Paul & Joyce, Exploring our Country

Work

2012-01-26T17:33:00.003-05:00

The alarm goes off at 6:30 AM and I drag myself out of bed. Casey always seems to have other ideas.
We have been painting the service post at each of the sites.....yea, that's me hard at work!

Took An Airboat Ride Today

2012-01-20T18:25:00.005-05:00

We traveled to our destination, Midway Airboat which was about fifteen minutes away.

Inside the gift shop, Joyce found this pig. If you pat it, it squeals. Really cool!
This is the airboat that we went out on.
500 plus cubic inch big block with a four blade prop.

This Gator is approx. 10 - 12 feet long.
Gators were everywhere you looked.

Gators were even with the cattle that free range the area. The Gators don't bother trying to eat the cattle because they're too much work to eat. The fish and bird are very abundant and easier to catch.
A good shot of us and our friends Don & Lucy. No....I'm not sleeping.

Yes that's a real gator that Joyce is holding.
A short video on our ride which actually lasted an hour.

Landscaping

2012-01-18T20:27:00.002-05:00

The grass at our site was in tough shape so we picked up some grass seed to see if we could brighten up the yard a little. Joyce also asked me for a palm tree so I did a transplant on a small palm. Now all I have to do is water......a lot.

Swim Time For Casey

2012-01-17T17:15:00.004-05:00

Joyce found info on a dog beach in New Smyrna, Fl. so off we went to find it. There's a $5 charge and the dogs must be leashed at all times but Casey didn't mind.

The coastal lighthouse.

The intercoastal waterway connect with the ocean over by the lighthouse. Another couple came along with their dog that was afraid to go into the water. Casey put on a show and wanted to play. Before you knew it, the little dog was chasing Casey in the water.

Even the Dolphins came by to see what all the splashing was about.

Cocoa Beach

2012-01-13T16:39:00.004-05:00

A day off from work so we took a ride to Cocoa Beach to see if anyone was at the beach. Lots of Surf shops in town.

There's a pier at the beach that is a real classic.

At the pier, the top rail seems to be a bit old
Some history of the pier but if you can't read it, click HERE
And yes.....there were people in the water.
Oh, and did I mention that Joyce has signed up at the local SPCA to do volunteer work.

Pot Luck Supper

2012-01-12T20:47:00.002-05:00

We did the pot luck supper tonight, you have to bring a food item that matched the first letter of your last name.

These are our friends Maggi & Mike that we met at a campground we worked at last summer in Florida. We are working together again.
And our other friends, Don & Lucy are also working with us here in Florida. It's nice being able to work with friends.

Vicki's Birthday

2012-01-07T11:18:00.005-05:00

Vicki's birthday ( Vick in the center) and we all went to Epcot. Jess our granddaughter (on the right) made shirts for us......cool. Everyone was trying to read our shirts.
We stopped for lunch and Vick got the special treatment and the Happy Birthday song from the staff.

The girls were having a good time.

We did the GM test track ride. WOW was it fast.

Car of the future design.

Birthday girl with Donald.

Oops......I forgot to smile. I think I was trying to hide.

The park was really nice.

Happy New Year And Beyond

2012-01-04T19:07:00.003-05:00

First there was New Years and the party at the campground, I forgot to bring the camera.

And then there were the girls at Disney while I work camped.
Back at the campground we had to dig a trench to fix a broken water line.

Kind of reminds me of state workers, one works while the others watch.

Moving On Down The Road

2011-12-29T18:51:00.002-05:00

On our route there was one toll we had to stop for. As I approached the toll booth, one of the guard rails that keeps you tight coming in looked like it was caught by a truck. It was bent out and I knew it was going to be tight but I thought I would make it........I didn't! It got the bottom right section of the entrance door and also dragged two scratch marks across the door. OUCH!
Well we made it to our first night of Walmart camping in Virginia. Here's all the girls.

On our 2nd day we have crossed into NC and making good time. Our friends Don & Lucy were suppose to be traveling with us but had problems with their turbo on the engine and are now a day behind us.

Oh yea, we had to stop at South of the Border so the girls could do their thing.

We are now in our 2nd Walmart and hoping that Don & Lucy will catch up. Don said he may make it here during the night.

Happy Holidays

2011-12-24T08:45:00.003-05:00

Wow, I can't believe that it has almost been a month since I last posted. Well the trip begins in four days so check back. I hope you all have a safe and happy holiday.

A Spring Day

2011-11-29T17:33:00.003-05:00

It was in the high 60's today so Casey and me went out for some exercise. Actually, she did most of the exercising.
She has lost about ten pounds since we have been playing every day.......now if I could just get her to throw the thing and I can chase it for a ten pound loss.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2011-11-24T07:39:00.005-05:00

The thing I'm most thankful for right now is elastic waistbands. ~Author Unknown

The Last Yard Cleanup

2011-11-20T18:44:00.005-05:00

Today was a beautiful warm day so I started up the lawn tractor and picked up the remainder of the leaves. The trees are all bare now so I put the tractor to bed for the winter.

I also had to do gutter clean out which has to be the most disgusting job. With water remaining in the gutters, the leaves rot and get really smelly. Glad that's done!

The turkey came out of the freezer today so it will be ready for the over on Thursday. I'm not a big turkey lover, would rather have chicken but have to do the family thing and have turkey.

Counting Down

2011-11-13T19:29:00.003-05:00

This year when we leave for Florida after xmas, we are taking our two daughters and one grand daughter. The kids will be with us for about ten days. Bet you can't guess where we'll be going.

Turkey Day

2011-11-04T15:05:00.003-04:00

We had a visit from the wild Turkeys this morning. I counted 26 as they wandered across the street.
Once in the yard, they found our Holly bush that was full of berries.

I guess that Turkeys love these berries because the group joined in.

A few of the birds were getting to be pretty big.
I wonder if they know that Thanksgiving is only a short time away.

Our First Noreaster Snow Storm

2011-10-30T09:24:00.003-04:00

I wonder if this is a preview of things to come. I keep asking Joyce if we can leave but that ain't gonna happen. Parts of Conn. will be without power for at least a week. We still have power here so we got lucky.

Nothing To Report

2011-10-26T12:55:00.002-04:00

Just been hanging around taking care of business. So many trees on our property and so many leaves to pick up.
I have been using my old lawn tractor to pick up and bag the leaves. So much easier than raking.

They say we may get our first snow within the next couple of days, bummer! Can't wait to get out of hear and head to the warmer climate.

Just Another Day

2011-10-15T15:41:00.002-04:00

Ran a 50 amp service line so we can plug in the coach while at home. The 20 amp plug just wouldn't cut it. We can now run the heat pumps and the convection oven.

Been picking up leaves around the yard which seems to be a regular job the way the winds been blowing.

I also ordered an external hard drive to connect to our Dish Network Receiver. This will give it the capabilities of a DVR without paying a monthly charge.

We have confirmed our winter work camping job in Florida, and we were also able to secure a position for our friends Don & Lucy. Should be a good time.

The Worse Is Over

2011-10-06T18:36:00.005-04:00

These are the teeth, circled in red. The one in the middle is broken in the back and will be removed. The teeth on either side will be ground down to a post to support a three tooth bridge that will cover all three teeth.
Well I made it.......after the Kidney Stones I figured that this will be a piece of cake.

I was wrong......he had a tough time removing the one tooth, came out with some of the jaw bone still attached....Ouch!!! He then stitched it up and installed the temp bridge. Had me bite down and the bridge broke in half. Half hour later another temp bridge made from a tougher substance. So an hour and one half start to finish and I was on my way. Will return in six week for the permanent bridge.

I Don't Believe It !!!!!!

2011-10-03T16:53:00.002-04:00

I just don't understand why these things happen but Saturday I was back in the hospital, this time for Kidney stones. No.....I am NOT making this up.

I have a history of Kidney stones and usually pass a stone once every couple of years but it could have happened some other time.

Anyways, it's been three days and I'm just starting to pass some fragments....OUCH! They gave me Percocet for the pain and it works good but I get the itches while taking it, I just can't win!

And......... Thursday I am scheduled to have a tooth pulled, and the two adjacent teeth prepped for crowns. If I'm still hurting tomorrow because of the stones I may delay the tooth thing.
Could this all be a bad dream?

