We’ve been off the road now for almost 3 years. We’re all settled in, back in a stick and mortar home, for a change.
With very little to say or report it’s time to close the book on this endeavor.
This Website will self destruct in Mid-December.
Carla and I continue taking care of business. She bussies herself with some cooking and diamond Painting, and I do my best to take care of most of the other daily chores. Carla continues to struggle with her breathing and, of course, the bone cancer. She is tolerating the meds very well.
For those who have looked in, from time to time on our travels, thank you for your interest.
I thank Him, so often, for having given us so many awesome years together. I pray now for Carla and some longevity so I can assist Carla in the future, when her days may not be as smooth as the present.
Thank you,
Prayers for Carla, please.
Paul
very simple tasks to face each day; mainly Doctors. We did visit Carla’s cousin Connie a couple of years ago and she mentioned she’d taken up a new hobby; diamond painting. I know, the name sounds like a very expensive hobby, but no. It basically consists of a mat with very little color in it but lot and lots of paint by number. In place of paints and filling in large areas on a mat, you make use of colored dots. Each dot number on the unfinished mat corresponds to a colored dot or bead, a better way of describing them. It’s not difficult but it is painstakingly tedious. each square inch of mat you see in the picture consists of 64 or more beads of different colors. To see how intense this hobby is, take your thumb and index finger and place them in the center of the picture and expand the picture size. Something else, hun! Carla is working on her second project except instead of the beads being square they’re round. I know, you’re saying “so what!” Square beads must be placed perfectly square in each receptive bead spot or it might not look as nice as it should. The round beads, fitting in round holes go in imperfectly with very little difficulty, cutting down the amount of time this project should take. If you have an interest in this, possibly, give Carla a call to learn more.
As you can see, just as in the Journey, all our rooms are tightly nestled together. The bottom left-hand corner of the picture is the edge of our living room with new TV and to the right is our dining room, or as in the RV our universal table. Needless to say, many of these cabinets extend too high for us to reach without a step stool. 
There’s not much else left to talk about except for the bedroom. In the picture below you can see we have a ten-foot twin-closet area with storage draws in the center as well as below the mirrored closets. In the Journey we had a King-size bed, which, quite frankly, was overkill for what we needed, although Carla really liked the size very much. 
This experience and the added bonus of having President Dan and Miss Aimee give us sharing their valuable time with Carla and I this day will be an event I’ll remember for years to come. This was definitely a very rare opportunity to view the many changes that have taken place since I graduated in “62. 
Mom and Dad, Abby and Michael, deliver a beautiful baby girl into the world.
Awesome! Doesn’t this look like a brand new coach? Well, almost brand new.
After resolving the tire problem we heard from Sam the Painter. Sam will be repainting the full cap over the front windshield. His problem is that he’s stuck in Georgia doing a big RV repaint job and it is raining every day. Sam is on hold until his schedule eases up. It should get done by May.
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After Mass we went out for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. I was a little leery about the menu but my meal was excellent. When we got back to Mary Ann’s she told us of her new toy; an electric trike. We both fell in love with it.
She loves it and so did we. Both Carla and I had the opportunity to test it out. Reluctantly after a good ride I did bring it back to her. This is not a toy, it can reach speeds of up to fifteen miles per hour. On top of that, in Port Orange, she can use it both on the roads and on the sidewalk. I would not take it on I-95 however.
10.18.18- I write this blog on Maggie Valley with mixed feelings. Those who know me know that I have always had a very strong affection for Littleton, NH. Long story short, it will always be tops on my list. Next would, most likely be the New London, CT area. Not that we had lived in NL, but not that far away. Carla and I spent many weekends at Crocker’s Boatyard on our boat. Thirdly I had placed Maggie Valley in that spot. It too has many memories, especially of our weekends spent in our cabin up there. We’ve been back tor or three times over the last five years,
but this time I’ve been having mixed feelings on this beautiful piece of America. As you can see from the pictures the valley is surrounded by the Great Smoky Mountains.
Always liked this shot of Co
bbler’s Cabin.
Back to my mixed feelings. As you’ll see in some of the pictures to follow, Maggie Valley does not have an actual downtown, never realized that before. Waynesville, on the other hand has a very definitive downtown, but like MV is inundated with strip shopping centers. Not sure if I could keep myself busy if we were full-time residents of MV; especially in the winter months. Almost think I would have to be involved in a local business to make the time go by. Definitely not working for someone else, I don’t do well with that. Many log cabins like you see above dot the mountain sides. Best to see them in the evening with the glow of their lights and the sight of smoke coming from so many fireplaces.
Ingle’s above is to MV and NC as Publix is to Florida and Stop and Shop is to Mass. The store, inside, is so beautiful, almost makes it a destination.
We still have difficulty in passing up an ice cream shop. We’ve been in here before but never realized they serve “Blue Bell” ice cream and it was so good. Not only that, a steal at two sugar cones for $3.49.
Yesterday we ventured away from the coach, got our ice cream then decided to try to find a cabin we almost bought before Cobbler’s. It was a very narrow road which was, as with most mountain roadways, very steep. I was just telling Carla, hope no one is coming down the mountain. Within ten seconds pops up a van. We slid over to the side as far as we could and he likewise was way over on the right side. We passed by each other with inches to spare. This is not atypical. A four-wheel drive vehicle, for us, would have been more beneficial. As you might have suspected we sadly could not locate that log home. On our way back down the mountain we came across a Llama farm; never thought I’d see that in MV. At the bottom of the mountain was a Christmas Tree Farm. Thousands of trees. Christmas trees are a big business in MV and NC in general. 
and very original. Please take a couple of minutes and click on the link below the picture she created for us , and check out her portfolio of artwork. I call this beautiful painting “Creation,” I don’t know if she might have her own name for it. I realize it is a little difficult to appreciate it’s full beauty but if it had been a typical 16 by 20 you would be looking at a “sea scene” blanketed with ominous stormy clouds typical of what earth might have looked like after HE had finished creating the worlds oceans. I would only hope that she might re-create this production as a full picture as opposed to the letter “G” portrait.