August 14--Still retired!

Today was a sightseeing and geocaching day. We started by finding a cache near the Dewey Dam. If we had not looked for the cache, we would have missed a wonderful Corps of Engineers Park. This is a picture of the playground from the dam above.

After finding a nearby cache we drove to Paintsville State Park and visited the Kentucky Home Farm Place. Both were located on Army Corps of Engineer property. We enjoyed the view of Paintsville Lake.

We returned to our camp site to grill a late lunch/early dinner. Being retired sure is a lot of work!

Right now we are May Lodge, Jenny Wiley State Park, using the wifi to upload our blog and to check our e-mail. The following is a picture of the lodge.

Still retired--August 12 and 13

We left Cascade Lake Recreation Area Sunday around 9:30 a.m. with the intention of driving to Carter's Lake Caves State Park in Kentucky. It was a longer route than we anticipated so after 7 hours and 295 miles we stopped at Jenny Wiley State Park, also in Kentucky. U.S. 23 was more mountainous than we expected. Here is a view from Benge's Gap Overlook along the way.

The park is in the coal mining area of Kentucky and is on Dewey Lake which was constructed by the Corps of Engineers. The campsite is a pull through with water and electric. May Lodge is located in the park with an overlook of the lake and the marina.

After a good night's rest, we decided to hike some trails. We hiked the .75 Sassafrass Trail, then drove to the lodge to hike the 3 mile Lakeside Trail. The Sassafrass was tame compared to the Lakeside Trail--many steep ups and downs.

After our hike, we got cleaned up and went to the lodge for lunch. We added all the calories back that we burned on the hike.

August 8-11

After we left Petersburg, we drove to Greenwood, SC, to have lunch with Charles and Lisa. The drive took less than an hour. We were to meet at Ruby Tuesday. When we arrived, we were a little early so we looked around the local K-Mart. On our return to the rv, we saw more of the ants we thought we had gotten rid of at Petersburg. We sprayed the rv again, some inside and a lot outside. To get away from the odor, we went in Ruby Tuesday to wait for Charles and Lisa. They arrived right on time and we enjoyed catching up with them over lunch.

After lunch we continued on to our campground outside of Brevard, NC. Before we left South Carolina, we filled the rv with gas at an amazing $2.41 per gallon! We arrived at Cascade Lake Recreation Area (formerly Little River Campground) about 4:30. The road to the campground road was not bad, but the final leg up the mountain was a bit scary. We were glad no one was coming down the mountain at that time.

On August 9, we went into the town of Brevard to geocache. We found 5 of 7 caches. Most were on the Brevard College campus and 2 were in parks in Brevard.

August 10, we met Ernie at his house and went to downtown Hendersonville. We walked through the shops and checked out all the bears. They will be auctioned later in the year. We returned to Ernie's and ate lunch we brought back from The Fresh Market. We stayed on the backporch watching birds, squirrels, chipmunks, and a BAT. The bat must have been confused because is was out in the heat of the day--yes, once again heat records were broken. We hope a cold front travels through soon. Ernie cooked steaks out for dinner. They were accompanied by baked potatoes and a bodacious salad. We returned to our campsite with the hopes of kayaking the next morning.

When we awoke on August 11, we ate a quick breakfast and took our kayaks to the boat launch. We paddled to the waterfall at the end of the lake. We turned around and paddled back toward the campground, past the fishermen and into an area near the dam which is on the other end of Cascade Lake. We were out for about 2 hours. It was our first kayak trip in over a year. We ate a quick lunch then drove to Hendersonville.

Tomorrow we leave for Kentucky.

August 6-7

We left Mayport at 9:30 a.m. and drove to Petersburg Corps of Engineer campground just west of Augusta, GA. As Bob hooked up the electric and water, Joyce tried to back the truck away--it wouldn't start! It had plenty of power, but just clicked. We finished setting up and went for a walk. The truck could wait until tomorrow. The COE park had extremely large sites. Ours was a drive through by the water with steps down to the water.

While we were at the COE park, the temperatures set records--100+ degrees Monday and Tuesday. We didn't go out after 11 a.m. On Tuesday morning, Bob wriggled under the truck and cleaned the wires on the starter, we had had problems with them before. The truck started with no problem. We drove to the Strom Thurmond Visitor Center to see what was available. On our return trip, we drove through West End Dam COE Recreation Area and Lake Springs Recreation Area. We spent the afternoon trying to put together the diabolical puzzle-- Stuck in a Jigsaw-- that Jennifer gave Joyce one Christmas.

August 5th--Retirement Continues

Today was an active day. We started with a 3 mile beach walk at Mayport. Bob got a decent picture of a container ship while Joyce fixed a hearty lunch of sandwwiches, chips, and fruit. Then we went geocaching in Jacksonville. We explored an area that had 3 parks that were not there when Joyce was growing up. We found 3 caches in the Blue Cypress and Lion's Parks. Long ago, we played golf at what is now Blue Cypress Park. Next we went to Reddie Preserve which has a jaded history. We found 4 caches, including one travel bug. The weather was excrutiatingly hot and humid so we called Beverly and Walter to have ice water ready for our arrival at their domicile which was nearby.


While we were cooking steak for dinner, another container ship came by--Nardony Bridge registration Monrovia-- passed the campground as we cooked. We managed to get both of us in the picture. This retirement phase of life is pretty good!



Tomorrow we leave for north Georgia and Petersburg Corps of Engineer's campground.

Retirement Trip August 4th

We arrived at Mayport Naval Station campground on the 2nd of August and have a camp site right on the front row where we have a great view of all the ships passing by.

We went down to the little village of Mayport to do some geocaching and the Mayport Ferry was running.

We ended up finding 6 out of 8 geocaches. We later found out that the 2 we couldn't find were missing and people had been unable to find them for several months.