What have you been up to lately?

For some strange reason, I thought that once I retired, I would have all of this extra time on my hands. Time to lounge around out on the deck, time to work in my garden, time to paint, time to practice photography, time to volunteer and even time to blog.  It hasn't really panned out that way this year, but it's totally fine with me. It has been crazy busy, but somewhat relaxing at the same time. When my friends who are still working ask me, "Do you ever get bored?" I want to laugh!  Not at all!! I have a list a mile long of projects that I want to tackle and am slowly, but surely checking them off my list. At times, I get a little frustrated with myself for the lack of progress in certain areas, but then I remind myself of what Valine told me: "It doesn't all have to happen the first year!" I guess that I felt like it was a short vacation--like spring break or summer--and I needed to cram every single project into that time. But, it's not! I'm going to be retired for a long time. If I do a little bit here and there, it will all get done.  And if it doesn't, oh well.

Ron and I slipped away for a short weekend camping trip over the Easter weekend. Because his work has been so busy and unpredictable lately, it is unlikely that we will be going on a real vacation until sometime in the fall. But, having a place to go that is only 45 minutes away gave us a much-needed break. I didn't break out my "big girl camera" the entire weekend, so he is an unedited, iPhone look at our time.

Callie and the crew came out to visit one of the days we were there and after dinner and s'mores, Luke stayed to spend the night.

While he was sort of interested in fishing, he REALLY just wanted to hide and hunt Easter eggs.

After a bit of a rough night away from mommy in the camper, we awoke to a happy toddler who was thrilled with camping again. We went on a little hike and to a visit to the nature center.

While we tried to interest him in more fishing, he really just wanted to hide and find Easter eggs again.

And again and again!

Oh the joy of being 2 years old!

When Callie came to pick him up, we all visited the small zoo where the peacocks really put on a show for us!

That night, Ron and I did a little more hiking and some fishing as well. I was on a roll---I caught 20 fish, many of them nice-sized catfish, while Ron only caught 6.

Easter morning, I got up, showered & dressed and headed into town for church before returning to spend the rest of the day at the campsite.

We had such a nice, relaxing weekend filled with family, fishing and fun!

And in case you're wondering, I have indeed reminded Ron of my fishing prowess several times since then!

Key Holder for the Camper

Our camper is in the shop right now getting some minor adjustments, but that hasn't stopped me from preparing for our first camping trip. Ron has a couple of days off (we hope) next weekend, so we are planning on a short get-away--close enough that he can get in to work if necessary, but far enough that we'll be out of the city.

Since our purchase, I've been working on getting things together that we will need for camping. We like to keep it ready to go, so that when the opportunity arises, we can simply load our clothes and food and take off. I am trying to be sure that everything has a designated spot to make organization easier, and one of those things is a place to hang our keys.

I purchased a wooden board at Michael's for just $4.99 (plus a 40% off coupon) and everything else was found around my house.

After trying out a couple of different colors, I finally settled on red and used some chalk paint that I purchased at Joann's a while back.

I used Mod Podge to adhere some map wrapping paper to the board. I fell in love with Mod Podge back in the 70's when I used it to decoupage any available surface. Did anyone else out there have a decoupaged purse with Holly Hobby on it or was it just me?!?!  Once everything dried, I hand-lettered a phrase on it, leaving room at the bottom for hooks.

Now it was time to add the hooks. I had planned to use cup hooks of some sort, but the only ones I had in my tool box were too big.  Since I really didn't want to go buy anything else, I came up with the idea of using keys to make the hooks! When cleaning out one of my kitchen drawers recently, I found a ziplock bag with old keys in it. With Ron's help, we managed to break far more keys than we bent, but eventually, I ended up with 4 keys bent into the shape of hooks.

Using upholstery tacks, I fastened the keys to the board (which is very thin). The points stuck through the back a little bit, so I clipped them off with wire cutters and put a strip of duck tape across the back so that it wouldn't scratch the wall.

I plan to hang the key holder just over our main entry door in the camper. Can't wait for our next adventure!

Happy Campers Again

Over the weekend, after finally finding a creative salesperson that was able to make us an offer within our budget, we made a deal on a travel trailer.  A brand, spanking new travel trailer at that!! We had done our homework by visiting RV stores, an RV show, and conducted lots and lots of internet comparisons to determine exactly what features were the most important to us. We eventually narrowed things down to one particular model--the Heartland Mallard M27.

