Summertime in Somerset – Part 2

I ended my last “timeline” post heading back to our summer home, Hickory Hollow Campground, near our daughter and her family. Our visit to the Jersey Shore and stops in VA and Ephrata made for a wonderful vacation.

Time has flown by since we’ve been back. We’ve had friend visits and it was great seeing everyone! We’ve had 5 solar installs! We helped our son move from Lancaster to Pittsburgh. We’ve spent lots of quality time with our girls! No wonder we are looking forward to a little downtime!

While working on an install, a lady walked across and said “Are you Bill and Kelly?” Of course I said yes! She was a blog reader and she recognized us! Sorry I’ve forgotten your name, but we are so glad you stopped by to chat!

Our first visitor came about in such a surprising way. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a bit addicted to FaceBook. While scrolling one day, I noticed a friend from LONG ago was in Pittsburgh, so me being me, I reached out and said that I noticed you are close by and Bill and I would love it if you wanted to stop by on your way home. So – she did! We also got to meet her beautiful daughter. We literally hadn’t seen Margaret since High School graduation. (No – I’m not going to tell you what year that was!) Margaret and I reconnected through FaceBook years ago and have kept up with one another since. We sat outside and chatted for quite a while and then they needed to get on the road toward their home in NJ. Thanks again for stopping by Margaret! It was wonderful to see you!

Next up on the visitor log were Linda & Rick. Linda has been my BFF for many many years. You may recall that back in the fall of 2019, Bill & I traveled with her on her launch into full-time RV life trip. We visited Assateague and OBX before going our separate ways. I introduced her to our RV friend, Rick at a picnic in FL later that year and they hit it off. They had similar flight plans and stayed in touch. Once they had both arrived in CA, they spent some time together and started a romantic relationship. They have been traveling together for a few months now and I was so happy they were coming this way! I love me some BFF time!


Tracy & Lee were next up on the visitor roster and were originally missing Linda & Rick by only about a week. Had that been the case, Tracy & Lee could have stopped to see them in NJ on their way to CT, but it wasn’t in the cards. Unfortunately, Tracy & Lee were involved in an accident with their truck. It was 100% not their fault – a drunk driver hit the motorcyclist that was in front of them at a red light and pushed him into the grill of their truck. It was a traumatic experience to say the least. The man on the motorcycle was taken to the hospital with significant injuries. Tracy & Lee weren’t hurt, thank goodness, but their truck was leaking (what they later learned was) coolant, so it needed to be towed. The whole situation was a hot mess and delayed their leaving to head our way by 2 1/2 weeks. Looking back, it could have been way worse.

The medieval theme of the restaurant we had lunch at was pretty hokey, but the food was good,

After lunch one day, we stopped to see the Tower of Voices, which is part of the Flight 93 Memorial. It is a magnificent structure, with a chime for each of the passengers and crew that lost their lives that fateful day. Sadly, we couldn’t hear them as there wasn’t enough wind.
We stopped at a garden center one day – Lee and Bill tried out these unusual chairs.

Staining the shed was overdue!


Many hands make light work

Billy’s new living room!

Our favorite part of being here at Hickory Hollow is the amount of time we get to spend with our girls! Now that our son lives so much closer in Pittsburgh (65 miles one way vs 185 miles one way) I suspect we will be spending more time with him in the future. The negative of that is we may not be stopping at our home Elks Lodge in Ephrata as much, or for as long when we do, but the gains more than make up for that!

Freya trying to see her first french braid. I used to braid her mothers hair after her evening bath when she was a child.



Uncle Billy going down the slide with Freya
Isn’t this adorable? Freya helping Arwen with her pouch.
She is the cutest!

Fall was definitely in the air as our time at Hickory Hollow was coming to an end. As weekenders filled the campground, Bill and I would take a walk to see all the decorations. Some people put a lot of effort into making their sites festive.

Michelle helped us celebrate our anniversary with a nice dinner and cakes!

Our last “event” before we left was a family day at the Pittsburgh RenFaire. A great time was had by all!

Wonderful entertainment
getting a trinket from the fairy
belly dancers
Freya isn’t so sure she likes the Butterfly ride
Freya loved trying on the tiaras
last,but not least, there was a Mermaid!

As I am finishing up this post, I want to say a special thank you to all my readers for sticking around and continue to follow Bill & I on our full-time RV “odyssey.” We still love our lifestyle and we love our readers!

I’d also like to give a shout out to the Hustons, Doug, Lori and Mark, and say thank you for another awesome season at Hickory Hollow! We love our new site, we love having our clients come, and we look forward to next year!

Previous Post: Year 7 – A Look Back

Next Time: Starting Our Journey South

Still in process: Numbers for Year 7

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10 thoughts on “Summertime in Somerset – Part 2

  1. Your girls are just too adorable!! Wonderful that you get to spend so much time with them. Great anniversary pic of you and Bill. And of course the pic of “the boys” in the garden center is perfect :-)) We got to know Rick over dinner with Jim and Diana in Oregon a few years back – such a small world that Linda is your BFF! How fun that you were able to connect with a HS friend, Facebook is really good for making those times possible.

    1. Thanks Jodee! While the girls are young, we’ve made the commitment to spend summers near them – when they get old enough for adventures we will venture further away again in the summers. We met Rick at first RV Dreams rally in 2014, and have crossed paths several times since. Facebook is awesome for reconnecting with old friends due for sure!

  2. Woohoo, I made the blog. Thank you for taking the time to chat. I’m not surprised you didn’t remember my name, it seems like forever ago. It’s Sue. Hoping we meet up again one day when we have more time to visit.

    1. Hi Sue! I HATE it when I forget someone’s name – so I’m happy you reached out to remind me! We will be back at HH in May – so maybe we can share a campfire then!

    2. I can’t believe how quickly summer has gone by.
      It was so wonderful to see you guys again ❤ 💖

      1. Bill and I were super happy you guys could come hang out with us! Hope we can plan a meet up next year!

  3. Love all the wonderful pictures and especially those of your beautiful granddaughters. Sounds like you have been pretty busy and I hope you get a bit of a break. Hopefully one day we will cross paths! Hugs

    1. Thanks Dawn! We are currently relaxing in OBX – one of our happy places. Bill and I would love to share a campfire with you and Darrell again!

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