Two days for the price of one!

Monday, Oct 22nd

We left Radford around 9:20. Jo and André had already left and we will not see them until we meet in Naples, Florida.

It was another sunny day but the temperature was only 6 C. (43 F.). After getting back on the road it didn’t take long to get warm again.

We entered Tennessee at around 11:00 and stopped at the visitor center. We took all kind of Tennessee documentation and one of them about camping. We chose a camping that was not too far. We had decided that we wanted a break from the road so we drove to Baileyton RV Park and took a site for the week. Why not? After all we have been on the road for 4 days, travelling over 1565 km (939 Miles) in the process. That is a lot of pavement… but we expected it, our goal was to go where the weather was nice. This is one of the main advantages of the RV lifestyle!

Before getting to the camping, we stopped to buy some groceries. I didn’t want to get to our site and then drive away in search of food (it would have reminded me too much about the cave men and their struggle to survive hahaha).

We arrived at the camping and were all setup by 14:00. I’ll talk more about the camping tomorrow.

For supper we broke out our brand new BBQ. We had bought this awesomeness at Sail in Ottawa.

In the following picture, look at those, v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e-s in our plates. See now, beloved daughters, you might have thought that all we do is stop at restaurant and eat un-healthy food but no!  hahaha

The wine is to help get the vegetables down!

Total distance for today: 240 KM (144 Miles)

 

Tuesday, Oct 23th

I must have had hitch-itch because when I woke up, I decided to move…

When we arrived at Baileyton RV Park, we were assigned a pull through site, which means you just need to drive in to set up and drive out when you leave. It requires no backing up.

On our site there is a slab of cement to be used as a patio. It is located closer to the front section of the lot. It’s at the right place for a motorhome, but for our trailer, it is not the best place. When we arrived, I set up the trailer so the truck could be parked in front of the trailer and we could hitch and un-hitch without having to be in the road but that meant we only had a third of the pad under our awning. I decided to move the trailer up so that the whole awning would be over the pad. We didn’t even unhook the services, I just backed the truck and we hitched. This was a 10 minutes move, but it made  for better living space for us. We are learning a little bit more about this lifestyle every day! Now the truck is parked at the back of the trailer.

After moving the trailer, we installed the sun screen. I think that we are all settled now. 

 

The park itself is not what you will call a resort. There is nothing… it’s in the middle of nowhere. It is like living in the country. When I went to the office to get our site, I asked the employee if there was anything to do or see around… She told me No! I smiled and was not disappointed; it is just what I was looking for, for the next week. This lifestyle for us is about times when we live out in the country, some other times where we will be close to well-known places, or we might be enjoying a beach view and have a short walk to plant our feet in the sand or playing with the waves… To me it is a question of freedom!

We are close to the washroom and yesterday, I went and took a shower… yes I do that from time to time! Hahaha. It was really clean and I had plenty of hot water. We have a shower in the trailer, but the water heater is small.  The first one in the shower has to be careful of the hot water usage to be sure that the second person has enough and I'm usually the second one in the shower :-( ).  My wife prefers to use our shower and I don’t mind using the camping's provided it is clean.

We each hit a basket of balls at the driving range, here at the camping. We haven’t done that for a while. I don’t think we will turn pro any time soon :-)

 

 

 

We also went to do a little hiking, it was a really short one, we went up the hill and at the end there is a small pond where you can see some fishes swimming. You can fish but it is catch and release only. I just don’t know why someone would go through all the work of fishing and then release the prized fish hahaha

We pretty much just enjoyed the beautiful day, did some reading, some Internet and watched some TV shows. I would say, it was just a perfect day in heaven!

Total distance for today: 3 Meters (9 foot)

Still going south



Redford Virginia


I woke up around 4:00, it is not an unusual occurrence for me, I'm the early bird, I just don't care about the worm :-). Having nothing to do, I went into the Flying J to see what it was all about. I was surprised to hear messages like: “Your pizza is ready!” and “Shower 12 is ready”. It was 4 am but looking at the activities taking place at the time, it could have been 5 pm, it was just like in an airport, business going on 24 hours a day!

My main goal was to purchase a Next Exit book. This is an awesome reference when you are travelling on US interstates. It gives you what is available at each exit, the distance, the exit number, where the rest areas are, and where you can empty your RV tanks. When we are on the road, my wife keeps it close by.

 

 

My wife being a lazy bum woke up at the outrageous hour of 06:00, joined me at Denny’s for breakfast (this line might not make it through her proof reading of the blog… we’ll see).

After a good breakfast, under a blue sky, we hit the 81 South again.

