HELLO, HELLO, HELLO

It's hard to know where to begin!  My last post was over five months ago and little did I know it would be my last for a while.  The problem was our internet connection in the Adirondacks being almost nonexistent!  My aircard was very unreliable and dial-up speed was the best it could do there.  But I must tell you, we had the BEST summer ever!  We fell in love with the Adirondacks all over again.  Bob and I had forgotten just how majestic the forests and lakes are up there.  There is quite alot to see and do and we only scratched the surface.

The other component of this lifestyle is the workamping.  Until Kayuta Lake Campground we had been involved with the US Army Corps of Engineers only.  This was our first private campground and so we were a bit apprehensive as to how we would like it.  Well, any misgivings we might have had completely disappearred as the summer advanced.  Mike and Karin welcomed us in a big way as did the "seasonals", a friendly camping community which we are now a part of! 

Bob was a part of the "crack" maintenance staff and I joined the office/general store/snack bar/coffeehouse group!  I really had wanted to work outside for the benefit of exercize plus the sheer joy of being able to work outside!! But when it rained every day from April 28 through June 20th, I got over it real quick.  Once the rain quit, the temps were dee-lite-ful.  Most of the days the highs were below 85 degrees and the lows in the 50-60 degree range.  Great sleeping without the A/C.

One of the aspects of Kayuta Lake Campground that we love is the "seasonal community".   There are 165 sites and 89 of them are campers who lease a specific site from May through October 15.  (Thus, the name "seasonal")  You can form friendships with people this way, a part of the fulltimer's life that is missing when you are on the road.

Well, I could go on and on about Kayuta Lake Campground, how beautiful it is, how much fun it is to camp there and to even work there but I am beginning to sound like a commercial!  Suffice it to say that I will be writing a lot more about KLC (with pictures) in the coming weeks.  I have a lot to catch you up on and I will fill you in on it all!

BTW, you can see our beautiful park's website  kayutalakecampground.com

Wondering where we are now??????  If you were paying attention last winter, you might know.  It was in the blog. (but how pompous am I to think that anyone might care enough to remember??? Except for my Mom!  Or to think that people are reading this at all???  Except for Mom)

Former train depot, Forestport, NY

"H10" Our site at KLC !

Bald Mountain, Old Forge, NY

IN THE SPRING!

I've borrowed the title of a song my Papa wrote many years ago and it is very fitting for our last month of travels!  We left Texas in late March, having spent the last 4 weeks there in definite springtime weather.  Temps were getting very warm and the countryside was a patchwork of different hues of green and the yellow pollen was flying.  We arrived in Arkansas to chillier temps and the trees were just barely budding but by the time we left there two weeks later the dogwoods were blooming, the Bradford pears were coming along and spring had arrived.  We traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, and winter was on its way out the door.  No buds on the trees, pretty dreary the first two days but warm enough on the third day to take in the zoo!  Then we were on a mission to get to "our" new campground, Kayuta Lake Campground in Forestport, NY, a portal to the Adirondacks.

We were scheduled to start working on April 20, hoping to be all set up with the rig by then.  But Mother Nature had other plans!  Mike and Karin, the campground owners, suggested we stay south and west of where they are for a while longer!  It has been so cold there they are unable to turn the water on to the campsites and the permafrost is still making it impossible to put the rig on site.  April 16th found them having blizzard type snowfall but thank goodness not sticking.  The winds were 40 MPH and they lost many trees, 30 total for this winter.  So we followed their advice and visited with Aunt Charm and Uncle George for a few days and then headed to a KOA in Canadaigua, NY.  We have been here at the KOA for a week and are a little stir crazy!  It's been bitter cold, we've seen snow flying and there has been no end of rain.  The KOA is beautiful but alot of it is under water right now!  We had 4 hours of sunshine today and actually got to sit outside.  And we noticed the trees have tiny little buds coming out and in the distance the countryside is taking on a green cast.  Spring is almost here!  So Bob and I have lived through the onset of spring for many months now!!  Kind of weird to experience.....

We are heading to our new digs tomorrow morning. We're going to park on pavement and just set up enough to get by until we can permanently settle in. We've been invited to Easter dinner at Karin and Mike's and we're looking forward to getting to know them and start work!

Our granddaughter Taylor, at the Cleveland Zoo

Daughter Alex

Uncle George, Aunt Charm, Pugsy and Lucie!

Bob's boyhood home in Syracuse, NY.  The two trees were planted by his Dad as saplings!

ROAD TRIP TO THE COAST

We are really enjoying the RV full-timer's lifestyle now! Recently, we were on our way to Dallas to look at an item for the Harleys. Planned to stay over night and headed out early in the morning. Just before we got on I-35 Northbound, Bob made a call and found that what we wanted was not in stock. No reason to go to Dallas now and since its not one of our favorite places Bob said lets head south on I-35. I looked at a map and noticed we weren't that far away from the shore (about 3 hours) and something printed in a small box near Corpus Christi caught my eye. " 24 Hour Ferry Service-free" I thought sounded intriguing so we headed that way, knowing nothing about where we were going! We hadn't done a spur of the moment road trip in many years, something we did frequently back in the day!

On our way down, we passed miles and miles of windmills for as far as the eye could see. Quite an impressive sight which doesn't show as well in the photo.

The ferry service links the mainland with Port Aransas, Texas. Only way to get over there is the ferry or to come through Corpus and travel through Padre Island, Mustang Island, etc and it takes about an hour or longer to go that way. I questioned why they haven't built a bridge across since it is such a short distance (about a 3 minute ride once you pull away from the dock) and I was told that the ferry is a tradition and that there is not enough land on the Port side to build the approaches for the bridge. Its hard to estimate distance on water but I would say it couldn't be more than a half mile across!

