Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Branson, our next WorkCamping Gig

Branson, our next WorkCamping Gig


As I said in our last post, we thought four months in Sarasota would drag on but it went so fast! The last few days there were filled with goodbyes and packing. One of the biggest challenges for borderline hoarders is parting with stuff and even though we did a masterful job of getting rid of stuff, it takes diligence to keep from collecting more but inevitably we still end up with more. Regrettably there are two BIG issues with collecting more stuff...space and weight. So as we begin preparing for the travel north I try to find space for the treasurers we've accumulated over the four months in Sarasota. None the less, we got everything in the rig, well we did have to part with a few things and store a few in Mary's attic. So we're ready to go, and pull out on schedule for our trip north to new adventures.

Brief Stop in Georgia...

We scheduled a stopover in Georgia for RV warranty and service work and some time with friends
and family. RV dealers are not the fastest, getting into them for service work is horrible, it typically takes several weeks to schedule service work and I had scheduled this visit back in December, confirmed in January, again in February and yet again in March as I wanted to make sure we had no problems. We pulled out of Sarasota on Sunday, March 30th so we could have the rig into the dealer early Monday morning for it's annual inspection/service, we wanted to give them a full week to get the needed work done. The trip north was uneventful, we drove 400 miles [a long driving day in an RV] and stopped for the night south of Macon so we would have a short drive on Monday morning to the dealer. After dropping off the coach we headed to Steve & Nancy's in Athens for a wonderful week, they are such gracious hosts and wonderful friends!! During the week we spent time with Erin, Kevin and lots of time with Eli. We visited Dahlonega, saw friends and visited with our small group at Athens Church.

Journey to Branson...

On Monday, April 7th we said our goodbyes to Steve & Nancy and headed to Southern RV to pick up our Redwood for our journey of about 700 miles to Branson for our next workcamping job. As has become the norm, getting everything done while at RV dealers for service is impossible. One of the problems, though more an inconvenience than a problem, there is a place in the floor that pops when you step on it. To fix the problem they have to pull up at least one of the floor tiles and as they told me it would destroy the tile so they would need a replacement tile, well the tiles weren't there, even though I had told them of the issue and even sent info and pictures on the tile, they said they didn't receive them form the manufacturer. None the less everything else was taken care of and we simply didn't have time to wait any longer so we arranged for them to send the tiles to us when they arrived. We hooked up and headed west for our journey to Branson.

All seemed well for about 100 miles until our Tire Monitoring System started screaming and I noticed that one of the tires on the RV had lost pressure, wasn't flat, just had lower pressure so I stopped to check things out. I didn't see any physical signs of trouble so decided to continue on and kept an eye on the monitor to make sure it wasn't getting worse. Well it continued to lose pressure but it was a very slow leak. When I stopped for fuel I refilled the tire and continued on to our stop for the night. When we arrived at the campground we had targeted, the pressure was low again so I refilled the tire. I thought about trying to get it looked at in the morning but decided to just wait till we got to Branson.

We stopped in Tupelo MS, about a 300 mile drive, right off the Natchez Trace Pkwy. After setting up for the night we drove into Tupelo for dinner and then drove around a bit, knowing this was where Elvis was born we decided to look for his house, wasn't hard to find as it's now a Historic Museum and there are street markers giving directions. It was sunset, the place was closed but we stopped and walked around, the house is right across the street from a church. The house is tiny, can't be more than 20 feet wide and 30 feet deep. After exploring the place we headed back to the RV for a quiet evening.

Branson...

The next day I checked the tire, pressure was still good so we continued our trip, about 400 miles and got to Branson in the late afternoon. The tire continued to lose air, very slowly and we topped it off when we stopped for fuel.

