Category: Fun

Last month, Helen and I were asked to give a presentation to her civic club (Civitan) about the RV lifestyle. We were delighted to do it because accepting the invitation helped me accomplish two tasks. I needed to sort through the thousands of pictures we took on RV trips—a job I had put off for too long. Moreover, I was forced to learn PowerPoint, which I had somehow avoided all these years.

I was up and running on PowerPoint rather quickly.  I can’t say I’ve mastered it, but I’m familiar with enough of the process to crank out a short presentation. Sorting through the pictures took much longer, but the exercise was fun because of the memories that came flooding back.

The image below was a selfie taken in the Cruise America motorhome we rented for a trip across the country to meet up with our son and his family.  Helen and I were somewhere in Texas when I took this. What strikes me about the picture is the look of freedom and pure joy on my face at the prospect of a new adventure, learning something entirely new for us, and the promise of continuing this lifestyle journey well into the future. Six years later, the journey continues, and we’re rollin’ on one now with only two issues so far. Our icemaker quit producing ice, and the microwave oven died—more on these later.

Montgomery, Alabama

We began our current trip earlier this month. Whenever we travel west from Knoxville at this time of the year, we usually travel south initially to avoid inclement weather. The first stop is always at Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, usually for one night. The happy camper is the guy waving to the camera.

Gulfport, Mississippi

After a good night’s sleep, we left for Shields RV Park on the Navy Base in Gulfport, MS, the next day. We hoped for good weather, but rain moved in the next day, and we moved into the Gulfport Casino that night for a few hours. We drove to our next stop in Iowa, Louisiana, three days later.  

Iowa, Louisiana

We chose this stop because it was within our preferred driving distance of fewer than five hours. Blue Heron RV Park was a delightful surprise. When I made the reservation, I had concerns about the RV Park because I knew nothing about the town. Nevertheless, the reviews were good, and few options were available in the area. Blue Heron was even better than the reviews.  Lake Charles, Louisiana, is ten miles away. Helen and I stretched our legs in a lovely park along the lake. The weather improved enough for us to enjoy the day.

San Antonio, Texas

We have learned that the campground on Joint Base San Antonio is an excellent place to spend two nights because there are large pull-thru campsites, spotless showers, and a superb commissary for us to re-stock our pantry. We didn’t venture out much there because we used this time to do deep cleaning inside our fifth wheel. Next stop—one night in Fort Stockton, Texas.

Fort Stockton, Texas

Windy conditions prevailed on our drive along I-10.  The strong winds significantly reduced our gas mileage to a level we’ve never experienced. The picture below exemplifies what we faced on this leg of the trip. The campground’s name is Hilltop RV Park, and, indeed, the wind always blows harder at the top of the flagpole. I’m also sharing the intriguing statues across I-10 from the campground. 

Las Cruces, New Mexico

On last year’s trip across the country, we stayed at the KOA in Las Cruces, New Mexico, both going out and again on the return home.  This campground offers an amiable, helpful staff, coffee, and Honey Buns for breakfast.  What’s not to like about that? Our site is on a bluff overlooking the valley below. The nighttime view is the lights of downtown Las Cruces. Recently, I purchased a used Canon DSLR camera for a song, and I was itching to try it out on the lights.  Readers can see that I have room for improvement. 

Tuscon, Arizona

Helen and I were eager to reach Tucson, AZ, and Voyager RV Resort. The campground is a plush RV resort filled with snowbirds from all points north. Our plans included exploring the desert with our friend Pete who took us on an unforgettable outing during our first visit to Tucson.  Unfortunately, Pete was under the weather, and we had to cancel our day trip.  Helen played pickleball instead.  She walked onto one of the many pickleball courts and joined the many people waiting for a turn on the court.  She played two games and enjoyed herself immensely.

While Helen played, I replaced our microwave oven, which died somewhere in Texas. We found a new one at Lowe’s in Tucson. It went in without difficulty, but, given a choice, I probably preferred to spend time in the hot tub. I estimate I installed nearly one hundred built-in microwave ovens while building houses.

El Centro, California

Our last stop before reaching San Diego was the Naval Air Field in El Centro, California—the winter home of the Blue Angels.  We only spent one night there, but I always look forward to stopping in El Centro because the millions of acres devoted to agriculture at the lower end of the Imperial Valley are fascinating. I’m convinced that everything in a capsule of Balance of Nature came from a field around El Centro.

We’re two weeks into this adventure, and San Diego is next…I hope you’ll join us there. Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to subscribe to follow the next stops on this winter’s journey.  We’re Easin’ Along.

Easin’ Along took slightly more than a month off.  I missed posting, but some unforeseen events were standing in the way of time at the computer.  Helen’s brother suffered a tragic fall in November and died from the injury. In December, my Mom (age 94) fell and broke three ribs.  She is much improved but needed a lot of help during her recovery. During the busy holiday season, those two events required time to sort things out and did little to inspire creative juices.  But, more than the events mentioned above, the simple truth is that there was not much going on in January to report about.

