We're On Our Way - RV Journeys of Dan & Gail

2010-02-06T13:30:00.000-05:00

Click on the picture below for some pictures of our site at Saddle Ridge

2010 02 05 Saddle Ridge wild hog

An Early Morning Wake-Up Call and A Ride Around the Property - Lake Placid, FL

2010-02-05T21:34:00.002-05:00

Actually, I was already up and had taken Kasey outside, when I heard the strangest noise coming from the back of the house. Here's what we found as we walked around the house, sandhill cranes. These two seem to have adopted the place and think the yard belongs to them. They were not aggressive, and Kasey really didn't seem to be bothered by them. At least, he didn't chase them. The cranes make a loud honking sound and they do it at the same time. I'll try to get a short video tomorrow to post so you can hear them. They hung around for awhile, and pooped on the back patio, but we didn't see them the rest of the day. Sandhill cranes mate for life, so I assume this is a male and female.

We decided to take an earlier morning drive around the property to see if we could see any more wildlife; and, last night while riding around with Renee, one of the managers, we didn't see the seven horses that are free to roam the property. She said that's not unusual, but we wanted to see if we could find them this morning. No such luck!! There are several large stands of scrub palms and trees, so they must have been hiding in one of them. We'll check on them again tomorrow. But we did see the two draft horses, Annie and Mae, who hang out together. They don't join the other horses, but they love treats, so need to remember to take carrots tomorrow. Will post a picture of them later. There are also two horses who stay up toward the front of the property and especially around the house, in addition to the three in the corral by the house. The ones in the corral are being treated for various ailments, and the other two are a couple of loners who have teamed up together, but don't join the regular herd.

Itchey is on the left; Mama, who is due to foal in about a month, is looking over the fence, and Turbo is in the middle. They are all very friendly, but not aggressive. Kasey just ignores them, and they don't bother him. At least he doesn't try to herd them.

The BIG thrill of the day was the wild hog we saw. Renee thinks there are 2 or 3 of them, but we only saw one today. They stay at the back of the property which is about 3 miles from where we are parked.

I had no idea they were that big. And we were probably 300 feet away, and not planning on getting any closer!!!! :) He never even looked our way, but ambled off into some denser foliage.

Not sure what kind of a bird this is, but he's the last of the wildlife for today. Need to dig out the bird books.

Also saw a large turtle at the edge of one of the ponds, but he slipped into the water before I could get his picture.

We had quite a bit of wind and rain this evening, but it's just sprinkling now. Glad the wind isn't blowing like it was earlier. Looks like we're really going to enjoy our time here, even though it's out in the boonies. Hope to get some good sunrise pictures tomorrow.

More later.......

Workamping (not really working) - Lake Placid, FL

2010-02-04T21:22:00.063-05:00

I know I've been very lax in posting, but seems we needed some time to just unwind. We settled in at Little Charlie Creek Campground and reunited with friends we met when we stayed here last February. It's always nice to see familiar faces and get caught up with everyone. I'll catch up with our activities for the past month in another post. Dan has been doing something he's wanted to do for years!!!! Will post pictures and tell all about it tomorrow.

For now, just want to share where we moved to today. We are at Saddle Ridge, a 1200 acre gated housing development especially designed for horses and the people who own them. We are parked in the driveway of the model home to just be a presence here - free rent for 3 months. The area is plotted out in 10 - 17 acre sections for a total of 98 housing plots. There are meadows, live oaks, ponds, deer, wild turkeys, armadillos, sandhill cranes, alligators and a herd of 13 rescued horses. www.saddleridgefl.com

This is the model home on the front of the property with our motorhome parked in the driveway. Notice the motorcycle is off the truck. Dan went for a ride around the property

The back patio and back yard with hammock in place. Yes, that is a horse in the background. His name is Itchey.

This is the view off the back patio of the house.

I think we're really going to enjoy our stay here. We are about 10 miles from Lake Placid, and 20 miles from Sebring, and there are no close neighbors. But, this is a very beautiful property, and we are looking forward to spending time here. We'll be meeting the owners on Sunday. The managers, Jeff and Renee, are who we've dealt with this week when we found this opportunity. Dan is also hoping to do some Bobcat work, as there are some secondary roads and trails that need to be cleared. And, Jeff mentioned that they want some picnic tables and park benches built to place around the property. So, looks like he could be busy. Of course, those things will all be paying jobs.

This development was started about 3 years ago, and then with the housing market collapse, there hasn't been much activity here. But the owners are hopeful that things may be turning around. We sure hope so.

So, until next time.......

We're HERE - Wauchula, FL

2010-01-02T19:32:00.000-05:00

We finally arrived at Little Charlie Creek RV Park, Wauchula, FL at 5:45pm. The orange trees are loaded with oranges. Will get pictures tomorrow.
As I said yesterday, the staff at Camping World and Lazy Days couldn't have been nicer or more concerned about getting us out of there, but today seemed like a LOOOONG day. After installing the new satellite antenna, we were unable to get a signal on the bedroom TV on Thursday, but we were able to watch the front TV which worked great. So, the guys checked the cable, before it was passed through the roof to the bedroom, tested both receivers, and finally decided to change out the new antenna. SUCCESS!!! We have the latest Slimline DirecTV multi satellite antenna which sees all three DirecTV satellites. We no longer have the pretty black dome on top of the motorhome, but when this antenna is stored, it is much lower than the old dome.

So we left Camping World with 4 new house batteries; a revamped, cleaned and painted battery compartment; new battery isolater controller; new satellite antenna, 2 new DVR HD receivers; and testing of several systems which we had questions about, all of which checked out OK. Just can't say enough about the guys who worked on our home. They were great. Should have gotten a picture of them. Especially, Will and Gene, who worked on the TV issues, and Eric, who solved all our battery issues. Seems that the original wiring was not REALLY done incorrectly, but was not done to maximize certain usages.

Some things about the fulltiming lifestyle are just like living in a "sticks & brick", but we've learned to go with the flow. We still don't have to scoop snow, mow grass, maintain a 2800 sq ft house, or go to W**K. :)

Anyway, we are quite happy with Camping World in Seffner, FL and the staff at Lazy Days for the 2 days we stayed with them and then finding Kasey.

We are really looking forward to meeting up with friends we met here last January. But tomorrow is devoted to cleaning, as the motorhome hasn't had a good cleaning for several weeks.

More later.....

Happy New Year - A detour, but almost to Wauchula, FL

2010-01-01T20:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year to everyone. We are parked in the shop at Camping World/Lazy Days RV at Seffner, FL, just east of Tampa; having some much needed electrical upgrades to the motorhome, AND we changed out the old TV antenna for the lastest DirecTv HD antenna. Also have 2 new DVR HD receivers. NOOOO, there are not any HD TV's in our future, but we'll be prepared when we do decide to upgrade the TV's.

We did have a bit of a scare last night when Kasey ran away when firecrackers went off in the neighborhood. He was actually at the door, and I was about 10 feet behind him. He just raced away. This complex is about 20-25 acres, completely fenced with only 2 or 3 gates to enter. Most of the space is taken up with several hundred RV's for sale and an RV park. They have 24 hr security here and after looking for him for 2 hours, we finally went to bed hoping that the fireworks would end after midnight. The security people cover the whole area in golf carts. I gave Charlie some treats for Kasey and he said he woud call as soon as he found him. And he did; at 4:10 am. He was at the far north side under some bushes in a fence corner. One of the girls got down on the ground with a treat and he came to her. He wouldn't come out when they called his name. She picked him up and he licked her face. Typical Kasey. He has slept all day today. I'm sure his adrenalin level was really high last night since the fireworks continued for so long.

So thankful we didn't start the new year wihout him. He will always be on a leash now when we go out. Just can't trust him.

The techs still have some things to finish up tomorrow. We should be in Wauchula tomorrow evening or Sunday.

The staff at Camping World and Lazy Days have just been wonderful to us. Not just with dealing with a lost dog, but they have been great with our motorhome issues. We've had electrical problems for about the past year, and haven't been able to get things squared away. Our lead tech, Rich, actually listened and took notes as we explained the battery problems we've been having. These guys are all so competent and very willing to share what they are doing and being sure that we understand all they are doing.

Several of Lazy Days security people have stopped by today to see how Kasey is doing after his "ordeal last night." He has slept ALL day. I baked Steph's monster cookies as a "thank you" for everyone's help.

Otherwise, we've watched some TV and just hung out.

Next post should be from Little Charlie Creek RV Park in Wauchula, FL where we'll be for the next two months.

More later.....

We've Left COLD Illinois - Clarksville, TN

2009-12-26T23:42:00.000-05:00

We are finally headed to warmer weather. Woo Hoo!!! Hopefully, this will be the LAST winter that we spend in Illinois. Last year we left in January after a sleet and ice storm. Today the roads were clean, but it was windy and cold and it snowed last night. Loading the motorcycle in the truck, cleaning ice off one of the slide toppers and hitching up the truck to the motorhome in cold weather is just not any fun.

We will be in Wauchula, Florida on January 1st. Plan to stay at Little Charlie Creek RV Park for 2 months. Then travel a little further south before heading up the east coast to eventually spend some time with Jennifer and Gene just outside of Boston.

We spent part of October, November and December at our daughter's in Monticello, IL. Dan was helping get the cattle barn finished. I spent a lot of time with Erin and her horse, Mercedes; and cheering Erin on at two horse shows. Will post some pictures in the next few days of Mercedes and Erin's show pictures. Mercedes is a grey quarter horse, but Erin rides saddlebreds to show.

It's been a long day and we plan to be on the road early tomorrow, so I better hit the sack. Now that we are traveling again, I'll keep up with this blog. I'm thinking of posting about 3 times a week. I think that should be more manageable.

More later......

A Day in the Life of a Fulltimer - Hanging Out at Panera

2009-10-26T14:41:00.000-04:00

Yes, I'm killing time at Panera this afternoon. Freightliner issued a recall for the steering box on motorhomes built between 2004 and 2008. So I called Truck Center in Springfield last week to set up an appointment to see if the part needed to be replaced on our motorhome. I told them that we lived fulltime in the motorhome. The appointment was set for 8:00am this morning, and I had a dentist appointment at 8:00am. Not a problem. It doesn't take two of us to drive the motorhome to Truck Center, and I didn't need Dan to hold my hand at the dentist. And we knew it shouldn't take too long to see if our steering box was actually on the recall list. If it was, the part would have to be ordered and we'd have to take the motorhome back another day for a 4 hour appointment. And Dan wanted to take it to another truck place where he gets the oil and filters changed and thought he would have plenty of time to get that done this morning. He wasn't happy with the first oil change done at Truck Center and the price was higher. We had to take it to Truck Center for the recall because they are a Freightliner service center.

So we were up at 6:00am, walked the dog (he was a little confused at having to go outside in the rain and the dark so early in the morning); had breakfast, and finished packing up the items that I didn't put away last night. Even just driving 5 miles, we still need to stow things as though we are moving down the road. We do leave some things out on the non-skid mats and several things are anchored down with museum putty, but we still have to go through the whole pre-travel process. We both left our driveway at 7:30. I put a load of clothes in the washer at the local laundromat and went to the dentist. (Small town, don't need to worry about the clothes). Finished with the dentist about 8:30, dried the clothes at the laundromat, visited with another lady there for about 1/2 hour and finally went back to the house about 10:30. NO MOTORHOME, NO DAN AND NO TRUCK. Now, I had been told it would only take about 1/2 hour to check for the recall. And it's still raining; not hard, but a steady drizzle.

Called Dan and he said they hadn't pulled the motorhome into the shop yet!!! He told them that we lived in it fulltime as he watched another Mandalay motorhome being pulled into the shop (a 2008 model there for another recall). The shop guy, whose name was also Dan, said, "Oh, I didn't know that." So it finally got into the shop at 11:00. I, in the meantime, was sitting in our driveway with the dog in the car, reading a book. There is no furniture in the house, and there is a problem with the furnace so we haven't been able to heat the downstairs. Pete is coming Tuesday or Wednesday to fix it.

We decided to meet at Denny's for lunch, since all the food is in the Mandalay which is now in the shop. As I was driving to Denny's, Truck Center Dan called to say that our gear box was NOT on the recall list and we could pick up the motorhome. Dan had checked about getting the oil changed at the other shop, but they can't do it until 1:00pm.

Soooooo, that's why I'm hanging out at Panera. Denny's doesn't have WiFi, or I would have just stayed there. Kasey is really confused. He can't understand why he has to stay in the car all day.

Oh, I almost forgot. Dan also has to get propane today while he's running around in the motorhome. We haven't been running the motorhome furnace, but also don't have much propane. We do have 2 small electric heaters which work real well to warm things up in the early morning.

Just another day in the life of two RV fulltimers. The day didn't go as planned, but nothing bad happened; we don't have to schedule another appointment for the recall; and we got the scheduled maintenance done and checked off the list.

Back to working on the house tomorrow.

Musings on Our Lifestyle and Back in Illinois

2009-10-22T19:41:00.000-04:00

We arrived back in Rochester on Friday, Oct. 16. It is really interesting to see how some things have stayed the same and others have changed after having been gone for several months. There was extensive road work being down on East Lake Drive, the main road we take to get to Springfield, when we left in June. Most of the time the road was one lane during the road work. It was heavily traveled, thus the need to widen it; but it seemed like it was taking forever to finish the work. The work is all completed, with turn lanes, a traffic signal, new grass on either side and one of the smoothest surfaces we've ever seen. And a hike and bike trail. I hope the people who use it every day appreciate all the work that went into it.

Our neighborhood looks about the same. The house looks just like it did when we left (in need of getting the remodeling done). Our neighbor has kept the yard mowed and checked inside occasionally. After getting the motorhome parked and hooked up (we have 50amp and water on one end of the house and access to a sewer drain in the basement to dump the tanks via our macerator pump, we talked a little about our emotions and feelings of coming back to this house. We concluded that we really don't have any feeling one way or another, except the need to get this remodeling done so we can turn the key over to the realtor!! We raised our family in this house. Dan built the house the spring of 1978 after Sarah was born, and all our children graduated from the Rochester Schools. We have LOTS of memories of kids over to visit, birthday parties with grandparents included, Easter egg hunts in the back yard, Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners around our big Amish built dining room table (with card tables added as a daughter-in-law and sons-in-law were added, and then grandchildren). Other memories of each child learning to drive, working at the local grocery store, library and restaurant and then leaving for college or the military, or just to "find themselves". At one time both parents and two children were all in college at the same time. Dan built a house for my parents just one block away so they could be closer to us as they were becoming less independent.

But time marches on and children establish their own homes in 5 different states, our parents do not live forever and our own needs and wants change. I'm not sure our needs and wants change as much as our sense that we now have the freedom and abilities to pursue some of our dreams which may have been put on the back burner. We neither one have a sense of "coming home" to this house.

We so enjoyed our three months in Seattle. Dash Point State Park is actually located on Puget Sound in Federal Way, just south of Seattle; about 25 miles from Gretchen's house. We were maintenance volunteers at the park. Our campsite certainly didn't have the "it" factor as we were parked across from the office and maintenance buildings. But we did have a nice big grassy yard and met and worked with a fabulous group of park rangers and park staff. And we were able to set our own hours independent of the campground hosts, so we could come and go as we pleased. This was especially helpful as Gretchen needed quite a bit of help after Edie was born. Our previous visits to Seattle with the motorhome we had parked in Gretchen and Rodney's back yard in West Seattle, and that was beginning to feel like "home." I'm sure if we volunteer at Dash Point again, we'll feel right at home.

Here are some pictures of our site at Dash Point.

This is the entrance sign on the beach side of the park. Our site was about 400 ft to the right of this sign.

The entrance booth to the beach and day use area looking toward out campsite. This was my work station on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons as I passed out trail maps, answered questions, gave directions, and reminded visitors of the donation box. Dash Point SP is supported by the state, but all donations are used for improvements and projects at the park that are not covered in the regular budget. The 400 acre park is located within the city of Federal Way, and is heavily used by the local neighborhood families.

Our motorhome is visible in the background. You can see, I didn't have far to walk to work, and Dan just walked across the street to the maintenance area where he repaired and revamped all the old wooden picnic tables. He recycled the usable wood and bolts and used other recycled wood that was leftover from other projects.

Lucy and Grandpa blowing bubbles in our

yard next to the motorhome.

Just relaxing. Notice Grandpa and Lucy's legs. The office is in the background just across the street from our campsite.

This is Edie and her mom. Edie was asleep in the motorhome when the other pictures were taken.

As I said before, we felt right at home at Dash Point and look forward to returning in the future. And we get to see spend more time with our granddaughters and their mom and dad also.

We left Seatle and headed toward Colorado to visit our grandsons in Carbondale, CO. How about this scene as we approach Redstone Campground in the White River National Forest just 13 miles south of Carbondale? That's Mt Sopris. It never fails to invoke a sense of awe in me. Mt. Sopris is on the northern edge of the Elk Range and its twin summits are 12, 935 ft tall. It sits at the confluence of the Crystal River and Roaring Fork River, both noted for their trout fishing. The Crystal River flows right by Redstone Campground.

One of our favorite campsites at Redstone Campground. And since it is a National Forest Campground we're able to use our Federal Senior Discount Pass and cut the fee by 1/2. There is a $5/day charge for electricity which is not discounted.

