SPENT THE DAY AT THE POOL!

FIRST WEEK AT MISSION BELL!

What a week, learned alot and met so many new people, thank God we all have to wear name tags! Things we learned...*when the weatherman says "WINDY"  they mean roll your canopy up or lose it, take down the Halloween decorations or they will end up in the next lot, along chimes, lights,etc., we were out there running around like two chickens with their heads cut off! Thanks to our friend Jerry who told us that bit of info! But that night we put the canopy back out and the next day ran to Home Depot and got special heavy duty stakes to hold down the canopy and the awning shade sunblocker, hopefully that will work, was wondering why a lot of people don't leave their canopies out, but we still like leaving ours out because it's like a 4 season room for us and we spend a lot of time out there!....*should have brought our ladder, had it loaded to take with us but at the last minute changed our mind, big mistake, we ended up standing on chairs, stools, the tailgate of the truck, all very dumb and dangerous, so I found a broken aluminum ladder someone had thrown out behind the dumpster and after asking the resort manager if you could have it, we recycled it by fixing it good enough to use and a lot safer...yep, go ahead and call me dumpster diving Vi, won't be the first time!...*Working days ..have hair clips with you at all times, starts out cool but heats up fast and need to get the long mane off my neck, have bottled water with you at all times...where comfy shoes...work steady but at a comfortable pace (had to teach Craig that one)....ask lots of questions!....*Should have brought things to clean the outside of the motorhome, we ended up spending $55 on cleaning supplies, such as long handled brushes, long handled squeegie for the windshield, pail and all that goes with it!...*Learn a little spanish because everyone knows spanish around here, from the post office employees to fast food restaurant employees, everyone is bilingual, I find that amazing since I have trouble with the English language, Craig speaks pretty good Spanish but warned me to not even try, I will end up insulting someone thinking I am saying something nice! lol!...*Finding out that there is so much to do here that there isn't enough time in the day, but not like when we had full-time jobs, more like having too much fun discovering this new life style, as all you followers of our blog and facebook friends are finding out and have noticed I am not on either one very often, the weather is so nice and there is so much to do, that I have to make time to blog or comment of fb...*but one of the best things we have learned here is that everyone is friendly, I bet we say hello at least 20 times a day! Taking Lenny for a quick walk turns into an hour because I end up sitting down with rver's along our walk and visiting, they immediately get a chair out and invite us to stay awhile, we talk about where we are from or about our previous lives, our pets, our adventures and just some great conversations, no gossip here, no backstabbing, no complaining,  no uncalled drama! Some have very fancy diesel pushers, some in fancy 5th wheels, some in permanent park models, some with class A and B motor homes, some older some newer rigs, but all are on the same page, very happy, laid back and busy! They have everything here..golfing..crafts, woodworking, Texas Hold em, bingo, etc. if you find yourself bored here, well, I don't know what to tell ya!! But we know one thing for sure, this is the life we want to live, this was a trial run but after one week here we know for sure this is what we want, don't know if we will come back here or find another resort next fall, but I can't see how it would get any better then this, still want to spend our summers in Michigan as campground hosts, don't want to live if a stick house anymore, don't want to mow lawns, rack leaves, shovel snow, etc. we will leave here in April, then head for Virginia to see my daughter Susan and her husband Russ for about a month then to Michigan, hoping to get a hosting job close to home so we can spend a lot of time with our kids and grandkids, because we do miss them and want to spend as much time as we can with them, we also miss our friends, like my best bud of over 35 yrs. Peggy, want to have a girls weekend with her again at my other good friend Annette's..Craig wants to see his best bud Coke(Jim) and do some fishing with him, also he wants to go fishing and watch movies with his buddy Richard! I miss my brother Bob, he has always been more then a brother to me, he's been my friend, he always talks sense to me when I can't make sense of things, I miss my other brother Butch and his sweet wife Norma, he's my big brother and my friend, I love it that they are also living their dream! I miss all my family and friends, but I know they are glad we are living our dream and wish us the best!  I feel this is the last leg of our journey of life and want to squeeze out another 20 years out of it! I want to thank my parents for putting this gypsy soul in me, they loved to travel and I remember them being gone alot and wished they would be home more, but now I understand and am so glad they lived their lives to the end! Well, gotta get off here and get this place cleaned up and do some e-bay listing! So until next time!!!

