Merry Christmas From Florida!

Christmas Decorations The Villages Theater Lady Lake Florida

Memories

Memories are a special house
We build inside ourselves
Where love and laughter linger,
Where all our past life dwells.
On holidays like Christmas
We can draw upon the store,
Reliving happy times
And feeling all the warmth once more.
Wherever we may travel, 
This house is always there
To help blend the old and new,
To build on...grow....and share.
This house can never get too full,
Just grow from floor to floor,
Because the joy of memories
Is always making more. 
                             Author Unknown


This poem has special meaning to Mike and me as we make memories traveling this great country. You  have been a part of these memories that we hold dear in our heart. We wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Oceana's Graduation

Seanna's Surprise stop at Lambeau Field Green Bay

Animal Kingdom Kissimmee FL

Feliz Navidad From Lizi and Maxi

Lots of Love,
Mike, Debi, Lizi and Maxi


We are at Recreation Plantation RV Resort, Lady Lake, FL having a wonderful time. Lots to do, days zoom by. We will be here until March 4, 2014. An updated blog will come soon, we promise.

From Fireworks To Fall Colors Part 2

 

The blog was having issues so I separated it into 2 parts. The above pic is from a wall at Gettysburg. Brian has studied this war extensively and I posted this for Brian, who admires Joshua Chamberlain.

                                                      Oceana, Dad, Debi, Uncle Harold and Vicki

                                                           OC and Seanna at the Ship Fair

                                                    OC and Seanna asleep on the way to BWI

                                                              OC at the Chamberlin Farm

                                                                OC, Dad and Seanna

OC and Seanna's visit went way too fast, as it always does. We soon had to take them to BWI and send them back to their Mom and Dad. We are forever grateful for the memories. We sure do love these girls.

We put it in high gear at Dad's getting all the projects on our list done. Roger and Toshi arrived to help also. As a family we all pitched in to make Dad's life easier. Cooling off in the pool afterwards was a relaxing reward.

We had a FUN Van Art cousin reunion at Fuller Lake, Labor Day weekend.  Reliving our childhood Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Pap's was a huge hit. We did have scratch off lottery tickets in a few of them just to make it feel adult-like. Roger played a huge joke on me by telling me the "22nd" egg was missing. It made me nuts trying to remember where all the eggs were hidden...finally after the festivities the elusive "22nd" egg hatched out of Roger's shirt pocket when I gave him a hug. He did do a very funny poem which I will send out to the family. It was wonderful beyond words to have us all together again. Hopefully, we can keep this reunion going.

                                                   Our beautiful family after the Easter Egg Hunt

We did get to go to Hauser Winery, heard cousin Jed play in his band at Cumberland Golf Course, walk the Rails To Trails, few rounds of golf (Eagles Crossing, Carlisle is a very challenging course yet inexpensive at $23 w/cart), several dinners with friends, as well as dinners at my sister Diana's, cousin get togethers on both the Horn and Van Art side of the family, visited Uncle Bob and Aunt Georgene, attended a few Ship High School football games- including homecoming, reunion with some of the gals from our class of '71, attended the Gettysburg Wine Festival, birthday dinner with Mike's sister Sara and our farewell dinner with Mike's brother Patrick, watched Roger w/ his new granddaughter, went with Dad to his 65th class reunion at Burnham, attended the big RV Show at Hershey and saw Ron through his hip replacement. He is healing and doing well. We thank everyone who took the time to invite us to dinners, events and just to spend time with us while we were in Ship. We thoroughly enjoyed seeing all of you. Family and Friends are everything in life.

                                                     Roger with his beautiful granddaughter Mim

                                                         Roger and Mike Eagle's Crossing Golf

                                                   Nathan and Ron post hip replacement surgery

                                           Dave, Georgene, Bob (Mom's brother), Debi, Steve, Crista

                                                                  Mike and Sister, Sara

                                                                   Classy Gals of 71

                                                                      Ron, Dad, Patrick, Barry, Diana, Mike, Debi
                                                                    Farewell Dinner

With a heavy heart we left all of our family and friends Oct 6th to continue Our Great Adventure.

