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We arrived to St Augustine without incidence, which is ALWAYS good 🙂 We stayed at Beachcomber RV resort on Velano Beach, a nice park because of its location but the roads through the park are rutted and potholed. The place could use some TLC but it is right across from a great beach. Which is awesome because…. it allows dogs!! Well we really took advantage of taking the dogs to the beach, we walk about 3 miles every morning up and down, it has been gorgeous days! I wish i were not so swamped with work I really wanted to get out and enjoy more. I did get out to fish a couple days, catching a pompano each time. We met some of Sharon’s family, ones Sharon has not seen for ten years or so. I know it seems to be a re-occuring theme lately. We met Aunt Shirley, her daughter Brandy and her daughter Christina. Along with Brandy’s husband Steve. The first night we just met Shirley and briefly Christina at Shirley’s house. I want to thank Shirley for her hospitality she whipped up homemade corn muffins, and leftover chili with a side of real mac and cheese in a matter of minutes! The chili was what I call “craveable” I could have kept eating and eating. The next night we went to dinner with Shirley, Brandy, Steve and another couple they were friends with. Started out we were going to eat at the AleWerks brewpub, but the brewery is closed for upgrades, then it was the Sunset Grill, but they were closed for two weeks, the next choice was Gypsy Cab Company which turned out to be a great choice. We had a nice time, everyone was so nice and interesting. Seemed I could have talked to everyone there for hours. The coconut crusted tofu Sharon got was awesome and we picked up a bottle of their house dressing, the Gypsy Dressing :) We finally managed to get to a dog park, something it feels we have not been able to get to in a few weeks. The park was in Treaty Park, St Augustine. A nice park, good size, two areas for different size dogs, water fountains and plenty of seating. At first no dogs were there so we hiked the boardwalk and trails for a bit, but come 5 o’clock, dogs came out of the woodwork. Jack and Jinjer played with the big dogs for a bit until another little puggle showed up, Sophie. She was cut puggle, one year old but 20 lbs lighter than Big Jack 🙂 She was very energetic, a little unfocused but sweet, our puggles fell in love with her instantly. They ran and ran, and Jinny showed how she runs like the wind. I thought at first looking at Sophie she would outrun Jinny, but Jinny kept up stride for stride and where Sophie would slip taking a corner, Jinny hugged it like a porsche. She was so much stronger. Although in the long run Sophie may have more endurance because she is the same height as Jinny, just 10 lbs lighter. On the way home from shopping for frames for the HudsonSeaFest we found a Thai restaurant on the edge of Jacksonville. Thai Palace had great food, we have added it to the lists. The peanut sauce we believe had cinnamon added to it, and the yellow curry was the bomb! The prices were great, atmosphere and service were top-notch. We highly recommend it.

We wanted to see some friends in Destin so we agreed to make a stopover in Holt, Florida. What we found was a little southern charm hidden just a mile from I-10. The Eagle’s Landing RV Park was a nice surprise, level sites, great grass, and very clean wih full hookups. And the owner was a very friendly face who made us feel welcome right away. We asked where we could get lunch at and they pointed us to “downtown” Holt. It was really a very small “blink and you’ll miss it” town. “Downtown” was comprised of a gas station, small grocery and a restaurant called Cozy Corner Grill. So as having no choice and always up for something different we pulled into the restaurant. There were a couple of young girls working that were so nice with very cute, small-town personalities. Almost innocent. But probably not since there is not much to do in a small town right? The owner was hanging around joking with staff. A heavy-set cook (kinda like Jack) was manning the kitchen, which was a good sign because you know what they say about a skinny cook. When I ordered the blackened grouper I knew it was going to be done right because the cook asked me if I wanted it on the grill or in an iron skillet with a little olive oil. That is just the way I love fish cooked! Then he asked if it was okay if he used garlic salt on Sharon’s grilled shrimp to give it some zing. Now this was service. Our meals were so good! The experience brightened our day so much and now we cannot wait to get back to Holt and the Cozy Corner Grill sometime so we can enjoy some yummy banana pancakes (that all the staff touted as being awesome) for breakfast :) The next day Sharon got to shop with Alice. I went to play volleyball at the boardwalk in Fort Walton Beach. I played alot better this day than I have been playing recently. I played with Lab and we won 4 games before I practically fell down from exhaustion. The day was sunny and low 80’s with no wind, perrrfect. I additionally managed to stumble across two shoes for the diaries as well. That night we took Alice and Wayne to dinner at Elephant Thai. Seemed I got the best dish because Alice and Sharon kept stealing bites from my plate 🙂 We went back to their house, played some Rummycub and just had a nice time hanging out. That next morning we headed out to St. Augustine.

After Styx River we shuffled back across the highway to Wilderness RV for a few days, encountering the RVers ritual known as a Rally. It was a Samboree for Mobile Alabama RVers. They looked like they were having a blast visiting each other, and they were extremely nice and friendly, made for a nice atmosphere. And we met some other young travelers, Ralph and Nan. They were a very friendly couple that after talking to them for just a few minutes Sharon and I connected with them because they were alot like us. Young, free spirited, in-shape and outdoors oriented people as well as dog lovers (They had a great looking Dalmation named Panda whom I am sure Jack And Jinny would love to have as a friend.) They gave us great info on places to visit in Texas, we gave them info on Florida, we exchanged contact info and hope to find them again out on the road where we can share more stories. They seem to have some great ones tucked in their log books I bet.

