| Wednesday, April 30.
2008 Enough is enough, already!! Yesterday we woke up to temperatures around the 36 degree mark and as we headed north to see Judy's brother they dipped another 5 degrees. On top of that we were treated to several sn*w showers along the way, nothing significant but enough to let us know that April is way to early to be in Michigan. Last night I had to fill our water tank and disconnect the hose as the temps are forecasted to go into the low 20's. I swear, if this keeps up our relatives are going to have to move south if they want to see us. We have talked about it and think that we would be better off to visit Michigan in September from now on. We could slowly make our way to the northeast for our grand daughter fix, not arriving in New England before mid May - that would be cold enough - and save the Wolverine State for the fall. I just don't have any desire to see sn*w ever again (well maybe a flake or two at Christmas time). We drove three hours north just to visit with John and Della for three hours and then turn around and drive back three hours south. Needless to say, nothing else got accomplished but it was a nice visit and good to see them again. Spring is just starting in Michigan and as we drove along we could see the trees beginning to bring forth their buds while the sn*w was still melting on the ski slopes (not enough for skiing though). Michigan has been very dry and has had a couple of forest fires. We passed by one of those areas that burned last Wednesday and Thursday, it was not pretty. "Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires." We took the router along with us hoping that we would get a signal at John's house but nothing doing. North central Michigan is in the dark ages when it comes to cell phone technology; we couldn't even get a signal on our cell phones let alone the air card. Tuesday, April 29, 2008 Yesterday we went to Grand Rapids for our son's annual evaluation but we left early enough so we could "kick the tires" on some new fifthwheels before the meeting. We looked at some Hitchhiker IIs at American RV but wasn't too impressed with them so we journeyed over to Modern RV where we looked at one of the last remaining Travel Supremes which was an excellent coach. But the ones that "stole the show" were Newmar's Torrey Pines (MSRP around $85k) and Kountry Aire (MSRP around $110k) which were very nicely done (well built with nice detailing). We were heading north on Division Street, where all the RV dealerships reside, when I saw some Heartland Landmarks parked at Terry Town RV. I must say that for a mid range fifthwheel ($55-60k) these are very well built. If we were looking for a reasonably priced well built fifthwheel for fulltiming this one would be high on our list. American RV has a Camping World Store so I picked a couple of things we needed for the water hookups and while we were at Modern RV I got a couple of hinged brackets for a counter extension that I will install when I rebuild the kitchen cabinet next winter. When we left Terry Town it was time to go to Brian's annual meeting which lasted the rest of the afternoon. We got out of there just in time to beat feet out of town before the "rush hour" traffic began. On our way home we stopped at Ed's Family Restuarant in Howard City (one of our ol' watering holes) for a good home cooked meal. Then it was home just in time to catch the evening news (I have to ask, "Why?" - I guess I wasn't depressed enough). We settled into our PJ's to relax and watch the stars dance - no, not the ones outside but the ones on television. Monday, April 28, 2008 Saturday we took a quick ride over to visit a few of our friends at MeCosta Pines Campground in Morley, Michigan. The "season" began last weekend so many of them were there this weekend - Joe and Sharon, Jerry and Patsy, Rich and Beth, Duane and Michelle, Jack and Sue, and, of course, John and Mary (the owners). It was great to see them again and to visit for a little while, however, it was c*ld and windy so we only stayed a couple of hours before heading home. These are wonderful people and a great campground so if you find yourself traveling between Grand Rapids and Big Rapids on route 131 in Michigan be sure to stop by (take exit 125 off rte. 131 and MeCosta Pines is about 1 mile east). You'll have a great time and will be glad you did - make sure to say "Hi" to everyone for us. Other then that we just stayed at home and did some of our "homework" such as updating our budget and planning our trip east in a week and a half as well as beading (Judy) and website (me). The clouds moved out and the wind finally let up so it didn't seem so c*ld but we stayed inside with the fireplace burning, just nice and cozy. Whenever we are in the MeCosta/Morley area we worship at Grace Community Church in Howard City. We are always welcomed back as if we were old members of the church when the truth is that we only attended the church for a couple of months just before we "hit the road" as fulltimers. Pastor Cooper and his wife Peggy always take time to chat with us and Bob and Doris always extend a warm welcome which makes us feel right at home. Pastor Jorge and his wife Cindy are always glad to see us as we are to see them. Jorge attended the same church that we did in Groton, Connecticut when he was an exchange student way back in the 70's. We made that connection while we worshiped at Grace Community Church in August and September of 2006 (another small world event). It was a great time of worship with good music and an excellent message by Pastor Cooper. We look forward to returning again and again in the future. Ray and Pat organized a nice pot luck Sunday dinner with Dan and Hilde and Judy and I. Judy and I worked with Hilde at Morbark and it was good to see her again and to meet Dan. After dinner we sat around the fire and swapped stories from the past. It was a little cool for sitting outside but we enjoy campfires and conversation. Later Ray and Pat took us for a tour of their walking trails. Miss Kitty, their katt, followed along with us just like a dawg - she is so cute. The good news is that the weather girl is forecasting a pleasant change in the weather; that is, we are not going to get the sn*w that was forecast earlier, however, it is going to drop below freezing for the next three nights. On Wednesday things are going to start warming up again - yippee, can't wait. We're going to have to stop coming to Michigan before May but I remember getting 3" of sn*w on May 11th of 2003 when we lived in Harbor Springs. That just ain't right, man!! Just one last thing, I have sent Judy to her Corner so hopefully she'll have something to share in a few days. Saturday, April 26, 2008 While Judy was getting her tooth pulled I went and got the oil changed and got a propane tank filled. Miss Judy is doing fine, a little pain and a real funny feeling where there is no longer a tooth. She'll have a bridge put in once we get to New York but right now she is just glad to have this part of the process behind her. What a difference, yesterday we had temperatures reaching 82 degrees and this morning we are in the low 40's - brrrrrrr! Hope this goes away faster than it came but the weatherman/woman isn't saying so. Looks as if we are going to get some even c*lder weather and maybe even some sn*w. Sorry, I know this is a family website and I don't mean to use four letter words. Good grief, the Grand Rapids weathergirl was wearing a winter parka while forecasting today's weather. We don't even own any winter clothing. Today is a sit still (stay inside, run the furnace, burn up that propane) type of day while we work on our "basket weaving" projects. Miss