We really do feel like we've come home when we pull into Redstone.

And here are Isaac and Elijah

So, even though we no longer live in a "sticks & brick", and we hope to be rid of it very soon; we make each place we stay our home. Some are more special than others, but we feel very comfortable in our home on wheels. We have everything we need with us and have found that we just don't have the "wants" that we used to. Our biggest "want" is that our kids didn't live so far apart (diesel fuel isn't inexpensive), but I can't think of a better way to see this wonderful country, meet new people every day, and spend as much time as we want in various parts of the country.

More about what we're doing this fall in a later post.

Till the next time..........

Short Catch-up

2009-10-11T13:07:00.000-04:00

I know; I've been VERY remiss in not keeping up with the blog, and I apologize to everyone who so faithfully checks to see what we're up to. I'm working on a "summer summary" and hope to get it posted in the next week.

In the meantime, we've been at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort since last Sunday, enjoying meeting friends at the RV-Dreams.com rally, hosted by Howard and Linda Payne. We really enjoyed seeing old friends and catching up with them. Especially Denny and Char from Bloomington, IL. Char celebrated her birthday at the rally.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHAR! Denny and Char just started full-timing about 2 weeks ago.

We'll be leaving here tomorrow for Converse, TX (near San Antonio) to a Cummins garage to have a vibration in the engine checked out before starting back to Illinois. That's AFTER we get the chassis batteries back from AutoZone where they are being recharged. Seems we been having battery issues off and on for a few months. Something is draining the batteries, and we're not sure just what that is. Soooo, will probably be in another shop before long. That's the downside of this lifestyle, and can be very aggravating when something happens, but the traveling, meeting new people, seeing new places and the views out the front window make it all worthwhile.

So until next time,
Safe travels to everyone leaving the rally today and tomorrow.

Just a Short Note

2009-07-03T22:54:00.000-04:00

Just a quick note to let everyone know that we are doing great. We are getting acquainted at Dash Point State Park (located on Puget Sound)just south of Seattle. We'll be volunteering here until the end of September before heading off to the RV-Dreams rally in Kerrville, TX. www.rv-dreams.com

We've actually had a very good spring - still don't have the house ready to sell - but in this market that's probably just as well since we're not interested in taking a loss on it at this time. Our neighbors are doing a wonderful job taking care of the house and we really don't have many expenses with it.

We left Rochester on June 2 and arrived here on Tuesday, June 23. I'll post more this weekend with pictures of our grandsons in Colorado and granddaughters here in Seattle.

More later.......

Just an Update on our Whereabouts

2009-04-13T23:17:00.000-04:00

As noted on the sidebar, we are parked in the driveway at our house in Rochester, IL. We arrived back here last Tuesday. Dan has been working on some of the remodeling in the house, and Gail has been doing some sorting in the motorhome and finishing some sorting and disposal of things in the house. We really need to get the house ready to sell.

Will write a post this week about some of our travels the last few months. We'll be leaving Sunday for Talladega, AL and the Nascar race at Talladega Speedway, then back to Rochester for more work.

We are looking at some campground hosting opportunities in Washington for the summer, but haven't settled on one yet. Our new grand daughter is expected in about one month, so we want to spend some time close to Seattle this summer.

More later.......

Snow, Snow and More Snow, But We're Leaving Anyway

2009-01-25T22:16:00.000-05:00

We woke up to about 1/2 inch of snow at the Beever farm, with more snow falling. But we will not be deterred from heading off to warmer weather. :) We left the Beever house about 8:30am with the trunk of the car packed full of all the things we had taken into the house. The roads were snow-packed, but traffic was very light. Another reason for traveling on Sunday.

Upon arrival in Rochester, we carried everything from the car into the motorhome and covered the bed with it. The outdoor temperature was only 26, so we didn't put the slides out so we could get around the bed to put clothes away. Just didn't want to put any strain on the cold hydralic system. But the bed is literally covered. Since Dan had already loaded the motorcycle on the truck, he just had to add the bikes to the truck and then we could hitch up. No problems with that, so we were able to leave Rochester at 11:00am. The roads were pretty snow covered until we reached Vandalia. That seemed to be the southern edge of the snow storm that passed through last night.

Stopped in Ramsey, Illinois at the Ramsy Cafe for lunch. That's become a regular stop for good homecooked food. The temperature hovered around 28 all day, which meant we started the generator so we could run the furnaces. The dash heater just can't provide enough heat in very cold weather. Decided to stop at Paducah, Ky for the night. We don't like stopping after dark and driving on the snowy roads does take its toll. Went to Cracker Barrel for supper and picked up a couple of things at Walmart, then watched some TV before bedtime.

Will head on south tomorrow toward Bushnell, Florida. Dan's brother, Larry and Phyllis, are on their way to Bushnell, and his other brother, Dave and Nigel, are on the way to St. Augustine. We'll stay somewhere south of Atlanta tomorrow night. Checked the weather for Bushnell, FL and it should be in the 70's for the next few days. WOW!!! From snow to 70 degrees in 3 days.

So until next time......

Almost Ready to Go South! YEAH!!!

2009-01-23T21:39:00.000-05:00

Plans are to leave Sunday for warmer weather.

We spent Thursday in Rochester doing some maintanence on the motorhome, and getting haircuts. We took some of the stuff we've accumulated here at the Beever's back to the motorhome. Still have to take our clothes and a few personal items on Sunday morning. Didn't realize how much stuff we had brought into the house until I started gathering it all up.

Dan had a loading ramp installed in the bed of the pickup truck to load the motorcycle, but was having some issues with the battery and getting it to work correctly. So he went back today and the good guys at Trailer Masters were able to get things in proper working order and even threw in some free parts. Dan has always had a lot of confidence in their work and they sure came through again. And the local propane dealer came to the motorhome and filled the propane tank. We'll fill the water tank about 1/2 full Sunday morning, just so we have some water on board. Don't want to run the risk of freezing before we get out of Illinois.

Plan to stop at Walmart or Sam's Club at Clarksville, TN (near Fort Campbell) Sunday night, then try to get to southern Georgia on Monday. I'm looking forward to staying about a week in one place, just to unwind and get the motorhome all cleaned up on the inside. It was washed when Dan had the oil changed a couple of weeks ago, but the inside is really a mess. What with being on the farm and the wind, the inside is really dusty and then we moved it back to Rochester. Even if it had been here at the Beever's, it's been to cold and messy to leave the slides out to clean.

Dan's brothers are headed to Florida, so we'll meet up with them sometime in the next few weeks. And we'll be going to the Daytona 500!!! YEAH, first Nascar race this year.

I'm sure there'll be some tears when we leave here, but it's time to get back on the road and resume this lifestyle. Changing backyards, open sky, beautiful sunrises and sunsets, meeting new people, visiting new places and just enjoying each new day.

See you down the road

Bad Blogger

2009-01-18T22:21:00.000-05:00

Jo Wishnie started one of her recent posts this way - "Bad Blogger, Bad, Bad Blogger". I should title this one - "BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD, BAD Blogger". But there really hasn't been much to post about; just a flat tire on the feed grinder (2 times)and discovered right at feeding time; diesel engines (without block heaters) that won't start in the below zero weather; cattle that need to be fed and watered daily especially in the below zero weather; frozen water lines to the washer; slippery roads; hay to be hauled over the slippery roads; blood samples that need to be processed in the lab; anxious cattle owners awaiting lab results from the aforementioned lab; etc.

BUT, Stephanie and I were just talking today about all the things we've accomplished in the 3 1/2 months we've been here and the list is much longer than the above mentioned problems. AND, even though we had planned to stay in the motorhome the whole time we were here, but had to move into Zachary's bedroom, THANKS, Zach, we have enjoyed our stay here in the country. Albeit, Dan left the farm at age 17 and vowed to never move back to a farm, he has adapted very well to his miscellaneous farm chores. And since he likes driving big trucks, I think even he would say he's become quite accomplished at driving Jon's new truck and hauling 12 BIG round bales of hay on the hay wagon. Should have taken a picture, but just never had the camera ready when he pulled in the driveway. And he was very mission oriented to get the hay unloaded and go back for the next load, so I missed the pictures.

Jon's lab office is completely moved to the new office in the basement and we have helped streamline the office work for his lab. We've all settled in to a routine and really don't get in each other's way very much. We've been chauffeur for Erin to after school events; spent some quality time with Taylor (he and Grandpa enjoy watching car shows on TV and discussing all the pros and cons of various engines and perfomance specs) and enjoyed being with Zach when he's been home from the University of Illinois.

This next week will be really busy as I finish setting up some things in the office and make sure Ashleigh is comfortable with all the changes.

The big challenge will be finding all the things we've brought into the house. We've tried to keep them in the bedroom or on the dining room table, but I'm sure there will be something to retrieve when we return in May for Taylor's high school graduation.

And I've really enjoyed spending Sunday afternoons with Stephanie and Erin at their riding lessons. I've always loved horses and really wanted one as a child. I wouldn't want to work as a stable hand, but I've sure enjoyed wiping down and brushing horses. Soooo, I would like to end this post with a video of Stephanie riding Thor and Erin riding Lady; but have had a TERRIBLE time uploading videos to blogger. Guess I'd better review the tutorial at http://www.geeksontour.com/ again. Will try to upload video tomorrow.

Looking forward to seeing some of you down the road
More later........

Freezing Rain, Snow, Ice, Sleet, More Freezing Rain - YUCK!! FINALLY Warmer Weather

2008-12-27T23:06:00.000-05:00

We've had all of the above for the past two weeks. The country roads have been especially icy and slick, especially when it rains and then refreezes. And the dogs seems to go "in and out" more when the weather is messy, so we've washed a lot of dirty old dog towels.

I been very remiss in not posting. But with working all day, mostly data entry and computer stuff, I just haven't been very motivated to keep up the blog. And there hasn't been too much new stuff to report. Jon's lab business is picking up due to a new genetic disease test he has developed for Angus cattle, so I've been helping with the increased influx of blood samples and trying to upgrade the office procedures.

Dan is about finished with the basement remodeling, has been hauling hay bales for the cattle and working on the "Dad do list" for Stephanie. And we're still having a few minor issues with the motorhome.

But, on the upside; we have our own bedroom in the house (it's actually Zachary's, he's sleeping in the bonus room); Jennifer and Gene arrived safely on Christmas Eve, after several flight delays in Chicago; Jon's parents were able to make it over for Christmas Day (Jon met them in Monticello and drove their van out to the country due to the icy roads); we are all healthy; AND the temperature was up to 58 today!!! Makes for more mud for the dogs to get into, but sure beats ICE. Currently, the wind is blowing about 30 mph out of the south, but the temperature is supposed to be in the high 30's for several days.

Erin and Stephanie have riding lessons again on Sunday. Stef will be cantering this week on Thor and Erin will get to ride Mattie. She has been cantering for a couple of weeks on Thor and is really doing well. I'll try to post videos Sunday evening of their lesson. The internet connection is not real good, but will try.

We are still planning to leave here in about 3-4 weeks. Looking forward to some warmer weather. But we've really enjoyed this long stay with family.

More later.....

We Didn't Sign Up for This!!!!!!!

2008-12-02T21:52:00.001-05:00

This was the view out the kitchen window on Sunday afternoon. Kasey and Maggie enjoying the sunshine and waiting for the FedEx man to arrive with dog biscuits. What a life. :)

From Mansfield Snow Riding Lessons

And THIS was the view on Monday morning.

From Mansfield Snow Riding Lessons

Silly us, to think we might make it through December without snow. And if you're within 30 miles of I-57 which runs north and south through eastern Illinois, you can bet the wind will be blowing. And there are no gentle winds in eastern Illinois.

And Casper needed to be fed at 7:00 am. He really didn't know what to think of the snow. I do the early morning feeding and try to get him to eat grain (he'd rather suck on my fingers) and Erin feeds him about 4:30 when she gets home from school.

From Mansfield Snow Riding Lessons

And the rest of the cows can't get to the grass, so they have to be fed everyday and the water tank freezes, and it's just plain COLD.

From Mansfield Snow Riding Lessons

The upside is we both have paying jobs for the next month, no campground fees and we are staying with family while waiting to get the refrigerator repaired in the motorhome. The new part has arrived, but the roads were just too snow packed Monday morning to drive the 15 miles to the repair facility. And the slide covers had ice on them which would have made it very difficult to retract the slides. We did have lots of sunshine on Tuesday with temps in the mid 30's, so the slides are now in and Dan will drive it to Mahomet on Wednesday. Sure hope this part will solve the problem, but the service manager really thinks the control panel needs to be replaced; however, Dometic doesn't want to send a control panel until several other things are checked out. Sometimes, you just have to jump through hoops. At least we're not stranded somewhere. We just moved into Zachary's bedroom (he's off at college)and since we're both working here at the house, we don't even have to travel to work. Unless you count going down the stairs.

AND, we're really enjoying getting to spend time with family. Stephanie and Erin are making progress with their riding lessons. Wasn't able to upload videos, but here are some pictures. The first is Erin cantering on Thor. He is a 21 year old horse.

From Mansfield Snow Riding Lessons

And Stephanie trotting on Mattie. She's a nine year old Morgan.

From Mansfield Snow Riding Lessons

So, even though it's cold and windy and more snow is expected Wednesday afternoon, life is good. We'll probably be leaving here around middle to late January. Dan gave US tickets to the Daytona 500 for my birthday, so we need to be in Florida about February 8th or 9th. The race is the 15th.

Will post again in a few days. Hopefully can get a video up of the riding lessons.
More later..........

Casper, The Halloween Calf

2008-11-24T00:47:00.000-05:00

This is Erin feeding Casper. He now takes 1 1/2 bottles twice a day and is quite lively when we arrive at his pen. Yes, he does act like we are momma cows. Butts his head against us and follows us around. Will post riding lessons videos tomorrow.

Be sure to read the post following this one for an update of our comings and goings and to learn more about Casper and the riding lessons.

Long Overdue Update - Bugs, Pony Express, Detour to Grundy Center, Iowa - Now Back in Illinois

2008-11-23T23:40:00.000-05:00

I started this post after we arrived back in Illinois around October 1st, but couldn't seem to get it finished. So rather than just trash it, I've left in what I'd already written and decided to just go on from there. So please bear with me as I try to reconstruct the past few weeks.

We left Denver on September 25th and stopped at a Minooka Park (COE)at Wilson Lake about 55 miles east of Hays, Kansas. We had planned to stay a couple of days and unwind and just enjoy the lake view. However, the bugs and tiny gnats were so bad, and the sand flies covered Kasey's back when I took him out that we packed up quickly the next morning and left. I have never seen so many gnats. We arrived there about 5:00pm, and I opened all the windows to enjoy the fresh air, but when the sun went down and with the lights turned on we were invaded by gnats. I put out my gnat trap which I use if we have problems with fruit flies and also started using the fly swatter. Sure did mess up the ceiling. Had to wash it off the next day.

We decided to go through St. Joseph, Mo and visit the Pony Express museum. We stopped at Lewis and Clark State Park, south of St. Joseph near Rushville, Mo. Nice park with large sites, 30amp electric; and we were charged the senior rate. In some states you have to be a resident of the state to receive the senior rate and others just look at your gray hair and ask if you qualify. :) Go figure.

On Thursday, Sep 25th, Jennifer had called to tell us that her mother-in-law's husband, Fred, had had a stroke on Wednesday. Fred and Ginny had met and married in 2003 after both had lost their spouses to cancer. Ginny had moved from Waterloo, Iowa, to Fred's house in Grundy Center. Ginny and her first husband, Gene's dad, had an RV and had traveled a lot. Ginny continued to travel after his passing. She introduced Fred to the RV lifestyle and he took to it like a duck to water.

The stroke ended up being very severe with Fred loosing consciousness and being placed on life support. He passed away on Saturday morning. Needless to say, his passing was a terrible shock to everyone who knew him. We detoured through Iowa to be with Gene and Jennifer and offer any help and support that we could. We first stopped at a state park about 10 miles from Grundy Center, but Ginny insisted that we move the motorhome to her house and park in the driveway. Fred had put in a 50amp service for their 5th wheel so we were able to use it. Fred will certainly be missed.

We traveled on to Illinois after Fred's funeral and stayed at our house in Rochester for about 2 weeks. Dan did some more work on the house getting it ready for sale. Since about the middle of October, we've been at our daughter's house south of Galesville, IL. Galesville consists of a huge grain elevator and a few houses. Our son-in-law, Jon, has been trying to get the basement finished to expand his lab and move his office downstairs and asked Dan to help. He had a couple of different people working on the basement, but they only worked part time and couldn't seem to get it finished for him. AND, his fulltime employee left in August for grad school and he needed someone to help get things back on track after nearly two months of either not having someone in the office or having a person who wasn't really the person for the job. ENOUGH SAID. And Stephanie had a "Dad, please do list" for her dad. Soooo, Dan has been drywalling, painting, hanging ceiling, wiring, and just generally getting the basement finished and doing some long overdue touch up stuff for Stef.

I've been working fulltime for Jon. He did hire a new person and we've been very busy checking in blood samples, mailing results for the past months and just generally getting things in order. And the new office in the basement will be ready to move into this weekend, so progress is being made.

