On our Way, but what’s with this snow???

We did manage to leave on Friday and got to Monroe, Michigan.  It was very cold and even though they have heated water taps, we opted not to fill our tank.  It snowed about 2 inches overnight and we had to clean off the toppers before we left.

The drive was good although messy.  With having the auxiliary tank in the back of the truck we wouldn’t have to stop at all, except maybe potty stops.  But we do have to stop for Jackie, he does need to stretch his legs and he needs potty breaks.  Arthur is just a little saint, not a peep out of him.  The minute we land he makes a beeline for his litter box.  Poor guy!!

We are in Mount Vernon, Kentucky and guess what???  That’s right, it’s snowing here too.  I did put water in the fresh water tank and as long as we run the furnace our water supply has heat.  Being without water is just nasty. 

Tonight is hot leftover Christmas turkey sandwiches with gravy.  I froze them and brought them with us.

Tomorrow’s destination is Cartersville, GA.

Until later…take care.

Postponed (at least 1 day)

The weather is not co-operating for us.  Tomorrow, which was to be our department day promises snow flurries and wind, strong winds.  Those 2 things can be a deadly combination when towing a 5er.  Right now Friday looks good, so we’re aiming for that.  

Things are not set in stone, so we go when the weather dictates.  It’s been pretty cold here and today was download COLD.  I have the furnace set at 50 degrees in the rig, so it’s workable in there.  We’ll make sure we fill the propane tank before we leave here.  There are 2 tanks but we’ll use a fair bit running the furnace once we land.

We had a lovely Christmas.  How can 16 people sound like 40?  LOL.  Dinner was great, even if I do say so myself.  Hardly had any leftovers, which under the circumstance (leaving) was a good thing, but I did have turkey and gravy, so guess what we’ll be having on the way down???

Well that’s all I have for now.  Take care…until later.

Merry Christmas

I just wanted to wish you out there in blog land a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, a very happy in whatever you celebrate this time of year.

Packing up the rig has been a very slow process this year.  First, it’s been cold and wet.  I didn’t really want the slides out because the toppers might get wet and freeze.  Besides it’s not pleasant working out there in the cold.  I have put a heater, one of those that looks like a mini radiator out there.  It does take the chill out of the air.  Yesterday I turned on the propane and turned on the furnace, but set it low.  Again just to take the chill off.  I had 3 of the 4 slides out but yesterday it was quite windy and I noticed that the toppers looked wet and slight frozen.  So brought all the slides in.  Today is still chilly but sunny, so I’m heading out there in a while to put the 3 slides back out. 

I also had my 8 year old grandson here as my son and daughter-in-law were basking in the warm sun in Jamaica.  He was here just over a week.  So needless to say that kept us busy.  He usually takes a school bus from his home to school but because his school is literally around the corner from us, we walked him back and forth.  I gave him a choice to continue taking his lunch or come home here for lunch.  Well of course he wanted to come home for lunch.  So that make 4 trips a day to get him.  He’s a good kid, but still when you’re not used to kids being around that length of time it does tire you out.  To say nothing of the mess!!!!! He went home last night.  I’m enjoying the quiet of the house.    LOL.

We still are planning on leaving on the 27th.  But it all depends on the weather of course.  Our first day takes us just over the border into Michigan. 

I’m also having everyone over for dinner Christmas Day, so that will be a very busy day for me.  There will be 15 of us in total.  Big turkey, lots of food, lots of laughs.

So again Merry, merry Christmas to everyone.  Hopefully next time I blog we’ll be on the road.

It’s home!!!

I know it’s been a long time since I blogged but to be honest there really wasn’t much going on.  But I still do read all your blogs each and every day.

We did bring the ‘beast’ home today.  Ken is getting pretty good at backing it up into the driveway.  So now the fun begins.  Loading her up.  By now I pretty much have a routine that I follow.  But right now it’s plugged into charging the batteries.  The guys at the RV place had to replace the dining room table and left the main battery switch in the ON position and all the living room lights on.  So of course you know what that meant!!!???

Today is super duper mild but tomorrow it’s dropping significantly, so a little later, I’m going to go out and put a heater in there. 

I do believe this will be the last year for awhile that we are going to stick around this later.  Next year, we should be down there by now.

Anyhow..not much, but things have started to wind up so until later…take care.

