Tethers

It's late at night, I am trying to write but Harley Dog is begging me to close up the computer and come play with him. He has dragged his toys all over the motorhome aisle, so his pet parent has lots to trip over.

Nice doggy.

He is often on a long tether that is tied outside and only when I am outside with him. But often I am back and forth between outside and inside, I leave my door wide open so he can drag his tether and follow me around. For instance earlier today I was trying to fix my bicycle outside. Harley was outside with me, playing with his squeaky pig making a ruckus. Squeak squeak squeak.

I just realized I need an allen wrench, so I go back inside to get the tool bag.


That is an old canvas purse I recycled to a tool bag for my favorite hand tools while the rest are stored in a big tool box an angel bestowed upon me.

Anyhow, Harley follows me inside while I search for the tool bag. I find it, go back outside to commence cursing *ahem* I meant fixing the bicycle. Harley follows me back out, dragging his tether with him. The phone rings, I go inside to find the phone and guess who is dragging his tether and a few pine needles back inside with me.

I go back out to plop down in a chair to chat on the phone for minute. Here comes Harley dragging his tether back outside.

Campgrounds require dogs to be on a 6 foot leash but no one has ever complained about him being on a tether at my site with me outside with him. I make sure he can't reach the road or the neighbors with his tether, though some neighbors enjoy his visits and have told me it's OK to let him have a longer tether to their site too (super nice folks I sometimes meet, um well, Harley meets!)

I never leave him alone outside, he is so tiny, a hawk or eagle could fly away with my baby. I feel sorry for the folks that take a six foot leash and tie their dog to the picnic table or tree leaving the poor doggy about 9 inches of leash to move with. I've seen this often and the poor dog looks miserable. But my mutt is a tad spoiled and I do feel sorry for him that his life is one of strings, leashes and tethers. But now and then we do get to off leash dog parks or friends with fenced yards. In that case, the little ragga-muffin gets to run wild.

I owe so many wonderful angels so much thanks for keeping us rolling along. When my camera suddenly died, an angel sent me theirs to keep the pictures coming along.

Harley's quote of the day:
Home is where we bark it. 

Roaming Georgia in an RV

Every morning is a renewed chance to be thankful for another beautiful day on mother earth.

I tried to photograph the incredible smoke on the water one very cold morning recently. Somehow, I just can't get the camera to capture the surreal scene the way I had hoped.

Photos are from the McIntosh Lake RV Park towards the eastern coast of Georgia.

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Lowcountry South Carolina

I can smell the ocean!

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Lost and Found in a Little Old RV

Lost again! Will my tall RV clear the short trees ahead? I figured I would take a picture in case the insurance company had questions about me peeling off the roof.

Rendezvoused with friends in the campground who brought over wonderful food to accompany the fresh off the boat shrimp I purchased from a roadside stand on Sea Island Parkway. That is a Corelle pie plate holding three pounds of prawns I steamed in a wok with Old Bay Seasoning, limes, vinegar and water.

Finally made it to Hunting Island in spite of the windy 40F degree weather. It was in the 70's here last weekend (when I was in Brunswick, Georgia.) Life is goof!

Wet, Cold and Driving

Making my way through Georgia today.

More later.

Rolling Along

On the road again today praying the wheels don't fall off the wagon next. This old motorhome is always popping off parts, just to toy with me. I have the GPS working again. It tells me where I am but not where I want to go. Will keep poking and prodding it in hopes it will straighten up and fly right.

I will scribble down directions for the pooch to read off to me as we roll down the highways and byways.

Oh wait. He can't read.

Trying to teach Harley map reading. 

Woke up alive to 50F degrees. The world is beautiful though suddenly very c-c-cold for this Caribbean blood. Brrr. It should warm up later today, but for now, one little doggy is refusing to go outside until it does.

Well, getting lost is nothing new to us, just another adventure. I wonder where we will turn up next.

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Golden Isles

 Spring has sprung.

This hibiscus is near perfect.

Nature is awesome.

 While stuck in traffic, I noticed this unique window sticker about gun control.

