Christmas Dinner

In one word..AWESOME!!  There was 22 of us, everyone brought a dish, some brought more than 1.  The food was outstanding.  I hear so much about the Green Bean Casserole that seems to be a regular dish at all of our US friends Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners.  Well I finally got to taste it and it was delicious.  There was all the stuff I love, whipped potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, turkey, ham, beets.  Now I know beets are something that some people would probably pooh pooh at, but I absolutely love them and don’t get to eat very often.  Ken is not a vegetable guy and beets, well, you can just imagine.  These were wonderful.  I ate far, far too much but oh it was so good.

Today it has been raining all day long.  But seeing as it’s the very first time it has rain in the month we’ve been here, that’s ok.  I do love the sound of rain on the roof of the rig.  So soothing and relaxing.  I was going to BBQ steaks tonight but of course Mr. Weber is sitting outside where it’s pouring but I do have a grill so I had to dig it out and literally dust it off and that’s what I’m going to use to grill the steaks. 

Jackson is a goofy guy.  Quite the comic and like several goldens, he ‘smiles’.  I sometimes have to tell people that he’s not baring his teeth, he is really smiling.  I finally got a picture of him in goofy action and actually smiling.

I don’t know if you heard about the terrible ice storm that went through Ontario.  It was very, very bad.  It started last Friday, the 20th, and there are some people that still don’t have power.  My nephew being one of them.  Fortunately his father-in-law had a generator which he brought over for them.  The storm covered a huge area and thousands of people were without power, my son was without power for almost 2 days, and fortunately again, he has a generator.  My daughter and our house (we live only a couple miles apart) was only out for about 6 hours.  We were sooooooo lucky.  My next door neighbour took a couple pictures of our house.  I think our birch tree is toast.

Well it’s another rainy day here, (I started the blog yesterday).  Dull and gloomy day. 

Until later..take care.

This n’ That

That’s about what we’ve been doing too.  This place has lots of activities going on.  We don’t do all of them, it’s just not us, but we do some.  And we’ve had alot of fun doing them. 

On Wednesday night, they have Margarita nights,  for $1.00.  People bring appetizers to share and they have a 50/50 draw.  Last week we won the draw and it was $63.  Thought that was pretty cool.  Then on Saturday night they have bingo.  I’m not a huge bingo fan but this is different.  You play in groups of 4, and you deal out a deck of cards between you.  You need 3 nickels, 3 dimes, 3 quarters and a $1 bill.  First 3 rounds you each put 1 nickel in the cup.  Next the dimes and so on.  When you get down to your last card you stand up.  When bingo is called the money is collected from all the cups and goes to the winners.  I won one shared by another person for the nickels and I won one round all my myself of a round of 10 cents.  There was about 40-50 people there.  It is actually quite good fun.  We’ll be back.

Today there was a very brisk wind, with gusts up to 40 MPH.  I guess because it’s so flat when it’s windy like that it picks up all the dust and there’s a haze in the air of dust.  We had gone out to run some errands and left the windows open because the temperature was lovely.  Big mistake, everything covered with a layer of dirt when we got home.  Out came the Swiffers and the windows got closed and the air came on.  What a mess!!

The park is still relatively empty.  I’d say maybe 1/2 full.  But I expect over the next week more and more people to arrive.

We had a little visitor this morning under the rig.  What an interesting little guy he was.
  

And I thought this was such a great shot of our boy..had to include it.

Until later..take care and for those of you on the roads..be safe.

Here and settled

We arrived here on Sunday around 3 PM.  I got us all checked in and we were escorted to our site.  We got ourselves level because once in that would be it.  We had to put some small levels under one side of the rig.  Last year we neglected to do that and we found that our heads in the bed were lower than we liked.  So I had to buy a couple pillows and put them UNDER the mattress head.  I swore that was never going to happen again.  Besides it is imperative that the fridge is level as you fellow RVers know.

Side view, Ken still washing roof …

We have been very busy since arriving, getting settled, putting stuff away for 4 months.  Doing a weeks worth of laundry.  Yesterday, Ken washed the truck and today we both washed the rig together.  After hitting that snow squall just before we left Ontario, both vehicles were a mess of dirt, sand and salt.  Now they’re both beautiful.  We just got back from a shopping trip to Walmart. 

