Biking and RV’ing

 

At the first sign of cool mornings in late summer we began to bike again. Rome just added a new trail and trail bridge over Silver Creek that allows us to do a ten mile ride from the health department in south Rome to the baseball field in north Rome and back. 

In mid September we enjoyed a rally of our Southeastern Country Coachers club in Nashville. There we found a good trail along the Cumberland river called the Shelby Bottoms Greenway. On this trail a quite impressive pedestrian/bike bridge crosses the Cumberland river. We biked this trail with our friends George and Jan and met up with Jack and Mary Lou who were walking on the trail.

          

                   

                          

On another day we biked on the opposite side of the river near downtown with our friends Jack and Marylou.

              

                

We enjoyed seeing everyone at the rally and also enjoyed a night at the Grand Ole Opry where we saw Ricky Skaggs and Bobby Osborne.

HS Reunion: Day 3

 

The last event of the 50th reunion of the class of 1961 was a church service led by class member B.J. Greene Funk in the Chapel of First Baptist Church with music provided by Ed Barr.  B.J. taught kindergarten, felt called to the ministry, and went to Emory University to prepare to be a Methodist minister.  By the time she retired from teaching, she had completed her degree in theology and is currently pastoring a church in Chula, GA, near Tifton. 

B. J. brought a message of God’s love for us and his presence in our lives to help us when we need help.  Afterwards, there was time for those attending to share remembrances of the 27 class members who have died.  As they were remembered, we all recalled the times shared by this class who mostly went to 12 years of school together – not just high school – and the different world in which we lived then. 

The service was a wonderful culmination of this outstanding class reunion weekend, and I thank Johnny Anderson and all those who served with him on the reunion committee.  Ya’ll did good!

HS Reunion: Day 2

 

On Saturday morning, Irene went with Dodie and Iris to tour the Valdosta/Lowndes County Museum which is in the old Carnegie Library Building. The history museum is a large and interesting museum, but most of our time was spent talking with class members and looking at scrapbooks of high school events.  (We’ll have to go back to see the history museum when we’re in Valdosta again).

From the history museum we went to the Wildcat Museum located at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium, the historic location of many Valdosta Wildcat victories.  While the location is the same, the stadium is totally renovated from our high school days.  It now has artificial turf, stadium seats on the home team side in black and gold (wildcat colors), and is much larger with a seating capacity of 11,249.  The museum was filled with photos, trophies, plaques, and other memorabilia – and more class members to see.  Mrs. Bazemore was also there, enjoying exchanging memories.

       

After Irene returned to the coach, our niece Meredith and her daughters came to visit.  Katie is performing in a musical at church and sang her solo for us.  She has a beautiful voice!  Rebecca (4 years old) sang Jesus Loves Me.  Irene and Meredith didn’t sing – they just talked, so George entertained the girls. The first activity was easy – taking the girls out to walk Tina. After that, the job became more challenging as all he had was two Newsweek magazines.

Soon it was time to move on to the next class reunion location.  Dinner Saturday evening was held at class member Larry Rodger’s cattle ranch south of Valdosta.  We drove the coach there and parked in the pine trees near the lodge.  People began arriving at 5:30 and dinner was at 7:00 so there was time to visit and take photos, including another group photo, before dinner – and afterwards.

    

               

           

                 

 

H.S. Reunion: It’s been HOW long?

 

The first reunion event was held at Valdosta Country Club where George had very conveniently arranged for us to park the coach.  After 50 years, it’s sometimes hard to recognize old classmates, but it’s amazing how little some had changed.  It was really exciting to see old friends – Juanita, Dodie, Iris, Barbara, Sandra, and others from our h.s. group of friends.  After time to talk and visit, we enjoyed a buffet dinner and Ed Barr, class member, and his band provided music for dining.  After dinner, a DJ played the music of our high school years for dancing and “just remembering.”   There were also photos and memorabilia which we enjoyed seeing, but the best part was just talking!

           

A Little Trip in Georgia

                                                                                                                                                                   Our current “little trip in Georgia” has two destinations:  The Garden Club of Georgia (GCG) annual convention in Athens and Irene’s high school reunion in Valdosta.  Wednesday we drove to the Continuing Education Center at the University of Georgia where the GCG convention was held.  George arranged for us to park between the Continuing Ed building and the parking garage – a very convenient location.

