A Thank You to Our Friends

It MUST be the weather!!! At least that is what I’m gonna blame! What you ask?? My mood. My mood has been really….well I think it was Donna of (Cave Dwellings) that said it best…. I’m in a “blue funk.” I’m not sure what in the world a blue funk is but I would bet that pretty well sums it up. Thanks Donna… I have the diagnosis!!

It is hot…hot and humid. Hot and humid makes everything look like it is struggling to just stay alive….even the humans. Our temperatures have reached into the 100s more times than I want to recall and the heat index has made it seem like desert temperatures.

So I begin to ask myself, “why am I sitting in this campground in a motor home?”

That is when I started reading a few of our “friends” blogs. It’s interesting how the “future” full-timers talk about how we, the current full-timers, keep them motivated and inspired. I remember those days. I discovered today that it really goes both ways.

Reading about how several of our “friends” are purging their houses, waiting for someone to look at their house or make an offer. Reading about the yard sales, the painting, cleaning and the WAITING…..WAITING!! Gee, it brought back so many memories!

That is when I took a look around and realized how lucky and fortunate we are; even if we are sitting in a HOT campground. We have the freedoms that come with this lifestyle. We have a debt free, job free and almost stress free lifestyle to live (nothing is totally stress free).

THEN

We have met some of the most fantastic people in the short time we have been full-timing. There are no words to describe how these wonderful people have impacted our lives. Then there is this wonderful “family” of bloggers we belong to. I used the word “family” because I read where

Sam (Sam and Donna-5th Wheel Vagabonds) used

that term. You are right Sam…it is a family of sorts.

Wow! I think I am beginning to recover from my “blue funk.” Just stopping and thinking about where we have been and where we are now helps you realize just how blessed your life is.

Thanks for stopping by and helping me cure the “blue funk.” You are important to Mike and I and we wish you all a wonderful weekend full of good times and NO “blue funks.”

Thought for Today:

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. Mark Twain

I Usually Don’t Rant… But

We have managed to get most of the campground organized and cleaned up after the storm we had Tuesday.  We reported to the rangers in the park the next morning the need to have the bulldozer come bring some gravel in to level the drop offs at the entrance to several campsites.  There is an area on the property where they have several tons of gravel already here.

 

At the writing of this, it is Friday 10 am, the weekenders will be filtering in today and the drop-offs have not been fixed or even attempted to be fixed.  Being an rv’er, the drop offs from the road to some of the campsites would keep me from trying to put our motorhome in them.   I would be nervous about damage to our rig or vehicle.  We have seen rigs tilt to an alarming angle to a couple of these sights before the heavy rains came and caused  more deep ruts.

This week they spent their time putting up new campsite posts that they have had for over a year.  I would have thought the safety of the camper would have been more important.

I am not a complainer by nature, but there comes a time when you step up to the plate and care about your guests and their safety.  Unfortunately, this is not the only issue turned in for repair that has not been attended to.

Thanks for letting me rant, I just don’t understand the lack of care and concern!

What a Storm

This afternoon Gerri and I were sitting in our recliners reading some blogs and we heard a LOUD boom of thunder. We knew this wasn’t going to be good. All of a sudden we started to hear and see the rain coming down, and it just got harder and harder.

The winds picked up, we lost power and the rains got even harder. We had about 4 inches of rain in a little less than hour.

Outside our patio was under water, the road was blocked by branches and heavy piles of leaves and pine straw, we had creeks going all through the campground and parts of the asphalt roads eroded with the rush of water. The gravel going into many sites from the asphalt washed away in several places that an RV could not get into the spots if they wanted to. WOW! What a storm.

Within another hour the rains had gone, the sun started to slightly shine and the winds were calm. Boy was the campground a mess! We have NEVER seen the lake this full … it had overflowed its banks in many areas.

I took some pics of the mess, but Al, I don’t think I can doctor these up even with Picasa since it was still raining kinda hard when I took the pics.             

I went down to the roads in the campground and cleared all the limbs and stuff that had literally piled up on the road so people could drive thru the campground and then I noticed the road erosion from the gush of water. While Gerri manned the campground, I went to the maintenance shop and picked up several orange cones to put out where the road and gravel had washed out.  I wouldn’t want a car or rv to possibly turn over. The hard rains and gushing water was enjoyed by our ducks. It temporarily formed a “creek” and the ducks played in it and swam from there into the lake.

