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!

Kicking back while we can

The nice thing about wintering anywhere is that you can choose your level of activity. For some, it's about being able to enjoy the outdoors with activities you couldn't do in the cold or snow of more northern climates. For others, it's a time to kick back and recharge the batteries in anticipation of more strenuous months ahead.

Or if you're like us, you can do a little bit of both.

That's what Florida has been for us in 2023. A few days of activities, interspersed with a few days of just goofing off and catching up on nap time. For Barbara, it's reacquainting herself with painting, something she did quite a bit before we met, and taught to kids after we got married. For me, it's catching up on some small but needed maintenance on the motor home.

And it's always a good time to meet new friends and visit with existing ones.

So that's why there hasn't been much in the way of blog posts since we got down here. It's really an idyllic life; day trips to places we want to visit, nice fellow RVers to meet, taking up or renewing a hobby, and seeing friends and family when we can.

And naps. Lots of naps for me and Grover. He and I share that passion.

For me, it's been a time to plan our year ahead, almost through September, which is kind of a departure for us. We started this lifestyle a bit more free-wheeling - not making too many reservations in advance, and calling ahead about an hour before I got tired of driving and finding a spot for the night on our way to a particular destination. Now, our travel schedule revolves around our grandson Jace's school vacation schedule. The kids these days get so many weeks off during the school year, that it's impossible for any parents to take off all the time needed to watch their kids during every vacation. So we've become his watchers, and we love it.

But it does demand that we park ourselves in North Georgia or somewhere nearby for about 6 individual weeks out of the year, and then plan some sort of summer vacation trip for Jace encompassing two months in June and July. We've been fortunate to finally be able to book places in advance, even those in the Northeast who want all their money up front. Followers of our travels will likely enjoy the trip we have planned for Jace's summer vacation.

We also have some definitely different and possibly exciting news about travel in October and November of this year. Stay tuned!

So that's been Florida thus far. We've got another month here in Chiefland, then it's back to Georgia and Alabama for the Spring. Corps of Engineer parks and a trip to Red Bay for semi-annual chassis maintenance and an Over The Air (OTA) antenna upgrade before our summer trip with Jace awaits.

Chasing 70 Degrees Once Again - Florida in January 2023

With Jace's Christmas break finally over, it was time to resume our travels southward. After spending last year in the American Southwest, it is back to Florida for the winter months of January-March.

People to visit with - Barbara's brother lives in Florida, as well as our nephews and nieces on her side of the family, friends to meet, and lots of rest and recreation to take advantage of.

We're staying in Chiefland this year at a park called 'Strawberry Fields for RVers'. We were here 2 years ago for s single month with Jace, and it's a nice park, but with limited amenities. Nice wide, level, paved pull-thru site pads, and they've expanded to include a large number of back-in sites on grass in the back section that had been undeveloped the last time we were here. While it's a bit more north (just west of Gainesville) than we'd like, you can't beat the rates they charge here; $475 per month all year 'round, and you pay for your electric (usually about $80). Most places south of Orlando charge $850-$1000, and resorts on either coast can run you $2000-$3000 per month squeezed in like sardines.

We'll also be close enough to attend the annual Tampa RV Supershow on January 20th with friends Byron and Lynn Hill. And no, we're not looking to get a new RV, but there are lots of third-party vendors with interesting products and ideas for us RVers, and we intend on seeing what new items are available to make our life better on the road. It's a two-hour drive from here, but we have a doggie day care appointment for Grover just minutes away from the fairgrounds so he won't be alone all day. He'll still chew us out mercilessly when we pick him up at the end of the day, but at least he won't be alone for hours.

Such is life with a beagle.

We're also only a 30-minute or so drive to the Gulf Coast and scenic Cedar Keys,so we'll give you an update on our travels there. Might even take the kayak over there for a spin.

For those of our readers in northern climes, stay safe and warm as best as you can. We'll have a boat-drink in your honor as we kick back in shorts and Hawaiian shirts

Tails From The Road, Part 2 - Meet Grover!

As my Dad was moving his blog posts from his original host over to this one, it dawned on me that I had never properly introduced myself to our readers. I'm Grover, the latest in a long line of adopted dogs Mom and Dad have had through the years. Not that I haven't been featured in lots of blog posts; I've become a very integral part of this family in such a short time frame!

But for all of you who have never had the pleasure of my company in real time, it's time to get to know me - Grover the Lemon Beagle - a bit more intimately.

