Too Much Stuff

Mahomet, IL.
62 deg. clear, SW wind @ 5 mph.
Forecast today = Becoming mostly cloudy. A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms by afternoon. Highs in the upper 80s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

I didn't know I had that much stuff inside of me!!!! (OK now, no wise cracks) Celia, the gal from R & S that  has been helping Jim and Linda move just keeps finding more and more things to take over to Emrys. She has been a great help and in fact has carried most of the stuff from inside of me over to Linda so she can try to find a spot for it. While they were doing that, Jim has been moving all the stuff in my basement and also helping Linda and Celia at times.

You know, It's kind of nice knowing that I have more storage space than a 45' MH. :-)  There's no doubt about it that I have more basement space and I think I even have more inside storage space. Jim and Linda are having a lot of trouble finding room for everything and they still have all that stuff in the storage room over at the CG to deal with when they return there. :-(

It should be interesting.

After Jim and Linda worked hard all day yesterday, they decided to go to an Arby's restaurant for a sandwich last night. After returning, they both just collapsed for the evening.

I've been talking to Emrys about a blog. He's never done anything like that before but I'm trying to assure him that it's not too hard and can actually be fun, writing about all the places he'll be going and the things that Jim and Linda will be doing. I think he's starting to come around, but he's still very hesitant.

If he does start a new blog or continue with this one, I hope that all of my faithful readers will  continue to follow the blog and be patient with him as he "learns the ropes" of blogging. He really seems nice and I think that you'll like him.

Did you know that today is "National Flip Flop Day"?

Storms and Going To R & S Today.

Rantoul, IL.

64 Deg. Thunder, lightning, strong winds, heavy rain.

Forecast today = Showers and thunderstorms in the morning...then showers and thunderstorms likely in the afternoon. Heavy rain possible into mid morning. Highs in the upper 70s. South winds around 15 mph. Chance of precipitation 80 percent.

Wow!!! Lots of lightning and thunder and some of it very close too!!!

It's been storming for the last couple hours and by the radar, it looks like it's going to storm for awhile longer!!

Found out yesterday afternoon that Jim and Linda will be taking me over to R & S Sales and Service about noon today. Steve, the shop foreman, said that he still had a few minor things to do on the Newmar but didn't see any reason why Jim and Linda couldn't start transferring some of their belongings from me to it.

So, , , , ,  we'll be leaving here around 11:30 to head over there. I imagine that it will take a couple of days to get everything transferred over. Then, there's the walk-through, (where all of the features and controls of all the workings of the MH will be explained), that Steve says will take about 3 hours, so I really can't see Jim and Linda getting back here to the CG until Friday at the earliest.

Once we arrive at the dealership, the plan is to pull me along side of the Newmar with our entry doors facing each other so Jim and Linda's stuff can be transferred easily. As I see it, the biggest drawback is that Jim and Linda couldn't pack up a real lot of stuff in boxes because there's no place to set the boxes in me and still be able to live inside of me.

So, a lot of stuff will have to be packed into boxes when we get there to be carried over to the Newmar. This will take some time.

I know some of you are wondering what's going to happen to this blog. Well, I still don't know for sure but I'm going to talk to the Newmar when I get there and see if I can convince it to either take over this blog or start a new one. I've never met this MH, so I have no idea what the response will be, but I'll do my best to try to get it to do one or the other. I'll also try to find out it's name and other information and introduce it to you.

So, if you'll just be patient, I'll get back to you just as soon as I can. The next few days will be really busy but I'll give you all the info as soon as possible.

Did you know that today is "Nature Photography Day"?

A Knock On The Door and Plan "E"

Rantoul, IL.
69 Deg. clear, SE wind @ 9 mph.
Forecast today = Partly sunny with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. West winds 5 to 10 mph.

Jim was outside digging around in my basement by about 7:30 yesterday morning. He had a couple more totes that he wanted to go through before it got too hot. These 2 totes had all kinds of things in them from a new electrical outlet to replacement screening for the windows and door to spare parts for me.

The first thing he did was to put all of the parts for me into a box and put them back into the basement to send with me when I go to the dealer. Then he started sorting out the junk that was in there and by the time he was done, he had those 2 totes condensed down to 1. :-)

Just before lunch, Jim and Linda took CLT and headed over to Wally World to pick up a new mattress cover and some new sheets for the bed. The old ones were getting really bad and they wanted to have new ones when they moved their sleep number mattress to the Newmar.

In the afternoon, Linda went through all her clothes and sorted and packed some of them in boxes while Jim rested and caught up on blogs. After Linda was done with her clothes, they both took little naps. :-)

About 5:00 they were trying to decide what they wanted to do for dinner. While they were talking, there was a knock on my door. When Jim checked, he found that it was Shirley whose bog, Our Second Childhood we've been following for some time now. She and her husband, Paul, follow this blog and knew we were here, so they decided to stop off at Prairie Pines Campground for the night and say "Hi". ;-)

What a great surprise it was having Shirley stop by. Jim, Linda and I have been so wrapped up in this trading/moving thing that it was really good to have someone come and visit for awhile. Just like with so many RVers that we meet, it was like talking to an old friend as soon as they met.

