2 Salty Gypsies (Blog)

In the immortal words of Bob Seger…”there I go, turn the page”. Actually, it should be “there WE go”. We have decided after more than 28 years in Ball Ground, Georgia, it’s time to set course for new latitudes. We are selling our house/property in Ball Ground at the end of April and moving into our RV ’til the end of summer. One Maine target (pun intended) is Dexter’s 45th parallel in August, visiting several new (with the RV) states on the way there. The plan is to roll North up the eastern seaboard then South back down the I-81 Shenandoah Valley corridor. First however is a diversion South to latitude 29.22 Daytona Beach for some Florida time before it gets too hot there. See you on the road!

A routine glance out the kitchen window revealed a Great Blue Heron swooping into our pond. Too bad for Bailey, though. We were just about to go walk the yard. After giving the Heron time for some hunting, I turned the tables with my Canon camera. It let me get quite close before taking off.

It takes a week or so to decompress from the the annual Monsters of Rock Cruise we have been doing the past few years. The 2024 edition was relentless from the pre-cruise show in Miami and then through five non-stop days aboard the ship. Overall, we saw 40 different concerts from 31 different bands! All that while trying to enjoy some of the amenities on Royal Caribbean’s ship, Independence of the Seas, and quick morning visits ashore in Cozumel and Nassau. Some of the bands we saw were Accept, April Wine, British Lion, Extreme, Firehouse, Joe Satriani, KK’s Priest, Pat Travers, Queensryche, Quiet Riot, Slaughter, The Darkness (best new surprise for us), and Pete’s favorite Y&T from San Fransisco. Looking forward to next year! BTW, we have a funny story about two of the guys pictured here from KK’s Priest.

It is sometimes nice to not stray too far from home. We started the day enjoying our favorite Barrel House coffee and puttering around the house. Mary worked on sorting out some old files and Pete tackled getting the engine pulled from the 57 Beetle in search of a transmission oil leak. To reward our hard work, we headed off to Rock Solid Brewery in downtown Ball Ground for socializing, a drink, and charcuterie board. Still hungry, we made a rare visit to the Ball Ground Burger Bus. Easy to save gas when we only have to drive one mile for all the fun!

Our epic summer 2023 RV road trip ended back in September but I realized I never totaled up our stats for the trip. Towing our awesome MPG 2100RB travel trailer, we covered 3,926 miles and stayed in 13 different states. One of those was actually a province of Canada! Bailey is an international traveler now. In addition to the 13 states we stayed, there were 3 more we passed through while driving. It was 993 miles from home base to New London, WI, for the EAA Oshkosh Fly-In. The next leg was 1,527 to Newport, ME, including two border crossings and staying near Toronto to visit my Sister and Husband. After a great time visiting family in New England, the last leg home was 1,406 miles.

Pete’s involvement in the Ford Mustang world comes to a close for now. The 67 Mustang coupe project left for a new home and conversion into a fastback. There is a long story behind how Pete decided to take on this project car. It came a as a stripped out shell with boxes and boxes of removed parts, but some were missing due to circumstances with the previous owner. It lived in our garage for several years while Pete worked on cleaning it up and starting reassembly. However, a VW Thing appeared on the scene and that took center stage. The 67 waited in an outdoor shelter for several years but it was clear it would not make it back to the garage. It’s good that it will be restored, returned to service and enjoyed by another Mustang enthusiast.

Our three-plus acres of woods behind our house is a habitat frequented by many deer. We setup several motion-activated game cameras back there to see what critters pass through and we’ve seen quite a lot of variety. We see mostly deer but others species show up often such as foxes, raccoons, possums, rabbits, coyotes and even armadillos. On a couple rare occasions, a bobcat strolled through. However, we did have a new type of visitor while we were on our RV trip this summer. First time a bear has been through that we know about.

One important factor on a Tuesday is that its dark roast day at Barrel House Coffee.  Mary, Bailey and I made the one mile hike to downtown Ball Ground to enjoy our favorite coffee we haven’t been able to have in two months.  It was excellent as always.  A crisp sunny fall day made the walk even better.  Taking advantage of the superb weather, riding the Yamaha R3 topped off the day.  The twisty back roads near here such at Reavis Mountain, Sperin, Conns Creek and Roscoe Collett near Hollis Lathem Reservoir made for a fun time.

Claytor Lake State Park was nice to us one last time with a late 1 PM check-out. Taking advantage of that, we did the usual morning AG1 and coffee then set out on a hike. This was a leisurely stroll through the forest to a lake overlook with about a 2 mile total out and back. Bailey loved it and was very alert at the deer we spooked. Easy teardown with no septic hookup so no tank dumping to deal with until we got to TN. A quick fuel stop before getting on the interstate to use our Shell discount (thanks T-Mobile) and back on I-81 south. We got lucky at the rest stop before Atkins, VA as a truck was just pulling out when we got there. Spots were at a premium. Easy drive south to the Sevierville exit and a quick check-in at Ripplin Waters where we found ourselves across Winnfield-Dunn Parkway from a helo tour operator. Non-stop helicopter noise all afternoon and into the evening. How could we not think of the Robin Williams movie.