with all the pomp and circumstance of a pre-schooler!

Yup congratulations class of 2010 ~ I'm certain the class of 2010 had no clue what "graduation from pre-school" means but what the heck, some parents (and Grammie and Rick) were there AND they got cake and had a "carnival" after they sang songs and got a piece of paper rolled up with a ribbon ~ so LET'S PARTY!!

And we'll play with these things hanging from our funny hats

And sing a silly song about a "bubble in our mouth" when we are trying so hard to be quiet and behave and only sing this song ...

And try and try and try to behave while we take inventory of the parents who come in and the anticipation of what we've been practicing for weeks ...

And when they call my name I will walk up to the director lady and get that piece of paper with a ribbon around it

And then I will take it over to my Mom, Grammie and my bestest favorite Rick

THEN I'll go outside and have a "carnival" to relax after all the pressure of the last few weeks preparation

And I'm gonna sit right here on this slide and have me some of that yummy chocolate cake - followed by a couple freeze pops, thank you very much.  And oh by the way, I'd like a few "taptoos" as well

AHHH we had fun and I was so happy that Grammie and Rick got to be there for this milestone!!!

Back in business (maybe baby, but maybe not)

Why is it that companies (technology companies to be specific) always feel they need to change things, update things make things better?  It is such a challenge and such a flipping nightmare for those of us technically challenged users.  Seriously, I've stressed for nearly a week over the inability to upload photos to the blog.  Well blogger decided they needed to change some option then a computer update happened and something else sent kaphoooey with exporting photos from iphoto to get them to the desktop, to then get them to the blog - are you confused?  If so, well now you know how I feel!!!

Anyway, hopefully King Richard has figured it all out and explained it so a pea brain like me can work with it (it'll be great if I remember it all in a couple days to do the next post, but that isn't too likely).

So, let's see if I can get these photos where I want and go backwards in time a week or so ~

When we were at the Elks Lodge in Fayetteville ~ great lodge, fun people, the city - well not so much, as a former resident told me on facebook "watch your wallet and carry a loaded gun in your car" ... that was truly the sense I got.  Anyway, we once again had their rv area to ourselves.  It is a huge open field surrounded by some wooded area and a swampy sort of area with lots of turtles - seriously lots of turtles.  Sir Arlo met Myrtle the turtle (while she taking a rest from looking for her girdle I suspect).  Sir had no clue what to make of old Myrtle - he didn't want to hurt her, in fact I think he was afraid to get too close but he sure was curious about this creature that had no head one second and the next she was looking at him.  It really was funny to watch him.

We left Fayetteville a week ago today and came up to the Croatan National Forest on the Neuse River in New Bern, NC.  We'd also been here before.  It is about three miles down the road from Joshua, Trisha and Connor and their beautiful new home - which Connor was very very proud to show off as well as his new neighborhood that he proudly gives a walking tour of every night.  He is a hoot and just such a  sweet and loving young man at the age of five!

Arlo spent his birthday enjoying a swim and a stick on the  banks of the Neuse River, as well as a  short tour of downtown New Bern to see the New Bern Bears.  What a lovely old and very historic downtown area they have.  This is another of those towns that have resin animals (as dogs we saw in NY and I posted and I know there are many others, but I'm having a senior moment for sure)

The rest of the day was spent ~ how would you expect???  Enjoying his birthday cake.

a rain delay ..

Well this post will be sort of like a rain delay in a baseball game. For some reason - heaven only knows why I'd have had this foresight- I loaded all these pictures days ago but I am certain I did a blog post since then - YES I did, about Sir's birthday but was unable to load any photos to that post .... UGH .. okay, no bitching and whining here tonight.

Like I said I'd loaded these photos about five days ago - took them along the way from Fayetteville, SC (OMG what a less than enjoyable city - WOW) to New Bern, NC (just outside Josh's base and a few miles from their gorgeous new house).

With all that said, I did a blog post in July of 2008 and referenced the roadside billboards for Wall Drug in none other than Wall, SD. Now I suspect that there are some of you out there that hate roadside billboards and are delighted to travel through states that don't allow them. I never gave it much thought until we started traveling through the states and I've come to love the billboards. I guess I interpret them as a piece (correctly or not, who the heck is to judge) of "Americana" ...

So traveling along interstate 95 through North and/or South Carolina you come across billboards for "South of the Border" very similar to those for Wall Drug ...

I just love them. Now with that said we did in fact stop one year at South of the Border - it may have been before we retired, I'm not sure (I often feel I've done this flippin' I95 about 10 times too many). Yes we did stop there and it was all either of us had expected - very very much, once again, like Wall Drug. My mother once told me, oh so many years ago, something to the effect that the anticipation of an event was far greater than the excitement of the event itself. Hmmmm Wall Drug and South of the Border are perfect examples! BUT, for some insane reason I think of them as "must sees".

Hold on .... you're almost there.....


Yup, just a few more photos .......


Unfortunately I can't come near to the whit and creativity of these billboards....



