Tuesday, January 28, 2014

I’m writing this (offline) as we travel  US 98 across the Florida panhandle.  It’s 8:30 am and my phone says the local temperature is 39 degrees.  I’m listening to the local NPR station as they announce closings right and left because of the weather coming through.  They expect to have freezing rain later today and have closed all schools for 2 days and are asking everyone to not go out unless absolutely necessary.  Wind chill warning - temperatures will feel like 25 degrees.

They are predicting freezing rain (.1 inch) and snow (up to an inch).   The air base at Pensacola is closing early and may not open tomorrow.  Only essential personnel are to report.  Down here, the real problem is no one knows how to drive in this.  And they have all these bridges over bays and rivers that will freeze.  One accident on a bridge may shut down traffic the surrounding areas for hours.

We think that’s what we ran into as we traveled across Louisiana.  We left Texas in rain and cold temperatures.  Houston stations were encouraging people to stay home and reporting salting and sanding of local roads and bridges.  In the first 87 miles into Louisiana in Interstate 10, we came to stand still stops 3 times.  We got off I10 and headed north to US 190.  That’s when we noticed that there was snow in the valleys on some roofs.  It was cold enough to freeze the bridges, and as one trucker put it online, Louisiana’s department of transportation was no where to be seen.  Steve wondered if Gov. Jindal was consulting with Gov. Christie.   Police were out directing traffic but there was no sign of salt or sand on the roads.

We stayed on US 190 through Baton Rouge.  Steve thought we might need to get back on I10 to cross the Mississippi River, but US190 has it’s own bridge and there was a warning on line that traffic was backed up on the I10 bridge.

As we crossed the river, I could see the I10 bridge and make out the silhouettes of the semi’s, which weren’t moving.  We ended up staying on US190 until we reached Fontainebleau State park after 7 that night in the dark.  A six hour drive took 10 hours.  It would have been longer without the iPhone.   Luckily we had a pull through site and were set up quickly.

I wish we had a day at Fontainebleau, but we extended our stay in Houston.  The park is on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans and is filled with beautiful old trees dripping with Spanish moss.  When we checked in, the ranger had us take a certain route to the campground and suggested we stay in the middle of the road to avoid low hanging branches.  I was wondering why they don’t trim some trees.  We have a reasonably tall rig, but there are much taller ones.  Well, you don't trim trees that are several hundred year old.  The road wove through the trees and we managed to get through without problems. 

Up early the next morning, Interstate 12 took us to Interstate 10 through Mississippi and Alabama.  Mississippi  had obviously sanded its bridges and we had no problems there.  We stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center for a break and to pick up a map.  Once again we had a lovely building and a display of Mardi Gras costumes.  (Louisiana rest stops were OK, but suffered in comparison to Texas).  

 

I tried to get fancy with the formatting and was unsuccessful. One of these years I'll know the secrets of blogging!

At the coast, Mississippi is only 75 - 80 miles wide, so we passed through quickly.  Alabama is even narrower.  Looking at the maps, I’d love to know how these two states lost much of what might have been their coast line if the state boundaries were mostly straight from north to south.  I’ll have to research that.

We made it to Henderson Beach State Park in Destin, Florida, in mid afternoon.  Since rain was predicted for the next day, we grabbed Obi and went on the short nature trail.  

Reindeer moss at Henderson Beach State Park.

I am way out of shape!  But we hiked the dunes and saw the ocean.  Later I walked to the beach from our campsite and put my toes in the water.  It’s cold!

 Sunset on the Beach

Watching the storm come in.

The state park is IN Destin.  Walmart is across the street.  But it’s acres of never developed land and protected dunes and wonderful beaches.  The sand here is sugar sand, pure white.  Its ground up quartz, not shells.  Very few shells, as the shallow area extends for quite awhile and the shells get ground up.  When I took Obi out for his bedtime walk, we could hear the ocean from our campsite.  Each campsite is surrounded by dense vegetation and has a nice wide area to park the RV.  

It did rain the next day, so we headed out for lunch and a bit of shopping.  A search through the AAA guide found us a restaurant on the beach that served blue crab, my favorite food. 

 Two moms were on the beach with their kids near a neat play area.  Of course all the kids wanted to play with was the sand.

