Boring

Boring . . . . And I mean boring.


This RV lifestyle is really boring. Nothing to do but . . . . . well let me give you an example of a twenty-four hour day.


We start the day by getting up anywhere between 7 and 9 in the morning. Whatever floats your boat. And regardless of the time you get up you don't eat breakfast until about two hours later. Gotta get you head together first. Now that time frame does not include coffee. That stuff is the head gathering elixir. The coffee time is blended in with computer time. Catching up on the latest news, reading email, checking finances. You know. the mundane stuff. After having done all that it is now time to decide what to wear for the day. Usually a big decision time between shorts and tee shirt or jeans and tee shirt.


If one had not decided the day before then now is the time to determine the days events. This day we will take a trip to the Cape May Lighthouse in Cape May New Jersey. Pack the necessities, snack and water, and off we go. Oh. Don't forget the camera and binoculars. The journey is about twenty-five miles from our campground traveling down route nine. Heavy traffic on the two lane route because of the summer crowed. But it relieves the boredom by allow us to find out where the shopping malls are and other places that might be of interest. We even found a Wal-Mart that wasn't listed in the book. (If you have to ask what book then you don't need to know)


So, continuing our journey, following the directions I pulled from "Streets and Trips". We got lost. Nothing new. We done that many times. When all else fails then follow the road signs. When you can find them. Unobstructed by trees and polls. It's great to swivel your neck around and reed the sign that says you should have turned on the street you just passed. But that's what they make big driveways and parking lots for. Impromptu U turns.


Well we get there. Big deal. Tall tapered cylinder with a light on top. No. I ain't walking up those steps to the top. I'm pass that age of adventure. We decided to take a walk through the trails. There are three. 0.5, 1.3, and 2.0 miles. Let spit the difference and take the middle one. We begin our walk across a newly renovated walk way that is laid with imitation wood. Helps the environment. Last longer and requires little maintenance. This turns into an unrenovated section of the path. Needs renovation badly. As we continue to trek we run out of board walks and begin walking on mother earth. She could use a little work too. Where is this stimulus money?


Well there is nothing to do but listen to the song of nature as the birds call back and forth. To take pictures of beautiful flowers and try to capture some of that beauty through the lens. To watch about two holes in the ground. about 1/4 to 1/2 inch in diameter being visited by bees. They only enter about a quarter of their body, do whatever they are doing and fly of to another or somewhere else. Tried to get pictures of them but the move so fast all I could get was a clear shot of the holes and bee blurs.


Well that was boring so after several minutes of observation I move on down the trail. Clicking of a shot or two of Red Winged Black birds aka fly catchers, A swan cleaning it's feathers and leaving a trail of down floating in the water. Don't they know we are trying to keep the waters clean?

After making this trek and being totally bored and tired we returned to the car for water and a snack. Then off on trail one. Here we watched mallard ducks preening themselves on an unsanitary platform. I wouldn't want to walk on that.


All in all it was a long hot day, and I mean hot and muggy, of boring stuff only to return to the RV and have to download and catalog the pictures we just took. Squeezed into those evening hours is dinner and a bicycle ride around the campground. Gotta get some exercise. Chow, read, chat, write, bed time. About midnight. Might awaken in the early morning, say two or three, take care of necessities, get a snake and hit the hay again about two hours later. And then a new day dawns while I go back to bed. Bored.


Everyday is not the same. You look for new and different things to see, ride the bike and or walk more and maybe take a nap during your heavy day. Any thing to kill the boredom.


To put up with this boring lifestyle one just has to love it. And I do. I love it! Love it! Luuuuv it!

Moving Stuff and going full time

We were still in the process of moving stuff out of our home in prep for full timing. And it's still amazing how that stuff grows as we trash it, give it away or move to a centralized location within the abode so we can move it again at a later date.

But the moving of stuff this time was t o allow us to go full time (almost). We still need to devoid ourselves of the home. It is amazing how that American dream you wanted so much many years ago has become the American Albatross. And in today's economy it is a nightmare. But, it served it's purpose and now the dream has changed to something much bigger. It has become not the house with the picket fence but the house without fences and one that will give us a much wider view of America.

Our first stop is at the Outdoor World Campground in Swainton, NJ. What a beginning. While DW was doing her thing on the inside of the motor home I'm doing mine on the outside. She had already hooked up power and after some grocery shopping I started to hookup the water.

I like to do this in stages. checking each connection for leaks before making the next one. As I did this and got to the filter unit the connection was pouring out liquid. I tried to tighten the connection. Couldn't tightened it. Tried to disconnect the pressure gage I had put on the connector. Wouldn't come off. Went to get my pliers and wrenches and found that some of what I need was back in that stuff we had been moving. DW40 and a lot of elbow grease finally did the job. Got my pressure gage back but the connection at the filter was still leaking bad.

