AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! Back On The Water

Ahhh!!!!!   Back On The Water

March 29, 2017

Well here we are in our third full week as full time RVer’s. We have finally gotten all of our gadgets and belongings in their proper places, most all of the address changes have been completed, and most all of the official government stuff completed. We did finish filling out all our required pre-employment paper work for our jobs in Yellowstone. It just blows my mind that we live in an age where we have applied for and we were hired for jobs in which the whole process was done on line or by telephone interviews.   It’s hard to believe that in a little over two weeks we will start our trek out to Yellowstone. The snow crews in Yellowstone have begun their plowing to open the roads and most roads should be open by April 21 weather permitting.

This past week  has been uneventful but a little busy. On Sunday, we went to Cedar Key Baptist church for Sunday worship service and to our surprise a little part of Ringgold was there as well. Larry and Ginger Collie are in Cedar Key celebrating their anniversary and when we got to church to our surprise they were there also. It was nice to see familiar faces and spend a few minutes catching up on RBC and Ringgold.  After Church on Sunday we drove to Ocala, Florida to meet Paula’s older sister Kim who lives in Winter Park. We had dinner at the Olive Garden thanks to some very nice people who gave us Olive Garden gift cards. The meal and visit were very good and we also dropped off another tote of “family heirlooms” to Kim.

I know most people associate Florida with the east coast, Daytona, “The Mouse House”, Sea World, and large cities. But we have covered a lot of central and western Florida in the past 3 weeks and the land here is full of cattle ranches, horse farms, and vegetable farms. The is also a lot of beautiful land set aside for wildlife refuges and preserves.

Monday was our house cleaning and maintenance day. Now 320 square feet doesn’t sound like a lot to clean but living in a small space it doesn’t take but one or two things laying around to make a clutter. Then the vacuuming and mopping, yes, the same chores exist for full time RVer’s as those of you living in stick built homes. We also had a small issue to work out with our kayak racks which are mounted on top of the truck. Since this was our first trip out we found that our normal way of mounting the kayaks was going to have to be modified due to a clearance issue with the camper nose cone. After an hour or so of figuring, discussing and refitting we think we have the proper adjustments made.

                                      

Drive Thru Suwanee River Wildlife Refuge

giant lily pads in the pond

6 footer take a swim

Ahhh…….On Tuesday we finally got out on the water with our kayaks. You know it’s amazing how peaceful and relaxing it is to sit on that 9 ½ foot kayak and paddle through the salt marshes. The farther away from the launch you get the more peaceful it becomes as the noise of cars on the highway fades in the distance.  Then you are surrounded by all the things nature has to offer fish jumping out of the water all around you, as pelicans, cormorants, egrets and osprey, plot their next move to swoop in and catch their next meal.  And Yes Ashley I did pay attention to your bird species identifications from our trips on days gone by.

The lap of the waves in the light breeze is very refreshing and gives you a true since of freedom from the hustle and bustle of the world.

What is even more amazing is that my wife (who can’t swim) truly enjoys these adventures and you can see the relaxation on her face as she points out the wild birds and fish jumping. We found out a number of years back that we don’t do well in the same canoe or a tandem kayak so for continued marital bliss we each have our own kayak and we are the captain of our own boats. I go my speed she goes her speed and eventually we reach the same destination. If you think about it that what married life is all about, a little compromise on both parties trying to reach the same destination.

local fishermen

view back toward boat launch across the marsh

After such a wonderful day on the water, enjoying the fresh air and sunshine we were both too tired to fix dinner so we had date night on Tuesday night at the waterfront in Cedar Key and then a nice drive through the lower Suwanee River Wildlife Refuge.  Which was a mix of tall pine tree forest and swamp land full of gators and no-see-ums. NO-SEE-UM a small dot sized fly that has the venom of Satan’s bite in that small package and by far the only thing so far in our new home that I have found that I don’t like.

Since my Daughter was giving me pointers the other night on the phone about how to blog I will steal a page from her play book and leave you with this thought…….

Life is not all about the destination, but it’s about the adventures you have  on the way to your destination.

Until next time

Allen and Paula

RamblinRuis

Home Is Where You Park It

Well we are well into our second week as full time RVer’s. We have been busy arranging the camper and finding some more things we have found we can do without.  We have been busy in the mornings trying to make sure all our mail and banking info has been changed to electronic and addresses have been changed. When you are living this way, there are a couple of unique things to deal with that we haven’t had in the past living in Ringgold. We have a physical address and a mailing address so when you make those changes you have two address to use and some people only want one or the other. But it has come together nicely. Paula has been attending a water aerobics class with some of the other ladies on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 1:30 pm. The pool is heated and with the warm weather she has been enjoying the class. We also take time to take a walk around the park every evening after dinner.

We have had a little time for some relaxing this week and were able to make time to go out Saturday night for a date night to a burger joint right on the water. We also did a hike in one of the local waterside parks.  We hope to take the kayaks out either this weekend or first of next week to do some exploring on the water.