Our new weather radio worked really well until we lost  power and I had forgotten to put batteries in it. I guess I needed the book on explaining weather radios and batteries for dummies.

All is okay and Life is Good.  Thanks for stopping by.

Oh Me of Little Faith

              I am so ashamed!! All that worry for nothing. Our little campers were actually no problem at all. Well, there were a few things that could have been better but all in all things went well.

I think the biggest problem was the fact that this was a “group” and should have been sent to the group camp. There is a limit of 6 campers to our sites and when you do the math they had 12 and 13 to a site. When you enter in the factor that these were 12 and 13 middle school kids you equal lots of noise.

This noise congregated in the large area located behind our campsite and all the other folks camped in the inner area of section 1. Games were played such as football, tag, chase and horseshoes and along with those games comes laughter, hollering and loud noises. Kids will be kids and they shouldn’t be expected to be quiet all day long especially playing games. That is why a large group like this should have been camped in the group area.               As a former teacher, I will say the adults had this group very well organized. They knew exactly what they were doing…keeping them organized and structured in an unstructured environment. Lights were out each evening by 9:00 and we never heard any noise after that.                                      When they left Sunday morning they cleaned up their campsites and left them just as clean as they found them. The only thing we ended up having to pick up was a small water bottle left on one of the tables. I am impressed!! I’m glad they had this experience and I think they had a good time.

                   A NEW WORKER APPEARED TODAY!!         

As Mike was busy checking sites this morning he looked down and discovered he had a helper. Yep…he had a new sidekick. A beautiful ribbon snake. I can’t tell you how happy I was that I chose to clean the motor home this morning. I just love domestic chores. :>)

Our backyard grew very large today!!! We are sharing this beautiful peaceful campground with our own gorgeous lake with two other campers. We have it to ourselves. Life is Good!!

Mike and I want to thank you for stopping by and reading our blog. We appreciate each of you and enjoy hearing from you.       

                                                                                                                

You may only be someone in the world, but to someone else, you may be the world. Unknown

WE WILL SURVIVE ????

Ok, my patience ran thin this weekend. Things were going very well. We were planning on another easy weekend…maybe even easier than last weekend. That is where I went wrong. I jinx things!!

Friday afternoon, rather late afternoon, as I was sitting in my recliner enjoying life I looked out the window to see a giant yellow school bus. Now some of you might not know this, but I am a retired teacher (yep, 35 years) and I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or hallucinating. Yep, it passed right by the window and it was indeed a giant yellow school bus full of kids. You heard me right FULL of kids. I counted every one of them as it passed by.

Not being sure of what it was doing in the campground, Mike and I watched as it rounded the curve in the inner circle of the campground. Going very slow…well how fast could you possibly drive a huge school bus through a narrow curvy road?   

That’s when it happened. It stopped…stopped dead still right in front of our motor home. Now what? Does he need directions? Information? Directions to the group campground? Nope…none of the above. He began to slowly reverse “Big Yellow” right into the site next to us.  

Out of that bus ran…. screaming and hollering, at least 25 small children ages 4 years to 14 most of which were boys. Now I am not a sexist….really I am not. I am just experienced with little boys and especially little boys in a campground. Oh no!! There goes the quiet, easy weekend. Right down the drain. How does the song go??

                         THIS PIC IS FROM RISCKY’S BBQ IN FT. WORTH

I WILL SURVIVE!!

One quick update; last night after all the campers were safely backed into their site of choice and it appeared everyone was settled, we went into Pine Mountain to eat. When we returned at approximately 10:00 all of our “little” campers were in their tents with lights out. Isn’t that nice? It must be that large man that looks like a coach….he has them under control. I WILL SURVIVE!! Thanks coach!!            

QUOTE FOR THE DAY:

“The man who doesn't relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and  trained nurse, a little later on.” ~Elbert Hubbard                            

A Couple of Requests Answered

F.D. Roosevelt State Park is located in Pine Mountain, Georgia. It is the largest of Georgia’s state parks. As is much of this area, FDR is deeply connected to President Franklin D. Roosevelt who was stricken with polio in 1921. He loved this area immensely and established his Little White House in Warm Springs. Several of the structures in the park were built by Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) during the Great Depression. One of those structures is the Liberty Bell Pool. This is a truly unique pool built of stone and fed by a natural spring. Near King’s Gap is Dowdell’s Knob which was one of President Roosevelt’s favorite picnic spots. He even had his own personal stone grill built there for these special outings. There are many trails located within this large park….the largest being Pine Mountain Trail which is 23 miles.                        

