Nov 7, 2014 DeBary, DeLand, Swamp House Grill and Blue Spring State Park

Friday we set out about noon for more sightseeing.  Drove to DeBary, a small town nearby.  Ate lunch at Swamp House Grill!  A real treat.

A nice man from our next table took our picture looking out into the marina and the St. John's River.  After a great seafood lunch (John and I) Jerry and Ruth had great barbeque sandwiches, we walked around the marina and park.  There is also a campground right next to the restaurant.  Also checked it out for possible future years.

Look at the bottom of this photo - taking a siesta right next to the marina waters!

After lunch they drove us to Blue Spring State Park in Orange City, FL.  National Gold Medal Winner - Florida State Parks -"America's First Two-Time Winner."  And it is very special, indeed.  It has a lagoon, the St. John's River, 2643 acres and is a winter home to more than 200 manatees and lots of other birds, turtles and wildlife.

There is a 1/3 mile boardwalk along the lagoon with every turn bringing more beauty to your eyes.

Lots of gar fish swimming around. 

Cormorants guard the entrance to the lagoon from interlopers on the St. John's River.

And on the next turn, look what we saw!  Manatees!!!  Usually don't come in from the cooler river to the 72 degrees of the lagoon until later in November, we were very fortunate to see several!  This is probably a mother and calf.

My manatee friend along the path!

And another group of three!

Fabulous - we spent about 2 hrs just watching them!

Ruth thinks these are called Penny trees - many throughout the area - beautiful color! 

As we are driving through a small town, this lady was on the left corner....

and on the right!

Final stop of the day was at Kermit's Key West Key Lime Shoppe in DeLand, FL.  We stocked up on goodies - some great barbeque sauce, dog biscuits, key lime cookies and a free coozie!  What an awesome day!  Thank you John and Ruth!

The squirrels outside our rig aren't as big as at Little Acres, but still cute to watch.

Nov. 1-6, 2014 St. Marys, GA, Jacksonville, Ormond Beach

Saturday, Nov 1 we were scheduled to travel from St. Marys, GA to Jacksonville, FL, but it was SO windy with large gusts that we were able to stay another day at the submarine base next to Nan & Lou. 
On Sunday, Nov 2 we struck out for Jacksonville, FL.  Arrived about 1 pm at the Elks in Orange Grove and set up.  Went into the lodge to register.  I was filling out the paperwork while Jerry was helping someone lift a package over the bar to the bartender.  Suddenly as he stood up to help, his foot slipped off the rung of the stool and he hit his ribs on the bar!  He saw stars and sat down very rapidly!  After a half hour in the rig catching his breath, I determined we should have him checked out at the local ER.  It was only about 10 minutes away and after a very short stay there, they determined he had fractured two ribs.  Bummer!  Gave him a prescription for pain killers.  We had to wait for the prescription so went to a local pizza place called Brewers!  After a great local brew and a pizza (individual sized deep dish pizza called a smacker) we picked up the prescription and went back to the rig. 
Monday, Nov 3, bright and early I did all the packing up and we took off for our alignment appointment at ABS about 20 minutes away.  (Jerry had repaired a broken leaf spring at the base while parked there and had spotted an alignment problem with severe wearing on two tires.)
They made us wait an hour + while they finished up two jobs in progress.  Then after diagnosis said all three axles needed replacing.  Egads!  It was hard to believe that, but...   after much discussion, J and I said ok...it would be 3-5 days there while we waited for them to be shipped and we could stay there.  So we got all set up to stay, asked for electricity and wifi.  They said they had no wifi - both the father and the daughter who own the shop kidded around about it that they operated in the dark ages.  However, in looking at our wifi finder, we found 3 separate setups in their name, so when Jerry challenged them on it, they said, oh, well we can't just let any Tom, Dick & Harry use our signal.  And Jerry said, well I'm not just any TDandH, I'm a $2500 customer.  So they gave him the wifi code.  He came back to me with the info and I was absolutely furious and disgusted that they would lie to us!  I said to J if they lied about that, how can we trust anything they have said.  We we told them to give us a bill for the diagnostics and we'd go elsewhere for service.
Left there about 11:30 and pulled into a vacant motel parking lot.  Jerry made some calls and found an independent alignment contractor who works for several RV dealers in the area.  He was working nearby and came to our RV in about 30 min.  Preliminary exam said we didn't need new axles!  Yes!  And he could align it tomorrow.  He said we could go ahead and move our rig to Ormond Beach to our cousin's home as he was going to be working in Ormond on Tuesday at a dealer's there.  Perfect!
So we arrived at John & Ruth Vinall's about 3 pm and got set up.  Ruth had a nice meal for us and we crashed early.
On Tuesday, the alignment guy called about noon and Jerry drove the rig to a Lowe's parking lot nearby where the manager had given him permission to do the work.  A couple of hours and only $350 and we were all set!  Wow, thank heavens we listened to our gut feeling and rejected ABS!
On Wednesday, Nov 5 our cousin Bonnie Vinall Nantkes (who we met for the first time at the Vinall Cousin's Reunion in Davenport in Sept( came over from her home in Eustis, FL (about 45 minutes away)  We had happy hour out in the Florida room and then a nice dinner that Ruth and I had fixed.  Fun!
On Thursday, we took of about 11 am for Daytona's 38th annual Greek Festival held at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church.  They had lots of white tents set up as well as areas in their church building to hold vendors selling food and drink and some crafts.  We checked it all out and then selected our food and took it out to the pier to eat. 

