Ending Two Months Away

August 19, 2012  we headed towards Indianapolis, IN with two stops in between.  We spent the night of August 19, 2012 at Walmart in Ashland, IN.  This beautiful, well lit Walmart accepts overight RVers. Good idea as Roxie left them a generous tip in groceries purchased.
 

August  20 and 21 we parked at Deer Ridge campground in Richmond, IN.  This rv park provided a stopping point to be with our friends Cynthia and Nathan Colter for two days.  We never left and indulged ourselves in lots of walking and talking.



August. 23 the four of us caravanned to Indianapolis, IN for the 87th International Family Motor Coaching Association convention.  More than 2000 coaches arrived from across the USA.

   



Charles and Cynthia were a part of the band and chorus.  Directing was done by Lynn Gilmore.  Charles did organize a combo group to play light rock.

The Indiana State Fairgrounds is huge and our full hookup sites were a long way from the hub of the Fairgrounds. We biked to and fro and trams picked up those needing to get around. The fairgrounds buildings are most interesting with architecture of many styles.  We were there for 10 days.  At this convention we had time to attend a few seminars and we chose Joint and Posture Stability, Coronary Heart Disease, Living with Arthritis and Blogging.  Charles also got a handout for Strength Training.  Roxie helped Geeks on Tour with their Picasa Workshop.

See all the Frustrated Maestro Activity in Indianapolis at www.frustratedmaestros.blogspot.com   Roxie is the webmistress for this blog which covers Maestros all over the USA.   August 30 we fell south, 330 miles, to our home in Franklin, TN.  We had left July 6, 2012.  The house next door is no more and the cleared land gave us an adjustment to seeing the large space.  We are now accustomed to the long view we have across this lot into the green fields below.           

We found two of our Green Giant Arborvitae evergreens brown!  Dought had taken a severe toll on these trees planted in 2004.

We are spending these few weeks cutting grass and polishing off a long list of chores.  We leave September 27, 2012 for Gettysburg and York, PA for Charles to direct the Greater Eastern Area Maestro ensemble.  We will be home the third week of October.  You guess it…until the end of November when we return to our winter home in Leesburg, FL at Holiday Travel Resort. We always look forward to being among friends and neighbors, and indulging in computer and volley ball activities.   We left our home in Franklin, TN on July 6 and the grass was brown!!   

From 2012 B Summer

After LL Bean, Freeport, Maine...

On July 31 we bid farewell to LL Bean in Freeport, ME and began out trek west!

A night at Seven Maples Campground in Hancock, NH. aimed us to our destination near Albany, NY to visit our FL friend, Elsa Sakacs and prissy Katie in Colonie.  Both seemed glad to see us and we surely were delighted to be with them a few days.

From 2012 7 VT NY 

We also visited with HTR friends Perry and Lonnie Berkowitz who also live near Colonie, NY. Their Doxy Roxy and I held our semi annual meeting of the Roxie groupies.

Arrowhead campground, on the Mohawk River, put us within 12 miles of these friends.  The only downside was that our 50 amp power was unpredictable and too frequently low. This is our third visit to this park that twice flooded badly in August 2011.   It closed for that season.

We continued west stopping in Romulus, NY at Sampson State Park for 3 days.  Sampson had been a navy base during WWII with training possible on the expansive Senaca Lake.  Seneca is one of the Finger Lakes in NY.  During the Korean conflict it became an air force base.

This well inhabited park by New Yorkers was not level for a motor home.  We had to build up the front with blocks, levelers and our extra folding step.  The assent was too much for the Heidi and Daisy and Charles lifted them in and out for 3 days.  The walking was great and along the water, playground and marina.  However, the frequently white capping Seneca Lake discouraged us from unloading the kayak the entire time there.

Our trek west continued to Campbell, NY to another mom/pop campground, Camp Bell. This park is very active with locals who summer there.  The owner also provides space to various day camps and a Cub Scout Camp was completing their week.  Fun for us to watch. 

We then stopped in Cuba, NY at Maple Lane Campground which put us just ten plus miles from Keith and Stella Wood, HTR neighbors.  They no longer travel south for the winter so being with them was a must.  Woody is a Shriner and to our delight he was in a parade in his town of Portville, NY on Saturday.  Woody’s mischief popped out as he whizzed in formation with the Kart operators. 

From 2012 NY Woody Kart We spent the day with Stella and Woody enjoying Subways once back at their home.  Saturday evening Stella prepared a spaghetti dinner.  Sunday morning they came to us for brunch.  Sunday evening they took us to as favorite restaurant, Spragues which was also celebrating the town’s 175 years.