 We had a good meal and then hit Walmart for some shopping.  Back at the trailer, Steve attended a bank meeting while I did some more organizing.  By the time we get home, we might have most things stored where we want them.

Obi’s becoming more comfortable in the trailer.  At home, he doesn’t sleep with us anymore.  We disturb him when we turn over, so he sleeps in his bed on the floor.  Since we’ve been in the trailer, he’s wanted to be in the bed with us.  For the last two nights, he hasn’t asked to be lifted up to the bed, so he’s sleeping in his bed on the floor.  He’s also going down the stairs to get out of the trailer, although he’s not interested in climbing the steps to get in.  He’s still not very happy in the truck, poor boy.

At the moment we seem to be outrunning the weather.  The truck says it’s 50 out.  Spoke too soon.  Steve wanted me to drive and shortly after it started raining.   It’s stopped again.

We’ve been passing through Florida cattle country.  Looks a bit like Texas.  Suddenly the scenery changed.  Looks a bit like the everglades with few trees.  We are driving through Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park.  I never thought about prairie in Florida.  I relate that to the Midwest.  That’s whats fun about travel - you’re always learning something!

After the prairie, came horse country.  And this is serious horse country.  We passed at least 3 estates that had their own race track.

My blog mentioning my Mac Book caused some feedback.  It’s nice to know someone’s reading the blog.  Let me start with, whatever frustrations I’m having with my Mac, I wouldn’t go back.  First of all, I wouldn’t be using my Dell in the car on my lap.  The Mac (actually a Mac Book Air to be accurate) is lighter weight, doesn’t generate as much heat and has hours more battery life than my Dell.  It also boots up faster and in whatever state I shut down in.  

When Steve told me the Mac had 8 to 10 hours of battery life, I wasn’t impressed. I should have been.  I rarely ran my Dell when it wasn’t plugged in, so who needs that much battery life?  That has changed.  I’m writing in the car.  I put it on the counter for my cookbook when I cook.  I use it on the bed when I want.  I’ve once run it down to 20% battery, but I am pretty good about keeping it charged.

With my Dell, I had 30 years of experience with some of the software and had accumulated various programs to do things I like to do.  Invitations, scrapbook pages, T-shirts, photo editing, slide shows, no problem.  For the family bridal showers I usually created the invites and thank yous, maintained the guest lists and produced mailing and return labels.  I’m not geared up for all that yet.  So it’s a learning curve and I get impatient.  I also haven’t had the time since I’ve gotten the Mac to spend enough time to know what software I need to get and what’s already on the machine that I haven’t used yet.  So while there are some rough spots, I'm not looking to go back.

One more reason to love my truck - heated seats are better than a heating pad for a sore back!  This is another luxury that I never would have paid for if it didn’t come standard with all the bells and whistles Steve wanted.  And somehow I always need it the mornings we're packing up for a day on the road.

We’re pulled in and parked at a campground near the Villages in Florida.  It’s 75 degrees!  After 6 weeks on the road, we found WARM weather.  I thank Steve regularly for getting me out of the Midwest for what has to be the worst weather we’ve had for years.  We’ll visit with Steve’s Uncle Eep tomorrow and head for Bradenton on Thursday.

Keep warm!

Deb

Thursday, January 23, 2014

We’re in Livingston, Texas, north of Houston.  Steve’s in the living room attending a bank meeting by phone (He’s on the board of directors of a Lafayette Bank), so I’m in the bedroom with Obi, listening to the rain on the roof.

We’re having dinner tonight with Steve’s cousin, Kurt, who lives west of Houston.  He sent us a weather storm warning last night.  Houston might possibly have freezing rain and sleet tonight and Friday.  The warning, which he took off a local weather site, was probably a full page.  But after keeping up with the weather back home, its rather laughable.

Of course the problem here is that no one knows how to drive in weather like this.  So we’ll need to be extra careful and watch out for other drivers.  I am extremely glad we decided to go with a full ton pickup with four wheel drive.  I don’t think we’ve used the four wheel drive yet, but pulling the trailer with this truck is no problem.  Steve does most of the driving and all of the trailer backing up to date, but I do spell him.

We usually switch drivers at rest stops, which have nice pull through parking spaces for trucks and RVs.  And Texas does itself proud with it’s rest stops.  These pictures are from two different rest areas.

