#46 Hello & Thank-You Friends!

The first thing I need to do is thank everyone who has commented on my blog. I enjoy writing it, but knowing that others are reading & enjoying it makes my part of the blogging experience much more fun. Thanks again & keep the comments coming. Also Mary has asked me to let everyone know that she is posting more pictures on "Facebook". We are in St Augustine for our 21st anniversary even though we are still on our "first" honeymoon. It just doesn't want to end!

I have good news, at least for us. The truck's oil leak turned out to be an easy fix at the Ford dealer. After not sleeping well worrying about how much money & how much time this would take we were at the dealer at 7am. I followed Mary on the motorcycle, we went out to breakfast, & went back to the trailer. I was tired & layed down for a nap. Mary was not far behind me. The next thing we know the phone is ringing. The auto repair gods were looking out for us. It wasn't even noon & the truck was fixed. On top of that it wasn't as expensive as I thought it would be & to top it off our extended warranty paid most of it. Hallelujah!!!!!!

Now that was done we could get together with our friends as planned. Catching up, talking, laughing, & losing track of time is just what you do with good friends. We had a wonderful dinner, drove around St. Augustine a little & finally called it a night. It is hard to say good bye to friends but it beats staying too long. We will also look forward to the next visit that much more.

Saturday as I said before was going to be "our" day. We took the bikes out & went into St. Augustine's old quarter. St Georges St is a pedestrian thoroughfare through the oldest part of town. It's mostly shops & restaurants but they are in mostly the original restored buildings. Yes it's touristy but that's what we did on our honeymoon & we will do it every time we come back. We took some pictures(see Mary on Facebook) went to a restaurant we like & just...well acted like honeymooners. It was a wonderful day.

But the day is not over! Tomorrow we leave for Tybee Island & that means getting ready to leave. Again with the laundry! It would just be easier if we went naked. It would be uglier, but easier. Also motorcycling would be interesting & probably painful. Load the bikes in the trailer, fill the truck with diesel, & start the travel prep routine again. By the way, filling the truck with diesel,OUCH! Our truck holds 74 gallons of fuel & I try not let it get too low. This time it needed almost 55 gallons. Yes 55 gallons at one fill up! Diesel is over $3 per gal so you do the math. I know it's a lot of money but if we couldn't afford it we wouldn't have this life style. Everything should be done by the time we call it a night & tomorrow we should just have to hook up the truck, do our multiple walk-arounds, double check everything & hit the road. Hopefully this will be by 9am & we will have an easy drive to Tybee Island.

From our home in St Augustine this is good night & good bye because our next home will be in Tybee Island because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary & Foxy
(Yes Foxy wanted to know why she wasn't getting equal,if not top, billing)

#45 Here & There & Everywhere Is Home

"Post cards from home" & "Home is where we park it" are more than catchy phrases, it's the truth. I'll tell you how I know & can prove it. Whenever we pack & hook up to leave Foxy gets real antsy. She is underfoot, whiny, a general pain in the ass. Once in the truck she calms down some but still paces the back seat(her domain) & is constantly looking out the window looking for who knows what? After reaching our destination she again is a royal pain while we set up. When everything is in place & her bed & bowls are where they belong you can almost hear an audible sigh as she curls up in her bed or under one of our chairs. Aaaah, I'm home. We feel the same once we get set up. This is our home & it feels like home no matter where we are.

Well, here we are in St Augustine, arriving event free. I found a Ford dealer that had a part I needed & could take the truck in first thing in the morning to check the oil leak. They think they may be able to fix it before we leave on Sunday. We will ride our motorcycles while it is in the shop. If you have ever been to St Augustine you know that it is much easier to get around & park on motorcycles anyway & it gives us an excuse to ride more. Tomorrow we will see friends & catch up. Saturday, as I've mentioned before, we return to the scene of our honeymoon. We will spend the day just the two of us walking around the old parts of town like we did 21 years ago. It has been a GREAT 21 years.

As tired as we are & having to be at the Ford dealer EARLY we are calling it an early night. So until the next Blog we are home in St Augustine because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary & Foxy

#44 Just A Short Blog...Bl ?

We are going to try to leave early in the morning so we prepped tonight. Empty & flush our waste tanks, fill our fresh water tank, & unhook all fresh, non-potable,& waste hoses. Clean & store all hoses in basement. Inside pictures are taken down, loose items stored & secured, & last minute check of tomorrows itinerary.

7am is our scheduled wake up time & we hope to be on the road by 9am. 10am is probably more realistic but you never know. Showers, breakfast, & walk the dog like every other morning. Then we hook up the truck, disconnect the shore power, re-check all stored & secured items, & pull out. After that we load & secure the motorcycles, do a light check, one more final check on all secured items(you can only imagine how many times we wished we had checked one more time) & then we hit the road. We are only going a little over 200 miles but his is what we do when we travel. RVers understand.

And just to add a little excitement to our adventures the truck may have an oil leak. We will keep an eye on it & if it needs to be taken care of we will extend our stay at one of our stops where we can find a Ford dealer to take our hard earned money. Again this isn't a kink in our vacation plans this is just life retire & on the road. So this is still coming to you from our home in Port St Lucie, soon to be somewhere near St Augustine, because....

Home is where w park it,
Frank & Mary

#43 Getting Old Is A Full Time Job

I know I've talked about my back surgery & how it has progressed from "why did I do this?" to "OK, I think this is working out & ultimately worth it". I recently had some issues with my neck & arm. There are similar issues to my back, arthritis, disc problems, & inflammation. We started treatments like I had for my back for 7 years prior to my surgery. The first shot was on March 30th and I had good results. The pain is mostly gone but the numbness persisted, so the Dr. suggested another shot on April 13th so that I might have some long term relief. The back shots work well for me so I hope these shots will work as well. This meant a trip back to Pinellas County. We decided not bring the rig, but stay overnight on the 12th with Jess & Jim & drive back the day of my shot.

