Starke, Florida

We left Stone Mountain on the Saturday after Christmas and drove all the way to Starke, Florida, where we stayed at a nice KOA campground for a couple of days.

Because I was sick most of Sunday, we just stayed inside and rested all day.  Thankfully, by Monday morning I was feeling much better. 

We left Starke and headed for Green Cove Springs.  It was kind of nice driving on some of the state and county roads in Florida.  The roads were good and the traffic was minimal.

As we approached the community of Penney Farms, we drove through a "tunnel" of beautiful big trees with those long, long branches.

The reason we were driving to Green Cove Springs was to go to David's Permanent Coatings (RVRoof.com) to get an estimate for getting our roof sprayed with their RV FlexArmor which would eliminate the need to caulk and re-caulk the roof year after year.  And their sprayed-on roof is guaranteed for 20 years.

We spoke with Howard and Linda from RV-Dreams.com who had recently had their roof sprayed and they have been pleased with the results.

After spending about an hour going over all of our questions with David and Jennifer, we headed to Wilderness RV Park Estates in Silver Springs.

Christmas at Stone Mountain

After leaving West Point Lake, we drove to Stone Mountain Campground on the east side of Atlanta.  We were in site #31 for 3 nights and for the rest of the time we were in site #20A.

We spent the next 2 very busy weeks visiting with the kids, babysitting granddaughters, and enjoying the Christmas season with our family.  We made an overnight road trip back to Nashville for the Gregory Christmas brunch at Rick and Marla's house and to bring my mom back with us to Atlanta so we could all be together for Christmas.

Isabella (our oldest granddaughter who is 2) liked having her Pa read The Grinch Who Stole Christmas to her.

After opening the "boring" clothes presents, Bell was a little more excited to get a Princess Sofia bowling set for Christmas.

 

 

Emmaline liked her "new car" that she got for her birthday (who is now 1) ...

...but Avery (her cousin who is also 1) liked playing in Emmaline's new car too!

Emmaline can scoot across the floor lickity-split.  :)

Avery liked her Christmas tree.  It soon became the "no-no" tree because she knew she couldn't touch it.  She would look at it and shake her finger saying "No-No."  :)

Avery liked having Pa read her a book too...

...and even took a little nap on Pa. 

Avery enjoyed playing with MiMa outside some too.

Our granddaughters are growing up so fast!  They are absolutely precious.  Wouldn't you agree?  :)

West Point Lake

We left Pensacola RV Park early Wednesday morning because we had an appointment at Carpenter's Campers in Pensacola to have a pressure test done on the motorhome to try to help us find the source of our two annoying water leaks. 

How it works is they hook up this machine to one of the roof air vents that pumps air inside the motorhome.  While the machine is running, a service tech sprays a soapy mixture on the outside of the motorhome all along the windows, doors, slideouts, roof and anywhere there might be a breach in the exterior where a water leak might seep through. 

The good news was the motorhome did not look like it was in a bubble bath (meaning there were not a lot of leaks).  The bad news was there was a couple of spots on the roof where the caulking has gotten so old that the water is probably seeping in despite all our attempts to keep it caulked.  What really needs to be done is all the old caulking removed and new caulking installed.  Yuck!

They gave us a price to just replace the caulking along the front cap and a price to replace all the caulking.  However, we want to investigate further a new type of sprayed on roof sealant from RVRoof.com that is guaranteed to not leak for 20 years...and does not require caulking and re-caulking and re-caulking. 

After leaving Carpenter's Campers, we began heading toward Atlanta where we will be spending a couple of weeks of the Christmas holidays.  Our site at Stone Mountain was not available until Friday so we decided to drive about halfway.

We found a very nice Corp of Engineer campground on West Point Lake:  R. Shaefer Heard Park.  The sites are water and electric only but most of them back up to the lake.  After riding through the park, we decided on Site #26.

We had a great view of the lake.

Of course, with it being winter, there were only about 6 other campers in the park.  I imagine the park stays full in the summer. 

We went for a walk around the campground loop and were treated to an absolutely beautiful sunset.  I couldn't decide which picture to post so I posted all of them. 

This is a park we would like to come back to again sometime when it is warmer and maybe enjoy a little biking and fishing!

Pensacola & Snowball Derby 2013

Although it had rained while we were at Sherling Lake Park in Greenville, we had a pleasant two hour drive with no rain to Pensacola RV Park on Wednesday. 

