Hershey RV Show and QVC Tour

Today was a beautiful fall day here in Lancaster County.  The morning started out quite chilly, but the sun came out and I enjoyed watching Dad wax our rig.  The day was so nice that we didn't even turn our AC on.  That is rare since we are in the sun.

We turned our heat on this morning.

Here I am in the shade.  I don't like the sun.

The horses enjoyed the day too.  Since it is a Sunday, they don't have to work.

Last Sunday, the folks attended the Hershey RV Show.  Our neighbors had bought five day passes, but since they were going home on Sunday, they gave their unused tickets to the folks.  Mom said that made her day.  She expected the show to be really crowded.  Their plan was to get there early and to look through RVs first and then go inside to see the vendors.  Mom said the plan worked well.  They were interested in looking at small rigs.  Mom said it would be nice to have one that she could drive.  They actually found one that they liked.  It is only 25',  Can you imagine living in that full-time?  Mom showed me pictures and showed me a couch that would be mine. Well, she said we could share it.  We would have our own TV. Dad could have the one in the living room. No, we are not buying it.  We are just thinking.  There is actually an 11 month wait to get one.

This would be my couch.  Mom said it would be a nice reading nook for her.

The bathroom sink is rather small, but the shower is fine.

The two recliners in the living room. There is a Murphy bed over the chairs that would be where the folks would sleep.  I think Mom would get tired of putting the bed up and down and waiting for Dad to be ready to go to bed, etc.

The glass is over the cook top.  The other is the sink.  Mom said her air fryer would fit.  BOL!

There is a microwave and a decent sized refrigerator.  The biggest problem is closet space.

Yesterday, the folks toured QVC Studios.  QVC is a shopping channel.  Mom used to be a big fan when we had a house.  She rarely watches now, but she thought taking the tour would be fun.

This is the lobby and some items that are for sale.

Pictures were only allowed in some parts of the tour.  The tour guide was not very enthusiastic. She said she works in the store too.  Mom said it seemed like being a tour guide was not her favorite pat of her job.  There were nine people on the tour.  Dad was the only guy.  Four women were really loud and Mom said the tour guide didn't seem to know how to handle them.  Only a few people had ever watched QVC which shocked Mom.  She said they didn't even know that it was a live show.

Old memorabilia from the early days of QVC.

The chairs and phone were from the early days.

They used to draw numbers and if they were part of your membership number, you won.  Mom never won.

This is the studio where they have a live audience.  Mom would like to go to a live show, but they don't seem to have them very often.

 The most disappointing thing was that they were not able to see a host doing a live show.  They were in a different studio than the tour that day.  Mom was surprised by how many different studio sets they actually had.  They used to have just one and the room rotated, but now they have a lot of different rooms.

They saw the control rooms through glass and the people working in them. They had a football game on which everyone thought was funny.

The tour was $10 a person.  They have more expensive tours where you can go backstage, but Mom chose just the basic tour.  She said it was fun.  It would have just been more fun to actually see one of the show hosts doing their job.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Happy That The Weather Has Turned Cool

Living The Quiet Life

Life is pretty slow and peaceful here.  The campground is supposed to be sold out today with people in overflow parking. 16 RVs are scheduled to come in today.  Yikes!   Imagine our surprise when someone moved in right next to us yesterday.  We didn't even think it was really a spot.   Mom and I always sit in the shade along the well house, but we couldn't do that today because it would actually be in the neighbor's yard.  I still thought I should be allowed to be there, but Mom said no.  She explained that the new people's RV was giving us a shade on our site, but I still wanted my old spot back.

A man yesterday said that I was not skinny like other greyhounds.  Mom told him I have been retired for six years.  I wanted to ask him how long he has been retired because it definitely looks like more than six years.  BOL!

What can I say?  I am cute!

Not a very good photo of the hot air balloons.  They fly over quite often.

