hmmmm.....

some of you more astute readers may notice that the last picture is different from the one before it (and most of the ones before that) in one very important way... yes, that's right... our tow vehicle changed! the dodge was beginning to really become and endless laundry list of minor problems... nothing major... other than a major headache, and i suggested replacing it... and thus the search began!

i love Craigslist, really i do. while checking my local area, i found a guy with a van, and he was willing to trade for a truck! the day before we go to show the guy our truck, the power steering goes out. turns out the guy is really handy, and ready and willing to take on all the truck's idiosyncrasies... even the pump! we traded the truck for the van, straight up.

the van is a 1995 GMC G20 conversion van with all the bells and whistles (cruise control! how i've missed you!!!) and powered by a 350. it even had a hitch already.

not to say that the van doesn't have its own problems. i mean, come on... its 14 years old (holy crap, already?) right now it really needs a radiator flush and fill... but each problem as it comes.

THIS is why RVing rocks!!!

Hungry? its lunchtime? whats that you say? McDonald's? BAH! how about grilled kielbasa and bread hot and fresh at a rest-stop respite, our little roadside paradise. recipe for success: park so that the shade from your own RV falls across where you plan to sit and you can have fun anywhere :D the whole rest stop was green with envy.

Yikes...

its amazing what a lack of good internet connection will do to your will and ability to keep up with your blogging! :( wait... i've already said that once before. o well... its still accurate. i'm sorry everyone!

after a very enjoyable 5 months in Virginia, we hit the road again, and this time ended up in Cape Canaveral FL, or more specifically, the Titusville KOA in Mims, FL. Both KOA's have had extremely slow internet connection, but i really MUST update now, or i probably never will again. lol

anyways... Space Coast FL is beautiful... and i have a good spot that's in the sun in the am, and in the shade by noon.

and the thing that prompts me to post this evening is this: i just watched my first ever shuttle launch. i mean, of course i've watched them on TV... but this was the first time i've seen one personally, with my own eyes... watched the glow and the smoke trail, heard the roar, felt the rumble. very cool.

moar pics!:
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also going on this week: earlier in the week there was a big brush-fire close to the park, and ash fell like snow. it was interesting, to say the least.i'll try to get into a more regular posting schedule again... i'll probably be good for me. we're headed to Abilene TX in May! wheeeeee!

Yeah! It's good, to be back home again...

thank you John Denver! lol

anyways, we've been here for a month now. Except for my allergies, I'm remembering why I still love my homestate of Virginia so much

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It's also been absolutely beautiful weather... we haven't had to use the air conditioner more than 3 or 4 days the whole time so far. Also, the Airstream rally was this past weekend, not September like I thought it was! whoa!
I'll put pics of that later, for now, its late, i'm tired. say g'night Gracie.

its amazing what a lack of WiFi will do to your blog's current-ness...

well, i have some catching up to do. it started getting *REALLY* hot in Alabama, and other issues were also frustrating me, so we started the search for another work-camping position. after a bit, i got an e-mail sent to me, saying they needed help in a park in Maine. i checked their site out, and the park seemed beautiful, and i contacted them back, telling them we wanted to be able to work for our site, and make a little money for groceries also. they responded back that they would work with us... i was feeling quite confident and excited about the opportunity, so we packed everything up, and set off on a 1300 mile trip to Maine.

well, when we got there, we found out that 'working with us' meant they wanted 20 hours from EACH of us (40 hours total) JUST for the site, and they didn't want to give us more hours than that... but he would buy things for the store, let me mark them whatever price i wanted, and i could have the profits. in the WEEK i was there, maybe 3 people checked in... profit? WHAT PROFIT?!!? also, the place was a complete and utter dump. it wasn't worth the $25 that The Woods charged for a site, let alone the $48 they asked. almost none of the amenities listed on their site were functional or available, everything was filthy and/or rotting, the office smelled of stale cigarettes and dog pee. there was NO rest room in the office, the only bathhouse that was open was... uhg... and the FIRST site they put us in wasn't even full hook up. when they finally moved us to a full hook up site, we had to park diagonal across the site just to reach the hookups: with the sewer hose stretched as far as it could go to the rear of us, and the electric cord stretched as far as it could go to the front.


we tolerated a week of that, (barely) then hit the road back to Connecticut to visit Eric's mom and brother. we boon-docked in a church parking lot for 2 weeks (THANK YOU VERY MUCH Grace Congregational Church on South St!!!!!!!! you're a life-saver!) and combed the internet for any job we could find.


finally, when we were nearing wits end... battery in the trailer was dead, the fresh water tank was empty, the black and grey tanks were full (and starting to smell funny)... we finally got a call. the KOA park in Shenandoah Valley Virginia wanted us! HOORAY! we 'battened down the hatches', so to speak, and hit the road. we arrived late Monday afternoon. so here we are, in Virginia. it is beautiful, and quiet, and shady. everyone is friendly. the owner likes our dogs. i even heard there's going to be an Airstream rally here in September *happy sigh*

its a good thing she's OUTSIDE

well, this kinda creeped me out today, but like i said... she's outside. if she stays out there and away from me, fine.



the metal across the lower left corner is the rear bumper of the trailer.

worst..... night..... ever

it started innocently enough. sunshiny day. plans to go hit the local carnival before the leave town... there was supposed to be a bit of a thundershower late in the day... but the radar was making it look like it would all swing north of the city and miss us. we got ourselves cleaned up and headed out a little after 7pm.

the first booth was one of those dart throwing booths... the guy gave me one free dart, and just kinda sucked me in. i ended up loosing 10 bucks to that booth, but on the bright side, i did get a nice-looking plush yellow rose with a pose-able wire in the stem. i wrapped it around my arm like a decoration, and we wandered over to the 'toss a ping pong ball into a mini-fishbowl to win a goldfish' booth. just as we got there, they started shutting the carnival down, because the weather was starting to look really bad. we said "bummer", and left to go to Wal-Mart, about a mile away.

by the time we got there, it was pouring so hard, you could barely see. the entrance driveway has no stop sign going in, but a cross street with stop signs both ways...just as we were going in, someone ran the stop sign on my side, and when i tried to stop, i hydroplaned into them. everyone was shaken up, but no one was hurt (thank God). it was still POURING, so hubby suggested heading over to one of the local stores, so we could at least talk out of the rain. i got back in the truck, soaked to the skin, sat down, turned the key, turned on the lights, and realized it was raining so hard, i couldn't see to drive. in the two seconds it took to reach that realization, the power to the entire shopping center went out. now i couldn't see anything at all besides the other car, 5 feet in front of me. then the wind kicked up harder, whipping the rain past the truck in sheets and bands instead of a solid wall. then, it started hailing. not hard at first, but as the hail got bigger and louder against the truck, the wind kept blowing harder and harder, until i could feel the whole truck shaking. lightning was flashing all around, and other flashes, like lightning, but lower, and the wrong color... orange-y or greenish, instead of the standard blue-white. i was terrified, and clung to my husband, shrieking into his shoulder... and he cradled me in his arms like he could keep me safe from anything.

it calmed down within just a few minutes, but it wasn't until about an hour later when the policeman finally got there that we found out that a tornado had passed by behind us, not more than about a thousand feet away... the flashes of light i'd seen were power lines going down as their poles either fell, or snapped in half.

this is a gallery of photos i took the next day of some of the damage i saw
in the map pic, the green dot is where i was, the red circles are places that i heard on the news that building walls had collapsed, and the red line is the stretch of road where i saw damage last night, and took photos today.

i went home, had some ice cream, and went to bed. that sucked.