2013-09-25

We left River Forks RV Park and Campground Friday morning the 20th, and drove 137 miles to R Shaefer Heard Corps of Engineers Park near West Point, Georgia.  We drove in I-985 to I-85 to I-285 around to the south, to I-85 to West Point Lake.  Marilyn rode the white knuckle route around Atlanta, but it was not that bad.  We are located on Site #2.  The first problem was no electric, but, after going back to the office, the circuit breaker was changed out.  The next problem we are living with.  Internet service is negligible – none to 1x to 3x, and back.  When we return in another week, we will take a site on the other side of the park where, after our morning walks, the internet seems to be better.

I have still had plenty to do on the computer organizing pictures, and identifying people in them   This time spent will help with my continued genealogy work.

This afternoon, I received an email from a good friend wanting help with his Excel files.  He needed to summarize the mileage and costs he was tracking.  These are a fairly easy addition problem.  If you only have a few numbers to add together, the easiest way is a formula that adds the amount in cell #1 to the amount in cell #2,, where cells are referenced by a column letter (a,b,c) and a row number (1,2,3).  Thus a formula in cell can start with an (=) sign in cell (a4) plus cell references.  (ie =a1+a2+a3) resulting in 2+2+2=6.

If the column has a long list of cells to be added, a (Sum) formula if the easiest path.  Filling in the formula is sort of like highlighting a column to copy and paste.  Begin the formula in the cell where you want the result.  The formula looks like this:  =sum(a1:a3).  This will add whatever numbers are in cells 1 through 3 of column as together.  The formula can be expanded to more cells in the range just by inserting rows between rows a1 and a2 as long as the original cell a3 remains the ending cell of the formula.

During our morning walk, on the 23rd, I spotted the svelte figure of a person that I remembered from our early day with Escapees Chapter 16.  So I walked up and asked him if he had been a member of ch 16.  He said yes and we introduced ourselves.  He is Marion Alley, so we spent the next half hour remembering several wonderful rallies that we had attended.  There was one at which he provided his grill trailer.  He gave us each a steak, and said we should take it off the grill when it was done.  At a Chinese Care Auction, they auctioned a bottle of little blue pills that we all tried to end up with.  Oh well, they were actually little blue M&M’s.  We had fun anyway.

Today, the 24th, we went to Wal-Mart and Kroger in Valley, AL, the town just across the Alabama border from West Point, GA.  Thank you, Denny Orr, for teaching us to eat cheaply at McDonald’s with McDoubles, and a senior drink.  The two of us ate for less than $5.  Of course the cheapest meal we had in the last couple of weeks was at Sam’s Club where we had Hot Dogs for less than $3.

Today, the 25th, we drove to Columbus, GA – 44 miles.  We are staying at Lake Pines Campground,  Finally, back to good internet service.  We will have diner tonight with our Son – Doug.  Have to wait until he gets home from work – can’t wait.

Type at you later.

2013-09-19

We have been walking around the campground and park here at River Forks RV Park and Campground before breakfast every morning.  We have seen a couple of deer each morning.  Yesterday there were 3 and this morning 5 walked across the road at the deer crossing sigh. 

Yesterday we had lunch with Roger and Roxanna Dubrulle at the Cracker Barrel in Braselton.   I used to work in the same office as Roger, and we have both been members of Escapees Chapter 16 for a long time.  We talked about families, the chapter, taxes, etc. and just had a great lunch talking inside Cracker Barrel, and then out on the rocking chairs.

After leaving Roger and Roxanna, we drove to Jan McCabe’s house in Snellville to have a glass of wine, chips and dip before going to dinner at Olive Garden.  We were joined for dinner by Merwin and Corliss Chambers, and Bob and Sandy Davis.  We all socialized around helping the Brookwood Band Association while our children were in the band during High School.  We spent the evening reminiscing about old times and how our children were doing today.

I was able to get pictures of Merwin, Jan and Corliss, but forgot to take pictures of Bob and Sandy.

2013-09-17

Yesterday afternoon, I received a Facebook Message from Erin Barnes, the daughter of my best friend from when we lived in Snellville, GA.  We spent our children’s high school band years working together to support the band.  Sadly, Ed passed away from brain cancer in 2006.  Erin invited us to go to lunch today with her, her husband, Jason, their son Jack, and Erin’s mother, Jan McCabe.  Since it has been at least 5 or 6 years since we had seen them, we thoroughly enjoyed catching up on everyone’s lives for a couple of hours.

