Cat Tells & Dreams

We love Texas! Great speed limits, nice people and Buc-ee’s!

Spent time in the Willis / Conroe area and love it! Also time in Livingston – great too, just not as populated.

After one of the longest drives with no places to stop for fuel and so many cattle grates on the road (our poor Bella pup was tramatized) we finally arrived in White’s City / Carlsbad Caverns. G went there as a teenager with his family but this was my first time. Pictures don’t do the caverns justice – so magnificent and huge and the colors don’t show well with my pics. We were very sore after walking down the natural entrance but it was worth it. And yes, we took the elevator back up!

Garland had never been to Savannah before and I was excited for him to experience it – wish we would have had more time. Will definitely go back when we’re not working.

Both of us were excited to go to New Orleans and we booked a New Year’s Eve cruise on the Creole Queen. We watched fireworks from the paddleboat on the Mississippi! Had to do something special for our 12th anniversary! 🙂

Biggest tip about camping in New Orleans (don’t do it- or pick a campground outside the city). We heard gunshots (no lie) ALL night long. People shoot up in the air…for no reason other than stupidity. We had a lift driver say if she had received our request to pick up after 5pm, she would not have come…and she lives there! I was really nervous about getting back home (to the 5th whl) and the pups on New Year’s Eve at 1am. Note: after this trip we watched a show about EMS and Police in NO – for a few hours on New Year’s eve they have to wear body armer helmets because of all the stray bullets falling from the sky! Yeah, don’t know if we would have planned our trip, knowing this! I know we’ll never stay in the 8th district again!

Spent more on lifts and food in NO than any other place we’ve ever vacationed! But, the food we had all week was fantastic! Not inexpensive but worth it for sure – everyone should go at least once…just stay in a hotel of some kind in the Quarter or Garden district. 🙂

Garland and I always had Maine on our bucket list and it did not disappoint! We stayed at a very nice Thousand Trails campground – Moody Beach RV Campground. We were a short bike ride to the beach, in the town of Wells, ME and also only a few minutes bike ride from Ogunquit – such a quaint New England town. They have really good bike lanes almost every where. This was the first place we really got to enjoy our eBikes!!! There were tons of restaurants in Wells and Ogunquit – and of course they had awesome seafood and LOBSTER. I personally love lobster, but G could take it or leave it. Loved walking on the beach in Wells (and the pups always have fun at the beach) and sitting at the beach in Ogunquit – people watching.

The first Saturday, we drove into Portland, ME with our bikes in the truck. Found a convenient parking lot and met a local couple (they also had their bikes) who told us of a great “local” restaurant to try – great food at non-tourist prices. We made our way there and were seated at the next table to that same couple! They were taking their bikes on a ferry and had time to kill – decided to eat at that restaurant (Tomaso’s Canteen). If you are ever in that area, stop and eat here! Our entries were huge and we had to get their great basket of fries – not to mention our drinks. Our bill was below $40 – unheard of for Maine, but this was a local place and so worth finding it! We always try to ask locals where to dine and enjoy little off the wall places rather than chain restaurants. 🙂

On the trail, we had just missed, Portland’s ALS Walk. I would have loved to participate, for my Cousin Jonathan!

We visited the Portland Head Light house – I believe one of the most photographed light houses in the US and you can see why…just gorgeous and it’s a fantastic park to visit. We sat on the rocks for a while – could have stayed half the day its so beautiful and I bet I took hundreds of photos.

We spent the next day riding around Wells Beach and had lunch at Wells Lobster Pound. Needless to say the price of our two lobster rolls (G was not impressed :)), two sodas and one T-shirt exceeded $90! Big difference from the local place in Portland. But it was great eating outside by the beach and I really needed lobster!

Unfortunately we had to cut our stay in Maine short. Garland’s Mom, Mama Brown (Vera Brown Johnston) passed away and we had to get there in two days. That’s another story!

