BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I POSTED!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!

Hope all is well. We have been busy, busy, busy!! Working towards retirement is a lot of preperation. well we only have a year left before we hit the road. then we will see how we do to become seasoned RV travelers. I haven't posted since Oct 2011. well a lot of updates to tell. I now have a new granddaughter Autumn she is 18 months. Lil Tony is 4 now and quite a handfull, but he says he"s Poppas best buddy! Our daughter just moved to Monteray California, so we will visit her some time when school is out to visit with our Grandaughter Malia( who is now 5). Getting ready for our company X-mas party so this is short until I get a chance to get back to my blog. Again MERRY X-MAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

OUR USUAL LUCK!!

LOOK AT MY GIRLS!!
Well the trip to Gulfport lasted 1 day Tropical storm Lee kicked our butts! We had to leave pop-ups don't take to wind well!! Other than that a little updates are due. We are going to be grand parents again in May. We still have 2 years 10 months till retirement!!! our savings keep taking a beating. But we have paid off some more debt. Of course more to go. We are hoping my sister can come in December. She's gonna bring the pop-up and set up beside us. My daughter and grand-daughter are talking about also coming in December, could be a family reunion. Ed & I would like to try a Carrige rally in March at Brooksville, to see if we enjoy their rallys. Other wise workin along & quite busy often. Hope to have a small break in December.

IT'S HOT,HOT,HOT!

Home today cleaning, and waiting for the window guy to replace our broken window. He just called and it will have to be done monday morning because a big black cloud is looming outside. Getting ready for a short trip to Gulf Shores Alabama. Going to meet my sister Jamie & her hubby Gerry with their pop-up camper for an over 50 retreat!! Gerry's cousin will be joining us too with their pop-up . Just 4-day get-a-way. We will be celebrating our 38th anniversary on the 1st of Sept. while we are there.
Grandsons 2nd birthday party this sunday at the local park. Grandpa will be giving boat rides on the lake. It's a pirate themed party. Bought lil "T" a cute short set with pirate stuff on it.

SAN FRANSISCO WOW I NEED A REST!!

We had a whirlwind time with our daughter & grand-daughter. We arrived at noon and went straight over the Golden Gate bridge to Sausilito for lunch at a quaint italian resteraunt on the bay. Then stopped at the North end of the bridge at the overlook. What a great view of the bay & Alcatraz Island. Next day was a little rainy, but it stopped around 10:00am. So we took the granddaughter to a local park to play for awhile.Next was a trip to Muir Woods. Fabulous park!! Giant redwoods & sequoias, beautiful lake at end of trail. About 3 miles round trip. Then down to Ocean Beach to play in the tidepools. Next day: Dollar races at the horse track. $1entry $1beer $1 hot dogs $1sodas & $1bets!! Live band & horse racing! Spent 28$ and won 12$. Had a blast! Dancing, Betting, drinking!! Monday headed to Yosemite! Had to stop at Goodwill to purchase heavy coats because it was 30 up in mountains and had to borrow snow chains for the park or you couldn't enter. Stopped at 6000 feet to play in snow! was about 1' deep and coming down heavy. Made a snowman & had a snowball fight in the middle of a beautiful snow covered pristine meadow, not a sound except the snow plopping down from the tree branches!LOVELY! Got down to the valley floor and was back to around 57 degrees. hiked to the lower falls(1 mile round trip) went to the lodge, and checked out a couple more waterfalls. Around 3 pm left the valley for Oakhurst for a nights rest at the casino hotel.Very nice also!. Next morning went back into Yosemite, even more snow coming down! Got back to the valley and it was t-shirts & jean weather!More hiking, more waterfalls, deer, chipmunks, and even saw a brown bear! Now you know our knees are aching!!! Left Yosemite back into the snow & headed to my daughters apartment. Weds. Up and take the subway into downtown, grab a trolley and hit Fishermans Wharf first. Saw the sea lions at pier 39. Got on a double decker bus for a loop around city. Got off at Union Square and had lunch at the top of Macy's at the Cheescake Factory. Great viewpoint. Then back on the bus to Telegraph Hill. Forget it daughter our knees can only make it up one block!!!! Back on the bus to see ChinaTown, Most curvy road, city hall, Coit Tower, The painted ladies(victorian houses) & back to the docks. Then Home to die on the couch! Thurs. went to San Fransisco Zoo for the day. Friday went to Napa Valley, stopped at the castle for a wine tour, and then a few more winery's.Whew getting wore down. Saturday went to Tilmekin Park in Oakland, more hiking a picnic lunch & petting zoo, and carousel. Then dinner at our daughters Mother-in-laws.Sunday: off to 8-mile long Golden Gate Park. Walked through parks gardens and sat in the amphithearter for a band that was playing. Up the observation tower for a view of the city & bay. Back downstairs to an art gallery then back through the park. My legs are screaming at me to SIT DOWN!! Stopped to join in the Lindy in the park dance. Then back home again. Monday helped daughter pack up apartment. Tues. waited for the furniture guys to pick up rental furniture, turn in keys &  got some homemade ice cream at Fentons. Before we headed to a motel not far from Airport. Wed. morning kissed grand-baby & daughter goodbye they were driving back to Washington. We caught a shuttle to airport and headed home! I'm to tired to go on more latyer.

