Colorado Springs

Our summer is just about over. We have been in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy for the past few weeks. So you are probably asking what have you been doing for 3 weeks. Well here it goes.

Our good friends, Kathy and Dave Bennett have been spending their summer in Colorado in an RV park in Woodland Park which is higher in elevation (about 8,500 ft). We went to visit them the first week here. They took us on a beautiful drive higher in the mountains to Eleven Mile Canyon. The scenery was breath taking. I started here because I ended up with “Altitude Sickness or Mild Vertigo”. I spent the next 6 days trying to walk without things going in circles. Jack had to do my shopping and got to go golfing without me (Boo-Hoo).

For the remainder of the time we did spend more time with our friends as they came down the mountains to see us. One day we went to Old Colorado City to walk around and have lunch. On Labor Day they came over and we played “Pitch It” (a bean bag toss game). The Bennetts’ beat us BIG time. We also played “Hand and Foot” (a card game) and girls beat the boys. We had lots of fun.

Jack had been working on the outside of the RV; cleaning it up before we go home. We went to three horrible movies, spent time outside to enjoy the cooler weather and not looking forward to our summer ending. We are leaving here on the 14th and should be home on the 16th.

So this is it for 2009.

Sad news-Matt Hupp

I am very sad to say that our great-nephew pasted away on Friday. Matt fought hard for the past 7 months to cure his cancer but the cancer was too fast growing. Matt had great support from his parents, brother and sister, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and lot of neighbors, friends and classmates. I have included the link to the blog that his parents wrote during his battle. It will tear at your heartstrings. http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/matthupp

Unfortunately Jack and I will not be able to attend the funeral but we will be going to the Air Force Academy's Chapel during the funeral, praying for Matt and lighting candles. He will always be in our prayers and memory.

Wisconsin

It has been a very busy few weeks with family. As you know when visiting family there are a lot of commitments and visiting. My family lives on all corners of Wisconsin so there was a lot of driving involved. E spent the first week with my oldest son, Craig and his family who live in Sheboygan. They have very busy lives as you can imagine with 3 children. I was able to take my 15 year old granddaughter, Lexi shopping. We had a great day and I found out how out of touch I am with today’s style. My 8 year old grandson, Brooks had his last baseballs games of the year so we got to watch him play. He is a good little player and gets really involved in the game. My 17 year old grandson, Tyler was either working or out with friends so we did not have the quality time I would have liked. Craig took Jack out golfing one day so they had a good time.

My sister, Kathy and Steve Treu were married on August 1st. It was a beautiful wedding. They make such a great couple and are very happy. The week following the wedding, Kathy and Steve spent the week around Wausau so we were able to spend time with them sharing meals, golfing and playing cards.

We were able to spend a day with my youngest son, Jeff and his girlfriend, Shelly. This was the first time I met her and we had a great visit. We all went out for a delicious Italian dinner.
Jack and I did some work around my Mom’s house. She is a very healthy 86 year old and never quits wondering what to cook for the next meal so we ate a lot. She is also a big Brett Favre fan so I know she is happy she will be able to watch him play in Minnesota this year. Mom and I were able to take a bus from Edgar with 56 other seniors to a Brewer’s game in Milwaukee. We had so much fun and built so many memories.
We ended our visit in Sparta which is where Kathy and Steve will be living. My Mom came along with us so we all could spend a few more days together. Again we had a lot of laughs and had a great time.
We are now moving toward Arizona. Our plan is to spend a few weeks in Colorado Springs.

Elgin

Hi,

I decided to write about our visit to Elgin, Illinois as a sole blog. The reason is that we visited our great nephew who is 13 and is fighting Burketts Lymphoma which is a very fast growing cancer. His was diagnosed back in November. He went through several treatments of chemo and now is starting again. They are hoping he will be able to have a bone marrow transplant if is the next round of chemo is successful. So please pray for him. He has the most wonderful parents (I just love them) and a sister and brother who have been keeping his spirits up. Jack's sister, Dor is staying with them presently to help out to take the pressure off his parents. (The photo was taken last summer)

We golfed with Jack's sister, Dor and Judy on Sunday at a beautiful course called Whispering Creek. I did not golf very well but the weather was excellent so it was all worth it. We spent most of our time visiting with family and enjoying the time with them. Lots of eating!!!

Annapolis/Gettysburg

It is time to catch you up with our trip. We went to Annapolis a week ago. We decided to take a walking tour so we could walk the streets where our fore fathers walked. Our guide was dressed in colonial attire which reminded us of early American History. Annapolis was the city where George Washington resigned his military command. It is also the home of the Naval Academy. We were lucky to see the 1200 recruits march in formation to the Naval Band. We visit John Paul Jones crypt. We ended our day with a wonderful meal of Maryland Crab. It was delicious.