Judy will be knitting some cards and working on her beads while I will do some reading and work on the April Travelogue. Katie has some kattnip toys she will play with and Alex will try to "help" Judy just like he always does; poor katt, he's beginning to think that his name is Alex No. Alex, you had better plan on helping Katie today. Friday, April 25, 2008 Wow, we need a Menard's everywhere we go. Menard's is similar to Home Depot and Lowe's only they always have what I want at lower prices than their competitors. I picked up some more oak bead board and cabinet doors to rebuild the cabinet under the kitchen sink, a new faucet for the bathroom vanity, and a bumper for the wall where the toilet seat hits it. Then we went to Wally World to empty our wallets - holly cow, have the food prices gone up. Also, diesel fuel is $4.30 per gallon at most fuel stations but Wally World had it at $4.17 - yikes, it's time to get out of Michigan with our tails between our legs while we still have a few sheckles left in our pockets. However, something tells me it ain't gonna get any better as we head east. 2007 was the year of killer toys; looks like 2008 will be the year of killer prices. This "roughing it smoothly" is for the birds. We've definitely become attached to our creature features. Poor television reception is one thing but no internet connectivity is worse than taking away my pablum. Boy, do we miss it. I remember when the first Commodore 64 became available and I laughed saying, "Who in the world would ever need a computer in their home?" Well, thirty later I can tell you who!!! Me!!! "I want my Maypo!!!" If I had a Verizon air card I would have it - it would be slow but I would be online. I know, whine, whine whine. The weather has been nice up here in the north with temps in the 70's. Northern Michigan is experiencing very dry conditions and the good news is that rain is in the forecast but along with it is coming some cooler temperatures. Beginning Sunday night we will start experiencing temperatures dipping below freezing, possibly into the high 20's. Brrrrr - It's not nice to fool Mother Nature! That will certainly put "frost on the pumpkin" as well as our water hose. It's time to fill our water tank and take in the hose. Hopefully this will be a short lived thing as none of us (katts included) like the c*ld. We'll mostlikely be "off line" for the next two days but I'll write an entry each day anyhow and then publish them on Monday. So until then . . . . Drive Safely, Have Fun, and God Bless. Thursday, April 24, 2008 Here we sit in the metropolis of MeCosta, Michigan. I didn't know that Michigan was so far back in the dark ages - when it comes to communications, that is. We get zero signal on our Sprint Merlin Air Card and barely any television reception. This is one of those places that we would not be able to watch any television if all we had was a digital signal as all we are only getting very weak analog signals. I haven't seen television reception like this since my dad brought home that first 19" GE black and white television set in the early 50's. Needless to say, we are going through severe withdrawal symptoms but it will be good for us to live without all of this electronic "stuff" for a while. We just might have to read, work on our hobbies, play games, and, heaven forbid, talk to each other. Now, having said all of the above, here is a little bit of advice. Air cards are giving fulltimers access to the internet without having to lay out large amounts of money for a satellite system. AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon all offer these cards for around $50.00 ($100 minus a $50 rebate) and a monthly service charge of $59.95, however, there is only one that I have seen that offers consistent connectivity when traveling; that is Verizon. You have to keep in mind that there are going to be "dead spots" for all of them (if you can't get a cell phone signal then you won't be able to get an air card signal) but Verizon appears to have the best coverage over all with higher download speeds. So my advice, sir, is to go with Verizon and, no, you won't see a weird little guy with glasses showing up but you'll know he's out there!!!!!! Ray and Pat have a good set up. They have built a small home on 10 acres of land and have an RV port with a full hook-ups to park their fifthwheel in. Ray has a nice large barn where he can park his car and his tractor as well as having a nice large workshop. We just barely got our rig into the RV port as it is only 13' 2" tall and it appears that we are 13' 1.5" tall, that's right, we got in by the skin of our teeth. Ray got out a ladder and watched from above as we pulled (inched) our way through. At least now I know for sure how tall the rig is, I knew that we were between 13' and 13' 4" but didn't know exactly. After three back to back days of traveling we are glad to be settled down for a while. We'll be here for a week and a half before moving onto Judy's sister's in Holly, Michigan, however, we'll be doing a lot of running around. Judy gets her tooth pulled tomorrow, Monday we visit our son Brian and his support team, Tuesday we visit with Judy's brother, and next Thursday we will go back to spend some more time with Brian. Today we're going Menard's where I will purchase some more bead board to redo the cabinet under the kitchen sink, stop by the library to get our email and publish the journal entry, and hit Wal-mart for some grocery shopping so we can eat for the rest of the month. So, who has time for television and the internet anyway? Wednesday, April 23, 2008 We got underway yesterday morning at a little after 10:00 (boy, this loosing an hour is tough on the old system). We really wanted to visit our friends Don and Gloria in Kokomo, Indiana but that would have only been a little over three hours of traveling (very ideal) leaving close to six hours for Wednesday (that's brutal). So we made our way to Fort Wayne, Indiana where we stayed overnight in Johnny Appleseed Campground which is located right behind the Coliseum. It's an acceptable campground with 30/50 amp electric service with water available, however, it may require running extra hoses to get it (depending which site you're in). Fort Wayne is a little over half way to MeCosta, Michigan from Shepherdsville, Kentucky. We drove about four and half hours leaving us with about four more hours of travel today. Good News, our mail finally showed up at our son's house and, just as we had suspected, the post office had delivered it to the wrong address. Thanks to whoever received our mail for returning it to the Post Office so they could deliver it to the right address. I know that mistakes happen and to error is human but our mail had to be at the Post Office when Judy called them on Friday but they insisted that they had looked and it was not there. Personally I don't think they even bothered to look but, in any event, the lost is found. Matthew is forwarding it onto MeCosta where we will receive it next week. We really need the insurance cards and information now so Judy can order her meds, but we'll just have to wait. This is one of the minor pitfalls of the fulltime RVing lifestyle but I guess we can deal with it as these type of things happen to people living in houses as well. Well, it's time to get moving - on the road again! Alex isn't going to like this, traveling three days in a row. Yesterday he just couldn't get settled down so Miss Judy gave him a time out by putting him in the travel cage. After a half hour in there he settled right down and was a good little (20 pound) kitty for the rest of the trip. Katie has always been a good traveler, she