Kick'in Back and Getting Things Done

I thought I'd give an update on what we're up to.  Its been awhile since I posted last but there's a good reason for it.  We're just kick'in back and getting some things done. I know that sounds a little crazy. How can you be doing both?  Well first of all there's not much happening here at Sand Hill Scout Reservation. The county mowers haven't hit the first water spigot so no repairs needed there, not like last year when we were constantly digging up a broken pipe. So not a lot of physical labor going on.

I've been getting some medical issues taken care of, trying to beat that end of year deadline before deductibles start again. I've gotten new glasses and have been fighting to keep my blood sugers under control, tough thing to do his time of year.

We had to make an emergency run to Atlanta when Barb's mother passed unexpectedly. We're back in Florida and have been doing a couple of mods to the 5th Wheel. We got rid of our dining table and put in a round table that we had bought about 12 years ago. It was unfinished, Barb stained it and put a nice poly coat on it. Barb's mom liked it so I lost my breakfast nook set.  We brought it back with us and it fits nicely in our dining area.  We also bought a couple of storage cubes and found a nice prefinished board to span the storage cubes. (now I can pile more stuff up there)

Reagan, Kate, Avery, you know the big jolly guy

But the best part of being back in Florida is we get to spend some time with the kids and grand kids. Between soccer games, Thanksgiving, Christmas programs, and Christmas with the kids, we've been on the move. But not that much.





I've still got some things I want to get done before we hit the road again in March. Like resealing the roof, replacing the shower head with an oxygenics shower head, I'm thinking about an NOCO GB150 battery booster (you just never know), and looking into collapsible alum. stairs for more ease getting into the RV.
Until next time, Happy New Year, and be safe

Safe Travels, And I Hope To See You Down The Road.

2 years as fulltime RV'ers

Cataloochee Valley GSMNP

Two years of being fulltime RV'ers, where has the time gone?  Actually two years won't happen until February 2017.  We are about to finish our second workamping job.  We started last March at Lonestar Jellystone park in Waller, Texas.  We had a great time and learned allot about fulltiming while we were there.  Number one thing we learned out there is, it's hotter than blazes in southeast Texas.  How hot you ask? So hot that one air conditioner will not work. So hot you learn all about Reflectix.  The heat was just unbearable. We also got rid of one recliner and put in an second refrigerator so we didn't have to drive thirty miles one way every week for groceries.

This year we are working at Yogi in the Smokies in Cherokee, NC just minutes outside of The Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  And I do mean minutes.  This year we were given the opportunity to be assistant managers here.  Barb is in charged with running the store/reservation area and I have been working with the maintenance department.  We're committed to coming back next year and helping to get a few more fun activities up and running.

Fishing in the Raven Fork river

If you like the great outdoors, you'll love being this close to to nature. Not to mention just across the mountains is Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge for all your touristy attractions.  We even went zip lining this summer, what a blast that was.  If water falls are your thing this is the place to be.  And the icing on the cake is the weather.  Nothing like Texas.  As I write this its 51 degrees outside.

Elk came down to graze

 Our season here ends on October 31st. After that we head to Florida to spend a few months relaxing and taking care of some needed medical issues.  We stay at a Boy Scout camp while in Florida.  I do a little care taking for a full hookup site behind the administration building.  The middle of February we start heading back this way so we can start again here at Yogi in the Smokies the first of March.  If you find yourself headed this way or are looking for a nice place to unwind awhile please stop in and see for yourself why this is such a family fun campground. And if you are looking for a workamping gig give us a call.

Robbing the bird feeder

Safe Travels And I Hope To See You Down The Road

Our mini vacation from Yogi Bear

We've taken a mini vacation from our jobs at Yogi in the Smokies campground this week and are spending a few days in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Today we took a little trip to see the Bushes Baked Beans Museum and Visitor Center. Located in the tiny community of Chestnut Hill Tennessee on Hwy. 411. As you go around a bend in the road, there it is. The largest packing plant you can imagine with a small white wood frame house sitting right on the edge of the road.

It was raining pretty hard

The house is the former home of A.J. Bush and his wife Sarah. This is where Bush's baked beans were born. Across the road is the museum and visitor center where you can walk through the history of the Bush Brothers family business.

They have on display and for sale every type of bean they offer. The gift shop is well stocked with a variety of items to take home with you. They have an interactive game for the young ones to play and a scale you can step on that will tell you how much you weigh in baked beans. At the end of the walk through bean history you can pose for a souvenir picture with the ever popular Duke.

There's a movie that last about 25 minutes that walks you through the canning process from start to finish and some clips of Jay and Duke discussing the secret family recipe. Outside in the parking lot there are two restored Ford delivery trucks on display that would have been used by A.J. Bush.  A.J. By the way stands for Andrew Jackson.

