Christmas eve we had a scoff in the clubhouse, then Christmas day we ate again at  2 pm, pot luck, what a great variety of food, then we took home plates to eat later that night.  Boxing day it blew and blew and blew, winds up to 47 miles an hour. In Northern Texas, 11 people died in tornadoes, a total of 23 people died due to storms on Christmas and Boxing day.  Most of the damage was 250 miles north of us. Looking forward to eating at the clubhouse again New Years eve, a fish fry put on by the campground owners. First of February we are heading to Mission, Texas for a few days to the Snowbird Extravaganza. We  will see, Jimmy Flynn, Bowser & Blue, Michelle Wright, Tom Leadbetter, we met people here in the park from Woodstock NB, we will visit them in Mission, they also know Jimmy Flynn, she used to hire him for shows in Woodstock.    

This is a man we met, his name is Tom " Silver Tip Shannon " a retired Rodeo Star/Bull Rider. 

We both started working when we were 13 for money , so we really have Got Er Done !

This is a House across from our Site, it is abandoned due to the fact that  Illegals were living there and the Border Patrol found them and removed them.

Well settled in to Amigo Park, in Zapata, Texas. Oranges and pink grapefruit to be picked right outside our door, temps in the 80's everyday. Other than enjoying the Sun, and listening to Cove FM from Eastern Passage at home, radios here pretty well only speak Spanish, we can only once again rave about the cost of living  here compared to home.  Wine is three dollars a liter instead of $10.00 at home, 30 beer is  $20.00 instead of 50.00 at home, groceries are two-thirds , the best of BBQ steak is half what it is home, our camping site is $6.00 per day compared to $25.00 at home. Gas is one third of cost at home, add 26 cents on every Cdn dollar we spend and you still come out far ahead.   For our six dollars a day we get free wi-fi and free TV. The games room in the clubhouse has a shuffleboard, we are enjoying that!

This is the Sign at the entrance to the RV Park we are staying at, weather is amazing !

History repeats itself, two years ago we camped at the Padre Island National Seashore and cold winds blew for four days continuously and we moved North to find Wilderness Lakes RV Park near Lake Corpus Christi, this year we planned on a few days at the Seashore, surely it will be different ,four months earlier, no, not to be, after two nights on the Gulf, the winds drove us North again, we had planned on a week in Wilderness Lakes, and welcomed the loss of sea winds! Arrived in time for cocktail hour with Pat & Al, settled in, and really enjoyed Thanksgiving potluck with our American friends! Met many more Americans and a few Canadians.A most relaxing week after the 12 day trip to finally get to the Great State of Texas! Not one person in the park has ever heard of Zapata, where we are headed, we tell them, that's why we are going there!

We seen our first gator after we crossed into Texas, have yet to see one in Louisiana, go figure! We seen many sharks on the ferry to Galveston,  We passed the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. before staying in Galveston Island State Park! 

We are camping near Beaumont , Texas, Andy sent us a weather warning, South east Texas is looking at rain, rain,rain, flooding and possible Tornados, we will settle down here in the campground, high winds also expected. Wednesday the Sun will start shining for six days, plenty of time to get to Padre Island National Seashore, where you are allowed to camp for free, right on the 60 mile beach.

Three very relaxing days with the Laverty's, Lucy and Andy and the LSU Porch are always great, after ten days on the road, we just vegged, along with the vegging we enjoyed, gumbo, surf and turf and etouffe, home made apple cider, Son Adam made the gumbo, and we thank them all for holding back on the spices! We watched LSU (Louisiana State University) and the Saints right on the deck, football is not our forte, but with the right people  it can be interesting! Our one trip to the Wal-Mart will show why we come south, the prices,not just the Sun make it worthwhile, I bought 10 litres of wine and a two four, that alone would cost $140.00 at home, then I got a pie, pop, and ice. The total US was $56.00, add 25% for the exchange and we paid $70.00 Cdn for $140.00 of necessities, it costs half to live here compared to home! 

No matter how hard we try, it always takes ten days to get to Louisiana.  We only accomplished 120 miles the day we went up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, fog, fog, fog, or clouds, clouds, clouds.
We finally went on the Interstate in Tennessee, wasn't too bad. Through Tenn.,then Georgia to Alabama. Stayed in the worst Wal-Mart yet , good ol' boys came down from the mountains to play their favourite game, "My Truck is noisier than your Truck" in the parking lot all night long! Then they were joined by
giant bush  buggies and motorcycles, don't know who won the competition, but we were definitely the losers, Usually it's just reefers waiting for a morning delivery! Down the Natchez Trace for a hundred miles. Across the ippississiM once again and into Whodat country.  