Well we “shuffled” back over to Styx River RV Resort. It is getting chilly up here, in the 40s last night, time to get going south soon! Well I am really upset at the media, specifically the Pensacola News Journal. I heard a rumor that a good friend of mine (one who will remain anonymous) in Pensacola was arrested and there was a write up about it in the paper. So i went online to check the archives to read it. When I found it I was shocked!! The newspaper had the facts so wrong. How can a newspaper print so many false statements. Dont they investigate?!?! I mean they did not even get his age right! Anyway, eliminating the details, he was the one that was attacked and defended himself by rendering the man unconscious. What is a man who is in fear for his life to do? Stop and ask the man if he is done trying to kill him? No he does what he has to do! So why is he the one charged! And to read the feedback the readers put on the New Journal website were so appauling. Especially knowing what a great husband, father and person he is. This is a man who has a sparkling clean record. He is a professional career man that adds so much positive energy to our community. To everyone that knows him, which is quite alot of people, he is considered one of “The Good Guys.” I wish I could get into specifics but at this time it would not be right. It will all come out in the end and the community probably will never know the truth, because how would that help to sell newspapers?!?! Be very careful, just because the media reports something, does not make it true. Sharon and I respect he and his wife so much, they are showing a lot of class in the way they are reacting to this, but I would not have expected anything less from such class people. And if they are reading this, we look forward to visiting you when you get set up in your new place. The Beaches to Woodlands final weekend of events took place and we got some pretty nice shots to add to their collection. We visited the Navarre Beach Bash, toured historic Bagdad and went on the Milton Ghost Walk tour. Wish I would have had time to listen more about the stories but I was busy capturing shots (sorry no eerie lights or apparitions caught on film :( Went to play some volleyball with friends, felt so good to be back on the beach playing. It was a dream day, zero wind, 80º, no humidity and the bluest skies you can imagine. I played pretty well, and had a great time with my Pcola buddies. And I also got another photo of a shoe for the diaries. Got to take the “kids” to a dog park for the first time in a bit, we went to the Roger Scott Park and had a great time, the park itself is nothing great, but it does have small and big dog sections with a water fountain for them. Met some really nice people and a 6 mo. old Pug named Peanut. They all ran for quite some time and then it was time to head out. It is really getting nice out, had the chance to play some ball on the beach with my friends, it felt so good to play no matter how out of practice I am. Quotes of the day: “Jimmy jumps high”. And this one came up when we saw an “interesting” friend of ours coming down the beach with a girl: “I guess even a nut finds a blind squirrel every now and then”. Being stuck out here in Styx River Alabama without a car can really limit my options for getting food. My only option is to get on my bike and ride a mile and a half to the truck stop with a restaurant at the highway exit ramp. It is a fairly large truck stop, the type which has a complete truck and accessory store, a fast food (fried chicken) restaurant and a full-service restaurant. I opted for the full-service. I decided to sit at the bar section since I was alone. And I could see my bike out the window from here to keep it from being stolen since I had forgotten my lock. It, the Oasis Cafe as it is named, had the typical truck-stop crowd. Slightly large men with tattooed arms, a little old couple taking a break from their RV, a couple of migrant workers with their supervisor, a few older gentlemen with camo hats on, and of course a very hungry, young good-looking artist guy (that would be me of course :). But what i never realized before now is that there are regulars that come into a truck-stop restaurant. One was so regular, to the point where the servers all know his birthday was coming up and invite his family to come eat on thursday for free. Thursdays are prime rib nights and I heard they sell out of prime rib almost every time so get there early. I was half tempted to go see this event in person. I had a typical meal for a place like this, a philly cheese steak with crinkle fries, good stuff! My waitress, yes they still call them waitresses down here, was in her late 40’s or so, and looked like she has worked hard over her life to survive. She was everything you want in a waitress though, no frills, she was courteous, efficient, and knowledgeable. She seemed to know everyone and everyone seemed to know her. Quite a nice little restaurant that Oasis Cafe turned out to be. As I waited in line to pay, the waitress ringing up the fellow in front of me was taking some grief from him about the amount. He was acting like an ass. When she looked at me all she said as she shrugged her shoulders “He was a yankee what do you expect?” I always chuckle when the people down south still call people from the north yankees. I payed my bill, biked back to the coach and began working again. NOTE: Saw an Island off of Africa called Mauritius on the TV show amazing race, I looked it up on Wikipedia and it seems like we need to add it to our must visit list. Since I have this platform I feel like I must vent something. Nothing erks me more than when people are elitists, and nowhere is it more apparent than in RV parks due to the mix of $5,000 RVs and $1.5 million dollar RVs and everywhere in between. Well our first strike against us is our young age. Most RVers are older adults (60+), it is a fact that no one can argue. The second is that we have a coach that is over 5 years old. Well yesterday a really nice coach ($200,000+) pulled into the site next to us, they have been there for over a day now and have yet to say a word to us. Twice we have made eye contact outside and I said hello, he blatently ignored us. Giving him the benefit of the doubt the first time we tried again, and again he ignored us. So now I am on a mission to get him to acknowledge us. As he was outside bucket-washing his car, (which I believe many old people have become slaves to their coaches and vehicles and they demand to be washed twice a week. Some kind of Jedi mind trick the vehicles use, but I digress 🙂 so anyway I walked right up to him and said hello, nothing at first, then I got him to speak by asking him a direct question. “how long you here for?”. All I got was “not long”. And as he walked away, I gave him a “That’s good” and he was gone inside in a flash. What is wrong with people, I do not want to be his best friend or anything, just say hello for god’s sake, “we are living in a society!” But when I speak about people like this, remember there might be 10 others in the park that are VERY nice and that is something I have to learn, only I have control over whether or not someone like him can make me have a bad day. 5 days later and still the neighbors have yet to speak with anyone here in the park. Why travel in a motorhome and live like hermits? Well time to shuffle again 🙂

