On the Road (again) and remembering

 Pic of the day;

 I mentioned the military paid in cash in the 1950s. The pay master came to the barracks and paid us. I am bending over tosign for my pay, Pvt Randolf is taking his.

WE also scrubbed our clothes, no washing machines. Dallas will remember this.

 For today:

WE are headed South, we want to check our home in NC before we continue to Florida. I have a smile on my face and a great memory added to my head of this visit. What a thrill to see the couple we knew as friends when he and I were corporals in the corps. Weeks before our marriages we sat on our bunks and talked about our girls.  We both were sure ours was the best and prettiest. (Of course mine was) Marion, his girl did come in a very close second (in my mind of course) once we met.

 They have a big family  3 boys 2 girls. We have the two boys. We interrupted their schedule I am sure.  We did something we had never done before, they invited us to attend church last Sunday and we did. WE attended the Lighthouse Baptist Church in Dover, PA.

We were blessed in Sunday School by a very good OLD teacher. I heard a couple SOLID statements I had to record and hold for later.  The worship service was also a blessing. Due to my hearing, I normally do not care for singing, but their pastor is a great singer and minister. Before service the pastor took time to greet and speck to us.

I have talked about Dallas. Picture is from a few years ago on a visit he was raising turkeys for a living but playing with Blood Hounds as a hobby. the Black is him about now, the dude did get old. I look the same. LOL

 It was all good. We had lunch together and parted after a super time of fellowship.  We may never see them again, but they definitely are in our hearts, wrapped in love.

This trip also put a scar on my heart.  Seeing a man who was once my boss, a solid steady leader. He was the kind of leader his troops appreciated and respected. He was a solid family man also. We were friends with his family in Key West. Dan accepted a commission and was an officer in the USN, but in the end reverted back to his rank as master chief and retired. We saw him and his lovely wife a few years ago. She had dementia and was growing worse.

I did not know but Dan took a bad fall and almost died. He was a shell of the man he once was, but was determined to recover. He still walks with a walker and visits his sweet wife every day even though she does not know him.  He is that kind of husband that would do that. Our prayers for my friend is that he will recover his strength, his family stands solid behind him, we are proud of that.

Nite Shipslog

PS 

Thanks for all the comments and visits here. It gives a boost to my life, I appreciate that.

 

Frugal & Devastation

 A picture from the Past.

 

Lake Lure NC. Peaceful small resort community, we spent our one night honeymoon here. Dirty Dancing was also filmed here. Check the pictures at the end of this post.

For Today:

An article on the net caught my eye, 15 wealthy people who are frugal. Some went to school hungry; some ate every Thanksgiving of their youth at the Salvation Army. One lady said she looked at her bank account every day and kept an eye on the balance. They remember!

I just looked over at my Sherry and said, “I married the right lady (she is our manager).  When I was in business I had an accountant, but I balanced my check book. If I was within a $1 I didn’t worry about it. My girl will look for hours for a nickel difference, the account must balance.

We are not RICH, but we have all we need, and most of what we want.  WE laughed together remembering our first year together. We had a budget. The USMC paid in cash in those years and we kept our money in an old cigar box with little separations for each expense. At the end of the month on my $78.00 a month salary we were able to play a round of miniature golf and share a banana split. We were happy as we could be.

One month we didn’t have quiet enough so I dug out a silver dollar dad had given me to hold so we would never be broke. I used it at the Miniature Golf Course.  The next month the owner asked, “Son would you like that silver dollar back?”

“Yes, Sir!” I said quickly. I traded an extra dollar we had that month to have that silver dollar. I may still have it. I have a collection of about 5 or six silver dollars. The owner said he could tell I hated to part with that one.

But we are penny pinchers, translate that, cheap skates. WE worked and saved to be debt free and have enjoyed that for over 50 years now.

When we bought our first big coach, 38 ft Overland,  we paid for it.  The salesman said, “You guys are in the top 3% of RV owners, most do not own their RV.” That surprised me.  We would not have been comfortable making payments and paying to park too.

Here in a Pennsylvania campground, we just received a call from our NC neighbor. They had a lot of rain and lost one tree that was leaning over the road and powerlines. We had not lost power, and the power company is taking care of the tree. Western NC was hit hard.  We spent our one-night honeymoon beside Lake Lure 68 yrs ago. Both communities are now devastated and mostly destroyed.

The entire Lake is like the above, Thank the Lord the dam held.

The Main St of Chimney Rock is not in Lake Lure.
We once lived 10 miles down river from Lake Lure and Chimney Rock.

Pray for all the communities hit by Helene. At present at least 35 deaths in NC alone.

NiteShipslog

PS: 

Once again ‘Thanks’ AGAIN to y’all for stopping by the Shipslog. WE are two thankful and blessed people. You add to our lives. 

