Goodbye 2011

In a few days, it will be time to say goodbye to 2011.  Where does the time go?  Since we retired we find the time is slipping away even faster.  I suppose that is just the way it is.

The Christmas dinner was lovely.  All my cauliflower with cheese sauce was eaten.  Love that, at least I know it was enjoyed.  There was so much great food.  And so much of it.  The turkey and ham was excellent too.  They had stickers on some of the chairs.  Ken’s chair was one of them and we won a bottle of wine and (now wait for it) a redneck wine glass.  Do you believe it????  So now we have 3.  It never rains but it pours I guess.  We had a really nice Christmas Eve dinner out with several people here at the park.  A very pleasant evening.

We had a doozey of a storm the other night.  The rain was incredible.  Torrents and torrents of it.  Then as the rain moved out the wind started.  There were gusts of 40 to 50 mpg.  It was very bad.  I just couldn’t sleep as I just hate wind when we’re in the rig.  The toppers on the slide outs flop and make so much noise.  So at 1:30 AM I got up and went on the computer for awhile.  Then spent the rest of the night sleeping (or trying to) on the couch.  The next day was still quite windy but not like during the night. 

There is a New Year’s Eve party here.  Just bring ‘your favourite beverage’ and an appetizer. I am bringing meatballs in BBQ sauce.  The Campground is providing champagne at midnight but someone at the office told me that last year by 11 PM the party was over and everyone had gone home.  I don’t make too many midnight New Year’s Eve myself.  But I thought that was funny.  Guess they don’t have to worry too much about spending much money on champagne!!! LOL.

In our RV kitchen if there is one major appliance running, like a coffee pot or toaster then you must turn it off before you use another one.  A couple times we have forgotten to do that and the breaker has tripped or because all the plugs are GFI, the main GFI plug had to be reset.  Well on Tuesday night I was using the electric skillet and forgot that the space heater was on.  So when the thermostat on the heater clicked on, the circuit blew.  Strange though, cause the main GFI plug still was on and no breaker had been tripped.  I searched and searched thinking there was another GFI hidden somewhere.  NOPE.  Even checked those silly little fuses, the ones that cars use.  NOPE.  So I called a mobile service and they came the next day.   Turns out that the GFI was getting power but not passing it on to the other plugs on the line.  New GFI installed and all was well.  Was very relieved, imaging all sorts of nasty things wrong.

 

I was out walking the other day and came across this little guy.  Thought he was so darn cute.  Reminded me of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.  There are several crafty people here.  I’m not one of them.  I knit, used to sew all of my own clothes and the kids too, fix computers, oh and we make our own wine, which is pretty darn good but that’s about it for my craftiness.  But some of the things people make here, just amazing.  That’s like Paulette and her quilting.  It’s just so beautiful.

Until later..Happy New Year and take care. 

Just a few more days

It’s just a few more days until Christmas.  I want to wish my fellow bloggers and readers a very happy Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or Happy Yule or whatever you celebrate at this time of year.

We have started bike riding in the last few days.  The weather here has been great for doing that.  We take this route around the campground and it’s approximately a mile.  We do this 4 or 5 times at a good clip.  But now the weather forecast for the next 5 days includes rain.  Warm, but rain.  Maybe we can get in a spin between showers.

The Christmas dinner is at 3PM on Christmas day.  They provide the turkey and ham and everyone brings a dish.  I am bringing cauliflower with cheese sauce.  We have noticed that several people have left their rigs and taken their cars and are gone.  I’m supposing that they must have family nearby and have gone for Christmas.  There are several of us going out for dinner at an Italian restaurant Christmas Eve.

Jackson sure has been getting a lot of exercise here.  He likes to lay looking out the screen door and whenever he sees one of his ‘buddies’ walk by he figures that he should be going out too.  Next week his ‘bestest’ buddy Kooper is arriving.  I’m anxious to see if he remembers him. 

I got my redneck wine glasses.  As I mentioned there is someone here who makes them so I bought 2.

I’m attaching some pictures I took of around the campground here and Jackson at the dog park.


This is a stocked pond.  They also have paddle boats.

That’s Ken & Jackson coming back from a walk.

As always if you click on a picture it will open in another window much larger.

Well until later..take care and Merry Christmas.

Not a whole lot of anything

We really haven’t been doing much of anything.  But then again isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?  We’ve hit ‘Five Guys’ a couple times and I know there will be many more visits there.  This is the best burger place, hands down, anywhere.  I think their burgers are even better than mine.

