-Gramps-

This subject pops up every now and then in the Internet forums where I hang about on a regular basis. It may be a post titled "Is your Class A a Money pit?" or "A motor home costs a whole lot more than you think it does!" The people who post these kinds of entries may or may not really have a problem with what a coach or any other large RV may cost. They might just be bored. It's Sunday night and the DW is watching "Desperate Housewives", so there is nothing better for them to do than post some sad story about how broke owning a coach is making them. The last time I saw one of these threads, I responded to it. I said that owning a motor coach is like having kids. You make a huge financial investment, with no return, but they make lots of good memories, are good for the soul, and will greatly improve one's life if you let them. I believe the RV lifestyle is underappreciated by most people who are not part of it and also by some who are. Becoming a Motor Coacher has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me and my wife. Has owning one depleted my bank account? I suppose it has, but then, maybe not. I might have put away the money that I spend each month paying for my coach. I might have put away the money I spend on trips, including gas and food and camping fees, but I doubt it. I would have spent all of my trip and fuel money on airplane tickets, hotel rooms and cruise ships, or something else. The chances are that even if I did save it, a lot of the money could still have disappeared without me spending a dime of it. The present economic situation has poked a whole lot of holes in a lot of financial balloons. I just try to take advantage of what our coach can do for us. I may have to spend money on gas, a new water pump to replace a squirting frozen one, new wiper blades to replace frozen ones, a new water filter to replace a cracked and frozen one, but considering what our coach does for us it is worth it. I can tell you this that minus the monthly payment, the two weeks and two days I just spent in Florida, which included eight nights at Disney World, didn't cost us much at all. Not when compared to what two weeks would have cost staying in fancy hotels and eating out. I wish I could have stayed there a lot longer. Responsibilities called me home. Home is a very subjective word when you own a motor coach. Home is where my coach is. I felt quite at home in Fort Wilderness. As a matter of fact, the guard who checked us in said, "Welcome home, Mr. Parker." It was home. We spent New Year's Eve in Saint Augustine and the next day climbed a lighthouse. My daughter was there and my son-in-law and my grandson. My wife was there and so was Teddy Bear. I had my favorite DVDs, my favorite beer, my favorite books, some of them anyway, and the things I like to eat the most. I also had great cable TV. At night we listened to music coming from the Disney Parks. We also heard the fireworks and, if we walked a little ways from our site, could see them, just over the tops of the trees. If we wanted to ride the monorail, we did. If we wanted to take a boat ride, we did that, too. We went to one park, and saw Cirque Du Soleil, followed by sushi at Wolfgang Pucks. We pin traded, we took Teddy to the Waggin Tails Dog Park. We basked in the 70-degree sunshine. We even had the pleasure of spending time with our friends Gary and Janis. What could be better than that? It was wonderful. It was wonderful until we had to say good-bye. We had to say good-bye to the warmth of our surroundings, our friends and our family. We said good-bye and then made our way back north. We came back to the cold, to work and to our son, daughter and grandsons, whom we missed a lot. It won't be long before we take our motorhome back out on the road and enjoy another great trip. We will make new friends and see new places. So, I don't worry about "depreciation" I try to appreciate the emotional and spiritual return I get from my poor financial investment. I hope that all my fellow Coachers and RVers do the same. Gramps 1/23/2011

We will. I wish we could extend our trip for a week longer then we would be down there at the same time! ( I might figure out a way to do just that)

The Night Before. It will be a day later than we planned but we are going to St Augustine for New Year's eve. We will do our best to make up the time that we lost. We lost it due to ten inches of snow or maybe it was twelve? It will be a long day on the road tomorrow. Hopefully we will pull into North Beach Campground late Wednesday instead of early in the day. Jeri, Tom and Dilly will arrive sometime Thursday Morning. I think that due to the snow eating the start of our trip, I will add an extra day onto our stay at Fort Wilderness and leave next Saturday Morning instead of Friday. What's another sixty four bucks? The snow is quite amazing. It is supposed to be the third biggest amount since records were started back in the 1880s or sometime close to that. We certainly have never had this much snow for Christmas in my lifetime. Fortunately I pulled in all the coach slide outs the night before. I didn't like the idea of climbing up on the roof and sweeping snow off. That seemed like a risky thing to do. I did my best to keep the coach warm. It was was not that hard to do. What was hard was thawing it out after the 12 volt water bay heater failed. The fan would blow but no heat at all. I had to put a 120 volt ceramic heater in the bay and keep it hot for quite a while. Once the water started flowing again I tuned it down to a balmy 70 degrees. So if all goes well, we make it down our icy street to the church parking lot where I hook up the car and then to the main road outside our neighborhood, we should be on our way to just south of Florence, South Carolina and spend our one night on the road. Well I need to make this short because I am still packing up the rig. Check back later, you never know what you might find here!

