Sunday, September 29, 2019, Move to Holiday Harbor Marina, Acworth, GA

Our plan of park hopping two weeks at a stay was interrupted when we were unable to secure a reservation back at any of the Lake Allatoona Corps of Engineers parks over the weekend, so we had to fill in three days at Holiday Harbor Marina Campground ($47 per night). The direct route would have been too much traffic so I opted for something a bit longer, 63.6 miles (95,361.1 total) that stayed on more major highways.

We were warned by our daughter (and reviews) not to expect much at this campground. They were right - the place was pretty run down (nasty bathrooms and muddy sloping sites) but sometimes you find yourself in a bind. I suppose the campsite shouldn't really mean that much when we were planning on spending as much of our days as possible with the kids. It did, however, hurt my sensibilities that this park was 3 times the rate we were paying at COE campgrounds - hopefully, we will never have to return to this campground.

Being new to grand-parenting, we were both soaking up as much "tummy time" as we could. At this point, there were a lot of unfinished projects we had volunteered to tackle but there was lots of time before we planned to hit the road (at least that's what we kept telling ourselves). I think Sam was remembering when he was the center of attention if I was reading that look on his face correctly.

12 days old already. Sleep is still her activity of choice (during the daylight hours).

Our friends Bill and Darlene spent their summer exploring the northern states and the northeast. On their way back to Florida for the fall/winter, they stopped in Atlanta and we were able to meet for lunch. It was great to see them and hear about their travels. We last saw them in April in Mesa, AZ and they had been to so many places since then.   

OK, the park might be a dump but sunsets on the lake were still nice!

Sunday, September 15 thru 28, 2019, Move to Bald Ridge, She's Here! Grandbaby's first week, Cumming, GA

Our stay in Georgia was scheduled to continue at Bald Ridge Corps of Engineers Campground on Lake Lanier near Cumming, GA. The drive was not long, 50.3 miles (95,297.5 total) but it was challenging at times. To avoid the traffic around the square in Cumming, GA we traveled a few back roads that had me nervous. One had a sign telling us no thru traffic was allowed and several times we heard low branches hitting our antennas and air conditioning units.

The drive was worth the effort. We had actually been here once before many years before full-timing but it did not look familiar. After thinking about it for a while and looking at old pictures we realized we were at the site right across the drive from our current site.

Bald Ridge is a fantastic campground with beautiful spacious and level sites.

Our Son and Daughter-in-law were scheduled to have labor induced on the following Monday the 16th, so being situated on Lake Lanier was much better (17 miles to the hospital-28 minutes) than Lake Allatoona (35 miles to the hospital-65 minutes).

Sunrise on the 16th - expecting a Grandbaby today! But the Powers That Be had other plans!

Everything is ready! So much more complicated than when we did this 38 years ago!

This monitor shows the contractions of three mothers-to-be in three different rooms. I'm not sure which one was Sara's.

I don't know about Jon and Sara but I'm ready! Oops, we are soon to find out, alas, not today, not yet. The tune for "Patience (Herbert The Snail)" is playing in my head as I recall this day.

Our granddaughter finally made her appearance on the 18th. Poor Sara! She went into the hospital very early on Monday morning and Sweet Baby Girl made her appearance nearly 60 hours later.

Our kids are leery of having pictures of the baby with a name and birth date on the internet (and rightfully so). Joani wanted to use the pseudonym ANnie sweetPea, but I guess she read my facial contortions as a "maybe not."

Just a few hours old in Daddy's arms.

Sara was amazing! After 60 hours (3 hours pushing) Sweet baby girl was born!

Just 1 day old and she already has Grandpa wrapped around her tiny little finger.

Mom, Dad, and 2-day old angel are ready to go home, but first, the hospital provided a "congratulations" meal.

A big yawn...

...and then back to sleep. It's been an exhausting adventure so far!

8 days old with Auntie Kate.

My brother Don drove my mom down from Tennessee to visit her latest great-grandchild (my nephew now has two little boys). They stayed for a couple of days and even spent their last night in the coach since it was conveniently on the way home. It was great to spend time with them!

