Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Good morning! What a great sleep 💤 we had last night with the A/C cranking in the bedroom. The entire RV was 72 when I got up at 6 o’clock. Mark and BeeZee are still sleeping while Robbie and I are watching Discover Helen TV. My ear lobes are recovering but still sting; I just have to ignore it. Ha! They feel like I’ve been wearing tight earrings for a week. 

After a big breakfast Mark and I went HIKING to Anna Ruby Falls. It was a lovely drive into the area along the wooded Chatahoochee River but no room for error. Cost was only $3 each for access but of course spent 10 times that in the gift shop. 😏 We bought a cool rug for the RV entrance. Oh yeah, the hike was very pretty but also very steep after the half-way point. 

There were 2 spots to rest on the steepest parts and finally my ebeneezer mcgeezer knees turned to jello and I plopped down on the 2nd bench. Mark continued on but said it was very steep. 

Anna Ruby Falls is 154’ tall ... gorgeous! 

Taken from the pedestrian bridge. A young couple had 2 rambunctious toddlers running across it ... yikes! 😱 It rained and the walkway was a bit slippery. Ya gotta wonder how we manage to survive young parents. 😂

After the hike we went grocery shopping at the only food store in Helen! It’s super cool and the prices not too bad. 

Fancy a cold drink? Awesome OLD store. 

Here’s the handmade rug we bought today! 

Beary cute eh! 

Tonight we’re cooking pork chops on the grill with foil wrapped potatoes. We had rain earlier and more is forecast. A great night to relax with the kids. 

Monday, July 30, 2018

Good morning! Rain is forecast which we don’t mind at all. Our internet has been worse than sketchy here so I’m not sure how much Blog will get published today.

Beer at The Troll in Helen with RV friends Susan & Larry who we were with in Stone Mountain. The rafters were floating past the balcony. They have much fancier ones than the old inner tubes we used to use!

Chatahoochee River fun! There were plenty of dumpings over the swifter parts when the floats bunched up. 😂

Shopping downtown Helen! No rain! Mark bought a T-shirt and shot glass and I bought a magnet for the RV, a post card and a hanging star ⭐️ light for over the game table in the Sunroom. Oh yeah, and 2 Delft Blue Scotties! Good retail therapy. 

Robbie and BeeZee have been model citizens with dogs at every site in this campground. The folks next door came to Helen on their FIRST RV TRIP from Cape Coral, Florida with a brand-new 40’ Endeavor motorhome. I talked to Jim and said how brave he was tackling narrow mountain roads on his first trip. His reply was, “I’m not sure brave applies; more like stupid!” We both laughed as I told him that we went from Florida to Maine on our maiden trip. They have 2 big dogs, 1 is 15 years and the other 9 months. Lots to learn. They’re here for 7 weeks getting away from Southern Florida’s humid summer weather. 

Mark’s ready for a German beer 🍻 or two. 

Shopping at a Cuckoo clock shop with Susan & Larry. They have a 5th wheel too and are staying about a mile from us. Their thoughts on the Cherokee campground is that Mark and I got the better place at Creekwood! 

Cigar shop window prompted this picture. Haha. 

Did I mention “what a cute town?”

Back at the RV we sat outside with the kids while they ate frosty paws on the big rug. (We drank beer.) 

Robbie is butting his nose into my leg every few seconds as I make their dinners. Tonight’s special ... ground turkey, cottage cheese, potato with cauliflower/broccoli mix cooked in chicken broth. (Yup, it’s worth poking for!) Both dogs are at their idea weight and in good shape; no barfing from dog food nowadays! The last bag we bought was in February. It’s more work but hey, they’re our kids. 😜

Mark is chopping firewood, walking the Scotties and keeping busy. Pizza for tonight’s dinner. 👍🏻

Randy had therapy today and Dawn is going to call tonight to let us know how he’s doing. Yesterday, he was in a lot of pain. Phone service here is somewhat lousy, usually picking up every second or third word. Well, we are in the mountains. Ta ta. 

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Good morning! We’re deep in the shade here at Creekwood Resort but I do see sunlight filtering through the canopy. It’s a lazy morning after sitting out tending the bonfire and consuming wine til midnight. 

