RV TRAVELING - Making my Long Range plans for next Summer in my RV.

Our campsite in 3-Flags, a TT RV Resort in Wildwood Florida.

If you're going on a relatively long trip and camping in several different places, a smart RV owner absolutely must make his plans early.

Even if it's just a skeleton of a travel outline, good planning is an absolute must for us all.

My wife and I are planning on spending most of the Summer, in 2017 traveling up the SouthEast states and then spending a couple of months in the eastern parts of Virginia.

In NEW ORLEANS, Kind of!

OK, we were driving along , and we pulled over at a Rest Stop so I could stretch my legs and get rid of some of the Soda I had been drinking all day.

I realized that I was good for 2 maybe 3 hours of driving and we would need to stop for the night.

Looking at the map on my computer, I realized that the end of my day was going to be roughly right across Lake Pontchetrain  (???) from New Orleans.

So, it didn't take us long to decide to sort of "re-arrange" our cross country schedule.

And, we did!  We mad a couple of phone calls, and we had a 3-night reservation at a, RPI campground in a little town called Abita Springs.

Nice Campground, but crappy roads to get to the entrance.

We crashed here, and the first night we just drove a couple of miles up to a little Brew Pub and had Dinner, and made our plans for a day in the French Quarter the next day.



Well. as they say; It was on my "Bucket List" to do, and I did it!

Let me tell you something that I learned while bouncing around on Bourbon Street, Royal Street, and many others with names that I can't remember right now.

Back to what I learned.

I learned that the smell of decades of Vomit is not as glamorous as I remembered in my Youth traveling the world.


It kinda takes the edge off of the enjoyment of the food in the restaurants. You know what I mean?

Add the pungent odor of the Horse Poop dropped in the streets throughout the day.

And top all of this with the marvelous soaring temperatures, high Humidity, and absolutely no Breeze.

Now you have an idea of why everyone is drinking so much.

The damned place stinks and is miserably hot, but I do have to admit that, once my senses were dulled, the great Cajun Food, and cold drinks, and great Music won the day for me.


We had a good time overall, and I got the obligatory T-shirts.

Today?  We are laying back and Chillin', preparing for a really long run tomorrow.

But, it should be worth it! Then we sit back and roam around teh south San Antonio area.

Eat som of that Tex-Mex food.

Drink some of that Lone Star beer.

Take a lot of silly pictures!

I can't wait.

In Texas and Lickin' my Wounds!

Yeah, That's what I said;  LICKING MY WOUNDS!

We pulled out of Abita Springs, just north of New Orleans right at daybreak.

We topped off our fuel tank (Gulp!-------$242).

And we pulled out onto I-12 (which blends into I-10 in Baton Rouge) and put the Rig in Auto-Pilot.

We stopped to Pee twice, and eat Lunch when we crossed into Texas, otherwise, we cranked.

We ran at 70-73 mph, (cruise control) the whole trip except when one of the many Brain-Dead drivers, that populate the Roads of America, tried to kill us.  This only happened every hour or so, so I guess most of these "Zombie Roadies" were busy preparing for Halloween ..... or whatever.

Anyway, we rolled up to San Antonio, and took a left in to the "Hill Country" of South Texas.

It really is beautiful, and we are going to drive back through there and catch some good Pics to share in a couple of days.

And, there I was, over 9-1/2 hours of jockeying a Big RIG on the Interstates, Back aching, eyes burning, arms weighing over a ton each, and what happens?

There we are less than to miles from our CG, and my Garmin decides to Piss in my Oatmeal.

That;s Right, Piss in my Oatmeal!

The map system tells me to turn right onto a little street called, what else "D" street.

Hell, I didn't know!

I've never been here before.

Well, it turns out that my CG is very near a booming Lake area, Medina Lake.

It is booming so much that many of the aggressive developers have gone out and run bulldozers through teh Mesquite trees and Cactus, and Rocks and Sand, and marked off hundreds of streets.

They even put up signs with proper names on them.

So, some A-Hole at Garmin, went and added these unreal streets to their maps.

So, what is the Big Deal?

OK, These streets are wide enough for one car to go down.

I own a 42-foot, Rig with a 18-foot Jeep tied to it's tail.

Try to make a turn at an intersetion that is this narrow.

I only drove 6-blocks and made two turns before I got to a real Road.

I figure that I only took out 6-10 Mesquite trees and a couple of Cactus with the RV.

Needless to say, I now need; not only a good wash job, but also a good Buff and Polish of the paint job.

Anyway, we checked in to the CG, and went over and selected a campsite.

I unhooked the Jeep, and?

