Our first real getaway

Ok, so we already had a first getaway,  I know.  But this one was a real, no kidding, getaway.  Not a trial run, not a "welcome to the gravel farm" like we got from Dickens RV park getaway.  This one was a true vacation, one that we got to enjoy our coach on.  WE ACTUALLY GOT TO STAY ONCE WE ARRIVED!  Sorry, that was caps lock worthy...I mean really, we stayed in the same place for more than an hour this time, a real hoorah moment if there ever was one.

So, we drove the ever-so-short drive to Charleston, South Cacolackey, a pleasant 6.5 hour drive to the heart of family land.  Family land is where Mellie's folks live, all eleventy billion of her closest kin-folk and friends, all within spittin distance...yay.  Too bad they didn't come to visit, which was really the sole reason we went to Short Stay to begin with.  We actually planned to drive down so Mellie's family could come out to see us and our new home (I know, what was I thinking, right?).  Of the aforementioned eleventy billion relatives in the area, only 9 showed up.  You'd think that I'd be all "woohoo!" about that, and normally, you'd be way right.  Except this time...there was no "woohoo" in "woohooville".  Them not showing up was soooo uncool.  Too bad they missed the opportunity to see the vehicle with which God has blessed us and those that we will meet in the future.

At any rate, I don't want to spend a lot of time dwelling on other people's loss, I'd rather yap about the camping trip we had.  We went to Short Stay, a military campground in Charleston.  It was a reeeeaaaalllyyyyyyy long drive to get there, but the views of Lake Moultrie at sunset were stunning.

We stayed at a normal wooded site (the waterfront sites were booked up), but we were only about 150 yards from the water, and a 5 min walk from the beach, so no complaints there.  The site was hugemongous...we could have parked our RV, the car, a towed trailer, some jet skis, a boat, a hotdog stand, and a couple of bleacher seats from Fenway Park if we really wanted too.  We didn't want to, so we just had ol JJ and the borrowed truck there.  Too bad, some park hotdogs woulda been tasty.

Hugemongous site 54

The sites were big, they had some decent facilities (the legendary bath house at Dickens RV Park has nothing to fear here), friendly folk (none of which were related to us.../whew, I was worried), and plenty of hot, sticky Charlestonian weather.  I mean really, how do you people live in all that stickiness?!  We would not have been so sticky, save for the fact that our hitchin post supplied only 30 Amp power instead of 50 Amps.  Tres Bummer (that's French, for those culturally challenged people, myself included...aren't you proud of me, Mrs. 4th grade teacher whose name I can't remember?).  So we spent a few hot, sweltering, oh-my-goodness-how-do-you-people-stand-this-ridiculously-hot-weather days cooped up inside JJ with only one AC unit working, but at least we were on vacay, so we were determined to enjoy ourselves anyway.  Which was a good thing, since we had problems right from the start of us getting there.

As it turns out, getting a bigger hammer, is, indeed, the cure-all to most mechanical problems.  I say this, since the rubber camp mallet we had with us to bang on the stuck leveler did NOT do the job of getting it unstuck...no matter how many times I pounded the daylights outta it, no matter how hard I whacked it, no matter how many of Mellie's family members I was swinging at...oops, was that in my type out loud voice?  The point is, the darn thing would not move past the half way down point.  For those of you who have no clue what I'm talking about, I'll explain it some more.  The doomahickey that helps make the coach not go boingy boingy when we walk in it was totally BDNWW (broken down, no worky worky).  How's that for simple?  

Here's where the difference between being a child of God and being a child of the world comes in...we didn't cry, we didn't complain, we didn't pack up and quit.  God has given us peace and self control, and we used it to make lemonade out of the lemons we were handed.  We propped up the jack with some wooden blocks, leveled JJ as best we could, and proceeded to get our camp on.  Take THAT, you ol nasty devil!  As a side note, I thought that people parked across from us that were watching me beat the tar outta the jack with my hammer were likely thinking I was an escaped mental patient, until I remembered where we were...I was just Friday night's entertainment, and they didn't even have to plug in the bug zapper.

We got settled in, and got our dogs outta the coach for some campground introductions...in Dog speak, that means they peed on everything that wasn't moving.  It also means JoJo ran at and barked at EVERYTHING in the camp...moving cars, other campers, and the 2348756234785623 golf carts that were there.  I mean really, how many golf carts does one group of campers need anyway?!  One site had like 5, and there couldn't have been more than 4 people in that tiny camper.

There were even tent campers there, although I have NO idea why, since the soles of my shoes were literally melting on the pavement from the heat.  I guess the camp staff needed something to feed the gators that lived in the tent area...

This was across from the tent area, with another sign just like it in the front of the tent area.  I dunno about you, but I'm not tent camping in an area that says there are gators there.  I mean really, sleeping inside a tent in a sleeping bag is the same thing as giving the gator an individually wrapped treat.