So it’s now 12:30 and I’m at the urgent care in Cleveland Georgia with my swollen ear lobes! Hopefully I’ll get some fast-acting meds so we can get on with FUN. They’re itchy and annoying. 

Helen, Georgia ...

Quirky and charming

with lots of traffic on a Sunday afternoon. It must be like heaven in the fall. 

So after seeing the doctor at the urgent care clinic, I have a weeks worth of prednisone and 10 days worth of Keflex. They were so wonderful there and called my prescription in to the local pharmacy immediately. We drove 4 miles down the road and Rite Aid had everything ready for me! 👍🏻 The diagnosis is cellulitis from an allergy to metal. 🙄 I had the same thing on my right leg after scratching it on the dog exercise metal pen 9 years ago. It sure looks ugly!

After 1,000 mg Keflex and 3 Prednisone pills, my ear lobes look marginally less swollen. 

Saturday, July 28, 2018

Good morning! We’re off to Helen, Georgia today for 5 nights. The summer weather here has been spectacular and we’re hoping it’ll continue. 

So about five days ago I wore a pair of earrings that irritated my ears. Two days later, I noticed they were a little bit itchy but didn’t think too much about it and wore a pair of sterling silver earrings that are quite heavy. While I was wearing them and watching the laser light show I somewhat noticed that my ears were very uncomfortable, almost like they were swelling. Well, when I got up this morning, my earlobes were terribly swollen. I took two Benadryl and found the Clobex stashed away in the medicine cabinet. Hopefully, I caught it in time and I won’t need to go to a walk-in clinic. However, if I do, there is one near Helen Georgia. 

Many of our friends have packed up and left already as they are going home to Florida. Several are going to the next camp out in Mims. Friends, Larry and Susan are also going to Helen, but staying in Cherokee. We may see them in downtown by chance. Pete and Karen will stay at Eagle’s Roost tonight along with many of the RVers from here.

Sue and Wayne are at Falcon Lake with their RV for a family reunion at Marlene’s.

Nice site at Falcon! 

Arrived here at 12:45 and the owner guided us into Site 8, a super-long asphalt site with a granite stone patio. It’s super-shady and spotless in here! Tomorrow we’ll go exploring. 

Site 8 Creekwood ✅

Friday, July 27, 2018

Good day y’all. We’re “in the south” here at Stone Mountain, Georgia. The towns surrounding have nice mom and pop restaurants with nice people and the weather’s been great! Count us as amazed! Location-wise we’re 30 minuets to downtown Atlanta (aquarium) but a world-away from the hub-bub.

This is our last full day here and there’s still things to see and do. Walking the historic village (in the park), the grist mill, the 732 bell carillon tower music 🎶 (weekends), Segway tour, gorgeous golf course and restaurant, paddle boards, dinosaur park, museums and the list goes on and on.

What I’m saying is we’ll be back! 

Last evening, Sue and Wayne went to a dinner party at Donna & Dennis’s home. While Donna was preparing dinner, Dennis was helping, but his efforts were not being appreciated. He lamented that in his working days he was referred to as either Mr. or deputy. He said he got no respect at home nowadays! LOL.

So, so decided to give him a new name, “Deputy Dawg!” As you can see in the picture, everyone is having a good laugh. That is Dennis on the right side of the picture.

This evening, Pete and Karen had a bonfire and a farewell to Stone Mountain gathering. It was fun. We all sat around and gab and will see each other again by the rally if not before.

Campground farewell fire ring. 🔥

Thursday, July 26, 2018

Good afternoon! It’s a hot one at 90 degrees in the Georgia sunshine. The humidity is low thanks to the front that came through last Tuesday. 

Mark left to hike the mountain at 10:30 this morning. He was home about three hours later, soaked to the skin. He made it to the top and took this beautiful picture looking down towards the campground. The last 1/4 mile has handrails to help pull yourself up. He saw football teams training by climbing, all holding a rope. That’s a workout! (Pete wanted to go but they went to the aquarium today.)

After his hike we went for a big lunch at Metro Grill. 

