TechnoGeeks Learning Rally

This week we are in Bushnell, Florida, at Paradise Oaks Golf & RV Resort.  This is a very nice campground and very new.  The staff are very friendly and helpful. 

The reason we are here is that Chris and Jim Guld along with Tracey and Phil May have joined together as "TECHNOGEEKS"  and are presenting a fantastic, informational  rally about Computers, photography, phones, photo story 3, and blogs.  We have been given an awful lot of information along with great food, lots of new friends and fellowship.

We are having a great time and really appreciate Chris, Jim, Tracey and Phil for doing this rally and providing all of the information and especially the delicious food. 

Acquiring a park model trailer

Great Day to Meet New Folks

This morning we awoke to a few rain drops hitting the motor home. No worry as it lasted all of two minutes and then the sun was out. Russ and I were both excited about heading for Lakeland and being able to meet Froggi Donna and Stu McNicol and the other bloggers in the area. We made a stop at my mothers on the other side of our park to pick up a package to mail out and left the park at just after 10. We followed Hwy 98 from Frostproof thru Lake Meade and on towards Lakeland arriving at Smokey Bones Bar and Fire Grill just after 11. We had just parked when Froggi Donna and Stu pulled in on their beautiful bikes. (That looks like so much fun).

Lunch was so much fun being able to meet bloggers and rv enthusiest. The food was fantastic and the service provided from the servers was exceptional. Everyone was able to talk with folks and get to know them. A really fun time.

We left the Grill and headed over to the Postal Annex to mail out the package we had picked up earlier. It was then time for us to head to the bowling alley for our Monday afternoon outing with people from here at Southern Pines. I had a 520 series and Russ was off on his game today but still did ok. After our three games were done we headed home and Russ went to play cribbage at the clubhouse. I went over to visit Mama and found her not to be feeling in the pink. I will monitor and make sure all is well. Never know about the older folks.

Thanks Donna and Stu for hosting a great luncheon.

A Beautiful Sunday

This morning we awoke to fog around the area but it soon burned off. It was 58 degrees out and very few people were wearing jackets or sweaters. The sky was blue and the birds were singing. It was going to be a fantastic day.

Russ began reinstalling all of the tire monitors that we had checked as they were giving wrong readings. Can't have that with these big rigs and towing a vehicle. He had to also re-enter all the information to the monitoring system mounted on the dash. One of the tires was a bit low so he aired up the motor home and found that there are three bolts broken around the generator. Don't know how we will get the pieces out but that is a project for this week.

I made beef stew for dinner and did my delivery of some to my mother on the other side of the park. All enjoyed it as we have not had it in a while.

Russ went up to the clubhouse for square dancing. Said that they had enough men for two squares and of course more women who took turns dancing. All had a great time.

Looking forward to having lunch with Stu and Donna McNicol of 2takinga5th@blogspot.com and 13 other couples over in Lakeland tomorrow. Until then take care.

I'm going to try again

Good morning all.

I know that I have not blogged in a very long time and it was due to my listening to someone who really wanted to put me down and that person succeeded in doing this for 18 months. I have now decided that as long as I am not slandering or hurting anyone that I can say and do what I want to so here I am.

I will bring you up to date on what we have been doing since May 2010 and that will be in summary only.

May 3 - 7, 2010 We left Southern Pines RV Resort, which has become our winter home, and headed up to Tropical Palms in Kissimmee, Fl. There we camped with SMART (Special Military Active Retired Travelers) Buccaneers for four nights. We really had a good time and my mother was able to enjoy one night of camping out and fellowship before I put her on a plane for Richmond, Virginia.

May 7 - 11, 2010 We spent this time up at Mayport Naval Station (Pelican Roost) in Jacksonville, Fl., enjoying the beautiful views and watching the ships move in and out of the harbor. Russ was able to do some fishing off of the jetty.

May 11 -18, 2010 We spent this week at Big Water RV Park in Summerton, SC. This park is right on Lake Marion. Russ caught a 12 lb. catfish from the dock.

May 18 - 19, 2010 Put us at Kamper's Lodge in Wilson, NC. We visited with Russ' mother, sister and her husband and nephew.

May 19 - 22, 2010 We were at Pocahontas State Park in Chesterfield, VA. We are only a mile from my mother and sister's house. We were able to visit with them and take moms suite case and other things home for her. (That is our job twice a year, pick up and return the suite cases).

May 22 - June 10, 2010 found us down at the Thousand Trails Park (Chesapeake Bay) in Gloucester, VA. We really like this park and go there whenever we are in the area.

June 10 - 11, 2010 We made another stop at Kamper's Lodge for the night. We again hooked up with Russ' family for supper.

June 11 - July 11, 2010 We headed down to Topsail Beach on the North Carolina shoreline. My Aunt Lizzie has a house that is about 6 miles from Lanier Campground and we were able to do a lot of visiting with her and her family especially over July 4th week. A whole lot of fun.

July 11 - 15, 2010 We stayed at The Oaks at Point South, Yemassee, SC. This was just a stop over as we headed to Perry, GA for the Holiday Rambler International Rally. We did go into Savannah, GA and tour the city. We wanted to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant but the wait was over 4 hours. Maybe next time.

July 15 - 24, 2010 As mentioned above, we are at the Holiday Ramberl International Rally. Temperatures for the week were 110 + but we did have a building for most activities that was down on the cold side. Had to have a jacket while there. We did have a great time.

July 24 - 27, 2010 Stayed at Fair Harbor Campground in Perry, GA, with friends that were having truck/tire problems. We did not feel that we wanted to leave them stranded with no one that they knew around.

