Go With The Flo(w)

Another month has flown by, and now we are on our final countdown before we pull up stakes, hitch up the Beast to Mongo, and venture forth.  We leave on October 1^st, and when I say that these 4+ months have gone by in a blink of an eye, that’s a fact!  We’ll be travelling for 4 weeks, tentatively arriving in Davenport, FL on October 27^th (barring any diversions due to weather).

Oh, the weather diversions……..let’s just say that our original itinerary took quite a hit once Florence blew into North Carolina.  We had intended to spend some time hugging the coast, visiting the Cape Hatteras to Myrtle Beach areas, but reservations had to be cancelled and booked elsewhere in order to avoid what was the worst of the water/storm damage.  We’ll stay farther inland, and then shoot over to the coast to Charleston, SC – and a bit of genealogy snooping by visiting the cemetery where the McGareys are buried, as well as paying a visit to The Citadel for a visitors’ tour.  Tim’s grandfather and Uncle Tom both graduated from The Citadel, so he grew up hearing stories about it.  Last year, I was contacted by someone who was working with their archives, and he was kind enough to send me pictures of Grandfather Tom from the yearbooks.  It was nice to see that and plug it into the files!

Our last few weeks here have been mostly about getting as much time in with the kids/grandkids as possible.  We had a brief visit back in Nashua when Cathi was in town to attend a friend’s wedding – we took a night away from our little home on wheels and spent the night in a hotel so we’d have a little extra time with her.  Lauren, Josh, and Penny also met us for lunch, and then later for dinner with just Tim and me.  We spent this past Saturday with L, J, and P so the parents could have one more date night before we leave – but mostly so that we could have that extra time with Penny!  We’ve had lots of time with Tim Jr., Katy, Lucy, and Abe as well, and have been enjoying those precious moments bonding.  We’ll babysit L & A on Friday so the parents can have a date night to celebrate their 5^th (!) anniversary.  Good for them, good for us!  All in all, we've done a lot of memory making this summer.

3 generations of dumb man noises

I’ve also been getting in some more sewing.  A nightgown for Lucy (per her request to have a nightgown like her Grandma Stevens has), adorned with fish!  (Seriously, this little girl is a hoot!  She knows exactly what she wants, and lets you know it too!)  She didn’t know that Gigi could sew her one though, so I surprised her with a nightgown that had Pirate Fish (and sharks, and octopi, and crabs, and pirate ships!), just in time for Talk Like A Pirate Day on September 19^th!  I’ve also been working on Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls for them for Christmas presents (Penny has her mama’s dolls already).  Once we get to Florida, I start working on a nightgown for Penny, a little something for Abe – TBD! – and Penny’s Cinderella dress for when they visit us in January.  Plus, I have a few other projects I’m chomping at the bit to get started on.  Have I mentioned how happy I am to be sewing again?  I really missed creating things.  I’ve had to pack everything up for travelling, but I will be working on my list for when we settle into our campground once we arrive in Davenport.

And, once we do land in Davenport, getting back to Disney is high on the priority list as well!  We really have missed our visits there, walking around, enjoying the sights, and just taking a leisurely few hours here and there.  Tim is also going to go back to working at Universal – they want him to come back – so he’ll have something to occupy his time, give us a little financial cushion, and give me some alone time to……..SEW!!!

The updated itinerary now is:  Cooperstown, NY (Baseball HoF!), somewhere around Harrisburg, PA (the town escapes me at the moment), western MD with the intention of visiting Antietam, Charlottesville, VA (Skyline Drive, Monticello), Winston-Salem, NC area (re-routed stop) which will let us visit briefly with some old family friends, Charleston (and the aforementioned genealogy hunt), Savannah, GA (not sure what all we’ll do there, but a visit to The Lady and Sons as well as Juliette Gordon Low’s house will be on the list), back to Saint Augustine for a little beach time, and then Davenport.

We definitely have an abbreviated travel schedule this year.  We stayed in Vermont much later this year than last, and we have mixed feelings about that.  It was wonderful having more time with the kids/grands, but weather-wise, the chillier days and cool evenings are not enjoyable.  I am so ready for Florida’s warmth again!  Next year, aside from the fact that we’ll be more mobile during our summer months in that we will be spending a week or two at a campground and then moving elsewhere in order to switch up our time to be nearer to all the kids or to do a little sight-seeing elsewhere in New England, our plan is to start our fall travel season  around the mid to end of August, heading west in order to visit the places that were scratched from this past spring’s exploded itinerary.  We’ll plan on arriving back in Florida in November again, and going forward that will be our goal.

Florida for the winter……………..who would ever have believed that I was going to be a Snowbird?  

Go With The Flow