Men Are From Mars

I should have gotten a picture; we had a repairman out fixing a broken spring latch in our awning. It's a repair you don't want to do on your own due to the danger of the tightly wound spring, plus there are no RV parts places nearby. So the gentleman who works out of our campground got the part for us and stopped by with it today to install it and before long there was a crowd of men in front of our trailer. Just supervising, of course. Bored, curious, just wanting to help or wanting free advice from the repairman while he was "in the area" as it were, there were five or six guys there at any given time for the duration of the repair.

This gathering of men is a routine phenomenon in campgrounds; raise the hood of your truck and two or three guys will wander over, one of them offering a bigger, more powerful version of whatever tool or device you have in your hand. Climb a ladder and wax your rig and there's a discussion of oxidation removers, the best wax/polish or dry-washing system or chamois versus microfiber as polishing cloths. It's as if men need an excuse to congregate and chat, whereas women will just stop and be neighborly because you step outside for a moment. It tickles me every time I see it happen.

It takes so little to entertain me.

Not There

I see y'all were checking in yesterday; still looking for the Lazy Sunday posts? Yeah, that ain't happening. This year I took relatively few pictures since we really haven't traveled; we were in one place in Ohio for eight months dealing with my mother and afterwards her estate and that didn't make for shots of scenic vistas, believe me.

Lately we've been preoccupied with the old and the new trailers. En route to our current campground we had a tire blow on the interstate (fortunately we both heard the "pop" and stopped quickly before the tire self-destructed) and the gremlins have set in now that we have found a buyer for the old trailer. You know, little things have started to go wrong that we'll now have to fix before turning the trailer over to the new owner. Seven years of constant usage and thousands of miles of road travel will do that; things are bound to jiggle their way loose.

Therefore we're going to be busy ordering a new tire, fixing the glitches, finding campgrounds in Illinois and Indiana and Arkansas that will be open mid-winter for our trip up and back to Indiana (campgrounds close due to the fact that their water lines freeze up if not properly buried, insulated or drained) and digging through cupboards, closets and drawers seeing what we can get rid of before we have to transfer items out of one trailer and into another. Because carrying boxes and drawers full of "stuff" down three steps from one rig and up three steps to another for hours gets very wearing. This will be the fourth time we've switched belongings from one RV to another and it ain't fun. You think you lead a simple life with very few belongings other than the necessities, but it's pretty amazing how many necessities there are. Each transfer has taken us two days just to move everything from one rig to the next and that's just hauling the stuff out and in. That doesn't include having to put it all away in a new place, and then moving a lot of it again later because you rushed it to get out of the dealer's lot and back on the road and wherever you put it at the time is really not convenient or logical. Yeah, been there, done that.

All of which should explain the lack of scenic photographs and lyrical posts about the beauty of the area. At least for now.

Oops, I Did It Again

I said I wasn't going to plan our routes well in advance again. But it's hard not to in the wintertime when there's a ton of snowbirds out there vying for the same campsites that you are. So I plotted and planned and mapped and routed and made reservations and.....three days ago we ordered a new fifth wheel which will be ready December 17. In Elkhart, Indiana. And we'll be in Conroe, Texas, getting our driver's licenses changed over from Ohio (mine expires in December). Distance from Conroe to Elkhart, IN? 1150 miles, more or less. 8 days before Christmas. So much for spending Christmas in San Antonio visiting the River Walk. That ain't happening. As a matter of fact, Christmas may be spent inside a service facility moving things from one trailer to the other and testing all the pieces parts to make sure everything works as it is supposed to before heading back towards Texas. And crossing our fingers that the typical Midwest winters hold off until we can get out of Dodge.

I knew better.

While You Were Sleeping

In no particular order--dawn at Myrtle Beach on two different mornings.

The Party's Over

What a great looking group, eh? (That's a nod to our new Canadian friends in the group). Gary, Donna, John, Denny, me, Dee, Dan, Don and Vicki. We were apre' Happy Hour and pre-dinner at this point. John and Gary cooked ribs on the grill, Don grilled burgers, and we all brought side dishes. It was our last hurrah, as Denny and I, Don and Vick and Dee and Dan all left Myrtle Beach today. Denny and I headed towards Savannah, the other two couples were going to northern Georgia to sit facing a lake and continue the party.

We're talking about all meeting up same place, same time next year. Denny and I would still be in Seattle, Washington in early September and that's a long haul to get to MB by the first week of October. But oh, what a month it was here at the beach, even if it was a month of not really doing anything. And that makes that prospective cross country trek sound awfully tempting despite the miles.

Adios, Myrtle Beach.

A Day Brightener

I wish I had had the nerve to ask the lady if I could take her picture.

Denny and I were at the post office sending some items off which necessitated a rather involved transaction. Suddenly I heard this syrupy voice behind me teasing the postal employees at the counter and was intrigued, but too busy to look behind me.

