Happy Birthday DAD

Dad turned 74 today, we were able to take him to the steak house for dinner, followed by cake and a Happy Birthday Song.

 We picked him up in Lima this past weekend, and he spent a few days with us in the RV. The first night we boondocked while we visited Cody and his family.

 Once we left Troy Ohio we drove to Ft Boonsboro State Park where we spent a couple nights. I got a new C-Pap and a new mask. I'll have to set up a folow up appointment when I set up my next doctors appointment which should be in Jan 2011. That will be another fly in for the doctor and fly back to FL.

 Yesterday we arrived in Middlesboro where we were greeted by Corey, Jaelynn, and Jenelle. I took dad home so he could catch up on his rest in his favorite chair, and then we all went for Mexican. After the mexican feast we went back to the city parking lot where the rig was and played the balls on the string game.

 Today we moved the rig to the Cumberland Gap National Park before we started doing all our running before we leave for FL next week. Dad watched me make a remote holder to go in the rig before we went to eat, and after the cake I came back to the rig while Marcia and Scott went to play B I N G O. I hope she hits that $1000.00 game so we will have some extra spending $$ on the cruise, or maybe to help buy the six new tires the rig needs.

 Tomorrow will be more running and visiting with friends and family before the big half time show at the football game. Jordyn, (our niece) will be cheering the team on.......

Enjoy them while you can.

Golden years are to be ENJOYED.

But what are Golden Years? Some say the time after your retirement, or your last few years on this earth, and I'm sure others define it in their own ways. Since the doctors told me I couldn't work to earn a living any more I figure my Golden Years started then.

 Mine started back in 2002, so I had to find something to fill in my days so I wouldn't be board to death. I bought a motorcycle! I spent a lot of time riding and working on the bike while Marcia worked. When the cold weather moved into KY I found myself sitting in the house way too much.

 In Jan of 2007 we decided to sell off most of our stuff, buy a motor home, and CHASE THE 70's. By June of 07 we had gotten rid of almost everything, bought a motor home, and was starting to travel to U S A. We have seen more places than most people, we have slept in the motor home in 46 different states, and met many friends along the way.

 Friday we arrived in Beaverdam Ohio, where my dad was visiting my cousins Andrea and Danny Mason. They allowed us to park the Kountry Star in their large back yard, they watched as Marcia and I parked the rig, dumped the air, lowered the jacks, and extended the slides. We were "home" ! Andrea was impressed at the room we had after the slides were extended.

 We had a good time visiting, we ate at "Happy Days" (best tenderloin sandwich for $1.50), and a new BBQ joint that replaced the original Happy Days. Andrea, Marcia and myself even made biscuits, gravy, and sausage Saturday.

 Sunday morning we rolled in the slides, raised the jacks and rolled away from "Camp Mason". We have dad with us for a few days, and I hope we help him enjoy these few days. He liked riding in the rig, he says you can see a lot out of the big windshield, and sitting up high gives a better view too.

 Our first stop was Cody and Nicole's where we just had to see them babies. Jacob 2 years old and Caleb 4 weeks old. I just love holding the little ones while they are sleeping, but when they star crying it is time to give them back to mommy or daddy. I renamed Jacob to Sam in an attempt to gain his trust, and it really worked. By the end of the night Sam had me so worn out I could hardly move. I found it hard telling him dad was his dad's dads dad.

 Marcia and I were really impressed with Cody and Nicole's new home, they have a large back yard for them boys to run in, and plenty room inside for them on the cold days they have here in Troy Ohio. Cody has a love for guns, so I took advantage of him by talking him into cleaning my  guns. THANK YOU CODY,

 Today we will head on to "The Kentucky Horse Park" so I can get my last doctors appointment in before we head south for the winter. With the temperature getting into the 90's in KY this week it is hard to say heading south for the winter, but after seeing the 40's in the U P, and waking up yesterday to 57 degrees inside the rig I have decided I would rather run the AC over the heat pump ANY DAY..........especially in my GOLDEN YEARS..............