We discovered you can drive your vehicle on the beach, right up to the water's edge if you want to. What a treat that was. We drove for miles along the coast and saw some beautiful scenery. They even have a campground on the beach or you can just pull your rig up wherever you choose and camp for the night. The usual regulations at beaches back east don't apply here! They are very liberal and allow dogs on leashes and campfires at night. It was quite a sight to see the full moon come up over the water on a mostly deserted beach with a few campfires here and there.

We found a place to stay with a deck overlooking the sand dunes and beach and were so taken with the place that we stayed for 3 days! The sunrise was awesome and even Lucie knew we were experiencing something special. She decided to go in the water and body surf. What a riot! She was so energized by it all that she ran in circles, around and around, as far as her leash would allow. She spent many minutes studying the birds, trying to figure out how she could sneak up on them.

We found a bar (I know you all are surprised) named the Salty Dog. One of our favorite bars in Lake of the Ozarks, Mo. had the same name so we thought we would try this one. It was such a upscale pub that they even allowed dogs to come in so Lucie visited her first (and probably only) bar. Of course, we had to wait outside until she came out! ARR, ARR, ARR!

This kind of trip is exactly the reason we chose to go on the road!

And since I cannot, for the life of me figure out how to place images where I want them on my blog, I will publish the rest of the pix on a separate post. Hey, if anyone out there is reading this and knows how to incorporate the images within the text, please let me know!

MOVING ON!

Well, we are winding up our contract with the Corps of Engineers here in Georgia. Our campground closes the day after Labor Day which is tomorrow. Wednesday we have "debriefing" and a picnic put on by our ranger. We have worked for Linda for the last 2 years, either in a volunteer capacity or as a contractor. We have certainly enjoyed being here, spending a lot of time with our families, but it is time to move on.

Our next gig is in Texas, between San Antonio and New Braunfels. We were awarded the contract for Crane's Mill Campground on Canyon Lake, another Corps of Engineers project. We were delighted to get this position as we have discovered finding workamper jobs in warm weather places in the winter is a bit harder than summer jobs. There are a lot of workampers wanting the same thing and a lot fewer jobs to be had! Next time I will start looking in April for the following winter.

Our contract in Texas is for six months, October through March, 2011. We are sooooooo looking forward to being able to ride our Harleys this winter. Georgia's last 2 winters have been way too cold for riding and this summer was very hot. We did get some riding in but not as much as we would like!

We have long term friends in the Austin and Dallas areas. We look forward to spending time with each of them! We will be in a new area of the country with lots of stuff to explore. While we have spent a few vacations in San Antonio, we have just scratched the surface of things to see and do there. And we have never seen the Riverwalk at Christmas which I've heard is very beautiful. Then there is the "hill country" part of Texas with great riding roads. So we are very excited about our next adventure!

We will be heading to Bella Vista to do the doctor/dentist appointments and we hope to be set up in Texas by the 25th of September and be running the park by the 1st of October! Stay tuned for updates as they become available.......

Snow on March 2nd in Georgia and More!

It is time to pack up and head to Arkansas in a week. Where does the time go??? We have wintered in Georgia, probably for the last time. Last winter was cold and broke some records but this year winter records are really being challenged. As I sit here looking out our picture window the snow is falling at a fast clip. Yesterday the temp was 55 and today around 25 degrees. About 1 inch of snow so far with expected accumulation of 2-4 inches by midnight. We are toasty warm though and just fine. Bob's 65Th birthday is in two days and it usually snows where ever we are around that time!

It has been an adventure being here. We have had duck hunters here in the park (illegal) and quad runners (prohibited). Bob's had to call the sheriff for the hunters since they gave him some grief but it was all straightened out in the end. The quad runners were able to give Bob the slip since our CR-V is not really an off road vehicle (I don't care what Honda says!).

One morning, about 2 AM, we got a call on the park phone that the police and Search and Rescue Squad needed entry into the park. They were looking for a woman, about 52 years of age, who had left home on foot just up the road from us. She was allegedly inebriated and an Alzheimer's patient. Since the floods in September and October littered the park with huge trees and limbs and debris washed up from the lake, it really was impossible to do a good search for her in the dark. Thank goodness they found her somewhere else and the search was called off. So it can be real exciting, this life of ours! When dealing with the public, you never know what can happen.

We have spoken to other contractors with the Corps that have been doing this for several years. They say we will be amazed at the situations that arise when running a campground. We should have plenty to write about in the coming months!

We've also had very sad things occur. Our co-volunteers, from Florida, had some ill health. The Mrs. went into the hospital around Christmas with breathing issues and she passed away in January. Her poor husband was barely able to function. Neither one of them had any family and now he is all alone. He stayed here until last week and then headed back to Florida and some friends they had there.

My Dad has been very ill. He was diagnosed with lung cancer last July and the prognosis was not good. He has outlived the doctors estimates and continues to fight the battle. He is living in south Georgia and I have been able to see him several times since we have been here.

My Mom became very sick right before Thanksgiving and was rushed into emergency surgery during the night. Her colon had twisted (something that can happen to people of a certain age) and created infection in her intestines. This quickly turned to gangrene and we would have lost her if they hadn't operated when they did. She was in ICU for 10 days and in a rehab facility for 4 weeks. She is doing spectacularly well and is also fighting the good fight. I come from sturdy stock and I am most proud of both of them!

I am very thankful we are going to be in Georgia through the summer. This will allow me to see all my family a little bit more than I usually do!

So on to Arkansas for doctor visits, etc and then back here in April to start our latest adventure. I am looking forward to searching for our new "location" for the fall and winter months. The possibilities are as endless as your imagination!