It's raining so it must be time to go home|:(

Well, it's Sunday morning and time to get ready to go home. But first, what about Saturday.?

It rained all day yesterday so it's a good thing that Lauren and Mark sent plenty of DVDs with us to entertain Hannah. Checking out the Cordele movie scene we found some that were child-friendly so the Maluegs, Derums, and Lenoirs loaded up all of the kids took in Planet 51. Pretty good kid flick- and not too bad for the old folks either! Now if we can only get Karl and Butch to behave in the movies:)

It rained hard all night long. About 5:30 this a.m. it slacked up some and I relaxed thinking that it would be over by the time we started breaking camp. WRONG. It rained before, during, and after hook up ...and all the way home. Not the worry though - after we made the final pull out I stopped for a moment and threw on some dry clothes.

Butch waxed eloquent while we were getting drenched: "Any time I'm camping - rain or shine - I'm not stuck at home". I'd have to agree, truer words were never spoken. The rain and cold are only mild distractions ....I'd rather be camping.

Till next time... Pappy

Rained all night, all morning, all the way home

It was as cold and dreary as it looks

Time to hook up and pull out

Hannah was ready to go to Mommy's house.

Today is Friday, Dec 11th. The big day has finally arrived.... riding the CHRISTMAS TRAIN!

Cookie-mama got us upgraded to "adult" car which was nice and comfortable - guess the kids were such angels that we were all welcome to ride in style. The train took us from Veteran's Park to Plains where we stopped for a couple of hours. WOW who would have thought there was 2 hours of anything to do in Plains??

On the ride back, Santa paid us a visit. Hannah didn't want anything to do with him - so he came back while she was sleeping.

What a day. Hannah described the Christmas Train as "Boo-t-ful" ! That pretty much summed up the trip for us too! With Hannah we had a boo-t-ful time.

With Christmas love to all, Pappy

Pappy & Hannah at the Train Depot

Grammy & Hannah at the Depot

...and here's the train!!

Cookie-mama with J Hunter in Plains

home of the biggest goober.

Hannah with Pappy, the second biggest

goober.

The Lenoir's - camping buddies- enjoying the

Christmas Train ride.

J Hunter with Santa..

Hannah watching the world go by

Grammy and Hannah taking in the

country views...

Hannah, Grammy, and Pappy cuddling

on the Christmas train.

Hannah didn't want any part of Santa...

so, Grammy took advantage of the

situation.

Our conductor and Santa visit Hannah

while she sleeps.

Hannah sleeps as Santa visits.

Today is Thursday Dec 10 and we arrived at Veteran's Memorial State Park in Cordele, GA. No problems - nice trip. Hannah watched the DVD while Grammy and Pappy navigated to South GA. Tomorrow is the big day - we ride on the Christmas Train to Plains!!

So far, so good - Hannah doesn't miss mom and dad too much.

Hannah tells a joke to Pappy

Warming up by the fire.

Hannah makes new friends with Hannah

Marie

Hannah helps Pappy build a campfire.

December Camping with Hannah Belle

Now that the perfect Christmas tree has be found, cut, and decorated - it's time to go camping again AND Hannah is coming with us! We'll be going to Veterans State Park and riding the Christmas Train to the world famous town of Plains. What fun this will be - first time for Hannah and us! I'll try to do better in keeping this blog posted while we're gone. Pappy is happy and so is Grammy.. :)

November Camping in Florida

This posting's a little backwards because I still haven't managed to learn how to get things in the right order (if I'd do this more often I might get the hang of it).

Scroll to the bottom for narrative.

Wild trails abound at Myakka

It was pretty crowded in the camping area but still worth while...

Pappy striking a pose on Myakka trail...

Grammy walking the Myakka canopy

Gators R Us at Myakka

Myakka boardwalk to birding spot.

Tight squeeze in the camp ground

.

Good thing we had bikes.

We rode everywhere.

Myakka! Lots of gators and buzzards.

Gators everywhere

Even on the Swanee it was a little chillie

Pappy showing his butt on the Swanee River

Silver Spring River

What's a cracker?

Silver River State Park FL

Today is December 9th and I haven't posted our last camping expedition yet. Yes I know it's a sad story and I won't go into the details except to say... I should have done better. So - I shall make the post this morning. I think this time I'll go short on details and long on photos of where we stayed. Oh, by the way, the primary reason we traveled to FL in Nov was because we wanted to attend the wedding of our nephew, Matt Derums (Cookie & Karl's oldest) to a pretty gal by the name of Nancy Bull. They were married in Ft. Myers on Nov 14th. Congratulations!!

I had said to myself that I wouldn't mention this on the blog, but I just can't give a full picture trip without mentioning my mother's death. Ma died on Nov 2nd. She was 93 years old and lived a wonderful life and we miss her. Her funeral wishes were to have a service here in Athens and to be buried with dad at Ft. Mitchell National Cemetery in Alabama. Accordingly, her internment service was held on Nov 9th, at Ft. Mitchell.

With plans already in the pipeline to travel to Matt & Nancy's wedding we decided to pull the 5th wheel with us as we traveled down for Ma's internment. So, the calender was pretty full as we left home on Nov 8th. Without reservation - I know that Ma would have wanted us to keep our plans as they were. Whenever we visited her at FLEC I would take this computer with me and show her slide shows of our camping trips, recent pics of the g-kids, old pics of her & Dad, ect. She so looked forward to seeing all of these things. She was so happy to hear of Matt getting married but disappointed to be told that she couldn't attend the wedding. Even in her frail state, her mind was pretty sharp and she still thought that she could go to all of these places. So, she loved to listen to all the details of the places that we went and things we did ... and to look at the slide shows. I viewed all of this as her living vicariously through our travels.

The calender shook out like this:

Nov 2 Mom died today

Nov 7 Funeral service

Nov 8 Hook up camper and travel to FDR

Nov 9 Mom's internment service at Mt. Mitchell

Nov 10 Depart FDR en route to Stephen Foster State Park, FL. It rained all the way from a late season hurricane. Spent 1 night at Foster St Pk

Nov 11 Depart Foster SP to Hillsborough River St Pk. Spent 1 night.

Nov 12 Depart Hillsborough River SP to Myakka River St. Pk. Spent 3 nights. Went to wedding. Beautiful park - lots of alligators and vultures - lots to do!

Nov 15 Began return trip - depart Myakka River SP to Silver Springs St Pk. Really cool park. One on the newest SP in FL. Besides the crystal clear river (home of the glass bottom boats) the park also hosts an 1800's Florida "cracker" village. Spent 1 night

Nov 16 Depart Silver Spring SP to Reed Bingham St Pk in GA. Spent 1 night

Nov 17 Depart Reed Bingham to home.

Nov 20 Picked up a nail in camper tire somewhere along the way and had to buy and new tire.

Total trailer towing miles this excursion: 1255 Miles

Reed Bingham State Park - GA

... alas it's time to head home :(