We were meeting Chuck's uncle and aunt, Donald & Anna, at the Pensacola RV Park so the guys could go to the 2013 Snowball Derby in Pensacola.  We had been assigned sites #52 and #53 which were new sites that had just been completed a few weeks previously.  They were great sites:  long, level and plenty of room between the sites.

Our neighboring camper on the other side was this handsome rooster.

 

 

Soon after Donald and Anna arrived, we went to Sonny's Barbecue for lunch, one of our favorite places to eat when we are in Florida.  It was delicious as usual!

 

Although the weather forecast was predicting a chance of rain just about every day, it didn't rain more than just a sprinkle every day of the Snowball Derby.  We got a few games of corn hole in...

 

...and Chuck "wet a line" around the nearby pond. 

Unfortunately, the fish weren't biting.  I "caught" a picture of this crane...

...and a few remaining little flowers around the pond.

There were some huge trees in the park that reminded us of the big trees with the big, long branches we had seen at the Alamo in San Antonio.

Chuck and Donald enjoyed talking with other racing fans that were down for the Derby.

It was a great (but fast) week.  The guys enjoyed some good racing and we all enjoyed just being together and playing cards and corn hole and eating out at Sonny's and The Shrimp Basket.

We're looking forward now to race week at Daytona in February!

Greenville, Alabama

Our next stop is Pensacola, Florida, to meet Donald and Anna for the Snowball Derby again this year.  Our reservations don't begin until Wednesday so we were going to be able to take our time driving to Pensacola.

Before leaving on Monday though, we wanted to try to get our car emissions test and car tags renewed since we would not be in Nashville when they would be expiring.  The County website indicated that we could renew our car tags as early as 90 days ahead of time.  Unfortunately, all the people whose car tags had just expired in November were in line for emissions testing this morning too. 

After about an hour wait, we got the emissions test done and drove to the County Clerk's office to wait in another line for about 20 minutes only to find out that the office did not have the stickers for February yet.  Oh well.  At least we got the emissions test done and we can renew the tags online.

After stopping by to visit my mom for a few minutes, we headed back to the KOA, hooked up the car and were on the road by a little after 11 am.  Other than a little rain in Birmingham, we had a nice drive and decided to stay at Sherling Lake Park in Greenville, Alabama, for a couple of nights.

The park is a very nice city park with several full hookup sites.  We had site #1.

The site even has a deck with a nice view of the woods.

It rained some on Tuesday but stopped long enough for Chuck to wash the motorhome and the car (which were filthy).  While he worked on the motorhome, I went for a walk down to the lake.

I found this walking trail that went by the lake.

The walking trail went by an old dock.  The light fog on the water and the Spanish moss hanging from the trees gave it kind of an eerie look (plus the black-and-white photography). 

With all the excitement of the past week, it was kind of nice to just do nothing for a couple of days.  And Sherling Lake Park was a very nice place to do nothing.  :)

Thanksgiving 2013

Crystal, Grant and Avery had originally planned on staying with us in the motorhome but with the temperatures getting so cold I was concerned whether Avery would stay warm enough in her pac-n-play on the floor of the RV.  So with Tafanie, Cory, Bell and Emmaline and Crystal, Grant and Avery, my mom had a house full of grandkids and great-grandkids over Thanksgiving weekend.

Crystal, Grant and Avery came up Wednesday night.  Avery has grown so much!

She wore her new boots to Thanksgiving dinner at Pam and Jerry's.

We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner at Pam and Jerry's.  Emmaline, Avery and Bell enjoyed the feast!

We enjoyed visiting with all the family and Tafanie had some games lined up to play which is always a lot of fun. 

When we all got back to my mom's later that evening, Chuck and Bell played with Grandma's Playdoh. 

Bell and Emmaline had grown a lot too since we had last seen them in September.

Mama fixed some delicious French toast on Friday morning.  (Notice there's not any left on their plates.)  :)

On Friday afternoon, we babysat all three granddaughters so the parents could go out on sort of a double date to lunch and the movies. 

And even though it was cold, we bundled up the kids and took them outside to enjoy the sunshine a couple of times over the weekend.

I think we wore the grandkids out.  Chuck was able to get Avery to sit still long enough to take a nap in his lap.  :)

And I showed Emmaline how to take a "selfie."  :)

What a wonderful (but busy) Thanksgiving weekend!  Thanks mama for letting us all "crash" at your house.  We have so very, very much to be thankful for!