We are members of a few groups that allow us to stay at certain campgrounds, either at a discount or no money out of pocket (the best)! But we always meet really nice and interesting people when we use Boondockers Welcome. Sometimes you stay at their homes for free or a minimal fee, for using their electric and water.

We stayed with nice couples at their homes, in Ira, NY and Holden, MA. In Ira, Garland got to show off his chops by backing out of their LOOONNNGGG driveway and turning around at the road. We arrived there really late so didn’t see much but the Mrs. invited me to the local farmer’s market the next morning – wish I could have gone, but we had to leave early. People are always so welcoming!

Arrived at the location in Holden earlier so we were able to take the dogs for a walk in their lovely neighborhood and do a bit of shopping. So beautiful! This couple had an older Airstream (which I love) that was being worked on.

Great weather and great cheese in WI! I fell in love with cheese curds and we both fell in love Woodman’s grocery store. This was also the first time I tried out my new inflatable kayak (love it) – sold ours before the journey began due to lack of space. We stayed on Lake Neshonoc at a great campground with really nice sites. Great place to ride our new e-bikes. Enjoyed the pretty lake, the hot tub and local places to visit.

Found a fantastic restaurant (which we seem to be good at – can you tell we like to eat) in Blue Moon, in Onalaska, WI. One of the owners gave us a t-shirt!

Went to Irish Fest in La Crosse, WI. Saw really pretty twin harp players and some other Irish bands.

Next was Buchanan, MI was a very cute town with some creepy scarecrow’s already up at the end of August for Halloween! Ok, really not creepy – they are the work of the Buchanan Scarecrow Charities. All the businesses in town have someone decorate a scarecrow in line with their business. Very cute!

Once again, this was a very nice campground (Bear Cave RV Campground) with tons of places to ride bikes and walk – on a river.

We were not expecting to have to put 4 new tires on our 5th wheel but we did in Buchanan. Look at the huge bubble on the inside of the tire – a belt broke. Thank GOD we didn’t have a blow out. This is why you inspect your tires when hooking up – EVERY time!

We left South Dakota on August 7th, by way of the Badlands National Park – what a fantastic drive! What’s amazing is on one side the landscape can be very flat and then look to the other side and it looks like a small Grand Canyon. And the colors on the formations are beautiful. Actually Toadstool park we visited in Nebraska is part of the Badlands – very cool!

After we left Badlands National Park, we decided it was time for my first time driving the rig – all 65ish feet! Now granted it was on a straight highway, but you have to start somewhere.

We stopped in Chamberlain, SD to see the Dignity sculpture on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. What an awe inspiring site! The beautiful 50-foot high stainless steel statue depicts an Indigenous woman in Plains-style dress holding a star quilt. It’s a very nice park and perfect spot to stop, rest or have a picnic.

So much to do and so little time – we were only in South Dakota for a week. Hard to see it all, when you’re also working. We took one vacation day to visit the biggies – Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, the town of Custer and drove through Custer State Park.

Mount Rushmore is one of those things, if you’re near, you just have to see it. For us, a couple of hours was enough time as we didn’t visit the Sculptor’s Studio or walk the Presidential Trail. To avoid crowds they recommend you visit before 9am or after 3pm. We were there pretty much at midday, and it wasn’t too crowded but then it was a Tuesday. 😉 We did not use the self-guided tour, so not sure what that has to offer but I’m sure it’s history and background info. We eat an early lunch in Carver’s Cafe and it was typical fare – burgers, hotdogs, etc. I have to say, it was VERY exciting the first time I saw the monument from the drive in and seeing it through the tunnels was a lot of fun – popular stops to stop and photograph! There are lots of places to pull over on the beautiful drive up to Rushmore.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is also something you need to see! The museums inside the welcome center are fantastic with memorabilia and artifacts. It helps illustrate the story of how and when (1948) the monument came to be. If completed as designed, it will become the world’s second tallest statue, after the Statue of Unity in India. I’m also glad we visited Fort Robinson the week before, where Crazy Horse surrendered and also where he was killed, stabbed by a military guard, while allegedly resisting imprisonment. Feel like we went a full circle, so to speak, learning about Crazy Horse, the Oglala Lakota warrior. The man, Crazy Horse, did not like his photograph taken and was deliberately buried where his grave would not be found. He reportedly said, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.” The Memorial is to be the centerpiece of an educational/cultural center to include a satellite campus of the University of South Dakota and is non-profit, not accepting federal or state funding.

