Saturday, September 17, 2022

Temperature 81 Degrees, Abundant Sunshine

Travel Days – But First A Dose of Frustration

September 14th – A Frustrating Day

Well, the RV tech finally made it to us. Of course I couldn’t get the slides to move no matter how many times I turned the light switch on. I also shared with him what I had discovered regarding the root cause of this issue – the slide controllers had to have their own dedicated grounds coming from the negative post of the battery. And I asked him to run one. Needless to say he just sort of dismissed that idea and then proceeded to spent two hours trying to duplicate the problem with no success. He finally threw in the towel stating that he could find no reasonable reason for the slides to be moving on their own. The only thing accomplished was my wallet was now a bit lighter. And I was totally frustrated.

Come next day we sat down to supper, I flipped the light switch on, and in came the slides! Bottom line, I’ll have to resolve the issue myself. Meaning, with the help of my friend Isaac we’ll run the necessary ground line this winter.

September 16th – Travel Day

Come Friday and it was time to move on. My first choice for our next stop was on our way and I thought it would be perfect. Guess what? They would not accept any rigs that were older than ten years. This is the first time I’ve encountered this in our five years of wandering around this great country.

My next pick I had absolutely no problems. It was a bit out of the way but not by much. It is the Hoover Met Complex RV Park. There are 170 sites, all pull-through and all with full hook up. Now, this is not your normal RV Park. This is literally a huge parking lot that has been divided up into separate RV sites, utilities located in-between every two sites. The picture above will give you some idea of what I’m talking about. It sits adjacent to the Hoover Met Complex which is a combination of Hoover Met Stadium that is home to SEC baseball and High School Football as well as a huge state of the art facility that hosts trade shows, luncheons and concerts. I wouldn’t want to spend a month here, but for a couple of days while passing through the region it is great.

Our trip there was an easy one. I will say, however, I’m going to have to get use to East Coast traffic again. Especially the truck traffic. In spots as we came down it was awful. And they don’t slow down for anyone. But other than that we had no issues whatsoever.

The RV Park was easy enough to locate using our GPS. The one thing we forgot about coming here is that it is in the Central Time Zone. As is our next stop,. The internal body clock is sort of out of kilter today because of that.

Our new home for the next couple of days.

This gives you a better idea of what I mean about the utilities between every two sites. One comes in one way, the second comes in the other way and everything is on the correct side.

The car just fits in a little nook in the back and Albert again sits on top of the car.

This is why I picked this site, the large green space immediately across from us. A great place for Proton to take me on my daily walks!

A look down our row. I would estimate that the Park is just about full.

So, we are in and settled. Tomorrow we’ll see some friends who we last saw almost three years ago in New Mexico. Then, the following day we’ll be back on the road again.

So that is where we are on The Road of Retirement. Soon enough we’ll be back in our sticks and bricks house and Elvira will be tucked away in her port. At that time we’ll do a deep clean on Elvira, do some upgrades, make some repairs and start to plan for our next road trip. We are far from done in terms of travel. More trips to come, more miles to cover. As long as the good Lord grants us our health we’ll keep on rolling along.

Thanks again for spending some time with us.  It’s always great to be able to share our story with family and friends. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish every moment of every day that God gives you and live those moments to the fullest. 

Our continuing mission remains the same: 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.

Wednesday, September 14, 2022

Temperature 76 Degrees, Abundant Sunshine

Travel Days, Moving Toward our Sticks & Bricks Home

September 12th

We left Olive Branch Campground and headed south toward our overnight stop. Once we were on the road I was reminded very quickly of the rolling hills in this part of the country. None, though, were a real challenge for Elvira. I left the cruise control on and she handled every hill with ease. And still gave us a respectful 8 mpg.

This is where we stopped for the night. It was just a short distance off the highway which made it really convenient. We had a pull-through site which was reasonably level and electric was easy to access. I didn’t see the need to hook anything else up since we were only staying a night.

September 13th

Decisions, decisions, decisions. The big one for the morning, cook breakfast in Elvira or go to Cracker Barrel to eat? Since Cracker Barrel had a big, empty parking lot behind the restaurant I guess you can figure out what won out! Ms. Barbara preordered our breakfast, we moved into their parking lot, she then went in to pick it up and brought it back, and we had a wonderful breakfast before getting on the road.

Once on the road it was more of the same, rolling hills for mile after mile. Some, though, a bit more steep then others. Still, Elvira never flinched. She did get a bit warm in terms of water temperature but nothing even close to be being a cause for concern.

Needing fuel we picked our stop carefully, it had to have either a Wendy’s or a Subway. This time it was Wendy’s! Thus we were able to refuel both the rig and ourselves.

Back on the road it was only about an hour and we saw the entrance to .

our next stop for the week. We will probably be here for 2 to 3 days but no more. We hope to have a mobile RV tech come out and figure out what is wrong with the slides. If he doesn’t make it, then we’ll have the issue addressed when we get home.

Our new home for the time being. It is a back in, has a good gravel base, a bid low in the back but nothing the jacks can’t correct, and the utilities are all right at hand. Like so many other parks it is mostly empty. There are a few full time residents here and there but since it is after Labor Day and kids are back in school not many people are out and about.

At first we couldn’t find a spot where Albert could lock on to the satellites. So, I moved the car back to the front of the driveway, put Albert on the roof, and now he is a happy camper locked on to all three satellites!

Our plan as of now is to stay here through Thursday and get back on the road on Friday. The mobile RV tech was supposed to be out today but we got stiffed – due to scheduling difficulties. Like I said, if he doesn’t make it by tomorrow we’ll have the issued with the slides addressed when we get home. We just know we can’t turn the one light on or all the slides will start to move again.

