Gayle, our neighbor here in Columbus RV Park, is a long haul trucker. He parks his semi in the field behind the park. Well, today he is pulling out for a run, and I ask him where he's headed.....Stow, OH. That's about 20 miles from our former home. Small world.
Just hung out at the MH and watched football tonight. See if I can stay awake until midnight. Does the NYC ball drop at 11:00 in the Central Time Zone....hmmmm?
Friday, January 1 – HAPPY NEW YEAR! Re-carpeted the steps today. The rough part was getting the old carpet off. I guess I used real good double faced tape the first time. It's one of those cases of when you want it to stick, it doesn't, and when you want it to come off, it sticks like crazy.....humph! Looks really nice! (I’ll put a picture up after I get the film developed. Marsha took the digital camera to Ohio.) I learned how to do the bottom steps using grommets.....thanks Gary!
Rest of the day was FOOTBALL WATCHING! Good games too! YEA OHIO STATE!
Now it is Marsha’s turn…..I had a great visit with my dad. After Rick, my brother, and Chris picked me up at the airport, 11:30 p.m., we all sat at dad’s talking until 12:30 a.m., but that wasn’t enough for my dad and I. We stayed up, drank some until 3:00 a.m. Of course each day of my visit it snowed. Canton is really getting hit by lots of snow and cold days.
Looking out my dads front door. You can see it snowing…AGAIN!
The next day was NYE. Paul and I have had the celebration party at our house for the last umpteen years. Since we are on the road now, Rick and Chris hosted the celebration. We had an awesome time. Tons of food, of course the traditional pork and sauerkraut at midnight, plenty of jello shots (We do them every half hour.), gag gift exchange, and wonderful laughter. The group was smaller, than past years but that didn’t put a damper on the fun. My dad looked like Papa Smurf, but on Sunday, January 3, he said “Enough is Enough!” and he shaved it all off.
Dad and I
My brother Rick is always goofing around. He didn’t think I caught him embracing…I think that is what this is….his wife, Chris.
My brother Rod doesn’t like having his pictures taken. So, when he was showing his better side, I snapped, then all of sudden he turned around and posed with his wife, Katie. Good thing he did, I got quiet a glare from his bald spot when the flash went off…..LOL…sorry Rod I couldn’t resist.
It is a tradition that each year, we four Divas take a group pictures. Chris, Sharon, Sally and I have taken a New Year’s Eve picture together for so many years. I can’t remember when we weren’t together. When I use the word divas, I use it very loosely. I get together with different groups of divas…Jackson High School, Stark State College, my Greek divas, Italian divas, etc.
Chris, my sister-in-law, Sharon, Sally and me
I hope you will enjoy some more pictures here. Hope you all had as great a time as we did. I understand Paul could only make it until 10:30….now that’s no way to ring in the New Year!
The rest of the visit went too fast. After church on Sunday I went to visit my dear friend, Sharon Patterson, who made a delicious brunch on Sunday. Thanks for all the calories, Sharon!
On Monday, the St. Stephen Martyr Lutheran Church divas got together for lunch. Our lunch lasted for over two hours. We had a ton to catch up on and so much laughter! Thanks gals for another wonderful afternoon.
Below is a picture from our lunch. From left to right….Patti, our church Administrator….and a great one she is!!! Thanks for all your hard work, Patti.
Me….what more needs to be said.
Lynne, a dear friend from my high school teaching years at Jackson. We also worked in the church office together. She was our Ministry Connections coordinator. Thanks for all the great times in the office and your dedication, Lynne.
Ann, we taught together at Jackson Middle School. Ann is our all-around guru at church. I think she knows all 6,000+ members by name, and who is related to who…LOL She takes care of our database and just about anything else that is needed to help Patti and our church run smoothly. Thanks, Ann, for sharing all your time.
Sunday, January 3 – Pack-up and head to El Campo. Arrived with no problems. Set up and chilled out (no pun intended) the rest of the evening. The problem with living off only batteries is HEAT. Got to figure out how to keep warm???
Monday, January 4 – It was pretty cold this morning. I started the generator to run the heat! About 7:30 am a service representative came out to hook the computer to the diagnostic port on the CAT engine. He had trouble finding the connection, but eventually found it in the rear engine compartment. Unfortunately, even with the help of two additional technicians, he was unable to get it to boot up his computer. So discouraged, I packed up and came back to the Columbus RV Park. After discussing the situation on the Tiffin motor home web page, I found out the correct diagnostic port is under the dash board, not in the rear engine compartment......Jeesh!
I washed the clothes and went out and tried to get the Jeep oil changed. Boy, is that expensive here. The cheapest I could find was $49. We'll wait!
Watched some more football....TCU vs Boise. Two undefeated teams. Should be a good game.
Tuesday, January 5 – Lots to do today before picking up Marsha at 9:45 tonight at the Houston Airport.
Last night was the coldest (29*) night since we began full-timing. Bella and I snuggled up under the blankets and kept warm. Left the water running slowly to keep hose from freezing and turned the rear furnace on low to keep the holding tanks from freezing. Warmed up nicely by mid-morning with bright sunny skies!
Did all my house work...place is ready for Marsha's return.
Used my Sears compressor for the first time today.....WOW! Not many small and light weight compressors can fill a motor home tire to 100# pressure as quickly as it did. It will inflate a tire to 150#. It was recommended by fellow full-timer Howard Payne in his blog. I am very happy with it.
Bad weather news! Marsha's 5:30 p.m. flight out of Akron-Canton Airport is still on the ground at 8:30. Heavy snow in Detroit closed down the airport until they could plow the runaways clear. They de-planed once but then re-boarded and waited again on the run way for 40 more minutes. The captain had opened the bar “on him” so at least she won't get thirsty....ha ha! They finally took off. She landed 3 hours after her connection was to leave for Houston. When she got off the plane at 9:47 to her surprise, she found out that her connection flight was boarding and leaving the gate in 3 minutes. She said she ran like the wind…..I think that is an bit of an overstatement but anyway…..and reached the gate just as they were boarding. Her concern was if her luggage would make the flight. After she arrived at IAH at 12:30 a.m., we went to luggage claim and guess what…..the luggage made it. Thanks Delta baggage people, you made our life a lot easier. We didn’t want to have to drive another one and one-half hours (1 way) back tomorrow to pick it up. Marsha said even though it took a lot longer than planned, the Delta people were all very nice and so patience with some of the “not so happy passengers.”
Well, thanks again for keeping up with our travels. Hope y’all come back.