We had to move out of Styx River RV Resort because we stayed our 2 week maximum. And we just headed across Highway 10 to Wilderness RV, another RPI park where we can stay for $8 per night, even had wireless internet, SCORE! The park itself is… well…not aesthetically pleasing, but like I said it worked out budget-wise and functionality-wise. Sharon and Rachel continue to do bridge-building with their “new” family. It has been tough at times, and joyful at times, but overall very exciting and positive. I cannot wait to meet them, as Sharon has already brought into my life some wonderful people and look forward to having more. You can never have too many friends and family! On a note, we have Hurricane Katrina families on both sides of us in FEMA trailers, which we can spot right away because of various similar characteristics. It is sad when you get accustomed to seeing the FEMA trailers. Sometimes arranged as small communities with over 100 trailers lined up in a large parking lot. They try to make it livable, they add playground equipment and such, but I hear it is not a great place to be, basically in limbo between places to call home. It is hard to stop the tailspin when you become homeless overnight. Good luck to all that know that feeling. It is a horribly humbling feeling. We started trying to promote our site and find other young RVers by subscribing to various dogpark, brewpub and RV forums. The brewpub forums seemed to be the most friendly, maybe people who drink beer make nicer people 🙂 And in the RV forums it became hostile at times and really cool at other times. We did find a few couples like us, full timing, living on the road. One thread at a particular RV forum proved to be quite comical as we apparently yanked a few older RVers chains. It went a little like this (click here to read transcript and comments) Art night at Cocodries went well, we made enough money to at least enjoy the weekend. Sold a Signature Series Image of the Dolphin jumping, No.3 in the series. Well we had to go photograph some festivals and such in Santa Rosa County. And being stubborn when i went to a gas station the gas was 2.39 @ gallon and right now we can get it for 1.98 @ gallon in other places. But since I needed gas, I had no choice, but I only put in $5 worth and would get more when I saw a better price, or at least that was my intention. Time went by, we drove place to place taking shots, and then when we were finished headed to a friends to have dinner with them. As we were just about to crest over the bridge to Ft Walton, the Jeep started to sputter and stalled out, out of gas that IS! So we spotted a gas station at the bottom of the bridge. We picked up momentum on our way down, if we do not have to stop we may be able to make it all the way to the pump. But we had to turn right and there was a lot of traffic. Luck was on our side as i braked without power brakes and steered through obstacles and other drivers, coming to a slow stop right next to the pump. Just like I planned it, I meant to do that. I have done that before but this was the first time with another person in the car with me. We would like to give special thanks to Alice and Wayne who treated us to dinner at Bitburger, a great German restaurant. We got to see and enjoy company with Frank his son Scott, Wayne, Alice their son Keith and girlfriend Kristina, Greg and Song. We had really fun time. We continued to stay the next day for breakfast; waffles, eggs and bacon. And then for dinner; quesadillas and burritos. They finally “kicked” us out around 6:00. Thanks again for all the hospitality! We also saw photographed two more shoes for the diaries. One was gym shoe in the middle of highway 98 with a pornographic DVD lying next to it “Big, Natural and Bound 2”. The other shoe was actually a large rain boot torn in half from wear and tear. For the fun of it we weighed Jack who is now officially “jacknormous” at 36 lbs! Maybe we need to cut back his food a bit 🙂

We made it to Alabama, just outside Pensacola, without incidence. Spent a night in the parking lot of the Flying J truck stop and got in early the next day. Nice to have gas prices back to reasonable again! We will be at the Styx River RV Resort for two weeks. Spent the weekend on Pensacola Beach and had a nice relaxing time. Visited all of our favorites spots and people. Shane made us a special sushi roll using wasabi oil that was spicy and delicious. We puppy sat a friend’s new puppy, Miss Olympia, a very cute 10 week old american bulldog. Other than geting the pecking order established with her, Jack and Jinjer had a great time running with her on the beach. I started compiling photos for my new photo essay I have been wanting to do for a long time now, the One Shoe Diaries. Check it out. It will be a great and fun project to do. Finished another underwater dolphin painting. It is a much larger one this time. I hope I can sell it at the Navarre Art Festival this weekend. Painted yet another underwater dolphin painting, the best one yet. I started on my “Gulf from Overhead” hyper-realistic painting, kinda hard to shift gears from quick oil painting to slow detailed acrylic painting. The Navarre show went pretty well. Met some nice people who created chimes, charms and mmore with fused glass. I did not sell my large dolphin painting but it garnered a ton of attention. We sold the usual treefrog, dragonfly and sunsets. The collage we did of the tree frog sold immediately! And the small collage eventually sold also. Here is a great example of the power of the internet. Most people have heard of the website, MySpace. For those who have not it is a place where people can display a profile of themselves for others to look at, it is a great way to track down or keep up with friends, even make new ones. I guess even find “romance” 🙂 So anyway, Sharon has had a profile on MySpace for a couple of months now. Periodically she has found old friends from high school and such, well this week she located someone much more dear to her. Her half-sister whom she has never met! Let me start with some background. When Sharon and Rachel were little girls, ages 1 and 3, their father left their mother. The reasons of why and the circumstances surrounding it I am not going to get into. They randomly saw or heard from him for a few years then all contact was lost. The last time she heard anything involving him was around 1998 when he attempted to contact Sharon through her Nanny. And Nanny did not get a phone number for her to call him back, and Sharon never heard from him again. Now it is 8 years later and through a small miracle Sharon has been able to contact her lost sister over the internet, Elise. When she realized she did in fact locate her sister, she immediately burst into tears. She looked over every inch of Elise’s profile, wanting to know all she could learn about her and the other siblings, Doug and Leslie. Finally she sent a message to her, just hoping Elise would respond positively. That day passed and Sharon did not receive anything back. It was not until that next morning when she logged on to MySpace to find a message from Elise. A very warm and inviting message. Elise too had thought about Sharon and Rachel and always wanted to get to know them and build a relationship. This was the best news Sharon could have asked for. She was going to get to have a relationship with the siblings she always thought about. The email went on to give information about her and her siblings lives. Sharon soaked it all in. That night Elise called and Sharon for the first time spoke to one of her sisters she has never known. It was an amazing moment for her, and eventually for Rachie as well as Elise called her as well. A new family has started to grow. As of yet they have only spoke with Elise but they are all invited down to Rachie and Donnie’s wedding in December and we are all hoping they can make it. As for their father, Sharon did learn from Elise that he became totally blind and suffered with many health problems, eventually succumbing to heart complications in 1998, the same year that was the last time he last tried to contact her. I am sure somewhere he is smiling now, knowing all his children will get to know each other.

