Nov. 09/21

 I seem to start each entry the same way.  Time flies.  I see it has been a couple of months since my last entry.  That seems to be par for the course.  Our last camping trip was to the beach at Gulf Shores State Park.  The weather was perfect, but we never went to the beach or saw the sand.  We will do that on the next visit.  Instead we walked for several miles on trails which are flat and mostly paved.  We rented bikes and rode one day.  I had some balance issues and almost wrecked a couple of times, but all in all it was a very good trip.  Amy had no trouble riding.  It had been 50 or more years since we had ridden bikes. After we got home we thought about getting us some until we went to a cycle store and saw the price.  We are no longer looking to buy bicycles.  My son and his wife came down at the same time we did but they stayed in a condo on the beach.  When I found out where they were staying I checked into staying there to but the cost was way too much for us.  I was worried about driving down on one tank of gas.  I have never filled up the truck towing the camper.  I was really worried when the warning light came on saying we had 50 miles left.  Then really worried when it said 35 miles to go.  You just can't pull in to any gas station to fill up with a 38 foot camper in tow.  I finally found a station I could pull into and get to the diesel pump so we made it.  I have an app on my phone that shows fuel stations that have RV lanes.  Had I remembered it before we left we would have known where to fill up.  We used it to find a station about half way so had no problem coming home.  Anyway our main reason for going was to eat seafood.  And we ate plenty.  This was the first trip that we did not have the dog with us.  If we had had him we could not have done the things we did.  I forgot to take pictures but here are a couple:

  

We have already scheduled our next two camping trips.  The first week in December we will go to our favorite place, DeSota State Park.  Then Emily and her husband and Kale and Maddox and their dog Radley will be coming for Christmas.  We are looking forward to their visit.  Maybe Jason and Shelley will be able to join us Christmas day.  I think that Amy's sister, Ginger, her husband David and their son Sam will come for lunch then too.  

After Christmas the first week in January we will go back to Gulf Shores for some more seafood. We are hoping that it will not be too cold by then.  Maybe this time we will actually walk on the beach.  That's all until next time.

August 10, 2021

 It is just so hard for me to remember to update this blog.  I'm always going to do better but I have no excuse except I'm a lazy bum maybe.  No comments are necessary but I know most will agree.  Just a follow up.  We did go to the Grand Hotel and met with our traveling buddies Mary Jane and Chuck.  It was a very good trip and the weather was great.  We have camped twice since the last post.  I forgot to take pictures while camping but here is our camper.

So, we camped at Cheaha State Park the end of may.  And twice at DeSota State Park.  The first trip to DeSota State Park was one that Amy did not enjoy.  She add a kidney stone which made hiking no fun.  I was able to get a picture of our hike.  Of course Max loved it.

These were at Cheaha

In July Katy, Scott, and their three came for a visit.  Katy was a tremendous help while she was here.  We were able to clean out old furniture and junk from our house.  Anything that we haven't used in the last 10 years went in the dumpster.  We make one more camping trip to DeSota while they were here.  We had upgraded the camper for luxury for us so it was just a little crowded with 5 more.  We boarded Max for this trip.  So we have just about caught up.  Only one thing left to mention.  This is where I spend the hot afternoons at home.

Next camping trip is already scheduled for labor day.  Back to our favorite place.

May 12, 2021

 So I see my last entry was in August.  Covid has kept us at home most of the time.  We have been camping several times.  We went to Desota State Park and encountered the first snow of the fall.  We decided to trade our camper on a new one.  We had purchased the 2017 camper thinking that our grandkids would want to go camping with us.  We came to realize that that was not going to happen so we upgraded for one that has more living space.  It is a 2021 Outback 330RL.  We love it.  There are two theater seat recliners as well as a sofa that opens into a bed.  Also has a fireplace and big screen tv.  It is an arm length longer than our previous one.  38' long with 3 slide-outs.  We have used it twice so far and it is really more comfortable.  Currently planning our next trip so Jason and Shelley and Luke (dog) can go with us.  We did go to a RV Resort on Lake Guntersville, but were not impressed.  Desota State park has has a lot more to offer than that place.  

  We had planned for a cruise to Alaska on Viking Cruise Lines, but that trip was canceled.  We did get a full refund so that means we can make some other trips.  Both Amy and I have had our vaccinations so we are ready to go.  Will spend Easter with the grandkids in Virginia. then the end of April we are going to the Grand Hotel in Point Clear.  On the way back we may stop in to see some old friends in South Alabama.

