What a site this morning!

While sippin' my first cup of coffee this morning, gazing out my favorite window, this is what I saw. This was sooooo cooool! Four hot air balloons were launching about 100 yards out of the campground with the perfect view from our rig!

I ran to the bedroom, and woke Trish... I said, "Baby, wake up... you have got to come see this" Needless to say, she is so into stuff like this, she put on her jeans and a sweater and ran outside with her camera and telephoto lens and took about 200 pictures in the next 30 minutes. I will go through them and add a few to our "current sites" folder here on the BLOG. What a great way to start a Sunday morning! This was such an incredibly peaceful site...

Jim

Merry Christmas from Phoenix

I hope everyone is well! Trish was down with the flu for a week but is doing much better... Praise the Lord for that, I lost about 7 pounds! We are planning a trip over to the Grand Canyon for Christmas. We are driving the Jeep and leaving the Rig in Phoenix so we should be able to get some interesting pictures. I will post them in our "current sites" link in the upper left of this BLOG site. Stay tuned...

Boy... We have so much to be thankful for. A lot of the people here in Phoenix seem to be hard hit by the current economic conditions. There are so many houses here for sale and so many foreclosures. Most of the full time RVers we have met are just happy to see the price of gas and diesel back down to where they feel they can travel more often. We were so fortunate to sell the Florida house when we did. We closed on it in June of this year and from what we understand the prices in Panama City Beach are still falling. It seems we got out just in time!

We are so happy we decided to bring the Jeep along. It really works well for the days we go out and sell for Air Photo. It should also allow us to explore some parts of the desert and get some interesting pictures. The landscape here is so different from anything we have ever seen. So far the weather has been good except for the storm that dropped snow in Las Vegas! It was cold, rainy and windy here in phoenix. It also dropped 12 inches of snow in Flagstaff which is about 100 miles north of us... Today it is suppose to be sunny and a high of 63... That's more like it!

More later... Merry Christmas!! or should I say, "Happy Birthday Jesus ! " Thank you GOD for this perfect gift you have given us... This gift of eternal life truly defines LOVE in the purest form... Thank you Lord for you alone are worthy of praise and worship!

Jim ( A King's Kid!)

We are in Phoenix for Christmas and the Winter

Merry Christmas to all! We have moved from Athens, Alabama to the Pioneer RV Resort in northwest Phoenix... What a great trip we had! 1800+ miles of really beautiful country and trouble free travel with the 5er. Trish drove the Jeep and followed me towing the 5er. That was the only part of the trip that could have been better. With a larger truck I would have felt good enough to double tow the Jeep behind the 5er after we reached Texas and the rest of the trip. We saw many 5ers double towing with the same truck we have...

The truck averaged 11.5 MPG and the Jeep averaged 23MPG. We were pleasantly surprised to see the price of diesel and gas drop as we traveled west. In Alabama we paid $2.59/gal for diesel as we were leaving, the last fill up about 100 miles south of Phoenix we paid $2.03/gal. That made the trip cheaper than we budgeted for!!

We are so amazed at the landscape here... Trish is enamored with the very large cactus plants that are everywhere here in the desert. This campground has them growing wild all throughout the landscape and it is so different to us. Fascinating to say the least...

We are starting to work our first roll of film for Air Photo, Inc. this week. It is taking a little "getting use to", to be able to find these homes because the streets and driveways are really different for us. Different as they are not your typical concrete like in the east. Everything here is gravel, rock, or very coarse sand. Again... I will say fascinating to us. This is such an interesting lifestyle for Trish and I. We are experiencing very new and different things!!

The picture was taken the day we left Alabama... We had planned to leave on Monday.. but it snowed that day, we postponed our departure by a day. Tuesday was very cold with a heavy frost. WE DO NOT OWN AN ICE SCRAPER... This is Trish scrapping the ice off the mirror with her American Express card!!! TOO COLD, we are heading south and west.

Phoenix is much warmer... Much more to come... and more pictures soon... Jim

It's Raining Air Photo Reps !

Well, we are in our 4th week here in Athens, AL and there are now two other couples in the area that are working for Air Photo. We had our first get together this past Wednesday for a Mexican Lunch at La Alameda in Huntsville and really had a great time. We decided to make it a weekly event to have lunch and talk about our fulltiming experiences and the Air Photo Business.

Trish and I plan to be here through December 1st and then head out to Pheonix, AZ for a few months. The weather here in Northern Alabama is beginning to get a little too cold for me. This coming week the night time temps are going to be below freezing with a few nights in the low 20s... When the water hose freezes it's time to GO...