Two very accomplished bloggers, Donna (Retirement Reflections) and Suzanne (Picture Retirement) have similar methods for keeping readers up to date. Donna posts a feature titled “What’s Been On Your Calendar?” where she lets us in on her very busy life and invites readers to do the same in the comments.  It is a fun read, and many of her readers are just as busy as Donna with very interesting activities. 

Suzanne posts a monthly summary of her activities and outings in her home state of Florida.  I especially enjoy her viewing her skill with the camera and learning about the equipment she uses to hone her craft. Suzanne and her husband, Malcolm, moved into a lovely new home recently and brought us in to view her skills as a decorator.

I will borrow their idea and post a summary of what Helen and I have been up to lately and add a twist—we’ll look at what’s up in the days ahead as well.  Thus the title, “A Glance In Two Directions.”

In early January, Helen and I did something unusual for us—we dressed formally and went out for an evening.  Our niece, Olivia, was presented as a Debutant and invited us to the presentation.  We enjoyed a delightful evening and, if I may say so, we cleaned up very well.

Our Granddaughters in Charleston are also busy young ladies.  They both play soccer at a high level.  The oldest plays basketball as a sixth-grader on the seventh and eighth-grade team and is the starting point guard. Our youngest attends acting classes and loves them.  Helen and I wanted to witness some of this activity and visited Charleston to take in as much as possible.  While there, we met some of their friends, including two lovely girls who spent the night with us.  Helen and I tied up one of the bedrooms, which made for very cozy sleeping arrangements for the girls. We decided to leave a day early (after the final soccer game) and return the bedroom to the rightful occupant (oldest granddaughter).

In December, I finally got fed up with my clothes not fitting and decided to do something about it. The only disadvantage to living an RV lifestyle is that gaining weight is easy.  Travel, to me, is all about sampling food and drink in the places we visit across the country, and I tend to take extensive samples. In addition, I find it difficult to exercise after spending a day driving 200 miles or more, and the weight creeps up unchecked. After trying in vain to fit into the tuxedo pants for the Debutante Presentation, I threw in the towel, ordered two months’ worth of meals from Nutrisystem, and gave up alcohol cold turkey.

My weight had ballooned to 254 pounds—a record for me, and I refused to buy more oversized clothes. I set a goal of getting down to 225 pounds. After two months, I can report some success.  My weight is now 230 pounds with, hopefully, more to follow, although I seem to have hit a plateau at present. Nevertheless, I feel better and can tell the difference in my foot comfort.

I had a lot of help from my exercise class with shedding the pounds.  We meet three days a week, and I love it so much; I will not miss it if I am in town. Our classes are a great workout, a lot of fun, and quite a social outlet.  My classmates line up early before the start of class to spend time chatting with other class members.  I’ve made many new friends there. One class member made video recordings of about five different classes, and I have them on my computer to use when I’m away—no more excuses.

Now, the glance ahead. Helen and I finally returned to the road less traveled. We left Knoxville on February 5^th for a two-month trip to California to visit our family and spend about two weeks in San Diego. As I write this, we are camping in Gulfport, MS, for three days before heading further west. We left Knoxville in cold, gloomy weather and arrived to find temperatures in the 70s. I plan to keep everyone up to date as we travel, so please travel with us.

After all, now that we’re a little lighter and a little warmer, it’s an excellent time for Easin’ Along the sunny roads less traveled.  

Throughout the day on Monday, the weather people on television said that we could expect nothing more than a dusting or a trace of snow on Monday night. Helen and I had a dinner party for 15 family members in the works that evening and gave little thought to the weather. I ran a few errands to pick up some things for party prep and noticed a flake or two falling on the Walmart parking lot…no big deal.

East Tennesseans used to pay attention to snowfall forecasts when we had snow, but over the last decade or so, accumulating snow was only a memory of snow-soaked boys, sled runs, and snow forts. Now that I no longer work for a living, I love snow. If I had a full pantry, a big fireplace, a good book, and a little music, I would trade places with the folks in Buffalo in a New York minute.

Around four in the afternoon, the tiny flakes picked up some intensity, and by five, we had our “dusting.” The flakes continued to fall. At five-thirty, the first of our guests arrived. They were somewhat concerned. Driving the hills of East Tennessee can be treacherous, with even the smallest amount of snow on the roads. At six, Helen’s sister called to say they were turning around for home—things were getting worse. The remainder of our guests also decided it was time for them to leave. Then, it was just Helen and me with enough seafood gumbo to feed a small Army.

So, after two bowls of hot gumbo over rice, a good glass of wine, a fire in the fireplace, and one movie, we had enough snow on the ground to say we had a “snow event.” Even the forecasters were surprised and hastily noted that temperatures would rise into the 60s by week’s end. So what, I say.  Let’s live in the moment. By morning, the roads were covered, and everything looked so pretty, dressed in white. 

Did I mention that I love snow?