Summer Journey - Northern Virginia

Back again ... Since our visit to NASM last Wednesday, we have been busy with a bunch of stuff ... mostly driving to and from the Jackson's house while spending the afternoon and dinner with them. The last three days were spent dealing with a credit card compromise wherein someone ran up about $9000 on our card in a couple of days which required us to cancel the card, get a new one and notify (dang) all of the folks who directly tap into our account on a monthly basis. The folks at the fraud shop at VISA have been incredible and have worked with us to determine what is valid and what is not --- I know, that's their job!

Our son-in-law, Kevin, installed a 26 inch flat screen TV in the bedroom of the RV ... what a difference! We are camped in a very wooded area .... no satellite .... over the air TV is kind of iffy it seems.

Wednesday, Donna linked up with a former teacher friend, Kathi Williams, who taught with her at Cherry Run Elementary School here in Fairfax County some years back; they had a five hour lunch!

Our visit here is winding down ... yesterday I called a couple of old friends .... one is moving to Colorado since her husband had passed away earlier this year; the other couple are in poor health.

We leave for Ohio on Monday.

More latter .....

Summer Journey - Northern Virginia

We drove through rain showers from Virginia Beach to Bull Run Regional Park Campground in Centreville and after setup joined our daughter, Deb, her husband, Kevin, our grandson, Danny and members of Kevin's family who came in from Canada and New York to celebrate Danny's graduation from high school the next day.

                                                                                                                         
     
We gathered in the parking lot at the Patriot Center (George Mason University) for a tailgate breakfast of coffee and bagels.. Here are a couple of pics:

                                               Danny with his Uncle Robin and Aunt Camille

                                                               With Cousin Marlena

                                                                   Getting ready!

                                                 With Grandparents Ethel, Donna and Gene

                                                  The Jackson boys - Eric, D, and Robin

                                                                 The Proud Parents!

                                                                       The Jackson Clan

The Patriot Center provided an intimate setting for the several thousand attendees and the ceremony was very nice ... the motivational speaker did his thing which was funny, inspirational and, for the graduates, forgettable ... Dan was a National Honor Graduate, Centreville Scholar Candidate, FCPS Advanced Placement Studies Diploma Candidate and and Early College Scholar. He is headed for James Madison University to major in mathmatics. It goes without saying, we are very proud of him and his accomplishments. Here he is:

After the dust settled we celebrated at Deb and Kevin's home with the rest of the family.

On Wednesday, Kevin, Eric and Gene hit the National Air and Space Museum at Dulles International Airport. Here are some pics of the shuttle that was one of those "stolen" from Houston:

More later ...

Summer Journey - Virginia Beach

The crab feast yesterday went well ... so well we were too busy to take pics. I was hoping for a before (table piled high with crab) and after (a huge debris pile). Nevertheless, the crabs, sweet corn, baked potatoes, and beer went down soooooo good. They must surely serve Blue Crabs from the Chesapeake Bay in heaven!

This morning found us at Kelly's for a Father's Day brunch. Here is the happy band:

After brunch Donna and I headed back to the RV to ready it for the trip to Northern Virginia tomorrow and hit the commissary at NAS Oceana. We then returned to John and Chris's house to watch the NASCAR race (Dale Earhart won; first time in four years) and chow down on bar-B-Q, potato salad, cole slaw and marinated cucumbers and onions. Some pics:

Grandma and Granddaughter heart to heart!



What a day this has been ....

I've got to figure out HOW to get at that dish of FOOD!

Forget the food .... let's take a nap!

More to follow in Northern Virginia ....

Summer Journey - Virginia Beach

It's Saturday morning ... what a day we had yesterday. John and I picked up Kayla, our great granddaughter, at school -- it was their last day ... she is headed for the fourth grade next year. Here she is:

                                                                           

Is that a cutie pie or what! After lunch at Quiznos we headed down into Norfolk to the Nauticus to explore the power of the sea. It is a marvelous museum-like place that covers a naval museum, lots of info on the bay  and its ecostructure, hands-on stuff to interact with you ... just too many things to do and learn something from. They had a hurricane simulator and here are four pics of Kayla at no wind, maybe 30 mph, about 50 mph then 78 mph (they may not be in order; look for the hard to see wind speed above her head):

                                                                                 
Berthed next to the Nautilus was the battleship USS Wisconsin. What a marvelous ship! We toured all over it ... inside and out. One can easily see if you were over six feet tall, a hard hat would not be optional!

Oh yes ... ran into a mermaid during our visit:

More later ... we are headed for our annual crab feast today .... a bushel of  wonderful Chesapeake Blues with sweet corn ... can't wait!

