2014 Winter Recap!

To say that this has been a whirlwind season away would be an understatement!

Fall at home always means leaf pick.  We enjoyed our family over Thanksgiving, 2013.  Three days later we had “packed and stacked” the house in an attempt to stay high and dry.  Thank goodness our efforts were not needed but our efforts provided us comfort.  No water.

 

 

We arrived at Holiday Travel Resort in Leesburg, FL on Dec. 4, 2013.  Same site for 10 years with good neighbors.   http://www.holidaytravelresort.com/

December 4, 2013 we divded into Volley Ball and Computer activitiers while completing a refinance of our Franklin home.  We now own our coach free and clear kissing Bank of the West goodbye.

 

Charles continued to manage the very active volley ball season as he has for several years.  His “work” included organizing daily teams, making announcements, coordinating with the park, setting up and running the Challenge Tournament and the annual Tournament.   Team selections were made and posted on the V ball blog.  www.htrvolleyball.blogspog.com

It is always fun to watch the hits to the site increase just before tournament.  The V Ball season wound down with the yearly Spring Social potluck and awarding of the woodels (metals..made by Charles) to the first and second place winners of the tournament.

Roxie continued to work with the Computer TEAM.  This group offers Monday morning Help and maintains wifi and the public computers. 

 

“Strike Up the Band”, the park band begun three years ago by Charles, met on Fridays.  This year they played for the Volley Ball Spring Social.  This small group is tuneful and artistic and growing.  www.htrband.blogspot.com 

 

 

We did manage to get in some Therapy Dog Visits through our Florida Paws Therapy Dog Chapter.  We did get to eat out with them one time.

 

While these activities were not quite exhausting we were more than knee deep with Frustrated Maestro performances at two events. 

In February the FMCA Southeastern Area Rally met in Brooksville, FL and Charles directed.  Please see www.frustratedmaestros.blogspot.com for Maestro events that Charles directed.  This blog covers all Maestro chapters throughout the USA.  This is Brooksville, FL and the Southeastern Area Rally or SEA.

In March International FMCA met in Perry, GA.  Charles directed this international event. 

Be sure to go to www.frustratedmaestros.blogspot.com and select Perry 2014 You Tube to hear this outstanding  group of volunteer musicians.  So twice in this season we turtled off our sandy site in Florida.

 

Simultaneously E mail plans were flying to set up the FMCA Northeastern Area to be in July in Essex Junction, VT.  (Burlington, VT)  Charles will direct.

 

Charles accepted the request of the International President of FMCA to direct the International FMCA to meet in Madison, WI in the summer of 2015. 

 

Also, in the last few weeks plans are forming for the Feb. 2015 Frustrated Maestros in the Southeastern area to be in Sarasota, FL.  This rally has moved away from the Hernando County Airport in Brooksville, FL.  We will have real buildings and shore power! 
We are finally "past tense-tents!"

 



Our preparations for events overlap!

On April 5, 2014 we departed  our Winter Home in Leesburg, FL…Holiday Travel Resort and rolled toward Gaffney, SC to have our yearly service at Freightliner.  We stopped in route close to Augusta, GA at a Corp spot at Modoc, SC on Strom Thurman Lake.

We have traveled into East TN to Dandridge and visits with Marstons family members and friends for 10 days.

From Dandridge we will go east to Asheville, NC the last weekend in April to be a part of the Greater Eastern Area (GEAR) Rally plan which will be in September in Ashville.  Charles will be directing.  Two days before we will join our Sharps and Flats president  at Tom Johnson, RV, Marion, NC to look over the facilities for Music Camp 2014.

 

You can look for us to head west at the end of Sept. to be home a bit, rake leaves, make woodels, do yard work

and prepare to do it all over again starting with having our family for Thanksgiving before heading south in December 2014.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seasons Greetings 2013

We wish for you and your family a fulfilling holiday season. 

Our year has been filled with a winter season at our Florida Home in Holiday Travel Resort, Leesburg, FL.....   

….and summer travels to Gillette, WY for the International FMCA convention.  Charles played and directed some.

We traveled in KS, SD and spent the month of July in Iowa. We enjoyed a week at the Seven Amana Colonies, Iowa and spent two weeks in beautiful Corp parks in Iowa.

At the end of July 2013 Charles directed the Frustrated Maestros of the Midwest in Manchester, IA.

