First It Was Nora, Then Lila and Now Big RED!!!!

DeBary, FL.

83 deg. clear, no wind.

Forecast tonight = Clear. Lows overnight in the mid 60s.

Forecast tomorrow = Sunny, High 96F. Winds W at 10 to 15 mph.

First, Nora left us when Jim and Linda took Big RED and pulled her down to Palm Beach where Laura and Lindsey traded her in on a brand new, smaller trailer. (which is really nice, by the way),  I thought that would be the end of it, but then, all of a sudden, this last Thursday, Jim and Linda went car shopping!!!!!

 When they returned, they were driving a different car and Lila had been traded in on it!!!

Friday, Jim had an Opdivo treatment in the morning and a Radiation treatment in the afternoon. Then, Friday evening, Laura and Lindsey stopped by and Lindsey helped Jim clean out the back of Big RED!! That made me wonder what was going on, but I didn't have to wait too long to find out!!

This morning, Linda took the car they had brought back from the dealer on Thursday and Jim got into Big RED. Then, they both drove away!!!

Well, come to find out, they had traded Lila and Big RED in on a brand new car!!!!

So,  ,  ,  ,  ,  ,  say hello to Lily!!!!  She's a brand new Toyota Camry LE and she only had 8 miles on her speedometer when Jim and Linda pulled out of the dealer's lot on Thursday!!

I guess you're wondering why they did this and why they named the new car Lily. Well. Jim decided that Lila wasn't suitable for any kind of longer distance traveling. She was great around town and was just what they needed before Jim decided that he really couldn't handle RVing any longer. But, out on the road, she wasn't very comfortable to drive for longer distances and she was quite small.

Big RED was quite large and hard to get around with. especially in towns and cities. He also didn't get real great mileage and the cost of diesel fuel is always higher than regular gas.

So, by doing some "trading", Jim and Linda traded both of them in on Lily and even got some "cash back" because Lila and Big RED were worth more than the price of the new Camry! ;-)

Now, there is only one insurance bill,  one license fee and for the first time in a long time, we now have plenty of room in the driveway!!! And Lily should get pretty decent gas mileage on trips.

Now, why was she named Lily, you ask??? Well, Linda thinks her color looks just like that of an Easter Lily. Hence, the name.

On the way back from the dealer today, they stopped at a Longhorn Steakhouse for lunch and had a great meal. It was the first time they went out to eat, anywhere special, for a long time.

Jim and Linda are both doing fine. Jim is experiencing  quite a bit of fatigue but is still able to do most things, just at a slower pace or by resting from time to time. He hasn't had any serious side effects from the Opdivo as of yet and so that's going well. This coming Tuesday he will have his last Radiation treatment, and I'm sure he won't mind not having to go to have them every weekday.

When Jim takes more photos of Lily, I'll post them here.

A Quote to Ponder = "You  will never change your life until you change something you do daily"
                                   Mike Murdock

Woof!!!!
I hope Jim and Linda take me for a ride in that new car soon. :-)

Chiefland FL. To Thomsaville GA. to Troy, AL.

Troy, AL.

77 deg. mostly cloudy, no wind.

Forecast tonight = Partly cloudy with late night showers or thunderstorms. Low 71F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 50%.

Forecast tomorrow = Mixed clouds and sun with scattered thunderstorms. High 94F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60%.


We left the Chiefland RV Park about 9:25 and headed Northwest on US 19. After traveling through places like Fannng Springs, Old Town, Perry and Capps, 19 turned North. It then crossed I-10 and the Georgia State Line and took us up to Thomasville, GA. and the City of Roses RV Park, which is another Passport America park.

It was 11:55 when we pulled up along side of the office, so we traveled the  130 miles up here in about 2 and 1/2 hours.

The City of Roses RV Park is an old park, but lately there have been some changes made. The same man is running the park but some of the permanent RVs that were there are gone. The grass was freshly cut and I think the place has been "cleaned up" a lot. There's still quite a few long term RVs around the outside of the park, but they seem like a friendly bunch of folks if you just say "Hi" to them and start up a short conversation.