After our introductions with the staff on duty we were escorted to our site and set up.  We had indicated that we wanted a site with no trees so we could get our satellite TV to work without obstruction so we were assigned a site with no trees. The way this park is laid out they place the hookups [water, electric, sewer] between two sited and the RV's park with the fronts opposing, the RV next to us was less than 10 feet away so we could walk out our door and down our steps, take one step and walk up the streps to the RV next to us. We ere here for four months so this was not going to work...so the negotiations began. We started looking for other sites in the park that would still allow us a clear sky for satellite but would give us some space, allow us to put our our awnings, etc. We found a couple of sites and then started researching the availability of these sites. The one we focused on had a few campers booked into it but the renters had not requested the site so we figured where we could move them to to open the spot for us. Then we went to the manager and presented our proposal, she wasn't happy but didn't have an argument because we had done all the work for her...given the ok we moved to the site. Far from ideal, it was still better than where we were and the TV worked! We were set...at least for the moment. More later...

Branson is an interesting place. A small town on the shore of Lake Taneycomo, really the White River but dammed on both ends and a series of lakes, it is a show town. There are over thirty theaters here, over 100 different shows to choose from. There are at least 10-15 amusement parks, mini-golf, go carts, rides and then there is Silver Dollar City, much like Dollywood or Six Flags, they have an abundance of roller coasters, rides and shows.

Branson Lakeside RV Park is a city owned campground on the shore of Lake Taneycomo. The park is nice, has about 150 sites with full hookups but has no amenities other than cable TV and WiFi. Most of the campers are here to fish or go to shows or both. Many come here annually, a quirky bunch, several want the same spot every year even though you can't reserve specific spots. The staff does try to put folks where they want to be but no guarantees. Still there are some who get upset if they don't get the spot they request. Many of the sites are very close together and orientated so that the doors of the rigs are door-to door. The campground is managed by a very friendly couple, Jim & Sherrell who have been there for 8 years, there are two assistant manager couples, Denise & Carl and Larry & Ruthie and a number of workcampers. The women work in the office, the men work outside assisting with parking rigs and light maintenance. The number of workcampers on staff varies depending on the season with summer being the busiest. We got to Branson in the transition period, the winter workers were finishing up while we summer workers were training.

As mentioned before, the site we moved to was better than the first but was by no means ideal. When the winter workers left we scored a much better site, in my opinion one of the best in the park, satellite reception, lots of space, partially shaded!!! Herw we were able to put out the awnings, our outdoor mat, the outdoor chairs and the BBQ grill.

We met some wonderful people in Branson, mostly workcampers, some campers. We worked with several couples from all over the country: Joe & Gloria who are full timers from Colorado, Roger & Gail, full timers from Pennsylvania; Lloyd & Patty who are still in their home in Florida; Ron & D'Les who are still in a house in Texas [they are selling their home and plan to fulltime]; Fred & Kathleen, full timers from Illinois, John & Jo who split their time between RV and a boat in the Florida Keys, George & Ruby, full timers from North Carolina; Doug & Sue, full timers from California; Jerry & Debbie, full timers from Michigan and Dudley & Sherrie who are full timers from Texas . All wonderful people who we throughly enjoyed spending time with. Gloria & Joe, Roger & Gail, Lloyd & Patti, Carl & Denise, John & Jo as well as Ruth & I all spend the winter in Florida so we will try to arrange a get together next winter.

Because the park is owned by the city the workers are considered "residents" and are afforded both local resident and hospitality worker privileges. This means we got to go to most shown in town at no cost, the rest at greatly reduce cost. Restaurants that discount meals substantially!! Ruth and I had a ball and went to over 60 shows during our time there.

While in Branson we ventured out in the area and visited many interesting places, College of the Ozarks [Hard Work U] where students work for their tuition. A small Christian college of approximately 1,600 students, each student works 16 hours per week in a variety of jobs to pay their tuition. They can also work the summer, 40 hours per week, to pay for their room & board during the school year. A student here can get a college education for no cost...amazing!!  
Top of the Rock, a golf and dining facility with a Heritage Museum is on a ridge overlooking Table Rock Lake. We're not golfers but were told to visit this place...the architecture and views are stunning!!! 
We ventured down to Eureka Springs AR to see the Great Passion Playthe place to relive The Greatest Story Ever Told! This outdoor theatre has a set of Jerusalem of Christ's time and they relive the final week in Christ's life.
From there we journeyed down to Bentonville to visit the WalMart and Crystal Bridges museums. 