Ken washing roof…

We met some people and were invited to their fire pit last night.  It was a beautiful night to sit out for awhile.  Tonight we’re going over to some other peoples for happy hour.  Appears we’ll be kept busy.  They have alot of activities here, unlike where we stayed last year.

Jackson has met lots of new friends.  It’s funny the older he gets the less he’s interested in other dogs.  But he’s very interested in people, just loves them.  He does love our friends golden, Koby, though.

Tonight I think I`ll break in my new Weber.  Have some bratwurst. 

Until later..take care.  Drive safe if you`re on the roads.

Day 5 of travelling

After our little respite in Texarkana, Texas, we were ready this morning to head out again.  We packed up and were on the road by 7:30.   Today we drove on state highways as opposed to interstate highways.  Biggest issue is finding a place to stop for Jackie.  He needs to stop about every 2 hours just to get out and stretch his legs and perhaps have a piddle too.  They have a few ‘picnic’ stops at the very side of the road, barely enough room for us to pull over. 

We are in a little campground in Rockdale, Texas.  It’s very adequate, full amenities, great cable, so so wifi.  The owner is very helpful.  We asked him a good gas station to stop because we needed some air in our 5th wheel tires.  He said, no problem, and brought over his huge compressor and Ken was able to top up the tires.  Nice long pull throughs, don’t have to unhook the truck. 

Tomorrow we arrive at our destination.  A week to the day we left home.  It will be nice to finally put things away, instead of stepping over bins and boxes of stuff that we can’t set up until we park.  I think Jackson will be happy too, not to have to spend several hours in the truck.  He has been a good boy though. 

Today the weather was WARM WARM WARM.  A very pleasant thing, I tell you.  

Until later…take care.  Drive safe.

Chilling Day 1

It was nice to get up this morning and know we could just laze around.  We sat at our computers reading email, blogs and catching up on the news.  It was nice.

Took a walk around the park with Jackie later this afternoon.  Still a chill in the air, but certainly warmer.  The back end of the park is for permanent residents in mobile models.  Didn’t smell any turkey cooking though, was hoping to.

Got the water filter in and checked the pump.  I can see where it’s vibrating, needs a little support.  A friend mentioned a pump silencer kit and I saw one on Amazon.  I’ll order it when we get to Bensten and install it. 

Guess there was alot of turkeys eaten today.  I’m not sure what Bensten Palms do for Christmas but I sure hope they have turkey.  That would be great.

Another day of chilling tomorrow too.  I certainly won’t go anywhere near a mall tomorrow, I imagine it will be like a stampede. Black Friday.

So until later…take care.  Drive Safe.

Day 4

I fully expected horrendous traffic issues today due to Thanksgiving being tomorrow.  But there were absolutely no issues at all.  We had a good run today. 

We are in Texarkana, Texas tonight.  We leave here on Saturday morning.

I’m sure you are sick to death of hearing about the weather as I am typing about it.  Just saying it was a very cold night again last night.

Our water pump is making very loud noises.  It’s pumping but vibrating alot.  I’m wondering if it’s come loose from it’s mooring.  I have to remove a few bins from the basement of the rig in order to open the compartment where it’s located to investigate.  Today it was just too darn cold to be outside to do that.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a nicer day so I’m going to give it a shot then.  Also have to install the new water filter. 

A wind came up rather quickly last night and kept waking me up, so I didn’t get a great nights sleep.  My eyes are very heavy right now and I don’t know how much longer I’ll be able to stay up.  We are very close to the highway and it’s rather noisy.  Usually it doesn’t bother us too much so I’m hoping it doesn’t bother us tonight. 

I would like to wish all my American bloggers a very happy Thanksgiving. 

So until later..take care and be sure and drive safe.

Day 3

Tonight we’re in Lakeland, Tennessee.  That is just outside of Memphis.  Campground is probably one of the worse we’ve ever been to.  But it’s only 1 night.  We won’t be staying here on our way back home in the spring, that’s for sure.

Was very nice to have a warmer evening last night.  But alas, it was not to last.  Today’s temperature wasn’t too bad but tonight it’s dipping down again to the low 20’s F.  We put some water in our tank and disconnected the water hose. 

Tomorrow our mileage is a bit shorter.  Our destination is Texarkana, Texas and we are staying for a few days.  And again the weather is not co-operating.  Again it’s supposed to be cold.  The evenings especially.

Usually, this far south you can feel the difference in temperature, but not this trip.  We will be so glad to feel the sun and warmth. 

Until later…take care and drive safe.