Today, we slept a little late, but then got up and took the coach with all the animals, and the Roadhog (our runaround vehicle of choice) to The Henry Ford. The day was spent in Greenfield Village and then the tour of the Rouge Factory. (the plant that makes Ford F-150 pick-up trucks)
The Village is 900 acres of beautiful scenery, old model Ts and lots of quaint, antique and historical buildings. Even the theater where Linclon was shot! Did you know that Henry Ford started working for Thomas Edison in his Illumination Shop? The Wright Brothers Bicycle Shop is here, too.
We rode our Roadhog around the whole Village, a real blessing, I don't think I could have done all that walking!
Then we took a bus to the tour of the Factory, the production line was not running...they are on M-Thurs. 2, 10 hr. shifts. They produce 1,100 vehicles in a 24 hour period. That's a lot of vehicles. We saw a movie, showing the way it all started, the assembly line, etc. Henry was against the Union, but they eventually won out. The plant is entirely self-contained...he made his own steel, windshields, etc.
No wonder he did okay during the war.
Tomorrow, we plan to go to the Museum, The IMAX and the automotive Hall of Fame. Then, if we have time, we're going by Kalitta Motor Sports. Years ago, Jimmy used to have an air freight company and we did a lot of the maintenance on his airplanes. Connie Kalitta's airplane hanger used to be 1/2 airplanes and 1/2 dragsters......I'm sure it's a little different, now.

We found another Silverton 453 in Connecticut, so we started driving that way and spent the night in RiverDale Camp, another really quaint campground in the middle of the forest, but close to the water. Decided to stay another day, it was so nice, plan to head out tomorrow, south, I think.

We spent the night in the Wawaloam Campground. This was the view from our window....neat, huh? It reminded us of the Resort in "Dirty Dancing"....however, the 50 amp power didn't hold up, so we were stuck using the 30 amp, meaning one air conditioner and having to start the generator, just to run the blowdryer! ha! Needless to say, we pulled out the next morning. Went to see the boat in Warwick, a Silverton 453...

Driving through Washinton and then New York City, even on a Sunday, was an absolute nightmare...especially in a 45 foot bus! The highways are marked poorly, sometimes make no sense in their direction and the TRAFFIC!!!
Anyway, we finally made it to West Kingston, R.I......really pretty, lots of tall trees and many little, narrow, roads....like the "road less traveled" picture, above.

On our drive up the east coast, we stopped in Little River, South Carolina to visit our friends from Australia who recently bought a really cool Trawler that they plan to live on and travel in for awhile.(when they're not having to go home). What is wrong with the immigration system?
Anyway, we enjoyed a couple of days visiting with them, then continued driving north.

We drove most of the day , Monday, to Summerfield.....pulled in the RV park just in time to go to sleep. Tuesday we did some running around, met Gerry (Kaye's assistant) and got our tickets for the show at 7:00 pm.

About 6:15 we left for The Villages, which is an entire community of about 70,000 people who drive golf carts everywhere! Amazing place, every kind of store you could think of, dr's offices, theaters, restaurants and Kaye was doing her show at the Church on the Square. A sellout crowd of 800 people, it was quite an event!

Kaye came out, sang, told stories and showed some great video of some of the USO shows in Vietnam where she went with Bob Hope, Joey Heatherton, Anita Bryant, Jill St. John, Janis Page, Anna Maria Albergetti.....etc. the list goes on...but Kaye was one of the main ones. ( my apologies to anyone under 40...I'm sure you don't remember these names).

After the show, we met out back for a meet and greet and some birthday cake. Spent most of the day, today with Kaye, plan to have breakfast, then hit the road, North.

We are going to Little River, South Carolina.

We stopped in Destin, to see my aunt Lorene. her daughter, Shirley and her new husband Ed. (Ed's mom Yvonne, is also living there). They live in a nice house on the water, with a boat dock. We had a nice visit, they fixed dinner, and then we went back to the bus for the night.