Procedure Is Done

2011-09-29T09:19:00.002-04:00

Went through the Cath procedure and nothing conclusive showed up. No more blockages but also no explanation for the way I was feeling so the next step is to do a minor change to my meds.
The doc wants to drop my BP a little more to see if that helps. This is the part I hate when they start playing the med game.

Well, at least I can move on to the tooth repair now....man this aging stuff is a bummer! They'll get ya one way or another.

Trip Canceled

2011-09-25T10:08:00.003-04:00

We had planned a trip up North to meet up with our friends Don & Lucy and travel up to Moosehead Lake, Maine.

Joyce and I have been running around trying to take care of things so we could take this trip. We took the coach down for it's state inspection and I topped off the tank, etc..

Well..........other than my broken tooth which is scheduled to come out next week, I haven't been running at 100% so I move my appointment with my cardiologist up to last Friday.

After explaining to him how I have been feeling, he feels it's best that I get checked out on Wednesday. I already have seven Stents....the last five where done three years ago and I can pretty much tell when I may have a blockage. I guess I knew something was wrong but didn't want to accept it knowing that I would have to cancel our plans.

So next Tuesday I have an appointment for pre-op testing, then Wed. morning I will return to the Cath Lab for a procedure to see if there is any blockage in the arteries around my heart.

The neat part is I get to watch the procedure on the same screen that the doctor watches as the probe travels to my heart in search of blockages.

So I have to hurry up and get all my junk fixed so I will be ready to head south after xmas. We'll see!!!!!

Casey Taking Her Meds

2011-09-22T10:39:00.003-04:00

Casey is such a sissy dog. She has allergies and has to take some meds for a month to stop the itch. All I have to do is get the bottle of pills and she comes over and lays on her back as shown below. Never taught her to do that, she just does it, I show her the pills then pop them into her mouth.
Down the hatch they go and a little neck rub helps.

Done! Now she wants her belly scratched, what a ham!

Checking In

2011-09-21T20:31:00.003-04:00

Good Morning Barbara, glad to see you're still following us.

Off for a root canal tomorrow on the tooth I broke four months ago. So I'm in sticker shock at $3000.00 for a root canal, post and enamel crown, plus five surfaces filled. Man that would really buy a lot of fuel for travel.

Still have to get an inspection sticker for the coach before the weekend because we will be heading north for a week or two, I'd rather go south towards the warmth.

Oh well, short post today........Have a Great Day Barbara:)

Yup.....Still Here

2011-09-19T08:48:00.002-04:00

We are playing catch-up with doctors, dentist, etc. We have been looking for a newer Jeep but it's not a top priority as of yet. I also had to get state inspections done on all three vehicles.
The coach needs some grease on the front suspension, registration renewal, propane topped off and a bath.
Yesterday we took our stuff out of storage and moved it back home to a storage room in the basement of our home. No sense in paying for storage when the house is still waiting to sell.

Joyce is looking into renting the home, I am letting her handle that task because I didn't really want to rent out but the extra income will help if we get the right people in the house. We will continue to have the house on the market but will rent till the market comes back enough to sell it.

Joyce has her morning coffee while her and Casey watch the squirrels run around the yard.

Happy Birthday

2011-09-11T20:58:00.002-04:00

Yup, Joyce's birthday is 9/11 and the children, grand children and one great grand daughter all came to celebrate. I didn't get a picture of everyone because they were all around playing with Casey or just running around. We have a showing on the house Tuesday so I have come up with some way to get ride of all the grass in the driveway. If you look closely you can see the fuzzy haze. I sprayed with Roundup and it killed the fine grass and turned it brown. Oh well!!!!

We Are Still On The Road

2011-09-09T18:51:00.004-04:00

We got an early start in the rain but started to run into problems in PA. It seems that most of the major routes across the state were closed in areas due to floods. You can see the road block on the exit ahead. We were on 81 heading for 84 but ran into detours.

As you can see, the water is running high. We are on 81 here.

We then had to detour from 81 to 78 which ran us into another detour that took us down a back road that was also full of detours.
Things only became worse as the roads began to narrow and full of low branches.

Nice Huh!

Now we have workers on these back roads, and we had to contend with other RV's coming the other way.

More road blocks and detours. Man, will we ever get out of PA?

Welcome to New York, I can't believe it took us all day to get here. We should have been home by now!
We made it as far as a Walmart in Fishkill, NY. We had enough for one day so we pulled in at 4:30 and called it a day.

One More Day

2011-09-08T18:48:00.008-04:00

Route 95 and still on our way home. If you have ever travel this stretch of highway, I'm sure that you have heard of South Of The Border. These billboards are located every couple of miles along the highway in South Carolina.
Casey kept asking Joyce if we were there yet:)

Just a few more billboards!

And there it is but so much bigger than it was the last time we stopped about 30 years ago.

The place is huge!

Big tourist trap.

There's a hotel and a campground

Plus fireworks.

And more fireworks.

Food, ice cream, etc.

T shirts and trinkets.

That's the hotel across the street.

Says it all.

As we moved on down the highway, it seemed that everyone was selling fiberglass pools.

The Virginia border.....we're getting there!

Tobacco feeds!

NASCAR trucks heading for the next race.

Richmond city limits!

Then, 500 miles later. Our Night stop!

2011-09-07T18:35:00.005-04:00

We are on our way home and spot a few of these buses at a rest area.

Neat bridge we crossed on 95.

As we crossed the bridge you could see a blue and white ship in the harbor. Looks like they were unloading new cars.

Then we crossed into Georgia
Then So. Carolina

What's this.......the gateway back to reality?

We saw waves of these utility trucks coming home from the storm areas.

More trucks!
And finally our Walmart camp for the night.
And now to get all those bugs off the front end. Yuk!!!!!

Our Last Day

2011-09-06T12:00:00.002-04:00

My last morning of work and Joyce came down to takes some pic's but she forgot to wipe the condensation from the camera lens.
Ten minutes after I finished cutting for the day, it started to rain. We were going to spend the afternoon at the beach but that ain't gonna happen....oh well.

We will be leaving before 10:00 am tomorrow and will be heading home. Have lots of things to do when we get there. We are going to look into renting the home so we can at least have someone in the house and that will give us some fuel money. We would like to get a newer Jeep so we may trade Joyce's Santa Fe towards a newer Jeep. Would sell our older Jeep from the house. Then, doctors, doctors, doctors, and a visit to the dentist for me. Stay tuned!!!!!

Bowling Green Florida

2011-09-04T14:21:00.004-04:00

We have another winter work camper job lined up located in Bowling Green, Fl. It was a good two hour ride that took us past Disney.

The town of Bowling Green is very small with very limited things to do or see.
A lot of the buildings are empty. This is city hall.
Not sure what this is or was.
We got to the park and was shown the area where we would be parked while we worked there. As you can see, we would be in the woods.
Joyce forgot to get a pamphlet of the place so we stopped on our way out. We have to decide where we want to work camp for our winter months. We have two places to pick from but I believe we will be returning to where we are now.
I remember when VW's were popular, there were a lot of these chopped buses around.

We Made It Through The Storm

2011-08-26T12:19:00.004-04:00

Joyce and I took a stroll outside to check out the wind from the storm. As I walked around the coach, a big gust of wind caught me. Joyce was able to get this picture.......wow, lucky the table was there so I could hang on!

Good Night Irene

2011-08-25T13:53:00.003-04:00

We have changed our site to an area where there are no trees. Our original site had a tree overhanging the backside of the coach and I was concerned that the wind may knock some branches down. We will move back to our original site tomorrow after the storm passes.

Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum

2011-08-20T19:12:00.017-04:00

There's a Warbird museum not far from where we are so we had to check it out. It's located at one end of the regional airport which also houses a helicopter school.

Parked at the side of one of the runways was the Zero G plane. For $5000.00 you too can experience weightlessness.
At the end of the airport, we arrived at the museum.
The museum consist of three buildings which house planes from WWII, Korean, and Vietnam wars.
This is one of their prized aircraft, a C47 bomber that is ready to fly to air shows around the country or take a ride in her if your in the area.
Looking up into the bomb bay.

Man, these are just beautiful engines.

