Just some pictures

Taylor & Mandi

Mimi, Madie & Taylor

Bella
Snickers
Noah
Kate
Playhouse
Ally & Family
The girls with balloons
Snuggles

returning to virginia 11-29-10

We left Georgia early on Monday morning 11-29 and headed to Greer SC. It was raining off and on all day and predicted to continue which it did all during the night so we decided to just come on home on Tuesday instead of staying and "paddling" around in the rain to look at things. So glad we did as the weather in Virginia on Tuesday night was BAD. Lots of wind, rain and even a tornado or two around so we were glad we got home in the afternoon before that hit. We just unloaded what was need out of the "bus" and left the rest until later. Neither of us slept much as the weather radio kept going off with warnings. Wednesday was go get two weeks worth of mail, mostly JUNK and get the rest of the bus unpacked. We have a few things that need to be done to the bus before we leave for Florida in early January.
Still need to do some shopping but that is going to have to wait until next week.
Ally has had a tough time since Sunday. Her darling cat, Snuggles, died . She was 16 1/2 years old and had been having lots of health issues over the last few years but it is still so hard to lose a pet. They become family members and she was SPECIAL. We all loved her and will miss her greatly.

Time in Georgia November 2010

Okay, it is Saturday Nov 27, 2010 and I do not know where the time has gone since I last updated this Blog. I do however know that Larry and I both have had a great time but are TIRED.
We arrived in Bainbridge on tuesday the 16th of November and started running the minute we got the "bus" parked.
Carolyn (cousin) and I started off that afternoon by going to buy some pecans for us to take back to Virginia with us. Several other errands, some of which were to pickup wedding gifts for Keith and LeeAnn.
Wednesday found us getting ready to decorate for the rehersal dinner on Friday night. Carolyn had done a fine job of getting everything together plus lots of people to help us. We worked hard on wednesday, thursday and friday getting everything done. It was a huge success. By the way I actually stayed up until 1 am helping get everything cleaned up.
Saturday (11-20-20) was the big day . The wedding was at 6 pm. Everything went according to plan and it was BEAUTIFUL. Off to the reception at the Kirbo Center along with Ally and Doug who had arrived that afternoon.
It was 1:30 am when I got to bed this time.
Sunday we went to a brunch at the Holiday Inn and were surprised to see Margaret Farnell Hill, who is also a cousin of mine, whom we had not seen in several years.
After that Ally wanted to go to the cementery and just ride around the area , since she had not been here in several years.
Back to Carolyn and Keiths house to visit with lots more family and during the course of the evening we found out that Ally is pregnant. She and Doug are excited about becoming parents again in June. This will be our 6th grandchild.
Next we planned for Thanksgiving and of course we had plenty of food.
Yesterday, friday, we all CRASHED. I think everything has either been put away, returned or whatever.
Today, Larry, Carolyn and I went to Climax, Georgia to Swine Time. Now don't ask why they call it that but it was fun., Just lots of people, crafts, food, etc. Two main things, syrup cooking and cooked chittlens. Now I have never eaten chittlens and don't think I will ever eat them.
Now we are waiting for Larry and MaryJane Phillips, our friends from Texas to come over to visit. They are in Thomasville, Ga. visiting relatives.
We plan to leave on Monday morning heading back to Virginia with a stop in Greer SC with to see Bill and Deb Dorris again.

Trip to Georgia

Had a wonderful time in Greer SC with Bill and Deb Dorris and now we are in Cordele Georgia at a WalMart for the night(Monday 11-15) with about 99miles to go tomorrow to get to Bainbridge. We are all excited about the upcoming wedding on Saturday.
Larry is doing fine with driving and he laughed today saying it has taken us 3 days to get this far. Well, who is in a hurry? That is the beauty of being retired and traveling in a motorhome.
Later

READY to TRAVEL 11-12-10

The Big A Bus is ready to roll. We are leaving sometime mid morning tomorrow and heading to Bainbridge, Georgia . We will stop and spend a couple of night with our friends Bill & Deb Dorris in the Greenville SC area and then get to Bainbridge on Tuesday to start helping prepare for the wedding of Keith Newberry,Jr. The wedding is on Saturday (20th) and we plan to stay for Thanksgiving. It has been a long time since we have been in Georgia for Thanksgiving and I am looking forward to spending it with my cousins. The older we get the more important family becomes .
I will try and keep you posted on our activities.
Oh by the way, Larry is doing great. After our trip to the specialist last week, changing of medications, and knowing that it is asthma we are moving right along. He has been a month now without smoking. YEAH for him.

