About US

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This the story of our journey, Into Something Good, going Somewhere Over the Rainbow, and trying to Hold Onto Our Dreams. How we got on the way to becoming HALF time RVers! Our Ford 350 super duty diesel truck is our horses, we call it the Beast . Our 2008 34'7" 3 slide Cedar Creek Silverback fifth wheel is our Prairie Schooner Wagon,we call it the Bear. Just like the first RVers, the Pioneers of Yesteryear traveling around the country searching for a rich full filling life! Come along with us for the ride and read about our triumphs and mishaps along the way! About to be Part time RVers in a Cedar Creek Silverback 2008, 34'7", 3 slide 5th wheel, which is our Prairie Schooner Wagon, and a 2006 Ford 350 super duty 1 ton diesel truck is our horses, or oxen, only we have to feed it diesel instead of grass, and oats, which costs a lot more! Retired Air Force empty nesters off to see the good ole USA! Favorite Quote: "Life is a Blank Canvas, Made For Me to Add the Colors" Goal: I am trying to add as many colors as I can to my life!

Friday, March 1, 2013

So What Do Ya Write About, When You Have Spring Fever?

Well as my title suggests there is not much happening here! I  have had several Doctor appointments due to my arthritis starting to flare up again!  I have to have a MRI on my right hand next Friday.  The Rheumatologist  is trying to find out what kind of arthritis I have, so she knows what kind of medication to put me on.  She is looking at inflammatory osteo arthritis,vs early rheumatoid arthritis, vs early psoriatic arthritis.  Man that was a lot to type, and I don't know much about any of them.  We just know that I have really bad arthritis, because I have had both knees and my left hip replaced because of it.  Long story short, I can't even grip a pen to write with or hold a coffee cup in my right hand, and  can only type for short periods of time.  Hence no blog yesterday, but I am trying my best to keep at this blog and stay upbeat about everything.  I guess you could say, that Arthritis has it in for me!  Bottom line, it's hell getting older! LOL!

So any way what do you write about when ya have writers block?  It's not like we don't have a life, I just don't  know that  any one would find our daily activities interesting enough to want to read about everyday.  I don't want to get into the habit of saying well today we went here, today we had this for dinner etc... if ya know what I mean. The closer to spring it gets the more I will have to talk about.   I also don't like to talk about our health, like I did at the top of this post.  I'll try not to do that again!

We need to start planing a trip or something.  We know we'll probably end up at Indian Lake state park here in Ohio our first time out this spring.  We like the campground,and the lake and it is a good place to walk the dogs.  It is just a great place to sit and relax and watch nature with lots of geese, duck, raccoon, and squirrel etc...I'm sure you get the picture.  We have a few favorite campsites that we always try to get, that are pretty close to the lake.  I bet they already have reservations for some of them.  I guess we need to sit down and take a look at the calendar.  Then decide when we want to go the first time so we can make reservations.  Do you have a favorite  local place you like to go to around where you lived?  We have been going to Indian Lake state park, since the 80's  and still love to go, although it is a lot more crowded now.

Sitting still during the winter without being outside really gets to me, because I can't handle the cold.  The older I get the worse it is, and the less I like it.  I hope that next winter we will be able to go some place that at least stays in the 50's and up, cos I love being outside!  Of course with our luck where ever we go would probably have their worst winter on record!  LOL!  I have often thought of starting a business, and having  towns or even states pay us not to come if they don't want bad weather.  Ha ha!   Usually if we go somewhere they have rain, storms you name it  when we're there and then when we leave their weather is fantastic!  Just think if there was a drought, and we went there they would probably be deluged with rain.  So it could work both ways they could pay us to visit or to stay away!  If you were ever some place and the weather was bad, we were probably near!  Ha ha!  That's the way I feel sometimes, and a business like that might just be a money maker!  Any way I'm just kidding, if we planned on it working  then in would come our wonderful luck and mess it up again!  Lol!  Has that ever happened to you, you made plans for a trip in your Rv and it was  terrible weather the whole time you were there, and the day you left was beautiful?  Then perhaps you too, have luck like us!   Lady luck can sure be fickle to  deal with sometimes!

Wow, I am sorry I didn't know that this was going to turn into a rant about our luck!  He he!  I just said at the top of this I was going to try to keep this positive.  See how bored I am, gotta make myself get up and do something!  So until next time ya all be careful headin' down the road...

