New York for Connor's Wedding

Connor Bassett (Peggy's nephew) & Emma Wood were married in New York City on April 25, 2015 and we were privileged to be invited and attend the wedding and luncheon. We flew out on Friday, attending the wedding Saturday and flew home Sunday.

Friday evening I walked around lower Manhattan to see a few sights.

 Graveyard at the Trinity Church

 The new World Trade Center

 Twin Tower Memorial.  The only other time I had been in NYC was about 1987 - way before 911.  It was very sobering to walk around the memorial.

 New York has interesting architectural details

All of my pictures of the wedding were quite bad except this one of Conner, his parents and grand parents.  I'm very sorry I don't have one to show of the bride.

Grandma Ruth is 85

On Grandma Ruth's 85 birthday all of her children gathered and we had a great Sunday Dinner.

Here is a shot the grandkids and great grandkids that were there.

The Trip Continues

The trip continued, April 1 we drove to Hilton Head Island and spent Friday and Sat night there in a super nice RV park - Quite expensive.  The whole island was very exclusive, but there did have lots of bike trails that I rode on.

Outside of a seafood we went to.

On the walkway to the beach - I looked but did not see any alligators.

Sunday we went to church at the Hilton Head Island ward.  We then checked out and drove to  Georgia and stayed 3 nights on Jekyll Island.

Jekyll Island was my favorite spot of the whole trip.  These pics we taken at sunrise on the beach.

These old trees greww in these spots many years ago and slowly the beach has had eroded back.

Very striking pictures!

A bike trail went all around the island and I rode all of it.

There were fabulous old live oak trees with tons of Spanish moss

Next we drove down to Florida and stayed at Tomoka State park just north of Daytona Beach

We had a great camp site.

On a walk around the camp grounds I saw a wild Turkey!

And this home made mini trailer - Really cool.

Next we spent three days in Deland Fl visiting Peggy's Uncle.  We have great visits and really enjoyed our time with them.  This was another major highlight of our trip.

Next we drove west the check out some property that Peggy's parents purchased many years ago.

We stay at Rainbow Springs

Here is the proper that they bought.  About 10% of this development has houses on it.  

Rainbow springs is a great place to visit.  

There was a swimming beach, canoes and lots of folks there.

From here we drove north and visited old friends from the Houghton ward when we lived in the UP.  Sorry  but I did not get a picture of the Nettles.  We dearly love them.

On the way along the Gulf coast we  stopped in Mobile AL and ate Fried Oyster Poor Boys.

In Louisiana we had an old fashioned Crawfish Boil

The Maiden Voyage

We had been talking about buying a 5th wheel trailer and going on some long trips around the US.  Every March for our anniversary have gone a trip.  We have really loved going to a different state and doing family history work while seeing some of the sights along the way.

Well, I ended up wrecking our car which forced us into buying a new vehicle.  We got a BIG Ford F350 with lots of bells and whistles.  Then we shopped around for a trailer.  In March we left for a lengthy trip to the South East US.

Once we loaded everything up we headed south to St George then to Tucson to see the Grand kids again.  Then we went west to New Mexico, Texas, and then to Oklahoma where we spend a few days with Peggy's cousin and family in Sallisaw.

Then we headed East again through Arkansas, Memphis, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia.  We spent about a week in the South Carolina area, mainly in Edgefield SC where my Grandma Harmer's Father was born.  His ancestors moved to SC from Virginia in the Mid 1700s.

 Classic Old southern home in Edgefield

Edgefield is the home of the National Turkey Foundation

 So they have Turkeys on almost every street corner.

 We spent a full 2 days at the Edgefield history center researching our ancestors.  We got a ton of information!  We spent one afternoon driving around to the local graveyards and found my GGGGGrandfather!

 Yes there was even a Delaugher Drive where many of the my ancestors settled.

We were looking for this small family graveyard and found with the help of a very friendly neighbor, who gave us a guided tour and introduced us to the family that currently owns the property.

 He even showed us where the originally house stood.  The rock pile to the right of the tree is the remain of their chimney.

We next visited Historical Societies in  Kershaw Co. & Fairfield.Co.  Folks were very helpful, but we only found a few tidbits of info. The following day we drove down to Charleston SC where I got the oil changed in the next truck - (very expensive).

Friday morning I drove into Downtown Charleston and took a pics.  Great town.  I wish we could have stayed a couple more days here, but the all of the campgrounds were booked solid for a big weekend.

 Great fountains 

And a cannon, actually a mortar that was used in the Civil war, Possibly to attack Ft Sumter

Abigail gets baptized

After we rented an apartment in January and Sam helped us move in - in February we drove down to St George for Abigail's 8th birthday.

Bryce drove us all to Zion's National Park one day.  We walked to the end of the path to the Virgin River Narrows.

 The kids had a great time

 Wading a little bit in the cold water

 This is a beautiful place

 Abigail at home all ready for her Baptism

1st trip to visit grandkids

After we got home from Italy in January, the 1st thing we did was drive south to visit the grand kids.  This was our first chance to see Rowdy who was born while we were in Italy!

Grandma get to finally hold Rowdy

Lovable Lu

 Rowdy Brame Harmer

 Rowdy going through the doggy door to check on the dogs.

 We also had a great time with the Kids in St George.  Will is going rock climbing.

 Now it is Jane's turn

A nice place to sit.

Sorry, but I missed a picture of Abigail.