Thanks for stopping by Shirley and Paul. Safe travels, wherever the road takes you.  :-)

Oh, and Jim and Linda's dinner? Well, they just went to Arby's an had a sandwich.

Do you remember when I told you that Jim packed away his big eraser the other day? Well, It's a good thing that he found that little one because he's been making changes to the travel plans again. ;-) Yep, he got out that pencil and with the little eraser yesterday afternoon and is now working on plan "E"!

"What's plan "E"? you ask. Well plan "D" was to leave here on our about the 22nd, head to Sioux Falls and then head to the family reunion in Wisconsin. Plan "E" has them leaving here right after the 4th of July and heading to the reunion up at the Wisconsin Dells and then heading to Sioux Falls from there. They'll be leaving the reunion on the 15th of July and don't absolutely have to be in Sioux Falls until the 22nd.

Why the 22nd? Well, that's Linda's birthday and she needs to get her drivers license renewed before that date.

Plan "E" will also give them much more time to  get everything organized in the Newmar before leaving here. It should take some of the pressure off, that especially Jim is feeling, and that's a good thing. Right?

Don't know what the weather is going to do today. There's some real purdy colors on the radar North of here but the weather guy on TV is saying that he doesn't expect those storms to get here until sometime tomorrow.

Jim and Linda can't do too much more packing into boxes or they won't be able to move around in me. There are a few cabinets that need to be checked out though because there's probably some stuff in them that needs to be thrown away.

Also, today Jim and Linda will be contacting the RV dealer again to see what the status is on the Newmar. And maybe, just maybe, Nathan will get the parts for the oven and bring it back and install it.

A Point to Ponder : Why is there not a Channel 1 on TV?

Thanks For The Comments and Should Be Real Interesting

Rantoul, IL
65 Deg. partly cloudy, SE wind @ 4 mph.
Forecast today = Mostly sunny. Highs in the upper 80s. South winds 10 to 15 mph.

First of all I'd like to thank all of you who left such nice comments on yesterday's blog.

I've done some checking and it seems that the easiest thing to do would be to just change the Title and leave the URL alone. Of course I still don't know if the new MH will want to do a blog, but I'm pretty convincing when I want to be. ;-)

Linda talked to the salesman over at the RV dealer yesterday and he said that the work on the new MH is coming along nicely and he thought that possibly around the 1st to middle part of next week it would be ready.

Also, Jim and Linda's investment counselor said that he thought he could get everything arranged by that time too, so it looks like things are falling together.

Jim did some more sorting, condensing and throwing away of basement stuff today, (between rain showers in the morning) and then came inside and did the same in a few cabinets. Meanwhile, Linda went through all of her embroidery stuff and sorted it as to projects done, waiting to be done and to be done, some day, and then packed it all away.

This move of stuff from me to the new MH should be real interesting. By what Jim says, I actually have more basement storage than it does, but it has storage under the bed inside that I don't have. I have two large medicine cabinets and it has two smaller ones. Jim says that he thinks there are more cabinets and drawers in the new MH but they're all different sizes than mine and located in different places/rooms.

I would imagine that for the first few months, Jim and Linda will be having a hard time finding many of their things. ;-o

For dinner, Jim cooked a steak on the grill and Linda cooked boiled potatoes and green beans on my stove. Again, it all sure smelled good and by what Jim and Linda were saying, it tasted good too. ;-)

Did you know that June is "National Accordion Awareness Month"?

Sorting, Grocery Shopping, Mixed Feelings and A Question

Rantoul, IL.
62 Deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast today = Partly sunny with a 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 80s. Southeast winds 5 to 10 mph.

Jim was outside early yesterday morning and sorting through a couple of my basement compartments. He says that it's amazing how much you accumulate in just a few years.

If he would have asked me, I could have told him that there was a lot of unnecessary stuff down there. ;-)

Well anyway, he spent a good part of the morning sorting, condensing and throwing away the stuff that either was not good any more or not needed.  He made quite a bit of progress, but take my word for it, there's still a lot of unnecessary stuff in those other bays.

After lunch, Jim and Linda headed over to the grocery store to pick up a few necessary items. They're trying not to buy too much because it will just add to the amount of stuff that needs to be moved from me to the new MH.

Oh, Linda called their investment counselor and everything is going smooth. He says that there shouldn't be a problem getting everything arranged by the time the dealer gets the Newmar ready.

This morning, I imagine that Jim will do some more sorting, condensing and throwing away of stuff in my basement. He's got a couple totes down there that are going to be really hard to sort through because there's all kinds of stuff in them. I'm sure it will take quite awhile to figure out what to keep and what to pitch.

You know, I've really got mixed feelings about this new MH. In one way, I can't wait to meet it, but I know that when I do meet it, it will be during my very last days with Jim and Linda, so I really don't want to meet it.

Does that make sense?

I'm hoping that I can talk to the new MH and explain Jim and Linda's travel preferences to make the transition easier. Being that it has covered about 58,000 miles, I know that it has quite a bit of experience out on the road, but I don't know if it's at all familiar with the full-timing lifestyle. If it hasn't full-timed before, I'll need to try to give it some tips on what to expect. And even if it has full-timed, everyone does it differently so maybe I can help there.

