New Year, New Resolutions, New Old Blog

Did you make New Years' Resolutions?  I did not.  They don't generally end well.  I did spend a lot of time yesterday setting up my BULLET JOURNAL for 2018.  I worked on my address list, which had been eaten by internet moths and was full of holes.  I wished a lot of people a happy new year on Facebook, spent time with family, and a lot of time petting grand-dogs.  And I suddenly realized it had been sooooo long since I've done a blog post that I'd almost forgotten I had a blog - but according to Google, people come here and read.  So it's not a New Years Resolution to resume blogging regularly, but a decision I'm making and it just happens to be January 1.

So here goes:

I love this size

Sometime in the last year or so, I discovered (as so many others did) Bullet Journal.  The flexibility works for me.  After trying various size notebooks I settled on this size as being small enough to carry and large enough to be useful. A leather cover, refillable with lined pads. Its the same size as my Kindle Paperwhite. Turns out it's a B6 size.  I used it through several refills, including the one my grand-dogs ate.

Converted to Travelers Notebook

Then I discovered Travelers Notebooks.  These are covers with elastics which hold inserts.  Infinitely customizable.  The internet is filled with companies and Etsy crafters selling all manner of Travelers Notebook covers and inserts and printables.  But I liked the size cover I already had.

Binder clip holds pen

I took out the insert, fitted it with elastics in the binding to hold TN inserts and a binder clip to hold my pen, put inserts in, continued to bullet journal in one, put things I wanted to keep and not have to recopy in another, experimented...








On a you-tube video - This one - I watched the maker build a Travelers Notebook using a placemat from the Dollar Tree store for a cover.  I'm a "how can I do this on no money" kind of gal, so I bought a placemat, and several composition books from WalMart that were less than $1, and built three more TN's. One large enough for the 5x7" books, and two for the mini-composition books.

Covers made

Inserts Inserted

I'm pleased with the results and expect I'll make more. Maybe with nice leather covers and cool bead charms and stuff.

Like I needed another craft.

See you next blog - I'm serious about blogging regularly again.

Jewelry Making

So one of the challenges of RV life is lack of storage space. It would be much simpler if I were a TV watching couch potato, but that's never going to happen. I do bead work, quill work, knitting, crocheting, sewing, and music - all of which require supplies, and most of which have a tendency to build a stash of materials.
Well my stash of materials has outgrown my motorhome, and I'm certainly not just getting rid of the stuff. So, since I'm going to be at my daughters for a few weeks, I brought all of my long-neglected beading supplies. I've been working and visiting and doing stuff, but I've also taken care of some repair work and designed some new jewelry.
In the first picture you see the repair work.  The necklace with the seeds and shells was a gift from my late aunt, and I'm embarrassed to admit how long it was in the repair box. It required complete restringing. The string tie simply needed glued back together and the turquoise necklace was a simple repair also.

In the second picture is the result of a couple of afternoons of making jewelry from scratch. A couple of these projects had been started previously, but the rest are brand new.

Today's Lap

I'm workamping again at Stagger Lee Music Park again this winter.  The job has a new perk: the latest addition to the staff, Theo the Camp Cat.
Theo is one of the sweetest cats I've ever met (and I've loved quite a few). 

Whitewater Creek Park in Oglethorpe, GA

I loved my week at Whitewater Creek Park.  I was so glad to have a week off from work so that I could extend my originally intended two or three days to eight.  I'm writing this from my lakeview site at Dames Ferry Campground, about which I just posted a blog, and at which I also extended my stay.

One of the neat things about traveling is variety.  These parks are quite different, but not in ways that make one better than the other.  Staying at them in the same month does invite comparison, though, so I'll indulge that temptation after I tell you more about Whitewater.

This is part of the campground from the fishing pier. My neighbors had lines in the water all the time!

I got to have a campfire.

Every morning, Ranger, the superintendent's dog, would come greet me and get petted. He's a sweetie - given time, he could probably have made a dog-person of me.

A storm went through the area while I was there. The predictions were for rain, hail, sleet, and high winds. I've had my fill of high winds, so I rolled up my awning, put everything away in the bays, and helped my neighbors batten down their hatches. We lucked out: all we got was rain. LOTS of rain, but not even any wind at all. I heard they got more serious weather not far away, but it missed us.

