Day 128 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview: Pecans, shower gift, workamp decision

The excitement of the week:

Our pecan harvest of Tues & Wed.  Probably the last big batch of the season, as the rest of the week we only found small handfuls.

And then the great gift Mitch bought for me to organize the shower (that's shampoo, conditioner and shower gel).  He didn't like all the bottles.  Pretty cool, and pretty, I think, not to mention very practical.  Thanks, Mitch!  You know the way into a girl's heart!!!

Lastly is a big decision we need to make.  We just learned of a great workamping opportunity (basically, workamping is kind of like bartering - working part time in exchange for free room & board at a campground).  This would be for IT support, basically just making sure their wifi system is running properly, with the occasional helping of a renter to connect their wifi.  The job itself is a great match for him, and it's in a very nice area to be during the winter -- Mission, TX (I can't believe how many campgrounds are down there!)  This one, in particular, is a 55+ park with lots of amenities and daily activities, monthly concerts and a huge banquet hall.  Extremely nice place with glowing reviews, so not a bad place to be.  Plus it's in a densely populated area with all the stores and restaurants you can imagine, which also means a good chance for contracting work there (ie it's not in the middle of nowhere).  Apparently it's the birding capital of the US as well and is also only 1/2 hr from the Mexican border.  THE PROBLEM IS that they want someone as soon as possible (starting in October so we're already late -- it would run through April) which means having to pack up and leave after this weekend.  Not only does it mean rescheduling our plans for FL and cancelling the rally (yet again), but not staying until after Thanksgiving.  And the entire reason we chose to stay in NC this long was specifically to spend it with the kids.  Mitch and I need to talk this out but I'm leaning towards telling them the earliest we can start is mid-December (it will take at least 1.5 weeks to get there) and either they will be ok with that or they will find someone else and we'll proceed as planned.  Our rent is up on Sunday anyway, so we really need to make an immediate decision.  Will keep you posted.

UPDATE:  I also remembered that I have a dentist appt on 11/26 to put in a crown that was ordered.  It won't be ready any sooner, so yet another reason to stay here (and T'giving with family really does mean a lot).  So we sent an email explaining the situation, explaining that Mitch can also monitor the wifi system remotely (given access, of course) and would they be ok with our coming early the 2nd week of December?  If it's meant to be, it will be.  Hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll know the answer and then I can start planning the route either to Florida or Texas.

Day 125 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview: Great weather, blood work, Froyo and shopping

Yet another phenomenally gorgeous day.  Clear blue skies, warm -- I actually wore shorts today!  Interestingly, though, we need to start the day with the heat on because it's so cold.  It warms up around 11:00.  It would have been a great day to go swimming, had there been a place to do so nearby.

Did some work until noon, then went out walking for a little while.  When I returned, we went out for me to get some blood work done for the hematologist (wanted to follow up from the iron and blood transfusions 12 weeks ago).  I went to the nearest lab (7 miles away) and after signing in, was told that they can't do testing from an out of state doctor!  I can understand not filling narcotic prescriptions, but what's the big deal with taking blood, especially since they'd fax or email the results anyway???  So we landed up having to go to a Labcorp which is a national lab - 10 miles away in the other direction.  No problem there except there was ONE person who worked there.  One.  She was the receptionist, secretary, did the intake, took the blood and other samples, processed it, and has to send the reports.  I was lucky that there was only 1 person ahead of me.  I can't imagine what a full house would be like for her.

Afterwards we stopped off for some Froyo frozen yogurt (ate at the table outside the store) and then stopped at the supermarket for a few groceries. 

Day 123 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview: great weather, just complaining

Sorry, folks, that I haven't reported on much lately.  That's because there really hasn't been much to report on.  You see, the truth is, we are NOT on a permanent vacation.  This is life as it was in our sticks & bricks home in NJ, with the exception that we can change our front and back yards whenever we want (well, almost, if money wasn't an object.  Not only is the cost of diesel very expensive, especially when we get about 8 mpg, but the cost of a campground is by far cheaper when rented by the month rather then the day or even week.  So up and moving every few days is a bit cost prohibitive.  Not to mention what a huge pain in the you-know-what it is to pack everything up for moving, hitching, driving, parking, unhitching, unpacking.  It takes us at least 3 hours, so would be too exhaustive to do every few days as well).

So this week was spent mostly working or looking for work, as well as standard household chores.  Today, for example, is being spent doing laundry, vacuuming and defrosting the freezer!  Fun times, huh?

