I'll show you mine

Today was a very relaxing day, a day of rest. Our hostess, Judith, is very pleasant. Our friend Kate stopped by on her way from PA to SC to see us and to meet Judith. We all belong to the same rv yahoo group which is how we met. It was a wonderful visit, it was great to see Kate again. We hope to catch up to her again in the near future in another state.

Of course we had to do the “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours”. We all took a tour of each other’s rigs and had a good time comparing and telling stories. It was fun to compare a mini van, a class B, and our class C.

NC here we come (again!)

We got up early (that’s early afternoon for us) and finished up the packing and the preparations. Mar’s charlie horse still hurts so she is still limping and moving slow.

Bernie went outside to de-winterize Bella before getting on the road and it turns out the house outside pipes are frozen so nothing came out of the water hose. We had to postpone the de-winterizing and will have to stop to use public restrooms along the way.

Today we drove about 6 hours on our way to Judith’s house in Chapel Hill NC. Judith is a member of one of our rv yahoo groups and offered us her driveway, with water and electric.

When we got there it was already dark but since the house pipes weren’t frozen, Bernie decided to go ahead and de-winterize Bella, so we could use the bathroom and kitchen.

Everything went well until we tried to use the water heater to take a shower. We could tell the water in the water heater was hot but the water coming out of the hot water faucets inside was absolutely freezing. It took some detective work to figure out how to fix this.

After checking several rv websites, pulling out our rv books, and asking questions of an online friend via instant messenger, we drew a diagram of our water heater bypass which helped us decide the right position of all three valves. Bernie got under the kitchen cabinet, turned the valves and we finally had hot water so we could shower. Another rv puzzle solved!

Honey do and charlie horse

A visit of 3-4 days at Aunt Evelyn’s has now turned into a whole week. Between this extreme cold arctic weather keeping us indoors and Aunt Evelyn’s honey-do list getting longer and longer, we are still here in Rockville MD.

The house looks wonderful. This week Bernie has painted four rooms, a ceiling and a stairwell, then put up blinds and curtains, and also fixed the front door.

This week Mar has worked on her classes, did the laundry, and prepared and packed meals that we can just reheat on the road. She also made several yummy desserts to take with us. If we have some extra pounds on us next time you see us, you’ll know why.

The work is now completed and today we are packing and getting Bella ready for the road. While we were packing Bernie’s cousin, Kathleen, came over with her massage table. She needs volunteers to give massages to so she can practice for her degree. Bernie was the lucky recipient of a very long and relaxing massage, which she really needed after working hard all week.

While Bernie got her massage, Mar continued to pack and started taking things out to Bella. It was really, really cold tonight and when Mar came out of Bella as she landed on her left foot, she got the worst charlie horse ever, now she can hardly walk and is limping all over the place.

After her massage Bernie went back to packing and getting us ready to go. We plan to leave tomorrow, after de-winterizing Bella. We are going to North Carolina.

We visited the coast of NC at the beginning of our trip when we left Florida last summer and didn’t plan to go back. But with the weather being so unpredictable, and after receiving a couple of job offers for Bernie, we decided to change our route and this way we will get to visit the other parts of NC that we didn’t get to see last time we were there.

Exciting news

Mar is very excited today. She got notice that she has been selected to serve at the College Board's 2009 Advance Placement Reading. She will be grading the advance placement essays in psychology from students all around the nation.

The reading will be in Kansas City MO for a week in June, with all expenses paid (training, travel, lodging, meals) and a stipend.

Mar is very excited about adding this great experience to her resume and also having a great reason to visit MO and add one more state to our travels.

If you haven't seen it, make sure you scroll all the way down this page so you can see the map of the states we have visited so far.

The colors of nature

We had a great night’s sleep. We were a little cold but nothing we haven’t handled before. After getting up and having a wonderful cup of coffee we were ready to go to Rockville MD, less than 2 hours away. Today we got gas for $1.57 per gallon.

We had been in the area last fall and today as we drove we noticed how these hills which were green and brown, then turned to reds and yellows, are now all white. We have been lucky to see mother nature displaying all her colors, each season having its own allure. Today it all seems clean and crisp, just like new beginnings and it is exciting.