At one end of the building was this Avenger that was being worked on. Seems that the plane was air worthy but experienced engine problems during it's last flight.
The crew working on the plane are volunteers from Boeing. These guys love restoring these old planes.

Do you know what famous person flew an Avenger during WWII?

Nope..... It's not Joyce. Give Up?

Yup, this is the guy!!!

We moved to the next building where the Vietnam aircraft is stored

While we were touring the building, the Zero G jet taxied for take off.
The story of a couple of brave pilots.

Gas Turbine
We shouldn't for get the Tuskegee Airmen
Wow...on our way home there was an accident on I95, no one seemed to be hurt but they were shook up a lot.

Whose On The Roof?

2011-08-16T20:14:00.004-04:00

Joyce and I were awaken two nights ago at 4:00AM by something that sounded like someone was bowling on our roof. I grabbed a flashlight and headed out to see who or what was up there.

I wasn't able to see anything other than what looked like a pair of raccoon eyes up in the tree over the bedroom slide. The heck with this......I went back to bed.

The next day I went up on the roof to see what happened. What I found was a pile of acorns on top of the bedroom slide topper. Apparently the raccoon was sitting in the tree over our coach feasting on acorns. Every time he dropped one it would hit the slide topper which was like tapping on a drum.

So to solve the problem it would mean removing the branch over the slide without hitting anything. I climbed on the roof and threw a rope over the branch. We tied the rope to a golf cart and put tension on the line. While Kevin commenced with the cutting, Robby got ready in the golf cart.
As the branch stared to fall, Robby backed up quick and I got ready to through my body between the coach and the branch if anything went wrong.

The boys did an excellent job removing that branch and trimming around the back of the coach.

Everything went well and now we can go back to a good nights sleep. Good Night!

Dog Days

2011-08-13T18:35:00.008-04:00

It's been a very hot week so we took Casey to the dog park again to see if there was anyone else crazy enough to go out in this heat. As we got there, this cool train went by.
Casey also made a couple of new friends at the park and they actually enjoyed the pool together.
After the dog park, we dropped Casey at the coach so she could have a nap and we took a ride for lunch. We did so back roads and came to a nice sea food restaurant with a fishing pier in the back.
You could sit outside on the deck to eat but it was just too hot for that.
The restaurant was all by itself off of a side street. We found it as we were looking for the ocean. We both had the scallop basket and it was yummy.
As we departed from lunch, there was a very small town park that had this sign posted.
The park also honors the fishing industry with this plaque.

This is the park.

Further down the back roads I passed this tree and did a double take. Had to back up for this one. That's a palm tree that the tree is wrapped around. Cool huh!
Then we saw this.....note the large tree branch going through the house. They do neat things with trees here.

Cocoa Beach

2011-08-06T13:14:00.007-04:00

We thought we'd take a drive to Cocoa Beach in the morning before it got too hot.
As we drove along A1A in Cocoa Beach, I spotted a DD's and stopped for Coolatta's and a jelly donut. I was shocked when I walked in the door and found a double line of people waiting to be served. There is no drive-up window so it was really slow getting our stuff. The first big hit on my drink and oh no....brain freeze! This is Cocoa Beach Pier.....No dogs allowed!

Casey and I waited at the start of the pier while Joyce walked out and got a pic of the beach.

This is the "World's Most Famous" Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach. Joyce went in to get a "T" shirt while Casey and I waited in the Jeep. There were so many people in the store, she gave up and came out before the dog and I died from heat exhaustion. We have got to get a Jeep that has AC!
The cruise ships leave from here. The Disney ship leaves on Thursdays. This one is a Carnival Cruise ship.
Hey do you remember Lois Lane on the old Super Man series on TV, I thought she drove one of these Nash Metropolitan's. I was wrong.

We passed this guy on our way home and had to get the pic.
Nice car, note the dual exhaust. Sounded like a six cylinder.
Whereas we had Casey with us, we stopped to get lunch we could bring back and eat at home. Never had Krystals before so this was a test.
This is a basic order.....you get four small square burgers and fries. The burgers are steamed and have a different flavor from the other burger joints. I do think that they steam out a lot of the flavor but they were pretty good, but not as good as 5 guys.

Juno Heads For Jupiter

2011-08-05T14:43:00.004-04:00

We went to the beach at Cape Canaveral to see the launch of the explorer Juno as it heads out for a five year journey to Jupiter. Clicking on the pictures will enlarge them a bit but it's tough to see the rocket itself.

This was the first launch we ever saw and it was pretty awesome.
I also shot a short video and you can hear the rumble of the rocket.

We Found The Dog Park

2011-08-03T15:20:00.005-04:00

We asked around and found out that there's a dog park about ten minutes away. It is located behind a marina that we have driven by many times.
The park has two sections, one large section for big dogs and a smaller one for the small dogs. The park is new and there is also a play ground for kids and a skate board area with hills and loops. The park is really nice and it's right on the water. Casey was the only dog here because it was pretty hot.
Casey did like the fact that they have a small pool to cool off in.
Even Mom can get in and cool her feet while Casey swims in circles.
It's in the high 90's so just laying around in the pool is the only way to go.
There are a lot of boats at the marina but we didn't see any of them going out.

A Stroll In The Park

2011-08-02T15:28:00.004-04:00

We normally take Casey for a walk every night before dinner. A total loop of the campground is just over one mile. As we leave our site this starts our walk towards the office that is in the distance.

Joyce and Casey stop by a huge live oak tree so I can take the shot.

This pond is in the front just as you come in the entrance gate. There's a small gator in here that follows me whenever I'm running the weed whacker around the edge of the water.
This is the office as viewed from inside the campground. The small pond pictured above is to the right in this shot.

Tennis court, shuffle board court, bocce ball, etc. in this section of the park as we stroll towards the club house.

This is the entrance to the club house, pools, and hot tub.

Behind the pool is another pond that contains fish, turtles, and another gator.

This is the pool section where there is a kidney shape pool, a lap pool, and the ten person hot tub.

These sites are in the located in the back portion of the campground.

By the time we round the back corner, we are ready for the AC to cool down.

The Great Outdoors RV Resort

2011-07-30T16:56:00.009-04:00

The Great Outdoors RV Resort was only about ten minutes away so we thought we'd check it out.We had to stop at the main gate and was told to proceed to the visitors center.

On the way to the visitors center we wanted to check out some of the homes.......BUSTED!!!! Security came up behind us with all the lights flashing, we felt like criminals. "Follow me to the Visitors Center, was what we were told" This guy had no sense of humor and thought he was a real cop. We followed him.
At the visitors center we met up with a sales rep. and proceeded to the homes.
There are variations of what they have to offer here but they are all based on RV ownership. You can get just a concrete pad or all the way up to a homes worth hundreds of thousands.
We wanted to look at homes with less than 1500 square feet of living space. We started here. The RV area has full hookups at each of the sites which also includes cable TV.
This home is a pre-owned and offered as furnished.

We like the open floor plan, and I like having my coach right on site and not in a storage area miles away.

This is like a second small bedroom but doesn't matter because your RV can be used to accommodate guest if needed.

The lanai is usually a screen room but this home turned it into a climate controlled extra room.

The master bedroom was of a good size.

Another shot of the master bedroom.

There's one area in the complex where you can bring your dog to play.

There's a good sized doggie play area.

The people paint the names of their dogs on concrete tiles.

This home is also a fully furnished pre-owned home that's for sale.

Living room looking out the closed in screened room.

Looking at the kitchen area from the living room area.

Another not very good shot of the living room area.

Just a shot of the area between the homes.

We like the fact that the homes are of mostly different designs and colors.

This resort interested us a an alternative to the Villages but we are still waiting for our home to sell but it's nice to check out different places.

Another Day

2011-07-27T14:57:00.003-04:00

Took Casey to the beach, had to find a place where there are no Gators. So we stopped under the bridge that takes you over to Cape Canaveral. This cool van was parked in front of us.
Casey had a good time running around in the water. Must say that the water wasn't that clean looking.

On our way back we stopped to take this picture of this storm that passed.

Today Joyce washed the windows on the coach and I just had to get a shot of it. I had the hard job of moving the ladder around.......not fair!

Fish & Chips

2011-07-23T19:52:00.004-04:00

Friday night is fish & chips so we usually try the local places. They gave us these to munch on while we waited for dinner. Powdered hush puppies.

