Life is Grand !

Well, the Memorial Day weekend passed and it was a success for us at Falls View and River Vista RV Resort. The campground was full-well actually only 3 of the about 150 sites were open. We had a delicious grilled hamburger, beans, chips, and drinks on Saturday, May 26, in the Mountain Center of River Vista. This was part of the campgrounds activities. The workkampers and managers prepared it all and it was delicious! We went to the music event in the Mountain Center at 7pm and listened to the Ram Cats perform.

They were very good! They are a local Rabun County band and play mostly blues music. A slide guitar and the harmonica played  integral parts in all tunes. And, the musicians that played both were quite good. We only stayed an hour since we were tired from the day’s events. There was a large turnout for the meal portion of the day but there was a small crowd of many 40 or so folks present for the music. It could have been that the campers didn’t want to pay the additional $4 to attend the Ram Cats performance.

On Memorial Day the Falls View owners had a pot luck and barbeque at the Mud Creek Pavilion, which is down by the stream. It is a covered pavilion with picnic tables, a grill, and electrical hookups.

We brought pea salad and it was OK. I made it with Laura Lynn brand sweet peas and they were mushy compared to Libby’s peas. The flavor was good but I didn’t like the mushiness. Jason Rambo, a resident of Falls View, made the pork and it was great! He also asked Jeff if he would bring some music down for us to enjoy. So instead of taking out the big speakers and all the equipment, we took our Bose speaker box and Jeff prepared an IPOD full of great hits. The music that most everyone enjoyed was a tribute to Memorial Day veterans. People were singing and just enjoying themselves. Some people did dance to the rock and country music, too. We sure do have some great cooks here. It was a nice turnout of about 46 people. We left at about 7:40pm just before the sprinkling of rain began.

We got some work done by our handyman, Kevin, on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Kevin has built our deck on our site 4 years ago and last year built the coach house cover over the deck. He does great work and is very reasonable with his fees. We have had some trouble with the long sewer hose not having a great slope to it when we have to empty the tanks. From where our dump valves on the fifth wheel to the sewer outlet that enters the ground was about 25 feet. We had to pick up the hose and “walk it” towards the sewer outlet to make sure it empties into the sewer properly.  So, Kevin raked the mulch away and dug up the dirt and put a sewer extension into the ground with the new sewer outlet being 3 feet from our rig. He then covered the extension with the dirt and replaced the mulch. It now has a great slope and it looks so much nicer.

  

After he finished that job on Tuesday, he came back on Wednesday and installed an outdoor ceiling fan with a light attached to it in the coach house above our table. We bought a remote to go along with it and now we can control the three fan speeds on warm days and  we can sit outside in the dark and read if we wanted to under the fan’s light. Below are pictures of before and after the ceiling fan addition.

  

He also hardwired an outlet onto the outside of the shed. We had been using an extension cord which was very inconvenient. After he finished that job, he extended the deck over a planter area we had adjacent to the shed area. You see now that we have the roof over the deck that planter area was really of no use. We now have more room to put our storage unit that houses our stereo system and other stuff at the rear of the deck against the shed. 

  

As they were working on it they had to contend with our barn swallows as they were coming in regularly to take care of their nest. (Thanks Judy for identifying the birds). We are very pleased with the results of all of the work Kevin and his son did. Now I will get the stain and apply it to the deck extension to match the rest of the deck so it will be beautiful!

Thursday we bit the bullet and spent a chunk of cash! You see our golf cart batteries have not been holding a charge well since we arrived in April. They are the original batteries and since our cart is a 2005 model, the batteries are 7 years old. We’ve been fortunate, I guess, as we were told about 5 years is what you can expect on their service life. Our cart is a fully electric 48 volt Club Car. It has 4, 12 volt deep cycle golf cart batteries. Until Jeff started researching them online we didn’t realize their cost. Most of them go for between $210 and $300 A PIECE! One of our neighbors heard we were looking into getting new ones, he needed some new ones, as did one other owner. The fortunate part for us is that another one of the Falls View owners is in the golf cart business in South Carolina. He was contacted and gave the four of us (another owner needed them) great prices on the batteries. Plus, he would send a man with our batteries from SC to Falls View, install our new ones, and take the old ones away. We hit the jackpot and saved roughly between $50 and $140 PER battery. We feel really good about that deal even though it cost a chunk as it was. No more battery concerns for 5 years or so….we hope.

We ate out four times this week. We went to Mountain Man on Tuesday. I had a delicious blue cheese hamburger with their homemade fries and Jeff had their gyro with fries. Very good indeed! On Wednesday, we ordered a pizza from Main Street Pizzeria along with some teriyaki wings. They were also great! On Thursday for lunch we ate at Annette’s Café in Dillard, which is out favorite place to eat at now since it is so good and inexpensive. Plus, it takes us all of 5 minutes to get there. We both had the country fried steak with a salad and another vegetable along with a piece of cake. Jeff had the German Chocolate cake and I had the lemon cake. Very Good!!! To think it costs only $6.49 a piece, that includes dessert AND beverage, it is a steal. I don’t know how they do it. Can you tell….we LOVE to eat!

We got some needed showers on Friday throughout the day. Nothing really to brag about but it meant I didn’t have to water my tomato plant or the flowers. It actually lowered the temperature to a low of 48 degrees on Saturday morning.

We left on a beautiful Saturday morning for the “bigger” mountains of North Carolina. The day was a beautiful one with some light breezes and a high of 77 degrees. Kozmo, of course, came along for the ride and enjoyed herself. She sometimes acts like a baby because she gets irritable when she is tired. She wants Jeff to rub her and talk to her. She loves his attention but doesn’t mess with me since I am driving. We travelled to Franklin, Waynesville, Maggie Valley, and Cherokee. There seemed to be many people in Cherokee in the water  fishing or just tubing. It was a nice site to see. I love driving the truck in the mountains, especially down the mountains that have an 8% slope. I just put the truck in third gear and let the beautiful engine and jake brakes take control. Plus, we yawn so much to clear our ears going up and down the mountains due to the elevation changes that our jaws get tired. I don’t know how Kozmo adjusts to the elevation changes.

We headed out to the Valley Cafe  in Dillard for some dinner after resting a couple of hours from our drive through the mountains. Both of us ordered fried chicken salads. I had ranch dressing, Jeff had his with bleu cheese dressing. But, then we both succumbed to a piece of the “Cake of the Month”….would you believe Key Lime Cake. Now that’s cake NOT key lime pie. It was truly awesome. I brought back some of mine…Jeff polished his off at the restaurant.

Today is a stay at home day. I did finally get my 2 foot by 4 foot above ground garden put together and planted. I planted squash, cucumbers, lettuce, green onions and carrots. Now to nurture them and hope they grow. We do have some tomatoes beginning to grow.

  

WHEW, That’s it for now….’Til next time……