Boondocker's Coffeemaker

I broke my beloved Melitta coffee carafe. You know, the kind that takes #6 cone filters & makes 10 cups of drip coffee without benefit of electricity? As it had been quite a while since I'd had that particular variety of klutz-attack, I was quite surprised to find these are no longer readily available in stores. I bought the one I broke years ago at the supermarket, so that was the first place I looked. Nope, and not WalMart, KMart or Target either. A friend nicely gifted me with a still-available single cup version, with a really neat cup. But my search continued.
I did find it on line, though, at ACE HARDWARE, and ordered one. It came today and water is boiling for coffee. YAY!
So what's up with the retail assumption that we all have lots of counter space to spare and can't pour water???

Spring?

I'm visiting friends in North Carolina. Yesterday we were playing music on the deck and these blooms were buds. Today they're beginning to bloom. I'm wearing a teeshirt outdoors - when just a few days ago it was jacket, scarf, hat and gloves. I like this lots better, and hope it stays. Although - I'l be heading back to Virginia Thursday and the almanac predicts snow there throughout March. I will soak up today's sunshine though.
Oh - the tee says
"Humans were meant to live in a pack
So each could scratch the other's back
or wash it clean, and that's why each
Of us has spots we cannot reach."

Going Nowhere

Another motorhome is in the parking lot with me! A couple who do the same work I do and also travel by motorhome. We don't normally do the same stores, so I was very glad of the reunion.
This pic is what I woke up to, so I don't know if the rest of the team will come. It could be good for a day off.

Visited States Map

Julie asked me where I got the map. Darned if I could remember. I might have got it at one of these sites:
http://www.visitedstatesmap.com/ and http://www.epgsoft.com/VisitedStatesMap/ have the US map - and territories...

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/TravelMap/ has a create and export map of the WORLD, in case you're itinerary's wider than mine!

This is Global Warming??

Is it just me, or is this the coldest winter we've had in a long time? I'm so glad to have my 3 good new house batteries :) and to be parked weekends where I can plug in and run the electric blanket.
It warmed up a little Christmas week, then turned cold again, even in South Carolina. Work bounced me back and forth between South Carolina and Central Virginia. With no running water in the pipes, things don't fill up very fast, which is a good thing - it's about impossible to dump when the waters in the valve area are frozen.
Then this past weekend it warmed up. I was in Clover, SC and rejoiced in the sunshine. I took the scoot off the rack and rode to the excellent Curves there, then visited with my daughter. When I returned to the rig, my nose told me that the aforementioned waters had thawed out. Time for some plumbing.
Fortunately I was scheduled to work this week at home base. I drove north knowing I would be parked with electric hookups and driving my little car to and from work this week.
Monday I got off work a bit early (TG!), dumped, rinsed, parked. At home, I back onto ramps whose purpose in life is to make the motorhome level in a driveway which is decidedly not. That keeps the fridge (and me) happy. The side benefit is they put whatever you want to work on up where you can do it. In this case, the offending plumbing was about 2.5 feet off the ground.
The bolts on the valves had been there since 1988 and they wanted to stay. Danny got them off anyway, and I went to the local RV shop for replacement valves. I had them on and functional by the time dinner was ready.
Now if I can just get the new back-up cam installed. And no, you don't want pictures for this post.

Another Tiny Yule Tree

I have a new little tiny tree this year. It's a sparkly green wire "tree" strung with very tiny battery operated LED lights. They blink, so I tried to upload a video instead of a picture. It didn't work.

This was the weekend for cleaning and decorating the motorhome for the holidays, and catching up on a few of the way-too-many unfinished projects. Santa, please bring me a few years off with pay to catch up with myself?

Hope everyone has a blessed winter season.