A Change in Plans

There has been a change of plans for this summer. Yes, we are still going to Alaska - just not where we first thought we were going. Let me explain. I have been very open about my hesitation of going to Deadman's Lake - I mean, talk about remote. I wasn't sure I was ready to go without cell phone or Internet access. I really didn't mind the generator, or the tank with the water - but the idea of being out at this campground in the middle of nowhere Alaska with no way to contact anyone IF there was a problem. That was a whole lot scary! So, the other day when we were looking at places for the fall and winter I just happened to see a different position in Alaska. I asked Dan which he would rather do and he told me to apply for the new position - which I did. Saturday we got a formal application in an email with the request that we fill it out and send back as soon as possible. I filled it out on line and emailed it back to the ranger that afternoon. I figured we might hear something sometime this week.

Yesterday, at 7:45 Alaska time, we got a phone call. Well, to make a long story at least at little shorter we talked to the Ranger - we were offered and we accepted the new position. I called the volunteer coordinator at Deadman's Lake and explained why we would not be there - which she understood and told us that if we wanted to try it again another year just to let her know. So, I'm sure you are asking were we are going instead. Well, we are going to - Juneau. Actually we will be the campground hosts at the Mendenhall Lake Campground - our view will be of the Lake and Mendenhall Glacier (not a bad view). We will be 13 miles out of town and we will be there from the end of May through Labor Day (September 8th). So we will be there much longer and Dan is very happy about that, plus we know people that live in Juneau so that will make things better too! We won't be completely isolated and friends and family will still be able to come see us (there is an airport in Juneau - I mean, it IS the capital of Alaska after all!) So, I'm excited that we won't be so isolated and Dan is happy that we will be in Alaska for a little more than three months. Some people may wonder how we will get the camper to Juneau since there are no roads in - well, I'll explain that later in a different blog post.

Tomorrow we will be leaving for Lake Placid - Dan actually wanted to get an early start but we haven't packed our clothes yet nor have we loaded the back of the truck. Dan will have to go over to Neil's and get a suitcase (we thought we had left one here at the unit, but he says he can't find it in the basement). While I am packing the suitcase he will be putting the stuff up from under the awning (grill and chairs). Then we will go over to Neil's and load the truck. Our plan is to leave Dowling Park by 10 - 10:30. We'll see if we meet that deadline.

Sorry I didn't post last night - but I just wasn't feeling too well and I decided to just go to bed. Hope you understand. I will be taking the computer with me when we go down to Lake Placid so I will be able to post while down there. We will be going up to Bartow, probably on Friday, to take care of some business there at the bank and the School Board (changing our mailing address). Then on Monday the pups have their doctor's appointment. It should be an exciting and productive weekend.

We met with our CPA this morning and he is suppose to have our taxes done on the 18th - right before we leave for North Georgia. I'm a little apprehensive to see what he comes up with - I will happy if we don't owe anything this year. I'll be overjoyed if we can actually get a refund. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Well, I don't have that much else to report for tonight, so I will sign off. Hope everyone is having a good week and ----------------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!!!

Well, well , well, the Saints did it!

Congratulations have to go out to the Saints - they played a great game and they certainly deserve the win tonight. Yes, it's true that I was cheering for the Colts, but I certainly was NOT against the Saints. I like Drew Brees and the coach so I'm not upset. It was certainly a lot closer than the final score showed. The interception sealed the deal for the Saints. So, like I said - Congratulations!

Today was a pretty quiet day - I cooked the pork shoulder that Neil had given us earlier in the week. So now we have a refrigerator full of meat - chicken, Boston Butt Roast, and the pork shoulder that I fixed today - Maybe I can freeze some of the meat for future use. We went over to Jewel's tonight for a Low Country Boil and let me tell you, that was GOOD!!!!! I took a couple of salad's over - a tossed salad and some cole slaw. It sure was some good eating!!!! Dan and I came home in about the middle of the third quarter and I got our kitchen cleaned up. As soon as I sign off tonight it will off to bed for me.

Tomorrow we are going to go over to Neil's and see if the things we are going to take down to Lake Placid will fit in the back of the truck instead of having to get a trailer. Dan thinks it will - we'll have to see. It sure will make the trip easier if we can, but if not, we'll work it out.

