We are ready for Christmas.

Wow has this year flown by. Seems just yesterday we were celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Christmas is a wonderful time of the year at our house. The kids will be over tonight for Christmas eve dinner. They will be back early on Christmas morning for breakfast and opening of gifts. We also have the great honor of spending the holidays again this year with Betty's brother, Bill from Raleigh. We always look forward to him coming to spend the holidays at our house.

The tree is all decorated and the stockings are hung in preparation for a delightful Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here is hoping everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving. We enjoy a wonderful day at our son and daughter-in-laws home with her family and ours. It is always great to get together and share laughter, fun and food with those we hold dear.

We are still trying to finish up this house renovations. we are to the slowest part now. That of getting everything put back in it place and getting rid of things we no longer use. We should be finished sometime next week.

More later.................

Great weekend camping with Bluff City Sams

We had a great weekend camping with the Bluff City Sams at Wall Doxey State Park near Holly Springs, MS. Their November camp out is always highlighted with the Saturday evening Thanksgiving dinner. The men fixed breakfast Saturday morning.

Today we are back home and the guys are here installing the new floor in the sun room. Of course, it is going slower than we had hoped. They have the furniture sitting on the patio. Hope they get all finished before the rain arrives tonight.

We plan to be home now through the Holidays. Then off to Ventura California for the director's meeting January 5-9, 2009. Then back home and probably off to Florida to spend some time with my family before the babies come. The Florida Winter Samboree is in question at this point. We are hoping to be able to attend before the babies come.

See you all soon!

Finally in the house!!!!

Wow! Finally! Whoopee! We will sleep in our house tonight! We are still trying to get STUFF back in its place. There are a few little odds and ends that need to be taken care of. But we are back in it. At least for a couple of nights.

Then we are off on Thursday morning to join the Bluff City Sams Chapter for their November camp out. We are looking forward to sharing a Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night served by the park staff.

Wall Doxey State Park is a really nice Mississippi Park. They have a lodge and many buildings that were built back during the depression by the CCC's.

More later...................

My My! this past month has flown by!

These past few weeks have flown by. We got the floors installed in the house. We will be getting the cabinets and counter tops in on the 29th and 29th. A new refrigerator and dish washer will be delivered the 30th. The we begin the miscellaneous repairs. The sun room floor, the legs on furniture and putting the house back together.

We left on 10/12 and went to Jackson Tennessee to do the Tennessee Fall Samboree. We had a great time with about 150 rigs in attendance. We had 120 registered when we arrived and boy did the drive ups start coming.

After the Tennessee Samboree we caravaned to the Mississippi Fall Samboree in Columbia. Of course, we ate at the Round Table twice. We had a great time visiting with old friends.

Today we arrived back at the Agri-Center International Campground in Memphis. We will be here until the end of the week. After the new appliances are delivered, we will move home and put the motor home in storage for a few days. Out next trip out will be to Wall Doxey State Park with the Bluff City Sams for their Thanksgiving camp out.

more later..............

Back home to ground zero.

We are back from a wonderful time at the Georgia and Alabama Fall Samborees. They were both great with some fantastic entertainment, vendors and hospitality.

It was an expensive trip. We stopped in Pell City, AL on Wednesday evening 9.10. When we tried to put our driver side slide in on Thursday morning it would not go. We called ERS and a couple of hours later the service man arrived and got it back in manually ($140). We were on our way but much later than planned. We called Charles Newton, Georgia State Director to let him know we were running late. He suggested that we call Bleakley RV at Unidillia. They had the slide motor and luckily a mobile RV repairman was there. He picked up the motor and was at our rig in Perry about 7:50 AM Friday morning. He installed the new motor (gear box was bad)($754.xx for motor). The labor and service call was $150. The good thing is that the slide works better than it has in some time.

