Bat Guano??? Driving a Big Rig; "Roll Tide!" Gen Carl Mundy, USMC; Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC); Major General Strom Thurmond, US Army Reserve (Ret); Photo Contest!!! Combat Training; Potenciana Cafe; Crawfish! Louisiana Friends

In my last blog post, I forgot to add one of the funniest moments we've had in South Carolina. Our dear friends Irene and Tony, who live three doors away, were chagrined to find that a colony of bats had decided to nest under their eaves. Irene reported that she was sweeping up piles of bat poop every morning. Tony called a pest control company, but after an inspection, they were informed that since some of the bats were having pups, they were protected, and could not be bothered or removed. Suzanne and I felt terrible for poor Irene and Tony, and decided to suggest a means of making the bats' stay at least financially advantageous for our friends.....

I also neglected to add a photo of Lynette Setzkorn's sister Margene, Margene's son Chad, daughter-in-law Mohana, and grandson Krishna. We had a nice visit with this beautiful family that we had first met last year.

On our trip, we often stop to let the puppies out for a walk. Interstate rest stops are preferred, to save time and because there is never an issue with low-hanging tree limbs, but we have often stopped along public streets in smaller towns. This is our Messages of Hope Tour rig at a rest stop, with Nellie and Rusty happily stretching their little legs...

I am often asked whether Suzanne drives the bus; many RV wives skip this opportunity, but My Lovely Bride enjoys driving our "big rig" (29 tons total, and about 62 feet long with the car attached), and is always ready to take over. Because of our size, the driving is pretty intense, and we normally don't even listen to music while driving.

We stopped for a couple of nights in Auburn, a charming college town in eastern Alabama. I had to send a picture of War Eagle stadium (Auburn University) to our friends Judson and Donna Jo Emens in Tuscumbia, Alabama, who are hard core fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide, arch rivals of  the Auburn Tigers.  (As a matter of interest, 'Bama's mascot is Big Al, an elephant - during the 1930 Alabama-Ole Miss game, an Atlanta sports reporter wrote,  "... the earth started to tremble, there was a distant rumble that continued to grow. Some excited fan in the stands bellowed, 'Hold your horses, the elephants are coming,' and out stamped this Alabama varsity."   "Roll Tide"!!!

While in Auburn, we went on a hike through a park-like area adjacent to the campus. We saw a set of chin-up bars in the distance, and I said, looks like a Marine Corps ROTC O-course ("obstacle" course for civilians). Sure enough, here is a marker for the General Mundy Fitness Trail, named for General Carl Mundy, USMC, who served as a Marine for 42 years and was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds received in combat in Vietnam. An Auburn grad, his last tour of duty was as Commandant of the Marine Corps; two of his children are Auburn graduates and Marine Corps officers. Gen. Mundy died in 2014.  Semper fidelis.

We stayed in Chewacla State Park, Alabama, for two nights, and got some exercise on a hike, crossing this beautiful creek. This park, like many in the USA, was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), which during the Great Depression provided honorable, meaningful, HARD manual work for unemployed men who otherwise would have to rely on "the dole". It is regrettable that today's citizens would generally prefer to sit on their couches and watch TV rather than getting their hands dirty..... but back then, men didn't wear "man buns" either.... (Complainers and Whiners please note: this is not a political comment... it is a personal social observation.)

One of the nice things about traveling in the South in an RV is the ability to camp beside a multitude of lakes and rivers with spectacular views. This shot was taken at a military campground on the edge of Lake Strom Thurmond. The lake is named for the legendary senior Democrat senator from South Carolina. Thurmond was a judge at the beginning of World War II. He resigned his seat on the bench shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and joined the US Army, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In the battle of Normandy following D-Day, June 6, 1944, he landed in a glider attached to the fabled 82nd Airborne, and was in combat against the German Army (the real Nazis). He earned 18 awards, including the Purple Heart, the Legion of Merit, the French Croix de Guerre, and the Belgian Order of the Crown. He retired from the US Army Reserve as a Major General, and was one of the fiercest proponents for support of the US armed forces. 

I took this photo on May 9, just before we departed Hilton Head.  I am offering a prize to anyone who can identify where this was taken.... but you have to send me your photo of this location, with you in it (NOT PHOTOSHOPPED), to earn the prize! The first fully correct reply wins the prize.

