Jim Thorpe Pa.

On Sunday we took a drive to the town of Jim Thorpe.  The town was originally called Mauch Chunk which is the native indian word for "sleeping bear".  The name was given to the area because the indians thought a nearby mountain looked like a sleeping bear.  The town grew and prospered as a result of coal mining and the nearby Lehigh river which gave the coal company a means to transport the coal down river to Philadelphia.

the main street thru town is Broadway.  Its lined on both sides with home, shops and restaurants.

Old Jail near top of Broadway

some history of the area and jail

we had lunch at Antonio's Pizzeria on our way back down the street.  We both ordered small portions of our order.  This is what we got.  Glad we did not ask for large!

At the old train station at the foot of broadway you can take rides on the railroad


After his death in 1953, Jim Thorpe's third wife, in search of a proper tribute to her husband, moved his body to Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania and in return the struggling town changed its name.  While he never lived in Mauch Chunk, it is fitting that he is memorialized here, in the state where he spent his proudest years, in the town that changed its name to his.

Don Laine Campground

Well when we checked out the car friday morning it started right up, was fully charged.  We used this day to relax some and do some shopping.

Saturday morning we drove into New Jersey and spent the day visiting Diane's family.  We had a great time.  It had been two years since Diane had seen her mom.  Unfortunatly we forgot our camera so did not get any pictures to post.  Diane's niece is suppose to send pictures to us.  Here is a picture of our campsite:

Camping in Pennslyania

We departed Greer SC early Wednesday morning ( 7:30 am is early for us ) and drove to the Staunton/Walnut Hills KOA campground in Va.  We were on the road about eight hours which is a long day traveling.   We were able to watch the first half of the Giants/Dallas football game which kicked off the NFL season.  Game was kind of boring, score was 7 - 3 Dallas at the half and we were so tired we went right to bed.  Didn't find out until last night that Dallas won the game.  Needleless to say we are not Dallas fans.  But our Braves won the last two games with the Rockies so thats a good thing.

When we woke up thursday morning to get going on the second leg of our trip it started raining.  Actually it poured.  I was soaked by the time I got the shore power and water line disconnected and stowed.  Had an issue getting the suplemental braking system going on the car (we tow our Honda CRV )  That should have been a worning.  With about a 100 miles to go the remote sensor for the car braking system started to beep and the display said we had a low battery alarm.  Pulled off the road at the first place we could get the rig into and turned around.  Our car battery had died.  So had to disconnect everything and tow the car the rest of the was without the supplemental braking.  Lucky for us the trip from there was relatively flat.  We finally made it to Don Laine Campground about 3:30, another long day.  The owner of the campground gave us a jump start to get the car going so we could unhook from the camper.  After getting the camper set up and the dogs walked we drove 16 miles to the nearest Sears and had the battery checked.  It checked out good and was fully charged we we arrived.  Seems that when we had the car set up in tow mode I did not realize that the car radio was on.  This must have placed too much of a drain on the battery along with the braking system.  Hopefully the car will start with no problem this morning. 

Preparing for Fall 2012 Trip

a few days ago I brought the RV up front.  Took it to get the propane tank topped off and filled up the fuel tank.  Yesterday we washed it and I leveled it up and hooked it up to shore power to get the fridge going.   We will be heading out next week.  Our trip will take us up to Pennsylvania and New Jersey to visit relatives.  Then will will head down to the Washington DC area.  We plan visiting as many of the sites there that we can.  After that, depending on the weather forcast (no storms coming) we would like to head to the outer banks of North Carolina.  We had planned to go there last fall but Hurricane Debbie spoiled those plans.

One of the reasons we did not have a long spring trip this year was due to the mild winter and early spring.  We were able to get our garden in very early this year.  We started it in March and normally do not get it going until Easter. We love to grow a garden every year and one of the reasons we do not travel during the summer months ( othere than the heat ) Here are some pictures:

Overall garden

We have been picking strawberries for about three weeks now.  Diane made a strawberry pie this past weekend

We picked yellow squash yesterday for the first time this season.  Had squash for supper last night.

Tomatoes are growing good.

This is the first year that we have apples growing on one of our dwarf trees

And this is the second year for peaches.  Hopefully they will get a little bigger this year

We went to Walmart today and bought a pressure canner.  We plan on canning as much as we can this summer.  Our green beans will be coming in in a few weeks and the squash is coming in heavy right now.

Still doing catch up on our trip to Charleston last week.  One of the nice amenities of James Island County Park is the large dog park where you can let your pet run free of the leash.  There is also a lake there where the pets can swim.  We took our younger pet Kellee to the park friday afternoon.  She was a little tenetive at first, when she wandered off she would stop and look back at us, just to make sure we were still there I suppose.  She had a great time running and chasing other pets.  Here are a few pictures:

This post should be dated April 27 but could not get a good internet connection at the campground to post to our blog.

This morning we took a ride around James Island.  We are thinking about moving back to the low country in a few years.  We have been gone eight years so far and so much has changed in that time.  When it was time for lunch we drove to Folly Beach for lunch.  We walked around town some and then headed to the Folly pier for lunch at Locklears which is located at the pier.  Here are some pictures of the town and the pier and beach.