful facility just south-west of the city.

 

We headed down memory lane by visiting the homes of Doug’s Grandmother Rexroat and Aunt Mary and Uncle Clyde (mother’s side of the family) in Mattoon. Then we headed toward Kansas, Illinois where Doug’s Dad’s family lived. On the way to Kansas we passed through Charleston, Illinois, the home of Eastern Illinois University, and where Doug’s parents met and fell in love. Doug tried to find the roadside grave site of the famously loyal dog, Blackie, who had waited months for the return of his owner, after being dumped at a country crossroad. We couldn’t find the marker, but we did find the new 200 mega-watt, Prairie Wolf Solar Project that produces power for the local power grid.

 

In Kansas we saw the property that Doug’s grandfather Williams’s Sinclair Service Station had stood on was now the local police station. The library that his grandmother was the librarian of was still where he remembered it. We stopped in and visited with the librarian, Cheyenne and her four-year-old daughter, Ro, who felt lead to invited us to their church. So, on following Sunday, we attended The Harvest Vineyard Church in Martinsville, Illinois. While at the library, Doug found pictures of his father from an old high school year book.

 

We went a few blocks further to the home where Doug’s grandparents had lived. We were able to talk to the current owners who came outside when they saw a stranger taking pictures of their home (my bad). As we went around the block, Doug was taken back by a home that had a Sinclair Service Station display. Since Doug had learned better about taking pictures without permission, he knocked at the door. To Doug’s surprise the gentleman who lived there, Danny, worked for his grandfather at his station.

 

We finished our visit in Kansas by reflecting on all of the “God things” that had just happened that day, while enjoying a Purple Cow and a Mill Creek Mud ice cream cone from the We Li Kit Farmstand food truck in the community park. We Li Kit Farmstand, out of Paris, Illinois makes wonderful, custom flavored ice creams.

 

The next place we visited was Casey, Illinois, the town of big things. In Casey they had a lot of, “The world’s biggest…” We saw everything from the largest golf tee and car key to the largest pencil and mouse trap. The displays had bible scripture plaques next to them that related to the object. How refreshing in this day and age. Of course, we couldn’t leave Casey without take-out from the Greathouse of Pizza, which our daughter and son-in-law had told us about from one of their travel adventures. We had S.B.C. Stix (Spicey Bread and Cheese?), the Chicago Fire specialty pizza, and Cinna-Knots for dessert. With all of this good eating, we see a diet in our near future.

 

The next day we got up early to travel 40+ miles to a hamburger joint that we were told about by John, the Mattoon Lake Supervisor. John had said we needed to get there early, as they turn the grills off at 12:30 PM. Boy, was it worth the trip to the Moonshine Store, a unique hamburger restaurant out in the middle of nowhere. There were no indoor restrooms, just his and her's porta-pots, but the burgers were so, so good. We are blessed to be led to these wonderful gems, that the average traveler never hears about.

 

On our way back to the campground, as we traveled through rural farm country, we saw a sign marked Lincoln Log Cabin, that pointed down a side road. Of course, our interest was piqued, so we checked it out. To our surprise, we had stumbled upon Thomas and Sarah Bush Lincoln’s farm, the father and step-mother of Abraham Lincoln. The future president was an adult when his parents moved there, but his law business often took him to the town of Charleston and the farm in the 1840s.

 

As we prepare to leave central Illinois, we hope you have enjoyed our little walk through the history of our 16th President and Doug’s family.

 

We entered Indiana on June 5, 2023 and headed toward Glowood Campground and RV Park in Pendleton, Indiana, a rural community east of Indianapolis. We want to thank the owners of the campground for allowing us to wash our RV. Many places will not allow you to wash your RV and it is difficult to find a car wash tall enough to fit our unit.

 

Our main purpose for visiting the Indianapolis area was to see our old friends, Cody and Ginger. We had become friends with Cody and Ginger when they lived in Mount Vernon, Ohio and attended Grace Community Church. We had a great time of fellowship and eating BBQ from Big Hoffa’s Smokehouse. The restaurant was painted in a very interesting pirate motif.

 

On June 9, 2023 we took a small side trip to Mitchell, Indiana, the home of the Holiday Drive-In Theater. This was our second Harvest Host stay. It was fantastic. We arrived in midafternoon and weren’t sure where to park. So as to not block anyone’s view, we drove to the rear of the parking area. The owner, Steve, saw us at the back of the parking area and suggested that we move because there was too much road noise there. He directed us to park next to the screen. We then had better than front row seats.

 

Since we were there way before normal customers would arrive, the owners, Steve and Pam sat with us at a picnic table by the screen and told us what it was like to operate a drive-in movie theater. They were such a wonderful and kind couple. While we were visiting with Steve and Pam, Paramotors that had lifted off from a local airfield over the hill, passed over multiple times. Just another one of those times that God had us at the right place at the right time.

 

To support the Harvest Host, we bought dinner from the concession stand before the movies started. The menu was so extensive that we began to wonder if we were at a restaurant that happened to operate a drive-in theater too. Also, in the vein of helping out Harvest Hosts, Evelyn wrote, “Holiday Drive-In 2023,” on the bottom of 50 rubber ducks for guests of their “Jeep Nite” that was schedule for the following evening. We had a great time and Evelyn feels it was one of the most fun overnights we have had so far.

 

On June 10, 2023 we returned to our home state of Ohio for what we were calling our vacation within a vacation. We stayed at a beautiful campground named Olive Branch Campground, in Oregonia, Ohio, which is a little northeast of Cincinnati.

 

Our first outing was on Sunday morning when we visited Turning Point Church, where Matt and Brianne Liddick pastor. A few years back Matt was the Assistant Pastor of Impact Church, our home church in Mansfield, Ohio. We didn’t tell them we were coming, so it was a little bit of a surprise. We were only able to visit for a short time, since they were heading out for a youth rally right after service. It was great to see them and see how their ministry was flourishing in Cincinnati.

 

Next, we were off to Kings Island to celebrate Doug’s birthday. It was so fun to be like kids again. We signed up for one set of drink and dining wristbands between us and shared our meals, snacks, and drinks. In case you don’t know, Doug tries to be very frugal (cheap, LOL) as we travel. We realized after our second roller coaster ride; we were not as young as we once were and now have officially retired from the roller coaster circuit. It was fun while it lasted.

 

To finish off our time in the Cincinnati area, we looked for a place with good pizza. Roscoe’s Pizza in Waynesville/Corwin, Ohio, did not disappoint. Roscoe’s has 100 specialty pizzas to choose from. We ordered four small pizzas so we could try a variety and have leftovers for later. We had Pierogi Pie, Bacon Bleu, Honey Baked Hog, and The Elvis Pizza. We are so glad we found this place. We are considering it as our favorite pizza joint to date.

 

On June 16, 2023, we made another surprise visit. We showed up at our good friends, Steve and Margie’s 50th wedding anniversary celebration at our home church in Mansfield, Ohio. They were surprised and thankful we had made a detour in our travel plans to come and celebrate with them. We were able to visit with everyone from our small group, including our two new members, Cal and Robin, who we had only seen on our computer screen during our video meetings. Evelyn had a chance to catch up with her friends that had helped her with the Good News Club.

 

While in the Manfield area, we visited with our daughter Rachel’s family. It was nice to see everyone and dote over our grandchildren for a little bit. And even though we were only in the area for two days, Evelyn’s sister, Margie, put together a small family reunion for us. We had fun visiting and sharing with siblings, nieces, and nephews.

 

On June 18, 2023 we were back on the road again and headed toward Kentucky. We stayed at Grayson’s Getaway in Grayson, Kentucky. We had a beautiful spot at the base of the local foothills without any other campers around us.

 

Of course, one of our first stops was to enjoy some of the local cuisine at Tudor’s Biscuit World. We enjoyed Evelyn’s favorite, biscuits and gravy, along with fried bologna, breakfast burritos, and bacon. We also had dinner one evening at the namesake restaurant of the state, Kentucky Fried Chicken. It just wouldn’t be right to be in Kentucky and not eat Kentucky Fried Chicken.

 

Evelyn’s mom’s family was from the Grayson/Olive Hill area of Kentucky, so we met up with Evelyn’s cousins, George, Junior (Lewis), and Junior’s wife Thelma. As always, we didn’t schedule our visit. We do this to prevent tying people down and to keep our visits simple. But even with our short notice, Thelma put together a delicious feast for us. It was great to visit with them and share about family. As we get older and realize how short life is, the more we appreciate and understand the importance of a loving family.

 

While in the area, we visited with our friends Rick and Brenda. Doug worked with Rick at Tyco Electronics years before. We had such fun visiting their homestead located in a small holler near Webbville, Kentucky. Rick and Brenda truly live off the land, by butchering wild and domestic game, growing a garden, and canning or freezing their harvests. We were so blessed and honored to be presented with a gift of deer meats, wonderful homemade sausage, ground rabbit, and pepper jelly when we parted ways.

 

Our last stop in the area was Olive Hill. We visited the high school where some of Evelyn’s brothers had attended and saw “the steps” leading up to the school. We took pictures of the 103 steps, but just didn’t feel the need to try them out. The school now houses the local historical society, where they put on plays and events for the community.

 

On June 24, 2023 we traveled farther south in Kentucky to the Griffith Family Farm for a Harvest Host overnight. The hosts were such a nice family and our spot to setup camp was spacious and beautiful. When we stopped in to shop at their farm market, our host invited us to visit their church for Sunday morning service. So, the next morning we attended the Riceville Freewill Baptist Church, where we heard a great message and sang praises with others who love Jesus.

 

We headed even farther south into Kentucky on June 25, 2023 to the Pikeville, Kentucky RV Park, a gorgeous, city operated park with full hookups and cement pads. The park sat part of the way up a mountainside and was next to the community’s sport complex. We enjoyed walking on the asphalt path that ran around the outside of the adjacent soccer field.

 

Our main destination on this leg of our trip was to visit Loretta Lynn’s homeplace in Butcher Holler, which is near Van Lear, Kentucky. In preparation for our visit to Butcher Holler we watched Coal Miner’s Daughter, a movie about the life of Loretta Lynn.

 

After traveling down narrow winding roads in what appeared to be the middle-of-no-where (praise God we were in the car, as the RV would never have fit), we found our way onto a single lane, gravel drive that led back to the family home of Loretta Lynn. And, if you are a country music fan of that era, you would also know it as Crystal Gayle’s home, as she was Loretta’s sister. As we stepped up to the house, we were greeted by Mack, one of Loretta Lynn’s cousins and his dogs, Jack and Jill. The house was full of memorabilia and furnishings of the time. We saw the family guitar that all of the kids learned to play songs on and coal mining gear that would have been used by her father. On our way out of Butcher Holler, we stopped at Loretta’s brother Herman Webb’s grocery store, to grab a drink and snack.

 

As we have traveled, Doug’s fondness for barbeque has greatly increased, so we did carryout from Pig in A Poke BBQ. What a yummy meal of hand cut fries smothered in BBQ pork and topped with cheese, bacon, and ranch dressing, along with fried green tomatoes, boom boom shrimp, deep fried sweet corn, and brownies.

 

Before we departed Pikeville, we headed further up the mountainside that our campground was on to see what we could find. To our surprise, we found the second largest engineering feat in the world, only second to the Panama Canal, known as the “Cut-Through.” Again, God guided our steps and blessed us by leading us to another hidden, historical gem. God is good!

 

We headed to Krodel Park in Point Pleasant, West Virginia on June 29, 2023. Krodel Park was a nice campground with a playground and splash pad open to the community. We met a few other campers there and Doug helped one of them remove the awning from their motorhome. They had mangled their awning by hitting the arched portion of an old railroad underpass, as they were entering Point Pleasant. Doug was glad it wasn’t a show stopper for their Florida vacation, which had just begun.

 

Our primary reason for traveling to Point Pleasant was to see Carla, an old co-worker of Evelyn’s. We were able to connect with Carla a few times during our visit and even attended church with her on Sunday.

 

We visited the historical site of Silver Bridge, that collapsed on December 15, 1967 during rush hour and caused the loss of forty-six lives. To address the disaster, congress created The National Bridge Inspection Standard. There also was a beautiful wall that went along the Ohio River near the location where the Silver Bridge original stood. The wall had beautiful murals that told the history of the area, along with statues of prominent individuals.

 

The other claim to fame for Point Pleasant is Mothman, a creature that was first seen in November of 1966 by two young couples out for a drive by the old TNT manufacturing plant near Point Pleasant.  There have been multiple sightings of the creature since and it is often sighted when something significant was happening in the community. Mothman has joined the ranks of other unexplained creatures from the Midwest, including Sasquatch, The Flatwood Monster, and Greys (aliens).

 

To honor the community of Point Pleasant, we embraced Mothman and enjoyed Mothman pizza and Mothman ice cream sundaes. We learned that even though these monsters might be a little scary, they can taste pretty good.

 

We traveled to Summerville, West Virginia, the home of the West Virginia Nazarene Church Family Camp, on July 3, 2023. We had a challenging time setting up in a muddy and sloped site, but we were located near the tabernacle and dining hall.

 

We had a wonderful time visiting with our friend Donna who we had met at the Avon Park Holiness Camp earlier in the year. Donna told us we needed to come to West Virginia to experience “her” church camp. We refer to it as “her” church camp because she is like the resident social coordinator of the camp. Donna checked on us often, even though she was very busy with her camp responsibilities. She even brought us a little bag of cookies on our last day, to snack on during our travels. We met many people who were familiar with where we were from, as many of them had beensc hooled or had family members who had been schooled at Mount Vernon Nazarene University, which was only about 30 minutes from our old sticks and bricks in Butler, Ohio.

 

The camp was beautiful. Doug loved the piece of art in the chapel that depicted Daniel in the lion’s den (Daniel 6). Doug liked that it portrayed the peace that God provides, that peace that surpasses all understanding (Phil 4:7).

 

Of course, we had to find good food and Fat Eddie’s Ice Cream did not disappoint. Doug enjoyed the S’more Sundae, made of vanilla ice cream, marshmallow cream, and chocolate syrup in a cup with a graham cracker encrusted rim. And if that wasn’t enough, it was topped with graham crackers and toasted marshmallows. Oh my!

 

While in Summerville, we visited Summerville Lake, a man-made lake built by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The lake feeds the Gauley River, which originates below the damn at the hydropower plant and is considered one of the world’s best whitewater runs. Evelyn was not up for a whitewater rafting trip after Doug had almost drown her on a whitewater rafting trip in 1987.

 

On July 17, 2023, we made our last stop before Ohio at the North Bend State Park near Cario, West Virginia. We had a white-knuckle ride as our “RV specific GPS” sent us down a one lane gravel road, for miles, in the pouring rain. Thankfully, we only met one vehicle on the road and they were able to locate a small pull off area that didn’t put either of us into a ditch. A kind girl at the park information center directed to another road for when we were going to leave the campground. The alternate road was narrow and curvy, but it was paved and had two lanes. God is good.

 

The campground was gorgeous and we were in a level campsite that sat on the edge of the North Fork Hughes River. We only stayed a couple of days, but we enjoyed meeting other campers and watching children ride their bicycles around the campground. We just love seeing families enjoy the great outdoors. Before we left, we added West Virginia to our travel map that is displayed on the end of our slide. Fourteen states and counting!

 

We headed back into Ohio on July 19, 2023 and made our way to Mount Vernon, Ohio for our second annual, family camp at Camp Sychar. We were glad to be back in Ohio and we were looking forward to what God had in store for us during our stay.

 

Once we were all set up, our daughter and son-in-law brought our grandson, Cooper down to stay with us during camp. We were able to get the same campsite that we had the previous year, so Cooper quickly found playmates he had met in the year prior. They all had a great time running around and having squirt-gun fights.

 

Our biggest blessing was getting to work with all the grade school children. We did not realize how much we missed children’s ministry. Cooper loved all of the crafts and activities that he participated in at the children’s tabernacle, including worship, water-balloon fights, waterslides, and making a memory pillow. Doug and Evelyn enjoyed reconnecting with friends from last year and meeting new friends this year. We invited our small group down one night for the evening service and “world famous” stromboli from Dirko’s Pizza.

 

July 30, 2023, we packed up to head to our local campground home at River Trail Crossing in Butler, Ohio. Our teardown quickly went South when our slide started slipping on its drive gears and would not retract. Thanks to our daughter alternating slide motor controls inside the RV and our son-in-law assisting Doug with pushes from the outside, we finally were able to get the slide in. Doug said that was the last time we were going to operate the slide until our dealership could do repairs on it in mid-August. Even with all the drama of the slide not retracting, we enjoyed bring Cooper with us for his long-awaited RV ride as we traveled from Mount Vernon to Butler. Since our slide was “in” for a while, Evelyn stayed at our daughter’s home in Ontario and Doug slept on the converted dinette in the RV at River Trail Crossing.

 

In mid-August, when the RV went to the dealership for repairs, we both moved in with our daughter, son-in-law, three grandchildren, two dogs, and two cats. This was an adventure on its own. Everyone survived living with one bathroom between 7 people, but there were times when it was touch-and-go.

 

After the RV had been at the dealership for a couple of weeks, we were informed that it required a factory repair to replace the entire driver’s side wall that houses the slide. The factory couldn’t schedule it in until February 2024. The dealership replaced the damaged slide system and said we could probably use it without too much trouble till the factory repair, but without the factory repair, the slide system would eventually fail again. We ultimately decided not to travel in it until the factory repair was complete. We did not want to travel back through the mountains from Florida in the middle of the winter.

 

Once the RV was done at the dealership, we brought it back to River Trail Crossing to stay in it until the campground closed in mid-October and then we would move it into storage for the winter. While finishing out the camping season in Butler, we embarked on our next adventure, finding a place to lay our heads until April 2024, when we could return to River Trail Crossing with our factory repaired RV.

 

TO BE CONTINUED…

 

Even though our downtime was not planned or desired, God blessed us beyond belief during our fall, winter, and spring back in Ohio. We are reminded of an old hymn, Count Your Blessings. The lyrics of the first verse are:

 

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what God has done.

 

So, we are going to count our blessings:

 

1. We found an inexpensive and secure location to store our RV through the winter while it wasn’t at the factory for its warranty repair.

2. Through God’s prompting of our friend Marie, we were blessed to find a short-term lease in an efficiency apartment with a beautiful view.

