Over the river and through the kudzu

Helping Gramma

In the last week we've left our "second" home in Kingsland, GA. The Country Oaks campground is a great place. We've met some very nice people, now friends, and our kids and Sana (Savannah our granddaughter) live around the corner. We managed to help the economy in Jacksonville by buying a new RV. Our home is now a 2010 Prairie Schooner by Gulfstream. We're still getting it settled, tweaked and little things fixed. Although it's longer, it's smaller inside with less storage, especially in the basement for Bill's stuff. I guess we have an extra closet or two that take up space and makes it feel smaller. We've even added a truck box to the bed of the truck and still need more. Yes, we given plenty of things away, recycled some and pared down. But little by little it's starting to feel like home.


So, we've traveled west, up to Tifton, GA for the first night, got off the freeway and took the smaller US roads. The scenery is much better and it's very surprising what you see and find and the towns you go through. Quite often the road is better too.  Then through the eerie mounds of kudzu to just outside of Selma, AL. If you get a chance to camp at Corp of Engineer parks, you won't be disappointed. They are generally large, flat, open sites and a good price. Leaving the Selma area we drove to Cuba, back on the freeway but didn't take the Chunky exit, and on to Vicksburg, MS and camping at a casino. Buffets are no longer cheap meals and we can't eat our moneys worth any more. The following day was dark and stormy as we passed through Transylvania, La. and a little town that  had a door museum, of all things. Cruising along the west side of the Mississippi, we followed the levy that keeps this area "dry". The levy is very large and the road is many feet below river level. And they have had plenty of rain so the fields are swamped. The last leg was up to Little Rock on probably one of the worst roads we been on in a long time, US 65 and I530. 'Bout rattled and jarred us to death. This literally is a "shakedown" cruise for the "schooner". So now we're in Little Rock for about 2 weeks before making our way north to see St. Louis, visit towns for genealogy research and family, then back to the west. Yah!  Yes, we're in Little Rock on purpose!  Bills sister and her family live here and she has enough "honey do" projects to satisfy his homeowner and repair urges.

Till the next blog, happy travels.

Irons in the fire

Too many things to think about and going on.

We're in the middle of winter and what a winter it's been. Of course not as bad as some places have had but it hasn't been a typical one in southern Alabama either. We're been at the Gulf Shores state park since mid Dec. and we've had nice days, but a high never out of the 60's, some wind, rain, but more cold nights than anything. We've had to disconnect the water quite often and bundle up in winter clothes to go outside.

We've been plenty busy, more with plans changing and replanning. A lot of things going on. All of our kids were able to come for a visit over the holidays, not in the trailer though. We rented a condo for them on the beach and that worked out well. We were planning on staying till the end of Mar., but the park has some overbooked issues and since we didn't have a reservation, can't guarantee us a spot past the middle of Feb. We've been contemplating/shopping for a new 5th wheel so we've added that to our changed plans. This is harder than house shopping and we have it narrowed down to 2 or 3 brands. Actually, we waffle between a new "home" or remodeling/refurbishing the one we have. Back and forth we go on options.  This year we were going to try a trip to Alaska again. We canceled those plans 3 years ago because the gas prices were too high and guess what? Gas is on it way up again, so once again we canceled plan for an Alaska trip. So what to do?

Plans now include leaving here mid Feb, heading to Tampa and shopping for new rigs at a very large RV dealer there and visiting Bill's brother. Then up to Kingsland to visit Brenton and family, go to an RV show in Jacksonville, help paint their house (groan) and stay a couple of weeks. Then, it's over to Little Rock for more family visit and projects, work our way up to MI/WI, more family and checking out places to hunt for ancestors along the way.  We plan to spend most of the summer out west. It's been 2 years since we were "home" in Idaho or the west and we want to get back. Staying along the Oregon coast, visiting my sister in WA, Mom in Idaho, the cabin,  and friends. Hopefully, we will can meet up with some of you if you're around the area.

Then tentatively, we think we will winter down in the AZ/NM area next winter. Well that's the plan this week but who knows, we may just decide to start remodeling the Alfa, update and refurnish, and continue down the road.

Jackson square

We did take a little trip over to New Orleans, before Mardi Gras got started. We rented a car and spent 4 nights in a lovely, old house B&B just on the outsksirts of the French Quarter. We were able to take the streetcar in. It was interesting, old and somewhat run down, lots of character. Some of the old buildings and houses were very interesting. We also drove out to the end of one of the spits and it's pretty much below sea level and just an industrial zone of the oil rigs, maintenance and supply areas and roughneck housing. We are "lucky" to be there during the coldest time of the winter so far. The weather stopped short of snowing in NO, but just north of the lake it didn't. Wet, very cold and biting wind.

They tried

Says it all

So, we're soon on the move again and we'll see what new mischief or adventures we find ourselves in. Check back for updates later.

Sitting still

Well, it's been about 6 weeks since a post so a little news. We continued south to Georgia and are currently in Kingsland, exit 1 off I-95 from the Florida border. Our oldest son and family lives here, we've caught up on things, helping the kids and getting to know our little granddaughter Savannah. The weather has been great, although lately we are having some cold spells. Typically Fall tho, some days you need the AC on and then the heater in the morning.

Our route south took us through VA, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, into NC with a stop in the Asheville area, then on into Atlanta. Bill got some alone time for a few days while Gail flew to Idaho to visit her Mom.
During that time the heater decided to stop working but we got another room heater and stopped south of Macon at an RV dealer familiar with heat pumps. Fixed in 2 days because we drove back to Atlanta to pick up the part. Really didn't want to sit along side the freeway, south of Macon, over the weekend waiting for it to arrive.

Bill got his Christmas present for the next decade a couple of weeks ago, the long searched for Chevy Kodiak! After many trips into Florida and lots of paperwork, we drove home with it about 2 weeks ago. We've been altering the rack system, getting a new radio/CD player, reinstalling the boxes and everything we carried in the bed. This truck is a flat bed and no sides so Bill is relocating some stuff from the back. We loved the old Chevy, it's taken us to every state in the U.S, into Mexico and Canada, had about 119K miles and was very reliable. The Chevy 4500 will tow more and has a stronger transmission.

Newly planned for Florida

If all goes well, we plan to head to the Pensacola, FL area about mid Dec. This will be our wintering ground and a new area to explore and spend time in. I'm hoping for a weekend in New Orleans.  We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at the RV park here and hope all of our kids can join us in Pensacola for Christmas.