Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Meadow Bridge, WV

deg.

Forecast = Sunny to partly cloudy. Hard freeze expected. High 48F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph.
Sunday night = Clear skies. Widespread frost likely. Low 28F. Winds NW at 5 to 10 mph.


I guess it's true that every cloud has a silver lining. And, especially, if you're an RVer, you'd better believe that statement is true.
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The above photo was taken from the Summer Wind RV Park on our arrival day. (Saturday)

You see, when you're an RVer and travel a lot, you're bound to have problems somewhere along the way. This time, for us, it was Nora's furnace. :-(

While we were at that State Park in Ohio, Nora's furnace all of a sudden stopped working. But, with a little checking, Jim determined that the Thermostat was most likely at fault because it wouldn't turn on the furnace or the A/C. He then found that there was a small fuse in the thermostat that was blown,.So, after heading to an auto parts store came back and replaced the fuse, which blew about 10 seconds after he turned on the furnace.

The Cloud!!!

Jim and Linda carry an electric space heater with them for times when it's not too cold and you really don't need to run the furnace and burn up propane, but since the weather forecast was calling for below freezing temperatures, Jim decided to purchase another one.

He figured that by turning off almost all other electric loads in Nora, and with the 2 heaters running, he could keep the inside of Nora livable. That worked and for Thursday and Friday nights, we stayed nice and toasty with the 2 heater set-up.

Yesterday morning, we left the City Park in Point Pleasant, WV at about 9:50 and continued South on US 35. When we got down to I-64, we turned East on it and followed it through Charleston, WV and then SE down to Beckley where I-64 turned more Easterly again. We followed it East to exit 150 where we turned off and drove just a short distance to the Summer Winds RV Park, arriving at 12:45 after traveling 153 miles.

Jim and Linda found this park years ago and every time we come through this area, we stop here for at least 1 night. There's nothing fancy about this park at all. There's no pool or playground but the surrounding scenery is beautiful. And you couldn't find a better CG host than Russ Phillips who keeps the CG in very nice shape and will do anything in his power to make you feel at home and help in any way he can. Oh, and they also added wi-fi to the park since we were last here.

Such was the case while registering, when Jim mentioned that we were having problems with the furnace. Russ said that there was a very good Mobile RV Tech near by, and that the tech had repaired many RVs that were traveling through the area over the years.

The Silver Lining.

 So, being that Jim trusts Russ's recommendation, he asked Russ to give him a call. Russ gave Chris a call and he said that he could come and look at the furnace in an hour or so.

Jim and Linda set up Nora and in about an hour and a half, Chris pulled up into the site next to us with his pick-up and cargo trailer. With his volt-ohm meter, he determined that the furnace was OK and the problem was in the thermostat, so he went out to his trailer to try to find a thermostat that would work with Nora's system. He found one that would run the furnace, but not the A/C, so temporarily  installed it so we'd have heat for the forecasted  very low temperatures.

Of course, being Saturday, Chris wouldn't be able to order the correct thermostat until Monday and get it on Tuesday, but that's OK. Throughout the years, we've become very flexible and Jim always allows extra days for travel or problems. Besides we really like this park and it's not very expensive, so a few extra days may be kind of nice. ;-)

Now, I know this blog post has gotten quite long, but there's just one more thing. Jim and Linda are really glad that Chris was able to come and get the furnace running, because as I write this, at about 7:30 AM Eastern time, Jim's outside thermometer is showing 23 degrees!!!!!

Brrrrrr!!!!!

It's nice and toasty inside of Nora though!!!!! :-)


Did you know that The origin of the phrase, "Every cloud has a solver lining" is most likely traced to John Milton's "Comus" (1634) with the lines,

Was I deceiv'd, or did a sable cloud
Turn forth her silver lining on the night?

Woof!!!!

"The Best Laid Plans Of Mice And Men Often Go Awry" Quote by Robert Burns

Rantoul, IL.

54 deg.overcast, NW wind @ 9 mph.

Forecast = Sun and clouds mixed. High 67F. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.


Yep!!! You guessed it!!!! Another change of our travel plans!!!!

