DAY ONE AGAIN

Sunday, December 1, 2013

We hit the road about 9:30 this morning and except for a little snow on the ground, it was a good day for traveling.  Our first stop was a gas station in Quinnesec which was about a mile out of our way, to pick up a load of gas.  We had a couple of coupons which gave us 30 cents off at least 40 gallons of gas.  The temperature at the time of our departure was hovering around 30 degrees and it was cold pumping the 52 gallons into our tank.  But onward and upward.

We stopped to have Breakfast just before we got into Green Bay at the Barley Deerfield Diner at Lineville Road.  The restaurant was very crowded, and we waited about 10 minutes, but the wait was well worth it.  I had a Mexican Omelette and Sharon had a Skillet.  They were both very good indeed.

Our next stop was at my son Sean’s in West Bend, Wisconsin and we would be   staying here for the night.  The electric extension was being unknotted as we drove up to his house.  We plugged in and we were set for the night.

My daughter Stephanie also arrived at about three with her three kids and husband Mark.  We ordered pizza from Marco’s and it was quite tasty, not like the pizza from last year.  Stef had a volleyball meeting that she had to attend so she left about 5 and Mark and the kids left shortly afterward for the same meeting.

We stayed up until about 9 when we came back out to the motorhome to watch a little TV before heading to the sack.  We had to call DirecTV to get our programming reset and I also called Verizon to reattach our Wi-Fi Hotspot to our account.  We were now pretty much ready for the winter.  We caved for the night about 10:30.

Monday, December 2, 2013

It was a little chilly in the hacienda last night.  We spent the night in West Bend and the temp went down around 20 or so.  The furnace was working overtime, and keeping up, but it just felt cold inside.

Our first stop was at the gas station we normally stop at in Oak Creek, WI and found the price very acceptable, (so to speak) at $3.059 per gallon.  We also went to the Denny’s next door and had Breakfast and it was quite good.

Down the road a few more miles was a stop at my sister Marge’s for a quick visit.  We stop every year on the way south and this year was no different.  But we didn’t disconnect the car today, we just parked the whole shebang on the side of her road.  It’s a narrow road but it is really less traveled.  After about 45 minutes we were on the road again headed south.

We had no more stops today except to find a campground somewhere on our way.  By about 3:30 the light was starting to fade and so were we.  We found a campground just north of Champaign, Illinois and stopped for the night.  As it turned out it was a perfect stop with electric, water and sewer.  We had no use for the sewer but we did need water so it was perfect.  I was hesitant to fill our water with the temp being so low at the time we left home.

We checked in at DW Lake RV and got ourselves hooked up, TV set up and ready to go for the night.  Sharon headed off to bed at about 10 and I stayed up another hour to watch a tape of Sleepy Hollow.  Unfortunately it was a rerun so I watched a tape of Blacklist instead.

Our furnace quit running about 8 o’clock for whatever reason, but it started again about 10:30 just before I went to bed.  We did have the space heater going and it was working nicely to keep up because the temperature outside had warmed, and it would only be about 40 tonight.  It worked just fine all night so we were happy.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

We were on the road again this morning but at a leisurely pace.  We got going about 9:30 after we both ate Breakfast.  We would be stopping this morning to pick up gas for the motorhome and we also picked up some Danish, to nibble on, while we drove.

We managed to stop for lunch about 2 o’clock and Sharon reheated some Sloppy Joe’s that we brought from home.

We quickly got back on the road for a couple more hours of driving.  We pulled in to Clarksville, Tennessee RV Resort about 3pm and got ready to spend the night.  It was a nice campground and it was an “easy on-easy off” to get back to the Interstate.  We had no trouble getting everything set up today and everything was working as designed.

The weather had warmed today so we didn’t use the furnace at all tonight only the space heater.  It was enough to keep it very warm all night.

We settled in for TV for the night and called it quits about 10:45 after watching all the regular shows and the tapes for tonight.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

We got another leisurely start this morning when two of our jacks were slow coming up.  By the time I realized what Sharon was doing she already had them retracted.

We got on our way after Breakfast and our only stop would be for gas and lunch.  Our gas stop was not that economical but we didn’t fill the tank anyway.  We stopped a second time and found it for 26 cents a gallon cheaper.  Gas is already expensive, but it could cost you a fortune if you’re not careful.

Our last stop before our campground was to top off our LP Gas.  We stopped on the way in to the campground.  That was a comedy of errors to say the least.  After about 45 minutes and 6 gallons of gas we were on our way again.

We arrived at Hidden Cove, our homepark, at about 4pm just before dark.  We drove around looking for a good spot when an old-timer jumped out in the road and directed us to one.

We got set up but only plugged in to electricity.  I’ll hook the rest of it up tomorrow.

We sat and watched TV for the rest of the night but it didn’t last long.  We both caved just after 10.  We had 3 long days under our belts and were ready for rest.  I think were just getting old.

Thursday, December 5, 2013

I was up early this morning with nothing to do.  We hadn’t planned on going anywhere or doing anything today and that was just fine with me.

