Proof that NJ stinks!!!!!

The more we are away from NJ, the more we hate NJ!
Just spent 2 weeks at a wonderful campground, Willow Tree RV Resort with paved roads, clean campsites, everything working, a lovely lake, etc., all for between $30.-$35. per night. As said before, our NJ site was $52. per night with dirt roads.
Just before arriving at Willow Tree, the GPS said turn left, so we did...right onto a dirt road with a gate a couple hundred feet ahead.  This can't be Willow Tree, so we had to back out, passed a private home with an old Akita loose in the front yard. I'm sure we gave that old guy a little entertainment.
So we (Scott) had to back the RV and turn onto the road.  I'm in the rear making sure no cars came, which not a one the whole time. Scott made such a sharp turn that the wheels started skidding and twisted. I yelled to stop. Scott eventually got us on the road and another 500 feet and there is Willow Tree RV Resort.

We had a wonderful time with the Cedar Creek Owners Club. Lots of pot luck dinners, a beautiful campfire going every evening.
Willow Tree was a great RV resort with a paved path around the lake.
During some of our down time, Scott decided to look UNDER the RV and lo and behold...our frame was bent! What a great excuse to gather all the men around and discuss what can be done.
We ended up with Randy's huge diesel pusher pulling our rig one way, then the other and it seemed to work.  

When we left Willow Tree, our frame was straight and aligned.
We drove about an hour to check how things were and damn! The frame went back to almost it's original bent position. Can we make it to our planned overnight near Savannah, GA? We drove slower than usual and I looked at the tires a lot but we made it to Camping World near Savannah.
  CW said they couldn't do the work on our suspension hanger, but they referred us to a local guy that does all their welding and frame work.
SO FAR SO GOOD! This guy came to CW within 5 min. of being called. His shop is 2 miles down the road. George C. mentioned that the best place to bring our rig was to a person that works on trucks/suspensions etc., not to an RV place. We this guy is exactly that! We really lucked out.
We spent the night in CW lot and brought our rig to Dwain at WALKER WELDING & TRAILER REPAIR in Pooler, GA  at 8am. It was done by 3pm! Only costs $550!!! We thought it was going to run around $1500. (NJ prices). So another reason we hate NJ.
He reinforced the hangers with welded brackets and he put a whole piece of angle iron? across the whole width of the rig. He even tested out a sharp 90 degree turn to see how it held. He said we can push it to the limit now. I hope we don't have to. Now for some new tires and we're ready for Alaska.
Scott will post photos eventually.
While we were "homeless" waiting for the RV repair, we spent our time at a beautiful park in Savannah, GA.
We stopped for coffee at THE SENTIENT BEAN. Coffee was great, but their pastries were better!  I had a fruit scone that was fabulous! We walked with the dogs around the park for a while, and then nature called me. So back to the the coffee shop to use the facilities & while there to buy another scone or two for later. THEY RAN OUT! Oh the horror! So we settled for a couple of snickerdoodles that were pretty good, but HUGE. I love cookies with coffee or tea. I couldn't eat the whole snickerdoodle in one sitting.
Below is the park we hung out in while "homeless". Lots of walkers, joggers, dogs. Great place to people watch.  Notice the maroon dog crate on our bench? Our African Grey Parrot, Swayze is in there.  We couldn't leave her in the hot car.

Cedar Creek Rally

What a fabulous group of people are the CCRVOC (Cedar Creek RV Owners Club).  This is our 2nd rally, the first being in PA this past June and our maiden voyage in our 5th wheel.
Now that we feel more a part of the group, we were much more relaxed.
We enjoyed their company and hopefully they enjoyed ours.
AG was kind enough to dog sit for me while I snooped around his RV.

Someone else crawled under our RV to see if it REALLY was bent.

We ate & drank together.

You should never MIX drinks!

And a final a melancholy goodbye.

Daylight Savings...

When told the reason for Daylight Saving time the old Indian said, "Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket."  ~Author Unknown

LONGS, SC 29568 (Near Myrtle Beach)

Location: WILLOW TREE RV RESORT, Longs, SC 29568 (Day 3)
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Get thee behind me satan aka NJ!!!!

