April 11, 2022

Temperature 70 Degrees, Overcast, Rain Showers

Marking Time

Time to make the call. The call to Sunshine Satellite to try and get an appointment to resolve our Dish issue. I had my fingers crossed hoping they could come today. But my hopes were quickly dashed like a ship going aground on a rocky shore. They informed me that the earliest they would be able to come out would be Tuesday afternoon. Hum, we were supposed to be leaving tomorrow morning. What to do?

Let’s check the weather again.

I checked the weather again and it sure didn’t look all that promising. The outlook begins to improve as of Wednesday and then gets gradually better as the week goes on. So adhering to the number one rule of life on the road – be flexible – I decided we would stay an extra day.

Which of course would give us the time to resolve our Dish issue. So I made the call and scheduled the appointment for Tuesday appointment. Now, time to call several RV parks we had reservations for in the coming days and push them out. Thankfully, they were all willing to work with me.

Now, remember I was told that no way can we get out today to look at your Satellite we are just absolutely swamped. At 1 pm we received a call that Justin would be at our site within the hour. Now how about that!

When Justin arrived he took one look up at our satellite antenna and said Why there’s your problem. Honestly, I had no idea of what he was talking about. He explained The eyeballs are not in alignment with the receiver. Sure. In essence the bracket that holds the eyeballs that receive the signal from the antenna and relay it down to the Dish receive had come loose and was just hanging loose. A couple of screws and the issue was resolved.

However, still no signal. Justin vowed that before he left all would be resolved. So, back on the roof he went. Within ten minutes we did indeed have a signal. This time the problem was a couple of corroded connections. The long and short of it is we now have our Dish service back in working order. And I now have a much better understanding of how the antenna actually works. As well as what type of maintenance has to be performed to keep this from happening again.

But we’re still leaving Wednesday. Which has me anxious and uptight. The real fun part of this trip doesn’t start till we get to Oklahoma City which won’t be now until Saturday. I’m finding it hard to wait. But wait I will have to. Nothing I can do about it. Bottom line, hard as it is to just mark time I believe we made the right call.

Time to watch some TV. Catch you tomorrow!

As It Was In The Beginning

April 10, 2022

Temperature 79 Degrees, Abundant Sunshine

We had it for a day. One glorious, wonderful day. High definition and all. I’m referring of course to our Dish service. Then we turned it off for the night. The next morning it was no more. And that was the end of it. Nothing I tried would resurrect it. It would not come back on. After numerous tests and pushing all kinds of buttons the consensus seems to be that the signal is not getting from the antenna to the receiver. That’s as far as I’ve gotten at this point in time.

In the meantime its back to days long ago, in a rig no longer ours, to a time when Hallmark was not even a twinkle in our eyes. We survived on OTA and whatever channels we could get and we played hours of Mexican Train. Well, that’s what we’re doing now. But now we also have Phase Ten, and Uno Flip, two new card games to keep us occupied. It’s a brave new world, or should I say, its a blast from the past. Whatever, we’re getting by.

We decided to get out and about today.

We decided to return to a small park we’ve visited before when in this area. The three of us needed some fresh air and a chance to stretch our legs. Proton was in his glory. So many new smells he was having a ball.

The fountain is still in good repair.

This was new. However, we couldn’t decide why it was here. There was no plaque explaining its placement. I even checked the Minutes of the last City Council meeting and still could not find a clue as to why it was placed here. No matter, it is a pretty neat attraction.

So now to confront the Gorilla in the room. Come Tuesday do we stay or go? The weather report for the route we’re taking is not good. It calls for wind, rain, and possible severe thunderstorms. In addition, by the time we get to Oklahoma City, which is the real start of this trip, the temperature is supposed to tank. At this point in time we’ve made the decision to push on. However, we’ll continue to monitor the weather very closely between now and Tuesday morning.

Overall, life on The Road of Retirement remains good. Our time here has allowed us to get everything organized. We’ve been able to purchase the few small items we left home. It’s also been a great time to just get used to being on the road again. We’ve successfully made the transition to being nomads again and are absolutely looking forward to the rest of the trip. Come what may.

Thanks again for stopping by today  It’s always great to be able to share our story with others. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish each day that God gives you and live it 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

Friday, April 7, 2022

Temperature 70 Degrees, Abundant Sunshine, Gusting Winds

Taking Care of Business and Settling In

Just the though of no TV, no Hallmark channels, no Motor Trend, no Sirius Music and so much more was enough to cause us to quake in our boots. But what to do? After six hours on Thursday we had hit the so called brick wall.

