Archive for the ‘travel’ Category

Hi! Well, we made the 68 mile trek from the Tampa area to Kissimmee! Everything is great and I’m super happy to be staying here a whole month! Yep, a whole month!! Surprised you too, huh?
You want to laugh?? We exited the highway here in Kissimmee at exit 64 (the exit to the RV park here) and we pulled over on the side of the road in a completely safe area and we all looked at each other and we all said the same thing “We are here, now how long are we staying??” We are 4 miles from the RV park parked on the side of the road trying to decide if we are staying a day, a week, or a month. Now That’s the lifestyle of an RVer!!
So, I called up the RV park here and they had an opening (whew!) and I asked how much it would cost to stay at their RV park. They told us the price and we checked in and we got a great site with a great monthly rate and we are staying a whole month!!! A whole month here in central Florida! I’m so excited! My cousin and her husband is flying in tomorrow and my aunt is 45 minutes away!
But it was a last second decision on how long we were staying here and I’m not sure what that’s going to do to the rest of this snowbird trip….will we hit Key West? Will be go to Miami? Will we visit other areas of Florida or just head north in a month?? I’m not sure….all I’m sure of now is that we paid for one month to sit 4 miles from Disney World!! Andddd (no I’m not done yettt) ….and, we took the bicycles down off the RV and there’s a Dunkin Donuts across the street (a bike ride away!) and we are sitting right on US 192 where all the action is!!
The only thing that is super lousy right now is the internet connection here at the RV park. Soooo terrible, I’m going to try to shop around for a wireless signal boost adapter of some sort. But, I’m hoping to fix the internet problem sometime this week.
So, that’s the update for now….I’ll be taking picture around and hopefully can post pictures later this week. I’ll be back tomorrow! Have a super night!!

Hello! Well, we decided to leave tomorrow morning for Kissimmee. Not too early in the morning as it’s only a whopping 68 mile trip. Today was a nice day spending time with our friends here. We spent some time at the Hard Rock Casino and I won some money, and I was sure surprised I won money at a casino on a weekend, but there were a lot of winners today, even a jackpot of $6000 was paid out on a dollar machine by the front door (of course not my jackpot). After that we came back to the RV and since Jake had been inside all day, we took him for a walk down the street to the next intersection where Checker’s Restaurant is. I ordered an ice tea, Mom got a Pepsi, and Jake got ice water. We walked back to the RV and after I fed Jake, he fell asleep on the couch as I watched the Olympics.
It was a nice day today, beautiful weather. I have a cousin from Oklahoma who will be in Kissimmee next week with her husband and I can’t wait to see them! We will be spending time with her and my aunt that lives in Groveland (I think it’s Groveland, I’ll have to check on that town name again). So as we make our way around Florida visiting friends and family, visiting friends and family is the highlight of this trip for me. I have always loved visiting others that we hardly see, spending time with them as we go along. I’m not sure how long we will be in Kissimmee, but I think it will be for at least a week.
So, that’s what I did today and I hope you all had a nice weekend also. I’ll be back tomorrow night blogging from Kissimmee!

Hello! Wow, what a day of traveling. We stayed over night at an RV park in Lake City and woke up to 29 degrees – very cold. We left Lake City very early and landed in Bradenton at around 2pm. We got settled in and couldn’t wait to visit our friends here in Bradenton. All 7 of us went to dinner at the Golden Corral – not a bad place either. After dinner we headed back to the RV and fed Jake and relaxed. I’m a tad tired of all the traveling today, so I’m going to call it an early night tonight. We have a lot to do this weekend (including a visit to the Hard Rock Casino near here). I will have internet service here and I will bring my camera with me tomorrow. Check on me tomorrow as I will be posting pictures of beautiful Florida. Oh, the temperature here today was 59 degrees. Nite Nite. *yawn*

Hi! I am writing this blog posting on my Blackberry in our friend’s van as we all travel back to Milton, Florida from the Wind Creek Casino in Atmore, Alabama.
I won’t have any internet service to do a post on my laptop for a few days as we travel around Florida. But have no fear, you get to hear me yap from my Blackberry!
Today we got to Milton, Florida at around 1pm. Not a bad ride over here from Mississippi, but it was cold out, don’t think it got over 40 degrees today….
We set the RV up in the driveway and it didn’t take us long to decide to hit a casino tonight (there’s five of us). Wind Creek Casino is easy to get to and is exactly an hour away from Milton. It’s a nice casino and yes, I did see many RVs dry camping in the parking lot, so come on over! I made out with a $60 dollar profit and we enjoyed the buffet there for 11.99. We are on our way back home now. All in all, everything is pretty darn good!
I took some pictures, but you’ll have to wait a few days to see them. So, I’m just checking in telling you it’s been a simple day of traveling and we are with great company. Oh, and if you are wondering about Jake….I’ve never seen a little dog more healthy and happy in my life! Have a good night!