Oh, another thing. I was wondering if I should try to talk the new motor home into taking over this blog or if I should recommend that it start a whole new blog? 

The way I understand it, the name of this blog can be changed and the actual blog would stay the same. That would be simpler than starting a whole new one, but maybe a whole new one would be best.

What do you think? If the new MH does start a new blog, will all my readers be willing to go to the new one? Or, would it be best to just change the name and some of the stuff on this one?

Of course all of this depends on what the new MH wants to do, and if it even wants to do a blog.

Wildlife!!! Wildlife!!! A deer just ran through this campground!!!! You don't see too many of them in this area, but every once in awhile a deer or two will show up. :-)

Did you know that Deer can be found around the world?  They are native to all continents except for Australia and Antarctica. 

Comment On Comments and A Couple Photos

Rantoul, IL
62 Deg. scattered clouds, W. wind @ 7 mph.
Forecast today = Mostly sunny. A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Warmer. Highs in the upper 80s. Breezy. South winds 15 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon

OK, I've got to get something straight here. I received some comments and e-mails yesterday, and I really don't want any of you feeling sorry for me or being sad. I have accepted the fact that it's time for me to slow down and not travel so much. I've had a great time with Jim and Linda, full-timing and traveling all over U.S., but I am getting tired and the time has come to start taking it easy.

Believe me when I tell you that the time will come when your RVs need to slow down too. We're not so much different from humans, we get old and start wearing out just like people do, and it's good when we have owners who know when the time to slow down has come, so we don't end up breaking down way out in the boonies someplace.

I'll find someone who will take care of me until it's time to put my jacks down one last time. So. . . . .please don't be sad. I'll miss the lifestyle too, but there are still good days ahead for me.

For all of you that read my blog and are concerned about my welfare, Thank You!!

I'll still be around here for a little while yet, and I hope you continue to read my posts. After Jim and Linda take possession of the "new to them" RV, I really don't know what will happen, but I'm going to talk to the new RV and see if it wants to take up with this blog where I leave off.

Jim and Linda went over to the RV dealership yesterday to take some measurements of some of the areas of the new MH. Then, CLT tells me, they went to an Ashley Furniture store and bought some furniture!!! :-o  Wow, I thought that all RVs came with furniture already installed!!

Hmmmm, they must be making some changes inside. ;-)

While they were over at the dealer, Jim took some photos, so I thought I'd post a few.

This first one is of the sold sign the dealer put in the window.

This is of the side of the MH

And, finally, this is of the front of the RV.

I think it looks pretty nice. What do you think?  ;-)

Did you know that the south refused to honor the dead on Memorial Day until after World War I when the meaning of Memorial Day changed from honoring civil war dead to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war?

"Home"

Virginia Beach, VA.
63 deg. mostly cloudy, no wind.
Forecast today = Partly sunny, Highs in the upper 70s. Southwest winds 5 to 10 mph...becoming south 10 to 15 mph with gusts up to 25 mph in the afternoon. Chance of rain 30 percent.

For you Full-timers out there, do you consider your RV your home? Or, do you still think of where you used to live as home?

I follow many blogs and have noticed that when some folks are going back to where they used to live, they say that they're "going back home". I'm wondering if they don't consider their RVs "home"? Is it that they still feel that they have enough connections with the area that they used to live in, they consider that "home"?

I know that Jim and Linda consider me their home. Even though they have family and friends up in Illinois, where they used to live, I've never heard them say that they were going "home" when we go there.

Maybe it's a figure of speech, but in some cases, I think that these people really don't see their RV as their home, but rather as a temporary residence. I've also observed that many of these folks do not full-time for very many years. Usually after a couple of years, they end up buying a stix and brix home someplace and selling their RV or they trade it off on a smaller one to take vacations with.

Now, none of this is bad and everyone needs to do their own thing. This is just what I've observed throughout the years. I'd really like to know though, do you really consider your RV your "home"? Do you really plan on full-timing for 5, 10 or more years? Or, is full-timing something that you only see yourself doing for a few years?

Did you know that in Norfolk, VA, spitting on a sea gull is against the law?

They're Back and Still Nothing New

Virginia Beach, VA.
62 deg. rain, thunder, no wind.
Forecast today = Cloudy. Scattered showers with isolated thunderstorms in the morning...then scattered showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs in the lower 70s. Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 40 percent.

Well, Blogger is finally back on and it looks like all of my posts have been re-installed. That was not the case last night when I checked. My last post was gone as well as some other writings that I had saved as draft to be used at a later date.

Still not much happening around here. Joe, Nancy, Sami and Amber have been really busy so Jim and Linda have not seen much of them.

The weather has been great, but being that I'm sitting right in the middle of a residential area, Jim is hesitant to do too much unpacking and re-packing of my compartments, or the back of CLT. (Which is really needed.) So, not much has been getting done.

Now, for the rest of the time that we'll be here, (we'll be leaving Thursday), they're forecasting on and off rain for the entire period.

Oh well, I guess it'll all get done eventually. ;-)

Well, I'd better finish this and get it posted. As you can probably tell, I really don't have anything new.

Thanks for stopping by. Catch ya all later.

