House Hunting & New Year's Eve

We met with our realtor here in Kissimmee and St. Cloud this weekend and looked at a couple of houses for sale, but didn't find anything we wanted to make an offer on.

We are spending a quiet evening here at the RV for New Year's Eve. We can hear fireworks going off in the housing areas around us and they don't appear to bother Tinker too much.

This coming year will be quite a change for us once we find a house to buy. We are going over to Vero Beach for 2 weeks next month to look for a house in that area. Our realtor in Vero Beach has been e-mailing us listings of available houses and we have a list of the ones that we are interested in.

Happy New Year to one and all.

Christmas and our 45th Anniversary

We went over to my brother's house Christmas dinner. We were joined by my niece Kathy and her family. Then after dinner my nephews opened their presents and then we all posed for a family Christmas photo.

What a great looking family!!

From Kissimmee

It was cold this morning when we got up and there was even a thick coating of frost on the car.

From Kissimmee

Today is our 45th wedding anniversary and we went to

Finally decorated our Christmas tree

It is so nice to have our refrigerator working again! We had Doug come back over a couple of days ago and help us get the frig back into the cabinet. It only took about an hour to slide it back into the cabinet. It would have taken less time, but it kept getting caught on metal place in the cabinet. Once we figured that out the frig slid right into the cabinet.

I finally got around to decorating our Christmas tree yesterday. I normally would have done sooner that this, but with the refrigerator doors sitting up in the passenger seat and on the dash there wasn't room for the tree.

I've been collecting ornaments as souvenirs and now have so many that our tree won't hold all of them. I used the ones I bought this year traveling around the Southeast and added some that we bought in Alaska last year.

Here is a photo of our tree after I finished decorating it. You can see the refrigerator back in its cabinet in the background.

From Kissimmee

Here is a photo I took this evening of our Christmas tree sitting up on the dash.

From Kissimmee

Refrigerator working with new cooling unit

The refrigerator is working with the new cooling unit installed. We have it running on electricity for now until we get it back into the cabinet.

Mike made the final wiring connections this afternoon.

From Refrigerator Repair

Mike has called David at RV Cooling Warehouse (where we bought the cooling unit) to ask him some questions about installing the new cooling unit. David has been great about explaining the installation and giving pointers to help with the installation. We have been very impressed with the service from David at RV Cooling Warehouse and will definitely recommend him to anyone who has problems with their RV frig.

I printed a wiring schematic for the circuit board for the refrigerator that I found on the internet and that helped simplify reconnecting the wiring.

It will be so nice to have the refrigerator working again! We've been using coolers for the last 2 weeks and the novelty wore off a week ago.

We're going to let the frig run for a few days before we call Doug to come back over and help us put it back in the cabinet.

Installed new refrigerator cooling unit

This morning Doug (my niece's husband) came over at 10:00 to help us pull the refrigerator out of its cabinet. Since the refrigerator sits about a foot up off of the floor, we had to come up with a way to slide the frig out of the cabinet and place it on a platform the same height as the cabinet.

A friend of ours had given us a wooden platform and Mike had bought casters and attached to the legs and converted the platform to a dolly. Having the dolly the same height as the refrigerator cabinet really helped in pulling the frig out. The dolly also made is possible to move the frig around so we could get down the hallway to the bathroom and bedroom.

Here is a photo of the refrigerator sitting on the dolly in our kitchen

From Refrigerator Repair

and a photo of the old cooling unit.

From Refrigerator Repair

We took a break to have lunch once Mike and Doug had removed the old cooling unit. Then it was back to work and by 3:00 the new cooling unit was

Received new cooling unit for refrigerator

Mike ordered a new cooling unit from RV Cooling Unit Warehouse on December 3 and FedEx delivered it last Friday. He ordered a cooling unit built by an Amish company in Indiana. After researching the difference between the Norcold units and the Amish units, Mike chose the Amish cooling unit because it was heavier duty and costs considerably less than the ones Norcold builds.

Since our RV refrigerator quit working on Nov. 29, we've been using coolers in the RV and the refrigerator in the church building next door to store our food. We're using the coolers for the food that we use frequently everyday and then we restock the coolers from the items that are in the church refrigerator.

We called my niece tonight and her husband, Doug, will come over in the morning to help us pull the refrigerator out of the cabinet, so Mike can remove the old cooling unit and install the new one.