In late November of 1990 I received my December issue of Reader's Digest. I read all the humorous parts of the magazine, and one cover story and then promptly stuck it on a shelf with all the other issues that I still had in my possession. Soon it was Christmas. At that time all of my three children were young. Christine was fourteen, Jeri was eleven, and Joel was five. It was a tough time for us. I was unemployed. I had been without work for almost two years. The country was in an economic recession and things didn't look too good for the coming year. I was not sure what to do. I was taking all the temporary jobs I could find. These jobs actually came from an agency that offered part time work to technical people. I installed a mri, worked for other phone companies installing microwave systems for the Navy, installed voice mail systems, whatever I was offered. Diane helped with the cash flow by working as a demonstrator for super markets, frying sausages, handing out flyers and samples of cookies, that kind of thing. Together the two of us were just getting by. Unemployment compensation was not something we were interested in, even if it paid as much as our combined pay checks. There would not have been anything for the kids if Diane and I had not decided to spend the traditiononal Christmas money given to us by Diane's dad on just them. The girls knew that our financial situation was bleak so they were not expecting much on Christmas morning. They awoke and were very surprised to find a brand new Nintendo attached to the TV. There were also some new clothes, Disney videos, Fisher Price Dinosaurs for Joel, and candy for everyone stuffed into stockings. We had to tear the kids away from the Nintendo for breakfast. After a meal of home made muffins, eggs and sausage (we had lots of that) and orange juice we went back to the living room for a reading of the Christmas story. We had a great morning in spite of being as poor as church mice or something like that. The morning was really good, much better than expected, but I was still anxious about the coming weeks. I was fighting discouragement. I was not sure why but I had the urge to read something for myself. I got up from my chair and and got the copy of Reader's Digest that I had stuck on the shelf weeks before. While Manheim Steamroller was playing on the stereo, I began to thumb through the magazine looking at the condensed Christmas story collection that it contained. I came across a story written by a prisoner in a Japanese concentration camp. After a paragraph or two I knew that I had to read it to the family. Silent Night began playing just as I started. It was amazing how the music fit the words as I read out loud. I began to think that this moment was not an accident. This is the story: The Candle "We were barricaded into a dank shed ringed with barbed wire in a Japanese concentration camp called Si Ringo Ringo on the east coast of Sumatra. Outside the tropical sun blazed by day and a huge moon filled the fantastically starry sky by night. Inside the shed was perpetual darkness. There were people living in that shed. No, 'living' is the wrong word. We were packed away there. Sometimes we could see beyond us little sparks, as sun or moon flashed on patches of barbed wire that hadn't rusted over the years. For it had been years now - or was it decades? We were too sick and too weak to care. In the beginning, we thought about such things as the day or the hour. Now, eternity. Beside us and in front of us, men died - from hunger, from disease from the ebbing of the last ray of hope. We had long stopped believing in the end of the war, in liberation. We lived in a stupor, blunted, with only one remaining passion that flew at our throats like a wild animal: hunger. Except when someone caught a snake or a rat, we starved. There was, however, one man in the camp who still had something to eat. A candle! Of course, he had not originally thought of it as food - a normal person doesn't eat candle wax. But if all you saw around you were emaciated bodies (in which you recognized yourself), you, too, would not underestimate the value of this candle. When he couldn't stand the torture of hunger anymore, the prisoner would carefully take the candle from its hiding place, a crumpled little suitcase, and nibble at it. He didn't eat it all. He looked upon the candle as his last resort. One day, when everyone was utterly mad with hunger, he would need it. To me, his friend, he had promised a small piece. So I watched him and his suitcase, day and night. It became my life's task to see to it that in the end he would not eat the entire candle by himself. One evening after counting the notches he'd made in a beam, another prisoner mentioned that it was Christmas. In a flat, toneless voice he said, 'Next Christmas we'll be home.' A few of us nodded; most didn't react at all. Who could still cling to that idea? Then someone else said something very strange: 'When it is Christmas, the candles burn and there are bells ringing.' His words barely audible, as if they came from an immense distance and a deep, deep past. To most of us, the remark had no meaning whatsoever; it referred to something completely out of our existence. It was already very late, and we lay on our boards, each with his thoughts - or, more accurately, with no thoughts. Then my friend became restless. He crept toward his suitcase and took out the candle. I could see its whiteness clearly in the dark. He is going to eat it. I thought. If only he won't forget me. He put the candle on his plank bed. What now? He went outside, where our captor's kept a fire smoldering. Then he returned, carrying a burning chip. This little flare wandered through the shed like a ghost. When my friend reached his place, he took the chip, the fire, and he lit his candle. The candle stood on his bed, and it burned. No one said a word, but soon one shadow after another slipped closer. Silently these half-naked men with sunken cheeks and eyes full of hunger formed a circle around the burning candle. One by one they came forward, the vicar and the parson, too. You couldn't tell that's what they were, for they were merely two more wasted figures, but we knew. 'It's Christmas,' said the parson in a husky voice. 'The Light shineth in the darkness.' Then the vicar said, 'And the darkness overcame it not.' That night those words from the Gospel of John were not some written word from centuries ago. It was living reality, a message for each of us. For the light shone in the darkness. And the darkness didn't conquer it. We knew this not because we reasoned it out at the time, but because we felt it, silently, around the piercing flame. That candle was whiter and more slender than any I have seen since. And in the flame (though I'm sure I can never describe it, not really - it was a secret we shared with the Christ child) we saw things that were not of this world. We were deep in the swamps and the jungle but now we heard the bronze sound of a thousand bells ringing and a choir of angels singing for us. Yes, I am perfectly sure - I have over a hundred witnesses. Most of them can't speak anymore; they are no longer here. But that doesn't mean they don't know. The candle burned higher and higher, ever more pointed, until it touched the very roof of the dark shed, and then it went on, reaching to the stars. Everything became full of light. Not one of us ever saw so much light again. We were free, and uplifted, and we were not hungry. Now someone softly said, 'Next Christmas we'll be home,' and this time we knew it was true. For the light itself had given us this message-it was written in the Christmas flame in fiery letters. You can believe it or not; I saw it myself. The candle burned all night (yes, I know there is not a candle in the world that can burn so long and so high), and when morning came, we sang. Now we knew that there was a home waiting for each of us. And there was. Some of us went home before the next Christmas. The others? Well, they were home as well. I helped to lay them down in the earth behind our camp, a dry spot in the swamp. But when they died, their eyes were not as dim as before. They were filled with light, our candle's light, the Light that the darkness did not conquer." (The Candle, c'77 by Hollandia, printed in December 1990 Reader's Digest Magazine, pp. 69-71, ubp). I was so moved by the spirit of the man who wrote this story that I could not finish it without tears. I thought that if he could have this kind of faith in the middle of such dire circumstances, that I could have faith that our New Year would be better. I could have the faith that something would happen to change my family's fortune and circumstances. I was right. The following March I started a little company that I called LINK voice & data. It would be a struggle but we got it off the ground and soon it will be twenty years old. We still read The Candle at Christmas. Jeri reads it on Christmas morning in her home as well. It still makes me cry. Maybe you are going through a rough time now, or know someone who is. This is the day for remembering that the light of God can overcome any darkness. God can bring you, your friends or your family out of any situation you are in. He can bring you into the light! God bless and Merry Christmas! Gramps

