Finishing Up in Gettysburg Area...

Hard to believe that we are coming down the home stretch on the three parks in the Gettysburg area. The jobs have gone better than anticipated and we're looking forward to returning next year to grow the jobs and get even more advertisers into the guides. We've made good use of our weekend time to visit family and friends and did get to revisit the battlefield area in Gettysburg since it's been a long time since I've been there (if you grow up in Pennsylvania, it's one of the field trips you take in elementary school).

Last weekend Linda's oldest son and his family came down and stayed with her while I went north to get a final visit in with my mom. There was an all you can eat pancake breakfast, here at the park, that they all went to and had an awesome breakfast. Each Sunday, all of the farm animals are available for the petting zoo so the kids had a good time with that. Bella, Linda's grand daughter had a birthday recently so they made some cupcakes and celebrated Grammy and Bella's birthday together.

 

 

 

Kids, cows, goats, horses, pigs, peacock, turkeys, ducks, donkeys and a whole barnyard full of fun is here at the park ! I love the pygmy goats and the other day, when we came home from work, two of them had escaped from their pen. They were climbing up in the bushes to get clusters of berries to eat. A couple sat outside their rig watching the goats and a bunch of turkeys that were strutting around.

They were stretching, trying to get to the berry clusters in the top of the bush so I helped them out by picking some for them. If I didn't pick them fast enough, they'd jump up on my legs to see if I had any more. They are cute little rascals !

As I mentioned, we also got to check out the Gettysburg battlefield. I didn't realize that they had built a gorgeous new visitor center, in 2008, and it holds a large theatre that shows a movie of how the Civil War started (I needed a refresher course cause my memory isn't too great and I never was very good in history class). There is also the Cyclo-rama where they have moved the huge mural, painted shortly after the war, and put it up in this round facility. The mural was four stories tall and longer than a football field. It has been restored back to its original splendor and it's a great way to visualize what the battle might have been like. After touring the visitor center, museum and Cyclo-Rama we took the auto tour through the battlefields. They have created a trail, that you follow with your car, on a 24 mile loop through areas such as Little Round Top, Culp's Hill, Peach Orchard, etc. After hearing and seeing how the war was fought, back at the visitor center, it helps you to imagine what it looked like as different battles were fought and how the lines advanced and retreated. It was a war with massive loss of life and thousands of wounded soldiers but one that was the turning point for the war. The town has done a great job of preserving the battlefields...something that was done shortly after the war concluded. The towns people felt that history needed to be preserved and they set about to keep things intact.

Linda, her sister, Carol and I hiked to the top of the overlook....all 120 steps ! We had a good time....there is a lot to see and to do it thoroughly would take more than one day.

 

 

Linda and I also met up with Chad for lunch one day. She and Chad have been planning something behind my back and sprung it on me  over lunch. Linda has heard me say that I've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. Instead of my mom letting me take guitar lessons, at age 7, she made me take piano lessons. So she decided to get me a guitar. What a great early birthday present ! I play a little bit every day, working in the book that she got me and also with some info I found on the internet. I hope I can prove that it's never too late to learn.

This is our last weekend in the area so Linda is with her family, up in her hometown of Chambersburg. I am working on some final sales and paperwork (and practice time with my guitar). On Tuesday we will take the rig to a place in Gettysburg to get a rear sway bar put on. This should help stabilize the rig and not have the huge sway in the back end, like we currently have. Our drive up to Boston will be the test to see if it helps. Our next assignment is in Mineral, VA in mid-October. Fall has come to Pennsylvania....trees are getting pretty and the nights (and days) are getting cool. One of my favorite times of year !

We Went to the Hershey RV Show and all I got was a Big Skinny....