As we left the post office, however, the owner of that thick Southern drawl was in front of us and what a vision she was; black gauzy skirt covered around the hips with a pink lacy shawl, black sparkly knit top, pink and black tooled leather boots and a pink straw cowgirl hat with a big, glittery pink flower on the hatband. Pink eyeshadow, catwoman eyeliner, full makeup, long dark hair pulled back; the complete package. I complimented her on her colorful outfit and she replied that she owned a dance studio for many years and was used to "costumes" so she continued to wear them to make people smile. Make me smile she did, and I thanked her for brightening my day. She said she knew if I saw her again, I'd remember her and I said yes indeed I would.

I wish I had a little of that courage or that joie de vivre myself.

There Are Places

Our Happy Hour group gathered for a Low Country Boil tonight; good friends, good food, good times. Talk turned to places we would live, maybe, if we were to settle down eventually. Where would it be?

There are town and places we like, places that are beautiful, places that have have good climate, places that are affordable. But as I was walking Patches after leaving our gathering, looking up at the stars here at Myrtle Beach, I realized there there are a few places where, once I arrive, I literally feel my heart expand. It is a physical feeling of my chest opening up, my heart enlarging, my soul becoming at peace. Three places come to mind where that feeling is strongest; Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Perdido Key/Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Gold Canyon, Arizona. Two places on the ocean, one at my beloved Superstition Mountains. We have not yet traveled to all 50 states so I may yet find more places that tug at my heart but these three come to mind as places where I can sit for weeks without feeling the urge to move on. Will there be more? Undoubtedly. Will we settle down? Not for a while.

What place tugs at your heart?

Moments at Myrtle Beach

Our time here at the beach has passed so quickly. We gather nightly to share drinks, food and stories with a group of six to nine people, sometimes around the campfire, sometimes at a restaurant, sometimes at a bar. We come from different backgrounds, different occupations, different countries, but it doesn't matter. We're on the beach, we travel in RVs, and we're friends. It doesn't get any better than that.

An Update

SkippyMom mentioned she needed an update on the Happy Hour menu for tonight. Tonight a group of 8 of us will be going to the Liberty Steakhouse to partake of their BOGOF offer on entrees. So I'm not sure what the drink of the day will be until we see their menu.

In the meantime, over the past two weeks we've had: Calypso Margaritas, Blue Moon Margaritas, Blue Chouters, frozen margaritas, Mojitos, Amaretto Sours, Jellyfish Shooters, Cabernet Savignon, Bourbon and 7, beer (for the guys)Drunken Arnies, Palisades, Tequila Sunrises, Beachy Keens and Cosmopolitans. I'm sure Vicki will remind me of any I have missed; we've repeated the Amaretto Sours a couple of times. I have to come up with a new one for tomorrow since another couple will be arriving tonight to join the crowd. Plus a new hors d'oeuvres to go with it.

Hmmmm. I think perhaps some Honolulu Hammers might hit the spot.

I Don't Normally Do These

These survey/questionnaire thingies, that is. But because I'm sitting here with a cat on my lap and can't get up to refresh my cup of coffee, here goes.

1. Where is your cell phone? Umm, in my purse? I need a tether for it.
2. Your hair? Bedhead spiky at the moment.
3. Your mother? Lost her this spring, carry her in my heart.
4. Your father? Deceased
5. Your favorite food? In which food group category? There are so many!
6. Your dream last night? No clue.
7. Your favorite drink? Whatever is up for our Happy Hour group for that night.
8. Your goal? No regrets.
9. What room are you in? Office/living room/dining room/kitchen. It's an RV, remember?
10. Your hobby? Making jewelry.
11. Your fear? Falling.
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Still on the road, healthy and having fun.
13. Where were you last night? Scatori's for subs (aka heros or hoagies, depending on where you are from)
14. Something you aren't? A math wiz
15. Muffins? Pistachio from Lowe's Foods
16. Wish list item? To go back to Hawaii some day.
17. Where did you grow up? Ohio
18. Last thing you did? Watched the sun rise.
19. What are you wearing? A fuzzy bathrobe.
20. Your TV? Off.
21. Your pets? The evil Miss Patches Mae.
22. Your friends? Close by.
23. Your life? Pretty darn good at the moment.
24. Your mood? Laid back.
25. Missing someone? Oh yeah.
26. Vehicle? One
27. Something you're not wearing? Makeup.
28. Your favorite store? Any place with diamonds.
29. Your favorite color? Depends on my mood.
30. When was the last time you laughed? Last night.
31. Last time you cried? Hard? In March. Watery-eyed? At least every other day.
32. Your best friend? Big D.
33. One place that I go over and over? Myrtle Beach.
34. One person who emails me regularly? Vic.
35. Favorite place to eat? Santino's Pizzeria, Clermont, FL

And that is that.