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December 2006: SC to Destin, Florida

31 December 2006: While I don't really believe in New Year's Resolutions, I do have two personal goals that I will work on in 2007: 1. Eat less sugar; move muscles more. 2. Enjoy the moment as experience has taught me that the grass is not always greener on the other side. Happy New Year 2007!

30 December 2006: The RV park is full of squealing kids, barking dogs, and noisy fireworks! Tom and I are looking forward to moving on south this Friday. We're thinking about moving on west this spring to look for a "docking station" for our RV in Florence, Oregon. We've visited there a few times and really like it. Prices of homes in that area seem to have stabilized for awhile. Of course, that's our thinking for today and I'm sure that it will change again soon.

27 December 2006: The storm has passed and as predicted the temperatures have dropped to the 50's during the day and near 40 at night. The wind storm left a crusty covering of sand on everything including our recently detailed RV and truck. We ventured out today and noticed that the Snowbirds are arriving. There are many more RV's in this campground; there are more folks sunning on balconies in the concrete-condo high-rises; and there are folks on the beach. Some restaurants that were closed are now open for business. We ate lunch at the Whales' Tail right on the Gulf. I ate groupper fish and chips and Tom had one of his favorites, a Cuban sandwich. We then picked up a few things including way too many Krispy Kreme donuts! A package arrived from my parents that included some mail and home-made fudge. Life is good.

25 December 2006: Just finished reading James Patterson's novel, Mary, Mary, another good Alex Cross who-done-it that could easily be made into a movie.

It's a very stormy, windy Christmas Day on the Gulf of Mexico. Some wind damage has destroyed a few homes in Tampa. Tom and I enjoyed a good home-cooked meal of ham, steamed veggies, and deviled eggs, all prepared by me. We spent most of the day reading, napping, and watching TV in our RV that was rockin'-n-rollin' in the wind gusts. We had heavy rains yesterday and last night and there are some huge waves in the Gulf as this storm moves through. Temperatures will drop about 10 degrees overnight.

23 December 2006: My younger sister Cookie passed away from a heart attack sometime near midnight six years ago on this date. The holidays will always be a little sad for me because of this family tragedy.

22 December 2006: The weather continues to be cool and cloudy with showers. One of the camp workers here is a massage therapist, so I had a neck-shoulder massage this afternoon. He is a retired Colonel from the Israeli Army. He did his neuro-muscular massage training in Japan. He's way too gentle after Jeannine's elbows! Folks here are becoming friendlier as they see us more often and several have asked us to join in the Christmas Day Lunch, so I signed us up. My ear infection continues with more pain at night than in the day. Tylenol and cotton plugs seem to help. Harry is not as persistent about going out when it's raining so he's giving us a break. We have seen evidence of a tape work (rice-butt) so I gave him medicine today and will give Sadie the same medicine tomorrow morning with Tom's help. Harry had a great time hunting in Mom and Dad's yard and he probably ate some birds and mice with fleas. I treat the kitties with flea medicine monthly so I doubt that either cat has any on his/her skin. If there were fleas in the RV, I'd have flea bites on my ankles! Sadie just had a medication bath and the Vet did not see any fleas. So, Harry had to have eaten some with his fresh kills. Yummy! Back to Mary, Mary ...

21 December 2006: A front is moving in bringing wind and rain. We did 8 loads of laundry today so we have clean clothes and we have books to read, so we're looking forward to some inside bad weather days. Our Christmas gift to ourselves, a TiVo, came and Tom has spent many hours rearranging wires, connecting it, and programming it. Now we can record 4 shows at once! Two on the satellite dish and two on TiVo. Not that we watch that much TV, but we do have our favorite shows that we enjoy watching together. We both hate commercials and Tom goes to bed at dark-o'clock, so he misses many of the good ones unless we record them and watch them the next day. American Idol returns next month and I would rather speed through the commercials while watching that. Most of "our shows" are repeats during the holidays which gives us more time for reading. I just started reading James Patterson's Mary, Mary. Tom's reading a science fiction novel a day!

20 December 2006: Some cards and a few small gifts were mailed on Monday. The neighbor who complained to me about Harry Cat tried to make nice with me. Didn't work. They left on Monday at 5 AM making a lot of noise doing so! Happy trails to them ...

Temperature was near 80 F. yesterday forcing Tom to turn on the A/C mid-afternoon. I only went out to do the trash and take Harry Cat outside for awhile. I've been sleeping way too much. I'm bored and wanting my own yard and "home." I'm tired of being on vacation and would also like to return to work part-time.

My partner Tom is enjoying his walks on the beach and has been reading science fiction books again. He seems quite content with his beach vacation.

17 December 2006: The neighbor who complained about Harry Cat sort-of apologized or tried to make nice with Tom this afternoon. Hmmm ... She said that she was just trying to let us know that some people in the park would get us kicked out if they saw him out and about not on a leash. Maybe so. But for now, Harry's only going outside on the leash and he ain't at all happy about it.