Say what ? Yeah, we went to the Hershey RV Show....biggest in the country. Wanted to look at the Newmar Canyon Star toyhauler to size it up to what we have now to see if a contender down the road when my knees don't like crawling up into the loft. Although there are several mechanical aspects that we like such as heat pump option, option for 3rd AC in garage, etc., it has been crossed off the list for several key points that are important to us. With the bolted down step in the garage, it would be really tricky to get a trike in there. The ramp seems a bit on the short side, which makes for a steep entry into the garage. A lady we know had to have some custom ramps made to get her bike into the garage. The living space would not be suitable for our work needs. No space at all to put a printer, unless we put it on the dinette or in the bedroom. Bathroom is really tight and the living space is not laid out nice like our Damon Outlaw so you can easily see the TV. Nope...not on the list any longer. Been there, seen that and it won't work.

While we were walking around inside the arena area, where all the vendors are set up, Linda stopped to talk to a young lady that had wallets for sale. For anyone that knows me, I'm not a purse sort of gal and haven't been for a very long time. I fail to see a reason to carry something so big when I can fit everything I need into my pockets or wallet. It's an easy system..chapstick and keys go in my pockets and credit cards and money go in my wallet. So we listen to this woman talk about her Big Skinny and how great it is and I'm thinking "how different can a wallet be". You be the judge:   My old one is on the left....new one on the right

 

I was surprised that the 4 section one, like I bought, could fit in my pocket but it does quite easily. It can hold up to 40 credit cards that stay put and won't fall out of their sections. More than once, I've flipped my wallet open and the crap I have in the money section goes flying all over the floor. Aarggh !! So I bought a Big Skinny for $25. The lady showed us a picture of a trucker she sold one to, with before and after pictures of his wallet. His old wallet looked like he carried a huge kaiser roll in his back pocket....so much stuff in his wallet that it was giving him back pain (I would think he'd have an indentation in his butt the size of a softball carrying something like that around). I got home and moved my stuff over to it:

It's still thinner than the leather one even with the old one empty ! I bought the tyvek/nylon one although they do come in leather (It's not every day you can say you saved a cows life...today was my day). Here it is, open and exposed for the whole world to see:

So that was our exciting day at the RV Show. I resisted all the food booths with pierogies, crab cakes and funnel cakes but I succumbed to the Big Skinny lady. Hope you had a productive day...

Now you see it....Now you don't

When Linda and I left Nebraska, we were pushing hard to get to my mom's so we'd have a couple of days to spend with her. The weather was great and it was the last of Augusts' Blue Moon (two full moons that occur in the same month). We made really good time and as you may recall, we drove the longest on our first day...driving almost 12 hours. We had decided to take 80 the whole way across, regardless of the toll road so that we could make good time and not create a weird route going out around the toll roads. We were at the last toll plaza, coming out of Ohio and the outside lane wasn't open...which is usually used for tractor trailers and wide loads.

They had signs in the lanes that said to get close to the ticket machine so that you'd be able to reach and get your ticket. I was navigating to get "close" when I hear a really loud WHAM, which scared us both to death and I looked at Linda and asked her what that was. She said "you just knocked the mirror off on my side of the rig". Oh crap...Linda decides that she should go out and retrieve the mirror. The gate is up and I don't know if it will come down and we'll get stuck there plus I was worried about her out in the lane trying to mess around with the mirror. She was worried we'd drive over it and do more damage. She yells in that it's hanging by a wire and she can't get it. I tell her to get back in the rig and we'll pull off the road, away from the plaza and deal with it. We drive out of the toll plaza but the tractor trailers are whizzing by us and I can't get off the road (nor should I because it's not a real safe place to be). As we start to pick up speed, the mirror starts thumping on the side of the rig, which makes me really sick to hear. I pull off as soon as I find a quasi-safe place to do it and we go out to check out the damage. From the sound it made, when I hit the post, I expected to see a hole the size of a basketball in the side of the rig. Nope, a couple scratches and the mirror just hanging by the electrical wiring that heats the mirrors. When the mirror made contact with  the post, it pushed the mirror off the side of the rig and all four screws were there although a couple of them were bent a little. As we would find out later, there is a clip down inside the mirror that hooks the wiring together and I could have reached down inside there and unhooked it but not knowing that and hearing the traffic whizzing by us, I grabbed a pair of wire cutters and snipped the wire. I got some duct tape and fastened the wire to the side of the rig so it wouldn't slide down inside of the hole. We put the mirror in the rig for safe keeping. Thank goodness we have the rear camera on the rig because it would have been really tricky to drive (and pass other vehicles) without it.