Look at those cakes! We bought a piece of the Fudge cake top 2nd from left ... shared it and could only eat half of that! It’s 4 layers with a 1/2” of icing between. There will be zits tomorrow! 😂

When we got back to the campground, Mark gathered the dogs and we took them for an hour’s ride looking at the various campsite sections and driving around the Stone Mountain area.

We saw 4 deer by the Carillon tower. 

These are the Yurts (air conditioned) in our RV section. Nice lakeside location. 

Tonight, we went to Richard and Mitzie’s for (another) bonfire party. They have a beautiful site overlooking the lake with a large sitting area. There were about 20 of us around the fire. It was fun talking to one couple who had downsize to a Tiffin 33 AA. It has four slides, and they have more room than they had in their 40 foot Prevost. They’ve been everywhere, like us. In 2 years they have put 60,000 miles on their rig! 

No bugs, no humidity! Where are we? 🎶 Georgia, Georgia on my mind 🎶 

Wednesday, July 25, 2018

Good morning 🌞. Mark and I are being lazy today. We tidied the RV after our dinner PARTAY. Karen might have been overserved, not by my standards mind you. They were going early to the Atlanta Aquarium ... but their truck is still parked at 10:45. We sure had fun and they caught on quickly to Mexican Dominoes. 

I phoned RanDawn and Randy answered with a stronger voice 👍🏻. He’s eating more solid food and that has mitigated the drug upset stomach. He has exercises to do 3 times today so will be tossing the pain meds down! I remember. 

So, I have a load in the washer and one in the dryer and our RV is rocking. Ha! It was vacuum time too. After lunch Pete dropped in for a chat. He measured his sofa which I like but it would be a tight-fit to our opposing slides. It would fit but no wiggle room. 🤨 Drat. 

I got another match based on my DNA. This is a first cousin from Canada! Her mother’s name is McNish ... and that struck a bell because my dad told a story about our family name being changed. It was enough to get me interested and working on the family tree.  

At the laser show ... in the pic below I circled the train passing the pond ...

The blue blob to the right is the entertainment stage. ✅ It was a good show! Back home at 10:30, the Scotties were happy to see us. The fireworks were loud enough to hear at our campsite. 

Tomorrow, a famous diner for lunch. Ta ta. 

Tuesday, July 24, 2018

Good morning y’all. It’s a cloudy start to our Stone Mountain morning. Plans today include a group luncheon at a neat-looking German restaurant in downtown SM. 

Mark had a Reuben on marble-rye with potato salad ...

I had German potato pancakes just like Klaus made! 

Nice restaurant with authentic German decor. There were 35 of us for lunch. Service was very good!

Tonight we’re doing a steak bbq with Karen & Pete, then we’re all invited to a bonfire. It’s a good time here! 

Our joint steak barbecue was good fun. We set up the table inside our rig as thunderstorms were threatening. As it turned out there was only light rain and we might have eaten outside. Afterwords, we showed Karen & Pete how to play Mexican Dominoes. Pete caught on so fast! About 9 o’clock, they went over to a bonfire while Mark and I went to join Mitzi, Richard, Maya and David at their bonfire. We had a couple drinks there and headed home about midnight. It was a beautiful evening with absolutely no bugs!

Monday, July 23, 2018

Good morning. The plan for today was to walk around Stone Mountain Village area and then to have lunch at a German restaurant. However, being Monday in a small town, the restaurant is closed. So, Plan B.

BeeZee’s cataract is glowing! Poor girl. 

Mark is cooking sauce for our lunch and Pete and Karen had a refrigerator breakdown last night. So we are pretty sure they are on the phone working on that problem. (Pete got it fixed with the help of a technician from Giant.)

We phoned Randy & Dawn to check on them. Randy is in a lot of pain today, and feeling quite nauseous. Dawn is worried about him and has to go pick up more medication at the drugstore. We will call later on and see how he’s doing.

At 4:30, will you met Pete, Karen, Peyton, Jeanette and Charlie at the pool for a two hour happy hour swim. It was perfect! The rest of them went to the laser show and fireworks while Mark and I enjoyed Robs and Beez on the porch ... no bugs, a glass of wine and the moon. Perfect. 

We’ll come here again! Enjoyable. 