And while we've been at Stephanie's, the refrigerator in the motorhome decided to quit. We are now waiting for a part from Dometic and will take the motorhome back to Mahomet (about 10 miles from here) to finish fixing it. We stayed in the house while the motorhome was at the rv shop to diagnose the problem and will do so again while they finish it. Illinois weather has been pretty cold this past week, so we've had to burn propane, but at least we are at the kid's house. Our house is nearly empty; no food, no linens, no TV, no nothing. So if the motorhome was in the shop in Springfield, we'd be in deep trouble; especially with the fridge out of commission.

We are also bottle feeding a calf. His name is Casper, since he was born on Halloween night. His mom didn't claim him and we found him in the pasture the next day. (For those of you who don't know, the Beever's also raise Hereford cattle). And Jon's lab processes blood samples from several breeds of cattle with various genetic defects. But back to the calf - He has turned out to be a very sturdy little guy who has decided that I am his mother. I feed him every morning about 7:00 and Erin feeds in the afternoon. We are trying to start him on grain, but so far he'd rather have his bottles.

Erin started horse back riding lessons about 4 weeks ago and Stephanie has joined her. The riding stable is about 15 minutes from their house. They started on a 31 year old horse named "Tuna". Erin has graduated to Mattie, a 9 year old Morgan horse. Sunday afternoons are now spent at Lowrey Stables. I'll post pictures of the calf and horses tomorrow.

We haven't been working on our house, but with the market so depressed, we've decided to just leave things as they are right now and go south after the first of the year as we did this past January. Not sure where we're going, but that's the beauty of full timing. We'll for sure be following the sunshine, especially after spending part of the winter in Illinois.

Will sign off, with more updates to come from the farm.

Back to Denver

2008-09-23T18:33:00.000-04:00

We left Redstone Monday morning at 9:10am, early for us. We (Gail) always say we'll be on the road by 9:30 and we usually leave about 10:00. Not sure what takes so long, because we typically spend about 25 minutes getting things put away and another 10 minutes getting the truck hooked up to tow. :) I think we spend too much time watching the Today show while eating breakfast. Anyway, we surprised ourselves this time. Had an uneventful drive to Denver. Stopped at a rest area for lunch, stopped for fuel and drove a whole 197 miles and arrived around 2:30. And we're in the same site that we stayed in in June. And our campground hosts remembered us from our June visit.

The weather is perfect. High 70's and low 80's and lots of sunshine. Right now we plan to leave here on Thursday morning. I spent today cleaning the inside of the motorhome. This campground has paved roads and concrete parking pads, so I thought I should get rid of some of dust we collected in Utah and western Colorado. Love staying in national forests and on BLM land (the price is right and the scenery is unbeatable), but the gravel and sand sure make for a dusty interior. Even the vertical surfaces had to wiped down. And I washed the throw rugs and some towels. We put three small rugs on the dash when we're parked because Kasey likes to lay on the dash and look out the front window. The rugs help control his shedding, so we don't have dog hair flying all over. He spends a lot of time outside and loves to watch the comings and goings in the campground. He really enjoys people coming over to pet him. And we do get lots of visitors because of him. He's a real part of our family; even if he does shed enough for a whole kennel of dogs. :)

We're going to dinner with Jean and Steve tonight, so better get this posted before they get here.

More later.......

Camping with the Boys, S'Mores and Moving On

2008-09-21T12:41:00.000-04:00

After a very busy week of grandkid sitting and going back and forth from the campground to Carbondale and back again, we had a very relaxed Saturday. Tim, Karen, Elijah and Isaac came out to the campground Saturday afternoon for a weiner roast and s'mores. The boys really seemed to enjoy themselves as you can see from these pictures.

We'll be leaving Redstone on Monday, the first day of fall, and heading on toward Illinois. Sure will be hard to leave these boys and this beautiful scenery. So here are some more pictures of the drive from Carbondale to Redstone. I just can't get enough of this. :)

View of Mt Sopris going south from Carbondale

Crystal River looking north

Crystal River looking south

Another mountain

View of mountains from our campsite

View of our campsite from our front door

So it's back to the flatlands of Illinois for now.

More later........

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah and Colorful Colorado

2008-09-17T15:45:00.000-04:00

We left Idaho on Sep 10 and stayed overnight at Yuba State Park at Scipio, Utah on our way to Colorado. We decided at the last minute to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and planned to stay at Dead Horse Point State Park which is located right between the two national parks. Their campground was full so the ranger directed us to Horsethief Campground just outside the state park on BLM land. This park is in the high desert and was just fabulous. No water, we already had a full tank because the state park doesn't have water; but 30 amp electric. Here is a picture of our site at Horsethief CG.

And with being so far from any town, and no artificial lighting in the park, I was able to get some great sunset pictures from our site.

We spent one day exploring Canyonlands National Park from the "Island in the Sky" mesa at the north side and another at Arches NP. Both parks really require a lot more time, but we had tentatively told the kids we would arrive on Saturday.
Here are slideshows from both parks. The first two are from Arches NP and the last is Canyonlands. Place your mouse over the bottom of the picture to bring up the toolbar.

We did do some "off the main road" driving and walked several short trails. We will for sure be going back to spend more time at these two beautiful parks and will probably stay again at the BLM campground.

On Saturday morning we left the high desert of southeastern Utah and headed for Colorful Colorado and its tall mountains, mountain rivers and tall pine trees.
We arrived at Redstone Campground in the White River National Forest about 3:00 pm after a really easy drive. The campground is about 15 miles south of Carbondale, CO where Tim, Karen, Elijah and Isaac live. Tim is our oldest child and if you've been following our blog you know we were here in June/July to help them get moved into their new house. They moved from flat, hot, high humidity McKinney, Texas to mountains, rivers, fly fishing, low humidity Colorado. And they seem to have settled in real well.

Dan's brother, Larry and his wife Phyllis, arrived on Sunday and parked right across from us at Redstone.

Don't you just love that scenery?

Redstone is a National Forest Campground (managed by Thousand Trails), so our Golden Age Passport allows for 1/2 price camping. Regular price is $25 + $5 for electric. We pay $12.50 + $5 for electric. We use 2 small electric heaters at night rather than use the propane furnace. There is one non-hookup loop and 2 loops with electric and water. No dump station so we have to be sure we have empty waste tanks when we come in. They do have showers with solar heated water, so at this time of the year it is wise to take evening showers because the water really cools off overnight. :)

Tim and Karen were especially glad to have us visit again since Karen's boss had called her back to Memphis for 2 days. Karen works from home for Hilton. He wouldn't tell her the reason she needed to come back, but did say "it is all good." Dan took her to the Aspen airport Tuesday morning R 7:30 and she'll return Friday morning. Soooo, we are all waiting to hear from her tonight. Elijah started in a new preschool on Tuesday, so Grandpa and Grandma are spending the days with Isaac at home. Elijah's school is in El Jelbel, about 20 minutes from their house, and on the way to Basalt where Tim works. Elijah really likes his new school. He was missing going to school and having a routine to his days.
Meet Isaac and Elijah

We haven't been spending much time in the campground, but are looking forward to having the kids come out on Saturday for a weiner roast and s'mores. The boys should really enjoy that, especially since there are lots of chipmunks in the campground and they may get to see some deer. I bet their dad does some fishing in the Crystal River which flows right past the campground. :)

I think that just about gets this blog up to date again. As I've said before, we are really enjoying this lifestyle. Not sure where we'll end up after leaving here. Will check out the maps and see what tweaks our curiosity.

More later........

Catching up and Sadness

2008-09-07T22:32:00.000-04:00

I sincerely apologize to everyone who keeps checking the blog to see where we are and what we are doing. We are just fine. In excellent health and just enjoying the freedom of this great lifestyle. But,,,,,, you knew there was a "but"

When I last posted, Stephanie and Erin had left Seattle and Lucy and her parents were in Florida; and we were expecting to leave Seattle around the 27th or 28th of August. The O'Byrne's arrived back in Seattle on Sunday, August 24th (Gretchen's birthday) and we had decided that we would leave on Tuesday or Wednesday, staying just long enough with Lucy to reacquaint with her, but not so long as to get back in a routine. Leaving a 2-year-old can be difficult for all concerned.

So we were making sure the webcams worked and talking about leaving when we received a call from Dan's older brother on Monday, August 25th telling us that their nephew, Scott Brogdon, Dave's forty-one year old son, was missing. Dave is Dan's younger brother. Scott had talked with some family members about ending his life. When we learned on Monday that Scott's body had been found in the Illinois River, Dan decided to fly back to Illinois to be with his brother and family. We were able to get a flight leaving on Tuesday through St. Louis and into Springfield where our wonderful neighbors picked him up at 9:55pm.

Scott ended his life by walking into the Illinois River, probably on Saturday, when he last spoke to his family. He had a long history of problems with alcohol and apparently just was not able to cope with his life as he saw it. He leaves behind a 20 year old son from a previous marriage and a current wife and her children, plus his parents, a brother and two half-sisters, and aunts, uncles and cousins. He will certainly be missed. We continue to keep his family in our prayers.

Sooo, Dan returned to Seattle on Saturday, August 30th. I spent the time while he was gone just being with Gretchen and her family. We didn't do a lot, but just hung out together.

We left Seattle on Labor Day for the southeastern part of Washington and spent several days near Pasco, WA at Hood Park, a Corps of Engineer park, near the confluence of the Yakima, Snake and Columbia Rivers. This park is one of the most beautiful parks we've been in. Since southeastern Washington doesn't get much rain, irrigation is everywhere. So the parks are just beautiful. There is a lot of space between the sites at Hood River with many large trees. We did not have satellite TV, but I was able to get on the Internet with my aircard. But I just couldn't get up the energy to bring the blog up to date. We really just chilled out and enjoyed the scenery. Went for several drives and visited Sacajawea State Park where Lewis and Clark camped and otherwise just generally hung out.

We had been pretty busy since we left home on June 2nd with a wedding, an RV rally, visiting with family in Denver and Carbondale, Co, having Erin with us all summer and spending a month at Lucy's house, plus the sadness of Scott's passing.

We then spent the last few days at Three Islands Crossing State Park near Glenns Ferry, ID. This was the site of the last and one of the worst crossings of the Snake River for the pioneers heading to Oregon. Another beautiful park with lots of space between sites. I know, I sound like I don't like neighbors, but that's not true. We both enjoy visiting with fellow RVers and go out of our way to meet people, but we have lived in a subdivision for many years and really enjoy looking at the scenery and not the side of an RV parked next to us. So, we really like COE, national forests and state parks.

We're moving to Massacre Rock State Park, close to American Falls, ID tomorrow for a few days. Plan to visit the replica of Fort Hall at Pocatello, ID. Fort Hall was one of the last opportunities for the pioneers to restock supplies. And there are some scenic drives in the area. We have really enjoyed following parts of the Mormom Trail and Oregon Trail. And we've also crossed part of the Lewis and Clark Trail. And we are really enjoying our mode of transportation as compared to those early settlers. :)

I'll post some pictures of the contrast between the farm land and mountains in this area. This part of Idaho gets very little rain and relies entirely on irrigation from the Snake river. The main crops are sugar beets, potatoes, hay and straw. The green of the irrigated fields next to the dry, sagebrush, tan/brown mountains is quite a contrast. There are huge stacks of BIG bales of straw in the fields. And since the rainfall is so scarce, they are are not covered with tarps like they would be in Illinois.

We're making our way toward Carbondale, CO to visit with Elijah and Isaac and their parents again as we make our way back toward Illinois.

Really do like this slow pace and the freedom of this lifestyle.

More later.......

House Sitting, Dog Sitting and Just Hanging Out in Seattle

2008-08-21T23:21:00.001-04:00

I realized it's been a over a week since I last posted. A lot has happened since then.

Currently, Dan and I are "home alone" with three dogs. Erin's mom came and took her home and Rodney, Gretchen and Lucy have gone to Florida for Rodney's brother's 40th birthday. So it's just us and Murphy, Jack and Kasey. Gretchen adopted Murphy not too long after she moved to Seattle. He is a German Shepherd/Golden Retriever mix and is about 10 years old. He had been abused and Gretchen spent a lot of time and effort to rehab him. Murphy and Lucy get along really well. She climbs all over him and loves to take him for walks. He is a big dog, but never pulls on the leash with Lucy and if she stops, he does too.

Not sure what breed Jack is, but Rodney adopted him shortly after starting college. Jack is about sixteen years old and is in failing health. He has a large growth on his side, is deaf and partially blind and has mobility issues. He has lost his peripheral vision and doesn't like being surprised from the side. But he has been trotting out to see me when I come into the back yard. Gretchen and Rodney have taught Lucy not to bother Jack and she really does leave him alone.

And of course, Kasey is in the middle of everything. He is four years old and would like to play, but the senior citizen dogs would rather just take it easy.

So we're caring for the dogs, sitting out in the yard (when it's not raining - it's rained quite a bit the past few days, but was sunny today), watching the Olympics, picking zucchini, playing with the dogs, watching the Olympics, ....... You get the picture.
So, what were we doing before everyone left? Stephanie arrived on Wednesday, August 13th. Erin was really glad to see her mom. They both left this Wednesday. Erin's first day of school as a sixth grader was today. We really enjoyed having her with us this summer. And we all enjoyed our time with Stephanie and Erin this past week. They stayed in the motorhome with us, and enjoyed having breakfast with Lucy every day and just hanging out with family. We did go to Pike's Market one day and Stephanie and Dan did a four-hour hike up Mount Si another day.

And Stephanie made a wonderful blackberry cobbler with blackberries picked from the blackberry patch just across the street. Blackberries grow wild all over Seattle and most people don't even pick them. You can see by the pictures just how difficult it is to pick them. And the big ones are always just out of reach. :)

But just see the results of all that hard work. And they picked enough to freeze some too.

As I mentioned earlier, the O'Byrne's are in Florida. They'll be back Sunday morning. We took them to the airport Tuesday evening and they flew nonstop from Seattle to Miami, arriving in Miami about 3:00am. Then Wednesday morning, at 6:15, we took Erin and her mom to the airport. And we will pick up some friends of Gretchen's on Friday morning when they return from vacation. (Gail took them to the airport on Monday last week). We could probably drive to the airport blindfolded. :)

Yesterday, Dan and I drove to Everett, north of Seattle, and visited the Boeing assembly plant. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but we did see the most recent plane in production, the 787, Dreamliner. Dan always enjoys visiting any airplane facility. He spent four years in the Air Force, but had nothing to do with planes.

And today we attended the fall RV show at Qwest Center in Seattle. It's always fun to check out the newest RV's and see the changes. We have no plans to trade our motorhome. We are very happy with it even though we do have some issues to be addressed this fall with the manufacturer. But our Mandalay came with a three year warranty and the manufacturer has honored that warranty as we've had some things fixed. And they allowed us to get most of the work done in Springfield, IL at a local RV dealer before we started fulltiming. However, we wanted to take it back to the manufacturer before the warranty expires in November for a couple of issues and some minor things which we've found since we began fulltiming in June. So we'll be in Elkhart, IN toward the end of October. We may have to leave the motorhome there for several days since some part of the work may not allow for us to stay in it while they work on it. If so, we may just stay in Monticello with the Beever's (Erin's family). Sure don't need to decide that now.

So, we are enjoying a little down time as we house sit and take care of the dogs. And we've started thinking about where to head to when we leave here next week. We know we'll be going east, but haven't settled on anything else. We've talked about stopping off in Carbondale, CO to visit Tim, Karen, Elijah and Isaac for a few days. We sure do want to see those boys again.

We'll head east on I-90 about next Wednesday and see where we end up. It's sure great to have so many choices in this lifestyle, and to know that the only big decision we have to make is where we'll park for the night. There may be a few others, but I can't think of them right now.

More later.......

The Playhouse is Finished !!!!!!

2008-08-11T23:52:00.000-04:00

Lucy is really enjoying her playhouse. It's where she starts and ends her day. She loves opening and closing the doors and especially likes for someone to knock on the door so she can invite them in to visit.

Lucy at the door. No siding yet.

Siding being installed. (The siding came from a house across the alley that was being demolished and the blue paint matches the O'Byrne house.) Gretchen is working on the bubble machine while grandpa is getting bumped by the door. :)

Since the big people were bumping their heads on the corner of the shed roof, Grandma hung a planter from the corner. No more bumped heads. Doesn't it look homey?

Some inside views.

We still need to make curtains for the windows, but that's more for Grandma and Mom. Lucy probably doesn't really care if she has curtains.

We are sooooo enjoying our stay here in Seattle. It's been really nice to just spend our days with family and get to know Lucy.

Grandpa is now building a picnic table for Lucy and her friends (at her mom's request). He certainly hasn't had any time to be bored. But I think he has enjoyed every minute of "work".

Pictures of the picnic table to follow.
More later......

What Have We Been Doing Lately?

2008-08-07T18:09:00.000-04:00

Thought I should update everyone on our latest activities in Seattle. Last Sunday afternoon we enjoyed a picnic lunch along Lake Washington and watched the Blue Angels perform. Of course, neither Gretchen nor I had our camera since we went to the lake directly from church. And even though we knew we were not going back to the house after church, we still didn't plan very well. So, no pictures, but you can check out the website from the link above. We had a wonderful day with a perfectly clear, sunny sky, nice breeze and good company.

