12/29/2011

Thursday night is bingo night and I have just a word of advice.  Don't go to happy hour before going to bingo.  It will greatly affect you ability to concentrate!!  That's all!!


Little house big backyard!

12/22/2011

One year ago today I started my new life!!  My retirement life and so far it has been wonderful.  We are making it fine in our fifth wheel.  Our house is in the process of being purchased.  All of our children and grandchildren are doing fine.  Larry's back is giving him some trouble, but the weather in Florida is helping him feel better!

Little house big backyard!!


Gail

12/21/2011

We have just returned from a quick trip to Indy for my families Christmas.  We flew out of Orlando on Friday and returned today.  Saturday was the family party and it went really well.  Two out of the eleven siblings were not able to attend, and they were missed.  We were there about 5- 6  hours which was great!!
My son came with us and we had our little gift exchange with him.  That is one of my regrets is that it did not work out that we could see him again.

We were able to spend Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday with our granddaughter, Mady, which was good.  Tuesday I fixed a turkey and fixings and we had our Christmas with her and Scott.  Mady is real close to being taller than me, but I still have her by a 1/2 inch.  Next time we see her I am sure she will be taller that me and she is only 13!

12/08/2011

Great weather here in Florida!  Yesterday we went to the pool in the afternoon to catch some rays.  It was great!  Later in the afternoon a cold front with some rain blew in and this morning it is pretty cool.  I think it is down in the 40s, but that won't last too long.

Last night I learned how to play Hand & Foot, a card game.  It is complicated and seems to take a while to play, but I think I will enjoy it.

I have see and heard many different birds near the storage area.  And of course the alligator is still in our little pond.

I believe this is a Tri-colored Heron.  You can not see his color very good in this picture, but I could not get very close.


Little house - big backyard!!

11/27.2011

WE ARE IN FLORIDA!!  HOORAY!!  We arrived yesterday about 11am.  Last night we went to our first Saturday night dance and this morning Larry sang in the choir.  We jumped back right back in!  Tomorrow we meet with the new activities director about my exercise class and Larry's "Grand Old Opera Show".

The weather is 80 today and about 60 at night.  They have seen a black bear in the back storage lot and advise taking in pet food and taking down bird feeders.  We have already seen a White Egret and today we will be trying to locate the owls nest.

Here we are set up at the RV Park.  The park is maybe 1/3 to 1/2 full and people coming in everyday.

11/13/2011

We are staying a few weeks with Larry's daughter, before we head on to Florida.  His daughter and son-in-law installed full hook-up for our fifth wheel, PLUS high speed Internet and cable w/ DVR!  It is a great deal.  The weather is fair.  A few nights were down to 28 - 30, but most of the time the night are in the 40s or 50s and the days are in the 60s and 70s.

We are having a good time.  Every morning Larry walks over in his PJs and robe for breakfast and coffee with his daughter and her family before they start they day.  I sleep in and have a breakfast bar later, which works out great for both of us!.

Our grandson, Zander, is showing some interest in golf.  He has great hand eye coordination and has started our paying fairly good.  Larry is giving his tips and suggestions, but is encouraging his parents to get his golf lessons.


Here are a couple of pictures of our set up.  Larry's daughter has about 31/2 acres and the back yard goes down to a lake. 

10/29/2011

Halloween!  For all of you who have never experienced a Halloween at a campground, you would not believe it!
Campers love Halloween.  Maybe because it is the last camping weekend for most!  Here are some of the larger displays from out State Park.

10/25/2011

Nothing to exciting this summer, so I have not been blogging often.  We are currently in SW Indiana.  We are camp hosting for an Indiana State Park.  Last weekend we meet several of my siblings and friends at another SP.  It was good weather and fall foliage was beautiful.  Below are pictures, one of the road in the campground and then our rig and truck,, both taken the morning we were moving.