We chose this model for several reasons-
1.  The quality of construction of the Mallard is great. It has aluminum framing with a fiberglass skin and every compartment is fully finished: even the underbelly is enclosed.
2.  Size--The M27 is one of the smaller Mallards, which is what we wanted. While a good bit longer than our previous camper, it is pretty small compared to many of the trailers/RV's out there. It has one slide-out that makes the interior feel much roomier.
3.  Arrangement of the interior--I learned that almost every travel trailer is arranged according to a few basic floor plans. At first, we bounced back and forth between a bunk-style model (M245) and rear living model (M27), but, in the end, we settled on the rear-living style model. While we hope to include grandchildren on future trips, most of our trips will most likely be just the two of us and we don't need bunk beds. Both models have a queen master bed and similar size kitchens, dinettes and bathrooms.

However, instead of bunk beds for extra sleeping, the M27 has a love seat/sofa that folds out into a bed for extra guests. (The dinette folds out into a bed, as well). During the day, however, it is additional seating for people visiting us.

And, one of the most attractive features for us, is the two easy chairs located in the back of the camper. While we will spend most of our camping time outdoors, on rainy days or evenings, those chairs will be great for relaxing indoors.

We drove over to Jackson, MS to get the camper and drove back home the same day, with camper in tow.

As you might expect with our luck, there was one slight "bump in the road" on the way home. We stopped in Monroe to activate the "rear back-up assist" feature on Ron's truck and discovered that one of the tires was almost flat.  :-(  

Backing in to get air at the service station was a good chance for Ron to practice actually using the feature.

After church on Sunday, we spent a good bit of the afternoon, hauling our supplies out of storage and getting things set up inside the camper. We were able to salvage most of our belongings from the camper accident, but not everything, so I have been measuring and shopping for organizational items that will work best.

The upholstery and curtains are more neutral in this camper--finally trailer makers are starting to turn from the heavy floral tapestries and dated patterns--but, I hope to add a few of my own touches soon.

Callie and the boys came to visit our new little "home away from home" on Sunday afternoon and to try out the beds and chairs.

I can't wait until Ron has a free weekend so that we can venture into the woods for a while!  Yep, we are definitely happy campers again!

Happy Campers

Back in October, we spent a weekend camping with Callie & Jordan at Beaver's Bend Park. While it was a vacation wrought with interruptions in the form of new tires for the camper and a full campground, we ultimately had a great time hiking and fishing and just being outdoors. It was fun being there with two little guys who loved being outdoors and didn't want to leave.

Ron and I left late in the afternoon on Sunday and since we'd had to come up separately, I was following him home.  The weather was great and there was a huge harvest moon in the sky.

Just a few miles from home, I saw Ron's truck suddenly begin to swerve with the camper throwing his truck back and forth across the interstate. In horror, I watched as he fought to regain control of his small truck and ultimately land in the ditch on the side of the road with the camper flipped on its side.  Miraculously, he was able to keep the truck upright. As I ran to hug him when he emerged from the cab of the truck, I was flooded with relief that he was okay. I remember him hugging me and telling me he was sorry about the camper.  At that moment, I couldn't have cared less about the camper or anything inside it, even though it was already pretty clear that it was a total loss.

We spent the next few hours with a big-rig tow truck and lots of deputy sheriffs, along with Jordan who had come to help.

Eventually, the camper was separated from the truck and Ron were actually able to drive it home.  We LOVED our camper that we bought from Juliet and were sad to tell it goodbye, but were able to get inside to get most of our belongings out in the following week.  This is what we found . (Notice that the "happy camper" dish towel that is still hanging neatly on the stove, despite the fact that every other part of the stove was thrown throughout the camper)

Yep, that is a biscuit hanging from the ceiling--still in its zip-lock bag.

The end of 2016 also brought about the demise of Ron's truck--possibly accelerated by the wreck, although insurance begs to differ about that.  He brought home his new chariot--a Ford that is big enough to pull a camper and is comfortable for more than 2 people to ride.  He has waited a long time for it and loves it!

Which brings us back to the camper.  Having our little camper for just a year and a half was long enough to let us know how much we love camping and that we really do want to invest a little bit more money in having a new one.  This weekend we went out to the RV show to look around and scout out what kind of model might best suit our needs.

We checked out a variety of models and styles, but likely have a lot of research ahead of us before we figure out exactly what we want and need.

There might be some fussin' and discussin' going on, but I'm confident that eventually we will find the right thing for our family and I can't wait to get back on the road again!