Barbecued Egg Rolls? What?

Like most people, I love barbecue, especially ribs. So when I find a place that has fantastic, juicy, fall off the bone, ribs, the kind that doesn't really need any added BBQ sauce, I get excited. Yup, I'm addicted to great BBQ. Understandably, I was excited to be returning to Fair Play, SC, so we could get BBQ from The Spotted Pig. We arrived here on Monday but the restaurant is closed Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. It was a long wait until Thursday. 

We had quite a few errands to do on Thursday. We visited the Verizon store to get new phones and upgrade our hotspot plan, which took most of the afternoon, then shopped at Walmart. Finally it was time for supper at The Spotted Pig. One of the feature items on the menu is barbecued egg rolls. Sounds strange but they are absolutely fantastic. They're egg rolls loaded with a variety of smoked pork, beef and chicken, seasoned cabbage and Colby Jack cheese, then deep fried. They're not quite like anything I've ever had, but the kind of thing that brings me back wanting more.

BBQ egg rolls

The Spotted Pig is a unique place with a very unique hand washing area - for after you get your hands all sticky.

This sink is on one wall in the open dining room

If you're ever in the area of Fair Play, SC, stop in at The Spotted Pig. You won't be disappointed, unless you're passing through on Mon., Tues., or Wed.

Don't Mess With My Tools!

Remember I said there wasn't much happening? It was nice not having any drama in our lives for a while. Well, be careful what you say! I didn't mean it as an invitation for life to throw chaos at me.

The past few years we've just closed up the house while we've been away for the winter. But this year we felt we needed to have someone living there to watch over things, and so an empty place wouldn't be a temptation to thieves. That turned out to be very insightful.

There was a bad wind storm Saturday night and the barn roof, the part over the workshop, didn't survive very well. If there wasn't someone there we wouldn't have know about it until we returned in the spring. By that time all the equipment in the workshop would have been damaged from the weather. Folks who know me know that I'm all about my workshop! I wouldn't have been very happy if all my tools, table saw, router, and the like, were all rusted. Don't mess with this woman's tools!

Advance, NC

We spent a week at Forest Lake Preserve, an RV park in Advance (pronounced with the accent on the 1st syllable), NC, where we were able to empty our black and gray water tanks, catch up on the laundry, and organize the stuff that gets tossed into the storage area while on the road. We also discovered a small leak in a roof seal that needed repair. I have to say it was nice to stay put for a while.

The temperatures here have been averaging in the 50s with most nights near or below freezing. But no snow! Like most everywhere, the trees have lost their summer colors, but there's still plenty of beauty. This park has lots of hiking trails, one leading to a large field with more trails branching off that. One trail takes you down along the Yadkin River which has quite a long sand bar. It may be stick season, but I still found it quite beautiful.

Not much is happening, but I did find some interesting things as we traveled out and about investigating the area. We were here last year for a time so we went in an opposite direction this year. 

Wonderful to see this sign in front of a nursing home.

No, this isn't snow, it's a field of cotton.

Here's an interesting property for sale - a real fixer upper! It features a unique, open floor plan (the walls have collapsed), exposed brick, fully exposed beams throughout (the ceilings fell down), lots of skylights (aka holes in the roof) and plenty of windows for light and air (lots and lots of air). An indoor garden conservatory features a fully grown tree (yup, there's a tree growing inside, right up through the roof). Original farmhouse style is ready for your own special touches. Sits on 100 +/- acres of well maintained weeds. With a little (or a lot) TLC this could be the home of your dreams!

Complete with a post and beam style barn!

Very upscale neighborhood, judging by the house next door.

East Hampton, CT

Some of the retirees at the breakfast get together

On Wednesday just before we left, we were able to go to the monthly breakfast gathering of the Hooksett GE retirees. Jim has been to a few over the years but this was my first time. I knew only 2 people there, Ken and Cathy Swenson, who have a summer camp in the north country, not too far from our house. Everyone was welcoming and it's always nice to meet new people. It was especially fun to hear a few stories of Jim's escapades while he was employed at GE.