We went to the Christmas party on Sunday the 11th.  Lots and lots of food.  They have a secret Santa thing.  We brought 2 gifts so we got to pick 2 other gifts.  When we were on the Caravan in the US Southwest, some of the members had these redneck wine glasses which they would bring to the happy hour.  They are just mason jars with a stem glued on the bottom, tacky, I know, but great around a campfire.   I always liked them and thought they would great for the RVing lifestyle.  Anyhow there are a couple ladies here who make them and they brought 2 of them as secret Santa gifts.  When it was my turn to pick a gift I ‘stole’ these from a man who had originally chosen them.  He didn’t seem enamoured with them anyway.
 
Well it appeared that some other ‘lady’ had her eye on them and she stole them from me.  Actually she literally snatched them off the table very abruptly. There is a limit of 3 exchanges so that was it for the glasses.  But as it turns out a friend that we have here saw how disappointed I was and she is going to ask one of the ladies who makes them to make one for me.  That would make me very happy.

They still don’t have their internet working properly yet.  So we are using the Verizon mifi that we bought.  They better get it working soon as the snowbird crunch starts to really happen right after Christmas.  There will be alot of unhappy campers, literally, if it’s not fixed.

The people next door in a 5er have a Corgi, Zoe and a American Eskimo dog, Joey.  Now Zoe is great around people but not so much other dogs, but Joey just loves other dogs.  Jackson and Joey when they get together have a real tear around the dog park.  He is really a cute little guy.  Just a little worried about his size as Jackie is probably twice his weight.  But Jack does seem to be aware of that, but we still keep a good eye on them.  Here’s Jackson and Joey.

We had a couple days of lots of rain and cold, but yesterday and today was beautiful.  Yesterday we rode our bikes around for about 5 miles.  The forecast is for nice weather for the next several days.  Did some laundry and hung it out on my clothesline on the back of the rig and it dried in no time.  Plan to get out on our bikes again today for a spin.

We were out last night for dinner for our ‘sacred 13th’ at a place here called Salt Water Grill.  They have a huge 25,000 gallon salt water tank.  It’s so interesting watching the fish in there.  The food is very good too.  We’ll be back.  (when something is in a different colour it means you can link it to).

And lastly this is what our Arthur does most of the time…

Until later then…take care

Tough Life !!!

Yup it sure is a tough life, but someone must do it.  Since we have gotten ourselves all set up we really haven’t done too much.  A bit of shopping here and there, reading, surfing (internet, not water!!). 

Last night there was a pot luck supper.  It’s amazing the dishes that people put together all in a RV kitchen.  It sure was great and lots of delicious dishes.  I made a huge Caesar salad and most of it disappeared.

We have been struggling here with their internet.  They have installed a new system and I suppose are working out the kinks.  Several people, no rhyme or reason to location, are having issues.  I am one of them.  I get a good strong signal but it continually drops me, up and down, up and down, like a public washroom toilet seat.  They are as perplexed as I am.  I have been coming up to their clubhouse to do anything that need to be done on the internet.  But finally got fed up with it so went out and bought Verizon’s mifi.  It works great, and I’m a happy camper again.  It’s not cheap but since I have suspended my internet at home while we’re away, it all works out, basically.

On Monday, the 11th, they are having their Christmas Party, just an hors d’oeuvre  is required.  And your beverage of choice.  Sounds like it should be fun.

We have have great weather, but last night the rain came, and today the wind.  It’s gray and gloomy and very windy.  Had to bring in the huge awning and one of the little side awnings.  The huge awning is a Weather Pro awning and is supposed to sense the wind, depending on what you’ve set it to, and come in automatically.  We have yet to have it retract by itself, except for the cold.  It does retract by itself if it gets around freezing, safety issue, can’t have water on it freeze.  But wind, nope, never. 

We put up a couple more Christmas decorations on our site.  I took a picture of some of the sites too.  It’s really pretty.

 

 

So until later…take care.

Home for the next 3 months

We had a good drive down on Thursday.   The weather was great, sunny, and clear.  Although we did wake up to a very cold morning.  Good thing I had disconnected the water.  The tap had frozen, but a minute with a BBQ lighter fixed that.  We were able to rehook up for our morning showers.  I really don’t like to put a lot of water in our holding tank.  I just feel it’s too heavy.  I only put in what we need for travelling, toilet etc.

