Marshall, TX & more Transmission news

Marshall, TX & Transmission Update

So for another update. Left Arkadelphia, AR yesterday. RV was still acting funny. I took it back to the mechanic, the transmission guy came out & we took the RV for a test drive. The transmission guy thought my problem was probably the cadallitic converter. That it was clogged. They stood beside the exhaust pipes & said the air blowing from them was really, really hot. It should not be that hot.

I'm not a mechanic, so I took their word for it of course. I asked if I could make it to Houston to get it fixed by a mechanic in my area, they thought so. All this time, it has been bugging me that there had to be an underlying reason why my transmssion got so severly damaged like it did. So I thought their reason made sense.

Well.....

I get about 20 miles down the road & have to pull over. I had been running the engine for several hours, so the RV was very hot. I didn't want new damages to the transmission. I let it sit for awhile, let the genny run so I could run a/c for the dogs.

Then I left there. Made it to the Texas Welcome Center in Texarkana. Wow, what a nice welcome center!! If you pass through welcome centers, stop & pay them a visit. They have great info on state parks, campgrounds in their states, points of interest & free maps. Yep, all free. I loaded up on Texas info. Yes, I live in Texas, but it's nice to have those for when I decide to take off for a few days somewhere.

Oh....

Back to my mechanical problems.

I BARELY make it to Marshall, TX. I knew with the city, there would be mechanics & transmission mechanics as well. There is still a HUGE problem! I can't make it to Houston without damaging my rig!

Actually, I tried to stop at two parks at towns before Marshall, but I could not find their RV parks, so I was quite grateful to find this one. I've been here two nights. Cypress Creek RV park on I-59. I'll do a seperate blog about it. Nice people run this park. There is no age limit on RV's like some parks. It's more or less a roadside park, but there are full timers living here. They have a really nice meeting/entertainment room, with cable TV. A huge big screen tv, meeting tables, even a little corner bar. The bathroom/shower area is really nice too. Only one potty & shower, but it's not a resort or a busy park, so getting to the shower is not a problem. They have one for men & one for women of course.

Oh yea, back to my mechanical problems. So I got up this morning & left the park. I drove to a transmission shop that helped me in May when my serpetine belt broke. Shop closed. Bummer, I hope the owner is ok. I asked about him at another place & they told me he's been in ill health. But he'd also been wanting to retire, so I'm hoping for the latter.

OK, so I went to anther transmission shop. They were very nice folks there too. They took my rig for a drive. Tranny checks out ok. So they sent me to an automotive place, they check my cadallitic converter, it's good. No problems. So now we're all perplexed. They sent me to Ford. Ouch, we all know how much dealers are.

(btw, JR's told me if the converter weren't working, then you'd not feel the air coming out of the exhaust hoses. That it would be clogged)

The Ford dealer is too booked, they can't take me in. However, he was kind enough to talk to me & ask questions. As it turns out, it's most likely the transmission cooler that is the culprit! They never put a new cooler on!! So I went back to the transmission place & they ordered me a heavy duty cooler & will be installing it at 9am. And they said I could plug in to run the a/c for the dogs. What great people!!

As many of us know, ClassC's are built on a one ton van chasis. As many of us don't know, they don't change out the stock transmission coolers, so we have no clue. So our rigs really work overtime on hauling their loads around. Mine finally took fault to the task. I hope once they put in the new cooler, then all will be good in Ellie's world again. It has to be! She is going to be all new before I'm done with her!

When I get back, I'll need to get an alignment too. Man-o-man, some of those roads were just too rough & they did their damages.

I will be soooo glad to get back home again. 12 days of being displaced & stranded is enough. But I am very grateful that I had places that took me & the dogs into consideration & provided us with power & water.

And I'm lucky that I was able to afford this extra time at this point too. Although it meant rescheduling a doctors appointment 3x's! Maybe I'll actually make that appointment next week???

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Waffles - Yum!

Waffles – yum yum!!

I like waffles. Yum. I really didn't know that I did, then several years ago, during one of my travels, we stopped at a Waffle House. Oh, yum! Dem's good! Yummers!

