HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 67 Lo 52 --  We wish all our readers a very Happy New Year! Thank you for following us this past year and we hope you continue to follow us in the year to come. The new year usually brings resolutions. We usually don't make any, but one person we talked to today had a good one and I'm going to borrow it. The resolution is to stay on this side of the grass. :)

Saturday we had Jim and Judy over for the evening and we taught them the card game Hand and Foot. It's a very popular game among RV'ers. There are different variations of the game, but once you learn the basics you can adapt to local rules. We had a good couple of hours of laughs and fun.

Monday my shoe orthotics came in, so we went to pick them up and I'm wearing them on a specified schedule. I start off by wearing them a couple of hours a day and work up to full time by the end of the week. I go back for a recheck later this month. Jim went to the doctor for a screening and is scheduled for a colonoscopy at the end of January. Fun for him! :) We thought we'd be done with appointments this week, but when we go for one appointment it seems to require one or more follow up appointments. We'll have everything done by the time we leave in April (we hope).

Today we went to dinner at Olive Garden with Jim and Judy to celebrate New Years Eve. We'll watch the ball come down in New York and go to bed. We're looking forward to a wonderful 2014 and wish the same to everyone.

Christmas Dinner, and the Days After

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 81 Lo 64 -- Christmas Day was filled with fun and food, with almost all the residents turning out for the holiday dinner. The clubhouse was packed. Everyone brought their best place settings and decorations, which made it look very festive. (Click pictures to make larger)

Notice the big TV in the background with the fireplace video.

There were so many desserts it was hard to choose.

The tables were very festive looking.

 

Our table: Dave, My Jim, Judy's Jim, Judy and Dave's wife Rickie.

We missed our family on Christmas, but we checked in with all of them by phone and were assured everyone liked their gifts. Jim and I exchanged a couple of small gifts. At our stage in life we're not big on buying each other big gifts anymore.

Jim and Judy have a tradition of going to the movies on Christmas Day, and this year they invited us to join them. So after dinner we went to see Saving Mr. Banks. Although we enjoyed it, we all agreed it wasn't as good as we were expecting.

On Thursday I had an appointment with a chiropractor, and I was anxious to see if the doctor might know what caused my vertigo last week. I found out I have arthritis in my spine causing some disc problems. There's also a muscle behind my ear that's really tight, and found out that could cause vertigo by putting pressure on my inner ear. I'm also having trouble with my left hip because of the way I compensate for my sore foot when I walk. That should be fixed when I get the orthotics for my shoes that I ordered. He got me back into alignment, released some pressure on that muscle, and gave me some stretching exercises to do. I have another appointment next week for more treatment. I feel a lot better, and I'm using a lot of ice to keep the inflammation down.

This morning (Friday) I went to "The Happy Hookers" meeting and learned some more on what to do with the afghan I'm working on. I'm trying some hard patterns, but that's the way to learn. In the afternoon I went down to Lee and Rosemary's to help them with their computer. They recently moved into a park model home they bought, and are now selling their beautiful fifth wheel. It's a 2010 Cameo, which is the same brand we have, so we know it's very good quality. If you're interested, or know of anyone who's interested, you can contact Lee and Rosemary for details at: rvwebers@gmail.com.

Jim took down all the outside decorations and mowed our grass today. Last year he didn't have to mow even once, and this year he's mowed twice already.

Last night and tonight we played cards with the gang. We'll leave you with this beautiful sunset over Lake Adelaide.

Merry Christmas

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 70 Lo  50 -- Merry Christmas to everyone! We hope you have a wonderful day full of joy and happiness.

We haven't had any doctor appointments the last couple days so we did some catching up on TV shows and I did some crocheting. I finally figured out the pattern of a potholder I've wanted to make for quite some time. Now that it's done I'm back to making an afghan for the Linus group here in the park.

Sunday evening our friends Rodger and Evelyn invited us to their place to play a card game called hand and foot. It's a popular game in the RV community, and we're hoping to get a group together to play regularly after the holidays.

