Dorothy Was Right - "There's No Place Like Home"..........

After a wonderful Birthday celebration on Saturday, we arose early on Sunday to begin the last leg of our journey which would bring us home! 

It is a long drive from Breaux Bridge, LA to Port Lavaca, TX, but once we crossed the Texas State line, the miles seemed to pass a lot faster!  We got home in time to watch the Spurs win the NBA championship and to unpack a few things to get us through the night!  The rest of the week has been busy getting the yard and the house back into shape after a long absence and catching up on laundry and grocery shopping.  We still have to finish unpacking the truck and the Turtle, but we are taking our time.  It is amazing what you accumulate on a road trip! 

Once we passed through Alabama on our return trip, the humidity began to hit us, and by the time we got home, it was unmerciful!  We have about decided we will spend our summers in the North from now on!  The temperatures have been in the 90's all week and the humidity has been at least 85% or more each day as well!  We feel really bad about complaining about the cold in the north after hitting the hot south!

We were gone almost two months, and in that time we traveled 8,600 miles plus, used 540 gallons of gas, spent 215 hours driving, got 16 miles to a gallon , passed through twenty (20) states and visited/saw seventy-seven  (77) new lighthouses!  We revisited three(3), for a grand total of 80 Lighthouses!

As always, we had a wonderful adventure.  Our time spent with family and friends was the most treasured aspect of our trip.   Meeting new people and exploring places we have never been was an additional bonus!  We loved everywhere we went this trip.  From the Hudson River Valley to the coast of Maine, we enjoyed the ambiance of being near the water.  From Pennsylvania to Tennessee we enjoyed the beauty of the mountains, and the Great Lakes always beckon us with their serene, quiet whispering waves and beautiful sunsets!  We simply cannot name a favorite place we visited on this trip - they were all our favorites! 

Our plan is to make a few short trips in the Turtle and to map out our plans for next year.  We will spend our time concentrating on the lighthouses of Michigan - primarily the lower pennisular..

We hope you will continue to check back with the blog to see what we are doing and to follow us when we once again hit the road!  We hope you are looking forward to continuing the journey as much as we are..........

Trip Stats

 

 

 

Reflections

 

 



 

65 And Holding........................

So today I turned 65!  That in and of itself is not that spectacular as people turn 65 everyday.........however, most people actually look forward to being 65 years old......I am not one of those people.  I milked yesterday for all it was worth.......I tried to stretch out the last day of being 64 as far as I could, but no matter what I did, midnight still reared its' ugly head and viola.....65 years showed up just like that at 12:01 A.M.!  In reflection, the last 64 years have been good to me.  The trials, tribulations, celebrations, and blessings, have actually helped me become the person I am today.  I am humbled knowing that I am not perfect, that I still have room to grow, that I still have paths ahead of me that will test me as well as bless me,  and that like everyone else who turns 65, the aging process will continue.  My goals for the next 65 years are different than those of the first 65 years.......... As we age our perspectives, priorities, and attitudes change.  I will do my best to live each day to the fullest, be more accepting of others, reach out to those that need help, and continue to grow spiritually, mentally, and emotionally, and along the way strengthen my relationships with others . Doing these things is not so much for me as it is for those I care so much about............and that pretty much includes everyone and not just my family or those on my "Friends" list!   I am blessed to have a life partner and my Best Friend to take this journey with me, and Jim and I both look forward to more travel, more adventures, more conversation and much laughter for years to come! Maybe 65 isn't so bad after all.........................

"People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel"  Maya Angelou

We are spending the last few days of our two month journey at Breaux Bridge, LA.  We are at an RV park that provides peace and quiet, opportunities to meet new people as well as being in an area of the southern states that is rich in history and Cajun food!  Breaux Bridge is a quaint town -  a lot bigger now than when we first began stopping here many years ago - that is full of specialty shops, cafes, zydeco music and friendly people.  Swamp tours and alligator meat as well as boudin and etouffee are what's on the menu here!