Well we arrived at Forest Lake, a Thousand Trails Park in Lexington, North Carolina. I would love to say we arrived without incidence, but on the way we had to stop at a rest area and take the passenger side front wheel off, regrease the bearing, take off the pads and caliper and fish out some parts from the melted ABS sensor that created a huge grinding noise all of a sudden. Well we are getting good at this stuff because we pulled off and did all that and got back rolling in less than 15 minutes! Looks like we hit this town at just the right time. The Childress Winery we saw when we came in was celebrating its harvest with a festival! So we had to go. The winery was gorgeous! Rolling hills with grape vines blanketing it. Although storm clouds were brewing it was a great evening. Still warm at least 🙂 I am glad we arrived early as the line for getting into the buffet grew quickly to an impressive size. We found ourselves in line next to a very nice couple from Winston-Salem whom offered us to share a table with. There too were quite the travelers, except more worldwide doing cruises in Europe, Asia, etc. We had a great time eating, drinking good wine and exchanging tales of travel. After dinner we moved outdoors but the storms that were brewing were now dumping copious amounts of rain, and the wind was downright cold! But the excellent house sangria helped warm our insides. After that we had a couple set down a half bottle of wine for us since they were heading home. What a nice crowd. Unfortunately we already had enough to drink so we passed the gift on to someone else. Time to head home, but first I had to reactivated my shoplifting skills so that we could smuggle out the logo imprinted wine glasses we have been drinking from. I needed something to smuggle them out in…how about the little shopping bags they give out in the gift shop? But I would need to buy something cheap to get a bag. And of course I picked the dark chocolate shaped like a bunch of grapes. A $1.49, perfect. Then back at our table I used a few slight of hand tricks and…voila, the glasses were in the bag and operation glass extraction was half way finished. The walk out the door was a piece of cake, noone knew and were we home free. But where is the Jeep? perhaps the 16 foot kayak perched atop of it might make it stand out in the lot just a tad :) [Note: Warsteiner Premuim Dunkel gets a 8 on the beer scale] On sunday we went out to find the Dog Park at Country Park in Greensboro. It was a slight adventure finding it but it was worth it. The park itself was large and beautiful with a great lake to walk around. There were dogs everywhere, also in abundance was Jack and Jinjer’s favorites snack, Goose Shit. The dog park proved a little tricky to find in the park as there were no signs directing you. We did find it and it was quite large with both wooded and grassy. There was no little and big dog section, they were all in one area today. We meet a nice couple with two bulldogs, Beemis and Peaches. They gave us a nice lead on a good Thai restaurant in the area so after the dogs played for some time it was time to go search out the restaurant. The restaurant, Rearn Thai, was great! The building was classy, it had nice flowers and plants around the outside with tables intermixed. The building had large glass windows, prob 15’ high overlooking the gardens. The food was really good [I had red curry of course, Sharon had pranang curry], it makes the list for sure. The server was so sweet, and our thoughts are with her, as she just lost her father whom she was very close to 🙁 She was actually from the Eastern Shore of Maryland, such a small world. And extra points go to this place as they had Newcastle :) Its amazing the contrast between people in regards to what they find is important to them. It becomes more apparent in older individuals I believe because they have started on their paths a long time ago and are well into being who they are. Take this comparison for instance. While at the Forest Lake I ran into an the older gentlemen who sold me my sewer caddy for a great deal. And now after recognizing me as soon as he saw me, he told me he had something for me. I waited there as he rummaged through several of his rubbermaid bins in his hatches until he finally found what he was looking for, some sort of metal tubing item. When he got back to me and handed it to me. “Here is the attachment for the sewer caddy to hook it to your trailer hitch so you do not have to haul that heavy thing by hand. I saw it the other day and realized I forgot to give it to you in Cincinnati” he stated. “Well thanks a bunch,” I replied. Here is someone who could have not even bothered and just threw it away some time ago. But instead he held on to it, hoping he would run into me again and give it to me because it was bugging him that he may have shorted me of it. He and his wife were so nice to us, he was a soft spoken guy, but talked my ear off once he got going. But I did not mind at all as he had many interesting stories and great RV’ing tips. Kinda reminded me of my father. Now the other side of human personality traits. In the same park, just a few lots down a man spent almost every day either washing his coach or his car. Now I am sure a lot of people would think “what is wrong with that?”. Well nothing, I just have too many other things I want to do with my life, but hey, to each his own huh? But this guy goes a little too far. He actually hoses down the gravel road that goes by his lot so that dust with not kick up and get on his coach. Again, not too bad, if he wants to waste his life worrying about such stuff let him right? It is just himself he is hurting. Where he goes to far is that he argues and runs off the elderly couple in the space next to him. All because they are getting ready to have an RV wash service pressure wash their coach for them. And he does not want any spray to land on his nice clean coach. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?!?! He is going to have this little old couple pack up everything, and move to a new space just so he does not get some water spots on his precious coach?!?! This is when I realize that some people are way too wrapped up in their own little meaningless existences. There are so many other things to worry about, I mean come ON!!!! What total polar opposites. I do have to say, for the most part we have found more people lean toward the nice, courteous spectrum of human ethics, but not by much unfortunately :( I digress…time to finally head south.