Some of our Gypsy life

 Pic of the day;

 

 For today:

For many years we would drive 300-400 miles. Sherry would look in our travel books for an RV park. WE haven’t always had cell phones as you know. We would follow directions and fine the park. Most parks have weekly rates much cheaper that daily rates.  WE liked to take a week to travel the area to see the sites available. We also looked for that ‘local eating place’ with good prices and good local food.  We enjoyed it and met some wonderful folk.  Since we are church goers, it was so good to visit many different denominations and styles of worshsip.

Once in Gila Bend, AZ the pastor spent his morning sermon time chewing out his two boys and telling the congregation how mean they were. I do not remember him using a scripture. :-O

Most services and music was very good. BUT another unique thing was at a small church in the J-ville Florida, I think. The elderly pastor was preaching, and I noticed he nodded his head to a lady (his wife I learned). She stood went to the pulpit and continued the sermon and he walked out.  He returned later and took over to finish. I found out from one of the men attending the pastor had to go the bathroom.

I was amused as we crossed the country once during the rise of ‘Praise Teams’.  During that organizing time congregants did not know when to stand or sit.  I once heard a leader say, “Can’t you stand 30 minutes for our Lord?”  I thought, “YES If I felt that is what HE wanted!” otherwise I thought it was like the Pharisee's in scripture who said if God said you can walk a mile on the sabbath, let's go one better and limit ourselves to ½ mile.

Away from the churches, most of which we attended were a blessing and we were treated great.

Chatty asked, as we have been asked many times, how we get our mail on the road?  There are many mail services, ours is in Florida. WE have that listed as our mailing address. They hold our mail until we come and get it if we are in the area, or we call for it. It is a normal practice to have it sent ‘General Delivery’ to a small town near where we plan to be in 3 days.

I somehow picked too many pictures. I only wanted the above. But I cannot delete these or they will be deleted thruout my files. OUCH

These buildings are in Dawson City where they were on frozen land. Thaw messed things  up.

This is the sign forest in Watson Lake, Yukon, Canada, travelers leave their names etc.

Entering the /Top of the World Highway...

The only time our RV has ever been on a Ferry was crossing the Yukon River

Dick and I fishing on the Kenai, in Alaska

Salmon Fishers in Valdez methinks.

Our traveling partners, my sister Kat and Dick her hubby. boon docking (NO hook ups, just wild country)

Having it sent to a small town makes it easy to find and has given us so many wonderful experiences talking to the Mail Personnel.  One Mail Room was in a living room in Alaska. At the time we went they were closed while the family enjoyed their Lunch, then we picked up our mail. Most of our regular bills are drafted, some I pay online.

Nite Shipslog

PS 

LOL  Thanks for all the comments, you guys enhance our lives. I do appreciate the FRIENDS I have here on-line. If you have any questions about this life, I will be glad to try and answer.

Incidental to RV life

 Pic of the day;

 

Our present coach is 36 ft. with three slide outs.  This is a Gasoline Winnebago.

 For today:

Many years ago when close to retirement we met out first ‘Full-time’ RV’ers.  Someone who sold their home, bought an RV and set out to see the USA.  That planted a seed.  We have always enjoyed camping and travel. I was in the building business and Sherry was working for the US Army as a civilian in the Recruit processing area.  When she reached enough time to retire I had bought a large track of land and was planning a sub division, to get into the big time (for me) construction. I was finding out it was hard to deal with the city without an attorney and was getting a little disgusted.

My girl came up with a great idea, why don’t you quit when I retire and let’s hit the road. We bought a giant 45' storage trailer. and stored our tools and stuff that we couldn’t sale or give away. We hired a guy to move the big trailer to the woods on the property where I had planned the subdivision. When our house did not sale fast, we turned it over to a property manager to rent out, and we hit the road.

We lived in three big motor homes over 20 years seeing this country, never selling our house.

All that was said to explain that to live comfortably in an RV you need to pick your sites.  You need electric, water and sewer for comfort. At times that is not available. The RV is self-contained, and we can go at the longest 2 weeks without hookups. But ideally, we like to have all the amenities, called 'full hookups.'

This site in Lancaster does not have sewer, so we have a Blue-barrel. I empty the internal tanks every few days and go to the ‘Dump-station’.  

 Picture shows our blue barrel container beside the coach. I hook our storage tanks to the barrel by a 3" hose and fill it with our waste. We have a Grey tank and Black tank. the Grey tank is sink and bath water. Black is the sewer. Tanks are separate; about 50 gallons each.

This picture shows the barrel hooked to my trailer hitch. I tow it very slowly to a dump station. The facility has a hose to clean the tank before heading back for another load.  Usually run two trips each time since I am not busy with anything else.