It's a crazy world.

Bye bye crime scene where 3 people were murdered less than 100 yards from where I was visiting friends. 4 days after the murders, yellow tape and investigators are still working the scene. While my friends were nonchalant claiming the neighborhood is safe, I was afraid. What kind of monster kills 3 people? I hated to shorten our visit, but I left after 3 sleepless nights. The killer has not been identified nor arrested.

Bridges fascinate me for some strange reason.

One day I will post all my bridge pictures together. 

I got lost, the GPS died, and Harley dog is terrible at reading maps.

We ended up in Jacksonville, Florida traffic on a detour during rush hour.

We should have been on the bypass around the city but Harley was still lost in the atlas when we missed the turn.

I have no idea why they call it rush hour when traffic just creeps along at a snail's pace.

Harley's playmate looked so sad when we left.

This chapel is parked in Kingsland, Georgia at a truck stop.

The founder used to drive trucks but very often couldn't find a church with parking for his big rig on Sundays, so he started parking Chapels at truck stops.

A creative mind at work with unique solutions always appeals to me.

Right after I started living in my wheel estate, I read a blog where the RV owners took a picture of every place they camped overnight. I pirated their idea. It's a great one too.

Today I am in Brunswick, Georgia at Golden Isles.

Magical Motorhome

Well I am back to being my happy self, just that I am dead tired exhausted. Poor puppy dog needs a lot more attention and exercise today, but I am pooped. After three nights of very little sleep, I am just ready to crash bang boom.

For me, it was a big driving day because I made about 250 miles. For me that is amazing. usually I don't get much past 60 miles in a day. I didn't start until 1:30pm, here again, way late for me, but I was slow moving all morning due to lack of sleep.

My friends keep a spot for me in their garden.

Exiting my friends' garden in reverse is always a bit rough and takes awhile. One friend was at work and the other wasn't feeling well, so I did it alone, like I normally do anyhow, but having a spotter is always a relief.  I have to back downhill while making a 90 degree turn, leaving their heat pump equipment intact, miss the neighbor's roof, dodge the mailboxes, avoid the trees, elude the fence and not mash up cars parked (illegally) in the curved street. I am super careful not to cross the unseen dotted line that separates their lot from the neighbor's lot. The neighbors are nice enough, but I am sure they appreciate me not touching their land.

Other than that, it's a breeze. Oh how I wish I had a backup camera. 

But this rig constantly has other ideas about repairs and maintenance before something so frivolous as a backup camera rises to the top of the wish list. My motorhome seems so small until I go into reverse, then it magically inflates to twice or triple its size, scaring me silly.

Sometimes I enter and exit the driver's seat a dozen times while reversing. Harley dog always leaps about ready to exit with me, so I have to tell him "STAY!" each time and look at that sad little face. It's funny in a way. He keeps the driver seat warm and plants paw prints on the side window for me. I always hope he won't push the lock down and lock me out, but I have a special safety feature to get back inside, in case he does.

I've heard horror tales of owners that were locked out of their rigs by the innocent paw of a pet. Recently Harley learned about electric window buttons in my friend's car. He loves to hang his silly head outside. In this picture he was trying to find the magic button but I had my hand over it, so he couldn't get the window down any further, but he was wiggling his paw everywhere trying to find it!

Once I was out on the street, 10-20-30 minutes later,  I too parked illegally, to run back inside to say my final goodbyes and retrieve my puppy who was having his final fling with their doggy, romping around their fenced yard. I turned on my emergency blinkers, to indicate to traffic (should any go by) that this was a temporary parking.

I did a 360 degree walk around the rig to see if I was dragging a bush or mailbox or had a tree dangling off the roof. All was well except 3 out of the 4 emergency lights (one on each corner of the rig) was malfunctioning. In other words, only one light was flashing, the other three were dark.

Good grief, when did this happen? How do I fix that? My thoughtful friend wanted me to start tearing the rig apart to fix that right then and there. I said "Good heavens no, I am not going to start making repairs in the middle of the street. I will add it to the list."

