Home again, home again!

October 25 – Home again!

We made it home safely and spent the afternoon unloading a summer of “stuff” so we can take it in to the shop Monday. It ended up we didn't get it all done on Friday, as by the time we got home and loaded up the truck once, unloaded it and put things away, we were pooped. We went back on Saturday morning before it got too hot out and did the rest.

So on the 28th we took the RV in for a long list of things to be fixed.  We were told there will be a wait for them to get to it, but at least we got it into Independence RV, where we really wanted it to go.  I think the service writer was a bit overwhelmed at all of our issues!  So are we!

Then my laptop died, guess I overworked it the last 5 1/2 months!  I had to order a new one and then my computer guys transferred all of my data over to the new one, but things are just not the same!

Thank you all for following us on another summer adventure.  We had a great time and were thankful to make it home with no further issues.  

Almost home!!

October 24 – Only 2 days to go! We left Defuniak Springs about 9:30. It’s a pretty short day to Tallahassee. Most of the drive was on I-10 and as we got closer to Tallahassee we could see there has been more clean up from the hurricane that hit the area last year. They was a lot of new fencing and power work being done.

We pulled in to Tallahassee RV Park where we have stayed for years coming thru here. It’s home football this weekend so we managed to schedule Thursday as if you want Friday you must take 2 nights. It’s totally booked for tonight. We met a neighbor who is headed to Orlando where his brother lives. They are from Ridgeway, Colorado and rented out their house for 2 years to see if they like full time RVing.

We both started bagging up our clothes to make the emptying of the RV a little better once we get home. This is not the fun part of the trip! Surprise, surprise, the washer and AC are working today so I decided to do up as much laundry as possible to not have to deal with it at home.

Paul picked us up for dinner and Jean met us at Ted’s Montana Grill. Paul was on his way home from work and Jean had picked up her grandchildren and car pool kids and took them all home for her daughter who is out of town. We had a nice meal once we changed booths due the waiter spilling a huge glass of water on Bill! Jean had just walked up! The guy felt terrible about, but it was only water so no damage done. We laughed a lot and talked about EVERYTHING! I hate saying good bye to them but it looks like we will see them twice before the year ends!

We were home in time to watch Little Sheldon and for me to write today’s blog. Now time to read a while!

Back on Florida soil...

October 23 – Back on the road a few minutes late this morning.  We were on schedule until I received a phone call from a manager of Agero, the company that handles the Roadside Assistance program for Safeco Insurance.  She was reaching out to apologize for the poor service we received and let us know the person who we had first that screwed up royally was going to be retrained.  She also said for me to send her the photos of our damage to the RV and the estimate for repairs and they will reimburse me and collect from the tow company.  Nice!  She’s sending me a claim form and once we get home and get an estimate I can submit it.

So that was a pretty nice start of the day!  It was a rather boring drive today.  We opted for Rts 45 & 84 which were sometimes 4 lane but mostly 2 lane back roads with little traffic but quite a few small towns.  It was scenic and lots of cotton fields along the way. 

It was well after 1 when we stopped in Andalusia, AL at David’s Catfish House for lunch.  OMG, was it good.  Bill didn’t care for the Southern sides and had chicken tenders, hush puppies and cole slaw.  I had a whole fried catfish with hush puppies, cheese grits and turnip greens.  Omm, was it ever good.  I didn’t leave a crumb and Bill took 2 hush puppies and a chicken tender with him!!!  I do love my country cooking every once in a while!

We arrived a Sunset King RV in Defuniak Springs around 3:00.  I hooked up the cable and Bill emptied the tank and back-washed the black tank.  We have a bad leak behind the panel and it just runs water in the compartment.  One more thing to add to the list.

Since the power worked last night on the washer and AC, I figured I’d do a load of Bill’s rag towels and wouldn’t you know, the washer and back AC won’t work again.  There must be a short or something loose somewhere!  I’m so over this!

I adjusted the clasp on the silverware drawer so that shuts now.  I used Bruce’s trick with a toothpick to repair a couple of screw holes in the washer/dryer compartment.  Thanks Bruce! 

Time for some dinner!  I made a couple of hamburgers, cooked 2 ears of corn, heated up a leftover piece of chicken, green beans, asparagus and Bill’s lunch chicken.  Ended up with a burger and some green beans!  We’re meeting Jean and Paul for dinner in Tallahassee tomorrow night so was hoping to knock out all of the leftovers – well, there’s still lunch tomorrow….

We opened our half gallon of Huckleberry Ice Cream and had small bowls for dessert.  Yum!

