On The Road

I am estatic that we're on the road again. South Africa was a wonderful experience, but I love traveling in our Roadtrek.

We left Ocala on Tues., August 17th and traveled to Elko/Perry GA where we stayed at a Passport America park - Twin Oaks RV Park. It's a lovely park, shaded sites, very clean restrooms and a large swimming pool. Since the temperature was in the 80's, a long, relaxing time in the pool was in order. Ruby Logan, our 15 year old granddaughter, joined me, but Gene chose to stretch his legs by walking around the campground.

The next day, we drove to Lawrenceville (north of Atlanta) to meet and have lunch with Gene's classmate, Frank Anderson. Sonny's served up it's fine bar-b-que and we had leftovers for supper. It was a great visit, ending with a tour of his condo and relaxing a bit before we hit the road again.

Gene & I joined Escapees in Jan. ( http://www.escapees.com/ ), so we decided to stop at one of their parks in Heiskell, TN - Raccoon Valley. It was misting/raining some, so we didn't do too much exploring. It's just off I-75, so we didn't have to go far to find it. The next morning we met Kris & Jim, who will be at the Escapade in Sept. We got our SKP hugs and enjoyed chatting with them.

It was a long haul on Thurs. We left TN and into KY, stopping at Corbin at the Wal-Mart for a few groceries and then lunch at Cracker Barrel. I drove for the next 100 miles, while Gene rested in the back since by that time the weather had cleared and it was easy driving on I-75. I do best in good weather and wide roads. On into Ohio and then Indiana where we stayed at Thousand Trails Indian Lakes for four nights. After a couple days driving, we like to stay put & rest up for a few days.

It was a good weekend to be there. They had a Luau dinner Sat. night with turkey, ham and bar-b-que pork and mashed potatoes. Others brought salads, green bean casserole and desserts. It was quite a feast. Ruby Logan finally was able to go swimming after the Luau. Even though it rained off & on most of the day, by late afternoon it had cleared. Gene had found tennis on the TV at the Lodge, so he was able to get his tennis fix. I relaxed and read.

Sun. we took a trip to Metamora - about 1/2 hour from Batesville, IN. It's a delightful little town with canal & railroad history. Our first stop was Grannie's Cookie Jars & Ice Cream Parlor. Such a collection of cookie jars! We watched the waffle cones being made, then all had a waffle cone with hand dipped ice cream. What a treat. Ruby Logan and I rode the canal boat drawn by two beautiful Belgium horses, then rode the train. We enjoyed browsing through the shops then ate supper at the Whitewater Inn. We were back "home" by 7:00 for a good night's sleep before the next leg of our journey.

Mon. morning we were on the road by 9:00 - not a common occurance with us, but we had a fair amount of distance to cover. We stopped for gas & lunch at Steak n Shake in Kokomo, IN, then on into Michigan. There has been just a hint of fall color in the leaves. I have difficulty thinking of August as "fall", but the temperature has been in the 70's to 80's during the day and down to 50's - 60's at night. A welcome reprieve after Florida's 90's with heat index in the 100's.

We arrived at Ruby Logan's home in Allendale, MI about 4:00pm, unloaded her suitcases, souvenirs, etc, ate supper with them and Gene watched some movies with Sage. On Tues., Gene went to the fair with them while I stayed to write in my journal and take a nice long nap.

Wed. am we left about 9:30 and traveled to Hastings area to another Passport America park - Welcome Woods Campground. It was another lovely park - shaded sites, a lake and nice & quiet.

We took a leisurely walk down to the lake and enjoyed the beauty of our surroundings.

Thurs. we were on the road again headed for Thousand Trails St. Clair. It was supposed to be 2 1/2 hours, but with traffic delay of an hour, stops for gas and stretching legs, stopping for pizza at Jet's pizza in Marysville, MI, we turned it into an almost 5 hour trip. We finally arrived, & settled in, glad to be still for a few days. I got my laundry done and checked my emails, etc. I hadn't been on the computer for 10 days, so was feeling the withdrawal symptoms.

Today we've caught up on our computer updates and downloaded pictures, so I can show you some of the sights.

On Mon. we'll leave for the Gypsy Journal Eastern Gathering in Elkhart, IN. This will be our 3rd Gypsy Gathering and we're looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new.

Until next time - God's blessings and our prayers are with all of you.