We are now in torrential raining Williamsburg, VA at Outdoor World RV Park, a 1000 Trails Campground. Despite the rain we did tour Colonial Williamsburg and Jamestown Settlement. Attended a very interesting one woman lecture on Martha Washington. We both had no idea how much she contributed to the effort, traveled during the war and how deep her love was for George. The Fife and Drum Corp was excellent. We had lunch and a pint of Old Stitch from the Barrel at Chownings Tavern. Mike being the true History Buff and Government Major was in Seventh Heaven and I realized how much I had forgotten about this period of time. As always happens when we tour our country's history, we are proud to be Americans. Our freedoms should never be taken for granted. Many people highly recommended seeing Jamestown. With the weather conditions, we almost skipped it. We are so glad we did not. It is also amazing how history continues to repeat itself as similar issues arise. Historic Jamestown, Yorktown Battlefield and the Colonial Parkway were all closed by the National Park Service due to the government shutdown.

                                                             Entering Williamsburg

                                                             Below Pic: Chownings Tavern

                                                                  Governor's Palace

                                                                 Martha Washington

                                                               Fife and Drum Corp
                                           

                                                                Jamestown Ship Quarters

                                                                                 Dancing in the rain at Jamestown

Our plans to leave today for Hatteras were short circuited by rains, winds and roads washed away. There is always good in everything....the blog got done. :D

We now will be leaving Williamsburg tomorrow for Greensboro, NC to see Connie Jacobs, Brian's Godmother and one of my closest friends.  We will be heading down through the Carolinas to winter in Florida. Brian and family will be joining us over Thanksgiving. We are sooooooooo excited! 

Until the next torrential rains and we meet again, otherwise we are out there loving life. 

Love and Hugs to you all,
Mike and Debi

From Fireworks To Fall Colors Part 1

Dogwood Acres Sunset Newville PA

We have had a full summer reconnecting with family, friends and showing our beautiful granddaughters where we grew up. 

Our last blog left off at Sturgis, SD so from there we drove through Rapid City and Sioux Falls, SD to stop 7 hours later at WallyWorld, Worthington, Minn. Seanna read and slept through most of this part of the trip since it was mostly healthy cornfields and flat terrain. Up early the next day to continue onward to Lancaster WI. via NE Iowa. My close friend Carol Dieter and her hubby Mark reside in Lancaster.  Carol tent camped with us at Klondyke, which was a field along a pond. Very rustic but pretty. Seanna enjoyed meeting Carol and her family...she made a friend with Carol's nephew Everett. Seanna and I thoroughly enjoyed attending church to hear Mark preach. We are constantly reminded how small this world really is.  Mike thought one of his co-worker, golfing buddies had retired in WI. When we went to the weekly fish fry with Carol and Mark at the Country Club, lo and behold, sitting at the counter was Dennis Burr. Mike and Dennis had a grand time talking retirement, DOC and then went golfing. Really neat!  We did have an issue with our fresh water holding overflowing which due to the goofy way the overflow hosing is located got things stored in that compartment wet. It's always something with a house on wheels.

                                                                                     

            

 Top Photo: Dennis and Mike; Center Photo: Carol, Seanna and Everett; Bottom Photo: View of  Klondyke Pond

When we left Lancaster WI we had a surprise for Seanna. We zig zagged to Green Bay, home of her Mom and her beloved Packers. After spending the night at the Green Bay Elks Lodge, we toured Lambeau Field, which was fun and exciting! It was neat for me to relive my Green Bay / Dallas game I attended with Emily.

                                                                Seanna and Grump Grump, Classic Rivelry

Heading down through Manitowac, Sheboygan, Milwaukee WI (I just love those names) along Lake Michigan toward heavy traffic in Chicago was fun times. We had planned to leave Green Bay by noon but we were having so much fun we left later than planned and paid for it with driving delays in Chicago. We eventually got around Chicago and headed into Indiana through Gary, South Bend and ultimately stopped in Elkhart RV Park. Elkhart is home to many RV manufacturers and someday we will tour them. Gives us an opening to come back.

