Our North Carolina stops

We headed for North Carolina and our plan to visit our friends, both old ones and new ones. We were at Gafney SC and while they were working on our motorhome at Freightliner, we drove up to Rutherfordton NC to spend the day with our new friends, Bob and Sandy. They live in a beautiful Log house locate in a forest, they built this home themselves. They also have a Mandalay and we met them at the Rally in Goshen and at the factory in Elkhart last year. We had a great time with them at the FCOC rally in Florida also. We enjoyed spending the day with them and checking out the area. They took us to a lot of interesting places, but I had forgotten to bring the camera, so have no pictures from that day.

After our coach was done at Gaffney, we headed for Pride RV Park, a campground near Maggie Valley NC to visit a very good friend of mine and her family. Rhonda and Bill and their 2 daughters Alysia and Allison. Rhonda and I had not seen each other in about 8 or 9 years, but we picked up right where we left off.

We stayed a a nice RV Park and spend a lot of quality time with Rhonda and Bill. Joe and Bill played golf and of course we had lots of home cooking at their house, which is also a Log home. Rhonda is a great cook, and her Mother and Brother visited from Charlotte NC while we were there. Sunday was Easter, so we watched the girls color Easter eggs and we roasted marshmallows outside at the fire pit beside the stream in their backyard.

We also went for a scenic drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway, a little cloudy and overcast, but very beautiful and well worth the drive.

We had a great time visiting this them, and are already planning our next visit. This is a beautiful area of the country, and I am sure there are lots more things to see in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Our next stop was Smith Lake Campground, this is the Army Travel Camp at Fort Bragg Army Base near Fayetteville North Carolina. A friend of Joe's that he worked with 33 years ago lives in Linden about 15 miles away. They had lost contact with each other about 28 years ago, and Joe just recently learned how to contact him. The next few days we visited with Ray and his wife Hanna, and we both had a great time. Joe and Ray talked and laughed about old times and some of the people they worked with, you would never guess that so much time had passed. They had a great time talking and laughing. Ray and Hanna are both warm and friendly people and we sure did enjoy spending time with them.

Golf and The Fountain of Youth

The World Golf Hall of Fame was a fascinating place, we spend 4 or 5 hours there and had a great time, it was a beautiful place too. Joe was able to try a few shots at this Challenge Green it is a replica of a 3 par hole from Bay Hill Golf Course.

They had a special tribute to Bob Hope on display this year, it was very impressive, he was a remarkable man and was so dedicated to our troops overseas. They had a lot of film clips of his USO Tour shows as well as a lot of him playing golf with some of the most well known pro golfers and celebrities.

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We spend two days in St Augustine Florida, this is the oldest city in the USA, it was found by Ponce de Leon in 1565. He also found the Fountain of Youth, and we visited there and drank some of the water. I think maybe we should have drank a little more of the water, because I don't see any difference yet.

This city is full of old restored buildings, many of them are the oldest in the US. This is the oldest school, if you look closely, you may be able to see the large chains that they used to chain the buildings down with to prevent the winds from blowing them over.

This is the Old Jail and if you look closely at the prisoner, in what they call, the "birdcage" you just might recognize him. I think he looks a little dangerous, maybe that is why that little old lady is guarding him. Ha Ha!!

This jail was in use until sometime in 1953. The walls are all 3 ft thick and the ceilings are 2 ft thick. Nobody has ever escaped from inside this jail. The following pictures are of the old fort, the original old gate into the city, and some of the restored streets and buildings.

The trees are Live Oak trees , they grow to be a huge shade tree and they are covered with Spanish Moss hanging down from the branches. This Spanish Moss was used to stuff mattresses and pillows, they had to boil it first because it is full of chiggers. We are so glad that we visited this fascinating city and learned so much about how the people used to live here.

We are headed North now and staying at King's Bay Sub Base just over the Georgia state line. Our plan is to be in the Gaffney SC area by Sunday night the 5th of April, we have an appointment for our water pump issue in that area on Monday and one at Freightliner for Tuesday the 7th of April.

Two weeks in Florida

We went to Tampa Florida for the FCOC Rally at Lazydays Rally Park there. It was great, so relaxing and we were able to spend a lot of time with some of our friends that we met last year.

Lazydays provides breakfast and lunch everyday for all the people staying at the RV park, and the Freightliner Rally included our dinner and entertainment every night.

When the rally was over we stayed one more night so we could check out nearby McDill AFB in Tampa. That is a beautiful base and of course we wanted to visit the commissary before we left.

We went back to Lazydays and met a few of our friends for dinner that night and pulled out the next morning. We then headed for St Augustine FL, to visit the World Golf Hall of Fame, and spend some time in St Augustine, the oldest city in the US. The drive across Florida was beautiful, through Orlando area and Daytona Beach too.

We arrived at Jacksonville NAS RV Park, this is a very nice park has about 40 sites, and some of them are near the water, the St James River. The price was great and free laundry too. It rained and rained while we were there, so we stayed for five nights, so we could do some tourist things and visit the Fountain of Youth. We need all of the help we can get. Ha Ha !!