Dillard, GA.....We're Back !

Watch out you people in Dillard, the Boldt’s have arrived!!!

We got to Dillard on Thursday, April 25 at 2:30 pm.  We had to start up the golf cart which had not been used since last November 6 and move it so that we could put the fifth wheel in the site. The golf cart started up perfectly after Jeff attached all of the cables to the batteries. We charged it up and it is perfect again. It took us one hour and 10 minutes to get the fifth wheel into our site. Go forward, go back, repeat 25 or more times until it was “perfectly” lined up with the electrical box area and not crooked.

 

I am no use to Jeff and he let me know that while we were talking on the walkie talkies and then the batteries died in them midway into our parking. He finally got it “just right.” Anyway, we then unhooked, leveled and were ready to enjoy the lifestyle of Dillard until after Halloween is over. We tried to do as much as possible on Friday in getting things organized, but even though the weather cooperated, we had to socialize too much and didn’t get much done. We managed to eat at one of our favorite restaurants on Friday called Mishima Express located in Clayton, GA. We then went to WalMart for some much needed items before heading back to the rig and doing some more organizing and settling in.

Kozmo is very happy to be back here. She loved running down by the stream and seeing her puppy friends.

 River Vista inherited a wooden 2-seater swing from one of the owners in Falls View and repainted it and placed it down by the stream. That is going to become one of my new favorite sitting areas. It is so pretty now down there. The swing faces the lower section of the campground and just 15 feet down the bank behind, is Mud Creek. The sound of the running water enhances the ambience.

 

 

 Jeff and I went to see the managers, Karen and Butch, in the office and spoke to Megan, an office worker. It was great seeing them and complementing them on the work that has been done while we were gone. It looks green in lots of places and with the rain starting on Saturday and going through the next four days or so, will make it look even prettier. Once the potential near freezing temperatures pass later next week, it’ll be time to plant the colorful annuals. Yes, the weather folks on tv from Atlanta say frost and near freezing temps are possible in the Georgia mountains late next week---that would be May. Crazy I know, but that is better than 90+ degree temps any day in my book.

We attended the HOA meeting on Saturday at 10am in the Mountain Village Center here at River Vista and saw some neighbors we hadn’t seen since November. It was nice seeing all of them again. Afterwards, we went to another one of our favorite restaurants called Annette’s Café, located in Dillard, all of 5 minutes from here. One of the waiters, Kenneth, is a great guy whom we missed a lot while we were gone. We exchanged emails a couple of times this past winter,  so it was so nice to see him in person again. . We both got fantastic lunches along with a great conversation with Kenneth. About 24 of the Falls View residents went to The Cupboard for lunch, but we had planned on eating at Annettes  since we missed it on Friday. Too bad the weather was not cooperating today. It has been raining off and on since 10pm last night. We are supposed to have 100% chance of rain and thunderstorms tomorrow. I guess you can say it will be a wash out with temperatures in the fifties during the day. 

Before we arrived in Dillard we were at Longs, SC, for the week. We described it in our last entry. Two of the days were fantastic weather wise, but the rest of the time we were fighting the strong winds and rains. We will definitely go back there someday and maybe get one of the sites with a hot tub.

 

After we left Willow Tree on Wednesday, April 24, we headed for Roebuck, SC, and stayed at a place called Pine Ridge Campground.  It is located in a residential area and the drive into it was scary. The roads were not in great shape and very steep and narrow. We really enjoyed talking to the new owners who are really going to make this place shine someday. They have plant baskets at each site, very clean roads, bathrooms and laundry areas. The bathroom was remodeled in 2012 and it was a joy to take a shower in there. I thought I was in a $200,000  house  because the shower was 5 x 5 feet and very nice! As a matter of fact the bathrooms don’t even look like they are ever used.  I usually don’t use the facilities but since we didn’t hook up to the sewer I thought I would see how Good Sam rated them a 10 Star.  I definitely could see why! Leaving the campground on Thursday morning was a scary thing because we had to go up the steep road to get out. I didn’t think we would make it, but we did. All I kept thinking was the fifth wheel will come lose and that will be that, but it didn’t happen.

