Thursday August 31, 2017

Good morning sunshine ☀️ It was a good one for finishing odds 'n sods. Mark painted the RV's fender while I finished household chores. This afternoon I left for game day at Pat's for 1 o'clock. We played a few games ... drank some wine and had fun. 

Back home, Mark worked on the golf cart, worked on the RV and finally relaxed. 

So that was our blaz day, eh? 😎

Ta Ta. 

Wednesday August 30, 2017

Good morning! It's a beautiful day in our neighborhood; sunny and clear. We all slept 9-10 hours (Marky's still asleep) ... awesome. As you know that doesn't happen often for me. 

Haha ... Robbie's gone to sleep again. 

We had breakfast on the way to Home Depot. We needed a few things to finish the RV refreshing. It was tough finding a new sink drain for the bathroom. Liquid soft soap etched the chrome finish on the original one. Yeah, soap ate chrome. Scary. We also needed spray enamel for the (replaced) fender after the Alabama trip 2 years ago! The new fender yellowed! It's an easy fix but just another JOB. 

Well ... we were too tired to go out to dinner tonight; date night raincheck. Mark made us Mom's "Pork Chops & Spanish Rice!" 😋

Sue and Wayne had some help around the cottage property today. 

They're packing up soon for the south. 

That's it for today! Phew. 

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

We know that feels like an accomplishment. The RV, clean inside and out, is now in its port, yay! 😁 

It was a little more challenging this time as the driver side mirror was broken in Kentucky. (Advantage Dodge wants $650 for the mirror, Plus installation. So we will find it on eBay and replace it ourselves!) 

What a fun time we had with Randy, Dawn and Scott last night. I may have been slightly overserved. Ha ha. Scott easily kept the conversation flowing till 11 o'clock as Randy kept the wine flowing. It was a wonderful welcome home PARTAY! Dawn made her fantastic cheesy potatoes of which I had two helpings. Burp. 😜

Of course BeeZee sat with her uncle but Robbie seemed to be playing hard to get. Actually, he was very busy mopping the floor with his beard. Scott had not seen that before and got a good chuckle out of it. Aren't the placemats beautiful? Dawn has kicked up the dining elegance ... 💕

Tonight's just a relaxing one here watching TV with the Scotties. 

Sue and Wayne are relaxing on their porch tonight but have severe thunderstorms in the region. 

Randy and Dawn phoned ... Scott headed to Pompano in the late afternoon so they're chilling out watching TV too. 

Ta Ta til tomorrow. 

Monday, August 28, 2017

Good early morning ... I must be tuned to another time zone; 5 o'clock and I have to get up. Speaking of tuned ... Rick M returned from Cali with his new grand piano.

Beautiful ... I imagine it'll be played at happy hour! 

Mark and I are (still) cleaning the RV and doing minor touch ups.  We'd be done but for the rain! Hey, no complaints as it's cool enough to work outside! 

RanDawn have invited us for dinner tonight! Yay ... we know it'll be a fun evening; maybe dominoes?

We arrived about 5 for cocktails on the back patio. Mark enjoyed a ceegar while RanDawn poured drink and set out appetizers. It was so nice sitting outside ... almost cool. 

Dinner was so good ... marinated chicken thighs, Dawn's cheesy potatoes, brussels sprouts, beans, mushrooms and Randy's homemade dressing on Cesar salad. Everything was delicious. We all

went back for seconds tonight! 

Dawn tried brussels sprouts for the first time in her life! There was lots of encouragement from Randy ... 

"Hey, they're not bad!"  😋

Scott was the dog whisperer with BeeZee ... she settled down with him quickly. 

Look at that smile for Scott. 

Sue and Wayne went out boating as it was a lovely evening in Kenora. They'll be leaving for home about the 8th of September.

Well, that's it for tonight.

Sunday, August 27, 2017

Good morning. Mark was up at 6 o'clock, walked the dogs and began scrubbing the RV exterior while it's relatively cool. It's actually perfect right now as it's a little bit misty rain around our area. No complaints here.

Diane & Kris are enjoying Winnipeg (and Gimli) for a few nights before flying home on Thursday. We'll get together once they're caught up after the trip. She's amazed at the huge changes in The Peg ... of course her last visit was September 1992. 😜

I cleaned house and continued on with the odds 'n sods. At 3:30 we popped in at Rose & Jim's to pick up our plants and had a drink. We got home on the golf cart just before a heavy rain. Lucky. 

Randy's suffering with a bout of bronchitis ... poor guy gets it after every flight. (This is him not following doctor orders.)

Hahaha ... there's a back story to the margarita glass! The caption of their picture was ... 

I expect to see them Monday ... more on this developing story. 🐔

Ta Ta til tomorrow. 

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Good morning ⛅️ ... it's going to be a day of RV (exterior) cleaning and for me, paperwork. 

Did you hear Les & Lynne's (good) news? They close on the sale of their Mainship this Saturday and were feeling sad; the end of boating on Lake of the Woods ... then bought a 27' Searay to keep at the Yacht Club. Yay! It'll be perfect, close to home and enough boating on the Red River. (I'll post a picture when I get one.) 👍🏻 

At 5:30 we left for dinner at Plaza Guadalajara to meet Pat, Ken, Rose and Jim. It was so much fun to see them all again. We'd all been out of town so there were many things to talk about. 