The next morning we continued down I-80, the Indiana and Ohio Turnpike. The roads were pretty darn bad. We went around Cleveland connecting to I -77 S to Cambridge/Old Washington, OH. There we stopped for the night in Walmart so we could visit with Susan Hale, another DOC Retiree. After dinner Susan gave us a tour of the area including her cottage in the woods. Very peaceful! We had breakfast with Susan before once again heading East toward PA.  We always know we are getting close to our childhood hometowns when we cross the Wheeling W.VA bridge. Washington PA on I-76 (PA Turnpike- equally bad roads) toward Bedford and I-99 to Altoona/ Hollidaysburg to visit with Cousins Arlene, Richard, Casey and Anthony, was our Fourth of July destination. This did open a discussion with Mike and me on driving to Alaska since just how much worse can the Alcan Hwy be in comparison to some of these East Coast roads. Hahahahha. Seanna enjoyed being with Casey and Anthony- they were very kind to her. A barbecue spread for the Fourth with of course fireworks was the venue of the day. Laughter and more laughter is always what happens when around Arlene and Richard.                              

                                    Cousins Arlene and Mike together again in the Evans' homestead, since 1907.


We stayed at Wright's Orchard RV Park in Duncansville. A small but quaint RV Park in the middle of town.

July 6th, we arrived in Shippensburg, pulling the rig in front of Dad's tree lined street. It was a special moment for Seanna, Dad and Ron who had not seen her since she was a baby.  Our first night in Ship was spent in WEIS parking lot until Dogwood Acres RV Park, Newville, our home for the next 3 months, could accommodate us the next afternoon.

                                                                                Dad and Seanna, special moment


The next couple of weeks for Seanna were a whirlwind of visiting family, friends, seeing Hershey with the McCulloughs,, Gettysburg, showing her Chambersburg Hospital where she was born, the Chamberlin farm where she lived as a baby, swimming in "Pap's" pool with cousin Nathan, helping with projects, being in the gourd float down the Conodoquinet Creek (Meadowbrook Gourds- a charity event for Canine Rescue), making fashion garments with cousin Heather, meeting her newest cousin Mim (Roger's granddaughter) and then picking up her sister Oceana at the BWI airport for a visit also. Late arrivals and then way too early departures. Oceana only had time to visit family and swim in "Pap's pool" and go to the Shippensburg Fair.  We love every second with these girls.

                                                       

Denny and Seanna had fun getting on every roller coaster/ water splash ride.

                                                                 

WHEW.....FINALLY CATCHING OUR BREATH

Mount Rushmore

Hello Family and Friends,
Where oh where has the time gone? We have been on a dead run, living life to the fullest, on the move since Hot Springs, Arkansas. A week after arriving in Hot Springs, AR.  we flew to Idaho for Seanna's 12th birthday. Seanna was also in a play The Tortoise Versus The Hare. She was so cute playing the part of news reporter Cupcake O'Rourke.

Seanna as Cupcake O'Rourke in The Tortoise Versus The Hare

We soon had to leave the kids and all the fun to fly back to Hot Springs for Easter with the cousins at Judy's. It was a day of visiting family and eating lots of good food.

Mike, Karol Ann, Judy, Joey 

We stayed at Catherine's Landing RV Resort right on Lake Catherine. Incredibly beautiful setting even during the rain, rain, rain. We had so many plans to hunt for diamonds and play a lot more golf but this year was not the year. Every nice day we got outside and enjoyed family activities. Barbara and Tom came for a barbecue while I, Debi, the great fire maker, attempted to smoke us out of the campsite with all the wet wood. I will never live that one down. :D Fran and Ron invited us for a yummy, yummy dinner at their beautiful home on Lake Hamilton. The evening boat ride with drinks was relaxing and a nice way to wind down the day. We have always liked being at Judy's. That has become a secure and safe haven for Mike and me. Her dogs, Harley and Winston have become our girls' boyfriends. We did look at the Malt Village Homes in Hot Springs Village...fell in love with the area, the lakes, the golf courses and the Malt custom built homes. First time I would "consider" moving from my beloved Conifer, CO. No decisions have been made, this is just in thought process. A quick trip to Olive Branch, MS with Judy the middle of April allowed us to visit long time friends Sandrine Neely (Qwest Co-worker) and Barbie Trivelli with her beautiful family ( friends from CO).