Dad finally got new glasses on Saturday.  He got no-line bifocals.  He has tried the lined kind twice and couldn't get used to them.  He still says he will never be able to see things clearly without moving his head.  Mom keeps telling him to give it time.  She didn't have any problems when she got hers. While the folks were waiting for Dad's glasses, they ate lunch. (see photo)

Mom's burger.  She said it was really, really good.

On Sunday, the folks went out for breakfast. They went to buffet.  Mom said it was okay.  They then came home and picked me up so that I could go to the park.  We went to a different one this week.  There was a path along the creek, but it was a big gravel path.  I doubt we will go back.  It was not fun to walk on.

Mom wanted a photo of me.  I didn't cooperate.

Okay, is this better?

I get tired of pictures.

After the park, we came home and rested.  The folks went to another buffet for dinner.  Mom said it was okay, but not worth $23.95  They found one that is several miles away that is really good.  Mom said when they arrived there, they were asked if they had been there before. They said no.  The waitress told them to pace themselves.  BOL!  I bet they go back to that one.

A sunbeam!

Relaxing in the afternoon.  We keep it dark inside to keep it cool.

Mom is still going strong with her air fryer.  Monday, she made a molten chocolate cake.  I didn't get to taste it since it was chocolate, but it smelled good.  Last night, she made pickle brined fried chicken and a double baked potato.  I think she may fix vegetables in it tonight.  She bought what she says is an "awesome" cookbook and has been trying out recipes.   It is called Air Fry Everything.  It is currently only available on QVC but Amazon will ship orders in December.   It has easy, every day recipes.

Pickle Brined Fried Chicken and Double Baked Potato.

One of our neighbors.

There are pumpkins in the field.  We watched them harvest some last week.

The Hershey RV Show started today. We think that is why our park is sold out.  We are not that close to Hershey, but people do come from all over to attend the RV show.  The folks are going Sunday. Mom would prefer to go during the week, but Dad has to work.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Like When The Campground Is Full

Valley Forge & Ephrata Cloister

The folks visited Valley Forge on Saturday.  It was a beautiful day.  It was sunny and breezy, but not hot or humid.  Unfortunately, all the photos from that day and actually the entire weekend are gone.  They are not on Mom's phone or the computer.  She must have accidentally deleted them.  She is not sure how she did that, but they are gone.  :::sigh:::  Since photos make a blog more fun, we are going to add some that we recently took around camp.

Our site

George Washington and the Continental Army stayed at Valley Forge from December 1777 to June 1778.  When we think of Valley Forge, we think of soldiers freezing.  None actually froze to death there.  Morristown was actually quite a bit colder and soldiers did freeze to death there.  In fact, if it had been colder at Valley Forge, disease wouldn't have been as strong as it was.  Disease killed 2,500 soldiers.  There were about 400 women in camp.  They were wives of soldiers.  Martha Washington spent the winter there.  She and George had a nice house.  The house still looks good.  Mom had pictures of it.  No battles actually took place there.  It is just where they spent the winter.  If you want to read more about it, here is the website:  Valley Forge

The folks took a 90 minute trolley tour of the grounds.  They made two stops.  One was at a re-created settlement and the other was at Washington's headquarters.  The tour guide was really good.

On Sunday, the folks visited Ephrata Cloister,  It is one of America's earliest religious communities.  It was founded in 1732 and the buildings are original.  It was made up of German settlers and Mom's family name is listed as being there.  They felt they needed to be as God like as possible. They slept about four hours a night and that was interrupted for prayer in the middle of the night.  They slept on a narrow board and their pillow was basically a brick.  They rarely ate meat. They ate roots and bread.  They worked hard and prayed a lot.

Mom thought Ephrata Cloister was very interesting.  You can see photos of it on the website.

The chickens were running around last week.  They belong to an Amish farmer.

Another view from our site.

On Monday, we went to the park.  I enjoyed all the new smells.  We walked along the river.

