One week to go

Our hitch itch is rising fast now. This is Sunday the 25th and we leave in 6 days on Saturday morning the first of November. Kathy is still working and I am doing the long list of things to get ready for a long trip. Yesterday I greased the leveling jacks and lubricated the slide-out mechanism. Monday I'll finish straightening out the basement storage bays and test the generator for proper operation. Kathy is finishing up the laundry and straightening up the inside of our home on wheels each evening after work. I know we are close when I put the towing gear on the car late this week and turn in all our park issued stuff like keys and uniforms. The weather here is awesome! Cool evenings and warm sunny days in the low 80's. Perfect fall weather. We're not sorry to leave though because the cold and snow and wind is just around the corner.
I started to gather up the books we use when we travel like several maps, The Next Exit which tells us all the stuff at the interstate exits, our travel log book for daily travel entries, and new this year, our new Ipad with lots of campground locator apps and several GPS apps. We'll take 2 weeks to travel almost 1500 miles with stops in Valentine, NE; McCook, NE; Amarillo, TX; Roswell, NM; Deming, NM; and then arriving in Benson, AZ for our winter work assignment at Butterfield's Campground. We have a lot of touring to pack into this short 2 weeks and I hope to blog daily during some of it.

A beautiful lazy Sunday

Today is the best and warmest weather for several days. After 30's at nite and rain and clouds for 2 days, we have been blessed with an awesome fall day. Sunshine all day and high in the lo 80's make for a perfect day to either loaf or do some of the projects Kathy has for me to get ready to move south for the Winter. I did both. Several projects like cleaning out our slide side compartments, putting the large front bra on the motor home, and dumping the black tank led to several hours of sleeping in my chair. It just doesn't get much better than that! We are 10 days away from heading out towards Arizona and our Winter gig at Butterfield's in Benson. 3 days on and 3 days off is hardly much work after what we have been through this Summer. It should give us plenty of time to explore that part of Arizona and report on it on Living the RV Dream. I made a big mistake after the last show by posting the previous week's audio file. I have edited the posting now and all is as it should be. It must be all this week-day work stuff.

More Pictures from the Needles Highway

These are some more pictures from our trip on the Needles Highway.As you can see, the road is narrow, but most people made room for us. The tunnel is one of three on this route and is 10 feet wide by 12 feet high. The small lake is Sylvan Lake at the end of the Needles Highway.

Another week

Another week has gone by and I can hardly believe that only 3 more weeks and we will be heading to Benson, AZ. I am really looking forward to getting on the road again. This last week has been busy for us. There is a lot to do to close down a park. I have learned so much about the maintenance of a park. The 4 man maintenance department here a Hart Ranch has answered 1844 service calls since May 1st. That's water issues, electrical problems, washing machine and dryer problems, even to helping find lost people. The had a lot of people that didn't know there own rig and how to get the TV to work or their WiFi. We had people plugging their electric cords into the wrong recepticals, but that's life at a RV park.
This last week I have gotten tired of beading and decided to start doing some more of my genology. So, I pulled out the books and starting looking into my grandparents. You know it is such fun just to have something interesting to do. I have been working on this thing on and off for 15 years. I discovered my Mott side back to 1670 in the Great Neck of Virginia and the Jungjohann's to the 1840's in Iowa they came from the Schwige/Holstein section of Germany. Then there was my dad;s mom a Mccammon. The last time I look which was about 4 years ago I was stuck on her grandfather Thomas Paskins Mccammon. Well, I found him and the one before him was Samuel Mccammon in Kentucky. Anyway, Thomas was buried in NE and we will stop in that little town on our way south. Having some kind of hobby or actually having several hobbies really can give focus to the RV lifestyle.
Sept 11 just passed and I watched all the action on the TV. I was amazed at all the people that we never heard of until now. I hope we never forget that day, but I also hope we will move forward with our lives and live as if today was the last day of our life and live it with meaning. Helping someone else always brings some kind of blessing. Just a thought. Till next week Happy Camping, Kathy

A Sunday Road Trip

Today is the tenth anniversary of the attacks on New York and Washington by Muslim terrorists. Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the victims and the heroes who saved so many and so many of them died trying to save more.