Wanna job in construction or tourism? Come to the beaches in FL! Tom says the FL coasts are preparing for the Baby Boomers who are retiring now or will be retiring soon. Route 98 E-W here hosts much new construction: hotels, high rise concrete-condos, and strip malls. There are signs everywhere: For Sale or For Rent.

We took a drive east to Panama City Beach to check-out our third hitching post here in FL. Panama City Beach RV Resort is a very small, manicured park within a few blocks' walking distance of the beach on the Gulf of Mexico. Very quiet. No place for Harry to run free though.

And another thing we miss is community! This surprises us a little because we do not really like many people, but we miss living in familiar territory and have a connection to a community. Where are you from? The U.S. So, we have revised our latest plan ...

When we leave FL in early March, we'll go to the Ozarks for a week or two to photograph spring flowers, go to KS for repairs on the RV, then head back East to Sand Spring Campground in Morgantown for a seasonal stay from May - October, 6 months, which gets us off the busy highways and away from crowded campgrounds with screaming kids during the summer months. During this time we will look for a piece of land. We'll try to get the RV-pad put on it before heading southwest next winter. We'll visit as many national parks as we can on our way to Brookings OR to deal with the storage unit. We'll stay in Brookings for a month or two, then head up that awesome coastline to WA to visit Michael and Sandra. Then, we'll head back on the northern route that we took on our way out west in 2002. We may dip south to catch a few more national parks, but hope to be back in Morgantown in late spring 2008 to start building our house.

16 December 06: New plan ... in 2008, we'll go back to Morgantown WV which has real mountains and a college culture and we get more land-house for our bucks. We will continue to travel in 2007. I want to spend a few months in southern Utah to see and photograph those gorgeous national parks. We need to stop in Kansas for RV repairs and we need to get back to Brookings OR to decide what to do with all of our belongings in storage: keep 'em or sell 'em? We will keep our personal items already boxed up, but we may sell all of the furniture instead of paying to have it trucked back to the East Coast. I think we'll fly back for my niece Melanie's wedding in October. We may have to board the cats for that long weekend. Remember, we change our minds often ... but, we both agree that we are no longer happy living in someone else's yard and towing has become more work than fun. Tom says that it's beginning to feel like flying to him, very painful.

15 December 2006: Our neighbor complained about Harry Cat's escapades, so we must try harder to keep him on a leash or inside, or we risk being asked to leave this RV park. It seems to me that the folks here are very cliquish. They return to their same sites for years and years, so the park becomes theirs and they are not friendly to outsiders. Of course, if I didn't like cats, I'd complain, too, especially in a sandy area which Harry perceives as a big litter box. Bad Kay! Bad Tom!

Harry Cat needs his own yard and we're "homesick," so we're thinking about heading back to the Luray-Harrisonburg VA next summer to look for a piece of land on which we will put an RV pad then have a house built in 2008. We'll build a small cabin of some sort so we can keep the RV to take trips off-season to avoid crowds. Maybe if we can take trips, we will keep the house longer because we can get away from it for short periods of time. We're feeling a need for "home" and Harry deserves his own yard because he's a very good cat.

I still haven't mailed holiday cards or gifts, so maybe family and friends will get them by New Year's!

14 December 2006: Tom's in a good mood. He found a very good BBQ restaurant, Hog's Breath Saloon, and a very good seafood restaurant, Harbor Docks. There are also sushi and Tai restaurants to try. I'm a happy gal because I spotted a Krispy Kreme donut factory. Those donuts right off the bakery rack just melt in your mouth. We bought a dozen. In the pre-dawn hours, Tom got up early as usual and was just about to bite into a donut when he noticed moving black specks: the ants were chowing down on our yummy donuts! Some old ant traps have been replaced with new ones, but I think we need more as the ants are still searching. Where there's sand, there are ants.

Our RV and truck Ruby are getting detailed tomorrow afternoon. Sadie Cat had her bath at the Cat Clinic and she was purrrrrfect, a very good girl. Harry Cat showed me his new hunting grounds. He meanders down three sites and jumps over the rickety old fence and there on a huge sand dune are low bushes filled with small birds. He frequently "escapes" to hunt.

I walked down to the beach this afternoon to check on Tom who was sitting in his beach chair communing with the ocean. I sat still long enough to spot two whales swimming in unison along the tops of the waves, quite amazing! Unfortunately, I did not have my binoculars. Note: I have been corrected by someone who lives here 6 months out of the year in the same site that those ocean critters were more likely dolphins than whales.

We spent an hour or so visiting with Tom and Wanda from Kansas. They live in Salina, about 40 miles from Junction City where our RV was manufactured. Conversation centered on computers, digital photography, and families. Tom was quite impressed with our computer set-up and cat condo. He writes a travelblog for their local newspaper. Their son lives in AZ and makes metal art for a hobby and small business. I admired the metal art hanging from their hitch pin, so I ordered something for us Image Nomads.