Branson is the most patriotic and Faith Based towns that we have ever visited. Every show we attended took the opportunity to recognize Veterans, most made a very elaborate ceremony, some recognizing the vets from each branch of the military individually. Christian faith is celebrated very openly, many of the shows devoting a segment to faith based music.

We found a wonderful church in Branson, Woodland Hills Family Church who have a wonderful praise band and the pastor, Ted Cunningham, delivered very powerful messages each week. His message is very much like Andy Stanley's who he proclaims as one of his mentors. It was with great sadness that we left Woodland Hills who truly lived up to being a Family church.

We were blessed during the last couple of weeks in Branson by a visit from Eli. Erin and Kevin sent him off from Athens with her dad, David and Tim who met us half way in Memphis where we took over the trip back to Branson. We had a ball, his mission was to play every mini-golf course in Branson, though we didn't get to them all we did get to over 10 of them. In addition we took him to a couple of shows theme parks, Silver Dollar City and countless hours of video games. 
Larry & Ruthie had their grandson, Clint, visiting while Eli was with us, the boys hit it off and were inseparable.   It worked out well, when we were working Eli would stay with Clint and when Larry & Ruthie worked we would watch Clint. 


The end of July came quickly, Eli was having a ball, Ruth and I were exhausted but loving the time with him but we had to start weening him from the constant activity. Though he was not happy about not being able to go, go, go he did settle down and was a big help in getting packed and ready to go. He was also getting anxious to see mom and dad so leaving was a little easier knowing mom would be at the end of the long drive to Chicago to pick him up and take him back to Georgia. As our time in Branson came to an end we said our goodbyes to all our new friends and hit the road heading north.


Next up... The 2014 Big Summer Adventure






Sunday, October 5, 2014

Sarasota Florida, warm and sunny weather...


On our last post we had finished our first SOWER project at Toccoa Falls College and had moved to Fort Yargo State Park in Winder GA for the week of Thanksgiving 2013. The weather was exceptionally cold during our final week in Georgia so we were anxious to head south to warm, sunny Florida... for four months!!!

We visited Sarasota in December/January 2012 just after ordering our RV and while there we visited almost every campground in the area looking for a place to stay this winter. RV campgrounds south of Tampa on the west coast fill up very quickly and it is very difficult to find a place for long term rental unless you reserve it a year in advance so we did, we put a deposit on a campsite before we left Florida to return to Athens the year before.

The trip south was uneventful, we traveled to Ocala FL the first day. We have good friends, Tim & Barb Connor who live outside Ocala with two of their three their boys,  Jonathan and Timmy [their oldest is married and doesn't live at home]. After setting up the coach for the night we went to visit them and had a wonderful visit. The next day, Sunday December 1st, we met the Connor's at their church with home in tow and after the service got a chance to see Timmy's Eagle project, an amazing log building they constructed that is used as the youth center for the church. It is the most impressive Eagle project I have ever seen, or know of and I have seen many!! To get an idea of the magnitude of this project click here

After saying our goodbyes we finished our trip south to Sarasota, actually Nokomis which is between Sarasota and Venice, to Royal Coachman RV Resort. Royal Coachman is a very nice campground with over 800 sites, more than half of which are park models [semi permanent RV like units]. The property was a pine tree farm back in the day so much of the property is still shaded by pines, other parts of the park shaded by big oaks. Our site was covered by both, very shady but impossible to get satellite TV.

This park is HUGE and they have more activities than anyone could ever try to do, tennis, horseshoes, aerobics, dinners, cards, bingo, etc... There is something going on pretty much all waking hours if you want to participate. The pool was heated, sometimes too warm but was very nice and large.

