Prepping for Summer Vacation

OK, so because we're retired we don't really have a summer vacation, but our grandson, Jace, does.

Therefore, we really DON'T have a summer vacation. 

Reservations are all made and paid for, so we shouldn't have any issues with places to stay for the 8 weeks we'll have our 7 year-old grandson with us, and it will be nice to focus on the trip itself and all the things we have planned for Jace to experience. However, it's a long trip. In just motor home miles, it's well over 3,000 miles, not counting the miles we'll put on the Jeep once we get to our different destinations.

Beginning June 1st, we'll be stopping in West Virginia at the Beckley Coal Mine Exhibition and Museum. We've heard good things about this place, from the on-site full hookups for RV's, to the museum itself. It's supposed to be a good educational experience for kids and adults, with a “ride” through a simulated coal mine in coal cars.

After a few days there to explore more of West Virginia, we head to our second destination on Jace's summer vacation. We asked him what he wanted to see on his trip, and he said he wanted to see some waterfalls. So, not wanting to disappoint him, we're taking him to Niagara Falls. Go big or go home, I always say. Our campground (Daisy Barn) is right on Lake Ontario and only a 20-minute drive to the Falls, so we should have a nice week in the area.

Next is a two-week stay in the Lake Ossipee area of northern New Hampshire at Danforth Bay. That was the first really significant campground we stayed at on our first trip right after picking up our motor home almost 4 years ago, and Jace was with us then, too! Lots of things to do in that area, so we'll be able to keep him busy, plus see some of Barbara's relatives in the area.

After that, a two-week stay in the Bar Harbor area of Maine is on tap. We found a campground (Forest Ridge in Ellsworth, Maine) that is about 15-20 minutes away from the Bar Harbor area itself rather than stay on the shore for two reasons: one, it's over the July 4th weekend, and Grover would not appreciate the expected fireworks over the water, and two, this campground has full hookups instead of just water and electric as is the norm for the coastal campgrounds Acadia National Park is also on the menu for this part of the trip, and who knows, maybe a whale watch.

Our fourth stop is at Spacious Skies Minute Man campground (formerly Boston-Minuteman) in Littleton, Massachusetts. We've obviously visited Massachusetts before, but never stayed in the state with the RV. Time to visit Dad, other relatives, and long-time friends as usual, as well as partake in our favorite Massachusetts foods.

The end of the trip has some float time built in, as we don't yet know the exact date Jace needs to be back in Georgia for school prep, so we may be doing a speed-run back to Georgia after our stay in Massuchusetts, or we might have some wiggle room to stop elsewhere on the way back. All-in-all, it's a 7 or 8 week trip that will be hard on the driver (me) and the motor home, so prepping for it is pretty important.

So in preparation for the big trip, it's back to Red Bay, Alabama for us, and our semi-annual chassis maintenance at Belmont Diesel. We get the oil and filter changed, the air filter changed, and the chassis lubed every 6-months. Plus, for this trip, we'll have them do the annual maintenance on our Onan 7KW generator as well. You never know when you'll need some emergency electrical power.

We also haven't been happy with the Tiffin-supplied OTA (Over The Air) antenna as far as consistent reception is concerned. The OTA antenna is how we get broadcast TV signals in each area we visit, and it's been spotty at times. Now, some of the areas we stay in are pretty remote from populated areas, so we expect some signal problems, but we just don't feel as if our current antenna is up to the task. We don't watch a lot of TV, so a satellite dish is a wasted expense for us. So we'll be getting what the A/V specialist who works at Tiffin during the day considers an upgrade to both the antenna on the top of the RV and the booster switch inside. Don't know how good it will be after this, but this guy knows his stuff, so it definitely won't be any worse.

Finally, a little cosmetic fix on the Diamond Shield below our front door, and we'll be good to go!

Should be lots of posts from this trip, so stay tuned for updates. And if you're in the areas we'll be visiting, let's get together for some socializing!

Keeping a 6-year-old entertained when you're ten times older than he is

Think about that for a moment.

Sure, we as grandparents love our grandchildren. We really do. Most grandparents get to see their grandchildren for an hour or two each week (if they're lucky) and less so if they're not. Almost always in concert with a visit by the children who sired them. I know that was the case when Barbara and I first started out as parents. A Saturday visit and play date, or a Sunday dinner with Mom and Dad were the staples of our early parenting lives.

