THE ROVING POLLOCKS
2010

Bill's note: Well, I guess I have really painted myself into a corner this time: I have gone over a year without writing anything about our travels. That’s no problem if I don’t ever intend to write another thing about the Pollock’s Rovings. However, since I have not made that decision and every now and then someone…today it was Penny Pelzer…says ”Are you keeping a journal?” or “You should write a book.” Or “Why don’t you do your travelogues any more?”, I have decided to draw a line in the sand and get back to it.

A few caveats: Even with Gisela’s help, I will probably forget some things and thus, fail to mention some people. For that I apologize in advance. I will also probably get some things wrong and some stuff will be made up to make the story better…that’s just the Irish in me…you know, the Blarney (Yes, I have kissed the Blarney Stone.) Last, Gisela helps me a lot with this and deserves tons of credit and none of the blame for the errors. That is mine alone and is usually caused by refusal to listen to her advice. Having said all that let’s get on with it.

The last reports of substance that we wrote and posted to the Roving Pollocks blog: http://rovingpollocks.blogspot.com - was about the fall and early winter of 2009. These included our foray to the Big Apple and our cameo with Al Roker on the Today show. Many of you, including Bill’s own children, did not even know about Al Roker and the Guy in the Lobster Hat. That’s because many of you, including Bill’s own children, won’t click on a link in an email to go to our blog. Some will go to the blog but not click on links in the blog. So for those of you who missed it, go to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?=vbb6Z0b9By5A and see our 15 seconds of fame.




We also alluded to our ‘roadside rip-off’ following another brake failure just before Thanksgiving 2009 on our way to the Chambers Farm Pow-Wow Boomerang in Florida. Again without boring you with details, we received a refund of $1000 thanks to Investigator Moon who investigates violations of the Florida Motor Vehicle Repair Act. The good news is we have not had another brake failure or fire since then thanks to Walt’s Brakes in Ocala who got us the right calipers.

Paul, Yvette and William flew to Orlando to visit Disney World and take a Disney Cruise with Brian and Judith, Yvette's Dad and Step-mom. We took the opportunity to pick them up at the airport, take them to dinner and then deliver them to their hotel. Actually, the whole thing was an excuse for Bill to buy another hat...this time it was a Mickey Mouse ears hat that he claimed was for William. In the final analysis, William did end up with the hat but Bill really wanted to keep it...he looked so good in it. Right!


We left the Beav in Florida in early December 2009 and hustled back to Virginia in Wally (our Jeep) for the Holidays – Wally and the Beav…get it? – We had to get the cabin back in shape for a stream of visitors. All was going well until about five days before Christmas when it happened. A “two-footer.” Yes, that’s right, two feet of snow. It took four two-hour shoveling sessions to clear our one hundred foot long driveway. The first three sessions, 10:00 PM, 1:00 AM, and 4:00 AM, were handled by Bill. The last at 9:00 AM was accomplished by Gisela and the best neighbors on the planet, Scott and Missy White, who are also young and fit. Yes, folks, Gisela got suited up and shoveled…mumbling ‘never again…no way…no how.’ (Other mumbles are not printable.) We did succeed in getting things clear and got Ann and Dwayne in for Christmas.












However, because the mountain was still pretty nasty with ice and snow we took our New Year’s celebration with Don and Kathee Larmee to their house in Virginia Beach. We had the usual wonderful dinner thanks to Kathee and Gisela followed by the usual idiotic lowering of the Acorn at midnight by Don and Bill. When will they ever grow up…never if we are lucky.


















We continued heading south stopping by to see Paul, Yvette and William in Kill Devil Hills, NC. We heard all about their Disney Cruise, a mixed review, and just enjoyed more family time. It was then on to Florida.

When we returned to the Beav in Orange Lake we found that the hydronic heating system was leaking diesel fuel. Sooo it was back to Wildwood for more repairs. We had previously spent a week there before we went north for the holidays…the good part of that visit was we met Johnnie Depp’s father, John. The bad part was the mucho dollars we left behind.

While we were in Wildwood we took the opportunity to visit our former High Knob neighbors, Tim and Louise Fahey at their new house in The Villages. They were pretty darn happy to have finally realized their dream.

We pretty much stayed parked at near Ocala until we started our move north in the spring. We made a circuit of Florida and actually stayed in a motel at Clearwater Beach while attending the Tampa RV show with Ron and Ginny Norton. There we ran into Boomers Mary Lane and Elaine Cannell who we had last seen in Virginia in October. We turned south to visit Liz Banta for a few days. While there we saw Bob and Francie Storey and Bob and Peggy Bloom. From there we made a run down to Marathon in the Keys to visit John and Ellen Albin and our favorite Westie, Piper. On our way and while there, we saw the impact of the freezing weather. Acres of dead tomato plants around Homestead, the devastation visited on the sea turtles in the Gulf of Florida and the massive fish kills in the Everglades…well fed ‘gators. We visited the Turtle Hospital in Marathon and heard the story of how they rescued over a hundred sea turtles that had be shocked by the cold waters of the Gulf where normal water temperatures in the seventies dropped into the forties.









There were two big events in February. Bill’s birthday which we celebrated by going on a short cruise to the Bahamas with Ron and Ginny Norton. Good food, conversation and lots of Pegs and Jokers with good friends.

The other big event was a Cedar Springs High School Class of 1963 mini-reunion at our RV park at Orange Lake, Florida. We had Ivan and Janis Opperman, Chuck and Mary Crosby, Art and Penny Pelzer and the Pollocks. We almost had Shirley Duncan but her sister broke her arm so she had to stay with her on the Gulf Coast. We were able to conjure up an online video conversation with Lisa Van Someren. What fun!