The internet here is the worse I have ever experienced at a campground.  Last year it was great.  They are in the process of installing a whole new system.  It keeps dropping me, then starting, over and over again.  I took my laptop up to the main office and I was fine there.  They believe it is the tower relay that is right outside our rig.  Something wrong with it.  They are looking into it.  Hopefully they will get it fixed very soon.  If they don’t then I will go to Verizon and buy their mifi.  I cannot go 3 months with it like this !!!!

We were really busy after we arrived here.  The inside of the rig was absolutely disgusting.  More hair and mud than I care to even think about.  It took us a few hours to clean and set things up inside.  We got a really nice warm welcome when we arrived.  Several ‘welcome backs’.  Also a nice warm welcome temperature wise.

It was so very, very nice to wake up Friday morning and know we didn’t have to pack up and get on the road.  We spent the rest of the day cleaning the outside of the rig and setting things up outside.  She now shines and I can actually see out of the windows.

On the weekends they have breakfasts here.  So we went over and enjoyed someone making breakfast for us.  Then we went over to Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of groceries. 

Jackson is having a great time running around in the dog park and meeting some new buddies.  Everyone here is so friendly and always stop to chat and talk.  His best buddy isn’t here yet, not until January.  But there are others that he enjoys playing with.

Today, Ken put up some Christmas lights around our site.  Lots of people here have really gone whole hog with decorating their sites for Christmas.  It looks really nice.  I’ll try and get some pictures at a later date of some of the sites.

The header picture was taken today after the lights were up and we were all settled in. 

This is a picture looking down the road from our site.  You can see the lights from some of the sites.  There are still lots of empty sites but I imagine they will fill up over the next month or so.

So until later…take  care.

Clanton, Alabama

This morning dawned cold and crunchy.  Crunchy when you walked outside on the frozen grass and mud puddles.  But no rain.  Can you believe it????  We were on the road by 8:30.  We changed our choice of campgrounds at the last minute this morning.  The other place I had picked out just sounded kind of ‘iffy’.  This one is a newly built KOA, totally different from any other KOA we’ve been at.  It has 50 FHU sites with several long pull throughs.  We can see and hear I65 just about 100 yards away.  But it was easy off and will be easy on.  Not much here but that’s just fine with us.  They seem to be in the process of just setting this campground up.   It’s a good spot for an over night stop. 

Today’s drive started out a little gray but very shortly the sun came out and we had sun all day.  What a difference that makes.  Tomorrow it’s 247 miles to Panama City Beach.  Will be nice to settle in

Until later…take care.

Onward to Goodlettsville, Tennessee

We had a 300 mile trip today.  Ran into a few very small showers, nothing serious, and the odd snowflake.  All in all it was a good drive.

It is colder here than our stop last night.  I put water into the tank and disconnected the hose.  I’ll connect in the morning when it’s shower time.  And now..guess what it’s doing???? raining of course.  But the forecast calls for it to quit very soon.  We’ll see.

Tomorrow we have 247 miles to our next destination. 

This appears to be a pretty good park.  Looks like a ex KOA to me.  Same type of office and cabins.  Full hookups, wifi, and cable, good for us.  There is a time change for us now.  One hour behind our normal time. 

Supper is done, Jackie’s been out AGAIN, in the mud.  Lovely.  Just chilling watching Jeopardy and listening to the rain on the roof.  Although to be honest I’ve heard enough rain on the roof for a good while.

Until later…take care.

And it’s still raining..

We are getting somewhat fed up with all this rain.  Yesterday when we arrived in Monroe, Michigan, we had to setup in the pouring rain.  Today, we started out with dry roads, gray, dismal, but no rain, but by the time we arrived here in Lebanon, Ohio, it had started to rain and we had to setup again in the pouring rain. 

Question????why do some RV campgrounds put their sewer so far away that you need like 30 feet of hose to reach it.  We had to connect up 3 hoses to reach it.  Poor Ken was drenched by the time he was finished.  The CG is a little dodgy for driving around in with a 38 foot rig with a toad.  Have to be very careful, but we have full hook-ups (no cable) and a level site. 

There were a couple comments left about putting Jackie in a crate while travelling.  Well, he’s really not bad, just can’t seem to settle down.  He lays down, then gets up to look around, this is what he does the whole trip.  I don’t think I could crate him.  He’s 90 pounds of dog, and I would need a pretty big crate for him.  There is absolutely no room to put a crate of that size in here when the slides are all closed.  And although when he was a puppy he was great in a crate he hasn’t been in one since he was 6 months old.  Not sure how he’d handle that.  I always worried about him if we had to stop suddenly so I bought a harness system.  It has a ‘rip line’ which is supposed to go in a car in the back seat at the top from the hand handle to the other one.  Then this special harness, with a heavily padded chest part, is put on him and hooked up to the rip line.  That way he can move around and yet be protected if you have to stop suddenly.  In the rig, each of the front seat, drivers, and passengers have a hook for a child’s car seat.  So I attached the rip line to these two hooks.  I feel allot better now that he’s safer.  And of course, Arthur is in his crate.

