Friends are the Best!

One of the best things about the RVing is the number of friends you get to see.  You can just travel around seeing one friend after another.   It is always so great to see people you love after being away.  With every passing day and year each reunion becomes all the more sweet.

Burley Oak Brewing Co., Berlin, Maryland with Lynn & Ed.

Gargatha, Virginia, with Audrey, Amaya and Brianna

Parksley, Virginia, with Jim and Michelle.  Look who has a retirement date and countdown clock!  These are getting more popular with our friends!  Come on and join us!

Wacahpreague, Virginia with Kim and the monster truck Pepé

Painter, Virginia with Kim and Lacy and Kathy

Kathy's home in Painter, Virginia with Lacy, Sahvannah, Kathy, Kim and Shea 

Rayne's Reef in Berlin, Maryland with our Cousins Margaret Ann and Jill.

Riverside Grill on the Pocomoke River in Pocomoke City with NASA pals Dwayne, Garry and Rob.

Mattiponi Pavilion at Milburn Landing State Park, Nassawango, Maryland with NASA retiree friends.  LtoR: back row - Ralph (hurry Ralph), Bob, Prasad (event organizer), Bob, Jan and Bill.  front row - Sandy, Gari, Diane, Terry (with Anne the Border Collie) and Steve.

Mattiponi Pavilion, everyone is making sure addresses and phone numbers are correct in their smartphones!

Bob, Ralph, Bill and Diane

Sandy and Terry

Bob, Ralph and Prasad retired NASA Mechanical Engineers.  Oh what great days we had, and these new ones aren't too shabby either!

Mark, Gari and Bob discuss old and new times in the Mechanical Engineering department.  Mark is still active duty.

Cindi with Gari at Mattiponi Pavilion

Morningsong Winery Orientation Event in Stockton, Maryland.  Bob explains the concepts behind Morningsong Winery to Debbie, Mary and Gari.

Morningsong Winery, Stockton, Maryland with Eddie, Randy and Ethan.

Friends being well fed at Morningsong Winery Orientation Event in Stockton, Maryland. 

 Morningsong Winery Orientation Event in Stockton, Maryland.

Flight line Tailgate Event at NASA Wallops N-159 Hangar.  Lots of NASA friends with the Thunderbird air team.

Closer up of the two Thunderbirds that had not departed yet.

This soldier is opening the canopy of this F-35.

F-35 Fighter Jets lined up at D-10 Hangar

F-35 folded up and ready for the aircraft carrier.

Navy F-35

Having French Press coffee with Ed & Lynn in their camper at Newark, Maryand.

And yep, we're still fishin' in Newark every chance we get.

Roaring Point, Maryland

This is a post about a visit with friends Jay & Mitzi which turned into a very memorable boat ride.  Since there were so many unique pictures from this visit we decided to make it a separate post.  Jay and Mitzi know how to have fun and they have a great big extended family and friends; we know we are in for a super fun time when we are with them.  The only question is, can we hang in there with them, or will we fall asleep from party exhaustion before the festivities have ended?

It started with a boat ride from Mt. Vernon, Maryland out to Roaring Point, Maryland.  Roaring Point is a special beach near where the mouths Wicomico and Nanticoke Rivers meet and empty into the Chesapeake Bay.  This day the wind was blowing better than 30 mph at times, so the point was literally roaring that day.  This is a picture of Jay and Mitzi retrieving final items from their boat for a fun time on the beach.

This is some of our group below sitting at our spot near the point.  You can see the thin string of sand that extends from the point and continues out all the way to the channel marker.

Looking out the string of sand at the point below.

Almost to the channel marker.

This is the end of the point, there is deep Chesapeake Bay water beyond this point!

Returning to the mainland now, this fellow and his dogs have a secluded seat very near the end of the point. 

Looking back to the mainland across this fascinating point.

Almost back to our party on the beach.  Jay and brother Brad's boats are to the right on the Wicomico River side.

Wait a minute, one of the boys has a big fish on!

A crowd gathers to see the big fish.  Gari in the white shirt, wisely hangs back in the safety zone!

It's a Bull Nose Sting Ray!  Soon after it was successfully released back into the water.

On the way back we stopped at a new place called Bull Lips on the Beach.  It is a Tiki Bar that is part of the famous Red Roost crab restaurant.  Many years ago those folks took an old poultry house and converted it into an all you can eat Blue Crab down home restaurant.   Steve had a crab cake sandwich that was all lump backfin crab meat and no filler, he said it was as good as any crab cake ever!  There is Gari with Mitzi waving at the camera below.

The fun flags at Bull Lips are still standing straight out and roaring fun is the order of the day!

More Fun on the Eastern Shore

We have been very busy having a blast visiting with friends and family.  Many of our friends insist on throwing parties or taking us on grand adventures.  Who are we to protest?!  It has been a wonderful visit and we are just a little more than half way through.

We rode up to Blue Hen Spring Works for a front end alignment on our F-450.  Only one minor adjustment of a few hundredths of a degree was made, so our alignment remains excellent on the truck.  On our way back we stopped at the Nanticoke Indian Museum in Millsboro, Delaware.  The picture below is that of a ceremonial head dress that hangs on the wall in the museum. 

The building was originally a school for local Indians and other minority people of color segregated at that time.  It was staffed by two Native Americans Morning Star and Silver Star.  They each guided us through a tour of the exhibits and artifacts.  Below Steve is with Silver Star in front of a landscape exhibit that displays the period clothing and animals of the area used for various purposes.