We left Elkhart this AM headed to Focal Wood Products to get our new desk installed. Once we arrive Carlyle started working. Our dining area was like this before he started.

He took the table out and into his shop where he did some major changes to it. One leg was removed, the table was dis-assembled, a few holes were made, and he put most of it back together with a few modifications.

Then he started bringing in the pieces to the desk, he aligned everything and started screwing thins to this and that.

Then he put the modified table in place.

And in no time at all he had a finished product, and I had a happy wife.

Here is the desk with the table in place.

This show the window treatment as he called it, I say the vallance.

We have not get the laptops put where they go, and have not started filling the cabinets either. Once we arrived here in Beaverdam we took the Jeep to check out the CG Paul had told us about. The name is on the tip of my tounge but I can't say it, or type it, so maybe the next time. It is 1.5 miles esat of I-75 on hwy 81, which is exit 127. A VERY nice park with water and electric, it has 1 dump station, and 2 dump stations for grey water only. Never seen a dump station for grey water only, but it has two. It is first come, but people often come on Thursday and pay for three nights, but not show up until Friday or Saturday, so it had a no vacancy sign out front when we arrived today.

 When I down loaded my camera tonight to get the pics of the desk I noticed I went the entire rally without taking one picture. Shame on me, but we all know how expensive the digital film is!

 We will be taking dad with us when we leave here headed south, plan on a stop around Dayton to see my nephew and his family. The one month old baby boy, and the two year old boy is what we really are stopping to see, but I will include the Cody and Nicole so they won't have anything to complain about.

Then on to the Doctor in Lexington Tuesday....................

Rainy Day

 Today we woke up to see liquid sunshine falling from the sky. This is one of the rains the farmers like to see, slow easy get everything wet kind of rain. It has been a long time since we have seen this type of liquid sunshine, and I'm sure the people watering their grass or crops are really glad to see it.

 Yesterday Walt and I took a ride into MI to visit some of the "candy" stores. Now this "candy" was RV related. I know of 4 surplus stores in lower MI that handle RV stuff, although we didn't find the treasures we were looking for I did enjoy looking around at all the stuff they have to offer.

 Back at the rally people were still buying, learning, and visiting. Walt, Donna, Connie, Paul, Marcia and myself went to eat at Lake Shore Grill. As the name suggests it is on the lake shore, and as most lakes with a food source there were ducks. Thankfully we were on the patio above the lake and ducks, but Walt and Marcia had fun feeding the ducks our left-overs.

 The rally offered entertainment last night, a couple from Tucson were singing comical type songs. I thought she did OK, but he needed a mic that attached to him because he would turn his head away from the mic while trying to sing and you had to be a lip-reader to know what he was singing.

 Today I will wait for a window in the rain so I can dump our tanks and fill up with water so we will be able to get an early start tomorrow when we leave our friends here in Elkhart. We have an appointment to pick up our new desk, and then we head to Lima to pick up dad....

What attracts People to R V Rallies?

  We are here at the Gypsy Journal Rally having a terrific time, so I started thinking about why people attend Rallies. Could it be to get all the vendors in one place so they can buy everything they need at once? Or is it to gain the knowledge of the many seminars that are offered? Maybe it is so they can gather with like minded RV'ers to socialize for a few days.

  I know why I attend them, and that is to socialize with friends we have met since we went FT back in 2007, and to meet new friends who like the RV lifestyle. I watch some people gather at the vendor booths and buy things they need or want for their RV. I too will spend some $$ here, but first I compare prices. If I see something at a vendor's table that I want, I wait until I get back to the rig and check the online prices before I hand over my credit card to get it right now.

 Checking things out online has been a real problem, Everywhere we have been this summer I find our Verizon Air Card to be VERY slow at times. SO slow that I am just waiting for our contract to expire before I switch to another service. Verizon has a booth set up here at Nick's rally so I ask the guy why it was so slow. His explanation was: they are switching things out to make them better, going into the "4-G" stage of cell phones. My thoughts are they have way too many cell phones, and air cards for the towers they have. We only have a month or two left on our contract so we will see what it is like when the time comes.

