Spring Adventure Part II - The Country Living Fair

A Visit with Friends and The Country Living Fair

Our first planned stop was back to our old stomping grounds to visit friends and attend a SOTF event.  The Country Living Fair was going to be in Nashville for the first time ever, and coincided with our already planned trip to visit.  We attended the SOTF event, although we were in stealth mode (I had Grace with me) and visited the Country Living Fair at the nearby fairgrounds.  Met a lot of new faces, and re-connected with some friends.  The Fair is miles of booths of crafts, antiques, furniture, and about anything else you could think of.  Some very creative people and lots of ideas.  I managed to escape with only one purchase - a bright red soap dish for Breezin' !

Arts & Crafts

...and a giant chicken??

Breezin's newest accessory

Dinner with the Sista's

Spring Adventure - Part 1

After a quiet February and March at home, Grace and I hit the road again in April with Breezin' in tow for the next adventure.  This is our first time really working from the road so we've had a few lessons to learn.  Connectivity has been pretty easy (thank you Technomadia for all the info you provide) but learning to travel and work at the same time has taken some practice.  I've learned that 4 hours at the Macon GA rest stop on conference calls wasn't very fun...especially with the big rig diesel engines coming and going right next to us!  It took two overnight stops to get up to the Nashville area.  For the rest of the trip, I'll try to stay parked and move on our time off.

On the road

The Office Evolution

15 Minutes of Fame

I was scrolling through Airforum posts on the Canopener rally this morning when I discovered the rally was also the subject of a blog from RV-A-GOGO (full-timers whose blog I follow).  Of course I had to skip over there and read the latest post... Breezin's little red table decoration was there in the middle of the blog, snapped during our open house on Saturday.

A friend and blogger I follow - Postcards from the Road, featured a post with some Airstream info this week, and there at the bottom of the post was a very nice stylized picture of Breezin' !

A T@bber friend does this incredible job with doodling/painting shoes and hobo bags depicting scenes of camping life...  Get ready Crystal, because you just officially crossed over into Airstream fame as well, hope you have your pens and paints ready :-)

Breezin' has enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame.... and his owner has had a pretty good time the last couple of weeks as well!

Opening Cans

The first trip of 2015 was an Airstream rally known as The Canopener and held at Topsail State Park in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.  I tried to make this trip last year and had to cancel at the last minute so I was very excited to get Breezin' on the road this time.

My favorite view in the rear view mirror

Canopener is an Airforums rally, organized by volunteers who all did a spectacular job.  It was a sea of aluminum with 103 trailers attending!

Topsail is located in the Florida panhandle on the gulf coast, with a beautiful beach.  Wish it had been warm enough to enjoy it!

The park itself is very nice and well maintained.  Several miles of trails and bike paths, tram service to the beach (about 3/4 mile walk), a club house, bath houses, laundry, etc.  Most, if not all, sites had full hookups.  Unusual for a state park but it's also a bit pricey for a state park.

Our campsite at Topsail

I did a little sightseeing the first day before the rally began and drove over to Seaside for lunch.  Seaside is known for the Airstream food trailers that line the main street.  Grace and I walked around and picked up some lunch, visited the bookstore and took a walk along the ocean before returning to Santa Rosa.

The rally got started on Thursday with a chili dinner.  Friday included an open margarita bar and a corn hole tournament at noon.  Friends Beth and Pete both played, with Pete taking second place out of almost 40 players.  Friday night we went to town for seafood at Stinkey's Fish Camp - good stuff.

Saturday's events included an open house at noon.  It was nice to be able to see all of the various floorplans and the modifications people had made.  The afternoon concluded with a pot luck, tons of food - a few giveaways and some entertainment provided by one of the local dealers.

It was great meeting everyone.  Can't wait for next year!

Sundog Books - Seaside, FL

Food trailers

dinner at Stinkey's with Pete and Beth

Saturday evening pot luck - quite a crowd

Happy New Year - Setting the Tone

Welcome to 2015

Since I've decided to really try to blog more this year, I thought I'd start by wishing you Happy New Year... even though I just told you about Christmas yesterday :-)  Thank you for following along, I really appreciate you taking the time to read this!  If you are so inclined, leave me a comment sometime.  I'm like a kid at Christmas when I get one (or Sally Fields at the oscars if you remember that one).