Sooo, two years ago, I asked my Mom to get me a waffle iron flip thingy when WalMart had their Christmas sale. They had them for $5.00

She always goes with the crowds to those sales! Me? No way!!

I told her not to ship it to me, I'd come get it! Well after it sat at her house for a year, she shipped it to me. I didn't use it till recently. So I had it in a cabinet in the Moho for about 5 months. Then one day...while traveling...on this recent trip...I got pancake mix that you can make waffles out of too! I made's me a waffle! Yay & Yum!

So now I'm hooked. I have to be careful not to make too many. No, not too many at a time, I don't have a curly tail. ::oink oink::

But not too many in one week. I make enough mix to make two waffles. I make one, then put the other half in the fridge to use one morning in the next few days. Making them is sooo easy. Clean up is easy too!

Waffle maker on the setting side. Open.  Pour batter in, close & flip! You turn it by rotating the handle.

Flip side! Once the green light, lights up. Ready!

Flip back over, open & a magic waffle appears! Yay. Yum!

Look, it's not even messy. This time I didn't over fill. If you overfill, the black plate looking thingy is a plastic drip tray. Just wipe & store once it cools back down. I just unplug it to turn it off.

To store, I flip it sideways & fold the handle as it folds for storage. The plastic tray, I just store it in the plastic bag along with the waffle maker. It also came with instructions & recipies, but I'm lazy & chose a boxed mix instead. Too bad the blackberries I collected turned bad before I got to try this. I'll bet fruit mixed into the batter would be yummy too.

YUM! Want a bite??

Again – YUM!!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Iron Mountain Weekend

Iron Mountain Weekend.

I'm back at Iron Mountain. Came back yesterday evening when the motorhome was finished with her newly rebuilt transmission. But there's a problem. Ellie does not want to climb hills. She wants to bear down while climbing & won't relax into gear, so I have to let up on the gas, then push it again. She's eating gas like it was candy! So on Monday, we go back to the mechanics & we either will go over to the transmssion shop together or he'll come to us.

When I got here & parked into my campsite, I noticed that the dog house (console) was EXTREMELY hot. So I want to see if something went wrong or needs to be done that still needs attention. If I can't make it 12 miles without an issue, I'm pretty sure that I can't make it 400 miles.

At least I have food, the animals have food. We have power & water. We have a lake to view & walking to do when we feel like it. Rates are good too at $12 per night. And we have a/c!! I was told it was supposed to get to 105 today & 107 tomorrow. Is this normal for this part of country this time of year or is this global warming?

I think it's a little cooler in Texas. The August heat will be waiting for me though – soon!

Internet isn't strong up here, so I'll go now. Hope everyone is doing well!

                               Life is an amusement ride...Boardwalk Bullet in Kemah, Texas

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Desperately need techhie help please - IE vs Chrome

HELP!!! HALP!!

I have a big problem. I use Internet Explorer. But the last update with my antivirus (Avast), interrupted my IE & now it constantly crashes! All the time. Often upon opening.

So I reluctantly downloaded Chrome again. I don't like Chrome. It doesn't load right on my computer or else it's inadequate??

I can NOT comment on blogger or wordpress from Chrome. Buttons aren't lined up correctly & are missing. Profile options are missing on Chrome. It doesn't crash, but it's no good to me if I can't comment from it either.

Chrome also loads like bad typing with weak ink on a piece of paper.

HELP!!!

I use Vista. Please no negative comments on Vista being trash. It's all I have. At the cost of a transmission rebuild, a new computer or a new version of windows is not in the picture. Plus Vista has always worked fine for me.
It stresses me when folks trash this or that. I just need my problem resolved. 

And Thank you for any comments & advice.

I'm still here, broken down. Transmission is still in shop. I'm getting restless.

You can see Ellie around the corner of the parking lot. The Travel Trailer belongs to the mechanic.

Bored in Arkadelphia

Welcome to Campers4Lifex2  - glad to have ya'll along! They are a full timing couple that moved so much that they got smart & found that the RV lifestyle fit the bill better! 


