Rain, rain, go away

Stix n Brix, NC

Gin’s folks left the cg Wednesday morning.  It was raining just a little bit at the time.  We discussed it and decided to stay one more night.  We knew we would get wet either day so we chose to relax in the MH.  When it stopped raining for a few minutes, we went outside to put away the chairs and put up the awning.  We got out our pole and blocks so we could pry up our bad jack, and we were shocked to see it go up on it’s own.  If it had been raining hard, we would have had to pry it up.  Go figure.

Speaking of raining hard, a tropical storm system came in last night.  Heavy rain on the roof of a MH is VERY LOUD.  Yes, you have to shout at each other even if you’re only three feet away.  We’re learning how to play Mexican Train Dominoes so we gave it a try.  It was a noisy night.  I mentioned the nearby artillery the other day.  Well, we had nature’s artillery instead.  It was a little bit of thunder, but the pine cone grenades are what really made it hard to sleep.  About the time I drifted off, another one would hit and make me jump.

We got up about 9:00am and it was a break in the heavy rain.  Smudge really appreciated a quick potty break.  Here’s what site #13 looks like with a pond in front, beside, and behind us.

Gin put on her raingear to do the last bit of packing up (vu qube, cables, dump station etc).  We had brought our kayaks and never took them off the top of the Suki.  They were full of water.  We’ll carry them differently when we fulltime.  We’ll also need to come up with something better to keep the bikes dry.  Here’s Gin dumping some kayak water.  We like the hullavators but you will get wet if the kayak has water in it.

As she finished up at the dump station, the bottom fell again.  It wasn’t that bad to drive in thankfully.  I felt the wind only once as we drove over the bridge into Swansboro.  All things considered, if we were fulltiming, this would have been a “stay put” kinda day.

I have to work the next 5 nights so I’ll be quiet for awhile.  I’ll still find time to read your blog posts though.  Only 10 more months until retirement, but who’s counting (me of course).

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Stir Crazy

Cedar Point CG site #13
Croatan National Forest
Cedar Point, NC

Welcome to our newest follower, Karen & Al.  Karen has a couple of nice blogs and I have bumped in to her Florida-Georgia Camping Kayaking one several months ago and thought how nice it was.  There's some good info there, and it sounds like we share common interests.

Well, it's official now...I'm stir crazy (as opposed to just plain crazy).  I woke up at 4:30am and can't get back to sleep because I have caught up with my sleep.  It's Wednesday and it's been raining off-n-on since Sunday night.  We all went shopping at Walmart in Morehead City on Monday and then hit the Golden Corral buffet.  Yes, our hit did leave a pretty big dent.  :)  Other than that, we haven't left the cg.  That's ok by me, but it's been so wet that we didn't bother to get the bikes off the rack to ride around.  We've played Canasta in the evening with Gin's folks every night.  Since a storm is forecast to come in today, they are thinking about leaving this morning.  Gin and I will pack up our chairs while they are sorta dry, but we will wait it out and leave Thursday.  I don't mind driving in the rain and a little wind too much. 

Yesterday was a busy training day at the Marine base in nearby Jacksonville.  We could hear the artillery all day and into the evening.  Some of it sounded kinda close.  It sounds a lot like thunder but it's constant.  I cannot imagine living in a war zone.  I wonder if politicians would be so quick to declare war if they knew it would be fought daily on American soil?  I hope and pray that it never happens again.

What kind of things do you do on a rainy day in the RV?  Gin plays games on her IPad while I do Cryptograms.  We bought this word puzzle book from Walmart and it will last me several years.  We've caught up with our sleep by napping every rainy day and watched all the shows that we've tivoed .  I feel like I'll pop if I keep eating like I have during the past few days.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life's journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

It’s Good to be “Home”

 
Cedar Point CG site #13
Croatan National Forest
Cedar Point, NC

After coating ourselves with SPF 50, we spent a couple of hours bobbing in the waves and people watching Saturday morning.  You do see all kinds of people at the beach.  During the heat of the day, we went to the Piggly Wiggly to get some groceries.  When we came back, we noticed a fire only a few feet from the MH.  Timing is everything. 

Our neighbors had grilled sausage for breakfast and put the coals on the grass without dousing them with water.  The wind must have kindled a spark to flame up.  They were gone but had left two tackle boxes right next to the coals.  They were flaming up and the melting plastic smelled pretty bad.  As we got out of the Suki and walked up to put out the fire, a couple of other rv’ers came over from both sides to help out.  Even if we hadn’t been there to put it out, another camper would.  As one guy said, we’ve got to look out for each other.  We finished up our Saturday with a nice grilled steak and a game of Canasta with Gin’s folks then one last look at the moon shining on the rough waves.

