Finne's Follies

Sunday, May 5, 2024

Hurry, Rest... Hurry, Rest

Dry camping at the "Eclipse Rally"

Rushing from one place to another has been something I've vowed not to do anymore. But life has a way of disrupting plans and putting needs ahead of wants. Such has been our spring.

We were going to make a slow but steady journey from Shreveport to Nampa, ID, where we'll spend most of our summer. Then Mark had his eye appointment with the ophthalmologist to see what could be done about his cloudy eye. The good news is it was an easy fix-- a laser surgery procedure they did on the spot. The bad news is they wanted him to return in thirty days for a follow up.

Ready for the big day

In the meantime we had an eclipse to see. So off we went to view what will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity with a few dozen Alfa friends at a little campground in Bandara, Texas, right in the center of the path. Much to our disappointment, on the day of the eclipse, Bandara was overcast. Who expected that?! So, the event was less than spectacular.

View through the filter

Naked eye

The next day, we moved our RV to a campground on the other side of Bandara for the annual "Alfa Owners Rally," where 50 or so Alfa RV owners gathered with their rigs for a week of activities, mostly geared to technical stuff for the guys, though they did have a nice ladies' luncheon that I attended where I got to meet some new people.

Sue Rogers organized the event
(she and husband, Tom, are our
Alfa Roadrunner club presidents)

Mark attended most of the "Tech Talks" to refresh his knowledge base on the Alfa and potentially pick up some new information. We both attended a fire safety presentation, after which I won a raffle drawing for a kitchen stove fire blanket, now suitably installed on a cabinet door next to the stove... just in case. We also replaced our smoke alarm, which was on its last leg. Our house is already supplied with three fire extinguishers-- one in the front, one in the back, and one in the basement... just in case.

We were reminded how devastating fire can be, especially in RVs, which are notorious for going up in flames in a matter of minutes. We passed this tragedy on the highway...

After the rally, we headed back to Shreveport for Mark's eye appointment. His eye is doing great, by the way. Except for a few buggy floaters that should eventually go away, his vision has returned to normal. Well, normal for him.

Another issue that was uncovered with an inspection by some of his Alfa buddies was a problem with the rollers on our big slide. So when we left Shreveport, we headed back to see Ronnie Wolfe at his Alfa Shop in Choudrant, LA, to make the necessary adjustments. Now our slide rolls in more or less perfectly and we shouldn't have any more problems with it, at least for a while. By the way, check out our new floor. No more nasty dirty carpet.

We were finally free to head north to Minnesota. Mark's sister-in-law Maxine (Merlin's wife) had passed away recently and her memorial service was scheduled for May 1. That gave us six days to get from central Louisiana to southern Minnesota. Hurry, hurry, hurry. Two days of travel, two rest days, and three days of travel later we arrived at Maegan's house (Mark's daughter) where we will be for eighteen days. Then we're hurrying west to arrive in Nampa, ID, by June 1, where we'll rest again for two months while I help watch over my lovely granddaughter, Sophie, during her summer vacation.

Part of the reason for this recent hurry cycle has to do with the difficulty in finding inexpensive campgrounds along the way. Thousand Trails has virtually nothing in the central states, and RPI parks have started adding what they call "resort fees" that range anywhere from $10-20 a night (in addition to RPI's standard $10/night rate). It's beginning to look like our days of cheap camping are over. So we've opted to spend extra time parked in the family driveway at the wonderfully reduced price of $0.

One last note...

I'm thinking about closing out this blog at the end of the year and calling it a good run. I invite you to help me in my decision by taking a moment to let me know in the comments if you would like to see the blog continue.

Until next time, God bless and safe travels to all!

Friday, March 22, 2024

Winter in Florida

Only in Florida! This sign was in the backyard of
our campsite.

It’s been an interesting winter. We started in Shreveport, where we spent a lovely holiday season with Mark’s daughter and her family.

On January 2, we headed to Choudrant, Louisiana, to have some work done on the motorhome, and a new washing machine installed. I was told that my old machine could most likely have been repaired fairly economically... but really. Had I done that, I would still have an old machine instead of a nice new modern one.

From there we stopped for a week in Decatur, Mississippi to visit my sister.

I got two days of visiting in before I came down sick with (most likely) the dreaded C-virus.

From Mississippi, we made our way to Clermont, Florida, which is in the Orlando area and has one of the very few Thousand Trails parks in the state. We were only able to book two weeks at a time there, so we booked two stays. We pulled in for our first stop in mid January and right away contracted with Kleen Tank to have our waste water tanks cleaned and our fresh water tank sanitized, something that has been on Mark’s list of things to do for a while.

The beginning of February we parked our rig at my brother’s and drove to Miami for our first cruise in about five years. Much to my disappointment, I was still dealing with residual coughing from my recent illness and the trip was less than wonderful as a result. I spent more than one day sleeping away the afternoon, even battling a recurrent fever. I wasn’t the only one coughing on the ship. It seems to be an earmark of this virus. I talked to a couple people with the same story-- sick, recovered, cough cough cough.

Hanging out on the "Serenity Deck"

While we were here in the Orlando area, we were able to visit Universal Studios Florida twice, thanks to my wonderful son, Steve, who provided us with free passes (it helps to know people). Our only expenses were parking and (of course) food. One thing to keep in mind-- visiting Universal Florida in the winter is like visiting Universal California in the summer. Avoid it if possible. The crowds and long lines kept us from seeing everything we wanted to see, but we got in most of it. Mark’s walking cane came in very handy. As a “handicapped” senior, he qualified for an “Express Pass,” which shortened the wait times up a little bit.

Why, yes we are!

After Orlando, we headed to Gainesville to participate in a family get-together at my brother’s. All the family was there, with the single exception of my youngest sister, Becky. She and her husband live in Colorado and weren’t able to join us. It was a great visit with lots of reminiscing about family history and childhood memories. Mark and I were there for an extended visit, arriving two weeks ahead of everyone else, so I got some extra time in with the brothers (Paul & Lee).

We had our first ever RV traveling companion in six years of RV'ing. Since we were heading back pretty much right by her town, we took my sister Doreen home to Lake, Mississippi. It was my first time buckling in on the sofa, which I did to make conversation easier. It was a different view watching the world go by through those wonderful big windows we have.

Now we're parked in Decatur MS at our usual resting spot when we visit Doreen - Turkey Creek Water Park Campground, which is about a 20-minute drive from her house. It's a very nice rustic park with 50 amp electric, water, and sewer, and it's fairly affordable.

We'll be here until Sunday, and then we’re heading back to Choudrant to have our carpet ripped out and fake wood flooring put in. We’ve been talking about it for years, and Mark finally decided we should get it done sooner than later. It looks like sooner it is.

Just a note about the tank cleaning…

Has anyone out there had their fresh water tank sanitized? We had a terrible time with heavy chlorine in the water after we had it done. For a few weeks we couldn’t use the internal water at all because the chlorine residue was so strong. We flushed the tank completely at least three times and refilled it with fresh water. Even so, it took about a month to get back to drinkable fresh water. If you’re thinking of having this done to your coach, keep that in mind. The waste water tanks definitely needed cleaning. Mark said the crud came out in chunks! And we’ve noticed a significant improvement in capacity since it was done. We'll probably get the waste water tanks cleaned out every few years, but I'm thinking the fresh water is going to have to be good for the duration.

Well, that's all for now. More pictures below. Safe travels to all our RV traveling friends, and God bless us every one!