Interactive history exhibit.

This is a view from the rest area of the deck over looking a pond with seating areas.

And a cool picnic shelter.

Texas ranks 50th in high school graduation rates and first in the percentage of people without health care, but they have great rest areas and reasonable roads.  And I must admit, very friendly people.  I took Obi for a walk this morning and had two conversations with other walkers and numerous waves from drivers.  

This RV lifestyle brings together an interesting conglomeration of people.  Many are retired and traveling around like us, although most are staying longer in each place than what we’ve been managing.  Many are “winter Texans” or snowbirds, who winter in the south and head north for home in the summer.  Some are workers who will be in one place for several months.  And some are locals who just like the lifestyle.  Once you have a trailer or motor home, it can be a fairly inexpensive way to live.

The place we are staying at now is Rainbow’s End and it’s run by the Escapees RV club.  The park has multiple sections and we are in the transient section.  But they also have lots you can buy and build on.   Obi and I walked through part of that area this morning.  The houses are fairly modest, but they all have RV parking.  People buy here to have a home base.  Some of the units are carports for the RV, with a small building attached.  One for sale sign announced that it was time to hang up the keys.  This park also has a care center for people who can no longer manage on their own.  I hope to drive past it on our way out.  From the map, it looks like there are small RV lots around a central building, so you may be able to stay in your RV, but have group meals and some assistance until you need nursing home care.

I’ve been using my relatively new MacBook.  It’s mostly fine, but I really miss Microsoft Word and Excel.  I need to find better substitutes than I’ve got.  I keep all my recipes on the computer (and backed up) and they don’t format well with My Word.  I really don’t want to reformat all of them.  Has anyone out there found good substitutes?  I know I can run a virtual machine to run Microsoft products but Steve’s been having trouble with that on his MacBook.

Apple designs beautiful, functional products, but sometimes I think they go for beauty over function.  My Apple mouse is sleek, cordless and buttonless.  You right click and left click just like a regular mouse.  It decides if its a right click or left click depending on where your finger is on the mouse.  But I find that I frequently turn my hand or reach for my mouse when typing and it interprets it wrong.   And I noticed one day at the airport that most of the iPhones people were using were in some sort of case.  In my case, my phone is in an Otterbox case to protect it when (not if) I drop it. So all that sleek beauty is hidden in many cases.

It sounds like Steve’s meeting may be coming to a close and I’m ready for lunch.

Keep warm and safe, everyone!

Deb

Monday, January 20, 2014

It reached 70 today!  Yeah!  Actually we've had some lovely weather here, which we have thoroughly enjoyed.  Olga, especially is enjoying being outside and has been trimming bushes and even napping outside.

Our temperatures have ranged from 17 to 70 degrees.   And Maria has clothes to match all of them.  Here's her coat wardrobe:

And I love these boots:

Hopefully she won't have a chance to wear them again.

She, Olga and Natasha have been running errands with Steve.  She loves to go out in the car or in the stroller.  There's a park a few blocks from here that she and Olga visit regularly.

Meanwhile, we've been completing items on Natasha's list.  Steve called in the pros for two projects - replacing the ceiling fixture in an 18 foot ceiling and pulling wires two stories for cable and Internet in Mike's office.  He's pulled wire in every house we've owned, but we've always had basements, crawlspaces and attics.  And he's had the use of friend's tools.

A lot of the houses around here seem to have two story entrances, so there were several companies to choose from to replace the light fixture with good ratings on Angie's list.  They came in with a 16 foot step ladder, which made the job a piece of cake.  So now all the fixtures on the first floor are silver, not gold.  We replaced 3 ceiling fans and two chandeliers.   I expect that Natasha will have the fixtures for the second floor picked out for our next visit.  Natasha did note that the hardware in the trailer is all silver, so I won't need to change it.  It is unusual for it not to be brass, but the previous owner specified silver when they ordered the trailer.

For Mike's office, wires had to be pulled from the attic and since the guest room is between the attic and Mike's office, it also got Internet and cable.  Maybe next time we come we'll have time to use it.  Since Mike and Natasha bought a new TV for the family room (the one they had wasn't big enough) and one for Mike's office, we may have a TV in the guest room.

