Photo by The Joneses Reenactment soldiers set-up shop in Gettysburg. — — — E-mail Gisela — — — SLIDE SHOW: Out and about before hitting the road again
ARCHIVES: Back on the road again 11/20/08 At long last, back in the area 11/04/08 From the beautiful Maine coastline down to southern Connecticut 10/17/08 Dreams come true in Vermont 10/02/08 Chillin' out at 'Camp Monaco' 09/22/08 Michigan is full of treasures 09/10/08 Making our way through Minn., Wisc. and Ill. 09/04/08 Leaving Idaho and heading east 08/25/08 Boise sure has changed a lot 08/18/08 With family and spectacular sights in Hailey, Idaho 08/11/08 Idaho is full of natural treasures — and moon-like craters, too 07/30/08 From prairie country to beautiful views to grand 'ol Yellowstone 07/21/08 Escapees Rally in Wyoming 07/11/08 Who knew there was so much to see in South Dakota? 07/02/08 I (heart) Hart Ranch, South Dakota 06/24/08 Thunderstorms, flooding, tornados and a visit with the 'Duke' 06/17/08 Lots to see in the 'Show Me' state 06/06/08 Our final days in Kentucky 06/03/08 Moving days for Greg and his family 05/28/08 Leaving Indiana, but not before taking some of the state's best sites 05/16/08 Rallyin' in Goshen, Indiana 05/09/08 'The RV Capital of the World' 05/02/08 Out of Charleston and off to Indiana 04/25/08 Down in the Lowcountry 04/21/08 Arriving in Charleston 04/15/08 Wouldn't change a thing 04/04/08 Look back, look ahead 03/28/08 It's all about the theme parks 03/21/08 Strawberries, and more strawberries 03/14/08 From Boy Scouts to ‘Stars on Ice’ 03/07/08 The gang's all here! 02/29/08 A day with friends from Frederick 02/22/08 Under the weather 02/15/08 Earning our ears 02/11/08 Training for our jobs at Disney World 02/01/08 A special day 01/25/08 Into the Keys 01/21/08 The holidays in Florida 01/03/08 Arriving in Florida 12/28/07 And so it begins ... 12/17/07

The last two weeks were spent getting together with friends and relatives, including our daughter-in-law, Robin, and her parents, Mary and Don, from Hagerstown, who visited us to admire our "condo on wheels" and to have lunch with us.

A couple Saturdays ago we drove with friends Erma and Bill to Strasburg, Pa., for a show at the Sight & Sound Theatres. Sight & Sound is a large Christian theatrical company that performs spectacular life shows. Most shows are based on stories from the Bible.

The company also has a theater in Branson, Mo., where they are currently showing "Noah" with, like most of their shows, live animals on the stage.

In our visit to Sight & Sound, we saw ”Voices of Christmas,” a more traditional Christmas show in the ‘Living Waters’ theatre, which is the smaller of the two theaters at the Strasburg location.

Great singing and dancing performed by very talented artists were the top highlights of the show we took in. There was a magnificent stage setting, too. All in all, it was truly a wonderful experience.

The larger theater (the Millennium) is currently showing the “Miracle of Christmas.” This is a beautiful representation of the birth of Christ (we saw it a few years ago). And, of course, before the show we stopped at a restaurant for some good 'ol country food!

A highlight of our last week in town was a visit to The Frederick News-Post's new building on Ballenger Center Drive.

During our visit, I enjoyed meeting Jason Brennan, the web editor, who, until then, I had only communicated with via e-mail or phone. Jason is the one who receives my blog, edits it (although I was happy to hear from him that he doesn’t have to do much editing), adds some of the photo captions and the map before uploading it to the web.

The News-Post is the last independent family-owned daily newspaper in Maryland and has been published by the same family since Oct. 15, 1883. The paper was founded by William T. Delaplaine and certainly has been a part of Frederick’s history throughout the years. The News-Post moved to its present location in January of this year.

Ralph and I were in awe when we saw the new printing press. It doesn’t look anything like the printing presses I've seen before. My first job ever was for a printing company in Germany. The News-Post's  printing press is six towers high and looks like some type of huge manufacturing machinery. It's awesome!

The person who made our visit to The News-Post extra special was our guide, Frances A. Randall, chairman of the board.

Frannie, like many of her friends call her, is the granddaughter of the founder and her son, daughters and grandson are all part of the company. We know Frannie from our involvement with the Frederick Sister City Association and other civic organizations.  Frannie told us so much more of the history of The News-Post and shared several funny little anecdotes with us, too.

I was sad to leave Frederick, but Ralph was ready to get on the road. That might have something to do with the fact that his golf buddies have stopped their golf outings — it's too cold now.

I could have spent another week or so in town. I would have liked to stop by our old neighborhood, but time ran out. I did, however, get a chance to have at least one lunch or dinner with all my friends. And I have to admit the weather was getting a little too cold for me, too.

Carmen, a friend of mine, asked me if now, after having been full-timing for a year, there was anything that wasn’t the way I thought it would be. I couldn’t think of anything; our life has been everything we imagined it to be, or more. Well, except for the gas prices!

They were at the highest when we did most of our traveling and completely ruined my budget. But, we didn’t let that stop us from doing what we wanted to do. Hopefully the prices will stay low, especially for the trip to Alaska planned for next summer. And if they do go up again, well, we’ll deal with it as we did this past summer. We have to spend our money on something, surely can’t take it with us!

So far we love our lifestyle and hope we’ll be able to do this for several more years. We love Frederick and will come back here as often as possible. Part of our heart will always be in Frederick, but HOME IS WHERE WE PARK IT.

We’ll be in Virginia for a few days, then drive to Kentucky to pick up our stored items. Then it's on to Florida.