I swear, NJ is following us...at least the weather! We arrived at beautiful WILLOW TREE RV RESORT on Wednesday, Nov. 2. And yes, THIS IS A RESORT! How Pine Cone RV "Resort" in NJ can call itself a resort is a sin. Pine Cone has a great swimming pool, & a couple of weathered tennis courts. That's as much of resort as there is there.  The roads are sandy dirt, you have to take your trash to the dumpster. Many of the sites don't have sewer. (The have a "honey pot" truck (as Scott calls it) that comes to your site to dump your tank.  Their electric absolutely sucks. They won't spend the $ to fix/upgrade.  30amp is fine for us, but we need it to WORK! Pine Cone should be called a campground, not an RV resort.  This is a very nice place to camp with a pop up or tent.  Fairly private sites with lots of trees around.

Nov. 2-Nov 16, 2011
WILLOW TREE RV RESORT  Longs, SC 29568
$28./day (group rate) Site #99
Our Rating 4.5 out of 5 Would revisit.
Cedar Creek RV Owners Club are having a Rally here. We met quite a few people at the 2011 Nat'l Rally earlier this year. Great group of people

Willow Tree is a joy (at least for an RV'r). All paved (clean) roads. No tracking sand continually into the RV. Beautiful lake with a 1 mile paved walk/bike/dog walk path around it. You can rent boats to use on the lake.  Large laundry room. Gym, banquet hall, huge store. Golf carts & bike to rent also.
Our evolution of camping:

Funny, how our tastes in "campgrounds" have changed.  

We started out motorcycle camping, with each of our bikes packed and bungeed high.  For our honeymoon, we slept in a 2 person tent, with a 1" foam roll up pad for comfort (not much comfort). We cooked on a single propane stove. We did not require electric. We rode in rain (Nor'easter in Oct), fog (on the Blue Ridge Pkwy) and sun.
We then graduated to a motorcycle pop-up camper. We did not use it much, but when we did, it was enjoyable. Our 800 Suzuki Intruder could pull it. When we would set up camp, this pop up would not only pop up, but also, fold out and out and out.  It opened high enough to stand up in and when open, the length was 14' long! We had a queen sized (off the floor) air mattress and were able to fit a table, chair and 2 dog crates in there! Ahhh, the dog crates...that was our motorcycle demise.
Once we started bringing the dogs camping with us, we decided to purchase a large tent. Many years camping  in a large tent.  Now that we were camping with a tent and a van, we packed it to the brim. We now required electric for our electric cooker and crock pot. We camped many years at Nickerson Family Campground in CT. They had a nice huge site near the creek that we had all to ourselves. Unfortunately, there was no grass, so it was very dirty. I tired of all the dirt and our tent camping subsided.
Retirement and 5th Wheel is not camping. This is our home and totally different attitude.  I was a clean, grassy or paved site. We still like trees but need to get satellite line of sky, and no branches in the way of roof or slide outs.  We may stay in the RV all day. So what? This is our home. We are not on vacation, we are not trying to cram the tourist attractions in.  We are finally relaxing and really enjoying life, free of a full time job (that was like a 32 yr prison sentence).

Weather:
What a pleasure arriving here near Myrtle Beach, with temps in the high 60's. Cooled to high 40's the first night, then...NJ FOUND US! Damn! Double Damn! The clouds smirked at us overhead, the temp dropped to 50, then 40 and hit a low during the night of 38! It was raining all day yesterday and chilly. Today, has been a NJ bitter cold wind. I have no desire to set foot outside. But the pups gotta "go", so I layer myself up and put on my knitted by me "howl" (a cowl & hat combo), and try to not let our setters know how much I'm hating walking them in this weather.  They still need their play time and sniffing all the visitors' spots around.
PETS: Who knew? Part of our travels is learning about the wildlife, plant life, and pests that are foreign to us being from NJ.
Poor Lyla, laying comfortably on the grass, moves her leg near a dirt pile and FIRE ANTS! We had no idea. We thought they were just ants (like in NJ), so we just casually brushed some off of her. Well if you read the link about fire ants, they swarm and sting. Unfortunately Lyla paid the price for our ignorance.