We are working some everyday and are having fun everyday with this new lifestyle and learning all along the way... More later!! Laugh some today, it's really good therapy!!

Jim

What a Week!....or Two..

Well we made it to Athens, Alabama safe and semi sound... and the truck is running good again! Boy, what a two week adventure! After leaving Maine we were stranded on the interstate by a failed fuel pump and spent the weekend in Mount Pocono, PA. Great people helped us get back on the road and we made it to Fredericksburg, VA. Our plans were to receive our training from a lovely couple for our new job as part of the ground crew for the, "Air Photo, INC". We will be marketing their product in various areas around the country. This is such an interesting business model. The company is based in Washington state and takes areal photos of unique homes and hobby farms all over the USA and then mats, frames and sells the photos to the owners. They use RVers to market these photos and pays them a commission based on what they sell. Perfect... for us! We are so excited. So.... we get to Fredericksburg, as we are trying to get into a very tight campsite, up a hill, we blew the front pump seal of the transmission and spewed fluid all over the ground! I managed to limp, with the trailer attached, about 1/2 mile to the Ford dealer. They gave us a place to park the trailer, ordered a new transmission, and had us ready the next day by 5:00 PM. Again, great people helped us get on our way. Now here we are in Fredericksburg , VA to get trained but no campsite.

So we met my brother, Larry and wife, Margeret at a campground in Quantico, VA for a long weekend and had a great time. We had a campfire two nights and roasted hotdogs and marshmellows. Lots of coffee and conversation... and a bottle of wine or two... Over all a great time and then left Tuesday to head south.

Air Photo pointed us to Huntsville, Alabama to be trained and then work the area around Athens, Alabama. We found a great campsite in a small park for $330 per month! So things have a way of working out. We should begin our training this coming week and also begin working by ourselves.. We need to replenish the coffers after the fuel pump and transmission. This is a beautiful area we are really looking forward to getting started!

Hello Houston... We Have a Problem!

Well, we have a little problem with the truck... While negotiating the Pocono Mountains in PA the truck lost power on Interstate 380 while heading south. I suspect we filled up with diesel that was loaded with water. About an hour after filling up with fuel the service engine soon light came on and two minutes later we had no power. We are so fortunate that there is a Ford Dealer 10 miles away and a towing service 2 miles away. After contacting the towing service they dispatched 2 tow vehicles. One was a "roll Back" that loaded the truck, the other wrecker was the "Mother of all Wreckers" that I have ever seen! It had a small 5th wheel hitch mounted on a hydraulic boom that went right under the front of the Excel and towed it with sooooo much ease... it was an incredible site. I wish I had a picture of Trish climbing up into the monster truck!

The folks at the Towing service are letting us stay in the yard of their business along with providing a 20 amp electric service and water hook up.( No Charge) We should find out Monday morning about the truck. This all happened on Saturday so no one was working in the shop to diagnose the problem. Just another exciting day as a fulltimer! We are doing fine and are amongst some wonderful people. Just when I am about to give up, God reminds me of who is really in charge. I am so happy to be "one of his"...

Preparing to Leave Maine...

Well we are about to leave Maine and head to Fredericksburg, VA. for the month of October. We really like Maine and have put it on the list of places we would like to spend the summer. The Bangor area all the way to the coast is really a nice area. The folks here are friendly and helpful to RVers and the Pumpkin Patch is a very nice and clean park.

Our current plans are to leave on Friday and break up our 900 mile trip to Fredericksburg into 3 legs. We head south but will move west to avoid, Boston and NYC traffic so it adds a few miles. We will try to update along the way as long as the Datastorm dish can get beyond the trees. That is the downside of having a dish on top of the Excel. We are considering adding an aircard for use in just such a case. More later, we are sure having a great time and have met some really nice folks...

JC

ACADIA National Park, Bar Harbor, Maine

What a wonderful day! We never knew Maine had such a beautiful coastline. We drove to Acadia National Park and saw some spectacular scenery. We walked quite a bit (or should I say climbed) and encountered several nice people (most from the cruise ships stopped in the bay). Found out cruises come up here from Boston and there were several people from Greece on the ship. We stopped at a local place that boils your lobster after you pick it out and then ate inside. Really good! Tomorrow we're going to a local seafood market and buy some. The couple staying across from us have bought lobster two days in a row at $5.99 a pound! Incredible.

The leaves are just beginning to change and we had our first night of below freezing weather. It got down to 27 night before last. Jim's about to freeze but I'm enjoying the cooler temps. Besides, you can always get inside and get warm, wear more clothes, etc. But it's a nice change of pace.

I'm still looking for a moose. There are moose crossing signs all over the place but we've yet to see one. However, there's a Dunkin Donuts on almost every corner. Jim's in coffee heaven with that one!