3. We were able to attend many of our granddaughter, Madeline’s marching band, jazz band, and symphonic band performances.

4. We were able to share The Chosen with other residents at our apartment complex.

5. We were with family and friends for Christmas.

6. We attended the season four premieres of The Chosen with friends at the historic Haysville Opera House.

7. We found a caricature artist and business card designer to make contact cards we can give to people we meet on the road.

8. We celebrated our good friends Marie, Tom, and Misty’s birthdays.

9. Evelyn put together a lady’s group with guest speakers who encouraged attendees with their testimonies.

10. We enjoyed our second Marriage for Life conference.

11. Doug helped with Ontario Elementary’s Exploration Saturdays by teaching a robotics class.

12. We were in the path of the total eclipse.

13. We attended a good friend’s daughter’s wedding.

14. We visited with many old friends.

15. We cheered for our grandson, Cooper at numerous sporting events and watched his birthday party food fight from a safe distance.

16. We watched the premiere of our grandson, Samuel’s senior film project, Forget about Archie and then watched him graduate with honors from Ohio University.

17. We watched our granddaughter, Madeline receive the John Philip Sousa Award, the most prestigious high school band award and then graduate with honors from Ontario High School.

 

So as not to sound like everything was rainbows and unicorns, we were saddened by the loss of our daughter, Rachel’s family dog Remy who passed unexpectedly.  But we were glad we could help with his burial and be supportive of the family.

 

We also were able to help out Rachel’s family with their demon kitten, Mable when they went to Florida to watch Madeline perform at Disney World. Mable liked to launch from the floor onto your leg and then proceed to climb it like a telephone pole with her very sharp, kitten claws. She has gotten much better over time, but to this day, don’t try to take a hair scrunchie from her when she is playing with it unless you want to draw back a stump.

 

After our “repair pause,” we were back into the RV in April 2024 at River Trail Crossing in Butler, Ohio. As we prayed that we wouldn’t get flooded out by spring rains, we turned, what appeared to be a hoarder’s house back in to our home on wheels. In May of 2024 we had family out to the campground to celebrate Mother’s Day as we ramped up to start traveling in June.

 

As we start our travels again, Doug will be handing off the narration of our blog to his beautiful, talented, camping buddy, and wife, Evelyn.

 

On June 4, 2024 we drove the RV to Dover, Ohio. We arrived safely at Breitenbach Amish Country Wines, which is a Harvest Host that permits overnight stays of self-contained RVs. It is a beautiful setting inside and out. The wine bottle tree holds several cases and makes a nice decoration for the entrance way to dining area. We decided to eat lunch there before departing the next day. This was a very relaxing evening and a good way to ease back into our travels.

 

When we made our reservations six months in advance of our June 5, 2024 travel day, the campground manager said she had a good site for us at the Hickory Hollow Campground in Rockwood, Pennsylvania. When we arrived, we were thrilled to find our campsite was more than good, it was beautiful. The campground had a gorgeous fishing pond and log cabin for an office.

 

Our main point of interest on this travel stop was to visit The Flight 93 National Memorial. On our drive to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, we were impressed by the small towns who honored their veterans with banner pictures and American flags. We love this country.

 

The Flight 93 National Memorial does a wonderful job of memorializing the events of September 11, 2001, with both an indoor museum and the field crash site. We met Suzanne, a volunteer ranger who shared many details about the reasoning around the design for the entire memorial park. Like, the overlook facing toward the crash site and in direct line with the flight path, the 40 memorial slabs with passenger and crew names, and the black marble walk-way with the timeline of events leading up to and including the crash. After touring the field, we went into the museum where you can listen to recorded phone calls of passengers to their loved ones on that fateful day and learn more about their lives. Some people may not see the passengers and crew as heroes, but they were. They selflessly gave their lives, to crash that plane, to prevent the terrorists from doing further harm. That is true heroism. We are proud of them all. As we exited the memorial park, we visited The Tower of Voices, a wind chime with 40 different tones to commemorate every individual aboard Flight 93. It was awe-inspiring to hear.

 

On our trip back to the campground we stopped and ate a delicious dinner at Eat’nPark.

 

We arrived at Thousand Trails Gettysburg Farm on June 7, 2024. Blessings started as soon as we checked in. We were able to up-grade to full hook-ups, which is always nice. We watched some documentaries on Gettysburg in preparation for our tour.

 

There is so much history behind Gettysburg that it’s hard to take it all in. We toured the museum which had an amazing Cyclorama (a diorama in the round) of the battlefields, along with artifacts and displays from the battle. After the museum, we took a self-guided automobile tour of the battlefields which contained monuments and memorials too numerous to count. Our final stop was at the Gettysburg National Cemetery where Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address.

 

Back at the campground we played miniature golf, where Evelyn got a hole-in-one, Doug won the round, and we met the most unusual looking kangaroo. But nothing was quite as unusual as the F-14 Tomcat Fighter Jet we found behind the pizza/laundromat, next to the VFW in the small town of East Berlin, Pennsylvania.

 

We traveled further across Pennsylvania on June 11, 2024 to Thousand Trails Hershey outside the town of Lebanon. Upon our arrival, the host suggested we look for a site up on the hill deep in the woods. It was gorgeous, with an overview of the whole campground. The campground also had all kinds of geese that gathered in their own, “little gangs.” like the Jets and the Sharks from Westside Story.

 

We visited the Hershey Chocolate World, complete with a ride and video of how they make and package their delicious chocolates. It reminded us the scene in Jurassic Park where they explain about the development of the dinosaurs and the park. We agreed that only at the Hershey Chocolate World could we spend $40 on 4 cookies and one Reese’s Cup. But the cookies were huge and we built the giant Reese’s Cup (quarter in picture for scale) with our choice of goodies inside. We had a fun and tasty day in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

 

 

On June 15, 2024 we arrived at Thousand Trails Circle M outside of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The campground was packed! We assumed it was because it was Father’s Day weekend. We were glad we arrived early in the afternoon because we had planned to celebrate Doug’s birthday with a free meal at the Shady Maple Smorgasbord in East Earl. Sometimes the best laid plans don’t go as expected. We were nearly done with all of our interior/exterior set-up when the camper in the site adjacent to us arrived back at his camper and explained to Doug that he was leaving in the morning and we had not left him enough room to hook his truck up to his travel trailer. We learned an important lesson as we had to do a partial tear-down, move our rig a few feet, and start the set-up all over again. All that being said, we were glad we found out then, rather than early the next morning.

 

We ended up too late to get Doug’s free meal, so we drove into Willow Street, Pennsylvania and picked up a nice carryout meal. While in Willow Street, we scoped out a church to visit on Sunday. Because the name of the church was dear to our heart, Grace Community Church, that’s where we went. We laughed as we approached the building because, just like our first visit, years ago, to Grace Community Church in Ohio, this church had a Neil Costick look-alike directing cars for parking. The service was beautiful.

 

Even though this campground was crowded, with little shade, and bad cell service, they did allow us to wash our rig and car for a fee. Not many campgrounds allow that and our vehicles were in very bad need of a bath. We spent part of 2 days washing everything top to bottom to make them pretty again.

 

After all of the clean-up we finally made it to the amazing Shady Maple Smorgasbord that our dear friends Tom and Marie had told us about. It is noted as the largest smorgasbord in the world. So, if you are near East Earl, Pennsylvania, be sure to plan a trip to the Shady Maple Smorgasbord.

 

We didn’t go to Valley Forge on June 19, 2024 as planned. We turned down a busy city street with a low hanging branch that ripped off our awning. Luckily, God provided a safe parking area where we could pull over and work. We had to remove the whole thing, put it in the RV, and take it with us to our next stop. We tried to maintain a positive attitude as we knew we would have to haul the awning around until we could get an insurance adjuster to assess the damages. As we traveled to Chestnut Lake RV Resort, we stopped at a turnpike rest area for photo opportunities as daisies and bumble bees.

 

Chestnut Lake was a nice campground with many geese. Of course, where there are geese, there also is an abundance of goose poop. As we were scouting out the area in our car, we captured a picture of Smokey the Bear that looked very different from the way we remember him in our youth. This Smokey was rather buff. We also enjoyed shopping at the Historic Smithville Village where we picked up some jerkies and candies.

 

Sometimes the best way to deal with an unpleasant situation like our awning, is to help others who are having a problem. Our neighbors in the next campsite had an issue that Doug was able to assist with. They were such a dear couple, Roberto and Cindy, and even more than the hands-on help, they appreciated when we prayed with them. God puts people in our path for a reason. Maybe to encourage all of us.

 

Arriving at Ocean View, New Jersey on June 23, 2024, we probably looked like the Beverly Hillbillies. We should have taken pictures of our method of hauling the broken awning inside our RV, because words cannot describe it well enough. After laying the awning outside the RV, we contacted the insurance company, and we were told they would send an adjuster to our campsite in a few days.

 

We decided we needed a break from the stress of the awning ordeal, so we hopped in the car and headed to Sea Isle City, New Jersey to see the Atlantic Ocean. Evelyn had Job 38:11 in her mind as we look at the Ocean, “This far you may come and no farther, here is where your proud waves halt.” God is so big and mighty. Evelyn used the opportunity to draw her bunny picture in the sand.

 

We picked up our dinner from Mike’s Seafood, which was located just up the street from Fish Alley. While waiting for our order to come up, another customer came in the shop to pick up his order. Never one to shy away from a unique photo opportunity, Evelyn asked him if we could take his picture. He was wearing a hat that had a 3-dimensional seagull with a french fry in its mouth. The man was happy to oblige the request. We took our dinner back to the campground and it really was an awesome meal.

 

The next day we ventured back into Sea Isle City to get some groceries. We both chuckled at the name of the local grocery chain, ACME. We looked for Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, but neither were to be found. We had received a packet of brochures from the campground and one of them was for Steve’s Grilled Cheese and Quesadilla Company. The brochure highlighted a watermelon and feta salad. It sounded too good to resist. After dropping Evelyn off to pick it up, Doug drove around the block numerous times due to the lack of parking. It was a long wait for our lunch, but it was well worth it. We finished off our day of dining with homemade Italian sausage from a local butcher that we cooked over the campfire. They were the best Italian sausages we have ever had. So much so, that we planned to pick up more when we return to Port Republic in a couple of days.

 

After the insurance adjuster did his assessment, we were blessed to find a construction dumpster at the RV storage yard associated with the campground. The owner of the campground gave us permission to dispose of the awning in it. Yay! No more Bevely Hillbilly look for us.

 

We needed one more outing to complete our Jersey Shore experience. We drove to the Ocean City Boardwalk and walked a good distance looking at various businesses, souvenir shops, and arcades. One arcade in particular had the Zoltar fortune teller booth like Tom Hanks tried out in the movie Big. We finished the day by driving over to Avalon to enjoy more awesome seafood from the Avalon Seafood Restaurant.

 

We traveled June 27, 2024 back to Thousand Trails Chestnut Lake RV Park in Port Republic, New Jersey. Sometimes the camping discounts require a specific number of days in or out of participating parks.

 

Returning to Port Republic gave us the opportunity to purchase more of the best sweet Italian sausage from Pitney Italian Market and some of their cannolis. We enjoyed talking with the owner and complimenting his great foods. We had delicious campfire-cooked sausages and chocolate shell cannolis on Saturday night and finished our visit with a great church service at Beacon Evangelical Free Church on Sunday.

 

We already had some plans in place when we arrived in Milton, Delaware on July 1, 2024. Our plan was to camp at Deep Branch Family Campground. Doug had found some interesting facts about the camp’s origin. The camp was started by Pastor Bill and Mary Jane Sammons, a Christian couple who also founded the Eagle’s Nest Church next door and helped start the local Christian radio station, The Bridge, who’s contemporary Christian music is even piped into the bathhouse at the campground. We were blessed with a shady campsite among the seasonal campers, instead of the area where most transient campers were, out in an open area with full sunlight.

 

On our second day in Delaware, we went on our never-ending search for the best bratwurst in the good old USA. Our search took us to The Family Butcher Shop of Delmarva, where we purchased spicy crab brats and spinach-feta brats. They were both excellent, but the spicy crab brats, in our opinion, are the best brats we’ve eaten to date. On a side note, Delmarva (Del-Mar-Va) is what the lower area on the Delaware peninsula is referred as. If you look at a map of the USA you will find that Maryland’s and Virginia’s state lines extend over the Chesapeake Bay to incorporate the lower section of the peninsula. This was something new to us.

 

Our third day in Delaware took us back north to the Air and Mobility Command Museum at the Dover Air Force Base. The B-17 Bomber, also known as the Flying Fortress, was of special interest as we had just recently watched the TV mini-series, Masters of the Air. We continued farther north to Wilmington where we used our free tickets from the Angel Guild to see Sound of Hope – The Story of Possum Trot. It was very emotional and heart-warming.

 

On Saturday we connected with Mary, one of Ev’s former co-workers from Ohio. As we were all enjoying wonderful seafood salads, Mary told us we might enjoy a place called Assateague Island that was down in the Delmarva Peninsula. So, on Sunday, we attended service at the beautiful Eagle’s Nest Church next to the camp, had another wonderful seafood meal, and headed off to Assateague Island to see the Atlantic Ocean and wild horses. Even though we did not see any horses actually on the beach, there was evidence that they had been there recently. This visit to the state of Delaware, was amazing.

 

Upon our arrival to Little Bennett Campground in Clarksburg, Maryland on July 8, 2024, we confirmed what we had learned earlier in our travels, that county run campgrounds are beautiful and reasonably priced. Our campsite was gorgeous. We had a little turtle visitor travel underneath the RV one evening, but it didn’t bother to stop and chat with us as we cooked steaks over the campfire.

 

During our stay at Little Bennett Campground, we ventured out to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore to tour the historical tall ship, USS Constellation and the World War II submarine, USS Torsk. Doug maneuvered the very busy rush-hour traffic like a pro (thank God for Google Maps) as we drove past Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of the Baltimore Orioles.

 

We drove through some beautiful areas on July 12, 2024 as we took country roads to Sand Springs Campground in Morgantown, West Virginia for a 3-night stay. As we have found it common place, especially in West Virgina, our campsite was extremely unlevel. It was worth the stay, if for no other reason than the fantastic church service we attended on Sunday. Their praise music included a great song called, “There is Another in the Fire.”

 

Our neighboring camper had a silhouette of Donald Trump in the window, which we repeatedly mistook for a real person. West Virgina is a beautiful state and we totally understand the lyrics from John Denver’s song, “Country Roads,” that includes the line, “Almost heaven, West Virginia.”

 

We headed back to our good old home state of Ohio on July 15, 2024. We camped at Top O’ the Caves campground in Benton Township near Hocking Hills.

 

Since we only had one full day at this location, we decided to hike back to Ash Cave to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Hocking Hills State Park. The cave was a beautiful spot, even though the waterfall was nothing more than a drip at that time.

 

We setup for our stay at Camp Sychar on July 17, 2024. Since we enjoyed helping with the kid’s program in 2023, we signed up to help again in 2024. The blessing is always ours when we spend time with the kids.

 

We really enjoyed ministering with the Sychar Kid’s Team of Charissa, Rachel, Rhonda, and Heather. It is an honor to work along side these ladies. The children’s missionary offering greatly exceeded the target goal, so each of these ladies were true to their promises of dressing in fun, inflatable outfits for the final day and Charissa gave herself over to be made into a human-sundae. She is one brave woman.

 

Our grandson, Cooper was able to attend some of the activities with us throughout the week. It was neat to see the difference in his hand size next to the painted handprint he made a year earlier. There are always such a great group of kids at this camp and we love that Coop has an opportunity to participate in this ministry.

 

We were back to River trail Crossing, our hometown campground, on Sunday, July 28, 2024, where we began an “in and out” stay. We are so thankful for the owners of River Trail Crossing (Barb and Brian) for being so flexible with our dates, as we had to take the RV to Grafton, Ohio to replace the awning and perform some bodywork. Because all of the parts weren’t immediately available, the completion date was rather open-ended. That meant we needed somewhere to stay while the RV was being repaired.

 

The Williams moved into the log cabin room at Ev’s sister’s house, inflatable bed and all. What started as a two day stay turned into more than a two week stay, as the awning completion date kept being pushed out. One upside to our stay was, good fellowship, many laughs, and prayer time with Margie and Hal. We also enjoyed time with their grandkids when Margie and Hal kept them during the day. One day we captured a picture of the aftermath of Jacob making a mask out of foam modeling beads. These kids were a hoot.

 

Another upside to being in Ohio for our annual medical and dental visits was spending time with Rachel, Jeff, and Madeline at Cooper’s soccer games. It was nice to see Cooper get a new hairstyle he really liked before school started. We also were able to attend the Avon Park Camp Association's Ohio Snowbird Dinner at the Der Dutchman in Bellville. We had a wonderful time getting reaquainted with people we met at camp in 2023 and meeting new camp attendees from 2024. It got us excited about getting back to Avon Park, Florida for the 2025 encampment.

 

As always, when we travel, we enjoy good food and being back in Ohio was no exception. When we dropped the RV off for repair, we happened across Jones Bones BBQ and Grub where we had the Wednesday special, a huge potato stuffed with mac and cheese and barbequed pork, then topped with sour cream. It was delicious.  We also supported a new restaurant in Mansfield called Asian Taste, which had the best Crab Rangoons. We topped off our local dining by celebrating Matt’s birthday at his favorite restaurant, Coney Island Diner, who has the best coneys around.

 

Leaving Ohio on September 4, 2024, we headed south for the winter. Our first stop was at Appalachian Distillery, a Harvest Host located in Ripley, West Virginia. It is a small facility with a great variety of moonshine. The host was a very nice young lady who gave us a personal tour of the entire operation. One note of interest was a brand of moonshine whiskey called Revenuer’s Reserve 01 in honor of “The Dukes of Hazzard.” The bottles were hand signed by John Schneider.

A short walk across the parking lot took us to where we had our dinner at The Fairview Yacht Club. The restaurant had incredibly delicious food and was decorated with boats and sailing accessories.

 

As we continued our travels on September 5, 2024, we crossed the Glade Creek Bridge on I-64 before Beckley, West Virginia. The bridge stands 700 feet above the creek, making it the highest bridge in the US Interstate System. It is also the highest continuous truss bridge in the world.

