CAMPING, RELAXING & RENEWING

Ok, I was starting to get caught up in that w**k frame of mind again, to the point of where it is first and foremost in my thoughts. The only remedy for that is to get the camper ready, hitch up and go camping! Friday morning (5 Nov) I did exactly that; I got the not so long trailer out of storage, got her ready and took off for Rocky Point COE (Corps of Engineer) campground on Lake Wright Patman in Texas.  Cheryl had to w**k, but as soon as she finished her day, she picked up two of our grandkids and joined me at the lake. When we finally got settled in on Friday, it was dark and getting quite cool, however the kids had a great time playing games inside.

Saturday morning started with Papa’s famous pancakes and sausage, which are some of the best pancakes you’ve ever eaten (according to Papa). These pancakes are special; they are made from a store bought mix and cooked by me (which makes them special).

After breakfast we went out to experience the great outdoors. The temperature had risen from freezing to above 50 degrees, so we enjoyed the heat wave. Nana and I enjoyed the heat wave by sitting in our loungers and watching as the kiddos rode their scooters up and down the roads laughing and being energetic to no end! :)

From 2010-11-06

It turned out to be a great day and the kids had a blast. We ended the day with a campfire and toasting marshmallows. They were pretty tired from all the outdoor activities and by the time 10pm rolled around we were all asleep with visions of campfires and toasted marshmallows dancing in our heads! :)
Sunday morning was warmer and the sun was out doing a nice job of warming the campground. We started the day with more of Papa’s famous pancakes. :) There is usually Sunday morning worship service here at the campground pavilion at 10am, however there was none this Sunday morning, so we worshipped on our own, enjoying the beautiful day God made for us. :)

From 2010-11-06

Later in the morning, our youngest grandson (Brendan) arrived with my oldest daughter and son-in-law. Brendan is only 4 years old, although he looks to be 5 or 6 years old and he has more energy than the other two combined! :) He says he would like to camp too, but he has never spent a night away from home before and since we are over an hour and a half from his home, we figured it was not a good time for his first camp out.

From 2010-11-06

Brendan had a great time with his sister and cousin. We had hotdogs cooked on the grill, then a nice campfire to toast marshmallows again. We even took a hike along a nature trail, but when we got deep into the woods, we spotted someone moving through the woods ahead wearing an orange vest. This is the time of year that when you spot someone in the woods in orange vests, it could be a hunter, so our better judgment kicked in and we reversed course to head back to the campground! Now why would a hunter be allowed into an area where there is a campground and a nature trail? Oh well this is Texas……

After a great day with family, they began their journey home and then it was just Cheryl and I for the rest of this week! We have been relaxing and renewing our spirit for the past three days. It has been great to have no certain time to be anywhere and nothing to do (literally since the aircard for the computer died and dvd player decided to quit too!). :)
It is now Thursday and I am writing this with intentions of posting it when I can get near a WiFi hotspot. I don’t know what is wrong with my aircard but I think it has something to do with it being under AT&T service! I am contemplating switching to Verizon and getting a Droid X. I think I could use the Droid to tether my laptop and therefore would not need an aircard? Anyway I need to do something different for better WiFi service!

Well that is about all I can think of to write about for now. We will leave here Saturday to take the not so long trailer back to storage until our next trip :( Until next time, God bless us all…………………………….

NEW TIRES AND WHO NEEDS A DISHWASHER?

It has been a fairly uninteresting week, but kind of costly. I noticed as I was driving to the cursed place (sometimes known as workplace), that my truck was riding quite a bit more roughly than usual. Once I had "Big Red" parked I took a look at the tires to see what was different. Of course, being the picture of fitness, limberness and good health that I am, I could only see the portion of the tires that did not require crawling beneath the truck to see.   The tires didn't look that bad to me, but I did notice that one of them seemed to look as though it bulged a little in the middle of the tread. I decided it was best to take them to a tire shop to have them checked out. As it turns out that was a good decision! The belt had seperated in the tire and the steel from the belt was starting to wear through on the inside edge where I failed to inspect. It would have been easy if I had a lift like the tire shop! I ended up having to buy two new tires for the rear, the two on the front still looked good. Anyway the total cost was $449.64!!

On a brighter note and maybe the only interesting part of the week, my granddaughter was in a school play.   She is my little princess!

From 2010-10-19

From 2010-10-19

She did really well in her role and even had some speaking parts. We were all really proud of her.

So much for the best part of the week, now let me tell you some more of the uninteresting stuff. We have been having problems with our dishwasher and no, I don't mean Cheryl, the automatic dishwasher!    We spent a portion of our free time shopping for a new dishwasher, wow, those are expensive too!  We considered doing without one since we are planning our fulltime dream anyway and that may include selling the house. We have decided however that the house will sell better with a dishwasher. Ok, maybe we are just too lazy to wash our dished by hand? I guess we will have to do that anyway when we are living in our RV!! Anyone out in RV fulltime dreamland have an automatic dishwasher (dh does not count!)??

