redecorating

My mind has been working overtime lately, trying to figure out how to make our RV more to our liking. It was beautiful when we bought it but after living in it full time for a while I have discovered some things I really wanted to change. The first change was the day/night shades. I always thought they looked so pretty and were such a wonderful idea. That was before we bought our own RV. It didn't take long before I was hating them. Seriously, they are a big pain in the butt. It was difficult to get to some of them and when you tried to raise or lower them if you didn't get it just right they would slide off their track and you ended up with a big mess. I have always loved plantation shades. We had them in our past two homes and I thought they looked lovely and were easy to keep up. I decided that they would look nice in the RV but couldn't afford to have them done professionally. I wasn't sure if it would be possible for me to hang them myself or not so I was cautious. I first measured all the windows then went to Home Depot to see what they had in stock. They will cut them to custom fit your windows but much to my surprise they had ready-made ones in stock in the sizes I would need. I would only have to have one cut to fit. First I bought only one and brought it home to give it a try. I choose a small window in the dining area, one that if I messed it up wouldn't be too noticable. I was able to take down the cornice board, the curtain and the day/night shade easily enough. I then hung the new plantation blind and it looked great. I rehung the cornice and curtain and it looked beautiful. It was easy enough so I ended up going to HD and purchasing the rest I needed to complete the project. It's all done now and we both just love the look and ease of opening and closing them. Wow! What a huge difference. Job #1 was finished. On to the next project. It seemed we were always using the dining room table for our office. The table and chairs were perfect. The chairs have the lift up seats for storage and I put all the office supplies in there for easy access. Before long it was becoming more of an office than a place to eat our meals. I went to the Escapees RV Club forum and read how many other full-timers had turned their dining areas into an office space and just ate in their living rooms. The wheels in my mind were once again spinning. We have a rectangular shaped table with extension. I decided to rotate the table 90 degrees and put 2 of the chairs along side the front looking out the windows. We now have room for one laptop and the printer with space on each side. Right now I am storing the other 2 chairs on the short side of the table but we will soon take those to my Mom's second house where we currently have our furniture. The table makes the perfect desk area. We even have room for a 2 drawer file box to go there. Nice! If David is using his laptop we can actually sit side by side at the desk, each on our own laptop working. One nice thing about the RV we bought is the fact we have a nice kitchen island with overhang. Today I bought 2 small stools to go there, providing us a place to eat our meals without having to resort to the living room to eat. I also purchased a mail holder for our mail. It seemed to end up on the island each day and piling up there. Hopefully the mail holder will keep it more organized. So as time goes on and we become more used to our RV we find ways to make it more comfortable and usable.

the plantation blinds in the living room

the kitchen island with bar stools

the mail holder

the new OFFICE area with plantation blinds

Backpacking

Since reading the Dog Whisperer by Cesar Milan last year, I have been watching his TV show and picking up all sorts of great ideas. I have been wanting to get a little back pack for Millenni for some time now and finally found one recently. Millenni loves it and she acts so proud when we go on walks. Since she has had a serious back surgery in the past I am very careful about the amount of weight I put in her backpack, but a couple of poopy bags and her little football are enough weight for her to feel she is doing a "job" while on her walks. Using Cesar's techniques, Millenni has finally learned how to properly walk on a leash. She used to take US for walks, now we take HER! Walking has become so much more enjoyable now. We love getting out and walking at the various campgrounds as make new discoveries along the way. Today we walked to the little pond at the campground where we are currently staying and Millenni enjoyed watching the ducks swimming around.

Cotton

Yesterday David and I took a trip to Lake Hartwell to scope out some campsites we have reserved for the summer. Some we are familiar with and others are new to us and we were not quite sure if our rig will fit so we wanted to check it out now so we have time to change the reservations. Good thing we went because one site is not going to work for us at all but the one next to it will. On our trip we passed by some cotton fields with cotton still on the plants. We stopped and took some photos. It is exactly like cotton balls you would purchase at the store but you can feel the seeds inside. It was really neat to get a close up look and acutally touch the cotton.

A Fun Night

January 6, 2007

We had such a fun time tonight. There is a family from Puerto Rico right across from us. They are full timers living in a motor home. They have 3 sons, ages, 14, 10 and 3 and they are home-schooled by their mom. anyway, they invited David and I over for dinner. Just an impromptu invite and we said yes. Later we had a campfire on our site and invited them over to join us. David pulled out his guitar and played a while for us and we were soon joined by Keith from New Brunswick, Canada, who was just in the area for a couple of days on his way to Florida. We had such a fun time, sipping hot chocolate around the campfire and sharing our funny camping stories. It was interesting hearing the different accents... Rick and Ivonne with their Puerto Rican accents, Keith with his Canadian accent and David and I with our southern accents. What a fun night!!!