Did you know that today is "National Chicken Dance Day"?

Lakeview RV Pk. Photos, A Small World and A Call To The Mechanic

Bluff, City, TN.
54 Deg. clear, no wind
Forecast today = high temp. 79 deg. becoming mostly cloudy with a 70% chance of t-storms. SW wind @ 5 to 15 mph with higher gusts during storms.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, so Jim got out his camera and took some photos here in the park. I thought I'd share them with you. :-)

When you come down US 11 this is the sign you see for the Lakeview RV Park

Once you turn it and travel about a block, you come to the office where they have the usual supplies and camping gadgets that most offices have. The lady in the office was very nice and told Jim that if he needed anything, he should let them know.

As you can see by the above photo the park is terraced and in fact, there are about 4 or 5 levels in the park.

This is me backed into my site which is just a little way from the lake.

You can see a narrow part of the lake behind CLT and me in the above photo.

This is the view from the rear of me looking off to the left while facing the lake.

And this is the view directly behind me.

This is a pretty nice park with fairly large sites, full hook-up, 30/50 amp service, cable TV and excellent wi-fi. The people seem friendly and at about $20.00 per night (Passport America), for a "premium" site on the lake it's not too expensive either.

I'm sure we'd stay here again if we come back to this area.

Yesterday morning Jim was catching up on the Blogs he reads and when he checked out long time friends, Darrell and Judy's Blog, Wandering America, he realized that they were in this park too!!! Well, Jim has Darrell's phone number and he was just about to dial their number when the phone rang and it was Darrell.  After a little conversation Jim headed up to their site, (right behind the office), and talked to them for just a little while. They had just pulled in for the night and were leaving yesterday morning to continue their trip up to New England.

It had been a couple of years since Jim and Linda had seen them, but as happens so many times with full-timers that follow each others blogs, it was like they had just seen each other a few days ago.

What a small world! :-)

When Jim got back from visiting with them, he called the mechanic that Jenny had told him about to see if he could come here to the park to check out my problem. Well, the mechanic was off yesterday, but the man that Jim talked to said that he would have him call Jim this morning;

Later in the morning, Denny, one of the "Illinois Bunch" called from Illinois and talked to Jim about my problem. He had an idea about what might be wrong and after checking something out, Jim said that he may have come up with the cause of my engine misfire when climbing hills.

Jim still needs the mechanic to come and check it out though.

About noon, Jim and Linda took CLT and headed to a Food City grocery store to restock the groceries that had been used in the last week and a half or so. When they got back and got everything put away, they both took little naps.

For dinner, Jim cooked a steak out on the grill and Linda cooked Kohlrabi, sliced tomatoes with provolone cheese, and dinner rolls inside. It sure did smell good!! ;-)

Did you know that on this day in 1999, two teenage gunmen kill 13 people in a shooting spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, south of Denver?

Safe Travels, Darrell and Judy. :-)

Still Working On Photos and A Partial Solution

Lake Panasoffkee, FL.
49 deg. some fog, no wind.
Forecast today = high temp. 79 deg. partly cloudy E. wind @ 5 to 10 mph.
I'm still fooling around with this photo thing. The photo below is of the Clubhouse at the Southern Pines Resort that we were at last week.

This is of me on my site at Southern Pines. A Park Model trailer will eventually be put on this site and will no longer be available for RVs. It will then be landscaped with grass and bushes.

This is a photo of the swimming pool here at the TurtleBack RV Resort. It looks really nice and quite a few people spend time there on the warmer days.

OK, enough playing around with the photos. Now, it's time to try to explain what happened to cause me not to be able to post photos in the past.

First of all, I'd like to thank long time follower, Froggi Donna for her comment way back on Feb. 11, 2011. In it, she suggested that my photos might be too large plus gave some other suggestions.

Well being that I knew that the camera that Jim is using was set to take photos with a size of 1024 x 768 pixels, at about 220KB, I never gave that suggestion another thought.

That was where both Jim and I made our mistake. :-(  Somehow, right about the 1st of the year, the setting on the camera got changed to 3648 x 2736 pixels at somewhere around 2.2MB!!!!

Way too large!!!!!!

Jim found the problem with the setting the other day when he was sitting outside under my awning and playing around with the camera. He had remembered Froggi Donna's comment and decided to check the settings, just for the heck of it. How the setting got changed neither Jim or I know, but it did. So. .. . . .now, I've been experimenting with changing the size of a few of the photos to see if they would load, and so far I've been successful. :-)

Now, the problem may not yet be completely solved. :-(   Yesterday while I was experimenting, I ran into a another glitch. When I am using the Campgrounds wi-fi, the photos load with no problem. However, if I switch to my air card, (which is an AT&T card), even although it's receiving a 3 G signal, the photos will not load. What I'm concerned about is that in the past the photos would load even if I didn't have wi-fi or even 3G.

So, there still has to be something else wrong. I don't know if it's a problem with this computer or my Internet connection, but I'll have to find out what is causing this because in our travels I usually don't have a very fast connection and that will really limit me to the times I can post photos.

OK enough about all of that!!!! "What did Jim and Linda do yesterday", you ask? Well, not a whole lot.

