Ancestors in Stilesboro and Euharlee, GA

On Wednesday we took the two grand kids home and spent the night at their house.  We left Thursday morning with plans to stop in Cartersville, GA, to check out some historical society information.  As it turns out, we spent so long finding a cemetery in Stilesboro and then spending time at the historical society office and museum in Euharlee, we never made it to Cartersville.  That will be for another trip.  

The cemetery is McCormick/Hawkins Cemetery located on some private property.  We had looked for it a couple of weeks ago with no luck, but Thursday, after a conversation with the very nice property owner, we were able to find it and take some pictures.

 

 View from road looking up drive toward the barn.

 View of the damaged fence where someone had removed the post and some wire.

 The barn sits uphill about 100 yards from the road.  The cemetery is another 250 yards uphill from the barn.

Looking up the hill from the road towards the barn. 

From the cemetery, looking downhill towards the barn

 

As we walked toward the barn, 4 deer ran out from the trees between the barn and the cemetery.  It was like they had been released on cue to run across the grass.  Just beautiful.  Of course, they were way to quick for me to get a picture.  Just as quickly, they disappeared into the woods.

 

Buddy loved being off the lease and sniffing for more deer.  (He smelled them, but missed actually seeing them.)

      

 My 2nd great grand uncle, along with his wife and some children, are buried there.  No one had posted pictures on ancestry.com or anywhere else online so I wanted to go for myself to get the pictures.

  Captain Henry Johnson McCormick., Co. O, Phillips Legion, GA Infantry, Confederate States of America.

 Capt. and Josephine McCormick.

 View of Capt. McCormick's marker in the trees.

There are many, many graves with just stones for markers and no names. Maybe there is a record somewhere that lists who is buried here.  I will look into that more when we visit the area again.

 

Some of the many graves with no names.

 There are several rows like this with no names.

We stopped in Euharlee at the Historical Museum located next to the old covered bridge.  We stayed about an hour but Sam had to stay in the truck with Buddy because it was too hot to leave him.  

Euharlee Covered Bridge

Historic monument

There was a volunteer in the museum, Clayton J. Harris, who has lived in the area all his life and was very knowledgeable.  Turns out we are relatives, coming down the Shaw line.  He knows everyone around there, including many of my living relatives and ancestors.  We will definitely go back when we have more time and don't have Buddy with us.  

Holiday Trav-L Park

Our site #32.  One of the nicer sites in the long-term area. 

 

The park is located just off I-75 at Exit 1-B, between East Ridge, TN, and Chickamauga, GA. 

We moved to this site back in May when it was vacated by some other campers who were working in the Chattanooga area.  It looks like someone may have lived on this site for several years.  There is monkey grass and flowers and even an underground sprinkler.  There are about a dozen sites similar to this where full-timers live.  The couple next to us have been here about five years. 

June 23, 2012.

 I had a fun time in Panama City Beach with Scott, Angelia, Ethan, Mackenzie & Kyle!  

Now back at the camper in Chickamauga for some R&R, with two more grand kids...lol!

 Ethan & Mackenzie having a cheeseburger in paradise (Margaritaville).

 Kyle at Putt-Putt!!

 

Ethan, Mackenzie & Kyle taking a Kool-Aide break!

Logan and Tyler are with us until next Thursday when we'll take them home to Samantha & Nate's.  We spend most days at the pool or they ride bikes around the park. 

Logan and Tyler with their bikes.

I've been working on where we will be going when we leave Chickamauga this fall.  We're not sure when Sam's last work date is scheduled but probably around the end of September.  We will head down to Pine Lakes RV Park near Palmetto, which has become our 'home base' when we need to be near our daughter's house.  Kyle's birthday is October 5th, so we will be there for that and Samantha has asked us to keep the boys while her and Nathan go to her 10th Year High School reunion.  That is the weekend of October 12th.  We will leave Monday, 10/15, and head for Chiefland, Florida, to visit a few days with Sam's cousin, Marilyn.  

We will go to Disney World's Fort Wilderness Campground on October 20th, to attend Epcot's Food & Wine Festival.  Looking forward to some yummie treats!  We plan to stay there until the 25th.  After that we are going to find somewhere in the Clearwater area to stay for a week or so.  Sam was born and raised in Largo, near Clearwater, and he wants to visit that area for a few days.  Clearwater Beach is a beautiful beach and I'm looking forward to returning.   

I've been looking at notes and information on central Florida to find a few good places to visit and possibly kayak.  We'll have about 3 1/2 weeks until we meet Samantha and her family back at Disney World's Fort Wilderness for Thanksgiving week.  After Thanksgiving, we'll have 5 weeks until we head to St. Andrews State Park in PCB to our campground host position.  We'll be at St. Andrews for four months, through April 2013.

Panama City Beach June 2012

I'm back at the beach for a week with my son's family and one additional grand son.  Sam is still working up in Chickamauga.  I'll be returning on Sunday with two other grand sons.  In the mean time, we having a nice vacation at the beach!

