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.

Test’s Over and Some Goodbyes

Linda’s sister, Joyce called this afternoon and wanted to know if we were gonna be here this evening cause her and husband Alex are bringin’ supper. The folks here are teasin’ us about gettin’ ‘Meals on Wheels’ but I think they wish they were in our shoes. Of course we said “Come On”! I even got out our rope lights and put them under the camper so they could spot us easily, kinda like a landing strip. Had to run the generator to power the lights, so the experiment is over, but we proved that we can go 5 days,probably more, without power to recharge the batteries.
Joyce called again to say they were runnin’ a little late so I assured her not to worry, we weren’t going to starve till they arrived. Just give us some cheese and crackers washed down with an adult beverage and we’re fine. Well she & Alex arrived around 7:00 and we had a wonderful meal she had prepared. Baked chicken, home made potato salad with crumbled bacon garnish and a buttermilk pie for dessert, umm..mm. I like this ‘Meals on Wheels’ stuff. After supper we made a fire and talked for a while, but soon they had to say ‘Goodnight’ and head home as Alex starts work around 6AM. We thanked them for their kindness and wished them a safe journey home.

Joyce, Alex & Linda

After they left Linda & I moseyed over to the ‘Community Fire’ and sat with all the folks there. I promised I’d post pictures of some of the folks I was able to capture on film, so here goes.

That’s Linda, My Linda, Dee, Sherry & Pat, left to right

Dick, Bob & Ken

Ed, Fred and the other Linda’s Husband (OK I flunked the name quiz)

After everyone turned in we sat around the fire with Dick & Sherry until midnight, no one knew it was that late. We were just engrossed in our conversation I guess.
Here’s another shot taken under Ken’s awning.

Linda, Sherry, Ellie, Jay & Ken, with Dick in the background.

Today we tried out our Solar Shower that I brought from home. We have had it years and have never bothered to use it. It got pretty hot sittin’ in the Ole’ Florida sun.

We could get 5 or 6 shampoos’ out of this

Saturday we decided that we would stay until Tuesday morning, but we needed to find us some water. We went into town as we needed some more food as well. Now with a full water tank and some more grub we were ready for three more days. I continued to monitor the battery voltages even though we technically ended the test after I ran the genny while Joyce & Alex were here the other night. I did confirm a few questions that I had.

1. The previous owner had some trouble with the converter and replaced it with a different one. The new converter has a 25A charger in it. I ran the generator about 1 hour and 15 minutes and it brought the batteries up to full charge in that time.

2. The wiring harness between the truck and the camper must have a heavier wire for charging goin’ down the road as it seems to replenish it too.

Sunday we went for a walk in the management area. The walk in the fresh air was great and we walked about 3 miles. We returned to sit around at Dick & Sherry’s coach, everyone was there, so we chewed some more fat. Went to our camper and ate dinner. It was to windy for a fire so Linda & I played Rummy for hours then turned in for the night.

These little guys were at my feet while I was writtin’.

This is a North American Bluebird

Monday started out with rain, rain, rain early so we decided to pack it up and head for home. We made the rounds and said our goodbyes, hugs & handshakes. We had a great time with our new friends and we hope to see ya again.
On the way home Linda decided we better stop at Ft. Drum Conservation Area for some lunch. After lunch decided to call our good buddies Linda & Bud. It was decided then we’d all go out to dinner. We’re back at the rancho, unpacked, unloaded the camper, had long hot showers and we’re off to dinner.
Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.

Life in the Mountains

Today is Monday and we are headed across the mountain thru the park.
The weather has been up & down. Friday was OK, I worked cleanin’ up branches and hulls from the chestnut trees and burnin’ em. Friday night we had tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings, all we got was some rain , thank goodness.
Saturday started as a rainy day, but cleared off around noon so we went to the local flea markets. A lady Linda worked for many years ago has had a booth here for many years so we visited a little, but she was closin’. We told her we’d come back and see her Sunday. Went home for dinner then some TV and internet. My air card doesn’t seem to work real well here even with the antenna. One minute I have 60% the next 10% signal and there’s a tower right down the road 3/4 mile, if that. I am workin’ off a Verizon network I think but I don’t know why signal varies so much, “Give me Sprint 3G” anytime.
Sunday was a nice day so we went back to the market to see Marret, the woman who owned the beauty shop Linda worked at shortly after we got married. Boy is that ancient history. Linda bought a pair of sunglasses she looked at Saturday. We then stopped at the Harrahs Casino in Cherokee to see if they had any Promo’s goin’ on, No luck. We headed home from there, had some dinner and another excitin’ night of TV watchin’.
As I said we’re goin’ over to Pigeon Forge to shop for unmentionables fer the wife, at Jockey and stop at the Coleman campin’ outlet store. It’s another rainy day so we figured we might as well do this as sit at home. The clouds are on the ground in the higher elevations today but the leaves are showin’ their best colors up there too.

This is Newfound Gap, where we ate dinner the other night
Made it to the ‘Unmentionables’ store and got more than what we came fer. I even got some new jeans and we ate dinner at Applebees, yum…. We also perused the Coleman Camping store and purchased 2 pie irons for makin’ mountain pies. Fueled up at 2.49/gal in Pigeon Forge then headed across the mountain fer home. The fog was lots worse on our return trip tonight.
Well that’s all the excitin’ news fer today. Hope to see ya down the road as we’re;

Dancin’ on the Wind.