Mid-March Update

We're fine & currently at Stone Mountain State Park visiting Doug and Elizabeth. Steve & Susan made it down to visit with us and other friends before we left Gulf Shores. They were able to experience those below-freezing temps while they were here. We left Gulf Shores March 1st with stops in Tallahassee, FL (Randy & Shirley), Mt Dora, FL (Dave & Mary) before arriving here in Stone Mountain.  

An unusual experience for us: From Florida to here we made an overnight stop at an automated RV park in Tifton, GA (Tifton Overnight RV). It was a great experience for us as the park is all full hook-up sites, well maintained, and the gate codes worked (big item for me). If you're fully self-contained and don't need restrooms or showers, we recommend this park for an overnight stop when traveling I-75.

Back to Stone Mountain: We survived the latest round of severe weather over this past weekend. Our trend of experiencing severe weather that arrives overnight and is slightly worse than expected has continued. Unusual for all the years we've been full-timing.

Summer plans: We've heard from Grand Teton National Park. We still plan to volunteer at the LSR Preserve just as we did last year.  Arrival & departure dates to be determined, but they have our input for those dates. We'll volunteer three days per week though the exact days of the week we will work are to be determined, too.  Total staffing isn't totally hired, yet, nor is it known just who all the volunteers will be.

Current plans are to leave Stone Mountain Thursday and travel to High Point, NC for the weekend before moving on to Virginia.  We expect to be in Virginia for three weeks and then travel to the Elkhart, IN area for  a total of two weeks "visiting" various service centers. We plan a quick visit to South Dakota before moving on to Grand Teton.

That gets you up to date as of this evening.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us! David

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you had a great Valentine's Day. I didn't go to Kroger, but we did make it to Texas Roadhouse.

Just a quick update as February is almost half over.  We're still at Gulf State Park. We went to McCalla last week to visit Anna. Our summer plans are in question as all job offers for NPS were rescinded, and NPS was told not to talk to potential volunteers (like us). Just when you think the supper-cold weather on the gulf coast might be over, we told to expect at least two below freezing mornings next week. Pine pollen is in full bloom. And through all this, we still plan to leave on March 1st and follow the pollen!

Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us. We'll update more as we start to move around. David

Gulf Coast "Snowmageddon" Begins

OK. It's a "once-in-a-lifetime" event. 3-5 inches of snow expected. Local news is aghast & excited over the beach snow event. I-165 already a skating rink. At least one direction of I-10 is closed near the Loxley (US-59) exit. Probably get some blizzard conditions for a few minutes in a few locations. Roads are treated, but the south's usual snow removal equipment is spring. Probably be gone by next week.

It is pretty. We're fine with it. TV pictures of the Gulf Shores beach is just beautiful. We were here for the 2014 ice storm, so we had some experience with the supper cold weather that can happen down here. I believe we'll be a tad colder this time.

Otherwise, it's been a little atypical of a winter for us. We started moving most doc appointments down here as we're here longer than we're in Fredericksburg. Consequently, it seems like all we do is doc appointments - especially when you set up one appointment and the visit results in one or two more appointments. We started going to enough crowded parking lots that we splurged for a rental car to make parking a little easier. 

Donna now walks more than she rides her bike now. Most people now on e-bikes, anyway.

We've taken care of some routine truck maintenance while we have the rental car.  Our trailer's furnace (14+ years old) was having an issue as we left Elkhart, IN in November last year. We've gotten it looked at and a new electric motor and gas valve was installed. One additional flexible propane hose was also replaced at that time. So far, so good with those items during this cold spell.

Due to snowmageddon, we've had to cancel one medical procedure that can't be reschedule before we leave. Donna's working that now to see if it can be done in Virginia while we're there or completed in Wyoming over the summer. This is what keeps retirees busy!

Well, that gets you caught up to date us while we sit here staying warm.  Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us! David

Merry Christmas - Happy New Year!

 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

It's a rainy, warm humid day here at Gulf State Park.  We're fine.  The campground's been unusually empty (or at least unusually empty to us) until yesterday afternoon.  Not sure if people are just not out as much as in the past or they're just coming later.

We're fine, though it seems every time we go to a doc appointment we get another doc appointment or two. I've gotten new glasses.  Donna got her eyes "zapped" to remove some tissue that clears up her vision after having cataracts removed a couple of years ago. Her new reading glasses are on order.

