Happy Valentine's Day! We spent the day walking the beach and having a BBQ.
No we did not get snow, but three miles inland got 2" and at the bridge to the island 4". Very strange weather year! We spent the past couple of weeks taking care of hazard trees in both campgrounds. Kevin was the safety officer! Me, I spent time hauling brush and raking. We figure we are just getting into shape for our return to the mountains. Now that we have that job over, we have a couple of weeks off to enjoy.
We are planning a couple of day trips into Charleston as soon as the weather gets better.
We are starting to look toward the North and the trip to Claremont. We are thinking we'll be there around the first part of April. We hope to go to Hart-T-Tree Farms in Grassy Creek, NC on the way home. They are the company we worked for in Ft. Lauderdale selling trees. We are wondering if the snow will be gone between here and Claremont so we can make it home!

FLORIDA 2010

So it's been awhile! We hope everyone had Happy Holidays and are doing well in the New Year.
To catch up, we left our Christmas Tree lot after having exceeded all our goals and an invitation to return next year! We told them we had a great experience and will be happy to return next year.
We spent the first week after Christmas near Ocala and my Mom. We camped at Lake Dorr which is in the Ocala National Forest. A very nice campground, can't see our neighbors and very quiet.
We were very fortunate and were able to get some reservations at Bahia Honda State Park which is about 30 miles North of Key West. Stephanie flew down New Year's Day and she and my Mom joined us. Unfortunately we had one of the coldest weeks of the Winter (okay so it was 50's and 60's). As you can see from the pictures, the place was pretty close to paradise. We spent one day in Key West, wanted to introduce Stephanie to Sloppy Joes (she turned 21 in Dec,). Unfortunately she had a temporary NH license and they would not serve her. We told her we would try again next year. Poor Mom was cold the whole time we were there so she spent most of her time in the RV.
After leaving there we dropped Stephanie at the airport and my Mom at her house and went to Kissimee Prarie Preserve State Park in Okeechobee. The campground was out in the middle of nowhere. It was 5 miles from the State Park gate to the campground. From there we went to E.G Simmonds County Park in Ruskin just South of Tampa. We took a day trip to Fort De Soto County Park just South of St. Petersburg. They have a beautiful campground and a great dog beach. Sam and Riley had fun playing in the ocean and with lots of other dogs. We have gone to many dog parks down here and Sam & Riley seem to be adjusting well to being with other dogs.
We are now back at Lake Dorr for the next week and then are returning to Edisto Beach, SC next Sunday. We will be volunteering for about 6 weeks before heading back North. After traveling this year we have learned that there are very few places to stay on the ocean. There are know places in Florida that the dogs can go on the beach without there leashes (except the dog beach) so they will also be happy to return to Edisto. We will just be a little more prepared this year!
We have many pictures, but can only upload a few to this blog. I have put many in Kodak, but cannont put a link here. The address is http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/photoPicker/albums.jsp. Let me know if you can get there from here! If anyone knows another place I can put photos and link them here, please let me know.
We are both doing well. Kevin's hand has healed nicely! Our winter tans are coming along nicely, that way when we don't have sun in the mountains again this year we will be okay. Hope all is well in the North. We hear it was raining up there today! In January?

CHECK OUT THE JAG!

We have been very busy selling trees to the wealthy of Southern Florida! For those who know basketball, we sold a tree to Scotty Pippen. I didn't know who he was, but one of our helpers did. It's been very hot here, in fact we have set records for December. I know you northerners are feeling sorry for us! We are counting down the days until Christmas. We are working long days 8 am - 10 pm. Then paper work (Jan, I think they have you beat). Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas!

FT, LAUDERDALE CHRISTMAS TREE LOT

So what I thought might be another quiet night waiting for trees and getting a chance to write this has now turn into about 10 available minutes. We just received a call that our trees will be arriving at 8:00 PM this evening. So we will be working until about midnight getting set up.