Oh well, Jim does have that big eraser and he put it to good use again yesterday when we woke up to wind howling through the CG and Nora shaking on her stabilizer jacks! :-(

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  , after talking it over and checking a couple weather guesses on the computer and on TV, Jim and Linda decided it was in everyone's best interest to stay here and "hunker down" for another day. Especially since the wind was out of the SW and we would be going SE, (the wind would be hitting Nora broadside), with predicted gusts of anywhere from 30 to 40 mph!!! :-O

Jim went over and checked with Louise to make sure it was OK for us to stay another night and then came back here and re-connected the water hose so he and Linda wouldn't have to run off of the fresh water tank's supply. Linda called her cousin in Indy to see of he and his wife were able to visit for awhile today instead of yesterday, (he said that they had no plans for today, so it didn't make any difference), and then unpacked a few items that she and Jim would need for an additional day.

Now, we'll have to change how long we'll be staying at one of our planned stops along the way, but that shouldn't be too difficult cause at 2 of the parks/campgrounds, we were planning on staying 2 nights, so now, we'll only be staying for one night at one of them.


Did you know that on this date in 1792 - The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion was laid in Washington, DC? The building became known as the White House in 1818.

Woof!!!

Oh Oh A Leak!!, Fried Squirrel and Father's Day

Rantoul, IL.

70 deg. clear, S. wind @ 6 mph.

Forecast = Wind increasing. A mix of clouds and sun. A stray severe thunderstorm is possible. High near 90F. Winds SSW at 20 to 30 mph


First of all, I hope all of you fathers out there had a "Happy Father's Day"!!!!

I think if was Tuesday when Jim noticed a few drops of water on the kitchen floor. It was right under the Air Conditioner, so Jim thought that maybe, because it has been so humid here, the AC had frozen up some and it had defrosted its self during the night. He wiped up the spots with a paper towel and also wiped a few drops off of the AC. The next morning, after some rain overnight, there was more water on the floor, and he suspected that possibly, the seal under the AC was leaking.

After taking the inside cover off (held on by 7 screws), and checking, he determined that the 4 bolts/screws that hold the AC down to the roof were not very tight, so he tightened them, dried everything off and re-installed the cover. Well, that must have been the problem cause even though we've had more rain and have operated the AC under very humid conditions, there haven't been any more drips of water on the floor!!!

It's nice when a problem has a fairly simple fix!! ;-)

Saturday morning there was this big "POP" sound and all of the electricity went off!! I knew what it was, cause it's happened when we've been here in years past.

You see, there's an electrical distribution/sub station, right next to the CG where they have a bunch of transformers and other electrical equipment and every once in awhile something goes wrong over there and cuts off the power.

Well, this time it was one of those goofy squirrels who run around here at the CG, getting into things and dropping nuts onto RVs. This time, one of them got into the wires over there and Zappp!!! Fried Squirrel!!!!  :-O

I don't know what he was doing over there. There's no nuts or anything to eat, there's no leaves or twigs to make a nest. I guess he was just exploring, but he explored in the wrong place. Hope all the other squirrels in the area learned a lesson!!!

Jim had a very nice Father's Day yesterday. In the morning, Jeff called from Portland Oregon and they talked for about a half hour. Jeff seems to be doing well, and if everything works out, he and maybe Heather will be flying out to the East Coast this fall to see his brother, Mike, in N. Carolina and then connect up with us, either in NC or Florida.

Jim told Jeff that he'd send him money for air fare if he could work out the times and dates. :-)

After lunch, Mike called from NC. He and Jim talked for 20 minutes or so. Mike, Gina and the kids all seem to be doing well, They were getting ready to go out to eat at a restaurant near where they live.

Later in the afternoon, Laura called from Florida to wish Jim a Happy Father's Day. She couldn't talk for long as she was getting ready to head to work, but it was sure nice of her take the time to call.

Then, in the evening, Joe called. He and his family are in Myrtle Beach, SC for a little vacation and will be returning home to Virginia Beach next weekend. They also seem to be doing fine and are enjoying their trip. :-)

For dinner, Jim and Linda headed over to Monical's Pizza. They went a little early because they were concerned about a lot of folks having the same idea, and it's a good thing they did. By the time they finished eating, the place was almost full.

Today, Jim needs to get one of Nora's propane tanks filled. He'll probably do that this morning because the "weather guessers" are saying that it's supposed to be hot, humid and windy this afternoon.

Did you know that First local Father's Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, Washington?  Sonora Louise Smart Dodd started the tradition of Father's Day in the honor of her dad, William Smart, a widowed Civil War veteran.

Woof!!!

Linda's Doctor Visit and Is There A Change Of Plans Coming?