I don’t know why it is, but the closer your cg neighbors are, the earlier they crank up to leave.  On Saturday, the neighbors on one side cranked up at 7:00am and Sunday, the neighbors on the other side cranked up at 6:00am.  Since they lost their fishing tackle in the fire, I guess they were ready to leave.  We each packed up our MH’s and Gin and her mom went to Cedar Point at 10:00am to find a couple of sites for the next few nights.  It sure did empty out on a Sunday morning.  We are in one of our favorite sites and Gin’s folks are across the street.  The first time we stayed here a couple of years ago, these are the sites we were in.

This is site #13.  Since Gin has MS, she has an Access Card to use at the National CG’s so we paid $44 for 4 nights.  We’re only 5 miles from the ocean too.  There are very few cg’s on the oceanfront in NC so that’s why the few that are there can charge so much.  As we were setting up camp, Gin looked at me and said, “It’s good to be home.”  This place definitely feels like home and moving from one cg to another instead of going back to the stix n brix made us think about the fulltime lifestyle even more.  We finished the day by going out to eat at Capt Charlie’s in Swansboro (good food) and playing a game of Phase 10.  Rain is in the forecast for the next couple of days so we will relax and sleep late.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Holiday Travel Park

Holiday Travel Park site #69 red
Emerald Isle, NC

I had a busy week at work so we decided to go to one of our favorite places with level paved sites since one of our jacks doesn’t go up.  Cedar Point CG in Croatan National Forest, here we come!  Gin’s parents have there MH packed and were going to join us.  We got there at 11:30am on a Friday and all the sites were taken and nobody was packing up.  What to do.  There’s an “RV Resort” just past the bridge in Emerald Isle.  Holiday Travel Park is a last resort because it’s expensive by our standards.  We got two nights for $140.  It's a nice place but not really our style.  They charge $5 a night for Smudge so I will be using their baggies for a while.  We wanted to spend the day Saturday at the shore and this is an ocean front cg so we’ll enjoy the convenience.

Here’s our site.  It’s one of those places where your morning constitutional is heard by your neighbors on one side and smelled by the neighbors on the other side.  :)

We hung out with Gin’s folks and went out for an early supper at Jordan’s Seafood in Emerald Isle.  It’s a mom-n-pop restaurant with decent seafood and reasonable prices.  After chatting some more back at camp, we walked to the shore to see the moon come up.  Here’s where the concession stand’s steps go down to the shore.

We’re planning to get in the water in a little bit.  You won’t get pictures of us in our bathing suits and you can thank me later.  ;)  Sunday we’ll leave here and hopefully get a couple of spots at Cedar Point for a few nights.

Oh, "Hiya" to heyduke, our most recent follower.  He has a nice looking blog that I'll drop in on once in awhile.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life’s journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Yard Sale #2

Stix n Brix, NC

Hello to the most recent followers John, Dave, and Jo Beth and Catherine.  Dave has an extensive website and I'm sure we'll meet JB & C at the rv-dreams rally in April 2011. 

Gin has spent the past few weeks pulling stuff out of the cabinets and we had Yard Sale #2 today.  All I can say is...WOW!!  Yesterday we priced everything while it was in the garage.  It was full of stuff.  We got up early to put it in the driveway and of course, someone showed up before we got half of it out there.  It's still dark at 6:30am.  Most of it was gone within the first 45 minutes.  Needless to say, we didn't have time to get a pic of our setup.  They say that Christmas decorations don't sell.  Well, I was very surprised that all of ours sold before 9:00am.  We have kept one little nativity scene for the MH.  Everything else sold by 10:00am (except a puzzle which Gin will enjoy one more time).  We took a couple of pictures of things to put on craigslist in a few weeks.  Hope that goes well too.  We'll do a couple more yard sales next spring to really clear out the house before it goes on the market next summer.  Only 316 days before retirement!!

It's nice to read a fellow blogger and know exactly where they are because you've been there before.  This has happened a few times as we have read Nancy & Bill who live near Myrtle Beach, SC and now with Sherry & David who have just started their full-time life.  I'm so happy for them...and a little envious.  Our day will come before we know it.

Thanks for dropping by, and enjoy each day of your life's journey by finding beauty in the ordinary.

Twiggy

Stix n Brix, NC

Oh hey there!  My name’s Twiggy.

