How you seen Pedro??

Today we left Durham about 11am. First stop... to see Pedro at South of the Border. Have you ever visited Pedro? If not, take a few minutes the next time you travel down I-95 into South Carolina. This is another one of those large collections of "things you'd never need" or even "thought you'd want to have". But, I just have to stop there once in a while to marvel at someone's example of capitalism gone a-mock.

I didn't really see anyone spending any of their hard earned dollars, mostly just several groups of folks taking pictures of themselves in front of the animal statues they have scattered about. The restrooms were clean. The food smelled pretty good as we walked by the Ice Cream stand ...I smelled hot french frys and hot dogs. Yum!!! I could hear those arteries hardening.

































Anyway, it was a nice rest break for us.

We came on south and have stopped for the night at the New Green Acres RV Resort in Walterboro. So far, a nice park set in some tall pine trees. I don't think I'd want to be here in an ice storm. Not too bad of a price with AAA or Good Sam discounts. We have a pull-though site (easy parking) with 30amp electric, sewer,water and cable for $25.38 w/ tax. A little more than we like to pay but tomorrow night we'll be at the Orlando Thousand Trails which is free. So that helps us keep our cost down overall. We looked for a Passport American campground but there isn't one convenient to us at this area of I-95.

We're in for the night. Just a quiet New Years Eve for us.

Hope everyone has a fun, safe and HAPPY NEW YEAR. LOVE TO ALL ..DEB

We're on the road again..I think I'll adopt this as our theme song.

Yesterday we left Mom and Dad's house and moved up to Durham. Unlike earlier this year, we are parked at Rita's Mom and Dad's house instead of at the Peaden's RV Park. The RV park didn't have a space that we could pull the VERY LARGE Cameo into. :)
Or at least ...not one Mr. Pearce could easily get into. Thankfully Mr O was there to greet us and doesn't seem to mind that we are taking up space in his parking area behind the garage. Van arrived shortly after we did and helped Gary hook up to an electrical outlet. So..all the comforts of home. We went to dinner last night with Van, Daniel and Rita. Ken and Laverne joined us. Afterwards we went to the Christmas Express store at Northgate and I bought a few things to use next year. A very small porcelain nativity scene at $2.50. Also, a very large inflatable Santa in a hammock hanging from two palm trees. $20.00...I just couldn't turn away. Don't know where I'll be setting it up but I'll be ready.
Today has been a very rainy day so far. I'm feeling a little bit "punky" so I've stayed in so far. Gary has been out and about with Van a couple of times. We're going to dinner with them later. Tomorrow we'll be leaving to travel south back to Florida. We are scheduled to have some work done on the Cameo at Lazydays starting Wednesday. So, we'll be in Tampa at least until the end of the week. After that..we're going back over to the east coast for a while to visit Gary's family again.
After that...westward we will go. Arizona by February.. Hope everyone is doing well and has had a safe and joyous holiday. Deb

Christmas with Doug, Sherry and Family

Last Thursday night we had dinner at Mayflower Seafood in Hillsborough to celebrate Christmas with Gary's sister and family. Van, Rita and Daniel also joined us. The food and service were great. Being with everyone was even better. After dinner we went back to Doug and Sherry's house to visit and exchange gifts. We were able to see our parakeet that went to live with them when we started full-timing last spring. Sherry has named her Blue Bell and she seems to be very happy at her home.

Deb's Mom and Dad

Pictures...Sister Teresa and Family

Pictures..Daughter Jennifer and Husband Mark

Pictures..Brother Chuck and Family

Pictures..Brother Rob and Family

More Pictures of Christmas Celebration..Brother Tim and Family

It's a Merry Christmas at our Home

My Dad was discharged from the hospital on Friday. He is doing very well in his latest recovery effort. Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers.






























Yesterday, my family celebrated Christmas together with food and fellowship. All of my Mom and Dad's children and grandchildren (and 1 great-granddaughter) were present. Even though it rained for much of the afternoon I think everyone enjoyed the visit.

Mom and I prepared vegetables, 2 cakes and 2 pies. Other deserts were prepared by my sister in laws and niece. Teresa and David stopped at Bojangles to get chicken and Jenn and Mark went to Smithfield's for BBQ. Everything was excellent. We were blessed with an abundance of food. Thank you Lord.

After eating, we exchanged gifts. In our family we all draw a name at Thanksgiving and give that person a gift. We usually gather on Christmas Eve, but this year several of us had to work on Christmas Eve, so it was just better to meet today.
We all try to find just the right gift. My brother Rob searched at a half a dozen stores trying to find the right shirt for Gary. Short sleeves, no knit with a pocket (for Gary's glasses). No luck ...so he gave Gary a Wal-Mart gift card. Always a good fit. My name was drawn by my sister-in-law Cheryl. She gave me a Headband scarf and some beautiful gold earrings. We appreciate our gifts very much. I wore my headband and earrings for the rest of the day.
The best gift of all was that we were all together. My Dad is recovering. Everyone seems to be reasonably healthy today. What a blessing and joy.

Gary and I also gave tours our new home. :)
It was exciting to show her off to all who were interested.

Home for the Holidays

We arrived back in NC yesterday. Gary had to trim some of Mom and Dad's trees in order to get the Cameo in place. I took their van and went on to Dunn to Betsy Johnson Hospital to see my Dad. He is doing better after having his gallbladder removed today. We appreciate your prayers. They are working.