 

So, after Auburn, we headed down to visit our wonderful friends Ingrid and Mike Honkala in Picayune, Mississippi. Ingrid and Suzanne are very spiritual. Mike and I are not quite on their level of spirituality. In fact, we like shooting guns. We are both retired Navy. Mike did some serious time with the SEALs, in the Navy's Special Boat Units (SBU). SBU guys are hard core Special Operators who infiltrate and exfiltrate SEALs into and out of their mission areas, both in coastal and riverine operations. Those of you who think you might want to join this elite group of warriors should peruse their website, https://navyseals.com/ns-overview/navy-swcc-the-navys-elite-boat-warriors/. Please note that IF you qualify for training, after 22 weeks of "somewhat rigorous" training, you will have clocked 400 miles running and 100 miles swimming, performed 20,000 pushups, jumped out of perfectly good airplanes, eaten snakes, and fired over 170,000 rounds of ammunition... and gotten precious little sleep at night! Mike has spent years in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a lot of deployment time in combat zones on contract. Here is Mike on the 200 yard range; and yes, HE CAN SHOOT! In fact, he trains law enforcement officers and regular citizens at his facility, the Mississippi Combat Training Academy, https://www.mctarange.com. I could not think of anyone more qualified than Mike Honkala to perform this critical training. 

While getting to know Mike and Ingrid better, we had them over to the bus for dinner with another friend, Dr. Mike Pannell, PhD (in the red shirt). Mike works at the Stennis Space Center and is a brilliant guy who also has a coffee plantation in Costa Rica with another super friend of ours, Bill Bayer. See our blog post from Costa Rica from February 12, 2018 for details of their efforts in that beautiful country. Oh, and their coffee, Potenciana Cafe, is world class! See https://www.facebook.com/potencianacafe

Next stop, Slidell and Covington, Louisiana, to meet up with family and enjoy a delicious crawfish boil. My sister Karen and Debbie had loaded the table with crawfish, sides and desserts for my sister Lynn, Suzanne and me to enjoy. It was a feast!

If you've never eaten crawfish, they are very spicy, but delicious. You have to pick about 14 pounds of "mud bugs" to produce a pound of meat.

Suzanne is fitted out with protective gloves...  and water rather than beer... you can tell that she isn't from Louisiana!  

We also had a chance to have an unforgettable gourmet dinner at Nicole and John Reilly's gorgeous home in Covington. Nicole is an outstanding medium and John is the owner of several 24 hour fitness centers (He's the man who introduced them to the South!). Our meal was exceptional, and their friendship even more cherished.

Our next stop was in New Roads, Louisiana, to visit a couple who had lost their son Kaleb in an ATV accident. Suzanne had given them a reading, and we wanted to stop and say hello when we were in Louisiana. They were a charming couple whose loss we fully understood. Kaleb showed us he is still right here with some stunning evidence during our get-together.

Our next stop was Natchez, Mississippi, where we visited Holy Family School, a small Catholic school where Irene and Tony's daughter Carly had taught. We picked up some mementoes of Carly's time at the school; she was a beloved volunteer there and will always be remembered for her warm smile and dedication to her kids. See www.carlyskidsfoundation.com for more information about how you can help with this worthy cause.

If you are ever in Vidalia, Louisiana, and in need of... well, almost anything.... I have a recommendation for you! Suzanne needed a piece of jewelry repaired, and we found this small shop where you can get jewelry, gifts, a fishing rod and reel, worms or suckers, and a U-Haul truck or trailer. Small town life is a bit different than big city life!

Finally, I have to show you that our little Rusty has recovered from a week of stomach problems following a "dietary indiscretion", as our vet described it.  He probably got ill after eating sun-dried worms or something even more disgusting. Thankfully, he is now "back on his feed". He and Nellie both love treats, but Nellie is more conservative in her eating habits.  Here they are waiting for meal time!

Next Generation Dachshunds; To the Mountains; Tribute to Two Military Women; Messages of Hope Board Meeting; Okefenokee Swamp; Rudy's Portrait; On the Road Again!

I am happy to announce that our Pack is again complete. After we drove to Louisiana to pick him up, Rusty has joined Nellie, Suzanne and me here in South Carolina. Rusty is a red piebald miniature long-haired Dachshund and is now 6 months old.

