Family and Friends

Creekside Estates
Weirton, WV 

Our daughter, Nikki, had to go out of town for training for her new job this week so she invited us over for a meal on Sunday.  As busy as they are, they still had time for us old foggys 

It was great seeing their kids, Olivia and Levani.  They are at that age where they've grown a lot since we saw them.  Can you imagine all of them together at one time in their busy schedule?  

Nicky, Levani, Olivia, Nikki

Yep, it's confusing with us as we call son in law, Nicky and daughter Nicole, Nikki.  Sometimes when Bill and I are talking with each other we will say He Nicky and She Nikki so we know who we're talking about. 

One place we always make it a point to visit while we are in the Ohio Valley is Coleman's Fish Market in Wheeling.

We gave Ron Smith a call and told him we were going to Wheeling and we would picked him up a short time later.  

They have a huge menu but most everyone gets a fish sandwich.  

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You stand in a moving line to order and by the time you walked through your order is ready for you.

I was looking at their 100 year anniversary photos on the wall.  The building used to be an old train station in the middle of Wheeling, WV.  There are some art shops and some other food places but Coleman's is a favorite of most.  As a matter of fact, all the seats were taken and we had to walk down to another food stand to find a table.  

It doesn't look like much, but it is very good and there's nothing that can compare with it.

I cropped this photo as I'm still trying to find a photo of Bill and me for the Montana Owners Club Fall Rally booklet.

I guess I'll keep trying, Miss Vicki. 

Ron wanted us to stop and say hi to his sister, Joyce.  We hadn't met her new husband, George, but we both instantly liked him.  

Right after we got home daughter, Misty, called and said she was coming for a visit.  We enjoyed visiting with her and lost track of time.  This is what we love best when coming back to West Virginia.  Everyone dropping by for a visit.

Ron came over yesterday for dinner.  He announced he was leaving this morning.  We enjoyed visiting with him.  I'm sure life hasn't been easy for him since his wife, Gay, died but nothing has ever been easy for Ron during his lifetime.  He always accomplished so much and worked harder than most to achieve success.  We're confident, he'll work hard at getting past this and on with his life.  I might also say, he
will get that done sooner than most people in the same position.  His middle name is "success".  The hardest thing for Ron right now, is to believe in himself.

Sorry I was enjoying our visit so much, I didn't get a photo.

This morning Bill was just getting dressed, when John Care knocked at our door.  It's always nice to visit with John either here or in Arizona.  Once again, I forgot to take a photo, but John will be back.

As Bill and I walked outside to say good by to John, he saw this all over his truck.

I must say we couldn't figure out where the bird do do came from.  The truck hasn't been under a tree.  Bill looked up and the whole front of the coach is covered in bird poop.  Still no trees or power lines near us.  Guess what Bill is doing now?

Turtle Safely......,..

Fried Green Tomatoes

Creekside Estates
Weirton, WV 

Our days continue to be busy visiting family and friends.  Yesterday, Shay called us to come over for fried green tomatoes made from tomatoes from her garden.  We didn't hesitate except to stop and pick up a birthday cake for her.  

 Birthday girl, Shay is in the center with left to right, Jenna, Taylor, Courtney, Anthony, Bill and Misty.

Courtney, Taylor and Jenna are enjoying hugs from Bill.

I just love it when we are invited for food.  There was a lot of laughter especially about the half and half.

The birthday girl enjoyed cooking for everyone. Shay said that makes her happiest.   

They were delicious and I even got a to go batch which I'm not sharing.

Bill, Misty, Doug and Shay.

Misty gave us a marriage saver.

I'll still probably squeeze from the top.

I thought I had a photo of Jenna's new ride, but I guess we were so busy talking we didn't take one.

All to quickly it was time to go as we had the "all class" reunion to attend.

The appetizers were delicious.  The food was excellent and I liked the way they had the salad and pasta served at the table and then you went through the buffet line.  

Didn't take very many pictures but the room was decorated very nicely.

I believe the oldest class represented was 1938 and the last class to graduate from Follansbee High School was 1969.

