Fun Times at Gold Manor - May 2018

Pam and I have been here in Virginia Beach for about three weeks now.  We are here to see daughter Kelly, son-in-law Jon and grandkids Brooks and Harrison.  We've been busy and have enjoyed every minute.  We are playing with the grandkids, doing projects around their house, seeing some friends from church.  We've generally making the most of our time here.

We also love doing projects around the house.  Some are more involved with others, but each project makes a dent in making their place (Gold Manor) an up-to-date home.  They purchased the property in November and have had some major renovations.

We've been concentrating on the smaller scale projects and helping out with the baby sitting and yard work.

This shows three projects underway:  Kelly is scraping the paint off the side door and garage door.  I power sprayed the garage door also and it is a long process.  Pam and I got an LED replacement light over the garage which she was putting up.  She finished that project quickly.  The rest will take a while.

I also power-washed the boat house and started with the back side.  It was a pretty nasty effort but it was a good start to getting the old paint off before we repair boards and put a new coat of paint on it. 

This tree/bush root was a particularly pesky one.  I had to dig and use the sawz-all to finally get it cut it off below ground.

I like mowing the lawn and it is a good way to get a workout!

Jon started laying some bricks for edging in the front yard and I continued the effort on the front walkway.

It is a fantastic piece of land with great neighbors and they are making it look great -- inside their house and outside on the grounds.  Can't believe they have only been here 6 months.  A lot of work but we they also are enjoying it.

In fact, we usually find ourselves outside in the back yard or down by the lake most days.

Last evening Jon, Pam and I took the boys out for a little excursion that lasted about 15-20 minutes.  Uncle Mike gave Jon a trolling motor that has replaced the oars so it is easier on all of us. Kelly stayed behind as we pulled away Kelly had cast off from the shore and was fishing.  Seeing that, Jon mentioned, "She gets prettier every day..." 😊 Jon managed to drop the hook a few times along the shore of the lake, but didn't snag one.  As we were pulling in,  Kelly said she caught one that got tangled up in the trees and weeds near shore as she was reeling him in.  He put up a fight until he broke free. Kelly was pretty relieved since she hadn't figured out how she was going to release him with out grabbing the slimy thing...

We've been here in VB a few weeks now.  It has not all been work work work.  Jon had a birthday 

and Kelly had a surprise birthday party for Jon.  He was truly surprised because it also dubbed as a Cinco de Mayo party that was 10 days before the real birthday.  Jon and the guys went on a short overnight camping trip and 30 or so guests were waiting went for him when we pulled into the driveway.

Everyone stayed for a few hours and we all had a good time.

 That's some of what we've been up to.  Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Weekend in the Shenandoahs

A few months back Kelly and Jon asked if we wanted to join them up in the mountains and maybe rent a cabin together.  They also asked Adam and Melissa but they had something else going on.  Kelly hunted around a while and after a few choices, we decided on this one.

It was a nice 4 hour trip from Virginia Beach to the cabin not far from Luray, VA

The property looked a lot like the pictures, only better.  It was a perfect fall weekend.

 It was great and well taken care of, had plenty of amenities and was right on the South Fork of the Shenandoah River!

The cabin was built as a rental and opened earlier in the summer.  The grounds were well maintained.

And the views were perfect to see up the river, down the river and across the river.

 Inside the cabin, we had a nice new place with comfortable furniture, full kitchen and a washer/dryer if we needed it.

One of the main attractions was for Jon to be able to fish.  And he got in quite a few hours.

He let me borrow his waders for a bit and I even snagged one.

Not a very big one, but a fish nonetheless... :)

I think Jon caught something like 11.  It was lots of fun.

Kelly tried her hand at it on the shore line.  

 We also spent time around the campfire.  We had an unlimited supply of firewood and kept the fire going.

I did some reading and just enjoyed it outside.  It was a perfect fall day.

Jon put up his hammock and got a family picture.

Later on Saturday afternoon, we went for a walk along the dirt road in front of the cabin.  This place was definitely the nicest on in the area.  We saw a lot of trailers parked along the river on both sides of the banks.

 Just for the fun of it, I called and asked the price for a spot which had 30 amp service and water.  No sewer or dump station:  $45/night.  It looked like a good area for hunters and fisherman.

We enjoyed it and Brooks did fine in his backpack harness.  Reminded me of when we would go on Volksmarches in Germany when our kids were babies in the early 1980's.

 We had plenty of chances to 'chill out' and enjoy the day at the cabin.  The sun come out in the early evening and we got a lot of photos with Brooks.

We had a great time and look forward to maybe doing this every year?

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Fishing in Key West

We don't fish much but it seemed like the right thing to do.  We got some advice from the lady at the campground check-in desk who said, "My husband always takes the Tortuga IV and likes them."
Since we didn't have any better tip, we took that one.

Jon and Kelly were here for Christmas and we picked Monday to go out on the boat.  Jon called and found we could just line up at the dock and buy our tickets.

After we got some Cuban coffee.

 The ship mates were cutting up bait which Jon and Kelly were looking around the boat.

We claimed a spot off the stern and put our tickets onto a fishing rod.

 As we left the harbor, you could see a couple of cruise ships docked at Mallory Square.

Then we talked with our neighbors and had our picture taken.

We went out for about an hour and stopped at our first area.  It wasn't too long before Jon caught one!

I tried to hold it while Jon took the hook out.  Kelly wasn't too sure she wanted anything to do with it…

Then I caught a grouper.  It was the biggest fish I've ever caught.  But at 14", it was a full 6" too small, so it went back into the Straits for Florida.

A little later and Kelly hauled in a Yellow Tail Snapper.

And so did Jon.

They sure are pretty fish.  This little guy was too small so he went back in the water too.

We fished for about 2 1/2 hours and it took us about an hour to get out to our first spot.  Then we moved around a couple more times.  We got 7 or 8 keepers of yellow tail snapper, grunt fish, mackerel and a porkie.

So it was a good day.  The weather started out a little cool but it was only cloudy for a little while.  And we all had a good time.  We didn't get skunked, we caught some nice fish and no one threw up.  Yep, that is the first thing I think about when we talk about going out on a boat.  We weren't deep sea fishing, but we had enough waves to get a couple of guys on board looking a little puny.  But I took some Dramamine and it work.

The trip was a little less than four hours and at a great price ($44/each) so it was well worth it.

 After we got back to our slip, we waited for our fish to get cleaned.  And we weren't the only ones.

It took about 20 minutes and we were on our way with a mess of fish for dinner.

I cooked them on the grill and we had a nice meal together.

So that was our first and only fishing trip in Key West.  We had a great time!

That's it for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles ~ thanks for joining us!

Until next time...