France

If any of you saw that movie, ‘If it’s Tuesday, then it must be Belgium’ then you know what I’m talking about.  We took a 2 week bus tour through France.  We saw about 17 towns in 12 days.  We took my 23 year old granddaughter with us and she seemed to enjoy herself.  First time in her life she’s been any further than about 150 miles from her home.  So this was a huge experience for her.
My favourite..a vineyard!
Chenonceau Chateaux

We did enjoy it although Ken and I both agreed that we loved Italy far more than France.  We will return to Italy but no so France.  One of the stops was Normandy.  That was very sad to see the rows and rows and rows of crosses.  We went to the American cemetery.  Would like to have visited the Canadian one but our guide said it was about 80 km away and was very small.  Apparently Canada shipped the majority of the bodies of the soldiers home to be buried and there is only about 2000 Canadian graves.  I can’t remember how many American graves there were but it just went on and on.   In it’s sadness it was also beautiful and peaceful.  And we saw Omaha beach where they came ashore and the German bunkers.
Normandy 
Honfleur
Mont St. Michel

That’s a long flight 7 hours to London, then another hour to France.  My rump was numb by the time we landed.  Most of the hotels we stayed at were average, but a couple of them, oh my.   Rustic is certainly an understatement.  And what’s with the twin beds in Europe?  Almost rolled right out of a couple of them.  So tired of living out of a suitcase.  Always so nice to come home.

We are discussing a river cruise in Europe.  Any of you taken one?  If so let me know what you thought of it please.

Our big 5er had the washer/dryer installed and all minor things repaired.  It’s winterized and sitting in the storage lot until we bring her home about 3 weeks before Christmas.  Then I start the loading for our sojourn south. 

Christmas is very quickly creeping up on us.  We’re hoping to get away the day after depending on the weather of course.

Until later…take care.

Safety Brake Cable Works !!!

Well we found out that the safety break away brake cable works.  The hard way.  As Ken was pulling out of our driveway he has to make a 90° turn out of the driveway and onto the street.  I guess we had the cable secured to the wrong spot because as he turned it pulled it out of the rig.  Instant stop!!!!!  Couldn’t figure our for a minute what the heck the problem was then it dawned on me about the cable.  Checked it and sure ‘nuff’ it had pulled it out as he made the turn.  Perhaps it caught on part of the hitch.  Anyway, he put the clip back in and away he went.  Nice to know though that it does work.

I closed up and secured everything inside the rig.  The RV dealer now has to correct a few small concerns we have and also install the washer/dryer combo.  They also noticed a gouge in the dining room table when it arrived so ordered another table.  As Jayco makes all their own cabinetry etc.  they had to make another table.  Supposedly, it has arrived and they will replace it with the damaged one. 

As I couldn’t winterize it because they are going to install the washer/dryer and will, of course, be needing to run water, I have asked them to do that for me this year.  We really do not feel like bringing it home again and parking it just to winterize.  We will do it in the future just as we did for the motorhome.  I do like having it parked in the driveway as I can run in and put stuff away as I come across things, but it really is just too big to keep it there all the time, and then we have to juggle between our car and the truck on the other side of the driveway.  No sooner have we deposited it back in the store yard when another pile of RV things starts to grow.  By the time we get it home again mid December the pile will be quite large. 

We were always very comfortable in our Class A but found that things just kind of ‘hung around’.   There wasn’t places to put the odds and sods that need to be used everyday so they just kind of sat here and there.  Now with this 5th wheel, we find that we have lots more storage and places to put things.  Jackie’s bowls, for instant, we now have a great spot out of the way to put them.  And Arthur’s litter box, once we park and the lounge chairs are pushed forward there is a whole ton of space behind them and that’s where I put his box, out of the way, visually and physically.  Great!   On our shakedown trip we found that we were very, very comfortable, much more than before.  So much more living room and kitchen space.  And I have always hated the bench kitchen table in the Class A and now we have table and chairs.  Who rah!!  Even in restaurants we always ask for no benches.  Funny everyone else seems to love them. 

So we are really looking forward to taking this monster south this year.  The truck is so much more powerful than our gas Class A, and hills don’t seem to bother it at all.  Where as the motorhome would literally slow to a crawl on any significant hill.  In hindsight if we had to do it all over again we would have bought a diesel Class A right from the start.  But we are loving this 5th wheel or 5er as we call it. 

So until later then…take care.   Be safe out there.

No, we haven’t fallen off the face of the earth

Click on any picture to supersize it...
We’re still here.  It’s been hectic to say the least.  I don’t know where summer has gone, seems like we were just opening the pool, planting flowers and now poof, it’s almost gone.
We took delivery of our new 5th wheel.  It’s beautiful or so we think anyhow.  It’s like a small 1 bedroom apartment.  There is so much more cupboard space in the kitchen.  Less so in the bedroom, but that’s ok much prefer to have more space in the kitchen.  Now learning how to park this monstrosity of rig is a whole ‘nother’ ballgame.  Not so much park as back it up.  Oh lots and lots of fun.  We had the fellow at the RV place who takes care of parking all the RV’s there on the lot to give Ken a lesson.  It was very helpful but nothing is going to be better than just experience.  It just fits in our driveway, just.  But we only park it there when parking it up for a trip.  Otherwise we store it at the RV security lot.
We had a shakedown trip planned for the 14th, 15th, 16th of August, but on the 11th I had to take Ken to the emergency at the hospital.  Turns out he had to have an emergency appendectomy.  Good grief, that was a surprise.  He was in there for 3 days.  The horrible part was that from the time he entered the emergency entrance to the time he was diagnosed was 8 hours!!!  8 freaking hours it took them to find out he had appendicitis.  They could have ruptured in the mean time.  Gee Whiz !!!!!  As soon as he was diagnosed he was whisked away to surgery where they found they were close to rupturing.  That put the kibosh on our shakedown trip.  So  I rescheduled it fro the 28th, 29th, 30th of August instead.  We just got back today.  It was grand, just grand.  So much room.  We’re getting better at hitching it up, takes time but we’re getting there.
Just a couple shots of inside…
  Excuse the mess
Jackson and one of his ‘babies’
Couple of lazy guys!!
and this is Jackson’s favourite spot..watching the world go by the door.
This year we are here for Christmas.  But leaving right after for Florida.  Sure hope the weather is as good as it was last year.  It’s always iffy at that time of year.  Could run into a snow storm.  YUK !!
Until later then..take care.

