Air Photo Outtakes

Greetings from Sarasota! I've been busy this week working my second roll of film for Air Photo. It's been slow going and people are not buying here in Sarasota like they were in Gainesville. I've had a couple interesting encounters and a few good stories. I'm starting to create groups to classify the various types of home owners.

First, there's the I'm-Going-to-Talk-to-You-Trough-My-Door home owner. These people come to the door and peer at me through the window. They refuse to open the door. The most I get is a cursory glance at what I'm holding and then a "Not interested."

Then there's the Slam-the-Door-in-Your-Face home owner. These people will actually open the door and have a look but they won't take the photo in their hands. Then comes the "Not interested." Slam.

You know, there's no excuse for rudeness. Now granted, they probably consider me to be rude by coming to their door unannounced and uninvited. I am considered a solicitor and those kind people are not welcome. I'll give ya that.

However,

I believe I have something of personal value to them and it doesn't take very much for a little bit of courtesy. I don't have a heavy selling tactic. I simply want them to hold the photo for a minute, take a good look at it, and then make a decision while I point out their options. If they are still not interested, I don't push the issue. I thank them for taking the time to have a look and I leave.

One man, when he opened his door and saw what I had, told me that he'd been ripped off for $200 a couple years ago by my company and to GET THE FUCK OUT. It took me a few seconds to recover from the verbal attack and I think after he saw the shock on my face, he felt the need to elaborate. Apparently, some outfit had come by two years earlier. He'd bought a photo but never received it. As soon as he said this I knew it wasn't Air Photo for a couple reasons. I tried to point out to him that it wasn't Air Photo but he was in no mood to listen to what I had to say. When it sounded like he was getting close to the end of his tirade, I apologized for bothering him and left. What an ass.

He was the worst one.

Then there was the lady who interrogated me on what exactly was going to be done with the picture that she wasn't going to buy? She thought what we were doing was illegal and if not, it should be. She even had me come back to show the print to her husband even though they had no intention of buying it. These people belong in the This-is-an-Invasion-of-My-Privacy category. How dare we take aerial photos of their property........like MapQuest and Google Earth and a host of others don't. Even after I explained that there were satellites that could zoom in to take a picture of her doorknob, she wasn't convinced. Her main concern was what was stopping me from selling a picture of her house to some unsavory types? I was like, ma'am, don't take this the wrong way, but who would WANT a picture of your house but you? And second, even if they did, why would they pay $169 for my picture when they could go online and get the same thing for free? Albeit in low res - but an image nonetheless. Jon, the Air Photo manager, said those kind of people probably have something to hide and that there are serious issues going on.

Then there are the people who live in the $2M houses with their $10K a month mortgage payments who have the nerve to tell me that they can't afford $169 for a nice photo of their home. Please. Don't lie and just tell me you don't want it.

Then there are the people who don't want to pay more than $50 for it. I'm like, dude, you can't even get a professional portrait of your kid for that much. And you have to go to them. Here you've had a helicopter come and do an aerial shot of your property (saving you hundreds of dollars for a custom shoot), the picture is delivered to you door all framed up, and all you think it's worth is $50??? See if you can get K-Mart to come out and do it for you then. Moron.

The gated houses are the bane of my selling travels. I can understand why some of the huge mansions are gated. But why are the trailers gated? This one place I went to was a very nice double-wide on a huge piece of land. They had a beautiful deck on the front of their house. And they had a big-ass locked gate. With three very nasty looking pit bulls. What are these people hiding?????? A bunch of pot plants in the woods????

This one lady was more concerned about how I got past her gate (I followed her daughter in) than she was of the photo. But after she got on to me for my shady (in her mind) tactics, she was genuinely interested in the photo -- and even showed it to her husband -- but still decided not to buy a print.

A LOT of people live behind fences and gates in this state. Even junky-looking single-wide trailers are behind formidable gates. I bet the electric gate cost more than the damn trailer. What is the deal? Are there that many loose criminals about? Yeah, if I'm going to steal something, the first place I'd think of going is some redneck place out in the boonies.

And speaking of the boonies. I'm glad as hell I have an SUV. Some of these roads in Florida are a mess. They are nothing but sandy tracks and they have names like NW 140th Ave. Like it's a real road. I wouldn't even call them a road. They're 'oads.' While I'm driving down some of these trails, I keep hearing dueling banjos in the back of my mind. Dare-da-dare-dare-dare. Dink-a-dink-dink-dink. And then way down the dusty, washboard lane you'll find more million-dollar mansions. Un-fuckin-real. Seems like they could pool some of that loot and pave their road.

I guess that's about all I have for now. Alan gets here on Tuesday from the UK. He's flying in to Orlando. So next week we'll be getting to know each other. After that I have an event in St. Petersburg and after that I don't know.

Joe is the MAN!

First, I want you all to know that my boss, Doug, has very cool parents. His mom has let me stay at her house all week and his brother, Joe, has done all the little things to my RV that I've been trying to get done for months. Joe is the bomb! First he installed the cyclone thingy that goes on top of the black tank vent. The he installed my rain gutter extensions (even though they were the wrong kind he made them work). Then he checked the air pressure in all my tires and aired up the ones that were low. Then he did The Great TV Swap for me. I bought a new Sony Bravia and he took out my old, HEAVY, TV and put in the lighter Bravia. This was no easy task. First he had to take off the cabinet frame, remove the TV brace, and then take out the old TV which must have weighed a good 80 pounds. Then he had to put in a piece of plywood for a brace to mount the wall brackets to for the new one I bought. But let me tell you what. His work is immaculate. My new TV looks like it was made for where it is better than the old one did.

And on top of all that, he swapped out the front rope light switch. This may seem like a trivial thing but hear me when I say this. This one little thing to me was huge. I have rope lights above all my cabinets -- one in the galley, one above the table, and one behind the TV and front cabinets. The switch to the rope light in the front was located WAY BACK INSIDE the right cabinet next to the antenna/cable switchbox. I had to stand on the dinette bench and put one foot on the passenger seat in order to reach that switch. Needless to say I rarely bothered to turn on the rope lights behind the TV because the switch was so damn hard to get to.

Now, there are two switches located under the table cabinets. The one on the right is for the rope lights above the cabinets. The one on the left (toward the front) is for the little hallway night light. This made no sense. I already have a switch for that light in the bedroom. Why put one for it way up front in the coach?

So what Joe did was to rewire the rope light switch inside the front cabinets to the one under the table cabinets.

Now I can turn on my rope lights without fifty dozen gyrations to get to the damn switch. One on the left, one on the right, flip-flip, done.

It's such a small thing but to me it has relieved something that annoyed me immensely.

Even right now, all my rope lights are on. They give just enough offset lighting to make it nice in here.

Thanks Joe!

This past week, I've been working my new job. I have a gig with Air Photo where I sell aerial photos of people's houses to the home owners. It's a great job and I like it. I made almost $600 this week and I only sold 13 pictures. My goal was 20 and I missed that but hell, it's my first week on the job. I'll get better. At least I'm making money instead of losing it when I'm not working events.

Tomorrow I leave for Sebring for an RVW rally. After that I'm going to the Bradenton area to camp and to sell more pictures. My next event is Christmas week in St. Petersburg.

You may have noticed that I don't discuss my relationships in my blog very much. I'm not one to kiss and tell. However, I'm excited these days in that I have a new man in my life. He is from the UK and he's coming to see me on the 18th. I am almost beside myself in anticipation of meeting him. And that's all I'm going to say about that. Once we are definitely a couple, I'll introduce him to all my blog readers.

I just wanted my friends to know that things are looking up and I'm happier now than I've been in a long time.

3-shirt weather

Aside from all the pests down here, I'm actually starting to like Florida. I now see why all the snowbirds come down here as the days are sunny and warm and the humidity is way down so that you actually enjoy being outside. It gets pretty cool at night but that only makes for good sleeping weather. In the morning, I wear my fleece when the temp is in the 50's. Then by 10 or so, it's warmed up where the fleece can come off and a T-shirt is comfortable till the afternoon. By then, it's getting pretty warm so off comes the T-shirt and on goes the sleeveless shirt. Then by dusk, it's time to dress warm again. So you have this constant adjusting of clothes as the temps range from a cool 40's and 50's at night to a warm 70's and 80's during the day.

It's nice not having to run the air conditioner constantly. I haven't had it on since I came back from Mississippi. At this particular site, I have the generator dedicated to my house as the tent is running off a power pole. I only use the generator from about 5:30 in the evening till 11 or so (long enough to charge up my house batteries) and then I turn it off. Less racket.

Happy Birthday Tammie! She turned 45 the 19th. Also, my grandson had his first birthday on the 10th. Happy Birthday Lucas!

Oh my aching knees!

Well, I am officially old. Last week I went to the doc and after waiting for four hours for about 10 minutes of doctor time, I found out that I have arthritis in my knees. I figured as much the way they ache.

