2012-10-31 Halloween

Tonight we will go up to the Activity Center for a Halloween Party – your beverage, and snacks to share.  Should be fun.

We have been here at the Escapees’ Sumter Oaks RV Park in Bushnell Florida since October 17th.  Nice to see those of our friends who spent the summer here.  Larry & Carolyn Jarvis arrived on Friday, so it was not a cooking night.  We went to Coyote Rojo’s with them and the Halidays.  It is nice to relax, since we will be here until April except for 2 rallies and Xmas at Doug’s.  Terri and Phil Tobin arrived on Monday, plus we are making new friends.

Tuesday, we went to Sam’s Club in the Villages, and had dinner with Mitzi and Pete.  Then on Wednesday, Dennis & Carol Hill arrived with their new “Baby”, a 36’ Winnebago.  It has many nice features.

Thursday night, we took Dennis & Carol to Oakwood Smokehouse for baby back ribs, accompanied by many of our other friends here at Sumter Oaks.  Dennis & Carol invited us over for some of his delicious smoked pulled pork butt on Friday night.  We said goodbye to them Saturday morning, and then headed out for more shopping. 

Sunday, we went to visit Paul (Marilyn’s cousin) & Peg Gifford.  In addition to great conversation, Peg made a delicious beef stroganoff dinner.  Back at Sumter Oaks we have done some cleaning out (still more to do) and moving stuff into our storage unit.  Now we have to clean out the storage unit.  

Monday, the 28th, I tried to order a Surface Pro 2 from Microsoft.  They place a $1 charge on your credit card to see if the card is good.  My Visa card thought it was a fraudulent purchase (of course they did not call to find out).  Several hours of working with Microsoft’s customer service resulted in not being able to make the purchase on either my Visa or Discover card – Microsoft started to block the transaction.  Robin said he would try again on Tuesday, if I replied to his email.  Of course he did not call back.

So on Wednesday, the 30th, I tried again.  My Visa card and my Discover card blocked it again, as a fraudulent purchase.  So Microsoft’s customer no service tried again for a few hours to no avail.  After JD gave up, I received a call from Discover asking if I had tried to make a purchase from Microsoft.  I said that I had tried, and then ranted a bit, so they decided to unblock the purchase.  Since I had not deleted the MS Store page, I clicked submit, and voila, my purchase went through.  Microsoft had the nerve to ask me to take a survey about my experience with their online Store.  Of course they received a negative review about their store and customer no service.  However, I should have a new Surface Pro 2 tomorrow.

Today, the 31st, I borrowed Larry Jarvis pressure washer to clean the Jeep and our concrete patio.

I will try to take some pictures at our Halloween party tonight for posting in a subsequent blog.

Hugs, and I will type at you later.

2013-10-14

We left WalMart in Dothan, AL and continued down US 431 to I –10.  Then we drove west to Crestview, FL to pick up our mail at Passport America.  After lunch, we drove down HWY 85 to the mid-bay bridge over Choctawhatchee Bay, and then on east to Topsail Hill Preserve State Park.  All sites are reservable, but you can get a drive up site if they are not all reserved.  We could only get 2 nights because they are full.  It is a gorgeous park with full hook-ups for $21 per night for FL residents over 65.  We do take advantage of senior discounts.

After cooling down with the roof air conditioners, we took a walk to the beach, 1 mile each way, plus a mile up and down the beach.  Marilyn finally got to get her feet wet in salt water this year.  We think she might have gotten her toe wet in the Pacific last spring, but she definitely got her feet wet here.

Below are a picture of the dunes, and one of the beach.

Hugs, and Type at You Later.

P.S. November 2014 is another National Election, so please remember the impact on the lives of normal Americans caused by both Political Parties, and do not vote for any current member of Congress or any other office.  In other words, do not vote for an incumbent.

2013-10-13

Yesterday, we had the Escapees Chapter 16 meeting at 10am.  Our total turnout at the rally included 4 officers (President Dave Pye, Vice President Roger Dubrulle, Secretary Charles Earhart, and Treasurer Larry Forbes) and one non-officer member Steve Gerner.  It was a normal meeting, until we started discussing whether to continue as a chapter.  We finally voted to de-activate the chapter due to lack of interest and participation on the part of chapter members and Escapees members that have Georgia addresses.  None of us wanted to de-activate the chapter, but we were tired of creating rallies that were attended by officers plus one or two members.

After the meeting, some went to the Little White House (FDR) in Warm Springs, some to Callaway Gardens,some to a hoe-down in Warm Springs, while Marilyn and I went to Columbus to stop at Hobby Lobby, Verizon, and a liquor store.  At Verizon, I wanted to know the impact of the Share Everything Plan on contract lengths, and phone discount upgrades.  We were told there would be no impact on those items if we switched.  I also wanted to find out which Mifi Routers had the best reception.  I was told that the new router for residences (voice and data) had the best reception.  I may change in the next month or two.

Today, we said goodbye to our friends in Chapter 16.  It is sad that the chapter is de-activating, and I have to close the bank account that I just opened in 2012.  However, we did have a wonderful brunch at Bone Fish in Columbus with our son (Doug) and Laila.  We will definitely return for other meals at Bone Fish.  After leaving Doug and Laila, we moved to Dothan, AL where we are spending the night in WalMart’s parking lot.

Hugs, and Type at You Later.