**Update: It took about THREE WEEKS for this to clear up.  She was licking and pulling out her hair there. We had to keep a close watch on it to keep from becoming raw and/or infected. She's all better now.

Oh the weather outside is frightful...

Freehold, NJ 07728

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RV: While in NC, we did hit a low temp of 38° and did just fine.  Now we are 3/4 through our 10 days in NJ and we are experiencing the good ol' Noreaster.  Temp dropped to 33°, 50 mph winds expected and we had sleet this morning and now a dusting of SNOW!!!

Our furnace is working fine.  We just use it to get the RV up to 68° and then use two electric heaters that work pretty well.  

Our windows have condensation, but no dripping.  I'm comfortable and plan to cuddle up in the easy chair later with an afghan and knit and watch some TV.

Just finished a nice cup of white hot chocolate. Hubby is cooking chili. 

We sold our Ford Focus today, put our motorcycle in storage and up for consignment.  Ahhhh....things are starting to fall into place for now.

House should be up for sale next week. Hope the Cert. of Occupancy doesn't cause us too much trouble. But we'll deal when we have to.

Since taking the last bit of things out of the house and into storage or the RV, the RV is a mess. I planned on putting things in their place today, but with this lousy weather, the awning is not up and I can't get into the "basement" without getting freezing rain all over me.

RV PARK REVIEW:
Oct. 21-Nov. 1, 2011 (11 days)
PINE CONE RESORT  Freehold, NJ 07728 
$49./day
Our rating: 2.5 out of 5  Will avoid.
+Rustic atmosphere.
+Quiet campground even during busy Labor Day weekend when full.
+Pets allowed
+Wi-fi  +Verizon internet worked fine
-Sandy roads and dirt sites, so always tracking dirt into RV.
-Electric needs updating. We had to move from an older 30amp site to a newly renovated 50amp site. The 30amp site kept shutting off on us.
After being at real RV resorts, I have downgraded the this campground.
 -Too much dirt.

PETS: Although Lyla seemed to have enjoyed being an only dog, since Ryley's passing, we still prefer to have two dogs.  Lyla and Devin seem to be getting along well. Lyla will go into his crate when he gets to rowdy for her.

Two nights ago, we let Devin sleep in bed with us. He did fine. The next night, he chose to sleep in his own dog bed and did fine. In fact letting him sleep out of the crate, enables us to get an hour or two extra sleep in the morning!

LYLA                              DEVIN

Funny thing...I definitely consider the RV home now.  The weather is miserable, cold and wet.  We packed the dogs into the truck and when we got to the house, I proceeded to walk in the miserable freezing rain with the dogs, around the neighborhood, for them to "do their business". Well duh!!!! I forgot...the house has a fenced in backyard.  Why should the 3 of us get all wet & cold, when I can just let the 2 dogs run around the backyard, while I stay cozy in the house!

And the winner is...

This weekend Four Paws hosted a Vintage Tin Can Rally.  Great little rally with really interesting RV's., ranging from a 35' to teeny tiny and a home made one.
In keeping with the vintage feel, there was a pot luck dinner in which we were to make an "american" dish like Mom used to make.  Lots of chicken pot pies and mac & cheese. Delicious!
Afterward we played a trivia game, which I normally detest, but wanted to be social that evening, so stuck around.  We guess whose group one! Ours.  Below is the certificate to prove it!

