East Coast Bound--Day 11

A fall, an injury and another move.

We wrapped up the rally this past Friday night. The final days activities were sponsored, as in paid for, by Monaco RV, LLC, the company that now produces these Monaco brand coaches we all drive. As we have done the last couple of nights we again had dinner with our friends Jim & Peggy Girch and Lew & Dottie Anderson. (After the rally Jim & Peggy were heading north to Perry, Georgia, for the big Family Motor Coach Rally. They work the rallies as vendors so they will have a booth at the FMCA rally like they did here at the Monaco International Rally. Lew & Dottie were going over by Plains, Georgia, to work on a Habitat for Humanity house build.) The entertainment after dinner was to be Karaoke. Since that is not our cup of tea we decided to go on back to the coach. On the way out we used a side door that we had not been using. As we approched the street I lost my footing on the curb and fell. Wind up scrapping my knee and tearing the knee out of a good pair of blue jeans. Also jammed my right wrist. It does not appear that I broke anything but it is definitely sprained. I've kept it wrapped and taken a lot of Tylenol since the fall. It has been pretty much unusuable so I've been doing everything with my left hand. Makes it very hard to do the hooking up of the utilities for the coach and hooking up/unhooking the car for towing. Joanne has jumped in to help when I've had problems. (She also make a late night trip to Wal-Mart on Friday night to get the items we needed that were not in the first aid kit. When I fell I was directly behind a car that was backing out of a parking space. Joanee was able to get them to stop before they backed over me. It is wonderful to have a great wife.)

Saturday morning saw the rally attendees loading up and moving out. Many of the folks were going on to the FMCA rally in Perry so they were forming up into a caravan to travel up together. There were probably 50 to 60 coaches, all towing cars, that would be traveling up Interstate 75. The people not going to Perry were requested to either leave before 7:00am or wait until the caravan was gone. We were able to roll out of Moultrie around 9:00am and headed east, arriving in Savannah around 2:00pm. Not being able to use my right hand while driving was another experience. We are actually at the River's End RV Park in Tybee, Georgia, which is east of Savannah. It is on Tybee Island and we are just about a block from the Atlantic Ocean. As we were driving through Savannah our cell phone range and it was our friend Diane. They were waiting for us at the RV park. Her parents, who also live in Oklahoma City area, had arrived yesterday and the four of them had been out on Tybee Island for lunch and stopped by to see if we had made it in. (Diane was also excited to see our little Bridgit Jeane since she is the one who secured Bridgit for us.) After we got parked and set up we went over to Russ and Diane's for dinner and a chance to catch up. I've know Diane and her parents since grade school days. (Here is Diane with Grady and Judy with some of her dogs.)

Today, Sunday, we slept in and then got around to explore the island. Although we have been here before this is our first time to actually stay out on Tybee. As the historical marked indicates Tybee Island was named for the Indians who came from the inland to hunt this area. There also is the remains of a military battery that was a part of Fort Screven. These are adjacent to the Tybee Island Lighthouse. (We explored the lighthouse, including climbing to the top, when we were here in 2007 so we bypassed it today.) We did make our way down into the main historic business district of the City of Tybee. One of the places we enjoy for a meal is Fannie's on the Beach. In good weather they open their upper deck and it gives a beautiful view of the Atlantic. We had a good lunch and then wondered through several of the beachfront shops to pick up some souveniars and some things for the grandkids back home. Afterward we returned to the coach for a relaxing Sunday afternoon of lounging around. We'll be here in Savannah through this next Wednesday so we'll be doing more exploring as the days go on.

East Coast Bound--Day 9

Sweet, sweet sunshine!

We are down to the last day of the rally and are winding things down. Yesterday morning, after a small rain shower, the sun came out and we had a good breeze. We've had about the same today although the temperatures have only been in the 60's. This is drying the ground out very well so we should not have a problem getting out of here tomorrow. Many of the people here are going up to Perry, Georgia, to another RV rally and they will go in a long caravan. We've been asked not to plan to leave until the caravan has set up and pulls out. We probably won't be able to get on the road until 9:30 or 10:00 tomorrow.

Last nights entertainment was to be a lady doing a tribute to Patsy Cline but she had fallen ill and, at the last minute, the rally organizers hired a Country and Western band to perform. The lead was the same guy who lead the Dixieland/Pops band we had last Tuesday night but this was strictly country last night. To be honest he was better doing country than the Pops music he did the first time around. As usual the music was loud and after awhile Joanne and I decided to retire to the coach. We did have a great meal last night. The caterer served a choice of BBQ brisket or fried chicken. Both were wonderful.

