Busy day (for retirees)

Nov 2^nd

Christiane went shopping with Jo and Lilianne at Bealls. This is a store that offers serious discount on clothing and household items. It is Jo’s favorite store! I had given my wife an allowance of $20 but was hoping that she would bring the whole thing back… I don’t think she was appreciative of my allowance because she just smiled and looked at me… this usually translates as “Ya, right!”

I was glad to see her go… I got my drill out and started drilling holes in the trailer...

At the campground there is cable TV, however you have to pay for it. We are retired; we don’t like to pay for anything! André has a satellite dish and said we could hook up to it. Alain has a spare decoder and said we could borrow it, but that he didn’t have the remote control for it. André has a spare remote control for the decoder… See isn’t it great to have good neighbours! Now, I’m only wondering who will replace the batteries when they die… Ha ha ha

Yesterday when we arrived, I tried to connect to the satellite by using the external cable outlet. It didn’t work! Apparently it is an outlet that is only good for cable not for a satellite feed.

So I ran a cable from the decoder to the outside, going through cupboards. But at one point, I couldn’t run the cable; there was a space that was not accessible. I removed the panel and surprise, surprise; I discovered an empty compartment that the manufacturer had condemned!  I still can’t figure out why the manufacturer of the trailer didn’t provide access to that space!  The floor is even finished and all!  

Look at the extra storage space!
Where is MY beer?

I am not sure if my wife would have let me remove the panel had she been there… You see, the process involved a hammer…

When she came back and saw what I did, she was excited to see that extra space.  Darn, I was thinking of storing my beer in there but I think she has other ideas! Thinking back, I should have just put the panel back and kept the whole storage secret for my own usage. Hahaha  (Note from Christiane: “When I got back I saw a wooden panel lying outside the camper and I thought, oh no, what did he do?! But that extra space is worth it.  Richard did a great job.”)

Our site has a cement patio.  Our trailer end being lower to the ground than big RVs, we couldn’t use our steps, which meant that coming in and out of the trailer was a bit of a nuisance. So we just moved the trailer by 4 feet. Now the steps are deployed and we can easily go in and out of the trailer. I didn’t mind moving, we are further south now :-)

In the afternoon, we installed our sunscreen. It looks like we are not going anywhere for a while now… Ye!

All set up

Our Florida room

 

Following all that excitement, we had a few drinks with Jo, André, Alain and Lilianne, at Alain and Lilianne’s site.  Here they call it the Apéro and it looks like it’s a daily occurrence at 4 p.m.  Now, that I can’t hide my beer in the secret compartment, I might as well enjoy it…

For supper, we warmed up some homemade Chinese chicken rice. We had planned on cooking steak on the BBQ but instead we decided to do something quick so we could go to the play room where we played dices. We played 2 games… I won 2 games. I think we were playing for money… I’m still waiting to collect from the LOSERS… (Note from Christiane: “You can take the guy out of Statistics Canada but you can’t take statistics out of the guy : )”)

Our daughters are back from their week in Walt Disney. Maybe now they will have more time to skype with their poor neglected parents! ha ha ha ha ha ha

Total distance today: 4 feet

 

Crossing the finish line

Who was checking who out?

Oct 31

We left Jasper at 09:00 with the sun in our faces, but at 6 C. ( F.) we were anxious to get still further down south.

Oh no! We lost the truck!

On our way to Bushnel, we did the mandatory stop at Walmart to replenish our cupboard. It was a really nice Walmart, they have dedicated parking for RV… now that is service! We even run into someone we knew (André).

 I bought ONE *coughs* *coughs* bottle of wine, a yellow Tail, at home, I was paying $13. but here, at $5.56… you ditch the coke in the sink!

We traveled a respectable (for retiree) 240 KM ( Mi.) and reach our destination. This is about at the same latitude (or longitude, I’m never too sure which is which) as Orlando.

Jo and André were already setup and we got a site beside theirs. This was a Passport America camping and the price was around $14. It was just for one night so I don’t have much information. On the minus column… we were close to the interstate (noisy) on the plus side, with enough wine, you just don’t hear…

Nov 1^st

Yesterday the plan was to go and camp around Tampa (without a “x”). We intended to spend at least a week.