July 27 - 28, 2010 Moved on up to Thousand Trails Carolina Landing in Fair Play, SC. When we pulled in we found friends that we had made down at the HR Rally.

July 28 - August 10, 2010 Another moving time up to Advance, NC and Thousand Trails Forest Lake. Another campground that we enjoy very much. While here we went to see Russ' Aunt and Uncle in Mebane, NC and also down to Charlotte to the new Nascar Museum.

August 10 - 24, 2010 We are back in Gloucester at TT Chesapeake Bay. When we are here we make many trips up to Chesterfield to visit with family and others.

August 24 - September 7 and 14 - 20, 2010 We visited Thousand Trails Hershey. We made many day trips in many directions just seeing the wonderful countryside. While we have been here the first stay, many of the rigs going up to Centre Hall are here. During the second stay here, Nick and Terry Russell of Gypsy Journal are also here.

September 7 - 14, 2010 was the SMART MUSTER in Centre Hall, PA. There were approximately 200 rigs there and it turned very cold. Everyone had to pull out coats, hats, gloves and winter shoes and socks, but we did have a good time.

September 20 - 23, 2010 found us at Cherry Hill Campground, College Park, Maryland. A beautiful campground and so convenient to see Washington, DC. We took two tours and enjoyed every minute.

September 23 - October 5, 2010 We are back at Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails. This is the time that we will pick up Moms suite case for the trip back to Florida. There are other things also going on that we are involved with. We also had a lot of rain during this time.

October 7 - 13, 2010 We were in Myrtle Beach, SC at Briarcliff Campground. Holiday Rambler was also having a muster out on the beach so we visited with them a couple of times. Great fun.

October 13 - 18, 2010 As we were heading down I-95, we decided to spend another week at Big Water Campground and just enjoy the nice weather. We met a couple of couples that will be in the Orlando area when we arrive there in a couple of weeks.

October 18 - 23, 2010 Back to Pelican Roost, Mayport, Fl. We were able to get our flu shots over at the medical facility with no problem. A great few days again. Friends from Tampa were here and we enjoyed going out to dinner with them one night. We also enjoyed just sitting and talking.

October 23 - November 1, 2010 We are now back at Thousand Trails Orlando. Campground is nowhere near full.

November 1 - 6, 2010 We have taken the motor home up to Alliance RV Service in Wildwood, FL. They have found that the driver's side slide in the living room has begun to separate and water is seeping in and the flooring needs to be replaced. When Monaco sold to Navistar we lost our warranty. We were hoping that the extended warranty would kick in but they would have nothing to do with it, neither would the insurance policy. So we ended up paying big bucks to have the repair work done. This took place the week before Christmas. My big Christmas present.

November 6 - April 15 We are at Southern Pines RV Resort, Frostproof, Fl. My mother also has a park model trailer here and has been in this park now for 20 seasons. We like the people, the park and all that there is to do. We continually stay busy with Russ calling Bingo on Tuesday nights, playing in the Kitchen Band, doing Harmonica Lessons and anything else that comes along.

Foggy Morning

This morning we woke up to very foggy conditions here at Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, Indiana. In looking out the front window we could not even see the laundry room door, which is usually visible all the time, or anything else out there. By 9:30 am, the sun was out and not even a cloud in the sky. Beautiful blue all around. As the day has progressed the clouds have started moving in again but it is still a nice day out.

We are dumping holding tanks, cleaning off the grill from where the rain splashed dirt on it over the weekend and just getting stuff put in its proper place for us to move tomorrow up to St. Claire, Michigan, to the Thousand Trails park there. We will be there until September 14 when we move again.

We are also going to make a Wal-Mart run to stock up on a few groceries and do a bit of bank business beings our bank is located right there.

It has been nice being here at Elkhart and getting to know the area. We are almost able to get around to all of the interesting areas up here. We have also enjoyed our visits with Nick and Terry Russell, who writes and edits the Gypsy Journal Newspaper, Ron and Brenda Speidel and Terry and Dale. All of these folks are fulltime RVers as we are.

I know it has been a very long time since I posted but just got lazy and had had my feelings hurt by something someone said but have decided that I am bigger and better than to let someone spoil my feelings and wanting to let my family and friends know what we are doing and where we are. I am making a promise to you and myself that I will write at least twice a week but want to do it every day.

What Happened?

This morning we were awake before 6 and started getting the motor home ready to travel. We had decided while at Chesapeake Bay that we would try out a Corp of Engineer Park about half way to Lockport, NY. The park is Ives Run in Tioga, PA.

We left TT Hershey about 8 am and everything looked like it was hooked up correctly. We headed west on US 322 to I 83 N and then we went north on I 81 to exit 77 to fuel up. Diesel was $2.529 at Travel Center of America. As we were getting back on I 81 S Russ noticed the car fishtailing behind the motor home. He stopped as quickly as he could and found that we had lost one of the pins and bolts to the connection to the car. It also bent one of the holding horns, broke the light connection and messed up the air connection for the breaks along with that light. We did get all of this stuff unhooked and I drove in front of Russ to our destination for today. It was about 170 miles that we came after the mishap.

Once we were all set up and had had a sandwich for lunch we took off south on PA 487 to PA 660 and found The Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania. The park was awsome and we enjoyed the trails and watching the hawks that were flying all around. We spent about an hour there just looking at stuff.

We came back to the campground and Russ worked on some of the broken items and we will stop by Camping World tomorrow while up in Corning, NY and see if they can fix our mishap. Also while in Corning we will go to the museum and factory.

We will see what else we find while out.......