We've been coming here for years and have never had a problem. And for $15 a night it's quite a deal for a full hook-up site.

This morning, about 9:25 ET, we left Thomasville and headed West on US 84. 84 took us to Cario and to Bainbridge where we drove into a reall "gully washer" which caused us to slow down to about 30 mph because of such poor visibility. After Bainbridge the weather cleared somewhat and we just had sprinkles the rest of the way to Dothan, AL. After taking 84 around the NE side of Dothan, we turned NW on US 231 and followed it up here to Troy, AL and the Deer Run RV Park.

It was 12:40 ET when we arrived, so we traveled  166 miles in about 3 hours and 15 minutes.

We crossed into the Central Time Zone as we crossed into Alabama, so it was actually 11:40 when we arrived here near Troy, AL.

We'll be staying here at Deer Run for 2 nights so that Jim can recoup a little. Besides that, they're forecasting a lot of rain for this area tomorrow.

Speaking of Jim. He's been able to do everything that needs to be done in the mornings and afternoons. He does get quite tired though and sometimes has to quit what he's doing and sit down for awhile. Then, he goes back at whatever he was doing and finishes it up.Not the way he likes to do things, but it's working. He also seems to get tired driving, so we probably don't want to travel more than 150 to 170 miles or so a day.

If everything goes according to plan, we should be getting up to Rantoul during the first half of next week. I should be able to be more precise in a couple days.

Did you know that Georgia was named for King George II of England?

Woof!!!

Can You Be Flexible?

DeBary, FL.

63 deg. cloudy, Wind NW 6 MPH Gusts 26

Forecast = Mostly cloudy with showers likely. Highs around 68°F. West wind 8 to 15 MPH, gusting to 21 MPH. Chance of precipitation 70 percent.


Can you be flexible?

NO!  NO!! Not your body!!!

Can you be flexible enough to Full-time or even part-time for 5 or 6 months of the year? If you've been RVing for any length of time, I'm sure that you've had to be, or learn to be flexible with your plans.

Many years ago, when we first started Full-timing, we learned that you'd better allow for a mishap or two, anytime you're traveling or even staying in one place for awhile. Things just happen and there's nothing you can do about it.

If you can't adapt to these mishaps or delays and change your pans, you probably better not plan on RVing too much. Sometimes you can make up the time you lost for repairs or other unforeseen circumstances, but sometimes you just have to make a major plan change.

One of the first years that we were Full-timing, we had an accident in a parking lot South of Orlando. Jim made a hard right turn, the back of the MH swung out and hit a new Jeep Liberty and tore up the Jeeps fender and the plastic bumper on the back of the MH. It was the fist thing like that that had happened, Jim was really upset with himself, and to be honest, I thought our Full-timing days were over!!!

That little deal cost us 2 or 3 weeks of travel and a lot of plans had to be changed. We had to be flexible!

Then, there was time time that we were on our way to Oregon, via the northern route, (US 2). We were in the middle of  Montana, (about 20 or 30 miles East of Havre in the middle of nowhere), when the diesel engine just up and quit!!!!

Jim got it going again and we limped into Havre where a CG made space for us and a great mechanic worked on the MH for almost 2 days, but still didn't find the problem. To his credit, he knew he didn't find the problem and he only charged us for a few other minor items he found and repaired.

To make a long story short, we went to many different mechanics, (even a authorized repair shop), but no one could find the problem. Jim finally determined that if he didn't run anything electrical except the engine, the engine would keep running. We visited with Jeff and Heather in Oregon, but then instead of going down the coast and to a bunch of National Parks, we headed back to Florida where a very good mechanic, Lester, found the problem in about 30 minutes and repaired it for about $150.00!!!

A very big change of plans! We had to be flexible!!!!

