Welcome, May!

Valdosta Oaks RV Park in Georgia

April for us was rather boring...as it probably was for you.

We spent the month in Valdosta, Georgia, in relative lock-down. I say "relative" because we still made our regular trips to see the Hoffmans (Mark more often than I), and we still made our regular trips to the grocery store. Other than that, we sat at home trying to find something interesting to watch on TV, or watching one of our movies we've seen a hundred times, or reading, or (in my case) crocheting.

Consequently, I didn't take very many pictures.

But, the day before we left Valdosta, we helped our grandson, Asher, celebrate his tenth birthday. The original plan was to go up to one of Georgia's beautiful parks (which were open by then) for a cook-out and cake. But to our disappointment, a giant thunderstorm came through just about that time, bringing with it tornado warnings. We opted to celebrate at home instead.

Asher and his cake

Happy Birthday to YOU

The next day, we pulled up the jacks and headed for Ronnie Wolfe's Alfa shop in Choudrant, LA, with an overnight stop at my sister's in Lake Mississippi.

Ronnie and Dick Albritton diagnosed and repaired our generator for us and cleaned and serviced our AC/Heat pump, which hadn't been serviced since it was installed sixteen years ago. Yikes! was it ever a dirty rotten mess! They had to replace one of the two condensers, and in the process discovered that the unit was miss-wired from the factory! There was a lot wrong with that thing, but now everything is running like a charm. Super kudos to Ronnie and Dick! They are a super-hero team. Professional, knowledgeable, and reasonably priced-- and their work is always of the highest excellence. We've been here at least three times now, and always plan them into our travels when we need something done, and done right.

They had to cut the AC out of the coach--it seems the siding

was put in after the AC!

After all the work was done, we headed to our favorite campground ever-- Lincoln Parish Park, in Ruston, LA. We were planning to stay five days, but they could only accommodate us for two. Apparently, all the locals are camping out to help stave off the boredom of being stuck at home. We did get in a good walk around the pond, at least.

Our spot at Lincoln Parish Park

View from the "back yard"

From there we headed north to Arkansas to get some windows defogged by Fog Doctor in Searcy. That was Thursday. Since our appointment at Fog Doctor wasn't until the following Monday, we found a little RV park along the way and booked three nights.

We parked, paid, set up our coach and started to settle in for the duration when I noticed that the coach power switch was off, and I was unable to turn it on at all. Mark started poking around to find out what the problem was, and eventually discovered that our coach batteries were dead. On a whim, he decided to give Ronnie a call and see if he might be able to provide some insight as to what the problem might be.

Ronnie suggested it might be the Transfer Switch, and told us he had one and was willing to squeeze us into his schedule if we wanted to return. Since we were only about ninety miles away, we decided it would be wise to at least have him check it out. If it turned out to be bad, we could get it fixed right away by someone we trusted. (We've had some sour experiences with mobile repair services over the years.)

So the next morning, we set out early and headed back to Ronnie's establishment. That was today. Ronnie pulled everything apart and inspected the transfer switch. Surprisingly, it was in great shape! That means the problem we were having was likely connected to the shore power at our previous campground in Arkansas. We had a similar issue on our first coach at an RV park in Washington state a couple years ago. Anyway, Ronnie checked out our surge protector while he was at it and finished up after about an hour. We love that guy! He is a gift from God and an answer to prayer.

Now we're ready to head north again. We will still make our appointment at Fog Doctor on Monday, even after the extra repair scare.

As always, safe travels--whether you're RVers on the road or just driving around your neighborhood.

And also we wish you all good health in these uncertain times.

God bless!

Pandemic 2020

Life is certainly different these days, isn't it? Welcome to the Pandemic.

Society is virtually shut down. Human interaction is reduced to waving at people from six feet away, calling and texting, and--most importantly--inundating social media with our endless wisdom concerning things we know very little about. We call it "sharing."

Mark and I are currently parked in Valdosta, Georgia. We are decidedly disappointed that we were unable to visit the Disney World parks we were so looking forward to. It is a reminder that, as the Good Book says, "We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps." (Proverbs 16:9)
It is also a reminder of how quickly life can go from normal to difficult, and how little control we have over it. Fortunately, our tickets will still be honored the next time we make it back to Florida.

Before we left Florida, we had a new roof put on by Elite RV in Palmetto. They did a beautiful job. We decided to put on a FlexArmor roof rather than the standard original roofing. It has a life-time guarantee and at least twenty years before we have to worry about maintaining the top coat. We'll probably be dead by then--or at least the RV will be. Either way, we are looking at a maintenance free roof for all intents and purposes. One less thing to worry about. Our insurance company paid out almost the entire cost of it-- all to repair a small little hole from an unyielding pine tree branch back in the fall of last year.

While our RV was being serviced, we took advantage of a Thousand Trails gift stay in a cabin at the Orlando RV Park in Clermont. The cabin was quite cozy, except for one thing-- the mattress on the bed was wrapped in heavy plastic! I get it, I suppose. Nobody wants to sleep on a soiled mattress. But if you've ever tried to sleep on plastic, I need say no more. I ended up stripping the bed and putting down a spare blanket between the mattress and the sheet, which made it somewhat more comfortable. The next day, Mark and I made a trip to Walmart and purchased an "egg-carton" pad and a padded mattress cover to put over it. Word of warning to anyone considering renting a Thousand Trails cabin-- ask for one with central air, and take a mattress cover with you. Otherwise they are quite well-stocked with towels, pillows (though not very cushy), dishes and cookware.

A walk down to the lake at Orlando RV Park

Taking in the calm

As with many other states around the country, Georgia has declared a "Stay-at-home" rule beginning tomorrow. So we'll be staying home, of course. The stay-at-home order is for ten days. We're still mulling over whether or not to break the rule and continue to visit the kids & grandkids, at least on occasion. It's a risk, but the plain truth is, life itself is a risk. Everything we do must be weighed against the potential harm of doing it.

As much as possible, we'll be following our plans going forward unless something out of our control derails them.

Our prayers go out to all our friends and family for God's providencial care over you all, especially those who are faced with a reduced income or none at all because of a mandatory shutdowns-- and those who may still be stuck outside of the country. As someone shared recently, "eventually the clouds run out of rain."

Until the storm passes over...

Stay well!