Indiana, Anderson - Monday, March 24, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

It’s cold in Indiana!!  We had a high of 37 today, expecting snow this evening with a high of 31 degrees tomorrow.  I talked to the park manager at the park where we were in Florida – it was 74 degrees there L.  I guess that gives us something to look forward to here.

We feel like we are officially back in Indiana since we’ve been to Jimmies Dairy Bar in Pendleton.  Those barbeque sandwiches and fried mushrooms sure hit the spot.

We enjoyed Saturday night dinner out at Red Lobster with friends Mike and Susan.  It was good to catch up with them.  We have so many people we want to get out and see while we are here I’m sure the time will fly.

Indiana, Anderson - Thursday, March 20, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

This post is especially for our friends Roger and Dianne.  They fulltime and are originally from central Indiana like us, so all of us are on the lookout for good campgrounds in the area.

My post yesterday indicated that the roads were paved and the sites were stone.  After walking around the campground today I find I was a little off on that, about half of the roads are paved the rest are nicely maintained in stone.  About half of the sites have stone the rest are grassy areas that look nice right now.  It looks like all of the 50 amp sites are stone for the heavier units.  All of the sites have picnic tables and fire pits.  I don’t know the width of the lots, but there is plenty of room to put out awnings and patio furniture.

 

 

This is one of the catch and release ponds, frozen over right now.

 

There is a playground area for kids and plenty of room for dogs to run.

The swimming area is a portion of one of the catch and release ponds.

 

 

The owners are on site and appear to be very involved in upkeep. 

Greg is happy with the TV reception and that makes me happy.

Right now the bathhouses, laundry and camp store are closed so I couldn’t get pictures, I think they will be opening up April 1 when the season starts.

Indiana, Anderson - Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - Timberline Valley RV Resort

This afternoon we pulled into Timberline Valley RV Resort.  The address is Anderson, IN but it is between Anderson and Chesterfield on a country road just off of State Road 32.  So far we are very pleased.  I’ll get some pictures to post in the next few days.  Roads are paved and the sites are stone, electricity is strong, the water pressure is good, Wi-Fi is free and fast.  They do have a few sites that are open year round.  The rate is $450 a month plus electricity.  You can find more information on them at www.timberlinecampground.com.

Since my last post we had a couple of days of really cold weather.  A water line froze and we had an issue with the refrigerator again.  We got the water line thawed and it didn’t look like it had done any damage, but we think it may have affected a pump on our continuous hot water heater – Greg will be looking into that tomorrow.

Our fridge problem this time was that the fridge just shut down entirely.  Greg called Leon Herschberger, owner of National RV Refrigeration in Shipshewana, IN and he was able to get us in yesterday.  Greg took the RV north and I stayed in Markleville so I could take care of some obligations we had in case he didn’t get back in time.  Leon was recommended to us by Howard and Linda with RV-Dreams.  Now we recommend Leon – he was a wealth of knowledge and our fridge has never run better.  It seems when we had the new cooling unit installed, there was a sensor on the ice machine that was installed wrong.  When the weather got cold enough for that sensor to kick in, it shorted out the circuit panel that makes the fridge run.  Leon also noticed that the shield that conducts heat away from the fridge was installed wrong so the fridge couldn’t cool properly.  We had noticed that in order to keep the fridge at proper temperatures after we had the cooling unit installed we had to run it on high.  It now appears that we can have the setting a little lower and still have the temperature within the safe range.  More info on National RV Refrigeration can be seen at www.fixyourfridge.com.

Indiana, Markleville - Sunday, March 16, 2014 - Catching up with Family and Friends

On Thursday we made it as far as Nashville, got there just in time for rush hour traffic – nothing like participating in community happenings L

 

 

We stayed at Twin Rivers Campground.  We were there last year when we went to the Grand Ole Opry.  This campground is right next door to Camping World so we had them check out a couple of things for us before we headed on to Indiana.

We arrived in Indiana late Friday evening and parked the coach in daughter Amanda’s second driveway.  Last year they had 50 amp service installed for us to use.

On Saturday we borrowed one of Amanda’s cars and I had lunch with some wonderful friends from high school while Greg replaced the garbage disposal at the rental house.  Saturday evening we met up with some more friends at a tenderloin fry held by the First United Methodist Church in Frankton.

