Travel home day

Well, the week at Jekyll Island was over and regretfully it was time to come home. However, the trip was made more better for Grammy and I because we hooked up with old friends found new - Butch and Bonnie Lenoir. Can't wait to travel and camp with these folks again!

We left camp this morning at 10 a.m. and 7 short hours later pulled in at the Malueg house. To make the trip go a little quicker, last week we bought an audiobook on itunes and listened to it over the Apple while traveling. (Mark will have to guide me on downloading it to my ipod.) The book title is "The Shack" Author: William P. Young. Audiobook is 8:48 hours long.

*********

If you're looking to pick up a new book then put this one on your short list. Either read it or listen it... I don't think you'll regret it. My thoughts: The Shack is a dramatic and powerful fictional story about one man's loss of his 5 year old daughter through her kidnapping and murder; A journey of self examination, acceptance of God's love and freedom, and .... forgiveness. The story is accomplished by a face to face weekend encounter with God> Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This book may cause you to rethink how you view God and the limitations that we place on Him becuase, well, that's just the way we look at things. It may also strengthen or rekindle your faith in God. It's very thought provoking. (Thank you Mandy for urging us to get this book!)

*********

The remainder of this week will be devoted to completing the camper's parking pad. When looking at the photo you'll see some deep ruts in the gravel pad. I'll finish it off by adding another ton of pea gravel and a half ton of portland cement spread on top to stiffen the gravel up a little. Should finish up by this weekend!

That about wraps up this camping trip. Hope I didn't bore anyone with trivial tid-bits , but this way I can keep track of things my fuzzy memory can't seem to hold on to any more.

Travel Stats: Home to Jekyll Is. ....... 295 miles and 6 1/2 hours

Jekyll Is. to Home ....... 310 miles and 7 hours (slightly different route)

total milage ........ 605 miles

And as Papa would say .... "so, you're going down the road and around the bend..."

As always, keeping the peace, Pappy

Parking pad needs a little more work...

Final destination - home

Day Six at Jekyll

Well today was the last day of class. Afterwards, there was enough time left in the day to take a short bike ride over to Drift Wood Beach and the Jekyll Pier. This little part of the island is a cool place to visit which raises your senses of sight and touch. ...Very pleasant ending for the week. Here's a few photos from the beach.

Tomorrow morning we wrap up, pack up and head back to Watkinsville:(

Keeping the peace, Pappy

Pappy and Grammy on the beach makin magic

Pappy striking a pose on the beach

Grammy on Drift Wood Beach

Bike path to Clam Creek

The pier at Jekyll

Clam Creek road

Day Five at Jekyll

Grammy and I just returned from a delicious low country shrimp boil at the conference. Best part of the day! She biked around today while I was in class for 8 hours (this sounds familiar). We were going to hang around for the dance tonight put on by the "Loose Screws" band...but it didn't crank up till 9 p.m. I put in to come back to the camper and that's all it took for Grammy to fold - so here we are.

Tomorrow will be a half day in class at which point I hope we can do some more biking and take a few more pics for the album. Like I said this was a slow day - not much to blog about.

Check you tomorrow.

Keeping the peace, Pappy

Day Four at Jekyll

The POAG convention began today at the Oceanfront Resort so I don't have much to blog about. This training day began at 8 a.m. and ended at 5 p.m.; gangs, blood spatters, managing the Y Generation, and juvenile justice - just another day in the life of the retired.

The day ended with a very long opening ceremony and a bad steak & potato. It's looking up for tomorrow though, a low-country shrimp boil. Come on tomorrow!

Grammy biked and walked all over the beach. When I retired to the campground it was pretty much deserted. Yesterday full and today empty. That's ok.

Time to say goodnight.

Keeping the peace, Pappy

Day Three at Jekyll

Since we didn't get in enough dancing last night we thought we burn off a few calories this morning by biking the island. The cloud covered sky and lower humidity today made for a cool ride and the trails here are merely wonderful.

BBQ experts from all over GA descended on this tiny knoll vying for the number one cook-off trophy. And wine tasting too! At least today at Jekyll Island, there was no shortage of swine or wine.

The rain held off today until we finished our 14 mile bike tour. Thank you Lord! After the rain subsided, Bonnie fried up a mess of shrimp. Last night it was steamed crabs and tonight it was golden fried shrimp - wow, can that Alabama girl cook. Yummy!