How many of you use your GPS? We use the one in the truck and now Jeff has me use the recently purchased IPAD map app also while we are travelling.  It told us two different directions to go and we went the wrong way by getting off I-85 and travelling in downtown Greenville by taking I-385!!! Usually, the 3 digit interstate numbers are bypass routes. Well, NOT in Greenville, SC. It took us right downtown to 2 lane streets. At least now we can say we saw Greenville, or I should say, Jeff saw downtown Greenville while I was trying to find out where we were on the IPAD map app to tell him where to go. That was the second time in two days the GPS was wrong and the IPAD was correct. The other time there was a detour sign for trucks and we followed it but then there were no more detour signs telling us how to get back to route 76. We managed to go a half hour out of our way and traveled three times over the Pee Dee River. Go figure. We got some strange looks by locals as our one ton Dodge pick-up towed our 40 foot fifth wheel  on the two lane backcountry roads. Again, I had no idea where we were to begin with and Jeff was now asking me how to go. I must be directionally challenged. Give me the steering wheel and tell me where to go next time. I wanted to tell Jeff where to go several times but it wasn’t driving directions I assure you.   J

Enough for now.  Let us hear from you on your travels.

‘Til next time….

Left Florida, After 5 Months

We left Crystal River on Tuesday, April 16, after spending time at our Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park site since November 8^th. It was definitely time to go!!!! It was getting hot and humid and we didn’t want to tolerate that weather anymore. We do not have to, after all, our home is on wheels,  on the road we are.

We stopped at Coastal Georgia  RV Resort in Brunswick, GA, on Tuesday night. This is a great park for overnight or short term stays! The sites are very long and even though it doesn’t look wide, it really is livable. There are hedges on both sides to separate the sites, which make it very pretty. All the sites are concrete with full hook ups. They even had a Bark Park for Kozmo, which she went into but didn’t really like because she “told” me, Barbie, she doesn’t like fenced in areas. J She was a great rider in the truck. She slept about 90% of the time and got some “lovin” and food when we stopped at a rest stop in Georgia. The only problem with Coastal GA RV Resort were the no see-ums. When I took Kozmo out at 8 PM, the little bugs were in my hair which I had just washed before going out with her. They must have loved my shampoo and hair gel  I put on. A great stop for overnight though.

We did have a minor annoying problem on the road. Our truck is equipped with a towing brake package and the light came on the dashboard saying our trailer brakes were disconnected, and then 5 to 10 seconds later it would say it was now connected again. The annoying thing was the ping sound associated with the message every time it came on. The message came on quite frequently. We stopped to check out the plug and found a small opening on it where the cord was slightly separated from the head. Maybe some moisture got in there causing it to short periodically. Jeff put some tape on it but the next day we still have the problem. Annoying and frustrating YES!!! Although when braking, Jeff says he’s never felt we had NO brakes to the 5^th wheel. What are we going to do about it? I don’t know yet.

We got up at 6:30 Wednesday morning and left at 7:50 to head over to the Flying J, which was at the same exit for some diesel gas. The gas was $3.98 a gallon. We knew we would have a long drive on Wednesday to get to our destination at Longs, SC. We were on the road at 8:30 and stopped at 10:40 at a rest stop to eat some great sandwiches that I made and to walk Kozmo, who was sleepy again today. We left there and after several hours of driving  got a bit panicky when we hit the Conway area (within 15 miles of our destination), and didn’t know which way to go since the two GPS systems we were using were different. We actually went to the downtown Conway area, which was very tight, but we made it through there fine. We arrived at Willow Tree RV Resort at 2:45. This place is in the middle of nowhere but absolutely gorgeous! The sites are huge!!! There is a one mile paved pathway around a beautiful lake that we haven’t explored yet. The only disadvantage of this park is the weak wifi internet system. They have one but it is virtually useless at our site. Although the meters indicate a strong connection, once connected to the internet, which is difficult, it drops the connection frequently and is slow when refreshing pages.  We are using our Verizon card which is good but eats up the megabytes pretty fast. The other disadvantage is the lack of a cable system-they do not have one. But with our antenna, we are able to get 30 local stations, which is great. We tried to get on our satellite dish, but we weren’t successful. That is OK, we don’t need to watch TV. There are other things to do around here. Here are a few pictures of Willow Tree but they have many on their website. Look HERE.

