Monday September 7, 2020

Good morning earlybirds. I was sure it was 6ish but it was 4ish when I got up and made mocha coffee. 😬

So, we were on the road by 6:35 heading home. It’s been great but time to be home. We have lots of friends and things to do. The L’s turned us onto Waze for travel info and it’s fun to use! We have a date night with Lani n Marky-Mark on Tuesday. 

It was a good drive home. We got off at the Ormond Beach exit and hit a bit of traffic, and then some heavy rain. Otherwise, it was an easy easy drive. We were home by 1:15.

Sunday, September 6, 2020

It’s the wee hours of Sunday morning ... I got up for a lime seltzer and discovered Ancient Aliens was on. Since we no longer get the History Channel at home ... I was kept entertained while hydrating and listening to Jonathan Creek flowing past. Yes, it’s that loud! 🥰  It’s been a great 2 weeks here ... but now it’s time to get back to Florida and our quarantine lifestyle. Sadly we didn’t see our NC family this trip. We’ll hope we can visit next year without this pandemic unchecked. 

View from our back window. 

Brrr ... it was a socks 🧦 night. 

Well ... North Carolina had awful roads ... I-26 in South Carolina is great ... I-95; well, bumpy in spots. 

Just before 3 o’clock we pulled into new Green acres RV Park. There is a lot of green, but I don’t know that anything here is new. Ha ha ha. Never mind, it’s a place to pull in for the night.

LaDonna painted this cutie based on the old barn at Creekwood and an old truck I took a pic of. Nice job! 

Saturday, September 5, 2020

Good morning. It’s our last day in Maggie Valley. We have lots of tidying up to do before getting on the road early tomorrow. Our route through South Carolina means potholes and crummy highways ... the worst we’ve encountered in the nation. So, I’m securing breakables more than usual. 😜

We had our last big walk around the campground tonight, nearly every site was full. And of course, everyone has dogs. Anyway, ours are very well behaved now. BeeZee only went crazy once on the walk. Ha ha.

So this is the new artsy fartsy desk on order. Of course it will have to be assembled! 🤔 It’ll store all my art supplies! 

Friday, September 4, 2020

Good evening. It has been a spectacular day here at 3000 foot elevation. Mornings are foggy until 11 o’clock when the sun appears and bright blue skies are above. Our actual morning was rather lazy ... then about 1 o’clock we headed to Walmart. Actually, we ended up shopping at Ingles because Walmart was far too busy for us. Ingles is an amazing store ... huge, sparkling clean with everything you can imagine, except kitchen towels. 🙄

At 4 o’clock, I got online with the yaya girls for our weekly get together. It’s always fun, a little yakking and some gameplaying.

After dinner, Mark lit a fire 🔥 and we sat creekside for a number of hours. All the weekend warriors were moving into the campground and it was a bit comical to watch. 🤪

Finishing up the firewood stock we had. 


Jonathan Creek ... kids on tubes were having a blast earlier in the afternoon. 

Thursday, September 3, 2020

Good morning. After a great night’s sleep, we were up and gathered the laundry. I washed the dogs’ bedding while Mark took the rest of the laundry to the local laundromat. I really miss having a washer and dryer in the rig, but he doesn’t mind taking it to the laundromat once a week. The machines here are pretty slow. (Mark came back with funny stories about the so-called staff telling him the ins and outs of operating fussy machines.) 

North Carolina is having a heat wave, and Asheville was 91° yesterday. Fortunately, here in the valley, the high was only 84. By six in the evening we were down to 70° already. We enjoyed a nice fire last night and sat out until 11 o’clock. Mark and I saw our first UFO together! He spotted it first, zooming along the sky and then POOF it disappeared. It was a beautiful clear night with plenty of stars visible. What the heck did we see! It was big and bright. 🛸 

Robbie sat beside me ...


BeeZee sat beside her dad ... always daddy’s doggie when RVing. 🤷‍♀️ 

Mark lamented (last week) to LaDonna and Wayne that he “wasn’t allowed” a pot big enough to boil a dozen corn. Ha! The camper next to us is from California and has a massive pot that rides on the rear bumper. 😂

Tomorrow, we plan to go to Soco Falls in Maggie Valley. Hopefully it’s not too difficult a hike (for me) and I will get good pictures. 

Wednesday, September 2, 2020

Good afternoon. It is a bright beautiful sunshiny day with 82°F here in Maggie Valley, North Carolina. Mark suggested we go downtown Waynesville for a date lunch today. That sounded great to me. First, we went to the Mast General Store where he bought a ‘life is good’ T-shirt, on sale, just $15. That’s a good price for those shirts! Afterward, we enjoyed our lunch at the Sweet Onion 🧅 ... along with beer ‘n wine. Lunch was great ... North Carolina is rigid with mask wearing and social distancing. I wish Florida was the same. There was only one new case in this whole of Haywood county yesterday. 

Back home now, Mark has gone trout fishing and the dogs and I are going to enjoy the patio.

I heard it through the grapevine that today is Aurelia‘s birthday. Happy birthday Aurelia, and many many more. 😘

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Good evening. It’s been a lazy, but busy day around here. This morning I started by paying a few bills online then talk to our good Sam insurance agent about our upcoming six month auto bill. It was $2652 for six months. I asked what caused it to go up by $600 in six months. Receptionist transferred me to an agent who said that my account was so old, as I had been with them for a number of years, that I was no longer getting the new discounts. What the heck? Anyway, the agent went through everything and I ended up getting 12 months insurance for the same amount of money. No it might seem a lot, but we have three vehicles on the road plus the RV. Anyway, that was an hour well spent to save $1300.

We need a few items at Publix so we headed on over to Waynesville to grocery shop, buy stamps and mail a sympathy card to LaDonna and Wayne. Unfortunately, Wayne‘s older brother passed away while they were here in Maggie Valley. It was unexpected. He had three African gray parrots and had in his wallet a card where he wanted them to go. It is a rescue in Weirsdale Florida. In his honor, we made a donation. It seemed much better than sending flowers. 

After shopping, we came home and Mark went fishing for a few hours and I painted. This is such a pretty area, and the weather has been fantastic. Every morning it looks as if it’s going to rain, but it’s just low clouds hanging on the mountains. By noon it’s all cleared up and sunny and beautiful. This afternoon Mark caught two rainbow trout and a fish he calls a Chubb. 🤷‍♀️ He let them all go, not big enough to keep.

Tonight we are staying in and Mark is cooking spaghetti sauce. We’ve been eating large, wining and dining for about 10 days already.

Sue and Wayne took this beautiful picture from their deck at the cottage, Lake of the Woods, Ontario.

The dinner Mark made tonight was great, since he cooked I cleaned up. Now he is taking the dogs for a walk to visit the chickens. Believe it or not, they don’t bark at them they’re just curious. This is such a fun place to camp.