THANKSGIVING, MORE THAN A HOLIDAY

Happy Thanksgiving all. This is the day we have set aside to reflect on all the blessings we have received from God. It sometimes seems we have made it a holiday of parades, feasting and shopping, which is all a part of it, but let us not forget the true intent of Thanksgiving.

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers. On the journey, they set up an agreement, that established just and equal laws for all members of the new community, regardless of their religious beliefs. The ideas used in the Mayflower Compact came from  the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. This early foundation for the laws of this nation were built on the pilgrims faith in God!


President George Washington first proclaimed Thanksgiving to be "set aside" as a day to recognize the blessings of almighty God in the following proclaimation:

General Thanksgiving



By the PRESIDENT of the United States Of America


A PROCLAMATION


WHEREAS it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favour; and Whereas both Houfes of Congress have, by their joint committee, requefted me "to recommend to the people of the United States a DAY OF PUBLICK THANSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to eftablifh a form of government for their safety and happiness:"


NOW THEREFORE, I do recommend and affign THURSDAY, the TWENTY-SIXTH DAY of NOVEMBER next, to be devoted by the people of thefe States to the fervice of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our fincere and humble thanksfor His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the fignal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpofitions of His providence in the courfe and conclufion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have fince enjoyed;-- for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to eftablish Conftitutions of government for our fafety and happinefs, and particularly the national one now lately instituted;-- for the civil and religious liberty with which we are bleffed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffufing useful knowledge;-- and, in general, for all the great and various favours which He has been pleafed to confer upon us.

And also, that we may then unite in moft humbly offering our prayers and fupplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and befeech Him to pardon our national and other tranfgreffions;-- to enable us all, whether in publick or private ftations, to perform our feveral and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a bleffing to all the people by conftantly being a Government of wife, juft, and conftitutional laws, difcreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all fovereigns and nations (especially fuch as have shewn kindnefs unto us); and to blefs them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increafe of fcience among them and us; and, generally to grant unto all mankind fuch a degree of temporal profperity as he alone knows to be beft.

GIVEN under my hand, at the city of New-York, the third day of October, in the year of our Lord, one thousand feven hundred and eighty-nine.


(signed) G. Washington


Obviously there was no such thing as political correctness involved in the day of that proclaimation! President Washington was not worried about the actions of the ACLU!

As we enjoy our feasts of today, watch the parades and football games, let us take time to pray and thank our Father in heaven for all he has blessed us with as a nation and as individuals. Until next time... God bless us all ..  and Happy Thanksgiving :)

WHEELS CHOCKED FOR A WHILE!

We had a great and relaxing time camping at Rocky Point. Shortly after arriving at the "sticks and bricks" things tried to become stressful again! I opened the slide out to unload (something us vacationers have to do) and suddenly it came to a stop, a clattering noisy stop! I went outside to find my slide out room motor lying on the ground! Something had jammed the slide and the end result was the apparently powerful motor sheared off the housing and driving gears. Needless to say that old familiar enemy we call stress started creeping into my body! I did not surrender to the enemy, instead I "called in" (aka: prayer) for reinforcements.  My reinforcements arrived and took the form of faith and assurance that all was well.

Cheryl and I finished unloading the not so long trailer and I took on the monumental task of manually closing the slideout room. It was certainly not an easy task, it was accomplished regardless. I visited Southern RV this past Monday and they made an appointment for me the bring it to them on Thursday, which I did uneventfully. They gave me a call yesterday and give me an estimate of $775.00. This estimate is for a new motor, aligning the slideout and all labor involved. The parts will take about two weeks to arrive and then they will schedule the work. Thank God this happened during a period when we normally don't camp anyway  :)  .. It should be ready after the holidays and we will begin planning some weekend outings again  :) .

Anyway that is the recent misadventures of Don and Cheryl. We are still preparing our house to sell and getting things ready for our transition to a fulltime RV lifestyle. We should be able to start shopping for our truck around the March time frame and then the RV about 5 to 6 months afterwards.  I will try to keep everyone posted on our progress.

Until next time, God bless us all ............. Have a happy Thanksgiving, remember to give thanks to God our father!

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