World Famous Dixie Crossroads Seafood.
Joyce had the clam strips.

I ordered the Cod and got more than I really could eat.

We did have a few leftovers

I mowed this lawn at the entrance to the campground yesterday and noticed an area of pretty wild flowers.

Nice huh!

So we parked the Jeep while I did my thing.

And picked flowers for my honey. Joyce likes having fresh flowers in the coach.

Our New Location

2011-07-21T12:36:00.004-04:00

We had to take a ride to Cape Canaveral, the shuttle came in this morning and announced it's presence with a double sonic boom that was loud enough to blow open the door to the trailer next to us.

We are only about ten minutes away so it was a short ride.
Info along the way.

I believe that this is one of the launch pads.

And here's the assembly building

Moving On

2011-07-20T09:17:00.008-04:00

We have moved on to another campground close to the Villages so we could visit our friends John & Beth. There weren't many people here.
In fact, this is the row that we are parked in. You can see the hitch of a trailer to the right of the picture....he left about an hour later.
So we have plenty of empty room so Casey can play Frisbee.

We met up with John & Beth to do a little shopping in Spanish Springs at the Villages. That's John and Beth with the straw hats. They were having a live concert in the square along with a small flea market.

This shot was taken from the edge of the fountain that surrounds one side of the square.

The center of Spanish Springs is designed just like a real Spanish town.

It was great seeing our friends again but it was time to move on to our next destination. The campground that we were heading to had GPS coordinates so I plugged them in to our GPS and off we went.

Well I must have gone brain dead because two hours later we found ourselves on this road.

Oh Oh!!!!!!!

I should have known that something was wrong when the road turned to dirt. The problems is I had to continue on till I could find a place to turn around. Two miles later that place came up.

Unhook, turn her around on a one lane dirt road with a small side street. Lucky there was only that one tree.

Now to hook up and back track.

Turns out that we were only one street off from our turn off route 46.We made it to our location which is in Titusville and about 1/4 mile from interstate 95.

This is our camp site, not as nice as what we are use to but the price is right.

I will be talking to the manager this morning about work camping here for the next six to seven weeks, and the possibility of returning in January. This place is only about 35 miles from Disney so it's a good home base for things to see and do.

Vintage Boat Weekend

2011-07-15T15:13:00.008-04:00

This Sunday there will be some classic boat races going on right in front of the campground. The boats are older hydroplanes from the 1950's era. The boats are piloted by men my age reliving their childhood days. Sooooo, Casey and I headed down to the docks to see what's going on.
There are boats here from Va. and there's still more to come.

The old motors are really nice to look and so are the boats

Nice trailer with all the goodies to select from .

I like the black one.

Hey, the red one is nice too.

This is just a small sample of what there was to see.

All the 1950's vintage motors are like better than new. Polished and ready to go, note the selection of props.

This boat even has fins.

I love this old stuff......no plastic here! Clicking on the picture will give you better detail.

Thunderbolt.......they had cool names back then!

Feather Craft, what a beauty!

With a 1950's vintage 55 HP Mercury outboard. Nice combination!

Wasn't sure if this guy was going to make it in the boat.
A little competition? The test runs went on all day long....too much fun!

The Last Supper

2011-07-12T10:20:00.006-04:00

The campground owners Ron & Bibi are leaving Sunday for a six week vacation to Sweden. Bibi is from Sweden and she has grand children there so they visit every year. So they hosted a fried chicken dinner with all the fixins. We are also leaving Saturday so it was nice to be able to have a sit down dinner with our co-workers. At this table is Veronica and her husband John on the left and Kathy & John on the right.
Then there are Stacey, her husband Joe, and their two children in line with Joyce. And last but not least, there's our neighbor Walt who is here by himself. He did have his trailer up front by the office but due to the noise, asked to be moved out back where we are. He has been a good neighbor and a great conversationalist.
We are going to miss them all.

Rain, Rain, Rain

2011-07-09T11:06:00.002-04:00

Call it the monsoons or just call it lots of rain, but man has it been raining over the last week. It started as thunderstorms with some sun in between. Now it's just rain, and a lot of it.
So........us guys are just sitting inside and keeping dry.

Manatee Springs State Park

2011-07-05T10:44:00.005-04:00

Friends of ours, Hal & Frank normally stop by our site to chat when they are here. They raise and train horses and try to get away for the weekends so their fifth wheel is parked here for the summer and their speed boat is also docked here for weekend use.
Due to my great picture taking, you can see that I blew it again. That's Hal up front without a shirt, followed by Frank then Joyce.
They were boating over to Manatee Springs State Park and asked us if we'd like to go. Their boat is powered by an inboard Chevy 350 so I had to get a ride. I'll tell you that boat was fast and smooth. The park is only about a five minute ride in the boat, and you can tie up right at the end of the boardwalk.

Here's another one of my great pictures. This guy was running along below us when I snapped the pic.

If you click on this picture, you'll be able to read about the history of the springs.

The spring is so clear and you can go swimming if you dare to. The water is 72 degrees.......too cold for me but there were some people in the water while we were there.

Some more interesting information on the spring.

I actually got this picture but they were so tame, you can walk up to them.

More info.

Looking For Points Of Interest

2011-06-30T16:19:00.009-04:00

We visited the town of Trenton. This is the start of a rail trail.
The Nature Coast State Trail runs for 32 miles with most of the trail being straight enough to see for miles. But for as many times as we have passed by the trail, we have yet to see anyone using it.

Across the street from the trail, is the old Coca Cola Ice House circa 1925.

What you'll find in the Ice House

And next to the Ice House, is the Coca Cola bottling plant which is also circa 1925.

This is the street side view of the building.

The quilt shop had rooms of various themes and styles.

They even had an old antique tread dispenser

And the old vat where they mixed the secret Coke formula.

See!

This is the one sign I liked.

Crusin For Gators

2011-06-28T13:01:00.002-04:00

We cruised down river in search of gators and did see a half dozen but I didn't take any pic's of them.
Just short of the Gulf coast we stopped at this small island so we could have lunch and Casey went for a swim. it was a slow ride back to camp because we had thunderstorms ahead of us. We luckily missed them.

The end of a long day and it's time for bed, Casey has a choice of who she sleeps with!

They Made It Safe & Sound

2011-06-23T16:06:00.002-04:00

The airport is surprisingly small and located directly across the street from the Correctional Facility.
And there they are with their big smiles on.....you have to click on the pic to really see the smiles!!!!

Our Little Piece Of Paradise

2011-06-19T14:48:00.005-04:00

We now have a screen house so we can sit outside and be one with the bugs!

Hey Florida, Here's Your Taxes At Work

2011-06-17T19:35:00.004-04:00

Took Joyce to the airport and on my way back to camp I had to take these pictures of some of the side streets in Florida.

#2
If you click on the picture you can even see the double yellow lines.

At least this one ends at a grassey area.

And.....for the top prize.......

Need I say more.......they even painted the arrows

Ramblings

2011-06-11T13:13:00.005-04:00

On a recent trip to town, we stopped at Fanning Springs State Park. Within the park was this section of the Fanning Springs bridge that spanned the Suwannee River.

This plaque is attached to the bridge.
Also in the park is this sign about the Gulf Sturgeon.

There are so many of these magnificent Live Oak trees in the area.

The reason to travel to town was to pick up a new water valve for our toilet. The original was leaking during the flush cycle due to a failed water seal. I was able to install a couple of o-rings in the seal area and it seems to be holding but I figured I better purchase a new valve to keep on hand.

I also went up on the roof to check my slide topper awnings for debris.

Actually they looked pretty good except for some staining from the last rain. So while I was up there, I cleaned them and my solar panels. Was my day off and I needed something to do.

Just Another Day

2011-06-06T16:50:00.006-04:00

Had to drive to town to see a dentist today. Last Friday I broke a tooth and I'm afraid it may not be save.
We found the dentist and all I can say is that it was an experience, I ended up going out the door with no change to the tooth. Seems I have a choice of a root canal and maybe have enough tooth left for a cap but no guarantees. Or leave it for now and hope it last till I get home and see my own dentist, I opted for the latter.

