Camping This Weekend! YAY!

Randall and I made a spur of the moment decision to go camping this weekend at Gulf Breeze Resort at Gulf Shores for this coming Labor Day Weekend. We haven't been to Gulf Breeze RV Resort in a while. The last two times we camped we stayed at Fort Morgan RV Park. We like both parks for different reasons and we just decided we would go back to Gulf Breeze for a change

At this point, Hurricane Gustav is looming in the Carribbean and is expected to enter the Gulf by this weekend. It is also predicted to be at least a category 2 or 3 by the time it hits somewhere along the Gulf Coast. The projected path right now could effect our weather possibly late Sun. night or early Mon. morning. But we plan to leave Mon. morning anyway, so we should be O.K. even if it happens to come our direction. We really don't have any big plans. Just take it easy and watch the first Alabama Game on Saturday night! Roll Tide!!

Camp went to the doctor today to get all of his shots updated. He's ready to camp!

Had a good day at work today with the exception of having to smell a foul odor all day. On Monday (yesterday), we finally got the heavier rains that had been predicted to get from Tropical Storm Fay and the winds and the rain blew through the windows of my office and got my carpet and floors wet. This morning when I opened the main door into our office area, the pungent smell just about knocked me down. We got fans and lit candles trying to remove the odor. It didn't do much good. It still stinks!!!!!

Hoping for sweeter aroma's tomorrow!

Weekend in Review

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Well it is Sunday evening at 5:30. Since my last blog, most of this weekend has been spent anticipating what weather forecasters were predicting for the Mobile area would be a flood of great proportions from Tropical Storm Fay. Since Group Link was scheduled for today at 5:00, we went ahead on Friday and postponed the event with the forecast that was being provided to us. We were having chicken from Foosacklys at Group Link, and we didn't want to cancel this at the last minute. By this time today, we were supposed to have the possibility of 15 to 20 inches of rain. Currently, it is sunshining and we have had very little rain, I would guess, not even an inch. All we have experienced is a few wind gusts over the last couple of days of maybe 35 mph.

Since I was off on Friday, I pretty much just did some household chores and then took it easy around the house the rest of the day. Randall and I went to Wal-mart and picked up a few items in the evening. We ended this exciting time out by going through the drive up window at McDonalds and getting an ice cream cone:)


On Saturday, the weather was predicted to begin going downhill on Saturday afternoon. So we got out around 9:00 A.M and went to several RV Sales in the Tillman's Corner area. We found several that we really liked at B & R Camper Sales. We later ate lunch at San Miguels and then we went home to hibernate and wait for the storm to arrive. When we got home, we began looking up some of the Fifth Wheels that we had liked on the internet. We found a dealer on line that had the exact ones we liked and they were approximately 15 to 20 thousand dollars less. We figure there must be a catch, but we haven't found it yet other than we will have to travel about 1000 miles to get to it. But we figure with that kind of savings, it might be worth it. We'll have to investigate further.

There are so many things to consider when picking out a fifth wheel when you plan to spend a lot of time in it and there are so many options available. We made our decision to go with a fifth wheel over a motor home for several reasons. The motor home will cost just about the same as the fifth wheel and the truck combined. So financially, it is about the same. But once you reach your destination, unless you pull a jeep or car behind you, will not have a convenient way of getting around and sightseeing. When you have your truck, you already have your mode of transportation for moving about the area. The fifth wheels also have more living space than the motorhome. So much of a motorhome is used in the front with the hood (motor) and the two captains chairs in the front. Also, if your motorhome should ever have to be serviced while out on the road, you would have to stay in a hotel or somewhere because your living space would be in the shop. On the other hand, if something happens to the truck, you will still have your place to live.The fifth wheels have a zillion different floor plans to choose from as well. We are leaning towards what is referred to as a rear living which means it has a large window in the back of the trailer and two recliners at the window. This is great if you are staying somewhere that has a great view. Another thing that we have decided is that we want a separate bathroom from our bedroom. Many have the sink and shower right in the bedroom with only the toilet in another separate room. I just think that if I am going to be in this for a long time, I would want the bathroom completely separate. Deciding on the length fifth wheel we want is another big decision. After much research, I think we would like to stay between 30 and 35 feet. It seems there are issues sometimes with the longer ones with spaces not being large enough in some campsites to accomodate some of the larger rigs.