Steve replaced the weather stripping around one of the french doors in the living room and we touched up paint around the house.

Mike has been in and out of town while we've been here.  He says that it looks more like home each time he returns.    There are still pictures to hang, but the big items will be done when we leave.

Olga keeps busy with Maria and keeping us all fed.  I've cooked a couple of times, but Olga has done most of it.  She usually has a very attentive audience of three dogs hoping for a handout.

Steve is finishing up baby gates on the stairway tonight.  They are not needed yet but Maria's not far from walking, so we thought we'd get them up while we were here.

Tomorrow we move back to the trailer.  We're taking bets on how many trips it will take us to move all our stuff back.  Seems like every time we went to the trailer, we brought things back to the house.  We need to get the trailer ready to move, as Wednesday we're headed for Livingston, Texas, just north of Houston.  There's an RV park there that's also the headquarters of an RV group called Escapees.  We'll get our first weighing of our truck and trailer to make sure we're not pulling too much weight and that it's evenly distributed.  I hope we're under weight, as we still have a few empty cupboards, which I'm sure we'll fill up soon.

After that is a visit with Steve's cousin and a visit to the Houston Space center on Friday.

For now, I'm calling it a night.  I'll close with a picture of Maria's beautiful smile.

Deb

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Big news today is that Maria likes to walk.  Here's a picture of Maria and Steve.

She's anxious to be on the move and loves to  crawl around and get in things.

The living room and dining room are just about empty of boxes, so slowly but surely things are finding places.

Steve and Natasha took the truck and went to get a taller ladder to replace the light fixture in the entry way.   The ladder is too short.  Steve's trying to figure out the next move.

I took Natasha's car and ran a few errands today.  Getting around is becoming easier as we become more familiar with the area.  I've driven in Indianapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh and the DC area and I think the roads here are strange.  But I'm getting used to paying a lot of attention and making sure that  I'm in the right left hand turn lane (there are frequently two).

I'm also trying to make better use of technology.  I love to read, but haven't gotten a kindle or similar device yet.  I have installed the Kindle app on my iPad and downloaded a few free books.  I ran out of real books the other day and started reading something on the iPad.  It's okay, but I still like having a book in my hands.  It's much easier for me to get distracted from an iPad book, somehow.

But I did sign up for Amazon Prime.  It gives you free shipping on a number of items and access to a video library.  Watching shows and movies on the iPad seems to work out OK, especially when we didn't have cable here.  And the free shipping has been nice as we order stuff Natasha needs for the house.

We're here for another 10 days before we head out for points south.  I'll post occasionally  but won't have much news for awhile.

Deb

Saturday, January 4, 2014

I know I'm old.  At the grocery store, I keep telling myself how expensive everything is.  I remember my grandmother saying that when I was a kid.  I try not to say it out loud.

I spent some time grocery shopping today.  I had run out of bread and we still some basics to stock up on, so off I went.  It's a pretty fancy Kroger nearby, but it took forever to shop.  Finding things in a new store always takes more time, but the only thing I didn't find was my fake Parmesan cheese.  I also picked up ingredients for a few of my recipes so I can give Olga a break from cooking.

Olga has been busy unpacking boxes and washing windows.  She announced today that she had finished all the windows.  So I caught her finding more.

She decided to wash all the windows on Natasha's car.  She didn't, however, do the truck.  

Steve and Natasha were doing a project together - getting the garage organized.

They are putting up the shelves from Natasha's garage in Chicago.  She'll have a lot of storage out there.  And room for both cars.  Steve had to order a second opener and a keypad but everything is installed and working.

It was a great day for doing outdoor chores.  It was about 68 when I took Obi for a walk at about 6 this evening.  But tomorrow's high is supposed to be 45.  West Lafayette will have a high of 28 and a low of MINUS 17.  High on Monday in West Lafayette will be MINUS 15.  My sympathies go out to all of you in the Midwest.  Keep warm.

Today was a special day here.  Maria turned one today.  We had a festive lunch with a Tinkerbell cake.  Is that not cute?

 Maria liked the icing.  I think she was the neatest one year old I've seen with her cake.

 And both parents and Grandpa were taking pictures.


























And Obi was hoping for a handout.

