December and January in Bushnell, Florida

We arrived in Bushnell, Florida on December 10th. We were pleased to find out that they are offering the Escapee’s discount of Stay and Play. This means that we pay for 15 days and get to stay for 20. So, we paid up front and got our electric meter reading and settled into site 84. We were right next door to our friends, Tom and Jean Fornay. We had a good time visiting with them, sharing 4:00 PM socials, and many evenings playing cards at the clubhouse. We worked together to organize the Christmas Eve gathering and Yankee Swap. I think a fun time was had by all. We had about fifty fun people there.

Early in December we visited the Florida National Cemetery and saw all of the wreaths that had been placed on the graves. Here is a condensed history of the wreath laying at our National Cemeteries:

                                                The Arlington Story

Worcester Wreath and its involvement with the Arlington project was inspired at the early age of 12 years old when, as a Bangor Daily News paper boy, Morrill Worcester won a trip to the Nation’s Capital. It was a trip he would never forget, and Arlington National Cemetery made an indelible impression. In later life, he recognized that his success as a businessman was in large part, due to the values of this Nation and the Veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

In 1992, the Wreath Company found themselves with an excess of wreaths nearing the end of the holiday season. Seeing an opportunity to make a boyhood dream a reality, efforts to do something special with those wreaths began in earnest. With the help of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery, a section which received fewer visitors with each passing year.

                                                The Bushnell Story

The summer of 2006 a group of U.S. Military Veterans came across the Wreaths Across America website and found out that the Florida National Cemetery had not been enrolled to receive wreaths. The U.S. Military Vets M/C decided to host the Wreath laying ceremony. With 7 Ceremonial Wreaths, 40 people in attendance and pouring rain, we held our first ceremony.

Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine decided to open up the individual wreath laying to Cemeteries across the Nation. With the help of the Civil Air Patrol and few other sponsoring groups we were able to place 88 holiday wreaths on veterans graves. In 2008 we placed 1,200 wreaths with 1,000 attending. In 2009 we placed 2,300 with over 1500 in attendance. This past year 2010 was over best year to date. We were able to place 3,800 wreaths covering four different sections. We also estimated that over 3000 people were in attendance. Our goal for 2011 is 10,000 wreaths...

Tom and Jean Fornay were present for the wreath laying ceremony and they each placed a wreath on a grave . If we make it to Bushnell next year in time, we will attend this service.

The weekend before Christmas we drove uptown to a local church that was running a live Nativity story. Well, it was not only a live Nativity, but had scenes from Christ’s whole life. It was a very moving evening. The production was very well done and the church’s gift to the community.

These were REAL PEOPLE hanging from those crosses, and it was NOT a warm Florida evening. Sorry, but you cannot get the best effect from night pictures. You will just have to take my word for it, the production of this was exceptional. There was a LONG line of vehicles waiting to drive through.

Christmas Day we joined lots of our friends at the clubhouse for dinner. Everyone at our table contributed to the decorations and food at the table. We had a good time and a great meal.

Tom and Jean

In late December our friends Dave and Karen Long arrived on site as well. It was great to have them nearby to join in all the fun. Dave and Phil went to Webster Flea Market most Mondays and came home with some great produce. They also found a vendor selling Egyptian Cotton sheets. Phil bought one set for the RV. We decided that we would like more, so the next week Phil and Dave each bought more, Dave talked the vendor into a discount, so they got three sets for $36. Pretty cool!

                                       Karen and Dave

Phil is back to walking several miles each morning. He has also crossed a lot of jobs off of his list of things to be done to the RV. He spent a lot of time up on the roof, cleaning it and caulking any spots that were potential leaks. He buffed out a troublesome stripe on the side of the RV that was a result of a close encounter last fall. He also installed a new kitchen faucet, found and fixed a troublesome leak in the bathroom, refinished and upgraded the headlights, retightened an outside mirror, added trim to the steps, removed the old in motion satellite dish and repaired the roof, put a new thermostat in the water heater, and repaired the AC covers on the roof. Our RV has reached the age of ten years old and has about 97,000 miles on it, so continued maintenance is needed at this time. While we are here he hopes to get the outside of the RV washed and waxed and cross off a few more items on his list. He will also be working with our friend Jon LaPointe on rebuilding the engine to his 8N tractor. Restful winter, huh?

I have been busy just doing everyday things, like laundry, housecleaning, managing our busy social schedule, and fiddling with my new laptop. Add to that, I needed to reset up a new phone, because I lost mine at Wal Mart.

