Thanksgiving is over

 

Thanksgiving is over and we had lots of good food and I ate to much.  So what is new.  On black Friday we didn’t go shopping, but we went with our daughter and her family to pick out a Christmas tree.  We drove out to a tree farm near Greencastle.  They give you a long strip of plastic and you write your name on it and then tie it to the tree that you select.  Lots of trees to select from.  Our granddaughter made the finale selection.

Heading out to  select a Christmas Tree. Notice we all  have our hands in our pockets.  It was windy and cold.

  

After looking and looking a tree was selected.  Many were looked at and rejected for one thing or another.  It really didn’t take to long to pick a tree.  If had been warmer it would have taken longer. 

   

In the RV Park where we are staying  our neighbor had one flamingo in their yard.  My wife, being a flamingo person, had to put out  some flamingos to keep company with the lonely one next door.

When we were in Alaska last summer the fish we caught were shipped to our daughter as we didn’t have a large freezer in our rig.  We have since purchased a small chest freezer and put it in our fifth wheel.  It sure was a good move.  We not only have our expensive fish now, but when we see sales we can take advantage of them.  It also holds ice cream better than our other freezer. 

As we travel we joke about where RV parks are located.  Most are located next to a highway, railroad tracks or airport.  If you are lucky you can get all three.  The RV park we are staying in is quite close to Interstate 81, west of us is the railroad,  south a short ways is an airport, but the best part is the RV park backs up to a truck terminal.  It was quiet Thursday thru Sunday.  At midnight Sunday the trucks started to roll, by 7:00 AM the parking lot for the cars was full and the trucks were almost all gone.  It was not as noisy as I thought it would be.

  

Here is the only wild life we have seen.  This guy posed for me.

    

Tomorrow we are back on the road  pointing the nose south.

November in Pennsylvania

     We are in Greencastle, PA visiting our daughter and her family for Thanksgiving.  We arrived on Monday and got our rig parked and hooked up.  The weather has been rainy and temps in the low 50’s.   We have spent the evenings with Barbee, Wes and granddaughter Becky.  It is hard to believe that she is in her last year of high school.  It is nice to be able to sit down and catch  up on things happening in their  lives.

As we have been traveling the last couple of months  we have been watching the leaves change color all across the country.  We have seen some very beautiful colors.  We have not been able to get pictures of all of them.  This is a small sampling of autumn in parts of the country  not mentioned in tourist magazines.

Greencastle, PA Lots of pretty leaves, but most of them are on the ground.  I remember they have to be raked.  That’s why I like this life style  - no raking.  Some of these trees  look like the leaves all let go at one time.  We would drive by one day and the leaves were on the tree the next day all on the ground.

   

South Congaree, Sc the leafs on the oak trees turn a reddish brown.

           

 

 

Tomah, WI in October the trees are just starting to change color.

  

 

Austin, MN  some bushes near a soy bean field  October. 

 

Alaska a few years ago birch trees turning yellow in early September

 

 

Along the road in the Yukon here the birch are turning in early September.  The horses are wild, and are often seen along the road. 

On The Road Again

We arrived at the Rainbow Plantation RV Park in Summerdale, AL and spent about a month not doing too much, seeing old friends and getting moved back into our fifth wheel.  It sure was great to get back into the larger rig.  It is nice to have more than one place to sit down.  We have stored our small trailer in South Carolina at Barbs nephew.    We also waited out Ida. The storm didn’t give us much wind but we had a lot of rain.  Two days of rain.  We also drove down to the gulf and watched some guys fishing with cast nets.  One guy was having a lot of luck and the others were not catching anything.

These guys were hanging around for a hand out.

One of the fishermen throwing his cast net, and the results.  The fish are mullet and sheepshead

        

Barb checking out the catch.

We left Alabama and are on our way to Greencastle, PA.   We spent a few days in  South Congaree, SC where Barbs nephew lives. Barbs nephew Jackie  Carter is a bike rider and has built and painted  his own bike.  I think he did a great job.

 

                                       

 

We then went on to Hendersonville, NC to visit Stan and June Golowski.  Stan was my radar officer in Vietnam.  They are such nice people and we try to see them when we are in this part of the world.  We had a nice visit with Stan and June.

The next day we went to The Biltmore Estate to see the Christmas decorations.  It is America’s largest home with 250 rooms on an 8,000 acre estate.There are 43 bathrooms in this house, a rarity for houses of that era (1895) as very few homes had indoor bathrooms.  A little trivia from that time: the servants lived in 21 rooms on the fourth floor.  They were allowed two hours off daily but were on call. They received one afternoon and one evening off per week, and a half day every other Sunday. That sounds like a tough job.There sure was a lot of walking up and down four stories.   I was disappointed I couldn’t take pictures inside.  Sure were a lot of Christmas trees in the house almost every room had some kind of tree or other decoration. The banquet hall had two huge Christmas trees beautifully decorated. We took a walk down to the conservatory where  I did take some pictures in the greenhouse.

Some of the orchids and other flowers.

   

Outside views of the Biltmore house.

 

This time of the year there wasn’t too much in bloom outside in the gardens but here are some of the bushes and a large tree.

    

This tree looks like it has three trunks.  There wasn’t anything telling what kind of tree it is but it must be old.

   

Tonight we are in Natural Bridge, VA at a KOA park.  The temperature is 46 degrees. We are on our way further north to Greencastle, PA to visit our daughter and her family for Thanksgiving.  I hope it doesn’t get too cold while we are there.