Family Time in West Virginia and Maryland...plus, softball diamonds and soccer fields

Thursday, 23 May 2013.  Greetings once again from LynDenHaus.  We're currently staying in the Western Village RV Park in Carlisle, PA.  We arrived this past Tuesday and are staying until after the Memorial Day holiday weekend.  We stayed here last fall and found the campground to our liking, so we came back.  We’re up here because our oldest granddaughter, Skye, and her fast-pitch travel softball team, the West Virginia Wild, is playing in the Memorial Day Madness softball tournament in-and-around the greater Chambersburg, PA, area.  Once the tourney is over we plan on hitting the road again and head west into Ohio.

West Virginia Wild Under-12 Travel Team (Skye is #12, front row, second from right)

I notice by the last blog date that it’s been quite some time since I posted something – plus, I’ve also been spending much of my time on Facebook.  I’ve posted several photo albums on FB, so if you have access and want to catch up, check out my FB page. 

Since we left our “winter” campground in SC we’ve been staying close to our two sons, Kip and his family in WV, and Jamie and his family in MD.  We first stayed at the Lost River campground in Lost River, WV.  We’ve stayed there before and the campground hosts are super friendly (their granddaughter plays on the same Little League softball team as our granddaughter, Skye, does), and the campground, although on the smallish side, is more than adequate for our needs.  Plus, its only 15-20 minutes from our son’s place, and that makes it quite convenient for visiting.  We first arrived at the Lost River campground on 14 March and stayed until 17 March.  Quick visit, but it was over a weekend so we got in some good visits with our son, Kip, his wife, Tina, and our two granddaughters, Skye (13) and Rayne (10).  In fact, we were present to help Skye celebrate birthday #13 on 15 March.  We were also able to help Rayne celebrate birthday #10 when we returned to the Lost River campground later in May.

After leaving Lost River we headed north on I-81 to I-70 and into MD and the campground at Camp Meade RV Park.  We had previously stayed here last year in the late fall.  A very nice campground, large sites, concrete pads, clean restrooms/showers.  Plus, our youngest son, Jamie, is only about 30-40 minutes away in Pasadena, MD.  

Family cookout at our campsite at Camp Meade.  Starting at the left, going clockwise: grandson Ben; Susan (Lisa's mom); our son, Jamie, with grandson Luke on his lap; Tom (Susan's friend); our daughter-in-law, Lisa; and Lynette.

We were staying here at Camp Meade for a couple reasons.  One, it put us close to our youngest son, Jamie, and his family.  Second, I had scheduled some minor knee surgery for early April and would need a place close by to stay for a few weeks of rehab.  The surgery (just a scope job) was on 3 April and was quite successful, at least according to my surgeon.  A minor ACL tear and lots of arthritis on my left knee.  He did what he could and after 12 sessions of rehab I guess the knee is about as ready as it could be. We'll see as we begin our traveling again later this month.

During our stay at Camp Meade we were able to visit with Jamie, his wife, Lisa, and our two grandsons, Ben (8) and Luke (5).  Both boys are playing soccer these days and we were able to take in several games.  I’ll post a couple pics of the boys playing, but more photos are on my FB page in a couple albums. We were also able to spend some time with Lisa’s mom, Susan, and her friend, Tom --- an added bonus to our stay in MD.

Luke and Ben in their PJ's in the motorhome.  They stayed with us a couple days while we were at Camp Meade.  All the grandkids seem to love staying in the RV.

What is it about kids and a stick horse? Or in this case, our outdoor broom?  I persuaded Luke to sweep off the outdoor mat in front of the motorhome -- which he did quite nicely -- and then decided he needed to ride the broom as a "horsey."  What a kid!

Jamie explaining the finer points of playing goalie in soccer.  By Ben's smile I can just tell he is listening intently....NOT!  And yes, this was the third week in March and it was cold!

Luke about to kick the ball on that same cold Saturday morning.....

Grandma with Ben...same cold morning!