It’s been a longgggggggg time!!!

Yes it’s been a long time since I blogged.  We have been busy up to our ying yangs.  But I always do find the time to read up on those blogs I follow.

First we decided to trade in our Class A and get a 5er.  And yes, we did just that.  We wanted a Jayco Pinnacle, and hoped to get a slightly used one but since they have only made the Pinnacle’s since 2011, chances were slim to none.  And it was none.  So we ordered a brand spanking new one.  Which of course meant that we had to wait for it to be built but the beauty of that was we could change a couple things we really wanted changed.  Such as…we did not want carpet in the living area so we now will have vinyl tile.  YEAH!!!  And strange to some people I know, we did not want a king size bed.  So YEAH they are putting in a queen.  We find that we just don’t use all that bed space, and also I would have to go out and buy all new sheets, blankets, comforters etc.  PLUS it does give us a little more space in the bedroom area.  The part I don’t like is that I had to buy it without actually seeing one first.  Mind you I hit every web site going that was advertising one so I could see what it looked like.  The model is the Pinnacle 36REQS. 

Now of course we need a truck.  Having never owned a truck I had absolutely no idea what we needed etc. but the good guy at where we bought our 5er filled us in.  We need a 1 ton diesel, dually not required but would give us a better ride.  We also need a crew cab due to a very large golden retriever who calls us Mom and Dad.  We really didn’t want a new one, due to the cost $$$$$$$ kaching!!! so went looking for a 2009.  We looked, and looked, we had a car dealer looking, they looked, and looked, the RV people looked and looked.  Lots and lots of gas 3/4 ton.  NOPE, not going to happen.  Finally spotted a 2011, Ford F350XLT that already had a 5er hitch installed.  It was significantly more than we wanted to pay, but it fit the bill.  We haggled and got him down a little bit.  It’s a dually.  It is one honking big truck!!!

Now all we have to do is wait for the 5er to arrive.  We already had a planned trip (if you follow my blog you should remember my yearly July trip to celebrate my sister’s BD with her) and really didn’t want to cancel it.  So we don’t know what rig we’ll be taking.  If the new one hasn’t arrived by then we’ll take our old one.  Feel sad about our ‘old beast’ but we need some more room and this 5er fit the bill.  I must go out and take a picture of the honking truck sitting in our driveway to show you, but the picture of the rig will have to wait.

We have a lot of work ahead of us to get things out of the old and into the new.  They said they would park them beside each other and we just have to shift everything from the old to the new.  The RV place is going to show Ken how to hitch, park, backup all that good stuff you have to do with a 5er.  He’s a good driver so I’m sure he’ll pick it up really quickly.  And I’m a good backup director so between us, we should, hopefully, have no problems.  I thought our Class A was tall but this guy is even taller.  A little anyway.

Friends that we met while in Emerald Beach RV resort who fulltime have come up to Canada for a month.  We have had then over for dinner a couple times, went to Black Creek Pioneer Village, the CN Tower and we’re going to Niagara Falls in a couple days.
 

Well that’s just about caught up.  In between all that we had a bathroom gutted and 4 week renovation done.  Worth it though, very pleased with the outcome.

Well until later then..take care.  Drive safe. 

Updates

Not a lot has been happening since we got home.  You tend to very quickly settle into the routine that you had before you left for parts ‘unknown’.  Which, in my books, is just fine.  It’s still a little cool to be doing any real yard work such as planting.  Did some cleaning up but that’s it.  Jackson keeps looking at the pool with great longing.  Poor bugger.

