Quote of The Week:

"Retirement life is a game. Happy people are the players. Unhappy people are the spectators. Which would you like to be?
from Ernie Zelinski's How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free"

— Ernie J. Zelinski

As of tomorrow, we'll have been here for 1 week. It's been interesting, fun, and a bit frustrating.

Interesting - we've learned a lot about how they do things here. We have learned over time that each park has it's own way of doing things. You'd think that parks in the same state would have the same policies and procedures. Not so! Well, at least not in California. They have a completely different method for checking registrations than what was used in Castle Crags State Park. In fact, these rangers here had never even heard of some of the forms that we used in Castle Crags. Oh well, it just means that we learn this parks methods. No big deal. But we've also been learning about the area, which is really remarkable. We had no idea that California had a delta area, but it is really something to find this area smack dab in the middle of the state that just shrieks "nautical" everything. There are many marinas, boats everyhwere, fishing guide services, and signs all over the place made from big buoys. The one thing I haven't been able to find is a good seafood restaurant. I may just have to try to hit up some of these fisherman for some samples of the stripers that they catch. I've been told that it's a very tasty fish.

Fun - we really haven't worked very hard - yet. So far, we just check the vehicles to see that they've paid the registration fees or have a pass, and walk around picking up litter. There is a LOT of litter! I'm supposed to be "trained" in using a mower, a weed whacker, and maybe even a riding mower, but it hasn't happened yet. So, until it does, I'm not allowed to use any equipment. I did borrow a rake and shovel the other day so that Jenny could plant some flowers and I raked the grass in preparation of the time when I can mow it.

Today we were trained on working in the Visitor's Center. It's only open from 10:00a.m. until 2:00p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays, so we'll work on Saturday and the other camphosts will work on Sundays. Once the third host from Windy Cove gets trained, the Center will also be open on Fridays. It's not terribly taxing work. In fact, we've been told that about 90% of the time, nobody even comes in. The campers must have known that there were some newbies there today, because we had 11 visitors stop by. But we were able to help all of them, so that felt good.

Frustrating - Last Friday we had a pot luck for the ranger that brought us here. It was his last day, as he's being transferred to an ATV park. He should enjoy that, as he's a young, single fellow who has the energy to deal with that kind of environment. We had a nice time and were able to meet just about everybody that works in the park. The maintenance supervisor didn't show up, and she was supposed to "train" all of us volunteers on the quipment, so it's been delayed for a few more days again. Most everybody at the pot luck figured she didn't show because she doesn't believe that volunteers should be allowed to use any equipment. I wonder what she would say if she knew my background was in safety and training? But I can say that this park is without a doubt the worst maintained park that we've served in. And according to all of the other employees, it's because the maintenance supervisor isn't worth anything. So we'll see what happens later about that.

We are really enjoying the site we're in. On most weekdays, by the time dusk rolls around, the parking lot is pretty much empty, so we're kind of by ourselves. Granted, we don't have the contact with the other campers, which is what we really enjoy. But it's kind of nice to have quiet evenings. We probably won't get too many people banging on our door at 9 or 10 at night like what happened sometimes in the campground.

Either tomorrow or Monday, I'll go over to maintenance area and pickup a campfire ring and bring it back to our site. We don't have one now, and it'll really be nice to sit out in the evening around a nice fire as we look at the water and nice scenery. I think we're really going to enjoy that!

We hope everyone has a very nice Easter. I'm not sure what we'll do, other than the routine things that we've been doing. We'll probably grill a couple of nice steaks for dinner. I did forget to bring the camera today, so I can't post any pictures. That's one of the problems with having to drive about 3 miles to get on the internet. I'll make sure to download them to the computer after I get back so that I can post them the next time I come in to the library. It won't be tomorrow, as the library is closed on Sundays. So I'll probably try to come in on Monday.

Have a great weekend!

