First Week at Wanee

We left Atlanta a week ago today and had an uneventful drive to Wanee Lake Golf & RV Park in Ashburn, Georgia.  We have stayed here several times before and had decided to spend a couple of weeks here to relax and play some golf.  Other than the week we played with Ron and Shirley here in December last year, I had never played golf.  While we were in Nashville, we bought some ladies' golf clubs for me and Wanee is the perfect place for a beginner like me to learn how to play.

But before we begin to relax or play golf, Chuck wanted to get one of the big To Do's off his To Do List:  washing and waxing the motorhome.  Between rain showers on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, we washed and waxed the entire motorhome including the roof.  It was a job and Chuck did most of the work but it sure felt good to get it done!  And the motorhome looks so nice and shiny now!

Now that the hard work was done, it was time to try out those golf clubs.  We had also bought some push carts when we were in Nashville because if you are staying in the RV park, you can play for free at Wanee if you walk the course.

We have played 18 holes every day since we finished washing and waxing the motorhome.  The really nice thing about the course is that it is not crowded allowing us to take our time and not feel rushed.  And you really want to think about what you're doing before you hit those dreaded over-the-water shots.

We have added a few balls to the lake here as well as lost a few in the woods but we're having fun and the practice has been very good for both of us.

After we finished playing yesterday, we sat outside the motorhome for a little while.

We looked down to the tee-off box for the first hole and saw what looked like a cougar walking across the fairway in front of the box.  O.K.  I know you're thinking "what have you been drinking??" But look at the picture below and compare the size of the cat or cougar or whatever it is to the width of the mowed rows of grass in the tee box.  Each row is about 4 - 5 feet wide.  And the below picture was taken from at least 80 yards away.

I sneaked inside the motorhome to get the binoculars and my good camera so I could zoom up the pictures.  

A cougar??

Or maybe a really big fox??

Or bobcat??

When he came out from behind the bushes and sat down, we could tell from his stripes and the white under his neck and underside that it was just a REALLY big cat.  But it was the biggest cat we have ever seen!

Hey, Ken and Bonnie -- maybe it's Bob the Cat's big brother??  :)

On Wednesday, we decided we would "take the day off" from golfing and rest up a bit.  We've been walking about 13,000+ steps a day by walking the course.  My hip and Chuck's feet needed a break.  After a relaxing morning, we drove down to Tifton, Georgia, to the Walmart Supercenter to pick up a few groceries.  On the way back, we stopped at McDonalds for their $1.00 ice cream.  A nice cool treat on a hot day!

Around 5 pm, I suggested to Chuck that we could get in 9 holes since the sun doesn't set until 8:30.  We were out on the course by 5:30 and played a pretty decent 9 holes of golf (for us anyways).  After putting away our clubs, Chuck grilled us some of those delicious Piggly Wiggly pork steaks and I fixed two ears of corn and a small salad.  Oh man, that was a delicious dinner!  :)

A Parade, A Festival and A Graduation

On Saturday morning, we met Tafanie and the girls for the City of Tucker's big parade -- all two blocks long of it.  :)

Bell and Emmaline were walking with their pre-school in the parade and followed right behind the Tucker Jr. High Band.

Of course, moms walked with their kids so Tafanie and Ruby were in the parade too.

And they needed a professional photographer (ha! ha!) to capture the moments so MiMa joined them too!

(Actually, Pa, the other professional photographer, took some of the sideline photos.)

Below is a shortened video of the very short City of Tucker parade.

Click HERE if you are unable to open the video.

At the end of the parade (which took maybe 5 minutes to walk) the girls had their pictures taken with their pre-school...

...and then with Pa and the Chick-Fil-A cows...

...while Ruby just sat back and blew bubbles.  :)

After leaving the parade, we rode over to Crystal and Grant's to ride with them to the Kirkwood Festival.

We first visited a lot of the vendors' booths and then headed for the playground where Avery and Hannah climbed, swung, and played.

