Hook repairs, cooking and relaxing

Here is some of what I've been doing lately.

When I first moved into this rig, I hung some things up with cup hooks. I particularly like these hooks with the extra metal keepers. Nothing bounces off them while I'm driving. My kitchen shears and coffee filter basket hang on this kind of hook. Over time, though, with the constant use these items get, the hooks had gotten loose. Motorhome walls are, after all, just paneling.

There are, of course, special bits of hardware to securely hold things in paneling. I haven't had such good luck with those things, though. This time I tried something different.

I took the hook out of the wall, coated its threads with wood glue, and screwed it back in. Then I refrained from putting the utensils back on until the glue was thoroughly dry. They feel nice and secure now.

Being in Georgia, it is often warm enough to cook outside. I have the usual propane grill and a butane burner - but a few years ago at a rummage sale, I picked up this little grill. It folds up flat and lives in a small canvas bag when not in use. Set up, it will hold a wood fire, or with a wire rack to raise the fuel up it will take charcoal. It works quite nicely.

Of course, even in Georgia it isn't always warm. It is winter, after all. I had seen these little electric heaters that look like fire places several times over the past couple of years and didn't really think I could fit one in the rig. It's hard to tell when they're in the box. In December I saw one on the sales floor at Camping World, in action, and knew I'd really like to have one. There was still the space issue.
Then while I was visiting my young'uns over the holidays, I saw them at Walmart for $50. But it is not a good idea to shop for yourself just before Christmas, so I didn't buy it. The next time I saw them, they were at the Walmart near here, in Baxley GA, for about $70. By this time I really wanted one, but wasn't paying that much for it.

I was helping one of our campers with her hookups and she had the box from one of these heaters - she had just bought it at that same Walmart for $50 - the price had gone down in the intervening weeks. So off I went. I had just done a clean and purge in the living room, and knew where to put it, so there it is.
By the way, it is not "A Real Fire". The heat comes out the bottom and goes forward, so the tote of paperwork is perfectly happy, and perfectly cool, sitting on top of the heater.

Sunrise!

I love dawn. My motorhome is facing Southeast, so when it's too cool to sit outside, I sit in the turned-around passenger seat and enjoy my coffee and the dawn through the windshield.

This morning I looked up from my Kindle and the Sunrise I saw impelled me to fly out of the camper and take pictures in all directions - East, South, West, North, Up... The whole sky was lit up and it was beautiful. Hopefully the pictures will convey some of that.

Gypsy 1 - Stuff 0

I am determined to win the battle of STUFF. I could fit in this rig - or a camper van, for that matter - except that I have interests that require materials and tools and... I do music. I read. I make jewelry. I knit. (I do other things, too, but the Stuff for those things has been relegated to storage, which is a different can of worms entirely.) So I have instruments and music books and beadwork tools and beads - lots of beads - and a bunch of knitting needles and a small stash of yarn and a to-be-read pile that is unfortunately not entirely Kindle books.

This is one of the two overhead cabinets devoted to beadwork supplies. As you can see, it is pretty much packed and not very easy to use. A quick pair of earrings becomes a major project.

Another overhead cabinet in the bedroom was devoted to music books and odds and ends of recording paraphernalia. So today I reorganized the overhead cabinets in the living room - where I actually DO the music - and got enough stuff removed or compressed or relocated that I had an empty cabinet. Wow! So I moved the music stuff from the bedroom to the living room, where it will be much more useful. Weeded out some stuff, too. RVing musicians, note the instrument hanger attached to the space between the cabinet doors. No, I do NOT drive with the guitar hanging there but I'm not driving anywhere for a couple of months so it gets to hang close at hand.

So now I have a newly empty cabinet in the bedroom for beading supplies. Another day I will pull it all out, make some things, and put it all away in a more usable manner, using this newly available space.

Eye Glasses

Quick post: do you wake up and fumble for your glasses?  I have solved that problem in my motorhome.   Just put a hook on the wall at the head of the bed and remember to hang your glasses on it when you take them off.

A week ago I arrived here at Stagger Lee Music Park.

I thought I'd get a blog post up before this but I've been busy with park stuff and trying to get my motor home cleaned up. Between the very fast travel schedule I keep while merchandising, and the holidays, I had an amazing amount of clutter. Anyone who tells you A Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss: they lie. Staying put for a while is going to be great: I need to catch up with myself.

Now I'm settled in.

I unloaded the scooter, which pleased me by starting right up.

I set out my patio furniture and inversion table.

I hung my awning lights.

So - campground pictures.

It is winter, so the park is pretty much empty. That's about to change, though, because workers for a local plant shut-down will be staying with us and we hope to be busy.

That's right, folks - RV camping is not just for retired people who planned right. There are construction workers and travel nurses and all sorts of workers whose jobs take them to many places for relatively short periods of time. They build highways and refurbish plants and staff health care facilities and install gas lines - and live in their RV's while they do it.

Yes, I've been out in the canoe already. There is an alligator, but I haven't seen it.

Things can change - quickly - and that's a good thing.

I was up reading facebook at 11:30 pm one evening in January when another member of a FB RV group I belong to posted that he was looking for a new camp host for a campground in Georgia. I sent a PM for more information, and to make a long story short, I'm it.
I'd been wanting an opportunity to drive less - the cool traveling job I've been working for the past 8 years kept me on the road almost daily and I wanted time to catch up with myself! Even for Gypsy Jane, there is such a thing as too much traveling. And I have weight I want to lose, which I found difficult faced with the interior of a supermarket every workday.
So this popped up as the answer to my prayers.
I had planned to head south from the Gastonia NC, area where I was visiting Younger Daughter and her family, on Saturday but something I ate did not agree with me at all. Thus I did not head south until Sunday morning - with a quite welcome aversion to food.
I reached the town near the campground (it's between Baxley and Hazlehurst) after dark and had errands, so I spent the night at the local Walmart.
In the morning, I added Stabil to a full tank of gas because I do not intend to drive for at least 2 months, then drove to the campground and got settled in.
My awning is out, my patio furniture is set up, my inversion table is ready for use - YES!! My back is gonna love this.
The day was spent finding out what is where, who is who, what needs to be done, confirming reservations, getting familiar with paperwork, conferring with the owner. I fell into bed around midnight.
Woke up this morning to another beautiful sunny Southern day - this is the first time I've managed to be south for the winter in years, and OMG! do I appreciate it - and realized I actually have space to do yoga. Not IN the rig of course - what motorhome has floor space? But my patio area is perfect. Will it become a daily practice? I'm not gonna tempt fate by saying yes, but I can certainly hope so.
And so begins the latest chapter in the Adventures of Gypsy Jane.