2009 Celebrated

One huge lesson I have learned about blogging is: if one is going to blog, one doesn't need to go somewhere, have a great time, come back, work for a week and then try to recapture the wonder vacation after Christmas and during New Years...But I shall try.

Well, 6 nights were spent at Stone Mountain Ga CG. First, my ds and dgd and I spent 12/26-1/2 at the cg and the park. It was sooooo much fun. On 12/31 they opened Snow Mtn which was a lot of snow and you could slide down in inner tubes and build snow men/women and throw snow balls. My what a fun time and what a wet time.

Here's my report from the cg. Check in was a breeze and staff was very friendly. Nice parking while checking in. The first site we were in was site 360. It was not level and the water pressure was not very good. Entering the sites the roads were in bad shape. You could tell tree roots had grown into/under the asphalt making very large "natural speed bumps" which are not friendly to RVs. The sites were part paved/part gravel. There was not a level place to put the picnic table unless it was right up next to the MH. Not a user friendly place. We stayed here 4 nights.

Last two nights were spent in site 330 which was terrific. Great view of the lake and of Stone Mountain. Very level and good water pressure. Concrete picnic table and good fire pit. The reason we had to move was I decided later to stay during the New Year and our spot was reserved and 330 was the only place left. They would not let the other people take 330 and us stay at 360 and as it turned out, it worked out better for us. Here are some views from the inside looking out onto the lake and Stone Mountain from Site 330. Cost was $38 per night for full hook-ups. I got the package which included 2 nights, 4 bundles of wood, smores pack for 4 and admission to the park on line for $110. I got two of those packages for four nights and then got two nights at $38 plus tax. Garbage pick up daily and the bath houses were very clean and well maintained. I would return to this park again.

Now for the fun part. Daily we either went into the park or went into town. The park was fun as the pictures will show, there was a parade, much like Disney World, but a much smaller scale. They had a Snow Angel and the park had a train and even had the Polar Express 4D. What is 4D you may ask? You get all the 3D action with glasses and all and when they have snow, it actually snows. When they pour hot chocolate, you actually smell the hot chocolate; and when they slide across the frozen lake, you get sprayed with water. For someone not knowing what to expect, it was just awesome! What a treat! Taylor and I had to go again, Jonathan was not impressed enough to do it again. Oh, guess it's a guy thing! It was just so much fun to be with my family and be able to enjoy all the things Stone Mountain had to offer. At night they had a laser show on the side of the mountain. With my new Olympus camera, I tried to capture a movie, hope this comes through. This had to be one of the best holidays ever!
It's about 2 minutes

but fun to watch and listen to.

Back at Somewhere we would have a terrific fire and induldge in those wonderful chocolaty treats of smores!

Around the campfire, we exchanged stories and Taylor asked us triva questions by candlelight. These trivia questions were given to us a presents for the road by Becky and we made good use of them while driving and around the campfire. Guess it's part of keeping the brain young! Was that what you had in mind, Becky?

Taylor fell in love with my hammock and I fell in love with her Wii. OMG, how much fun we (I) had. I bowled, played tennis and golf and the next morning almost couldn't get out of bed. Oh and that last picture above, well, that's me celebrating a little too much. Must have gotten a strike in bowling. LOL

Sedona loved having so much attention. She got played with and walked and just naturally spoiled. LOL

One night, Taylor cooked supper for us. I had told her to pick a night and a menu and she could serve us dinner. Well she did and man was it good. Spaghetti, bread and sugar cookies, um, um good. It was her first time cooking with gas and she did a terrific job. My goodness how they grow up so fast.

Snow Mountain Pictures:

Here we are on our way up the mountain. Thank goodness they had a sidewalk that moved us and we didn't have to walk up!

Taylor is getting ready to go down. I'm in the track next to her and just had to get her photo!

Jonathan is going to be the next to go. As a matter of fact we ended up going down about the same time. All you could do was hold on for dear life. It was sure fun.

Here is the shot while waiting in line to do this "thing."

Have I told you how much I love my little house on wheels, Somewhere, and how I really didn't want to come back to Nashville? I just wanted to keep driving south. When it was time to leave, it was time to winterize again since I had access to water, dump and all that I needed. Went smooth and it was good Jonathan was there to help out. Driving in and around Atlanta in Somewhere went well! It was a lot smoothier than I had anticipated. Gee I must be getting pretty good at this driving. Made it back to Nashville in about 5.5 hours including stopping for about an hour at the Flying J in Resca, GA. Came by the house to unload and then headed up to Clarksville to her parking place. I had a couple of days to recover from the trip and to reflect on 2009. What's to come????

This had to be the one of the best holidays I have had, ever!

Later...

Christmas week

Where has the year gone? I cannot believe it's almost Christmas. I am headed out to East TN tomorrow as long as the weather holds. The weather man said it was supposed to be icy rain in the a.m. and will warm as the day wears on. I may not get out as early as I had hoped but I want to get settled at Deborah's before dark.

I got a new phone from Verizon. It's a basic no frills phone and hopefully it will hold a charge longer than my other. While I was at Verizon I bit the bullet and got the Internet service. So far so good. This trip will be the test. In Nashville I get a strong signal. If I get a strong signal in more rural areas I know I have made a good decision.