As most of you know, back in August 2013, while we were in Illinois, Linda was diagnosed with cancer. We scrapped all our plans, headed to Florida and spent the next 11 months down here where Linda had surgery, chemo and radiation treatments. It also marked the end of our 12 1/2 years of  Full-timing.

A major change of plans!! We had to be flexible!!!!!

This summer, we were planning on going back out to Oregon again. But, Linda's eye problem required us to change our plans, yet again. It's OK though, we'll head up to Illinois to our favorite Campground and enjoy the summer there. Through the years, we've had a lot of bumps in the road, with that really big bump back in 2013. By comparison, this is just a little pebble in the road.

Another change of plans!! But it's OK, we're flexible!!!!!

Are You????

Did you know that there are 2,734,102 miles of paved public roads in the United Sates, with an additional 1,324,245 miles of unpaved public roads?

Woof!!!

Tests, Shopping, Things Change and A Very Nice Meal

Rantoul, IL.

70 deg. partly cloudy, no wind.
Forecast = Partly cloudy with afternoon showers or thunderstorms. High 92F. Winds ESE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%.

Tuesday, about 10:00, Jim and Linda took Big RED and headed over to Gibson City to get Linda's tests done. Everything went really smooth and in about an hour, they were heading back towards Rantoul.

On the way back, they stopped in Fisher, IL and had lunch at the Blue Star Family Restaurant.

Nothing much happened during the afternoon, but after grabbing a sandwich around 5;30, they again took Big RED and headed over to Wally World where Jim purchased a new coffee maker and a couple other small items. The coffee maker that Jim had was old, wasn't working too well anymore, and was all cruddy down inside of the water reservoir.  :-(  Besides that, he uses one of those little 5 cup coffee makers, so they don't cost a whole lot to replace.

You know, that brings up another subject I've been thinking about.

Years ago, Jim would have tried to salvage that old pot and use it a little longer. He would have been scrubbing the inside of the reservoir with a brush or something, pouring vinegar thought the maker to remove any lime that might have accumulated and maybe even gone shopping for a replacement pot if needed.

But, things / times have changed! Somewhere along the way, he has changed his attitude about things like that, and has decided that he doesn't want to, or it's too much trouble to go though all that work. It's the same way with repairs on the RV or other vehicles that we've had lately. He used to do all the maintenance and repairs on them, but now, except for some small repairs, he has someone else do the work.

Yeah, part of it is technology. He sometimes doesn't have the tools or the testers to do the work. but for the most part, he just doesn't feel like crawling around under a vehicle or inside of a cabinet or storage bay to do the work, anymore. And to be honest, he doesn't feel too safe when he's up on the roof of an RV, (and Linda doesn't like it when he goes up there), so, unless it's an emergency, he doesn't go up there anymore either.

I don't know, it might be age. Jim says that it much harder to get under a vehicle or do something inside of a cabinet or storage area than it used to be and if he does manage do the work himself, he's sore for quite a few days afterwords.

I know I can't run and jump around like a puppy anymore. I used to run and run and run, but the old joints just won't let me do that now. :-(  

Getting older is not easy, but when you think of the alternative, it guess there's not much choice.

OK, enough of that!!!!!!

After going to Wally World, Big RED took Jim and Linda over to the Dairy Queen for a treat. They hadn't been there at all this year and really enjoyed it. ;-)

When Jim was over talking to Louise the other day, she gave him a couple of filet mignon steaks that she had gotten from Paul's son, who has a farm up near Galena, IL. So, yesterday evening, being that the weather was nice, Jim decided that he'd try to cook them on his grill.

Well, I'm here to tell you that they sure smelled good, and both Jim and Linda thought they they turned out really well! :-) They had them along with some potato salad, some sliced tomatoes, (out of Louise's garden), and bakery bread.

A very nice meal, indeed!!!! ;-)  Thank you very much, Louise!!!!!

No plans so far for today. I'ts supposed to be quite hot and humid, so Jim and Linda will probably be staying inside a lot. It's supposed to really cool off for the weekend though.

Did you know that September is "National Prime Beef Month"?

Woof!!!