P.S. November 2014 is another National Election, so please remember the impact on the lives of normal Americans caused by both Political Parties, and do not vote for any current member of Congress or any other office.  In other words, do not vote for an incumbent.

2013-10-11

Yesterday when I checked Marilyn’s jury status, the directions said for her not to report.  And today, Marilyn got an email stating that she did not have to report on Monday for jury duty.

Yesterday was another moving day.  We left Lakepoint Resort State Park in Eufaula, AL and drove to Pine Mountain Resort for the Escapees Chapter 16 Fall Rally.  It was a long 73 mile day.  We have ended up with 7 rigs for the rally – 4 officers, a friend of one of the officers, one non-officer chapter member, and one rig from Chapter 29.  Dinner was in LaGrange, GA at Cisco’s Café for wonderful Mexican dinners.

This morning, 10 of us went to the Pine Mountain Wild Animal Safari.  You get to drive through the park viewing and feeding the animals.  We rented one of the park’s vans, and Dave Pye (President of Chapter 16) was our driver.

 

There were deer like animals, pigs, Watusi cattle, bison, etc.

 

The would come right up to your window for the pellets that were sold for animal food.

 

For dinner we went out to a little restaurant in Pine Mountain called Bon Vivant. 

Type at you later.

October 9, 2013

We have been here at Lakepoint State Park in Eufaula, AL since the 1st of October.  There is not a lot to do here unless you are interested in fishing, hiking, but primarily being on the lake.  We have had a wonderful time.  We have walked each morning for approximately 3 to 4 miles.  We have gone shopping at a grocery store, WalMart, Dollar Tree, etc.  While it may not have been exciting, we had time for Marilyn to clean and read.  I have been working on sorting pictures.  I thought that I could create picture albums for our children from the picture recognition feature of Picasa.  Unfortunately, creating a gift CD from this part of Picasa only provides head shots of individuals rather than the original picture.  I have started over creating albums for individual family members.  Hopefully I will be able to create albums for each of the kids based on their individual lives, as well as their parents, etc.

Today, we received wonderful news when I signed in to check whether Marilyn has to report for jury duty in Crestview, FL next Monday.  She does not have to report, but we still plan to go to Crestview, probably on Tuesday, to get our mail before heading towards Bushnell, FL.

Type at you later.

Ducks and Surface

I wanted to show Dennis that we have ducks too, now that we are at Lakepoint Resort State Park.

 

In addition, I wanted to comment about the Technology Reviews that are in all of the news reports in USA Today, Huffington Post, NBC News, Orlando Sentinel, and the Washington Post (I only read free newspapers on my Droid Razr HD and Kindle Fire HD.  Ninety-nine percent of the articles are about how great iPhones, Androids and iPads are, and how horrible anything Microsoft makes. 

Finally, there have been two articles about how great Microsoft’s Surface Tablets are.  The first was by the Associated Press describing the good things about a tablet that can be used for work instead of just for email and play.  The second article states that Delta Airlines has chosen the Surface 2 for its pilots (11,000 of them).  Since for my own computing I need Microsoft Office, Quicken, Picasa, Turbo Tax and other tax software, plus Family Tree Maker, I am not able to use Apple products without spending a lot of money to buy all new software.  The android tablets do not run this software, and Amazon won’t even let the Kindle run as much as the Androids because it has proprietary internet access.

That is my rant for the day.

Hugs, and Type at you later.

2013-10-01

Happy October.  After having spent 6 wonderful evenings visiting our son, Doug, we moved the house from Lake Pines Campground in Midland, GA to Lakepoint Resort State Park in Eufaula, AL.  We had planned on going back up to the West Point Lake COE park until the Escapees Georgia rally starts on the 10th, but the Republicans and Democrats decided to close the National Parks along with their government shutdown vote.  Oh well, we get full hookups here until we move back north for the Georgia rally.

Doug did some puppy sitting for his girlfriend Laila’s service dog Roman – a delightful chocolate lab.

 

On Friday, the 27th, we shopped at Sam’s and Wal-Mart, and when Doug got home from work, we went out to dinner at Fuji’s Japanese Restaurant.  Marilyn and Doug had the sushi boat for two, and I had Chicken Teriyaki from the hibachi grill.  The chicken was delicious, and Marilyn and Doug devoured their boat.

 

Saturday, from 1-5, Marilyn, our DD, Doug and I went to Downtown Columbus Beer and Wine Fest.  For $35 each, Doug and I had as many little glasses of beer and wine that we wanted.  There were national beer brands, as well as those from micro-breweries.  The three of us each had $5 Phillie-cheese steak sandwiches in hoagie rolls that were delicious.  They had lots of cheese.  We left about 4:30, and met Laila for dinner at the Cannon restaurant across the street.  All in all, a great day.

On Sunday, Doug grilled steaks for us.  Then on Monday, when he got home, we enjoyed  a new casserole recipe Marilyn found.Dorito Chicken & Cheese Casserole.  She will make it again for some potluck.

We said goodbye to Doug Monday night since we were leaving Tuesday morning.  As I noted earlier, we are in Eufaula, AL, and will be here until Thursday, the 10th when we move to Pine Mountain, GA for the Escapees Georgia Rally.  Then on 13th, we will drive to Crestview, FL so we can pick up our mail and Marilyn can report for jury duty on the 14th.

That’s all for now.

Type at you later.