July, 2005
The
first several days of July we were the guests of Char and Terry Eicher at
their 'place in the woods' near Kalkaska, Michigan. We took advantage of
full hookups and some beautiful weather during our fantastic stay. We
drove into the nearby towns of Kalkaska and Grayling and used the courts for a
little tennis and pickle-ball. Tom and Terry made a project of assembling
our portable satellite dish, which we had never used, and got it working in the
woods. Char and Mary did some shopping and the Eicher's introduced us to
the "Boone's Long Lake Inn" for a very tasty dinner out in Traverse
City. Evenings found us playing cards and catching up on comings and
goings and making plans for next winter at Palm Creek in Arizona. Char
showed off her wonderful makeshift sewing room in their barn where she made Mary
jealous of all the sewing she's done in the short time they have been back in
Michigan. What a great place to visit!!
The 4th
of July dawned as many we remembered in the past in Michigan - cool
and pouring rain. We had planned a travel day anyway...so were hooked up
and on the road around 10:00 heading to Jackson, MI. We were in and out of
rain for several hours, but when we arrived in Jackson it was sunny, 90* and
humid. We attended a 4th of July celebration with Mary's step-father's
family until the storms caught up with us, then retreated to Mary's mother's
home for a fun evening of card games. Tuesday morning we shared breakfast
and then were on our way back to Monroe, MI and the Harbortown RV
Resort.
We
were parked at Harbortown from Tuesday, July 5 to Tuesday, July 12. We
managed to be busy most of the time during our stay working on a long "To
Do" list which required several trips to shopping centers in Monroe and
Toledo...but we can proudly say that at the time, all repairs and maintenance
were complete. How long will that last?? We didn't take lots of
photos - but did enjoy visits and/or meals with good friends Dick and Liz Lehto,
Kathy and Dennie Dew, Jacques Everhart, Tom's mother at her nursing home, Tom's
sister and her husband, Judy and Ron Kaminski, and Mary's college friend Judy
Kastel whom we hadn't seen in eight years! One night we hosted a "tour
group" as Mary's brother and sister-in-law, Bill and Beth Close, brought a
number of Beth's family to see the RV after hearing for months all about
our travel adventures. We're always happy to share our trials and
tribulations of living full-time in 340 square feet of rolling
home!!
While
watching fuel prices dance up and down (mostly up!) and hurricanes blow onto the
southern US mainland we were putting together our travel plans for the rest of
the summer. Those two factors will no doubt affect us, but we're moving
on!!!! We left Harbortown in Monroe on Tuesday, July 12 and drove to
Marysville, OH to the home of our daughter, Ann, and her family. We took
care of a few last minute errands and on Wednesday morning we packed our three
granddaughters and an assortment of "stuff" into the RV and headed south to
Cincinnati and on down I-75 to Berea, KY - our first stop on the trip to
Charleston, South Carolina. Our second night was in Waynesville, NC and on
Friday we arrived at our home for the next week, Lake Aire RV Park and
Campground near Charleston. Ann and Matt left Ohio on Friday afternoon and
joined us at the campground on Saturday. We all drove through some wind
and rain to get there, but by the weekend it seemed that the hurricane remnants
had worked their way someplace else. We had a FANTASTIC week in
Charleston. Having never seen it "for real," the girls had wanted to see
the ocean and we were able to spend three full days on the beach...two days at
the "Beachwalker" park and one at "Folly Beach." By the end of the week
they were experts at jumping waves and floating with the tides. They
didn't want to leave! We were all impressed with the cleanliness and
lack of "commercialism" in the beach areas.
"Happy
Hour" at Char and Terry's.
Probably the largest group of visitors we've hosted in the Dutch
Star.
page 1
Close
Ann
Merrick
Coffey
Matt
and Ann introducing the girls to the Atlantic Ocean at Beachwalker Park in
Charleston, SC.
Our
few inches of shade at Folly Beach Park.
For more of our July adventures, please click on "forward"
above.
In
between trips to the Charleston beaches we visited the Magnolia Plantation where
we took a nature train ride through the swamps and forest and visited the
mansion and slave quarters of yesteryear. Another trip was to the Patriots
Point Maritime Museum for climbing around in the aircraft carrier "Yorktown,"
the submarine " Clamagore," and the destroyer "Laffey". We're glad we
didn't have to live and work on those ships! "Dennis" was the Belgian
draft horse who pulled our carriage around the Historic District of Charleston
for our tour of the beautiful city and its restored buildings. Merrick
found her favorite animals - turtles - at the South Carolina Aquarium and we got
to see divers feed the 300 fish in the huge "Great Ocean Tank." In our
trips around town we got to cross the new Ravenell Bridge. With great
ceremony and attention, it opened to traffic for the first time while we were in
Charleston and is a beautiful structure, reportedly the largest "cable-stayed"
bridge in North America. We couldn't have asked for a better week (other
than the 110* heat index each day!) and at the end, our granddaughters wanted us
all to stay!!!