The rig is now back on the storage lot.  We are very seriously looking into trading in the motorhome and buying a fifth wheel.  We are in negotiations right now so it depends on the price.  We are looking at the Jayco Pinnacle either the 35 LKTS or the 36 REGS.  Of course that means we have to purchase a truck to haul it.  Also looking at a 2009 vehicle.  We would like a GMC, diesel, double cab.  Must be a big double cab for Jackson.  We love our motorhome, but we also realize that a fifth wheel does have more room inside and also more storage room.  As our motorhome is gas it tends to not have as much ‘basement’ storage as a diesel tends to have and we feel that we really need more room.  We’re at capacity now when we go south for several months.  Inside it’s pretty good for storage, not great, but pretty good.  And after being stranded a couple years ago in Flagstaff while they did some mechanical repairs on the rig, at least if something like that happened again, they can take the truck and we’ll still have our home.  Also the gas motorhome doesn’t handle mountains well and we want to go back to the US southwest.  But we won’t take the motorhome, it really struggles on some of those mountains.  I know diesel doesn’t because I have seen them go flying by us on the hills!!!!  So we just have to sit tight and see what kind of prices they come up with.  It will be very hard to say goodbye to our ‘beast’.  She is really beautiful (at least we think so)  and she has sheltered us from major rain storms, snow, major wind storms, umpteen tornado warnings and watches, cold weather, very, very hot weather.  And she has handled them all well and kept us cozy.  I hope she is loved as much by any new owners she will have as we have lover her.

One of my good friends passed away almost a month ago.  Karen was just 55 and full of beans and life.  She developed lung cancer, fought it bravely for a few years, thought she’d won, but it came back and she was gone very quickly.  Her cancer was the kind caused by inhaling herbicides.  She, as a child, had been stationed at one of Canada’s military bases with her family and the government was doing some ‘testing’ with agent orange.  You can read about it here http://agentorangecanada.com/.  I didn’t have a clue about any of this as I also was stationed there during that time period with my ex husband.  Now we didn’t live on the base as she did, we lived in Fredericton which is several miles away.  She lived right on the base.  There are all sorts of actions going on now with that due to so many people getting sick and dying.   There was no funeral, just a grand celebration of life for her.  There had to be around 250 people there which spoke well about how people felt about her.  Much, much better than a morbid funeral, in my opinion.

Also my nephew, my sister’s son, who is 49 has been diagnosed with non Hodgkin's Lymphoma and has been given 2 months to live.  So sad, so terrible.  I don’t know what to say to my sister to comfort her.  It’s very difficult.  We just have to be there for her.  He never married and has no children so he’s going home with them to spend what time he has left.  We come to expect the order of things that our children are still here when we leave this earth.  This is not the order of things.  It’s something I hope that I never have to live through. 

On a brighter note, Ken and I have booked a 2 week bus tour to France in September.  We are going to be taking my 23 year old granddaughter, Danielle.  She has just finished college and I think this will be a wonderful trip for her.  We took a bus tour several years ago to Italy and it was the best vacation we have ever had.  So great to leave the driving, hotel bookings, luggage, tours and everything else to someone else.  We walked our buns off on that tour which was great because we ate like pigs and didn’t put on 1 ounce.  As Italian food is our favourite, you can just imagine the meals.  I fell in love with Italy and hope to go back, but there are just too many other wonderful places to see first.  I will probably say the same thing about France after we return!! We’re all looking forward to it.

Some friends that we know from Panama City Beach and who fulltime are slowly heading this way for the month of June.  Tom and Linda and their Yorkie Reggie will be staying in a campground just a few miles from here.  They have never been to Canada and have a list of things they want to see.  #1 on that list is Niagara Falls, I’m told.  It will be nice to see them again.

Well my brain seems to have dried up, I can’t think of anything else.  We’re patiently waiting for somewhat warmer weather so we can start our planting.  The yard looks forlorn and naked without flowers and blue sparkling water in the pool. 

Until later then…take care.

HOME!!!!

We left Monroe, Michigan on Sunday morning just before 830AM.  After stopping for gas first thing we were on our way.  We stopped once for Jackson to go potty and that was it.  We rolled up into our driveway just past 130PM.  It was a good drive,  no rain, traffic was great.  The stop at the border hardly was that.  The fellow asked us when we had left Canada, (November 27) how many people on board (2 people, 1 cat, 1 dog) any liquor (bottle of wine in the fridge) and we got a Have a good day.  Thanks mate, Ken said and we were through.  Gotta love those Canadians, a lot easier coming home that’s for sure.

At first I was just going to empty the contents of the fridge and do the other stuff another day, but once we got going just couldn’t seem to stop.  Took us around 4 hours to empty the rig.  I have a process, fill a huge bag, bring it in and put that bag away before loading up again.  Works well for us as there isn’t tons of stuff hanging around then it’s a ‘where do I start’ moment.  I had laundry up to the yinyang.  Thank goodness I have those huge front loaders. 

Now all that is left is to give it a good cleaning and we can drive it over to the storage lot.  Tonight it’s going to be cold and I really don’t want to winterize again, so I’m going to put heat lamps in the water bins and turn the gas furnace on low. 

Sure is just wonderful to be home.  Jackson just about went out of his mind and Arthur acted like he’d never left.  Fun to get away but there really is ‘no place like home’.

Till later then…take care.

On Our Way

We left Foley, Alabama just after 8 AM on the morning of Wednesday, the 21st.  Our first stop for the night was Calera, Alabama.  Tonight we are just outside of Nashville.  It rained on and off on the way, and just after we settled in here, the skies opened up.  Right now it is just dreary and not raining, but there is more in the forecast.  Tomorrow night our planned stop is just outside of Cincinnati, Ohio.