APRIL WAS MUCH BETTER!!

Got the Gazebo completed and the Lean-to also done! Weather is getting hotter fast.!! Got a lot going on at work for both of us. The new govener Rick Scott has messed with our pension plan. Now Ed has to pay in 3% of his salary to his pension.No problem with that at least we can afford it.But he also looses the 3% cost of living increase during our retirement years. And the drop program will no longer yield 6% but what ever is the current variable rate. (Also his insurance went up 5% and mine went up 3-1/2%) and no raise this year AGAIN.And when we retire as of right now no increases for cost of living, and insurance is adjusted by $400.00 per month.So basically Ed's pay will be about 5-6% less this year. And they are talking about averaging over the employee's history for the pension pay-out.I guess we keep rolling with the punches, but our plans have not changed yet we still will retire in 3 years!!! We paid off the boat last monday! WHOO-HOO!!:) Now to put the old boat payment into the 457b plan. We moved some money to a fixed income plan, and that will also contribute to our 457b. Getting ready to go to San Fransisco on friday to see our Baby-girl(Dannielle) and our grand-daughter(Malia).Matt (Son-in law) is back in Washington to open the Surf Shop for the season. Dannielle has a full itenarary for us. Yosemite, Muir Beach, downtown San Fran., Napa valley. WHEW! Were gonna need a vacation from our vacation!

HOPE APRIL IS BETTER!

Well we got settled back in our coach. Gave her a wash down & repaired a few small things that needed it. Still got to do the roof & re-caulk, and condition the slides. And definitly a wax job!! Got the deck done & the lean to. The gazebo is up, and got a few little things to decorate in there and it will be done too. Still have fence to put up and the RV to get a good wash & wax. This is the 12X16 deck> And this is the start of the lean to.

Still Homeless!

Well they found out what the burnt smell was! The transfer switch for the generator melted to an unrecognizable mess. Lucky it didn't burn down the coach!! The extended warranty wil cover it. It did take out the microwave & Water heater element. So that's covered too! I had a little bit of water showing up around my washer, that turned out to be a cracked drain pipe(also covered). My kitchen window came off the little crank tracks and they wanted 220.00 to fix it. NO WAY! I can do it myself. Some of the things they suggested we get done are re-seal the roof. Which we were planning on doing in April after we scrub her down. Has anyone re-sealed (caulked) their rubber roof? What type of caulk , clear silicone? What should I use to clean around the vents & a/c units? Any suggestions or tips are welcome.

WE ARE TEMPORARILY HOMELESS!!

Last week we had an odor of burning electronics in the RV. It went away after we looked and checked everything, figured it was just the new table fan we put in the bedroom. Then while Ed was home taking a nap we lost all shore power. We had 4 different electricians(friends) come over and tried to help out. But everything checked out up to the breaker box, then the wiggy went all over the board. So it's something in the coach itself (shore power was fine, pigtail was fine, no breakers tripped , no fuses blown?????? We had to take it in to LazyDays on Sunday & we are waiting to hear from the tech's just what it was. Warranty will cover it. They said they would check everything to make sure we didn't burn up any appliances. So we are staying at our sons house until we can pick it up whenever. Ed went back to work today.THANK GOD!!!
He said he kinda liked not knowing what day it was and fishing when he wanted and his afternoon nap. Reality set in about lunchtime today that he still has to work! The hospital bill, and surgeons bill came in.
OMG he's the $100,000.00 man now! We have some more decisions to make come Saturday about our investments and where we go to next. Hopefully we can come home to our RV by then.

