You can go home again

We pulled into our campsite at Eby Pines Campground just east of Bristol on November 5th, and this is the first second I have had time to type a post.  It's so good to see family and friends before we take off again for Naples, Florida. Just a few thoughts as we drove through Elkhart on our way to the campground...

In just five weeks, enough has changed in the landscape to get our attention.  Ordinary things such as road construction make the look of home different. Life moves on.

In just five weeks, life goes on with family and friends.  Catching up has been good, and it's been a clear reminder how much we love being with them. It will make leaving again bittersweet I'm sure.

The picture below marks our home sweet home at Eby Pines.  This campground is one of the few (keep in mind my limited experience) to keep the water on until bitter cold takes over.  They have only one water faucet with valves that go under the frost line.  So this is a game of "by guess and by golly."  The owner will shut the water off when it gets too cold.  Makes the stay a bit more challenging when you have to fill the water tank every four or five days.  The first morning here, the outside pipe was frozen.  Our coach pipes were fine as we have heat in the water closet where all the Whale pipes are.  Hmmmm...  a trickle of water in the sink keeps the freeze away.  It sounds like we have a small fountain in the bathroom.

The pines you see in the HSH picture surround us.  I've always been a!erson connected to smells.  All locations have distinct smells.  When we were in Red Bay there was a distinct aroma of pine and sage in the country.  What an incredible combination!  In the RV parking lot, it smells like dog food since there is a dog food factory just a mile away from the parking lot...  Here in Eby Pines, it's all pines.  And the sound in the wind is just soothing - unless it's storming (last night).

We leave Elkhart the day after Thanksgiving.  Before that, son Christopher flies in from a conference in New Orleans for a celebration Nov. 17.  He's being inducted in the county hall of fame for athletics.  How great to spend time with both our kids, Sara's fiance' and brother Ted before we vanish again.

Thanksgiving will be spent with Sara and Patrick and Patrick's mom, Helen before we take off for Indy Friday a.m.  We'll stop to see sister-in-law Shirley and nieces Deb and Susan before heading south west to return to Red Bay for just two more modifications.  Then on to Tampa to get the Whale "groomed" (wash and wax) before we settle in at our spot in Naples for a few months.

We'll be checking in from time to time as this is all about the journey, not the destinations...