R-V There Yet?

Nelle H. Levvis, 90, died Thursday, November 11, 2010 at her home in East Hartland, CT.

Mrs. Levvis was born June 21, 1920 in Washington DC.  She attended Sweetbriar College and George Washington University.  Nelle married Walter E. Levvis in 1940 and they resided many years in New York City before moving to Rockford, Illinois.  In Rockford she devoted herself to raising three sons and volunteering with several organizations. She was instrumental in the founding of the Goldie B. Floberg Center, served as president of the United Cerebral Palsy Association in the Rockford area and was an active member of the Junior League and the Second Congregational Church.

In 1978 Nelle and Walt moved to Mount Dora, FL, where they enjoyed their lakeside paradise. In 1996 they moved to a retirement facility in Vero Beach, FL.

Mrs. Levvis was preceded in death by her husband Walt and oldest son Robert W. Levvis.  She is survived by her brother, Richard Hudgens of St Louis, Missouri, daughter-in-law, Lynn Levvis (Robert) of Gainesville, Virginia,   two sons, Richard Levvis and wife Tinka Levvis of McAllen, Texas and Gary Levvis and wife Meg Levvis of East Hartland, Connecticut, one granddaughter Tammi Levvis of Haymarket, VA.,  four grandsons: Todd Levvis of Seattle, WA, Marc Levvis of Rockwall, TX, Justin Levvis of Rowlett, TX and Noel Levvis of East Hartland, CT., five great grandchildren and one great great grandchild.

A memorial service will be held in Vero Beach, Florida at a later date, to be announced.

Memorial contributions can be made to the Goldie B. Floberg Center, 58 W. Rockton Rd., P.O. Box 346, Rockton, IL 61072  or to the American Cancer Society at www.cancer.org.

We left the Boston area with an interesting meal at the Bugaboo Steakhouse on Arsenal Street.

This place, with its 20+ antler chandeliers, has more antlers and trophies on the wall than Marc’s (our oldest son)  living room.   They even sported a huge bison head that would break out into speech touting the specials for the evening.  The food was quite good.

Now we’re off to the purpose of our visit to New England.  Rick’s brother, Gary, hosted a party to celebrate their mother, Nelle’s, 90th birthday.  While we were at it, sister-in-law Lynn, Bob’s widow, had passed a milestone also.

Gary, his wife Meg, and son Noel have run themselves ragged getting ready for the weekend. Other family members that arrived were; Richard and Shirley (St Louis), Todd (Seattle), Brian (Colorado), and Lynn and Tammi (Virginia).

The weather cooperated and we enjoyed a nice outdoor feast.  Here is Mom, along with her brother, Richard and his wife Shirley.

Our hosts look on from the far end of the table.

Shirley, Lynn, and Tammi look on as Mom digs into her presents.

Tinka and Meg relax over breakfast.

We had a fabulous time before heading back to Boston and then to Dallas.  It was really good to see the relatives from around the country.  All of our thanks go out to Gary and Meg for all of their efforts in putting together this get-together.

On a totally unrelated subject, Tinka has been bombarded with questions about her new sandals. This cute little number came from 9-West.  I don’t know the cost, but judging from the interest, they were worth it.

Rick’s brother, Gary, and his wife, Meg, offered to take us on a day trip to the Mystic Seaport.   We thought that we were heading to the coast, taking a few pictures, wading in the seashore, and heading home.  We were soon to find out that the Mystic Seaport is also known as “The Museum of America and the Sea”.

On the way to our ultimate destination, we stopped at The Rock Garden, a rock store that did a big business and provided educational programs for youths.  The place is easy to spot  with this commercial dinosaur in the parking lot.

An interesting exhibit was a darkened room with a display of luminous rocks.

They had all kinds of prehistoric specimens.

Specimens included some ancient geodes and other nice specimens.

Then off we headed to the Mystic Seaport. The museum covers several acres that included complete neighborhoods of early sea life, including churches and shops.  There were a number of ships that have been restored and can be boarded for viewing.

Several actual buildings used for the clam, crab, fishing and lobster industries have been preserved.  Several of them have actual working displays of barrel making, shipsmithing (like a black smith shop), printing, etc.

Several buildings displayed numerous nautical items.  One of my favorites was the lamp shop.

Mystic sports its own shipyard for the rebuilding of antique ships.

Ironically, Hurricanes Katrina and Ike have provided the ship rebuilders with a nearly unlimited supply of wood from live oak trees.  This is a favorite wood in ship building and some trees, as old as 600 years, have found their way to Mystic.  This 6-foot diameter log is an example.

The Mystic Shipyard is in the early stages of a gigantic undertaking.  They are rebuilding the last of the old wooden whaling ships, the Charles W. Morgan.

The Morgan is 105 feet long and was built in a period of nine months in 1841.  This restoration will take at least three years.  For a long period of time at the beginning of this restoration efforts are underway to remove the 9 or 10 inch arch in the keel that has appeared over the years from various repairs.  Jacks at both ends of the keel are forcing the ends up and gravity is pulling down the center.  Caulking is removed from various side planks to allow the ship to squeeze the planks together as it regains its shape.

A large hole has been cut in the hull under the water line to allow the rebuilders to pass new boards, up to 40 feet long, into the ship.

Visitors can climb up into the ship to observe the progress.

From the stairs heading to the deck, you can see how the ship dwarfs everything around it.

We spent about six hours at the seaport and didn’t see everything.  On the way out, you couldn’t help but notice this old, partly wooden, anchor.  I had never seen one with this type of construction.

We want to thank Meg and Gary for taking the time to show us this coastal gem.

We cruised across Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York. We were very impressed with the  beauty of each state.  It appears that we can see the light at the end of the “tunnel”.

The purpose of this trip was to visit with Rick’s mother and his brother, Gary, and family who live in north central Connecticut.  It is difficult to relate to the size of this state.  The distance from north to south in Connecticut is  a shorter distance than crossing the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex.

We enjoy the old architecture, but not everything is “Big Rig” friendly.  This gas station is an example.

One of the quaintest towns was New Hartford, its buildings just oozes  early 1900’s.

It seems like all of the cemeteries are on hills.  As a confirmed “flat-lander”,  I wouldn’t want to be a pall bearer in this area.

We found an RV park, White Pines Campsites, which were located on top of a mountain.  There are easy ways to get there and really steep ways.  Our GPS had us turn the wrong direction and we were forced to go down a 12% – 15% grade for 8/10 of a mile.  The brakes were smoking when we reached the bottom.(Front pads and fluid changed out, another $300.00)

The campground is very busy on weekends.  They get tons of day people to use the pool, horseshoes, RC car track, and other activities.  They even have a hayride with “Mr. Hayride.”  That conjures up visions.

There’s no hay, and they pull it with a lawn tractor, but the kids enjoy it.

They have had so much rain that we were unable to get into the slots that would have allowed us to use our satellite TV dome.  Too many tall trees.  They ended up putting us on 3 RV spaces with water, electric and cable TV.  Most of their sites have gray-water sewer, but not ours. They came around and drained the gray and we fully dumped upon our departure.  Trees and low wires hindered the access to the dump.

We had a great visit with Rick’s brother, Gary, his wife, Meg, and son, Noel.  They were great hosts and kept us busy throughout the visit.  I don’t know how they do it.

We were happy to get time with Rick’s mother, Nelle.  Rick was able to get her computer tuned up.  She had been having problems with it.  A defective UPS was the culprit. That and a new mouse had her up and running like new. We really enjoyed our visit with her.

Nelle’s brother, Dick, also arrived for three days of visit during our stay.  We stopped at Dick’s house in St. Louis back in mid-July.