Summer Journey - Virginia Beach

Our drive to VB from Charlotte was uneventful. We had secured a new electrical connector to link the RV to the car at Tom's RV in Charlotte ... a very well equipped place near the Charlotte Speedway. We arrived at Ocean Pines, a Famcamp at NAS Oceana,  after hours (they close at 4?) and found a place to park and set up.

                                                                         

 Dinner found us at John's house and were joined by his wife, Chris, and daughter, Christy with her kids, Nathan and Kayla. A great roast beef, twice baked potatoes and salad followed. Sooooo gooood! You always eat well at the Taylors! They have reworked their front and back yards and are of House Beautiful quality. Maybe I can include pics later... and here they are:

                                                                       
 We had breakfast this morning with John  at IHOP and are lounging around before leaving for their house later in the afternoon.

Summer Journey - Charlotte

On Saturday we had an uneventful trip to Charlotte from Anderson, SC. We ate a leisure breakfast before heading out inasmuch as the drive was only a couple of hours. We did find out we had lost the connecting cable
between the motor home and the car somewhere between Meridian and Anderson. Have to fix that here in Charlotte. After set up in Gene's sister's driveway, we were joined by Gene's nephew, Steve, and his wife Cathy. Another niece, Joan, and her daughters, Holly and Sidney, joined us as well. Our niece, Laurie, was visiting from Atlanta, so we had a nice family visit. We watched the final race of the Triple Crown ... Jan, my sister, took the money for the winning horse. We are presently settled in the RV enjoying the last half of the Celtic/Heat game 7.

More to follow ...

It's Sunday afternoon ... what  an exciting end to the Celtic/Heat game! Looking forward to Tuesday and the start of the finals. Jan, Bill, Donna and I had a nice late lunch and did some shopping for new electrical connection parts ... no luck; maybe tomorrow. Rain headed our way tonight.

Summer Journey - Anderson, SC

Back again ... WiFi last night didn't hack it! Thursday was not a good day. Everything seemed to go wrong. Partway through the trip we experienced a decrease in engine power ... seemed like the old fuel transfer pump problem. Nevertheless we pressed on, and arrived at the Meridian KOA in Mississppi. The drive was not without excitement, like: forcing an irate E-5 Vietnam vet off the road in Shreveport after a "roundabout" issue (Gene apologized profusely and had to play the  "I am a veteran too" card); then there was a deal getting off the highway 10 miles before we should have (I really blame Brenda, our GPS) necessitating traveling about 15 miles through the countryside; and the several curbs I transfersed trying to get back on track; just to mention a few.  If you can miss that KOA, do it! What a crumby place .. high price ... no signal on WiFi ... very primitive layout ... KOA should be ashamed. BUT, it did the job and early this morning we hit the bricks.To our delight, the power problem did not reappear ... the weather was good ... the trip around Atlanta was the usual nightmare ... and, alas,  Anderson KOA in South Carolina was a breath of fresh air. If you get the chance to stay there, you will never feel more welcome.

So here we are, having cold one ... cooking up some shrimp and angel hair ... doing a little washing ... looking forward to an easy two to three hour drive to Charlotte tomorrow ... life is good!

Summer Journey

We are all packed up ... ready to go ... Beckett is nervously following my every move; not wanting to be left behind -- as if THAT would ever happen. We are headed for a four night stay at Charlotte with stops at the Coushatta Casino in Kinder, LA ( winnings should provide enough to cover the trip), Meridian, MS and Anderson, SC. Eventually we will go to Virginia Beach, Northern Virginia, Ohio and return in mid-July. The highlight is our grandson, Danny, will graduate from high school in Northern Virginia on the 19th of June and will head to Madison University this fall. Also, Gene is scheduled to take a flight in a T-6 (Texan) trainer that he first flew in flight school eons ago -- what a fabulous birthday present!

More to follow ....

The trip over was pretty uneventful ... super hot ... upper 90's. After setup in the Red Shoes RV Resort at Kinder, we hit the casino ... sadly, our $10 only gave us about an hour of play with very little real action. Our dream of bankrolling the trip vanished with our ten spot. The place was full of old folks and SMOKE! Nevertheless, it was fun. Casinos have come along way from the "put you money in and yank the handle". One almost needs a three hour course on the whole thing just to figure it out! After dinner in the casino we are now watching the telly and getting ready for an early departure to Meridian.

Speaking of the Red Shoes campground ... very nice ... very clean ... WiFi ... cable ... 50 amp service ... shuttle service to the casino ... all for 20 big ones a night. Such a deal!

Talk to you later ...