We had no idea of the surprises that were waiting… We crossed from Pennsylvania to Virginia and let me tell you that it was a spectacular ride… We were following a range of mountain and each hill brought us an awesome view. We also saw some farms where the picket fences went on for miles! We passed some Amish buggies; they were on a road parallel to the interstate (this really helps to boost out truck ego). Sorry no pictures of this, you'll have to take my words...

We knew that Jo and André were to spend the night at Redford in Virginia. So we decided to join them. We made it to their camping at 16:00. The weather was in the twenties Celsius (68 Fahrenheit) and I posted this picture on Facebook to tease people at home.

 

 

The camping itself is not too great, you are right under the I-81 and there is a lot of noise. It used to be $12 with the 50% discount Passport America and that was ok for a one night stop on the way to Florida.  Unfortunately they dropped from that program so now the price (with tax) is $29.96 and in my opinion is too expensive for what turns out to be a parking under a major highway. It’s by a river so if you are a fisherman, it could be ok.

Not too crowdy, but in the shade of the I-81

Total distance today: 515 KM (309 Miles)

      

 

 

Parallel parking

Cortland Camping... Yes it is there!

Here we are!

We left Cortland NY at around 11:30. When we arrived yesterday at the campsite, the office was closed but there was a note to go and setup on any available site, and to return to the office the following day to pay. That’s what we did.

At 09:00 the next day I went to the office, it was still closed. We slowly started to do our preparation to leave, I was expecting someone to come rushing and tell me: “Hey buster, are you trying to get out of here without paying?” But no one came.  When we were done, I drove to the office, my wife got out to pay for our stay. Meanwhile, I drove to the place where you can flush the tanks. If you don’t have a RV and don’t know, there are 2 tanks, the first one is the grey and contains all the water from the kitchen sink and the shower. The black tank contains… all matters from the toilet. Don’t worry, it is not messy, I also wear the same type of gloves a surgeon would wear for such a delicate operation J

My wife walked back to me, there was still no one in the office and she asked people around but no one knew where the personnel were. There is a box beside the office where we can drop payment, but we didn’t have small bills and nobody else did. So with our conscience not as clear as the tanks, we left. We will be staying at the same place in the spring and we will pay them then.

We were driving on the I-81, there is a lot of up and down… it made for an interesting drive. We were in the slow lane, as a matter of fact, we were passed by every cars and trucks, I can’t wait to get to the Amish country, I’m pretty confident I will be the one passing the buggies.

We stopped at the Pennsylvania’s visitor center. After a mere 88 KM (53 Milles), hey we are not in any rush to get to anywhere, why not stop and smell the not-one-to-be-seen-anywhere roses.

Fall is following us!!

 

Retiree R us

Our plan was to go to a camping in Harrisburg PA, which is the capital of Pennsylvania, close to Hershey where we could visit the chocolate factory. We were also thinking about going to see a hockey game, the Hershey Bear were playing the following day.

But when we got to the camping, it was so run down, I couldn’t believe it, and there were a lot of blue tarps and trailers that had suffered from a lack of tender loving care. At one of the first sites, there was a “friendly” sign saying to KEEP OUT. The ground was not kept; I didn’t have a good feeling and was picturing myself finishing as a shish kabob… We left!

It was starting to be a bit late but we had an alternating plan… sleep at a Walmart. For those of you who are not familiar with RV lifestyle, it is well known that Walmart is RV friendly and allows us to spend the night in their parking lot. This is not ideal but it is usually available.  We take the opportunity to do some shopping, including grocery.  Everyone wins.

When we were close to Wally, we saw a Verizon store. We stopped there first to get a 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot. This is a device that allows us to go on the internet almost anywhere in the US. We can have up to 5 devices connected at the same time, so my wife and I don’t need to share the keyboard…  We paid $129 for it, no contract, plus we took a plan that allows us 10 GB of data at $90 per month. The device is fantastic! Yesterday we were Skyping with our daughters while we were driving down on the interstate. My wife was skyping, that is, I was driving, of course!
 

I am sooooo connected!

Finally we stopped at Walmart. My wife went to the store to ask for permission to stay for the night. She was told that we couldn’t stay there for the night; it is a town’s bylaw! We were really disappointed. Well, it is their lost because we were about to spend some money in the walmart.  After we would have had a good night sleep having now acquired the internet capabilities, we would have found a camping close by and stayed several days and spent $$$ on all kind of tourist visits.  Instead, we just when back to the I-81 and drove further south.

