Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! 

Wishing you and yours a warm and wonderful Christmas. 

Thanksgiving and our many blessings

Thanksgiving is such a good time to reflect on your many blessings.  We spent a wonderful holiday surrounded by family at Harry and Jackie's house (my brother and sister in law).  Everyone brought some delicious food and beverages to share!  Jackie and her sister's and Mom really put together a splendid meals for all of us to enjoy.

Here is my brother carving the delicious very fresh turkey! Poor bird had been gobbling just a few days prior. 

 Debbie is busy making the cauliflower.  BTW-she makes the best guacamole in the whole world!

The cousins and friends enjoyed playing video games and ping pong in the lower level.  Some of us watched football and movies until late at night.

Jen was able to come from North Carolina.  She had a rather eventful trip complete with landslides, but we were so happy to see her. She arrived just in time for dinner.

Martha (John's sister) called from Sao Paulo, Brazil.  We passed the phone around so everyone to talk to her.  Her son, Daniel, called later from Seattle.  So, some more passing of the phone occurred.   Dan was cooking quite a "non turkey"  feast for some of his friends. 

We all posed for a group picture...including Jimmy, Buddy, and Max.

We stayed over night and the next day traveled back to Indianapolis.  We spent the next few days with Jen and enjoyed every minute of our time together. It was fun to go out to dinner, do a little shopping, and talk and talk.  I cooked her favorite dinner complete with a lamb roast and yorkshire pudding on Saturday.

Jen has been very busy with her job and going to school full time.  It was sad to see her go, but she really does love living in North Carolina.  We laughed a lot about how much she hates the cold weather. Just before she left we encouraged her to go through each room of  the house and make a list of the furniture and items that she would like to have after we sell the house.  We loaded up her car with all kinds of Christmas decorations and she traveled back to Charlotte..

It was a wonderful holiday! This song by Louis Armstrong sums it all up!

Preparing to sell our home

Last year we talked with a recommended realtor to get some advice as to what needed to be done to sell our home.  He was very helpful and gave us lots of suggestions and advise.  We wrote everything down (five pages of notes) and have worked very hard this year on the "to do" list.

He came back this week and seemed very impressed with all that had been accomplished.  Through research he was able to give us an idea of the market.  Our plan is place the house on the market in late January.  We still have a few more things to accomplish but feel much more confident that our home will look great.  We have really loved this house and hope to find someone who will love it just as much.

We took a few photographs of the outside to use for the listing.

T - 365 days to retirement

Today is John's birthday and another great milestone towards full-timing has arrived.  He can retire from the Post Office exactly one year from today.  He started his count down about 4 years ago.  On any given day you could ask him...how many days to retiring and he'd reply for example "Two years, 6 months and three days...but whose counting" Today it's T minus 365 days!

We are not exactly sure if he will retire on his birthday next year.  It depends upon a few factors-

• Our home selling
• Finding a good rig within our budget
• Obtaining a workamping position
• Being debt free

Today we are celebrating John's birthday and are looking forward to this trip around the sun.  We soon will be wandering.  After all - "he who wanders is not lost".

Sometimes life throws your a curveball

For some time now we had thought our full timing rig would be a fifth wheel pulled by a diesel truck. I planned to follow in our Jeep Cherokee as we traveled from site to site. It would also be used for touring and errands. We especially liked the "homey" feel of the fifth wheel and it is considerably less expensive. Many of our friends at the RV Dreams rally owned them and we really liked Mobile Suites and the New Horizons models.

Our plans suddenly changed after an  appointment with my eye doctor. Yikes! We are so glad that we hadn’t purchased one yet. I had a peripheral vision test today that was rather sobering. My eye doctor gently tried to explain that I will be very uncomfortable driving in unfamiliar areas and probably will not be able to drive for much longer. That was some tough news. So, it looks like a motorcoach (Class A) will now be in our future.

John has taken the change of plans in stride and says that he loves to drive and has always liked motorcoaches. We will just tow the Jeep. It will take me a little bit of time to process all this information and come to grips with losing some of my independence. I read today that letting go of fear can be liberating. My girl friend says that I will enjoy being a diva!

Elvis came for a visit

Elvis came for a visit for a few days. He is Jimmy's best friend!  They always have so much fun together. 

They are both King Charles Cavalier Spaniels. Elvis is very curious and is affectionalty known as PIA. 


