NCT PA STATE RALLY

This year the PA state NCT rally was July 14 to the 17 at Centre Hall, PA. We shared the fair grounds with the Quarterhorse show.

Del Val prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner.

The craft project was making cards. Everyone that did if really enjoyed it and had a good time. I would have like to have made them but we went to the Nittany Winery. They have my favorite wine, Tailgate Red and Mountain Blush, so we have to stock it in when we are in the area.

Jane Turner taught me how to crochet a scrunchy. I have never crochet, so it was quite a challenge. I was very proud that it turned out. I think I will need a few more lessons before I'm ready to make one on my own.

We went to some of the quarter horse competition. It was quite interesting and the outfits, saddles and horses were beautiful.

Our Friday evening entertainment was this singing group. They were very good and sang a lot of Frank Sinatra songs. We even did a little dancing.

East Penn chapter 12 enjoys a good time, so one evening we all got together for a little fun. The "hole sisters" (a sisterhood all the women in the chapter belong to) had a ceremony to initiate Cindi as an honorary member. She will be known as Doughnut Hole, because she is such a sweet lady.

East Penn made and served the pancake breakfast on Saturday morning.

The parade theme was past , present and future.

It was a good rally with 62 rigs attending, lots of fellowship, food and fun. The weather was hot, but bearable, and cool at night. It didn't rain!

FRIENDS AND FAMILY

My blog has been silent for almost three weeks, but we have been very busy visiting with family and friends. I've also been very forgetful about taking my camera and taking pictures.

We had a nice fourth of July celebration in Lititz with Mark, Shannon, Mystique and Dan. The town put on an awesome firework display on Saturday night.

The corn wagon was opened in time to have lots of tasty corn for the 4th of July. It is just down the road from Circle M.

We were staying at Circle M and the campground was overly packed for the holiday. I never saw so many tents on sites!
Larry and I played on Circle M 9 hole par 3 golf course almost every day. I would occasionally get a hole in 3 and once I even got one in 2. I won't mention how many hits it took to make the other holes.


One day Larry and Jim went to the golf course in Manheim while Sue and I went shopping at Park City. We always have a good time together.

We have also gotten together with Lynn and Jim Mann. We visited them in Arizona in October, but they have moved back to PA. Jim is having some medical problems and isn't able to play golf right now, but we hope to get a game in with them before we head south.

We have had each of our grandsons stay with us for a night. Brady is getting into shape for wrestling and football lifting weights and working out at Planet Fitness.

Thanks to Brady our coach is clean and shiny. He helped Larry detail it, or was it Larry helped him?

We spent several evenings entertaining friends of Larry's from work. They all wanted to see our new RV. I was especially glad to see Mike and Jessie and their 7 month old twins. Larry worked with Mike at the end of his career, and I have known Jessie since she was born. She is the daughter of my good friend, Diane Palmer.

On a sadder note I have been to two funerals. One was Marion Cabott the school nurse for most of my teaching career and the other was a good friend and peer, Pat Dodd. We taught third grade together for 20 years. She retired early because of disabilities and unfortunately died at the age of 64. She loved to read, travel, Phillies, theater, and her cats. Because of her my life has been richer and I have lots of memories of times spent together.

BACK TO PA

Before leaving Greenville, MS I wanted to take the new bridge across the Mississippi River to Arkansas.

This bridge was just opened in 2010.

The river was fast flowing.

We ate lunch in Arkansas and came back to Mississippi.

We visited the two other Casinos in Greenville that are on the river. We came away $5.00 richer.

On Sunday we drove across Mississippi and back to Red Bay, AL. Monday morning they replaced our mirrors, but the problem is really the length of the mirror's arms so they still vibrate. We were on our way by noon. We went across the top of Alabama and entered Tennessee at Chattanooga.

We stopped for the evening at Sweetwater Valley KOA.

This KOA would be a great place to bring kids for they had a lot for them to do. This is the jumping pillow. The sign said you had to get parent permission to go on it, but the woman said we could and encouraged us to try it.

It really was a work out, but lots of fun. Afterwards we played a game of sand volleyball. I guess the kid in us wanted to get out and play.

Sweetwater was about 30 miles south of Knoxville, so Tuesday morning we got up at 6:30
to start our journey. Since we hit Knoxville at rush hour we took 640 around it and had very little traffic. We were only on 40 for a short while before we got on 81 and headed north through Virginia.

