Eat way too much

Our church assists at a local Drug/Alcohol Rehab center. They have a residence facility for mothers and their children who may live there up to one year. One Saturday a month they prepare a special dinner for these residents. Members of our church assist by setting tables, clearing tables, serving salad and dessert. Then we get to eat!

Tonight it was flounder stuffed with crab imperial, cajun ribsteak, rosemary potatoes, mac and cheese, whipped yams, salad, freshrolls, corn bread, broccoli rabe with roasted red peppers. Appetizers were cheese and crackers, pepperoni and grapes. For dessert -chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream. I am so glad this is just once a month. I am in misery.

It has rained almost constantly here for the last month and a half. Today was no different. Some times during the day the sun shone bright while the rains poured down.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day. We will be going out to dinner with Terri and Steve.

We are looking at putting new tires on the F250. Sears has a special sale next week. We will check them out for sure. Also, Len can not fugure out how to install the surge protector we at one time had on the Cedar Creek. He called a local RV repairer yesterday but he has not returned the call yet. People who fulltime say they would not have an RV without a surge protector.

To Louisiana and back...

We received a call from Len's family last Saturday, June 6 that his favorite uncle, Joe, was on life support following a heart attack. Within 2 hours we were packed and on the road. We arrived in Vinton, LA Sunday night around 7:30. We visited at the hospital Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Joe was unresponsive and still on support.

While in Louisiana we spent time with Lens mom, sister Pet, brother Myron and brother and sister-in-law Royce and Susie. Shortly after we left headed home on Thursday we got the call that Uncle Joe had died.

Also in the area were Joe and Sherri, a couple who posts on RV-Dreams. I contacted Joe and we met for dinner one night. What a great couple. Joe recently retired and they are now fulltimers.

Our 20th wedding anniversary was on June 10 while we were gone. We had made plans to renew our wedding vows. Of course, that did not happen. We will discuss at another time when we will do this.

A blessed event also happened on June 10. Abigail Claire Emory was born to daughter Amy and son-in-law Scott. Beautiful Charlotte now has a baby sister.

We arrived back home today after keeping an appoinment in Gettysburg Pa to listen to a sales pitch for a membership campground. No thanks but we will accept the 40 days free camping in exchange for listening, thank you very much.

As time moves on...

Yes, we are still hoping to start our new life October 1. This week we will go to Trenton, NJ to again apply for Lens state pension.

Yesterday we went to Camping World and got an awning clamp. We read that winds can catch the rolled up awning while traveling, causing it to billow and unfurl. This clamp will prevent such an occurence.

On June 10 we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary by renewing our vows. The only people in attendance will be Pastor Tom and his wife Barbara, daughter Terrianne and her fiance Steve and hopefully Grandson Justin who now lives in Philadelphia. Afterward we will take the group to The Coach Room, our favorite restaurant in Bridgeton.

At night Len and I read the Bible together (currently Proverbs), review the days Love Dare and say our prayers together. There is so much we have learned and we have grown in so many ways. We have such sadness about the alienations of loved ones on both sides of our family. That these issues are resolved soon is our constant prayer.

Let's talk about a date...

Today we talked about a new "take off" date. If all goes well, it will be October 1. Terri gets married in September. The weather will still be fair for travel. Finances will be in order.

As I look forward to traveling, I still hope to resolve some issues here. But I trust God will put us in the right direction and give us the guidance we need.

As much as we enjoy living where we are, we both have a severe case of hitch-itch. There is so much to see and experience that we can only do by starting our fulltime RV life.

Going Green

Yesterday was a great day. Where we are "camped" while waiting for the right time to take off is in a grove under lots of tall oaks and dogwood. The area is sandy soil which is only good for growing weeds.

After work yesterday Len came home with his truck bed loaded to the max with beautiful green sod. Immediately we layed the sod in our front yard. I had planted a few flowers last Friday around two trees. So off to WalMart we went and got two bags of mulch. What a beautiful difference grass, flowers and mulch has made to our front yard. I have placed two hanging baskets of petunias on decorative hooks that Len screwed into two trees. There is one more tree on which I would like to place another basket of flowers.

Out our back window I have our Shepherds Hook with two bird seed feeders and a hummingbird feeder. Yes, already we have hummingbirds. The other day we had a scarlet tanager which I do believe is the first time I've seen one. One day last week we had white breasted nuthatches, marsh wrens, red-bellied woodpeckers, blue jays, tufted titmouse, cardinals and downy woodpeckers. Just a short time ago I watched two turkeys walk across the lawn. (Better watch my step today!)

After laying the sod we had 6 addtional rolls. We took them to Terri and Steve. There is an area next to the shop Len built that needs landscaping and grass. Steve and Len layed out our remaining sod. They figure they will need about 1/2 pallet more to complete this area. Len will get it for them once they level down the dirt.

We are so proud of our front yard. Whoever gets this site when we leave might or might not enjoy it, depending on whether they like to mow grass!

Waiting for our time

As the weather is getting nicer, we are spending more time outside under the awning.

We have friends.Gene and Kathy, who also live in their RV fulltime while still working. They live right across from us. On nice weekend nights Gene gets the campfire going. We pull up our chairs and are joined by Ken who is living in his travel trailer and still also working.

Last week we bought bicycles. We have not had many chances to ride as we are just coming through 11 consecutive days of rain. We did manage to take a VERY short ride one night. We had not been on bikes in at least 16 years. We managed to stay on but these old legs did not hold out long. We will work our way up a little at a time.

Our next purchase will be an RV freezer. We have enough room in the refrigerator but sure would like to be able to store more meats when I find good bargains. RV freezers are quite costly. We will wait for a sale at Camping World.

And now we are ....

Making our life as best we can.

It has been some time since posting. Life throws some bad curves. As time got close to our plan to fulltime, I saw a change in Leonard. After much heartbreak and anger the bottom line is that he was scared to quit his job at this time and go on the road. We are back together but still dealing with the ramifications of his fear and how he mishandled it. Had he talked to me, we could have worked through this issue together.

We have purchased a 2009 Montana fifthwheel and are still planning to travel "someday". We are living fulltime in our rig. Len works fulltime, I work two days a week. Unbelieveably, we both are content living here for now.

But, there are sad family issues that cause pain and regrets. We don't always know how our actions affect others. I pray these issues will be resolved.