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About this blog

Ramblings of a Motorhoming Melancholic?

Entries in this blog

 

The "It's a Wonderful Life" Rally

Part uno of duo. Before I started writing this, I was sitting at my computer browsing recipes online. I am planning my menu for Christmas Day brunch with my family. I have narrowed my entrees to Blackberry French Toast Casserole, Lump Crab Meat and Shrimp Quiche and a fresh fruit and honey yogurt salad. Diane plans on making some oatmeal and date muffins. They are a tradition every Christmas day. This party will be for eight adults including my parents. Not as much preparation will be needed
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The "It's a Wonderful Life Rally" part 2

On Christmas night, Diane and I met Gary and Janis for dinner and a movie. We got together at the Commodore Theater in Portsmouth for smoked chicken salad and fruit, ice tea and popcorn. We had not seen each other since the rally so we chatted about that before the show started. We all came away from the rally knowing that everyone who attended, including us, had a good time. Many, including Gary, learned to appreciate “It’s a Wonderful Life” more. Gary watched it again when it was aired just la
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Still Fighting

This is a very strange thing to report, but Nickolas is back at the small animal hospital at NC State School of Medicine. It has been a long and very weird night. It seems that the pain pill I gave our dog, a dose big enough to knock out a full grown man, didn't do much to our dog but allow him a couple hours of very deep sleep. Diane who had been keeping vigil beside him, out on the deck the whole time wating for him to finally slip away, came to the door to speak to me. I was looking out the
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Skipping Thanksgiving

Skipping Thanksgiving. (A running blog entry) Wednesday: Diane and myself are skipping the traditional Thanksgiving this year. We are presently sitting in site 41 at the Anvil Campground in Williamsburg, Virginia. Skipping the traditional turkey dinner with all the trimmings, along with all the work that involves, didn't sit too well with some family members. I say too bad! Diane and I need some time to ourselves. Time with less stress, less responsibility. We need a time to heal from the lo
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Signs

If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I enjoy the idea that motor homing is a metaphor for life. It is day four of a new year. How is this year going to be? That is certainly one question I don’t have the answer to. I am sure that many people would like to know what the future holds even if that knowledge is only about the next twelve months. When I was a kid I remember that there were a number of celebrity prognosticators that would make all kinds of predictions about the fut
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Rules for Owning a Motor Coach: Number 4 continued

Rule 4: Owning a motor coach is a never-ending learning experience -- continued. Well, I had so much fun coming up with a list of things that I have learned over the five years that my wife and I have been motorhoming, I figured why not write down a few more? So here goes: I have learned that men need a precise set of directions when parking the coach. And women know just how to give them. For example: "I SAID STOP! STOP! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT STOP MEANS?" "DON'T BACK UP, YOU WILL HIT IT AGAI
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Rules For Owning A Motor Coach: Number 4

Number 4. (Maybe the Last Rule!) Owning a motor coach is a never-ending learning experience. And just when you think you know it all, you find out just how stupid you really are. I have learned a lot about my coach, more than I ever wanted to know. I have had to study the mechanics of my engine, my slides, and my power seats as well as learn how it is wired for Surround Sound and cable TV. And, how it is plumbed including the ice maker, the fresh-water tank, the whole coach water filter and o
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Rules for Owning a Motor Coach: Number 3

You know the old saying; it's the Journey not the Destination. There is a church two doors down from us. The church allows us to hook up our tow in their parking lot and we leave from there. It is quite convenient. When Diane and I have a trip it starts for us the moment we leave the church parking lot. Actually it starts the moment we start packing up the coach, no, it starts the moment we start thinking about THE TRIP. The trip, made up of two important parts, the route, and the destination
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Rules for owning a Motor Coach: Number 2

2. Keep your temper on a very short leash. Or, when owning a motor coach, patience is not only a virtue but a necessity. If you are the type of person who always wants to be in control of your circumstances and are uncomfortable when things are not perfect or not even close to it, you will have trouble adjusting to the motor coaching lifestyle. Things are going to go wrong whether you are an old-timer or a newbie. There are preventive measures you can take, but only God can stop anything and ev
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Rules for owning a Motor Coach: Number 1

It's been so long since I blogged anything that I find this blank page a bit intimidating. But I will get over that rather quickly. "What's it like owning a 38 foot coach?" I was asked that question just a few days ago. I had to stop and think for a minute or two. I have always thought that having that big thing sitting in my driveway is nuts. It really is crazy. It cost too much to buy, to own, to keep on the road, and to pay the taxes that come along with it. It is insane to own it, but at
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Rules for owning a motor coach number 4

In case you missed it the first time when I wrote this years ago, you get to read it now (or again!) http://www.myrandomviews.com/blog/2015/5/12/ule-4-rules-for-owning-a-motor-coach-number-4-continued
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Rubber Ducky, you're the one!