The Battery was Dead.  I had put the ignition key in the wrong position, and the RV sucked down the RV battery.

I had to bum a Jump off of a fellow camper, and we backed into our site.

What else could go wrong?

You will not believe this, but You remember that our trip started two months late while we waited for some major parts for the Fridge?

Well, We opened the door, to assure that it had switched voer automatically to AC fro Propane, and

OH Yeah!

The Freakin' Freezer Temp was 35, and the Fridge temp was 48!

The damned newly rebuilt Fridge was not operating properly.

We walked around and cursed for a while and then after we calmed down, we opened some nice Chardonnay, and went Zombie for the night.

We got up this morning and those temps had dropped to 31 and 35, so we had hope that we could use the Fridge after all.

But, again, Murphy stepped in, and while we took a midday trip to Bandera, the temps had drifted back up to 33 and 37.

I called the brilliant people at Camping World, and they gave me a list of things to test and check tomorrow and call them back.

Banderas was cool,and I will write about it tomorrow, but right now, I think we have another couple of bottles of that Chardonnay somewhere, and ........ you know ....... What the Hell!

We are on Holiday! What else could go wrong?

G'Day!

From San Antonio TX, to Mesa AZ, in 2 days

Yeah, we broke it down.

On Monday, we drove 9-hours to El Paso TX, and crashed in one of those secure roadside RV parks.

You really need to use these sometimes, even though they cost a little more at times.

We were only 2-3 miles from the Mexican Border in Ciudad Juarez,, which is just outside of El Paso, so we went for the extra security.

Early the next morning (Tuesday), we pulled out for another long drive of almost 8-hours, and we were in WACO TX.

I went straight to the Camping world there, and started the process of getting my Fridge checked out and beginning the approval process for the Insurance company.



The idiocy of the process required by the insurance companies is at a level that would try anyone's patience, but we are hanging on.

This time, I git a little smarter, and while the CW technicians jumped through the appropriate hoops to prove that the Fridge was indeed bad, we went over and checked into our campground.

This proved valuable later as we could go over to the CG, and do laundry, take a shower, and just overall kill time.

Now, here it is, Friday, and the inspector has sent his report to the insurance TODAY, and now we must wait for Monday for the insurance company rto approve the purchase of the replacement Fridge body.

Then we have approximately two weeks before it is delivered for installation.

Installation will take 6-hours, and then another overnight functional test before we can leave AZ.

I have to re-schedule my reservations in California, yet again, but we have accepted the situation, and are now going through a lot of Maps and Visitor guides to put together a plan for taking our Jeep out into the Deserts (just a little ways) and north to the Mesa/mountail areas.

I hope to get some really good photo's over the next week.  Can't wait!

Right now?

Well, we had a great lunch at a Restaurant/Saloon called the Dirty Water Saloon, and are back at the RV catching up on our web sites and mails, ans a little bill paying.

Later, when it cools down (97F at the moment), we will take another walk around the CG

See Ya!

We spent a week in LaGrange, last night!

Yep, That's right!

We were tired.  I had driven over seven hours in the RV with a Jeep in Tow, and it was time to quit.

Oh, I was OK, but I needed to stare at something other than a white line on the right and a dashed line on the left.

I had wanted to make it to Montgomery, AL, but I decided to find a campground.

I got on the web, and found several in Auburn, AL. and we called a few.


Guess what?

It was Saturday, and what would think goes on at this time of year in Auburn, AL?

Right on College Football game.

It turned out that there wasn't an empty caming site within 30-miles of Auburn.

So, we backed off and found a little, and not highly rated CG in LaGrange.

It is called Hoofers.

Not a clue how it got it's name, but I had a weird feeling, but we went ahead and called them anyway.


The phone rang and a person answered and gave me directions.

Which I wrote down, by the way.

It went like this:  You take exit-18, take a right off of the ramp.  Go down three stoplights and take a right on the "14-Spur" at the foot of the water tower.
Go 3-4 miles and take a right on Hwy-27, go about a mile on the right and we are there.

OK, Simple right?

Idid as told, and turned right on US-27 ...... and I drove for 7 miles. No Campground.

I have been here before, so I pulled over and called the CG again.

The same guy answered, and I explained my problem.

His response was. "Lordy!" I'm not sure where you are."

TO which I responded; Well, If yoy live here and can't tell me how to get there, I am in big trouble  because, I damned sure don't have a clue."

He seemed upet with my anguage, but ai calmed down and went through what I had done, and he said;

Oh, You took US-27, you needed to take state hwy 27!

