Last Travel Day Home

Sorry it has taken so long to write my final post of our trip but we’re still unpackin’ & washin’. It’s amazing how much one can cram into a truck camper.

The park were in, Manatee Hammock, is packed pru..tty tight right now. Those that were here fer’ the Space Shuttle launch, most are still here. I guess they decided to extend their stay so’s they could see it go up on Wednesday, if it goes. There were lots of kids in the park and they were ‘Trick or Treatin’ around the camp. This bein’ Sunday night and all I wonder why they haven’t all gone home? Maybe they didn’t have school on Monday.

We ate a quick dinner then went fer’ a walk round the camp. We were near the fishin’ pier when we met two ladies, Terry & her close friend, sorry her name escapes me. I asked if they were here fer’ the launch, they said they were. Terry said they were from the ‘West’ coast and being a ‘flatland floridian’ I assumed Tampa or nearby. I right away give her a card and tell them if they come over next time they are welcome to stay at our house, that we have 30 & 20 amp hookups and water as well. Then Terry told us she was from WASHINGTON, Oh that ‘West Coast’! We…ll that mite make a difference when you drop by on your next visit here. But your still welcome anytime your in the neighborhood, just call to make sure we’re home at the time, you have our card. If’n we get up to your neck o’ the woods next summer we’ll be sure to give ya a shout.

The last leg of the trip was just about an hour and a half. Y’all know this fella’s lookin’ forward to returnin’ to the ‘Stix & Brix’ life, Not. I’d be much happier on the road, but gotta do this fer’ now.

Well that’s all fer’ today, I’ll try and post again soon. Until then we hope to see ya’ down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

I’m Hearin’ Weddin’ Bells!

Oh Lord it’s not me, I been there, and I aint takin’ that trip again. That boat has sailed fer this salty ole fella. But someone did get married out of the family this weekend. That’s right most folks go gettin’ themselves married into a family, well in honesty they did, just not our family. Let me shed some light on this. See my sister-in-law that was married to my wife’s brother, now deceased, got remarried this weekend. She finally found her a fella to warm her heart & spend the rest o’ her days with. The big joke was that Linda & I were becomin’ Ex In-laws after her weddin’. In truth She will always hold a special place in our hearts and just cause she got herself hitched to a new fella, she’s still family!!



Patty & Todd’s ceremony on a beach along the Intercoastal Waterway.



The wedding was followed by a reception at a friends home, lots o’ music, food & drinks. A great time was had by all. They were spendin’ their Honeymoon in the Florida Keys. Congratulations Patty & Todd and may all your days be as special as today.
On the RV front, we’re still slowly preparin’ fer rollin’ out a dodge. Been doin’ some things on the house, on the Lance and gettin’ us squared away so’s we can stay gone fer 6 months or so.
Ordered some parts fer the tractor and have to change them out so Jason, our son, can do the mowin’ whilst’ we’re gone. Jason will be here while we’re gone so the house won’t be empty. Made my annual trip to the sawbones to see if I was up to the trip and get my meds renewed and have some blood work done. Linda did the same today, so we’re hopin’ everything is OK fer us to go.
On the Lance we’ve had an intermittent problem with the front window leakin’. It’s kind a got a mind of it’s own and only leaks slightly when it takes a notion to do so. Some times it shows up when we’re sittin’ still, sometimes it’ll leak when we’re travelin’ down the highway. Then again it’ll stay dry in a ‘Florida Frog Strangler’ drivin’ down the interstate or sittin’ parked into the wind, got to love Mr. Murphy. I decided to see if I could stop it once and fer all, so I removed all the caulking around the window. Then I’m recaulkin’ it with Geocel ProFlex RV sealant. Great stuff!! Time will tell if I got it licked.
Well that’s all fer today. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Some Plannin’, Some Doin’ & Some Finagling!