10/06/2011

Here we are at Harmonie State Park in southwest Indiana again.  We most likely will be here till we head south.  This is a beautiful park.  The deer are abundant, and when most of the campers are gone though the week, we see deer almost every day.  The weather right now is gorgeous and is expected to last for a while.  The days on in the high 70s or low 80s and the lows are in the 50s, with abundant sunshine.

Here is a picture of just on the trees at the park.  The leaves are falling!  Under this tree, when the wind blows so many leaves fall that it looks like it is snowing!  It is so cool!

09/13/2011

My niece, Miranda, got married Sat and the family attended her reception.  My gift was a family picture frame with our old family photo. 

We are in Vincennes, IN this week. We are at a very nice small campground.  Larry and I have decided to have our family reunion here next June.  That is how much we like it.   We will heading up to Shakamac later this week.  Several for the family will be camping their with us.  In Indy it is fall break.

09/05/2011

We have been in Edinburgh for Labor Day weekend, because the 4th was Scott's (Larry's son) birthday.  We swam and played games and just enjoyed our time with Mady and Scott.  Oh and the first day we arrived I went over to the Outlet Mall and shopped for hours!

Here are pictures of our granddaughter and her Grandad in the pool!

Love Larry's goggles!

08/11/11

We spent 5 nights at Larry's brothers house in western Kentucky.  Larry's family reunion was last Saturday.  The picture above is from the front door of our fifth-wheel at sunset.  Below is a picture of our fifth-wheel set up in the back yard.  It is a nice way to visit, because it gives both parties a break from each others company, unlike if we were staying in their house.  And yet we were able to spent some quality time with my brother in-law and his wife.

We were unable to get any internet service at their house or even in the town.  We did get phone service on the "extended network", so I guess I should be thankful for that.  This is the only place, so far, that we don't get the internet on my phone.  That's Kentucky for you!

Larry had a good reunion.  All of his siblings were able to attend.  Scott and Mady were able to attend also.  Johnny was called back to work, so Jenifer and her family were unable to make it.

For now we are back at the house.  Yes, it is still on the market!!  All though we have a young couple that have looked at it three times, so everyone say your prayers!

07/30/20

Back in Indiana and it is hot and humid.  We are in a campground near Noblesville.  My great niece is being baptised tomorrow and we are attending.  The baptism will be at a church in Indy and several members of my family will be there. It will be good to see everybody.

Friday was our last full day in Michigan and we tubed down the Muskegon in Big Rapids.  The water was cold when we first started but it soon felt very cool and refreshing.  We were on the river for about an hour and we traveled about a mile.  The river dropped 18ft in that mile so we had many rapids to go though and it was great fun.  I highly recommend it!

07/28/10

Well, we are in Michigan, near Big Rapids, which is north of Grand Rapids by about an hour.  The nights are in the  60s and the days are in the low to mid 80s.  The grass is green and the rivers and lakes are clear and cool.  Why don't I live here in the summer?

Yesterday we visited two light houses on the west coast near a town called Ludington.  I didn't realize that I had a fear of heights until I stated down for the first light house.  But I made it fine, even though Larry was laughing at me!  The first light did not include a house since it was in town and can be walked to by way of a jetty.  This one is North Breakwater Light.  The second one was located in a state park and only access by a walk of about two miles.  It is the more traditional lighthouse and is called Big Sable Point Lighthouse.

North Breakwater Light

Big Sable Point Lighthouse

Larry at North Breakwater Light

Gail outside at Big Sable Point Lighthouse!

07/07/2011

Nothing too exciting to report.  We are back at the house, which has still not sold.  And it is hot in southern Indiana!

Last week we did go down to Alabama to visit Larry's daughter and her family at their new house.  We did not take the fifth wheel, but stayed in the new house with them.  The house is very nice, kind of big and it is on several acres with right to a lake at one end of the property.  Zander and Larry fished off on on for the first two days we were there.  They caught 4 good size catfish and Larry showed Zander how to clean them.  We had fried catfish for lunch on Saturday!!  Lexie just turned 17 and is beautiful your women.  She had started a new job and was gone for sereval hours each day.  It was good to see them all and see their new house.  Below is a picture of Zander with the catch of one day.  Also is a picture of Lexie and her proud Grandad.