So for an update on my Transmission dilema. I'm still living in the parking lot of the auto place. Hurst on the Hill. The transmission has been taken to a transmission place for a rebuild. I could have opted for a used transmission, but it made more sense to have the old one rebuilt like new rather than take a chance on a used & have it go faulty as well. The cost difference isn't big enough to justify taking the risk,  nor are the labor fees. 


I got bored this morning & thought, OK, I'll go take a walk...well, it was hot, hot & hot. Plus this is in a really old side of town. So nothing was really special. I'm just not into all the trash along the sides of old worn out roads & such. So I came back. Plus my foot asked me if I was crazy as it's hurting today. There is a railroad museum across the road, maybe I'll do that later. It's just too hot! 


Sooo, I'm sitting here, nothing to do. Could clean the RV more, but that's boring too. Watched two movies. 
Ah well, guess it could be worse. And I look silly. My a/c runs so cold that I am wearing a hoodie. It's around 100 outside, but cold inside. Not complaining though as I know many RV folks have trouble getting their a/c's to cool their rigs off. 


Hopefully by tomorrow, they'll get the transmission back & put back into the motorhome so we can leave. I think I'll go back to the Iron Mountain park & hang around for a couple more days. Do a bit of driving around just to be sure that all is ok with the moho. 


In the meantime, I'm just kind of penned up inside of it since it's too hot outside. Wow, this sure makes for a loooooooooooong day! 


In the meantime, Ellie wants attention. She MADE me take these corny pix of her! But she must not have liked them because they seemed to have made her sick!?

Wow, it's really quiet here today. Yesterday, this auto shop was full of folks, noise, distractions, etc. Today, I keep peeking out the windows to be sure they didn't close up & leave! But then, that would not happen because David, the owner, would pop around to let me know they were leaving. Although I'm pretty independent & can take care of myself. I'm pretty self contained with all I need in here, he still is worried that I might need something. I went in to visit with his wife & daughter in their office, but they were reading books, so I came back out. I didn't want to become an intruder. Their son & girlfriend really like the dogs though & come running out to see them when I get one out to walk. The dogs kind of like it too! They love the attention. 

This is my new chair that I bought when I was in Pa. Then I bought the little stool thing, one of those "as seen on tv" gizmos. I figured it would make a great foot stool for my chair & it does! 


~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~ 

Trans~mission

Where I am now....

Arkadelphia, Arkansas

Park it here sister....

 

The mechanic doctors take out Ellie's innards (again).....

Ellie shamefully (ha, actually no shame on her part) displays a space shuttle. Oh wait, it's a transmission. But not a newborn one :-(((

Transmission is being Trans-ported to transmission shop -- wish me the best please. OR send me a $ugar daddy. This is gonna be $pen$ive :'-(((

I got up at 5:30am for this??? Boohoo!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Still in Ar-Kansas

Still here.

Spent the entire morning & afternoon on the phone trying to get a tow truck.

They aren't easy to get for motorhomes.

They finally found one, but it was too$$$

They said they'd $plit the co$t.

I told them I'd try to find a closer mechanic instead.

I did. :-)

He even came to me!!

Yay.

But Ellie pretended not to be sick!! ARGH! Blasted Motorhome, acts just like a sick dog going to a vet!!

Grrrrrrrumble.

So Mr Mechanic tells me that he'll come out at 7:30am, loaded with transmission fluids. We'll fill Ellie up & drive her to his shop. He'll follow me. He says it's weird what she's doing, but he thinks it's a gasket, which entails taking out the $#$$ Transmission. Grrrrrumble. But I'm really glad I found him!!! Well actually, he was one of the guys that the park suggested. He said it won't leak unless the transmission gets hot, so it should be ok to drive it there to get it to heat up for better assessing.

So when he left, I hiked down to the lake to sit on a bench to enjoy the lake for a little while.

Then I came back, ate dinner, fed the dogs. And had a wonderful frozen sangria from my freezer. Yum!

I'm sitting outside trying to compose this, but must move indoors. I'm being attacked.

Ahhhh, Rving in the south!

Bye ya'll.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~





Drought & burned trees

Drought.

It's dry here.

It's very, very dry here.