But before going on the next leg of this race… we went with André and Jo to Center Hill. There is a warehouse where you can buy material to do sunscreen. This is a really strong tissue and other than a nuclear bomb, you can’t destroy it. We bought one large one to use as a mat with the trailer. I’ll post picture when we are setup with it.

By the time we left, it was already 10:15 and it was a nice 19 C. ( F.). We say goodbye to André and Jo who were driving To Naples. We were to joined them on the 11^th.

 I programmed the GPS for a camping. It was a short 75 KM ( Mi.) away. We first got on the I-75 South and we didn’t even drove 15 minutes that I asked my wife what she thought of rather than going to Tampa we would go to Naples. We had reservation starting on the 11^th but I was confident that we could move it to the first.

She saw how perfect my idea was… (they are always perfect, NOT!) and agree with me to the change of destination. This is flexibility at it’s best folks!

While driving down, I was passed by this motorhome that was speeding and driving like a maniac... It was André hahaha! I followed him all the way to the camping. It is so much easier to have your personal escort to wherever you are going.

When we arrived at the camping, it was no problem to move the reservation. This is not yet the big time for the campers; Jan-feb and march are their biggest month! Now please don’t call them, this is a 55+ resort, I was nervous of them asking me proof of age! They didn’t! I was acting like I was old and mature :-) two things that I am not :-)

After 2,622 KM (1629 Mi.), 2 weeks, we reach our southern destination. For the next 6 weeks, we will not be moving the trailer, we will explore this area. I’m sure that we will spend some time at the beach where we will –I hate to use this word- work on our sun tan!  

If you are from the north you might want to skip this paragraph... Last night, we had trouble falling a sleep... it was NOT because we were excited to be here... it was because of the heat! I had the window open but it was not enough! Don't be worry for us, tonight, I will have the air conditioning on duty!

Home for the next 6 Weeks
Lake San Marino, Naples, Florida

On the dash of this motorhome, there is 2 large dogs sleeping.
Do you see them?
 

Darn I can't play - I don't have any grand child!

 I hope you all have a good weekend!

 

 

Welcome to Florida

After paying for our site, we left Macon Georgia at 08:50, it was a warm 7 C. (44 F.)  brrr. (Note to Caro et Julie, the manager looks and sounds like Roy from the Shipping War) We stopped at 08:51, I could see in my right mirror that the door of the trailer was swinging open… I was the last person to go in the trailer; I had forgotten to lock the door! Bad Richard, Bad!

Since it was a short 300 km drive for the day, my intention was to drive on secondary roads to see more of the landscape. However, the speed limit was 55 mi.  (88 KM) and pulling the trailer, even though the speed was fine I felt I couldn’t be safe because of all the driveways where cars were coming out of, plus the traffic lights… I had to keep watching every driveway just in case . So we decided to go back on the interstate.

We saw a lot of cotton fields, it remind me of driving with snow bank… I’m running away from that!

Cotton filed in Georgia

 

We had lunch at Pizza Hut. We took the buffet but were disappointed… they were not too quick re-filling the food and never even had pasta available.

We usually stop at the tourist center whenever we enter a new state.  We get the state map and some pamphlets on the attractions that can be found in that state. We had heard that when you arrive in Florida, they  also have free orange juice at the Tourist Center.   Just before Exit 2 in Georgia on I-75, on the Georgia/Florida state line, there are a lot of signs advertising for the Florida Tourist Center, free orange juice and free maps at Exit 2… Don’t stop there it's a trap.  The only thing there was a kiosk selling oranges and I assume orange juice. It was NOT the Florida tourist information center… grrrrr

Got back on the road, and the very next exit –in Florida this time- was the tourist center. We stopped got OJ, a map and all kind of information.

We arrived at the Florida Gateway RV resort around 13:30. It is a PA  (Passport America discount) and they charge $22, but in case you missed it… it’s a RESORT. So there is a lot of resort stuff… There is a hot spa… but it was cold, the water was at 17 C. (63 F.)! They are selling membership, I don’t think so! The owner is a Canadian from Ontario.

 Florida Gateway RV resort, Oct 30 2012 

The campsite is grass so before setting up I checked and saw several red ant’s hill. I got the ant killers ammunition and started a war.  I surrounded their camp (sprayed all around the ant hills). The battle field is now covered with dead bodies… I know they're called fire ants but there was NO smoke column coming from them!