The bath house is centrally located in the campground.

Right near it is a screened pavillion, with a brick fireplace and lots of tables inside.

Downstream - downpond? - from the campground is the beach. There's another pavillion down there for groups to rent.

There's another fishing pier.

And you can just sort of see the campground from there.

Whitewater Creek Park is a county park.  Dames Ferry Park is run by Georgia Power.  They are similar in amenities: bath house, pavillion, campsites with more or less shade, more or less shoreline.  Fishing, boating, even with an outboard motor.  Swimming probably - I haven't found where you swim in Lake Juliette but I'm sure you could.  Whitewater has some full hookup sites.  Dames Ferry is all water and electric, with a nice dump station on the way out.   Dames Ferry has a 2 week limit, so they really don't need full hookups, whereas some people do keep their campers at Whitewater for the whole season.   They are both very pleasant places to be and places I would like to return to - WITH that kayak that's sitting in Virginia because I didn't think I'd need it over the winter.

They are different in atmosphere: the difference is one of open space or filled space, sunlight or shade, lawn or woods, living room or family room.

I'm not saying Dames Ferry doesn't have shade - it is definitely wooded.  But it's a more manicured woods. It has well defined sites with gravel and landscape timbers and concrete and steps.  It has lawn.  Its shorelines are well defined and sometimes created with rock and concrete steps.  There is no question about where your rig is supposed to be.  There are iron fire rings.  The campground loop is a paved road with gravel roadways off it to the sites.

Whitewater Creek's shade extends all the way to the water's edge.  There is down and dead wood lying around for the campfire.  The sites have numbers, and poles with electric, and water hookups, and sometimes sewer hookups, but you can park your rig however you think best.  You can gather rocks for a fire ring if you can find them, or just sweep away the debris.  It's the kind of place where you might catch a mess of fish and feel comfortable inviting your neighbors to join you for supper.

And that's what I love about my nomadic lifestyle - When I drove into Whitewater Creek, what I desperately needed was peace, quiet, informality, woods.  And there it was.  When I came to Dames Ferry I needed sunshine, beauty, electricity and a place to stay away from other people 'til I got over the darn cold.  And there it was.

Now if the cold would just get the heck out of my nose!

(I have lots more pictures to go, tune in soon for Andersonville, Plains, and the Global Village.  And the other big news, relative to Time Traveling.)

And leave comments.  Don't let the bot-filter scare you off.  I just hate spam is all.

Dames Ferry Park at Lake Juliette in Georgia

It's peaceful, and beautiful, and quiet - it has electricity - I'm not quite well yet - and really, I just didn't want to leave, so I sprung for another night and don't have to leave 'til tomorrow.

This is my camp, seen from finger of land that's off to my right when I'm in camp. I hope I can come back here, for a longer time, WITH my kayak.

This was my neighborhood on Easter Weekend. On the finger of land I'm shooting from is a picnic pavillion, which was rented by folks having an Easter party, with easter eggs hidden for the kids.
The RVs next to me had some sort of gathering - I could tell from the bits of conversation that there was lots of food involved.

There are no bad sites here, just a nice variety. This one has a patio. Various sites have more or less lake access, or more or less shade, or more or less space.

There are tent sites also, some in the sun

And some in the shade.

There's another pavillion up by the bath house, and the bath house is well built and clean.

