Getting itchy for the road

(Pictures from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia)

When your house has a diesel engine and six tires there are things you must do before moving. The engine is down 3 quarts of oil, it is time for a change, but I will wait until we are further north. For you that do not know an oil change for the Cummings engine  starts at $199.00 on special. So I do not get in a hurry to change it . (When convenient and I have the time I change the oil myself). I do not mind going over the time by a month or a 1000 miles.

Checked the air in the tires, good. Added water, It should not have been low, so tomorrow I will change the radiator cap and hope that is the problem. We want to look good on the road so we will wash it and shine the tires.

We have sat here for a couple months, except for a quick trip to tow Mark’s van home from near Georgia, so you  get rusty at what must be done.

We also must restring a day/night shade that is broken. WE cleaned the carpet when we rented the carpet shampooer to clean the carpet in the rental house. That house is painted (the painting was subcontracted out), but we rehung the blinds and replaced all the switch and outlet covers the painters removed plus done the carpet cleaning.

And this coach is about ready for the roads north. I am ready to have my girl to myself going some places we have been and some we have not seen before.

This is a beautiful country and we will be driving thru some prime real estate the first couple days, the Shenandoah Valley. We look at each other as we drive north on the highway and point out where the famous AT crosses under the interstate. We look to our right where stands the Shenandoah mountains and say, can you  believe we hiked that entire stretch of mountains?

Just a day, and we will head out.

Night Shipslog

PS:

Ah, we love the life we have chosen. Neither of us minds stopping for a month or so, but after a month we both start talking of where to go next?

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Even on the interstate, I get to see some thrillers.

Time to check the backpack

(Pictures from the White Mountains of New Hampshire)

Our plans are to weigh anchor on Tuesday, so it is time to get the backpacking gear out and see what shape it is in and put it together.

 

But first to wrap up our stay here. Luke has moved in and settled in to his studio apartment. All the pipes underneath are insulated since the building is not underpinned. (I might do that on our way back through on our way to Florida in the fall). The house is ready for a new tenant, our grand daughter Sherece and Stella.

I am writing this on Sunday morning. That is unusual for me, I usually do my blog the night before. My schedule has been off since being here, working and fighting an angry computer. Several times (yesterday was one) I thought my blog entry was on and it had not posted.

Yesterday Son Jack helped me thru using my Norton package to iron out the problems. First he got ‘help’ on the line and they did a lot for the system. Then he set up the FULL SYSTEM SCAN, (which I had never used) The scan took most of the day up until late last night. The system scanned nearly 3 million items. Found 14 more bad guys and destroyed them. Now I am working comfortably again on the system. It does seem faster, but we are still on the fringe area of the cell coverage, and still not fast.

So I hope I am back on a semblance of a schedule.

But today is church and getting ready to hit the road. My favorite thing.

It is nice to know something is accomplished on the system and the ‘dreaded pop-ups’ are gone for a spell.

It is nice to know the finance drain is over on the little apartment. We are looking forward to the  time it is ours to sorta ‘vacation in.’ hahaha. Luke has decided again where he will finish college (after one more year when his first two years are over), I think it it NC State.

Thanks for coming this way.

Nite Shipslog

PS: Nice to finish a log entry without having to restart a couple times… (I also finished a Clive Custler book and started one by Jack Higgins.

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1964 Thunderbird

Appears to be a 1954(55) Skylark Buick

Hearing

Funny thing (Not ha ha) I realized my hearing was going because of the first Bank sealed bid auction I ever attended. I ‘won’ the bid on a GMC Diesel truck.  The other bidders got real upset because I bids a reasonable amount for the truck.

I took my Sherry a ride in my new purchase and was thrilled as we rode around. Says me, “ For a Diesel this sucker is real quiet.”

To my virgin ears I hear, “ARE YOU CRAZY? This thing is LOUD.” (That might not be quiet what she said, but it was close.)

(My aids have graduated to two behind the ear aids. I tell everyone they are for looks)

That said, I got hearing aids, and over the years continued to lose my hearing. Last night after taking my aids out, I talked to my self. I could not hear my words.  Don’t get me wrong, this is not written for sympathy. I don’t like it, but I know I am deaf.

My left ear is completely gone and my right ear is over 95% gone. BUT with hearing aids I can make out mostly what Sherry says. That to me is the most important thing in the world. It would be sweet if aids worked like eye glasses. Glasses can bring your sight to 20/20 (mostly) But the aids, just amplify the blurred words I am hearing…

I bring that up because so many folk ask why I do not try the cochlea implant. My understanding is I could possibly lose my 5% of hearing if something went wrong, so I opt to hear this little bit as long as I can.

I sometimes get my feeling hurt a little when folks say ‘Jack hears what he wants to Hear! (and I honestly usually hear that)’  But I am getting used to that statement and realize no one but a deaf person can understand.

As I said, I am not looking for sympathy,  I just felt like talking about it. I know I am blessed. I enjoyed hearing for nearly 60 years, some folk NEVER hear an orchestra or the breathing of a baby as it lays in your arms after falling asleep. Many people have never heard their wife say, “I love you.”

So I can be thankful I was able to talk to customers, enjoy walking and swinging conversations with Sherry and my family. tonight at a party at ‘Pizza Hut’ I was just there, but I enjoyed watching sons Mark and Jack interact with their cousins. It was good.

Nite Shipslog

PS: I have TOO much to be thankful for to gripe all the time, so this is my gripe lines for this week.

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Ford Escort and Probe, do not know the year.

The Fourth of July

Like Christmas, it comes around regularly.  This time I thought I had plenty of time to finish my chores and yet, here it is and we are rushing to get everything done.  It seems that has become normal. 