Don’t know about you, but we get hungry site seeing! After Crazy Horse, we ate a late lunch/or “second lunch” in the town of Custer, at Bakers Bakery & Cafe. They have retro looking signs that say, “You’ll love our buns!” G and I both loved our choices for lunch, especially the desert – which G ate first. His moto is, “Life is short – Eat dessert first!” I took mine home and had for breakfast the next day – probably the best apple turn over I’VE EVER had. People kept coming in to the bakery counter while we were eating, asking about the donuts. They told us they make them fresh every day and are sold our by around 10am-ish. Stuffed donuts – hate we missed that! Another restaurant was recommended to us by friends, but it was not open – Burger & Bun Co.

I loved the painted buffalo statues on the corners in Custer, especially the one with goats on it’s back! They remind me of the painted bears in Cherokee, NC. Custer is a very cute, touristy type town, with lots of restaurants, bars and shops. Our tip would be, check the times of restaurants before going. They seem to have different operating hours than what we’re used to.

We rode through Custer State Park on the way home and we’re very disappointed we didn’t see any buffalo. So, we set out the following evening to try the scenic route again. Turns out we were not on the scenic loop the day before, just part of Custer State Park! Finally we had success near the wildlife station. We were in a “buffalo traffic jam” and it was fantastic! Seeing these magnificent animals within arms reach is not to be missed! Everyone had their windows down, in their vehicles and we were told many times, “Don’t pet the fluffy cows!” We went right before sunset and along with the huge heard of buffalo, we saw prairie dogs (so cute) and pronghorn deer. The weather was nice and sunset was gorgeous! Would recommend driving through the park either very early or at sunset, like we did.

We have never had such amenities at a campground before – Heartland RV Park and Cabins in Hermosa, SD spoiled us. On our first night there, they had an ice cream social (although G and I had pie a-la mode) and was it good pie! The have a cafe, open for breakfast and dinner every night and will even deliver to your campsite! For breakfast we recommend the “Heartland” – which consists of eggs, biscuits and gravy and your choice of bacon or sausage. They have an bar open from 5-8pm, serving wine, beer and mixed drinks. First night at the cafe, we met Bob, who G played guitars and sang with that week, along with another camper, Dwaine and his lovely wife Eldora. They have live music three nights a week and a free wine tasting on Thursday – and YES I attended.

We had dinner one night in Rapid City at Que Pasa and G said it was the best Mexican food he’s ever had! Mine was great too and they have really good service and atmosphere. If it were a little cooler, I would have loved to sit outside – very nice deck.

We really had no idea what Nebraska was like but we didn’t think it would be as pretty as locations we visited. We stayed in Ogallala for almost a week and visited Lake McConaugy – had dinner overlooking the lake. Then went to Chardron to visit the Oglala National Grassland (I know we were confused about the names too!) Toadstool Geological Park is a must if you’re ever in that area. Just over a mile hike and is other-wordly! We also visited Fort Robinson State Park in Harrison NE the same day and their small museum – which has excavated bones of two Mammoths that were killed in a fight – linking them together for eternity! So much history there, including the location where Crazy Horse was killed. Nice lunch at the Fort Robinson Inn – buffalo for both of us and the pies are wonderful! And last the Museum of the Fur Trade.

When our Boondocker’s Welcome hosts told us about the Pretty Prairie Rodeo/the largest night rodeo in Kansas, we just had to extend our time to go! Originally, we were only staying on their farm for one week. I’ve only been to a rodeo at PNC Arena in Raleigh and it was not quite the same. This was a “real” rodeo. And when we found out there was a dance with a live band after – well we just had to go!

