Home Update

Well we’ve been home now for a couple weeks.  Amazing how quickly you fall back into your regular routine.  It’s nice though.  Another thing that really amazes me is that after 3 1/2 months away when we get home there no dust anywhere!!! Not on the furniture, no dust bunnies running around on the floor, BUT by end of day after we arrive home the furniture has a fine layer and those little bugger dust bunnies are running around like crazy.  I guess with 2 adults, 2 large very hairy dogs, and 2 cats running around, it’s to be expected.  But it sure is nice for about 1 hour after we get home when there is no dirt.

The rig still sits in our driveway.  I took my time getting the inside scrubbed.  And scrubbing it did need.  That yellow pollen from the pine trees in Myrtle Beach winds it’s way into everything.  I vacuumed every square inch of that baby.  Stripped the bed down to the mattress, washed everything.  We had several minor repair jobs to do in there.  The shower need caulking…done.  One of the drawers in the dining room bench kept falling off the track ever since the guy removed them to put in the new floor…it’s fixed.  When they caulked the stairs after doing the new floor, they did a really crappy job…it’s been redone.  The toilet seal needs to be replaced…part on order.  A clamp needed to be put on the awning that no one seems to be able to fix so when driving it won’t unfurl…that’s done.   Bins cleaned, and reorganized…done.   Instead of pulling the big curtains around the front window at night I made curtains that cover 3/4 of the front window.  That way I can still see out the top part, but no one can see in.  I like it better.  But I was tired of the ones I made, so I made a new one…done.   All that is left to do, is give her a good bath and of course, when the toilet seal arrives, put that in.  Then we’ll move her back into the storage lot, the RV place still need to change the oil and stuff, but they’ll do that after we put it on the lot.

We’re going up to near my sister’s for a few days in July.  It’s her birthday and I like to spend time with her. 

I think we’ve finally decided that we’re not going to be here this Christmas.  We will head back to Panama City Beach beginning of December, after my grandson’s BD which is end of November.  That is the plan for now.

The weather home has been pretty nice.  I was a little worried we might have a cold snap and I didn’t want to winterize again.  But although we had a few nights just hovering around the freezing point, it wasn’t enough to worry about.  I did empty the fresh water tank, hot water tank and turned on the low level water valves to get most of the water out of the lines.  I still want to flush out the hot water tank.  I bought a neat little gizmo when we were south that will do just that.

Well until sometime later….take care.

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.

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.

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.

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

Wish us luck and until later..take care.

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.

DOWNRIGHT COLD !!!

First I would like to welcome new followers, Dennis and Donna, and Nantucketbreezes, but I can’t seem to find a blog for them.  If you have one let me know and I’ll update the link.  Also welcome Karen.

What a shock to the system to go from the high 70’s, low 80’s to just above freezing.  All in one day too.  Last night was the coldest since we first started out back in January.  I had left our electric heaters running last night but apparently it just wasn’t enough and it was 63 F (about 16C) in here this morning.  Because heat pumps won’t work if it’s too cold, I turned on the gas furnaces, front and back, and had it nice and toasty in here in no time flat.  Think I just better leave them preset at about 67 F before we go to bed at night, just in case.  Thought the furnace days were behind us at least until we start back home.

We really haven’t been doing much of anything (it’s a tough life).  Yesterday and the night before it rained buckets and thunder and lightening too.  They are calling for more for the next couple days.  But today is bright and sunny, albeit COLD.  But the sun is encouraging.

Our neighbour pulled out of here on Sunday, heading for somewhere in southern Florida.  Unfortunately, he forgot to unplug from his shore line, and even though Ken ran out to stop him, it was too late. He pulled the electrical box on the site right out.  He is fortunate that it was only the shore box, because I think repairs to his rig would have been much more costly than the campgrounds box.  He did notify them up at the office, because 5 minutes after he pulled out they were down here inspecting the damage.  Nothing has been done about it yet, so I suppose they are waiting for a electrician.