Actually, the weather was absolutely phenomenal -- clear blue skies, cool breeze, about 75-80 degrees.  After my chores, I sat outside for a while while Mitch worked on the roof.  We then had a very lovely visit with Jessica who came over for a bit before heading out to Venero's Pizzeria for dinner.

I'm getting very itchy for my urb-e.  Still no word when they will start shipping.  I feel like there's so much more I'll be able to do and see when getting around a lot won't be so difficult.  For example, we missed the State Fair because there's too much walking, no place to sit and rest, and I couldn't justify spending $50 to rent a mobility scooter.   Maybe one day this week we'll visit a nice local park to walk around in a little, as I'm getting really bored of the scenery in the campground.  I'd also like to spend a day in downtown Raleigh.  There is a bus a few miles down the road in a shopping center, and then there is a free bus line in the downtown area.  That can work!

I'm also starting to give some thought to our travel plans when we leave here after Thanksgiving.  I really am trying hard to focus on enjoying where I am NOW rather than putting all my energy into future travels, but it's good to have a little bit of a plan I think.  I'm not quite ready for serendipity (just getting into the RV and heading out on the road and driving with no plan in mind at all).  That may be an adventure in a few years.

Day 117 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview: Babka, shopping for winter clothes, dentist, decision to stay in NC

Guess I didn't write for a few days.  Nothing too eventful going on.  The highlight was seeing Jess & Griffin on Saturday, although we just hung out at the house.  She made an awesome babka (Jewish chocolate cake) and kosher chicken for me.

Jess's delicious babka!

Sunday was another shopping day:  Goodwill to fill in on some warmer clothing as it doesn't look like we'll be getting to our storage locker until the spring, and Walmart for a pair of slippers and new moccasins for Mitch.

Today I had another dentist appt.  It was a new patient intake, to see what's going on in my mouth and develop a treatment plan (last time was an emergency). I need some cleaning done, a crown, and some cavities filled.  Then we filled the propane tank which ran out and came back home.  Mitch did some more work on the roof, and I started harvesting the pecans from the tree in our front yard which are starting to ripen and fall.  Here's today's collection:

Today's pecan gathering

Mitch hasn't had many new jobs lately.  I did just get a small one in (which I hope can lead to more stuff), an inquiry from a current client (= work!) and an interview scheduled for Monday from an RFP I bid on.  Things really need to pick up, as we're digging into our savings faster than I want.

We did decide that we're staying here until after Thanksgiving.  Myrtle Beach (and many other places to explore) require more walking than I'm able to do in one shot.  Best to wait for our urb-e's to arrive.

Day 113 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Overview: bad weather, nothing much going on

I can't believe it's Thursday already.  Can't really say this has been an exciting week - it has not!  As we expected, although this will prove to be a great lifestyle choice for us, it is NOT by any means a full time vacation!  Life this week has been very much like life in our "sticks & bricks" home -- mostly spent the days working (or looking for work and clients), going out shopping for groceries or supplies, cleaning, cooking.  No travel or touristy stuff this week.  Nothing great or exciting - just ordinary life. Very blessed nothing bad happening either! Two straight days of heavy downpours, so didn't get out to walk or go to the Lunch & Learn in the sukkah (I did, however, have my tooth pulled on Tuesday!)  Tomorrow (Friday) I expect more of the same.   Saturday, after services, we will spend the day hanging with the kids.

The NC State Fair is in town from today until next Sunday.  We will make it a point to visit the fair some time next week.  I promise to take lots of pics for the blog. 

UPDATE:   Never made it to the fair.  We decided that since there was a lot of walking and no place to sit, and it wasn't worth $50 to rent a mobility scooter, we would skip it this year.

Day 110 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Yesterday, Sunday, was extremely nice.  We met a lovely couple, who are fellow "RV-Dreamers" (a wonderful online community of RV'ers - we are all like a great big, happy family!) - Brenda and Rodney ("southernvagabond").

We chatted for a little while in the CoW, and then they treated us to a very delicious pizza lunch down the road in Clayton.  We'll definitely have to go back there when we want pizza again - great place (Venero's Pizzeria on 70W, if you're in the area).

