Life on the road

A Walk In The Park

Yesterday was a beautiful day in north Georgia, so we decided to go for a hike. We didn’t make it the entire 5 miles–but we did make a 3 mile round trip of it. Smith Creek Hiking Trail starts in Unicoi State Park and ends up at Anna Ruby Falls on U.S. Forest Service property.

This is where we started our hike, off an old forest service road.
An earth and log stairway down a steep slope. The trees are flashed with blue paint to mark the trail.
Isn’t it amazing how this tree hangs on to the hillside with those enormous roots?
I wish you could hear the water bubbling along in Smith Creek. This was a lovely spot to rest and just listen to the forest.
This tree was cut just enough to clear the trail. It must have fallen during a storm we had here last month.Jim found these feather remains of a large bird–probably an owl or a hawk.
A beautiful fungus growing out of a decaying log.
I wonder if these lovers are still together? They left their mark here years ago on the side of the trail.

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And The Winner Is…

Karen · 3 Comments

Jim and I have been looking for our next job since before Thanksgiving. It is not an easy task, let me tell you. We first have to decide where we want to go, then decide on a second choice of place to go. Then we look at all the places where campground jobs are posted that we know of:

Workamper News, a magazine to which we have a subscription
Coolworks a website dedicated to cool seasonal jobs
Happy Vagabonds, another website that has listings for jobs in campgrounds
Work@KOA, which is exactly what it sounds like

There are many more, but these are the main ones I use. Anyway, this year, we wanted to go to Arizona or Colorado, but it has not worked out that way. None of the job offers we got had enough money attached to even consider. So, even though it was our second choice, after everything has been said and done, we have decided to go to work at Water’s Edge Campground at Table Rock Lake in Kimberling, Missouri.

We have never been to Missouri, except to drive through it once when we were making a delivery to Cedar Rapids, Iowa back when we were driving for a living. But, from the pictures of this place, it looks beautiful. And, my friend Wanda says she has been there and it is very lovely. Now, I have to get online and find out where all the farms are so I can start planning my days off!

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On The Road Again, Sort Of…

Karen · 2 Comments

The wheels started rolling about 9:20 a.m. As we pulled out of the driveway of Granite Hill, Jim looked over at me and smiled and said, “We’re late. I wanted to get out of here by 9:00 a.m” But he was smiling. It was snowing, and we were just glad to be getting out of there when we did!

We drove about 60 miles down the road, and had just passed by the exit for Business 15 off of 15 south in Leesburg, Virginia, when we decided to pull over to the side of the road and visit Mrs. Murphy. When we stopped, we heard an unusual noise that sounded like something fell off the trailer behind us, so we walked all around the rig looking for whatever it was. We didn’t find anything. We left the truck running, and went into our little trailer to do our stuff. I went first, and as I was coming out the door I heard a Slap! Slap! Bam! Coming from our truck!!!! Oh, crap!

When Jim came out the door, I told him to look under the hood because it sounded like a belt broke under there, and there were little slivers of what looked like shredded belt under the truck. When he opened the hood, it was not the belt but the pulley off the flywheel. It had broken off and slammed around under the hood.

So, there we sat on the side of the road, in Leesburg, VA, not knowing a soul to call. We just sat a minute and thought about it. Crap!

I got out my AT&T cellphone and called 411. I told them we needed a tow truck in Leesburg but I did not know the names of any. She gave me the first three numbers on her list. I called the first one and explained that we needed to be towed to the Ford dealership, but that we were towing a 34’ travel trailer, too. He said he couldn’t handle the job, but he knew someone who could and that this guy might even be able to fix the problem right there at the side of the road. Yeah, I’m thinking, we are going to get a mechanic to come out here on the side of the road on Sunday morning and fix our truck, just like that? And I believe in the Easter Bunny, too!!!

A few minutes later, my cellphone rings, and it is Jimmy Counselman, the mechanic who drives a tow truck for The Body Works Towing in Leesburg. He asked me what the problem was and where I was located. He arrived about 20 minutes later, checked under the hood to determine what to do. He said he needed to go get a part and he would be back in a few minutes.

Our Hero!

So, another 20 minutes later he is back. And in another 20 minutes, he has the truck repaired, and we were ready to go. The charge was $260 for replacing the pulley, on the side of the highway, on Sunday morning, in 39-degree weather. Not bad, if you are the one stuck there, freezing. So, yeah, I guess I do believe in the Easter Bunny now.

Thank you, Jimmy. We really appreciate your hard work, and the fact that you got us back on the road in so little time. If anyone needs any repairs done in or around Leesburg, Virginia, Jimmy is the one to call. He operates Daddy’s Garage, in affiliation with The Body Works of Virginia, Inc. Their phone number is 703-777-5727 in Leesburg, Virginia.