Along came March and it was time to move west to one of our favorite destinations, Betty’s RV Park in Abbeville, LA. We rendezvoused with Ron and Ginny Norton at a park on the Suwannee River…as in ‘Way down upon the …’. We proceed to the Apalachicola, Florida area where we stopped at an RV ‘resort’ that we heard about at the Tampa RV show. It was a work in progress but the owners were very friendly and accommodating. It was located in the town of Carabelle, which was a work where progress had come to an abrupt halt. Several half completed developments that had fallen on hard times. The first night we were there the owners prepared and served a whole bunch of topped oysters that were great. The next night one of the park residents prepared homemade pasta. The owners whipped up a tomato vodka sauce for the pasta…this was beginning to look like a future ‘Betty’s.’ Until the next morning that is, when we were scheduled to move on but Ginny and Bill we soooo sick they could hardly move. They both stayed in bed all day. We are not sure it was the vodka sauce since Ron and Gisela appeared to be unaffected but to this day Bill can’t even look at a jar of the stuff in the grocery store. We did get to enjoy some famous Apalachicola oysters at Papa Joe’s on the waterfront. Worth the trip to sample some of the country’s best oysters.

After a day in bed we were able to continue on to the Pensacola Elks and then on to Foley, Alabama where we went in search of an old established Elks lodge with a new RV parking area. Turns out it was a new Elks Lodge building with an old run down RV parking area. But it was just down the road from a Dodge Dealer which was good because Ron and Ginny’s drive shaft decided to give up the ghost. A high point of our Alabama stop was a visit to Fairhope and lunch in a restaurant that had been featured on the food network…OK, so it was on’ Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ but it was still good.

From there we made a beeline to Betty’s with a brief overnight stop at a Sam’s Club in Slidell, Louisiana. At Betty’s we were meeting up with other good friends who had journeyed from the west, Tom and Jil Mohr, Geoff and Nancy Justiss, and Chris Christianson. We were gonna let the good times role in Cajun country. And we did. Being at Betty’s is always a treat. Betty goes out of her way to make sure all her visitors have a great time. We enjoyed lots of crawfish, took a great swamp tour on Lake Martin, savored the Po’ Boy sandwiches at Bon Creole in New Iberia (Dave Robicheaux and James Lee Burke’s hometown), enjoyed some great Cajun music by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys at a Catfish festival in Washington, LA…food and music - two great themes of Cajun country.



For nearly a year before arriving at Betty’s, Gisela has been making Jewelry. It is made with sterling silver, brass and copper wire and various beads and stones. She took a few classes and enjoyed the artistry of making each pendant, necklace, bracelet, and ring. We began to be faced with the problem of what to do with the accumulating art. Our stop at Betty’s, presented the beginning of the solution. Another guest at Betty’s brought out her beading to show the group. Gisela showed some of her work and …lo and behold…people asked if she would sell a couple of pieces…which, of course, she did. That marked the beginning of what is now a budding small business: MostlyWire, Jewelry Handcrafted by Gisela. She now has an online shop on ETSY, www.mostlywire.etsy.com and she is now selling at street fairs, craft shows, farmers markets, etc., as we travel. More on that later.

With much regret we departed Betty’s and went our separate ways although Geoff and Nancy, Chris and ourselves headed for New Orleans for a few days. During our visit to Betty’s and NO, both Geoff and then Nancy were fighting some sort of malady that kept one or both in quarantine most of the time. Nevertheless Geoff and Bill were able to tour the World War II museum and Gisela and Chris took a city tour that showed the lingering devastation from Hurricane Katrina.

While in NO, we received word that Bill’s daughter, Ann’s husband, Dwayne’s mom, Ginger Carpenter passed away after a long battle with various respiratory ailments. We hit the road for Virginia in order to get to Fredericksburg for the funeral. We did arrive in time for Ginger’s funeral and we were glad to be able to express our condolences in person to Dwayne and his dad, Lee.

The only excitement on the trip north was when another motor home decided to plunge its left side into our driver’s side mirror while we were stopped at a Flying J truck stop in Alabama. Just another aspect of the RV lifestyle. Upon arrival in Front Royal, we off loaded our stuff, took the motor home to the body shop to have the mirror repainted, and then put it in storage for a whole three weeks during which we checked on Gisela’s mom who is at an Alzheimer’s facility nearby, visited Paul and Family and Ann and Dwayne before heading for Michigan for Pat Pollock’s wedding. Pat is Bill’s brother, Mac’s widow. She and Mark Rodak were married in Lake Leelanau, Michigan on May 1. We were really glad we could be there.

We then took the motor home down to Rockford to Camp Opperman, AKA Shaner Avenue Nursery where celebrated Gisela’s Birthday on May 3.

Leaving the Beav there we returned to Virginia for a few weeks of additional medical, dental and family visiting. The biggest event was Mostly Wire’s (Gisela’s) first ever craft show. It was the Front Royal Wine and Craft show. And it was a success…that is, she took in more than the entry fee.

When we returned we enjoyed visiting Ivan and Janis and their family for a week or so. After which, we headed for Kalamazoo to visit Bill’s Brother, Bob, and to join up with Geoff and Nancy again. This time they were both healthy! And we took a trip to Elkhart, IN to see the RV Museum and visited the fabulous Frederick Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. We also were able to visit Gisela's pal Rosie Brock in Saint Joe, Michigan.

By mid June we were on the brink of our great “Summer out West.” That will be the subject of the next installment of our 2010 report.