This week I am back in Williston. My knees were feeling pretty good by the time Sunday rolled around and I tore down the site without too much trouble. Got done around 11 and by the time I got my house ready to go and the truck hooked up, I made it into Williston around 2 in the morning. So I got some sleep and got my house set up Monday morning. That is always a chore at this site because the entire lot is on a slope. My house still isn't entirely level but it's close enough that I can deal with it for a week.

This has not been a good day for me. After Sunday's work, I worked all day Monday doing a whole lot of nothing because the tent didn't get set until 7 at night. By then I was beat what with dealing with the fence and setting light towers. So I worked until 10 and finished up the next day. I didn't get done Tuesday until around 3 in the afternoon and by then my knees were screaming. So today I was looking forward to taking a rest and getting my clothes washed. The boys also desperately need baths as they are just gray from the parking lot in Gainesville. But Doug came rolling in around 10 with his pressure washer. He sat down to talk to me for a bit and thats when he told me there would be no event next week. So that means that I'm going to be out of work for the next five weeks. I told him, that's it, that I need to find another job. He understands. He offered me $10 an hour to wash the cars for a little extra loot but after three hours I'd had enough.

When your body is in pain, you can stand it better if you have a positive mental outlook. But I had taken a pretty bad shot with the bad news about work and it made the pain in my legs unbearable. So I told him I couldn't do it anymore and he took over. But after a while even he was tired and he's going to hire a couple people from LaborReady to finish the job tomorrow.

I retired to my house and broke down. After a while, I can only take so much bad news. I missed the hearing for my appeal to the unemployment office for my denial of benefits when I was out of work for those six weeks in September because I didn't get my mail in time. So the case was dismissed. I'm almost certain they're going to want some money back. And now I'm not going to be working for over a month and it was too much worry.

But after a while, I pulled myself together and went online to look for work. And I think I've found something with Air Photo. This outfit takes aerial photos of people houses and farms and then sells them the pictures. The send me 100 pictures of different houses and I go to the owners to see if I can sell them the photo. They cost $169 for an 11x14 matted and framed picture. I get to keep 30% which comes to a little over $50. If I can sell two pictures a day or 14 a week, I'll be making the same amount of money as I do working for D2W. The man I talked to says the average is about a third out of the hundred will sell so that's decent money. I can do this work during my down time from D2W and still stay with them for my benefits.

Things may work out after all.

Gainesville

Wow. I can't believe it's been a month since my last post. Probably because my life has become pretty routine so nothing very exciting has been going on worth writing about.

After Cocoa, I went to Kissimmee. It looked like it was going to be a great set up until the property manager came by and wanted to know what was going on. (!) So I told him and he told the owner who had no idea and from there it was a big circle jerk. Basically what happened was Albertson's grocery store rented the front part of their parking lot to D2W for an event but somehow there was a disconnect when it came to the site plan. AFTER the fence was put up, the manager came out and I showed him the site plan. He said the fence had to be moved because half of it was in front of some other stores in the shopping center which was a no-no. The modification reduced our sale area to about half the original size. We had to move my house and the port-a-potties AND most of the fence. What a job that was. At least it was on pavement so it slid fairly easily but it still took 5 of us to get it done. AND THEN the next day the city code inspector came out and ripped us for not putting things according to the site plan. (DOH!) But he passed us anyway after making us move our truck behind the center (because it was a giant sign) and we also had to take the banners off the fence. Come to find out, Albertson's violated their lease by renting the space to us and the owner faxed a copy with the offense highlighted to all the shopping center tenants telling them to never do it again.

So that was Kissimmee.

Next I went to St. Augustine for an RVW rally. We dressed up our pets for a Halloween pet parade and had a bunch of fun with that. I spent a nice evening with Lynnette where we went downtown to old St. Augustine and had a few beers and checked out all the shops.

THEN, since I still had two more weeks off, I went ahead and made the trip up to Mississippi to see my folks. I really couldn't afford it but it was worth it anyway. My mom got three good results from her doctors and so that was great news. I also got some good news in the form of a job offer from Omarr. It may or may not pan out but if it does, my life will be much easier. Hopefully he'll know for sure by the end of the year.

Mom, Elsie and I made the trip up to Millington to see Eric's memorial. I thought after all these years I'd be able to handle it but I still get emotional when I think of what happened to him and all his friends. Seeing his sister's graduation tassel hanging in his baseball mitt made me lose it. But we had a nice lunch and it was a good trip.

I finally got the nerve to change the oil in my generator. I'd been putting it off mostly because it's very painful for me to get down on my knees to do the work. But I had my house up on pavers at my folks' house so I had more room to work on the generator side and it wasn't too bad. I got the job done and everything seemed to work fine.

However....

When I got to the site here at Gainesville, I arrived a few days early so I had to use my generator for power to cook. I started it up to do some work online and after a few minutes I kept hearing a popping noise. At first I thought it was a motorcycle at the bank next door but it finally hit me the noise was coming from my generator. Eeek! Did I lose the oil? I went out and took off the cover just in time to watch it shut down. Now what. Think....think....think.... I checked the oil and it was fine. The thing is new so it has to be something simple. Then it hit me. I went back into the house and checked the fuel gage. It was about a 16th below a quarter tank. So that was it. I remembered the generator automatically shuts down when the coach fuel tank gets to a quarter full. I'd just spent a half hour in the truck scouting the area out looking for a good way to get to the Shell station a block away. With all the shopping center parking lots at this location, maneuvering a 30-foot RV can get tricky. This event is located in front of a Wal-Mart in a TGI Friday's parking lot. I'd planned on getting fuel when I left Gainesville on the way to Williston but I GUESS I'm going to get fuel now if I want to have any electric to cook and charge my laptop and phone.

After filling up my house, I tried the generator again. It still wouldn't start. NOW I'm getting worried because the trouble light was flashing 3 times indicating that it needed serviced. I went online and found a number for a mobile technician down in Ocala. The man's name is Ray and when he called me back, I told him what the deal was. I mentioned that I'd just changed the oil and just to make sure I didn't screw up I told him what weight I used since it was different from what the book said (I later found out). He told me to get it out, that I'd put in the wrong kind. It was too thick. Back to Wal-Mart I go for some more oil. At least I could walk this time instead of having to drive to a store. So I got down on my knees (ouch!) for another oil change. It didn't take as long this time since I have more confidence and I knew what to do. Ray also told me that I wasn't holding down the priming switch long enough and that's probably why it wouldn't start. I'd only held it down a few seconds. Ray said to hold it for at least half a minute that it wouldn't hurt it. So I did, and it started right up. No more popping noises and it runs fine.

Things I learned:
1. Never use more than 30 weight oil.
2. The genset will make a popping noise when it's running out of gas.
3. I now know at what point on the fuel gage the genset will quit.
4. It takes at least half a minute to prime it after you run it out of gas.
5. Crawling around on the ground is agony.

Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow I have an appointment with a doctor in sports medicine at UF to have a look at my knees to see what is going on. Hopefully, whatever it is will be fixable.

And that's about all my news.

Cocoa

I haven't made a post lately so I guess I better let everyone know I'm still breathing. Crystal River was nice and now I'm finally back to work after being off for six weeks. That was quite a hit on my finances and if it happens again, I'm going to have to look for something else.

Last week I was in Melbourne and the event there, for me, was one of the better ones as far as set up goes. My helper showed up, all the equipment showed up, and there was a BP station right across the street. I thought there could have been more traffic at the sale and they only sold about a dozen units so I was kind of disappointed in the turn out for as much traffic was on the roads going past the location.

The only glitch I had was my refrigerator finally stopped working. I called Rolling RV Repair and this dude, Charlie, is the bomb. He works all of Brevard county and he come out to your RV and fixes whatever is wrong. He also does warranty work so that's a good thing. The thing he found out was that the clicking noise on the fridge was being caused by the converter. So he wired a direct line from the battery to the fridge and it worked great until he could get in a new converter from Winnebago. Well, that came in yesterday and today he drove up to Cocoa where I am now and got me all fixed up. And the best of all is by changing out my converter, it fixed about four other problems I'd been living with. The gas portion of my water heater wouldn't work because the pilot light wouldn't stay lit. My levels center wasn't indicating right. And my lights were dimming whenever the water pump would run. Plus, once I discharged the batteries in Melbourne, I couldn't run on just battery power after that. I had to have shore power or my generator. Charlie said it was good to discharge the coach batteries every now and then so I'll try to use battery power a little bit more often from now on. If it's cool enough in the evenings, I can shut down the tent sale generator and just run off battery power for some peace and quiet. Well, as much peace and quiet as you can get living right beside a highway.

So anyway, the converter has been replaced, my levels indicator works again, the water heater works, the lights don't flicker, and now I'm curious if my radio will stop clicking off for no reason like it usually does. I'll find out later when I turn it on.

