Life is STILL Good!!!

Well, it's official. WE ARE HOMELESS!! Our house is sold, the closing was yesterday! The check is in the mail. The best part is that we have nothing to worry about in Mooreland anymore. One of Brandon's high school classmates bought it. He is a very nice young man and I hope he will be very happy there. His parents live just outside of town. We are very pleased that someone got it who we think will take care of it and keep it up as well.

We are glad it was all done so quickly.

Till next time . . .

Dale

Life is Good!

We are camped at Wickham Park in Melbourne. It is a beautiful park. We have been here before. It was flooded by the hurricane and the dog park area has been pretty muddy. Poor Bailey never gets a chance to get out and run. One of these days he will and he will be happy.

Yesterday we went up to Cocoa to the Ron Jon Surf shop. It's a neat place and afterwards we went out to look at the beach. One of these days I'm going to make Terry take his suit and we will get in the water. A lot of people were there.

The days have been warm and the nights have been cool. There has been a steady breeze everyday and our air conditioning is not needed. Just very pleasant.

Brandon is doing well. We spend part of every day with him. Tonight we are at his apartment because I needed a strong internet connection. See, the closing on our house was today! Yay!!!! And we needed to get some papers emailed to us and then we will print them out and mail them back. This calls for a celebration! Yay!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Finally, we made it to Melbourne!

We left St. Augustine this morning and headed for Wickham park in Melbourne. We called ahead and they were closed, but hoped to open around noon. Luckily when we got here they were open. Some of their campsites were under water, but we did get one that was wet, but drained. We set up camp and life is good. Brandon came out after work and we fixed hamburgers for him and he brought our mail. Whew. Two weeks worth.

They got much more rain down here and we saw a lot of flooded areas on the way in here. Brandon said Palm Bay was a lot worse. They are a bit south. We picked up a paper from Melbourne and the pictures of the storm are really bad. They also had several tornadoes.

We will be here for a week at least. We are staying to get the documents from the sale of the house and then we are headed for Tampa and Lazy Days RV Sales Center.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Just a Memory

Well, Wilma is gone and now just a fleeting memory. This time the local forecasters were right on the money. They said last night we would get 1-2 inches of rain and 30-34 mph winds. That was exactly what we got. The rain was not even heavy. Don't have water standing around now, etc. There was no wind until the hurricane was actually out to sea.

We woke up to rain this morning, but no wind. I even thought we could have had our awning out. Brandon called a couple times. Melbourne faired much worse. Around 11 a.m. they had some tornadoes. The apartment complex where one of his friends lives was hit, but the friend's apartment was okay. It started clearing up after lunch and the sky turned blue and got really sunshiney. They said that would happen. Just hard to imagine you have this hurricane coming through and once it's gone, it looks like paradise again.

Later this evening, we drove out to the beach. There was considerable erosion from this storm, which means the coast (a few miles out from where we are staying) got a lot more wind. The winds were eroding the beach as we were watching. I took pictures of the surf. Quite spectacular. We were way out on the fishing pier when Terry got to thinking of all those piers we see crashing down from the surf. So we got our pictures and walked back. There was a news crew on the beach and a live cam on a pole mounted to view the beach.

Tomorrow we are pulling out and heading down to Melbourne. No more storms in the forecast. We have to get our mail and wait on the closing papers for the house. It is sold and the closing is this week. Yay!

Till next time. . .

Dale

Wilma, Wilma, Wilma

So, the squirrels are exhibiting odd behavior. . . well, maybe not for squirrels. They seem oblivious to our presence here in the park and scamper around gathering nuts and running up and down trees. Aren't interested in tormenting the dogs or anything like that. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Talked with a really nice lady this morning. She is from Punta Gorda. They just got done rebuilding their place from last year and now are on target for taking another almost direct hit. She said they are rethinking living along the coast. Her accent was different and while we have many Canadians in the park, I knew that wasn't it. She is German! So we talked about my German relatives. She acts and looks a lot like my friend Doris with whom I taught for 20+ years. Doris was also a German native.

The storm continues to linger, but is now headed toward Florida. It is picking up speed which actually is good as it won't sit over one spot for 24 hours like it did in the Yucatan. Brandon doesn't have to go to work tomorrow, and they will decide tonight on whether he gets shipped out or not. Melbourne is to take more of a hit than we are.

