Atlanta - Monday

Monday found us visiting the World of Coca-Cola back downtown adjacent to the Georgia Aquarium. This was recommended by our friend, Miss Katie and was a real treat. We saw a lot of history and tradition about Coca-Cola and each received an 8-ounce glass bottle of coke that had been bottled right before our eyes.

Atlanta - Sunday

On Sunday, despite the threatening thundercloud-type skies, we went to Zoo Atlanta in our quest to see the baby Giant Panda. Peggy and Clayton have been reading about Mei Lan and wanted to see her. We were delighted to see not just the 2-year-old Mei Lan but also her baby brother Xi Lan (11 months-old) and the adult male and female. Xi Lan means “Atlanta’s Joy”. Quite a treat! The zoo was very nice and provided over 5 hours of enjoyment or us.

The reptile house was good and quite scary for one who cares not for snakes. One cobra was particularly active; br-r-r! Following the zoo adventure, we visited the Cyclorama; world’s largest oil painting supplemented by lots of sculptured figures and scenes all depicting the Civil War Battle of Atlanta that occurred July 22, 1864.

Just as we were leaving, the sky opened up and provided the much-needed rain that we had dreaded would interrupt our zoo trip. What good fortune that the rain waited!

Atlanta - Saturday

In Atlanta, we’re staying at Jones RV Park in Norcross, 19 miles east of downtown. On Saturday, we spent the day at the new (2005) Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world! Clayton would have been happy spending the entire day just with the alligators. He did enjoy the “touch-tanks” where he got to tough manta rays and other fish and animals. The crowds were quite large (we probably should have gone on a week day), but we loved it.

Savannah fun....

Thursday afternoon, we enjoyed more touring of the residential areas and a great Savannah Riverboat ride. Clayton loved the paddle-wheel boat. We learned that Savannah is the 4^th busiest port in the U.S. Lots of history and charm to this beautiful Southern town! As I mentioned, Friday morning, we departed for Atlanta amid scattered thunderstorms. We had three along the way that slowed us almost to a crawl. But, thankfully, the awning held.

Savannah downpour....

Lots of rain while we were in Savannah! Wednesday we went to the City market and drove through lots of the beautiful historic districts of Savannah. During a torrential thunderstorm in the afternoon, we sought shelter for about 40 minutes at a restaurant in the Market. When we later arrived back at our camp-site, we were sorry to see that the “monsoon” (as one of our camp-site neighbors called it) had broken our long roll-up awning on the Airstream. The problem of the day became how we could “un-bend” the 28-foot 5-inch galvanized tube that contains the massive spring. This is how the awning rolls back up into its cover attached to the trailer. So, Thursday morning was spent working on that project, with a jury-rigged solution found after 5 or 6 hours of pushing, pulling and tugging. I’ll include a picture of the result that has stood up so far. (We’ve covered the 265 miles to Atlanta without losing it).

Savannah

Monday we rested up from the miles of walking the previous day, then departed on Tuesday for Savannah. When we arrived on Tuesday afternoon, we learned that we had just missed a couple of tornados that Savannah experienced on Monday. So the extra day spent in Charleston was good. A kind gentleman at the Kroger’s on Skidaway Island gave us great directions to the local Starbucks. So we were set with one of the essentials of daily life.

In Savannah, we are camping at the Skidaway Island State Park. There are only about a dozen of the 87 campsites that are occupied. Everywhere we have been, it seems that the state parks are having financial trouble and are having to make cutbacks on services. In Skidaway’s case, they have had to close their swimming pool for this summer. This park is cool and inviting with most of the area covered by an almost-complete canopy of trees.

Charleston Update

We love Charleston! We arrived Thursday night and took a driving tour of the area. Lots of history and lots of water. We're staying at the Oak Plantation Campground about 9 miles from downtown on the Savannah Highway.

Friday we visited the South Carolina Aquarium followed by visits to the old Market and supper at the Wild Wings cafe near the Market. More than we needed to eat. Clayton particularly loved the alligator in the Aquarium. On Saturday, we rode the Water Taxi across the river to visit Patriot's Point. Clayton loved the USS Yorktown, a WW II era aircraft carrier. Lots to see there, including bombs and airplanes. We were disappointed that the USS Hunley was closed. This is a destroyer (DD 724) that is almost identical to the USS Hank (DD 702) that I served on in the 50s.

Following the ships' tours, we rode the Water Taxi back to downtown and took a great guided carriage tour conducted by Ken, a part-time tour guide and full-time Art History professor at the community college. The historical homes of Charleston are almost beyond description! Not incidentally, the tour also allowed us to rest our feet after all of the walking.

On Sunday, we spent most of the day at the Magnolia Plantation just NW of Charleston on the Ashley River (top photo). The house, gardens and grounds are beautiful. It is hard to describe all of the history that occurred here during the Revolutionary War. Its history tracks from the 1700s when the Carolinas was established as a British colony. Of course the main house has been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Clayton’s favorite of the day was the petting zoo that contained a small alligator and the tram tour that sighted some baby alligators accompanied by their protective mother. The end of slavery brought about by the Civil War also spelled the end to the rice industry in this area.

Week 1 of our 2009 Adventure (part II)

We stayed Saturday night in Montgomery at The Woods RV Park, a large and very hospitable campground. Fortunately, on our way out of Montgomery on Sunday morning, we passed right by (and stopped at) a Starbucks!

Our trip North on Sunday was unevenful except for a lo-o-ong construction delay just south of Atlanta. We pretty much decided that we have been averaging one major traffic delay per state, so the Atlanta one kept our average up.

