Our 2022 Review

 WE WISH YOU ALL A HAPPY AND HEALTHY 2023

and hope your 2022 went well.

Our plans for this year were to go to all the North-Eastern States, up to and including Maine. We had made most of our reservations and then gas prices started to rise and rise. We only get 6mpg in the motorhome and with prices at $4 to $5/gallon we decided enough was enough.

This is the second year our plans have been postponed but it is what it is. 

We only travelled 2,335 miles in Lily this year. Here's a map showing our final route for the year.                                                                     

Our Travel Route 2022

We started 2022 at NAS Jacksonville camphosting. We got season passes for the zoo and enjoyed several trips there on our days off.

We went to Military Appreciation day at the Players Golf Championship again. It's always a good day out.

                              

Bryan got up on the roof and fixed a leak.

We finished camphosting on May 1st and spent the next two weeks at one of our favorite campgrounds, Peiican Roost at Mayport, watching the ships, dolphins and pelicans.

Carnival cruise ship leaving Jacksonville

We headed North to Virginia, stopping at a couple of campgrounds on the way.  We try not to rush anywhere and have relatively short driving days. 

In Virginia, we spent time with Ryan, Christina, Trystan and Colton who arrived in this world on April 7th. Welcome to the family Colton. 

We split our time between Norfolk and Williamsburg. Ryan and family went to Wolf Lodge in Williamsburg while we were there, so we went to visit them and had fun on the water rides and babysitting Colton so the others could enjoy the rides.

We visited some lighthouses and museums.

I took this picture of a fresnel lens at the Mariners Museum and it reflecting light on the wall as it turned. 

Like many I watched the Queens Platinum Jubilee over several days and enjoyed every bit of it. I did think the Queen looked frail and was sad when she passed later in the year but she had a long reign and will be a very hard act to follow. She is now reunited with Philip. 

The Queen and Royal Family on the balcony of Buckingham Palace during the Platinum Jubilee Celebrations

On my birthday there was a show for the families at the base and we had fun watching what they do.

They even had a frog mascot.

From there we had plans to head West through West Virginia, Kentucky, Alabama and Mississippi to Moms in Louisiana.

Again our plans changed.  We decided to take care of some medical issues and so headed south to Jacksonville. About the same time, one of the summer camphosts left and so we ended up replacing them for a short while.

Unfortunately a couple of days after we arrived we had to evacuate everyone as hurricane Ian was on its way to us. This also caused my minor surgery to be cancelled, so that will be rescheduled for next year as they couldn't reschedule me before we were leaving this year.

Ian caused a lot of damage south of us but fortunately, the campground had minimum damage and we soon opened up again. I teased our son Ian that it was typical he would create havoc.

Speaking of Ian, Kris, Bailey & Kai. They are well and had an exciting day when Kai was invited to lead on the Welsh National Rugby Team before their international match against Australia. He was given one of the Welsh kits to wear and stood with them while singing the anthem.  It was awesome to watch.  I also discovered that I enjoy watching rugby as its virtually continuous play so no chance to get bored!!

We went for another visit to the zoo and saw the halloween decorations.

That's what the giraffe thinks of Halloween!!

We also got to watch a preview of the air show that they opened to military members.  We thoroughly enjoyed that as there weren't as many crowds.

One of the displays was by Patty Wagstaff who Bryan had met and fueled her plane while working at Las Vegas. She did some fantastic stunts and aerobatic displays both solo and with another stunt plane.

Patty Wagstaff in red plane

The Blue Angels also gave a good display as usual. I can't believe how close they get.

                              

Brenda, John, LeeAnn and Aimee have been busy supporting the Brahma's band. We have enjoyed watching Aimee's band competitions. Thanks Brenda for showing them live.  They did very well and reached finals. Way to go Brahmas!! LeeAnn is still taking part in parades for Special Olympics.

We headed west to Louisiana to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with Mom, stopping at Blue Angel Recreation Area on the way. Bryan did a few maintenance things around the house and Mom fed us some great meals. Thanks again Mom.

We had a visit with Bryan's brother Pat, Karen & Taylor when they came to visit at Mom's. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture. 

We also visited Bryan's Mawmaw, Uncle Lee Roy, & Aunt Amy. It had been a long while since he had seen them and we had a nice visit catching up.

We are now at Blue Angel RV Park, Pensacola, Florida where we will see in the New Year.