We stopped at a Flying J, this is also a truck/RV friendly gas station. They have everything available for trucker: showers, TV rooms, food, gadget, etc. We arrived at around 20:30.  By that time the parking lot where most of the RV spends the night was full. I drove around a couple of time and then in front of my very own eyes, I saw a spot where I could finally stop driving for the day. However, it involved parallel parking… with the trailer… it took me a couple of try but I made it.

Plenty of room... NOT!

If you have never slept at a Flying J, and I assume most of you haven’t, it is far from a perfect place, but it is safe and you have all kind of amenities. But it is mainly designed for truckers, and truckers, they leave their trucks running all night. So it is noisy! Too bad I had already gone to my doctor a couple of weeks ago, to get my ears un-plugged… I now regret not having waited a bit longer as it would have helped me now hahaha!


I am a bit late posting, we are currently park for a week, so I should have time to Ketchup :)

Total mileage for today: 430 KM (258 Miles)

 

 

On the road at last!

The Trip

The plan:

As promised in the previous post but with several days late here is the plan...

After talking with Jo and André, we bought into the idea of spending a whole month in Naples, Florida. I have already reserved for mid November to mid December. When I called, I was advised that it is a park for 55 +, I said that I looked over 55, not too sure if the person believed me. Because we will be visiting that park for a first time, there is a special for a month the price is $189, that is cheap! The most attractive bonus, there is NO snow... oh ya!

We left home on October 19 (I'll come back to the first day later), so it should take us about a month to get to Naples. We only  planned for the first stop which is Cortland, NY. Following this, it will all be improvisation and discovery.

After our stay in Naples, we will fly back home for about 3-4 weeks. We are still negotiating... Before we leave for home, we will be store our trailer and truck in Florida.

Upon our return to the land of oranges, we are not sure of anything. This is just too much planning in advance and it sounds like w-o-r-k to me, hahaha

Day 1

October 19 - Val-des-Bois

We spent 2 days at home with our daughter.  We bought some grocery and prepared a batch of spaghetti sauce for her.  We also took the opportunity to do some more shopping.

We left around 06:45, in the darkness. We went back to our camping site to pickup the trailer. We drove on the same road and at about the same time as we were used to, to go to work! We had a thought (just one and that was a really short one at that :) ) for our ex-colleagues, knowing that their day at the office was about to start.

Our camping in Val-des-Bois is about 100 KM (60 miles) from home . When we arrived, Jo and André were getting ready to go. They were not expecting us to show up that morning nor were they aware that we were about to meet them later at the same camping, the first night on the road. They might never share again their plan with us!  Hahaha

We hooked up the trailer, and left around 09:30. An hour later, after travelling, 200 KM, we did a planned short stop. At this point, we were about 25 foot from home... we had to go back to drop something off for our daughter and pick up more stuff :)) One of my task at home was to drop the garbage... which of course I forgot to do (they were in the bed of the truck).

Finally at 11:30 we were really on our way and increasing the distance between us and our home. Our daughter had made us sandwiches for lunch, which we enjoyed while still in Canada (thanks Caroline they hit the spot).

We realized at the time that we (I) had forgotten the garbage in the truck bed. We were about to cross custom and we didn't want to be caught with garbage that might contain something that was not allowed... I am always nervous when crossing custom and do my best not to have anything that might get me in trouble! I ended up throwing the garbage bag at a McDonald.

We crossed customs at around 14:00, the officer didn't pull us over, nor started to do a strip search (fiou!), he pretty much only asked if we had Alcohol and Tobacco. We didn't have any, and he wished us a good trip. This is ONLY my thought but why on earth would someone try to smuggle alcohol in the US, the alcohol being over priced in Canada is enough to prevent any want-to-be smuggler, no? I might understand the smokers who want to have their brand, and even then, I just don't get it!

The next exit was close to Syracuse, we stopped at a Walmart. To cross the border, we had NO meat, no vegetable or fruit, no eggs. In the fridge and the cupboard we had a lot of "no" that is what I'm trying to say. So it seems a lot of people in our lifestyle (RV style), stop quickly to replenish the food supply when they get to the USA.

Before going back on the highway, I wanted to fill up the truck. I stopped at a gas pump, got out, put my debit card in, entered my pin (which I will not share with you hahaha), and pushed 'yes'. I got a message saying that it was not the right pin. grrrrr I couldn't see a way to re-do it. So I thought that because it was a Canadian bank, it would not work at this pump. So cash in hand I went inside, waited for the employee to hand her some cash. But, she told me that she couldn't do anything the pump was still waiting for me to do something (she could have told me what exactly but it seems like customer satisfaction is not her strong suit). I went back to the pump thinking that I was just going to drive away... and I noticed a very useful 'cancel' on the display. After I cancelled, I re-entered my debit card, entered the right nip, but this time instead of entering 'yes' I entered 'correct', and by a miracle the pump started. I was soooooo happy... for about 2 minutes. At $50. it stopped, I had enough hassle and just drove away. I wanted to fill up the truck and didn't even get half a tank... and with that, the gas station lost money!