We took the doors off of the refrigerator and freezer and removed all the shelves today to make the refrigerator a little less heavy. Mike also disconnected the water for the ice maker and disconnected the propane from the frig.

We had a family of Sandhill Cranes visit us this morning and Mike put out a few pieces of bread for them.

From Kissimmee

After spending weeks trying unsuccessfully to get our HP Photosmart printer to work wirelessly with Mike's new Dell laptop, we bought a HP All-in-One 6520 at Best Buy a few days ago. We're still learning all that it can do, but it works great with both of our laptops and we really like the fact that we can scan a document and save it to our laptops wirelessly.

House Hunting, Thanksgiving & Refrigerator quit working

We've had a busy month here in Kissimmee. On Sundays we met my brother and family and another couple for lunch at Perkins and then spent the afternoon visiting at my brother's house. We went to my brother's house for Thanksgiving dinner and my niece and her family joined us.

From November 2012

We've had 2 meetings with our realtor here in Kissimmee and have looked at about 10 houses so far. A couple of houses that we were really interested in already had contracts on them, so we didn't look at them (maybe the sales won't go through). Our realtor, Dave, recommended Broadway Pizza Bar in downtown Kissimmee and we ate lunch there one day after house hunting - we will definitely go back again.

Since we sold all of our furnishings from our house in Dothan when we started full-time RVing, we will have to completely furnish the house that we buy. Our son, Fletcher, suggested we check out Ikea, so we drove the 12

Dothan to Kissimmee

We got up at 7:00 this morning and started breaking camp right after breakfast. Glenda came by to say goodbye before she left to go to church. Jimmy also came over to see us before we left. We paid W.T. for the electricity for this week ($25.20) and after saying goodbye to W.T. and Jimmy, we left The Willows at 9:00 (CST).

Mike drove the RV down to Tractor Supply to get propane and I stopped at Publix to do some last minute shopping. We had planned on filling our propane tanks at Tractor Supply since they were charging $2.29 a gallon for propane, but the employee there hadn't been certified to fill propane tanks on a RV. We had to stop at the Flying J in Dothan and got the propane there and paid $2.999 a gallon.

We left the Flying J at 10:30 and drove south on US-231. We passed by the Peanut Festival Fairgrounds and I took a photo of some of the rides there - yesterday was the last day for the Peanut Festival.

From November 2012

We crossed into Florida

A busy 3 weeks in Dothan

We've been here in Dothan for 3 weeks and will be leaving tomorrow to go down to Kissimmee, FL. We've been busy for those 3 weeks with doctors' and dentist's appointments.

Mike and I went to our primary doctor for our regular checkup and she said we're doing fine. I had injured the toenail on my left big toe and it had turned black, so our doctor referred me to a local podiatrist. The podiatrist suggested killing and removing the nail - I didn't like that option since the nail would never grow back. I think I'll get a second opinion when we get down to Kissimmee.

We both went to our dentist for a checkup. Mike still had one of his wisdom teeth (it was impacted and loose and it had been hurting for a while), so our dentist pulled it. I went to the chiropractor for a few adjustments. Tinker was due for his canine influenza booster and I took him to Care Animal Hospital (our vet for over 30 years) for that.

We met Mike and Gayle (our friends in Ozark) at Cracker Barrel for dinner one night. Mike and Gayle had driven their motorhome to Alaska this summer and we enjoyed hearing about their trip. We visited with W.T. and Glenda here at The Willows and our friend Jimmy came by often. We ate dinner twice at Mexican Connection and visited with Sharon, Debbie, Sandy and Chad, but we missed seeing Frances and Caroline since they work during the daytime.

Mike and I have been talking this year about looking for a home to buy. We think that with the housing market the way it is and mortgage interest rates being low, that now it is probably time to buy a house. We had planned on full-timing for 10 years and we are entering our 8th year. We usually spend the winter months in Dothan or Kissimmee and rarely travel, so the only difference will be living in a house during the winter instead of the RV.

We have contacted USAA (we're pre-approved for a loan) and signed up for their Movers Advantage program. We told them we are looking at homes in the Kissimmee-St. Cloud and Vero Beach-Sebastian areas. USAA contacted a realtor in Kissimmee and 1 in Vero Beach and both realtors have called us. We told them what size house we're looking for and that we want to be able to park the motorhome at the house.

We still plan on RVing because we haven't visited places like Monument Valley, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon and Yellowstone National Park (we did drive through Yellowstone in 2011).

