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!

Saturday, April 5, 2008

ALL SYSTEMS ARE A GO!

Systems:
Today we hooked up to water. So far, knock on wood, we have found no leaks in the system. The hot water heater is on and working fine, as I have done a few dishes too! I didn't run out of hot water either. The camode in the bathroom hasn't leaked, and we can't find anything leaking under the sink in the bathroom. We will try the shower this evening. There are no leaks in the roof, it has rained hard twice now since we have been here in Circleville. We wanted to try out all the systems before too much time passed, and we got very far away from the dealer. I have heard horror stories from people who got new RV'S and lots of things were wrong with them. So far our Cedar Creek Silverback seems to be very well built, and have no major problems. The only thing I've found are easy fixes. First, a piece of trim was forgotten off the bottom of the corner cabinet in the kitchen, and there is a loose piece of trim around the bathroom door going into the bedroom. I don' think that is too bad at all. The furnace works well and has kept us nice and warm even when it was damp, and raining outside.

Bed:
The bed has been fine, since we put the 4 inch memory foam topper on it. I haven't heard any complaints from Mike on the bed either, so his back must be doing ok laying on it. We're hopeful it will last until we can get a new pillow top
mattress later on.

Storage Space:
I am finding storage space that I didn't know I had. I'm sure I'll find something to put in it the longer we're in the fiver. I'm not fully moved in either, so I'm sure I'll use up more storage space!

Dreams:
I'm still a little overwhelmed having another 5th wheel after all the years we took off, and now we're going to be full timers! Wow talk about a culture shock! Dreams really can come true, after being at the bottom of the heap, and crawling back up! We were dealt a couple of really bad health blows in 2000, and again in 2007, so we are very fortunate the way things turned out. That's why I always say Hold On Tight To Your Dreams, and don't give up, because they can still come true as long as you still have breath in your body! We're having a blast, and are enjoying all the excitement of becoming full timers.

Family:
So far, my Mom, and Pop, and both of my Brothers, and their Wives have looked at the 5er! They all have liked it, and have thought it is really roomy, and bright with lots of space. I'm glad that they like it, and my Mom shocked me, when she said that she could spend the winter in it with no problems! WOW!!!! I think I'll end on that note, cos it's a good place to stop! LOL!!!


Wednesday, April 2, 2008

PACKING THE FIVER

Packing:
We have about half or our "stuff" packed into the 5er. All that is left is a few clothes, shoes, toiletries, and books. We will put the slides in tonite in case it is raining in the morning. We're not going far tomorrow, just to my brother's house in Circleville, Ohio. It will only be about a 2 hour drive, all on interstate, so it shouldn't be bad. Wish us luck with hooking up the 5er and getting "on the road" for the first time. It will be just a mini trip for about a week, to try all the systems out in the 5er. My brother, Alan, called me this morning, and said that they're supposed to get 2 inches of rain tomorrow evening. We're hopeful that by getting up early and getting on the road we'll beat the rain to Circleville!

Loading up and Sad Dog:
I have everything ready to be loaded into the fiver, but every time I go out to it, to put more "stuff" in, my dog, Dutchess gets very upset with me! I hate to see her like this, and I can't take her this time. She will be staying with our son Gary, and his dog Hannah this next week. Right now , as I type this she is laying at my feet guarding me. I guess she thinks if she's right beside me, that I can't sneak out without her. That means that someone else besides me will have to take things out, and then I can put them away after she goes to bed. She's worse than a kid, and I thought I had raised all 3 of mine!

Internet:
Alan,my brother, has roadrunner so I should be able to keep up with my blog while we're there, and Mike even got me a router, so I can use it with the laptop in the 5er! Pretty cool, huh? Well that's it for today, Mike just got home from his doctor appointment, so time to fix dinner!

Monday, March 31, 2008

SETTLING IN

Settling In:
Today was sort of get things ready day. The bed is made, and most of my small appliances are put away, the dishes, and silverware, and even some groceries. There is even food in the refrigerator too! I haven't brought any glasses out yet, or any of my favorite tea bags, or iced tea mix. All of the cabinets have liner in them, and I still have to put the liner in the drawers. I haven't brought any cleaners out to the fiver yet, and we haven't brought any clothes out. That will be something for me to do tomorrow. There are alot of things we still need for the fiver, but I will wait until I have my yard sale, and use any money I make to get them. I will keep a list of things we still need and, as I buy them I'll cross them off. Mike says that some of the things, I say I need are wants, and not stuff we really need. He could be right!