So, after a minute or so, I peeled myself off of the roof and as calmly as possible mentioned the fact that someone, not from the area, would probably need to know this distinction in the future.

He was silent for a few seconds and agreed that he would keep this in mind.

Needless to say, we had a communication problem, but, by this time I was so tired that I was going to find this damned CG and stay there.

Little did I know!


I kind of knew that I was in trouble when he gave me his Cell phone number, and said if I had any more problems, that I should call him on it, because he was leaving the office, but wanted to be sure that I got into the CG.

OK, three more calls and I was finally on a road that he agreed was the right one.

He told me that; You can't miss the CG. It is right next to the John Deere dealership!

Cold Chills went down my spine.

And, let's ignore the fact that the 3-miles he said was ahead, was really 5.3 miles.

I finally found the John Deere Dealership, and sure as hell, there was a campground right next door.

Oh, Did I mention that he said it was owned by the same person as owned the Hoofers restaurant on the property.

So, we pulled in, and ..... the Office was closed.

It was only 4:00PM, and the office was closed!

I had to take an envelope and put my "cash" money in it and slide it into a slot like at a bank.

Then we went down to the camping sites.

They were all about 30-35 feet long!

So, I improvised.

I pulled into two sites lengthwise and to hell with it!

If no one was running the place, I figured I could do whatever I wanted.

BTW!  There were around 70-80 sites, and there were 3  campers in the whole place.

I looked arund as I was hooking up and then I saw the signs;

PRAISE GOD!   JESUS SAVES!  VICTORY TO GOD!

I had Arrived!

My Beer drinking, swearing, and stinky feet Ass was ensconced in a dyed-in-the-wool religious zealots CG.

I told Helen, and we figured!  We would shut up, talk to no-one, and get out in the early hours, so wat could go wrong? Right?

So, we finished hooking up and walked up to the Restaurant.  CLOSED! Out of Business!

No problem, we walked out to the street for a look.  IF you can't eat John Deere paint, well, we weren't going to eat out that night.

SO, we walked back to the Community building! CLOSED!

We saw a sign that said; WASEERIA!
We walked over and: two restrooms, a table TV, four chairs and rwo washing machines.
But, the AC was on and working.

We waked back outside the whole comples was connected to a big Church, Also closed!

I was ready to pray for a Beer by this time.

We talked things over, and we finally decided.

We went back to the RV.

We turned on the AC.

We turned on the TV.

We opened a couple of bottles of Chardonnay!

We RELAXED!

We went to Bed.
We slept well, and we;

Got the Hell out of "La Grange" before daylight the next morning.

Yep!

We spent a week in a LaGrange ...... last Night!

Goodnight!

Preparing the RV and Ourselves for a 6-month trip

OK,
 We're Back!
Yep, We have been sitting around at home for several months, but now we are getting down to the wire.
We have set a tentative "pull-out" date for the first of September, and we plan to stay on the West Coast for the Winter.
Today, I am taking the RV down to the local Camping World to have the Fridge checked out, because it acted a little funny on our recent trip to VA.  So, better safe than sure.
After the Fridge, I will need an Oil change, along with some filters, etc.
More on this later.
Also, we are starting to pull our personal stuff together.
What we do, is take the 3rd bedroom of our house, and use it as a kind of staging area, for what we are going to eventually load into the RV.
This seems to work best for us, as we can walk in there at any time, and check if we have placed a certain item of clothing, or computer accessory, or whatever, in the staging area.
More later

Starting Out in Camping ------ AGAIN!

Helen and I are in our sixties, and we worked hard all of our lives, saving what we could along the way, while raising three kids.  Finally, our physical conditions forced us to retire several years ago, and we sold our home, and bought a nice retirement home in the Myrtle Beach area of SC, and settled down to enjoy ourselves and enjoy the good life, as they say.

We did all of the things new retirees do the first year or so of our retirement, and after a while we began to tire of most of them. And, it did not take very long before we developed a case of "cabin fever" and we both knew that we had to come up with something productive and interesting to do, or we would go crazy.

Considering both of our physical limitations, we finally settled on getting back into camping.  This was something we did for a number of our early years of marriage, that we and the Kids had really enjoyed.

Once we decided on camping, we started to research the world of camping and campers to pick what level and type of camping we really wanted to do, and that could we afford!

So, with both of us on the web daily, and subscribing to camping-centric magazines, it only took us about six-months to settle on what we really wanted, and those were:

• we wanted a Class-A or Class-C Motorhome
• we wanted minimal setup and shutdown labor involved
• we wanted nice day-to-day comforts --- no HE-MAN wood chopping, mud, cold, etc. (Been There and Done That in our younger years!)
  