I'll also, probably try and get the laundry done so I won't have to worry about it while we are getting ready to go down to Lake Placid. We are talking about MAYBE going down a couple of days earlier. I'll have to call Melissa to make sure it will be okay with them (since we are staying at their house), but Dan would like to go down on Wednesday instead of waiting until Friday. There are a couple of things we need to do with our address change (bank, school board, insurance, etc.) and it would be easier to do in person instead of by mail - especially the school board. To tell you the truth they are a pain in the you know where to get anything changed. Well, I'll let you know after I talk to Melissa tomorrow.

I really don't have anything else to report today - I hope you all had a good weekend and that you will have a good week next week and --------------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Busy, Busy, Busy

For me not knowing yesterday what we were going to do today we ended up being VERY busy. Let's start with this morning - I mentioned last night that today was Market Day. We went down to the Village Square and looked around (not much was really happening with vendors) then we went in to breakfast - 2 eggs over easy, hash browns, 2 sausage patties, and whole wheat toast ($12.00 plus a $2.00 tip). Then we went down to where they had the grills set up and bought a whole pork butt roast and a whole chicken that had been cooked on the grill ($16.00 total) not too bad. Then we went down to the Annex and just looked around - just to see what was going on. Didn't buy anything. So, we came home and put the meat in the refrigerator.

Dan wanted to go to Valdosta - he wanted to look for the screen enclosure to go on our outdoor room (all we had was the solid curtain sides). He also wanted to look at Lowe's and Home Depot - just to look, and to update our membership at Sam's club. So, we took the pups out and then we headed for Valdosta.

First place we went was Target - we found the side screen curtains (and they were on sale - Yahoo!) I also found a couple of movies that we picked up (Sleepless in Seattle and National Treasures 2). We spent a little over $60.00 on all the stuff there. Then it was off to Home Depot - Dan just wanted to look around - nothing in particular. Couldn't find a single thing to buy there so, we left and went to Lowe's. Dan wanted to look at the toaster ovens there - we had seen one at the Lowe's in Live Oak and he thought he might want it. However, when we got there and looked at it he decided that wasn't what he wanted after all. Well, we ended up getting a drip tray for the kitchen, a basket for between the front seat of the truck (to put the maps and books in - you know, Next Exit and Milepost) and a book of house plans (don't get excited and don't ask questions). That was a little over $20.00.

Our final stop today was Sam's Club. Dan thought that we needed to renew our membership, so that was our first stop once we got inside. However, our membership is good through September of this year. As we were starting to look around a person from Direct TV was in the store and we went over and talked to him. Well, to make a long story short - we signed up for Direct and will cancel Dish Monday (after the football game). Direct will get connected on the 24th of February when we are up at Lake Park. Dan is so excited!!!! One of the things that convinced us to go ahead with switching, even though we are going to have to pay $215.00, is Direct is giving us a credit on our account for the first year that will pay the $200.00 - so our service will only cost us $30.00 for the first year - and I think the thing that really swayed us was - when we go into Alaska we can put the satellite on "vacation" and only have to pay $5.00 a month for the three months we are there. So, yes, we will be out $215.00 at the beginning, but I think that Dan will be happier -and if we had to pay for Dish, which we won't be able to use, while we are in Alaska at $70.00 for that same three months we would pay the amount of the penalty anyway. We had planned on cancelling Dish when we went into Canada and have to pay the penalty then - we are just doing it a couple of months early. So, it will all work out - PLUS I made sure that everyone knew - right up front - that this was a full time RV account - no problem. (That is refreshing in itself.) After we got all that paperwork filled out, we went ahead and got a few things - boneless, skinless chicken breasts, chicken salad, salad stuff for tomorrow, pears, and some plums. (right around $60.00).

Today turned out to be a fun day in which we were able to accomplish quite a lot - some of which we didn't have any idea we would do now. Plus we only spent about $200.00 total. Now that sure made it a good day!

We are still working on our work schedule - I'll let you know what is going on as soon as I know for sure. In the meantime - I hope you have a good day tomorrow and that you will be happy with the result of "the game" - whatever it may be. Take care and ------------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Bag Sale

Today Dan and I went over to the Rumph Pavilion and worked from 10:00 until 1:00 at the bag sale here in the village. Today was only for employees, volunteers, and residents of the Village while tomorrow the sale will be open to the public. There was more stuff there than you could ever imagine and it was all just clothes and books. The 'bag sale' meant that when people came in they were given a plastic bag (you know, like a Wal Mart bag) and whatever you can get in the bag was $3.00. There were people that were able to get a whole "lotta" stuff in a Wal Mart bag. Even though it was raining Dan and I had 77 bags of clothes go out the door in our three hour shift. Not too shabby. I even found a couple of things myself - a couple of sweaters, a sweatshirt, and a shirt. I really didn't try and fill a bag - I just don't really need anything (I really didn't need the stuff I bought).

