Coming to the End

I'm at what I think will be my last stop. I plan to drive home from here - Lancaster, PA. If I can't take the driving I'll probably stop at Wally's just to sleep the night, and get home on Tuesday.

I had a great visit with my friend Penelope in Charlotte, NC. Penelope and I worked around the country when she was 24 and I was 23 - west of the Mississippi. That was 41 years ago. And Penelope looks the same. She said I was lying when I said that, but, I tell you, she sure looks the same to me. I spent a few days there, with Penelope, her husband, daughters, grandkids and father. I got my baby fix, holding Madeline for long periods of time. Four years ago I had gotten my baby fix by holding Aiden for long periods of time. I told the kids I'd probably be back in 2 years, so they better get busy, because I'll want another baby fix.. Penelope and I reminisced about our year and a half. One of us would remember something the other hadn't and we relived the memories. Penelope even called someone to whom she hadn't spoken since San Francisco. It was a great deal of fun. I wish she were free and could travel around with me.

The next campground I stayed at was in Lynchburg. There were some things I wanted to see, so Gypsy (my GPS) and I took off in the late morning. I had addresses, and assumed all were in Lynchburg. After landing in a mobile home park, I tried another town, and "voila," I got to this pottery manufacturer out in the "boonies." I opened a factory door and asked where the store was. I was directed back to where I had passed it, but was told it was closed. So, I just peeked in the windows. Then, the next address was many miles away. I think I was going from 1 side of the town to the other, twice, and I ended at a house on a busy street, so I circled around and got the same thing. All this in the rain. I gave up and headed back about 4 hours after I left. When I left the next morning I turned the wrong way, and started looking for a turnaround. Gypsy suggested one, but it looked like a cart path to me, and I kept going. I turned up a road, and very quickly wished I hadn't. I wasn't afraid I'd lose the coach in those massive puddles (yes it was still raining), but I wondered about the car I was towing. I also had visions of getting stuck in the mud, and "calling" for a tow service (no cell phone reception either). I didn't want to knock on the doors of the houses on that path.  But, thank You, God, I came out the other end with no damage except another layer of mud. Last night it poured all night and washed that mud right off my vehicles.

Twice on this trip I pulled into a campground I had visited 4 years ago. I haven't known until they put my name in the data base. Four years ago I pulled off the road because they predicted snow, and stayed at a campground for 3 days. It was kind of fun coming back. This time the ground was clear and I could use the water and sewer. And.... I had neighbors!!

This cat of mine is SOOOO naughty. She scratches the screen, and everything else. I punished her by putting her in her carrier. When I let her out, I told her if she scratched it again, I'd put her back in the carrier. She immediately walked over and scratched. So back in the carrier, let her out, scratched the screen, ran away and hid, back in the carrier. What?  Does she think this is a game?

So today I visited Intercourse (It's been a while) and other Amish towns, did laundry, read, and am getting ready to hit the road for home tomorrow. It's been a good life. I can't wait until Alaska.

An Oasis?

I pulled into this campground yesterday, which is named ....Oasis. The pictures and the description on the internet were great. There was another campground I was considering, which was on a lake. But their message box was full, and the internet didn't give a lot of information, like rates. But, when I pulled in to the ....Oasis, I questioned the oasis part, and was afraid I might experience a "Deliverance" part. The place was really messy, small, and didn't have but a few RVs. Most of them looked long-term, which brought more thoughts of "Deliverance." There was a hose hooked up to my water, which rambled "through" the campground, as far as I could see. There was a barbeque grill with a supply of burned wood on my picnic table. I thought "Oh boy." It had taken me a while to get there. None of the roads in the area were on my GPS, and I had to call for directions. A small item was not included with the directions, which meant I drove about 45 minutes out of my way, until I realized I was on the wrong road. No way I wanted to start looking again for a campground.  ...... And it's fine. The owners' dogs and cats are running loose, but Skittles has stayed on a leash. I've had to protect the dogs from her. She humps her back just like a Halloween cat, and has a fearsome hiss and yowl.          I really feel like I'm out in the sticks. I tried to use my GPS for some of the sites I wanted to visit, with no luck. None of the roads are on the GPS. But then I pull into a town, and it has all these chains - Walmart, BestBuy, Chili's, even a Panera lunch place. And traffic. Where did these people come from and what are they doing? I only saw trees and fields on my 75 miles of sightseeing.       I did visit a house built in the 1700s, which was the location of a skirmish between Whigs and Tories in the American Revolution. The house still had bullet holes in it - on both floors. The mother had pulled a table into the fireplace, to have the children stand on to avoid being shot. Through all these years why hadn't those bullet holes been filled? In New England they would have, just to keep out the cold. Perhaps in NC they welcomed whatever breeze the bullet holes would bring in to the house.

