Last Day at Charleston Air Force Base

It's even cold here!

February 16th - Monday - Cloudy 45 degrees

Today is our last day here at the Air Force base, and we have had some cool days and evenings.  We have disconnected our hoses each evening, but has never gotten down to the freezing mark.

Maci thinks that the floors are cold and I have to agree with her, they are cold, even these newer RV's are not insulated like our homes are.  I was glad that I had an older quilt with me and I put that down on the floor for her to lay on and then she still enjoys being covered up.

Today I have made some extra food to enjoy while we are on the road.  I made some homemade chicken noodle soup along with some ham salad for sandwiches.  I have the refrigerator cleaned out, have the laundry caught up and things pretty well taken care of ready to travel.  We have reservations at the sub base in St. Mary's for tomorrow night, that is five miles prior to crossing the Florida line, we will stay there two nights, then be on our way to Key West.  It was only 66 degrees there yesterday.

I am going to miss the open field behind us, as Maci and I have enjoyed a long walk every morning and evening.  In fact, yesterday, I lost one of my brown gloves while we were out and today, I found it.  I thought that was rather lucky.

When I talked to Krista at home today, she told me that it was 17 degrees below zero and they had some frozen water.  She called her landlord and reported it and he was concerned about our water and said he would stop and check on our house on his way to their house.  You talk about good friends.....  Poor little Matthew has the flu, he has been to the ER once and today went back to the doctor.  Today his doctor told Krista his chest was tight and he put him on Prednisone and an antibiotic so hopefully he will improve a little quicker.  Lou and I can sympathize with him, as we both had it after Christmas and it took forever to recover completely.

We are due for rain tomorrow, thankfully, it won't be freezing to travel.

Charleston, SC Air Force Base

February 12th - Thursday - Beautiful, Sunny - 63 degrees

We are at Charleston, South Carolina on the Air Force Base.  We have a lovely campsite, with a huge open field behind us, and the laundry and bath house beside us.  We have been here twice before and always enjoy our stays here.  Maci loves to run in the field behind us; in fact, we are amazed at how well she has adjusted to the RV and traveling.

Maci

Today, we decided that we would go to the Commissary so we could spend the afternoon while it was warm , getting outside and enjoying the warmer weather, as we are also forecasted to get very cold weather the rest of the week, so cold that we have to disconnect our water and be watchful of our pipes.

We took Maci and went for a nice walk, she loves to walk and smell the new territory.  We walked down to the entrance to the base to take a good look at the airplanes.  Matthew, the airplane at the top of the blog is a plane like Grandpa used to fly.  This is a C-124 ( Ole Shakey) to see it up close you can really see how huge it really is.

This gives you an idea just how large the tires are.

There were several other planes on display.  The one that Lou wanted me to see was the C-141 that his best friend Alois flew.

C-141

We were pleased to see how well these planes have been taken care of.  They are in excellent shape, which says a lot for the base here.  One reason I love to come to this base, it the fact that we can see and hear the planes here, as the airman do practice runs.

I snapped this the other evening when I had Maci out.

We also hear the fighter fly over, but haven't been quick enough to get their picture.

We have high wind warnings for tonight, for that matter it is pretty windy right now, we just had a branch blow down on the RV.  I  plan on staying in tomorrow and cleaning out the cupboards tomorrow and doing some cleaning.  We made reservations for next week at the sub base in Kings Bay for next Tuesday and Wednesday and then we will start for Key West, FL.

 

Travel Day Number 2

February 10th - Tuesday - Rainy

This picture was taken as we traveled along route 81 in Wyeth County, VA.  This is the Blue Ridge Plateau.  I always marvel at the beauty of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  I talked Lou into  going route 81, as I am familiar with this route, as I drove it yearly to take my deceased husband back to Tennessee to visit with his family and I always enjoyed those trips.

On this trip I was able to spot Cripple Creek and I remember Al talking about a song that his dad played on the banjo about Cripple Creek, I was so excited to see it on the map.  In fact, I think I remember Grandpa Jones singing the same song.

I was thinking about Steve on the stretch of highway also, as there were many motorcycles out, as it was Sunday when we traveled along 81 and I know Steve is so anxious to be able to get his back on the road.

This morning when I opened t he curtain I found that the yard was full of robins and I was able to catch a quick photo of one.

I will send them north!

I was anxious to get the quilt set up that  Susie made Lou for Christmas, and I did just that on the first night out and had to take a picture of it with my teddy bear and pillows, we just love it.  She did a beautiful job on it and then the table runner and hot pads to go with it.  They are perfect.

Isn't that perfect?

Matthew was having a problem with us leaving this year, so Krista came up with the idea of making a map for him.  She cut out a picture of our RV and put a stick pin in it and hung all of this on his bedroom door, and each night, either we call him, or he calls us to find out where we are and he moves the RV to where we are and that along with the post cards that we will send him will help him be more connected to us.  We thought that was a great idea for the little guy.

Leaving the Snow Behing

February 9th - Monday  67 degrees - Lexington, South Carolina

We finally found a window of opportunity to get our RV out of the barn on Friday morning.  Lou was able to back in into our driveway on the first attempt without getting into any of the drifts.  We quickly packed it ready for the trip south.  Janet and Brion arrived early Saturday morning to help us put the last few items in and Brion helped Lou connect the car to the RV and they noted we had a problem with the lights on the car and that delayed our departure by several hours; however, they stayed with us until we were ready to depart.  It was nearly noon when we got onto Route 15 heading south.

Janet brought us a beautiful Cyclamen plant to brighten our table for Valentine's Day and Brion  picked up a delicious loaf of cinnamon  bread.

The plant is sitting on a table runner that Susie made us to go with the quilt she made Lou for Christmas.

When we arrived in Virginia it was 52 degrees.  The Welcome Center was truly a welcome sight.  That had been our goal to made Virginia the first day, but with the late start we were afraid that me might not be able to make it.

Welcome Center - Virginia

Do you notice, there is no snow in Virginia?  We noted that gasoline was $2.09 a gallon.

We stayed the first night in Winchester, VA at a campground that we had stayed at before, Candy Hill.  It turned out to be an excellent choice, as we were able to flush out all of our winter antifreeze and get fresh water through our system and fill our tanks with fresh water, get hooked up and all of this was accomplished before it got dark and cold.

We had a dinner of potato salad and pulled pork barbecue, which really tasted good, with the very mild temperatures.   We opened up the screen door and let in the fresh air and looked outside at the absence of snow!!  This ended day one on the road.  The first picture shows daffodils that are coming 

up.