I promised....

When Linda and I attended the Hershey Ice Cream show about a month ago she took this picture and said it was only fair that I have my picture on here with some "animal", like she is with the jackelope (to the right). She's right...fair is fair....so I'm posting my picture here with the Hershey bear and the Moose tracks moose. (I kinda felt like a fuzzy oreo cookie getting sandwiched between these two critters.)

More marina and waterway pics

Urbanna Marina Pics

The marina at sunset....very pretty !

Survivor...

Outwit…Outplay…Outlast…Till one person becomes the Ultimate Survivor. A new season begins. Hmm….Is that a CBS show or the Presidential primaries that I saw? Sadly the primary has resembled the reality based show. Events in recent weeks have stooped to “lows” that I don’t feel belong in the political arena. Perhaps desperation pushed Bill Clinton to make stupid comments, comparing Obama to Jesse Jackson’s candidacy and putting a racial slant on things. I’ve always been a big fan of Clinton’s administration, having personally witnessed the economic strength that his administration brought to my retirement portfolio and our country. His personal life was just that…his personal life….As our President, he got a lot of things done and left office with a budget surplus. I was leaning heavily towards Hillary as my presidential choice until this happened. Actually the first thing that started the pendulum swinging away from Hillary, for me, was her unwavering stance to back her vote on the Iraq war. No matter how many times she’s been asked in debates, if she regrets her vote on the war, now knowing what the rest of us know….she still does not say that she is sorry for having made the choice she did. She lays the responsibility off on Bush for having deceived the country but she read the wording in the act she voted on….it clearly gave Bush the ability to take an action of war against Iraq. Her stubbornness is a parallel to that of Bush’s…one who has dug his heels in numerous times, despite best advice….just because. He won’t admit when he’s wrong ‘cause he’s never wrong. I don’t want another person in office who feels they need to make a personal statement regardless of whether it’s in the best interest of our country. The race issue was the final straw….I’m ready for a fresh face….a voice of optimism….a man who can reunite our country, regardless of the color of his skin and make us a respected leader in the world once again. A man who sees the future for what it can and should be…. We need a leader with personal strength and integrity…something that has been lacking for many years. A man who can make the focus about the issues that truly matter…..in raising up the poor and neglected in our country, in bringing both sides of the aisle together to work on issues that matter and to set bipartisan differences aside….to give value to every citizen of this great nation and to give us hope for a brighter future. This is the light at the end of my tunnel….and I hope we all move towards the light.

Vintage Barn

We saw this barn, sitting all by itself, in the countryside. It looked so picturesque but lonely....of a day gone by when farming was prevalent to the region and the fields were bustling with activity.

RV show pics

Here are pics of the Loft RV unit I mentioned before, the 2.1 million dollar unit I went through, the Renegade line (which had awesome craftsmanship) and the sand sculpture that a crew of guys worked on throughout the week. The pics came out kind of dark so I hope you can see them.

Virginia Countryside

We received the new USB cord so I can finally upload some pics of the countryside around where we live...Here are pics of Pope's Creek area where Washington spent his childhood and a picture of the family burial plot.

New in the RV world..

I'm working at the Tampa RV Super Show this week but have had a little time to walk around to look at some of the rigs. The RV show is held at the fairgrounds and it's huge ! There are rigs indoors and out...vendors, etc. A couple rows over from our booth is a rig that has a loft area that must put it at least 25' into the air. Has a toy hauler area in the back that enters from the side...just enough room for a single motorcycle but doesn't cut into the living space as much as the rear entry models. As you go from the rear "garage" towards the front of the rig, there are steps that go up to the loft area. Upstairs, it's like a screen room around the side walls, with zip up curtains, and a large L-shaped sofa in the area and a good sized flat screen TV on the front wall. Very cool !! I could see this being a neat camper at the racetrack for watching Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson duel it out on the track, while lounging on a comfy sofa and having your favorite cold beverage at hand.
I also got to tour through a 2 million dollar motor home that was gorgeous and very well appointed. Beautiful paint job on the exterior with a ceramic tiled shower with glass doors. The bathroom sink was a beautiful bowl like you see on HGTV in some of the high end homes they remodel. I wonder how many rigs like this will be sold during the show this week. In talking to one high-end coach company, he said that overall sales, this past year, have been down for the industry by around 30%. I read recently where sales this year are expected to be down at least 10%. If gas prices continue to climb, who knows where things will wind up.
We have three more days at the Show this week before we head home. It's hard being away from home for so long. It will be good to go back home.

Too many things...

