Today's Yard, January 22 2011

This is my yard today. It's been blowing snow - and I do mean BLOWING snow - horizontally - since noon. I really do have this whole campground to myself, but no, I'm not going to go walk around it, or go walk on the beach...

I'm sitting inside my rig, parked on the leeward side of the bath house, as out of the wind as it's possible to get, and enjoying being warm. I made the most delicious soup I have ever made the other day and will be heating it up soon.
Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny. If it makes this white stuff go away, I'll get to walk up to the dunes you can't really see in the picture.

FYI, RVing readers - the visitor's center on Roanoke Island (along Route 64 on the way here from the mainland) has a free dump station.

Today's Yard, January 16, 2011

State Fair grounds at Raleigh NC.

This is the first time I've camped at a fairgrounds. It will NOT be the last. I was just hunting a hookup and hot showers and was not sure they'd even be open this time of year until I called to confirm - turned out it was one busy place. Don't let the picture mislead you - that was all covered by vehicles yesterday.
Every weekend except when the State Fair is happening, there's a flea market. This weekend there was also a horse event, a racing sale, a cheerleading event, and a gun and knife show. I probably missed something in that list, too.

Campsites are mostly along the perimeter of the fairgrounds. You find a spot or if you're as confused as I was when I arrived, you call the fairgrounds' public safety office and someone will come help you. I'm glad: I didn't want to go blindly exploring in that crowd with a motorhome. I found out it's best to arrive very early or after the days events are over. When I arrived at 2 pm, a lot of event-goers had parked their cars in campsites, limiting the choices. There is water, sewer and electric. The water is underneath metal plates marked "water meter". Lift with a screwdriver and you find the spigots. The shower that is open in the winter is a good hike from most of the campsites. There are no picnic tables. But there are events!

I did the flea market yesterday, which made this one of the most expensive campgrounds I've ever stayed at! But I found some things at amazing prices that I've wanted for a long time.

Today I will do the gun show.

And I will find out where all the fairgrounds that have camping are and check them for interesting events as I travel. If you know of fairgrounds that have camping, please post a comment and let me know.

Today's Yard 1/11/11

Yesterday was snow. THIS is ice. Lot of ice. This is North Carolina. Why am I not in Mexico?? Paycheck addiction, that's why.

I had an Out-Of-Century Experience in Lakeland GA.

I had an out of century experience this week. I took the motorhome for gas in Lakeland, Georgia. There was no card reader on the pump, which isn't SO unusual. Then the guy from the gas station came out, put gas in my tank, checked my oil, other fluids, put air in my tires! I started to wonder if I'd slipped back to 1970 or something. He ran the sliding embosser gadget over my debit card and gave me my copy... Haven't seen one of those in a while either. Hmmmm - customer service - what a neat idea. Think it'll catch on?



Lakeland is called The Mural City. It's called that because it's got murals of people, places and scenes from the past painted on the buildings in the historical part of town. Complete with placards explaining who they were.





It's earned its name Lakeland too. I headed out on the scooter after work and found 4 lakes without trying. 3 were small lakes in parks in town. That's a lot of lakes, and a lot of parks, considering the size of the town.



The largest of these was adjacent to a nature trail through the woods where the stream went beyond the dam.







While I was there, I got a good look at the little red antique car belonging to the lady whom I'm told is responsible for arranging the murals.




If you've been reading this blog, you know I like lakes, walks through the woods, antique cars, and interesting oddities. It was a good town.

Then I went just out of town, to the Banks Lake Wildlife Preserve. There, of course, I found my fourth lake. Much bigger, cypress trees growing in it... I took a bunch of pictures and vowed to return when the Outpost was open to rent a boat.



There are a few houses / cabins / dock houses right on the edge of the lake. I'd love to have one - it'd make a great home base.








I did come back, and rented a kayak. I've always canoed, but now I'm hooked on kayaks. It was way fun, and easier on my bod. And I got more pictures.













I'm at Ebenezer Park in Rock Hill SC tonight, with a whole bunch of new pictures to add to the files full of old pictures - because I have been to neat places in the last year - I've just been working too hard to post about most of them. This week the work let up some and I have a few brain cells available for writing a blog post or two. Maybe I should start with this week and work back through the files.

Ebenezer Park's on Lake Wylie. There's quite a lot of Lake Wylie. I want a kayak. Now. Today.

First I have to figure out (a) how to carry one on my motorhome, (b)what kind of kayak I want, and (c) how to pay for the darn thing.

The end of a relationship

When we first got together, it was blissful.  We had 15 good years.  Then things changed.  When I tried to communicate, I would be reduced to tears.
They say insanity is repeating the same thing, expecting different results.  I'm done.
It's over.  I will no longer allow you to treat me this way.
Bank of America, I have negotiated your voice response system for the last time.  What would take a human being less than 2 minutes to deal with, requires major chunks of time listening to inane menus, selecting the closest inadequate response, and not resolving the issue.
Most recently I spent nearly an hour trying to tell your voice response system that buying propane for my RV is NOT unusual card activity.  Eventually, I had to go online, text-chat with a live person who couldn't actually DO anything but who did give me a number where I could reach a live person.  Total time: 2 hours.
Does it make sense that I can go online and type to a human but can't call one on the phone???
If you were my boyfriend, this would be an abusive relationship.  I don't stay in abusive relationships, so I'm out of here.
So is my money.  It's going to another bank which employs actual human customer service people.

A weighty issue

Space, of course, is at a premium in an RV. Although I have lots of good intentions about getting in shape now that the weather is somewhat cooler, there is not space for a Bowflex, or a weight bench, or a rack of weights... I have a set of exercise bands and a pair of one-pound weights which as the weather cooled I discovered were really too light to accomplish anything. I knew there had to be adjustable weights out there. I'd seen them on the internet - expensive ones...

Sunday evening I stopped at K-Mart and browsed around and found these.



They are WEIDER PowerSwitch 25. Each dumbbell adjusts from 2.5 pounds up to 12.5 pounds by moving a knob, adjusting a slider which keeps varying amounts of weight plates attached to the handle. It's like having a rack of weights in the space of one pair. And they'll keep me busy for quite a while before 25# becomes too light.