We were up and at it this morning since today was moving day.  Say what you will for sitting still for an extended period of time, for us it’s getting harder and harder to do.  Yes, we’ll be at our new digs for just a little over two months, and we’ll be work camping for another two plus months, but already we’re both anxious to start the new year on the road.  What can I say we’re vagabonds at heart.

I believe sometimes until they’re taken away we tend to take for granted the simple joys of life.  Take driving, for instance.  Most of the time we give it no thought.  I for one love

to drive, that’s why I guess I enjoy this lifestyle so much.  Well, driving today was a pure joy.  Yet, just a couple of months ago it was sheer agony because of the issues I was having with my back.   Yes, how different today was.  I for one will never take an enjoyable ride for granted ever again.

As we say Home Is Where We Park It and for the next couple of months we are parked at

Sumter Oaks RV Park in Bushnell.  Yup, we were here just a couple of weeks ago when we were running from the hurricane that tore up the Florida Panhandle.  The brown building in the picture above is the activity hall.  The park looks a lot different than the last time, however, since this is the beginning of their busy season.  This is another picture of the park in general.  I’ll have a picture of our site  in tomorrow’s blog.

By the way I met a very interesting full timer today.  A gentleman by the name of Joe.  He stated he had never, ever driven a pickup truck in this life, much less towed a trailer.  Well, he retired this year and when for broke.  He bought a 41 foot 5th wheel trailer and a dualey one ton pickup truck.  In his words its been an interesting learning curve.  I would think so!

I don’t know about you but this change in time is messing with my mind.  Come 6 pm and it’s dark and my brain is telling me it’s time to get ready for bed!  Just weird.  In time I’m sure I’ll adjust.  Probably just about the time we change the clocks again.

OK, all settled in and too early to go to bed.  Only one thing to do then, start playing Mexican Train and celebrate our arrival with a wine and cheese party.   Hey, we’re retired and we can do what we want when we want.  Tain’t it grand.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We once again traveled down the road, hand in hand, singing our song.  Thanks again for joining us we do appreciate the opportunity to share our day with you.   Time now to get back to our game of Mexican Train and see if I can redeem myself.  Before I go as always a thought for each of us to consider and mull over:

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

Yesterday a knock came at our door.  When I opened it three lovely young ladies were outside with an invitation to attend their congregations annual church in the park worship service on Sunday.

That’s where our day started out today.  We attended the worship service in the outdoor pavilion hosted by the Gadara Baptist Church.  The music was great, up-beat and

contemporary.  The members of the congregation were super friendly.  The message, well it left a lot to be desired.  I spent my life carefully crafting messages that made their point in 15 to 20 minutes.  Thus, I have an issue with anyone who takes over 45 minutes and never gets to the point.  Yet, overall it was good to once again be part of a worshiping congregation.  I must say we look forward to getting back to Bushnell and back to what we call our home church.

Back home it was time for Barbara to prepare our afternoon meal.  We’ve gotten in the habit of having our big meal mid-day with a simple sandwich later in the evening.  Our

meal today was absolutely delicious.  We had pork and sauerkraut, noodles, and brown gravy.   I must admit I ate much more than I should have but it was oh so good I could not refuse seconds on everything.

The rest of the day was spent watching football and making adjustments to our Tour America 2019.  Barbara came up with several suggestions for attractions we should see

that I had absolutely over looked and so some stops were added and others taken out.

Since we are leaving tomorrow I spent some time getting things put away outside, awnings up, tire covers off and stored, and so on and so forth.  It’s only a two hour trip so there will be no big rush tomorrow, plus checkout is not until 1 pm.  I’m sure we will be long gone by then.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We did a little of this and a little of that.  We butted heads once or twice regarding our itinerary for 2019 mainly because I tend to get possessive of the process.  I need to learn to let go and seek out Barbara’s input during the whole process.  I’m learning and I promise to get better.  Bottom line, the day was a good one and we enjoyed it.  Thanks for joining us as we traveled along, hand in hand, singing our song.

Time to say goodnight.  Before I go once again a thought for each of us to ponder and mull over:

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

Not a bad morning temperature wise today. At 7 am it was in the low 50’s but it did take it’s sweet time warning up. I don’t believe we reached the 60’s until sometime after noon. All in all though it was a most pleasant morning.

Breakfast was as simple as it gets. A bowl of cereal, home made biscuits, juice, coffee and I was good to go. But wait supper was the absolute best. Barbara made a Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich for each of us. They were just the best ever. My sweetheart sure does know how to cook.