When at the state park in Tn, it had recently rained. In fact, it poured that evening while I was there & I was grateful that I chose the site I did & not the one next to me as it was under water!

The nice thing about that rain was it filled the creek behind my site, causing the water to run down stream over the rocks. That is such a relaxing sound!

Then I moved onto Arkansas. Wow, dry, dry, even drier. The first state park was dry, but it's even drier in east central Ark. I was at this park (Iron Mountain) at the end of May. The trees were so thick, you could barely see the lake. Now the leaves are so dry & dying, that I have a clear view of the lake in two directions from my campsite. But that's kind of sad.

How the trees looked in May 27, 2012,  when I was here.

How the trees look now, July 22, 2012

The leaves are now very, very dry & turning brown.

The park ranger told me they have had 3 fires here so far. One caused by a logging company from their equipment. The other two from fireworks. That was around the 4^th of July.

Of the 3 fires, one burned 60 acres, the other 100 acres. I guess the 3^rd was much smaller.

But it is a bit unnerving to be sitting here in a dry forest in a motorhome that is sick & could not leave if a fire sparked! Yikes!!

I saw a few trees around here today that had signs of being burned. And of course, there is a burn ban here. No campfires. Which for me, is ok since I don't do campfires anyhow. I like them, but my lungs don't.

I fear this is going (& already has been) to be a very bad fire season!

Stay safe everyone.

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

July trip update -- eeks. bad tranny. bad!

Hi, hope all is well with everyone.

No pics today. I was able to get a millisecond of airtime on my sprint card! So sending this post out asap.

I've not had any internet for a few days now. Actually, not since I left Tenneseeeee. I'm now in Arkansaseeee.

Recap: (hmmm, not sure what's up with the eeee's, I'm not in Louisianaeee)

Left titusville, Pennsylvanieee on Tuesday, July 17^th.

Drove through Ohioeeee, till I could no longer drive. Well, that is, between walks & walking dogs. And getting gas. Ellie has a serious drinking problem! I plan on recapping all the gas expenses & mileage once I get back to Texas & settled back in.

Wednesday, July 18^th. I get up, walk dogs at rest area, freshen up & head out.

Dang it though. One of the things that help break the monotony for me is the CB set. Just hearing different noise helps, but nope. I hook up the antenneeee & plug in the Cbeee. OK, we're in business! Then nothing. El Deado. ARGH. There's a short in the wireeeee's. Oh well. So no CB, but at least the radio decided to workee! Yay~

I digressee.

Wednesday, drive, drive, drive. Drop down through Kentuckyeeee.

Keep driving because I'm routing down on 65 south now, so it's not that long to drive through. SUCH beautiful country though! Kentuckyeeee is gorgeous!

Then I get to Tenneseeeee & I'm looking for a state park at this point. I stop at the welcome center & get a state map & maps of state parks & campgrounds. Welcome centers are GREAT! I'm always grateful to get those items. So I finally pass where I can pull off the highwayee & drive, drive, drive to a state park. Hmmmm, not all state parks are close to the highway. So I'm always a little hesitant of what I'll be driving into. But then, there's nothing like American back roads. Not that I have any other country to compare to on my travels. Cept Mexico & that is only border towns.

So I go to the state park that I previously posted about, it's a nice park. I had a nice stay there, but could only stay one night. I'm prettty much a little further west in central Tn at this point.

Thursday, July 19^th, I leave the state park in Tn. I drive, drive, drive. Walk dogs, drive more. I get to Arkansaseeee!! Yayeee!! Now to head for the welcome center for Ark maps. I get them, then decide where to go. But I realize I've not written them down, so I decide, oh well, you get signs along the way anyhow. Can't read maps & drive at the same time. So I'm getting tired of driving, foot hurting major bad. Thank goodness for cruise control when I can use it! I pass one state park because the sign doesn't show the camper icon. Image. Whatever you'd call it on a sign.

I finally get to another one, yes, it shows a camper! So I pull off. And this state park is 13 miles off the freeway. 13 miles of beautiful back country roads but yet, I wonder if I'll ever get there! Finally, find it.