Jerry and I had gyros and Ruth and John shared Dalmdes (stuffed grape leaves.)  We all tasted each other's food...yummy!

View of the Halifax River which is also part of the Intercoastal in this area.

 

Looking towards the church and tents
 

Live music in one of the tents

 

Our dessert - a Baklava sunday!  OMG

 

Our take home desserts:  Thiple on top (rolled up pastry dough with honey inbetween the layers.  On the left - baklava and on the right, Kataifi - similar to baklava except has string coconut around it.  Very rich but yummy!  We took about 3 days to savor these goodies at home!

 

This is one of the food areas...pictured is the dessert lineup!  Very beautifully done!

 After lunch, John took us on a tour of some of the Daytona areas.  We drove by the Drive in Christian Church!

 Then down to the Ponce Inlet...at the lowest end of the barrier island between the Halifax River an the Atlantic Ocean.

We parked and walked out to the end of the pier.  Amazing.

Lots of birds were fishing and sunning themselves.  These are Dunlions
 Lots of birds were fishing and sunning themselves.  These are dunlins. 

The rocks which go past the end of the pier

This is an immature little blue heron.  Fascinating to watch!  This and the dunlin were additions to my birding life list.

Fisher people make their way back from the end of the pier.

 

Overhead photo of the Ponce Deleon Inlet and the pier we walked out onto

After walking back to the car we went to a different section and drove on the beach to see more birds and the surfers.

After viewing more areas of Daytona, it was happy hour time, so we stopped at Carribbean Jack's.  It is right on the Halifax River/intercoastal.
 

Our waiter, Shawn, took this picture of us.  What fun as the whole table and bench setup is a swing, so we could rock back and forth (gently so as not to spill the drinks.)  Very unique.



 

We sat there long enough enjoying the beautiful evening, that we got hungry so had a light supper.  John and I had clonk soup (a combo of conch soup and clam chowder)  Absolutely fabulous.  Ruth had the conch soup and jerry had a shrimp poboy,  Fab!

Perfect ending to a fabulous day...a full moon coming up across the river!

 

Oct 24-26

Traveled from Wilmington Friday and Saturday,  Oct. 24-25. 

 
 

 Nan and Lou are staying at Kings Bay Naval Base in St. Marys, GA (right on the GA/FL border) and invited us to come stay with them for a week.  So here we are and what a beautiful, peaceful place it is!  The campground is right on a small lake an we've seen Wood Storks and Wilson's Plover family (new lifelist birds for me), Great blue heron, Great White Egrets so far.  Haven't seen an alligator, though there are signs posted that there are gaters in these waters.  Nan has seen them, though.  Nan had great dinner for us first night, chicken stew and warm bread.  Last night I did salmon, broccoli and salad.  Nan contributed basil pasta and pumpkin pie!  Feast.  Nan and I took a small walk yesterday...my foot is some better and allows me to walk short distances.  I also did 6 loads of wash at the FREE laundry...yippee all caught up.  We also got in a game of scrabble cubes.  Monday, today, we went to get our IDs at the security post and passed the background checks so we're now here officially with our own passes. 

Oct 21-26, 2014

More beautiful scenery as we travel to Wilmington, NC.

Went to dinner where we met another Vinall cousin - Richard and Liz Moburg.  Had a great meal and wonderful conversation at Hops Supply. 

Took a motorcycle ride one day to Wrightsville Beach, toured the beautiful homes and condos right on the ocean.

This swampy area is between the ocean homes and the intracoastal waterway.

