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Published: April 14th 2019
It’s Friday (I started this blog on Friday but finished it on Saturday - today ...not sweating the small stuff). This blog agenda actually begins on Friday...last Friday, April 5th. We finally were able to agree on a day when we could take Linda and Dave out for dinner. A measly payback for all the hard work Dave had done putting new levelers on our RV. Linda had to sacrifice her time with him while he spent ALL day with us doing this challenging and strenuous job. I feel that I am speaking of two saints as I mention their names. They should be revered as royalty: a King & Queen. Lulu bows her head when we speak of them. She can’t courtesy (no legs, remember) so she hopes her head bow will suffice. We dined at The Ford’s Garage Restaurant. It’s a fun place to go, especially if you are a Ford fan. We enjoyed our time together with this special couple. Besides being Saintly and Royal, they are a lot of fun! Thanks so much for everything wonderful friends (K &Q)!
Trolling aimlessly around the park as we often do, we found the big red/orange bus had returned!
What a sight it is! For several years, this huge bus comes into our park, stays awhile and then moves on. It is actually a rolling Hotel. It is called a Rotel. It carries and sleeps German tourists. Please Google it (Rotel Bus) because it is so fascinating. Be sure and click on “images” so you can see what it looks like inside and out. It is très unique. I have posted many photos of it in past blogs but I’ll let you do the investigative work this time. The folks traveling on this bus are always very friendly and willing to answer questions...if they speak English. Ich spreche kein Deutsch.
Sam had a spell of “being under the weather”. We missed he & Sandy during his recovery. Once he felt like being on the go again, we all went to Freddy’s (hamburger, hot dog, ice cream joint). Freddy was so happy to see Sam. He gave him a big thumbs up and a huge, Cheshire Cat grin. Freddy is the only one I know who can keep such a frivolous grin on his face 24/7. Ho, Ho, Ho.
With strength like a storm trooper, Sam agreed to
The Rotel
Google it! go with us to Disneyworld’s Hollywood Studios to celebrate our 55th anniversary. We headed off after noontime. Our goal was to dine in their “50’s Prime Time Cafe”. We could have made reservations but we are more like “spur of the moment people.” Our wait was @ 30 minutes. We rested inside in their perfectly decorated 50’s Living Room. Cory was most happy at the bar. Once seated, we could take a good look at all the decorations that we easily related to. There were old TV’s all around, showing all the great shows we used to watch growing up. What fun! Our waiter, Tim, was kind of an old crusty fellow. I guess he was trying to be funny with his curt remarks. Hope so. We had to fight for straws...eventually other customers gave us theirs. Phew! Thanks strangers! You were most kind. The other waiter in our area was bright and funny. He “played” with his customers, sang to them and made them all feel extra special....unlike Cranky Tim. The food was okay...typical Disney food at an exorbitant price. But you always want to try this experience at least once in your life anyway. You get what you
get so suck it up, buttercup!
In this time capsule restaurant, Cory and I were thrilled to see one of their wall decorations was a familiar item to us and our home area. It was a Glidden pottery poodle dish. We bought and sold these over our antiquing years. Our daughter, Kim & Jim, collect Glidden pottery. It was made in a small town near Wellsville, NY (where we live) called Alfred, NY. Two colleges are there. One still specializes in ceramics & pottery. Glidden Parker was the founder of Glidden Pottery. Again, I ask you to google this. Glidden has a fascinating history. Lucille Ball had pieces of this pottery in her TV show “I Love Lucy”. Check it out!
We walked off our meal by marching around the park. Checked out Toy Story Land .....a new addition since we’ve been there before. We loved that movie and all it’s characters: Woody and all his friends. Definitely made for children but fun.
Lulu was with us for our anniversary celebration ....naturally. She doesn’t like staying back and missing all the good times. She’s such a people person, you know that. She wishes she could hug everyone
she meets BUT....you know the problem (no arms). Of course, she relates closely to the original Little Lulu of Little Lulu comic books. She is the one who travels with us on our cruises....’member. That Little Lulu was my idol! Well, this present one is too...don’t want any hurt feelings. I loved thee Little Lulu! Really loved her! I had all her comic books! I read them a million times. My Aunt Phe was a librarian and helped me attach a library card pocket to the back of most of them. Then, I would allow my cousin, Paul, to borrow them (lend them out) marked with a due date. Of course, that ultimately lowered the value of these comics (cause I can’t get these sleeves off) but I wasn’t going to sell them anyway ....they were my sacred treasures. My daughter, Lory, has them now. She’s a keeper...so they will always be saved and safe. Right, Lor? One of my best memories as I think of my “bestist” friend, Little Lulu, was in high school. Our English teacher required us to write an essay on who we admired the most. Want to guess who I wrote about? It’s easy.....I wrote
about Little Lulu. My mother, a teacher in this same school, was sickened. Not me. I wrote from the heart! And now guess what grade I got on it....go ahead, guess. Yep...an A+. Oh, thank you my sweet Lulu. I love you with all my heart! My idol forever! This same English teacher told (tattled) my mother I only read the skinniest books in the library....that was true. I was never a big reader. Even now, if I am to start to read a book, I have to read it all they way through without stopping. I’m exhausted by the end and my eyes are swollen like dinosaur eggs. That’s just the way it is so I don’t do it that often....too time consuming. It is what it is. I do read my blogs before publishing them....that’s exhausting and time-consuming! I know how it affects you! I feel your pain.