I enjoyed everything but LOVED the barrel racing. We had great seats, right in front of one of the barrels so we could watch them approach and see the horse dig deep to get around quickly. G liked the roping events most. The horses are trained to stand still or back up to keep tension on the rope, when the cowboy is tying down the steer. The Clydesdale horses were very impressive and then when the baby Clydesdale, named Joker, joined the team on the field and seemed to lead then around – it was so much fun. The kids all had fun with the mutton races, but I didn’t see any stay on for more than a couple seconds. 🙂

We ate really good/but bad for us food! The dance turned out to be too crowded to dance but we tried to do just a a little – we wore our boots for dancing!

Realize that I don’t have any photos of the bull riding – I’ll upload some later.

Stay tuned for our next stop – Nebraska!

We spent two great weeks (July 11-24) in Pretty Prairie, Kansas! I can’t tell you how peaceful and beautiful it is there. I had more morning walks than any other location we’ve been to. Our host did a great job in making perfect trails to enjoy nature!

Strataca – Underground Salt Mine on July 17th. It was 650 feet underground, salt bed was deposited between 299 and 251 million years ago and very interesting. The air and temperature in the mine are perfect for people with allergies and they store a lot of historical documents and a movie company stores archival material like movie reels, props and costumes. As you’ll see, items don’t deteriorate in the mine, like above ground AND no bugs at all!

COSMOSPHERE Space Museum – also visited on July 17th. They have the Mercury capsule, Liberty Bell 7 (launched in 1961 and not recovered in the Atlantic Ocean until 1999), an SR71 spy plane (learned a lot of interesting facts about that plane) and a flown Apollo 13 command module, Odyssey. They have a planetarium, a digital dome theater, Dr. Goddard’s Lab (which gives you history of rockets and how they work) and a flight simulator.

Next post – my First Real Rodeo!

We left Missouri on Saturday morning and made our way to Kansas. Talk about beautiful farm land for miles and miles! I think most of the cows in the United States are in Kansas. Garland doesn’t understand why I take so many pics of the farmland AND all the hay bails, 🙂 but they are just beautiful to me – not having seen this kind of open land before.

We were also fascinated by the storm clouds driving through Kansas – never seen clouds so low in the sky. I can see how storms can be violent in this area and why there at storm cellars everywhere – it’s so wide open.

We stayed at the Beaumont RV park, which is right behind the Beaumont Hotel and Cafe. Such history there! The hotel was established in 1879 and is filled with photography and vintage plane advertisements. Beaumont has a longtime popularity amongst pilots, motorcycle enthusiasts and western history buffs. You can see the Elk River Wind farm (which produces clean electricity to 42,000 homes) from the property. There is the last known wooden water tower there and also a vintage plane once owned by Barry Seal. There were movies made in 2001 (Dennis Hopper) and 2017 (Tom Cruise) about Seal’s life as a pilot turned drug trafficker then his work with the CIA before he was killed. Also when you visit the Beaumont, you see planes fly in and park right at the hotel for a meal and visit. Very cool place and they treat you like family!

The drive to our next location only took a couple of hours, even with a stop for supplies and lunch. We are now in Pretty Prairie, KS – staying at a Boondockers Welcome site. Our hosts (Rod and Chris) are great and their property is amazing! Rod has lived here since he was 3 and I can see how it would be a fantastic place to grow up. I’m sure their children and grand children love it when the visit! They have a few ponds with different kinds of boats, a twisting slide that you access THROUGH a huge tree, many sitting areas including a gazebo, a few swings, a disc golf course, a fire pit area and even a zip line over one of the ponds! We walked out to the ponds last night at sunset and it was breath taking.

