Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Beach Weather?
We decided to travel to Florida hoping that the winter temperatures would be a bit warmer than what we were used to in North Georgia. Well, it hasn't worked out quite that way. People are telling us that it has gotten colder, sooner this year than any time in recent memory. This morning it is a cold 39 degrees here. Not expecting the low temperatures, we didn't bring any really warm clothing, so it is off to some clothing store, in a hurry, for sweat shirts and light jackets. Until just a few days ago, it was warm enough in the middle of the day to be on the beach in shorts and and a tee shirt. Mexico Beach was especially nice a few days ago, warm enough for swimming if you didn't mind the cool ocean water. We found some new places with great seafood near the Marina in Panama City. Hunt's Seafood is the place to go if you like oysters, and a new, huge restaurant called the Shrimp Boat finally opened after about a year of construction. We haven't been there yet, but Hunt's has very good seafood at reasonable prices. The marina area has a number of good restaurants as well as nice shops and coffee houses. The Boathouse behind Captain Anderson's is our favorite restaurant. It has a great view of the returning fishing and pleasure boats and the food and service is very, very good.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Full Timing Update
We are in our 4th month of full time RV'ing, and it just keeps getting better and better. What we like most about it, other than the sense of absolute freedom it brings, is meeting new people every day. Yesterday a couple arrived in the park driving one of the new luxury super class C motor homes. This one was 42 feet and built on a Freightliner chassis, and it was an eye catcher. We were walking around the park and the owners (they are from Cincinnati) started a conversation that lasted about an hour and ended with a tour of their rig, which was very impressive. He was three years from retirement and his wife was already retired, and they were going to join the ranks of the full timers as soon as he retired. They are vacationing here for a week.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Hurricane Gustav and Other Stuff
Just a few days after hurricane Fay (all we had was moderate rain and winds), along came hurricane Gustav. For a while, the initial track projections had it headed straight for us, but it came ashore in south Texas, and our weather here was not even affected.
Our realtor called us and said that a young family had made an offer on the house, and after a day of back and forth negotiations they had a contract to buy it. Closing was a couple of weeks ago, and we are now homeless (in the traditional sense).
For the past three months we have been living in a 24 foot class C motor home. To say that our living quarters were a bit cramped is a tremendous understatement, so while we were home for the house closing we found a new motor home that we really liked. After some negotiations we are now living in a 38 foot Winnebago Adventurer.
Our realtor called us and said that a young family had made an offer on the house, and after a day of back and forth negotiations they had a contract to buy it. Closing was a couple of weeks ago, and we are now homeless (in the traditional sense).
For the past three months we have been living in a 24 foot class C motor home. To say that our living quarters were a bit cramped is a tremendous understatement, so while we were home for the house closing we found a new motor home that we really liked. After some negotiations we are now living in a 38 foot Winnebago Adventurer.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Hurricane Fay
Hurricane Fay is off Cuba and the National Hurricane Center is predicting that landfall in the US will be somewhere along the gulf coast of Florida, which is not good news for us. Everyone here is making preparations to either ride out a tropical storm or evacuate to avoid a hurricane. We will disconnect from our site today to fill the RV tanks with gas and propane in case we have to evacuate or ride out a tropical storm using the generator. We should know by Tuesday what we will have to do. Hopefully Fay will lose energy and won't be a threat.
Monday, August 4, 2008
At the end of the week I will have been here a month. Derita finally arrived last Monday. She started to work in the office on Thursday, and seems to really like it. As I said before, the people here are really nice and easy to work with.
Other than eating some great seafood, we didn't do much of anything else this weekend. We spent most of the weekend getting everything adjusted to our RV. A co-worker told me about a good kayaking river close-by, and we want to go there as soon as we can.
It seems like there is some kind of a festival here almost every week, many related to food and seafood, so we plan to go to some of those. A really big non-food related one is bike week. Apparently 100,000 people attend that one, and we were advised to stock up on anything we might need so we don't have to get out on the streets that weekend. They say the congestion is incredible.
