More days of the NOT rich nor famous

Monday, Nov 5^th

In the morning, we went to Camping World in Fort Myers. I should have forgotten my wallet at the trailer but I didn’t…  $450 later, we had bought:

-2 LED light fixtures. We had to replace some in the trailer, and we chose LED because they last longer and mainly they consume less electricity. It is a really important feature when we are not connected only on the battery (like at a Wally). I already installed those and what a difference! It is so much brighter.

 

 

 
 
- A water filter. As we are never too sure about the quality of the water where we are, this is a must. Because there is only one water entry, even our toilet will be getting filtered water :-(

- 4 Awnbrellas (tension bars for the awning to rest on which creates an arch so the rain water drains away. I will post picture as soon I have them installed.

- A shower head. My wife is so happy with it, I can’t barely get her out of the shower anymore ha ha ha (Note from Christiane:  This should have read: “- An Oxygenic shower head. (this adds water pressure and also saves on water. It works really well and I recommend the productJ)) (Note from Richard: I wanted to take a picture but Christiane is in there... again! JJ)

After coming back from our shopping trip, we just stayed home and relaxed.

Around 4ish, we met at Jo’s for a happy hour. This seems to be a daily occurrence where we try to solve all the world problems… One thing I learned… Don’t talk politics!

In the evening, we stayed home and watched TV.

Christiane didn’t have a good night sleep… and since the house is 180 square foot… neither did I!

Tuesday, Nov 6^th

In the morning, I went for a bike ride. I biked 22.5 KM (13.5 Mi.). I took my time; the weather was perfect, there were a few clouds, no wind. I started on a bike lane… which is located on a boulevard where cars drive 55 Mi. (95 Km) an hour!  There is only a white line that separates you from them… I was glad that I didn’t have a rear view mirror showing me the traffic coming at me! As soon as I could, I took a side road, but it was a dead end… I went back on the boulevard and after a while, I saw a road where there was no bike lane but a side walk. This seemed like an excellent alternative for me. I rode to the beach, took a couple of picture to tease my ex-colleague on Facebook, and just took my time exploring.

This is what I post on FB! I had that it was the hallway to me office!
No one drop me from their friend list... yet!

One of the mask superhero

 

On my way back, I was happy about the ride and I was smiling and thinking about how lucky I am… and that’s when I swallowed a fly! I know it sounds “cliché” but that’s the truth! When I got back to the trailer, I told my wife that I probably wouldn’t be hungry at the same time as her since I already had a little something to eat. 

In the afternoon, we went with André & Jo. A friend had told them that on 2^nd Ave., there were stores where Jo could buy a small credenza she wants for their Motorhome. André had programed their GPS to get there… a good thing because trying on our own would not have worked… It is a small road that is about 100 feet long and ends up in a parking lot… No store around! We thought that maybe it was on the other side, and we drove around a few blocks and couldn’t find the 2^nd Ave. You would think that it is between the first and Third Avenue… but no, couldn’t find it anywhere!

No dear crossing sign, Puma crossing!
For crying out loud, it's only a cat!

We also went to visit another campground.  We don’t have reservation for January and would have liked to stay in the area. But at $1200, the campground is too expensive for my taste.

We drove to Island of Marco. It is located beside Island of Polo (just joking!). You can see a lot of houses with their own personal dock. Let just say that if a gardener, a cook, pool maintenance persons are not in your budget, you might not live there!

No officer, I was not trespassing!
 

One of the local... From what he said, he hates tourist!

One of the rich owner... she took me to her home!
Does that made a kept man?

When we came back, we played dice. The last time we played, I won all the games. But this time, I decided to graciously let others win.

In the evening, we watched some TV. The US election was on every channel … Barack Obama won!

 

 

Working on weekend

Shopping mall in Naples

Saturday, Nov 3^rd

In the morning we went to Costco. I wanted to get there as early as possible to beat the rush, you know, the workers who w-o-r-k all week long, and also because I had some work of my own planned for the afternoon.