Ed and Cabin Fever!!

O.K. I hope the doctor releases Ed to go back to some activities soon! He's got cabin fever, he keeps fussin about stayin home all day long. BUT GET THIS! He has taken off runnin the streets a few times, and gone fishing with his buddies every other day. And yes he has caught quite a few bass. But he really wants to let loose and go do some flats fishing, maybe some flippin, maybe even get some of the projects we have waiting to do. The to do list has grown. Build a deck for the Gazebo. Build a lean to for the Riding mower. Build a cover over the well. Get the RV washed & waxed. Condition the roof. Put a new water line inground. Change the water filter & the annode rod. And put up the 15 panels of privacy fence we got. Of course that is with the help of our son & a few friends! Whew!! We got a busy spring & summer ahead. I almost forgot we are going to San Fransisco on May 13th! To visit with our baby girl & granddaughter. Does anyone know a good motel around Yosemite National Park that we can stay in for a night or two??? We plan to take a few days to check out Yosemite.

LONG WEEK!!

Well Ed is recuperating nicely, but bored to tears. He goes for a follow up with the surgeon on March 8th. He did sneek in a little fishing with our brother-in-law. Managed to catch a few bass. I've been busy at work with a lot of meetings at city hall. They are working on a new computer software system, and want my input for some of the purchasing procedures. We are getting our taxes done friday(wish us luck). I'm getting the wood to build a small deck for the gazebo I have in the basement. It will be nice to sit outside in a screened gazebo on a cool evening. I'll post pictures when it gets underway. I'm also getting Ed to make me some drawers to put under the island in the kitchen. That will make it easier to reach the pots & casserole dishes in the back. Also looking for someone to wash & wax the RV! It needs it badly! Need to condition the roof also. My son is helping us run a new underground water line to a more convieniant place near the RV. Lots to do! Just need the time & energy. Bought our tickets for San Fransisco today! Mama's coming baby girl get ready for Poppa too! Well got to go get paper work together for the taxes. See Ya'll later!!

Ed's hospital stay.

Ed's surgery went well, he's looking at going home on Monday. Will need 3 weeks of recovery to be back to normal & work. Going to be hard to keep grandson from jumping on him. The hard part will be the steps in the RV. But he is doing very well, the Doc is very pleased with his progress. Will update everyone later this week.

BUSY WEEK AHEAD

Had a great lunch with everyone on the 31st.! Really enjoyed meeting so many bloggers/aka full timers. Ed got sick as a dog just before the lunch. He has surgery on Wed. the 9th. That is if the doctor clears him. we'll fine out this afternoon. He isn't quite over this upper resp. infection. If he does have his scheduled surgery then i'll be busy through the weekend. Depends on how he recovers. Tomorrow is my grandaughters 3rd birthday. Happy Birthday Malia!!! I' will be so glad to see her in May when we fly out to San Fran.  You see my daughter is a travel nurse (RNC). They are in San Fran until the end of May.She invited us to check out California while she had a few weeks before she has to return to Washington. They own a Surf Shop (Steepwater Surf) in Westport, Wa. If anyone is ever out towards Aberdeen go by and check it out, it is a quite little town on the Pacific beaches. Lots of campgrounds too! Great salmon fishing!

GETTING READY FOR RETIREMENT IS A LOT OF WORK!

