Home, Sweet Home

This is our site for the summer. It's really quite nice. It's perhaps a fifty yard walk to most of our work assignments. And for the others (like campfires) that are farther away we have been given use of a golf cart for the summer.

Our screen room fit very nicely on the concrete pad. We had to trim back the bush in front, but it worked out great.  We have a large front lawn. About half of it goes away when the campground is full and extra parking is needed, but we are usually working then so it doesn't matter much.

One extra expense we hadn't counted on - bird seed. Our bird feeder draws so many birds that it takes only 3-4 days to go through a 20 pound bag. I may have to look into a new feeder that doesn't allow bigger birds to suck out all the food.

Life is tough!

Dragon Wagon

That's Jeff with Tubby the Turtle and Judy with Magic the Dragon on the daily "Dragon Wagon" ride.

Twice a day the Dragon Wagon rides around the campground with 3 trailers full of singing kids having a good time. The song that takes some getting used to is:

Row, row, row your boat

Gently down the stream.

If you see an crocodile

Don't forget to scream.

At which point all the kids (especially the girls) scream at the top of their lungs. It helps to put your fingers in your ears, but not much. No.

Not shown in the pictures is our third mascot, Splash the Dolphin.

Four Score and Seven Years Ago...

Here we are at the Gettyburg Visitor Center. Spent several hours touring the center, museum and a fabulous diorama which puts you in the middle of the battle. About an hour and a half from the campground.

Home on the Range

We're home for the summer and back in Pennsylvania. It's weird to be in the same state we lived in for so many years, but had never been to this area. We are 50 miles north of Harrisburg and in beautiful rolling hills along the Susquehanna River. The campground has 200+ sites and 2 miles of roads to walk and bicycle. Right now it is nearly empty and quiet with a few work campers and guests. Things will pick up over the weekend and the season starts when schools let out in mid-June.

We met our boss yesterday and talked about our schedule. We have to start planning programs for wagon rides and campfires. In addition we'll be escorting guests to their sites and helping out with daily games and weekly carnivals and activities. They have a beautiful pond here with paddle boats and an area with bumper boats. No kayaks so I will have to find a quiet stream or lake as the river is too fast for me. There's a large state park nearby and we will explore that soon.

We found the local WalMart yesterday and two supermarkets as well as a big box center and lots of restaurants. There are lots of little towns with museums and historical sites to visit over the summer. Best of all I saw a bald eagle flying over our pond and I'm told the nest is two miles down the road.

Peg O' My Heart

One of the laws (I think it's federal) of being an RVer is that you have to stop at Cracker Barrel to eat. As anyone who has ever eaten at a Cracker Barrel knows, you kill time while waiting for your food by playing their peg game. The idea is to remove all the pegs except one by jumping the other pegs in the triangle.

Judy and I had been having less than stellar success with the game this week, so I suggested a new twist. We would see who could leave the most pegs. Well (you can see this coming a mile away) on my first attempt at leaving the most pegs I wound up with only one! It's the first time I have ever won the game. The problem is that I won by losing. I was trying to leave the most pegs!

We are Family - Take Two

Here we are with Terry, Marilyn and Rick in Hagerstown, Maryland.

We Are Family

Cousins Terry Sachsel, Marilyn Glazer with Rick, Jeff and me in Hagerstown, MD. A one night reunion as we drive to our summer gig. The gals are heading to Chicago from D.C. and Rick has driven out from NJ to see us.

On The Road Again

Saturday morning and we hit the road about 11:30 am. Everything is done and last things to do are packing the fridge and freezer and toiletries. Ziggy is so excited as she knows something is up and relieved when she finally gets her leash on and knows she is going too.

A pleasant drive untill the rain begins in early evening. We pulled off in a rest area in southwest Virginia and spent the night. We were able to open our bedroom slide and I put on my pajamas and slept peacefully. In the morning the rain had stopped and we continued to Hagerstown, MD, where we met Jeff's brother, Rick, and Chicago cousins, Terry and Marilyn. We had a family reunion dinner at a Texas Roadhouse Restaurant with lots of good food and conversation.

Born to be Wild

We are getting ready to head out on the highway, but not so wild these days. We're leaving on Saturday and starting the packing. This morning I cleaned out the kitchen and discarded many expired items from the pantry. Next stop will be the dump and donating items to the food pantry. Still have to do the refrigerator and freezer.

Already missing this place and the summer fun. Will not be missing the oppressive heat.

Georgia On My Mind

Just had a fabulous dinner at The Crab Shack on Tybee Island, just outside of Savannah. Our dear friends, Eileen & Al Goldstein from Yardley, were visiting on their way home from Florida and it was great seeing them. Hinda & Marty Klinghoffer were part of our group too and we had all been pals when we lived in the cold, cold north. We met to eat and gab and did both well. The Crab Shack does lots of advertising and I have wanted to go there. It did not disappoint. The place is tacky, but great views of the water and we were seated outside. The weather was perfect and the food delicious. We all shared the Lowcountry Boil and the platters were enormous. Shrimp, crab legs, crab claws, crawfish, mussels, corn on the cob, potatoes and sausage were all piled high and we did our best to devour it all. Afterwards we visited their ponds with baby alligators and talked until it was time to go home.

Daydream

What a gorgeous day for a daydream - or- kayaking on the serene Ebenezer Creek. Here I am in Rincon, Georgia, paddling a calm creek surrounded by Cypress trees and swamp grasses. Doesn't get much better than this. It was a perfect day weatherwise and everything was so green and lush. I am again paddling with a group called Swampgirls and they run a great trip supplying the kayaks and a guide. This creek will not be navigable in another week because of the Duck Weed which will cover the water surface. I hope to come here again in the autumn when the weeds die as it is a lovely place.

You Can Hear the Banjo Playin'...

There are so many interesting things going on in this area that it's hard to keep track of them all. Today I went to a banjo-making workshop where I made my own banjo!

It seems that the Gretsch Company, longtime maker of banjos and drums, has over the years bought out several other companies. As a result of these purchases they have a large number of banjo parts just lying around. The Gretsch Foundation, the company's charity arm, decided these parts could be put to good use. The Savannah Folk Music Society in conjunction with the Ships of the Sea Museum went through the Gretsch warehouse and scrounged enough matching parts to make a bunch of banjos.

This was a non-trivial project. The men in charge of the workshop had to make sure that all the parts matched, that all the nuts fit all the screws, and that they were able to fake any parts that were missing. About 25 of us showed up with our toolkits, polish, sandpaper, and sundry other implements of construction. These banjo parts had been lying around in a warehouse for more than 35 years and required a bunch of TLC before assembly.

Anyway, after a few hours of polishing, scraping, sanding, tightening and cursing I now have a beautiful banjo -- hand assembled by yours truly. And I had a great day!