Never can tell who you might see in Cedar Key

Sunset over the marsh

On Sunday, we visited a little Baptist Church on the Island that was a white wooden frame building that was established in 1891. It still has an old pendulum wall clock on the back wall that looks like it has been there since the church was built. It still works and reminds everybody of the time as it can be heard ticking all over the church.

We continue to learn new things from the more experienced full timers. On our first day to the laundry we had our plastic hard sided baskets which we lugged to the coin laundry. While there Paula began a conversation with one of the other ladies and quickly learned that our baskets while they may be fine for stick built house living are too cumbersome for the RV. She was kindly informed that Wal Mart carried a collapsible laundry basket which is both light weight and easily folds up for storage.  She also observed a basket of tennis balls beside the dryers and quickly learned that a tennis ball or 2 placed in with your dryer load helps fluff the clothes for quicker drying which is important when the dryer is a dollar a pop.

One thing for sure our home is where we decided to park it for the night.

The Adventure Begins

Well it has happened. On March 11, 2017 Paula and I left Ringgold Virginia which has been our home for all but 3 years of our 25 years’ marriage to pursue a lifelong dream of ours which is to travel around the country in our new camper and see the country working along the way for as long as we are able to do so. Yes, to some this may seem a little extreme, or even crazy but none of us are guaranteed tomorrow so we chose to spend our tomorrows together doing something we both love. Sure, we would be lying if we told you we didn’t have a few butterflies but what we haven’t planned for we will figure out together along the way.

Our home for last 17 years

best view in Ringgold

Before I go too far we need to say thank you the folks at RBC and the WMU for the big surprise send off on Sunday March 5^th, which was our last Sunday at church. The day started as a normal Sunday at RBC until the worship hour at which time Pastor Duane called Paula and I up front and the WMU presented us with a very cool honor in which they purchased over a 1000 booklets to go into Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes in our honor. Most of you know for the better part of the last 15 years OCC has been a true passion of Paula’s and I have been fortunate to help her out along the way, but to have this donation made in our name by the WMU was truly awesome and to see the numbers of children that this will touch around the world is great. But RBC didn’t stop there. We had a surprise reception after church where we could greet and speak to a number of our close friends and church members. We truly saw Gods love for us through the kind words , numerous cards which contained different restaurant gift cards, generous gifts  and even a survival kit given to us by our church family at RBC. But for some reason that wasn’t enough so on Tuesday night the Eva Walton circle surprised us again with an abundance of snack food and goodies for our trip. Believe me there are not enough adjectives in the old Webster dictionary to say how humbly thankful we are for all the love and support from a People Called Ringgold.

Send Off

Abundance of snacks

Now back to the adventure. As I said we left Ringgold on March 11th after a whirlwind month in which we sold our house, most of the furniture in it, our car, correction Paula’s car and what we could or didn’t sell we took to Jimmy at the Goodwill collection center at Cain Creek or donated to the Habitat restore. (with all the tax donations, we probably will catch the eye of the IRS next year.) 

last minute adjustments

We had planned to leave at 8 am on the 11th but we didn’t get away until around 1230pm with a wonderful send off from our close friends Jack, Gayle, Jimmy, Kim, Jill, Olive, Muffin, Ellen, Lacy, and Ashley complete with signs and balloons. We were able to make it to Santee SC, but we had planned to go further until we figured out that it was spring break and Daytona Bike week and there weren’t may choices for camping any further South on 95. Thankfully we were about an hour south of the snow line from the surprise March snow storm.

On March the 12th we woke up to a cold rainy day. No big deal except this was the first time we had stayed in the camper and we were trying to figure out how to correctly close our slides and store our gear safely for the next leg. Our hands were frozen by the time we finished in the rain. Thankfully we were out of the rain after driving and hour or so south which made for a much better travel day. We arrived in Bushnell Florida at around 6 pm where we would stay for the next 3 days. The campground which on paper is our new address, was a very nice quite campground and yes believe it or not full of others who were full time RV'ers. I do believe that Paula and I were easily the youngest campers there. We spent Monday taking care of establishing our residence in Bushnell which would mean two trips to the tax collector’s office which is where DMV is located in Florida. We had to make two trips only because we forgot our passports which we needed to help expedite the process. So after about three hours with a very friendly DMV rep (I mean she was really nice) we left the DMV with brand new Florida Driver’s License, Voter registration cards, Florida Registered Vehicle and official Florida residences. Tuesday was a day spent tying up some loose ends, taking care of some vehicle maintenance. We also were able to find a few more things we HAD to bring along but now could live without, which meant another trip to yes you guessed it the local Goodwill. We also had to make our first RV repair service call as we had a leaky toilet. Thankful it was covered under warranty and was an easy fix of a stuck valve on the back of the toilet. Citrus RV repairman Cameron did a good job and was able line up a few more jobs as the other campers flocked to the repair van like bees to honey, all with their own repair needs.

Official Floridians

With our official government work behind us, on Wednesday March 12th we packed up and moved about 2 hours north west to Cedar Key Florida which is where we will remain for a little R&R mixed in with some more organization and possible downsizing until we leave for Yellowstone on April the 14.

By next week the weather will warm to high 70’s and low 80’s and will be great for some kayaking in the Gulf of Mexico.

Until next time Allen and Paula

Our New Home