Catching up.....

We left Cedar Key April 1st.  And, this ain't no April Fool's Day joke....we bought an RV lot!  Yeah!  We love the area so much and, after weighing the pros and cons and doing a ton of research, we took the plunge and are Florida "land-owners".  I put this in parenthesis as it's only a small slice of land but it's grand to us and we are very excited!!   When we are not staying there, we are able to let friends use it so, if you are interested in the Cedar Key area, let me know and we can talk!!

From Cedar Key, we headed to Reed Bingham State Park in Georgia.  We spent 4 days bicycling and relaxing.  We also saw something that we had never seen before....

A gopher tortoise.  We noticed this guy when we were out bike riding.  We stood in the grass to watch him and he actually started walking right to Dan and, as he got close, would hiss loudly!  He didn't look too friendly!

While we were out doing laundry one day, we met Tyler.  Tyler is 7 years old and, despite there being other kids at the campground, he decided to befriend Dan and I.  We had a fun few days riding bikes and playing on the playground with him.  Dan and Tyler would race bikes around the campground.  Dan let Tyler "win" the race but one time he decided to pedal ahead of Tyler.  Tyler didn't like this too much and called Dan a "pig".  We laughed and laughed.  Tyler's was staying with his Grammy and Papaw and they both said he never met a stranger!  Their point was proven when he decided to walk in our RV one day...without knocking.  Another time, I was outside and Tyler came up and asked me "do you think Dan would like to come outside and play?"  Too funny.

After we left Reed Bingham, we went to our first Corp of Engineer Campground.  Amity Campground is in Lanett, AL and is on West Point Lake.

Our site was on one of the smaller loops and was BIG!  We really enjoyed this campground and, after all of the people left after Easter, it was virtually empty!  Out of 90+ sites, there were only 15 campers.

One of the reasons we went to AL was to see my brother, Patrick.  He is in the Air Force and was in Montgomery for some education!

Me and my "little" brother!

Patrick spent the day with us on Easter.  After a home-cooked meal, we headed over to check out the dam.

Dan and Patrick at the dam

We had a nice, relaxing day.  Before Patrick headed back to Montgomery (and with 3 dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies), we had to goof off and get this picture...

See, back when we were growing up, I was supposed to be watching Patrick one day while my parents were working.  Patrick wanted to go to the local park....being the typical teenager, I wanted to sleep in.  I shirked my responsibilities and Patrick went to the park by himself. A while later, I heard a car in our driveway and since I knew my parents couldn't be home, went to investigate.  A woman we did not know had Patrick in her car.  He had gotten into a fight with another boy at the park (over a turtle!!!) and the other boy pushed him down.  His arm was b-r-o-k-e-n!!  Rut-roh.  Now I will admit that my first thought was "man - I am going to be in so much trouble!!"  I called my Mom at work (she was a nurse!) and I told her that we needed to come to the ER as Patrick had broken his arm.  The lady from the park (this was back in the day when you didn't have to worry about strangers) took us both to the hospital where my Mom worked.  Patrick ended up needing surgery and stayed in the hospital for a few days.  I felt sooooo bad that I brought him his favorite meal every day....Taco Bell!  So, long story short, this picture is for you, Mom, for all the trouble I gave you that day!  

  

After we left Alabama, we starting making our way back to NC.  We stayed at a Passport America campground, Carolina Landing in SC.  It was only $15 for the night and fine for an overnight stay.  But, if our rig was any larger or if Dan was not an expert driver, we would have been in a pickle!  Upon arriving back to our NC homebase, this is what we saw....

It put a big smile on our faces!