Wednesday 11-3-10

We are in Williamsburg, Va. with Donna and Chuck Tolson, checking out campgrounds for our 2011 Discovery Rally. Yesterday we checked out campgrounds and now know which one the Rally will be held at and the dates for it in 2011. Actually after checking into the KOA in Williamsburg there was no decision to be made, we knew we WERE NOT having it here. So disappointed with the facilities. We will go to American Hertiage Campground which is so much better. After trying to get setup here at the KOA, changing sites due to not being able to get the coach level, then we had a problem with the electricity.
Today Chuck and Larry went to Jamestown to check out the visitors center and Donna and I went shopping at the Prime Outlets and had a great day. Got some Christmas present and bought shoes for me. Met the guys for lunch, went shopping somemore while the guys came back to the motorhomes and had naps. Suppose to rain tonight and tomorrow so we will probably have a wet ride home but oh well.
Larry goes to the specialist on Friday for his breathing problems. Hope to get some answers for his cough.

Later

Update on Larry 10-24-10

Larry is feeling much better but certainly not back to whatever "normal" is for us old folks. We will see the specialist on Nov 5th(change of appointments) and hopefully by then he can cut out doing the breathing treatments so often but only time will tell. He has NOT had a cigarette in over a week and I am certainly praying that he continues to NOT smoke. We haven't had any harsh words yet just a little snippy or snappy at times but we can live with that.

OOPS---Big A Bus back in Louisa, Va.

Well, unfortunately the Big A Bus did not make it to North Carolina.
Larry has not been feeling the greatest since July but he is NOT a complainer so he just kept going.
We went to the Va. State Samboree in Harrisonburg, Va. on wednesday and parked rigs all day on Thursday. That night he was having more problems with coughing and at 5 am Friday morning I gave up and called 911. To make a long story short he was in the hospital until yesterday (sunday) and has been told that he has COPD and needs to see a specialist. I am so thankful that we can now get to the "root" of the problem.
We have a wonderful support group of RV friends so everyone came to the rescue. Jim Matheny drove the motorhome back to Lousia, his wife Linda, drove me home and we did the drug store thing and got what he needed to survice until we can get into a specialist on Nov. 4th.
Thanks to a wonderful support group I was able to keep from falling apart. You know when you have been married for 48 years,(almost) it really makes you stop and think, I can't live without this man.
I will try and keep this blog updated.

Back on the Road 10-13-10

It is time for the Big A Bus to get back on the road.
We just got back home on Monday pm after being in Indianapolis for about 5 days. The week before that I had been at Bry and Julie's house with Taylor and Madie while B&J went to Hawaii.
We left home this morning heading to Harrisonburg, Va. for the Virginia State Samboree at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds. We should have about 155 rigs before Friday night. Unfortunately it is suppose to rain tonight and allday Thursday which should be just wonderful for us on the parking crew.
Saturday morning Lar and I will be leaving along with Linda and Jim Matheny heading to LeNoir NC to do a 2 week Habitat for Humanity Build.
We will keep you informed about our travels.

Catch up with our adventures 9-28-10

The bus has been in the barn since we came back from the beach in August. This past weekend 9-24-10 we did go with our camping group to Luray, Va. It was hot as it has been all summer but did cool off a little at night. We had 10 rigs and had lots of good food as usual. We came back on Sunday afternoon and yesterday I got my things in order and came up to Bry and Julie's to stay with their girls until next Monday. Bryant had a business trip to Hawaii and he took Julie with him. They left this morning around 4:30 so as you can imagine I have not been back to sleep as we had to get Madie to school and now that Taylor is driving she gets herself up and out the door. Julie called and they were in Atlanta and should be leaving there shortly .

