Hiking Over the Holidays

Yesterday we went to Lake Livingston State park, with Boomer, to go hiking. We figured we better get out and enjoy the outdoors before the rain got here. We took the one mile interpretive trail that is wheel chair and stroller accessible. It’s like a boardwalk through the woods. A little tough to sneak up on animals .since our boots on the wood planks, clunk as you walk. The temps have been really cool (in the 40’s)so we bundled up for the walk. Seems there have been some serious wind storms lately as there were lots of trees down. Not the small Loblolly pines but large trees were uprooted.
There’s a riding stable in the park with a path through the woods for the trail rides. There are several places where there are descriptive boards that tell about the area wildlife that one might see as they hike along. It was very tranquil to hike through the solitude and listen to the birds.
The next three days we’re supposed to have rain…Grrrr…day started out around 45 degrees…it’s now 43. Not my idea of vacation weather for our time off. We will certainly make some changes in our schedule so we’ll spend December in Florida next year. There is a chance for snow up in Dallas, where we need to return to finish up this assignment. Need to start thinking about where we might want to go if not given another assignment once we finish up in Arlington. Someplace warm !
A while back Linda bought some wax for our spa machine. Today we fired it up and both treated ourselves to wax treatments on our hands and feet. Those full hand potholders sure work nice for keeping your hands warm after dipping in the wax and putting bags on your hands. After Linda’s dip in the wax, I then painted her toes and nails with pretty polish. Trying to make the best of a blah day. Wishing all of our friends and family a happy and healthy holiday season. Hope your day is bright and cheery wherever you are.

Dallas

We’re finishing up our first week, working the Dallas/Arlington KOA project. It’s been colder than I imagined it would be for Texas but I’m told that this is typical weather. Been in the 40’s during the day and 20’s at night. Tomorrow it’s expected to get up to low 50’s and the same for the weekend. I’ll take it !! Tired of freezing to death. I feel like I’m back home in Pennsylvania…Ughhhh !
Since this is a new job for our company, it comes with all of the legwork and research that goes into a new job. We’ve covered about 70 businesses so far…got another full week of selling ahead but looking forward to tomorrow cause our friends Wendy and Cindy are arriving to hang out with us for a week. Yippee !! We’re excited to see them. Didn’t expect our paths to cross since we originally were supposed to go to Florida to work. They are leaving the Escapees park in Livingston tomorrow and driving here and staying till the 15th. Will be great to explore the area with the girls and warmer temps to boot to do it in. Yeah !
Boomer is having a ball here at the park. We are parked directly in front of the dog park and so far he’s met Molly and Amy. Whenever he sees these two ladies come to the park, he goes crazy and Linda takes him over for their play date. He comes back a happy boy. He goes out with us during the day and squeezes in play time at lunch and supper time. Boomer’s got it rough !
Hoping to do some sight seeing this weekend and check out the area. Who knows what mischief we’ll get into. Just hope this head cold/sinus thing that Linda passed on to me goes away cause I don’t have time to feel crappy. It’s no fun trying to keep your nose from running, your face from hurting and your head from feeling like it’s going to explode. It seems that I get this 24-48 hour dose of ?? whenever we gets several days in a row of rain. Kick up the leaf mold ? Throw pollen around ? Don’t know what it is but it can just hit the road and get out of my head. Gotta run….need a tissue.

Memories...

Today Linda and I watched a really interesting show on the PBS channel. It was about animals and the way they help humans. One segment of the show was how dolphins are used for training with physically and mentally impaired children. Dolphins have an inherent sense of how to interact with children, depending on the severity of their disability. They know when to be gentle, as in the case of a little boy who had some severe physical disabilities. One family, who had a little boy with a rare neurological disorder, lives in England but they make the trip to the Florida Keys every year for two weeks of dolphin therapy for their son. The father tapes the sessions so that his son can watch the tapes when they return home. The boy is mesmerized by the dolphins and has a unique connection with them that has brought him out of his world of silence and he has learned to speak. It was pretty amazing.

Another segment of the show talked about chimpanzees who live at Lion Safari in Florida. These chimpanzees were instrumental in research projects in the 60's that led to vaccinations for hepatitis and polio. Many chimps were used early on in the space program, before it was deemed safe for men to travel into space. They were shot into space and then studied once they returned to earth to learn the physiological affects on a body so similar to that of humans. A woman who was one of the researchers, and worked with these chimps, went to Lion Safari to see her old buddies. She had not seen them in 18 years. Once the research had been completed on these particular chimps, they had been moved to this facility in Florida to live out the rest of their lives. It was very touching to see how all of these chimps remembered her and greeted her return with big smiles and hugs. It was very apparent, that even after such a long time, they still remembered her. One of the oldest chimps that she visited was in the hospital when she visited. She said that he had been very instrumental in the research on hepatitis and humanity owed a lot of thanks to him for giving his life for medical science. He died two days after she visited with him.