Here are a few pictures for your perusal:

RV Park

 

 Breaux Bridge

 

Swamp Picture



The Evangeline Tree - St. Martinsville

 Some of the local "Flavor"

Sugar Cane Fields

 

Can you find the "Turtle"?

 

How about now?

On The Road Again, And Again, And Again...

We left Harrisburg Sunday and it was again a day full of mountains as we continued to drive through the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Shenandoah Mountain range.  There are so many things to view - dairy farms, vineyards, quaint villages in valleys, mining sites, caverns and again lush forests and beautiful wildflowers.  We spent Sunday evening at a place called Dixie Caverns RV Park in Salem, Virginia, deep in the Shenandoah Valley.

There are actually caverns in the area, and daily tours are available. The caverns was found on the property in 1920 by some local farm boys and was opened to the public in 1923 with one of those farm boys as tour guide. Bill Mc Daniel, or "Mr. Bill" worked at the caverns from the time he was 15 years old until his early 70's.  We were told that he is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for walking around the world seven times underground!  We did not take the cavern tour, but we were told it maintains a temperature of 58 degrees year round.  It is a smaller cavern compared to the ones we have visited (Sonora, Natural Bridge Caverns and Carlsbad), but does get a lot of visitors annually.  There was also a rock shop and antique shop on the grounds which we did explore, and it was a nice change from constant motion on the road!

We hit the road running again on Monday, and made our way through Knoxville and Chattanooga, TN and spent the night in a rustic KOA campground in the mountains of Trenton, GA.  It was a nice respite from the hectic traffic on the interstate. No Wi-Fi, so it was a good opportunity to reminisce about our trip.  This has been a great time for us.  We got to see so much, and do things we had only talked about in the past. 

Tuesday we decided we would go back to Payne's RV in Theodore, Alabama so that we might finally have an opportunity to visit Bellingrath Gardens, which if you recall, we attempted to do at the beginning of our trip, but were unsuccessful due to heavy rains and flooding.  When we got to Evergreen, Alabama it started to rain and it rained all the way to Theodore.  It finally let up enough for us to set up and play a little Frisbee with Lacy, then the dam broke lose and it was torrential rains, thunder and lightening all night long!  Lightening hit the tree two sites down from us, and bounced off the RV on that site, catching it on fire and burning out the electrical system in the RV.  The fire was contained to a small area (where the lightening struck) so the RV is repairable.  It also managed to knock out our TV in the process of striking the other RV.   Being that close to a lightening strike was probably the scariest thing we have ever experienced. It was the loudest sound and the brightest white light ever!  Wednesday we woke up to sunny skies and decided to do our household chores (laundry, cleaning the RV, grocery shopping) and planned on visiting the Gardens in the afternoon.  Well guess what, due to the torrential rains, the roads were again blocked and there was no way to get to the Gardens due to the nearby river overflowing onto the roadways.  So we just took it easy and did some reading and relaxing and prepared for our departure today.

We are now at Poche's RV Park in  Breaux Bridge, LA, and will spend a few days here before our final leg home.  We knew when we left Alabama this morning that it was going to be a hot-humid day and that we were definitely back in the South.  The A/C is cranked full force in the RV, and we are finally feeling somewhat more comfortable!  Seems like only yesterday we were complaining about the cold .......The wi-fi here is somewhat sporadic, so I can't guarantee we will get to blog again before we get home, but we will do our best! 

Meanwhile, enjoy these few pictures taken on the fly........

Lacy is a great traveler!

 

 

 Flowers at the Caverns

 One of many crosses seen along the road!

 

 Red Bird Mission Trailer on its way to deliver books to the needy!

 Shenandoah Valley Mountains

Knoxville, Tenn.

More Mountains

 

Momma Duck and her babies who were only newborns when we visited last!
At Payne's RV Park


Mom, Dad and the Kiddos!

 

"Speedy" Hiding out............

Mississippi - Jim taught Electronics here at Keesler AFB for 10 Years!