Southern Chores and New Year’s Eve.

Our Location today is Old Town, Florida.

This morning we both slept until after 8:00 but we weren’t sleeping in. I had showered after 10 last evening which kept me awake until after midnight. Kathy was still fighting whatever it was she’d come down with and was up between 3:00 and 4:00 this morning. Slowly we are becoming more relaxed and out of the travel mode and with the access door now under the trailer we can run the furnace to take the chill out of the air. 

Before having our breakfast I checked out the weather forecasts for the area of Florida we are presently in and where we will be heading to on Thursday. Both had a common theme that we should be seeing an increase in rain activity until the weekend and that Friday will see temperatures near the freezing mark through the night. At least we don’t have to shovel this like the kids are doing back home. 

The reason for checking that was I needed to redrain our water lines because there was still a pinkish color near the low point drains under the trailer. Even though that RV Anti-Freeze is not supposed to be toxic it is a chemical and that in itself should not be trusted but it leaves an after taste in the water. 

Once breakfast was over I headed out to shut the water and with Kathy’s help to open the faucets inside the trailer I open all the drains. It was amazing the time it took to flush it out but by the end we were only getting clear clean tasting water from the drains. Next was to get everything back to normal. 

Since we couldn’t get any MiFi or Cell Phone service here at camp and we needed a few supplies by 11:00 we were headed to Chiefland. When we got there we sat in a parking lot where Kathy was able to make her call with no problem. Next it was my turn where I tried to call General RV dealership back in Michigan. Either they are having a problem with their phone service or they were closed through the Holidays because the connection was like an endless loop with nobody actually picking up the phone. 

Kathy and I went for lunch at Bar-B-Q Bill’s a place we’d eaten last January. The place is always packed and the food is tasty and reasonably priced. I again tried calling Michigan with the same results so I’ll just wait until Friday to call back. 

The straps on our bicycle carrier somehow failed on our trip south and considering they are now a couple of years old I needed to find something to replace them with. The TSC store only had heavy duty straps and even Walmart had everything Kathy needed but not for me. Then I spotted the Dollar Tree store and thought what did I have to lose? Five minutes later I walked out with four medium sized nylon dog collars for less than five dollars. Problem solved.   

Kathy and I hope all our readers that are going out to Celebrated New Year’s Eve will do it Safely and not Drink and Drive. We’d also like to wish our daughter Karen and son-in-law a Happy Anniversary today. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.        

Krackers

Office Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes

Hard work and common sense have no place here.

Ephemera

Recuperation and Chore Day.

Our Location today is Old Town, Florida.

Kathy was in bed before I’d finished posting the blog last night saying she wasn’t feeling up to par. By this morning she knew that she had picked up a bug from somebody and because of the long travel days we had put in she couldn’t fight it off. After hot cereal for breakfast and hot coffee the only thing she could do was go back to bed. Because of the dampness in the air inside the trailer I turned on our cube heater in hopes that it would also help Kathy feel better. 

Last night when we went to use our MiFi it could not pick up a signal so we had to use the park WiFi instead. This morning when I went to call the RV dealer about their poor workmanship our phone could not connect to a signal either. I worked on the computer getting my spreadsheets caught up before I got my blog reading done. I also noted on the Weather Bug that we will be cooling off in this area before the weekend so I knew I’d be fixing the missing access door this afternoon. Around 1:00 we had a late lunch of wraps that Kathy insisted on making.

Kathy checking a river front site. These sites are set for nose in.

Kathy had barely finished her lunch and returned to bed. I went outside to do the access door but it was cold enough in the shade you needed to wear a coat. The coat came in handy as it kept me dry when water that had accumulated inside while we drove in the rain the last two days came pouring out. After a few adjustments and adding fresh insulation the job will last the life of the trailer.

It was now too hot in the trailer so I shut the heater and suggested Kathy come out for fresh air and a short walk. She struggled for the short walk around the park but is feeling slightly better this evening. Sorry no pictures today but here are pictures from our stay here last January.

Tomorrow hopefully Kathy will be better than today so we can start the adventures we came to Florida to enjoy. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.        

Krackers

You Might Be a Redneck If

You kill more deer while driving than while hunting.

Arriving With Problems.

Our Location today is Old Town, Florida.

Shortly after posting last night both Kathy and I were tired enough to fall asleep without too much trouble. As tired as Kathy was she and the lack of organizing due to the delay of getting the trailer back from the dealer she didn’t want to bother wearing her CPAP mask again last night. Of course around 2:00 in the morning we had heavy rain and thunderstorms roll through the area that helped keep her awake for the next few hours. 

That's the size of coffee our kids need.

When we got up just after 8:00 it was difficult walking up to the restaurant the front of the Flying J truck stop in just T-shirts and long pants because the temperature was already above 61 F (16 C). We took our time eating a hardy meal because we knew that it was less than a two hundred mile drive which get us to the park early. The plan was to fuel up before hitting the road but with all the RV fuel pumps in use with line ups from a continual flow of RVers coming off the highway it was far easier to use the truck lanes. 