Below is a video of those high-flying Robinson girls:

Click HERE if you are unable to open the video.

Avery told me later that she LOVES the playground at Kirkwood.  :)  We ate lunch in shifts so we could take turns watching the girls at the playground and then the girls were treated to popsicles to eat while walking back to their van.

I think there is as much strawberry popsicle
on the outside of Hannah as there is on the inside!  :)

After church on Sunday, Tafanie and Cory invited all of us over for hamburgers.  Cory grilled some delicious hamburgers and corn-on-the-cob...

...while the rest of us played in their backyard.

Later that day, we babysitted Avery and Hannah at their house so Crystal and Grant could go to a concert in Atlanta.

On Monday, we went back to Costco and Wal-Mart to get a few groceries before we would be leaving on Wednesday, and then went to Crystal and Grant's for dinner so we could spend a little more time with them and Avery and Hannah before we left on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, we began cleaning a little bit and getting ready for our departure on Wednesday and then on Tuesday evening, we went with Tafanie to Emmaline's first gymnastics class for the summer.  Emmaline was a little scared but I think she will like it just like big sister Bell did after a week or so.  We watched with Bell and Ruby from an upstairs viewpoint above the gym.  Little Ruby was mimicking everything they were doing (with MiMa holding on to her hands).  If she was a little older, she could be taking gymnastics too!

We had dinner at Cory and Tafanie's and then when to Bell and Emmaline's pre-school for their end-of-the-year program and "graduation" for the pre-schoolers.

The classes performed some songs and afterwards there was a reception.  Bell and Emmaline dug into their cupcakes and Ruby into her chocolate chip cookie.  :)

The way these past few years have flown by, we will be attending Bell's high school graduation before we know it!  :)

Visiting, Babysitting, and Picking Strawberries

On Monday, Chuck and I drove to see his cousin Elizabeth Blankenship in Powder Springs, Georgia.  We had a very nice visit with Elizabeth and then met two of her three children, MaryBeth and Jason, at a local barbecue restaurant for lunch.  We had such a good time visiting with all of them and remembering old times.  It had been almost 10 years since we had last seen Elizabeth and we can't even remember the last time we saw MaryBeth and Jason.  We wished Wana, her other daughter, could have joined us too.  We are definitely NOT going to wait another 10 years to visit them again!

After we left, Chuck and I kicked ourselves for not getting a picture of everyone to put on the blog.  Sorry!  We will be sure and get it next time.

I babysat Hannah all day Tuesday.  She woke up with a high fever on Monday and Crystal took her to the doctor.  She apparently had some kind of bug that had to just run its course.  By Tuesday, she was feeling much better and the fever was gone but she had to stay out of day care for at least 24 hours so Hannah and I had a fun day together on Tuesday.

We babysat the VW girls again Wednesday evening and then on Thursday morning, I went with Tafanie, Bell, Emmaline, and Ruby to the Southern Belle Farm to pick strawberries.

Bell is not a big fan of strawberries but Emmaline and Ruby sure love them!

Ruby REALLY liked the strawberries...all over her face, her hands and her shirt.  :)

Tafanie picked most of the strawberries but Bell and Emmaline helped too.

After we finished picking strawberries, we checked out the unusual see-saws...

...and visited the farm animals.  Bell really likes the horses!

Then, it was time for lunch in the rocking chairs on the porch.

A fun (and tasty) day at Southern Belle Farm.

On Friday, Crystal, Hannah and Avery came out to Stone Mountain to spend the day with us.  After lunch, while Crystal was trying to get Hannah to lay down for a nap, Avery and I went on a little Stone Mountain adventure.  First, we went in search of ducks.  We had plenty of bread and wanted to make sure those poor little ducks weren't starving.

We walked along the lake shore for a long distance and did not see one duck!  I guess they weren't hungry!  Then, Avery and I went to the playground but there weren't any kids there so Avery didn't think it was very much fun.  Lastly, we stopped at the campground store where we got an ice cream sandwich to eat which was very yummy!  :)