Village Creek State park in Wynne, Ark. Nice place. More of a family oriented type of park that has tennis courts, bike trails, equestrian things, golf, etc. And a lake, but I didn't see the sign to the lake till I was leaving the park the next day. But to park there, it's somewhere around $30 a night according to the check in station. I'll do a post about the parks I've stayed in later.

I get up, walk dogs, etc. Take a walk myself, then leave. Pay on the way out as I got in too late the day before to check in & pay then. I head for one of my favorite state parks to spend two more nights. After several hours of driving (ouch, this hurts the el footo. Use cruise control as much as possible, but don't like using it when the RV has to climb hills.) Oh and a few gas stops too. Again.

Friday, July 20^th. I finally make it to one of my favorite campgrounds! A COE park. The Iron Mountain Park at DeGray Lake in Caddo, Arkansaseeee. It's just outside of Arkadelphia. I pull up. Arlene, the campground host (work camper at that :-) ) recognizes me as I stayed here in May! That's always fun! She told me to drive around, find a spot, then come back to let her know which I want. I'm up with that. I knew where I wanted to stay, but didn't know the site numbers, so went do choose mine....uh oh...my black cloud returned!!! NOOOOO, not again!!! Noooo, no black clouds!! ARGH!!! Yep, I catch a rock between my duallies. Fortunately, that pops back out. But then I hear another strange noise! And all of a sudden, Ellie does not want to go up hills!! OH NO!! This is NOT good! I make it back to the office, which is Up hill!! Then Ellie makes a horrendous noise! I cut the engine. Arlene comes out & wants to know what's wrong. I told her I didn't know, but I think it may be transmission. She calls one of the rangers. A young ranger guy comes to my aid. He takes a look. There is NO transmission fluid left in my tranny!! So he takes me to a store, we get 5 bottles of it. He puts it in, but after the 3^rd bottle, he comments that it's really weird that the stick isn't reading the levels. I then comment, maybe it's pouring back out on the ground!! OH NO! IT IS!!! A huge puddle of the stuff, all over the ground. He crawls under the rig & can't see anything because of the dust cover. So I go in the office & pay for my time that I'll be here. He quickly pours the other two bottles in just so I can make it to my site. I make it just in time, quickly drop leveling blocks, level & park. Sooo, now it's Saturday, July 21^st & I'm extremely grateful that I'm here & not somewhere on the highway with this problem!!! At least I'm parked, plugged in & have groceries. Arlene was looking up mechanics for me. I hope we can get one to come out on Monday to take a look. I can get the RV towed to them if needed. I have a doc appointment on Tuesday, but now that's looking like I'll have to cancel. I'm about 8-9 hours from home still. If I have to cancel, I might come back here for a few days before heading back then.

OH & I fixed the flat tire on my bike! Little old me. Yep, I did. A back tire at that. I watched youtube when I was in Pa on how to do it. I bought a new tube in Pa, but didn't put it on then. Out of desperation today, I did. I need to go to the office, which is quite a way away to pay for tomorrow night too. BUT no. One of the brake pads on my bike is worn out & I have no brakes on the front tires!! Why-o-why does this stuff have to happen to meeeeeeeeeeee!! Geezeee.

I would have walked up there today, but the foot hurt way too much for any walking. Which is why I wanted two days of down time anyhow. So today, the dogs got walks instead. I cleaned kitty litter boxes & cleaned the RV. Turned my passenger seat around for seating for myself. AND I have tv reception here, so it's all good. And a/c, so that's good too. This global warming is too much! It's an oven out there. Even with today's breezes, it was hot out there. But at least the park isn't too terribly busy. There's a few other folks here. And a girl that has a TT across from me that has worse luck than I do!!! Can you belive that???

I'll post this when I finally get internet again. One day. Sometime when I get back to town. One day. Can only stay here 2 weeks, so one day....byeeeee

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Tenn-ah-see

Welcome to Gypsy Jane! I'm thrilled to have you along – I've been following your blog for some time now. :-)

Today's post is about my trip to Pa. And of the interesting trip back so far.

