We Have A New Web Site

We have a new family web site ( www.supremecentral.com ) and we're about to embark on a new commitment to keep it up to date. The new web site is a work in progress so help us out by watching for things that don't work as expected and telling us about the problem.

Note that there is a feature included on the new site that we call eNews. Sign up and you'll get updates in your email. If for some reason you decide that the eNews isn't a good idea, every email will include a link to allow you to opt out.

Please click on the title of this post to visit the new site.

Springtime in Virginia

It's hard to believe that almost two months have passed since I've posted here.We've probably talked with those that care what we've been doing so I won't go into detail other than to provide a basic list of where we've bee etc.

We left Conroe TX March 1 to start our trek back to VA

We first stopped in Lafayette, La for a few days. Went to Eunice for Cajun music including a visit to the Liberty theater and dinner at Bubba Fry's.

Next, we traveled on to Gautier, Ms for a couple of days. While there we enjoyed Geocaching.

Next, we traveled to Gulf Shores AL and Fort Pickens FL where we enjoyed the beautiful white sand gulf shore beaches.

Next, we stopped Jekyll Island , GA then Hilton Head.

We arrived back home in VA March 14. Since then, Spring lawn chores have occupied most of the available time.

Lake Conroe Texas

After the holidays we packed up the motor home and headed towards Texas. Unfortunately we encountered unseasonably bitter cold temperatures for over a week with temperatures in the teens. As a result, we got to enjoy the ravages of cold weather including a frozen water pump Fortunately it was nothing that space heaters and hair dryers couldn't take care of. We stopped in Gaffney SC at the Freightliner Factory Service Center for motor home maintenance. While we were in Gaffney we enjoyed seeing our friends

Donald and Carol Warthan who happened to be passing through on their trip to warmer weather and we also visited the BMW plant in Spartanburg for a factory tour. They manufacture the X5 and X6 BMW's there. Auto manufacturing is a fascinating process. If you have never seen the robotics used for auto assembly, the presses used to manufacture parts etc. , an auto manufacturing plant would be a recommended stop.

We have been at Lake Conroe, just north of Houston, for a couple weeks. The weather has been nice -usually in the mid 60s to low 70s. We have enjoyed visiting with Lara, Jeff, Matt and Sara on the weekends. The grand kids have really grown and changed - they are growing up fast. Below is a photo of Chief and Sara. Compare it to the one taken almost exactly a year ago .

Carolyn has been line dancing a couple days a week with the ladies at the campground. We have been doing some geocaching in the afternoons. A great way to see the area. When we were in the Sam Houston Forest, a yellow lab puppy joined us - jumping on us, chasing the car, just wanting to play. After several miles, we decided to leave the forest in hopes that he would go home.

We'll leave Conroe next Monday, Feb 1, and move to Columbus TX for a while. We always enjoy the Opry's, and brisket BBQ in that area. While in Columbus, we also plan to take day trips to Austin for sight seeing and discovery.

Warmer weather here we come.

First, the final installment for the shed story. The pressure to finish was sufficient that I decided to contract out the siding and roofing. I couldn't rationalize leaving the project unfinished till spring and there wasn't enough time to complete the work before leaving on the winter trip. Many of those that do construction work are anxious for work, any kind of work. The prices I was quoted were only a little more that I could buy materials for. This made the decision to have someone else do the work a lot easier. Here's a photo of the finished project.

I'm pleased with the finished product. It looks pretty good doesn't it?

Christmas this year was a quiet one spent with Carolyn's parents. We returned home on Saturday and on Sunday the local kids and family came for dinner, gift exchange etc.

The high temperature today was around 40 and the low tonight is supposed to be around 20. Our current plan is to leave this cold weather on Friday morning. Now all we have to do is get packed up and then we'll be heading for Texas.

We wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year.

It's hard to believe

It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since I last updated the blog.
It's hard to believe it's rained almost every day for the past month.
It's hard to believe Christmas is only two weeks away.
It's hard to believe that my two week shed project has taken two months.
It's also hard to believe how cute the finished shed is going to be. I've finally finished the basic construction. It now has a window and door that actually work.


By the time Christmas gets here, it'll have a real roof and siding just like the house. Can't wait!

Other than working on the shed, the past month has been filled with rain, quiet time, some preparation for Christmas and four days in Virginia Beach for a rally with our motor home group. We had a great Christmas rally with the group as we always do. As usual, there was too much food and an abundance of camaraderie with about 40 of our close friends.

The weather in central Virginia is beginning to turn cold. Temperatures tonight are supposed to be in the low 20's. That's our cue to start thinking about moving to warmer weather. We plan to leave for Texas around the first of next year. More on all of this later.

