Our East Coast Wrap-Up

Posted from Red Bay, AL

The plan when we left Arizona way back in April was to make a swing up the eastern side of the United States to visit family and friends.

I'm happy to say that we accomplished our goal and had a great time catching up with old co-workers and family.

We were in Florida for almost 8 weeks during the hottest time of the summer.  Definitely not ideal, but we survived. We first met up with a past co-worker of mine John Potter and his wife Maryann. They now live just north of Clermont, FL in a beautiful 55+ community.  It was great seeing the two of you again.  John has taken up the sport of pickleball, so of course I "forced" myself to play (many times, too).

Next we traveled down to the Cape Coral area and met up with George and Ellen Motley.  I worked with both of these folks pre-retirement up in Virginia.  They have since retired to this area of Florida and live in a beautiful waterfront home with access to the Gulf of Mexico.   This is a picture of us enjoying dinner one evening down in Ft. Myers Beach.

Ironically, Karen's brother and his family were vacationing in Florida while we were on the Gulf side. We were able to meet for dinner one evening before they had to return to Virginia.  Fortunately, we were able to visit again later in the summer when we got to Virginia.

Are you beginning to see the common "theme" of meeting around eating places in this blog?  Seems like it works that way with RVing friends as well.

We left Florida in early August and began a slow northward drive up the east coast.  We stopped for a few days in Myrtle Beach, SC to again visit with some past co-workers. It seems as though many guys I worked with have moved to either Florida or the Myrtle Beach, SC area.  Here we are at yet another restaurant with Joe and Dale Scalici and Rob and Cathy Forker.  Some great "stories" were shared around the table on this evening.

We finally got back to the Northern Virginia area in early September to visit with several of Karen's past co-workers, and finally our families.  Karen was very happy to meet up with friends Ana Zuniga and Jennie Moore.  We were all able to get together for lunch one afternoon up in Burke, VA. Ana's husband Lucho and Jennie's boyfriend Phil joined us and it made for a very enjoyable afternoon.

Another "fun" group we were able to re-unite with was from our pre-Fulltiming days.  We belonged to a local Good Sam chapter when we lived in Virginia named the Redwing Sams. We went on many camping outings with these folks when we lived in Virginia. Shared many a good time then, and certainly shared some great conversation at this restaurant up in Springfield, VA.

We finally got a chance to meet up with family after all of these "eating out" adventures with old friends.  Both of Karen's parents have had a lot of physical obstacles during the past couple of years. This was one of the first times they had been able to get out and go to a restaurant for some time.  We jointly celebrated their 57th and our 31st anniversaries together.

Lastly, but certainly not least, we got a chance to visit with my Mom and brother while in Manassas, VA.  As unbelievable as it seems, we failed to take a picture of all of us together.  Nevertheless, it was great seeing you Mom and Jeff.

Well, that pretty much sums up our summer.  We are now in Red Bay, AL having a couple of small things done on the motorhome before heading back west for our winter in Casa Grande, AZ again. No time schedule to really keep between now and then, but we should be back in Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort again by mid-October.  Let the pickleballing begin!

Thanks for stopping by to take a look!