I've been wanting to post some pictures of some of the things that we do around the park as camp hosts. One thing that we've learned is that each state has slightly different ideas of what camp hosts should be doing. Generally, they all agree that hosts should have a presence in the park, so that campers know where they can go for information or assistance. In addition, hosts usually will make a few passes through the park throughout the day checking for litter, emptying recycling and trash cans, and cleaning campfire rings.

Besides these duties, here at Belfair the hosts also take the water pump meter readings each day. This post will include pictures showing that part of the day.

The first thing we do at about 8:00 a.m. is to go to the main bath house and open the faucet in the pipe chase to let the water run for about 5 minutes before taking a sample. We use 2 small bottles for the water sample that will later be placed in a reader to determine what the levels of chlorine are. Once we take the water samples and leave them sitting on the desk in the office, we leave to go and take the water pump meter readings from the 4 locations in the park. After getting those readings, we go back to the office and record the readings in a log book, and finish testing the water samples that we took earlier.

This all normally takes less than a half hour to complete. Usually after this is finished, we'll take what we've started calling the "litter drive". We'll drive through our loops looking for litter and things that may have occurred overnight that might need addressing. After driving through the loops, we'll make a pass through the Day Use area and check that for litter and to see if the trash cans need emptying. This can take anywhere from a half hour to an hour or more, depending on what we find or what we end up doing.

Once that's all done, we're pretty much free to do what we want, as long as we stay in the park (unless it's one of our official days off). I tend to find other projects in the park to do, especially cleaning out campfire rings, and Jenny usually comes back to the coach and works around here. She also has been planting flowers around the bath house, ranger office, and the Party Hut and has been helping doing the campsite registrations on the park computer. Around mid day, we'll make another pass around the lopps looking for litter/trash. Then we'll do our final pass around the park at about 4:00 p.m. Then we're back at the coach for the evening so that we're available for any questions or problems campers may have.

There are a lot of other projects around a park to do, and we are frequently asked to help out. We almost always agree to help, but the rangers also understand when we say no thank you. It works out fairly well, and we have a good relationship with them.

( Daily host duties )

Here are some BEFORE and AFTER pictures of some of the things that Jenny did to improve the area around the Party Hut. When we started volunteering, we decided that we always wanted to leave the place we were volunteering at better than it was when we arrived. By doing this, we feel that we're leaving a little bit of ourselves behind.

Jenny did most of the work, but I provided a little support service. I hauled over 13 loader buckets of wood chips to put down as mulch. These wood chips came right from the park here, and in fact, a good portion of them were chipped by me. It was really neat to smell the pine as we raked the mulch around the area.

You might also notice that we installed a small rock border to help hold the wood chips in place. We retrieved these rocks from some different areas in the park, but all of the rocks originally were brought up from the shores of the Hood Canal.

I'll take some pictures in a few weeks when the flowers begin to come out. We already can see some very small, purple flowers growing in the area. It should quite colorful soon!

( Some Natural Landscaping )

Jenny has taken on the project of cleaning up the area around the Party Hut.  She's already done some weeding.  We'll be adding some stones to create a border and I'll bring over a couple of tractor loads of chippings to use as mulch.  She's also going to plant some flowers.  It's going to look real nice when she's done.

We also had our first party in the Party Hut.  Jenny got the urge to cook some fried chicken in a new skillet she bought, so we invited John and Jeanie over to a picnic at the Party Hut.  We had the fried chicken, beans cooked over the open camp fire, potato salad, and Jeanie brought a knockout pecan bar dessert.  We had a terrific time and some very good eating!  It was a nice way to break in the Party Hut. ( Party Hut Improvements )

This is the camp host site that Jenny is going to weed, mulch, and add flowers to.	Here's the Party Hut with our new party lights added.
Here's another area around the Party Hut that will get "prettyfied".	The Party Hut with the party lights turned on.
We're cooking some beans over the fire! Just like in the movies!!	That looks like some real good fried chicken!
A real picnic table ready for some good eating.