After we finished with our shift we went to the cafe for lunch - then I did a little "shopping". I just walked through the two little gift shops here in the Village. I did buy a sympathy card for one of our friends. Lynn's husband passed away yesterday with cancer. They were our neighbors here in the Village, living right next door to us. Jerry had just retired a little less than a year ago and found out he had cancer right after we sold our house and 'hit the road'.

Tomorrow is Market Day again - it is always the first Saturday of the month. The rain should all be gone by tomorrow and there should be a good turn out as long as it is not real cold. Last month there were not many people there and not many vendors, but that was right after Christmas and it was really cold. As I said, hopefully tomorrow will be better.

I fixed the boneless pork chops for dinner tonight - actually Dan fixed them on the grill while I fixed a baked potato (which we split) and I had a salad while Dan had asparagus which he heated on the grill with the pork chops. It was really very good. Tomorrow I'll fix the pork shoulder in the crock pot and then Sunday (Super Bowl Sunday) we are going to go over to Jewel's for a Low Country Boil (Yummy!!!)

I don't really have anything else to report tonight so I will let you all go - have a good weekend and --------------------------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!!!

Paperwork

I feel like I have been sitting in front of this computer all day - well, maybe I have. I have done a lot of paperwork today - filling out paperwork, filling out job applications (gotta find us a job for the fall and winter of this coming year!), moving pictures to two different flash drives (one is a small one that I will use to take the pictures I want to scrapbook from our trip out West and the other is a large flash drive that I transferred all 1400 pictures from the summer to so I could get them off my hard drive on the lap top).

I filled out applications on line for a lot of different positions - will just have to wait and see if any of them work out. Some are in Oregon and some are in Texas (yes, I said Texas girls). We are trying to figure out what we are going to do next winter and we are not sure yet. We might not come back to Florida next winter - if we are going to try and work out west next year it would make sense fuel and mileage on the truck to stay in the west - so, work either in Arizona, Nevada, or Texas. So, I did find a couple of things that interested us in Texas so I applied. It is definitely NOT a done deal yet, but it doesn't hurt to cover your bases.

I filled out the paperwork for Alaska today and we'll get that stuff in the mail either tomorrow or Saturday. We also reopened out mail account in Pensacola - we can't ask our friend to be getting our mail all the time - that is just too much to ask. So, I called the mail service and reopened our account there. Now, I'll just have to get in touch with everyone and write letters and change addresses on all our accounts - credit cards, school board, insurance (that's always fun - NOT). I think it will be worth it in the long run - it's just getting it all done - that's the pain in the - well, you know where.

We have to work tomorrow here in the Village, so I'm not going to stay on line long and bore you with my ramblings. I hope you all are doing well - try and stay dry tomorrow - it is suppose to be raining all day in Florida and Georgia - I think you guys in Texas had it today (or maybe it was yesterday). I'll let you know how the sale goes tomorrow.

Talk to you then!

What did I do today????

I'm not sure what I did today, but I was extremely busy! I did do a load of laundry in the unit - yeah for the washer and dryer! I also sorta of slept in (didn't get up till almost 9). I had had a bad night - a little stomach problems that worked itself out - and I didn't go to bed until after midnight - so not getting up till 9 is not that bad.

Of course, I straightened up the unit and took my shower and washed the dishes - that's just normal stuff. I did some farming on Facebook (one of my guilty pleasures) and did some research on possible places to work after Alaska - we just have to decide what part of the country we want to be in. We also called Good Sam about insurance on the rig and the truck. The insurance we have through State Farm is really just collision - and it does not take into consideration that we live in our unit full-time. This insurance does. It is a little more expensive than what we are paying now, but it does cover the rig like a homeowners policy would with liability and coverage after the unit is parked and not hooked to the truck. Of course, if we also cover the truck the combined rate is cheaper (multi-policy discount). Also, if - God forbid- we should have an accident there is only one deductible instead of two. We will discuss it a little more, but I think we will probably go with it (oh, BTW, it is underwritten by GMAC insurance company - so I think it is pretty dependable).