Today in Ohio:
Today here in Ohio, it was about 57 with rain, and drizzle. Very cloudy, and gloomy and not conducive to wanting to do anything. We need to get propane for the fiver tomorrow, and get ready to move the slides in on Wednesday. Wednesday is supposed to be sunny, so we want to put them in after they dry off from all this rain. Not much exciting going on today so I will close here until tomorrow!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

SHOPPING WITH SUE

SUE:
Yesterday my best friend, Sue asked me to go shopping with her, so off we went. First we went to Walmart to get dog food, and then we just looked around for a while. I found a tiny skillet that holds one egg, so I bought that for the trailer. Mike is not much of an egg eater, and sometimes I like a scrambled egg for breakfast. Now I won't have to dirty a big skillet for one egg. I'm not much of a morning person, and don't like to cook when I first get up, so Mike usually eats cereal. Most of the time when I fix breakfast it is for our evening meal. We do that a lot, especially in the winter. Anyway thats the story of the new egg pan.

Groceries:
We didn't need much food yesterday so after the usual milk, bread etc... we ended up on the wine aisle. Imagine that, of course that's not unusual for us, because we like wine! Sue decided to get a bottle of Asti to christen the 5er. Sounded like fun to me!

Lowe's:
Next is was off to Lowe's to get wild bird food for Sue, and I wanted to look at the kitchen carts. After Sue got the food for the outside birds, we headed off to the furniture section. I was looking for a small light weight cart to use in the fiver. We found one that was perfect and about 18" by 18" square. It had 2 metal baskets underneath and a butcher block top. The only thing that wasn't perfect was the color and the price! The color of the wood was cherry and the price was $98.00!
The wood in the fiver is light oak so if I got it I'd have to paint it. I'm not sure I'd want to do that, and I don't know if it was worth more than $50.00! We'll have to see how much I make on my yard sale, maybe then I will get something like that.

Taco Bell:
We decided to stop and eat at Taco Bell, and we both got the chicken taco salad. It wasn't too bad and I called Mike and took his order and picked it up before we left. We had a nice talk (girl stuff) while we ate, and it was nice to get out of the house on such a dreary day!

5ER is Christened:
When we got back from Taco Bell we decided to go out to the fiver to have our Asti wine. So , Sue, Mike and I went out and got comfortable. Mike started opening the wine. POP! It opened and started bubbling up like a small fountain! All over a small part of the carpet and the kitchen floor! Mike moved as fast as he could, and got the bottle to the sink. He went to the house and got a towel to clean up the mess. We were amazed that the wine did that, because he eased the top off so easy! Sue looked like she was ready to cry! I thought it was so funny that I started laughing about it. I told her it that the fiver has to be lived in, and at least it was white and not red wine so harm done! She still felt bad, but the trailer had been truly christened! It seemed fitting to me! LOL! When we poured the wine into our glasses, only half the wine was left in the bottle! So the fiver had 2 glasses!
The kitchen floor is a little sticky, but that can easily be fixed, and we blotted up the wine from the carpet very well. We sat and talked until midnight, and then called it a night.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

SHOPPING FOR THE FIVER

Shopping:
Today we went looking for a few things for the 5er. We needed a mattress pad, and we we're looking for a 4inch memory foam topper for our bed. We didn't think to get the mattress upgrade so the mattress is not much good. We found the 4 inch memory foam topper at Walmart. We also got a mattress pad that is padded to add a little extra padding to the mattress. We also found a set of sheets for the queen bed, we are going from a king mattress in our house to a queen in the 5er. We had a queen bed in a park model trailer we had a few years ago, so we know it will be okay for us now. The mattress in the fiver is new, but you can feel every spring in it when you lay on it, and that just wouldn't do for Mike's back! Hopefully, this will help until we can invest in a new pillow top mattress. So when buying a new RV make sure you ask about the mattress, and don't make our mistake.