They love playing in the back yard.  It was lots of fun this weekend due to all the fall leaves.  We took lots of walks and they dragged into the house many leaves.  They especially love bones and try to steal them from each other all the time. 

There was lots of sniffing....spaniels love stinky smells!

Every chance they get they'll run over to our neighbors house and eat the cat food that is left outside.  Here is Jimmy plotting with Elvis.  He is hoping to sneak over there when I'm not looking. 

It was a great visit and we hope Elvis comes back soon for another visit.

The Greenbrier Hotel and Chef Jen

We visited Jen in August while she was working this summer as a pastry chef for the Greenbrier Hotel and Sporting Club. It is a spectacular five star hotel and was a great expereience for her.

RV-Dreams Rally October 7-12, 2009

We were excited to attend this full-timing RV seminar presented by Howard and Linda Payne . We have been following their blog @ RV-Dreams. com for almost a year. They organized an excellent rally in Kerrville Texas @ the Buchhorn RV Park. Over the next four days they presented nine excellent seminars that included the following topics

• Full-Timing Preparation
  
• What does it cost to full-time
  
• No right way to be a fulltimer
  
• Packing your RV for full-timing
• Buying an RV-Pro's, Con's and Must Have's
  
• Working on the Road
• Solar and Boondocking
• Emotional aspects of full-timing
• Choosing camp grounds and RV parks

Our instructors-Linda and Howard Payne have been fulltiming in a 5th Wheel for 4 years.
It was a great opportunity to meet others who are already fulltiming. Many of them opened up their RV's for tours. There were were many fun activities and some delicious pitch in dinners.



We were very excited to meet Randy and Pam Warner. We have been following their blog and have enjoyed reading about their journeys. The started fulltiming in a Tiffin Allegro Bus about 5 months ago and have an excellent blog called the Roadrunner.
They have found their "purpose" by volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and the Nomads.
They really inspired us and answered so many of our questions.


Buckhorn RV Park was a great location and the facilities for the classes were excellent.



Our friend, Carol Miller (cowboy hat), invited us to stay with her in beautiful Monaco motorhome. This allowed to stay in the campground and near all the activities. We really appreciated her hospitality. Mella and Jim have recently purchased a Excel 5th wheel and will be full-timing soon. They will be spending the winter in New Hampshire in their new rig (brrr)
The conference ended with a Rascal Flatts song "My Wish". The words of the song were so appropriate.

"I hope the days come easy and the moments pass slow, and each road leads you where you want to go, and if you're faced with a choice, and you have to choose, I hope ou choose the one the means the most to you. "

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

San Antonio Texas October 3-7, 2009

We decided to attend an informative conference for full-time RVing organized by Howard and Linda Payne. They have an excellent website and planned this conference in Kerrville Texas. Prior to the conference we spent three days in San Antonio touring all the sights. After flying flying from Indy to San Antonio via Southwest Airlines, we headed to the Drury Inn located right along the picturesque Riverwalk. The hotel has a great location and the breakfast included each morning was very good.

We decided to get an overview of the area and took a Trolley Tour with an hop on and hop off feature. One of our stops was along the Mission Trail at the San Jose Mission This mission was established by the Catholic Church in 1768. The missions were primarily religious centers where the Coahuiltecan Indian population was instructed in the Catholic religion and taught European beliefs. This is now a National Park and the 25 minute video in the visitors center was very well done and gave a balanced account of what has occurred




We spent several hours there enjoying this tranquil site. The highlight was a beautiful Sunday mass. The church is still active and each Sunday they have a mass open to all @ 12noon that features guitars, brass, and the local church choir. It was delightful!


All of the construction was completed by the local Indians under the direction of the monks and everyone lived behind the enclosed walls. Five missions were along the trail separated approximately every 5 miles along the river. The San Jose Mission is the most extensive.




Another stop along the trolley tour was the King Williams District. We later went back and took a walking tour of these beautiful homes the were built by German immigrants.

We enjoyed spending time along the Riverwalk. There are narrated barge tours that cruise along the river. We had a delicious dinner one evening @ Boudours. The barge came right to the restaurant and we enjoyed our dinner cruising the river and seeing all the sights. It was lots of fun and the highlight of our visit.

No time in San Antonio would be complete without visiting the Alamo. Most tourists are surprised to find it located right in the downtown among all the skyscrapers. Before touring we saw an IMAX movie that depicted the battle and some of the history. It left us wanting to read more about this battle. Davy Crockett was one of over 200 hundred men that died at this battle.

