Alive and Well---very well

Yes, we ARE alive and well in Dillard, Georgia. I know it has been a while since the last post. I have no real excuses either. Yes, we have been busy …occasionally. Yes, we’ve been out and about….occasionally. Yes, we’ve been enjoying “the good life” ….more than occasionally. Here are some pictures around the campground and our site for starters.

 

 

 

 

Notice in a couple of the pictures above the new entry steps we’ve built for the 5er. We actually had a friend do the work. He is currently renovating the cabin next door as well. The steps are great. We just need to get some stain on them.

River Vista recently hired a new couple to manage the resort. They’ve been on the job for a little over a couple of weeks. This past weekend they organized many activities for the full house that was here camping for the Memorial Day Weekend. The activities started on Friday morning and went through Sunday evening. We were booked to DJ a Memorial Day Weekend “God Bless the USA” Dance Friday evening. It was held inside the Mountain Center. About 40-50 folks stopped in and the kids never sat down-they danced to anything and everything. We were told their were also folks sitting outside on the wooden rockers. We also were asked to do a brief ceremony Sunday morning where we played a few patriotic songs and I did a brief tribute to those American soldiers that have made the ultimate sacrifice followed by the playing of “TAPS” and “God Bless the USA” It was very well received-it moved the many who came to the flag pole for the ceremony. Below is the agenda of activities and a few more pictures.

  

 

  

  

If you want to see all the photos that appear on the River Vista Mountain Village Memorial Day Activities Facebook page , CLICK HERE.

‘Til next time………

We’re Here – in Dillard, Georgia

We arrived here at our site in the Falls View section of River Vista Mountain Village in Dillard Tuesday at about 2:30pm.

Sunday morning at about 10:15am we pulled out of Sanlan RV Park in Lakeland, FL. We stopped at a rest area on I-75 just north of Gainesville and enjoyed a lunch of deli sandwiches , chips and drinks that Barbie had prepared for us. At exit 2 just over the state line in Georgia we stopped to fill the Dodge truck up with diesel at the Flying J. We had no problem getting the 3 cents per gallon discount using our old Flying J rewards card. The only reason I mention this is that others have had to “register” their old cards before they would be recognized for the discount. We paid $3.99 a gallon. We then hopped back on I-75 for 3 miles before exiting at Lake Park to check in to the Eagles Roost RV Resort for the evening. The campground is one we’ve stayed at many times in our travels. With a Good Sam discount we paid $33 for the night. It has long, concrete pull thru, full hookup sites and an adequate wifi network. It has many trees but we were a little disappointed that the sites  were a bit unkept with bottle caps, cigarette butts and the like littering the grounds. We took our time Monday morning as we knew we only planned to travel 120 miles north to the Perry area. We left Eagles Roost at 11:00am and drove for 90 minutes before stopping at a great Georgia rest area at mile marker 108. We ate another great deli sandwich and chips lunch at a picnic table in the rest area. I haven’t had salemi and swiss sandwiches in awhile but those I had those two days were outstanding! We pulled in and checked in at Twin Oaks RV Park at 2:00pm. This is a regular stop for us on our way north each trip as it is a Passport America campground so for the full hook-up, 50 amp site with a strong wifi network we paid $16 for the night. They have no cable tv system but our DirecTV  worked great and we were able to get the digital network channels from the Atlanta area on the antenna. Tuesday morning we left Twin Oaks at about 9:00am and drove until we topped off the gas tank in Eatonton. We’ve used this Citgo Truck Stop many times for diesel fuel. They are less expensive than most and have a well stocked convenience store. We paid $3.97 a gallon for the diesel. We then pulled over at a cute roadside park in Baldwin on Route 441 for a little lunch. Ah, those deli sandwiches sure were good. Have I said that yet ? We pulled into our site at about 2:15pm in Dillard. We stopped and chatted with neighbors then we had more than enough help getting the 5er onto our site for the first time. Let me just say, it was a lot easier backing the old motorhome on the site. But, hey, this was our first run with the new fifth wheel. It’s gotta be easier next time. It had to be just right on the site since we plan to be here until September or so. It took about an hour to get it in the site, leveled, electric, water and sewer connections made, and the four slideouts extended-with all the neighbors helping, er distracting us. Poor Barbie was backing it in, I watch the perimeter and give directions from outside (it works better switching roles we’ve learned), but she also had  “helper #1” giving directions in the drivers side window AND “helper #2” giving directions thru the passengers side window. Enough said. :-)) Once we got all set up we relaxed for the remainder of the evening and watched tv. Oh yes, I did call DirecTV and had them switch over our local channels from the Tampa area spot beam to the Atlanta channels. We’ve spent the past two days settling in, getting a few groceries, visiting with the neighbors and enjoying the peace, quiet and weather here in Dillard. All we need to do now is either get the golf cart sufficiently charged or get new batteries for it-we’ll see.