I think we’re all glad to be heading home.  Jackson is bored out of his cotton pickin’ mind.  Even Arthur appears to be bored.  It was difficult for me after being home for a few days to attend my Dad’s funeral to return back down to Foley.  Ken said I should stay home and he’d drive home by himself, but I think that would be just plain stupid.  I am the navigator, the dog settler, the double and triple checker of things.  As it was the 3 of them were very lonely and very glad to see me.  Nice to be needed….

There will be an awful lot of unloading once we get this baby in the driveway.  Many, many trips in and out.

Well, until, later…take care.

A Trip Home to say Good-Bye

It’s been a very hectic week to say the least.  Last Friday the 9th I received a phone call from my sister to tell me that my Dad had a massive heart attack.  My Dad would have been 97 on May 7th of this year.  He lasted 24 hours on equipment and when they removed it his heart was so badly damaged that it just couldn’t go on and he passed away very peacefully.  I made flight reservations from Pensacola to Toronto and went home.  After the funeral I flew back down here.  Ken stayed with the fur kids. 

My Mother passed away 15 years ago and it didn’t take Dad long to meet a lovely lady and marry her.  We all loved Mary, she was a gem.  Unfortunately, she developed cancer and 7 years or so after they married she was gone.  My Mom, bless her heart, was a homebody, but not Dad, he was the social butterfly of the family.  He was extremely active all his life.  My sister compared him to the Energizer bunny and that he was.  But Mary, well Mary loved to do all the things Dad loved to do.  Dad was a fanatical fisherman and Mary loved to fish.  They took many fishing trips together.  They loved to hike and walk and both kept very active.  Until she got sick. 

After Mary passed away, again it didn’t take Dad long to meet someone else and marry her too.  Unfortunately, she was no Mary.  None of us really warmed up to her, but that’s another story.

They moved into a seniors complex, not a old age home but an apartment complex for seniors.  Dad helped run all the social events, which was absolutely no surprise to us.  He had thousands of movies, so he arranged movie nights for the seniors.  They played lawn bowling, bean bag baseball, I think they even had nights out.  He ran the bingo and called the numbers.  And Dad helped or completely ran them all.  He just had to keep busy.  And he loved it.

There are 4 of us, I have 2 older sisters and 1 younger brother.  We all said that we hoped that when it was Dad’s time that he went quick because it would have just killed his spirit if he was any sort of an invalid.  Dad was a healthy man all his life.   He had a couple illnesses the last couple years but he bounced right back.  He had no arthritis, no major aches or pains.  He was an incredible man.  He led a charmed life, he really did. 

My Mom &  Dad were missionaries in the West Indies, on a small island called Dominica.  I was the only one born there, but other than my brother, who was born in Canada, we 3 girls were raised there.  My Dad never stopped for a second down there, preaching, helping the people with things, just go go go.  I do believe it was the happiest time in my Dad’s life.  He loved it there, but we came home in 1958 and stayed home.  But Dad continued his go go go.  He never stopped for a second, couldn’t sit still, loved bowling, fishing, tennis anything that kept him busy.  He would walk into a room where he knew no one and within 10 minutes was friends with all of them.  Not a shy bone in his body. 

Up until about 10 years ago he was an avid tennis player. One of the reasons he stopped playing was because he told us all his player friends had passed away AND they were all younger than him and when he found new players he didn’t think they gave him a good game.

So it was not a mourning, but a celebration of 97 years of a life that was well spent and well enjoyed.  There were few tears, much laughter at the funeral home and service.  You cannot mourn a man who lived so long and so well.  I’m sure that where ever his spirit his, he is running something, playing something and absolutely, taping movies. 

As they say, God’s speed Dad. 

New Home

On March 1, we arrived here in Foley, Alabama.  We are staying in Bella Terra RV Resort.  It is a beautiful ownership resort, but we are just renting a spot.  It is a very beautiful resort.  The heading photo is our site here.  This is what we see out of our front window.

The evening we arrived the owner, who has his rig and a cute casita here on his lot, had a cocktail party.  Although we were tired from the trip and setting up, we walked over.  People are very friendly, and we spent about an hour or so socializing there then headed back home.  Then last night they had a singer and open bar and snacks over at the clubhouse.  We walked over and it was nice.  We left at intermission.  Jackson is not a happy camper being left along.  He hates it.  So we try not to leave him too long.  Tomorrow afternoon they are having a Bloody Mary Bash.  I’d prefer it to be a Bloody Caesar Bash but I’ll take the Bloody Mary’s.

We arrived to beautiful hot weather.  It was lovely, and the very first time this whole trip that I have put shorts on.  But alas, it wasn’t to last.  We have since been plagued with foul weather.  I’m sure you’re heard about the tornadoes in northern Alabama, Tennessee and Kentucky.  It was awful.  We have several tornado watches and warnings along with severe thunderstorm warnings.  Thankfully only the thunderstorms have materialized and RAIN.   Also it’s quite windy, all awnings have been in for a couple days now.  We are RV bound today as the weather is just too nasty.