mostly sleeps in the back seat occasionally coming up front for a little loving and then goes back to lay down again. Alex used to be that way but lately he doesn't like to travel - what's up with that, Alex? Tuesday, April 22, 2008 We arrived at Grandma's RV Park in Shepherdsville, Kentucky at around 12:30 Eastern Standard Time (I didn't even sleep in and still lost an hour as we started out in the Central Time Zone). Norm and Linda Payne picked us up around 1:30 for a sightseeing tour of the Louisville area. As always, it was good to see them again - we enjoy their company so much. After hitting the highlights and getting lots of ideas for a future visit to Louisville we drove across the bridge to Clarksville, Indiana for dinner at the Kingfish Restaurant which is right on the shores of the Ohio River. It was just a great afternoon of socializing with our good friends. There is a thread on the Escapees Forum regarding what, if anything, people are doing to adapt to the increasing fuel prices. Well, let me say this about that!! We feel that we were fortunate to have gotten an ERPU site at Rainbow Plantation. When we had put our name on the list we weren't ready for a site and expected it would take a year and a half to two years before we would get a site. Then there was a big turn over last spring and summer and we got our site last July. Now that we have the site we can spend an extra month or two there each year rather than traveling. Also, when we are traveling I don't turn the "Tow/Haul" feature on and set the cruise control at 55 mph instead of 62. That increases our mileage by about 60 miles per tank which equates to 5 gallons of diesel and that equals $20+ in savings per tank full of fuel. This won't make up for the overall increase in fuel costs but "every little bit helps". But lets face it, fuel is only part of the equation. Food and housing (campsites) are also on the increase. We have established an annual budget of $42,500 with $36,000 coming from our savings and $6,500 coming from workamping. For the first four months we are exceeding our projections but that is due to medical expenses (we crammed a lot of medical "stuff" into the first three months of the year before we had to change health insurance policies). Hopefully we will pull the budget back in line over the summer months while we are workamping in New York. However, we are looking at the possibility of workamping for a couple of extra months this fall which will add income to our overall budget if necessary. One of two things has to happen: pull the budget back in line or earn more money to cover the increases (most likely a little of both). Bottom line, we enjoy this lifestyle and will find ways to make it work. If we were still in sticks and bricks we would be facing the same issues. Our expenses are a whole lot less (and flexible) in an RV than they were in a house and we have more options at our disposal. Also, we have more freedom living the fulltime lifestyle versus the "conventional" lifestyle. Let's face it, when you own a home you are locked into one area which may or may not be beneficial to maintaining your lifestyle depending on the local economy. If, for some reason, you are forced to move you just might not be able to sell your home. With "wheel estate" we can hook up and head out to an area of the country with a lower cost of living and/or more income opportunities. Anyway, it may take us a little longer to see the "USA in our Chevrolet" but we will do it in spite of higher fuel prices. Monday, April 21, 2008 Saturday we met Matt and Jackie (and, of course, Miss Catia) at their new house. They wanted to show us the lot but when we got there the framing crew was on hand and had the house all framed up; they were installing the sheathing on the roof. By 1:00 they had everything framed up with the tyvak installed on the walls. That was a pleasant surprise for all of us. They will have a really nice home when it is finished (July) and they are excited about getting moved in. Baby Kalina will most likely be on hand for the "move in" as she is due anytime after June 25th. After visiting their new home we returned to Grandma and Grandpa's to play dominoes. Miss Catia tried to help dad which only broke his concentration, however, they won the game. We had a good time and look forward to our visit next fall when we can see the completed house. Sunday we left early to meet Mary at her new apartment and go to church with her in Franklin, Tennessee, after which, we went back to her apartment for dinner. Matt, Jackie and Catia joined us and we had muscles, potatoes, and carrots - them muscles were yum, yum. The kids surprised Miss Judy with a belated birthday party with a nice ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. We enjoyed the worship as well as the dinner and our time with our family. One of the many good things about fulltimining is our ability to see the kids several times a year as Nashville is one of our favorite areas. We will be heading north this morning, however, we forgot about the time change so we'll be arriving in Louisville an hour later than we had planned. Norm and Linda Payne are already there and are going to play tour guide for us so this afternoon we will do some sightseeing before going out to dinner with them afterwards. Until tomorrow . . . . Saturday, April 19, 2008 Yesterday afternoon we visited with our daughter. She is in the process of moving; her friends show up today to help her finish the job. When she lived in Grand Rapids she had an apartment by herself but ever since moving to the Nashville area she has had a roommate. Now she is debt free and is able to afford an apartment by herself again. So we helped her move her piano and some other "stuff" and got to see her new apartment. It is nice but not quite as plush as the one she is leaving behind but she has the whole place to herself which makes her very happy. On our way to visit Mary we stopped at the Opry Mills Shopping Mall. Gibson guitar has a store at the mall with a shop where you can actually watch them make their product. I looked at some of the guitars as I have often thought how nice it would be to be able to play one while sitting outside around the camp fire. It would only cost me $2,000 (and up) to own a Gibson - I think I could learn to pluck for a lot less after all my name is not John Denver. But it was an interesting visit especially seeing the shop right there in the mall. We strolled around a little more and then stopped to get a burger for lunch at Johnny Rockets. They have delicious burgers but are a little pricey - oh well, we only do this once in a while. For the first time since fulltiming the Post Office has managed to loose our mail and, of course, it has all of our health insurance information with our insurance cards in it. That tends to p--- me off because it is due to carelessness on their part. It was mailed priority from Livingston which has a tracking number and they say they delivered it on Monday the 14th at 12:45 p.m.. But the question is, "Where?" It was supposed to be delivered to our son's address in Murfreesboro but they received their mail on Monday and ours wasn't there. The mailwoman must have delivered it to the wrong address; we can only hope that it will get returned and either delivered to our son's house or returned to Livingston. In any event we won't get it while we are in Tennessee and I will need to contact the insurance company so they can send out another policy and set of cards. Who knows what else was in that package as it was three weeks worth of mail. And we really appreciate the Post Office's concern - not!! These "public servants" have little or no