I have also contacted Tennessee Consolidated Retirement for my information regarding how much retirement I get, what the taxes will be and the cost of my insurance. Getting all the facts and figures to really start planning. At least this way I can have exact figures with which to work. I plan on putting my condo on the market in Jan or Feb. It really depends on when I can get it cleaned up and staged properly. That's the thing I hate about putting it on the market, keeping it picked up.

Oh, a great site I found and probably everyone knows about this already but me. Anyway, Skype is a free site to download and you can talk for free to anyone else who has Skype. If you have a webcam you can talk to whomever you want. You just locate them, put them in your contacts, if they accept, you are in! It is so cool. I think it will be extremely useful when I get on the road. I tried it with my nephew the other night and we talked for about 26 minutes. The picture is good and the audio is pretty close to the video.

Guess you will next hear from me from Stone Mountain, GA. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Don't forget that Jesus is the reason for the season.

Later...

It's been ONE year!

As of today, it was one year ago today that I became the proud owner of my 35' Itasca Sunrise, Somewhere. I'll admit that I haven't taken her out like I had originally planned and I blame that one on the high gas prices and the new computer roll-out at work that caused me to travel more with work.

I am so happy that I made the decision to go ahead and get her when I did. It has, however, made me want to retire so much earlier. But you know, in a few days, it's gonna be 2009 and it will only be about 6 months. That is if finances improve. Hey, the way I look at it. I have a very good paying job. It may be that I just start taking some longer vacations in Somewhere and come back and add to my coffers. That's the good thing about my plans being in Jello, they can constantly change, move and groove. I can go with the flow and not feel at all bad about it. If I hated my job, that would be different!

I have learned quite a bit about my Itasca. I have had experiences each time I have gone out in her that has added to my knowledge of what to do, mostly what not to do. LOL I have kept my sense of humor through it all and know that I was beginning on a zero basis and only had to go up to improve. I believe I'm doing quite well.

Would I do it again? You betcha! I think of the time when Jonathan was young. Why didn't I do it then? The fun we could have had and the places we could have gone. Oh well, that's looking back and I'm all about going forward! Jonathan can enjoy it with me now and probably be able to appreciate it more. Plus I'm got my dgd, Taylor and I know she will have fun.

Am I concerned about the future? Sure, just like everyone else. Things will work out how they are intended. My dearly departed Mother, Martha, always told me to not worry about things I have no control over. I have tried to listen to those great words of advice and I think I'm pretty good about not worrying. Things probably won't work on my timeline, but they will work. Remember I'm moving forward.

Oh, I've got some great plans around the holidays. We will be going to Stone Mountain, Ga and enjoy their Christmas in the park and then Snow Mountain. Somewhere will be our home and we can play all day and all night if we want. It will be fun to spend New Year's eve and New Years with family at the park.

It has been fun planning this trip. I want to cook and save a little on eating out so what's the menu for three for seven days. My goodness, this will be most groceries I have packed for Somewhere. I asked my dgd, Taylor, to take one day and plan the menu and cook for us. She seemed thrilled. See I don't get to be around her much and I like to include what she is "into" when we are together. She is growing up so fast.

But I digress from the planning. See I have to take decorations to dress Somewhere up for the holidays. Presents, of course. Food, but I've mentioned that already. Clothes, OMG, I've got to have clothes to play in the snow, bulky coats & stuff for staying warm. I'm so excited. It will be fun.

Today is my third day of not smoking. See I quit for about 6 years is 2002. 18 mos or so ago I started dabbling in it, fooling myself that if I just have one here, or there or while sitting at the one armed bandit that I could just put them down when I got home. Then came Edison, oh boy, I really used that as an excuse. I just started smoking more and more. I didn't like and I know it is definitely not good for my health. Why quit now? See I'm gonna be spending 7-8 days with my dgd and I sure don't want to disappoint her and I don't want to miss anytime with her. You know, smokers now have to go outside everywhere. I would go outside of Somewhere and I'm afraid I'll miss something. So wish me luck, I need luck & prayers. Thanks in advance.

Had a great celebration last night. Chad, my financial advisor with Waddell Reed, invited some of his clients to the Nashville City Club for dinner and entertainment. Food was great. Senator Diane Black spoke to us. The real entertainment was a magician, Rodney. He interacted with the audience. I had met him before the dinner and we were cutting up. When it was his turn on stage, he called me up to "help" out on a few tricks. It was funny and fun. I think I helped warm up other participants to be willing to get up there. Nothing much better than getting the audience involved.

One other thing, I went to Verizon today and got a new phone. My other would only hold a charge for about 10 minutes and it was time for my 2-yr renewal. While there I bit the bullet, I went with Verizon Broadband. I'll let you know how it goes. I got the 5 GB plan and will try it for the first month, I may be able to get to a lesser plan. Updates will follow off and on.

That's about it for right now. As you can guess, things are pretty busy right now so don't know when I'll get to post again. If not before Christmas, I hope all of those of you who read this blog, have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. God Bless you all.

Later...