And now I'm in Cocoa. This time it took me two days to set up because 1) there was horizontal rain on Monday and 2) I had no helper. Doug called for one and LaborReady called me to tell me the man was on his way but he never showed up. But I got everything all done and it looks good. This sale is in the parking area of a flea market and there are hundreds of fire ant mounds here. Needless to say, I've gotten stung several times already so I'm not too happy about that. AND there are man-eating tiger mosquitoes here that bite the shit out of you. I have to hose myself down with Deep Woods Off when I do the inventory at night.

But there is plenty of room here at this sale which I like as it gives me room to maneuver the D2W truck for my water and diesel replenishment. I need to fill up my fresh water tank this evening as the dogs have GOT to get baths tomorrow.

So that's about it for this week.

Crystal River

My last post was about my first RVW rally. I'm now in Crystal River getting ready for my second rally with "the girls" that starts tomorrow. It's been a long month. A long, LONESOME month. Most of it was spent hanging out at Suncoast RV Resort in Port Richey. Suncoast is a beautiful campground with lots of pines and palms. The sunsets are spectacular. I had company for a few days in that Larrie came down for some tests on his back. I hated when he had to leave and I actually miss him a lot. I told him he needs to quit his job and either sell his house or rent it out so he can come be with me. We get along so well. Of course, I get along with everybody so there ya go.

I've turned to the internet again to try to find a man. David and I have decided that he'll never leave Delaware and so we are now just good friends. I made a trip to Jax over the weekend to get my mail and to meet with someone I met online. Real nice guy. We went out a couple times but, again, he's someone who has a job and a house and a life. Doesn't look like that will go anywhere.

I'm looking forward to next week when I travel to Melbourne for my first event in six weeks. At least it will keep me busy and I'll be making $$$$ again. Doug promises that I'll get three events a month from now on. Lets hope so as I won't be able to survive another downtime like this again.

So now I'm in Crystal River at Crystal Isles RV Resort. It has been raining all day and it suits my mood. Again, the surroundings are lovely. Lots of pines and palms and big trees with Spanish moss hanging from them. Again, the sunsets are spectacular. And again, I watch them alone.

Taking it easy

It's been a quiet couple of weeks. After my stint as a 'greeter' at Courtesy Ford, I spent a week in Dunedin at my first RVing Women rally. They are a really friendly bunch of women and I felt very welcome. The campground where we stayed was immaculate (Dunedin RV Resort) and it was good to have some shade for a change. During our rally, we participated in a murder mystery. The premise was that we were attending a high school reunion and one of our classmates, Helen, had been murdered. The plot was introduced Friday night and the mystery solved at our Saturday night get-together. It was great fun as the 'suspects' dressed up and really bought into their characters. We were given a list of questions to ask the suspects and based on their answers, we were supposed to deduce who the culprit was. I didn't do so well so I guess it's a good thing I didn't go into a career of private investigating.

Friday night I joined in on a poker game and from what I understand I was the big winner. It's hard to tell as I just emptied out my piggy bank so I have no idea how much I started with. But one of the women told me that she'd lost about $10 and most of the others broke even more or less. I did win $6 from the last hand which was a showdown so that was a fun evening. Looking forward to doing that again (if they let me play!). At least my piggy bank still weighs what it did before.

The group traveled to Tarpon Springs for lunch Saturday afternoon. It was the first time I had eaten in an authentic Greek restaurant. Tarpon Springs should be called Greek town as all the businesses in the area are owned by Greeks. I had flaming cheese and some kind of meatballs. They bring what looks like a cheese pancake out on a sizzling plate, like what they use for fajitas, and then they pour a couple ounces of probably brandy and light it up. The flames go up a couple feet in the air and as they do everyone yells "OPA!" The waitress sprinkles something on it (lemon juice?) and then the flames go out and you have fried cheese. This is spread on bread and it tastes great. So that was pretty cool.

When the rally was over, I drove 20 miles up the road to Port Richey to stay in Suncoast RV Resort for a couple weeks. This is also a nice park and I have a good, shady spot. I also have cable TV here (which I didn't have at Dunedin) and the rates are not too bad with Passport America. It is much cheaper to stay here than to stay at Dunedin, that's for sure. I have an appointment on the 17th with an RV place down the road to get my awning fixed. The claws at the end of one of the rafters broke off and, although it works ok, it's not very sturdy and the rafter can slip out of the arm very easily. So that will be warranty work.

My friend, Larrie Sheldon, came down to visit for a few days last week. It was amazing that he had scheduled an appointment with a spine specialist at the very time I was in this part of the state. He flew in to Tampa on Tuesday and spent all day Wednesday getting tests done on his back. We had a great visit and it was nice to have some company. I played chauffeur and carted him to his appointments. He had an old friend in Orlando, Sonya, and we made arrangements to have dinner with her and her boyfriend, Bill. Originally we had decided to have dinner at this seafood place in Tarpon Springs but it got to be late and they were wanting to close the kitchen. Sonya and Bill were still enroute so we decided to try this place down in Clearwater. We managed to meet there at the same time but when we went in, they had just closed the kitchen 15 minutes before. So we drove back toward Tampa to go to the Crab Shack on Route 60. When we got there, it was closed too. There was a Bennigan's right next door so we finally were able to get some food there. What a fiasco that was. But Sonya was really cool and I have her phone number for the next time I'm in the Orlando area. Thursday was Larrie's last day and we went back to the seafood place in Tarpon Springs to have lunch after he was done with that day's appointment. The shrimp I had was ok but the breading was a tad too spicy for me. Then we made a pit stop on the way to the airport for some Sonic Blasts and I dropped him off for his flight home.

On the way back home I made a 40-mile run up to Zephyrhills to get my mail. Aussy was up there at a sale and Doug was there washing cars. He'd brought a bag full of mail to me so now I had all my bills I needed to pay. Most of them I can get online but there are one or two that I still need the invoices. When I got back, the boys were glad to see me after being gone all day but, man, the house sure was quiet. You get used to having somebody around and when they're not there anymore, it's kind of hard. Every once in a while this huge wave of lonliness washes over me and it takes me a while to shake it off. I just try to stay busy.

I got some bad news from my mom in that the doctors think she may have chronic lymphoma leukemia (CLL). They will know for sure after some blood tests are run. I feel so bad for my mom. She is trying to take care of Daddy while they are constantly cutting plugs out of her skin for skin cancer and now this. I went online to see if there is any work in the area where I could make enough money to meet my expenses but after a couple hours of looking, I didn't see anything. I need to make about $17 an hour and nothing came close to that (that I had the skills for). I told Tammie that I have lost so much already, I absolutely refuse to lose what I have left.

I'm in a pretty long down time for D2W at the moment. I'm thinking that this had better be the last one and I'm guessing that it probably will be since Doug let one of the workampers go. That means that their events will be picked up by me, Aussy, and George & Phyllis. I have three events in a row starting the last week in September so after that I expect that work will be more plentiful. If not, then I have been seriously looking at maybe going with Schnieder International. If my old school friend, Debbie, can drive a truck, then so can I.

You get what you pay for

Wekiva Falls RV Resort. They use that term loosely.

Last week I had an event in Sanford where I got to be a greeter at a Ford dealership. It was a nice change of pace in that 1) I got to wear nice clothes and 2) -- this is huge -- AIR CONDITIONING!!!! The event itself was 12 hours of boring sitting waiting for "ups." The idea is to greet customers as they enter the building, determine if they are shopping for new or used and then assign them to a salesperson from one of the five Courtesy dealerships participating. Cake.

But let me tell you about Wekiva Falls RV 'Resort'. I chuckle every time I say the name. Resort. Yeah, ok. The place is huge. It has over 800 sites. Not all of them work (electricwise). I selected this campground because with my Passport America membership, it was cheap. Like $14 a night. Passport America membership gets you 50% off participating campgrounds. But then there's the fine print. Wekiva Falls' regular price is $18 a night so the PA price is $9. Eighteen bucks is cheap compared to other campgrounds. But then they add $2 a night for electric (ok, whatever) and $3 a night for pets so it comes to $14 a night. Even though Driven2WIN paid for my stay, I still try to do the right thing to save them money. The sacrifices I make.

The first clue I had about this place was a sign on Highway 46 just as you get off I-4. It was a three-part sign: a bear, then Bear X-ing next 6 miles, then "For bear sightings, please call 410-xxx-xxxx." I can't remember the number. My mind got stuck at the second part of the sign. Bears???? In Florida????????? Yeah, ok.

So I get to the campground and I check in with the woman in the booth at the gate. She looked like she'd smoked her share of doobies in her past life. Anyway, after I settled up, I asked her if she had a map of the campground so I could find a site. She said, "No, I'm just going to turn you lose to the wolves." She wasn't kidding. Here is a campground with over 800 sites and why should they bother with maps?

So I ask, "Well, is there an area you recommend?" Since I have pets, she recommends that I find a place on the south side of the river. The campground straddles a spring that feeds the Wekiva River. A huge swimming area has been developed between the source spring and the river proper. The swimming area is actually pretty nice. And that's all the props I'm going to give on this place.

