Let the Christmas Visit Begin

Well, who wants to read a boring blog entry about driving through the rain to Spartanburg, anyway?

We did make the trip in fine fashion.  On our first night here, we enjoyed a nice dinner at Red Lobster with Raelyn, while Matt was working as the bartender.  He sat for a quick picture.

We marveled at how much Finn has grown since we were here in July . . .

and admired the Christmas decor at Chateau Chambliss.

Then it was a couple of days of last minute shopping and evenings watching football, and all too soon Christmas Day was upon us.

It was a fine day ... Raelyn's Christmas dinner was perfect.
Yumm to the max.

The thing we didn't think about too much until we got here was the cold.  Repeat ... the COLD.  Specifically, the COLD RAIN.  Sure, it's winter and all that, but it least it's not snowing.

If we hadn't seen this ourselves, we'd wouldn't have believe this could happen

Raelyn's family drove down from their home in Utica, NY, two days after Christmas and we've all partied like there's no tomorrow, lol.

After we've all had a chance to catch our breaths, I will get working on the next blog post.

Stay tuned.

Pooh and the Honda ready for their first night out together ... so cute !

Our first campground was near Orlando.  We parked between two couples who are entertainers.  On one side was Larry Clayton and his wife, who gifted us with a lovely CD of him playing and singing great old Southern Gospel songs.  On the other side was Sally Langwah and her husband. 

These two couples are fully booked providing entertainment to 55+ year old venues in the area where we live in Florida.  Sometimes they perform together, and sometimes each couple performs separately.  We're going to try and catch their acts when we get back.  We definitely fall into that audience category, doncha know.

Larry Clayton and Frank

When not chatting with our neighbors about music, history, and the general state of affairs today, we spent time admiring the local wild life.  This lovely creature was walking right outside our door.

On day two, we drove all the way to Jacksonville, a robust trip of 197 miles.  No sense in taxing ourselves.  We spent three nights going to South Carolina, smelling the roses when we can, avoiding the rain when we can, and enjoying the ride. We really didn't have to leave so early, but our neighbor directly across the driveway from our condo was moving on Saturday and we didn't want our own loading preparations to compete with their big moving van.

We spent our second night between the end of the Jacksonville Airport runway and a big flea market. 

Very interesting.  The price was right, though, and the noise wasn't nearly as bad as we had feared.  The rain showers during the night covered up the sounds of the airplanes.  It was okay for one night, but we're putting it way down on the list of favorite campgrounds.


Next stop . . . South Carolina.

Pooh Is On The Road Again

We're baaaaaaaaaaaaaack ....

As our Facebook friends know, we have taken several trips with Pooh since our last entry on Poohtracks.  That darn Facebook makes it just too easy to click a pic and post it right away.  We got lazy and didn't take the time to write more than a few cursory words.  Several of our previous readers asked if we would start the blog again so they could get more details about our excursions.  So, Poohtracks is back!

For our latest trip, we are heading to South Carolina to spend the holidays with our son Matt and his wife, Raelyn.   Her parents and brother will be joining us and we are looking forward to a nice holiday season.  It's been 3 months since our last outing in Pooh, and we're feeling the itch to get on the road again.

After putting our stuff into the motorhome, we turned to hooking up the new car.  Everything went well in that regard, despite some nervousness; the new Honda just seems a lot more serious than the old Geo Tracker.

When everything was fastened up tight, we were finally on our way, getting entangled in Friday afternoon traffic as we crossed the Howard Frankland Bridge over Tampa Bay headed toward our first campsite.

We should have left earlier

It's amazing how much we depend on electronic gear on our trips these days.  However did we travel years ago with only a map?

Rearview camera, CB radio, auxiliary brake monitor, XM radio, GPS, compass

Not much to see on the way . . . just one poor chap getting pulled over by not one, but two law enforcement officers.

. . . and the always interesting Airstream Ranch along Interstate 4.

A bit of Americana

Come back tomorrow to read about the interesting people we met in the first campground of the trip.

Frank makes friends wherever he goes