Dixie

June 26^th 2015

We lost one of our dogs yesterday, Dixie had Renal Failure and her life had deteriorated to the point that putting her down was the most compassionate thing we could do. Millie and I are as devastated by her death as we would be for any other family member. Dixie was a Yorkie/poodle mix of about 12 pounds. She was the sweetest dog you could imagine, all she ever wanted was to be close to us. 

Whatever room in the house you went to, within a minute or two Dixie would quietly tip toe in. She would curl up someplace out of the way but within sight of you. If Millie and I were in separate rooms she would either lay in a position where she could see us both or she would be near Millie. I know that she liked me but Millie was her first love and you can’t take that away.

Dixie loved to go for long walks, she chased squirrels and birds and lizards; she was a hunter. Except for a few occasions we had to keep her on a leach, we were afraid she would get the scent of something and run off after it. In hindsight I’m really glad that we occasionally took a chance and let her run free.

On the beach she discovered minnows swimming at the swash a couple blocks from the house. Every trip after that both dogs would go straight to the swash to go fishing, and Dixie became very good at catching them. 

In the house we loved to watch Dixie hide things, mostly her babies (stuffed toys) but also chew toys or treats. She would carry them around and scratch out a hiding spot under one of her blankets or in her bed, and then she would use her nose to gently cover the object with a fold of material.

  

If Millie and I were sitting together, Dixie loved being snuggled in between the two us.  When we went to bed at night, Dixie was in her little bed next to ours. When we went out Dixie would lay facing the door waiting our return, in the motorhome she would stay on the dash and watch for us to return. When we got in view she would jump up to greet us, her little stubbly tail wagging wildly! Unconditional love, she gave it to us every minute of every day.

Millie and I owe everything we are to Dixie and Maggie. If it wasn’t for them we may never have met. 

We first met while walking on the beach at Myrtle Beach State Park. Back then dogs had to be off the beach by 8am so most folks with dogs were out there about the same time in the early morning. Millie lived across the street from the park and she and Dixie walked the beach each morning beginning from the south end and walking north. I was staying at the park campground on the north end and walked south each morning with Maggie.

That first morning when I saw her in the distance I was immediately intrigued. She had a majestic presence; tall and slender with perfect posture and a walk that had purpose. She also had a well behaved  little dog who trotted along beside her. I remember thinking, who is this stunning creature coming towards me.

 That first day we passed each other our parallel courses about 30 feet apart, we did no more than nod a hello. On subsequent mornings we progressed only to saying hello. It wasn’t until we stopped so our dogs could become acquainted that we introduced ourselves. 

 I recently told Millie it was a good thing the girls brought us together because I am socially awkward and would have been afraid to approach a refined woman who was obviously of southern aristocracy.  She laughs at this and reminds me that her roots were on a share cropper tobacco farm, but admits that the credit goes to the girls and she would never initiate contact with a stranger on the beach.

Our little dogs of course had to greet each other and thus began our adventure.

Dixie was around eight or nine years old and Maggie was about two and a half when Millie and I became a couple. They lived together as sisters for over four years and we know they bonded. They were together 24 hours a day for all that time and they never fought. They would show affection for one another by licking faces or sniffing each other and we truly believe they enjoyed each others presence. This is especially true when we humans went out and left them in the condo or the motorhome.

Both of our little girls have been with us every mile of our many cross country adventures. I built a window level perch next to the driver’s seat in the motorhome for the one of the girls to sit on. Maggie prefers sleeping on a cushion next to Millie or in a bed under the driver’s seat. Dixie was awake for every mile, she loved sitting next to me and watching the world roll by. 

Our next trip in the motorhome will be emotional; I’m dreading the day that we start a road trip without her. It will not only be hard on Millie and me, I know it will bring back memories of Dixie to Maggie as well.

Since Dixie left our condo never to return I can’t help but wonder what Maggie is thinking? Obviously we can’t explain the circumstances to her, but we can tell she knows Dixie is gone. Did she perceive Dixie’s illness and could she somehow know Dixie is not coming back? 

After Dixie was gone a couple days we started to see a change in Maggie. We know she missed Dixie and grieved. She looked for Dixie in the condo and outside as well, always wanting to go to the parking spot the motorhome would be in, if it was here.

