Catching up......

We began yesterday catching up with things that we've been putting off for too long....like doctor appointments. Both of us needed to see the dermatologist, so we made appointments. I love it when your appointment is for 1:30 and at 3:00 (after you've been sitting in one of those cold, little cubbyholes), the Doc breezes in, (putting on his best bedside manner, one that he was taught in medical school that is supposed to put the patient at ease, and project the Doc as a nice guy), and he immediately grabs the container of liquid nitrogen, and starts daubbing those little suspect sun cancer spots.

I may be treading on the cynical side here, but have you ever closely examined the bill that the Doc submits to the insurance company? He bills for $8.00 per daub, and the insurance pays $4.00. And, have you ever counted the actual daubs while the Doc is daubbing? Seems to me that the daubs that he is paid for are actually more than the daubs received! I've never actually said anything, but I thinks this is just a way for the Doc to get paid what he thinks he deserves. In other words, he doubles up on the daubs.....

The American Medical Society recommends that each physician spend at least 15 minutes with their patient, even if there's nothing wrong with him. My Doc is so fast that he wears running shoes....I watched as he ran from the room to see if they were the kind that have the little lights that flicker!

Next week have to do the treadmill test.....I'm going to wear my running shoes (the ones with the little lights........).

Grandkiddies tree house.... 

back of the house..... 

Our driveway looking to the West... 

What were looking at the day after we got back from the Sunny South....... 

Horses and barn just to the west of our driveway. 

If you don't like the Maryland weather, stick around......

for sure, it will change......In the70's yesterday, today it is rainy and cold, snow maybe.

Went to Beck's last night with all the family except Wayne and Jason. We didn't get a call into Jason until late, and Wayne stayed home to supervise the "drywall man".

Great dinner and enjoyed hearing everyone talking at once, and making sure Chase and Mikey were not in the bathroom, plugging up the sink!

It is hard adjusting to being in this huge house after spending almost 2 months in 420 square feet of space.

I'm looking out the window, and sure enough, it is snowing......

John, our neighbor, is glad that i'm back to help with the snow plowing....he said no one offered to help while we were gone. They probably just think he enjoys it so much, they would be interfering with his pleasure.

We had two huge cartons of mail from the post office. Linda had made two pickups, and we spent Sunday and Monday sorting thru the catalogs, magazines, etc., looking for anything important. It is amazing how much of this stuff is going into the landfill.

Marjorie Rawlings in hunting garb, along with her favorite bird dog. 

Makes a hasty retreat when challenged....... 

The bird that watches over the Rawlings farm, and protests loudly when anyone comes near. 

The barn at M.K. Rawlings farm. 

M.K. Rawlings farmhouse in Cross Creek FL. 

Florida State employee who is in charge of the Rawlings house. She is dressed as a 1940's housekeeper would be. 

It was a dark and stormy night.....

and, it was only about 3:30 in the afternoon!

But, first things first....we left Santee early Friday morning, having spent the night at Big Water CG (disappointment), intending to make it up to Emporia Virginia. You know how things have a way of starting out bad, and just do not get any better? There were some tricky turns to get back on I-95, and, naturally, I took the wrong path. Not only that, but I tried to turn around where there wasn't enough room, and instead of stopping right there, unhooking, turning around, I chose to drive on up the road, suspecting it was a dead end.....it was, but only after about 1/2 mile, locked gate.

Water on both sides of the embankment, so, unhook the toad, move it up front, then back the 1/2 mile out. Shelby was a nervous wreck! I was proud that I could back that far just using the mirrors.

Got back on the road about ten miles, near Summerton SC, and the steering wheel started vibrating.....I knew what it was before it happened, started to slow down. The right front tire blew, and I tried to remember what i had heard about how to handle a blow out. Fortunately, I knew not to hit the brake (it was hard to keep my foot off that pedal!), steered toward the shoulder, and it slowed on it's own.

Finally got calm enough to call Good Sam, and a few minutes later got a call from T&l Tire Service in Sumter (about 35 miles away). I hadn't been paying attention to mile markers, and had to guess about where I was located. So......2-1/2 hours later I finally was able to talk to the tow truck driver, get him turned around (he was looking for me on the southbound side), and learned that his jacks would not fit under the MH, had to raise it with my jacks before they would fit.