Skittles and the flying rat

In practically all the campgrounds, Skittles (the cat) has to stay on a leash. This, of course, drives her crazy, and limits her wandering. We sometimes go for walks which gives her a chance to explore, and, at the site, she chases leaves and other things blowing around, until the jerk of the leash brings her back to realty. Occasionally, she climbs a tree with the leash and I have pulled her down, or at least held the leash until she came down. At our last campsite there were a couple squirrels. Now, you see drawings of squirrels, and they always have  that big, fluffy tail in back of them, and they're cute. They don't really have tails like that, and they're not that cute, and they make a horrible noise - chi,chi,chi,chi,chi. I prefer to think of them as rodents.  They're also troublemakers. The squirrels at our campsite teased Skittles, getting close and then jumping up a tree. Well, of course, the leash limited how far up she could go.Then she got the leash wrapped around a branch. And there's the squirrel sitting up above her going chi,chi,chi,chi,chi. I unleashed her, and took off the harness. Up the tree she goes, and further up goes the squirrel until it is at the very top, and looking as worried as a squirrel can look.. Skittles is licking her lips and is pretty satisfied,  because she knows this squirrel is hers. And then the squirrel flies over to another tree top, and Skittles sees her prey get away once again, and listens to chi,chi,chi,chi,chi. I figure it was just as well, because the top of that tree may have held the squirrel, but I think Skittles would have had a rude awakening when she fell to the ground. And then she would have heard chi,chi,chi,chi,chi in nightmares for months.

Spring has sprung

I'm in North Carolina on March 1st, and all the flowering bushes are doing their thing - beautiful! Most activities have been on winter hours. Unlike Florida, winter is not the busy time for NC. The price of my site went up $15 today. I took a ride down to the end of Cape Fear, to Carolina Beach. I really wanted to spend a couple days here because of that Nick Nolte - Barbara  Streisand movie about a family from Cape Fear. Do you remember that? And... I am rarely a-feared about being alone, but today I was on a pier out into the Cape Fear River, and I felt uncomfortable, and had to go back. Thanks, Nick Nolte!! Driving down the river road was like the Cape with scrub pines and sand. New houses and mansions are being built. A lot of the existing and new houses are built on stilts, with the garages on the lower floors, since there is frequent flooding. And...I love the colors - purple, orange, turquoise, blue, green, pink - for the houses and the mailboxes.

I toured a couple historical homes from the 1800s and  one from the 1700s. Wilmington has a number of these. Quite a few have been made into Bed and Breakfast hotels. And quite a few have been used in movies. There were 2 movies being filmed while I was there - one for TV and ??? One of the homes I toured was previously used by Harpo Industries. They repainted a portion, which at some time the trustees want to bring back to the original. But it was well-worth the changes to have it used for a movie production. Another home advertises itself for weddings, and there's a brick placed in the wedding walk for every couple that does that. Hopefully they don't get divorced, since that brick is part of history now. Maybe they could just paint a big "D" over it, if that happens. It would be funny if a person chose that home for more than 1 wedding. She/he could have 3 bricks each with his/her name and that of one of the spouses. Ohhh dear, we could go on and on.

I also went to a great quilt exhibit at one of the museums. I had gone to see the play "Gee's Bend" in CT with friends. It was about women who lived in Gee's Bend during the civil rights movement, their strife and the quilting they did. A few of the quilters in this exhibition were from Gee's Bend. Although I'm old and can't remember her name, I think the main character in the play had quilts in the show. I think this because of all the places her quilts were exhibited. I had gone to a quilt show in Myrtle Beach. Most of the quilts were machine quilted or "long-hand" quilted. You voted for best in a number of categories. And generally, they were all beautiful. My favorite was the outline of three girls, each made from a dress of the grandmother, mother or daughter, hand-quilted. At the exhibition in Wilmington all the quilts were hand-quilted, a number of them told a story. A number of them were using scraps from old clothes, blankets or ??? My favorite there was one which looked like it was put together pretty randomly, as the scraps became available - a utilitarian quilt, a quilt made for practical reasons.