On the way there Mar surprised Bernie with the knowledge that she was taking her to breakfast … in the middle of the afternoon! Bernie was very excited. We went to a place called The Fractured Prune in downtown Rockville. It is a donut shop and they make your donuts to order. You can decide how you like your donut and the toppings you want on it. They have so many toppings to choose from that it was pretty fun designing our donuts. http://www.fracturedprune.com/

Then we headed to Aunt Evelyn’s house, about ten minutes away. When we got there we found that some more relatives were over playing bridge and everyone was very happy to see us.

As everyone went back to playing bridge Bernie heated up some artichoke and spinach dip Mar had made and then she made a mouth watering dessert of strawberries, chocolate sauce and whipped cream. It was delicious.

We spent a wonderful evening talking, joking, eating, and drinking. It is nice to be here.

Our job here is done

After a couple of days of packing and getting Bella ready, we finally hit the road about midafternoon. We are on the move again!

We left Elida OH and are taking a detour, we are headed to Rockville MD where Bernie’s aunt lives. She has some work for Bernie so we decided to tackle it now before we get back to our travels.

It felt so good to get back to Bella. We realized how much this little house on wheels is really our home, we find it so comfortable, familiar, and cozy.

But Bella is winterized and because we’ll be staying with Aunt Evelyn, we decided not to dewinterize just yet. This means that we have to try to get there as soon as possible. We can’t use the bathroom or kitchen, so we had to find ways to improvise. “Primitive” camping is certainly not our thing.

Today we drove 10 hours and finally stopped for the night in Winchester VA. We don’t like driving more than 2-3 hours a day so today was really hard on both of us. We felt pretty much like zombies by the time we stopped for the night and hope we never have to do this again!

A blog of our blog

Happy New Year everyone!

Another RV blog mentioned our blog and we thought that was so cool, we want to mention that blog too. Here it is, check it out:

www.greatrvinfo.com

And remember you are welcome to leave us your comments here on the blog ... we love getting comments!

If you would like us to reply then please email us at HerTinkerbell@yahoo.com

Christmas day

We celebrated a wonderful Christmas. Bernie's Mom sent us both gifts. Bernie's family picks names every year for a gift exchange. This year Bernie got presents from her brother and they got here on time.

Bernie was so excited, just like a little kid. We opened our presents and had fun with them. Then we got to work on a great Christmas dinner. For appetizers we had stuffed mushrooms and aranitas. For dinner we had pernil, hasselback roasted potatoes, and asparagus with sun dried tomatoes. And for dessert we had a yummy chocolate mudslide frozen pie. Everything was homemade and absolutely delicious.

By the time we finished eating and cleaning up we were both so tired. Mar still doesn’t feel well and Bernie had a small asthma attack which wore her out. So we watched some tv to relax and then went to bed.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas eve

The owner of the house went to Michigan to spend Christmas with her family. The roommate also left to go spend Christmas with her family but halfway there, she had to turn around because the weather was making it too difficult to drive.

Bernie expected to get a lot done in the house this week since we would be alone, but instead when Kristin came back, she brought her girlfriend Lesa with her and both their dogs too. With this change in plans Bernie had to do her best to try to work around two dogs and three cats and three other people in the house. Not that we can count Mar, she is still sick and can hardly get out of bed.

In the evening Mar finally found some strength to get out of bed and prepare a light meal. So we spent Christmas eve making dinner and baking cookies while listening to Christmas carols. We watched some Christmas shows and then everyone went to bed while Bernie stayed up and worked on the house for several hours while trying to be very quiet so she wouldn’t wake anyone up.

Water everywhere

Bernie was working on the house, Mar was working on her laptop, and all of a sudden there was water on the floor in half the house. A pipe broke in the attic and water was dripping in the living room, the kitchen, the hallway bathroom, and in the bedroom where Bernie is staying.

Bernie shut off the water and went up in the attic. Once she located the leak and figured out what she needed, she made a run to the hardware store to pick up supplies. She had to take Bella to the store because no one was home to give her a ride.

