The Tourist Thing, take two

Here we are with Bob, the weatherman. Couldn't figure out how to get this pix into my previous posting so made a new one. My brain is fried from all this new stuff. But I am proud, so very proud that I got this far! Next project: learn to download videos I have made. Not today!

Doing the Tourist thing!

Well, well well.......I am just as proud as a peacock. I have mastered the art of transferring my photo files from my camera to my PC. I thought it only fitting to show you the most recent first.

We had the opportunity to go on a VIP tour of CNN Morning News Express show this week. For those not familiar with Robin Meade, she is the anchor on that show, Monday thru Friday, 6-10 AM EST. Bob and I have been watching that show for about 2 years and enjoy all of the on air personalities. We had no idea that we would be the only ones on the tour Thursday and therefore got special treatment. Got to stay in the control room for several minutes and actually see and hear what they do. Even allowed us to stand right behind all the various directors and see first hand how a TV show is produced. Pretty cool.

Then we had a meet and greet with Robin and Company. To say I was impressed would be an understatement. As you can see, they even took time to take some photos with us. That's Rafer, the sportscaster, and Robin with Bob and me. Bob the weatherman had to run somewhere for a moment but he came back and took a pix later. Robin is a doll, so genuine and of course, very easy on the eyes! Suffice it to say that when it was time to say goodbye, Bob was first in line for a hug!

Goofing Around!

This is getting to be fun!

Wanted to show you the photographer of the first photo. That's Bev on the right and we are just fooling around on that same trail, Cooper's Furnace. Yes, there is a furnace and soon I will post a pix of that.

NOW HEAR THIS, NOW HEAR THIS

My first photo to our blog and I cheated!

The pix was taken by our friends, Tom and Bev, from Ohio. They are also volunteering at Lake Allatoona, Cooper's Furnace day use area. They are about 15 miles from us. We were hiking on one of their trails when this photo was taken. Tom emailed it to me and voila' I figured out how to get it here.

Next time, I'll try uploading from my camera! Baby steps.......

The Gatekeepers

We have settled in to our life here at Galt's Ferry very nicely. The days go by as fast or faster than they did before. The weather here is superb, mostly sunny days with a chill in the air in the mornings and evenings. Most days have been above 60 degrees with lows in the high 40's. Since we've been here, there has only been three days with rain which is great for Harley riding and very bad for the drought conditions that some areas are still experiencing. The fall colors have been amazing and they say they weren't at their best this year but we thought they were spectacular.



Our old friends from Ohio (that is, friends for many years) Tom and Bev are also workamping at Lake Allatoona. They are about 15 miles from us and they are hosts of the Cooper's Furnace day use area. We get together and compare notes regarding these high pressure jobs we have. Tom was also in the IT business for many years and now enjoys a more leisurely pace!



We recently had a mini-crisis in the family. Bob's daughter Allison was in dire need of transportation and since she lives in Cleveland, Ohio, we thought it would be easier to buy a car for her here in Georgia and drive it up rather than looking for one in Ohio. Well, the process wasn't as easy as we thought it would be. Good, used cars are hard to come by. If its still for sale after 3 days, its a safe bet its a junker. We caught on to that quickly and made an excellent purchase of a Honda Civic. Took it to my sister's mechanic who gave it a clean bill of health and Bob was on his way to Cleveland! He had a great time seeing Alex and granddaughter Taylor and flew back here in time to work the last day of our four day week! While he was gone, I got to be the gatekeeper all by myself and give out the tickets, too! After three days, I looked forward to him coming home, though!



Our Thanksgiving will be spent at my Mom and Dad's place with my sisters and their families. It should be fun as we haven't been together for turkey day in many, many years. We have volunteered to work over Christmas holidays in order to have two weeks off in January to visit Bob's bro Warren in Fort Myers, Florida. That's just a little too far to go in four days even if we took the car instead of the bikes.



This past Saturday we went for a ride to Amicalola Falls. We met a couple, Mollie and Lonnie, who live near our park while we were doing our rounds one day. We got to talking (I know, surprise, surprise) and discovered they rode and they offered to take us up to the Falls. It was a gorgeous ride while being a little nippy in the mountains.



Oh, I almost forgot to mention the exciting weekend we had a few weeks ago. We were on duty one Saturday and saw a few Sheriff's cars come speeding into our boat ramp area. We discovered that they were looking for two prisoners that had escaped from the county jail! At the same time, not too far from here the lake was being dredged for a missing person believed to have drowned while fishing. They did find the unfortunate fisherman but we never heard about the escapees. I'm sure they've apprehended them by now or they are long gone from this area, In either case, it made for some interesting conversations!