I had my camera ready this time when we passed the tornado damage along 81 above Bristol. All along our drive in Mississippi and Tennessee we went by several areas that had some tornado damage. It would be an area with only a few houses but half of the homes had been destroyed and usually a lot of tree damage.
This area along 81 had a lot of damage.

81 in Virginia is over 350 miles long. Larry wanted to see how far we could get today, so we went through West Virginia ( 81 is only about 20 miles long)

Maryland, for 12 miles,

and into PA.

Well we made it this far so lets make it home. We stayed on 81 to Harrisburg and then dropped down to Lancaster and back to Circle M in Millersville. We were parked by 8, thank heavens for daylight saving time and summer.
It was a long day of driving, over 600 miles, but it sure was nice to be back home in this beautiful weather.

Today we had Brady, our oldest grandchild, come over and help detail the RV.
We all took a break and went and played golf. The humidity is down and it is perfect summer weather. We are glad to be back in PA.

RALLY'S OVER

Jerry Purcell from PA won the "ugly hat" raffle off by Swanee Travelers at the rally. There was $50 on that ugly hat.

Larry was security for the rally so if there was an emergency or a problem he was called. Wednesday morning Cy Holdeen's wife couldn't wake him up so she called. Larry called 911. Cy was taken to the hospital where they got him stable and then transported him to Jacksonville, MS. Some of the other members took Cy's motorhome to Jaskson and we took care of their dog till they got back that evening. Please put Cy and his wife, Ginny, in your prayers.Thursday afternoon was the closing ceremonies. All the officers for next year rally were installed. Larry will be in charge of security.

Lou, Bev and I worked on this puzzle, finishing it at the last minute. We put together three puzzles during the rally - with lots of peoples help.

Thursday night we went into Greenville and saw the Mississippi River. I was impressed with the levees, and luckily they held this year and the town did not get flooded.

We went to the casino for dinner and played the slots for a few hour. We played on the casino's money ($10 each) and came away with $5 of it.

Friday we toured Greenville and the surrounding area. This is Mississippi welcome center.

We took a quick walk around here, so we could get to all of the museums.

We stopped in at the Greenville Museum, it was full of memorabilia. We wanted to see a film about the flood of 1927, so the man there called the flood museum and sent us over there.

The flood of 1927 was the greatest natural disaster in this country until Katrina. We were very amazed at the PBS film we saw about the flood and how the black share croppers were kept almost as prisoners on the levee after it. How badly they were treated for over four months, till finally many of them fled and went to Chicago.

We then went to the Winterville Indian Mounds. The youth group had gone here during the rally. It has a very good educational center that has programs with activities for the children to do.

A topographical map of the mounds.

The largest mound. About 55 feet tall.The steps up the largest mound.

We climbed to the top. We were thankful it was cloudy and not real hot and sunny.
Sure had a good view of the surrounding area.

We drove east a little ways to Leland and went to Jim Henson Museum, the birthplace of Kermit the frog. The building was very small but the lady was very interesting and full of stories and information. We also saw a good movie about Jim Henson and the puppets.Jim Henson lived here along Deer Creek when he was a young boy.

The frog on the right is the first Kermit. Notice the changes in the feet, collar and mouth.

This is the Kermit that was used in the movie. It is in a glass case.

Kermit is talking to Larry.

To end our very full day we went to Doe's Eat Place with John and June.

The restaurant is in a poor section of town. At first the front part of the building was a honky tonk strickly for blacks. the local doctor would go to the back door for a meal between house calls and started bring other white folks along. Big Doe had a restaurant in the back for whites and a honky tonk in the front for blacks. Eventually he closed the honky tonk and had a thriving restaurant business. The family tradition is to greet the costumers in the front kitchen, so you walk through the kitchen to sit down.

This room only held about 30 people. You had to make a reservation. There was no menu and the steaks started at 14 oz and then went up to 4 pounds. After the waitress told us what else they had she ended with "and none of it is cheap." The steak stated at $40. You could share a meal. We had gumbo that was only $10 and was very tasty. But some people from the rally had gone here and said the steak was the best they ever had.

Larry had fries ($4) along with his Gumbo.