So she tells me how to get to the south side. Go down the road, bear to the right, and pick any open spot. Oh-kay. So away I go. The speed limit is 10 mph. I go about 2. The holes in the dirt road are so huge, they should be given their own names: River Head Gully, Big Dipper, Swamp Gulch, Washboard Way.

I'm trolling the rows of sites looking for something with a *little* bit of shade and that I can get into without too much trouble. There is a reason why most reputable campgrounds require that permanent party rigs be less than 10 years old. Without that rule, you get Wekiva Falls. Jeff Foxworthy needs to see this place. He would have a field day.

You know you're a redneck if your house is parked in your carport and your carport is a blue tarp.
You know you're a redneck if your truck is bigger than your house.
You know you're a redneck if you pay monthly rent for a campsite to store your junk and your shed.
You know you're a redneck if the license plate on your house expired 30 years ago.

I was advised by doobie woman that I "may have to search around for the sewer hookup." The way they have things set up is four sites to one electric/water pole. Duly noted.

So I'm driving down the end of all the rows scanning for open spots. Right away I can see that the permanent parties have all the shady spots locked up. Damn. Looks like it's going to be a palm tree for me. I finally decide on a spot (no shade) at the end of a row where I'm the only one on the utility pole. The nearest rig is a fairly new 5th wheel and its three sites away. It appears that most of the ends of the rows (in the sun) are occupied by us transients. Most of these rigs look like you could actually get them to start and the wheels wouldn't disintegrate into powder if they rolled more than a few feet.

I disconnect the Mariner and as usual, it takes a bit of maneuvering to get my house leveled up. Each site has a *somewhat* nice, *kind of* level concrete pad but that's only for show. You can't park on it. You have to park NEXT to it. In the grass. Correction. In the DEEP grass. I don't think it's been mowed in a month.

Well, I get it all leveled up and now I'm drenched in sweat. It's mid-day and almost a hundred degrees. I wipe the sweat out of my eyes so I can see to get the electric cord plugged in. No power. Try the other plug. No power. Maybe the third time's a charm. Nah, nah, nah. So now I'm checking this pole out. It looks like something's not right. Meters are there but something is missing in the box with all the wires. I call the office and they send out Walt. Walt finds the problem. There are no breakers in the box. That explains why I have no power. Now I have to find a new site. I'm definitely not into driving all over again to find another spot. The 5th wheel is nearby so there must be working electric on that pole. I do a loopty loop in reverse and back up to the pole behind the 5th wheel. I go through the leveling routine again and I'm finally set. Next is water. Done. Next is sewer. Supposedly, the pipe is about six feet from the rear of the RV. I look. I'm not seeing any pipes. Doobie lady said I may have to hunt for it. I use my powers of deductive reasoning (a challenge when you're suffering from heat stroke) and determine that, logically, all the sewer lines should be in a line with each other. So I find where the 5th wheel has his hooked up and eyeball a line to that. After about 5 minutes of searching, I finally find it. It was invisible with the exception of a teeny bit of PVC pipe showing as it's mostly covered in dirt. I go to my toolbox to get something to use to get rid of all the dirt and in that short amount of time I lost it. When I walked back around, I couldn't rember where it was. I'm thinking, "This is crazy. It was just here." I walk back and forth for about 10 minutes and I finally give up. The heat is getting to me. I can't see and I can't think. I call the office. "Walt, can you come back out and find this damn sewer pipe for me?" I hate appearing helpless over something that should be so simple. Walt comes out and it takes him less than 60 seconds to find it. I told him he cheated because he knew where to look. It turns out that it was a good thing Walt came out. I had to get my channel locks out so he could pull the plug out of the sewer line. It took quite a bit of effort for him so I know I never would have been able to get the plug out even if I HAD found the damn hole.

The sewer is finally hooked up and I can take a break. I go inside for a while before I completely fall out. After I cool off, I go back for the truck. I get the rock guard stowed and sit down to take off the quick disconnect assembly. I am SO glad I bought my little black step stool. I use it ALL the time. Sitting on it puts me in exactly the right spot to unscrew the couplings, get the pins out and pull the heavy QD assembly out of the mounting brackets.

Eventually, I get everything all set. The rest of the week was fairly uneventful. The swimming area was busy over the weekend. Doug said the spring water was pretty cool and that was why folks liked to swim in it. OH, it rained the day after I arrived. All those holes I told you about? Change the names to Lake River Head, Lake Gulch, Lake Washboard. I couldn't resist it. I drove my truck right through them making huge waves. But after a few days, my truck was so nasty I was ashamed to be seen in it. Once the water dried up to something you could almost drive around instead of through, I washed my truck.

The water was gone by the time I left Monday morning.

I saw bear tracks at the dumpster.

And they never did mow the grass.

Sweat!

It's been a long time since I've sweated this much. We're in the middle of a heat wave (along with the rest of the east coast) and I'm reminded of my days in Saudi Arabia when we'd fly into Dhahran and when I opened the crew entry door the heat hits you like a blast furnace. The thermometer on my RV window said 107 today. I'm sure it's a little off but not by much. In the morning just before sun-up the humidity was at 80%.

This week I'm in East Palatka which is about 60 miles south of Jax. Set-up on Monday was killer. The heat just saps all the energy out of you. It's like you're going in slow motion and you can't focus. At least I didn't throw up. My helper ended up hurling in one of the trash cans. But he was doing all the heavy work while I was wiring up the desk so I can't criticize him at all.

By the end of the day, my clothes were completely soaked through with sweat. I drank about three Bubba Kegs of water (that's about a gallon and a half). It's hard to move in wet clothes and harder still to go to the bathroom.

When you get older, your bladder doesn't work as well as it used to. When you gotta go, you gotta go. So I hurry to the bathroom and then it's a struggle to peel out of my wet clothes. First
I need to untie the knot holding up my sweat pants. Ever tried to untie wet shoe laces? Same deal. Then I'm trying to roll down my pants and underwear while my legs are crossed so I don't pee myself.

The body is going, "HEY! You're right in front of the toilet! Time to let go! What's the hold up?"

But your mind is going, "Wait! Not yet!" *tug tug tug*

FINALLY I get my drawers down. I make the mistake of not drying off my ass and when I sit down I slide off the seat. Fortunately in an RV you don't have far to go before you run into something so I don't fall completely off. Which is a good thing because the body has won the pee battle. Ahhh -- and I pee about, mmmm, maybe half a cup. Now THAT's really annoying. All that struggle for just that minuscule amount of pee. The body heaves a sigh of relief. The mind is just disgusted with the whole ordeal.

Now I have to get dressed again but my underwear has chemically bonded with my pants into this tightly rolled ring that resembles a bungee cord. If I put hooks on it, I bet I could use it to hold the helium bottles in the truck.

After about 15 minutes of working, I finally get my clothes separated. Time to make a decision. Do I put on wet clothes and go back to work to sweat some more? Ugh. Do I put on clean clothes to just get them all dirty and sweaty? (more laundry) I compromise. Dry underwear, wet pants (which are already filthy). By now my ass had dried off so I can at least get my underwear on normally.

They say the heat wave is supposed to break sometime this weekend......

What a long strange trip

OK this is going to be a really long post. I have three weeks of "The Big Trip" that I have to tell about so here goes.

On July 10th I drove to Birmingham to pick up my BF, David, who flew in from BWI. It was so good seeing him again. He spent 1 day in Mississippi and then we left for Wisconsin for the family reunion. We got a late start because Daddy had to go to the hospital in the morning. Mom needed a way to get home so we went back to the house and fetched her car to take it down to Tom's Automotive to get the overheating problem fixed. It turned out to be a bad water pump so it was a good thing it got fixed when it did or else Mom could have cracked the head in her car. David paid for the work so I was grateful to him for that.

Once we got Mom squared away and made sure Daddy was going to be OK, we hit the road around 3 in the afternoon. I drove through the worst thunderstorm of my life just south of Memphis. There was CRAZY rain for about 15 miles. I bet they got at least 6 inches in about a half hour. And the ROAD! Fortunately it quit raining just as I was coming into Memphis because Lamar Ave. is a MESS! I am making a new list of the worst roads to drive on and it's going to be at the top of my list. They don't have pot holes, they have craters. Deep craters in the road that even though I was only going about 25 mpg, they would make the RV just shudder. It jarred the TV loose from it's mount and bounced it back into the cabinet so that was kind of upsetting.

We spent the night at a rest stop just outside of St. Louis and pressed on the next day arriving in Monroe just after lunch. We stayed at the fairgrounds between to big fifth wheel campers. The one man didn't care much for the dogs (since they technically weren't allowed) and he made sure that we knew that HE knew that they weren't supposed to be there. But they behaved themselves marvelously and I think even he couldn't complain.

The family reunion was kind of anti-climactic in that meeting the Danes was way more fun. I worked on the family file during the reunion lunch so the time I spent with the Danes during our dinners each evening was a thing I'll always cherish. Mona, Helle, Anni, Torben and Rasmus and their families are all so friendly and I loved talking to them about everything. It's so amazing to compare our different cultures. Gloria and I are determined to make the trip to Denmark in 2 years.