You can rent this site, it comes with a spa, BBQ, sink, chairs, cement pad, shrub, NO ANTS!

My wife caught me spitting in the pond!

3 Palm trees and a princess!

After my shower tonight, we got a new neighbour! It’s a motorhome that arrived around 18:15, we had just looked at the really long shadow our trailer was casting, because of the topography (no mountain). Then the motorhome arrived and we were in their shadow…

Today, Halloween day, we are leaving Jasper (how not appropriate) and driving down another 2 hours to Bushnell. We will be meeting with Jo and André. We will all go to a store where they sell sun screen material.

Distance of the day: 310 KM (185 Mi.)   

Long day and Sandy

Club house at Al Sihah Shrine Park, Macon, Georgia

This morning Georgia was not on my mind, the east coast was! As projected, Sandy has touched land and sent its destructive fingers all over the East coast. As I type this, Millions are without electricity. Water seems to have taken over cities, houses burned down… My heart is with those that are dealing with this storm of the century!

Yesterday morning (Oct 29th) when I got up, it was 10 C. (50 F.), in the trailer. We don’t mind the cold… when we are in the comfort of our bed under our duvet but when we get up, a little warmth is really appreciated. It doesn’t take long to warm up our  140 square foot home, and while I was waiting for the heater to do its magic, I made my coffee.

At 08:15 we had our breakfast, got the trailer ready for the road, filled up the fresh water tank, emptied the grey and black tanks, itched the trailer, and drove away from Baileyton RV park. It was 5 C. (41 F.) outside, brrrr. There was even some snow forecasted for the near future.

While we were driving south/West, we saw a lot of utility vehicles (electricity and tree servicing) going North/East toward Sandy. They will be really busy in the following days/weeks.

Every stop we made, there was a cold wind hitting us, and even in Georgia where the outside temperature was up to 18 C. (64 F.) we needed a warm sweater.

Christiane see double at athe pumps!

We drove through Atlanta… CRAZY! -We were not there during rush hour but let me tell you that it is an experience that I was not looking forward to! At some point there was 7 lanes, cars and trucks passing left and right, merging, de-merging, oh boy, I’m sure my life has been shorten by this.  I am surprised I didn’t dream about this last night!

After 610 KM (366 Mi.), we arrived at “Al Sihah Shrine Park” around 16:00. It was a looooong drive!

Al Sihah Shrine Park, Macon, Georgia
This is what happens when I don't take a shower!

The park was empty. When we arrived, I went to the office but no one was there. I started to go on the campground and saw 2 man working, so I stopped and asked them if they were the manager and I was told no but just to go ahead, setup, someone would be coming later to collect the camping fee.

While setting up, I noticed that the water was cut off, we had plenty of water in our own tank, so we didn’t mind. When we were done, I went back to the office, to pay them but there still was nobody around, I walked back and then one of the employee I saw earlier, drove by and pointed out a person “that man is the person you are looking for!”

When I talked to him, he told me not to worry about the money, that tomorrow before leaving I just had to stop by the office and pay then. He also told me that he turned the water back on for me.

I was anxious to turn the TV on and watch what was happening with Sandy. There is no cable on our site. We have an antenna on the trailer that is good enough to get local channels… so I thought. The only channel we could get was a religious channel…

We have our Verizon gizmo, so at least we could get some news from the Internet.

 

The park is a Passport America, so the cost for a night was a reasonable $14.

Today, we are going further south, the next report should be from Florida. It will be a shorter drive. I’m sick of the highway so I might try to take secondary road.

Latest update: This is Tuesday afternoon, we just made it to Jasper Florida, I’ll talk about this tomorrow.

 

      

First Month

This is a big anniversary… one month ago we parked our employee’s card and drove off to the retiree’s boulevard!

There has been a lot of up and down (I’m talking about the highway in Pennsylvania, of course :-) ). So far, I think that we still haven’t grabbed this lifestyle fully. Somewhere in my mind, I must still be in “vacation” mode, I don’t feel like I’m on vacation but it must be.

I dreamt a couple of times about work, those were NOT nightmares! I enjoyed my work, well… less in the last 6 months because the pace was too slow. I also don’t miss the people; this is mainly because I’m staying in touch with them on Facebook…

The first few weeks were about getting ready to travel in our trailer for the next 6 months. Now we are living in our trailer and we can tell that we brought too much stuff, mainly clothing.  We will be correcting that next year… it’s all acquired experiences!

