Enjoying Thanksgiving Weekend

We enjoyed listening to Bill playing his dulcimer

Bill and Helen at their home on Thanksgiving Day

Ken and Sandy, friends of Bill and Helen. We enjoyed meeting them and having Thanksgiving together! Bonus....They are both originally from upstate NY!!!

The end of a perfect holiday. Beautiful sunset! Picture taken from Bill and Helen's Patio

Another picture of the Thanksgiving eve sunset.

This is the old sugar mill at De Leon Springs State Park. Now called "The Old Spanish Sugar Mill Restaurant.

Natural Springs swimming pool at De Leon Springs State Park

This is the a different view of the Sugar house overlooking a natural springs lake. Notice the beautiful water falls.

Something different is always fun. There were 2 griddles on the table for the 6 of us to use. They bring out pancake batter in pitchers and you make your own pancakes right at the table. Also, if you order eggs you fix them yourself also. We had a great time!

Sorry folks, someone had to take the picture. Here is Judy, Dennis, Al, Helen, and Bill



We've been having a great time here in Silver Springs visiting with Bill and Helen as well as Ken and Sandy. Thanksgiving was a wonderful time! Helen cooked a beautiful turkey as well as many of the fixings. Sandy's sweet potato casserole was beyond belief. I had to get that recipe! We all contributed to the dinner and I must say it was all good. But the best part was the fun we had with the people we were with. If you can't be with your family, the next best thing is to share the holiday with friends. We are so thankful that we have some great friends like Bill and Helen, and it seems like we are always making new ones while on the road.

Today, we went to De Leon Springs State Park. Helen had told us about this place and she thought we would enjoy the experience. It was about an hour's drive from here. Dennis and Judy, another couple we had met through the Montana Owners Club, met us there. Another great time with really nice people.

Wilderness RV Park Estates, Silver Springs, FL

Our Campsite here. We are just a short distance from Bill and Helen's place

This is their clubhouse. We are located right next door.

The heated pool in back of clubhouse

Al and I would like to wish you all a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

We arrived here on Monday and we have been really enjoying ourselves with Helen and Bill. They introduced us to Ken and Sandy, a very nice couple who are staying just across from them. They are also here visiting Bill and Helen. It seems Bill and Helen have a lot of friends from all over the country, that they have met over the years. They have had many visitors at their winter home here in Silver Springs. Once you meet them, you can understand why! The weather here right now is 86. A tad warmer than we like, but it only seems to stay hot for a few hours in the afternoon, and then around 5 it starts cooling off.

We are having Thanksgiving dinner with Helen and Bill at their place and Ken and Sandy will also be there. We will be cooking up a storm and it promises to be really good. Good food, good company...........a lot to be thankful for.

I have been lazy with the picture taking, so I will try to post more on here. This is a beautiful place. Helen took me around it in her golf cart, but wouldn't you know, I forgot to bring the camera!

Stayed tuned and again.......Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

Tour of The Citadel with Rob

On Thursday Al and I took a ride over to the Citadel where both Rob and Vickie work. Vickie works in the Administration Building and is in charge of Payroll. Rob is the Director of Risk Management and Safety. Rob was our Tour guide and he did a fantastic job showing us around the place in a golf cart.


The Citadel is a State of South Carolina Military College. It is run as a military college and the students are taught leadership and character training and live in a military setting. All students dress in military uniforms and must live on campus. About one third of the students who graduate from the Citadel go into the military after graduations. All branches of the military are represented here.



This is the Administration building where Vickie works

This is a tank from a previous war. There are many artifacts from various wars on the campus

These are new students and are called "Knobs". They have the strictest of rules to go by. For the first 6 months they attend the school, they have to walk in single file everywhere they go. They must remain silent when going to and from their classes and they pretty much only go to classes. They don't get to socialize and even when they are in the mess hall, they can only talk when they are asked a question. Notice the hat they are wearing. It is plain and there are no stripes on them. This is how you can tell they are knobs. I felt so bad for them, but it's all a part of their training and everyone has to be a knob before he becomes a cadet.

The beautiful newly renovated library. The inside was really beautiful, I didn't feel I should take pictures while all the students were in there studying.

This is the chapel. I took pictures of the inside, but they came out too dark. It was a really beautiful place and was much larger than I imagined from the outside.

This is the entrance to one of the barracks. Notice the security. There are several of these buildings forming a large square with a courtyard in the middle.

This is Mark Clark Hall. This houses many different things, such as a barbershop, gift shop, game room, post office, billiard room, large auditorium, a reception room. There is also a Catholic chapel on the second floor and guest quarters on the third floor for distinguished guests who visit the Citadel.

Just had to take a picture of Uncle Al with his nephew, Rob. (two handsome guys)

Rob also took us a little behind the scenes. This houses different garages for various maintenance projects.

Rob was responsible for having all these defibrillators installed all over the campus. One of his many jobs is to make sure everything is up to code and to implement as many safety measures as he feels is necessary throughout the campus.

Rob, our fantastic tour guide in his office. Thanks Rob for a great time! We really enjoyed ourselves.

The Market and More of Charleston

Just some of the many items sold in the Market here.

Even Shoes!

These are grass baskets made here! They are very expensive because of the amount of labor involved in making them. This craft comes from Africa and I was told that is the only other place they are made.