And now for the playhouse update. Grandpa says this playhouse is a "work in progress." As you can see from the pictures, Lucy has been helping along with sharing snacks with "PaPa".

Lucy's playhouse is designed for long-term use. Her mom wants to use it as a garden/potting shed after Lucy outgrows it; so Grandpa purchased a regular sized exterior door ($10) at "Second Use", a recycling store, to allow for adults to enter the building. Then he built a small barn-type door for Lucy and her friends to use while they are small. The windows are plexiglass. Some of the material is recycled from the fence around their yard and from a building site across the alley where a house is being torn down. The base of the building is treated lumber so it can set on the ground without a foundation. Thus making it movable. He did not put in a ceiling, so the interior height is open to the roof. He also has some blue painted cedar siding from the demolished house. Will post more pictures after the siding is completed.

For those of you who may wonder, the door knob is a passage knob - no lock; so no children being locked inside. And when I took these pictures, Dan hadn't finished the handle on the small door yet.

This morning Gretchen, Erin, Lucy and I along with Murphy and Kasey went to the dog park and let the dogs run free for about 2 hours. Needless to say, the dogs and Lucy are taking a well-deserved nap this afternoon. Erin and Gretchen are spending the afternoon with the Adams boys at the beach on Green Lake.

Just another great day in Seattle with family and friends. Oh, I almost forgot. For those of you who MIGHT wonder if we have full hook-ups (ie, electricity, water and sewer). We do have electricity and I fill the water tank from the house faucet when the tank gets low. BUT, while flushing the stool yesterday afternoon, I noticed I could see floating things in the black water tank. :) And as most RVers know, the tank sensors never seem to work correctly, but I knew the tank was FULL. After some phone calls to check about having the tanks emptied (at costs of $68 plus mileage), Dan called Poulsbo RV to see if they knew of any dump stations close to us. Remember, we are in West Seattle. The people at Poulsbo RV gave him the name of a fellow just north of SeaTac who sells propane and has a dump station. Dan called him and he acknowledged that he did have a dump station and there was no charge to dump. WOW. Sooooo, I quickly packed everything up in the motorhome (remember, we've been parked here since July 25) and off we went. We met the nicest fellow. He has a small garage and does auto repair, sells propane and has a free dump station. So we were able to dump our tanks and fill the propane tank in the motorhome and our small grill tank. And we were only gone about an hour. Even with the price of diesel fuel, we decided it was cheaper than $68 plus mileage.

Just another day in the life of the Brogdon's and their fulltime journey.

More later.......

Parked at Lucy's House, Playhouse, Birthday Party

2008-07-31T15:53:00.000-04:00

Thought you might like to see our 40' motorhome parked behind Lucy's house (and the neighbor's house).

Dan drove down the alley and parallel parked between Gretchen & Rodney's blue garage and the neighbor's brother's small travel trailer. And there is a chain link/wooden fence on the other side of the motorhome. Several times he has commented, "I don't know how I did that."

Just another view of the narrow alley and the local "campground".

We are really enjoying being right in the kids back yard. Lucy and her mom have had breakfast with us and it is so nice to be able to go back and forth between houses. Makes it a lot easier to prepare meals and share food. We've enjoyed playing table games at our house after Lucy has gone to bed (with the baby monitor on); and it's nice to have our own space to retreat to without having to drive to a campground. Plus we get to sleep in our own bed every night. :) And it feels more like family time rather than just visiting. Erin has really enjoyed playing with Lucy and is earning some babysitting money.

Grandpa has been building Lucy's playhouse, so I've included some pictures. It now has a roof. The back wall is not on yet, and the door will probably be installed tomorrow or Saturday. Grandpa has been visiting the shipyard to see a fleet of ships that came in this week; and the Blue Angels are at the airport. So for those of you who may not know, Dan has a real interest in ships and airplanes, so he gets time off for some fun.

We celebrated Lucy's second birthday yesterday. The Adams family, Frank, Maggie, Bridget, Nick and Matthew came to supper along with Ella and her mom and dad, Pauline and Bill. More pictures of the birthday girl and her friends.

Notice the "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" on the side of the playhouse for Lucy's birthday party.

Terri, the neighbor who is sharing her backyard with a motorhome, gave us some bing cherries from her tree. Erin pitted them, with the cherry pitter, and Rodney showed Lucy how to put them on her fingers. Of course she now has to put her cherries on her fingers before eating them.

We are really enjoying this time in Seattle with our family.

More later......

Wading Pool, Airplanes and Chalk Drawing

2008-07-27T00:45:00.000-04:00

If "Variety is the Spice of Life", then being in the company of a two-year-old provides lots of spice. Yesterday afternoon we walked to the neighborhood park about three blocks from Lucy's house. (I haven't forgotten that Lucy has parents, Rodney and Gretchen) - It's just easier to type "Lucy".

For those of you who may not know, Gretchen is our fourth child, and third daughter. She is married to Rodney and Lucy Marie is their daughter. Lucy's middle name is the same Gail's mother's middle name. Gretchen moved to Seattle in 1997, met Rodney and subsequently Lucy was added to our family.

Now, back to this post. Two dogs live at Lucy's house. Jack is sixteen years old and came to live with Rodney during Rodney's college years. Jack is getting very feeble, blind and deaf. He is living out his life as the senior member of a very loving family. Murphy was adopted by Gretchen when he was five months old, not too long after she moved to Seattle. He is a Golden Retriever/German Shepherd mix. Murphy didn't really interact with Lucy until she started crawling and walking; and now he certainly is her dog. She climbs on him, tries to ride him and just generally gets along well with him. And he is very tolerant of her. She leads Murphy down the sidewalk all by herself. As you can see from this picture, she is leading Murphy. He slowly trots along and she runs behind holding his leash. If she so much as tugs on his leash, he stops and waits for her to start again. They really do have a unique relationship.

Lucy loved playing with her cousin, Erin, in the wading pool.

Today we went to the King County Airport to see the display of planes celebrating the airport's 80th anniversary. Since grandpa has such an interest in airplanes, Gretchen thought he might really enjoy this. Here's a few pictures of the day.

Lucy following Grandpa up into a plane

Erin and Gretchen dressed in part of the Airport firefighter's gear. Hope we don't need them in a emergency.

Lucy and a firefighter in the cab of the fire truck

Grandpa at the controls of a small aircraft

Lucy in the same plane Grandpa had been in; listening to the chatter from the tower

The Chalk Corner in the children's area

Erin and Lucy drawing with chalk around Gretchen

Lucy wanted Grandpa to draw around her feet

Not much else to report for today. Nap for the toddler, played a new game with Erin, Rodney cooked steaks for supper, had S'mores for dessert. Gretchen, Rodney and Erin have gone to a park to see an outdoor movie, so Grandpa and Grandma are babysitting. Lucy is sleeping and Grandma is getting this post done. Sorry about the sizing of the pictures. Not sure what happened, but I uploaded some directly to the blog and some were copied from Web Albums. Please forgive the different sizes. I'll do better next time.

More later.....

We're in Seattle :-)

2008-07-26T01:21:00.000-04:00

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!! We arrived at Lucy's house (our soon-to-be 2-year-old granddaughter) about 1:30 this afternoon. So glad to be here. Grandpa drove down the alley behind their house and backed the motorhome into the space behind their backyard. I'll post some pictures tomorrow to give you a sense of the space he had to work with. Gretchen & Rodney's neighbor's brother has a small trailer parked next to us, so we have our own little campground.

Walked to the park about three blocks away with Lucy and Gretchen so Lucy could play in the wading pool.

Dan and Rodney are going to an air show at King airfield on Saturday. Nothing else planned for the weekend.

Just relaxing.

More later.........

Trees and Water

2008-07-25T00:48:00.006-04:00

After much debate (not really debate, more indecision), we decided to drive to the South Side of Mount St. Helens to see the old-growth forests that were not damaged by the eruption in May 1980. We drove south on I-5 to Woodland and then on Route 503, then Route 90, for thirty miles up the Lewis River Valley to Cougar, WA.

The scenery was beautiful and really different than the drive on the west side of the mountain. The trees are much larger and taller, and the undergrowth much denser. The whole area has a more mature look. There are two dams across the Lewis River which makes for two beautiful reservoirs, Yale Reservoir and Swift Reservoir. Both have day areas maintained by the state of Washington with picnic sites, boat ramps and beaches. Since both reservoirs are surrounded by mountains covered by forest, the water is VERY clear. No cultivated field run-off or pollution from chemicals.

We also visited an area called the Trail of Two Forests, which is about 10 miles from Cougar. A boardwalk path meanders through what looks like a very lush, green forest. But there is a story to this forest. The visible forest and the trail are on top of an old forest that was orverrun by lava flows from Mount St. Helens almost 2,000 years ago. Mount St. Helens is an explosive volcano and typically does not expel lava. But 2,000 years ago, lava poured down the south slope of the mountain and covered the trees. Most of the trees were felled and all were killed. The lava hardened, the trees burned away, leaving molds of them behind with the imprint of bark still showing. The current forest has grown on the thin soil on top of the hard lava flow. You can actually look down into some of the tree molds. We saw snow in the bottom of one of the molds.

After leaving the Trail of Two Forests, we drove on up the road until we reached a barricade across the road. The road is closed due to some unstable edges and some rock slides. But we did see the south side of the mountain and a little stream rippling down the mountain.

A beautiful sunny day appreciating all of Nature's glory and in awe of how powerful Nature can be.

More later....

Catching UP AGAIN

2008-07-23T18:28:00.014-04:00

Here are some links to pictures we've taken in the past 2 weeks. Just seems like I can't get "in the groove" to actually post, so thought I would play "Catch Up" with pictures and then tell you about our trip to Mt. St. Helens yesterday. So here are the links to pictures. Just click on the picture and the album will open in My Web Albums in Picasa.

Redstone & Carbondale, CO and surrounding scenery

2008 07 16 From Deschutes SRA, OR to Ainsworth SP, OR

2008 07 22 Mt St Helens drive

The story of the Mount St. Helens eruption on May 18, 1980 is very powerful. The first earthquakes that signalled that the volcano was awakening occured in late March, 1980. As the frequency and intensity of the earthquakes increased the Forest Service and geologists were on alert and monitoring the volcano. Along with the earthquakes, which occurred about one to two miles beneath the north slope of Mount St. Helens, a large bulge was growing upward and outward on the north face of the cone. The bulge was more than a mile in diameter and pushed out 300 feet by mid-April. It was growing at a rate of five feet per day.

The Forest Service had set up a Red Zone around the mountain and had evacuated people from the area. On Saturday, May 17 some people were let back in to retrieve belongings from their homes and there were plans to let another group of people in on Sunday, May 18th. Dave Johnston, a geologist monitoring the volcano from a ridge 5.5 miles from the volcano, made an early morning radio report that the bulge continued swelling at a steady rate. An hour later Dave was dead. At 8:32 AM an earthquake of 5.1 magnitude shook Mount St. Helens and triggered a giant avalanche of the bulging north slope of the cone and slid away into Spirit Lake. The blast cloud shot out of the torn-open north face and quickly outraced the speeding avalanche. It raced north, northeast and northwest, climbing ridges and sweeping down valleys, killing everything in its path. It blew trees down like toothpicks and destroyed 230 square miles of forest. That took about 5 minutes.

The unroofed magma column jetted upward for the next nine hours into a fifteen-mile high ash cloud. More dense portions of the ash cloud near its base formed pyroclastic flows of hot rock fragments fluidized by expanding gas. These flows poured our of the horseshoe shaped crater toward Spirit Lake. Mudflows - floods of water from melting ice, the ground water soaked avalanche, and the water from Spirit Lake rushed down the stream and rivers. Homes and bridges were swept away. Much of the mud ended up in the Columbia River, clogging the navigation channel for months.

Fifty-seven people died and property damage totaled 1.5 billion dollars. One person we talked to said if it would have happened on Monday rather than Sunday, more lives would have been lost because many of the men would have been working at the logging camps.

Mother nature is doing her part to recover from this terrible event as are private and public entities. Weyerhaueser Lumber began an aggressive reforestation program and the Forest Service alone salvaged 200 million board feet of downed and standing dead trees and has replanted millions of small trees. Replanted areas are labeled with signs indicating the type of trees that were replanted and the year replanting occurred. And most amazing of all, after five years, the numbers of Roosevelt elk and black tailed deer at Mount St. Helens were back to normal.

Inside the National Monument boundaries, which include Mount St. Helens, 110,000 acres have been set aside to study Nature's process of healing itself. No replanting was done in this area, so it is still very stark with patches of renewal. Researchers from around the world are studying this area and learning about the recovery of a totally destroyed ecosystem.

Geologists continue to monitor Mount St. Helens with sophisticated equipment hoping to be better able to predict her next eruption.

The Mount St. Helens Visitor Center, at the beginning of the drive; the Forest Learning Center, and the Johnston Ridge Observatory all depict different aspects of the eruption. Each has wonderful displays and short movies which really help the visitor understand all the events that occurred on May 18, 1980.

This drive to Mount St. Helens was, for me, both very sobering and exciting. Sobering, as I saw up close what can happen in just a very few minutes when something this catastrophic takes place; but exciting to see the beautiful new trees, many of which are now 25 years old, the bright patches of color from the brightly colored flowers and the Roosevelt elk that I watched along the river from the Forest Learning Center overlook. It was also refreshing to see how the people have recovered and rebuilt as we drove along Route 504 which follows the North Fork of the Toutle River, leading to Johnston Ridge Observatory. Much of the original road was buried beneath the avalanche and mudflows of the 1980 eruption. The new road was built during 1992-1995.

We were able to see the mountain from Elk Rock lookout, but because of thick cloud cover, we could not see it from Johnston Ridge Observatory. There is a cloudy picture in the web album, and here is an "official" picture from the Mount St. Helens website.

Mount St. Helens

Not sure what we doing Thursday. We may check out the south side of the mountain which was unaffected by the eruption or we may drive to the Pacific Ocean. Dan and Erin are probably getting tired of trees and more trees, so the Ocean may be a good choice. Will decide in the morning.

Happy 17th Birthday, Taylor

More later....

RESTING

2008-07-09T18:53:00.003-04:00

We left Carbondale, CO Tuesday morning. Sure was hard to leave Elijah & Isaac and their parents. I'll post pictures from our visit tomorrow. I've been really tired; and realized we've been busy every day for the past month.

We had originally planned to only stay 2 days in Provo or Salt Lake City, but found this really great campground, Lakeside RV Campground. I would give it a 9 rating on a 1-10 scale, but the sites are really close to each other. Otherwise, it is great. It's right next to Utah Lake with a walking trail along the lake, lots of trees, but excellent satellite signal; level sites; excellent WiFi throughout the park and plenty of things to do in the area.

We do plan on some drives into the mountains and will visit the Mormon Temple, but this stop is really intended for rest and recuperation. I hope Erin will tolerate the slower pace for a few days. Hopefully we'll be able to mix in just enough activity to keep her happy.

I'll get some pictures and text posted tomorrow about Carbondale and the kids. Just plan on vegging out the rest of today.

More later.....

We've Been Sooooo Busy

2008-07-04T21:00:00.006-04:00

We arrived at Redstone Campground in the White River Nat'l Forest south of Carbondale, CO on Friday, June 27 about 4:00pm after leaving Denver. Had to unhitch the truck about an hour out of Denver because the motorhome was overheating. Thought this problem had been resolved last year, but since we hadn't driven on steep grades until now we hadn't had any more problems with overheating. Sooooo, when we take the motorhome back to Elkhart, IN in October that will need to be looked at again. Otherwise, it was a great trip from Denver.

We have no cell phone service at the campground so I haven't posted on the blog for quite awhile. I do have excellent aircard service in Carbondale so can only get on the internet when we're in town. But we've been busy helping Tim and Karen so I've not taken the time to post to the blog until now. I'll just post a few comments and links to pictures we've taken of the beautiful scenery around here. The pictures should speak for themselves.

Tim, Karen, the boys and the moving truck arrived at their new house about the same time. The truck was just about empty when we got to the house, so we helped get the beds put together and tried to organize a few things. Last weekend was spent opening boxes and putting things away with the help of an 18 month old and 3 1/2 year old. But we accomplished a lot and the house actually looks pretty homey.

We have taken some rides into the mountains and taken many pictures. We sure are glad we have a 4-wheel drive vehicle so we can drive over some of the roads we've driven on.

I'll post the links to our Picasa Web Albums so you can see where we've been. Erin has also taken a lot of pictures and I'll include her pictures in the links.

We'll probably be leaving Colorado on Tuesday or Wednesday and I'll try to stay a little more up to date with posting.

So, more later.......

Catching Up

2008-06-24T18:14:00.007-04:00

We spent four wonderful days with our friends, Roger & Elaine in Burdett, KS. We first met them in 1972 at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary when Roger and Dan were both studying for the ministry. Circumstances have taken us in different directions over the years, but every time we get together we just pick up where we left off. Roger arranged for Erin to do some horseback riding and ride in a combine. She sure enjoyed the horses; and was calling her Dad to see if he would buy one of them for her. NO, we aren't pulling a horse trailer. :)

While in Burdett, we parked our rig at the city park. There was a 50amp electrical service and after some adapting of electrical connections by Leonard, who works for the city, we were able to use both air conditioners. The weather really wasn't as hot as we were expecting for June. Cool nights and daytime temps in the 80's.

