Life's Journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, totally worn out, shouting "Wow...What a Ride!"

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Christmas-Dr's



Not much going on the last 10 days or so besides working and waiting for Dave's

This past weekend was our weekend off so Friday we got out some of the Christmas decorations we packed, strung up the icicle lights around the front of the rig, then found a few things we kept from the house but  aren't taking with us and put those out.
Us


About a half dozen sites were decorated and someone one a free night of camping, I think it was the folks behind us as their place was set up as a winter wonderland.

our neighbors


We also enjoyed an evening around the campfire good friends, lots of laughter and s'mores, doesn't get much better than that.
Faye & Carol

Robin & Arjay, the campground owners, left on Sunday morning for a get away to Old Orchard Beach, ME for a few days. This left a few chores not covered so Dave and I offered our services, Dave got garbage detail and I got the Little House (bathrooms) as our chores. As Dave was getting ready to head to the barn for garbage detail we heard one of Robins' brother in laws starting to make the garbage rounds, while Dave ended up getting out of his chores I couldn't convince them to do the Little House. Around noon all the weekend warriors were gone so I headed to take care of my chores with a little trepidation, we'd had a lot of campers in over the weekend. I am happy to report we had very considerate guest this weekend and the bathrooms were not trashed, 45 minutes later my chores were done for the day. During the afternoon we spent some time with some of the younger seasonals we only see on the weekends, lots of questions on how we can manage to make this lifestyle change at our age and what are plans are this winter, looks like we may have some of them following along. There were also discussions on how to make the campground a better one, one of my plans this winter is to see what is working in different places so I can bring some ideas back.


Packages have been arriving which means we must be getting closer to departure date, even if it's still up in the air it can't be too much longer. Among other things we've received our new Weber Q grill and our Pressure Pro tire monitoring system, ordered some personal business cards which should be here soon, a few more things and we should be good to go.

 At this point we don't know if Dave will have surgery before we leave or not, seems instead of the surgeon he saw a nurse practitioner, he won't be able to see the surgeon until 9/30 and who knows when surgery would be. We are looking into another orthopedic surgeon, waiting to hear if they can get Dave in and operated on before we leave. We are also thinking of getting his bone spurs taken care of while on the road this winter, just wish we could get some of our questions answered by a surgeon. Worse case scenario we would have to curtail our walks and hiking would be out of the question this winter. So we shall see.

Until next time...


Sunday, August 11, 2013

Bone spurs-Pig roast

Hard to believe as slow as our life is right now that another week has passed on by, though it does seem in reflection we were a bit busy.

On Monday Dave got into the doctors to see about his heel that has been bothering him for quite some time now. After x-rays it's been determined he has bone spurs on the heel of his right foot. He was put on medical leave for a week and told to start a regiment of ibuprofen and ice 3 times a day, and to limit his activities. Fast forward to today (Sunday) aside from overdoing it a bit Saturday his heel is feeling better than it has in quite awhile. Between now and his doctors appointment he only has to work 3.5  12 hour days. He has an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon on 8/20 and we're hoping he can get in to have the spur removed soon thereafter, we're hoping this won't hold up our departure date. Seems like we just paid of the last of our doctors bills and now we'll be having another one-always something.

Wednesday evening we headed  back to Huntington-where we used to own a house- for dinner with our good friends Mike & Carol, of course there was the inevitable spade game afterwards, which the girls won of course. I was the designated driver that night, wasn't a fun trip home because of all the road fuzzies, you know those little mists that hang right on top of the wet road making it hard to see the line markings at night. Was glad to get home and find I had remembered to shut all the windows.

Thursday was the day our dentist had been able to squeeze both of us in, looks like we'll have more doctors bills next year when we are here. Dave has to have a few things taken care of and I need a 3/4 crown so more dollars out the window :(

Friday was the start of my work weekend, this is pig roast weekend so lots of folks were coming in. Once again we have some co-workers of Dave's in the park, they have the coveted sites 2 & 5. These sites are the largest and have the best views in the whole campground, we spent a month on site 5 last year and never wanted to leave. My 3-8 shift went by quickly, most of the campers got in before we closed, made a reservation for another co-worker to come in just for Saturday night and took more reservations for next weekend. Next weekend is Christmas in August here so Dave and I will be getting out the lights and a few decorations we held onto and get the RV decorated for the event.



getting the motor going

See you at dinner time
Saturday by 11am they had the pig roasting away in the pit and the pit bosses were on duty.


















almost dinner time
My 3-8 shift went by quickly helping with set up and then take down of the dinner, ice cream scooping, brisk ice and fire sales kept me busy the whole shift. I got home around 8:15 and we took a short walk around to say hi to Dave's coworkers and their families. Dave was limping pretty bad so knew he had overdone it, by 9:30 we were home, icing his ankle and ready for bed.

