It’s Bar-B-Que time in the FamCamp. Last week we started inviting campers to a BBQ being held in our yard in honor of our country’s birthday. We invited ones who had been here at least a week and would continue to stay at least through the 5th. In such a small community as 30 RV sites you get friendly with people pretty quickly.
The morning dawned bright and sunny but the weatherman said rain was coming. We debated on telling everyone we would have a BBQ lunch vs. a BBQ dinner. Some were gone for the day so we decided we would just take our chances and go with the original plan. We ended up with about 22 campers/friends joining us.
Luckily, the rain held off and we had a great time. I happen to be inside at 5 p.m. but I heard retreat playing and when I looked outside this is what I saw. These military retirees and spouses standing tall this 4th of July as the Retreat finished and the Star Spangled Banner played. I get goose bumps all over again as I think about it.
Everyone was asked to bring whatever meat they wanted to grill and a dish to share. I don’t know how it happens but we always seem to have too much food. Maybe its because Bob and I offered up potato salad, this squash dish I make and a few other munchie things and Valerie across the street made a couple of things and Pat brought two dishes of her offering, take my word for it, nobody went away hungry and if they did it was their own fault.
Tony Quinn (no relation) bringing a much waited for veggie tray.
Tony and his wife, Lynn (below) are here in the FamCamp because their daughter just had a baby two weeks ago and her husband is deploying to the Middle East in two weeks. They came to help with the baby and help them pack up their belongings since their daughter is going home to Florida for the six months her husband will be gone. I hate to see them go, they are what you would call good people.
This is Claire, what a character she is. She retired 10 years ago at age 65 and moved to Colorado to become a snow bunny. She found a part time job at a ski resort which afforded her free lift tickets and for five years she was on the slopes. Tired of that she moved back to Texas and heard about RV’ing and that some widows and widowers hook up and travel together. She was given a Highways magazine and called some of the ads that women had placed to see what kind of response they got, she heard good things so placed an ad in January of 06. The lady got 149 responses! In her words, “I met some gems and I met some jerks!” None of them knocked her socks off though and when April came she took off on a country tour visiting her children in various states.
Enter Bill. (In blue, every pic he’s in his head is down or his back is to me)
Bill had lost his wife the year before and was an RV’er who wanted to get back on the road. He was thumbing through a seven month old copy of Highway’s magazine and a certain personal ad of a fellow Texan just JUMPED OUT at him. He wrote a letter to the address provided but didn’t hear anything back. So intrigued was he by the ad he wasn’t giving up. Now Bill had a friend who was a private detective and he gave the address to his friend and said, “Tell me what you can about her”. Well, a week later his buddy called him and told Bill her phone number. Bill called several times but always got an answering machine. Finally Bill took off on a two hour ride and found himself at a gated community. He told the fellow at the gate that he was a friend of Claire’s and that he had been calling and never got an answer. The gate attendant said something to the effect that “that’s our Claire, always taking off and not telling everybody.” Bill learned that she would be back the following month. Long story short, Claire was also intrigued by his letter and they agreed to meet. The rest, as they say, is history. The two still maintain separate homes two hours apart but travel for four months at a time with a two or three month break in between jaunts. They are having a ball!
Dann and Pat, these two we became fast friends with and plan on spending the winter with them. Pat is from Australia and the weeks they were here I tried to teach her to speak American English.
She is so fun to talk with. I get so tickled when she says something like “I feel it in my waters that (whatever) is going to happen. Sometimes she’ll be telling me something and use all kinds Australian (slang) English and when she’s done, I don’t have a clue what she said! Oh the laughs we’ve had. Actually, Pat lived here for eight years and then they moved to Australia for five years. These two met over the Internet thirteen year ago and she said when she came to the US to meet Dann that his family was afraid she was a gold digger and her family was afraid he was an axe murderer! Bob and I are so glad we met this couple. Pat is just starting a blog and when she gets it up and running I’ll let you know.
This is Jerry, I’m not sure what is going on here but it looks like a definite palm meet forehead moment.
Jerry is a sci-fi aficionado. Ask him what year a movie was made, he can tell you, wanna know who starred in it, who the director was, ask Jerry. This new friend of ours has introduced us to Blue-Ray. I had no idea what a difference this would make in the movies you watch. He had an extra Blue-Ray DVD player so he is going to hook it up in our place so we can watch some of our own movies on it and he’s lending us several of theirs so that we can decide if we want to buy one or not. Did you know that your DVD’s players can be “adjusted” for an even better picture? We didn’t!
Ahhh, Valerie. Her and Jerry are husband and wife and we have become friends with them and this friendship will go beyond South Dakota. They are giving serious thought to wintering with us and Dann and Pat. If not for the whole season at least a few months. We hope so but if not, I know we’ll hook up again!
Dann is an excellent griller!
Time to eat!
After a pretty awesome day celebrating our country with new friends, good food, great conversation, well, I couldn’t think of better way to end our evening than with a spectacular sunset.
What a fun 4th of July this was.
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