Well tomorrow we are head for Goodslettville, TN.  The weather forecast for there is truly miserable.  Cold, and wet, even colder than here.  We will be so glad when we get out of this crap.

We were all toasty warm last night.  Between the space heaters running and the furnace when necessary, it was fine.  Just damp, lots of moisture on the windows this morning, especially in the bedroom, guess all that hot breath at night, 2 people and 2 critters.

Well until later….take care.

On the Road Again…!

We left this morning at 8:30 AM.  By the time we drove over to the gas station, filled her up then hooked up the car it was exactly 9 AM when we hit the road.  We are here in Monroe, Michigan.  A long 7 hour drive.

It rained the whole way, which made for a miserable drive.  And it’s still pouring.  But given the time of year it could be worse, could have been snow.  This is what we looked at all day out the front window.

I always fine it a hassle to de-winterize.  As the weather forecast was saying it wasn’t going to freeze, I decided to hook up to water, that and a chat with the fellow at the desk.  He said it wasn’t going to freeze tonight.  Must have had some inside info, I guess.  They heat their taps here too.  We like this campground, easy off I75, nice long pull thrus, full hook-ups.  This is the 3rd time we’ve stayed here on our way south. 

It’s not so much cold as damp, we have our space heaters going and toss in the furnace every so often to really warm things up. 

Driving with Jackson is a real treat.  NOT!!!  It’s not that he’s a bad boy, but he just can’t seem to settle down.  He’s up, he’s down, he’s up, he’s down.  You get the picture.  He’s so nosey.  I think he’s afraid that he’ll miss something.  He’s terrible in a car, whines and whines.  Thankfully he doesn’t do that in here. 

Our stop tomorrow is Lebanon, Ohio.

So until later…take care.

Getting Ready to Roll!!!

First I’d like to welcome a new member.  Welcome Rick and Kathy Rousseau.

Well the rig has been in the driveway for 2 weeks now.  The first week, I took my time starting to load up, but this past week I put myself in 5th gear and really starting to move!!  Right now it is 99.8% loaded.  Just my last minute things, the dredges from the fridge, all our electronic gizmos’ i.e. GPS, laptops, cameras, e-readers, don’t like those things in there when it’s cold.

We had a couple really cold nights.  Our bedroom windows looks right down on the roof of the rig and I could see the frost on the roof a few times.  I did have an electric heater running in there on low, just to keep all the food stuffs from freezing.  I made the bed up with the electric blanket because I think we’ll need it for awhile in the beginning.  I have been checking the temperatures and so far it’s holding tough!!  But the weatherman does have a habit of changing things really quickly.  In this case I sure hope not.  We have a full propane tank because I’m sure the 2 furnaces will be put to good use.

About a month ago I was getting things together, like our passports.  Fortunately I opened them and realized that mine would expire in February while I was in the US!!  YIKES!!!!  Ran out got my new pictures taken and fortunately our government has finally come to their senses and if you’re renewing a passport you don’t have to jump through all the hoops anymore.  So it was a quick process and it arrived, via UPS, in 2 weeks.  Boy..that was a close one.

Tomorrow is my grandson’s 7th birthday party.  He was actually 7 on the 23rd, but his big party is tomorrow.  My daughter-in-law has a large family so they have quite a house full.  But I don’t have to make supper here and that’s really great as we head out the next morning.  We would have left earlier in the month but we wanted to be here for Riley’s birthday celebration. 

So first stop for us is just across the border in Michigan.  We have stayed at this CG before and we like it.  One of the nice things that we like is that they have heated pipes so that their water is always on.  If it’s not freezing cold, this is where I de-winterize our rig.  If it’s too cold, then it will be the next stop.  So far, it’s looking good.  But we carry jugs of water just in case anyway.

So…..once on the road, the blogging begins.  Until then…take care.

Oh BTW..do you realize that a month today is Christmas..?????

It’s been quite awhile

Yes, it’s been quite some time since I last blogged.  Not a lot going on  really.  Didn’t want to bore everyone with all the menial stuff day things that retired people do. 