Then we went over to see Bud and Joyce for a few minutes then went by Jewel's house, but she wasn't home (we had bought her some Cinnamon-Raisin Bread at Atlanta Bread Company in Valdosta yesterday, but hadn't been able to catch her at home - she sure is a busy lady!). We came back to the house and by then it was time to eat. Dan said he didn't feel like cooking the pork chops on the grill and wanted to go to the "Gopher" (the little grill here at the village) for dinner. We did and I think we did fairly well with what we chose to eat - Philly Cheese Steaks sandwiches (I know - but at least the meat was grilled instead of Fried!). While we were eating guess who walked in - yep, Jewel. She came over and ate with us and then she came by the house so we could give her the bread.

Tonight I have been doing more research on the computer and that has been our day. Oh, Dan did work in the basement some - he was putting up some holders for his fishing rods on the walls of the basement and working on getting all his fishing tackle moved to his new tackle box. I'm not sure what we will do tomorrow - probably more of the same. Friday we will work at a "bag" sale here at the Village from 10 in the morning until 1 in the afternoon. It should be interesting - I'll let you know on Friday.

I don't have anything else to report - all you people that are working - your half way to your weekend - hang in there. For the rest of us - just stay warm and dry and ------

I'll talk to you tomorrow!!

Valdosta

Sorry I didn't post last night - don't have much of an excuse except that I was just tired. Anyway, I'll fill you in on yesterday and today.

First, let's start with yesterday. We went over to visit with one of our friends here in the village, Jewel. We hadn't seen her but once since we've been here - so we wanted to go over and just visit for a little while. Jewel needed some help with her SUV - she had a bad tire - so, Dan drove here car to Perry to the tire dealer while Jewel and I followed in her truck. Once we dropped the SUV off we went out to lunch. A really good meal, but I ate waaaaay too much - that's one of the reason's I don't like buffets - but it sure was good!!!! After we ate, we went back to the tire dealer and found out that there wasn't anything wrong with the tire. So, Jewel drove her truck back because she had to take a little side trip to Mayo and Dan and I took the SUV and went to the Super Wal Mart in Perry. We picked up a few things there (we only went in for a half gallon of milk and walked out with $160. worth of stuff. Then we drove back to the Village - dropped off Jewel's car and came home. About an hour after we got home Jewel dropped off a bowl of beef roast w/ potatoes and carrots (one of Dan's favorite meals). He really enjoyed his dinner - thanks Jewel!

Okay, now I'm going to back track even more - let's go back to the Pro Bowl - do you really want to call that a football game????? It was closer to a tag game. Nobody was really tackling - I know that they don't want to get anyone hurt, but come on. If they are going to play a game that way they should call it a Powderpuff game - come on man! Enough of that - on to today.

Carol and Neil came in yesterday and this morning they picked us up at 9 am. Dan had already gone and had his blood work done and we had already had breakfast and coffee. Carol and Neil wanted to go to the shoe store where we bought our shoes that we had purchased before the cruise. They also wanted to get some new shoes and they thought that was the best place to go. Dan and I also decided that we would buy a second pair and keep to use while we are gone this year. We have been told that the shoes are good for six months if you wear them all the time (which we do) and we are going to be gone for about eight months - so we thought we would get another pair each.

After we left the shoe store we ran by the Atlanta Bread Company and picked up some cinnamon raisin bread for us, Jewel and Bud and Joyce. Then it was off to Books a Million to look for Dan some more books (which he did not buy any - go figure). No money spent at the book store so then we headed for Cracker Barrel for lunch. (We all had chef salad's - which were really good!) Then we came home. After getting home Dan went over to Neil's and they went through the tools that we still have in the garage at Neil's house so we know what we are going to take down to Lake Placid. They decided that there will quite a few things that will be left here so Neil can use them while we are gone and Dan will have access to them when we come back to the Village. (Now our total load will be less - YEAH!)

Tonight I fixed dinner - Dan wanted a hamburger - so I had some in the freezer - we ran to the little grocery here and picked up some buns and some frozen potatoes which I cooked in the convection oven. It was a quick easy dinner. Kitchen is now clean and the coffee is made for in the morning. We have watched NCIS and now I'm not sure what we will do the rest of the evening - read?????

We have no plans for tomorrow - at least as far as I know right now - but with us you never know. One of our friends sent us pictures of their new unit - congratulations to Donna and Ted - I'm sure that you will really enjoy your new Hitchhiker.

That's all I have to talk about today - hope you guys are having a good week so far.

I'll talk to you tomorrow!