Hi! We made it to Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Wow, what a long trip in these last few days and I just haven’t been sleeping that well. I just don’t sleep that good in parking lots. Jake is up all night wondering what the revving is next to us, the starting and parking of big rigs, that puppy was wide awake in protective mode all night long. I paid the price as he wanted to get off the bed, he wanted to get back on the bed, he wanted to get off the bed again. He’s only 8 pounds and I have steps for him to use, but when he’s nervous, he get disoriented easily. Other than those nights in nowhere land, he’s perfect and gets a good night sleep right here next to me. As for me, tonight I will get a good night sleep, I can already feel it. We are at Hollywood Casino RV park for two nights. We are relaxing now and it should be easy going from here on out. Texas is such a big state and took two days and a half days just to get thru thanks to the delay of our tire blow out. Here’s your pictures….

Well, other than that, everything is good. Everything should be good compared to that! I see Jake is out cold next to me and I would love to be in my own little dream world too. I’m exhausted so I will be back tomorrow. Have a good night and I hope you had a nice Valentine’s Day.

Hello! I don’t know how else to explain it. One moment we are carrying on a conversation as we travel across Texas on I-10 and the next moment there are shredded tire scraps all over the highway, half the fender trim is gone on the right side of our camper, and the panel right next to the lower part of the door is crunched beyond recognition. Yes, welcome to the world of an RV trailer tire blow out and it has no mercy on anything in it’s way.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not the flat tire that is the big deal, who cares, change it and you are good to go (which is exactly what we did), it’s the damage it does to the camper you just want to cover your eyes and peek between two fingers.
Well, we pulled over to the side of the highway (not even an exit in sight), and out came the jacks and power tools. We used two jacks to lift the Montana to make it more secure as trucks and cars whizzed by us in an 80 mile per hour zone. Sure was glad to see a member of the Texas Highway Patrol pull in behind us. He hopped out of his car and peeked at the damage, and the first words out of his mouth was, “I promise I won’t laugh because I got a fifth wheel just like this at home”. He was nice to check on us and told us to flag him down if we needed anything as he drove away.
On with the spare and immediately to the local tire shop to replace the damaged tire. Campers World was out of our size tire (that tells you a lot about the highway here, doesn’t it?). So they sent us 10 miles down the street to a “Discount Tire” store only to be told by Discount Tire, “Yeah, we got your size tire right here, but it will be a two hour wait for us to get around to installing it for you.” Choice less, we walked right next door to a Denny’s restaurant. Nice outside today, right around 58 degrees.
Sooooo, we obviously didn’t pack on the miles today and we are sleeping at a Flying J in Baytown, Texas. Pretty decent place with pretty decent food. We are next to two other fifth wheels here and it’s not too loud around us at all.
Ohhhh, I know what you are thinking…..You Betcha’ I got pictures of the flat tire and the damage to the RV. I went crazy with the camera on the side of the highway and I’ll be posting those pictures as soon as I catch an internet signal. Have a good night and I’ll be back tomorrow, hopefully at a cozy RV park with a casino next door! Nite Nite!

Hello! Well, today was mainly a traveling day. Leaving Tombstone this morning at around 9am we made it to El Paso around 4pm. Didn’t really see anything exciting on I-10, just a lot of freight being moved along by the truck drivers and the trains. We stopped along the way to put $200 dollars in the tank (we have an external fuel tank in the bed that feeds the main fuel tank below the truck). And diesel price isn’t too bad out here sitting at around $2.69 a gallon.
This is mostly going to be a short posting, because there’s not much going on. We got 15 channels on TV here from the antenna and just finished up a movie. We are dry camping tonight. I’m not a big fan of dry-camping, but I can’t complain because the temperature is very nice outside (t-shirt weather). We sure won’t freeze tonight, but it’s noisy outside with the running engine of tractor trailer next to us. Oh, well, take the good with the bad when we are making our way to our next destination.
I wish I had more news to tell you, but sometime no news is good news. We will see where we end up tomorrow. Have a good night!

Hi! Sure is a lot of Cowboys in this town. I could get use to this! In a town that purely survives from tourists, they know how to make you feel welcome! Survival of this town tetors between admission fees, shops, and the “tips” jar.
We started today out with a trolley ride around town, giving us another narrated guide tour on the history of Tombstone, Arizona. Every minute that passed today made me more and more interested in the history of the Outlaws and Law men that once stepped foot here and did about their business over 130 years ago. From Doc Holliday to the Earp Brothers, a legendary story that was brought to life for us today.
Our day was extremely touristy as we hopped from attraction to attraction covering everything from touring the mine that brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to Tombstone, to the showdown of the infamous shootout at the OK Corral that brought down Frank McLaury, Tom McLaury, and Billy Clanton (Billy was only 19 years old at the time of the gunfight that ended his life). History magnified by dedicated actors that showed how the gunfight erupted and how it went down.
We stopped for lunch at Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. They only called her that because she had her nose in everyone’s business. Running a bar and keeping Doc Holliday (and many others) satisfied was her only job. I have to mention here (just from me to you) that we have been to three restaurants here and other than the homemade chili, the food served here is very….ummmmm…. commercialized. I hope that sums it up, because I don’t want to insult their food, but you won’t find too many home cooked meals here. So go easy when going out to eat here, enjoy it, and definitely stop by Big Nose Kate’s for a drink! Well worth it!
Moving on, the mine tour was amazing taking us over 100 feet under earth’s surface to a world of minerals and veins of hollow passages that once held Silver that was transported, exchanged in hands of money, to make US currency coins. Old mining tools were shown to us that over 400 miners used to work with only by candle light. It was 30 years later, gas combination was introduced to keep a lantern lite and 20 years after that came similar to battery operated lanterns. But let’s stay in the late 1800’s for a minute when working with tools caused serious health issues with dust and an inventor from Denver introduced new tools to work water in with the working environment while digging and chipping thru solid rocks. Water didn’t kick up dust, so while using water in with chipping at rocks caused mud, these miners sure didn’t mind working with mud one bit. Oh, and payday came around shelling out big bucks to miners in the 1800’s at exactly $4 dollars a day. $4 dollars was a lot of money those days when enjoying a beer cost less than a quarter. Well, obviously all this information was from our friendly tour guide and I’m happy to share with you all that I’ve learned today, so on your way out near the exit door is a tip jar for you to show your appreciation on all the fun and entertainment I have walked you thru. Have a great night and y’all come back real soon now, ya hear!

