Jekyll Island

Thursday    Aug. 19, 2004        Today we spent at the beach on Jekyll Island in south Georgia.   Ten miles of uncrowed beach with its fine white sand.  Absolutly beautiful.  We  could smell that salt air before we got there.  The water was a perfect swim tempature, even for Bob.   

 There is a lot to see beside the beachs including a historic district, shopping, bike trails, golfing and sightseeing tours.   I couldn't believe it but, there is aso a water park there. 

 There is also a millionaires village with wonderful old estate houses.  For many years in the past the  Island was the exclusive domain of the Jektll Island Club and a winter retreat for some of America's most elite families.  Some of these houses can now be rented by the week for a mere $3000.  

 All in all we enjoyed our day here.  Legend has it....."Once your feet touch the sands of Jekyll Island you will always come back. "   I hope this is true.

Are We Going To Blow Up?

                                             

Wednesday Aug 17, 2004

  Are We Going To Blow Up?

  This has been some week, and this morning was the topper.   We stopped in at the Flying J Truck stop to fill up with propane.  They sent out a nice young lady to fill her up.   This to me is a dangerous job for all,  if you don't know what you are doing.    Well, as nice as this girl was, she was not properly trained, nor was she certified to do this, I later found out.   She filled it up but when she started to unscrew the connection from our coach, it started hissing out.  She called for help and a man came to help her.  Next she called the manager, who didn't know what to do either.   Now we are all getting nervous as any thing might set this thing off.  I'm getting teary eyed thinking of everything that's in there. 

  Dumbo, the manager then asks us "How long have you been having this problem?"  What problem are you talking about?  We had no problem before coming in here.   He says "You should have that checked out, it's dangerous." He then calls 911 and surrounds  us with cones so no one comes near.  Good grief,  if this thing blows, we'll take down the entire truck stop.  

 Next thing we know the Florence, SC fire chief is there with his crew and an ambulance to carry us off, if need be.   For some reason I still don't feel better. The chief suits up and walks over and easily disconnects the Flying J fill pipe from our coach and as soon as he does the hissing stops and all is well.  He thoroughly checked our connections and found them to be in good condition.  He told us  Flying J  was responsible and told  the manager that it was his fault.  

Just a big thank you for the Florence Fire Department.  They saved my home.

Cape Hatteras and The Wright Brothers

Wed.  Aug. 11 We took the ferry today  from Hatteras to Ocracoke.  This was an enjoyable trip viewing pristine beaches and on the return trip a beautiful sunset.  The ferry was large enough for a touring bus and about 23 cars, and was provided by the N.C. department of transportation for free taking about 40 minutes each way.   Ocracoke , 14 miles long, is a typical island tourest town with lots of quant little shops, fishing excursions, and restaurants with catchie names like "Dirty Dicks Crabs"  

 

 Thursday Aug 12...  This was to be our last day here .  But listening to the weather we have decided to leave today.  They are predicting flash flooding this afternoon at 2pm .   There is still water visible from last weeks hurrican Adam.  Bonnie, a tropical storm and Charles , doing who knows what is on the way.   It's a drive just to get off the island , so being older and wiser, we're out of here.

Cape Hatteras

Monday Aug. 9th...Our destination today is to meet up with friends, Gary and Shirley,  from Az. at Cape Hatteras, N.C.  We have reservations for 4 nights.    We arrived by 2PM, got settled  and  with them made plans for tonight.   A fire on the beach was such a good idea.   Now to get to the beaches here,  one must walk up hill over the dunes, lugging all the fire wood, paper to burn, chairs and of course water, cameras and a flashlite  to spot those little fast running crabs scurring near the waters edge.  We selected a spot and were just setting up when along came a park ranger and told us we need to be 100 feet from the dunes to have a fire.  Next we count of  and find ourself on the wet sand.  That's ok ,we think, because the tide is going out. We enjoy this fire for about half an hour when one of those famous outter banks waves came up and spoiled our party.  We moved back and after a while got another fire going.   There were some folks shooting off fire works on the beach that added to our fun time.   Life is good.  

 Tuesday Aug 10.....Today we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kitty Hawk.    The museum has a full size replica of the plane that  changed history. The park ranger gave a very interesting talk about it and the problens the brothers had to solve.  The first powered, controlled flight on Dec. 17, 1903  lasted 12 seconds and a distance of 120 feet.

Greencastle, Pa.

Thursday  Aug. 5th..  We are in Greencastle, Pa. and it is Old Home Week, which is held every 3 years, and these folks know how to celebrate.  They unofficially started Sunday at midnight with a song fest in the town square. The first song was "The Old Gray Mare Ain't What She Used To Be".    Every year all the residents gather in the square and have a panoramic town portrait taken.  The photographer has taken the picture for 28 years and his father before him, starting in 1902. Today is a big day with the main street often filled like a Saturday morning.   One bank was cooking pop corn and another was giving out root beer floats.  So good.  It's been years since Bob or I had one of these.  We sat with townies and they were eager to tell us about their town.  One of these stories was about one of their own, Dolly Harris.  It seems that the Confederate Army march through their town and when Dolly saw them coming, she ran to her house and grabbed the American flag and vigorously waved it as they marched by.  A General riding his horse stood up in his stirrups and saluted her because of her convictions and instructed his men to do the same. Tonight there will be a parade, that's why you see so many chairs lined up along the sidewalks.  Some of these chairs have been there since Monday!! After the parade there will be music in the square.  It doesn't get much better than this.

Back traveling around

Monday,  August 2, 2004      We left Beverly at noon time today for a short trip to the Mohegan Sun Casino in CT.   The Massachusetts roads are so bad that we were attacked by closet objects when we open up any door.  But the big problem we had was the right fender of the car lost some screws and was nearly off when we got here.  So there we were in the casino parking lot trying to make do with our handy screw gun until we can get the right screws.  Oh well, we'll see if it holds tomorrow.  It needs to stay intact about seven hours or so until we get to Penn.   The Mohegan Sun is an Indian owned casino, has a variety of restaurants and lots of shops. It offers a wide range of entertainment from basketball games to Loretta Lynn, Rod Stewart and Paul Anka.  We spent the night in the parking lot, enjoyed their buffet and left a donation  at the slots.      Catch you tomorrow.  

Tuesday- August  3rd   Today we traveled to Kutztown, Pa. to the  Pine Hill Campground.   We have been here before as it is on our route from the Tappan Zee in N.Y.  We traveled I-287 and I-87 most of the way.    When the sun was out it was 107.9 in the sun.  We ran with our generator for a while with both air conditioners on.  We didn't  turn on the cab air because we were concerned with over heating, after an hour's hold up on I-87.  We were both glad to get off the road today.   

 Wed.  August 4th...  We spent the morning traveling to the other end of Penn. We also stopped and did a little shopping in Cabela's.  There were a lot of other RV'ers there, some I'm sure had spent the night there.  L. L. Bean, in Maine allows that too. I'm glad we had air conditioner last night.  Already  at 10am , it is 101 in the sun.  We past lots of farms growing corn.  August is the best month for corn, although it's not as high as the elephant's eye yet, it looks pretty good.  We are now  tucked safely in Keystone RV Park on the Maryland / Penn line waiting for the gusty winds and rain.  Catch you later.