Best wishes for a Merry Christmas, prosperity and good health in the coming year.

Have you noticed it's raining

Urbana Oyster festival has come and gone. We had a nice time, enjoyed the company of a bunch of nice people, and hurried home to get up some leaves. Here are are a few photo's.

Monday was a fun day. I spent most of the day doing engine service on the motor home reasoning that it'll be cold soon and since things like an oil change require that I crawl on the ground under the engine, I'd better get it done soon. Thanks to latex gloves, I managed to get the job done without getting my hands dirty.

The shed looks pretty much like it did last report but it is much stronger. I spent a few hours on Tuesday completing the nailing of the sheeting on the sides. The more nails I added, the sturdier it seemed. It's now rock solid and ready for a roof.

It's been raining cats and dogs here in Virginia for the past couple of days. Nearly five inches they say. I'm supposed to do a car show this weekend so I suppose it'll be next week before I get around to making any more shed progress.. Gotta keep the priorities in order.

Leaf Season is Here

Time has a way of healing the pain of times past but there's never enough time to eliminate the pain of the fall leaf season in central Virginia. They're coming down like crazy. I can only imagine how much time I'll spend on leaf removal in the coming weeks. Fortunately, this isn't the only focus. There has been some shed progress and tomorrow we leave for Urbanna, VA for the Urbanna Oyster Festival with some of our motor homing friends.

First, the garden shed progress is slow but so far, it's been moving along. This week, the truss' for the roof was completed,

the last of the walls was framed, the walls were erected. This is Carolyn demoing one of the roof truss so that I could visualize the roof profile.

Today, the sheathing was tacked in place on the walls. Things are beginning to come together.

With a little luck and good weather, the roof will be in place next week.

For now, it's time to quit work , pack up and leave for a few days of fun, oysters and friends. More later.

Rainy Day

This past week has been filled with an abundance of hard work and a fair amount of fun too. First, I promised shed updates to keep the pressure on. Some progress has been made though not as much as I would like. Every step requires about twice as much work as I originally expected. This week I finally decided what kind of door to use and purchased both the Door and a window. Armed with the required rough opening dimensions for the window and door, I designed the structure for the walls that they occupy and built the wall with the window opening. I also built the two other straight walls that have no openings.

Three down and one to go. If the rain will stop, I can finish the remaining wall. Then I think I'll build the truss roof prior to erecting the walls. Did I mention that the walls have been built flat on the floor so I'll have to round up some help to get them erect. The reason I want to build the truss system for the roof prior to erecting the walls is so that I can build a template on the floor for the truss. That way I can build 12 of them and they should be all alike. That's the general idea, right?

Enough about boring building stuff. Now for the fun stuff. This past Saturday was rally day for our car club.

Rallies can take a lot of different forms but the one we participated in was sort of like a puzzle. The general idea is to drive a route that has been designed to provide an interesting ride. This would be all fine and good except that the directions are a bit cryptic and you score points by both driving the correct distance ( translation: don't make any wrong turns) and answering questions about things you should see along the way. In many ways, this sort of reminds me of hanging wallpaper with your spouse. After a few wrong turns , inability to answer questions etc. , communications start to break down. There was even one couple that quit and went home to cool off. Anyway, we did eventually find our way to where we were supposed to be, "The Smoky Pig". We enjoyed a mid afternoon bar B Q meal with friends. A good time was had by all.

A week from now we'll be getting ready to leave for Urbanna where we'll meet a group of our motor home friends for a fun week end at the Urbanna Oyster Festival. Sounds like fun!

Update

This past Saturday, Oct 17, we made a trip with the Corvette Club to White Hall Winery in White Hall Virginia. For those that don't know, White Hall is in the Blue Ridge Mountain foothills west of Charlottesville. The weather was ominous early in the day and as a result the turn out was less than expected but by the time we got there, the sun was shining and everyone had a good

time. Virginia's wine industry is growing and White Hall Winery is producing some real nice wines. The tasting included generous servings of ten different wines. It's a good thing we had planned a picnic on the grounds of the winery before leaving! The food helped diminish the Glow.

Update on shed..... Progress is slow. I'll blame the weather since there has been little time to spend on it. There is progress though so there's hope.

Note that more building materials have arrived. By the way, they don't just arrive. Every stick of wood and every sheet of plywood has to be carried by hand about 100 yards. Believe me, this isn't my idea of fun. Maybe I should have selected a different spot for the shed.