Here are a few of the Tin Can Rv's

Dead man walking

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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I feel like a dead man walking, the final walk before the end of it all.
I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE THIS CAMPGROUND!!!!!
We've already extended our month stay by 3 more days. Now we just got word that this site is open until the end of the season!
Here's a lesson...there are consequences to procrastination.  Because we were lazy and didn't get started on clearing out our stick house and getting it ready for sale to the last minute, we are FORCED to head back to NJ to do the finishing cleaning of the house and yard and put it in the hands of a real estate agent. I just want to be done with it!!! I don't want to go back to NJ.
We may really push our time schedule and stay another week here at Four Paws Kingdom.  Then we will only be in NJ for a week, and we will HAVE to keep busy finishing up the house.
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PETS:
Had a crying spell because I miss Ryley so much.  We were eating breakfast at Denny's and I was reading "The Social Lives of Dogs".  In the book they were talking about the ranks of people & pets in the home.  The owners are usually #1 & #2, then the most dominate pet, etc.  While in the car they spoke of when the #1 person left the vehicle, the #1 pet would move up to the empty driver's seat, because that was the person of the highest ranking being in the household.  I just lost it.  That is exactly what Ryley would do.  If we were to leave the dogs in the van (on cool days only of course), we'd find Ryley sitting up in the driver's seat when we returned.  Even after he went blind, he would still find his way up there.
The honeymoon period is over with Devin.  Time for some training.

Busy, Busy...

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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RV MOD:
How did I ever have time to work a 40 hr week?
Been working on organizing the RV, instead of everything just thrown in and not knowing where it all is.
The past couple of days I worked on our kitchen pantry.  Our 2007 Cedar Creek 33LCDTS Silverback has pantry doors in between the stove and the fridge. Lots of storage, BUT...the are 11" wide and 24" long.  That's a very dark and long drawer.  It has been difficult to make use of the rear of the drawers.  It was very frustrating. I knew we were using these drawers as best we could. So, I put drawer sliders in 5 drawer/cabinets.
I'm very happy with the end result.  Now, before you comment on the finished job, keep in mind, I just wanted to get this completed. I did not finish or paint the wood.  So maybe down the road, I'll pull them out and paint them all the same.

Before 24" deep

 

I purchased the material at Lowe's. I think each slider was about $7.00. Only one needed per drawer. They are center slides.

Really quite an easy project. Once you get the hang of one, you just do assembly line and finish off the rest.

Feels like home...ONLY BETTER!!

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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 We are feeling very comfortable living in our RV.  As I write, Scott is outside sawing wood to brace some extra cabinets.  The honey do's don't end just because we are on the road!
As you can see below, Lyla has claimed SCOTT'S recliner chair as hers.

Devin (formerly Breslin) is fitting in EXTREMELY well!  You can read more about Devin at our pet blog,

Calm before the storm

Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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Today will be a day of just lazing around. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy this day of calmness and relaxation.  It's 2:30pm and I'm still in my jammies and on my 3rd cup of coffee. Ahhhhhh.
It has been very nice with just 1 calm & healthy dog.  We take turns taking Lyla out. She can hold "it" for many hours and she doesn't really need to expel any energy with exercise. She's a very laid back dog.
All this calmness will end on Wednesday 10/5/11.
Tues, 10/4/11, we will be making the 8 hr drive to my parents and also Magnolia Setter Rescue in FL.  We are picking up Breslin, a 9mth old male Irish Setter/English Setter mix. Let the activity begin!

We are at the perfect place to introduce a new young dog into our home. Four Paws Kingdom  has 3 dog parks to play in and hiking trails.
We are considering changing Breslin's name. We like that it is Irish, but don't like the name itself.

PLEASE LIST ANY NAME SUGGESTIONS IN THE 

COMMENTS SECTION BELOW!!!!! 

We'd like it to rhyme with Breslin, so he's not too confused.
You can read more about Breslin here.

RUTHERFORDTON, NC 28139

 FOUR PAWS KINGDOM 

"A Campground for YOU and Your Best Friend Too!"

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RV PARK REVIEW:

FOUR PAWS KINGDOM Rutherfordton, NC 28139  

Our rating: 5 out of 5

"Catering exclusively to adults & their canine companions"

VERY PET FRIENDLY (dog parks)