Hope to back on the road soon!  Little house big back yard!!

06/20/11

We are still in Harmonie SP.  Doing some workcamping again this week.  We had alot of rain last week and that means fewer campers.

One of the neatest things about this park is the hummingbirds.  We have three feeders up and are filling them up at least once a day.  We have one feeder on our back window that we have to fill two or three times a day.  We don't know why the birds like this feeder so well, but the do.  Sometimes we have as many as eight to tens birds trying to feed at once.  In fact, below is a picture of two birds feeding at the same "flower" at the same time, which we have never seen before!

Little house big backyard!

Gail

06/13/2011

We are volunteering at a State Park till the end of June.  We have to put in 20 hours of work and we get our campground site free of charge.  This is not too bad.  The work is outdoors and Larry does more than his share, most of the time.

My friend Jean was in the park today to visit with her Mom and Dad who are here with their camping group.  It was good to see her and Brent, even if it was for short while.  Her parents and their friends came over and ask Larry if he would come over and play and sing a few songs.  Of course they did not have to ask twice.  I went over with him and we had a good time.  They are a friendly bunch.

Little house big back yard!!

See you all later!

06/07/11

Happy Birthday Bob!!!

Larry and I are volunteering at Harmonie State Park for the next couple of weeks if anyone is out this way stop in and visit us!!

This past weekend I had my Family Reunion and all of my siblings were able to attend. Hooray!!  It was great to see everybody and their families.  My son Jason also came for the whole weekend.  I had a great time and was sorry to see it end.

Many of my nieces and nephews now have children and I really appreciate the effort and time they take out of their busy schedules to attend.  I absolutely love seeing these young nieces and nephews!

Here are a couple of boys - Paxton and James.



We also took a side trip to the Exotic Feline Sanctuary near Centerpoint, IN.  We were able to see tigers, lions, cougars and bob cats up close.  These are animals that have been rescued for various reason.  If you are in the area stop by and for $10.00 get a tour.  Our tour lasted about an hour and a half.  The day we went it was very hot and the animals were not real active, but it was still good.

Back Camping Again!!

Sorry I have been off so long, we had to attend to our bricks and sticks.  That is right, we still have not sold our house.  If all of you will add the selling of house to your pray list maybe that will help!

We are camp hosting out at Harmonie State Park this weekend.  This means we do light cleaning in two of the bath houses and check on them once or twice day to refill the toilet paper, etc.  This is not a gross as I thought it would be as the bath house really stay pretty clean.  And in return we get to camp free!

I have been sick since Friday.  Friday I came down with a fever and ached all over and my throat felt terrible.  I called the doctors office and luckily they called in antibiotic for me.  I still have a terrible sore throat and may have to see the doctor.

Larry and I found an indigo bunting (a small almost iridescent blue bird).  It did not appear to be hurt,but it did not fly away and seemed to be panting.  Larry was able to get to perch on a small stick and I told him to place it the fork of a near by tree.  Thinking that at least it would off the ground and a little more protected for animals.  Here are a few pictures:









Little house big backyard on the road again!!

Quick Trip to Florida

We just got back from a quick trip to Florida.  Larry's daughter is moving from Florida to near Hoover, Alabama and needed our help to stay with the kids.  We flew in on Thursday and flew back home Sunday.  It was good to see the sun again!  The grandkids were good and no trouble at all.  I got in the pool and floated in the sun Friday and Saturday. It was grand!  And when we got back to Indiana, surprise, the sun was shining!

Little house big backyard!

04/25/11

Sorry, I have neglected my blog.  We have made it back to Eville a couple of weeks ago and nothing is happening.  We are "camping" at our house on the pad in the back yard.  We have full hook up and we use the house to wash the clothes.

We have met with the Realtors and they have made several suggestion to update our house.  So we have had the interior painted and are pricing out some inexpensive carpeting to replace the blue carpet.  Larry hung a fan/light in the living room and we are making a few other small changes.  Everyone say a little pray that the house sells this spring, please.

