We planned to be at Horseshoe Lakes for three weeks, and then move on to Pennsylvania.  But, as the move day drew closer, we started hearing about some bugs and things being at the park we were heading to.  Also, I was going to be gone for 2 weeks of the time at that park, and Diane and Molly would need to deal with the bugs themselves.  We investigated what it would take, and then decided to just go ahead and stay at Horseshoe Lakes for an additional 3 weeks.  This meant paying for one week, where we should be out of the park, and then two more weeks of our normal Thousand Trails reservations.  For this post, we’ll cover some of the activities and scenes from the first three weeks.

First, I grew up (age 5 to 18) about a quarter mile from the RV park.  I had only been in the park twice before.  Once before it became Thousand Trails, and the second for my 10 year class reunion.  I was pretty excited at the idea to be able to ride bikes with Molly, up and down the streets that I spent so much time on.  I had a paper route for something like 5-7 years, and put some serious seat time delivering the paper 5 days a week.

Upon arrival, there were some differences here.  Most notable was that you don’t check in at the gate, but rather at the office, which is on a side road before you enter the gate.  Ok, no problem.  We got in, got a basic briefing of what all the site groups had to offer, and we headed out to pick a spot.  The biggest “issue” was the number of tree’s, and how low on the horizon the satellites are here in this part of the country.  We found one site, but couldn’t get the dish to latch on, so we moved a couple sites over, and got a lock.  Another interesting thing about this park, is the number of Seasonal Sites that are occupied.  With the price they charge, and the fact you could stay there from park open to close (April to end of October), there are several people in the program.  Some parents of one of my classmates have their camper there in a spot as well.  It made for a nice community, and likely the park would be a ghost town without them.  I also saw how they basically ran the facility.  Some of them officially, and others unofficially.  It wouldn’t be as nice a place without them.

Now, all the visiting and fun.

We had a visits from family of course, and also another Fulltime Family came to stay at the park.  We had met this other family (The Pickett’s) in California at Wilderness Lakes.  They have three younger kids, but they all enjoyed spending time with Molly whenever we’d go over for a campfire. It was great to catch up with John and Mary, and do some in-person smack talk for our Fantasy Football league.  John was starting one at the beginning of Football season, and I was able to join.  It was my first, and it has been a lot of fun.

During this first three weeks, we got to go over and see the great Pumpkin Works that we’d heard so much about over the years.  This is a pig farm turned Halloween extravaganza, near Paris, IL.  The farm is owned by my Aunt’s family.  They started Pumpkin Works 20 years ago, and it is even on the map!   My Aunt and Uncle have also started their own horse carriage company, offering carriage’s for weddings, parades, and such, and they also give horse wagon rides at Pumpkin Works.  So, we got to go see them as well as the great Pumpkin Works.

Not sure if it has been mentioned before, but Molly is a great fan of horses.  She’s had several lessons while we lived in Orange County, and she was very happy to be able to get a ride with Uncle Jeff and Aunt Cathy’s horses.  Even better, she got to DRIVE!  And even better than that, she went back and worked as “Uncle Jeff the Great” (a name he recommended) assistant on several days.  The J&C horses were only there on the weekends, but Molly spent as much time as possible working with them.

Also during this time, we got some Woopie Pie’s from the Amish, took lot’s of fall color photo’s, rode bikes in the old neighborhood, took care of my Mom’s “honey do list”, installed a new bike rack on the back of the RV, and got a “Stay-a-while” gas line kit so we can use portable tanks and attach them to the RV Propane system.  A very productive few weeks.  More on the next three weeks in a later post.

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On the way from Georgia to Clinton, IN, we wanted to check out some of the historical Abraham Lincoln sites in southern Indiana.  After a bit of a search, we found an RV park in Santa Claus Indiana, called Lake Rudolph.  They were open for the weekend, and even had some Halloween events happening.

The park itself is pretty nice.  We’d hoped to be able to rent a golf cart, but got there too late for that.  It was also a fun challenge to disconnect the car on a hill, then back into our site going backwards uphill, and in the dark.  Made it though!

Santa Claus is a town with a bit of a Christmas theme.  Shocking huh?  We headed over to the village to see the Christmas store, and pick up some groceries.  Santa was actually there!  I guess since the town is named after him, he’s got a bit of an obligation to be there.  Well, he honed in on the one kid in the store that hasn’t sat on his lap since her first Christmas.  I was shocked to be able to get this picture…

We had a nice time at the carnival they had at the RV park, and Molly and Diane got in the first trick-or-treating for the year.  I was also able to get ahold of my brother Lewis, and we had him over for dinner Saturday evening.  It was great for him to meet Diane and Molly, and for us to catch up.  He’s a bit of a recluse, so who knows when we’ll see him again.