Maggie has gotten better recently, as have we, but I also know she’ll never forget her little sister and neither will Millie and I.

Rest in peace little girl, we love you Dixie.

Trip to Delaware

I’ve had the MRI, been to the orthopedic surgeon and have surgery scheduled for the middle of June. He could have done it sooner but I still have reservations at Lumm’s Pond State Park in Delaware, it was to be a stop on the Middle America tour. We decided to take a quick trip north to see my family. I haven’t been up there this year and won’t be driving for a while after the surgery.

We drove our preferred route, highway 17 thru North Carolina and Virginia before switching to route 13, the road that would take us across the Chesapeake Bay and up thru the Delmarva Peninsula. We overnighted at Kiptopeke State Park on the eastern shore of Virginia.

On Sunday morning we traveled the rest of the way to our destination near Newark Delaware. Arriving early in the day we set up camp and then drove to my parent’s house. My son and daughter-in-law had organized and prepared a family dinner there. I got to see my parents, brothers and their families all at once, which was a good thing because we soon would decide to cut the trip short.

Our little dog Dixie has recently been diagnosed with Renal Failure and she has not been doing very well. We took the dogs with us to my parent’s house on Monday and enjoyed another visit with them. That evening Larry, Kristie and Delaney met us at the motorhome for pizza. We were becoming very concerned about Dixie and decided having seen family we wanted to get back to our trusted vet in Myrtle Beach. Once again I missed visiting friends while in Delaware but, sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you planned.

We broke camp and started for home on Tuesday morning, retracing the route we took north. After an overnight stop at Green Acres RV Park near Williamston, North Carolina we ran the rest of the way home in one day.  

 

Trip to Martinsville Virginia

This was to be the beginning of “The Middle of America Tour”, a journey that was going to take around the interior states. We had hoped to zig-zag around and visit several states that we have yet to visit. Unfortunately I injured my shoulder in April and it is not healing on its own. I have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon in June but I know my rotator cuff is torn. Until then we still want to get away from all the motorcycle noise during black bike week so we are keeping the launch of the trip which is a 300 mile run up to Millie’s hometown of Martinsville Virginia.

We stopped for two nights at the Thousand Trails campground on the way to Martinsville; no special reason other than it’s free to me with my membership. 

We camped at Indian Heritage RV Park and had made arrangements for the use of a meeting room for a small family gathering. The room was a garage that had been freshly cleaned and painted; it was perfect for our informal picnic get together. We had our motorhome parked next door to the garage with full hookups, we couldn’t have been happier with the arrangement; the staff at Indian Heritage is to be commended. 

 

Besides the family picnic we had some work to do. Millie’s daughter has had a Honda 50 motorcycle and a 1957 Dodge truck stored at her uncle’s house for about ten years. The truck had been her fathers and she kept it all these years for sentimental reasons but it was time to let it go. I removed a few items like the ram hood ornament which we will take to her and the truck was disposed of.

We brought the Honda back to Myrtle Beach and have it in our storage locker. The plan is that at some point in time it will be rejuvenated and Rae Anne will ride it around Los Alamos. She’s rather busy with two toddlers right now so I don’t know when that will be.

While in the area we spent one afternoon looking for an old family cemetery. We didn’t find it and we later heard that the landowner made everyone remove the graves a long time ago.

We drove straight home from Martinsville, it’s about a five hour trip for us. The bikers had mostly left Myrtle Beach and it was quiet again or I should say as quiet as our city is going to be.

Home

Saturday April 4^th. Driving the jeep we took the Mayport ferry across the St Johns River. Our plan for the day was to explore Amelia Island and Fernandina Beach. In every Southern Living or Coastal Living magazine there are advertisements for Amelia Beach communities filled with modern reproductions of old southern style cottages. These advertisements present Amelia as quant but decidedly upscale and that is kind of what we found. Or I should say what we observed on the other side of all the community gates. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more walled off community. I’d say 80% of the developments are gated and we never did see any cottages, just lots of large homes. 

One place we found interesting was an old African American beach community called American beach. The condition and architecture of the buildings and cottages leads me to believe it had its Hey-Day many years ago, suffered a long decline and may be at the beginning of a resurrection. This is evidenced by some recent new homes and several under construction.