Seeing that we barely had enough money to eat, we needed to figure out a way to generate some cash. So we found a festival to set up at. We found The Dorchester Arts Showcase. And because it was on the Eastern Shore of Maryland we would re-visit Sharon’s parents, and pick up all the stuff we left behind from our last visit. The first day of the festival did not go according to plan. AT ALL! We went to Cambridge on Sat. to scope it out and set up that evening for the block party. Glenda and Nan came down and had lunch with us and then took Sharon and the puggles back to Deal Island so I was on my own. And since I had an hour or so to kill, so I looked for a Pub of course. I found the Canvasback Irish Pub. I saw many drafts and it was a great atmosphere, this was a good find. But before I saddled up to the bar I needed to visit the little boys room. As I approached the bar [note: this was the start of the downhill slide] the bartender asked, “What can I get you?” I replied “Before I order can you tell me where the restrooms are?” [a reasonable request I thought] she quickly snaps back, “Restrooms are for patrons only.” [Okay, I thought] “I will be back to order I promise, but first, I gotta go.” I chuckled. “Sir you need to order first.” I got perturbed now “please just show me where the restrooms are and I will order after.” She paused and was reluctant, at this point I said “Forget it, you have already treated me like a second-class citizen and I will go elsewhere for a beer” and stomped out. She followed me somewhat to apologize while I stomped, “Im sorry sir but we have that policy because there are alot of crazy people around here, you’ll see if you walk the streets.” Thinking to myself “Crazy people? This is a small town on the eastern shore in rural America isnt it? Whatever! Do I look crazy? Well, maybe, I guess I could, I do need to shave and get a haircut.” SO anyway, I had to PEEEEE!!! I looked up and down the old historic downtown Cambridge and only saw one place to go, the Maritime Heritage Museum. Upon walking in I was greeted by a very nice elderly woman. The museum was free, but there was a donation box, so Karma dictates that I donate a few bucks. She proceeds to talk as I stand attentive with my legs crossed, She continues to speak about the museum so proudly [I am bouncing at this point] and she explained about the founder as if he were her best friend and she feels obligated to keep his legacy alive to everyone. “I GOTTA GO!!!” [I screamed in my head]. But out of respect for my elders I let her finish, and then politely asked “Do you have a restroom I can use before I look around?” And thank God she replied “Yes, down the hall on the right.”, I tried to act civil and say thank you and not sprint, but like I said before “I HAD TOOOO GOOOOOOO!” and finally I got to go. So I thought, “Okay everything is back on track.” I looked around a bit and chatted more with her and then decided I needed to leave and start setting up my artwork. I found the event promoter and by some stroke of luck I found a perfect spot to park to move my gear into the alcove he had arranged for me to set up at. This was a great spot right off of the main street and had electrical outlets. Things were looking up, right?. Wrong. It was going to go really wrong, really soon. The DJ setup just at the entrance to my alcove and began blaring music. [Enter the crazy people] Just then a short bus pulled up with the markings [name changed for anonymity] “Maryland State Government Mental Health Facility” and let out about a dozen people whom we are to call “Mentally Challenged” I believe. Well as you can imagine the Rhythm of the music got them dancing, or more like George Costanza would call it “full body dry heaves set to music.” “Is this real?” I ask myself. This goes on for over an hour and I finally throw in the white flag as no sane people wanted to run the gauntlet through that mess top get to my tent. Hell, I was nervous! I could not see anyone in the bunch that could be construed as a chaperone for this group. And they eyed me like a vulture eyes a struggling mammal. One guy kept coming over to tell me a story about something, I literally could not understand a word he said, so all I could think of to reply to the garbled language was “I gotch ya”. Fueled by frustration I broke down and loaded up the Jeep in minutes. I loaded the car in two trips, I loaded more stuff on my back and in my arms that I believed possible. And as soon as I got the last items into the Jeep, wouldn’t you know it, up pulled the short bus and they all stopped dancing, filed in and were gone in the blink of an eye. What could I do? Unpack and re-set up? Screw that! I guess the bartender was right to assume I might be a crazy person off the streets, after all it looks like the streets are full of them from my vantage point:) So I drove the hour back to the farm of course, gotta know when to cut your loses I think. The next day at the Dorchester Arts Show went off without a hitch. We got setup in time, parked really close, the dawgs behaved in their pen and most importantly we sold photos! [Now we have money to get the Cruismaster rolling again] All’s well that ends well. I like to think Karma gave me a break since I donated to the museum and listened to the nice lady until she finished. Now we had to drive back to Gloucester to install the brake pads and calipers so we can head to Lexington, North Carolina. Our next Thousand Trails Park.

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Got on the road, it is always a sad time to say goodbye. Drove over the Bay Bridge Tunnel to Virginia Beach, 26 bucks toll!! As we drove into the home stretch for Glou’ster and started to smell something burning, first thought was, “oh no, here we go again”. It seems that from all of the stop and go traffic that the brakes have over heated. As I let them cool I noticed that all the bearing grease had melted from the heat and run out of the wheel. So time for some more on-the-road repairs. I let the wheel cool with some help from the last of our bottled water and took it off. I re-packed the bearings with grease and we were on our way. The Thousand Trails Park was a nice surprise. It is very well-kept and on the Piankatank River. We just feel a tad out of place since we do not own a golf cart with over sized off road tires. Seems no one walks here, they all ride carts and everyone knows everyone. Quite a community. One that we are now going to be here for the full two weeks allowed due to needing to special order new brake pads online. As always we made the best of it. We are near alot of cool historic areas. We also found a mountain bike trail that we went and rode. Harwoods MTB Trail. Good trail, no hills, but fun. Just watch out for girls running x-country. They are quick little girls who seem to never stop (we got passed by several :) After the ride we headed to Yorktown to cool down with some local brew and grub. The Yorktown Pub seemed like a cool place to go, several locals told it was where they hang out. It was a quaint one room pub with above average bar food and a good waitress. It would have been a nicer evening except for the fact that the coast guard and local fire dept. were searching the water for a 20 year old young man who had gone missing after crashing into the pier in his boat just minutes before we parked! Nothing like a water view of that scene. Poor kid, apparently he and his buddies had been in the pub getting drunk just a bit before we arrived, left and got into their boat to cruise around, and… Somehow a drowning outside the window of the pub seemed to dampen a good day 🙁 God rest his soul. Decided to try and paint again. I did a skipjack