When we got back we had a surprise..........a new neighbor! Actually, one of the workampers asked to be moved back here with us because it's away from the busiest part of the campground.
I thought that it might be fun to swim in the river with Casey. Joyce watched for gators LOL!
And did I mention the bugs here are everywhere. Check out this guy...he was climbing up the tree in front of the coach. Click on the picture for awesome detail.

A Wild & Crazy Weekend

2011-05-30T16:37:00.007-04:00

Monday morning and no one is at the pool for their last swim before leaving.
Not a soul anywhere which means we have the pool to ourselves tonight.

The Jet Skis were out in force

There were crazy boaters everywhere and it was funny watching some of them trying to get their boats on the trailers and up the ramp. There were a few with two wheel drive pickups that couldn't make the grade and had to be towed by the John Deere.

Boats, boats, everywhere there's boats.
More boats until...........

What a difference a couple of hours makes. They've all gone home!
The place was packed and it was my day to do site cleaning. Twenty sites later there were still a lot of people to go.

This gentleman was camped close to us and as he was getting ready to leave, his slides wouldn't come in and his jacks also refused to come up. I was lucky enough to find a couple of burnt out fuses and we got the slides to work.

But.......we were not able to get the jacks to retract, even in the "Emergency Mode" which requires driving the pump by attaching a drill to the end of the pump motor. Well, long story short we were able to retract by running the drill on the motor shaft and prying up under the jacks. Two hours later, my buddy was on his way. I hope he made it home ok!

The day is over and I am burnt out but everyone seemed to enjoy their first holiday weekend. Tomorrow I mow......I hope that snake isn't still hanging around the mower.

I Don't Believe It!!!!

2011-05-27T17:01:00.003-04:00

Today was a workday for Joyce and I, she worked a half day and I worked the full day. After lunch I had to do a little touch-up mowing at a couple of sites.

Sooooo, I went to get the Bad Boy mower and while checking the engine oil level, guess what crawled out from under the mower. Yup....a BIG snake, but luckily he came out of the side opposite from where I was standing. He or she was about four feet long and looked like the picture below which is a Cottonmouth but I can't be sure and I certainly wasn't about to get a closer look because that was close enough.

I guess if the Poison Ivy or the Chiggers, don't get us, the snakes will.

Chiggers, What Are Chiggers?

2011-05-26T18:42:00.007-04:00

Joyce couldn't stand the itch any longer so we went to see a doctor for some med's. That's when we found out that we have Chigger bites along with Poison Ivy. OMG....what is a Chigger. Well here's a picture of one of the ugly buggers. They are so small that they can't be seen with the naked eye which is good because they are ugly. I don't understand how something sooooo small can create an itch sooooo BIG!
Well we know what to do to avoid them and we have med's for the itch of the poison ivy as well.
Our plan for the day was to take a boat out again and travel north on the river with another picnic lunch. We didn't get back from the doctors until around 1:00 so we had lunch and packed some snacks to have along the river.
This time we took the yellow pontoon boat which steers a lot easier and Casey want to try her hand... ah paw... at captain, yea right!!!

I guess they are expecting a very high tide on the river. Better to be safe than sorry.
The base of this cypress is huge and would make a nice coffee table .
Two military helicopters came flying over. Seems they like to use the winding river for low flight training.

I think Casey was getting bored.

This old railroad bridge is part of the Greenway rail trail for bikers.

After passing the bridge we came upon a perfect spot to stop for snacks and a little relaxing in the water, Casey had her watermelon.
On our way back to camp we passed this cottage with a giant air bag to bounce off of. Looks dangerous, I would probably bounce back into the dock.

Another one waiting for the rising of the water but must have a great view.

During the round trip we experienced a lot of giant jumping Sturgeon. The fish we saw were 4 to 5 feet long and were coming about three feet out of the water. It kind of funny to see these big fish jumping but it can be deadly if you get hit with one. I was not able to get any pictures, sorry!

We're Gonna Need An Ocean

2011-05-24T16:06:00.007-04:00

Of Calamine lotion.........Yup, we both have poison ivy all over our legs. Just so you'll know, these are my (Paul) legs LOL! Joyce's do look a little better.

And here's the flip side of my manly limbs. I don't understand me getting poison ivy, I haven't had it since I was a kid but anyways I guess this is what happens when you do weed whacking in shorts. Or we both got it from Casey. Sorry, got to go itch!!!

Old Town, FL102°/ 65°°F

2011-05-22T19:41:00.009-04:00

Yup, it was a pretty warm day so we headed to the beach....yea! Thought we'd start at the town of Suwannee. Where there are some beautiful seasonal homes.
And the road into town looks nice but is a dead end into nothing. There really isn't much of anything in town, post office and a dinner.

From Suwannee we wanted to cross over to Shired Island to see if we could get closer to the ocean so we took this short cut through the Florida tropics!

This road went on for miles and in areas it was just barely one lane wide.

Riding along and I spotted this guy.

Not the kind of place I would want to get lost in.

Beauty of a differant kind but no gators in sight.

More tropics.

Blue Heron

Hey we made it, that's the gulf out there but this was a view from a campground and we couldn't take Casey out of the Jeep here.

So we drove back a quarter mile and stopped at a boat ramp. Can you see all the little crabs running around, they were all over the place. Click on the picture and you will.

Now that's a beautiful piece of driftwood.

Nothing like having the wind blow over your belly after a refreshing swim in the salt water.

By now you should know that I like chicken, but guess what Casey likes best. We came upon this on our way back to camp.

Lets Go Boating

2011-05-19T19:44:00.013-04:00

We decided we'd use one of the pontoon boats today and take a picnic cruise. This is the 2nd time in my life that I've ever used a boat but it didn't seem like a big deal.
Ok, now to get out of here without running into anything.

Here we go and Casey is really getting excited about all the water. We were afraid she was going to jump in.

One side of the Suwannee is a wildlife preserve.

So the scenery along the river was beautiful.

Another view

Casey and I are on gator patrol as we travel slowly along the shore.

There's a pretty bird that kept following us.

And if you click on this picture it will enlarge and you will see some white wild flowers.

And here are some blue wild flowers

Oh Oh, that isn't a log in the water

He came really close to the boat and showed no fear.

This is another gator we passed along the river. He's a big boy.

And yet another. In all we spotted about five good sized gators.

As we headed to the Gulf coast we would pass these small populated areas.

Bet the kids love this place, check out that water slide.

There were some pretty nice seasonal homes along here.

Nice huh!

Not many places to pull in for lunch.

The scenery was so nice.

After about two hours of cruising, we could see the Gulf.

And there it is!!!!! Now it's time to turn around and find a place to stop for lunch.

About a half mile back from the Gulf coast, I found this very small beach area where we could stop for our picnic. This is like Gilligan's Island!

Casey loves watermelon so after Joyce and I had our salads, Casey and I had watermelon for a snack. I bought the melon at a farm stand for $2 and it was sweet.Joyce got in the water with Casey to cool off, then it was time to pack up and head back.

Joyce took the helm on the way back, she has spent more time driving boats than me. It was a great day and we will have to do it again.

She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy

2011-05-18T12:57:00.003-04:00

Hey, I graduated from the Bad Boy to this sweet John Deere 990 with a mower attachment hanging off the back. This puppy does some serious mowing.
Well, it's time to head out to the back forty and have some fun. Ya'll come back and see us again ya hear! Singing.....She thinks my tractor's sexy, it really turns her on!!!!!!!!

Workamper Dinner

2011-05-17T19:01:00.002-04:00

Last night was dinner on the management. Fried chicken with all the fixins, did I ever mention that I love chicken? I even got to take some home for left overs.

Dessert was chocolate covered brownies and strawberry shortcake. I weighed myself this morning and gained two pounds....man-o-man what a bummer.

Work Day

2011-05-15T18:16:00.002-04:00

Today was a work day for me which started with me being the pool boy.
After doing the pool, I became lawnmower man! The name of the mower......Bad Boy, how appropriate!

Later in the day there was a lot of horse power noise coming from the river so I checked it out. This guy pulled in with his dog. He just did a rescue of a baby Manatee whose mother had died.
The engine, a 383 cubic inch stroker with straight pipes. I figured the poor dog must be deaf.