It is a little disconcerting, however, when the native Floridians who came here to escape the storm pulled up stakes this morning and are headed farther north. All reports we are getting become a little less threatening as the day goes by. We have experienced nothing yet except a little sprinking (ground still dry), breezes and cooler temps. We are anticipating more rain and winds up to 35 mph, which is less than they originally predicted. Most everyone here today is confident we have nothing to worry about and more people keep coming to take the place of those who left.

Will let you know more as it happens.

Take care.

Till next time. . .

Dale

It's a Hurricane Party!

We are STILL in St. Augustine, Florida. Now that is not a bad thing. Today we went down to Daytona to the infamous thousand acre (well, seems like that) flea market. We walked the entire thing in a couple hours. See, when you live in less than 400 sq. ft. of space, it certainly makes a difference in what you thought you couldn’t live without!

Last night Jacksonville got up to 5 inches of rain in some areas. Glad we weren’t there. The bad news is that the hurricane is still not headed this way, but they have started evacuations and have issued storm watches. Terry just told me that St. Augustine is actually in the hurricane watch area and Jacksonville is in the tropical storm watch area. Hmmmm. The storm is expected to pass quickly over Florida on Monday. I don’t know how they can predict it is going to speed across Florida when it has sat in one place for 24 hours.

The campground is full again tonight and looks like hurricane parties are in full swing. A lot of people came in together and are sitting out. We choose to remain indoors away from the mosquitoes. We killed one that lit on Neal and you could have lifted footprints off of her. We did put out some candles and other bug repellants and they seem to work, but near dusk and dawn, the seem to be more active.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Just a Reminder

I just wanted to remind everyone reading my blog, that because my communications, including my internet at the present time, are all cellular it is possible that when/if this storms creeps up this way, we could lose communications. If that happens, you will have no way to contact me and I won't have any way to post to my blog. Don't worry. Call Brandon if you are desperate for info. We do not anticipate any dangerous activity here, but that doesn't mean we couldn't lose our service. Verizon seems to be pretty big in Florida and if they take a lot of hits, we could have trouble. Don't panic. I will get in touch with some family member when I can.

We will stay safe.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Twiddlin' our Thumbs

We are doing something different every day. Today we visited the St. Augustine Lighthouse and museum. It was awesome. We also went to a shrine and went back downtown to old St. Augustine and went through the part of the old city where the oldest houses are. There are a few shops there, but mostly just old house and very narrow streets.

When we got back to the campground, we noticed a "no vacancy" sign up. They have 115 sites and are full. A lot of refugees. . . er, evacuees here from the southern parts of Florida. I guess traffic on I-95 was pretty rough. There was a bad accident near here today, but we are safe here. We did noticed increased traffic on our road when we were coming back from sightseeing.

Tomorrow we may go out and do something again, weather permitting. Tonight it started to rain a little, but very lightly. It was lightning out, so Bailey wouldn't go out.

We are enjoying visiting with other campers. We all feel comfortable here just 50 miles south of the Georgia border, but will be keeping a watchful eye on the storm. That was made just a little more difficult when a new camper is now occupying the site next door and chose to pull up enough to block our satellite dish. That means Terry will have to reset it tomorrow if he wants all his stations. I'm betting he will move it as he cannot go long without his tv. I do want the weather channel back.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Still hanging out in St. Augustine

Well, we went to the other outlet mall today to get our walk in. Then we went north of town to an authentic British Pub and had lunch. It was quite different and good. Brought over half of it home as we couldn’t eat it all.

The weather is changing. It has been quite pleasant. . .warm, but not real humid. Today it was hot and really humid and clouds are beginning to move in from the south. At times it was sunny with really blue skies and a few white fluffy clouds and other times it was dark and gray with a breeze here and there.

The storm is very slow moving. Brandon still doesn’t know if he will be sent out. . . they have pushed it back now for a few days. It’s not supposed to hit here until Monday now. And then it will be south of us. We will get plenty of rain probably.