That was then.

This is now.

Fast forward 30+ years, and we're the grandparents now. Two things are now in play; the ability for us to be nearby each weekend is largely impossible due to our retirement lifestyle, and school vacation for kids these days has gotten out of hand.

Jace's time off each school year that begins in early August:

5 days – Fall break – late September

3 days – Thanksgiving break

12 days – Winter break for Christmas and New Year's

3 days – Just because in February

5 days – Spring break – early April

2 months – Summer vacation – the months of June and July

That's more than 3 MONTHS time when parents need to be off work, or provide for their kid's daycare. Most parents are lucky to get 3 WEEKS paid vacation each year; forget about 3 months! And decent day care is either unavailable, or prohibitively expensive. But what might be impossible for us to do on a weekly basis each weekend allows us the opportunity to take Jace for the extended school breaks in his schedule.

24/7.

More than 3 months out of the year.

In a 430 sq. ft. motor home.

And we're now 10 TIMES older than Jace is. And while Jace is ramping up his ability to do active things, Barbara and I are clearly trending in the opposite direction. But people say that keeping active keeps you young.

They're liars. Every damned one of them. Not when it comes to keeping up with a nearly 7-year-old boy when you're nearly 70 years old.

So we ride bikes. Me for about 30-45 minutes, Jace for 4 hours. Barbara and/or I sit and watch him ride back and forth for the rest of the time. Long walks a couple of times a day. Time in a playground if one is on-site (usually accompanied by lots of lifting Jace to grab things higher then he can reach). Barbara handles the education and craft stuff I'm not qualified to do. And she makes sure the Easter Bunny finds Jace even when he's not at home.

In COE parks we go kayaking. I do all the paddling, because as sure as the sun rises in the east, Jace will deposit a paddle in about 40 or more feet of water if he gets one in his eager little hands. He then spends the entirety of the kayaking journey with one or both of his hands in the water, providing drag to my efforts to transport him around the lake. And then he wonders why we can't stay out longer. I don't have the heart to tell him the truth that if he keeps dragging his hands in the water we'll never get back to shore again.

Hey, Papa! Thanks for doing all the heavy lifting back there!

 

We play with fire at least one night of his one week stay. It's a requirement because Jace needs to satisfy his pyromaniac tendencies with a stick and a roaring fire in a pit. No smores because that boy does NOT need any sugar right before going to bed.

Put stick in fire. Stare at fire on stick. Repeat for an hour.

 

If the weather and water are warm we go swimming.

And we rely on other campers. Yeah, I'm not ashamed to admit it. Jace being a VERY social animal, he wants to meet and play with every kid in the park. WE love to meet new people, even if they are half our age, especially if they have brought with them a new playmate or two for Jace. So we all socialize in our own particular ways. Even campers our own age are not immune from the Jace experience, as he loves to ask fellow RVers if he can see the inside of their rigs. We DO NOT know where that habit comes from; he appears to just be naturally curious, even if he does sometimes ask to see if the inside of their RV is clean 🤦 (facepalm). One younger couple this past trip wished we were their parents, because they thought what we do with Jace on every school break is so “wonderful”. I think the mom just wanted us to take her two kids on trips. We also set up a play date with his good friend Amie, who we parked next to for almost 3 months last year.

The one thing Barbara and I always make sure we do is schedule some downtime after an extended period with Jace, because we truly need the time to rest and recharge our bodies and minds, so no long trips after a Jace vacation. A couple of hours of travel at the most, and at least a week or two with no appreciable activities except for the occasional sightseeing day trip.

And while Grover loves his buddy Jace, he also ends up crashing each night and the week following one of Jace's visits. It's a beagle thing, I'm sure.

 

So that's where we find ourselves for this update. We have more COE-hopping to do in the next 6 weeks here in Georgia and in northeast Mississippi before a week in Red Bay, AL to prepare the coach for our long summer trip with Jace to the Northeast. Stay tuned!

Snowbird Summary - Florida, 2023

For the most part, I love snowbirding. What's not to love about warmer weather, right? Sure, sitting in one place for 3 months when you own a motor home that can travel anywhere you want to go is kinda limiting, but monthly rates also make for lower campground fees, which translates into more things we can upgrade in the RV, or to plan fun things for our grandson Jace's summer vacation.