Today (Tuesday) it was a little cooler and cloudy, so we decided to wash and wax my car. Jim also did a little RV maintenance. He changed our water filter, and drain and flushed the water heater and replaced the anode rod. We saw a lot of folks doing outside chores and mowing today, taking advantage of the cooler temperature.

We had a water main break here in the park Sunday afternoon, and we were without water until late that night. We're glad to be in an RV in that situation, all we had to do is turn on our water pump. We always keep some fresh water in our tank for situations like that.

After today's chores we went to the pool for a dip. We had Judy take our picture so we can show off our great Christmas time weather.

We're enjoying our downtime, but things will start getting busy in the park in January. Tomorrow is the potluck Christmas dinner, and then we're going to the movies with Jim and Judy.

Pipes, Screws, Christmas Parade, and "I Feel Dizzy!"

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 86 Lo 66 -- We've had a stopped up kitchen drain for quite a while, and it got to the point of taking a very long time to drain the water. On Thursday Jim crawled under the sink and removed the pipes to determine what the problem is. One of the pipes was almost completely blocked by a glob of what looks like a rubbery fabric. We have no idea what it is, it almost looks like the interior coating of the pipe came loose. But the pipes don't appear to have any coating on the insides. And something like that couldn't possibly pass through the small holes in the drain. Very strange. He cleaned it out and it's now working fine. While he had the panels removed from the inside of the cabinet under the sink we saw some screws lying on the floor. Neither of us could figure out where they came from. I guess we'll know when something breaks or the sink falls through sometime in the future. :)  We'll keep an eye on it.

Friday we had the golf cart Christmas parade. The golf carts were so pretty all decorated up. (Click on pictures to enlarge)

Snoopy made an appearance.

There was one car in the parade, and it was a beauty!

Santa took a break from his busy work at the North Pole and stopped by.

A walking present.

The park had its first Christmas decoration contest. Judging was Friday night, and the results will be announced Monday morning at the weekly park meeting. We drove around the park to get some pictures of the decorations.

This is our place from the front

And the back

The view of our back window from inside.

Here's a few of the decorations around the park.

Of course it wouldn't be Florida without decorated palm trees. There are several of them in the park, both artificial and real.

Remember the 60's song "I Feel Dizzy" by Tommy Roe? Well, that's the way I felt on Friday, when a serious spell of dizziness came over me. Everything was spinning so hard I couldn't keep my balance, and I even got very sick. We looked on the internet, and Judy confirmed my suspicion that it may have been vertigo. I kept real still, and after about four hours it cleared up and it was like it never happened. I hope that doesn't happen while on the road driving. I have no idea what caused it, and I sure hope it doesn't happen again. At least it was short lived, this time.

One Week to Christmas

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 72 Lo 46 -- It's one week till Christmas and everything is whipping into shape. Decorations are being put up for Friday's golf cart parade and house decoration contest here in the park. The golf carts are always so neat, and I can't wait to take pictures on Friday. There's a few palm trees that have lights, so I'll take pictures of that too.

We're still dealing with doctor appointments but we're almost done. Jim had gum surgery yesterday, but he's doing fine. I still have my foot orthotics coming in, and we both have to see our dermatologist, then it should be done. I got the results of my heart stress test this morning, and it shows I have skipped heart beats, but not severe enough to worry about. If I do more exercise it will help eliminate the skips. I feel each one of them, which most people don't. That's good news. When and if my foot lets me walk I'll do more walking in the park. I'm going to see if I can ride the stationary bike in the activity center. We're both doing pretty good for being old folks. (Getting old isn't for sissies.)

We had some excitement a few days ago in the park. Someone tried to break into the supply shed here in the park. Everything was locked up but they set off the security alarm when trying to break in. Instead of driving out the entrance to the park they must have panicked and rammed their pickup through the back fence and took off down a small path outside the park. The people right beside where it happened slept through it (it happened at 2am), but their neighbor heard it and called 911. We're in another area of the park so we didn't hear anything.

Damage to the back fence

It's close to a couple RV's

The getaway path, with a steep ledge on the left.








People are starting to arrive little by little. In January we'll have a lot more coming in. Here's a couple views of the palm trees on the streets.

