And lastly, we got an email today with a few pictures of our place down in Avon Park, showing the status of the work. You can see that the yard has been dug out and is ready for the sod. Also the dug out line on the right side is where they put in the sprinkler system. We can’t wait to see what it looks like with the new sod put in!
This morning Harry and I headed to Albany for our last appointment of our month-long stay here – our physicals. We were happy to hear once again that all systems are functioning within normal parameters. I am within one pound of my weight of last year, so I was happy with that. I am still working to lose a few more pounds, but the slow and steady approach has worked for me so far. Also, my blood pressure was completely normal! I am always excited about that, since it was just a few years ago that I was on high blood pressure medicine.
Another picture of the Hudson River with Albany on the horizon…
Tomorrow we will go over to my sister’s house and pick up the containers that we picked out to bring to Florida with us this year. It has been so rainy that Harry hasn’t had a chance to reorganize the basement to make room for it yet. That is still on his agenda for the next few days.
We only have three days left here before we head north!
When we went fulltime, we decided that we would keep some of the professionals we were set up with, like doctor, financial advisor etc. Because of that, and also to visit my sister and her family, we always spend at least a month in the Albany area. There really aren’t a lot of campground options here, although we are grateful that there are at least some options. The campground where we have been staying for the last three years has been a pretty good option. It is about 15 minutes from my sister’s house and not too bad a drive from Albany. The biggest downside for us has been that it’s only water and electric, but we have learned to deal with it. In fact, every year has been better for us in that area as we have learned some tricks to help stretch our tanks farther. So we haven’t had any complaints, and expected to stay here again for the foreseeable future.
But then when we arrived here this year, there was a pretty big problem. Last year before we left, we reserved the site again for a month. They took a deposit of $190 for our reservation. When we arrived this year, the “manager” told us that “we” had called in December and cancelled our reservation. (No we didn’t.) And on top of cancelling our reservation, they hadn’t refunded our deposit. If I had seen a refund on our credit card, I would have known something was up and would have called to see what was going on. Then luckily our usual site ended up being “empty” so we did thankfully end up with a site. It was right before Memorial Day so I suspect we would have had some challenge finding another place in the area. We have heard varying stories since then from the seasonal residents around us so we are not sure what the truth is, but basically the bottom line for us is that now we don’t really have any confidence in the management of this campground. A few days ago we decided to go check out basically the only other option that is anywhere near where we need to be.
They had sites that were roomy and open, just the way we like them. This third picture shows the site we picked. The site extends all the way from where the golf cart is parked to where the campfire setup is. And it has full hookups! So a lot of positives. Basically the only downside is that it is about 20 minutes farther from Albany and 15, 20 minutes farther from my sister’s, but we would rather have confidence that our reserved site will be available when we arrive. This has sure turned out to be a year for changes. Makes life exciting!
Today was our day for traveling the short distance to the family owned RV place where we go for all of our annual service. We made an appointment for 9 am, which is when they opened, and were up bright and early to get ready to pull out. We were a little bit ahead of schedule, (surprisingly!), when we discovered that our rear stabilizer motor wasn
It was a gorgeous day, finally, but we were both concerned about getting back into the site because we have had SO much rain over the past weeks. It was wet when we got here, and it sure had not dried up any since then. We even hit some of the mud along the side of the campground road as we were pulling out, and we weren’t expecting getting back in to be any easier. However, since there wasn’t anything we could do about it, we tried to put it out of our mind.
We made the short 7 mile trip to the rv place and dropped the rig off just a few minutes before 9. Perfect timing!
They are always busy here, but we have never found them to be the kind of place that overbooks their appointments. In our experience, they take someone in and get the work done – well and in a timely manner.
We left there just a few minutes after 9 and, after stopping for a treat at Dunkin Donuts, we made the short trip over to my sister’s house to hang out while we were waiting. I kept myself busy by scanning some records for their law office.
If anyone ever needs work done while you’re in the Catskill, NY area, we just can’t say enough good things about Deiderich’s RV Mart.