August 15, 2020

 This past Wednesday was a traumatic day.  I know everyone has a snake story, and having lived in the woods for the past 44 years I have several.  Here are some.  Shortly after we moved into our house we had the concrete floor poured in the garage.  That night a snake decided to slither in on the fresh concrete.  I watched for an hour and a half and he finally crawled out of the garage.  Skip forward a few years when our kids were little, I happened to glance toward our fireplace and thought the kids had been playing with a long bow and had laid it in the corner by the fireplace.  Then it moved.  Not knowing what kind of snake it was I put the kids up on the kitchen table so I could deal with the snake.  It just so happened that in that corner on the floor was a tray with rat poison pellets.  The snakes tail was twitching and shaking that tray so we first thought it was a rattlesnake.  Turned out to be a scarlet king snake.  Then there was the time I was going to rake the leaves in the yard.  I started in one spot and uncovered a snake.  I moved to another spot and uncovered another one.  So I decided to rake in another spot and uncovered the third snake.  I then decided to burn the leaves and grass too.  By the way all three were small green snakes.  Fast forward several years.  Jason was headed to Millsaps college in Jackson, MS.  We had propped open the garage door as we were loading up everything he was taking.  As I walked into the house I noticed the last 6 inches of a tail going under the door and into a sofa that was waiting to be loaded.  We searched all in the sofa but could not get the snake to come out.  I stayed up all night waiting to see if he came out, but he never did.  They decided to take the couch anyway figuring the snake was not in there.  So they loaded it on the truck and drove the 5 hours to Millsaps, up two flights of stairs into their apartment.  The next morning they found the snake in their shower.  Of course they said it was a cottonmouth.  Not real sure about their ID.  Skip forward several years.  We added a swimming pool in the back yard.  Finished in December so the next spring even before the water was warm enough to swim in, a small snake decided to swim in it first.  Since then we have had snakes in the pool quite often. Usually they are small, about 12 inches.  Until about a week ago when the one below was in the pool.  I was in the pool floating around and glanced into the filter and it looked like something was in there.  I had failed to check the filter before I got into the pool.  I will not make that mistake again.  As I went to remove the cover this snake came out:

This is an eastern Kingsnake.  By far the largest snake in the pool yet.  That brings us up to last Wednesday.  I took the dog out in the backyard to do his business when he starts barking.  I quickly noticed that he was squared off with a large kingsnake.  Trying to get the dog away I grabbed the garden hose and started squirting the dog and the snake.  I got the dog away and kept squirting the snake until he crawled under our backyard fence and into the woods.  Meanwhile the dog goes back to where the snake was.  Then I hear him yelp and looked and this is what I see:

I quickly got the dog into the house and checked to see if he had been bitten.  Luckily the snake did not bite him.  Had he been bitten he would probably have died.  The snake is a timber rattler.  In my excitement of trying to get the dog away from the kingsnake I never even saw this one.  I now think that the kingsnake was going to make a meal out of the rattlesnake and we broke that up.  It is possible that the kingsnake had already wrapped around this snake and was in the process of killing it when we disturbed it.  That would explain why I did not see it to start with.  There is now one less rattlesnake to come back into my yard.  The traumatic part is that this occurred right under my birdfeeders where I stand to fill them up.  I had just used the weedeater under the feeders the day before.  Now I'll be uncomfortable going outside for a couple of weeks and be very careful looking all around the yard.  I do not fear the snake I can see, it is the ones I can't see that I am really afraid of.  Being partially color blind, snakes are sometimes hard for me to see.  Until next time....

July 27, 2020

     I have not posted in a while because it seems like our life has come to a standstill.  Since the last post we have stayed home and only going to the store for food.  Our days are spent indoors mostly because it is so hot here.  We are thankful that we have a pool and spend a lot of time in it.  We have made one trip to see our son and his wife and one trip to Virginia to see the grand kids.  We are waiting for the weather to cool off before we go camping again.  Even though the camper has air conditioning it is just to hot to go hiking.  I'm not sure about other locations but the ticks have been so bad this year that we decided to stay out of the woods.  Amy still has lingering effects from lime disease that she got several years ago. 
     We finally have the leaks around the chimney fixed, we hope.  Waiting on a really hard rain to know for sure.  Now we will begin replacing the ceiling and wall we had removed to try to find the leak.  I say we, but I am pretty much worthless when it comes to doing work.  Bursitis and arthritis in my shoulders limit my physical ability right now.  Surgery to fix the problem is not going to happen anytime soon because of the virus.  As it spreads in our state, county, and city. we now see it affecting families of our friends.  We will just sit around here and not get out.  We have almost everything we need.  Of course the garden I tried to plant this year was a total disaster,  Not being able to use the tiller meant the grass and weeds just took over.  Also I think using seeds that were several years old was part of the problem.  Next year it may do better.  Until next time...

