Independence Day Vacation

Holly and I will leave Monday, June 29th for Binghamton, NY to attend the Hanafin Family Re-union as well as her oldest Son's (Rusty) 4th of July party. On the way to Binghanton, we will stop for two days and visit my oldest Son at his place of employment as Director of Sales for the Hotel Management Company that employs him.
If you wish to visit this hotel, Rocky Gap and Golf Resort, go to this link:
http://www.rockygapresort.com/rocky-gap-lodge.cfm

We will stay two days and tour some of the history of Cumberland, MD. Some of those are a two hour steam engine train ride through nearby mountains, the C&O Canal Museum and Washington's HQ in early American wars. Of course we will enjoy seeing my daughter in law, Susan and hope she will be able to do some sight seeing with us while Son Dave III is working during the day.

So you think Charleston, SC is beautiful?

Not everyone who visits Charleston, SC is aware of it's bedroom community known as Mt. Pleasants, SC just across the new BIG bridge from the well known city of Charleston. Holly and I were in the area yesterday on bicycle business and drove through the narrow streets of Mt. Pleasants, SC. The pictures that follow do not do justice to this beautiful community where residents have restored homes to their original beauty that were built back in the early 1900's. This bay/marsh front home had a long pier out to the water.

The dream of many, a white picket fence and trellis and a guest home in the backyard.

A shady front porch with a Pawley's Island hammock, a delight with a glass of ice tea on a warm day!

The tree (unknown variety) adds special beauty to the corner home. Not the low brick/comcrete wall around the yard.

BRAG 2009 Pictures

There were no motel rooms available in the town we stayed this night, so LaVerne booked several cabins at the Lazy L Fish and Hunting lodge. This quaint (to say the least) group of cabins was on the next mornings route, so it was convenient. The Lazy L had this BBQ pit, so Don (from New Jersey, Ben and I went back to town (7 miles) and bought groceries to cook our dinner at the Lazy L. This picture above shows hamburgers, chicken, sausage and a patato dish Don whipped up.

This is a rest stop and shows some of the 1,400 people on this Ride Across Georgia, the 30th Anniversary of this event.

Here is Bill Cole cooking on the BBQ pit. Bill is the number one point man this year in Master races in Georgia and is 62, I think!

This is Cabin #8 where a bed room with 4 bunk beds is on each end with a big recreation room in the middle with stove, fridge, micro wave, and a TV that only got 3 stations. This was taken from the BBQ pit.

This covered bridge is a Georgia State Park and the bridge is maintained by the State. I wasn't sure if my 15 passenger van and the trailer I was pulling would get though the narrow and not very high passage, but made it with inches to spare. The river here falls over large rock as would be a pretty good slide, but no one tried that.

Here LaVerne and Patrick taking it easy on a swing at the Lazy L. Patrick is a two time cancer survivor and is lucky to be alive and is a very strong rider. LaVerne made all of our hotel/motel arrangements.

OOPs got this picture on blog twice!

Tomorrow, June 6th, ten of us will go to Hiawassee, GA in the mountains of North Georgia to begin this week long bicycle ride. This event is celebrating it's 30th year. We will travel in my big van and pull a trailer that is modified to hold bicycles and luggage. The trailer also has a rack on the tongue which holds two 10 gallon jugs (Water and Gatorade) and a big cooler with soda, bottled water and wine. We stay in different hotels every night except for two days in Athens, GA. This is a ride about 50 miles a day, in the mountains for the first three days, then pigging out nightly ... the results is weight gain for the week. About 1,400 people will do this event. This will be my 9th year, I think.