Ants!

We have camped at a lot of different campgrounds since becoming full-timers but the one where we are now is the absolute worst for ants. We have camped here a lot of times but the ants have overtaken the campground now and unless something gets done I am not so sure we'll be back here. I have never seen anything like it. When we arrived we covered the ground all around the RV with sevin dust which normally works to keep the ants away under normal conditions. It didn't deter the ants at all here. They even come down on the roof top from the trees. I had to remove my hummingbird feeders after the ants took them over and kept the hummingbirds from coming to eat. Now the ants have found their way inside. This morning I discovered the cat food bowl covered in ants and when I opened a pantry door there they were crawling all around our food. ICK! I have sprayed and sprayed the outside of the RV yet the ants crawl right over it. We leave here on Sunday and although this has been our favorite campsite I can't wait to leave. None of the other Corps of Engineer campgrounds we have been to on the lake have come close to having a problem like this. It has been interesting to see all the wildlife though. The big white skunk has made several more appearances and the past 3 mornings David has been seeing a regular looking skunk... black with a normal size white stripe. He has also seen a grey fox. We have a flock of 9 Canada geese that drop by daily and I feed them. Lots of birds and butterflies and heron too. Double click on the little black triangle arrow on the box below to view a little video I made of the ants on the hummingbird feeder.

Looking for Daddy

Every afternoon when it is about time for David to arrive home from work Millenni jumps up in this chair and looks out the window for him. I don't even have to tell her, she just knows it is time. She sits there looking out the window until she sees the car pull in then she jumps down and gets all excited and waits for him to open the door. It is such a cute ritual. Below is a photo I snapped of her on guard looking for Daddy one evening last week. So cute!

Boone Family Festival

Saturday morning we got up early and went to Joppa Cemetery where our Boone ancestors are buried and visited their graves. The graves of Squire and Sarah are clearly marked with historical signs etc… but we could not locate the graves of Israel and his wife (in my genealogy research no one has ever been able to find out her name). While in the cemetery we did some geocaching as a cache was hidden inside and we quickly found it. Nice! Afterward we went to another cache site and found it as well. Then we were back to the festival where we found good parking and decided to take one of the guided bus tours. The tour was nice and one stop was back at the cemetery we had visited earlier that morning. This time we had a tour guide who shared a lot of info with us. I asked her if she knew where Israel and his wife were buried and she looked astonished and told me that she thought so but couldn’t tell me as it was not yet confirmed. Debbie and I had noticed 2 rocks lying to the left of Squire and Sarah’s graves and I had wondered if that may have been their graves. The tour guide then told me I was standing “very close” to what is expected as their graves and there at my feet were the 2 rocks. I asked if those rocks marked their graves and she said “maybe”. She had received a letter from a Boone descendent in Connecticut who has a letter dated 1850 that gives the location of Israel and his wife’s graves within the cemetery so at present time they are trying to confirm the location. She was so reluctant to tell me any info until I told her Israel and his wife are my direct line ancestors. It was only then that she would tell me anything but she was shocked that I had asked her about them and had even known they are buried there. I suspect their 2 young daughters are also buried there. Israel, his wife and the 2 little girls all died within a few months of each other in 1756. The two survivors of the family were the two boys, Jonathon (my line) and Jesse who were raised by their uncle Daniel. The tour guide wanted me to leave my contact info with her because she wants to put me in touch with the man in CT. I was thrilled to do so and will follow up with her to make sure she has done so. The rest of the bus tour was nice and we learned a lot. I had made T-shirts for Debbie and I to wear stating that we are Boone descendents but no one seemed to notice or comment on them. Nearly two hours later we arrived back at the festival, ate lunch then went to Junker’s Mill to claim our seats for the musical acts of the day. The one we were interested in was Mike Cross, the headliner for the show and the last performer closing out the festival. We were lucky enough to grab front row center seats but that meant staying there all afternoon. We were treated with a couple of blue grass bands then came a blues group that was outstanding! We really enjoyed them and it was a nice change after hearing bluegrass all afternoon. Mike Cross finally came on and the audience was treated to his many talents. Fantastic! The only thing was it was another triple digit temperature day so we were HOT! It was awful. And we had spent nearly 6 hours sitting on those hard folding chairs. By the end of the festival we were all complaining of sore butts and with the heat and humidity there was not a dry thread on any of us. WHEW! From there it was back to the hotel for cool showers and dry clothing for us all then out to dinner at a seafood restaurant. We did one more geocache nearby… we were three for three. By that then it was time to call it a night. We were all exhausted. This is only the second year of the festival and Mocksville is a small town so the crowds were small (very nice!!!). We had a lot of fun and anytime we are together with Debbie and Rusty is a fun time. Mocksville is a cute little town and still rural and almost untouched by all the commercialism that has overtaken most places. There is a super Walmart in town though so it is only a matter of time that things will change. For now it is great! The countryside was so beautiful. I think I could live there.