Yesterday we drove down to Gulf Shores.  A very pretty place and one of the most beautiful beaches we have ever seen.  I have never seen or felt sand so white and so fine.  It’s so soft on your feet.

Well hopefully you are all safe and weren’t in the path of the tornadoes.  Until later …. take care.

Our boy is 5!!!!!!!!!!!!

Five years ago today, our beautiful Golden Retriever, Jackson, was born.  His Mom was a small lovely honey coloured Golden and his Dad was a large white or cream Golden.  He had 9 or 10 litter mates.
 
Jackson’s Dad & Mom

We always wanted another dog.  We had our precious Maggie, a yellow lab, she was now 7.   She was suffering from a torn cruciate ligament and major surgery and we couldn’t take her to park any longer to run and play with the other dogs, something she loved to do.  Once I retired in 2006, we decided to get another dog as company for Maggie and someone for her to play with and have a buddy.  Boy was that a mistake!

Maggie

We went to the breeder, a drive of about 2 hours, to pick out our new furkid.  When we got there, there were 5 puppies in the whelping pen.   We had no idea if we were going to get a male or female, we just thought we’d just go with the flow.
 
Jackson and his brothers & sisters
(I think he’s on the far right)

We played with the pups for a bit and they were all nuts, jumping and yelping all but one.  He sat there, was quiet, and just plain sweet.  I asked about him and was told that he had always been the quieter one among his siblings.  Bingo!!! this was the one for us due to the fact that Maggie was what we called the ‘puppy from hell’ !  Man she was a bad one.  Papers were signed, instructions given and we were off.  In hindsight I should have put him in a crate but I thought he would like to sit on my lap on the drive home.  He wasn’t comfortable on the ride home, proceeded to upchuck on me.  Poor guy, must be hard, never away from his family, all he knew was that whelping pen and the house and all of a sudden, he’s with strangers, in a weird moving vehicle, no wonder.   As soon as we got home I took him right outside into the backyard where he threw up again, but then once his feet hit solid earth he was fine.

We introduced him to Maggie, she sniffed him and walked away.  Jackson was kind of excited, I suppose thinking, ‘great, a 4 legged buddy’.  Maggie, I’m sure, was thinking, ‘when are you taking this guy back??!!’  They had a few buddy moments now and then over the years but not often and only when Maggie felt like it.  Maggie was a bossy, dominant girl and she wanted us all to herself.  She had a beautiful personality, but she had her own mind and once it was set, it was set.

But there was a kind of truce between them, Jackson adored her and Maggie tolerated him, barely.  But he never seemed to mind.  He’s a happy guy, and his main world is Ken and myself.  He did miss Maggie a lot when she died, he moped around, sighed a lot, but in a few months he did get over it.

Everyone who meets Jackson, seems to fall in love with him.  Not only is he beautiful (I am after all his Mom you know so what else would I think?) but he has the most amazing personality.  There is not a mean bone in his body.  He’s just a big love bug.  He listens well, is a joy to be around.  If I had to find one fault with him it’s that he’s not the greatest of travellers.  Not always the greatest when you RV.  In the RV he’s not so bad but in a car, oh my goodness.  Probably due to the bad start when he arrived home.  He fusses and whines and just is a royal PITA.  He’s a major, major foodie, but then a lot of retrievers are.

He has brought such joy to our lives over the past 5 years.  He was a blessing to have around after Maggie died.  He helped us heal.  Can’t imagine our lives without him. 

Happy Birthday Jackson..we love you.

We’ve Moved

Today we left Emerald Coast RV Beach Resort.  We left around 10 AM.  It was difficult to say goodbye to our friends.  It’s really something how close you can get to people in 3 short months.  A few tears were shed and we were on our way.  It’s only about 120 miles down the road.    It’s Bella Terra in Foley, Alabama.  We are here for 6 weeks then we head home.  Seems like along time ago that we left home.

The sites here are lovely, large, paved, neat and clean.  They had a cocktail evening tonight at someone’s site.  This is an ownership campground, so these people owned their site.  They had a lovely gazebo with a gas fireplace and they had built a casita on their site.  It was very nice and all the people we met seemed very friendly.  It was a party to get to know everyone as I gather several new people arrived today.

Very tired tonight, took a lot of work to setup everything inside and out.  I will blog more later on with details about the area and the campground.

Until later….take care.

I can’t believe he ate the whole thing!!!!

Our Jackson is a foodie.  He is driven by food.  It seems it’s all he thinks about.  We’ve had a heck of a time to put Arthur’s (our cat) food somewhere in the rig where Arthur can get it and Jackie can’t.  Jack has eaten so much cat food while we’ve been in the rig, it’s just ridiculous.  We finally have it beat, at least most of the time.  I brought one of those child gates and use that.  Arthur’s food is kept on the floor on the passengers side, where my feet would go when we are on the road.  I put the gate across the doghouse at the front of the rig, Arthur can squeeze by, Jackie can’t.

