Monday, April 26, 2021

Temperature, Low, 52 Degrees; High, 71 Degrees

BOOM!

Family Time

What a beautiful morning we awoke to. It was a bit chilly but not too bad. The sky was a bright blue and the sun was shining bright. What more could one ask for. We were really looking forward to spending time today with Ms. Barbara’s sister, Carol and her husband, Bob.

Since we were not due to be there until around noon time we slowly eased into the day. We had a wonderful breakfast of pancakes, fried spam, and a couple of cups of coffee. Tummies full we were ready to head out.

We made the turn out of the campground headed toward Route 64. We were within 100 yards of the on ramp and we heard BOOM! Thankfully, there was a parking lot to our immediate right which I pulled in to. I opened the door to check and we both heard it, it being the sound of air whooshing out of a tire. I turned for home and crossed my fingers that I would make it.

Just as I pulled in behind Elvira the tire went completely flat. But come on now, it is only flat on the bottom. Right!

Time to get the spare out and on. But before I could I had to empty the back of the car. Amazing how much junk we had accumulated back there.

While I was busy changing tires Ms. Barbara was inside making phone calls to various tire service centers in the area. We make a good pair, the two of us. Perfect division of labor.

Look close and you can see what caused the problem. Obviously, we had picked up something on the road.

Spare tire on, we headed out to a tire service center that agreed to help us with our little issue.

Inside getting new shoes. Both tires on the back were really worn so I decided to just replace both of them.

Here comes the Cavalry! Ms. Barbara’s sister and her husband came to pick us up and take us out to lunch while the car was being serviced.

Lunch time!

Take a look, can you guess what this restaurant used to be?

At one time it was a Howard Johnson.

What a menu. We both had Chicken Parmesan which was delish. Once finished with lunch we headed back to pick up our car.

Time now to follow Carol to her home in Lake Monticello.

Our first view of a small part of the lake.

One of the Club Houses on the lake.

They pointed out this little gem of a home on the lake, estimated value, one million dollars! I guess some people still do have money.

Pass the Marina.

This gem of a house had a wrap-around deck.

Another nice house in the neighborhood.

We finally arrived at their house. It is huge, much larger than we would ever want or need. Something like three or four bedrooms, living room, kitchen, dining room – and that is just on the first floor.

There is also a nice screen room on the back of the house. This is something we would really like.

Barbara, Carol, Bob.

We had a delightful afternoon catching up on old times and talking about plans for the future. Soon enough it was time to go home. Thankfully, we only had a thirty minute ride so we were home in no time. We will cherish this afternoon for a long time to come because time with family and friends is always the best.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. The day began with a Boom but ended with a delightful time with family. What’s the old saying? All’s well that ends well. We have said it before and will continue to say it: We are two of the most blessed and fortunate people on the face of the earth.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Places We Have Called Home In 2021

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1W9TVAzcRDw1ydJEmJZwEbd2XTtZohCeH&usp=sharing

Sunday, April 25, 2021

Temperature, Low 45 Degrees; High, 61 Degrees

Travel Day

Ah, no more rain this morning. It was cool but not cold, and the sun was shining so there was the promise of a good day ahead for us.

Per our normal schedule we were shooting for a departure time between 9 am and 10 am. Which was perfectly doable since we have our departure routine down to a science. So when did we begin to roll? Slides in, jacks up, and we were on the road by 9:30 am.

The first part of the trip had only one significant climb. It was a six mile 4% grade up to Fancy Gap, VA. There were still mountains to climb after that but nothing that fazed Elvira in the least.

Here is the sign welcoming us to Virginia. I was sort of thinking that given the size of the sign either they don’t want anyone to know what state they are entering or they ran out of money when it came to getting a welcome sign. Some states, like Florida, go all out when you enter their state. Then, there are others like Virginia that take a small sign and hide it in a bunch of trees far back from the road. Go figure.

The Blue Ridge Mountains. So majestic and beautiful.

What a beautiful world God has created.

The trip overall was a good one. The roads were in great shape. Traffic was heavy but kept moving.

A new sign for us! Yes, it was windy but not to the point were I was worried.

