Not too early in the morning we put our pillows and the T.V. trays on the back bed, and I moved my computer to the table, and Dad moved his on the other side of the table. Rebecca and I when done showering and everything went over to the Penny's R.V., to pay our respects and go say goodbye to them. We knocked on the door, knowing today being a Monday that school was in session, and remembered the last time we left, that they were supposed to be doing schoolwork and their Mom let them play, but we ended up leaving later rather than sooner and the Mom was pretty ticked off. They came out though, and numerous goodbyes sounded. We played some games and saw that the Zach kid, and his sister and the Mom and the dog, were all leaving in their fifth wheel. They walked over to it when the Dad was pulling out, and got in. We said goodbye. Didn't know them too well. But I always like finishing something, by having a goodbye and not something to brood over for the rest of my days if I should of told them see you later, alligator or something like that. We played some games as Mom and Dad pushed in the sides and put the water, sewer, and electric cord in the bays, but I will not go into the games in detail as you have already heard them mentioned before.
Jonathan lost a silver part of his gun though, and we looked for that, also playing the Zombie game. It was a lot of fun. It always is when you play with kids your age, all the laughs, times, running, and the conversations, jokes, reflective moments of promise, it's really great. The wind against your face as you rush away from your opponent at the moment but your friend later, or you sliding roughly on the grass to avoid a tag, the yells, hoots, and funny insults you say to your peers, all the fun, love (although you would never admit it) joy, youthfulness, ladies and gentlemen of the world this is childhood!
I found the part to it shining in the sun, on my bike. Jonathan was thankful. We went up and down the small hills, biking for a while. Then our R.V. came around the corner around the office, Dad paid for the stay, it stopped on the way out, and then Dad motioned for us to come. I was sad to leave these friends I had made, seeing them twice, months apart. The first time, it was an introduction, with playing character games like Hawaii Five-O and creating one called The Hugging Game, leaving to see Greenfield Village and all the Ford things, and having a good time at the dry cool R.V. park. The second time we only went to church, a lunch place, and saw family, and weren't gone that long, so played cowboys, talked, conversed, played games, and rode on our bikes by the BlackWater Creek. The second time, was the epilogue, the ending. And I'm content with what we did, what took place, and it made for a good couple of blogs, don't you agree? Sure, we didn't do anything life-changing, fast paced, or anything like that, but it was good ole kids running around, and playing to their hearts content. I hope that a once adult or grown-up, when reading these few blogs, has had a reflection and a flash-back of their days as a child, of Winnie the Pooh, Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, John Wayne, Superman, and your days of poodle skirts, the 70's, 80's, and the rockin' 90's. I hope you had some thinking time, you busy people who work yourselves hard to put food on the table, going to meetings, preparing things, working hard. I hope you got that time of remembering yourself as a boy... or girl. I hope. That's all I do.
To Melanie, I said that I hoped she wouldn't continue to hate all of Jonathan's friends and to have a good life, to Amy I said I was not mean and to like dolls, and to Christopher I encouraged that he could be very thin and great if he put his mind to it, sorry about the coffee table, and that he's a pretty good guy. Last but not least was Jonathan, to whom I said to keep playing video games and that he was awesome, and to like his sisters a lot while he still had them. Then, I waved a last wave, got the door open, and said, "GOODBYE PENNY FAMILY! MOVE THAT BUS!" like in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition how Ty says that. I thought it was clever on the feet thinking. Okay, so that's bragging. A kid can brag, right? But anyway, we opened the windows up, waved them off, and said see you later. Either later in our lives, maybe fate, Divine Providence, luck, whatever, will unite us again. It's a big world in some respects but little in others. They only live in FL and we in GA. But if we don't, I'll probably see them in Heaven or on Judgement Day. Oh well. Either way, I'm fine. I'll never forget that family. Kind but rough, Yankees, pious, funny, fun, great, and well, their the Penny's. And nothing can change that. Ever. Not even a giant panda bear named Auto.
