Category: Blog Entries

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We arrived into Baltimore incident free, had a nice lunch with Nanny and Glenda. We secured all loose objects around the coach for the night in Brooklyn Park in Mikey and Aimee’s side yard. Hope we still have a satellite dish when we wake up 🙂 Went to the “tooth” for a bit, whooped up on Amy in some pool and called it a night. Went out with Glenda, Aimee, Mikey, Tammy and the boys to Glanycki’s crab house. Had some nice food, little pricey. Next day we left to go to the eastern shore. We had so much trouble finding a gas station. And bing so large towing the car we really have to be careful because we canot back up. Seemed like everyone was working against us. At one point when waiting right behind a car, just as it left and we were going to move forward a young girl whipped right in front of us almost clipping us. The young guy with her got out of the car to go into the building when I jumped out and confronted him. He pissed me off so bad, I have not come so close to clocking someone in 15 years! He finally got back into the car and moved to another pump. Wow was I angry. Just glad I did not end up in jail. The rest of the drive was uneventful. Jinjer seems just fine. We are back in B-more. We are going out to dinner to a Thai restaurant down in Federal Hill, Thai Arroy. Well it was the best red curry I have had yet. They made it PERECT! We will return here again. And as usual when in Federal Hill we went to get a beer at The Thirsty Dog brew pub. This is almost the ultimate brewpub since dogs are allowed into the bar. It is pretty much a brew pub combined with a dog park, something we like to call heaven :) Speaking of dog parks, we found one in Canton. It was a little small, parking could be scarce, but there were plenty of playful dogs and very nice owners. You can tell the dog owners in the community are proud of their dog park, which by the way is the only off-leash park in Baltimore.

