Happy New Year

For us (and many of our RV Friends), another year equals more travel plans.

For us, we hope to be in Sacramento area by end of March, and in May start off on our third try for the far north…but we all know how plans change.   So this year our plan includes “Jello”.  Which means we will build in many choices from just into Canada, or Canada and Hyder Alaska, or to the full dream trip of Fairbanks, Anchorage, Homer, Valdez, Skagway, Stewart, Hyder, etc.  We sure hope to do it all, the entire 20,000 mile trip which has been mapped out over and over again.

We have been home now for 19 days, Marcia has one of three doctor appointments out of the way.  We went over to see her brother Dean and his wife Caryl in Lake Mary for a few days, and we are both officially over our colds.  Bubba went to the groomer today, and I will groom Skruffy next week.

And if you have not gotten the message by now … we hope EVERYONE has a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR!

Tis The Season to be Jolly

A couple of days away from Christmas, and many are scrambling to get everything bought, wrapped, shipped and/or cooked for the big “day”.  Well, today I want you to take a break, sit down with a hot cup of whatever, and enjoy a few Christmas funnies with me….

Dogs, and pets in general, always make Christmas a blast!

And this next one is for Skruffy…..

Then there are the Snowman Jokes….

And the Santa Jokes…

Marcia would say that this next one is for me…

And for the older people….

And the younger ones…

This Christmas, I hope you can enjoy something…the Christmas songs, the Christmas music, family or friends, giving and/or receiving, or 80 degree weather like our forecast here in Florida .  But PLEASE, do remember what the day, what the season is all about.  

Through him one can truly find peace, comfort and the most precious thing of all, love…through him, we gain the greatest gift of all.

Test Posting of New Open Source Live Writer

Many of the Bloggers who use Google’s Blogger use a non-Google program to write their blogs, and then post them Blogger.

Microsoft has a free program called Live Writer.  Many use that program, however….

In early December Live Writer and other programs would not authenticate with Google’s Blogger, hence, we could not mover our blogs over to Blogger to publish.

Well, Microsoft released Live Writer out to the world of Open Source, and on the same day Google turned off access (ability to post using the new or the old Live Writer) until the new Open Source Live Writer could meet the proper authentification methods demanded by Google.  The Open Soure team worked hard for a good ten days to make this happen, and it finally happened yesterday.  This blog is my test to be sure it works, and as you can see from my different sizes and shapes of pictures, and text styles, it seems to be working great.  So Microsoft Live Writer has been replaced by Open Source Live Writer, and for me, as you can tell above, it does everything the Microsoft version was doing.  Now, as an Open Source, I think we will see additions and improvements over time.

All I can say is that I am glad it went down now and not during our trip to Washington State.  All of these pictures on the test post were taken in Washington along the west side of Olympic National Park, in the City of La Push within the Quileute Indian Reservation.

 Test Over

PS:  Health Update:   We stayed home from Church Sunday and Wednesday.  I am feeling real good, Marcia is still coughing, at times a bit hard.  We rescheduled a few meetings with others for lunch, etc.   I have 90+% of the items transferred from motorhome to condo, got our car and RV registrations done for the year, renewed Marcia’s ADA placard for parking, paid bills, cleaned ceiling fans, changed A/C filters, and we still have a bunch of cleaning up.  Since Marcia got this crude about 6 days after I did, I figure she will be out and about again by Sunday. 

Home For The Holidays...

 

Well, not like that....we live in Florida.  The only white stuff we will see is if we go out on the beach, pick up some sand and tossed it in the air.  Anyway, we got "ok" sleep at the rest area...ok only because this cold lingers on...creeps up on you during the evening hours and attacks right when you want to lay your head down on the pillow.  During the entire trip I have played ping-pong with the bed and the Lazy-Boy chair at night.  Last night I had not coughed for over an hour while on the chair, so I sneaked into the bed, laid my head down and COUGH COUGH COUGH, and woke up Marcia who COUGHED COUGHED COUGHED, so I sneaked back out to the chair before she could find a weapon.  Three hours (or more) later I sneaked back into the bed for a few hours of sleep until the 6 am alarm went off.   That was 6 am central, and I think the eastern time zone was on the other end of the rest area.  Anyway, we hit the road by 7:30 eastern time and rolled into the condo complex just after 2 pm.  By 5, with much, not all, of the stuff unloaded, we were tucking the motorhome into storage for three months (except when we might take a short local trip).  Cost for three months was $240, included dump station, RV wash, many video cameras that do work, and secure gate with 24 hour access.  It also came with a sore back, sore legs, sore arms, sore feet and more coughing.

Note to family on west coast:  When it is 9 pm there, it is midnight here.  Yes, one of us is normally up that late, but not always.  Just remember that when it is 7 am here, it is 4 am there.   