I borrowed a lot of this narrative about New Year’s Eve from the blog of Larry and Marilyn Forbes. Larry presented it so well, I was hard pressed to do better:

We celebrated the end of 2011 at the Sumter Oaks RV Park clubhouse.  Everyone in the park was invited to the wedding reception put on by the Pearlite’s and the Colbert’s for the marriage of Pearline Pearlite to Lance Van Colbert.  The invitation stated that in lieu of gifts, guests were “Politely asked to bring and share some horses’ ovaries”.

Here are the grandfather (Pappy) of the Bride along with Pappy’s current wife, Henrietta VIII).   

The parents of the Bride (Minnie Pearlite and Duke Twayne of Booger Holler) came in first:    They were soon followed by the parents of the Groom.  They were Victoria and Vance Van Colbert.      Booger Holler was next to a mountain, which was owned by the Colberts. 

The bride and groom arrived, and were escorted to their reception table by their parents.  They sat with the best man and matron of honor. 

After the wedding party had the opportunity to fill their plates, all of the guests lined up to partake of the “horses’ ovaries”. 

The bride and groom made a lovely couple as they danced the night away.    Others were on the dance floor also.  We saw the best man (in reality the husband of the groom) dance with the matron of honor (in reality the wife of the bride).    The festivities never seemed to end.  Even the bride’s sisters showed up for the event.

We also had another memorable cake cutting ceremony (like so many weddings).  The matron of honor even chastised the bride and groom before they cut the cake. 

                                    Tom led the Conga Line carrying ‘The Wiz’

We were visited by Father Time 2011 and Baby New Year 2012.  We all toasted the New Year in at 12:00 AM!

So, on February 1st we packed up and headed out toward our next destination, Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale Alabama. We arrived on the 3rd and got a great site, facing south, which means we get a a lot of sunshine through our front window. We have lots of friends here as well, and there are lots of activities going on all the time. Next week will start the Mardi Gras celebration that lasts for several days. The goings on are hilarious and hard to describe. It is amazing what grown up children can get into! I will post pictures in the next blog.

2011-2012 Winter Update

     We arrived home on September 19th, about five months from the time we left home to travel to Alaska. It was great to be home, but sad to see all of the devastation that had taken place because of the storm and flooding. Keith and Shannon lost two vehicles, but that was mild in comparison to the disaster that hit some families. Many homes and businesses were totally wiped out and roads and bridges were washed away in many places. The nursing home that Shannon worked for in Owego was flooded and the residents were moved to Ithaca NY. She ended up driving there to work for a while.
   We spent September, October and part of November at home. In November both Craig and family as well as Bryan and family came home to visit. It was wonderful to see them. The grandchildren are all growing so fast. Here are:
Bryan and Janine’s ~ Matthew and Emily

Craig and Denise’s ~ Samantha and Zachary


and Brooke. Keith and Shannon’s ~ Brandon (with his Homecoming date)

and Tyler:


We made a trip to Maine to touch base with the Devonshire side of the family, thankfully the weather was great for traveling.
   Phil and Keith managed to get the living room windows installed in the Warren Center house. There had been so much rain in during the spring and summer that it was really a challenge to get much done. Shannon also acquired a hutch for the dining room, boy did that dress up the room!

   Phil was busy working on the RV getting it ready to travel for the winter. We had planned for a long time to replace the rug in the living room area and the tile in the kitchen area, and Phil decided this was the time to do it. We went to Home Depot and picked out the Pergo wood laminate that we liked and he set to work. First he had to remove everything that he could from the living area. Then he pulled up the rug. Following that was the removal of the kitchen tile. This proved to be quite a job. We finally rented a power chisel to help remove the tile. They did not have a wide tip on the drill, so Phil did the best he could with a smaller tip. What a job!


With all of that done, it was time to reinstall the floor. After he removed all of the underlayment, new plywood was installed and then the laminate floor.