This woman's dream was to create a place for the hundreds of other research chimps that are throughout the country and have no place to go....now that they are no longer used in the labs. She has been given 200 hundred acres in Shreveport, Louisiana to create an environment where these chimpanzees can live out the rest of their lives in their normal habitat instead of in a cage. What a wonderful thing that will be for these chimps that have given so much to mankind. Seems like the least we can do for them, don't you think ?

Catchin' Up.....

It's only been 20 days since we left Rahway, NJ and our previous assignment but the days have sure flown by. We've been busy squeezing in things that we've wanted to see and do, visit with our friends in the area and get some things done on the rig before returning to work.

On Monday we went to Fort Myers to go to a women's resort there that I had visited many years ago, when it was just being developed. My...how it has changed since I last saw it ! When I last visited, there were a couple of houses there.....a clubhouse and lots of streets. Now 13 years after it was started, it is almost full. There are just a handful of lots that are still empty. The neat thing is that out of 278 total lots, about 70 them are RV lots. Some lots have RV ports on them or are just the concrete drive and pad. If someone buys an RV lot, they can choose at some point to have a small house built on it. The facilities are gorgeous and we had a great time looking around. It looks like a great place to retire to :)

Our friend, Jan has had a really bad cold for the last week and a half so we have been helping her with errands and took her to the doctor on Tuesday. She is now on an antibiotic so we're hoping that she will be on the mend very shortly.

Yesterday we hung out here, around the campground, and waited for the RV tech to arrive. He came mid afternoon. The good news is that he resolved two of our issues in pretty short order....The bad news is the other two issues are things he couldn't tackle here so we need to take the rig elsewhere to get them fixed. When he was diagnosing the grey valve, he discovered that there are still problems with the black tank. If you recall we spent a fortune, in July, having a new tank put in by Settle's RV in Virginia. Total botch job from the beginning.....don't know why this dealership even has a service dept. They had to call in a plumber to help them with the piping to the tank and based on what the RV tech found, there is a leak around the top of the tank....probably in the area that had difficulty. Gives us a warm fuzzy feeling to revisit this same issue AGAIN ! This time it needs to be resolved cause when you're a full-timer, your RV is your house and there can't be major problems with it while traveling. We went to an RV repair shop today that a friend of ours recommended. She takes her rig there and wouldn't trust it to anyone else. They seemed very knowledgeable and accommodating. We can stay on-site while the repair is being done. We'll take it in next Wednesday to "Git R Done"....

Today we got together with our Amazon buddies, Carolyn and Roy. They are staying nearby, in Crystal River, and it was great to sit and chat about work at Amazon, family and future plans. We want to get together again with them before we leave the area. I hope we'll make it our "January tradition"....go south for some W & R (warmth and relaxation), see our RV'ing friends and rejevenate before returning to work. Sounds like a wonderful prescription to me and just what the doctor ordered !

Visiting....

The last day or so has been pretty low key. Thursday I washed the rig, from the top down, which took until lunchtime. Seems good to get the grime off the rig and get it shiny again. In the afternoon we went to visit our friend Jan, who's recuperating from a bad cold. She has a bad cough and congestion. In the evening we went to Sonny's BBQ for dinner. I had the "Gone Fishin" platter which was fried shrimp and catfish. It was good. Linda had a pulled pork sandwich. After dinner we drove down to The Oaks RV resort, the campground where we stayed last winter when we came down here. We went to visit our neighbors there, who were on either side of us. Kiddy was surprised to see us and showed off her new dog to us. What a sweetie he is ! His name is Pepe', after Pepe' Le Pew the skunk in the Warner Bros. cartoon. A fitting name since he's black all over except for his chin, forehead and belly. He's a Pekingese and what a great companion for her...he is adorable. He laid on his back on Linda's lap, just like a baby. Kiddy said that she bundles him up in a blanket after her evening shower, holds him on his back like a baby...pats his butt and he falls fast asleep and snores. That must be a real sight to behold !

We also got to see our other neighbor, Jim. Seems Jim has had a rough year since we last saw him. Last year when we were down here, his wife had told him that she wanted a divorce....that was sad. Since then he has lost several people close to him and he has had back surgery. Poor guy has gone through a lot but looked great and was in wonderful spirits. It was wonderful to see both of them and the old neighborhood.

