We left Delaware and drove down the Delmarva Peninsula to Virginia Beach. I have driven over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel hundreds of times but never in the RV. There were a couple of white- knuckle moments when semi-trucks passed us going the other direction, but of course we made it. 

We made this stop in Virginia Beach so I could upgrade my hearing aids. After doing that we hit Famous Uncle Al's for our hotdog and cheese burger fix. We then picked up a dozen steamed crabs from Dockside Seafood Market, which we enjoyed that evening. 

We also were able to find a technician to come out and replace worn cables on our satellite dish. It went out a month ago and we could not find anyone to repair it at any of our stops. If you ever need a great tech to do satellite work in the Tidewater area, contact me and I will give you his number. 

We had a nice dinner with Leon and Laura at Blue Pete's and then the next night we attended a Tides Baseball Game. The next day while I played golf with Aaron and Leon, Josie went with Debbie and visited Alex and Livy at their house near Old Dominion University.  That evening we met Bob and Kathy for dinner at Bonefish Grill. Upon our return to the Jeep after dinner we found that we had been " Ducked." A tradition many Jeep owners do to other Jeep owners if they like their Jeep.

 We had never spent much time in Myrtle Beach doing anything but playing golf. So, we decided to spend some time getting in other tourist activities. We camped within 100 yards of the very nice beach, but for the first 5 days we were inundated with torrential rain. Our site and most of the RV Park were under water or muddy till the day we left. 

We did manage to get out and walk the beach in-between downpours on the last few days of our stay. I even got in a round of golf at TPC Myrtle Beach one of the few courses I had never played in Myrtle Beach.

The rain did not stop us from checking out a few antique stores looking for Josies pottery, but we found nothing. We attended two very entertaining shows, One at the Alabama Theater and the other at the Carolina Opry. Both were  top-notch productions. 

On our last night in town we really played tourist and went over to Broadway at the Beach, the large entertainment area, where we had "Boat Drinks" and "Cheeseburgers In Paradise" at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant. 

Our next stop was Jekyll Island, Georgia. We stopped here on our way up north this spring and loved it so much we decided to came back on our way south. We walked the beaches everyday we were there. One of our favorites is Driftwood Beach, where the ocean has encroached on the forest and the trees are now bleached out and leave an eerie landscape. 

We also took time to find many of the Geocaches around our campground. We do enjoy this new found treasure hunt pastime. 

If you saw my Facebook post about finding 8 banded birds on the South Beach, then you know that with in 24 hours I had learned where all 8 were banded and when. The small Piping Plover on Hanlan's Beach, Ontario, Canada just this June of 2022. Two Black Skimmer from Wrightsville Beach NC, and another from Stone Harbor NJ. All the Royal Terns were from nearby Brunswick, GA. One afternoon a Pileated Woodpecker came to call in our campsite and I was able to get a few good pictures of it.  

We drove south to Flagler Beach and Gamble Rodgers State Park. We were watching the progress of Hurricane Ian very closely. After two days we decided to head south to Delray Beach as the storm track keep showing it going west and north of Delray. The folks who own the park here in Delray as so great that when we called them, they said, we will make room for you so come on down. We are now here in Delray Beach and this will be our home for the next 6 to 7 months. 

Before we left Flagler Beach we drove up to St Augustine Beach and had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, Saltwater Cowboys, We enjoyed the three way shrimp dinner just as much as we did over 25 years ago. After dinner we drove the beach back towards Flagler Beach. 

We stopped in Rhode Island for two days so we could check in on our storage unit. We put what personal goods we had left in Cathy and Scott's basement in the storage unit when they moved from RI to Florida. We had not been here in almost 4 years so we dropped by and spent less then 5 minutes making sure things looked ok. We tried to check out a few antique shops but none of them were open. We did visit the scenic seaside town of Narraganset, with its twin towers spanning over the shoreline road. We had dinner at Monahan's Clam Shack by the Sea and I had the fried clam bellies and Josie had the coconut shrimp. Both dinners very good. I got up early that morning and played the beautiful  Exeter golf course.  