Seriously ~ nearly there

Then once you finally get to South of the Border you start with the billboards for JR Cigars!!!

So that's it for the "rain delay post". I have seven photos ready to post, but I can't remember what the blog post was to be about, as well as several from Connor's pre-school graduation today .... OMG what a hoot it was. Hopefully we'll be in an area more conducive to loading photos soon - hey maybe while I'm doing laundry somewhere tomorrow - thought I'd get it done yesterday but that didn't happen and since we have no water or sewer connections here in this gorgeous national forest campground it won't be done here!

it was his party and he CAN cry

if he wants to 'cause the flipping pictures won't load ...

today was the natal day anniversary of .....

CAMELOT'S SIR ARLO

AKA SIR

AKA ARLO

Maybe pictures tomorrow ... heck we only have cell service about 5% of the time (scarey for damn sure) and our internet (satellite) is obviously dicey .... but I LOVE this location in spite of it ... and we are just down the road from ..... CONNOR (check out my facebook post from about 30 minutes ago ~ the boy is just too much)

stay tuned

firsts .... a lot of firsts

For Ms Elisha (aka Flo) ...

First trip to Florida ...

First time on a motorcycle ...

I am so glad that Rick, Chester and I were the people that shared these firsts with our girl. I am even happier that her first motorcycle ride was with her Uncle Rick. I have a solo seat on my bike so that first ride couldn't be with me - although I was beside her (sort of, but I guess in all honesty I was behind her and Rick most of the ride - which isn't our usual way of riding 'cause I am traditionally in front).

First time to Georgia ~ first trip to the Okefenokee Swamp ~ aka land of the trembling earth!

First time seeing an alligator - not to mention an alligator in its natural habitat!!!!

How neat is the photo below with the tour guide "poling" the boat out of the area? By the way, that is obviously not our tour guide or the boat we were on. It was quite windy that day (well according to our guide Frank) so I'm a bit surprised this was happening - although perhaps it was for a photo op only? What say you Elisha and Chester???

Does she look like one happy vacationer - I hope?

After we did the swamp tour boat trip we went to the Chesser homestead. Apparently the Chesser family was the last family to live in the "swamp" and were (as intimated) "forced" out of the land.

What an interesting life they must have lead. When we arrived the guide for the property had just locked up and left for the day so we, unfortunately, missed a huge chapter of the swamps existence. The stories this homestead could tell I'm sure.

With all that said, it looks like snow covered land doesn't it? Trust me please this was not snow - it was beautiful white sand ... beach sand so to speak which I found a bit odd since we were miles from any ocean beach, which I would have thought would make such lovely sand - the waves and rocks etc .... but then again, what do I know!

Above is the homestead, below the corn crib - I always thought a corn crib was a small building with wire sides so the corn could dry - what the heck do I know - DAH not so much huh!

Hopefully the photo above can be enlarged - that was the "bathing" area for the family - a bathtub on the porch! good thing there weren't neighbors huh! That'd be pretty darned scary (not to mention illegal I suspect) in an upscale suburban area in 2010!!

On another day of E's vacation we went to St. Augustine which has long been a favorite of ours. We even sent Sir to "camp" for the afternoon (he stays at Pet Paradise Resort when we fly out of Jacksonville and they have a location in St. Augustine as well so he went there to play and make new friends around the pool for a few hours while we did "tourist" stuff).

St. Augustine is one of the places in Florida where you can drive your car on the beach so we did. However, it was so windy that we really didn't play too long there, but it would have been a great take for Elisha if we'd packed a picnic etc. and left early in the morning and headed down there for the day, but as it was we didn't leave for our 60 or so mile trip until after noon! POOR planning wasn't it.

I hope that the photo above indicates that Elisha is indeed having a nice time on the windy beach and isn't all that concerned by the lack of time there! hope hope hope ...

On our way back to the coach we stopped at a 3 for $10. tee shirt joint and got miniature orange trees - I sort of pushed for that souvenir to go back to NY ... I had one many years ago and loved it. I have no recollection of what happened to that tree - I'd had it for many many years and really enjoyed it - the blossoms smelled wonderful then came the oranges - teeny tiny oranges that were bitter as heck but come on how many people do you know who have an orange tree in their living room?

Silliness in closing ~ Sir decided he should take himself for a walk with his big leash! What a clown!

All the events in this post took place while we were in Macclenny, FL (Chester's town). We left there a week or more ago and spent two nights (unfortunately) in St. George, SC at a terrific, small quiet campground we'd been at before and I just love the place. We left there last Friday and headed to Fayetteville, NC to the Elks Lodge that we'd stayed at before as well. Nice friendly warm and welcoming group here and again we have their RV area to ourselves. We thought we'd be leaving Monday morning but I am thinking that will likely not happen - I'd put my money on Tuesday instead. Headed to New Bern area - where Joshua, Trisha and Connor are. We'll be in that area for a week or so then make our way slowly over to Gaffney for the chassis maintenance. In fact I think I may be repeating myself and already mentioned our "plan" (yeah like we really have one) in a previous post!

Good night all ....