This is Homecoming Week at school for Taylor, who is on the Dance Team , so she will be busy with activities after school. Friday night is a football game and Saturday is a Dance. Larry is coming up on Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with us and then go home on Sunday afternoon to get things in order for us to go to Indy on Wednesday. We will be there until Monday (11th), come back to Va. and then head to the Virginia State Samboree on Wednesday and then on to LeNoir NC on Saturday to do a 2 week Habitat Build. After that we have a trip to Georgia planned for November 15th, back to Indy for Thanksgiving , back to Virginia until after Christmas and then to Florida for more building. Yes, I know, we never STOP but that is what keeps us going.

I wil

Traveling Again

The bus traveled to Harbor View Campground at Oak Grove Va for the weekend of August 21st with the ODC camping club.

We had a great weekend and then traveled on to Virginia Beach, Va. to spend the week with Bry and family and also my dear friend, Clare , from Michigan.

The "bus" is parked behind the reality company and we are in a house with a pool.

Catching up with the Big A Bus

We haven't done but one trip in the "Bus" since we came back from Indianapolis in June due to lots of different things. The heat has been just awful this summer here in Virginia. We had two couples come out the last week of June to help us work on a Habitat for Humanity house here in Louisa County and it was a good week but very hot. We started around 7 am and finished shortly after lunch everyday as none of us could take the heat.
I had eye surgery for cataracts in July and August and we have had lots of company. We did go with the ODC camping group the last week of July but it was a bad weekend due to heat and lack of good facilities at the campground so we all left early. Madison went with us and she and I still had some "Madie-Mimi time".
Bryant went to California on business decided to buy a new Harley and rode it back to Virginia abd he wonders why I have grey hair. He may be 44 years old but Mom still worries about him. He and his family are in the Tampa area this weekend visiting Julie's sister & family. He had to go on business and took them with him.
Next weekend we have a campout and then go to Virginia Beach for a week with Bry and family and my dear friend from Michigan, Clare Friend, is coming out to join us. We tired hard to work it out for Ally & family to come but baseball, tennis, army commitments etc, just didn't let that happen this year.
Julie, Tay, Madie and I went to Indy in July to visit Ally's family over a long weekend. Noah was involved in a baseball tournament and that took up lots of time but we did get pictures done at Sears with all five of the "grands". Also went to see the newest Twilight series movie.


Catch up more later.

PLAYHOUSE

Well, the last windows and the door got hung around 2 pm today (6/19) and our "butts" are dragging. Larry and I have worked well together, me being more of the gopher but he needed me to do that. I did help build and set walls. Pounding nails is getting to be "old hat".
I will post some pictures when we have time or have the energy to get them off the camara onto the computer. Larry starting priming the trim this afternoon and we will continue to paint tomorrow and Monday.
The girls and Ally are thrilled with the playhouse and Noah is already talking to Papa about wanting an addition on to his treehouse next summer.
The girls are sleeping in the MH tonight. Noah went to a baseball game with some friends and Ally and Doug are out to dinner with the Hedrick clan.
Thought I better let you guys know we were still kicking but NOT very high.
Oh I forgot we went to see Jersey Boys last night and it was Wonderful.

Indianapolis, Indiana 6-13-10

We left North Georgia on Friday morning around 9 am and had a great day of traveling. Not much traffic and just a little thunderstorm but we made a long day of it and arrive in Florence Ky, just south of the Cinninati Ohio area around 7 pm and found a wonderful Wal Mart to stay overnight in. Got up and on the road around 9 am on Saturday for the 2 1/2 hour drive to Indy which took a little longer due to RAIN and more RAIN. Arrived around noon and then it was time to hussle to a baseball game for Noah. He has grown so much and is doing a great job with baseball. His team won and then we were off to see another friend play soccer for a little while. Had dinner at the local Mexican restaurant and then had quite the thunderstorm. There were tornado warnings south of here but we just got wind, rain and lots of lightening and thunder. Larry and I said goodnite to the kids and came to the "bus" and crashed.
We are up and heading to church this morning and then who knows what the afternoon will bring. Hoping to go to Lowes to get the materials for the playhouse.

Indianapolis, Indiana 6-13-10

We left North Georgia on Friday morning around 9 am and had a great day of traveling. Not much traffic and just a little thunderstorm but we made a long day of it and arrive in Florence Ky, just south of the Cinninati Ohio area around 7 pm and found a wonderful Wal Mart to stay overnight in

Updates on travels in North Georgia

These are some pictures of Anna Ruby Falls. Two creeks come together at this point. It was a nice "little" hike up to the falls but I made it.