We are 3 weeks away from heading down to Panama City Beach for the winter.  The weather here has gotten quite nippy in the night time and wee hours of the morning.  The days have been, for the most part, beautiful, but still have that fall chill in the air.  Jackets are a must, that’s for sure.  This weekend is daylight savings set the clocks back time.  I wish they’d do away with that, it’s such a PITA.

As we will not here for Christmas this year, I have had to do all my Christmas chores way ahead of time.  I make all my own greeting cards, such as birthday, anniversary, and of course Christmas.  I usually send out about 40 or so Christmas cards, so they all had to be made up, envelopes made and ready to go.  As I don’t want to mail my Canadian cards in the US, I will leave these and my daughter will mail them for me.  I will take the ones for my US friends and mail them while I’m stateside.  Also gifts for any grandchildren and children that have birthdays while we’re gone.  This year only the kids will receive Christmas gifts, but there are 7 of them so that had to done also.  Four of them have birthdays while we’re away.  So I have goodie bags all ready to deliver to my kids for their kids. 

We will pick up ‘the beast’ next week so we can load up.  I have a nice pile at the bottom of the basement stairs that seems to be growing all the time.  This is my ‘for the rig’ pile of stuff.  As I come across something that is not usually the normal thing or not on one of my lists, I just cart it down to the bottom of the basement stairs. 

Rick and Paulette have already arrived and are all set up at their winter digs.  Katie and her ‘mom’ are in Zion but that’s just a little to cold for me, and now she says it’s snowing!!!!!!!!!  Time to get outta Dodge!!!  It never rain but it pours for poor Judy and Emma.   Besides all the rig and fridge problems she’s had over the past few months, now her back is acting up and she had to go to emergency.  I sure hope Murphy leaves her alone for awhile.  Much to Al’s immense pleasure, him and Kelly, Pheebs, and little Motormouse will be heading out very soon for the southwest.  Poor Al has been chomping on the bit for the last few weeks, just trying to get out of Dodge!!!!  Sam and Donna are off to Branson, but not with the rig.  Sounds like they are having a fun time there too.  And very shortly we will be heading out too. 

Well that’s it for now..more once we get out on the road again.

Take care…..

Closed..for the winter

It’s always so depressing when we close the pool.  I love to look out and see the crystal blue water and hear the gurgling noise of the skimmer running.  But unfortunately, close it we must.  Jackson shares my sentiments on that one too.  He just loves his swimming.  Over the past couple days, we have also cleaned out the planters and garden.  So sad not to have the bright coloured flowers everywhere.  All my little garden creatures have retired for the winter too and stored in the shed.  But I console myself by thinking that we only have about 8 more weeks, then we head south.

Pool Closed up

Empty Garden


All my flowers in the compost

Sad Frog Sandbox-no one to play with
The rig was washed, tidied up and winterized a couple weeks ago and we drove it over to the storage lot.  This week sometime they are going to install our stone protector flap on the back end.  Once they put it back in the lot we will head over to put the A/C covers on and cover the tires.  They also always seem to forget to turn off the master power switches so we have to do that so our batteries don’t drain.  We do have a trickle solar charger on the roof which we find does a good job.
As we won’t be here for Christmas this year, I have to go through some of my Christmas decorations and take a few things with me to decorate our rig at Christmas.  Not a lot, because as you know there really isn’t a lot of space and/or places to put things.  Some lights, a wreath for the door.  I’m thinking I want to cook a small turkey or chicken for Christmas dinner.  Except for 1 year, I have been doing that for about 40 years.  Not to cook one would seem very strange.  I wish I could talk my oldest daughter into coming down over the holidays, but that will never happen.  She’s a stay at home kind of gal.
A couple weeks ago my 2 sisters and myself got together at my one sister’s home near Kingston.  We even took my other sister’s cat with us as he is diabetic and needs his shots.  He was such a good boy, in the car and at my sister’s home.  Not a speck of trouble.  We had a really nice visit.  Now she is coming down here day after tomorrow for a few days visit and my sister with the diabetic cat is coming down for the day on Wednesday and bringing Nikki, her cat.  He is almost as well travelled as our Arthur. 
Here are my 2 sisters…

While we’re all together we will pop over to visit my Dad who lives in an retirement villa, he is 96 and going strong.  On his 3rd marriage, devil!! I’m sure he’ll make 100.
Well that’s just a quickie update…for now. 
Until later..take care.

Back Home Safe and Sound

Boy that was an experience!  We’ve been home for several days, but have had things to do around here and getting the rig spiffed up (still needs an outside bath) for storage.  That’s why I haven’t blogged for a few days.