While we were up at my brothers, he was kind enough to help me reinstall the mirror. We were fighting drizzly weather for most of the day but had to get it done so we'd be ready to leave. Jim reconnected the wires and used the new screws I had bought to reattach it. It's back up almost as good as new. We have a crack in the back of the mirror but it's fully functional and I'm so glad it's back on to assist with passing and seeing traffic on my right side. Thanks Jim for your help !

That was the weekend for mirror repairs. About two months prior to that, our rear mirror in the Xterra just fell off one day. We were driving down the road and it just fell on the floor. While I was in town, buying the screws for the rig mirror, I bought a kit to put the car mirror back up. We're now looking forward to looking backwards ! Ain't it fun the things that wind up on our "to do" lists ? Just because we don't have a sticks and bricks house anymore, doesn't mean that we don't have maintenance things to do. It's always something !

 

Gettysburg, PA

We arrived in Gettysburg last Wednesday and spent a week at Round Top Campground and then this past Thursday, we moved to Drummer Boy Camping Resort. Last Saturday was Linda's birthday (and also my daughters). Linda's family came to Round Top to spend time with us and help celebrate her birthday. Her daughter, Stephanie, drove up from Virginia...brothers and sisters and family came from NJ, VA and PA.

Left to Right/ Back :Roy and Bob Front: Kay, Linda and Carol

The big pop up tent that Linda's sister and brother-in-law brought and set up came in handy because there were rain showers off and on all day. At one point, the storms were pretty nasty and everyone had to pile into the rig (about a dozen of us) so that made for a very cozy arrangement while we waited out the storm. It was a fun weekend and Linda had a great time with her family.

One of the highlights of the day, for Linda, had to be when "Elvis" sang Happy Birthday to her. He was performing at the campground and he  put one of his scarves around her neck and gave her a peck on the cheek.

This weekend we drove to Chambersburg and Linda is hanging out with her two sisters and their families. They have all gone up to their cabin and I am in town, catching up on the blog and sneaking in a nap. Tomorrow Linda and I are going to the Hershey RV show, which boasts to be the largest in the country. It's been quite a few years since Linda and I have been to it so looking forward to going there.

As I mentioned earlier, we are now staying at Drummer Boy Camping Resort and the park is huge ! Over 400 sites and we are at the far end of the property, which is about a 1/2 mile from the front entrance. The battle of Gettysburg will be having its 150th anniversary next year and the town is expecting about 4 million visitors from July 1 - 4. A lot of events are planned and one business owner told me that a hotel near her business has a 7 night minimum for a reservation at $500/night. Wow ! We are hoping to try and get some sightseeing in before we leave but it will have to be either in the evening time or the last week we are in Dover, PA cause next weekend I am going back up to Mansfield to spend time again with my mom and Linda's oldest son, Chad and his family are coming to spend the weekend with her at the campground. We will move to Dover on Thursday and stay at Gettysburg Farm Resort, which is a campground with an actual farm and petting zoo. Linda's grandkids will enjoy petting the animals and spending time with Grammy.

Our jobs at AGS/TxAd

I've had several comments on our blog, asking what Linda and I do in our jobs. I tried to respond to the comments but it doesn't work. So thought I'd post a little about our jobs here.

