Friends music and sunsets

We visit, and stay, on Long Beach Island in South New Jersey whenever possible. Jim lived there from 1963 to 85. Jim's long time friend, Jimmy Lyon, still lives there and has the best RV driveway camping spot of anywhere in the country. We've been known to stay parked there for over a month but this time we just had one week.

We used the cape May ferry to get from Delaware to New Jersey.

Then we made a stop to see Jim's aunt Julie. Jim's father had 7 siblings. Julie is the only one left. It was heartening to see her doing well.

First on the agenda was music. There is a wonderful tradition of outdoor, live music each night in particular by the bay.

Then the next night, Jim's good friend Tom Pernal was playing at a local bar/restaurant. What joy to see him pursuing his passion.

Lots of people, lots of partying whenever we stay on LBI, but we also found time to do a "Button show" - episode 174 of our YouTube educational show. This time our topic was making movies using a free phone app called FilmoraGo.

When it was time to leave, the RV had other ideas. We made it across the bridge to the mainland, then stopped for gas. After filling up, the RV would not start. We had to get towed to a local GM service facility and leave it there.

Jimmy graciously came and picked us up and took us back to his house.

For the first time in 15 years of doing this, we were unable to make it to our scheduled appearance. We were supposed to be in Connecticut at a meeting of the Trumbull computer club the next night. We weren't going to make it. But we've gotten pretty good at online presentations, and with a few tweaks we were able to set it up so we could present remotely and they hardly even realized that we weren't there.

The following day we were able to pick up our RV with a new 'fuse block' and an $800 bill and get back on our way.

   

Chessie! Crossing the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel

A great shot of the bridge from the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel website - CBBT.com Notice the  gaps in the bridge? That's where there's a tunnel instead so both vehicle traffic, and boat traffic can move unimpeded. It's nearly 17 miles all totaled including to drive it - across both bridge and tunnel.

We started our day at a campground on I-95. We woke up fairly early and got on the road, stopping for breakfast at Cracker Barrel before turning off I-95 and heading east toward Norfolk. We would normally have spent the night at the Cracker Barrel, since they specifically allow that, but it was so hot we had to have electric hookups so we could run our air conditioner. We paid $45 for that luxury, so we made sure to take advantage of their hot tub as well!



It was a beautiful day to cross the Chesapeake, a Tuesday afternoon, little traffic and beautiful weather, Chris even drove.

We had originally planned to find a place to stay by Chincateague, or even better - Assateague National Seashore - because that is where there are wild horses. It's supposed to be quite easy to spot wild horses from anywhere in the National Park. But, the heat was our controlling factor. Our research showed that the campground in the national park were primitive - no electricity. That means we couldn't run our A/C. Nope, not happening. Also, we've had such wonderful experiences the past week, we really didn't need something so special - just a place to park and an electric plug. How about an Elks Lodge? We love those. Our Allstays website showed one in Pocomoke. Yep, that's perfect.

There's a big cell tower in sight - that's how I'm posting this! And, we're 1.5 hours from the ferry terminal going from Lewes, DE to Cape May, NJ. We have a reservation to be on that ferry at noon tomorrow.

Back to School with Martin Brossman

Martin Brossman teaches social media classes. We met Martin through Google Plus (RIP) and have continued our acquaintance thru a private Facebook group. We've learned a lot from Martin and we look forward to our weekly Zoom meetings with him and several others who enjoy sharing info about social media and technology in general. Among other things, he teaches a certification class in Social Media Marketing at NC State in Raleigh, NC. It's so cool that, the day we would be traveling thru his area, he was teaching this class. He asked if we could attend and share our experiences with his students.
SURE!

First, we met him for lunch while he stamped the certificates for his graduating students. Then we followed him to the classroom and he introduced us. We talked for a few minutes about our lifestyle and how we make our living from our website as we travel the country - and the world.

Gee - it made me want to go back to school! I just love learning.

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Chloe's Farm

Chloe's mother was also named Chloe and the current Chloe is carrying on more tradition than just the name. After being a hippie-chick living on a boat in the Bahamas for years, Chloe returned to her family farm and it is now a successful B&B.

She has 5 rooms/suites for rent in this 100 year old farmhouse. Big Mill Bed and Breakfast In addition to her B&B rooms she also has 2 vintage luxury Airstream trailers and one electric hookup for an RV! You know which facility we used right?!

We think of Chloe as a settled southern girl now, but I think she looks right at home in our RV!

Her property is still a working farm as well as a B&B, growing Tobacco and Cotton as cash crops, and grapes, figs, pecans, and more for fresh food in her kitchen.

Jim had great fun flying his drone and getting some new aerial video of the farm. I enjoyed hanging out and using her screaming fast WiFi to catch` up on some website work. Then she fed us! Oh Man! Have you ever had fresh figs stuffed with goat cheese? and homemade gazpacho .. and salad with glazed pecans right from the tree? Neither had we! and we loved it.

Thanks Chloe!

I'll post Jim's drone video here when he gets it edited.

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Grandma, You Rock!

Many years ago, when the Picasa photo software was our specialty, we were contacted by Catherine who taught Picasa at a computer club in the Sun City community at Hilton Head. Over the years we have presented many seminars for her club and make a point to stop by whenever we are in the area.

This trip was no exception, and we're so glad we did! As we keep getting older, many of us start slowing down, getting less interested in the world around us and more concerned about our daily comfort. But, not the folks at this computer club!

It is so much fund to visit with Catherine and compare notes about things we've learned

We stopped and had lunch with Catherine, Honey, and Mark - all three of whom are very involved with the 3,000 member computer club at Sun City Hilton Head. You might think that lunch with people in their 60s and 70s might be a dreary affair, but you would be wrong. I felt so energized after this luncheon. The conversation was non-stop with everyone chiming in with their latest discovery in the world of technology. They all had smart watches and told us how the Apple Watch class at the computer club was one of their most popular offerings. Grandma doesn't want to wear one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" necklaces - that makes her look feeble. But a watch that will monitor her heart rate as well as detect a fall and provide emergency SOS while she texts, calls, and listens to music? Well - that looks Cool!

Showing off their smart watches

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In the forest and by the sea

We're back on the road for our working tour. We'll be living in our sweet little camper van for the next 2.5 months, and did we ever start it off right! Both Florida and Georgia have some wonderful state parks and we took advantage.

After packing up the RV we had to leave the house prepared for hurricane season. Brought the kayaks inside and closed the hurricane shutters over all the windows, locked the doors and left about 1 pm. 5 hours on the road, 3 for Jim and 2 for me, would put us right about Flagler Beach and our favorite Florida State Park, Gamble Rogers. Why is it our favorite? Because it's right on the beach. We didn't have reservations, we rarely make reservations, so we knew the odds were poor for scoring one of the sites on the ocean side, but they also have sites on the river across the road from the beach and that would be ok.

Well, we lucked out, the ocean side was full, but we got there at the perfect time to get their "emergency" site. Just in case a camper had an emergency and could not travel, they can free up a reserved site for the next guest. Since there had been no emergency and we only wanted one night, they let us have that site. Cool.

The weather was perfect and we even got up at 6:30am to catch the sunrise. 

𝕊𝕦𝕟𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕖 𝕠𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕖𝕒𝕔𝕙

After a delightful, relaxed morning in the beach, we had lunch at Snack Jack's. It's just a short walk from the campground and also right on the beach.

We were still in time for the campground's very civilized 1pm checkout time and we continued or travels up I-95 into Georgia. We decided to stay at fort McAllister state Park, just south of Savannah. Now we're in the woods! My soul is singing.