Yellow Jacket RV Resort

2011-05-13T16:26:00.004-04:00

We are here, came in yesterday after a 225 mile drive. Not much in the area except for the Swanee River. Walmart and most of the other popular stores are about a half hour drive from us.
This is the site that they gave us, we are in an area that used to be for park models.

We feel like we are pretty much in the tropics. The vegetation is really nice and we are by ourselves in this large area.

We took a stroll to the river and this sign was posted at the boat ramp.

Is this fishing as seen on TV, won't be much of a sport.

Casey is testing the water which is very warm. We get to use one of the boats on our days off. We can use anything from a small power boat to one of the pontoon boats like you can see in this picture.

We will start work next Tuesday. We are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays, Joyce will be on the cleaning staff and me on the maintenance. Joyce has all of her duties defined but mine will be as requested. We will both have use of a golf cart while doing our chores.....yahoo!!!

There is also a large heated pool that we can use after our hard days work.

On Our Way To Florida

2011-05-11T20:02:00.000-04:00

Before leaving Pigeon Forge we had to do one more run at the junk stores. Joyce thought it was great that they make their own dresses here.

There were dresses everywhere to fit dolls, all the way up to little girls.
As the sign says!

We departed at 8:30 am and headed for route 75 south. Traveling south we ran into areas that were hit by the tornadoes.

These areas were just trees but look at how the wind just snapped the trees off.

The big city of Atlanta
And we passed by the airport.

Well after nine hours of driving nice and easy, we are in another Walmart parking lot with a lot of truckers and rv's. From here, we are 4-5 hours from our destination.

2011-05-09T18:06:00.005-04:00

Oh man, here's my two girls trying to figure out what to do today.

Casey decided that she wanted to go down to the creek and practice.
Ever since seeing the news on the capture of Bin Laden, Casey wants to be a Navy Seal Dog. We couldn't believe she did this and it went on for fifteen minutes, she couldn't get enough.

Now for Joyce......she has been wanting to do a Zip Line so after Casey finished in the water, we headed for the Zip Line place down the street. Joyce went without me, here she is all ready to go.

That's her on the left ready to depart over my head on the first of five lines.

Here's a short video of her zipping along.

Returning from the last leg and in one piece, she was really glad she did it. Oh yea, she will go again in the future.

Mothers Day Ride

2011-05-08T19:49:00.011-04:00

Our ride started at Route 321 west in Pigeon Forge and across the Foothills Parkway.
From there we continued on to 129 south. Now route 129 is known as The Dragon or Dragons Tail because there are 318 curves in eleven miles. There were two 1000 horsepower Bugatti Veyrons on this road yesterday. Wish I was here to see them go through. This is also a dangerous road that takes about 20 bikers every year. We passed quit a few that were dragging a knee into the corners.
Even in the Jeep, Casey was wondering when it was going to end.

The road was awesome with all the curves, I wish I was still riding motorcycle.

Here's what it looks like on the GPS

Are we at the end yet!!!!!

We finally reached the end of 129 and then turned onto route 28 which is also known as Moonshiner 28.

We ran route 28 for a short twisty distance and turned off at 19/74 which took us into route 441 and Cherokee, NC.

We were here about 28 years ago and the town has really changed a lot. There are painted bear statues everywhere.

Some of the bear were very colorful.

This one has socks on.

The medicine man even travels in style now.

Then we continued on through the Smoky Mountains.

While traveling 441 north, some bikers caught up with us and Casey found them to be interesting.

One of the guys kept whistling to Casey and waving to her. She had a new friend!

After about five miles, we stopped at a rest area to let the bikers go by but they stopped also. The guys had to meet Casey and take her picture. She was a real hit with the bikers but I forgot to take any pictures of her with the guys. They were from the area and do this ride often, they even had the scars to prove it. We talked for a while and wished them a safe ride.

As we left the rest area we let Casey's new friends go first. As you can see in the picture, riding with no hands can add to those scars and injuries they were telling us about

As the guys went through the tunnels, they would pull the clutch and rev the engines. It was deafening.

Here we go again, another tunnel.

This is a view of Gatlinburg as we came out of the Smokies.

We came out of the mountains and into Pigeon Forge. The loop took us about six hours to complete with a quick lunch stop. We were all a little sea sick from all the curves but it was a fun ride.

Old Pigeon Forge

2011-05-08T10:41:00.005-04:00

Late yesterday we took a ride to Old Pigeon Forge that has a very small section of gift shops but no fudge worth buying. I have sampled about four different fudge shops and found all the fudge to be dry. A good quality fudge should be smooth and creamy when you bit into it. Sorry but I'm fussy about fudge. Anyways, there were other shops that were selling various tourist trinkets.

Driving across the bridge, the view was nice.
A large liberty bell in the park but don't know why!

This waterfall was putting out a weird sound like driving with one rear window open in your car. It would vibrate your ears, strange!
Not sure if this water wheel ever worked but it looks like it may have once.

Casey likes it when I remove the rear window. She tries to get a lick of people as they pass by. I swear I'm going to tape her tongue down.

Members of Pastor Bill Hale's congregation came to our campground with a van full of various Cakes, Candles, and Fudge that were for sale. Joyce loves lemon cake and I couldn't resist the chocolate pudding cake. Mmmmmm!

Happy Mothers Day From Us

2011-05-08T10:25:00.003-04:00

A baby asked God,
"They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?""Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you.
"The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy.
"Again the child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak.""And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."
"Who will protect me?"God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking it's life.""But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."

"You will simply call her, 'Mom.'"
(unknown)

Pigeon Forge Dolly Parade

2011-05-07T10:02:00.020-04:00

The parade was to start at 6 pm but as we drove down this stretch at noon, people were putting their chairs out. So.....we went back, got our chairs and put them in a good spot at the end of the route. At 5pm we returned and waited.

And waited!
Then final at 6:30 the parade got to us.

There were numerous marching bands and baton twirlers. Twirlers seems to be a big thing here.

Then the guest of honor passed by waving at the crowd. She's a tiny women.
Not much of a van for Dolly.
Oh yea, even the Canadians showed up!
Then the floats came along and there were many of them.

Most of the floats were done by local businesses.

Remember Erin from the Waltons?

Yup, that's her. She's grown up!!!!

This is a local Cirque show.

They guys were just crazy.
oooooh the pretty girls
The beauty queens!
And they came in all ages.

Right down to the little ones.

And the home coming queen.

I have no idea what this was all about.

These ladies were really cool peddling their ponies.

Pigeon Forge Fire Dept. has a great emblem.

Nice Rig!

There were lots of marching school bands.And pretty girls.

Now this is a shopping cart, look closely.

It is a dragster.

Can't have a parade without horses.

Had a Ford pickup just like this one.....well maybe not just like this but it was a 53 Ford pickup with a flathead V8.

I'd like to tow this behind the coach.

This is a party coach that you can rent for a wedding or whatever.

This guy was just cruising around.

The antique tractors.

A nice Case

Oliver Super 88

This is an Oliver Diesel 880.

A really clean John Deere.

A greasy old Farmall that probably just came out of the field for the parade.

This one is a Gambles Farmcrest 30.

This guy was being towed behind the tractor above and had a look like he had enough.

These are the old single cylinder engines, and they were running.

The Shriners were here from Kentucky, beautiful rigs!

Camel Hauler

Tow Truck

This was a big bad Jeep that was V8 powered, very nice.

Remember the Dodge Darts, wow....what a sleeper!

This is a Boss Hoss motorcycle, the engines are 350 ci Chevy V8"s. We have seen a lot of these bikes in the area and it makes sence because they are built here in Tn.

The parade lasted 1-1/2 hours and was a good time, glad we went.

Don & Lucy Head Home

2011-05-05T17:43:00.002-04:00

Our friends Don & Lucy headed out this morning and will be heading home. It's always great to see them and we will miss them. Their dog Bruno and Casey are best friends and Casey was sad to see her friend go. She did start to feel better when I gave her some frosty paws dog ice cream.

Went Caving

2011-05-04T19:01:00.006-04:00

Took a ride to the local Caverns. They are located on one of the many country back roads. The ride was really nice.

We are here and ready to descend.
I took a lot of pictures but most were too dark to see.

There were some nice formations

This stalagmite was a pretty good size.

More of the same

There's a large waterfall in the middle of this picture.