This is what Dad calls my mugshot. I don't really know why he calls it that, but from what he tells me it's the first look Mom and Dad got of me when I was turned over to someone who had agreed to foster me. Apparently, I was in a home with a poodle and a cat, and they were both attacking me. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it; there's nothing to the ugly rumors that I might have been the instigator in some of those attacks.

All I know is the next day, I'm being picked up and put into the back seat of their Mini Cooper convertible and taken to my new home! I was a bit surprised when my new house moved around - a lot!

I quickly learned that Mom is a soft touch when it comes to a cute face. Even though they provided me with a very comfortable bed to look out my very own doggie window, it only takes a little pleading and some doggie eyes to get Mom to allow me in her lap. She's such a pushover! I do love to go for rides in the car, too, so Mom and Dad got me this nice harness and rigged it up in the back seat to keep me safe. It's only drawback is that it doesn't allow me to get in the front seat of the car with Mom. Grrrr!

Either way, traveling is the life for me!

Mom and Dad are really nice, and make sure that there are lot's of toys for me to play with (and sometimes destroy), because you can't have too many toys, right?

Mom and Dad also take real good care of me, but sometimes they like to do things I don't like very much, like take a shower, or worse yet, have my toenails clipped. I really hate that. So sometimes before, and always after, I find a good hiding place to let them know I'm not really happy with them. This usually involves hiding behind the big pillows on their bed. It's not a very effective hiding spot, as they always find me, but it gets the message across that I'm a bit ticked off with them.

It's actually MY bed, even though Mom and Dad still insist that it's theirs. They sleep in it with me, and I just move underneath or on top of the covers as my needs suit me. And ALWAYS in between them. After all, we beagles are Velcro-dogs, and I must be attached to one or both of them at all times.

Sometimes Mom and Dad will take me on one of their adventures outdoors. I really love long hikes in the woods, because there are lot's of smells for this beagle's nose to investigate. Other times, I'm not as enthusiastic about joining them in one of their outings, like the time they took me kayaking in a lake with them. It was pretty scary at first, and I kind of got used to it after a while, but let's just say I was very happy to get my four feet back on solid ground!

Now some of you may get the idea that I sit around all day, playing Velcro-dog by attaching myself to either Mom or Dad (or both) - and I do - but sometimes I have work to do as well. After all, someone's got to keep track of these humans to make sure they're doing their chores right. One time, Dad had to vacuum out the Mini, and Mom and I had to supervise him to make sure he was doing it right.

And it's very hard work keeping track of them, even in a small area like our motor home. Sometimes I have to make sure that everything is OK with Dad when he's in the bathroom. After all, the shower IS back there, and that's pretty scary! Sometimes he just spends a lot of time in there, and I get concerned, so I track him down and check in on him from time-to-time.

Other times, I just have to make sure he's eating right, and not dropping anything on the floor that would make a mess for me to clean up.

Dad says it creeps him out, but I know he's just kidding. Dad kids a LOT. But mainly, I'm a thief; at least, that's what Mom and Dad call me. Dad says it's because I stole his heart. With Mom, I just steal the food she's not watching very closely, or what she's dropping while she makes a meal for them. No matter; I'm still one very happy dog who is loved, and who doesn't get attacked by a poodle or a cat any more. Even if I have to put up with getting dressed in a silly costume every once and a while:

That's all for now. If you happen to see us in a campground somewhere in the very recognizable Parental Parolees blue Tiffin motor home, stop by and say Hi! I'll be sure to steal your heart, too!

Refresh In Red Bay - 11/05/2022

As we sit solidly in Fall and await the advent of Winter, it was time to get our coach ready for the extended trip to somewhere warmer. Like many homeowners who have to get ready for the cold, or find little things that need doing before the wintry weather makes it's annual appearance, our house is no exception. After driving 8,000-10,000 miles since our last visit to Red Bay, little things come loose (as is expected in a home that suffers the equivalent of an earthquake nearly every time it hits the road), recurring service on the chassis is needed, and sometimes an upgrade or two is taken care of.

The big difference between me and you homeowners out there? I'm retired, have limited skills and tools to accomplish some of the simplest jobs, and I'm retired. That means I pay someone else to have this stuff done. Costs a bit more, but did I mention that I'm retired?

So moving on, our list was blessedly short this October, as our coach continues to be one of the better built coaches that has come out of Tiffin in the past few years.

So you know what that means, right? More money available for UPGRADES!