Bill was surprised when he realized that he and Ron were the only males from his class.  It's a shame that the local graduates don't seem to attend.  

Some of you that glanced at this picture of Bill and I will think how fancy we dressed.  Actually, Bill is wearing a T-shirt.

His kind of dressing up.  

Turtle Safely.......

1953 and 1954

Creekside Estates
Weirton, West Virginia

It must be the time of the year, because the days seem to get shorter and shorter.  We had a beautiful drive from Virginia up the West Virginia turnpike.  I was surprised that the auto rate for the turnpike was $2.00 but the fifth wheel only added 50 cents.  The weather was gorgeous and we didn't even need the air conditioning.  

I bought this T-shirt at the rest area on the turnpike. I thought it was appropriate for a Montana Mountaineer owner.  I must say it was a very nice gift shop with everything made in America and most of it from West Virginia craftsmen.

Normally, we would have made a stop to visit a capital but we weren't in our exploring mode.  We needed to be in West Virginia by Friday and we've seen this one before.

Our plan was to stay in Marietta, Ohio at the fairground.  Once we got to the turnoff, it was about a 45 degree angle and a no left turn sign.  We continued up the road looking for a place to turn around.  

The next thing I knew we were headed to Cambridge.  It turned out to be about 250 miles which is over our "two, two, two rule."  The rule is, no more than 200 miles, stay two days and arrive by 2 pm.  We stayed at Springhill RV and lucky for us this time, didn't have a site near the interstate noise.  

It was only 70 miles to our next day's destination, Weirton, West Virginia.  I forgot how narrow, curvy and steep the roads are.  We are staying at a defunct mobile home park.  The rates are $400 per month with 50 amp service.   

The "owner" is only available by phone and there is a box to leave your payment.

There aren't any regular sites, you just park where you can reach the electric and sewer.  The only problem is the box has your typical 50/30/20 hook up which is shared with another coach.  All the other fifth wheels are "frackers" from Mississippi.  I must say they are never around until after dark and then they get together at one person's barbecue for food and drinks.  They work some long hours.

Bill's best friend, Ron Smith, who he's known since grade school, arrived shortly after we were set up.  He drove up from Florida to meet us here.  It was great seeing him.  He lost his wife, Gay, in May and it was important to see him.  Actually, it's the only reason we changed our mind and came back for the reunion.  He's working hard to get past this devastating event and I'm sure it isn't easy.  

Last night was Bill's class mixer.  There are so few people 

left that they combined the class of 53 and 54.   

Here's Bill with the twins, Mary Anne and Marian.  

The food was plentiful and very good.

Here's Ron Smith, Norma Thomaselli Henson and Bill.

Here's Marian, Shirley Wood and Mary Ann.  They're so happy because they went to the bar and one of the "frackers" bought five women from the groups drinks.  They said he wasn't even born in 1954.

The "frackers" live at the Holiday Inn.  The parking lot is full of oil tankers everywhere.  

It was great fun and tonight is the "All Class Reunion" for Follansbee High School.  More fun to come......

Turtle Safely.......

Virginia

Fort Chiswell RV Park
Max Meadows, Virginia
Site #41

How can you be so busy you don't have time to blog and then when you do, there's not a whole lot you can say?

We had a wonderful pot luck on Sunday night.  Once again the weather was great.  

We were so busy talking, laughing and eating that we didn't get many photos taken.

I can't believe how much food we can pile onto a plate.  Lucky for me, I was able to run off some of that food as Larry had asked if I would help as a prize runner. The prize drawing was directly after the potluck.

Larry Sessoms was in charge of the prize drawing.  He had a whole stage full of gifts donated from Camping World. Coleman also donated a lot of nice prizes.  Every single person at the rally won a prize.  After everyone had a prize, they went through the tickets again.  We walked away with three prizes. 

Thank you to all the businesses that donated.  I can't believe I didn't take a photo of the stage full of prizes.