We sat outside and enjoyed the breeze and sun. I had my bi-weekly massage today, the last one of this year. This week and next will be slow with very little activities till after the holidays.

Our next post will be in three days, so check back then.

Good Eating - Relying on Computers

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 79 Lo 50 -- We're eating very well. With salad luncheons, pizza dinners, ice cream socials, and potlucks there's no worries about food. Thursday was our first pizza dinner of the year. It's always good, and there's always a great variety of pizzas.

Pizza dinner before the pies arrived...

... and after.








This week we have some more doctor appointments. One interesting thing we're learning is there's no more hard copies of medical files. Everything is computerized. I'm all for using technology, but I'm also for having paper copies on hand. I worked in the computer world for many years and if I learned anything, it's that computers sometimes go down. Both our dentist office and the lab where I had a mammogram done were having trouble with PC's that wouldn't turn on. Luckily the problem was solved right away, but it still seems dicey not to have some kind of backup records on hand. I always get copies of our health records after each visit to a doctor, so I know at least WE don't have to worry about a computer going down.

I caught up on reading the blogs, and I also updated the blog list to the right on this page. I removed a few that no longer post. Some are no longer traveling, and others only post on Facebook. It's cleaned up a bit. We'll be getting into a full routine after the holidays. It's still warm enough to use the AC. Once in a while we have a cool night but it warms up nicely during the day. We're discussing and making some plans to do some local traveling after the first of the year and see some things in this wonderful state. We'll keep you posted.

One activity we're enjoying is shuffleboard.

My Jim and Judy's Jim

Life is good

Still Working on Appointments

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 72 Lo 52 -- We're still going to doctor appointments and catching up on all our health care needs. It's great to know early in the season that all is well, so if something does come up we have the time to correct it.

We've been spending a lot of time in waiting rooms so neither of us have done much in the park except shuffleboard in the late afternoons. There's still people coming in and some that won't arrive until after Christmas. It's fun watching to see who comes back this year. More park models are being put on lots for sale or rent. A lot of people like to come for a month or two and would rather rent a fully furnished park model rather than buy.

We've been playing shuffleboard with Judy and Jim in the afternoons, and playing cards three evenings per week. Judy and I have also been to the pool a couple of times.











The mosquitoes and bugs are worse this year, we're thinking because of the high temperatures. We had our lot sprayed professionally so hopefully that will take care of any ants or other critters for the season.

It cooled down today so we finally can sit outside without the heat bothering us. It will be be cooler the next couple days (low 70's). We're having fun, but after this week we'll start doing more in the park when we're no longer waiting on appointments. I'm looking forward to getting involved in crocheting, crafts, and games.

Park Model and Visiting with Friends

(Avon Park, FL) Hi  84  Lo 63 -- I’m back to playing shuffleboard, which is my favorite activity here in the park. Jim is walking 3-4 miles almost every day, and life is good with daytime temperatures in the 80’s. We are thinking ahead a bit on what the future may hold for us. We like this park and we’re making a lot of friends, so we're starting to look at some of the park models that are for sale in the park to get an idea of the different floor plans and decor. But this is ONLY for planning purposes... we have no plans to settle down yet.

Here's one model that we both like. New units come with a carport like you see in this photo. But most people replace it with an enclosed room, which doubles the living space.




Looking from the kitchen through to the living room.


Bathroom



Bedroom

This is a model of the Chariot line of park models, which are built in Ocala, FL. They're very nice, but I don't know what we'd do with all that room! :)

We've been busy with our annual doctor appointments. They're all preventative except for my foot that's been causing me problems. I have osteoarthritis in that foot, and I got a cortisone shot and ordered a custom orthotic insole which will be in in about a month. I'll give an update on how all this works out. It sure has put a hamper on my walking any distances this year. I'm hoping to walk a little for exercise but not the miles I've done in the past.

On Sunday we met with Rick and Gail for lunch in Lake Placid, about 40 minutes away. We met them in North Carolina long before we went full time. We took Jim and Judy with us so they could meet them too.