We drove from Rhode Island down to Delaware around New York City. This is always a challenge as the traffic is horrendous all the time it seems. It was not a pleasant day on the road to say the least. 

We came to Millsboro, Delaware to visit Josie's sister Mary Ellen and her husband Rich. Our visit coincided with Mary Ellen's birthday and we celebrated it with a nice dinner at the Grain Restaurant which is located in the Lewes Ferry Terminal. We enjoyed watching the ferry arrive and unload and load again. We then returned to their house for birthday cake. They introduced us to a new dice game called Farkle, which was a lot of fun. Mary Ellen like to do puzzles. I helped her finish one and get a good start on another one.  Rich and I did a little fishing on the lake behind their house and we had a good time catching a few little fish. 

On our way home one morning from getting gas for the Jeep we checked out two quick find Geocaches. Josie found the first one and I found the other. We recorded in the log and placed our token golf tees in both. 

We have been to Maine many times in our summer travels but never stayed in one place too long.  So, we decided to spend a week in the Freeport, Maine area. Freeport is known for being the home of LL Bean and on our other visits that's about all we saw while in the area.  

We first visited the scenic town of Boothbay, Maine. The Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens located there is known for their Trolls. As you can see from the pictures below they are very large and detailed. They are all made from recycled wood scraps, by the Danish artist, Thomas Dambo, along with many volunteers. There were many other sculptures in the garden and I liked the one titled the "Codfather."  From there we visited the Boothbay Lobster Wharf where we enjoyed the first lobsters of our visit. 

A small Nor'easter arrive the next day so we checked out a few antique shops looking for pieces to add to Josies collection but had no luck. The day was not a total loss as we stopped in Wiscasset, Maine and got the world-famous Red's Lobster Rolls. We have always stopped here on our visits and even though there is always long line no matter what time of day you show up, it is well worth it. Lots of lobster meat for a great price. So much lobster we took some home and had it the next night. 

We did go into Freeport and stopped by L.L. Bean. The Bean Shoe Car out front of the store was pretty neat. Cedar Haven Family Campground where we stayed has a lot of really nice wood carvings, and many of the sites also have custom made log benches. 

I birded a local Maine Audubon site early one morning, in Falmouth, Maine. The tide was out and the shore birds were too far away to get any good pictures. I did come across a flock of Turkeys in the meadow nearby. It was interesting to see the clammers working the tidal flats in air boats very similar to the ones we see in the Everglades. Clamming looks like hard work, up to your knees in mud and bent over all the time. I was able to find the only geocache in the preserve to make up for the slow birding day. 

We drove to Topsham, Maine one evening to the Salty Dog Brewery, which is housed in an old mill on the rocky Androscoggin River. We tried the local mussels and clam chowder, both very tasty.  Blueberries are in season here now and I tried a blueberry beer, which was just ok. 

One afternoon I decided to have some sardines that Catherine had given me. With much trepidation Josie decided to try them. As you can see from the picture below it did not go well. Oh well, all the more for me. 

On our last day in the area, we had one more lobster roll at the Harraseeket Lunch and Lobster Company, on the scenic Freeport Wharf.  

As we crossed over the border into Maine from New Hampshire on Monday, we honked the airhorns on the Winnebago to celebrate filling in our map. We have now driven through all of the lower 48 states. We have traveled 60,412 mile so far. 

We have spent at least one night in the RV in all but 5 of them, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Jersey and Oklahoma. 

While living full time in the motorhome, we did fly to Hawaii for a week long cruise. We did not make it to Alaska as many full timers do but we did spend 6 weeks there in 1999 while camping in our van. That was a rough trip and we did not want to subject the old RV to that kind of abuse.

We made it to only 3 of the Canadian Provinces and had planned to visit the Maritime Provinces but Covid got in the way. If our plans change and we do not buy a home this coming year, we may make it there yet. 

It has been a great Journey!