Our campground was sold out over Labor Day. There was a Great Dane across from us. She was huge!  She was twice as big as me.  She was hard to handle with her flexi leash.  Her people were different. There was a grandfather, grandmother, two sons (who stilled lived at home even though one has five kids) and a daughter-in-law. The grandfather came over and told us all about the family. We thought it was odd that he pointed out that the grown sons still lived at home.  The five kids all piled into my bed without even asking me if I minded.  I was in it at the time. It's a good thing that I am a mellow guy.  Mom still got me out of that situation quickly and we avoided them as much as we could after that.  They let their Great Dane run free part of the time and she scared some of the small dogs.

We are told that the campground will be full again this weekend.

Sunset as seen from our site.

Mom is still loving her air fryer.  She made a roasted chicken and also some great sweet potato fries.

This was a good chicken!

It is a hot and humid day here today.  It was too hot to even sit out this morning.  We normally sit in the shade in the morning, but Mom said no this morning and I agreed.  We are going to relax in the AC for the rest of the day.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Hopes The Campers This Weekend Are Better Behaved

We Bought An Air Fryer

Exciting things last week.  First this happened:

Yep, a brand new Dollar Tree opened here and Mom was there for the grand opening!  BOL!  She said the store is beautiful.  All the shelves were stocked and she probably used a cart that no one else had ever used.  I think she was there five times the first four days it was open.  She buys laundry detergent, dish detergent, some frozen food, pain relievers, doggy bags, etc from Dollar Tree.  Oh, they have 18 eggs for $1.  When we were in CA, we were paying $5 for a dozen.  She has bought eggs from Dollar Tree before and they have been fine.  She checks the expiration date.  A clerk told her that the eggs go fast.

The second exciting thing is that she finally bought an air fryer.  She has been wanting one for quite some time, but did not know if it would work as advertised.  We don't have a lot of space, so that was also a concern.  She started doing research and read a ton of reviews.  She was planning on getting a certain brand and then the reviews left her with doubts.  She joined an air frying group online and that is where she heard of Paula Deen's Air Fryer.  The reviews on that one were really good.  It has an enamel basket which doesn't chip or flake which was a problem with the one she had planned on buying.  It also had the accessories that she wanted.  She decided to go for it.  I think she stalked the shipping of it constantly from the time she ordered it on Monday.  It finally arrived on Friday.

TA DA!

It comes with a cake pan and a small pizza pan. It also has a steaming rack which she has used to do tier cooking.  It comes with a trivet but it is really small.

So what does an air fryer do?  It cooks food with little or no oil.  Basically it is super heated air that circulates and cooks the food.  The food is supposed to taste like you have deep fried it in oil.   Does it?  Well, the fries she made did not.  She did play around with them and found that if she put a little oil on them and then seasoned them, they were good.  As good as deep fried?  No, but they are good and less calories.  They were steak fries, so maybe a thinner fry would taste better.  Most people seem to make their own fries, but Mom is probably not going to do that.  She bought the fries at Dollar Tree which is why she visited so often last week.  She stocked up on their frozen items so she could try out the air fryer.

She fixed chicken thighs the first night and they turned out great!  She just dipped the chicken in self-rising flour, salt and pepper and cooked for about 30 minutes.

Very crispy on the outside but juicy on the inside.

Dad was impressed with the chicken. I thought it was really good too!

She made grilled cheese sandwiches and Dad thought they were really good.  She has also made hamburgers, mozzarella sticks, onion rings, chicken fried steak, and frozen burritos and she hasn't even had it a week.

She let the mozzarella sticks bake a little too long, but the clean up was easy.

A hamburger in the air fryer. Steaks are supposed to turn out good, but we haven't tried that yet.

This is the basket that the food goes in.  It has the grease from the hamburger.  Clean up is really easy.

The only thing that hasn't turned out was a cake.  Mom thinks she messed it up.  She didn't flour the cake pan, so it stuck to it.  She put foil on top as directed, but it also stuck to the cake, so she needs to make an adjustment.  She will give it another try.

She really wants to try hot wings.  Oh and fried pickles.  There is only so much food we can eat, so she is pacing herself.