We left Burdett on Monday and stayed at Shady Grove RV Park in Seibert, CO last night. It's a Passport America park. The sites are gravel, but fairly level with FHU's. Seibert is a VERY small town with not much to see or do, but it's a nice overnight stop before starting across Colorado.

We are now at Cherry Creek State Park in Denver. This park is on the southeast side of Denver, but inside the loop. It is so big, you don't even know the city is just a short distance away. The roads are asphalt with concrete, level pads. And there is quite a bit of space between the sites. There are lots of trees, but most sites are fairly open. We're visiting my sister and her husband for a few days before we move on to help Tim and Karen get moved in to their new home in Carbondale, CO.

Our site at Cherry Creek State Park, Denver, CO. They really need rain as you can tell by the dry grass.

We'll be in a National Forest campground just south of Carbondale with no hookups. We'll see how that goes. :) Hoping that someone cancels and we'll have electricity. Otherwise will have to run the generator every day to keep the freezer going. Will keep posted as to how that works.

More later......

Long Time Away

2008-06-19T18:50:00.002-04:00

Just a note to let everyone know we are still among the living. We left Branson on June 15th and stayed for 4 days at a Corps of Engineer campground at Fall River, KS. NO CELL PHONE OR INTERNET SERVICE!!!! So was unable to update the blog.

Very relaxing after getting ready to start fulltiming, Sarah's wedding and the RV-Dreams rally.

But will try to get something posted this week. We are now in Burdett, KS visiting friends. We have known Roger and Elaine since 1972 when Dan and Roger were studying at Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, TX.

Plan to spend a few days with these good friends and then move on to Colorado to see Tim and Karen's new house and visit with grandchildren, Elijah and Isaac.

More later......

New Friends

2008-06-12T22:35:00.002-04:00

What a wonderful group of people at the RV-Dream's rally here in Branson. We arrived here Wednesday afternoon and have been pretty busy ever since with meeting new friends, attending seminars, eating, and just hanging out.

I'm still recuperating from last week and Sarah's wedding. What a wonderful time we had with all our children and grandchildren in Ohio for the wedding. And the wedding was really special. Sarah and Chad recited their own vows to each other and Sarah recited vows to Chad's boys, Clayton and Brice.

When the rally is over, I'll post some wedding pictures. Not sure why I've been so tired this week, but think it's probably related to finalizing our fulltiming, the wedding, and then moving right into the rally with no time in between to catch our breath. We'll be spending four days in southeastern Kansas next week, so should be able to recuperate then and get caught up on blog posts and pictures.

We are really enjoying having Erin with us. She has been bike riding with Grandpa, and is working toward being the all-time Phase 10 winner. :)

More later.......

Storms, Rain and more Rain; Finally Sunshine!!!!

2008-06-05T10:00:00.006-04:00

We stayed in Illinois an extra day because of the terrible thunderstorms. Had quite a scare Tuesday evening while returning to the Beever farm from a shopping trip in Champaign with my daughter and granddaughter. There are two options to get to their farm, both of which involve narrow gravel roads with low spots that flood. We did drive through some minor flooding on the road we took. About a mile from their house, in POURING rain, lightning struck in the field about 500 feet from the road. We saw flames as the lightning hit the ground. Even with all the water on the ground. It was quite a sight.

Needless to say, we sure were glad to get in the house. Dan and our grandsons were standing in the garage as we pulled up. We sure were happy to see them. :)

There was so much rain and standing water that Dan was a little concerned about the roads being soft due to all the rain, but we had no trouble with the motorhome when we left yesterday. Drove through about 6 inches of water in one place before we got on the blacktop road.

We are now parked at Sarah and Chad's out in the country (love the country) at Sugar Grove, OH. Sugar Grove is in the southeast part of Ohio with beautiful rolling hills and lots of timber. Deer walk across the backyard every morning. AND, the sun is shining.

All five of our children are here along with their families. They've come from Seattle, Texas, Illinois and Boston. Our six grandchildren range in ages from 19 down to 1 1/2. Plus there are two dogs and one cat to add to the mix. And Sarah and Chad will be celebrating their wedding on Saturday and adding two step-grandchildren to our family.

We celebrated Jennifer's 40th birthday last night with the usual hoopla from her 4 siblings. This tradition started when Tim turned 40 and has continued to grow with great gusto as each one has reached that milestone.

Lots happening this week. Not sure how much time I'll have to post this week, but will get some pictures up soon.

Thanks to all of you who commented about our blog. Looks like we'll be meeting several of you in Branson.

More later.....

We ARE on Our Way !!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-06-02T21:28:00.003-04:00

We left Rochester at 10:15 this morning on our first day of fulltime RVing. Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!!!

No, the house isn't sold, but it sure was nice to pull away from it. We built this house in 1977 and raised our family in it. Tim was a freshman in high school and Sarah was a baby. This is the house all our kids left from as they ventured out into the world. There are lots of memories in this house, but nothing to hold us to it any longer. As many of you have heard us say many times, "Our kids live in five different states from Washington to Massachusetts, including Illinois, Ohio and (soon to be) Colorado."

We are so looking forward to being able to spend time with each of them and their families as we travel, and take a grandchild with us once in awhile. Erin will be with us this summer.

So we begin our journey enjoying the freedom of traveling the open road, taking our home with us.

We still have some work to do on the house before putting it up for sale, and will get that done this fall.

Thanks to all of you who read our blog. Be sure to leave your comments.

More later...............

Just About Ready to Go!!!!

2008-05-22T22:15:00.003-04:00

Just eleven days until we pick up Erin and start our summer/fall adventure. WooHoo!!! We decided to stay in the house until sometime next week. Might as well use the house water and sewer instead of filling up the tanks in the motorhome. Plus, it's really been easier to organize in the MH. I've had just about everything out of the cabinets and closet and re-sorted, rearranged and labeled. Dan cleaned the basement storage areas and rearranged those also. Looks like we'll actually have some extra space even after he includes tools and a small air compressor.

He made some dividers for the cabinets so canned food and such will stay better organized while traveling. Just normal accelerating and braking can really mess up the cans. Our MH has such a smooth ride that very few things shift around during travel, but I hadn't found a way to keep the cans from sliding around. That rubberized shelf liner just gets wrinkled up. I do put the coffee pot in the sink and the toaster oven and 2 or 3 other items in a basket on the floor while traveling.

Dan sold the dump truck to the Village of Rochester last week, so the only work vehicles left are the Kioti tractor and the old 1983 Dodge Van (otherwise known as the Brogdon Bus). Gretchen drove the Brogdon Bus in high school and had several "adventures" with it; but I won't elaborate on those here.

Dan has purchased a bike rack for the back of the truck so the bikes won't have to lay in the bed of the truck. Three bikes will fit on it. Really nice!! And he began moving some of the tools into the front garage in preparation for a sale when we get back to Rochester in the fall. He had already sorted everything, but things were really crowded in the back garage and it wouldn't be very easy to display everything.

I just need to move food from the freezer and fridge and all the food will be in the MH. Sorting through the spice cabinet was quite interesting. I found 3 jars of chili powder and 3 cans of cocoa and numerous spices that I'm not sure how old they were. If I couldn't smell them when I opened them; they were history!! And I'm not sure why I even bought some of them. I bought some new spices and they now have a "date of purchase" marked on them.

We still need to go through a few clothes and decide what do to with them, but we are really close to being ready to leave. Monday I'll start calling to stop the paper, cable TV, trash pickup and all that stuff. A friend will be picking up our mail at the post office twice a month and sending it to us. We have switched everything to online bills and payments except for one insurance statement, so we don't have much mail. And our neighbor is going to mow our yard.

I didn't start out to write so much, but since this blog is also a diary of sorts, I guess I can write whatever I want to. :) We will be back in the fall to finish working on the house to put it on the market. Some might ask why we don't get that done now and then travel, but without going into detail; we have decided this is best for us.

So June 2 it's off to Ohio for Sarah and Chad's wedding, then to Branson, MO for the RV-Dreams rally; Burdett, KS to visit friends; Denver to visit Jean (Gail's sister) and Steve; Carbondale, CO to visit Tim, Karen, Elijah and Isaac in their NEW home; and then on to Seattle for Lucy's birthday. And we'll be stopping along the way to enjoy this wonderful country and all the beautiful sites and scenery, and posting pictures.

AND, we're so happy to have Miss Erin traveling with us.

More later........

No, We Aren't Traveling Yet

2008-05-07T14:02:00.004-04:00

I didn't realize how long ago I posted, so thought I should bring this blog up-to-date.

We returned home from the race on April 29th. Had a wonderful time in Alabama even though our drivers didn't do well at the racetrack.

We've been busy continuing to work on the house. Sarah and Chad were back this past weekend so Sarah could check out the alterations on her wedding dress. It looked great, except for the hooks for the bustle, soooooo, those are being changed; and I'll pick it up on Saturday. She wanted to take it with her, but we'll be taking it to Ohio.

Sarah did load up their car with some more stuff, so our inventory keeps dwindling. And we hauled more stuff to Stephanie this week. We hope to get the living room furniture off to Goodwill this week along with another trunk load of stuff. Then just have the kitchen cabinets and some other miscellaneous to deal with. I've downsized the kitchen once already, so shouldn't take long to finish it.

We plan to start living in the motorhome this weekend. :) Sure am getting tired of not knowing where things are. Of course, it will take awhile to remember where we've put things in the motorhome, since I keep rearranging the cabinets.

And Dan has sold some more equipment, so things are progressing.

Not sure when I'll post again. My laptop is in the shop, but I should have it back in a day or two. I'm posting from the Rochester Library today.

Can't wait to start this fulltiming.

Waiting for Raceday

2008-04-25T09:46:00.002-04:00

We arrived here at Lakeside Landing RV park on Wednesday afternoon. The park was almost empty that day, but has slowly been filling up as more race fans arrive. There are still quite a few empty sites, and we've wondered if fuel prices will keep some people away.

One guy from Montana, who usually pulls a 5th wheel RV with a diesel truck, arrived in his car with his tent and air mattress. He has been coming to Talladega for nearly 20 years. NASCAR race fans are really loyal. :)

It's been nice to renew friendships with our neighbors who we only see once a year. And everyone seems to remember Kasey. They all comment about how well behaved he is. I think he's the only dog in the whole park who doesn't bark when someone walks by.

Will be going to the track today to watch practice.

More later.....

Talladega, Here We Come

2008-04-17T22:27:00.004-04:00

One of our favorite times of the year is almost here - The Nascar race at Talladega Superspeedway at Talladega, Alabama. We love to watch Nascar races, but being at the track is pretty exciting. Our seats are up high in the 38th row and at the start/finish line. We can see around the whole track. Talladega is a 2.66 mile track and a lot can happen in that 2.66 miles.

We'll take in qualifying and practice and watch the Nationwide (formerly Busch race) on Saturday and Cup race on Sunday. And it looks like the weather may cooperate with temperatures in the high 70's and low 80's. Don't forget the sunscreen!!!

We camp about 20 miles from the track at Pell City, AL. Can't quite take ALL the activity in the campgrounds around the track; however, there is one "family" campground where consumption of alcohol is prohibited outside your RV and quiet hours are enforced. BUT, the camping fee is pretty steep. Of course, with the price of fuel now and driving back and forth to the track, most likely would break even. Oh well, we like Lakeside Landing in Pell City, and have stayed at the same site for the last 4 years and have the same neighbors every year.

We're leaving Saturday and plan to stop at Rickwood Caverns State Park on the way. That's where we rescued the puppy in January. Will probably check with the animal shelter about the family that adopted the puppy and see how he is doing. Also will explore the cave at the park.

Will post pictures from the race.

More later......

Still Here!!!! Sorting, Hauling, Planning

2008-04-09T21:46:00.004-04:00

Yes, we are still in Rochester; and I have not been very good at writing on the blog. But we have gotten a LOT done in the past few days.

Sarah and her fiance, Chad, were home for a 3 day weekend for a wedding dress fitting and we conned them into helping clean out the basement. And what help they were!!! Also moved several items to the storage building for pickup later by the kids. Stephanie, Taylor and Erin came on Saturday and helped also. Sure makes for faster work when several are helping. And we had pizza at Gallina's on Saturday evening. It's a family tradition when any of the kids are here. Sarah and Chad slept in the motor home since there are no extra beds in the house. It's really nice to have hookups at the house.

I'm working 3 days this week and next so probably won't get much other stuff done. I was exhausted when I got home today. I do enjoy my job, but don't like having to be at work at 5:30 AM. And it's pretty fast-paced for several hours as we admit kids and send them off to surgery. But even though I enjoy my job, I am more than ready to make a change and really start this fulltime lifestyle.

And speaking of fulltiming; Erin, our eleven year old granddaughter, will be spending this summer with us as we travel. We're really looking forward to that. She has traveled with us on some other trips and we've always had a good time. Sure glad she likes spending time with grandma and grandpa. She'll be adding her thoughts to our blog; and she bought a new camera with money she has saved, so I'm sure she'll post pictures also.

We'll be leaving on April 19 for Talladega, AL for a Nascar race; then back home until June 1 when we head to Ohio for Sarah and Chad's wedding and then on to Branson, Kansas, Denver and Seattle. Erin will start traveling with us on June 1. She will fly back home in August to start back to school, and we don't have any specific plans after August.

I'll start posting more regularly when we start traveling.

More later.....

Jury duty is finished - Still sorting

2008-03-30T18:55:00.005-04:00

Jury duty is over, and I have to say it was actually a good experience. VERY tiring. Listening to all the evidence and realizing that you are responsible for making decisions that will affect another person's future is a pretty awesome task. I was more tired each night than if I had worked a full day. We were not allowed to take notes, so the mental challenge of not only listening, but remembering can be very difficult. AND the judge admonished us not to talk about the case to each other or anyone else, so my mind was filled with all this information that I was unable to organize very well.

But it was interesting to see how we all worked together as we deliberated and how much we all remembered together. Glad I don't have to do this very often, but I would do my duty again if asked.

Have started a more methodical approach to sorting our "stuff". We previously moved everything from the office to the dining room so Dan could work on the plumbing issue, so that room has been empty for some time. And we've cleaned out the dining room, except for the table and chairs and the boxes for the kids, which are going to the storage facility. And the utility room is less cluttered and more organized.

I decided on Friday to start at the north end of the house and work my way to the south end. So the large bathroom has been throughly sorted, with just the necessary bathing items left in the room. Now on to our bedroom on Monday and the walk-in closet. I'm really going to adhere to the rule, "If you pick it up, make a decision about it before putting it down." In other words, "Don't just move it to another place".

Sarah and her fiance, Chad, will be here on Friday for a wedding dress fitting on Saturday. We've asked them to help carry things out of the basement and to help move some furniture to the storage facility. That will be a BIG help.

So, we are still in Rochester, but making progress. Thanks to those of you who keep checking the website for new info. We'll be going to Talladega about April 18 for the Nascar race and then to Ohio June 1 for Sarah's wedding. Then I'll start posting more often.

More later......

We're Still Here - (Rochester, IL)

2008-03-15T20:30:00.003-04:00

Just letting everyone know we are still sorting, giving away and throwing away. Just can't believe the STUFF we collect. Sure is interesting going through boxes that haven't been opened for a few years. Makes for some sentimental moments. But progress is being made. Most of the books are off the shelves and some have been delivered to their new homes.

Took a trunk full of stuff to Goodwill today. Won't be doing much next week since I have jury duty beginning Monday. Maybe I'll get lucky and be sent home the first day. Kind of puts a glitch in my plans, but just have to deal with it.

It's just 2 1/2 months till Sarah and Chad's wedding in Ohio. They will be home the first of April for a wedding dress fitting. All of our kids and their families will be at the wedding. Will be great to see everyone together.

We'll be going to Branson, MO after the wedding for an RV rally and then head toward Seattle with plans to stop in Kansas and visit friends and then on to Denver to visit my sister Jean and her husband, Steve. Haven't made any definite plans for the route on to Seattle, but will probably just "play it by ear." Plan to stay about a month in and around Seattle. Then will start a slow southerly route toward Texas.

Enough for now. More later....... (after I finish some more sorting and I fulfill my jury duty obligations).

Hanging Out in Rochester

2008-03-05T19:49:00.002-05:00

Just wanted to let everyone know we are still around. Just not traveling yet. But have been doing a lot of sorting and getting rid of things. Spent a large portion of today going through pictures. I'm taking them out of the frames to store them. Also started scanning some of them. I'm don't have the time to go through all the pictures we've taken over the years, but plan to work on that as we travel. I was very negligent and did not put pictures in albums, so have a lot of work ahead. If I sorted all of them now, we wouldn't get started on this fulltime journey until next year. :)

We had about 4 inches of snow yesterday, but the temperature was up to 38 today. Next week should be nice with temperatures around 48. Maybe the ground will start drying out. It's really wet from all the snow.

Will continue to post about once a week to document our progress.

Looking forward to warmer weather and longer days as daylight savings time starts next weekend.

More later....