On a more negative note, I have been suffering from a toothache since Wednesday.  It was just a dull ache then, but blew up to way off the scale pain by Saturday.  Sunday was a little bit better, but I made an emergency dentist appt anyway.  I went today and learned that the cavity is down to the bone and the tooth will need to be extracted.  Dentist couldn't do it today, so I'm having this done tomorrow afternoon, after our Lunch & Learn in the Sukkah at Chabad of Cary. 

Day 107 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Last night was almost exciting.  While eating dinner, we saw out the window that our next door neighbor, Chris, was flying his model helicopter.  That caught our interest (and it was a good excuse to start up a conversation) so after dinner we went outside to join him.  We schmoozed for a while (he and his wife, Theresa, have been full timing for 16 years and they have every "toy" imaginable and an awesome rig pulled by a freightliner truck (which has it's own living area) and which carries their smart car).  Suddenly, very excitedly, Theresa came outside, announcing that the app for the ISS (Int'l Space Station) sent out an alert that it was going to be passing overhead within 10 minutes!  We all got very excited, watching it's track from Mexico on Chris' ipad, and watching the sky.  Unfortunately, it must have either been behind the trees or behind us, as we didn't see anything, and then the ipad showed it was over Maine.  Oh well.  We'll have to get that app so we can watch out for it in the future.

Today we (Mitch) spent most of the morning troubleshooting the internet.  He discovered some plugs unplugged and needed to upgrade some drivers on my PC.  We still can't get the Millenicom to work properly with the Go2, but that's for another day.  At least I can plug it directly into my machine if Mitch is out and we can't connect via his phone's hotspot.  Once I got online, I did some work (updating my LinkedIn profile and trying to find new ways to market my services.  I really need more clients!).

More excitingly, I got a message from one of my fellow RV-Dreamers who lives not too far from our campground and invited us to meet.  We agreed to meet up for lunch on Sunday.  I'm really excited to meet someone in my "family!"

Day 106 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Being the first day of Sukkot, we went to services at Chabad of Raleigh.  For my readers who are unfamiliar, this is a holiday where we are commanded to live in huts (sukkahs) for 8 days.  These are temporary dwellings, constructed of walls (usually made of tarps) with roofs made of bamboo or other natural materials that provide shade but let the light and elements in.  There are many reasons for this: 1) to remember this is how our ancestors lived for 40 years in the desert; 2) to remind us that our lives are transient and nothing is really permanent; and 3) that although we are completely exposed while living in our sukkahs, God protects us constantly.  It is a very spiritual holiday which tests our faith. 

When we lived in NJ, we built our own sukkah.  This is the first time we have not done so, and this is the first time so far that we are truly feeling sad and missing something from our previous lifestyle.  But fortunately, we are in an area where there are 2 synagogues with sukkahs, so at least we can visit there, even if we can't dwell in it every day.  And we learned today that there are pop-up sukkahs, so there may even be an option for us to explore next year.

It was a delightful synagogue holiday service and we also discovered that they have a space adjacent to their parking lot where we can park our RV over Shabbat (and in fact were invited to do so).  Personally, we like the Cary congregation a little better, but we shall see how events unfold.  Currently, we are 20 miles away from Cary.

Day 104 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Not a whole lot to report on today.  It is a gorgeous day; will be close to 80 degrees with a bright blue sky.  Mitch got a call for another job today.  It's in Fayetteville which is about 60 miles away, but again, he'll get a fuel stipend so it's worth it.  In the past it wouldn't have been a problem, but with a huge truck which takes diesel fuel and gets about 10mpg, longer distances become expensive and filling the tank costs more than what he would make on the job.

It is confirmed that the tree outside my door (see Day 103) is a pecan tree.  Thanks go my dear sister Linda who was able to identify it from the poor quality photo!  The nuts aren't ripe yet.  We'll be here until the end of the month, so hopefully we'll be able to enjoy them before we leave.

Tonight should be fun.  We are going out with Jessica & Griffin and 2 other couples to play trivia (being held at a bar).  I really suck at it, but it's a fun experience.

Forgot to mention yesterday that I met a very lovely couple who "live" next door in a huge fifth wheel that pulls a smart car on a trailer and is pulled by a freightliner truck (the kind the semis use) which also has living quarters.  He works for the FAA and they have been full timers for 16 years!  I hope we'll have a few chances to hang out with them for a drink or something.

Day 103 of the Journey - Garner, NC

We woke up to a very cold 42 degrees this morning!  So nice to remember that we can always just pick up and go south if we can't stand it any more.  Needed to put the heat on in order to get out of bed (which we finally did by 10:00 am!!!).  By mid afternoon it reached about 75 and was an absolutely gorgeous day.