The RV-Anytimers are fixin to hit the trail again. I can’t believe that we are movin’ out so early this year, at Linda’s insistence. We are plannin’ on rollin’ out April 28th if nothin’ gets in the way. We’re goin up to the mountains fer a few weeks to do some tree & brush cuttin’ so we can get some more sun on the house. One of our friends, Gary, is comin’ up with us to give us a hand. Gary’s haulin’ a new stove up in his truck so we can bring the camper. He’ll be stayin as long as he likes then headin’ fer home cause him and his DW are comin’ back fer two weeks themselves. We’ll be rollin’ north I figure after they arrive back up there. Can’t wait to be on the road again, sorry Willie. Well that covers the plannin’.
I was perusin’ the WWW, checkin’ out some other folks site, when I decided to start this post cause my junior editor was tryin’ to motivate me.

Alright, alright I’m peckin away. Are ya happy now? I have to admit I’ve had one of those long dry spells when it comes to this blog, but as I’ve said before, I like ta’ keep it about RV’n! When you don’t have any Rv’n goin’ on , or RV related stuff, ya’ll don’t want ta’ here the daily yada-yada goin’ on.
So I been workin’ on some stuff to make our RV’n experience this year even better. Back a few posts I told ya’ll we purchased a Cyfre 3G Wireless Router to use with our Sprint Aircard. Well it seems that device has this big step down transformer at the plug-in end and it occupies the space of an entire duplex outlet where I have to plug it in. So I put in another outlet just for the router, freeing up the original outlet that we use for the laptops, toaster and charger for our 6V batteries for the lantern. I oriented the new outlet 90 degrees to the existing one to better accommodate the router plug.

Now I have to put an inline switch on the cord so it’s not on continuously. I positioned the router as high in the overhead cabinet and as far to the rear as possible. This allows me to plug in our  antenna to the Sprint Aircard boostin’ the cellular signal. Just can’t wait to try it out in some camp deep in a National. Forest.
That covers some of the doin’.
Next project. I bought Linda a bicycle for Christmas and our daughter gave me a used one shortly before Thanksgiving. We have intended to ride them regularly, but ya’ll know how that goes, the best laid plans. Well we wanted to take them with us on our trip this year, so we’ve been hunting for a bike rack. We considered receiver mount racks, several ladder mount racks, I even tried to adapt the bike rack we have which fits on an automobile trunk or SUV tailgate. I got it on with some finagling, but that idea was shot down by the boss. We wanted a rack that would be useable on both RV’s. I had visions of mounting a receiver mount rack on the pin box of the fiver and the truck receiver when using the Lance. That idea was scrapped cause we have a short bed truck and our turning clearances are close already. It would also require purchasing a receiver hitch extension for the truck as the Lance extends past the truck about 16-18 inches. So ladder mount it is. Looked at some at Camping World, read lots of reviews, didn’t like what I found. Then I found a rack, made in the USA, fastens to the ladder with machined aluminum clamps, swings away to allow access to the ladder, looks sturdier than the others. So after shopping for the best price, we ordered one from Tweetys RV. It arrived within 5 days and I went to work. Well it mounted just as I thought, seems pretty rugged, but tryin’ to mount two mountain bikes on it was a challenge to say the least. I put mine on first then fought with hers, put hers on first then mine wouldn’t fit without some pryin’ and cussin’. After fightin’ with it for 2-3 hours I quit and put the bikes away. The sun was up pretty high by then and I was gettin’ exasperated and burnin’ up. Well this morning I went back at it and got the bikes mounted on the rack, pretty good I thought. Shows what a fella only thinks he knows. I got Linda to come out and look at how the bikes were on there, all strapped down and padded where I thought they needed it. NOT!! Shot that method right out the sky! This will never work like this, this is gonna scratch my bike, this wiggles. So back to the brain drainin’. I went a it again, this one first, that one first, this one here, that one here. Finally we found a method that seems to work for the bikes, Linda & me. It’s a good thing cause I would have looked like Charles Atlas if I had to keep liftin’ those bikes, up & down, up & down. For lightweight bikes they sure were startin’ to wear a fella out. Here’s the final configuration (I hope).
The generator we carry on the back was another stumbling block that we had to work around, cant leave that home. So I think the bikes are happy, Momma seems to be happy, so I going to leave it at that. Now if I can just remember how I did it we’ll be A-OK.
Oh Oh the Junior Editor is lookin’ over my work again! Guess I better quit fer now.

Hope to see ya down the road as were,

Dancin’ on the Wind.