13 December 2006: Golf courses. I forgot to mention golf courses; here, there, and everywhere, golf courses.

12 December 2006: We've been in Destin FL for a week now. The beach is white and clean, the water is green, and the sunsets have been beautiful. Warmer temperatures are back so Tom is enjoying his early sunrise and sunset walks on the beach. He's also enjoying the variety of seafood and international restaurants here. This is a tourist town so along the miles and miles of Highway 98 oceanside, there are many high rise hotels, condos, and vacation rentals; and on the other side there are beach shops and shopping centers. Just across the road there's a new outlet mall. With all of the Christmas lights and decorations, Tom says it looks like Disneyland.

The hauler bed that we want will cost about $18,000, so we'll make do with what we have for now. If we start having problems with the truck, we'll trade her in for a new truck with a hauler bed.

I have found a cat clinic for Sadie's medication bath and nail cutting and an RV-detailer who will clean-up months and months of accumulated dirt on the outside of our RV.

My "cold" is really a nasty sinus infection, but the salty sea air is clearing it up. We're far enough away from the highway and close enough to the ocean that if we turn off all the computer noise in the RV, we can hear those calming ocean sounds at night, and it surely doesn't feel like Christmas!

07 December 2006: We're catching up with rest and shopping and chores. Tom and an onsite RV-repair-guy repaired most of the minor damage to the RV yesterday. After a few more minor repairs, we'll have the RV detailed. It's been awhile since it was really cleaned.

The temperatures are cool and windy with highs in the 50's today and near freezing at night, Brookings OR temperatures. Tom likes it. He went for along walk on the beach early this morning, enjoyed the salty sea air and waterbirds, and he's breathing much better. I have a cold.

Harry Cat managed to escape from his leash last night and ran and ran and ran around the campground. He needed to exercise. He came back several times during his escape to tell us he was OK, but he never came within grabbing distance until he was ready to rest. A cat's gotta do what a cat's gotta do.

Tom visited the New Horizons RV site and they have made some changes for the better in their design. So, today he's thinking we will get a new hauler bed on our truck Ruby which will be done in Medford OR and get a new fifth-wheel RV in the fall. We're not ready to be house-poor again, yet. We still have places to go and things to do, we just have to slow down our pace so we do not get as tired and rest more.

We do need to get back to Brookings to relocate personal items into a smaller storage space and hire someone to sell our furniture from the storage unit. There's no need to keep it stored any longer as it just ages. When we build our house on the East Coast we'll buy new furniture instead of paying thousands of dollars for the cross-country transfer. This will be better because we can buy what will fit in size and style for the new house instead of trying to make the old stuff work.

05 December 2006: Tom was very tired this morning and side-swiped a pine tree pulling out of the campground site. Oops. Minor damage to the left side of the RV was done, but the tree survived just fine. We must drive less and stop more often for longer periods of time. We think seasonal stays are safer and more economical. We are considering upgrading to a Class A motorhome so why we're here in the RV-friendly state of Florida, we'll "shop" for a trade-in. We would really like to have a small, economical car to drive around once we're parked for a while because Ruby is just too awkward and thirsty for short outings. That's our thinking for today anyway ...

Some of Destin FL closes down for winter holidays from Thanksgiving through Christmas so some of the restaurants and shops are closed. Local folks here are complaining about the cold and they are bundled up for winter in heavy winter coats. The sun is warm but the air temperature is a cool 60 F. Tom and I ventured out for seafood, but we were just too tired to venture down onto the beach within sight of our RV. We were inside a restaurant during tonight's sunset. Tomorrow ...

04 December 2006: Yesterday was gray and rainy so Tom got wet and cranky doing the towing chores. We drove along Routes 17S and 95S through SC and GA over many rivers, creeks, and swamps: breeding grounds for mosquitos. I saw a few herons and egrets, no 'gators. The sun was shining today as we drove into flat, flat Florida. There were pine tree farms along the highways and much mistletoe in the taller trees. I did see several armadillos on the grassy shoulders of the highway so I know for sure that we're in the South. The temperatures were in the low 60's today, but expected to plunge to the 20's tonight, unusually cold temperatures for this part of the Southern East Coast. We'll be at the beautiful beach in Destin tomorrow. We're all ready to stay in one place for awhile. The cats are getting cranky, too, especially Harry Cat who has been partying all night when we were parked in my folks' yard in VA.

02 December 2006: We welcomed sunshine and warm temperatuares near 70 F. today so we drove out to the Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, actually to the Sewee Visitor & Environmental Education Center. We walked the two-mile trail. This NWR is proud of helping to bring back the red wolf population from near extinction in 1980. We saw two of four that they have here; there are more on Bulls Island. We are two weeks early for the annual bird migration here. The birds migrate here for the warm temperatures for about one month before they move on. In this campground, there's a flock of white ibises with young ones.

The best part of the day for Tom was finding Sticky Fingers Rib House that had chicken wings and ribs comparable to Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que up north.

We're moving on toward FL tomorrow. We'll be towing for three days with two overnight stays getting to Destin FL on Tuesday afternoon.

01 December 2006: The first of December this 2006, we are in Charleston SC enjoying temperatures in the 70's with gray clouds and drizzle. We're just stopping here for some R&R. On Sunday, we continue on our way to Destin FL.