Jim and Linda have decided to stay here until the 14th so when Jim took the garbage to the dumpster, he stopped by the office and paid for the additional days. While there, he had a nice little conversation with Diane, (the park manager), about the park and what it was like when she and her husband took over a few years ago. She told Jim that at that time, he probably wouldn't have wanted to stay even one night, much less extend his stay. She said that they know that there are still things that need to be improved, but again, it's that money thing, and they're doing the improvements as the money becomes available.

When Jim got back here, he called Robin over at the Orange City RV Resort to make sure we could get in to that park on the 14th. Robin told Jim that it wouldn't be a problem as the folks that were there for "Bike Week", in Daytona would be leaving by then.

So. . . . .here's the plan. We'll be here until the 14th, head over to Orange City where we'll stay there until it's time to head up to the RV Dreams Rally, the first part of April.

For dinner, Jim cooked a brat and a hot dog on the grill while Linda cooked asparagus on my stove. That along with some chips made for a nice meal. ;-)  Then it was TV, computers and reading again until bedtime.

A Point to Ponder :  If people with one arm go to get their nails done, do they pay half price?





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A Great Fish Fry and Fed Up

Thonotosassa, FL.
65 deg. overcast, no wind.
Forecast today = high temp. 67 deg. cloudy with an 80% chance of rain. N. winds @ 10 mph.

Yesterday was a beautiful day for an outdoor fish fry. Jim and Linda went over to Dave and Dee Dee's about 3:30 and by about 4:00 some of the fish was ready and people were lined up to fill their plates with fish, potato salad, smoked salmon, deviled eggs, salads, vegetables, deserts and many other items that the 30 or so people brought.

Jim and Linda said that they thought everyone had a good time, and if anyone went hungry, it was their own fault as there was more than enough food. The fish was excellent and so were all of the other items that the people brought.

Thanks, Dave and Dee Dee. :-)

OK! Now for the fed up part of this post.

I am completely fed up with Blogger!!!!! I have tried and tried to upload photos to this blog and it just won't work!!! I've gone to their so called "help" section and tried everything that was within my limited knowledge of computers. I use to be able to upload the photos without any problems but as you have probably noticed I haven't be able to get them on my post for some time now.

This morning I tried again, because Jim took some neat photos at the fish fry yesterday, but again, was not successful. :-(

So, what am I going to do?  I don't know!!!! I'm tired of having the only blog on the Internet without photos.!!!!!!!

I'm just completely FED UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Did you know that while it took the radio 38 years, and the television a short 13 years, it took the World Wide Web only 4 years to reach 50 million users?

Good To Have Internet Again

Thonotosassa, FL.
67 deg. overcast, no wind.
Forecast today = high temp. 70 deg. cloudy, 30% chance of rain, NE wind @ 5 to 10 mph.

It sure is good to have Internet service again. You really don't know how  much you depend on it until you don't have it for awhile. One of the things that I missed the most was having the weather radar instantly available. Especially a week ago Tuesday, when we had some severe weather go through the area. Yeah, we had the TV on, and the guy was showing where the worst of the weather was heading, but the station was out of Tampa and he was mostly interested in that area. But, we were North of there in Bushnell, and when there are tornadoes in the area, it's good to be able to zoom in with the radar, right to your area.

Another thing I missed was reading all of the Blogs that I follow. I usually read them every day, but now, since I didn't have Internet for over a week, I'm way behind. In fact as of this morning, I've still got 3 days worth of blogs to catch up on. :-(

So, "What's been happening since we've been here", you ask? Well, yesterday, Jim helped Denny, (one of the Illinois Bunch), install a new TV antenna lead-in wire in Denny and Bev's Winnebago Brave. They were having trouble receiving stations and come to find out, there was a connection up in the roof and when Denny tugged a little on the cable up by the antenna, the connector on the end of the cable came off. Evidently the connector wasn't crimped on properly, because he said that he didn't pull hard on the cable.

While they were doing that, Linda went over and talked to Bev for awhile and got caught up on what's been happening since she had seen her last summer when we were up in Rantoul, IL.

After the new antenna cable was installed, Jim and Linda came back here and took naps. Then, at 4:00 Jim and Denny went over to Gordy's for "Happy Hour". ;-) After "Happy Hour", Jim, Linda, Denny and Gordy went to a Bob Evans Restaurant for dinner and conversation.

Then, it was TV and computers until bedtime.

Did you know that it was on this day in 1959, rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson are killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane crashes in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on a flight headed for Moorehead, Minnesota. Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error. Holly and his band, the Crickets, had just scored a No. 1 hit with "That'll Be the Day."

Singer Don McLean memorialized Holly, Valens and Richardson in the 1972 No. 1 hit "American Pie," which refers to February 3, 1959 as "the day the music died."

Thanks For The Comments and Go Bears!!!

DeBary, FL.
53 deg. cloudy, rain, no wind.
Forecast today = high temp. 72 deg, rain with possible t-storms this afternoon, SE wind @ 5 to 10 mph.

There was the sound of rain on my roof when Jim woke up this morning. Not heavy, just light rain. It's supposed to rain most of the day so there'll be no outside activities.