The skies were still quite overcast and it wasn’t long after we were back on the highway that the rain once again started coming down. After thirty miles we headed of onto highway 477 cutting diagonally across the state of Florida and through a few of the smaller communities with the rain coming and going periodically. In one such community we spotted a Lowes where we made a stop so I could pick up some insulation for the access door under the trailer. As I was entering the store I thought that some rain had dripped from the roof thus hitting me. When I returned to the truck Kathy informed me that I had just stepped inside when the rain came down solid for a good ten minutes before slowly stopping. 

The rest of the trip was uneventful and we were registering at Yellow Jacket RV Resort on the Suwannee River by 1:00. With Passport America it only cost us twenty dollars a day for full hook up. We took site I which was an easy back in and as I set up the utilities outside Kathy started the painstaking task of organizing the inside of the trailer. 

Once I had the trailer level and Kathy opened the slides I turned on the water. That’s when I heard a scream through the open window “WE HAVE A LEAK”.  It seems when we paid to have the trailer winterized they forgot to winterize the toilet in the rear bathroom. The control valve was spraying water everywhere. Also while cleaning the water I noticed a bulge in the floor that was not repaired when they repaired the trailer for the blowout. 

Tomorrow I’ll be calling the dealership and having a talk with them but I needed to depressurize the water system and go in search of a fitting that I could cap the waterline and get the water flowing in the rest of the trailer. The only thing open in most small towns in Florida are grocery stores, gas stations and Walmarts. All hardware stores are closed but by luck in the town of Chiefland the TSC store was open and just happen to have the fitting I needed. 

By suppertime the temp had dropped to 72 F (22 C) but it was comfortable. Now we can take nice warm showers and start enjoying our 2013/14 adventure in Florida. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.        

Krackers

Mother: "Sally, don't you know you're not supposed to eat with your knife?"

Sally: "I know, but my fork leaks."

On Our Way

Our Location today is Valdosta, Georgia.

Sorry we missed the post yesterday but it just seemed that if something could delay us it did. We were up at 5:00 Friday morning in hopes of beating the rush but by the time we ate breakfast and loaded everything we were bringing to the trailer we didn’t hit the road until nearly 7:30. 

When we arrived at the US Customs inspection at the Ambassador Bridge the only ones we’d beaten were the birds because there were eight RVs in line ahead of us. After an hour of waiting to speed the inspection process up they sent a couple of inspectors to do the interior searches of the trailers. The guy that checked our trailer found that Kathy had brought a green pepper from home which is a major no-no this week and promptly confiscated it from us. 

Once we were on the road it seemed like we were making great time until we hit construction work that was taking place in the southern part of Ohio. To drive that twenty mile stretch took us over two hours. All the time made earlier was lost very quickly with that. Later as we drove through Cincinnati on I-75 the maximum speed we hit was 30 mph.

After a late lunch it was another hour before we finally entered Kentucky where we stopped for our first fuel stop. We also had problems with people driving well below the posted minimum speed and driving over the line most of the time because they were busy texting while driving.  

Because the weather was still very cold and I had been unable to repair the open access door under our trailer we pushed on until after 9:00 and spent the night at a Pilot Truck stop just outside of Knoxville Tennessee. When we got up this morning frost had to be scraped off the windows in order to hit the road. 

When we started out again we were making good time thinking we’d make up for yesterday’s delays. Wrong! Just after crossing into Georgia traffic again came to a crawl. We travelled well over twenty miles in just over an hour until we came to the problem. A pick-up truck towing a trailer with an antique truck had a flat and all the Gawkers were slowing to a crawl to look causing the backup. 

After lunch we figure it was time to activate our MiFi with Verizon but the place that we stopped at wasn’t a Corporate Headquarters so we had to go back north to another location to have it done. A simple task that took another two hours and seemed harder to deal with because it had started to really rain. 

Once it got dark and the rain continued as we were driving through a construction zone a woman directly ahead of us decided to come to a complete stop for no reason other than she was scared. Luckily when she had started slowing down I had already started applying the brakes. When she hit the brakes I was standing on ours and flooring the horn. We as well as others had to drive around her as she finally continued to drive on at about 20 MPH. 

So another late night but we’ll arrive at Yellow Jacket RV Park tomorrow. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.        

Krackers

You Might Be a Redneck If

Your grandmother is pregnant.

Getting Ready and Last Day of Christmas.

Our Location today is Tecumseh, Ontario.

With everything we went through yesterday and the early hour we had gotten up Kathy was in bed asleep long before I posted the blog. Myself I tossed and turned and spent much of the night catching up on reading the blogs that I’d not read yesterday. I glanced outside in the direction of the parking lot and the sight of what was happening brought a smile to my face because I knew how Kathy would react. I finally did manage to fall back to sleep. 