More of St Aug & Flagler

I went back to St Augustine today. Two of the places I went to see were closed because it was Monday - bummer. I went to this different museum - the Lightner Museum. The building was originally the Hotel Alcazar, built by - you guessed it - Henry Flagler. The purpose of this hotel was to (1) provide accommodations for the not-so-rich, who couldn't afford Ponce de Leon Hotel, and (2) to provide some activity in St Augustine. He put in the largest indoor swimming pool at the time (1888), a bowling alley, tennis courts, Turkish and Russian baths, and a ballroom. Otto Lightner from Chicago bought the building in 1947 to house his many collections. I guess he bought collections that others had collected. Thus, there was a collection of very diverse collections - toasters, furniture, buttons, stuffed animals (I mean the big kind like a lion, a turkey), barber shop soap cups, etc., etc. The Turkish and Roman baths were still displayed - my favorite. Otto Lightner bequeathed the museum to the city. I doubt he included enough money to keep it running in top condition, because you can see where maintenance is required.

The city is fascinating. It was a walled city, with gates and a fort. The fort was made of coquina, a mixture of shells and sand. It was mentioned that the walls kind of absorbed the cannonballs when under siege. At night the people in the fort would go down and dig them out, and send them back the next day to the enemy. It also had a dry moat, which housed the livestock (future food) during a siege. It features a pedestrian mall, unique cobblestone streets, lots of sidewalk entertainment, a great harbor and interesting bridge, and much more. And of course Flagler was fascinating. He kept trying to think of new ways to spend all his money. He wanted the land the Methodist Church was on, so he built them one at another location. The Baptists then said, "How about us?" He ended up building them one, but it had to be done in 1? 2? year(s), and couldn't have a bell in the bell tower (so it wouldn't disturb his hotel guests). Then his daughter had a baby girl who died shortly after birth. His daughter died soon after that, while on the way down to visit him in FL. He built a Presbyterian Church in memory of them. He told the builders he wanted it done in 1 year, and, if it was, there would be big bonuses. It was done in time for a memorial service. He also built a clinic/hospital and all his employees and families had free health care there. That's a nice benefit!! Hmmm.. I wonder if any of his descendants are hiring.

Sebring to St. Augustine

I went back to Sebring in the middle of the state, and had more fun with my good friends. This included dinners, a movie and talking, talking, talking. I stayed at the nearby state park this time. I don't know why, but it seems you meet more people in state parks. The first day I met this great couple. Kathy (another realtor) and I hit it off right away. She shared her secrets of organizing her rig, which was almost exactly like mine - a year younger with a dinette instead of a couch. A couple weeks earlier I had seen Doreen's, Liz' and Max' motorhomes and had seen some of their organizing tools. So, I began the reorganization of Gail's rig. That's all - I just began it. It's continuing. The biggest surprise for me was that all these people were using the same material I was, and all their things were staying on the counter and upright in the cupboards - while they drove. Mine landed on the floor, and whacked me in the head when I opened doors. And no, Kathy, it's not the way I drive. I have since discovered these great bathtub mats, which I cut up and put everywhere, and now my things stay put too. Kathy and her husband Peter raced sailboats for many years and were used to living in small places, and still entertaining. The last day I was there I met another great couple. I found out they were game-players, too late!! I told them I would have knocked on their door when I had returned the night before and we could have played till dawn.

My plan was to stay in the Flagler Beach area next, but the Daytona 500 nixed those plans. All I could find was 1 night in the St. Augustine area. Once there, I found a place that would take me for another 3 nights, and I like it. The sites are larger; it's wooded, convenient and cheaper, and it has internet. I think my next investment will be a mifi. I can look things up on my I-phone, but doing any amount of communication is a pain. After I moved I went down to Flagler Beach to see the area and look up Jean (sister of my sister-in-law) and Fran. We had lunch at this great local place on the beach. Flagler Beach is beautiful. I can see why my Dad made a trip there in the winter.

