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February Excursions – Buddy & Cindy Ward, Anya Johnson adoption, Mom Johnson Colorado!

Buddy & Cindy Ward at Fort Myers, FL

Our first weekend in February we traveled to Fort Myers to see Buddy & Cindy Ward. We had purchased a couple of new recliner chairs at the Tampa RV show and they were delivered to Fort Myers Camping World Store. Buddy & Cindy offered to haul them with their pickup to our site at Lake Placid for us (since ours was still in the shop) – thanks so much!

It was a great getaway – especially after they invited us to join in their remote church services from Browns Bridge Church out of Cummings, GA. They are having a great turnout each Sunday Morning, what a great way to share Christ with others!

After church and the return trip to Lake Placid we unloaded our chairs and went out to an all-you-can-eat fish fry restaurant called Jaxson’s On The Lake. It was very good! Buddy & Cindy headed back and we relaxed in our new chairs – they work mighty fine for afternoon naps 🙂 !!

Adoption! Welcome Anya Johnson to our family!

The next weekend we flew to Colorado Springs and stayed with Nick & Rachel. We all got to be there for little Anya’s adoption ceremony. The judge made a comment about the loving family that Anya is joining – he mentioned that adoptions are very special to him and he loved getting to hold Anya. He even let her pick out a stuffed animal to keep!

Who knew when we flew in that Colorado had snow! What a change of climate for us – from zero elevation to 5,000+ and from 70 degree temps to the teens! But we wouldn’t have traded this trip for anything. Loved being back “home” and spending time with family!!

So thankful for our growing family. We now have 18 Grandkids (with number 19 on the way!)

Mom Johnson – wonderful memories!

On a bright sunshine day we traveled to Fort Morgan to see Mom Johnson. What a beautiful country we live in, wide open “big sky days” and Colorado sunshine! It was so good to be at Mom’s house and get our hugs again!

…and Mom cooked us a fine lunch with desert. Local made German Sausage and sauerkraut and our favorite Oatmeal Cake. what a feast – and very good eat’n 🙂

We noticed when we arrived that Mom had a box setting on the floor. She said she wasn’t sure of what was inside and wanted to go through it….

It was full of news articles and advertisements of Dad Johnson’s grocery stores through the years. His first store was opened in January of 1956. Wow – great memories of times gone by. We had such fun reminiscing about the stores and Dad and working together. We are so thankful we got to spend time with Mom going through this box!

It was so fun to spend a few hours going through that box. So many memories of growing up in the grocery business, memories we will always cherish!

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January 3 – January 30, 2020 SOWER Project #2 – Camp Horizon Florida

Watch this little video clip – this is what we experienced coming onto the road leading to Camp Horizon immediately as we turned off of the highway. So many thoughts going through our minds – we wondered, “Was this the the correct road? – What was Camp Horizon all about? – Will we fit on this trail?” Wow – what a change of scenery!” It was breathtaking!

We met up with three other couples (Keith & Linda McNeely, Bob & Joan Sturgill, and Sid & Geziena Roorda) We were the new kids on the block 🙂 Keith & Linda were our GL’s (Group Leaders) – it was great to learn and work side by side with these great couples!

Camp Horizon sets on beautiful Lake Harris, just South West of Eustis, FL. They have been an active Christian Camp for many years. It’s not an upscale camp – but certainty not rustic either. A good balance of amenities with lots of planned activities. Groups typically bring their own program, or join in to some teaching workshop events that the camp puts on. they can host several groups at the same time.

The guys were given two dorm buildings to paint inside. Lots of walls and lockers to refurbish. It took two of our three weeks to accomplish all the painting and minor repairs of these dorm buildings. The last week we accomplished some rain gutter repairs, water and sewer pump repairs, and various other “honey-do” lists.

I loved the work ethics that all of us were committed to – we worked “as unto the Lord” with a desire to achieve a spirit of excellence. Thanks be to God for wisdom, patience, and comradeship.

We always enjoyed our morning breaks – lots of stories and laughter.

The ladies did a lot cleaning and organizing throughout the kitchen and pantry areas. They also cleaned up the dorms after the men were finished – Thanks ladies!

One of the fun projects that all of us got to work on was the main sign for the entrance to the camp. It needed some fresh paint and refurbishing!

One evening our group of SOWERS and Camp Horizon invited any nearby SOWERS to join us for a pot-luck and games night. It was great – and a great turnout!

During the off week – we were able to clean up our travel trailer and check on our truck – in for repairs due to the “Truck-Crunch” We also enjoyed some sightseeing with special friends (Keith and Linda McNeely).

Its time to move to our next location – but we don’t have a truck!

