The Real Wayne's World

In September, Pam and I, and Pam's mom Judi, were at Vrooman's restaurant in Caroga Lake for wings.  We were sitting at the bar and I was sitting next to a fella dressed in motorcycle gear.  We struck up a conversation.  Wayne is a free spirit,  He lived on a sailboat for a time, sold it, and bought a motorcycle to cruise around in  He was traveling from Michigan to Maine before heading to Pennsylvania to work on a farm and then on to Florida.

Wayne was tenting at night.  I offered him the use of our RV for the night, which he gratefully accepted.  We dropped him off and warned him about our Sasquatches.

I think you'll enjoy his video.  We come in at the 8:30 mark.  

What's the big deal about a screaming Sasquatch?

At My Wit's End

Just as we were sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner, a HUGE dog fight broke out outside.  Ruby guards her toys, and Olivia snagged one.  Ruby, being Ruby, snapped at Olivia, which she has done before and isn't a problem.  But the pit we just rescued, Lilly, took that as a sign to attack and did.  Lilly tore into Olivia with a vengeance.  Ruby thought the way to control the situation was to pin down Olivia, which she did.  By the time I got out there, daughter Megan and Pam had them pulled apart.  Lilly was desperately trying to kill Olivia, and Olivia was hurt badly and spurting blood out of her front left leg.

We spent Thanksgiving at the veterinarian ER.  I drove.  Now, normally I drive like an old lady.  45 MPH is about my top speed.  But thinking that Olivia was going to bleed to death, despite the tourniquet applied by Pam, I was driving 85 MPH and going through red lights.

Olivia will be fine.  Lilly, not so much.  We're inclined to put her down.  What if this was a child?  We don't know about Lilly's upbringing.  Or lack of it, actually, since she has no manners.  What are we to do?  We cannot harbor a vicious dog, yet until Thanksgiving,  Lilly has been an overly friendly and wonderful dog.

I am at my wit's end.

Coral Snake!

"Red to yellow, kill a fellow; red to black, venom lack" .  That's a rhyme taught to Florida school children to help them identify coral snakes, a very deadly venomous snake.  But thankfully, your chances of being bitten by one are very small.  Their mouths are too small to grab onto much of anything, except something like the webbing between your fingers or toes.

Having dogs, I'd be very concerned about one of our dogs sniffing it and then getting bit on the lip.

I'm grateful that Bleecker doesn't have coral snakes.  I'll stick with bears, coyotes, and Sasquatches.

Pam's New Toy

Pam's new toy is a Heritage Rough Rider revolver, given to her as a birthday gift from our Florida neighbor Denny.  I was actually going to buy one for her for Christmas.  I decided to buy her the next best thing, a hand tooled holster.

Now she's all set for her 'squatchin' expedition in December.

The Difference Between an Ordeal and an Adventure is Attitude

"The Difference Between an Ordeal and an Adventure is Attitude".   Pam and I have a plaque that says that.  First it was on our boat, and later in Harvey the RV.  Depending on your attitude, we've certainly had one or the other.

This has got to be the longest snowbird migration from north to Florida at 16 days. It also has to be the most expensive at $8,000.  Granted, $4,000 of that was for hearing aids bought from the Walker center at Cabella's, but I wouldn't have bought them had we not been stranded in Pennsylvania for six  days waiting for new brake lines.

100 miles from Lexington, Virginia, the tread on one of Harvey's rear tires had had enough and decided to leave our family, and we limped along at 50 MPH the rest of the way to Lazy Acres. We love it there and sometimes chose to spend two nights, but since it took longer to get all of Harvey's old dry rotted tires replaced, we stayed six.

But we are finally in Florida, happy but $8,000 poorer.  Pam is very happy because she has decided to stop mumbling and I no longer ask her to repeat herself.  I can also now hear birds and peepers at night, which is nice.  I can also hear people eat potato chips and apples though.

But it is nice to finally be in Florida.  Adventure, or ordeal?  I'm thinking about it.

Lazy Acres Dog Play!

It rained most of yesterday and the dogs were cooped up in the RV all day.  Today the weather broke.  Pam took the dogs out in a pasture where they found a pond to swim in.  Lilly has to be the dumbest dog on the planet.  She swam out to the middle and then couldn't figure out how to get back to shore.  She was swimming around in circles.  Ruby, our dark brown pit, who fortunately is smarter than Lassie, recognized that Lilly was tiring and needed saving.  She swam out and kept nudging Lilly until she was close enough to shore for Pam to grab.

Later, we put them in the arena to play.  It was a game of "let's see if we can catch Olivia the Pointer".  It was actually pretty funny to watch.  Olivia would let them get close and then kick it into high gear, literally leaving them in her dust.

Even Leo Pard the cat wanted to run.

Birds!!

Tomorrow, I get the rest of the tires put on the RV, and we should be back on the road on Tuesday, early, since we're going to shoot for South Carolina.

"Stuck" Again, This Time in Lexington, Virginia

After spending almost a week in Bethel, PA (and dropping a couple of thousand bucks) we finally got underway to Lexington, Virginia.  I was concerned about the RV's tires after having been warned by Chad at 61 Auto that they were really old and should be replaced.  I'll do that once we get to Florida.

Well, needless to say that the treads peeled right off one.  There was some wild vibrations, a huge WHAP as the tread hit the wheel well, and a strong burning smell.  I have four tires on the back, so the RV was still driveable, but I got off at the first exit I came to, to check it out.

What you see in the pic above are the steel cords.

We decided to limp the last 100 miles to Lexington at 50 MPH, which we did without incident.

On Friday, I brought the RV to a TA truck service shop.  They could get their hands on five tires, which I had put on.  The sixth will be there on Monday, so Tuesday we head out for Charlotte.

If you break down, consider Lexington Virginia, and Lazy Acres in particular.  This hardly sucks at all.

To top it off we met Pete and Tooney who are as insane as we are.  They're traveling with two horses three dogs, a rabbit, a sheep, and a pig.

Still "Stuck" in Bethel, PA

A brake line in Harvey the RV blew out last week and we couldn't leave Windy Ridge Farm for Lexington, Virginia.  We're "stuck".  I put "stuck" in quotation marks because, quite honestly, we could have been stuck on the road, or plastered at the base of a huge tree at the bottom of a hill on interstate 81.  This is hardly "stuck".

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So while Harvey the RV is getting his brake lines replaced, we're staying in a motel with a strict "no pets" policy.  This is the dog bed they gave us for Ruby.

Sadly, the other three dogs spend nights in a stall in the barn at Windy Ridge Farms.  Hopefully, we'll all be a family and together again tonight.