I got a couple of comments on yesterday's blog, one made me laugh, (thanks Judy), and the other 2 addressed my problem with coming up with something to write about. (Thanks Gail and Jenny). Jenny came up with the idea of interviewing Jim, asking him about his growing-up years and writing about that.

Hmmmm! That has some possibilities.

Now, I'll have to see if he wants to talk about those years. I do know that there are some periods in his life that he would probably wouldn't want to talk about, but the idea has some merit.

Hmmmmm!

Most of yesterday was spent watching football on TV. Jim and Linda were especially interested in the Bears / Seahawk game as they're both Bears fans, being that they're both from Illinois. "Go Bears"!!!!Besides watching TV they both read some in their books, took naps, and fooled around with the computers.

Oh, and, Jim went out and dumped my tanks.

Did you know that this week is "National Fresh Squeezed Juice Week"?

An Interesting Blog, The Weather and Research For Trip

DeBary, FL.
31 deg. clear, NW wind @ 2 mph.
Forecast today = high temp. 56 deg. sunny, N. wind @ 10 to 15 mph.

I was reading some of the blogs that I follow this morning and came across one that I found really interesting. It was posted by Nick Russell who writes the Gypsy Journal newspaper and is titled Campers and RVers  Any of you that are planning on going full-timing may want to check it out.

Absolutely nothing exciting happened around here yesterday. Some people who have permanent RVs or Park Models here at the park were out covering up their plants in hopes of protecting them from the freezing temperatures, and of course a few others were out walking their dogs, but other than that, most people stayed inside instead of going out in the very cool weather.

"How cool was it", You ask?  Well, the highest that the thermometer on the shady side of me got up to was 57 deg. and there was a 10 to 15 mph wind blowing, so it felt pretty cold. :-(

What did Jim and Linda do yesterday? Well, Jim was doing more research on this summer's travels and then making modifications to the trip plan that he has made with the Streets and Trips program on the computer. One of things that he looked at was the average temperatures of the areas that we would be in at different times. He soon realized that it would not be good to get too far North too early as it will still be quite cold and some of the camp grounds that we would be staying at wouldn't even be open yet.

So . . . in this case, it was decided that we would spend a little more time in North Carolina and Virginia visiting Mike, Joe and their families so that it would be later in the spring when we got to states like Michigan and Minnesota.

If I know Jim, he'll still be making changes the week before we leave Florida and start heading North. ;-)



Linda read some in her book and did some Family Tree stuff on the computer. For dinner, they just had those micro meals that you heat up in the microwave oven, and then it was TV and reading until bedtime.

A Point to Ponder : Just what was the "Baby On Board" sign for? Did it help us decide which car not to

hit in case of an accident?

A Big "Thank You" To My Followers and Plans

DeBary, FL.
54 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast today = high temp. 67 deg. sunny, W. wind @ 10 to 15 mph.

First of all, I'd like to thank the new followers to this site. Oh, and of course all of the followers that have been following for a long time, too. I now have 53 folks that are following this blog and it still amazes me that anywhere near that number of people find the stuff that I write about here interesting.

Thank You!!!!! Thank You!!!!! Thank You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   :-)

Yesterday was another slow day. Jim spent a good part of the day planning where we will be going this spring and summer.

"How does he go about doing that", you ask? Well, first of all, there are just a very few places where we have to be on certain dates. (The RV-Dreams Rally in April and the Family Reunion at the Wisconsin Dells in July, for instance). Then there are a few things that need to be done before a certain date, (Getting drivers licensees renewed).

Then Jim get his calendar and pencil out and pencils in the "must do" dates. Then, he can determine how many days we have to get from one place to the next. (This year it will be the time between the Rally and the Family Reunion.)

Then Jim and Linda start having fun!!!  ;-)  Once those dates are on the calendar, they figured out how many days we'll have to get from the Rally to the Reunion, with a stop in Sioux Falls, SC to get the license's renewed. The next step is to figure out what they would like to see or do between those stops, the most scenic / best roads to take, and finally, check out the availability of Campgrounds along the route.

Of course all of this has to fit into the allotted number of days.

To plan the route, Jim uses the "Streets and Trips" program on this computer, and of course his trusty old "Motor Carriers Road Atlas" to check for low clearances on the roads that are off the beaten path.

"So, what have Jim and Linda come up with", You ask?

Well the first "rough draft" takes us from the Rally in Tennessee to Apex, NC., to Virginia Beach. Then we'll head up to Indiana, the upper peninsula of Michigan, Black Duck, Minnesota, (to see Linda's cousin), Sioux Falls, SD, and then to the Reunion in Wisconsin.

Now, you have to remember, this is just in the first planning stages, Jim has that big eraser and knows how to use the "delete" key on this computer, so . . . all of this may change, but both he and Linda had fun doing the planning yesterday and will enjoy making minor and major changes as the planning progresses. ;-)

How about it. Are you already making plans for this summer's travels?

A Point to Ponder :  Is sign language the same in languages other than English?

Dinner At Arby's With Laura And Lindsey and Satellite TV

DeBary, FL
37 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast today = high temp. 70 deg. mostly sunny, winds becoming NW @ 5 to 10 mph.