• we wanted something that we would drive, and be able to take advantage of the Wal-Marts, rest areas and parking lots of America when traveling and feel safe and comfortable when we pulled over to rest and eat.
• we wanted a nice Kitchen so we could prepare and eat our favorite meals, and continue to experiment with new foods and new recipes, as we are avid cooks and LOVE Good Food.
  
• Oh, Yeah, and we needed room enough for my wifes clothes!

We felt we could get these and others of our needs filled with a Class-A, and then the big "BUT" slapped us in the face.  You know -------"BUT we knew nothing about Class-A RVs; not manufacturers, not models, not pricing, not values, NOTHING!"

What to do?  What to Do?

On to the Orlando TT Campground

I just looked at the title I have for this Posting, and I realize that I have fallen into the same trap as so many other people who live or work in a specialized field.  I have as many acronyms as words in the title.

I think this may be a good subject for a future posting, so you will probably see it here soon.

Until then, for the uninitiated, TT stands for Thousand Trails, which is a private RV Resort Club, and CG is just that, a Campground.

Anyway, we arrived here on the 9th, and got set up and comfortable that day, and then we decided to decorate for Christmas.  The restriction we put on ourselves was that all ofthe decorations had to fit into no more than two medium sized Totes, and ideally, only one.

This has caused a good amount of heated discussion, but finally settled on what we are going to use now, with an eye towards improving on our selections in the future.

Our first purchase was very gaudy and some might say, ugly, lighted Palm Tree for outside.  We then came up with the idea of a couple of Santa hats on the mirrors, along with a pair of Santa pants.  A very nice combination. Try it.

Along with these, we have a nice collection of little plush Christmas animals for our dash, that look very nice, and we finally got a couple of those rope light strings.  We decided on the multi-color ones, and will use them throughout the year, as so many other campers do for accent lighting.

We are still looking at other ideas, but for now this is it.

As far as TT CG's go, we prefer Peace River over Orlando, but that doesn't mean that Orlando is a bad CG.  It is actually, a really good upper end CG, that I would recommend to anyone.

It is just that although the Orlando TT CG is right in the middle of every type of entertainment you might want, the peace and tranquility of Peace River is much nicer to us, most of the time.

Well, we are going walking up to the Clubhouse, to see what is going on today, so more updates are coming.

DON and HELEN

Campground Cliques

We are still staying in the CG Southern Aire, near Tampa.

We have become accustomed to the CG, and the people here, who are mostly, by the way, older than us, and have their own cliques.

Actually, there are three distinct groups of people here, it seems.

First, there is the group who set up their camper or trailer on a lot ten to twenty years ago, added a sun room, and settled down to the good life in Florida.  They keep mostly to themselves, are in charge of most of the clubhouse activities, and are distantly friendly.

The second largest group (or, so it seems) is the group of winter workers.  These people have nice campers, fifth wheels, trailers, motorhomes, etc. and are the source of the noise you hear from 6AM to 7AM as they fire up their cars and go off to their seasonal job.

Many of them are full-timers, and as you already know, this provides them withthat extra income they need to pretty much travel the contry and enjoy their retirement.  Usually, you can tell their sites, because they are decorated very nice, with enough stuff that it will obviously take them more than a couple of hours to pack up to leave.

The third group, are those like myself.  We come down here to Florida for the winter in our RV, and stay at one or more sites, each for a month or more, and have a home base somewhere in the US that is sitting vacant until we get back there after it turns hot, and the mosquitos come out, here in Florida.

Of course there is the sprinkling of those RVers who come in for a period of a day to a week, generally just passing through on their way to somewhere else.

The people coming down to Florida for a week of vacation, with or without kids, are not evident here.  This CG just does not have the entertainment or facilities that would draw them here.

I use the Gym, Pool, and walk the streets for exercise, and the Laundry is clean, well lit and everything is functional.  Other than that, we are enjoying the privacy, and will be here until the 30th, and then we will go over to the TT in Clermont.

Y'all have a good day now! Ya Hear!

Don and Helen

How to Wash Your RV

Holiday Rambler by DON BOBBITT

How to Wash Your RV

Thisis a great Hub that gives tips on how to tackle the rather large task of getting your RV or Motorhome washed, along with other great suggestions for protecting your RV's finish.

RV Camping and Common Courtesies

RV Camping and Common Courtesies

Categories of RV Owners

Categories of RV Owners

The RV Newbie

The RV Newbie

Losing Weight as an RVer

Losing Weight as an RVer

Helen and I have been on a campaign for me to lose weight for several yearss now.