Shorty Hot Pants went to dinner with his family tonight and felt the need to be a guard dog. Grrr 

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Good morning 🌞 ... plans today? Well we’re going to ride the Skyrail to the top of Stone Mountain with Karen, Pete and Peyton. 

Peyton (9) is tons of fun. He kept us all entertained throughout the dinner. The dinner serving staff was kept extra busy as a thunderstorm moved into the area quickly and they had to move all the terrace dinner tables under the roofed area. 

After dinner everyone set their chairs for a great view of the laser light show ... set to start at 9:30 and cancelled at 9:31 due to lightening. They set off the fireworks but no laser show last night. Weather! 

So the ride up the mountain this morning was nice! 

At the windy top with my sweetie ❤️

Peyton and Mark (Grandpa Pete wouldn’t get on the ride!) 🐓 

Peyton had fun and managed to stay mostly dry! The top of SM is scarred with hundreds of lightening strikes. ⚡️ 

Mark and I are very happy we can check on the temperature in the rig while we are out. Mark’s phone is set up on auto-answer facing the thermometer. and we call FaceTime to Mark’s phone with my phone! Presto ✅ 

We had gin and tonic with watermelon on the porch today. Karen & Pete joined us and had the same. We decided to go for a Mexican dinner and found a place called Fronterra. It was very good. They want to go to the laser show tonight but Mark and I are ready to relax with the doggies. Tomorrow there’s a group going to a German restaurant for lunch! 

Dawn reported that Randy was very tired and somewhat nauseous today. I think that is normal for just two days after major surgery. We hope he’ll feel better tomorrow. 

Saturday July 21, 2018

We heard the thunderstorm approaching and jumped out of bed to walk the dogs and put down the awning ahead of the rain. Result ... wet dogs and the awning’s still up. 😳

Lovely walk along the lake and now some porch sittin’. 

Blue dot’s Campground location. 

84F afternoon ... pretty Schweet. 

Robbie and BeeZee have a safe spot to watch the dogs go by. No trouble! 😜

We phoned Randy and Dawn at the hospital and ... surprise, Randy will be getting home today. What the heck, he’s a star patient. ⭐️ Either a star or he was so much trouble they’re shipping him out. Ha ha ha. Either way, welcome home! ⭐️ 

Marky and I took a drive around with the doggies to get diesel fuel and to check out a German restaurant we want to go to this week. The old town area of Stone Mountain was very disappointing and rather seedy and run-down looking. Never mind, there’s zillion things to do within the park. Back at the RV, we sat on the front porch and watched the RVs pour into the area. There will be 93 GRW VIP Campers at tonight‘s dinner and reserved seating laser light show. Thanks GRW, very generous! 

Nice big RV sites ... we’re up top with a row of RVs behind us and that’s the lake back there. Nice eh?

Friday, July 20, 2018

Good morning.  We’re in a mud hole as Sue calls Eagle’s Roost. She’s right! It rained all night and the mud has splashed halfway up our tires! The truck bed  had 2” of water in it. Ha! What a mess. Mark lifted each Scottie so I could wipe their feet before getting into the truck! So, we’re off to Stone Mountain RV Campground for a week. It’s a sell-out VIP gathering. 

Dawn sent this pic of Randy all prepped for surgery. He apparently had the nurses all laughing! 

He will soon have a 3rd titanium joint. It’s old-hat for the family athlete. 

We stopped at a rest area and walked the dogs ... nice and clean! Pete & Karen stopped too. They have a Shih Tzu, Lexy. 

Dawn got a text about 10:30 saying Randy’s surgery was “nearly” complete. By 11:30 Dawn said he was in the recovery room and the doctor said Randy did great! Step 1 ... ✅

Meanwhile, in Canada 🇨🇦 our doggie friend Jake is enjoying lying in the sunshine at age 20 years 3 1/2 months. Super dog! 

Another Canadian friend posted this 😂 ...

Thanks Fraser! 

Tonight, some of the gang went to dinner while we ate leftovers. (Very good!) Afterward we sat outside with Robbie and BeeZee ... then played 2 games of Cornhole. 

Ancient Aliens is on now and we have cable TV! 👽Ta Ta TIL tomorrow.