So, I went to visit with family around 5 weeks ago. Although there were some hot days, it was still way better than our Texas heat. Plus even with the humid days, it was still better than the bayou cities I've been living in! Most nights & mornings were cool. I love sleeping with windows open, breezes & cool air filtering through. Sure beats the noise of the a/c, but now that I'm back in the south, the a/c is back & running strong. Thank goodness though, the alternative would suck.

I had a good visit. We had a family reunion, which my Mom referred to as “the gathering”. Heehee

My brother Sonny, showed me one of his gorgeous custom made cigar box guitars. He makes them & sells them to muscians.

My brother David came by a few times, we did some work to Mom's computer, so it's mucho better now. Wifi, wireless mouse & old files cleaned out. All updated too.

My brother Tom came by a few times, we went out to eat with him. He took us riding around one evening, it was fun revisiting & seeing the sights again. Pa sure is beautiful country!

My sister Deb & Linda came by when they could as well. Linda took me to a soccer game that her 5 year old grandson was playing in. It was their last event for the season. Soooo cute. Tiny little kids. Some put their all in, but most had trouble following & comprehending the game. Which doesn't surprise me for such a young age. It's mostly about fun & exercise for them.

Had a good time running around Pa. Left my Mom's on Monday & headed for Sunny's place. No, not my brother Sonny, but to Sunny of Changing Lanes. She got a new-to-her motorhome! A 29'4” ClassC Winnie. Nice, big & roomy! I didn't even bring out my camera! Time was so short with Sunny that visiting was more valuable. But she did have fun taking pics of my goofy dogs.

OH & she will be selling her other little C. It's adorable!! A vintage little Winnie. Soooo cute & garage kept. In really, really good condition. If it wasn't already nearly dark, I would have wanted to take pics of it. But that's the breaks.

I spent the night at Sunny's in my RV in her driveway. Sunny is fun to meet & is a very talented artist. I had fun looking at her paintings on her walls. Even some have humor in them, such as her chickens painted in their chicken nests! Her place is marvelous! And she has great power there too! I was impressed. It's not often that I turn on my lights & see the skies of heaven open. Yep, that's how bright they were. If you don't believe me, then be that way! Humpf. Usually they are dull with most places as I've found really inferior power at sooo many places.

I digress.

Then on Tuesday morn, I left Sunny's & went onto my sister Deb's house as she lives in the same town. I visited with her & her husband Steve for awhile, then headed out. We sat down with a map to study my route out. Somehow, I missed 8 & kept going on through on 27! ARGH! Hate it when I do that!!! So I pulled over, looked at the map & rerouted. Actually, it was kind of fun because I got to explore the small historic towns of Northwestern Pa. High north west that is! So then I decided to stay on the back roads through towns & such. Yes, that does take more time & gas, but isn't this partly what Rving is about? Exploring? Driving? Even if you ARE supposed to be heading west & you have a brain bubble & head EAST!!! Grrrr. Yes, I did. But I caught myself & back tracked. Then looked at the map again, yet for another alternative route. Found one. I'll go 58 till I connect with 5 on through Ohio.

Uh oh. Problem. Um...there's a narrow 10'8” tunnel! Hmmm, I drive past, I study the map. Do I want to try it or go around several miles around till I can reconnect with 5 again? Oh heck, I'll drive up to it to see. It's only a 1 car tunnel at that. I get chicken. I start to back out, but approaching me is a guy on a motorcycle. He said I could do this! He got off his bike & convinced me I could. He walked slowly backwards directing me & I got through. But looking back, it was dumb of me to try that. I'm really grateful that I didn't damage Ellie! So I'm scedoodling down 5, enjoying the scenes.

Oh speaking of scenes. Pa is Amish country, I'm sure most of ya'll know that already. I passed several amish families & their buggies. Their horses have such looooooooong legs! Beautiful animals in fact.

I passed a car show, an antique car show. I thought about stopping to take pics but was already late, so didn't. But I saw two young Amish men with their horse & cart. They were eating ice cream cones & the horse was really fretting over the car activities. He rared up in the air, repeatdely bucking. They finally steered him away from there to gain control back over him. He looked like a very young horse.