We visited Burlington, Vermont 25 years ago and decided to come back and see what we might have missed. On our first visit, we toured the Shelburne Museum, took the Ben and Jerrys Ice Cream Factory Tour, and attended a Vermont Expos minor league game.  We also toured the new, at that time, Vermont Teddy Bear Factory, which gave way to the idea of the popular Build A Bear franchise. 

We first celebrated Josie's birthday with a dinner cruise on the Spirit of Ethan Allen out on Lake Champlain. We were treated to the best weather of our stay with calm waters and a beautiful sunset over the Adirondack Mountains in New York and moon rise over the Green Mountains of Vermont. We toasted with champaign and even got out on the dance floor a few times.

Two days later we kept the party going with a Railroad dinner trip on the Green Mountain Railroad. The three hour trip started off along the shores of Lake Champlain, went through a narrow area that was cut out of the rocks and then over a river on a 100 foot trestle. Along the way we were treated to champagne and an outstanding four course meal.  

We saw more rain in Burlington than we had seen on our whole trip north this year. When we did get a good day we walked the Colchester Causeway trail, an old converted rail line that goes out into Lake Champlain. It was very busy with many bikers so not that enjoyable having to dodge the Tour De France wannabes. 

​We later went to the Church Street Market Place and enjoyed the street entertainers. From there we visited a few of the local micro-breweries, where we tasted a few great beers and had a fantastic meal at the Burlington Beer Company.  Along the way we felt fortunate we did not have to be here when they have so much snow that they have three foot markers on the fire hydrants. 

One oddity we found, was what most people call the world's tallest filling cabinet. It is made up of 38 individual cabinets stacked on top of each other and then welded together. It's called ART?  

I got up early one morning to bird a local lake. The three mile hike around the lake was a little more challenging than I anticipated but I made it all the same. The birding was fair and I did get a few good birds for the year but not many good pictures. I decided to search for a few geocaches that were along the trail and found three including one called "A Shady Cache" which was full of sunglasses. Very creative cache, wish I would have had a pair of glasses to leave. 

Seven years ago, we spent two weeks attending the races at Saratoga. We had such a good time we decided to go back and enjoy them again.

Before the races started, we visited our friend Millie at her beautiful farm, just outside of Saratoga Springs. We attend Yoga classes with Millie in Boca Raton during the winter. When she heard we were coming to Saratoga she invited us out to her farm and she served us a lunch with all of dishes coming from her garden. She then took Josie on a ride around her property on her ATV. As you can see Josie loved it. We look forward to seeing Millie back in Boca this winter season.

​We spent the next five days at the track enjoying the atmosphere of Saratoga. It's not just about the horse races. The wagering, pageantry, food and entertainment, not to mention the people watching are all part of what makes this a fun thing to do. On our first day at the track Lynn and Hutch joined us for a while, as they were in the area. It was their last day before they heading farther south. Wish they could have been around longer. 

We did our best to pick the winners in just about all the races but this year we came out on the short end overall. We still enjoyed seeing all the best horses, jockeys and trainers in the country. 

It was also neat to see the announcers we see on TV when watching the races.

Of all the food items available, the lobster rolls were by far our favorite. I am also very partial to the Carnegie Deli's Black and White Cookies.  

We moved up to Burlington, Vermont today and will stay here for a week. 

We started off our stay in the Finger Lakes region with a visit to the Corning Museum of Glass.  We had both been here before, Josie many years ago and I had visited it with my navy buddy Tom Ney on a New York minor league baseball stadium tour in 2011. We enjoyed the glass blowing demonstrations the most. We then had a nice lunch near the town square. 

We hiked the Watkins Glen Trail one morning with a few hundred of our closest friends. Despite the trail being very crowded and many people jams at spots in the trail that were very narrow, we enjoyed the beautiful gorge. 

While in the area we decided to visit the Watkins Glen International Race Course. I attended the US Grand Prix here 53 years ago, right after getting back from a West Pac Cruise while in the Navy. I have included two pictures from that race in 69 at the end of this section. We discovered you could drive your own car for three laps around the track and we had a blast doing it. Josie was our camera lady and did a great job. We did not set any speed records but I tried to test the limits of the Jeep on a few of the turns. We cannot upload video on the blog, but we did post it on Josies Facebook page. 

