Visitin’s Over !

Well we’ve been at the hacienda Alone…. for a week now. Linda's Aunt & Uncle have returned to the North Country and we’ve just been layin’ back enjoyin’ the quiet. We love to see them come each year, you know they need a respite from all the snow and freezing weather. While they were here we drove down to one of the Indian Reservations Casinos to see if we could ‘Skin the Indians’.
We left home early one morning and arrived at the Brighton Seminole Casino around 9:30AM.

We proceeded to the Bingo Hall where they were servin’ Seniors Free Breakfast. It wasn’t coffee & doughnuts either. The menu consisted of Biscuits & Gravy, Coffee & OJ or Scrambled Eggs, Sausage Patty and a Biscuit with Gravy with Coffee & OJ. Of coarse being weight conscious like we are we opted for the  ‘Full Monte’, Gimme some of everything, PL..E..ASE. After we were filled to capacity we went to see the folks at the Players Club Desk. Ya see we had been given some coupons for $50 in free play at the County Fair. Linda had talked to a fella on the phone who said he could not honor the coupon because we already had Players Club cards, but he would give us $25 in free play. Great we get to play with their money. Linda & I each got the $25 and since she was a new member, Aunt Jessie got $50 and Uncle Don, who always comes out smellin’ sweeter than he should, gets the $25, cause he already has a Players Club card and then gets $50 to boot. Why he got the extra $50, we didn’t dare ask, but that’s what I mean him comin’ out on top o’ things regular. The Indians took back all the money they let me have right quick. Linda skinned ‘em fer about $35-40 on her money. Don didn’t do too shabby either comin’ away with 45 or 50 bucks. So we had more than enough to go have dinner back in Okeechobee at Popeyes Chicken.
All in all it was a fun day. I’d drive to Brighton any day over drivin’ to Ft. Lauderdale to a Casino. It’s all two lane country roads, plenty o’ scenery, no crazies from the city like the drive south on I-95. I hate the congestion, the speeds, and the crazies weavin’ and brakin, jockeyin’ fer a better position that might get ‘em there 30 seconds ahead of me. Give me a lonely two lane somewheres’ near the Continental Divide and I’m in a world of my own.
Well, got to go do some figuin’ on the Lance so’s I can add an AC outlet for the new router. Until the next time, lets see what trouble I can stir up.
Hope to see ya down the road as we’re,
Dancin’ on the Wind.

Packin’ em in at the Rancho!

We returned from the Three Lakes camping area on Monday cause Linda had blood work scheduled for Tuesday and her Aunt & Uncle were comin’ this week. When we arrived home I unpacked the camper then parked it around back and unloaded it so’s she could have the truck the next day to go to her Dr’s appointment. Seems we had a phone message when we got home regardin’ her winnin’ a prize for enterin’ somethin’. We had to drive to Cocoa Beach to pick up her prize on Tuesday evenin’. She was excited about winnin’ a 2010 Ford Explorer, a flat screen TV, round trip airfare for two from any major domestic hub, or a vacation certificate. It wasn’t a Timeshare presentation it was a Vacation Club for $10 GRAND, sheesh! Guess what our prize was? You guessed it a vacation certificate, whether we’ll use it is yet to be determined. While we were engaged in Cocoa, Aunt Jessie & Uncle Don arrived at the rancho. We were not expectin’ them for a few more days, but the northern weather got them movin’ much sooner. Actually they were tryin’ to beat the next snowstorm comin’ in, Don said he already had six foot piles of snow all along his driveway. We sat up chattin’  and then called it a night.
Ellie & Jay arrived Thursday and Jay & Don commenced to ‘Jammin’, Don on the Mandolin and Jay on the Guitar. They took a little time to adjust to each others style,but were makin’ music in short order. Friday we took Jay & Ellie around and showed them the local sites. While we were out we stopped at local music store cause Jay needed a neck for his Mandolin, no luck. Then I remembered another store that was across town and as we were goin’ back by that way I stopped. The general consensus was we were wastin’ our time but guess what, they had premade necks and bone blanks. Jay chose the bone blank that he can make two necks from for half the price of the manufactured plastic necks.
Saturday Ellie, Jay, Linda & I took a ride down south away’s to look at a camp that someone had told them about. It is a nice place to camp with dump station, water fill, restrooms & hot showers all for a donation to keep the place goin’. The bathrooms aint much, but it’s like the ‘Ritz’ after stayin’ at Three Lakes. Maybe we’ll get a chance to try it out before we leave fer’ the summer, which is lookin’ more like we’ll be pullin’ out real early this year.
After we came back to civilization, we headed to Stuart cause Jay & Ellie’s son, Ronnie, was at a car show there. Ronnie lives in NC, but helps a man in Stuart and thats why he was here at the show. We met up with him at the warehouse the man stores his cars at and carried him and a friend back to the beach to pick up two more cars at the show.