Here's Joyce with our friends Don and Lucy.

On our way back I spotted this in a parking lot.

Really cool Wileys Jeep.

Oh yea, there was also this upside down building.

Is that a FedEx box up there?

The end of the day and Joyce has to feed the family of ducks at the campground.

Gatlinburg

2011-05-03T16:30:00.008-04:00

We met up with our friends Don & Lucy who were on their way home. They are here at Pigeon Forge for a few days so we took a ride today to Gatlinburg. Man-O-man, is this area a BIG tourist trip. You name it and they have it.

Even Ripleys is here, believe it or not!
Much stuff to see and do.

My buddy back home is always talking about his last motorhome. Yup, it was a Safari and I think he really misses it. This ones for you Ken!Here's Joyce walking from one shop to another.

I just sat outside and enjoyed the warm air.

I am a lover of Fudge and usually look for a fudge shop everywhere we go. Usually I'm lucky if I can find one store that sells fudge in the areas that we travel. Well........I'm am on a diet and working hard to keep the extra pounds off. Because of this, wouldn't you know that the 1st fudge store was around the corner from where we parked.

Oh man, as we continued to walk the main street we ran into another Fudge shop.
I don't believe it........another Fudge place! This must be a test!

Hmmmm, maybe I could just try some samples!

OMG can you believe this, and we had only walked down one side of the street. Why am I being punished like this?

Hey look, no fudge here....just this guy made from junk metal pieces. No, that's not a piece of fudge in his hand.

I'm hungry, lets go home and have dinner.

Titanic

2011-05-03T11:22:00.003-04:00

Went to the Titanic Museum and it was an excellent. It will take at least two hours to walk the self guided tour. If you are in the area, you won't be dissapointed. The only down side is you can't bring your camera in.

Iceburg right ahead!!!
Drove by our Jess's favorite place to eat.

Joyce and I always have to try the differant burger joints.

We have to say that five guys does have awesome burgers and fries.

Only drove by the sign to say we were in the area.

Made It To Pigeon Forge

2011-05-02T19:44:00.007-04:00

While traveling along 81 through Virginia, we approached a slow in the traffic as we got closer to Tenn.
That's when we came upon this area where a tornado touched down on this small neighborhood.
It was terrible to see the property damage when there was so much wooded area on both sides of this town that wasn't touched.

People were still picking through the rubble.

This was really tough to see. It was so real, not like what you see on TV.

The tornado touched down and seemed to travel for only about a quarter mile but it did so much damage. It looked like a giant weed whacker passed through.

The damage was on both sides of the highway.

And to think that this was a small area of damage.

Notice the trailers piled up at one end of the truck stop.

The main building at the truck stop was only lightly damaged.

Casey looking out the windshield as we cross into Tenn.

Driving down route 441 into Pigeon Forge we passed the Titanic Museum.

We're On The Road To Tenn.

2011-04-30T18:51:00.002-04:00

We headed out this morning for Pigeon Forge, Tenn. and are now at our first night stop the Hagerstown, Maryland Walmart at exit 6B off of 81. Three more motorhomes just pulled in for the night. Joyce went into the store to buy us a small chocolate cake, tomorrow is our 46th anniversary and we will have a chocolate cake celibration tonight.

Todays ride was nice and relaxing and we didn't push it. Seems like everyone else was slowing down also. We ran between 55 and 60 and averaged 8.3 MPG. Feel like we are going the wrong way because all the snowbirds are heading east.

Well, I have to take Casey out for her walk.

Weekend Gataway

2011-04-18T10:39:00.003-04:00

Went to Connecticut for a weekend trip with friends. This was a Free Mason camping group and we were invited guest for the weekend. Brialee campground is located in the little farm town of Ashford where you can find some really nice old farm houses.

Love the old homes!

It's amazing how the farmers could build things with all those rocks.

Concrete didn't hold up!

Back at the campground, Joyce attended Sunday services.

The weekend went by fast and we are now back home. The group we met were really great people. They made us feel like we belonged to the group, was a fun time!

A Poop Day

2011-04-10T17:51:00.002-04:00

We had our two youngest grand daughters for the night. Today turned out to be a nice warm day so Brooke helped her grandmother by brushing Casey. The two girls were making bubbles which Casey enjoyed trying to catch.

Meanwhile, I had a job to do which no one would really enjoy doing. The seal on the knife valve for the black tank was leaking. The leak was no more than a slow drip but it would collect in the clear section only to spill when I removed the cap.....yuck!!!! So I had to empty the tank and flush clean.

After removing the valve assembly, I did find some material buildup in the slot where the knife seal runs.

I cleaned, lubed, and reassembled the valve and kept my fingers crossed. So far it seems to be fixed, I'll see tomorrow. Now to get the smell out of my nostrils.

April Showers

2011-04-05T11:11:00.002-04:00

We had a day of sunshine (one day) so I installed the new light over the door. I really like the way it works, there are infra red sensors on the left and right that will pick up the body heat from someone approaching and turn the light on. Now we are back to April showers, even Casey is getting bored. I have been sending out applications for workamping jobs but haven't secured anything yet. Most of the jobs are for three to six months long and we really don't want to spend that long in the same place. So we will see what happens.

New Toy

2011-03-25T19:54:00.003-04:00

While we were at Tiffin for service, Joyce and I would take the dog out for her walk every night after dinner. As we walked along the rows of coaches lined up in the service campground, we would occasionally pass by some that had motion sensor lights over the entrance door.

These lights were LED and very bright. They were really cool and I had to ask where to get one. The next day, I stopped at one of the coaches and talked to the owner only to find out that these people bought the lights at Quartzite.

I didn't want to wait till we went to Quartzite, so when we got home I did a search for the light and found them on E-Bay so I ordered one.
Motion detection range is adjustable from 10 - 25 feet.

Now I just have to wait till things warm up a bit so I can stop shivering and install the light.

Need Propane

2011-03-24T12:13:00.002-04:00

We were down to 1/4 tank of propane and another week or so of cold weather. The ground is a bit soft in the area where I park the coach but I had to take the chance.
I was able to get in and out without any problems. We are getting our power from an extension cord plugged into a 20 amp outlet in the garage.
In order to save on propane, we are also running a small electric space heater.

We have all of our doctors appointments and such and must hang around till the middle of April. If it hasn't warmed up by then, I am pulling out and heading for points south, I can't take this cold weather.

It's Snowing

2011-03-21T15:43:00.003-04:00

Three days ago it was 68 degrees, today it's snowing. We use to sit in the house and look out at the coach, now we are sitting in the coach and looking at the home.
This is our view from the coach. We are now living in the coach in our yard.

OH NO!!!!!!!!

2011-03-16T10:03:00.003-04:00

It took me a day to get over the shock........I have been trying to get a hold of the buyer for our home to see if he wanted to move the closing date to next Monday the 21st.

The buyer had been pushing for an earlier date because he and his future wife are living with her mother and want to get out ASAP.

Anyways, after numerous attempts by me and my realtor to get in touch with them, I finally received an e-mail from him on Monday stating that he will call me and they were looking forward to meeting us.

Yesterday morning I received a call from our Realtor with the news that the buyers bank has refused financing. Don't know for sure what caused the bank to change their mind but because he lost financing, we have to refund the deposit.
So here we are with no furniture and an empty house.....but we still have each other and a very clean home.

Might as well enjoy a nice romantic warming fire.

Moving Day

2011-03-13T19:05:00.008-04:00

Today is moving day and we are so glad to see this coming to an end.
Casey came with Joyce and I to pick up the truck. Dogs love trucks!!!!

Everyone showed up and we had the truck packed in no time at all.

Once we got to the storage place I was shocked to see that the room we rented was a foot narrower then what we understood it would be. That one foot of space really made a difference. How are we going to get everything in there?

Well we decided to see what we could get in that small room.

Our two son-in-laws took their time and fitted every box and storage bin.

Joyce had to have her drift wood that we found in a dry river bed in Utah two years ago. We are running out of room!

Our son-in-law found a spot where it would fit upside down.

We were able to actually get 99% of our stuff packed in thanks to our two son-in-laws. Was like filling a time capsule.

Time to put the ramp away and call it a day.

Yahoo, we worked hard for this moment!

