Three For the RoadOct 31, 2007
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Just Relaxin'
Hot air balloons are very popular around Hatfield, MA
The next few shots are showing the gardens that Florence planted this...
| Welcome back to our Winston Chronicles! Once again its time to get my brain in gear to write about our travels. We can't believe that October is almost gone. For that matter, where did the entire year go? As we described in the Chronicles last June, we went to "work" for the RV dealer in Hatfield for the summer. It was a new experience for the owner as well as for us and the result was that it worked out quite well for both parties and we were invited to return next spring. Her landscaping has a good beginning but next year she'll be able to add more plantings. The photos here were taken at the end of the season so most of the color was already gone. It was a little difficult for Florence to say goodbye to her sewing buddies but a local hardware store advertising a sale on snowblowers (already!) convinced us that it was time to go south. We had promised ourselves that we would do more touristy travel while in MA but for one reason or another, that never materialized. However, we did make a few special trips and one of them was a tour of the Butterfly Conservatory about 10 miles north of us in Deerfield. That was an interesting experience and I have included a few pictures that we took while inside. Also in August, we drove the coach to Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks for one weekend and revisited our friends Dottie and John. We helped Dottie and John celebrate their 60th birthdays that weekend and then later in September attended another party for them in CT given by their son. One special project that Florence assigned to herself was the making of a wall hanging quilt for the dealership to celebrate their Columbus Day Sale event. Every October, Diamond RV puts on a huge sale and open house that includes copious quantities of free food. They call it the "Taste of Diamond" so that was the theme of the quilt. Last year, Florence made aprons with designs of different trailers and coaches combined with the Diamond RV name for all the women that work the kitchen on that weekend so the quilt and the aprons were a huge success. Winston and his "house staff" left New England on Tuesday the 18th and arrived in New Smyrna Beach, FL on the 23rd. The trip was uneventful but getting started was a bit of a challenge. Florence had suffered a sore back a week earlier and despite two trips to the Chiropractor it didn't seem to be getting any better. The Chiropractor thought that the pain was being caused by arthritis in one of her discs and a trip to the local hospital X-Ray Department showed that she had exactly that problem: an irritated disc caused by osteo-arthritis. As Florence says, "Just more gifts of aging." The day before we left, her back seemed to be a little better so we decided to start the trip. Her pain was caused by sitting for prolonged periods of time so the prospect of 5 days of sitting in the coach to Fl. was not appealing. Nonetheless, she managed to make the trip in a minimum of pain and she is doing much better now. In the "Really Good News" department, Florence passed her 5 year mark cancer-free this October! We did stop in Denver, NC on the third day and spent an extra day just exploring the area. Denver sits about 30 miles north of Charlotte, NC and is next to a very large recreation lake. The area is beautiful and if they didn't have snow, it would be a nice place to consider staying for the winter months. Our destination park in New Smyrna Beach turned out to be a nice one with palm trees and live oak with Spanish Moss hanging from the branches around us. They are about 60 % full but promise to be 100% full by mid-November. We have enjoyed our neighbors across from us, Teresa and Joe, and found we have a lot in common. Shopping in the area is easy with lots of touristy places and restaurants but more important is that there are at least two sewing stores for Florence. We also found a Starbucks so Winston is enjoying his "decaf lattes" once again Our friends from Tennessee Gas in Agawam, MA, John and Bonnie, will be here soon for their annual Thanksgiving vacation, and we look forward to their arrival. They've invited us to join them for Thanksgiving for the last two years but for one reason or another, we couldn't make it until this year. Colorful sunsets have been non-existent for the last several weeks so I'll close this first chapter with a shot taken before we left MA. And the adventure continues.... |
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