There was a huge system that went through while we were parked at 50 Point Conservation Park.  Last Wednesday dawned bright and sunny but quite windy.  I brought all my awnings in.  But I had been watching the weather on the internet and the local news.  A very bad weather front was moving in and it was HUGE.  More tornado watches and warnings were predicted.  We watched the weather all day long and then the tornado warnings started to be issued all around us.  We were on a watch which is different than a warning.  They said a watch is just that, watch.  But a warning is ‘seek shelter’.  Needless to say we were getting nervous.  I had a quick exit plan formalized in my head.  #1- Grab Jackson & Arthur.  #2 – Grab purse, laptop, camera. #3 – Get the heck out the door and into the car and vamoose!  Fortunately it didn’t come to that, but we did have a tornado warning.  I stayed up till almost midnight watching the sky and the weather on TV until we had an all clear.  But we did get the storm.  OH MY!!!! What a storm it was too.  The lightening was everywhere, the sky was constantly bright and I have never seen lightening strikes so huge.  And the rain, that was something.  Thunder, thunder and more thunder.  Good thing, Jackson and Arthur aren’t bothered by it.  In fact, Jackson slept through the whole thing.  By around midnight the worst or it had passed through as I watched the radar I could see that we were now in the ‘normal’ rain category.  It did rumble, lightening and rain on and off during the night.  Thursday morning was sunny, bright and fresh.

That is as close to any tornado warning I ever want to get.  It was a little nerve racking.

The ‘beast’ is now parked in our driveway and very shortly we are going to give her a good bath and then winterize.  As we are not leaving until the end of November I just don’t want to take any changes of a freeze up.  After that is done we will drive it to the storage lot where we keep her.

Also very soon it’s time to close up the pool.  I really hate doing it as it does signal the end of summer and looking at a covered pool just isn’t as pretty as seeing the sparkling blue water.  And poor Jackson, he stands there and looks so forlorn at the covered pool.  He really loves swimming in there and I feel bad that he can’t.  But it must be done.  Can’t run it all winter!!!!  The nights are getting cooler too, fall is definitely in the air. 

We are going to have a rear guard installed on the rig.  You know those flaps that hang down from the back end of your MH that protect your car from stones etc.  We have had several stone chips on our brand new car (well it was brand new a couple years ago).  I investigated having a bra put on the car but can’t find one anywhere.  So decided that we need this flap installed on the rig.  We will have that done once we take it to the storage lot.  The company will do it for us. 

Well that’s it for now..take care.

Out and About Again

First, let me welcome a new follower.  Welcome americantraveler. 

We decided we wanted another wee trip out before we winterized and closed the rig up until the end of November when we head south.
We headed out this morning for 50 Point Conservation Park in Grimsby, Ontario.  That is just outside of Hamilton.  We came here last year and really enjoyed it.  It is located at the far west end of Lake Ontario.  It really is a beautiful spot.  There is not a lot of ‘kid’ things to do here so consequently it’s pretty quiet.  There is a large marina here also and some really expensive boats moored there.  Since the last time we were here, they had added a new campground which has 50 amp service and wifi.  Great additions. 

Last year we walked Maggie and Jackson down to the lovely beach they have and they had a ball in the water.  This year, unfortunately, Jackie had to swim by himself, but he didn’t seem to mind.  There were lots of other dogs there for company.

If you ‘mouse over’ the pictures there is a title for each one and if you click the photos, they open much larger.

I am really liking the new blinds we installed.  I think they give the place a little homier feel.  Once Ken figured out how to install the first one, the rest were not so bad, just a little difficult trying to install them under the existing valance.  Not much manoeuvre room.  I started off buying custom made blinds at Home Depot for the main living area.  I like them because they don’t have any little holes that let the light in.  But then I found these great Levelor blinds at Lowes that are cut to fit, and about 1/2 the price of the ones I had made at Home Depot.  And boy are they blackouts.  Very, very dark when closed.

These are the cut to fit Levelor

                                                              These are the custom made ones.

Tuesday – Had a nice quiet night’s sleep.  Very quiet and dark here at night.  This is a good thing!

We went for a nice walk down to the beach.  Jackson had another good swim.  No dogs down there when we were there, but that didn’t stop Jackie.  It’s a beautiful day here but they are calling for rain later on this evening.

Well until later then..take care.