Other than eating some great seafood, we didn't do much of anything else this weekend. We spent most of the weekend getting everything adjusted to our RV. A co-worker told me about a good kayaking river close-by, and we want to go there as soon as we can.
It seems like there is some kind of a festival here almost every week, many related to food and seafood, so we plan to go to some of those. A really big non-food related one is bike week. Apparently 100,000 people attend that one, and we were advised to stock up on anything we might need so we don't have to get out on the streets that weekend. They say the congestion is incredible.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
July 6, 2008
Plans change. Looks like we are not wintering in Harlingen Texas after all. We just returned from Florida. We were staying in a really nice RV park located very close to a one of the most popular beaches in Florida, so we decided to leave our resumes' in the event the park needed part time employees (it's called workamping. You work a certain number of hours for your site, which includes electrical, sewer hookup, cable TV and other amenities and discounts, and then you are paid for any additional hours worked). Anyway, we left our resumes' at the office, and promptly forgot about it, not expecting any immediate response. Two days later, I was at the site working on my bicycle and Derita was at the condo where her family was staying when the General Manager of the park walked up and introduced himself.
Two hours later Derita and I walked out of the GM's office. I had a job that starts next Saturday (Derita couldn't commit. She has to give notice and close the house, but a job for her is a virtual certainty), so I have to get everything ready to leave Saturday morning.
Sunday, July 13, 2008:
Well, here I am. I start workamping tomorrow. Derita is still at the house and she won't be down until the last of July. She is closing down the house and getting Spencer ready to go back to college July 28. So far so good.
Plans change. Looks like we are not wintering in Harlingen Texas after all. We just returned from Florida. We were staying in a really nice RV park located very close to a one of the most popular beaches in Florida, so we decided to leave our resumes' in the event the park needed part time employees (it's called workamping. You work a certain number of hours for your site, which includes electrical, sewer hookup, cable TV and other amenities and discounts, and then you are paid for any additional hours worked). Anyway, we left our resumes' at the office, and promptly forgot about it, not expecting any immediate response. Two days later, I was at the site working on my bicycle and Derita was at the condo where her family was staying when the General Manager of the park walked up and introduced himself.
Two hours later Derita and I walked out of the GM's office. I had a job that starts next Saturday (Derita couldn't commit. She has to give notice and close the house, but a job for her is a virtual certainty), so I have to get everything ready to leave Saturday morning.
Sunday, July 13, 2008:
Well, here I am. I start workamping tomorrow. Derita is still at the house and she won't be down until the last of July. She is closing down the house and getting Spencer ready to go back to college July 28. So far so good.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
New Beginnings
Isn't this special? We just spent the past year getting the house ready to sell so we can travel full time, and the bottom falls out the real estate market. Housing sales are at their worst in years and we put the house on the market a week ago. We are fairly optimistic in spite of the doom and gloom reported my the news media, and we hope the house will sell at a reasonable price within a reasonable time frame. If it doesn't, we will take it off the market for a while and travel anyway.
When we were in Florida a few weeks ago we met a couple who were wintering at the beach. They had stayed at the same place for several years, but because of increasing rates were planning on staying the winter months next year in southwest Texas. The new location was just a few miles from the Gulf coast near South Padre Island and was blessed with a tropical climate that averaged around a high of 70 degrees during the winter months. That sounded good to us and after researching the location we plan to spend January through April 2009 in Texas away from all the cold weather. That's the plan anyway.
When we were in Florida a few weeks ago we met a couple who were wintering at the beach. They had stayed at the same place for several years, but because of increasing rates were planning on staying the winter months next year in southwest Texas. The new location was just a few miles from the Gulf coast near South Padre Island and was blessed with a tropical climate that averaged around a high of 70 degrees during the winter months. That sounded good to us and after researching the location we plan to spend January through April 2009 in Texas away from all the cold weather. That's the plan anyway.
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