Sun, Lights, Laundry, and King Crab

Wednesday - Saturday December 26-29, 2012

The last few days I have had a cold, really sucks!  Seems it is finally going away now.  We really haven’t done much except just relax.  We did get laundry done on Wednesday which was the first since we left the north.  Thursday we went out and got wine and found King Crab Legs on sale for $16 a pound!  We bought 2 pounds of the legs and ate them on Friday night.  Friday we went to Wal-Mart to try and get after season Christmas lights with no luck.  We did however get three 16 foot blue rope lights.  We put them up on Friday afternoon with a timer so they come on and go off automatically.  They look really warm and inviting at night.

Our Chinese rose is doing real well.  At last count it had 12 blooms on it with 4 in full color now.  Up north we have only had maybe 2 full blooms a year.

This  frog appeared on a window near the hot tub Saturday night.  First time we have seen on of these in the wild.

Next event is the New Year’s Eve Party here at the RV park.

I have been thinking that I would figure out just what we have done since full time RVing for the end of the year.  Just finished that and I am thinking that I will do a summary of our year in 2013 as we have done a lot!  

2012 Statistics:

Remodeled a Bath room in January

Remodeled a Family room in January

2 week Florida Vacation in April – May

Repaired a Septic line in May

Had mold removed from attic in May

Rented a truck and hauled house stuff to Indiana in May

Rented a truck and moved in to the beach house in May

Got Driver’s licenses in South Dakota in June

Sold a house in June

Bought a Big Ass Truck (BAT) in June

Bought a 40 foot 5^th wheel in June

Began living in the RV August 4^th

Number of Campgrounds: 35

·         Miles Traveled:

o   RV: 7,226

o   Truck and RV combined: 9,100

Number of States: 16 Camped, 20 Traveled, and Mexico Traveled

Average number of days at each Campground: 4

Campgrounds:
Name:	Dates:	Address:	Number of Nights:
Rob & Cindy’s	8/4-15/12	Keyport, NJ	11
Cortland's Country Music Park	8/15-17/12	Cortland, NY	1
Cinderella Camp Ground	8/17-26/12	Grand Island, NY	9
River Trail Crossing	8/26-28/12	Butler, OH	2
Sugar Creek Camp Ground	8/28 – 9/4/12	Crawfordville, IN	8
Cutty's De Moines Camping Club	9/4-5/12	Grimes, IO	1
Sunny Meadows Campground	9/5-6/12	Elm Creek, NE	1
RV World Campground	9/6-8/12	Rawlins, WY	2
Pony Express	9/8-12/12	Salt lake City, UT	4
Garrity RV Park	9/12-13/12	Nampa, ID	1
Scandia RV Park	9/13-16/12	Bend, OR	3
River Bend RV Resort	9/16-27/12	Harrisburg, OR	11
Guaranty RV Sales	9/27-28/12	Junction City, OR	1
Crater Lake Resort	9/28 – 10/1/12	Fort Klamath, OR	3
Klamath RV Park	10/1-4/12	Klamath, CA	3
Sonoma County Fair Grounds	10/4-7/12	Santa Rosa, CA	3
Marin RV Park	10/7-11/12	Greenbrae, CA	4
Summerville Almond Tree RV Park	10/7-13/12	Coalinga, CA	2
Caliente Springs	10/13-17/12	Desert Hot Springs, CA	4
La Paz Valley RV Park	10/17-19/12	Quartzsite, AZ	2
Roe and Don’s House	10/19-22/12	Phoenix AZ	3
Destiny RV Resort	10/22-24/12	Goodyear, AZ	2
Kofa Ko-Op	10/24-30/12	Yuma, AZ	6
Phoenix Metro RV Park	10/30 – 11/2	Phoenix AZ	3
Sundance 1	11/2-4/12	Casa Grande AZ	2
Dream Catcher RV Park	11/4-5/12	Deming, NM	1
Saddleback RV park	11/5-6/12	Balmorhea, TX	1
By The River RV Park	11/6-8/12	Kerrville, TX	2
Houston East RV Resort	11/8-10/12	Houston, TX	2
Mardi Gras RV Park	11/10-13/12	New Orleans, LA	3
Rivers Edge RV Campground	11/13-15/12	Holt, FL	2
Yogi Bears Jellystone Park	11/15-16/12	Madison, FL	1
Ponderosa RV Park	11/16-17/12	Kissimmee, FL	1
Sunshine Holiday MHCC Resort	11/17-19/12	Fort Lauderdale, FL	2
Non-RV: RV & Truck Stored in FL	11/20-26/12	Buffalo, NY Area	6
Non-RV: RV & Truck Stored in FL	11/27 – 12/6/12	Crawfordsville, IN/ Indianapolis, IN	10
Non-RV: RV & Truck Stored in FL	12/7-8/12	Newtown, PA	1
Non-RV: RV & Truck Stored in FL	12/8-14/12	Keyport, NJ Area	6
Non-RV: RV & Truck Stored in FL	12/14-17/12	Buffalo, NY Area	3
Seminole RV Resort	12/18-31/12	Davie, FL	14

