Trip is over

On Saturday we arrived in Saginaw to visit with our daughter Marci and husband Gene, son Steve and wife Bonnie and great granddaughter Braylin. We had diner and got home around 9, exhausted.
Sunday brought Dawn, Marci and Gene, Andrew, Taryn and new great granddaughter Kailyx. Marci & Gene made a big taco salad and we watched the Steeler's beat the down and out Colts. It was not a pretty game, but we won.
We are so fortunate to have such a loving family, both on the east coast and in Texas.
Or friends, Jim and Dixie ask us if we wanted to go to Alaska, again, next summer. What do you think we said?
Until then, I sign off and thank you for your comments.

Back in Texas

Today we are camping in BEAUMONT, TEXAS. A GREAT CAMPGROUND. THEY SERVICE A CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST. TOMORROW WE HEAD TO SAN ANTINIO TO VISIT Jim and Dixie. HeADING FOR HOME ON SUNDAY. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SINCE WE STARTED THE TRIP, THAT I ACTUALLY HAVE WIFI. LIFE IS GOOD.

Sept. 19, 2011

We are in Slidell, LA, and heading for San Antonio, Wednesday. Sorry about the lack of pictures. This is the first time in a week we have been able to download and use email. It is raining and humid. While we have a chance, Gene is doing a load of wash.
Hope some of this rain went through Dallas.

Sept. 14, 2011

Brailynn’s 2nd birthday is today the 14th of September. I don’t know if I mentioned Andrew and Taryn had baby girl, “Kailyx” last week. Family life is hectic in there home.They are both going to school and having to take care of 2 kids.


We decided to stay at the campground and relax and hike on Friday. Hiking up King Mountain was very good exercise with the weather at 56 degrees. On top of the mountain we got some cell phone service so we called Jim & Dixie to let them know when we will get to San Antonio. In the afternoon we drove to the Town of King Mountain and made some phone calls. There is no cell phone service at the campground.
Hope to drive to the west side of Atlanta tomorrow

Another blowout

We got on the road after a large breakfast and went only about 50 miles when we had another blowout on a trailer tire. The left front tire broke the gas lines, so no refrigerator, stove, hot water heater, etc. Gene quickly turned the propane off and changed the tire himself. We have road service but they said it would take almost 2 hours to get someone to come. It was the first really hot day we had experienced in a long while. So Gene changed the tire and we were steered to the first campground with electricity so we did not loose our food in the frig. It happened to be Kings Mountain National Military Park and State Park, in Blacksburg, SC. Come to find out it is an American Revolutionary War park.

“By 1780 the northern campaign of the war had been fought to a stalemate and England turned its military strategy toward the South. The tactic seemed simple: re-establish the southern royal colonies, march north and join loyalist troops at the Chesapeake Bay, and claim the seaboard. But a sudden battle in the wilderness exposed the folly of England’s scheme and changed the course of the nation”.

Neither of us remembered the Revolution coming this far south.
The visitor center and museum was very informative but we got there an hour before it closed so, we could not walk the grounds and hope to go back tomorrow after Gene fixes the damages on the trailer.

The Ponderosa Pines in the camper ground and park are massive, about 100ft. They had a tornado in this area in the spring and it knocked over some very large trees.large trees

Gene has been working all morning and we are late into the afternoon. He is replumbing the gas lines routed them so they are not near the wheels. Rain is coming this evening and he hopes to finish before the rain. If we had to break down we could not find a better place.

New Jersey

After leaving New Jersey we drove to North Carolina to see friends Kermit & Priscilla Nabors and stayed overnight. The Nabors where are neighbors 30yrs ago in Texas. It felt like we just picked up a conversation with out time passing. They have had a great tragedy in their lives. We felt being there gave them support. It was a good visit. Pictures will not up load.