There was a lot of fitting around the seats, steering wheel and up on the fire wall. He added insulation wherever he could. He used oak stair treads on the stairs and laminate on the risers and on the front panel of the firewall. It is really beautiful and easy to maintain.
So, it was the Saturday after Thanksgiving that we were all packed and ready to head south again. Thankfully, the winter weather waited for us to leave! We had pretty good weather right up until the day of departure. It was late afternoon before we were totally packed and on the road. We only traveled to the Flying J in Carlisle PA that day. We fueled up and then found a good spot in the lot to spend the night. The lot was full, but not as bad as it was several years ago when we made this our first stop.
We were up and back on the road early the next day. All went well until we ran into very heavy traffic and rain in Knoxville TN. It took over an hour for us to get through the city and on toward Athens. I called the campground and was given a site number. It was after dark and rainy by the time we arrived. Phil decided then that something needed to be done with the headlights. (More on that later) We pulled in and had a quick supper. It had been a long day and we were really tired, so we headed to bed early.The next morning we went to visit Pat Martin,our good friend. We had a great time visiting with her and catching up with family news. On Thursday we headed south again. We made one overnight stop on our way to South Carolina. Poor Cathy and Larry were stuck with us until my new computer arrived. I had ordered it the Monday after Thanksgiving and had it shipped to SC, but Microsoft was pretty slow in sending out the orders!! We left on Thursday and traveled to Kingsland GA where we have spent a lot of time camping in the past. However, this time there were very few residents that we knew. Everyone has found someplace else to be…
On December 10th we packed up and traveled to the Escapee Park in Bushnell, FL. We plan to be here for a while. We have several friends here and have made many more.  I’ll let you know what we have been up to in the next post.

Chapter 20 Rally, Manheim PA

                                      Great to be ‘HOME’
No, we did not really go ‘home’, but to a Chapter 20 Rally. We have so many good friends there that it seems like going home. We arrived on Tuesday which gave us time to settle in before everyone else got there. We spent Tuesday evening with Bill and Lois Boose, talking about Alaska. Lois retired from teaching this year and then had both knees replaced. She is doing well, so they are off on their first real ‘full timers trip’. They were going to the Gypsy Journal Rally in Ohio and then they are venturing west for the winter and eventually to Alaska next summer. Happy Trails.
On Wednesday and Thursday more people arrived. We had a social hour on Wednesday and then on Thursday we all went out to eat. Friday the hosts served us dinner and we had a great time visiting with friends. Saturday was breakfast, business meeting and a pot luck dinner in the evening, followed by a very lively auction. We had a wonderful time and we are looking forward to seeing some people over the winter and more people at the SKP ACRE Rally in Marion NC in April.
                 Ann, Fran and Ira                                             Ira, Joe and Rudy
We headed home on Sunday, not sure what we would find for detours once we got close to home. We were not able to come home on Route 414 through Canton so we traveled north through Troy and home on Route 6. There was one detour around a bridge in East Troy and in Luther’s Mills there was a large section of road that was washed away. They have bulldozed all of the debris away and we had quite a drop onto old road bed and then a good bump  back up onto pavement. When we got home, everything was fine, just looked like no one had been living here for about six months! If it ever stops raining here we can get some mowing done.
We had a great five months on the road, but it is great to be home again. Lots to do before we head out again in November.

Tragedy at Home

                                 Severe flooding and devastation
I have never rally been a fan of Facebook, but I have changed my opinion. While we were traveling on September 7th, I had the laptop open and I was browsing a lot of my favorite sites. I knew that there had been a lot of rain at home from Hurricane Irene but now they were being pounded by the tropical storm. The first I read was that schools were dismissing early. Then I read that NEB was not dismissing children because the roads were too dangerous for the busses. OH, oh….Then pictures started appearing on Facebook of bridges that were collapsing all over the place in Bradford County.







Flooding has closed roads all over Bradford and Sullivan Counties as well as north up in the Owego and Vestal areas. Many stores and homes are flooded and destroyed. Devastations were everywhere close to the Susquehanna River and near local creeks and rivers.
Shannon made her way to Athens, where Keith works. They took the shop truck to try to make it home. They were able to take a round about route and get to the NEB school to pick up the boys. They made it safely home to Warren Center from there. They were home Thursday and Friday with no power, but Keith ran a generator to keep the sump pump working in the basement as well as keeping their food cold in the refrigerator. Thankfully, they have a gas stove so they were able to cook their food.
Keith made it to our house and called to say that all was well there except that there was no power. I heard from a neighbor that the power came back on Friday evening. The pond was very full but Keith said it appeared to be draining out the emergency spillway, which was what it was designed to do.
Most damage appears to be to roads, buildings and to cars. Shannon’s van and Brandon’s car that were left in Athens are now history, water up to the roof. Keith was able to make it to the shop and help with some clean up there. They are hoping to reopen on Tuesday. Shannon’s residents were all evacuated to Ithaca NY and she does not know if she can even get there to work, so many roads are closed.
I have heard that Towanda School District will try to open on Monday but I have not heard about any others. Trying to route the busses to pick up the children will be a monumental task. There are four bridges out on Route 187 I think, maybe more. Pennsylvania Avenue from Vestal down to PA is closed due to a bridge being out.
Our prayers are with everyone affected by the flood. At this time we are not sure what route will be open for us to get home. We are hoping that we will be able to get the RV home…….Not sure at this time.