Time to do a bit of reading!!

Worked our way to Mississippi

October 22 – Another driving day!  Not much to report as far as the travel goes.  We

Approaching the group of bridges

crossed a nice bridge that was once of several crossing the Mississippi River. We only stopped once for fuel at Loves.  It was a bit of a fiasco as the clerk didn’t know much about her job as yet!

We stopped for the night in Meridian, MS.  The campground was pretty large, very level with concrete pads and you just picked your site and went up and paid.  Apparently the overnight spots are all pull thrus and close to the office.  We had

About to cross

Tiffins on each side of us, one couple just went full time in July and the other was headed home to Biloxi.

Once we settled in I thought I’d check the washer again and “bazinga”, the light came on.  I proceeded to check the back AC and it worked also.  Not sure what’s going on but I did

Barges on the Mississippi

get a load of laundry done!  Will see what tomorrow brings!

Cute delivery car

I did some housework in preparation for taking the RV in on Monday and made a “bag meal” for dinner.  I really didn’t feel like getting out my laptop so just read except for NCIS.

Travel Day

October 21 – Wow, what a mess in our campground this morning.  Nothing compared to

There were a lot of acorns this morning

what we saw on the news of the places hit by tornados and horrible storms.  We were quite fortunate to only be bombarded by acorns and a few tree branches.

We managed to get on the road around 9:30 on our quest East.  We stopped about a 1 to fuel up and have some lunch.  The Flying J had meat pies so I got four.  They are kind of small.  Then we had veggies with them.  They actually taste like the Pasties we had last summer in the UP.   We headed back on the road.  We didn’t have a very long day today, only 240 miles. 

We checked in to Cinnamon Creek Campground in Minton, LA and have a decent pull thru spot.  I did some house work and discovered that the washing machine will not power on.  I’m hoping that it is only the plug not secure in the outlet since it’s been sitting at an angle for a month and today we did hit quite a lot of bumpy roads.  It was getting hot in the bedroom so I turned the AC on in there – surprise, it would not run!  Not even the fan.  I checked the breakers and fuses but they appear to be fine.  The AC had been getting really loud and when we had them checked before we left we were told they are on the way out but not to the point where our warranty would cover them, so maybe we’re not at that point!  Good thing we’re only a few days left on the road.

In our campground tonight

Since we are just next door to a couple of restaurants it worked out well that we stayed hooked up.  The one we wanted to eat in was closed so we had Mexican.  I had a very good chicken taco salad with a lot of guacamole.  Bill had a Chimichanga and said it was excellent.  There chips were the thinnest and most crispy I’ve ever had.  It was getting a bit chilly on the walk home.

We watched one of my favorite movies, Independence Day, with Will Smith.  I worked on the computer and ordered my script refills, no matter where we are, life goes on!!

Last day in Texas

October 20 – Not much to report today!  After breakfast and some lazying around, Bill washed the RV front and I left to go to Burkes Outlet and Wal-mart.  I texted Jean a lot of Baggilini photos as they had the best selection I’ve seen!  She picked what she wanted and I picked what I wanted and I perused the store a while and found a good deal on flavored coffee. 

Wal-mart was the busiest I have EVER seen!  You could barely go from one entrance to the other side across the front!  It was a shopping frenzy!  I started in the pharmacy area, then hit the Clearance aisle and THEN made it over to the grocery side.  Of course I backtracked a lot since I don’t know where anything is.   I think we shoppers should petition Wal-mart to lay out ALL of their stores the same.  When you travel it’s so hard to know not only the groceries but if you need pet supplies or something from hardware they're in different places.  I would think it would be less expensive for them to do it the same way rather than hire architects to keep changing the layouts! 

I got what I came for plus a couple other items, always the case!  Then checking out was still a wait.  They only have 4 self check stations at each end of the store and the end I was at only 3 were working!  Oh well!

The plan was for me to pick up Chick-fil-a sandwiches for lunch and when I saw the empty lot I realized it is Sunday!  Darn!  Couldn’t have my favorite.  So next door is Whataburger.  I called Bill so see what he wanted and I ordered a plain burger with mustard and pickle.  I ended up with tomatoes, lettuce and onions on it!  Crap!  I’m not a big burger fan to start with then they mess up the only way I really like one!  I did order a side of onion rings (since Bill wasn’t there to pick fries) and they were awesome!  I ate my half before I got home!  Best when they’re super hot!