The intriguing thing about American Beach is it is smack dap in the middle of the new Amelia communities. I’ll bet there were some interesting conversations between the developers of the Amelia communities, local government and the preservationists of American Beach.

Traveling north from the upscale Amelia communities you come upon Fernandina Beach. What surprised me most was all the beach houses looked like they were built 30 or 40 years ago. In most of the east coast oceanfront communities I’ve visited all the old cottages have been torn down and replaced with high end real estate. 

At the upper end of Fernandina where the ocean meets the St Mary’s River sits Fort Clinch. It was first fortified in 1736 by the Spanish, but over the years various nations have garrisoned the site. In 1847 construction of the present fort was started by the United States. The confederate Army controlled the fort for a time during the Civil War; it was also manned by the US Army during the Spanish-American War and WW2.  The Civilian Conservation Corp restored the fort during the great depression and it is now part of the Florida State Parks. Fort Clinch park also has a campground that we checked out for future reference and a fishing pier that is over 700 feet long.

Before we left Fernandina we drove to the downtown area and were pleasantly surprised to see the main street running down to the river front has been successfully redeveloped into a vibrant shopping and restaurant tourist district. We decided to try a trendy looking Mexican Restaurant. It was Ok, but reaffirmed my observation that a slightly shabby looking Mexican restaurant usually has better food than one trying to be Avant Garde. 

 

We enjoyed our brief two day visit to the extreme upper right hand corner of Florida and will stop by again someday. Our original plan was to drive about 200 miles to Walterboro South Carolina, spend one night and then run the remaining 170+/- miles to our home in Myrtle Beach. We left the campground at 9:10 am and experienced light traffic on I-95 probably because it was Easter Sunday. Traffic rolled thru Georgia at a steady 70mph and by 12:30 we were at the Walterboro exit. We decided to keep driving and go the distance to Myrtle Beach. We did get off the interstate and took the local roads home, specifically we drove 17Alt to Georgetown and Rt 17 to Myrtle Beach, then Ocean Boulevard to our home on 71^st Ave.

The afternoon drive was at leisurely pace of 45 and 55 miles an hour. It was 4:30 when we got to the south end of Myrtle Beach we decided to cruise up Ocean Boulevard past all the big hotels. This is a beach town and cruising the strip is a part of seaside life you never outgrow. Looking at the parade of people bathed in multicolored lights of the businesses on the oceanfront street is a constantly changing kaleidoscope. The downtown was busy with tourists. the sun was shining, the air was warm and all is right in our world.  

         

Getting closer to the border

An unexpected thing happened while we were staying at Manatee Hammock campground. We like the campground and really like the waterfront park. We spoke with a couple campers who had snowbirded there all winter and decided to check on availability for next year. The office gave us a list of sites available for the month of January 2016 and we walked to all of them. We picked a nice corner site and paid for the month before we left. The picture below is where we will be parked next January.

We still plan on spending time at O-TT and the keys. Thousand trails is a shoe-in as I have a 150 day advance reservation window with my membership but the keys will be a challenge. I’ll start calling the campgrounds next week for availability.

After booking our site for next year we departed Titusville and headed north on US1. Our destination is St Augustine some 100 miles distant. Our plan was to stay at the local Elks Lodge but their 6 RV sites are first come first served and all were occupied when we got there.

I called the closest campground, they had one spot left. I said I’ll be right there I’m right around the corner, just as I got there three RV’s pulled in the entrance ahead of me. I just drove on by and went to the next one. It is about 5 miles down the road and is a bare bones park which is basically parking in a field behind a flea market. It was also full so we drove on to the last campground in the area. They had space for one night which was all we wanted so we took it. 

On Friday morning we departed our overnight stop at Indian Forest Campground and drove west to the town of Green Cove Springs. Millie and I spend about ½ the year on the road and have our mail routed to a mail forwarding service in Green Cove Springs. They hold it until we request a delivery to wherever we happen to be at the time. We were going by on our way north and decided to stop and pick up our mail. In the picture below that is not a path. It is one of the interior roads that you have to navigate with your RV.

Afterwards we continued north to the beltway around Jacksonville and took it to the east and then went on to the ocean where we camped at a city park campground called Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park. The park is heavily vegetated with gnarly old oaks, towering palm trees and thick tropical underbrush. It could have been used in the making of the Jurassic Park movies.

