Back Home again,,,in Indiana

We are back all safe and sound.  Arrived Sunday evening.  Took us 4 days to cross Texas, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky. 
This is the sunrise as we left Texas.

We drove over 300 miles a day, which is really fine for 1 day, but 4 in a row is not our cup of tea.
We didn't make it in time to say "goodbye" to Uncle John.  In our hearts we believe he knew we loved him.
Uncle John's funeral was yesterday.  It was a beautiful service and almost all the family was there.
Took this picture at the luncheon afterward of the cousins. Sons and daughters of Elwynn and Janice.

 

Now, it is back to reality.  Rog and I both feel like we were in a dream state.  Doing different things everyday, seeing new places.  We have another big trip planned for early September, we are headed to Maine!  There will be other shorter trips through the summer with our RVing buddies the Shafers and hopefully we will get our grandsons to tagalong at some point or another.  The other excursion on the agenda, hopefully, is we want to take Rog's Mom and Step Dad to the Badlands of SD. 

 

For now it is laundry, yardwork, once the weather actually feels like Spring and some home improvement projects that were put on hold.

 

Until the next time my friends!

God Bless

Rog and Nita, Grabnlife

Heading Home, Thank Yous and an Unfinished Journey

We head for home tomorrow.  Hopefully we will return before Uncle John passes.  We would like to tell him we love him one last time.

We will be making stops in Mt Pleasant, Tx, Memphis, Tn, Horse Cave, Ky and finally home.

We probably won't make posts during this time frame.

We would like to thank some people for their kindness, assistance and friendship during our 1st official "Grabn Life Journey".

First our daughter, Heather, for going to our house once a week and taking care of things for us there.  Thank you honey!
Second to all our neighbors back in Elkhart, Rex and Terri, Jo and Brian, Dan and Donna.  Thanks for keeping an eye on everything.  A special thank you to Rex for plowing the drive for us!
Third, thanks to our cousins, Kennen and Terri!  Wow, what a surprise and what fun we had with you in Grayton Beach, I don't think you guys can top that one!
Fourth, thanks to Ed and Cathy in Lakeland, Fl, for inviting us into their home and family, we really enjoyed spending time with all of you.
Fifth, Deb and Bernie in Gulfport, neighbors and fellow travelers,,although they take the easy way out and rent condos :),,anyway, thanks for showing us around last week, see you at home.

Finally a BIG we are so sorry to Anita and Dave in Austin and Leo and Thelma in Allen, Tx.  We won't make it to see you guys as we had hoped.  We were really looking forward to spending time with you.

We have an unfinished journey, but sometimes those are the best, because you can just keep looking forward to the next time.

Love to all and we will post once we are back in Elkhart.

Ode to Uncle John

We are in San Antonio, we arrived yesterday afternoon.  Our journey thus far has been an amazing one.  I learned alot about myself and what's really important to me...but enough of that.

Uncle John, Rog's uncle on his mom's side, has always been there for his family.  He never married and so he focused all his attention on his nieces, nephews and sometimes his great nieces and nephews.  He cared for his elderly mother in his own home, so that she would not have to go to a nursing home.  He is a Korean War veteran, but he won't talk about it.  He volunteered tirelessly for Habitat for Humanity, he really loved it.  He is a walker, or at least he was till his health began to fail.  He would walk from one of of Plymouth to the other,,,I'm guessing 8 - 10 miles in a day and he loved that too.

Over the 40 + years I've been "in" the family, Uncle John has always been there for everyone.  Never judging or questioning just helped how he could.  I can't tell you how many different family members he took in because they had fallen on hard times.

Uncle John is very close to joining his mom in heaven.  We got this news on Monday morning as we were about 30 miles from San Antonio...In a perfect world we could have just turned around right then and headed back to Indiana.  But,,,as fate would have it, we have some mechanical problems with our truck,,no not from the "shade tree brake mechanic"  something totally different.  So we came on in to San Antonio, and we are staying here at Ft Sam Houston.  It is a beautiful park.  Our truck is at a dodge dealer right now, being looked at.

Rog wants to be home,,,which I wish I could wave a wand and have him be there,,but  that isn't possible.  What is possible is once we figure out what's up with the truck, we can fly him home and I will stay here.  Or, who knows, we may decide to pull up stakes once the truck is back and head for home.  However, that will take us 4 days to get there,,4 hard driving days.  (we have found that more then 350 miles a day really wears us out, this isn't like just driving a car).  So,,,our journey continues and we will adjust and perservere, that is what a journey is all about.

Oh, and by the way, if you are ever in Louisana with a camper, DO NOT TAKE Interstate 10.  It is the bumpiest stretch of road, 60 miles worth, which is probably why we have problems with our truck.
Below is a picture of the swamp land in Louisiana, nothing but this for many many miles.  Don't think I'd want to live there.

When we stopped in Gulfport, MS for the evening, we met up with our neighbors, Bernie and Deb.  They took us to Bay St Louis, MS, this is very close to ground zero of Katrina.  They took some of the destroyed Live Oak trees and carved them into statutes.  This one is my favorite, it was an angel tree.

 

 

None of us know what tomorrow brings, so Grab Life my friends!