Good News, Inverter OK

2008-02-25T10:16:00.002-05:00

Guess we're still in the learning curve with the motorhome. After 2 1/2 years!!! But, the inverter is just fine according to the service guys at Coleman Country Campers. Not only are there breakers and fuses at the foot of the bed (which I checked), but there also is a breaker on the inverter itself. And, it's right on the front of inverter as you look at it in the basement bay. But, get this; it is about the size of and looks like the end of a white pencil, not like the regular breaker switches in your regular breaker panel. It just needed to be pushed back in. Soooo, one more thing to add to the list of things we now know about this motorhome. But what a relief to know we didn't ruin the inverter. It actually worked like it was supposed to.

We should be getting the motorhome back this week and then it's off to Freightliner to see if they can figure out why the windshield wipers aren't working. The motors have been replaced twice, but the wipers still just do their own thing. LITERALLY!!! They stop and start when they want to and currently won't operate at all. The wiper controls are on the steering wheel. It's called a SMARTWHEEL and is a Freightliner product. Ha Ha We've thought for sometime that the problem was in the Smartwheel, but Mandalay insisted on changing out the motors, but they've now agreed to look further. It's just not safe to drive in rain without wipers!!! Not that we do too much of that, but sometimes we do travel on a rainy day, just as long as there is just rain and not storms.

Today brings more sorting. It really is satisfying to sort through a drawer or closet and make decisions about the "stuff". I'm only working on Tuesday this week, so hope to get a lot done at home. Two-four inches of snow is expected tonight, which just motivates me even more to get this sorting down, so we can finish getting the house ready to sell and get on the road.

Better get busy. More later....

Water Problem Solved, Serious Sorting Begins - (Rochester, IL)

2008-02-23T19:39:00.007-05:00

Just an update as to what we've been doing this past week.

The leaking pipes are all fixed, thanks to Dan and the plumber, and additional insulation has been added to the soffit area above the cabinets. And I can't feel cold air around the electrical outlets on the west wall of the kitchen. So, that problem is solved. Now just need to repair all the holes in the sheetrock that were made while looking for the opening for the cold air to enter the soffit and subsequently freeze the water pipes. :) And there was sheetrock dust all over everything, so had to do lots of dusting.

Have been doing some serious sorting of "stuff". I'm amazed at how much stuff we actually have. I'm sure that at some time we believed we needed or would need all this stuff. But most of the sorting is really pretty easy. It's not so difficult to decide what to keep or what to get rid of, but rather, how to get rid of it. Sell, give to kids, donate to charity, throw away or keep. Still trying to decide if we'll have a garage sale this spring, so I am putting some things on the tables in the garage which Dan put together for me last year. I price the items when I take them to the garage so that doesn't have to be done later. But since our main goal right now is to get stuff out of the house so we can get the house ready to sell, I don't have enough room to put everything we might be able to sell in the garage. We are renting a storage unit for the things going to the kids, but I don't want to take sale stuff there and then bring it back home to sell. Not sure the monetary return is worth the work.

I worked 2 days last week at St. John's and plan to work 1 day next week. I think I'll stick with that schedule. It will give me more time at home to get other things done.

Will have the income tax info ready for our accountant by the end of next week. He'll be surprised.

Lots to do, but our trip just reenforced our desire to pursue the RV full-time lifestyle. Our motorhome is so easy to live in; Kasey is a wonderful traveler; we enjoyed ever-changing views out the front window; if the weather isn't to our liking, we check out the weather channel and move to better weather.

So, better get busy. More later....

Back in Rochester for Awhile - (Rochester, IL)

2008-02-14T23:03:00.002-05:00

We arrived back to our house about 3:00 this afternoon. Sure is cold in Illinois. :) Had a couple of issues with the motorhome on the way back. Must have gotten a bad tank of fuel since we started loosing power going up hills. And the inverter/charger isn't charging the batteries like it should. But we were able to get it home so can have work done here and we're not stuck out on the road somewhere.

We suspected we might have had a frozen water line in the house, since we've had a problem with that in the past. Sure enough, turned the water on and guess what? Water through the ceiling in the office!!!! After tearing down the computer setup on the desk and moving all the furniture, cutting a hole in the ceiling (large hole), we then decided the problem must be in the soffit over the refrigerator. That means moving the fridge, taking out the surrounding cabinet and overhead cabinet to find holes in two water lines. After working for awhile trying to get them fixed, Dan decided to call it quits and will call the plumber tomorrow. He also has a plan to fix the original problem which involves the cold air getting into the ceiling and causing the pipes to freeze.

So the office, kitchen and living room are a real mess, but we knew we had some work to do in there anyway, so might as well get it done. Also need to get the motorhome issues taken care of so we can get it back home and live in it while we work on getting the house ready to sell.

I'll probably only post to this blog about 2 times a week, just to keep everybody updated. And I'll be more motivated to get stuff done so I'll have something to talk about.

Our next trip will be to Talladega in April for a Nascar race and then back home until Sarah's wedding in June. The plan is to have the house ready to sell by then.

No more pictures of Dan in the hammock for awhile. Too much work to do right now.

More later.....

Nice Views, New Friends - (Americus, GA)

2008-02-11T17:57:00.000-05:00

Jennifer commented about Kasey's view out the front window and wondered how he got up on the dash with his short legs. He just jumps. Guess those short legs are pretty strong. This was his view this morning about 8:30. He was actually watching the Canadian geese, but I didn't get them in the picture.

These are our neighbors, Gerry and Joan, who we had lunch with on Sunday.

And meet Cookie, Kasey's new friend. They look like 4th or 5th graders. "I'm not sitting next to a girl."

We'll be leaving this nice sunny place tomorrow morning and will stop at Rickwood Caverns State Park in Alabama. That's where we rescued the puppy last month. Will probably be home on Friday. :( But we are both very motivated to get things completed as we get ready for this summer and more traveling. Won't have very good internet access at Rickwood Caverns, so probably won't post for a couple of days.

More later....

Busy Week -(Americus, GA)

2008-02-10T20:34:00.000-05:00

Since we weren't sure just how long we would be staying at Americus, we've done what we said we wouldn't do - and that's try to see everything in the area in a VERY short time period. That will change when we start fulltiming because we will not be in vacation mode all the time. So, I'll try to give you an overview of what we've done the past few days.

Thursday afternoon - Downtown Americus and an unusual ice cream shop; Habitat for Humanity International and the Global Village and Discovery Center

We started out looking for ice cream and found "Lollipop Kids". It's a kids clothing store with an ice cream shop in the front of the store. Delicious ice cream cones to fortify us for an afternoon of sightseeing.

We stopped by Habitat for Humanity International Headquarters and enjoyed the hallway of posters which chronicle the development and progress of HFH since it was founded in 1976 by Millard and Linda Fuller when they left very lucrative jobs with the goal "to eliminate poverty housing worldwide."
We then drove just a few blocks to the Habitat Global Village and Discovery Center. The Global Village is comprised of two sections, outdoors that you walk through. The first is an example of the substandard poverty housing that persists in our world today.

The second section consists of life-size replicas of homes being built by Habitat and its volunteers around the world. Some of the countries represented are Mexico, Guatemala, Kenya, Malawi, Haiti, Uganda, South Africa, India and Sri Lanka. These homes are not "Americanized", but are built using local materials and in keeping with the local customs and climate.

This walk through was especially interesting and informative. Habitat has built more than 200,000 homes in partnership with people in more than 100 countries to help people live in decent, affordable housing. This visit was very inspiring and just reenforced our plans to volunteer some more with Habitat.

Friday - Plains, GA, Jimmy Carter's boyhood home; potluck at campground, bluegrass music

Plains, GA is a small, quiet, well-kept country town. The high school is now a museum and visitor's center; Billy Carter's Service Station is still on the main street and the Carter's still live in their house on Church Street (which is the main street). There is a fence around their property and Secret Service black suburbans parked in the driveway. Their house is surrounded by a lot of trees and is quite a ways off the street, so I wasn't able to get a picture of it. But if you weren't looking for his home, you would never notice it.

The Carter Boyhood Farm is about 3 miles from Plains and is a National Historic Site. The farm is at Archery. Archery was not incorporated or organized in any way; it was just the name of the rural community and train stop. The Carter family moved to the farm in 1928. Jimmy was 4 years old. There was no electricity or running water until 1938. This was home to Jimmy Carter until he left for college in 1941. The National Park Service purchased the home and 17 acres surrounding it from the Downer family who bought it from Mr. Carter in 1949. Mr. Carter's original farm was about 350 acres. The site has been restored to its appearance before electricity. We could hear the squeak of the windmill as it turned in the wind.

This is Maranantha Baptist Church which Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter attend when they are in Plains. It's located about 1/2 mile out of town. President Carter is a deacon at the church and teaches Sunday School. There is a Sunday School schedule posted at our campground showing the Sundays he will be teaching and the public is welcome to attend. Sunday School starts at 10:30, but you need to go about 2 hours ahead because everyone has to be screened by the Secret Service prior to the service. He was not in town this weekend. We heard from some other campers that the Secret Service people are very friendly and helpful and willing to share about their experiences with their jobs.

Saturday- Village of Andersonville (more ice cream), and Andersonville National Historic Site (met Abraham Lincoln)

We found another store serving ice cream in the town of Andersonville which is across the road from the Andersonville National Historic Site and the National Prisoner of War Museum.

Andersonville, or Camp Sumter as it was officially known, was one of the largest of many Confederate military prisons established during the Civil War. It was built in early 1864 when Confederate officials decided to move the large number of Federal prisoners kept in and around Richmond, Virginia, to a place of greater security and a more abundant food supply. During the 14 months the prison existed, more than 45,000 Union soldiers were confined there. 13,000 died from disease, poor sanitation, malnutrition, overcrowding, or exposure.

The original prison was 16 1/2 acres and was designed for 10,000 prisoners who began arriving in February 1864. By the end of June there were 26,000 with approximately 400 arriving daily. The stockade was expanded by another 10 acres in June 1864. Horrific conditions existed resulting in much suffering and a high mortality.

Andersonville Prison ceased to exist in May 1865 as most prisoners returned to their pre-war occupations. In July and August, Clara Barton, a detachment of laborers and soldiers and a former prisoner named Dorence Atwater, came to Andersonville cemetery to identify and mark the graves of the Union dead. As a prisoner, Atwater was assigned to record the names of deceased Union soldiers. Fearing loss of the death record at war's end, Atwater made his own copy in hopes of notifying the relatives of some 12,000 dead interred there. Thanks to his list and the Confederate records confiscated at the end of the war, only 460 of Andersonville graves had to be marked "unknown U.S. soldier." It's very sobering to walk and drive around the prison area and then drive through the cemetery.

In 1998 the National Prisoner of War Museum opened at Andersonville and is the only National Park System area to serve as a memorial to all American prisoners of war and is dedicated to the men and women of this country who suffered captivity. Some Americans have experienced the prisoner of war ordeal for a few days, others for years. All have experienced the loss of freedom. This is the most important story told at Andersonville National Historic Site. To fully understand this loss is to cherish freedom all the more.

I took pictures at Andersonville, but they just don't describe the feelings and emotions of this place.

On a lighter note, we did meet Abraham Lincoln strolling the ground of the prison site. Dennis Boggs portrays Lincoln as a profession and was visiting Andersonville a few months ago when one of the park rangers asked, "Has anyone told you that you look a lot like Abraham Lincoln?" Mr. Boggs gave the park ranger one of his brochures and the park service asked him to spend a few weeks at the park. He visits with visitors and gives talks twice a day regarding Lincoln's life.

On Friday evening our campground hosted a barbeque. Several of the men smoked pork loins and pork shoulders all day and everyone brought a dish to share. Bluegrass music was provided by a couple of people from the campground and some local folk who just came to play. Nice ending to a very busy day.

I didn't intend for this post to be so long, but some things just don't condense very well. I have a lot more pictures and am thinking of storing all of them on smugbug.com so you can see all of them. Probably won't get them transferred until we get back home, but will let you know when that happens.

One more thing>>>

Went to a church with our campground neighbors, Gerry and Joan, this morning. They are from Pennsylvania and are trying to escape cold weather also. They don't plan to fulltime, but are retired and plan to do a lot of traveling in their RV. They have an 11 year old peek-a-boo who thinks she is the "queen bee". She is a very good dog, but just ignores Kasey. And Kasey just leaves her alone. They get along fine. They just ignore each other. I'll post her picture tomorrow.

We all went for lunch at Cutt's Restaurant. There is no menu at Cutt's. There are lists behind the counter which list the buffet items for everyday. Fried chicken is always served. Customers walk in the front door and proceed to the counter to view the food offered for the day. Today was fried or baked chicken, turkey & dressing, roast beef, pork chops, mashed potatoes, squash casserole, rice, black-eyed peas, lima beans, and collared greens. You choose one meat and 3 sides; then you choose either a biscuit, cornbread or flatbread. The lady behind the counter dishes up your food as you choose it. And she is very liberal with her servings. No need for seconds. We had a great time with these new friends.

More later.....

Heading north - (Americus, GA)

2008-02-08T20:57:00.000-05:00

So glad we stayed over in Thomasville, GA. We arrived at Brickyard Plantation Golf Course & RV Park about 1:00pm Thursday, another Passport America Park. The RV park is across the road from the golf course. We've met several couples who stay here from October until March. Monthly rate is $350 and includes unlimited golf. What a deal. :)

The storm was not as bad as expected the night before, but at least we didn't drive in rain. Weather is cool (60's) but the sun is shining.

Spent Thursday afternoon checking out Americus and visiting Habitat for Humanity International Headquarters and the HFH Global Village and Discovery Center.

Just wanted to at least let everyone know where we are. Will post pictures and more details of what we're doing tomorrow.

More later....

Detained in Thomasville, GA

2008-02-06T17:27:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Internet access and satellite TV we awoke to the news of all the tornados in Alabama and Tennessee. So sad about the loss of life and terrible destruction. We debated about whether to stay or go. Since the weather map looked like the storm was moving east, we decided to go ahead and just keep track of the weather via the computer. As we crossed the Georgia state line, I began to check weather.com and saw that there was actually another storm right ahead of us and covering the entire area we would be driving through and included our destination. I began to check my campground book and found a campground in Albany, GA, about 55 miles up the road. Tried to call them, but didn't have good cell phone service, so we pulled off the highway at Thomasville, GA and parked in Lowe's parking lot to have lunch and assess the situation. Checked the Passport America campground book again and found an RV park just around the corner from Lowe's and they had empty spaces. :) AND, the nice thing about the motorhome is having our food and bathroom right along with us. Plus satellite TV. The only thing missing is sunshine, but we didn't drive in rain or meet up with a severe storm.

Soooo, we elected to stay here tonight and head out tomorrow for Americus. Weather is supposed to be great for the next few days.

While driving around on Sunday we came across this church sign. Yes, there is another Central Baptist Church in Cross City, Florida.

The sun was actually shining when we arrived at this campground today in Thomasville, so we decided to take a ride and check out the town. Found a quaint little ice cream shop in the historic downtown and just had to have a cone. Then as we continued our ride around town we came upon this wonderful city park and rose garden. The roses are not in bloom, so didn't take any pictures, but this lake is surrounded by a winding paved walking path which is exactly one mile long. You can see the clouds in the background, but we were able to walk all the way around and get back home before it started raining. The rain was heavy enough to knock out the satellite for awhile, but has settled down to just a steady rain now.

So we are both thinking it's better to revise plans and stop for the night away from the severe weather AND we got our exercise in before the rain. Really are enjoying the flexibility of this lifestyle.

Now if I could just remember which outside storage bay my sandy tennis shoes are in so I can get them in between rain showers. I wore sandals today and put the sandy shoes in the basement storage,but don't want to wear sandals to walk Kasey. Would look a little strange with my REI Seattle rain jacket. Sure am glad Kasey can go about 8-10 hours between trips outside if need be. Speaking of which, he's sitting by the door looking at me. Think that's a clue? And the rain has quit for now. Better go find those shoes; there are some puddles around here.

More later.....

Movin' on down the road

2008-02-05T15:42:00.000-05:00

Just letting everyone know we are still among the living. Really enjoying this Florida weather. Have gone on several drives in the area just to see the local scenery. But mostly enjoying long walks with Kasey and sitting outside in the sunshine. Did some laundry today and put some chicken to marinade in an orange/barbeque sauce for supper.

Met some really nice neighbors here. Both couples are about our age and have also worked with Habitat for Humanity, so spent some time sharing Habitat stories.

Dan has biked everyday and today rode into Old Town, then had a flat tire on the way back and had to walk. My bike rides are getting longer. Tried taking Kasey with me, but need to get a longer leash. He REALLY doesn't like being real close to the bike while it's moving. Not sure he'll ever like biking. But, we'll see with a longer leash.

Starting to get "hitch itch", so will leave here tomorrow for Americus, GA as we start to head back to Illinois. I know, why are you coming home to all this cold weather? We do have some responsibilities there and need to get moving along on getting the house ready to sell. Maybe by the time it's ready the market will improve. We can only hope. :)

Will stay at Americus for 3 or 4 days. More pictures later.

Plan to stay at Americus, GA for 3-4 days so will post again from there.