This past weekend was pretty busy in the park. The weather was nice, so a lot of people came out. Didn't have too many problems, but I'm beginning to be a bit more sinical about people. I'm sure I haven't seen everything yet, but I can't believe some of the things that people will do. A fellow asked us if it was alright to burn pieces of 2X4 lumber that they'd brough with them. We said sure it was, as long as they didn't leave any behind. The next day I was making a tour of campsites, and in his campsite I found the remnants of a fire that he had built on a piece of plywood alongside the regular firepit. So he had his fire, but he just didn't bother putting it in the proper location. And on top of that, I found 5 or 6 pieces of 2' X 3' plywood that they had just thrown in to the underbrush next to their campsite. Unbelievable! Here's a picture of Bailey. Can you guess what she's doing? I'll give you a hint. She's doing her favorite thing in the world. Give up? Take a look at the picture in the cut. ( The Rest of The story )

Contented Yorkie What would make a little Yorkie look so contented?

First, I apologize for having the pictures posted here. Lori sent me the instructions on how to post them behind a cut, but I've tried EVERY possible "angled bracket" I can think of, and nothing worked. Lori, please send me a picture of what you're talking about.

As the title suggests, we finally had our S'mores party. Although not as many attended as we would have liked, those who came had a good time. I also posted a couple pictures of a day hike we took.

We leave here on Thursday and head down to Carolina Beach State Park, near Wilmington. We're looking forward to the next 3 weeks there. Then we head home for Christmas. Boy, the time sure has flown by! I guess the old saying is really true....Time sure flies when you're having fun!

Enjoy!

( Pictures of Our S'Mores Party )

It's Tuesday, which means laundry day. We had been coming in on Mondays, but the Hampton Inn, where I was logging on in their lobby, kind of subtely suggested that unless I booked a room, I probably shouldn't be using their FREE site anymore. So, we came in on Tuesday so that we could log in at a bakery/coffee shop called The Sweet Tooth. Now I'm being good and only buying a cappuccino while I'm here.

Last week was the the most quiet time in the park that we've seen. There was one couple that came in on Monday evening, but only stayed the one night as they were traveling. They were very nice folks, but after they left, we had the park to ourselves until Friday evening. The rangers had mentioned that there was a group, Parents Without Partners, that were coming in for the weekend. So after a bunch of them had arrived, Jenny and I walked over to welcome them. They seemed nice and appreciative of our visit. They had a number of kids with them, ranging in ages from about 6 to 15 or 16. There were going to be a total of 38 people in that particular group site.

We didn't see much of them on Saturday, but we had mentioned that the ranger was holding a night hike at 6:30 that evening, and they would be welcome to attend. I actually ended up working during the hike, as the main gate needed to be locked at 7:00 pm, and since Phil (the ranger) was conducting the hike, he asked me to do that. So Jenny went on the hike while I "manned" the gate. She'll post comments about the hike in a little bit.

On Sunday, things started to go down hill. Phil came by to let us know that during routine inspections, he discovered that the bath house/restrooms for the group camping area had been trashed, and someone had even let a dog defecate inside one of the showers. Then later in the day, he came by again to tell us that a bunch of the kids had broken the glass in the informatinal sign by the bath house. This group site is about 1/4 mile or so away from where we are, so we never knew that anything like this had happened. Phil was able to find out who broke the glass, and he had a very long conversation with the parents and the kids. They did say they'd pay for the damage, but like Phil said, he'll believe when he sees it.

There were some other odd occurrences during the weekend, not related to the problem group. During one of my walk arounds, I discovered a fellow and his wife who were camping in a non-electric campsite near the bathouse had a long extension running in to the bath house. This really amazed me, as the difference between an electric site and a non-electric site is only $2.00. Now I realized that it is not my place to say anything to these people, or at least that's what Phil keeps telling us. So I didn't say anything. I just unplugged the cord and threw it down towards their campsite. Of course, I don't know if they just went back and re-plugged it in. I sure wasn't going to walk over there every hour to check. But I did let Phil know so he could handle it if he wanted to.

