Each winter for the past three years we have camphosted at Fort Yargo State Park in Barrow County, Georgia. Ft. Yargo is a beautiful park as you can see from some of our earlier blog pics. Every year a photo contest is held. The winners' photos are published in a calendar which depicts the various moods of the park throughout the year. The proceeds from the sale of calendars goes to the Friends of Fort Yargo for projects such as landscaping.


This year Tom's photo (as seen above) was chosen the 2nd place winner! The scene shows the University of Georgia Rowing Team preparing for an early morning practice session on Lake Marbury. These young people are very brave as the actual temperature was in the 40's and the water temp. even colder.


I'm very proud of Tom. Hope you enjoy the photo.


Nancy

Tom & Nancy & Friends

Tucked away in the hills of Berrien County Mi. is one of the finest restaurants connected to one of the finest winerys you will ever find.(Napa Valley included). The Doyles can be found there any time they are in the area. Pictured here are Nancy, Tom, & friends Jodi & Dan. Jodi is our Mac guru, she owns Lakeshoremac.com.


If any Escapees are going to be in Elkhart, this winery is less than an hour away. Just go to www.taborhill.com

A Night Out At Tabor Hill

Budweiser Clydesdales

A couple of weeks ago, while we were at the Monroe County Fair, I had the pleasure of watching the Budweiser Clydesdales. The team of eight magnificent horses went through their paces as if they were one, keeping in sync in their steps and movements -- even their side-stepping was perfect. The driver controlled each horse with a separate rein, guiding them in their turns, and even backwards! The horses travel in style, in air-conditioned semi-trailers. Each harness costs around
$80,000.

If you ever have the opportunity to see this spectacular show, don't miss it.

Nancy

Michigan

The rest of the trip to Michigan went smoothly. Nan towed the exhibit trailer with the GMC and Tom towed the fifth wheel. We arrived in Michigan on June 29 in the midst of a rainstorm. Our first stop for gas in Michigan cost over $4.00 per gallon, the first time we paid over $4 this year. (We have paid that much and more several more times, though.) It's going to be a tough summer.

Our first three shows, one festival and two fairs have gone surprisingly well. I think there is a lot of truth in what the newspeople are saying about people staying closer to home this year and spending locally. Hope the rest of the year goes well.

A week ago Sunday we had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Tabor Hill Winery. We both had the baked Talapia, it was excellent. We always look forward to our dining experience at Tabor Hill. We will go there again in a few weeks with friends, Dan and Jodi.

We left Hartford, Michigan yesterday and went to Elkhart, Indiana. We needed to get some minor warranty repairs done on the fifth wheel so we stayed on the lot of the repair facility along with a few other RVers. On Monday we went to the RV Hall of Fame here in Elkhart. Before you nod off, it really was much more interesting than it sounds. We saw some of the first RV's ever built, some dating from the early part of the 1900's. We spent a few hours there, but, oops, we forgot to take the camera with us. The next day, Tuesday, we went on a factory tour at the Keystone Company, who makes the fifth wheel that we have, the Everest. We walked thru the factory after closing time, accompanied by a factory rep. who explained every detail of the construction of the RV. We, along with several other curious RVers, started at the beginning of the line where they bring in the frame. I won't bore you with all the details but it was very informative and our rep, Mark, was extremely knowedgable, answering all the questions and explaining each step of construction.

The Tennessee Aquarium

While in Chattanooga waiting for the RV work to be finished, we went downtown to visit the Tennessee Aquarium. It was a day well spent.

Time for an update

Wow. We have really been busy during the month of June. Tom spent a couple of weeks recovering from his injuries from the ladder incident. We got our stuff ready to go, this time we meant business. We left Ft. Yargo last Sunday, June 22. We really enjoyed our time there and look forward to going back.

Before heading out, though, we had to take our grand girls, Kaylee and Victoria to lunch. Kaylee's birthday was yesterday, June 26. She's Sweet Sixteen and very grown up. We had a great time.

After leaving on Sunday, we drove 150 miles to Chattanooga. We stopped at Camping World to have some work done on the rig. While we waited for that, we explored some of Chattanooga. The Aquarium was awesome and well worth the price of a ticket. We went to the IMAX theater and learned tons of stuff about sharks, dolphins and other sea creatures. The part that made the most impact was learning that many species are endangered, mainly because their food sources are disappearing. Hopefully it's not too late to turn things around.

We drove up to Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia and visited with Tom and Ethel Smith, who hosted with us at Ft. Yargo a few months ago. We spent a couple of hours catching up. It was good to see them. Cloudland Canyon is beautiful -- it sits near the top of Lookout Mountain.

We are spending tonight in the Oh! Kentucky Campground at Berea, KY. We had just pulled in and got set up when it started to storm, complete with lightning and thunder. Tomorrow we will go to Wapakoneta, Ohio near Lima.

That about covers it for now.

What is this?

Can you guess what this is? Here's a hint: It was launched from the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday, May 31. That's right, it's the Space Shuttle Discovery. Our son, Eric took this photo from about five miles from the launch site. He took it using his cell phone! They were in Cape Canaveral on Saturday preparing to board their cruise ship on Sunday for a cruise to the Bahamas. How cool is that?

The Latest View From Our Site

This is the view from picnic area 2. About a month ago the park manager asked us to change from camp host to maintenance host and had us move from the campground to this site in the picnic grounds. This is a quiet beautiful spot, just perfect for recuperating from a nasty fall. I (tom) fell off of an 8 ft ladder and sustained a broken elbow and other assorted injuries.

The park management have been great about letting us stay until we can travel. We should be on the road pulling our new rig down the road in about 3 weeks.

CHANGE OF PLANS

We had this trip planned down to the last detail, leaving the park on Friday and going to Elkhart, In and then to Michigan. Campground reservations were confirmed and we planned to meet our friends, Tim and Sally in Indiana.

But on Thursday as Tom was sweeping off the awnings, the ladder that he had climbed tipped and he fell and landed on the graveled campsite. Nancy ran outside to find Tom lying flat on his back. I called the park office and three rangers were here inside of a minute. They determined that he could be moved and helped him inside. We then went to the hospital where they treated him for a broken left elbow. They xrayed the lower and middle back also and did not see any apparent injury there. Today (Monday) we went to the orthopedic doctor who told Tom that the elbow should heal nicely in about 8 weeks. But they did send him for a ct scan because he is having pain on the right side in his arm and up into the neck and back. The doctor said that was probably from an area that was swollen from the fall and pressing on the nerve. And that it should heal as the swelling goes down.

We are hoping to be back on the road in about 4 weeks and resume our travel plans. We go back to the doctor this Thursday for the results.