This morning we went to daughter Desira’s and waited for grandson Tyler and great grandson Braxton to show up.  Brax wasn’t even a year old when we left to go on the road last year so he wasn’t real sure who we were.  Maybe he will warm up to us before we leave in July.

This afternoon we met up with my brothers, mom and dad and had a really nice visit.  Coming home we stopped at GloWood RV Park to check it out since that is where we were planning on staying while we are here.  It would work, but I think we’ll check out another option first.  Our friend Roger wasn’t kidding about GloWood having some big potholes!!!

Florida, Moore Haven - Wednesday, March 12, 2014 - M RV Resport

After saying good byes to our new friends at M RV Resort this morning, we headed out for Indiana.  We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in site 209.  If you are in the Moore Haven area we recommend stopping at M RV Resort.  The price we paid was $350 a month plus tax for a full hook up site – that’s hard to beat.  But, right now they have a special going on for September through December of 2014 for $200 a month plus tax – my assumption is that is for everyone, not just repeat reservations.  I have to admit that we were a little leery of what we would get for $350 a month since we were going in sight unseen. But, we were pleasantly surprised.  We intend to stay at one of this family’s RV resorts in Arizona next winter.

Some family health issues prompted us to head back to Indiana a little earlier than expected.  We are hoping that the 70 plus degree weather in Florida is following us.  These little guys are going to be disappointed if it doesn’t.  Right now they are in the RV shower getting sunshine from the skylight.

 

 

When we set out this morning the sky was grey and overcast in spite of the warm weather.  We ran into one short rainstorm, a few sprinkles and strong winds.

 

 

In one area I thought it had started raining again only to realize that we had run through a large swarm of big juicy insects of some kind.  Greg had washed the windshield this morning and after this we had at least 43 huge splats on the windshield in addition to those on the front of the coach below the window.  I was just glad we didn’t ride the motorcycle through that!!

Right now we are taking advantage of the hospitality of Camping World just outside of Tallahassee.  We plan on making it to about Nashville tomorrow and being back in Pendleton some time Friday.  Maybe that will give them time to get rid of the snow before we get there.

Florida, Moore Haven - Sunday, March 9, 2014 - M RV Resort

It’s been a lazy weekend.  The weather has been cool in the morning but by around noon it has been perfect.  On Saturday we went into Clewiston to pick up prescriptions and to get a few groceries.

Today we finished up the mirror covers.  The second one went pretty quickly.  The first one had a lot of trial and error to it.  These things are supposed to protect the mirrors from weather and premature aging.  We’ve seen them made from all kinds of materials, we used some of the leftover vinyl headliner material we had from our headboard remodel.  A lot of the ones we have seen just slip over the mirrors, but because of some of the winds we have seen in the last year, we decided we would run a cord through the bottom so we could tie them down.

Florida, Moore Haven - Friday, March 7, 2014 - M RV Resort

We aren’t doing much blog worthy at this moment.  On Wednesday I went to line dancing lessons and videotaped about 20 of the dances so I can work on them at home (I know, maybe not a good visual, but it is good exercise).  In the evening we went up for pizza and Bingo.  Greg was a winner.  This bingo game is called “goal post with a football”.  Until we started playing here I just thought bingo meant getting five in a row.

 

On Thursday, my biggest accomplishment was making macaroni salad.

Old Fashioned Macaroni Salad

8 oz. macaroni, cooked and cooled
1 c. diced celery
½ c. diced sweet onion
½ c. diced green bell pepper
½ c. diced red bell pepper (optional)

Dressing:  Mix together

1 c. mayonnaise
1 T. mustard
¼ tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. sugar
2 T. vinegar

You may want to make 1 ½ times the dressing, the macaroni tends to soak it up.

I also got our “File of Life” information packets filled out.  These files include all of our medical information in case of emergency.  The file is placed in a red “File of Life” plastic pouch with a magnet on the back for you to place it on your refrigerator.  Since many RV refrigerators don’t have metal doors, placing it inside the fridge is also a possibility.  A sticker is then placed on your outside door or nearby window that indicates to emergency personnel that you have your “File of Life” information inside.  The sheriff’s department that provided these to us also included a smaller version to be carried in your car, or in our case, the motorcycle.

