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,