Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from all of us here at the Berry Oaks Doodle Ranch. Hope your Holidays have been merry and bright.  See y'all next year. -Joyce, Dane, Guinness, Rosco and Honey

Guinness' 5th Birthday

Guinness is now 5 years old.  It is hard for us to believe he came to us that long ago.  He is such a fine little gentleman and gets along so well with others.  Happy Birthday Guinness.

   

Lordy, Lordy, Lordy...where is the time going?  So much to catch up on and so little time to do it in.  We are still in our new abode and STILL trying to get settled.  The past seven years of being in limbo before settling here has taken its toll. But, happy to say we are in good health and getting things done, slowly, but surely.

This past summer has seen Berry Oaks add an additional family member causing us to change our name to the Berry Oaks Doodle Ranch.  You probably saw her in our last post in July.  Her name is Honey and she has a very long story.  Short version: we rescued her and through the same rescue program as we did Rosco, Doodle Rescue Collective, Inc. who we now volunteer for.

Honey is a Labradoodle  (3/4 Poodle and 1/4 Labrador Retriever). Her mother was a standard Poodle and her father was a first generation Labradoodle (1/2 Poodle and 1/2 Labrador Retriever). She, like Guinness and Rosco, does not shed.  At just 15 months, she still has a lot of puppy in her.  I will post her complete story as time allows.

Needless to say, we adore her. She is the sweetest of the sweetest and, like most Doodles, extremely intelligent. She is a perfect addition to the Berry Oaks Doodle Ranch pack. 

As the winter closes in we will be outside less often so maybe I can catch up on this blog.  There is still a lot of travel to talk about and lots of great photos to stare at. Gotta get 'er done.

World....meet Honey.

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Birthday USA!!!

Update

We have finished our travels for the time being.  We have settled, well kind of, into our new home in Georgia and will update the blog as we get the time.  All is well as of this date.  Look for new posts to come along outlining our trip across the nation.  Lots more to come.

Atlanta, Georgia to Savannah, Georgia (October 16, 2012)

We have driven this route several times in the past, but this time the scheduled 3½ drive seemed to take forever. We figured it was the fatigue of being on the road so long and the longing to get "home".

We arrived at Ft. Stewart's Holbrook Campground mid-afternoon and took our time setting up. The camp host, very good friends, helped us and welcomed us back with cold drinks and lots of hugs. It seemed like yesterday when we left, but it seemed like eternity getting back. No matter, we are home now and after some down time, we will start planning our next step in this wonderful life we are living.

Atlanta, Georgia (October 12-16, 2012)

We allotted three full days for this family stop for my cousin, Fred, wanted to do some genealogical stuff. Saturday we visited several cemeteries where our ancestors now reside. This was quite interesting for I got to physically see the names I have been researching over the years.

The next day, Sunday, we all met at cousin Rita's home in the afternoon for a luncheon get together. My cousins Fred and Mike, their wives, and Rita's daughter joined us. We had the best of times talking about old times. It was so good to see them again.

On our final day, Fred and his wife, Donna, took us for a tour around their home in Senoia (pronounced Suh-noy). This was a beautiful area and the town, itself, had some great history as well as some very current attractions. Seems the town is a magnet for film productions in both the cinema and TV. Here are some of the movies filmed here: Driving Miss Daisy, Fried Green Tomatoes, Sweet Home Alabama, Foot Loose, and others.  One of the most popular TV productions was "The Walking Dead."

We had a great visit with family and now it is time to go home and settle down. We will be back in Savannah tomorrow where we will begin making our plans for our stationary home. 

This journey has been a multitude of emotions ranging from awe to disgust to fear to comfort and so many others in between. We would not have had it any other way. Not sure what the following post will be comprised of, but when I get the itchy keyboard fingers, I will bang it out.

Look out Savannah, we are coming home.

Ellijay, Georgia to Atlanta, Georgia (October 12, 2012)

This drive was the most awful one we had done, in my opinion, on our whole tour. We ended up going through the center of Atlanta around 10 AM. The traffic was horrible. no construction, no accidents, just people on the road. The trip should have taken two hours and ended up taking well over three. Not to mention the rude and aggressive drivers all around. New York area was not this bad. Atlanta folks, wake up!

We, finally, made it to our RV park, the Atlanta RV Resort South, and settled in. The resort part is just a name for a pull-in. It was just a regular RV park with too many permanent residents. Clean, cordial, and suited our needs, though. We can return. Now, on to meet more family.

Ellijay, Georgia (October 8-12, 2012)

We decided to make one more stop before heading to Atlanta. This one was in Ellijay, GA in the north Georgia mountains. Upon arrival, we settled in and made plans for the next few days. We wanted to visit some of the small towns in this area to determine where we will come back to.

The town of Ellijay was old, but there seemed to be a lot of renovating going on. We would like to come back in several years to see what updates they have made. One thing we found was directly across from our RV park, the Panorama Orchards' store selling everything apple and more. We would visit it several times during our short stay.

Driving farther north on Rt. 76 we entered the town of Blue Ridge. This place was really bustling. It was, obviously, the main tourist town around. Lots of stores, restaurants, and it even had a train in the center of town. The Blue Ridge Scenic Railway is a 26 mile, 4 hour, roundtrip winding along the Toccoa River and arriving in the towns of McCaysville, Georgia and Copperhill, Tennessee. It has a 2 hour layover before returning so one can shop, have lunch, or just take in the sights. We placed this on our future bucket list. 

On another day we did nothing but ride through the mountains on some back roads. Even though the fall colors had not popped yet, it was still beautiful. We may even try coming back here in the winter.

After three days of exploring this part of Georgia, we readied ourselves to depart for our final stop before returning to Savannah.

Chattanooga, Tenessee to Ellijay, Georgia (October 8, 2012)

The 2.5 hour excursion to Ellijay, Ga was uneventful. Good roads and little traffic. We landed at the Plum Nelly Campground, just a bit south of Ellijay, for it was one of the only places around. It was a neat spot and gave us the opportunity to explore this part of Georgia.