In Greenville Sunday night, we moved in to the Paris Mountain State park, a delightful 1540 acre park smack dab in the middle of Greenville, SC .http://www.southcarolinaparks.com/park-finder/state-park/722.aspx if you wish to look it over.

We had a great four day stay at Paris Mountain. We made some great new friends from Charleston who were accompanied by their granddaughter Ayla. Between the company of Ayla and our great-niece Sara, Clayton would just as soon have stayed there. They all had a terrific time playing. I've included a couple of pics of the kids. We're beginning to learn that new friends, especially for the kids, is one of the great benefits of camping out.

My sister Sharon along with my brother Conrad and sister-in-law Rita were great hosts. They, along with my niece, Lori, her husband Tim and daughter Sara and Tim's Mom Pat joined us for a wonderful family time and camp-dinner on Tuesday night prepared very nicely by Peggy. Conrad and Rita even loaded up their camper and camped (along with Sara) beside us Tuesday night. A good fellowship! We loved the cool weather there and the rain that we had on Tuesday night. A far cry from our over-100 degree days that we've been having in San Antonio.

Wednesday Conrad and Rita left for their own camping vacation up the East coast into Canada. They had delayed their start to spend some time with us which we very much appreciate!

Thursday morning we departed the cool South Carolina "Up-country" for Charleston and the coast. True to form, we had a construction delay north of Columbia where a travel trailer and its tow-vehicle had flipped over several times, separating the trailer's body from its frame. That sight slowed me down even more.

Week 1 of our 2009 Adventure

We're off! We left San Antonio on the 15th and stopped in Houston for two nights. We stayed at the same RV park as last year. They have a pool and an activity room, so we had Steven over Wednesday and Thursday. He and Clayton had a ball. They loved the swimming pool and playing cars. It's been almost a year since they've been together and we've vowed that we're going to visit Houston more this year and get the boys together.

Steven looks good and is talking much better. He's grown almost as tall as Clayton since last year.

On Friday morning, while we were packing up to leave, we had a downpour. We've had such a drought this year in San Antonio, we had almost forgotten what rain looks like. But we found out when it rained 2 inches in less than 30 minutes. A little soaked, we travelled that Friday to Fontainebleau Sate Park just north of New Orleans on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. What a beautiful park this is, too. As a point of reference Louisiana has lots and lots of very nice state parks. It seems that they are accustomed to having them damaged by hurricanes, only to clean them up once again for our use. We only stayed there one night then headed for Montgomery, Alabama for Saturday night.

Getting geared up again!

We're preparing to hook up the old Airstream in a few days and head east again. Some may remember that we had to interrupt our vacation last year when Peggy got ill with what we later learned was Meniere's Syndrome. We made it all the way to Birmingham before heading back to Texas to get medical assistance. Our plan is to travel Wednesday to Houston to see Steven, our grandson. We'll stay there a couple of nights and then make our way to Atlanta.

In Atlanta we'd like to see their world-famous aquarium and zoo. Then we plan to continue on to South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia.

We'll bring you up to date as we go along.

Back at it!

Another phase of our care-giving is here.  At the start of May, I returned to Alabama with my sister, Sally and followed up with two of her doctors.  Just before Mother's day, I returned home and left Sally with her family.  Six months since her heart attack in November and she's recuperated very nicely!  I am so fortunate to have the support of my wife and kids in assisting Sally's recovery!

Last Thursday, I attended SACU's annual meeting.  What a great favor; the credit union has what turns out to be a family reunion for me.  It was great to see so many friends, but I did miss several who were not able to make it.

School is almost out for Clayton.  He has two more weeks till Summer break.  He's ready.  Then he has Vacation Bible School  and then a week at Elks' Camp. He loved that the last two years.  He is growing up so fast.

We might take another road trip and head East in July.

Home again, for a while....

My sister Sally and I arrived home in San Antonio Saturday night after a pretty comfortable 2-day auto trip from Alabama. She traveled well and Peggy and Clayton were thrilled to see us. Peggy has been waiting for three months to get to take care of Sally.

We're launched into a new chapter of diabetes care and carb-counting. Sally is getting stronger. Clayton is taking responsibilty for walking with Aunt Sally.

It's nice to be home for a couple of months, at least!

On the Road again...

I'm in the San Antonio airport awaiting my flight to Birmingham this afternoon.  It's cold in Alabama but due to warm up some later this week.

My hope is to bring my sister, Sally back to San Antonio with me in a couple of weeks.  We are thrilled with her progress and believe that she's ready for the next step.

Home... 1 27 2009

I've been home for ten days or so.  It's nice to be back in my routine.

My sister is doing well.  She has her kidney stones all out and has been cleared to travel as soon as she wishes.  I will be returning to Alabama on February 5th and hope to bring Sally back to Texas with me a week later.  My wife Peggy is ready to help Sally learn to cook her diabetic diet and to recuperate from all of her recent trauma.

Clayton is doing well in school and seems to be glad that Dad's home for a few days.  Dad is certainly glad!

Arab Alabama 1 8 09

I'm back in Alabama for a couple of weeks with my sister Sally.  For details on her progress see her blog at www.sallygrand.blogspot.com.  

I'm missing my family and hoping to end this multi-state commute in a few weeks.  When Sally's able to travel, I plan to bring her to San Antonio with me to stay a couple of months or so.

I'll be back in San Antonio on January 15th for a couple of weeks.

Happy New Year!

Knox