consideration for servicing the the public. Their take is "we delivered it, it's now your problem" and you should have "had it signed for." My take is that it shouldn't be necessary to have things signed for as we are paying you for a service and you failed to provide it. In any event, we don't have our mail and they aren't going to take responsibility; there isn't anymore that we can do except hope. Friday, April 18, 2008 Whenever I'm pursuing a new endeavor (and that's not a Monaco motorhome) I try and seek out the best of the best as a mentor. For instance, you can't find anyone better than David Dorian Ross when it comes to learning the basic Tai Chi moves. For fulltime RVing my mentor has been Norm Payne who is one of the best and for photography you can't find anyone more superb than Judy Giberson. So you get the picture. Well I am just discovering the art of power napping and have sought out a mentor to teach me how to get the most out of a twenty to forty minute snooze. And I found that the best of the best is right in my own home - Katie and Alex! They have forgotten more about power napping techniques than I can possibly learn in the years that I have left on this earth. There are a few pit falls, however, I find it rather difficult to turn three circles on top of the bed before flopping down on my side with my back up against the pillows. This takes a lot of practice to get it just right, however, I must admit that it actually works wonders - you fall right off to sleep (I guess that could be referred to as unwinding). The key here is having something warm to rest your back up against and flopping down at just the right place. Now, I haven't figured out if the "licking" is part of the nap ritual or just a way to keep clean but I know that there is no way I will be able to pull that one off without extensive Yoga lessons. Purring loudly also seems to figure into the equation (is that anything like snoring?) but it is done while you are still awake. I never snore, Judy says that I do but I stayed up one night and listened to myself and I didn't snore once so I think she is telling stories out of school. In any event, I have found that a twenty to forty minute power nap beginning no later than 1:00 in the afternoon is more than enough to recharge my batteries for the rest of the day (just like trickle charging your RV batteries). I'm even able to stay up at night and catch Jay Leno or, even, Craig Ferguson. Therefore, I will continue under the tutelage of the "Masters of the Nap". Do you suppose that is why people refer to it as a Katt Nap? Well, Miss Catia spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa. We picked the little dear up at 8:30 and the little brat went home at 7 o'clock. Nah, just kidding. She weren't not neither no brat but she is three and very good at it. First stop was breakfast at Cracker Barrel, which she looks forward to, and then we took her grocery shopping with us at Wal-Mart. She certainly has no concept of economic slowdown - she sees it, she wants it. Catia will learn in time that BUY has a big mouth and PAY has a little one!! Then it was home (that is, Grandma and Grandpa's home) to put away the groceries and hit the swings. I don't know if she understands that we don't live here at Countryside RV Park because this is where she always visits us. She's too young to read "From Darrell's Chair" or "Wandering America Travelogues" so it wouldn't surprise me if she thought that we were always here and only visited her once every few months. In any event she remembered the swings and that was the first thing she wanted to do when we arrived home. As always, we enjoyed spending the day with her - and, oh yes, she has the power nap down to a science as well. That's a good thing because she sure can drain our old batteries in a hurry, so while she napped - we napped and so did Katie and Alex. Purrrr, Purrrr! Thursday, April 17, 2008 We completed our Natchez Trace Journey and made our way to Countryside RV Park in Lebanon, Tennessee. We had planned to stay at Cedars of Lebanon State Park but their prices aren't that much less for a water and electric site versus full hook ups at Countryside so we opted for the full hook ups. We will be staying for five days and have laundry to do which would have meant trips to the laundry mat, not one of our favorite places to visit. Besides the money saved at by staying at Cedars of Lebanon would have been spent at the laundry mat so we decided the for convenience of doing our laundry in the evenings while we are just "hanging around". The Natchez Trace was an excellent trip with a lot of history and we could have easily spent another 10 days of exploring the Parkway. Should you ever travel the Trace we would advise you to plan it so that you wouldn't be traveling on Saturday or Sunday. Those are the days when the weekend bicycle enthusiasts take to the Parkway. There will be some heading north and some heading south making it impossible to get around them at times. They have the right away and that is as it should be. It was good to see so many people enjoying our National treasure but it did make for some slow going at times. Had we thought about it we would have made sure that the RV stayed at camp for the weekend. Today is "grand daughter fix" day. We will pick her up at 8:15 this morning and have her all day so I had better get going and get ready, it's about a half hour drive from the campground to her house and time is marching on. Until tomorrow . . . . . Wednesday, April 16, 2008 Yesterday we continued making our way north along the Natchez Trace Parkway where we stopped at the Meriwether Lewis Campground (another rustic campground with no hook ups but free). Surprisingly enough there were lots of sites available unlike our stop at Rocky Springs last Monday. Along the way we did some sightseeing as there are lots of historical landmarks highlighted along the Trace with turnouts large enough to stop with the rig in tow. After we got set-up we visited Meriwether Lewis' grave and monument here at the campground and the Metal Ford which is where there was a metal foundry along the Buffalo River as well as narrows where travelers could "ford" the river. After that we drove back about six miles to a point where we could drive on a two and half mile section of the original Trace. As I had stated before, the Parkway does not follow the "Old Trace" exactly but the "Old Trace" has been preserved in many places allowing for hiking. This section actually allowed for us to drive it. We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside reading. As we have been traveling north we managed to drive right out of springtime; there is absolutely no leaves on the trees here in Tennessee but the trees are starting to bud. It certainly gets dark at night with no power in the campground. The moon was sooooo bright and the stars poked holes in the black sky. This was nice and pleasant. Today we will be making our way to the Murfreesboro, Tennessee for our grand daughter fix. We'll stay in the area until Monday when we head for Louisville, Kentucky to visit with Norm and Linda Payne. It's sad to think that our Natchez Trace Parkway trip is just about over. It took us ten days to make a 444 mile trip - now that's the way life should be!!!!! Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Today is it - be sure to get your taxes in the mail before mid-night if you haven't already done so. The Washington politicians need some more money to squander away. However, taxes are the price we pay to live in freedom so in that light I guess it is worth it but it's still a shame to see so much money mishandled by bumble heads. Oh well, onto the daily RVing lifestyle. Yesterday we drove over to Red Bay, Alabama to visit our good friends Dave and Jan Verse. We first met them in November of 2006 at KOA Nashville. They were staying there while we were workamping. Then they showed up at Rainbow Plantation in January of 2007 and we got to know them better. They returned to Wisconsin and sold their house, traded their Mobile Suites fifthwheel for a Phaeton motorhome, and became fulltimers. Last fall they returned to Rainbow Plantation and we watched over their motorhome while they returned to Wisconsin for Christmas. We said our "see ya down the road" at the end of December as they left for Livingston, Texas to become Texas residents. Just last week we learned that they were going to be at Tiffin Motor Homes in Red Bay which is only 25 miles from Piney Grove so we made plans to get together. We arrived at the Allegro Campground around 9:30 a.m. which was just in time to skedaddle over to the Plant with Dave and Jan for a tour. Tiffin only builds class A motor homes, gas and diesel, known as Allegro (Allegro Open Road, Allegro Bay, Phaeton, Allegro Bus, and Zephyr). Red Davis was our tour guide as we began the tour where unpainted motor homes were rolling off the assembly lines at a rate of 11 a day. There was a mixture of diesel and gas models on the lines as we walked the lines back to where the "bare bones frames" were driven onto the line. Floors were added, then interior walls put in place, side walls, roofs, and end caps showed up right on schedule all the while lots of interior work was being accomplished to complete various systems (electrical, electronics, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, etc.). After the tour we went to a local restaurant for a bite to eat and then we visited Tiffin's Paint Shop where we could walk through the finished motor homes. It was an interesting tour and I took lots of pictures which we will include in our April Travelogue. It was good to see Dave and Jan again especially since we didn't expect to see them again until next fall. It just goes to show you that you can never know who or what you are going to encounter around the next bend. We have made so many good friends living this lifestyle that we can't help bumping into some of them as we are out "Wandering America" which is always such a pleasant surprise. Did I ever tell you that one of the best things about this lifestyle is meeting people? Yeah, I know, only a million times. Monday, April 14, 2008 What's up with this Global Warming thing, anyhow? Here we sit south of the Mason-Dixon Line with the calendar approaching the ides of April (that's also known as IRS day here in the United States) and the temperatures dropped below freezing last night. This is reeedddicccuuuulooouuusss, Al Gore you gotta get a life, man!!! Speaking of IRS day, I think it should become a National Holiday. We don't have a holiday in April and could use one. Actually I think there should be a holiday in each month, especially in the summertime. Our politicians don't seem to understand that most of the country is in the cold during the winter months and we don't need so many holidays bunched up in those months (Thanksgiving and the day after, Christmas, New Year's, Martin Luther King's birthday, and President's day) while June and August go empty handed. It makes no sense, but most of what comes out of Washington doesn't make sense (common sense ain't in Washington). Of course, you say, what are you talking about - everyday is a holiday for you guys. Well, yes, you are correct about that, but I'm just thinking about the w*rking families. Wait a minute! Did I say families? That means kids and dawgs and more holidays would mean that kids and dawgs would have more time to clutter up our campgrounds and tourist spots - what am I thinking? Scratch that idea - I think that all holidays should be removed from the calendar!!!! Please write your congressman/woman today!!!! What are you waiting for? Do it now before before you lose your memory!!! Piney Grove is a pretty campground and we could have enjoyed it more if it had been warmer. I wanted to do some canoing while we were here but our little Sea Eagle kayak would have been blown all over the lake in this wind not to mention that we would have froze our kesters off. Oh well, we had a nice day sitting inside while I worked on April's Travelogue and Judy worked on some more beading. With a couple of phone calls to Linda Payne and lots of experimenting she is starting to get the hang of it. She even created her own design for the bracelet that she is now working on. Neat, huh? Her basket weaving activities gives her something to do and keeps her out trouble (staying out of trouble can be hard for her). :-) Sunday, April 13, 2008 We arrived at Piney Grove Campground yesterday afternoon after leaving mid 70's temperatures behind and finding low 60's with the wind blowing. Whoops, me thinks we drove too far north, we did! The campground is nice but you know what we are discovering? We like Timberlake type of campgrounds with full hookups and cell phone coverage (translated internet connectivity) better than the "state park" type of campgrounds. There is a distinction between the two, i.e. RV Park versus Campground. However, this will be a nice place to spend a couple of days "camping" - if it will just warm up (this morning it is in the low 40's and the weatherperson saying we will be lucky to get temps over 50 degrees today - Yuck). Our site is on the waterfront and we did have a very pretty sunset last night as we peered out our windows with the furnace warming the "cockles of our hearts". Miss Judy is really getting into this beading thing. She sat gazing at her Fire Mountain catalog in anticipation of purchasing more supplies. Colors, I learned, it's all about colors. Yes there are more colors in that catalog than I have ever heard of - it puts the rainbow to shame. It's amazing that God can work with three primary colors but beaders need dozens and dozens of colors to work with. Just can't get enough colors. Katie and Alex are happy to be situated again for a few days as they really don't care much for traveling. They put up with it but it's very disrupting to their routine. Katie pretty much curls up in the backseat and sleeps while Alex can't seem to get himself comfortable. He tries sleeping here, there, everywhere but ends up coming up front to voice his displeasure. Once they get back into the RV they start staring out the windows wondering who in the world moved things around in their back yard. "This morning we had a nice lawn with lots of birds and now we have a lot of pine trees with no lawn, what gives?" Saturday, April 12, 2008 Serendipity - The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. Yep, finding Timberlake Campground was in fact serendipity. This is a nice clean campground with nice large sites and pulchritudinous (now look that up in your Funk and Wagnel) views across the lake. Who'd thunk that we would find such a beautiful campground right on the outskirts of Jackson, Mississippi? Like I said before - "Any port in a storm" but this turned out to be a gem of a port. The storms passed just north of us with one cell passing just south of us. We had mostly cloudy skies with some sun and some rain but lots of humid temperatures. So we stayed inside and finished up our March Travelogue and got pictures attached to Judy's Corner entry. We also did a little cleaning, I took a nap, and Judy worked on beading. A nice quiet day in a nice quiet campground. I could actually stay in this place for a few more days, but it is time to move on - there's a grand daughter in