Coming up soon, Corvette club rally on Saturday followed by Urbanna Oyster Festival next week

Busy

After two grey and cold weeks the sun is finally shining and the weather has warmed up. This is much needed so that I can get in some time working on the latest project, a garden shed. Hopefully I can at least get it under roof fairly quickly and before the weather turns. I'll put the pressure on myself to make progress by occasionally posting photo's. Here's where it starts.

As you can see, not much progress here but at least the building materials are in place for the floor.

Not much else to report here except for more plans. We'll offer updates soon on photograph classes, car club outing to White Hall Winery, motor home chapter rally at the Urbanna Oyster festival and another car club rally on 10/23.

How will I find time to make progress on the shed?

Tired

It's hard to believe three weeks have passed since I last updated this blog. We've been busy and now we're tired.

Here are some highlights:

Shamu, our motor home was looking a little tired so I decided some soap, water, polish and wax would solve the problem. For those that have washed a motorhome, you know it's not a trivial task. If you also wash the roof , it can be an exhausting all day task. Not wanting to take any shortcuts, I opted for all of the above plus added in a polish job and wax on the aluminum wheels and a full body wax job. It only took about a week.

Friday, September 25 we drove to Newark, Delaware where we visited with friends Rufus and Susan Barbour.

They have a great driveway where we stayed the night. These folks are life long friends so it's always great to catch up. Susan recently had lap band surgery and has lost 50+ pounds so far. We're proud of the progress and enjoyed her improved state. Rufus has been busy as usual with projects including his new equipment to manufacture bio diesel from used vegetable oil and the

new solar system on the roof. (see photo below)

He's making electricity like you wouldn't believe.

Saturday, September 26 we drove on to Hershey, PA. where we enjoyed a few days of R & R. On Tuesday we went to Roots to the farmers market where we loaded up on produce and deli items. This is always a fun stop because of the great variety and quality of vegetables and of course the great prices.

Thursday, October 1 we traveled to Williams Grove race track where we enjoyed a long weekend of World of Outlaw racing, car shows and auto swap meets in Carlisle with motor homing friends in the FMCA Dogwood Chapter.

We co-hosted the event so some work was involved but it always seems worth the effort when everyone has a good time. Mother nature cooperated with good weather except for Friday night when the race was rained out.

Sunday, October 4 we traveled on to Gettysburg where we visited with friend Gerry and Larry Clark. We went to the Apple Harvest Festival in Arendtsville, PA where Carolyn and Gerry enjoyed the crafts and Mann and Larry enjoyed the Car Show. It was a real nice event. Monday, we spent the afternoon introducing the Clarks to geocaching in the Gettysburg area. We had a good time and I think the Clarks did too. Here's a photo taken when they found their first cache.

Tuesday, returned to Midlothian VA home. Man has doctors appointments and Carolyn has he high school reunion next weekend.

Events of the past couple of weeks

Birthdays aren't what they used to be. I vividly recall the excitement that came with approaching birthdays when I was younger. Sometimes they came more than once a year. How old are you? Oh, I'm 6 and a half! There were also the ones that carried special meaning like #'s 16, 21, 40, 50, or 65. They marked milestones like getting a drivers lisence, being able to legally by liquor, being "over the hill" or finally getting medicare. My birthday was August 23. I 'm now at a point where I'd be OK with not having any more but I'm not quite ready for the end of the road. My kids are trying to help me along by forgetting my day but fortunately many others have helped me by remembering me with cards and well wishes.


Carolyn and I left for a short trip to eastern PA on my bday. Stopped in Chambersburg for a nice Bday lunch with friends Larry and Gerry Clark who live nearby. Then, on to Hershey
where we enjoyed the Roots farmers market ( hundreds of Amash and Mennonite farmers and their wives selling fruits and vegitables from their farms and baked goods from their kitchens) where prices are U N B E L I V A B L E. How about 12 ears of sweet white corn for $1 or a pound of beautiful mushrooms for $1. After a week of being lazy and enjoying fresh fruits and vegitables we went to Carlisle for the annual Corvette show.

The weather was delightful for August. Days were in lower to middle 70's and nights in upper 50's. This sure beats the high 90's we left in Richmond. We visit this area regularly and I always leave marveling at the beauty and the spirit of this place. It is truely one of Gods marvels.


Sunday, August 30 we traveled south to Gettysburg PA We stayed at Gettysburg Battlefield Resort where we visited with Larry and Gerry Clark for a few days. They live in their motor home 8 or so months each year so their home is a cabin in the PA mountains about 15 miles from Gettysburg. We enjoyed good times with good friends. Battlefield Resort is located in the midst of Civil War battlefields and only a a fraction of a mile from the site of the bulk of the battle of Gettysburg. There are reinactments most weekends.