Photos of The Willows in Dothan

Monday morning Mike went over to our storage unit and got our 40# propane tank. He took the 40# and a smaller propane tank to Tractor Supply and had them filled ($2.29 a lb).He also connected to the water and sewer hook-ups here.

We decided to go to Five Guys for lunch and then we drove over to Sam's Club and did some shopping.

We just relaxed the rest of Monday afternoon. Monday evening we walked over to W.T.'s house and paid $60 for our campsite for this week. We visited a while with W.T. and Glenda before coming back home to watch the Presidential Debate.

Today was busier than yesterday. Mike took Tinker over to For Paws Only this morning for his bath and grooming appointment with Peggy.

Mike took some photos this morning of our campsite and The Willows.

From The Willows in Dothan

From The Willows in Dothan

Mike had a doctor's appointment this morning at 11:00 and stopped to

Arley to Dothan

After breakfast this morning, we began to break camp. We took our time this morning preparing to leave since check-out time for RVs at Hidden Cove is 11:00 and we only had 166 miles to drive today to Montgomery.

We left Hidden Cove at 10:40

From Arley to Dothan

and drove south on CR-41 where we crossed over Lewis Smith Lake and saw this campground on the right on the lake.

From Arley to Dothan

We continued south to Jasper and then south on US-78 where we passed

Campground Photos

Tuesday morning we realized we hadn't taken any photos of our campsite here at Hidden Cove, so Mike took some that afternoon.

From Arley, Alabama

From Arley, Alabama

We are right across from the campground's play ground and the building in the background is the bathroom and laundry. The bathrooms are clean

Breakfast at Chef Troy's & the Old Houston Jail

Sunday when we checked in at Hidden Cove Outdoor Resort, Susan recommended Chef Troy's Talk of the Town Restaurant in Houston for breakfast and gave us a copy of their menu. So on Monday morning we drove 11 miles north to Houston and arrived at the restaurant a little after 9:00.

From Houston, Alabama

There were only a few people in the restaurant that late in the morning, so we had no problem in finding an empty booth. We both ordered the Denver Omelet (grilled onions, peppers, ham, tomato, bacon, sausage, Jack & cheddar cheeses) with a biscuit ($6.99 ea) and Mike also ordered a full stack (3) of pancakes ($4.29). The pancakes were so big

Mt. Juliet, TN to Arley, AL

It was overcast and in the mid-60's when we got up this morning. According to the weather radar thunderstorms were heading towards Nashville later this morning, so we started breaking camp a little sooner than we normally would. Since we were parked near the campground exit and would have to drive back around through the campground to go to the dump station, we decided to not empty our holding tanks. We hadn't used that much water during our stay here and a lot of RVs were leaving this morning and there was probably a line of RVs waiting to use the dump station.

We left Cedar Creek Campground at 10:00 and drove 11 miles south to I-40 and then south on I-24 to I-440 west and then south on I-65. The trees are beginning to get their fall colors and took this photo on I-65.

From Mt. Juliet to Arley

We crossed the Tennessee state line into Alabama at noon and stopped at the Alabama Welcome Center at Ardmore a couple of minutes later. You can't miss noticing the Welcome Center because of the Saturn 1B rocket at the entrance to the welcome center.

From Mt. Juliet to Arley

We pulled into the dump station at the welcome center and emptied our holding tanks

From Mt. Juliet to Arley

and then parked

Antique Archaeology & Tennessee State Museum

We drove the 24 miles into Nashville this morning

From Nashville

and passed by the Old Customs House.

From Nashville

We arrived at the Marathon Motor Car building at noon and there was a line of people waiting to go into the Antique Archaeology store.

From Antique Archaeology, Nashville

There was a doorman out front letting people in to the store a few at a time and after about a 10 minute wait it was our turn to go in. The doorman took our photo in front of the store before we went in.

From Antique Archaeology, Nashville

Visit to the Wilson County Archives in Lebanon

Thursday morning I gathered up our laundry and drove 8 miles south to the laundromat in Hermitage. It's a large laundromat and there were only a few people there when I got there.
The regular washers cost $2.25 a load and the dryers cost 50¢ for 8 minutes. It cost $16 to wash and dry the 4 loads of laundry I had.

There was a Kroger grocery store in the same shopping plaza as the laundromat and I stopped in there to get a few groceries before driving back to the campground.

I spent the rest of Thursday going through the genealogical notes I made Wednesday at the library and I made a list of documents and records I needed to search for today when I went to Lebanon.