Murfreesboro waiting to give her grand parents a fix. So we are off heading to Piney Grove Campground where we will spend several days relaxing - oh yes, that's what we have been doing for the last three days. Oh well, you'd think we should be getting good at it by now! Friday, April 11, 2008 Well, just as I said I would, I went to Wal-Mart and bought two (count 'em - one, two) memory sticks and then I came home and backed up the back up. Then I put the back up of the back up in a nice and secure place. Now if I can just remember where I put it. In any event, it is nice to have friends who email you encouragement when you do stupid things - here is one I received yesterday: Let's see... You are both getting old and losing your memory But Judy has more memory than you - she just forgot where she put her memory Memory is cheap to buy, but expensive to lose At least your entire life is not on that stick, just a big part of it. You will backup daily for a week and weekly for a month, then you'll forget (lose your memory) and be back to square one In case you forgot - you are suppose to stop for a visit on your way north Now, do you really think I would forget to stop for a visit with a friend on my way north? If I can just remember who this person is, I will certainly stop by for a visit - I think! Now where did I put that memory stick? At least Judy and I got a good laugh out of the email and it's right on the money about back up diligence. We won't be entirely back to square one since we now have everything up to April 10th backed up. My game plan is to back up once or twice a month, whenever we publish a travelogue (it's too much work to back up every day) - now if I can just remember to back up my work. It's great getting old, you get to meet new people everyday. We are still hunkering down at Timberlake Campground in Jackson. This is a really nice campground with lots of monthly rental sites all along the waterfront. The campground is located on a peninsula so there are plenty of waterfront sites, however, there is a waiting list to get into them. Fortunately the first wave of severe weather stayed north and west of us. We will get some heavy rains and thunder storms today but most likely this severe weather pattern will miss us as well. However, it didn't miss Jackson last Friday and they are still cleaning up the mess. There were 46 homes totally destroyed and 7700 damaged when tornadoes passed through this area a week ago. So we are relieved that we won't be experiencing that today. Tomorrow we will be back on the Parkway again heading for Piney Grove Campground (a Corps of Engineers park) which is located just off the Natchez Trace Parkway in the northeast corner of Mississippi. Howard and Linda Payne (RV-Dreams) stayed there last fall and rated it a 9.5 (Howard would have given it a 10 if the sites had sewer hook-ups). They had planned to stay a couple of nights but ended up staying for two weeks because they loved the park so much. We will most likely have no cell phone or internet connection which means we will go back into withdrawal symptoms. I will do my journal entries daily but might not get to publish them every day, so stay tuned. One last thought. I have put Judy back into her corner so expect to see something published in Judy's Corner later today. She has already written the article, I just need to help her with the pictures and then she can publish it. Thursday, April 10, 2008 Talk about your worst nightmare. Yesterday morning I went to do my daily journal entry and couldn't find the memory stick (yes, I lost my memory - again). I searched "high and low" and couldn't find the stick anywhere. The bad thing is that I had not been diligent in backing up my "stuff". The memory stick contains my entire website files as well as all of our pictures. I do have back up files and pictures on the computer but it's been months since I saved anything on the computer. Anyway, back to the crisis at hand. The last time I recalled having the memory stick was when we were getting ready to go to Vicksburg. We had planned to seek out the library so we could get our email and publish my latest journal entry. But we were "long at the fair" while touring the Battlefield so we didn't go to the library. I couldn't remember if I had just left the stick on the top of the computer or put it in my pocket. We looked everywhere in the truck with no luck (I almost picked up the truck and shook it to see if stick would fall out). We looked on the ground between the house and the truck. We turned the house upside down - still no luck. It was gone. The only thing that could have happened was that I put it in my pocket and it fell out while taking my keys in and out of my pocket when we were touring the Battlefield. My heart sank - several months of pictures were gone forever and I would have to rebuild several files on the website. It would take hours to restore all of my work. What a sick helpless feeling. Judy suggested that we go back to Natchez and retake some of the pictures so we would have them but everything else would be lost forever. So we loaded up and headed out back to Natchez. While we were on our way I suggested to Judy that she get out a pen and some paper so we could make a list of the pictures we wanted to retake. While searching her purse for a pen guess what she found? You're right - the memory stick. I vaguely remember handing her the stick and telling her to put it in her purse but she has no recollection of that incident at all. Anyway, the stick came back - what a relief!!! The black cloud lifted and there is rejoicing in the land. The memory stick is now in protective custody until I purchase two more sticks (one for the website files and the other for our pictures) so I can back-up the back-up. But backing up "stuff" is not automatic and it takes discipline. You can bet your eye teeth that I will be very diligent in doing my back ups at least in the near future, but we all know that over time we drop our guard and become lazy; and that, as I just learned, can be devastating. However, right now my world has returned to its axis and all's well that ends well. Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wednesday, April 9, 2008 Where have we been? We were unable to get online from the Rocky Springs Campground. It is at mile 54 along the Natchez Trace Parkway and there was no cell phone coverage; therefore, we could not access the internet. Although we did have great television coverage; getting all three networks on digital no less but, of course, we had to run our generator in order to watch television. Being without her cell phone and internet connection, Miss Judy isn't sure if she likes "camping". You know how I feel, roughing it means watching black and white television. Yesterday we visited the Vicksburg National Battlefield in Vicksburg, Mississippi. It took us a little over three hours to drive the entire 16 miles but it was worth the trip, however, I found Gettysburg to be much more interesting. Although fighting took place at Vicksburg it was mostly a siege with Grant's army shutting off all supplies and waiting until Pemberton finally surrendered due to the lack of provisions, food and ammunition. Gettysburg only lasted 3 days but there was an ongoing battle back and forth across the fields that makes it a little more interesting to follow (for me anyhow). None the less, Vicksburg is a must visit and it is wonderful to see these battlefields being preserved for the generations. There will be more about the Battlefield with pictures in our April Travelogue. Later yesterday afternoon, while I was setting outside reading, Judy stated that she thought that she had