We are so thankful for a special couple that offered to tow our trailer to Lake Placid, FL for us. God always provides when we are in need! Roy Tanner (Ann) hooked up his truck and towed our rig approx 3 hours to our next SOWER Project.

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January Excursions -JP Regional, Tampa Super RV Show, Jim & Cindy Johnson!

January 11, 2020 – JP Pajama Regional – in Savannah, GA!

It was great to meet up with our JP team in Savannah, GA. The Pajama Regionals are always a great time – live streamed to everyone’s home location. We learned a lot and were inspired by the live testimonies of change in so man people’s lives

What a great group, loving each other and our commitment to healthy living! We enjoyed shared meals and interaction with each other – this is some of our Juice Plus “family”!

This was so much FUN! …..we’re all looking forward to Phoenix, AZ in April for our JP Live Event!

January 17, 202 The Tampa RV Show Supershow!!

We drove over to Tampa Wednesday evening and registered for the Tampa RV Supershow. We spent all day Thursday walking and gawking! SO MANY RV’s -everything from little teardrops to huge Class A motor coaches ($500,000 and more !)

We found one we liked! Its from a new company – focusing on quality and simple designs. This was their Paradigm model from Alliance RV. It’s a 5th wheel (see pic on the left) – not ready to buy up yet – but maybe something for our future?

We found Buddy and Cindy Ward working the booth of Cypress Gardens RV Resort -Florida. It was so good to see them and visit for a while. We made plans to see them in Fort Myers when we move South to Lake Placid for our next SOWERS project. We also met this great couple from Colorado! very similar family and RV stories – its great to meet strangers and leave as friends!

January 27, 2020 Jim & Cindy Johnson

We spent a day with Jim & Cindy Johnson at their home in Crystal River, FL. We had a great lunch and enjoyed playing Mexican Train (dominoes) while visiting.

Meet “Henny”! This beautiful Herring spends a lot of time at Jim & Cindy’s. (It could be that Cindy likes to feed it pieces of Bologna once a day)!

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December 29 – January 3, 2020 Southern Palms RV Resort – Florida finally!

We were able to find an “RV Resort” very close to our next SOWER Project, only 35 minutes away 🙂 It was nice – but very close RV spaces. We had to utilize the space across the road from our spot in order to back in. We met our neighbors right away as they all came out to watch me back it in. UGH! We nipped the RV bumper of our neighbor with our trailer (while he watched and smiled) – no damage to his rig, but we lost a clearance light cover. (This is the same day as our truck -crunch on the highway!) Getting “spooked” about driving – just want to park it for a while. The neighbor was a great guy, after he learned of our eventful day, he gave me a man-hug and said “no problem” (Thank you God for sweet forgiving people you put in our lives!)

The next day we just hung around the RV park and “re-settled”. There was a couple that walked by and saw our damaged truck. They stopped to ask about it – and then shared that they had a great repair experience with a local Chevy Dealer (VanGannaway’s Chevrolet). It was like God was directing every step for us – That’s what He does!!

The gentleman in the bright shirt above is Bob. He happened to walk by – came over to say Hi and just plopped down in the adjacent chair by me and started talking (and talking, and talking…). He is a Christian, and had a lot to say about the world and how God was evident all around us, and was eagerly solving all the worlds problems with scripture. We had a great visit – it was so good to have a conversation about spiritual things!

The next day, we went for some “Fun-in-the Sun! We signed up for a two hour Cat-Boat Adventure. These boats were like a paddle boat – but with a 15-hs engine on the back! It included a tour of the Mount Dora Canal. Famous for a scenic water canal that winds though live oaks, connecting a couple of Florida lakes.

These fun little boats had some pick up and go! We flew from one end of the lake to the other – it was hard for our group of four couples to stay up with the tour guide – he was a lot of fun!

There were some pretty interesting sights along the way. We saw lots of wild life – even some bald eagles! We really enjoyed getting outdoors and doing something fun – we would do this again!!

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December 29, 2019 OH NO! Coming into Florida we had a “truck-crunch” on the highway.

Made it into Florida – ready for some Sunshine and looking forward to our warm winter months!

…and Crunch! We were traveling south on I-75 almost to Ocala. Our Google Maps suggested an alternate route to avoid a traffic accident up ahead – so we took the new route. We were now on 301 – which turned into 441, a very busy 4 lane highway with lots of entrances and exits. All of a sudden we saw red lights up ahead! Cars and trucks were breaking, we saw some cars swerving to miss other cars. We immediately stomped on the brakes as did the car in front of us. Unfortunately she “dead-stopped” in the middle of our lane! Even with the brakes locked up on the truck and on the trailer, I just couldn’t get stopped before hitting her rear end. IF ONLY 10 MORE FEET! We think we would not have hit her if we had a bit more room.