Friday morning, real early, because once again I couldn’t sleep, I resolved to do battle with the DISH service once more. First step, turn it on. Wonder of wonders we now had one channel. Yesterday we had none. I was making progress. Now, what should I do next? The usual of course, reboot the system. After that was completed I still had only one channel. Onward. I pulled up our account on my computer to verify that the receive was actually on the account. Yup, it was there. Right next to it was a little button and the inscription that said If you want to wake up your receive push here. At this point I figured nothing ventured, nothing gained. Wonder of wonder, after five minutes I had all our channels!

But wait, now we kept getting the message complete signal loss. What? I picked this sight just because I knew there were no trees that would block the antenna. Out I went to discover what I had missed. I immediately saw the problem, a tree branch from a tree over our rig kept blowing in front of the antenna. But not for long. Oh no, up on the roof and me and my trusty saw quickly trimmed just enough of the branch back to resolve the issue. We now have our TV issue completely resolved. While we are here!

Other news.

Guess what we left home? Every last one of them. We put our mugs in the dishwasher the night before we left and forgot to take them out and bring them with us. So now we have two new ones for the trip.

Yup, we also forgot the vacuum cleaner. So I now have a new toy. A simple carpet sweeper for our rugs. Believe me, here especially you need one because you are surrounded by sand and dirt. And do what you might, it is constantly getting tracked into the rig.

We’ve also decided to try something new this trip. Rather than constantly buying gallons of spring water we purchased a Brita Water Filter. Yes, I have several filters on the outside but this we believe ensures crystal clear drinking water. Time will tell if it is the solution.

Slowly, ever so slowly as we move down The Road of Retirement we are getting used to living in a house on wheels again. It’s amazing, really, how quickly we are settling in. It’s almost like we never stopped full-timing. I’ve always said, its not a bad way to live at all.

Thanks again for stopping by today  It’s always great to be able to share our story with others. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish each day that God gives you and live it 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, April 7th

Temperature, 81 Degrees, Abundant Sunshie

Second Stop, We’ve Passed This Way Before

The Good News is other than a bit of rain we made it through last night without an issue. There were two tornadoes reported about 30 minutes north of us but nothing closer.

Anyway, by 9:30 pm we were both so tired we could not keep our eyes open. Thus, we decided to make it an early night. Only one problem, by 3:30 am I was wide awake! Thus, me and Proton roamed the rig, and tossed and turned until around 6:30 am when we finally realized getting any more sleep was a lost cause. It was obvious that this was going to be a full on caffeine beverage day.

So it was after a quick breakfast by 8:30 am we were back on the road again and headed west on Route 10. Route 10 is a really nice road. The pavement is great with no potholes. Traffic was light to moderate but with a fair amount of truck traffic. It was cruise control from start to finish. My kind of day when it is going to be a long run.

The only issue was we finally lost our dash A/C. We’ll go without it but if and when it really starts getting hot, we’ll run the generator and use the first rooftop A/C to keep us cool. I’ve discovered over time that I don’t really use that much more diesel doing this. Today, though, it was cool enough that we could just use the vents.

Some four hours after we left Tallahassee we arrived at our new home. We’re at an Escapees park that we’ve stayed at several times in the past. The sites are all back in with a dirt base. Our site is reasonably level and with ample space for Elvira and our car. We’ll be here for five nights during which time we’ll get ourselves organized and acclimated to living in the rig again.

Once here our first order of business was to put up the DISH antenna. Well, that’s when everything went south. Ms. Barbara spent close to six hours on the phone with DISH support and that got her a headache and nothing more. Suffice to say we still don’t have TV so we’ll be exploring our options tomorrow. Enough for today.

Regarding getting used to living in the rig. Tonight I decided to take a shower. Ah, back to Navy showers in a broom closet! No more huge shower with ample hot water. Not for the next six months. No matter, I still have a grin on my face. Life is good on the road.

Our Proton is having no trouble getting used to life in the rig. He is still a handful when we travel. But once we park, one chair is as good as the next for him.

That’s it for now on The Road of Retirement. Oh, other than the fact that we are now in the Central Time Zone and trying to adjust. Going back an hour has made it a long day so it is time to start getting ready to turn in. But, just not yet. I’m going to make it to at least 10 tonight – I hope!

Thanks again for stopping by today  It’s always great to be able to share our story with others. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish each day that God gives you and live it 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