Dinner at Bayou Joe's was very good and lots of fun.  It's on the Massalina Bayou and the kids can feed the fish off the dock.  We had been there before by Pontoon Boat.  This time we went by car.

It was overcast Sunday but beautiful since then.

Go-Karts and Bumper Boats were fun Tuesday!

Crab Cakes at Uncle Ernie's looked just like these!

I am back in Chickamauga with Sam, at the camper, after spending several weeks with my Mother and then a week with my friend, Judy.

Sad news.....my friend Judy passed away last Friday, after being diagnosed with a fast spreading cancer in November.  She had surgery on February 1st, but seemed to go downhill quickly afterwards.  I went with her to a doctor visit on Friday 5/19, she had to go the hospital (by ambulance) on Monday 5/21, then passed away on Friday 5/26.  It was all very quick.  

We had been friends for 41 years, since summer of 1971.  Sam and I were at an RV park near her house earlier this year, in January and February, to be with her and help her out around her house.  I'm glad we were able to do that and spend that time with her.

            We are in Ft. Oglethorpe/Rossville/Chickamauga/East Ridge/Chattanooga..............take your pick, they all run together.  Sam took another 6 month position with the National Parks up here at Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Battlefield Park.  We'll be here until the end of September.  I don't know why....the salary barely makes up for the aggravation.  Not my favorite place.  I stay away as much as possible.  

Been in Buford, visiting family for two weeks now while Sam is up there with the camper, working.  His days off are Thursday and Friday so that screws up every weekend.  He's coming down here after work on Wednesday (5/16) and on Thursday he'll take me to my friend's house in Fairburn.  Then he'll go back on Friday morning and I'll stay there to spend time with my friend, Judy, and my daughter, who is about 30 minutes away.   Then the next Wednesday (5/23), he'll come back and I will go up there with him on Friday.  

I did get to see all the grand kids this weekend.  The oldest, Mackenzie, had a recital on Saturday night and she did great.  She's been taking piano lessons just since January and really does a good job.

Mackenzie's piano recital April 12, 2012.

The youngest, Ethan, had his 4th birthday party last Saturday and that was lots of fun.  He had a huge cake and wanted pizza and fruit for dinner! 

Ethan's 4 year birthday party.

It rained off and on Mother's Day but the boys were able to do some fishing off the boat dock.  Brother, Steve and son, Scott cooked hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill .  Everybody brought side dishes and we had tons of food, including two cakes, a pie, and cookies!

Logan with a catfish April 13, 2012.

Lake at full pool.  It's down about 5 feet right now.



Our site at Holiday Travel Park near Chickamauga is very small.  Sam had to removed an old dead tree stump and smooth out the dirt so we could have a little bit of yard.  Now we need some grass seed!

Dirt area is where the stump was.

I don't have a before picture, but here is Sam hauling off part of the stump and roots.

 Not much space between campers in this area of the park.  Our site is not as good as the one we had in 2010.  

Gonna be a long, hot summer.  At least they have a decent swimming pool.

All that "Newfangled" stuff

I guess we are the last people on the face of the earth to get a DVR but I sure do love it.  It seems everything I watch on TV comes on at the same time or at the wrong time for me to watch.  This wonderful little DVR gadget has changed all that. 

Now, if I want to, I can watch Hawaii 5-O in the afternoon instead of 10 pm at night (the same time as Cassill).  I can stop play to get a good look at the Hawaiian scenery.  I can watch the Kardashians any time I want to....when Sam is out.....and not have to listen to his snide remarks.  (And yes, I am interested in Klohe and Lamar's fab lifestyle).

                   In 1996, we stayed at the first building on the left......Outrigger Waikiki On The Beach....

..they film a lot beach shots around that area.

I can hit reverse during a NASCAR race to see the crashes over and over again or to watch that funny interview with Tony or better yet, get another look at his girl friend.  

 Another great new gadget is our Nook.  More on that later........got to go watch General Hospital.  Detective John McBain from the defunct One Life to Live is on GH now as same character! 

We've been back down in Panama City since February 25th at St. Andrews State Park.  We'll be volunteering here until July1.  

I've got to get busy with the camera and I am going to try to blog a little more often.  Life just gets in the way....LOL!

Big Month for       Birthdays!

January is full of birthdays for our family, as well as several anniversaries.  

Birthdays:   

1/8 brother Jim

 1/9 son-in-law Nathan

1/10 hubby Sam

1/11 Nathan's dad

1/16 Jim's wife Helen

1/25 grandson Logan

1/28 son Scott

1/30 brother-in-law Don

Anniversaries:

1/13 brother Steve & Lisa

1/17 Us!

1/31 daughter Samantha & Nathan

I think that is all!!

Logan!

More Nerfs!

Pine Lakes RV Park, near Palmetto, GA (Jan/Feb 2012)

Here are some pictures of the rv park. It's very nice and quiet....except for the railroad tracks nearby! Not too bad though....we can overlook the train noise because everything else is good.

We're on the left...site 123B

Another view of our site.

Looking out the back windows toward one of the lakes.