Day 2: NC to SC 2009-2-9

I forgot to mention one thing about yesterdays drive. Anyone who has driven the I-95 route to Florida knows about South of the Border and all the billboards that advertize how many miles it is to afore mentioned tourist trap. There aren’t as many billboards and they are not as inventive, but they are there and so is South of the Border.
Today we drove from Smithfield, NC to Bluffton, SC. This took us about five and a half hours. Nothing interesting happened on the drive. After we checked into the hotel Barbara called our friends Helen and Jim who have a house in the area. We went over to their house and then went out to dinner. We had a very nice visit with Helen and Jim.
That is all until tomorrow when we will be in Florida.

Day 1: On Our Way 2009-02-08

Well the car was all packed by Saturday evening, except for the coolers and Barbara and I. If you look at the pictures to the left you will see I packed every inch of the car.
We got up at 5:30AM today and where ready to leave at 7AM. We drove for a little over 5 hours to Agecroft Hall (http://www.agecrofthall.com ) in Richmond Va. This is an English Tudor estate that was taken apart in Lancashire, England and put back together in Richmond. The estate was purchased for $19,000 and cost $250,000 to take apart, ship and reassemble. The new owners in Virginia also added a lovely English Garden. From the pictures you can see nothing is on bloom, but you can tell it is lovely when it is. One note, the roof is what is called Cut Stone. Each piece of stone looks like it is at least an inch thick. When they put the house back together they reinforced the frame with steel beams.
After leaving Agecroft Hall we drove another 2.5 hours to Smithfield North Carolina to the Comfort Inn we had reservations at. It turns out the Comfort Inn is in a Shoppers heaven, there are no fewer then 3 strip malls full of shops. We had dinner in a Texas Steakhouse; it was a very nice dinner. In a little while I will walk over to the Stone Cold Creamery for our Ice Cream treat.
Tomorrow we drive to South Carolina for a visit with our old neighbors who have a place there so they can get away from the New Jersey winter.

Pack the Trunk day

In the latest album you will see that today was pack the trunk day. We had quite allot of stuff to get into the trunk but I was successful. After packing the trunk we where concerned about the cold temperature, it was in the teens this morning, freezing some of the canned goods. I had to make room in the garage for the car. I had to bring in the metal cabinet we bought last summer at an estate sale and then clear the floor so I could get the car in. It took awhile but in the end I was successful and the car is in the garage. I then put the bike carrier on, once I am sure I will not have to get into the trunk anymore I will put the bike on, most likely that will be Saturday evening.

Getting Ready for Trip to Florida

Next Sunday Barbara and I will be leaving for our adventure to Florida. We have made a list (which keeps getting longer) and are gathering everything in the living room and garage. So far I think everything will fit into the car (anybody have a large shoehorn?). I was hoping to get the car to a carwash before we left but today it is snowing, maybe tomorrow or Thursday. I will update this in the next few days.

Orchid Extravaganza

It was going to be a beautiful day on Friday (Sunny and in the high 40’s F) so Barbara, Louise and I went to Longwood Gardens. We arrived at Longwood just after 10AM and it was starting to get warm already. As you can see from the pictures in the latest album as you come into the visitor center there are orchids. When you walk to the conservatory there is not a lot to see, but as soon as you go inside, WOW! We walked around and went into the children’s garden, as we always do. The staff where still getting ready for the opening of the Orchid Extravaganza that was the next day but it still was very impressive. I will not tell you all about it because words can not convey all the beautiful flowers, please open the Orchid Extravaganza album on the left and enjoy.

New Years 2009

Barbara and I went to Chadd's Ford, PA for new years eve/morning. Our first stop was to our favorite museum, Bradywine River Museum. As you can see we saw the doll house display that they put up every year at Christmas time. The decorations on all the trees are all made from natural materials. The train display they have every year is great, I being male just love it. After I went on a tour of two of the galleries with the grandaughter of Andrew Wyeth, she had some very interesting stories about her Grandfather and Uncle, we went to the motel. Our room was very nice, it even had a fireplace. After a short rest it was time to go to Longwood Gardens for our New Years Eve. I think Longwood Gardens put up more lights this year then last. The Buffet Dinner was very good and warm, we stretched the dinner out to 1 hour so we could stay warm for that long. It was cold waiting for the ice skaters, notice Barbara's glasses all fogged up. The ice skating was a bit of a disappointment there where only 3 skaters, last year they had more of a program. We waited in the lower level of the conservatory for the firework time to come. The fire works at 9:15PM where just as good as last year, it is only about 15 minutes long but they are the best 15 minutes of fireworks. The following morning we went back to Longwood Gardens to see the conservatory decorations. The best was the display in the main reflection pool called Cranberry Delight. It is filled with 1,100 pounds of cranberries, approxametly 500,000 cranberries. The cranberries are floating in 4 inches of water, 1 cranberry deep. After walking around the conservatory for awhile and seeing the music room made up as a gentleman's library, the trains in the palm room, the orchid room and other areas we went home. All in all it was a cold but delightful New Years Eve.