Blogs from Fredericksburg, Virginia, United States, North America - page 3

This is truly a new beginning. I have decided to retire (finally) and will be officially retired as of 26 March 2011. This is after 10 years teaching and 31 1/2 years working for the Federal Government. It has, for the most part, been wonderful. I've had great students (some of whom I still keep in touch with); worked with marvelous fellow teachers (most of whom have been retired for several years and we still stay in touch); been supervised by lousy, good, great and a few exceptional leaders; and shared coffee, laughs, and the ups and downs of assignments and change with some lousy, good, great and exceptional Federal employees. We've had the opportunity to move and live in a variety of locations: Ohio, NH, Pennsylvania, NY, Japan, DC, and Virginia. We've found good everywhere ... read more

A guy could spend a lot of time in Virginia. We moved over to the east yesterday to a different park. It is very nice. We are about 30 miles from Washington DC to the northeast near Annapolis. But yesterday I went solo down to Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville which are just to the north of Richmond. These were both pivotal battles during the Civil War. Fredericksburg was a devastating Union loss in December of 1862. Ambrose Burnside was in command and pretty much incompetent just like all of Lincolns generals until he found U.S. Grant. He sent his army across the Rappahannock River up hill toward the Confederate army that was perched nicely on high ground and behind a stone wall. What a loser. A flanking maneuver would have been better. General Lee could not believe ... read more

So, the 2009 season is about to start! We've done our planning and preparations by attending three RV shows this winter: Chantilly (DC), Richmond, and Fredericksburg. We drooled over new RVs, met friends at several of the shows, and worked the Richmond show where John was in the Virginia Good Sam booth, explaining the benefits of local membership to visitors. (Yes, we joined a local chapter last fall--So-We-Go Sams out of Spotsylvania. Our camping buddies, Dave and Bonnie Lodge also joined.) At the Fredericksburg show, we heard Gary Bunzer, The RV Doctor, discuss how to winterize the RV (already done at that point) and how to prep the vehicle for spring and summer. We took his advice to heart and pulled the RV out of storage in mid-March and headed off to Lake Anna for a ... read more

We’ve been back a week now. The coach has been emptied, cleaned and put back in the storage lot until next trip. Clothes have been washed and put back on the rack or in the dresser. Food that was bought during the trip has been eaten and replaced by a trip to the market and Farmer’s Market. And I have reviewed the costs and the statistics. We started out planning to drive at 55 using cruise control to keep our MPG as high as possible. Gas ranged from $3.65 per gallon in Eastport, FL to $3.45 in Dothan, AL and Latta, SC. Our assumption going in was that we would get better gas mileage on I-95 and US-90, as they were relatively flat, and we would get worse mileage coming home up I-81 with the mountains. ... read more

We've been asked, "When did you start RVing?" Well, as the picture shows, in 1971. We had a VW camper we took all over the east coast of the US, and up into Canada. We didn't know we were RVers at the time; we were young and adventurous. In 2004 we returned from Japan where John had been working for the US Marine Corps, and since we owned no home, no car, no boat, we decided the first thing we would do was buy an RV. We found a great saleslady at LazyDays in Florida, and via Internet and numerous phone calls, we finally put a deposit on a small RV and when we flew back, bought it. Our dream is to one day (soon!) retire, sell this RV and purchase a bigger one, the go ... read more