DeBary, FL.

61 deg. clear, no wind.
Forecast = Cloudy with showers. High 76F. Winds WSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

Linda had an appointment with her Ophthalmologist yesterday afternoon, so about 1:30, Big RED took Jim and Linda over to his office in Orange City. They did the normal tests and scans of her eyes and soon she was in Dr. Barnard's exam room where he informed her and Jim that from the scan, he determined that she needed another injection in her left eye. :-(  He showed Linda and Jim the scans and pointed out exactly where the problem was. After discussing the situation, Linda agreed that that was the best thing to do. So,  he gave her the injection and by about 3:00 or so, Big RED was pulling back into the carport here at the house.

Jim and Linda also discussed their travel plans for this summer with Dr. Barnard and he told Linda that he thought that she should be seeing an Ophthalmologist at least every 2 months.

Now, this would mean that she would have to try to find a doctor while traveling across the country on our way out to Oregon. Dr. Barnard told her that he would assist her in any way he could to find a qualified doctor and that if she and Jim would call him and tell him where they would be, (about 2 weeks ahead of time),  he would do what he could.

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  What to do????

Linda had a lot of anxiety before her first visit with Dr. Barnard, so, to say the least, she's not too keen on finding another doctor somewhere in Arizona or New Mexico on our way out West.  After returning here to the house, she and Jim were discussing the problem and they talked about different options.

First, Linda could just ignore the Doctor's recommendations and just wait until August when we would be getting to Illinois and see Dr. Gandhi when we arrived there.

Both Linda and Jim agreed that this was probably not the best option.

Second, they could go ahead and try to find a doctor while traveling, which would probably cause both Linda and Jim a lot of anxiety, especially since Linda really doesn't like going to new doctors she doesn't know, and, because of time restrictions, we really don't have a lot of leeway to be spending too much time looking for a doctor or waiting for an appointment.

Third, they could wait until next year to head out to Oregon, but they would really like to see Jeff and Heather before that. Plus, you never know what next year will bring.

Fourth, is the option of not going to Oregon this year, but instead, sending Jeff and Heather money to buy plane tickets and fly down here, possibly in November or December.

This option had some appeal to both Jim and Linda, so last night they tried calling Jeff to see if it would be possible for he and Heather to come. He wasn't home, but I'm sure he'll be calling back as soon as he can.

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  that's where we stand for now. We'll wait for Jeff to call and then tell him what is happening and what Jim and Linda are thinking. He and Heather may not be able to get away to come here. We'll just have to wait and see.


A Point to Ponder:  Why do banks charge you a "non-sufficient funds fee" on money they already know you don't have?

Woof!!!

A Little Glitch and The Illinois Bunch Arrive Today

Rantoul, IL.

56 deg. overcast, N. wind @ 8 mph.
Forecast = Mostly cloudy. Highs around 63°F. North wind to 10 MPH.

Had a little g.itch yesterday morning.

Because it was raining hard, off and on, Jim and Linda left here about 8:00 so that they'd be sure to get down to the south side of Champaign by 9:00 for Linda's follow-up appointment. Big RED said that they were heading South on I-57 in heavy rain and wind when the phone rang. Linda answered it and was told that her appointment was canceled because Dr. Anderson was sick and couldn't come in to see any patients.

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  at the next exit they turned off of I-57 and brought some county roads back here to the CG. :-(

The nurse that Linda talked to said that Linda's appointment would be rescheduled for today at 9:00, but even the nurse was wondering if Dr. Anderson would be well enough to come in.

Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but we're on a pretty tight time schedule here. Linda is tentatively scheduled for surgery on her other eye this next Monday, it's still just tentative and now there's the possibility that the surgery will be delayed. If it is, it may cause a conflict with an appointment that Linda has with Dr. Gandhi to have another one of those injections.

Both of Linda's eyes seem to be doing well. She says that since the cataract surgery on her left eye, she can see better with it than she has for a long time. Most of the irritation has disappeared in both eyes and she thinks everything is healing up nicely. ;-)

Today, Most of the "Illinois Bunch" are coming here to the Prairie Pines Campground, (Because of Gordy's health I don't think he and Dorthy will be coming). and they'll be staying until Monday morning.  I imagine that they'll be getting here sometime around noon, so unless there's a delay at Dr. Anderson's office, Big RED should be able to get Jim and Linda back here by then.