O.K. I know those of you who read my blog are probably bored to tears by this point (that is if you have not already stopped reading by now because you were already so bored :) I just wrote all of this so that I can look back later after we have our fifth wheel and remember what we were thinking at this point.



Who knows what we will end up with by the time we actually make our decision. But as with most things, the anticipation and planning of what you will do is almost as fun as the actual purchase and we are having a good time right now!

Farewell My Solara

Well, I left the sale of my car in God's hands and in His timing and today was the day. I was both sad and happy with this transaction. Happy in the fact that it is the first step towards a goal of having most of our bills paid in two years and being completely debt free. This will free Randall and me to begin thinking about our dream of traveling across the good old U. S. A. in our Fifth Wheel. We have begun to make so many exciting plans and the selling of my car brings us closer to that dream. I loved this car more than any car I have ever had. What you cannot see in these pictures that were taken this morning were the tears that were streaming down my face. I'm really going to miss my beautiful car.

My Second New Laptop

I have been wanting a laptop for several years now and finally my sweet husband purchased one for me for my birthday a couple of weeks ago. I was not able to have my high speed internet or my wireless router connected until last week. So needless to say, I was not able to use it much until last week. Since this was my first laptop, I was not familiar with how long it takes the battery to charge. For over a week I have been experiencing a problem. Everything worked perfectly and I could do everything, including accessing the Internet wirelessly, I needed to as long as I was connected to an electrical outlet. But as soon as I tried to run on battery alone, I would immediately lose my Internet connection and would not be able to return to the Internet until I plugged into electricity. So yesterday afternoon I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I called HP support. This was the beginning of where I would lose 5 hours of my life that I would never get back. To make a long, long, long, long story very short, for the next 5 hours, I spoke with 4 foreigners--two of which I could not understand at all. After HP Support had done everything that they could think of that they knew for me to dom including completely erasing everything on my computer, they determined that there must be a problem with my router and then patched me into Linksys, the router people. It all ended after I explained to the last customer service rep at Linksys what my original problem had been 5 hours earlier. She then asked me if I had originally told the HP Support person the same thing I had just told her and I told her I had. She quickly told me that the problem was with the computer itself. It had nothing to do with HP software or with the router. She suggested I take the computer back to Office Max and get another one. I could not believe that I had gone through all that I had just to be told that!!! So after 5 hours of working with the support people from all over the world, I ended up in the same exact place I started!!!

At lunch today, I took my computer back to Office Max and told them all that I had done the day before. They immediately gave me a new computer and I was out the door in less than 10 minutes. It would have been such an easy problem to solve had I spoken with the last support person first!

I have worked most of the evening tonight loading everything into this laptop and setting everything up. Everything is working perfectly!!! I am so excited about all that I can do on the laptop and all the great email blogs that I am able to read.

Well, Randall just rolled over and turned the T.V off. It is now 10:35 and for those of you who know me.....you know that is wayyyyyyy past my betime. Good nite!

My Red Convertible

Well, it's official! My much loved red Toyota Solara Convertible is on the market! Randall and I have made some financial plans that will hopefully help us in the present as well as the future and it begins with using the profits off of the sale of my car. It's an immediate sacrifice for a future event which we hope will end with everything being paid for. We are looking forward to the day when we can take our new truck and new fifth wheel and hit the road for three months at the time. We would love to travel and work a little along the way. The sale of my car is the first step in our ultimate plan. I have left all of it in God's hand. He knows the perfect timing of everything and it is completely in His time.

It was in the paper yesterday and today and so far no one has called about it. That's completely O.K. with me:)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Well today is my 49th birthday. It has really been a great day. I have had so many happy birthday wishes from friends and family by email, facebook, cards, and phone. I am so bad about remembering other people's birthdays and it really means to much to people just that you remember and wish them a happy one. I am so blessed to have the family and friends that God has placed in my life. Because of a lovely business meeting that we have tonight at church that I must attend, we will postpone my birthday dinner until Friday. That's good too because that just gives me something to look forward to!