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Got to Hershey Thousand Trails at night, tough to find a good spot but we lucked out and got a great spot with room for the dogs to play. Got internet and satellite tv so all was good. First day in Hershey, headed out to explore. Came across chocolate world! Went on the tour and got awesome extra dark chocolate. Gotta love the hershey kiss street lamps. Lunch at houlihans, very good fish tacos. What a beautiful area this is, so green and natural. Today we went on a 3 mile hike in the Governor Dick State Park to the top of Mt. Gretna with the dogs. At the top was a great observation tower overlooking the surrounding hills and farms. Mt. Gretna was a cool little art community with a crazy packed lakeside beach. Went to ride the Strasburg wine and cheese train but was full so we found Lancaster Brewing Company, great Milk Stout Beer! Drove to a dog park outside Harrisburg. Not a great park but met a few nice people, Jinjy almost got attacked, found a creek to swim in and got “mommy” muddy. Went and hung out with Monica and her family. The “kids” met Gideon, a puggle puppy. Jacknormous was too much of a oaf to play but Jinjer taught him to run and wrestle, she was great with him. Found a great tavern in Quentin to have dinner at. Nice back patio, large menu and draft beer selection. Met Jake our server, a fellow mountain biker and plan to bike together. Mt Gretna was the goal today. I went on an 8 mile ride to the top and back down some of the bumpiest fun singletrack ever. Very technical and fast. The trail route was 2 to 3 to 10 to 12 to 13 to 14 to 5. Afterward went to have ice cream at Jiggerspot. A great place in the hills, great ice cream, such a nice evening! Sharon and I started the day off going for a Mt gretna ride. Weird car running with someone in it. Possibly sleeping?? Sharon climbed the mountain like a champ, we sped down rode through some singletrack back to the jeep. What a nice cool sunny summer day. Had an excellent lunch in a cute little lunch spot, great food. Such a nice atmosphere. Another good day. Well today I went for another ride at Mt Gretna, same car still running, maybe someone is dead?? Went to the Appalacian Brewing Company (via the ghetto) with Monica and Ray and had a wonderful evening. Beer cheese soup was more like nacho cheese but the rest of the food was great and the beer was good. The stout was alright but the Kipona was the best beer in my opinion. Sharon had the barley wine which she really enjoyed, but was too small. MANY THANKS for the dinner to Ray and Monica, sorry we overindulged, we owe you :) Well we went to Hershey Park to do a power tour of the roller coasters. We started on the Comet, not bad kinda fun actually, but tame as far as roller coaster standards go. Next we rode SuperDuperLooper, oldie but goodie, then Big Bear, getting better, then we hit jackpot. The Storm Runner. Being hurtled at 75 mph from a standstill was a rush, the straight up then down also a rush, but most fun were the loops and twists afterwards, the 0G , lifting you outta your seat fun! The Wild Mouse was, well Sharon said it best, “Did not like that at all”. The Wild Cat was a rough, fast and amousing wooden coaster, a great way to end the day with a mild concussion. will be revisiting in a few days with Glenda and the kids Finally got to ride the Strasburg train, of course in our usual style after zipping through all back roads we arrived 3 minutes before the train was to depart. The train was gorgeous, we rode in the first class parlor car. But the ride…was a let down. We rode 4 miles (approx 15 minutes) down the tracks, then stopped and the engine changed ends and took us back to the station over the same track 🙁 We do want to make a note to visit the cornfield maze next time we are in Strasburg. Dinner was at Lemon Grass Thai restaurant, pretty good, rate it a 7, small portions, no red curry, but a nice variety of other menu items. We stopped at the Quentin Tavern on the way home for a beer. Great atmosphere on the deck, 15 or so beers on tap. We tried Troegalator (dark beer) very good, Mocha Lager (dark) also good. Met some older RVers who were great people, nice to talk with. Were amazed the we are full-timing at such a young age. The one guy told me of a story of how him and his wife took a year off to motorhome around US at age 47 and got snubbed because they did not earn the right to do it. Told us to never worry about those people because they are really just jealous they could not do it. An interesting day today. We took the dogs for a hike on the Rail Trail. They were getting thirsty so we led them down to a pond. But to my misfortune it was a boggy marsh with the soupest softest mud I have come across. How do I know you ask? Because as I went to grab Jinjer who got stuck in it I sank to my thighs in an instant. And when i tried to lift my leg my flip flop remained in there. I tried to no avail for quite sometime to locate it by submerging my arm to my shoulder in the muck, eventually finding it and fishing it out. I was covered in mud 🙁 Smelly nasty mud! But you have to laugh at that point, it was quite funny according to Sharon. Back to Hershey Park, Glenda, Nanny, Keith, Nathan, Tammy, Micheal and Daniel came from Baltimore to go to the park with us, we got them a cabin at our campground. We had a great day with all of them, highlighted by a campfire sitting with Glenda and Nanny exchanging stories, which I will keep secret except to say that Glenda is the “equalizer” 🙂 Now we are off to Baltimore. PS. The compass is in the bag!

Well we are back in Pcola for the Country for a Cause benefit concert with Randy Bonner. Where to start…okay first night in it was just us and the dogs at Hank’s house on Panferio. Next day Kevin and Sean arrive, we throw a party for the band and people involved, what starts out as a sober night ends with Sean, Kevin and I each doing two $2 diesel fuels, numerous Jack shots, swimming off the dock and staring at the phosphorescents(sp?) for hours as they glowed with every wave of our drunken arms. We needed help from getting out of the water, too bad none of us were coordinated enough to help another out. Eventually we did scramble onto the dock, bleeding from the oyster slashes, where we passed out in our wet clothes to awaken later to a blazing hot morning sun. Wow, what a crazy night with a hangover to match. Sean cures his with a “bloody”. I opt for water and ibuprofen, but eventually switch to the hair of the dog thought and drink a beer. It worked, thank god. Well it is the night of the VIP concert at the Imogene Theatre. Sean and I photographer the event, had a good time and got some nice stuff. Randy had some technical difficulties with sound so the night was a little rocky, but overall a success. We did get a drunk woman to charge the stage to get Randy to tke his shirt off, good times. The highlight of the evening was listening to Henry Botts. He is a legend in Pcola area. Mona brought him to the show to introduce Randy Bonner. Henry Botts was the youngest person to ever play at the Grand ol Opry and was introduced by Roy Acuff after hiding his true age. Henry Botts recited a poem he wrote himself about how much Country Music has changed. It was a very emotional moment when he brought up the point that this may be the last time he ever sets foot on a stage before his life fades out of him. I will always remember his signature tip of the hat when the audience stood and applauded, he is a true living icon of an era gone by. Jason came in town that night and Kevin and him went out to have funs on the boardwalk. Jason got hammered, walked home, cooked pizza, but passed out before he got to eat it. Finally the main event that I had been working for over the past month. The Country for a Cause benefit concert and picnic. It started off a little bad because the rain was coming down in buckets but really let up before the event was to begin and gave way to oppressive humidity and heat. Well it started off with so much energy, Randy was stoked, I had a good feeling. And that feeling proved to be correct! The harleys rolled and rumbled in kicking the show off with a roar. Randy was on fire. He did an incredible job, like he has been doing it his whole life. I was so proud of how he performed, he kicked ass!!