Speaking of repairs, we did get our step fixed.  It required a new motor.  The mobile service we called, ordered the part and installed several days ago, and we keep checking to ensure it still works.  It does.  The infamous awning that we had all the issues with when we went on our Utah, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico trip is still causing problems.  Camping World who installed them in the first place came over and tightened the springs in the end of the awning.  Well they apparently tightened them too much because when I retracted it and then tried to roll it out again, it was extremely tight,  VERY, and then I heard SPRONG!!! and that was the end of any tension.  Contacted Camping World again and they said the spring will have to be replaced as once it SPRONGS..it’s broken.  Fortunately, Dometic is still covering our warranty but this is getting on our nerves.  What the heck is wrong with this stupid awning.  Had 2 installed, the other works like a charm, this one..well??it’s been a real PITA.

Got some pictures of the ducks.  Smart little buggers.  I go out there and call them, ‘Here Ducky,’ and all of a sudden they appear from no where and come swimming over looking for their grub.  I love when they fly in and then land and glide across the water with their feet as they land, it’s so comical.  We have a pair of fellow Canadians here too.  They are geese.  Only have seen the 1 pair.  But if they are within hearing range, they come over too looking for free handouts. 

I have been trying to find a catnip plant for Arthur since we’ve been away but no one has had them.  The other day while we were in Home Depot the fellow from the nursery where they get their plants and asked me if he could help.  Told him I was looking for catnip, he was surprised and asked what I use it for.  Told him it wasn’t for me, but my cat loves it and he was surprised, he said he had no idea that cats liked it and he was going to give some to his cat.  I told him that cats just adore that stuff so he said that they did have some back at their greenhouse and he would bring some in next time he came.  Well true to his word, when we went back there was about a dozen plants, so I grabbed 2 and this is the result…
he has eaten the whole plant down to it’s nubs.  Went back to buy some more but they were all gone.  Think the nursery has discovered a good seller.  He was there again and said he was bringing more today, so we’ll head over and pick up a couple more.  I think Arthur is a catnip addict.

Until later then…take care.

THIS & THAT

We haven’t been doing anything spectacular here.  Just lazing around.  Ken reassembled the step, it worked a couple times and stopped.  So we called a mobile RV company and he came over and took a look and said it was the motor.  They have ordered a new one and will install in a few days. 

I bought some cracked corn and have been feeding the ducks on the pond behind us.  Keep forgetting to take my camera with me when I do.  Sometimes there are a couple dozen of them fighting for the corn.  But I will get a picture before we leave.

I made my annual trip to Camping World.  All year, back home, I keep a list of things I need or want to buy and when we get here, head for Camping World.  Some of the things, we can’t get at home, some of them, we can get but almost double the price.  I love that store!!!  When we were on our RV caravan last fall, some of our fellow RV'ers had these great folding chairs with little side tables.  We loved them, so they went on my list.   Got 2 of them. 

The weather has been great here, very warm, a little on the windy side.  But the pollen is really bad this year.  It’s that yellow pollen from the pine trees that settles on, into, around, behind EVERYTHING.  I have ‘swiffered’ myself to death.  It’s really, really bad.  Today it was so bad, I was sitting at my laptop and ran the ‘swiffer’ over the keyboard, and no world of a lie, 5 minutes later it was coated again.  So totally fed up with it, that we shut all the windows and turned the air on.  That helped. 

My sister and husband had us over for supper last night.  It was very good.  Lasagna, salad, and garlic bread.  Very tasty.  They are leaving for home on the 1st.  We have some good friends that are arriving on the 1st from Moncton, New Brunswick.

We are enjoying the campground, it’s quiet and ‘unbusy’.  March breakers must have headed for other campgrounds, like Ocean Lakes, and Pirateland.  Those campgrounds are more suited for families and kids.  As we found out last year!!!!

Until later…take care.