On Thursday we left from Jim's son's house in the Concord, NH area. Our first stop was to visit friends in E. Hampton, CT. It was a LOT warmer there! We stopped by a garden center which was all decked out for the holidays, selling Christmas trees, wreaths and other decorations. One very nice thing about living in a small space for 4 or 5 months is that there's no room for extras, even though I was surely tempted to buy some decorations. Saves money too!

Paul's and Sandy's Too, East Hampton, CT

We often park our RV for a few nights at people's homes through boondockerswelcome.com which is a network of RVers who offer space for an RV in their driveways, fields, etc, providing a safe place to spend 1 or a few nights. We've hosted many people at our home as well as utilizing this service ourselves while on the road. We've met many wonderful people and made some new friends as well. Like our friends Robert and Carey from East Hampton, CT, who stayed with us last spring and again in the fall. Jim grew up in Milford, CT, so he and Robert had a lot of familiar places to talk about. They invited us to stay with them on our way south this winter.

Carey is a volunteer with vetdogs.org. The dogs begin life being cared for and receive early training, from 8 weeks old, by prison inmates, also spending time with various families for socialization before beginning their "formal" training. Margie is a 14 month old black lab who will spend weekends with Carey and her family for the next 3 months. Carey will socialize her by taking her everywhere so she becomes used to all kinds of situations and people. Margie is as sweet as you could want in any companion and will make someone a wonderful service dog.

Carey, Robert and service dog in training, Margie

This is the explanation of the program from their website:

"The service dog programs of America’s VetDogs® were created to provide enhanced mobility and renewed independence to United States veterans, active-duty service members, and first responders with disabilities, allowing them to once again live with pride and self-reliance. Not only does a service dog provide support with daily activities, it provides the motivation to tackle every day challenges.  

VetDogs trains and places service dogs for those with physical disabilities; guide dogs for individuals who are blind or have low vision; service dogs to help mitigate the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder; and facility dogs as part of the rehabilitation process in military and VA hospitals.

It costs over $50,000 to breed, raise, train, and place one assistance dog; however, all of VetDogs’ services are provided at no charge to the individual. Funding comes from the generosity of individuals, corporations, foundations, businesses, and community organizations.

Once they make the decision to get a service dog, applicants become part of VetDogs’ open and welcoming community. Students will come to our 10-acre campus in Smithtown, New York, for our two-week in-residence training program. Classes are kept small to ensure personalized attention for each student and their new dog. Over the course of the time spent with us, the student and dog bond and learn how to work together as a team. They are supported with an uncompromising commitment to excellence, from highly empathetic and certified trainers to a meticulously constructed curriculum."

This is certainly a worthy organization. To find out how you can help, visit their website, then click on "how to help" from the dropdown menu.

We left E Hampton and drove several hours to E. Stroudsburg, PA, where we spent the night at an RV park, Timothy Lake South. Many parks are closed for the winter, but this one happens to be open year round. We were able to empty our tanks and rest up for the night before beginning our journey southward. Next stop - Charles Town, WV.

The Adventure Begins - Again

With a pretty much uneventful summer behind us, autumn was a busy time getting ready to leave. The sheep and goats that were visitors during the summer months went home. They were here to keep the pastures mowed and the brush from taking over. We had lots of small projects to get the house and RV ready for the winter.

One of the projects was getting the new security system activated. The system we used last year quit working several months before we returned home and the security company never notified us it wasn't working, although they still collected their monthly fee. When we contacted them to question about it, they said that nothing unusual showed up on their monitoring. Funny, because when we got home we found the system wasn't even reporting anything to them, and hadn't been for months. They got fired and a new system went in. We also have a friend who's staying at the house through the winter so that it's occupied.

Another project was to put new caulking on the seals of the roof of the RV. The integrity of the seals is all that prevents water leaking through the roof and causing rot and mold inside. And we also installed a vent cover on the bathroom vent so we can keep it open for circulation when it's raining, as well as a slide cover, which is a rolling cover for the slide out to keep branches, leaves and debris off the top, as well as protecting it from rain.