As we arrived at the beautiful River Ridge Campground, we found the site had been blessed with many painted rocks, left by pervious campers. We learned that the property next to the campground was a women’s federal prison camp. The FPC Alderson, West Virginia is famous for having been the home of Martha Stewart and Squeaky Fromm.

We attended church in Ronceverte, West Virginia at the Grassroots Church. The service was wonderful and it was encouraging to see so many young families in church together.

 

Our outing the next day was not as enjoyable, at least for Ev. As we entered the Lost World Caverns, a lady exiting stated that some sections were slippery. Walking one-half mile into a cave, on a downward slope that appeared wet, set the tone for Ev being overly cautious with her footing and down-right scared of falling. Ev joked afterwards, that it was good that Doug took pictures of the formations and information plaques, because Ev rarely took her eyes off of the ground. One picture of interest was the natural cave entrance, through which the explorer passed, when the cave was first discovered. Ev found the gift store more pleasant with its walking sticks named the same as the childhood nickname her dad referred to her as, “Sugarfoot” and a statue of our favorite urban legend, Sasquatch/Bigfoot.

 

On Tuesday we took a drive to Summerville, West Virginia to see our dear friend Donna that we first met at the Avon Park Encampment in Florida and then enjoyed the Nazarene Family Camp with her in West Virginia. We headed into town for a yummy Mexican meal and then back to her cabin for dessert. When ever we spend time with Donna, it is such a blessing.

 

Before we departed, Doug took one last picture at the rear of our campsite and it proved to be very unique. The reflection of the tree line into the calm Greenbriar River is so perfect, its difficult to distinguish were the foliage ends and the reflection begins.

 

Little did we know on September 12, 2024, how much of a curveball would be thrown into our Virginia stay. We arrived at beautiful Montebello Campground in Montebello, Virginia by way of the most unbelievably curvy, hilly, mountain road imaginable. Stephanie, the camp-store hostess, was surprised that our GPS had brought us that direction.

 

Stephanie told us about the Blue Ridge Parkway and many local sightseeing spots. We were so fortunate to be able to drive these beautiful mountain areas and visit the local Brook, Brown, and Rainbow Trout hatchery with its stair stepped raceways which are used to conserve water. Just up the road from the hatchery was Crabtree Falls, the highest vertical drop, cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi River.  Doug captured many of these sites, but still noticed the smallest of nature’s beings like the American Giant Millipede and Three-lined Salamanders. The Virginia picture of Smokey the Bear is the image we remember from our childhood. His potbelly is vastly different from the buff physique of the New Jersey Smokey the Bear (see June 2024 pictures).

 

We received sad news during our stay that Ev’s sister, Judy had passed away in Ohio. After making some quick decisions, we opted to leave the RV in this well maintained and safe campground and drive our car back to Ohio to arrange Judy’s funeral. We stayed at Ev’s sister Margie and husband Hal’s house again. This actually gave Doug and Hal time to hone their appliance repair skills by replacing the timer on Margie and Hal’s dryer. In the midst of all the funeral preparations, God provided a sweet time to celebrate Margie’s birthday at a local Mexican restaurant. Margie wore a sombrero as the servers sang happy birthday to the delight of her grandkids. It was also sweet to see our son-in-law, Jeff and grandson, Cooper arrive at Judy’s graveside service so sharply dressed in their matching suits.

 

As we drove back to our RV, we captured a picture of the state’s motto, “Almost Heaven.” It is true, now, more than ever, that these Blue Ridge Mountains with their breath-taking views, don’t compare to the heaven that our sister is experiencing, now and forever. God is so good.

 

We drove to Beechnut Family Campground in Mount Airy, North Carolina on Saturday, September 28, 2024. On Sunday we went to the last official event of the annual “Mayberry Days,” a church service held at the local amphitheater. We decided to stay in our current campground for an extra week, since our next planned stop in Hendersonville, North Caroline had been devastated by flooding from Hurricane Helene. We couldn’t visit Doug’s co-worker, Tom and his wife Darla in Fairview, North Carolina as Helene has washed out many roads and highways in the area. We thank God that Tom, Darla, and their home did not sustain any damage, even though they were without power, internet, and cell service for many days/weeks. We will try to visit them again in the fall of 2025.

 

The following week we attended church at Hope Church in Mount Airy. Ekaterina Haselden shared her testimony of how she had received a shoebox from Operation Christmas Child, that changed her life. She now travels, telling her story of how God’s love can even reach a young girl in an orphanage in Russia, through a shoebox ministry.

 

Mount Airy, North Carolina is the setting for the Andy Griffeth TV show. Not only is Mount Airy the birthplace of Andy Griffeth, but it will always have the legacy of being known as Mayberry from the TV show. Visitors can walk through replicas of the Mayberry Courthouse/Jail or Wally’s Service Station, and take a ride in the town’s squad car. The Andy Griffeth Museum and Playhouse contains loads of memorabilia from the show and other works of Andy Griffeth.

 

While in Mount Airy, we enjoyed a couple of meals at an old fashion drive-in dinner with car hops and photo opportunity props. We enjoyed a burger on a donut bun and an Elvis Panini made of peanut butter and bananas.

 

On our final day in Mount Airy, we took a drive to Pilot Mountain, which is known as Mount Pilot, in the TV series. It was an enjoyable hike with a beautiful view from the top.

 

We arrived at Creekhaven RV Park and Glamping in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee on Thursday, October 10, 2024. We had fun and great foods. We enjoyed pizza and pepperoni rolls from “West By God Coal Fired Pizza” and Philly-steak Egg Roll and Nacho Tower from Guy Fieri’s, “Downtown Flavortown” restaurant. Guy Fieri’s restaurant was huge, with half of the building housing a fun arcade. We played a few games and walked away with a small rubber axolotl (Mexican salamander) from a claw-game.

 

Doug’s remembrance of his childhood visit to Pigeon Forge is much different from today’s very commercialized and crowded streets.

 

Our main interest for this visit was to attend a dinner show called “Pirates Voyage,” A Dolly Parton Company. This was an incredible date! The theater seated approximately 1,000 people and is designed like the Galactic Senate chamber from Star Wars. The show was beautifully synchronized with very physically fit, professional performers. Ev’s favorite part of the performance was the performing seals, while Doug loved the Macaws that sailed and swooped above the crowd. The wait staff that served dinner was equally proficient and the meal was spectacular. We are always amazed at what a small world this really is. The people sitting next to us in the huge 1,000 seat theater were from Dayton, Ohio.

 

Thursday, October 17, 2024 we arrived in Andrews, North Carolina at Mountain Riders Riverfront Camping. It is gorgeous here! We have tickets to attend a marriage conference this weekend, called Snowbird Wilderness Outfitters.

 

It seems logical that we don’t have many pictures from this stay, as we were busy absorbing the great messages and fantastic worship services for most of the time. One of the speakers noted, this is the only place that serves Beef Wellington for dinner and an hour later you’re standing on gravel, in a warehouse, for worship music. A couple we met at dinner, Sean and Jessica, introduced us to Cheerwine, a cherry flavored soda only available in North Carolina and some areas of Georgia. They had been to the conference before and were very good in helping us traverse all of the events.

 

There was an afternoon of recreation choices. We lived vicariously through the younger couples on most of the options, but we did take a run at the hillside slide on innertubes. It was so much fun! We are planning on building our courage before next year when we want to return and participate on the three-man swing and zip line.

 

On Tuesday, October 22, 2024 we traveled south to Fort Yargo State Park in Winder Georgia. The foliage was breath takingly beautiful on our travel that day.

 

Our friends Doug and Pam told us if we ever had the chance to visit Stone Mountain in Georgia, don’t miss the opportunity. So, we included it in our travel plans for this year. We hadn’t planned for our visit to be during the Pumpkin-Glow Festival, but we were glad it was. During the day we rode the gondola cable car to the top of the mountain and the train around the base of the mountain. There were many fun things to do during the festival. Ev’s favorite was the 4D theater that showed a short monster cartoon movie where you experienced objects flying at you, mists of water, and vibrating seats. It was amazing. After dark it got even better with a drone light show, a singing animated pumpkin tree (see video at end of October 2024 pictures), a Halloween themed show projected on the side of the mountain, and fireworks. And all of this was accompanied by monster related music, like The Monster Mash and Ghostbuster’s theme song.

 

Sunday provided another mountain-top experience as we attended church at “The Way” church in Winder, Georgia. Doug was impressed with the praise leader who sang, played guitar, and kept a beat on a foot pedal operated bass drum. Now, that’s talent.

 

There are places we spend a week and have little to say about it, and then there are one night Harvest Host stays, like Monday, October 27, 2024, which was so impressive we have a lot to say about it. The Scott Family Farm in Waynesboro, Georgia was so beautiful and the host was so welcoming and friendly. They specialize in growing Christmas tree and they sell their bee’s honey.

 

A walk around their property showed much of the devastation from Hurricane Helene and tornados it spawned, with downed trees along the paths and some still blocking a rail-line through their property. But as with any disaster there can be areas that are unscathed, as were their honey bee hives.

 

As with any Harvest Host, we look to support their business, so we purchased a jar of their honey that was almost clear because it was from bees that had fed on cotton plant nectar. Their Christmas tree nursery also provided an opportunity for us to donate a tree, through “Trees for Troops” to a local military family.

 

Their moto of we raise honey bees and Christmas trees reminded us of the old song, “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” because their farm is furnishing the world with love.

 

Ev had been looking forward to our South Carolina stop for a long time. On Tuesday, October 28, 2024, we arrived at Lake Aire RV Park in Hollywood, South Carolina for a seven-night stay.

 

We have been greeted at campground by various birds; ducks, geese, and even a guinea. This park has adorable black and white ducks that look like they are wearing tuxedos and preparing for a dinner party. We obliged with the dinner party by buying Purina duck food and presenting it to our friendly fowl.

 

This visit meant time with Ev’s childhood friend, Mel and her husband Rob. Mel texted us the security QR code so we could get a gate pass and have access to the island. The security entrance was beautiful landscaped with tall grasses that are pink during the fall. Their home is a little slice of heaven on Seabrook/John’s Island. They took us for a walk on what the locals call crab dock where we saw Fiddler Crabs in the mud and dolphins strand feeding on the banks of the water inlet. We also were able to see the Atlantic Ocean off in the distance.

 

Doug remembered that a former co-worker of his had retired to this area a few years earlier and thought it would be fun to surprise him with a visit, since we already had access to the island. After a short three-minute drive from Mel and Rob’s we were ready to spring our surprise on Dennis and Kim. Dennis was thrilled to see Doug and we all had a great visit. Even though our friends don’t know each other, Dennis and Kim were very familiar with “The Bike Guy,” as Rob is known on the island. Rob’s love for bicycling has branched out into helping others with bike repairs. Doug was impressed with one of Rob’s bikes in particular, as it was belt driven rather than chain driven.

 

Both couples had mentioned that we should visit the big oak tree on the island. So, we drove to see the “Angel Oak,” which is the largest Live Oak tree east of the Mississippi. The tree is approximately 400 years old and very impressive. On our way back to the RV, we stopped for some groceries so we could host Mel and Rob for dinner that evening.

 

Mel and Rob invited us to a local harvest festival with bluegrass musicians, food trucks, and craft vendors. The weather was perfect, making for a pleasant afternoon sitting under a shade tree with our friends.

 

After church on Sunday, Mel and Rob picked us up for a visit to Magnolia Plantation and Gardens in Charleston. The place was beautiful, with a huge variety of flowers and plants. At the entrance there was a board displaying what was currently blooming. There was also a lot of Spanish Moss, which we have been informed, isn’t of Spanish origin and it isn’t a moss.  Makes you go “hmmm.” Never-the-less, we have come to appreciate its beauty. We went on a guided trolly ride through the historical plantation seeing different field areas and workers housing. The ride ended near the plantation mansion and next to “The Romantic Garden,” which we accessed by walking over the beautiful arched bridge. We had an early dinner at Gilligan’s Seafood Restaurant and then it was time to say our good-byes. These visits go too fast, but we cherish our time with old (and new) friends.

 

We became happy campers on Tuesday, November 5, 2024 as we arrived at Happy Camper RV Park and Mobile Home Rentals in Hinesville Georgia. This park had many mobile homes that were rented to soldiers and their families from Fort Stewart. All of the mobile homes were painted in pastel colors. Each home had a small painted fence section with unique amateur paintings of well know art pieces.

 

Each road has feral cats that act like they are security guards over the park. They walk from one porch to the next, sitting and observing for a while before moving on. One lot is empty except for numerous bowls of cat food and water. The environment really did make us happy.

 

We went to a local church called, Connection Church. It was a wonderful service, where we fell in love with a new song, “Ain’t Gonna Let No Rock (out praise me),” from Ron Kenoly and Hosanna! Music. The pastor ended the service by having us put our hand on our forehead and pray out loud, “Lord, renew my mind,” and then place our hand over our heart and pray out loud, “Lord renew my spirit.”

 

The final day of our stay in Hinesville fell on Ev’s birthday. I tried to get her to go out to a restaurant, but she wanted Kroger sushi instead. So, Kroger sushi it was. Such a yummy meal.

 

We arrived at Mike Roess Branch State Park in Keystone Heights, Florida on November 12, 2024. We stayed home quite a bit of the week, which is easy to do considering the beautiful views, whether its was day or night. We even had a visit from the local deer.

 

We have come to enjoy the network of Joy FM radio stations in Florida and look forward to listening to their praise/worship and Christmas music as we travel around the state.

 

We chose to attend church at Friendship Bible Church, a Christian Missionary Alliance Church, in Keystone Heights. Their service reminded us of our years at North Woodbury Alliance Church in Ohio. Their service included the dedication of shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, a ministry that has always been very special to us.

 

Not all experiences in RV life are pleasant. Ev had her first meeting with a Brown Anole Lizard who planted himself on the outside of the passenger window of the Spark, right at eye level and didn’t want to leave. Luckily as we pulled away from our campsite, it jumped off. As we were packing up for our next trip, we had another (maybe the same one) try to stow away in our leveling blocks. Again, we were lucky it did not succeed.

 

Our travel day to Jetty Park at Cape Canaveral, Florida on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 started off with another stow-away. The lizard that clung to our window was very persistent and hung on for about 15 minutes until we were able to stop and coax him off of the RV.

 

It would be an understatement to say Doug was looking forward to this stay. Doug’s enthusiasm rubbed off a little and now we both were excited to see some rocket launches.

 

We have more plans at some campgrounds than others. We had tickets from Angel Studios to see Bonhoeffer at a local theater. It was a great movie, which unfortunately will never receive the accolades it deserves. While at the theater, Doug took a ride in Santa’s sleigh as a promotion for the movie, “Red One.”

 

On Thursday morning we watched our first Space X, Falcon 9 rocket launch across the port. It was a cold, yet beautiful morning. Crowds of people lined the waterfront and the pier for the launch. In the afternoon, we ventured out onto the pier to enjoy some of the sea life.

 

Friday morning, we got up very early to drive down to Vero Beach and surprise the grandkids at their annual Plimoth (old English spelling of Plymouth) Program in celebration of the first Thanksgiving. Honestly, we were the ones most surprised, by how much they had grown. We had a short visit with Amber and Keith, along with Kristie and Rick during the program. After the program, the kids returned to their school routine and we returned to Jetty Park.

 

Early Saturday morning, Ev saw how excited Doug could get over all of this rocket stuff, as he heard the drone of a barge, he looked out the window and saw the rocket booster from Thursday’s launch being towed back into port. He threw modesty aside and went outside in his PJs to get a picture of it. We also got pictures of 2 other boosters sitting in que, farther inland on the port. That afternoon we, along with a host of other spectators, sat along the edge of the water to watch cruise line and casino ships traverse the port. It is a lot of fun to see these massive ships with happy swabbies waving to those on shore and the landlubbers waving back.

 

Sunday, God did it again for us, He led us to a fantastic service at Lighthouse Christian Church on Merritt Island, Florida.

 

We got up at 3:45 AM on Monday (cause that’s what you do when you love your spouse) and sat on the waterfront to watch an early morning launch across the port. It is awestriking to see the ball of flame crest the horizon and then hear the rumble as the rocket proceeds into space. We also, were at the right place and at the right time, to see a cruise ship come back into the port early in the morning.

 

The last scheduled launch we had hoped to see ended up getting scrubbed after the launch time had been pushed back a few times. We both agreed, we had a wonderful stay at Jetty Park, Cape Canaveral, Florida.

 

SPECIAL NOTE: Since we were at the Savannas Recreation Area for part of November, all of December, and part of  January, we are placing all pictures from that stay in the December 2024 photo directory.

 

Tuesday, November 26, 2024 was our travel day to the Savannas Recreation Area and Campground in Fort Pierce, Florida. We met our next-door neighbors, Bernel and Sharon right away. We explained we would be in and out of camp frequently visiting our Florida family and Ev’s high school friend, which might prevent us from participating in different campground get togethers. But we did have a meet and greet with a flock of Sandhill Cranes who meandered around our site, making their telltale calls.

 

We visited Amber and Keith in their home and got selfies with the grandkids, Story, Moxie, Orion, and our granddog, Hank, who is the cutest and most mellow dog we know. We all just hung out and prepared for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Kristie and Rick’s (Amber’s mother and stepfather) home.

 

After the Thanksgiving celebration was over, we hit the ground running to do things with the grandkids. We chaperoned Orion’s kindergarten class on a field trip to a local assisted living facility to perform a Christmas play, sing Christmas songs, and share their Christmas projects with the residents. It was a fun morning, but a little humbling to have a resident ask if we were a new couple there. We were afraid that they might not let us leave. Later in the day, we picked up all 3 grandkids from school. We managed to squeeze all 3 kids and their backpacks into our little car and headed off to an early dinner at Chick-Fil-A. After dinner, we took them to see, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” We had been looking forward to enjoying this Dallas Jenkins (The Chosen) movie with the kiddos. All of the kids had a few tries at the claw machine in the theater’s arcade, but Story is the only one who came away with a prize, a $10 rubber duck. Doug’s not so frugal when is comes to the grandkids.

 

This year we decided to step our RV decorations up a notch by adding a LED rope light under the RV. Then, we thought we needed even more, so for a Christmas present, we bought each other an inflatable nativity scene. Something else to store on the over-the-cab bed and use for only a few weeks each year. The grandkids were surprised as Papaw stepped up his Christmas decorations once again by wearing beard ornaments to their school’s Christmas program. A few days later we were back at the school again to watch Moxie’s class lead worship in chapel at their school.