September 14, 2011

Since last I posted, we were going to leave Becket, after a wonderful 2 months with family, on Wednesday, the 7th of Sept. Well, plans are meant to change and that we did. There was torrential rains onWed. & Thurs. and more flooding so we did not leave until Friday. We drove to New Jersey and met our friend Lorraine and spent the night with her and saw her African Safari pictures. Backing up a little, we got a call from our friends Jim & Dixie asking us if we would like to plan a trip to Africa. After much discussion, we all decided to go on a tented safari on the Serengeti. So, Lorraine’s pictures had much importance to us. We leave in Feb. and should see the mass migrations of wildebeest.

Picture of Emilyn

She has found her nose.

The past week

The past week, Monday, we drove to New Hampshire to see our friend Anne. She had had surgery on her lung to remove a cancerous growth. It was great seeing her and found out later in the week that there was no cancer in her lymph nodes and the doctors feel they got it all.

We took the train on Wednesday to Boston with Norene. After lunch she was able to make a connection to the airport to catch a plane home to Florida. We went back to Becket.

Sunday, on Labor Day weekend we had a surprise birthday party for Alan’s 30th, over at Bambi and Jim’s house. It has been great to be able to spend more time with the family this year.

Monday we spent time with Joan and Earl. Joan was generous with her garden produce. Can’t wait to make cucumber and tomato salads. It has poured rain from this afternoon into the evening. Hope the rivers and streams have had time to abate to handle the additional water. We heard that Mark has to evacuate the camp grounds again. Roads are flooding. Let's see if we can drag some of this rain to Texas.
Spoke to Ellen in Austin and Joan and Frank in Leander, both have the fires close to them.

We will be leaving the New England area and will be heading towards home on Wednesday. There are friends we are going to try and see on the way home. They live in New Jersey and North Carolina.

Irene

July 28
Hurricane Irene visited us. Most of the roads we drove on last night where washed out. A lot of the roads in Sherwood Forest, where we were staying are washed out. We were moved not able to get to Lee or Pittsfield till late in the afternoon.
Last pictures were the road to the camping area and the playground had 5 ft of water.

wedding

The wedding

July 27,
Bambi and Jim’s wedding was a fantastic event. It was catered at the Hills Country Club in Waterbury, CT… They had an open bar that led to everyone loosing up . It was so nice to see most of the family together, dancing, laughing and having a great time.
Mike gave BAmbi away. Norene and Mark. Bambi, Our table, Jim the grome

Rhode Island

Following weekend we went to Rhode Island to visit Gene’s sister Betty and Brother Donnie and all Betty’s and Johns family. Their kids, kids kids, etc. We went to a beautiful light house in Narragansett and ate at Iggy’s, which is a great little fish restaurant off the beach. We had baked fish and clam chowder, along with their famous crab cakes. Diner was outside under the trees with a cool ocean breeze adding to the ambiance. We also visited Beavertail Lighthouse the 3rd oldest in the America’s.
All the Begin family managed to make it down for the weekend and the first day Gene’s sister Joan was with us. Surprisingly the weather was great all weekend since rain was predicted. We visited some rock beaches and watched the sail boats going out from the bay.
As we drove home the rain came down and we talked of the great time we had.

Reunion

FAMILY REUNIONDawn and Jeff arrived from Texas on Aug. 11, and surprised us getting to the campground early. Since we found that Jackie’s pop up trailer had some major water problems, we decided to have Jeff and Dawn stay in our camper. Dawn was so funny when she first arrived she was so thrilled with the cool weather and that we could sit outside at the picnic table. After about an hour she went in and got her zippered hoodie. After about another hour she went in for a sweatshirt to put under the hoodie. She had experienced a more than 50 degree temperature change in just a few hours. Jeff on the other hand went into the trailer and took a nap. He had been working long hours the past few days.The reunion was great with a majority of our kids, their kids, grandkids and great grandkids and families. The weather was great all weekend then monday morning it poured. Most everyone got out before the rain on Sunday night. Monday Laurie and 3 of her kids, along with Dawn, Jeff, Norene, so we had a breakfast in our trailer for 9 or so of the family and let them dry off.  We then sent them on their way, two to the airport and the rest home to Connecticut.
sorry pictures will not download properly.

