On The Road Again!

So here we go again, our first trip of the year.  We left Tennessee on Wednesday morning heading south.  Our first stop was the Falcon's Nest campground on Shaw Air Force Base.  We'll not be staying there again...  It seemed that most of the "campers" were more "residents" most of them worked on base and the others were long term.  Now, we did realize that it's an AFB so the flights coming and going were no surprise, but playing taps and reveille was...

No frills, not that we needed any, but it doesn't hurt.  No cable or Internet and as a matter of fact our Verizon Mi-Fi didn't even work, and the connecting for the sewer was at the front by the road??  Oh well, it was only one night, we survived.

Then off to Bluffton, SC to visit my folks for a few days.  Yesterday morning we left there for sunny Florida! So here we are are at the Pelican Roost RV Park on the Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville.  Right after we arrived an old friend of mine I was stationed with in Orlando, many, many, moons ago, stopped by for a visit.

The campground is in a great location, right on the water.  This morning we saw one of the ships going out. (See the stacks behind the other campers)

It's the USS Arlington LPD-24, home ported in Norfolk.

We took a walk around the campground and area...

It's a really nice place, free cable (that was being fixed) and Wi-Fi.

They even have their own beach...

So nice!

We are loving this weather!

Palm trees swaying in the breeze...

Life is good!

Tomorrow we head farther south to Tampa...

Happy New Year!

Wow, it's been a long time!  I'd like to say we've been way to busy to update, but not exactly...  We spent a few nice days over Christmas with my folks in South Carolina, but other than that, honestly we haven't been doing a whole lot.  Stu caught a cold about a week and a half ago which has now dropped into his chest and brought on an asthma attack and lucky me as hard as I've tried not to, I've got his cold now.  But life goes on...

Last Thursday we got our first snow storm of the year.

This was what we woke up to Friday morning...

Check out the overhang on the right side!!  Our gutters did take a little bit of a beating... 

Our front "steps".

We took a walk to the waterfall which was way up thanks to the almost 6 inches of rain in the four days before the snow hit.

Yesterday we got an ice storm (it is Winter after all!), sure are glad we didn't have to go anywhere!

The icicles didn't slow the birds down any, I even saw a couple of gold finches taking a bath in a puddle!  In 20 some degree weather, they must be of the polar bear variety! 

Yes, we still have out Christmas balls in the trees... (we still have the tree up too)

This morning we saw these cuties munching on Stu's yummy grass on the side of the house.

So since I won't let Stu out of the house, he's been painting...Everything.

The master bath, I know the color in the picture looks a little bordello(ish) but it's really a pretty dark red.

The bedroom is just about the same color, just in a satin instead of flat, which is what all the paint in the house is (was)...what were we thinking??!!

The great room, or at least one wall of it, is now "Paprika".

Again the camera just doesn't do it justice!

On to the hallway, this is what Stu is working on even as I type.  "Cashmere" will be in the hallway and the rest of the great room. Say good bye to that boring greenish color!

The kitchen will be the last room we do and I can't wait to get some color in there!  

Gingerbread House Competition

We went to Asheville, NC today to the Grove Park Inn to meet our friends Bob and Anna and to see the Gingerbread House Competition.

The Inn is beautiful!  The fireplaces are HUGE!

These are carved into a few of the rocks on the fireplace. 

Lots and lots of gingerbread houses...

I think the only rule was that everything has to be edible, everything!

It was a rainy day, a good day to be inside!

The Inn reminded me of The Balsams Resort in New Hampshire. 

And we thought we had a lot of rock walls!

The halls were decked...

The spa down below.

This was my favorite, remember all edible!

The main lobby, with carolers in the distance.

Sleigh and reindeer...check.

And there we are!

Bob and Anna in the front and Stu and I in the back.

And that is Anna's friend Sherry in front this time.

This is the grand prize winner for 2012.

All the little trees down the hallways were all decorated differently, this one had a wine theme.

This was the winner for the child category (5-8) "The house at Pooh corner".  Very cute, that's a pretty talented 5-8 year old!