Month: June 2015

What a wonderful morning it is today. Its Sunday June 21st and it is Fathers Day. This is the first Fathers Day with no children in the house, and of course the first one in our new home on wheels. Normally, one of my children would have been in the kitchen early, making my breakfast. That’s a little thing we have always done during days of celebration, we make breakfast for each other.

I woke up around 5:30 having slept in a little later than usual. I did my normal thing which of course includes making “Smokin Hot” her coffee. One of my biggest challenges now is figuring out how to get up, use the facilities, and make her coffee all while not waking her up. It’s not that she minds getting up early, it’s just I know she would prefer sleep in if she can.

This morning I was successful. I timed it with the AC unit. It came on, and out of the bed I jumped. Fortunately we bought a memory foam mattress and she can’t feel me moving anywhere near as much as our old mattress. I even asked her to spray some WD40 on the bathroom door hinges so they wouldn’t squeak. I was a morning Ninja, moving swiftly and quietly through the dark MH rooms. LOL (more like a bull in a china closet) bumping into everything, dropping stuff, and making noises you would never hear under normal situations. Everything makes noise??? Whats up with that? LOL

I couldn’t find the coffee filters!! Of course I couldn’t, she’s asleep and something has to wake her up right? I reach down for my phone and turn on the flashlight feature and shine it in the cupboard. They were right here yesterday? Finally after several things falling over in the cupboard I was successful. COFFEE FILTERS!!

Glass coffee pots make noise too! Especially when they hit the side of the sink, and then the faucet while attempting to fill it with water. UGH Anyway, I get it full, and proceed to fill the coffee machine in the dark. Well I thought it was in the coffee machine. I must say that I did get most of it in the water tank ;)) Fortunately dish rags don’t make noise as I was wiping up the excess water.

So coffee was made, and I needed to start breakfast. I don’t normally make breakfast but this is Fathers Day, so I made my famous scrambled cheese eggs and bacon wrapped in a griddle warmed tortilla. Smokin Hot is still dreaming back there, so I have been successful thus far. I was feeling rather proud of myself until the fire alarm went off??? Really?? As you can probably imagine, I am running around the kitchen like a chicken with its head cut off trying to shut the stupid thing off!! But no!! It has to continue for 5 minutes. I was so careful to open vents and turn on fans. What can I say, I like my bacon crisp. 😉

The next sound I hear is “waiting for my coffee” I love that little voice. I’M WAITING! Makes me smile.

All in all I loved waking up in my new home on Fathers Day. I also get to go to church with most of our kids this morning, so waking up without them in the house wasn’t so bad. I hope you all have/had a great Fathers Day.

 

https://youtu.be/hTymo6UHdk4   Before Video

 

  https://youtu.be/fkHhzzyAPLk       After video         

 

We left East Texas the morning of the 24th of May and headed to see Jills mom and dad in Atlanta.

The trip from Tyler Texas to Atlanta is around 700 miles. A bit more than I am comfortable driving in a day, so we planned on stopping in Clinton Mississippi in order to break the trip up to a nice drive both days 300-400 miles is about right for me. The trip to Clinton was uneventful. We stopped in a fairly run down park on Springridge road right off of I20. The reason for that choice was that I used to live across the street from this park years and years ago, not to mention we also have some very close friends and family who live in the area, so we got to see them all while there.

The following morning, we took off about 7:00 am and headed for Atlanta!! Its about an 8 hour drive by MH, so we settled in, enjoyed the ride and arrived at Jills parents home around 3 pm Saturday afternoon. Jills parents live in a beautiful retirement center south of Atlanta. We were told that they even had hook ups for Motor Homes although not 50 amp. Which essentially meant that we would only be able to run one AC unit at a time and not the coffee pot while the AC was on. 😉 Once we got there, we realized that even the 30 amp was not working. Fortunately we have an Onan generator that runs everything on Diesel. We could even use both AC units if needed and of course the coffee pot as well. We ended up using the generator for 3 days straight. Our longest use at one time. It did beautifully!! BTW, I figured out that the generator uses about 10 gallons of diesel per 24 hours.