AUGUST HAPPY BIRTHDAY'S

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO; DAWN, MARK, ANDREA, BONNIE, KURT, MARISTA

PICTURES OF TANGLEWOOD

Another Week in the Berkshires

OUR WEEK WAS A BUSY ONE. TICKETS WERE BOUGHT FOR A TANGLEWOOD CONCERT ON THURSDAY FOR A CONCERT ON TUESDAY AUG. 2. ON SATURDAY WE PLAYED RUMMY WITH KRISTA AND LAURIE AND THEN WE WERE TAKEN OUT TO DINER BY DANILLE AND GENE ON FRIDAY AND THEN LAURE, MIKE AND KRISTA TOOK US TO DINER ALONG WITH BAMBI, JIM AND KIDS ON SATURDAY.
GENE, DANIELLE, MARK, JOAN, KIT, GENE & I HEADED FOR BOSTON AGAIN ON THURSDAY THE 28TH. FOUR OF US WENT ON A WHALE WATCH AND THE FIRST THREE WENT ON A BUS TOUR OF BOSTON. I TOLD GENE NOT LET ME GO ON A BOAT AGAIN. I HAD THE PATCH ON, DRAMINE, AND BONINE AND STILL GOT SICK. THERE WHERE A LOT OF HUMBACK WHALES BUT THE BOAT WAS TO FULL TO WALK FROM ONE SIDE TO OF THE OTHER TO SEE ANYTHING. IT WAS ONLY WHERE WE WERE STANDING. OUR VIEW WAS LIMITED. BESIDES THAT I WAS TRYING TO KEEP FROM GETTING SICK. NEVER AGAIN…
TUESDAY, AUG. 2 WE WENT TO THE TANGLEWOOD MUSIC CENTER FOR AN AMAZING DAY OF MUSIC AND SINGING. WE ARIVED AT 2:00 PM AND WENT TO THE BEAUTIFUL OZAWA HALL TO HEAR BEETHOVAN AND DVORAK. GENE & I WALKED THE BEAUTIFUL GROUNDS AND WAITED FOR THE BIG SHOW AT 8PM. THERE WAS MUSIC BY THE CENTER ORCHESTRA, BOSTON SYMPHONY AND BOSTON POPS ORCHESTRA’S. WHAT AMAZING SOUNDS CAME FROM THE LARGE ORCHESTRA’S? THE BIG SHOW WAS WAGNER’MEISTERSINGER’S OVERTURE, VAUGHAN WILLIAMS WITH 16 SOLO VOICES, TCHAIKOVSKY’S ROMEO & JULIET OVERATURE, WITH MORE OF JOHN WILLIAMS PIECES, INCLUDING E.T., AND THE BIG FINALLY WAS TCHAIKOVSKY’S 1812 OVERTURE INCLUDING THE CANYONS. THE DESERT WAS A SPECTACULAR FIREWORKS SHOW. AS WE WERE LEAVING GENE SAID “HOW CAN WE TOP THIS”. SORRY, THE WEATHER WAS PERFECT. MAYBE LOW 80’S WITH A BREEZE THAT GAVE ME CHILLS.
GLEN, HAVE YOU BEEN HERE?
ENJOY HEARING FROM THE BROOKHAVEN GANG. HOPE YOU ARE STAYING COOL.
BY THE WAY THE CAPSLOCK KEY IS STUCK.

Week ending July 24

Week ending July 24, 2011

OK you jealous friends and family. It has gotten HOT in the Berkshire’s high to mid 90’s with very high humid and poor air quality. So what did we do yesterday, took a drive of 100 miles to take the train to Boston. Gene, Mark, and Gene & I trudged the historic areas on the Freedom Trail. From the Boston Common to Paul Revere’s house, Faneuil Hall, The Old North Church and the Granary Burial Ground. We learned the difference between a burial ground and cemetery. A cemetery is orderly graves where as the burial ground bodies are placed where ever, different directions and then they where buried on top of one another. Our tour guide was dressed in period clothes and was an actor who spoke in the old English language.
Saturday we went to our granddaughter Bambi & her fiancee Jim’s shower/bachelor party. They are getting married August 27. Had a great time and will go down there next Sat. and go out to dinner with a large group of family.
We then drove to Gene’s twin sister Joan’s house. Chatted about what was going on with other family members. We are hoping Joan is able to go with us on a whale watching trip out of Boston on Thursday.

