Heading South for the Winter

Wednesday, Dec 14 - Tuesday, Dec 20

It's time!  The past couple of days in Beaufort have been pretty typical of winter here.  50+/- degrees, cold and wet.  This is more typical for January and February, but it reminds us that it's time to start for warmer climates.

So, around noon Wednesday, we get everything ready to go and head South.

Wednesday night we made it to a Walmart just South of Wilmington.  This gives us a chance to check all the motorhome systems and get all clothing and food stored.

Thursday we traveled on to just North of Charleston to an Army Corps of Engineers Buck Hall campground just North of Charleston that we stumbled on last year.  It's right on the Intracoastal Waterway and is a very comfortable place.

Friday morning we continued to one of our favorite military RV parks, Pelican Roost on Naval Station Mayport.  We've been here many times in the past and it's a great location.  We're staying here 2 nights for two reasons.  First, After three days of travel, we enjoy a break and second, recently I learned that a high school classmate and 3 doors away neighbor when I was growing up in Nashville live near here.

Martha Willey and I grew up and attended Nashville Elementary, Middle and High School which was just across the street for both of us.  She lived 3 houses from us and we often played together as children.

We got together with Martha and her husband, Mark Saturday evening for a great evening of fellowship and renewing our last 50 years.  We met them at their beautiful home and after drinks and appetizers, went to a wonderful restaurant near their home.  They have recently purchased a home near Asheville, and we plan to get together again either there or here in Jacksonville.

Unfortunately, on the way back to the base, I realized that I had lost my military ID card.  I've had a military ID card since 1972 (not the same one), and this is the first time I've every misplaced it.  I know exactly where I lost it (coming out of the base fitness facility where I had gone swimming Saturday afternoon) and went back to see if I could find it.  Unfortunately, no one had turned it in at the fitness facility or at security police, so I'll have to get a new one when we get to Key West.  Really stupid on my part!

Sunday, we headed further South (and it's getting warmer - actually hot this afternoon) to Cape Kennedy area.  I made reservations on the way down at a County Park.

Upon arrival around 1:30 pm, I found out that a rocket launch is scheduled this afternoon at Cape Kennedy, and this RV park has one of the best views around for watching the launch.  The launch happened around 2:15, just in time for us to grab our camera and go down to the shore and watch.

It was impressive.  We watched a NASA channel later the replayed the event and gave all the details about the launch.  It was a commercial launch of a satellite for high speed Internet service.  It's amazing to think that only 30-40 years ago, a  launch like this would have been broadcast on National TV and attracted world-wide attention, and yet, here we were with maybe 50 other people at this RV park just passing an afternoon watching another satellite going into space.

Monday, we moved on further South, stopping for the night at an older resort in Florida City, only a few miles from entering the Florida Keys.

Seven Mile Bridge South of Marathon

And finally, Tuesday and we're at Sigsbee Naval Station, our winter destination. We quickly checked in and found our site.  We're located only a couple hundred feet from the Gulf of Mexico.

The RV Park is about 60% full, but in a week or so, it will be full as the other snowbirds make their way here.

Before setting up, we went to the on-base Car/Motorhome wash and cleaned up the motorhome.  Afterward, we stopped by the dump station and completed all the necessary functions for readying for a couple weeks of dry camping.

Finally, we're settled in for at least three weeks (then we'll rotate to full hookup for a couple of weeks).

And the weather - perfect.  Highs in the low to mid 80's and lows around 70.  No need for air conditioning or heating.

A cold mountain visit

November 19 -22

Clara and some of her friends (Sheila, Carol and Tina) came up to the Mountain House Sunday, November 19 for a girls trip.  They had a great time catching with each other.

They returned to Beaufort, Wednesday, November 16.

Friday morning, Clara and I headed back up to the mountain to close up the house for the winter as we probably won't be back up until April or May.

The weather forecast included a cold front moving through - and we know what that means in the winter - high winds.

We arrived late Friday evening and immediately in the dark started moving all the porch furniture to the garage and putting up the hurricane shutter on the big windows facing the Northwest.

Lucky we did it, because when we got up Saturday morning, the wind was howling.  Saturday night, we recorded 69 mph.  Sunday was in the high 50's a good part of the day and Monday it stayed in the 30's with gust up to 50 most of the day.  This is the most sustained high wind event that we remember.  Usually, a cold front moves through and within 24 hours, the winds have died down.  Not this time.

Finally, Monday evening, the winds abated.

A cold November sunset

The temperature dropped dramatically and bottomed out at 25 degrees with a wind chill of 6 degrees.  It is definitely time to be heading South (which we plan to do on December 14.

The house is buttoned up for the winter

A Happy Birthday

Saturday-Sunday, November 5-6

Happy Birthday to Clara.  She had quite a weekend.

Breakfast Saturday with Carol.

Our neighbors, the Goulds came over with a candle lit cupcake and sang happy birthday!

Of course the staff sang Happy Birthday and stuck this big hat on her

Jean and Madelyn went out to dinner with us (Mexican of course - Clara's favorite.