Up and down, got up to the Blue Ridge Parkway turnoff, missed the turn and ended up on the Interstate all the way back down the hill, climbed again just to be met by rain and fog, couldn't see 20 feet ahead ,let alone the 100 mile views, down the hill again to Lynchburg, VA, then to a campground to flush the anti-freeze from our system, hot water now for dishes and sponge baths.  Tomorrow we may break our anti-Interstate law and cruise through the mountains to Tennessee , less climbing , easier on the truck! Can't wait to get to the Natchez Trace, 400 miles of nothing but cattle and horses,right into Louisiana!  

Halfway to Leesville ,Louisiana, four hundred miles in Virginia , mostly on the Blue Ridge Parkway,then through the Cumberland Gap to Tennessee, then down the Natchez Trace,across LA to our American friends and the LSU porch, so inviting and laid back. 

No Saturday night bath, couldn't find a decent motel, but instead of a Wal-Mart, it was a bank parking lot! A beautiful Sunny Sunday, what luck!  Gas went down 30 cents a gallon. I gave Trish a signed promise for a hotel, supper in a restaurant, and a early stop, plus a sticker for the camper that says"Virginia is for Lovers"
Couldn't find the sticker, three out of four ain't bad, Best Western offers (full) free breakfast, plus,we will find the sticker tomorrow before we get on the Blue Ridge Parkway to Tennesse!

A wonderful departure meal with great friends Brian & Dale, bacon wrapped scallops and lobster cakes. We had a great chicken pot pie made by Dale, first day on the road. Two relaxing days in Amherst at Paul's daughters(Karen Anne), pot roast and baked potato, we sure love to eat, oops, we live to eat! Talked to Mike, Sarah, Kenzie and Kaelyn to say goodbye. Drove by their house on our way out of Nova Scotia. Joined the Amherst Legion. Three days of Sunny, Sunny weather,we are in Hudson, New York,probably Virginia tomorrow night. No matter what ,no more Wally Worlds, we will stop at a motel or campground with hot showers, Saturday night is bath night! Bought first box of wine, 5 litres, $15.00, would cost fifty at home, Trish will be a happy camper from here to Texas. Thirty beer, $17.00,and the beer is 6 % alcohol, not like years ago, again compared to $50.00 at home. Gas is two dollars a gallon cheaper, we don't really care about the 25 cent difference in the dollar, it's just down right cheaper across the border!

Looks like we will leave Amherst, Nova Scotia on Wed the 4th, aiming for Leesville, Louisiana on Fri the 13th, then on to Padre Island ,Texas for a few days, probably spend American Thanksgiving in Wilderness Lakes campground on Corpus Christi Lake, then on to the final winter destination, Zapata, Texas on Falcon Lake, and some wonderful largemouth bass fishing! A few Wal*Mart parking lots on the way and of course the last of the beautiful Fall colours as we cruise through New England states, New York State and then Pennsylvania onto to Virginia. On the road again as Willy says!

Monday 2 November, we should be on the road, heading for Amherst, spend a few days with Paul's daughter, also Mike, Sara and Trish's  adopted grand kids! Then look for a weather window to get to South Carolina, then Southwest to Leesville ,Louisiana, drop in to see Lucy and Andy, American friends, then on to Corpus Christi Lake to visit Winter Texans, Pat and Al from Indiana, our final destination for the winter months is Zapata, Texas, on the Rio Grande! We are now official "Fulltimers", furniture in storage and our home is Mojo, until ???????????  Thanksgiving in Texas, Christmas in Texas, First Day of Spring, in Texas,will make us official Winter Texans!  "Wahoo!"  

Making the big Move, we are giving up our apartment, putting furniture in storage and leaving for Texas for five months, on our return to Nova Scotia, we will volunteer for any and all camphosting assignments! Attend a couple of weddings again and relax.  During the summer we will make decisions about where we might live next winter in Nova Scotia??????

Another of our short trips around Nova Scotia, camped on the beach in Broad Cove ,Lunenburg County first night, then on to Shelburne the next day, actually Birchtown, site of the Black Loyalist Museum , well worth the trip, the third night we visited an old haunt, the Nova Scotia Guides Association Campground in Hibernia, Queens County, Paul is a hunting and fishing guide and spent many wonderful days at guides meets. The annual Labour Day meet will take place this weekend. Log rolling, fly-casting canoeing,  tub races, and of course horseshoes, are on the agenda. Meeting  Sayward Carver, fly-casting champion for more than a dozen years was a treat, not many of the old guides left!

Very relaxing two weeks at Smileys, met many of our fellow Camphosts. The second week it rained continuously ,day after day, luckily, we had a few movies along and enjoy indoor sports, Scrabble,  Who's Who? crib, rummy,canasta, listening to talk radio and or course our favourite CBC!  We wined a lot, Paul told a few jokes on Canada Day and got a few children up telling jokes also! 

