Finally

Where has the time gone? It seems like it was only yesterday that we toured Jack Daniel’s Distillery and updated our blog entry but here we are, weeks after. Our trip down from Jack’s was uneventful, thank heavens and we rolled in at 7:30PM, a bit later than we would have liked. Excited to be in our second home but we find the rig did not summer well. Our caretaker did more than expected but we had some battery problems and we could not open all the slides. He had gotten the bedroom slide out earlier but the other slides would not budge. So we loaded our food stuff into the fridge and headed out for a quick dinner and to pick up a couple of new batteries – we still abide by the rule that we do not cook on a travel day. Once we got back, we unloaded what we needed and hit the sack!

Wednesday breaks with lots of sunshine and warm weather – oh hurray! Our first job is to check the rig out from top to bottom to see what needs first attention – the batteries are in rough shape. Even after topping off the water in each cell, they would not give us enough power to move the other 2 slides. So, we replace 2 of the 4 batteries and the slides zip out and we’re back to our comfort! Since we had all the batteries out, now would be a good time to renovate the battery tray and mechanism – after the slides were put out of course! So much to do, wash the roof, wash the sides and clean up the gardens and walkway. The Wisteria was damaged beyond repair during a sever storm last April and has to be taken out – it did grow crazily, in just the summer, it had branches grow under the rig from the back to the front landing gear, about 40 feet!

With the help of our friends and being back at the Plantation, it does not take long to get back into the rhythm of the activities in the park. Our first ‘big event was dinner at Larry and Marti’s to celebrate Larry’s

birthday. Larry grilled while Marti put together all the other dishes – of course, Bill & I had to supervise. After dinner, Marti broke out one of Jack Daniel’s finest whiskeys to cap off the celebration. Thank goodness our wives are non drinkers and helped us walk back to our rigs safely!

Barb set up her sewing area and continues to work on a couple of projects she had been working on back home in Ontario. We brought down a small Inuksuk and placed it in the garden under the Magnolia tree. The Sago Palms have had a wonderful growth through the summer and will needed to be trimmed and the young'uns removed.

We will be celebrating the US Thanksgiving here with a pot luck dinner at the club house. We’ll be sitting with about 200 other Escapees and always proves to be fun. Barb helps Marti & Ann to decorate and set up our table early and we converge on the event around 1:30PM for a 2PM start. This gives us time for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres - just what we need, more food! After, Larry & Marti came back to our place for more of the same, beverages and nibblies!

The day after – black Friday – was a busy day, 8 of us were off to Big Daddy’s for lunch then onto Mobile to view the Spanish Galeon moored at the Gulf Quest National Maritime Museum of the Gulf of Mexico. It was an amazing vessel that a crew sails around to various venues. I can’t imagine what it was like on the high seas back in the day.

This tour took us to dusk and then we were off to view the Christmas Nights of Lights at the Hank Aaron stadium. It’s a drive through light display that is synchronised to the music of a local radio station that you tune to the radio in your vehicle. It was one of the better light displays we have seen.

The next day we washed the rig, roof first and then we managed to get about half of the sides completed before we both ran outta gas! We’ll finish it up tomorrow. But, enough for now, we are entering December and will be decorating for the Christmas season.

Come back again….

Time to Go….

The witches and goblins are gone for another year and now we turn our focus on head’n south before the flakes fly! We have one more Sunday dinner with Terri & Mark but this time we drive into TO. Our family Christmas celebration is quickly approaching and then for us – we’re off, but not before we finish up some projects. Barb put the finishing touches on a new cover for one of her sewing machines.

 

It’s our youngest daughter’s turn to host this year and the tree is up and the smell of cooking turkey hits you as you come in the door. The little grandkids are dressed up and excited when the gifts are placed under the tree. Barb decided to use pictures as the gift name tags this year and it was neat to see everyone check out their pictures when they were 2 years old. There is always too much to eat and of course, being polite, I eat too much! When we’re all together, I can’t tell who is more noisy, the gandkids or our own grown up kids! Everyone had a great time. Soon, dinner was called and that quieted everything down while we did our Advent Lighting ceremony and enjoyed a superb meal.

