What a great week!

We had a really nice week in Charlottesville, spending time with Tom and Jocelyn. We spent more time with her since Tom was working during the day, but we managed to have a great visit. Jocelyn and I took one afternoon and tried to find some really good fall colors.
We saw some that were quite spectacular, but not easy to photograph. We went on both the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park.
It is so easy to see why people love living here. The mountains are beautiful, rain or shine, but thankfully we had good sunny days. It has been cold, however, and we are quite anxious to get further south and into warmer weather. Last evening the kids came out to the motorhome for supper and brought Jericho, their standard poodle. Bailey immediately tried to nail him, so we put Bailey in the hall behind the gate. He really was quite happy there and could see us. When I eventually took down the gate, he stayed right where he was. Jericho and Neal got along fine, so we enjoyed an evening of food and fun.

We left Misty Mountain this morning and drove to Wytheville, Virginia, for the night. It was raining when we left and has steadily downpoured since arriving. There are some factory stores nearby, but I am not even interested in unhooking and driving over. Don't care much for shopping outside in the rain. We will leave here tomorrow and go to the Escapees park in Heiskell, Tennessee, for three days. Then on to Knoxville for the chassis service. We had planned on going to Gaffney, SC, for that, but when Terry called, they were booked up. So Terry checked around and found the service center in Knoxville and they had time to do the coach. From there it's on to Red Bay, Alabama, and get this slide fixed. It broke again on Terry and he had to fix it, but it is definitely out of time or something. Just a dreary day here, but we are doing fine.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Eat Your Heart Out Mickey!

We kidnapped Jocelyn yesterday to go up into the mountains and take some pictures of scenery. But it was hazy, lots of clouds and an ill wind blowing, so didn’t get that done. We came back towards the camp through Nellie’s Ford, Virginia, and stopped at the Blue Ridge Pig.
The Pig is a world renowned restaurant that serves BBQ. Terry had the tenderloin sandwich and I had the smoked turkey. The owner has a shed out back where he smokes all the meat and it is chunks of deliciously smoked, tender, juicy meat . . . not that chopped, pressed and formed crap. The “Pig” is . . . shall we say. . . rustic. It is quite the dive, but the food is so very good.




We came back to the motorhome and began experiencing in earnest, the electrical problems we had had the day before when we first got here. The surge protector kept shutting down the power. It was happening constantly. . . just coming on for 15 seconds or so before shutting off. They came and changed the breaker. When that didn’t work, they told us to move and gave us our choice of 2 other sites open till we planned to leave. They were really nicer sites than the one we were on, but ugh. . . who likes to move when you have set up camp for a week. And our slide had broken again when we put it out, so that had to be fixed. It was cold, but Terry got under there and got it fixed and we did, indeed, move. I’m glad we did because we haven’t had one bit of problem with the power since we got on this site. We have the dogs pen set up right outside the door. At the other site, we had to set it clear in back because the site was sloped and Neal couldn’t stand up and also there was a mud pit right outside our door.

Today we went into town to do a little shopping, but didn’t find what we wanted. The kids are coming out here tonight for supper. We are having cheese lasagna, salad, homemade bread, and baked apples for dessert. Yummy umm.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Charlottesville 2006!

We arrived at Misty Mountain Campground around noon today. Spent last night in a campground in Clifton Forge, Virginia. We were under trees and had no satellite tv or internet. We were really under a canopy. Today, however, we are in one of the open sites at Misty Mountain, and everything is working.

Daughter Jocelyn and husband Tom came out to see us and spent a couple hours visiting. Tomorrow we will go into town and get Jocelyn and go see some colors and visit an orchard to get some apples. Tom will have to work, of course, so he won't mind if we keep Jocelyn occupied. They are both doing very well and it was so good to see them. They really seem excited about the baby due in April.

We have seen so many colors since getting into West Virginia and Virginia. In some areas, there are no reds, just mainly yellows and oranges.
As we got further into Virginia, many more reds were added and it just seems to add fire to the landscape. The mountains have been incredibly gorgeous and while I plan on getting much better pictures up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, I took a few out the windows of Phaeton Place to tempt you with.


Till next time. . .

Dale

Got outta' Dodge

Well, we finally left. . . actually we left twice. Terry forgot his phone. . . had left it on the seat of the truck. We were in Middlebury, discussed unhooking the toad, but decided to just flip and go back. Our apartment manager said if we forgot anything else, just let him know and he would run us down. Hah.

We had our meeting this morning about Terry's medicare stuff and think we have a handle on that. We left the last time at 2:30 and arrived at our campground at 5:30. Didn't get too far, but it's been a long week and we just wanted to get a ways down the road.

Our Datastorm seems to be working really well, thanks to Elkhart Satellite Systems. They are very good and know what they are doing, so if anyone out there wants one and can get to Elkhart, I highly recommend them. They have been selling and installing satellite systems, both commerical and residential for 30 years. Brian, our tech and the owner's son, has installed over 200 Datastorms.

Things are pretty quiet now. . . Bailey has strewn his toys all over the living room floor and has now crashed on his cushion. Neal just collapsed after having investigated every speck of dirt/food/etc., on the floor and is convinced there is nothing there to eat.

We will drive a good day tomorrow to get close to Virginia or maybe inside the state.

Till next time. . .