This morning, following breakfast, the club had their bi-annual business meeting. This one included the election of officers for the next year. Our friend, Lew, was the head of the nominating committee so the job of running the election fell to him. This was a bit drawn out since this club has several more officers to vote on than our Monaco America club that we are much more involved with. Afterwards I retired to the coach to read while Jo made a run to Wal-Mart. (This is about the fifth trip one of us has made over to Wal-Mart this week.) While she was gone our dogs stood watch for her return. At 1:00 we went back over to the new coach display area (where they have a bunch of brand new motor homes for sale) and enjoyed an ice cream social. All that is left is dinner and entertainment tonight and then unhooking tomorrow morning and heading northeast to Savannah.

East Coast Bound--Day 8

Rain, mud and more rain!

We started off yesterday with rain. As the day went on the rain got worse. Since we are parked in a grassy area by evening our coach was sitting in a large pool with mud all around us. We are having to carry the dogs to dry ground before letting them "do their business". The rain did move out during the night, although we did have a very light shower this morning. Since then the sun has come out and we have a light breeze. This is what we should see for the rest of the week so everything should be dry by the time we start pulling out of here on Saturday. Otherwise we'll see a 100 or so luxury motor homes stuck in the mud.

Last night the caterer served a great pasta dinner. We sat with our friends the Anderson's and Grich's. A great time was had by all. The entertainment was a stand up comedian from south Louisiana. Some of his jokes were dated and a bit corny but he did a good job and the crowd pretty much stayed to hear him. Above is a picture of Murry, the comedian, on stage. This picture is our dinner table. Seated facing the camera is Lew Anderson, Joanne, Dottie Anderson and Peggy Girch.

East Coast Bound--Day 7

Great food and entertainment.

The first full day of the rally is passed. Spent most of the day yesterday hanging around the coach waiting for the repair techs to show up. Not only does one of our bedroom slides not work but we've been having trouble with the electrical transfer switch. The transfer switch controls the electrical power that comes into the coach through the power cord. When we plug in to the shore power the transfer switch must set before we can get power. The last couple of times we hooked up we've had to "adjust" it by banging on it with a hammer. The techs showed up in the afternoon and replaced the switch. Surprise to us they did not charge us for the new switch (a $241.00 item) so we only had to pay $50.00 for the labor. They were not able to fix the bedroom slide since the motor is out and they did not have a replacement motor on their truck. I went on line and found the motor, from the manufacturer, will be $530.00. Guess I'll have to order one and have it shipped to our friends house in Savannah and try to put it on myself next week. We sure are tired of having to shinny around the bed to get around in the bedroom.

Last night we had a catered dinner and then the evening entertainment. We have met a few couples that are also members of Monaco America, our other owners club that we are more involved with. (I serve as the Treasurer of Monaco America.) We sat for dinner with two of those couples last night. Turns out we are all talking up Monaco America and our upcoming rally this May. We've gotten several folks interested so last night I went back to the coach and printed out several rally applications and membership applications. We hope to recruit some of these Monaco International members to join our club also. We enjoy being members of both clubs in that it gives us more opportunities to attend rallies in different parts of the country. The picture to the right is Jo sitting with Monaco America members Bill and Patsy Kenny and Sally and Bob Allen.

East Coast Bound--Day 5

On to the rally.

We moved over to the main rally site today. We are at the Sunbelt Agricultural Expo Center. They have already parked a bunch of coaches since they started parking them around noon yesterday. Due to this we were expecting to be parked way in the back, since they park the coaches in lines. We were surprised when they brought us all the way up to the front row of coaches. Lew (our friend who is working with the parking crew) says he had nothing to do with it but I'm not so sure of that. We are still a long ways from the main buildings where all the activities take place so we will still drive the car back and forth. The rally does not officially start until this evening with a parade and then a hot dog cookout. The theme of the rally is Mardi Gras so the parade will be a Mardi Gras parade.

East Coast Bound--Day 3

It's raining and the windshield wipers don't work.

We were up and out to head on down to Moultrie, Georgia, for the RV rally. It rained most of the night but since we were parked down in the trees we were a bit sheltered. As we pulled out it is still raining but our windshield wipers did not want to work. So we drove all morning in mostly rain with no wipers. Fortunately the windshield on the coach is so straight up and down it was not too bad with the water running off. As I had previously mentioned we stayed last night in Eufaula, Alabama, right on Lake Eufaula. That is unusual since the largest lake back in Oklahoma is Lake Eufaula near the town of Eufaula, Oklahoma.

