Back Home for a Couple of Months

Hi all:  I’m returning to my blog after an almost two month hiatus.  It was a great idea to break up the trip by going home for a couple of months.  It was a very busy time but we got to spend a lot of time with the kids and grandkids and that was the main reason we did it. 

A couple of days after we arrived home, they all came down from Maryland to spend the 4^th of July weekend at our house.  Those of you who have seen our house know it’s very small with only one real bedroom and one bathroom but we always manage and have a great time.  The kids/grandkids spent most of their day out at Atlantic Beach and in the evenings we sat out on the porch so we didn’t feel crowded.

After they left, our old friends from Maine, Rick and Gayle Perlmutter came to visit.  They have just retired and are doing the “retirement tour” of the country -- similar to ours except they are traveling by car.  We always have fun with them and this time was no exception.

One of the best things we did while we were home was to rent a house on Lake Gaston (it’s on the NC/VA border) for a week with all our kids and grandkids and my brother and sister-in-law, Ken and Bridget.  The house was really nice and perfectly laid out for the crowd we had.  We had lots of water toys --  a two man rowing skiff, Nathan's sailboat -- "Old Bay", and Mattie and Jon brought their power boat so there was lots of wakeboarding, waterskiing and rafting.

We also had the "Caribbean Island" of Staycation fame.  

Over the week we collectively did a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle.

 



The kids spent a lot of their evenings in the basement, watching TV and playing video games in the very comfy rec room.

 The kitchen was great and we took turns preparing meals and cleaning up.

And we finished off the week by going out to dinner at a restaurant with a Tiki Bar!

We did have one unfortunate incident while we were home.  On July 11^th, (the day before Bob’s birthday, no less) Bob and I were in an accident.  A young woman ran a red light right in front of us and we ran into the side of her car.  Airbags deployed and the front of our car was smashed but, thankfully, no one was hurt.

We got a rental car and spent the rest of our time home dealing with insurance companies and body shops.  In the end, on Thursday before we left, her insurance company decided to total our car and they were nice enough to expedite a very fair check, which we picked up on Friday.  We put it in the bank – will buy a new car when we get home again – and headed back to Nebraska on Sunday, August 18^th.

So that’s a summary of our time at home.  In the next installment, we’ll be reunited with our R-Pod.