When we finally woke moments before 8:00 Kathy was feeling well rested and as I made the bed she started opening the curtains and was shocked to see the whitened landscape I’d seen earlier in the night. Continuing our quest of finishing leftovers and emptying partial containers this morning’s breakfast helped us accomplish that task. We also took the time to finish our coffees while doing our morning computer reading. 

By 10:00 we were on our way out to the storage yard where the trailer is parked. Someone else was not having such a good day as we past this burnt out SUV that was on the Expressway. 

After I loaded things inside Kathy had more clothes to pack and dry foods to store. I was busy laying around under the trailer in an attempt at getting the new access door mounted to seal our tanks from the freezing temperatures unfortunately because of the cold temps and the blowing snow I was froze before I could complete the job. I’ll have to do it somewhere down the road where it is warmer but I did get the back of the truck organized and the debris brush installed. 

More room in the garage for everyone and toasty with the wood fire.

Back at the apartment a large bowl of Chicken noodle soup helped to take some of the chill out of our cold bodies. Kathy decided now she needed a Snap to tide her over until later tonight. Since I was laying on the ground a warm shower finished the warming process the soup had started. 

Son Kevin, daughter Karen and son Ken.

Cousins Matthew and Tyler.

Later this afternoon we traveled back to Kevin and Melissa’s out in Amherstburg where we again celebrated Christmas dinner. Besides this was only our seventh day of celebrating the occasion with friends, relatives and our blended family. Karen and Greg and all the kids were there so again that feeling of closeness that family always brings was accomplished and it was another day of feasting.     

Tyler and his aunt Melissa

Melissa telling a story.

Kathy and granddaughter Kylla

Friend Kayla, grandaughter Kylla and grandson Tyler.

With hugs and kisses and wishes of safe travels extended Kathy and I headed for home with the hope of getting a good night’s sleep before our early departure in the morning. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.        

Krackers

Office Jokes, Quotes, and Anecdotes

Wishing You Were Here Removing Your Postcard

 I know you had a wonderful time in Rome/Greece/Spain/London/Whereveristan, and I know it made you smile sending us that postcard from there while we were stuck here at the office, but we don't need the reminder of your wonderful trip on the front of the refrigerator for months after you're back.

The Office Refrigerator, www.craigslist.org

Busy, Busy Christmas.

Our Location today is Tecumseh, Ontario.

We both slept intermittently last night and it wasn’t because of pretravel anticipation. Instead it was the Night before Christmas and we were anticipating our Christmas morning deliveries. Since Kathy and I have been together we have been making our Christmas morning deliveries to the grand children and even the kids too. When the economy tanked back in 2008 Gary had to move to where the jobs were and when our son-in-law Rob passed our daughter Rose just found it easier to do the gifts on her birthday. 

This morning we were up having our coffee at 6:00 and were out the door by 6:30. Luckily we had brought up a shopping cart and loaded it up last night. We stopped at Tim Horton’s and bought a round of coffee to help Karen, Greg and ourselves be as wide awake as the kids. Even though the enthusiasm level from the children is less due to the aging process everyone was still intent to see the reactions to what they had bought for one another. 

Shortly after 9:00 Karen and Greg made up French Toast and Hash-browns for everyone to share for breakfast. When they found out we were planning on dining at home by ourselves tonight or go for Chinese food but we were told we were joining Greg’s family for supper. 

Back at the apartment it didn’t take too long to reload the truck so we could head out to Kevin and Melissa’s for the second stop of the day. We arrived by 11:00 and walked in to find Melissa had made a huge spread of finger foods for us to snack on. Since the boys were already enjoying the toys that Santa had brought them in the back room the adults had a chance to exchange gifts before they even realized we were there. 

Before leaving I borrowed Kevin’s miter saw so that when we got back to the apartment I was able to cut the framing material for the access door on the trailer. I simply laid a protective sheet on the dining room table and with the use of elbow grease had the job done in ten minutes. I’ll return the saw tomorrow! 

I gathered a couple of shopping carts loading one with things that can’t be loaded in the truck until we leave on Friday and the other with things that will be loaded in the morning. Kathy then needed a Snap because of the early (to her) hour she’d gotten up this morning. 

By 5:00 we were at Karen and Greg’s saying hello to Greg’s parents and brother’s families. It is strange how many people are amazed at our way of travelling and only wish they could do it. They were all wishing us the best and safe travels on our trip when we left at 7:30. 

Grampa Ray showing Tyler some pointers on his new Guitar.

At the apartment true to my word I gathered the laundry and my computer and headed downstairs. Once I had the wash going I started writing this post. However everyone in the building that knows we are leaving soon and saw me stopped by to talk. It was nice to catch up but now before I finished writing this post I had clothes I need to go fold downstairs. 

Ashley going to work.

Kathy and I hope everyone had a Merry and Blessed Christmas with family and friends. Thanks for following along and feel free to leave a comment. Be Safe and Enjoy!

It’s about time.        

Krackers

You Might Be a Redneck If

There's ammunition in your Christmas stocking.