Linda & Ellie in a 1895 Duryea replica

After droppin’ the boys off and sayin’ our goodbyes we started headin fer home. Along the way we had decided to stop at CiCi’s Pizza for some late lunch. There were more people than I’d ever seen there before for some reason. Well…. seems they were celebratin’ their 50th Anniversary and the ‘All ya can eat buffet’ was only $3.99. Swe..e..et!!! I can definitely put a dent in their menu fer that kind a dinero. We all ate more that we shoulda’ and waddled out to the truck to head home. Jay & Don did some more playin’ and singin’, which we all joined in, even though some folks that shall remain unnamed, could have used a bucket in each hand.

Sunday was a lazy day and we just relaxed, the ‘Boys’ played some and we just enjoyed each others company.

Gettin’ ready to pull out

We must’a done somethin’ right cause Jay & Ellie were just gonna stay fer 2 nights and didn’t leave till Tuesday. We had a wonderful time with them and can’t wait to see um again soon.

Until we do, “Vaya Con Dios” my friends & Travel safe along the trail.

Well that’s all fer today. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

We’re Campin’ Again

We sure are livin’ up to to the title of this here blog lately. We decided pretty quick after viewing our calendar, that we just had to go campin’ right away if we wanted to go at all. This time I hadn’t unloaded the camper so we just had to load everything else up. We’ve decided to return to the management area where we camped a week or so ago and visit with all the new friends we made. We both had appointments with the eye Dr. on Wednesday at 2:30 & 2:45 and we left immediately after for the woods.
So here we are, campin’ again. Boondockin’. Dry campin’ with no hookups. This time we brought an extra 15 gallons of water with us along with a full freshwater tank in the camper. We learned that we’re not relyin’ on the water here. Our last trip here proved we can ‘Boondock’ with no hookups for an indefinite amount of time if we have a source to replace our water supply. Dumping is not a problem cause there’s a campground 3 miles west and another 4 miles east where we can dump.
All the folks we met last trip are still here as well as a few new rigs from PA & ME. The weather is cold like the last trip, 33 this morning and the ‘Community Campfire’ was not well attended last night. Lets hope things improve in the coming days.
Friday
It was supposed to rain today, commensin’ this evening. Well Mother Nature put the rush on things and it started rainin’ round 5AM. We spent the day playin’ cards, computin’ and watchin’ TV while it continued to rain outside. After dinner we were waitin’ for the ‘opening ceremonies’ to the Winter Olympics, that we thought would start at the beginning of the Olympic programming at 7:30PM, but it didn’t start till 9PM. I didn’t think too much about the power we were usin’ and Mr. Murphy snuck up and smacked me in the back o’ my noggin’. Around 10:30, during the opening ceremonies, the inverter started to scream it’s low battery alarm. Batteries are down to 50% charge, so I cranked up the generator to put a little charge back in the batteries. I was just too cocky about our power usage and not able to go out in the pourin’ rain to monitor battery voltages. So we missed the end of the program, Oh well.
I did find out something interesting. I placed our generator under the rear of the camper to keep it dry and in case we had to run it I could run outside and start her up. Well running it that close seems to interfere with the Digital Converter for our TV. I even put the TV on inverter power while the genny was runnin’ and still had the interference. The TV picture would become pixilated and the sound would skip words even though I had a 92% signal strength on the channel. I guess the generator frequency was affectin’ the Digital Converter. Saturday I moved the genny back away from the camper and tried the TV again, powered by the genny and powered by the inverter while the genny was runnin’. With the same 92% signal on the same channel I had no interference what so ever. Somethins’ goin’ on that I don’t fully understand, but I think I figered’ a work-around.
Saturday
Saturday dawned icky instead of the promised sun and Linda said she had enough, she wanted to go home. I said, “Honey, what if we didn’t have a home to go back to and were livin’ full-time in the RV”? We…ll she countered with, “You always told me if you don’t like the weather we can move, if you don’t like the scenery we can move, if you don’t like your neighbors we can move”! She got me there. So I replied, “Where could we go that’s warmer? We’re in Florida”! GOTCHA!!! So we stayed and the sun came out and we went to town and did some shoppin’, had lunch at a great Chinese Buffet and went to the Flea Market. We got back to camp just in time for the ‘Community Campfire’.
Sunday
Sunday we had a wonderful breakfast and waited for the day to warm up some so we could get a shower before we attended the Sunday service held here each week. After services we had some lunch and spent the afternoon visitin’ around the camp. We cooked some NY Tube Steaks fer dinner then headed to the fire to close out the day.
Monday
Monday was spent packin up, then we spent the next hour and a half sayin’ our goodbyes. Seems we have some company comin’, besides Linda’s Aunt & Uncle this month. Jay & Ellie are comin’ over to stay a few days, after hearin’ Linda’s Uncle Don is a Mandolin player, and he wants to play some with Don.
So were headin’ back to the ‘Rancho’ for what  looks like an extended stay this time. Until the next episode.
Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.