The people here were wonderful but most winter here every year and have their own little groups so it was difficult to socialize with them, after a few attempts we just gave up. This was not a problem though because we have family and friends in Sarasota so we spend much of our time outside the park. There is so much to do in the area, Ruth and I had no problems staying busy.

Southwest Florida is loaded with fresh water rivers emptying into the Gulf and the kayaking is wonderful. Ruth's aunt, Mary McClendon, is an avid kayaker and she graciously offered to let us tag along with the group she paddles with. Mary has two kayaks, I bought one for myself and Ruth used Mary's second boat. Mary's group paddles almost every Monday so we joined them on many occasions. We experienced some beautiful rivers and also paddled the bays between the mainland and barrier islands of the Gulf...what spectacular sights. Birds, gators, beavers grasses, mangroves, beaches, plenty of warm sunshine and friends... all in all a great time!!

Christmas in Florida

I grew up in Miami, spent much of my life in South Florida and I remember Christmas differently than the norm for many of snow, cold, sleighs, warm clothes and hot chocolate. Christmas in Miami was shorts, flip-flops, palm trees and warm weather. As a kid I was always longing for what the rest of the country was experiencing and one of the biggest motivators for my moving to Georgia was to experience the seasons...and to celebrate the Christmas season with cold weather, snow [rarely], warm clothes, etc. Well...now I'm over it, I'll take the sun and flip-flops anytime!!!

For the past two years we have spent Christmas in South Florida, 2011 in Ft. Myers and 2012 in Sarasota. Ruth planned Christmas 2013 in an amazing house right on the Siesta Key beach, a short walk out the door and you're on the beach. Erin, Kevin & Eli traveled down with David & Tim to join us for a week on the beach where we spent Christmas. It was fun for me to spend Christmas on the beach and for a very nice change it was warm, too cold for Ruth or I to swim but not Eli, Kevin and Tim [crazy boys]! Unfortunately 
Lydia and Dean could not join us, they were both working and couldn't get time off but we did get to see them in January, even if only for a couple of days.


Christmas dinner was a great time and we shared the celebration with family and friends. We all got to spend as much time on the beach as we wanted and when tired or in need of refreshments we could scoot back to the house so easily.
Eli had a ball and as usual it was almost impossible to keep him off the beach. He also got to know what we in South Florida try to avoid...those awful sand-spurs or stickers. Anyone who has spent time down here knows what these nasty little things are...I think I still have some embedded under my skin from when I was a kid!! 
Our family time together came to an end way too soon, a week can fly by so quickly when enjoying time with loved ones but before we knew it the week was over and it was time to say goodbye and everyone left to rerurn to the freezing climate of Georgia... well not everyone, Ruth and I returned to our RV for a rest before heading to Chicago for a New Years Eve wedding.

Did you say Chicago...in the winter???

Ruth and I met through Joe & Lisa Hanrahan, Ruth lived in the same neighborhood as Joe & Lisa and played tennis with them. I knew Joe through the Boy Scouts, his son Brendan as one of the Scouts in the Troop I was the Scoutmaster of, Joe was one of my Assistants. Joe suggested to me that I would hit it off with Ruth...well the rest you know.
Brendan met Tamara in DC where he was going to school for his Masters and PhD. Tamara is from Chicago and when they decided to marry they brilliantly decided to marry on New Years Eve...in Chicago!!!
When Ruth and I were going through all of our clothing before moving to the RV we thought we would never need winter clothing, at least not the kind you would need for COLD weather so we got rid of it all. After learning that the wedding would be in Chicago, in the winter, we knew we were in trouble...nothing to keep us warm so we hit the thrift stores in Sarasota [you can find anything in the thrift stores in SW Florida], problem solved and rather inexpensively. 
So we're off to Chicago for the wedding, we arrive to snow, lots of snow, cold, really cold!!! We figure we'll take advantage of being in Chicago and make plans to spend some time with another one of Ruth's cousins, Karen and her husband George who live in Oak Brook, one of the Chicago suburbs. 
Thanks to Spirit Airlines we arrive late for the rehearsal party but arrive in time for evening libations at the hotel on the 30th. The next day we head out of the hotel for breakfast in downtown Chicago, it is freezing, literally but we're here and we'll make the most of it so after a wonderful breakfast we decide to take a walk down by the lake which is frozen! 
After our lakeside adventure we head back to the hotel to thaw and get ready for the wedding. After dressing for the wedding we head down to the lobby where we meet several of our Lilburn friends and load up on the bus to travel to the church for the ceremony. Wow, it's really snowing now, earlier while we were frolicking by the lake their were light flurries, now its snowing hard. We get to the church, wow again, this place is beautiful, an old Chicago Polish Catholic church, very ornate. The wedding, a full mass in both english and polish was quite nice, and long, but the ceremony was beautiful, as were the wedding party. Now back to the bus, the snow in the parking lot is now over our ankles, we load up for the ride back to the hotel and a quick break before boarding the bus again to go to the reception at the Chicago History Museum. This was quite the affair and we welcomed in the New Year before catching a bus back to the hotel. While riding back we saw fireworks over Navy Pier bringing in the New Year...nice touch!