Sunday we went down to a shopping area a couple of blocks away.  I've been wanting a light quilted bedspread and I'm constantly dragging Bill into the stores to try and find one.  Every time I see a pattern I like, it turns out to be a comforter.  Bedspreads are hard to find.  I also wanted something not slinky and washable.  Another requirement was a light background but not stark white.  

The real kicker was Belk's had it for 40% off.

Marilyn came down and suggested we go shopping Monday morning to find some material to make window coverings.  We ended up going to Walmart and found some fabric.  When we returned, LC came down and invited us to lunch.  
A little over an hour later, Marilyn came down with the completed curtains.  I'll take a photo of them tomorrow to post, as I left the camera in the truck.

We had happy hour on our patio with the Boyer's and the group kept growing all evening long.  I couldn't believe the time, when we finally went inside.

There was a catered breakfast this morning for the rally but since Bill and I knew we had to leave a day early, we decided to skip it and get on the road early.  

I must say Chip and Lynn Rice and Patti and Scott Luciano were great wagon masters.  They had different activities--a gun range outing, golf, moonshine tasting, and a dinner theater outing.  The rally packets were well done and I loved the attendees site maps.  They really went out of there way to have a great rally.  I didn't mention that although this a Montana Rally the regional rallies do allow SOB's (some other brand).  

I drove today over I 40 and I 81.  We don't usually do the interstates, but today was a "from point A to point B" day. There were a lot of vehicles on the road.  It seems like there were more trucks than cars.   

I forgot to mention that I couldn't park the coach in a pull through.  The site is right next to the pool but up this grass hill.  It was so steep, I couldn't see over the hood of the truck.  It's just a short piece of concrete to park on.  I had it too far right and not all of the level up would have been on the concrete.  There's a big drop off from the concrete.  It was so steep coming up onto the concrete that the level ups were only about an inch from hitting the concrete.     I gladly handed the keys to Bill and he circled around and parked it.  

Since it was a travel day, we dined out.

Turtle Safely......

Moonshine

River Plantation
Sevierville, Tennessee
Site #133

The Montana Owners Club--Mid Atlantic Rally continues to be a lot of fun. Friday night  there was a dinner and show in Pigeon Forge at the Majestic Theater.  

The Majestic had a great dinner buffet which everyone enjoyed.  They also just acquired their liquor license a couple of weeks ago. 

The show was great and we loved the music.

The audience was really enjoying all the songs and dances.  

Every night there is a campfire, but with Bill's breathing problems, we don't go.  Actually, by that time, we are exhausted anyway. 

Yesterday we visited with our MOC friends and enjoyed the great weather before our moonshine tasting.  Being our age, it was nice when they needed to see our driver's license before we could taste.  Can you believe our hostess was 42 years old?

We've been to a lot of tastings before, but The Old Forge Moonshine Distillery is the best.  There were 14 different moonshines we tasted.  The first three were unflavored but very strong.  The other eleven were different flavors.  I only found one flavor I didn't like and that was apple pie.  There were two cinnamon flavors and one that tasted like red hot candies. I think banana foster was one of my favorites.   After tasting the other eleven flavors our hostess mixed the banana foster flavor and the chocolate, the coffee with cream, and then one flavor, sorry I can't remember what the name was, with orange soda that tasted like a creamsicle.  That made 17 different tastes.  Needless to say, at this point there were a lot of happy RVers.   

Did you notice that I didn't blog last night?  I wonder what was the reason?  Do you think 17 tastes of moonshine, could be the reason?  One thing I can say, is I feel great today.  No headache, must be great quality moonshine.

One thing all the MOC (Montana Owners Club) members love, is showing off their coaches.  Today is the official open houses, but some of us did some early viewing last night.  

One thing I failed to mention is how nice the rally packets were done by our wagonmasters, Chip and Lynne Rice.  They have a diagram of the RV sites with the names and site numbers.  It's always difficult to find someone when all the coaches look alike.  They also have the schedule printed up and in your name badge, so you don't have to go back to your coach and grab the paper schedule to find out what activity is going on.  

Turtle Safely.......