A Funny Thing Happened...

Boy, the campground was crazy this weekend!  It was completely full and we are not talking just campers.  You see since we are on a lake, people also bring their boats.  They are supposed to just have two cars per site, but many people have four cars, the boat, camper and tent.  Mama thinks they should learn to carpool at little better.  Luckily, even when the place is full, we still have lots of space on our site.  I love it when it is packed.  It is like walking through a fair.  You never know what you are going to see.  BOL!

I am watching over my kingdom.  BOL!

 

It doesn't look bad from here, but it was packed.

Scout enjoying a bone outside.

 As you may remember, we are staying in a park without full hook-ups.  We have water, but only have 30 amp electric and no sewer.  The folks have found that they can go a full week before they need to empty out our tanks into the portable tank. (This is done by taking "Navy showers" and washing dishes in a pan so that water doesn't go down the drain.)  Actually, mid-week, Mama fills up the portable tank to get us through the rest of the week and then on Saturday, the folks make 3-4 trips to the dump with the portable tank.  Mama drives the Jeep with the portable tank hooked to a hitch on the back of the Jeep.  Mama drives because Dad doesn't want to get nasty stuff on the steering wheel while they are dumping. 

This is the portable tank.

On Saturday, something funny happened.  Well, Mama and a bunch of people thought it was funny, Dad not so much. BOL!   Mama was behind a boat full of people and they told her to pass them because they had to stop for something.  Mama slowly passed them and continued on the way.  You are only supposed to drive 5 - 10 mp with the tank.  The hitch makes a terrible sound when the tank is attached.  Suddenly, the noise stopped and Mama asked Dad if the tank was still there.  He said it was. They arrived at the dump and the people in the boat passed and yelled "IT WENT DOWN THE HILL!"  Yep, the tank had come loose and took off down the hill.  BOL!  Fortunately, it didn't hit anyone or get run over or explode.  Unfortunately, they were not hauling water from the grey tank, but the black tank and the lid did leak. (Black tank is water from the toilet).  It was pretty nasty.  Luckily, Dad had gloves on, but it was hard to pull the tank up from the bottom of the hill.  The tank is really heavy when it is full. Yep, Dad didn't think it was as funny as Mama or the people on the boat.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks His Dad Needs A Better Sense of Humor ~ BOL!

This N That

There is not a whole lot going on here.  During the week, there are just a few campers here, but on the weekends it is busy.

This was an accident. We normally don't sit this close to each other.  BOL

Sunday, we washed the RV.  Scout and I watched for a while, but decided the couch inside was more comfortable.

All clean and shiny.

Monday afternoon the rain started and it lasted over 20 hours.  We took a long walk down to the docks before the rain started.

We looked at the view.

We stepped into the water.

We saw a bunny.

We watched the bunny until he left.

We watched our grass get cut.

Then we watched the rain.

We saw an umbrella fly by.

Today, the sun is out and it is nice.  Mama did laundry.  The laundry room was nice and clean until the men came to collect the quarters from the machine.  They said there must be mice because when they opened up the coin drawer acorn shells were inside.  There are now acorn shells all over the floor and in the sink.  They tried to clean it up when Mama walked in, but they didn't have a broom.

Buddy was used as a drying rack for towels while the sheets were in the dryer.

Silly Mama took the trash out with Buddy today, but she didn't close the trash bag.  When she headed back home, she saw that her tennis shoes had fallen out of the trash bag.  She saw one shoe and then she saw the other one was further down the road.  She was embarrassed.  BOL!

Mama is thinking of Jack today.  Jack died three years ago today.  Mama still really misses him. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks That Jack Was Probably A Cool Dude Even If He Did Wear Jammies

Strange Storm And A Nifty Tool

Mama pays really close attention to the weather.  Obsessed?  Hmmmm....not sure.  She does her best not to leave us if a storm is predicted. I am not sure she has ever left us since we started RVing.  She has always been nervous with storms.  I think it goes back to her childhood. She was left alone a lot and she remembers one time when the sky turned like a strange green color and she had to run to the basement with her dog, Pebbles. She had to run outside and around the house to get to the basement because there wasn't an entrance from inside. She said she felt like she was going to drown trying to get there.  Her earliest memory of a storm was living in St. Louis and the sirens were going off and her Mom was screaming.  She was two or three. That is probably what caused her to be afraid.  Anyway, she says living in a motor home is even scarier in storms than in a house.  She always feels better when we have a safe place to go in a storm.  Today, she told us that we were going to have some storms, but she didn't think they would be bad.  I made her nervous because I told her I needed to go out even though I had been out three times already.  She thought I might sense that something bad was going to happen.  ::::shrugs shoulders:::  The girls who work here came by to tell us that a thunder storm watch was issued.  Okay, a watch is not that bad.  The warning is what you have to be concerned about.  It finally started raining and then the weather people came on and told us that after the rain ends, we will have straight line winds of 70-80 mph.  WHAT?  That is not normal. The weather people responded as if they heard Mama and said it was not normal.  It normally happens before the storm.  Mama said if the tent down the hill from us flew away, we would run to the restroom that is made out of bricks.  The winds came and our motor home shook.  We have experienced that before.  Mama was most concerned about the trees around us because they are so large.  A part of a tree did come down, but it was not close to us or anyone else.  It was closer to the tent people.  The tent stayed put, so I guess the wind was not as storm as they had predicted.  We were happy when the wind died down.  It probably only lasted 10 minutes, but seemed longer as we kept expecting it to get worse.  Luckily, we didn't loose power.  We heard that many people in the area are without power. 

