Even More Beautiful Perfect Day

Still at KOA Starke. Florida,  Beautiful day 83 degrees with a little breeze.

Last night Jim started the night in his recliner. I heard him at 1230, come up and get into bed. But was up at 5 am and went back to the recliner. At least he was able to get out of bed unassisted, that's progress. 

I was awake at 5 took, just layed there till  almost 7.

When I got up had coffee watched news, mainly to see weather. I made Jim breakfast. Our normal am routine.  Got ready went for my walk. Said hi to my cute little family as I went by there camper.

When I got back, we sat outside a bit.

I texted Thomas today is my babies birthday.

Cecile came over at 11 am, I walked up to meet her.

The three of us chatted out under out umbrella table. Then I served as all lunch out there. Grilled chicken and veggies. They 3 of us talked together, she is so fun and easy to talk with, I really enjoyed our day together. We all made plans to get together tomorrow. We are going to Gainesville to see her. Have inside plans as it might rain.

She had to leave by 230. I walked her back up to her car.

really nice pool area.

When I got back, we changed into our swimming suits and walked up to the pool. It is kept at 80 degrees. Felt great, we hoped it would be good for Jim's Back. we chatted with a few people.

Went back, Jim showered while I made turkey corn noodle soup. I Cleaned all the meat off bones. I want to make a turkey casserole and turkey with gravey on corn bread with veggies with the rest. For 2 later meals.  As it cooked I took a shower.

We put stuff away outside I heated up the rest of the Thanksgiving food for dinner along with some of the turkey that I made in the instant pot.

We watched a little TV. Then we watched the live from Switch It Up YouTubers Todd and Shelia. 

Beautiful Day in Florida

Jim slept in his recliner last night. He said parts were uncomfortable, but was easier to get up, then  it was in bed.I  heard him get up, just after 6, I couldn't sleep any more. I was up before 7. 

We had coffee watched the weather, was going to be beautiful out. About 78 high.

I walked up for the Saturday breakfast they were having. Your choice of a biscuit with sausage and gravy, or egg and cheese with sausage. I got one of each to bring back for Jim. 

When I walked in the door there was an adorable little family, with two little boys one had very red hair, and the other was very blond. The Dad also had red hair, and when he saw me he said  "there's another redhead, we found our people."  It was so cute we chatted for quite a while, Theodore was the redhead sorry I can't remember the other. I asked if I could take their picture. when I got home later and looked at it I realized the Dad had his hat on and you couldn't see his beautiful red hair, they were from Georgia the sweetest little family.

 So I ordered the food I also got a banana and coffee cake and orange juice for him. Waited a few minutes it was a one-woman show. It was the same lady that I went for my walk with yesterday. I told her I really wanted to help her if she needed help cuz it's what I DID for a living.

 I took the food back to Jim got him all set up and he ate breakfast I ate my oatmeal with him. Then got ready and went for my walk.  I walked every Road. I must have went a little faster being by myself cuz it took just under an hour. JIm showered while I was gone,  so I got back and got ready to leave. Pond in back with ducks.

We went to Winn-Dixie and got water a few groceries. Then we stopped at the produce stand  

Jim got firewood and I got all this produce. 

When we got back I heated up our Thanksgiving food,  for some reason I was so hungry for, we ate  outside. Jim lit some Cowboy charcoal,  we grilled some veggies consisting of green beans and then yellow and green squash and some onion. Then we grilled some chicken on it too.

Then he dumped the hot coals in the fire pit and started a fire. I wanted a little extra turkey so we found a big Frozen turkey breast and put it in the instant pot outside. We'll make a few meals out of that and some soup. 

We had some of the grilled  veggies and smoked pork for dinner on Mini slider buns. The pork was from when he smoked it at Steve's house. As it slowly got dark and cooled off  I came inside while Jim  had a fire. I emptied the dishwasher that I ran earlier put everything away and started an instant pot full of yogurt.

Jim came in at 8, I think he over did a little today, he was hurting a little, but there is no stopping him.

