I'm in love ...

I'm so in love with central North Carolina.  We left Moncure (an interesting little tiny town) on Thursday and came here to Rock Hill, SC to Ebenezer Park a county run park, with mostly permanent locals but on gorgeous, very busy this time of year, Lake Wylie.

Anyway, we stayed off the interstate for all but the last 25 or so miles of the 150 trip.  Is this gorgeous country we went through or what?  Beautiful rolling hills through teeny tiny little towns for the most part.  I know there must be a way to put a google map here and highlight the route we took, but as yet I'm not savvy enough to figure it out.

The part of the trip that was on the interstate was through Charlotte, NC (right on the NC/SC border).  It was sort of culture shock for us after such a nice peaceful trip but Rick got us through it as always.  

Somewhere in Charlotte there is this humongous roller coaster.  Make no mistake, I am not a roller coaster fan by any stretch, but this sucker impressed me - do people really and truly spend money, like pay someone, to go on this monster?

So further research told me that this monster is at Carowinds in Charlotte - you know one of those places where you pay and arm and a leg and ride rides and play all day.  Anyway, I think this beast is called the intimidator - it sure as heck would intimidate me!  I don't think this is something Rick or I would be going on in this lifetime ~ how 'bout you?

laundry schmaundry

Seriously, how would a person give a fat flying anything about laundry (we all know for sure there will always be laundry right - it's been chasing me for 37 or so years so why take it quite so seriously?  How'm i doing here with the rationalizing?) when there are places like this a few miles down the road?

We left late this morning to go about three miles down the road to be certain that the fuel stop down there would accommodate us with the coach/trailer connected.  We didn't really want to go get fuel in the coach then come back to the campground and connect the trailer then head off into the wild blue yonder (well really to Rock Hill, SC).  

Well, the fuel stop looked just fine so what the heck - the options were, continue and "explore" or come home and clean the coach that hasn't been cleaned for a couple weeks because (yea yea yea) we did not have a water and/or sewer connection for the last week when we were in New Bern and as with the laundry, the cleaning got put on the way back burner!

So we ended up at Jordan Lake somewhere down the road.  OMG, one of the treasures we've found along the way  ... so peaceful, so beautiful just outstanding.

I was just chatting with himself about staying here for a few more days to continue the exploring (we aren't staying, we are leaving early, as early as we are able in the morning ... to hopefully get a "prime" site at our destination in SC - another story for another day).

With all that said this was a great day for Sir Arlo the wonder dog ~ the last few times he's been at a body of water he really hasn't cared about it so much ~ we can't quite figure what the deal is but today, well today he was his old water dog self and just couldn't get enough of it.  Don't know if it was because there wasn't a 30 foot treck out to where he could finally swim or what but he just kept going back after the tennis ball or any stick that was thrown to him ... over and over and over and over (get the picture??)

Rick used to (well and probably still does at times, but not as frequently) refer to Sir's tail (stub) as his rudder - well hopefully the photo below can be enlarged - check out how he's carrying the stick - a rudder, so to speak, in the front ~ unfortunately you can't see the rudder in the back!

After we finally tore ourselves away from the lake we headed to who knows where and ended in Apex (huh?  we never knew, in spite of the number of times I made arrangements for "my" people to fly into the area in a former life) for a great lunch at a local joint we found on the GPS (UGH another story for yet another day).  After which we truly did head home but needed to stop at the post office to mail something to my/our Muffin Princess and continued from there about 20 miles down the road to ummmm, the "local" Elks Lodge where Sir needed to do a photo op overlooking the swimming pool - 

And in closing - brother Jon this photo is lovingly posted for you ... the dash, however was not padded!  If you see a car like this does it put a smile on your face ( I hope, like it did me, with fond fond memories) or otherwise?  What year was that anyway and was the car white with a red interior or red with a white interior?  And it was a convertible wasn't it ("chop car as Owen or Joshua referred to Dad's mustangs way back when he had them  in Leyden)

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!