Today, Thursday, all of us ladies (16) to be exact had a girls day out and went shopping, looking, shopping, had lunch and are now back resting until we get our next round of food. Seems most all of these Rally include food, food and more food. I did really well though, only bought Christmas ornaments for the grandchildren for the next 2 years.

We will be leaving tomorrow heading somewhere in between here and Indiana.

Monday 6-7-10

We had a good day exploring the mountains of North Georgia. I thought on the drive from Hiawassee to Helen that we were back in Virginia on Skyline Drive. There were some curves ad more curves. As far as the little town of Helen, I was disappointed. Once you have been to Frankenmuth, Michigan there is no comparison.
Tomorrow we are doing a day trip to Anna Ruby Falls. I am told this is a wonderful place to see. May check out the Cabbage Patch Doll Factory in Cleveland, Georgia but just will wait and see.
We love being with the Discovery Club friends .

On the Road Again 6-5-10

The Big A Bus is back on the road. We left Virginia on Saturday 6-5-10 with Donna and Chuck Tolson, heading to a Discovery Rally in Hiawassee, Georgia. Now this is a part of north georgia that Larry and I have not explored so this should be fun. Tomorrow we are going into Helen, Georgia which I understand is like an Alpine Village. We will be here until Friday and then we travel to Indianapolis, Indiana to visit Ally and family and build a playhouse for the grandaughters. I had one when I was a "little" girl, which was many years ago so I am excited about helping Larry build one for them. He has already built the door and windows before we left Virginia. I will update this later and hope to post one pictures.

Starting of the ODC camping season

Our first campout of the 2010 Season was held at Virginia Beach, Virginia. Larry and I went down on Thursday with Linda and Jim Matheny. Had not seen them since Dec. 2009 so it was nice to sit and catch up on our winter travels. Friday morning we decided to do a bike ride to the beach. We rode down to the Boardwalk, had lunch, and returned to the campground to have a nap. It was 8 miles round trip. Some of the group was arriving after we had our nap and then we got together for a "happy hour" around 4:30 pm. Saturday we had a wonderful breakfast with the group and did another bike ride. This time it was 10 miles round trip. We did take time out for a lunch break at the beach. Most of the group left on sunday but 4 couples stayed over until Monday morning. We all had dinner together and enjoyed talking about future trips and past trips. The next outing will be in May at the Virginia State Samboree in Urbanna, Va.

Back In Virginia 4-4-2010

Happy Easter to everyone.
I know some of you have been checking to see if the Big A Bus is in Virginia or Indiana but we did come back to Virginia. Bry & family had some other things to do over Spring Break and just couldn't make it to Indy so we decided to come home .
Monday morning Larry and I went to visit with Tommy & Claire Wheeler, who were both teachers when we were in school. They are both 83 and still very active in church and volunteering. Tuesday we had a little "get to gather" out at Camp Newberry, as we call it, with several friends from highschool. Janice(Ward) & Roy Brewer, Elaine(McLendon) & Ricky Trammell, Elaine Barber Cowart, Austin Phillips and us, We had a wonderful time just visiting and catching up on each others lives and hope to do it again soon.Wednesday we also visited another old friend, Kenneth Cloud who is now the association missionary for the Bowen Baptist Association. I also got to visit another old friend Mary Coftey Coleman.
We left Bainbridge on Thursday and had a couple of passengers with us. Kadee Newberry and her cat Bella. Kadee is a nurse in Augusta and needed to get back to go to work that night so we took them along with us. Having Bella in the motorhome made me think it would be nice to have a cat again but Papa says NO.
We spent the night in RockHill , SC and then got to home around 4 pm on Friday. We are now trying to recover from being gone for 3 months. The house was full of dead ladybugs and flies and for the life of me I can't figure how they get in. Grass had to be cut, weeds pulled but we did not have much "winter kill" on plants as I expected after all the snow Virginia had.
Bry and family are coming out to visit this afternoon.
The Big A Bus is in the "Barn" until April 22nd when we head to Virginia Beach to camp with the Old Dominion Cardinals for our first 2010 campout.