For my birthday, Josie treated me to a dinner cruise on Seneca Lake aboard the Seneca Legacy. We had a nice dinner while enjoying the scenic shore line of the lake. 

On our last day in town, we met up with my cousin Mike's daughter, Erica and her husband Chris, who live in nearby Ithaca, at a local airfield where Erica is a member of a skydiving club. We enjoyed watching her prep for a jump and then seeing her make a perfect landing right in front of us. Afterwards we stopped a Two Goats Brewery, overlooking Seneca Lake and enjoyed the view while trying one of their beers. 

We are now in Saratoga Springs for a week of horse races. 

We had visited Erie many years ago on one of our summer trips in the van, but we stayed only one night to see an Erie Seawolf's baseball game. Since Josie's son-in-law, Scott is from this area we decided to visit for a few days. One of our first stops was the Bicentennial Tower which gave us a nice view of the downtown area and the waterfront. A few days later we had Rum Runners at the restaurant by the same name in the shadow of the tower. While having diner Captain Jack Sparrow came by in his dingy  with a water cannon to spray the kids at the restaurant, they really enjoyed it. 

We then visited the Erie Land Lighthouse, the oldest lighthouse on the great lakes built in 1818. From there we drove to Presque Isle State Park. Presque Isle means almost an island in French. We took in both of the lighthouses in the park along with the monument honoring Commodore Perry, a Naval hero in the War of 1812. We were surprised to see a floating house community in a cove at the park. On the way out of the park I saw a lady with a camera like mine standing on the side of the road taking pictures of something in the trees. Turned out to be a gray morph Eastern Screech Owl. 

Scott had told us we had to visit Sara's Dinner during our visit. Sara's is just outside the park entrance and it was packed. We lucked out and found a parking space and put in our order for a hotdog, hamburger and onion rings. Despite four lines of at least 6 people in each line we were in and out in less than 30 minutes. We like it so much we went back the next day and this time ordered the Orange Vanilla Twist ice-cream cone. Delicious!  

We spent one afternoon at Presque Isle Downs betting on the horse races. We had a lucky day and won money in all 7 races we made wagers on, coming away with $135 dollars in winnings. 

On another day we visited Schaefer's Auto Art, which is home to a variety of sculptures made from recycled metal and auto parts. Josie was happy to see an old Nash Rambler, which was the first car she ever owned. On our way back to the RV Park we stopped at another of Scotts recommended places, Romolo Chocolates. We did not leave empty handed. 

We arrived in Lake Orion just in time for "Flare Night" a tradition where the home owners all around the lake set off flares on the shore the night before the Fourth of July fireworks. It is very beautiful and Michael, Josies son, had plenty of them to line his shore line. On the fireworks night, which was on the 2nd this year, everyone went out in their boats to watch the fireworks, which are shot from a barge in the middle of the lake. The lights from the boats along with the fireworks, make for a beautiful sight from the shore where Josie and I watched them.

On the 4th of July, Josie and I went into Detroit to see the Tigers take on the Guardians. It was a great day for a ball game and the Tigers won!

We spent some time around the lake with Josies family. Cathy and Scott were in from Florida as well as their father, Jim and Aunt Gail. Cathy tried her skill at riding the paddle board, and was able to get up and around  the lake. Josie's grand-daughters, Abby and Anne were very adept on the paddle boards and scooted all over the lake.  We had a few nice dinners together and one evening played a lively game of beer pong. We also had a bourbon tasting one evening that proved that no matter how much you pay for a bottle of bourbon sometimes the cheaper ones taste better. 

We spent a few hours one day at the Oakland County Fair. It was the first day of the fair so many of the livestock exhibits were not open yet, but we did see the pig races, and the chainsaw artist carving an owl. Josie got to feed the cows and goats. She even tried her hand at milking an artificial cow which she was very good at having milked a real cow once at the Purina Farm in Missouri. Of course, what would a fair be with out eating fried food, and we  shared a fried snickers bar, sooooo good!