I am holding off on making anymore plans until we talk with the doctor and find out if we can leave when we want to. For now I am enjoying every ones adventures, some of them maybe coming east this fall, hope we can meet them. While we are not traveling right now, living in the RV has been so much more relaxing than having a sticks and bricks house, we have the benefits of living in a small town but none of the headaches-yard maintenance, property taxes, huge house upkeep, and all the other stuff that goes with owning a house. From time to time when working I get the question "are you the owner" and while this is a wonderful campground I am glad to not be the owner, again we get the benefits of living here but none of the ownership headaches. Tough life but someone has to do it.

Until next time...

Monday, August 5, 2013

Good People - Goodbye

It's so nice to know there is still honest and good people out there. Friday I went to the grocery store for the campground and us, as I was checking out I couldn't find the campground cash. I went to customer service and no one had turned it in, I was getting really mad at myself just seemed like the start to a bad day. As we were driving out Dave asked me if I wanted to go to customer service again so we turned around and I went back. As I was talking with the young lady at the front desk a older lady came up also, she asked if any one had lost something, when I told her she proceeded to hand me the cash I had lost, she was a Christian after all and it was the right thing to do. Being so thankful I then made sure she and her grandson had lunch on me, once again I was reminded of how many really good people there are out there. 

Pat & Dick
 
Robin & Faye-we'll miss you Dick & Pat
Later Friday we said goodby to some of our new seasonal friends. Dick & Pat are originally from VT but live in GA these days, since mid May they have been living here too to be close to family for visiting.  We found out Thursday they would be leaving this weekend due to health reasons, so plans were hatched to surprise them with an afternoon and evening of visits. Around 3 Dave and I and another couple headed over with some drinks and snacks, after a few hours of talking and enjoying the company of these fine folks we headed home and soon saw some more folks bearing food and heading to Dick & Pat's for their goodbyes. We hope to stop in GA on our way home from the coast this winter to visit them, Dick has a military background and can get us into a Famcamp near them. Pat and I promised we wouldn't say goodby but instead see ya next year, we wish them the best as they head home to get better. I told Dave earlier this summer they are who I want us to be when we grow up, they've enjoyed their life, were fulltimers for awhile and are still lead an active life.

Saturday I pulled an extra shift covering for someone who was away, the skies were cloudy and the temps have cooled down looks like we're back into the cool rainy pattern again :(  So with a cool day I never scooped any ice cream and we left the slushie machine off, it's not worth the electric $$'s it's costing to run the machine. Don't know quite what is going on but no one seems to be participating in the activities this year, it'll be interesting to see how activities are handled at some of the places we visit this winter. 

After work our friends, Mike & Carol, from Huntington came for a visit,  this has been a hard week for them as they lost one of their cats a few days ago, we know what they are going through so we decided on a quiet evening instead of heading out somewhere. We took a quick walk in between rain showers to say goodby one last time to Dick & Pat. Dinner of smoked turkey and fresh produce from the local farmer who stops by every Saturday afternoon, was held inside, since there was to be no fire we settled in for a game of spades. It took a moment to figure out where everyone was suppose to sit, there is a certain order to our playing after all these years, as Carol would say it isn't natural if we're not sitting in the right places.

Sunday was a day of making sure Dave stayed off of his feet, his achilles heel is acting up again,the  tendonitis  was acting up probably something to do with him up and down the ladder while cleaning the front of the RV Saturday-but it sure is pretty and shiny.

Now we're into another week of working, our days off this week are Wed & Thurs, next weekend is the pig roast here at the campground so I know some of the work days will be busy getting ready for it. Hope we have good weather and turnout, haven't heard the cost but I know last years was well attended. Sure hope I remember to take pictures with my new Iphone that I still have quite figures out yet.

Until next time...