9/11/2011 WE REMEMBER! WE’LL NEVER FORGET!

Ten years ago today life changed. For every American. Our world, as we Americans knew it, was rocked to its very foundation.

I have been thinking about the post for this day for the last several. Would I be able to say what I wanted and have you, the reader, feel my gut, my heart? Would I find the words to convey what that day and what this day mean to me? I drew a blank. The words I wanted, I needed, wouldn’t come.

Thanks to a friend of mine I have the words. No, they aren’t mine, they’re his. The Adjutant General for the Delaware National Guard wrote a letter to our National Guard family and it spoke to me. I thought to myself that is exactly what I wanted to say, to give a parallel to show the magnitude of what we lived through that day, certainly something none of my peers could relate to but were well aware of all the same. I couldn’t find that connection on my own and he provided it. 9/11 is our Pearl Harbor.

The rest of his words, pure perfection. I emailed him and asked if I could print his letter here. He answered quickly with "SURE!”

So please, read the letter from my friend, Major General Frank Vavala.

To my Delaware National Guard Family,

It is fitting that we reflect on the words of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who said it best when our sovereignty, our homeland, was heinously, and without threat or warning, attacked on December 7, 1941. He called the strike on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, "a day that will live in infamy." Equally so, September 11, 2001, will live in infamy in the hearts and minds of every American today. For on this day ten years ago, more than 3000 United States citizens, and citizens from many other countries around the world, were senselessly slaughtered in the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor. It was the greatest wartime loss of life on our soil since the Civil War.

As the initial sting of the attack fades and the news of our current conflicts continue, we must never forget the events and, most importantly, the heroes of that day. We must never forget the citizens, the firefighters and the law enforcement officers who lost their lives. And subsequently, we must never forget the countless members of our military who have lost their lives since then in our battle against the forces bent on the destruction of our country. We must continue to pray for the countless friends and family members who continue to grieve their loss; especially on this day.

We remember! We will never forget!

FRANCIS D. VAVALA

Major General

The Adjutant General, Delaware

General, Thank you for letting me re-print your letter.

9/8/2011 Yet Another Feast!

We know our time together is drawing to an end. For awhile anyway. I know we’ll see Joy and DeWayne again about a month after we leave here. It's hoped that Jerry and Valerie will be joining us after Thanksgiving or maybe right after Christmas. This isn’t for sure yet, they have to work some things out before they can commit.

All the same, our FamCamp time is ending soon and its like we are spending as much time as possible together before we part. We have all become that close, that good of friends.

Jerry cooked for us again tonight. Meatloaf over linguini lightly sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese. To. Die. For.

You never heard so much moaning and sighing during a meal as this one. Every bite brought pleasure. Whether it was the main course, the crisp salad fixin’s or the garlic bread baked to perfection.

I am so impressed with Jerry’s cooking that I started plotting Valerie’s death so I could marry him. I ran this idea by him and he said, “Ok, but let me up the payoff of her life insurance policy first!” Ahhhh,,,true love!

Anybody watching baseball? How ‘bout them Phillies? Are they HOT or what? This may prove to be a very enjoyable fall for me and Bob!

9/7/2011 Time is Getting Short

Shortimers. That’s us. Just nine days to go before we pull out of here.

All of us have started getting ready to tear down for the trip to our next destinations. We’re heading to Arizona, Joy and DeWayne are heading to Oklahoma for a short time and Jerry and Valerie are heading to Wyoming for a few days before moving on further south.

I have started going through drawers to see what, if anything, I can get rid of, and of course straightening as I go along.

Bob has had the truck worked on getting the oil changed and fluids all checked.

We got a new GPS. Our old one was just too confused all the time with all the new roads that have been built and changes made. We couldn’t get any new updates for it so it was time to retire her.

We stuck with Garmin but this one has all the latest bells and whistles and lifetime updates. I wonder if that’s our lifetime or Doris the GPS’s lifetime?

Instead of this one just talking to us, we can now talk to it and it hopefully will know what we want. This should be interesting!

One feature I don’t care for so far is that it tells us how much it costs us in fuel each time we go somewhere. For instance, to go to the shoppette here on base (think 7-11) which is little more than a stone’s throw away, it tells us it cost us 49 cents in fuel. Yes, I know I said stone’s throw but don’t think of it as ME throwing the stone, think of it as Cliff Lee of the Phillies throwing it. THAT far away. Yes, we could and should be walking there but in our defense we always buy heavy things from there. Think cases of beer.

Bob has our route all plotted,,,,again! Every few days he works on this and we end up going a different way. I leave that up to him, that’s his job. If it was up to me I would draw a straight line from Point A to Point B and would pick that route. He’s all about steep grades, low overpasses, state roads vs. freeways. Like I said, that’s his job! He’s good at it so I leave well enough alone.

He took these pictures of this little bird this afternoon. We don’t know if it was hurt or not. It didn’t fly away or even seem scared no matter how close Bob got.

We hit the half full occupancy rate. The season is winding down.