We had a lot of rain yesterday. (I know it was well over an inch), and then late yesterday afternoon, we had pretty strong storm come through the area. After the storm, the temperature started dropping and now this morning, it's down to 56 degrees with a forecasted high of only 63 degrees today.

Did you know that on this date in 1967 - The Carol Burnett Show premiered on CBS?

Woof!!!

To Move Or Not To Move

Rantoul, IL.

72 deg. cloudy, SW wind @ 6 mph.
Forecast = Partly cloudy with isolated storms. Highs around 84°F. Heat index around 91°F. Southwest wind to 7 MPH. Chance of precipitation 40 percent.

Jim and Linda got an e-mail from Alternative Resources Friday and I suppose that any of you that use them for your mail forwarding service got one too. Alternative Resource in South Dakota has been our "official" residence and mail forwarding service ever since we went full-timing way back in 2001. In fact they started receiving and forwarding our mail even before that!!

Alternative Resources has been sold and the name changed to Dakota Post.The new owners are making some pretty drastic changes and most of the changes are good, but one of the changes involves them moving to a larger facility and thus, changing the address. This would mean that Jim and Linda's address at all banks, credit cards, checks, insurance companies, plus driver's license, that they have would have to be notified and changed. Plus, there's family and friends to notify also.

Not a small task!!!!

However,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  in the past, Jim and Linda have discussed moving their "official" address to their double- wide address, down in Florida, but had pretty much decided that for now, they'd just keep using South Dakota.

You can see what's coming here, can't you?

Yep, you guessed it. They haven't made up their minds for sure, but it doesn't seem to make much sense to change everything to a new address in SD and then in a few years or so, change it again to Florida!!!

They'll need to do some more research on this, but there's a few good Mail Forwarding services in Florida that they can use when we're traveling, and they do have the address of the double-wide to use.

Hmmm!!!! I wonder how many other RVers will be leaving SD because of this change?

Did you know that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, of the population of 282,556,000, the people that moved was 40,093,000? That would make the percentage rate to be 14.19 percent annually.

Woof!!!

A Trip To County Market and CLT's Brake Lights

Rantoul, IL.

Forecast = Today: Mostly cloudy with scattered storms. Highs around 81°F. Southeast wind to 9 MPH. Chance of precipitation near 60%. Precipitation amounts less than one tenth of an inch possible.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy with isolated storms. Lows around 61°F. Southeast wind to 8 MPH.

Just as I thought, Jim and Linda didn't do a whole lot yesterday. Just before noon, they headed over to the County Market Grocery Store and picked up some bread, lunch meat, coffee, and one of those roasted chickens from the deli.

After they returned, Linda had her lunch and Jim laid down and took a pretty long nap. ; ) After he woke, he went outside and hooked up Bobbie T's sewer hose and dumped the tanks. Then, after a nice chicken dinner, Jim went back outside to make sure everything was secured for the night.

That's when he noticed that there were some lights on, on the back of CLT. After checking, he found that the brake lights were stuck on and wouldn't turn off!!! He reached under the dash and unplugged the brake light switch and then did a little checking to try to find out what was wrong.

Well, he found out that there was a little plastic piece on the brake pedal arm that contacts the switch when the brake pedal is released, (turning the switch off), and it had broken and had fallen off and onto the floor, ( more than likely it  became brittle because of age), so there was nothing there to shut off the switch!!!

There wasn't anything that Jim could do last night, so he tried to start CLT, but the battery was almost completely dead and CLT's engine wouldn't crank at all. So, this morning, Jim will go down to see if Paul can bring one of his vehicles over here to our site to jump CLT's battery. Then, Jim will have to try to figure out what to do with the brake light switch. : (

Did you know that in Illinois, most corn is planted so that there will be 35,000 to 40,000 plants per acre?

Woof!!!

Moncure To Swannanoa

Swannanoa, NC

54 deg. foggy, no wind.
Forecast = Today: Partly cloudy with patchy fog. Highs around 77°F. West northwest wind to 8 MPH.
Tonight: Partly cloudy with isolated storms. Lows around 52°F. West northwest wind 1 to 6 MPH. Chance of precipitation near 25%.

We left Moncure about 10:30 yesterday morning and headed up to Pittsboro on hilly winding 2 lane roads. Once in Pittsboro, we stopped at a gas station to get Bobbie T a drink of 87 octane.