That then is where we are at on The Road of Retirement. Life is good, we are blessed beyond measure, and as of now we’re just sitting back and relaxing and trying to get over our summer colds.

Thanks again for spending some time with us.  It’s always great to be able to share our story with family and friends. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish every moment of every day that God gives you and live those moments to the fullest. 

Our continuing mission remains the same: 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.

Sunday, September 11, 2022

Temperature 71 Degrees, Rain

Willy-Nilly-on-the- Wash also known as Ohio Renaissance Festival.

Yesterday with my son Paul and his wife Brittany, I went to Willy-Nilly-on-the-Wash. Also known as the Ohio Renaissance Festival. It is an event that takes place on weekends from late August through October.

Yea, I know I said there would be no sightseeing here but that went out the window real quick. Little did I know what a delightful day I was about to have.

The festival is set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and over 150 costumed characters invite you to this 30-acre re-created 16th Century English village where you can enjoy over 400 years of fun in a single day! There are 170 unique arts and craft shops, all kinds of unique food and drink and themed characters everywhere that you look.

There are 18 stages with performances going on throughout the day. For instance there was

where you are forewarned not to sit in the front rows unless you are ready to perhaps come away

looking somewhat like this! And yes, I did see a few in the front row who did get a bit of a mud bath! So glad I wasn’t in the front row.

On another stage there were the

Gives new meaning to burning the fat away!

Not something I would want to try. But wait, it gets better

Now she has three trays of glasses, one on top of the other. No, they are not glued to the trays so watch what happens

She didn’t drop a one of them!

Six chairs up and having the time of his life. I was most impressed.

We moved on to another stage where we were entertained by the

My lovely daughter-in-law Brittany with one of the two swordsman before the show.

Let the show begin.

Absolutely amazing to watch and to think that neither of them even once got nicked. It must take a lot of practice.

Then they volunteered certain men from the audience and put them through their paces. What a hoot that was.

Finally, we moved on to

the arena where they were doing acrobatic tricks on horses. This was just one of the many tricks that these two performed. The one picture I didn’t get and I kicked myself because I missed it was – the gentleman in this picture had two horses, one immediately behind the other, he was on the front horse, and proceeded to do a backwards summersault to the horse behind. What a demonstration of skill and talent.

Following this came the

the knights in shining armor.

Let the jousting begin and to the winner goes the hand of the Queen.

Well, just a bit more to share with you. This was Fantasy Weekend and my oh my the costumes that were on display. Here are a few of them:

These two really got me good. At first I thought they were statues – until they slowly began moving toward me!

What a wonderful day I had at Willy-Nilly-on-the-Wash. I am so very grateful that I had the opportunity to go. The costumes, the shows, the food, and the time spent with my son and his wife made it a really wonderful day.

Thanks again for spending some time with us.  It’s always great to be able to share our story with family and friends. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish every moment of every day that God gives you and live those moments to the fullest. 

Our continuing mission remains the same: 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.

Thursday, September 8, 2022

Temperature 71 Degrees, Sunshine and Clouds

Travel Day, A Hop, Skip and a Jump

Time to move on. But not too far, just an hour south to a campground where we would be meeting my son, Paul and his wife, Brittany.

Since we didn’t have to leave until sometime between 10 and 11 am the plan was to do the basics the night before and then today we would reconnect the power to the slides and bring them in. At least that was the way it was supposed to go. The night before I reconnected the power to the passenger side front slide and it came in without an issue. Therefore, I didn’t anticipate any issues. Oh, was I wrong!

OK, today everything was put away and it was time to reconnect power to the slides and bring them in. I reconnected power to the passenger side bedroom slide, went inside and hit the button to bring it in – nothing. Oh, I got the message about the slide locks disconnecting but after that not a thing. The slide would not move. I went back outside and reconfirmed that all the wire connectors had locked in and then went back inside – the same thing. I believe my heart stopped for a few brief seconds. Understand, there is no way to bring these slides in manually without some special tools – which I don’t have. This went on for about 15 to 20 minutes and then, I hit the switch again in desperation and – you guessed it – in came the slide. I could breath again.

Unfortunately, the same thing repeated itself with the other two slides. Not as bad nor for as long but all of them gave me fits. Suffice to say, the morning was a stressful one. Hopefully, they’ll be able to get everything working as it should when we stop at Shelburne RV Repair next week.

Slides in I finally hooked up the car and we were on our way. The drive was a short one, just over an hour. Then, there in front of us was what we were looking for

the entrance to our new home for the next four nights. A quick stop at

the office for our packet of information and we on our way to our new home, which we missed the first time since we took the wrong loop. So, around one more time and we were

finally home. We have a great site, a good firm gravel base, almost dead level and all the utilities are right where they need to be. The only issue, lots and lots of trees which makes Albert very unhappy. He can’t find a single satellite to lock on to. Hopefully, we’ll change that tomorrow when we get some more coax cable and we can move him all the way to the back of our site. Overall, though, we’re both really happy with new temporary home.

As for our slides, we only put two out. One in the bedroom, which is necessary if you want to sleep back there. Otherwise, you would be climbing over each other throughout the night if you had to get up to, well you know what. And one in the living room. With both of them in there is just no room to move. Oh, it can be done for a night, maybe two but four nights would be a bear. I’m counting on them coming in without an issue. I’m thinking positive.

So, no sightseeing here. Just hanging out with family. That’s the best if you ask me. So, forgive me but I need to go now and get some rest and recover my sanity. A few more days like this morning and I’ll be pulling my hair out.

Thanks again for spending some time with us.  It’s always great to be able to share our story with family and friends. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish every moment of every day that God gives you and live those moments to the fullest. 

Our continuing mission remains the same: 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.