March 20, 2020

     Saying I am behind on posting is an understatement.  So I won't say it.  Since October we did go camping, but it was not what we expected.  The RV park was very crowded.  Campers were parked right next to each other.  So close that we could not even let out our awning and could not sit outside.  To top it off, there were 3 solid days of rain.  Jason and Shelly had planned to come meet us, but due to the rain we instead went to their house for a night. 
     Thanksgiving came and went as well as Christmas.  We had planned to go see the grandkids the day after Christmas, but that did not happen.  2020 did not get off to a good start for us either.  New Year's Eve Amy spent in the hospital with an infection.  The highlight of January was our cruise to the West Indies with our good friends Mary Jane and Chuck Wood.  But that did not turn out like we expected.  On the first day, before the ship sailed, MJ took a tumble down some steps as we were touring Old San Juan.  We did not know how bad it was until after we sailed.  6 broken ribs.  The seas were rough and cancelled two islands that we had planned to visit.  Two days before the end of the cruise I thought I was getting a sinus infection.  When I got home I found out it was the flu.  Amy got it also.  After a week at home I felt so bad I went to the ER and ended up staying in the hospital for a week.  We spent the month of February recuperating at home.  After Amy was better she did go to see the grandkids and take them their Christmas presents.  That was the only highlight in February.  Backtracking for a moment, when we got home from the cruise there was a moldy musty smell in the house.  There had been about 6 inches of rain, while we were gone and the ceiling that had just been redone with the kitchen renovation was ruined.  After we were getting over the flu we decided to have a carpenter rip it down and try to find where the leaks were.  The upstairs bedroom floor was ruined also and has been partly removed.  I also had him tear out the wall next to the chimney to see if there was mold in the walls.  We had a roofer come to try to find the leaks, but have had no real rain to see if the leaks have been fixed since then.  We have a structural engineer scheduled to come to see if he can tell us how to solve the problem.  The only good is that we are redoing the upstairs bathrooms converting the bathtubs into showers. The down side to that is we are having to share the downstairs bathroom.
     Just as we had planned to go camping again, the coronavirus hits and travel is discouraged.  Church services are canceled, schools are closed and everything is shutting down.  We will have to get out to buy groceries when we run out of food, but till then we are doing what we normally do - taking it easy and staying put.

October 23, 2019

     So, I am way behind with my blog. Time seems to fly by and I forget to post.  Anyway, lets see if I can catch up.  In May we went to Virginia and Texas.  Skip to September, which was an eventful month.  Since then we have been back to Virginia.  We have no plans to go back to Texas since Emily has taken a job in Virginia and so all my grand kids live in Chantilly a couple of blocks from each other.  After that trip, I had eye surgery, a partial cornea transplant.  The night before, I was getting out of the hot tub and somehow managed to fall.  Ten stitches above my eye.  I went on with the surgery since it was on the other eye.  The surgery was successful and now my glasses no longer work for me.  Cataract surgery is now scheduled for Halloween.  It may be followed by a partial cornea transplant in that eye also.  I guess it is a 50-50 chance.  Time will tell.

     On a happier note we spent several days glamping (that is camping in the camper with all the comforts of home) at Cheaha State Park.  We really enjoyed that trip.  The weather was great even though it did rain one night.  Very relaxing.  We have another trip scheduled but this is not to a state park, instead an rv park.  Jason and Shelley and their dogs with join us.  Should be fun.  I plan to take a rod and reel since this place is along side a creek.  The campground is  Cedar Creek RV and Outdoor Center in Cave Spring, GA.  This is the first time we have stayed in a park other than a state park.  It was rated as one of the top 10 places to park an rv in Georgia.  I will update again after we get back.   

April 11, 2019

All I can say is wow.  I just realized that my last post was in January and now it is almost Easter.  During that time we have been to Vogel State Park in Blairsville, Ga. and spent a week at Desota State Park in Fort Payne, Al.  I had been slightly worried about pulling the camper to Vogel since it involved going through Atlanta and also pulling in the mountains, but really had no problems at all.   We spent 4 nights there with Jason and Shelley and Brooks and Luke.  We had decent weather.  The day we got there the temperature was almost 60.  We had a great day for hiking on Saturday and we hiked about 4 miles all up hill or so it seemed.  It is always fun when we can spend time with our kids.  It rained and turned quite colder but we did hike around the lake before we left.

Last week we went back to Desoto, which is our favorite place to camp.  The weather was great even though we had rain one night.  We had several days of 5 or more mile hikes.  I will update with pictures later.  We are now thinking about where to go next. 

Jan 25, 2019

Where do the days go?  I just noticed that my last post was in November, and it is now a new year.  We did manage to get in one camping trip to Cheaha State Park.  Jason and Shelley came with their two dogs.

Of course this was the first cold spell for this year.  By the time we got to Cheaha the temperature was 29 and the water froze as soon as I connected it.  All the trees were covered by ice.  I was able to thaw the water line but later that night it froze again.  My sewer hoses were cracked and split so I could not drain the tanks, which were still full from the summer and fall use.  I was thankful that the weather improved the next day and we were close enough to Camping World to get some new hoses.

The kitchen remodel was completed and all furniture put in place before the kids came for Christmas.  It was great to have them all here this year.  Emily and Craig wanted to stay in the camper because it was much quieter there.  We tend to be loud when we are all together,  I have no idea where they get that.  It must be from my wife, but she would disagree and say it is from my side of the family.  The day after Christmas, Katy, Scott, Kinsley, and Cooper went on to Disney World leaving the rest of us here.   We got to keep Sadie with us. Once the Wright's left the Burts moved into the house.  Next time I plan on keeping all the kids in the trailer, so I can have peace and quiet.  Here is the clan below.

Two weeks later, Amy heads to Virginia and Max and I stayed behind.  I have decided that I am really lazy, so I have really enjoyed doing almost nothing this week.  I had planned to do some hiking this week, but rain and cold stopped that from happening.  Maybe next week.  It is about time to camp again.  We may head to Desota State Patk or Yargo State Park in Georgia.  I would also like to go back to Vogel State Park and hike Blood Mountain again.  Adventures await!