When I lived in the Caribbean, I and hundreds of others, often did make lenghty repairs in the middle of the street, but in America, I think that is frowned upon. 

"The list" is that never ending piece of paper of maintenance and repair woes. Something an old rig is always serving up. More work to do...

Even when driving, I generally stop at least every hour. I have to stretch or doggy wants to water something or I need to visit the broom closet (I keep a toilet in there). I drink a lot of water throughout the day, especially while driving. All that water has to go somewhere...

Also, because I don't have a car, I do my errands while in route to the next campground. Once I park at the camp, I like to stay put, soaking up nature and praying for a miracle (that I will get well and stay well). So I try not to backtrack back out of the campground to run errands. Even so there is usually work to do, hooking up, catching up on laundry, sweeping out the crud, repairing whatever came loose from the last jostling down the road.

Yesterday was no different, there was detours and roadwork plus I got lost again. My GPS has decided to pack it up and Harley dog is lousy at reading maps. I had some written notes but not enough and trying to read those while flying down the road was a challenge indeed. Getting lost, making wrong turns, oh what an adventure!

I was turned away from several campgrounds that were already full, got lost trying to find another. They had a vague sign that it was a half mile ahead, and I drove up and down that road looking for the entrance that just wasn't there. Gave up and headed more northerly with my stomach putting up a huge rumbling that was scaring the dog.

Finally returned to a campground I thought I would never revisit, but decided to give them a 2nd chance, as I was beat down wore out. Somebody had small and large local honey for sale on the counter and honey was on my shopping list, so I bought a jumbo bottle.

They gave me a teeny tiny site that was so thick in mud and muck, I began listing to one side, like a sinking ship. I parked and reparked a few times only to get deeper into the mud. I was afraid if I pulled out leveling boards, they would be stuck in the muck when it was time to leave and I'd be forced to donate them, something I wished not to do.  Finally drove back to the office with a huge smile on my face and put on my best manners to humbly ask for a different spot. I was hoping I wouldn't have to get on bended knee and beg (cause my knee is a wreck since the boat accident) but PHEW the lady gave me another site to go try out. Even offered to let me go pick one on my own, if that one didn't work either.

Trying not to eat the steering wheel while I parked on that site, looking for the level spot while Harley jumped up and down in his seat ready for a puppy patrol. The utility box looked like it had been run over and propped back up, but the power worked, so I jammed in the cord to focus on throwing some food together.

Prior to my arrival, somebody had knocked the utility post crooked. Another "thoughtful" camper left the power turned on and the cover thrown down on the ground so that the electrical outlet was "hot" and aimed up towards the rain. (In this picture, I have already replaced the outlet cover.) Call me silly, but I always turn the power OFF before unplugging. If one is wrestling to get the thick heavy cord removed and accidentally bumps the metal prong of the 30 amp cord, it's not going to be pretty. 

I thought it was a smooth ride more or less, but I was wrong. My walk-in closet threw up in the hallway (I keep a shower in there too!) I guess *um* I should have closed the door, but oh wait, I was supposed to glue the door back together or order a new one, but heck, it's on that long list somewhere (waiting for funding) and well I didn't get the old one glued back together yet. I'm not even sure glue will fix the old one, but it's worth a try...

I need more hours in the day to get all these repairs done.

The galley rail that my friend and I glued and screwed a few years back, sprung it's glue and partially popped off. Holy cow, no idea why that happened. We installed it on the back of the kitchen counter to reign in my burgeoning spice and condiment bottles. But the kitchen counter is at a slight tilt because they dropped in an iron sink when they built the rig without shoring up the counter sufficiently. You would never notice it until you try to attach a nice straight galley rail, then you see the sag. So we had to slice the rail in the middle, file it down, then glue and screw, or I thought we screwed, but maybe not, maybe it was just glued.

When I traveled with my energetic friend last fall, it was heaven on earth for a few weeks. I had half the work and twice the fun! Alone, I have double the work and at nearly the same cost. The only difference in having two humans travel in an RV versus one, is the food cost goes up and the laundry is a bit more. Other than that, gas and camping fees are the same for one or two.

