Dec 10th - Bright & Sunny

Looks like we will have another nice day here.

Yesterday I hooked the battery charger back up and it seemed to charge the battery OK, never started the car so don't know for sure. I'm still not sure why the "boost start" feature didn't seem to work the other night.

Yesterday's high was I the high 60's, with only a few clouds. We finished hooking up utilities, got formally checked into the campground, and basically settled in. We took several walks around the campground but didn't do much else. It was a great day just to be lazy. Had the motor home window open in the afternoon to air it out. We also spend some time just setting out in lawn chairs. It was breeze and when the sun went behind an occasional cloud it was a little cool with just a long sleeve shirt. When the sun was fully out, which was most of the time, and the wind wasn't blowing it was almost to warm. Felt good!

I think these people were here when we were here last year. The 5th wheel RV is a triple axle (BIG) unit. The "Dot" car load crosswise on the truck, right up next to the sleeper, and then they hook up the 5th wheel unit behind the car. The guy has ramps and just drives the car up onto the truck bed, at least that is what the guy did last year.

We are in campsite 78, note that north is down on the map below.

The campsites here are huge, 40-50' wide and at least 100' deep. Last year we were in either campsite 19 or 20. I think we are going to like 78 better. We have a big shade tree on our east side but not one of the west side, like we did last year. We like being able to sit outside, in the sun, in the afternoon. If it gets to warm, which I doubt, we can put out our awning for some shade.

Below is a Google map of the campground, north is up on it so it is reversed from the one above. Our campsite is located with a blue dot. I took an early morning walk, during sunrise, and walked the loop around the entire campground. The places at the behind the club house, at the top of the map, are all private dwellings, owned by RV'ers. You can tell the club house because you can see the pool.

Hope you all have a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 8th - Safe & Sound in Alabama

We arrived at the campground around 6:30 this evening. No problems on the trip down, about 500 miles. We stopped several times to stretch our legs and get the kinks out.

We stopped twice for fuel. The first time, near Rising Fawn, GA, we paid $3.389 per gallon. The 2nd time, near Atmore, AL, we paid $3.099/gallon. I'm not sure why the price was so low in Atmore. The 2nd place was the Creek Travel Plaza. The run a shuttle bus to a casino that is 3 miles from them. Maybe that has something to do with the cheap fuel prices. It was the cheapest fuel we saw during our trip. After leaving there fuel prices were back up to $3.38-3.47/gallon.

While fueling Kathy tried to start the car and the battery was dead. Not a shock, Honda must put in the cheapest batteries in the universe. I had started the car during an earlier stop and ran it for 5 minutes at 2,000 rpm, just to charge the battery. This has been a normal occurrence when towing the CR-V. It is my fault for not rigging a charging line from the motor home. Normally I have a battery charger with me but I forgot to pack mine when leaving Missouri. About 7 miles from the campground we saw a new Walmart. We stopped and I bought a $70 battery charger. When we got to the campground, in the DARK, I dug out an extension cord and hooked up the battery charger. I could not get it to charge the battery, haven't figured out why. I have a long set of jumper cables and was able to jump start the car, from the motor home batteries. That allowed us to get it unhooked and get the motor home backed into our space. I will try the charger in the morning but will probably have to ask one of the neighbors to help me with a jump start again. (I should have parked the CR-V next to the back of the motor home so that I could reach the batteries with the jumper cables. Guess I was tired and just didn't think of it before shutting the car off. Don't know why I was tired, Kathy drove 350 of the 500 miles.)

We got in our space in the dark and have the electricity hooked up. We will need to do a little repositioning in the morning before hooking up the water and sewer. We have plenty of "on-board" water and sewer capacity so it isn't a problem.

After finally getting situated we went out and a 20 minute walk around part of the campground. Kathy had on a hoody but it was warm enough that with a heavy shirt I didn't need one. Overnight low is forecast to be 43 but the next 3 nights lows are forecast to be in the high 30's. Most days the highs are forecast to be in the 60's with lots of sunshine.

Kathy called Kelsey and we "Facetimed" with her and Lydia tonight. It worked quite well, although it would be better with a larger screen. I've tethered my laptop to my phone to send this message. It is a little slow but is OK. I doubt that the speeds are high enough for us to use Skype but won't know until we try. The campground has pay Tengonet, but my experiences with Tengonet have all been bad. I will have to ask around tomorrow and check out the experiences of others who are here. The place appears to be more full than when we were here in Feb.

Time for bed for me, Kathy is watching Castle on TV. With just the antenna on our motor home we get all 4 networks and a couple of PBS stations.

Thank you Lord for your many blessing. May He bless you and yours.

Dec 5th - Damp Here in Tennessee Today

The high here today was near 60 but it felt cooler because the humidity was near 100%. There was a 40% chance of rain and I thought it was going to rain several times, but it didn't.

This morning we walked down to Tom, Mary Lou's and spent time visiting with them and Merv. Kathy made Merv salmon patties for lunch, one of his favorites. She made me chili, one of my favorites. After lunch she took him over to Lillians for the afternoon.

