Sunday, July 28, 2013

Destination: North Carolina

Our drive from Louisiana to NC had a bit of bad/good luck.  The bad luck was that the batteries in our truck needed replaced.  The good luck was that this happened in a Birmingham, Alabama and not small town Nowheresville, USA.  After that was taken care, all we had to worry about was a bit of rain and some traffic in Charlotte. 


 I called my brothers while on the road to make arrangements to see them while traveling from NC to Michigan.  Good thing I did as Dale and his family was at the beach in North Carolina!  After a couple of phone calls we decided that Lester, Golda, Jonas and I would head to the beach for a day and night. We had a great time visiting. Didn’t actually swim but Jonas enjoyed playing in the sand and I waded in the waves.  We had dinner out (thanks Dale!) at a place where the food was excellent but the service was not.  Golda and Jonas skipped the dinner as Jonas was too hungry to wait and was just about to eat at home as we left.  We got stuffed flounder to go for Golda.  Spoiled girl!  It is hard to see in this picture but the tide came in while we ate and part of the parking lot got flooded.  A regular event we figured but a bit funny to us non-natives.  Some of the gang spotted a momma turtle about 3 feet long on the beach when we got home.  No picture though as that is illegal.  Oak Island is a natural turtle nesting ground.  We stayed up past midnight playing games, except for the old men like Lester and Dale, they went to bed early and missed the fun.  I’ve never seen so many games brought on a trip.  Dale’s family has been going to the beach for many years and really knows how to pack!




Back in Kannapolis on Tuesday, we took it easy and basically relaxed.  We went out to dinner for Carolina bar-b-que and that was it.  But on Wednesday, we made a day of it.  First we went shopping in Huntersville for late birthday presents.  I am not one for sending birthday presents.  I prefer to buy them when I am with the person so I get the right thing.  For Jonas, we got a Radio Flyer scooter that converts to a tricycle.  He loves it!!!!  Golda had a hard time being frivolous and choose a large salad bowl, matching serving tray and a snickers bar.  After lunch at home, we had a tour of Jeremy’s office, went to the park, and then the library.  We were glad to come home for take-out pizza after all of that!


We had a great visit and already miss Golda, Jeremy and Jonas.  Jonas is a shy boy and was just warming up to us when we left.  He gave each of us a wonderful hug to say goodbye.

 Will be doing a post with various videos and slides in the near future.  Need to catch up!  But visiting with family is first priority.




Friday, July 19, 2013

Louisiana!


We have had so much fun since here in Louisiana there has not been time to write in the blog!  On the way to Betsy and Trent’s house I broke out the new camera and took what felt like a million pictures of the beautiful clouds.  It gave me good practice with the camera even if it is a simple one.



We had planned to spend our first night in state at a hotel but change our minds so that we would have more time with Betsy.  She has a busy schedule between nursing and classes.  When we arrived no one was at home!  Just a bit of bad timing as they all arrived shortly but it was funny.


Thursday, we took the grandkids, Madison and Logan (Logan is visiting from Kansas) on a boat ride.   My second favorite thing to do in Louisiana is to ride the rivers, bayous, and canals.  My favorite thing of course is to visit family.  Despite rain the first half hour or so we had a great time and even got to see several alligators.







Today I needed an indoors day so we did a little shopping, took in a movie, went bowling, and played a bit at an arcade……and totally forgot to take pictures!  Had too much fun to even think about pictures.  I did get a nice bit of video of Madi dancing at the mall though…..

[Videos to come.....the don't seem to want to upload tonight! Also a link to more picture on shutterfly.]

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Another Grand Adventure

With great anticipation Lester and I are readying ourselves for another grand adventure a.k.a. an extended driving vacation through many states involving family, friends, fun, site-seeing, and yes, the motorcycle. With this in mind we decided to fire-up the old blog. Here we can expound longer about our exploits without as many eyes rolling towards the heavens as they may if we were to write it all on Facebook. By the way, we were not even on Facebook when we began our big roadtrip in 2009! Times have changed….

This trip we will be travelling by truck with the motorcycle in the back due to time constraints. We will start out travelling to Louisiana, then head to North Carolina, Michigan, West Virginia, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Kansas. Of course there will be a few states, many stops, and lots of fun and adventure everywhere. Our grand adventure begins -- [insert drumroll here] -- Wednesday, July 17!