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The Wheels Are Rolling Tomorrow

Karen · Leave a Comment

The wheels will be rolling tomorrow morning on our travel trailer. We finished our commitment to our job at Granite Hill Camping Resort yesterday. There were times when it seemed like this day would never come. It has been a long, long season.

We spent most of today getting ready to go. We are taking a good bit of Pennsylvania with us, literally. Jim got two cases of Yuengling beer. I got three huge bags of Utz Tortilla Chips, they are the best! I also went back to Hacienda Shiloh and got some garlic and some of that good Autumn Rub that they sell there, and some other things. A trip to the Rose Garden Natural Foods store to stock up on buckwheat flour, rice flour, and rice pastas since I don’t know when I will find another source. What else? Hmmm…

I have a half dozen pints of green beans, some frozen cooked turnip greens,three bags of cooked mashed pumpkin, a gallon bag of chopped sweet red italian peppers, and some apple sausage in the freezer. Some acorn squashes, and a few apples, all came from Harbaugh’s Farm. There is a large jar of sweet pickled cauliflower, two jars of apple salsa, a jar of cherry butter, and several small packages of dried cranberries, dried pineapple, and roasted pumpkin seeds from the farm market across the road from the campground. It will take us a long time to clear Pennsylvania out of the pantry.

I would say that if any of you gets a chance to visit or workamp in the Gettysburg area, it will be a real treat. It is a rural area, with lots of agriculture, so there is an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, with farm stands down almost every road during the summer and fall. We have certainly enjoyed our stay here.

But, as the song says, I can’t wait to get on the road again…

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The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co.

Karen · Leave a Comment

On Wednesday, we had to do laundry again. The laundromats here at the campground are not open yet, so we had to go into town again. The laundromat we went to is in a little strip mall in town. After we got our clothes in to wash, we started looking around at the other establishments in the strip. The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. is a neat little store. They sell organic fruits and vegetables, as well as a very good selection of vitamins, minerals and herbal supplements.

Fabgrandpa went in and bought some vitamins. I went in and asked if I could take some pictures, so the employee I spoke with went to the back and got Kitty, one of the owners of the store. She was a delightful woman. She told me she used to live in Woodstock, Georgia but moved from there years ago. She and her husband had come up to Pennslvania to visit some friends, and on the way home they decided to swing by to see Gettysburg. They loved it so much they decided to move here. They opened the Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. at the suggestion of their grandchildren 10 years ago.

They have been at this location for about seven and half years.

The vegetables they sell here are organically grown so they have no pesticides, herbicides or chemical fertilizers used in their production. The selection available the day I was there looked very good. When I asked Kitty if they ever get swiss chard, she told me that she had just told her husband the night before she was going to order some. She took my telephone number and offered to call me when the order comes in! Now that is what I call GOOD SERVICE!

Ever since my husband’s bout with cancer, we have tried to eat more nutritious food and those with fewer chemical additives. He takes a lot of vitamins, and we both use a lot of herbal supplements for various things. We are really happy that we stumbled upon this store. We will be going there a lot while we are here.

I also make my own homemade soaps. They have a very good selection of oils including coconut, almond, and grapeseed. I use all of

those in making my soaps, and they are very hard to find.

The Rose Garden Natural Foods Co. is located at 30 West Street in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They are open Monday thru Friday from 9:00 a.m.until 4:00 p.m. and on Saturday from9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. If you go in, ask for Kitty and tell her you read her at FabGrandma.

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The Past Week

Karen · Leave a Comment

We had a week off before we had to start working, so we drove all around looking at all the scenery and trying out new places to eat. We found a neat little restaurant called The Book and Table Restaurant in Fairfield, about 6 miles west of the campground. They serve a good tasting, very filling breakfast. For $3.95 you can get two eggs, toast, and home fries, and juice. Coffee or tea is extra. The waitress there are nice and friendly and keep your coffee cup filled. There are a lot of locals there every time we go.

In the town of Gettysburg, we went to a place called The Pike. It is a pub. They sell Yuengling Beer, which is from America’s oldest brewery. They have a pretty good lunch menu We had crab quesadillas, homemade beef soup, and a hot roast beef sandwich. They were all very good. They have bands on Friday and Saturday nights, and karaoke on a weeknight. FabGrandpa said the ale was good.

Also in Gettysburg is Dunlap’s Restaurant & Bakery. They have an excellent breakfast served until 11:00 a.m. Order the number three, it includes two eggs, toast, home fries, and coffee or tea for the shockingly low price of $2.50. Fabgrandpa and I can eat and leave a tip for less than $10.