We got up this morning and decided to do a road trip to Custer State Park and especially the Needles Highway. We last traveled this road in 2006 and I wanted to take new pictures and also try out the "Buddy Night-Owl" video camera from tt-i. I talked about it on our radio show but we haven't had a chance to try it out. There it is stuck on the windshield as we travel. The video was great after I downloaded a new video player that can handle HD. Once I figure out how to edit the video, I'll try to post some of it.



These pinnacles are also called "the needles". The next picture is of the "Needle's Eye". This was a great road trip on an equally great day, sunshine and high in the 90's.

Winding Down

The camping season here at Hart Ranch is winding down with the closure of the Activities Department this week and the pool on Monday. Shortly after that the store will close for the season, but not without a super sale on Hart Ranch merchandise of 50% off. We couldn't resist that one. This week has been the best weather of the year with mid 80's daytime and lo 50's at night. We moved off our seasonal site yesterday as that part of the park will be shut down and winterized soon. Charley has a whole new set of smells and new friends here to get used to. The move reminded us of all the things we must do to get our motor home road ready. We have a list now and with only three weeks remaining, we are doing a little each day to get ready to depart.

Get out the Space Heraters!

This morning, the temperature dropped to 42 degrees and we were COLD! Then Kathy said ever so sweetly, "Honey, will you take the dog out?" Brrr! After I came back in I found one of our space heaters and plugged it in so it would heat the bedroom and bathroom. There have been times I would welcome 42 degrees as a relief, but not 2 days after 95 degrees. Down to 50 tonite so extra blanket time is here. We sure are snowbirds now!!
About 25 days to go now and "Hitch Itch" has hit us both. We're looking forward to hitting the road again, even if only for a few weeks. Amarillo, TX and Roswell, NM are definite on the itinerary and we will expand that as we get closer to departure.
My sons bought me a weather station for my birthday and I'm trying to figure out how to mount it. This is something I have wanted for several years now. This one has wind speed and direction as well as a host of other weather stuff on the display. I am ever the gadgeteer.
More in a couple of days.

Last Holiday Weekend

Today starts the Labor Day Weekend and the end of the Summer Camping season here at Hart Ranch. All our sites will be filled this weekend, but next week, the place will empty like a glass of lemonade on a hot day. It's a sad time with amenities like the pool and tennis courts closing with netless courts and waterless pool. Very quickly the campsites on the outer rings of the campground will close and water lines drained for the Winter. Not so bad for us, however, as we look forward to leaving for a new job in Arizona. We will have 2 weeks to get there and we will do some touring along the way. For two weeks we'll be back to RV'ing!! We'll make the most of it.
Last night we had a sudden thunderstorm with intense lightning and brief but heavy rain. We were just at the last 2 minutes of our Living the RV Dream show when it hit. I left it in for the fun of it. Tomorrow we will go to a yard sale by our friends P.J. and Don Bahr. They are getting rid of their "stuff" in preparation for full time RV'ing. How cool is that!! Hopefully we'll be able to pick up some books on rock hunting. I still remember our two day sale. How could we have accumulated so much junk?!? Letting go of all that stuff was the beginning of our freedom in the RV lifestyle and we haven't looked back.

TGIF

Thank God it's Friday, I really like my job, but I'm ready to have some fun and hit the road. As the secretary for the maintenance department I handle all the paper work and today we had lots. There were 42 moves from the storage lot to the park and lot of people needing propane which we sell for $2.50 a gal. not bad. With the weather turning cooler and the sun shine it's a great time to do something outdoors. I feel like I was in a cage for the last month with this really hot weather, but fall has arrived and the weather is just perfect to be getting out and doing rock-hounding. I haven't talked to John about doing some tomorrow, but I am sure he will get the bug too. Living in the RV is so nice, housework takes no time at all and there is no yard work to do. I remember almost every Sat. being out in the yard at our home in Fl. working to keep everything under control. You can't kill a plant in Fl. It just grows and grows. We had a beautiful bird of paradise plant and one year I cut it down to the roots. The next year it bloom unbelievably. I thought I had killed it but is was the talk of the neighborhood.