I also found another campsite where the campers had run a water hose across the road to hook up to a water source. That's O.K. to do, but they can't leave it hooked up 24/7 like these people were doing. Heck, even the camp hosts don't get to do that! So I walked in to the campsite and had a very pleasant conversation with the people. I mentioned that they were'nt supposed to leave their hose hooked up all of the time. Oh, they didn't know that they claimed. We'll unhook it right away. Later, I mentioned it to Phil, who said that when he came through, he found it hooked up too. This was some 2 - 3 hours after I'd been through. I did notice that they did keep it unhooked after Phil talked with them. I guess the fact that he wears a gun makes a difference!

So, all in all, it was a busy weekend. We helped the staff clean up the group campsite after those folks left, even though the staff kept telling us we didn't have to do that. It seems as time has gone by, Jenny and I have become rather "possessive" of our park, and we don't like it when people mistreat it. It just amazes us that people would be that careless, or have that much lack of respect for such a beautiful and well maintained state park.

We can't believe that we have only 9 more days here! the time has flown by, and we are definitely going to miss the park and the people that we've become friends with. Even though we had hoped that this first camp host position would give us a chance to get a feel for the job in a fairly low key environment, which it has, we can't believe how lucky we were in getting this park. This is absolutely the PERFECT place for us to get started in. The only concern is that these folks have set the bar awfully high, and we're afraid that other places we go to in the future will be somewhat of a let down. We're not really concerned about that too much, because we know there are wonderful people and places all over. And that's what our little adventure is all about!

Here are the pictures I wanted to post when I screwed up those previous posts. They're just for fun, although our host picture will be used extensively as we apply for future positions.

	Campground Hosts at Home This is our "official" campground host picture we'll use when we need to include a picture for future positions that we might apply for. Pretty impressive, huh?
	Bailey's Throne Bailey has found a new favorite spot. Kind of looks like a little queen on her throne, doesn't she?

It's Monday, so it's laundry day and journal catch up day!

We're feeling the effects of hurricane Wilma today. Getting lots of rain and some strong, gusty winds are due in later today and tonight. Of course, we're only on the edge of the storm, so nothing really to worry about.

It's amazing that we're already halfway through our stay here. It's really going fast. Sorry, but no pictures to post this time.

We continue to be amazed at the low usage of this park, considering how well maintained and beautiful it is. I think the most number of campsites that have been used at any one time is 7, and that's out of 34 campsites! People are still learning about this park. It had originally opened in 1972, but was let go for awhile. I'm not exactly sure for how long, but it was reactivated just 4 years ago. The staff is slowly building the park back up to what they want it to be, and from what we've seen, they've done a great job. I need to get some pictures of the staff that I can post and add to our scrapbook.

This past week, we only had about 5 campsites used the entire week. One fellow rode in on a bicycle. He was an English fellow who is riding from British Columbia to Washington D.C. He's been riding now for over 4 months. I never really did figure out what he's doing down here, but it didn't seem to bother him. Another man and his 5 year old came out on Friday because his wife had gone off with some girl friends for a weekend of scrapbooking. So the two "guys" decided to go camping. They loved the park, but they disappeared by Saturday morning. I have a feeling that a nasty storm that blew in over night may have put a bit of a damper on their plans.

We've sent a message to the Carolina Beach State Park offering our services for 3 weeks or so once we're done here. We've not heard back from them yet. If that doesn't work out, we'll keep looking for some place to land for those weeks before we head back in mid December.

We're really enjoying the quiet and the solitude every day. We had a nice campfire the other night, and we just sat around listening to the silence with just an occassional comment from either one of us. We didn't have any s'mores because we didn't have any fixing's for them. We'll pick up some things to day so that we're better prepared for the next campfire.