We are just driving around looking at different points of interest.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Waiting on Wilma

Waiting on a hurricane is a lot like waiting for water to boil. We moved from the state park today. I am sure the mosquitoes hated to see us go. Terry believes he fed most of them in the park. We moved from A1A over to a campground between 1 and I-95. It is better landscaped and the dogs can actually be out and are enjoying their spot where they can see people coming in and out of the park. There is enough lighting even at night that Bailey isn't afraid to go out after dark.

The park had a steady stream of RV's coming in today and they fully expected to fill up, but they still have a few spots. People coming out of south Florida are coming here because they think it will be safe.

We are not sure. . . we hope so, but we took precautions. Before we set up camp, we topped off all fuel tanks, including propane, and filled with water, including some extra. We are on a full hookup sight, so we aren't using any of our resources, saving them in case we have to high-tail it out of here. Won't know that until about Friday.

They are expecting winds and rains here. Melbourne (about 140 miles south) is expecting anything from 40 mph winds up to 80 depending on the swath the storm takes. Brandon won't know until Friday if he is bailing to run the network from Virginia.

BTW, anyone can now post comments here, so if you want to comment, you may. You don't have to be a member. I do plan on adding pictures, but I have to get to a high speed connection to do that.

Till next time. . .

Dale

St. Augustine Florida

St. Augustine

We arrived here late Monday afternoon and are staying at the Anastasia State Park. We paid for 2 nights before seeing the place and quickly regretted that decision. It certainly is quiet enough, but we are camped in a “hammock.” For those of you who don’t know what that is, it is the really dense vegetation that is native to Florida. The loops we are on have what look like openings cut back just enough for a camper and not much else. Tucked back in here it is dark and infested with mosquitoes the size of canaries and lots of them. The dogs only go out long enough to do their job and come back in. I have to go out there with them because Terry attracts mosquitoes and he becomes a walking smorgasbord. We believe that is related to the meds he takes because we find this to be the rule no matter where we are.

We did take off today and did a walking tour of St. Augustine. It is very interesting and historic. We saw the Huguenot and Old Indian cemeteries as well as the old city gate. We elected not to go to the fort this time as we have seen it before, but it is a very beautiful fort and very well preserved. There are many old interesting buildings and if you are ever in this part of Florida, St. Augustine is worth a visit.

We are moving on tomorrow, but we don’t know where to just yet. We were headed down to Brandon’s in Melbourne, but Hurricane Wilma is currently in the Caribbean and knocking on Florida’s door. There are several models and ideas as to what course she will take and none of them good for Florida. We think our plan will be to hang out here in the northern part of the state so we can go north if we have to and wait until the coast is clear to run on down to Brandon’s. It may be the weekend before we start heading down there.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Just hangin' out waiting on Wilma.

We are in St. Augustine, Florida, trying to decide what to do and where to go next. We are watching the weather and going to go find a place to hide from Miss Wilma until we think we can safely go on down to Melbourne. We want to see Brandon and will know more later in the week as to how this new storm will play out. A lot depends on other low and high pressure systems and what they do.

Till next time . . .

Dale

Good Friends. . . Good times.

Friday and Saturday nights we spent in Kittrell, North Carolina. Friends who once lived in the subdivision with Terry’s parents moved back to their “roots” and have lovingly restored Mildred’s family home. . . Bambro Plantation. They have restored and upgraded this beautiful old home and are soon to be opening their Bambro Plantation Bed and Breakfast. Willard has set up a motorhome pad out behind the house where they lived in their RV for three years while re-doing the house. We parked in his spot there and had our own patio and chairs, enjoying a fire in the evening surrounded by beautifully landscaped grounds.

There is no description I could give which would do justice to the house, so I will let the pictures tell that story. While there, we dined with other guests for breakfast. . . enjoying a wonderful southern menu complete with grits. I must confess, I had never enjoyed grits until I tasted Mildred’s homemade ones. . . and they were delicious.

The house sits on a bluff and there was always a slight breeze. It was warm during the day and cool at night. Perfect. On Saturday, our hosts took us in to Oxford and showed us other historic houses which were in various stages of being restored. Oxford has quite a few antebellum-type homes and we enjoyed the tour. We also went to Henderson and along the way were shown other points of interest including the two orphanages founded after the civil war, one for white children and the other for black. Both remain in operation.