Well for now I have to omit the filter. Connected straight to the MH and guess what. That connector was leaking too. All the washers had been replaced on our last trip so I felt it had to be the connections. I replaced the elbow going into the water system only to find out the replacement was broken and it was just like having an open hose.

Now being one that is great at multi tasking I was also getting the fire started in the grill. Stuff some paper and coals in the chimney lighter and forget about it for awhile. While this process was going on DW is preparing stuff for dinner, puts on coffee and a fuse pops. I hear the call from inside that the electric is off. All this takes place while sweat is pouring off me, dripping onto my glasses and I can't see half the time.

Multi task. fix the power first. After both of us checked breakers and switches we finally found the the breaker at the socket where the coffee pot was plugged in had popped but didn't look as if it did. Electric on again.

Check fire for grill. It didn't start. All the paper had burned but the coals didn't catch. re papered and re lite same. Now for the water. I retraced my steps with the water hookup. That is I started from the beginning and eliminated the filter. I finally got all the connections leak free and we had shore water and power. But no fire in the grill.

I had it. With the humidity taking water out of me faster than I could get it in I had to stop and sit in a nice cool place for awhile. Like and air conditioned motor home. And, of course, replenish the fluids. DW had to cook inside since I was no longer going to fight with the fire starting.

After all was said and done DW asked if I had opened the gray water dump valve. Ha! I hadn't even connected the the dump hose and I wasn't about to tackle that task now.

To cap of the evening we had a very nice dinner and then took showers. I could see my dirt and sweat and stink just running down the shower drain. It was good. And it was good night.

Big Weekend

Well the big bang weekend is over. That is until the end of the summer for many in September. For us it was just another day in the mobile home.

Here at Outdoor world at Scotrun, PA we watched the trailers and campers arrived beginning on the 2nd of July. Many people just brought their units in to set them up for their three day vacation. It was said there were over a hundred units at the campground. Believe me the place filled up quickly.

For me it was a special birthday on the 2nd. The DW made me some oatmeal cookies from a recipe featured on The Neely's of Food Network. They were the Oatmeal Cookie Ice Cream Sandwich. I noticed on their video how the coolies seemed to flatten out when she baked them and I never saw her press them down. The DW's did likewise.

As I chomped into my first cookie I told her they were tasty but they didn't seem to taste like oatmeal cookies. More of a spice cookie flavor. "OMG. I forgot to add the oatmeal", said she. And the laughter and comments erupted. A second batch came forth and, as suspected, these didn't flatten by themselves. Don't know how the Neely's made sandwiches out of them but they were good.

As the weekend approached we just chilled. Watching the antics of everyone else. It almost appeared as if no one went to see fireworks from here. They seemed to build fire pits, burn grub and listen to the noise of the big boomers in the early night.

Sunday and Monday we watched the tide of campers dwindle as more long haulers, 5th wheelers and Motor homes arrived to fill some of the spaces. Adding to those who had been here more than a week. Now, almost mid week they too will be moving on. Not to go back to work but to the next destination on their unending vacations.

No TV

We have been without the boob tube for a week now and I don't really care. It's been nice even though I miss the weather reports. But then that is what the computer if for. Now that's my side of the story but DW made mention of missing her soaps. OMG.

So out I go to get the dish up. Eighteen months ago in the land of sun and wind, better known as Quartzsite AZ, the dish took a tumble and the horn broke of its mountings. They're cheaply put together anyway. So before this trip I decided to repair it. Drilled a couple of wholes to mount a bolt through it and, walla, we are off and running. Naturally I didn't have, take, time to test it out.

Any who. This day out comes the tripod and, of all things that must befall me, the pole is missing. We both looked high and low in the bays without success. Luckily I had a length of PVC that I could use. Unluckily it was a tad to small in diameter. So putting the old noggin to work I wrap ed some cardboard around it until I was able to get it to fit.

So I slide it through the C clamps that hold the pole tight to the tripod. Just my luck one of the nuts to the top clamp is missing. Can only tighten it so much. But that's not the best part. The tripod and pole are suppose to be level. And with my trusty pole leveler I had on heck of a time trying to accomplish that task. Not being a genius with a compass and trying to level the pod and pole while acquiring the proper direction I found my dislike, nah hate, for soaps increasing by the second.

We worked on that task for more than an hour when our next site neighbor came by and told us he was unable to pick up anything on his roof mounted satellite dish. He felt it was probably interference from the trees.

Can you get soaps on your computer?