We found a really great route to Jon's house that took as little as 25 minutes - I will certainly miss that as we struggle with crosstown traffic from campgrounds around Lake Allatoona.

Sunday, September 1 thru 14, 2019, Move to and Stay at McKinney COE Park, Acworth, GA

During our stay on the northwest side of Atlanta, we were able to meet a few times with our friend, Bob, to enjoy some wine and lively conversation. We visited Buzzy's Grill where I enjoyed a nearly perfect burger and great fries. We were able to visit Kate and Mike, only 8 miles away, several times and check out the new accommodations with their friend Josh.

We tried to find a conveniently located, long term park but we had no luck. Our fall-back plan was to make use of the many Corps of Engineers (COE) parks around the area. COE park regulations only allow 14 days (in a month) in each park so it was necessary to move from park to park every two weeks. If you follow the rules to a tee, you are only allowed 14 days on Lake Allatoona at any COE park. But when they canceled our reservations at Sawnee COE Park on Lake Lanier it became necessary to flaunt the rules to avoid moving from Walmart to Walmart for two weeks. They either didn't notice our infraction or didn't care. Either way, we got away with it.

Today was not our typical moving day.  Check-in at McKinney (COE) Park was 4:00 and it was only a few miles away so we couldn't start too early. Instead, we headed out for some shopping and a free day-after-birthday meal for Joani at Golden Corral. After we had our fill of sirloin steak and St. Louis ribs we were a bit slow about packing to move. It was a beautiful day and once we had all of Joani's rocks stowed we checked to see if our next site was empty. It was, so we raced over to McKinney campground, 6.3 miles (95,247.2 total) down a few narrow winding roads to our home for the next two weeks.

We settled into site 102 before noticing there was a dead pine tree with large limbs above our coach. Walking Sam, I noticed several more trees leaning precariously in our direction. 

I thought they would be a hazard if a storm blew through and the Ranger agreed so we were moved to site 105. There were no dangerous-looking trees threatening our coach but I noticed out our front window we looked directly towards a gravesite - I guess there's always something, right?

Mary, Wife of G. H. McKinney, a young woman that was born in 1832 and died in 1858. Fortunately, she was not haunting the grounds as far as I could tell so we were happy.

We didn't spend a lot of time in the park since we were here to visit with the kids and be around for the birth of our first grandchild. The days blurred a bit with projects keeping us busy at both Kate and Jon's places making the time seem to fly by faster than usual.

Sunday, August 18, 2019, Move to Payne COE Park, Acworth, GA

Today's drive included a couple of things I would have preferred to avoid - the drive, or should I say climb, over Monteagle, TN, on I-24 and the traffic in Chattanooga, TN. Neither proved to be that terrible as we made our way 230.1 miles (95,240.9 total) to Payne Campground on Lake Allatoona just 20 miles northwest of Atlanta, Georgia's perimeter.

Payne Corp of Engineer's campground was our fall back when our reservations were canceled at Sawnee Corp of Engineer's campground. We found Sawnee was closed because the COE could not find anyone willing to workcamp there. It seemed such a shame because it was a very nice park and it would have been the ideal location for us.

Our site (site 59) was one of the two previous host sites so it had full hook-ups unlike the other 58 sites in the park. It also had more parking area than we have ever had before. That made it convenient when Jon and Sara and Mike and Kate all drove over for the afternoon. That was especially nice for me, I was finished driving for the day and we were able to see everyone!

Sara and Jon are expecting our first grandchild, a girl, on September 23rd and we wanted to be here for the big event. That is only about five weeks away but we will stay busy and I'm sure the time will pass quickly.

Thursday, August 15, 2019, State Capitol, Nashville, TN

Today, Joani, Mom and I met Doug, Carol and Matthew for lunch at the food court in the Farmer's Market in downtown Nashville, TN. We were a little early so we looked around while we waited for the working folks to arrive on their lunch breaks.

It was warm (by warm, I mean it was mid-90's with 90% humidity) and while there was a pretty good selection of fresh produce for the middle of the summer there was nothing that screamed: "Take me home."

We headed back inside for some much-appreciated air conditioning while we checked out the wide array of dining choices. Between the six of us at the table, we had quite a collection of foods: Indian, Mexican and Chinese.