November 11, 2018

So, it has been a while since my last post.  A long while.  So much has happened this summer and fall.  Here is some of it.  The construction or destruction of the house is still ongoing.  But, the end is in sight.  I had to rent a u-haul storage container to store the furniture from the living room and den.  Every room in the house is packed with stuff from the kitchen and breakfast room.  I was sitting outside with Max and one of the workers came up to me and said, "they are destroying your house", so I go in to see ceiling beams, floor joists, and wall studs.  Almost 3/4 of the downstairs was demolished.  The old dining room is gone along with the bay window that was there.  Sections of some walls were removed.  Plumbers had to move existing plumbing so the wall could be opened up.  Electrician had to come and rewire everything.  We had to use the kitchen in the camper for all our meals, which worked our pretty good.  It was like we were camping at our own house.  Max had to be on a leash most of the time going to and from the camper.  He really wanted to help the workers, but mainly just sat and watched.  At one point I thought it would never get done.  But, looking at the finished product it was well worth it.  We now have a great looking kitchen/breakfast room/living room area.  Here are a few pictures.

These are now.

July 26, 2018

     I just realized that my last post was from San Antonio, TX, and we are here again.  This time we came out for Maddox's birthday, but we did not bring Max.  This has been an expensive trip.  On the way I realized that I had left my laptop and my ipad.  So I was depending on my phone for my electronic connections.  Lessons learned:  1)  You cannot go swimming with your phone in the pocket of your bathing suit.  2)  Make sure your contacts are backed up somewhere.  3)  Make sure you know the passwords to log back in to your apps.  4)   Once everything is lost it is gone until you get it all back in.  5)  It is an easy way to clear out your address book, but not recommended.  The only good thing is that I got a new phone which was really needed.  On my ruined phone I could only keep 2 or three pictures, so this one has 10 times the storage so I should be able to take all kinds of pictures now.  I also decided to buy a chromebook which is a lot cheaper than a laptop.  Since I mostly use chrome anyway it was a logical choice.  I plan to use it in the camper whenever we go again.  While I was here I got the message that the camper was finally fixed and ready to be picked up.  So we will get it when we get home.  That means that we have owned it for one year and for 6 months it has been at Camping World being fixed.  I guess that had it not been under warranty maybe it would have been fixed faster, but not sure about that.  Camping World in Oxford does not have a good rating, and if I am asked I will not rate them very high either.  We can't wait to use it again.  We have several places we want to go. 
    The construction on the new kitchen should start next week.  I was able to do some of the demolition but only one room.  The condition of my shoulders just would not let me do the work needed to tear out the walls and ceiling.  It looks so easy on HGTV.   I will have to let the contractor do it.  I built the house, forty years ago, so I wanted to have a part in taking it apart, but I am no longer able to do it.  One day of work and 3 days to recover from it, so it is not worth it to me.  That is all for now, I'll post again when I get home,

May 6, 2018

     Time passes so fast.  I am posting this from San Antonio, Texas.  Visiting my grand kids out here.  Kale is 5 and his baby brother Maddox will be 1 in July.  We came out to babysit while Emily and Craig went out on the town.  They stayed in a fancy hotel and went to a play.  I think we had the most fun though.  We will head home in a couple of days.  We may try to see some of my cousins in Conroe, Texas on the way home.  It is a slight detour but means we can go back on I-20 instead of I-10.  According to google maps this route is only a slight bit further and only 30 minutes longer.  There was so much road construction that I-20 may be the best route anyway.  

     Update on our camper.  So we bought the trailer in August and have used it several times (see prior posts), but decided to have a couple of minor things fixed that would be covered under warranty.  That was the end of February.  March and April are gone and camper is not ready yet.  Maybe when we get home it will be ready.  The last time I spoke to someone in the service department they could not give an estimated time it would be ready.  In fact the person I spoke to said over the phone that she did not know how they would fix the problem.  I knew that the service department had very bad reviews, but the sales department was rated very high.  Maybe I should have purchased elsewhere.  I'll know next time.   I thought I was dealing with a service manager, but maybe not.  Next week I will find out who his boss is, and complain.  I will also complain to the manufacturer, since they could have built a new trailer in the 2 months that it is waiting to be fixed.   I might add that the minor problems did not render the trailer unusable, so I could be using it if it is only waiting for some part to come from China???  I had three issues that needed to be addressed.  1) I had a fuse to blow in my truck that handled the running lights.  I needed them to check for a short in that system.  They did not find a problem, but it didn't matter because I traded trucks.  I just wanted it checked out before turning on the running lights in the new truck.  2)  There was a leaky valve in the gray water tank that would not close all the way.  Not really a major problem since it only drained from the kitchen sink, just soapy water.  I had already bypassed that by adding an external valve on the end of the drain pipes.  They said they could not find that problem.  3)  The trailer has a black water flush system, but when connected no water would flow into the black water tank.  My guess was that there may have been a back-flow valve that could have been installed backwards.  They did say that they found a leak, but did not say where it was.  I assume that this is the thing that they did not know how to fix, but who knows.  I might add that messages left for the service department are not returned.  I feel I have been extremely patient so far, but my patience is running out.  

