Back in Ohio

Nan and I are back in the Cleveland area until Dec 15. We are seeing doctors/dentists and friends. Today Nan and I went to see the eye doctor in Berea where I grew up. The first house I bought was in Berea. I paid $31,000 in 1985 and sold it for $52,000 in 1989 after a lot of work. It is now for sale for $28,900. There's something going on with the house since it is to be sold "as is" and the buyer is responsible for outstanding tax liens. I attached pictures and videos of Nan and my first love shack.

I have a truck mechanic I use close to Berea. I dropped my truck off for service when I got to the area, and picked it up today after looking at the house. I had the usual oil change/lube service, plus a new transmission cooler, AC recharge, and exhaust section, plus a couple of little things. All that for only $2,000. This guy only charges $75/hour compared to $130 at a truck dealer.

I have a 2 week job starting the Monday after Thanksgiving. Then we head to Florida for Christmas.

HDT Rally

We are in Kansas for 4 weeks. I got 2 jobs of 2-weeks each. I bid on these jobs because they are close to the HDT Rally that we wanted to attend. HDT means heavy duty truck. Many people tow their trailers with semis, or HDT's. We arrived in Halstead, KS on 10/9. Unfortunately it was raining, and the sites are mostly grass/mud. They tried to put us in one section that was pretty sloppy. I had to 4-wheel out of there before we got stuck. We found another section that had some gravel, but by then the rig was muddy from our 4-wheeling. Nan told me she had enough of this life and wanted to buy a house so I agreed we could start looking. A few days later after the sun came out, she met all the friendly people in Kansas, and we hadn't been taken away by a tornado, she asked me if I would ever come back here? I said "I don't know how to answer that". She said "I like it here. I could see coming back". I think I dodged a bullet.

They have the national HDT rally in Kansas each year because it is central U.S. We had people from Alaska, Washington, Texas, N. Dakota, Michigan, and several other states. About 40 trucks showed up this year. There were about 5 Smart Cars, and about 4 jeeps that people put on their trucks.

During the week of the rally I had to work Tuesday through Thursday. They had some seminars during the week. Unfortunately I had to miss some because of work. Luckily I was available for the cooking seminar - always a favorite. The rally ended on Saturday, 10/22, so we are now back in Halstead, KS for 2 more weeks.

I'm driving Nan to Wichita next Saturday so she can fly to Cleveland for a few days. Then she flys to Houston from Cleveland for a quilting show. She'll fly back to Cleveland and I'll meet her there to spend Thanksgiving. I'll drive the rig to Cleveland by myself. I may have to swing by a few casinos on the way.

Branson, MO

Nan and I are heading to Kansas from Little Rock, Arkansas, so we stopped in Branson, MO for 3 nights. Last night we saw Dolly Parton’s Dixie Stampede show. It’s similar to the Midevil Times show, except it is North against the South instead of knights fighting. When I made the reservation they asked if I wanted to sit with the North or South. Of course I said the North since (contrary to what they teach in the Southern schools) we won the war. GET OVER IT. They had several contests such as barrel racing with horses. The North was winning, so they had pig races with North and South colors on pigs. They put the North colors on the slow pigs so the South could win one. Then they brought some people out from the audience for stick horse races. They picked real beef eaters to represent the North, and flew in some Nigerian marathon runners to represent the South. By the end of this fiasco the South ended up winning the whole thing.

Tonight we saw the Andy Williams/Ann Margret show. Andy Williams was sick tonight so the Lennon Sisters flew in to cover for him. They were very entertaining. Ann Margret was also good (for being 70 years old). Half way during her show they showed her movie clips while she was back-stage for a costume change, and to suck on some oxygen. One thing about these Branson shows. You can see a two act show and still be back home in time to meet your 9:00 bedtime.

Little Rock, Arkansas

We spent some time in Florida where I had a 3-week job. It gave Nan and I a chance to visit my mother over the weekends. I have a couple of jobs in Kansas, so we are now working our way there.

We stopped in Little Rock, Arkansas for 3 nights. We are staying at a Corps of Engineers (COE) campground. COE is a federal agency that is in charge of lakes and rivers. Most COE campgrounds are too small for us, but this one has large sites. The back of our RV faces the Arkansas River, so it's a nice view. Friends we met in Alaska are also here, so we celebrated by going out to PF Changs restaurant. Yesterday we went to the Clinton Presidential Library. There we learned how he passed NAFTA while in office. NAFTA offers free trade to countries like China, thus increasing the workforce in the U.S. since we will be exporting our goods over there. It's a Win Win for everyone.

St Augustine

We spent the last month in Virginia. After spending all that time in Appalachia it was time to get some culture. So we spent the first night at the South of the Border campground in S. Carolina. Pedro says - You're always a weiner at South of the Border. We had Mexican that night but Nan didn't like it because they didn't give you a bottemless basket of chips.

The next day we arrived in St. Augustine, FL. We took a trolley tour today and then went to the beach. They had rip-tide warnings, so of course there were plenty of surfers out there. Nan then wanted her picture taken standing by the sculpture of David. What a smile she had on her face.

Richmond, VA

While in Gloucester, VA my brother and his wife came to visit for a couple of days. If crabs are around we generally try to get some. There was a guy that sold live crab nearby. We have a steamer so we thought about steaming our own. Then we found a grocery store that sells steamed crab for the same price so we went that route. We stayed at a Thousand Trails in Gloucester and it was very nice and right on a river.

We left Gloucester and drove a couple of hours because I had a job west of Richmond VA for two weeks. Since the campground was $41 per night we decided to stay the month and get a monthly rate of about $700. The two weeks I was working Nan rented a car and went visit family in D.C. and Cleveland. While she was gone she missed the 5.8 earthquake we had. The epicenter was only 30 miles from where I was working. We were working on the second floor of a bank and it started shaking. I knocked a couple of old ladies down and lead everyone to safety. The next week we had Hurricane Irene. Nan returned on Friday so she could be here on Saturday for the hurricane. She was so mad she missed the earthquake that she didn’t want to miss anymore excitement. We had steady rain for all of Saturday and lost power for about 1 hour. We were about 100 miles from the coast so not a big deal. The hurricane might have done some damage to the Gloucester Thousand Trails though. I’m sure we will find out through the grapevine.

Two things I miss from living in a house is my big screen TV with surround sound, and my Weber grill. We have surround sound in the RV but it’s kind of cheesy. I did just get a portable Weber grill though. We had it shipped to Nan’s Mom’s house and Nan brought it back with her. It hooks up to one of our RV propane tanks. I had grilled chicken and grilled asparagus for lunch. I feel civilized again.

Crabbing

I got up at 3:00 this morning to go crabbing. A guy at the campground told me when he did this he would come home with a 5 gallon bucket almost full of crabs. I crabbed until 11:00 and got 4 crabs. I set them free and stopped at Wendy's for a burger on the way home. Nan had considered going with me but luckily she changed her mind. I think it had something to do with the 3:00 wakey wakey time. There was another guy there crabbing. He told me he got about 20 of them. They are suppose to be at least 5 inches wide. After I talked to him the marine officer stopped by to check things out. I saw the guy throwing back little crabs when the officer wasn't looking.