Sharon was off on a walk this morning to dump the garbage and get her exercise.

Later on in the afternoon she gave me another one of those free haircuts.  She’s been doing it for 18 years since we started traveling and I guess she hasn’t tired of saving the money from a commercial haircut, and neither have I.

I sat around in my recliner for most of the day today just cat-napping.  I didn’t think there was anything that required my immediate attention so I just saved it all til tomorrow.

Sharon whipped up some Spaghetti with Sausage for supper tonight along with some garlic bread.  I lucked out by not having to choke down a salad with my meal.

After dishes we settled in front of the tube for the night and even watched a couple of original programs.  It wasn’t long before the bewitching hour arrived and we head off to the rack.  I think I caught up on my lost sleep for the next few days.

Friday, December 6, 2013

We got ready to go early today because we had some shopping to do in town and thought we’d go for Breakfast at the same time.  We found the Arley Coffee Shop with good food, reasonable (if not cheap) prices, and friendly people.  They struck up a conversation with us as soon as they found out we were from out of town.  In fact there were even a few transplants from Michigan there.  By the time we finished and paid our bill it came to $13+ dollars excluding the tip.

We decided to take a tour of the area with the first stop through Addison which is about 10 miles north of Arley.  We couldn’t remember if we had been there before but the shopping district is about as big as Arleys.  We didn’t stop for anything but continued our tour on to Cullman. 

We noticed as we drove along the amount of Kudzu that has infested the area.  It’s probably been here for some time but it’s not as bad as it is in other areas of the south.  It’s an invasive plant that blankets living trees and bushes and then kills them over time.  It’s a shame to see where its really prevalent.

We drove around Cullman for awhile before we found the “new construction” area.  We were looking for a restaurant to go out for our anniversary tomorrow.  Not knowing the area we really didn’t see anything that caught our eye or our interest.  We completed the loop by returning to our campground again in Arley.

It started raining today and continued right on through the afternoon so there wasn’t much happening in our lives after that.  Although I was content in front of the TV for the afternoon.

We had Meatloaf and Potato Pancakes with Creamed Corn for Supper tonight.  It was very good and a nice base for watching the Telly tonight.  Although there wasn’t much on tonight and even less over the whole weekend.

We didn’t find enough to watch to keep us up late tonight so we caved about 10:30.

Saturday, December 7, 2013                              HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

We intended to take a trip to Jasper today to see if we could find anything other than Ryan’s to have an anniversary “lunch” or “dinner”.  We checked the GPS but never got any satisfaction, so we’ll see for ourselves in person.  Besides we were planning to take a road trip today anyway.

On our way down we found a Catholic Church, St. Cecelia’s, that is closer than the one in Cullman.  Sharon decided almost immediately that she would come down here for church tomorrow.  We’ll check the mileage on the way home.

We found the “new commercial” area of Jasper almost immediately and drove through.  We were looking for a nice dinner place that would be open for lunch.  The best we could come up with was Ryan’s.  It’s a nice buffet place that is open and charging a reasonable price.  We were disappointed by the amount of selection available but the food was very good.  They cook steaks and ribs and chops at night so we didn’t have that available.

On the way home we stopped at Wal-Mart to do a little shopping.  I sat in the car waiting for the Mrs. so we wouldn’t have to walk so far to get into the store.  They were quite busy today and I didn’t feel like dealing with it.

On the way home we noted the distance to the Catholic Church from our campground, and it was definitely closer than Cullman.

We wouldn’t be having anything for Dinner tonight since we ate later in the afternoon.  But that won’t keep us from snacking before we go to bed.

We marked out our territory in front of the tube even though there really wasn’t much to watch tonight.  We’ll find something even if we have to watch Lockup on MSNBC all night.  We hung in til about 10:45 before we sidled off to bed tonight.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Sharon was off to church early this morning down toward Jasper.  When she got back she told me it took her about 27 minutes to make the 22 miles to St. Cecelia’s.I was involved in my Sunday shows on TV even though I had a hard time finding them today.  There wasn’t much there except discussions about Nelson Mandela and his death.

The early football game was a dandy between Detroit and Philadelphia.  It was snowing so hard you couldn’t see the field except what was projected on the field with special graphics.  The first half was a snoozer, but when they came out after the break at halftime, all hell broke loose in 5 inches of snow.  It harkened back to before teams started playing in domes and out of the weather.  It was a really fun game to watch except that the Lions lost.  They fought hard until they collapsed at the end of the game.

We had rain all day here in Arley, Alabama.  We’ve had rain for the last 3 days accompanied by cooler temperatures.  It was no surprise as we expected it to be cooler here than in Southern California.  We did expect it to be drier than it has been.  It kept on raining for most of the afternoon and then started again at night.

Luckily it didn’t affect the TV we had planned on watching tonight.  We also recorded Part 1 of the Bonnie and Clyde mini-series.

We finally called it quits about 11 after an hour of Lockup.