We drove out of FL by way of the Pan Handle, and came up under AL, seeing the Gulf of Mexico. Then we came up into Lilian, AL, without much incident on the journey, except me blogging, Rebecca organizing her barbies, a few fights, and the road headaches with stuff falling down and making Rebecca cry, like a box with barbies, and the dogs sliding down. A regular moving day. At a KOA we found the building, into a triangle, with a staircase balcony going up, and some other rooms for laundry and restrooms, connected of course. Dad and I went in, to a blonde haired middle aged lady with glasses, and a ponytail, who typed us in. Kind of cranky. They had a store, with R.V. supplies, some candy, t-shirts, stuff like that. The lady showed Mom where they were going to park, that it was a super zone, and that it would be in the 60's, what we paid for it. It was even more than some of the resorts in Western Michigan or places like that, and some of their roads weren't even paved! It was weird indeed. I went into the laundry room, and saw among a few books a Sports Illustrated Mom might like from 2003. I also saw a little rec hall, which I didn't look at long. Mom and Dad took the jeep off, and Mom set aside the jeep by the office and store. Dad parked in a super site, as they called it, with brown pavement, a nice table, umbrella, and a bench swing, that had two poles in the ground, two holding it up, rocking back and forth. With pillows. Soft, sweet, pillows. All a patron of an R.V. could hope for.
But while a nice KOA employee, a work camper (which means they are campers and camp some of the year and come back and work at an R.V. park the other half) named Ray, backed Dad into the sight and had earlier led him to it, it being right behind a pool, well Mom was talking to a blond haired lady at an R.V. behind a dog park and playground, which by way of ramp led up to propane tanks and doors to a restroom. After parking, Dad talked to the man Ray while Rebecca and I got out into the sunshine again, but not in the sunshine state, and took in the fresh air. We went across the road to the right, with a lot of gravel sites and some pecan trees, with a nice rock house behind, of a sandstone color. One floor probably. But anyway, this lady was about Mom's age, and was kind of short, with a pony tail once again. Coming over, I said hello, and she said it was cool we were going on this journey around the nation, and right away I realized that our story had already been told. She told me that she had a program from a 100 year anniversary or something of the Blue Angels planes, and that they had a big festival. She gave it to me, right on the spot, as Mom went back to help Dad with the set-up. I thanked her a lot, and a man with a little bit of curly black hair, who was an adult, a tall guy, came out of the R.V. He introduced himself as Bob and his wife, the lady who I had been talking to, was named Ann.
While talking to Bob, I saw he was a really smart and nice guy, and he had a lot of interesting stories.. And Ann told everything with a kind of melodic way, with eyes a little closed and a crisp Midwest accent. She said yeah and you know a lot. They were nice people, as I found out as we got to know them more. Bob showed me many cool parts in the program, the different types of planes and such, and the pilots and aviators, their stories. He informed me he had worked on a nuclear submarine, of which I wanted the details. But Dad came around after pulling the slides out, while Rebecca was telling Ann about some of the things we have done and schoolwork, while Bob went back and forth to the propane place and stuff. Ann also told us that about before sunrise dolphins come out by the docks, and to not go down a very large hill down to the shore of the bay. Also that very old men and women live in the front of the park by the cabins, and full-timers, sharing bread line stories and war stories of Europe, Africa, and the Pacific in the Second World War. It sounded really cool to listen about that. They probably have a book's words of things they mention or talk about. It would be cool to be a part of that conversation.
When Mom and Dad came around, Mom asked Ann about their kids in Kansas, that one was out of college I believe and the other is college age. They live in Kansas, and later I asked her if they had a Wizard of Oz museum in Kansas. She said some people put it up, thinking that their town WAS the place where Dorthy was abducted, if it was put into writing, that it was a small town and that they had EVERYTHING Oz, even the ruby slippers. But I knew better, stating that we'd seen them in the American History Museum in Washington D.C. But she said their were others, which made sense, because if you lost one in the movie you always had another. She said her friend had passed by, but she had never been there herself. But that was later. Now is now. But she talked to Mom and Bob talked to Dad about the economy, the real estate in the area, how depreciated it was, and that they came down from Kansas and he was currently a computer teacher at The Naval Air Station, telling the different guys in the service about computer stuff. I asked him what he taught them. To break viruses, get into enemy sources, track different things, stuff like that for analysts. I wanted to ask him about the subs, but didn't get the chance because Dad was talking to Bob about some other things.