David really enjoyed himself. We went to see House on the Rock and we went down to Baumgartners for a few beers. The tavern has hundreds of dollar bills stuck to the ceiling with tacks. This doesn't sound too impressive until you know that the ceilings in the room are at least 20 feet high. So how do they get the money up there? It cost me a dollar to find out. They put a tack right through George's face and then place three quarters (that have been taped together) on top of the tack. Fold the dollar just right and with just the right amount of heave, the bartender tosses the dollar straight up. The quarters push the tack into the ceiling, the dollar stays, the quarters fall back to the earth and if the bartender is REALLY good, he catches the quarters. Cool! Every two years during Cheese Days, they take all the dollars down and give the money to charity.

After Wisconsin, it was on to Kansas to see Shane, Catherine, and Lucas. Shane debuted his new ride, a Cadillac Escalade. Very nice. Lucas is a very sweet baby and so funny. When you hold him, he jumps up and down like he's in his jumper. If he's not jumping, he's doing 360's in your arms. I think the only time I saw him be still was when he was eating. We stayed at a little campground right next to I-70 which was closer to Ft. Riley than staying out at Milford Lake. Shane let us wash the truck at his house. It was filthy from the rain we ran into right as we were leaving Monroe. The RV was also a mess so David washed it at a truck wash right next to the campground. So we left Kansas with sparkling vehicles.

But again it rained on us as we were making our way back to St. Louis and by the time we got to Tunica, Mississippi, both vehicles were a mess again. Every time we had to travel, it rained.

In Tunica, we stayed at The Grand campground. The first night we went up to Memphis to check out Beale St. That was a lot of fun and we heard some really good blues music. The next day we drove down to Clarksdale to see the Delta Blues Museum. They had a replica of Muddy Waters and his house there. David learned a lot about that genre of music. Afterwards, we had lunch at the Ground Zero Blues Bar which is partly owned by Morgan Freeman.

Sunday we drove back to Mom's house and stayed with them till Friday when it was time to go back to Florida. We decided to spend Friday and Saturday night in Bainbridge, GA so I could see my father's grave and try to find my sister Joyce. On the way to Bainbridge, the funniest thing happened at a gas station while we were getting fuel. These two guys accidently left a delivery truck out of park and it rolled into a huge board fence behind the station. I was getting something out of the Mariner when I heard a big boom and saw the fence boards shaking like crazy. When I climbed back into the RV, David described the scene to me as he was in the driver's seat and saw the whole thing. The truck had rolled right through the fence. We decided to get the hell out of there before we got blocked in my cops or whatever.

So we get to Bainbridge that afternoon and get all set up in a campground right by the bypass. I met the funeral home man, Mr. Wade, who showed me where my father was buried. His grave was very simple and the cemetary wasn't kept up very well. I found out my father had remarried in 1996 and Mr. Ware told me where Mary Burrington lived. So we drove out to Fowlstown to see here but she wasn't home. So I left a message for her to call me and she did a little later that afternoon. I had talked to Jerry Burrington (my father's second wife) earlier and she'd given me Joyce's number. We had a dinner scheduled with Joyce and her BF, Bucky, but I had a couple hours open before then so I drove out to visit with Mary. She is a very sweet woman who loved my father very much. He's been dead since 2004 and she still gets emotional talking about his death. He died of complications from diabetes from what I can tell. His lower legs had almost rotted away and I think his heart just gave out.

Dinner with Joyce and Bucky was great fun. I got all caught up on the family. Sadly, our sister, Mary, was killed in a tornado a couple years ago and Joyce told how it happened. It was great seeing her again and we intend to stay in touch from now on.

So now I'm back in Florida in Jacksonville at a tent sale. David helped me set up and he did great work hiding all the extension cords under the sales desk. But the heat got to him later in the day and he had to take a break. It was getting to me too but I had to get the work done. My knees are in bad shape. I'm not sure what's going on but the joints are really hurting and I can barely get up from a sitting position. I don't think I could run if my life depended on it. David cracked me up when he compared the set-up to forced labor in Auschwitz.

Tomorrow night, David flies back to Delaware. I have grown accustomed to having him here and will really miss him.

Gas stations irk me

I've been in Mississippi for a week now visiting my folks. I am frustrated because I wish I was in a position to do more for them. They need things. Dad needs a tire on his truck. Mom needs work on her car because it's leaking water from somewhere. They need a new lawn mower. Mom could use help with house keeping. It would be great if a house keeper could come in once a month to help her. Don't get me wrong. My mom is a great home maker and her house is clean and orderly. But it takes a toll on her with everything that needs to be done and nursing daddy too. She could use a break every now and then as she has her own health issues. So that's what frustrates me.

I checked the ads in the Tupelo Daily Journal. There's nothing in there for anything of my skills that pays as well as Driven2WIN. But I figured I'd at least have a look to see.

The trip up here from Florida wasn't too bad. I got rained on most of the way. Scattered showers, some heavy, some light. So I was constantly messing with the windshield wipers.

I've decided that a lot of the newer gas stations bug me. Have you noticed that the new designs are different? The older stations have the gas islands parallel to the building. But a lot of the newer designs have the gas islands perpendicular to the building. This is fine for cars....but it's very RV unfriendly. Usually there's not enough room to pull in facing the building and then make the sharp turn required to effect the U-turn to get out.

Here's what happened to me in Alabama....

Between Atlanta and Birmingham I needed gas. I usually try to stop at a Flying J or a Pilot or a TA Travel Center because since they cater to trucks, they usually have more maneuvering room for us RVers. So I'm getting down to 3/8ths of a tank and I'm looking for one of the three. I see a TA Travel Center and it's a Shell station. I have a Shell card so that's my goal. When I get there, they have a sign, <-- Trucks this way Cars this way -->

Am I a truck or a car? Well, the truck islands usually have only diesel so I decide I'm a car.

Big mistake.

The car islands are one of those idiotic deisgns where you have to pull straight in and there definitely is NOT enough room to make the U-turn to get out. So I creep down through the parking lot of cars looking for a way out. Nope. It's a dead end. The only way out is to make a SHARP left turn back toward the gas islands. Not getting out that way. There is a road with arrows pointing toward me. I ask a passing worker if I can go the wrong way up that small road to get to the truck parking lot on the back side of the building. Sure as long as there are no cars coming out he says. MO-RON! Dummy me figured he knew what he was talking about but nooooo. The reason why it was a one way road is because it's the EXIT FOR THE ARBY'S DRIVE THROUGH! DOH! So now I'm stuck. I hop out and disconnected the truck in record time (about 45 seconds). Then I have to back up the truck to the back of the parking lot. Then I stow the towbar so I don't drag the cables and back the RV up to the truck. It took me about two minutes to get them hooked up again and get out of that dinky parking lot. That deal alone made it *almost* worth the thousands of dollars I spent on the towbar setup.

I have never seen a TA Travel Center where you couldn't go all the way around the building. The parking lot made a "C". While I was hooking my truck back up, another guy walked past and I asked him if there was any gas at the truck islands and he said no. There was only the pumps in front of the building. He told me for the record that a lot of RVers have done just what I did and had to disconnect to back up. Seems like they would put up a sign saying something to the effect of <--Trucks and RVs this way (diesel only) Cars this way--> NO gas RVs allowed

I finally get back on the interstate and try the next exit as there is another Shell station there. Same thing. Straight-in pump islands. Criminitly. I go a mile and a half down the road and there are no other gas stations that I have cards for (Shell, Citgo, BP).

So it's on to the next exit. There is a BP station but again, the islands are perpendicular to the building. BUT this station has diesel islands in the back so you can go all the way around the building and I see that if I get close to the building on the way out, I can pull up to the far outside island.

Finally, I can get some fuel. This kind of crap is very annoying when you are toward the end of your trip and you're tired and you just want to get to your destination.

I wanted to make it all the way home but it was getting just too late. So I stopped at a Wal-Mart on the other side of Birmingham in Jasper and spent the night there with about six semi's. Must be a popular rest stop for them.

And one more thing. What is the point of stations limiting the amount of fuel you can get? What's up with that? These $75 and $100 limits make no sense. So that irks me too.

Now that's I've vented, I feel better.

Lucky day

Yesterday was my lucky day because of two things. OK so here's how it went down. First, the dude at MD Repair decided that he wouldn't be able to install the bracket after all because he was too busy. So he called his buddy, George, at this place called Cannon Welding and George was the one who actually installed the bracket on my truck. It was kind of scary. George didn't get to it until 12:30 in the afternoon and I checked on the status around 3. When I saw my truck, the entire front end was off of it and all I saw was the radiator. EEEK! But George got it all back together again and explained to me what Roadmaster actually did with the bracket design. There is a metal piece that runs the length of my truck in front of the radiator (and it's what the plastic front end attaches to). What Roadmaster did was to essentially replace that long piece of metal with a copy that had the mounting brackets welded to it. So you just remove the factory installed piece and replaced it with the Roadmaster designed piece and put it all back together again. It took George about 3 1/2 hours to do the work. But he still had to do the wiring for the tail lights. So I spent the night just outside the gate of the lot on the side of the road. By 10 the next morning he was finished and it was a done deal. I towed my truck for the VERY FIRST TIME!!! Woo hoo!!! I towed it about four blocks back to MD Repair because I still needed he Brakemaster put on and I wanted the oil changed in my generator and the motor home engine.