Speaking of the New Year we are looking forward to a fantastic trip that we have planned for 2023.  Unfortunately Lily is not involved!! She will have a well deserved break......although we should travel more miles next year!! 😉

Summer of 22 - #3 - Cheatham Annex, Museums, Family & Lighthouses

June 28th, 2022

We arrived at Cheatham Annex Recreation Area, near Williamsburg, Virginia.  We stayed here last year.  It is a nice military campground, although the internet signal is weak and I have no phone signal. It will work for us for the next six weeks. It is very convenient for all the historic places around here, some of which we visited last year.   

June 30th, 2022

We drove to Langley Air Force Base to get groceries and look at the static displays.

F-86

F-15

F-105

F-16

F-15

B-52

Bryan worked on the F-4E & G at George AFB back in the day. 

F-4C

July 3rd - 5th, 2022

We went back to visit Ryan, Christina, Trystan & Colton for a couple of days over July 4th weekend.

On the 4th, we walked down to the beach to watch fireworks but didn't get any pictures.

When I got up the next morning Trystan was all excited and asked me to go in the garden with him. He had found me a frog.  How awesome was that. It reminded me of many, many years ago his Dad coming into the house in Las Vegas and telling me "Mummy, mummy there's a frog in the garden". I didn't believe him, as I didn't think there would be a frog in my garden in the heat of Las Vegas, but sure enough there it was.  I didn't get a picture then. Social media wasn't prominent and I probably didn't have film in the camera!!

It was a lovely stay and all too soon it was time to head back home. 

July 13th, 2022

We met Ryan, Christina and the boys at Wolf Creek where they were staying overnight.  It is a water park and we had fun in the wave pool and relaxing in the hot tub. I even went on the lazy river and got drenched from the overhead buckets of water. As most of you know I have a fear of water on my face but I was very brave!!  Again, we didn't get any pictures as we didn't want to take the cameras near the water. After all that excitement Bryan & I looked after Colton for a while, so R, C & T could go on some rides together. He slept the whole time and we had some conversations with people on the joys of being a grandparent.

July 20th, 2022

We went to visit a couple of museums. I will do separate blogs to cover those.

Hampton Air Power Park Museum & Buckroe Beach Lighthouse - Blog to follow

Mariners' Museum & Park - Blog to follow

July 22nd, 2022 

It was time to go and see some real lighthouses.

It was going to be quite a long drive but we don't mind driving to see things that interest us. It's good to get out of the house for a while.

We stopped at the Mathews County Visitor & Information Centre in Mathews, Virginia to get a lighthouse stamp for our lighthouse book. We had a nice chat with the ladies in there and they told us about another lighthouse we could see, so we got two stamps in our book and then went off to find the lighthouse.

I had found directions for New Point Comfort Lighthouse and very soon we found it. We had to take pictures from a nearby viewpoint in a small park.

There was a small covered picnic area.

and vultures in a tree

We decided to try and find the other lighthouse. So off we went.......... We ended up driving on some narrow roads and after taking one wrong turn eventually got back on track and found Bethel Beach. 

Bethel Beach

In the distance we think is Wolf Trap Light. It was quite a way out in the ocean and we zoomed in as best we could.

Wolf Trap Light

Wolf Trap Light

It was a little disappointing that we couldn't get a better view but we still had a nice day out.

We stopped in a layby near to the campground and saw this informational sign on Cheatham Annex.

We haven't managed to get out exploring much here as it has been so hot, so we had a nice adventure today and got two more stamps for our Lighthouse Passport.

Summer of 22 - #4 - Hampton Air Power Park Museum & Buckroe Beach Lighthouse

July 20th, 2022 - Part 1 of 2

We had a day visiting museums and a lighthouse.

The first stop was Hampton Air Power Park Museum.

 

This was a small museum that was free and had a few outdoor displays as well. We looked inside first.  It was quite interesting but didn't take very long to go around.  Bryan got asked if he would mind telling his story and answering a few questions on camera for a project a group were doing. He politely declined as he's really not comfortable talking on camera with strangers and I completely understand that. I'm sure they would have been interested in some of his stories though.

Left to right: F-16, SR-71, F-4

F-100D

F-105

F-89

                                                                                 

F-86

                                                                                 

A-7

                                                                                

Next we went to Buckroe Beach, in search of a lighthouse, although it was an ornamental one.

Buckroe Beach

We found it, how cute is that!!!

These two stops didn't take as long as we thought they would, so we decided to add Mariners Museum & Park to our adventures.  We weren't expecting much but it was an awesome place and well worth the visit. You'll have to wait for the next blog though as there's to much to add on to this one.