We stayed there for a week, learned a lot more about our future home, and realized rather quickly that not having a sewer hookup at our site was the suck.  When the tanks get full, they need to be emptied.  For those that have seen the movie "RV", with Robin Williams, yes this can happen.  For those that have not seen the movie, think Old Faithful, only not water...At any rate, we had to pack up the coach every 3-4 days and drive over to the dump site to dump our tanks at the state-of-the-art dump site...

This thing was invented just after dirt on the creation timeline I think, but it did work.  It sure did smell like it has been around since the dawn of time anyway.  We had to trek out here a few times, which was good for hold your breath exercises, and then go back to set up camp again.  Mellie even had to do this little gem of a job by herself, since I had to travel to Mississippi during the week.  She did a spectacular job, given that she is not yet comfortable driving JJ.  I say not comfortable, but it's more like  what an escaped convict might feel like at a police social.  Pucker factor of 10 or so, but she did it just fine.

While we were there, we quickly came to the realization that we love that lifestyle.  We loved the down-sized feeling, the closeness, the outdoors, meeting and getting to know our neighbors, the whole enchilada.  We were not keen on melting during hot days with not enough AC cooling, nor did we enjoy having to dump the tanks repeatedly, but everything else was a lot of fun.  So for those of you who may read this and think "mid-life crisis", you need to know that's not the case.  Instead, think life style change and remember that we didn't get into this thing on our own.  We got here because God put us here and we believe that we are supposed to live out our faith with a community of people that don't generally go to church.  We are called to be salt and light, and we believe that this lifestyle will allow us to do just that...the fact that we totally dig RVing is just a really big plus :)

Holiday

How did you spend Independence Day? For us, it was quiet, really quiet. This used to be my favorite holiday, hands down. I loved going to watch fireworks, eating hot dogs, and wearing red, white and blue. I loved that there was a day set aside specifically for being a dig-it, so I could proudly tell my husband how proud I am that he sacrificed for others to be free. He doesn't let me act the dig-it very often, so I take those opportunities as they come. Last year was different, we had planned to do all that, but Ashley had a meltdown and we weren't able to do anything. This year, though, I just didn't have it in me. Maybe it was the heat, maybe it's that my priorities are here in the present instead of the past, maybe it's because it feels like this country is going to hell in a hand basket. Whatever the case, I wasn't in the mood to pack up and go out to watch fireworks. Don't get me wrong. I'm still proud of how much and how long my husband sacrificed to make sure others here can be free, and I appreciate all those that are still serving to preserve that freedom. I truly do love this country and all the opportunities it offers to us, each of us. Maybe this year was different because I have a peace that I've never felt before, because I know that even if I weren't here in this country, living in freedom, I would still have freedom in Christ. "Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Words from a new praise song at church - that kind of liberty, that freedom, goes deeper than anything I can feel for this country, this place where I was born that makes me sadder each day as it compromises that freedom for the sake of progress. 

So what DID we do you ask? We worked on the RV! Trent took off the steps, used the grinder to take off rust, primed and painted them and re-installed them. He says I helped him, but I didn't do much beyond keeping him company, and he said that was enough. I did take pictures though!

final painting is done - ready to install

Second step, only one to go!

last step  = yearly maintenance done!

Today we received the Millenicom air card so we now have internet on the road (it plugs into the WiFi Ranger and makes the RV a big hot spot for all our computers and the printer and scanner). Tomorrow I'm picking up the tire pressure monitoring system from Camping World. There are two more things that we want to get to make the RV ministry and work travels a reality, but we don't need those to actually get on the road, so they can wait. We'll eventually get an outdoor freezer - thankfully, it's already wired for it, and the previous owner left the freezer rack system in place. We also need to buy a grill, so that we can actually feed the people like we've dreamed of doing. That we should be able to afford next month, but for now, I'll take the skillet and crockpot and call it good. I made some crockpot bbq ribs the other day that got rave reviews so don't tell me I have to have a grill :)

Trent said he has a tentative for a job in Florida next week. If that's the case, then we'll leave here Sunday and drive down in the RV and make our first real WORK trip. As in a trip where his company pays for us to drive down there and stay instead of him flying and staying in a hotel. I'm SO excited about that. 

I'm such a dork. We had the RV at the house this week, instead of the storage unit, so we could do miscellaneous maintenance on it, and one day, I just didn't want to be in the house, so I turned on the generator and went and worked in the RV. I'm so ready to be rid of this house and just be on the road full time. My mother thinks I'm certifiable because I have no desire to be 'anchored' as she calls it. She's happy that we kept the house for now, but I'm sure I'll get to hear her disappointment once we are finally able to sell it. I'm trusting that God will send a buyer to us that will pay enough to pay the mortgage and closing, no more, no less. We just need to pay the bill, yanno? That's asking for a God sized miracle considering that the tax value just came back almost $50K less than what we currently owe - no one will want to pay over the tax rate, but I just know God has that person on his way that will see the value of the home beyond what the figures say. 

Okay, I got all sorts of rambly, huh? Trent is Iowa today and I'm recovering from the sinus surgery, and I got a steroid shot today in my right shoulder, so the pain meds are ever so lovely, so forgive my ramblefest. I'm off to finish up some work - wow, it really throws off things when there's a holiday in the middle of the week!