Past Few Months, 08/08/2022

Hey all! Wow, could not believe how long its been since my last post! Believe that was back in April. Now into August, autumn is just around the corner and I can't wait! I really haven't been able to get much accomplished over the months. So, here is my summer breakdown.

1. We took our camper and went on vacation at the end of May.

We stayed in Charlotte, NC at the Fort Mill KOA. It was decent. We only stayed at the KOA to give my joints (and nerves!) a break to spread the trip out. The next day we went into town and explored a bit. Lunch was at Oh My Soul on N. Davidson. It was pretty good food! We walked around a bit more and checked out some of the shops. Afterward, we went to Emerald Hollow Mine. We truly enjoyed it. Found some neat stones but unfortunately we have not had the time to really go through what we have! But we do have the winter coming... 

Back on the road to Fort Wilderness. The campground was decent. Sites are smallish, but not overly cramped. Full hook-up, which is always nice to have on longer stays. Several amenities there. You can take buses from the nearby bus stops to whichever park. There is also waterfront where you can take a boat over as well. A restaurant in the area as well as different food trucks that come in. A camp store which also has a lot of Disney merch but food and some supplies as well. The laundry room was pretty neat. They have a system there that you can set alerts on your phone for the washers and dryers. There are also activities to do, my daughter took advantage of the horseback riding. But the events are posted. You will want to make sure if you need a reservation instead of trying to show up for them. And there is wildlife there! A bird called a Corkscrew visited us. We also saw rabbits, squirrels and more. Just do read the warnings to not get close to fresh water sources. It was a little bit of a drive to get into the town to get stuff. Not overly bad, but traffic could be a bit heavy.

This is the corkscrew

Waiting for the water/lights show

Some of what you see during the show

Epcot at night

And yes, the castle IS a different color....

After Disney, we headed back north. I think this started out as my least favorite stop but soon became my favorite and most memorable. We stayed at the Myrtle Beach State Park. The campsite was nothing special, again, smallish but doable. There was a shower house nearby. I honestly don't recall all amenities as we really were a bit on the go there because IT IS RIGHT NEXT TO A BEACH!!! There was a pier and shop there too. For the first time in decades, I was able to get into the ocean. Missed it so so much! We spent a few hours swimming and lounging in the sun. There is fishing off the pier but we just wanted to swim and lounge. Downtown is not too far from it, which has a lot to offer. We ate out a couple of times, walked around and went to a piano bar, Crocodile Rocks, for a bit. There are several restaurants that feature buffets with seafood, so we took advantage of that. It was nice when we went, which was early evening, but the crowd changed and so we left. The other best part of this trip was the family that was not far from where we were staying. It was so nice to have a lovely dinner with them and spend the evening chatting and catching up.

Next day onward to Fancy Gap. We stayed at the Blue Ridge KOA there. This was different. They still had a lot of the KOA amenities, but on the side of a very large hill. So the sites and roadways were graded. Again, didn't really take advantage of any of the amenities as we were just spending the night there to break up the driving and for the view. We did get to drive through "Mayberry" (Mt. Airy, NC). It was neat, just wished we had more time to explore. I will say that we ate at TJs Zesty Italian. The food and prices were pretty decent. The next morning, we went back into town to eat at the Rusty Rooster's Southern Breakfast. That's what they do and they do it well and again, really decent price. Unfortunately as we were packing up to leave, we found that we had a flat on the trailer!!! We called for service and someone was able to come help us but a snag. The spare, on the back of the camper, that we bought new, WAS THE WRONG SIZE!!! So, had to go back into town to get the flat tire replaced. Another place I would love to spend more time at though.

New start, but wanted to add this separately to share my summer. Since March, I was having back to back to back sinus infections. I have a blocked lymph node which has been part of the problem. So my whole vacation was to get over the sinus infection to just have another one start. BUT - while we were in Mt. Airy, hubby started to not feel good. Our daughter had called while we were in Myrtle Beach to tell us she wasn't feeling well. She had COVID. (See where this is going??) While we were in town, we picked up a couple of tests and sure enough, we both had COVID. Granted, it wasn't as bad as it could have been but I had it on top of a sinus infection. Needless to say, it took a few weeks for me to get over it. Almost forgot! When we got home, I found that ALL of my chickens were gone!! Hubby's fancy electric door seemed to not work as well as he hoped. I've been sad over this but he has promised that he will make a better coop and habitat and we will get new birds.

2. So, vacation started end of May, ended mid-June. A few weeks to get over my infections to go to the hospital with my parents for my mom to have surgery. She was there for the weekend, which was a good thing, to make sure she wasn't having any issues. Let's just say my parents are Baby Boomers. She was doing good so we brought her home. 

3. Fireworks season ramping up and two of my family work as needed to set up and set off fireworks. It was cool that I got to see first-hand how this was done. Yes, I have the certificate but unable to do it. Hate to let it expire. So a couple of weeks of this for them while I was still recuperating. We did camp for one weekend as the town is over an hour away and its easier for us to camp and him drive there, do his thing and come back.

4. Here's where it gets worse. Hubby gets a call from his mom that she took his dad to the emergency department. I'm not going into details with the whole thing, but after a two and a half weeks, he passed. We stayed there for another week plus to help with arrangements and his mom. So we now are going out every couple of weeks to see her and help with the things she can no longer do.

5. After we get back, it was time for the annual guild Quilt Show! The guild hadn't had one since 2019. There were a lot of quilts! So with this, we all have to sign up for time slots to work there. Mom and I didn't sign up for too many as she's still recovering from her surgery and for me it's a bit challenging to sit too long and all. But we still got hours in, sold a few things at the sales room, bought not as much (thankfully!) and we will have our after-show meeting soon.

So back to this being August. School starts in just over a week! My kid is a Senior in high school! I'm happy he has made it this far without too many issues. Band has been going on for a couple of weeks and he is embracing the time. We still have another college to visit but looks like this SHOULD be a smooth year, God willing. The start of school and fall also means mom and I will start our crafting again. Not too sure she's happy with me right now. I made a rule this time that we finish what we have started instead of the tons of UFOs laying about.

I was able to create a couple of shrugs, but need to get some good pictures of them. I will share as soon as I can. I didn't have a pattern, well, at least one I liked, so I created both of them. When I get them out, I will try to share a bit of how I made them. 

As far as the RA during vacation - it was sorta doable. We used a lot of the same workarounds that we do for normal camping (as I shared before) but since we were going out and about we had to do stuff I was not fond of.

    

To get through Disney, we did the rental chairs. I walked as much as I could then everyone took turns "hauling" me around. Humor is a better way to deal with things!

We used handicap parking sparingly as we tried to not go out too often to stores and such. 

Warm showers, stretching, occasional Tylenol and taking it easy. I think the taking it easy was our vacation mantra. It was nice to not rush through things and go at a manageable pace.

Okay folks! I need to get dinner started, going to have fried breaded zucchini, tuna cakes and sliced tomatoes. No, I wasn't able to do a garden this year as this was a longer vacation than normal, they came from a farmer's stand local to my mother-in-law. I don't like the idea of spending all the energy and resources for something that would be neglected for a few weeks. I am glad of the decision because of how the summer went. But fall planting later this week!

Take care all and GOD BLESS!!