Just Another Busy Day in Florida

2008-02-02T21:00:00.000-05:00

It's really a rough life. Dan says, "If it was just a little cooler, it would be perfect." "I'm almost perspiring." :) I didn't have the video camera in hand to capture his first attempt at getting INTO the hammock. Our kids gave him this several years ago and he is really enjoying it. He was resting up for a six mile bike ride out in the country. No, Gail did not ride for six miles. But Kasey and I walk many laps around the campground and I do ride my bike, just not into long rides yet. Still getting in shape. That may take awhile.

And then the other male in the family spends his time when in the motorhome, on the dash, surveying the outside world. We are so proud of him. He never barks at other dogs or people. The dog in the next camper over (about 20 feet away) barks quit a bit when his owners are gone, especially if he hears us talking or hears our door close. We've asked neighbors in each campground to tell us if they hear Kasey barking, and they've all said he just lays on the dash and usually sleeps there when we're gone. We take him with us most of the time, except for places like museums, the Space Center or where we know he can't go in. And we would never leave him in the black truck in the sun. Just not safe!!!

Actually the Kennedy Space Center had a FREE kennel for pets, so they wouldn't be left in a vehicle all day in the parking lot.

Kasey's view out our front window.

We decided to stay here until Wednesday morning. We weren't sure how long we would stay when we arrived, but this place is sooooo quiet and peaceful. And there is lots of space between sites. Several small trails go off into the woods and the long road into the campground makes for good bike riding. We've checked out some local country roads (Dan by bike) and both of us by truck. There's a wildlife refuge about 20 miles from here on the coast, so we plan to visit there tomorrow and be back for the Super Bowl in the evening. Picked up some wings from a local barbecue place today to have for our Super Bowl Party tomorrow.

We also have been eating LOTS of oranges, grapefruit and mangos. I didn't know there were so many kinds of oranges. The red navel are especially good.

We are really beginning to feel like this motorhome is our home. We're probably going to stay in it when we get back to Rochester, so we can finish working on getting the house ready to sell. Will be a lot easier if we're not living in the house. Back in 1978, we lived in our house while we finished building it (with 5 kids). I don't want to do that again as we're sorting through the rest of our "stuff" and remodeling. And I really don't want to take all the things in the motorhome back into the house, and then back to the motorhome again.

I didn't really intend to ramble on, but thought some of our readers might be interested in how we're adapting to this full-time lifestyle. We are both really enjoying it. It's not a vacation, but just a different focus of how we plan to spend our retirement years. We're making tenative plans for this summer, but selling our house is our first priority.

More later....

New Surroundings - (Old Town, FL)

2008-01-31T19:39:00.000-05:00

We moved today to Suwanee River Hideaway Campground about 5 miles south of Old Town, FL. Old Town is not a very big town, and is located northwest of Ocala. Drove through the Ocala National Forest on our way here. Drove about 170 miles today. This is a Passport America park, so the price is right. It is off the beaten path and VERY quiet.

Not sure if I mentioned that the last campground was about 1/10 mile off I-95 so the truck noise was terrible. Since we were doing so much sightseeing and it was so well located for all we wanted to do, we didn't mind too much. But forget about sitting outside and reading a book.

We arrived here about 3:00pm, set up and walked down the 1500 foot boardwalk to the Suwanee River. The boardwalk crosses natural wetlands, so we'll see what kind of wild life we encounter. There are manatees in the river, but we didn't see any today. Met some nice people on our walk, but haven't decided how long we'll stay here. There are two state parks close by, and we plan to check them out. I wasn't able to get much information from the Florida State Parks website, so we'll just go see for ourselves.

The beauty of this lifestyle is just moving on whenever the mood strikes. It takes us about one hour to break camp and get on our way, and about 30 minutes to set up at a new site.

Had a call from Paul Stivers, our friend from church. He and Candy are checking on our house while we are gone. Paul is going to take care of Dan's snow removal jobs and it sounds like he'll get his chance tonight and tomorrow. Ten inches of snow is expected for Springfield.

No pictures today. Just thoughts about how much we are enjoying this trip.

More later.......

Kennedy Space Center & Cape Canaveral - (Scottsmoor, FL)

2008-01-30T19:54:00.000-05:00

Just an explanation of my titles to these posts. Since we'll be moving around I'm posting the name of the closest town to where we are staying in parentheses after the post title. So in today's title, Kennedy Space Center is not at Scottsmoor, but is located east of Titusville. We are staying near Scottsmoor.

Now on to yesterday. We spent the day at the Kennedy Space Center, also known as KSC by the people who work there. Lots to see at the Space Center and I think we saw it all.

This is the shuttle Explorer.

And this is the main fuel tank and 2 rockets to propel it into space. It is huge.

We decided to take the guided tour, The Cape, Then & Now. I mentioned in a previous post that Dan was stationed at Patrick Air Force Base which is south of Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Cape Canaveral is a military base and is NOT part of Kennedy Space Center. Dan punched a time clock for Boeing Company, who had a contract at Cape Canaveral with the military to build Bomarc missiles. Boeing used military personnel from Patrick AFB as support for the project.

Our tour took us to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and to the Air Force Space & Missile Museum. The museum highlights the Air Force as a major participant in America's space program beginning in early 1950 through today.

The museum includes the original blockhouse, with two-foot thick walls, situated 400 feet from twin launch pads. After passing through the outer blast doors, visitors enter the firing rooms furnished with original computers, consoles and launch support equipment. At one time this was state-of-the-art, but of course, is now obsolete. The area around the museum is now called "Rocket Garden" and you can walk among the various rockets that were launched from here.

One wall of computers in the blockhouse. Remember, this was the 1950's and 60's.
I thought this sign was pretty clever.

As Dan looked out one of the windows, he said, "That's a Bomarc out there." Of course, we had to go look at it. Just like the Link Trainer story, I've heard stories of his time at The Cape working on the Bomarc, but never knew what a Bomarc missile looked like. But I soon found out. Sixty-seven Bomarcs were launched from Cape Canaveral between September 10, 1952 and April 16, 1960. Dan worked on the refrigeration portion of this missile.

Our guide pointed out this mural of Alan Shephard on the side of the blockhouse. He was the first American in Space, May 5, 1961. Check out the expression on his face and his eyes. This picture was taken after he had been in the capsule for four hours prior to launch. I can't even imagine what he must have been thinking.

Our tour of Cape Canaveral ended at Launch Complex 34 where Astronauts, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, Edward White and Roger Chaffee lost their lives on January 27, 1967 as they were doing a test run on the pad for Apollo 1. From the time the fire broke out until they died, was 17 seconds. 100% oxygen is pumped into the capsule, so when the fire started they didn't have a chance to get out.

Our guide talked about the many rocket and missile launches from the Cape which never made it off the ground and the years of research and training that go into each launch. And the changes that are made based on each previous experience. Dan has also spoken of the various missile launches that were attempted and never made it off the ground, but until you've stood where these men died, you don't really appreciate what has gone into our space program.

On a lighter note, this lighthouse has been on Cape Canaveral since the 1800's. Dan remembers comments from the servicemen wondering if the lighthouse had been launched. But it was still there. Our guide also commented that people still ask when the lighthouse will be launched. :)

And an explanation of Cape Canaveral and Cape Kennedy, in case you wondered. The Kennedy Space Center is owned and operated by NASA. Cape Canaveral Air Force Station was renamed Cape Kennedy after President Kennedy's death. The name change caused such confusion that the Air Force Station name was changed back to Cape Canaveral about 10 years later in the early 70's. People still ask to see Cape Kennedy. :)

We're beginning to get "hitch-itch" so we'll probably be moving on in a couple of days. We'll be starting back toward Illinois, but will take 2-3 weeks to get there, so hopefully the ice and snow will be gone. Stay tuned for where we land next.

We'd like to know what you think of our blog, so feel free to click on "Comment" at the end of each post and give us your opinion and read what others have written.

More later......

It's a VERY Small World - (Scottsmoor, FL)

2008-01-28T21:42:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we talked with Sarah, our youngest daughter, and her fiance, Chad. They told us that while reading our blog Chad realized that his uncle, his mother's brother, lives in Titusville, just south of us. He last saw his uncle about 7 years ago when Chad's grandmother passed away. We said we would like to meet him, so Chad called him to sort of introduce us to him and see if he would like to meet us.

We met Butch this morning at Kim's Donut & Deli (Dan's favorite local coffee shop) and spent 3 hours visiting with him. We had planned to go on to the Kennedy Space Center after visiting with Butch, but after spending the whole morning talking, we decided to postpone the Space Center until tomorrow. Butch is retired from Lockheed where he worked as a machinist supporting the space program.

We'll probably see Butch one more time before we leave this area. I'm sure we'll enjoy that as much as we did this morning's visit.

As we were all chatting, a man came into the coffee shop and sat down across from us at the counter for coffee and a donut. He heard one of us mention Illinois and asked if we were from Illinois. Turns out, he worked as an ironworker in Springfield and Peoria in the 70's. He remembered the old Fleetwood restaurant on Dirksen Parkway and even mentioned Chatham and Buckhart. Didn't ask him how he knew where Buckhart was, but I suspect he may have frequented the tavern at Buckhart. Buckhart is a very small town, one tavern and a dozen houses, about 5 miles east of Rochester. His last name was Siddens AND his uncle lives about a mile from our house in Rochester. Such a small world.

Just think, we are about 1100 miles away from our sticks & brick home and we've met our soon-to-be son-in-law's uncle and someone else who's been to Buckhart, Illinois and his uncle lives in our neighborhood.

Better watch out for all these uncles.

Patrick AFB, Chilly Beach, Antique Car, Peaceful Lake - (Scottsmoor, FL)

2008-01-27T19:00:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, we went to Cocoa Beach to check out Patrick Air Force Base, where Dan was stationed from 1957 to 1959. He worked at Cape Canaveral on the Bomarc Missile. He was in the 6555th Guided Missile Squadron.

We were not able to get on the base, but he did notice how much has changed since 50 years ago. The old barracks housing is gone as are the above ground steam heating pipes. He said the base looks like it had been torn down and rebuilt.

So we went across the street to the beach. Notice the long pants and jacket and then check out the little girl in the next picture. :)

Checked out the cruise ships at Port Canaveral.

Goofy hanging on the front of the Disney ship

As we started back home we saw this restored customized 1941 Lincoln Continental. It has been shown in several antique car shows and is for sale for $75,000.

Then we headed on home and Kasey and I took a walk around this lake in our campground.

Nice finish to another day on the this journey.

Cleaning, Roadtrips, Pelicans and Armadillos (Scottsmoor, FL)

2008-01-26T08:35:00.000-05:00

I woke up yesterday with a mission. Just had to clean up the sand and dog hair which seems to take over the motorhome. After breakfast, Dan left in pursuit of a coffee shop and some conversation. He found Kim's Donut Deli in Titusville. Visited with a man who had been on the Titusville police force when Dan was stationed at Patrick Air Force Base, 1957-59. What a small world. No, Dan had not met the police officer professionally. :)

After lunch, we went for a drive with no definite destination in mind. We found Riverbreeze Park at Oak Hill just south of where we are staying. Very nice little city park on the edge of Mosquito Lagoon. The park has paved trails, and handicapped accessible fishing dock.

Hope they caught something.

This guy posed for us

Isn't this tree neat as it bends over the sidewalk?

Then it was on to Merritt Island, where technology meets wildlife.

This is the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center viewed from the road through the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge.
We crossed over some rusty railroad tracks as we approached the entrance booth. Dan commented to the ranger that it didn't look like those tracks had been used in along time. She said the tracks are only used to transport shuttle parts back into the complex. She said that had only been done one time since she has worked there. She said the main responsibility the National Wildlife Refuge has with the tracks is to rescue turtles from the center of the tracks. They crawl over the metal track and then can't get back out.

The only buildings in the refuge are restrooms which are very low profile and placed periodically along the drive through the refuge. People are not allowed to walk on the sand dune which separates the land from the Atlantic Ocean. There are handicapped accessible walkways that cross the dune so you can get to the other side.

Playalinda Beach on the ocean side of the dune

This guy had 5 or 6 poles. Hope he had a good fishing day. :)

Not sure what these boys are waiting for on top of the restroom..... They are the only buildings in the refuge and none are taller than this.

Down on Their Luck

Saw lots of blue herons, white egrets and ducks on the water, but this little guy was a real treat. He was alongside the road. He let me walk next to him for several feet as he foraged for lunch.

Most people think of space exploration when Merritt Island and Canaveral are mentioned. But the miles of primitive beach are where endangered sea turtles lay their eggs and the marshy wetlands are home to numerous waterfowl, alligators, otters, snowy egrets, white ibises, and great blue herons. The barrier island and its waterways are home to 1,045 species of plants and 310 species of birds . Then there are the ancients oaks draped with Spanish moss and sand dunes covered with palmetto and sea oats. The area supports 14 wildlife species federally listed as endangered or threatened, including sea turtles, West Indian manatees, southern bald eagles, wood storks, peregrine falcons, eastern indigo snakes and Florida scrub jays.

We'e Moved to Warmer Weather - Scottsmoor, FL

2008-01-24T20:42:00.000-05:00

As you can see by our location, we have moved further south. Larry & Phyllis left us Tuesday morning to head back home to Illinois.

Soooo, since we wanted more sunshine than we have had and Dan wanted to walk on a beach in the sunshine; we spent a lot of time on the weather.com looking for just such a place. Wednesday morning we left Fountain, FL for Crystal Lake RV Park at Scottsmoor, FL. Now there's not a lot to see or do in Scottsmoor, but the RV Park is about halfway between Daytona International Speedway and the Kennedy Space Center.

We really prefer to stay in state parks and Corps of Engineer parks, but Florida State Parks are a little pricey unless you are a Florida resident with senior citizen status. This park is another Passport America park with no restrictions as to how long we can just pay half price for our campsite. Some PA parks restrict the rate to 2 days; some only Monday through Thursday; etc.

And, as most of you know, we like Nascar racing, so we would have to visit Daytona Speedway. :)

And we lucked out as far as racing. The 46th Rolex 24 at Daytona is being run this week. This race is a Who's Who of motorsports names with many of the top drivers from NASCAR, open wheel racing and sports cars. There are teams of drivers for each car and the drivers trade off driving for the 24 hours. There are 67 cars with drivers of all experiences driving around a 12 turn 3.56 road course that includes the high banked 3rd & 4th turns of the Daytona NASCAR track.

There are activities all this week leading up to the race start on Saturday. And the really neat part - we could buy a ticket that included admission all 4 days, parking in the infield, and garage access. Since Gail's NASCAR driver and 2 time NASCAR champion (Jimmie Johnson) is on the 99 Gainsco team, we just had to check this out. We spent the afternoon watching practice and strolling through the garage area. REALLY NEAT. And we spotted Jimmie Johnson. :) Didn't get close enough to get an autograph as he was walking away from us.

This is the car Jimmie will be helping to drive. It's called a Daytona Prototype (DP)

Left the race track and did a little grocery shopping and bought a small gooseneck lamp to better light my counted cross stitch fabric I'm working on. Drove back to the campground. Kasey was sitting in the front window of the motorhome to welcome us back. He is such a good traveler. He slept all stretched out on the couch nearly all the way here yesterday. And he sleeps most of the time while we are gone. There are several dogs in this campground and he's met them all on our walks.

Probably won't go back to the track tomorrow. May check out the beaches, but will go back on Saturday for the start of the race. And then, we just may not do much of anything. We are really trying to duplicate the kind of lifestyle we hope to begin this summer with this trip; trying to slow down and just enjoy life without feeling like we have to DO something everyday like we did when we went on vacations. Of course, we do have things that have to be done; walk the dog, wash dishes, walk the dog, vacuum, walk the dog, fix a meal, walk the dog (eat the meal before walking the dog). You get the picture.

More later........

More Navy Stuff and the Newest Blue Angel (wannabee) and a Link Trainer

2008-01-19T16:34:00.000-05:00

January 19, 2008

Getting ready to leave involves considerable discussion. The guy talking to Dan is Ivan Williams, a friend of Larry and Phyllis. He and his wife, Grace, are spending several months on Dauphin Island.

Kasey in his favorite spot in the motorhome, overseeing the "getting ready to go" process. "Are they ready yet?"

Entering Florida

Since we stopped to visit the Pensacola Naval Air Museum on our way to our next campsite, we arrived after dark at Pine Lake RV Park. We don't like to do this, since it seems to be a setup for parking and hookup problems, but all went well. This is a Passport America park, so our Full Hookup (FHU) rate is $15. All sites are pull through. We have plenty of room for the truck in front of the motorhome.

We have a lifetime membership with Passport America; so after paying $300 two years ago, no more annual fees. We stayed in several PA parks since then and have probably saved about half of the $300 so far. When we start fulltiming, we stay in even more PA parks. Many PA parks are off the beaten path, but that's OK with us as we plan to avoid Interstates as much as possible. We also really like Corps of Engineer parks and with our federal Golden Age Passport, COE fees are half price for us. And, some state parks offer senior citizen rates.

The National Museum of Naval Aviation at Pensacola, Florida is huge. Admission is free, so that fits our budget. There is so much to see; we could have spent a whole day there.

The latest Blue Angel Pilot (wannabee). Notice there are no wings or engines and the rear of the plane is missing. I think we are pretty safe.

