No time to lounge around this morning since we were on the daily work schedule.  We’ve been here a few weeks and we’ve more or less adjusted to being back “to work”.  That is if you can call it work.  This morning it was our turn to “police” the various trails in a golf cart making sure there were no trees or branches blocking the trails, the signs were all clean, and there was no garbage left lying around.  Next up for me was a paint party, 6 boards needed a coat of primer before they could be installed on one of the picnic pavilions. Once that was finished that was it for this morning.  Tough?  Hey?

If you’ve forgotten we are at Dade Battlefield Historical Park in Bushnell, Florida.   We get a full hookup site in return for 24 hours of work a week between the two of us.  This is our site and that is our new patio awning

Down the road from us are three other rigs of other work campers.

Across from us is the maintenance garage, inside is our golf cart

There are two ways to get back here, this is the road from the front

This is the back gate which is about 100 feet from our rig

Bottom line, this is a really nice place and a great way to spend 3 months in Florida since it allows us to save a bit of money since we have no site expenses.

What else have we been up to?  Yesterday we spend a delightful afternoon with our good friends Dennis and Pam who live in Ocala.  We put our heads together and they decided they  would join us down here for the afternoon.  We then decided we would first meet at Beef O’Brady’s for a late afternoon lunch.

They had a great two for twenty menu which was just what we were looking for.

Afterwards we went back to our place and spent the remainder of the afternoon and the early evening sitting outside enjoying one another’s company.  All too soon it began to cool down and it was time to call it a day.

That’s about it as we continue to travel down The Road of Retirement.  Not a whole lot of sightseeing but rather just plain old life taken one day at a time.  We’re not complaining but again we are getting restless and are more than ready to get the wheels rolling again.  I know, in time.

Thanks again for checking in with us.  If you have questions, suggestions, or whatever drop us an email.  Time to go now.  Have a great day tomorrow whatever you decide to do.

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

I know, I know I’ve been crying about this weather forever.  But come on now, this is Florida and the forecast temperature for tonight is 35 degrees?  Thankfully, the warmer weather is supposed to be back by this Friday.  Not a day too soon if you ask me.  All those up north, please take care of yourselves as you suffer through some of the coldest weather on record.

I had my follow up appointment for my knee today.  Biggest issue is the continued swelling which is causing a good deal of pain.  The answer is a daily water pill, wrapping the leg tightly with an ace bandage, and ice on the knee at least two to three times a day.  Other than that, things look good.  I must get back to doing my daily exercises as well or it will be a lot longer before I have full mobility.  It’s up to me now.

Barbara finally resolved one of the biggest issues she’s been fighting for some time now – access to her social security records.  She has spent days, hours, month after month trying to get through by phone trying to resolve this.  Today we finally found a local social security office and wonder of wonders within an hour everything was taken care of. Score another one for the good guys.

We received an invite tonight to the local volunteer camp fire gathering.  There are a total of ten of us resident volunteers.   The one couple started the fire, made a dessert for everyone to share, and we all gathered together to swap stories of life on the road and volunteering experiences.  After a couple of hours, the cold finally drove us all inside.  It was a great night just getting to know the others we are working with.  There is another one planned in the near future.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  A full day with a lot accomplished and as always, we did it together just traveling along, hand in hand, side by side, singing our song. Come tomorrow I have another doctor’s appointment and who knows what else we’ll find to get into.  Time will tell.

Time to go now.  Thanks for joining us again on our journey.  Hope you had a great day and as I said earlier if you’re up north please be careful until this bitter cold weather snaps.  In closing as always, a thought for each of us to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

 

OK, I just need to say this.  This weather sucks.  Yes, I know that it is not as bad as those in the north are suffering through.  There are have been blizzards, sub zero temperatures and snow on top of snow.  Well, it’s not all peaches and cream here in Florida.  We are used to temperatures in the 70’s during the day and maybe mid 60’s at night.  Not now.  We’re lucky to get to the mid 50’s during the day and so much lower at night.  What in the world is going on?

Moving on.  We now have been here at Dade Battlefield for one week.  The site is great.  The people are super.  The work is not all that difficult.  We work four days a week, three hours each day, a total of twenty-four hours a week for both of us.  Like everyone else we are assigned to clean the four bathrooms once or twice a week.  The grounds have to be policed.  There are table and chairs to be set up or taken down.  Signs throughout the park have to be cleaned.  Sometimes the front of the various buildings need to be power washed.   Often times we are left trying to find things to do.  After all, there are ten of us here so there are many hands to divide projects up between.  Add to that the fact that all the others have been here in years past so know without thinking what needs to be done and they just go and do it.  The biggest adjustment for both of us is simply the fact that our work day is from 8 to 11 am.  We’re not used to getting up and going to work in the morning.  We just keep grinning and telling ourselves only two more months and we are saving ourselves some bucks by doing this.