We arrived in Moultrie around noon and checked into the campground. We'll be staying here for a couple of days before moving over to the rally site on Monday. We have to pay extra at the rally to have electric and water hookups and I had paid that in advance. Had I known where this park was located (next door to the Expo Center where the rally will be) we would have stayed here with full hookups for the week. Many of the rally attendees are doing just that. Oh well, we live and learn. Several other RVer's have told me that is what we should have done but, of course, that advice came a couple of months after I had already sent in the money to register for the rally.

We've already connected with several old friends and have met some new ones here for the rally. Lew and Dottie Anderson are already over at the rally site. Lew is on the parking team and will be helping the coaches get parked as they come in over there on Sunday and Monday. Jim and Peggy Girch are here in the park with us. They are not only Monaco coach owners but also work for a company that make power window shades and other items for the coaches. They are also here as vendors and will be representing their company in the Vendor Area this next week. We enjoy seeing the friends we've made along the way. That is the main reason for coming to the rallies. This picture is of our rig parked at the RV park.

East Coast Bound--Day 2

Another day of travel that was not as uneventful as yesterday.

Original plan was to stop the first night in North Little Rock, about 300 miles from home. Second night was to be Jasper, Alabama, a little over 300 miles from NLR. Well, since we drove almost to Memphis yesterday that put us at Jasper around 1:00pm today. We did decide to stop in Jasper for diesel fuel and to have lunch. Unfortunately we did not any truck stops and not one station that would accommodate our coach in that town. We wound up pushing on to Birmingham and stopped at a Pilot truck stop. After fueling up and spending a little time in their parking lot to eat lunch we were back on the road.

We headed south out of Birmingham toward Montgomery where we hit some pretty heavy traffic. This was where we left the Interstate system and dropped down to narrow, two lane roads. Also, they don't seem to want to spend the money down here to build a shoulder on their two lane roads. Saw a sign at Montgomery that it was only 77 miles to Eufaula, Alabama, which is right on the Georgia state border. I had previously found there was an RV park in Eufaula in our Trail Guide so we thought that would be a good place to press on. This was probably not a good idea. With the two lane road the going was slower and by the time we arrived it was well after dark. (By the way, I hate driving after dark, especially in a 37 foot motor home, pulling my car behind us.) Anyway, as we came into town we did see a sign for the Lake Eufaula RV Park so we turned down what turned out to be a really bad road going down into the woods. We came upon what looked like a bunch of RVs but there was not sign so we moved on a ways and wound up in a large mobile home park. At this point there was no backing up without unhooking the car. One of the residents said we could go on down and the road would circle around and we'd come back out the same way. These roads were very narrow with the residents cars parked in the street. We made the loop but then could not find the main gate we had come in and were at a dead end. We got out to unhook the car so I could turn around when Jo noticed this long electric cable hanging from the top of the coach and being dragged down the road. Soon a local showed up looking for his cable for his cable TV. It had been strung across the road to his house but too low for us to get under. It caught on one of our roof mounted air conditioners and tore it down. After climbing on the roof and cutting it loose (part of it is still wrapped around the back A/C unit) I gave him $25.00 to cover the damages and to get him to go away.

After that we got turned around and out of their mobile home park and back to the RV park. This is an old RV park that was designed for small travel trailers. The new owners, a young couple, were very nice and got us to a pull through site. In the dark I hooked up to their 30amp electric and water, got the slides out and kind of got the coach leveled. Jo decided to heat up a frozen pizza, in her microwave/convection oven, for dinner. Well, I did not realize the electric hot water tank was also turned on. Between the two they drew more than 30amp and blew the breaker in the electric pedestal. Not sure why but I could not get it back on. Fortunately the space next to us is empty so I plugged our cord into the box on that site. After dinner we both decided we were exhausted so we did a little on our computers and now it is time to go to bed. Oh almost forgot, the slide in the coach where the bed is located has decided not to work. We can hear the electric motor turning but the slide is not moving. This means a person can't get around the bed nor into half the closet, the half where all the circuit breakers are located. The rally we are heading to in Georgia will have service technicians there so we can get it repaired but they probably won't be available until Tuesday, the first day of the rally.

The adventures of RVing, they just keep on coming.

East Coast Bound--Day 1

As ole Willy said: "It great to be on the road again".