Little house big back yard (hung up in Evllle right now!)

Gail

03/31/11

Here is a picture of a wild albino peacock.  He was dancing for the ladies.  Very cool!

Tomorrow we start are journey back to Eville!

Gail

03/27/11

Last night was dance night.  This was our last dance this season.  The band was pretty bad, but we stayed because we wanted to share it with our friends.  Maybe because of this or because I drank a coke instead of starting on the wine when Larry did, but Larry got a little buzzed.  Since we live about 50ft from the hall this was not really a concern.  I told him I could guide him home.  Larry loves to dance and is a natural, but Saturday he lost a little of his inhibitions.  He was moving and dancing  and looking sexy and believe me the ladies noticed.  Judy who was sitting at the next table ask me if we had taken dance lesson and how long had we had been married.  Then she told me she was jealous of me.  Another lady came up to Larry when he was sitting down and leaned over and told Larry we were the best dancers there. I told him when we got home that women were lusting over him.  He was embrassed and really doesn't believe it, but it's true.

This is our last week here.  Friday we start our journey back to Evansville.  We will make several stops on the way home.  I have mixed emotions about leaving.  I will glad to see my family and friends again, especially Mady and it is getting very hot down here.  But I will miss all the people and all the activties.

O well, on to new adventures!

03/23/11

Zack



Jim




Ernie

 Yesterday we went to the Arnold Palmer Invitational Golf Tournament.  It is a beautiful course and there were not many people there.  It was a practice day for the pros and it was kind of hit and miss as to who we got to see.  The pros we did see, we were able to get pretty close to.  We saw Ernie Els, Zach Johnson and Jim Furyk.  Lots of new young players. We left about 30 minutes to soon because we heard on the news that evening that Tiger showed up and played the back nine.  Oh well!

Oh and VeeJay Sing!



Veejay



03/19/11

Only a couple of weeks left here in Florida.  I have mixed feelings about that.  I am ready to see my friends and family  in Indiana, but it is just so beautiful here!

I have attached a couple of pictures of the nature that we have right  here in the RV park.  We have a small pond at the end of our street and a couple of alligators & many turtles live there.  I have seen Little Blue Herons, Egrets and Ibis birds also visiting there.  In the back we have a storage area and there is a small pond and pasture behind it.  Back there we have seen assorted wild life also.  There is a very very large owl's nest.  We have see the adults and the babies.  These are the Great Horned Owl.  I have attached a picture of the adult sitting on a branch near the nest.  The adult is around 2 to 3 ft tall, so you can see in the picture how far up the owl is in the tree. The nest is to the bottom right.  It is huge!  The owls come back year after year and keep adding to it.  Image the baby owl boo in that thing! Ugh!

03/15/11

Sorry, I have a little lax in my posting.  This is harder that I thought it would be to keep up.

Let's see what has happened since the last time I posted.  Well at Saturday night's dance we had a little excitement at the end of the evening.  Everyone was having a good time, some more that others if you know what I mean.  After the performer quit singing for the evening he still put on some dance music over his system.  And the die hards were dancing on.  Well the music was old rock and roll stuff so everybody was free style dancing and the drinks were well consumed earlier in the evening.  Rosie, who is married to a much younger man btw, had a long dress on.  Well she was getting carried away and was lifting the front of dress up showing her legs and the next time it got a little higher and she was showing her thighs. People were hooping and hollering and everyone was dancing a little more wild than earlier in the evening.  The next time, she turns around and lifts her dress up to her waist! We left right after that dance because Larry didn't want to see what might come next. I told Larry as we were leaving I had been traumatized because I saw grannie pannies and they were on a granny!

Anyone who knows my family knows I am use to see the moon, but not from lady in her seventies.  I was a little surprised, because Rose is a very beautiful, tall graceful and I thought, a classy women!  But like I said the drinks were flowing.  And this was at a dance were Larry and I were one of the younger couples!!