What else have we been doing?  Taking lots of naps and slowly adjusting to our new schedule.  It’s really neat being able to come home and just veg out if we feel like it.  Which we do quite frequently lately.  Ah, being retired is indeed all that it is made out to be.

We also went to a chili cook off at church today.  Had a good crowd for the event.  They also had some really good chili.  We really enjoyed ourselves and came home stuffed and satisfied.

Repairs have been made to Graybeard.  Unfortunately, our hot water heater decided to give up the ghost.  What actually happened is rather weird.  It started out with a really loud screeching sound every time we turned the hot water on.  It was decided that the issue was probably lime and calcium build up in the tank.  No problem.  Remove the drain plug and clean it out.  That’s when everything went south.  Somewhere along the way someone had forced an anode rod into the tank – it’s not supposed to have one.  When we tried to remove it, it broke off in the tank.  Result?  The tank could not be drained and cleaned.  I could have left it like that since it was not leaking.  Yet reason told me things would only get worse if I did.  The only option was to replace the entire tank.  Of course, since it was not a mechanical defect that caused the issue the warranty company would not cover it.  Nice.

On the plus side our heat pump continues to work with no further issues.  We’re giving thanks for that for sure.  Without it the inside of Graybeard would be a bit frosty to say the least.

That’s been our week on The Road of Retirement.  A little bit of this and a little bit of that.  We’ve had our good moments and we’ve hit a bump or two in the road along the way.  Overall things are still great.  No complaints from us we’re still thrilled with the lifestyle we’ve chosen.  We both definitely have hitch itch and just can’t wait until our wheels start rolling again.   That day is coming and soon enough it will be here.  Till then we’ll continue to make do.

Thanks again for checking in with us.  We hope things are good for you as well.  Time to go now but before I do a thought for all of us to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

Oh my has the bottom fallen out of the temperature.  OK, not as cold as some of you up north.  I feel for each of you.  But, when you wake up in Florida and the temperature is 38 degrees – you wonder to yourself if you have been secretly transported somewhere north during the night.  Then, add to that the sad fact that today you have to – ugh – actually get up and go to work by 8 am.  It’s a hard pill to swallow.

OK, it is going to warm up again.  When?  Good question.  Wednesday and Thursday morning are supposed to be more of the same.  And few if any really warm days are in the future for the next week or so.  What in the world is going on with our weather?  Ah the joy of the full-time RV lifestyle.  New experiences are around every corner.

Not helping the situation is the fact that we are having intermittent issues with the heat pump.  97% of the time it runs just fine.  But then it decides to have a hissy fit and not respond to input from the thermostat.   Unfortunately, it is not doing it consistently enough yet so that we can even hazard a guess as to what could be happening.  Thankfully, the propane furnace is still going strong.  We all know, though, that daily use of this monster will exhaust our propane within a week.  We do have an electric heater and it is great.  If necessary we’ll pick up a second from Wally World by the end of the week.

Work camping is something else.  Two days down and two more months to go.  What we have learned so far is:  this park is totally disorganized and there is no supervision.   Training?  Are you kidding me!  Maybe 15 minutes at best.  Then you are on your own.

The work is literally  a walk in the park.  Especially when there are no major weekend events.  When it is your turn you police the grounds.  Make sure the park signs are clean.  Open and close the main gate at the appropriate time.  Clean the three bathrooms.  Basically you must give them three hours a day, four days a week.  Again, that’s what is expected of you unless there is a major weekend event then it is all hands on deck.  Then you could end up working two eight-hour days.  Time off the following week?  Supposedly the answer is yes, but the jury is out on that from what I’ve heard from other volunteers.  Time will tell.

That’s been our journey up until now on The Road of Retirement.  We continue to travel along, side by side, singing our song.  We definitely have hitch itch and just can’t wait till the wheels on Graybeard are again rolling on down the highway.  Me, I’ve got it really bad but I’ll just have to be patient.  Yea, me, patient.  Don’t laugh.  I’m trying real hard to sit tight for just a bit longer.

Keep warm.  Make the best of each day that God gives you.  Remember no one day can ever be repeated so live each one, one day at a time, making the most of every minute.   Time to jump under the covers and get some shut eye knowing how 8 am is going to come real quick.  Before I go a thought for each of us to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road