Looking for Land in all the Wrong Places!

We sure would like to be able to find a piece of ground in/around Charlottesville. We have been looking for 3 days, but haven't found anything. Realtors have given us leads, but nothing that will fit the bill.

The kids started getting their roof on yesterday. They had a tree fall on their house last week and damaged the overhang and decking, etc. It was bad timing, with the birth of Ronan imminent, but it definitely was a cloud with a silver lining. They needed a roof badly and the roof there was already two layers deep. The contractor who came and looked it over agreed with the adjuster that the only fix was a total new roof. The current roof has no vents either, so the new roof will have a ridge vent and a nice looking architectural shingle. They started yesterday but it rained all night, so they probably won't be doing much today. But they did get it covered good so they don't need to worry about water leaks.

We left the kids alone yesterday until Jocelyn called. Tom was really tired (heh, heh. . . could it be that new baby?) and wanted someone to take him to Sam's since he didn't have a card. So we went over and I held the baby to give Jocelyn a break and Tom and Terry went shopping. I found out he does not like wet or messiy diapers. . . he wants changed and he wants changed NOW! No matter, as Grandma is happpy to oblige. He is still just as cute as ever. They have to take him in this afternoon for a weigh in.

I have had a recurrence of the cellulitis in my leg. The doctor I saw in Florida only gave me meds for 7 days. I called my doctor in Indiana and he gave me an extension of the meds and then we have appointments in May, so he can check it then. It hasn't been real painful since I started treatment, but I do want to clear this infection up.

I am including a picture of the proud daddy with Ronan and one they took of Ronan. Seems they want to start his financial awareness early. Just look at the face on that baby!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Ronan!

Is he cute or what?

Our days are pretty much taken up with our new grandson. We have been having breakfast with Tom's parents, Tom and Sharon, and then we usually come back to the camp and let the dogs out. Then we spend the afternoon at Jocelyn and Tom's visiting with the baby and, of course, our granddog, Jericho. He likes to lick the baby. Terry says he is taste testing. Hah. He only gets upset when the baby cries. He thinks we have to do something NOW to stop the crying.

Details: Ronan Lynch
Born April 21, 2007
7 lbs. 1 oz.
19 3/4" long

Today Tom and Sharon go back to New Jersey because they have JOBS! Oops, sorry. We have been letting them have evenings with the kids because 6 adults is just too many in their house and we will be here for another week. So Tom and Sharon are getting quality time with little Ronan now and we can pick up the slack after they go back home.

We took Jocelyn over to UVA yesterday for some blood work. She is anemic and could not have any iron infusions when she was pregnant, so they wanted to see where her iron is now. She enjoyed getting outside for a bit. We took her to the health food store so she could pick up a few things. We were only gone an hour and Grandma Sharon took care of baby Ronan. He was peacefully asleep in her arms when we got back. He is such a good baby.

We are going out this morning and look at some property. It is so hard to get campsites here in Charlottesville. . . we are really down to one choice and that is the KOA. We are looking for a piece of ground where we can stay when we come down here.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Our new grandbaby!

Meet our first grandchild. Ronan, born tonight, April 21, 2007. He was just over 7 lbs. Mom, Dad and baby are doing fine. He was born at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia. We are not babysitting with a big poodle, Jericho. Phaeton Place is a bit crowded, but we are doing fine.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Charlottesville, 2007!

We arrived in town yesterday morning. The kids had a tree fall on their house the other night and Tom wanted Terry to get here in time to meet with the contractor. So we hustled and got rolling by 7:15 am which is no small miracle for me considering I don't normally get up anywhere near that time. Hah.

The kids are going to get a new roof, which is really great. Not so great the tree falling, but the damage was confined to the roof and overhand with no interior damage. Turns out there is a silver lining to this cloud. It should be all done sometime this next week.

We have the best site in the KOA here. It is very large, plenty of room to sprawl out and put the dogs pen and park the toad. Really lucked out. Won't be nearly as nice when we move to Misty Mountain next week.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Hurry up and wait. . . blogger strikes again!