Last night Greg Barnes from ABC Eyewitness news went by and interviewed my sister Teresa and her husband David. Their camera man took videos of their lights and the interview. It was televised on their 10pm and 11pm news. Way Cool!!! Way to go..the lights sure are beautiful. http://www.christmassheuring.com/


Gary spent the day running some errands and catching up on our laundry. Keep your fingers crossed that Dad will be ready to come home from the hospital tomorrow or Friday.
Love to you all..good night. Deb

Last Night and Today

Yesterday afternoon Gary and I stopped to have lunch at a small pizza stop in Delano. As we sat talking we were discussing that Gary would like to have another laptop computer. Just a basic one that he can use to surf the Internet or work with his music. We decided to call his cousin Tonya who along with David run a computer store. We wanted to see if she had a recommendation of how to proceed. She was surprised to hear from us, thinking we were still in NC. She invited us to a Christmas party being held at their home that evening. Talk about good timing. So, after we had a sandwich for dinner, we drove over to Port Orange. They have a beautiful home. A pool in the back with a great patio area. They are in the process of building a very large (over 14') tall garage for their boat and travel trailer. We spent several hours visiting with them and their friends. Gary's cousins Bubba and wife Anna and Cricket and her husband Carey were there too. It was great to see them.

Today, we went to the Daytona Beach Flea Market. That place is big. More stuff we don't need in one place than anywhere else I've seen. It was fun to watch the people and I did buy a few used paperbacks. So, it wasn't a total waste of time.

Afterwards, we went over to Gary's brother Bob and Bev's house. They have decorated their yard and home for Christmas in a big way. We had dinner at the Port Orange Steakhouse.
They make the best pork ribs around. Yum!! Yum!! It was dark when we got back so the lights really looked great. The picture is Bob and Bev along with Tasha and LuLu.

Dec. 15th

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. She turned 75. Whoops!! She won't be happy that I told that. But, I sure do think it is something to celebrate. Don't you?

Sad to say she didn't do much celebrating. She spent the day with my Dad at the hospital. Dad was admitted to Betsy Johnson with a flare up of his gallbladder. You might remember that is what started all of his health problems back in September. Looks like this time he'll get it removed. Surgery is scheduled for tomorrow. So..please say a prayer for them if you will. Thanks.

Busy Days..

Last night we rode around the campground looking at the Christmas decorations. Some pretty good ones I must say. If you want to see some awesome decorations and you're in the Lillington, NC area be sure to stop by my sister Teresa's home. She and her husband David with their kids, Joey and Amy have been working since October installing the lights. Check out their website at
http://www.christmassheuring.com/Home_Page.php

















I worked this morning and took a conference call for training by one of the UNC docs. Gary spent the morning crawling over and under the truck to check all of the bolts used in the 5th wheel hitch. He only found one that needed tightening. At noon we went over to the Thousand Trails office to meet with their sales person. He gave us the "Upgrade your membership" pitch. Anyone have a spare $2995.00??? That gives you unlimited free camping forever at their 56 campgrounds around the US and Canada. It also gives you access to 2 other camping programs with several hundred campgrounds at a reduced rate. It really isn't a bad deal at all if you're going to be using it. We declined to pay up at this time. We have 3 months of free membership that will allow us to try it out and see if it would be worth it for us.
We went and tried out a new Mexican restaurant nearby afterwards. It was really good. Gary got his usual petite steak. But this time he actually ate it with rice and beans. I'll get him to liking mexican yet. I also got a haircut at a Fantastic Sams. The same one Gary went to yesterday. The unnamed hair cutter did a pretty good job. We're staying in tonight so I can work some more. Tomorrow we are going to move over to Daytona Beach so we can visit with Gary's brother Bob and family. Love to all, Deb

Moving on...

We moved on Tuesday from the delivery site at Lazy Days to their Rally Park. We needed to attach to a sewer line to try out the new washer/dryer for the first time. The Splendide is a washer dryer combination unit. Learning to use it is a bit different from the units we'd used before. To start with it is small..it will only wash about 11 pounds and dries even less. This amounts to 1 pair of pants, 3 shirts and a few socks. Then you have to stop the unit in the middle between wash and dry to shake everything out to help prevent wrinkles. And then, you still may have wrinkles if you let it dry completely. We'd been warned about this...and it is correct. We've already re-wet and re-dryed several of Gary's shirts to remove the wrinkles. No ironing please. All this fun for $1000.oo ...and to avoid laundromats. Especially since Gary thought he should be "packing heat" at the last laundromat he visited. I still think it'll be worth it once we learn all the tricks. Only 1 tablespoon of detergent and fabric softener. I've never used a tablespoon to measure this before. That takes a bit of getting used too. I don't want to "over-foam" and end up with suds on the floor(carpet). Not my idea of fun. Just more of the adventure...
Yesterday we moved again to Thousand Trails Preserve outside Orlando. As part of LazyDay's benefits we have a membership for 3 months without further cost. This is a large (over 800 sites) off route 27N. It is pretty nice. Sites in the open and in the "woods"...
No swimming in the lakes though...alligators seem to be in all bodies of water down here. There is a very nice pool with hot tub that we are going to try out later today.
Gary went to Orlando today to get a part for our sewer connection. Carriage uses connections unlike any we've found before. So we needed a part in order to connect with our old pipes. Their hose is 25' long and this length won't always work out. We need to be able to connect to a shorter pipe too. So..Mr Fix-it to the rescue. I've been working and enjoying Christmas music while he was gone.
Hope everyone is doing well. Please send us a note and let us know how things are going. Love to all. Deb