     We plan to visit my son and his wife on Friday.  (Bogart, GA)  We will take Max on this trip.  He is being boarded at the vet this week.  We pick him up on Wednesday.  Max being a yorkie, thinks he is a big dog, so he will get along fine with Jason's 2 labs.   We are looking forward to that trip.

     One final note.  I am getting ready to hike the Pinhoti Trail.  Plans are to start on the 14th, at the southern terminus, Flag Mountain in Weogufka,  and hike for 5 or 6 days, hopefully ending at Porter's Gap.  My plan is to hike the whole trail this summer, but do it in sections.  We will see how it goes.  Hoping for good weather.  

March 7, 2017

     It has been a while since my last post, and I have no excuses.  I am still doing some trail maintenance on the Pinhoti Trail, but the weather has not cooperated.  Too much rain, snow, and now back to cold temperatures have slowed the maintenance to a stand still.  There are plans to open a new section of the trail with work crews going out this coming week.  I hope to work one or two days with them. 
     January and February came and went so fast that I think we just missed skipped them this year.  Amy flew to San Antonio for a week visiting Emily, Craig, Kale, and Maddox. (also Major and Radley).  I stayed home with Max.  Now she is headed to Virginia for a week to see Katy and her crew.  I'll be here with Max.
     Two weeks ago we went back to DeSota State Park for a couple of days.  Weather was perfect.  That is our favorite place to go.  Pull through campsites with water, electricity, sewer, and cable TV.  Easy to hook up and hiking trails right there make for a fun adventure time.  There were very few campers there this time of year.  We go during the week and usually come home on Saturday.   I am sure there are more there on the weekend.  On the way home I made the decision to trade my new
 F-150 truck.  I just did not feel safe pulling my camper with that truck.

     The travel trailer is 33 feet long and catches a lot of air moving down the highway.  Even though I was within safe limits for towing, I was at near maximum load for the truck.  I could feel a lot of sway with the trailer and sometimes felt like the trailer was controlling the truck.  The truck had a lot of features that I liked, but could live without.  I took the truck to the dealership to have a fuse issue checked out and came home with a new truck.  

     This one is an F-250 and is a diesel.  Has plenty of power and feels safe pulling the camper.  I towed the trailer to Camping World for some small issues that should be covered under warranty.  One was that the running lights caused a fuse to blow in the F-150.  I tried to find the problem myself, but I really did not know where to look.  There is no wiring diagram for the trailer and I have no idea where the lines run.  I suspect it is a grounding fault, but I did not know how to troubleshoot that problem.  Anyway, the truck pulled the trailer effortlessly.  I think we will be able to take longer distance trips now that pulling the camper is no longer a nightmare.  I miss some of the features of the other truck, but not enough to pay for them.  The one thing I miss most though is the other truck had push button start and console gear shift.  Now I am back to using a key and the gears are back on the steering wheel.  

     Amy also is driving a new car.  We took the traverse in for an issue with it and when they told me how much it was going to be to fix it we decided to trade it for a 2018 Equinox.  So, January and February became new car months.  Amy will be driving to Katy's, the first long trip in the car.  One final thing unrelated to vehicles.  Before Christmas I started a Jigsaw puzzle that has to be the hardest one I have ever worked on.  All pieces fit in places they are not suppose to go.  I have about 50 pieces left and they do not seem to fit anywhere.  I will keep swapping pieces until I complete it.  Hopefully before summer comes.    

December 24, 2017

     Okay, it has been a while since my last update.  Let me start with the cataract surgery.  Due to a cornea issue my vision is not any better and maybe worse than it was before the surgery.  I knew that was a possibility before the surgery though and at some point I may have to have cornea surgery.  We did the baddest eye first and I have decided not to have the other eye done.  Enough of the bad and on to the fun stuff.  After a trip to Virginia, for Kinsley and Cooper's birthday, we traveled with our camper.  We stayed at Cloudland Canyon State Park in north Georgia.  Jason, Shelley, and their two dogs joined us for a weekend.  We had a great time hiking and spending time with them.  The camper was a little crowded with 4 of us and 3 dogs, but we still had a great time.  The park is located just south of Chattanooga on Lookout Mountain.  We hiked the West Rim Trail, which overlooked the canyon.  Beautiful views.  I took some pictures with my gopro camera, but the day was overcast and they were not that great.  Here is one anyway.

     And a couple more.

     When we left there Amy and I spent a couple of days at Desota State Park.  I believe that is my favorite place to camp.  Great pull through sites for the camper and lots of trails to hike.  We started out headed to a waterfall and ended up with a 5 mile hike.  We are planning another trip to Virginia after Christmas and then back to Desota State Park for another weekend with Jason and Shelley and their dogs. 

     We thought we would be spending Christmas by ourselves since our girls came here for Christmas last year.  We tried to get reservations at the beach, but that didn't work out.  Jason and Shelley will be here Christmas Eve so at least we will get to see them.

