Christmas day 2020

 Well, for the most part, we had a very relaxing, nice Christmas day. We lounged in bed until we HAD to walk the dogs, lol; then after a nice walk along the beach, we came back to the RV and had a good brunch, waffles and bangers (Scottish breakfast sausages).  We made phone calls to friends to wish them a merry Christmas and then about 3:30ish decided it was time to walk the dogs again. We decided on a nice long walk to get our 10,000 steps in.  On our way back, Cherie was looking across the street and saying merry Christmas to some people when Martha (because she was tired) slowed down and Cherie tripped over her, landing hard on her left wrist.  Everyone asked if she was ok, and of course, she said she was. She found it difficult to get up, but was able to with help from Graham. He said, "I think you might have broken your wrist.". Cherie, of course, denied that could be the case.  " let's just get back to the RV and ice it," she says.

We get back and as she starts to ice it he, she feels the pain radiating her arm.  She says, I think we should go to the ER. Upon having X-Ray, they discover that it is indeed a broken wrist. Cherie's comment, "damn, I hate it when he is right.". The good thing is there is still time for an uplifting end to 2020.  

Corpus Christi, TX (Christmas Eve)

We stayed at Pio Pico for about 10 days visiting South Bay friends and family and then went up to Vista to stay at the Elks Lodge for 2 weeks.  While there, we had lots of dinners with our friend Janette and watched lots of Hallmark movies, which Janette and Cherie love (Graham puts up with them:)).  

We took a week to travel from Vista to Corpus Christi. We arrived yesterday and our next adventure has begun with us parked on the beach at NAS Corpus Christi.  We were greeted with tropical weather of 75 degrees and high humidity followed by a night of gale force winds of 35 to 40 knots and waves breaking over the seawall.  We brought two of our slides in to protect the awnings.  The winds finally calmed down today around noon. 

It is Christmas Eve and this afternoon we will decorate the RV, tonight we will attend Christmas Eve services at the Protestant Chapel on base.  We have not been to church since all of them were closed in March. 

Wrap up

 We stayed in Flagstaff for about 5 days to visit with our daughter, Danielle; and had a wonderful visit.

We arrived back in San Diego on November 24.  We traveled through 17 states and stayed at 38 campgrounds. What a trip!

Highlights were: Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Indiana (Amish Country & visiting Bob's nieces and nephew), Henry Ford Museum, Frankenmuth, visiting with Ninette and then Danielle.

Graham and I will soon be heading to Corpus Christi, Texas for Christmas and bringing in the New Year.  Despite COVID19, we traveled the country and met nice people and saw a lot of this great country.

Amarillo, TX

 We stayed at the Big Texan RV Ranch, so had to have dinner at the Big Texan Steak Ranch & Brewery.

The next day was spent at the RV, doing laundry and relaxing.

Bardstown and Hodgenville, KY

We wanted to go to a Bourbon distillary while in Kentucky, however, we would've needed to make advance reservations since all tours were limited to 6 people only.  So instead we found a whisky museum.

 After the museum, we drove to Hodgenville and went to Abraham Lincoln's birthplace. The memorial had 56 steps up to the top and a replica of the log cabin where Lincoln was born inside.

Memphis, TN

We celebrated Bob and Sharon's 61st wedding anniversary at Folk's Folley, an upscale restaurant in Memphis, Nanette and her husband Kenny, and Barbra with her husband.  .  

 While in Memphis, Bob and Sharon spent the day with Ninette and Graham and I went to the Pink Palace Museum.  The main feature of this museum was the story of the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and the man, Charles Saunders, who innovated grocery store shopping as we know it today. It also had other eclectic items on display.

Groceries were stacked in aisles and you could put the items you wanted into a basket and then check out at the end.

Other interesting things:

World War I art made from shell casings.

Doctor's office, turn of the century.

Dentist office turn of the century.

Nashville, TN

We arrived to early to see any real shows, however, we did go to Nashville Nightlife, where we had a buffet style dinner and heard some country music.  It was an offbeat place and most people who were there were probably over 60, laugh out loud!   

We went to the Belle Meade Plantation:

Children's dollhouse

Kitchen

Slave's quarters

Dairy, a main source of income

Owner's original cabin before Belle Meade was built.

Since we still had some time left in the day, we went to the Parthenon, a full size replica.  Nashville is often referred to as the Athens of Tennessee.

The shield is 58' in diameter.

Elizabethtown, KY

 On this two day stop, we found a Elizabethtown Nature Park with this lovely veteran's memorial.  It was interesting that they had a statue dedicated to the, often forgotten, Civil Service workers who support our deployed troups.  

Some of the RV's were decked out for Halloween.

Middlebury, IN

We checked into the Middlebury/Elkhart KOA on October 22 and spent a week visiting with Bob's relatives.  We met his nephew David and wife Jill along with some of their children.  We went out to dinner with them a couple of times and they invited us to their home for hamburgers and fries.  A wonderful family to spend time with.

Out to dinner for a Big Ass pork loin sandwich.  Although he tried with the encouragement of David, neither Graham or Bob could finish the whole sandwich.  The pork loin sandwich is a local favorite.  

We then met with Bob's nieces, who were sisters. Deb and Tina were delightful. We met up with them for lunch a couple of times and then went out to dinner with their husbands, Rob and Adam, respectively.  Adam and Tina treated us all to dinner. 

Visiting at Tina's: 

Bob, Deb, Tina, Sharon
We went to lunch with Deb, Tina, and Tina's Daughter, Tressa

Middlebury and the surrounding towns have a big Amish community.  We saw lots of buggies driving down the road and hitched up in front of stores.

Deb contacted her Amish neighbor, Daniel, and he took us for a ride in his buggy.  It was very special of Daniel to give us a ride and to let us experience some of the Amish culture.  While in Middlebury we had the chance to learn a lot about the Amish traditions and way of life.  Daniel was so gracious sharing some information about his family and the Amish.  

We also had an opportunity to see a play about the Amish at the Blue Gate Theater.  It was a great comedy but, it was very educational about the Amish way of life and how it isn't really much different from the "English" way of life.  English is what the Amish refer to those who are not Amish.

While in Middlebury, we went to the Essenhaus for a tradition Amish meal.  It was delicious.  

We also went out in search of a new cabinet lock for our closet door and found this hardware store that allowed some kitties to live in the store.

While in our campsite there was an abandoned kitty that kept coming to our site. We tried to walk it away from our site as the dogs were getting riled up.  Graham ended up giving it some dog food on the other side of the office, well away from our site.  After realizing the dogs were with us, it finally stayed away.

Enjoying cheese and crackers, and maybe a little wine. 😊

Sharon's new friend.

Sadie watching for that kitty.

Our purpose of visiting Middlebury was to get some items repaired on our coach since it was made in Middlebury.  We ended up being a little disappointed as Entegra was totally booked, however, they referred us to a local shop (True Value RV/Lazydays RV) in Elkhart where Entegra sends their overflow service business.  We were having trouble with our hot water system and True Value RV was supposed to have a factory authorized technician on staff.  We found out that Lazydays RV, who took over True Value does  not have a technician on staff and they were unable to make the repair.  They did try to diagnose the problem but, it would take to long to get the parts in.  However, after much discussion, they did find us a new motor for our main slide, so at least that works. Deb was nice to let our dogs stay at her house while our coach was in for repair and then made dinner for us that evening.

Last day at camp, Graham was throwing out the trash and found these dumpster divers.