After a few weeks at our Franklin, TN home we spent 3 weeks getting to PA.  Charles directed Music Camp sponsored by the Sharps and Flats of GEAR in Gettysburg. nThis was the week of the government shut down.  The trail riding horses at Artillery Ridge Campground were a treat to see each day as they waiting to return to the trails.  This week was followed by the GEAR event in York, PA.

Sadly we lost of beagle Lucky at the end of this trip.  She had gotten very ill and we let her go Oct. 18 upon returning to Franklin.  She was between 16-18 years old.  She adopted Roxie in 2006 and was a wonderful traveler.

 

We have our two Greyhounds Daisy and Heidi and our 7 year old cat, PeeDee. 

 Seven weeks in TN in Oct and Nov. has allowed us time to mulch many leaves and have our family for Thanksgiving.

We are now in Leesburg, FL at Holiday Travel Resort.  We are on the same spot…for the last 10 years enjoying our neighbors and computer and volley ball activities.  This very large park affords us much space for walking.

We hope you had a nice holiday.

The Marstons, Charles, Roxie, 
Daisy, Heidi, PeeDee.

2013 Summer to Fall

Thank goodness for loving to take pictures in recording our history to have a jolt from a friend that I had not updated this blog since July.  Looking through the picture folder and the blog I see that he has been observant. 

When we last left a post on Retired Teachers at Recess we were anticipating stopping in Manchester, IA for the Midwest area rally.  Charles did direct the last week of July.  We then returned to our driveway inTN.
http://www.frustratedmaestros.blogspot.com/

In mid-August, 2013, we arrived in Red Bay, AL in the town where our Tiffin coach was built in 2003.  We had previously contracted with an independent business to have our peeling decals painted on this bus.
 






 

 We also worked with Chris Berry’s Woodworking business to replace our very dirty and worn valances.  He built beautiful valances from Alder wood. We love them.      

September 6-9, 2013 we hosted Gary and Corinne Robinson from California.  Gary plays trumpet and Corinne sings in the Frustrated Maestros.  Gary and Charles enjoyed playing together in Gillette in June.  Knowing that the Robinsons were headed east and returning via KY Charles invited them to stop to see us.  It was a good opportunity to continue to visit and enjoy some trumpet-trombone duets.

There is constant preparation of the Maestro music that Charles directs.  He and our house kitty,Lulu, write many notes in his shop.     As we post this blog we are headed to Gettysburg, PA for Music Camp for a week.  Then follows the GEAR rally in York, PA.  Charles is directing both of these.  At GEAR the Frustrated Maestros will provide evening entertainment providing dance music.  This “Sock Hop at the Ice Cream Shop” combines the rally ice cream social and dancing to 50s-60s tunes providded by the Maestros.  Again…there is much preparation to have music ready. Charles does have music prep help with two Maestros who arrange and send music via pdf in E mail.



Travels Summer 2013

June 4, 2013 arrived and we were on our way with the final destination Gillette, WY on June 14. We got stopped in Columbia, MO at Cummins for a generator repair.  But…we were on our way.  We made it!... for a week of Family Motor Coach International convention and a week of Frustrated Maestro playing.  Here’s how we got there.

 A ride across Kansas almost dictates a stop in Abilene at the Greyhound Hall of Fame and the Eisenhower Complex.  This is our third stop since 2002 when we were greyhound-less!  Having met a Canadian grey at Amana RV Park, IA we were smitten.  By our return trip in 2007 we had Trixie and Libby.  This trip we made pictures of Heidi and Daisy.  Heidi was very curious about the statue of a grey and Eisenhower.

 

We drove around Abilene seeing lots of old bldgs. These revealed a time of more productivity and bustle.  RRs were built to attract folks to the cows that were driven from TX.  Abilene became a saloon shooting city…lots of crime.  This is a recreation of the Old Abilene village.

Our next stop was at Johnson Lake State Park, Lexington, NE on June 9 and 10.  Knowing we were stopping at a body of water we anticipated unloading the kayak from the Honda.  As we drove in the huge lake was white capping!  The furious water slowed a bit but the wind kept it churned late into the evening and into the mornings.  Boat stayed high and dry.  We did discover a nice, concrete and long trail across the highway.  Roads in the small campground were a crushed gravel which meant every foot step had to be dug out.   