OK, back to 5. I lost it. I have no clue where I lost it, but found myself on 7. So I once again, pull over, study the map & find a cross route that will reconnect me with 5. Good!! Gooder! Goodie beans!!

Um....I go about 15 miles, ONLY to find out that there is construction on that road & it is CLOSED!! Now why could they NOT post a sign at the beginning of that route! Grrrr. Again. I pull over & reroute. I find another alternative route that gets me back on 5. I swear, I probably could have been half way back to Texas at that point! So I finally got myself on the road. Slept at a rest area last night with the genny running for the a/c. Somewhere in Ohio. I'm now in Tennessee. I wanted to pull over soooo badly as my foot & back were really hurting. But I could not find a good place to pull over, so kept taking breaks at rest areas & pull overs. Finally, I had enough & finally found a state park in Tn, which is where I am now. Whew! I was kind of grumpy when I got here & hooked up, but I'm better now.

a/c running, nice & cool inside. Storming outside, so I'm glad I got here when I did. Dogs are settled. No tv, so am going to leave the computer on for a tv for awhile if I can get my connection back on the air card. I think the storm interferred with the signals.

So I'm hoping for a good nights sleep & will venture back out tomorrow. I want to get to Arkansas & spend a couple more nights at a state park there too.

I don't have to be back till Sunday, so I still have a little time to blow around & have fun with.

I got lazy & haven't been taking any pics. Sorry. So I'll just post this & ya'll can imagine some crazy woman squeezing her motorhome under short bridges & getting lost on country roads...maybe it's a good thing I didn't get a cargo trailer to haul along. I'm pretty sure there would be some stories about that as well!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

What's up with my blog roll, blogger???

Is anyone else having this problem?

On my blog roll, people keep going missing?

What's going on?

I can't find them, so I have to go back through old comments to get the urls back.

I have no idea how this is happening. I noticed this a few weeks back. I put them back on, then they are gone again!

And these are folks that aren't unsubbing from my blog. These are folks that I like to stay in contact with & are consistant commenters.

So, what's going on?

Anyone else having this problem?

It's not just a few folks, but several.

YooHoo Blogger!! Stop dropping my friends!!!

Shhhhh

Shhhhh, it's quite time.

No one is here.

Ahhhhh.....

Dogs are snoozing.

Ahhhhh....

I'm reading blogs...

Yay!

Finally.

I have a good internet connection for a change. So I'm having a nice quiet time to myself reading & trying to catch up with ya'll.

Nice!

Downside, my Mom bought candy bars.

Not Nice!

And ice cream.

NOT NOT Nice!

Here are some non-fattening things:

Posies - probably not edible. Thus, not fattening.

Controlled burns - not edible.

Planes - not edible.

The plane & controlled burns were somewhere in Arkansas...I think. I got lost that day.

Fuel Efficient Parking - not edible. Not usable for motorhomes either...

And they said I couldn't do it.

I proved them wrong.

Who are they?

My family.

What could I not do?

Add wifi to my Mom's desktop computer.

HA I say to them!

Done & working.

I almost died the other day. Died, yes, died. Of boredom. Or lets say, my life almost timed out. I tried to use my Mom's dial up to get to a website to print out a form. Yes, I was too lazy to go out to the RV & dig out my printer. Actually, it has two printers. They sit side by side. Buried. Not easy to access, so why not use my mom's computer instead? Oh. OY! Death to those that wait! Almost. I did survive. But barely.

So we went to the store & got this:

http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wireless-adapters/high-performance/WNDA3100.aspx#

Now she's wifi ready! wifi usable! And it's faster than mine...grrrr. I'm gonna take it back! Humpf!
OK. I'm not really gonna take it back because then I'd have to die again. Because my mom would kill me.
Did I mention how long it took just to get to that website via dial up to print out the form I needed? Oh about an hour & half...
Mom is tickled pink! Now she can once again use her computer rather than leaving it sitting in the room as yet, another antiquated ornament.
And I did it. Yes, I WILL take the credit! HA! Take that you fambilly nay sayers! HA!

Bye -- I'm going to try to stop by ya'll's sites for a visit now. :-)

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Bottoms Up!