Oh, in case you were wondering, Kozmo was great on the trip and seems to like our deck here quite well. She doesn’t seem to care for the gravel that the 5er sits on though! And, oh yeah, she loves the deli meats and cheeses also!

I’ll take a bunch of pictures for the next post. But, until then check out this great article that appeared in the Knoxville (Tenn) Daily Sun about River Vista and the Dillard area. Click HERE. See why we love it here?

‘Til next time…….

From Rock Crusher to Sanlan RV Park

We hitched up the “Castle” and left our winter home in Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park in Crystal River, FL, Wednesday shortly after noon.  Two and a half hours later we were setting up to spend the night at Sanlan RV Park in Lakeland, FL. The plan was to spend Wednesday night at Sanlan and then take the “Castle” 8.1 miles to Quadra Manufacturing to have the “Bigfoot” Automatic Quad Hydraulic Leveling System installed on the 5er. We had to have the 5er at Quadra at 8:00am Thursday morning and leave it there overnight until noon Friday. After dropping the 5er off we headed to our Valrico stix-n-brix home to spend Thursday night and take care of some housekeeping issues before heading out Friday to pick up the “Castle” and back to Sanlan to spend Friday and Saturday nights. Our first stop on the way home to Valrico was to catch a fast food breakfast. So Egg McMuffins were in order for Barbie, myself and Kozmo, of course. We don’t know if it was Kozmo’s first Egg McMuffin or not but she seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. After getting settled in at Valrico, Barbie went out and bought some groceries, made a trip to Lowes for some Round-Up and some a/c filters while Kozmo and I rested. I received an initially upsetting phone call Thursday pm from Quadra Manufacturing telling me one of their “helper” employees who was assisting with our job up and quit late Thursday pm. Before I got real bent out of shape, Rita, the wife of the owner,  explained that her husband, Roy, would have the job done but could he have until 4:00pm, not noon on Friday. Phew, not a problem. We were going back to Sanlan anyway and that is only 20 minutes away. That also gave Barbie some additional time Friday to get her “tasks” around the Valrico home completed.

Friday morn I left Valrico at 7:00am to take my truck to Tampa Spring Company in Lakeland to have my u-bolts re-torqued per the arrangements made when we got the new “leaf” put in each side on the back of my truck at the Ocala shop of Tampa Spring last week. I was the first one there when they opened the doors so they had me re-torqued and back on the road by 8:15. Once I returned we hung out at the Valrico home until 2:30pm when we went and grabbed a bite to eat at Zaxbys before heading to Quadra to pick up the “Castle.” In case you wondered, YES, Kozmo likes Zaxby’s chicken too!

Once we arrived at Quadra, Roy had our Bigfoot Quad System all installed and ready to go. He then showed us what to do when unhitching and then what to do when hitching back up. Then, he made us go through each process, not one time but two times before allowing us to pay the bill and leave. He completed the job himself Friday with no help. He is such an incredibly professional man-we really appreciate his work ethic and his  courtesy. If anyone needs or wants any information about the system give Roy Trevino a call at 863 619-8617. He’ll answers all of your questions and take care of you. He is awesome. Now to the system. Wow, such an ease to level the 5er now. No wood blocks, no checking a level for front-to-back and side-to-side level anymore. Once we unhitch from the truck, I simply push the “auto” button on the control box and within 60 seconds we are level. It is REALLY sweet! It will save much time and aggravation on our parts I’m sure. 

Setting up once we got back to Sanlan was a snap. Once we unhitched the truck, as Barbie pulled the truck away to move it behind the “Castle” I had pushed “auto” and before she and Kozmo got out of the truck, we were leveled. Barbie’s friend from Mann Middle School, Linda, and her husband Bill brought their new motorhome here for the weekend so we could spend some time together before we head north. I’ll post pictures of Sanlan on the next post.

‘Til next time…….

Mission Accomplished

It is with deep appreciation that I offer my heartfelt CONGRATULATIONS to all those involved in the planning and execution of the mission that involved the killing of hated terrorist leader, Osama Bin Laden. As one of my favorites, Craig Ferguson, host of the CBS Late, Late Show, says at the beginning of his monologue each night, “It’s a great day for America.”  Ten long years and so many dead, we can now close an ugly chapter in our history. I’m proud to be an American!

Click HERE

God Bless the U.S.A.

by Lee Greenwood

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I'd worked for all my life,
And I had to start again
with just my children and my wife,
I'd thank my lucky stars
to be living here today,
'Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can't take that away.

