Anniversaries, Brides and Birds

[Ralph L. Fullenwider]

Charolette and I wish to thank all for the well wishes and warm feelings.

Ralph and Charolette

At 08:44 AM 9/12/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>Good Monday morning to everyone:
>
>Today is Charolette and my 20th anniversary, does not seem that long ago to
>me. My bride of 20 years, patiently puts up with my antics, ravings and a
>yen for Bluebirds. Over the years, she has learned to place the toad in
>perfect position for the 1 minute hook up, then the light check and roll
>check then bouncing into the Coach with a smile and off we go. There has
>been threads about first trips to the Birds Nest in Ga. and ours is not
>much different really. In fact we did not even know it existed when we
>first rolled up and parked out front of the offices way back when. The out
>the door we went, and the very first person we met was Brenda Rodgers.
>After small talk and the usual out line about a tour and such, we were
>asked if we were staying in Birds Nest for a couple of days. My bride
>looked at me and I at her, not having a clue as to what Brenda was talking
>about, I calmly said, "well I guess so, where is it and what are the rates
>per day?" Brenda just smiled and said the entrance is around the side of
>the factory and there are no charges for the stay. Well now, that hit our
>pocket book just right as we were on the tail end of our very first trip in
>the Coach of 6,000 miles. So back into the coach we bounced and headed off
>to find the entrance to this birds Nest. Driving to the side of the
>Factory, neither Charolette or I saw a campground entrance that we had come
>to be accustomed to. Only the employee parking lot was spied, so we thought
>it might be a little further down the road. Yep, we drove around that
>factory facility 2 times before my saying the heck with it and pulled into
>the parking lot to ask the guard about this Birds Nest place. As we pulled
>in, the guard smiled and pointed down the left hand side of the fence and
>off we went, still looking for the place. As we made a left through the
>fence we drove into a beautiful lower part of the Birds Nest and then
>through the mid gate with the sign over head that said "Birds Nest," and
>starting to feel warm and fuzzy about it all, we found a parking spot and
>set up. WOW, we both thought, they must cut the grass by hand and manicure
>the trees, it was a 5 star park for sure! And this happened to be on
>another of our anniversaries to boot. Off to the club house we went to look
>around and met some of the few people that were staying there at the time.
>A little later Brenda drove by, stopped to ask if everything was ok and
>mentioned that is was ok to wash our Coach if we liked. She, the Coach, was
>dirty for sure, but this being our first trip, we did not have a brush or
>things to get the job done. Next thing I know here comes a couple of guys,
>fellow owners staying there, brushes in hand, buckets swinging and smiles
>from side to side asking,
>" you have any beer?" of course it took only a shake of the lambs tail to
>get that taken care of and the washing began.
>
>Mind you, we were not the first owners of this fantastic Coach called a
>Wanderlodge and she was older being an '85 and here were new Coaches all
>around. But the smiles and Bird talk put my bride and I at ease. That
>evening, out came the wine and glasses filled all around, toasts were made,
>smiles and hands offered, now that is an anniversary that Charolette and I
>will never forget. We have been blessed with all the friends met, camp
>fires shared, trouble with systems in the Coaches talked about and fixed
>and always the helping hand when needed.
>
>Bottom line to all this, Charolette and I wish to thank you all, for the
>memories on this our 20th Anniversary, though temporarily Bird less, we are
>Birders to the core and it is the people on this forum whom are very
>precious and dear to our hearts.
>
>Safe travels,
>
>Ralph and Charolette Fullenwider
>Ralph's RV Solutions, Duncan, Oklahoma
>http://home.swbell.net/rlf47/index.htm