Today's Yard: Dames Ferry Park

Today's Yard, at Dames Ferry Park on Lake Juliette

Since my last post, from the lovely and peaceful Whitewater Creek Park, I

• finished out my week there and took lots of pictures
• Camped at Andersonville City Park in Andersonville GA
• Toured their museum and pioneer village, ate good food, ate good ice cream
• Toured the NPS Andersonville site and POW museum
• Helped convert a Harvey's Supermarket to a Food Lion Supermarket in Americus GA
• Toured the Global Village and Discovery Center at Habitat for Humanity's headquarters
• Visited Plains GA, where I toured the Jimmy Carter NHS, Billy Carter's gas station, and their childhood home farm
• Got sick.  By the end of Thursday, my throat was horribly sore, I was feverish, and the skies were scheduled to open up upon us.  I thought maybe some wasabe would help, so I had dinner at the oriental buffet across from the Americus Walmart, then spent the night in the Walmart parking lot.  By this time I really felt pretty awful, but I figured I would get up in the morning and return to Andersonville or Whitewater and get a campsite.  
• By Friday morning it was raining cats and dogs and confederate soldiers, and my sinuses were seconding the motion.  I did not move.  I did not drive.  I did nothing but take ZICAM and read Facebook and If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O by Sharyn McCrumb.  Read it.  Read everything she writes.  Good stuff.  
• Anyway...  by this morning (Saturday) my fever was gone and I felt almost human.  I went into Walmart to replenish the ZICAM supply and thank the Store Manager profusely for their pro-RV policy.  When you're traveling in unfamiliar territory, and illness and flood warnings coincide, a Walmart on high ground is a wonderful blessing.
• I fed the motor home 40 gallons of gas and 2 turkey basters of steering fluid - where DOES that stuff go? - and headed north to Dames Ferry Park at Lake Juliette, Jackson?  GA  which turns out to be even prettier than what I'd seen on Google's satellite view.  I have a LAKE in my front yard - one that is supposed to be there.   Unfortunately, it's still drizzling rain.  I really hope it clears up by tomorrow because I want to be outside making Vitamin D and enjoying the lakeside.  And wishing my kayak were here with me.  Again.  NTS: don't go south without the boat!!!
• The other thing I did, while I was at Jimmy Carter's boyhood farm, was run out of room on the memory card in my camera.  Fortunately, I have a camera in the phone too.  I promise I will go through the pictures and post the details of those excursions.  Tune in in a day or two...

Today's Yard: Whitewater Creek Park

After nearly 3 months of peace and quiet at Stagger Lee Music Park, I went off to work last Sunday, spending the next 4 days in the supermarket parking lot.  When not used to it, I remember how noisy modern civilization is.  People.  Emergency vehicles.  Traffic noise. 
And traffic vibration.  I could actually feel the floor, and the earth, vibrate from it, through my feet.
I've been working in supermarkets and staying in their lots for a lot of years, so I'm mostly used to it, but it's never my idea of choice accommodations.  Give me trees, water, quiet - please!

So right after work, on the recommendation of a local friend, I came here for the weekend.  Whitewater Creek Park is a county park right by Whitewater State Park.  Trees, lake, quiet...  Much better now.

I'm on my way, takin' my time, but I don't know where

Well I'm on my way, I don't know where I'm goin'
I'm on my way, takin' my time, but I don't know where

("Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard", Paul Simon)

That's the ear worm of the day. We call it "Hitch Itch". Or "Tumbleweed Fever". I was thinking I'd stay here at least until April 1. Maybe longer. I do have a list of things I could be accomplishing. However, there is no arguing with Tumbleweed Fever. Today the wind picked up a lot, so I rolled up my awning. While I was there, I cleaned up the patio area, put a few things away, enjoying the sunshine, stirred by the wind, organized things in the bins, organized the compartment... before I knew it the patio area was pretty much packed.

Then I fiddled with how things need to ride, and where - I've had stuff in the drivers seat and on the windshield - and now oh gee, the motorhome is 80% packed. Which means even with a leisurely tweaking fest tomorrow, I will be driving away in a day or two.

Where am I going? Certainly NOT to the Home Driveway up in Virginia where my van awaits me.

It's waiting under 5 inches of snow.

And no, because I'd have to have the van first, I'm not going to either of the events this weekend that I would dearly love to attend.

I let work know I'm available, so they may call and give me a destination. I've been looking around on Ultimate Campgrounds for ideas. Someplace still warm, someplace pretty, someplace profitable, or at least inexpensive...

Wherever the wind blows....

Loose Ends

As the winter draws to a close, I'm working on tying up the loose ends and getting ready for travel.

7 weeks ago, my friend Ellen came to camp here for a week or two. She found it such a peaceful, relaxing place to be, and such a good place to take care of stuff and sorting and ordering needful items from Amazon and what not, that she stayed until today. I really enjoyed our visit.