St. Augustine is great too! I could spend more time here. There's lots to do - great water, boating, fishing, beaching, and lots of history, shopping, eating, entertainment. This is one of those places where you see musicians set up on the sidewalks and play in the cafes, as well as be scheduled for the clubs. Once again, I jumped off and on an Old Town trolley, took some tours and walked around. I toured the old jail which was, I thought, a well-done tourist trap. Flagler - remember him? - the railroad and hotel builder - also partner to Rockefeller in Standard Oil - had built a ritzy hotel across from the jail, and then paid for the jail to be rebuilt at another location. This guy is supposed to be an astute businessman, but I wonder....he builds a fancy hotel, ACROSS from the jail, and then also decides he has to build a railroad to get people to the hotel in style. But...he sure did make his mark in Florida. His name keeps coming up. I've learned lots of the history of St. Augustine - go ahead ask me something, ask me anything!!!! - and of course I bought 3 more books - saga of the city, daughters of the city and ghosts of the city. Today I'm doing laundry, organizing, reading, walking, and tomorrow, I'll go back into the city to check out a museum and a small village of old, original houses. Like I said before, "what a life!"

The Keys to Florida

From now on, when I think of the sun and beach of Florida - the American Caribbean - I'm going to think of the Keys. Water everywhere! I love driving over the numerous bridges with water on both sides. I love the fact that the highest point on Key West is 18" above sea level. I couldn't take the altitude - my nose started bleeding. I don't like the mangrove trees growing all over the water with their huge roots. These keep forming new patches of land. One guide pointed out a patch and said if we came back in 500 years there may be a new key, hammock, ?? Well, maybe it does take that long, but I still don't like this growth.

Because of great friends, I'm staying in the middle keys with a canal out the back door - with many, many pelicans (none carrying babies in a diaper?napkin?) and the occasional heron. What fun. I arrived Sunday, and watched a little of the Superbowl with Cameron, the woman who lived downstairs. On Monday I did some errands, reading and exploring.

On Tuesday, I explored Crane Point. Francis and Mary Crane from Massachusetts bought this land, some of which was previously owned by George Adderley in the early 1900s. George was from the Bahamas, met his wife, and had a family. He earned a living collecting and selling sponges and making and selling charcoal. The Cranes bought his land and much more, building a home in 1954. This parcel of 63 acres is preserved by a trust. It contains the Adderley and Crane houses, a butterfly meadow, a bird rehab, and of course the beautiful land and sea. This preserve is located in the middle of Marathon. The Trust has kept the location from being a Wallmart parking lot or condominium development. It is truly beautiful. While there, we were entertained by a family of ospreys.

Wednesday I went to Key West for the day. I took one of those Old Town tours where you can jump (very carefully) off and on the trolley to see different things. I visited Hemingway's house, which was very interesting. There are something like 60 cats there - all descended from a cat Hemingway brought home from ???? I also went to the Truman Little White House - another building steeped in history. I liked Truman, and enjoyed hearing more about him. A few of us on the tour really wanted to lag behind and sit down at the poker table, but the tour guide was accounting for all his "little chickees" following him. At Mallory Sq every night they celebrate the sunset. I saw the beginning as musicians were beginning to gather, but couldn't stay too long. Times like this I wish I had a companion to share the driving, or at least keep me awake on the ride back. That kept me out of Margaritaville too, even though it was 5:00 there.

Thursday I had the most fun. I went to the Turtle Hospital in Marathon. It rescues, rehabilitates, and, if possible, releases sea turtles back to their habitat. The owner had bought a motel on the bay side. It had a large salt water pool, which he started filling with fish and sea creatures. He asked about taking in sea turtles and was told they needed a facility to rehab turtles. He agreed to do that, and started the turtle hospital. Income from the motel supported the hospital. But then a hurricane damaged the motel beyond fixing and reopening it. At one point when Mother Nature brought a very large number of turtles to the hospital, they were housed in the motel rooms. Admission and sales from the gift shop now support the hospital. They have a number of residential turtles - turtles that will never be released, because their afflictions won't allow them to survive on their own. It was the best education. We were shown the amount of plastic that was taken from 1 turtle's belly. It filled a gallon jar. The turtles were adorable - like my iguana was adorable. We also saw a couple iguanas there. The Turtle Hospital touched my heart. If you find yourself in Marathon, it is definitely worth the trip. I had planned to go to the Dolphin Rescue Center too, but didn't get there.

Beautiful area, great things to do and see. What a life - I think I've said that before. And, as a bonus, I'm missing the winter to top all winters back in Mass. Now, back to the Sebring area. I have to get to a vet and hair salon - such mundane but necessary activities.