We left Camp Meade on 10 May and headed for Lost River again, where we stayed until 21 May.  We checked into Western Village in Carlisle, PA, later that day, and will be here till 28 May, when we head west into Ohio.

Most of our time in MD and WV – and now PA – has been spent visiting family and heading out to the soccer fields or softball diamonds.  We had loads of fun getting to see Rayne, Ben, and Luke continue to hone their soccer skills, and to also see how far Skye has progressed with her softball prowess – she is quite the player these days.  Again, I’ve placed on FB several photo albums of Skye’s softball games (to include a one-day tourney in Frostburg, MD); Rayne’s soccer games plus a one-day tourney in Philippi, WV; and several Ben and Luke soccer games.  I’ll put a couple of the better photos for each grandchild on this blog entry just to entice you to visit my FB page.  More later!

Softball tourney, Frostburg, MD.  Skye slapping the ball for a hit!

Softball tourney in Frostburg.  Skye, after scoring a run -- and hurting a finger on a hard slide into third base.  She was fine and went on to catch a great game.

Softball tourney, Frostburg.  Left to right: Tina (Kip's wife); Kip; Rayne in front of her dad; Skye; and Grandma.  Papa, as usual, is taking the photo!

Rayne's soccer tourney in Philippi, WV.  She's about to take this ball away from the yellow shirt.

Rayne has the ball and her Dad/Coach is pointing the way to the goal!

Rayne at the end of the day -- tuckered out after three games of soccer on a hot, humid WV day!

Skye catching in one of her Little League games at the East Hardy Sports Complex, Baker, WV.  About to throw out a runner trying to steal second.

Skye pitching, about to whip that ball toward home plate.  After catching her in a couple practice sessions, I can verify that she can certainly pop the mitt with her fast ball!

What a look of determination!  And check out the muscles on that right arm!  This photo -- and the one above-- were taken during a game in which Skye pitched all six innings (unheard of in LL ball) and had a no-hitter going through five innings.  She finished the game, throwing two-hit ball in a 3-0 win.  The last inning was very intense and Skye stuck out their last batter with the bases loaded.  No pressure in that situation!  Way to go, Skye!

Skye and her dad, Kip, going over her performance on the field.  Believe Kip is trying to give Skye some pitching pointers.  Daughter "looks" like she's listening -- is she?  ;o)

So there it is.  A new blog entry for everyone out there who's been wondering what we've been up to.  As I said previously, there are LOADS more pix on my FB page of the grandkids playing soccer and softball.  If you can get to FB, there are some really great pix there!

We did manage to get in some sightseeing today.  We wanted to check out the softball fields for this coming weekend Memorial Day Madness tourney, so we drove south down I-81 to Chambersburg, picked up State Route (SR) 30, then SR 75, that took us thru Mercersburg.  The softball fields are just outside the town in the middle of huge tracts of farmland.  Lynette said it reminded her of the Keven Costner movie "Field of Dreams" where, "if you build it, they will come."  Seemed appropriate at the time.

Anyway, on our way back we stayed on the back roads, mainly SR 11, as we journeyed back to our campground in Carlisle.  We traveled thru mostly small towns and lots of farmland and several dairies.  We soon found ourselves wanting for food and drink, and by chance came upon the John Allison Public House in Greencastle, PA.  Turned out to be a very nice English-style pub.  Lynette had some sort of turkey wrap and a glass of wine, while I washed down a bleu cheese/bacon burger with a Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (lemonade and beer).  All in all, a nice place to stop for a bite to eat in this part of PA.

Oh, one last tidbit of interesting trivia.  As we traveled north on SR 11 toward Carlisle, we passed thru the small township of St. Thomas.  I only mention this because St. Thomas turns out to be the birthplace of one of my baseball heroes, Nellie Fox.  Fox played second base for the Chicago White Sox and when paired with Luis Aparicio at shortstop, well, they made for one heck of a middle infield. And, when I played baseball at Naches Valley High School, I used a Nellie Fox bat!  We've discovered its a small world, in many respects, as we continue to travel this great country of ours.