 Rusty is quickly learning the ropes in our household, and is a real "moosh". He is growing like a weed, and is now heavier than Nellie. His nickname is Bruiser, but occasionally I call him Tank. He is all boy... and he is also a chick magnet!

                    

Nellie, a gorgeous Irish Cream, is 18 months old, and is happy to have her new brother to chase around the house. She looks very sweet and demure here, but she runs like the wind. She will certainly be a contender when we enter her in a Dachshund race. Her nickname is Nellie Monroe... Nellie loves everyone, especially Tony and Irene Vouvalides, our dear friends and neighbors. Nellie also loves their 80 lb Labradoodle Linus, but Linus runs for cover when Nellie arrives. 

My Lovely Bride decided that I was getting lazy, so had an idea that I should climb the highest points in all 50 states... okay, so I may not climb Denali, Rainier or a couple of the other highly technical mountains, but I spent a few days recently doing South Carolina's Sassafras Mountain (3,354 ft), North Carolina's Mount Mitchell (6,684 ft), and Tennessee's Clingman's Dome (6,644 ft). I made myself a deal that I would at least get a three mile hike in each day. The mountains were beautiful, small compared to the 12,000-14,000 footers out west, heavily forested, and with lots of streams. In Western mountains, trees are much farther apart and there are far fewer year-round streams.

The most important stop in that trip wasn't a mountain. I had spent the first night in Easley, SC, and after reading about the town and its notable citizens, I made a stop to lay flowers at the grave of Captain Kimberly Hampton, US Army, the first woman helicopter pilot killed in combat (2004, Fallujah, Iraq). Our daughter Susan was a Marine Corps helicopter airframes mechanic who was killed in 2006. Both Susan and Kimberly were 27 years old. I could feel Susan watching over my shoulder, knowing that the flowers were for her as well as Kimberly.

While I was in the Appalachian Mountains, Suzanne was having a Messages of Hope Board Members' retreat with Bev Garlipp and Lynette Setzkorn. Bev and Lynette make Suzanne's work possible and her life much easier. In between work discussions, the ladies went to Hilton Head for some sightseeing.

When I returned, I presented small tokens of my appreciation to Bev and Lynette - amethyst crystals that I had found in a rock shop in Maggie Valley, North Carolina.

We are still loving our new home in South Carolina, with its beautiful marsh views just five minutes away. 

There are several other barrier islands in the area; one of our favorite beaches is at Hunting Island State Park. The beach was empty on the weekday we visited, but there were lots of seabirds and lovely vistas.

Many readers may recall Mike and Beth Pasakarnis, our dear friends and Wolf's parents (from Suzanne's book Wolf's Message). They have visited us several times this year, and we have visited them at their beautiful marshside home in Darien, Georgia. Here we are enjoying a day trip to Savannah in April.

We also visited Okefenokee Swamp/National Wildlife Refuge with Mike and Beth. Lots of beautiful bald cypress trees (Taxodium distichum) here, festooned with Spanish moss, and more big alligators (Alligator mississipiensis) than you could shake a stick at. I had kayaked here back in the 70s and wanted to share it with friends and family.

After Rudy passed, we received a beautiful painting of our little boy from Darcy Robinson, an amazing artist who lives in Wyoming. It captured Rudy's essence and personality perfectly. We will be visiting Darcy this summer to thank her in person for such a gracious, loving and thoughtful gift. In this photo, Suzanne is holding flowers sent to us by Chewy.com in memory of Rudy. 

We are on the road again, heading west for five months from South Carolina through Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and back through the South to home. Suzanne will be conducting several events - see her web site for details of our Messages of Hope Tour 2021. 

Our first stop was at Strom Thurmond Lake, where there is a military campground. Sharon and Mike Branigan joined us for dinner there... actually, they brought dinner, huge, delicious Black Angus ribeyes and even the sides and salad! (Sharon had attended Suzanne's event in Camarillo, CA, and thought I was part of hotel security - I must have been looking very stern while standing at the back of the room!)

Our next stop was Alpharetta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, to visit Lynette Setzkorn, Suzanne's Scheduling and Interviews Princess, and to hold a couple of board meetings to plan future activities. Lynette and Suzanne did their Spirited board work while I got familiar with our new-to-us bus.

