News

Good news and bad..... first the bad. A few months ago Sydney, soon to be 13 years old, had a tumor removed from his back leg. The vet said that she was able to get most but not all of it. We should expect it to return but be inoperable because of the location and the problems encountered with this surgery. He recovered well and is still self sufficient.  We don't know how much more time we will have with him but we are making the best of it. Here he is enjoying his favorite spot on the screened porch. He also has a girlfriend, a 4 year old aussie named Sonnet, who stops by to visit him every day. I guess "love" will keep you young.

 

The good news is we are not moving from park to park anymore because we bought a small mobile home in an RV park in Sebring Florida. We have a lake, Lake Josephine, in our backyard. We also have our own dock and a 20 foot pontoon boat. Sydney enjoys going for rides around the lake. We have spent most of the winter working here. The place had been unoccupied and for sale for about 3 years, so it needed a lot of TLC. We concentrated on the inside this year, cleaning, painting and furniture. Next year we hope to revise the deck and screened porch. Here are a few pics.

 

 

 

 

 

The sunsets here are just amazing. Almost every evening we gather with our cocktails at sunset to enjoy mother nature's finest. Here is an example.

 

I enjoy the wildlife. Let me introduce you to Lucy and Larry Limpkin.

 

They are a shorebird called Limpkins. Their favorite food is snail. They catch them, bring them to shore....my backyard... crack it, eat the snail and leave me the shell. I have been collecting and cleaning snail shells all winter. I am going to attempt to make a wind chime.
In the meantime Lucy surprised us one day with triplets. I named them, Lily, Lacy and Lucky. The one I call Lucky will be lucky to reach adulthood as he is continually wandering away. We have alligators in the lake and I am afraid he will make one of them a good meal. Here is a picture of Lily and Lacy.... as usual Lucky had wandered away yet again.

Here are just a few pics of other critters we have been able to capture with the camera.

 

The flora here is just beautiful and grows very fast due to the weather. Here is a pic of the water hyacinths starting to bloom.

 

I think I've conveyed the fact that I really like it here. John enjoys sitting on the boat playing his guitar..... without even leaving the dock. We intend to leave sometime in June to start our journey north and then return to our little paradise on earth in October.

 

 

 

 

Back Home

We left Florida March 18th and arrived in Pa (not at our home) on April13th. We spent time in Georgia with Norm, a week in Charleston with John's brother and his wife... Jim and Terry..

 

then Wilmington NC to spend time with John's daughter Corinne and her beau Patrick... and finally a week in Forest Lake NC where we saw Norm, Gail and Baxter. Norm spends the summer in NC with his son and Gail and Baxter were on their way back to Canada. We went flea marketing and shopping and of course dinning.

 

When we arived in Pa we had to stay in our local campground (Sheshequin) for a week while we reopened the house. It took longer than usual because we had many feet of broken water pipes that John had to replace and 2 nights with temperatures below freezing. But we finnally moved the RV to her pad in the driveway with the help of the local volunteer fire company (they have to stop traffic on the road so John can pull across both lanes and back into the driveway). Several days of cleaning later, we were able to move into the house. We have been working ever since, fixing what was broken and cleaning what was left go by our former tennants.

I did get to see my newest grandchild (Jonah) participate in his first Easter egg hunt.

 

 

Now that the weather is getting warmer (a little), I have my morning coffee on the deck...

 

 and watch the wildlife. So far I see on a regular basis: deer, rabbits, groundhog, bald eagle, canadian geese, merganzer ducks, blue herron, green heron, chipmonks, squirrels... this one has gotten very bold...I didn't shoot this with a zoom lens

 

any many varieties of birds. Just to name a few... Red winged and Tricolored blackbirds, Brown headed cow birds, Cardinals, Catbirds, Rose Breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, Mourning Doves, Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Downy Woodpeckers, Flickers, Kingfishers, Titmouse, Junco, Ruby Throated hummingbirds,Blue jays, and many Goldfinches...

 

Standing room only at the feeder. But my favorite right now is the Baltimore Oriole. As a matter of fact they built a nest within 12 feet of my deck. I can sit and watch the male guarding it. He even chased the bald eagle the other day when it tried to land in the tree to watch for fish. This isn't a very clear picture but the nest is hanging among the pine boughs and he is siting on top guarding. I didn't need to use a zoom lens on this because it is so close to the deck.

 

I also have another tennant, a frog has taken up residence in my small ornamental pond.

He has grown acustom to me working around the flower bed ..... he just sits and watches hoping I'll russel up some flies and/or ants for him.