Our last day was spent walking through the beautiful San Antonio Botanical Gardens before we left for our RV-Dreams Rally. It was a very pretty garden and we enjoyed a nice lunch on the premises before taking off for Kerrville. (Check out the handsome guy next to the trumpet vines)

We left San Antonio and dove about 1 1/2 hours to Kerrville through the Texas Hill Country. We met up with our friend Carol. We decided to visit LBJ's Ranch the next morning. It was called the Texas White House and was the family home for Lyndon Johnson.

LBJ traveled there often during his presidency and he is now buried there. It has recently become a National Park and admission is free($1 to tour home). Upon arrival we watched an excellent film in the visitors center. In addition, we received a CD audio to play in the car as we drove around the property. A park ranger gave us a tour of their home and showed us LBJ's amazing car collection. It included one car that he used to drive through the river and surprise his guests.

We enjoyed our visit and the Hill Country and are very excited to attend the rally tomorrow.

FMCA Convention - Bowling Green Ohio

We attended the International Family Motorcoach Association (FMCA) rally in Bowling Green. It was held July 20-23 at the campus of Bowling Green University. This is the first time we have attended. Our friend, Carol Miller, had encouraged us to attend. We are so glad that we did.

We traveled in style and stayed with Carol Miller in her lovely Monaco motorcoach. Our friends Les, Kathy, Marlene, and Linda also came along in their rigs. This is a motorcoach only convention.

There were over 2800 motorcoaches with approximately 6000 people attending. People were camping all around the campus and at a nearby fairgrounds. Over 900 volunteers helped out. In the picture above you can see all of them. There was a wide variety of coaches and many of them were amazing and very expensive to own.

A wide variety of educational classes are provided. John and I split up and tried to take in as much as possible. Some of the classes included:

• Basic Training for RVERS
• Fire and Life Safety (our favorite)
• Traveling to Alaska by RV
• Managing digital pictures with Picassa
  

And so much more. There was entertainment nightly, but we never did attend. At the end of the day, we were so very tired. We enjoyed talking with our friends and sharing all that we had learned and experienced.

There was a huge vendor section. It was like a candy store (so irresistible) with everything imaginable to purchase for an RV. You sure could drop a lot of change in there if you wanted. Our friends bought a unique golf cart.

On display outside were all the new motorcoaches. Most of them were well out of our price range, but it was fun to see them. John feel in love with a Tiffin Motorcoach and there was a very good deal on a Holiday Rambler. Hopefully soon we'll be able to purchase one for our journey.

We would definitely attend again. Our only complaint was the long commutes from the fair grounds to the seminars by school bus. The facilities were very nice and the event was so organized.

Harry's 50th Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Harry's 50th birthday this weekend in Rochester Indiana. Lots of family were there to join in all the fun. It was "surprise" party weekend bash planned by his wife Jackie. Earlier in the week some of the family had spent four days house boating @ Lake Cumberland.

We all traveled to Lake Maxinkuckee for a delicous dinner at the Edgewater Grill. There were lots of laughs and a very decedent chocolate cake for dessert.

The next day we enjoyed breakfast on the deck over looking the lake. The weather was perfect! Later on we went for a lazy sightseeing tour around the lake. The pontoon boat was expertly driven by Ryan.

Here are a few photos of Harry throughout his first 1/2 century. Be sure to check out the digital watch and socks. His staff had a lot of fun with some of these pictures and had them enlarged and placed all around the pharmacy.

These are some other memorable moments. Jackie and Harry's wedding and the purchase of Baxter Drugs.

We all had such a great time and enjoyed celebrating Harry's 50th birthday!

No longer a lurker!

I have been reading forums in RV-Dreams, Workamper, and Escapees for probably a couple of years. They are a wonderful way to ask or post responses for all types of topics. For a wanna be full-timer they are invaluable.

There is a funny term for someone who never comments or asks a question. They are called lurkers. I have been hesitant to ask a question, because usually with a little research you can find it's already been asked. However, this week I finally got brave and posted the following question on the RV-Dreams forum

Extra vehicle when full timing in a 5th wheel?

We will soon be purchasing our full time RV. For some time now we thought that we'd purchase a diesel motor home. But, we really like the floor plans and more of the "home" feeling of a 5th wheel. There is so much more space and the lower cost is certainly a plus.

We will be work camping about 1/2 of the time and plan to move slowly with extended stays in areas of interest. We really think that having another smaller vehicle for running around would be a good idea. It would get better gas mileage and be easier to travel down country roads etc.