The POAG (Peace Officers Assoc. of GA) conference begins tomorrow morning. 8 hours of LE classes for the next couple of days. Don't know what Grammy is going to do with me in class all day (not much shopping on Jekyll). Ha! I know she'll be just fine even if she has to drive to Brunswick for the Walmart! Its getting late so I gotta go now (and Grammy's looking over my shoulder) ....

Note to self: invite Lenoirs on all future camping trips. Bonnie - a must; Butch- optional.

Keeping the peace, Pappy

Ancient oaks at Jekyll are awesome

..... with friends Butch and Bonnie Lenoir

.... cool bike trails

Day Two at Jekyll

Day two and all is well - except my ears...

Butch and Bonnie Lenoir arrived at Jekyll last night. The Lenoirs are friends from Redeemer, Columbus and have been trailer camping for years. Good people. They introduced us to steamed Blue Crabs tonight. Bonnie is a good cook. Very GOOD!

After the hard rain tonight we went to a dance concert featuring a 60's group, the Swinging Medallions. ("Double shot of my baby's love") Now, Grammy and I saw them at a similar concert in Columbus in 1970. The thing is that the current group had all of their hair and it wasn't grey. The other thing was that after an hour of the music my ears were ringing and we headed back to camp - just too darn loud! (check out the madras pants)

I know this is worth a chuckle, but it but to me, it's just another sign that I may be getting old ... at least my ears are:)

Looking forward to tomorrow.

Keeping the peace, Pappy

Grammy's figuring it out!

Swinging Medallions 60's Group?

Taking a break on long walk this a.m.

Day One at Jekyll

This was a pretty lazy day - no heavy lifting. Grammy and I took a long hot, sweaty ... walk this morning but it cooled off pretty well this afternoon. Rain has held off so far. Today consisted of biking, hiking, web surfing, sewing, reading, napping and more napping - typical retired life, right:)

The most exciting event today was when we were swinging/relaxing at the campground bird s

anctuary (lots of feeders). There were a couple of female tent campers next to the feeders who got into a verbal fist fight. Throwing things....very loud, very m

ean, and very nasty. Thought we'd see a real cat fight break out, so we hung out there for longer that we intended - but alas, only words were exchanged. Actually I went by there later and found that they made nice. Good for them. It's way too hot to be wasting energy like that ... especially for tenters.

Well, I've played around with this blog thing way too much today... and it looks terrible. Sorry, but I'm just a little confused.

What I need is a class from Lauren cause she does such a great job on her blog! hint hint

Gotta go now and fire up the grill M&L gave us. Pork chops tonight! yum

• Note to self: Beg Loren for bloghelp!

Keeping the peace, Pappy

Get away day

Here I am sitting in our cozy Montana (she really needs a name) actually writing about the non-events of this day. The cable's gone out and Grammy's gone to bed with a book instead of me. Oh well, it was time for me to give this blogging thing a whirl anyway.

On past camping trips I've attempted to keep a journal of our adventures but I was pretty sloppy and procrastinated. I hope that this method of scribing will encourage me to do better.

We packed up camper last night so all we'd need to do this morning was to hitch up the 350 to the package and wala, we'd be off... without a hitch, so to speak. One last inspection after pulling the camper from it's new resting place in the back yard.... and hum, one of the camper's tires looked suspiciously low. Long story short - that tire has a history of going down, so I had it "fixed" last month. And now it was again 20 psi low. I began to let my imagination run wild and I could see us stranded on the side of a road with a flat tire - or worse yet with a very damaged camper. But like I said earlier, this was a non-event day. I filled the lazy tire and kept a close eye on any signs of slow leaks. 5 1/2 hours later we pulled into the Jekyll Island campground and began doing the usual stuff in setting up camp. Grammy handles the inside stuff and I handle the outside stuff.

Today we vowed that we wouldn't argue about setting up. And guess what - we didn't argue. I must admit that we work pretty well as a team to the point that we do get the job done.

• Note to self: in the future when I know that I'm about to get into an argument with my bride, remember to suggest beforehand "Baby, lets not argue about _______". It worked this time didn't it!

Keeping the peace, Pappy