03/03/11

Tuesday the park had a ladies lawn bocce tournement.  Mike (my brother) is now on the Board of Directors for the lawn bocce group.  When they were putting the teams together the board realized they were one lady short of having 8 teams.  Mike ask me if I would play to even up the teams.  I agreed, even thought I had not played a lot of games.  So Tuesday morning I reported to the bocce field and was delighted to find I was on a pretty good team.  In fact, my team came in second and we each received $10.00 as are gift!

A nature bonus was during one of the games there was a wood stork down by the little pond here at the resort.  One more bird checked off in my bird book.

The four or five days before the trounement and even the last couple of days have been pretty hetic.  Larry started seriously looking for full tone dually truck.  We visited three of four dealers and many deals and contacts going on.  In fact, Larry was so ate up shopping and dealing his head was spinning by Sunday. He told me we were just going to take the day off from truck shopping,  But, after church, we went out for brunch with some friends, Max and Lois.  Max knew that Larry was shopping for trucks and someone had told him of one they had seen by the road for sale, but they though it was a gas and we needed a desil.  So on our way back from the restraunt, Max suggested we go check it out just to be sure.  Well, when we gt to the truck it was exactly what Larry had been looking for and the price was reasonable!  Larry and Max looked it over and we all took it for a test drive.  Now remember we have been looking at trucks for days and were about $1000.00 apart on one and had been made a good offer on another, so Larry knew a bargain when he saw one.  So right on the spot he made an offer and the guy accecpted.

So now we had to get our truck out there on the market. Larry spent most of the rest of the day cleaning it up and making signs.  Monday we had to call the bank.  I also called the IN DMV and the FL DMV, which was no easy task!  We had an offer on our truck Tuesday and the guy paid a deposit, but he told Larry his wife might object, so Larry being Larry told him if that happened he would give the deposit back.  Well, we did not hear anything that evening and not until the next morning about 9 he called and said his wife did not approve of the deal.  We were so bummed!  I reminded Larry that another man had called late in the day and Larry had told him the truck was sold.  We knew around what time he had called, so Larry looked on his phone and called the number. He left a message that the truck was back on the market.  Well, by golly,  the second guy came by and drove the truck and ended up buying the truck.  In between these events we were on the phone and emailing our insurance company.  The we had to go to the bank and get a cashier check to buy are new truck.  Lots of hassles, but in the end we sold our old truck and have a 2007 Chevy full ton dually.

02/25/11

The days and nights here in Florida are finally getting very warm.  We have turned our air on in our fifth wheel.  But this means the pool and hot tub are now open till 10.  So the other night we decided to hit the hot tub about 8.  Some friends of our said they would like to go also.  So we agree to meet at the pool in about 10 minutes.  Larry and I arrive with our suites on and I had a cover up on and he had a t-shirt on with his trunks. and we both had our towels.  We waited a few minutes for our friends to show and finally we saw them walking down the road with their sweats on.  I said "are you not going to get in the hot tub".  They replied yes and they had their suits on under the sweats and after getting out of the hot tub they were going to throw the sweats on over their suits to make the trip back home!!  They look pretty funny stripping off their sweats down to their suits!  And believe me, when you get out of the hot tub you are warm enough to get home, unless you have to walk a mile or two.  It was very funny to see them coming down the the hot tub in their sheats!!  Wish you could have been with us to see them!!

02/24/10

Larry waiting for the shuttle launch at New Smyrna Beach !

We went to the beach to see the shuttle launch with Mike & Paula.  Mike drove and we arrived right at three o'clock.  We were able to park right on the beach.  We set up our chairs and killed sometime people watching.  We bought some ice cream treat and walked the beach.  A bird came right up behind Paula ad tried to steal my granola bar right out of the side pocket of my cooler.  If she had not been sitting there they would have drug it off.  As it was they still torn a hole in one end of the wrapper.  The birds were pretty smart and very aggressive.  I guess they have to be to learn to survive on the beach!