Our question to all of you who full time in a 5th wheel is this...do you have another vehicle besides the truck? If so, why did you decide to do this? How difficult is it to travel with both of you driving separately to the next site?

The response was phenomenal! The host, Howard, was prompted to write the following article. It is full of information and statistics to help anyone make an informed decision.

http://rv-dreams.typepad.com/rvdreams_journal/2009/07/reasons-for-our-jeep-revisited-chester-ca.html

Another interesting site was mentioned for pulling a 5th wheel with a heavy duty truck (aka-semi).

http://www.jackdanmayer.com/

I have been interested in re-considering buying a 5th wheel as our rig ever since we toured one for sale @ White River Campground. For some time now we had been researching diesel motorhomes. However, a 5th wheel is considerably less expensive, and feels more homey. John is not convinced, but he has promised to consider it now as an option.

The journey continues....and I'm no longer a lurker!

July 4th Camping Trip with Freedom Travelers

We spent three nights camping with our Good Sam's chapter over the July 4th holiday @ Johnson County Park. It was a great time. Beautiful fireworks and a concert were the highlight on Friday. Saturday was a big adventure where our group rented four canoes and one kayak and traveled down the Blue River. There were a few spills, a tangles with a tree, one very muddy dog, and lots of laughs.

We also shared some really delicious meals. Jerry surprised all of us with some delouse hickory smoked ribs and "mystery meat". This turned out to be deer meat marinated in wine and herbs. It was very tasty.

Spending time with our friends was such a great way to spend the 4th of July.

Canoeing Adventure @ White River Campground

We spent a great weekend camping and canoeing with our friends Carol & Jerry. The weather was perfect and lots of great times were spent on the river. This campground is owned by the county and is very well run. We have made friends with the hosts and always enjoy our times out there along the river. This time we brought our canoe and tried two of the new public ramps. We only had to haul our canoe to the put in and could end at our campground. Perfect!

Jimmy showed off his new life vest. He wasn't too sure about it, but it gave me some piece of mind. The breeder told us this kind of dog does not like to swim. I think it's because they are so lazy and would rather be napping.

This was Jerry's second time canoeing and he did great. Carol gained some confidence in her abilities. The White River is very calm and easy to navigate. It will get us all ready for next weekend. We are traveling to Johnson County for the 4th of July and plan on canoeing the Blue River. It will be much more of a challenge, and I'm not sure everyone will stay dry.

Here are a few pictures of our weekend. Check out Jimmy looking out of the window of the Jeep. John summed it all up at the end when I asked him how he liked his weekend. "Fantastic" ...the smile on his face made my heart sing.

We saw a great "rig" for sale at the campground. It was a Newmar fifth wheel, pulled by a custom painted small semi truck. I thought it was perfect, but John was not convinced. He would rather that I didn't have to follow in another vehicle that would be used to get around. There is plenty of time to work it all out. But, it sure is fun to dream.

Our first BIG garage/moving sale!

We held our first BIG garage sale on Friday and Saturday with our friend Carol. Advertizing it on Craiglist's helped make it a a huge success. John and I were very busy getting everything ready three weeks before the sale. Trying to determine how to price items was a challenge, but we oftentimes used Carol's rule of thumb (10% of the original purchase price).

We had everything neatly displayed on tables loaned to us from our friends John and Norma. John sorted through all of his tools. Preparing for this garage sale stirred up many emotions. Many of the tools had been his father's. However, they were a big hit at the garage sale. At one point there were pick up trucks lined up and down our street. Lots of folks left with some great items. We were a little concerned with one lady going through a divorce bought our chain saw.



We had lots of fun talking to the folks who stopped by. One couple told us they had full-timed for 8 years and had recently stopped due to health reasons. We told many of our "customers" about our plans and they oftentimes lingered asking questions about the lifestyle. Most of our items were priced @ $1-5 each. There were lots and lots of $2 sales, but they all add up.

I really feel like we have accomplished so much by putting together this sale. It helped us clear out a lot of items and got us more organized. John recently read that having a "goal" helps you live longer. Our horoscope stated today "chores around the house and yard could prove a valuable. A lot of serious matters are on your mind, perhaps involving plans for the future, so it's likely that you'll want to stay home today and do a lot of contemplating." Wow...that really wraps up the whole experience.

We are planning another garage sale in July. Plus, I plan to post some items on Craigslist and Ebay. Each step gets us closer to our goal.