The next morning Karen and George pick us up at the hotel and we head out of the city to the burbs.
It's snowing again, probably over a foot of snow since we've arrived but the roads are in good shape and the trip to their home is uneventful. Karen and George have a  beautiful home and are such gracious hosts, they make us so comfortable and fed us like royalty! We're here till the 6th so we talk about things to do if it quits snowing and took a quick walk around the block while near freezing. Two things happen...it doesn't stop snowing and Ruth gets the flu and spends almost the entire time in bed. Both George and Karen do their best to entertain me while I keep checking on Ruth who is sleeping day and night. It's still snowing, George tells me he usually has his driveway cleared once or twice a week, while we're there it's done every day and it's still building up. On the day before we're scheduled to head home Ruth emerges from the crud, she is out of bed for the first time in 3 days, weak and weary but alive. On the day we are to leave the snow lets up, it's -17ยบ on the way to the airport but not snowing. We're at the airport in plenty of time and luckily the plane arrived the night before, after a nightmare wait for the inept Spirit Airlines ticket counter we finally get on the plane, de-ice, taxi, de-ice and takeoff for the warmth of Florida. We found out after arriving that we were the last flight out of Chicago...thank you God!!!

A Bit of Sadness in Our Adventure

Shortly after Christmas we went to Tampa for the Tampa Supershow, the biggest RV show I've ever seen. We went there in 2012 while we were still searching for our rig and were blown away by the size of this event. This year there were several things going on including a gathering of Redwood owners, we would all camp together, go to the show and spend time together in the evenings. The day we arrived, after setting up, our friends from St. Augustine arrived and after setting up they came over for snacks and such. They had their granddaughter with them and she saw Tom so Ruth told her we had another cat and went into the bedroom to look for her. Our little Toonces was lying on the floor and appeared to be sleeping but when Ruth picked her up she discovered that she had passed. Toonces had been with us since 1999, I'll always remember when we got her, it was right after we returned home from Danny's graduation in California. She had been with us for fourteen years and was a big part of our family...we will miss her sweet demeanor and loving personality. RIP sweet Toonces!!!

Disney World

Ever since Erin announce she was pregnant with Eli, Ruth has been dreaming of taking him to Disney World. She scraped and saved for this occasion and spent an incredible amount of time researching and planning this trip. Between the time we returned home from the beach and our trip to Orlando she was either looking at books, brochures and the web looking for information for this trip. By the time we were ready to go she had the entire trip planned with so many options and choices that the journey was wonderful.


In early February we traveled up to Disney World, to Fort Wilderness, the Disney campground. Just a month since we saw Erin, Kevin and Eli they traveled back to Florida to meet us for 4 days in Disney. To say that Eli was excited would be an understatement though I'm not sure who was more excited, Ruth or Eli, well both but for different reasons!! 