Christmas 2006

Christmas at Wrightsville Beach

Wilmington, NC

Day 1
Friday, December 22

We rolled out at 8:00am on our way to Wilmington, NC to spend the holidays. Our youngest son, Jordan lives there. The trip was long and wet as it rained the entire way. It took us 7 hours and by the time we arrived I was more than ready to get out of the truck!! The Wilmington KOA is very, very nice. We had reserved a space and when we checked in got upgraded to a full hookups site at no extra charge. NICE! This is a really nice campground, resort-like. We have cable tv hookup and free wi-fi for the laptop. All the sites are pull thru and it was extremely easy pulling in and getting set up. What a nice place. Jordan came over and we visited for a while before going out to eat. We were meeting his girlfriends parents for the first time. We arrived at the restaurant and they were already there waiting for us. They were very nice and we had a pleasant evening with them. Afterward we went to Jordan's house and Elizabeth joined us there. We had an after dinner glass of wine and visited for a while then drove back to the campground. Time for bed now. Joey arrives tomorrow.


Day 2
Saturday, December 23

We got up and had a leisure morning then went to Wal-Mart to buy some groceries. What a busy time to there. Last minute Christmas shoppers,,,,UGH! The place was soooo crowded. We got out as quick as we could. Later we went to see where Jordan works and ate lunch. Then back to our RV to rest and wait for Joey to arrive. Joey and Janice finally got there 6:00. Jordan and Elizabeth joined us too and we sat around the campfire to visit while eating homemade chili for dinner. What a nice time! It has been way too long since I have seen Joey and it was the first time for meeting Janice. They were exhausted after driving 12 hours from Philadelphia. It was an awesome day weather wise… sunny and in the mid 70's. Sure can't complain about that! And so another day comes to an end.


Day 3
Sunday, December 24

Ah, Christmas Eve is finally here! We discovered the KOA has a nice dog park here. They call it the "bark park", LOL. This campground has everything! It is so clean and pretty and it is full of campers yet we hardly ever see anyone. I imagine most are here to visit family and are out visiting at their homes and only come back to their RVs at night to sleep. We decided to go to Wrightsville Beach this morning, our plan was to go out to eat breakfast there. When we arrived at the restaurant we found it was closed as were all the other restaurants. We took a stroll out on the beach and took some photos. The shore line looked very strange with a big drop off like a cliff where the water was breaking. After spending some time at the beach we drove around searching for another restaurant but nothing was open so we ended up back at the campground. Joey and Janice wanted to do some exploring and visit some national parks in the area to get their NPS passports stamped so they took off on their own. Joey wanted Janice to experience east Carolina BBQ so they went to the only BBQ restaurant they could find open for lunch then went out exploring. Jordan spent the day with us. That night we all joined together and ordered pizza for dinner and sat around the campfire. We then watched the movie "Talladega Nights" before saying goodnight. Another beautiful day here in Wilmington with sunny skies and mid 70 temps. Love it! Oh and today was Mama Lou's birthday!

Day 4
Monday, December 25

Merry Christmas!
We all went to Jordan's house this morning and Janice and I cooked a big breakfast for everyone to enjoy. Scrambled eggs, toast with jam, blueberry pancakes, bacon, oj…. YUM! Then it was time to open gifts. We are not really big on tons of gifts at Christmas time so it didn't take long to get that done. Our family tradition is to go see a movie on Christmas Day and this year would be no exception. We all agreed upon seeing "A Night at the Museum". We were too full from the big breakfast to think about eating lunch so we went back to the campground for a while before heading to the movie theater. Our luck with the good weather changed and today it poured. And I do mean POURED! It rained and rained then rained some more. It was a good day for going to a movie. Afterward Joey, Janice and Jordan went back to Jordan's house to watch football on the big screen plasma HDTV. David and I went back to our RV. I wrote my Christmas thank you notes and made a big dinner for us all. We packed it up and took it to Jordan's house to eat. He has more room in his house. Fitting 5 of us in an RV for dinner is asking a bit much, LOL. We played the game Apples to Apples after dinner tonight. Lots of fun!!! I have not mentioned that Joey and Jordan both have dogs… Barnum and Sasha. They are close in size and boy have they ever had a good time playing together the past few days. Millenni is much smaller and she is so intimidated by them. Barnum and Sasha run fast and play hard. We let the 3 of them play together in the dog park one day but Millenni would just hide behind me with those sweet little puppy dog eyes saying PLEASE HELP ME! She would not have a thing to do with either of them. Barnum and Sasha are both such sweet doggies and have such mild mannered personalities. Some of the photos I got of them playing makes them look like mean dogs but honestly I have never seen either one be anything but very sweet. The photos are very deceiving with them showing their teeth while playing. Sure wish Jamie could have been here with her dog, Bella. She is smaller than Barnum and Sasha but still big enough and I am sure she would have held her own playing with them. Joey and Janice are leaving early in the morning so we said our goodbyes to them tonight. I am glad I finally got to meet Jancie. She is really nice and fun. It has rained hard all day but tomorrow is supposed to be nice again, only cooler.