It's very interesting driving around the area. Clearly there are few, if any, zoning codes in most places. You can see a really nice brick home that would sell for + $200,000.00 back home sitting right next to a delapidated trailer with junk cars siting outside of it. I plan on snapping a few pictures so I can post them. There is no question that the majority of the area is very depressed. But there are also some very beautiful, well developed areas around some of the larger communities. And the locals are very friendly, at least from our experience. Someone mentioned to us that they thought the locals were not very friendly, but we certainly have not seen that. I know that I've never been called "honey" and "sugar" so many times by so many strangers in my life!

If we don't get on-line this week, we'll check in next Monday again when we come in to do the laundry. See you then!

Our first week as camp hosts is complete. And boy, what a week! It was GREAT!!

We posted last Thursday (the 13th), so I'll pick up from there. We started seeing a few more campers come in to the park on Friday, but we were no where near being full. Actually, there were only 3 sets of tent campers, another Class A motorhome, and a fifth wheel. This, of course, is not counting the Cub Scouts that were camping in the group camping area.

We met the other couple in the Class A. I posted their picture below.

Two (three) New Friends - Calvin, Mari & Bandit

What nice folks they are! We really hit off with them. Mari and Jenny both do beading and quilting, so they had a great time chatting about all of that stuff. Calvin was retired from a civilian job working for the Navy. I thought I was doing well to retire at 55. Calvin retired when he was 48!! He and I really enjoyed just sitting around talking about RV'ng and other stuff. They're not fulltimers yet, but they plan to be in the next few years. They've invited us to a campground near their home in Chesapeake, VA, and we definitely want to go visit them. Last Friday night, they fired up a campfire and we introduced them to pudgie pies. They said they loved them, but I have to tell you that they didn't turn out the way I expected they would. I think I may have missed a step in making the pies. But I promise to figure it out and fix them some really good pudgie pies when we meet again! We had planned on hosting a S'mores party at our campsite on Saturday night for any campers in our area. But everyone left on Saturday, so we donated all of the S'mores fixings to the Cub Scouts that were spending the night. I'm sure they enjoyed them.

We had our first "bad" experience on Sunday. On Saturday night, a local race track had big races planned, so we had a few folks who were attending the races come in to camp. Two couples came in on Harley's, and each cycle was pulling the neatest little trailer that unfolded into a real cool tent. As with any campers that came in, we walked down to their site to welcome them and see if we could help them in anyway. When we got there, they had already made camp and left. I noticed them come back through around 11:30 p.m. that night. The next morning, Jenny went up to check on the bathhouse, and in the ladies side found mushy bar soap stuck to everything in the shower area and even into the bathroom area! What a mess! It looked like at least two people had had a huge soap bar fight. Some other campers we talked with told us that they heard a lot of laughing and horsing around late Saturday night. So we called the ranger to report it, and he came up to look it over. We offered to help clean up the mess, but he said absolutely not, that wasn't our job! So he did some basic cleanup, and then the regular cleaning crew came in this morning and finished it off. what a shame that was. Here is a beautiful, well maintained facility for the public to use, and a couple of thoughtless individuals think they can come in and just trash the place. We were happy that were no other campers in the park that would have seen the mess before it was cleaned up.

We've started looking around for another short term assignment somewhere around Myrtle Beach or Savannah after we leave Medoc Mountain. We figure we could work somewhere for about 3 weeks before we head back to Wisconsin for Christmas. The next time I get a chance to get on line, I'll post some pictures of the park we're in.

We really seem to be getting in to this new lifestyle. We're enjoying everyday, regardless of what we're doing. We feel more relaxed and comfortable with everything, and it feels good when we tell people that we're fulltimers. And almost in every case, the repsonse is "Wow, that's so great! We want to do that someday." So it's working just exactly the way we hoped it would.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't be a stranger.

Boy, it feels like it’s been a year since we last posted! A lot sure has happened since then! It's Thursday, October 13th, and we're in a coffee shop called Java Mott's in Rocky Mount, N.C. It took us awhile to find a hot spot, but we finally did. Maybe we'll be able to provide a few more frequent updates for the rest of our stay. I mean gee whiz, it's only about 30 miles one way to get here!