impressionistic piece. At first I did not like it much, but kept working it, and began to really like what was going on in it. Well we are starting to feel out of place here, mainly because we do not have a golf cart. This TT park has some many golf carts running around this place it is hard to eve walk the dogs. It seems everyone is either too old or too lazy to walk anywhere in the park. And these are not just regular golf carts, but pimped out and souped up carts with big knobby tires and crazy paint jobs. I did learn a good tip. Use dog food in my minnow trap, works like a champ. Finally got out and went to an RV rally, the Winnebago rally over at BethPage RV resort. Prob the nicest resort we have been to. Well it was as we expected, we were out of place, too young plus we did not have matching shirts from an RV club. However we might do a rally as a vendor doing photos of people by their rigs and create postcards for them. Set out on mission to go se the Point Comfort lighthouse, had lunch in Urbanna at Shucker’s, really good steak sandwich and fish chowder. Took a while to find the lighthouse and to our disappointment, we could only view the lighthouse from a far distance :( The chili cookoff took place and we attended, met some nice people from Jersey, did a beer tasting also, who would have thought. Sampled San Miguel dark, awesome beer (visit our lists for our top ten beers) Drove to Colonial Williamsburg to find a dog park and a brewpub, how predictable huh? We found a great dog park (visit dog park top 5 list). Waller Mill dog park. They were very strict with rabies and the fee to use the park ($2 daily), But we stick to rules so we like it 🙂 It was a nice mulched park and the owners took alot of pride in their park and it was quite a community. Jack got humped alot by little dogs but had a great time in between. We did encounter another, slightly taller but cute puggle named guiness (great name!) After the park we went into the colonial area and had a great lunch at Aromas (good portabello wraps), dogs were allowed on the sidewalk tables. We walked for a long time looking for the brewpub to no avail 🙁 But we did find a place we could build our own six packs, cool. We tried the Spaten Optimator first, and made the list it was so good. The Dominian Octoberfest was second and it was alright, just not list worthy. The sun is actually shining for the second straight day. We went kayak fishing, caught a nice rockfish and perch while trolling with a silver spoon off the back of the kayak. Had two more of our beers in our varied six pack, Anchor Porter was really good, Ohara’s Irish stout tasted like it was burnt. You knew it was only a matter of time until we sought out a Thai restaurant. We located one about an hour from the RV park in Hampton. Erowan Thai. It was nice atmosphere, and food was satisfactory but did not make top 5, but we would return. Next morning on the regular walk with the dogs we came across a couple outside their coach. He was a typical older male who has put on a few pounds, mainly in the belly, had a short white beard and glasses. He came up to us to say hi to Jack and Jinjer. “So are those the infamous puggles?” he asked. And so it started. We started to speak with him about various things and he introduced us to his wife who was another stereotypical senior RV’er. She was sitting at her picnic table a few yards away grooming a little white bijon dog. (A very anti-social little creature we came to find out). Anyway the funniest thing, that seemed almost too scripted to be real, was the interaction of him and his wife, much like the Costanza’s on Seinfeld. It went a little like this… *Names have been changed to maintain anonymity* Bob: …Yeah we were up at an RV park somewhere in Oregon. [shouts] Hey Mildred where did we stay in oregon last month? [louder] MILDRED! Mildred: [stops grooming and turns off clippers and shouts] WHAT?! Bob: [barks out] Where did we stay in oregon last month? Mildred: [grouchy yell] At Forest River! [turns back on clippers and resumes grooming] Bob: [turns back to us] That’s right forest river. Well it was such a nice campground. I can’t remember the town it was by, Mildred’s sister lives there. hmmmm [scratches head and then turns toward mildred again and shouts] Hey Mildred what town is it your sister Ida lives in? [louder] MILDRED! Mildred: [stops grooming and turns off clippers and shouts] WHAT?! Bob: [barks again] What town is it your sister Ida lives in? Mildred: Lake Willowbird [turns back on clippers and resumes grooming] Bob: Yeah, Lake Willowbird, I can never remember that place, anyway where was I? Oh yeah so we went into town and found a great buffet there. [scratches head and then turns toward mildred again and shouts] Hey Mildred what was the name of that buffet in Willowbird? [louder] Hey MILDRED! Mildred: [does not hear him and keeps grooming, but I think she is more ignoring him at this point] Bob: [shouts] MILDRED! Mildred: [once again stops grooming turns off clippers and shouts] WHAT?! Bob: What was the name…. And I swear to you this went on for fifteen minutes. I had no idea what the point of his story was, but that didn’t matter. It was so entertaining. I just stood there like a member of a studio audience at the taping of a sitcom mesmerized. Good stuff. Well we did it again. We went to a timeshare presentation. Under the promise of $50 in gas and $50 shopping gift card we were once again lured in 🙂 I now find them highly entertaining. Well if you have never been to one, here is how they go… [We must note, our theory is that all timeshares share the same operating manual and never stray from it] CHAPTER 1: The Introduction You are first greeted by a receptionist and you wait for a salesperson to come pick you out. [Chapter 1: Introduction; Cue the salesperson]“Mr and Mrs Hamilton?” he calls out to the lobby. And for a second you feel lucky, like you just got your name called for a door prize. Well you get a prize actually, but you will work for it. And believe me, it is never just a 90 minute presentation. They escort you to a small round table in a large meeting room with a dozen or so other small round tables [I believe in the manual it states to have small round tables], where many other “victims” are seated speaking with their salesperson. With looks on their facers varying from excitement to boredom to irritated. You are then directed to the buffet to get a rock hard muffin, chewy bagel or stale donuts, and ALWAYS coffee, they like you to be all hyped up on caffeine that way you do not fall asleep and may be more vulnerable to do an impulse buy. You are told to take your time and load up and meet back at the table, which will be your prison without walls for the next hour. CHAPTER 2: Information Gathering Here is when the salesperson has been trained to gather as much about you as possible. Where do you live? What do you do for a living, do you like travel, how often do you travel, do you have trust fund or are you building ones for your kids? They actually go so far as to have a questionnaire they read off and fill in. They ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS ask you these following questions. 1. Do you think vacations are important? 2. Would you like to take more vacations? 3. On average how much do you spend a night on a hotel room? 4. How much then in the next 10 years will you spend on just hotel rooms [this is where they show you a figure and point out “and that is before inflation”.] 