Heading North March 28, 2010

Unfortunately it is time that The Big A Bus needs to head North. We left Naples Florida on Thursday morning and just took our time toodling on up I75. We spent the night in Lake City and then arrived in Bainbridge, Georgia on Friday afternoon. Keith was home and Carolyn was on her way from Atlanta. She had been up for meetings due to her job. She got home about 4 pm and we just visited and Keith cooked us steaks for dinner.
Saturday morning the guys went fishing, Carolyn and I did our yearly check of flowers at the cementery and went to buy some new ones. We are going down today to power wash the tombstones of her parents and our parents. Oak City Cementery is famous for it oaks and flowers but oh do those trees make a stained mess on the graves.
The buys caught some fish in the river and then came back to the pond here at their house and caught some catfish. The cleaned and cooked the fish for dinner and oh were they good.
I will add more to this Blog during the week.
We are planning on heading towards Virginia on Thursday but now Ally is trying to get Bry & Julie to come to Indy for Easter so if that happens we will be heading to Indy instead of Virginia.

Saturday March 20, 2010

Another good week in South Florida. Our friend, Janice Parsons arrived on Monday afternoon and we helped her unpack her van and spent a little time with her talking about Ralph, and the last few weeks of his life. A few tears and lots of good times remembered and now we can go forward, not saying we will forget Ralph but we need to move forward.

Tuesday we went to the Everglades and rode the 15 mile bike path through Shark Valley. We just took our time and saw lots of alligators and birds. Came back to Everglade City and had dinner at The Depot. Not the best in the world but it was food.

The rest of the week was just a multitude of different things. Shopping, Flea Markets and visiting. We did get together with several couples that were with us on the trip this past fall when we went to the balloon festival in New Mexico.

Tomorrow Donna and I are going to Ft. Meyers to the Theater to see Ciqure Dreams. I am sure I will enjoy that.

We will be leaving here next Friday morning to go up to Georgia to visit some family and friends and then on to Virginia.

I lost a very dear friend this week. Abbie Dollar, the lady who taught me to make peanut brittle, went to Heaven. She has been ill for over a month and I had prayed for God to take her home. We had been friends for about 44 years. She was a wonderful LADY.

Crystal Lake RV Resort 3-13-10

We have had a busy week here in South Florida. It has finally decided to warm up and most of the week was nice and sunny. Donna Tolson and I spent some time shopping but also enjoying being outside. Larry and I have been using our bicycles a lot as we plan to drive down to The Everglades National Park to Shark Valley on Tuesday and do a 15 mile round trip on the bikes. Both of us have some sore muscles but that is good for us.

We have been just enjoying relaxing some, reading, eating a lot and catching up with people that we have met before here in the park.

Tomorrow is a Memorial Service for those people who have passed away since last season and we plan to go to honor our friend, Ralph Parsons, who died in Feb 2010. His wife Janice will be here next week and we plan to spend sometime with her.

DISNEY march 1 2010

These are some of the pictures we took on Monday at the Magic Kingdom. Larry and I drove over to Orlando to meet Ally and family on Sunday after 2/28/10. We actually arrived about 10 minutes apart. They had rented a 3 bedroom condo and asked us to come and stay a couple of nights with them and go with the grandkids to the Magic Kingdom on Monday. As most of you know the weather in Florida or anywhere else for that matter has not been the greatest this year but let me tell you Monday, God looked upon us and we had the most beautiful blue skies, temps around 70 and it was great.We did lots of things in the park but Bella liked "The Party" the best. This was the musical program out in front of the Castle with lots of the character. Especially Mickey and Minnie.

We left the park around 5:15pm and went to the condo for the girls to change into their Princess dresses so we could go have dinner at the Grand Floridian with Cinderella, the Prince, stepmother and stepsisters. After dinner we rode the "toot toot" as Noah called it when he went to Disney the first time, to see the lights on the castle in the Magic Kingdom. All in all it was a great day but we were all ready for bed by 11pm. Larry and I left on Tuesday morning and came back to Dade City to get the motorhome and left on Wednesday to travel to Naples for the month of March We arrived in the afternoon after stopping outside of Sarasota to catch up with a friend from Michigan, Barney Rogers. He lost his wife, Jodi a few years ago and has now found a wonderful woman , Laura and they plan to marry in June. Thursday and Friday was spent with Tolsons and doing things are the park Today, we just did a few things here at the motorhome and I did find a garage sale with Longenberger Baskets for sale.