The day we arrived it was a rainy and cold so we were a little concerned and spent the day in the 
campground. The weather for the remainder of the trip was perfect, sunny and warm, perfect weather. we spent four days in the park, the first day on The Magic Kingdom, the second in Epcot, the third in Animal Kingdom and finally in Hollywood Studios on the fourth and final day. Each day we left the rig as early as we could get everyone ready and fed and didn't return until well after dark. Eli had such a good time and ran so hard that he would crash as soon as we returned home if not on the way back. To say we were exhausted is an understatement, we were not far behind Eli in crashing, the days were long with little rest along the way. In hindsight we should have planned at least one down day so we could take a break from the madness of the crowds. The next morning we said our goodbyes and Erin, Kevin and Eli returned to Georgia while Ruth and I headed to Tampa to spend the weekend with the Manateean Sams RV Club, a group of RV'ers from Southwest Florida who meet monthly in different RV parks around the area. We had a nice quiet weekend with friends before heading back to Royal Coachman for some peace and quiet.

Back in Sarasota...the simple life

We settled back into our quiet life of paddling and cycling. Right outside the park is the Legacy Trail, an old abandoned railroad track that has been converted into a 12 mile bicycle path. The trail begins in Sarasota and ends in Venice, it is a wonderful ride through the palmetto forests and mangroves and is a joy to ride on. We typically rode on this trail a couple times a week and spend most Mondays kayaking.

In late February Ruth's cousin Carol and her husband Ron came to Sarasota from Colorado to visit Mary. Both Carol and Ron are very active in outdoor sports, they cycle, run, paddle so we spent most of the time they were here paddling and riding and an occasional beverage. As always it's a joy to spend time with them. 

While they were here Ruth and Mary planned a family reunion for all or their aunts, uncles and cousins living here in Florida. Mary, Ruth, Carol and Ron spent hours preparing food and munchies for the occasion.
Ruth has not seen many of her Florida relatives for years, so everyone spent hours catching up, eating and having a wonderful time, I got a chance to meet her relatives and learn all their secrets about Ruth!!

In South Florida winter vegetables and fruit are a big thing. There is an abundance of yummy things to eat and strawberries are the thing in the spring. Every year the area is red with strawberries and Florida likes to celebrate like all other places so of course there is an annual Strawberry Festival in Plant City outside Tampa. As soon as we saw that Third Day was playing we made reservations for their show, the day arrived and we set off for Plant City. It was a miserable rainy day but we were not going to miss the show so we resolved ourselves and dressed for the nasty weather. When we arrived it was raining, buckets of rain, a hard rain but we sucked it up and went in, we went from tent to tent trying to stay as dry as possible. All of a sudden we noticed the rain was slacking off and before long it was gone...clear skies and sunshine!!! 
Ive never seen so many strawberries and of course they have a make your own strawberry shortcake, so we did!! Add am much strawberry and/or whipped cream as you dare to put in the bowl, you get the idea...lots of strawberries. Along with the food and carnival rides they also have music, good music. 
The day we went we knew Third Day would be playing but we also got to see The Oak Ridge Boys who still today are a sight to see.

I'm not a big fan of driving at night anymore so I try to avoid having to travel long distances if I can avoid it, but for Third Day I'll make exceptions, after the show let out we made our way back to the truck and inched our way back to the freeway for the long drive back home. It was so worth it!!


When we planned this trip we wondered whether four months was too long, what in the world would we do for that long, would we get bored? The four months here flew by, as we approached mid March the realization set in that we would be leaving Florida soon but not before making a trip to the east coast, to Vero Beach to visit Dana and Dianne Cox. I went to high school with Dianne and we were the best of friends. We drove over on the weekend before we left Sarasota and had a wonderful time with them...a great way to end a fantastic WARM winter that was brutal for our friends in the rest of the country. 

After returning to Sarasota we said our goodbyes to friends and family and prepared for our next journey... another workcamping adventure in Branson MO.

We left Royal Coachman on March 30th in route for Atlanta/Athens.

Next up... Branson, our next WorkCamping Gig