Day 5
Tuesday, December 26

David and Jordan spent the morning having Jordan's car looked at. He is having some car problems and they found a shop and located the problem and it should be fixed by Thursday. We ate lunch together at the RV then watched the Da Vinci Code DVD. Jordan had never seen it. we had a rather lazy day today, LOL. After the movie we each did our own thing then went out to dinner. After dinner we came back to the RV and watched the movie "Little Miss Sunshine". Lots of movie watching for us the past few days, LOL. We plan to leave early in the morning and Jordan has to be at work at 8:30am so we said goodbye to him tonight. We sure have had an enjoyable visit with him and Joey. Tomorrow we pack up the RV and drive back to Roebuck, SC to the campground we are staying in for the next few months.

Day 6
Wednesday, December 27

We pulled out of KOA at 9:30 this morning and arrived back at our campsite in Roebuck at 3:30 this afternoon. We have moved to a new site now and I think we are going to like this one better than the one we had before the holidays. We have some nice trees where I can hang my bird feeders and someone left behind a nice squirrel feeder that I will keep full for the squirrels. I really enjoy feeding the wildlife and watching them. And so our trip has ended. One thing I came to realize on this trip is how nice it is to travel now that we are living in the RV full time…. You don't have to pack anything because everything you need is in your RV. You don't have to plan what clothes to take, you take them all! You don't have to worry about forgetting anything… everything you own is with you! How cool is that??? I LOVE IT!!! so convenient. We've had a blast and have now added North Carolina to our RV travel map…. 2 stickers now… SC and NC. Only 48 more to go, LOL…. Well 47 as we will probably never take the RV to Hawaii.

Oreo

December 15, 2006

OK, so here's the thing. We have moved into our RV full time now and never did find a home for our cat, Oreo. I just couldn't bear giving her away to some stranger and no one we knew was willing to take her except for my friend Cindy who lives in NJ. I don't know how I would have managed to get Oreo to her but she was kind enough to offer to take her and I know Oreo would have been in excellent hands with Cindy. Our RV just does not have enough floor space for a litter box so we thought it would be impossible to keep Oreo. Well I tried to think of every possibility and one day I came up with a solution that I think may work out. Some time ago when we were living in Austin I had heard of a device for potty training cats and ordered one. It was called City Kitty. I won't go into the details here but it started out working then didn't so I ended up throwing it away. I got to thinking about it again and ordered another one. Not to train Oreo to use the toilet (as that was a disaster last time) but instead to use as her litter box. The City Kitty is a plastic bowl that fits any toilet. I just filled it with kitty litter and placed it on the toilet…. A litter box that is not requiring any floor space! We just have to make certain we remove it each time we want to use the toilet AND we also have to make sure we always leave the bathroom door slightly ajar so she can get in there when the need strikes. I think this solution is going to work! I brought Oreo to the RV this afternoon and she has spent the past few hours checking out every nook and corner of her new environment. I sure hope this works out. I'll keep you posted.

Here's a photo of our cat, Oreo.

Thanksgiving video

This a fun video we made while on our Thanksgiving camping trip. We were all sitting around the campfire acting silly and this was the result. That's David's brother, Austin doing the lead singing, David strumming the guitar and the rest of us... ughhhh... well... the rest of us TRYING to sing. Oh my!!! This version was after several attempts to sing the correct lyrics. Be sure your speakers are turned on then double click the triangle in the center of the screen. Be prepared to be amuzed!

Thanksgiving 2006

November 28, 2006

We went RVing over the Thanksgiving holidays and were joined by David's parents Lou and Joe, our daughter Jamie, our son Jordan and his girlfriend Elizabeth, my mom and step dad, and David's brother Austin and his wife Hilda. We camped at a state park resort 2 hours south of here. there was a lodge where everyone stayed who didn't have an RV. We had a fun time and went geocaching! Also sat around the campfire at night (check out Joe's magical fire) and sang. We ate until we hurt and just really enjoyed each others company. Hope you had a wonderful holiday too!