Level sites

Very friendly staff

Free WiFi

Saturday morning Lyla competed in wiener bobbing.  Out of about 20 dogs, she came in 2nd! She is such dainty girl, I didn't think she would dive in the pan of water and wieners with so much gusto.
Saturday night we took a trip to Germany! We enjoyed Octoberfest at Four Paws Kingdom campground. The owners of the campground are from Germany and Meik is a real chef.  He cooked up a wonderful German dinner to 65 of the guest registered at the campground. Birgit made a delicious Black Forest Cake. Her cake was so light and refreshing. Very different than the Black Forest Cakes found in the US. The US Black Forest Cake is basically a chocolate cake with chocolate icing and cherry in between the layers.  Very heavy and very sweet. Birgit's cake were thinner layers of a less dense chocolate and instead of heavy, sweet chocolate icing, she had whipped cream in between the layers with cherry filling. Mmmm, mmm, YUMMY!
The main menu was Home made Sauerbraten, Spaetzle (Swabian Noodles), Knockwurst, Brats, Kraut and Grandma's Red Cabbage, & warm German Potato Salad. We were actually served 2 plates full of food.  I took the knockwurst and brats home and had for lunch today. Delicious!
Also a cash bar available for purchase bottled German beers, wine and schnapps! 

After dinner there was entertainment. Both Meik and Birgit sang some German songs for us...

we heard some risque Octoberfest jokes, we played some games, some of which involved shots!
One game was to make a human Weisswurst!

 Scott was glad no one volunteered him for this game!

Very, very enjoyable evening. We'll be signing up for a repeat next weekend!

We arrived at Four Paws Kingdom on Wed, Sept. 14, 2011. This was one day later than planned.  We had a doggie emgergency on Sunday, Sept. 11 evening. Get details HERE & go to post dated 9/11/11.

I could live at this campground.  I already feel like I have family here.
If you have an RV and love to bring your dogs along with you...THIS IS THE PLACE TO VISIT!!!!

Settling in

 Location:  FOUR PAWS KINGDOM, Rutherfordton, NC 28139

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Here's a summary of some of the things that have been going on in our process of ESCAPING NJ!  After my summary, I'll go into more detail about the items I've listed.
1: We are currently in Rutherfordton, NC at Four Paws Kingdom campground. If you are adults with no human children, but have fur kids, then this is the place for you to visit!
2: While in NJ, we did have a couple of visitors to our RV and of course forgot to have them sign our guestbook.
3: We fled to PA to avoid hurricane Irene. All is well.
4: Our stick house is in the process of getting ready to put up for sale.
5: We have a 5' x 15' storage unit for only $70. a month.
6. We've learned to boondock (adventure in PA).
7. Said goodbye to my knitting buddies.
8. Said goodbye to our love, Ryley.
9. Mods to the RV and first time using the oven.

Purging

Our basement, really a 4' tall crawl space, has 22 years of stuff...just in case.
There are boxes down there from when Scott moved in to this house in 1993. Never opened. Obviously, we don't need them.
Instead of trying to sort and throw out and also constantly walking bent over and making a hundred trips up and down the stairs, I hired Consider It Done to do the dirty work.  Voila! Within 3 hours, the basement was cleaned out and I didn't have to think about it anymore. Great company and efficient.

I miss organization!

I suppose instead of waiting until I have time to actually think about composing a post, I'll just post and if it turns out unorganized...oh well. That's our life right now.
Our house is a mess. We have been taking things out and trying them in the RV. Most items are staying in the RV.
It's surprising how much room we have in the RV. I keep bringing things in and finding cubby holes to fit them in.
Yesterday, I took down all my framed cross stitch and decided I've had 20 yrs of enjoyment...time to pass them on instead of packing away. Only a few select framed cross stitch, I'll keep.
So we've been spending about 3 hours a day at the house, cleaning & purging. Then coming back to the RV, to store/arrange what we've brought back from house.
Plus, I still have my data keeping for the applications for Above & Beyond Eng Setter Rescue to keep up with. That can take anywhere from an hour a day to 4-5 hours! So life is busy right now.  I look forward to just having our 350 sq. feet of living space to clean. Maybe then, I'll really have time to do some crafting.

CRAFTS:===================== 
Last week was the Monmouth County Fair.  I entered 4 craft items and won a ribbon for each! 2 First Place Blue ribbons and 2 Honorable Mentions.

Honey do Hubby...

