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.