From Collages 

From Collages Reluctantly parting from the Wood’s we did a load of laundry and headed west to Tionesta, PA to a Corp of Engineer park…Tionesta.  It has 124 sites with full hookups, including 50 amps, and is below the earthen dam.  The park provides us much walking and biking on paved and flat roads.  It does not provide us consistent cell or data strength!

We are less than 10 minutes from the town of Tionesta where the Tionesta Indian Festival is in progress this week.  We can bike to the town.  One evening we enjoyed a demonstration of Indian dancing and culture explanations by a family dressed in traditional attire.  We have been back most of the six days while here.  Folks are very friendly and love patting the greys. The girls do not resist.

From Collages  We have decided against a float on the rushing Allegheny River!

The end of this trip is in sight.  We should land at home at the end of August after a stop in Indianapolis, IN for the international convention of Family Motor Coaching Association and performances by the Frustrated Maestros. Charles will enjoy playing his trombone.  Since our last blog entry our immediate neighbor’s house has gone down and many wonderful trees ripped from the earth.  After all, mowing the now city owned land becomes more important.  We fought hard for those trees.  A picture of the barren land is helping prepare us for this horrible first look.  At least, we never have to worry about the impending neighbors.  The FEMA controlled land can never have a structure on it.

Greetings from Maine 2012

Greetings from Maine!  We left home July 6 with our immediate destination Essex Junction (Burlington), VT. 

Travel the first day was to East TN to Bluff City, TN.  TN was in the midst of 100+ days and this stop was no different.  Bluff City placed us close to Bristol, TN where we accomplished year 3 of wedded bliss.  It was also the home of the Marstons for over 25 years.  So..we toured Bristol to relive those memories.  Roxie taught 3^rd grade in 1963-64 and provided safe housing for our greatest accomplishment…son Kevin…over  47 years ago.  Charles drove to East TN State to acquire his teachers certificate.  Turns out he did make use of it for 34 years!
















We drove by the house where we had an apartment, by the church we attended with the Marstons, and by vacant lots where Pop Marston’s vocational schools once stood.

Roxie’s two story school, 1963-64, was replaced with a beautiful building.  She taught third grade while in Bristol durding the school year.

After several short stops we arrived in Shelburne, VT for 4 nights of preparing for a Frustrated Maestro week at the Expo Cnt. In Essex Junction, VT. 

While at Shelburne, VT we floated the kayak on Lake Champlain.  The nation’s heat wave followed us from TN and we had to wait until 6:00 PM to float on the beautiful lake.  We have floated Lake Champlain before.



While camped at Shelburne, VT we looked out to see 6 goats being led on leashes around the campground!  We visited with them while out walking.  They were going to Burlington, VT, to the Farmer’s Market to put on a demonstration.  They are service goats, we were told.  All were pretty and very much pets.

Our greys, Daisy and Heidi, wound up entangled on the floor when Heidi tumbled off the couch onto Daisy.

July 15-22, we were camped with the Frustrated Maestros for Charles to enjoy directing them at the Northeast Area Rally of FMCA. We completely enjoy these events and being with Maestro friends. During the week the Maestros presented an evening program “Dance Party-A Salute to Bob Allen.” The audience danced tunes from rock and roll, country-western, big band and polka. Roxie prepared a slide show of Bob Allen, the founder of that chapter, The Yankee Doodle Dandies in 1996. It was a fun evening.

Maestros also presented music for rally morning coffee hours, the ice cream social-chapter fair and a Sunday morning breakfast for the rally goers.

We left on July 23 and made it 3 hours before discovering that diesel was covering the car.  A call to Cummins, 1-800-DIESELS gave us phone numbers.  We were just 2 miles from help.  A fuel sensor had failed and was over-nighted to us.  We This was in Lancaster, NH spent that night outside the shop and Subway served us supper.  The local laundry got our business after a week of no laundry at the Maestsro rally in Essex Junction, VT.

Bar Harbor was our destination.  We can never get enough looks at the pier at Bar Harbor and made several trips into town.  We rode the free Islander Express bus from the campground one day.

We put the Kayak in the ocean adjacent to our campground. The miracles of the times allowed a picture sent via phone to our son.  He was waiting for our grandson to pass his driver’s license test.!  Success.  And we were completing a float in the Atlantic at Bar Harbor, ME.

One afternoon we drove the short distance to Mount Desert Island National Park and climbed to the top of Cadillac Mountain.  All five of us went!  This is the place the sun rises first in the USA.  We have been there before to witness this.

As we ride today we are headed to Freeport, ME to revisit LL Bean. LL Bean is celebrating 100 years in business.  They have constructed a Bean Boot Truck to drive to their stores to celebrate.