Where to begin...I guess first I'll give an explanation, for those of you not in the loop, on why my postings have been so few and far in between. Basically we don't have internet where we are now but my new employer tells me he is working at getting that problem resolved. The public library, although close to us, is only open past 5 p.m. one evening a week so that is usually "internet night" for us. In the brief time that we are there, I have to catch up on e-mails, banking, etc. so consequently I don't usually get new posts put on the blog. We also have some pics of the Virginia countryside but I'm not able to upload them because our USB cord is the old style with prongs and I've botched up the port on our laptop that matches it. A new cord has arrived so soon i will have some new pictures on here.
Currently I am in Florida for my employer. I attended the Workamper Job Fair on Thursday and Friday. Thursday was very busy for us and I spent 6 hours continuously interviewing folks. Friday was not very busy. If you read about the 70 car pile-up on I-4, near Orlando....this was the highway we were supposed to come in on to get to the hotel. The guy with us used to live here so he knew a back route we could take to get here but it did interfere with attendance at the job fair, which was a shame. What a horrendous thing that accident was.
Tomorrow (Monday, we will leave here and move to Tampa where we will be set up at the RV Super Show. We will continue to interview for workampers and will also promote the resort. It's been really interesting talking to the different people that have stopped by the booth about where they are from, what they are doing now and how long they've been workamping. Alot of neat people in the world and alot of them are RV'ers...LOL !
Weather in Florida is great....high 70's today....cloudy with periodic showers. There is a downy woodpecker that hangs out in the tree outside my hotel window that I've enjoyed watching. It reminds me of when I had my house in Woolrich and had them come to the bird feeders off the deck. I love to watch birds. We've tried putting our bid feeder up outside the rig, in Virginia, but the ground is so sandy that every time the wind blows, it blows over the shepherds hook that it is hanging on. Guess I'll just have to hang it off the awning and eliminate the hook.
I've been researching New Years foods that are "traditions" for an event that I am working on that will have a New Year's theme. I thought the pork and sauerkraut were the All American New Years food for good luck....Not so. Seems in Virginia, they go to a different section on the food pyramid for their good luck charm....it's black eyed peas....Who'd a thought ? In my research I found out that other "southern" favorites for New Year's are collard greens, spinach, kale or mustard greens. This wouldn't seem to be much of a variation of the day-to-day diet of most southerners, would it ? The Japanese eat a special noodle as their good luck token. German tradition likes cabbage. I think, if my memory serves me correctly, that it was the Portuguese tradition that you needed 7 round fruits on the table, as the number "7" is a sign of good luck. For folks in the northwest, it's salmon or herring (pickled or otherwise) My oh my, what a variation on foods and sense of tradition....America is a melting pot in more ways than one. As I continue my research and polish up the final menu selections, it would seem to be pretty evident that the first course, or perhaps a cutely decorated party favor, wrapped in netting would be a healthy helping of bean-o for all the guests at this affair.

Birthdays and Beginnings……

Its two days before Christmas and it’s 65 degrees outside here in Virginia. No white Christmas for us this year…Shucks ! Now that’s what I’m talking about. Up home, in PA, they are still covered in 4-5” of the white, glazed over snow from the last storm. No love lost here of missing that type of weather…Furnace is off, warm breeze blowing outside and Sunday football on the tube…can’t ask for much more than that on a Sunday afternoon.
The next two weeks will be one for birthdays and anniversaries for us. It was last December, the 27th to be exact, that we rolled into St. Louis on a Greyhound bus to pick up our bundle of joy. We felt like proud parents as we laid our eyes on our beautiful, bouncing girl….and Bertha has been part of the journey ever since. For those of you not knowing who Bertha is…..she’s our GMC 5500 truck that we purchased from a dealer in St. Louis. We rode 24 hours on multiple buses, through numerous bus terminals, to go pick her up. Now, almost a year and 10,000 miles later, she is firmly entrenched in our lives.
On January 2nd, we’ll have another occasion when we celebrate the date upon which our 5th wheel arrived. Destiny, as we’ve named her….was delivered to us by the RV dealer in Iowa that we ordered her from. We waited anxiously for her arrival so that we could move out of the itty bitty camper that we’d been renting since the end of October and into our new home and our new way of life. We went through several big snow storms last winter and days of bitter cold temps. Having a day in December here of 65 degree temps is wonderful to us, compared to wind chills, in PA last year, of -16 degrees. Yikes !!
The views out our rear view window aren’t changing like they did just a few months ago and it is harder to get inspiration to write new posts for our blog. The fact that we don’t currently have internet at our site, due to the park being closed and the cable modem being shut off, I try to write entries when I can and save them to post when I get to the public library. Perhaps many of our followers are disappointed that we are not “traveling” like we had been. From my perspective, I think it was fortuitous that I took this job at this point in time. Due to situations that occurred with our families, it was good that we were in the area and not a great distance away. I feel that our lives are made up opportunities, from which we can grow as a person. This job…this “opportunity” was presented to me for a reason. Although I have worked 30 years in the hospitality business, there certainly are many areas of this vast field that I have not been exposed to. One of those being resort management in the RV business. This job offers me the ability to learn so much about that business from a man who has high ideals for his businesses and doesn’t sit still for very long. I love to learn about new things, accept new challenges and I have that here where I know no one and have to start from scratch with making business contacts, search out distributors for products and services and learn about the area and their culinary preferences. It is a big challenge but the kind I enjoy. How long will this job keep us here ? Don’t know…..till it’s no longer challenging and there is no more to learn. For it’s only in learning that we grow as individuals.
To all of our family and friends reading this….thank you for following the first year of our journey. Stay tuned in 2008 for more to come. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas, surrounded by the ones you love and hoping that 2008 brings you all the opportunities that you are hoping for ! God Bless !

Linda and Linda