All that's left at home for us is this awesome entertainment system. Due to the echo in the room, if we turn the volume up on this 10" baby, it sounds like surround sound.

This is our living room set, note the nice coffee table.

Oh yes, and here's our bed before we remade it. Casey said it was ok for her.

Packing Things

2011-03-09T20:52:00.003-05:00

We have been working really hard at packing all the stuff in the house. The dining room set will be gone this weekend along with the spare bedroom set. We also sold our bedroom set on Craig's List within two days of posting it. That will also be gone by Sunday so we will have our mattress on the floor.
I have been stacking the boxes to try to get an idea of how we are going to get all our stuff in a 5' x 10' x 9' storage room. I'll be glad when this is over.

Last Walmart Before Home

2011-03-04T18:32:00.001-05:00

We are in a vacant Loew's parking lot that is connected with Walmart in PA.

We should be home by mid-day tomorrow.

Camp Walmart Bristol, Va.

2011-03-04T08:36:00.003-05:00

Had a long drive today and we past a sad scene. This is a Toyota that is fully ablaze. The driver was at the side of the road along with the fire dept. watching his car burn.

This was the view from my rear view mirror.

Heading Home Tomorrow

2011-03-02T17:24:00.004-05:00

We got into the repair bay this morning to have the floor replaced in the "wet bay". There have been problems with water leaking into the bay and rotting the floor.
Mine was beginning to rot in one of the corners by the rear wheel so I'm having it replaced. Tiffin is covering the repair even though it is out of warranty. Tiffin recognized that they had a problem with this floor so they are replacing them all at their expense.

This is my fresh water tank after they removed it so they could get to the floor.

These are the new design replacement floors. They are able to replace the floor within 5-6 hours. After the floor is replaced, the coach is taken to the manufacturing building and the area of repair is undercoated.

This is the area where the old floor was removed.

While the coach was being worked on, Joyce and I took the factory tour. The woodworking building is really impressive. All the wood comes in as rough cut from the sawmill. The boards are then planed and trimmed by a machine which then sends them to another machine that cuts them to the required length. All the decorative woodwork and molding is made here along with all the cabinets and wood trims.

This is only one of about four bays in the wood shop.

Tiffin is now turning out twelve coaches a day which is considered a good rate of production.

We were ready for an early morning departure from here but after filling my water tank, I checked the tank gauge readout and found the even though the tank was full, it was only reading one third full. They are going to have to check the wiring on the tank first thing in the morning. Must be a wire that's disconnected. Once that's corrected, we are out of here!

Still Waiting For Our Turn

2011-03-01T15:05:00.003-05:00

About a mile down the street from us is the Sunshine Mills where they manufacture dog food products. And that's all you can smell in the area. It's sort of a sweet grain kind of odor.
As we drove by today on our way to lunch, Casey was hanging out the window and loving the odor. It would be like me driving past a chocolate company.
We also did a little shopping in the Silver Dollar Salvage Grocery store. They have some terrific deals like $.75 for a squeeze container of Miracle Whip, and $.25 for a bottle of Ranch dressing.

I just found out that we are scheduled in for our service at 7:00 am tomorrow. That means that we should be out of here Thursday morning.

We're At Tiffin In Red Bay Al.

2011-02-27T20:51:00.004-05:00

On our last day in Texas we decided to treat Casey and her friend Bruno buy taking them to a different beach for the afternoon. Wow, did they have a great time playing Frisbee and running in and out of the waves. We headed out the next morning for Red Bay, Al.

A day and a half later, we pulled into Red Bay, Alabama.

And headed to the Tiffin campground.

This is the Tiffin campground / service area where you can have factory service done on your coach.

We don't have an appointment for service but hopefully we won't be here long because there aren't that many coach here for service.

Heading To Red Bay, Al.

2011-02-25T20:06:00.002-05:00

Tomorrow morning we are heading out towards home. We will first stop at Red Bay, Alabama at the Tiffin repair center. I have to have recall service done on our Norcold refer. If there's time, I also need to have a couple of other items checked out for possible repair.

I dread leaving here because the weather has been so nice and I know that we will be heading to the cold again......bummer!

Still Working

2011-02-23T10:50:00.004-05:00

We are still at the same campground in Texas. Behind us is what they call a Lake, I would call it a pond. I turn the fountain spray on every morning and off every night.
This is the main office / club house. This park is only two years old but the buildings were built with that rustic look.

This is the heated hot tub. I would have to say that you could probably sit twenty people.

In the pool hot tub area, there is an outdoor fireplace and seating area.

The pool is next to the hot tub but it is not heated. It gets really hot here in the summer so there's no reason to heat the pool.

You can sit on the deck of the club house and watch TV. There is also an exercise room, laundry room, and two restrooms with showers.

Yesterday I was putting in sensor light switches in the rest rooms. Seems that most people that use these rooms fail to shut off the lights when they finish.

We have really enjoyed the workcamping thing and would like to do more of it when we get done closing on the home.

We will be leaving here on Sunday and taking about five days to get home. Then we will do the dreaded packing thing to empty the house. I will be so glad when we close. The lawyers are still nip picking back and forth and I'm tired of it. I think they do that stuff only to try to justify their worth.

We Went To The Beach

2011-02-18T20:38:00.008-05:00

We worked our hours for the week so we decided to take the dogs to the beach. This was Casey's first trip to the ocean and she loved it.

Her and her buddy Bruno had so much fun.

A tug of war on the beach.

There we some really nice homes along the shore but most were needing repair.

Even had some unusual homes.
One home had their own permanent Pelicans

These guys were balanced on a cable.

A little bit of history on the way back to camp.

The battlefield

On our way back to camp Joyce told be to go this way, can you see the street sign?

Then we had to pass this refinery, didn't much care for that.

Raptor!

I sometimes wonder if they really need all those pipes!

Workcamping In Texas

2011-02-17T10:23:00.002-05:00

We are in Sweeny, Texas at Stonebridge RV Resort . We came here to see our friends Don & Lucy and ended up doing some work for a free site.
Not a bad deal except I smell like Ben Gay from Joyce rubbing all those sore muscles that I haven't used in years.

Don and I had to check the cable TV hookups at each of the 50 sites because a good number of them were not working. After three days of checking each panel and correcting the bad hookups, we had all the sites working.

We are on a rest day today to gather our energy.

The campground is really beautiful with a large hot tub, swimming pool, outdoor fireplace, stocked fishing pond, concrete pads, and clubhouse.

Steve & Peggy the owners are very friendly, and accommodating people. They are also looking for summer help so if your in the area stop in, you won't be disappointed.

On The Road Again

2011-02-12T21:11:00.003-05:00

I woke up this morning to this parked next to us. There was going to be a show of old military vehicles at the flea market down the street. This Jeep was in perfect condition. Well, time to leave.

We passed by the Suwannee River. How I love ya!
How I love ya!

Then we passed through Alabama

And we passed through Mississippi.

And now we are in a Walmart parking lot in Louisiana. Today we drove for ten hours, tomorrow we will have about another seven hours of driving.

Yahoo, We Did It

2011-02-11T20:58:00.004-05:00

For the last four weeks we have been negotiating back and forth on the sale of our stick and brick home back in the Massachusetts tundra. Well as you can see below, Joyce is signing a Purchase and Sales agreement. We will be closing the 28th of March so our trip will be cut short but that's why we have been hanging around in Florida. Didn't want to travel too far, only to have to turn and head home. Tomorrow we are leaving here and heading to Texas for a few weeks. We hope to meet up with our friends Don and Lucy who are doing some camp hosting.

Tonight we said goodbye to our friends John & Beth, it was so great seeing them again and we will miss them. They taught us a lot about the Villages while we were here.

A Rainy Day

2011-02-07T16:30:00.004-05:00

Today started off sunny but knowing that a storm was coming we got out in the morning. Then it hit us. So I did some laundry while........

Joyce made chocolate chip cookies from scratch!
I love warm cookies!

Joyce also did up some pickles with a special recipe pickle juice.

And then some of us just relaxed and enjoyed the down time.

A Watermelon Day

2011-02-05T11:22:00.003-05:00

Today was a hot day and perfect for watermelon. Casey and I have enjoyed watermelon together since we got her. So we must follow that tradition on the hot days.