Day of REST

Well we woke up at 630 am again. It took a good 20 minutes for him to be able to figure out how to get out of bed. We only had the fireplace on last night.  Low last night was 58.

He sat on a bar stool at the end of island, had coffee. He said it felt better on the stool. I made breakfast for him, pancakes and sausage and I had my oatmeal. He moved to the recline. We watched a little weather report 

I washed the towels and hung them out on the chairs on our patio. I got ready to go walk with the KOA activity lady and a small group of campers, we walked every road, total she said  was 1  1/2 miles good start. At the end I took pic of this beautiful palm tree, has a blueish hue. 

I went back to RV checked on Jim, he was doing well. I cleaned the FW for two hours, was so dusty especially in the kitchen, HOW can it be so dusty when we just drove through all that snow.

Jim showered first time in 2 days.

I heated up the leftovers from Sunny's BBQ for our lunch. Was really good.

We sat outside for awhile was so nice, sunny. High was 65 degrees. 

I washed 2 more loads. We walked up to the pool to check it out. They say it was 80 degrees. We both put our feet in. Was fantastic. Might go in Sunday going to be 80 outsider, not just pool temp. 

There were 2 couples there we chatted with for a bit. After they left, Jim sat in chair and I trimmed his toe nails. They really needed it, he definitely can't do it. 

We came back got the trash, and we walked it up together. Then we walked over to the store's next door, lady I chatted with on the walk said they closed a Dollar General and Save a Lot  which I really liked over there. She was right.

We walked back, by then he was really ready to sit down. He sat outside a bit more. While he did that I went out in the freezer brought in a few more premade meals. Then I got supplies out and washed the dirt off back window, and some dust off the sides.

I heated up some pre frozen ham and bean soup. And we shared half Mantias pizza, funny there from Save a Lot.

Told neighbors behind us we enjoyed watching there fire out our big back window. They said come on over.

We watched a little TV. Jim's friend Bryon called, I took my hot tea I made said I'd be right back and I walked over talked with campers that had a fire.

When I got back  took a shower   we had a snack and I went to bed early ish again. Was another early morning. 

Finally Beautiful Travel Day

Jim woke up at 6:30 a.m. I was sort of awake too. He was still in a lot of pain, it was very hard for him to get up. We started getting ready and I made breakfast. We took a walk around the campground to make sure we went the right direction to leave . It was 40 degrees when we got in the truck. We pulled out at 8:34 a.m. 

I was texting both my sisters, they were together in Gainesville, we plan to meet later once we arrived at the campground. Jim pre-programmed a fuel stop. But we decided to go to one a Little Closer, when the fuel gets too low makes us nervous. I ate my oatmeal in line at the truck stop Jim had a banana. We both went inside for the bathroom, too hard for him to pull the steps out. When we left I said the RV GPS is going to take us to the other truck stop that he programmed before we left. He said we'll just drive by it and then it'll reroute us. We thought it was a good plan, but we totally forgot and when it said turn we turned. So then we had to go into a very busy Pilot and he made a u-turn right inside and got back on the highway. It only delayed our arrival time by 4 minutes or so. 

We love to see this sign.

We saw these 2 planes while driving Jim thinks they were A10's

We arrived at Starke KOA in Stark Florida at 12:30.

We paid extra for a beautiful Deluxe site. 

We did a minimal setup he wanted to take the golf cart out that I said not to, too much work. That I can't Do. Christine and Cecilia arrived around 1:30 ish they went for a walk around the campground give me a few more minutes to do a few things. 

Then we went for lunch together, just the three of us, Jim was not up for it and stayed home to rest and self-medicate. 

The 3 of us when they dropped me off. 

We had a lovely chat had lunch at Sonny's BBQ I brought big container home for Jim will be enough for lunch tomorrow for us.

It was chicken, brisket, pulled pork, ribs, baked beans, corn muffin, French fries was there sampler. 
 

He came in to eat after they left then  fell asleep in his chair I did some laundry, took trash out,  watched a little TV.

Was a lot better day today. 