The pictures are the ride we took up A1A on last Friday. We saw many very nice beaches and many very beautiful houses! We are only about 4 miles from the beach, but we don't expect to see it again before we leave. The other our empty lot. We are in a really nice place in Ft. Lauderdale, no sand or dirt, just grass. We do have US 1 right behind our RV but the noise is not too bad. Behind the church is a waterway where we watch the boats and water skiers go by. It's been 85 and muggy the past few days. Tomorrow a cold front will be coming through dropping the temps to 70's. I guess I will have to get out my winter clothing again.

Sam, Riley, Kevin & I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends!

On the Road Again!

So, after a long Summer spent at the Covered Bridge Campground in the White Mountain National Forest, we are at Edisto Island, SC again.
We were suppose to leave last Sunday, but as luck would have it we had to turn around when we got to Mass. because the transmission was smoking. We returned to Mom's house, change the transmission fluid (Kevin thought he might have overfilled it) and found that the brake line was broken and leaking fluid. Finding that at Mom's was much better than finding it out on one the wonderful mountains of New York. So we finally set out Thursday morning on our trip South. Two very long days later we landed in Edisto Beach, SC for a little vacation before going on to Ft. Lauderdale to manage the Xmas Tree lot for Hart-T-Tree Farms.
The weather is beautiful 70's and sunny. I am working on the tan I never saw this Summer from working in the rain. Working at CB this year was much better, having a year of knowledge behind us. Jan (our boss) put us back to work almost as soon as we arrived back in Claremont this Spring. It was interesting being at Blackberry Crossing Campgound (where we started the year because CB had too much snow) in April with 80 degree days and 4 ft of snow in some places. We worked hard with Jan to open 5 campgounds, 3 weren't too bad, but 2 had been hit hard by the ice storm. We spent a couple of weeks cuttting, hauling & chipping trees that had fallen over the winter. As soon as Jan send us some pictures (hint, hint) we will pass them along. Of course the weather was really great up until we opened the gates, then the rains came for 2 months. But all in all the Summer was pretty great. We had some visitors from Claremont - and it was nice to touch base with them. The only real bad time was driving Kevin to the hospital after he caught his finger in the wood splitter. (Jan, I'm sure you're going to let him run the splitter this Spring!) But minus one finger we are on the road again.
We will be here until Tuesday, and take two days to get to Hobe Sound, Fl, a little North of Ft. Lauderdale. We will use that as a base to scope out FT. Lauderdale and the area. We are due on our lot next Sat. and hopefully will be very busy selling trees until Christmas Eve. We will travel to Ocala to visit my Mom for Christmas, but haven't made too many plans beyond that.
It's great to be on the road and we are looking forward to visiting many new places this winter!

Amicalola Falls State Park, GA

Look what we saw! This is the tallest waterfall east of the Mississippi 729 feet. Awesome! This park also has an 8 mile approach trail to the southern end of the Appalachian Trail. We spent the day exploring northern Georgia. Lots of mountains, hairpin turns, and some really beautiful scenery. One thing we did learn - its not easy on the lungs going from sea level to mountains! We were going to go to the beginning of the trail, found the air very thin and hard to breath! Maybe we are just out of shape from hanging around the ocean for the winter. Currently we are on I81 N just south of Roanoke, Va. We have hit blizzards, sun, high winds and rain today. Also think we went over the tallest mountain in Georgia this morning trying to get to the Interstate. We had to unhook the car and I drove it until we got off the back roads. We will be in New Hampshire by the weekend! It will be good to be home - especially since we are cold already!

I had to share these with you.
The mountain is 825 feet tall and covers 583 acres. The top of the mountain is 1,683 feet above sea level.
The entire carved surface of the Memorial Carving measures three acres, larger than a football field. The carving of the three men towers 400 feet above the ground, measures 90 by 190 feet, and is recessed 42 feet into the mountain. The deepest point of the carving is at Lee's elbow, which is 12 feet to the mountain's surface.