Everybody on the beach, and they were a lot of people, began to turn their chairs to face south down the beach at about 4:30 or so.  Mike and Paula had their laptop but could not find a network.  Other people had their radios and informed the crowd that the launch had been delayed by three minutes. We anxiously keep waiting for something to happen and finally we all saw the rocket take off  The brightest and biggest thing was the fire behind it.  It was very, very cool.  The picture below is just on of the pictures we took.  The neatest thing to me was probably after another second or two after this picture was taken that we hear the sonic boom!  In fact, we saw the boosters disconnect and fall before we heard the sound! It was a cool thing to be able to witness!

02/09/2011

Today we travel over to Clearwater Beach. It was a beautiful day!  Not a cloud in the sky.  Nothing too exciting at the beach.  We did stop and have dinner at " Whiskey Dan's", which is a restaurant on the edge of Tampa coming back from the beach.  It is built out over the bay and we were seated right at the window.  Larry and I were able to watch a beautiful sunset!

On a nature note, last Friday, a Sandhill Crane visited our park for a few days.  This is  majestic bird that is about 4 ft tall and has very different call.  One morning it came strolling by our dinning room window.  And when we went outside, we were able to get within 5ft or so. Later, Mike saw it standing and eating our of their neighbors bird feeder, which hangs on a shepherd hook about 3ft off the ground.  For several days, in the mornings, I heard it's unusual call.  But, sadly it has now moved on.

Little House, Big Backyard!

Gail

02/10/11

Nothing to exciting has been happening.  The weather has not been the greatest.  It has been cool and rainy, with a few days of sun in between.

Last night was a exciting night.  The park had a talent show and the called it "Doing what comes naturally".  And of course, Larry participated!  In fact he was in four different acts.  One with the choir, in which they did two numbers and Larry played the guitar for both.  Second, a friend of ours, Max and Larry did an old Everly Brothers song "Bird Dog".  They wore T-shirts with EX- on Larry's shirt and LAX on Max's shirts and introduced themselves and the Crappy Brothers, because they don't give a crap! Third, Larry played and sang the "Auctioneer's Song".  And the fourth and last of his acts was the Quacker.  A men's quartet sang the Blue Daube with quakes as the chorus.  To me, this by far the funnest thing Larry did, because I knew he hated it.  He was not happy about it at all, but he agreeded to do a song with them before he really knew what it was about.  I thought it was hilarious because I could see on Larry's face he was not a happy camper!  I was very proud of him for everything he did.  I am a lucky woman!!

There were 25 acts in all.  Some were very funny, some were not as funny, some were good and some were not so good, but everyone including the audience had fun!!

Little house, big backyard!

Gail

01/30/2011

This has been a good weekend!  The weather here is great!  We went over the Edgewater to visit Larry's x-in laws.  We stayed overnight and this morning Larry performed at the church where Don is interim pastor.  He really had a good time.  He loves to perform and he is very good at it!

Florida is spectacular!  Saturday night we ate at a restraunt on the intercostal waterway (which looked like a big river to me).  But while we having dinner dolphins were swimming and jumping in the waterway!  Along the highway, over and back, we saw several great egrets, some sandhill crane and double-crested cormorant!

Little house big backyard!

Gail

01/28/2011

Today we enjoyed the nature side of Florida and it was great!  We went to Blue Springs State Park and saw the manatees!  This is spring that feeds into the St John River.  This spring is warmer than the river or ocean and the manatees have to stay in water above 66 degree to survive.  Just by walking down the boardwalk we saw lots of manatees, several alligators and tons of fish.

We also went on the St. John River boat tour.  This lasted two hours and was also great.  We saw alligators, Great Blue Herons, Little Blue Herons, yellow-crowned Night Heron, Great Egret, snowy Egret, Anhinga, Double Crested Cormorant and many others!  At one point, we were right beside the reeds and in the reeds were a bunch of baby gators.  It was all very cool!!  I recommend this park to anyone who is every near that area.

Little house, big backyard!!

Gail