We took stock and started in earnest, shortly before we went on our trip to the Grand Canyon back in August, with our grandson.  We figured that, as he was only 12-years old, we would be limited in the type of restaurant/pub we frequented, as well as having early evening hours.  Although this limited us to a degree, we didn't mind, as we really looked forward to enjoying sharing the Grand Canyon, and the other sights with him and seeing  everything through his eyes.

The reason I mention this, is that we were able to start our management of my diet.  I will include a picture, but I had crossed 250 pounds one day, and I really did not like a lot of things about my size.

• I had been really overweight most of my life, so I was used to that.
• I had a car wreck in 2000, and, long story short, I ended up after 3 surgeries over 2 years. with some nice scars and no cartilage in my left ankle, so walking was painful to say the least.
• I had been on Steriods since 1996, when I had a Kidney transplant, as part of my anti-rejection drugs, and they were eating my skeletal structure up slowly but surely.
• I had 2 bad disks in my back that I could throw out very easily.
• I had fallen into a Sedentary life-style, and had started breathing very hard.

I knew I had to do something, so we looked back at all of the diets we had tried, and rejected all of them.  I did remember what a professional trainer had once told me at the Gym I frequented before I had my transplant.  He said that {weight loss or gain really comes to CALORIES IN versus CALORIES BURNED."  He was a professional weight lifter, and he said all of his friends used this simple fact to place themselves in the appropriate weight category for upcoming competitions.

Lose It! - Weight Loss APP for iPhone

Also, at this time, and by chance, I had recently changed over to an Apple iPhone, and was enjoying all of the free APPs (applications) available to me.  I checked and there was a brand new APP called :Lose It!.  I loaded the APP, and checked it out.  It turned out to be the best tool I have ever seen, bar none.  Here is what we were able to do with LoseIt! :

• Enter my age,
• Enter my weight, 
• Enter my lifestyle (Sedintary, Lightly Active, Active, and so on.
• Enter my weight loss goal.
• Then daily, I could enter my: Morning weight,  exercise type durung the day, calories burned while exercising, and foods eaten.

The real power of this APP, to myself and Helen is that I can enter my own custom recipes and foods.  I know you have seen software weight loss program, where you record your foods eaten, but this packaage lets me do 2 things that really streamline the process.

One, It allows the entry of personal recipes.  By that I mean, you define a recipe name, like Dons Ham and Cheese on Rye sandwich.  Then you find each ingredient in the foods list, and add the portion you used for the sandwich.

Two, if, for example you cannot find the low-fat cheddar cheese you used, you just get the food package, and add this as a new ingredient, includung nutrient values, into the new food section, and then add the new food to your sandwich.

Once you add the lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise, and whatever you eat on your sandwich, then you go back and add this new recipe to your lunch meal.

Your daily data is updated, and you now have a recipe and a specific Cheese Food added that you can use again and again.  At the end of the day you have a summary of your CALORIC day, good of bad.

How I am losing;

Well, by using the Lose It! package I was aware of just how much we snacked, how large some of our  meals were, and we were able to see just which foods were the worst for me, and started making slow changes, such as;

• Dropping the amount of  bread we ate.
• Change to lower Calorie Breads, whcih were often as good as the old ones we just ate randomly.
• Change to lower Calorie and Fat meats.  Less Red Meat, and more Chicken, Turkey, and Fish.
• Change to a Low-Fat Mayonnaise, not Fat-Free, or tasteless varieties.
• Use more Mustard on fods
• Use Lower Calorie and Fat Salad Dressings, even making our own Balsamic Vinegarette.
• Eat more salads, Chef Salads and Cobb Salads, and Salads with Chicken or Fish as an Entree'
• Eat more Salsa dishes (with fresh vegetables and minimal oils), we have invented several.
• Eat more seasonal vegetables and/or frozen, with canned vegetables as a last choice.
• Eat more fruit.
• Eat Healthy fruits for snacks between meals.
• etc, etc. etc

To do the above, and minimize the costs, you have to become a savvy shopper. and know where and when the  best deals are.

I guess the pro f for me is the fact that right now I weigh 211 pounds, and feel great.  And of course,  I an continuing to stick to my plan, and adjust the CALORIES IN and CALORIES BURNED to reach my ultimate weight goal.

What does this have to do with RVing?  Well, traveling in an RV is a lifestyle, and your meals are an integral part of your travels as well as something that you need to manage to be healthier, have more energy, and enjoy the world outside your windshield.  Whenever we get me down to my target weight, we will go to what I call Phase-2, which is a maintain exercise and diet plan.

More on my progress and this personal weight loss plan in another Post later!