Judy and Jim

Rick and Gail

Rick and Gail, Jim and Dee, Jim and Judy

We had a great time visiting, then with hugs and goodbyes they left to return to their park near Lake Okeechobee and we returned to Adelaide Shores. On the way home we stopped at a couple other RV parks, just to check them out.

We didn't do much on Monday.  Jim had a toothache and waited in the dentist office for a few hours and I talked with some people in the park.  Most of time we play shuffleboard in the afternoons and cards with the group in the evening. It's a great lifestyle keeping our lives simple and relaxing.

2013 Recap

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 81 Lo 63 - Today is the fourth anniversary of the start of our full time lifestyle. As we start our fifth year here's a recap of our 2013 travels. It's been an amazing journey and we're hoping for many more years on the road.

This year's travels covered the midwest and northeast, with most of our sightseeing related to U.S. history. It’s one thing to learn history in school, but when you see it live, it leaves quite an impression. With stops in Gettysburg, Philadelphia, Boston and Plymouth, MA, we learned a lot about the history of our great country, covering the 1600's through the 1800's.

We started our travels with our annual stop in the midwest to see the kids and grandkids in Illinois. While in the St. Louis area visiting son Frank in April, we were chased out of our home by tornado warnings for the second year in a row. We drove to a nearby Red Robin restaurant where we were herded into the kitchen area and into the food cooler. A tornado did touch down and did minor damage within a mile, but fortunately there were only downed tree branches and heavy rain at our RV park. We’ve decided to stay away from the midwest in the spring, and in the future we'll visit our kids in the fall. Saying that, it’s sometimes not safe to go in the fall either. In November, I went back to Missouri/Illinois/Indiana for my mom’s funeral, and had to drive through a severe weather front with dangerous tornadoes. One small tornado passed our car on the left side of us. I must say that got my heart pumping!

After our family time with the kids we traveled east to Elkhart, IN where we had some maintenance done on our home. We then made stops in Pennsylvania and visited some of our Adelaide Shores snowbird friends in their winter homes in Beaver Falls and Adamstown. That was nice. Later on we also enjoyed visiting Jim's Aunt and Uncle in Maryland, and our good friends Sandra and Gordon in Smith's Falls, Ontario, Canada.

Every state has some beauty, even New Jersey, which sometimes gets a bad rap. We got to drive up the Jersey Shore from Asbury Park to Sandy Hook, where we looked across Sandy Hook Bay to the beautiful NY City skyline from the top of a light house. There was still lots of evidence of the damage done by Hurricane Sandy a year ago.

Driving from New Jersey we boldly ventured across the George Washington Bridge and crossed the NYC boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. (It wasn't as bad as you'd think, just a very busy I-95.) We spent time in all of the states in New England, filling out the eastern two thirds of our U.S. map at the right of this blog.

Here's some of the highlights of the "touristy" things we did this summer:

- Gettysburg National Historic Site (including the Eisenhower home)
- Constitution Hall and the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia
- Newport, Rhode Island (beautiful HUGE mansions!)
- Cape Cod, Massachusetts (horrendous traffic everywhere we went on the Cape)
- Boston (all-day trolley hop on/hop off tour)
- Plymouth, Massachusetts (Plymouth Rock, The Plimoth Plantation, The Mayflower)
- Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park, Maine

While in Maine we took a drive into Canada for a two-day visit with our friends Elaine and Rick in Moncton, New Brunswick. While there we visited Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy, one of the most spectacular sights we've ever seen.

On our way back south we spent two weeks in the Washington, DC area for some sightseeing in our nation's capital. We took in Ford's Theater, where Lincoln was assassinated, viewed our Constitution and Declaration of Independence at the National Archives, and the "Newseum", a 7-story museum of print and broadcast news media.

Jim got to check off a few more ballparks from his bucket list, with games at St. Louis (Cardinals), Philadelphia (Phillies), and Boston's Fenway Park (Red Sox). He also went to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY.

While we were in Maine, it seems like I ate lobster almost everyday. They’re cheaper there, and they boil them in sea water, which makes a big difference in the flavor. Speaking of food, we bought some pure maple syrup in Vermont. It's so much tastier than the commercial stuff you buy in the grocery store.