We have been having a lot of fun finding Geocaches here in Lake Orion. We found all of them in the park where we were staying and even repaired one of them that had cracked open. We found one of them inside of a sign in a cemetery and we found one in a small birdhouse. Another interesting cache was located near the grave of Minour Yamasaki, the designer of the World Trade Center in New York. Odd that he and his wife are buried in such an out of the way cemetery in Lakeville, Michigan. We leave golf tees in the caches that are big enough to hold them. We got that idea from Mike Weirich, who got us started on this treasure hunt. We also are unable to find a few of the caches, which makes it frustrating.  

One evening we had dinner and dessert at the two of oldest and highest rated restaurants in Rochester, Michigan. Lipuma's Coney Island, where we feasted on Coney dogs and French fries by the river. Then we walked up the street to Sander's Chocolate and Ice Cream Shoppe, where we split their famous Cream Puff Sundae, A cream puff split in half with ice cream added between the halves and then covered with chocolate and caramel sauce. 

I played the Old Course at Indianwood with Glen and then a few days later we played at the Flint Country Club, both courses were in top shape. The Old Course is a Links Course and the Flint course was lined with beautiful trees. The next week I played with Russ, one of our fulltime RV friends. We played the Hadley Acres Golf Course with a front nine made up of tight fairways and very small greens and a back nine with larger fairways and much bigger greens. 

Once again Aaron let us park the RV in the side drive of his lake house on Bugg's Island Lake near Clarksville, Virginia. We started off our visit with two nights of Oyster Mania. We slurped some raw, we roasted some with toppings of blue cheese, shallots and bacon and then finished them off with    Aaron's oyster stew. We enjoyed our meals from the new deck that he had built last year. During our stay we were entertained daily by the many deer who have free reign throughout the neighborhood. They are fun to watch but they wreak havoc on Aaron's bird feeder and flower garden.  When we arrived one of Aaron's 3 bluebird nest boxes had a nest in it but no eggs yet. By the time we left they had laid 4 eggs and the day before we left the eggs hatched. 

Missy drove down from DC a day before we left for our golf trip to Pinehurst, North Carolina and we played a quick 9 holes at the Donald Ross course just up the road from the lake house. That evening we had a nice dinner at the local Buggs Island Brewery, where the sign to the bathroom there said it all. 

Missy, Aaron and I drove down to Pinehurst, North Carolina where we met up with Missy's friend and business collogue Charley, who flew down from Boston. We checked into the Carolina Hotel, our home for the next two nights. We had just enough time to look over the major championship trophies in the lobby of the clubhouse and a quick lunch before teeing off on Course #1. After our round on #1 we played the 18-hole Thistle Dew putting course, which prepared us for the diabolical greens of Pinehurst #2 the next day.

With the help of our caddy, Kade, we made our way around the famous Pinehurst #2.  A strong test of golf with waste areas on either side of most fairways and elevated turtleback greens that were very fast. But in the end, we were all smiles, having played one of the top courses in the US and the site of numerous championships. We then played the Cradle, a 9-hole par three course, which they suggested we play barefooted. After walking so much on #2 going barefoot felt good. All of the tee boxes were marked with drink stands, which we took full advantage of.  

We went back to the hotel, cleaned up and sat out on the porch for drinks before dinner. We had two evenings of 3 course gourmet meals and 2 days of the best breakfast buffets anywhere. We needed to keep our strength up for our final round on Sunday at Pinehurst #7. A completely different course with hills and water hazards.  

We then said goodbye to Charley and made the 2-hour drive back to Aarons. But the golf was not over for Missy. She drove back to DC where she teed off at 9am Monday morning at Congressional Country Club, where the LPGA Championship had just finished up the day before.  
 
On Monday morning, we said our goodbyes to Aaron and are now parked for the night at an RV park in West Virginia heading north toward Michigan.