Rebecca went in, and played a little of her barbies. I went back and forth a few times, bringing the dogs once. Dad checked out Bob's Bounder, his R.V., telling about how on the dash he puts his office space, how they have a dog and that they would've gotten a home in Spanish Cove, but it was too expensive. The dogs were sniffing around and twisting themselves up up in their leashes, going all around me. It was very uncomfortable. Silly dogs. Mom and Ann and I went behind their white and orange with kangaroo on it, kind of dirty also, trying to let the dogs pee. And they did, and Ann went to get a wipe after I had touched a leaf with, uh, something bad on it. She also brought out her dog Charlie, which was black and brown, wolly, with little white spots on her. She was very old, and a curious little dog. The spots were yarns or lines around it. The dogs, although most of the time barking and growling at dogs for no reason, actually were fine with the ole pet. They smelled her behind and her front, like friends of old. And it was funny. After talking on the street, looking around, standing, talking, we left Ann and Bob, as Dad went to call and take care of a man named Darrell, who was coming around to fix the hot water heater, again. :(
He was from the area. But we would see him yet, as Mom, Rebecca and I went down this steep hill Ann had mentioned, that you should never have bikes down there. We walked the dogs down this long hill, remembering biking around at Live Oak Landing how The Penny family had talked about a huge hill, which was about as steep as a flat pancake slightly downward. Pathetic. But this one, well there were forests on the left, with cabins, small porches, brown like wooden cabins and a triangular roof. On the right were mostly empty lots, gravel. The hill was swirling, and steep even we were only walking down, our feet running down even though we met to walk. Mom followed behind. Down at the bottom was a beach, with docks and a beautiful bay shore. There were some picnic tables on the left, and a dock in front of us and a levy to the left, by some trees, a little grass area for tenters, and then the beach with water. There was even an R.V. up against the hillside, that house I talked of earlier up on the top of the hill, not the way we entered, but to the right of us at that moment, now facing it it was on the left. Very confusing. Sorry about that.
We looked at a bike connected to a post, and saw a man with a fishing rod. He broke the rule, that was on the signs. I wanted to tell him, but Mom said no, he just needed to carry his fishing stuff. He fished off the shore while we went on the dock, with the green blue crystal clear water on either sides of the thin walkway. It was wood, and creaked. I told Mom that they should at least have a rail. We had the shortest leash ever on the dogs, with the leash around our arms again and again, and the leash was at it's current state as long as a pencil, maybe a little longer. Wide though. We walked on, and came under the roofed part of the dock. There was the high speed boat on one little opening, with water, and a space for picnic table, followed by some benches on a thin line, horizontally to the water. We sat there for a while, looking at the bridge to the left and some boats, and the glorious birds that man so is jealous of. For countless generations people have tried to fly, from Da Vinci to Wilber and Orville Wright, who succeeded. You already know too much about them, as we've been to Kitty Hawk, Dayton, OH, and Greenfield Village. But we stayed there a minute, with the nice blue sky and breeze, just happy to be on this trip. It was just one of those moments, was just one of those moments, just one of those moments, one of those moments, of those moments, those moments, moments.
We then left to find an orange and white truck, a box one, with an opened back and orange lettering saying Darrel's Truck Repair, and a quote from Thomas Jefferson saying, "Fear of the Government is Tyranny, but the government fearing the people is democracy." That's an out of context quote. But Dad got a lawn chair, met the skinny man with glasses and a country accent, and sat out with him while he messed with the machine inside one of the bays, Dad sipping a Miller Light beer. I tried out the bench swing, and it was pretty comfortable. Mom and I and Rebecca sat inside, and it was very hot so we had the windows open, the screen closed, allowing a certain amount of air to come through. I got out my T.V. tray, petted the dogs as I blogged, and Mom watched ESPN and read a little. Rebecca got her barbies. It was a little boring, and hot. At one time Rebecca and I got our bikes out, and rode around a little before taking the dogs into a little dog park, with numerous pecan trees brooding over us and a playground separated by a white fence, with a basketball court, and a wooden structure of a shack kind held up by wooden frames and having a ladder. It was very colorful, but with paint peeling off. In the dog park was grass, and a bench. The white fence looked like the dogs could get out.
The could, and did. We chased them, and got them back in. They did their business. Rebecca went over the fence, jumping over, and played b-ball with an deflated ball. She's starting to like the sport her mother got thousands of awards in, Basketball. Rebecca Bourne, world famous basketball player. I can see it now. She's good at it, alright. But she got white stuff on her hands and pants. I had cackies on because I didn't have any other pants available to me, and I got those bad when I went to look at the playground. Mom came over and took us back. Oh, and sorry I haven't mentioned this earlier. We saw a white clear jellyfish on the beach, and the young fishing guy told us about it. Kind of freaky. My cousin Caroline got stung by a jellyfish once a few years ago, in the prime of her youth, the dark ages of America, where giraffes reigned in the summer meadow fields. Just kidding. But she did get stung. At the beach in FL, one we had just been to, Destin. She took it like a strong volleyball player girl she is, with dignity, honor, and many an ouch. But leaving the subject now. We walked back by the front door of the office, and some nice employees gave the dogs some organic dog treats. At first they didn't care a beat, but once they tried it they had taste for more. Organic dog food. What are they coming up with these days? Next thing you know they'll have organic water, organic spaghetti, organic girlfriends. Okay, that's going a little too far.