Summer Routine

I see I have a few new followers.  I hope I haven’t missed someone.  A big welcome to Mike and Pat, I’ve been following their blog for awhile now.  Then there’s Kitty, and Davender who doesn’t appear to have a blog.  If you have one somewhere else let me know and I’ll update.

Summer has taken on it’s routine, which is just fine by me.  We had our family BBQ last Saturday and the weather couldn’t have been better.  It was just my 3 kids and their families, which made 14 of us.  The grandkids spent the day in the pool, it was a hot one.  We all took a dip at some time or the other to cool off.  Unfortunately I didn’t get any photos as I was busy playing hostess, making sure glasses were filled and food flowing.  Couldn’t believe the amount of food devoured for such a small crowd.  I guess swimming really gives you an appetite!

Last week we spent a couple days up near Peterborough in a campground where our very dear friends have a permanent park model.  It was a great visit we had with them.  Unfortunately I can’t say the same about the campground.  The roads were really tight driving for our 38 foot rig and that’s with the car off.  The site was so uneven that even with our jacks down we were on quite a slant.  There was garbage in our fire pit, the utility pole was almost falling over and NO wireless and NO cable.  There was even an empty beer bottle on our site.  YUK !!  All this for the price of $42.  I thought that was a rip off.  I did write the management a letter, but so far have not heard anything back.  I doubt very much if we will go back again.

We had some extremely hot weather last week, and I think the rest of the country and parts of the US had the same.  It was a real stinker.  Had to really make sure that Jackson took lots of swims in the pool if he was outside.  He doesn’t do well with the heat.

We did some work on the rig.  The porch light burnt out and when Ken went to remove the cover to replace it, it crumbled in his hands.  Not one RV dealer had one that fit so I found one for $5 on EBAY.  It arrived and has been installed. One of the day/night shades broke it’s string.  I checked out how to restring them and it didn’t look easy and I hate them anyway.  So I ordered blackout shades from Home Depot and Ken installed them.  It was a bit of an effort working in such a tight spot because there is a valance there that we wanted to keep as it looked nice.  Any how they are up and look fantastic.  Now I’m thinking hmmmmmm, I should do the other windows.  I just heard a loud groan coming from Ken’s direction !!!! 

We want to put some kind of a gizmo under the slideout awnings as if we have a heavy rain it tends to pool up there.  We saw, when we were in Panama City Beach, someone has very cleverly created an little stand made out of plumbing white PVC pipes and it just lifted the awning enough so that the water didn’t pool.  So Ken is going to measure what height he needs to create these.  When he gets them done I’ll post a picture of them.  Tomorrow we are putting ‘the beast’ back on the storage lot for a few weeks, then we’re taking her again for another 4 day jaunt.  

Well until later then..take care.

A Successful Birthday

Welcome Donna who has a blog.. http://therapytravels.blogspot.com/.  Thanks for joining up. 

We had a perfect weekend, weather wise.  A little on the hot side, but not unbearable.

My sister practically lived at our MH for the 4 days we were up there.  But that’s just fine.  We had several good chats.  The spa day was a hit.  She had never been before and I’m afraid that I may have started something.  She loved it.  We also took her out for dinner one night.  The restaurant was just excellent, service was top notch and the food was oh so yummy.  It was a lovely evening.

The rig somehow seemed larger with only 1 big dog in it.  Didn’t trip over legs and tails quite so much.

We’re all slowly getting better.  Still miss Maggie like crazy, but so glad that we don’t have to watch her being so unhappy and so uncomfortable anymore.  That was hard. Jackson was a moping around abit, but he’s getting better too.  Places that were strictly off limits because they were Maggie’s spots, and he knew it, like a certain corner of the couch, a special rug etc.  he now realizes that he can use.  Perhaps being in them he feels and smells her.  I still expect to see her laying somewhere.  Or hear her bark, she was one hell of a watchdog.  Always knew when someone was around. 

Well the rig is back in the driveway and stuff put away.  We’re going again next week but just for 2 nights to visit some friends.  Then I don’t know what’s up after that.  Maybe not go anywhere until we leave at the end of November.  But I think we’ll probably go somewhere for a short trip before then.

Until later then…take care.

We lost our Sweet Girl – Maggie March 18, 2000 – July 7, 2011

My heart feels like someone reached in a ripped it out of my chest.  Today we lost our yellow lab, Maggie.  Over the past couple months she has not been herself.  We took her in today to have some x-rays taken.  A huge mass was found in her abdomen and x-rays also revealed that her hips were very, very bad.  Over the past couple days, she needed assistance even in walking.  It was time to let her go.