Being on the road is not much different than living at home. You still need to cook, so you still need to do grocery. You have to do laundry. The bills have to be paid. Maintenance has to be done on the house (trailer).

Since we started our journey south (about 10 days ago), we didn’t eat out too often, we have everything to cook delicious meals. We used our BBQ twice; we also have a small electrical toaster oven that we used several times.  There is a propane oven in the trailer but we don’t like using it (you have to go on your knees to light up the pilot, it warms up the trailer too much and it’s really small). Today, I will probably do a roast, outside in the toaster oven, the biggest challenge I can see will be to keep the neighbours away because the smell of the food will be all over the place!

This morning at 05:00, I went to do the laundry. It was not crowded… as a matter of fact, I had all the machines!  It cost $5 total to do 2 loads of washing and drying.  From now on, I’ll try to use less clothing… I might even go commando hahaha

We are moving Monday, the weather for the weekend was calling for rain and cold, so on Friday we removed our sunscreen… an ounce of prevention!

We don’t know where we are going, we should find out tomorrow night when we see where the trailer is parked!

On the family front, our daughters are in Walt Disney for a whole week…  I am sure glad that Franken Storm is going away from them… they should be getting a lot of sun, and a lot of fun!

“I don't suffer from insanity; I enjoy every minute of it.”

 

Doggy Style

My wife and I…   went for a ride…   a bike ride!

Just a short distance later we came by the Baileyton Golf Club. I thought that if I looked in the gutter I might see a lost ball or two… I scored! a nice Titleist 1 ball, now, if I could just find a set of clubs, left handed, and a free pass to the golf club, I would be a happy retiree.

Like a fresh fruit, it was waiting to be picked up

After 2 bumps and 2 curves on the road, my wife decided she really wanted to do some cleanup at the trailer. She told me to go ahead without her… I didn’t have the GPS but decided to carry on.

It was really her loss because right there we were at the top of a hill and I didn’t need to pedal one bit going down, as a matter of fact,  I had the wind in my hair, the farm smell hitting my nostrils and if it were not for the fact that I don’t like the taste of bug, I would have been smiling… life is good!

The road is really busy, narrow, with a lot of hidden curves.  When I saw a nice country road on my left, I decided to take that road.

Would have been a great bike path if it was not the sharing with cars or trucks!

I was going up a bump when I came upon a house surrounded by a huge fence. The house was not a castle, just what I consider a “regular house” but then...  came running the beast, I didn’t stop to take a picture but it must have been bigger than a horse, and barking loudly enough to make sure that my heart was pumping… I was praying that there were no holes in the fence… and lucky for me, there were none but less lucky for the beast that was probably thinking that he would have liked a taste of a French Canadian.

At the next house on the left, which had NO fence, 2 dogs started running and barking, one of them was big and could chew part of the bike to get to me for sure, but I was at the top of a hill and pedalled down before they could catch me… They must have been fed lately because I’m sure that if they had really wanted to they could have out run me (maybe not out smart me but all they needed was to out run me).

Now I’m down (what my wife would call a mountain but I call a hill, a good one at that) and I’m noticing that up that hill there are 2 dogs so I will just bike in a different direction. It’s not because my life is insured that I want my wife to collect!

This was out in the country and there are not that many streets that crosses the road I was on, but I wasvconfident I’ would find a way… plus, there are so many churches around that I could take refuge in one and ask for asylum!

Not even 5 minutes later, near a house on the right, 2 dogs started running and barking, grrrr. What the hell! At this point I realized that I was surrounded, there is NO side road, NO church, NO hope, I’ll have to face one of the set of dogs. On my right, I don’t know what will be coming if I survive the dogs. On my left I am at the bottom of the hill, the dogs only have to wait at the top and pick me up, I’ll already be warm for them!

I went with the known option, but I tried to outsmart them… I pedalled like crazy going up the hill, doing it as silently as I could, I was trying not to puff too loudly too. Maybe with my previous passing (I don’t mean the one that would have made my life insurance company sad) the previous excitement made the dogs sleepy and maybe I had a chance, I was going up toward the light (not THE light but the one from the sun) .

