March 19- Thursday

Happy "70"th Birthday to Richard! Starting a new century in life!! First thing on the agenda was the television. Richard &Jack went to get a new antenna,while Jan & I went shopping, of course! The guys got a new antenna installed, but the TV still didn't work after all that!! After eliminating everything else that could be the cause,they finally discovered the problem.... We somehow forgot that we took the batteries out of the remote when we put the RV in storage for the winter!! Yép Richard put new batteries in & sure enough the TV went on!! Oh well, another "senior moment " !! So he took down the new antenna and put the old one (which actually isn't that old since we bought it last year) back up and the TV now works just fine. Hopefully the store will give a refund. Richard wanted to go out for his birthday for liver & onions. We went to a restaurant called TooJays. We had a nice meal. When we got back Richard opened his presents  & we sang Happy Birthday with a candle on a cherry pie. Then we played cards. He said he enjoyed his Special Day and thanks everyone for all the facebook Happy Birthday wishes.

March 18 - Wednesday

The weather has been very good to us so far. We left GA about 9:30. We had a smooth drive to Orlando, just a little heavy traffic going through the main town area at rush hour. We arrived at the "J&J Resort" at about 4:30 (there was a 1 hour ahead time change) it was a 300 mile drive. The first thing we saw was a Vacancy sign on their mailbox & Jack & Jan waiting for us with a warm welcome! We haven't seen them since January when they left home., so it was good to see them again. Jack and Richard got the RV and the tow dolly set while Jan & I caught up on life. Richard went up on the roof and disconnected the TV  antenna which hopefully is the television problem. We'll find out tomorrow. Then we went for a boat ride on their lake, but ran out of gas in the middle of the lake. Luckily Jack also has a trolling motor on the boat, the lake was very calm, so we had a nice leisurely ride back to their dock. Jan had prepared a delicious meal for our arrival and we called it an early night because Richard was tired from the drive.

March 17-Tuesday

On our way to our next Çampground, we stopped at a camping World in Dothan,AL and got some kind of reception box that Richard thought might be the TV problem. We arrived at Eastbank Georgia Çampground on Lake Semonile around 3:00. It is a very scenic place. One side of the huge lake is Georgia and the other side is Florida. We were on the Georgia side. Richard worked on the TV again, but the part we bought did not fix the problem. He thinks now it might be the antenna. Our next stop is in Orlando at Jack & Jan's, which we call the J&J Resort, he will take the antenna down & get a new one. Since we will be gone until May, we certainly have to have television !! It was a very relaxing evening sitting by the water watching the ducks

Sunday - don't

I haven't posted for a few days (my bad)... So to catch up... Sunday evening after we got the RV all hooked up, Richard hooked up the tv & we got a surprise, it would not work! Oh no!!! I would not make a very good tent camper, I like to have the comforts of home with me! After fiddleing with it for a while, He  said it seemed to be an electrical problem, but the DVD worked so we watched a movie instead.

Monday- March 16

Monday was another beautiful travel day. We got to our next campsite in Briierfield, Al at about 5:00 after a long 370 miles. We got the electric & water hooked up and  discovered another problem...the hydraulic jacks would not go down. Luckily we were on fairly level ground. This is a huge problem because the jacks level the motorhome when parked & the refrigerator has to be level to work properly. Richard could not understand this because they worked perfectly fine the night before. He said we will have to deal with it in the morning. Since we didn't have television we played cards for a while, but Richard was really tired being that he does all the driving. There is no way he would trust me to drive  (I'm sure everyone knows my driving history) not that I would even want to! It's like driving a train...31 feet of motorhome pulling my car on a tow dolly. I know I couldn't handle that!! In the morning we got a good surprise. Richard said he didn't sleep very well because the jack problem was really bothering him, then he remembered...... The jacks will only go down when the emergency brake is engaged. Being tired last night, he forgot to put on the emergency brake! That's not like him to forget something like that, but he was really tired so we chalked it up to one of those "senior moments" (after all we are not spring chickens, ha-ha. ) Anyway the jacks are working fine now and a big problem was averted.  I know one thing.. We won't forget again, at least not until next year! Now we have to get the TV working. Speaking of "senior moments" as soon as I remember how to post pictures, I will!!

March 15, Sunday .... 2015

Well after our long cold,snowy winter..Paupers Pride is back on the road & Florida bound again!! It was a beautiful travel day, sunny and no wind. We left home about 9:30 a.m. And arrived at our first campsite ..Victory RV Park in Paducah, KY around 5:00 p.m. This is our 5th trip to Florida and it is the first time we left home without wearing winter coats. Of course in the past we left in middle or late Feb Richard was ready to leave about 8:30 this morning, but I of course had to check and recheck that everything was taken care of in the house (even tho I love to travel in the motorhome, & love the beaches of Florida, I still have a hard time leaving our house) We took Jasper on his vacation over to Nancy's by his "cousins"  Tony and the new little puppy Bella. Tony was fine and was licking Jasper's fur, but little Bella kept grawlling at him. Nancy said Bella will come around and while we were on the road she sent us a little video of the three dogs ..Jasper was just standing there & Tony was again licking his fur & Bella was jumping on him trying to get him to play ha-ha. So I'll sign off till tomorrow.

April 28 - Monday

Well our 2014 Florida vacation has come to an end! We started the last leg of our journey home to a rainy day. We had about a 3 1/2 hr drive home. As we drove on the weather improved, but it was pretty much overcast all day. We had a great vacation. We saw many things and stayed in 23 different campgrounds. We wished the weather had co-operated and was warmer, but we made the best of our time in Florida anyway. We traveled over 4,ooo miles and thanks to God we arrived home healthy & safe. It is always fun to get away from the daily routine at home, but after being gone for 68 days, "there's  no place like home" and family. So as we unload Paupers Pride, we thank you for following us on our blog. We hope you enjoyed our journal postings & pictures.  God willing we will have another adventure in 2015 and hope you will again "join us", until then, we bid you ... So Long!

April 27. - Sunday

Today was quite a day.. A real "character builder"! We got an early start and heard there were bad storms all along the way we were to go. We got to our next stop a few hours away in Hernando, Ms. It was really starting to rain and the campground was pretty empty and we couldn't find a ranger. It was about 10:00 am. Severe storms were predicted for all day, night and also tomorrow. So we decided to skip this stop and take our chances on the road toward our next stop which was about 261 miles away.. Johnston City, ILLINOIS!  We figured the weather might be worse tomorrow, because tornado threats were forecast. As we were driving the weather was getting worse, lightning , thunder and wind, ALOT of wind!!!! We went from MS to ARK to Missouri with the storms almost the whole way. Richard handeled it, but admitted it was the worse wind we have ever driven through, we almost pulled over to wait it out several times, but after we stopped for gas &got back on the road, the wind eased up and it actually stopped raining, Whew!! We crossed the state line into good ole' IL about 3:00 pm. We are staying at Arrow Head RV Park in Johnston City, IL just a little way from the Missouri / Illinois state line. As I am writing this, there are still bad storms predicted through the night. Depending on the weather in the morning, we will decide if we will make it home tomorrow. We still have about 250 miles to go.