We headed for Fort Fisher next.  We have been touring the area and discovered quite a bit about this fort and it's significant role during the Civil War.  We took a ferry to Southport and did some touring there as well.  It's quite scenic and relaxing.

Of course, we started out this adventure finding a place to eat along the beach.  This "Taco Joint" is owned by our dear friend Griff's nephew.  Griff was with us at Gregg's retirement.  The food was fantastic and the views...great! 

These 2 guys were a little close to our dinner!  We had to send them on their way...

The second day we caught a ferry to Southport and toured like tourists :)  This ferry was the first we have taken our truck on.  The ferry pilot maneuvered the boat flawlessly. 

Spud was pretty good with his photo bomb as we waited to load.

A short 25 minutes later we offloaded. 

We found Fort Johnston.  It stands on its original site.  Here is a link for a lot of interesting information.  ​

A grocery store display included some interesting items.

We didn't go inside this building...we'll wait for the proper season :)

Lunch time at a local, and very popular, restaurant.  The food was very, very tasty!

We finished up the day with a visit to the original Fort Fisher.

We'll be on our way to Nags Head, on the Outer Banks, tomorrow.

From his days at the Citadel to retirement, time has passed way too quickly!  Gregg had a highly distinguished and successful career, often the best of the best at everything he did.  He has a wonderful family and a very bright future with his fledgling business.  We were honored to be invited to his ceremony and to see him grow over the years.  We arrived a few days ahead of time to reacquaint with old friends and play several rounds of golf.

This enormous 18 hole putting green was such a blast.  The putting green won the battle on this day!  We were next to the many golf courses in Pinehurst.  Gregg's ceremony was at the massive clubhouse/ballroom next to Pinehurst #2, site of several US Open Golf Championships.

This fellow wanted to join us but he was such a slow player, we dropped him like a hot potato :)

This was a good tasting cake...yum!

With Gregg's home in the background, many joined in the fun and Veston cooked, I don't know how many, hamburgers and hot dogs.  Missy (Gregg's wife) made baked beans that were "to die for".  I must get the recipe!

Father and son competing against each other.  I can tell you the "old guys" won and since Gregg has now joined the retired ranks, I'll let you guess who the "old guys" were.
​Sometimes this blogging is fun :)

It's been a while since my last post, again.  After leaving Texas, we sped home, but not quite as fast as this...

We went straight to Tunica,MS, and played a little golf.

After all the many times we have been here we finally got a couple of small golf bags to carry half a set of clubs so that we could carry them along with us.

Although not a spectacular scoring round, we did manage to par the hole we've looked out over the countless times we've stopped here.  You can see how close we park to the golf course.  That's our little "egg" in the background :)
We stayed only for a couple of days and then skedaddled back to SC.

This fellow tried to squeeze in, and succeeded, but backed out after realizing we couldn't open our trailer door.  He definitely knew how to maneuver his rig!  This was at a Cracker Barrel in Abilene TX, on our way to Tunica. 

Back in Tunica this $48,000, steel structured, canvas covered, shelter was built in 2 days for an upcoming convention to accommodate 400 people.  Amazing!!!

We went on to Gwyn and Veston's for a week, then to North Carolina for their oldest son's (Gregg) retirement from the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

Our next stop was in Veterans Memorial Park.  It's pretty much just a ballpark with lots of parking space.  But it was free!

Chick and I used his new metal detector to search beneath the bleachers.  My first ever found treasure by a metal detector....a dime :)

We had to leave Kathy and Chick and head back towards SC.  We hope to meet again at the upcoming music rally in Grapeland, TX.

On the way here we thought we were ready for this roundabout, but the first exit was pretty much a U turn that threw us off guard.  No worries, we met the challenge with another success!

Maybe this road-runner influenced our luck.

This was Dream Catchers Escapee Park, Deming, New Mexico.  Escapees are a group we are members of.  We hunkered down for some very windy conditions and didn't do much here.  

We were on our best behavior since we parked next to the "Death Star"!!!!

We had not been to Coronado, close to Douglas AZ, so we stopped by the ranger station to get some info since the forest? (minus the trees, in our area) was a very large wilderness area with dispersed camping.  The problem is finding wilderness areas not on private land.  After talking to 2 rangers for quite some time we were still confused about where to go as the rangers had never been to the places they told us to go.  They did, however, tell us where we should not attempt to go because of road conditions and elevation changes.  We ended up traveling down a very rough and narrow dirt road for a while until we determined we were lost.  A friendly young man stopped to help us with directions.  We turned around, quite a feat by the way, and headed back to take another turnoff and ended up deciding to stay put for the night since the turnoff led us on another road that seem impassable for our rigs.

Making room on these roads for others to pass by was difficult.  And this was a wide spot :)

Another lame selfie attempt by me... us with Kathy and Chick next to "Wallace".

See what I mean by "minus the trees"?

Upon further study of our map this morning we determined that we spent the night on private property and did not make the park boundary.  I think this happens frequently.  No problems...this time.

On the way to Coronado our travels took us very close to the Mexican border.  We took some shots of the wall.  You can see the flags off in the distance.