We're planning on going back to Acadia on Monday when it's not as crowded and finish the tour. Maybe spend the day in Bar Harbor. Tomorrow, I want to go into Bangor and look for Stephen King's house, go to the Walmart (of course) and get the lobster. We might stay here another week. The campground is really nice (adults only) and close to most things. I'd like to take a couple days and drive over to New Hampshire and Vermont (we're not that far). Maybe then I'll get to see a moose! If not, maple syrup and cheese!

Hope everyone is well. Love to all.

Trish and Jim

Pumpkin Patch RV Resort, Hermon, Maine...

We are in the northeast! We arrived here in the Bangor, Maine area Wednesday the 17Th. We left Saylorsburg, PA on Tuesday and spent one night in Woodstock, NH. The Woodstock campground was heavily wooded so we had no Internet and took no pictures. Just ate dinner, filled up with diesel and went to bed... The campground was on a lake with spillway that fed a creek. The next morning I could hear the rushing water at our campsite. We went for a long walk in the morning and discovered it was a really pretty park. We got on the road about 9:30 AM and decided to go all the way to Bangor... 300 miles is more than I like to drive in a day but now I am glad we did.



Pumpkin Patch is a really nice park and the people are very helpful.. We have decided to stay for a week or two. We are going on a day trip to Bar Harbour today and will find some lobster for lunch. The leaves are beginning to change colors here and the temperature last night got down to 30 degrees. I disconnected the water hose just to be on the safe side. I will add some pictures of the Bangor area in the next few days. We are having so much fun!

Christi, Jeremy & JJ Made it to Japan

Well we made it back to Gettysburg, took the rig out of storage, and put it on a site for two days to re-provision... Man this is like starting all over! We left the refrigerator door closed so Trish had her work cut out for her before we could even turn it on. But... she has prevailed once again. We were parked under some trees so the Datastorm was offline for a few days. We went shopping at a small local grocery store and loaded up on the fresh stuff and made plans for the next part of this journey.

We are continuing our trek north to Bangor, Maine and have made it to a campground in the Poco mountains. We are really enjoying traveling 150 to 200 miles each time we move. We will be here for two days exploring this part of PA. It's really pretty here and we had a clear view of the southern sky so we have Internet and TV... Life is good.

What temperature change! 92 in the day and 55 early this morning. We have a full hookup site here and it's a Passport America campground for $21.75 a night.

Gettysburg and DC

Well we made it into Gettysburg on the 14th and set up camp at Granite Hills Campground in the afternoon. Christi, Jeremy and JJ arrived on Friday the 15th at about 9PM. Christi, Trish and Jeremy went on a ghost hunt that night while JJ and I guarded the 5er against any ghost that escaped the hunt and came to see where the "Hunters" live... We were safe and unharmed.

After a few days of touring Gettysburg's many historic sites we packed up the 5er and put it into storage there at the campground and headed to Christi's house in DC. They are preparing for a move to Japan for the next 3 years so they have lots to do. Trish and I will entertain JJ while his Mom and Dad tend to the last minute details. They all fly out on 9/2/08 so we will be here in DC area until then. The movers come to pack up their household goods on the 25th so Trish and I will move over to my brothers house in Alexandria, VA for the next week. This is perfect timing as it will allow me to spend some time with my brother Larry on his birthday.

I'll sign off for now, but I am sure there will be plenty to report the next few days!

JC

Geocaching and a Winery today...

What a great day! We went geocaching today for the first time ever. We found 3 and discovered this is really alot of fun! Good outdoor fun that will make you look in unsuspecting places for hidden treasure... That took most of the morning. After a picnic lunch in the shade we toured the Prince Michel winery in Madison, VA. I liked the wine tasting at the end, we tasted 16 different wines and bought 3 of our favorites. (good thing the campground was only 2 miles down the road)

This was a really good day! I am really glad we are now fulltime RVers... I think I am going to like this life style.

JC

August 11, 2008

Today is the first day of adding information to our new Blog... We finally sold our house and closed the transaction, bought our Excel 5th wheel and have been fulltime in it since June 1, 2008. Let the adventure begin! We are in vacation mode now, busy visiting kids and grandkids until September 2, 2008 and then we begin touring the country. We are currently in Madison, VA working our way to Gettysburg to meet our daughter and family. Then on to DC until they leave for Japan on an extended assignment. We will miss them!

We plan to tour the Northeast during the month of September and then work our way South and West for the winter. We have been in Florida for the past 14 years so we are looking for someplace different for our first winter as fulltimers. More later just needed to get this started to establish a timeline... JC