5. If you could choose between a small hotel room with just a bed, a bathroom, and tv with nothing to show for your money -or- would you like to stay in a 2 bedroom luxury condo with separate living room, a kitchens and two bathrooms in a resort setting with on-site recreation included. And all the while building deeded equity that you can sell, will or give away? Chapter 3: Convincing the Victims The next thing the salesperson does now is try to connect with you and talk about traveling, they now use the information from earlier. They make you feel like you are part of the enlightened crowd who travel and do vacations. They try to make you convinced that the timeshare world is where you need to be. It provides freedom to live your life like you always wanted to. And blah blah blah. Using the earlier information again they go through “the book”, AKA the RCI Destinations Guide, and show you all the cool places you can go to if you buy. And somewhere the will say to you along these lines,[because they all go from the same manual remember] “If I did not think you were right for this lifestyle I would tell you, I sell so many of these promotions that I do not need to sell you something you would not use, plus that is not how I like to do business. If this is something for you, you will buy it, if not there will be no hard feelings, we are just trying help you enjoy life instead of always working, after all noone ever says they wish they would have worked more.” Chapter 4: Getting the Tour Now it is time for show and tell. The salesperson now leads you out to show you a tour of the property on a golf cart. Here is where you get a lot of the travel stories, of how last week they were in snorkeling in Bermuda, and the week before that they were riding horseback in Australia, the week before that they spent a month in France exploring the Riveria and Alps, and the week before that…and so on. One thing I think is soo funny is when they get you into the model unit. They is alot of times someone in there cooking something, like brownies or cookies. And invariably [because of course it is in the manual to do this] they will take you into one of the bedrooms and close the door, and ask “Now looking around, what does this feel and look like to you?” The answer being a hotel room. Now they add [as they open the door so you can see the living room, the kitchen and balcony]”which would you rather stay in when you are away form home?” [this may vary to just being a floorplan if the property is a pre-construction, either way they compare the condos to small hotel rooms where you just throw your money away instead of building deeded equity] They proceed to show you where the clubhouse is, where the waterpark is or will go and finally they take you back to your “prison” Chapter 5: How it all works By this time you are curious to find out how you this new lifestyle they are speaking of works. [This is where the manual goes into two different sections, one for the points structure, the other for the weeks structure] Either way, what ever structure they are selling, it is the best plan on the market and there has never been one so flexible, convenient and easy to afford. I am not going to bore you with the details on how it works, you need to go to one to understand it all, but never really get any of the pitfalls that are involved. Chapter 6: How much can we get from you? Finally, the cost. Once again they show you how much you will spend over a lifetime staying at hotel rooms, with nothing to show for it. We now finally see what we are being offered. For 28,000 [These numbers are fictional and are not real in any way and available only during today’s presentation as if we were to offer this to you at a later date we would be shut down and sued for fraud] with yearly dues $500 [which of course will be waived if you con, I mean invite, a new member to a presentation and they join into the vacation anytime anywhere lifestyle] They will offer you so many different packages. For 14,000 and $2000 down you can get 2 weeks every other year, or for 25¢ down and 50¢ per month you can share a one-bedroom with two other couples for 2 days every ten years. They will try everything they can do to get you to buy. If you can make it through all that they then get a manager to ask if you were pressured and what you thought of the presentation and property. Here they try one final offer by giving you a 3 night free stay just to try out a property “no-strings attached”, except a short 90 minute presentation. SAY NO!!! Chapter 7: Escape from Prison The reward at last! FREEDOM and gifts! Not once have I been stiffed, but I always opt for in-hand gifts, and ask ahead of time if gifts will be vouchers mailed to you as they most likely will never get to you. Again, DO NOT leave without your gifts! After replacing the brakes pads, calipers and repacking the bearings we headed off for North Carolina

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Well Deal Island always has a way to melt away stress. Just coming over the harbor bridge you feel a deep breath inhale and exhale out the stress. It was no different this time. The dogs were ready to get out and explore the farm. They chased chickens, met Pony, Jack kissed a llama, and they eat deer poop, and just created chaos on the farm. I am excited to be here, I always manage to capture wonderful photos for my collection. I am happy to say Deal Island has proved to be a great setting for photos once again. I captured a great dragonfly and his majestic colors along with a great fiery sunset yielding vibrant orange and pink hues with an old crab shack operation with old crabbing boat in the foreground. We are now beginning to get our inventory for the upcoming Crisfield and Deal Island festivals. People anymore just seem angry. Like it is always just below the surface and they need very little for it to boil over. Now do not get me wrong I am guilty sometimes of getting mad also. But today a woman who was going fast through Wal Mart parking lot came up on my butt so close because I was not going like a bat of hell to the exit. I waved, half heartedly saying sorry and I noticed in my rear view mirror she was flipping me off and yelling at me. So what do i do… I go slower 🙂 She then got up next to me and starting yelling at me, I rolled down my window and asked, “Is it really worth getting this mad?”. As she flipped me off and said something about going too @#$!ing slow I noticed she had her kids with her in the back seat and husband in the passenger. All I could say is, “Classy lady, real classy” as I chuckled, she got irrate at that point, I thought her head would pop off, now the husband was flipping me off. So to fuel the fire more. I replied once again. “you both are a class act, way to set an example”. This time she sat looking for a response, something that would get to me and cut me to the bone and all she could think of in that sophisticated mind was “you are a $@#*ing loser buddy.” Rrrright, I am the loser 🙂 This was now entertaining, but the light now turned green and as I laughed and started to move on, all i could say was “nice” in the usual sarcastic tone. I am just amazed at the way Americans are acting these days to fellow americans. Why is it again that this is the best country in the world? Well I went crabbing with Sharon’s father AKA “pops” today. There is nothing like it, it is both exhilarating and excruciating at times. The day went like this… The alarm from the cell phone begins beeping at a ripe early 3:00 a.m., still dark but not really night nor morning. I walk into the house where Dave, a.k.a. “Pops”, sits at the table with a look of barely awakeness on his face drinking a fresh cup of coffee, the first drink of an endless cup throughout his day. We pack up the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that my mother-in-law Diane made the night before, two for each of us, with water and