Wednesday, September 2; its time to go home. The lawn hasn't been mowed in two weeks and it's calling.

Things Take Time

Well, here I am still saying "things take time". This time, things really are better even if they're not completely well. Recent Doctors visits confirm that I'm "on target" whatever that means. Anyway, I am finally feeling better and there is hope that things will return to a better state.

Since I haven't updated for almost two months, I'll briefly update without including too many details. It's been hot as blazes so it's been a perfect time to do basically nothing for most of the past two months. In addition to nothing, we've:

1) Named the new car. It's official now. The name is Scoobie

2) Attended a motor home rally August 6 - 9 with 60 or so of our closest friends. There is one thing that's significant here. We recruited 4 new members who coincidentally are all professional musicians. Translation, our motor home club now has it's own bluegrass band. We expect that this will make for good times in the future.

3) Attended a day of fun on August 22 with another group of 80 of our newest close friends. Our car club is celebrating it's 50th anniversary in 2010. This is such a nice group of fun loving people. The group just happens to be glued together by a common interest in a car, the American icon, the Corvette.


4) We leave tomorrow for a week or two in Pennsylvania. While there, we'll enjoy the culture of the people, visit with friends and spend a couple of days in Carlisle for the annual Corvette show.

More later

Sore Throat and .........

Who would ever believe that anyone could talk so much catching up that the throat would hurt. Listerine is my new best friend. Larry and Gerry Clark pulled into Duff's Marina and campground Monday afternoon following a visit with family in Concord NC. This was the first time the new electric service was used to power something substantial like a MH. It was hot and there were no complaints so the AC must have worked OK I'm just glad that we didn't burn up wiring and appliances on their MH. I was afraid to try plugging ours in. Everyone always tried to tell me that there's something special about the way you wire the electric service for a camper but I just set it up like you would for a 240 V range or something like that. I must be right since there were no fireworks.

Tuesday was filled with more chit chat and a delicious shrimp dinner. Time flies when you're having fun. It seamed like our friends had just arrived when it was time to move on.

My final question, would you buy a used car fro this man?

My Favorite Grook

A grook is a form of short aphoristic poem. My favorite is titled TTT. It goes as follows: Things Take Time. Do you get the connection between tile and lyrics? A couple of weeks ago I went in for surgery expecting that I'd feel fine after a day or two. Well, here we are two weeks and a day later and I'm finally beginning to think everything is going to be OK. Things take time!

This week Carolyn and I are out in the Motor Home with grandson Dustin. This seemed like a good chance to spend some time with him and at the same time take it easy and try to recuperate. The week got off to a rough start when Dustin crashed his bike and skinned himself up pretty good. Carolyn and I were near by watching him ride when he just flew over the handlebars onto the road. None of us could figure out how it happened. Our hope is that he'll be none the worse for wear when we return him on Sunday.

Today is Thursday so the week is passing by quickly. We only have a few more days of put put, ping pong, swimming pools and game rooms. Thankfully, Carolyn seems to have enough energy to keep up.

Speaking of keeping up, there's a new car in the garage at home which we hope can keep up.

Note that it is white. More on this later

RADIOACTIVE

It's been almost a month since our last post and what a month it's been. When we returned home this spring we had all the usual doctors appointments expecting all the usual results. Well, the results weren't all usual, Mann's PSA had almost doubled in the six months since last checked. Following numerous visits to Urologists and Oncologist for opinions and second opinions, today our day started a bit earlier than usual at 5 AM for a visit to the hospital. I'm now Radioactive
according to the arm band provided and the certificate provided for passage through customs if asked. Fortunately, my cancer was caught early and there's every reason to expect a good outcome. Hopefully this is just another bump in road of life.

In the midst of all this medical stuff, Carolyn and I spent the last week across town at the Richmond International Raceway. No racing was going on, just a great big motor home rally called GEAR (Greater Eastern Area Rally). We got to spend the week in the company of about 800 of our closest friends. Every day was filled with seminars, games and social activities like ice cream socials etc. Every evening was filled with "Happy hours", meals out, entertainment etc. This is almost too much for all of us "old folks".

Home Improvement

As I write this, all I can focus on is the pain in my right shoulder and the discomfort from numerous bruises all over my body and sore muscles. No, I'm not related to MLK but I did wake up with a dream a few days back. I visualised three things in my sleep. Termites in our crawl space, flood lights in the front yard and an electrical outlet in the garage. Not just an ordinary electrical outlet but a 50 amp outlet that would support the AC in a motor home. What do all of these things have in common? Crawling on hands and knees the entire length of our house (multiple times) (in the crawl space) (did I mention how low, dark and close it was?). Was it worth it? The good news is that a thorough inspection revealed no termites, we now have flood lights in the front yard and any of our motor homing friends (one in particular...you know who you are) that decide to visit and stay in our driveway will now have electric service and can't complain any more.