 

I have been awoken by the hooting of an owl but I haven't laid eyes on him yet. Did I mention that I'm making everyone use the back door because I have a robin nesting in the wisteria bush over top of my front door. John can't wait until the young fleg.

Speaking of John, he keeps himself busy in between his repair projects chasing the rabbits out of his garden and playing his guitar. He just learned that our new neighbor, Jason, also plays..... so if I can't find him, I know where he'll be. 

Sydney use to do that (chase the rabbitts) but he just lays under the bush by the front porch and sleeps. His walks are getting shorter and shorter. There are days when he just stops and lays down walking from the living room to the kitchen.

Well it's time for me to get back to work. Plans this weekend.... pick up picnic table for deck, go to Jonah's first birthday party and go with the boys (Lukas and Jonah) to Knoeble's Grove ( a family amusement park). I'll try to write more often. If the weather continues like it has been (one sunny day out of five) I'll have time to do it.

 

Return to Florida and home

I have a lot of catching up to do so I will be brief. We returned to Florida on Feb 15th and after 2 days in Wildwood to clean and restock we headed back down to Peace River in Wachula... our favorite place so far. We met up with Norm, Gail, Baxter and Phil over the 3 weeks we were there. We visited several of the local eating establishments (Chinese, wings etc); Went to Anna Marie Island, near Bradenton; Enjoyed the Lippazone Stallions; John participated in the jam sessions; we partook of the pot-luck get together's; and my favorite... went on a trail ride through the live oak and cypress forest. Here we are taking a break .....

 

and yes, John is riding a mule. The stable owner took one look at John and said he was too big for the horses and put him on "Maude the Mule". And boy was she a typical mule. She did what she wanted and went where she wanted.... John just sat there and held on.

 

We woke up on March 4th, our anniversary, to find this surprise on our picnic table, thanks to our friends Gail and Baxter.

 

From Peace River we went to 3 Flaggs in Wildwood then on to Sherwood Forest in Kissamee. While in Wildwood we had to do a double-take. I looked out the window and another RV EXACTLY like ours was sitting beside us.

It turns out it was 1 year older than ours and had the same layout but darker wood and different color scheme. We toured each others coaches, exchanged stories and agreed we love our Rose Air's..

 

While in Sherwood Forest, John met some fellow guitar players and spent time playing and exchanging songs. I hung out a bird feeder and was very quickly visited by a pair of mallard ducks. They came every day to clean up anything the messy birds dropped. They gave new meaning to the phrase "clean up crew"

 

On March 18th we started our journey back to Pa. I thought it was too early but John was anxious to get home. So we compramized... we left Florida but made our way slowly north.

 

 

 

4,385 Miles Later

Yep, we traveled 4,385 miles to go to Quartzsite Arizona and back to Florida. At 7.5 miles per gallon that comes out to about $2,282 for fuel alone. Costly journey. We enjoyed seeing old friends and making new ones. Here are the "Ray's Strays" who were there.

Starting with John, then John and Wendy, Phil and Sue, Mike and Sherri. 

 

This was our first sunrise of 2014 in Arizona.

 

 

Our time was spent doing the usual Arizona things, off roading, campfires, happy hour, pizza nite, RV show at the big tent and of course checking all the flea markets. We also found a new thing.....$1.00 Taco Nite at the local Mexican restaurant.

 

Here we are taking a break from off roading. This was after we started on the "Oh Shit Trail" and wisely changed our minds and turned around.

 

Our new friends Phil and Sue from Ohio, traded in their pull behind trailer and bought a "new to them" motor home. We helped them move their things from the old to the new.

 

The Old.... 

 

The New....

 

After we left Quartzsite, John and I stopped in Benson Arizona for a few days. We visited Tombstone and watched the re-enactment of the shoot-out at the OK corral.

 

 

We checked out boot hill also. Fun and funny.

 

 

John and I are currently at Peace River in Wauchula Florida. I am having mail problems. The staff of our local post office has changed and I have not received my first class mail since January. They sent the junk mail, then they sent mail to the wrong address. But no snow and warm weather so I'm really not complaining.......  REALLY. 

 

 

 

NorthEast Update

Our first stay was Forest River in North Carolina. The leaves were turning and the foliage was wonderful.

We visited many places in the area.... Old Salem where George Washington came to swear in the militia, and I fell in love with Moravian cookies....

 

and attended the annual Lexington BBQ festival.