Today we enjoyed the sunshine and warmth of the day...just hung around for a while and then we went to the movies to see Avatar. We've heard great things about the movie and wanted to see it. We drove to Inverness to the theater but the version they were running wasn't in 3-D. We didn't want to see it in regular form...didn't think it would be as good. Instead we went to see "It's Complicated". It was hilarious ! If you want to laugh (a full belly laugh and not just a chuckle), go see it. A wonderful cast and a great story. Our neighbor, Carol, went with us. It was great to chat with her and learn more about her. She started full-timing the same time year that we did, having retired as a postmaster of 34 years. We had alot of fun hanging out and laughing like idiots at the theater.

Weather has been great....temps are in the mid 70's. Lots of sunshine. We're walking here in the park several times a day. Forecast calls for some rain on Monday. I will still take rain but warmth over COLD TEMPS. My mom said it was 5 degrees, this morning when she got up in Pennsylvania. Eekkk!! No thanks...

Full Day....

Today Linda and I drove to Clearwater to go to the Clearwater Marine Aquarium
. This is a Rescue, Rehab and Release aquarium for dolphins, turtles, otters and other marine animals. I had found this facility many years ago when I researched animal rescue facilities throughout the US and marked the locations of the facilities on a US atlas. Linda saw my notation and decided it was a good place to go for a day trip, while in Florida...she was right. One of the residents at CMA is "Winter", a bottlenose dolphin who came to the facility when she was very young and was found entangled in a crab trap. Hear about Winter's story here. What an amazing animal and a true inspiration to everyone. Linda and I took the behind the scenes tour of the facility so we got to see where they prep the food for the animals, where they do surgery on them, the new holding tank area that is under construction and we went inside the vehicle used for strandings to see what they do when they go to rescue a turtle or dolphin. It was very interesting to hear and see what goes on behind the scenes.

This turtle was put in the tank with the first dolphin brought to CMA
for art therapy. "Sunset Sam" did a great job painting this guy !


Today's menu for the residents...sounds yummy !


This little guy is blind so he has to be hand fed....he also likes the body rubs.


Time to play and exercise..


Saying hello....


View from the aquariums' parking lot....

As if that wasn't great enough, we also went to the bird sanctuary a little ways from the aquarium....more on that tomorrow.

Tampa RV Show....

Yesterday Linda and I went to the Tampa RV show, which is supposed to be the country's largest display of RV's. We wanted to see the vendors, as there are a couple of products that I use that I was hoping to find. One item I was hoping to find is Envy, a waterless wax for the rig. I had never heard of this item but when we were at the Escapees park in Livingston, Texas a couple years ago Linda won a whole bunch of these items at a get together they had. There is a metal polish, wet look for tires, etc. I love the wax....quick and easy for touching up the rig, without hauling out a bucket and brush. Didn't find it at the show...

The other item is 303. I use this on all the rubber gaskets around the lights on the RV, on the door handles, plastic recept. covers, tires, dashboards, RV decals, etc. I think it does a great job of protecting these items from yellowing, fading, etc. Helps this three year old rig keep her youthful look ! Didn't see this anywhere either...Was hoping to save the shipping/handling by buying it there but no cigar....time to do some on-line shopping.

We looked at Class A motorhomes at the show. Not the multi-million rigs that required "no shoes" and a hands off approach to going through their rigs. There were many of them....we walked by several that displayed a 2 million dollar+ price tag but they are are so glitzy that they appear to be more of a showplace than a "home", which is what ours would need to be. We looked at all the major manufacturers and initially I liked the looks of a Four Winds Magellan motorhome Seems to be the big thing is 1.5 baths to 2 baths now. This one had a 1/2 bath behind the kitchen and then a full bath in the rear of the coach. I liked the modern styling of the cabinets with contemporary door handles but on my second trip through the coach noticed things that seemed a little on the chintzy side. The friese style carpeting is too much like "shag" carpeting. I installed this type of carpeting in my house when I had it on the market and it was all the rage but don't want it in our traveling house. I did like the other flooring though...was a totally different look from anything else I've seen in other motorhomes.

After looking at everything there and pondering on it, we both came to the conclusion that we like our 5th wheel and there wasn't anything else out there that would serve us any better than what we currently have. We've gotten all the major things fixed or "tweaked" and as long as we can get in or out of a work location, we're OK. We want to wait to see how long we keep doing this type of work before we decide on anything different. It's fun (and exhausting) to look but in the end we are both very practical about our needs.