I spent the afternoon sitting outside reading while Larry took a nap and then we went out with 3 other couples to eat "ribs" at one of the favorite places here.

More next weekend.

Final Week of Feb Build 2010

We have had a great week working with a group of College Students from Concordia College in Minnesota. What a great group of young people. They were on Spring Break and rode on a bus for 36 hours to get here. They did have fun and were able to go to Disney on Wednesday to MGM for the day but the other 4 days they WORKED. We got the house completely "Dried in" so now it is ready for the drywall.. Thursday night all of us Care A Vanners and some of the other volunteers and their wives fixed a Chili Supper for the group. As usual we had lots of food and a really good time.Several of the kids entertained us with singing and also playing the piano. Friday evening all the Care A Vanners went to dinner at Beef o Bradys for our celebration and "so long not goodbye" dinner. Everyone had a great time and then we came back to the camping area and had a fire and enjoyed somores and good converation. Several of the group left this morning either heading home or on to another Build. We will be going over to Disney tomorrow to meet with Ally & family and go to the Magic Kingdom on Monday. After that we can say we have been with all 5 grandkids. We will come back here and pickup the coach on Tuesday and head to Naples, Florida on Wednesday to have some rest and relaxing for a while. We plan to go back to Virgina sometime after it decides that it is NOT going to snow again. We have had a really great experience being team leaders on these two Care a Vanner Builds and hope to continue to do this work.

Saturday, Feb 20, 2010

We have had an interesting week.
First of all Larry and I had sad news from Virginia. Our dear friend, Ralph Parsons, who was battling ALS passed away on Monday afternoon. We have only known Ralph & Janice for about 6 years but you know how you meet someone for such a short time and they have such an influence on your life? Well, Ralph was just that kind of person. A gentle giant of a man. Janice called us to tell us that Ralph was dying about 30 minutes before he died. Ralph was a retired Army Colonel and his Blog was Eagles in Flight. After his last camping trip with our group he stated in his blog that his wings were clipped but he was not grounded. Sunday afternoon before he died on Monday there were 2 bald eagles flying around our camping area here in Dade City, Florida. Now other people said they had seen them before but Larry and I had not so we now know that was a sign from Ralph telling us he was soaring to new places.
The rest of the week has gone rather smoothly with getting the outside walls up on the new house over in a different location. I spent a lot of time transporting people, tools, and food . We had some painting to do here at the original jobsite but this next week I think we will all be working over at the new site.
Tomorrow about 9 of us are going to church with Erma. We also have a group of college students coming in to work this next week and we plan to have a dinner for them one night if they want us to.
we have one more week here with the care a vanners and then we are going to Disney with Ally(our daughter) and family and then on down further South to Naples for a while before we go back to Virginia.

Saturday-- Feb 13th 2010 --- Week of Feb 7-14

Today is a very special day. Our oldest grandchild , Emily Taylor Halstead,turned 16 today and it is very hard to believe .

We have had rain, cold, wind and not so nice weather this week and had a couple of NO WORK days but it is still better than what has been happening in Virginia.

Our next Care A Vanner Build starts officially tomorrow with an Orientation Meeting at 5 pm and then no work on Monday due to Presidents Day and then on Tuesday here we go for 2 weeks. We have some people who were here on the January Build and some new people, whom we have never worked with before, but we know it will be fine.

Rosalee picked up her new coach yesterday so everyone has been wanting to have a tour today., Larry is conducting motorhome school with her which will be on going until we leave the first of March.

Not much else happening around Dade City but I am sure things will continue to be interesting.

Week of Feb 1, 2010

Hard to believe that February 2010 is already here. Happy Birthday to all my February family members and friends.

We started back to work on Monday , Feb 1st, and have had an interesting week. It rained us out Monday afternoon so we went to the movies to see The Blind Side , which was a great movie. If you haven't seen it you SHOULD. Tuesday morning was another rainy day so we did not work and Rosalie, one of the other Care A Vanners and I went to another movie, "It's Complicated" and it is a definite must see for us girls. I burned a lot of calories laughing.