Part of tree that fell during straight line winds.

While at Escapade, Mama took some classes on cleaning. She has now started cleaning with vinegar and water and alcohol and water.  The alcohol and water is really good at removing grease. She learned that she shouldn't use anything chemical in the toilet because of the holding tank.  You don't want to disrupt what goes on down there as far as stuff breaking down. That is all I will say about that.  BOL! She bought spray bottles at Dollar Tree for her new cleaning ingredients and then she labeled them with her label gun.  One of the things that was mentioned in the class was Zip-It. She got all excited about it.  Dad said he uses them at work.  Seriously, and he never told Mama about it?  What is a Zip-It?  It is a device that you stick down your drain and when you pull it back up.....it has tons of hair on it. YUCK!  Yep, it cleans out your drains.  Mama used it for the first time today.  She was disgusted, but happy that the shower drain is now clean.  It is so much easier than pulling the shower drain out and cleaning it that way.  She bought it at Lowe's and it was around $2.49.

Zip-It!

The folks have to dump tanks tonight.  It has been five days.  That is as good as it is going to get.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Relaxing After Morning Storms

Oh Noooooo.....Mr. Bill

A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes - Hugh Downs

RIP, Mr. Bill.  I know he still looks really good, but he no longer says "OH, NOOOOO!"   He just goes "click, click, click".  Mama has tried to make it better by saying "OH, NOOOOO" when I squeeze him, but it is not the same.  He was my favorite toy.  I even picked him out at Petco.  Mama says she will get me a new one. 

Yesterday, Mama and I barbecued.  We really don't do it very often because Mama says it is a pain going up and down the steps to the motor home to fix the rest of the meal.  We just sat outside this time and when the pork steaks were done, we went inside and fixed the rest of the meal.  Makes sense, don't you think?

Here I am helping with the BBQ.

See, I really am watching the grill.

I normally sit here, but luckily my bed was on the grass when a gust of wind brought all this water off our roof. Can you imagine how surprised I would have been if I had been sitting there?

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Counting The Days Until He Gets A New Mr. Bill

No More Dumb Phones Here

Life is a matter of perspective.  For a worm, digging is a lot more fun than going fishing - Clyde Abel

Mama has been wanting a smart phone for a very long time.  The thing that held her back was the cost of the data plan.  She really couldn't justify it.  She kept coming up with "good reasons" for getting one though.  1) the GPS is not always correct and the folks end up at places that are no longer there. She used to carry her tablet with her, but that was kind of a pain because she needed the Mi-Fi too while in the car.  2) We have been staying at campgrounds without free Wi-Fi and our new Mi-Fi is 4G and really seems to use a lot more data. Mama can use a smart phone as a hot spot. 3) Mama really wants to be able to download coupons on it and not have to print them out. Just think of the paper and time she will save.  BOL!  She debated if she wanted to leave AT&T.  She wanted to stay with a no contract plan.  The folks do not like contracts. She thought about switching to Verizon or Straight Talk.  Straight Talk was tricky because some of their phones use Sprint and some use Verizon.  She wanted a phone with Verizon because their coverage is better, but no phones were available that she wanted that used Verizon towers.  She has been researching all of this for months.  BOL!  Dad bought his smart phone at Thanksgiving, but Mama held out. Finally, the price of the data plan came down enough that Mama could justify it, so she started looking for the phone she wanted. Dad has a Windows phone and Mama considered it, but she couldn't get all the apps that she wanted with it. Finally, AT&T's Pay As You Go (which is what she has used since it came out) came out with a new Android phone that she liked.  It has a 4" screen.  She bought it on Saturday at the AT&T store here.  She was surprised that there was a 15 minute wait to get help there.  The sales guy told her that they almost always have a wait at their store.  She was amazed by that.

Mama really likes her phone so far. It is super easy to use.  She downloaded the Emeals app today and it looks like it will be fun to use.  It gives you your shopping list and you delete any meals that you don't want and they disappear from your list.  She will take her paper list with her for a few weeks just to make sure it works correctly.   She downloaded a larger keyboard because she has "fat" fingers.  She downloaded a flashlight which she loves.  Dad said his phone doesn't have a flash, so the flashlight app doesn't work for him.  :-(

The campground was pretty full this weekend.  It was fun watching all the weekenders.  The folks dumped the tanks on Saturday night.  Mama did laundry yesterday and someone had cleaned up all the bugs.  She was really happy about that.  We paid for another week to stay here. 

We had rain last night.  This morning, it was cool enough that Scout went with us on a long walk. 

Me trying to get Mama and Scout to walk faster. Mama says I am being bad here.

Another view of the lake.

The winding path that we walked.  There are 27 miles of trails here.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Needs To Walk More If He Is Going To Complete All 27 Miles