Thursday, January 15, 2009

First Update

Hello to all our northern friends and those of you enjoying the not so cold weather!

We began our trip with, what we thought would be uneventful. But those of you that are caregivers know there is nothing ‘uneventful’. We were celebrating Orthodox Christmas early on Saturday the 3rd and my sister picked my mother up only to find out she had fallen and didn’t tell anyone because she ‘didn’t want to bother anyone’. Luckily she was only bruised and sore, it didn’t appear that there was anything broken, although her elbow looked like it has a goose egg. My sister, Helen, is keeping an eye out on her.

So we headed out, as planned, on Sunday Jan 4th (Happy Birthday Billy!) We made it to the church campground we always stay at, Rippling Waters, in Romance, WVA. Of course, we were the only campers there. The man who runs it said we are the only ones he has seen in a very long time! The campground is about 5 miles off the interstate, but it is the only one that is open this time of year on our trek south.

We kept ahead of the cold front that seemed to be following us. Overnight temps Sunday were in the 30’s, but not freezing.

As many of you know, Ken fell off a ladder at church and cracked his tailbone so driving is quite uncomfortable for him. He just cannot seem to get a comfortable position, so we are taking our time and making stops so he can stand up for a while.

The weather was drizzly and overcast but once we got through the tunnel of the Big Mountain in WVA/VA the sun began to shine. Although every thing is brown, it is still very bright out.

Our first visit (Monday) was with a couple that used to attend our church, Merrianne & Dave in Huntersville, NC. Merrianne, with the help of Dave, made a wonderful supper and we had a very nice, leisurely visit with them.



Ellen & Andrew in Greenville, SC were our next stop (Tuesday). Ellen and I used to work together as a team with event planning for a Fortune 500 company in Houston, TX. We have established a ‘tradition’ (as she calls it) of going to Carrabba’s for dinner, taking pictures and going over to her home.




Andrew is growing by leaps and bounds and is now 5 ½ years old and quite the little man. He
and Ken played with dinosaurs, cars and anything else Andrew had while Ellen and I visited. A lot has happened in both our lives that we had to catch up on.




My sister, Cookie in Columbus, GA was our next stop (Wednesday). The campground was less than four miles from her apartment, so coming and going was quite easy. We all went out to another one of our favorite restaurants, Fuddruckers, and had a great meal.

Linda & Tom in Ocala, FL (Thursday) were our next stop. Linda and I have been friends since
1968. Although we try to get together in PA we can never manage, so we meet in FL. (she is also a snowbird). They have a lovely home on Lake Weir which we visited last year.


Brother George and his family in Bradenton, FL were next where Ken and George ended up

repairing the floor in my mother’s home due to some water damage. George helped for the first two hours and had to go to a funeral so that left his wife, Sherry and I to ‘supervise’ Ken. It turned out to be a six hour repair job…but it was done.



We then headed even further south to visit Dixie & Rea in Naples, FL (Monday & Tuesday) who

are friends from our church in PA…they too are snowbirds, but they are TRUE snowbirds…they leave PA in October and do not come back until May. We have been celebrating Dixie’s birthday with her on the 13th each year for many years…another tradition…it seems, that this is the year for traditions. We really surprised her this year when we took her out for lunch and the waitresses sang happy birthday to her. She could not find any place to hide. When we first arrived, it was very warm day and then turned cooler. Of course, we were comfortable, but Dixie and Rea were not – they had turned on the heat and put on winter clothing.

We are currently on our way to Jacksonville, FL to visit our son, Tim. The weather is quite cool this morning...in the 40's...tonight will be cooler...in the 30's...brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...of course, not like PA.

That is the update for this week. Stay tuned.

julie & ken

2 Comments:

Blogger Sallilou said...

By now you probably know you are missing a chilly -2 degree day with a wind chill of -21!!

Enjoy yourselves, and keep the updates coming. Sally

8:50 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

More updates please! How was trip with Tim??? What's up with Daddy's broken butt????!!!!

6:12 PM  

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