We have enjoyed Hollister/Branson, MO. Like I said, much different than my pre-conceptions about the town. Although, last night we made a Walmart trip, and GPS took us to a part of town we had not been before AND this was what I thought all of Branson was like. Flashy billboards on both sides of the road advertising shows, grand buffets (wonder if they are truly buffets anymore), rentals of all kinds and family game arcades. But there is more to Branson and we have enjoyed it.

Went on the Branson Scenic Railroad trip last night. Very cool, old train but not very scenic. 🙂 The ride was through pretty country/very woodsy, and we ended in Arkansas. Then the train goes back the same way – going through two tunnels. Liked hearing the history of the train and building of the tunnels and we met some really nice people.

We ate at Mr. G’s Chicago Pizza & Pub and loved our half & half pizza. G (my Garland) ordered 1/2 Mr. G’s and I got 1/2 of meat-lovers. Good service and nice atmosphere. Would give this place and the food an 8!

Today is straighten up for traveling day tomorrow. We still have too many extra things, so we’ll be taking more to the campground’s donation table. 🙂

Our lovely campground has a (donation/things you don’t want and/or need) table in the clubhouse and we’re going to take advantage of it.

Don’t know what I was thinking! There are only two of us that eat off plates but I brought 8 regular sized melamine plates, 8 salad plates and six cereal bowls – not to mention serving bowls and trays. Also, I brought our plastic cups from our house (think I brought 8) and about 6 Tervis glasses and way too many water bottles. Then G comes home from Walmart with a package of Solo cups (oh which we also already had)!

So, I’m going to take about 1/2 of everything to that table. I know I could give away more, but this is a start! Also donating a chip and dip bowl, a hard wire basket that won’t fit anywhere, a handbag and a pretty box I had hats stored in AND even one hat! Tonight we need to go through the box of kitchen gadgets, that will not fit in a drawer – determined to thin those out. And then I’ll work on the two baskets full of stuff from our bathroom – not even sure what’s in there! Yikes!

I’m determined by the time we get to Kansas, in less than a week, we’ll be lighter!

Driving through Missouri was awesome – farmland that goes on forever! I took tons of pictures of fields, trying to capture the beauty and get a good picture of all the hay bales – never seen so many. We were also excited to cross the great Mississippi River – a first for both of us!

And just like in TN, you drive through lots of rock walls on the highway, especially the closer we got to Branson and Hollister, MO (which is our actually address). We are only a short distance from Downtown Branson.

Had lunch at a local restaurant, Waxy O’Shea’s Irish Pub and then walked down to watch the water, fire and music show at the fountain at Branson Landing. We are planning to go again sometime this week to see this at night. It’s like a miniature Bellagio fountain show.

I always thought of Branson as “just” country music shows (which I like) but there is so much more to do. You have the Historic District and the newer Branson Landing area – which both have a variety of restaurants, bars, shops and of course ice cream (for Garland)! I’m sure we’ll partake in some of that later this week! There is also a lot of outdoor activities in Branson around the water. You can rent a variety of boats, even a go on a tour in an antique, amphibious Amphicar! We saw this in the water and as we were driving home – on the road! The zipline over the river looked cool too.

We decided to sell our kayaks before we left home, since we couldn’t come up with a storage/transportation solution for them – on the 5thW or the truck. I would like to purchase inflatable ones – in the process of talking G into this! Seeing all the people in the water here, I really wish we had them now…but we can always rent. Our campground, Turkey Creek also has great water access. One thing we did forget was our fishing rods. Met someone here that said bass are plentiful, so we might have to purchase some new rods at Walmart! Like we heard from multiple people, don’t worry about what you forget to bring on the road, you can always find a Walmart!

Getting a good night’s sleep makes the next travel day much easier! First night in the 5thW was good, once we got over not being able to find anything and having to clean off the bed, chairs and sofa. And I don’t mean just normal stuff you would store there on travel days. I think after we’re at our first week-long site and can organize and maybe even lighten the load some, we’ll be happier. Mayberry Campground is very nice and we would definitely stay there again – great pull through sites and nice amenities. G says the sites were a little narrow but big enough for our 60+ foot long truck and trailer combined, just not much space from your neighbor. We didn’t even unhook.