I don't have too much to write about today. Laura was busy all day yesterday and Jim and Linda didn't see her and Lindsey until dinner time when they met them over at Arby's to get together and have a sandwich. It was only then that Jim and Linda learned that Laura's grandmother, (on her father's side), had passed away, and she and Lindsey are going to drive up to Illinois, this Sunday, to go to the funeral on Tuesday.

Oh, Jim and Linda did go to a CVS drug store to pick up a few items that Linda needed to wrap Christmas presents, but that only took about an hour.

Like I said, not much to write about.

I don't know how many of you follow Nick Russell's blog, but yesterday, he wrote about how one of the satellite TV companies were telling him that he couldn't watch TV from his RV. It's pretty interesting, and you might want to check it out.

A couple of years ago, Jim and Linda were considering satellite TV, but the run around that they got when they were trying to sign up at that time, made them decide to just stick to my TV antenna, and cable TV when it was available. They just didn't feel it was worth the hassle, and they had also heard that people were having to jump through all kinds of hoops when they had problems.

Did you know that today is "National Cookie Day" ?

Blog Problems, One Down And One To Go and More Waiting

Lakeland, FL.
58 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast today = high temp. 81 deg. partly cloudy with a 20% chance of rain this afternoon.

Well, I thought I had the blog thing figured out, but to my dismay, I still cannot get any photos to load on Blogger, and Live writer will not publish to Blogger!!!! It worked that one time and now it won't work again!!!

I have no idea what's going on and was so discouraged that I removed Live Writer from this computer and felt like scrapping the whole blog thing!!!!

So..... until I can find out what's wrong, I won't be able to post any photos at all. :-(

Anyway, yesterday, they got my front AC replaced. It really works nice and blows a lot more cold air than the old one did. Today, they're planning on replacing the rear AC. Then it's just a matter of waiting on the toilet to come in and be installed.

A Point to Ponder:  When French people swear do they say pardon my English?

Today? Tomorrow? Next Week? Next Month? Next Year? 20 Years?

Virginia Beach, VA.
51 Deg. clear, no wind
Forecast today = high temp. 72 deg. mostly sunny, N. winds @ 5 to 10 mph.

There was sad news on many blogs yesterday. It seems that this full-timing couple, Margie and Bruce, were run down and killed by someone in a car while taking a walk along the road out in Pismo Beach, CA. I had never met either one of them, and in fact I didn't even follow their blog, but that doesn't make hearing about it any easier.

They were RVers, and that made them part of the RVing family, and it is a terrible unnecessary loss of life. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their family and friends.

When something like this happens, I start thinking about how fragile and short life can be. None of us can see the future and there's no telling when our time will come. It may be today, tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or maybe 20 years from now.

We don't know.

So, that being the case, doesn't it make sense to not put things off? It's easy to say, "Some day we'll go to Alaska" or "In a few years when we have enough money, we'll go full-timing".   But, will we still be here some day? Will we have the time to gather "enough" money to feel comfortable enough to go full-time?

Or will tomorrow be our last day?

I have known of RVers that have put off going full-time until they were the age where they could get maximum benefits from their retirement and Social Security, and then have only been able to full-time for a very short time because one of them got sick or died soon after they hit the road. They could have enjoyed the lifestyle for quite a few years if they had not waited.

Some of you may remember that back in 2008, very good friends of Jim and Linda's, (Roland and Louise), were in an accident where a drunk driver crossed into their lane and hit them head-on while they were driving their toad. Louise was in the hospital for months with multiple injuries and she is still having problems after many, many surgeries. They were full-timers, but since the accident, they have built a place close to their son's house in North Carolina and although they have been able to take some trips in their Motor Home and spend some time in it during the winters, down in Florida, who knows if they'll ever be able to full-time again.

I guess what I'm saying is that you should never assume that you can wait do something tomorrow or next year. Tomorrow or next year may never come. The death of Margie and Bruce is terrible and I'm sure they will be missed, but sometimes it takes a terrible thing like this to remind us that there is no guarantee that we will ever see tomorrow.

If you've got something you really want to do, whether it's going full-timing or something else, don't put it off if it is at all possible to do it now.

Did you know that Patrick Henry made his "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech in St. John's Church in Richmond, VA?

Record High Temperatures? and Blogs

Virginia Beach, VA.
62 Deg.clear, no wind
Forecast today = high temp. 85 deg. sunny SW wind @ 5 to 10 mph.

Yesterday, we were within 1 deg. of setting a new  record high temperature here in VB, and on the TV this morning, they're saying that we will more than likely set a new record high temp today. The old record is 84 deg. and depending on which forecaster you watch, they are forecasting temps today of anywhere between 85 and 88 degrees! :-(

This is not good because I'm sitting out here in the sun, with no afternoon shade. I'm plugged into a 20 Amp outlet so one Air Conditioner can be run only if everything else electric in me is shut off, and, on top of that, the voltage gets pretty low when all the other people in the neighborhood are using their ACs. Normally at this time of year, the high temps are in the low 70's, which is just about perfect for me.

Jim and Linda didn't do much of anything yesterday. Nancy made a very nice dinner after she got home from work, but after eating, every one had things to do, so Jim and Linda came back out here and watched TV until bedtime.