It wasn’t long though and the grandkids were anxious to ‘get at the tree’!   They are never anxious to do the Tree Speeches but this year all of them went up by themselves and said their speech.  This was the first time they all did it, what a treat.  We all had a wonderful time and  all too soon it was time for our farewells, heading off to Fort Erie to ready the house for our departure.

We leave early in the morning so we can get as far south as we can the first day – we’re hoping to land south of Nashville for the night so we can take the distillery tour at Jack Daniel’s. We had picked out 4 motels to stay at, depending on how far down we got to. We could have made reservations but you know how I feel about that – I have reservations about making reservations! We made it all the way to Franklin, TN and I know you know what I’m about to say – yes, we picked the wrong one! It must have been 500 years old and looked it, it was very tired!

 

The next day, we were on the road toward Jack’s place. The drive took us through some of the nicest country side, it was a pretty drive. Soon, we were in the visitors centre at Jack Daniel’s, looking at the various artefacts from before prohibition to now. We didn’t take the tasting tour because it was longer and we knew we would be late arriving at the Plantation as it was. The tour guide was a good one – he was also on the Jack Daniel’s volunteer fire department and a taster. I think I should apply for a job like that…. Anyway, we were taken to the barrel warehouses, the Rickyard, the still house, the fermenting vats and the charcoal mellowing vats. Our tour guide added well placed humour and kept us moving along.

Of course the best part was the White Rabbit Bottle Shop. Lynchburg is in a dry county but the White Rabbit Bottle Shop has commemorative bottles for sale and the whiskey in it is complementary!

After, we toured the town square of Lynchburg, wandered through some shops – I think everyone sold something with Jack Daniel’s on it and fudge made with it (yes, we bought some). We stopped for lunch at the Iron Skillet and it was just ok, nothing special but lots of food…. Then on the road for the Plantation.

 

That’s enough excitement for now, don’t want to keep ya’ll too long but do come back but stop to smell the flowers….

Holy Leaf Bags….

The end of our October has been as exciting as the first half. And home ownership certainly gets in the way of doing nothing! It’s leaf harvesting time and both of us are out there working on them. It’s a good excuse to purchase power equipment so we picked up a leaf blower and vacuum to help us with the fall fun. We usually have a breeze here, being so close to the lake and using the blower to manage the leaves was like trying to herd a bunch of cats into a bag! So, Barb did the hard work with the rake while I came along behind and vacuumed and packed the leaves in the paper yard bags. Making sure they are compacted, we still had 21 bags of leaves on the curb for pick up and it only took us 2 days to do it! I know, you are asking how come we are so lucky to be having so much fun….

But, we do have fun. We received a surprise call from Ginny & Jerry – more friends from the Plantation. They were on their way down to LA from their home in Maine and stopped off at Niagara Falls and wondered if we could come out to play! Of course we can and met up with them in the Falls (NY). After hugs and chatter, the four of us wandered through the NY State Park and viewed the various overlooks of the Falls. Finally satiated with the views of the thundering waters, we took off for a late lunch/early dinner. What is it about us Plantation folks, always finding places to eat, you would think we were members of the LEO club! Anyway, we had a nice visit with them, a good meal and then our farewells until we get down there too – can’t wait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In her spare time, Barb finished a wall hanging quilt that will be hung in the bedroom of the rig. We took a picture down to hang here in the house and needed a replacement and this sure fits perfectly. What a great job Barb!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In our last posting, I mentioned the work we did on a table for our diningroom and already it has been used a couple of times. First, Randy & Norma stopped by one Thursday afternoon before they head off to their winter perk in Arizona. We chatted over cheese, crackers and beverages at the counter until we were all up to-date. After, we moved into the dining room and had many games of Fast Track. At first, the boys were unbeatable but then we took a break for dinner and somehow, that changed our luck. After dinner we continued playing and we couldn’t win anything. So, I guess it is true, if you want to better a man, feed him!

Our second use of the table was when Terri, Mark, Kerri & Harley stopped by for dinner on their return from Ellicottville. It was fun seeing Kerri & Harley again – oh, and Mark & Terri too! It was a nice afternoon and evening.

 

 

 

Halloween is fast approaching and we can’t believe it is so late in October. We waited out the wind over the last few days and put our Halloween decorations back up but that didn’t bring any more kids to our door, we only had 1! Any one need some Halloween treats?