I have been documenting our escapades with photos and videos and vow to master the technology of uploading to our blog by this time next year. No, really, I hope to be proficient at that very shortly. So until next time, hasta la vista, baby.

Midnight train to Georgia

Got your attention, didn't I? Yeah, I know we weren't on a train, it wasn't midnight but we are here in Georgia!





Arrived at Lake Allatoona, Acworth, Georgia on September 30th. (went on MDA cruise last week but I'll save that for another post!) For our first "jobs" on the road, we have volunteered to be hosts of a day use area and boat ramp at a Army Corps of Engineers lake. We are sharing the job with another host couple, Charles and Sis. Two better people we couldn't have asked for, they've been helpful, friendly and happy to share tips as they have been doing this on and off for many years.





Our first day of work was October 1st. In preparation for this, the ranger, Linda came by and spent a few minutes explaining the ins and outs of locking and unlocking the three gates! What responsibilities we have now.....I'm not sure we can handle this. Basically, 8 AM we open the Galts Ferry Day Use Area gate and lock the overnight boat ramp gate. Then we check to see if all the vehicles pulling trailers have the appropriate credentials displayed on their rear view mirrors. If not, we have an envelope which we leave for them to place $3 in for the use of the ramp. They are on their honor and thats as involved as we get. We walk the area that is set aside for day use only and make sure there are no pets or alcohol being consmed. (I'm not sure that Bob is the one to patrol for alcohol but so far so good) We make three rounds of the park during the day and reverse the procedure with the gates at 6PM. THAT IS IT! We "work" four days on and four days off and can do whatever we want at the campsite between rounds. For this exhausting work, we are given our site for free including all utilities.





Now I need to tell you about our campsite. It is much nicer than I dared to hope. First, there are only the two host sites here so we have alot of privacy and woods around us. The site is paved and has a HUGE cement patio with a corner fire pit, large picnic table, built in grill and a shed to store anything we don't want to put back in the rig or leave outside. The host that was here during the summer season left us some potted geraniums and a garden of begonias at the entrance to our Shangri La! The lake can be seen from here but only in patches until the leaves are off the trees. I will post photos as soon as I figure out how to do that!





Our first four days went quickly just as these next days have and tomorrow its back to "work" again. We have been visited by one of my sisters, Beth and her husband Ron who live within 30 minutes from here. Bob's brother Richard and Marion visited last Thursday and spent the night. That is another advantage-people can visit while we "work" and can even make the rounds with us if they are so inclined. But people, in case you're thinking of coming to see us, remember - Bob is the only one that wears the Volunteer Host hat!



The people that use this park are from all parts of the globe. We've met a man from Nigeria, a woman from Brazil and someone from Harrison, Arkansas. We let everyone in! We've been trying to get our exercize in while working so sometimes we take our bicycles on our rounds. I'm getting pretty good at riding our 7 speed foldable bikes and soon will be able to get it out of first gear.



Some of the every day housekeeping chores keep me busy. I allow 30 minutes for dusting and vacuuming about twice a week, clean the kitchen thoroughly in about 15 minutes and try to keep up with the bathroom on a daily basis.



The televison issue has been somewhat of an Achilles Heel for Bob. We purchased a VuCube before we left Arkansas. This is an extremely lightweight plastic cube the size of a book box. Inside is the antenna which is used to pick up satellite transmission (or reception, I don't know). This cube is a newer version of those little gray dishes you see all over campgrounds. You have the option of mounting to your roof but if there are trees at your site they could block the southern sky and voila' - NO TV. So we opted to get the one that you set up on the ground.



Now, in order to get service you must also subscribe to Dish TV or DirecTV. We have the latter.

Bob spent the better part of last Thursday attempting to set all of this up. I must say, he was diligent and remained calm and collected. I only saw him boot the Cube across the street only once. No, all kidding aside, he got it working and it was wonderful. The only issue that we have now is the unintentional movement of the Cube when the grass sways or the leaves sideswipe it! It is sooooo lightweight that any little thing that repositions the Cube messes with our reception. Bob has had to reprogram (sorry to use that word with Bob) the Cube twice today. Now that he knows what the problem is he has said he has several solutions, none being to kick it across the street again. But the solutions must wait for another day. Bob finally agreed to go to "Doctor in a box" today. (actually a physician's assistant at Walgreens, there are no Walmart clinics) He's had a cold for 4 weeks which has led to bronchitis. We got some meds for him and he should be good to go in 3-4 days. But his Cube solutions will have to wait..........