Easily visible from the Farmers Market was the Capitol building. Getting there was more of a challenge than I had expected. No longer a Nashville native I was thankful for Google maps to navigate our way to the Motlow Tunnel on Charlotte Avenue where I dropped Mom and Joani off. The Motlow tunnel provided direct access to elevators to the Capitol without any stairs.

Parking was available off of James Robertson Parkway at the bottom of Capitol Hill. The climb was a bit daunting in the heat.

Along the way, I passed the burial site for James Knox Polk, a prominent Tennessean who became the 11th president of the United States in 1845.

The last time we were in the area a significant portion of the building's exterior was cloaked in scaffolding and tarps for some renovation. Our timing was better this visit and I was able to appreciate the classically inspired architecture. Tennessee has one of the few capitol buildings without a dome.

Tennessee is one of ten state capitols without a dome.

I found Mom and Joani patiently waiting for me in the cool halls of the capitol. There was a guided tour available but we opted to just look around on our own. I had visited so many years ago that I had forgotten there was no rotunda. The building seemed very small and not quite as impressive as many of those we had visited.

We had to work around this professional photographer for pictures of the house chambers. He was taking his time setting up the perfect shot. He had two assistants and a truckload of equipment.

The library was the only room I recognized from long ago. I seem to remember we were able to use the spiral stairs and browse the upper levels - no more. I'm pretty sure there was nothing on those shelves I would want to read anyway.

Hiking back down the hill to retrieve the car was much quicker but this time I found the road in front of the Motlow tunnel closed due to construction. I had no choice but to wait on the curb on Charlotte Avenue while Mom and Joani walked to me. Not being quite as confident in the Nashville traffic as my brother I did not attempt any further sightseeing downtown and we headed home.

Wednesday, August 14, 2019, McNamara's Pub, Donelson, TN

After reconnecting with a couple of old high school friends on Facebook we agreed to meet face to face one afternoon at McNamara's Pub in Donelson, TN. I brought my laptop PC with a collection of pictures of us in our 20's and a copy of our Senior year annual to trigger old memories.

Mark, aka "Zemo", on the right had just retired and was adjusting well to the concept of not working. His hobby was working on Civil War-era history and he just self-published his third (or is it fourth) book.

Mike, behind us, had not made the leap into retirement yet. He had no compelling ambition or interest outside of his work at NASA to make him leave the ranks of the employed. He did, however, have quite a few questions about fulltime RVing.

We had a couple of pints and some Irish nachos (quite tasty!) before heading to Mark's condo to sip some scotch and continue reminiscing for a few more hours. We will have to plan on another get-together but maybe not wait another 40 years before we do.

 Not very many pictures from the '70s have David in them, but every now and then he would set the timer and jump in the photo. This one has Mike (far left), Zemo (yellow coat) and David (far right).

 Another timer shot - Mike far left and then David, Zemo is in the window center.

 David is behind the camera this time, but Zemo is second from the right and Mike is fourth from the right.

I took over camera duty to capture David in front of Fall Creek Falls.

Sunday, August 11, 2019, Goodman Family Mini-Reunion, Mt Juliet, TN

We learned Steve and Jane's son Danny (Joani's nephew) lived nearby so we tried to get everyone together for a little reunion. Steve was able to get in touch with Joani's younger brother, Ron, and his wife Kelley. They drove over from nearby Goodlettsville to visit for the afternoon. Rachel brought Steve and Jane's two grandsons, Blue and Chase as well, making this the largest family gathering, on Joani's side, in some time. (Trying to avoid last names can sometimes be a challenge.)

Oldest to youngest (L to R), Steve, Joani and Ron. Ken, the youngest brother, unfortunately, could not be reached. Ron thought it was unfair that he wasn't on the permanent vacation I call retirement but he will have his chance in a few years (he was only 56).

Everyone was interested in Joani's newest passion - lapidary. She has quite a collection of rocks and minerals that never fail to amaze. They were even more impressed when they found out she was willing to let them have a few samples for themselves. Kelley teaches science in middle school so she picked some specimens for show-and-tell. 

I think everyone enjoyed the afternoon and we all agreed we should try to get together more often.