This morning we bid our friends good bye and were on the road again by 8 a.m. The last three driving days, I have done all the driving, but it hasn’t been hard. Terry is recovering from his really nasty cold. I truly think he had allergies in Virginia. We had so much rain and even the air was beginning to smell musty and moldy and I think that is what did him in. He is much better, but still not up to par.

We stopped for the day around 2:30 at Santee State Park on beautiful Lake Marion in South Carolina. It is a lake of 110,000 acres, but shallow, with a cypress forest in the middle of it. The lake is a dirty coffee color which they say is due to the trees. And the literature I picked up indicates there are alligators around, so I guess swimming is out. Hah. We have a nice campsite and a view through the trees of the lake. Probably will leave again tomorrow on our trek down to see Brandon.

We are having warm days and cool nights. It has been perfect. Haven’t been bothered by mosquitos much since we left Jocelyn’s.



Till next time. . .

Dale

Now that's Class!

Who says you can't have class in an RV park? Where else can you stand sipping martinis while watching the owner dig sewer lines?

Till next time . . .

Dale

Souveniers!

Full-timing does have its drawbacks. What, for instance, does one do about souveniers? Space is at a premium. Nothing has a home here that doesn't have at least one function, sometimes two. There just is no space whatsoever for "knick knacks."

Yesterday while walking through the UVA campus we saw a shop and immediately we knew we had a solution. TATOOS!!!! Yep, I told Jocelyn we would just get a new and different tatoo everywhere we go. If they are small enough, we will have plenty of space and when we get down to the last few clean patches of skin, we will switch off. . . Terry getting one at one place, then me at the other. What a great idea! Then Jocelyn had an even better one. She reminded us of those maps you can buy to put on the side of the RV and then you color in each state as you travel. We could have those done on our backs! Hah. I hadn't even thought of that. The best part about the whole idea is that it only uses available space. . . no hunting for someplace to put the shot glass, or the spoon.

I can't wait to show everyone where we've been.

Till next time . . .

Dale

Whats New????????????

NOT THE WEATHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is STILL raining here in greater Charlottesville. It has rained steadily since last Thursday. Ugh. Kind of puts the damper on any sightseeing, since the clouds and fog are IN THE WAY! It is actually pretty, but enough's enough. I've seen enough of fog and mist and ready to see some sun.

We dog-sat for Jericho last night. We put our boyz to bed, then drove in with our dirty laundry and visited with our granddog while the laundry ran. We were there from about 7:45 until 11 p.m. The kids were due back around 1 a.m., so Jericho should have been fine until then. He was so excited to see us when we arrived, but then stretched out in the living room with his head just inches from the door. I know he was looking for "Mom and Dad." He is such a nice dog.

Well, I would clean, but we keep tracking in dirt from the rainy grass and pavement outside, it would hardly be worth. I will wait until the sun starts shining.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Thomas Jefferson's UVA

Today we went in to Jocelyn's and she took us to the University for a tour of the Rotunda. Actually, the Rotunda, designed by Thomas Jefferson, was designed as a focal point for what was/is called the Academical Village. It was designed as a village with student and professor lodging and classrooms all in the same area. It is quite an interesting concept, and while most of the rooms and structures are not used for their original purpose, they are used and are kept close to their original condition. The Rotunda is quite impressive and the tour was very well done. That part of the university, however, is only a small part of the now much larger university. It is right in the heart of Charlottesville and the terrain is very hilly. It is an effort to walk from one area to another. We have been walking every day, though, so we easily managed, but it would be hard for some, I would think.

Yesterday we ran some errands. The kids had stuff to do to occupy their day, so we came back to the motorhome and just relaxed. It wasn't raining, but was misting a little from time to time.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Too much rain!

Everywhere we go it rains. Ugh. I am tired of rain. It is pretty at first, and the mountains are beautiful shrouded in fog and mist, but . . . give me a break! I like sunshine, too!

Found out the "intermission" during the Stones concert last night was due to a "bomb threat." Can you believe that? Some people are really screwed up. They had to evacuate the stage and part of the stadium and bring in bomb sniffing dogs, but after an hour, the concert continued until just after midnight with no further incidences.