     I have picked up a part-time job.  I have decided to help with trail maintenance on the Pinhoti Trail.  I've enjoyed hiking parts of the trail so I have decided to volunteer to help keep the trail hike-a-ble.  The Pinhoti Trail extends from Weogufka, AL to connect with the AT at Springer Mountain, GA., roughly 360 miles.  So far I have worked on three different sections.  One of the people I've worked with is my age and is re-blazing the trail.  We both went to Auburn and lived next door to each other but didn't know each other then.  I worked at Klinners washing dishes three times a day for my meals, and he lived there at Klinners.  It is truly a small world.  This last section we worked was on the north end about a hour and a half drive from my house.  We went in 2.5 miles then back out.  Most of the work is done with loppers, a swing blade, or chainsaw.  Last week we had a snow storm with about 8 inches at my house.  This caused small trees to bend over the trail and some trees came down over the trail.  We cleared these in that section.  One thing I have noticed.  After a day of working, it takes me about two days to recover from it.  My body just doesn't bounce back like it used to.  Thank goodness for arthritis strength Tylenol.  Even through the pain, it is still fun to get out and work on the trail. I hope to work one day after Christmas before heading to Virginia.

Until next time...I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

October 10, 2017

     Time flies when you are having fun.  It is hard to believe that it has been 2 months since my last post.  So much has happened since then.  Amy flew to San Antonio to help with Maddox, leaving Max and me at home.  She got home a couple of days before we left for a cruise up the east coast.  This was a great trip with our good friends Mary Jane and Chuck Wood.  We flew to New York and spent a couple of nights and days sightseeing.  We did a hop on/off tour bus trip around the city.  We visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  Before boarding the cruise ship we had time to hike through Central Park. 
     We were supposed to be transported to the ship at 12:00, but due to the traffic problems it was after 3:00 before a bus could get to the hotel to pick us up.  Apparently President Trump was in town speaking at the United Nations and all the roads were blocked off.  We arrived on Friday and noticed that New York's finest were on every corner.  We even asked one of them where he would recommend us eating.  The place he suggested was right there on the corner, the name of the place was Astro.  Good food and very reasonably priced.  When we finally did get to the ship there was no line waiting to board, just us.  By the time we got to our room we had missed the muster drill.  And the ship was ready to sail.  On board we ran into two people from Talladega who we knew.  We did not see them again until the last day of the trip.  The ship was huge.  About 3500 passengers and 1500 crew.  The Crown Princess, ironically the same ship we were on last year on our Alaska cruise.
     Sailing from the dock in Brooklyn, our first stop was Newport, Rhode Island.  Since there was no dock for the ship it anchored off shore and we were transported to shore in one of the lifeboats.  We then took a walking tour of Newport.  The next stop was Boston.  Here we took a hop on/off bus tour, but the driver was so interesting giving us all the history of the places we were seeing that we decided not to get off at all.  Really enjoyed seeing and listening to our tour guide.  Our next stop was suppose to be Bar Harbor, Maine, but thanks to the hurricane there were 6 to 10 meter waves and 40 knot winds.  The captain ruled that it would not be safe to go ashore in the small shuttles so we instead headed to our next stop, Saint Johns, New Brunswick (Canada).  The final port was Halifax, Nova Scotia.  To me this was one of the best stops.  We walked to several places around town including a church and the Citadel.  Learned so much about the disasters of the Titanic and the ammunition ship that almost destroyed Halifax.  We have since bought several books to learn more.  This was a great cruise but the seas were rough.  Even on the large ship the rocking was so bad that I had to hold on to rails wherever I was walking around.  Amy got seasick on the last day because of the weather, but a dose of Dramamine fixed that.  We will begin planning our next cruise soon. 
     On Monday I had cataract surgery and we are heading to Desota State Park for a couple of days in the camper.  Looking forward to that.  Next month we are camping at Cloudland State Park with Jason and Shelley.  The four of us and 3 dogs in the camper should be fun.  Before that trip we will head back to Virginia for the grand kids birthday party.  I'll fill in all those blanks in my next post.

   

August 15, 2017

     Okay, it has been a couple of months since my last post so here is the latest update.  We have been traveling a little.  In my last post I mentioned that my wife was in Virginia and I bought a new truck.   In June, Max and I went to Virginia to help keep the grandchildren while my daughter was still working.  She teaches in one school system and her kids go to school in a different system.  The kids got out a week earlier than she, so I went up to help transport them to places they needed to go.  After spending a couple of weeks up there, Max and I took the scenic route home through the Shenandoah National Park on Skyline Drive. Roughly guessing it was about 120 miles at 35 mph.  Really beautiful with a lot of places to enjoy the views along the way.  The road crosses the Appalachian Trail several times.  At one of the last lookouts I encountered two thru hikers who were looking for a ride to the nearest town (Waynesboro, Va.) to restock on food.  Since Skyline Drive ends there, I was close enough to give them a ride.  My intent was to travel the Blue Ridge Parkway from start to finish.  It starts at the end of Skyline Drive.  After the slight detour to Waynesboro I returned back to continue my quest.  I was quite disappointed.  At each pull offs to look at the views, the grass was over 6 feet high and blocked the views.  That portion of the parkway was very curvy, which would not have been so bad if I could have seen more than tall grass along the way.  It did not take me too long to decide to travel the parkway another time so I found a way to get back to the interstate and came on home.  On the section of the parkway I did travel I did not see any other traffic, which would have been great but because of the curves the speed was only about 45 miles per hour.  My thinking was that at that speed it would take forever to travel the 400 miles of parkway.  So, that trip will have to wait till another time.
     We were home about a week before we headed to Texas for the birth of our latest grandson, Maddox.  Being retired is great since we are able to go an do things like that.  My wife is flying back out there next week to help out.  Max and I are staying home this time.  I don't think we were invited.  Max thinks he is a big dog (they have two labs) but has a problem of wanting to mark his territory, and I am too loud.  Maybe we will go on the next trip.
    Since I had bought the truck to pull my imaginary camper, we decided to get the camper.  We bought a Keystone Sprinter 29BH camper.  When I first pulled it home I was not sure where I was going to park it.  It is about 33 feet long, very spacious and will sleep a maximum of 9 people.  Of course that many people would have no where to move inside, but it is just right for my wife, me and Max.  We have already taken it camping in Cheaha State park.  Of course my daughter says it is not camping, but glamping.  And she is right.  All the comforts of home but enjoying the great outdoors.  Air conditioning, satellite TV, room to move around, as well as great outdoor space.  Cheaha was a good test since it is only about 20 miles from home and a narrow, curvy mountain road.  We spent a couple of very enjoyable nights and are already planning out next adventure.  I will post pictures next time.
     Of course I will have to say that my garden experiment worked like a charm.  More tomatoes than we have ever had, lots of peas and beans, cucumbers and squash.  I will do it again next year.  