Back in a previous life, my friends and I would always ride on New Year's day.  Believing that our activity on New Year's day would set the tone for what we would do the rest of the year, we would saddle up and ride.  Sun or rain or sleet or one time even snow, we would ride.  Sometimes it would just be a quick jog on the trails across the street from the farm and sometimes it would be a planned week long camping trip.  But however it manifested itself that particular year, New Year's day always included a trail ride.  I don't know if it 'set the tone' for the rest of the year but it was the very best way to start the year with good friends.  I have some wonderful memories of those rides, even the short ones.

Keeping with that tradition, I spent the morning hanging out with Breezin' and getting some organizing done before our trip next week.  I really hope that 2015 contains lots of time traveling and camping!  We received (or gifted ourselves) a plethora of "red" for Christmas.

A new Keurig mini - no more waiting for the percolator when we have electric!
Thank you family

New skillet - I'm good with the love & peace, not
so sure about the taco grease though

My favorite - these are magnetic on the top and stick together - take almost no room
includes spatula, spoon, pasta server, slotted spoon and they sit in the ladle.

New knives - red polka dots!  And they even work well :-)

Walkie-talkies for the next caravan so Sue doesn't have to call me on the cell phone to tell me to pass the dang car in front of me and catch up!

For the rest of the day, I hope to take in a movie and maybe settle in with a book and a glass of wine. If that sets the tone for the rest of the year, I couldn't be happier!

Hope your start to 2015 is exactly what you wish for!

Merriest of Christmases

What is the plural of Christmas?  Christmases, Christmas-i?  This year was a very good year.

I planned to stay close to home this year.  Both of my brothers and their families came to visit. The youngest sibling came from California for the week, and the middle brother from Tennessee for a long weekend.

Mom baked cookies and put up the tree early in an attempt to have a traditional Christmas.  But this was the first time all four of us had been together in probably 6 or 7 years... and we chose some family traditions that aren't usually associated with Christmas.  We fried up dozens of pork tacos from a recipe that was shared with mom back in the late 50's.  We've been making these together as long as any of us can remember.  The feast was accompanied by plenty of cold beer, red wine and ended up in a sing along of 70's rock songs with John on guitar.  What a blast!

The siblings with mom

At the last minute I decided I could not make it through Christmas without seeing my grandkids!  So, I packed up the truck, took the dogs to a good friend for their version of camp and headed to Tennessee for a long weekend.

Along the way, I made a quick stop in Georgia at the Carroll's Sausage Company and Country Store.  If you are ever traveling along I75, it is so worth the stop.  Best sausages ever and a wonderful butcher's counter.  There is plenty of room to park with a trailer attached.  In fact, there is even an RV park for a quick overnight (although I wouldn't recommend it -- right next to I75 and not a tree in sight.  There are much nicer state parks and private RV parks near by.)

Off I75 at exit 82

Jams, jellies, gifts - and they serve breakfast and lunch.

Beautiful selection at their butcher's counter

but the RV park is pretty desolate and right on I75 with no sound barrier

My visit with the kids was great, even if too short.  I got to see everyone and we had a great early Christmas together before I headed back on Monday.  Sorry to all my friends in Tennessee that I didn't get to see... this was a very last minute trip :-)

Meanwhile back in Florida, my sister hosted a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner AND Christmas Day brunch - of which I took not a single picture for some reason.  They were both lovely, and I didn't have to do a thing but enjoy myself... which I did!  Hope your Holidays were meaningful for you and I wish you the best for 2015.

Breezin' and the traveling canines  and I plan to have a spectacular year!

Happy Birthday Breezin'!

Earlier this week, I took a trip to JD Sanders RV in Gainesville

to have annual service done on Breezin'.  It's hard to believe that I've owned her for a year already.

Though we got off to a slow start, we traveled  48 nights and 4,200 miles during the past twelve months.  We visited a couple of local campgrounds (Silver River and Gold Head Branch in FL); Visited Cumberland Island National Seashore and had Thanksgiving in Savannah; Took a trip to visit friends and family near Nashville, Hit the Blue Ridge Rally with T@B friends in Jefferson, NC; watched the fireflies at Elkmont Campground in the Smokey Mountains; Spent a few nights in Kinard, SC working when project deadlines loomed on the way home; and rounded out the year back in SC with a visit to Hunting Island, and a few days on Jekyll Island.

It was a great year - and hopefully a small sampling of the next twelve months!

A blustery day headed to Cumberland Island

Sunrise at the KOA near Nashville

Gold Head Branch (FL) our first outing

Crooked River State Park

Skidaway Island

Hunting Island SC

Elkmont, GSMNP, Tennessee

Raccoon Holler, NC