I had planned to replace all the tires when we got home, but the blow out made me want to consider it long before that. In the meantime the owner of the business showed up (he had been driving around looking for his driver), and I got him to get me a price on six new (heavier duty) Goodyear replacements that a lot of people are buying to replace the Michelins (who have a history of sidewall failures). The price wasn't the greatest, but it was close, and it's awfully hard to negotiate alongside I-95 with the trucks blowing by at 70 m.p.h.

We put my used spare tire on the rim (yeah, I've been hauling that thing around for 2 years now, complaining all the time about the space that it takes up in the storage bay. We followed him back to Sumter where he had five of the tires in stock, and he sent one of his men all the way to Columbia S.C. to get another. It was about 2:30 by then, and, with five tires installed, everyone sat around and waited for the guy to return from Columbia. The MH was blocking the bays, and they couldn't do any other work. He showed about 5:30, and we took off for Florence to a C.G. for the night.

Now, back to the dark and stormy night.....I had been up early, watching the Weather Channel to see what was happening up ahead, and it seemed to be clear except for some rain up around Richmond.

When we hit the exit for the Richmond bypass, I thought, it's saturday afternoon, so the interstate thru Richmond should be fairly clear....wrong again! A little farther up the road, the sky turned totally black, and the snow began to fall, and every mother's son in Richmond had decided to go somewhere that day. I mean, the traffic was bumper to bumper at 60 mph, in the snow, and I couldn't believe what a situation I had gotten into.

By the time we got to the CG on the other side of Richmond, we were both totally exhausted, parked and went to bed.

We're home now, the MH water lines have all been drained, got a pizza for dinner, and life is good!

Robert Fulton Jr. (Rivergeezer) and associate at the M.K. Rawlings farm. 

M.K. Rawlings at her home, working on her screened porch, her favorite place to write. 

A step back in time.......

Yesterday we drove up to Cross Creek to see Marjorie Kinnan Rawlins home, a Florida State Park. She is the author of The Yearling, Cross Creek, and other books about living in the Florida Outback.

She was born in Maryland, and had always wanted to own a farm. The fact that she knew practically nothing about farming didn't daunt her. When she and her new husband were visiting friends in Florida, she used a small inheritance to buy an 80 acre orange grove, along with a run down house and barn. Her husband didn't take to farming, and split, not much later, leaving her with the problem of trying to grow oranges in a non-suitable climate.

In order to make ends meet, she turned to writing, and had her first successful book in 1939 with The Yearling.

We couldn't take a tour of the house since we were there on an off day, but we spent a lot of time wandering around the grounds. While wandering, we met a couple of people who were doing a photo essay of the home, and it's connection to the famous author. The fellow's name is Robert Fulton Jr., an outdoor writer and author/editor. The spent quite a bit of time showing us around the property, answering questions.

Today we are heading up I-95 to Santee S.C., and will spend a night (or more) at the Big Water Lake Resort RV Park, a new CG right on the lake. Then we will watch the weather in the North closely to see if we can catch enough warm days in order to get home. Right now in North Carolina and Virginia there is freezing, and we don't want to have to deal with the pipes freezing if we can avoid it.

Golf, Golf, and more golf......

I kinda' feel left out....this morning I rode the bike up around the golf course, and there were lots of people waiting for starting times. One large group was sporting yellow t-shirts, don't know what that was all about. It seems that the majority of people staying here are golfers, and you see them on the driving range, the practice green, and in groups, standing around, probably lying about their scores.

I always get a little defensive when someone asks if I golf, for I have to admit to them that I tried the game, was convinced after some time that I would never be good at it, and just quit. However, I have talked to some people who have an average no better than mine was, and they have been playing for the past 30 years, or more, and enjoying every minute of it . Go figure!

We drove up to Gainesville to look around, went into the dirtiest WalMart I have ever seen. Sam Walton would turn over in his grave if he ever saw that!