Today we filled out our resumes to submit to Workampers.com.  We thought we might find some interesting work to do next Fall and Winter when we plan on spending a few months in Arizona.

We will be back in Indiana this year on May 12.  We’ll be staying at the Glowood campground between Pendleton and Lapel for at least part of the time we are there.

Today our big project was covers for the large chrome mirrors on the front of the coach.  We got one finished but we’ll have to wait until later to post a picture, it’s too dark out now.

Florida, Moore Haven - Tuesday, March 4, 2014 - Mardi Gras at M RV Resort

This morning at 10:00 100 cupcakes went on sale for $.50 each, 50 red and 50 blue.  There was a little plastic baby in one of the red cupcakes and one of the blue cupcakes.  Whoever got the cupcake with the baby in it was the king or queen of our Mardi gras celebration.

At 2:00 there was a parade.  We didn’t participate, we sat on our patio and collected candy that was being thrown.

We noticed this turtle crossing the road just before the parade started – maybe to get a better view?

At 5:00 there was a pitch in dinner with jambalaya provided as the main course.

This is just the beginning of the crowd beginning to gather.  By the time everyone arrived seats were getting pretty scarce.

Two of the residents here used to have a bakery in Lafayette, LA.  They provided the king cake pictured below and the recipe for the jambalaya.

There is a dance at 7:00 this evening.  We won’t be going back up to the clubhouse for that.  We brought our empty crock pot home after the pitch in and decided to sit out on the patio until the mosquitos found out we were there.

Florida, Moore Haven - Monday, March 3, 2014 - M RV Resort

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO GRANDDAUGHTER CHEYANNE!!!

We had planned to go to Sanibel Island today for some shell hunting.  But, we decided that I probably didn’t need a full day in the sun.  I got quite a sunburn on Saturday when we went to the baseball game even though I was wearing SPF 50 sunscreen.  From now on we will probably be running into Spring Break crowds on the beaches so we’ll have to go early in the morning when we finally do get over to the island.

Temperatures have been in the mid to upper 80s everyday, the humidity varies from wonderful to pretty muggy.  We have been enjoying one of these most days.  It’s a pint mason jar with frozen wine “slushy”.  It is very refreshing on a hot afternoon.  I have some half pint jars and that would probably be enough to cool us off, but the pint jars fit really well in a soft drink can koozie.

 

 

To make a wine slushy:  Mix 2 oz. wine (right now we are using key lime wine, last week it was black current, I think any wine would be pretty good), 2 oz. margarita mix and 2 oz. water in each pint mason jar.  Put the jars in the freezer.  When the mix is frozen, scrape and poke it with a fork to make it slushy and eat it with a spoon.

We rode into Clewiston to pick up a few groceries.  We finally found a pool noodle for me so I can enjoy the pool.  Swimming is another thing I didn’t conquer when I was younger.  Our grandson Jackson suggested I needed some “big girl swimees”.  Since I don’t think they make “swimees” that big, I settled for a pool noodle.

Florida, Ft. Myers - Saturday, March 1, 2014 - Twins vs. Red Sox

Yesterday we toured the small town of Moore Haven, didn’t take long.  They do have a nice park and scenic areas along the river.  We stopped at one area along the locks.

 

This is a closer look at the really big alligator that was sunning on the shore. 

We didn’t stick around for a lot more pictures.  After we parked we noticed some signs stating “government facility, no trespassing” (I have a feeling that meant us).

From the locks we headed to the Seminole Reservation that is about 20 miles from the campground to check out the casino they have there.

 

This is a small casino with lots of penny slots, but we did manage to find a couple of quarter slots and proceeded to lose $10.  We heard that the big thing going on there is Bingo.  The pot for Friday night was $9,000.

Today we went into Ft. Myers to Hammond Stadium which is the spring training headquarters for the Minnesota Twins.

 

 

 

We had good seats here on the first row.

 

 

We had a great view of the field.

The Twins were playing the Boston Red Sox.  None of the Boston starters were there so we were a bit disappointed about that, but it was a great day for a ballgame.  The Twins ended up winning 6-2.  We headed home in the fifth inning when the Twins hit a 3 run home run.  The parking lot was packed so I think it was a good idea to head out early.

We passed a sign on the way home indicating that the temperature was 91 degrees.  I think it might have been a bit off, TV reports are showing mid 80’s.