 RVing:
Scott has been working a lot on the RV. I think he equates the RV to how he would feel about a special car.
Let's see if I can remember what he'd done so far.  Remember, this is our first RV, and we are LIVING in this FULL TIME. So we are trying to make it as comfortable as our home, just more "cozy".  That's the term used in real estate for a small house. Sounds nicer than very small house.
Mods: 
Installed "JT Strong Arm" jack stabilizers
"Ambient Weather" thermometer: This thermometer has 4 readings that you can decide what they are for.  We have 1. Outside 2. Inside 3. Refrigerator 4. Basement compartment  It also give barometric pressure, which is good for me, because I think my migraine headaches may be related to the pressure drops.

Took out the couch today!!!! So much more room! The couch will now go to someone that could use it on Freecycle.
Turned the dining room table sideways and put up against the windows and it is now my desk, until we find an actual desk more suited.

I added a thin baker's type rack in the unused space between the bathroom sink and bedroom drawers. Right now we are storing our towels there.

LUMS POND STATE PARK - Bear, DE: RV Park Review

FULLTIME RV:
Delaware? I could be in NJ in the RV for all I know! It's been so hot, that I've stayed in the RV the whole time! Only ventured out to let the dogs do their business.  There's a lovely lake here, but never figured out how to get to it without going through other people's sites.  Too hot to take a hike and find out.
Nice campground, with lots of shade trees which I would love to sit under and read, but it's too damned hot.
Living in the RV is fine so far. Luckily, Scott & I get along very well.  Even though Scott was home all the time in our reg. home, he spent most of his time in the bedroom or upstairs. Now we are in the same room. Weird, but I don't THINK it will bother us.
Realized we forgot quite a few items...towels (using kitchen towels to dry us after a shower), hair brush, butter. But we have dog food, wine and coffee, so I'm fine.
Scott's parents came for dinner during the week.  Scott is making his fast chunky sauce over pasta. Oh yea, forgot the fresh pasta also.
Friends from way back in my first years working at the Post Office visited us also. They gave me some home made hot sauce. All ingredients from their garden and she did the canning herself.  I stuck my finger in the jar for a taste.... At first a slight sweet taste, but then...HOT! HOT!! I will try again, now that I'm more prepared for the heat.
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RV PARK REVIEW:
July 18-22, 2011 -------- Monday - Friday
LUMS POND STATE PARK Bear, DE 19701
Our rating: 4 out of 5 Would revisit.
+Nice quiet campground.
+Large sites.
+Pets allowed
+Verizon worked fine.
-Only 6 sites have electric. The rest are primitive.
-Communal water and dump station.

I would come here again.
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PETS:
Scott has to carry 84# Ryley in & out of the RV. With bone cancer, it is VERY EASY to get many mini fractures and once that starts happening, he'll be in too much pain to keep alive.

And so it begins...

We have officially began our full time RV life.  There's some good news and there is some bad (actually terrible) news.  Let's get the bad news over with.
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PETS: RYLEY
We are down to 3 pets for our travels in the RV. Although, if we still had our Pillsbury, we would gladly had made room for him and all his needs, just to have him still with us.
Our 10 yr old Irish Setter Ryley, has been limping. We thought it was from him trying to play with our former foster, Ollie who is very active.  We kept Ryley from participating in the play for a couple of days to rest his front left leg. Thought he was getting better, but on Saturday he started limping so much that at times he didn't want to even use his leg.  Sunday, more of the same.  Monday, the same. We decided we wanted an xray so we would know what is the matter before we go away for 5 days.  Our general vet couldn't squeeze him in, so back to Garden State Vet. Specialists again. No use beating around the bush...bone cancer in his shoulder.  1 - 6 months to live. REALLY SUCKS!!!!!!!!
Ryley has always been a survivor. He was dubbed "telethon dog" while still a puppy, because he had so many health issues that we took care of and had to of course pay for, that it would take a telethon to pay for it all!
Off the top of my head, here are a list of what he's gone through.
Age 4 months: diagnosed with H.O.D. (Hypotrophic Osteodystrophy)
Age 4.5 months: broke front right leg.
Age 5 months: anal prolapse Put under anesthesia and pushed back in. Never happened again.
Age 2 years: Lymph node in neck removed.
Age 3 years: Juvenile cataracts.  Cataract surgery to repair and new lens implanted  left eye. Right eye, cataract was still minor. 
Age 5 years: TPLO surgery