July, 2005
page 2
The
aircraft carrier "Yorktown" (CV-10)
Dennis
the Belgian draft horse pulled our carriage on a tour through historic
Charleston.
One of
the many turtles we found at the South Carolina Aquarium.
Spanish Moss on the old live oak trees at the Magnolia
Plantation.
The
"Tooth Fairy" had to work overtime to find us this week, making trips on two
different nights after he got word that Close had lost her first tooth and
Coffey had added another to her "missing" list.
The
new Arthur Ravenell Bridge in Charleston, SC.
For more of our July adventures, please click on "forward" or
"back" above.
Ann and Matt pitched their tent next to the DS at the Lake
Aire Campground for their own private suite.
Hang
on and reel it in!! Matt and the girls caught quite a few fish in the pond
across from our campsite.
At
the campground we enjoyed the pool, did some fishing in the pond, played some
games and had some BBQs. Its a good thing that we had good electric
service as the 110* heat index kept the A/C working non-stop.
July, 2005
page 3
On
Saturday, July 23 Ann and Matt packed up their tent, girls and stuff and headed
back towards Ohio. Likewise, we packed up the Dutch Star, drove to
Traveler's Rest, NC and on Sunday back to Waynesville, NC for a five night stay
at the Creekwood Farm RV Park. From here we drove 30 miles into Asheville
and toured the Biltmore Estate. The largest home in the US,
built by George Vanderbilt in the 1890s, is truly amazing. Its
amenities were "way ahead of their time." Its hard to imagine living in
such a grand place. It took us several hours just to walk through
the house. (The Vanderbilts are still working hard to make money...the
admission price is $39 and an audio tour guide is $7 more and they have a
million visitors a year!). We also visited the gardens, shops in the old
stables and the winery in the old dairy buildings. The estate tried to be
self-sufficient, growing crops and food for its needs on the many acres of
land. The view from the house is magnificent -
overlooking the many thousand acres of forests that the Vanderbilts
had grown on the once bare land.
Another side-trip from Waynesville was to the Great Smoky Mountain
National Park. From the RV park we drove to the town of Maggie Valley and
then on a small section of the Blue Ridge Parkway to the park. The parkway
was built in the 1930s and is completely commercial free including no truck
traffic. It is a beautiful drive with many pull-offs. At the south
entrance to the park we went to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center and attended a
program on bears (which thrive in the area) and toured a mountain farm from the
1800s. Near the park and the town of Cherokee we climbed about 1/4 mile of
stairs in the woods to view Mingo Falls. True to their name, the mountains
have an ever present blue smokey haze above them. The forests are
beautiful and must be even prettier in the spring as most of the lower trees are
Rhododendrons. There were a few still hanging on to their flowery
blossoms. We passed up the many, many tourist shops in the towns of
Cherokee and Maggie Valley.
George Vanderbilt's mountain get-away has 250 rooms, 65 fireplaces and
took 6 years to build.
The
Great Smoky Mountains near Cherokee, North Carolina.
Mingo Falls near Cherokee, NC.
For more of our July adventures, please click on "back"
above.
The
lure of a Harrah's Casino in Cherokee, NC pulled us in for a short visit one day
during our stay at Creekwood Farm. There we discovered the new "digital"
BlackJack tables...not sure that we like them, although we didn't actually try
them out. Another day we made a trip to Pigeon Forge, TN to hit the Outlet
Mall circuit.
The
hot and sunny weather finally "broke" on Friday, July 29. We woke up to
cloudy skies and a steady rain...and of course it was a travel day!
Getting ready to move was a wet experience and there was a lot of traffic across
I-40 as we headed to the Western Horizons "Bass Lake RV Resort" near
Salisbury, NC. One thing we can say about the freeways in North
Carolina is that they have very little commercial advertising, making it a
scenic drive.
Since we were near the "furniture capital of the US," on Saturday we
drove into High Point and toured the "Furniture Discovery Center." Tours
of the furniture factories are no longer given, but at this center they have
explicit displays of how pieces are made from conception and design through
pattern making, manufacture, fine finishing to sale. There are examples of
the many different kinds of wood used and how they are chosen and put together
and many tools used are set up for visitors to try out. We have a much
better appreciation for fine furniture now!
On
our way back home to the RV, we stopped in the town of Salisbury and went to the
$2 movie theater. We used to go to the movies regularly, but since we've
been on the road we've gotten out of the habit. On Sunday we finished up
the month with a drive up I-77 to I-81 to Christiansburg, VA.
This
machine can fashion 16 table legs at one time.
We
don't think this chest of drawers will fit in the RV. Mary couldn't even
reach the bottom drawer of the "World's Largest Dresser" found in High Point,
NC.