Alumni Banquet, Church and Lunch with Friends June 23 & 24, 2018

Saturday, June 23, was a rainy, damp day.  We made a run to a grocery store in preparation for our trip heading south on Monday.  In the evening, we went to Pleasant Valley Fire Hall for my high school alumni banquet.  Taneytown High School's last class graduating class was 50 years ago in 1968.  Our classes were nothing in comparison to the classes today.  Forty two students were in my class, last week our Maddi graduated with a class of 440 plus.  Our high school also consisted of grades 7 through 12 and we knew most everyone in those grades as we went through school.  My class celebrated 55 years and Larry (brother) celebrated 60 years.  Out of my class of 42 only 9 of us attended the banquet plus 1 that did not graduate but had been in our class until the 10th grade.  A teacher, Dean Griffin and his wife,

  attended as a guests of Tom and mine.

It was a nice evening seeing many folks from many years.

Today, Sunday, June 24th, we attended church services this morning at Baust Church, the church that we had attended our entire married life prior to moving to Florida and I had attended years before that.  Again it was nice to see familiar church friends.  After church we returned to Gettysburg and met Miny and Len Cluck for lunch at Montezuma Restaurant.  Miny and Tom had worked together so it is always nice catching up on the Cluck's lives as well as other fellow employees.  Today has been much warmer and as of 5 pm no rain, although thunderstorms are predicted.  Tomorrow we move south heading back to Florida.

Reunion, Graduation and Gettysburg June 15-22, 2018 Friday to Friday

At 9:30 am on Friday, June 15th, we left Jellystone Park and traveled 133 miles to Todd and Beth's home in Stafford, Virginia.  We are able to park the motorhome in their driveway. We spent the afternoon and evening visiting with everyone.  Beth's mother and aunt was visiting from New York, all in preparation for the next days graduation activities.  Parker and Gabi,our younger grandchildren, slept in the motorhome with us.

June 16, Saturday, we were up early to go to graduation at 8 am.  Since Maddi and Anthony were both graduating but at different schools at the same time we divided up.  Todd, Tom, Gabi and I attended Maddi's graduation while Beth, Parker and Beth's family attended Anthony's.  The ceremonies lasted about 2 hours and were held in outdoor stadiums. Our Maddi graduated with honors and we are so proud of her accomplishments.

  She plans to attend VCU (Virginia Commonwealth University) in Richmond, Va. Anthony's plans are to go into the Air Force.

It was a bright sunny day so it was getting fairly warm until the end.  Returning back to Todd and Beth's a party was organized.

Maddi came over later in the afternoon with her boyfriend and another couple.

June 17, Sunday, Father's Day, Tom enjoyed the day celebrating this day with his son and grandchildren.  Maddi again came over for the afternoon.  Todd cooked steaks on the grill and along with left overs from the party we enjoyed a nice meal.

June 18, Monday, we packed up and got underway by 9:30 am heading to Gettysburg, Pa.  We arrived at Artillery Ridge Campground a little after 12:30 pm.  We would be here for the next 7 days.  After going to our favorite Mexican restaurant in Gettysburg, Montezuma, we spent the rest of the afternoon catching our breath so to speak.

Tuesday, 19th, we visited my soon to be 89 year old aunt, Dotty Frock, in Westminster.  Had a nice visit and catching up on Little family news.

Aunt Dotty's son, Myron, stopped in on his way home which was a bonus.  Myron had been our ring bearer in our wedding.

Wednesday, 20th, Ellen and Ed Crutchley, friends for many years ( Ed and Tom were in the Navy together, Ellen and I were in nursing school together) met at Shamrock Restaurant in Thurmont for lunch and visiting. Nice lunch of soft shelled crabs and wonderful visit.

Thursday, 21st, we drove to Hollabaugh's orchard and produce store to pick up a few items.  We then stopped at the Gettysburg Outlets to browse around.  In the evening we went to Rube's in Emmitsburg for hard shelled crabs and were they ever good.  Florida just doesn't do crabs like up in Maryland.

Today, Friday, 22nd, we met Larry, my brother, and Joanne at the Dobbin house for a late lunch.  Another nice visit catching up.  It has been rainy and cool all day with temps in the 60's

Northern Travels for Celebrations and Reunions June 12 -14, 2018

June is the month for high school graduations and, this year, we have 2 grandkids in Virginia graduating.  We planned to get away on Monday, June 11th, but unfortunately Tom had been sick all weekend with an upper respiratory infection and on Monday was seen at an Urgent Care facility.  After getting started on medication he was ready to start traveling  Tuesday, June 12.  We got underway by 10:25 am.  We traveled 256 miles to Savannah Oaks Resort near Savannah, Georgia arriving about 3:25 pm.  We did have some showers of rain in our travels but otherwise no other issues.

Wednesday morning, June 13, we  left the campground about 9 am making a fuel stop immediately outside the gates to fill up.  On this day we drove as far as Dillon, South Carolina, 222 miles,  stopping for the night at Bass Lake RV Park about 2:30 pm. Prior to getting to the campground we stopped in Florence, S.C. for a Walmart stop to pick up a few items and  lunch at Don Jose restaurant. We did get our propane tank filled at Bass Lake RV Park before getting situated in our campsite.

Today, Thursday, June 14, we got on the road by 9:15 am driving 209 miles to Emporia, Virginia to Jellystone Park Campground Resort. Traveling up I-95 was fairly smooth traveling until we got toward exit 171 in North Carolina.  Road construction (bridge construction) had traffic just creeping along for 10 miles when we finally crossed the border into Virginia.  We stopped at exit 4 in Virginia to refuel at a Pilot station and to stop at our favorite peanut store, The Good Earth Peanut Company We arrived at the campground about 2 pm.  We had thought in Emporia there would be some place to get lunch but we are somewhat north of the area of those businesses so I fixed a lunch.  Tomorrow we will continue on to Todd and Beth's.