We met Norm Clark and Phil, with his Rottweiler Diesel, at this park and they were headed to Florida also, so we compared reservation lists and found we would be together several times.
Next was a week at the Walkabout Park in Southern Georgia where we could visit the seashore. (Norm was there too). Next was Orlando (Jurassic park as I call it). Phil and Diesel were there also. We had Thanksgiving here. There were so many people that it took an hour for us to reach the buffet table to get dinner. Three weeks later we moved to Peace River in Wauchula Florida. Guess who greeted us as we pulled in.... yep....Norm. We lucked out and parked in the best row in the park. We had great neighbors, campfires most nights and ate our way through the whole 3 weeks. Here are pictures of our group. Phil (who downsized his traveling home) Norm, Lily and Blaine Merrill, Baxter and Gail Ramsay (from PEI Canada), and Doug and Marsha Kaltenberg. A week later another couple came that we had met in Texas in our first year traveling... Linda and Dale Frances.

 

                                           Blaine (in yellow) and Norm

                                                               Lily (Blaine's wife)

 

 

                                    Marsha and Doug (beside me) and Gail and Baxter.

 

                                          Phil, showing me his new conversion van.

 

                                                      Linda and Dale Frances

Today , New Year's day, we said goodbye to the last of our merry group. Each of them are off to various other parks in Florida. We will be here until Friday and then we set off for Arizona. We will be meeting up with John and Wendy Dreese from Williamsport and join the rest of "Ray's Strays" in Quartzsite for a fun RV week in the desert and to memorialize our founder in an appropriate manner.

             I wish our family and friends a Happy and Healthful 2014. Happy Trails!

My Bad....

I know..... I know..... Darren reminded me "somebody hasn't been blogging". I have so much to tell you because I have been negligent in writing. We left South Dakota and headed east. We stopped in Nebraska at the Blue Ox factory to have our yearly Tow Bar maintenance. They have a lovely campground and treat you like royalty. Susan, you should go visit  because they have a quilt patch path. Homes and businesses throughout the town display different quilt patterns.
From there we went to Indiana, the Elkhart area, where 80% of the RVs are manufactured. Our first stop was Shipshawana where there is a large flea market (3 guesses who decided that). Unfortunately we got stuck and needed a wrecker to get us out. Proof.. people came to help, to no avail.

 

 

 

After we got out, we went to Elkhart and ordered my new couch. The one we had was original to the coach in 2003 and starting to show wear. Lambright Custom Chairs made and installed my double recliner couch in 7 days. I love it. Then we be-lined it home to Pa.

When we arrived we stayed one night at our local WalMart. A couple from Canada pulled in beside us. Sometime during the night a terrible smell woke me up. I woke up John and asked him to check it out. It turns out that the other RVs tow dolly battery caught on fire. John rushed out pounded on their RV yelling for them to get out, grabbed our fire extinguisher and got the fire out. Only after talking to the family in the parking lot, did he realize that he was doing all this in his underwear.

Here we are parked at my son Jeremy's in Sonestown. This is where the RV was parked while we were in Pa.

 

While here we put a new floor in the living, kitchen and bath areas. I'll show it to you later in another post.

After the tenants left the house we went and stayed for 3 weeks cleaning. This is what my green carpet looked like.

 

 

We ripped it all out. Here is what the back side looked like in one area. The smell had also seeped into the underlayment so we had to treat and seal it

 

 

John spent 2 days with a wire brush and special paint to restore the top of our coal stove. This is how we found it. The stove door window is also cracked. 

 

We spent our days working and our evenings catching up with friends.

On October 14th we loaded up and headed out south after attending the Sonestown Heritage Days. We are currently unwinding from our busy time at Forest Lake Thousand Trails outside Lexington, North Carolina.

 

 

 

Short Visit

Our original trip plan was to continue up the Washington coast on route 101 to the Canadian border and then go east via the Lewis and Clark trail into Montana and Glacier National Park. Well, those plans have changed. We are having issues with the couple living in our home in Pa, so John made the decision that we should start east sooner. We traveled into Washington as far as Ocean City and then headed east. We stopped for 2 days at Lake Easton to dump, do laundry and get water. It was a very  nice little park.

 

We used Camp Wal Mart across Washington, Idaho, Montanna and Wyoming until we reached the Hart Ranch in Rapid City South Dakota. We are staying here for a week to make some phone calls and arragements for some unexpected issues. Two problems have popped up.... or should I say down. The dash board air conditioner freon level is down and needs more gas. In addition John's side of our sleep number bed won't stay inflated. We are trying to find places along our way across the country to have these issues addressed, soon. In between we have managed to visit  some neat places around Rapid City South Dakota.
Custer State park was my favorite so far. Here are some pics...

 

 

We sure were glad we were driving the Jeep ( not the motorhome) when we came through this tunnel. There were at least 6 of these along the route, right thru the mountains.

 

We also visited the Badlands National Park.

 

 

As soon as we receive confirmation of appointments we will be headed east again.