just seen Gil and Orma's van go by. I walked out to the corner and sure enough it was them - Gil and Orma are our next door neighbors at Rainbow Plantation. So I flagged them down and we found them a space where they could double up with some other campers. Last evening we got together and played "Mexican Train" - a dominoes game. So we had a good evening and will see them again next fall in Summerdale. Another small world event. The old saying goes "Any port in a storm." There is another severe weather pattern heading for northern Mississippi on Thursday night and Friday so we decided to hold up in Jackson, Mississippi at Timberlake Campground and RV Park. What a great park right on a lake with beautiful sights and a very reasonable price ($22 per night). We will stay here until Saturday morning; and guess what? We have a full hook up site, cell phone coverage, and internet connectivity. Miss Judy is a "happy camper" indeed!!! Tuesday, April 8, 2008 We arrived at the Rocky Springs Campground along the Trace at about 11:15. If it hadn't been for a nice couple of Escapees we would have had to go to plan B (and we didn't have a plan B) because the park was full. They we getting ready to move onto a larger site but when they saw that we were "Texans" and "Escapees" they said they would give us the site and stay on the smaller site where they were already parked. Thank you Jack and Sherry for your generosity. We sat out with them in the evening and got to know them better. They pass through Rainbow Plantation from time to time so we will be seeing them again as they are out "Wandering America". It seemed nice to just sit in a wilderness site and relax; not doing the "tourist" thing but doing the "camping" thing. While we sat outside Judy worked on her beading and I worked on the March and April Travelogues. I, also, did some reading and then we went for a walk along the "original trace". The Parkway follows the original trace fairly close but does not always follow it exactly. In the areas where it doesn't the park service has maintained the original trails for hikers. There is a small portion of the original trace that runs around the camp sites so we took a short hike along it. The original trace passed through the small town of Rocky Springs that no longer exists today so we walked around the remains of the town. However, the old Methodist Church building still stands and services are still being held in it. Monday, April 7, 2008 Natchez is one of the oldest towns along the Mississippi River being three years older than New Orleans. The location was chosen by the French because it is one of the highest points along the Mississippi in the south. The city was established by the French with its layout being developed by the Spanish and later influenced by the British. Yesterday we took a carriage ride around the city noting some of the highlights. Alan did a great job entertaining us as he presented the history behind many of Natchez's sites while Norma Mae pulled carriage around town. Norma Mae was being a little feisty and kept slapping Alan with her tail which tended to p--- Alan off and added to the flavor of the ride (he never did threaten the glue factory though). When you visit Natchez be sure to take one of these carriage rides as they are well worth the cost. Yesterday afternoon Miss Judy and I walked the entire length of the river walk that starts at the campground and continues on to the Comfort Inn (about two and a half miles north). It was a beautiful clear day so we were able to get a lot of pictures of the Mighty Mississippi as well as Natchez across the river. Again, we will go into detail about this trip and include pictures in the April Travelogue. Today we are going to start our travels up the Natchez Trace Parkway. We will only travel about 60 miles, that's the way life should be. Hopefully we will get a site at the Rocky Springs campground which is a freebie, however, it is rustic; i.e. no hookups. Yep, we're going camping! We have the generator and hopefully will be able to get on line. If not it may be a couple of days before you hear from us. Sunday, April 6, 2008 We burned the candle at both ends and in the middle yesterday. There was a Music Festival held in Ferriday, Louisiana honoring the induction of Pete Fountain into the Delta Music Museum's Hall of Fame. The Main Street was blocked off and they had live music, concession stands, along with other forms of entertainment not to mention the regular food vendors. This was not a big Festival but it was fun and entertaining. From there we drove back to Natchez and visited the William Johnson House - William Johnson was an emancipated slave who was known as the "Barber of Natchez". He owned three barber shops and a bath house in Natchez where he was a respected businessman. The National Park Service has acquired his home which is right in downtown Natchez and is opened to the public free of charge. Next we drove out to the Emerald Mounds which are the second largest Indian mounds in the United States. The mounds are located along the Natchez Trace Parkway and were interesting to see especially when you realize that the Indians didn't have any bulldozers to assist them in their work. You know how we enjoy our wines so we stopped by the Old South Winery for a tour and some wine tasting and purchased a couple of bottles of their "Sweet Noble" wine. From there we visited Melrose which is an antebellum mansion run by the National Park Service, what a nice place but I don't think they can put wheels on it. It is beautifully maintained and is one of the mansions that you should visit if you are in Natchez. Finally, we stopped at the Pig Out Inn for "lupper". The blues and BBQs are two things the south is very good at and the Pig Out Inn ribs were tasty, yummy, and Oh so good! We'll be putting more details about all of these places in our April Travelogue so stay tuned. Riverview RV Park is a wonderful campground with panoramic views of the Mississippi River and all of the river traffic. It is fun seeing the barges making their way north and south but they can be rather noisy making their way past the campground at 2:00 a.m. in the morning. The diesels in those tugs are loud especially in the still night air but we wouldn't have wanted to miss it. So if you get to the Natchez area we highly recommend Riverview RV Park. Saturday, April 5, 2008 Yesterday's severe weather stayed to the north of us so we only got some of the thunder showers. Between showers we were able to get out to walk about the park and take a drive into Natchez. We visited the welcome center and got information on the area as well as watched a movie about the History of Natchez. After that we took a short drive around downtown Natchez and the River Front in Vidalia before returning home just to relax and watch some TV before hitting the hay. Today we'll begin doing the "tourist thing" and getting a better understanding of the history and culture in this area. Hopefully the weather will cooperate as it is rather gray, dismal, and chilly right now, oh well, it's not raining. Friday, April 4, 2008 Yesterday morning I tinkered around a little bit with the television reception and found that if I turned our power booster off then we got good reception on both analog and digital but when I turned it on it scrambles the picture. Probably I'll need to replace the power booster, I will deal with that later - there's too much RV living to be done to worry about television reception when we're hardly watching the thing. Being that this is the last full day of the rally we stayed in camp and socialized with the other attendees. It was fun getting to know our neighbors