Plaza Guadalajara ... fun ... Pat, Rose and I "tried" to buy a margarita glass so I could plant "chicken and hens" for Pat. Well, we didn't get one ... but we sure tried. Ha!  

Rose invited us all back for a coconut layer cake and wine. We sat in their new screened porch and enjoyed a thunderstorm, frogs 🐸 and lots of laughs. 

We were home by 9:30 to spend time with the doggies. 

Sue and Wayne went for happy hour at Chris & Judy R's ... but where are they?  Ha, I phoned; Wayne answered ... all's well. 

Tomorrow we'll pick up our plants from Rose & Jim's ... and have another visit. We heard 2 of our neighbors are selling! 

Friday, August 25, 2017

Good afternoon. It's a warm steamy one with thunderstorms forecast this afternoon. That Hurricane Harvey looks as if it will hit Texas hard. Mark remembers the name by saying Harvey wall banger and indeed it might be. Fingers crossed 🤞 for a lesser event than forecast. Stay safe everyone. Maggi F mentioned they may not have a winter home to sell after the storm. 😟

Robbie and BeeZee are very happy to be back home with their fenced patio and not being walked 5 times a day; Mark too!  😎 It's HOT on the asphalt ... too hot for Spot. 

Yikes! 😜

We finished our work in time for happy hour on the front porch. Well, actually, it began raining so it was just time to quit. Ha ha. So we poured some wine and enjoyed the rain! (And 🍷)

Ta Ta. 

Thursday, August 24, 2017

Yes, I'm excited to be going HOME today! It's been a grand vacation and good drive north to south! For all my enthusiasm, Mark is dreading all the things we have to do when we get there. 😱 (Me? Well, we'll get it all back together, step by step.) 

Ah yes, then there's stress eating. 🍪 

It's now 830 and we're nearly ready to leave on the final leg. The doggies are at the door anxious to be going home, I think. Robbie has had enough of these long days in the truck. BeeZee loves the adventures. 

Well, we did not win the lotto. Alas, 700 million would have just about bought my dream fifth wheel toy hauler. It's made by Thor Industries and it's called Full House. 

5,033 miles under the tires on this summer excursion! We calculated the diesel cost at .24 cents a mile. Randy already texted theyll see us when we'll arrive home ... 🌴🍻 happy hour at 4 o'clock it is! 

Hey, we have new neighbors as one house on our street sold. Another one, friends Carol and Roger have put their's up for sale. What the heck.

Our mail from the last 10 weeks. OMG 

Scott is looking great on his new Harley! 

After cocktails, Randy, Dawn, Scott, Mark and I went to Stavros for dinner tonight. As usual, it was delicious and no one had to do dishes. We had lots of fun catching up on each other's antics. 

Crystal posted a picture of her mom in the newly repaired Firebird.

It looks like Foxy and Darlene are going to enjoy this ride now that it's all fixed up. ❤️

Well that's it for tonight. Our TV isn't back on yet so I guess it's time to begin going through some mail before bedtime ... till tomorrow. 

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

It's a rainy start to our drive today. We've been watching a couple hook up their Pioneer toy hauler, travel trailer and load their motorcycle. It's quite a job as the motorcycle is a low rider and the toy hauler is not. Whatever, there's always a show at the RV park; (as Mark just said, "sometimes it's us." 😂

Cigar:30 last night. (When Robbie and BeeZee sit on chairs they don't bark at passing dogs!)  🐾💕 What little angels. 😇

Coming down the mountain from Pigeon Forge to ward Knoxville. 

We always see crazy trailers on the road, unsafe ones in particular. The above trailer only has three wheels on the ground, the fourth one on the left side is not even touching the ground. WTF?

Well it was a good travel day ... cloudy and a bit cooler until Georgia ((94!) 

In Atlanta Georgia we saw Linda's FIRST CAR ... 

I sent the picture to Randy ... he had just said to Dawn (and Scott) that it's the 3rd anniversary of Linda's passing when his phone "dinged" with this picture. ❤️ it's a 1959 Chevy, I think Impala. 

Although the car looks darker green in my (crappy) photo, it's just like the green one here. Linda's had the white top; she worked at the grain exchange at the time. I remember her bringing me home big chalk pieces as stock prices were written with chalk on big blackboards. 

Atlanta's skyline. 

Happy traveler Robbie ... crazy traffic didn't bother him one bit. And, if he's relaxed then Bee's relaxed. 

Randy, Dawn and Scott went to Sanford today to pick up Scott's brand new motorcycle, a Harley of course. We're looking forward to seeing them all soon. 

Scott's new ride ... and it looks like the salesman is still smiling. 🏦 👍🏻😎

At 3:30 we arrive at Fair Harbor RV park in Perry Georgia ... NICE, very nice! 

A view of the fishing pond. There's a barn for those traveling with horses. 

Sue, Wayne, Diane and Kris all went to the Kenora farmers market today. By all accounts it was a great outing! 