Finally, here are Suzanne, Nellie and Rusty in a rare quiet moment (for the puppies, anyway). We wish you all much happiness and love. Check in with the blog in a week or two - I hope to get better at posting now that we are underway!

Rudy, the Best Dog Ever

 My Best Friend.

Rudy, the Sailing Wiener Dog, was my Best Friend. In July 2019, vets at UC Davis gave Rudy two months to live... he fooled them by living for another 18 months. He was a strong boy!

For 16 years, he was my constant companion. Rudy slept next to me on our bed, right next to my shoulder. We went on walks together, chased squirrels and rabbits together, sailed across the Atlantic together, admired Italian girls together, walked down boat docks together, and commiserated when things weren't going well. He was my hero. He never complained. He didn't grouse if I didn't share a beer or glass of wine with him. He preferred water (poor guy). 

As a youngster living on our sailboat, he was a real sea dog. He didn't mind rough weather as much as we did, and always maintained a positive outlook.

We called Rudy "The King" and "Elvis"... he had "attitude", and was always totally in charge.

As Rudy aged, he became even more regal. 

Rudy was an avid traveler, on boats, trains, planes and our RV... on trans-Atlantic flights, he had to stay in his travel-kennel, except when we would smuggle him to the rest room...

Occasionally he would look like Einstein, with wild hair...

If I were to reincarnate, it would be as Rudy. I miss him so much. If you are ever fortunate enough to have the love of a dog, I hope your dog is as wonderful as my boy Rudy. If so, you will be the most fortunate Dog Dad/Mom in the world. I am looking forward to seeing Rudy, and his sister Gretchen, whom we lost on Christmas Day 2019, again one day. Gretchen was much more subdued than Rudy, quietly watching the world go by, for the most part. But she thought she was bigger than she was... we called Gretchen "Ten Pounds of Fighting Fury" after she lunged at a 75 lb Rottweiler. They will always be in our hearts.

I am a Luddite; Wish Y'all Were Here!

 To all our Faithful Readers: my most sincere apologies for not posting comments over the past 18 months... tonight I was on the blog site, which was modified in 2019, and found dozens of comments that I had never seen until tonight! Thank you all for your positive comments... for the .0001% that were negative, well, you can't please all of the people all of the time. 😂  But seriously, I am technologically challenged. I am a “Luddite”... the modern definition is one who is opposed to new technology... back in England during the Industrial Revolution, Luddites were a sort of cult that broke into factories and destroyed machinery in mills to protect their jobs. I am not that radical, but am certainly resistant to social media and TV shows. For example, the last series that I watched was "I Love Lucy"... yes, in black and white.

It was so much fun reading your comments from 2019 and this year, as we sit in our home in South Carolina. Suzanne is a few feet away on the couch, a Dachshund sandwich, with Nellie and Rudy beside her. I am so lucky. We are so lucky... to have so many good friends all across the country, in Canada, New Zealand, UK, France, etc... every time we hear from you, we wish that we could beam you all here and enjoy your friendship face to face. I would embrace that technology in a heartbeat! Until then, please know that we truly appreciate your comments, thoughts and friendship, and hope that when we pass through your areas, we can meet up!

Longmont, Colorado; Mutton Mowers; Whose Garage? Oakley, KS; Feeding Frenzy; Always and Furever; Tuscumbia, AL; The Blue Ridge; Home at Last

 

Okay, so I have been somewhat delinquent in getting our final summer trip up, and now we're into November! Mea culpa! For those younger people who might not understand that Latin phrase, it means "through my fault"... today, the typical hipster phrase would be "My bad". We will pick up this month's blog in Colorado. We stayed at St. Vrain State Park in Longmont to visit our dear friends "Colonel Crusty" Cunis and His Lovely Bride Elaine. Unfortunately, due to the Chinese virus, we were unable to enjoy an Army-sponsored dinner this year (Navy won the last Army-Navy Game). Next year, Crusty! Go Navy... Beat Army!

