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.

December 31...Moving Day

Today was our last at F.D.Roosevelt State Park. We spent lots of time visiting with friends and family during Thanksgiving and Christmas and our time there (four months) went by fast.

We've changed our plans and won't be going to Gulf State Park this winter. Instead, we moved north about an hour to an area just south of Atlanta. We are at Pine Acres RV Park near Palmetto and between Peachtree City and Newnan. We moved here to be near our friend who will be having surgery soon. Hopefully, everything will go well and we will return to St. Andrews State Park 3/1/12, as planned.

We never knew this park was here. It is just 2 miles off I-85 but there are no signs. We just happened to find it on the GPS. It used to be a mobile home park but the owner has since turned it into an RV park with full hook-ups, nice gravel & level sites, large lights on electric poles for every 2 sites, and three small lakes with ducks (and fish, they say!). There are walking trails around the lake for hiking. The road through the park is paved and level and will make a good place to ride bikes. Not sure how many sites there are.....haven't counted them.....but probably about 25. There were only 6 or 7 vacancies and we picked a site across the road from the lakes, in full sun (great for winter), with easy satellite view.

It was kind of funny.....Sam got the dish out and set it at the back of the camper, facing the lakes.........I turned on the TV and BOOM.....the numbers were 80's & 90's! He never had to adjust the dish....just secure the tripod in the ground and he was done! That has never happened before.

Tomorrow we're going to explore the area. We are about 15 minutes from both Newnan and Peachtree City. I love Peachtree City, so I will do most shopping in that area. As a bonus (for me, anyway) we're only about 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta. Other than driving through on the interstate, we haven't actually been in Atlanta since the '96 Olympics and I'd like to do some sight-seeing of my 'hometown.' Too bad football season ends tomorrow...I would go to a Falcons game! (Can't afford playoffs.....lol).

I'll take pictures and post some soon.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

There is really nothing new to write about at this time.....we are still at F.D. Roosevelt State Park and just taking it easy, enjoying the fall colors. We've stayed pretty busy just visiting with family and friends who live in the Atlanta area, as well as planning for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Our friends from Navarre, Florida, are coming for Thanksgiving week in their motor home. We're going to have fun cooking Thanksgiving dinner in our RV's and sharing recipes with each other.

Looking forward to the 2 of the grand kids coming Friday for a few days before Thanksgiving since they are out of school all next week. Logan and Tyler are coming but Kyle has a part in the church Christmas play which is on Sunday, so he will come another weekend.

Time is just flying by....can't believe Christmas is so close. I'm getting a lot of Christmas shoppng done this week (I'm at my daughter's house in Douglasville).