Well so much for another boring week in the life of Cheryl and Don. I will give you time to recover (or wake up) from this post, then I will try and post again next week. Until then, May God bless us all...........

PLENTY OF FRIENDLY HELP

WOW…..a big thanks to everyone who offered insight and advice by commenting on last week’s post concerning our indecision in choosing a fulltime rig! A special thanks to Donna for putting a “special” shout out on her blog, 2takinga5th,  and got us plenty of responses :).

The advice and experiences of those that have “been there, done that” is always invaluable. I see that there are pros and cons to buying a fifth wheel; then there are about the same number of pros and cons to buying a motorhome! When it comes right down to it, personal preference and lifestyle seems to be the main driver of the decision. Cheryl and I are going to eliminate the stress involved in the decision making process and just buy one of each! :). Anyone know where I can get a loan for a new Phaeton motorhome, a new 38ft Mobile Suites and a new Ford 450 Super Duty truck? Hope my kids don’t read this, they will have to pay off the loan after I’m gone!! :).

This past week I actually took some steps to further our dream along. I began the daunting task of sorting, filing and disposing of years of saved paperwork. The shredder got a good work out , as did the scanner. I scanned a lot of important documents and keepsakes into files for the computer. I have been working on this task all week and I am not nearly finished.


I have also joined Escapees RV Club in order to start “networking” with the experienced fulltimers out there. :)  I discovered the magazine and newsletter the club provides has a lot of useful information also. I signed up for the discussion forum and although it is not as friendly as the RV Dreams forum, it was still a good one. I found out on their website that there is a “Boot Camp” coming up soon at the Rainbow Park in Livingston Texas. I would love to attend and meet some fellow RVers, plus attend some useful classes on fulltime related subjects. However, we have reservations to stay at a COE park in Texarkana that same week. Oh well maybe there will be another one soon. :) Well that is about all the ramblin’ I can do at one time without getting a headache :) . Until next time.., God bless us all…

REFLECTIONS

It has been a while I know, we have been working hard and long. Hopefully all that hard work is going to pay off soon and we will being buying our fulltime RV! I have been so busy that I have become "unplugged" with my RV Dreams and the planning process. I hope to remedy that situation and lunge forward with my plans!

I am wondering if I have become greedy, you know the old addage, "How much is enough? Just a little more!". Well maybe I have become caught up in that mindset. I keep re-hashing budgets and excel "what if " sheets, but cannot decide, "How much is enough".

Cheryl and I have been shopping, researching and attended the Dallas RV Supershow last month. We have been thinking we are set on a Mobile Suites fifth wheel, but still have thoughts towards the Winnebago Journey motorhome. If there is anyone left out there that still reads this blog (after months of inactivity I understand if there is not) any advice is appreciated. I am going to try and post my thoughts more often!

DISASTER HITS CLOSE TO HOME

By now everyone has probably heard of the flash flood disaster in Arkansas. I learned of it yesterday via a phone call from a former co-worker, telling me that one of the missing families are related to him. The whole family was lost except for the mother. There was another family from Shreveport that was lost, all except the mother. I am praying for those two mothers and their families. I cannot begin to imagine what they are going through.

This tragedy really hits home, since we are campers and have been considering a weekend trip to the same area in the near future! I keep thinking, how could this have been avoided? Do you suppose weather alert radios would have helped? The news reports say escape routes were limited. I wonder what I would have done, if at around 3AM, I was awakened by my weather radio with a flash flood alert. Would I have presence of mind to load up and leave or would I have had time to leave? These questions are haunting me.

Some would say that kind of thinking is unnecessary worrying. I believe thinking about these things is necessary planning. I need to be ever mindful of possible hazards in the areas I camp, especially once we are traveling fulltime. Owning a weather alert radio is one step, but the next step is planning the actions necessary in the event an alert happens. When I pull into the campground questions should include: What are the weather conditions possible for this area at this time of year? What actions should I take if an alert happens during the night or day? Where are my escape routes? Will I have time to hookup or do I just take the truck? Where is the nearest shelter? Hmmm this is beginning to look like a possible checklist!

I know that some questions will not have answers, but the more possibities and questions I consider beforehand, then maybe the more prepared I will become. Of course I realize that when the unexpected happens, all checklist and prepared actions can become useless or just plain forgotten. When it comes down to that, we are in God's hands.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you safe............

TIME FOR REFLECTION

Freedom is not Free. Exactly what does this mean? This country has a long history of brave men and women who have sacrificed all to pay the price for our freedom. From the time of our founding fathers signing the "Declaration of Independence" we have had to fight for our freedom. A freedom that it seems is taken for granted today. Brave men and women have fought and died for our freedom, that I believe we are letting slip away from us today. We need to never forget our long hard journey to freedom and never stop defending our freedom from all kinds of threats, from foriegn powers, terrorists or radical government policies that ignore the will of the people!! Let us remember those who have fought and died for our freedom, honor them not only this weekend, but daily as we live in the greatest country to ever exist. May God bless America and my prayer is " May America bless God"...........

