Because We Can

I could say that Linda's loud snoring awakened me at 5 AM, but that would not be true. I could say that all the scratching, yawning and itching she did when she first appeared this morning distracted me, but that would not be true. What would be true is that we are located in the perfect place to do a lot of shopping and our credit card bill is going to show that we did that in spades. But more on that later. The first stop was Walmart where we stumbled upon exactly what Linda was looking to buy for our grandson, then proceeded to buy several other things that were not on the list, an activity we continued to perfect as the day progressed. I won't go into the lengthy search at Michael's for "stretchy" ribbon or small suction cups. The latter had something to do with the gold star Christmas decorations we saw suction cupped to the front window of the coach next to us at Summerdale. Suffice it to say that we will soon be sporting a dozen and a half of them f...

Today we affirmed that the coach really, really doesn't like cold weather, as it was a case of, if it could go wrong, it did. I can't hope to remember all that did not go according to plan, but the following will give you the idea, which stated this morning when I started the coach and the stop engine light came on. Now I have gotten used to various warning lights and buzzers when it is cold, but the stop engine light, that was definitely something new. A little knowledge can go a long way, and the only reason the stop engine light comes on is oil or coolant. Normally it would take a glance at the computer readout on the engine monitor, but that was also not working. When it rains, it pours. First guess was oil, and it proved correct. In went a gallon of oil and it barely registered on the dip stick. Gave the engine a try and still got the stop engine light. Off to WalMart we went, returning with two more gallons of Rotella. Unlikely we would need them both, but better ...

It rained during most of the night, it rained most of the day, and it seemed like everyone in the park stayed inside their RV's. Almost everyone that is, with the exception of she who enjoys washing the coach windows. Actually it wasn't just that the windows needed washing, it also gave her a chance to try out the new to her rain coat she got at the Unclaimed Baggage Center. And as luck would have it, no sooner did she go outside than it really started raining hard, giving that rain coat a very good test. Either that rain coat was working like a charm or it was letting so much water in that her brain was turning to mush, because once she was done with the front window, she tackled the side windows, ending up doing all of them. Lest you wonder why I wasn't out there helping her and making sure my new to me rain coat functioned properly, somebody had to bite the bullet and stay inside to take photos of what was taking place outside. It was a tough job, but I did my be...

One of the nice things about the fulltime Life is that when Saturday morning comes around, it is just like any other morning. Gone are the days when it meant yard work. Take this morning for example, up early, wrote the Daily Journal, then settled in to watch the launch of the latest rover going to Mars. All week we had been watching programs on NASA TV about the preparations for the launch, which was scheduled for just after 10 AM this morning. And as you can see, this morning I wasn't the only one up to watch the launch, because Linda was as glued to the TV as I was. One thing that Linda did was to take photos of the launch, lots and lots of photos. And I guess that was quite reasonable in light of there being 2.5 billion dollars behind what was heading towards space at that moment. The launch was successful, and sometime on August 6, 2012 it will arrive at Mars, and you can bet we will be watching then also. What can I say, some people like to watch NFL games, we like to...

We let others go out and fight the crowds on Black Friday, glad that we bought Red Rob his Christmas present a few days ago as he is really, really enjoying it. Truth be told there are already rumors going around the coach of putting the old tank back into use with something new in it, but they are just that, rumors. RVers get foot disease where they keep wanting another RV just a foot or two longer than the one they currently have. So far we have only been struck by gallon disease once, and for now we want to keep it that way. Maybe Christmas will bring Rob a Betta Exerciser, otherwise known as a mirror. It gives him another Betta he can spare with, but one where he can't get hurt. Linda thought this dish satellite dish was intriguingly interesting. I thought it was definitely different. Something tells me that even though we occasionally have bird problems with our satellite dishes, this is not ever going to be considered as a solution. The opportunity to take this photo ...

It was a day to get stuffed, not as in stuffed like the taxidermist stuffs something, not as in how the Thanksgiving turkey gets stuffed, though we did get stuffed as in being stuffed from eating too much, and I'll tell you, did we ever live up to that definition of stuffed. Part of that stuffing was going to be the sweet potatoes we were taking to the park Thanksgiving Day meal, and Linda was out of hibernation early this morning making sure her slave, err, husband, peeled the sweet potatoes to her liking. Note that I was using a vegetable peeler, peeling potatoes as they were meant to be peeled as opposed to the hack and slice, leave a little potato, type of peeling, she who orders me around did yesterday. She claimed to have knobby potatoes, I claimed to know how to peel potatoes. She convinced me we were both right and I agreed. Smart Bob. Linda working her magic with those sweet potatoes. I have to say that I was a most happy man at the meal, as there were a number of ...

It was one of those days when we do a lot, but nothing really happens. Linda will no doubt cover all the little things that she enjoyed, in which case I will highlight a couple and be done with that. Take shopping for example. She made her list and checked it twice, making sure what we'd bought didn't depend on a roll of the dice. There were potatoes galore, with enough peeling to make her hands sore. To the park potluck we are going, signed up for potatoes, both mashed and sweet, the height of the piles to be measured in feet. White today, sweet tomorrow, so many I thought there were pans she'd have to borrow. T'was the day before Thanksgiving, when what to our wondering eyes should appear, but a one gallon aquarium, bright shiny and clear. Swept up in a flash, it didn't take the last of our cash, still up near the top of his new house, Red Rob leaped with joy and a splash. Life is what we make it, some days we work a bit, and on others it takes some w...

