Off to see our new grandbaby… Priceless!

Sharon flew out to North Carolina several months ago while I stayed in Texas. Now that I have done all I can do with regards to painting our endcap itis time for me to travel to NC to see our new grandbaby.

Our daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and Sharon flew out right away to see  our new granddaughter. Here is her story…

 

Our daughter Katie was due to deliver her second child September 2023. As with her first child I wanted to be with her to help with her recovery and with the care of her newborn. John found a flight for me over a week prior to her due date so I could also help her prepare for the birth. We did this because last time Katie delivered a few days early due to a high blood pressure issue and my flight was after the fact.

Well, no one could predict that Katie would deliver early again due to an emergency situation (this time was an immediate C-section for a placental abruption). Our son in law Brooks was of course with Katie so his parents who were caring for their 2 year old first born, Allie, picked me up at the airport.

 

I am ever thankful for the great care Katie received as we now have a new granddaughter, Emmy Kate. Upon their homecoming Katie was happy to be home but was quite sore. Emmy, who came early was so tiny yet perfect in every way. Brooks parents, Allie and I were so excited to have them home. Allie was absolutely in love with her new little sister. We were off to a great start!

Brooks parents returned home so my role would be to help with the household chores and helping in any way I could with the baby. I also would help with Allie which was pure joy as she is such a happy, energetic and talkative 2-year-old. I immediately volunteered to help with getting Allie up, dressed and ready for the day. How precious were those moments though it did require me setting an alarm for the first time in years. I began a regimen of waking at 6:30 am so I could get myself ready and have my necessary coffee time before the day began.

 

Katie, Brooks and Emmy were struggling with the adjustment of feedings every two or three hours with limited sleep. Emmy sometimes had fussy moments in the middle of the night when both parents were exhausted so I was their 911 to help hold and settle the baby until she would accept being laid back into her bassinet.

I forgot about how newborns cause everyone to have a lack of sleep. This in turn made me realize I needed sometimes to go to bed at 8 or 9 pm rather than my previous night owl habit. We all may have had our cranky or emotional moments, but we all came through it in a combined effort to ensure both Allie and Emmy were happy.

During the week Allie went to her daycare (which she LOVES) and this certainly helped Katie to rest and heal. It also helped all of us tune into Emmy's needs and wants. The weekends were definitely busier but so much fun because Allie includes everyone in her playful exploration of her world. I am in awe of how well she has accepted Emmy although I can tell she can hardly wait until Emmy can run and play with her.

 

My plan was to stay almost three months which was way too long for both John and I to be away from the motorhome, so John elected to join me at the last part of my stay. I really REALLY missed him. Much more than I anticipated so imagine my joy when at last he came to join us. Allie and Emmy, both adore him as I do. They love their Poppy.

Not long after John arrived Katie and Brooks made a big decision to build a new home. It was great fun to see the plans and watch as they made design decisions. Exciting times ahead! John had two solid weeks in the new routine before it became time for us to leave this beautiful new family for life on their own.

With all the challenges (we all, except John, got Covid then RSV), me being overtired at times, missing John terribly and changes to my routine, I wouldn't trade this time for anything. The girls may not remember I was with them their first three months but I sure will. It was priceless.

Goodbye Raleigh, It’s a Wrap!

Our time in Raleigh NC has ended and it is once again time to hit the road. In this blog I’ll wrap up our stay with a few other things we did during our stay.

As I have mentioned before we spent the weekends staying with our daughter and her family enjoying time with our granddaughter. We did venture out one Saturday evening to see a minor league team, the Durham Bulls play at their stadium in Durham, NC .

   

The stadium is located off the interstate in downtown Durham. We parked a short walk away and upon leaving the parking garage we landed in a scenic area featuring water features, lots of shops and restaurants adjacent to the stadium.

We had great seats and really enjoyed the game. A cold stadium beer with some peanuts and BBQ nachos completed the experience!. It was also pretty cool to see a dog who was trained to fetch the players’ bats after each at bat. Disappointingly the Durham Bulls lost but we had a grand time watching the game and enjoyed our brief visit to Durham NC.

We also enjoyed the occasional Wednesday together on our daughter’s day off. We were able to hike once at Johnson Lake and then another at Umstead State Park. Her corgi, Benny was really happy to accompany us on the hikes.  We also played disc golf together several times and we will certainly miss the exceptional disc golf courses in this area.

One Wednesday we drove over to Duke Gardens to walk around. While we have been there many times before, this is one of those places requiring repeat trips to allow us to savor it at different times of the year. It never disappoints. Admission is free but does require paid parking to be close to the gardens.

One last long weekend over Labor Day we drove over to White Lake where Katie’s in-laws invited us to their family lake house. It was great to visit with all of Brooks’ grandparents, parents and neighbors. It was also fun to be at the lake and chill a bit. Allie, our granddaughter, seemed to really enjoy the lake but wasn’t too sure about getting in the water although she was willing to give it a try with her Dad.