Week of July

Week ending July 24, 2011

OK you jealous friends and family. It has gotten HOT in the Berkshire’s high to mid 90’s with very high humid and poor air quality. So what did we do yesterday, took a drive of 100 miles to take the train to Boston. Gene, Mark, and Gene & I trudged the historic areas on the Freedom Trail. From the Boston Common to Paul Revere’s house, Faneuil Hall, The Old North Church and the Granary Burial Ground. We learned the difference between a burial ground and cemetery. A cemetery is orderly graves where as the burial ground bodies are placed where ever, different directions and then they where buried on top of one another. Our tour guide was dressed in period clothes and was an actor who spoke in the old English language.
Saturday we went to our granddaughter Bambi & Jim’s shower party. They are getting married August 27. Had a great time and will go down there next Sat. and go out to dinner with a large group of family.
We then drove to Gene’s twin sister Joan’s house. Chatted about what was going on with outher family members. Joan is hoping to go down to Boston with us to go whale watching Thursday.

Week of July

Week ending July 24, 2011

OK you jealous friends and family. It has gotten HOT in the Berkshire’s high to mid 90’s with very high humid and poor air quality. So what did we do yesterday, took a drive of 100 miles to take the train to Boston. Gene, Mark, and Gene & I trudged the historic areas on the Freedom Trail. From the Boston Common to Paul Revere’s house, Faneuil Hall, The Old North Church and the Granary Burial Ground. We learned the difference between a burial ground and cemetery. A cemetery is orderly graves where as the burial ground bodies are placed where ever, different directions and then they where buried on top of one another. Our tour guide was dressed in period clothes and was an actor who spoke in the old English language.
Saturday we went to our granddaughter Bambi & Jim’s shower party. They are getting married August 27. Had a great time and will go down there next Sat. and go out to dinner with a large group of family.
We then drove to Gene’s twin sister Joan’s house. Chatted about what was going on with outher family members. Joan is hoping to go down to Boston with us to go whale watching Thursday.

Ohio

June 29 we camped at Delaware State Park in Ohio. Great spot. Sites far apart in woods. First time we camped and did not need air conditioning. We went for a hike about 3:00pm. Temps were in the low 80's. Park was so quite we slept in.
June 30 The Football Hall of Fame. It had mostly static displays and a few touch screen TVs. No football atmosphere. What a disappointment. Maybe if we had not been to the Baseball Hall of Fame we would have thought it was OK. The Baseball out shown the Football.
We have been in the Cool Berkshire Mt's for the past 2 weeks. Lows are in the 50's and highs in the low to mid 80's. I feel so sorry for my Texas family and friends.
I have been reading books by...Mary Higgins Clark, John Grisham, and Clive Cussler. Now I changed to a book about the Salem Witch era. The story starts in Billerica, Mass., a town we lived in for 8yrs. Just getting into the story.
We have been to Conn. to see family and phoned our friend Anne in NH. We are looking forward to the reunion and wedding in August.
I do miss our Texas family and friends.
Just stay cool...

on the road again!

We are on the road again, but I will not be able to keep a complete blog. My surgery for a torn rotator cuff was not successful, so it is hard to type.
I will just be sending notes at intervals.
On June 21st we left Texas and drove to Shiloh Civil War Battlegrounds in Tenn. We visited the Indian mounds there and a museum. Still to hot.
Left Tenn. and camped in Ky. On our way to Lexington, Ky. we had a blowout on the trailer. We seem to have to buy a tire a trip. Gene noticed the tire that blew was made in China.
Camping in Versailles, Ky. and bought a new tire and drove around looking at the beautiful horse ranches with barns bigger than most homes. Quite a few Derby winners were sired hear.
7/28 we toured the Wild Turkey bourbon disterlies near here and had samples. Picked a road and found a house built by Frank Lloyd Wright, 1924, and a famous candy store where they make bourbon balls.
Next we are heading for Ohio and will be at the Football Hall of Fame in a few days.