Age 6 years: Glaucoma in right eye. Tried to save it, but couldn't. Ryley blind in right eye now.
Age 9 years: Glaucoma in left eye (with fixed lens). Couldn't save it, so now Ryley is completely blind.
Age 10 years: Grapefruit sized tumor on his liver.  Removal of tumor and partial liver removal. Within 10 days, Ryley was back to normal and active. His cancer was the "best cancer" he could have had. It is not the type to spread and will most likely SLOWLY grow back in the same spot. We hoped to have another 2 yrs with him.
Age 10 years: 2 months after liver surgery. Diagnosed with bone cancer, not related to previous cancer.
PETS: SWAYZE
This is the first time for our African Grey Parrot, Swayze to be in the RV.  She is temporarily in a smaller than normal cage. She traveled well , but doesn't seem to like the small cage. In the middle of the night, she had a night terror. Ended up losing 3 blood feathers, so blood splattered over the kitchen table and part of the night blinds. We brought her cage into the bedroom with us and she settled for the night.
She is currently enjoying our company outside her cage for a change of pace.
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RV'ing:
 We drove the two hours to Lums Pond State Park without incident. Traffic was heavy, but Scott handled the drive easily. I'm so proud of him.
Large campsites, with shade trees, but open enough for the RV to fit in without hitting overhead branches.  Scott did a great job of backing in. We are still trying to figure out our signals to each other. We do use walkie talkies which makes for a happy marriage.
Since now we are actually starting to LIVE in the RV, the items we brought in will not be leaving. Weird to hang up all my clothes and try to figure out where to put things.  I'll enjoy figuring out little gadgets to use to gain more storage space as we find what we use daily.
It is HOT, HOT, HOT! Anything over 75 degrees is too hot for us. It's about 88 degrees right now. The only time I'm leaving the RV is to let the dogs do their business.
DEBBIE: I've been pretty much relaxing while here. Lots of volunteer computer work to do for A&B ES rescue applications. That will take at least 3 hours.  I did work on my Summerflies Shawl last night.  I will finish it today. Just have to complete the picot bind off.
SCOTT: Scott on the other hand has been working all day. Wish he had been more like this in our sticks & bricks home.  Remember, this is our first trip LIVING in the RV, so there are lots of things to be done to make it ours.
Completed today:
Signed up for Verizon for internet through Millenicom. You get a lot more bandwidth through the Millenicom/Verizon service.
Hooked up Direct TV & Tivo
Protective screen over screen on door, so dogs won't poke a hole in it.
Installed long handle across door.

Repair closet latch, repair shower latch, covered shower skylight.
Installed screening over fridge opening and heater exhaust.
Installed little computer fan in fridge to aid circulation and keeps things more evenly cooled.
Time for a bloody mary for jobs well done.

Back to normal...well, somewhat!

PETS:

Just dropped my English Setter foster dog, Ollie off in Newark, DE, to the 2nd person of a 6 leg volunteer transport. Ollie is being adopted today and will be living in Beaufort, SC. It will be a long stressful ride for him. He should finally arrive at his furever home around 9pm tonight. If you'd like to read about how Ollie almost died, one day after we started fostering him, go to our Pets page.
For those that don't know about volunteer transport...this happens every weekend all over the country. Hundreds of animals are transported from kill shelters to rescues or from rescues to adoptive homes. This is how I got started in rescue, by doing transports. You usually drive between and hour to an hour and a half and meet the next driver and pass the animal on. Very rewarding and you can claim something like 16cents a mile on your taxes as charity. Here are a few links if you are interested in finding out more on volunteering to be a transport driver.

 A&B ES Rescue Transports
On the Road Again 
Rescue Transports 
IMOM Xpress 

**UPDATE, Sunday, July 18, 2011: Ollie is with his new "dad"/adopter.
Keep in mind, Ollie is NOT a good car rider. He wants to go from front seat to back, he wants to chase the cars passing and barks at them. Here is narrative, by Leisa, one of Ollie's transporters. 