 

 

Watching over our site

 

We drove to Myrtle Beach area on Thursday to “scout” the area.  Before we headed to the beach area we desperately needed some diesel. We found some only 5 minutes away and the price was $3.81 a gallon. After we got to North Myrtle Beach area it really wasn’t crowded, which was great. We drove around just to get a feel of where things are. I definitely want to go to Broadway at the Beach, which has shops and restaurants. We saw a SAS factory outlet store which I would like to take a look at. We need some items at Camping World and WalMart so that will be another day. We drove along Ocean Boulevard and couldn’t believe how many public access areas there are to park your vehicle. Since we had Kozmo with us we were limited to not eating in a sit-down restaurant. So, we found a Chick Fil –A  that didn’t have an eat in area. They had picnic tables and chairs under umbrellas which were nice and two drive-thrus. I went up to the walk-up window and ordered our meal and then we ate it in the truck since the temperature was 74 degrees out with a nice breeze. Afterwards, we went to TCBY yogurt place, which we did not like. The flavors all  lacked flavor. My great friend Linda told me about a frozen yogurt place in which you pick your yogurt and then get toppings on it. We are going to try and find a place like that up here.

After getting back to the rig at 5pm we watched TV and got caught up on the internet. It started to rain at 5:30pm  and it wasn’t supposed to rain. It did that all night long in spurts. Today, Friday, it showered a bit but the wind is strong. We know the weather is supposed to get a bit ugly later on tonight so we won’t be doing any site seeing today. We are staying here for a week so we will have the time to see it all, hopefully with the weather cooperating. The temperatures are very pleasant, in the 70’s and when the rain leaves us on Saturday morning the highs will be in the 60’s. Did I say how nice the weather is???

Until next time….

April Fool's Day

No April Fool's Day jokes here!

 

I (Barbie) am not a good “fooler” so my April fools pranks are juvenile. I tried to pull one over on my friend Linda, but it didn’t work. She saw through me right away. I remember when I was a teacher, kids tried to fool me, but most did not succeed. I tried to fool them, and did not succeed either. So I think I will give up.haha

Easter around Rock Crusher was quiet. They had a meal up at the clubhouse but we didn’t go because it is always so crowded and loud. We heard it was an excellent one though. They served lasagna. We Boldts had country fried chicken (baked) with white gravy, garlic mashed potatoes and pea salad for our meal. It was very tasty!  I had previously washed down the utility trailer and stopped every so often to talk to our neighbors Judy and Roger, and some other people who came by. It, the utility trailer,  is very nice and clean except for the top of it. I used white vinegar and Dawn dishwashing detergent, equal amounts of it, and put it in a squirt bottle. The smell was beautiful and I will use that again on things that are white in nature. Jeff got the idea on Pinterest from a fellow RV’er, Nancy Puig. Thanks Nancy for the tip!

We went to pick up our new eyeglasses  this afternoon. Mine are fine so far. Jeff’s had to be returned because he noticed three small scratches on the right lens. They told him it would take two weeks to get it done. Well, that is unsatisfactory because we hope to be out of here by April 16^th. So, if they don’t come here in time, we will have to contact them and they will have to mail them to our Dillard address. So we are keeping our fingers crossed. Since Jeff was totally frustrated  by this, we decided to drink ourselves into a “frenzy” and went to Sonic for a root beer float. That always seems to calm us down J. Even Kozmo got into the action and had a bit of ice cream. It didn’t spoil her supper since she didn’t have that much.

As to Kozmo’s health… she is great! We think it was the cold weather and it caused her arthritis to act up. Last night we put her on the dining room table and clipped her head, neck, belly, tail area, face and some of her paws. She looks so cute! This is her “summer clip” but will have to do her again in two months when she gets a little “wild” again. She is truly a great dog when we clip her. Jeff clips and I attempt to hold her still. She gets many rests in the 35 minutes that we work on her. And of course, she gets rewarded with a piece of turkey bacon when we are finished.

Well dinner calls and we are having a simple dinner of tuna fish sandwiches with French fries. Monday night is a big night on television for us. We love Bones, The Following, Revolution, Hawaii Five -0, and Dancing with the Stars, so we will be DVRing some of the shows since they come on at the same time.

Until next time….