The summer was also filled with necessary doctor and dentist appointments. After breaking my back last year (compression fracture at T12) I had to have some physical therapy. One of the exercises the therapist prescribed for me to do aggravated an old shoulder injury. So when the PT on the back was done, the doctor changed the order for PT on the shoulder. All that seemed to irritate my right hip somehow, and, you guessed it, after the PT on the shoulder was done the order was changed to the hip problem. I figured everything needed to get better before I ran out of body parts!

Other than that, my physical, eye exam, and dental checkup went very well, as did Jim's. Based on my eye health and cholesterol bloodwork, I'm apparently not 73 anymore but quite a few years younger! Now if my knees would only agree. I'm beginning to sound like Rice Krispies when I get up out of a chair. I hear the distinct music of snap, crackle and pop.

We were blessed to receive a loaf of Challah bread from my good friend Judy Jacques in Colebrook. She makes the most wonderful bread and this is my favorite. We shared it with friends who joined us for dinner one night. Friends are one of the greatest blessings in our lives and we cherish them all.

The cold and snow began in late November. We went down country to southern NH for Thanksgiving with family and it was well below freezing during the night and in the low 30s during the day. I was thinking maybe I didn't want to go away this winter but the onset of wintry weather reminded me of why we leave. We left Thursday morning for our trip south and Mother Nature gave us a seasonal send off with some fresh snow overnight. It wasn't nearly as much as we had received in the north country, but enough that we were glad to leave NH.

As our winter trek begins, we are looking forward to this year's trip. Not sure we'll have the dramatic experiences we did last year, like getting lost in the desert, or Jim getting attacked by the cousin of the whomping willow, but we're ready for whatever comes. Hopefully we won't get snow in TX again. Let the adventures begin again!

My son and his wife made us these sweatshirts

Acadia National Park

I suppose when you live where other people pay to vacation, almost everywhere else becomes a so-so destination. We had heard a lot about Acadia National Park in Maine. We made reservations at Patten Pond RV Resort in Ellsworth, ME, which is about 45 minutes from Acadia, and left Monday for our week long adventure. With much anticipation, we headed out from the resort on Tuesday for Acadia. Saying that it turned out to be a disappointment would be an understatement.

Many of the trails and scenic areas were closed due to "storm damage". What storm I do not know. There really was only one spectacular view we could have stopped at if we could have found a place to park. The rest of our sight seeing tour consisted of driving through a tree lined road or crawling through heavy traffic. I'll put pictures that I found online of what we were supposed to see, and compare them with the sights within 45 minutes of where we live. You be the judge if this was worth 4 1/2 to our campground and another 45 minutes to the national park itself.

Acadia fall foliage

View from Table Rock, Dixville, NH (15 min from my house)

Acadia

1st Connecticut Lake (about 45 minutes from my house)

Fly fishing, Connecticut River, 1st Connecticut Lake

Well, you get the idea. Instead of hauling our camper 4 1/2 hours to a campground, then driving another 45 minutes to Acadia, we can enjoy the same, or even better, scenic views and nature treks right in our own backyard. But one thing Acadia does have that we don't have where we live, is this:

In our trips to the Connecticut Lakes, or hiking Table Rock, or enjoying waterfalls close to home, we might encounter a few people, but nothing like the crowds we saw in Acadia. We took a drive through Bar Harbor, ME, and we've seen fewer people in NYC! There was no parking anywhere in the city and there were crowds of people everywhere. From what I saw, Portsmouth, NH, has more to offer in the way of historic charm, great places to eat and things to see and do. I actually can't speak about the food in Bar Harbor because we wouldn't have been able to get into a restaurant, even if we could have found parking anywhere within walking distance. 