Two wonderful weeks camping at Smiley's, that's a provincial campground on the Meander River in Nova Scotia, sitting in the Sun, swallowing a few cold ones along with wining a bit, watching the river flow on to the Bay of Fundy, now,that's relaxing. Maybe meander along the Meander in the early morning, drop a fishing line in the evening. Play a lot of crib, rummy, canasta, Scrabble, then sit around the campfire trading lies, watching the bats swallow mosquitoes above the river, staring up at the stars. Address: Heaven County, Nova Scotia !

We started off our summer with a night at Cow Bay, the number 1 boondocking site in North America, we were woke early by the clamdiggers launching their boats, then off to Eastern Passage and a great day with our Newfoundland family and friends! Looking forward to a great summer in Canada's Ocean Playground, Cape Breton, Amherst Shore, Broad Cove, Lunenburg County, Chezzetcook and other delightful places to sleep and savour!

Klinger & us at Mash Night at Legion we attended in Florida, fun night !

Hot Lips & us at the Mash Night !

THE VINE TRISH , THE VINE !

Statue in Tomoka State Park.

Sun shining through beautiful Spanish Moss !

Shells Paul collected for me !

Mushrooms on log at our Park in  Florida.

Coral snakes mating !

Bird made a nest and laid eggs in the Gator we used at the Park.

Some of many Attending Daytona Beach Bike Week !

Fungus on tree in State Park we were at in Florida.

Turtle we paused to watch cross the road !

Burl at base of tree.

Crab Paul saw crawling along the sand !

Two  Snowbirds protecting our site !

Sleeping in Maine tonight, temps are sure different from Florida, furnace on for last few days. Will be in Amherst Sunday evening, will celebrate Trish's birthday Tuesday the 19th.  Slept in Jaffrey, New Hampshire last night , temp was around 47 degrees, 30 degrees more than the night in February we slept there, it was 17 degrees that night, we had the furnace on, plus the truck heater itself was running!  Saw two Cdn geese and 6 goslings crossing the road in New York state. They couldn't wait to do it until they got back to Canada! It probably happened on May 1st.  

On our way home early, left Florida Sunday, it's Wednesday the 13th and we woke up in the Wal-Mart in Culpepper, Virginia.  Now blogging from Lowe`s parking lot, free sleeping accomodations, Free wi-fi, looking for free electricity somewhere in Pennsylvania tonight. America is Great!  Stayed in a rest area in South Carolina one night, woke up to notice we could have had free electricity all night,  took a day off in Virginia, didn`t drive because `Virginia is for Lovers``, a little afternoon delight, then a few evening hours on the road. Finally found Georgia peaches in Florida, the basket will be gone by Vermont. Will be in Amherst for Trishes birthday, then in Chester for the long week-end!  See you all soon!  

We have a bird's nest with three eggs behind the washer and dryer in our washroom, we also have a nest in our gator glove box, with four eggs.  That reminds me, "Hooray, Hooray, it's almost the First of May, outdoor screwing starts that Day!" 

Well settled into our routine, clean the washrooms, then drive around in the gator and clean the campsite firepits, lots of thunder storms and lightening.  Rains a lot, but the days are usually sunny and hot.  Visited Jim and Marge in Lake Helen and had a great time playing buttons.  Visited Gamble Rogers park and watched a bull Manatee with half a dozen females just having a ball. Watched an Osprey fly up to it's perch with a large fish, then watched it eat for an hour,  Gamble Rogers is another state park a few miles from Tomoka, on the ocean, we get a day pass and enjoy the differences, we have seen a couple of large snakes in Tomoka, neither poisonous we are told by description,  Enjoyed the last few days with Paul entertaining A Liners of Florida with campfire comedy.  The A Liners motto is " Friends don't let friends use canvas"    Went to a M.A.S.H. party at the local legion, one great "Hot Lips", and a great Klinger, one guy came as a doctor, with a large note on his back, it said " I am not a gynecologist ,but if you want, I could take a look"  Lots of guys wearing old parts of their original uniforms,  Paul received a set of dog tags for his story of being an actual "Radar" in a Canadian Field Ambulance.

Sitting on the beach yesterday, where we noted a few dead jellyfish and some kind of large dead bird, along came the rangers on ATV, they photgraphed it and then identified it as a Common Loon, never thought of loons in Florida, thought they were a very Northern bird, they said they had got an injured one the week before, maybe the heat is killing them or they tangle with flocks of pelicans heading north!.  

Visited Cape Canaveral National Seashore, drove the whole park in a violent rainstorm, 4 inches of rain on the road, and hundreds and hundreds of dragonflys across our windsheild!   Got a Gator this week, we now run around the park checking campsites and meeting more people, met a couple from Three Fathom Harbour that live near Jimmy Flynn. Paul entertained them with Jimmy Flynn jokes one evening. Visited friends and played cards, had a great time, we all went to the DECK DOWN UNDER in Port Orange in memory of my brother-in-law Don Peeling, second annual such gathering. Trish has been suffering from fly bites, thanks to an evening spent outside, no more, company must come in to the A/C, after all it's free with the free electricity.