Today we kidnapped Jocelyn and took her over the mountain through Waynesboro and on to Dayton, Virginia, to a farmer's market. It was really a neat place. Lots of good things to eat and we bought some stuff. The one market has bulk foods like E & S in Shipshewana. Not nearly as much, but a lot of spices, so Jocelyn was excited. She said they were so much cheaper, it would be worth a trip over there occasionally to stock up.

We are hoping for some nicer weather so we can go look at some scenery. The fall colors are coming out down here and with all this rain, the streams and waterfalls are probably going to be spectacular.

Met a guy today at the meat market who was excited to talk to "full-timers." Although he said we looked too young to be retired. Terry told him I am a lot older than I look. Hah.

Till next time. . .

Dale

The Rolling Stones in Concert!

Well, we didn't spring for the $350 seats, but we could hear the Stones playing from Jocelyn and Tom's deck. Heard several songs, including Ruby Tuesday. It was awesome. They are about a mile from the stadium. The concert was held at the UVA football stadium. Terry said the best thing about it was that we could probably see just as well from there (which was not at all) as we could if we were in the back of the stadium. Hah.

I have some pictures of the traffic along the interstate I will post later. That was a mess.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Stones are here!

The Rolling Stones are in Charlottesville at the University for a concert tonight. We started in to Jocelyn's just after six and got into a major traffic jam with people who were going to the concert. Fortunately, we are learning our way around town and were able to bypass some of it and get here.

We went to Lynchburg this morning to get some prescriptions for Terry. There is no Walgreen's in or around Charlottesville and since they are quite prevalent throughout the rest of the U.S., we decided to make the drive down there to get them filled. After that, we can get them refilled at any Walgreen's. Hoping that will work well for us.

It rained on us today, not badly, but just enough to stay wet. We are expecting heavy rains tomorrow, probably remnants of Tropical Storm Tammy. Yuck. The mountains here are quite beautiful even with the rain. Then there is fog and mist and it is very pretty. We will be here until the 14th, so we should have some good weather for hiking and sightseeing as well.

I know Terry wants to go to Monticello and a few other sites while we are here this time.

Dogs are doing fine. They don't complain about anything. Jericho is really sweet. That is Jocelyn's poodle. He is such a wonderful dog. Let's Grandma spoil him. Even Grandpa does that too.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Finally, pictures of the Escapade!

Charlottesville!

We arrived at Misty Mountain Campground in Crozet, Virginia, late this afternoon. Decided not to check in with the kids yet as we told them we wouldn't be here before Wednesday. Had several things to do, since we will be here for 10 days. Decided we could set up more than the usual. We almost didn't get a spot as there is a "Rolling Stones" concert this week. Hmmmmmmmmmmm. Wonder if we could get tickets. Wouldn't that be fun. There are also some football games and the campground said this is their busiest month. We have been here before in October, but always at the end. So I guess next year we will have to make a reservation. We did get a nicer site than usual, but it only has electric and water, but that is okay. We will be conservative.

Didn't have any problems today. Still cannot get the generator started, but since we are here for several days, Terry is going to have a look at it. Also we are going to try our luck at getting bloodwork done on the road, since he has to have it so often. We called a lab which has many locations throughout the U.S. and they told him to come in at 8 a.m. and they would have his results faxed to his doctor. So we shall see how it works.

We are camped next to an interesting couple. She is retired military. . . a nurse who did tours of duty in Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm. She is a retired Colonel. Very nice.

It's been tough adjusting to this lifestyle. Sleeping in every day. . . . you know. Someone has to do it, it might as well be us. Oh well. Have to get up tomorrow for the lab work, so better get off to bed. I still haven't posted any rally pictures. When I get to Jocelyn's tomorrow, I will have a broadband connection, so will upload some pictures then.

Till next time . . .

Dale

Thank you Du Quoin, Illinois, and goodnight!

I forgot to mention the sendoff DuQuoin gave us the last night we were there. At 11:30 p.m. (yes, that's right, just before midnight), the police and firemen, in their vehicles. . i.e., police cars and firetrucks, went riding through the fairgrounds, up and down ALL the roads with their sirens blaring, lights blazing and screaming. . . Thank you for coming!

Now, I ask you. . . . were they thanking us?

Till next time. . .

Dale