Although…………yesterday that little bugger manager to get by it.  My fault, he hates that gate and usually avoids it like the plague, but I guess yesterday the call of the cat food was just too much.  He cleaned poor Arthur out.  I had just leaned it instead of making sure the gate was secure.

Jack’s barrier before being installed.

Today, we had a quick run to Walmart, were gone maybe an hour and a half.  We keep, at the front door, a container of treats, they’ll call PupCorn.  They are little puffs of either peanut butter, or cheese flavoured healthy treats for dogs.  Look like Cheetos.  All the dogs love them.  When we left for Walmart it was full, when we came home, this is what was left.  I believe he accidently knocked it over, he waits at the door for us, and as luck would have it, the lid came off.  It had fallen into the stair well and I guess that’s when the lid fell off.  He probably thought he’d died and gone to heaven except of course now he’s paying the price for being a pig.  The fact that he didn’t finish them off tells me just how full he was.

I put a wine glass (and it’s a fairly large glass) beside it so you can see the size of the container.  That was full to the top before we left and as you can see it’s just up to the bottom of the label. 
He was in dire straights when we got home to get to the doggie potty, gee I wonder why????  And he has been a real slouch since then.  I had to give him a Pepto Bismol as I knew he had an upset tummy.  I bet he’ll have to go out in the middle of the night to get rid of some of the PupCorn!!!!
Unfortunately, dogs don’t learn by their mistakes.  I know if he had a chance again he’d do it again.  He is such an oinker.

Until later…take care.

Rainy, miserable day

As we are RV bound today, I thought it would be a good day for a brief update on my blog.

We have had some really cold weather the past couple days.  Saturday and Sunday nights were really cold, below freezing.  The first night I shut the water off at the tap and put the hose in the heated utility bin.  The next night it wasn’t quite so cold so left it out, but kept any bins that house water, heated.  Last night the temperatures were back to normal. 

Jackson had a run in the other day at the dog park.  Now Jackson is the most easy going guy, but I find now that he doesn’t have Maggie around who was THE BOSS, he’s stepped up to the plate a couple times.  Apparently this Akita and Jackson were romping and then both went after a ball.  They both decided that it was their ball and had some words.  Ken said that Jackie didn’t take any guff from the other guy but he did come home with 3 small puncture wounds on his muzzle.  I cleaned them up, put some antibiotic cream on them and have kept an eye on them.  Then to make matters worse (for me anyway) I was clipping his toenails yesterday and some of his are black and you can’t see the blood vessel in them.   Yes, I clipped one a little to short, funny though he didn’t flinch, make a sound or anything, just saw lots of blood on the mat.  Fortunately I have some of the blood clotting stuff for dogs, so used that.   Oh and BTW some other people around here said that the Akita wasn’t a nice dog.  The owners have left the park. 

Last Thursday we went up to Panama City Beach Conservation Park.  (you can click on the link).  It has some beautiful trails and we took our bikes and went up with another couple.  What a lovely place and we hope to get up there one more time before we leave.  We biked probably over 10 miles, got there around 10AM and left after 1PM.  We then all went to Olive Garden for lunch and had the all you eat soup, salad and bread sticks.  YUMMY.  So much for the calories burned with the bike ride ???!!!!!!

We leave here on March 1st and head over to Foley, Alabama for 6 weeks.  From there we head home.  As much as we really love this place and the people are super duper great, we’re ready for a change of scenery.  Just hate the putting things away for the trip.  You tend to really ‘dig in’ when you’ve been in one spot for 3 months.

Well until later then…take care.

1/2 Way

Ken informed me yesterday that we were at the 1/2 point of our winter trip.  Ten weeks gone and 10 weeks to go.  Where has it gone?

A couple days ago we took a trip to Apalachicola, which is about 65 miles down the road.  We went with some good friends we met here at the campground, Joe & Gay.  We had an absolutely lovely day.  The weather started out kind of icky but it progressively got nicer as the day went along.   We stopped for lunch at a little local restaurant there and I had bay scallops.  All our meals were delicious.  Then we just walked around for a little while before we had to head home.  They have 4 fur kids and we have Jackson, so neither of us like to gone much more than 6 hours.  Jackson really hates to be left alone and I’m sure their puppies feel the same.  So we headed home and all the ‘kids’ were very happy to see their Mom’s & Dad’s.

Yesterday we walked over to the mini putt with some other friends we met here last year.  It was a good hike to the mini putt about a mile or so.  We played 18 holes then walked back home.  It was a lovely warm day and we were glad to get back home.  But it was good exercise for all of us. 

