Rio Travelers: EVENTS AND TRAVEL UPDATE

Hello everyone. It's been a long time since we updated the blog. We were home longer this past winter than we had been for a while but the time seem to fly by with our involvement in our community, Good Sam chapter and Adventure Caravan shows. We thought we would bring everyone up to date. When we got home last fall we attended the Florida Good Sam Samboree and had a great time with our chapter "The Sassy Sam's". We participated in and won first place in the parade. The theme was Thanksgiving so our coach Andrea decided we should do the Macy's parade so there are a couple pics from that. In December we participated in the Wreaths Across America program laying wreathes that we had contributed to at the Bushnell, Florida National Cemetery. Then in January we went to Key West with our good friends Nick and Paula from New Jersey. They had never been there and we thought they would enjoy the unusual culture - which they did. During the winter and spring we did several RV shows for Adventure Caravans. They are more like reunions then work as we are constantly seeing friends that have traveled with us. Speaking of reunions, we attended the Adventure Caravan reunion in Washington DC in April. Saw all the usual sights and one exceptional one. One of the staff got a picture of the Shuttle over the Capitol on the way to the Smithsonian. It was not our picture but we did see it as we were traveling on the beltway at the time. Anyhow, we left home in June for our summer which will end in March. Our neighbors want to know why we have a home. Sometimes we wonder as well, except it is nice to return once in a while. We are now in Shreveport, Louisiana visiting our daughter Kristine and family but on the way we made a few stops. Our first major stop was to see Betty's family in New York as well as to attend the"Forties Forever" reunion on Staten Island. There is a group of old Coasties (Coast Guard) guys that have been getting together for the last several years. I found out about this last year but we were on our way to Alaska. Anyhow a couple of guys bought a couple of old Coast Guard Forty Footers that in the 50's and 60's were the backbone of the CG small boat fleet. It is also where I got my start in the CG the summer of 1965. Well after I saw the list of members I realized almost a dozen were crew mates at the New York Station boat pool 1965/1968 so I had to attend. As it was, only three attended but we reminisced about old times. It is funny though, everyone looks different after 46 years. We also took a day to visit Governor's Island where we were stationed and is now a National and City park combined. We also made a trip to Ellis Island. I had been there once early in my CG career and at that time it was closed and in a shambles. Now they have restored the main receiving building and weatherized the others. After that we visited some friends in Buffalo, NY area and went to Niagara Falls as well as the only Kazoo factory in the US and the home of the Carousel museum in North Tonowanda. We then visited some more friends in Ontario and attended the Family Campers and RVers rally.

The end of this month we will be starting our summer tour "The Grand Circle, Western National parks" and working with other friends Pat and Alice. It is work but we will be seeing old friends and making new ones as well. So for now that's about it till we start the tour.