Just for thrills I went to the KFC in town the other day. I told the little guy behind the counter “I want two legs and a biscuit”. He told me “If you order the number four, it would be cheaper”. I told him “I don’t want a number four, I want two legs and a biscuit”. He said “OK”. So I waited for my order, and when he gave it to me I went out to the truck to sit out there and eat my lunch. I opened the box and there were two legs and a corn muffin. The muffin was cold, I mean really cold, like it had been taken out of a refrigerator. So, I went back inside and showed him the contents of the box and asked him if that was a biscuit. I was thinking maybe since I was north of the Mason Dixon line for the first time in my life that what he had given me may well have been called a biscuit here in Pennsylvania. The guy looked at it and said, “No, that is a corn muffin”. I said, “Well, I ordered a biscuit.” He said, “Oh, you mean you really wanted a biscuit?” And I am thinking, YEAH, I thought that is what I said to begin with. I finally got my biscuit, but I do not think I will be going back to KFC any time soon.

On Sunday we drove down to Washington, DC to visit my son and his family. He is stationed at Andrews Air Force Base. I was dreading the drive down because I have heard the horror stories about the traffic on the beltway around DC. But, it was not as bad as driving on I-285 around Atlanta on the weekend.

When we arrived at the gate to the base they were not going to let us enter. Then Seth drove up and showed them his ID and told them we were his parents and they let us in. We had to stop at a check-point and give them our driver’s licenses, the truck registration, and proof of insurance. They inspected the truck too. Seth said it is because that is where Air Force One is hangared.

Seth has a four bedroom, two and half bathroom house on base. It is huge! The living room is big enough for a sectional sofa, a regular sofa, a love seat, a big screen TV and a wall unit type of bookcase, and it doesn’t look crowded. I was really surprised at how nice the base housing was.

We drove around the base a little bit. Seth showed us the hangar where they keep Air Force One. He said there are actually several planes of varying sizes that are called Air Force one, and it depends on where they are going and who is going which one they use. How interesting. I always thought there was only one plane.

Seth took us to the BX, which looked sort of like a small mall with a food court. We got some lunch from Captain D’s. After lunch, we went over to the park by the lake and the guys went fishing while Sarah and I sat and talked. Seth caught a huge fish. Fabgrandpa said it was a pickerel. I have never seen one of those. I just know it was very big, because they were on the other side of the lake and it looked like a monster from where I was sitting. Michael caught mostly limbs and branches. We saw some sort of animal swimming in the lake. I don’t know what it was. We think it may have been a muskrat.

We finally had to head back home to Gettysburg. It was a nice day trip, only 108 miles from our house to theirs. We were hoping they could come up here this weekend, but the temperature went down and it started snowing this morning. By dark, there was 8 inches of snow and still snowing. Hmmmm, did someone tell me it snows in Pennsylvania in March?

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Blah Blah Blah

Karen · Leave a Comment

The View from my Window.

It is hard to believe that we have been here at Unicoi for a month now. When we left Virginia, I was looking forward to having some time to get some things done. I wanted to finish Becky’s quilt and start quilting Rebecca’s, but I have not had time to put even one stitch in either one of them. I wanted to go to Jim’s mothers and have her give me some more lessons on wire-wrap jewelry making. I wanted to be able to take some photos every day. So far, I haven’t accomplished any of that. I’m beginning to think that we need to go back to Virginia so we can rest a bit.

Let’s see, in the last month there was Thanksgiving, Jim’s Dad in the hospital, the trip to Douglasville to get haircuts and visit my Mom and our daughters, buying the new trailer, moving from the old one to the new one, going to Gainesville for eyeglasses, working our volunteer hours, and on and on. I hope the next month will be a little calmer. My plan now is to be able to have some time to sort through all the junk I “found” when we moved, and get rid of some of it. I was truly embarrassed at how much stuff I have accumulated in the six years we lived in that little trailer.

In other news, I heard from my granddaughter Sarah’s mother, my ex-daughter-in-law (EDIL). She gave birth to a new baby girl (with her new husband) in Tacoma, Washington. She says Sarah is tickled to have a baby sister. She is making all A’s in school (I’m not surprised at that) and has made some new friends since they moved up there. They are going to Tennessee for a few days to have the baby dedicated at their church there and to have Sarah baptized. I am glad that my EDIL is happy.

