Staying with Family in Ohio

We’ve been at Nan’s mom’s house for a couple of weeks now. When we first got here we dropped the trailer off at the dealer for repairs. The warranty expires in mid November so we wanted a few things taken care of while it was still under warranty. Anything that breaks now is on our nickel.
I’ve taken Roxy pheasant hunting about 3 times so far. Twice I took the Smart Car and once I drove the truck to Grand River Wildlife Area where the State of Ohio stocks pheasants. I included a picture of the truck in the wildlife area parking lot. I imagine people wonder what a semi with S. Dakota plates is doing parked in an Ohio hunting area. I haven’t gotten any pheasants yet, but that’s OK. The second day there Roxy and I were in the woods and I heard something in the leaves. There was a very fat groundhog heading towards me that Roxy didn’t see. I was thinking maybe it had rabies or something since it was coming right towards me, so I was going to blast it if it got much closer. Actually it was just trying to find it’s hole that was covered with leaves. It finally found the hole about 10 feet from me, but it was so fat (right before it’s winter hibernation) that it had trouble getting in the hole. It kind of tumbled in through the leaves and the last thing I saw was it’s belly pointing toward the sky while it was kicking its hind feet to get in the hole before Roxy saw it. I went out the next day and Roxy was able to flush up a pheasant, but I missed. The state is putting more pheasants out this Saturday so I’ll be out again next week.

Halloween in Maryland

We stayed in the D.C. area the whole month of October and made it to Ross’ Halloween party despite the rain. Ross made up his garage as a mini haunted house. Some of us then took part in trying to scare the kids as they went through the haunted house. I love the sound of teenage girls screaming. After the trick-or-treat portion of the evening was over, Ross, Jim, and 3 other friends put on a jam session in their back yard. In the past they’ve had around 100 people attend the party/jam session. I thought the highlight of the show might be when their electric instruments reacted with the rain, but they went through their set without a hitch. I included a video of Nan dancing with Ross’ daughter Sara during the sound check session earlier in the day.
They next day we packed up and headed for Ohio where we are going to stay with Nan’s mom through Thanksgiving. Because I’m now a S. Dakota resident, I had to buy a non resident hunting license in Ohio so Roxy and I can go after pheasants. Unfortunately a non resident license is $120. It will give Roxy and I a chance to go out and get some exercise, so hopefully it will be worth the price.

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.

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.

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.

Segway Tour

Today Nan and I took a tour of Guilford, Ct on Segways. It took about 10 minutes to get used to them and then we were able to zip along. Included in the tour was the oldest house in New England and the marina. Nan and I are always interested in real estate values. One person we talked to has a 600 sq foot cabin on the water in Guilford. It's worth $600,000, and real estate taxes are $11,000 per year. Not exactly like the Cleveland market.

Mystic Seaport, Connecticut

Yesterday we went to Mystic Seaport in Conn. It’s an outdoor sea museum. There is a replica of the ship Amistad that was used for slave trade. Also, they had a small bank that was basically used to hold valuables and issue it’s own bank notes. No checking or savings accounts in the early 1800's. On the way home I took a picture of a stone fence. Each state seems to have something unique. Conn has a lot of these stone fences along the roads. Even the campground where we are staying has one around one campground site. It seems like a lot of work since some of these fences stretch several hundred yards and are 2 to 3 feet thick.
I got in my first disagreement with a campground owner while checking in. I paid for a weekly rate ($150), and unlike almost any other campground in the world they consider a week to be 6 nights here. I was always pretty good at math, and tried to explain that a week is 7 days and nights, but finally I was told - "That’s the rules. If you don’t like it you can leave". After about a 5 hour drive I decided to stay. I did some quick math and I’m out about $21.43. On a related note, there is a nice website called http://www.campgroundreviews.com/ People that stay in campgrounds can write their reviews in this website giving positive and negative feedback. Look for my review in about a week for Lake Williams Campground, Lebanon, CT. Because of them there’s some poor poker player at Foxwoods Casino that wasn’t able to win another $21.43 from me.