I waited in the parking lot all day till about 2 in the afternoon and this dude called Derrick came out to do the oil changes. He also checked the air in all the tires and they were all good. He took at look at the Brakemaster, went and discussed it with "Bob" (the guy who'd lived in Chadd's Ford) and decided that they didn't have the expertise to install it. Well, while they were cussing and discussing, I kind of had a look at the box which listed all the cars/trucks that needed a 'seat bracket' (the thing the Brakemaster attaches to so you don't have to drill holes in the floor of your vehicle) and my Mariner wasn't listed among them. There was an 800 number to call so I did and I left a message with Glenda (remember her?). Well she called me back and asked if I'd already installed it and I said, "No" and she said, "Don't." She told me that the Mariner's, Escape's and Hummer's all had issues with assisted braking in that they'd lock up when you pushed on the motor home brakes. Bad news.

So how fortunate is that that MD didn't want to do the install and I just happened to call Roadmaster about a stupid seat bracket (that was kind of optional) to find out that I shouldn't install the $850 Brakemaster. So now I'm going to call hitchfinders.com on Monday to see if I can send it back.

That was lucky deal #1.

That afternoon I got my Internet In Motion installed. That system cost me almost $3K. And it has issues. For some reason, I can connect OK and when I first open the browser, everything is fine. But within about 30 seconds, the connection speed slows to glacial speed and I get a lot of time outs and can't find server errors. So I have to get with David Chittam, the installer to see what the deal is on that.

After my internet was installed, I towed the truck to Flamingo Lake where I'm staying until I have to go to Orlando on Wednesday. The Bago DEFINITELY knows the truck is back there. When I went over the big bridge on Route 9A, it chugged up the incline and after it crested, that 4600 lb. truck was giving it a hell of a boost and I went from 45 to 65 mpg in no time. I can see why you need the assisted braking as my stopping distance is definitely a lot longer with the truck pushing me from behind. It's a whole new handling experience.

So I arrived at the campground and was hooking up all my stuff and guess what. I realized that I had left part of my sewer connection at the spot where I was last time I was here. (The part that screws into the sewer line) Dammit!!! So I got my purse and drove around the lake to the office to get a new piece. When I drove past the spot where I was last time I was like, you know, let me just check since the spot is empty. And do you know my sewer piece was still there?! What are the odds of that. That tells me that nobody had been there since I left. I was happy to get my sewer piece back but I was also ticked off because I'd asked for that spot when I called for reservations (because it's shady) and they told me they were full on that side of the lake. So that was lucky instance #2.

So now I'm hanging out here at the RV park waiting for my Guardian rock guard to come in (Monday or Tuesday) and once I get that, I'll be on my way to Orlando for a week.

I'll check back in in a couple days.

The bracket is in!

Friday the bracket for my truck came in. I am so glad I am in heaven. I called Camping World and was brought back to earth in a hurry. They wanted $109 an hour to install the bracket, Brakemaster, etc. and they said it would take 8 hours. I was thinking.....is that legal? That comes out to $1.81 a minute. They said it was because I didn't buy the parts from them. That's bullshit. I guess it doesn't matter that I was going to buy the Guardian from them (to shield my truck from rocks) and that thing costs $400.

So I called a few places around JAX but no luck. Theresa in the office told me to try the place where they take their trucks for service so I did. The man there (Bob) used to live in Chadd's Ford, PA and he worked at Winner Ford in Smyrna. Small world. He *reluctantly* agreed to install my bracket and towbar and his rate is much more palatable -- $75 an hour. I think he only agreed to do the work because I was from Delaware but it works for me. I'm going to call Camping World back tomorrow and tell them to either beat that rate or stick it.

I have poison ivy bumps on my foot and leg. I guess there was something in the tall grass here at the lot that got on me. I am so susceptible to anything of that nature that I can just look at it and break out. I haven't had it since I left Mississippi many years ago. Welcome back to the South. My legs and feet look pretty sad. I have so many bumps, bites, and bruises on them. I scrub my feet when I take a shower but my soles always still look dirty to me. Last week, after several days at the campground, my hands and feet finally started to look clean. But now they're grungy looking again and will probably stay that was till this event is over.

I took the boys over to play with Jim and Rose's poodles this morning since I had to go back to the office to pick up some balloons and gift forms. Jim and Rose are workampers who live at the new office while Jim recovers from knee surgery. Their poodles are Pepper and Darla. Darla loves to run and Gizmo had great fun chasing her. Giz can catch Rusty but he couldn't catch Darla as she was too fast for him. They had a blast running round and round the building. After a while he was tuckered out and gave up. But they behaved themselves and I was glad for that because they don't get to socialize with other dogs very much. I was initially sort of worried that Giz would be too aggressive but they played very well together with no goofyness.

A window broke on a Durango today. I know for a fact that it was OK this morning because I go around all the cars every morning looking for dog poop. They found it this afternoon. The only thing I can think of is the window must have been defective and it shattered from the heat. There was glass inside and out. It was in the upper 90's today and more of the same is expected for the rest of the week.

Car wash girl

Well, the towbar deal for the 20th didn't exactly work out. Actually, the base plate won't ship until the 18th and I probably won't get it until around the 25th. My event in Callahan got slipped a week so I'm spending a week off at an RV resort called Flamingo Lake which is just south of the Jacksonville airport. It's been a nice respite and the resort is very nice. All the amenities including a cafe, a beach on the lake, a rec center and lots of activities -- none of which I've participated in preferring instead to just chill out all week. The main thing that's nice is I have a shady spot for which I'm grateful after spending a week in the sun in a K-Mart parking lot. The asphalt would get so hot in the afternoon that the boys couldn't even walk on it. I had to carry them over to the grass so they could do their business. The air conditioner would run constantly all day from around 10 till 8 trying to keep the coach cool. The temp would get up to about 80 but it was still way cooler than it was outside.

My biggest accomplishment this week was getting the motor home washed and truck washed and waxed. The motor home looks brand new again. I hadn't realized how dirty it was until the next day when the sun was shining on it and it looked so white. I also paid a man named Lou $50 to get my carpets cleaned. They were filthy black from the asphalt at my last event on Beach Blvd. Then I gave him another $10 to get the rest of the bugs off the cap of the motor home. I scrubbed yesterday until my arms felt like they were going to fall off. I got about 70% of them off but the last bit I just couldn't reach. Lou had some chemicals and a pressure washer and it took him about 15 minutes but the cap now looks as good as new. I could strangle the people down at Lazy Days for not washing the motor home when I asked them to.

Speaking of which, I finally got my new radio. Lazy Days overnighted it to me and I put it back into the dash by myself -- which is obvious because I couldn't get it to fit right so now it's just kind of sitting in the hole but it works so I'm happy. While I was at it, I hooked up the input for the Zen so now I can play it through the radio too. But I got my Sirius radio back and that's a good thing. I also broke down and got a Magellan so now when I drive the motor home, I'll be able to navigate like I'm able to do in the truck.

Since my carpets are now clean, I went to the Home Depot and bought a couple rugs to put down in the aisle from the cab to the kitchen to help keep it clean. New Rule: Shoes come off at the door from now on. The boys love the new rugs because they are now the softest part of the floor.

One more week till I get the tow bar (I hope). I've arranged for one of the park office workers (Debbie) to give me a ride from Callahan back to the park on Sunday night. She'll follow me as I take the truck up there and leave it. Then I'll take the motor home up there Monday morning. Since Callahan is only 11 miles from the RV park, it's not too far out of the way for Debbie.

That's about all my news for this week.

All done with Delaware

It's been an eventful two weeks. First of all, let me say that Roadmaster called me yesterday to let me know that the part number is ready for the base plate on the Mariner. FINALLY! It has been a rough month trying to jockey around the truck and the motor home. Here's how it went down after my last event:

First, I spent several days scrounging for a driver to help me get my truck down to Lazy Days which is where I planned on leaving the motor home for some warranty work. At the last minute (like within hours) Mendy from LaborReady volunteered to come to Lazy Days to pick me up. She had to take her kids to her in-laws in Winter Haven which is about 23 miles from Lazy Days. So on Monday I drove my truck down to Lazy Days and left it in the Cracker Barrel parking lot. Mendy picked me up about an hour later and drove me back to Mascotte. Then I drove the motor home down on Tuesday morning, walked over to get my truck, loaded it up with dogs and dirty clothes and headed up to Delaware to stay with David for a few days.

