June 4, 2013

So much has happened in the last few months. A lot of it good and joyful. One of the highlights being the birth of Branson Beal, my third great grandson, born to my granddaughter Kayla Beal. As we spend the majority of the winter in Florida parked at our RV garage in Grant Valkaria, we get to see the Beal family daily. The young gives balance to the old.

We have had too many deaths in our circle of friends and family. To be philosophical about that we are getting older. My oldest brother Mark, who is 86 lost his wife of 69 years to a stroke. Mark is still doing fine and now lives in an assisted living facility. My other living brother Dallas, worries way to much about things he can not control, like politics, new morality and what happens to Tim Tebow. He has had heart issues and is doing fine now.  He will greatly improve if Tim Tebow  can get a new team where he can again do his magic.

My three sisters are all well and busy. Patty is still working so very hard in the Minerva community and for Habitat for Humanity. She is amazing in all she does for all. A real model for a person with a servants heart. She is the sparkplug for our family reunions and makes it a roaring success each year as she opens her home and heart to over 100 family members for the Friday and Saturday reunion in July. Her son, Ricky with his wife Judy, sponsors the Friday night pizza affair at their house. A wonderful family affair and in all the years (over 30 years) that we have had a family reunion in Minerva, Ohio, not one negative event has occurred.

We continue to enjoy our full timing lifestyle and can not imagine moving back into a "stick" house. The freedom you have and the lack of "daily chores" make for a very nice lifestyle. Repairs and maintenance are an issue you have to deal with. Instead of waiting for a repairman to come to your house you take your house to the repairmen. This can be a real pain as it is your house where you live. This past April we had a window that got water between the dual panes and we took it to Lazy Days for replacement. Tiffin covered the repair 100 % and our membership in the Crown Club at Lazy Days provided us with free camping and meals, but we were there for 14 days to get the window replaced. When they finally started the repair it took less than 30 minutes. To be fair, we told our service contact that we were in no hurry as we enjoy our stay at Lazy Days. This repair is used as an example of one of the events of the full time RVing that we live with.

We still enjoy our club, the Challengers, that we camp with on a monthly basis. It is good to get together and just visit and play games with one another. Many of the members are planning a trip to Talladega, AL in June for a 5 day Rally. The Friendship Rally is the best one we attend. It is held every other year and is a must for us.

Just got interupted! As Linda, my great grandson and I were walking down to get the mail, Linda said "look, here is a gator!" It was not a gator but a 6 - 7 foot crocodile! It was about 3 foot from the driveway and right where we were! He was pretty with his coloring and was just lying there in the sun. I asked Linda to watch him and I went and got our personal protection. I then went next door to our neighbor, the famous Shawn Heflick, of the Python Hunter fame on the National Geographic Channel.  He wasn't home but my grandson - in - law, Nathan Beal got his number from his website and called him. He came right home ( about 7 minutes ) but by the time he got there the croc had decided to take a swim. Now it was far more difficult to get a good solution to the removal of the croc! By this time we had a real crowd as a lot of neighbors were here watching the famous python hunter do his thing!  Shawn got a rod with heavy leader and a treble hook and finally hooked the crock and pulled him into the bank. He went down and put a rope around its nose and pulled it onto the bank. He then got on the top of the croc and tied its mouth shut. Then he picked it up and put it in the back of a pickup and took it to his house and put it in a pen. This made for about 3 hours of entertainment for us and the neighborhood.

As I look back over the last year of our full timing in an RV, I have to say that it has been a grand adventure and Linda and I sure wouldn't want to change anything. We have had a few maintenance issues that were no different from the problems that you have living in a stick house.  We enjoy going to Lazy Days for repairs so there is not a big negative in our maintenance. It does cost more to service the Diesel over a gas engine but overall our yearly costs are well within reason. The only recurring problem we have had is the leak in the bedroom. It is slight but it must be repaired. We went to Lazydays on the 14th of May to get it fixed (again).

I finally got Direct TV to give me a free RV Sat kit. It is super easy to set up and Tiffin has a "Tripod" connection in the electrical bay of our Phaeton. That makes it super easy to connect and I installed an AB switch so I could just select either the top antenna or the tripod. Now when we camp in a spot that has the "sky" hidden from our view we can set up the external antenna and get our sports.  We also purchased a 60 watt solar system that we can take with us and use if we go dry camping. With our 6 house batteries we should be able to keep the freezer good and cold without running the generator. The cost of the solar system with the charge controller and a 200 watt inverter was under $200.00. It works like a charm. The only drawback to both is we have to find a place to carry them as we travel.

We are on the road again. Left Grant-Valkaria and went to Lazydays to have a bedroom slide leak fixed (didn't happen) and went on to Thousand Trails in Orlando for a week. From there we went to Florida Gateway RV resort to meet with Wayne and Marianne Bittner. What a resort. The park was unbelievably beautiful. We only stayed a night as we went on to Unadilla, Ga for a night. Wayne and Marianne stayed there and Linda and I went on to Talladega, AL to arrive early for the Friendship Rally. It is always a great time. We will be here a week.

Our RV site at Gateway Resort

Our neighbor in Grant-Valkaria loving a crock

A beach at Gateway RV Resort