The rest of the morning was spent doing some more route planning and looking for places to stay in various parts of the country. Looking for sites is time consuming but I for one find it very enjoyable. My way of doing it is quite simple, I read blogs and check where others have been, note the private parks they’ve stayed at, maybe COE sites they’ve chosen, as well as state and county parks. After making a list of these and reading their comments I then usually check each out on RVParkreviews. Using this web site

I begin to weed out the ones that rate 7 or below and come up with a preliminary list of possible sites to stay. at  Once that list is built my next step is to eliminate those that are too far from sights we want to see and those that are out of our price range.  In due time I usually come up with two or three places to stay in each area that we want to visit.  Finally, I usually choose a primary and also a secondary site just in case my first choice is completely booked for our time period.  Oh, a side step is to also check out volunteer opportunities for various national parks and COE facilities as well as future projects for NOMADS.

Latter in the day we ran out to do some grocery shopping and I needed to pick up some

Sta-Bil fuel storage additive to put in the fuel tank of Graybeard.   I add this every time Graybeard is going to be sitting in one spot for at least a month or more.   Better safe than sorry is my motto.

After getting back home we finally were able to get two of the three window awnings installed. Thanks to Barbara’s suggestion we didn’t get the usual solid material awnings but we purchased a see through fabric. They block over 90% of the sun but allow you to see through them when sitting inside. Bottom line they keep the inside cooler but don’t make you feel like you are sitting in a cave.

So the only awning left to install is the one over our bedroom window.  Once we get to Bushnell we’ll work on that one.  It is a bit higher than the slide windows so we’ll have to find a couple of eight foot ladders rather than the six footer we currently have.

We’ve also decided to move out of here on Monday rather than wait to Thursday.  We both agree we’re anxious to get to our winter home in Bushnell and get settled in.   Since we’ve accomplished all that we came here to do there is no need to stay any longer.

That was the sum total of our day on The Road of Retirement.  An easy but productive day.   We do have one special note of thanks to give to our good Lord.  My mom was out to dinner tonight with my sister and choked on a piece of food.  According to my sister she was gone just like that, not breathing and no pulse.  But now get this, in the same restaurant were two doctors, not one but two, that immediately took action and were able to bring her back.  God Is Good All The Time.

Time to go but before I do 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

When we awoke this morning the temperatures where in the 70’s.  The temperatures are really crazy in that they are constantly going up and down, never the same from day to day.  Tonight, for instance we are supposed to be down in the 40’s again.  Should be a pleasant night’s sleep.

Oh boy was breakfast great this morning!  One of my favorites, a chili cheese omelette with ham and sausage with the usual glass of V8 and a couple of cups of coffee.   Tummy full it was time to get going on the projects for today.  Which were, well I can’t really remember.  Oh yes, I needed to vacuum and clean the rugs.

So the answer came back from the warranty company, no go.  I can’t really blame them because when they asked the RV service why the charge controller and solar panels needed to be replaced, they couldn’t give them a reason.  They didn’t say something like There was an internal short in the controller, or The panels are cracked and no longer offer a full charge.  They instead said something like Well we didn’t make them so we’re not sure what has happened.  No, can’t blame the warranty company for denying the claim with an answer like that.  Bottom line, since it is only a small 10 watt system I will eventually remove everything until I am ready to install a more robust system.

The rest of the day I spent working on our Tour of America 2019.  The following are some of the preliminary highlights:

• we’ll visit 16 states beginning in Florida and ending in Arizona
• we’ll spend 3 to 4 months in Yuma, Arizona which will be our winter home
• we’ll travel the Natchez Trace from Natchez to Nashville with a stop in Vicksburg to visit the National Military Park and the Lower Mississippi River Museum
• we’ll stop in Nashville to visit The Grand Old Opry
• we’ll stop in Bowling Green, KY to visit the Corvette Museum and assembly line; The Historic Rail Park and Museum; and we’ll also plan a visit to Aviation Heritage Park
• we’ll visit the Ark and The Creation Museum in Lexington, KY
• we’ll stop in Ohio to visit the Cardboard Boat Museum and the Popcorn Museum and spend some time with my son Paul
• we’ll visit the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart

There’s lots more which we are in the process of planning.  There will of course also be any number of historical sites and museums along the way.  Bottom line we are just getting started in terms of putting our itinerary together for next year.  No doubt there will be course corrections yet to come and I’m sure there will be unexpected twists and turns along the way.  Be that as it may it is shaping up to be an interesting and exciting year.

In the afternoon the rains came.  In buckets.  The wind as well.  Neither though lasted for long.  As of now it is just a light rain with no wind.  Ah well into every life a little rain must fall.  Or so they say.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  Thanks again for joining us as we traveled along side by side, hand in hand, singing our song.  If there is one wish that I have for everyone it is that everyone can enjoy life to the fullest just like we are.  I’ll bid everyone goodnight for now but 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