Lakeland to Clearwater

Yesterday we drove west to the gulf coast to the town of Clearwater.  Clearwater beach is on an island,,,one bridge crosses from the major interstate to the beach.  We managed to get stuck in traffic and a one hour drive ended up being two and a half.  It was VERY windy again yesterday, and we didn't think of that before deciding to visit the beach.  After seeing the Florida panhandle side of the gulf we think we prefer it to this side.  Clearwater was HUGE and very developed, didn't have the "beach town" feel to it.  I'm sure it is a packed during high tourist season.  Here are a few pictures from the beach itself.

 

 

 

We had dinner with the Criswell's last night and learned to play the card game Golf.  I've discovered I am neither good at the on the green or the one on the table :)  But, it was fun!

 

Today, we toured Southern Florida University which is where Cathy C. works.  Beautiful, small liberal arts college.  The majority of the buildings were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

This evening will be our last get together with them, as we head to Tallahassee tomorrow. Saturday, Gulfport, Mississippi, where we will meet up with our neighbors from Elkhart, Bernie and Deb W.

Sunday is Iowa, Lousiana and finally we arrive in San Antonio on Monday the 11th!  We are both looking forward to getting there.  Rog went to basic training in San Antonio and there are alot of places he wants me to see.  So, we probably won't "blog" again till Monday.

 

Oh, and I promised more pictures from our "safari" here at SanLan.  We have really enjoyed our stay here!

 

Rog in his safari outfit,,,no, we didn't buy it specifically for this occasion :)

In the center of this, there is an alligator,,,pretty hard to see I know, but he's there.

 

Oh, and here is a shart boat from the Clearwater bay.



and, a pirate ship..

 

Yo HO Maties, until next time...

 

Sunshine and jungle safari, or at least it felt like it..

We've really enjoyed our stay here in Lakeland!  Mostly because we have been able to spend time with the Criswell's.

Unfortunately, this photo is missing a few of them...I goofed and didn't get a picture on Sunday.  So, sorry Destiny (also sorry if I've spelled your name wrong), Gramm and Johnny.  Baby Drake is a sweetheart and has everyone wrapped around his little finger!

Monday morning we realized that we needed to have our trucks brakes looked at.  Not something you want to have happen when you are on  trip like this, but we were very lucky.  The Criswell's recommended their mechanic.  He was an "old school" mechanic.  Ran his business from under huge shade trees and a shed!  Mr Carburetor was his name,,,I'm serious!

Anyway, that was pretty much our Monday, I did laundry and Rog waited on the truck.  We enjoyed an evening with the Criswell's and played Euchre!

Tuesday, we headed out for a bike ride through the nature preserves here at SanLan.

 

 

After 3 or 4 miles we decided we would go back to our camper and have some lunch and then set out on foot to the bird sanctuary.

 



This is what our campsite looks like.

We hiked about 5 miles, you would never know you were only a few miles from a major freeway!  We felt like we were on safari in a jungle.We saw egrets, cormarans, herons, buzzards, ibis and several song birds.  Alligators were in the swampy areas around us and we kept a close eye on them while they kept a close watch on us!  Rog saw a snake in the water and later we found a snake skin on the path,,,I'm not talking garden snakes,,this was BIG.
It was hot, 75, and by afternoon we were ready to head back.  We aren't used to this much sunshine!

 

Having some issues with getting pictures to download, so I will post some more from our "safari" tomorrow.

 

Today we are headed over to Clearwater to spend the day walking the beach!

 

Hope everyone is well!

Safe and Sound in Lakeland

We had an uneventful trip over here from Grayton Beach, which is good. You like those kinds of drives.
We will miss Grayton, it was a wonderful state park. The sunset the last night we were there took my breath away.

 

 

 

 

Arrived here in Lakeland yesterday afternoon.  We are visiting our long time family friends the Criswell's, they live close by to our park.   We had a wonderful evening with their family last night!
(Cathy, Ed, Destiny, Brittney, Ashley, Rob, Gramm, and Drake.
.


The park we are staying at now, SanLan, is privately owned and huge!
There is no feel of "seclusion" here.  However, it has a nature preserve on the property with 8 miles of hiking trails!  So it's all good! I took a stroll this morning, down one of those trails, I spotted an alligator just resting in one of the ponds!  And some beautiful white birds, that I don't know what they are.

 

 

 

 

We even have our own private palm tree on our spot. 

We will be here until Friday morning, then it's back West!

The 3 "S"s

Seafood

 

We headed toward Destin yesterday in search of a fruit stand actually,,,of course it wasn't open...(we are beginning to feel like we shouldn't go in search of things :)

 

Anyway, it worked out fine, we stopped at some beaches and by 11:30 it was time for lunch.

We'd heard how good Pampano Joe's was for seafood.  It's right on the coast with great views.

We had calamari, shrimp and tuna appetizer and watched the surf roll in.

 

 

Sharks!

 

 

Yes, we finally saw an aquatic animal!

this is a sand scupture, pretty cool, isn't it!

 

 

Paparazzi!

 

Crazy houses

 



 

 

 (yes, it is purple)

 

 

and finally...

 

SUNSETS!!

 

 

 

 

 

All in all it was a very nice day!