"...Ollie seemed to enjoy riding in the car and was convinced that we needed him to be an active participant in his transport. He would graciously point out when  cars were passing, by giving two barks.  We assured him that our mirrors were working just fine and he needn’t notify us via his loud barking.  He only pointed out about 5 cars that way –we collectively expressed our dismay at him, and praised him when he was quiet.  He figured it out quickly and stopped barking—and trusting that we could figure out traffic on our own.  He then turned his attention to the driver and passenger area.  Were we buckled in?  Hmmm….could we read the gages?  How about steering?  Driver position okay?  Can you reach the gas and brakes—I am going to my new home and want to get there in one piece. After about 45 minutes of his conducting his 10 point traffic safety inspection of all aspects of the car’s operation and the driver’s operation of the car he settled down quietly to enjoy a little nap.  In fact, he slept like a baby for the balance of the trip..."

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RVing: Purging
So now that we no longer have any fosters (dog nor piggies), we can get back to the business of purging/cleaning/repairing/packing/learning.
Freecycle has been my best friend throughout our purging process. I have lived in this house for 22 years, my husband for 16 yrs. We have STUFF in the basement that hasn't been touched since Scott moved in 17 yrs ago. I guess that means we don't need it. We plan on hiring 1-800 Got Junk or something similar to just take the STUFF out of the basement and AWAY. I'll write a review on whatever junk removal service we use.
We have been planning our full time RV life for at least 5 yrs. Since we knew we would have to get rid of almost everything, we have not bought furniture in a loooooooong time. Our couch shows it. Lots of fading and a few tears also. Scott would rather sit in bed and watch TV than on the couch, since the cushions have sunk and his bony butt gets sore. Of course, my butt is not boney and I'm fine sitting on the couch, or maybe it's because I wasn't as much a couch potato as he was, so my side of the couch still has some cushiness to it.
On Monday, July 18 will be the next step toward f/t. We will have our 5th wheel officially on a campsite. We will take a short trip to Lums Pond State Park, in DE, so Scott's parents can see us living in the RV. Scott will cook his quick chunky pasta sauce. Mmmmm, mmmm good.

CHUNKY PASTA SAUCE

28 oz. jar Ragu Lite Tomato & Herb sauce
1 can Chunky Stewed Tomato w/italian seasoning
2 onions
1 cup mushrooms
1 Tbsp. chopped garlic
1 pound ground beef
1/2 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 tsp. basil
1 tsp. sugar, to your taste
1 Tbsp. Parmesan, to your taste
olive oil

In fry pan brown beef to almost done. Set aside.
In fry pan saute onions, mushrooms & garlic in oil.
In saucepan put the Ragu & canned tomato.
Add the cooked beef and onion/mushroom/garlic mix to the pot of sauce.
Simmer 30 to 60 minutes.
Serve over pasta.

Piggies are gone

I have been fostering Guinea Pigs (yes, there is a rescue for all kinds of animals) for about 3-4 yrs. I had fostered occasionally for both A&B Eng Setter Rescue & Adopt-a-Setter in the past. But as happens with many foster situations, we ended up a two time "foster failure". Which means, we adopted 2 of the dogs we had fostered. I'll go into detail about our foster failures in another post.
Last night the pair of piggies I had been fostering were returned to Marci, head of Have-a-Heart Guinea Pig Rescue. I feel like a foster failure, but not in the good sense. I feel like my volunteer job was not completed. I was hoping they would have gotten adopted prior to our move into our 35' RV.
So I put Miss Tigra & Mr. RaiRai into a small pet carrier and stuffed them along with 3 piggie cages, a bird cage, and large dog crate, & supplies into our Ford Focus wagon. I sure do miss my Ford Windstar Minivan! Drove an hour to Burlington, NJ to drop them off and say my last goodbye.
I have had 2 litters of piggies born while on my watch. Amazing! Baby guinea pigs are born completely formed, with eyes, open, all their hair and eating regular food within a day! They just look like mini guinea pigs.
So, this was another step in our purging process to downsize to fit our life in an RV.

So close...

We're still imprisoned, in NJ. But not for long!
Let's see if I can get how to blog and not be boring.