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 .............

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY

Paddy was driving down the street in a sweat because he had an important meeting and couldn't find a parking place. Looking up to heaven he said, 'Lord take pity on me. If you find me a parking place I will go to Mass every Sunday for the rest of me life and give up me Irish Whiskey!'

Miraculously, a parking place appeared.

Paddy looked up again and said, 'Never mind, I found one.'




Father Murphy walks into a pub in Donegal, and asks the first man he meets, 'Do you want to go to heaven?'

The man said, 'I do, Father..'

The priest said, 'Then stand over there against the wall.'

Then the priest asked the second man, 'Do you want to go to heaven?'

'Certainly, Father,' the man replied.

'Then stand over there against the wall,' said the priest.

Then Father Murphy walked up to O'Toole and asked, 'Do you want to go to heaven?'

O'Toole said, 'No, I don't Father.'

The priest said, 'I don't believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?'

O'Toole said, 'Oh, when I die, yes. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now.'




Paddy was in New York .

He was patiently waiting and watching the traffic cop on a busy street crossing. The cop stopped the flow of traffic and shouted, 'Okay, pedestrians.' Then he'd allow the traffic to pass.

He'd done this several times, and Paddy still stood on the sidewalk.

After the cop had shouted, 'Pedestrians!' for the tenth time, Paddy went over to him and said, 'Is it not about time ye let the Catholics across?'



Gallagher opened the morning newspaper and was dumbfounded to read in the obituary column that he had died. He quickly phoned his best friend, Finney.

'Did you see the paper?' asked Gallagher. 'They say I died!!'

'Yes, I saw it!' replied Finney. 'Where are ye callin' from?'



An Irish priest is driving down to New York and gets stopped for speeding in Connecticut .. The state trooper smells alcohol on the priest's breath and then sees an empty wine bottle on the floor of the car.

He says, 'Sir, have you been drinking?'

'Just water,' says the priest.

The trooper says, 'Then why do I smell wine?'

The priest looks at the bottle and says, 'Good Lord! He's done it again!'



Walking into the bar, Mike said to Charlie the bartender, 'Pour me a stiff one - just had another fight with the little woman.'

'Oh yeah?' said Charlie, 'And how did this one end?'

'When it was over,' Mike replied, 'She came to me on her hands and knees.'

'Really,' said Charles, 'Now that's a switch! What did she say?'

She said, 'Come out from under the bed, you little chicken.'




David staggered home very late after another evening with his drinking buddy, Paddy. He took off his shoes to avoid waking his wife, Kathleen.

He tiptoed as quietly as he could toward the stairs leading to their upstairs bedroom, but misjudged the bottom step. As he caught himself by grabbing the banister, his body swung around and he landed heavily on his rump. A whiskey bottle in each back pocket broke and made the landing especially painful.

Managing not to yell, David sprung up, pulled down his pants, and looked in the hall mirror to see that his butt cheeks were cut and bleeding. He managed to quietly find a full box of Band-Aids and began putting a Band-Aid as best he could on each place he saw blood..

He then hid the now almost empty Band-Aid box and shuffled and stumbled his way to bed.

In the morning, David woke up with searing pain in both his head and butt and Kathleen staring at him from across the room.

She said, 'You were drunk again last night weren't you?'

David said, 'Why you say such a mean thing?'

'Well,' Kathleen said, 'it could be the open front door, it could be the broken glass at the bottom of the stairs, it could be the drops of blood trailing through the house, it could be your bloodshot eyes, but mostly ...... it's all those Band-Aids stuck on the hall mirror.





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

STILL ALIVE AND KICKING

Yes I am still alive and kicking. Although it seems that my job has kidnapped me and taken over all aspects of my life!! I aim to take my life back and put the job back into the proper level of importance it belongs (low). The job is only a means to an end for me. I need another good year in order to reach some financial goals and then it is time to gather what I need for the next phase of my life (a fulltiming RV!)

Cheryl and I finally got to take another break, it was our anniversary. We had made reservations to spend a few days at Hickory Creek COE campground to celebrate our 40th anniversary. We arrived on Saturday morning (6 March) and after setting up the "not so long trailer"; I began to check out the RVs around us. I noticed a Carri-lite fifth wheel just across the way that looked familiar. I told Cheryl I thought that might be Joe (speedy) and his better half. I called Joe to find out his location, lo and behold he was my neighbor. It was kind of funny, he asked me where I was and I told him to look out his bay window.