While she was packing and loading, I was crossing things off my to do list. This is one I'd been meaning to take care of for a while.

Years ago, I dated a blacksmith. He made me a bunch of towel rods and hooks for the travel trailer I lived in at the time, and they've been moved from RV to RV ever since. One of the towel bars you have seen in my kitchen, holding pot lids.



Today I replaced the original towel bar in the bathroom with the last 2 unhung towel bars.



I moved the original towel bar down to the bottom of the bathroom door, where it now keeps slippers and shoes out of the way.

Today's Yard - Tumbleweed Fever

Technically, Spring starts this week.  The Sun has only just come out after days of rain which my northern friends experienced as snow.  Sue tells me my van, back in Virginia, is under not quite a foot of snow, but close.

Here, the events that brought in campers are over and I am free to move on, but I don't have to.  Which is good... I still have some personal things to take care of.  I've done my federal taxes.  State taxes are next.  I'd like to get a copyright registration done.  I have bays yet to clean and organize, although I did the worst of that job during the last warm sunny spell.  But I will be ready soon to travel.

So I'm thinking of where.  I don't want to go northward quite yet... I hear they still have another winter storm coming their way.  I don't want to go into the hills... I'm driving the wrong vehicle for that.  I may knock around southeast Georgia some more...  Florida might be pleasant for a while...  some paid work would be nice...

The road beckons...

Nomad Proximity Detector - RoVers finding each other

A few days ago, RV Friend Network launched a new website, and I happily joined in the fun.  It's in beta and we're all trying it out and helping them find out what works and what doesn't.  It's really quite exciting - it's kind of like Facebook and kind of like a bunch of RV forums...
The very cool thing about it is that it enables those of us who travel a lot to know where our also-travel-a-lot friends are, as well as meet up with other travelers with similar interests.  The location thing of course is strictly voluntary.

On the site are groups, similar to facebook's groups, with their own forums... I'm admin for one for Vandwellers... So many times I've said "If I'd known you were there, we could have met up - I was just there last week!"

The site is http://www.rvillage.com/.

You can go to Technomadia's blog post, which explains the site in much more detail.

Today's Yard - March 7, 2014

It is always fun to get together with like-minded people.  When your home has wheels, your neighbors change frequently, and you can frequently choose them. Ellen (beyond my motorhome) and Ed (front van) and I have this neighborhood this week, with lots of good conversation, good meals, good ice cream.  Then the kaleidoscope will turn and they will each be somewhere else, having some other adventures, while I wrap things up from the outage and prepare for Peaches to Beaches.  This is truly The Good Life.

Peaches to Beaches coming up soon!

I'm camp hosting at Stagger Lee Music Park in southeast Georgia. Half way between Hazlehurst and Baxley. The annual outage at Plant Hatch, which brought many workers to stay at the campground, is over and almost all of them have gone on to their next job site.

I have been enjoying the company of friends from the Vandwelling community. Ellen, who travels with her German Shepherd dog in a Coach House class B, came to visit me, stay warm, and catch up with herself. Ed Helvey stopped in on his northward migration. It's been a lot of fun.

The next thing coming up here is the annual Peaches to Beaches yard sale. This is Georgia's longest yard sale and runs for 200 miles along Route 341. We are located right off 341, so we are a convenient and economical location for shoppers with campers to park and shop the sales both days. Last year one couple arrived with their Class C motorhome, and their van and cargo trailer. The van and cargo trailer arrived empty and left stuffed to the gills the next evening with new stock for their shop.

Many vendors will be set up right at the end of our road, where it meets 341, at Ray's Steak and Ribs. Ray's, incidentally, makes some darn good ribs. Ellen and I ate there last Friday and can vouch for that.

Getting Stuff Done

I have been here 5 1/2 weeks. It's been cold, it's been almost hot, it's been wet, it's been beautifully sunny, and it's been fun. I look at my time here, at Stagger Lee Music Park in Georgia, where I'm camp host, as a vacation from my regular work, as a rest from my usually more frequent travel, as an opportunity to catch up with myself, and with my to-do list... and this year, with an old friend from work who now lives in a Coach House van and came to camp here and do a lot of the same things.