If you are close by or visiting the Pigeon Forge area you should try to make this a part of your itinerary, you might just be impressed.  But keep in mind they keep the Secret Family Recipe guarded quite well.

Oh by the way I weigh 205,824 baked beans.

Be Safe And I Hope To See You Down The Road

Udderly Ridiculous

A little background is needed to fully understand this. I have diabetes and when I get a cut or scrap it takes a long time for it to heal. In my current position at Yogi in the Smokies doing maintenance I'm constantly getting cut on my hands. One of the other workampers recommended Udder Cream. I'd never heard of this type of cream before. Ken explained it's purpose is to help reduce chaffing on cows from milking machines.

I was a little concerned if what he said was true or was I getting my leg pulled. He promised it was true and I could only get it at a farm supply store. Well it was our day off and we needed to go to Lowe's so why not stop at the farm supply store since it was on the way.

We stopped at the Bryson Farm Supply. Instantly I felt this was going to be a big mistake. Remember watching The Andy Griffith show set in Mayberry? Andy, Barney, and all the guys are standing around Floyd's barber shop just talking and a stranger walks in. That was me today. I being the stranger. Of course a guy walks out from behind the counter and says “Can I help you?” Having second thoughts about this being true I foolishly said I'm looking for udder cream.

He says Oh sure, right over here. Another guy in bibbed overalls says, He uses it on his cows all the time. I thought great, what am I in for. Another older man standing there wearing I'm sure a John Deere hat said its great for your hands and uses it to heal cuts. Boy did I feel better. And by the way there was a dog roaming around looking for treats and rubs on the head.

At least it all worked out. The cream does seems to work. So why can't you find udder cream at Walmart?

Our home for now

 On a better note, its beginning to warm up here and Barb picked up some flowers while we were at Lowe's. She put them in a travel trailer planter that we have next to our sign. After the last water line break the campground manager decided to buy me a new pair of boots. Barb not wanting to throw anything away put some flowers in them. At least we have a little splash of color around our site. And smooth hands.

         

         Safe Travels 

And I Hope To See You Down The Road

White Knuckle Drive

We left Florida on Tuesday February 9^th. Headed for Atlanta. We planned to boondock at Bass Pro Shop in Macon, Georgia. We arrived late afternoon after fighting hard winds all the way through Florida. Once we got to Bass Pro we set up for a quiet night. By the way all we had to do was call the store, ask if we can stay overnight in the parking lot. The lady I spoke to was very nice. She explained where she wanted us to park and told us to have a nice evening. It can't get any easier than that. We were the only RV in the lot that night.

I of course had to tour the store which scared the life out of Barb. I know she was A LOT concerned what I might come back with. And let me tell you I could have come back with more then a cart full, No problem. Prices I thought were way out of line but what are you going to do. Window shop like me.

When I came back to the rig I cranked up the generator so we could watch some TV before settling in for the night. AT 10pm I made sure the generator was full of fuel and went to bed. The reason for running it all night was so I could use my Cpap machine since I haven't found an inverter and battery bank I want yet. I'm pleased to say our Yamaha 2000is generator ran like a champ and 1 gallon of fuel lasted till 7:30am. 9.5 hours on a tank of fuel, very happy.

We got up Wednesday morning and started packing up. Problem. Slides won't come in, batteries were run down. I reconnected to the truck and slides came right in. Lesson learned, Turn off the water heater, consider turning off the furnace and using more blankets because although the furnace runs on propane the blower runs on 12 volt.

I had called the dealer where we bought our 5^th wheel to see if there was any way they could take a look at a light that was shorting out in the bedroom. I fully expected them to laugh and say no way you have to wait at least 3 weeks. To my surprise Chad said sure just swing by and we'll take a look at it. We walked in and reminded Chad I had called, he called Mark one of his techs and got him working on the problem. I told Chad about our no power this morning and he explained everything very clearly and answered all of my questions. Mark found and repaired the short very quickly. Then he checked all my tires and made sure they were all at the right pressure. In less than 1 hour we were on our way. If you are looking for an RV and in the Atlanta area I recommend Southern RV in Mcdonough, Georgia.

We got to our next destination Red Top Mountain State Park later that afternoon. We stayed there till Saturday so Barb could see her mom and brother. Red Top was a nice state park with a lot of hiking trails and really nice shower/restrooms. Each RV site has water and 30/50 amp hook ups, there is a dump station at the exit of the camping area. If you ever get a chance, stay there.

We hit the road early Saturday because the weather guys were saying the Atlanta area was in for some bad winter weather. Since I've never pulled through the mountains before I wanted to get on the road in case we needed to make other plans. I wasn't to worried getting to Murphy, N.C., it was getting from Murphy to Cherokee driving Hwy 74 through the Nantahala Gorge. Although I had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel all the way across the mountains the two lane road was clean and clear the entire way.