Our Harleys Went Home!!

We are back in Bella Vista, safe and sound. Our trip to Milwaukee for the Harley 105th Anniversary celebration was stupendous!

We took 12 days to do 1,850 miles and we made the most of them. We left home early so we could stop and spend some time with our dear friends Doc and Dorothy in Vinton, Iowa. They took us to Cedar Rapids to see the devastation caused by the flooding on June 13th. Its hard to imagine 1,300 city blocks under water but that's what happened. Doc's sister has a home there and of course it is uninhabitable. Many families displaced and facing hardships that you don't consider unless this happens to you.

Our visit with them was lovely and went too fast. But they did get to teach us how to play cribbage! We are slow learners and we may have it licked by the time we see them again!! Anyone want to play cribbage with us?

On to Milwaukee and the VIP Reception at the new Harley Davidson Museum. (we are considered VIPs by virtue of our fundraising efforts for the Muscular Dystrophy Assn) It was great seeing so many people we had met over the years at the national telethon. It was a reunion of sorts for us and one we really enjoyed! And the honor of being able to visit the museum was way cooool. It is a fantastic collection of Harley's and motorcycling memorabilia and displayed in innovative ways. We were able to tour the archives and refurbishment areas which are off limits to the general public! If you have the chance to go, we highly recommend it.

The next day Harley Owner's Group (HOG) was celebrating their 25th Anniversary with a huge shindig at Miller Stadium. It was a lot of fun but disappointing as far as the facilities went. I think the crowd was more than expected and made for long lines for food and drink. An hour to stand in line for nachos is about 50 minutes too much! I was particularly excited about seeing Sugarland perform that evening. Luckily, we were invited to enter the MDA VIP area where we could see the jumbo tron.

Staying downtown was great as we could take shuttles, buses and cabs to the different venues for the Harley celebration and not worry about parking or safety issues. (meaning, we could drink!).

The highlight of the 105th for both of us had to be the Parade! We were at the front with other MDA fundraisers, right behind the Harley execs. Following us were the rest of the 7,500 motorcycles made up of Harley employees, Hog Chapter reps, and participants chosen by lottery. This was quite a humbling experience. Milwaukeeians (?) were lining the 7 mile parade route on both sides of the street waving and holding signs "Welcome Harley Riders", giving us thumbs up. I think they were as excited to be there as we were to be in the parade. Bob and I got to ride next to each other and at some point in the procession I noticed the crowd cheering a little louder on Bob's side of the street. Bob was egging them on (I know you are not surprised) by shouting "HELLO MILWAUKEE" and then cupping his ear and waiting for them to respond! Well, they just ate that up! The parade route took us 45 minutes to complete at about 10 miles an hour (a lot of clutching). And the last bikes rolled in about 4 hours after we did!

That evening Bruce Springsteen performed at Veteran's Park. We arrived there at 6 PM which we thought was early enough since the concert didn't start till 8:30 PM. Wrong! We were at the back of the lawn area and had purchased Harley ground sheets. They are plastic squares of sheeting with the 105th logo for the purpose of spreading on the ground. We planned on napping while waiting for Bruce as we had gotten up that morning at 3:45 AM for parade staging. Well, have you ever tried to sleep while thousands of partyers are surrounding you? Actually, many of them looked more exhausted than we were but we couldn't doze. We lasted through Bruce's 4th song and then headed for a cab. At our age, or I should say Bob's age, you really have to pick and choose what is important to you 'cuz you can't do it all. :) I heard the next day that Bruce played for 3 1/2 hours and was quite the entertainer!

We started for home on Sunday. Bob said that if we rode hard for two days we could get home on Monday. I asked him why since we had no appointments until Wednesday. He responded "Oh, yea, I thought I had to be at work on Tuesday". So I think retirement hasn't totally sunk in yet. Subconsciously, I believe Bob thinks he's on an extended vacation! That should end soon.

We had 12 days of dry weather until we got 20 miles from home. Then the heavens dropped out and we were soaked. That's OK-we couldn't have asked for anything better during our trip. It was quite the motorcycling adventure and I was thrilled to make it on my Harley!