Hi! Once again, I’m posting from my Blackberry and you won’t believe where I am! Tombstone! A 1/2 a day spent here and I love it already! This is where it all started, an old cowboy town with a couple of Saloons! I think I’ll order up a beer tomorrow at one of the local Saloons! “Bartender! I’ll take a cold one and my horse outside will take one for the road.” I love it!
I’ve got a ton of pictures to show you and my camera is back on the charger tonight for a big day tomorrow!
Tomorrow will be great! We’ve got a trolley ride to show us around town, a wagon ride thru the Silver mines, a haunted ghost tour (was told the ghosts will show up in my pictures!), and a reenactment of…..go ahead…say it with me….”On the count of three! Draw Your Gun!”. It’s a daily show right outside on the town road! Too cool!!
Oh, I got ahead of myself again, this morning we left Yuma at around 8am, stopped for lunch and made it to Tombstone at around 3pm. We are staying at Wells Fargo RV Park right against the Tombstone main street. We didn’t have to unhook the pickup because all the action is 100 feet away from us! I like this RV park, they are so very nice here….welcomed us with open arms. They talked our ear off for quite a while telling us everything that is going on, discounts on local restaurants, secret places on where to go first, and they walked us to our site to make sure we were happy with it.” Kudos!! I’m sure there are plenty of other RV parks out there that are just as friendly as this one and I want to visit them all!
Speaking of weather…..ugh, suppose to rain here all day tomorrow, so we will do as much as the weather lets us. We might hop over to the office and sneak in another night, but I’m not sure, Tombstone is so unique!
Other than that, I can’t wait to show you all the pictures I’m taking. Today we went for a horse drawn carriage ride thru town with a narrated guide telling us about the history here. Have you seen the movie “Tombstone”? I have, a long time ago, and I’ll have to watch it again now!
So, I’ll leave you with that and I’ll be back tomorrow. Have a good night!

Hi! Nooo, that’s not a typo or an old blog posting title up above. We are back in Yuma, Arizona again! We left Las Vegas around 8am and with a leisurely drive and a brunch stop at Denny’s in Laughlin, we made it to Yuma by 5pm. It was a nice easy trip down here and what made my day was that we made it “here” before 6pm so I can go to Bingo!! Yes, we are dry camping in the parking lot of the Paradise Casino tonight, then tomorrow off to Tombstone, Arizona!
I’m not a big fan of dry camping, but I make exceptions if we are in a casino parking lot. In this case, it’s okay!
With a quick phone call to my Bingo partner that stays in Yuma, she met us at Paradise Casino for some Bingo action that started at 6pm! I got so close to a $100 Bingo jackpot tonight….just one number off and they showed my number in the TV monitor and before it was called, and before I yelled “Bingo!”, someone three tables behind me beat me to it, calling out “Bingo” for the number just before mine! Arghh! Sooo close and very painful!
Anyways, the night wasn’t a total loss, we visited with our good friend here in Yuma at the casino and I won $50 bucks on the Wheel of Fortune slot machine! The whole evening was a lot of fun!
Hmmm, trying to think what else is new, but that pretty much sums up today. We did change all the clocks so now we are an hour closer to you all on the east coast. (Don’t bother looking it up, I’ll tell ya. We have a 2 hour time difference now instead of 3. So whatever time you are looking at right this minute, it’ll take us two more hours to get there.)
Tomorrow we will explore Tombstone and I will bring my camera with me to get some pictures. And then we will take our time heading towards Mission, Texas where we will stay for a little while.
I know for a fact that wonderful, reliable Nextel has no cell phone service all the way down the west border of Texas against the Mexico line, and I know this because I remember last winter’s panic attack I had from being cut off from online social civilization on this same trip. So this year I’m ready, I’ll hold my breath and my survival instincts will hopefully kick in as I live with my Blackberry being dead for a few long, long hours (maybe even a, a, a, *gasp*, DAY!!)
Okay, the generator is about to be shut off now and that will be the end of power to this RV. Have a great, great night. Have faith, check on me, as I will be back tomorrow!