We then headed to Gettysburg. We took a bus tour as there was so much to see and the battles in Gettysburg were spread out all around the city. We stood on the grounds of the different battles of the Gettysburg that occurred in a 3 day span in July 1863. It was amazing the number of men that were wounded and killed in those battles along with horses. There was so much death and destruction than that occurred there. Once the solders left, the town was left with the remnants of the battles. They had to bury the dead, take care of the wounded and destroy the dead animals which was a enormous task for a small town of 2,000 people. There is a new National Military Park Museum which was great. We spent hours in the museum with large displays of artifacts from the battles. There was a wonderful film that described the battles in detail. After the film we went into the cyclorama which is a light and sound show of a spectacular 377 foot painting. It was incredible. Gettysburg is also the location where Lincoln stood in front town circle giving the famous Gettysburg Address. So much history.

We are now visiting family and will write more on that later.

Washington DC

We have been in Washington DC for a week now and have seen so much. We are staying at Fort Mead which is about 30 miles to DC so we took the commuter train (MARC) each time we went to the city. It was interesting to see how people commute to DC which is not something I could have done. The train took us into Union Station which is beautiful. One the first day we took a tour bus to get our bearings and then walked so we could see as much as possible. We toured the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WW II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial and walked the Tidal Basin on day one.

Day two we drove to DC and took the tour of Arlington Cemetery, visiting President Kennedy's grave, Challenger, Iran Rescue Mission and Columbia Memorials, The Memorial Amphitheater and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers. We were there for the changing of the guard. Very emotional for us. We then went to see the National Cathedral. That was very impressive.

Day three we walked to Capital Hill and then to the White House to get some photos. Then we visited the Smithsonian of American History and the Ronald Reagan Building.

Day four we walked to the National Achieves, Smithsonian Castle, The Air and Space Museum and the National Post Office Museum.

We were exhausted and are going to save the rest for another trip. There is just so much to see and so much history that it gets overwhelming. We saw so much more than I listed. We plan on going to Annapolis tomorrow before we leave to head to Gettysburg.

There have been a sad point on our trip. Last Sunday I lost my Aunt Helen. She was 93 and lived a great life but I will miss her. She was still living on her own and just days before her death, she was playing cards and out to dinner. I was so furtunate to have her in my life.

Virginia Beach

We have been in Virginia beach for 9 days and I am not sure where the time went. We stayed on Sea Mist RV Park on the Dam Neck Annex to the Naval Base. A nice small park with full access to the beach. The weather was great and we were able to enjoy some 70 and 80 temps and low humidity.

We spent a day at the Norfolk Naval Station looking at all the huge Naval Ships. There were several destroyers and aircraft carriers (wow are the big) docked which was great. Another day we went down to Hampton Roads Naval Museum and toured the Battleship Wisconsin. That was very interesting and we realizes that the Navy close courters would not have been for us. We drove across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel which spans the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, connection Virginia's Eastern Shore with Virginia mainland at Virginia Beach. It is the gateway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay. This is a 17 mile bridge with 2 miles of tunnels. The ships actually cross on top of the tunnels. It was eerie.

Tomorrow we are heading to Washington D.C. We are looking forward to seeing our Nation's Capital.

Charlotte

We had a great day in beautiful Savannah. We took a narrated trolley tour (4th generation native) of the historical district which we really enjoyed because our guide was so familiar with the history of Savannah. We enjoyed the 19 city squares as each was a distinct landmark of history. We toured a home Andrew and Juliette Low (founder of the Girl Scouts) and had lunch at the Shrimp House on River Street.

We decided to head to Charlotte a day early because the Nascar race shops would not be open on weekends. I wish I could say our trip to Charlotte was uneventful but it was not. We were about 100 miles out of Charlotte when a tire blew on the 5th wheel. Fortunately we were near an exit and found a good place to park. We now have an appointment on Monday morning to get 4 new tires on the RV. We sure do not want that to happen again.

We did not let that stop our plans. We visited some of the race shops, Lowe's Speedway and had a nice lunch sitting on the deck on Lake Norman. As you can see I was able to see Rouse Fenway and get a photo with Carl's car. Everything is so close around here. We are parked across the street from Lowe's Speedway. Really cool!

Sunset

I could not let this opportunity pass to show you another sunset. Almost every evening we sit looking our back window at the sunset and watching the dolphins play out in the water. The views are so captivating and beautiful. We feel so fortunate to be able to be here and doing what we love. Enjoy!!!

No Shuttle Launch

Well I guess we will not get to see the Shuttle Launch. Again we got up in the middle of the night and started out to see the launch but it was again postponed. It is now scheduled for July 11th and we will be gone before then. We are really disappointed.