We did get to visit our good friend Marlene and her husband Jon. They used to live in Errol (about 1/2 hour from us) and moved to Eastport, ME, (another 2 hours north of the RV park we're staying at) 4 years ago. It was a wonderful day to see old friends and take a tour of Eastport. Located on Moose Island, it is the least populous city in ME and the easternmost city in the US. There are some friends that no matter how much time has elapsed it seems like no time has gone by since you last saw each other. This was certainly the case with Marlene. It was wonderful to catch up on the goings on is our lives over the past 4 years, and we were able to pick up right where we left off.

Marlene and Ruby

Granddaughter Rosie at Rosie's Hot Dogs in Eastport, ME

Another high point of our trip was meeting new friends Elysia, Jeff and their daughter Athena. Elysia and Jeff sold everything to hit the road full-time in their RV. They document their adventures on their YouTube channel Down 2RV at  https://www.youtube.com/user/acmanjeff. Check them out and enjoy their adventures.

New friends Elysia, Jeff and Athena

As for us, I don't think we'll be taking any more trips this summer unless it's short drives from our house. We are truly blessed to live where we do and plan on enjoying those blessings more fully.

Beaver Brook Falls, Colebrook, NH

Places to Go, People to See, Things to Do

25 states, about 20,000 miles! Wow, what a trip!

1 Colebrook NH; 2 Clayton NY; 3 Rome OH; 4 Lyons IN; 5 Raymore (Kansas City) MO; 6 Pretty Prairie KS; 7 Shamrock TX; 8 Placitis (Albuquerque) NM; 9 Shiprock NM; 10 Hurricane UT; 11 Apache Junction AZ; 12 Wilcox AZ; 13 Sierra Blanca TX; 14 Del Rio TX; 15 Lakehills TX; 16 Livingston TX; 17 Crystal Springs MS; 18 Arley AL; 19 Ozark AL; 20 Bronwood GA; 21 Statesboro GA; 22 Yemassee SC; 23 Fair Play SC; 24 Advance NC; 25 Littleton NC; 26 Colonial Beach VA; 27 Dover PA; 28 East Stroudsburg PA; 29 Sturbridge MA; 30 Andover NH.

We got home on Thursday, April 28th. It really was a wonderful feeling when we turned into the driveway. As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz - there's no place like home. We found everything in order, things where they should be, the house just as we left it. We did have a section of privacy fencing by the back door blow over, but that was minor. We had Capital Well shut the water off and drain the water conditioner and iron filter in November when we left, so they came on Friday to turn it all back on. The rest of Friday was spent getting the refrigerator on and down to temp, moving all the freezer and fridge stuff in from the trailer, moving our clothes in, and cleaning the house to get it ready for living in again. We'll sleep in our own bedroom tonight.

We had a wonderful winter full of memories of the places we went and things we've done. From visiting museums like the Dwarf Car Museum or the Gettysburg Cyclorama, to finding a civil war burial site, to experiencing NH weather in TX to Jim's bike being stolen off the locking bike rack on the truck, in a church parking lot, on a Sunday morning, in NM, getting lost in the deep TX desert, or Jim getting cut up by the brother of the whomping willow, we experienced things that we'll remember for the rest of our lives. And those are just some of the places we visited this winter.

But the best part of the whole time was the people we met and visited. I was able to visit the missionary who baptized me 50 years ago. It was like no time had passed since we saw each other last. He is as good a friend as anyone could hope for.

Bill Mead

We were also able to visit with an old friend, Rich Draper, who served his mission in New England, we won't say how many years ago, and with a newer special missionary, Jake Beck and his wife Whitley, and daughter, and with Gregory and Rebecca Putnam, a missionary couple that served in the Colebrook area several years ago.

Rich Draper

Jake and Whitley Beck took us 4-wheeling

Other friends we were able to see were Cindy and Ron in northern AL, who we had met last year when we boondocked at their place; Wendy and Ed, who used to live in NH but now live NM, were kind enough to invite these two vagabonds to Thanksgiving dinner; Andy and Deb, who live in NH but spend the winter in Hurricane, UT, where we spent the month of December; Elogene and Steve in AZ (Elogene is actually my sister-in-law's cousin) who live at the RV park where we spent January.

