It feels good to be writing again. The last couple of weeks have been very busy for me. ….I know, some people don’t have the time to read about my life; they have one of their own. That is what one person told me in the form of a reply after I posted a blog entry. I had to ask myself, why did they read it then?

Well this week has been phone system training classes and meetings of all sorts. Last week Diane and I spent three really great days at our home away from home at the Deer Creek Motorcoach resort. We were there by ourselves the first night. The second day our friends Neal and Shirley arrived. They spent one night. We went out to dinner together and talked about the resort, caught up on what all the other owners were up to. The next night, Sunday night to be exact, we went out to dinner with Laura, Barry the developer’s wife. That sounds funny. Laura is just as responsible for Deer Creek being there as anyone else and I thank her for that.

Our time there was really good. Teddy, our new Cocker Spaniel, for those of you who don’t know, really took to the place and every one took to him. Teddy really enjoyed a long hike we took on part of the New River Trail that runs through Galax. It was about a four or five mile hike and it took a major part of the wind out of his sails. It tired me out as well.

Sunday morning was windy. I managed to get in a round of golf and then I pulled a large multi celled, multi colored, nylon octagon box kite out of the basement of the coach. This kite is really big…when assembled it will fill up the back of a Jeep Waggoner. I know, because I tried to stow it in the back of one and I had to semi-take it apart, the kite that is, to make it fit.

The kite has about thirty five pounds of lift when there is enough wind to get it off the ground. There was more than enough wind this particular day and when it gusted, there was too much. I found that out the hard way. At about 300 feet in the air the seventy five pound test line the kite was at the end of….broke. The kite blew away from me at a high rate of speed as it slowly drifted back down to earth. It landed in a very large rolling cow pasture that is surrounded by a barbed wire fence. I went after it as fast as I could, rewinding my line as I ran. I lost sight of it. I ran back to our site and hopped in the car, drove to the pasture but I couldn’t find the kite. Which hill did it blow over? I drove back to the coach where Diane was standing outside. She saw the kite go down and she and Teddy were waiting for me. I grabbed a pair of binoculars, maybe they will help.

Back to the pasture we went, on foot this time. We walked around to a gate, which I climbed over. I started wondering around looking in the direction the wind was blowing, trying to find this very large but now invisible kite. As I was meandering around, the owner of the pasture was driving toward me in his Jeep. I ran over as he rolled down the window.

“I think I know where it is…hop in”

He obviously knew what I was looking for. Greg, that’s his name, was watching the ACC championship game and happened to glance out his big window just in time to see my kite fall to earth.

After a short drive and that is better than walking in a heavily used cow pasture, we found it in a low creek bed. It was unharmed.

During this time Diane was having a conversation with some people across the street from the gate; Teddy and a small dog were getting to know each other.

Greg taxied me and my kite to the parking lot of our clubhouse, where Diane was standing on the mini golf course.

She was as happy to see my seventy dollar kite as I was.

So there you have it…our Deer Creek adventure in a nut shell.

The next morning we were off to Greensboro. We arrived at about eleven where we dropped off our coach at the Workhorse repair center. The water pump, along with the fan clutch assembly is or was under a recall. Also the dash air conditioner was no longer working. The techs would need at least a couple of days to fix all these problems so we decided to stay with my Mom and Dad for a couple of days. We made a quick trip to Camping World were we spent a surprisingly small amount of money and then made the drive to my folks place.

Two days turned into four. That seems to happen a lot, time expanding itself, when a coach needs to be repaired. All three of us stayed in my Dad’s cabin. It was a bit more primitive than our coach but it still felt like we were rving it….sort of. The only bad thing that happened was the cabin had a new water heater. The thermostat was set a bit too low. It had about two minutes worth of hot water. Diane found that out real quick. Have you seen the shower scene in Ground Hog day? It sounded a bit like that only with a higher pitch! Before my shower I grabbed a screwdriver out of the car and turned up the temp.

We visited some cousins while we were there. My cousin Sonja has a really nice huge house than Diane had never been in before, so we got the tour. Great place, but I prefer something smaller, with wheels.

Mom and Dad took us to this really good Greek/Italian place in Lexington called Cristo’s. I had roasted stuffed green peppers with a Greek Salad. Diane had beef gyros that looked pretty tasty. Dad provided most of our other meals, which were good as well.

We didn’t do much while visiting besides sit and talk. The situation in Japan was the biggest topic of conversation. I thought that owning a motorhome is a good thing if you have a natural disaster that wipes out your stick house. Of course you would have to have a lot of advance warning in order to drive the rv to someplace safe. We have, on occasion, had large hurricanes hit this area and after the last big one I was impressed by my neighbors living in a Bounder while the rest of us suffered in the heat, with no power to take a hot shower or have a cold beer. Not long after that we bought our first coach, also a Bounder. There had to be a connection.

Speaking of connections. The day before we left to pick up our coach, Janis and Gary called. They were on thier way to A Thousand Trails resort not far from Lexington. They wanted to know if we were still at Galax. When we found out we were just about a half hour away from each other we made plans for dinner at the best place in town. So that night we went back to Cristo's for the salad and pizza buffet.

It was good to see them again. We had a great visit which I appreciated very much. They are heading out west and we don't know when we will see them again. I wish I could follow them out there...wherever there is.

After four days and a number of phone calls back and forth, we were notified that our coach was repaired almost. A part for the AC was in but not installed. Diane needed to get back home because our daughter Jeri was flying up from Florida to attend a wedding in Richmond. Diane was going to go with her.

So Diane dropped me off at the dealer, then she and the pup drove home. Five hours later I followed all by myself in the coach.

It was a piece of cake without her, almost. I made a couple of wrong turns that I will blame on the Ms Garmin. I arrived home around nine thirty at night. Diane may have been worried (she called me twice to see where I was) but I did just fine, don’t let her tell you different.

The next morning Diane and Jeri took off for Richmond, Joel left for Fredericksburg, and that left Teddy and me to fend for ourselves. We ate, we slept, and I looked after my grand boys for a night. We did just fine. Don’t let Diane tell you any different!

Gramps