We each went our own way today, Linda doing crafts at the clubhouse, and she will certainly talk about her sewing adventures on her blog. As for me, I was into fixing a few things, one of which was to adjust the MCD shade over the door. A quick Google, a few turns of a knob on the shade, and it was as good as new. Then it was on to replacing the wayward MotoSat fan. Some time ago, when we had stopped at Pat and Sharon's during our trip across Ohio, Pat had given me a heavy duty fan to replace the one that was going bad. That old fan had finally surpassed the going bad, and had settled firmly into the realm of, is bad. So today it was into the trash with the old and into the cabinet with the new. It took a while to figure out where and how to best mount it, but with a little help from Gorilla Tape, it was soon secured in place and cooling far beyond expectations. It was better than a problem solver, it is problem preventer, and it doesn't get better than that. Thanks, Pat!!...

Short drive today. Short post today. The drive was just over 50 miles but it wasn't without its moments. For example, can't say I was too fond of being in the middle lane of three lanes at a stoplight, all three lanes behind us being full of traffic. The bad part was the sign showing the road we wanted to take was a turn to the right, the road the GPS was telling us to take was to the left, and traffic was only letting us go straight ahead. It took a few blocks, a few turns in what passes for downtown Pensacola, and we were at least headed in the right direction, even if it wasn't on the right road. Such is Life. All good things must get better, or at least something like that, meaning that we did make it to the SKP park in Summerdale where we will be spending Thanksgiving week. Temperatures in the 80's, a nice shady tree to eat under, Life is indeed good. And to make it even better, it is my favorite times of the year, meaning there are Christmas movies to watc...

No photos, but sure fun to watch. Sunday means all the weekenders are leaving and the 5th wheel several sites down that took the hour to get backed in the other night was making preparations to leave. They went on and on opening compartments and putting things into them, but finally it was time to back the truck up and hitch up to the fifth wheel. I counted nine times he tried to get aimed right, with multiple exits from the truck and a number of times adjusting the height of the 5th wheel before contact was made. That wasn't the best part however, as there was more action to follow. Once hooked up, he pulled out of the site in one shot, as opposed to the hour it had taken him to back into it, and we thought we had seen the last of him, but how wrong we were. We have all had the experience of that first time at the dump station, but how many of us have taken 55 minutes to complete the task? Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have a new winner in the best imitation of "RV, Th...

This is a morning we had an interesting view of the 5th wheel that took an hour to park last night. Obviously they were prepared to be a great distance from the water spigot. Also they are making a fashion statement with their choice of hose color. Everyone else in the park has a white hose, so maybe green, if that is what it is, is the new white. Also have to love the temporary cover. Can't say too much though, as I had to go out and buy the items to make an extension cord so we could hook up to electric those many decades ago when we had our first night in our first RV. Rain, it was the story of today. Gentle at times, heavy downpours at others. A brief sojourn outside to empty the trash, otherwise a kick back and relax day. Some days are like this. Not every day is a do something day. Or maybe I should say that some days, what we do is to do nothing.

This is a morning beach photo, but I really need to start at about 10 o'clock last night when we left the coach and walked out towards the beach to see if we could view the Leonid Meteor Shower. It was cold and windy night, but we actually did see a few, second or so long, flashes in the sky. Not as spectacular as some 10 plus years ago when we stood out on the shores of Lake Tahoe at 2 AM and saw meteorite after meteorite flash across the sky. Still what we saw was more than probably 99.9% of all Americans saw, and besides, it's what we do in Life, which is to try and travel the road less traveled. Walking along the beach I spied what I thought was a dead butterfly partially buried in the sand. Reaching down, I scooped it up, showing Linda so she could take a photo. Then as I held it, it's wings fluttered and it tried to fly, only to be caught by the wind and be blown from my hand to skitter across the surface of the sand. I ran after it, finally capturing it agai...

Well we finally made it, made it to the beach with the Gulf of Mexico in front of us, that is. Many, many beach photos today and I'll just let Linda use as many as she wants for in her blog. In fact I'll just let her do most of the blog posting today. It actually wasn't a full day of beach time, as there was also a goodly amount of unbleaching time put in by Linda. I know she thinks she was cursed by have skin that tans to an off white, but as I like to tell her, "You've got a great mind and personality, plus your hull is very nice looking too." Some women think that men don't know to compliment them, but with the above statement I should have laid to rest any fears that I don't know how to give a girl a very nice compliment. Notice in all the compliments I poured on her in the above paragraph, I never mentioned walking without tripping over her own feet. This is why. One minute I was talking to her and the next minute she sitting in the s...

It was a warm, but rainy morning in northern Alabama today, but we had exciting things happening. We had decided to change our plans once again, reviving our earlier travel plans to visit Florida, though with some very major changes. Instead of traveling to the west coast of Florida, we were heading to the western end of the Florida panhandle. The weather forecast was calling for rain, but with Thanksgiving being next week, we were limited in how long we could stay at the park we had selected, Fort Pickens. It was going to be a long day's drive and so we wanted to get on the road before 8 AM, and believe it or not, we did it, pulling out at 7:45 and heading to a truck stop for fuel. Part of the getting ready process involved my collecting all the jackets and other cool weather outerwear, then piling them up on the couch. Looking at it, I commented, "We sure had a lot of jackets out." Linda looked at the pile and replied, "Those are all yours except for the o...

It was warm, but rainy day in northern Alabama today, with just boring domestic stuff happening. Just the routine living of the routine Life of people who live in an RV. Much of that routine of the day centered around preparing for where we will be and what we will be doing for the next 5 days. There were lists to make and double check, plus nagging little problems to take care of, none of which were very exciting, but all of which were deemed necessary by she who deems such things. Since we don't plan to be near shopping for some time, it was also necessary to stock up on those things that we just can't do without. That meant a trip out in the rain, which allowed Linda to test out her new raincoat. As luck would have it, it immediately stopped raining so she still doesn't know how it will work. As you can see, she who deems tomatoes to be an essential daily food, had deemed it necessary to make sure there was an ample supply on board. Food, it was big food day...