We had a good hard rain last night and it woke both of us up a couple of times last night. I set the alarm for 7:00 last night because I wanted to get an early start this morning. It was 57° and just lightly raining when I got up this morning.

I left the campground this morning at 8:15 and drove 18 miles to visit the Wilson County Archives in Lebanon and arrived there a little after 9:00.

From Lebanon, TN

I met Thomas E. Partlow when I entered the Archives and told him the families and the time frame I was researching. Thomas is a co-director

Lunch & Genealogy Research in Mt Juliet

It was 57° this morning when we got up. We took Tinker for a walk around the campground this morning

From Cedar Creek Campground

and saw this Great Blue Heron standing on the lake shore.

From Cedar Creek Campground

There is a young family in the campsite across from us and we stopped to ask them about their travel trailer - a 1963 Shasta - really neat looking.

From Cedar Creek Campground

We left the campground at 11:30 and drove 9 miles south to Mount Juliet

Fort Campbell to Cedar Creek Campground

It was 41° when we got up this morning and with the wind chill it felt like 39°. Since we didn't have far to travel today and check-out time is noon, we took our time breaking camp. We left Fletcher's Fork Campground at 11:30 and drove east to I-24. We drove south on I-24, crossed the Red River

From Ft Campbell to Cedar Creek Campground

and headed towards Nashville.

From Ft Campbell to Cedar Creek Campground

We exited I-24 at exit 40 and drove east on TN-45 and stopped at a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Store at Madison to fix lunch at 12:30. After lunch I went into Wal-Mart to buy a few items and paid with our debit card so I could get some cash.

We left Wal-Mart at 1:15 and continued east on TN-45 to Shute Lane and then north on Saundersville Road near Old Hickory Lake.

From Ft Campbell to Cedar Creek Campground

We drove about 7 miles east on Saundersville Road through several

Visit to Pratt Museum at Fort Campbell

This morning we drove on base to go to the Don F. Pratt Memorial Museum.  We parked the car at the museum and walked across the street to see the aircraft on display at the Memorial Park

From Fort Campbell

From Fort Campbell

and the many unit memorials.

From Fort Campbell

We then walked back across the street to the Pratt Museum.

From Fort Campbell

The museum shows the history of the 101st Airborne Division, the “Screaming Eagles,” from the 1940's to the present with displays starting

Sunday Breakfast, Commissary Shopping & Library Research

It was a chilly 45° again this morning when we got up. Instead of fixing breakfast this morning, we drove on to base to have breakfast. The Burger King is closed on Sundays and it was too early for the Food Court to be open. We stopped at the Firestone Tire Store and they told Mike to go out Gate 4 and that there were several places that would be open for breakfast.

We saw G's Pancake House and decided to stop there for breakfast. We both ordered G's Super Breakfast. Mike ordered pancakes with his and I ordered biscuits and gravy with mine. Everything was great and much better than a breakfast at Burger King.

After breakfast we drove back on base and went grocery shopping at the commissary and was it ever busy this morning.

We got back to the RV at noon and after putting the groceries away and taking a little break, I packed up my laptop and genealogy notes to go to the Montgomery County Library in Clarksville 10 miles from the campground.

The Montgomery County Library has a large room dedicated to genealogy and I hoped to find some information on my Miller ancestors who lived in Montgomery County in the early 1800's. Unfortunately, I didn't find any information and after spending 1½ hours in the library, I decided to go back to the campground.

We had another cool fall day with a high temp in the upper 50's.

Poor cell phone signal & going to wi-fi at the PX

We don't have a very strong cell phone signal here at Fletcher's Fork Campground at Fort Campbell and our 3G signal isn't any better. So this afternoon after lunch we drove on base to find a place to wi-fi. We stopped at the base library to see if they had wi-fi and they don't. They did tell us that the Food Court at the PX did have wi-fi.

On our way over to the PX we passed by this tree decked out in fall colors,

From Fort Campbell

stopped to take a photo of this eagle sculpture

From Fort Campbell

and passed by the 101st Airborne Division Headquarters building.

From Fort Campbell

We got to the PX about 1:30 and found a table in the Food Court that was close to an electric outlet so I could plug in my laptop's power cord. I wasn't able to get on to the wi-fi in the Food Court, but I now had a strong 4G signal

Murray, KY to Fort Campbell

We left Holly Green RV Park this morning at 10:00 and drove east on Chestnut Street to US-641 and then south through Murray. We drove through the small town of Hazel just before crossing into Tennessee.