We talked to Rod & Shay while they were enjoying a glass of wine while watching a rainstorm over Lake Henry. Nice. They've hired help to paint and re carpet. Cool. We'll visit next month and help out. 

That's it for today. Ta Ta. 

Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Good morning sunshine! It looks like we are going to have the KOA campground almost to ourselves! 90% of the people were here for the eclipse yesterday. Sweet. That means we will be able to walk around with our doggies without creating a barkfest. Ha ha! Next-door to us yesterday were two Norwegian Elkhounds; and they were barkers! 

Site "I" ... 

Mark cooked us a fabulous breakfast of bacon and fried eggs with cheese. Robbie and BeeZee had an egg too! Yummy. That was the last of our Canadian eggs. 😋

Just as we were talking about where to go driving about, Mark stepped into a puddle by the sink. That's never a good sign! 

Well, I guess the 20 mile stretch coming in here did some damage; a plastic tap broke off the hot water heater shutoff under the kitchen sink. Mark says "No problem fixing it ... but we'll need to find a hardware store." 

Well it's a very interesting area. We'd like to visit in the fall when it's not 90F. There's lots to see and do. The Old Mill area is the original Pigeon Forge; neat. 

The waterwheel is to the right ...

That's the Little Pigeon Forge River. 

We were surprised to see it's an easy walk to the district from our KOA site. 

We expected the weather to be cooler ... but it's still 90 at 7 o'clock. Whew! 

There are attractions everywhere you look. 😎 Of course we spotted a Christmas store where I bought some red cardinal string lights! (It's 125 days til Xmas!) 🎅🏼 

We went to Texas Roadhouse for steak dinner ... it was just what we were in the mood for! 

Couldn't believe how hot it was when we came out of the restaurant ... still 90!  Mark bought some cigars and we plan to sit outside when it cools down around 9 o'clock. Tomorrow we head out to Perry Georgia for a night at Fair Harbor RV park. 

Sue, Wayne, Diane and Kris went to Dino's restaurant in Kenora to meet with Bob and Jill. Mark and I were there are many years ago, when Mom, Dad and Matt were with us! 

Randy is apparently home cutting the grass and fixing sprinklers while Dawn is at work until 8 o'clock. He's feeling better obviously! 

😳

Well that's the news for today. Ta Ta. 

Monday, August 21, 2017

Good morning world, it's a brand new day. It is thought the highways will be very congested today with people stopping to see the eclipse. Someone posted a humorous thing on Facebook yesterday which read "If you are wearing a red Make America Great Again cap you can watch the eclipse without those sissy-ass eclipse glasses." Now that's funny, but rather irresponsible as you know it's going to happen! OMG eye doctors are going to be inundated with new patients.

Double-cross 

It took a long while to cool our rig down last night. Mark suspects we have mud daubers nested in one of our air-conditioners. We took the dogs with us when we went to Walmart for groceries. Coming back, we had so much stuff in the backseat that Robbie sat on my lap and BZ laid on the middle console. About 200 yards from our campground entrance on a big hill of the narrow road to Whispering Hills Mark pulled over so far I thought we were going into the ditch as a large SUV whizzed passed us and clipped our truck mirror! He stopped as did Mark. He had a broken mirror but no other damage fortunately so that was the end of it. However, we were a little shaken up. Kudos to our Dodge  mirror design which folded in on impact. The other fellow was going way too fast for the conditions; we don't know how he hit our mirror but avoided our dually fenders. Mark figures he must've swerved at the last second when our mirrors hit. Anyway, we shall carry-on. No harm done. 

Sue, Wayne, Diane and Kris were playing dominoes last night. They had a boat ride in the Windsorcraft to visit Jill and Bob in Deception Bay. (We went to visit them by boat years ago but were chased away by a thunderstorm.) We waved to them from the dock but that was it as Wayne and Sue headed back for home.

Entering the Smokies

We will be staying at Pigeon Forge KOA campground, for two nights. It's a pricey bugger, $97 a night but with a furnished patio and barbecue! We're living large. 😜

Just 97 miles from Asheville ... hmmm

We arrived in KOA Pigeon Forge campground at 1 o'clock. It is a gorgeous place and totally full. It's a good thing we called two days ago to reserve. 

Seiverville looking toward Pigeon Forge 

The sky has a steely gray glow with 20 minutes to totality. Cool. 2:29 PM the katydids started singing! 

Hey! Is that a UFO above the sun? Calling my Ancient Aliens pals ... 👽

(and NO HAT!) 😂

After the eclipse we had a late lunch of shrimp followed by a nap. Perhaps our clocks needed resetting after the eclipse. Ha ha ha. 

Rod and Shay left a message that they closed on their property and were sitting on the patio overlooking the lake. They sounded so happy, and perhaps a little overwhelmed with where to start next. Congratulations you two! 👍🏻

We sat outside for happy hour and a salad ... no one ever said there isn't entertainment in an RV park. Heck "grandpa" next to us has 6 guests and 6 (big) dogs in a 24' travel trailer. 😱 Poor G'pa was outside walking around with his cane in the 89F heat. 😅

It's doggy bath night so I will close with an Arooooo