Sunday, October 18, 2009

A weekend at an Ocean City beach house.







We are spending the month of October hanging around D.C. We have family in the area - My brother Don and his wife Sue, their sons Ross and Jim, and their wives and kids. Ross has a big Halloween party every year that we want to attend, so we will take off for Cleveland around 11/1.
The campgrounds around D.C. are about $40 per night. Nan found one that charges a weekly rate of $120. It’s about 75 miles from D.C., and an hour from my brother’s house. The only downside is some of the campers are low-to-moderate income residents. One night the husband and wife two sites over got into an argument and a glass window was broken. The next day the Sheriff was evicting a homeless man who was invited into a tent occupied by some woman. A couple of days later she invited him back so management kicked them both out. I was oblivious to all of this. We’ve had no problems and everyone we’ve talked to has been very nice.
On 10/16 I went with Don, Ross, Jim, and Jim’s 3 year old son Alex to Ross’s beach house in Ocean City, MD. It’s on a canal about 30 seconds from Chesapeake Bay. Included is a picture of their canal. Ross has 2 jet skis, so he and I went in the rain and cold for a ride in the bay. There is a picture of me before the ride. I know what you are thinking ladies, but forget it. My heart and body belong to Nan. The temp was probably in the mid 40's. The cruise on the canal was nice. Then I gave it the gas and flew like the wind into the bay. The raindrops were peppering my face, my sweatshirt was blowing in the wind, and when I glanced at the speedometer it said I hit warp speed of 15 MPH. Luckily Ross told me later that the speedo was broken and I was probably doing around 35 to 40 MPH. It was rough in the bay and the waves started crashing into me. I noticed I was taking a lot of quick shallow breathes when that happened. I wondered what would happen if I fell off the ski into the cold water, so I suggested that we go into calmer seas. I was sure my blood nephew would take whatever steps were necessary to save my life, but when I looked around he was just a dot on the horizon heading for protected waters. I followed him on my ski but because it was rough I was going about the same speed as a pony ride. When I finally got into protected waters I was able to really open it up and put a smile on my face. I found that one advantage of riding a jet ski in the rain is when the bugs hit your teeth they are quickly washed off.
Later that day we went to see the Corvette parade on the boardwalk that was scheduled for that weekend. About 600 Vette owners signed up for the parade. Not sure how many showed up in the rain, but there were plenty. After the parade, Alex begged us to take him to Hooters Restaurant, so we finally gave in. Our waitress mentioned that she wanted to move out of the area. Ross told her that I was living in an RV and traveling the country and maybe she could go with me. When she responded that sounded like a good idea. I told her it was OK with me if it was OK with my wife. The waitress was still willing, but don’t expect to see any of her pictures in our future travels. Nan’s such a prude sometimes.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Gettysburg




Yesterday and today we looked around Gettysburg, PA. Here is a quick history lesson for those that are interested. In 1863 the town of Gettysburg had a population of 2,200. During the Civil War, the North and South happened to meet in Gettysburg. They fought for 3 days beginning July 1, 1863. In one battle called Pickett’s Charge, the South tried to overtake the Northern stronghold and they lost 5,000 men in one hour. By the end, 6,600 people had died. A total of 51,000 people had either died, been wounded, or were missing. Many of the missing returned after everything settled down. Of course the North won the battle. On November 19, 1863, Lincoln arrived by train and gave his famous Gettysburg Address during the dedication of the National Cemetery. Included is a picture of the train depot where Lincoln arrived, and a picture of a small section of the fences that the troops constructed to give themselves some protection against enemy fire.
I went to the visitor center and you can go to a computer there and look up if you had any relatives that fought at Gettysburg. Just like Ellis Island, there were several Graham’s so I’m not sure if any of them were related. Nan and I then took a tour in our car to different spots in the area that marked certain battles.
It’s starting to get cold here at night so I’m glad we are moving a little further south tomorrow. It was so cold this morning that when I woke up I noticed that Nan had frost on her pumpkins.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

New york City








We just finished up a 4 night stay in Florida, NY, which is about one hour from New York City. On Thursday we drove the Smart Car to NYC. We planned on parking it and going to China Town to buy some $50 Louis Vitton purses and scarfs. Because parking was about $30, and the places we wanted to see were not close to each other, we just drove around in the city. At one point I slowed down in China Town and Nan jumped out to buy some scarfs. In the 15 minutes it took me to go around the block she was able to complete the transaction. We also drove by ground zero, Rockefeller Center, and the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. Roxy and I never got out of the car. This is the one time I have been happy with the Smart Car. Being that small it was easy to zip around in tight spaces.
On Friday Nan and I left Roxy in the trailer and caught to ferry to Ellis Island. We looked around there a couple hours and then took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We were running short on time so we didn’t get off the ferry at the statue. It was about 4:00 when we started our drive back, so we hit some rush hour traffic in Jersey which was interesting.
Saturday we drove out to the Orange County Choppers showroom. It’s from the American Choppers show on TLC. There were several custom made themed bikes in the showroom, including a 9/11 bike and a Vietnam MIA bike. Didn’t see anyone from the show though.
Today (Sunday) we drove to a Gettysburg, PA campground. We’ll look around the town in the next couple of days. We did meet a guy here that said he planned to live in his RV full-time around 3 years, and so far he’s done it 15 years.