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

We Got Fur Babies!

Bella

 Our Grand Daughter Tehya, and Bella and below you see Tehya and Lilly.
                                         






                Lilly









             Bella and Lilly






                                                         Paco





          Jake

In August of 2012 we decided to give a home to a couple of rescue dogs.  We got Lilly at the Humane Society of Clark County, in Springfield, Ohio.  Then a week later we got Bella at Sicsa in Dayton,Ohio.  Lilly is part black lab and we think part Springer Spaniel, but  we're not sure.  Bella is part Dalmation, and maybe part Pit, but again we're not really sure.  They could be part anything so we'll just say they are our dogs!  If we wanted to be sure, and we really cared, we could pay $75.00 a piece for each dog to have a DNA test.  I don't know about you, but I can think of  a lot of better things I could spend that kind of money on! As long as they do what we want, are well behaved, and are good companions it doesn't matter to us what they are!  We will be taking the dogs in the fiver with us so we're anxious for Spring to get here.  We want to get them back in the fiver so they can get used to it again. They are both a year old now, and we got them house trained about 3 weeks after we got them.  They do very well riding in the Beast. The back seat lays down and when we put them in they both are very well behaved.  We are still  working on mastering the walk with them, instead of them walking us!  Where is the Dog Whisperer when ya need him?  Lol!  It's a work in progress so I hope by time spring gets here and it's time for Rving we'll  both have it worked out.  They are loads of company, and really keep us on our toes!  Actually it's like having a couple of kids again, sometimes we're ready to pull our hair out, and sometimes we love them to death.  Lets hope the walking will also help us lose a few pounds!  Mike is not too excited about the prospect of doing all that walking !

So we now have the 2 dogs and 2 birds who will travel with us when we go full time.  Our 2 birds are both parrots, and we have had them since 2001.  One is a Yellow Nape Amazon, and Jake is mostly green with some yellow on the back of his head.  The other one is a Mollucan Cockatoo, and  Paco has white feathers with peach on the back of his head.  That is Cockatoo not a Cockatiel, which is the little gray bird with orange on it's cheeks.  Cockatoos or  Toos as they are sometimes called, are also known as velcro birds because they want to be very close to their owners sitting on their shoulder if possible.  They are sometimes clowns and a little naughty ( they love to chew on wood ) and if upset will scream the house down. So like kids they need to be watched when they are out of their cages.  They are not quiet birds, when I say loud I mean very loud. Not very many people can handle it when they scream!  Luckily usually they only have a period of greeting the day (very early) lol, and saying goodnight when it starts getting dark !  The are both tame, with Paco being tamer than Jake.  Jake probably has about a 200 word vocabulary and thinks he is quite the singer!  So we will have quite a crew when we are out and about. People will certainly know we are there!  LOL!   Right now the birds don't like the dogs to much, so we'll see how it goes.  For short trips or trips with our 4 Grand Daughters, the birds can stay with one of our 3 sons.  The girls always look forward to going for a couple of short trips during the summer with us.

I'm sorry about all the spaces between the pics, I'm not used to this new system on here. Things have changed since I was posting everyday so I will read up on it and try to improve the look of the blog when I post pictures.  Wish me luck!

Where do all of you spend the winter at if you full time in your RV?  We are looking for some campgrounds somewhere warm.  I would like to know about any campgrounds that any of you use in the winter. What kinds of activities they offer, and where they are.  We don't need a campground that is advertised as a resort, just one that is mid priced and that allows pets. Please let us know if you have a favorite!  Just as long as it is someplace warm!  I hate Winter and so does my arthritis! Lol!  Well until next time friends...

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Rest in Peace Dodge and Hello to the Beast

This is what was left of our 2001 Dodge truck!  The frame was bent and the inside of the cab was messed up where we bounced around and hit the dash and the console. The truck was in very good condition for a 2001, with low miles, but we still only got the blue book value which was $9,000.  Not enough to replace it without payments so now we have to make payments for the Beast.  As you all know that leaves less money to travel on, combined with the cost of diesel so our trips will be confined to  Ohio and Indiana this year.  Along with  the  regular camping season which will run from Spring to Fall until we get our lawsuit settled, and back on our feet .Oh how we hated to winterize our fiver and cover it up this year, but it just wasn't in the cards for us to go south this winter.