Ed & I attended a class on his pension plan on Wednesday. Boy that was a lot of info! But we got answers to questions concerning his approaching retirement. And learned a few new things that we had no clue on. There sure were a lot of people there, it started at 9:30 and ended at 3pm! We seem to be pretty well on track, found some online tools that will help with estimates. Talked a little with the lady from FRS. Had lunch while in downtown Lakeland with some old friends at Crispers. Good food & good conversation! Looking foward to the lunch in Lakeland with some fellow bloggers & full-timers. Had to help our son when we got home. He had a back-up on his septic. Got that fixed in a couple of hours. Played with the grandson for an hour or so and then had dinner and hit the hay! Boy wasn't that a hairy storm on Tuesday!!!! The alert radio was beeping out tornado warnings every 10-20 minutes!! Most were south of us around SR60., but we got some heavy rain and a lot of wind. By 10 pm all had calmed down to a light drizzle. Going to be around 40 tonight (Brrrrrrrrrr). One tank is empty just switched over to the other tonight. Will make a propane run to little Mexico tomorrow for a refill.(Bomber Range road in Wahneta, La Plaza Mexico, 40lb tank refill is $20!!) Amerigas in Plant City no longers fills tanks at the dock, lost thier dock worker to lay-offs. Other places around here charge $50 for a 40lb. Going to be a nice weekend , might putter around outside a little.

WOW WHAT A DAY!

Went to the RV show Friday. Our knees are killing us. Stopped at the Carrige 5th wheels to see if anything new. Nothing much differant than what we already have. Did see a cool fold down porch on a 5th wheel, kinda a neet idea. We were there for about 6 hours, when we finally decided to go home. Checked out some of my vendor friends, got some free products to try from them. Talked to the carefree guy about an awning again. We'll see if he comes up with anything. Was looking around to see if I recognized anyone from the blog circut. We went out to dinner to use one of our gift cards at Longhorn's. Had to wait about 45 minutes, but the food was good and I didn't have to cook or cleanup always a plus. Had to work Saturday morning for 3 hours(Floor cleaners). Did grocery shopping and raked up some leaves behind coach, re-leveled her up and put the kingpin stand on. Today flushed tank, more leaves, filled bird feeders. Ed is going fishing with his buddies tomorrow, so I'll do some cleaning inside since it's supposed to rain. Ed was happy I didn't see a new 5th wheel I liked. He said I can't get another one just because" It sure is pretty!" :) We new we wanted the Carri-Lite when we saw it. We had lived in the Presidential for 3 years and learned what we liked and didn't like about the floor plan. This one works good for us. Got to go get dinner ready, every one have a great week!!!

ANOTHER WEEK CLOSER TO RETIREMENT

Took another step this week towards our retirement. I made arrangements to put more towards the principal of the truck, so it will be paid off 1-1/2 years sooner. Have a meeting with our investment service this month. And we are attending some classes on Ed's pension plan on the 26th. Slowly but surely whittilin away at the debt. Should only have the RV payment left when we hit our projected date of retirement. Got to get a handle on the Grocery budget though! I saved about 25.00 in coupons this week, total was still 71.00 after coupons(96.00 before coupons).Of course with us still working, we tend to get "quick foods". Not getting home until 6pm makes it hard to cook a meal. Have started back to the gym and eating smaller portions. We'll see tomorrow if we did a decent job on our points(WW). Plan on going to the RV Supershow in Tampa Saturday. Just to see whats new and get some ideas.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Well we had a little get together on our property for New Years Eve. A bonfire & lots of bar-b-que!

Had a good time, just can't stay up that long anymore. Spent most of Saturday cleaning up & napping. Today a little cloudy and drizzle now & then. Found out one of the bloggers is about 3 miles away.Donna & Stu(2 taking a 5th). Hope we can meet them! Got to go back to work tommorrow, Yuk!!! Took down some of the X-mas decorations, just got some lights out side to get some time this week. Got to go finish laundry, and make dinner. Happy New Year again to all my fellow bloggers:)!

MORE ABOUT US!

                             Christmas Decorating!!!

 



Check these windows out!



I have added a picture of our "house". I'm slowly learning how to utilize this blog. Our coach has what is known as an Arizona Room (all windows, including the ceiling area of the slide) a sun room of sorts. Has anyone out there got the type of windows shown in the picture? We would like to get a window awning for that slide without actually putting it over the top ceiling slide windows. As you can see there is not much room over the top edge of the windows (about 3"). We keep trying to see if anything new has come out to shade these type of windows. We eventually would like window awnings above all the windows. As you can see it is time to do a little outside cleaning. We clean and condition the roof every 6 months and wash & wax this baby too. Of which it gets harder as we get older! Our son is going to help this next month to get her clean & spiffy looking. Hopefully it will warm up a little as it is 48 right now,Brrrrrrr. This is Florida right? We had a good Christmas, played with the grandson.He loves to drive the truck. Overate at dinner and took a nice x-mas nap! I guess it is hit the gym after new years again. Another resolution to destroy!!