Cell reception was not great this morning, going through the mountains, but luckily only bad for about 30 minutes. I’m working in the truck so it’s necessary I have good connectivity. What’s nice is my law firm is closing at 3pm today, so I won’t have to work a full day. I got approval to work remote with my current employer through the beginning of September, so I’m pumped about that.

This is a beautiful drive through the mountains of NC, VA and Tennessee. I’m looking forward to putting up our US map on a slide-out and getting some stickers on there! Our plan was to make it to Memphis, as we are finding out RV life doesn’t always go according to plan.

We ran into major traffic a couple of times, throwing our timetable out the window. We called our original campground, to let them know we would be arriving late. The gentleman we spoke with said he goes to bed at 9:30pm, in order to work the next day and we would not be able to navigate to our site without him, due to the construction they are doing at their RV park. Now its almost 5pm and we have to scramble to find another place to stay for the night. So, instead of going to Memphis, we made reservations at a travel park in Denmark, TN. Just completed a review for Joy-O RV Park and it’s a great place for an overnight stay. Good service, nice people and we were able to walk to the TA Truck Stop and have a good breakfast this morning.

Now…the roads in TN. If you’ve ever been on 840, it goes around Nashville, you know how bad the roads are! They DO NOT know how to make smooth transitions for bridges and overpasses. You especially realize this when you’re pulling 12K behind you. It’s a very pretty drive, through TN with the highway cut out of rock, just be prepared when you cross any overpasses! 🙂

Our friends Scott and Leslie like to say the journey of a 1,000 miles begins 3 hours late. Garland said the journey of 6,000 miles begins a day late…but that was a few days ago! We did stay in the 5thW last night, in our driveway. Our second renter moved in today and it is officially not our home. Our home is behind the truck and I just told someone our home is where we make it and where we are “together”! We are beyond excited to begin this journey and see our great country.

G’s Mom has not been well, so we wanted to delay a while and truthfully, we weren’t ready. How can two people have so much in a 1400 sq foot house. We slept really good last night, but we’re not sure if it was really comfortable or if we’re just completely exhausted.

We are driving appx 4 hours to Mt. Airy NC (Mayberry Campground) for the night. Tomorrow we head to Memphis, TN (somewhere we both have not been). Maybe we’ll go to Graceland, especially since Elvis was my first concert as a child.

As I type we are sitting in the dealership waiting for them to add our slide toppers to our new 2021 Fifth Wheel!!! All the service we’ve received at Country Roads RV Center, Lexington, NC has been GREAT! We came here about a month ago, since it’s not too far from our home base and were very pleased with the “no pressure” sales staff. Today, Todd did our walk-through in the new camper and he was extremely thorough and personable which we appreciated very much. Scott handled our paperwork – a very smooth transaction.

This is our first “New” camper purchase. We’ve had two travel trailers, but purchased both from previous owners. I love that no-one has lived in this one…still has that new smell!

G and I both are taking tomorrow as vacation and plan on moving a bunch of things from the old camper into the Fifth Wheel. I’m actually looking forward to organizing – there is just so much more room in this new one, compared to our current camper. During the walk through today, I got in the coat closet and the closet in our bedroom and could close both the doors, me being inside! G says this is where he’ll put me when I’m bugging him! THAT never happens!

I’m so glad we decided to pick up the 5th Wheel a day early! We both agreed we would not have room in the truck to load everything we needed for camping over the weekend, along with the pups. Thought about driving my small SUV to have more space for everything, but then I wouldn’t have been able to work in the car. G took a vacation day.

We got up pretty early (for us) and G started installing the backup camera and I made (seems like) a thousand trips from the house into the 5th Wheel, loading provisions. My calves and shins were killing me the next day and worse the 2nd day!