a lot better. Now we'll know who they are and where they live as we bump into them along the streets of Rainbow Plantation and we'll have this weekend in common. Last night's dinner was a Hobo Stew; each rig contributed a can of vegetables which was combined with the left over beef brisket from Tuesday's meal. It was a "souped up" beef stew and was "oh so good!" After the dinner we sat around and told stories, jokes, and lies always trying to top the last one told. It was a hoot which occasionally resulted in side splitting laughter. RVers are the best. This morning we said our good byes, broke camp, and headed for Natchez - actually Vidalia, Louisiana which is just across the Mississippi River from Natchez. We are going to spend four days at Riverview RV Park and have a site with a view of the Mississippi River where we can watch the barges make their way north and south. We no more than got set up and the rains began as there is a severe weather pattern crossing this area. It will be over by late afternoon and then we'll be getting several days of nice weather for sightseeing. Well, that's all for today - as Paul Harvey would say, "Good Day!" Thursday, April 3, 2008 Rich and Diane and Judy and I visited the old State Capitol building which is located only a few blocks from the Capitol Mall. What a neat old building. It was built in the 1850's and looks like a castle; I must say that Louisiana certainly likes marching to their own tune. No domed government typed buildings for them, no siree. Both the old and the new structures are different from the rest of the United States State Capitols buildings. The old state Capitol building houses the Museum of Political History and we enjoyed looking at the many exhibits. After touring the museum we hiked it up a couple of blocks to a Subway and had lunch. Then we headed for the current State Capitol building stopping by Saint Joseph's Cathedral along the way. I will elaborate on both in March's Travelogue which I hope to finish up within the next week. Last night we went to Corky's BBQ and enjoyed a meal together before calling it a day. Rich and Diane left this morning continuing their trek to Rainbow's End in Livingston, Texas. It was sure good to see them again and, as always, we look forward to our next get together. Wednesday, April 2, 2008 Yesterday we stayed at camp and visited. Rich and Diane arrived just before noon so Dave and Sharyl came over and we sat around and shared stories, opinions, and laughs. Later it was time for dinner which was beef brisket, mashed 'taters with gravy, green beans, bread and butter, and deserts. We took some "twine" and had a entertaining time, by the way, the meal was delicious. After dinner Judy and I toured Rich's and Diane's motorhome. It's a 2000 Dutchstar that they purchased new when they first began fulltiming. Rather than "trading up" they decided to do a "Extreme Makeover - Motorhome Edition". First they had the coach repainted which makes it look as if it just rolled off the showroom floor. Next they had some woodworking done on the inside by adding a storage cabinet over the dining room table, wooden lambrequins with window sills around to each window, a new head board added to the bed, and wooden frames around the florescent lights. All of the woodwork in their coach is cherry and they have taken very good care of it so these additions make it look brand new as well as plush. It seems that I always find something new to work on. This time it is to figure out why my antenna system doesn't pick up all of the digital stations that are available in this area. Rich and Diane has the identical Sharp Aquos television that we have but they are able to pick up all of the available digital stations while we can only pick up a few. We keep getting a "Low Signal" message on the others. That could mean several things - we have a bad connection somewhere between the antenna and power booster, we have an inferior power booster, an inferior splitter, or, heaven forbid, our manufacturer installed inferior coaxial cable. Most likely it's a bad connection so I will start by checking the connections at the antenna and power booster, hopefully it's a straight cable run between them with no connections or splitters in the cable run. I need to quit going into other people's coaches - Norm gets a better air card signal and Rich gets a better television signal. Just one more thing to occupy my mind and my time. Whine, whine, whine - this will drive me to wine, wine, wine if it keeps up. On a better note, we will be doing some sightseeing today with Rich and Diane. It will be interesting to see what we find as we have not finalize any plans. We have discovered that we a compatible in that we don't really like to get started before 10:00 in the morning and that 10:00 means ten-ish (anywhere from 9:30 to 10:30 - whenever we're ready, we're ready, after all this is not a precision event requiring punctuality). Tune in tomorrow to see where we went and what we did. Tuesday, April 1, 2008 I can't believe it, my day has finally arrived - April 1st. Happy April Fool's Day!! We are enjoying the Rally here in Red Stick (Baton Rouge). I asked how the city got it's name and it goes back to some Indian folklore. It seems that a chief (I will have do further research on this) stuck a red stick into the ground and stated that this is where they would set up camp. Dave and Sharyl Tholen and Judy and I did some sightseeing downtown yesterday. Baton Rouge is the capitol of Louisiana but it is also an old, old river town located right on the banks of the Mississippi River. We visited the State Capitol and even viewed both the House of Representatives and the Senate at work as they were both in session. Had we stayed longer we could have seen the Governor speak to the House but watching politics is about as interesting as watching snow melt, so we moved on - food was higher on our agenda than Louisiana politics. The park at capitol mall is very nicely done with lots of flowers blooming on this nice spring day. The sun was brightly shinning and the temperatures were in the low 80's with a gentle breeze keeping us very comfortable. We walked several blocks to a recommended restaurant named Po-Boy Lloyd's. Real authentic Cajun cooking going on there - the meal was just yummy. I had the seafood combo with oysters, shrimp, and cat fish, all fried to perfection with just a hit of Cajun spices - my compliments to the chef. Monday is red bean and rice day in Louisiana so Miss Judy tried that and we shared from each other's plates. Both meals were excellent and reasonably priced - as Mark De Carlos would say, "I'm satisfied", From Po-Boy Lloyd's we walked back to the river front where they have a really nice walk way along the top of the levee. No, we didn't drive the Chevy to the Levee and, no, the Levee wasn't dry. The river is within a foot of "flood stage" and hopefully it will rise no higher as our campground is located just outside of the levee. Yesterday we got an email from Rich and Diane Emond stating that they were in Alabama heading toward Texas and that they would stop by Rainbow Plantation to see us if we were still there. Well, guess what? We're not there but Baton Rouge is also along the way to Texas so we invited them to join us here at the Rally and they will arriving this afternoon. They will spend a couple of days here with us before continuing their journey west. It will be nice to see them again, we haven't seen them since October of 2006. Time flies when your having fun!! Well, I must go and be social - these are great people and we are having a good time with each other. So, until tomorrow - keep the greasy side down. |