 

The drive from our campground to Amber and Keith’s house is a beautiful one. Indian River Drive has so many gorgeous homes lining the road on one side and their individual boat docks just across the street. Just for curiosity’s sake Doug priced a vacant, 1.2-acre lot with no boat dock at $879,000. Wow, for a vacant lot!

 

There is so much beauty in the world as we saw one of the most vibrant rainbows we had ever seen. Then, the next day, we see large lizards (Ev thought they looked like alligators) crawling on Amber and Keith's neighbor’s house, and this is all considered normal to Florida residents.

 

Our lunch date with Ev’s friend, Stephanie, was so pleasant. Reminiscing and laughing is always good for the soul. On our way to Stephanie’s home, we picked up a pizza and cannolis. When we arrived, she gave us a tour of the farm and introduced us to her livestock. While visiting, we learned of yet another type of Florida lizard, the “Jesus Lizard.” As we watched it run across her backyard, she explained that they are given that special name because they can rear-up on their back legs and propel themselves across water as if they were walking on water.

 

Doug introduced the grandkids to his Grandma Rexroat’s Christmas cutout cookies. Everyone enjoyed rolling out the dough and using Christmas shaped cookie cutters to make a delicious variety of holiday favorites.

 

Staying in the area for over a month, gave us the opportunity to attend the same church a few times. God led us to the perfect one, Calvary Port Saint Lucie (PSL). It was a fantastic church with great praise music and strong messages. We sung wonderful praise songs that were new to us, like, “Jehovah” by Elevation Worship, “That’s My King” by CeCe Winans, “I Speak Jesus” by Charity Gale, and “Tear Off the Roof” by Brandon Lake.

 

Even though we have no pictures of our dinners with Kristie and Rick, we are so thankful to have shared Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas Eve dinner at their home, along with a pizza night at our RV. All of us grandparents share a special love for these grandkids and hopefully they will always know that.

 

On our last days visiting, we made sure we captured more snapshots and selfies with the family.

 

We headed to the everglades on Friday, January 3, 2025. The drives from one destination to our next, sometimes provides unique views and sights we had not planned to see. While on the Florida Turnpike, we saw an interestingly shaped Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. The build was shaped like a guitar. It seemed that this part of Florida had different looking palm trees that had smoother trunks and leafier branches. They are all beautiful. Beautiful, would also describe our destination campground, United States National Park Midway Campground, in Ochopee, Florida.

 

We took a drive in the car to Everglade City to scope out a church for Sunday service and we sat in a store parking lot for a little while, where we had cell signal and could make some contacts. On our way back to camp, we stopped at the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters where Ev held the only alligator she would ever feel comfortable holding, a 12”, soft, stuffed animal. The Skunk Ape is a Southern cousin to Sasquatch and Big Foot.

 

Back at camp we cooked brauts that had been gifted to us from Rick and Kristie. These brauts were the biggest brauts we have ever seen. After cooking them on the open fire, we had to cut them in half both lengthwise and widthwise and then stagger them to fit on standard hot dog bun. One braut ended up filling two hot dog buns. They also were the tenderest brauts we’ve ever had.

 

Sunday church service was a blast from the past. A small, quiet, ceremonial service, with old hymns and congregational readings. Many of the congregants were from other states and in the area vacationing or visiting relatives. It was good to take communion with other believers and feel so welcomed.

 

Monday was our scheduled airboat ride with the world famous (since 1953) Wooten’s Everglades Adventure. Any apprehension that Ev had, quickly vanished as our driver Jesse took us on an exhilarating trip around the swampy tall grass and mangroves (trees that grow in brackish/salt water). Jesse was not only a good drive, but was full of facts about the Everglades and its inhabitants. He shared that the Burmese Python population had grown so much in this area that it had eradicated over 60% of the animal population.

 

After our ride, we toured the gift shop, animal refuge, and alligator show. There were otters, tigers, and “a lot” of alligators. Coleman, the alligator handler was very knowledgeable about his alligator, Charlie and very brave; walking into the tank with Charlie, sitting on his back and even giving him a kiss on the snout. Coleman led the audience to a smaller tank with younger alligators in it, he banded their snouts and asked the spectators, “Who wants to hold an alligator?” Doug held Jelly Bean, a 3-1/2 foot female alligator. He said when she was first handed to him, she was nervously wiggling, but as Doug began talking to her, he felt her relax in his hands. It’s no wonder why Ev called Doug the Alligator Whisperer.

 

Driving the Tamiami Trail (named for its connecting path between Tampa and Miami) provided an interesting crossing sign, we had never seen a panther crossing sign and luckily, we never came across a “real” panther. The water ways next to the road had so many Great Egrets birds, which look like the wives tale storks that we were told deliver babies. They sometimes would congregate in groups and it looked like a stork convention.

 

We ate lunch in Everglade City at the City Seafood Restaurant. It is on the waterfront with picnic tables along the dock. We met a nice couple, Mark and Michelle, who were new to the fulltime RV life. So, we had a great conversation as we ate our crabcake sandwich, conch fritters, and alligator bites. We also captured a beautiful picture of the moon at noon as we were leaving. The next day Doug finished off his leftover alligator bites and we joked about how he was holding an alligator again. Don’t judge us.

 

Back at the campground, Doug took some pictures of the informational posters in the area. In reviewing the pictures of the animal warnings, we thought, oh, this is like the Wizard of Oz, “Gators and panthers and bears, oh my.”

 

One day we saw we had new neighbors, who had the same kind of RV and car like ours! This was more than enough to build a new friendship on. We enjoyed getting to know our new Minnesota friends, Brian and Heidi. We are sure we will stay in touch with this dear couple. Life is good, cause God is good.

 

We arrived at Fort DeSoto Campground, near Saint Petersburg, Florida on Friday, January 10, 2025. As we were driving to our destination, we could see in the distance the Sunshine Skyway Bridge that we would soon be crossing. From that bridge we caught a snapshot of the sunset, which was a precursor of the beautiful paradise we were about to enter.

 

We saw how God had guided our footsteps when we arrived at camp. Because hurricanes Helene and Milton had both hit Fort DeSoto, all three of the camping loops had been closed until two weeks before our arrival and they had only reopened one loop. You guessed it, it was the loop we had reserved our site on. God is good!

 

Our campsite was level and we backed our rig up against the waterway, which had its own little opening to the water. At the entrance to the opening, there was a display of Horseshoe Crab shells. Evidently campers at our site decided to line them up neatly. So, of course, we added to the collection a few we had come across during our visit. Another site near ours had a beach area at the waters edge that was nothing but shells.

 

We used the week to catch up on our blog and only ventured out into town once for a sushi lunch at the Sushi Rock Grill. However, we did have a couple of unique sightings at camp, including an Osprey nest on top of a communications pole and a Lego block among the shells and gravel on our campsite. Proof that Legos are painful to step on, no matter where they are.

 

SPECIAL NOTE: Since we were at Avon Park Camp for part of January and part of February, we are placing all pictures from that stay in the January 2025 photo directory for easier access.

 

We arrived in Avon, Park Florida on January 17, 2025, but the annual camp meetings weren’t to start for a couple of weeks. So, after settling up our RV on Friday, we climbed into our car on Saturday and headed back to Vero Beach to attend the surprise 40th birthday party celebration for Amber, that Keith had planned. He invited her friends and family to a lunch at Riverside Park on Vero Beach Island. It was a nice get-together and another opportunity to see our Florida grandkids. The park was pretty with flowering Crimson Bottle Brush bushes and cute pelicans hanging out at the boat ramp.

 

On Sunday we visited a church in Sebring, where our friend Becky’s daughter attends. It was wonderful to meet this darling family, and see that Becky’s granddaughters are carbon copies of how see looked in high school. Driving back to Avon Park, we stopped to fulfill a request from our sister-in-law Susan. She asked Evelyn to take a deep breath among an orange orchard. It was pretty, but the aroma was lost on Evelyn, who has no sense of smell.

 

Another day we used our free movie tickets from Angel Studios to go see “Brave the Dark,” at a theater in Sebring. It is an excellent, true story about the impact a high school teacher had on a troubled student.

 

The following Sunday, we returned to the church we attended two years ago, Grace Bible Church. The church had added unique markers, known as tap tags to the back of their chairs. The tags allow people to use their smart phones to connect to their website where they can learn about ministries and see upcoming events. I guess this is the next step up from a QR code. On our way back to Avon Park Camp, we stopped to pick-up lunch at Island Choice, a Jamaican carryout restaurant. The food was amazing. Evelyn enjoyed the poster at the counter with Jamaican sayings, her favorite being, “Walk good,” which means “Take care.”

 

Our campsite is next to the Avon Park Camp Memorial Garden, that we enjoy looking at from our RV. We asked permission to spruce it up a little. We enjoyed replacing the faded flower arrangements and trimming up the patio area. As Doug was spraying away the dirt and grass bits, we found that someone had painted a scripture on the patio slab, 1 Timothy 5:18, “the laborer is worthy of his reward.” How appropriate for a memorial garden.

 

We also signed up to do the same job we had done two years ago, cleaning the tabernacle during our time at the camp. God always blesses us during this time as we have opportunities to meet some of the guest speakers, missionaries, and musicians during their sound-checks and rehearsals, while we are cleaning. We also caught an announcement of this year’s “Ohio Snowbird Dinner,” in Bellville, Ohio, which we will be able to attend, since we will be back in Butler at that time.

 

We have made such wonderful friends here and we look forward to more good times and fellowship each year. When we are back in Ohio during the summer, we plan to visit a church in Fredericktown to say hello to the parents of one of the missionaries we met here. Gabe Ernst’s parents pastor the Cornerstone Community Church there.

 

Camp week was amazing, we started off by meeting missionaries, Darryl and Kelly Chambers of One Mission Society from Ecuador and Gabe Ernst of World Gospel Mission from Paraguay. Every morning, we heard from our bible teacher, Chris Bounds, about the Church, The Bride of Christ. Then we joined in corporate praise led by Brian Arner, who had a beautiful operettic voice and local musicians, Brenda Bartolomeo and Rita Braun on violin, Hank Oplinger on piano, Roger Blackburn on trumpet, and George Maddrell on organ. They all were fantastic. Then twice a day we heard from different speakers, including the new camp president, Tom Zile, evangelist, J K Warrick, and evangelist Lenny Wisehart, who we had first heard at the Summerville Nazarene Family Camp in West Virginia. We especially love Lenny’s trademark expression of awe.

 

While at camp we took advantage of our Christmas Amazon gift card from Keith and Amber to do another upgrade to No Plan B. We had been wanting to replace the wimpy bathroom exhaust fan with something that really moved the air. Misson accomplished.

 

Our last outing from Avon Park was a drive to Kissimmee for a dinner with Doug’s former coworkers and their families. We had a great dinner and many laughs at Miller’s Ale House with Dick, his mother-in-law Donna, Dave and Rita, Mark and Kay, and Walt and Mary Ann.  We could not drive through Haines City without making a stop on our way back to camp. We ordered the world’s best pizza rolls from Pizzano’s Pizza and took them home for dinner the next night. We’ve been talking about these for 2 years and they were as good as we remember them. Oh, and their apple dessert pizza was pretty good too.

 

We are looking forward to Avon Park Camp next year and good fellowship with old friends and new. Remember the Jamaican saying - everybody, “Walk good.”

 

Driving to our Harvest Host destination in Williston, Florida on February 18, 2025, we passed so many Live Oak trees with Spanish Moss. We have grown to love these trees. There was even one growing next to the parking lot of the municipal airport and restaurant where we stayed.

 

When we arrived, the host business was closed for the day, so we set-up the RV and enjoyed watching small planes take off and land. We even watched a biz-jet get backed into its hanger with a robotic front wheel dolly that the pilot controlled with his smart phone. How cool!

 

We enjoyed meeting our host and having breakfast at the Pyper Kub Restaurant the next morning when we woke. The owner, Carol was a super cook, waitress, and hostess. After she served us her fantastic biscuits and gravy, we all prayed together for our safety in travel and for a blessing on her business. We will visit this sweet place again in our travels between Ohio and Florida.

 

On February 19, 2025 we traveled to Moonpie Farm and Creamery, a Harvest Host in Cottondale Florida. We are glad we chose this Harvest Host. It was a rainy day and cold evening, but we were able to visit the farm store and purchased wonderful raw milk products, jellies, jams and even roasted venison.

 

The “big white box,” rolling into their yard didn’t deter the guineas, chickens, ducks and turkeys from checking out the RV and us. We fell in love with the host’s four guard dogs. Ivan (Pyrenees), Ravinia (Anatolian), and their two offspring, Ragna and Fraya were so mellow and friendly.

 

We were invited to help or watch the evening milking of their four Jersey cows. And we loved seeing all of the goats and pigs as well. The owner/operators Elizabeth and Chuck were just as mellow and friendly as their dogs. They made us feel very welcome and right at home.

 

As we approached Fort Pickens, near Pensacola Beach, Florida on February 20, 2025, we knew it was going to be a beautiful campground. Sometimes the scenery surrounding our destination is breathtaking, like crossing over the ocean on bridges with amazing views and perfect clouds in the prettiest blue skies. We passed a beach house that looked like a scene from Mel Gibson’s Forever Young movie.

 

Once we settled in at our campsite, we discovered we had the beach of the bay area just a few hundred yards in one direction and the ocean beach a few hundred yards in the other direction. Since we were on the beach, Ev had to draw her famous bunny in the sand for our grandkids.

 

One day we drove a little farther down Santa Rosa Island to the actual old fort, where we learned a lot of its history. On our way we passed numerous batteries that at one time had housed huge armament. Many of the batteries had plaques that describing their applications. One plaque mentioned that the concussion from one of the cannons was so great that the sand rippled and soldiers would bleed from their mouths and ears.

 

Doug captured an interesting picture down the barrel of one of the converted smooth bore cannons. Another cool pic was our O-H…I-O shadows we cast on the ground. But the coolest was when we were on the beach at sunset and captured two Blackhawk helicopters patrolling the coastline. Doug loves that stuff.

 

A few days later we had another big outing to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola. On the way there we got pictures of the Pensacola Beach, beachball water tower and a surf shop named Alvin’s Island; if you know, you know (IYKYK). As we toured the museum, we were so impressed with all of the displays. As always, amidst the seriousness of the aircrafts and their innerworkings, we find a humorous sign like the “Official Shower Rules,” and a display that references Bedford Falls (from the movie, It’s a Wonderful Life). We are considering framing a picture of the “Official Shower Rules,” for our RV bathroom, IYKYK. The Blue Angels were one of our favorite displays, but Doug MOST enjoyed the Seahawk (Naval Blackhawk) and the Harrier jet engine because he had made product for them during his engineering career. Ev enjoyed looking into the “Marine One,” presidential helicopter, even though the mannequin inside looked like Richard Nixon, instead of her favorite president, IYKYK.

 

We left Florida on February 27, 2025 and traveled across Alabama into Mississippi. We loved one of the billboards that greeted us on our way, that said, “JESUS 2024, OUR ONLY HOPE!” That confirmed to us that we were in the right place.

 

Further confirmation of being in the right place was our level parking space at J’s Tavern, our Harvest Host. When we arrived, the weather was very pleasant and we still had a couple hours of daylight, which came in handy as Doug had to repair a tire on the car we tow. We had noticed on our tire pressure monitoring system, that the pressure of one of the tires had begun to decreasing in small increments as we were traveling to our destination. Doug discovered that a tent stake had impaled our tire. Doug was able to remove it and plug the tire. We are thankful for the safe place we had to make the repairs.

 

After all was back to normal, we walked over to our host’s business and enjoyed sharing a ribeye po’boy with onion rings and an order of pickle fries. Then, we enjoyed falling asleep in a safe environment as we listed to music in the background from their live band.

 

Crossing the Mississippi River on February 28, 2025, we arrived at Poverty Point Reservoir in Delhi, Louisiana. This is a state park with great level campsites throughout. We have noticed at most of our destinations that God provides us with the best of all sites. On site 51 we were level and backed up to a beautiful field with a thicket along the edge. The angle of the driveway prevented us from seeing our neighbors on one side and on the other side there was a boardwalk trail entrance, with no neighbors at all. We love this feeling of privacy and seclusion, while there are still campers nearby, if needed.

 

As we were venturing around the campground, we found our next RV and took a picture of it. This baby looks like it could get you anywhere you want to go. We always try to pick up any trash or debris left behind by previous campers when we first arrive to our campsite. Ev though she was seeing a Dollar General grocery bag stuck in the thicket behind our RV. Doug bravely ventured into the thorny foliage to retrieve the bag, but it turned out to be a yellow, happy face beachball! Hopefully some young child somewhere isn’t crying over their loss. We will take good care of it for them.

 

Our big plan for this visit to Louisiana was to visit the Duck Commander Museum of the Duck Dynasty fame. The museum is actually part of the Duck Commander/Buck Commander warehouse. The museum is a wonderful display of a Godly family that became wealthy and famous by designing, building and selling duck calls. In their fame, they remained humble and faithful to the Lord.

 

The museum tells the history of Phil Robertson (the patriarch) and his wife Kay’s life, from when they met in high school, through duck hunting videos, duck call manufacturing and the reality show, Duck Dynasty.  Some of the highlights were Phil’s college days at Louisiana Tech where he was first string quarterback over Terry Bradshaw, Phil’s brother Si’s tour in Vietnam, and their children’s families as the Duck Commander business grew. Phil and Kay’s love story is presented in the movie, The Blind.

 

The tour includes many rooms depicting life at home and life at the warehouse for the Robertsons. One room depicted Miss Kay’s kitchen where there was a video running of her demonstrating how she makes her famous biscuits. There was another room depicting the duck call room where the family built the duck calls. In this room there is a video of Jace showing you how to build the duck call that you received parts for when entering the museum. In the video Jace says, “Trust me, if Si can do this, literally anyone can.” And we did!

 

One display Ev loved was a collage made up of different Duck Commander / Duck Dynasty t-shirts, with her favorite being “Real Women Love Beards.” In the gift shop she liked the title of the book, Everything Is Better With A Beard.