So looking out the big windshield at the same scene for 3 months has it's challenges and rewards.

Thus far in our retirement, we have been alternating between Florida and Arizona for our winter travel. Both have advantages and disadvantages, but both give us the opportunity to visit family in each location. 2023 brought us back to Florida, and more importantly, Strawberry Fields for RVers campground in Chiefland, FL. We last stayed there in 2021 while trying to keep Jace occupied during much of the COVID shutdowns, and it was a nice, level park with paved pull-thru sites. They've expanded since then with an almost equal number of grassy back-in sites for their longer-term residents. But it's the flat-rate monthly fee which brought us back - $475 per month all year 'round, and you pay your electric cost each month. Translates to less than $600 per month. So even if Chiefland isn't right on the water, or south of Tampa or Orlando, you can't beat that rate.

It's also only a 40-minute drive to Gainesville's very excellent VA hospital and care center, which I seem to need every time I'm in Florida. This year it was to clear up a nasty infection, the details of which we will NOT get into.

Chiefland is far enough away from Tampa or Orlando to require us to either bring Grover with us for the day, or board him at a doggie day care center so that he's not alone for 8 hours or more. Not that he can't handle that amount of isolation, but it's just not fair to him, even if he makes you think the cure was worse than the disease when you pick him up after a play date. At least the staff at his play places get a laugh out of him chewing us out when we pick him up.

When in Florida in January, it's almost a requirement to attend the annual Florida RV Supershow in Tampa. Since we already have our RV, we were there primarily to see what the third-party vendors had to offer, but we DID manage to peek into a few current models just to see what new things RV manufacturers are putting into their units. Nice, but not for us in the long run. We're incredibly happy with our choice of a Tiffin Open Road 36LA for our home. Spent a nice day with our friends Byron and Lynn Hill, and I got a sweet deal saving $60 on a set of four MagneShield tire covers for the RV!

Can't even tell the tires are protected!

And Grover got his first play date. And we got chewed out for it.

I spent the time rediscovering my golf swing after almost 3 years of shoulder rehab, and played my first round of golf in years with my brother-in-law. Not pretty, but not as bad as it could have been. Barbara rediscovered recreational painting. Our camp flag had faded badly in the past year and a half, so Barbara painted us a new camp sign. Came out great!

March in Florida is strawberry season, and Plant City is the place to be for the annual Florida Strawberry Festival. It's held at a local fairground which has rides for kids, a music venue, and lots of vendors serving unhealthy foods. But their fresh strawberry shortcake is to die for! On the way to the fairground, you could see workers in a long line picking the strawberries for the day. The festival also features many vendor booths hawking their wares, some of which are actually useful. We ended up buying a really cool collapsible seat/stepstool from CycloneSeat which we'll use for Jace when he travels with us, but it's already come in handy for me as I work in the wet bay underneath our slide, and for putting up another purchase we made – a 20-foot telescoping flagpole! We also bought a dog tag for Grover in case he gets away from us.

Cyclone seat closed

Cyclone seat fully extended

Cutest dog tag ever!

 

And Grover got his second play date. And we got chewed out for it – again.

But snowbirding is also the time to renew acquaintances and make new friends. The aforementioned Byron and Lynn Hill, who we found out will be in the Niagara Falls area the same time we'll be there during Jace's summer break – so another chance to see them before we meet up with them again in late September. Dan and Jodi, fellow RVers we met and helped out in December of last year. They had never visited Chiefland before, so we had them up for dinner one afternoon. Mike, a next door neighbor, who upon hearing we'd be in Niagara later in the year, gave us some places to visit and eat at in the area. Christine and her long-haired dachshund, Obie, who played with Grover a few times. And finally Bill and Karen Moore, who were staying in the site behind us at Strawberry Fields in their new-to-them Class A motor home while their sticks and bricks home in Chiefland is being renovated. Great people to sit around and talk with while having a glass of wine (or two) at the end of the day. The camaraderie of RVing is everything we had hoped it would be when we first started doing this almost 4 years ago.

So, we saved some money (not as much as we planned on due to my impulse buying), walked a lot and rode bikes to keep somewhat active, met some new friends, rested and recharged for the upcoming 1-week storm known as Typhoon Jace (his Spring Break), and enjoyed a winter free of snow and freezing temperatures – the perfect snowbird experience!