Warm Wishes and Happy Holidays from
Cathy & Larry
As this is prepared we are comfortably settled in LA enjoying
warm days and pleasant evenings. Oh, not
that LA! LA here refers to Lower Alabama, or that
little chunk that sticks down into the Gulf of Mexico. And the photo I have selected for this, our
first eChristmas letter is from 2005 in New Braunfels TX.
Our travels for the past year were somewhat limited by design
but we had a good winter in FL shuttling between Escapees Parks and Thousand
Trails Preserves all somewhat near the Orlando area. Our journey northward included a sobering
stop at the Civil War Prisoner Camp at Andersonville GA.
We had planned to stay for the summer at the Thousand Trails
Preserve near Hershey and it was a good decision that we did. Cathy missed a step leaving the RV with Dixie
for a walk and landed hard on the ground suffering a concussion, 2 broken ribs
and 8 cracked ribs. We were just 8 miles
from the Hershey Medical Center and a quick ambulance ride got her to the
Emergency Room for treatment. After
spending the night in the hospital, she spent the next few weeks recuperating.
Also while in the Hershey area we had several weekends with
Laura and Kendalyn visiting before Kendalyn went to be with her father in
Illinois and again after her return. We
also had the opportunity to visit some old friends in the area and to take a
long weekend visiting Larry’s brother’s family in Leechburg PA.
Our drive to Lower Alabama was generally along the “Great River Road”
which parallels the Mississippi River.
We camped several times right at the river’s edge and enjoyed watching
the tugboats and their loads of barges moving up and down river. We got our history fix taken care of with a
stop in Vicksburg, scene of major Civil War activity and also in Natchez where
enormous fortunes were built from cotton, lumber and river trade, before the
Civil War. We got to see some of the mansions and to visit a great museum in
Vicksburg. Never have we seen in one
place so many mini-balls and other munitions from the Civil War than in the Old
Courthouse Museum. But there we also saw wonderful displays of such genteel
items as cups and saucers, period clothing and river memorabilia. It was a nice afternoon.
Our final stop on the way East to Alabama was near Pascagoula
MS at a small state park with very simple accommodations and a lot of quiet
woods along the Mississippi Sound. We
learned that a Sound is a relatively narrow passage
of water between the mainland and an island and is generally deeper than
a bay. By contrast a Bay is usually
protected on one or more sides. End of
geography lesson!
In closing we are generally healthy and likely to be
liabilities of Medicare for several more years to come. We hope each of you is enjoying good health
as well. And Merry Christmas, Happy New
Year to all.
If you want
to look again at the details of our trips and stays from 2012, look to the right at the Blog Archive and click on 2012 to get a list
of all posts for the year.