I think the dogs were not expecting me so soon; they only started running when I reached the front of the house… But it was too late for them, I was not about to slow down and let them have a piece of me!  

On this ride, I really missed my wife; she is slower than I am and my buns would not have been so exposed!

Another day in heaven

Wednesday was another sunny and warm day and we were going to Johnson City. I had found on the internet an opened museum with several buildings dated from the Civil war. This was the home of Landon Carter Haynes.

Since our departure from the North, it was the first time that we took the truck without having our house hitched!

We left at around 09:15. On our way I saw a sign for David Crocket’s birthplace park. We just had to go and investigate what this was about.

There was a small museum dedicated to his life. I don’t think that they had anything on display that belonged to him but they had displayed items that were from that époque.

I didn’t know much about him, In my childhood, I only read some cartoons where he was the character. Did you know that he was a congressman at some point. He died in Texas at the Alamo battle.

After this short un-planned side trip, we continued. It was close to noon and before the next visite, we decided that lunch would be our next stop.

I saw a place called Sonic, it is a drive-in, you park the car, choose what you want on the menu and then you press a button to order. I chose a Fried Chicken burger with fries and Christiane got chicken popcorn with taters. It’s great to know what you want but… it is not easy to order with the music blasting out of the speakers while trying to order using the intercom. Because of the southern accent, I couldn’t understand one word that the waitress was telling me, but I ordered any way.  

You have to pay right there and then, so I used my credit card… Oh no, they asked for my zip code! I don’t have a zip code, so I pressed the button again and the same lady/same accent answered asking me if I wanted anything else (I assumed that is what she asked me)…  I explained to her (trying not to cry haha) what my problem was but then I saw on the display “Approved”… I am not sure if it was the waitress' intervention or something else but I told her thank you and waited anxiously for the food to arrive.

I didn’t know if any of what I ordered would arrived as ordered but, miracle… everything showed up!!!

By 13:00 we were at the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site. What really got me thinking was a small documentary about slave. One of the slaves who was working on this farm was the son of the owner.  –Just as a side note, being Canadian we know about slave in the US, but personally I didn’t know much until I saw the TV series “Root” when I was a young adult. I have no idea how people could deal with knowing that one of the slaves was their own son or daughter… just can’t imagine that. What I learned was tha those slaves were assets, and as such, could be used as collateral against debt!  Can you imagine using your own child as collateral? I am not judging, this was another time and other ways… it just keeps me thinking.

There was also a cave you could visit. I was surprised that we could go explore it by ourselves, they even provide you with a flashlight to go in.

Dangerous, blood hungry, cave man!

At the entrance, you could feel the colder air. The caves were justa couple of chambers but I found it interesting. Because of the camera’s flash, on the pictures, you would not guess it but it was dark even with some “windows”.

Gentle cavemaker (she was not good at it, there was dust on the walls!) 

Sorry have to go...

Total distance: 206 km (123 mi)

 

Thursday was another sunny and warm day (I know I repeat myself but it is just the way it is :-) )

In the morning, we cooked our spaghetti sauce. See it is not all vacation, it’s a lifestyle!

I decided that I had to get rid of several dead bodies… The front end of the trailer was a “crime scene”. I got the ladder out, the soap and proceeded with hiding the evidences! I started with a shirt but it was sooo hot (the weather not the guy haha) that I removed it.

W-o-r-k-i-n-g

I also did a quick cleaning of the bikes, oiled the chains and inflated the tires. Since the bikes were no longer on the bike rack… we had to go and do some exploring in the vicinity. If you asked my wife, we were going up and down the whole time. I think that there was a little hill at one point… all in the eyes of the be-holder folks!

 

 

We didn't see any Walmart nor McDonald's, but I wouldn’t expect to find those in a town of about 500 people. Baileyton is really small, but it has a pizzeria, a post office a school and several churches and gas stations. It is out in the middle of nowhere but it is really serene. We are surround by mountains and we can hear birds singing the day away…

While riding the bikes, everyone we saw driving by, would wave at us… really friendly. I think that back home we get waved at as well but with only one finger up… it doesn’t take much more effort to have all fingers up at the same time, no?

We even got homework... tonight we should be skyping with the girl for 20 minutes :-).

 

After a hard day work, it is important to relax.

Extreme reading!

Total distance - Truck 0 KM (0 mile) - Bike 15 KM (9 miles)