Barbie Trivelli and her family with us

When we returned to Hot Springs, we went to Oaklawn to the horse races, met up with Janie and Mike at the Infield. One of the few horse races that was absolutely beautiful weather.
The Arkansas Derby was a warm up for our anniversary weekend in Louisville for The Kentucky Derby. We drove from Hot Springs to Louisville in 8 hours. We stayed at The Hampden Inn, which was minutes from the shuttle service to The Derby. We were married on Derby Day in 1985 so having this years Derby fall right on our anniversary was extra special. Friday May 3rd, we went to The Lilies for the Fillies, a breast cancer charity event. The day was a picture perfect day spent at the infield. Mike was extremely happy winning money on The Kentucky Oaks which paid for his betting the rest of the weekend. I won the Daily Double at The Derby which made me a happy girl so came out of the weekend "up" which is very unusual for me in the betting arena. We love watching the horses race, such incredible creatures. Everyone asks us about my hat...I chose a black Fascinator with feathers and pearls. Mike wore a black Fedora. It poured and poured on Derby Day. Everyone was wrapped in plastic since umbrellas are not permitted in The Derby gates. This was right after the Boston Marathon bombing so tensions were high with security. The mood however was fun and we met great people. We hung out with a family from Napa, California and retired school teachers from Chicago. The rain stopped right before The Derby so we ran out to the infield. Fun, Fun, Fun!

Kentucky Derby

Lilies For The Fillies

         

Calvin Borel and Debi

Sunday we toured the Derby Museum which to my sheer delight ran into The Ragin Cajun, Calvin Borel, one of my favorite jockeys.  I am still short standing next to him. I missed my calling and should have been a jockey. We left the museum and drove around the area, then decided to drive to Jeffersonville, Indiana to have our anniversary dinner on the water at Kingfish Restaurant. Incredible anniversary weekend which will be in my heart forever. We left Louisville Monday with a stop in Bowling Green, Kentucky to tour The Corvette Museum. Mike, of course, loved the white 58 Corvette with red interior. A stop in Olive Branch, MS to spend the night with Karol Ann was an enjoyable visit. 

Gangsters

Our last couple of weeks in Hot Springs, we visited the Gangster Museum ( read about Mike's Uncle Gib who taught the gangster's how to play golf), West Mountain, Hot Springs National Park, had frog legs and catfish with Judy, Barbara and Tom, had drinks with friends Cal and Kathy,

Mike and Judy golfed Belvadere Golf Club, Mother's Day was spent with Judy having brunch at The Arlington and touring Garvin Gardens (finally got to see this amazingly beautiful, peaceful setting).  Sadly had to leave Hot Springs May 13th. The family treated us like gold and leaving them was not easy.

 Barbara and Mike

Mother's Day with Judy

We stopped in Branson, Missouri on our trip toward Colorado. Lakeside RV Park on Lake Taneycomo for 2 nights allowed us to see the area. We went to Silver Dollar City for a day, watched the artists, glass blowers and listened to Blue Grass. The one show was called Jeff Scroggins and Colorado. We HAD to see that show....after the show we walked to the front to talk with them . Greg Blake, singer, coincidentally lives in Kings Valley, Conifer. That was a funny conversation as we realized he and his wife live right below our house. 