I know we’ve discussed this situation before but we need to bring it up again. We need your help! Lulu is still smoking. Even without arms & hands, she’s able to get that butt in her mouth! What can we do? We have told her about all the bad
consequences (as formers smokers, we can do that).....and what do we get back from her? A blank stare! Yes, a blank stare! As you can see in her last picture, smoking has taken a big toll on her. She’s so sickly and ghastly looking......almost to the point of appearing hideous. Why can’t she see what’s she doing to herself? From a beauty to a hag! Any suggestions to help her quit will be appreciated.
Sometimes things don’t always go as smoothly as you may like. Things come up that just hit you in the face....OW! Of late, it seems like that has been our course of events. Part of life....I know, I know. First, Lulu and her smoking. Next....issues with our motor home. I felt that our wheeled house was rocking a little bit too much as Cory (I guess, me, too) maneuvered his (my) way through the RV. ???Rocking and a rolling!???. Lulu was no issue...her head rolling is smooth and slick. I blame it on my washing machine when I have an uneven load and the washer acts like an Army tank trying to get out of a mud pit. Anyway, he agreed to re-level our coach.
Goody! Turn on the engine. WHAAAT? Nothing happened....try again and again...turn on the engine! Nope! Nothing! RATS.....double rats! Cory checked everything and did everything he could.....auxiliary start, generator, fuses, brake check, etc,etc. Nothing! OMG. Lulu starts to whine. Hush, there, Little Lady...we don’t have time for that! We called the RV maker, Tiffin. They tell Cory to hold down the aux. start button for 15 minutes! Okay, if you say so. Done! Viola! Mission accomplished. The horrible, loud diesel motor is roaring again. Normally, I hate the racket it makes but now I was doing a kick-up dance to the blare of its sound. Lulu couldn’t join me.....you know why (zero legs). Okie dokie. We are in business now. Tossed stuff around in the RV (so nothing is blocking our slides) and we can now bring in the four slide outs. Good! Easy Peasy! Slides all in...check! Now, turn on our leveler system......good. All lights are a go! Perfect! Yes, we can hear our NEW jacks (remember King Dave recently put these new jacks on for us....a major job!) responding. Kind of noisy but they are new. Bang! Thump!.....from the passenger front jack. Everything stopped! Not good. Cory checked everything
and tried several times to get them working.....nope! Rats! We called Tiffin. They talked and then said to call the company that made them. We did. They thought the one jack had a broken shear (sp) pin. Crap! All that was left to do was sit and pout.
“Even on a cloudy day, The sun is shining somewhere”.
Yep....this is true....and we were fortunate enough to find that sunshine at a great party hosted by Elaine & John Specht and their precious dog, Jesse. They invited us, as well as many others, to dine on Rhode Island wieners at their motor home. Yum-Yum! The entire meal was scrumptious. Elaine topped it off by offering her guests a glass or two of “Coffee Cabinet” - their official state (R.I.) drink. Delish! Delish! Again, google this drink and their Rhode Island wieners to learn their recipes and history. You’ll love it! It was a truly festive group who had gathered together. Laughter resounded. We had to do an “eat and run”. We wished we could have stayed longer because we were having such a grand old time. Thank you, Elaine and John, for having us at your fun and frolicking
party. You are excellent hosts! You made our RV frustrations fade away for awhile...We needed that to regroup and refresh ourselves for what would lay (lie?) ahead. We had to come up with a solution. We slept that night with our slidesout still in. Crampy...but we do that when we are traveling and stop for an overnights sleep. Tomorrow will bring a better day. PLEASE! Let it be! Pray for us.