Dishes, and other accessories:
I was able to get a set of dishes that I wanted to use in the 5er. Mike doesn't like eating off paper plates all the time. I also got some of that shelf liner that keeps things from moving, while the rv is in motion. I really don't like the stuff, but it beats broken dishes, as I didn't find any of the unbreakable dishes I liked. I also got a small dish drainer to use. I don't have a lot of counter space in the kitchen, because we opted for a bigger living room, so as soon as I'm done washing the dishes, I'll probably dry them, and put them away anyway.
I still have to buy dish towels and things like that, but I have time to get them later. All those little homey touches are still needed, but we'll get there. Right now, the fiver looks so bare, and unlived in. Once I get things where I want them, I'll probably do a couple of small silk arrangements for some color on the table and the entertainment center.

Rain:
Today we had light misty rain most of the day. The temps were around 46 degrees.
Just a wet miserable day, that we decided to go shopping on!

Lastly I want to wish Gordon, Ontario a speedy recovery and get well soon. Both you and Sandra are in our thoughts and prayers!

Tuesday, March 25, 2008

HOMECOMING!!!!! WE ARE HOME!!!

Homecoming:
We got up early and drove to Hamilton, Ohio, I did see a big round orange ball in the sky!(The Sun) LoL! Mike thought that I wouldn't remember what it was since it had been a long time since I got up before 9 am! Haha!

Hitch:
They installed the new hitch while we were doing our walk through on the 5er. It took twice as long, because they had to remove the goose neck hitch that was already there, so we ended up waiting on the truck for about a half hour after we finished the walk through on the 5er. I think they do that on purpose so ya have time to shop in the parts and accessories store!

5er:
The guy took us through a class of 5er 101. He was very informative and explained each system in detail, as we were doing the walk through, THANKS Earl!
Then he showed us how to hook up and unhook from the hitch. After that all our classes were done, and they turned us loose on the highways and society! Haha!

Drive Home:
Everytime we hit a bump I braced myself, and shut my eyes! I was so nervous, but after about a half hour we both calmed down for the rest of the way home. Mike had no trouble towing the 5er, and he said it tracked really good, and it stayed in an even line with the truck.

Driveway Event:
Backing the 5th wheel into the driveway turned into a nonevent!!!! Within 10 minutes we had the 5er in the drive! Mike was AWESOME!! He said that all the backing he did on the farm when he was a kid payed off! I think he just did a snow job on me! Good thing I didn't bet him money, cause I would have lost it!
It turned into a very satisfying day for us! We are so excited to finally have our new Cedar Creek Silverback 5er sitting in our driveway!!!!! I'm not saying we won't have trouble ever backing in a campsite ever, but I was sure impressed!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!!

Happy Easter:
Wow, so much candy, and 6 little girls bouncing off the walls! Haha! It just makes my heart glad that I had a big part in that, and seeing the same faces on my 2 Sons that Mike and I had, when our Sons got Easter candy: PRICELESS!!!! Hahaha! After our meal there was an Easter Egg hunt for the girls. There were 2 special eggs, one silver, and one gold. The silver one had $5 in it! Whoever found the gold egg got a huge 14 oz chocolate bunny! I'm talking almost a whole pound of chocolate! Four year old Tehya got the gold egg, and that chocolate bunny was about 1/2 as big as she is! Sadie got the silver egg with the 5 dollars in it! Tehya walked around singing , "I got the Golden Egg!" Made me think of the old Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory movie!! Well my Sons, and Daughter in laws took the Grandkids home, and it is now very quiet here in our house! My Sons both looked like they had a headache beginning, I can't think why on such a pretty day! Lol!

Our Countdown:
Today is day 2 of out countdown!!! That means that tomorrow is the last day we have to wait before we go to get our 5th wheel! We don't have much of our stuff packed, but we are sure ready to start playing with our new toy! So many new gadgets in the 5th wheel to play with! We won't know which to play with first! It may take longer for Mike to back the 5th wheel into our driveway than it will to drive home from Hamilton, Ohio! So If I'm not in the RV Dreams chatroom on Tuesday night, I'll be out in the drive way with the flashlight trying to direct Mike backing the 5er in! Haha! All kidding aside, lets just hope that we don't have any problems with it!

By the way, I saw my first real Robin today! My first real true sign of spring!
Happy Easter everyone, I hope your day was Blessed!