From our campsite the ocean beach is a short walk of about ½ mile. The beach is wide and flat almost like our Myrtle Beach but the water is not as clean. I imagine this is because of Hanna Parks’s proximity to the mouth of the St Johns River. After setting up the motorhome at the campground we went the beach, soaked up the warm sunshine and watched the world go by.

Leaving O-TT

Our stay at Orlando Thousand Trails is winding down, in just a few more days we’ll be on the road again. There was entertainment almost every evening of our remaining time here; on Friday we danced to the music from Pure Country Gold. They are one of the better bands that play here. Saturday was Karaoke with the Weavers, truth is, most the Orlando TT singers are pretty bad, but we enjoyed being with our friends Clay and Rebecca. Sunday was a stage show by Amber Waves, a family band that performs folk and Irish music, they were pretty good. 

Clay had more troubles with his motorhome, which we diagnosed as a non operating power converter. This is the big 12 volt power supply that operates all the direct current appliances when you are plugged into campground power. They ordered the part and it should be here before we leave on Tuesday.

Sunday we drove to Harbor Freight in Clermont where I bought a strap wrench. I needed it to remove the warhead from a rocket I was donating to a museum here in Florida. I wanted to remove the warhead so the curator at the museum could see that it was safe with no explosives or detonators.

The part arrived on Monday for our friend’s motorhome and we promptly installed it. Afterwards the four of us went to Logan’s Steakhouse where Clay and Rebecca treated Millie and me to dinner for the help I gave them. They’re good friends and didn’t need to do that but we graciously accepted their thanks.

The main topic of conversation was next years winter plans, Clay and Rebecca start the winter on the west coast of Florida and then start rotating in and out of Orlando Thousand Trails in February. We try to coordinate our two week stays so we are in the O-TT at the same time.

Millie and I have been thinking of going to southern Arizona and we discussed that at length without coming to any conclusion. We decided to forgo any plans until we found out if we could secure a site in the Keys for at least a month. 

Tuesday we departed O-TT for the last time this winter. We drove east using I-4 to get thru Orlando, exiting on Route 50 and taking that to Titusville on the east coast. We have reservations for two days at Manatee Hammock, a Brevard county campground.  It is located on the Indian River directly across from the Kennedy Space Center. 

On Wednesday April 1 we drove the jeep to Cocoa where we were guests of Tyler and Nancy Furbish for breakfast. Tyler and I have a unique military connection. We both served in Vietnam/Cambodia flying with the 195^th Assault Helicopter Company. We both flew the same mission supporting SOG. (The acronym having a double meaning depending on who the audience was; Studies and Observations Group or Special Operations Group.) The unique part is we didn’t meet until 40 years later at a reunion in Las Vegas. Tyler was with the company when it deployed in RVN in 1966. I flew with the company in 1970 at the end of its time in theater, the 195^th was deactivated a month after I left the country.

I’ve stopped to see Tyler several times at his home in Cocoa and knew he was active in a Veterans Center here. On one of my visits I toured the Vets Center and its museum so when I was looking for a home for the rocket it seemed like the best place for it.

After breakfast I transferred the aerial rocket and an authentic “When I die I’ll go to heaven because I’ve spent my time in hell” jacket to Tyler’s truck. After driving hundreds of miles with the 5 foot long rocket in the motorhome it was a big relief to be rid of it. I kept imagining the bomb squad, swat teams, military investigators, etc if it was ever discovered in the motorhome.

We had planned on touring the Kennedy Space center after meeting with the furbishes and Nancy who works at the center gave us two entry tickets. If you haven’t been to the Space Center anytime lately you should go, it is very impressive. Nancy said we wouldn’t be able to see it all in one day and she was right. We spent all day, only stopping once for dinner and didn’t see all the exhibits. We did concentrate on the ones we knew would be interesting and we weren’t disappointed. You will find all the displays and movies entertaining as well as educational, but the big stuff will really grab you. You can’t appreciate the power it took to send a man to the moon until you stand under one end of a Saturn rocket and lookdown it’s 363 foot length.

You cannot appreciate the accomplishments of a space craft that repeatedly trucked men and materials into space until you’ve gazed upon the scorched rugged exterior of Space Shuttle Atlantis.

Just go, you won’t be disappointed.