We stopped for supper at a Cracker Barrels. They are RV friendly, you can stay for the night in their parking space and they also have spaces only for bus and RV.

We finally arrived at the camping around 18:30. The office was closed so today I will go and pay for our site. Even though we were the last team to arrive, we didn't get eliminated... oups I must have been watching too much TV :)

The two teams

 

Oct 20 Morning at Cortland Where are the RVs?

 

Total distance yesterday : 575 KM (345 Miles) It was a long day, we will slow done someday!

Today, we might stay, we might drive away, we don't have a plan, but we know that we won't be going north!
  

My love with fall

My favorite season, by far, is fall. I just can't get enough of the grand colours, the lovely fall carpet that naturally covers the ground.



Splendid fall carpet

The weather is starting to cool down. You need a good sweater, but it is still comfortable. It is so nice to be sitting by the easy-to-lit fire in the afternoon, and enjoying the warmth emanating from it. If the sun is shining, everything is just perfect!

At the camping, the water has been cut off, but it is not a big deal, we have the lake across the street and I don't mind filling up buckets to be able to flush the toilet. It gives me a good workout which my body is in real need.

2 buckets = 2 flushes

Plus there are toilets at the front building where you can enjoy a nice warm shower, go do some other business while doing a sudoku and bringing back drinkable water.

During the past 2 weeks, the trees have turned from a beautiful bright red or yellow colour to a rust-brown colour, when they still have leaves, that is.

The weather is just so cold and windy, you can't lit a fire without using a few gallons of petroleum. The rain is consistently coming down every time I try to go outside for any period of time, grrrrrrr. ENOUGH!

Time to get rid of the darn carpet!

If the hassle I have to face was not enough, as mentioned earlier, the camping CUT the water... So now I have to go to the lake and fill buckets after buckets of water. There are stairs to go down to the lake, 28 to be precise. I am surprised that so far I haven't miss one step going down. Sometimes there is frost on the ground and by going down and up those step several times a day, water spillage becomes a really issue! DO YOU KNOW how many times a person flushes a toilet? The answer: A lot! in our case is double a lot because we are 2. My back is starting to hurt from that workout-from-hell.



I hate you!

At the front building, the water is hot (really hot), but the building is not! I almost need my parka just to not get a cold. I tried but you can't wear the parka and dry yourself at the same time grrrr. Last weekend, the toilet blocked (that's all I'm going to say about that) and once, there was no paper... a good thing I had sudoku with me, it can be a life saver!
Tomorrow's post will be about the plan to leave all this behind us... but now, I can't write no more, I have to go to the lake...

Getting ready

Where did the week go?

Please don't get confused by the question mark at the end of the previous sentence. It is not a question I am asking you, it is a question I am asking myself! No need to post comments about where your week went... I am saving you the trouble :)

Last weekend, which was Thanksgiving weekend for us canucks, was spent with our daughters at home. We had the traditional turkey meal, but mostly we had a lot of time together before we all went our way, to each their own journey. 

Monday I drove Julie to the airport and then came back home.

Tuesday we loaded the truck with stuff for the camping, did a lot of shopping, and drove back to our camping site in Val-des-Bois. That was a busy day, it reminded me our previous life (where work was a part of it). When we arrived at the camping, their was a carpet of pine needle to greet us, we just pushed some aside and started to unload the truck.

I had purchased a 12 Volt battery for the trailer, I replaced that. At Costco I filled both 30 pounds propane tanks, so if we get out of here before it freezes over... it should last us a couple of months!

Jo and André arrived around 5:30 and setup on our other site, just behind us. Most of the campers have already closed their trailer for the winter, so it is great to have someone else around.

Jo and André's motorhome

I couldn't see any of the 7 cats around, the ones we were feeding last week. I had purchased a large bag of cat food at Costco and was starting to think that I might be stuck with it. I filled up 2 bowls and waited for their visit. It took a couple of hours but 5 of the cats came back... plus several Blue Jays and a raccoon grrrrrr

Wednesday I was the first one up (guest included), and I started to rack the pines needles, I did both sites, by the end of the second one André came out and helped me finish it off. I was happy for the extra hands, my back was killing me, at one point, I was thinking that life was so much easier at work... NOT hahaha  I had read that the worst day you have in retirement is better than the best day at work... not too sure I buy that but you get the point :) 

Pile 1

 

Every day, I am out racking up more needles, I am considering going up in the trees and glue them there... permanently!