 

 

We hope you all had a spooktacular Halloween,,,,

An Indian Summer…

Wow, where has the time gone again? I have observed and interesting phenomenon here in Fort Erie – as the days and nights get colder, the days get longer! Is that possible? It seems like I just posted that we were winding down and awaiting the day we head south to LA but we’re still here.

After our visit with Tom & Cheryl in Owego, NY, I have a renewed interest in wood working – not the 2x4 kind but building things with hardwoods. My brother (Larry) has a fully stocked workshop and he wants to part with some tools so in early October, Barb & I drove out to his place for a day visit and to forage through his shop for some goodies. I picked up a couple of useful items but one that I thought would be fun was a wood lathe and cutting tools. We loaded it into the truck & headed back home. A good day for us with a visit with Larry and getting some stuff to help stock up my own workshop.

 

With all the heavy lifting done outside, Barb has had some time to spend in her ‘lady cave’ sewing and quilting etc. We have some new mug mats that look like fall maple leaves and a pumpkin candle mat. She has also worked on her first ever painting in acrylics. She is so talented…

 

The family Thanksgiving was hosted by Terri this year. It was shocking to see how big and fast all the kids have grown. Our grandson, Mackenzie surprised us all by coming home for Thanksgiving from University in Halifax. It was a fun day, with great weather and with good food and good company, how could it have been better?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been looking for a dining table that would fit into our tiny space. After much looking, we decided to take back the table that we gave to Corrie when we left the house 15 years ago. It was used sparingly but left in her basement when not in use so the dampness left its mark on the veneer. We took it with us to Tom & Cheryl’s for his advise to whether I should replace or fix the veneer. Eventually, the result was to sand the top down and paint it. After we returned and all the other tasks were completed, we sanded all the surfaces and painted the unit. After a little TLC, we got it back to looking great so now we have a dining table!

The final bit of excitement we had in the first 2 weeks in October was our integrated fire alarms beeping at 5 AM! Doing the renovation under the Ontario Building Code means we had to install a smoke detector in the bedroom that is wired to the smoke & CO detector in the kitchen and when one goes off, they all go off! It's a small house for this type of integrated technology but we followed the rules (as if we had a choice). Anyway, I’m scurrying around the house trying to find the fault and once I really woke up, realized it is just a low battery on one of the units! So, the quick solution was to disable both units until we get out and purchase new batteries….

Now that I have you on the edge of your seats, I’ll leave you until next time. Hoping our Canadian readers had a nice Thanksgiving…

It’s Almost Time

As we wind down the summer here, we start to think about our trip south to our winter perch in LA. This is the first year we are doing it without pulling our home behind us, like when we came north, what to take and what to leave behind questions are in the backs of our minds. After being on the road for 15 years and homeless, it is new to us on what we need to do as far as fridge on or off, what tools do I need to take with me and of course, what clothes can we leave behind. Now that question could be more difficult to answer as I can’t remember what clothes I left behind when we came north! Anyway, enough of this for now, let’s see what we have been doing.

If you recall, we have sever wetness here with a high water table and as you may remember, I mentioned that we get standing water in the garage after a moderately heavy rain. Putting drainage in the driveway has helped and now we are adding an eave trough to the garage to help drain that water into the driveway drainage getting it away from the foundation of the garage. It appears to be working good and all the bit and pieces are adding up to a dryer garage floor making it usable for creating a small workshop.

 

We found time to attend a quilt show in a nearby burb, lunch on the patio of He’s Not Here and picked up more compost and sod for the side yard. But one of the more noticeable improvements is the installation of aluminum capping of the window and door frames plus the addition of storm doors on the front and back of the house. We had a crew come in to do this work as Barb & I sat back and watched! We didn’t plan on a storm door on the back until the installer said that he couldn't really cap the back door until he knew the size of the storm door so off we went to pick up and identical storm as the one on the front. After all the work was done – 2 full days – the exterior of the house looks fantastic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bill and Ann, our good friends at the Plantation stopped by for the day on their way through from Yellowstone to the Plantation via the Finger Lakes. It was a wonderful day/visit as we chit chatted on the deck and then had lunch ‘on the patio’ at our favourite spot here in Fort Erie. But all good things come to and end and they headed off back to their rig and then off to the Plantation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That’s all for now, we hope all is good where you are….