We were asked by one of our readers to post pictures showing actual campsites for anyone thinking about visiting this park. I will do just that. This campground is divided into sections. The main sections of the campground are located in front of and around Lake Delanor. There are 140 sites all have water and electric with a few having 50 amp. service.

There are five bathhouses of which two are rather new. There are several sights sufficient in size for 40’ rigs, and others for just tenters. There are plenty of sights that can handle anything in between the afore mentioned.  For more on FDR State Park go to our blog archive for September 24, 2007.

I was asked by one of our readers to post the recipe for the Taco Soup that I make. I got this recipe from the RV-Dreams Family Favorites cookbook. If you have this cookbook the recipe is on page 29. If you don’t have this cookbook I understand Howard and Linda still have some they will sell. You can contact them at www.rv-dreams.com.                                       

Taco Soup -  recipe of - Linda Payne

• 1 1/2 lb. ground beef
• 1 (14 oz.) can diced tomatoes
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 (4 oz) can green chilies, chopped
• 1 can kidney beans, undrained
• 1 pkg. Ranch salad dressing mix
• 1 can chili beans, undrained
• 1 pkg. taco seasoning
• 1 can whole kernel corn, undrained
• 1 ½ c. water
• 1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes, undrained
• salt & pepper to taste
• Brown ground beef and pour off grease. Add onion and sauté until tender. Combine all
• Ingredients in a slow cooker and cook for at least 4 hours. Suggested to serve with Fritos or Tortilla chips. Makes 12 cups.

Note: This can also be made on the stove top. Cook on stove top for at least 2 hours.

I usually get three quart size freezer containers each time I make this soup. I like to keep some on hand for travel days. Quick and easy!!

We have had a couple more folks join our “friends” group. It is so wonderful to make new friends and we welcome you. Come visit as often as you can and feel free to leave a message whenever you desire. We love hearing from you!! Have a great weekend!!

Easy Weekend

This was a pretty easy weekend. We weren’t full…not even    close.  Maybe about 75% but the best part was this group of campers were pretty good. We had several big rigs in the park including a very nice Escalade parked right across from us with a grandfather, grandmother and grandson. It is always fun to watch grandparents with their grandchildren. This young man was helping his grandfather set everything up and when it was time to leave he helped him get everything packed up. Mike even helped them get their portable satellite dish aimed correctly. Yep, you heard that correctly…Mike!

We pulled tags this morning and blew off a few sites and then we took the morning and early afternoon off. It is really too hot to do anything extremely exciting outside so we drove to LaGrange and had lunch together. We weren’t gone long but it was nice to get out and away for awhile.                    

When we got home Mike went out to do a little weed eating. It seems these afternoon thundershowers are encouraging the grass/weeds to grow. While he was weed whacking I stayed at the motor home and made some Taco Soup. I like to make this dish and freeze some of it. It seems we can get 3 big freezer containers from one recipe. No, I didn’t forget that we don’t have a freezer. We are temporarily using the chest freezer that is in the storage building by our motor home. This storage building is where we keep the bags of ice we sell during the week when the Trading Post is closed. One of the former camp host built this storage building for the park. Nice huh?

When Mike returned we decided to take a walk down by the lake.  I read where these walks, when you carry your camera, are called photo walks. So I suppose Mike and I did a photo walk late this afternoon. We are both trying to learn more about how the Nikon D60 works…what all we can do with it. Then we are still learning how to use Picasa Web. So much to learn but isn’t it fun????

While we were on our photo walk we saw a Great Blue Heron    perched across the lake on an old dead tree limb in the water. We have never seen a Blue Heron in this park. It was pretty exciting to see the old guy stop by for a visit. He was a distance away but we managed to get a shot of him. The other shots are of the lake. It was so quiet down there this afternoon. Nobody was camping in this area so we had it to ourselves. Nice!

We also saw Mama Mallard and her three little children. They were born about a month ago and we have tried to get a good picture of them. Whenever we had the camera they were nowhere to be found. Today they were out swimming. They have really grown up.

Thanks for stopping by and sharing in our camp host adventures. We appreciate your visit and hope you found something of interest while visiting. We have several new friends that have decided to join us and we hope that you will click on their thumbnail pic and take a look at their blog (if they have one).

Life is Good!!