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota
to the hills of Tennessee,
Across the plains of Texas
from sea to shining sea.
From Detroit down to Houston
and New York to L.A.,
There's pride in every American heart
and it's time we stand and say:

I'm proud to be an American
where at least I know I'm free,
And I won't forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
'Cause there ain't no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

‘Til next time……

Getting Ready to Leave RCC

Yep, that is what we are up to-taking care of the little things before we leave Rock Crusher Canyon on Wednesday.  We’ve been here at our winter home since November 28th. Starting with today and working backwards, here’s what has been happening with us. After our usual Saturday morning breakfast at Kim’s Cafe in Homosassa, we came back to the “Castle”  and began the process of emptying, reorganizing and repacking the basement storage area. We have never really packed it completely since we bought the 5er in late January. Remember, we really have not taken any trips in it other than to take it over to Ocala and back for the warranty work and a couple of add-ons. I’m really surprised that we have more room left than I thought we would. All that remains to be loaded are the lawn chairs, the grill, rugs and those items involved in unhooking from the utilities.

Yesterday, Barbie weeded the planter box in the front of our site. It needed to be done before leaving for the summer. Hopefully it won’t look too bad when we return in November. We were surprised how good it actually looked when we returned this past November. Last evening we dined at Mr. Wang, a Chinese restaurant in Homosassa, one last time. We’ve decided that was our best “new” find this winter. We finally decided to try this place out this year. And, we found it to be excellent and very reasonably priced.

Thursday, we were up and on the road at 7:00am to be at Tampa Spring Company in Ocala for our 8:00am appointment to have a “leaf” added to our springs on both rear sides   of our Dodge pick-up. When we took the “Castle” to Suncoast RV a couple of weeks ago, their tech thought that since our hitch weight is a tad heavy at 2235lbs, some extra support may be in order. So I contacted the manager at Tampa Spring described my truck, the “Castle” etc and he explained the options and costs for each, then recommended adding the leaf to the springs. Knowing nothing about the matter, I went with his recommendation. He said we could re-address it when we return to RCC next winter if I wasn’t satisfied with just that being done. I’m good with that since this was the least expensive fix and this is the fix he has used in the past with success on a Dodge 3500.  He also suggested we have the u-bolts re-torqued in 500 miles, so we’ll have that done in Lakeland at their sister store next Friday morning.

So, Wednesday morning we’ll head out of here and head south on I-75 then east on I-4 to Lakeland where we’ll spend the night at Sanlan RV Park. Thursday morning we’ll have the “Castle” at  Quadra Manufacturing where we’ll have the Bigfoot Auto-Leveling system put on the “Castle.” They’ll keep it until midday Friday so we’ll spend Thursday evening at our stix-n-brix home in Valrico before picking up the 5er Friday about noon. We’ll then go back and spend Friday and Saturday nights at Sanlan before starting the trek north  a week from tomorrow. These plans etched in jello then include overnight stops in Lake Park, GA and Perry, GA before arriving at River Vista in Dillard, GA for a good portion of the summer. We are hopeful that the weather that has terrorized the southeast this past week is history with no repeat in sight.

To all of our followers and friends, be safe in your travels!

‘Til next time…….

Warranty Work & Time w/Friends

Last weekend we spent some time cleaning and rearranging “things” in both the cargo trailer, aka “The Prince”(that we use for storage) and in the 5er as we got ready to take the “Castle” to Suncoast RV in Ocala to handle some warranty issues and a few add ons we wanted. Somewhere around midday on Sunday, our blogger buddy, Carolyn, rolled in and parked in the site next to us. She had left her winter base at Citrus Ridge in Davenport a few days earlier and had spent a couple of free nights at Chassa Oaks, a few miles south of Homosassa, before arriving here at Rock Crusher Canyon.

Chassa Oaks RV Resort Clubhouse

Chassa Oaks is one of the newer ownership parks in Florida. Carolyn had been inquiring about their sales prices etc as she enjoys this area of the state. After RCC, her plan was to leave RCC Thursday and move on to visit her son as she works her way back to Tennessee where she’ll workcamp some during the summer. After she got settled in she suggested we go to “The Freezer” for some steamed shrimp and cold beer. The Freezer is one of the locals favorite haunts in this area for sure. There is an indoor area that is truly the inside of a huge old freezer unit and there is an attached outdoor tiki hut area.

The back Tiki porch of “The Freezer”

The steamed shrimp there is awesome and the beer is always cold. People watching is also fun there. You see all kinds of folks there for sure. Check out their website to see all they have to offer.