So now it was time for the part we were dreading – getting back in to our site! Long story short – we made it! But not without making some more mess!
We kept getting into the mud on the other side of the road. It was a little bit hairy but we took our time and made it back in. We are just glad to be settled again, and it sounds like we have a stretch of warm and dry weather coming up so getting out next week should be a little bit easier.
After our short road trip last week, we enjoyed a pretty relaxing weekend. Since it was even a mostly dry weekend, Harry and I even managed to get out for a walk each day. Over the past couple of months, our exercise has been pretty hit and miss. Harry and I have realized that we are fair weather exercisers. We do great as long as the sun is shining. But since we got up to Ohio, and now NY, it’s been so rainy, and cool, that we have spent way too much time inside. As I type this, it is once again raining and 58 degrees. The weather guy talked about some warmer weather coming the weekend – it will be summer-like, he said! I won’t hold my breath, but it would be great. Definitely getting back to our exercise routine is a priority for us.
We knew before we even got up here to NY that it was going to be a really quick four weeks. We’ve had family visits, friend visits, dentist and drs. appts and medical tests. Tomorrow we have to get the place picked up, because Wednesday we will be making the short 10 mile trip to the RV place where we always get our maintenance stuff done in the summer. We always have the bearings repacked, the wet bolts greased and the brakes checked. We also usually have a list of other stuff that has come up throughout the year, but this year our list is blessedly short. In fact, the only other repair item on our list is the junction box that got smashed when we arrived.
This is apparently maintenance week, as Harry also has an appointment to take the truck in for an oil change on Thursday. I am really glad that we got busy scheduling everything right when we arrived, and didn’t leave all of our appointments to the last minute. We have 11 days left before we head north to Peru.
Turned out to be a beautiful day for a drive through the countryside.
Many times, the fulltime lifestyle allows people who don’t see each other very often to catch up a little bit more. But in our case, our li
Coincidentally, our visit fell on Harry and my 8th wedding anniversary. But there wasn’t anything lacking in our celebration, as Rose is Italian through and through, and prepared a veritable Italian feast for dinner! Yum!
We had a wonderful time, just chatting and catching up. The great thing about old friends is that the connection doesn’t change with distance. We enjoyed spending a couple days reconnecting and promised ourselves that we will make time to connect again next year!
This has definitely been a year of change so far. The biggest of course was our purchasing a winter home down in Florida at the park where we’ve spent part of the last three winters. Now another new time in our life appears to be upon us.
As anyone who’s been reading this blog for any length of time will know, every fall we spend several months working at Amazon. It’s a job which has served its purpose, and even though there are some unpleasant parts, like getting up in the middle of the night for several months, we had intended to keep going back for more for at least 5 more seasons. But looks like the times they are a’changin’.
It all started a few days back when we started to see communication on the Amazon camperforce page about an email, and then phone calls, that are going out about this year’s season at the Kentucky facility. Campers usually start anywhere from early August to early September. We had hoped to start early August this year to make up some of the money we didn’t make last year. But they have stated in the communications going out that the projections are in for this year’s season, and are notifying campers that the first group this year will be starting in mid-October. That is just too late for us. At the most we would be working 9 or 10 weeks – less time than we had last year. So we decided it was time for Plan B. We started talking about our options, and as of today, it is settled enough that I can make it “blog official”.
Really, it worked out so great that this was the year that we bought our Florida place. That figured heavily into our planning. We already have the next couple of months settled – visits with family, doctor’s appointments, and a trip to the Hershey area in July with our grandson. That brought us to early August when we were hoping to go to Kentucky and start work. Instead…we will head down to Florida and (hopefully) start work. (After a visit with Harry’s son and daughter-in-law who are moving to Charlotte this summer. That worked out well!)
There is a little more uncertainty in this plan because we don’t already have jobs lined up. But we are both feeling pretty confident that we can find something. We are looking at the bright side – more quality time with our new place, the ability to work all through the winter, I am excited about being settled for the Christmas season – and no 4 am wakeups and 10 hour shifts! We are entering another new season, and it’s pretty exciting!
