LEFT NORTH CAROLINA FOR FLORIDA AND MORE FOOD, FUN AND FRIENDS !

On Tuesday, October 13th we left Kevin and Laura's in Powell's  Point, N.C. We had a nice drive down Rt. 95 and no traffic!

By early evening we were pulling into a Cracker Barrel in Savannah,  GA. We had a nice dinner and got tucked in for the night. Most Cracker Barrels have parking for semi trucks and RV's and depending on the city ordinances, they allow RV-er's to stay the night.

On Wednesday, October 14th, we left Savannah and had a nice trip down Rt. 95 into Florida.

We pulled into Pellicer Creek Campground in St. Augustine, Florida. It was a quaint and beautiful landscaped campground that was along the Pellicer Creek.

The Pellicer Creek

We relaxed a bit and then headed to our friends home. Ruth and Skip live about 7 miles away in the town of Palm Coast.

They were "full time RV-er's" for about 10 years. They decided to trade in their house on wheels for a stick and brick home and purchased this home earlier this year. We are their first visitors.

We first met Skip and Ruth about 7 years ago at our favorite RV resort in Lakehills, Texas called Lake Medina RV Resort. We "wintered" there with them for the past several years. I have written about Lake Medina also known as the Leibold's-Grothues Ranch many times in our adventures.

It was great to see them and their home was just beautiful. I loved their big kitchen and the open floor plan. Most of all, I loved the screened in porch and secluded backyard.

Here is a gecko lizard crawling on the outside of the screened in porch. They are adorable just like the Geico Insurance lizard on TV.

A beautiful palm tree.

Orange tree.

Ruth is a wonderful cook and we had many great meals together when we were camping. Our first nights dinner together was her Chicken and Dumplings. Oh my gosh, the best I have ever had! 

This pretty archway is from the living room looking into the kitchen.

On Thursday, October 15th we were suppose to ride our bikes over to Skip and Ruthie's. When the alarm went off, I decided to use my "Easy Button". Ralph was getting dressed and I said "It is so comfy and cozy this morning, what do you think if we just drove the truck over and that way we could stay and enjoy our coffee in bed and relax a little longer?"

Well that is all it took. As the coffee was brewing, Ralph jumped back into bed. Heck, I probably didn't even have to use my "Easy Button".

Eventually we did have to get up and head over to Skip and Ruthie's for a wonderful breakfast that she was making for us!

When we walked in their home, I was in heaven! Ruthie was busy flipping pancakes and cooking sausage and eggs. The smell of pancakes is one of my favorite smells. I wish they could make an air freshener that smelled like pancakes!

After breakfast, she and I did some errands around town. The town of Palm Coast is gorgeous. The town keeps everything beautifully manicured. Roads around town are lined with beautiful palm trees, shrubs, flowers and plants. Just about each pond and lake has a fountain.

On Friday, October 16th, we took Ruthie and Skip out to the popular "Metro Diner". It was featured on the Food Network Channel. The program is called "Dumps, Diners and Dives".  The host is Guy Fieri.

Wow, what a busy diner. I got a kick out of their paper place mats. Business's place their ads on these place mats for their services. Who ever came up with this idea was a genius! I had a good laugh.

You could watch the cooks from your table prepare meals. 

I took a picture of  the pictures that were on the diners walls. Here is Guy Fieri signing his book for one of the patrons.

Isn't this just one of the most beautiful things you have ever seen on a plate? It tasted as good as it looked! It is called a breakfast pizza. Our server was excellent and the manager stopped by everyone's table to make sure all was well and it sure was!

We were happily stuffed as we all waddled out to the car. Skip and Ruth took us and for a nice drive to see the St. Augustine area. We got a treat by seeing a draw bridge being raised so this sail boat could pass through.

St. Augustine is a pristine town and several of the "rich and famous" have homes on the ocean.

We took time to pull into a nice little public access beach to enjoy the beautiful Atlantic Ocean and the wildlife. Ruthie comes here often with her chair to read and relax and to enjoy the sounds of the surf.