              

Irene and two fellow garden club members attended the awards banquet and were thrilled when Spade and Trowel (their club) won first place for their flower show “Resplendent Reflections” which Irene chaired in April 2010.  Other Rome clubs also won awards, and the Rome Federated Garden Clubs won numerous awards.

After Irene’s return to the motor home around 11:00 following the awards banquet and ceremony, we were awakened in the very early morning by heavy rain and thunder and soon learned on the weather radio that a predicted storm was in fact arriving along with a tornado warning.  Fortunately, only a thunderstorm passed over us, leaving behind cooler fresher air. 

Irene joined members of Creative Study Club (a flower show judge study group) for Thursday’s luncheon where a fellow Creative Study member was installed as president of the GCG.  After a group photo of attendees from Rome, we left Athens heading south and parked at a Macon Wal-mart for the night.

Heading Home

 

We spent a couple of lazy days at Lazy Days near Tampa, enjoying a few more days of warm sunny weather.  Our site was on the cul-de-sac near Sligh Ave. with a red berried shrub beside the coach.  Here’s “the boss” on the picnic table at our site.

                              

We left Lazy Days Friday morning heading north as our winter trip to Florida winds down.  Soon we began noticing bright “spring green” trees, white flowering bushes, and a little later, blooming red bud trees.  Then George commented on the pollen we’d seen on the truck windshield the day before.  Hey, it’s spring in central Florida!  And we still have spring in Rome to look forward to.

           

                               

We arrived in Valdosta in the early afternoon to visit our niece Meredith and her family.  We got together with Meredith and the girls in the afternoon and then met Kevin for dinner at Smok’n Pig BBQ – except for 8 year old Katie who already had an activity planned.  It was great to see them all.

Driving north, George missed the lush semi-tropical vegetation of Florida, but spring in Georgia isn’t far away!  In fact, we arrived home to find daffodils and forsythias in bloom.  Could it be that Punxsutawney Phil’s forecast is right? 

North to Tarpon Springs

 
Tuesday morning we headed north on the Pinellas Trail and enjoyed a moderate tail wind. It was another beautiful day in the mid-seventies like so many we’ve enjoyed on this trip. Our destination was the Tarpon Springs sponge dock.                                                                                                                                                 
              

We had an authentic Greek lunch at Mykonos restaurant. George had fried squid – not the little calamari, the big guys – while Irene had Shrimp Mykonos.  After lunch we walked down the street threading our way through several busloads of tourists to have an obligatory ice cream before heading back against the south wind.                                                                                                                                                        
      
                                                                                                                                                          Upon arrival in Tarpon Springs George had a Twilight Zone experience. Stopping at the tourist information center seemed like the right thing to do when we arrived at Tarpon Springs, especially with time to kill before lunch. George went around the wrong side of the building and wound up at the dock master’s office. A man with a pronounced Greek accent quickly walked up and asserted in a very firm voice, “Can I help you?,” to which George replied, “Where is the Mykonos Restaurant?” The man gave directions saying it was on the main street only a couple of blocks down.

George had remembered from research on Google Earth that the restaurant was actually on a side street. He then went around the other side of the building and entered the tourist information office. He asked the lady in the office where the Mykonos Restaurant was. The dock master overheard the question and came in angrily asserting that he had already told George where it was. George replied that he was seeking a second opinion to which the dock master replied angrily that George did not trust him. After this exchange, the tourist information lady offered that she did not eat Greek food. George asked if she were Greek and she replied “No.” George then asked where she was from and she replied, “Florida.” This was definitely not your typical tourist-welcoming information office. George walked outside into the sunlight and escaped the Twilight Zone.                                                                                                                                                                     
                      
                                                                                                                                                             On the return we stopped briefly at the Tarpon Springs Depot. Our next stop was at a water reclamation project of Pinellas County adjacent to the trail. Further down we stopped at Wall Spring  Park.       

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Sure enough, there is a typical north Florida spring there. The spring has a long history of ownership and has been a tourist draw since the turn of the twentieth century. During the patent medicine era some of the owners made outlandish medical claims for the spring water. Many of the paths and boardwalks appear to be new, and we enjoyed one more look at the Gulf of Mexico before heading inland tomorrow.     

                                                                                                                                                  
                

Today’s trip was a mere 16.3 miles. Unfortunately it is probably our last trail outing for this trip as tomorrow we head to Lazy Days for a couple of free nights before heading home in earnest. What marvelous biking we have done all over both coasts of Florida on this trip, and what great weather we’ve had.