9/5/2011 Labor Day 2011

Ah, Labor Day. The un-official end of summer. The last day of summer rates for motels at the beach. The day when thoughts turn to school, and kids soccer games, and closing the pool and getting ready for fall.

By definition Labor Day is: Labor Day is a United States Federal Holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers.

Back in the day, when this holiday was first proposed, the idea of Labor Day was to celebrate with a parade and have speeches by prominent men and women of business and then follow up with a celebratory festival. That worked back then. Do they even have Labor Day parades anymore?

Labor Day was the also the day that marked the last day for women to wear white for the year. That rule fell by the wayside.

Today, Labor Day is all about a three day weekend, usually a BBQ, perhaps a day at the beach or the lake or doing whatever is fun for your family.

Here in the FamCamp, we had a BBQ. Not a camp-wide BBQ, just the six of us, but what a meal we had!

Jerry and Bob took turns at the grill and cooked up our filet mignons wrapped in bacon.

Here’s Jerry letting me know he has a spatula!

In addition to the filets we also had baked potatoes, green bean almandine and salad. A feast for sure!

Bob and I have been so fortunate to make friends with these two couples. We all get along so well and have truly become good friends.

9/4/2011 Shoddy, Shoddy, Workmanship!

We miss our Newmar 5th wheel! That was a quality recreational vehicle! We didn’t have any problems with that unit. It was solidly built and we couldn’t see any corners that had been cut.

Carriage,,,,eh, not so much. We paid more money for this Carriage than we did for the Newmar but boy the workmanship just isn’t there.

For example, a couple of weeks ago Bob noticed a gap between the microwave/convection oven and the frame around it. Upon further inspection he found out why. You are just not going to believe this! The oven was falling down away from its support!

This is what it looked like when he took the oven out.

Here’s another view giving you an idea of how big (and heavy) an appliance goes in this space.

Take notice of the bright rectangle you see, that is the vent to the outside. Take further notice that there is no, for the lack of a better term, weather-stripping around it. Nothing to close the gap between the back of the oven and the vent. Something that should be there.

Now the real surprising part. The oven was screwed in place to a quarter inch piece of plywood. A quarter inch piece of plywood! Are they nuts?

Needless to say, Bob put in much sturdier supports for this heavy oven.

Valerie told us that they have a friend whose oven fell down from the same space before they even got to their first campground after picking it up. Somehow I’m not surprised.

Bob also put the needed weather-stripping in place.

I’m really sorry to say that Bob has had too much work to do around this brand new rig. Not really huge jobs but ones that he shouldn’t have had to do.

I have pictures of everything he has done, I think I’m going to find out how to write and send pictures to the president of Carriage. I wonder if he would care?

9/3/2011 A Cold Front Comes Through

I can’t believe its Labor Day Weekend already. Don’t get me wrong, I’m GLAD its Labor Day weekend because that means we’re outta here soon. Looking back, the summer did kind of fly by but all the same it just means fall is around the corner.

We’ve been hearing for the last few days that a cold front was coming through and that it was going to cool down to the low to mid 70’s. This is welcomed, believe me. We’re tired of mid-90 temps. In fact, the front came through last night and now this 72 degree day seems almost chilly.

Jerry decided to cook dinner for all of us tonight and he made his Italian chicken soup. Hmmmm, Hmmmm, GOOD! GREAT!

I like these get together meals. I made the salad and Joy brought desert and of course we had bread. Good food, good times, good friends.

As you can see by the sweatshirts, the weather has cooled considerably since yesterday.

Ghost wants soup too!

Once the sun went down it didn’t take us long to all go home!

9/1/2011 See You Soon Dianne!

Dianne left today to go home.

Before I get into today, let me tell you what we did last night. Joy and DeWayne took me and Dianne with them to Mount Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony.

We saw an awesome sunset from the road.

We get Mount Rushmore and get inside the ice cream store just 30 seconds before they locked the doors. Talk about cutting it close!

So we make our way to the amphitheater and get settled in for the program. A Park Ranger gave a talk about Mount Rushmore and we watched a movie about the presidents of Mount Rushmore. The Park Ranger then invited all military members past and present to join her on the stage. DeWayne and I went to the stage where the lowering of the flag took place. People from the audience gave us a round of thunderous applause and we heard THANK YOU time and time again. There was one World War II veteran with us. The whole experience made my heart swell with pride.

After we returned to our seats the monument was lit.

Oh, what a sight to behold.

I am so glad that they decided to take this trip while Dianne was still here and she could enjoy this too.

So on with today. Dianne got herself packed first thing this morning and somehow couldn’t get the suitcase closed and ended up mailing her dirty laundry home.

Since her plane didn’t take off until 3:30 we had plenty of time to get one more game of Mexican Train in before our trip to the airport.

Valerie and Joy accompanied us to the airport. It was a workday for Bob and I so Bob held down the fort while I made the airport run.

I hate goodbyes. I really, really hate goodbyes.

Me and Di at the airport.

Us girls, taken by a nice man in the airport. Dianne, Joy, Valerie and me.

A final hug,,,,final for this trip.

Farewell my friend, safe travels, miss you already.

See ya, girlfriend.

I’m so glad we had this week!