Goodbyes are always hard especially for Sharon but it was time to plan our route out. We had such a great time with family and with new friends at the RV park but the weather is changing reminding us it is time to go.Since we have finally decided to winter back in Mesa Arizona we will start our slow trek westerly…

Hiking in Lake Johnson Nature Park NC…

One thing we noticed about the larger cities in North Carolina is that each has lots of nice parks. One park in the Raleigh area called Lake Johnson Nature Park is a favorite of ours for a scenic nature hike while still being located within the city.

Lake Johnson Nature Park is not only a metro park but it is also a nature preserve. We loved walking the 2.8 mile paved trail around the lake. One morning we met our daughter Katie and her dog Benny for that nice hike around the lake. Benny was probably more excited about the hike that any of us were.

There is ample parking at the trailhead entrance and an overflow parking lot nearby if the main lot is full. The trail began by taking us on an extended boardwalk over the edge of Lake Johnson. We passed several fishermen on the boardwalk who weren’t having much luck based upon my queries.

Once we were off the boardwalk we entered a thick forested canopy of pines and mixed hardwoods approaching 130’ in height. The canopy of this mature Southern Mixed Hardwood Forest lets in very little light so the woods are fairly open underneath. The shade keeps the temperatures underneath the canopy making this a popular hike.

We hiked the trail during the middle of the week and it was still rather crowded as we passed people occasionally as we ambled along. The trail has quite of bit of elevation but mostly due to the constant up and down slopes of the terrain near the lake.

There were lots of mushroom and other fungi littering the forest floor peeking out through the dense layer of pine thatch in the woods. We found opportunities along the trail to venture closer to the lake for some spectacular views. Benny especially enjoyed wading in the lake to cool off.

The trail is pretty much shaded the entire way other than a small open area where the dam is located.. Adjacent to the dam was a wild patch of passion flowers blooming. Of course we had to stop to admire and photograph these most beautiful flowers. It was a great sighting and a fitting end to the hike as we made our way back to the car. What a great oasis for all the city dwellers to enjoy!

Family, Hikes and Disc Golf in NC!

Yes, we are still in the Raleigh North Carolina area and staying at the NC State Fairground Campground. Our weekdays are still filled with morning walks around the NC State campus,afternoon disc golf and happy hours while our weekends are filled with family time at our daughter’s house. And,of course we are enjoying a lot of quality time with our newest 17 month old grandbaby Allie!

Raleigh NC has loads of wonderful disc golf courses so we have been playing nearly everyday at one park or another. A nice feature of the parks in the fall is the abundance of mushrooms we often stop to admire. We love to play at the Apex Nature Park disc course as it is one of our favorites but we also spend a lot of time at the Kentwood disc golf course because it is so close to the fairgrounds. Better yet it is also close to the Flying Saucer downtown.

The Flying Saucer is one of our favorite happy hour spots because it offers so many different craft beers on tap and has generous drink specials. Another favorite is the Backyard Bistro for its Wednesday NC draft beer specials. Yet another favorite is a neat little mom-and-pop gift shop which also serves craft beer called the Green Monkey. It is our go to spot on Tuesdays.

We have also discovered a drink special that surprised us. It is at the Lowes Food Stores, a grocery store, which offers half priced drafts on Thursday half priced flights on Fridays and half priced growlers on Saturdays.  Because the stores change out their beers often we have had the opportunity to try many new North Carolina craft beers. On many of the Thursday visits we have met brewery representatives who answer questions about their beers while also offering stickers, coozies or glasses to the patrons..

We have been playing so much disc golf that I even got a callous on my finger from flinging discs. Sharon’s game has improved greatly, to the point that she now makes par often and is making some nice long putts. Because our son in law is an NC State Alumni we have also really enjoyed exploring the campus and football stadium.

But then the weekends come and it’s Allie time. We are both savoring the time we  spend with Allie,her mom and dad. Our daughter has Wednesday off so often she is able to join us for a walk or some disc golf before leaving to pick up Allie from her day care (which she loves).

We actually left Allie one night with a trusted babysitter from her daycare for a Durham Bulls game (minor league baseball). What a nice night out on the town in Durham NC. There’s nothing like an evening of baseball, family, hotdogs, nachos and peanuts to feel totally American. We are down to our last week here at the fairgrounds and have started planning for our departure. But, hey, we still have the long Labor Day weekend to enjoy with family before departing…

Still enjoying our stay near Raleigh NC…

We are still in Raleigh North Carolina but have moved over to the NC State Fairgrounds Campground. We did so because the state parks have a 14 day maximum stay which we exhausted. The fairgrounds also has a 14 day limit but on occasion will extend stays on a case by case basis. Our hope is to stay through labor day as it is always difficult finding places to stay during that holiday weekend.