The Black Ribbon part 2 The French Broad River is a very beautiful, naturally flowing river, meaning that it is not dam controlled by the TVA like so many others are in western North Carolina. It flows north easterly through the mountains which includes Asheville and there it connects with the Swannanoa River. From there it continues through the county seat of Marshall, our destination. Eventually the French Broad flows into the Holston River in Tennessee and on into the Tennessee River nea
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Route 89

It has been a peaceful two weeks since May 22, the day we left our brick house in Portsmouth. Once again we had to take our coach on the road for service before we could actually start our first long trip this year. The coach hasn’t been parked the whole time since our last long venture, which took place last September, I think. We made a fall trip to our spot at Deer Creek Motor Coach resort (the one in Virginia). I left Diane there while I made a trip back home in the car for work-related reas
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Restless

I suspect that many readers of this here blog of mine (notice my use of a bit of Southern Speak) wonder what most of my last few entries have to do with motor coaching. My initial response is: not much. However, there might be a connection. I have a restless nature. I can't sit still for long periods of time doing nothing. I have to be reading, writing, watching something very interesting, and usually commercial free, on the LCD. I might play a World War II FPS online. For you non computer gam
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Remembering.

Diane, Teddy Bear, and myself are doing well today. It has been a hectic and yes stressful couple of months. Today however I don't want to write about that. I will soon. Today I want to be hopeful, to remember that even during rough times there is a greater power at work. So until I can find the time to write again, I thought it would be good to reprise one of my entries, one that seems appropriate considering the significance of today. Derrick Just a few days before I had this dream that Dia
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Remember Rule Number Four?

In order to christen the new blog format, I feel it is necessary to post a few more of my truisms. These truisms fall under my Rules for Owning a Motor Coach: Part 4. Owning a Motor Coach is a Never-ending Learning Experience. I have learned that a clear sewer connection is a good thing to have … that way, you will see the juice box the grand kids dumped in the toilet as it makes its final journey. My wife still will not let me stop at South of the Border and buy anything. My wife will n
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Puns and One Liners

I love puns and one liners. I love blurting them out...regardless of those in hearing range around me want to hear them or not. http://www.myrandomviews.com/blog/punsandoneliners
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Practicing Rule Number 2

It has certainly been awhile since I posted anything having to do with motor coaching. I guess I could just ignore that fact and just post like I don’t have a care in the world and no time has gone by at all since my last new entry. I won’t do that, however. I will tell you that Diane and I have managed to make it to some chapter campouts where we had some weekend fun with our fellow FMCA and Good Sam members, while still longing for a good long trip on the road. Three weeks or so ago we final
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Pilgrimage to Elkhart, Day 3 and Day 4

For the last week and a half I have been sick. The first couple of days I was forced to just lay around the house drinking Alka-Seltzer Cold remedy (every four hours) and feeling sorry for myself. Last Saturday afternoon around 2:30 p.m., I decided that I had had enough of being ill. I drank my last seltzer, put on some shorts and my mowing shoes. I mowed the yard, then trimmed and edged it. I also pulled all the weeds out of the flowerbeds. When I was done, I was tired and sore but I felt much
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Pilgrimage to Elkhart, Day 2

Saturday morning was sunny, but a bit chilly. Gary and I broke camp and pulled in our slides. He had not put his main one out because it just did not work smoothly. We discovered, the night before, that my main slide had a fraying cable so it would not be deployed for our second night. This would make the interior of the coach a bit tight but that was the breaks so to speak. The night before, while Gary and I were repairing my bedroom slide out topper/telephone pole mishap we had a visitor fro
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Pilgrimage to Elkhart, Day 1

It is the 100th anniversary of the RV industry, so it seems appropriate to make a trip to Elkhart. Actually, I had no idea that it was or is the RV Centennial until I walked through the doors of the RV Hall of Fame in Elkhart, but I am getting ahead of myself. Diane and I, along with our friends Gary and Janis, have been planning on a trip to Elkhart, Indiana, for some months now. We were hoping to go there this past March 2, but the weather gave us all cold feet. In some places in Ohio there
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Parties, Christmas, Then Head South

Two weekends ago Diane, Teddy and I took the coach for a cold, wet weekend to Beth Page campground in Urbana, Virginia. From Portsmouth it is about a ninety minute drive up I-64 to State Highway 17. It would be a lot quicker if not for slow drivers and lots of stop lights. I didn't mind so much because we were not in a big hurry. We left around two in the afternoon on Friday and the nights festivities would not start until five. The purpose of this trip was to rally up with our fellow Colonial
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Packrat

My wife tells me that I am a packrat. I consider myself a collector of memories. I have a lot of wrist watches, including six Disney ones. I collect pocket knives. Some are quite old and some of those I have had since I was really young. There are a lot of things in my small home office. Some of the things would be considered junk by most people. Some may be worth a few bucks. To me they are all valuable. Hanging on the wall in front of my desk is a gold framed shawdowbox with all the pi
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Old Decorations Part Two

There are so many memories washing about in my head. Putting them down "on paper" is not all that easy. Some come out bright and fresh, others faded and worn. All become more comfortable with time. The baked cookie ornaments on our tree were created for a special family Christmas that took place in Martinsburg, West Virginia in 1980. My aunt Hazel invited all of her family and her husband's family to spend the Holidays in a very large two story unheated garage. No one was allowed to bring any
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