I also heard from my new daughter-in-law, Sarah. We call her Sarah England, because it is so confusing to have Sarah the granddaughter and Sarah the new daughter-in-law. Sarah England and Seth, my son, are coming to the states in January. Well, at least Seth and Michael are coming, and Sarah is in the process of getting her visa. She may have to stay in England a month or six until it comes through, but they are working on it and have a “B” plan, in case they have to be apart for a few months. Seth will be stationed in Maryland at Andrews AFB, just a little hop from Urbanna. Jim and I are looking forward to spending some time with them this coming summer.

Oh, and Rebecca called to tell me she is going to move in with “Not My Boyfriend, Joe”. He has been her “friend” for several years, and has just bought a new condo. She is going to be his room-mate. She will be paying the same rent she pays now for her tiny walk-up apartment in Ghent, and will have a lot more room. She also said that he will buy the groceries and she will do the cooking for them. She is a pretty good cook, and she has been cooking for him for several years, but at least now he will be paying for the groceries.

Becky, our other daughter, has almost the same arrangement with her room-mate, Scott. He has been her friend since high school. When she bought her condo in Atlanta, he moved in with her as her roomie.

Emily told me that she moved Spencer from the Lutheran kindergarten she had in because the pastor there washed his mouth out with soap. Can you believe that? She said while Spencer was going there, he stayed in trouble all the time. The teachers and the principal of that school said he started fights with other children, pinched them, bit them, tried to take toys away from them, and said bad words. Then, when Emily was there as the “room Mom” for the Halloween party, she observed that Spencer was laying on the floor playing with a truck when another child came up and tried to take it away from him. When Spencer said, “No, I was playing with it first”, the teacher said, “Spencer, stop that!” Emily said it was like the teacher automatically assumed that Spencer was the bad child, even though she was sitting right there and saw the other child come and start the little dispute. Spencer has been at the new school for two weeks and has not been in trouble one time. The teachers there say they don’t see any of the problems Emily told them about at the other school. Hmmm…

I guess that is all the news I have for the moment. What’s up with “all y’all”? Feel free to post comments…

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Ga 400, I-285, and I-85, OH MY!!!

Karen · Leave a Comment

Fabgrandpa had an appointment with his endocrinologist in Decatur yesterday. It is 75 miles from our camp host spot to the doctor’s office, and the Dekalb Farmer’s Market is just a couple miles from the doctor, so we took Gary and Faye with us and set out for our journey. Georgia 400 is a road that is very busy with traffic MOST of the time, but yesterday was a horrible mess. In addition to the normal traffic and construction going on , there was a SUV overturned on the southbound side, which backed up traffic for miles. It took us a half hour to go about 5 miles! OK, so we get through the jam on 400, and get on 285 eastbound, and find the traffic crawling there, too. There had been some kind of bad accident on I-85 north, and the state patrol had closed the ramp from I-285 east to I-85 north. Fabgrandpa‘s appointment was for 1:30 p.m., and we left home at about 11:15 a.m., and we were still late getting there. Does anyone wonder why we like working in Urbanna, Virginia???

Dr. Singh was as pleasant as ever, and seemed happy to see us. He remembered that we were the couple who lives in an RV, and told us about his parents going in their motorhome to Tempe, Arizona to visit the Cubs training camp. He also told us about his children, who are 3 years old and 6 months old. He is just a very personable guy. He gave s a 20% discount on our office visit bill and the bloodwork, so that was a good thing. He also wrote Fabgrandpa‘s prescription for 100 pills instead of 30 AND gave us some coupons from the manufacturer for $10 off a prescription of 100 pills. What a guy! Since he did not have the bloodwork results, he actually gave us 2 prescriptions and told us to wait until he calls us to tell us which one to get filled.

Finally, after many hours of traveling (it seemed), we got to the farmer’s market. They have a cafeteria there, where they cook the items that are for sale that day at the market. Has anyone ever eaten braised fennel? Or goat stew? Well, I passed on the goat stew, but we all tried a fab soup called Corn and Poblano Pepper Soup. Wow!, that stuff was great! Oh, if you ever go there, keep in mind that they sell the food BY THE POUND, so make your selections carefully.

After we ate, I got the ingredients for bruschetta; Mexican Seafood Soup; and Basil Pesto. Fabgrandpa got a bottle of Portugese wine, some beef pastrami from the deli, and some delish Red Raspberry Jam. Oh, and we got some blueberry muffins and some rye bread. I just love that store.

After we got all our shopping done, we drove down Ponce De Leon to Peachtree Street, sort of a little driving tour of downtown Atlanta. We passed by Becky’s condo at 923 Peachtree, and drove all the way down to Phipps Plaza. Got on I-85 north, and you guessed it, sat in traffic, again. We were so glad to get back home to the mountains. I hope we don’t have to go down there again any time soon.

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