We ended up leaving the house MUCH later than we wanted (about normal for us :))! So, we didn’t make it to Lake Norman until after dark.

We got a fantastic site, right beside the lake at Wildlife Woods Campground. It took G a few tries backing into the site (uphill and in the dark). He says backing a 5th Wheel is NOT the same as backing a travel trailer. This is the first time in over 10 years I’ve seen him have any issue with backing/parking something. We also had a small issue with the auto leveling, both that night and the first time in our driveway. Auto leveling is very different than what we’ve been use to….but we’re going to love it! I remember when we first got an electric jack for the front of the first camper – what a game changer!

On Saturday Dixie Moon, the band Garland played with when we lived in the Charlotte area, came over to practice for BK & Cynthia’s wedding in May. It was great seeing everyone! We had 8 people total, for snacks, burgers and dessert – was a really fun time. And we loved have friends over to our 2-day old camper!

Stay tuned for more exciting preparations for our Full Time Life!

By this time tomorrow we hope our Rental property will be SOLD! This is one of the major steps in us going Full Time! And 3 days from now we’ll be on our way to pick up our new Fifth Wheel!

This is basically all we talk about!

Also this is my last week working from home. All staff are supposed to be back in the office on May 3rd. I have loved working from home at least every other week and for longer periods at a time, like during the Holidays last year. At home, I feel like I get more done – I’m more focused. My home co-workers (the Pups!) don’t interrupt me like people at the office! And lets be honest, I don’t interrupt others and talk as much either! Don’t get me wrong, I love visiting with co-workers at the office since we haven’t seen each other for such long periods but I also didn’t think working at home would be as easy as it has been.

I’ve started exploring jobs for when we go Full Time! Unfortunately my firm does not support me working remote for an extended period of time. I completely understand, but really wish I could stay with my group – been there over three years and I feel like a real asset to them. There are certain things that need to be done in the office and I would have to farm out those duties to another LAA (Legal Administrative Assistant) possibly causing more pressure on co-workers. Maybe someday my firm will be totally remote, but not yet.

I’m excited to try something new – I’ve been in my line of work for almost 18 years! Nothing like Garland’s track record of Business Intelligence work but not shabby either.

So, this past week we’ve purchased a few things for the new camper. We’re trying not to go crazy, but we feel there are a few things we definitely need, based on our camping experience and of course watching YouTube. We needed new sheets, since THANK GOD – our bed is going to be bigger than our current camper’s (short Queen size – remember G’s feet hung off the end on our last trip)! We’ve bought corner shelves for the bedroom and bathroom – you can never have enough storage! A hanging organizer for the coat closet (didn’t have one of those either in the old camper). Shoe storage that you can hang on a door, wall, etc. Folding metal dish drying rack for the kitchen sink – saw this in many new campers – no more bulky drying racks taking up too much room! G ordered a TPS system to keep us safe – monitors the truck and camper’s tire pressure. Ordered a doggy ramp for the bed. Yes, all THREE pups sleep with us! And we have fun things for the new camper too: a decorative plant (my idea) and a United States map for the outside slide – to show off where we travel! We both agree not to add a sticker to the map until we visit that state in the NEW Fifth Wheel!

This weekend, after we pick up our new home, we’re going to the same campground in Denver, where we camped with our “First” camper years ago. More on this later. Ciao!

Let me finish with our trip in February, before I forget -it’s been almost 2 months ago!

We sadly left Fort Myers on Friday, Feb. 26th. Wished we could have stayed longer there but they had no more availability. Now we know why people spend the Winter months in FL – fantastic weather and not humid and no bugs to speak of, like in the Summer.

We split up our drive again, not wanting to spend more than 4 hours traveling, if possible. I worked in truck with no trouble. On Friday, we drove to Three Flags Campground (another Thousand Trails location) in Wildwood, FL. Very nice campground with good size pull through sites. Very picturesque setting, right beside a field of cows. Saturday morning G bribed me, saying if I would get up a little earlier, we could visit General RV in Ocala…and go to Cracker Barrell before. Well, THAT sealed the deal – I had been seeing their billboards every 30 miles it seemed, tempting me with Cracker Barrell pancakes! You will come to understand that I LOVE breakfast!