We learned that she had a pet cat in a cage which flew into her front seat when she stopped – so she was concerned about her cat. She could’ve keep moving with the traffic, but…. [Also learned that if we had a dash cam we could have replayed the incident and possibly not gotten a ticket]. Oh well – this is an “adventure” right!

We’re praising the Lord for watching over us! No one was hurt, and no other cars were involved. The traffic kept coming, so we had to move off of the highway into the median to get out of the way. We called our insurance companies and the Highway Patrol. While we waited, a Deputy Sheriff stopped to see if everyone was alright. Then we waited – and waited – finally called the highway patrol again, they said it could be a “little while” they were busy. We waited over an hour and a half before they showed up, and then it took another almost hour to write it up.

We cleaned up as best we could and she called a tow truck for her car. Our truck was drive able – It was good to get going again! We were finally headed to our next stop at Southern Palms RV Resort in Eustis, FL

UPDATE

Our insurance told us to take it to Gerber Collision Services for an estimate, which we did in Eustis, FL while we were camping there. Their estimate was done in about 7 minutes (!?!) and came in at around $3,000. Our insurance said we could get it fixed any where we wanted so we took it to a local Chevy Dealer (VanGannaway – a fun name!). They seemed very experienced and spent a good amount of time looking in and around the damage and found that the previous estimate was not inclusive of everything there was to be replaced. Also there was a check engine light on by now – they found the louvers for the steering cooling system were damaged as well. They also would have priority for new parts as they ordered them – so it was a good decision. The insurance was agreeable to pay whatever it cost.

We’re patiently waiting for all the parts to come in. Still waiting on the grill – ugh! There was a GM strike about six months ago and parts are not all ready yet. It’s so sad to see our truck without it’s “teeth” 🙂

We put close to 1,000 miles on this baby – a very nice ride!

OOPS! We learned that we didn’t have car rental on our insurance – not good! We had to rent a car in order to get around. We got the “best deal” on a weekly rate, but so far we’ve had the rental for over a month – yikes!

Total time with our rental car was 7 weeks – whew…no words!

Finale UPDATE!

It was a very happy reunion 🙂 !

February 17, 2020 – After 7 weeks, reunited with our “new” truck again! We got the call on the weekend, but couldn’t make the trip until Monday. We had to learn all over again how it drove – sweet times!

The timing was perfect, we needed to head north in 6 days. We weren’t sure what God had in store for us. Glad this adventure is over and all turned out grand!

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December 27-29, 2019 Reed Bigham State Park – Turtles!

Still in Georgia – traveling south to Florida. We stopped for a couple of nights at another GA State Park. This one had a huge lake with many hiking trails.

We set up camp and just relaxed (with some camp cooked meals of course!)

On one of our hikes we learned about Gopher Tortoises. These are fairly big turtles that dig some pretty big and deep burrows under ground. When the turtles are done with the “holes” other wild life move in and make use of them. Pretty interesting!

It was a beautiful area and very relaxing. Next time we can explore more trails!

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December 22-27, 2019 Fort Yargo & Christmas at Tate & Kimberly’s!

From the sea – we moved “inland”. Nearby Atlanta, GA there is a beautiful State Park called Fort Yargo. We were delighted to be in the forest again and the beautiful pines. We found out that we were only a mile outside of downtown Athens and nearby Bethlehem – with all of its busy city activity and traffic! This was our “base-camp” for the Christmas Season. We left our Travel Trailer and spent two days and a night in Anniston for Christmas!

We joined Tate & Kimberly and girls to their Christmas Eve service which included a candle light service and communion. The Church of the Highlands has 22 campuses scattered around Alabama – mainly centered at nearby Birmingham (Main Campus). Each campus hosts their own live service with the message streamed in from the main campus. Very upbeat and joyful, friendly people and solid message!

I wanted to remember this moment so here is a portion of their opening celebration! -they let it all out 🙂 It was good to be invited to join in with the joy, the praise, and the celebration of our Savior arriving on earth – what a moment that must have been!

We had a great time being with the “fam” – we played games, ate snacks, and Lorree photo-bombed the girls! !

The rest of our family had fun sending each other pictures and smiles for Christmas! We are so blessed to have a family that loves each other and stays in touch!

Some of the fun opening presents!

After presents and lunch – we enjoyed playing with the new gifts – lots of smiles and laughter!

We had a great Grilled Salmon dinner with all the fix’ns! Tate & Kimberly invited some close friends and families over to join us. We also got to be with Buddy & Cindy Ward for Christmas Day – it was great fun and fellowship!