Hey, what does organic mean, anyway? Can someone explain that to me?
We thanked them and went back into the R.V., where Dad shouted to us in garbled manner on the walkie-talkie to turn the diesel burner off and on, and for the sink to go all the way hot water and such. Rebecca biked a little. And I sat down for Dad to keep saying "Turn it ofn." and I would have to ask him if he meant On or Off. Then I would turn it off or on, and continue to this complicated process. We were doing it, to keep testing if the hot water was going on. I also rode on the bike, but Mom had ridden on it while we were playing in FreePort, so it wasn't on the right gears. And I had to sort that out as I rode around. It was a good day. Well, we were hungry hungry after no lunch, and so Rebecca, Mom, and I rode on our bikes to go to a pizza place pretty close, called Chubby's. I didn't realize HOW close it was though. Just to the left by a nice entrance to the Spanish Cove neighborhood, we saw a little brick restaurant, and we parked our bikes in a little area set aside for parking, it facing the road. On a sign was a chubby kid with a pizza in his hand, and one of those kid hats where the blade twirls around in a circle; I do not know the official name. It was white brick. On this sign also was words saying, "Soon to be Famous." That's classic.
It reminds me at a place on Lake Superior in northern Michigan, where we saw some pictured rocks after going to a cool church. (You can read all this in "Lake Superior and it's Pictured Rocks"). Well, after that we ate at a small hamburger joint, and had bad food at a place called Johnny's Hot Dogs. The sunday school teacher at the church recommended it. And boy was it bad. Well, I had a BLT, no hot dogs. So processed and too flavorful and undercooked. Tomatoes split in your hands like a couple in this generation, and the lettuce wasn't good. Why am I telling you all this? Oh, well, they had a sign that said, "Established not so long ago", which was funny. Okay, so I remembered. Alright then, be mean! Fine, I won't tell you about a different blog again! Gees, somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Hey, what if you had a couch you slept on? There's only one side to wake up on! Funny!
We walked into an Indian carving of a man, and some newspaper articles, maps of AL, and other things, to the left being some people at booths and diner tables, and a counter with kitchen stuff behind a lady with a notebook. We went up as she took our orders, Mom's phone number, and said that it would be 30 minutes at the tops. I wasn't too hungry, as it was 4:30 and I like to eat dinner at 6. On our bikes again, Rebecca wanted to lead. Little girls. Sigh. Well, we went back and waited, and Mom went alone on the way back. Then Dad came in, that repair man gone by now, saying that it was fixed and making us pay a lot of money. Well, in the beginning we were irritated and frustrated, but now we were pretty ticked, Dad especially. Man, the threats he said quietly to himself, that if it would break one more time, then he would, well, that kind of talk is not appropriate for this blog. We cleaned the computers off of the tables, and ate some of it. Dad got a beef one, me sausage and pepperoni, and Rebecca got cheese sticks, Mom veggie pizza. I tried the beef one. Exquisite. Mine was good too. Then, as we burped and such, done with our meal, we heard a knock on the door. It was Ann and Bob. Kindly, after presenting with us the cool program I was really interested in, they also gave us a Banana Bread in tin foil. They came in, not meaning to interfere, and we shut the door.
We showed them the back, and all of our cool stuff, bathroom, shower, doors that come out and give privacy, washing machine, washer and dryer, fridge, bed, safe, closet, T.V.'s, included. And then they sat down, and we talked of a long range of different things, and I also learned from Bob that he was first a navy guy in the sub, then a navigator, and he worked his way up to controlling the torpedoes to controlling the ship! And he said it was long and skinny, and gave me the details of underwater day-to-day life. It was really interesting. Little did I know, but we would actually learn more about sub life, and get close to close with one, in a few more blog posts downward!
They left, after much talk and fun. Then I slept on my bed, and had a good night's sleep after a good day, where we drove to the good ole state of AL and met Bob and Ann. Goodbye for now. And good afternoon.
"Fear of the Government is Tyranny. The government fearing the people is democracy."- Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the U.S. and writer of the Declaration of Independence,
Andrew.
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