Morning - the engine still comes on! Whew! Our savior appears again! Yes....that’s right! The saintly King: Dave, was at our motor home ready to work and resolve our problem. How can any one person be this good? How? Inquiring minds want to know. All we know is he is the BEST! Many others will attest to this, also. Slipping into his brown, work overalls, he crawls under our RV next to the troublesome jack. Remember we bought these new jacks so we wouldn’t have issues with them anymore. Hah! Dave was as frustrated as us. He and another wonderful friend from the park,Art (the electronic wiz), worked together to determine the status of this jack. They worked so well in sequence...knowing what each would do next. Art
Fisher Price guy
Woody & girlfriend has helped us out in the past on many occasions with electronic problems. He is so smart and capable. We are all so lucky to have such brilliant men in our park. Each has a special ability to get so many, various problems solved. After assorted checks and tests, Dave said the jack was working fine....it had just locked up. More friends came by to check on the situation and lend support. That’s one of the greatest parts of this park. We are all like family. When one is in need, the others rally around to help out. The folks here are all terrific people.....you’ll never find a better group! Thank you, everyone! John Zimmerman got right on the ground with Dave...both squished together under our rig! How fabulous can these friends be? Words cannot unveil their greatness. It’s not with words....it’s all in their actions. Bless them all! Hot today....HOT, HOT, HOT! Work conditions as well as the location of the problem was horrible. The worker bees pushed on, though. Staying strong throughout it all. I can’t remember the sequence of events now....probably my coping mechanism to block it out. I do know that Dave had to remove our
new leveler and replace it with our old, discarded one that fortunately he had saved. It was a job from hell in the heat of hell. Hell! But they got the hellish job done. Dave used a drill (a zillion turns makes it retract 1/4”) to help the leveler go up but I think our system also kicked in for the other three. Right now, all of the levelers are in a retracted position....that’s the traveling mode. We are leaving them like that until we leave here on May 13th and go to Red Bay, Alabama where they built our RV. And I thought we were rocking a little bit before this!!! Shut my mouth in the future (not easy, though). We are going to Red Bay anyway for RV updates and renovations. Now, we’ll get them to fix our new leveler and anything else that needs it so we never have to have “The King” crawl under our rig again. He needs to be out in the open so everyone can view and honor him....not stuffed away in our little hell hole. I’m wordless (can you believe that?) as to how we can express our deep gratitude to Dave
(and Art & John). We shall do it with actions and not worry about words. Dave already refused to take our first born the other time so we have to come up with something else. Lulu, maybe?? Under my breath, I’m whispering: please refuse her! Thank you so very much for all your help! We owe you big time!
To complete this day, another cookie crumbled...big time! The engine would no longer turn over....nothing....zip....zero....rigor mortis....dead as dead could be! Dave figures that was probably the source of all our problems. Sam had mentioned that the day before. Brilliant minds! Now what?? You can only throw up just so much. With Sandy’s help, we located an RV service who would come to us and put in two, new engine batteries. Juan arrived at 7:15 PM. He had been on another job in Clermont but said he promised us he would come and that he did. He quickly did the switch-a-roo. He was very nice and very competent. We are glad we picked him and his company. We recommend highly him. He had to check something with the batteries to make sure they all were working fine so he went inside
our RV. Remember we still had out slideouts pulled in. Juan said to Cory “Why do you live like this? How long have you been down here?” He thought we always lived with our slides in.....all cramped and cluttered .....looks worse than hoarders! That made us laugh. Of course, I’ve failed to mention these dead batteries were our original 2008 batteries. Yes-sir-ree, bob! 11 years old! No one, not anyone, especially Juan, could believe our batteries had lasted that long. That never happens. No wonder they died. They were so old and weak and had run their full gambit plus...time to die and they did! One hurdle crossed.....a couple more to follow. We’ll make it!
The seasons here in Florida don’t seem to vary much. Hot weather most all the time. We can tell that summer is coming, though. It’s getting extra and very hot down here....very, very hot. We run a big fan on ourselves when we sit outside. The air conditioner is blowing away inside. Ignore the electric bill....we are in survival mode. The growing season is all the time, also. Our friend, George Catherwood used his farm knowledge and planted a corn crop behind his RV.
George & Carole have returned to their Canadian home but their corn carries on George’s hard work here at the park. They (three stalks) are growing. Maybe they’ll be knee high by the 4th of July. We won’t know cause we won’t be here. Maybe Karen will watch them and let us know. Lulu was in awe when she observed the one huge ear of corn on one stalk. Notice the silks on two of them. Mighty proud of you Farmer George! You have the skill to bring forth life from our soft, sandy ground. Hot diggity! You are good!
Well, I didn’t plan for this to happen.....What, you ask? This unending tale that had to be told! I guess because I started on one day and finished it on the next, I thought I had the right to almost double the size of this blog! And you wonder why I don’t read many books.....getting through these blogs, you have almost read as many pages as in War & Peace. Dinosaur egg eyes! They’re burning out of my head. My typing finger looks like I have been dipping it in ketchup. Thanks for hanging in there, devoted followers. I
owe all this to you.....my strength, my thoughts and my purpose.....if you didn’t travel and read along with us, there would be no need to write this blog. Remember: SCROLL until you have viewed 30 pictures.
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Mary Lou
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So glad your motor home is ready for the long haul home next month.... am sure it is getting warmer down there .. I know when mom and dad were down there for the winters by this time they were in over load with the temps... they did stay till May a couple of times but they usually headed home in April do to it being too hot... safe travels