At General RV we looked at some Fifth Wheels, but the most exciting part was meeting Matt of Matt RV Reviews. We have seen tons of his YouTube videos on all sorts of Campers, RVs, Toy Haulers and Fifth Wheels. If you want reliable information on products, he’s a good one to watch. We took a picture with him (fans!) and he gave us some stickers. We might put them somewhere on our new Fifth Wheel (OOPS) I’m not giving the BIG NEW just yet. 🙂

On Saturday, the 27th (after our great breakfast and visiting General RV) we drove to Pecan Point in Jacksonville, FL. This is the same park we stayed, coming down. All the sites have nice concrete pads and most are pull through. This is not in the Thousand Trails collection (TT), so we had to pay out of pocket. You can hear a lot of Hwy noise from the campground, so I’m not sure I would want an extended stay there, but very nice and convenient for what we needed. Amenities are close by and we went out for Mexican that night – always a good choice.

Sunday, the 28th we drove to our last destination: The Oaks at Point South, Yemassee, SC. This week, it was NOT quite the swamp like the first two nights we stayed, on our trip down. We were very happy about his, since Garland’s brother Randy came to stay a couple of nights with his camper. Had a great time visiting with him and the two brothers played guitars and sang the first night. We also found the campground’s nice hiking trail winding around a couple ponds – great place to walk the pups! This location also had a dog part…but you get it, too wet!

Tuesday night we drove to Thunderbolt, GA to meet my cousins, Tim and Jeannette. We had a great meal at Tubby’s Tank House and was wonderful to catch up with family. I would definitely recommend Tubby’s Tank House (this one was right outside of Savannah) and they have another location in Historic Savannah, on the Riverfront.

Interesting tidbit: During this trip, we were listening to the audio version of “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” as I wanted G to hear about the city and the very colorful people in the book (who were based on real people from Savannah). I’ve read the book and recently re-watched the movie – just love it. So…they mention the town of Thunderbolt in the book and I think that’s the only time I had ever heard of it. Now, we’ve actually been there. Can’t tell you much about it, since it was raining cat & dogs on our visit!

Did I mention it rained again! So, we had more wet/soggy areas in the campground after this – we just couldn’t win with the weather in Yemassee. Really though it rained a TON that month all over the South. And it was much cooler. Cold enough that we turned on our heater in the camper. Can you guess it? The heat wouldn’t come on. G checked the propane to make sure we were not out, but that was not the issue. We still don’t know what’s wrong. This would have been much worse if we didn’t have electric heaters. We’ve learned over the years, use the electricity at your site and space heaters, instead of using up your propane for the furnace. If our camper had a fireplace, that would have been even better. Also on one of our last days, we found a small leak in the bedroom – originating from the roof! You just can’t make this up.

I took two vacation days that week, planning on us driving into Savannah on our last full day. It’s about a 50 minute drive to Historical Savannah and we decided we didn’t want to rush – this being G’s first time there and we didn’t want to worry about leaving the dogs in the camper for an extended time. We both want to take our time and enjoy sightseeing and have a nice leisurely visit – so we’ll go back for sure!

We decided to drive home a day early, that way I didn’t have to work in the truck and G also had that day off, so all in all a much easier trip. This ended up being a 14 day adventure and we loved it! One thing we both agreed on, this would more than likely be the last trip we take with our current/older camper. I mean, not sure what else could have gone wrong – oh I know it could have been worse, but we are excited about moving into a newer, larger camper/Fifth Wheel when we are full timers.

Ok, the BIG NEWS: we have put down a deposit on a 2021 Sabre 36BHQ Fifth Wheel, which we plan on picking up the end of this month! We’re more than excited! Yay!!!

Much more to come! 🙂