Mitch had to work (location about 40 miles away; at least they're giving him a travel stipend) so I took my walks alone.  Below are a few photos of the campground, with the last one being the tree outside my door.  It looks like it bears some kind of small, oval shaped fruit or nut; I'm trying to figure out what kind of tree it is.

Newly paved roads

Lots of trees

Lots of space

This is our spot

Out the front door.  What kind of tree is this?

Day 102 of the Journey - Garner, NC

Can you believe we broke 100?!!!  Sure doesn't feel that way.

The High Holiday services are now behind us.  It was a truly awesome, spiritual, inspiring, insightful and cleansing experience.  So glad to be back at our "home away from home" in Cary, NC.

This morning we moved from the parking lot to 70 East RV Resort in Garner, NC which is about 10 miles from Raleigh.  It's about a 20 minute drive to visit the kids.  Hopefully Mitch will get a lot of jobs in the area, and this is a good point to commute from.

The campground itself is very nice.  It doesn't have amenities such as a pool or rec center, as there are also a lot of permanent mobile homes.  But the sites are very large and well maintained. It's clear that they recently paved the main roadways as it's all new asphalt.  Although no mountains or beach in the background, it will serve its purpose very well, which is a nice, clean, safe place to park our home for a while.  We booked it through Nov. 2nd, but may extend to after Thanksgiving.  We'll play that one by ear.

Regarding set up at the campground - we had 2 small catastrophes:  first, when getting ready to leave, Mitch spilled his 44 oz coffee cup all over the kitchen.  Took 5 large beach towels and 10 minutes to clean it all up.  Of course, Mitch grabbed the good white towels instead of the every day raggedy ones.  I'm washing them now with hot water and bleach - with any luck they won't be too damaged.  And if so, oh well.  They're only towels which are so nice we weren't using them anyway!

Next, one item we passed very quickly on the checklist: LOCK BEDROOM DOOR OPEN.  Guess what?  It happened again - the door is once again off the track.  At least we were able to push it back into the grove and lock it in place so it's not sticking out sideways.  Maybe we'll just leave it open permanently at this point.

When we got to the campground, very surprisingly we got a pull through site!!!  I had asked when making reservations and they said none were available.  So no problems at all with backing in (although we missed out on practicing).

After setting up house, Jessica invited us over for a very nice bagels, lox (farm ripe hot house tomatoes, red onions, capers, cream cheese) & fruit salad lunch.  She made a very lovely presentation:

Mitch also removed all the stuff from the kids' attic that we left there in June.  Mostly a lot of his tools and junk which I don't think we need but he does.  As long as it goes in the basement or in his truck where I don't have to see it, I'm ok.

Day 99 of the Journey - Raleigh, NC

Yesterday I got a bit of client work done and Mitch worked on the roof a bit more.  We met up with the kids last evening.  We had planned to go out for a night of trivia, but we were off by one night (they play on Tues, not Wed), so we just ended up having a lovely dinner at Sweet Tomatoes (a salad bar place).

Mitch's project for the day was to build a shelf in our entrance way closet so he has more room to put his junk (that's where he empties his pockets so it holds loose change, odds and ends small tools, nuts, bolts, things that really belong in his tool box... plus a few hats, wallets, glasses).  Some photos:

Mitch busy working, cutting wood for shelf

Closet - before (emptied out - sans junk)

Closet after - with shelf.  He even added some pegs on the side for hanging more stuff like flashlights

This evening brought something kind of nice and special.  First, a small digression:  this weekend (week actually) brings a huge bluegrass festival to Raleigh, with the highlights being Friday and Saturday (yeah, stinks for us, being Yom Kippur).  That explains why the campground is full again - many people coming from near and far for the festival.  Anyway, we were out taking our evening walk and met a group of about 6 couples who travel to these festivals together.  They come from all over the country and when they get together, they jam (bluegrass, of course).  We were standing on the outskirts and watching and they quickly invited us to come and join them.  Mitch went back to get my chair and the chocolate wine (which we were planning to drink outside when we returned from the walk, but sharing it with the group was much nicer).  Below are some pictures and a snippet of a video.

Tomorrow morning we pack up and move over to the parking lot where Yom Kippur services will be held.  We'll stay until Sunday morning, when we move over to our next campground in Garner, where we'll stay at least until the end of October.