Leaving Carolina Crossroads RV Resort In Roanoke Rapids NC heading to The Oaks at Point South in Yemassee SC

We both woke up at 630, Jim still has alot of back pain from his fall on the ice. 

We slowly got moving putting things away. I made chicken wraps for our lunches and made us both eggs and maple chicken sausage for breakfast, I fried 3 of the little new potatoes from last nights dinner with some onions for Jim too.

Then it started to rain, lightly then got heavier and back to light, even sometimes stopping a bit.

Guess we shouldn't have bothered washing the truck and RV. 

While hooking up, the rear slider window on truck it opens won't shut, he had hard time backing up to pin when he can't open window. It has tint on it too, that doesn't help. Looks cool. But we both hate looking out of it. We had it taken off the driver and passenger side windows. We had to put this plastic coated cardboard poster of western boots in the open window to drive.

We got in truck was 39 degrees, left at 940. We stopped at a rest area, just after 12. Really hurts Jim's back to pull steps out. I tryed to help where I could. When I went in FW check battery use percentage. Was still at 100, OH NO told Jim fridge was off again. The inverter was off again, he took care of that, should be good now. But man that scared me, that ment the freezer was off too. Was back on at 11:57.

Jim saw our first palm trees today. 

We drove another half hour or so, ate the wraps I made while driving. The drive went pretty well today. 

We drove out of the rain in less the 2 hours. It was beautiful and sunny, needed our sun glasses. The high we saw today was 65 degrees. 

We were looking for a fuel stop, trying to find on the new Garmin RV GPS. Big learning curve for me, since I'm trying to figure it out while he drives. He does preprogrammed stops on it. Im A terrible navigation person, I will be the first to admit that. He knows I'm not good at it, but he is so nice about it.

Between the GPS and billboards we found a Love's. I went in to pay, he could barely move. 

We filled up fuel and left. We had less then hour drive left when we left Love's.

Arrived at The Oaks at Point South TT, I went in. Guy from PA just came out, said Hi fellow PA, he had Penn State shirt on, he said hi you need a mask to go in, back to the truck.

I checked in she,   remembered my message I said we're the Price's as in the Price is Right, otherwise they hear something else.. I told her of our travel time we had, how Jim was hurting, she is an RN. She had a few tips. She gave us a bigger site so we wouldn't have to unhook. We pulled in, did bare minimum set up, I helped where I could. 

Got Jim inside and as comfortable as he could be. He got our YouTube TV to local channels. I made him beef cubes and noodles in the IP.  I ate leftover vegetable soup and grilled chicken and egg on salad. I made paleo chocolate chip cookies. We watched little TV.

I found a video on YouTube of a guy fixing the window.  We watched it, Jim found a Ford dealer where we are going next. He can get one and install it. Didn't look that hard, he just can't do stuff now.

I saw our temp gadge, that the outside front compart freezer was 56. It has not worked for 2 weeks, just didn't get to change batteries yet, since I'm in it alot. Well since it was on and off, with the inverter thing, I said I'm going out to check it. He normally would have just done it,, but he couldn't move.  I would worry, so I went out.. Had to move a million chairs that are in front of it. OK got the controller, changed batteries, still not working but the freezer is fine. I brought a few things in while I was out there. 

Came in, washed dishes helped get Jim to bed after he programmed the GPS.

A much better day today wish, he didn't have such pain, I feel so bad for him.

Our site at The Oaks, RV is not bad, but truck really looks dirty.

First Travel Day

First Travel Day

Leaving from Lebanon Pennsylvania at Sycamore Hill RV heading to Carolina Crossroads RV Resort in NC.

That was the plan, normally a 5 1/2 hour drive and we never made it there.....

We left Lebanon at 820 am everything was fine, until we were 15 miles away from D.C..Then we got into snow. We were in the truck from 8:20 am until 6:30 that night never getting out of the truck once. Because there was nowhere to go. They just showed it on the news as I'm writing this blog. and we lived it. Snow covered roads, Fallen trees, car spun out, down power lines. First time driving this rig after Dark, we had no choice. Just glad wasn't later.