Stay tuned!

Christmas Eve and Day

Monday - Tuesday December 24-25, 2012   

Christmas Eve for us was mostly about the park party in the evening.  The day was a very nice 80 degrees and with just a few clouds.  We baked in the sun for a bit and then took a short nap before the party.

The party was put on by the French Canadian crowd here.  We believe everyone in the park was invited so we got to meet everyone who is here now.  More people will show up in the next couple of weeks.  Anyway, I would guess that there are about 70 people here now with 50 of those being French and the remaining English speaking.  As one would imagine, the English speaking gathered together for dinner.

The main dinner item was a whole chicken for each couple; singles got a half chicken.  These chickens were huge, enough to feed 4-5 people.  So, one person of each couple got in line for the chicken which was split for you when it was your turn.  You then take the bird back to your table and both of us carve off what we wanted.  The sides were on a separate table with its own line.   Each of us brought our own place settings.  We had wine as usual which we needed to purchase from the bar.  A bottle of wine was just $14 so it was very reasonable.  Overall the meal and company were excellent.

The Christmas Eve party around the pool.

Hot tub at the park.

 After dinner most of the French danced and socialized to live French music.  We, on the other hand, went to the hot tub and also talked with many groups of people as we usually do.  As with most places, people of like minds tend to group together which is especially true with 2 languages.  In the process, we managed to polish off a second bottle of wine and by around 11 were back in our RV.

Christmas was mostly just doing our usual morning routine of internet and coffee.   This morning though we slept in until 8:30.  We also watched some of the Disney Christmas parades on TV.  I also took it upon myself to program the universal remote control.  

We have a really good remote that we got a few years ago that we took with us to the RV.  However I just never felt like programming it after we started traveling.  Well, after stopping here in Florida, I finally figured out how all of the entertainment equipment works.  We had surround sound but didn't investigate how to turn it on and mostly we didn't care either.  But now it was time to figure that out and I did that a few days ago.  This now means that we need 3 remote controls (Sat/DVR, TV, DVD/Audio) to watch TV!  Time to program the single remote! It took me about 3 hours to program the remote to handle all of the devices but, it is all done now.  It really isn't hard to do the programming, it just takes time and focus to figure out just how you want the remote to work for you. 

We went to the pool in the afternoon for awhile for more sun.  After, we stopped by a new friend’s (Bruce) RV, a 69 Gulfstream which he is restoring.   He invited us to a Christmas dinner and get together he was doing later in the evening.  He was in the middle of cooking a turkey and vegetables as well as other ethnic food from Newfoundland where he is from.   He makes his own wine and beer so we had some of his wine and talked for a bit.  It was very good wine!

Monkey Island just behind our RV.  There are no more monkeys on the island.  The last one, Chip, was taken off in 2006.

A very ugly snapping turtle in the water around monkey island.

We went back to Bruce’s later that evening and had dinner with a group of new friends.  Most are here for just the season as we are, but some are full time residents here.  After dark we lit a fire and one of the guys, Dan, played a guitar and sang.  Patty got her guitar and played and sang some too.  It was great night!

Dan playing and singing Christmas night.

Tomorrow we need to do laundry.  Hopefully we can get a water volleyball game going in the afternoon.

Stay tuned!