One of the nice things about Red Bay is that the area is populated with current and former Tiffin employees who have started their own businesses either full-time, or do the same work they do at Tiffin after hours. There's at least a couple of dozen shops that can take care of everything Tiffin does, with the added benefit that you can make appointments with them instead of using Tiffin's first-come, first-serve scheduling at their service center. Plus, after your first year (when your full warranty runs out with Tiffin), they limit you to 2 technicians in one Express Bay for 3 ½ hours maximum. Third-parties will work on your coach for as long as you need them to, and they charge the same $125 per hour that Tiffin does.

So same people and talent, same service rates, fixed appointments, and creative people who can make almost anything you can dream of.

Enter Cody Poores.

Cody worked in Tiffin's cabinetry shop for many years, and started a business doing upgrades after-hours a few years ago. Cody is one of those people who is truly a craftsman at his work. When COVID hit and folks were let go due to the economy slowing down, Cody decided to leave Tiffin for good and do his magic full-time.

One friend of ours had Cody replace their 3-drawer cabinet on one side of their galley and converted it into a pull-out peninsula with extra counter top space. Another friend did the same, but added a replacement doghouse (the area between the two captain's chairs up front used for cup holders and minor storage) into a much more functional (and beautiful) cabinet and table. Barbara was storing clothes in a narrow but deep hamper in the bedroom. It worked, but was clumsy if she needed something in the bottom of the hamper.

While Barbara would love to have more kitchen counter top workspace, our design is different than our friend's galley is, so there's no way a peninsula could replace our 3 existing drawers (more on that later).

But the doghouse replacement and hamper change-out was definitely on our radar scope.

Had to set up an appointment nearly 6 months in advance (since snowbird season runs from September thru November and Red Bay gets VERY busy during that time), and sent Cody our choice of styles, stain color and counter top style and color, and the wait was on. But was it ever worth it.

As you can see from the before and after pictures, the doghouse was of a cheap plastic and fake chrome construction that was basic in design, and barely functional. No real flat surface on which to sit anything, and the cup holders were low to the floor and away from the seats, so reaching down to grab a sip of something required some manual dexterity while driving a 38-foot motor home down the road.

Typical motor home doghouse. Cup holders, a bit of storage, and not much else.

So out went the old doghouse and in came this:

This went from being something that separated our captain's chairs into a living space when parked!

Note the extra long pull-out tray. Locks in during travel, too!

As you can see, the cup holders are now raised higher and more towards each captain's chair for ease of use. The counter top is wide and deep, and can hold my tire pressure management display for easy viewing when driving, or snacks when the seats are turned around facing inward and parked in a campground for weeks or months at a time. A recessed tray extends the area for snacks and drinks, and a drawer beneath stores everything from sunglasses to monitors when we're not driving. The counter top is the same material as the rest of the coach, the hardwood used is the same as Tiffin uses, the stain is the exact same, and the handles even match the ones on our drawers. In short, it's a perfect addition to our house and makes the front of the coach look like it was built with the rest of the coach.

Barbara's hamper has been converted into two deep adjustable shelves with more than enough space to hold everything she used to store in the hamper, with extra room available to get 3 pairs of shoes off the bedroom floor.

Next Spring? A pull-out counter top next to the fridge for extra workspace when preparing meals.

Prior to Red Bay, we spent two weeks in Piney Grove COE in Dennis, Mississippi. A very pretty Corps park with tight spaces in one half of the park, and decent sized spaces in the remainder. Guess which side of the park we had? Yup, the tight side. Our driveway was listed as being 50-feet long, but that was with the inside angle measured; the outside was more like 40-feet, which barely gave us enough room to pull the Jeep in perpendicular to the front of the motor home.

Just a bit of a tight squeeze between the cement retaining walls, some trees on the other side, and the campground road!

Spent our last week in Piney Grove flat on my back recovering from something my grandson gave me. This year I have been through COVID in late May, the flu in late July and whatever this bug was that Jace gave me. I've had healthier years.

But for now, it's back to North Georgia for November and December and our go-to campground, Leisure Acres in Cleveland, GA, to be near Jace and our daughters for the holidays. Haven't made our Winter reservations for January – March yet, so we don't know if we'll be in Florida, or Texas, or even Arizona this winter. We'll roll the dice later in November to see where we'll be.

Even though we're not traveling I have plans for an update or two on here before the holidays, but if I get lazy (after all, I'm retired) here's wishing all fellow, future, and wannabe Parolees a Happy Thanksgiving, a very Merry Christmas, and a safe and Happy New Year!