Here we are, on the road: We’re in Gloucester, Virginia

Sunday, May 30, 2010 Lorraine’s report

Happy Memorial Day to all our Veterans, their families and friends; without our Veterans, our freedom wasn’t free, and to all those men and women still serving, we thank you for your service to our country.

Well, another week has flown by. We are in Gloucester, VA at Thousand Trails. This is one of the nicest TT we have been in. It is out in the county, away from railroads, busy freeways and airports, so it’s really quiet.

Last Sunday we were on the road from Myrtle Beach, SC, heading out to New Bern, NC. That day at least 3 drivers tried to take us out, one right after we got on the road. We were on the interstate when this big Cadillac pulled right in front of us, going very slowly. Chuck laid on the air horn, but she (a white haired older woman) just kept going slowly, not speeding up but I bet her heartbeat was faster. There were two more incidents just like that, both were taking on their phones and were not paying attention to driving. There are times I wonder how these people got their licenses.

We pulled into Moon Lake RV Park in New Bern, NC; set up, washed bugs; same old routine. We spent a quiet evening in, with a home cooked meal.

Monday we went to explore New Bern. New Bern is a small, quaint old town that looks just like many others around here. It just celebrated it 300^th birthday. We parked and walked around town. This town has painted bears all over, we found several.

We went into their church, Christ Episcopal Church, which was finished around 1750. Inside we had a guide that told and showed us interesting aspects of the church; it was a beautiful, old church with tons of history, very nice.

Across the street is the drug store where Pepsi Cola was invented by Caleb Bradham in 1898.

From there we took a drive to the end of the peninsula we were on; it was a great day for a drive and we enjoyed the many new sights. We spent a quiet evening home, I watched the last episode of 24, I am going to miss that show.

Tuesday we left New Bern and headed north to Gloucester, VA. It was a good thing because the Thousand Trails we are in was almost full, and it wasn’t even the Memorial Day holiday yet. We did our normal routine, setting up, etc. Now the TT is full with the weekends all here with their families.

Wednesday I asked Chuck to take me to a walk in clinic. I hurt my back about a month ago, and the pain wasn’t going away. In fact, it was hurting more and so was the area around my liver. The doc did blood work/x-rays and gave me a strong pain pill and said to rest. We stayed home Thursday, Friday, and I rested.

Wednesday night at 3 am, we had a big thunder/lightening rain storm come through here. The lightening hit really close to the coach, there was a big crack that woke us both up, then, the rain started.

Saturday we walked over to the activities center for breakfast, it was good.

After, we headed off to a Pow Wow in Central Garage, VA, put on by the Upper Mattaponi tribe. They had a very nice salute to all Veterans attending. We stayed a couple of hours watching the dancing. The afternoon temperature was about 95 and 65% humidity. We both got too hot and need to be in air conditioning, so we left. I enjoyed the costumes, dancing, and the drumming. It was similar to the ones we’ve attended out west; I enjoyed the event.

Today, we again walked over to the activities center for another good breakfast. We hope to tour some part of what they call the triangle area, Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown. There are so many things to see and do, it should be interesting.

A big “Thank You” to Joy and Rick, for sending me the package, I appreciate your kindness!

Until next time, Lorraine

5/30/2010 Chuck’s report

First off, Happy Memorial Day to one and all. After all the grief I caught on missing Mothers’ Day by a week, I had to check to be sure but it is tomorrow. Thanks to all the ones who are serving now, those veterans who have served and especially all those who have paid the ultimate price so we can enjoy our freedoms. There are some who would want to take away our freedoms, we must be ever vigilant to protect them.

Yep, we’ve made it as far as Virginia, the first time here for both of us. We are at a 1000 Trails park, plan on staying here for two weeks. The prior three weeks we acted like we were on vacation, trying to see and do a lot in a few days. At least we will be here for two weeks and hope to get back in the slower paced retired mode.

Last Monday we decided to tour the area around New Bern, NC. We went into town and and of course toured a very nice Church while there. The town has a bunch of bear statues painted by individuals and businesses set around town where you can take a walking tour to see them. Of course, it just so happens that you pass by most of the business section of town while walking. We only stopped at a couple of places, one was the birthplace of Pepsi Cola, not too much there except for a small soda fountain and some souvenir tee shirts, cups. pictures etc. We have been to the birthplace of Coca Cola in Atlanta and they have a much bigger place there.

We then drove down to the beach area a few miles South. We both like the area around here, lots of trees, grass, bushes and flowers, somewhat like back home in Washington. Also, I guess I wasn’t expecting to see so many undeveloped areas, I figured we would see town after town.

Lorraine tripped in a pot hole about a month ago and has been favoring her back ever since. After we got here, I took her to a walk-in clinic to get checked out. They took some X-rays and checked her out, prescribed some pain pills and rest. So we took time off to just sit around the rest of the day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We did take a walking tour of Gloucester on Wednesday before we came home however. Once again, there is a lot of history here although they talk more about the Revolutionary War than the Civil War. I guess I enjoy Civil War history more but still we will do some Revolutionary War exploring while here next week.

On Saturday, Lorraine and I went over to the activity center here for breakfast, we like to support the campground when/where we can. Afterward, we drove North a few miles to King William to visit the Upper Mattaponi Indian area and attend their Pow-Wow. Even though we brought chairs and a beach umbrella, it soon got too hot for us so we left after a couple of hours. I was taken by how similar their drums, dances and songs are to the Indians in the Southwest and West. Their regalia was noticeably different however. I will attach a few pictures to show that.

This 1000 Trails campground is probably one of the nicest we have stayed at, the other good ones are along the Oregon coast. They have a fairly large area set up with 50 amp electrical service for the ones who need it and charge $3/day extra for that. But with this being a long Holiday weekend, most of the sites are full and there are lots of smaller rigs in these 50 sites. Some of these smaller rigs don’t need/can’t use 50 amp so they just don’t have it turned on. But with them taking a “Big Rig Site” it forces some of the big rigs to take a smaller site in a different area of the campground, some of them can’t fit in the site and stick out into the road. We’re glad we got here a couple of days early so we could get the site we have.

It’s been awhile since we’ve “camped”, guess it was when we took our children with us and had campfires and smores. Since we’ve started fulltiming, Lorraine likes to say we aren’t camping, its just a different lifestyle we live now. But this weekend we are surrounded by lots of families that are camping. There is loud music, lots of kids running around and riding their bikes, having fun and getting into things and lots of folks just riding around in their golf carts and four wheelers. We haven’t seen any accidents yet but we have seen some close calls. The rangers were out all afternoon trying to get the kids on bikes, the cars, golf carts and four wheelers to slow down and be safe. And of course I have seen/heard some partying going on into the late hours by some of the adults. Last night there was a DJ playing music at the activity center, we chose to stay away from that. I’ll be glad when the long weekend is over and we get back to mostly having people who are RVing rather than camping around us. But I bet some of my actions in the past are the kind that bother me now, boy its sucks to get old and grouchy.

So today we plan to do a bit of exploring, not sure how busy the area will be with the long weekend but we’ll see. At the least, we can have one of the old fashioned Sunday afternoon drives and see the countryside. It’s a tough life but we manage.

Our plan has us staying here for another week before moving on the Washington DC area. I think we will be there for a bit more than a week then possibly move on to another 1000 Trails park just North of Atlantic City in New Jersey. At least that’s what we are thinking today, all of that is due to change as/if we change our minds.

And now for some pictures.

Scenery pictures while we were driving.

On the right are two men selling their crafts alongside the road.

The bears of New Bern. Lots of cities and towns have different statues that are painted and set around town. Here they also painted some of the fire hydrants too.