Tomorrow we'll relax around here...do some laundry....Watch some football. Still waiting to hear from the RV doctor for our appt. Will call Monday if they don't call first. Was 70 degrees today...supposed to be warmer tomorrow but with thunderstorms. I think tomorrow might be a good day to check out the indoor heated pool.... :)

Warming Up.....

We arrived at the campground around 2:45 yesterday (Tuesday). They assigned a site to us but after looking/attempting to back in we decided on another site just down a few that we could easily pull in to. Got set up and had a relaxing evening. The setting sun was warm on our open door and Boomer was having a ball watching out the screen door until it came time to close it. It did get cold overnight....woke up to a light frost on the ground.

Today we headed out to the flea market....for some reason we thought it was on Wednesdays and couldn't figure out why there wasn't the usual stream of traffic going to/from the site until we got there and realized that it clearly must not be on Wednesdays. It's on Mondays and as luck would have it we don't have any plans on Monday.

From there we headed out to see our friend Jan, in Inverness. Was so great to see her ! We took her to an appointment, to Wal-Mart for some groceries and then had a great lunch. It was a wonderful day with our friend. On our way back to the campground we stopped at Par-Gas and got our propane tank filled. $17 to fill our tank....compare that to the $33 we've been paying the last four months in New Jersey. The guy told me the price had been $15 up until last week and then they needed to raise the price. Thank goodness we got reimbursed for the fill-ups the last four months by our employer. We didn't realize how exorbitant the price was, even though it was really convenient being that it was only a couple blocks away.

Temps have been slowly warming up each day. Today it got to 60 degrees. Tomorrow it's forecasted to be upper 60's....70's on Friday. Possible thunderstorms this weekend. Tomorrow we are going to the Tampa RV show....we're excited to check that out.

Oh yeah, we called the RV doctor this morning to schedule the work on the rig. Seems the cold snap has bombarded them with furnace problems so they are really backed up right now. Won't be able to get to us for a week to week and a half. Hmmmm...good thing we're not in any hurry.

Walterboro,SC

We covered about 400 miles today...from Virgina Beach, VA to Walterboro, SC. We're staying at a campground that is right off I-95. We're plugged in, tanks dumped, furnace running. Ahhh...the simple pleasures. The sites here at Green Acres RV park are big pull throughs and the price was right at $28. We are even watching HGTV right now....a treat after only having limited antennae channels for the last four months. We'll get on the road in the morning so we can get to the Escapees park in Bushnell before dark. Temps have steadily gotten warmer the further south we've driven. Not warm by any stretch but warmer than NJ. Can't wait till the end of the week when the temps in Florida will be back to normal.

Making Plans...

Today was the last day I needed to help out at the N. Bergen location. About 80% of the population at this location ONLY speaks Spanish. When the manager went out to pick up her lunch order, my patience were put to the test with the next couple of customers we had. The first woman called to find out the last day she needed to be out of her unit without owing any more money. It sounded like she had an Indian accent as her "B's" sounded like "V's" and I had to have her spell her name at least five times before I could find it in the computer. Oh My ! Then, a woman came in who spoke barely any English and tried to explain to me that she wanted a storage unit (often called a box by the locals). As is our policy everyone must see a unit before they can rent one so the next thing I had to do was find the keys so I could lock up and take her to the unit I identified on the computer. It was pouring rain outside and normally we would take the golf cart but the batteries were dead (the manager hadn't plugged it in last time they put it away) and even if it was working, we would have gotten soaked riding in it. We jumped in my car and started towards the gate, going to the three outer buildings. About this time, the manager returned from picking up lunch and I told her I was going to show a unit but to be around when we got back as the prospective tenant spoke very little English and I'd need her to go over info with her. That was a frustrating process....with the manager's help we found this woman a unit to her liking. I can't imagine working at that location without knowing Spanish. You feel at a distinct disadvantage when there is a huge language barrier such as I had today. I don't like it. Guess that's why I'm not a world traveler....makes me too uncomfortable to try and communicate in a foreign land.

Linda is working on our travel plans, charting our course to Florida. I'm waiting for the RV repair service to call me back so we'll know if they'll take care of our issues or if we'll need to have someone else do the repairs. I'm excited to go to the Tampa RV show. I was there two years ago and it was awesome. 1100 rigs, of every size and classification, on display and hundreds of vendors. We're going to make a list of the things we want to check out so we're sure to not miss anything. We're still thinking that we'll be pulling out of here on Sunday, January 10. We will drive to Virginia Beach and spend our first night there so Linda can visit with three of her kids there and then we'll hit the road in the morning...heading to Florida. We can't wait !!!