sodas. He pours the rest of his third pot into his thermos and we then head to the truck to go to the marina. The air is totally calm and still moist from the humid day before, it has a feel that stirs memories of fishing trips back in Florida. It feels comforting. The stars are so numerous and bright, almost too much to look real. The water is so glassy that it actually reflects those stars on its surface which gives you a sense of being in outer space drifting through the milky way. We chug very slowly out of the marina and into the darkness of the bay. The only light is the stars and the glow of the instrument panel on Dave’s face. I watch as hee sips his coffee and focuses on the channel markers and the task at hand. The water is a minefield in a sense, there are literally hundreds of crab pots with floating buoys out there waiting to get snagged on the prop and put us out of commission so he has to be very alert driving out to Monie Bay. We just chug along for over an hour at a very slow methodical pace. The marine radio crackles awake now. The other watermen of Deal Island are beginning to chatter. About what? I have no idea. I barely understand every tenth word they say. “eydare danksbuns fo resippee ah tellya wut you go outen chainshole be en sader where Terry sunken his boat findum bumo sooks…” [silent pause] “I got-cha.” Between the thick accents and static of the speaker it is almost incoherent. But none the less I like the sound, I can hear the comraderie in their tone. It makes you feel not so alone in the darkness of being on the water before the sun rises. I remember Sharon packed me my favorite granola bar and I grabbed the O.J. I sealed in a mason jar. I lean my head out and watch the wake from the boat and the phosphorescents glowing, shooting back through the water like a meteor shower. I kick back and enjoy the cruise on this glorious morning. We arrive at our destination. Dave begins putting down the trot lines. I put on the thick rubber gloves and begin readying to sort crabs. If you have do not know how trot lining works I can try to explain the best I can. The lines you set out, baited with chicken necks every 3 feet or so through the braids of the rope, are attached to lead weights of some sort. Dave happens to have a couple of old car crank shafts on his that seem to work perfect. A bouy is also attached near the ends to keep the rope on the surface there so when you motor up to it you grab the line with a hook and set it up on a pulley type contraption jutting from the side of the boat. Work boats have secondary controls mounted on along the back right side so that the captain, Dave, can steer the boat along the line. All the while holding a net out to catch the crabs that are clinging to the chicken necks on the line and riding to the surface. As each neck comes to the surface there is an unsuspecting crab for the netting. Some big and some very small. This is where my job happens. Dave then empties the net into my holding bin, The crabs fall in and scramble in the chaos of trying to figure out what happened. One minute they are enjoying a delicious chicken neck breakfast and then next thing they know there are being picked up and measured, if they are lucky and small, or have their points broken they are tossed back overboard. Where I am sure a few go back to enjoying their chicken neck breakfast for a bit until it all happens again. Picking the crabs up by the way is no easy task. Blue crabs are very pissed off when disturbed while eating it seems and have very strong claws, hence why I wear the big rubber gloves :) This process of running the lines goes on for hours, hopefully filling the bushels we have with us quickly. For us on this day we ran the lines for six hours yielding a modest 2 and 8/10s bushels of 1’s, half bushel of 2’s and half bushel of sooks. We also nabbed 27 peelers. What I thought was amazing is how the 2’s grew into 1’s after sitting in the bushel for a bit 🙂 The day was highlighted with a few breaks to eat our sandwiches and throw the crusts to the ever present seagulls. I think they know Dave and follow him just to get the crusts. Finally we start to pick up the lines and get ready to call it a day. I grab my MP3 player and a plastic chair to sit back at the rear of the boat, kick up my feet and lean back for the hour ride back. It was a gorgeous day on the water, light breeze, sunny blue skies and warm sunshine on my face. I think I dozed off once in a while. Feeling I deserved it after the long day of crabbing. I could almost taste the steamed crabs already. That evening out on the porch we picked crabs, Aimie, Pops, Sharon and I, to our hearts content. There is nothing better than fresh steamed Maryland “Jimmys” and a beer after a very long day. Except if Pops would have come out and played his guitar and sang for us. It was one of those days that gets burned into your memory as if it were always just yesterday. We went looking for some mountain bike trails in Salisbury but ended up riding a gravel path along a nice flowing river. It eventually ended up going through the Salisbury zoo. We saw two Jaguars feuding over turf, saw monkeys, otters and more. It was a nice zoo, very clean, and well landscaped. It is a donation-based zoo so please donate if you go. It was time explore things on the water a bit, we grabbed the 15 foot boat from the farm and headed into the marsh, literally. After wandering through the thick reeds and grasses in the marsh around Deal Island and coming to dead end after dead end we gave up finding the ditch we have been told exists. The beach at Sandy Point became our destination. We played with Jack and Jinjer on the beach for a while and then had an uneventful ride home. Jinny had a bladder infection we thought. After going to the vet, him sticking his finger in her butt, testing urine we had to collect and shooting her with antibiotics we are now $114.00 poorer. What a rip off! Continued on Baltimore entry Back to the island now. Amy came back down and we went out to Mcgurdys (or something like that) to play pool, drunken pool that is. but that is another story. Drove to Chincoteague Island. Found a place to eat, Bustin Britches. Decent food. Took some nice photos of the old ship out back. Finally we checked out Assateague National Seashore, saw some ponies, biked a bit and headed back to home. Tropical Storm Ernesto had its sights on the Chesapeake Bay which was very bad since we had bought alot of inventory for our Festivals on Labor Day weekend and it is now threatened to be canceled. Ernesto came in with a roar on the eastern shore. Trees snapped and were uprooted, the tide rose to engulf roads and marinas, it was worse than I expected. The winds roared and rain poured for around 8 hours. And of course, the power went out. Not good at all since the Crab festival was the next day. Well power was still out the next morning, but i decided to go to Crisfield and do the show anyway, full beard and all 🙂 I was disorganized to say the least. Met some really nice people at Crisfield and did well in sales also. It was now saturday night, and still, no power. Please note that without power the water pump on the well does not work. so therefore…no showers. If it was not for the generator on the motorhome all would be lost. We would not get power until 11 p.m. that night. Right after my mom and sister arrived. It was now monday, time for the Deal Island festival. I managed to get my mom and sister on pops workboat for the skipjack race. We once again did well at the festival. Sold alot of photos. Seems dragonflys are hot items. Met fellow photographer E.Hayden Hastings, nice stuff. I was exhausted, with a capital E! We are now off to Virginia