The work is the same whether split by two or one working alone. If one working alone, then it surely feels like twice the work.

Could be perhaps because I do so many things the old fashioned way due to my efficient budget. It saves a ton of money, but it all takes time. Where exactly is that EXTRA hour they promised us a few weeks ago?  I need it now!

My current location.

Killing My Sleep

Spring is here! Birds are chirping, the sun is out, and I have cabin fever.

While I've enjoyed seeing my friends immensely, living in suburbia for a few days seems so confining. Where are the raccoons, sandhill cranes, deer, armadillos, turtles, gators, panthers, bears, red crested woodpeckers and those slithery things that I would rather not see at all?

Harley dog is of course immensely happy to have use of our friends' fenced in yard and he wears their Shih Tzu doggy out completely with his constant-in-motion antics. He loves our 2 legged friends, climbing all over them trying to slather kisses on their laughing faces. 

At the last campground where I spent 4 months of winter, about 90 people knew Harley's name where as only 3 folks actually knew my name. He is a funny little dog, full of wonder and excitement. He wants to meet all the doggies and all the campers. he dances, he twirls, he baby crawls and if you come to visit, he will drag out all his toys one by one to show you.

Some days I think Harley should get a job as a teeth cleaner. Given half a chance, he will gladly attempt to clean your teeth. If that fails, then he tries to make you laugh and dodge his kisses. The more I say "Yuck! Doggy germs!" the more he tries to kiss and make me giggle. It's a game we play of me dodging his kisses while he tries to plant one.

Last night he was accused of stealing half a doughnut which made me angry that my little boy was being bad to the bone. I didn't see it, but he had telltale signs on his little face and my friend says he took it out of her hand. Like that bundle of fur and endless energy needed a sugar high! I have to keep telling my friends to stop giving him treats. I don't want a fat beggar for a dog. I make him sit calmly before he can have a special treat. My friends are just shoving them at him letting him leap and jump for food. I don't want him doing this! Tsk tsk tsk. 

I am just not sleeping well at night. The triple murders just frighten me. On the outskirt of this neighborhood is a retention pond surrounded by woods. In the woods is a shack where the 3 victims were living. The news continually refers to them as homeless or transients, but they were living in a shack and most of the neighbors knew they were there. They seemed harmless enough. 

I met one of the guys years back when I was living in my friend's garden in my motorhome. My friends would send me to the store to fetch their groceries at a small mall nearby. Also they would send me across the street from that grocery to another store. This guy and his dog was often sitting on the sidewalk at one place or the other. Never begging, just sitting there smiling with his dog. I would say "Hey, how you doing?" We might chat about the weather or the dog for a few minutes. He seemed more hungry for human conversation than anything else but he was pretty skinny, always smiling and he loved his doggy.

One day before I left, I took him a little care package with food for him and the doggy. I know all about tough times and wanted to spread the cheer. So many wonderful angels have helped me out in my time of crisis.

When I saw his picture in the news as one of the three victims, I immediately recognized his face. I didn't know about the shack because I never hiked around the retention pond in that area.

I used to walk all over the neighborhood with my doggy, but on this visit, I just felt plain scared. What kind of monster can shoot and kill three people? How can 16 officers show up after two 911 calls and not a single one of them looked in the shack? Sadly, one of the victims made one of the 911 calls and this info has just been brought to light.

Anyhow, I will climb off my soap box now.

Pray for peace.

I love my friends, but I am going to shorten my visit and travel soon, because I am a nervous wreck after dark. I just can't seem to sleep more than an hour or so, then I wake up at every little noise wandering if the killer is out there looking for more victims. I know my doggy is trying his best to protect me, but he can't seem to make me sleep. My eyes are baggy. I'm tired.

There is just this evil feeling like the killer is somewhere close by.

Crime Scene

Some days I get far more adventure than I wanted.

It was time for me to leave Wickham Park in Melbourne to begin my re-positioning cruise. That's sailor lingo for seasonally moving your ship to operate in different waters.