A LITTLE CLOSER AND MORE FOCUSED

We are another week closer to fulfilling our dream. I had an easier time at work this week because my attitude has changed. I still give work the time and effort needed to do a good job (I am just built that way), however I do it realizing that I am working towards a goal. I know I will be leaving the 9 to 5 (or I should say 7 to 5) soon.

My afternoon and evenings have been consumed with getting things ready for to hit the road. I cleaned out my backyard storage (junk pile) this past week, getting rid of a lot of stuff. We are continually downsizing and planning. I am spending more time on the internet searching for deals on trucks and RVs. I am also reading the blogs and forums more to make sure I pick up all the tips/advice that I can digest.

While doing all these things to get ready; I am also reminding myself that life is going on around me and to have some fun while I am at it! I have a great family that is always a source of love and laughter, let me share some laughter. My oldest daughter is a yard sale shopper, she simply loves Saturday morning sales. Yesterday she is out shopping along with my grandaughter, Hayley and grandson Brendan who is 3-1/2 years old. They are at a particular yardsale and the people happen to have a large bass boat parked off to the side of the driveway. My daughter is looking and Brendan happens to wander over by the boat. He reaches out and touched the boat, looks at the lady and says, "How much for this?"

I guess he did inherit some of my genes!!

Brendan

Lots of Love and Laughter.......... because everyday is a gift from God. Til next time GBY

GETTING BACK IN FOCUS

I have had some "revelations" lately, things I have inwardly always known, but seemed to haved lost my focus on them. I got caught up in my job again, a coworker retired and somehow it was assumed that I would pick up his contracts and "keep the ball rolling". I have had to double my work and because of my work ethic really put all my concentration into work. Cheryl and I have not even been on a weekend camping trip since the first week of March! I have not been looking at RVs or planning for our future goal of fulltime RVing for quite some time.

Recently I have started feeling really run down, tired and "down-hearted". No more, it is time to get back into the dream and started re-prioritizing my life! I have set my goal to buy our truck and RV in 2011, then start trying to sell our house. I will work, with the proper perspective, while I march consistently toward this goal. I will force myself to slow down and not be pressured so much at work. I am trying to come to grips with the concept of not "being the best" at what I do at work and instead putting my best efforts into my life outside of work.

Having said that, I hope to write more on the blog, because it helps me to stay focused. It really helps to hear from others and how they have reached their goals or how they are staying focused on the dream. If I seem to start drifting off the path, feel free to let me know!

As always, first and foremost, may God lead me in all that I do, Until next time, keep the faith fellow dreamers.............

SENIOR VERSION OF JESUS LOVES ME

Here is a new version just for us who have white hair or no hair at all. For us over middle age (or even those almost there) and all you others, check out this newest version of Jesus Loves Me.


JESUS LOVES ME

Jesus loves me, this I know,
Though my hair is white as snow
Though my sight is growing dim,
Still He bids me trust in Him.
(CHORUS)
YES, JESUS LOVES ME.. YES, JESUS LOVES ME..
YES, JESUS LOVES ME, FOR THE BIBLE TELLS ME SO.

Though my steps are oh, so slow,
With my hand in His I'll go
On through life, let come what may,
He'll be there to lead the way.
(CHORUS)

When the nights are dark and long,
In my heart He puts a song..
Telling me in words so clear,
"Have no fear, for I am near."
(CHORUS)

When my work on earth is done,
And life's victories have been won.
He will take me home above,
Then I'll understand His love.
(CHORUS)

I love Jesus, does He know?
Have I ever told Him so?
Jesus loves to hear me say,
That I love Him every day.
(CHORUS)


If you think this is neat, please pass it on to your friends. If you do not
pass it on, nothing bad will happen, but you will have missed an opportunity
to "reach out and touch" a friend or a loved one.


God Bless Us All!!!

DID THE SAINTS WIN THE SUPERBOWL AGAIN??

Well that is the only explanation I can think of for snow in Shreveport, LA in late March!!

From ANOTHER SNOW DAY

From ANOTHER SNOW DAY

We got up this morning at 7am, we like having time to sit and enjoy our coffee before getting ready for church, and just happened to look out the back door window to discover the snow. It is not sticking to the ground it is too warm. It is a kind of nice instead of rain.

I guess the snow is the big news for us, otherwise this past week was one of working, stressing over work and more working. We are so looking forward to retirement and traveling, but for now it will have to suffice to read about our friends that are already fulltiming. Keep those blogs a comin ya'll!!


Until next time, God bless us all .............