Finally we had nice work days on Wednesday and Thursday and got a lot accomplished. Friday morning was a good work day and then here came the rain again. Got some cleaning done in the motorhome in the afternoon and then a group of us went out to dinner for the Friday night all you can eat fish at Tom's.

Saturday morning we got up and went to Lazydays . Now some of you might know what Lazydays is but some don't so I will tell you. One of the largest RV Dealers in Florida. NO, we were not shopping for a new motorhome but a friend was and wanted us to be with her for advice. We found a nice salesman and looked at lots of rigs for her and hopefully she will decide soon what she is going to do. More on this later.

Tomorrow we have friends from Michigan coming over to visit. Gerry Cawthra and her friend Bill. It has been a long time since we have seen them.

Later we will be watching the Super Bowl and not talking to each other as Larry is cheering for the Saints and I am cheering for the COLTS. Bry and Ally have a family fued going but just in fun, I hope. She sent him a present of Colts memborbilia to help him get into the spirit of the game but I don't think it is going to work, he is cheering for the Saints.

More later

Week of Jan 25, 2010

Monday was a work day in Dade City and then on Tuesday we packed up the Bus and headed down to Tampa, about 23 miles , to Lazydays, which we had been to before. It is a large dealership of Rv's with a camping area. We came here for some R&R and also to attend a Rally of Fleetwood Owners, which is a club for people who own the different brands of motorhomes made by Fleetwood. We have met some new friends from NC and lots of other aquaintence. Saw a couple from Selmer Tn., at knows people we know. It is a small world.
On a sad note my Aunt Juanita Boyett Humphrey died this week. She was married to my Mom's baby brother and was the last of that generation. Several of my cousins and I have had " good cries" this week while remembering all the good times we had with Aunt Nita.
We have had good food, good entertainment here and also been to "Parksdale" to get strawberry milkshakes. Plant City if known for growing strawberries.
Tomorrow we will move back up to Dade City and work for 2 weeks before the next group of RV Care A Vanners come in for another 2 week build. We will finish building on Feb 26th and then Larry and I are going to Disney to meet Ally and family for a few days. After that we will go to Naples for somemore R&R and hope to get in a trip to Key West with Donna and Chuck by way of a boat that leaves from Naples or Marco Island and stay one night there.
Last night we went to Catfish Willies for dinner with my cousin Janice and her husband. Then we went back to their house and visited until almost 11pm. Jan and I grew up together in Georgia. Our moms were sisters.
I will try and post some pictures later.

End of 1st Care A Vanner Build 1-22-10

We have had a wonderful 2 weeks building in Dade City, Florida. As you already know the first few days were COLD but it has warmed up and things got done. We got a house framed, roof truss up and braced and now we are ready for the next group to put the sheeting on for the roof to be shingled. Sliding was done on another house , fencing put up around a house, and fun was had by all. We laughed a lot, ATE a lot and just generally had a good time. Last evening 1/22 we had a hot dog, brat, Potluck with all the trimming included Jerry Bos(from Zeeland Michign) wife Sara's famous lemon pie & lemon bars at she makes from the lemons on the tree in their yard down here. We measure Builds by the number of pounds people gain and I think this one could be a 10 pound build. We have had lots of wonderful food.

Larry and I certainly enjoyed being the Team Leaders for this group but didn't get to do a lot of work ourselves as far as building as we have to make sure everyone else has something to do.

We hate to see people leave today but know that we will get another good group in to do more work next week. It is not an organized build but people can just drop in. The next Care A Vanner Build starts on Feb 15th and we will be Leaders for that one also.

Sunday 1-17-2010

Hard to believe the first week of building is done. We finished all the touch up work on the house that was to be dedicated yesterday. Some of the group worked on a demolition project at an old school, others worked on new construction and everyone was very tired on Friday afternoon. We all went out to dinner at Beef o Gradys here in Dade City and had a great time. Saturday morning was the dedication so most of attended. I will post some of the pictures of this. Afterwards everyone sort of did their own thing such as bike riding, sewing, cleaning , laundry etc.