First time I ever wished we had a motorhome, why you ask, well because they have a bathroom I could have gotten to. Let's just say some stuff happened in the truck that we will not discuss any further.

It was stop and go traffic, more stop then go. There was nowhere to go, no place to get off.

Took 3 hours to go 5 miles, most of that was the ramp to exit.  He found a Wal-Mart. I said bet you never thought we would be boondocking tonight, and we so happy to find a place to pull off. The WM was on left side we pulled into a Lowe's parking lot in Garrisonville, VA. They had spots plowed we pulled along side huge snow pile. We walked to a Hardee's,  was so cold, 20 something degrees. They were closed,, talked to an employees who was shoveling out her car. They were not expecting what they had, they were not prepared for it.. walked back on sheets of ice,, we just drove over.. Put out BR slide. Jim went to put genny on, I heard it running wouldn't come on. Our surge protector said faulty ground and open ground. He worked and worked on it, nothing. Batteries were getting low. Didn't want to let AGM Batteries go under 50%. Had the heat on a little, Jim was so cold from doing all that. 

We were afraid if we put the slides out we couldn't get them back in if the batteries went too low. I suggested we turn off the inverter so the fridge and our outdoor freezer would not run. To save batteries for the a.m. so that is what we did. We had the bed out a little bit but we put it in right before we went to bed. Got the Arctic sleeping bag we had underneath the bed,  put on top of our heavy comforter kept 

Our warm clothes on. 

There were a few plows and trucks outside cleaning the parking lot a little more . I found some food in the fridge didn't plan as well as I should have . Without having the kitchen slide out I had some chicken already grilled and some flat tater tots that I made in a pan for Jim . I heated up some veggie soup for myself . We hardly ate anything today . But we were a lot better off than those people still on the highway . There was one other RV near us which made us feel better. Went to bed about 9:30.

Never got a picture of area we parked, to cold stressful, alot going on.

Lesson Learned look at national weather forecast way ahead of departure day. 

Better bathroom in truck, lol

Bring more food in the truck, I had lunch made. In fridge, but we couldn't get to it. Thank goodness I had protein bars, and plenty of water.

When you test run the generator aka genny, test it with a load on. 

Day 2. Tuesday January 4, 2022

We both woke up at 7:30. We slept a lot better than we thought we would considering it was 36 degrees in the RV. Amazingly I was not cold at all except for if my Face was out too much. I love my head covered anyway. Jim was cold when his face was out to much. 

It was cold when we got out of bed though, was 14 degrees outside. but we didn't have to get dressed. I had a  hat on and we both had hooded sweat shirts on, hoods up. I heated water made coffee. Jim looked at phone to see what roads were open. 95 was closed. He found a bypass around it. I packed more food, still had his sandwich ready from yesterday, grabbed my refrigerator oatmeal. Jim went for a walk out to the light to see how traffic was, he took a bad fall on the ice and wreached his back. We ran the truck long time to warm up, couldn't plug in last night. We left at 930 ish. Lowe's was open, way more traffic than I thought would be with the road conditions. Was thick frozen slush, that was so ruff. No red lights were working.  GPS took us through a main road through housing development. Was BAD, alot spun out or stuck on the side of the road. Trees down, we had to make a tight left turn. Till he got to the top of hill he was sliding. I had to get out of the truck and go ask 2 cars behind us to backup a little so we could too and get a running start. They did, and he did AWESOME. I walked around the corner. Off we went again.

 It took about 45 minutes or so to get to highway, back to 95. It was alot of slow and stop and go traffic. Then roads cleared snow was less and less, the temperature went up alittle. We really had to get fuel, was getting SOoooo low. Never got any yesterday, after we drove 8 hours.

We found a Flying J , we only had 56 miles to empty. That was nerve racking. A guy was at the entrance directing traffic that was very helpful. He pulled into the first fuel lane, no diesel hoes on drives side there, I again had to ask the truck behind us to back up a little too. I said you can go first, he said,  be better if you did. Everyone was so nice. We backup up and he ate his sandwich and then pumped fuel. I went inside to pay, a customer said wow an hour ago there was 100 people in here. So finally we had good timing. I ate my oatmeal while we figured out how to get out of there, he was still directing traffic. 