We left Columbus on Friday, October 7th in very rainy conditions.. We had a wonderful visit with our daughter, Lori and her roommate Rachael. We drove from Columbus to Milton, West Virginia. We stopped there just for the night, and we definitely needed the rest. We had decided on going to a particular campground that we’d found in the Woodall’s Campground directory. We took the exit that the directory identified and started following the signs. The last sign we saw said that the campground was 4.4 miles ahead. When we had driven the 4.4 miles, we came to a point where we either got back on the interstate, or continue to follow the country road we were on. Well, we figured the campground MUST be just up around the next bend, so we followed the country road. WRONG! We kept going, and going, and going, but unlike the Energizer Bunny, we were losing our energy real fast! This road was unbelievable! I don’t believe I ever got much over 25 mph, and many times the curves were so sharp that I was down to 5 mph! Narrow, windy, hilly country roads are not something that you would voluntarily drive a 40’ motorhome towing a pickup truck! Trust me! We drove for at least 45 minutes or more, and finally came out to another highway only about 15 minutes from another campground we had considered that was 30 miles farther west!! So, being the flexible types that we are, we went there.

The campground, which was called the Fox Fire Resort, was very nice. We had a pull through site, so we didn’t need to unhook the truck at all. But no Wi-Fi. Bummer.

We left on Saturday morning, still in very rainy conditions. We continued eastward until we arrived at a campground just outside of Arart, North Carolina called Homeplace Recreational Park. There was no one in the office when we arrived, but a nice lady and her grandson took Jenny for a ride in a golf cart to show her where we could park. She told us just to leave $22.00 in the mail slot the next morning when we left. It was a very pretty park with a lot of trees and windy roads (oh no!). But we easily got to our pull through site and spent the night. The next morning we dropped off our money and left, never having seen anyone from the park!

When we left the campground, it was STILL rainy, and continued to rain all day. We arrived at Medoc Mountain State Park around 4:00 p.m. or so. We stopped at the Ranger station, but no one was there. There was a sign on the window that said that any campers should just go on down to the campsite area and select a vacant site and a ranger would be through later to register them. So, we drove on down to the campsite area. As we slowly wound our way around the paved roads, we came across campsite # 4 that had a camp host sign posted in front of it. Hey, that’s us! And we’re only about 50’ from a brand new bath house/restroom building. That’s going to save on having to fill the fresh water tank and dump the holding tanks. The site has 50 amp electric, but no fresh water hookup or sewer hookup. The closest fresh water is about 70’ away. I stretched out all my hoses and was about 3’ too short! But the ranger brought me some more hose, so no problems.
We can’t stay hooked up 24/7, but he told us to keep the hose so we can fill anytime we need to. And the dump station is only a short drive away, so it’s no big deal. Actually, having to be careful with our water usage will be a good learning experience for us. We’ve already figured out some ways to be a bit less wasteful.

The rangers are GREAT here! In fact, the entire staff is super. After we arrived and got setup, I drove in to the closest town to get some ice. When I got back, Ranger Wilkerson (Ed) had arrived and was talking with Jenny. He was very nice, and gave us our camp host packet. He asked us to come to the station the next morning around 10:00 and we could meet everyone else. We drove down there the next morning and met Sherry, the staff receptionist. We chatted with her for awhile, and then Ranger King (Phil) arrived. He’s the one that actually “hired” us. While we were talking, the Superintendent, Ranger Lyndon Sutton arrived, so we chatted some more. We went back into their offices so that Phil could complete some paperwork. That’s when we learned that we were the VERY FIRST camp hosts the park had ever had! Talk about the blind leading the blind! But they were really cool about everything. They gave us the basic rules, and then said that we were free to do pretty much whatever we wanted to do, because we would be setting the bar for all future camp hosts. Thanks, no pressure huh!? And then they mentioned that we would have a really good learning experience the next weekend, as they are hosting a Boy Scout Jamboree kind of event! This should be really fun!