From Murray, KY to Ft Campbell

Four miles south of the Tennessee state line we drove east on TN-140 through farm land and tobacco fields. Every so often we would see a tobacco curing barn where wood fires were being used to cure the tobacco leaves.

From Murray, KY to Ft Campbell

A little later we connected with US-79 and drove over the Kentucky Lake

Genealogy Research in Murray, KY

Tuesday was domestic chores day. In the morning I drove over to the Murray Post Office and picked up our mail at General Deliver. Then I drove a few blocks over to a laundromat and spent a couple of hours doing laundry. I spent the afternoon working on genealogy and putting together a research list for my trip to the Pogue Library at Murray State University (MSU).

Then later on Tuesday afternoon I went to Kroger’s to get a few groceries. We wanted to have chicken fingers for dinner, so I drove to Zaxby’s to get them. We decided that the chicken fingers from Bojangles and Goldfingers (in Dothan) are better than Zaxby’s.

Mike took a couple of photos of the campground here in Murray Wednesday.

From Benton, IL to Murray, KY

From Benton, IL to Murray, KY

That afternoon I stopped by MSU’s Public Safety office

Benton, IL to Murray, KY & Superman statue

When we got up this morning it was cloudy (53°) and looked like it would rain any minute. After breakfast we started to break camp and were ready to leave by 10:00. We said goodbye to Frances (she had already taken Jack to work before we got up this morning) and promised that we would be back for a visit and that we wouldn’t let 6 years go by between visits.

We drove through Benton Town Square

From Benton, IL to Murray, KY

and west to I-57. We had driven about 10 miles when it started to rain. We stopped at Sam’s Club in Marion at 10:30 to get gas in the RV and car ($3.739 a gal) and did some shopping in Sam’s. We decided to fix lunch while we were still parked at Sam’s. We left Sam’s at 12:15 and continued south on I-57 to I-24.

We have passed by Metropolis several times on our travels and have never stopped to see the giant Superman statue. So we made a quick decision

Sunday Church Service & Lunch at Applebee's

This morning we met Frances and Jack (they had gone in for their Sunday School classes) at Immanuel Baptist Church for the 10:40 church service. They have a young pastor (he’s 34) and before the church service he went around greeting everyone.

After church we drove to Applebee’s and had lunch with Frances and Jack.

On the way back through Benton, we took photos of some of the houses in town.

From Benton, IL

From Benton, IL

We’ve been having such a great time visiting here, that we hadn’t

Mike’s ride on a combine

This morning we walked the few feet over to Frances and Jack’s for a hearty breakfast of waffles, bacon and sausage.

Then in the afternoon I went back to the library in West Frankfort to do more research. Jack took Mike out to the farm where he works and introduced him to Jerry Miller who is in the process of harvesting corn.

From Benton, IL

Mike has always been fascinated by combines and today he got to ride on one while it harvested corn.

From Benton, IL

Genealogy Research & Dinner at Jim & Sally’s

Friday afternoon Mike stayed at the motor home while I drove the 10 miles down to West Frankfort to Frankfort County Library for genealogy research on my Utley and Jones ancestors. My parents, grandparents and great-grandparents had all lived in the area and I had spent the first few years of my life in West Frankfort.

Friday evening Frances, Jack, Mike and I drove down to West Frankfort for dinner at Jim (Frances’s brother) and Sally’s house. Sally had fixed a great dinner with Italian beef, rolls, and pasta salad and it was followed up with her homemade apple pie (a la mode, of course).

From Benton, IL

From Benton, IL

We had such a good time visiting that it was after 11:00 before we knew it. Frances & Jack had left earlier since Jack had been up early this morning to go to work.

Traveling from Cave-in-Rock to Benton

Since we only had 62 miles to travel today, we took our time this morning in breaking camp at Cave-in-Rock State Park. By the time we emptied our holding tanks at the dump station and hitched up the car and left the State Park it was 11:07. There are no dumpsters at the State Park (the dumpsters were taken out to save on operating expenses), so we took our 2 bags of garbage with us.

As we were driving along near the Ohio River, we saw this deep-sea fishing boat going north on the river.

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

We drove north on IL-1

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

an Ohio River Scenic Byway for about 12 miles.

From Cave-in-Rock to Benton

Then we drive west on IL-13 for 4 miles to IL-142 the Lincoln Heritage Trail