We rolled out of the driveway around 8:10 this morning, heading east, across Interstate 40. Original plan for the day was to drive to about North Little Rock and spend the night. Well, with an earlier than normal, at least for us, start we hit North Little Rock in early afternoon. So, we just decided to keep going. We wound up stopping for the night at a little RV park that is situated behind a motel where we have stayed before in Brinkley, Arkansas, about 60 miles west of Memphis. Unfortunately, the current owners of the motel have let the RV park go down hill. First spot we pulled into had an open ground in it's electric pedestal so we could not get electricity safely into our coach. Second spot was okay with a good 30 amp so we stayed the night. There were just two other rigs in the whole park when we arrived. Adjacent to this park is a KFC/Taco Bell so that is where we headed for dinner. We could not get any local TV and the parks cable connection was broken. Instead we both just read awhile and then turned in early.

We had a pretty uneventful day of traveling. Part of our curiosity would be to see how well our little Bridgit Jeane did on her first RV trip. Buddy Joe is an old trouper when it comes to traveling in the coach. As soon as we got rolling he went back to the couch and sprawled out. Bridgit, on the other hand, was not ready for that. She wanted to roam around and/or be in on of our laps. She really did not understand why I would give her no attention while I was driving. Eventually she wound up spending most of the day in Joanne's lap, the place she'd rather be anyway. Tomorrow will be interesting to say the least. (This picture is us parked in Brinkley, Arkansas.)

Celebrating the youngest fourth

A lake, some geese and gulls and a fourth birthday.

Yesterday our youngest grand daughter, Cadence, turned four years old. Due to other commitments, both for Cadence and us, we celebrated her birthday this afternoon. We picked her up around 2:00. She had been to church this morning and told her mom that she wanted to stay in her dress because she thought Grandpa would like her in a dress. Our first stop was Stars & Stripes Park at Lake Hefner, the main reservoir for the north Oklahoma City area. This area always has a large number of Canadian Geese, various kinds of ducks and an unbelievable number of seagulls. They hang out here because so many people bring stuff out to feed them. We had stopped by the Wonder Thrift Store and picked up a loaf of bread to feed them. (We have done this in the past with our other two grand daughters, Emma and Aurora.) As is usual with Canadian Geese folks have to be careful around them because they can get mean. These will come up an almost take the bread directly from your hand. The gulls don't get as close but will fly directly above and even hover in the air, like a helicopter, and will grab the bits of bread right out of the air if you throw it up. This is fascinating to watch. After feeding the birds for awhile, until the bread was all gone, we then walked over to the playground so Cadence could swing and play on the slide. Though she really was not dressed for this she had a big time anyway.

I have previously told Cadence's parents that the job of grandparents is to spoil their grand kids and that we take our job very seriously. With that in mind after leaving the park we headed to the nearest Braum's. This is a local chain of ice cream and dairy stores that also serves great burgers and other fast food. Today it was the ice cream we were interested in. Although Cadence had a cup of orange sherbet, Grandpa made due with a double hot fudge sundae. Following our ice cream we headed back to our house so she could get her birthday presents and spend some times with the dogs. After opening her presents she spent the rest of the afternoon playing with Buddy and Bridgit and with the toys we keep in a cabinet in the living room for the girls. She seemed to like her birthday presents. Grandma had gotten her a really nice raincoat, since our rainy season will be here within the next few weeks. She also got her own set of stuff to blow bubbles. When she visits us in the warmer months her favorite thing is to sit out on the back patio and blow bubbles with Grandma. In all it was a great day and we enjoyed celebrating Cadence's big milestone. By turning four she will be starting school this next year in Pre-K.

Clearing the White Mud

Eleven & a half inches of snow and a shovel.

The television weather guessers have been predicting for days of a major storm coming our way. It was kind of hard to believe, especially with their normal track record. Just this past Friday and Saturday the temps were in the mid-70's with no wind and beautiful sunshine. Well, they hit it on the nail this time. The temps started dropping on Sunday and by Monday evening the snow was moving in. By this morning we had a record amount of snow for a single 24 hour period. Before it stopped we had 11.4 inches of snow on the ground. This picture was taken at 11:00 am and the snow was still coming down. I really don't like snow and just feel like it is just "white mud".

I got out this morning to start shoveling off the drive and entryway. We had about a three foot drift on the front walk and another two feet against the front door. I got the entryway clear but with the snow still falling I elected to wait until it quit before tackling the driveway. Later in the day the drive was calling and had to get out in the cold to work on it. Did it in a couple of shifts but got it clear. Not sure why since the street still has about ten inches of snow in it. Also, we have a pretty good hill to get up to get out of our addition so it is doubtful we'll be getting out anytime soon. The snow from the drive is now in piles on each side. That might melt off sometime before Spring. Although it stayed cold all day and the wind kept blowing the sun did come out this afternoon. Another day of sunshine and the drive should dry out. The rest of the snow can just stay where it is.