I think sitting in the sunshine doing nothing more productive than making Vitamin D is a perfectly good use of time. And actually, making Vitamin D is pretty darn important. But I was kind of feeling that I wasn't Getting Stuff Done. Mostly because I have so much more stuff I want and need to do. But I made a list.

Since I arrived her on 1/19, about 5 weeks ago, in addition to running the campground, I have

* Cleaned my entire house
* Organized under the couch
* Organized under the bedroom counter
* Rearranged it to accommodate a new fridge
* Removed carpet and Installed living room flooring
* Done several blog posts
* Visited with Ellen
* Finished knitting the slippers that were on the needles when I got here, and another pair
* Re-covered the ironing board
* Completed the mending. (Hand-sewing)
* Dumped - and filled twice.
* Replaced the water pump
* Finished at least two books
* Sorted and organized all the tool stuff, toolbox, step basket, bin in compartment.

And a few other things.
So that's as of 2/27. Hope to add to it.

The Living Room Floor Is Done

It's been a busy couple of days. I don't know if I mentioned that my RV fridge died last fall. They are expensive, so I have not replaced it. I've been using one of those Coleman dc coolers, and it's been serving as a coffee table. And then it decided to melt its plug. While full of food.

I decided to make a run to Walmart and buy a fridge. I'd been considering the little 2-door mini-fridge with a real freezer and had been looking online at the various brands, but hadn't made any decision - mostly because I wasn't sure how I'd fit it into the motorhome. So much for research. The brand at Walmart is Block and Decker. There were less expensive ones out on the net, but not many. I could lift it into the cart. Mine.
Now, you know there's no extra space in a motorhome, right? And you know from my "before" pictures that there's REALLY no extra space in mine! I had to make some really quickly before I could even bring the little fridge inside. Fortunately, I've done a lot of house cleaning since the "before" pictures were taken.

The only place it could possibly go is to the right of the door, a space occupied by this stand full of stuff that my printer sits on. I thought maybe I could turn it sideways but tried it and it just really didn't work. The stand has to go. I've only had it since 1993. It was my copier stand when I did medical billing. It was my keyboard stand when I lived in the travel trailer. It's held my overabundance of paperwork in this motorhome. I didn't really want to let it go, but I couldn't quite manage to bend the laws of physics.

I decided that the printer and all the office supply and paperwork stuff could find a new home on the worktable in the bedroom, and cleared the stand out.
I also decided that, with the good weather and the need to rearrange, the time had come to tear out the blue carpet and put the wood-grain interlocking mats down in the living room. They've been so nice to have in the kitchen.

I sorted, rearranged, and peeled up carpet. Oh my! Whenever the previous owners put down the carpet, they carpeted right over a heating vent! Go figure.

Under the carpet was dark blue indoor-outdoor carpet in good condition, so I figured I could live with that ok until I could get someone to cut the bolts off where the old chair had been.


So by bedtime Sunday night, the house was clean, the fridge was cold, the stuff to be relocated was in Lowes Food bags in the dinette, and I was a tired puppy.

Today the weather was again wonderful. I gathered up all my tools and hardware and what-not and sat out under the awning sorting stuff. I have quite an accumulation of screws, nuts, bolts, washers, and odd assorted fasteners. They are now all neatly sorted out, stored in compartments in the tool box or in the hardware shoebox, in baggies. No more digging through to see if there are more of a kind of item. Everything is findable.


And I found my KillAWatt! And the outdoor sending unit for the indoor outdoor thermometer.
After a nice dinner
and a beautiful sunset,

a friend came and cut the bolts off flush with the floor, and the rug replacement could proceed.

I got the mats last summer, from We Sell Mats, and did the kitchen floor then.
Having done the kitchen, the living room was even easier.

A razor knife and a pair of scissors are all the tools needed for this project. Oh, and a screwdriver to remove and replace the edging strips by the stairs and the wiring protective cover against the wall.


Chaos reentered my just-cleaned-and-organized living room.

And chaos retreated.

I think it looks great!