Ron and Cindy

Deb and Andy, with Tansy

Elogene and Steve

Wendy in NM

My son got married while we were in MO. What a fantastic surprise that they waited for us to arrive to tie the knot. I now have a wonderful new daughter-in-law and 2 great new grandsons!

Son, Chris and family

We were able to visit with Jim's cousin Howie and family in NY. He hadn't seen them for about 20 years. Traveling awards us the opportunities to see people we haven't seen in a long time. Also had the opportunity to visit Jim's niece Heather and great-niece Ariel, who is in helicopter flight school with the National Guard. Heather lives in CA, but when she heard Jim was visiting Ariel in AL, she flew out for our time there. And not the least of our visits, we were able to stop in to visit our grandson Nate who is stationed at Ft. Polk, LA. It'd been about 2 years since we've seen him so our short time with him was very special. We're very, very proud of him.

Jim's cousin Howie and family

Jim's great-niece Ariel and niece Heather

Grandson Nate

You meet all kinds of people who are living the RV lifestyle, some just for the winter like us, and some who are full-time RVers. A few examples are Melody and Lou who have a YouTube vlog that reviews RV parks and also host a FB group Free and Affordable Camping in the USA. 

Lou and Melody

We met Gail and Lee in TX. They work with animal rescue and watch over the deer herds that roam the park where we were. They were about the sweetest people I've ever met.

Gail and Lee in TX

Kelly and Joel not only guided us in the right direction to be able to upgrade our Thousand Trails membership at a fraction of the cost, but gave us an impromptu gospel concert one Sunday afternoon. Joel used to be a gospel singer and Kelly's voice was harmonizing and sweet. Kelly is an online English teacher to China and makes fabric wreaths. She had made one that fit perfectly in our bedroom and gave it to me to fill a space that I was wondering what to put there.

Monroe and Sara and their 2 children were new at the RV lifestyle and we were able to help them out with several tips to make it more affordable and comfortable.

In AL we met Leslie and Rick who are from NH.

Many others too numerous to mention who we met and became lifelong friends with some. And lots of families that homeschool their kids. One thing about RVers - they're an interesting and diverse people.

But not all are living the dream. We also met several who were struggling. Like the brave, young woman with a 10 year old daughter and a young son about the age to start crawling. Her husband left her when she was 7 months pregnant with her son, and now she and her 2 children move from campground to campground living out of a pop-up trailer. She was doing the best she could to make a life for her children and didn't feel sorry for her circumstances. She commented "It's a good thing I like camping!" Or the woman whose husband had passed away a few years before and she didn't know what she wanted the rest of her life to be. She traveled around, tent camping in whatever campground was nearby. People's stories are as diverse as they are.

Some of the people who allowed us to park in their yards were Dick and Karen in MO; Chris and Rod in KS, Kris and Steve in MS; Bob and Rosie in GA, Mark and Ruth in GA, Matt and Michelle in TX; and Ray and Donna in TX who were selling their very nice motor coach, and their house, and moving to a retirement community in FL; and many, many others. Very welcoming and gracious folks.

Chris and Rod in KS

The trees at Kris & Scott's home in MS were just beautiful.

Here are some random photos I didn't get a chance to post anywhere else:

This road dips down to a bridge over a river.
It looks like you're driving right into the water!

 

Welcome area at a campground

Got to babysit an 11 day old bottle baby

Road sign in Boscawen, NH. And on a pig!
A well placed comma would make this sound more appealing.

Ever feel like you're being watched?
This is the RV next door to us in PA.

Spring has come to the south

Pine cones in NC

Social distancing "guidelines"

Now that we're home for the summer there won't be as many blog posts. But I'll try to keep up to date if anything interesting, unusual or note worthy happens. Thank you for all the support I've received from my followers. Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads these, but the comments and emails I receive assure me that many do, even some folks I've never met. Love you all. Bye for now.