Dale

Rollin', rollin', rollin'. . . get them doggies rollin'

Well, looks like we may get to leave. The apartment is rented. Yay! Life is good. Yesterday was a round trip to Indianapolis via New Castle where we took the dogs. Neal had to have a shot and they stayed there in doggie day care while we did the Indianapolis cardiologists' thing-y. We are good for another 6 months, so we headed back to New Castle to get the dogs and then on to Goshen. Left at 6:30 a.m. and returned at 10:00 p.m. Didn't stop and dilly-dally for anything, just drove.

Today is laundry day, packing day, close up the house day, etc. We are not staying here next year when we come by Goshen. There is work to be done, so we are going to be at the Elkhart Campground from Rally time (end of April) until the work is done on the house. Have a new floor to put in, paint, new appliances, etc. The house has been neglected while we got the apartments upgraded, so now it is time for the house. Have apartment maintenance then. . . window painting, etc. Trying to decide if we want to keep it all or start selling it off. I think Terry likes tinkering with things, but he cannot do anything too heavy.

Tomorrow we meet with the Council on Aging :-) to get Terry's insurance stuff all straightened out. Once that meeting is over, we are history and headed for Charlottesville, Virginia, to see Jocelyn and Tom. . . then points south (of I-10).

Till next time. . .

Dale

WE'RE STILL HERE!!!!!!!

And it's raining. . . Mistress of Distress here. If we stay any longer, we're going to have to buy Halloween candy for the trick or treaters. Ugh.

The apartment is still not rented. Had an application today, but they didn't check out too good, so we are still looking. I'm confident we will get someone in there.

Now Terry just came in and told me that the dash lights and turn signals on the truck are not working right. We had it in the shop for two days last week fixing the brake lights. I guess the Chevy garage in Goshen thinks that you trade off one for the other. Sheesh. You cannot pay people to do the right job anymore. We will have to get it fixed because our manager uses it to plow snow.

In other news, we have decided to drive down and back to Indy on Wednesday for Terry's final doctor appointments. We have to go through New Castle first and drop off the dogs for day care. Neal needs a booster shot, so we have to take them. They will board them for the day while we are in Indy, then we will run back by there and pick them up before heading back up here.

First stop when we leave here (whenever that is) is Charlottesville, Virginia, to see Jocelyn and Tom. We cannot go in there on the weekend anyway because the campgrounds are full on the weekends. We won't have trouble getting a site Monday through Thursday.

Till next time. . .

Dale

PS: Anybody want to buy some apartments?

Will it never end???????????????

I just cannot believe this. One year after saying I would only see snow on TV, I am taking pictures of it out the front door.


Get me outta' here!!!!!!!!!!!!

Till next time. . .

Dale

AAAAACCCCCKKKKKK!

I guess you can tell by the picture that I am in a total state of distress!

Time marches on. . . .

Well, we thought we had the apartment rented. The couple came to sign the lease today. I think they will be great. . . if they end up signing. She is currently renting and the landlord has threatened to hold her to her lease. She really cannot do what she says, but that doesn't mean she can't make life miserable for our prospective tenant. So we advised her to resolve that situation before signing our lease.

Tomorrow we are headed to central Indiana to pick up our enclosed trailer. Sister and husband are going to be moving this winter into their house and the trailer will be a big asset to them. It has a ramp in the back and will make hauling big heavy things easier and will keep everything dry as well. It will take a minimum of 8 hours down and back.

We had our satellite worked on again today and I think it is working better. We had to hire a dealer/installer to fix the errors that were made initially. I hope it is working now. It seems to be, but time will tell.

We are leaving Tuesday next week for points east and south. That is, if the apartment is rented.

I think I can now brag about my very special news and that is that Terry and I are going to be grandparents! This is a first for us. Our daughter Jocelyn and her husband Tom are adding a family addition in April. Hope all goes well with the pregnancy and we have a fine healthy grandbaby!

Till next time. . .

Dale

We gotta' get outta this place. . . . .

Man, what a week. I think I am finally getting better. Not that I was bad. . . but.

First off, soft water at the house here burns my skin. Terry has now decided to bypass the water softener (installed for the back apartment tenant). Then my back is killing me so today we are swapping out the mattress for the air bed in the closet. But the worst of the problems is that due to the COLD air, MOLD from leaves, and generally yucky weather I apparently picked up an ear problem which gave me vertigo. Ah, yes, vertigo, my friend. Problem is, it took about 4 days for me to put two and two together, so I decided to start the meds for vertigo. Now Terry doesn't like me to do that, because I am gone then for about 2 days. That stuff will knock you on your fanny, but it does work. So yesterday that's what I did. I think today, I am feeling human again. I will try to avoid taking the meds until bedtime, so that way it should help, but I should be quasi-normal for the day.

We've had a lot of rain and we saw this from the front porch the other day.



Our apartment may be rented. We are still mulling it over. No perfect candidates, but some not-so-perfect that might work. The satellite guy is to be here today or tomorrow to change out the antenna on the roof of Phaeton Place and see if that helps the connection problem.

Friday I am going to go to Mom and Dad's and help them move the last of their stuff out of their mobile home. It has been sold, they are on their way to Texas, and their new trailer is on the lot in Jim and Nita's woods awaiting their arrival next spring. Life is good. Here is a picture of the house.


We are waiting to get this apartment rented, then heading out no later than the 17th for doctor's appointments south, then heading somewhere. Supposed to be Red Bay, now he's talking Kerrville, Texas. Don't know what the boy has on this mind. Well I do, but . . .

Till next time. . .

Dale