Well....off we go on the next big adventure! We left on Friday, to go to Summerfield, Florida for our friend Kaye Stevens' birthday bash and her show "Bob Hope and Me", where she was going to sing and tell stories of her days in the USO with Bob Hope in Vietnam.

Along the way, we stopped at the rest area on the border of Mississippi and saw the Lunar Landing vehicle...there's a NASA building and museum there. We drove on to Pensacola and spent the night. Then, while I was on Facebook, chatting with my nephew...he reminded me that our cousin and aunt had just moved to Destin, Florida and "wasn't I going to visit them?".....ha!ha!

that wasn't the plan then...but it was now!

We have been home all week, getting a lot of paperwork done and still dealing with the insurance company about the lightening strike (on May 2nd). All said and done (that we have found) the damage comes out to some $13000.00! Let's see if they cut us a check.....don't ever use SAFECO...Liberty Mutual bought them and they have been a bear to deal with! As soon as this is over, we're changing!

We plan to leave on Friday to go to our friend Kaye Stevens' birthday and a show that she is performing in, in Summerfield, Florida.

Then, Jimmy wants to look at another boat, we have a friend that would like to buy ours. I'll write more on that, later. Not sure of our schedule....kind of depends on the trucks and drivers.....I think we've just about gone through all the vacations, this year, so we should have a full crew, now....allowing us to be gone for awhile. We have to be in Bristol, Tn. for the NASCAR race by August 19th....so don't know if we will come home, between, or just stay gone.

Today was spent in the pool, since the heat is sooooo unbearable....102 degrees!!

Click on this for a great fireworks show at Possum Kingdom Lake!

Well... 4th of July weekend got here! We had some friends, Janet and Robert Spracklen, come out on the 3rd and we had a nice day to hang out, before the madness of the 4th took over. The doggies enjiyed floating on Jimmy's Island too!

My brother and his wife came out to visit, from El Paso, for a couple of weeks. It was a nice visit, we did all the usual things, rented some movies to watch, went to Cabela's and Bass Pro Shop and then he had go to bike shops, etc. We went to the lake for 3 days...they slept on the couches in the front of the bus...they fold into beds. And we had all the animals with us....along with their little lhasa apso....and had no bad happenings! (she and Nikki don't get along). Then they went home on the 3rd.

AHHHHHH.....boats! Or should I say AUGHHH! June 13th weekend, we headed out to the lake,and our friend Alan came out in his motorhome. Once we were set up at the campground, we headed to dinner, then the next day, out to the lake on the big boat.

One of the two engines had some kind of coil or module problem, but we could still go out on the one engine. We went to the popular hang out, called Hell's Gate, and dropped anchor. We jumped into the water, and in a few minutes, noticed that the boat was leaving........Possum Kingdom is a rock bottomed lake and pretty impossible to get an anchor hooked, as opposed to mud. So.....load back up and move to another spot to drop anchor. Well....after 3 times!!!!!! we finally got it to catch. We swam most of the afternoon, and while Alan was looking around at the engines (as guys do) he asked Jimmy where the prop shaft was. Jimmy said " It's right.....there...." Yep, you guessed it....missing. It had slid backwards due to the water pushing on the "non-moving" prop when we only used one engine! Now, we decide that we need to ease back home and pray we don't lose that prop shaft.

Easier said than done...NOW the anchor won't pull up! We tried driving forward, backward, sideways....slowly, faster, Jimmy pulling on the rope and wrapping it around the cleats on the boat each time. After about 45 minutes and going around in circles (and half the people in the lake watching) Jimmy was on the nose of the boat, Alan was driving and I was sitting in the back.

POW! the nose of the boat went up about 3 feet in the air....the rope broke and the anchor is in the bottom of the lake!

So....here we are, one engine, prop shaft almost fallen out and no anchor....so we headed home. The wind was pretty bad, so when we got to our boat slip. it was quite interesting, backing in. We went back out and dropped a small anchor with a float tied to it, so that the scuba divers that we asked....could possibly retrieve our big anchor.......when they went to get it....someone stole the float!!! People!!