After we ate we drove to the other side of town and I got to go into World Market but no real bargains.  I did get some dark chocolate digestives that were on sale.   Then we crossed over the interstate and made as stop at Duluth Trading.  Bill loves their underwear!!  Lucky for us today they had 25% off everything in the store.  I found a top I liked that was on Clearance plus the 25 % off and I bought a couple of Christmas gifts as well.

We drove back a different way that was less traffic and shorter. Took no time at all!  I broke out the wine bottle and started on the computer.  I wrote a scathing letter to our RV insurance about the stupid people that work for them in the tow service area.  I copied it to my insurance agent.  I told it like it was and how incompetent their staff was and that once they screwed up they should have sent the first tow company they found that could tow us.  I expressed my feelings in a firm and slightly mean way, but I don’t feel the least bit bad about it.  I paid a big premium for coverage on this RV and I felt entitled to say my piece!

OK, now I feel ever better!! 

We ate a late lunch so about 5:30 I put some tiny colored potatoes in the toaster oven to roast and later I steamed some fresh green beans and made Bill a cube steak and I had a petite sirloin.  I only had one of each in the freezer and offered Bill first pick!  I think since I was doing the cooking he figured I deserved the better meat.  It was all yummy!  Especially the green beans! Bill even said so!

We watched a John Wayne movie (not a western) and then NCIS and a storm started up.  It sounds like huge rocks were hitting the RV roof!  We thought maybe it was hail as it was predicted for some areas along with possible tornadoes.  I checked outside and didn’t see any giant hail so must be big acorns!!

Time to pack up Dell and read my book for a while!  Tomorrow we officially start heading home and our summer adventure will come to an end. 

Stockyard here we come!

October 19 – Today was fun!!!  After a nice breakfast we went over to the Trader Village Flea Market.  It’s huge!  They also have a big section of rides and games that you can buy tickets for the day.  Our feeling was most of the products came from China and they have lots of repetitive shops.  We did find a nice used book store but they were just setting up so we had to wait a while.  We did leave with 4 books, so that was nice.  We didn’t even get to half of the shops.

Official Entrance

Lunchtime

We needed to leave the campground by 12:15 to meet Bruce and Sharon in Ft. Worth at the Stockyards.  We pulled in the parking lot right behind them and parked right beside them.  Perfect timing today!  We debated on lunch and maybe we passed up on a really good spot at Cooper’s Old Time Pit BBQ.  It’s ala-carte and you order your meat as you walk in the door and it’s by the pound.  So we headed

Nice dark brew

over to the main street and chose Riscky’s Steakhouse.  It was a busy place but we were seated immediately.  The

Brew time

service was good as was the food.  Bruce, Sharon and I went with Steak Salad and Bill had a steak.  The rolls were excellent and the service was good.  They never made us feel like we needed to hurry along.

Once we had our delicious lunch we went to a number of shops.  All western and beautiful and expensive stuff.  I found some cute shoes but a bit on the pricey side. We ran out of steam about time for the Trail Boss to push the cattle along

Bill can outrun these

the road into their corrals.  It started at 4 and the street was line with people.  They are doing construction on one side of the street and so no one can stand on that side.  Just before the longhorns came through Bill got to sit on a

The real thing

longhorn so I could take photos at him.  He was a happy guy.  This equals when he got to ride an elephant! 

The steers don’t move very fast, I imagine they are so trained to make the walk twice a day, 7 days a week that they just do their thing and get their photos taken and go back to their pen.  Poor guys!  One of them had a huge set of horns!  It’s a wonder they can hold

Some major horns

their heads up.

Time to head back to our trucks and say our “real” good-byes.  We’ve so enjoyed seeing Bruce and Sharon 5 times since we left home in May.  Now the chances are we

Trail Boss

won’t see them again “in person” until next fall when they head back to Florida to winter.  Great people and we will miss them, BUT, we will be in touch on a regular basis!!

We have some noisy neighbors next door and the mom and daughter both have pink hair.  They are constantly yelling at their 2 dogs and just noisy neighbors.  

Dinnertime

Once dinner time rolled around I got out my grill pan and put on some pencil asparagus dosed in olive oil and seasoned with Badia seasoning.  I had thawed a BIG chicken breast so I sliced it into 2 filets and coated them with plain panko crumbs and some bbq seasoning.  Then a quick fry on both sides and we were ready for dinner with the leftover potato salad! Simple, one pan dinner! 

I worked on the computer a while and we watched a bit of TV.  Bill went to bed and I stayed up reading until I was ready.  Good end to a great day!

We miss you already Bruce and Sharon!!