I don't know what happened, but there was some kind of mix-up with Jim and Linda's credit card because they ended up calling the bank from the gas station before they could get it to work!! : (  By the time we left the gas station, it was already a little past 10:30.

From Pittsboro, we headed West on US 64 until we came to Siler City, where we turned NW on US 421. 421 then took us up to Greensboro where we turned West on I-40. Following 40 brought us past Winston-Salem, Hickory and Morganton and here to Swannanoa where we pulled into the Miles Motors RV Center and Campground,  which is just a few blocks off of the Interstate.

We had been to this CG before, but not for quite awhile. In fact, I'm pretty sure that we still had Myrddin the last time we were here. It's a decent CG. They have a handful of pull-through sites which is nice if you don't want to unhook, the sites are quite level and there's shade if you want it. There's full hook-ups with 50 amp electric, free cable TV and free wi-fi that doesn't seem to be working right now, all for $27.00 a night.

It was 2:25 when we pulled up in front of  the office, and we had traveled 215 miles. The roads were pretty good, we had lots of traffic around the biggest cities and we would have made pretty good time if it hadn't been for that Credit Card fiasco. : (

Today, the plan is to take I-40 up into Tennessee and then follow it West for a ways. Jim has a couple parks spotted just past Knoxville, so we'll probably stay there. One of the parks is a TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), park on a lake that sounds pretty interesting.

But, we'll have to see what Jim and Linda feel like when we get up there.

Did you know that the longest time spent standing on one foot is 76 hours and 40 minutes?

Yemassee, SC to Myrtle Beach, With A Little Glitch

Myrtle Beach, SC.

59 deg. fog, no wind.
Forecast = Today: Partly cloudy with isolated showers. Highs around 73°F. Windy, with a south wind 9 to 22 MPH, gusting to 28 MPH. Chance of precipitation near 20%.
Tonight: Mostly cloudy with isolated showers. Lows around 66°F. Windy, with a south wind to 20 MPH, gusting to 26 MPH. Chance of precipitation near 70%.

Don't really know what happened yesterday. I wrote the blog in the morning, just like usual, and thought I posted it, but when Jim went to read it to Linda last night, It wasn't there!!!! : O

After going back to the main Blogger page, and checking, it was determined that it was there and ready to be posted, but for some reason when I hit the "publish" button, it didn't post!! Now, maybe I hit the wrong button, but I don't think so.

Anyway, the morning bog got posted yesterday evening. : )

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  now for today's post.

We left "The Oaks" campground about 5 minutes after 10:00 and headed East towards Charleston on US 17. As we neared the city, the traffic really started picking up, and by the time we got within 10 miles or so, it was really heavy. In fact, even when we went around the Charleston area on I-526, it was busy almost all the way. Once we joined back up with 17 again, on the North side of the city, it started thinning out though.

Oh, there was a little glitch when we went to get back on US 17. The signs weren't very clear and as we come off of the belt route, we ended up on a wrong road. It really wasn't a big deal as Rosie, (the lady that lives inside of the GPS), re-routed us and got us back on the correct road.

Now, I say it wasn't a big deal, but I can't help wondering what we would have done if we still had Emrys? With Bobbie T, it was easy to make the turns in the residential area, but I'm not so sure we could have made them with a 45' MH.

Anyway, once back on 17, we continued Northeast all the way up here to Myrtle Beach. Again, the traffic got real heavy in the Myrtle Beach area and stayed that way all the way up to the Northeast side of the city on Bypass 17. On the Northeast side of Myrtle beach, we turned off of 17 onto Lake Arrowhead Road and followed SE to the Apache Family Campground.

It was 1:50 when we pulled up to the office, so even with the very heavy traffic and the little glitch, it only took us 3 hours and 45 minutes to travel 125 miles.

When Jim called the CG to make a reservation, he asked for a site with a view of the ocean if possible. The lady told him that there were small sand dunes between the sites and the ocean, but she would see what she could do. Well, she did pretty well!! : ) This is the view out of my dinette window. You definitely can see the water and of course you can easily hear the waves. Our site's not right on the water, but I don't think any of them in Myrtle Beach are!!

Linda's a Happy Camper!!!!! ; )

When you walk up on the little walkway shown in the above photo, this is the view you have.

Pretty nice, I'd say!!!!

Jim took some more photos, but I'll post them in a day or so. We'll be here for a total of 4 nights so I should have plenty time.

Did you know that there are over 250 golf courses in and around Myrtle Beach?