St. Vrain is a favorite campground; we have been there about 6 times. This year we encountered something different... Mutton Mowers. Instead of contracting out to a landscaping/lawn maintenance company to keep the weeds in check, the state park folks hired Emily McMurtrey's goats from Mutton Mowers https://www.facebook.com/MuttonMowers/. I met Emily when I was on a walk, and learned about her goats. She sets up electrified fences around their grazing areas to protect them from coyotes and loose dogs. Emily and many of her family ranch friends were affected by the recent fires in Colorado, and if you're a goat and other livestock fan, you can join me in sending a donation to the Colorado Fire Relief for Livestock GoFundMe page at https://www.gofundme.com/f/mutton-mowers-winter-fund...

On the way east from the Denver area, we stopped for lunch in Deer Trail, CO, home of the world's first rodeo. We parked across from this home down a side street, and were shocked by the sign in the window... "A..hole's Neighbor"! We couldn't understand how someone could display such a nasty sign; it must have been a very serious feud...

... but then, we drove around the corner and what did we find, but "A..hole's Garage".... only in small town America could you find this kind of marketing! And from the cars out front, it looks like he isn't doing much business...

Our next stop for the night was Oakley, Kansas... this is corn country. The corn was as high as, well... an elephant's eye. (If you're under 40, that might not mean much to you...) We took two long walks down this country road looking for a Starbucks or Panera, and didn't see a soul until a guy in a pickup truck pulled alongside and said, "Saw y'all about a half hour ago... you turned around just as you got to my farm... you should have stopped in... I coulda used some help with my fencing." I replied, "Well, sir, you shoulda put a sign on your barn door..." 

Have you ever seen a feeding frenzy? We don't go out to eat a lot, but when we do, it will be for food that we don't make at home, like these delicious ribs at Jack Stack BBQ. Here is a Happy Medium.

Many of you know about the Always and Furever Midwest Animal Sanctuary in Spring Hill, Kansas. This shelter rescues aging dogs (and now also cats) from "kill shelters". They are given a loving home where they can sleep on couches in a living room setting. Jennifer Dulski started the sanctuary in 2017 and has saved over 500 dogs.  It was featured in a recent charity event that Suzanne sponsored. Donations are always appreciated. See their web site at https://alwaysandfurever.love/our-story/

Eastward to Tuscumbia, Alabama... we met our dear friends Judson and Donna Jo Emens and several of their friends for a delicious down home Southern dinner at our campground. The caramel cake was a unique dessert that I immediately fell in love with!

Suzanne has a weekly radio show, and one day one of the callers said, "You are in Tuscumbia; if you are coming through Huntsville, please stop so we can have lunch!" Well, it just so happened that we were passing through there in two days! We had a delightful German meal with Melitta Thorn. One of the best aspects of our summer trips in the coach is the ability to meet fun and interesting people along the way.

Moving farther east, we passed through Knoxville, Tennessee, where we went on a hike to this beautiful waterfall. 

The penultimate stop on our trip was in the Boone/Banner Elk/West Jefferson, North Carolina, area. We were visiting our Villages friends Bill and Gayle Hancock, and Bob and Jessica Hunter, who both have summer homes there. (Unfortunately, our staff photographer failed miserably in getting any photos of us together... sigh.) Hiking opportunities abound along the Blue Ridge Parkway, so we were able to get out for some enjoyable, but challenging, hikes.

We savored our last night before returning home, and enjoyed a nice campfire under the stars. I was a Boy Scout, so knew how to build a fire, but had to struggle with a dull axe - I had forgotten to bring a sharpening stone along... "Note to self...."

We arrived back in Hilton Head and immediately met with our dear friends and neighbors Tony and Irene Vouvalides. They had been taking care of our house while we were away. Tony mentioned that he had saved a few bottles of wine we left behind in our cooler for us. What a guy! Here is Tony and the detritus of one of the wine parties... (He was kidding, of course, having saved up these corks to retaliate ... on the night before we departed, we had dinner at their house, and I had surreptitiously dumped a pile of Hershey's kisses detritus in his recliner.... we share that addiction!) 

 Irene is an amazing gourmet cook, and we have enjoyed several fabulous dinners already since arriving home. Here are Irene and Kayla Truppi with the best baked Ziti on the planet... 

So, wrapping up this edition of the blog, here is My Lovely Bride and our fur babies, Rudy and Nellie, at rest... we had a wonderful four month trip out west, but the old adage is true... there is no place like home.