We have a great site here at River Forks RV Park and Campground looking out onto Lake Lanier.

2013-09-16

We left Lyerly, GA and our good friends Bea & Bennit Mason this morning, and drove across North Georgia to Gainsville – 122 miles.  We are currently parked in a beautiful county park – River Forks RV Park and Campground.  We will be here until Friday morning.

2013-09-15

We are still in Bea & Bennit Mason’s side yard.

 

Wallace & Wanda Lewis came yesterday from Raccoon Valley (Knoxville, TN) to visit Wanda’s cousin Bea, and to go to their family reunion today.  We had a wonderful visit last night with them.  Of course Bea, Wanda and Marilyn spent a lot of time yesterday evening cooking to get ready for the reunion.

Today, the the 15th, the ladies continued cooking all morning, and packing the food to be transported to the reunion.  There were two large picnic tables filled with food for the afternoon meal, and very little left to be taken home.  We thoroughly enjoyed meeting Bea and Wanda’s relatives.  The first two pictures are before the crowd actually arrived. 

 

Here is Wallace and his sister Elaine.  

 

Of course there were two lines “dipping” their plates.  No one left hungry.

 

Bea made some more of her delicious yeast rolls for dinner, plus there were a few leftovers of banana pudding, etc. for us to sample.  Bea even gave us some apple dumplings for more dessert before we go to bed, and rolls for breakfast tomorrow.

Everything was delicious about today, and we thank Bea and Bennit for their hospitality, and for inviting us to their family reunion.

Hugs, and Type at You Later.

2013-09-12 Ruby Falls

Today, Marilyn and I drove the Jeep up the “CSA (Confederate States of America) Army of the Tennessee Highway” (US-27) toward Chattanooga to see Ruby Falls.

I am going to include some history about Ruby Falls from paraphrased from Wikipedia.  “Ruby Falls Cave, unlike Lookout Mountain Cave, had no natural openings and could not be entered until the 20th Century;…  In 1905 the natural entrance to Lookout Mountain Cave was closed during the construction of a railway tunnel. In the 1920s a chemist and cave enthusiast named Leo Lambert thought that he could re-open the cave as a tourist attraction, and formed a company to do so. He planned to make an opening further up the mountain than the original opening and transport tourists to the cave via an elevator. For this purpose, his company purchased land on the side of Lookout Mountain above Lookout Mountain Cave and in 1928 began to drill through the limestone. In doing so, they discovered a small passageway about 18 inches high and four feet wide. Exploring this opening, Lambert discovered the formerly hidden Ruby Falls Cave and its waterfall.  On his next trip to visit the cave, Lambert took his wife Ruby, and told her that he would name the falls after her.”

It is interesting that, to this day, the entrance to the Ruby Falls Cave is via an elevator.  In 1975, a second exit cave was cut in case of elevator failure.

The cave floor is an easy 1/2 mile walk to the falls, and of course, a 1/2 mile walk back.  There are a few steps, some water, and an occasional low ceiling.  As with many caves, there are some very different formations of stalagmites and stalactites  I took lots of pictures, some with, and some without flash.  Due to the lighting of the various formations, some looked better without the flash.  Here are a few.

 

 

Some of the formations have names, some of which you must stretch your imagination to see what someone else saw.  (1) is an elephant’s foot, (2) the Hall of Dreams, (3) Leaning Tower, (4) Niagara Falls, (5) a better view of Niagara Falls, (6) a Western Sunset, (7) the Mirror Pool is a blue lit pool of water, (8) supposed to be two potatoes next to a steak.  

 

This picture was one I found unusual.

 

Pictures of the falls themselves are interesting because of the lighting.  As I stood there taking pictures the lens became spotted with the mist.

 

Just to prove we were there, our guide took a picture with my camera. 

Hugs, and Type at You Later.

2013-09-11

This afternoon, we rode in to Rome, GA with Bea and Bennit for a doctor’s appointment.  Then we wondered around Rome doing some sightseeing, along with a stop at Sam’s Club.  After going home to drop off all of the goodies, we went to dinner at Jim’s, which is a little country restaurant famous for its catfish.  Bea, Bennit, and Marilyn had the fried catfish, while I had their special for the night – cubed steak with white gravy, salad and okra.  The food was delicious.

After dinner, we drove around Summerville to see what the town had to offer.  The highlight of this evening was driving past Howard Finster’s Paradise Garden.

 

We even got to see some of his yard art.

Hugs, and Type at You Later.