 

Pile 2

I installed an electric jack on the trailer. There was nothing wrong with the manual one but I felt that it was a justified expense considering that we will be setting up and setting down several times per week. My wife is usually the one that is doing the jacking up when we hook the truck and I didn't want her to have sore elbows...  I would be the one having to "feed" her her wine hahaha

The installation was easy, the holes in the new jack lined up perfectly with the old holes, the screws fitted, the only difference was that I had to run a wire to the positive side of my brand new battery... so easy I took 2 days to do it. The biggest problem was the temperature, it was cold and I stopped because there was rain coming down, I'm not fond of working on electricity under the rain. 

While I was outdoor in the bad element, my wife was inside setting up the interior... she was re-decorating to her liking hahaha just a joke, she was installing a rack to suspend our wine glasses at the top of one of the cabinet. She also started to load stuff inside  and finding a spot for everything. Those are the spots where I will never find anything anymore :)


Wednesday I had a shower... see, even retiree showers from time to time. I promise you I won't bore you with such trivial event too often but what was particular about that shower is that up until then, we had running water in the trailer. I expected the water to be cut off that day. I went by the office and saw one of the maintenance person and asked him when they were cutting the water. He told me it would be at the end of the afternoon Thursday... I was disappointed and told him that I had already taken a shower thinking it was my last shower but I could have just waited one more day... Frustration of retiree folks!

Friday, I installed the bike rack. It is a rack that go above the tongue of the trailer. I started when the sun was out, but the wind was sooooo cold, and then the sky opened up and let SNOW fall down... It kept switching from sun to snow and back to sun... I enjoyed thinking that in a week we'll be out of here!

We also winterized the water line in our model park trailer. This is pumping anti-freeze in the lines. Before we leave, we will also do all drains. We have water at the front building where we can get water, so for now, we just have Jerry cans, but it is OK for now... life is tough :)
 
Saturday, after I started my daily racking up of the needles, my neighbour Terry ask for my help with pumping antifreeze in his trailers. He has 2 trailers and he was also doing his daughter's trailer. My job was outside by the water entrance at each trailer, pumping antifreeze in... (I own the pump!) He was inside going from one faucet to the other to make sure the antifreeze got everywhere. At one point he was doing the one in the kitchen and there is a water pistols which he was doing by blocking the kitchen faucet. I showed up at the window just at that moment and got sprayed. He was telling me that he needed to do that to get enough liquid to go up the pistol. I didn't know how we do it at home so I asked my wife and she realized that she forgot to do that in ours. So today, we should be re-connecting the pump and shoot more liquid in... I considered having her sleeping outside because of this, but, I didn't want to sleep alone hahaha

First week

Friday Friday

You were the jewel of the week

Friday Friday

Rain or shine I loved your day

Friday Friday

You were the weekend preliminary

Friday Friday

Without you hopeless will have been the week

Friday Friday

Now all you are is just another day!

This has been our first retired week. Out of that week, I have had the flue for the past 3 days. In our previous life, loosing 3 days on a week holiday was something that would have me so mad. Now, it's just waiting for it to pass, taking it easy.

Next week will be about getting the trailer ready to hit the road. We are going to load the trailer with enough content to last a couple of months. I think the biggest challenge is to decide what we are going to bring and what to leave behind. At about 140 square foot of living space, you just can't bring all the toys... also we will need clothing for both warm and cold climate.  

We will buy a bike rack to carry the bike over the tongue. We are in no means the athletic type, but we do enjoy going miles on bike paths. This is a great way for discovering new locations.  

In July, there was a sale at Canadian Tire for the type of battery pack that, after charging it, you can use to boost you car with or you can use to supplement some electrical need on the road. Of course they were out of stock, we got a rain check. Yesterday I went to the store to get one, but, another customer was in that aisle and started to tell me that he bought the same model and that he was not happy with it. It couldn't supply enough juice for a few hours without needing to be re-charged. Not what I need.

I was thinking about getting 2 * 6 volts batteries for the trailer. From researches I did on the Internet, the consensus is that it is far better than a 12 volts battery. It should provide us with enough power to hold us for the rare occasion when and where we will not have electrical hookup. Having that setup, we will be much better than with the little power pack.

I might not post much during the weekend, this will be family time.