WE ARE HERE!

Well we made it! We met the resort managers Cynthia and Scott and Cynthia, who goes by the name Alabama the office worker as soon as we pulled in, we were given all kinds of paper work about where everything is, rules, who to call if we have problems, name tags, etc. We were escorted to our site by Scott and he not only showed us our site but helped back the MH in, then he got out some sandpaper and cleaned up the prongs on our plug so we would get better power! Then Alabama and her husband Jerry pulled up in a golf cart  to welcome us here! Later after we finished setting up we went for a walk and Alabama let us know where a few workcampers were gathered and we should stop over and meet them, so after our walk we did and what a friendly and welcoming group of people!  We are having a Workampers meeting Monday and go over all our schedules and positions then on October 22nd they our having a Burgers and the fixin's potluck, so we can all have a good time and get to know everyone! I woke up this morning at 5 am and was so excited that I put my walking shoes on and went for a walk aroung the resort, it is so safe and peaceful here, I found the pool and it is beautiful with a thatched roof for sitting under and an awesome pool that has a lighted path to pool area, palm trees everywhere, everything is so clean and well taken care of! I LOVE IT HERE! I feel that we made the right choice coming here, even Lenny has been good, not sure how long that will last!  Only problems we have run into is our satellite dish doesn't let us get in local channels so we have Direct TV will be here Sunday morning to fix it and for some reason when we turn on our airconditioner both conditioners run instead of one at a time, can't have that or we will be blowing some breakers, so gotta have that checked out, so it was so cool last night we just shut the air off and opened the windows! But besides that everything is perfect!  Now Craig is up and wants to go check out the pool and Lenny is wants to go check out the dog walk! Above are pictures of our MH set up and our name tags(we are official now) Below is pictures of the pathway to the pool and the pool area!  So until next time!

RAIN FOR TEXAS!!

Finally Texas gets rain, as you can see above how dry and dead the grass and trees are, and as in the top photo dried up lakes, that is a boat ramp in the picture, ramp to nowhere, there were seashells laying all over where the lake use to be, very sad! We not only couldn't have campfires but couldn't even grill with charcoal, if you are caught watering your lawn or washing your car you are fined! Hopefully they got enough rain to help bring back the green and lakes!
                                            For anyone that ever plans on traveling like we are, here are the books I used everyday...WOODALL'S CAMPGROUND DIRECTORY..which has most of the campgrounds listed by each interstate exit you are on, has prices, phone numbers, amenities and directions..THE NEXT EXIT..tells what is at each exit you pass, helpful when you need gas...AAA TRIP TIX CAMPGROUNDS.. for each state you go thru plus it tells which ones have the AAA discounts, we used the trip tix maps for awhile but many times we went off the beaten pass way to see more, (that's where the GPS came in handy), it tells where campgrounds are that Woodall's might have missed and is listed by city not by interstate, which helps when you want to find a campground near the town you plan on stopping in, ESCAPEE'S TRAVEL GUIDE...this is a real good book on campgrounds, free and low cost places to boondock, cost with your discount for being an Escapee member, which I recommend, plus have a GPS and an Atlas! Thank God we have a pull-out drawer on our dash because I would have all these books in use at all times! I also had my camera/camcorder ready also!  Laptop came in handy too, I would look up a campground we plan on staying in and call to see if they had any pull-thrus available and double check on the prices, sometimes they are cheaper or more expensive! I have been planning this adventure for quite awhile and went to many full-time RV sites and got a lot of advice plus what books to get and also how to pack our MH, what items of clothing to take, minor repairs on the MH, etc. We didn't head out for our life in an RV without a lot of preparations!  We are totally portable, we have a satellite dish so we can watch TV anywhere(learning how to get it to work yet but getting better, plus a lot of help from other RVers),a Verizon wireless card so I can get internet anywhere and cell phones so we are in constant contact with family(works 99% of the time, but not here in Lexington), I also have my E-bay buisness, I have brought in about $400 since we left a week ago, trust me that helps with the gas and groceries!  As you can see there is a lot to get ready before taking off to live our dream!  Plus we are living and learning as we go, everyday we discover something new and that is what makes it so exciting and fun!
                                                   We stayed here at Sonny's RV in Lexington for 2 days  to rest, do laundry, give the motorhome a break and enjoy visiting with the other RVer's and believe me they are very friendly and helpful, most everyone comments on our Dolphin Motorhome, they love the dolphins on each side, we have had someone even take pictures of it, I have always loved dolphins and it seemed like the perfect motorhome for us, had everything we wanted and the dolphins represents freedom to me, there are 3 dolphins...one is Craig..one is Me and one is Lenny, lol! We had a few hidden problems we had to fix before we left but everything is running like a charm now! We will be pulling out of here sometime today and finding one more campground to stay in for a couple days before we finally pull into MissionBell for 6 months, we want to clean the mh before we get there, hopefully we can find a truckwash along the way, if they allow washing motorhome with the drought going on, plus we want to shampoo the carpets and wash the windows, we want to pull into our new home with pride!
                           Well, gotta go find a post office to ship out 7 packages then come back and help break camp and hit the road again!! So until next time! 
                                              