I’m having a bit of an identity crisis.  I was born a praying mantis, but I’ve always wanted to be a hummingbird.

Does this shot make my rear end look too big?

I don’t mind sharing my feeder with other hummingbirds but they are a little hesitant to land on the perch while I’m here.

It’s nice that the people who live here enjoy eating dinner with me.  They like me as a bug because I eat other bugs.  I enjoy my sugar water too.

I think I’ll hang around here for a few days.  Nothing else to see here so…b’bye now!

In Remembrance

Some fellow Raleigh PD officers take a few moments to salute the flag and remember the events of 9-11-2001.  It is something that has changed us all forever.

Wildlife at Home

Stix n Brix, NC

We like our backyard because it has a pond that is shared by 5 other houses in our subdivision.  We don’t have someone else’s back yard right at our back door.  We have enjoyed some of nature right at our steps.  When I work in the yard, I often times see the hoof prints left behind by a visiting deer.  We see several turtles and herons enjoying the water.  We’ve even seen squirrels swim in the water for the fun of it…yes they dove right in.  Of course, I never get pictures of these things but, I’ll share some of what I do have.

We enjoy our hummingbird feeder which is stuck to the window of our breakfast nook.

 

Incoming!!

  

We occasionally have a Green Heron visit us.  He doesn’t hang around very long.

  

Lizards are only snakes with legs but the legs make us like them so much better than snakes.

  

Notice how he is eating his shedding skin in the first shot.  They are good to have around to eat bugs.  So are dragonflies.

And some of the wildest wildlife ever seen in our backyard…Smudge!!

  

Unless you consider Gin wild.  ;)  She does have her moments.

Until next post.  Everyone enjoy the little things in life.

Rally?

Stix n Brix, NC

Welcome to the latest followers, Pinon and BW & Carol.  It's one of those small world moments when a follower has an NC connection.  It's a nice state with the Appalachian Mountains on the west end and the Atlantic Ocean on the east and a lot of history in between.

I'm working night shift this holiday weekend and it's been pretty quiet in Raleigh.  Maybe the early autumn-like weather has something to do with it.  Autumn is by far my favorite time of year.  It's been excessively hot this summer.

A few days ago, Howard announced the date and location of the rv-dreams rally for 2011.  We went to our first one this past April and had a blast.  We met some of the nicest people and went to some informative seminars.  I have my work schedule written down for the next 11 months so I took a look at April 2011.  The rally is scheduled for the weekend of my four night shifts.  Problem.  I hate taking off nights because it puts a strain on the rest of the guys.  I'm already planning to take off a couple of nights in May for my nephew's wedding so I'm in a pickle.  We really want to go to the rally. Problem.  I will have to use some vacation days along with almost all of my over-time.  If I use too much vacation time, I will have to work another month.  :(  We've been bouncing it back and forth and I've done some math.  If I don't get sick (that'll eat my vacation time), I will just barely have enough time to retire on my target date...so...we're going.  We stayed at River Plantation in TN a few years ago and it's a nice place.  I've got to get ready for work so we'll make reservations tomorrow.

Dragonflies are Free

Jordan Lake State Park
Poplar Point CG site #E95
Apex, NC

Tuesday was a recovery day devoted to relaxing.  We mainly hung around the campsite.  I like this site because it’s waterfront and has a nice gravel patio area.  All the sites here are wooded.  I wanted to take a few photos and try to get a shot of a deer.  They were still hiding.  I took Gin’s bike, the one with the electric motor(e-bike), for a ride to the campground’s swim beach.  Not a soul in sight.

If you notice another sandy beach on the other side of the lake, it’s a nice day use area called Seaforth Landing.  There is a nice boat launch there too.  Once again, no one there during the week.  As I rode around, I came upon a private pond within the campground.  There are a few sites that border the pond.  I noticed a fish splash near a fallen log.  There were water lilies all around the edge.  It’s a Sylville kind of place.

 

I noticed several dragonflies but could only get one good shot.  This is for Gypsy G-Mas and anyone else who enjoys them.

Today was "outside pack-up" day.  Of course we enjoyed a couple of hours on the water with the waverunners and pontoon boat.  I think this was our last ride and it was a beautiful day for it.  We got them out of the water before supper.  I plan to take a few photos while they are at the boat launch to put on craigslist in the Spring.  They have been a blast.  We’ll sleep in tomorrow and head back to the house around noon.  It’s getting a little busy here already.  I have to go back to work Friday night so reality will hit hard but I’ll have a nice week to reflect on.  Everyone stay safe and have a good Labor Day.