Next stop Manhatten, KS to see Kelly and John Pecoraro. We stayed in Paxico at a really cute RV Park along the railroad tracks. We enjoyed a cookout with Kelly and John, catching up on the many years since we had seen each other. The next day we went to the Wizard of Oz Museum and Winery. That night was horrendous storms. I am not usually freaked out by weather but these storms had me worried. A storm shelter was right in front of the motorhome so I had "shtuff" ready to make the run. We survived and left the area the next morning. Mike decided because of the weather to drive straight through to Denver. Our norm has been 4-6 hr daily drives but Mike said we were doing the 8 hr drive to get out of the crazy weather. That day was the Oklahoma City tornado so being worried was justified.

May 19th, we arrived in Littleton safe and sound, stayed the first night in Walmart on Bowles, Littleton, then to Chatfield State Park. It felt good to be "home" after almost a year on the road. We spent 4 days seeing friends, doing eye appts, seeing our Conifer neighborhood, Kaiser Dr appts, trying to get our motorhome registered in CO. That was brain damage since we had bought the mh in CA, somehow CO just could not tell us the steps to properly get it registered. I finally found the most wonderful, professional Jefferson CO employee, Jimmy, who made it his mission to help us. We put our mh in storage at Pine Junction, our Celica was dopped off at Aspen Park Auto to get some transmission work done, rented a car and drove to Idaho to see the kids on May 23rd.

We arrived in Idaho on Oshie's 18th birthday, headed to the casino to celebrate. Oshie's next milestone was graduating from Potlatch High School on June 1st. Seanna graduated from Potlatch Elementary also that week. We are so blessed to be able to attend all of these events. Nine days of celebrating, ping pong tournaments, movies and lots of family laughter went way too fast, as always. We are incredibly proud of the young woman Oceana has become. She begins her next chapter at the University of Idaho working towards a Biology/ Pre-med degree. 

Brian and Oceana

As we drove back to CO from Idaho, we noticed the brilliant yellow in the fields. We asked and found out it was mustard. Mike and I both love McCall, Idaho so we made a lunch stop there. 

Idaho Mustard Fields

Back in CO, we picked up our motorhome and car to stay in Cherry Creek State Park. Two weeks of whirlwind appts, seeing friends, camping with Rodger and Leanne who came from Florence to be with us and finally getting the motorhome registered thanks to Jimmy.  Watched as the fires engulfed the state. Roger and Toshi had to be evacuated from their home while the fires came within a qtr of a mile of Flying Horse. Scary! They stayed a few nights with an ex-neighbor, then came to stay with us. We all made the best of a bad situation and had fun camping with them.

The best part of June was when Seanna flew in from Idaho to be with us on the 17th. She will be traveling with us from CO to PA. We decided to extend our stay in CO so moved from Cherry Creek to Jellystone in Larkspur. Such an interesting park especially with kids. The camp sites are what I called "burritoed" in between tall hedges, very private.

Seanna arrives at DIA

 Monday June 24th, we took the motorhome to Transwest, Fredrick, CO while they replaced seals and our washer/dryer. While they did that work, we attended Joanie Shoemaker's retirement party in Colorado Springs. Seanna got to be with her Uncle Roger and Aunt Toshi.

Roger, Toshi, Seanna and Debi

May 25th, we left CO for South Dakota. We stayed in Sturgis, SD at Rush No More RV Park which made Seanna laugh every time she said it.  Deadwood, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse were fun places to show Seanna. The Crazy Horse Memorial was celebrating Ruth Ziolkowski's (Korczak, the sculpter's wife) 87th birthday with a night time laser light show on the mountain and a dynamite blast- 87 blasts on the Crazy Horse mountain - cake was served to all who attended after the show. That was amazing! We had dinner at Alpine Restaurant in Hill City right before going to Crazy Horse. For 30 years they serve one menu... filet mignon, baked potato, lettuce wedge.

Deadwood - Mike,Debi and Seanna

Crazy Horse Memorial at night

We have so much more to share but this Blog is long enough. I keep promising to do these more but our adventures get in the way. Currently we are at Dogwood Acres in Newville, PA close to Dad's. I will update further adventures with Seanna and Oshie's short visit with us in the next blog. 

Much Love sent to all.