Many RV'ers have never did this. But we have 'dry camped' with no connections for a couple weeks. In the desert and in Alaska. A challenge we do not mind.

Nite Shipslog

PS 

LOL  Thanks for all the comments, They are always a pleasure,  We certainly appreciate our on line FRIENDS! 

 

OLD friends

Pic of the day;

Here we are young and OLD

Jack/Sherry & Marian/Dallas

The Three Trouble makers, Buddy, Vondale and Jack 

For today:

I have been around a long time but my life from childhood has never allowed roots. From my younger years, below 16, I have friends in several towns I still think of them. I keep in touch (long distance) with Jim Page, from Valdese, NC.

I have two long time friends (Vondale Tucker and Buddy Sansbury) I seldom see, but if I needed them or they needed me, we are a phone call away. Unlike my sweetheart I do not have friends from my childhood thru school.

We have some solid friends from the military. I mentioned Dallas & Marian Fletcher.  We met in 1956 and have kept in contact ever since. They were the first Military Friends. There was Steve Schmidt, Wayne Hodge, Jim & Jean Proffet, Les & Gail Maifield from Gitmo. Great short-term friends.

At Naval Station Key West, we met Dan & Joan Doughton. They became long term friends. Dan was my Leading Chief when I taught in NIPS (Naval Intelligence Processing Systems) Our families became close. Funny that, our first and last long term friends in the military are from this area of Pennsylvania.

Friends can give you joy just to see them; they can also break your heart at the sadness in their lives.

Dallas & Marian are still so upbeat and full of joy.  They have a large family and like all families have had setbacks. We went out to dinner, and they bought our meal, saying it was for our 68^th anniversary. Hey.... Their 68^th anniversary is just around the corner.

Dan & Joan? A completely different story. Joan has full blown Alzheimer's. Dan now uses a walker to see her daily. He just spent 4 weeks in the hospital from a fall. He barely has strength to speak.  The last time we saw Joan her health was good, but she did not know us. She is in a facility now and we did not get to see her.

Sherry saw a note on FB: Miesse Chocolate Co. Was moving to a new facility. Tracy, Dan’s daughter had owned that company, so we went to the event hoping to see one of the Doughton's. We did see Tracy!! She told us where she would meet us to go see Dan. WE did that; she is a sweetheart herself and has a great family.

Dan and Tracy, amazing how much she looks like her mama!

So we got to see Dan. It was great to see him, but heartbreaking to see a REAL leader & friend from my past, that feeble; he says he is going to get back to where he was….. You go Dan!!

Nite Shipslog

PS 

LOL  Thanks for all the comments, They are always a pleasure, you guys enhance our lives. I do appreciate the FRIENDS I have here on-line.

The Play....then beauty and finally delicious!

 Pic of the day;

 

 For today:

I am not a fan of musicals, I did not know that 'Daniel' was a musical! By the time I made our reservations we were in the nosebleed section but were pleasantly surprised to learn we could see and hear VERY WELL; even 5 rows from the last seats.  It was impressive, but my hearing made it impossible to follow.  If I was not familiar with the book of Daniel from Scripture, I would not have come close to following it.

BUT the beauty and uniqueness of this area overrides any disappointment. Hey with towns named: Bird in Hand, Paradise, Intercourse, Lititz, Hershey, Blue Ball, etc, you gotta love it.

We were happy to see some Corn still growing this time of the year.  Most of it now is ready for cattle/horse food.

The country side is the best:

 

After the play, we were discussing a place to eat. I considered suggesting Lampeter Café …… AND THEN we remembered the Amish stand right on our way, for corn and tomatoes. This is probably the best corn in the world. So solid and SWEET. We learned last time here: leave the husk on, cut the big end off at its fattest point; 8 minutes in the microwave the corn sorta slides out along with 98% of the silks (very HOT of course). Cover that in butter with a little salt,,mmmmmm delicious. So we had supper, corn on the cob and tomato sandwiches for $5.25 and enough left for 3 more meals… What a deal.

 

An added attraction is the horse and buggies; then I smile at the horse-apples on the road. That was common in rural NC when I was a kid… Many Amish use diapers and save the apples as fertilizer, I am sure.

We are hoping the day this is posted to be visiting with our dear friends the Fletchers.....

 Your stopping by to visit is appreciated.  Comments are too. I am always surprised when I learn of family and friends who read and never comment. I just want you all to know this old man is happy to know that. I smiled when Jesse Barker, a great nephew, told me he followed the Shipslog. Thanks Jesse.

Nite Shipslog

PS 

LOL  Thanks for all the comments, They are always a pleasure, you guys enhance our lives.