We had the park to ourselves on Monday night, but then on Tuesday, two sets of folks showed up with a couple of small travel trailers. On Wednesday, a Class A came in and will probably be staying through Saturday. Then on Wednesday evening, a 5th wheel came in, but they’re only staying the night as they’re heading south on Thursday.

Since we haven’t posted for awhile, you may have figured out that there is no Wi-FI here. Heck, there isn’t even cell phone service! We are OUT OF TOUCH! We went into the closest town (Hollister) and couldn’t get any cell phone service there either. We finally found phone service in a town about 18 miles from here called Roanoke Rapids. The local librarian told me that they do not have Wi-Fi, but there was a sweet shop out by the WalMart near the interstate that she thought had it. I haven’t had a chance to get back there to find out. Tomorrow we’re going into Rocky Mount, which is about 22 miles away. We actually stopped there on our way out to the park on Sunday to get some groceries. That’s also where we found the cheapest diesel fuel at $3.02. We’ve fueled up 3 times since we started our trip, and the fuel costs have been $3.30/gallon, $3.17/gallon, and $3.02/gallon in that order. So at least it’s going down! We’ve been averaging 7.7 mpg, which we’re fairly pleased with, considering that better than 2/3rds of our trip has been through the mountains.

We’re really enjoying our time. We sleep as long as we like, or at least as long as Bailey will let us sleep. Unbelievably Bailey has been sleeping through the ENTIRE night every night since we moved in to the MH. We’re NOT complaining! Once we get going, we take Bailey and go for nice walks through the park. Even though we weren’t asked to, we check all of the restrooms for supplies and pick up any litter we might find. We’re really looking forward to the ground drying up (remember, it’s been raining for like 5 days!) so that we can start hiking the regular trails.
We’ve decided that unless all of the campsites are full on Saturday night, we’re going to host a Smores party for everyone in the campsites. We’ll supply the ingredients, but they bring their own marshmallow sticks, beverages and chairs. We just thought that it’d be fun to meet some of these people. Everyone we’ve met so far have just been wonderful! We find ourselves meeting folks for the first time and we end up talking with them for an hour! But that’s exactly what we’re looking forward to! In fact, we couldn’t be more pleased with the way things are going. Our budget seems to be holding up just fine, even with the extra cost of the fuel. We’ve traveled the way we wanted to – no rushing and stopping when we wanted to. We’ve got a great campsite for a whole month at n o cost, for which we really don’t have a lot to do. We’re even going to get a golf cart to use on the weekend, but Phil said they’d probably let us keep it for the whole month. The only real down side is not having phone service or internet service. Trying to use Wi-Fi Hot spots doesn’t seem to be working out very well. We’re going to need to look at this very closely!

Next week is the North Carolina State Fair. It’s only about 1 hour away, so we may sneak into it on one of the days. Other than that, we don’t have any real firm, hard plans. And THAT”s kind of nice!

I hope we can post some more here very soon. If not, please be patient and keep checking. We’ll eventually get back here! Now that we've found this place, my next posting will include pictures of the inside of the coach for all of you that have been panting over what Jenny did, and/or pictures of Medoc Mountain. Since we have to "work" the weekends, it probably will be next Monday, as I think we'll have some paperwork we'll need to fax to our banker.

Catch up with you soon!

I am getting used to idea now that this is really going to happen soon. We have been making phone calls and arranging stuff. We have been making list after list after list. We have been reviewing schedules and appointments. It is finally happening. I haven't slept very well the last couple of nights. I can't seem to shut my mind off. I want to be sure that all my clients are completly taken care of by the end of August. That means having the motor home, new address and residency, Loris trailer of wonderfullness may happen on Labor day Weekend, maybe. Then the Month of September we will concentrate on and changes to the Motor home that we want to make, stocking it, furnishing it, selling the STUFF we have here to sell and winding everything up for a closing the end of September and then off to North Carolina for our first Camp hosting position at Medoc Mountain State Park.

I am sooooooo excited.