Monday afternoon we received a call from the neighbor that picks up our mail and watches the house. Water was running out the front door. We called our son, Chip and he and a buddy went over ans cut the water off and got ServPro out to begin the cleanup. They pulled up all carpet but the front bedroom, about half the laminated tile in the sun room and vacuumed up about 500 gallons of water. It took until Saturday to get the humidity levels down to 40 percent with a number of fans and 2 dehumidifier running. They came back on Monday this week to clean up the scraps of carpet and padding that was around in every room. We have water damage to the kitchen and master bath cabinets. Several base boards were removed to get moisture from the walls.

The insurance adjuster came yesterday (Monday 9.22) and did his thing. We expect to hear from that tomorrow.

We are also working to get everything ready for the Tennessee Fall Samboree 10.16-19.

We are not stressed over the house. It is only stuff and could have been much worse.

More later as we go to TN and MS Fall Samborees.

Fall Samboree Time.

Tomorrow, October 10th.,we will be off to our first three fall Samborees. We will be going to Georgia, Alabama and North Carolina. But first, Betty will do a doctor visit with Emily, our daughter in law. She is getting another sonogram and they may be able to tell her the gender of the twins. Yes, we are going to become grand parents for the first time. We are all excited!

More later from the road in Georgia.

Camping at Columbus-Belmont State Park, Kentucky

We camped at a wonderful Columbus-Belmont State Park near Columbus, Kentucky this past weekend. We were camping with the Big Cypress Sams from Weakley County in Tennessee. This is a beautiful park with an abundance of mature trees overlooking the Mississippi River. It is a very clean and quiet park. We definitely enjoyed our stay with this Chapter.

Big Cypress Sams is a fun loving group. We played chicken foot dominoes most every night. We enjoyed a campfire one night. The pot luck dinner on Friday night was great with enough food to feed a larger group. After the Chapter meeting on Saturday morning, we all headed to Sikeston, Missouri for a more than filling meal at Lambert's cafe which is home of the throwed roll.

We certainly enjoyed camping with Big Cypress Sams.

Camping at the Intn"l Rock a billy Festival with Rive M Sams

Over the weekend of August 7-10 we camped with the River M Sams at the Jackson Fairgrounds Park during the International Rock a Billy Festival. We enjoyed great meals with the group at the Dixie Castle Restaurant (great steaks), the Bakers Rack (great quiche, strawberry salad and deserts) and Catfish Cabin (good catfish and hush puppies).

The festival had various groups performing Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Most of the groups were really good. We also visited the Rock a Billy Museum. There were displays for many of the stars from that era.

We had a very enjoyable time with the River M Sams.

And on to Columbus Belmont State Park.

Camping at Defeated Creek COE

What a fantastic time at a super campground. Defeated Creek is located about 17 miles north of I-40 at Carthage Tennessee. It has large sites, some with full hookup. It is very hard to get reservation for a weekend. They do have a few non reservable site. We were lucky enough to get one (site 23, 50AMP/water).

We arrived on Tuesday afternoon to visit with the Cumberland Mountain Sams. This Chapter is from the Crossville area. Since most of them retired, they normally camp during the week. They are looking to expand their Chapter and plan to have some campouts during the weekend in the near future. This is the second time we have camped with this group. It was wonderful to share dinner with them on Wednesday and Thursday evenings. We have gotten to know them as a dedicated, hard working Chapter.

For the weekend, we stayed put and camped with the Tennessee Sunshine Travelers from the Clarksville area. This Chapter is about two years old. They have really come together as a Chapter. It must be all the fun loving activities they have at their campouts. We really laughed after the great Hawaiian Hamburgers on Saturday evening. Mike Smith had us rolling with his "Show and Tell" presentation.

We always enjoy coming together on Sunday morning for an uplifting worship time. This group has some of the best.

We stayed over on Monday to spend time with Jerry and Lila Cowell, ASD's for middle Tennessee.

Til next time..................

Camping with Cotton Patch Sams

This past weekend we camped with Cotton Patch Sams at Village Creek State Park near Wynne Arkansas. Linda and Harry Warren, ASDs for west Tennessee joined us. They had great turn out with eight rigs camping.

This Chapter has really struggled this past year with members moving away from the area. However, Christy and Lisa have done an excellent job of recruiting new members. They are a great group and we look forward to more growth and wonderful camping experiences.