First I planned to visit friends in Orlando for a few days. They invited me to park in their garden. These are the same friends that a few years ago convinced me to get a puppy dog with a tear-jerking story. Yepper, that's how Harley Dawg entered my life. Ironically, Harley was 5 months old when I adopted the little starving waif and my friends had an older dog plus a 5 month old puppy. Whenever these two see each other, they go nuts romping around like puppies again. It's so super cute.

Two of my friends live together and one I have known since I was about 14 years old. If you met each of us separately you would probably never figure out what we have in common. I was thinking about this recently. I believe it's our similar outlook on day to day life. What ever we are doing at any point and time in our life, it's the VERY BEST time of our lives right then and there.

We've seen each other through the ups and downs. We've both had a roller coaster life of fabulous highs and a few rocky lows. But I think each of us always thought our lows were our highs and our highs were nirvana.

We're happy people and life is good!

But as I approached her neighborhood, which is a typical Orlando preplanned suburbia there were helicopters overhead, cops cars on the streets and news agencies every where. I turned onto her street to see more cop cars and a few people in handcuffs. It is still unclear whether those arrests had anything to do with the murders.

I was so shocked and gawking at the spectacle, that I made a wrong turn into a cul-de-sac and had to back out into the main road again, making a huge mess of traffic in my motorhome but the cops and everyone else simply ignored my gaffe. (Daggum tourist!)

Yes. I said the murders.

It took about an hour or more before we found out that all the excitement and attention was due to a triple homicide less than 100 yards from from my friends' home. Meanwhile the usually sedate neighborhood was abuzz with multiple helicopters. Three people had been murdered presumably Monday night. Other neighbors had reported gunshots that night but when the powers to be were summoned they looked around with flashlights for a few minutes then left. Tuesday morning a dog walker went to check on his friends whom he found shot to death. As I write this, the news agencies do not report any arrests in the case. Perhaps the folks I saw in handcuffs when I made my wrong turn, were coincidentally being arrested on something else.

This is a respectable neighborhood of upscale homes, many with professionally landscaped gardens. During the morning a parade of maids and gardeners are seen arriving for work at many abodes.

One, two, three murders? Here? No suspects?

It's just shocking all around. I knew one of the victims, my friend knew all three. It feels creepy to be so close to the scene of the crime and know that a murderer is lurking about. For the first 24 hours or so,  I could feel the evil in the air, I contemplated driving far far away but frankly, I was too exhausted. A day later the evil feeling left (perhaps the murderer has relocated?)

So when I heard a thump on my RV door late last night, well actually the night before (I've had internet wars trying to get online!) I about had a heart attack.

Had the killer come for me?

It was my friend who was going to walk her dog and wanted me to join her. For some ridiculous reason I did, then about half way around the large block, I said "This is insane! We're out walking our dogs at 10:30 at night and they haven't caught the killer. Let's go back."

My friend said "This neighborhood is safe."

I said "It WAS safe, but we just had three murders!"

I climbed inside my motorhome, locked the door, said my prayers then slipped back to sleep.

Another knock at my door. This time it was my friend's housemate. My friend had not returned home yet with the dog yet we came back an hour ago. She left to go look for her while I flailed around to put on street clothes again.

Now there was yet another knock at my door, this time the brother of my friend who happened to fly in the day before on a prearranged visit. He wanted to know where everybody went.

My jaw fell, as I scrambled to find my shoes, but at that moment, the other two and the dog came walking up the sidewalk.

We all went back to bed. This time Harley dog snuggled up close to me all night, something he hasn't done in quite a while. I think he sensed my restless spirit. I was up and down all night, sleeping fitfully.

As of this writing, the police have no leads or if they do, it's top secret.

I have some things to take of first, then I will hopefully be back on the road again. We are all trying to have a fun relaxed visit in spite of the calamity.