There were no other MH’s on location, so we were essentially out in the middle of a field which I loved. It was so peaceful and quiet. I decided to see what the area looked like from Google Earth and there was another MH in the very spot we were, so I took a picture of it and posted it. Tons of people questioned how we captured that. LOL I admit it was definitely weird that there was only one MH there and in our exact location.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We have always stayed in their home in the past, and having our own home with everything we need was so much more comfortable for all. I think the trip over all was a great success!

 

On Memorial Day, Jill and I were able to take her parents on a day trip to Calloway Gardens, approx 60 miles away. We all so enjoyed the trip!!

 

Dave sat up front, Marilyn sat in my office chair, and Jill sat in the red leather chair.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful time at the Butterfly exhibit!

 

I was a great visit, but all visits must come to an end, so on Tuesday morning, we headed to Orlando to see our great friends the Wehrums. They had procured one of 8 Grand Villas at the Grand Floridian Resort at Disney World and had invited us several months earlier to come spend some time with them. We were off to see Mickey!!

One of my biggest concerns was where to keep the MH? Also, what were we going to do with Lucy once we got there? The obvious choice was to just keep it in the parking lot at the Grand Floridian, and stay in the  motorhome at night and spend the days with our friends. Fortunately the Staff at the resort allowed us to keep it in the Valet parking area at the back of the lot. So I chose a park under some trees and our place to live for 3 nights was ready!! 😉

Of course we had to keep the Generator running for another 3 days straight so Lucy would be comfortable in the day and so everything would be cool for us at night. Periodically during each day either Jill or I would go take Lucy out. 😉

Our most gracious hosts allowed us to live like kings with them for those 3 days. We enjoyed an incredibly beautiful living space by the lake, a beautiful pool, and incredible restaurants in the evening. Wow what a place!!

 

My offices during the day. 😉

We were sad when we had to say goodbye Thursday night. We had, had so much fun, but again, all good trips have to come to an end and we were on our way the next morning to Destin Florida to see Keri and Caleb.

During our trip we had been following the horrendous weather that was going on back in Texas. It had already been the worst spring weather season in our history, so we were glad to be gone for a while, but it continued while we were traveling and in a big way. One of our friends sent us this while we were driving in beautiful weather.

 

Keri and Sugar Sevcik live in a cute little apartment outside the gates of Eglin AFB. There is also a very quaint RV park nearby and for a beach resort area their 43.00 per night charge is not too awfully high. However, since Sugar is in the AirForce, Keri figured out how we can utilize the FamCamp RV park on base which was less than half the price. We were able to get passes for the base, Keri loaned us her car, and we were able to come and go from the park as we pleased. It was very enjoyable location for several reasons. The main being it was about 200 yards from the Marina where Keri and Sugar keep their sailboat. 😉

 

As I am sure, all who know us know we love to fish, so we fished all day Saturday, half day Sunday and again Thursday afternoon and evening. We had a blast!!

 

We got to spend 7 days in the Destin area. Jill and I still worked every day, but we were able to see our kids all weekend and every evening. One evening we would go to their house for dinner. The next I would cook a crock pot dinner or something in the motor home. The key was we got to spend great quality time with them and that made our trip. We thoroughly enjoyed being there and we are looking forward to returning again soon.

It was time to head back to Texas. The weather was all clear. The stormy cycle had passed, and we had been gone from our home base way too long. So Friday Morning the 5th, we headed out. We had a tad over 600 miles to drive and we didn’t have a reservation for our home base park until Saturday, so we planned to stop at a Walmart somewhere along the way. Ruston Louisiana was the winner!! LOL We stayed in Ruston for the night. We were tired, and we slept well  until 7 ish Saturday morning. Since we hadn’t opened everything up, it was as simple as taking Lucy potty, moving in the bedroom slide, and we were off.

We had an uneventful last few hours. We arrived in Bullard Texas around 1:00 pm on Saturday the 6th. We were so glad to be back. We set up our home, took a shower, and after a short dinner visit from a friend, we went to bed and slept.