Donna's been told by our doc to walk more.  Consequently, we're walking more than bicycle riding.  Seems the new ebikes are all the rage and almost everyone but us has them.  She's unable to keep up with those things when the group rides. Her bike rides are now shorter and she doesn't go out with the group as much. 

Her bike riding group had a couple of people pass away over the summer. Several of the couples that are usually here aren't down here for this winter due to health issues.  A few couples have changed parks, too, so we don't see them as often. Otherwise, it's a typical winter for us down here. We need to get out and visit more ourselves.

That gets everyone up to date. Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us! I'll write more next year, David

Back at Gulf State Park/December Update

We made it - we had our doubts at times!  We had a great visit at High Point, NC.  After spending a week there we traveled to Stone Mountain, Ga to visit Donna's brother.  We were able to locate a mobile RV tech to help rewire the hot water heater and assist us to installing new batteries on the trailer.  So we were feeling better and - as always - we really enjoy our time at the Stone Mountain State Park Campground.

We had a great visit with Donna's brother and niece before they were invaded with friends for Thanksgiving.  While they were being invaded, we traveled over to Birmingham, AL to visit Anna and the rest of the family.  Thanksgiving dinner with the family was on Friday. Donna and I had a great time seeing everyone and really enjoyed the meal.

Today we traveled down to Gulf State Park for the winter. We're now back in our favorite loop on Live Oak.We've made our traditional visit to Mikee's for dinner. For the trip down, traffic was busy headed south. Northbound I-65, however, was a nightmare in several spots due to accidents on that side of the interstate. 

So that gets everyone up to date. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Thanks for dropping by and checking up on us! David

Made it to High Point

We made it to High Point, NC after a new (or new to us) transfer switch.  We left last Wednesday & took 3 days to get here. We're traveling with weak (not bad - just weak) batteries that we have to be careful with.  We broke a hot wire to the electric heating element and, somehow, the converter went out at the same time. Since the hot water heater and converter share a common circuit breaker (even though they have separate levers), that stopped what little battery charging we were getting and all 12 volt appliances were now running off those weak batteries. Resetting the circuit breakers didn't help. We carry a separate battery charger that we can use to recharge the batteries when things like this occur. We ran the slides and stuff with that on so as to be easy on the batteries. After arriving here in High Point, the transfer switch made a nice "Kathunk" as power was applied.  I told Donna that the converter might be working again after a "hard" reset.  Sure enough, the converter is working, again.  

So here we sit. We've had a great visit so far. We have various appointments each day while here.  We had planned to leave on Thursday as that was the first dry day since Saturday.  Now the weather people say Thursday is the first day of rain after a dry Tuesday & Wednesday. We'll see what really happens.  

From here we travel to Stone Mountain, Georgia for a week or so, Birmingham for Thanksgiving, and on down to Gulf Shores on December 1st.  We'll see if the trailer makes it...

Thanks for dropping by and checking in on us.  Until next time, David
 

Plans? What Plans?

Remember all those plans we wrote about in the last post?  Well, forget about them.

We picked up the trailer as planned on Oct 18th, spent the weekend in Elkhart, and left Monday for Indianapolis, IN.  Arrived there fine.  Then the trailer decided to have a mental breakdown.  Hydraulics wouldn't hold level (front legs drift down). No visible leaks to fix. No visible sign of hydraulic fluid anywhere. Hydraulic fluid reservoir at proper levels.  Did all our tricks of special sequence of front leg movements with no success. Finally got it to hold at 2 degrees front high. So that's the way we spent the night.

No success in finding anyone to look at it Tuesday around Indianapolis.  A phone call to Kay Cross (Indiana Interstate Enterprises/Cross RV) got us a few contacts we could try.  A gentleman near Shipshewana, IN would look at it and could repair hydraulics, so back to the Elkhart area we returned.

We got back to Elkhart, IN Tuesday afternoon.  Wednesday morning we wake up to electrical wire burning.  A quick call to the gentleman in Shipshewana said he'd look at that, too.  So he came out late Wednesday afternoon.  Turns out we're cooking our transfer switch and the hydraulic problems appears to be some seeping of fluid along two hydraulic lines.  Parts should be here tomorrow.  

Hopefully, we can get back on the road Sunday.  If not, we're fine here in Elkhart.

So that's what's happening with us. Thanks for checking up on us.  We'll post when we're comfortably back on the road.  David