Neuseway Nature Park, North Carolina

Neuseway Nature Park, Campground & Meeting Facility

Last fall I found this gem of a county park tucked away in eastern North Carolina. They don't accept reservations. We arrived to find the campground had no room left. They offered us overflow camping at the same price. Usually overflow camping has no electric or water, but they told us there was an electric post we could use if we parked near it. 

To our surprise it came with two dozen 30 amp outlets. The circus could come to town and plug in!

One other RV was in the overflow lot, he had the only water hooked up to his rig. We asked him if we could fit our Y-valve on the spigot and share his water. He was quite friendly and readily agreed. 

The electric pole was so high up, we could only reach the first row without a ladder. We only needed one plug, but our neighbor had a gadget so he could use two 30 amp plugs for his big rig.

 A whimsical totem pole hides in the campground.

 Fall colors were mirrored in the Neuse River.

 Fat goldfish and lilies shared this pond.

 Bears held up a hand carved bench at the entrance to their nature center. A bucket for tips?

 The bench was heavy enough to survive a hurricane.

 Another view of the pond.

 Here I am backed up to the electric post.

The campground proper is shown in the rear. I loved this little park and would gladly visit there again. Maybe next time I can snag a place inside the campground.

Ball Joints

I've been trying to save up for 6 new tires on the old motorhome. I finally gave up deciding to save up for 2 tires at a time. I have six total, with 4 in back that are duallys, which mean all 4 share one rear axle. I'm always trying to push my book sales and work on more books. This is easier said than done, but I do have mountains of stories piled up every where. But back to the daggum tires... in the deep south we say "tars"...

My 2 front tries began wearing in odd spots. This happened after a gawd-awful detour that had vehicles driving all over the braille strips and funny little square reflectors that are positioned on some roads to remind drivers to wake up and not wander around the lanes. It was a horrendous detour, designed by someone who clearly hated cars. Add to that *ahem* that I may have accidentally hit a curb one day while trying to enter a parking lot in too big a hurry. I guess the alignment began shifting.

I'm learning to IGNORE the other drivers that live with their horns blaring. If I need to slow down to turn slowly so as to miss hitting the curb, by golly they just have to wait. Honest to goodness, it seems like at every traffic light, someone beeps when the light turns green. It's crazy. Well, this winter, I've only driven my RV 4 times in 4 months. That is my contribution to staying out of traffic and being green for the planet.

In March 2010, I took my RV on a trip, I drove about 20 miles before hitting a rotten detour that had us driving down the shoulder of the interstate. Once I got past that nightmare, the heavens opened up, pouring down rain so thick, so fast, that I had to drastically reduce speed to see anything at all.

When the storm passed, traffic was fast and furious with cars thick as an ant farm beneath a picnic table.

My hands were gripping the steering wheel so tightly they were going numb. A few months later I bought a memory foam steering wheel cover. This has been heaven on earth. It gives me a comfortable grip that is not cold nor hot. It somehow reminds me that I don't need to lock my hands so tightly that they go numb. The few times I've driven someone else's car that didn't have this memory foam steering cover, I felt a tad confused. It surely will spoil one rotten. It's comfy and it gives me confidence in driving for some strange reason.

Back to that first trip, after detours, rain storms and heavy traffic, I was so exhausted, I pulled over at the next rest area. Checking my clock, I was crestfallen to discover I had been on the road for one hour and ten minutes not the four or five hours I imagined.

It took me 2 days to reach my friends in Orlando. I was still pretty sick and wore out. I slept for 3 days, jut getting up to toss down some soup, briefly visit, then snoozing again.

About a month later, I managed to drive a 100 miles to rendezvous with another friend who met up with me to camp at Long Point Park, a beautiful little island in the Indian River Lagoon on the east coast of Florida.

My little old rig at Long Point Park in March last year (2013).

I returned to park at my friends' house in Orlando. That month they convinced me to adopt a pet, so I began the big search for a nearly free dog with a tear jerking story. Along came Harley who I agreed to adopt over the phone, sight unseen. That little bit of fluff needed me and I needed him. We formed a strange relationship, then a few weeks later took off to see the wild blue yonder.