Taking things for granted,

Picture from the past:

This is our youngest Grandson, Luke Vegas. He saved about every thing he earned. He became a homeowner, (house paid for,)  at about 23, He bought an old run-down house that was the home of the Hell's Angels, and with help from his dad and family, restored it.  He is now 29 and just told us a couple weeks ago he is gonna be a daddy!  The young man has a great work ethic of course. (today is his birthday!)

 For Today:

We, citizens of the USA, must be careful or we start taking things for granted. We are parked just a few feet from the Conestoga River here in Lancaster, PA. Great site, BUT BASICALLY NO cell signal.  WHAT? Yes, we take for granted that we can pick up the cell phone and call anywhere in the world.  Normally we can turn on the computer and get the latest news and weather. All of a sudden you feel isolated with no ‘phone’.  Now I have this on sporadically. LOL

We lived for many years with only Bell Telephone land lines. There were pay phones, and for a dime you could pick up the receiver and hear a sweet voice ask, ‘Number Please?’

I am so proud for the great technology of today where a person separated by thousands of miles can pick up their cell phones and using some app, can talk to and see their family.  I think how wonderful for military personnel on deployment. My nephew Rick can talk to and see his 2 yr old daughter in Kenya!

Gas prices? We paid around $3 a gallon on this trip, and I fuss. BUT I know in Europe it is around $6. Why can’t I smile and think how well off we are.

Oh yes, and we gripe about the price of groceries here, but here in the USA we spend an average of 4.5% of our income for groceries and in the UK it is 9.4%, Germany about 12% and in Italy a whopping 16.5%.  OUCH, yet I gripe!

We ate at Red Lobster for our Anniversary dinner. The price was around $34 before the tip. Average for 2 people in NYC is $100. Switzerland it is $105 average for two meals.

Anyway, Sherry and I are blessed (I know, I still gripe). In our 80 plus years of life I have never spent the night in a hospital and Sherry has spent one night. Nothing life threatening.

She takes a blood pressure pill, and I take Vitamin C, iron pill and daily vitamin.

And to end this diatribe, If I were typing this 65 years ago I would have already had to use correction tape over a hundred times. But then I also would have to make copies and pay for stamps to mail it to you; also to get the statistics I used would have been impossible without hours of research at a library.

And I take much of it for granted.

 Nite Shipslog

PS 

 WE enjoyed Coconut Shrimp at the Red Lobster!

 Thanks for all the comments, They are always good to read, you guys do enhance our lives, and we do not take that for granted!

Con Artists

  A picture from the Past.

 

I would never fall for 'Buying the Brooklyn Bridge', but someone could probably sell me this tree!   LOL

For Today:

One of the headlines today: Family of 8 being taken for hundreds of dollars in a Rental Scam.  Our Sweet Niece Starla WAS taken by a Rental Scam in Gastonia, NC and lost hundreds of $.

Some folks have no conscience; life is a game to see who they can beat.  In cases like that it is a wonder there isn’t physical damage done to the perpetrators.

In one of our moves, when our house sold too soon, we had to store our furniture until I finished the new house. From the Yellow Pages (remember them?) I picked a company with a full-page ad, 3 phone numbers. The guy said the only time they had available was Sunday and I would have to pay for the move and storage in advance. I agreed.

While they were packing the moving truck BIL Elmer came over. The truck had a Louisiana tag on it, not unusual for moving companies. Elmer said loudly, “Hey Jack, are they stealing your furniture?”

A man carrying something out at the time said, “Yes, that is what we are doing, ”

THEY WERE!  BuT I did not find out until 2 or three months later.  I finished our new home and  tried to call for our furniture. ALL the phones were disconnected. No office at the address. OUCH

We did locate a residue of our stuff in a warehouse 50 miles away weeks later.

We had a sweet lady neighbor once. She contracted for a room addition. She asked if she would have to pay in advance. “OH no! I never collect anything until I have men or material on the job. The next day they dropped off about $100 in materials and he collected $2600. She never saw him again.

We were conned once by a 'nice man' who claimed he was an Airline Pilot on his way to a new job in Florida, all his money, phone and clothes had been stolen. He would send us the money we GAVE HIM just as soon as he got to Florida and his new job.  Yep we never saw the money.

Snake oil salesman!

Have you ever been victim to a Confidence Artist?

 

NiteShipslog

PS: 

 ‘Thanks’ AGAIN to y’all for stopping by the Shipslog. I would rather be in this RV, than be in the BEST Hospital in the world.

PS2: Sheila mentioned her mom and Dad just missed their 68^th anniversary by 2 weeks.  We only met them once but you could tell she was proud of her OLD Soldier!  I will tell you this, Jean of OP, Alabama (Sheila’s mama) was one special lady, as REAL as they come!!!! And TOUGH!