        
                                                           

WE MADE IT..WE ARE IN TEXAS!!!

Well, here we are in Sulphur Spring's "Cooper's Lake State Campground!" Beautiful state, even with all the damage from the drought, miles of dead trees, brown grass and dried up rivers! You know you see it on TV and hear about how bad it is, but to actually see it is sad, I feel for this state! But it is still beautiful here and the friendliest people you will ever meet, everywhere we stop to get gas or at rest areas someone walks up to us and starts talking and asking us questions about where we are going or where are we coming from, like when we got to our site, we were trying to get a signal on our satellite, so Craig walked over to our neighbor's site and asked what they had their dish set at, well, they not only told us how but came over and spent an hour trying helping us, never got it to work because we have a bunch of trees right in front of our site, so we thanked them and we all set at our picnic table and just talked about life!  Now that's what I'm talking about!!! We seen our first amadillo about a 100 feet from our motorhome, I got my camera out, zoomed in a got a good picture of it!
                                    Had to run our air for the first time today, just think about it, Sunday when we left Michigan we were using heaters or the furnace to keep warm, couple states later we were sleeping with the windows open, now we are running the air!  Was pretty warm too, about 95 degrees when we got here, we were both sweating like pigs, I told Craig we need to get use to it if we are going to be here for 6 months, he said it will get cooler as we move into the fall and winter and I guess he is right, tonight it is about 75 degrees, good sleeping weather!!
                                    The river we are camped in front of is down so much from the drought that about 500 feet of it has cracked ground and there is a boat dock that goes to nowhere because the water has receded so far back, I looked down as I was walking to the lake and saw all these huge seashells everywhere, so I picked enough of them up to clean up and mail back to the grandkids, they love anything that has to do with nature, better then t-shirts! 
                                     We kind of rushed getting here, but now we can slow down and stay at this campground for a couple of days or any other one we see that we like because we don't have to be in Mission for at least a week!  Guess will get ready for bed now, all this excitement has made us both sleepy and we want to get up early because we heard that deer are out and about early in the morning and we don't want to miss that and hey, maybe I will even see Mr. Amadillo again!! So until the next time, Good Night All!    P.S.  Believe it or not but the pictures above are two separate pictures, the Welcome to Texas picture was taken as we passed by in our motorhome and the armadillo picture was taken in front of our campsite, it looks like one picture, lol!

ILLINOIS, MISSOURI, ARKANSAS!!