Well, I clicked on log in and waited. Logged in and waited. Clicked on new post and waited. Ugh.

Okay. I did do some writing the other day, just didn't get around to posting. We went to see Miss Patti in Kinston, North Carolina. A fun time was had by all:

April 19, 2007

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Miss Patti. We arrived on Sunday and she met us at Lowe’s to direct us to the Neuseway Nature Park and Campground. We parked in Smokeyjo and Pam’s campsite. It had rained on us most of the way there and we had even more rain later and the Neuse River was arisin’. By the time we left on Wednesday morning, it had risen a couple feet I would say. But we camped on the far side of the camp, so we were as far away as we could be and it did appear that the river was breaching the bank, but on the other side of the river.

Sunday night we went back to Patti’s place where we were united with Frosty. It’s been six months since we had seen the little guy. He and his friend, Ollie, who is best friend Cindy’s dog, vied for our undivided attention. I ended up with Ollie in my lap most of the evening. He is a poodle and such a little cutie, just like Frosty. Cindy fixed us all dinner and it was delicious. Patti had baked a cake which was great because it was Terry’s birthday and I had not yet got that job done.

While Patti was at work on Tuesday, we did a little sightseeing. Downtown is a replica of the CSS Neuse, a Civil War era ironclad. Wandered around it and took some pictures. It was not open and is a work in progress. Then we went out to the historical site where the “real” Neuse itself is sitting under a canopy. The CSS Neuse was scuttled during the Civil War to prevent the enemies from capturing her after she became mired in the river. A lot of damage resulted from the amateurs who tried to bring her up out of the depths, but you have to applaud their resolve in saving a piece of history. My camera died while I was taking some shots, but you can get the general idea. It is amazing just how much wood and iron was used to build these ships. Hard to believe it would even float. This also is a work in progress and attempts are being made to bring “home” a lot of artifacts from the vessel which we sold at different times over the years.

We had the pleasure of eating at King’s with Patti. King’s is a “pig-pickin” barbecue buffet which is a Kinston classic. Very good. And then we went to Ruby Tuesday’s on Tuesday before we had to leave. The shutter on the camera stuck, but it is a good picture of the three of us. We hated leaving Patti and she hated for us to leave. She has a lovely place in Kinston and is surrounded by wonderful memories of the years she and Mickey spent in the area. I’m sure Patti will welcome any friends who want to visit. The Neuseway Nature Trail and Campground is full hookups for $10. . . YES, that is no misprint. There are not a lot of sites, and fewer for the big rigs, but nice just the same, so you have a nice, cheap place to stay while visiting.

Till next time. . .

Dale

I HATE BLOGGER!!!!!!

I may have to move my blog. I upgraded months ago on blogger, like they wanted, and now everything is HARDER to do. It's harder and I wait longer to long in. Today I have done my new post several times, it wouldn't let me save it, wouldn't let me publish, and wouldn't let me publish with my pictures. AAaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm looking for something new.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Marking Time.

The weather has turned cool and we've just done some sightseeing, but the beach will have to wait until it is warmer.

We are at the Encore Sunshine Holiday Daytona. It is a decent park, nice sized sites, but this is not a 55+ park. Last night the kids were out roaming until after midnight, even though the rules say they must be in their rigs by 11 p.m. This morning there were beer bottles and trash littering the park. The office is closed today, so don't know if they are aware of it. Terry said when he got back from the shower that some kids were flushing beer cans down the toilets. I cannot understand parents letting their kids out roaming around and no one keeping an eye on them. While I was showering, a group of girls came in and flushed every toilet. Grrrr. We are using the camp showers because we are here for 5 days and don't have a full hookup site. They said they didn't have any available, but I think it is because we used Passport America.