We're here in Cherokee, NC. Working for our site until March 1^st. When our job actually starts. The temperature here is currently 34 degrees so I had to make a second heated hose. Cell phone service here is pretty sad and our jetpack is pretty much just a paperweight so we have to drive into town to get on line, but at least we're here in the Smoky Mountains and for us that's all that matters. Needless to say, We love the mountains.

Safe Travels And I Hope To See You Down The Road 

Heated RV Water Hose, Build or Buy

As our time here in Florida quickly comes to an end. I'm trying to prepare us for the trip north to North Carolina. I'm mostly concerned with traveling from Atlanta to Cherokee. Not completely sure what to expect I'm trying to plan for the worst case scenario.

Will we be able to find a campground? If we can will the water spigot freeze or be frozen already. I'm not calling ahead because I'm not sure how far we'll go each day. But the preparations continue to boondock if needed.

I've checked out the generator, its good to go, I've got extra fuel for it. Filling the fresh water tank I'll do just before we leave. I'm looking at getting a couple of batteries and an inverter to run my Cpap machine if boondocking has to happen.

I've already made us a heated water hose just because I've looked at the weather trend for March in Cherokee. It calls for freezing temps for the entire month. Below are the steps I took to build it. The first one I've made so don't know if this is correct or not, all I can say is it works.

 

First I ordered a heat tape from amazon priced at $41.32.

Next I gathered all the materials I would need. 

This included a 25 foot water hose

5 5 foot pipe insulation tubes

1 roll of high heat electric tape

1 roll of aluminum foil

1 roll of duct tape

1 Frost King pipe heat cable

Total cost of these materials $16.13 from Home Depot.

I next wrapped the hose with the alum. foil and taped it about every 18" just to help hold the foil in place

After that I attached the heat tape to the hose again with the electric tape.

Now comes putting the whole thing inside the insulation tubes. Once that's done I sealed along the seam with the duct tape and also taped each joint.

Here's the finished project. I made this for a total of $57.45 in about one hour. Or you can buy one from amazon for $146.00.

         

Keep your fingers crossed for us. Maybe we won't need the hose after all, but I'm not counting on that.

Safe Travels, And I Hope To See You Down The Road.

New Year Update

It seems like its been a long time since I last blogged. I guess with Christmas, New Years and staying busy here at the Boy Scout camp it just feels that way. We just completed the Brooksville Raid Civil War Reenactment here at camp. What a job that was. No numbers on how many people came but I'll say this, Saturday was packed. Sunday not so much due to a big chance of rain that never happened and heavy winds. 

 There were over one thousand reenactors here and they put on quite a show. The Scouts Sertoma Club did a fantastic job again this year putting on this annual event.

Here at Sandhill Scout Reservation there's an abundance of wildlife around. Some of the critters I've seen here are Sand Cranes, Turtles, Swamp Hawks, Woodpeckers, Wild Turkeys, and Coyotes.

Another reason I've been busy is repairing all the water leaks and broken pipes we keep finding here. At least with the sandy soil the digging has been easy. Its pretty quiet here during the week, its on the weekends that scouts come camping. Main things to do is checking the latrines making sure all the important papers are there, water is on, and swept out.

The main reason we came here was to be close to the kids and grandkids for a few months, two of the kids came for the raid and brought all the grandkids. We got to go to church with them all Christmas Eve and spent Christmas day with all of them again.

Just a quick plug, I've read a lot of RV forums about reviews on the Nuwave cooktop. Barb and I decided to get one. It works great, heats up faster than any other electric cooktop, holds the heat you set it to. You can put your hand on the top and not get burned, its warm but not cool like the infomercial says, no big deal. Of course you can only cook one pot or pan at a time so you need to use another cooktop for any side dish. We have a small 2 burner electric cooker for that, might as well save your propane for when you need it. I highly recommend getting one, we use ours every day, unless Barb breaks out the crock pot which happens a lot.

Another major task that we got to put to bed was getting our health insurance concerns taken care of. Thanks Florida Blue. We can now travel and be covered without breaking the bank. And speaking of travel next month we get back on the road and head north stopping near Atlanta, Georgia so Barb can visit with her mom and brother before heading on to Cherokee North Carolina where we start workamping March 1^st.

This past week we went to the Florida RV Super Show at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa. All kinds of RV's to see but nothing we would trade our 5^th. Wheel for. At least not in our price range. I did see a few Class A's I could live with but sorry to say I'm not one of the 3 powerball winners. That's about all we've been up to, so until next time.  

Safe Travels, And I Hope To See You Down The Road.