Back in Florida, Home Tomorrow

 

 

By the time I finished my doctor appointment on Thursday, and we got back and dumped the tanks, hooked up the car and left Maumelle Park, it was around 1:30.  Doctor wanted a full blood workup again, to compare with my 2011 levels, and the blood test area was swamped…it took nearly 45 minutes to do this time.   As figured we made it to Vicksburg just after night fall.  Left Vicksburg a little after 7:00 this morning, and made it to a nice Florida rest area 30 miles west of Tallahassee by 5 pm (6 pm Eastern time…the time change is right near here.)  That’s 660 miles in just under 30 hours…which is a lot now days.  (In my younger days, I (with another driver) would knock out a trip from Kansas City area to Sacramento area in 30 hours...that’s over 1,700 miles)  Should be home by 1:00 (ET) and have made arrangements for storage at our usual place…which, by-the-way, is nearly full -- after the fire two years ago, that is a good sign.

Note:  Stayed at the Mississippi Welcome Center in Vicksburg. Sign says no overnight parking, but we have stayed here before, there is security, and a rest area is for needed rest, and we sure needed to rest.  Tonight we are at a rest area in Florida which, like all Florida rest areas, has night security.  This is near mile marker 162, accommodates both east and west bound, but it is large, multi-level...have stayed here in just a car when traveling back and forth between Arkansas and Florida during our first year of marriage when Marcia need to be in Florida. 
 

For my Sis…

Sister Sandy, saw this picture and just had to take it, just for you. 

Do you see why yet????

How about now???? 

Do you see it yet????

Now you see it…actually them.  Took the doggies out for a walk this afternoon and ran back in to get the camera when I saw these SEVEN turtles sunning on this log.  (Of course, you can almost count the reflection as Turtles too, which would make it fourteen.)

    

Here are the seven, three in the first shot (upper left), four in the next shot (upper right), and that little thing on the long log in the middle did not turn out to be a baby turtle, just part of the log.

As I was getting a picture of the turtles, I hear a pounding from above…and after awhile this little guy settled down for some banging and pounding in a position that I could finally get a picture of him.

Reminded me of when I lived in the the 5th wheel in Pine Bluff before I retired…use to see these little guys all day long, especially in the winter when the leaves where off the trees.  Gotta love them woodpeckers!

Speaking of Pine Bluff, every year we come to Little Rock we make it a point to see Mike and Jana, and this time we had dinner at Olive Garden.  Jana worked for me at the Library, and was one of the best staff members I ever hired.  Marcia and I were able to attend their wedding back in 2011, and we just really enjoy seeing them.  We were in Olive Garden for about three hours, and could have stayed for many more hours had we not needed to get back to the doggies, and they back to their doggies down by Pine Bluff.

Saw this good looking guy too….he was really singing away.   Tomorrow is my appointment with the doctor, and we head out of town for Florida as soon as we can after the appointment.  As for our colds, we are much better, but this cold seems to linger on, and mornings are the worse after laying down through the night. We plan to make Vicksburg tomorrow night, near Tallahassee on Friday night, and home by early afternoon on Saturday.

Back in Central Arkansas

Every year we come to Arkansas for my $20 medical checkup at UAMS (University Arkansas Medical Sciences).  Every year we stay at the Maumelle Campground, a Corp of Engineer campground.  We had planned to stop in Fort Smith on Saturday and leave Fort Smith on Tuesday…but Marcia is still not feeling the best, I have had moments of relapse (which last just a short time period), so we canceled our visits and drove straight to Little Rock last Saturday.  We have done little the past two days outside of letting the dogs out, a visit to a Kroger’s and to Walmart for me, and Marcia has made some wonderful split pea soup using the ham bone from the Thanksgiving dinner. 

The park is nearly empty, and we are parked in the same spot we were in last year from what I can tell.  Most of our neighbors are using the long-term UAMS medical visit sites, and there is little action coming from these RV’s.

On this side of us are a few more RV’s which are not using the UAMS sites.  Our five night visit cost $65 with our National Park Pass.  Definitely no need for reservations this time of year.

The dogs always love this park.  Grass (lots of leave this time of year), and all sorts of bird noises through the day.  To us, it is the quietest park we have been in since our trip to Washington State where we stayed at some very quiet, remote locations as we went around Olympic National Park.

A few cars have driven by, and a few dog walkers have walked by, but for the most part there have been few other visitors.  And with the Arkansas River behind us, I figures we would hear an occasional boat…but the river is so high I don’t even think barges are traveling up and down the river.

As the two river photos show….it is peaceful and quiet and a great place for recuperating from this early winter cold we both are successfully trying to shake.