On Thursday we ventured to see the World's Golf Hall of Fame. They presently have an exhibit on display in honor of Bob Hope

called "Shanks for the Memory" which was so neat. The exhibit

had artifacts, vintage photos and videos of Bob Hope's life, legacy and love of the game of golf. We were so impressed. The Hall of Fame was very interesting also as it provided history of golf and contains so many exhibits of so many golfers. We played an 18-hole putting course and of course, Jack beat me. We have a really nice day!!

The weather here has been very hot and humid. Jacksonville is having a heat wave. Just our luck. We will be leaving on Monday and heading to Savannah. We are enjoying our summer and look forward to the rest of our trip.

Daytona

Here is a photo looking out our back window at the sunset at the Jacksonville Naval Base. We have a great view of ships coming and going. I have to get a photo of the large Cargo Ship but I keep missing the photo opportunity.

Today we took a trip down to St. Augustine and Daytona Speedway. We went into the Daytona Experience which we quite nice but just as we were going to get on the tram to take a ride around Daytona Speedway, it began to rain (pouring) so we did not get to do that.


We did get to see a IMAX movie about racing, Kenseth's 2009 Daytona car and other interesting racing things.

We stopped in St. Augustine (Founded by Spain in 1565, the oldest European settlement in the U.S.) and checked out the Lighthouse Museum and the Castillo De San Marcos National Monument which is a fort. There were a lot of other interesting buildings but we ran out of time.

The Shuttle launch was cancelled on Saturday due to a mechanical issue but is now scheduled to launch on Wednesday morning so we are going to try again. Fortunately on Saturday morning, we only went about 15 miles before I logged into my computer to find out it was cancelled. Hopefully we will get to see it on Wednesday. Will update you.

New Destination

We changed our destination after talking to our friend, Kathy Bennett. We decided to head to Jacksonville, Florida to a RV park in the Naval Base. We have a perfect view of the Atlantic Ocean watching cargo ships, cruise ships and etc. Our plans are to stay here through the 21st.

Another reason we decided to visit Florida is that the Shuttle is launching on Saturday, the 13th. We have always wanted to watch one take off and this is our chance. We will drive down early Saturday morning to see that.

It is very hot and humid here as you can imagine. Jack said get used to it as our travels this summer will continue to be in the hot and humid zone. We had an uneventful trip here. It took us three days driving through Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. To get to the Naval Base was confusing and you have to have ID tags on your vehicle which we no longer have so we had to get those but we are here and settled.

Vicksburg - June 5-7

Since my last posting we have visited Texas Speedway but unfortunately we were unable to take a tour because there was a Truck and IRL race this weekend. We did drive around the outside of the raceway which was very impressive.

From Texas we moved to Shreveport, Louisiana. We stayed at Barksdale Base Fam Camp which was really nice so we decided to stay a few days. Had a huge thunderstorm and lots of rain one afternoon.

We are now in Vicksburg, Mississippi. We toured Vicksburg National Military Park where battles of the Civil War took place. It was amazing. We drove around the city looking as the old buildings and historical sites. We are going to spend tomorrow here also before we move onto Savannah, Georgia. It will takes us a few days to get there as were are not going over 300 miles a day.

Enjoy the photos. General Grant, Girls enjoying the Dogging Park and Carol in the Gardens of the Old Court House Museum.

On The Road Again

We got off on Thursday morning, the 28th. Fortunately Jack made another check of all the tires before we left and found that someone had placed long construction nails propped up against each of the tires on the RV and truck on the drivers side. If he would not have found it, we would of had flat tires or blowouts about 10 miles from home in 100 degrees temps. I love that man.

Our first day out we had all kinds of weather. The sunny hot temps in Arizona and wind, rain and dust storms in New Mexico. We went as far as Deming and spent the night. We made day two a long day and made it to Odessa, Texas (good weather). We stated at a nice RV park that had a grassy dog park. Both the dogs love that. We made it to Dallas on Saturday.

Sunday we went to the Swap Meet that is adjacent to the RV park. It was one of the largest I have seen but we did not buy anything. Then we went downtown to see where JFK was killed. We were able to listen to a man who was near the spot where the shots were fired that day and he shared what he saw. Very interesting. Good day!

We plan on spending another day here so we can go out to see Texas Motor Speedway and then just relaxing. Then heading to Shreveport.

Have a good week.

Getting Ready

The RV comes home on the 22nd so we can pack it up and get ready for the road. Jack is updating the TV's and building a new shelf. Our plan is to leave on the 27th. We are heading east towards Dallas (Depository), Savannah (Southern culture) and then the Carolina's (beaches and Nascar Showrooms). On to Washington DC, Illinois (to see Jack's family and Wisconsin (for my sister wedding and a family reunion). We will end our trip in Colorado Springs at the Air Force Academy. Or course this is subject to change if we discover something we want to see.

I will keep you updated as we move through the summer.