This is a great appliance for us because our convention microwave/oven does not work properly.  It is very hard to get things to brown in it.  The air fryer browns like a champ.  As far as space goes, it really isn't that big.  She is just leaving it on the counter for now.   It doesn't heat up the RV and it is quiet.  Five days in and Mom loves it.

We also got a power head for our central vacuum.  I am not really thrilled with it since I hate vacuuming, so I am not going to talk about it.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Likes When His Mom Cooks

Not Much Happening

Dad is back home and I am happy.  I was quite upset that he went to work on Monday.  I pouted all day and worried that he might be on another trip.  He took his computer with him and his computer is in a piece of luggage.  I don't like luggage.  When he finally got home, I was so excited that I barked.  I am not suppose to bark.  We are back in our routine now of getting up with an alarm clock and Dad going to work.  Mom and I hang out together.

Panoramic view of sunrise.

The weather has been hot.  Last week, it was really bad.  We had dew points of 82.  That is crazy!  It felt like 110 degrees. We mainly stayed inside and hid from the heat.  Mom was disappointed that they didn't get to do anything after Dad got back from his trip, but it was just too hot.  Every day, Mom watched the radar and waiting for the storms to come and they never did.  We had a couple of quick showers but that was it.  She really wanted rain to cool off our roof.

This week, the weather has been better.  We are in full sun though and our AC runs a lot.  Mom says we are spending about $5 a day on electric.  It could be worse.  We are getting a good rate here.

There isn't too much that goes on here.  The grass is supposed to be cut on Tuesdays, but that didn't happen this week.  We don't know why.  We moved our chairs and other items out of the way, but the grass just continues to grow.

The campground is all but full.  There are some people like us here that are long term, but many of the people are here on vacation.  They are usually gone all day.  People usually stay for three or four days and then they move on.

Mom has taken Buddy out a few times this week. She hasn't drive through any horse poo, but has passed some buggies. Today, she visited the farmers market.  She bought a pecan sticky loaf for tomorrow's breakfast and a jar of pickles from a place she really likes.

More views of the sunrise last week.

Mom continues to do her online job.  I prefer that to cleaning.  Cleaning interrupts my napping.

Mom went to the Minute Clinic last week because she has a rash on her hands.  It started out on just one finger back in May.  It was really bad then.  She tried all sorts of things on it.  She finally decided she had eczema.  She bought cream for it and started using non-perfume soaps.  It basically healed up, but it still itched and hurt. It took two months to clear it up.  Then, she developed an irritation between all her fingers.  It was painful and itched.  After two weeks of that she decided to see the doctor.  The doctor said it is not eczema.  Mom got in trouble for using the Internet to diagnose it.  However, the doctor does not know what it is.  She said it is a reaction to something.  Mom was given a steroid cream and by the next day, she was feeling better.  Today, she cleaned the bathroom with a mixture of Dawn and vinegar and her hands are hurting again. She washed them good and put the cream on them.  She was thinking that the hair dye she used might have been the cause, but now she thinks it could be the cleaner.  She will either need to stop using it or use gloves when using it. Dad doesn't agree that she should not be doing dishes and cleaning.  BOL!

Today, she visited the farmers market.  She bought a pecan sticky loaf for tomorrow's breakfast and a jar of pickles from a place she really likes.

Oh, I just thought of something funny that happened.  The folks were watching a woman give her husband hand signals to help him back their motor home into their spot.  Her signals made no sense at all.  It reminded Mom of the time that Grandma directed Grandpa into a spot, but she was really trying to wave gnats away from her face.  Her hands were going in every direction and Grandpa didn't know what she wanted him to do. BOL!  Sorry, Grandma, but you thought that was pretty funny. Grandpa didn't, but you did.  BOL!  Anyway, this lady had several hand signals but that were all strange.  Her husband didn't pay attention to her anyway.  The sites are tight so it is interesting to watch people get into them.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Doesn't Like An Alarm Waking Him.