The pictures of snow on Trish's facebook certainly tell us why we are here! In the 80's most days. The A/C is  on continuously!  Gotta rave again about the cost of things here, well the important things, a 24 of beer is 15.00 bucks, 12 litres of wine is 40.00 bucks, add the twenty percent exchange and that comes to 66.00 Cdn. The same amount of booze in Nova Scotia would cost 160.00 bucks.
Trish is having trouble with the insect bites again, every little bug and we mean little, really, "no see'ums", you seldom actually see one!  Just found out right outside the park gate is the original bldg where the first rum was made in North America.  Also found out the park was once all sugar cane fields and that sugar cane is not native to North or South America, imported from Asia to the Carribbean and North America, how would they have transported those plants originally?

Returned to Tomoka for another week of cleaning, thebikers have moved out and the people with yappy dogs took over, give me bikers at any time, motorcycles are not as irritating as dogs barking or yapping, then it.s followed up by , "It's not my dog Sir, my dog never yaps or barks."  Bikers rev it up and own up to it!
We now have two weeks under our belt, temps in the 80s, spend a lot of time in the air-conditioning with cold beer and cold wine! Play a lot of crib, rummy, canasta and scrabble!  We are very active, up and down to the fridge!

What a day, our third annual reunion at Madiera Beach Legion in Florida, the venue is something else, seagulls,Pelicans, water activities and friends from as far back as 1960, thanks to Chuck O'Neill for organizing this again, then we spent time at Rickys bar in Treasure Island, listening to a great band with a Cdn member, a friend of Chuck's, when they sang the Edmond Fitzgerald we realized we were sitting surrounded by Canadians. 

Broke our record, eight days to get to Florida, settled in at Tomoka State Park, first on the agenda was our two days off, went to play Buttons with Jim and Marge at Lake Helen, now hard at work cleaning at the campground!  Stayed at a campground in Georgia that let us wash the camper, it was filthy with slush, we were half way through South Carolina when we all of a sudden noticed, no snow!! Then we thought we saw the white stuff again, it was just last years cotton still on the bushes!  Had lunch at the Beanery Cafe, at Flagler Beach.  we are here for Daytona bike week, bikes, bikes and more bikes, trikes, spiders, but mostly Harleys! This week we had one day near ninety, hottest March 5th since 1929!  

While sleeping in a Wal-Mart we heard spring peepers, seen many , many hawks, in the Carolinas.  tonight we are sleeping in Georgia, washed the camper, it was really dirty, also able to flush out the anti-freeze in the water system, can finally use our toilet and wash dishes, tomorrow, we sleep  in a camnpground on the beach, on the Atlantic, in Florida.

Stayed in a motel the next night, in Milford, Pennsylvania told the owner we used run a motel, he wanted us to come and run his for a month while he went back to India. We passed, too cold in PA.  30 beer for 13.75, 5 litres of wine for 14.00, sickening, at home four litres is 40.00 bucks. , 30 beer will cost you 50.00,  even with 20 cents on the Canadian dollar, things here are cheap, cheap, cheap! Saw a flock of Cdn geese, our first hawk sighting took us to the right road into Virginia!   Then to highway 15, downhill all the way to Florida, through NC, SC an into Georgia, halfway through North Carolina we lost the snow, , then we seen white again in the fields, turned out to be last years cotton, still on the bush. 

One week , and we made it to Georgia, tomorrow Florida, we left Amherst, Nova Scotia last Sunday, saw an eagle and two deer in New Brunswick, no trouble at the border, dirty weather when we left, but Sunshine as we entered Maine .  Slept in an Irving parking lot, gas two dollars a gallon cheaper than Canada. The employees gave us a large pizza, that they didn't sell, we thought it was state troopers knocking at our door.
Slept in the mountains of  New Hampshire, next night, -33 degrees fahrenheit, left vehicle running all night and had furnace on, actually quite comfortable. 

Dug out the motorhome today, then put it in a heated building to melt off the ice and snow, determined to pull out for Amherst on Saturday morning, overnight at my daughter Karen's, then a few cold days until we get to North Carolina, or Georgia.  Looking forward to the warm weather in the Sunshine State!

As you can see by these pictures it is definitely time to leave for Florida !

Well, our MOJO is moving, we were just notified that we were accepted as campground hosts in a Florida park for March, April and May!  We depart on the 21st of February, arriving at Tomoka State park, March 1st!  The park is located near Ormond Beach, also near Daytona Beach, Ormond Beach was actually the sight of the first races,prior to Daytona,on the beach!  We have stayed there before, it's absolutely beautiful!
We invite our followers to come along with us to the Sunshine State for three months!