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We pulled into Thousand Trails Wilmington quite late after the drive from Bowling Green. Got to see Gaffa, Dink and Big Randy at BW3s, had a nice time. Ended up back at BW3s the next night where I had the wild wing sauce for the first time, not that bad, hot but tasty. Found a great dog park in Loveland at Symmes Park, very wooded and good size but no dogs to play with. Good Thai on Montgomery road and Union Cemetery, then had to head down to Pcola for Country for a Cause concert…(see Country for a Cause entry) …and we are back. After staying in a Super 8 in the heart of “billy” country we made it back to Cincinnati and hiked through Eden Park with the dogs. We put them up with Trish’s dog Abby so we could go to dinner with Gaffa, Big Randy, Skippy and Trish and all the rugrats. Spicy is becoming an obsession now that I can handle more and more of it. I had the napalm chicken strips and tore through them. Sharon and I fumed over getting screamed at by the manager of the park from her golf cart “get’em on a leash!”. I then I found her while cruising for her on my bike and was soo wanting to ripe her face off, but I’ll be damned if she did not apologize to me,. Spent the day with mom in the Moho, and by the pool. And we are off the the Sweetest Place on Earth”

View Kentucky Photo Gallery >>
Bowling Green, Kentucky was our destination. We stayed on Bump and Mary’s farms. The farm was beautiful, the weather cooled off finally and the dogs loved the open space to run and run and run. Mary took us for a tour of the farmlands in a golf cart, the puggles went with us. It was much more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. They have a beautiful piece of green land tucked into the rolling hills of Kentucky. This area is home to a large population of Mennonites, that being said there was great produce stands. We came across the most awesome tomato relish at one, not to mention the oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. I swear I saw a tractor and a lawn mover out back of the mennonites barn, I suspect they are cheating 🙂 Bump made us a fantastic dinner that evening using the veggies we just bought. We did try to hit one of our favorite Thai Restaurants but it was closed that day 🙁 And the Camping World factory outlet yielded no hidden treasures. We bid goodbye to Bump and Mary and headed off to Cincy

View Hot Springs Photo Gallery>>
We arrived at Hot Springs and somehow, which we did not think was possible, it was hotter than it was in Houston! We stayed at Cloud Nine RV Park. It was a nice park except there was no grass anywhere in the park. We came to find out the owner had a phobia of sorts about grass, she killed any grass that ever tried to grow. She believed grass contains chiggers which contain lots of diseases. Yeah, okay, sure thing :) And leave it to us to decide to ignore the heat warnings and go ahead and plan a 4 mile hike in 100º heat through the hills with the dogs at Lake Ouchita. It was a beautiful hike around a peninsula extending out to the lake like a finger. We traversed the entire length of it. The dogs had a great time, stopping for a swim and a drink every mile. We even took a dip at the two mile mark. The lake was very clear and cool. Jack and Jinjer were so good on the trail today off leash and had a blast. Headed to Bowling Green now.

