With end of summer fast approaching,
and Jace's summer vacation coming to a close, it's time for a not so
brief update on our travel-less summer of 2024.
New grandson William continues to grow
into toddler size, well before he's supposed to. If he keeps growing
as fast as he has, he'll be a linebacker in about, oh – 3 years or
so. Alicia is still recovering from the C-section, but improving
steadily.
While Jace didn't spend the full
8-weeks of his summer break with us as he usually does on one of our
extended trips, he has spent a great deal of time with us at Bolding
Mill COE campground while we've been camp hosting. He got to ride in
the Kubota a few times and helped a little bit (a very little bit) in
keeping the campground bathrooms clean, but most of the time here he
spent on his new scooter or at the lake beach.
He spent a LOT of time at the lake
beach.
He met a few kids visiting for the day
and got to play with them in the water, got to release a catfish a
guy caught near the shoreline, and generally improved on his swimming
and floating.
One night we took Jace and Grover out
to the local Bruster's for some ice cream. While Jace loved his cone,
Grover REALLY appreciated his pup cup, which Barbara complained had
the same amount of ice cream her adult cup had – and Grover got the
added biscuit!
Jace's summer vacation also included a
visit to Great Wolf Lodge with his Auntie KK and her friend Shane.
Huge indoor water park and a Magi Quest adventure to keep everybody
entertained.
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Great set of bunk beds in the spare bedroom of the suite Kristen and Shane booked. Of course Jace took the top bunk!
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Jace, Auntie KK (Kristen) and her friend Shane.
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At Magi Quest, you're issued a magic wand to use to help you find things. But of course, it's also just a stick . . .
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When at Great Wolf Lodge, one must wear the obligatory wolf ears!
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One day near the end of his vacation,
he was able to see his good friend Amie, who we met a couple of years
ago while staying in another campground. These two are really good
friends and enjoy each other's company so very much. Their faces
light up when they see each other. Anyway, we have lived in North
Georgia for more than 30 years, and in all that time we never took a
tube ride down the Chattahoochee River in the Helen, GA area. It's
kinda the thing to do here.
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These two always have huge smiles on their faces when they get together. Such great friends.
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You basically get yourself a very
comfortable tube with a head rest if you're an adult, or a smaller
tube sans headrest if you're 12 years old or younger. If you're
smart, you bring a stout 5-foot stick with you or you purchase one
for $5 bucks at the tubing location to help you push off rocks or the
shoreline as you travel downriver. It can take a LOT of work on very
slippery rocks to extricate yourself from danger if you forego the
stick. The $5 investment is well worth it!
If the water is running fairly well (as
it was that day), you can take a 2-hour trip down the river, or if
there has been little or no rain, you're bussed to a departure spot a
little closer to the end of the adventure. Fortunately for us, we had
had some recent rains (after a VERY dry summer), so the 2-hour ride
was available.
Now, because Jace is 8 years-old and
Amie is about a year and a half older (so both are under 12), they
had to have their tubes strapped to an adult tube for obvious safety
reasons. This does a couple of things: First off, the tubes move much
slower together than a single tube does, and the tubes spin in an
axis at random intervals, keeping the driver (me) from facing forward
to control the course. Having 8 or 10-year-olds acting as lookouts or
navigators isn't what anyone would call optimum. Thus, Jace and I and
Amie and her mom Elizabeth ended up getting stuck in some precarious
places. I ended up getting out of the tube 4 times, slipping
underwater 3 times just to get us free from rocks. Jace had to pull
us out from a tree which blocked our path.
Barbara had her own difficulties
traveling by herself, getting caught in a water chute between rocks
and going underwater for too long a time for comfort.
Meanwhile, Amie and Jace were
desperately trying to hook up our tubes into a foursome by holding
onto each other's tubes, making navigating even more challenging.
Still in all, it was a nice morning
adventure that I know both kids would love to repeat again real soon.
For my money, I hope they can both wait until they turn 12 so they
can travel alone!
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Jace having a ball on the Chattahoochee. That's Amie and her mom in the background. As you can see, Amie is desperately trying to get back to Jace while he mugs for the camera.
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As for us, Barbara continues to work
2-3 days a week at the local West Elm store. It keeps her busy and
relatively sane, and brings in a few extra dollars each month. She's
earned more than enough thus far to allow us to pay cash for the six
new motorhome tires we're going to have to buy this winter while in
Florida, and we still have 5 months to go on this camp hosting gig.
The camp hosting isn't strenuous, but
it can be frustrating. The biggest thing is the cavalier way
all-too-many campers treat their campsite. I mean, let's face it;
it's the outdoor version of your living room at home, right? So why
would you just discard things on the ground that you wouldn't do at
home?
The most annoying things thrown on the
ground and never picked up?
Twist ties from bread or roll packages.
Zip ties just cut off from products and
left on the ground.
Bottle caps, especially beer bottles.
Cellophane straw wrappers from juice
boxes or bags.
And the worse violators?
Cigarette butts. The worst part is when
campers use their fire pit as an ashtray for their 2-week stay. Even
many smokers don't like to get to a campsite and find their fire pit
full of someone else's discarded butts! Non-smokers absolutely hate
them! We cleaned up one camp site only occupied for a week, and we
policed more than 5 dozen cigarette butts in and around the campsite!
Well, we do get a free campsite with
sewer in a Corps of Engineers park for our troubles, but Barbara and
I have figured out that this is not an experience we want to repeat
anytime soon. After January 8th, it's back on the road for us, and
somebody else can clean up other people's messes.
Travel-wise, the RV is staying put
until January, but we have a short one week trip in August to South
Dakota in our Jeep Cherokee to renew our residency, pay our annual
vehicle registrations in person, and renew our driver's licenses
after 5 years of being residents of that great state. Full-time
RV-ers have to provide proof we stayed at least one night in a hotel
or campground once every five years to maintain residency, and we
have to renew our driver's licenses in person as opposed to actual
residents who can renew by mail. It's no big deal, as we enjoy the
state immensely, even if it's just for a short visit. And the
paperwork takes us less than a half a day to get everything done.
Doesn't seem that long ago we were
driving up there in our old Mini Cooper convertible to get ready for full-time RV living by establishing
ourselves as residents there. We've probably driven more than 100,000
miles in the motorhome and both tow vehicles since then. Gas was much
cheaper for the most part, much more expensive (post-COVID) for a
while, and the Jeep is less fuel-efficient and less fun to drive than
the Mini ever was, but it's certainly more comfortable and quieter
than the Mini. With new tires all around on the Jeep, the trip should
be much easier on our ears and rears than it was 5 years ago.