Hi everyone, hope all is fine. I've had horrible internet connections lately. I try to read other blogs, but I've not been able to get very many to load. Bummer. So I thought I'd just update mine today & hopefully, I'll be able to read others later today. I really enjoy reading about ya'll, keeping up with everyone & commenting! Blasted anyhows!

So a little of where I am now..

I'm still at Wolfs Campgrounds parked at my Mom's house. I've stayed here rather than drifted to other family members homes because I can get 30amp power, thus run my a/c for the 4 leggers in the RV. And of course, Ellie isn't complaining about me keeping her nice & cool too! In fact, it's too cold in there for me ;-)  I love moderate temps, but in this heat, a/c is very necessary!

Gads, I can see my connection bleeping off & on while writing this post & I'm using my air card. Grrrrr. Wifi today is moot.

We had a family reunion last weekend on Saturday. It was a fun day full of food & family. Yesterday, we drove to Erie (we meaning my sister <G>) & spent the day there....getting lost. Nice. Oh well, the country side was beautiful! I was hoping to see my great aunt Betty, but we didn't make it to her. So we drove where my Mother grew up instead. Only ONE house is left standing! Sad. All the family homes, friends & relatives of her's are all gone now. Homes that is & well, yes, some of the people too. We could not find the church she attended when she was a kid, so not sure if that's still standing or not. Industry has taken over most of the area that she resided in as a child.
So then we left there & got losted. ;-)

So back to the campground. It's been to hot to do much walking, plus my back is twisted right now! Ouch. Hope this passes soon because it's not fun!

Oh yea.

Back to the campground:

(internet off, internet on, internet off, internet on..this is driving me crazy)

OK, back to the campground:
Here is the Wolfs Den. It has been used as a restrauant in the past. In fact, my Mom managed it. But they closed it this year. It's pretty expensive to run. They rent out the den for occassional things, such as wedding receptions, birthday parties, etc.  What's REALLY COOL about this place is that my ancestors built the barn years back when!
How cool is that??!!
I'm betting the temps weren't in the 90's back then either...

And here is the pond that the patio area of the den faces. It's around 9 - 14 acres.  There are canadian geese & mallards in it. It's stocked & the campers fish from it. As do the birds. ::quack quack - honk::
And there's a Parson Russell Terrier that swims in the pond too, when his owner releases him to there. I don't think I've taken any pics of that though.

The landscaping here is beautiful. Full of flower beds & the landscape is always perfectly mowed.

Now for the birdies: (Oh & I finally saw a pair of goldfinches the other day -- no camera in hand though-- so just envision them in your heads instead)

The canadian geese. I've been told that the white goose is a male. He lost his mate awhile back (she died), so he took over two of her females & guards over them. When the others try to eat before they do, he runs them off! What a cool story huh?

Sorry about the not so great photo though.

3 of the Mallards hoping for a piece of bread!

Instead of "the end", I shall just say "Bottoms UP!"

~As alway, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~

Happy Independence Day!

Happy Independence Day To All!

The skies were ranging from blue to pink hues. Beautiful! I caught the flag on the hill before sunset finished.

Not a great pic by any means...but doesn't this rather resemble tent stakes?

I hope everyone has a wonderful day, full of bliss, food, happiness & wonderment.

Although this was shot on July 1st, I edited & saved the video to share today.

Enjoy the videos & have a great day!

Vids are bascially the same, one is a 6 min version full of more fireworks.

The other is a 3.5 min version cut shorter for those that want to view a shorter version.

The above is the 6 minute version. The video below is the 3.5 minute version.


Before the fireworks started, I fed my dogs, then cranked the a/c higher to help block any outside noise and turned the television up to a loud volume.

I totally fretted over thinking they'd be freaking out during all the booms & bangs of the fireworks.

Nope.

I was wrong.

When I quickly returned to the RV, they all lifted their heads like "what's up Mom?"

At least they didn't fret.

Whew!

Have a safe & Happy 4th!

~As always, be kind to your pets, clean up after them on your travels & respect your neighbor~
**please keep their sensitive ears safe from firework booms as well**