Village Creek State Park has renovated one of the upper camping areas. They now offers full hook up sites with 50 amp power in this area. We had a fantastic weekend enjoying the rain Saturday morning. The rain brought a cooler day for Saturday. The pot luck dinner was typical of one at a camping event. We all had plenty to eat.

Thanks you to Cotton Patch Sams for a great weekend.

Til next time.............

Tennessee Spring Samboree a HUGE! success!

We arrived home last night 6/8 from the 2007 Tennessee "Wild, Wild West Spring Samboree. What a great time meeting old friends and meeting new friends. We had 208 rigs from 17 states. We were greeted each day by the Wilson County Saddle Club. What an added attraction that was. They were on site for 4 days riding their horses and welcoming everyone to the Samboree. On Thursday and Friday they offered buggy rides.

It was hot! However, everyone stayed focused on having FUN! We always enjoy having the vendors and RVs from Bankston Motor Homes.


There were many wonderful activities throughout the week. Wednesday night found us all enjoying an early bird pot luck supper. We have some fantastic cooks in our family of friends. This may be a keeper for future Samborees. Everything from the "Oller Comedy Hour" and games to the presentation of many awards earned by the chapters. Many of the chapters held raffles for their charities. It was a busy week but well worth all the time spent with our friends both old and new. We have begun working on the fall samboree in Jackson, TN in October.

We will be home for awhile to rest and finalize the Spring samboree. Right now we haven't made any definite traveling plans. We hope that everyone has a nice summer. Be sure to stay cool and avoid the heat as much as possible.

Be safe on the roads and come back soon to see what we are up to.

Terry and Betty

Almost Samboree Time in Tennessee

We are in the final days of preparation for the 2008 Tennessee "Wild, Wild West" Spring Samboree at the James E. Ward Agri-Center in Lebanon. We are excited about the number of first timers coming to this Samboree. We now have over 200 rigs registered and we have been on the telephone taking calls this morning from people wanting to come. We got a good placement in Highways on the Samboree listing.

We had hoped to get everything ready in time to attend the Kentucky Samboree in Brandenburg. But, that has not happened. We will miss going to Kentucky to meet our friends there this year.

This post will be short. We have to keep busy getting ready for next week.

Check back soon!

Back home again! Again!

Yes, it has been almost a month since our last post. We were home for a week the first of April, then we were off to the Mississippi Spring Samboree in Greenville. As always, we have a wonderful time there visiting with old friends and making a few new ones. As always, we stayed busy all week with the various activities.

After the MS Samboree, we traveled over and down to Dothan, Alabama for the Alabama Spring Samboree at the National Peanut Festival Fairgrounds. This is a great facility for a Samboree. Again, we enjoyed the hospitality of our friends in Alabama.

On Monday, we drove down to Panama City Florida along with Mike and Janice Smith one of our ASD's. We had some work done on the grave site last fall after my mothers burial. The men did a great job. Raising up the granite coping and replacing the cement under the granite stone (this keeps down the weeds and grass). Our friends, Greg and Judy Smith, are keeping flowers on the grave site for us.

Monday evening we meet with my cousin, Jackie Galloway and his wife Frankie. They were camping at the Pecan Point RV park just north of the fairgrounds while they bass fished. We enjoyed a great time talking about old times and had dinner at Golden Corral. They came down to the fairgrounds to visit with us on Friday morning.

We enjoyed a great time with Don and Linda Lane, Kentucky State Director. We had others from Tennessee join us there,Jerry and Lila Cowell, Mike and Janice Smith, Bill and Molly Stewart and Bob and Madaline Bertouille. And "Oh" yes we went to Dairy Queen a few times.

Unfortunatly, Bob became ill and spent a couple of days in the hospital. In fact, we had to call the EMT's on Sunday morning and send him back to the hospital. We made arrangements with someone there(Grover) to watch after their pets and the fairgrounds was very accomodating. They allowed them to stay on their site while Bob was hospitalized. He was able to leave the hospital on Tuesday and they headed back home on Wednesday. Good Luck Bob!

