Wandering America
December 2008
| A Lazy Month in 'Bama The month started out with another dinner engagement. This time it was with Randy and Terry Guiler for a nice homemade, straight from the oven, chicken casserole prepared lovingly by the hands of Miss Terry. It was umm-umm good and we, as always, enjoyed the time sitting around talking and laughing with Randy, Terry, and Blackie the dawg (although Blackie didn't say a whole lot but he did smile a few times). We didn't do much of anything during the month since Judy had bronchitis and spent most of the month trying to shake it. I took an H&R Block training course and then did several on line training courses as well as ten case studies in preparation for the upcoming tax season. We did do quite a bit of socializing with our friends and neighbors which most of you have already read about in my daily entries in "From Darrell's Chair". There were campfires several times a week here on East Traveler Street with plenty of impromptu "pot luck" type gatherings taking place.   One evening while we were sitting around the campfire Larry and Cindy brought the ingredients for making biscuits on a stick. You need a special kind of stick with a metal tip and some "Poppin' Fresh" biscuit dough along with butter and toppings (jams and jellies) to spread on the biscuits. Looks like we were toasting marshmallows but, believe me, it was biscuits. That was certainly different and a whole lot of fun.   Often times during our neighborhood gatherings it is not uncommon to be serenaded by some good ol' dulcimer music. This is just one of the impromptu jam sessions that take place regularly with dulcimers arriving from all directions and before you know it, music is flowing through the air - aah!!! How sweet 'tis.  Even though our house is small and sits on wheels we still decorate for Christmas. Alex was checking things out just waiting for mom to turn her back so he could attack the ribbons on the presents. He thinks he is momma's little elf.  We spent Christmas with our son Matthew's family in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. You can just never get enough grand daughter time and Christmas is especially one of those time you just don't want to miss. On Christmas eve we attended church services at Matt and Jackie's church followed by home made pizzas which is a Winegarden Family Christmas Eve tradition. For Christmas dinner we had a wonderful Pork Loin Roast with all the fixings which is a Patterson Family Christmas Day tradition. Traditions are great reminders of who you are and where you came from while preserving some continuity in our ever changing lives. Miss Catia, at the ripe ol' age of four, got right into the Christmas present opening "thang" while little sis Kalina, five months, was quite receptive to the new toy concept. She gave each of her new toys the taste test as she is teething and everything makes its way to her mouth.     Christmas ended all too soon and it was back to Rainbow Plantation with lots of fond memories. Katie and Alex had stayed behind to celebrate their Christmas by themselves and they were very glad to see us return. Don and Debra Dekker, our kayaking friends from LGE, dropped by for a visit. After sitting outside while watching some football we decided to go to the beach at Gulf Shores which is one of our favorite things to do. Then we returned to the Plantation to have dinner together; Judy had prepared a Taco casserole which was yummy. After some more chit chat we all went over to the Sunday evening Ice Cream Social. One of the best parts of this fulltime lifestyle is the friends you make along the way and another great part is seeing those friends again and again. Don and Debra headed out for Florida where they will spend the winter workamping. We all look forward to our next get together wherever that may be.      The Shanielles (dressed in their bathrobes) entertained us with a couple of their hit songs before the band took over. It was a good evening with great friends and lots of laughs. The rum soaked cherries weren't bad either. We danced in the New Year in (with a little help from the wine and cherries) and sang Auld Lang Syne right on the stroke of mid night (9:00 PMsharp).   Due to the "financial crunch" that we find ourselves in up until September we will be doing very little traveling until the fall of 2009. We'll be hanging out here at Rainbow Plantation until mid to late April and then make our way to Tennessee to visit our kids and get a grand daughter fix. After that it will be onto Michigan for more family visits before heading east for another grand daughter fix in New Hampshire while visiting Marc and Amie. That will, also, be a grand son fix as well as he is due to arrive in May of 2009. The summer will be spent back at Lake George Escape workamping until Labor Day then we will be doing more visiting family throughout New England until the end of September; therefore, we are only planning to write quarterly travelogues until then. We plan to start traveling again in October, but, in the meantime, you'll still be able to follow our daily happenings in "From Darrell's Chair". I know this travelogue is late in publishing, but the Wandering America family (Darrell, Judy, Katie, and Alex) are wishing you all a Happy New Year!, none-the-less.  Our Retreat In Lower Alabama |