And Sunday afternoon doing what she loves the most - fishing.  Fortunately, the blues were biting and we landed 15 nice ones.  I wanted to stop after 3 which is a meal for us.  But it's her birthday, so 12 more fish later, she finally relents.  Great fishing!

At the dock.  Not only does she love to fish, she actually likes to clean them.

She accidentally dropped a fish in the water.  I haven't seen her move this fast in a long time.  In went the arm with the watch on it and she rescued the fish!  The watch is still working!

To the Cape

November 10 - 11

It's been nearly 2 years since Joe and I last sailed to the Cape on Eureka, and perhaps this will be the last time.

We've had the boat up for sale for over a year.  A few showings but no legitimate offers.  We're not letting a great boat like Eureka go easily.

It is with mixed emotions that we've made the decision to sale her.   Eureka is a great boat and has served us well for 10 years.  She has taken as far South as Miami/Key West on a great adventure, along with many sails to Cape Lookout, Ocracoke and the Neuse River/Oriental.

She has introduced Anna and Evan to sailing and we've had innumerable friends experience her plowing through Beaufort Inlet in a Southwest breeze running against the tide.

We've enjoyed many an evening watching sunsets from her cockpit while enjoying our favorite beverages and offering prolific insights into personal and public issues.

We have shivered below decks as we started an ill-fated journey South in February, ending with renting a car to get back home and to warmth.

We sailed her offshore overnight into what the weather forecast called for fair winds and following seas, only to wind up galloping into a gale in the darkest of nights and quickly ducking into the nearest harbor of refuge.

Clara refers to her as a "stout ship", and she has proven on occasion that she can handle rough seas much better than her crew.

We've found that with having both a motorhome and a sailboat, we can't seem to find the time for both.  And traveling in the motorhome is a lot easier on the back - and the back is not getting any younger.

We took everything off the boat when we put it on the market, which has made it rather difficult to just get on it and take off like we've always done.  We didn't have to think about what we needed - it was all there.  As a result, we just haven't made the effort.  But we did Thursday and Friday and it was a wonderful reminder of all the great times aboard.

It was a couple of beautiful days for sailing, with winds out of the Northwest on our sail out to the Cape and on the nose from the West coming back in.  It's always a beautiful evening at the Cape, whether it's warm or cold.  And Thursday night was no exception.

Dad is 101 years old

October 20,  2016

Dad is 101 years old today.

He doesn't appear to have changed at all this past year.  In fact, there is very little change in his health or appearance in the past several years.

We celebrated with several of his friends with lunch out and then cake and ice cream back at the house.

A few days on the mountain

October 6 - 19

It's Fall and time to enjoy the mountain house.

Clara and 5 friends went up to the house on Thursday for a girls weekend.

I stayed at home to  see if Hurricane Matthew would provide some excitement. Saturday night we did get some wind (70 mph) and rain, but basically, and thankfully nothing more.

I drove up Sunday (after all the ladies left).

The weather was beautiful almost the whole time we were there, with fog in the valley in the morning and mostly clear evenings with quiet sunsets.

We always enjoy spending an afternoon listening to good music at The Orchard

Sunrise in October often includes a cloud layer in the valley.  This morning I got up early enough to see the shadow of the mountain on the top of the clouds.

We enjoyed visiting with friends and just enjoying the view.  In the afternoons it was warm enough to sit on the porch and read.  Temperatures were comfortably in the 40's in the evening and  low 70's by mid-afternoon.  Great sleeeping.

The leaves are changing rapidly.  When I arrived, everything was green.  By the time we left, it was becoming multi-colored and beautiful.

For exercise, I joined the Fitness Express just a few miles from the house. Getting my regular swimming and exercise has become one of the major detriments of staying up here.  But now, with the fitness club I can work out and only drive to the Marion YMCA a couple times a week to swim.

Jorge came up and spent an afternoon weed eating the lower property, which has grown up quite quickly since our major clearing a couple of years ago.  If we let it go to long, the trees quickly grow up into the view.  We had quite a pile of brush so we spent another day burning all of that down to nothing.  It looks great when cleaned up.  We're finding new laurel and rhododendron coming up and hopefully some day it will cover the whole cleared area.

We left the house on Tuesday and spent the night with the kids.  This is the first time we've seen Anna and Evan since saying goodbye in Salt Lake City.  They seem to change over night.  They're growing up entirely too fast.

America Yacht

September 21

We're still on sta-cation.

We really don't take advantage of all the opportunities that are right in our backyard, so we're going to start trying more.

The America Yacht, a beautiful replica of the original 1851 race boat by the same name, is on the Beaufort waterfront for a couple of days and they're offering (for a price) a 3+ hour cruise. 

So this afternoon, we took advantage and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon on this beautiful yacht.

There were 78 people who took advantage of the cruise, and it didn't feel crowded

When dropping the sails, the crew, which as best I could determine were all young ladies, would climb on the boom and direct the sails with their feet.

The Captain and owner