We got to spend some time with our friends, which we enjoyed very much. It seems we have a lot in common, including relationships with our kids and grandkids! It would seem that all RVers have a lot in common. Anyway the conversations were good, the company was great and we hope to do it again soon.

It was also suggested during this visit that I should consider resuming my blog. I had all but given up on writing due to a lack of time and the fact that all I ever had to write about was working long hours. I am going to try to make time every week toand write about where we are in our quest to become fulltimers. I may only be writing to one reader that hasn't given up on me, but I will endeavor to write anyway. It is hard because I am the shy type .

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

TRAVELING ONCE AGAIN....

We are finally on the road again and traveling (although for just a short time). After returning from a great time at Hickory Creek COE with wonderful friends, we both returned to work and the usual mundane routine. My routine was not quite so mundane as it is end of fiscal year close out and all my service contracts had to be renewed for the coming fiscal year!! Well enough about work, Presently I am back on a vacation, visiting with my favorite sister-in-law in South Carolina

From Sue

Back in the day when Cheryl and I were dating; I was only allowed to take Cheryl out if Sue was allowed to go along. At first I thought, bummer, but pretty soon I began to realize how lucky I was to be going out with two pretty girls instead of one! We were so young that it seemed we all "grew up" together and even when I was allowed to date Cheryl without Sue she usually tagged along anyway. We were like "the three musketeers" or is that the "three mouseketeers"?

From Sue

Hey guys the one on the right is single (not the one on the left).


Now let me introduce you to another pretty girl in my life, this is my great niece, with special interest on "great", Kenzie:

From MYRTLE BEACH SOUTH CAROLINA

From MYRTLE BEACH SOUTH CAROLINA

From MYRTLE BEACH SOUTH CAROLINA

Needless to say she had a great time and so did her mom, Jodie (also my niece of course).

From MYRTLE BEACH SOUTH CAROLINA

We had a great time and I will post more later, but now it is time to go have more fun. Until next time God bless us all.............

THE REST OF THE STORY

Seven days of work can make one weak. I could not resist being poetic

This is Sunday morning and I am home, back into the routine and mundane and as you can see I have not been making time to post once again. We had a yard sale yesterday, no one bought the house, but we got rid of more "stuff".

I sure miss being at Hickory Creek and I anguish about it everytime I read my friend's blogs about the great time they are having! :) I really am happy they are having a great time, but you guys save some great times for when we can join you.

We are back here working, but getting ready to go too. I am not going to write about it since it is so depressing! Instead let me continue the story of our adventures at Hickory Creek COE. I left off with us having dinner with Mike and Leslie at Chili’s on Wednesday evening. We had a great time and some pretty good food. We had met Mike and Leslie at the RV Dreams Rally back in June 08, so it had been over a year since seeing them. We picked up right where we left off, joking, talking and enjoying ourselves just as if it were just yesterday since we had last met!! It is great to have friends such as these two.

The next morning, after finding out the RV show opened at 10am, we picked up Mike and Leslie to head out, after some iced coffee from McDonalds something Leslie introduced to Cheryl for the first time (thanks Les! ). We found the show with no problem, except for the fact it was misting rain, but we were able to tour some units on the inside right away. These were mostly motorhomes and we just could not find a floor plan that we felt would meet our needs. The weather cleared a bit and we toured some on the outside also, however the humidity was getting the best of us so we ambered back inside after a short while.

From Hickory Creek

From Hickory Creek

From Hickory Creek

From Hickory Creek

From Hickory Creek

From Hickory Creek

From Hickory Creek

From Hickory Creek

Notice I am the only one wore out by all the climbing into all the rigs!!



All in all I will have to say I was a bit disappointed in the show this year. We were told that a lot of last year’s vendors did not show up this year. It was evident in the number of units on display. About the only thing that peaked our interest was the Mobile Suites and they also had some nice Montanas. I am going to get a good look at an Excel and then try to decide. I believe we are swinging toward the fifth wheel as our RV home instead of a motorhome.

When we left the show, we were getting a little on the hungry side, so we commence to look for lunch. We ended up have soups and salads at Olive Garden which hit the spot on a rainy and dreary day. We left Olive Garden and decided to head to camping world, where we knew we could unload some of our excess money (less weight to haul back home ). I only bought some tire covers for my new tires on the not so long trailer, they were 2 for the price of one. After that it was on the Walmart, we wanted the total fulltimers experience, so Walmart was mandatory!

Once we arrived back at the campground, lo and behold Rollie and Gina had arrived . We stopped by briefly to visit and later made plans to get together later.

once again I must leave the story unfinished. I have to get ready for church. I will continue later, until then God bless us all..........