Virginia Beach, VA

We've become part of a mini-caravan! We met Judy in Luray at the RVing Women rally, joined her and a few of the other gals again the next weekend at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield, then found she was headed to Virginia Beach to visit her son. So we made arrangements to rendezvous again!

Judy is a solo full-timer who knows this area fairly well, so she became our guide for a visit to the Virginia Beach Aquarium. We got a late start today, so we're going back tomorrow to see more. The weather has turned cool, but we still hope to see a day warm enough to do a harbor cruise before we leave VA Beach on Saturday. No destination planned as yet...just south! Judy, on the other hand, will be heading back toward her home base in northern Virginia. But we'll stay in touch and hope for another opportunity to meet on the road.

Luray, VA

An auspicious omen for our arrival in Virginia...the most beautiful, full arc rainbow I've ever seen. Couldn't even get it all in the picture! While in Luray, we visited the caverns. We've done Mammoth and Carlsbad, but never been in caves where we literally stepped around stalagmites in our path and had to remember not to touch them as we moved by. Almost all the formations were really up close--not as huge as in the bigger caves, but a lot more accessible.

We were getting ready to leave Luray on Saturday morning, the 23rd, when I spotted a crowd of women around a campfire a few sites down. Curious (you never see 20 or 25 women together at a campsite), I went down and introduced myself and asked if they were a club. Turns out it was the MidAtlantic Chapter of RVing Women, having their fall rally. They invited us to join in, so we stayed an extra night. We learned how to play Mexican Train dominoes, then went to a potluck dinner, where two accordian players and a harmonica player led a sing-along. We had a great time. We were planning on heading down to Virginia Beach on Sunday, when a few of the gals told us they were going to be camping in Richmond the next weekend. So...we stopped in Richmond for a while! The drive down through the Blue Ridge Mountains was spectacular.

Hershey, PA

It's the sweetest place on Earth! It's true, the town smells like chocolate when the wind is right. Here in Derry Township (though the Post Office is named Hershey, the town has never officially changed its name), the main street is named Chocolate Drive and the street lamps are shaped like the famous kisses. There are no tours of the actual factory anymore, but you can tour a mockup at Chocolate World, so of course, we did!

Our plans to head for New England for the fall colors had to change when I was summoned to jury duty. But we headed east anyway, and have found that the Allegheny Mountains are beautiful this time of year. We'll be in Lancaster for a day or two, then we're off to Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley for a week. It's perfect fall weather in this part of the world, cool and sunny...most days, anyway.

Skokie, IL

We stayed in Illinois a lot longer than orginally planned--I was called to jury duty in late September, so our plans to head to New England for fall colors are on hold. But it meant we had more time to spend with friends and family there. JoAnn and Irene have a new pug puppy...now, get this right, to say her name properly, throw your head back like Marlon Brando and yell, "STELL-LLA"! She's shown here in the Halloween sweater her Aunt Cory picked out for her!

And of course, we visited with our godsons--growing like weeds, they are. We made our annual trip to Magic Waters in Rockford, where they each got tattoos...the kind that last about four days. That's Jim on the left, Joe on the right.

La Pine, OR

The snow was still blocking the road to the top of Paulina Peak the Sunday we drove out to visit "the highest flush toilet in Oregon," but we had a great day, anyway. Dad and I climbed up the obsidian field to look down over the valley while Cory and Mom stayed in the car down below. It was a steep climb, and just between us, I was considerably more winded than he was.

Our stay in LaPine extended several weeks longer than we orginally planned, while we waited for an appointment to repair our trailer's bedroom slide in Bend. But with those beautiful Cascade Mountains surrounding us, the thick, tall Ponderosa and jack pine forests all around, and our ongoing double-deck pinochle tournament with the folks to entertain us in the evenings, we had plenty of reasons to enjoy our stay.

One of our favorite haunts turned out to be a restaurant that recently opened in LaPine, Angel's Thai. Yup, we're big fans of Thai food...and Angel's serves the best we've ever tasted. It's run by two sisters (neither one is named Angel), one who cooks and one who manages the front. If you're in the area, make sure you try the Yum Nua (beef salad)--and trust us, save room for dessert. For weeks, we saw "mango and sticky rice" written on the board as the dessert special, but we didn't try it until we were leaving LaPine and the sisters gave us a serving to go as a good-bye gift. When delays on our repair took an extra day, we went back just to have more!

Piedras Blancas, CA

See that white blip, farthest to the right, out on the cliff? That was us, right on the Pacific Coast, just about 7 miles north of Hearst's Castle on CA-1. It was a totally primitive site, no water, no electric, no cable TV, no bathhouse or even outhouse, just parking. We had our portable generator, our satellite dish and a little water in the freshwater tank, though, so we were fine.

Was it a spot we'd have picked? Probably not--we whizzed right by here nearly three days earlier on our way north. But that was before we broke down for the second time this month and had to leave the trailer for several nights in a turnout at the top of a mountain road. After help from one of the really good guys (if you know Craig Isom of Cambria, CA, tell him the ladies are still saying 'thanks'), we limped down the hill to the first safe place we could find. This was it, and for three days, until we could get to the nearest repair shop...

...this was the view from our front door. Sometimes, circumstances force you to slow down a little...and listen to the surf. Lesson learned.

San Simeon, California

On this short stretch of beach on the Pacific Coast Highway, elephant seals come to mate, molt, and bath in the California sunlight.

It reminded us just a little of the Chicago beach on the 4th of July...

During our drives back and forth along CA-1, we saw a lot of these fellows.