There's been some talk on the Internet lately about blogs and what people like about them and what they don't like, and evidently, some people are receiving some very negative comments about their blogs

This blog is written mainly for family. Through the years, (starting with a monthly newsletter that used to be sent out by snail mail), friends and others started reading about my travels. So, this blog was started to keep them more up to date on what's happening, and to cut out the cost of the postage needed to send out the newsletters.  :-)

I've never received any negative comments about this blog, but I understand some blogs have been harshly criticized. I really can't understand that. Most blogs that I follow are written by folks who are telling their family and friends about their travels, trials and tribulations. Some post a lot of photos, some do not. Some talk a lot about their families, some never even mention them. Some talk about the great places they are at or are going to, others talk about what's happening in their daily lives or what's going at home or in the camp ground that they're at.

I like to read about other's travels or about what they are doing to get ready to go traveling and follow over 35 blogs regularly. Some others that I've looked at, I don't find interesting, or don't agree with what the author is writing about, but I don't make negative comments about them. (They can write about anything that they want to write about).  I guess my question is, if you don't like what the author is writing about, the number of photos that are being posted, or the fact that there isn't a blog posted every day, why are you reading it?

Now, don't get me wrong. I really appreciate that fact that so many of you seem to enjoy reading this blog. In fact it amazes me that almost every day more than 75 folks check out what I'm writing about and I have almost 40 regular "followers"! I try to write about interesting stuff, but sometimes it's just day to day living, so I write about that. I try to post some photos from time to time, (when Jim remembers to get out his camera and take some), but to be honest, many days there's not much going on and it's pretty boring.  But, it's my blog, and I write about my life, Jim and Linda's life,  and whatever else I feel like writing about that day.

I welcome constructive criticism, but if someone is going to criticize with a bunch of negative comments, I hope they enjoy reading some of the other blogs on the Internet, and just skip over this one.

Did you know that today is "International Moment of Frustration Scream Day"?

Where To Start?

Rantoul, IL.
66 deg. clear, N. wind @ 6 mph.
Forecast today = high temp. 87 deg. partly cloudy, light N. winds.

Oh me, oh my! Where to start, and more importantly how to get everything caught up again?

I guess first, I'll tell you about the virus that infected this computer.

It started, (as far as I can tell), while we were on our way back from Michigan, but it may have actually started way back when we were at the Wisconsin Dells. The first thing I noticed was that I was unable to  bring up a web page while I was connected through the air card. There was nothing too unusual about that, being that this problem sometimes happens when the Internet is very busy.

"No problem", I said, I'll just use the CG's wi-fi, which seemed to work better.

Then, while we were traveling up to MI. I didn't have an air card signal at all, and the CGs we stayed at didn't have wi-fi, so I didn't think much more about it. The CG up in MI had wi-fi, and as you know, I was able to post from there when their system wasn't down.

On the way back from MI., I was able to post once from the little town of Wakefield, (my last post), by using a wi-fi connection. But, even though I had a strong air card signal, it wouldn't let me bring up any web pages.

When we got down to River Falls, WI, where Jim and Linda were to visit with Linda's brother, Glenn and his family, I couldn't get on the Internet at all, even though I had a very strong AT&T 3G air card signal and also a wi-fi signal. Jim thought there might be a problem with the air card or the connection with AT&T, so he, Linda, Glenn and Jeanette took the computer and took a ride over to St. Paul, MN and to an AT&T store to have it checked out. Well, the card was working and the guy there thought that the computer might have a virus and  suggested he take it to a computer repair shop. :-(

The repair possibilities were discussed, but Jim decided that he wanted to bring the computer back down here to Rantoul to have Greg from GeekyGuys look at it. You see, Greg repaired both computers for Jim and Linda a couple years ago, and he really seemed to know all about them, and how to fix software problems. So...... to try to shorten this up a little, when we got here on Friday, Jim called Greg and left a message on his machine. In a short time, Greg called back and told Jim that he could come on Saturday morning and have a look at it. :-)

It was about 11:00 yesterday morning when Greg got here and he immediately found out that there indeed was a virus on here, and found out that this virus had shut down the firewall, disabled the McAfee anti virus program that Jim had installed, and was pretty much throughout the system. In just a short time, he found about 20 files that were infected and figured that there were probably more, so he installed a program that he uses and proceeded to clean everything up.

Well, Greg got everything working again and now, this computer has new anti virus software, a couple of programs that he installed, and is working well. Now, it's up to me to try to get my Blog caught up and bring everyone up-to-date on my travels.

So.....if you're in need of computer repairs and are in the central part of Illinois, give Greg a call at 217-239-7413 or toll free @ 866-GeekyPC. Or, if your computer still works well enough, contact him through his web site at http://www.geekyguys.com/dev/ . He's honest, priced competitively, and very knowledgeable.

One of the "Good Guys" we're always looking for.  :-)

Did you know that the first academic work on the theory of computer viruses (although the term "computer virus" was not invented at that time) was done by John von Neumann in 1949?

Oh, I'll be posting at different times throughout the next couple of days to get caught up, so check back frequently to get the latest chapter of my adventures. ;-)