Our weeks have zoomed by and we have settled into a nice routine of playing disc golf during the week and visiting our daughter on the weekends. There are lots of really nice disc golf courses in the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area and we have been taking full advantage.

Disc golf is a great substitute for hiking in the east where there are fewer trails. Although there are Greenways set aside for walking/hiking they are mostly in urban areas and more like walks than hike. We have visited the William B. Umstead State Park for a real hike but we have also done that hike many times in past visits.. Therefore disc golf  has become our diversion for some pleasant walks in the woods.

Weekends are filled with family time where we spend some quality time with our newest grandchild, Allie. We also use this time to make some fabulous meals. Katie always has her list of requests for traditional family meal favorites and Brooks takes full advantage of using his smoker to make some smoky delights.

Brooks had never made a full sized cryovac brisket before and wanted my advice for doing one. We drove over to Sam’s Club and picked out a good one to grill. I like to pick one that I can fold in half rather easily. If there is a lot of resistance when bending the brisket in half I have found they are a bit tougher and fattier than the ones that bend easily.

We put a good rub on the brisket and placed it on the smoker at midnight. Seventeen hours later it came off the pit for an hours rest before I sliced it up. It was indeed a fine, perfectly tender brisket with a very definite smoke ring. I made a point of bringing Brooks some of my mesquite to use in his smoker as it imparts the best smoke flavor on brisket in my very humble opinion.

Life has been very  good here in NC but we are looking ahead and starting to plot out our winter plans

Getting to see Allie and family once again…

The time had come to go see the grandbaby so we packed up our stuff for the weekend to stay at our daughter’s house near Raleigh NC. While we are able to see Allie nearly everyday via video calls it just isn’t the same as seeing her live and getting to cuddle with her.

Allie is growing up fast and at 16 months old she seems to change a little bit everyday. She’s starting to explore her voice and learning some monosyllabic words such as “bye”. She also seems to have “momma” and “dad” down fairly well. Allie by most standards is slower at developing her language and walking skills than her peers. However it seems to me she is more interested in perfecting her skills before letting the world see her do them.

Our daughter discovered one reason her walking skills had not developed as quickly as she had hoped after taking her to a doctor’s office. The doctor said she had a slight foot deformity but it was correctable with a foot brace. Once Allie began wearing her braces she was pulling up a great deal more and now loves to walk if you hold her hands. She also loves her walking toy which she pushes all over the place.

Just in the short time we have been in the Raleigh area she has picked up a few new words and is obviously getting more confident in the walking gig. She should be taking her first few solo steps soon and then as we told our daughter…”Look out!”

The rest of our stay here will be short visits with our daughter and her family mixed with short stays at the RV. We are currently at Crosswinds Campground on Jorden Lake but soon move over to the NC State Fairgrounds nearer to downtown Raleigh. Each one of these parks has a 14 night max stay which requires us to be on the move every couple of weeks. It has been great but we really need to start discussing and planning where we will winter this year.  The last two years were on the beach so we are leaning more toward Arizona this year.  Parks fill up fast so we need to figure it out soon!

Poplar Point State Park NC

Our time was up in Charlotte NC but we will probably return soon as there is much to do and explore. Our next stop will be at Jordan Lake Poplar Point Campground for a few weeks. Thankfully it was another wonderfully uneventful drive so we actually pulled into the park a bit early.

Arriving early was our hope in order to avoid the rainstorms predicted. Little did we know this was another of those parks requiring a strict check-in time so we were directed to the parking lot at the beach where we had to sit in our rig for an hour and a half before finally passing muster. It was rather annoying as we drove over to see our site and it was empty but we did as we were told. We set up quickly as of course the rains arrived at that moment!

We will be in the Raleigh NC area for a good while since we plan to spend some time with our daughter and her family which of course includes our newest granddaughter, Allie! Our plans are to have fun at the lake during the week and spend the weekend with them since both parents work. Brooks actually works from home so spending weekends together seemed to be the best plan.

Poplar Point Campground State Park was a COE park when we first stayed here but it has since been turned over to the state to manage. We have the same large site but now sites cost a great deal more than before and aren’t (in our opinion) as well kept.

There are tons of great disc golf courses nearby and our first challenge was to revisit one of our favorites near Pittsboro NC. Rock Ridge Park Disc Golf Course plays really long and is as the name says quite rocky! It is also wooded so if you don’t like hitting a few trees then this isn’t the course for you.

We enjoyed playing the course once again. Well, except for the one time I threw a disc off track and encountered a resident of the woods, an eastern rat snake. This fellow had just recently fed upon either a large rodent or a small squirrel and didn’t want to move from the trail. So, I said, no problem and went a different route,

With a weekend coming up we are looking forward to seeing family once again…