Dec 12th - Big Daddy's

Another beautiful day, overnight low 36 but high was a very sunny 61.

Yesterday Kathy went over to the clubhouse in the morning and helped tie a quilt. I took a 2.25 mile walk around the campground. We then went over to Sam's club, about 15 miles from us, and had hot dogs for lunch. Kathy loves Sam's hot dogs and I also like them. She bought a crock pot and I bought a 4# container of "deluxe" nuts. On the way home we stopped at a place that was supposed to have fresh fruits and vegetables. The only thing we bought was a bag of "new crop" pecans. They are good.

In the afternoon we went over to the social hour again.

This morning, as I took my walk, I noticed that the Smart Car was loaded.

Later I learned that these people were pulling out today to head to a big RV show in Florida.

After my walk I went to the club house and watched them cane chairs. One guy is re-caning an old rocking horse. I watched him for a long time. He spent quite a bit of time studying the old caning as he removed it. I've got to take a photo of it next time I'm over there, it is such an interesting piece. Someone just dropped it off at the RV of the guy who "teaches" caning, Bob Derflinger. As I was watching the cane chairs Bob showed be an album containing photos of many of the chairs they have done over the years. He showed me over a dozen chairs waiting, in the club house. to be re-caned. They have more stored in another building. People donate many of the chairs, or the folks pick them up cheap from flea markets. Some of the guys make any needed repairs, strip off  old paint/varnish and get them ready for re-caning. Every year they have an auction to raise money for an assisted living facility that caters to RV'ers. They cane every weekday. I think I will give it a try Monday morning.

While there I also spent time visiting with a guy who used to live less than 15 miles from us when we lived in Niantic. He and his wife have been "full-timers" for quite a few years but they still spend some time in central Illinois every year, to visit their adult children and grandchildren.

We finally made it to Big Daddy's for lunch. I had a hamburger basket and Kathy had an oyster basket.

The hamburger is at least a half pound. It comes with fries for onion rings and a drink. I ordered mine cooked medium and it was pretty red in the center. It was a lot better than it looks in the photo, so juicy that it is very messy to eat. The price increased from last year. The basket and drink cost a whopping $7.25.

After leaving lunch we drove back over to the DishTV place. On the way we saw a partially harvested cotton field. Next time we go by it I need to grab a piece of the cotton. All the white you see in the foreground is loose cotton balls.

At the DishTV place I bought the receiver they told me I needed to work with our satellite. I spent several hours trying to get it to work and finally gave up for the day. I talked to a Tech guy at Winegard (the company that made the satellite) and the next step is going up on the roof, taking the cover off the satellite and checking to make sure there is power at the dish. I may get brave and do that tomorrow.

I had purchased a new sewer hose a couple of days ago. I bought just the hose because I like the end connections on my existing hose, the hose that has several small leaks. When I tried to put them on the new hose I found out that my old hose is a counter-clockwise spiral and the new hose is a clockwise spiral. They wouldn't work. I had another old fitting that would work to connect the hose at the RV but needed to make another trip to the RV store to buy a new fitting to connect to the sewer. AARGH!! Everything is back connected and I dumped the tanks with no leaks.

Kathy made goulash for supper. She had canned, or maybe frozen, some tomatoes from her garden and used them in the goulash. It was GOOOOOD.

Not sure what we are doing tomorrow. Plans are to go to the beach Monday or Tuesday. It is supposed to be sunny and in the high 60's both of those days.

May God bless you and yours.

Dec 11th - Shopping Day

Weather - Today was another beautiful sunny day, with only a few clouds. The overnight low was 36 but todays high was only 54, significantly cooler than yesterday. Not hot but still pretty darn nice.

We did some shopping today. Bought some miscellaneous electric stuff from Radio Shack, a new sewer hose from an RV place and stopped at an RV repair/maintenance place and talked to the guy about getting our oil and transmission fluid changed.

Then it was time for lunch at an Oriental buffet place that we frequented last year. The food was good but would have been better if they had turned up the heat on their steam table. After lunch we stopped at Winn-Dixie for some grocery shopping. Kathy said the grocery prices are really high, $4.39 for a gallon of milk. Fuel is less expensive

In the afternoon I repaired the switch that controls the movements of the drivers seat. It quit working right after we left Crossville. The power wire broke loose from the backside of switch mechanism. I "superglued" it back in place. it works now but we will see how long it lasts.

I brought our Dish Network receiver with us to see if we could get satellite TV while on the road. Our satellite dish, which we have never used, cost the original owner of our motorhome over $1,100. I couldn't get it to work so I went over to a local Dish installer place. They told me that our receiver is a high definition receiver and our 10 year old satellite can't handle high def.  They were nice folks. We can buy an $80 receiver that should work with our satellite, we just won't have high definition. Our 10 year old TV is an analog TV, which can't take advantage of high definition, so that isn't a big issue. I think I will get one of the receivers the next time I go by the place and see if I can get it to work. Since we get all the major networks here it isn't a big deal but our experience has been that we are lucky to get 1 or 2 of the major networks at many places.

We walked over to the clubhouse for this afternoon's Social Hour. It is basically a notification time to let everyone know what is going on at the campground, and in the surrounding area. I asked about the place where I had inquired about the oil/transmission work and had several guys tell me they thought the guy did good work.

After getting back from the clubhouse (it is 0.18 miles over to the clubhouse) we decided to walk one of the small loops (a mile long) around the campground. While walking we saw a motorhome with Missouri plates. The guy was just hooking up his sewer hose and we stopped to chat. He is from the Branson. MO area. He is heading to Florida for the winter. He left Branson 10 days ago and has been wandering around, sightseeing, on his way this far.

It was almost dark when we got back to the motorhome but I took a photo of our lot anyway. I think I earlier said the lots were 40-50' wide, I think they are actually more like 50-60' wide. The post at the left of the photo marks our "lot line".

Time for supper. Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

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.