Naples, Florida

Other than selling boats, Dom Perignon champagnes and caskets, you can find pretty much the same thing you find in Costco in the Ottawa area.

The biggest difference for us… living in our trailer is that we just don’t have the space to store 24 rolls of toilet tissues or 30 box of Kleenex!   So we just buy what we can use right away (like a cooked chicken, prepared soup, etc.).  Strangely, at the cash register it still cost $$$$!

André and Jo came with us as our guests (they don’t have a Costco card) and they scored big time… they upgraded their Verizon usb key for a 4G MIFI hot spot. It cost them only the tax ($4.80) on the device and their monthly bill came down by $10 for the same amount of data (5 GB).

As mentioned earlier, retirement is not all fun and game… I had decided to work… on my tan. Being Saturday, I figured I should be getting double time! It doesn’t work that way.

Taking a break from the work (sun tanning)

We have an outstanding beach less than 6 KM (4 Mi) away. After lunch we went to get some UV rays. I should tell you that around here, in a crowd, people need sun glasses to dim the brightness from my really white skin :-)

Not crowded

The cost for the parking at the beach is a reasonable $6. Which I didn’t pay… André did, we were in our truck and he got the money out first, so he won hahaha. Next time we go we will be the one paying :-(

The water was a bit cold. I am the type of person who unless you can boil an egg in it, I will not be getting wet!  The other 3 crazy Canucks went in… the sane one went half way in!

My plan of working the tan didn’t work that good… that might have something to do with getting 1 inch of sun screen all over my body!  I have to remind myself that Rome was not built in one day!

Sunday, Nov 4^th

I don’t know if you heard the noise last night, but around 02:00, all the clocks fell one hour back! After all that commotion, I got up at 02:30. I didn’t want to stay up too long, so I didn’t take my morning coffee, I just turned on the computer and won a couple of solitaire games. Doing this got me so tired that I went back to bed at 03:30!

We were still up early… so what do you do when it is early and Sunday… you go shopping!

We went to Walmart, the store was empty, and apparently at 07:00 it is a good time to go! I needed to buy all kind of product for cleaning the trailer. I also purchased a 20 foot sewer hose to empty our tanks. At our site, the sewer connection is about 15 foot from the trailer drain and I had only 10 feet of hose… This could have been a really messy shituation Yerk!

Before going on this morning adventure, we didn’t have our breakfast, so we stopped at Duncan Donuts. It was a small one with only few tables available. We were sitting right under a speaker and it was blasting music really loud, it was probably Kenny G, whom I like, but it was too early and to loud to enjoy. The TV was also blasting beside us… you just couldn’t hear anything. We were not talking, we ate as fast as we could to get out of there!

Now being fed and shopped, we just kept driving without any destination. We ended up driving in some nice neighbourhood where they had their boat docked beside their house. We don’t have pictures but we will go back to walk around at another time.

My goal for that day was to clean the trailer. After spending 2 weeks on the road, it was overdue! I started by washing the roof. Once you do that there is no turning back; the dirt from the roof end up on the side walls. Then there was soap and dirt on the awning, had to clean that one too. But before starting, I had to remove the sun screens so they wouldn't get dirty…

I sweated, I cursed, I wanted a beer, I worked my a** off… under a nice warm bright sun, without a shirt, without SUN SCREEN… My skin is a nice glowing reddish colour now grrrrr

Funny thing on campgrounds… As soon as one subject (me) get the hose out to do some cleaning, the neighbours get their hoses out to also do their cleaning… it is CONTAGIOUS! LOL

I haven’t done all I wanted to do, but in case you missed it, I am RETIRED, so I’ll finish whenever I have time to do so! There is NO rush… Well maybe if one of my neighbour gets their hose out today :-)

Talking about retired and time, I find something very strange… one of my hobby is reading and I thought I would be reading several books a week, but in a little over 5 weeks of retirement, I still haven’t finish the first book I started… just too much things to do!

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.”