 

Seeing so much of their family’s memorabilia, pictures, and videos was very endearing. We still chuckle at one of the comments Jace made on a video while out duck hunting with Phil, Willie and Uncle Si who kept popping up and moving around where the ducks could see him. Jace said, “Si thinks he is invisible.”

 

Another interesting fact about Phil Robertson is that he shared the gospel with Donald Trump.

 

We had a great day at the museum. While we didn’t see any of the family members at the museum, we are aware that both Phil and Kay are experiencing declining health and would appreciate your prayers.

 

Wednesday, March 5, 2025 we arrived in Arkansas for the very first time. Following our GPS to our Harvest Host, we end up at a very secluded part of a farm, way out in the country. When we arrived at TASCo, we thought we had taken a wrong turn. We texted Aaron our host and he said he would be right over to help us find our way. When he arrived, he said, “Oh, I see you are exactly where you should be parked.” That is when we realized how beautiful our surroundings were. All we needed to do was to turn our RV around so the door faced the gorgeous little lake we were parked beside.

 

This overnight was a reminder of how blessed we are to enjoy God’s beautiful creation.

 

We arrived in Hot Springs, Arkansas on Thursday, March 6, 2025 at the Gulpha Gorge National Park Campground, and it is beautiful. God arranged for our campsite to be the best one there! Our site was level, backed up against the Gulpha Creek, with the gorge wall just beyond it. Ev’s love for daffodils was even satisfied, as a small patch had bloomed in view of the kitchen window. Hook-up went well, even though Doug had to use 3 sections of sewer hose, when some RVers will move their rig just to avoid using more than one (you know who you are).

 

We decided to drive into town for dinner, to simplify things after a busy travel day. We discovered Hibachi Express, a wonderful food wagon along the business/casino strip. Our dinners were some of the best hibachi we have ever had and that Doug’s scallop hibachi and Ev’s salmon hibachi were worthy of picture honors.

 

After a couple of days of making trips into to town to do business (groceries and laundry) we decided to see why Hot Springs was famous. We started our tour in the old downtown area and a walk on the Grand Promenade. The promenade takes you on a walk on the hillside of the hot springs and behind the buildings known as Bathhouse Row. There are many green, metal boxes protruding from the hillside that house individual springs. At the end of the promenade, as we descended to street level, we came to the Hot Water Cascade, which is an open, two-level pool that is fed by the hot springs. Once you dunk your hand into the water, you understand the term, “hot spring,” and why you don’t leave your hand there too long. The average temperature of a hot spring is around 143°F. Even though it was in the 70s when we visited, if we looked closely, we could see steam coming off the surface of the water. Our return trip on our tour was a walk along Bathhouse Row. Only a couple still operate as bathhouses, while the remainder are restaurants and gift shops. Each one had a historical plaque and their exteriors had been restored to their original splendor. There were a few fountains that were fed by the springs and they were considerably hotter than the open pools. We also found it interesting that the water coming from the hot springs was potable (safe to drink). We guess all you need in the morning is some instant coffee and a cup, LOL.

 

One of our favorite things about this campground, was our temporary pet. A very timid, feral cat caught our attention as she was peering at us through some weeds at the water’s edge. After tossing some cheese to her, she retreated back into a small cement drainage pipe. We have now added cat food to the shopping list. Doug, forever the cat lover, walked a bowl of food down to the pipe’s opening. While we couldn’t see very far back into the pipe because of leaves, we suspected our feline friend may be a nursing momma with kittens a little farther back in the pipe. Doug devised a plan to coax her out where we could get some pictures of her. After turning Doug’s phone into a trail cam and placing it under the RV in front of a bowl of food, we went inside to monitor activity through Ev’s phone. It worked! We were able to capture some screenshots of our dinner guest. We affectionately named her Domino, as she was solid black with a small white spot on her chest, just under her chin. We like to think we helped to keep her strong and healthy for a time, as she nursed her kittens. We know God will provide for Domino as we travel on.

 

Our drive on Saturday, March 15, 2025 to Altus, Arkansas, was so pretty and pleasant. We could see the Ouachita Mountain Range in the distance, multiple areas of blooming daffodils, and bushes with white or lavender flowers.

 

Any reason to sing a Monkees’ song or listen to one on YouTube, is always good. Seeing traffic signs with several exits to Clarksville will meet that criteria, even if we weren’t in Tennessee.

 

Arriving at our Harvest Host’s parking area was very easy. We were parked next to a beautiful pond with more daffodils in bloom and safely tucked away from any traffic or excessive road noise.

 

We visited the Post Winery store and even though we don’t drink wine, we found many ways to support our host by purchasing cheeses, crackers, juice, and Muscadine Hot Sauce. We were treated so kindly by the Taylor Swift look-a-like store clerk (sorry, no picture), who even offered us wine glasses for our juice. It’s interesting that we had just mentioned, a few days earlier, how polite and kind all the people are that we had met in Arkansas.

 

And when it comes to Arkansas, we were glad to finally fill-in that void on our USA travel map. All of our previous travels had taken us around, but not through Arkansas. So, we can now officially say, we have traveled the southeastern portion of the USA.

 

On Sunday, March 16, 2025, we arrived in Claremore, Oklahoma, the home of Evelyn’s life-long friend, Yonna. We parked our RV at the Claremore Expo Center RV Park. Upon our arrival, there weren’t many campers, but as we got closer to the Claremore Kennel Club Dog Show at the end of the month, we got more and more neighbors.

 

We had planned to spend some time with Yonna and go on numerous outings in Northeast Oklahoma, but Doug was not feeling well on our second night there. Wouldn’t you know it, Doug tested positive for Covid (fifth time for him). So, while Doug did his best to isolate himself in the RV for five days, Evelyn and Yonna remained Covid free and got caught up on life stories.

 

Once Doug was feeling better, we were ready to make up for lost time and started on our list of things to do. After a “take care of business,” trip to Broken Arrow for haircuts and banking, we started the fun stuff.

 

The next day we picked up Yonna for a Taco Tuesday meal at a local Mexican restaurant that used a cool robot to deliver hot plates of food to diner’s tables. We also captured a picture of a construction flagger made out of construction barrels. After lunch, we headed to Tulsa on the famous Route 66. Our first visit was to the Blue Whale of Catoosa. The Blue Whale is an example of kitsch art (garish art/objects often associated with pop culture) from the 1970’s. While at the Blue Whale, Evelyn came across a bucket of sidewalk chalk, which she took advantage of to sketch her famous bunny for the grandkids.

 

Our first stop in Tulsa was to see “The Golden Driller,” the seventh tallest free-standing statue in the United States at 76 feet. The statue is dedicated to the men of the petroleum industry. As our pictures show, we were dwarfed by the giant oil rig worker. Our next stop in Tulsa was to a place we had recently heard about, called The Center of the Universe. It is a location in the center of downtown where the acoustics from surrounding buildings supposably cause a phenomena where people standing there cannot be heard in the surrounding area. Ev wanted to pray out loud for our family. Even though there wasn’t a totally inaudible effect as we had hoped, Evelyn prayed. We did notice that anything said in a normal voice would lightly echo back to where we were standing.

 

On Wednesday, March 26, 2025, we celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary at The Rock Café on Route 66 in Stroud, Oklahoma. Along with Yonna, we met another high school friend of Evelyn’s, Kim, for our celebration lunch. We ordered Jägersnitzel with spaetzle, which had been highlighted on an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives with Guy Fieri. It was pretty good, but we both were spoiled during our stay at the Apostolic Christian Homes by Herta’s snitzel and Melanie’s spaetzle, the best we have ever had. Maybe Guy should visit their kitchen in Ohio someday. We all had a great time laughing and reminiscing. We later found out that the owner, Dawn Welch, was the inspiration behind the character Sally Carrera in the Disney/Pixar movie, Cars. That explains all the decorations and memorabilia on the walls.

 

Later in the week, we visited the J. M. Davis Arms and Historical Museum, another Route 66 attraction. The museum houses the largest privately owned gun collection in the world, with a M41 Light Tank outside and over 12,000 firearms inside. The museum also contains thousands of other artifacts including swords, knives, steins, saddles, Native American articles, and much more. One of our favorites was the Buck Rogers Disintegrator Pistol. We think Marvin Martian had one of these too. One of the most unusual contents of the museum, is the tomb of J. M. Davis and his wife. Mr. Davis had requested that he be buried with his guns, so his wife obtained special permission from the state to have him (and later herself) entombed on the Oklahoma state property. Sentiment always being a factor, Ev took a picture of the Ponderosa map used for the opening of the TV show Bonanza. Of course, we would have needed to set it on fire for the full effect.

 

At the end of the week, we ventured over to the expo center to take in some of the dog show. It was very enjoyable to see so many beautiful dogs even though we missed the final judging. We also were able to take in the theatrical release of The Chosen, season 5, episodes 1 and 2 at the local theater and enjoy great food from places like Whataburger, Chick-fil-A, and Smokelahoma.

 

We learn new things everywhere we go and one new thing we learned in Oklahoma was that the green clumps in the winter, barren trees are actually mistletoe. We never knew that mistletoe was a parasitic plant that attaches to trees. How romantic, LOL.

 

We had a great time watching movies and gold mining documentaries with Yonna. We also enjoyed visiting with Yonna’s son Derick and his wife Rachel and with Yonna’s sister Kim. These visits always go too fast, but we enjoy them so much.

 

We drove past the most beautiful Rose Bud trees on March 30, 2025 as we headed west across Oklahoma. Our last stop in Oklahoma was an overnight, Harvest Host stay at the Stafford Air and Space Museum in Weatherford.

 

We arrived just a few minutes before the museum was scheduled to close, so we planned to get up early and tour the museum before we hit the road. We spent the early evening taking pictures of aircraft displayed outside and letting our inner-child out at the museum playground. The turf on the playground was spongier than the nicest carpet padding we have ever experienced and felt like we were walking on the moon. The playground equipment and tactile play stations were high quality and embraced STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education. Ev enjoyed her ride on the Space Shuttle.

 

The next morning, we awakened to the laughter of school children flying Styrofoam airplanes in the parking lot as part of their aviation field trip to the airport and museum. Such a nice way to wake up. After our morning coffee, we headed into the museum for an incredible journey through the history of mechanical flight, from the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk to the Lunar Lander Eagle on the moon, along with the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station. We are always so proud of our country when we learn about these fantastic feats of lighter than air travel. This museum, by far, has been the best aerospace museum we have seen to date. It is a must see if you are in the area.

 

We have visited Texas before, but this time, driving to our camp on March 31, 2025, it had a very different feel to it. We were not near any large cities or on any major highways. The welcome to Texas sign was in the middle of nowhere. We had a good laugh as we drove by “The Leaning Water Tower of Britten.” Hopefully it was empty. As we approached our campsite, we said the same thing we say at every campground, “this is the most gorgeous place,” and then God leads us to one even more gorgeous. Lake Meredith and the Sanford Dam near Fritch, Texas was one of those.

 

We were impressed with a sign at the Fritch Elementary school warning about armed staff. We think every school needs to display this kind of sign. School shooters might think twice before trying something at this school.

 

We experienced quite an array of weather conditions here in Texas, from warm, dry days with tumbleweeds rolling by as we drifted down High Plains Road, to nights with 40 MPH wind gusts, temperatures below freezing, and snow.

 

As we have traveled this great country, we have sighted Warner Brothers cartoon Acme Store (in New Jersey) and now here in Texas, the Roadrunner. We are still looking for Wile E. Coyote. We visited the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument Museum. It is always interesting to learn the history of the area and how the indigenous people used the local resources. We took a short hike outside of the museum and saw how God was restoring the area that had been scorched by wild fires. We saw new growth and fresh buds on trees that looked like they would never thrive again.

 

On our way to Borger, Texas, we passed a very small rodeo facility and the blackened silhouette of the Phillip 66 refinery where they produce transportation fuels. While in Borger, we enjoyed a pleasant dinner and additional theatrical releases (episodes 3, 4, and 5) of The Chosen season 5. If we had only seen the lake, “it would have been enough!” You will have to watch The Chosen season 5 to understand that statement.

 

Tuesday, April 8, 2025 we arrived at The NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico. No amount of brochures or customer review ratings could have prepared us for what we encountered. 33,300 acres, 21 ranges, firearm training facilities, cabins, competitor dorms, and deer everywhere you look. Doug thought he had died and gone to gunner heaven. We also saw the remains of the Van Houten coal mining community which is located on one end of the property.

 

We did a lot during this stay. We did some long overdue target practice and watched a Black Powder Silhouette competition. We found the best burritos at JR’s Burrito Grill. They are located inside a liquor store and only serve lunch. The burritos were amazing and so big that one could feed two people. We continued our search for the best brats in America by shopping at High Country Meats and picking up multiple packages of brats like, green chili brats, bacon, mac and cheese brats, and apple gouda brats. We are excited to try them, but need to get out of the red flag areas (high winds and high fire risk) before we can cook them over an open fire.

 

Doug found the closest theater showing The Chosen, season 5, part 3 (episodes 6, 7, and 8) was in Colorado. So, we drove our car to a different state to finish our season 5 viewing. We decided to have dinner before the movie and were thrilled to come across The Trinidad Smokehouse. Our waitress was so pleasant to talk with and she went above and beyond by running after us outside, as we had forgotten our bank card after paying the bill. God bless her for that. During our dining we were entertained by a looping stream of League of Pigs and the bartender, who looked amazingly like Diego Luna, who plays Andor from the Star Wars spinoff of the same name. At the theater we met Margaret and Dennis who were big Chosen fans too. After the movie we chatted for little while and as Doug was shaking Dennis’s had, Dennis held on and began praying for us and our travels. God is so good to us and sends dear people to encourage us as we travel.

 

We traveled farther west on April 14, 2025 to Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico. Sometimes the drive from one campground to the next is indescribably beautiful. We chose to take the path through the San Juan Mountains and Sangre De Cristo (The Blood of Christ) Mountains. How beautiful and appropriate for Holy Week. As we drove through the small town of Cimarron, we saw a sign that said, “Where the Rockies meet the plains,” and literally as we rounded a corner, it looked like a movie set with breath taking mountains. All that was missing was hearing the director say, “cue the angelic choir to sing Ah, Ah, Ah.” We also saw beautiful adobe styled homes and businesses in Taos, the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, and an Earthship community. This trip was one of our most beautiful travel days.

 

We camped at Chama River RV Park, which is home to beautiful tall grasses, a swinging foot bridge, and trees that look like they are from The Wizard of Oz. Our campsite was located on the side of a hill with views of beautiful mountains and brush fields.

 

Our day of sight seeing took us into the town of Chama where we picked up a pizza for dinner. Feliciano’s has one of the best pizzas we have ever tasted and hands down, the best crust ever. On our way back we noticed an RV way out in an open brush field and wondered if Jessie and Walt were out cooking. Couldn’t help ourselves with the Breaking Bad reference. We traveled a little farther past our campground and stopped to view the El Vado hydroelectric power plant at the dam. The area capitalizes on the local dam; as we had lunch at the Dam Diner and purchased some of their local Dam Spices. Everyone we’ve encountered here has been so dam nice. 😊

 

Our reservation at Sleeping Ute RV Park was made months in advance online. When we arrived on April 19, 2025, we had already reserved a specific site, but upon check-in the attendant asked us if we wanted an end spot with more privacy and we gladly accepted. What a gorgeous location with a view of the Ute Mountain out one window, Mesa Verde out the other, and no one on either side of us. We saw many beautiful rock formations (mountains, plateaus, mesas, buttes, and monuments) on our way to the campground and as we travelled around. A well known one is called Shiprock, the name speaks for itself.

 

One afternoon we visited Four Corners Monument. This is a unique location where the corners of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah all meet. It was rather cool to stand in 4 states at one time. The monument is surrounded by Native American vendors selling their tribal wares. There were so many beautiful things to choose from and so many nice vendors. We especially liked a young Native American girl who loved Jesus. She hopes to teach the youth of the area about the one true God, while honoring her heritage. We prayed with her before we left.

 

Since we were camped at the RV park associated with the Ute Mountain Casino and not really gamblers, we decided would give bingo a chance. We had no idea how stressful it was to play nine cards at a time and then try to see if you have created a figure, like a bow tie, to be a winner. Even though we had a few laughs, it wasn’t our favorite date night.

On Sunday morning we attended Grace Fellowship Church of Cortez, Colorado for Easter service. This church was so friendly and welcoming. Pastor Todd led worship and then preached a great message about the power of the resurrection (Phil 3:7-10). Another neat thing was the empty wheelchair by the door, honoring a member of their congregation had passed away that morning and gone to be with Jesus on Resurrection Sunday.

 

After a yummy lunch at a local Chinese buffet, we went on an adventure to Mesa Verde National Park. We used an app called Action Tour Guide for a self-guided tour. The app was like having our own personal park ranger in the back seat telling us all about the history and culture of the Pueblo Tribe as they evolved from pit dwelling in the 1st millennia to cliff dwelling in the 2nd millennia (550 AD to 1300 AD). At each stop there were informational boards and incredible opportunities for pictures. As if the wonderful tour wasn’t enough, God blessed with the unique opportunity to see wild horses grazing on the side of the road. When we stopped to take pictures, we saw many more a little further back in the trees and brush.

 

During our drive back to camp, Doug captured a sunset over the Ute Mountain. We had read about the legend of the mountain being a sleeping Ute Warrior with his arms crossed on his chest. The sunset image really helped the profile show up and it was plain to see.

 

There isn’t always a lot of roads to choose from in the southwest areas, so we back-tracked a little on April 22, 2025 as we traveled to our next stop. We went by Shiprock again and got another picture from its backside. When we arrived at our Harvest Host, The Navajo Nation Museum, Library, and Visitor Center in Window Rock, Arizona, we saw even more amazing rock formations surrounding the parking lot.

 

We were surprised how close the famous Window Rock was to our Harvest Host campsite. We had envisioned the famous landmark to be in the middle of the scrubland, but it was on the edge of town and across from the Navajo Nation Office of the President. The unique formation sits behind a statue honoring the legendary Navajo Code Talkers, who were invaluable to the US Marines in WWII.

 

The next morning, we toured the museum. There is so much history and legends in the Native American cultures. Different tribes have different stories, but many of them are similar. We were drawn to the legend about The Hero Twins, who after slaying the evil monster, Tsénahaléi, became the eagle and owl we see today.