Stayed in a beautiful Campground last night, right on the lake, had internet (but used my own, much faster) cable, direct hook up for water and sewer, showers and laundry facilities, we bought some charcoal, charcoal lighter and some wood so we could BBQ and enjoy a fire, well, that didn't happen, Craig was so exhausted he fell asleep on the couch, so I let him sleep while I did all my shipping and handling on e-bay, plus did some more listing, so it was a relaxing night! But had a rough beginning today, had to have Craig unhook the truck so I could get to the post office and drop off my ebay packages, then driving around for 45 minutes looking for it, finally I found it and they told me they couldn't take my packages because the labels were printed as shipped from Bay City not from Illinois, so I had to go back to the MH and cancel the postage, took them back to the Post Office and had them mail them for me and put the campground zip code down, now it will take up to 14 days to get my postage refund back in my paypal account! Live and learn! So by the time I got all that done it was 12:30 before we hit the road! So we pushed it today and kept going until we hit Arkansas, wasn't much to see anyways except going over the Mississippi River bridge, that was so cool, but my camera died so I had to get pictures with my phone, hopefully I can get them posted on here, gotta figure that one out yet! Time to get my new expensive camera out and learn how to use it! Oh and the temperature today was in the high 70's with beautiful weather for the last two days! We finally decided to go to the first campground we came to in Arkansas, we were so tired and ready to relax! Well, we found Grizzly's Campground, I called and he said it would be $25 a night, I told him we had a Good Sam's, Escapees and AAA card, he said he only takes Passport but would give us a break and let us have a site for $12.50, I said cool, we will be there in 15 minutes, well, the good news is we get cable, internet, direct hook-up for sewer and water, laundry facilities and showers but we are parked in the back of a trailor park with a view of a dead corn field, I am sure glad we got it for only $12.50, but the review (only had one) said it had the cleanest showers and laundro-mat they had ever seen, they liked it so much they stayed 2 days, ummm, we may too because we got laundry to do and showers to take,so we will see what tomorrow brings!  We were laughing so hard when we were pulling in that I know the owner thought we were nuts!!  What a fantastic adventure, we had a rough start with the MH needing some repair and making us having to turn around and get it fixed, plus an emotional good-bye to the kids, grandkids and friends, but the MH is running perfect and it's been all good since we left Bay City! We thank God everyday we are able to do this and pray to him to help us to keep going! We can't quit smiling and we are seeing sides of each other that we haven't seen in years, there has been so much stress from his surgeries and taking such a financial cut in our income because he had to go on social security disability, fear about should I retire or shouldn't I, but I know it was the right choice now, I was told to never look back on what choices I have made, just look ahead and keep going! As we are getting ready to turn in for the night next to a dead corn field I feel that we made the best choice! So until tomorrow and another adventure, Good night!

HOPING TO BE OUT OF INDIANA BY DARK!

My nephew Brian said Indiana is a long boring state and he was right! Not much to see but fields, but  at least we made it this far! Stayed at Pokagon State Park, beautiful park, but tight getting into our spot, we just fit with the dingy (towed vehicle) still hooked up, plus couldn't get our satellite to come in, so I listed some e-bay items, then found out I could watch tv on the computer (thanks Courtney)! Stayed up past 11 watching my shows, then went to bed and couldn't sleep! So slept in until 8! Craig wanted to be on the road by daylight, but he let me sleep in, then even made me a big breakfast! We are parked in a black walnut grove, I thought acorns were loud when they hit our roof, walnuts sound like baseballs hitting, plus poor Lenny, he almost got hit by a couple while out doing his business! Craig said the showers sucked, they are so small that his clean clothes got wet because there was nowhere to put them, lol, I'll wait until the next campground to take mine!  I could take a shower in our motorhome, but we don't carry a lot of water because of the weight, but if worse comes to worse, I WILL take a shower in here and he can just replace it at the fill station!! Despite all the negatives, this is a beautiful state park and we only paid $17 to stay here! Well, gotta get dressed and hit the road, so until next time, hopefully in Illinois, I believe another boring state, but we will see, every state is interesting in it's own right!!