We will be back to our home at the end of August. In between we have several FL friends to visit, and camping at a NY State Park and a PA Corp park.  The third week in August we will be in Indianapolis, IN for Charles to enjoy playing with the Maestros for the International convention.  Then we fall south 350+ miles to our home. While we are gone we have heavy hearts at the results of our 2010 flood.  Two of the houses in the federal buy out crumbled  the week of July 15.  Our next door neighbor's house will also be removed the week of July 30.  We have lived by that house 45 years.  While we are glad to see the devastated homes leave we find ourselves remembering the neighbors we have also lost.

From Collages

Home in Tennessee

We rolled into our driveway in Franklin, TN and turned the engine off April 14, 2012.  We did not turn it on until July 6, 2012. That is a record.

“Home chores” always fill our lists.  We had a yard to reclaim after the wild foliage  nearly consumed the beagle upon our arrival.  Now at the beginning of July our pretty green yard is parched from the over 10 days of 100+ temperatures.  Like the rest of the USA we dealt with the intense heat most mornings by 9:30 AM.

From 2012 A Spring

From Collages Roxie pursued some of the 2010 flood restoration projects placed on a back burner.  She found an upholsterer and the family heirloom platform rocker finally got a new do.  More pictures made it to the walls leaving just a few to do when we return to TN at the end of August. Sorry…no picture of the finished chair.  It is beautiful.

From Collages On July 2 likely straight line winds slammed a tree from the neighbor’s property behind our yard on our fence.  Luckily only 2 sections of the boards were split.  The owner had it taken off our fence and Charles repaired our “new” since the 2010 flood fence. 

From 2012 A Spring Our greyhounds, Heidi and Daisy, have spent much time racing in the backyard.  Of course, a brief spurt is a race and back into Charles’s shop they settle on comfortable beds in the air conditioning!  Tough life!  Heidi and Daisy are Therapy Dogs through Therapy Dogs, Inc of Cheyenne, WY. They take us visiting to an adult special needs day facility, assisted and memory care units while spreading their love.

Lucky beagle has encountered difficulty a few times from the amount of “stuff” she scarfs from the floor and ground.  Without us realizing it she was making quite a compaction under her tongue until it made her physically ill.  Convinced that more bad teeth were the culprit the vet put her to sleep to explore. Once he encountered and removed Lucky’s collection she became a perky beagle.   About a week later she stepped on a bee and got stung.  One antihistamine tablet stopped her pain. She happily rolled along in "her" bike cart when she did not feel good.  In this picture she felt good.

Still we did not learn our lesson about the quick beagle tongue just under the nose.  About 2 weeks ago she got very sick and returned much junk.  This time we got plastic and wood and stuff.  After X-rays and meds our Vet has suggested we were seeing too much of  him.  He commissioned us to be diligent in keeping her nose out of trouble.  So…Lucky now has to wear her little muzzle when out of the MH or house.  That includes Charles’s less than well kept shop!  We are hoping to not get turned in to the pet patrols for abusive parenting. 

Four flooded homes on our street are either in the federal buyout or in the process of getting in. This two year process has made our pretty neighborhood less than pretty.  July 11 or 12 are the target dates to remove them and start the regrading.  Many of the beautiful trees will removed on the now city owned property.  This made many of us heart sick and we mounted a petition campaign to make a plea to save as many as possible.  To keep neighbors informed I started a blog   http://www.ewingvillenews.blogspot.com/ The house next door to us will also go eventually.  We are very sad at the result of the flood, the devastation and the loss of friends in those houses.

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Grandboys are 10-13- and almost 18..within days!  Our oldest is employed by McDonalds and delighted to have a paying job.  Middle grandson has begun trombone and continues art lessons.  Our  youngest has enjoyed many activities of cub scouts.  Son and wife continue their preacher-teacher pursuits.

July 6, 2012 we left our driveway for Essex Junction, VT and another Frustrated Maestro Rally.  Essex J is 40 miles from Canada close to Burlington, VT.  Charles will be directing.  This area rally is celebrating twenty years and the Maestro Chapter found, Bob Allen, will be remembered.  Maestros will present evening entertainment July 19 with “Dance Party-A Salute to Bob Allen.”  The audience will be invited to dance to the variety of tunes including big band, polkas, western and 50s rock.  Charles has written a narration which a Maestro emcee will deliver and Roxie has built a slide show remembering the founder and acknowledging the music. We will stay north and “do” Bar Harbor, LL Bean and visit FL friends near Albany, NY and in central NY.  After a few days at Sampson State Park in NY and Tionesta COE park in PA we will wind out way to Indianapolis in mid August for the International FMCA convention.  Charles will enjoy playing his trombone.  At the conclusion we will fall 350 miles south to our own driveway by August 31.