"Lil T wants to drive Poppas big truck"



DECEMBER 21,2010

I have already chatted with a few fellow bloggers. Dee (Tumbleweed) is not to far from us and has a Carriage Coach also. We are going to try and get together and compare some notes. I hope everyone is geared up for the holidays and with friends and family. We will have a little family get-to-gether here at the property. No cooking for me, we plan on going out to eat. My son's in-laws are having a thing together for dinner.Then some time to play with the grandson. Call all the relatives too! Then just chill!! I would like to try and post at least every week. I've also added at the bottom of the page some tips that I've used.

2010 IN A NUTSHELL

We have settled in our new location, nice to be close to the grandson. These economic times tend to change some plans or postpone them somewhat. In order to help out our son and his family we help, that's what parents do right! Our nest egg took some hits during the downturn but is slowing recovering, being with our son also has its upside for us. We no longer pay rent, but still have utilities to pay. But through all this we are still managing to save. We had an episode during the summer where our filter came off the basement wall and flooded the basement compartments(including all the underbelly fiberglass). Luckily it was covered under warranty and LazyDays came out and did all the repairs. All though it did take a while because we had to wait for the rain to let up so they could replace all the fiberglass insulation.Thank goodness I had all our stuff organized in plastic tubs. That made it easy to empty out and kept it from getting wet.That is one of my greatest assests in a RV. I'm the queen of cram as my husband calls me. My job requires lots of organazation, so when it comes to organizing I'm at my best. We have managed to pay off a few more bills this year. On to paying off the truck next! We will be talking to our financial advisor as to how our investments are doing this year. Anything to get closer to retirement. We did replace the recliners with new Lazy-Boys (much more comfortable).

APRIL 2006 - APRIL 2010

Well we settled into RV resort living quite easily. We have great neighbors that winter here for about 4 -5 months. During the summer its pretty open only about 20 couples left in park. Don't get a west facing lot during the summer in Florida the sun bakes our door side windows like an oven!! Had our awnings break! The large awning & one slide awning broke, but extended warranty to the rescue. Crystal lake RV came to our site and did all the repairs. Mostly quite during our stay here. Took some weekend trips to Griffin State park with some RV friends. And also to Wilderness Resort in Silver springs, and Ocala Resort. Slowly adapting to life in a RV. Have experienced a blowout on trailer tire. Did do some damage to entertainment slide & wheel well. Progressive Insurance absolutley great on repairs & accomadations. Been in the Presidential for 3 years now, have learned I don't like overhead cabinets above island(hit your head a lot), hubby would like a more private bath not open to bedroom, I would like a chair in bedroom for TV watching while hubby watches football.Getting to old to lie on bed for to long to watch TV. We found that the chevy 2500 strains pulling Presidential, hubby opted for new 2008 f350 diesel crew cab 4X4.We decided that it is time for our new RV. Know what we want now that we have lived in this one 3 years. Went to RV show in January 2009 to look at some new layouts, found what we looking for at LazyDays. 2009 Carrige Carri-Lite w/ 30' wall slide and windows in the Living area to enjoy our views. Has seperate bath, king bed, washer/dryer sideXside, fireplace two A/C heatpumps, dishwasher(I hate dishes)all cherry cabinets, and chair in bedroom w/footstool. Got great deal on our trade,(more than we paid for Presidential) and 1/4% less with 7-year warranty. Another bill to pay-off! Only truck & RV bill now other than living expenses.
New plans Son has wife of 2years and a baby on the way. Apartment to small for them, and can't stand to see them pay 8-900.00 for 2 bedroom. Came up with plan to buy property 1-1/4 acre and put new mobile home on it for the kids(They are paying the Mortgage) Will use address as home base. Set-up pad for RV. Nice view of pasture. No more rent. Saving more now!!