We had perfect weather, clear blue skies and temps in the 70's.

lots of deer everywhere in the park

Hilda and Austin

Elizabeth and Jordan

Joe, Austin and David look at geo-caching sites

Jamie, Elizabeth and Jordan show off their geo-cache finds

Joe's magical fire

David , my Mom and Step Dad

Jamie entertains us with some guitar playing

Halloween

Happy Halloween! Hannah came by and I was dressed up too. Here we are being a little witchy.

October 31st

October 31, 2006
The camping trip has ended and we are back home now. We had such a wonderful time. Jordan and Elizabeth spent the weekend with us. On our last day at the site we saw a 4 point buck! So cute!!! I am including some photos below. Today is Halloween and Hannah is coming by later. She's a little witch this year. I will probably dress up as a witch myself to hand out the treats. Our next camping adventure is at thanksgiving. 4 point buck


Elizabeth and Jordan
Elizabeth and Jordan with Sasha

Jordan and Elizabeth, David and Linda, Lou and Joe

Mystery Solved

October 27, 2007

For 3 mornings this week the door to the RV locked when I went out to take Millenni on her morning walk. The first time I could not understand but decided it was just a fluke. The next morning when the same thing happened I thought I was either loosing my mind or something really weird was going on. When it happened on the third day I knew there had to be an explanation. It only happened the first time I went out each day and never again throughout the day. It had never happened before this week, yet it had now occurred 3 mornings in a row. I kept trying to figure out why. It suddenly dawned on me that the only thing different this week was the fact that David was leaving early each morning for work and he was locking the door as he left. I stood at the door on the outside (with the key in my possession) and realized what was happening. When David locks the door from the outside I can open it from the inside to go out. For me on the inside the door appears in the unlocked position, although it is locked. When I go outside and close the door it is still in the locked position so it locks! I tried it a few times and sure enough that is what was happening. So at least now the mystery is solved! And I am not loosing my mind… well at least not in the case of the locked door, LOL.

Last night my mother in law, Lou, and I were sitting outside by the campfire. It was dusk. I saw something moving out the corner of my eye but when I looked in that direction I did not see anything. Then suddenly there it was again…. a fox! It was walking along the shoreline of the lake directly in front of us. I shouted, "it's a fox". Lou and I both stood up and walked over to the rock ledge in front of the RV and there it was walking along at a steady pace right along the shoreline. It never stopped to look at us but it wasn't running away either. It just kept walking and we lost sight of it. How exciting! Wish I could have gotten a picture of it but my camera was inside and it was nearly dark anyway so even if I had it I doubt the picture would have turned out but it was fun to see him.

Lou and Joe have been teaching David and I how to play Mexican Train, a domino game. We spent the past 2 nights playing it and have had so much fun.

Today it is raining. That's really ok though, sort of nice to have a lazy day inside. Our son, Jordan and his girlfriend Elizabeth are on their way to visit for the weekend. They should arrive sometime late this afternoon. Looking forward to seeing them again. The rain is supposed to move out tonight and the weather for the weekend is supposed to be nice.

Carving Pumpkins

October 25, 2006
Our grand daughter, Hannah, was here with us for the weekend. I bought 2 pumpkins and a carving kit for us to carve pumpkins for Halloween. I thought Hannah would enjoy it and so would I. I let her choose what design she wanted and I chose one I wanted to carve. She chose the cat and I chose the witch and ghost. I have always wanted to carve a pumpkin like this but never knew how to do anything other than the typical jack-o-lantern with the triangle eyes, nose and snaggle-tooth mouth. The kit was wonderful and made it so easy! Hannah was great working on her pumpkin. She took the time and followed the directions well and the end result was beautiful. My design was more delicate and I goofed in one spot but it was no big deal in the overall look. Last night we placed candles in our pumpkins and they looked fantastic.

Today we went on a geo-cache hunt. If you don't know what that is look it up on the Internet. It is a fun thing to do but we never found the cache at the two sites we visited. I am now ready to buy a GPS and start doing this all the time. It is lots of fun, you get exercise and see places you probably would not otherwise visit.

Hannah had to go back home this afternoon but we sure had a fun time together!

Linda and Hannah carve the pumpkins Hannah's cat-o-lantern

Linda's witch-o-lantern

Welcome

Welcome to our RV website. I first started writing a blog of our RV travels last year and had a Myspace website for it but like this format so much better. Unfortunately I lost a lot of the blogs I had written there but the ones still available I will transfer to this site. I am just sick that so many of the blogs I had previously written mysteriously disappeared. Hopefully this will be a better site. Enjoy!