Off Line for a Few Days

Due to my mother's passing today, we'll be off line for a few days while Marti and I travel to Northern NJ for her viewing and funeral.

My mom had Alzheimer's and has been in a nursing home for the last three years.  We are glad her suffering is over and she is in a better place.  It's been a long good bye.

Marti and I are leaving the RV-Dreams Rally here in Sevierville, TN and heading home tomorrow morning to pick up some clothes and then continue on to NJ.  We'll find someplace to overnight on the way.

Once again we're glad we have the Journey to travel and stay in.

Paul and Marti

Withdrawal Symptoms and Stink Bugs

It was tough to get through the day yesterday, but we did not go to Walmart.  Going out for a morning drive, we made it past the Walmart without making a right turn into the store.  It only took a mile or to for the shaking to stop from the withdrawal symptoms.

We spent most of the day just sitting and chasing the shade around the Journey.  It was a very warm day and the sun was hot.  Unfortunately our campsite here at the RV Dreams Rally is in a North-South exposure and the awning doesn't give us much shade at all.  So we placed our chairs in whatever shade we could find from the Journey and kept moving them to the next shady spot as the sun rose higher in the sky.

I purchased a Bissell Carpet Cleaner yesterday and it worked really well on the carpets.  Even though we vacuum them often, the dirt it got up was amazing (embarrassing, actually).  It cost $78 and is a keeper, it is much small than normal sized carpet cleaners and will store easily in our bedroom closet.

It is amazing how we've been feeling since we had nothing to do yesterday but sit around and relax.  Our fast paced lifestyle of go-go-go all the time made us feel strange just sitting still most of the day.  Marti and I talked about how weird it felt and I wondered how long it will take once we are on the road full time to get over the guilty feeling of lazing around.

Later in the evening we went over to Howard and Linda Payne's campsite, our hosts for the RV Dreams Rally.  They invited all the Rally attendees to come and hang out with them.  Many folks showed up and we had a great time visiting with old friends and making new ones.

Of course, that infernal phone of Marti's reared its ugly head and she had to send several texts back to her office to solve some problem.  She wasn't a happy camper.

This morning, our four legged alarm clock woke us up.  I took her for her morning walk in some cool and overcast skies.  By the time I got back, the rain started.  I walked in to the Journey to find Marti suffering from her foul and evil liquid addiction, also known as coffee.  She wasn't pleased at all.  I found she had the "hood" up on her Keurig Coffee maker, it wasn't making anything at all.  We've had this problem several times and even had a the machine replaced under warranty once already.  We've followed the instructions on every month or so flushing it with vinegar as recommended.

While Marti was on the phone with the Keurig customer service people, she was leaning over the sink making strange faces.  I had to see what caught her attention.  You won't believe it.

I have wondered why I have not been run out of the State of Tennessee for all the undocumented illegal stink bugs that have hitched a ride here on our Journey.  Since we've been here, we've been catching a dozen or more every day and flushing them down the toilet.  Now we may have to rethink our disposal method for stink bugs.

In the sink, in a water filled container was a stink bug, swimming around, doing the back stroke.  We watched it for more than five minutes, it looked like it was enjoying the water.

I plucked it out, wrapped it in a paper towel and gave it a squish before tossing it in the trash.  Marti is now concerned about all the stink bugs we've flushed, she thinks they may be having a beach party down there.  My next item for today is to go out in the rain and dump the black tank and remove "Poop Beach" along with all the stink bugs.

Before all you nice readers come running over to the Journey with a mercy cup of coffee for Marti to stop her withdrawal shakes, we fired up our installed coffee pot so she can feed her addiction.  A whole pot full.  As usual, we're Semper Gumby, always flexible! ;c)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.

WMOCD

We arrived yesterday for the RV Dreams Rally at the River Plantation RV Park.  We got settled in and enjoyed a good night's sleep.

Early the next morning, Zoe, the Wonder Dog sounded off and woke us up.  I took her for a good walk, stopping to chat with some of our RV Dreams family, Bill and Nancy and Bruce and Laura.  We had a great conversation and lots of laughs.  Laura said I reminded her of John Candy, much skinnier, of course.  I kinda wondered if that was a compliment, after all he's passed away.  Maybe it's because of my "Dead Pan Humor"?

About that time Marti sent me a text, breakfast was ready, so I hurried back to the Journey.  It looked pretty in the early morning light.

After breakfast, the top job was to give the Journey a good cleaning inside.  When you are not a fulltimer, you don't always get a chance to keep everything and neat as you'd like.  We returned from our Disney trip last month and never got a chance to even give the Journey even a once over.  So this was the time to get it clean and sparkling.

The carpet need a good cleaning, first a good vacuuming and then I took out my handy dandy little carpet cleaner, it's the size of a hand vacuum.  Filled it up with carpet cleaner and soap, got down on my knees and turned it on.  I got a faceful of warm, soapy water, it was sort of like bending over a lawn sprinkler.

I quickly turned it off and looked it over.  It died.  Evidently the rubber seals inside it had dried out and crumbled away, letting the water spray all over.  Now what?

Trip number four to Walmart. To buy a new carpet cleaner.  We are now officially suffering from WMOCD, Walmart Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. 

Returning I hit the carpets and in no time they were looking much better, I was able to get all the polka dot spots from the grandkid's juice boxes cleaned up.  A few more minutes and the mirrors had all the little finger prints scrubbed off (why do RV manufacturers put so many *&^$#% mirrors in an RV anyway?).

As I put away the cleaning gear, Marti took Zoe, the Wonder Dog for a walk to the doggie park.  Evidently, Zoe felt left out with all the cleaning going on in the Journey and decided to get in on the fun, she found a nice pile of doggie do and rolled in it.

Knowing what was coming next, she decided to try and hide.

I always seem to get elected to do this job.

Marti gave Zoe a good toweling off.

The finished product, looking none too pleased.

We don't call her the Wonder Dog for nothing, because we always are wondering what kind of fun we're going to have with her next. ;c)

Later, we visited with more RV Dreamers and ended up going out for pizza with Mike and Terri.  They have been such an encouragement to us as we all are getting ready to hit the road.  Knowing we're both experiencing the same issues and being able to share how we're solving them is such a blessing.

Many RVers have specific travel plans, some want to visit every MLB baseball stadium, others want to visit every National Park, or camp in every state.  Marti and I have come up with a new challenge for our full time RV travels...we're going to visit every Walmart in the country!

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.