We work for AGS Publishing, which is a division of Texas Advertising. We've been with the company since February of 2011. AGS/TXAd hires fulltime RVers and we work with campgrounds all over the US and Canada to create their guest guides. Those are the "maps" that the park gives you when you check in at the office....telling you what site you are in at the park. You'll see there is a section for rules, list of TV channels, etc. Linda and I create those, by working with campground owners and managers. One of us sells the ads (that's me) and the other Linda does the bookwork on the computer and does the mock-up. The mock-up involves figuring out how to fit the various size ads, that I sell, into a useful and attractive guide for the park. We work on commission and receive a complimentary campsite in exchange for doing the guest guide for the campground. The advertisers enable the park to get their guides for free.

Linda and I have been on the road full-time since the fall of 2007. We've had workamping jobs in campgrounds, have worked at Amazon in Coffeyville and have done other jobs. We got tired of always having to "find" our next job when we were workamping. This job is awesome and allows us to see the country, pay our bills, set our own schedule and be our own boss. Since we're too young to retire, we need to work to pay our bills and save for retirement. This job allows us to do that and the great thing is that the scenery changes every two weeks. We got bored sitting at a campground, while doing a workamping job, for an entire season or even a month or two. With this job, we change to a new park usually every 2-3 weeks, which is one of the best things about our work. It's not a job for everyone. It's hard work....but we love what we do and meet awesome business owners around the country. We were Rookies of the Year for 2011 and made the $100,000 Club last year, which means we had $100,000 in sales (and that was for about 8 months of work). I'd be happy to answer anyone's questions about this type of work. Feel free to e-mail me privately at lindaxtwo@gmail.com  Life's too short to not enjoy what you do. We're now trainers for AGS and look forward to working with new teams to give them a great jump on an exciting career with our company. We work for an awesome company....a caring husband and wife are the owners of our company and they make us feel like we are a part of a large family. Hope this explains a little about what we do....feel free to e-mail me with any other questions you might have. Here's the company website http://www.agsinternet.com/

Family Time

 

We left Nebraska and made the 1100+ miles in two days to get to my brother's house where we've had our rig since Friday. We left this morning for our next assignment in Gettysburg. I got to spend time with my mom and siblings. Here is a picture with my mom at one of her favorite restaurants...Curly's Chicken House in Elmira, NY. As a family, we've been going to this restaurant since I was a little kid. They have a special way they cook their chicken and have been doing it the same way for the last 57 years. I especially love their cole slaw....never have I tasted cole slaw like what they make. Still tastes like it did when I was a kid.

 

My brother, Jim and his wife Edie are kicking off their craft show schedule, where they take their honey and maple products along with my mom's candy and jellies and jams. Last night Jim and Edie were making maple candy, in maple leaf forms and getting ready for this coming weekend when they will be headed to a show near Philadelphia. Here are some pics of my mom's candy that she has ready to send this weekend.

 

 

Peppermint bark and other types of bark.

Rocky Road clusters on left/Peanut Brittle on right

On our last day at Jim's house, he went out to tend to his bee hives and do some work on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See how he is working with the racks bare handed ? Yes, he did get stung. One of the bees got on his hand and stung him. The wisdom he shared with us was if honeybees get in your hair, they can't get out and it's best to just squash them and kill them in your hair. He gave us quite an education on how the pesticides that companies such as Monsanto and others are using on their crops, it is having devastating effects on bee populations. There are synthetic pesticides that are not killing bees immediately upon contact but having lingering effects. He said that after much denial, among government officials and big companies such as Monsanto, that they are now fessing up and admitting to their use. Genetically modified seeds are also a product with huge repercussions for humans and animals. I'm proud that my baby brother is up on these issues and concerned enough to educate himself on them. As a person who loves nature and works with nature to produce wonderful food products that are natural and good for us, he takes the time to understand what is affecting the nature that he loves. We really enjoyed our time there but like all good things, it came to an end too soon.

While I was with my family, Linda took the trike and went to her son, Chad's house in Williamsport to surprise the grandkids. She spent two days there with them over the weekend and had a great time. They are coming to camp with us in a couple of weeks, which they will really enjoy.