A lone fisherman.

Ruthie.

We enjoyed a fun dinner on our last night with them. I had a pack of Hebrew National Dinner Franks. They are hard to find and are  huge "quarter pound" fat delicious hot dogs. We had that along with slaw, baked beans, kraut, sauteed zucchini and squash and a salad. 

What a fun day it was hanging out with Ruthie and Skip. Sadly we had to say goodbye, we are sure going to miss them this winter at  Lake Medina RV Resort in Texas.

On Saturday, October 18th we left the east coast of Florida and headed to the west coast of Florida. While passing through Orlando I saw several of these neat Mickey Mouse electric poles. Orlando is of course the home Disney World.

Crossing Tampa Bay.

200 miles later, we arrived in the town of Largo, just west of Tampa. We were "freeloading" in the front of Joe and Sandy's home.

Here is Joe, he was an old neighbor of Ralph's when they lived in Mt. Airy, MD. 

Joe and Sandy took us on tour of their yard naming all the trees and shrubs. Here is a banana tree and they do get bunches of bananas. 

Joe and Sandy have always had Dobermans. Here is Rusty, their red dobie. This is one of the few times he stood still for a picture. He is high energy.

One of the many blooming flowers in their yard.

Joe showing us his toys.

 In his younger years, Joe raced for Kawasaki Motorcycles. This was one of his racing suits and he can still fit into it!

We drove to the nearby town of Clearwater to the very popular Clearwater Beach. We had a nice bite to eat at a Thai Restaurant.

Over the years, Clearwater Beach has been ranked one of the best beaches in the U.S. It is also where the rich and famous have beach front homes. We saw several mansions. To me the mansions were gaudy and it was a shame to ruin this Gulf Coast beach.

After dinner we stopped to watch the entertaining pelicans dive into the water and feast on fish and take off again anticipating their next sushi meal.

Joe, Ralph and Sandy watching cranes and pelicans in flight. We even got a glimpse of a dolphin.

It was a little tricky getting photos of these fast moving pelicans.

You can take a tour on a pirate ship.

Now this is my kind of bench!

On Sunday, October 18th, we said our goodbyes to Sandy, Joe and Rusty.

On the way out of Largo, I caught this cute picture of "Florida Santa" and his little dog. Check out the license plate and his white beard.

 See you at our next adventure...............Until then, Happy Trails!

LEFT MARYLAND FOR NORTH CAROLINA FOR MORE FUN, FRIENDS AND FOOD!

On Thursday, October 8th, we left the Thurmont Conservation Sportsman's Club in Thurmont, MD. We left well after rush hour but found ourselves in a rolling parking lot for the first 45 miles leaving Thurmont, MD. and heading south and then the parking lot came to a dead stop!

Yes this is was what "road warriors" have to go through every day when you work in this area. It is known as one of the busiest area highway systems in the country. It is where Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. come together. Rt. 495 goes all away around Washington, D.C.

We stayed put for a while at the Rt. 270 and Rt. 495 interchange and then Ralph decided the heck with this! He took Rt. 495 east and went three quarters around the beltway of Rt. 495 to Rt. 95 adding 40 miles to our trip. It was worth it because we were at least cruising the speed limit.

Originally we would have taken Rt. 495 West to Rt. 95 and would have only had to go around 1/4 way around the Rt. 495 beltway to Rt. 95 and head south.

Here we are heading into the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel in Virginia. The HRBT goes under the Chesapeake Bay and is 3.5 miles long and was built  in 1957.

We got down to Norfolk, VA. and hit a major traffic jam in the early afternoon. We sat in traffic for for 3 hours and went a big 2 miles. They police were getting all 3 lanes of traffic off of Rt. 95.

Not knowing the area at all, we did not want to try and figure out how to get around the massive gridlock and back on Rt. 95 since we did how many miles of highway were shut down. By this time we had enough of being in the middle of this east coast area traffic hell so we decided just to pull into a nice convenience store for a while and maybe for the night.