Bernie went back up in the attic and fixed the leak, while yelling down to Mar to turn the water on or off, to test for any more leaks. Thankfully it was fixed and it didn't leak anymore or anywhere else. Then it took Bernie a couple of hours to mop up all the water and clean up the whole mess.

Luckily the water didn't fall anywhere Bernie had already worked so nothing had to be redone. Also, the floor where the water was is all bare concrete, so no flooring was damaged. It's a good thing Bernie has not put down the floors yet, which she will be doing soon.

Chicken soup

Mar got hardly any sleep last night because she had the worst sore throat ever, she can't swallow because it feels like she has a wooden block stuck in her throat. She is not a happy camper. Bernie gave her some medicine and made her chicken soup. After that, it was still hard to sleep with such a bad sore throat.

To the dentist

Since we are finally in one place for a while, we decided it was time to go to the dentist. We looked up some local dentists but it's hard to find reviews or recommendations to select a dentist. Driving around Elida OH we had seen a couple of billboards for Whole Health Dentistry, offering a $35 gas card for new patients. We checked them out online and called the office to make the appointments.

Bernie has a temporary and needs a crown for that root canal she had over six weeks ago in West Virginia. Turns out this dentist has the technology to make crowns right in the office and they're ready the same day. After considering the information and finding out the cost of a crown, we decided we'll need to wait to get it when we can better afford it and decided to do some research about dental insurance or dental plans. Crowns are very expensive, ouch...

Mar needed a cleaning so she had her teeth cleaned today. Thankfully, the dentist said her gums and teeth are in good shape so she doesn't need any dental work at this time, but there were a couple of things on the x-rays to keep an eye on.

The dentist was a young female doctor who was very friendly. We told her and her assistant all about our travels and they had lots of questions for us. While talking we realized the dentist has actually had a philly cheese steak in the same place we did in Philadelphia, and we had some chuckles about that.

When we payed and checked out, we got the $35 gas card and some Christmas cookies too. Then we asked for directions to the local mall, where we went to get some presents for Mar's kids. We found some really good deals on clothes for the kids and will go to the post office tomorrow to mail the package to Florida.

A day off

You know what they say about all work and no play … so today we decided to do something about that. Mar has been very busy with the end of semester finals and grading, this is the time of year when she gets tons of emails and questions from her online students. Bernie has been working long hours on the house, busy with cleanup, prep work, drywall, paint, electric, carpentry, you name it. She is so happy to be working, she loves the work.

Today we went to visit The Christmas Ranch in Morrow OH, about a two hour drive. This Christmas village is on several acres owned by a retired dentist and his wife. They got started by decorating their home which quickly became a huge draw for the public but the neighbors complained about the heavy traffic on the weekends so they found some property to accommodate their Christmas dream.

Now they have this place with a couple houses and barns, transformed into a Christmas wonderland with thousands of lights connected to music. This way as the music serenades you the lights give you a fantastic visual show. It was magical to listen to the Mannheim Steam Roller as we stood in the middle of the forest while the lights pounded out the sounds.

They also have a huge bonfire, to which we returned every few minutes with our cup of hot chocolate, to warm up before heading out to explore again. On this cold, cold night the warmth of the bonfire was much appreciated.

This place certainly got us into the Christmas spirit. It has been featured on HGTV and also Good Morning America. If you are near southwest Ohio any time soon, you should go visit and have some hot chocolate while you're there: http://thechristmasranch.com/

Stay tuned

To our loyal readers:

As you already know we are in Elida OH for a job. We don't know how long it will take but it will probably be several weeks.

Because we are not traveling, during this time we will not post daily to our blog as we usually do, but we do plan to post updates and pictures from time to time.

Please stay tuned for the updates and we hope you will join us when we hit the road again in a few weeks. Feel free to leave us comments here on the blog (we love getting your comments) or send us an email to HerTinkerbell@yahoo.com

Meanwhile we hope you enjoy your holidays and we'll see you on the road!

Bernie and Mar