June 11, 2013 arrived in Sidney, NE at the original Cabela’s Outfitter Store.  Complete with a full service campground and showers and laundry we indulged ourselves in shopping in Cabela’s.  Got Charles a much needed replacement life vest.  Supper was elk and bison burgers in our own dining room.  A long talk with son Kevin from our home in Franklin made the evening complete.  The beautifully landscaped walking trail around a pond were well used in the evening and next morning by us.

June 12 and 13, 2013 we met Nat and Cynthia Colter as their guests at Hart Ranch in Rapid City, SD.  We enjoyed being with these folks and caravanning into Gillette, WY on June 14 for our destination of the FMCA’s International event.  Barbara Covard and Jack Nelson joined our caravan from Rapid City, SD.  

June 14-22, 2013 we were at the Cam-plex, Gillette, WY for the International Family Motor Coach Association event.  Charles played his trombone and was a part of the jazz group. He did direct 3 numbers for soloist  Bruce Miller, Sally Friedlander and Cynthia Colter.

Many Maestros from the west coast were present and it was fun to meet in person many of these folks.  Gary and Corrine Robinson from the Maestro Original Chapter in California were there and on a trip east afterwards.  They will visit us in September.  This was the 50ieth Anniversary of the founding FMCA.  Please visit All Things Frustrated Maestro   .   Our bikes were our needed transportation in this huge facility.  About 2500 coaches arrived.      

We must mention a strong hail storm while at Gillette!  This event made us quickly bring in our rooms and left the fins on the AC units closed.  Chas has since tediously opened them.  Following this event we enjoyed eating out at Applebees with several Maestro couples: Bruce and Barbara Miller, Nat and Cynthia Colter, Dick and Marge Reid, and Barbara Covard and Jack Nelson.   

From June 22 thru 27, 2013 we “settled down” in four campgrounds. June 22 we revisited Sundance, WY and tried to recreate a memory of six years.  Naturally the campground had grown and changed.  We were just 3 miles out of Sundance and via car went in to the historic town of the Sundance Kid and his rouge adventures to walk.  Again we visited Devil’s Tower.

June 25 and 26, 2013 we were plugged up on the banks of the Missouri River at Chamberlain, SD.  This formerly city park, now privately run, provided us with wonderful places to walk.  However, once again the frantic Missouri River kept our kayak high and dry on the Honda.

    

June 27, 2013 we arrived in Mitchell, SD for one night so that we could visit our second Cabella’s on this trip.  We were at R and R campground, a repeat of the past.  Roxie located a store that sold Bison and we stuffed our freezer with over 6 lbs…which we will hoard!  A trip to Mitchell, SD must include a walk in front of the Corn Palace.  Once again…a third repeat.

Jun 28 and 29, 2013 were we at Cenla RV Park in Spirit Lake, IA…also a repeat stop.  The park was very crowded and gave us much people watching. The lake was impossible to get into.  Guess it is understood where the kayak remained.  However, being in the town we had excellent walking.



June 30 through July 7, 2013 were spent at the Seven Amana Colonies in Amana, IA. Again a many times repeated stop, this historic group of seven colonies gives us moments to reflect, enjoy the peaceful and fertile  landscape and the distant bawling of cows.  Please enjoy their web site.   Seven Amana Colonies         We biked to the Middle Amana, 2 miles.  There was time for us to bike around Lily Lake and also bike into main Amana.  Our stops always include the Woolen Mill and the Furniture Store.

German Immigrants founded The Amanas in the late 1850s after escaping religious persecution.  This communal way of life ended just before the Great Depression.  Families could own their homes and work outside of the towns.  Many families have stayed.  Amana Refrigeration was founded and just a few years ago was purchased by Whirlpool.  Please continue past the next long white space!  Who knows!!                                                                                                                                

June 8 – 15 we camped at Sugar Bottom, COE (Corp of Engineer) campground near North Liberty, IA.  We are not far from Iowa City and this is a repeat visit.  The well-used lake did let us in!!  Our first trip was in the evening and the frantic boats endowed us with generous waves.  So…we outfoxed these boats and got up at 6AM and hit the lake for about an hour before 8:30 one morning.  The 300 site park filled to capacity over the weekend and our pleasant walking and biking were greatly impeded by “amateurs” who left to return to pay into Social Security! We will join several Frustrated Maestro friends June 16-22, 2013 at another COE park, Thomson Causeway in Savanna, IL looking out at the mighty Mississippi River. For a few days we will be “just jammin” prior to the Midwest FMCA Rally in Manchester, IA.  Charles will direct the Midwest Rally.