The only hang up came when we stopped for fuel. I swung into line at the diesel pumps immediately behind a tractor trailer. Five minutes, ten minutes and no movement. Trucks on either side of me came and went. I finally walked up and found the driver just sitting in his cab eating his lunch! Never mind he was blocking the pump and had myself and others waiting to fill up their trucks. Words were exchanged and he finally, reluctantly, got out and began to fill up. Bottom line, thirty minutes later he finally finished and cleared the pumps.

The sign welcoming us to our new neighborhood. Notice that last word resort – this place is anything but as you will see in a minute.

This is our site. It is a pull thru. The base is a mix of some gravel, a bunch of dirt and a whole mess of weeds. It is not even close to being level. On either side are puddles and mud left over from yesterday’s rain. But wait. . .

When was the last time the utilities including your sewer were located in your neighbor’s patio area! And they have the nerve to call this a resort? It is anything but ,however, they know they are the only game in town so I guess they figure as long as RV’ers keep showing up they’ll keep gouging them with ridiculous daily charges. Why did we come here? We’re here to visit Ms. Barbara’s sister and it is the closest campground and the only one that has a rating above a 6. One can only imagine what the few others look like if this campground looks like this.

We’re now settling in for the evening. We’ve done the transformer thing from road warrior to comfortable home. Time now to just relax and watch some TV.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. We’re thankful to the good Lord for another safe trip today. Oh, I almost forgot after getting set up we thought for a moment that we were being invaded by strangers from outer space. As we sat and ate our lunch we kept hearing this high pitched sort of hum. What? It was coming from the front, that we knew. But where exactly and what was causing it? Then we found it, the front speakers were making the odd noise. But why? Guess what, one of us accidently bumped into the dash radio and turned it on but to an AM station! Hence the weird noise. Radio off, our space invaders were gone! It’s always something when you live in an RV.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Saturday, April 24, 2021

Temperature, Low, 45 Degrees; High, 51 Degrees

Why Couldn’t They Be Wrong

The Andy Griffith Museum

Why couldn’t they be wrong like they usually are. I mean would it have really hurt them to tell just a little fib. Not this time. The weather report was for rain beginning at 10 am and continuing through the day and early evening hours. This time, unfortunately, they got it right. The day was raw, rainy and cold. We had Tiny Tim running all day long. OK, we have nothing to complain about since we had no place to go so we stayed inside, dry, warm and comfortable.

Time to finish out yesterday’s sightseeing.

This is where we spent the last part of our day yesterday.

Remember the tune that went with the two of them walking?

Time to learn about the man himself.

This is an historical outdoor drama written and first performed in 1937 in Manteo, North Carolina. It is the longest running outdoor drama. It is based on accounts of Sir Walter Raleigh’s attempts in the 16th century to establish a permeant colony on Roanoke Island. In 1944 Andy Griffith was offered a role in the Lost Colony Play. He performed as a cast member for a number of years and eventually worked his way up to playing the lead role, that of Sir Walter Raleigh. As an aside, Andy fell in love with this area and decided to move here full time.

This is a monologue developed by Andy. It is a description of a football game, as seen by a naïve country preacher who attends the game and is completely puzzled by it. I encourage you to google it and watch it on YouTube. It is short and definitely worth a listen. I laughed myself silly listening to it.

Will Stockdale, played by Andy Griffith, is a country bumkin drafted into the Air Force and who’s too dumb to realize he is driving everyone around him crazy, no more than Sergeant King. Again, I encourage you to google it and watch part or all of it on YouTube. It will have you chuckling from beginning to end. I know I did.

Now, from the Andy Griffith show.

What a museum. It was the real reason we came here. We were sitting around one day and I asked Ms. Barbara Want to go to Mayberry? She said Yes and the rest is history. If you are ever in this area take an hour or two and visit the museum, you’ll be glad you did. We learned so much about Andy Griffith and the show itself. It was well worth the trip here despite the rather cold and wet weather.

Time to call it a day on The Road of Retirement. If this rain keeps up I’ll need to build an ark to get us out of here tomorrow. Time will tell. We’re moving tomorrow and heading further north. However, the weather report for where we are headed says we’ll have temperatures in the 70’s and the 80’s. I hope so I’ve had enough of this cold. Time to go, have a great evening.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Friday, April 23, 2021

Temperature, Low 27 Degrees; High, 61 Degrees

FROZEN and Not The Movie

Historic Mt. Airy

Snappy Lunch and The Sandwich To Beat All Sandwiches

Believe it my friends, that low temperature is not a typo. When I awoke this morning and turned the bathroom faucet on and all I got was trickle I thought something must be wrong. After all they were only calling for lows in the mid thirties. Well, they were wrong. The outside temperature was twenty nine degrees and still dropping! That explains the trickle of water. The water lines were a bit frozen – not completely but enough. I opened all the faucets and let the water trickle out and turned the furnace on to get some water in the wet bay. Within the hour we were back to normal even with the temperature still below freezing.