June 14, 2017

I finally bought a truck.  After looking at all kinds I finally bought a Ford F150 Lariat and after saying over and over that I did not want a white truck, guess what I bought?  If you guessed white, you are right.  It is not just white it is whiter white. It is also powerful enough to pull my my imaginary boat and my imaginary trailer.  Hopefully I will have one of these soon.

My wife has been in Virginia since my last post.  She was helping to keep the new grandbaby while the mom went back to work.  She teaches in a school nearby but a 30 to 45 minute ride due to traffic.  The other 2 kids got out of school this past friday, but since Katy teaches in a different school system she had 2 more weeks to go.  I came up to help with the other two and brought Max with me.  I really had no idea how long I would be able to stay, since Max went wild when the newborn was first brought home from the hospital.  He was so wild that we left early to bring him back home.  This time Max is much better behaved, but gets upset if the baby is crying.  Seems to want to see that the baby is okay.  I will probably be here a couple of weeks and go home when Katy is out of school.  Amy is planning to stay another week to help out while Katy's husband is out of town.

I got started late with my garden this year and decided to try something different.  Maybe I should have done a little research on this before I tried it but...

So as you can see from the pictures above, I put down landscape fabric to keep the grass and weeds down.  Then used landscape timbers to keep the fabric down.  You can see that it is doing a great job, exactly like I thought it would.  The bottom picture shows a row of radishes covered up in grass.  We have had a lot of rain the past couple of weeks and there was no way to weed the garden.  The whole garden would look like this had I not experimented.  Once I put the fabric down I was wondering how I was going to plant the seeds.  Then I found out that there is a stand up planter that I could buy or make if I had the materials to build one.  I opted to just purchase it.  It is called Stand n Plant.  To say that I was a little skeptical would be an understatement,  You just jab it into the ground and pull the trigger as you lift it out of the ground and it is supposed to deposit the seed and cover it with dirt that falls in on top of it.  As you can see it worked much better than expected.  Of course I have not picked but 4 cucumbers and two tomatoes so far.  Maybe when I get home I'll have beans and peas ready.  Also, I started my tomato plants from seeds in February.  Those plants were about 4 ft high (top picture) when I left and had just started to bloom.  Should have lots to pick when I get home.  From the picture you may can see I tried something different for tomato cages.  My son told me about using concrete wire, an idea he got from WebCajun's youtube videos.  These heavy duty cages will not blow over in a storm as the other ones do.  A little more expensive, okay a lot more expensive, but they will last forever.  Every year I've had the flimsy cages blow over and the plants end up on the ground.  It will take a tornado to knock these cages over.  Well, we are now caught up with everything, so until next post....

May 30. 2017

     Wow!  I did not realize that time passes so fast it had been 2 months since my last post.  I will try to do better.  I have been a bachelor for most of the month.  Amy is in Virginia helping with the newest baby while Katy has gone back to work.  She will be there through next month since Katy's school doesn't end until the end of June.  I have had my hands full with keeping Max occupied.  He is so demanding and has gotten to be quite a lap dog.  Just like a baby he wants to be held or laying on me all the time and it is getting to be troublesome.  He completed his second round of obedience school, but still doesn't understand the word NO.  Max will not go out into the back yard unless I go out there with him.  Spoiled, definitely.  If it is raining outside, he will not go out.  You can guess what that means if he refuses to "go" outside, then he is going to "go" inside.  Maybe it is because he is still a puppy.  He is so attached to me that when I am in the pool on a raft, he will climb on it just to sit on top of me.  If I'm in the hammock, he will jump up there too.  We put in the fence so he could stay outside by himself, but that doesn't happen.  He has escaped under the fence twice.  The first time he was chasing a lizard, which he caught and ate.  He escaped the other day but when I realized he was not in the backyard I found him looking in the windows waiting to come back inside.
     For the past two weeks I have been volunteering at church.  I thought it would help improve the looks of things if I put my pressure washer to use and cleaned the concrete around the church.  So far I have only done about 1/3 of the total area.  Eventually I will get the whole job completed, but not sure how much longer it will take. I can work for 3 or 4 hours a couple of days, then I have to take several days off.  Thankfully we have been getting a lot of rain so I use it as an excuse not to get wet pressure washing.  Oh well, any excuse works for me.
      I have also been truck shopping.  Maybe I want too much, but I want to have something to pull the imaginary camper or the imaginary boat that I don't have.  Too many makes and models to choose from.  They all have one thing in common; a hefty price tag.  My old truck is almost an antique.  That was brought to my attention when a dealer was willing to take it off my hands for almost no trade in value.  I may find an organization to take it as a donation.  That way I would get more of a tax write off.  That has us almost caught up for now, so more to follow later.