After a very long, LONG, previous day, we awoke to a very bright day outside, sweating and very thirsty. It felt as if we had landed on the surface of mars. The sun heated up the coach so much and so quickly the we just knew we were on another planet. Since it was pitch black when we arrived, our first look outside almost confirmed it. There we no trees anywhere and the landscape was flat as a pancake. We were far way from any town and the buildings that were around us were picnic shelters and campground bathrooms that were constructed with triangular geometry, an alien looking architecture (or what Hollywood tells us it looks like 🙂 But thank god we were just in a foreign state, Texas. I do not want to offend anyone from Galveston, as it is a great little beach town, just not blessed with great beaches. In fact that were pretty disgusting in my opinion. They were loaded with washed-up red algae on dirty muck-like silt mixed with brown sand, with brown muddy water washing up, which at the time, was unsuitable for swimming due to the very high bacterial and fecal content (AKA, too much raw sewage, AKA, too much human shit in the water). We wanted to leave that day! But we decided to go explore the town. As bad as the beaches were, the town was that good. Moody Gardens was alot of fun, although too expensive. The downtown was really nice, good shopping (got Sharon a cowboy hat), great food and good pubs. We hit a very small quaint Irish pub, O’Malley’s. And the next day had lunch at The Spot, they let dogs sit at the outside deck tables so Jack and Jinjer could eat with us. The next night we had dinner at Fish Tales, and the next night dinner at the Original Mexican Cafe which had really good food, different menu items that were a great change. The Texas pageant took place outside Houston, in Sugarland. We stayed at the All-star resort nearby. The pageant went smoothly other than I made a little girl cry because I was at lunch when she wanted to get a picture taken. I really did not care, I had been working 16 hour days to accommodate parents. And after all, life is full of things we have to deal with and she needs to face it someday, right? :) Jack and Jinjer got to visit a great dogpark. The Millie Brk Park is located in George Bush Park. It is HUGE for an off-leash park, 15 acres with three ponds, if you ever travel to Houston with your dog, it is a must-see. Since it is such a big park though, people act as if they are in a big city and are stand-offish. One lady lit my anger when she told us that she was “against mixed breeds, that breeds should stay ‘pure’.” I had to walk away before I ripped into her pompous @$$! Oh well, next destination…Hot Springs, Arkansas.

View Pensacola Photo gallery>>
Well we made a quick pit stop in Pensacola before heading off to Galveston. Styx River RV Resort to be exact, which is actually in Alabama, 30 minutes from Pcola. And as always there was fun to be found. We met up one night with Belinda and her sister Angela [AKA Oodie] It started slow, we had dinner (great quesadillas by Belinda) and then penned up the Puggles and headed out. First stop was the Islander on Pensacola Beach, followed by the Break, and finally to the Tiki bar at The Hampton Inn. Our buddy Anthony was tending bar that night and he always hooks us up, and he did not disappoint. Whatever rum drink he gave us was STRONG! And got us, well, let’s say “loopy”. So that was my last for the night. He was closing so we waited for him and went to Flounder’s and to Bamboo Willies. Shots and beer were in abundance, every time I turned around the girls were doing another shot. So finally we headed home after getting a jump to start Belinda’s car. Allegedly I left the headlights on [whoops]. We made it back to Angela’s but not after someone, who will remain nameless, threw up outside and inside the car. While I packed up the dog’s I heard someone laughing, apparently Jinjer escaped her pen and went into Belinda’s room on her bed and pooped. I felt so bad and cleaned it up quickly. We apologized and then headed back to the coach. It was 4:30 a.m. when we finally got to bed. The next morning we had to check out by noon, which would seem no problem normally but we were tired from the night before and it was almost 100º outside. I got up at 9:00 and by 1:00 I got us ready to head out to Galveston. But it was no even 5 miles down the road when I had to stop the coach at a rest area and sleep for a few hours, 3 hours to be exact. At which point I felt much better and we were off for great state of Texas. Sharon got a phone call from Angela (aka Oudie) and Sharon listened for a bit and then started uncontrollably, she finally stopped enought o start apologizing for something that happened the night before, she put her on hold for a second and turned to tell what happened: Angela stated that “I woke up this morning to a nasty smell in my room, I looked around. ‘What is that smell’ I asked. Then I found it. Apparently Jinjer may have pooped on Belinda’s bed, but she wiped her butt on my PILLOW!!”. We burst out laughing together hysterically, the image of her discovering that was hilarious. I felt bad, but come on, that is funny stuff! We arrived at 1:30 in the morning at our destination of Galveston and it was so dark we had no idea what it looked like on the island but there we lots of mosquitoes, and I mean tons. This place did not get off to a good start. And it seemed warm hot still, even in the middle of the night. I could not wait to go to sleep and see what this island will have in store for us…