It's hard to believe that the 2 weeks in Port St Lucie is almost over. Mary washed the truck & I cleaned the garage to be ready to load the motorcycles. We will be heading up to St Augustine for a few days to visit with friends & "return to the scene of the crime"(AKA our honeymoon). We are also going to check out a couple of campgrounds that may work as our winter residence in the future.

Well it is getting late & the sedative they gave me for my shot is making me sleepy. Just to let everyone know, if you haven't noticed, that comments have been being posted. I am going to sign off possible for the last time from our home in Port St Lucie because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

#42 And Life Goes On

Today is Friday & it is just another day. Like I've said before, retirement isn't vacation 365 days a year, it's just everyday life without the 40 hours a week dedicated to work. We have just about finished helping with the move, we celebrated our anniversary, & spent some quality time catching up with family. We also have our everyday chores like laundry, vacuuming, & house(trailer) maintenance. Then there is the "weekend" that can fall on any day of the week when you don't have a work schedule to adhere to.

Tuesday we got together with my cousins. It had been too many years & I hope we get together more often. In spite of the years gone by it was like it had been yesterday. It is nice to have people in our life like that. On Wednesday we did laundry, cleaned around the house, & went to the Post Office to get our mail. We have to have our mail forwarded to us as we travel. The safest way to get our mail is to have it sent General Delivery to a local PO, or so we thought! With a combined 50+ years in the USPS we have found something we never thought we would see. The Port St Lucie Post Office on Veterans Memorial Pkwy claims they will not accept General Delivery mail. Now understand, this not a contract station, this is a real Post Office staffed by actual postal employees. They have PO boxes, window services, & carriers like any other Post Office so how can they not handle Gen Del mail? We are going to have to look into this!

Thursday was our 21st anniversary. With the weather being as close to perfect as possible we decided to spend the day on our motorcycles. From Port St Lucie we headed up highway A1A North, destination Cocoa Beach. A1A follows right along the beach & we had some awesome views of the Atlantic Ocean. We stopped several time just to walk through the dunes to the beach & take some pictures. It's not the fastest route but with beautiful scenery who's in a hurry? We made it to Cocoa & when in Cocoa what do you do? Go to Ron Jon's! What else? It is just another way to take money from tourists & it is kinda corny but... so what? We turned around & headed south on A1A for a while & then cut across at Patrick AFB to I95 and headed home. A shower, change of clothes, & out for a romantic dinner to complete a perfect celebration of 21 wonderful years.

This bring us back to the start of this blog, Friday. We slept in because we could! Nothing on the schedule 'til this evening so we will lay around, catch up on e-mails, write a blog, & just relax. Tonight we will have dinner with the uncles & just enjoy their company. Saturday & Sunday I have a few things I want to do around the rig that I have been putting off. Again, I don't understand how I found time to go to work & get all this stuff done.

I have another hour or so to do nothing & that is what I am going to do! From our home in Port St Lucie because.....

Home is where we park it,
Fran & Mary

#41 Aaaaaah.........

We are still in Port St Lucie & have decided to take a few days to relax. Moving the old fashioned way is hard work. You know, the packing, lifting, stairs, unpacking, etc. Not to mention the furniture, even if it is knock-down style. I'm not complaining mind you, because I would do anything for the uncles, but it still is work. My idea of moving(since joining the RV ranks) consists of pushing buttons to bring in our walls, rolling up our hoses & wires, hooking up the truck, & away we go!!!! OK, there is a little more to it than that but you get the gist. No packing, no lifting, no furniture arranging, just take the whole house with you.

Anyway, we had our holding tanks cleaned yesterday. YUCK!!! This process includes dumping of all our waste water(poop, shower, kitchen sink etc.) & putting a high pressure hose with a spray head into the tanks from the dump outlet. This cleans any debris that has stuck to the sides of the tanks. Basically our RV got an enema. We thought we had been doing a good job of maintaining our waste water system but found out it needs a professional touch now & then. All is now clean as a whistle & more frequent professional cleaning will be considered.

Today we are going to see my cousins in Lake Worth. It has been too long & I am looking forward to it. The next 2 days we are going to take the bikes out, enjoy the beautiful weather, & celebrate our 21st anniversary. After that we will finish up the moving, spend a little more time visiting,& then we will be on our way to our New England adventure! Of course there will be stops along the way & unplanned adventures so keep checking back to see what is happening on the home front. The home front being wherever we are at the moment because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary

# 40 And The Wheels on the Truck Go 'Round n Round

It's been 6 months since our home on wheels has moved & we were starting to get antsy. Well now we have finally gotten on the road & it feels good. Less than 300 miles & we are still in Florida but we are again on the move. We are visiting with the uncles & helping them move 7 are just taking it easy. The weather is beautiful & we are out on the motorcycles. It just doesn't get any better.

Easter with family will be nice & we are looking forward to seeing my cousins while we are on the east coast. Our youngest son is also not too far away & hopefully will be able to get some free time to visit. Before we leave FL we would also like to stop near St Augustine to see friends.

While we are in Port St Lucie we are having a "RV Waste Water Technician" check out our rig. In plain English, a guy is coming to clean out our poop tank. We have lived in our rig for almost 5 years & are curious as to how well we have maintained our waste water system. These tanks are not something you can or want to look in but it is important to keep them as clean as possible.

Tomorrow some more moving & cooking for Easter dinner and it will all be done in our home in Port St Lucie because....

Home is where we park it,
Frank & Mary