 

Seeing mountain greenery and road signs that prompt song lyrics made our travel day fun and beautiful on April 23, 2025. When we first arrived at Munds Park RV Resort in Arizona, we had a few days of rest and relaxation.

On Saturday we returned to sightseeing mode. We drove a couple of hours to the Petrified Forest National Park and Painted Desert. After stopping at the visitor center, we jumped in our car and started our Action Tour Guide app to learn more about this gorgeous area. We were not aware that the famous Route 66 had passed through this area at one time and this area is steeped in Native American culture. We noticed a few ravens, that have obviously become comfortable with tourists, meandering around looking for handouts. We only had a Slim Jim to offer them, but they seem pleased with “a bite of the James” until another family provided Cheetos.

The Petrified Forest has strict policies regarding removal of any wood. We were able to purchase a piece of petrified wood for future home décor at the gift shop outside of the park. All of their pieces are sourced from other areas, because it is against the law to remove pieces from the park. We were also told not to take it back into the park, as it could be confiscated.

 

Our travels are made extra special when we have opportunities to visit with friends. After our National Park visit, we head south to Snowflake, Arizona to enjoy dinner with Kathy who was a coworker of Evelyn’s from Ohio. Kathy told us about a famous place that would be on our route back to Munds Park. It is called the Wigwam Motel, which is a Route 66 icon and highlighted in the animated movie, Cars.

 

On Sunday we headed to Grace Community Church, just outside of Flagstaff, Arizona. The church was located amid beautiful pines on a rocky hillside. The large windows in the sanctuary appeared as if panels of a painting. After church we headed north toward the Grand Canyon. We stopped for lunch at Canyonlands Restaurant, located inside Bearizona Wildlife Park. We saw Rocky Mountain goats, bison, cougars, along with playful otters and mellow, sleepy bears. The restaurant was beautifully decorated with statues of wildlife and a Native American, Pueblo home. We both laughed at the, “Beware of the…” sign that has a bite mark, removing the last word. A very nice couple took a picture of us with a bear statue holding what we affectionately refer to as a “honey pot”. Again, IYKYK, RV life.

 

The main attraction for our Sunday travel was the Grand Canyon. We used our Action Tour Guide app to get to the South Rim and Mather’s Lookout. There are times and things in all our lives that are so breathtaking that words cannot express. The experience is ever engraved in our memory and there is no way to describe it to others. Doug said the whole thing is so surreal. We will never forget it. Our tour app told a story of Coronado sending some of his scouts out ahead of the exploring party to find a way across the canyon. His men reported back, “There is no way to descend this.” That is so very telling of its grandeur.

 

On our drive back to our campsite, we stopped next to a gas station for pictures of metal sculptures depicting Cowboys and Indians of the old west. The history of this area is displayed everywhere you go.

 

Our last stay in Arizona was a Harvest Host overnight on April 29, 2025, in Buckeye, Arizona, just a little west of Phoenix. This area was highly populated with Saguaro Cactus, which only grow in the Sonoran Desert in Southwest Arizona. The incredibly tall cactus looks like a person with raised arms. They are so beautiful! We saw an unusual traffic sign with a donkey on it and the words, “next 15 miles.” We weren’t sure if it was talking about animals on the road or the type of drivers we might encounter.

 

As we were arriving at the Buckeye Equestrian and Event Center, we noticed lush green fields nearby. We later realized that they were fields of hay, no doubt for the livestock that were housed in the area. God knows what Evelyn loves, and he had placed a wild, yellow, flowering bush right at our campsite. None of the other sites had any vegetation at all. This facility is 130 acres of beautifully arranged corals, covered and open arenas, restaurant and veterinarian clinic. There were no events during our short stay, but we did enjoy seeing some horses and cows while driving around the facility. We are hoping one day we will be in the right place at the right time to attend a rodeo. It will be “our first rodeo.”

 

After passing into California where a bear is scratching his back on the state line sign, we arrived at Black Meadow Landing Campground in Parker Dam, California on April 30, 2025. We thought that a burro might have been more appropriate for the state line sign as we had to dodge them on the beautiful, 11-mile, dead end road leading to the campground on Lake Havasu. Ev was thrilled she had the opportunity to get close up pictures of flowering cactus at the RV resort’s diner and cactus garden.

 

Burros have free reign of the campground and appeared to be grazing on gravel in campsites. It finally occurred to us that they were eating flower buds that had fallen from the trees. It reminded us of Mathew 6:26, when Jesus explains how God takes care of his creations and us even more. We noticed that some of the burros enjoyed chewing on the wooden picnic tables. Not sure how the resort can fix that. As we took pictures of the burros, we were remined of the story about their cross-shaped mane. The cross is seen as a symbol of the burro’s humility, loyalty, and service to Jesus. It also serves as a reminder of Jesus’s humble entry into Jerusalem and His sacrifice on the cross.

 

We only ventured out on Sunday during our stay because of the long rough road that led back to town. We visited Calvary Church in Parker, Arizona and had lunch at a great Mexican restaurant. We took a picture of a very unique painting in the restaurant. When you look at it from one angle, it looks like an older couple looking at each other, but when you look at it from a different angle it looks like a young man serenading a young lady. On our way back to camp, we drove over Parker Dam, which backs up water from the Colorado River to create Lake Havasu. It is interesting to see a lake on one side and a river on the other.

 

Our last day at camp was not as hazy as our previous days, and we were able to see mountains beyond the mountains across the lake. What a beautiful place.

 

The scenery during our next drive provided even more beautiful mountain ranges and desert fields, with one road that appeared to go off into infinity and beyond. So many of these roads turn out to be the famous Route 66. On May 6, 2025 we arrived at the Mojave Desert Heritage and Cultural Association. This is an outdoor museum and event area in the Mojave Desert at Goffs, California.

 

To say this was our most eclectic Harvest Host stay so far, would be an understatement. Their motto was, “Study the past,” and this place allowed you to do just that. There were little cactus gardens everywhere with all kinds of different cactus. All throughout the facility were piece of equipment from days gone by. There was an emphasis on ore extraction equipment, including many multi-die mills used to crush ore to facilitate extraction of precious metals (copper, silver, and gold). Each exhibit was cataloged in a very nice guide that was presented to us when we checked in.

 

We were fortunate to have, unbeknownst to us, booked our stay at the end of an event paying homage to the camels that were used in clearing roadways into the mountains. We were able to enjoy a large number of camels and hear stories of how they had been used in the original settling of the area and more recently used to help repopulate the 1.3 million Joshua Trees that were destroyed by the Dome Fire in 2020.

 

Getting here was definitely off the beaten path, but we are so glad we took the time to come here. This place is just another example of how God guides our steps and takes us to the most magnificent places.

 

Arriving in Nevada on May 7, 2025 provided even more beautiful views of Joshua trees and unique mountains. We love the pictures that look as if the road ahead goes on forever. We spent our next six nights at a campground called Preferred RV Resort in Pahrump, Nevada. It’s doubtful anyone can say that name without singing a stanza of The Little Drummer Boy.

 

Preferred RV Resort offered many activities within its gated grounds. We played a new version of BINGO (card BINGO) at the club house where we met Doris and Tom who were very helpful in showing us how the game was played. Evelyn won one hand! This wasn’t a high stakes game. We both went in with the required ante of $1.90 each, Evelyn came out ahead with total winnings of 20¢ and Doug went bust. We met so many nice people during our stay at this resort. Our neighbor Kirsten and her dog, Macho Man were our favorite.

 

We spent most of our days just relaxing and enjoying the warm weather. One day we needed to run some errands, so we made the trek over to the outskirts of Las Vegas to get some travel “cash” from a Chase Bank. We also stopped off at Tina’s Tamales to get a dozen tamales (pork and cheese/poblano pepper) for some future meals and El Polo Loco (The Crazy Chicken) for dinner. You just don’t get Mexican food like this back home.

 

During our stay we had enjoyable phone calls with Coop on his birthday, Sam as we were driving back from our banking outing, and John and Susan on Mother’s Day. We also enjoyed a wonderful church service on Mother’s Day at the Pahrump Community Church.

At the end of our stay, we took the time to tour the cactus garden and Koi Pond that is located at the center of the resort. We were glad we didn’t encounter any of the rattlesnakes that were sighted earlier in the day, but we did run across a head bobbin’ lizard.

 

We headed into Utah on May 14, 2025, by traveling through Las Vegas on the interstate. As we traveled through, we captured pictures of some of “Sin City’s” larger venues at a distance. We also had seen many gas stations, convenience stores and even casinos named, “Terrible's,” so we researched the history of this unique name. Edward Herbst a gas station and convenience store pioneer ruffled the feathers of other business owners, who said, “If we let that terrible Herbst have a business license, we’ll all go under.” So, his son ran with it and opened the Terrible's chain throughout Nevada.

 

We are amazed that mountains can look so different from state to state and even from one side of the road to the other. But they are all so gorgeous. As we approached Fisher Family Farm in Hurricane, Utah, our Harvest Host for the evening, the view was breathtaking. The farm is at the base of a mountain with a unique butte at the top. We were informed by one of the farm workers that John Kitchen, an explorer from the 1700’s, coined the title, “Mollie’s Nipple,” as it reminded him of his wife. True story!

 

The farm is open to the public to enjoy the animals and learn about animal husbandry and agriculture. They have cows, burros, ponies, pigs, goats, alpacas, chickens, and bunnies. All the animals were receptive to our visit except one alpaca that tried to give us a spit bath. One alpaca (Tabitha) had recently given birth and another (Gemma) was due at any time. Gemma is the one that there are pictures of us feeding. She was such a sweetie. Evelyn liked the cute trim job on Snazzy, the only Suri alpaca, whose coat is more like hair than wool.

 

As Harvest Host participants, we were able to get a personal tour of the farm by the host’s daughter. She shared with us about all the different animals and her experience showing sheep for 4-H. This stay was both fun and informative.

 

On May 14, 2025, as we hit the road, we thought that our GPS was going to take us on the interstate, but instead it took us on Route 89. We were so glad it did. The drive to Marysvale RV Park in Marysvale, Utah provided the most gorgeous views we have ever seen. We no longer call our GPS, the Global Positioning System, we call it the God Positioning System. We realized how good God is by creating such beautiful and colorful mountains.

 

We have the opportunity to see and experience so many different things as we travel along, like some iron silhouettes of Kokopelli, the Hopi Indian symbol of fertility for the land and humans. We also experienced a fertile tortilla chip bag that had become pregnant due to the altitude change. Just a few weeks earlier we had a bag of potato chips deliver (pop) and give us a scare while we were driving. While taking pictures as we travel, sometimes we capture other things in the frame, like the donkey that Madeline made during a children’s church project many years ago that still hangs from the rearview mirror in our car. We are very sentimental when is comes to these kinds of things and now you can be also.

 

Our campground had the look of a drive-in movie theater parking lot. It was rather barren, but the beauty of it was in the mountains that surrounded it. Our camp host told us about a restaurant called Tomatoes Pizza Pie where we could enjoy lunch and suggested we drive a little further past it and see Candy Mountain. It looks like it is covered in caramel.

 

On our way to Bryce Canyon National Park, we took some pictures of what could be our next RV and the childhood home of Butch Cassidy. Touring Bryce Canyon was incredible. We used our Action Tour Guide app again which did a great job of telling us interesting facts, points of interest, and special photo opportunities. Knowing that our nephew, Joel was a Park Ranger there for a while, made the place feel all the more special to us. Bryce Canyon is our favorite National Park to date, but each one has its own unique beauty.

 

Our last evening in Marysvale, we returned to Tomatoes Pizza Pie for one of their amazing specialty pizzas. We had never seen pizza with whole slices of bacon. It was amazing, but we cannot stop our praises there, as the owner, originally from New York, also made individual size New York style cheesecakes and Italian style (made with Ricotta cheese) cheesecakes. Oh man, they were delicious.

 

We took one last selfie at the RV park to highlight the snow-capped mountains in the distance. We were pleased that all of the predicted snowfall had occurred in the mountains and not at our elevation, even though it had gotten rather cold.

 

We finally captured a good picture of a “dust devil” as we drove to Ballard RV Park in Thompson Springs, Utah on May 19, 2025. We also saw more beautiful, colorful mountains and some with unusual shapes like the “Book Cliffs,” which are mountains that have sections cut out by valleys, making them look like books sitting on a bookshelf. This campground seems barren, with very few trees, but the view of the mountains makes it beautiful.

 

We had contacted our granddaughter, Madeline’s dad that lives close to the campground. He met us for dinner in Grand Junction, Colorado at The Goat and Clover Tavern. Matt had sold Evelyn on her dinner selection, as he had described the fish and chips as being probably the best he has ever had. He was right on, they were delicious. We video called Madeline from our table and had a nice conversation with her. Matt suggested that after we visit The Arches National Park tomorrow, that we should return to camp by State Route 128, Castle Valley.

 

We started our visit to The Arches by stopping in at the visitor center and snapping a picture of a metal long horn ram statue at the entrance. Using our Action Tour Guide app, we started our drive through The Arches National Park. Our guide immediately pointed out a famous rock formation called, The Three Penguins. Standing on top of a huge rock, the three penguins are huddled together and appear to be looking over the park. As we traveled along, the guide informed us about the differences between arch, window, and bridge rock formations. Some other rock formations our app pointed out were Park Avenue, The Organ, and The Three Gossips. Evelyn thought that The Three Gossips would have been more rightly named as The Three Wisemen. Of course, the park didn’t ask her for her input and has stuck with the name, The Three Gossips. We then saw Balanced Rock and it was exactly as the name implies, a sphere-shaped rock on a spire, that amazingly stays in place. Arches, windows, and bridges are located throughout the park. The most famous arch, The Delicate Arch, was located a distance off and required a good hike to see it up close, not us, we took a picture at a distance. Evelyn thought the park should let her name some of the other rock formations, like the one that looked like a turkey head or another one that looked like Mister Potato Head. Oh well, they can’t get them all right.

 

On our way back to camp, we took Matt’s suggestion and traveled on State Route 128. The trip did not disappoint. The road paralleled the Colorado River which had cut out this beautiful valley over time. The mountain formations on both sides of the road were amazingly beautiful. We are so glad we took this little detour.

 

The state line highway sign for Colorado reads, “Welcome to Colorful Colorado.” The variety of colors on the mountain ranges proved that sign to be very true. As we arrived at Ami’s Acres Campground on May 23, 2025 in Glenwood Springs Colorado, we were amazed at the mountain greenery. We would never have thought there would be so many different shades of green.

 

Our stay here did not involve any planned sight-seeing, we just kicked back and relaxed. We did take some pictures of the surrounding area, including a kayaker statue and cable cars that provide the only access to the Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, an amusement park on the mountain top.

 

We attended church at Mountain View Church and heard a good message on how we often make other things like family, career, or sports our god, rather than the true God. After church we enjoyed lunch from Vicco’s Charcoalburger Drive-In, a local eatery since 1963.

 

We arrived in Aurora, Colorado on May 27, 2025. This leg of our trip provided one last opportunity to enjoy awesome mountain views. As the mountains gave way to the Denver skyline, we had to chuckle at the fact that there are actually vending machines with cars inside (Carvana). As we drove through congested city traffic, we came upon a tranquil oasis of wild flowers and Magpie birds known as Cherry Creek State Park. Doug says it seems like the same kind of setting as Central Park in New York City, as it is totally surrounded by the metropolis of Denver.

 

Our whole purpose for visiting this area was to see our niece Anna and her husband Matt, along with their children Emily and Jeffery. We had the added pleasure of meeting Matt’s mom Vivian. Our visit with this sweet family was so very pleasant. We even got a “pet fix,” from there wonderfully friendly dog, Ernie. We enjoyed a carry-in Mexican meal and got caught-up on Anna and Matt’s career choices, Emily’s soccer events and Jeffery’s rather elaborate model car building. As we parted ways, we got some pictures of Anna’s beautiful landscaping with Alliums and Iris.

 

The next leg of our journey was a hop, skip, and jump across Nebraska. We scheduled two back-to-back overnight Harvest Host stays. May 30, 2025 was spent at a farm in Big Springs, Nebraska called Our Lavender Company. This is a beautiful farm will 2,000 acres of irrigated corn. The hosts were very hospitable; they even offered their golf carts/mules to visitors if they wanted to ride around on the farm. We took an evening walk to see their five acres of lavender plants and enjoy their brood of laying chickens. There was another camper there, but we never saw the occupants, only their very friendly Golden Retriever who ran to greet us like we were long-lost family.

 

After a restful sleep, we headed over to the farm store to check out their product line. We were greeted by the owner’s dog, Annie, who was a White Labrador that was so lovable because she was old and mellow. Inside the store we were treated to huge, delicious cinnamon rolls, which had been baked by the farm owner. Their daughter, who conceived the idea for Our Lavender Company openly shared her testimony and the history of the farm. It was a very encouraging story as well as spiritually uplifting.

 

With the mountains behind us, we drove past beautiful fields and plains to the Big Apple Fun Center in Kearney, Nebraska on May 31, 2025. This Harvest Host is every child’s dream come true and is fun for adults too. There are outdoor and indoor go carts, a 7-D theater, bowling, virtual reality, and video games of all kinds. Amid all of the high-tech games was an old-school mechanical horse ride in the corner.

 

We enjoyed a meal in their sports bar and met a Special Olympics medal winner, Angie. She asked if she could sit with us while she ate her dinner. After our meal, we played a round of blacklight miniature golf. It was great to enjoy being a kid again.

 

On our way to Pacific Junction, Iowa on June 1, 2025, we saw an unusual sculpture on a bridge overpass. We later learned it is 4 separate sculptures called Odyssey by an artist named Albert Paley. While we don’t know the significance of it, we do know it served as a reminder that the scenic mountains were behind us and the great plains were before us. Iowa, in June provided beautiful fields of corn, soybeans, and tall wild grasses. As we pulled into our campground, we saw God had blessed us, once again, with a tree on our campsite. Not all of the sites were so fortunate. Even out of a disaster, like the Canadian wildfires, God can bless, and he did, by the display of an absolutely gorgeous sunset.

 

While in the area, we were able to connect with Doug’s cousin, Chuck and his wife Sally. Doug has wonderful memories from his childhood of Chuck and his brother and their parents. Now 50 years later, we had a wonderful dinner date and the opportunity to catch up on decades of life stories and reminisce of our time together in our youth.