He's trying really hard to be a good dog.  He's not too sure about all the changes going on, but he's trying.  We have a "thunder shirt" on him and it helps him not to be as anxious.  He and Salami and Sonia (Natasha's dogs) haven't quite figured out how to play together but they keep trying.

So another good day in Dallas.  Or, more specifically, Plano.

Keep warm, everyone.

Deb

Friday, January 3, 2014

Today was a shopping day.  We've decided that the days are resolving into a day when we get something accomplished and a day when we pick up supplies.  So, today was a shopping day.

I did manage to get a set of curtains hemmed and make progress on two other projects.  But we needed to go to the trailer to pick up a few things and swap out a propane container.  So we had lunch at a local bar and grill, who has a gigantic club sandwich, and then took off for the trailer.  After we'd checked it out, we stopped at Lowe's and the Container Store on the way home.

To get to the trailer we travel on the Dallas North Tollway.  It is a toll way and traffic is usually light. It runs from downtown Dallas to highway 380, where it basically dead ends, which is not uncommon around here.

Most of the highways, either toll or free, have frontage roads their entire lengths.  Two lanes, one way, on each side, with lots of businesses along the way.  Since they are one way, getting around gets complicated.  Especially since the addresses are on the highway.  These lanes also serve as on and off ramps and there is usually no merge lane to speak of when getting on the highway.  It's a new way of driving.  I'm glad we have the big truck!

Big trucks are numerous around here, but not many are blue, so we don't have much trouble spotting it in the paring lot.  Steve says we won't need Mickey ears on the antenna.  I'm still working on gracefully entering and exiting, but I'm getting there.  It does ride nicely.

Tonight the Mavericks are playing at home.  Olga has become an avid game watcher and of course Steve and Natasha are watching the game.  Here's Steve with Maria.

 Maria only looked my way because Natasha came home.  Her attention quickly went back to the game.  She's Daddy's girl.  Here's a better picture of her.

She's getting so big!  She'll be a year old tomorrow!

Obi has taken up Scrappy's habit of telling me when it's time to go to bed.  So, please keep warm and safe everyone!

Deb

Thursday, January 2, 2014

I've been a bit under the weather the last few days, so have been sleeping mostly.  But activity swirls around me.  More furniture was delivered and the BIG news - we now have cable!   The cable guy came today and he and Steve spent hours getting things set up.   For a house 20 years old, it only had 3 cable hookups - one in the family room, one in the master bedroom and one in the second floor game room.  So Mike's study currently has wire draped to it.  Mike's job, of course, requires him to watch basketball.  The house is built on a slab, so there's no crawl space and there is a second floor over the study.  Steve's talked to an electrician to come help him pull the wires into the walls.  I know we've never had a house with fewer than 3 cable connections and I won't admit to how many are in the current house.  I suspect in a few years that will go the way of telephone connections and will all be wireless.

Steve's downstairs now watching a football game.  He spent his birthday (yesterday) out at the trailer watching all the bowl games.  We have satellite in the trailer, so he was able to see a lot of the games.  He was especially happy that the Big Ten won the Rose Bowl.

Olga and Natasha got busy and painted the laundry room a soft lime green.

It brightened up the room quite a bit.  She stuck Maria's Pooh decals on the wall in there, as it will be awhile before they work on Maria's room.   She's thrilled to have a "real" laundry room and full size appliances.  One of the pluses of the move.

Obi and I keep exploring the neighborhood on our walks.  This neighborhood may have rules about fences, as all you see are 8 foot high board fences.  It's that or nothing.  It's a strange feeling to walk down the rather narrow alley between two 8 foot high walls.

Mike is home today.  I think the Mavericks flew in from Minneapolis late last night and play at home tomorrow, so we'll get to see some of him over the next few days.  His schedule is very hectic and even when he is in town, he's usually working out players.  It's the life of a coach.

It was sunny and crisp (35 degrees) today.  But here's what home looked like.  Leslie Robison posted this on Facebook.  I think it's supposed to get down to zero.

Add caption

So for all of you reading who are not in Indiana, this is what you are missing.  At the moment, the folks in New Bern, North Carolina have the best weather (at least of those I think might be reading this).

So, for today, I'm grateful for 35 degrees and sunshine.

Deb