 Back to the rally question, I see so many of the classes put on at the rally full: so maybe people come to learn from people in the know. The sad part to that is almost everyone giving a class has something to sell. I call them info-mercials, because almost everyone giving the class is trying to sell you their product. So I don't sit in on very many classes. I did sit in on one given by someone selling Good Sam extended warranties, because we have been thinking about getting an extended warranty since our friends, Janice and Dean, got stranded in Nashville with engine problems this summer.

 I also went to one where the guy is selling mufflers and air filters. After forking out a bunch of cash replacing filters on the Kountry Star this summer I'm thinking about buying a reusable air filter. The throw a way air filter for the Kountry Star is over $100 online, and the life time filter at the rally is just over $300. I'll check the online life time filter prices before I swipe my card here, but I did gain some knowledge from the info-mercials today.

 I guess the only answer is that people come to rallies for their own reasons, and ours is for the fun we have at them......

The RALLY starts tomorrow

Yes the Gypsy Journal rally starts tomorrow, but the fun started when we arrived here at Elkhart CG. It has been exciting seeing other class mates roll in, and to see the ones that watched us roll in. Today I watched the vendors setting up in the indoor area for vendors.

 Tonight we had a good old class of 2007 happy hour.I can't even begin to name the names of all the ones meeting tonight at Mac and Netters rig, but we had to expand the circle (oval really) several times as more and more showed up for the 4 o'clock happy hour. The food kept coming until 6 PM so if anyone left hungry it was their fault.

 After spending several hours eating, drinking, and telling stories we were ask for some help by "the Nick Russell.  The other half of we in Nicks last few blogs picked his wife up today. They had been apart for 10 days, so Nick led several of us "class of 2007" troopers to their rig where we all attempted to "rock" the rig. Then we all started yelling "we know what you are doing". It was fun when Greg came out to see what was happening.

 Then we all had to see the EXTRA LARGE PANTIES draped across the front of someones RV. We all had to go knock on the door to ask the owner about the panties. We knew there was a story behind someone having a pair of panties draped across the front of their rig. (they had to be 6 feel wide). And the next time you see me you can ask me and I will tell you the story............

Elkhart Camping grounds

We are here waiting on the Gypsy Journal Rally to start on Monday, and we are not the only ones waiting. Several couples of the Class of 07 are here, along with many "adopted" class of 2007 members, and many more Escapees. Nick and Terry Russell have been having the GJR for several years now, they have one in the spring in AZ, and in the fall here or in Celina OH.

 I think there has been a lot of confusion about who gets what with the camping fees, we paid for a week and a day through the CG which saved us a few dollars over paying Nick for the four days of the rally and the CG the other four days we will be here.  I know some paid Nick and then decided to pay the CG for a month, which means they really paid for the same 4 nights of the rally twice. With this confusion I don't see things working out for another rally here, but then what do I know about it.

 Today was a laid back rest up day. We made a trip to the store to get some garbage bags for our big yellow, collapsible trash can we use outside, and to fill the jeep up with gas. Later we met 20-30 others under the big tent for 4 o'clock happy hour. It was really good seeing so many of the people we have met all across the country gathered under one big tent.

 After the "social hour" or happy hour Bob and Molly, Paul and Connie, Rich and Mary, and Marcia and I went to Hacienda for a Mexican dinner. We were all celebrating Connie's Birthday. It was good to spend her special day with the 8 of us that had spent so much time together in FL the past couple years. We had a lot of catching up to do.

 Later there were 8 couples that gathered in one of the rooms the CG has to play Hand and Foot. I am very sad to say it was the girls who took the guys to school. 3 tables of the girls won, and the 4th table had not finished when we left. I sure hope the guys of table 4 kept the girls from a clean sweep.

 Tomorrow will be filled with more people arriving, and more reunions of friends we have met in the three years that we have been traveling around in our house on wheels......