It’s official we are now homeowners again.

We received a two pound package of closing documents that had to be signed and notarized and then returned to our bank.

So it was, our first trip of the morning was to the local UPS Store. They had a notary available and of course they would also be able to make copies for us, and then ship the whole package back in the prepaid return envelope. It took us over an hour to sign and notarize everything. The owner of the store assisted us and she was absolutely fantastic. We give her five gold stars for service above and beyond. So everything is signed and returned. and we now own a house in Florida to return home to.

We both are not sure yet how we feel about this. Yes, we are excited as we start a new chapter in our lives. Yet, all we’ve known for four years is the road and it has been such a wonderful journey so far. And every time someone asked us Where do you live? We would respond with a sense of pride Wherever we park our motorhome. But we can’t say that anymore. Just saying it is sort of weird right now for both of us.

Time to do some sight seeing in Mt. Airy. We began our journey at the Visitors Center. Now, about that painted guitar.

As you can see we found quite a few more in the downtown section. Each so beautiful and unique. I can only imagine the hours that was spent by each artist painting each one in such a way that they made it truly their own. We discovered that they were all part of a project to bring attention to the downtown area, and also to raise money for improvements within the historic district of town.

A walk down Main Street was so interesting as we came upon one unique shop after another.

We were, however, on the hunt for two stores in particular. The first was . . .

this store. Similar to Floyd’s Barber Shop in the town of Mayberry, Floyd’s City Barber Shop has been a staple among the attractions of downtown Mt. Airy.

A collection of thousands of pictures line the Wall of Fame.

The very chair where Andy Griffith used to get his hair cut. This chair and most of the other furnishings in the shop are the originals from when it was opened in 1929.

I just could not pass up the opportunity to have my picture taken in Andy’s chair.

As for the second store.

The Snappy Lunch was opened in 1923. It used to be a post office and a shoe shop and when it became a restaurant it got its name when customers used to say I want a sandwich and I want it snappy.

During those early days it catered to students and local workers who enjoyed bologna sandwiches for a nickel and hot dogs for a dime. Students, like Andy Griffith who attended nearby schools, would frequently visit Snappy Lunch for a quick lunch because the local schools had yet to add cafeterias.

It has two rooms with three stools, 10 booths and 12 tables.

In 1960 in an episode called Andy the Match Maker Andy tells Barney that they ought to go down to Snappy Lunch to get a bite to eat. The restaurant was the only Mt. Airy business mentioned in the eight year run of the program.

Everywhere you look you find reminders of the Andy Griffith show and its characters.

But here is the real reason you come here. It’s the top item on the menu called a Pork Chop Sandwich. The sandwich was added to the menu in the 1960’s. It is three plus ounces of pork tenderloin, sliced down the back, bathed in a sweet milk batter, and fried for ten minutes on a big griddle.

You’ll need a fistful of napkins if you get it all the way – mustard, coleslaw, tomato, onion, and chili. Did you think I would get it otherwise? OK, I left the mustard off.

It was a fistful and absolutely delish! Want to guess the price? Can you believe a whopping $4.45!

Ms. Barbara getting ready to attack her grilled steak sandwich. Unfortunately, she said it was rather uninspiring and she would not have it again.

We had one more stop to make, but that is for tomorrow’s post.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement. We started out in the deep freeze and though it warmed up a bit later on in the day it was still a raw, chilly day all the way. We’re sure hoping we find some warmer weather in Virginia when we move on Sunday. Tomorrow, well they’re predicting heavy rains most of the day. Meaning, we’ll stay hunkered down and play a lot of Mexican Train. Hey, there could be worse ways to spend a day. Bottom line, life is good and we continue to say and believe we are two of the most blessed and fortunate people in the world.

Thanks for taking the time to read our blog.  We always appreciate your company, your comments, and your suggestions. Keep safe, keep healthy, live to the fullest the days that God gives you.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!