We have a little thing going with "Mr. Bong", who is a ugly little critter, but so lovable. Someone is awarded Mr. Bong everyday for a "boo boo" of some sort. We have to be careful what we do and how we do it. This makes for a lot of fun for all of us. I had Mr. Bong for now setting the coffee pot correctly on Wednesday so there was no coffee for everyone that morning plus I took a couple of ladies to the store and tried to see how hot I could get the car. Had the airconditioner on but the heat control on too. Does that tell you I was tired?

Today a group of us are going to church with Irma, a lady who volunteers here at the site, she got her house from Habitat several years ago. I have always wanted to go to a Black church service and here we go. I asked Irma if I needed to pack a lunch. She is so funny and everyone loves her. Ally said she would pay to see this since she thought her Mom and Dad would never go. I plan to make a few pictures just to prove we went. I am confident the music will be great.

Coming back after church and watch the Dallas/Minnesota football game.

First Day of the Habitat Build in Dade City, Fl. 1/2010

The first day got off to a very cold start around 8 am on Jan 11, 2010. We have 10 rigs with 18 people from various walks or life and places.
Lots of work was done on cleaning a house that will be dedicated on Saturday, walls went up on new construction and finishing touches on another house.
This is a wonderful group of people and will prove to be a great 2 week build.
Updates later.

Mem

Sunday morning 1-10-10

Okay things are looking up at the Big "A" Bus. The repairmen arrived at 8:45 am on Saturday morning along with the cold rain and cold temps. Actually at one time there was sleet coming down and ice hanging off the trees. This is suppose to be Florida. Oh well, s____ happens.
I spent the morning with Tracy in their 5th wheel knitting and drinking coffee and staying warm. Several of the rigs came in and Larry was busy parking them. Peggy & Jim Settles arrived around noon so I went to visit with them and they offered us lunch since we couldn't get into our coach and at the same time Larry was watching for other people to come in.
We now have all our chickens on the roost and work will start on Monday morning.
The repairmen finished around 4 pm and we now have a working refrigerator. YEA!!!!!!!. I had to let it stay empty until it reached a certain tempature and it is there this morning so now I can WORK and put everything back in there and I am not complaining because I am so thankful to have it working. We were very fortunate that we had bought another extended warranty policy on the coach this past July before we took the trip out West so we only had to pay the deductible and trust me it was a lot less than the entire price of this little adventure.
We meet with all the Care A Vanners this afternoon around 5pm to get them informed as to what we will be doing for the next 2 weeks .
More on the Build after Monday.

Arrival in Dade City Florida for 2010

The Big "A" Bus arrived in Dade City, Florida around 3:30 pm on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2010 and is now parked and hopefully won't have to move for a while. It is COLD down here but hopefully by the middle of next week it will be up in the 70's so they are predicting.
Larry went over this morning to the "gathering" before work is started by the regulars that are here but I decided today would be my day to stay in my PJ's for a while since our Build doesn't start until Monday. Some of our caravans will be arriving tomorrow but most will come in on Saturday so we have to figure out where to park everyone.
Hopefully the refrigerator repairman will be here around 11 am and can do a quick fix. The old saying "you don't miss the water until the well is dry" is very true cause not having a "frig" working is the pits.
More later

Travels of 2010

The Big "A" Bus is back on the road heading South but not having much luck finding warmer weather. We left Virginia on Sunday 1-3-10 and had a great first day with not much traffic but a lot of wind. We spent the night outside of Florence SC.

Monday morning we discovered that everything in the refrigerator was rather warm. To make a long story short---- IT AINT WORKING. We had to buy ice chests and ice and put everything in them.

Stopped for an early lunch outside of Santee SC and visited with a first cousin of mine, Mary Purvis.

We arrived in Rincon, Georgia at the campground and the intent was to visit my niece in the afternoon and evening and that got put on hold due to the refrigerator and also I discovered that the sink drain had come loose and water was going everywhere. Needless to say a trip to Lowes was in order to get parts to fix that. We finally got showers and headed to bed.
Tuesday morning we went over to see Susanne and I spent most of the day with her. Larry came back to the motorhome for his nap and also to add more ice to the chest. Now as cold as it is in Georgia, we could probably put things outside and it would be okay.
We hope to leave early on Wednesday and get into Dade City by mid afternoon. Larry talked with a repairman who will come over after we get settled and check out the refrigerator. He was very nice to talk with and said he would waive the service call charge since we are working for Habitat.
More on the saga of this trip later