We did fly the F-14 Tomcat flight simulator. Since the F-14 has been retired, the museum uses the REAL F-14 flight simulators that the pilots trained on. Dan was the pilot and I was the munitions officer. This was just like sitting in a real F-14. Look out, Top Gun Tom Cruise.

Dan really did pretty well with 3 successful airstrip landings in a row. BUT, we never did land on the aircraft carrier. Guess he's not quite ready for the big leagues yet. But, I must clarify -- the control stick was not as responsive as it would have been when the pilots were learning because people have played with them a lot and they are pretty loose.

Link Trainer

I was especially interested to see this Link Trainer. My aunt, Hazel Rishel, was in the WAC (Women's Army Corps) during World War II. She was stationed in Japan, California, Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and other places that I've forgotten. My mother always said that Aunt Hazel was a "Link Trainer" and trained pilots to fly. I never knew for sure what that involved, so I'll share what I learned about that.

Aunt Hazel was not actually the Link Trainer, but must have been an instructor or operator teaching cadets to fly by instruments. The Link Trainer was used to teach the pilots to learn how to rely on their instruments. Most of the Link Trainer operators were females, part of the Women Accepted for Voluntary Service (Waves), in the case of naval aviation.

The seat in the Link Trainer is about 3 feet off the floor, but once the pilot was strapped in and the top closed, they felt like they were in a real plane. The trainer was designed by a former organ manufacturer, turned pilot, named Edwin C. Link. The trainer could simulate various conditions that might be encountered in real flight, including wind drift, turbulence and radio static. The trainer could also put the aircraft in various flight orientations, including spins that required the student to right his "airplane". Air nozzles even produced the sound effect of the slipstream.

The goal of the Link Trainer was to force the student pilot to rely on his instruments or follow the instructions given by the operator to get his plane back safely to base. The Link Trainer was very cost effective. In 1945 each hour of flight in a training aircraft cost $10; it cost only 4 cents for an hour in the Link Trainer. But most importantly, no cadet could lose his life in a Link Trainer if he made a mistake, or crash an airplane. HOWEVER, an army Air Forces cadet found himself lost and low on fuel during his simulation. Following standard procedure, he threw open the hood, and bailed out, breaking his ankle when he hit the floor 3 feet below. :)

The Link Trainers used at Pensacola Naval Air Station were placed in storage in 1950 in a rodent infested, leaky hangar. In 1990 they were recovered by the museum. They were dirty and many of the wooden components were rotten. But, when plugged into a wall outlet and connected to a vacuum cleaner to provide power to the bellows, they still worked, except for a couple of instruments.

I hope you enjoyed the story of the Link Trainer. Whenever my mother talked about her sister, she always said with a lot of pride, "Hazel was a Link Trainer during the war. She taught pilots to fly." I never asked her to explain to me what a Link Trainer was and I'm not sure she really understood what Aunt Hazel did.

So as we continue our travels maybe we'll come across something else that provides a link to our past and helps us understand it better.

USS Alabama (BB-60)

2008-01-17T14:00:00.000-05:00

January 18, 2008

USS Alabama (BB-60), Mobile
The ship was commissioned 16 August, 1942 and is 680 feet in length. She weighs 35,000 tons, but under battle conditions, weighed in at over 45,000 tons. She normally had a crew of 2500 men aboard. She earned 9 Battle Stars, and shot down 22 enemy airplanes during World War II.

A recipe for Beef Stew to serve 2500 hungry sailors.

(click on picture to enlarge and see quantities)

Dan's Birthday and Habitat Visits

2008-01-17T12:19:00.000-05:00

(Dauphin Island Campground, AL)

Yesterday was Dan's birthday. We drove to Gautier, MS and Biloxi, MS to visit the places he and Candy & Paul Stivers volunteered to help Habitat for Humanity efforts to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. The first trip in February 2006 they stayed in dorms in Yankie Stadium which is a large athletic field not far from the Gulf Coast in Biloxi. They volunteered through the American Baptist Churches, USA, of which our church is a member. American Baptist Churches had an agreement with Habitat to provide volunteers. The Salvation Army also was set up at Yankie Stadium to provide meals and other resources for the workers, and they are still there. We saw 3 groups of volunteers on lunch breaks. Wish we had stopped and talked with them and taken their pictures.

The following pictures are of the houses in Gautier that Dan & the Stivers worked on during their first trip.

We shared Dan's birthday ribeye steak dinner with Larry & Phyllis back at our motorhome. He had phone calls from our kids all day, and especially enjoyed Elijah and Lucy wishing "PaPa" Happy Birthday.

2008-01-17T12:18:00.000-05:00

Two houses in Gautier, MS

2008-01-17T12:16:00.000-05:00

These are pictures of the park and playground built across the street from the houses. I loved the bright colors.

2008-01-17T12:15:00.000-05:00

This is the RV lot behind Yankie stadium in Biloxi. When Candy, Paul & Dan returned to Biloxi in March of 2007, they parked our motorhome in this lot right alongside the fence. There was no room for them in the dorm area because so many college kids were there helping over spring break.

They put siding on this house, but it was not finished when they left. It was good to see how it looks now.

A whole street of Habitat homes. Don't they look nice?

We hope to continue helping Habitat when we start fulltiming, and hope that Paul & Candy (and anyone else) will join us.

Rain, Rain, Rain

2008-01-17T12:02:00.000-05:00

January 16, 2008

(Dauphin Island Campground, AL)

Rain seemed to be the order of the day. Took advantage of being inside and did a good cleaning. Takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours to clean the whole motorhome. LOVE IT :)

Rain let up in the afternoon, so Dan & I drove to Summerdale, Florida to visit Rainbow Plantation. This RV park is an Escapee Park. Escapees is an organization based in Livingston, TX, for fulltime RVers. RV parks who are member parks of Escapees (SKP) give a discount to Escapee members. We met a fellow Mandalay owner and exchanged experiences with him. He is from Billings, MT where we spent time at Rocky Mountain Cummins having a fuel line repaired in 2006 when Lucy was born. Seems anyone who owns a traveling box with multiple systems has a story to tell.

Not much else to tell about today. Hopefully we'll have sunshine tomorrow.

Dauphin Island Campground

2008-01-15T09:14:00.000-05:00

Dauphin Island, AL

We arrived here about 4:00pm yesterday. Temp was about 58, sunny and no wind. We are parked right across the road from the ferry which goes across the bay to Fort Warren and the mainland. We have excellent satellite and cell phone service, so I'm finally able to get this blog up to date.

The sun is shining this morning. Kasey and I walked to the beach on Mobile bay on the other side of the campground and then back to the ferry, about 1/2 hour walk. He enjoyed the walk and all the new smells, but doesn't like the sound of the surf. We stayed about 15 feet from the water. And of course, I forgot to take the camera. Will get pictures later today.

I did take pictures of the bridge that connects the south end of Alabama to Dauphin Island as we were crossing it yesterday.

Bridge to Dauphin Island & road to campground

2008-01-15T09:10:00.000-05:00

Bridge pix were taken while driving, so they are
as clear as they should be.

Rickwood Caverns State Park, TN

2008-01-13T08:52:00.000-05:00

Our site at Rickwood Caverns State Park. The cave was closed and we didn't have time to go on the fossil walk. Will do those when we return to Alabama in April for the Talladega Race. Will definitely stay at this park again. No satellite service and cell phone service scanty, but the park was beautiful, even in January.

Ate lunch on Sunday and made a Walmart run. About 2 miles from the campground we saw a little brown chihuahua dog running up and down the middle of the road, and there was quite a bit of traffic on the road. Larry stopped and I got out of the truck to try to get the dog. He was very shy and didn't want to come to me, but didn't run either. After much coaxing, I was able to catch him. He looked healthy, but had no collar so we had no idea where he belonged or if he had been dumped. We checked at some houses, but either no one was home or he didn't belong to the people we talked to.

Now you may ask (since you know I'm such a dog lover), did we keep him? Well, that answer is at the end of this story. Checked with the park ranger if he knew of an animal rescue group; he was actually reading a newspaper article about Crossing Paths Rescue Kennel http://www.xpar.org/about.html ; and the article included contact names and phone numbers. Soooo, I called Jo Chamblee and she put me in touch with Pat Kelley, who lives in Hayden, AL which was only about 15 miles from our campground. He was getting another rescued female dog and pups settled with a foster family, but said he would come by the campground later in the evening. Of course, he offered us the opportunity to keep the little guy. :) I think we both thought about it for about 1 minute, and if Kasey didn't already live with us, and if we had been headed back home, and.......... He was a really sweet little guy. Pat did come for him. He had really attached himself to me and DID NOT want to leave. He tried to bury himself in my chest and then tried to hide behind the couch pillows. He really squirmed when Pat tried to put a leash on him.

Pat called the next morning to say the pup had stayed with his sister and her daughters and slept in bed with the girls. He plans to check with vets and place some posters around the area and then try to adopt him out. He thought adoption should be pretty easy. He did remind me that if we were driving through the area on our way home and he was still available, "Just call and you can have him. You won't even have to fill out an adoption request form." :) Don't think that's going to happen. So here are the pictures of the little guy.

Wonder what other adventures we'll find for ourselves???

2008-01-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

Notice the laid-back ears. He was pretty
scared.

The REAL dog lover. Sorry about the scary
eyes. Kasey was VERY good with the little
guy.

He made it to the top of the chair, but I missed
the picture. Notice who is still sitting in the chair.

Ryman Auditorium, original front entrance

2008-01-12T23:28:00.000-05:00

The Mother Church of Country Music - Ryman Auditorium

2008-01-10T22:36:00.000-05:00

Nashville, TN

January 10th - Arrived at Two Rivers Campground in Nashville, TN, next to Camping World and across the street from Opryland. RAIN RAIN RAIN. Played Mexican Train Dominos. Larry & Dan tied with 3 wins each.

January 11th - Went to the Friday Night Opry at the old Ryman Auditorium. During January & February the Opry is held at the Ryman instead of Opryland. Dan & Larry parents drove to Nashville in 1950 in a 1937 green Pontiac to take them and Mrs. Mantle (a neighbor of Dan's parents) to the Opry at the Ryman, so our visit brought back some memories. The Ryman was originally a church (built in 1891 as Union Gospel Assembly) and still has old wooden pews for seats. They are NOT padded. When Opryland was built, a circle of the original Ryman stage was cut out and placed in the new stage.

We're on Our Way

2008-01-09T21:00:00.000-05:00

Fort Massac State Park, IL

We left Rochester about 7:50 am and met Larry & Phyllis at Auburn for breakfast. Temperature is 30. Warmer weather is just down the road.

Stopped at Denney's at Mt. Vernon for lunch. Our waiter seemed a little preoccupied and not exactly customer oriented. You might ask why we are eating in restaurants when we have full service kitchens with us. That will not become a habit.

We are parked for the night at Fort Massac State Park at Metropolis, IL. Only 4 campers here and a campground host. Ground is pretty wet with quite a bit of standing water from all the recent rain. We shared hot Italian beef sandwiches and homemade white chocolate chunk cookies for supper.

On to the Opry tomorrow.

Later,
Gail

2 More Days Until We Leave for Warmer Climes

2008-01-06T21:59:00.000-05:00

(Rochester, IL)

It's been a wonderful weekend. The Milliken Choir performance on Friday evening was outstanding, to say the least. The performance at our church is the first one of a 2 week tour.

Bought a new washing machine on Saturday since the old one started leaking and then just quit in the middle of a spin cycle. At least it was at the end of the rinse cycle. Wet clothes sure are hard to wring out by hand.

Spent Saturday evening visiting with several of Gail's cousins at our annual "Cousins Holiday Party." Always good to catch up with everyone and there's always plenty of good food. We were missing some people. One passed away this past fall and another is in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. Sure makes a person appreciate each and every minute of every day.

Attended church on Sunday and had a wonderful lunch with Paul & Candy Stivers. They are such good friends and will be checking on our house while we are gone. AND, Paul will take care of snow removal at the post office and bank for Dan. That is, if it snows. :)

Then since the weather cooperated with a high temperature of 65, we spent the afternoon getting some more things moved into the motorhome and flushing the antifreeze out and filling the water tank. Still need to get the clothes and groceries loaded, but will have plenty of time on Monday and Tuesday. I will be going into work for 3-4 hours on Monday morning, but then NO MORE WORK for at least 6 weeks.

We plan to meet up with Dan's brother and his wife at Auburn about 8:00 for breakfast on Wednesday morning, then it's off to Nashville for the Grand Ole Opry and then on to Dauphin Island, Alabama.

That's all for now. Need to get some sleep since I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 am.

More later,
Gail

Getting Ready

2008-01-04T14:49:00.001-05:00

It's Friday and the weather is predicted to be in the high 50's this weekend. So will spend the weekend getting the motor home loaded up and ready to go on Wednesday.

We are so looking forward to getting away and are really excited about spending time with Larry and Phyllis.

The Milliken University choir is performing at Central Baptist Church tonight, so we'll meet Candy & Paul Stivers there and go out for dessert after. Great choir and we should have a great turnout.

Will post again after we've started down the road.

Happy traveling,
Gail

A New Year and It's COLD

2008-01-01T12:20:00.000-05:00

(Rochester, IL)

Thought I should get started on this blog which we plan to use to document our travels as we begin fulltime RVing this year. And since it is the first day of a new year, what a good time to start. So here goes..........

Happy New Year - 2008!!!! It's cold here in central Illinois; 18 degrees, to be exact, and snowing. So why are we still here?

Well, we won't be here much longer. We'll be leaving January 9th for warmer southern Alabama weather along with Dan's brother and his wife, Larry and Phyllis.

We plan to stop in Nashville for the Grand Ole Opry, and then make our way to Dauphin Island in Mobile Bay http://www.dauphinisland.org/ We'll camp there for about a week before moving on along the Gulf Coast.

We'll be back in Rochester the middle of February. Then our focus will be on preparations to begin fulltiming. :) YEAH!!

Hope you enjoy following along with us.

GO ILLINI!!!!!!!

Movin' on,
Dan and Gail
and Kasey

2007-12-16T22:49:00.000-05:00

Under Construction

We're On Our Way - RV Journeys of Dan & Gail

An Early Morning Wake-Up Call and A Ride Around the Property - Lake Placid, FL

Workamping (not really working) - Lake Placid, FL

We're HERE - Wauchula, FL

Happy New Year - A detour, but almost to Wauchula, FL

We've Left COLD Illinois - Clarksville, TN

A Day in the Life of a Fulltimer - Hanging Out at Panera

Musings on Our Lifestyle and Back in Illinois

Short Catch-up

Just a Short Note

Just an Update on our Whereabouts

Snow, Snow and More Snow, But We're Leaving Anyway

Almost Ready to Go South! YEAH!!!

Bad Blogger

Freezing Rain, Snow, Ice, Sleet, More Freezing Rain - YUCK!! FINALLY Warmer Weather

We Didn't Sign Up for This!!!!!!!

Casper, The Halloween Calf

Long Overdue Update - Bugs, Pony Express, Detour to Grundy Center, Iowa - Now Back in Illinois

Back to Denver

Camping with the Boys, S'Mores and Moving On

Arches and Canyonlands National Parks in Utah and Colorful Colorado

Catching up and Sadness

House Sitting, Dog Sitting and Just Hanging Out in Seattle

The Playhouse is Finished !!!!!!

What Have We Been Doing Lately?

Parked at Lucy's House, Playhouse, Birthday Party

Wading Pool, Airplanes and Chalk Drawing

We're in Seattle :-)

Trees and Water

Catching UP AGAIN

RESTING

More Colorado Slide Shows

We've Been Sooooo Busy

Catching Up

Long Time Away

New Friends

Storms, Rain and more Rain; Finally Sunshine!!!!

We ARE on Our Way !!!!!!!!!!!!

Just About Ready to Go!!!!

No, We Aren't Traveling Yet

Waiting for Raceday

Talladega, Here We Come

Still Here!!!! Sorting, Hauling, Planning

Jury duty is finished - Still sorting

We're Still Here - (Rochester, IL)

Hanging Out in Rochester

Good News, Inverter OK

Water Problem Solved, Serious Sorting Begins - (Rochester, IL)

Back in Rochester for Awhile - (Rochester, IL)

Nice Views, New Friends - (Americus, GA)

Busy Week -(Americus, GA)

Heading north - (Americus, GA)

Detained in Thomasville, GA

Movin' on down the road

Just Another Busy Day in Florida

New Surroundings - (Old Town, FL)

Kennedy Space Center & Cape Canaveral - (Scottsmoor, FL)

It's a VERY Small World - (Scottsmoor, FL)

Patrick AFB, Chilly Beach, Antique Car, Peaceful Lake - (Scottsmoor, FL)

Cleaning, Roadtrips, Pelicans and Armadillos (Scottsmoor, FL)

We'e Moved to Warmer Weather - Scottsmoor, FL

More Navy Stuff and the Newest Blue Angel (wannabee) and a Link Trainer

USS Alabama (BB-60)

Dan's Birthday and Habitat Visits

Rain, Rain, Rain

Dauphin Island Campground

Bridge to Dauphin Island & road to campground

Rickwood Caverns State Park, TN

Ryman Auditorium, original front entrance

The Mother Church of Country Music - Ryman Auditorium

We're on Our Way

2 More Days Until We Leave for Warmer Climes

Getting Ready

A New Year and It's COLD