So that part wasn't *too* bad. The settlement was fairly uneventful. Only one or two crises but we got everything all done. I opened up my new bank account on Friday and closed the old one. Also tied up a lot of loose ends. I couldn't bear to go out to the house. Tammie showed me pictures of my hydrangea bush and I got all choked up when I saw all the blooms.

I left Delaware around 11 in the morning on Saturday. Driving down I-95 is always a drag and this time was no exception. Between DC and Richmond there were the three morons playing idiot on the interstate. One was in a Camry and the other two were in Mini Coopers. At first I thought they were involved in a case of road rage until I saw one wave to the other. They would speed up to get in front of each other then slow down and block the one in back from changing lanes. It was like playing chicken at 90 miles an hour. Totally insane.

Then in South Carolina I saw a horrible accident. It looked like a Ford Explorer pickup rolled a couple times and then hit a tree. Two semis were blocking both lanes to keep people from running over a couple people laying in the road. One was a heavyset lady and she wasn't moving. The other was a young girl around 9 or 10 and a man was covering her up with a blanket. There was another person hanging out of the truck and that person wasn't moving either. There were parts of the truck scattered all over the place and I had to watch were I was going to miss the pieces. The cops had not gotten there yet and the several cars in my lane were using the grass in the median to get around the wreck. I tried Googling to see if there was any info on the accident but didn't have any luck.

I finally rolled into Jacksonville around 1 in the morning and found where the sale was going to be. Then I found the Budget Rent-a-Car place. After that it took me a while to find a hotel that was pet friendly and got lucky with a Holiday Inn Express. It cost me $120 for 6 hours of sleep. I needed to be at the car rental place by 9 so I could rent a car and make it to Tampa by 1. The game plan was to leave my truck at Budget in JAX then drive to Tampa, drop off the car, hook a ride to Lazy Days, get the motorhome, then drive back to JAX. The girl at the Budget in Tampa gave me a ride to Lazy Days. I get it ready for the road and headed back to JAX. When I got to the K-Mart lot, I had to wait a couple hours for Jim and Rose to bring me the big truck. They gave me a ride back to Budget to get my truck and I finally had both vehicles together again. What a day.

I have one more jockey to deal with next week when I'm supposed to be in a burg called Callahan which is about 60 miles north of JAX. And that should be the last of it. I made an appointment for the 22nd to get the towbar work done so after that I won't be having to do the back and forth routine anymore. I will be SO glad.

Odds and Ends

Rusty surprised me today. He hasn't played NASCAR dog in over two years but this morning he took a notion to play. I was emptying the trash in the tent and Rusty just decided that he wanted to play. He started running around in circles which, of course, Gizmo can't resist giving chase so the two of them ran around for at least five minutes all around the tables. That cheered my heart to see Rusty feeling frisky again. I think he figured out that he could use the tables to his advantage to stay ahead of Gizmo so he couldn't easily catch him. I haven't seen them play NASCAR dogs since Rusty contracted Lyme disease. The used to do it all the time so it was nice to see them play just like old times.

My leg has a serious knot on it. I think I tore part of the muscle when I fell off the truck. There is a dent in my thigh about four inches wide and then a very hard ridge next to it. That particular spot is pretty sore but the huge bruise is almost gone. Only the outside edges are visible so apparently most of the blood has been absorbed. But whenever I kneel down, the dent in my leg gets really tight. I guess it's scar tissue. I'm considering having Dr. Parise look at it but I can't imagine what could be done about it at this point in time.

I was diesel girl today. I spent over $200 in fuel since diesel is $3 a gallon here. The truck took $107 and the rest went into the containers to fill up the generator and all the light towers.

There are bugs here they call Palmetto bugs -- which is a bullshit name because all they are are flying roaches. I killed the first one in my house today. I knew sooner or later they'd make it inside as they are all over the place down here. They are fast little suckers too. I hate 'em. I can deal with the damn lovebugs but these freakin' roaches piss me off just because they're so obnoxious. Normal roaches hide during the day and you usually only see them scurrying for cover at night. These Palmetto bugs are brazen little buggers and fly all over the place during the day. There were dozens of them at the campground in Williston and I thought they'd get in the house while I was there but tonight was the first time I've seen one inside. It took me a while but I finally killed his ass.

These mosquitoes are starting to get on my nerves too. I need to get something to get rid of the itching. I'm guessing that's what Rusty and Gizmo are scratching at. Mosquito bites. We all suffer together.

I'm listening to Marilyn Manson on Sirius radio. I've decided that I like his music but I can't bring myself to buy any of his stuff just because he's so strange looking. Same reason I never bought any of KISS's stuff back when they were big in the 70's.

Next week I go back to Delaware to settle on the house. I'm dreading it because for me Delaware just represents a lot of heartache. Three divorces, a lost job that I poured my heart and soul into, and a lost house that I really loved. Not to mention all my stuff that I also really loved. I like my new life ok but I still get depressed when I think of how hard I worked for what I had for all those years. And it makes me mad. I'm still trying to deal with the anger.

Mascotte

To me, Mascotte is more like an extension of Clermont. Actually, it's more like an extension to an extension. You have Clermont, then Groveland, then Mascotte. I don't know which is smaller, Mascotte or Williston. However, the tent sale seems to be going really well so I guess it doesn't matter.

I had my first (kind of) major screw up on Sunday when I let the truck driver go without getting the generator. That kind of upset Doug (and I don't blame him) because now he had to come to Williston to get it. It was pulled in next to my motorhome and the driver couldn't get to it with the truck because there were three SUV's in the way. Doug said I should have made him wait for the car haulers to get back so they could move them. So Doug wasn't too happy with me at the time but he got over it.

Other from that, things are going pretty good. The tent people didn't get to Mascotte until after 1 in the afternoon on Monday. So that put me way behind the power curve on getting set up. I had a helper and the dude was great. His name is Mark. He's going to be back on Monday night to help me tear it all down. The DSL didn't get hooked up until yesterday so my blog is kind of late this week.

WHAT is the deal with these lovebugs???? They are a huge nuisance for motorists here in Florida because they spatter all over your hood and windshield. From what I've learned, they are just harmless flies and are actually beneficial to the ecology here. But if you don't get them off your car within a few days, they'll ruin the paint. Here is a link that tells all about them:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_MG068
There are thousands of them in this field where our tent sale is because of all the straw and thatch on the ground. If you walk fast you better walk with your mouth closed or else they'll end up in your teeth. Yuck.

I thought Delaware was windy. The wind has not stopped blowing here in Mascotte since Monday. Well, actually it dies down at night but by around 8 in the morning or so, it starts back up again and blows all day till dusk. No awning this week, that's for sure, because gusts are up to around 25 mph.

So far, so good

I seem to be settling into a routine. After the Monday mayhem, the rest of the week is cake. I've decided that to be a car salesman, you have to smoke. There are about a half dozen sales people here along with three managers at the tent sale and if I'm not mistaken, every single one of them smoke. My mornings start with cleanup detail. I empty the trash cans, clean the porta potties, and then start sweeping up all the cigarette butts. I get about five dustpans full every morning. The butts are all over the lot. Amazing. Once that is done, I start up the music (XM radio :)) and open the gates at 9:00. I plug in the inflatable and then retire to solitude in the motor home. If they need anything, they come fetch me. The rest of the day is pretty much goof off time until 8 or so when I go fire up the light towers. The sales people try to shut it down by nine but if they have customers, they'll finish up with them first. When they leave, I turn off the lights and close the gates. I'll stay up till about one or two and then get some shuteye until the next morning.

And that's about it.

Now Sunday, I'll tear it all down and go to the next spot, which in this case, will be Mascotte, a burg just west of Orlando.

That will be convenient as it's relatively close to LazyDays which is where I'm taking the motorhome to be serviced while I'm up in Delaware settling on the house. My house has some queer electrons running around in it causing my radio to shut off and the fridge to click.

One interesting thing that happened this week was I fell off the lift on the truck. How embarrassing. I have a HUGE bruise on the inside of my thigh where it hit the side of the lift as I was going down. I fell about four feet and landed on my side. Other from the massive bruise, I didn't hurt anything else. I was very fortunate. Now I double check to make sure of where I am when I'm standing on the lift.

Tomorrow night is tear down night and the DSL at the new site isn't going to be installed until Tuesday or Wednesday. By then I'll be able to blog about how the relocation deal goes down.

See you next week.

First Day of the New J-O-B

OK I knew I was out of shape, but DAMN. I am completely wiped out. Which is disgusting because the work isn't all that hard. Five years ago, it would have been a snap. But that's ok because I have the next few days to recover. I just hope I don't injure my back doing something stupid. I'll have to be careful.

But the work is fun and different. I'm setting up for used car tent sales. I've decided that I hate the light towers. It's very frustrating having to pound on them with a hammer and mallet just to adjust the lights and get the pins out to raise the towers. They will be my nemesis. My favorite part is everything else. Except for running power. The extension cords are heavy too.