One of the continuing pleasures of our travels is the chance to come upon things unexpectedly, such as Canterbury Shaker Village, near Loudon, New Hampshire. We happened to see a small sign on the highway pointing to it. Also, in Vermont we again saw a small sign pointing to the Green Mountain Spinnery. It’s a small yarn factory, and since I’m getting back into crocheting it was a special place to see. We got a personal tour and watched them make the yarn.

The weather in the northeast this summer was as close to perfect as you can get. Very little rain, and daytime temps in the mid-70's just about every day.

We ended our summer travels with a two-week stop in North Carolina to visit with Jim's mom and sisters. Our friends Jim and Judy were with us and we had fun showing them around and treating them to mom's southern cooking.

Many of our readers are interested to know what the costs are to live and travel full time in an RV. So here's a breakdown of the cost our summer travels, not including food and incidentals. (This covers only the time we were traveling, from the first week of April until the first week of November.)

Total miles traveled towing the rig: 5,631
Total miles for car commuting, sightseeing, etc. while rig is parked: 7,369
Total gasoline (for car): $1,587 (total 13,000 miles)
Total diesel (for truck): $1,197 (total 5,913 miles)
Gasoline price range: $3.18 (Huntsville, AL) - $4.34 (Joliet, IL)
Diesel price range: $3.49 (Garden City, SC) - $4.13 (New Paris, IN)
Tolls: $221
Total Campground fees: $5,243 (for 208 nights)
Avg Daily Campground fee: $25.21
Total truck maintenance: $339 (routine maintenance; no repairs required)
Total car maintenance: $60 (routine oil changes; no repairs required)
Total rig maintenance: $2,054
 
Rig maintenance included the following (copied from our maintenance log):

4/26/13: Madison RV, Madison, AL - Replaced failed electric transfer switch. Total cost $639, paid $57 (ext. warranty covered $582).

6/25/13: Fox RV, Elkhart, IN - Adjusted, lubed, and reinforced both slideouts; upgraded suspension with MorRyde heavy duty wet bolt kit; replaced front streetside wheel rotor/hub assembly and disc pads; repaired shower and sink check valves and main vent (to eliminate gray tank odors); tightened ceiling a/c mounting bolts; replaced all screws on front cap and re-caulked; repaired broken door step; tightened top mounting bolt on rear ladder and re-caulked; shortened sewer outlet tube; replaced igniter in L/R stove burner; tightened bathroom door hinge plate with longer screws. Total cost $2,737, paid $1,997 (ext. warranty paid $740).

Next year we plan to go to the far west, more new territory for Tumbleweed. We dearly thank all our readers who have followed along with us, and hope you continue to follow along as we fill in the rest of our map next summer to complete the lower 48 states.

Filling up the Calendar

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 79 Lo 63 -- It was almost warm enough to turn on the air conditioner, but since we weren't home most of the day we kept it off.

Our calendar is filling up with appointments and activities this month. We're also starting to think about our 2014 summer travels. Just like last year, we can stay as busy as we want, or do nothing if we want. Monday, Thursday and Friday nights we play cards. Shuffleboard is daily at 10, if I get up in time. I go to Bell Ringers at church on Tuesday mornings at 9:30. We want to learn Bunco, another card game, which is 1:00 on Mondays, and there's also Dominoes at the same time. Guess I'll flip back and forth for that one. Friday at 10 is Happy Hookers, the crocheting group. I need to get there to learn more about how to read patterns. So many things to do! And lots more things I haven't mentioned. 

Besides the activities in the park, there's lots to do in town. A local theater has "Stimulus Tuesdays" when you can buy $2 popcorn and $2 sodas, so Tuesday will be our movie day. We went today to see Last Vegas, but it wasn't playing at the time we thought, so we walked around the mall for awhile then went to eat at a great Chinese buffet in Sebring. I also had my first massage in a while today. I have a regular gal I go to when we're here. That felt good.

Jim dug out the box in the basement that has our Christmas decorations. I don't think we're going to do much, but we do want our small tree set up. 

We're staying busy and enjoying visiting with friends in the park. The sunset tonight was beautiful. It looked like the sky was on fire.