I’m sure she is running like the mad man she used to be, like she did before all her ailments, through the woods, with the biggest stick she can find, in her mouth. 

Run free my sweet baby girl..get those nasty squirrels.

It’s Birthday Time Again

First let me welcome Judy and Emma.  Thanks for hopping onboard.  I have been following Judy’s blog now for some time and enjoy it very much.  Emma is her fur friend.
 
Well my sister’s birthday is once again almost upon us.  We are heading again up to Cookstown to the KOA there to celebrate her day with her.  We are spending a little more time there this year as #1 we really like that campground #2 we really miss RVing and want to spend time in the rig and most important #3 I get to spend some more time with my sister.  I am always stuck on what to get her for her birthday present.  Last year I got her one of those zero gravity chairs as she really wanted one.  But this year, my brain just kept coming up with a big fat ZERO.  So I hit upon the idea of a girl’s day at the spa.  So we are headed for a spa in Barrie and having a pedicure and a massage then going to lunch afterwards.  I think it will be a nice way for sister’s to spend a special day.  She has never had either so it should be a great experience for her.

We have been busy with the backyard pretty much since we got back from snowbirding.  I wanted to change one of my gardens this year, so I took out everything that was in it and bought some new perennials and put them in.  I needed a change of scenery.  So far they are doing well.

This is the back end of our yard.
  
The sprinkler is going and falling in the pool giving it a hazy look.

My new plantings

Like Al I too have been having a running battle with the squirrels.  They drive me insane!!!  What really bugs me the most is that they eat all the birdseed so quickly and they spend so much time at the feeders that the normal little birds are frightened and stay away.  Also hate those darn grackles  (I think that’s how you spell it)  they fling the birdseed all over and are big bullies.  And they poop everywhere and huge.  The little guys are again frightened away.  I bought a very tall wrought iron pole and placed it where the squirrels can’t jump from anything to get on it.  And I keep the pole part well greased.  I put those shower rod plastic covers over the metal as it holds the grease better.  I get a kick out of watching those little buggers slide down the pole.  They kind of take a running leap, get about 1/3 of the way up and then slide all the way down.  And they don’t like to have greasy paws, so the stand on the fence and stamp their feet trying to get the grease off.  Good entertainment.  My daughter-in-law told me that grackles don’t like niger seed so that’s what I’ve started putting in the feeders.  Unfortunately, I don’t think that cardinals, and other birds care for it either.  But if I can keep those darn big bullies off the feeders then that’s what I’m going to use.  Squirrels are not enamoured with them either.  I love watching the little finch come and go.

Come and get it squirrels

We had some renovations done on our fireplace a few weeks ago.  We changed from wood burning to gas fireplace when we bought the house 20 years ago.  But the company that installed the fireplace really did a crappy job of it and the fireplace wall was red brick faced which I have hated for ages.  So we had that brick wall torn out, a new bigger gas fireplace put in and I love it.  But now of course I had to paint.  Due to some other renovations we had done many years ago where we tore down walls, the fireplace is now part of my kitchen.  It’s been in the back of my mind that the kitchen needed to be repainted so this was as good as time as any.  So I have painted 1/2 and will get the other 1/2 done in the next couple of weeks.  Our kitchen is actually kind of 2 rooms due to the wall tearing down done years ago.  So 1 room is done.  I bought the paint for the other room today as that will motivate me to ‘get ‘er done’.


Maggie had another mystery illness like she had when we were in Panama City Beach.  This one last a little longer and we ended up taking her to the vet.  We knew it was something with her head as she was squinting and didn’t want anyone to touch her head.  She also laid on the carpet for about 1/2 hour with a cold pack on her forehead.  It must have felt good because she didn’t move.  The vet thought that she might have developed some arthritis in her spine near her shoulders, so a couple of x-rays were done, but they came back great.  Nothing wrong there, thank goodness.  So the vet put it down to the same thing that we thought, she had something like a migraine.  Imagine that!!!  Well Maggie does suffer from acid reflux and has to take Zantac, so now migraines.  Go figure.  This is a dog for Pete’s sake.  Albeit a very special dog.

Both dogs have been enjoying the pool.  Always enjoy seeing them cooling off in there.  Maggie just takes a quick dip, but Jackson would live in there. 

Didn’t mean for the blog to be so long, but it’s been awhile since I blogged so just catching up I guess.  Sorry.

Enjoy your summers, your trips, your family and we’ll talk soon.  Until later then..take care.

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.