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Study this photo carefully. Do you notice anything different about the bulbs? They're LED's that are rated at only 5 watts each but produce light the equivalent of 90 watts of incandescent bulbs. While they're not inexpensive to buy, the cost of operating them dusk to dawn is only about 40 cents per month. They have a 40,000 hour life expectancy which is almost ten years of dusk to dawn use. Amazing!!

Two Weeks

I'll back up to the weekend of April 15 through 20. I know, weekends aren't supposed to be 6 days long but ours sometimes are. This is one of the few benefits of being both older and retired. Our Motor Home club had scheduled a rally at Fortress Monroe (in Hampton, Va on the Chesapeake Bay) for Friday through Sunday. We decided to leave a couple of days early for a visit with Carolyn's parents in Portsmouth and to try out a "new to us" campground operated by the City of Hampton. It was a delightful surprise.


Nicely manicured and the price is right! We spent Wednesday night then on to Fort Monroe for an early arrival on Thursday. Ten other couples arrived a day early too so the party got started one day ahead of schedule.






We enjoyed a great spot with all the coaches lined up along the seawall. For anyone interested in knowing more about our motor home club, here's a link to the clubs web site: http://www.fmcadogwood.blogspot.com/ .



By the time the weekend was over we were too tired to drive home so we decided to stay over another night in the Hampton campground. We arrived home Monday afternoon just in time to start getting ready for another long weekend.


We departed home early Thursday. Destination: Virginia International Raceway about 20 miles East of Danville Virginia. VIR is one of the oldest road race courses in the country and this weekend was the sight of the Bosch Engineering 250 mile Rolex Series race. This is exciting high $$ professional racing. We camped in the infield overlooking the track. A couple of photos follow for those that aren't familiar with this type of racing.



That's Shamu on the hill above the track.




The red Gainsco car was the ultimate winner of the 250 mile race on Saturday afternoon. There were lots of other races during the weekend of racing including the Mazda and BMW series open wheel racing, VW TDI series and others. There was wall to wall activity starting early morning and ending late afternoon. VIR is a neat venu with open spectator acces to the padoc and garages. This makes for good fun for car nuts like me.

Back Home in Virginia

Not much happening. Arrived home in Virginia March 20. Now all were doing is setting around watching the grass grow.

Rainy Weather

Our Week in Alabama

Wednesday, March 11. Travel day to Montgomery Alabama. Along the way we made an interesting detour to Mt. Olive West Baptist Church. Hank Williams attended church here as a young boy and developed his love of gospel music. This is a stop that would appeal only to those with an interest in country music. I recall listening to Hank Williams on the radio in the 1940’s prior to the days of TV. Songs like Jambalaya, Your Cheating Heart, You Win Again still resonate.

Gunter Hill, a COE park is where we decided to stay for a few days while checking out Montgomery.

We started by taking a tour of the Hyundai Auto factory, Montgomery’s largest employer. This is an example of what American industry can and should be. It’s highly automated, unbelievably clean to be a manufacturing facility, union free, and focused on quality. Their production is down only two percent during this troubled time.

Day two, we visited downtown sites including the State Capital, the Hank Williams Museum, The First Whitehouse of the Confederacy (The Capital of the Confederacy was moved to Richmond, VA after only three months to be nearer the center of Conflict activity), Hank Williams final resting place in Oakwood Cemetery and Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church where Martin Luther King was Pastor before moving to Atlanta. For lunch we stopped at Chris’ where we enjoyed Hank’s favorite Loaded Dogs (mustard, onions, sauerkraut, and Chris’ secret chili sauce), fries and bottled coke. Chris’ has been in business at the same location since 1917 so they must be doing something right.

Day three, we traveled to Selma AL for a day tour. Selma was not what I expected. This is a town that I could enjoy spending multiple days in. The downtown area is loaded with well preserved and restored homes and businesses (over 1250 in the historic area) dating to the civil war era and before. Of course, there’s also lots of civil rights, voter rights etc. stuff around the town too. For those who were around in 1965, you may remember that the Edmund Pettus Bridge was the sight where the voting rights march to the capital began. If you’re inclined, this would probably make a good subject for some bedtime reading to brush up on some 1960’s civil rights history.

Now that we're overloaded with country music, how about some good western stuff? Frank and Jessy James stayed here when stopped in Selma. How's this for good western stuff?

It's raining cats and dogs. It's time to move on to get away from this.