a state historical marker at the Joppa Cemetery entrance

Squire and Sarah Boone's graves. Squire's is the large stone on the left and Sarah's is the small one on the right. Apparently visitors were chiseling off pieces of the stones to keep as souvenirs so they ended up putting the stones inside the brick wall.

Debbie and I standing on the sides of Squire and Sarah's graves

this is the back of our T-shirts, on the front in the upper left corner I had our line from Squire on down listed

Junker's Mill was the site where all the music was during the festival

Mike Cross entertains the crowd with one of his stories before singing a song

Mocksville, North Carolina

We have been away for the weekend. We took a trip to Mocksville, NC to attend the Daniel Boone Family Festival. Being a Boone descendent I was interested in attending. It is also were my ancestors Squire and Sarah Boone and their son Israel and his wife (also in my direct line) are buried. We were met in Mocksville on Friday afternoon by my sister and her husband. We decided to eat at the BBQ dinner at the festival then attended the play “A Wanderer Born” about the lives of the Boone’s in the area and the wedding of Daniel and Rebecca Boone. The play was very interesting for my sister and myself since it was about our ancestors. It was at the local performing arts center which is a beautiful facility. As we entered to take out seats there were two young boys playing acoustic guitar and singing. It was lovely and they continued to play, entertaining everyone while we waited for the play to begin. They were very good and just before 7:00pm David leaned over to me and stated rather emphatically that when those boys were finished he was going to give them a hearty round of applause. What happened next had me belly laughing for the rest of the night. The boys finished the song they were playing and David thinking they were finished for the night erupted with one of those thunderous claps of applause and soon the rest of the audience joined in. The look of bewilderment on the faces of the boys was priceless… they were not finished playing! Ha! Ha! Ha! David had prematurely started the applauding and the boys were not quite sure what to do at that point. They didn’t say a word. They looked at each other for a while with a stunned look on their faces then played their last song. I am sure they were wondering whether they should continue and play it or just stop right there. It was hilarious and one of the few times I have ever seen David actually blush! The play started and there was one character in the play that kept the audience in stitches. She was a small girl around six years old with Down’s Syndrome, as cute as could be. She played her part with gusto, never missing a dance step or a word of singing. There was one part of the play where Daniel and Rebecca were getting married and this little girl was standing with another little girl and a young lady. She somehow became fixated on the lady’s long dress and started dusting it like it was dirty. She wouldn’t stop no matter what, she just kept dusting it. The only time she would stop was when a prayer was being said and at that time she would stop what she was doing to bow her head and tightly close her eyes. Afterward she would go right back to dusting the dress. At one point several members of the audience started laughing out loud and she turned around and gave a priceless look and gave us all the sign of “zip it up and lock it” using her hands and mouth in jester. I think that made everyone laugh even more. She was the hit of the show! Absolutely adorable! I continued to spend the rest of my night laughing about David and the applauding episode. My sides were sore by the time the night ended. No words I can write would express how funny that was. Oh and I do have one more story to tell about this night. Prior to entering the auditorium for the play we had to wait in the lobby for about half an hour before the doors were opened for seating. There was a group of mentally challenged adults who had come from some local center for the show. They were milling around in the lobby as other people began to come in. One male individual came over and started talking to Rusty and David. I was busy looking a map of the county from the 1700’s showing where the Boone’s had lived. I could see and hear David and Rusty introducing themselves. Later Debbie told me I had missed the funniest part. Apparently another man in the group came right up to David and looked him directly in the face and just stood there for a minute or two then just started laughing really hard the walked away, never saying a word. Oh how funny! Probably a good thing that I didn’t witness that event or I may have been asked to leave before the show even started. Oh what a night! If laughter truly is good for the soul then I should be feeling great after a night like that.

the town of Mocksville had these banners on the street lights thru out the historic part of town



this was the play we went to see