It's so hard for me to believe that 4 years later, Harley and I are both still alive. We're still in this little old motorhome which keeps presenting more and more challenges.

On the trip to Florida last autumn, I seemed fatigued all the time. It's hard to tell if it's me or the RV is requiring too much steering which can be exhausting too.

Yesterday when they mounted the tires, I expected them to give it an alignment and I would be on my way to happier driving. I have to leave soon to head up to my volunteer workamping assignment on Lake Hartwell.

Well, the mechanics don't recommend I go anywhere anytime soon until I replace the ball joints on the front end then get it aligned. Grrrr...

Today I have studied all I can find out about ball joints, what they do and what happens when they fail. That was so exhausting I had to take a nap. Matter of fact, yesterday they took so long working on my RV, I had to climb in back and snooze.

It's like I am battery operated and my battery gives out twice a day. Once I recharge with a nap, then I am able to plow forward again. It's all part of healing.

Ball joints. Who'd a thunk it? I guess that has to be moved up the list of work, to the top. I always have projects ongoing trying to hold this heap of parts together and call it home.

Life is goof!

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Early Birthday

Look what I found in the bottom of my compact washing machine. I have no idea what it is, but I photographed his drowned body before tossing him out. Nature is fascinating. It kind of creeps me out that this was attached to my clothing. Yucky-poo!

I've been using my compact washing machine for 3 years now. It has saved me a bundle in quarters and hassle getting to laundry mats. It also means I can own less clothes and more rags. I use rags for cleaning the motorhome inside and out, I can launder them and keep on cleaning. I only use one roll of paper towels in a year's time. I air dry all my clothes inside or outside after washing. It's a lot of work, but it saves money for the gas tank and campground fees.

I grew up helping my mother hang out laundry in all sorts of weather conditions. This little chore reminds me of her and the old backyard with the huge clothes line poles.

 I wasn't planning to wash dead bugs!

 Below is a homemade marinade in a one gallon ziploc baggie.

My friend came to camp with Harley and I for a few days. They brought flowers and a rump roast for the crockpot. The flowers were for my birthday which they thought was March 11th, but it's April 11th.

Well, I have no problem celebrating all month. The flowers look gorgeous and brighten up the motorhome.

I stuck their roast inside the baggie marinade, then squeezed out all the air. Now it can marinate in the fridge for 24 hours before slow cooking in the crockpot with mushrooms, mini bell peppers and red potatoes. I guess you can see I used a healthy amount of garlic and herbs along with Worcestershire sauce and red wine. By squeezing the air out of the baggie, the marinade is infused into the meat.

Spring is here and my friend is helping me put this old motorhome back together. Stuff always breaking and falling apart. Even worse, is finding spare parts on the ground and not knowing WHAT they fell off of. Another mystery to solve...

Spring Fling

My current year round abode is a mini motorhome.

This ding-a-ling had a fling and added some spring bling to my little old wheel estate.

This is my side bedroom window. It makes me smile when I look at it. (It doesn't take much to excite me these days!)

 Spring has me so excited I wet my plants.

I earn monthly reward points with my VISA Amazon credit card. This is handy because I am able to charge my campground rents and motohome gas. I keep my credit card paid off, never running an interest accruing balance. Typically I buy useful things with the points like organic food for me or doggy, but this month I spent my point rewards on frivolous flowers.

This window is on the same side as my front door and patio awning, so I get to stare and smile at my flowers often.

Awhile back I added a port hole, to remind me of my days at sea.

The numbers in the door window is my newfangled outdoor thermometer, so I know the temp before doggy and I brave the world. I installed it with 70F at the very top, so even without eyeglasses, I can tell the temp. The numbers are huge anyhow.

An angel gave me the "Dog Taxi" sticker a few years back, I stuck it on the door, in case of an emergency, someone might surmise there was a beloved doggy in here.

Well it's Sunday and a gorgeous day here in Florida, so doggy and I are off and running. Well, um, walking actually. I think we have company coming to camp with us soon, so we better brush our fur and comb our hair.