Tuesday 19 April 2011

HOME SWEET HOME

A little late in posting, but it’s been a busy time.

The next day was the only break in weather that was forecast for several days, so we got up really early and boogied on out of there.  It wasn’t raining but it was very windy, AGAIN.  Never had so much mud in the rig ever !! It had poured rain all the day before and there was mud and crud everywhere.

It was a good drive, lots of hills and dales.  Lots of wind.  But steady.  We decided to make the drive in one day, mainly because we just wanted to get home and also the weather forecast wasn’t looking very good.  One of the best border crossings ever.  Didn’t even look at our passports.  She asked Ken how long we’d been gone, how many people on board to which Ken responded, ‘2 people, 2 dogs and a cat’.  She repeated it and laughed and said ‘have a good day’. 

No sooner did we cross into Canada, then it started to snow.  Yes, that’s right snow.  We went through quite a snow squall, but it passed after several miles.  Wasn’t looking forward to going over the Burlington Skyway in that wind, but we were fine. 

We left Bedford, PA at 730 in the morning and pulled into our driveway at just before 530 PM.  We never drive that long but as mentioned another night on the road just didn’t sit right with us.  Maggie and Jackson were oh so very happy to be home.  And of course, so were we.  We just unloaded what we needed from the rig and left the rest for another day.

We now have unpacked everything from the rig.  I have slowly started the cleanup.  Almost 4 months living in there and believe me a good scrubbing is required.  I’ve got the bedroom all clean and sparkling and the fridge.  I’ll get to the rest eventually, in the next few days.  We have a few minor repair jobs to do before we take it and have and oil change etc. and put onto the storage lot for awhile.

Oh and the awning fix we had in Myrtle Beach, didn’t work.  I don’t know if it’s just the length of that arm that catches the wind.  I did some research for an awning clamp.  I know Camping World sells one but it would mean putting a couple holes in the roof and the less holes you can have in a RV roof the better.  I found this other clamp that attaches to one arm and has a pin that fits into the roller tube and locks.  You lock/unlock it with the awning wand. 

Well this is the end of this saga for now.  I usually don’t blog when I’m home so until next time..take care.

Saturday 16 April 2011

Weather’s Got Us On A Holding Pattern

We decided to leave a day early so we left Myrtle Beach on Thursday, the 14th.  We made it to Emporia, Virginia for the night.  Campground was ok, very woodsy, lousy internet and a train track no more than 100 feet from us.  I like trains but holy moly when one went by, the ground shook.  Fortunately, none ran during the night.  

Our next destination was Bedford, PA.  Lovely campground, very pretty, great owners.  They said we could park in one of their new sites.  Great site, really long, full hookups, smoking hot internet.  BUT..the wind came up and this site just happened to be in the highest spot in the campground and the wind was hitting us really hard.  We first brought in our kitchen slide, I was worried about the awning topper.  We went to bed and it was really terrible.  So we brought in the living room slide.  That made for very cramped quarters.  After a couple hours the wind got even worse, so it was time to pull in the bedroom slide.  This meant moving Maggie who has her bed on the floor at the foot of our bed.  We got her comfortable and pulled in the slide.  Was finally able to get some sleep but woke up early because Jackson couldn’t get by Maggie who was in the hallway, to come and see us.  So we got up.  Had to put out a couple slides just to be able to move, but the wind was awful.  It was also raining.  Great.

We have a grade brake on our rig, but you are NOT supposed to use it on wet roads.  They say you could hydroplane.  And we have more mountains to go through.  We decided to stay until tomorrow and so far the forecast is calling for wind but no rain.  Also we parked ourselves at the front office waiting for them to open so we could get a lower, less exposed site.  They were very good at accommodating us and we moved into another site.  Still windy but nothing like it was, we can actually put out our slides.  So here we sit waiting for the rain to stop.  I really hope the weatherman is correct.  Otherwise we can’t go.  It would be fool hardy to try and get down the mountains without our grade brake.   Fortunately, we have lots of food, heat and cable TV.  But when you want to go home, it’s frustrating just to sit around and especially when it’s pouring rain.  Hard to walk the dogs in this weather too.  Going through dog towels like crazy, so figured as long as I’m sitting around doing nothing I may as well do some laundry.  Thank goodness for onboard washer/dryer. 

Well until later then….take care.

Wednesday 13 April 2011

We’re Headed Home, Kim..Yahoo

Kim is my daughter who does an amazing job of house sitting for us.  We also have to leave one of our cats at home as she just doesn’t travel and she looks after her and keeps her company.  Not an easy task, when you consider this is one of the weirdest cats alive !!!!

We are cutting short our winter vacation by 1 day, we were scheduled to leave on Friday but are leaving tomorrow, Thursday.  It’s been long enough and we’re all ready to go home.  We packed up what we could today and just have last minute stuff to do tomorrow.  We’ll empty our tanks tonight and put away all the sewer equipment so that we don’t have that to do in the morning.

Today we went to Brookgreen Gardens here in Myrtle Beach.  What a beautiful place.  Worth another visit next time we’re down here.  They have a butterfly house there that we visited.  Really different and interesting.  There is also an animal sanctuary that houses different kinds of rescued animals.  Animals that have been injured and cannot be released back into the wild.  We really enjoyed our visit.
Sculpture Bald eagles Oak allee Beautiful tree Butterfly Butterfly2

Well tomorrow our destination is Emporia, Virginia.  I believe they have wifi, I sure hope so. 

Wish us luck and until later..take care.

Wednesday 6 April 2011

Winding Down

Well it appears that most of the snowbirds are already home or on their way.  We will be on on our way home in a week.  Rick and Paulette left their desert winter home and are heading back to British Columbia.  Al and Kelly arrived home in Bayfield, Ontario several days ago from their winter in the US Southwest.  Odel is recovering nicely from his knee surgery.  So they will be staying put for a while while he under goes some therapy.

My sister left for home on the 1st.  They’re not RVer’s but rent a condo here for 3 months each year.  So they have been home for several days.  Several people here in the campground have left for northern regions.  It’s looking pretty desolate here right now.  Friends of ours from Moncton, New Brunswick arrived the day my sister left.  They were over the other day and we’re going out for supper tonight.  Hopefully we’ll get together again before we leave.  These are people that I have been friends with for 37 years.  That’s a lifetime.  Our husbands were in the military and we met in Chilliwack, British Columbia.  They have since settled in the Maritimes and I in the Toronto area. 

We had a hum dinger of a rainstorm 2 days ago.  It was so very windy, about 25 mpg with gusts up to 50 mph.  You could actually feel the rig shudder on those big gusts.  We had over 24 hours of that wind.  The rain, not so much. 

We are still waiting for the awning to be fixed.  This is turning into an epic story.  Totally ridiculous.  They were supposed to come yesterday, but were ‘too busy’.  So we have been promised tomorrow morning.  We’ll see.

The ducks have eaten all my cracked corn.  But they don’t lack for food, lots of people feed them all the time. 

Well until later…take care.