                                      Meet the Beast





This is the first truck that Mike did a test drive in and we kept going back to this one.  None of the other trucks could compare with all the options that this one had,the way it looked, and the fact that it was a diesel.  Mike liked the tow package it had, I loved the interior, (leather with heated seats  ooh la la ), and low miles!  It was like it was meant to be!!  We wanted a diesel because our Dodge was gas, and only got 6 to 10 mpg when towing the fiver.  Our only concern and question on it was, it's a Ford, an unknown entity to us.  We had never owned a Ford or driven one.  We decided to just go for it and we're glad we did!  I know I shouldn't say this, especially with our luck, but it has been awesome!   So Mike , (of course lol) had to make a few upgrades, he said they were really needed, (ha ha)  extra gauges towing stuff, new hitch,cos we weren't able to get the one out of the Dodge ect...  So far Mike has been the only one to feed the Beast,  (put  diesel in) but I imagine I will do so at some point ,if he ever lets it get below a half of a tank! 

So now we have the Beast and the Bear!  You see our fiver is called a Silverback, by Cedar Creek and it has a pic of a big bear on the sides and the front and back.  So it makes perfect sense to us.  Here are a couple of pics of the Beast and the Bear.  Sorry I don't have a pick of them hooked up to tow, but I will get one on our first outing this year.We think they look like they were made for each other!  What do you think ?
Well  time to get this posted  so I will save the rest for tomorrow, until then Happy Travels Everyone!

Monday, February 25, 2013

Almost Three Years Have Gone By!

Hello All,
I don't know if ya'll still remember us or not it has been almost 3 years since I have written on my blog.  Lot's of things have happened, some good and some bad!  So I thought I'd bring ya up to date and see if I can still remember how to do this!  :)

We were in an accident, this is the bad, (with our Dodge Ram only) on November 22, 2011.  We were headed to Circleville, Ohio for Thanksgiving, and at the intersection of Routes 104 and 56 a car ran the red light going at least 55 mph, and broadsided us!  We were lucky we were in our 1 ton truck otherwise we would have been hurt so much worse than we were.  We had to say goodbye to our beloved white Dodge Ram truck that day because it was totaled!  Since the impact was on  the driver's side the Sheriff said had we been in a van or a regular car that Mike would not have made it out of the accident alive.  They had to cut him out of the door with the jaws of life.  As it was, his back was jammed and twisted on impact, his knees were rammed up into the dash, and he had a broken ankle and broken little finger, and a concussion with concussion syndrome lasting for approximately 3 months!  He is still recovering from the injuries to his back since it had already been fused in two places several years before the accident.  So that was not good for his back.

My injuries were much less severe.  I ended up with a separated shoulder, two fractured ribs, and a seat belt injury  to my chest area.  We were both taken to the hospital and released about 10:00 p.m. that night. We were without a car or a truck for over a month because our truck was totaled by the insurance company the next week.  The bad thing about that was we had just paid it off in October of 2011!  Do you have luck like that, we always do lol.  So the other insurance company didn't have to give us a loaner car because of our vehicle being totaled.  That is when we decided to get a lawyer because the accident wasn't our fault.  We had to borrow our son's cars or neighbors cars until we got the check from the insurance company, so we could look for another truck!  Needless to say our plans to go to Florida last January had to be cancelled, so I kind of got discouraged and didn't write on my blog.  So that is the bad.  We still haven't settled the lawsuit with the other insurance company, but I imagine it will be sometime this year.

The good part:  We found a truck!  The bad part: we have a payment again!  LOL!  We ended up with a Ford F 350 super duty, 1 ton  Larriet diesel dually double cab truck!   Wow that was a mouthful to type!  Haha!   We just call it The Beast!  It is a lot longer and bigger than our Dodge dually was.   Mike took to it right away, but it took me about 2 and a half months to get up the courage to try to drive it!  The Beast and I get along very well now, and from what Mike says it tows the fiver like a dream!  I leave the towing to Mike, I know when I am out of my league!  We took several short trips last summer. Just in and around Ohio, and Indiana, but it sure felt good to be back on the road again!

Well that is enough for now, as they say always leave them guessing, so you'll have to check back to see what else has happened during our time off.  I'll try to finish getting you the rest of the way up to date tomorrow or at least this week! I hope  I will be able to post a picture of the Beast then!