We left for home Sunday after church. We caravaned with the Lanes and Cowells stopping at the Country View Campground north of Birmingham for the night. We enjoyed spending time with them at the campground Sunday evening.

We arrived home about 2:30 PM on Monday afternoon. Exhausted and glad to be home!

Until next time, travel safely.

We are home for a few days.

We arrived home this evening about 4:30 PM CDT. It took about an hour to get the motor home unloaded. Then we begain the task of putting everything away in the house. The laundry is all piled by the laundry room door. Where it will remain for the night.

We will be home for a week and then off to the Mississippi and Alabama Spring Samborees in Greenville and Dothan respectivly.

We have a very long to do list while home for the week.

More to come from the road to MS and AL.

On the way home.

WOW! How time really flys. It does not seem like 2 months have elapsed since the last update. We had a good time visiting with family in Winter Garden, attending the Florida Winter Samboree and Brandon.

We arrived in Winter Garden on January 6th. It is always good to meet all our friends there at the Garden Cathedral Church of Good. Of course, they insisted that we attend the monthly Senior night pot luck. We always enjoy spending time with Ray and Barbara. We also got to spend time with our friends Barbara and Curtis Burton from Sandston, Virginia. They were staying at the Rolling Hills RV Resort in Clermont.

Then on February 19th, it was off to the Florida Winter Samboree in Dunnellon. We meet several of our Good Sam family there. There were several from the K-town Sams Chapter in Tennessee. The Bluegrass Festival park there in Dunnellon is a great place for a Samboree. We were parked among the oak trees with moss hanging all around.

After the Samboree we headed to Lazy Days Rally Park for 3 nights before moving over to the Brandon Church of God for a few days. We really enjoyed spending time with Don and Frances and the people at their church. We found out that Matt really does love us. Matt and Melanie and others were working on getting a cafe set up for their young people. It will really be a nice place when it is finished.

Then we moved on to Perry to leave the motor home there prior to The Rally while we drove on the Pigion Forge for a weekend with all the Mingers. It was wonderful to get together with many of the family. It was not a fun time for me on Friday and Saturday. I contacted some kind of virus and ended up in the Hospital Friday evening for rehidration. It really hit me in the legs for a few days. Just really weak.

Back to Perry on Sunday and get ready for The Rally. On Tuesday Betty began to come down with the virus. Ellie and I doctored her. However she and several others spent time recovering. Betty began to feel better and was able to help at the dart and ballon booth during Good Sam Day on Monday.

Tuesday morning we departed Perry for a stop in Atlanta to get Ellie to the Airport. Then on to Helen Georgia and Unicoi Spring Camp Resort for a week of R&R.

We will leave Unicoi Spring tomorrow morning 3/25 headed to Lebanon, Tennessee to prep for the Tennessee Good Sam state committee meeting on 3/29.

We should be home on 3/31/PM.

More to come..................

Wintering in Florida

Wow! How time flys when you are having fun! It has been so long since we have updated. Where do we begin?

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with family. Betty's brother, Bill Daniels visited with us for over three weeks. Arriving on December 10th and departing January 3 rd. It is always a delight to have him visit. He keeps us going. We were out and about everyday shopping.

One day we went to Lowes and bought cabinets for our daughter's laundry room (late birthday present)and installed them. Bill was a great helper. After Christmas, he helped me install a new entryway and bathroom light fixture for Ellie. She received them as Christmas Gifts.

Christmas morning is always a fantastic treat. The family all arrives early for breakfast and then open gifts. This year we had Christmas dinner on Sunday evening. Chip and Emily went to her brother's house Christmas afternoon for dinner and opening gifts.

We are now in Florida visiting with my brother and his family. We arrived in Winter Garden Sunday, January 6th. We have also enjoyed spending time with our dear friends, Barbara and Curtis Burton from Virginia. They are the couple that introduced Betty and I to the RV lifestyle back in the mid seventies.

We will be attending the Florida Winter Samboree in Dunnellon. Then we will go to visit with my sister in Brandon until we head north for The Rally.

More soon.