Kathy cleaned, did laundry, cooked meals and made pies (a woman's work is never done). Our new (used) TN washer and dryer work great.

I got a little exercise by cutting down and splitting a medium size dead oak tree.

 Other chores for the day included replacing two water filters on the motor home and re-installing the under sink drinking water filter (I had taken the old one out last fall, when I winterized the motor home, and never replaced it). The two main filters, similar to typical house filters, are easy to get to and replace the filters. The one under the sink is hard to access for an old fat guy. So far I don't think I have any leaks. I do think that replacing the "O" rings on the large filters should be a task on my "to do" list.

I also continued the process of becoming a Tennessean <grin>. Out with the old,

and in with the new,

by changing the license plate on the motor home.

I hope you a great day. May God bless you and yours.

Dec 3rd - In Tennessee

We had a long, but good trip to Tennessee today. We left Centertown a little after 8 AM and didn't get to our place in Crossville until about 8:30 PM. We did some sightseeing along the way.
We drove across 50 from Jefferson City to the St. Louis suburbs, which is the way we normally go to Tennessee. Instead of crossing the Mississippi into Illinois we headed south down I55, on the Missouri side of the river. We wandered off I55 and over to Ste. Genevieve, near the river but not on it. It is a small town with a French heritage. Lots of building were dated before 1800. It would be a place to go back to and look around more.

We had lunch at Stella and Me's diner, in Ste. Genevieve.

 Kathy in front of Stella and Me's.

 

Building across the street from Stella and Me's.

 

This was my lunch, the Portabella soup was excellent, as was the sandwich. The salad dressing was good but the lettuce was some fancy lettuce, which was okay but I'm a fan of plain old lettuce. Its kind of a standing family joke.

We managed to time the rest of our trip so that we hit Lebanon, TN at supper time. We stopped at Demo's, one of our favorite restaurants and had a good meal before heading on to Crossville.

We plan on taking the motor home to Crossville in the morning, for a "shakedown" cruise, and to fill the propane tank. Rather than put out the slides and then storing them we decided to just spend the night in the "cabinet", as Lydia calls it.

So far all seems well here. My great brother-in-law stopped numerous times to take care of things while we were gone. I'm so thankful for him. THANKS TOM!

May God bless you and yours.

Dec 2nd - Packing

We did some packing today, getting ready to leave for Tennessee in the morning. Lydia stayed here while Kelsey ran some errands and we all had lunch together at a new pizza place in Jeff. In the afternoon Kathy did some touch up painting on some trim at Kelseys, while Kelsey and I made sure we could connect via Skype.

The bookcase/dollhouse is officially complete and ready for Santa to deliver. I put the chimney on this morning.

Kathy "shingled" the roof, it really looks cute.

We are looking forward to our "vacation" but also know that we will miss family while we are gone.

May God bless you and yours.

Dec 1st - Colder

Temps dropped a lot in the past few days. Overnight low was 22 last night, 20 is forecast for tonight. I think Saturday nights low was in the 50's.

Our gas furnace did run for a short time early this morning but the heat pump provided enough heat to keep the house at 71 degrees almost all night. From everything I've read the heat pump is MUCH more efficient (less expensive to operate) that even the most efficient gas furnace. It will be interesting to see how much are electric bills are this winter.

I got my leaky water valve sealed up today. I think I might still have a drippy connection under the downstairs sink, where I put in the new faucet a month ago. I tried tightening a fitting. Hopefully there won't be any water in catch pan when I check in the morning.

I finished the "ductwork" under Kelsey's bench this afternoon. Not really ductwork, just built a box to direct the air from the old register out to the new grill. The bench turned out nice. Kelsey is going to paint it. The "seat" is 3 pieces of 3/4" plywood that lift off for access to the storage space below.

Tomorrow is packing day and then it is off to TN Wednesday morning.

God is good, may he bless you and yours.

Nov 30th - Good Thanksgiving

Doug & Anthony came from Indy for Thanksgiving and Oliver came down from the Quad cities. David & Elaine Ott came for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a very enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday.

Kathy recently painted the back "bedroom" downstairs. She had bought a trundle bed and we had to dismantle part of it to get it into the room. We had good help taking it apart and putting it back together.

Doug brought a red flashing nose with him and Lydia had to try it out.

We just about have the dollhouse bookcase finished. Kathy finish painted it today. I still have to put the back on it and we have to pull the masking tape off.

Yesterday and today I spent time "winterizing" the Hardy boiler. I drained it yesterday and today drained the lines. I had to install a valve in the water lines so that I could isolate the Hardy from our water system. I now have a connection that is dripping so tomorrow I'm going to have to shut the water off so that I can take an old valve loose, tape the threads and reinstall it.

This afternoon I went over to Kelsey & Andy's and we worked on building a bench in/under their bay window. I had built the frame previously. There is a register under the window and tomorrow I need to duct it out through the front of the bench. Kelsey still need to sand things and paint them. If I remember I'll take a photo tomorrow. Lydia provided lots of assistance, of course. She thanked us for her "table". She got a small chair from another room, pulled it up to the bench and sat down at it.

May God bless you and yours.