Friday we drove down to Daytona and drove on the beach for several miles. It was quite beautiful out. The ocean looks very clean and the sun was shining. Yesterday we drove to Blue Springs State Park. This is a spring area on the St. Johns River where a fissure in the water allows warm water to come into the lagoon. The water is very clean and clear and you can easily see the fissure. If you are a certified diver, you can dive down into the crevice. Later we walked along the boardwalk in the park which goes through the hammock. We saw dozens of fish including gar, some of which looked to be about 4 feet long. We did finally get to see a manatee, which are known to frequent the warm waters of the lagoon. This one was very large and was under water, swimming out toward the river. My picture of it only shows the shadow. The park is the former home and land of one of the area's first white settlers, the Thursby family. The house has been preserved as it was back in the 1800's.

Today we drove up north along A1A to Palm Coast. The ocean is very beautiful up there also. We drove past a former campground where we stayed a couple years ago. It was a real pit then and has been torn down and is now making way for a condominium development. We have been looking for a place to stay in Florida next year. We have a place in Malabar reserved for a month, but would like another spot somewhere else to stay. We like to move every month and explore the new area. If any of you reading have any suggestions, let us know.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Manatees!!

Monday was our last day in the Melbourne area, so we went down to Vero Beach to the outlet stores. I did a little baby shopping for our new soon-to-be grandbaby Lynch! After that, we took a drive up A1A and when we got up to Sebastian Inlet, we went out through one of the beach accesses and walked out to the water. The water was beautiful, almost an emerald green color. Nice, big waves and lots of people were out enjoying the water.

We drove on to the Jetty Pier at the Inlet and walked out to the end.
It was really pretty windy there, as usual, but the waves were really churning on the south side of the jetty.

There were a lot of surfers on the north side, where it was much calmer.

We were out on the end and I saw what I thought were some really big rocks in the water. Turns out they were manatees and there were about four of them.


We watched them for quite awhile. I also saw a ray jump out of the water. It turned so its flat body was facing the pier and I had such a great look at him. Problem was I didn't have my camera ready and didn't get a shot off. There was also a baby sea turtle, but he only surfaced a couple quick times and I didn't get that either. But it was great just to see the marine life.

We had our last meal with Brandon at Longdoggers, which had really great wings. We hated to say goodbye to Brandon, but we will see him again. And we have decided to spend next winter in Florida, so we will see more of him then.

We came on down to Avon Park and camped. Then we drove on down to Sebring and visited the couple who rented our condo. We sold the condo to their nephew who bought it for his retirement a few years from now. Until then, Barb and Ron will continue to live in it in the winter and do some upgrades. They have done some redecorating and it really changes the looks of the place. They cut down the big tree in the front yard which is an improvement as it was a pine tree and very dirty. We have done some looking around here for a place to stay next winter, but I have pretty much decided I would rather be on the coast. The inland weather is just not as good.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Fun in the Sun!

It's easy to see why Brandon loves living in Florida. While some areas of Florida may be horribly hot and humid, Melbourne sits on the east coast and there always seems to be a breeze. He said he is never bothered by bugs, mosquitoes, etc. We have had strong breezes every day and have not always been able to keep our awning out, but the weather has been very pleasant. Mornings and evenings are cool and the air is still and mid-mornings to afternoons are very breezy.

We went with Brandon and a couple of his friends to see "The Shooter," which was a very good movie. It has been a long time since we have been to see a movie at a theater and it was fun. Another evening we went out to US1 and drove down to Vero Beach. We were out on the ocean and took a couple pictures. The surf was really fast and dangerous if you were swimming. There was a rescue of a family in the Melbourne area earlier in the week due to rip currents. It was a very enjoyable drive and we finished up with dinner at the Fisherman's Wharf where we all got fish.

Yesterday we drove up to Cocoa Beach intending to go out on the pier, but there were way too many spring breakers to do that. There were no parking places and it took forever to drive anywhere. We did go to a cycle shop and Brandon showed us the new bike he wants to get. While there he ordered new motorcycle pants. That will complete his protective leathers to wear while he is riding.

Tomorrow is our last day here. We are considering our next move as we have realized we have some doctor appointments for Terry scheduled in mid-April in Indiana. May try to reschedule them. Not sure yet.

Till next time. . .

Dale