Well we arrived at Atlanta and we were to stay at the Brookwood RV resort but only stayed a night because the Pageant we were shooting was at the Westin which was dog-friendly! So we stayed there for the pageant weekend. Jack and Jinjer hung out with us the whole time down in the ballroom area while we worked. They were perfect angels, not sure if the were our crazy dogs or someone replaced or drugged them. It was a great weekend, the pageant went smoothly, we relaxed at the hotel some nights and even got to park our motorhome at the hotel so we could get stuff from it if needed. But it was about to go downhill. Upon leaving the hotel we were cruising along just fine for an hour or so and then we hear a big bang. “What the hell was that!?” Sharon said. I think I knew, so I stopped the coach and went to have a look see. My suspicions were correct, a blowout. One of the rear tires was flat and we had used our spare in Florida a few months ago and not replaced it yet. So we got online and looked for tire companies in the area. One good thing is that it was still early in the day, around noon. We found one and we proceeded to limp along down the emergency lane until we could get off at the next exit which was less than a mile drive. I then got out and proceeded to take the tire off, but of course i did not have socket large enough so i sent Sharon off to buy one at a nearby Wal-mart while I worked on finding a tire place again. I finally found a place where for $288.00 I could get a tire. This was a setback for us, there goes all the cash sales we had accumulated that weekend. It was also so damn hot, nothing like mid day in June in the deep south to shorten tempers. Taking off a large RV tire is no easy task, I wrestled and wrestled and finally won. Well everything worked out, we got the tire replaced and back on the road. But the day was to get worse. Due to the high traffic on our pageant photos website that morning, from parents and contestants wishing to view the pics we uploaded from the weekend, our site crashed and became temporarily suspended. And that is what the web host provider put on the homepage “This site has been suspended, please contact billing”. So this is what all the potential customers of ours had to see until we got it straightened out. I was livid!! This was going to be the only cash flow for us since we used all of our cash up on the tire. So we had to stop and get an RV site for the night and get it all straightened out. What seemed to be an easy fix, just pay for more bandwidth became a nightmare of upgrading and configuring my own virtual private server. Took 2 days before we were back online! BUt once we were, we pulled up stakes and headed to Pensacola, praying that karma would dish us some smooth travels for a bit.

View Rainbow Springs Gallery>>
We read on the internet of an RV park just outside of Ocala, Florida with a dog park and we had to stop on our way to Atlanta. The Ocala Ranch RV Park to be precise. The park was open, not a lot of trees, but good level sites and the park was empty this time of year, all the snowbirds have migrated back north by now. SO since it was empty, the “kids” had no others to play with but still just had fun with each other. They still love to play with each other because they can be as rough as they want to be with no one getting mad. We will stop back again when it is more full in the winter. And also to go to our favorite Thai restaurant we had found to date, Spicy Thai. It had incredible food combined with perfect ambience, a real treat to find! We also found a great tucked away little tropical paradise known as Rainbow Springs. We went kayaking and hiking with the dogs one day there and had a great time, we were amazed how clear the water was. It was a beautiful emerald green, teaming with fish swimming through the tall sumbmerged strands of algae. Reminds me of the kelp beds I saw on the discovery channel. Just a gorgeous place, a must see off-the-beaten path place.