 View of the Intracoastal waterway

Wonderful churches and beautiful old homes in the older part of Wilmington.  Had a great spaghetti dinner at their home north of Wilmington.

Our last night, met Richard and dog Maddy for a drink at Fermenal...a very laid back, relaxing place not far from their home.  Then a great flounder for me, shrimp for Jerry dinner at The Boat House.

 

So great getting to meet more cousins!  Great visit.

Oct. 20, 2014

Continuing through beautiful fall-colored hills, the Allegheny Mountains, over the Eastern Continental Divide at 2610', viewing the Monogahela River, Potomac River, and today through the Shenendoah Valley.  We had mountains on both sides of us as we headed south...the George Washington National Forest was on our west side and the Allegheny's on the east. 

Passed many cool names of bodies of water and towns...and saw our first sign of "run" - Pugh's Run (a small creek).  Seems to be an old Eastern US name. 

Also a first.  Sign:  Trucks and "combination vehicles" use right lane when traveling less than 70 mph.  Made a lot of miles today since we were mostly on interstates.  Stopped around 5 pm at the Mount Rocky, NC Elk.  Interesting how different the Elks lodges are throughout this USA.  Had $3 pulled pork sandwiches and cole slaw for dinner here.  (They called them BBQ sandwiches, but was a vinegar base with no "BBQ in sight."  Good, but think we prefer the BBQ we're accustomed to. 

Only 100 miles to go today, and I have connected with cousin, Richard Moburg in Wilmington, NC and have plans to meet he and wife, Liz, for dinner tonight!  Looking forward to meeting another Vinall 3rd cousin!  Much warmer here - 70's!  Yea!  Hope to get a motorcycle ride in today and do some sightseeing in the next couple of days. 

October 19, 2014

Travel day today, Sunday, Oct 20.  Getting really chilly here in PA, so once again we're abandoning my research and heading south.  Also, plantar fasciitis is really messing with my walking.  Bummer that we were at least  weeks late in leaving IA.

We had a 4-state day even though we drove less than 200 miles.  PA-MD-WV-VA.  Beautiful fall colors - my pictures don't do it justice!    Think I need to clean my camera lens!

 

In the morning, Jerry cleaned out the lower compartment in the RV and re-arranged things.  Then did an oil change on the generator!  Was very chilly and spitting rain.  Clouds looked like they could open up at any time, but didn't.  The ER stopped by for a nice chat.  This was a very friendly lodge.  After homemade pea soup for lunch we finally got on the road about 1:30 pm.

 

Stopped at the Winchester, VA Elk's lodge to park.  Very friendly people in there.  Sat next to an art teacher at a high school so we had a lovely chat about education today.  Went to a Texas Steakhouse for supper and it was awful.  Slow service, steaks not done correctly -sent back and still not right.  Baked potato was great. 

 

 

We're off on our trip

Finally left home Tuesday, Oct. 7 after getting our RV out of the repair shop the Friday before!  Onward to Toledo to stay at cousin, Dave's place and visit with Aunt Helen and Uncle Glenn.  Jerry got upkeep/repairs done to rig and truck and we really enjoyed a barbeque and huge bonfire party on Saturday night with all our Toledo friends.   We were finally able to leave Toledo on Tuesday, Oct. 14.

Spent 3 nights at the New Philadelphia, OH, Elks and did genealogy research on the Stiffler and Casebeer line in the Little Family Tree.

Also got to do some sightseeing as the weather cleared up a little on Thursday, Oct. 16.    Went to Zoar, OH, home of the communal society begun in 1817 by Wurttenburg, Germany, immigrants.  It was finally disbanded in 1898, but was a very successful society.  They paid for their land by digging 7 miles of the Erie Canal next to the Tuscarawas River which ran through their land.  There were still about 75 families living there in the 2010 census.

The Zoar Hotel, built in the early 1800's

The country store, being painted.  Note the copper gutters and rainspouts!

Zoar, OH

Canal Tavern.  Wonderful lunch spot!  Their German food was wonderful...especially their 4- hour ham and pea soup!

Across the highway from the Canal Tavern.  On your right is a little portion of what's left of the Erie Canal in this area.  On the left, the Tuscarawas River.

Bridge over the Tuscarawas River

 

The Tuscarawas River

Fall color in New Philadelphia Co.

"The largest cookoo clock in the world" proclaims this Sugarville tourist sight.

 

Arrived at the Monessen, PA Elks around 4 pm.  Will spend the weekend here exploring the area.  Beautiful temps - hopefully will be good weather this weekend - Jerry wants to ride his bike!