Once we got on the highway we had about a 2 1/2 hour drive. 

We arrived at Carolina Crossroads RV Resort at 3ish.

Which was supposed to be our first stop last night.Talked with people from PA as soon as we arrived they were heading back now. They saw salt on our RV, wanted to know if we were in the mess that was on the news. 

What a difference a day makes.

We got a great gazebo site.

He unhooked,  leveled. And went to get diesel. His back was really hurting. I went in and got 2 Instant pots going for dinner. One deer meat, the 3 qt, had carrots, new potatoes, onions, celery, green beans in microwave. While it cooked, together we washed salt off of the truck and RV. 

  Before pictures will take after tomorrow am.

We came in ate, so really for good hot meal, so good. Didn't get picture of it. Jim took a shower and I did this blog. We talked to a few  people on the phone who were worried about  us when they saw the news. 

Watched TV saw Channel 8 with traffic jam. 

I showered washed dishes watched a little TV. 

Tomorrow is the big DAY

Tomorrow is the big DAY

This is our last night at Sycamore Hill RV, out spot.

Really is a nice spot, but looking forward to having 50 amp again, and getting out from under this tree that when it rains drips so loud  from the branches.

Tomorrow is the big day and we head to Florida. Jim's last working day was Thursday the 30th. I picked him up at work, so he could leave work van there. The 3 heads of the company all came out to say goodbye to us. That was SO nice.

 I had to go next door to eye doctor for drops for me.

For New Year's Eve we went over to Jim's friend Brian AKA Byron, he took the truck and I had the car. I made lasagna soup in the instant pot,  they made wings and their new air fryer and a few other things. We had a nice chat and some food. And I took the car back to the RV Jim stayed the night with him to ring in the New Year.

In the morning I went over to pick him up, we left my car there AKA, my storage shed it's so full. A lot of things that we just didn't need to bring with us to Florida. It's so nice of them to keep my car for us.

 We had a lot of stuff to do in the last week.  We had to get all of our medication at the drugstore, go to the dentist, take truck in for pre travel service. I prepped a lot of food, went to two grocery stores, got my hair and nails done did laundry. Today I packed our lunch for tomorrow's travel day and have a quick breakfast ready to go in the morning for him and I. Refrigerator oatmeal. Yea he won't be eating that, not manly enough I guess.

  Got our new Garmin RV GPS working. 

Right now Jim's dumping and putting the hoses away and it's after Dark the time is 7:40 Thomas, Kerri and Sarah just left they stopped for a minute I gave Thomas a birthday card,  he has a birthday in 7 days. 

We are about to watch Yellowstone.

We went out to lunch at a new Chinese place in Harrisburg with Jim's mother today. They have a fish pond inside.

 Stopped at Camping World to see if they had a TPMS 1 tire sensor not working right. Of course they didn't have any. Then on the way home we stopped at Travis's apartment  said Hi to them, Mia was still there, 

they both got to hug Grandma. I got hugs from my boy.  He just got home from playing golf.

The other fun thing I got to do with Travis on Tuesday the 28th I went car shopping with him. We went to a few different places till we found a Honda Fit. He wanted a Honda, cuz then Thomas can work on it. We had lunch together at Ruby Tuesday's. You can see his car under the wreath on the building. It was a fun day,  and we  spend 6 hours together.

Then we stopped at a grocery store on the way she wanted water. We only had a couple things to grab. He filled her gas tank up then, After we dropped her at her house we came home. We started putting a lot of stuff away inside. He wants to leave at 8 am. I got one load of laundry done I'll do the rest with 50 amp tomorrow night. We took showers there's only a few things we didn't get to do. One was washing the truck, and putting the problem slide in before dark. But it has been raining for the last 2 days. Rained all night last night wasn't too bad during the day today 58 degrees, of course when we leave tomorrow it's going to be really cold. 

This was a recap of the last week or so. But I didn't have things in the correct order as they occurred, but doesn't really matter.

So excited to get on the road tomorrow.