It’s only 11 AM and already it is 76 degrees out there, for my fellow Canadians that’s about 23 degrees C.  Yesterday I actually turned on the A/C for a little while.  Mostly for Jackson, as he doesn’t do well with the heat.  Well I suppose if I was walking around with a fur coat like his I wouldn’t either.  He has always been a ‘cool’ dog.  Even when he was a puppy, he would lie on the the vents at home when the A/C was on.  And he likes a fan blowing on him.  Guess that why when we’re home he spends the summer in the pool.  And he loves the snow, unfortunately for him we are away from the snow now that we head south.  Here’s a picture of him taken a few years ago just after we’d had a major snowfall.  To us snow is a four letter work!!!!!

Not sure what’s on the agenda for today.  Maybe a trip to Sam’s Club or maybe a trip to Mexico Beach a little community about 30 miles or so down the road.  Has a lovely beach.  Decisions..decisions…Must remember to take my camera.

I almost forgot to welcome my newest follower, Teri.  Welcome Teri and you can check out her blog here.

So until later….take care.

St. Andrews State Park

I would like to welcome Russ Krecklow.  Welcome and hope I don’t bore you too much.

Today we drove down to St. Andrews State Park which is about 6 miles down the road.  It’s a beautiful park.  They have a campground there which is really nice, woodsy, and basically right on the beach, but they don’t have sewer hook-ups.  And to me, if you’re staying for awhile it’s just a PITA to unhook and drive to the dump every few days.  Not sure if they have 50 amp either.  The beach there is absolutely beautiful, clean, white sand, turquoise water.  But as in just about all beaches in Florida, no dogs allowed.  What a shame, because Jackson would have had a ball running on that beach.  But it only takes one or two bad apples to spoil it for the rest of us.  We walked about 2+ miles on the beach.  Perfect day for it, not too hot, with a slight breeze.  Here are some of the pictures I took.

Waiting for just the right wave…

Sand dunes.

We’ve had a couple sad events here.  First about a month ago, the GM who runs the campground had a stroke, he is just 71.  He is still in the hospital undergoing therapy and apparently responding very well,  His right side is still in need of a lot of work though, but they got to him right away and got that shot administered.   He’s a lovely man and I hope he recuperates 100%.  Then 2 days ago, a gentleman (we don’t know him) had a heart attack and passed away, he was just 67.  He apparently had been out washing his rig that day, woke up in the night complaining of a sore shoulder, took an Advil, and sat down in his recliner.  His wife went back to bed and in the morning when she got up he had died.  How awful. 

The weather has been great, much, much warmer than last year when we were here.  On February 1st we’ve been here 2 months.  Now THAT is hard to believe.  Time has flown by. 

We have been doing quite a bit of bike riding.  My rear end is finally getting used to the seat. 

Well until later…take care.

Off to Destin

As we are only 50 miles from Destin, we decided to make a quick trip over there.  We have been checking the weather forecasts and decided that today was going to be a good day.  Until we got up this morning and it was so foggy.  The fog was supposed to burn off around 10:30 or so.  Well it didn’t, but we left anyway hoping it would eventually burn off.  It really never did completely.  We’ll go back again in a few weeks.

It reminds me a little of Myrtle Beach but on a smaller, less glitzy scale.  We had lunch in this great Irish pub called McQuires. I had the beef dip and Ken had fish and chips.  Both were very good, drat should have taken a picture of the food.   What a fascinating place.  There are dollar bills EVERYWHERE, hanging from the ceiling, walls.  Story is that when they first opened the first tip the waiter got he signed it and put up on the wall.  People have been doing it ever since.  They say that there is over 1 million dollars hanging up there.  They also have their own micro brewery there.  I had a glass of one of their brews and it was very good.  And they also brew their own root beer.  We will definitely go back there.

 

Until later….take care.

A Happy Shopper

I have been a M&M (the candy company) fan for a long time.  Although I do enjoy their candies, it is their merchandise that I love.  Every Christmas time back home the local Wal-Mart have a novelty candy dispenser for sale.  They are different every year.  I have collected them for many years.  The latest dispenser was always delivered by Santa.  When I ran out of place to put them, I told Santa that I had to stop collecting them.  Sob…these are just a few of them…

Well…………!!!!!! imagine my pleasure when the Wal-Mart down here in Panama City Beach had a whole display of M&M.  Oh my, I was in my glory.  So I bought a mug, t-shirt,  nightshirt and keychain.  But today I headed back and picked up the whole set of coffee mugs, another t-shirt and a pair of fleece comfy lounging pants.  I had to drag myself away. 

I am now lounging in my very comfy pants.  Hmmmm warm and cozy.

We have had a couple very cold nights.  Last night was the coldest, got down to freezing.  I disconnected from the tap and turned on the utility lights in the bins.  Put water in the fresh water tank and we were good.  Even with the space heaters running during the night I did hear the furnaces kick in, both front and back.  So it was cold out.  But we were lovely and warm.

Paid Five Guys a couple visits since my last blog.  How do they do it?  Their burgers are just so darn good.  Hard to stay away.

We are going to drive down to Destin very soon.  It’s about 60 miles from us here.  We really want to see the town and it’s time for a change of scenery.

Until later then…take care.