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December 15-22, 2019 Adventures on Tybee Island & Savannah, GA! -River’s End Campground & RV Park

Ugh! Google maps did it again! Just exited off the highway and was immediately traveling through the historic district of Savannah with our 35 foot trailer! It was beautiful…BUT – very narrow streets, cars parked, people, traffic everywhere! We mentioned this at the Campground when we checked in and she said, “you must not have read your email we sent to you.” Here it is… ” PLEASE NOTE:     WE DO NOT RECOMMEND FOLLOWING GPS DIRECTIONS TO THE CAMPGROUND TRAVELING IN AN RV! ” — LOL! lesson learned!

Just east of Savannah about 20 minutes we drove to Tybee Island, had to watch for turtles!! (We never saw any). We’re at River’s End RV Park at the tip of Tybee Island. It is a commercial (owed by the city) RV Park with all the amenities. Everything is very nice, clean and comfortable. We enjoyed driving around town and found a great seafood restaurant “Sting Rays”. It was a nice day with sunshine – but still on the chilly side, low 60’s.

We ventured out on the beach in the afternoon. The tide must have been out – way out! lots of sand and very few people. We found a great swing on the beach and just relaxed together!

After 47 years (its our anniversary today!) we still have to take care of routine things like an ear/hair cut! (She didn’t -but we laughed cause some people were walking by when I did this!) Also took care of laundry and cleaning the trailer (doesn’t take very long 🙂 We are SO blessed to have a love that continues to grow each day with God adventures and sweet laughter to keep our days fun!

We toured Wormsloe – an area of land that has a significant history ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormsloe_Historic_Site ). t was amazing to walk down the tree shrouded land and learn the intricate details of history from a live guide!

Almost every day, we had a great time getting together with friends! Sharon and Jim Lucas, Tim and Kim Osborn , Richard and Lucy Warren, Mike and Trina Crescenzi, and who is that mystery lady? (…at Paula Dean’s restaurant 🙂 )

We spent one day just touring Savannah using the hop-on-hop-off Trolley . We learned a lot about the early history of the Colonies. Savannah was originally laid out in “squares” with houses and important community buildings built around them. Johnson Square was the first square in Savannah and was used by many prominent men as a speaking platform.

It was fun to see these sights and spend time walking around – there’s more to come back for!

To celebrate our 47 Anniversary we enjoyed a night on the town! After supper at the campground, we traveled into Savannah – first stop was the famous Leopold’s Ice Cream shop! A great example of the “American Dream” – te ice cream was sooo good!

Then we went to the Theater! Over 200 years old – longest running theater in the United States!

The show was “Christmas Traditions” – a variety of Christmas music from serious to funny to acrobatic. They made it very special by focusing the evening on Christ’s birth – the true meaning of Christmas!

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December 11-15, 2019 A bit dreary inside and out -General Coffee State Park, GA

As we drove through Georgia, we saw more and more cotton fields. It was harvest time and the cotton was being gathered and put into these very large cotton bales. It was amazing to see these lined up for miles!

So, Dennis decided he was hungry while getting gas. The thing is he ordered this! How was he expecting to eat this while driving? Good thing he has a willing (and gracious!) wife!

This was a very wooded and peaceful state park. We have been blessed with many scenic camping spots! The next few days were forecast to be rainy and colder (40-50’s).

We stayed dry and warm in our trailer. We’ve come to really like our home on wheels – it fits us just right!

Oh… Lorree just didn’t feel good for a couple of days. She had a fever and sleep most of the time. She did feel better on and off and continued her Christmas sewing work – if was good to see her up and at-em when she had the energy!

Dennis was able to get caught up with the blogging. We didn’t get outside much, but we accomplished a lot while indoors. Looking forward to some sunshine again!

Its amazing what a day of Christmas “cheesy” movies and some hot chicken noodle soup will do for ya! Lorree was up and making cinnamon almonds before long!

This was a nice place – we’ll have to consider coming back when us and the weather are bright and feeling good!

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December 8-11, 2019 The Mounds! Kolomoki State Historical Park, GA

This was another peaceful spot – and we were very curious as to what “the mounds” were all about. We learned through the visitor center, short film, and museum that the man made mounds are here left over from the Kolomoki peoples who built them for burial ceremonies and temple worship.

The main Temple Mound was quite impressive considering it was built with dirt by hand. There is a nearby ravine that is thought to have been created by the removal of dirt, bucket by bucket, for this mound!

We had quite a bit of rain and colder weather here. Lorree took advantage of the down time and started sewing Christmas gifts. Dennis waited until after the rain to wash the truck – first washing since we bought it!