Silver Star was very knowledgeable about not only the Nanticoke Tribe, but all Native American history.  Steve told Silver Star of his Great-Great Maternal Grandmother who was supposedly full blooded Souix Indian from eastern North Carolina according to family stories.  Silver Star explained that one way scholars have defined tribes for the purpose of study is by linguistic group.  And that, native tribes populating North Carolina, comprised three linguistic groups: Iroquoian, Siouan, and Algonquian.

We had always heard knowledgeable people say that the Cherokee Tribe was in North Carolina, and have learned that it is true that the two most prominent Iroquoian tribes were the Cherokee, occupying the Blue Ridge Mountains and regions west and south, and the Tuscarora, occupying the Coastal Plain between Ocracoke Island and Topsail Island inland to the central Piedmont.

Below is Gari standing out front of the small museum.

That's Steve below the sign.

A small and interesting log building out back.

A beautiful banner of a thousand beads hanging high on the wall.

Many stone tools collected from the local area.

The oldest artifacts in the museum.

A beautiful moccasin exhibit... you know how much Steve loves shoes!

We took in a local Shorebirds ball game with our friend Rob.

Even Joe the Astronaut made an appearance!

Although the Home Team did not win that night, we were treated to a sensational pyrotechnics display.  This was a very fun evening!

We escorted Kitty the Cat to her doctor to check on her pinched nerve in her lower back.  She is doing better with her treatment, but still has a ways to go before she is pain free.

We missed the Kentucky Derby Party with our pals Jim, Michelle and Keith this year, but made up for it with a wonderful Belmont Stakes Party in Parksley, Virginia.

 Friends Forever, Gari & Michelle.

More Friends Forever with Keith.

We had a nice visit with our friends at Queen Hive Farm in Atlantic, Virginia.  Mark and Jennifer decided that a boat ride would be in order for the day, and what a fun relaxing day it was!  We put out at South Point, Virginia and rode through Kegotank Creek to Gargathy Inlet.

We found nice spot to relax on the north point of Metompkin Island at the inlet.

Captain Mark beached the the old Sea Ox near the sinking Oyster Watch House.

After a while we stretched our legs with a 30 minute beach combing expedition.  There is Steve with Jennifer and Mark below.

Our curiosity got the best of us and we had to get a closer look...

We have a successful landing party of one!  YooHoo, Anybody home?

Captain Mark guides the Ox gently by the local work boats on the creek.

The view of the MARS Launch Pad from Metompkin Island.

Newark, Maryland

Yep, we made it to the Eastern Shore!  We never know how far our loosey-goosey plans will pan out.  There are so many things that can and do happen while living the RV life.  We have already been able to catch up with many friends and family, and have many more to go.  We have reservations here until July 1st when we plan to begin our return journey north and west.  Next major stop Lexington, Kentucky to visit Judi's growing family, then north for the balance of the summer.  We have a significant change to our 2016 East Coast Loop and will describe that in a bit more detail in a subsequent post.

Of course we are spending a lot of time with Miss Kitty from Salisbury City.  Our biggest job up there so far was washing Kitty's house just like we do our RV!  That made it look a lot better.  Below is a picture of Kitty and Gari out front of the clean house.
One little job that has been bugging Kitty for a few years was a window sash that was rotting.  We got lucky and had a neighborhood hero come to the rescue.  Lee had a small stash of new in the box window sashes and was so kind as to give one to Kitty.  Gari painted it up and we popped it in place of the rotten one.  What a happy day!  There is Lee with Kitty and Gari below.  Lee also lent us his cordless drill that helped us repair a few of Kitty's window screens that had broken in the corners.  Thank you Lee!

Shot of the north side of the campground where we are parked.  Penelope is in front of the tall tree left of the island gazebo.

The fishing is pretty fantastic here.  The ponds were sand and gravel quarrys which are over 25 ft deep in places.  They hit a few nice springs which filled the quarrys up.  A little bit of fish stocking and fish catch and release only and voila you have a couple of great fishing holes.

We visited a local U-Pick Organic farm in Berlin with our pals Ed & Lynn who are also camped in this area with us.

We were in the right place at the right time and were included in a wine dinner party with Tripp and Polly's famous French wine collection and gourmet cooking by Caroline and surrounded by excellent friends old and new.  It was a delicious event!  That is Caroline cooking and Polly and Gari plating below.

This was Gari & my favorite sample, it was a Bordeaux wine.  We believe the group of eight finished nine bottles of wine over the course of the evening!

Tom is engrossed in the conversation just before the delightful fruity tort is served!

We got onto the NASA Base at Wallops with Steve's Retiree Badge.  We got to see many friends and Steve's best sister for life, Tonya gave us a great tour of the new features of the Near Earth Network.  Below Gari follows Tonay into the Orbital Tracking Station at Wallops.

Tonya and Steve pose for a hero shot in front of the new GMAC orbital tracking control center.  The new GMAC was awesome!

Since we have been here we have also completed some work on Pepé.  We took him to Easton, MD for an oil change at the dealer where we bought him 3 years ago.  We also put six new Firestone tires on him at our local Pocomoke go to guy, Jimmy at Gibbons Auto.  It sure is good to come back for a visit, we sure have been missing our friends and family!