On Sunday, we packed up, and headed over to the Lincoln Boyhood Home National Monument.  I remember being there when I was a kid, on one of our summer vacation trips to Indiana State Parks. It was a drizzly day, but we had a nice viewing of the movie narrated by Leonard Nemoy, which provided a good overview of the park, and some Lincoln history.  After a quick tour of the main building and its exhibits, we headed out on the trail to see the site of the home, the working farm, and the trail of Lincoln historical markers.  In this shot of Molly, she is next to one of the rocks from Gettysburg where Lincoln stood to deliver his famous speech.

We wrapped up our visit to the boyhood home, and headed north to Clinton, for a stay at Horseshoe Lakes.

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We arrived in Cumming, GA on September 4th in the evening.  Diane had called ahead and reserved a site for us.  Good thing too, as it had a lot more campers there then last year in November/December.  So much so that our site was one with the back end of the RV sitting right next to a road.  Also, as luck would have it, most of the residents were working on a local construction site, and all had nice loud diesel trucks that they drove down that road every morning between 5 and 6.  It was awesome.  Diane is prepped for the normal loud noise (me snoring) and slept right through them.  I was lucky enough to get the early wake up. :/

I spent most of the weekdays working in the office, but did stay at the RV for one of those to work on a setup for me to conduct some training from the road.  Diane and Molly had several excursions planned, including an overnight at the local Marriott where they have a special American Girl doll package.  They had a great time there, and Francie (the cat) only meowed at me for 8 of the hours they were gone.

We also were able to have a dinner with Toby, Monica, and Christopher at Mellow Mushroom Pizza.  Monica’s parents were there as well, and it was a great time with some great food.  It was nice to meet Monica’s parents, and to see the cousin and family again.

On Sunday, the “Jeep and Ammo” club at work had an organized outing.  Molly and I got all the details and joined them at a state run outdoor shooting range.  Most of my coworkers have guns of one form or another, and there were other coworkers there shooting for the first time.  Molly was a bit nervous at first, but worked her way to firing a .22 rifle, and enjoyed it.  She ended up firing about 5 clips worth of ammo as we rotated through all those that wanted to shoot.  Once the range closed, she was looking forward to the next one.

During the last week there, we had the chance to meet up with the Garrison family that we first met back in February in Quartzsite, AZ.  We then spent a few weeks with them (and other families) at Pio Pico, then Wilderness Lakes, and even in Las Vegas.  They’ve been off the road for a few months now, and it was great to catch up with them and see how their doing.  Their two girls and Molly had a good time getting to hang out again and catch up.  We all had a great meal at Papasita’s too!

Diane and Molly headed into Atlanta during the last few days to see the Martin Luther King home and exhibits, as well as some other Atlanta attractions.  Since they are doing pretty well at posting, I’ll let them give the details on their visits.

On Friday, Diane and I got up early, got everything prepped, and headed over to the parking lot at the office.  The girls hung out in the RV till after lunch, and we all headed on up the road to Santa Claus, IN. More on that in the next post.

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We left Jellystone this morning, but not till around 10:30 local time.  With a nearly full tank of gas, we rolled for about 300 miles, all the way into Georgia in one swoop.  It was a monster run.  I think that’s the longest non-stop run so far.  There was a couple small spots with some HEAVY rain.  Came nearly to a stop due to there being a couple inches of water on the road.  But, for the most part, it was simply normal driving.

So, we called the Twin Lakes RV Park in Cumming, Georgia, on our way.  Lucky we did, as they were going to close the office soon, and, only had a couple spots left.  When we were here last November, it MIGHT have been 25% full.  I guess the warmer weather of September is what has people here.

Anyway, I’ll get three days in the office this week, and five days next week.  The original plan was for two days in the office this week, then two weeks on the road doing some shows, but the show portion has been cancelled, and so we adjusted a bit.  The calendar on the main page has our schedule as it stands now.  I believe the Ohio piece will be changed, as there’s some other work travel I have to do.

Diane and Molly have an American Girl Doll event planned for Saturday at the local Marriott, and we hope to be able to visit with some family, friends, and maybe another (not currently active) fulltime family we met earlier this year in California.  Fingers crossed and hoping we get all of that in before heading up to Indiana.

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