 

We learned of a local raceway that was having a drag racing event while we were in the area. So, to add a new experience to Evelyn’s resume of life, we went. It was a beautiful evening with perfect weather to enjoy watching fast cars and motorcycles speed by. We also had a good time watching the “half time” fun, where all the kids in the stands were invited onto the track for a foot race. Some of these darling kids kept running far beyond the prescribed finish line, as if hoping to run the entire 1/8 mile, like the cars. Golf car drivers kindly retrieved them and brought them back to waiting parents.

 

Our last stop in Iowa was an overnight stay on June 9, 2025 at Whitebreast Camp, Lake Red Rock in Knoxville, Iowa. We had a gorgeous and level campsite at this quiet and peaceful campground. We weren’t at the camp long, but we took the time to drive around the park and see Lake Red Rock, the largest lake in Iowa.

 

We are getting ready to head through states that we have visited before. So, even though our travel map is as full as it will get until next year, we will continue to have new adventures as we travel along.

 

We arrived at Catfish Place Campground in Arbela, Missouri on June 10, 2025. Evelyn was excited that we were able to get the same site (# 307) as we had two years ago. Evelyn remembered the site number because it was the same as her childhood street address. And to top it all off, it was also our 100th campground, which in a way seems very special too. We had been looking forward to this stay as we will be visiting our friends Jack and Becky in Memphis, Missouri.

 

Becky had a previous commitment in Ohio during the first few days of our stay, so we had Jack over to the RV for dinner and then we went to our “first rodeo” at the 75th anniversary of the LaBelle Rodeo Association in LaBelle. Missouri. We paused to get wanted pictures at the rodeo jail. The three us enjoyed mutton busting (kids on sheep) bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping and barrel racing. The Texas longhorns were spectacular and we even witnessed a bull literally leaping vertically (straight up) in the air and probably getting two or three feet off the ground. After going to church the next day, we continued with the rodeo fun by going to see the movie, “The Last Rodeo.” After the movie, Urvashi, a kind passerby and medical student at the local college took a picture of us posing in front of angel wings. Quite a step up from rodeo jail.

 

Once Becky returned, we enjoyed lots of homecooked meals and cookies. We made a few more restaurant stops, including the Catfish Place Restaurant which is located at the front of the campground. There was so much good food.

 

On our second Sunday, we went to a church in Iowa and met the pastor’s wife Shannon. Shannon is a children’s book writer. She gave Evelyn three autographed copies of her first three, Proverbs for kids books, which interpreted Proverbs 1, 2, and 3 in a way kids could understand. After church we enjoyed a wonderful meal and went to the movies to see Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning.

 

We enjoyed games, shopping, TV movies, and catching up on The Chosen series. Our best time was praying together and for each other. We cherish visits like this, that nourish our bodies, but more importantly, our souls.

 

On June 23, 2025 we arrived at our Harvest Host, Sweetwater Distillery, in Monroe City, Missouri. This overnight stay was located just off the highway. We parked along the side of the distillery’s storage Quonset hut which gave us a little privacy from the highway, yet a nice view of their pond.

 

Our host was a very kind young man who gave us a little background into the distilling processes and their business. This was a cool place and was decorated with pictures of local patrons and different events on the walls. We had a good night’s sleep. We are so thankful for the Harvest Host organization.

 

We parked our RV at the beautiful Meramec State Park in Sullivan, Missouri on June 24, 2025. Our campsite was on a lane that ran parallel to the Meramec River.

 

The next day we drove the car into St. Louis to visit with our nephew Joel and his beautiful wife Caitlin. They chose the perfect restaurant for dinner, Salt + Smoke BBQ. It was so good, we ordered a pound of pulled pork to take back to the RV for another meal. They also had a perfect spot for dessert, a very popular, local frozen custard stand. Doug misunderstood Caitlin as she told us the name of the frozen custard stand and asked her to repeat it multiple times. Finally, he asked, “Are you saying Ted Cruz Frozen Custard?” We all had a good laugh when she spelled it out for Doug, D-R-E-W-E-S. Doug just couldn’t image a Texas Senator opening a frozen custard stand.

 

Our evening concluded with a tour of their stunning yard/garden and home. Better Homes and Gardens magazine would do well to highlight their home. The planning and care they have put into their garden has placed them in the St. Louis Native Plant Garden Tour. We were blessed by this visit and so happy for them as they await the birth of their first child.

 

We crossed the Mississippi River at the Illinois State Line on June 27, 2025. We saw the famous St. Louis Arch in the distance and if you, the reader, want to zoom in on that picture, you can see it too. This distance was as close to the downtown traffic as we cared to be. As we approached our Harvest Host, we noted the fun phenomena of rain on our back-up camera making our car look like it was going through a time-warp. We are easily entertained.

 

The Route 66 Skyview Drive-In Theater in Litchfield, Illinois was showing a double-feature of How to Train Your Dragon and M3GAN 2.0. It is always a fun atmosphere to camp at a drive-in. We were parked at the rear of the lot with our awning out and lawn chairs next to our RV with our outside speakers turned on. They provided a QR code that allowed you to order from the concession stand and have it delivered to your car or in our case, RV. We jokingly called it room service. We enjoyed a half-sized portion of the famous Illinois horseshoe, which they called a ponyshoe, along with onion rings and funnel cake fries. It was a funelicious evening.

 

Sometimes a campground can be such a haven to us. On June 28, 2025 we arrived at a small park called “Camp A While,” in Lincoln, Illinois. We only needed a one night accommodation and this place provided full hook-ups, a level campsite, a pretty view of a corn field, and a friendly Labrador Retriever named Wrigley. It was a clean, safe place to park for the night and we left in the morning feeling refreshed.

 

On June 29, 2025 we arrived at Paul Wolff Campground in Elgin, Illinois. There is an old adage that says, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” This describes the feeling we had as we drove over to the train station in Elgin to pick up our grandson for an overnight stay with us. Seeing this 23-year-old standing outside waiting for us was reminiscent of so many times, over the years, he came to spend the night with us.

 

We made a stop at Butcher on the Block, a fantastic meat market in Lake in the Hills, Illinois. They had more than a dozen different kinds of bratwursts, like portabella mushroom and swiss, carne asada, and Italian Stallion, to name just a few. Then we spent the evening talking, eating, and playing a scrabble dice game.

 

The next morning, we drove Sam to his place in Chicago where we met his house-mates. We spent the afternoon touring local shops like the Wooley Mammoth. This shop had bizarre taxidermy animals, like a 2 headed goat. We also took a photo op with a wall mural of flowers. As evening fell, we enjoyed dinner at a Mexican restaurant within walking distance of Sam’s place. To top everything off, we went to the Annoyance Theater to see a musical improvisation show. It was very fun.

 

It comforts this Gramma and Papaw to know he is safe living the big city life, but it was still hard to leave him there.

 

Luckily Doug’s “MacGyver” skills served us well as we departed on July 3, 2025 for our journey to Indiana. When we were getting ready to leave our campground in Illinois, we discovered that the leveling system wouldn’t turn on, preventing us from getting the RV down off of its leveling jacks. After an extended time of determining what else wasn’t working (entrance power step and backup camera) Doug was able to hot wire a circuit and get us back on the road.

 

We were reminded that everything isn’t as it appears. Our photos of the semi cab being towed is proof of that. To see that in the lane in front of you can be frightening, as it looks like you are driving into a head-on collision.

 

Because of our late departure from Illinois and heavy traffic around the Chicago area, we ended up arriving at Chain O’Lakes State Park in Albion, Indiana after dark. We try to avoid checking in after dark because it makes it more difficult to setup and in the case of this campground, to even find our site.

 

Rather than doing any sightseeing, Doug continued to troubleshoot our problem with the leveling system. After some insight from other Jayco owners on the Redhawk Facebook forum, Doug was able to locate the blown fuse in the rat’s nest of wires under the steering column. After changing the fuse and organizing the wires, Doug was confident that we wouldn’t have to do any more hot wiring.

 

Once we were out of crisis mode, we went into the town of Albion to mail some letters and enjoy some ice cream as we celebrated our victory over adversity. We loved the encouraging sign at the ice cream shop that read, “Ice Cream Solves Everything.” That was a good reminder not to fuss over things too much, because the next day we were shaken by the booming noise of a large, rotten tree branch falling against the RV and narrowly missing the car. We know God protected our vehicles and us, as there was no damage.

 

We are not sure exactly what the massive tubes were that we followed through Indiana on July 7, 2025. We got some close-up photos of them when they were pulled off the side of the road for the changing of state police escorts.

 

Our camping reservation for the night was at the Van Del Drive-In Theater, a Harvest Host in Middle Point, Ohio. We love camping at drive-in movie theaters. It’s fun to sit outside the RV with the movie audio pumping through the external speakers. It is especially fun and intense when the movie is the newest installment in the Jurassic Park series. Our host and the staff at the concession stand were very kind and enjoyable to talk with.

 

Most everyone knows you are close to Akron, Ohio if you look up in the sky and see the Goodyear blimp. On July 8, 2025 we arrived at Mill Creek Campground in Berlin Center, Ohio near Akron. We referred to this stop and our next as the pastoral tour, since we will be visiting with old pastor friends and their wives from Grace Community Church and Impact Church.

 

Akron is the home to our long-time friends, Walt and Polly. We met for dinner at Ben’s Restaurant and Bar. The restaurant was just around the corner from our campground, so after a great meal, we all went back to our RV to spend more time talking and laughing. We are always encouraged by our time with these two dear friends.

 

 

The drive to Dillon State Park Campground in Nashport, Ohio on July 12, 2025, took us past a familiar sign. Many years back, we had taken two of our grandkids to The Wilds. The sign brought back many sweet memories of that visit. Another memory came to mind as we drove. Years ago, a friend in Oklahoma asked, “You’re from Ohio, y’all got a lot of timber there, don’t you?” At the time we hadn’t really noticed, but as we drive across this beautiful country now, we are very aware of Ohio’s beautiful timber.

 

Sunday morning, we were so happy to have Tom and Marie drive all the way from Mansfield to join us for church service at Community Wesleyan Church in Newark, Ohio to hear Pastor Randy deliver a message at his new church. We found his wife Judy, ministering in the nursery. Randy’s message from his Big Bad Questions Series, “Do Christians Have to Go to Church,” was spot-on. After service we all enjoyed great conversation and many laughs over lunch at Old Bag of Nails.

 

This area is also the original home to the business known as Longaberger Baskets. Their uniquely designed office build, shaped as a picnic basket, still remains a popular photo op.

 

Sunday evening, we received a call from our friends Neil and Pam. They had an appointment in Newark the next morning and wondered if we wanted to meet up for lunch. We were so thrilled to visit with them at Tee Jaye’s Country Place Restaurant, where we laughed and talked for hours.

 

The next day we took some of our flavored brats to Randy and Judy’s home where, once again, we were blessed with a great meal and fellowship. After dinner they treated us to ice cream at a local dairy stand.

 

We have so many blessings in our life, but none so sweet as having Christian support and fellowship. We realize we are “livin’ the dream,” even as we stop at the dumping station to empty our tanks before we leave the campground.

 

We arrived at Camp Sychar in Mount Vernon on Wednesday, July 16, 2025. After setting up camp we drove to Wooster to pick up our mail and enjoy Gionino’s Pizza with Doug’s brother John and his wife Susan.

 

On Thursday we attended training for the staff helping with the different children’s ministries. The children’s tabernacle added a new “quiet” area, where any child who felt over stimulated by noise or activities could relax and play with sensory gadgets. This was a very successful idea.

 

The program was set up a little differently this year with different stations for staff to teach smaller groups of kids. The missionary station was headed up by Miss Rhonda, the object lesson was headed up by Miss Heather, and the scripture activities were headed up by Miss Evelyn and Mister Doug. In the afternoon sessions, the kids could choose to do a craft or participate in a game/activity. Charissa (aka Cha Cha) and Rachel led the worship time and Bible stories. Kristine was a new and very helpful addition to this year’s staff and helped out wherever there was a need. This year’s theme was, “The Amazing Race,” and it was a very active year with lots of water games to ease the 90° heat, along with a talent show and an afternoon movie.

 

As always, the staff is playfully humiliated if the kids reach certain dollar amount goals for the missions offering. When the first goal was reached, we were dressed as winged fairy princesses (and one prince). As the second goal was reached, we were dressed as garden gnomes with pointy hats and white beards (if needed). And after reaching the third and final goal, the kids were allowed to slime Cha Cha. This stuff makes the week so very fun and memorable for the kids, but the most important thing is that they learn how much Jesus loves them.

 

We had many friends attend the evening services. One night Tom, Marie, Myrle and Mary came for evening service. Another night, our small group came down for a Stromboli dinner and services. We missed our grandson, Cooper being there to take a selfie of our group with him included. It also was terrific to see Margie and Hal, as they joined us for an evening service. We sent a short recording of the kid’s movie, Jonah to our grandson, Sam, because he had memorized the whole movie when he was little.

 

Even though the water heater sprang a very small, yet manageable leak and part of the gray tank pull handle broke off, we had our socks blessed off and were thrilled to work in children’s ministry again. God is good!

 

Home, beautiful home! On July 27, 2025 we drove past the field with a view of the cellular tower that was practically in our backyard before we sold everything and started RVing. When we arrived at our summer home in the River Trail Crossing Campground we noticed one of neighbor campers had a cute sense of humor as they had placed two umbrellas in the corn field, so they looked like huge eyes. We also noticed the Cicadas making their 17-year visit to Ohio where they emerge from the ground, shed their outer layer, present with greenish wings, and fly away.

 

We have so many friends and family to visit when we are home, that we started making plans and filling our calendar right away. One of our first visits was to attend Gabe Ernst (missionary we met at the Avon Park Encampment) parent’s church in Fredericktown. Jerry Ernst is the pastor of Cornerstone Methodist Church. After service we enjoyed a wonderful lunch with Jerry and his wife Abby, who were just as sweet and kind as their son.

 

We continued to reconnect with friends when we resumed showing The Chosen series (season 5) at the Apostolic Christian Homes. The warm reception we received when we walked in was a little glimpse of what heaven will be like. We felt so loved and welcomed.

 

Next, we headed to Ontario to help our grandson, Cooper put together the new trampoline that he had been so diligently saving to purchase. Doug taught Coop how to use some power tools (“UUHHAHH”) to make the job easier and more fun. After all, they are guys. It was a wonderful day visiting with Cooper, Rachel, Jeff, Madeline and her boyfriend, Toni.

 

We were so happy to finally host a meal for John and Susan at our RV. We love having people into our tiny home for meals and fellowship.

 

While we were back in our old stopping grounds, we visited our parent’s grave sites. We noticed at Doug’s parent’s cemetery that God had protected the grave sites from a tornado that run through the area causing trees along the perimeter to lay into each other but not into the cemetery itself. God is so good!

 

We were again blessed to stay a few nights with Evelyn’s sister, Margie and her husband, Hal while our RV was at the dealership to have the water heater replaced. Evelyn performed her “auntly” hair braiding duties, by not only braiding Charlie’s hair, but many of her Barbie doll’s hair too.

 

Margie and Hal also hosted a family get-together, complete with Matt Daniels providing Razor rides. Ev and her two siblings were the first passengers and had a blast. Evelyn could have used a hair braiding for that trip.

 

We packed in Cooper’s soccer and baseball games, meals with family and friends, and birthday parties. It always goes so fast. We are blessed.

 

We arrived in Dayton, Ohio on Tuesday, October 7, 2025 to visit the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum. We reserved a campsite at Green Valley RV Park which is located close to the museum. However, because of the government shutdown the museum was closed.

 

We “count on God to direct us,” (Proverbs 16:9) and realized that God’s plans can be different than ours. So, we just relaxed a few days and enjoyed pizza from a local pub. Pictures from this stay are of our travel bunny with the campground logo and a couple of pictures of the campground and our site.

 

We returned to Grayson, Kentucky on Friday, October 10, 2025, but we chose a different campground this time. Grayson Lake State Park is a very pretty campground. The landscaping included areas of tall grass. The grass was pink this time of year and even prettier than normal.

 

We found a local church to attend, but when we arrived it appeared that they replaced the second service with a fellowship potluck which was setup outside of their main entrance. We felt like it might be awkward approaching at that time, so we returned back to our campsite and watched the church service from our home church in Ohio.

 

We had a great visit and meal with our friends Rick and Brenda. We always love to see what animals they are raising. This visit included their pig, Ruthie and some escapee chickens. The chickens would fly out of their fenced in area during the day, but back in before dark so they could roost with the rest of the flock at night. We neglected to take any pictures during our visit. We will take twice as many next time!

 

We had a great visit with Evelyn’s cousins, Junior, Thelma, George, and Tina. Thelma shared one of her favorite casserole recipes with us, along with the secret recipe for the famous hotdog sauce used at Crisp’s Dairy Bar. Can’t wait to give it a try. We did think to get one group picture while we were there.

 

Since the Halloween season was coming on, many campers had their sites all decorated for the park’s upcoming celebration. We captured a few of our favorite ones.

 

On Wednesday, October 15, 2025, we traveled to Pug’s Orchard, a Harvest Host in Wise, Virginia. Our hostess Sheila operated this beautiful farm store and kitchen. The store was on one side of the road and RV parking was across the road at the farm/orchard. Our parking spot was as gorgeous as the foliage we saw on our drive here. We had the added blessing of deer walking by and a chicken coop nearby.

 

Sheila has a unique setup in her store, where she cooks different dishes and then offers them to her guests. She baked biscuits with Einkorn Flour, an organic, low gluten flour from Europe, and served them with apples fried in maple syrup, for our breakfast. She is a nutritionist and uses only healthy ingredients. She was a wealth of knowledge on the subject of nutrition and a blessing just to talk to.

 

We bought a few different goodies from the store, including raw, whole milk, supplied through a farm/cow share. We also bought a gift for our dentist back home, a small jar of T.O.E. Jam. Trust us, it’s a play on words, as the acronym stands for Tangerine, Orange, and Elderberry.

 

We camped for seven nights in North Carolina, arriving on October 16, 2025 to Lazy Boy RV Park. The autumn leaves are spectacular here.

 

We finally got to meet Doug’s friend from work, Tom and his wife Darla. Doug and Tom had collaborated online for years. It was nice to meet face-to-face and we instantly loved them both. They came for a meal at the RV and we talked for six hours. They have wonderful testimonies to share.