March 22,2017

So, after the hike and freezing weather, the winter storm came on the 14th.  Katy and Scott headed to the hospital in Scott's 4 wheel drive truck.  Due to the snow traffic was minimal and they had no problems getting there.   This was the view of the back porch as the snow was coming down.

We had planned to take the kids to school and be at the hospital when the baby was born.  The storm changed those plans.  Schools were closed for two days because of the snow and ice.  Anyway we have a new grand baby born on March 14th.  We finally made it to the hospital on the 16th to see the baby.  The picture below of Sadie and proud parents was sent to us from the hospital
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They brought the baby home on Friday and Max went crazy. He was such a problem barking and jumping and going zonkers that he had to be crated and confined to the basement.  As it turns out, this is an undesirable trait of most Yorkies as they may feel jealous of the newborn and do not realize that the baby is a person.  It will take time for him to get use to Sadie and for her to get use to him.  Until then he will not make the trips to Virginia.   We are planning to visit again in June or at least Amy is going to keep the baby when Katy goes back to work.

What a change from the cold in Virginia to the temperature in the high 70's of Alabama.  I have been out in the sun for the past two days and even waded in the pool, not really, but I did get my feet in the water.  I am planning another hike.  This one will be about 12 miles and I hope to complete it in one day, but I may have to rethink that plan.  That would be about twice the distance that I usually hike and along a trail that I have not hiked before.

March 3, 2017

     Okay, so it has been a while since my last post.   Let me try to catch up.  It seems like time has really gone by so quickly.  Just yesterday was Christmas but somehow January and February came and went and I sort of missed them.  During that time we did take Max to obedience school.  We were sure that he would flunk out since he is so hyper, but he passed and we have a certificate to prove it.  Of course he did try to eat the certificate.

     Although he passed, the trainer called and would like for us to repeat the course in April, at no cost, so we signed up for another 6 weeks.  Max did learn a few commands, like ready, sit, down, stay and heel.  It is hard for us to be consistent and train everyday.  

     One of the highlights of February was that we got to spend a day with some old friends, Paul and Harriett Lawrence.  They were missionaries to Gaza and are now retired and back home.  It was good to catch up with them.  Also, the weather warmed up with several days in the high 70's, and my thoughts turned to gardening.  I thought that I would try starting some plants from seeds, to transplant into the garden.   I usually just buy tomato plants to set out, but I was going to do something different this year.  My son does this every year and said it is cheaper.  He is set up to grow seedlings in his basement and has a lot of success.  But, for me, that did not work out too well.  I only had a couple of seeds sprout, so I decided to start over.  I have been getting my garden spot ready for planting though.  I am considering buying a small greenhouse so I would have a place to start my plants instead of putting them on the dining room table.

     I also have been hiking a little.  Went for a 7 mile hike on the Pinhoti Trail with a friend of mine, Larry Shirley.  We intend to hike some more soon.  We have made the trip to Virginia for the birth of our new granddaughter.  We came a few days early so I could hike with a group of men from the church my son-in-law, Scott, attends. We hiked a section of the AT from Keys Gap to Harper's Ferry. 

Of course the weather when we left Alabama was 70, but steadily dropped the further north we came.   A winter storm on Friday sent me looking for an insulating base layer, gloves and toboggan.  The temperature was 24 when we started out, but warmed up to 30 during the day.  The pictures below were taken from the hike yesterday.

This group picture was taken overlooking the bridge into Harper's Ferry which is the unofficial midpoint of the Appalachian Trail.

Of course I was bringing up the rear.  Do I look cold?

Break time about 4 miles in.

I can now say I hiked the AT in Georgia, Virginia, and West Virginia.

     All in all, I had a great time and met some good people.  I was glad they let me come along.  The whole hike was fairly easy and rocky.  After we hiked across the bridge then we traveled along the road back to the Harper's Ferry National Park Visitor Center.  The last climb up the mountain was a killer.  It seamed like about 1000 rock steps up to the top.  Each of those steps were about 18" high and that was a little high for an old fat guy, but I eventually made it to the top.  In all about 7 miles.  Maybe they will let me hike with them again.

     I have to add that the delivery date for the new baby is Tuesday morning, right in the middle of another winter storm.  The current prediction calls for up to 6 inches of snow.  Looks like Amy and I will be keeping the other grand children at the house if their schools close.