But today I will take time to be thankful for living in this country. I have enough common sense to know there are some OTHER great countries in this world where the citizens have freedom, possibly more than the USA, but I do not live in one of those. I feel blessed to have been born in Gastonia, North Carolina, USA.

I am sure the Canadians are proud to be Canadians and they did not fight for their independence, it came naturally (as I understand it.)  There are times I wonder how we would have fared waiting until we were GIVEN INDEPENDENCE.

Now I could be wrong in my history but that is my thinking. I am open to correction, and if wrong I will blame it on age.

Yes! Today I am proud to be an American.

Happy Fourth OF JULY to my fellow citizens. Have a great day and be thankful.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

No matter how you celebrate. Remember how blessed we are.

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Equal, NEVER

For years I have heard that we are EQUAL, that is men and women. Don’t start throwing things yet.

(my mama, Grace Missouri Loyd Darnell)

The average female cannot match the average male in body strength. The average woman does not know the difference in an adjustable wrench and a pair of pliers. And the old statement a woman just cannot be as sexy as a man (thinks he is) bald, and with a beer belly.

(Mark and Jackie's mama, (My Sherry))

Equal? NEVER.  We men will never be equal to a woman, no matter how many husbands stay at home to tend the kids. No man could do what my mama could do. She could get up every morning and in a matter of minutes have a breakfast cooking that was fit for a king. Two pans of homemade biscuits, eggs (scrambled and fried) bacon, sausage, or ham and some fresh butter she had churned. Some red-eye gravy and then jelly that SHE had made.

She could have some beans to break, after cleaning up the kitchen she may kill a chicken, pluck it, cut it and have dinner underway while cleaning the house.  To you who do not know, dinner was lunch, she still had Supper to do.

She could also take a few phone calls and be balancing a check book or counting the money to see what the family might have to skip (and not miss). No one in mama’s family knew things might be tight. If she did not have the eggs and meat for breakfast, she could substitute. She could fry bread and mixed with some leftovers it would become her ‘Loblolly’, she would make it fun to eat.

She could do the same thing on Monday and include washing, starching and ironing.

Mama and my Sherry (PLOTTING)

Mark says people cannot believe his mama (my Sherry) had a hot breakfast for the  family every morning, washed clothes, raised the boys (I wasn’t always around) and took care of the house and worked a full time job

Men and women equal? Not in this world. I have never known a man who would come close to matching the average woman’s ability to ‘GIT-R-Done.

I do not think it is ‘Woman’s Day’, but it is a day. A day I am thinking of my departed sister Kat. She was a dedicated voter. She made it a practice in the last few years of her life to enter a voting booth with a list of the women running. She only voted for women. When I asked her why, she smiled and said, “You men have messed this thing up royally, it is going to take women to fix it.”

That was my little sister Kat.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

My little sister may have had something there.

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Studebaker Golden hawk, 1957

What do you like?

I like apples, the crunchier the better and a little tart. In traveling I met the Empire Apple and I really do like it. When I was little I loved what mama called a cooking apple. I was never a fan of cooked apples unless they were in a pie. Grapes, cherries, blackberries and strawberries just to name a few fruits I LIKE!

NOW, TODAY, I read where apples can be bad for you because of the pesticides. Shucks, I cannot win for losing.  Maybe if I stick to green apples and salt, before they have a chance to see pesticides.

Raw veggies:

I like green beans, carrots, celery, squash, cucumbers, broccoli, cabbage I know I like a bunch of them raw.

Hey I like watermelons and cantaloupes. 

I like most nuts (even some nutty people!)

I like peanut butter.

I like either honey, jelly and molasses mixed with butter and eaten with a hot biscuit.

I like strong black coffee in my favorite cup from Boot Hill in Dodge City.

I like old cowboy movies.

I love to see horses, they give me a good feeling.

I like dogs, they are some of my favorite people.

 

I like sampling foods from the different areas we visit, especially if they have a specialty.

If eating at a buffet, I like fewer items, especially if the business is slow. (My mind asks, how can you keep 99 items fresh and serve 40 people a day?)

I love eggs (I do not eat many) but I think an egg fried sunny side up is beautiful.

Some folk will not understand, but I like Taco Bell for Mexican food, as compared to a sit-down and be served restaurant.

I like Oriental food, but my favorite international food is Italian (and I honestly do not know too many dish names.)

I really do like a lot of foods, but it is hard to beat pinto beans and cornbread or cornbread and milk (and I am a little odd, I like some chopped onion in the mix)

Nite Shipslog

PS:

And your favorite food is?

Your favorite international food is?

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Yes, the project is finished…

(repeat pictures)

I do not have any final pictures of the project.  They were about the same as the last pictures I posted.. We only added the bathroom vent fan. Luke was moving in before the mud was dry on the cuts I had to make in the drywall.

This is how it ended up. there is trim around the A/C unit and the Headboard is sleeping in Shirl’s basement.

There are brown blinds on the windows, compliment of Luke’s Grandma Mary. And the bathroom is about the same.

But it is finished. Just in time to start work on the house (on the same lot).  Son Mark has rented that house for a couple years now (Never missed a rent payment).  He has bought in Florida and is moving. His daughter Sherece wanted to move in, so we are in the process of painting (sub contracting that out!) and cleaning. Some minor changes.

Does anyone remember this wall paper?

That stripe was in the master bedroom. Everyone in bloggersville said THAT MUST GO, I even said that. But Mark did not care so it stayed. 

WELL Sherece has a different opinion, so she has removed the UUUGly stuff.

This is the house when we first bought it.

So with that job finished, we head on to a few more. Cleaning this house and getting the backpacking stuff together.

Also one or two small things to the motor home before heading NORTH.

Nite Shipslog

PS:

We get excited sitting down to plan our trip. That makes our lives, FUN.

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the electric car, 1932