Ralph fixed himself a well deserved adult beverage and we both chilled out.

We ended up walking to a small truck stop where we got a bite to eat and just relaxed. One of the waitress's told us her normally 20 minute drive to work, took her 2 hours today because of the accident.

When we got back to the convenience store, I met some workers that were filling up their Virginia state truck. I asked them about Rt. 95 and they said it was open and traffic was moving.

So we decided to hit the road and try to make it to our friends house in Powell's Point, N.C. But first we called Kevin and Laura to make sure we would not have any trouble arriving in the dark since we didn't know the roads in their neighborhood. They said we would have no problem since their home was at the end of a cul-de-sac and we could just park there for the night and back in their driveway in the morning.

Finally we arrived at 8:00 p.m. It took us 11 hours to drive 320 miles including our 2 hour lay over! We pulled our rolling home into the cul-de-sac and got to visit for a couple of hours before we all turned in for the night.

Kevin and Laura have been our wonderful friends for many years. Back in Maryland, their farm was just a few miles from our farm and Kevin was our farrier, other wise known as a horse shoer.

We had many years of fun adventures horseback riding. Our adventures included many exciting horse camping trips. We could write a book on the practical jokes we played on each other and the things that happened, but folks just would not believe it.

We had dozens of horse friends that we would get together with every month and go horse camping. One of our rules was that if anyone fell off, they would have to bring dessert to the next horse camping trip. Needless to say, we had several desserts at every camping trip.

Just a year before we sold our farm for the "full timing life", Kevin and Laura sold their farm and headed to Kill Devil Hills, N.C. They had a beautiful home on the canal.

Because of the stormy weather they dealt with over the years, they decided to sell that home and build a beautiful home more inland in the town of Powell's Point.

On Friday, October 9th, we backed into their driveway and set up our home. Laura headed off to work early, she works as an Administrator at a hospital in town. We got to visit with Kevin before he went off to shoe horses. Kevin is retired from a police department back in Maryland.

They just moved into their home the week before we arrived and still where in the process of unpacking boxes. But the most important room in the house was unpacked and that was the kitchen!

We babysat their two dogs, Ella and Gracie. Both came from a rescue and they kept us on our toes. Ella was like a mischievous child.

Gracie is a big black Newfoundland-Labrador mix.

Finally, rambunctious Ella took a nap.

We both tried our best, but we could not figure out how to use this new computerized contraption of a washing machine. We just laughed as we tried to figure it out and had to wait for Kevin to get home and show us.

 We had happy hour in the afternoon and I fixed a drink for us gals called a Mudslide. It contained Vodka, Kahlua, Irish Cream and Half and Half. Of course I lined the inside of the glass with Hershey's chocolate syrup and added ice cream, whipped cream and garnished it with shaved chocolate. We were in heaven. The fellas had Royal Crown.

We just ate and drank until our hearts content all weekend and reminisce about our life with horses. We laughed and laughed and so enjoyed talking about our adventures.

Kevin has a muscle car that he restored. It is a 1966 Chevy II. The motor is 600 plus of horse power. It will lift the front end off the ground. Kevin named the car "Nasty".  I wish I would have taken pictures of the outside of Nasty.

They both became 18 years old again. Boys and their toys.

Lap Dogs.

Kevin has a side business of pressure washing homes, boats, decks and etc. His commercial pressure washer and the commercial grade detergent made our RV and truck shine. 

When Ralph and I wash our RV and truck, we don't get near the dirt and grime that this pressure washer and the commercial grade detergent got off. We had a lot of that Maryland Red Clay that was now like caked concrete all up inside the wheel wells and it just came off with ease.

Their home is beautiful. They will be doing the landscaping soon and still have boxes in their garage to unpack.

In a dogs mind, we are nothing but a piece of furniture for them to lay on.

On Tuesday, October 13th, Laura headed off to work. We said our goodbyes and soon hitched up for our next adventure!

The scenery was beautiful as we passed through Nags Head, N.C.

Until next time, we will see you down the road and Happy Trails to All............