 

We had the opportunity to visit with Tom a second time in their gorgeous home. Darla wasn’t available to join us that day and we sure missed her. We met their sweet dog, Harley, got to go for a ride in Tom’s electric Mustang, and had lunch at a restaurant that served the best salmon meal ever! Speaking of food, we happened across a Mexican food truck that had such amazing food that we ordered out twice during our stay.

 

Tom and Darla directed us to a great church service at Biltmore Church – Hendersonville Campus. The pastor preached a wonderful message on the helmet of salvation and our unseen enemy. We also visited Grandad’s Apples, which had been recommended by Shelia from Pug’s Orchard. We brought home some apple turnovers, apple pie ice cream (which was to die for), and some very flavorful caramel honeycrisp apple coffee.

 

Have we mentioned how blessed we are?

 

On October 23, 2025 we checked into Mistletoe State Park in Appling, Georgia and immediately fell in love with this campground.

 

Searching online for local pizza can lead to fantastic meals. We ordered a stuffed pizza called, “Fugheddaboutit Pizza,” from Fernanda’s Grill and Pizzeria in Thomson, Georgia. It was so good we cannot forget-about-it!

 

We had put Evans, Georgia on our route this year so we could attend West Town Community Church. The pastor there is Steve Jr., son of our dear friends, Margie and Steve. We heard a great message about Jesus healing the blind and going from blindness to clarity. The church’s lobby has a print of one of our favorite Jesus pictures. It is a very powerful image of Jesus running after a lone sheep. We can remember when we were that lone sheep.

 

We went to lunch with pastor and his sweet family; wife Shiree and their three kids, Sadie, Seth, and Sawyer. We ate at Rally Point Grill, “A Place Where Heroes Gather.” The restaurant is veteran owned and they donate a percentage of their sales to Veteran’s charities. It was a great visit. It’s so fun to meet people face-to-face that you’ve heard about for years.

 

We enjoyed beautiful cotton fields as we drove through Georgia on our way to Towns Bluff Park in Hazlehurst, Georgia, on October 27, 2025. We only spent one night in this pretty little campground.

 

One thing very common to us, is our love for feral cats we meet along the way. We named the one we met here, Dusty, because she looked Dusty. She walked from site to site making friends, then moving on; no doubt, comparing the treats that each camper gave her. She seemed very pleased with our chicken salad sandwich spread. We made her day and she made ours.

 

We have seen the Florida state line sign multiple times, but seeing it on October 28, 2025 was especially exciting because we had a date with our oldest grandson Sam. He was working at a music festival called Hulaween with a puppet team in Live Oak, Suwannee Music Park. We were thrilled to learn that our campground, Casey Jones RV Park in Lake City, Florida, was very close to where he was staying.

 

We drove over to the music park and picked him up as he waited for us along the side of the highway. We all enjoyed our time together over breakfast at Waffle House. He had to get back to the puppet team to finish all of the preparations for their performances. Time with family always goes so fast, but it was cool to be able to see him for a meal.

 

An overnight stay on October 31, 2025 at Sandbar RV in Dade City, Florida was a welcome, restful stop. Since it was for only one night, we didn’t even disconnect the car.

 

Just when we start feeling old and tired, we meet campers like the ones parked next to us. This couple had traveled from New England to sing gospel music at multiple venues in the area and they were in their 90s. So, we will keep going and be thankful for how healthy we are.

 

It didn’t take long to feel comfortable again at Avon Park Camp in Avon Park Florida. We arrived on Saturday, November 1, 2025 to the same site we have camped at for a couple of years now. Our view of the memorial garden from our RV has a beautiful variety of trees and flowering bushes. The colorful Paperflower bushes grow well in the Florida’s climate and many homes have at least one planted in their landscaping. We were also asked upon arrival if we would consider taking on the task of cleaning the camp tabernacle as we had done before. We agreed to do this again for the season. With the annual encampment being months away, we settled into our warm winter home, where we attended Sunday morning services at Sebring Grace Bible Church, Tuesday morning Bible studies, and Friday evening services at the camp.

 

With Thanksgiving approaching, we drove the RV over to the Savanna’s Campground in Fort Pierce, Florida on November 24, 2025, so we would be in close proximity to Amber and Keith’s home in Vero Beach. We spent time with Evelyn’s high school classmate, Stephanie, who stopped over to the RV for a visit and have lunch with us one day. It’s always sweet to visit with friends from our youth. We are glad she lives in Fort Pierce so we can connect during these visits.

 

Most everyday we made the drive from the campground over to Amber and Keith’s place in Vero Beach. Doug enjoys driving by the Port of Fort Pierce, joking that they should have our yacht ready soon. When we arrived in Vero Beach on Thanksgiving morning, we were greeted at the door by Story wearing a turkey on her head. Amber had made the turkey to look like the one from the 1998 Thanksgiving episode of F·R·I·E·N·D·S. Most everybody got in on the act during the day. Now, holidays may not seem to be the best time to start a diet for weight loss, but we are two, too stupid people, as we have said before. So, we contributed our turkey and spinach meatballs to the holiday feast.

 

Our grandkids are as different as different can be. Orion is sweet, considerate, and showed excellent bedside manner as he thoroughly examined Gramma with his doctor’s kit. Story is a very talented artist with journals galore! She was patient in explaining each page and drawing. She also, patiently, got her math homework assignments caught up under the watchful eye of Papaw.

 

We planned an outing to see Zootopia 2 at the theater, but unfortunately, the whole crew didn’t make it. Moxie and Amber stayed home to nurse Moxie’s upset stomach. Maybe Orion examined the wrong person. Moxie perked back up and was the foreman in charge of Christmas tree decorating. The whole gang was up for a timed picture, with Keith doing the heavy lifting. He was able to get Hank in position just in time.

 

We took some pictures of neighbors Christmas lights, that look like they were in direct competition with the Griswolds from Christmas Vacation. These front yards beg to ask the question, “How many are too many inflatables?”

 

As we drove the RV back to Avon Park on December 2, 2025, we came upon a very funny wheel cover on a Jeep at one of the traffic lights. We never mean to offend anyone, but the reference to most Millennials not being capable of driving a standard-shift vehicle, made us laugh. Our car is a standard-shift and we have encountered service personnel that had to seek out an older coworker to move our car in and out of the service bay. Yay for being older – I guess.

 

We decorated our RV and campsite just in time for the annual Avon Park Camp Christmas parade. It was fun to see the golf carts and adult tricycles decorated so festively, with riders tossing candies to the onlookers. Lake Isis at the campground looked beautiful with lights reflecting from the houses on the other side of the lake.

 

We returned in our car to Vero Beach to see Story play her flute in the school’s Christmas program. This was her first school performance and she was the best performer out of the group (OK, we might be a little biased). The three-hour round trip was well worth it. It is always wonderful to watch our grandkids do their thing.

 

There are several feral cats living happily around our campground. However, there is one female that would approach people. She resembled our old cat, Toughy, from Ohio and she was obviously tough to survive and thrive here. She seemed at home at several of the different homes, ours being one of them. She could sense the cat-loving, cat-whisperer, Doug, would treat her well. We established a feeding routine and Doug treated her matted eye that she appeared to have had for a while. We named her Deborah, after the tough warrior/prophetess in the Bible. We thought she might be easy to teach a few tricks. She would lay on her side with her two front paws together like she was praying. We think that could have been something she would do on command if we had a little more time to train her.

We began cleaning the Tabernacle weekly before encampment. Evelyn praised God that finding a lizard on the carpet was not a weekly thing! She supposed it was slightly interesting to see how they turn white and shed their skin. But it was not something she wanted to see routinely, as they make her skin crawl.

 

We packed up presents in our little car and headed north for Christmas. We had hotel reservations in northern Georgia for one night on the way to Ohio and one night for our return trip. As we drove through Atlanta, Georgia a skyscraper with a glowing dome caught our eye. It looked eerily like a Batman signal might appear.

 

We arrived in Ohio with a few dates already planned. We got a picture of our friend’s Tom and Marie’s door with the Christmas tree decoration that our friend Robin had made for all the members of our small group. Tom and Marie hosted a luncheon for our small group at the Apostolic Christian Home dining room. It was great to get our small group together in person again. After the meal, our group and other residents watched the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. We pray that the Lord will continue to keep Steve and Margie, Cal and Robin, Tom and Marie, RuthAnn, and Doug and I close for many more years.

 

Our next get together was our family Christmas, hosted by Rachel, Jeff, Sam, Madeline, Cooper, and Toni. So much good food and fun. Since we missed last years games, we jumped right in! We love to laugh and see others that we love, laugh too. Sam displayed everyone’s art work on a very creative, “Cranky Christmas,” scroll that he narrated and was assisted by Cooper. Our siblings, Margie and Hal, John and Susan, and Ken made all of these activities very fun.

 

On Christmas afternoon, Rachel, Jeff, Sam, Madeline, Cooper, Toni, Margie, and Hal went with us to see Song Sung Blue. It was a great movie and we learned later that in the Neil Diamond home, anytime someone says, “so good,” (pertaining to anything) it is an unwritten rule that others have to reply, “so good, so good.” We have adopted the same tradition in our home.

 

We stayed with Margie and Hal while we were in Ohio for our two-week visit.  We enjoyed sharing our new nutrition plan meals with them and propping up our feet up as we talked and watched television. We had a great visit, it was “so good…”

 

After two weeks for Christmas in Ohio, we drove our car back to Avon Park, Florida on January 6, 2026 to, “settle in for a long winter’s nap.” Who are we kidding, we had a very busy, yet enjoyable winter.

 

The new year started with cataract surgery for Evelyn. We were given a good review of Newsom Eye in Sebring, Florida. Evelyn felt a peace about having the procedure after meeting their wonderful staff and learning Florida is known as the cataract surgery capital of the world, because of all the retirees in the area.

 

The surgery started with a smiley face drawn above the eye to be operated on, left eye first and one week later the right eye and finishes with receiving the universal sign of cataract surgery, the huge dark sunglasses. God gave Evelyn a peace during it all. Everything went well and even though she is still wearing glasses, the prescription is less powerful and she can see great. Colors are more vibrant than ever.

 

We began our routine cleaning of the camp’s tabernacle and Doug began assisting in the sound/video booth. He learned many new things from Gary, who has given so much of his time to this ministry over the years. In addition to the sound/video booth responsibilities, Doug also helped Gary with all things internet related through out the camps network, including setting up temporary routers for God’s Bible School and College Choir during their visit, replacing switches, resetting different modems and routers, and setting up people’s internet connections. Because of Doug’s help, Gary was so thankful that he wasn’t always tied to the camp.

 

Evelyn had fun and fellowship with Deb at the Avon Park Activity Center in a collage class that used tissue paper as it medium. Deb and her husband, Jim have become our friends. They introduced us to kumquats, which are a small citrus fruit that looks like an orange, but are eaten whole, as the rind is sweet and edible.

 

The encampment schedule profiled the guest evangelists, missionaries, and bible teacher. One of the missionary couples had to cancel due to the wife breaking her ankle, “but God” had already arranged another couple, Cody and Mykaela (https://onemissionsociety.org/missionaries/detail/Johnson-1). They were already at the camp with One Mission Society’s (OMS) Men for Missions Group who were painting and repairing camp buildings. Sometimes certain people just touch your heart and this couple certainly did that. The other mission group was with VT Albania, a World Gospel Missions group (https://www.vtalbania.org). Nathan and Luis help special needs children who are usually left at home, undeveloped and uneducated as they are marginalized by their community. Nathan had noticed our clothing promoting The Chosen and asked if we were fans. He then told us that his wife was a cousin of Dallas Jenkins, the creator of The Chosen and she had helped to translate The Chosen into Albanian for subtitles. It is so cool to have common bonds with complete strangers.

 

The evangelists, Dr. J. K. Warrick and Rev. David Gallimore gave so many fantastic messages, our hearts are beyond full. And then there were our wonderful Bible teachers. Dr. Shawn Craigmiles from Warner University taught on things that are only found in the Gospel of Luke. He was an excellent teacher who taught every Tuesday through the winter season (November through March), with the exception of during the encampment week when Dr. John Oswalt, a famous Bible teacher from Asbury Theological Seminary taught. An interesting thing about Dr. Oswalt is that he was born in our old stomping grounds of Mansfield, Ohio.

 

If you are interested in hearing and seeing (if Gary, George, Jimmy, Phil and Doug did a good job) any of the sessions or concerts, they are all available on the Avon Park Camp Association website under Live Stream Archives (https://www.avonparkcamp.com).

 

There are so many ministry teams at work throughout the camp week and beyond. Many of the ministries had appreciation dinners. Gary arranged a very nice dinner for all of the sound/video team and their spouses at the Jacaranda Hotel. It is an upscale hotel built in the 1920s and known for guests like Babe Ruth and Clark Gable. During World War II it housed servicemen training to be pilots. It was a blessing to be treated to such a nice meal.

 

Staying in Avon Park has so many spiritual benefits and we are doubly blessed to also attend Grace Bible Church in Sebring, Florida on Sundays. We signed up to help and attend a marriage conference held there. We feel the Lord is opening a door for us to get involved in ministry to help marriages thrive with Jesus. Speaking of open doors, our first ministry job was to open doors for others as we signed on to be door greeters at the conference. For over 30 years we’ve felt that we could be used in a ministry like this and the time for that is now.

 

What a wonderful God we have—he is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the source of every mercy, and the one who so wonderfully comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials. And why does he do this? So that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort God has given us. 2 Cor 1:3-4 TLB

 

We followed up the marriage conference by attending re|engage open group gatherings and we have been approached to facilitate a closed group in the future.

 

We had our pictures taken for the Avon Park Camp Directory and we are so happy to be part of it all. We love the beautiful lake that is in walking distance from our campsite. The weather, of course, is a huge benefit and caused our basil and cilantro plants to grow into beautiful bushes.

 

Somethings aren’t so beautiful to Evelyn, like the mummified house gecko Doug found in the power pedestal at our site. These things keep proving themselves to be more and more creepy. Luckly, there are some sweet critters here. Among the sweetest is Deborah, our feral cat, who just endears herself to us, more and more. When we pull into our campsite in the car, she jumps up on the hood and looks at us through the windshield. The first time it happened, it was a little Cujo-ish, but we know she just recognizes our car and wants to welcome us home. One day she was no where to be found and we were told that a little girl visiting at the camp wanted to take her home. We miss her, but we are glad that she has a forever home.

 

Months in one place gave Doug the opportunity to make needed RV repairs like replacing our Watchdog Power Monitor that developed a loose connection in its replacement plug and repairing the ignitor in our range. We saved you from trauma by not including a picture of our commode sitting in the yard, when Doug replaced the bowl seal because it wasn’t holding water. We are thankful for the knowledge that Doug has gained over the years to make these kinds of repairs for ourselves.

 

The camp has a weekly gospel sing. Show up with your instrument of choice and make music with friends. Our friend Gary brought the most unique instrument of all, an Appalachian Rhythm Puppet, also known as a Limber Jack (https://youtu.be/p2eROAXEp2c?si=GKKvnedB2jo1LK3W), that taps out a rhythm as it dances.

 

At Grace Bible Church, we often take pictures of graphics up on the screen. One week Pastor Cam discussed how we mature in our walk with Christ and another week, Pastor Dustin challenged the congregation to do a 21 day fast for Easter. He explained that fasting should be an exchange, giving up something to replace it with something that brings you closer to God. He said, “You will know that you are fasting the right thing when you feel an immediate and intense void just thinking about fasting that thing.” We made our choices of what to fast and helped hold each other accountable. At Easter service we helped with Guest Services and took pictures of many families in front of the church. Our picture is special to us because of the sign we held, “Jesus Changed Everything,” because He did change us, our marriage, and our walk with him.

 

Florida skies are beautiful, though rainbows seem rare due to the reduced rainfall in the winter, but they are always picture worthy. We love the variety of palm trees, with a favorite on our route to church and more of the same across from Evelyn’s dentist in Sebring.

 

We got a picture of some of our good friends (Karen, Donna, Kim and Bob) during a potluck dinner at the Avon Park dining hall. We also got pictures of uniquely decorated vehicles at different parking lots in the area. There is just so much talent out there.

 

We made the trek to Vero Beach, one last time, to visit Amber, Keith, and our grandbabies (they probably no longer want to be referred as that, oh well). We had Popeye’s chicken for lunch and Amber made terrific individual pizzas for dinner. We told her we will be looking forward to having them again in future visits. Amber also gave Evelyn a late Christmas present, a hand crocheted, across the body purse, personalized with a crocheted daffodil. Evelyn loves it. We got a group pictures and said our goodbyes until next season.

 

A dental appointment for Evelyn led us to Lake Placid, a small town south of Sebring that is famous for its wall murals. One such building mural was on the American Clown Museum and School. We knew our number one grandson would love this stuff, so we got him an application for the three-day clown school. It was a very cool place, with acknowledgement to its founder, Toby Stokes, Lake Placid’s retired police chief (also a clown), and special clowns like Red Skelton and Charlie Chaplin. The ceiling tiles were available for purchase to commemorate different clowns. The tiles were hand painted by a local artist. For touring the museum, we were given official, red rubber, clown noses.

 

On our way to dinner with our friends, Violet and Steven, from re|engage open meetings, we passed another unusual palm tree. This one had spikey leaves that spread out like a lady’s handheld fan. For some reason, it reminds us of one of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park.

 

We had four months of activities, visits with friends and family, and great fun. We are thankful that through it all, we stuck with our new nutrition plan. In fact, as we leave Florida, we have shed a combined weight of nearly 100 pounds. Doug wonders if we will get better gas milage. LOL

In 2025, we told Carol from the Pyper Kub Restaurant, a Harvest Host at the Williston Airport, that we may be back. Well, on April 7, 2026, we returned to The Pyper Kub in Williston, Florida. It was our last Florida stop for this season. We knew we were going to miss all of the Live Oak Trees covered in Spanish Moss as we traveled farther north.

 

We had a cool night and there was one other Harvest Host guest with us in the parking lot. The next morning, we woke early and headed inside for breakfast. Carol remembered us from our last visit and prepared us a delicious meal. We enjoyed a friendly conversation with her and she suggested we stop in anytime we are in the area.