Several different buildings hold many different vendors

This huge cruise ship is docked in Charleston harbor.

We had to try the She crab soup, which is very popular here in Charleston.

Al got a kick out of this, a place for him to rest while I shopped!



We are still enjoying ourselves here in Charleston. Yesterday we toured The Citadel. Rob and Vickie both work there, and Rob gave us a fantastic tour of the place. That will be my next blog post. Tonight we are going over to their house for a "Southern dinner" as Vickie tells us (It's a surprise). We will get to see the whole family including their grandchildren.......Can't wait!

Beautiful Homes of Charleston, SC

Al and I went on a horse and buggy ride. Our horse, named John took us on a great tour of the city. Below you will see many of the beautiful homes that we passed by. I wish we could have taken more pictures, but it was difficult from the carraige.

I loved the pillars on this one.

How do you like the huge 2 story rounded porch. Many of these homes have 8,000 to 9,000 sq. feet .

Notice the steps on either side of the porch

Another beautiful home

I think the porch is bigger than the house on this one!

As in any city, the houses are close together!


We arrived in Charleston on Sunday, and had a nice visit with Al's nephew Rob and his wife Vickie at there home in Goose Creek. We plan to get together a few more times while we are here and also get together with the rest of their family one night this week. It is always a good time whenever we get together with them, and unfortunately, it's not often enough.

We had a beautiful day yesterday, so we headed to downtown Charleston. We have been there a couple of other times, but always enjoy going back. It seems like there is never enough time to see it all in one day. We especially enjoyed the carriage ride through the city and the beautiful homes we saw. I will post more pictures on the marketplace and other places around here on my next post.

Simply a Beach!

One of the entrances to the beach here at Ocean Lakes

My new camera lets me take panoramic photos

Just for fun, I erased all the people on this one!

Headed for Charleston today!

Still in Myrtle Beach

Here is where we had lunch in Calabash, NC. Capt. Nance's Calabash Seafood Restaurant

How do you like this bicycle built for four!

Another cute little house at Ocean Lakes. Notice the one next to it is huge. That is how it is here. All different styles and sizes all mixed together.

More residents of Ocean Lakes!

We are still hanging out here in Myrtle Beach. The weather has been beautiful these last few days, in the 70's and sunny. The beach is so nice this time of year. I will try to get some pics up but haven't taken any of the beach yet.

While our friends, Frank and Sandy were here, we wanted to take them to a town 30 miles away and just over the border, Calibash, NC, Seafood Capital of the world (or so it claims to be). It is the home of the Calibash style of seafood which is very popular here in Myrtle Beach. It is a neat experience, because it is such a tiny town with seafood, after seafood restaurant all next to each other. There are nine or ten in all and so it's hard to decide which one to go to. Unfortunately, it was raining hard that day, so I wasn't able to take many pictures and the ones I did take didn't come out well. We had a very nice lunch and more importantly a very nice visit with our friends. We were sorry to see them go, and felt bad that the weather hadn't been better while they were here.

We went to the Tanger Outlet stores today and walked around. I'm convinced that outlets do not offer prices for less. The Liz Clairborne store was going out of business here, so I went in there as everything was 60 to 80 % off. I still couldn't afford the prices for many of the things on sale there. I didn't even feel that the quality justified the price.

Sunday we head to Charleston. Al's nephew Rob and wife Vickie as well as their kids and grandkids live near there. So we are looking forward to seeing all of them, and taking in the sights of Charleston.

Waccamau Indian Pow Pow

Men dancing a traditional Indian dance

This is the beginning of a parade honoring veterans. Notice the American flag on left and the POW flag on right. In the front and middle, is their own flag (which doesn't look like a traditional flag). It was announced that it was supposed to be higher than the American flag. Well, they were here first!

This cute couple were sitting behind us. They asked where we were from and told us they used to own a Campground in the Adirondacks. She looked so great with all her turquoise, and even her nails were painted turquoise.

Veterans marching in the parade.
Loving the colors here!

Another dancer and another great costume.

This is called the Shawl dance.

I liked this guy's costume. There is a whole group dancing here, but it was easier in most cases to get individual pictures.

More dancers

Even the kids get in on the dancing. Aren't they adorable!

Looks like this guy was representing the Calvary.

This poor little guy was exhausted!

Another lovely lady!

Today was such a beautiful sunny day that we decided it might be fun to go to the Indian Pow Wow taking place in a little town about 3o miles from here. We had heard about it on the local news and since Al has always been interested in American Indian history, and we had never been to one before, we thought it would be a great way to spend an afternoon.

We were not disappointed. It was very entertaining to say the least. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The music, the costumes, and the dancing, were all wonderful. Knowing that a lot of it has been passed down from generation to generation made quite an impression on us. It was nice listening to the stories that were told and watching the Indian children as they participated as well.

At every pow wow, they honor the veterans and invite them to come up and march. They have a song they sing about the different wars, and I couldn't help but notice the children were singing them and knew all the words to the song.

There were many vendors there selling everything from jewelry, to toys, to leather goods. I enjoyed looking at the turquoise jewely. After a few hours, we decided to head back. We had a very enjoyable afternoon and look forward to attending another one sometime in the future. These Pow Wows are held all over the US by various Indian tribes. It was well worth the $3 admission fee.