Monday morning we hitched up the 5er to our Dodge 3500 pick-up (for the first time) and made the hour drive over to Ocala to Suncoast RV. We started getting ready to leave at 7:30am and after unhooking utilities, closing slideouts, hitching up and all else it takes to prepare to leave, we finally pulled out at 9:00am. Remember, we had Suncoast deliver the Alpine to our site at RCC initially so that was our FIRST time preparing to leave, hitching up etc. Whew, what an ordeal! Anyway, we had a couple of warranty issues we wanted Suncoast to take care of that developed or we discovered during the 10 weeks we’ve had it. These issues included: replacing an ill-fitting basement utility door, a back rinse fill connection leak under the rig, a leaky valve behind the toilet, a squeaky floor under the bathroom and they replaced some grommets under the stove grates. The new add-ons they took care of were: adding slideout awnings over all four slideouts, putting two maxxair vent covers on the roof over the fans in the bathroom and kitchen,  installing a ladder mount for our Winegard Carryout antenna and wired it directly into the 5er. We can leave it there on the ladder hopefully 95% of the time but it still can be disconnected easily when we are parked under trees and we can locate it to a clear view of the southern sky to get the signal. It’s the best of situations. They kept the “Castle” overnight Monday and Tuesday, so we picked it up Wednesday after our two night stay in Valrico. They did a great job and we’re pleased with what was done. As we were hitching up to leave we told them about the difficulty we had hitching up Monday so Chris, the service manager, watched and after having difficulties again, he took the “head” off of the PullRite hitch and noticed some metal shavings and worn metal. He said the head must not have been correct so he put a new head on it – no charge-and it works perfectly. They had put the hitch on originally about a month ago for us. When we got back to our site at Rock Crusher the fun began. Of course I was driving but after trying 30 minutes myself with Barbie directing, we switched roles and I guided her in as she was behind the wheel. It was a bit frustrating as our paved driveway is only about 12 feet wide coming off the road, so turning the 39ft Castle with the big Dodge into the driveway while dodging the recently trimmed tree limbs laying on the edge of the road where we needed to turn made things difficult. But, once we got backed in on the site, we leveled and hooked up in a relatively short time.

While in Valrico, we took a drive to Lakeland to visit  Quadra Manufacturing, who manufacture the “Bigfoot” Leveling Systems. There are two locations, the home location in White Pigeon, Michigan and Lakeland, Florida. I had been researching leveling systems for 5ers. I don’t like having to use wood to level side-to-side. The  manager was awesome. He gave us a tour of their facility and wouldn’t you know it, they had just finished putting the automatic system on a new Montana, so he demonstrated it for us on the spot. Bottomline, on May 5 & 6 we’ll have the Quad Fully Automatic System put on the Castle. It will make leveling a breeze AND no wood! So our departure date for heading north will be delayed a week but well worth it!

Finally, late yesterday afternoon old friends, Bob and Betsy Lindsay, pulled in across the street from us to spend a week at RCC. We met Bob and Betsy probably ten years ago when we were both members of the Roamin’ Rigs, an FMCA Tampa Bay, FL area chapter. They headed west somewhere around 2004 and we hadn’t seen them since. Our only contact was through rv forums or Facebook. It was great to see them and we look forward to spending more time with them this coming week.

Before I forget, everyone have a Happy Easter!

‘Til next time….

TCB

The past week has been filled with us “Taking Care of Business.” We’ve done some work in the 5er, around our site and taken care of some odds and ends before we take the 5er to Suncoast RV in Ocala on Monday to have some additions put on it and have a couple of warranty issues taken care of before we head north. For the new additions, we are going to have slideout toppers put over all four slideouts, maxxair vent covers put over two fan areas on the roof, and add a ladder mount where we can place our new Winegard Carryout minidome. Barbie has been busy getting her driver’s license renewed and putting that slip-stop stuff in all the remaining cabinets in the 5er. She has measured and cut alot of that stuff for sure. Nothing will slide around in those cabinets. We also managed to give the remaining 19 landscape timbers we had that have been sitting on our site since we finished our projects this time last year. We gave nine to one of the workcampers here at the park and the remaining  ten to one of the maintenance workers here in the park. Speaking of the maintenance guys, we asked them to trim some of the trees around our site and they took care of it the same day. They are in tree trimming mode now as they go in and trim trees as the folks leave for the season and head out. And I must say RCC has cleared out significantly since April began. Now most of the new rvers coming in are the weekenders for 3 days or so. It is a little deceiving as it appears to be more rvers here than actually are and that is because RCC is now allowing the seasonal folks to leave their rvs stored on the same site they occupied for $50 a month until they return next fall. Most of the northerners and Canadians pay $40 or more per month at their home areas we’ve been told so leaving them here for $50 a month made sense as they would save gas money as well as wear and tear on their rvs traveling. 

Most of our Florida rving “blogger buddies” have left Florida now-only a few of us remain. It certainly is interesting reading about everyones travels. We really enjoy reading about the places visited and the things done. To all of you , we wish you safe travels and fun times as you continue the lifestyle we all so love. We look forward to each of your “next” blog postings.

’Til next time……