I have GOT to tell you about the bathroom in the restaurant across the highway from the sale. The restaurant belongs to a hotel and it's ok as far as restaurants go when you walk in. But when I walked into the bathroom I felt like I'd walked into something from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Well, maybe not quite that bad. First, it was dirty. There was dried poop in the toilet bowl. The walls had more grime on them than the engine in my truck. They were rotting out near the floor. And the FAN!! OMG It sounded like it was about to blow up. It would get almost up to speed and there must have been worn bearings because you could hear the fan blades hit the edges of the housing. Like an unbalanced clothes washer. BAM BAM-BAM BAM. Then the thing would almost stop and start the cycle all over again since it was still getting juice. If the place burns down, I'll know why. Then, there was no hot water in the sink. Not uncommon in some bathrooms but added to the rest of the mess, it just fit right in.

A nap is definitely sounding like a good idea right about now.

Posted by Carol Andrejak at 7:09 PM 0 comments

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Smoky Florida

A lot has happened since my last post. I ended up giving the rest of my stuff away that was left over from the yard sale. That was pretty hard watching people just load it up and drive off. I sold the rest of my furniture to a good friend of mine from DelState so that at least cheered my heart knowing that some of my best stuff went to someone I knew.

I sat around the house for a few more days waiting until I could leave. David and I had a rally to go to down at the fairgrounds so I was just hanging around until then. Tammie is still looking for a place. I know she's getting worried. I wish she would just go back to Mississippi and help mom.

I bought my tow bar and a tire pressure monitoring kit while I was at the rally. But I wasn't able to get the kit installed as the RV needs to go up onto a lift to get it done. The Delaware Travelers were also at the rally so I got caught up with Gary and Jeanette, Aggie and Roger, and Brian and Marie. It was good to see all of them again.

Sunday after the rally, David and I drove his truck to the airport to leave it. Then it was back to Harrington to dump the tanks and head on down the road. We spent the night at a Flying J and that wasn't too bad. We made it to Williston around 7 pm. It was really smoky around Lake City from the fires in Georgia. The campground where I'm staying is just lovely. We took some time to drive down to Cedar Key to have lunch and that was really nice. I took David to the airport in Orlando this morning so he could fly back home.

Then it was up to Gainesville to get my glasses fixed as the lens fell out. I also need to see if I can find an RV service shop who can put on my tire pressure kit on short notice. I'm not holding my breath.

So that's about it for now. I start work on Monday and I plan on moving the motor home over to the new location early that morning so I can find a good place to park. The lot where they are having the sale is triangular shaped and not very big. I'm interested to see how this is going to pan out once they get everything in place.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Yard Sale Queen

I'm starting to get good at this yard sale stuff. It's easy when you have to get rid of everything.

Potential buyer -> "Ten dollars! For this???" (as they point to a $175 hardly used work bench)
Me (thinking 'You cheap bastard') -> "OK, eight bucks."
"Five."
"Seven."
"Six."
"Done."

Jeez. But, hey, I'm in sell mode. I've managed to sell all my furniture except for the coffee tables. Everyone loves them but I get the feeling they are just too big for most folks. But I still have a few more days yet and I'm hoping the ad in the News Journal will work. I sold the bedroom suite to Jason, the guy who bought my house -- for a song. But at least I don't have to mess with tearing it apart and it's a mother bear to take it apart. So much easier to just leave it there.

The State News pissed me off because they didn't run my yard sale ad in the weekend papers. Said they never received it. Well it never bounced so it must have gone into classified LaLa Land. I should have followed up on it Friday but I got sidetracked and it was almost closing time when I finally got a chance to call.

Me -> "Hi, I thought I'd check since you never called to get my credit card number for my ad."
DSN (after putting me on hold to look for my email) -> "We're sorry Ms. Andrejak, but we never received the information for you ad...."
Me -> "Well can you get it in Sunday's paper??"
DSN -> "No ma'am. The earliest we can get it in for you is Tuesday."
Me -> (silently) $#%@*& "So what you're telling me is I'm screwed for my yard sale this weekend."
DSU -> "I'm terribly sorry ma'am."

Needless to say, the customers were pretty thin. But I put a couple strategic signs at the intersection up the road and it helped but business was way better last weekend.

When Jason and his parents came to the house today they stayed for a little over an hour. His dad wanted to get cozy with the spiders and snakes and have a look under the house. When he was done, I asked him if everything looked ok and he said he didn't see any issues. He better not. The house is only seven years old...

Anyway, the living room, dining room and den are empty and it's starting to get to me. I really loved my house and seeing it like this reminds me of when I bought it. Except the carpet is more worn. I really don't need to be in Florida until the 14th but I'm leaving right after the Parkview Rally this weekend because I don't want to come back. It's really painful for me. I had so many plans for this house and I was so close to getting it the way I wanted for when I retired. All I had left were the glass skylights that opened and the decks on the front and back. After that, I would be flower garden girl. So having to sell the house and all my stuff has been pretty difficult for me. I'm sorry but I'll admit to being materialistic. It probably comes from not having much of anything growing up. My folks worked hard and they did the best they could but I'll never forget my mom sewing me dresses out of material from flower sacks when I was in the fifth and sixth grade. So, yeah, I prized my possessions and I'm not ashamed of it. I had my leather couch and chair, my plasma TV, my stone coffee table, my Dell computer and I was all set. So it took me a few weeks to convince myself that I needed to sell it all to other people.

So now it's almost all gone. The house is almost empty. I know they say you can't take it with you but damn. This pretty much sucks.

And that's why I can't wait to leave Delaware. This is a great state but now there are too many bad memories. Three divorces, two major career changes, and one lost house.

I'm going to try the stupid State News one more time tomorrow morning to see if they can get it right for Tuesday:

Yard Sale.
Everything a dollar or less.
Everything free on Wednesday morning if you can beat the trashman.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Stuck in Delaware

I've finally relented and decided to start a blog. Everyone has been telling me to get busy on it so now that I'm unemployed (temporarily), I have a little bit of time to work on it.

Since this is my first post to my blog, I need to enlighten you to my status and how I came to be where I am now. I've had several lives. First was my Air Force life where I used to be a flight engineer on the C-5's. That ended in 1992. Then there was my restaurant owner life that ended in 1995. Then there was my Delaware State life that ended last month. I had three mini-lives at DSU. First there was sports information, then IT, and then bowling. It was the bowling that precipitated my demise. THAT will be another blog post saved for another day. I've been married three times and even though I've had a boyfriend for over a year, I have no plans on doing it again. So now you have a bit of background and I'm going to start from here.

Oh, you probably should know some of the characters who will show up regularly in my posts.
David - Ex-Boyfriend
Rick - Ex-husband #1 who lives in Mississippi
Shane - Son who lives in Kansas with his wife Catherine and son Lucas
Bob - Ex-husband #2 who lives in Dover
Ken - Ex-husband #3 who lives in Baltimore
Tammie - Sister who used to live with me till I lost my house
Dennis - best boss I ever had

For the last month, I've been living in my driveway as I try to sell my house. After a month on the market, I got an offer last week and now the realtor sign in my front yard has SOLD on it. So that's a good thing since the money is running out. It's been quite an adventure since I lost my job so I'll have lots to blog about. People have told me I could write a book about my life. I think I'll just blog about it instead.

Here's an observation. Isn't it interesting that someone with no job can buy an brand new 07 Winnebago Outlook motorhome and a new 08 Mercury Mariner Hybrid? Isn't that cool? I think I just managed to squeak the credit check in before they found out I was out of work. So here's the funny thing -- I can buy over $100K worth of vehicles but I can't get a cell phone without a $500 deposit. That makes no sense. I've had a prepay account with Verizon for years now but finally shut it down to switch to Consumer Cellular last week. So now I have a real cell phone bill. How about that. If any of you want to make the switch, be sure to use my name so I can get the $10 off my next bill. (You get $10 off too.)

I've been selling everything I own for the past few weeks. I'm getting down to my last yard sale this weekend and after that it's all going to Goodwill or the dump. It took me a couple weeks to get into the mindset of getting rid of all my possessions that I'd worked so hard to acquire. David, bought my plasma TV and my leather furniture. His living room now looks like a real living room rather than a bachelor pad. I sold all my Magic cards down in Roanoke, VA. My Magic collection was pretty hard to part with. Ken and I spent years buying boxes of cards and we played quite a bit until he got tired of losing. If you ever go to Star City Games, be sure to tell them 'hi' for me. They are good people.

So I lost my job and after taking a quick look to see what was out there where I could make the same kind of loot I was before, reality set in. I need to sell my house. THAT pissed me off because that was something else I had knocked myself out to get and keep. (Another blog story) But what can ya do. The salesman who sold me my motorhome told me about a guy he knew and that's who I went with to put my house on the market. Ken and I had gone camping in our 5th-wheel many times and I loved it so I decided to just get rid of everything and go full-timing. All I have to do is make enough to pay for my truck and motorhome and if a person with a degree can't do that, then I got serious issues.

So many people have told me, "I wish I could do that." It's easy. Just lose your job and the decision is made for you!

Well, I have other stuff that I need to get done so I'll continue the saga later.