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 Virginians, our FMCA chapter and have our annual Christmas Party. It is a big affair for us. We have two catered meals, a big country breakfast on Saturday and a really good meal on Saturday night. After the meal is our traditional nasty Santa gift exchange. Gift steal is really what it is. The weekend starts on Friday night with happy hour at five. We arrived just at four o'clock at the office at Beth Page. Our arrival would have been earlier but I missed the turn into the campground. That meant driving down a dead end street, unhooking the tow, backing up the coach and then driving back to the campground where I better not miss the turn again. I didn't. I did remember that this was a dry camping weekend so I filled up the fresh water tank in Williamsburg on our previous trip out. We were led to our spot; a big pull-thru, hooked up, put out the slides (and they all worked great) and then Diane took off to the nearest food market to buy some peeled shrimp to take to the Happy Hour. While she was gone, I sat up Teddy's new crate in the coach. He took one look at it and moved to the other end of the coach. I took one look at it and thought that it was a big thing to have sitting behind the driver's seat. It couldn't be helped, our original crate was just a bit too small and we just couldn't leave him in it for more than short periods of time. Teddy, of course, didn't want to be left for any periods of time. Diane was not gone long. She came back in with a big bag of frozen shrimp, good sized ones, and I thawed them out for her, which took a few minutes. We changed into some clothes that were a bit more festive to match the occasion, packed up Teddy's Kong with some cheese, and then after he was safely stowed away, we hopped in the car and drove over to the conference center for the party. It was fun to catch up with some friends whom we had not seen in a few months. We don't get the chance to camp with our fellow club members all that often, and this year was harder than usual with Nickolas being ill, and my work schedule requiring so much weekend work. We chatted for awhile; had some drinks and I ate a ton of shrimp. Not just ours but some unpeeled ones provided by other people. After about three hours I left with Bill, one of our close friends to go back to our coaches. Bill and Micky were parked next to us. Diane and Micky decided to stay and play tile games for awhile, a long while but that was fine with me. I picked up a copy of Pursuing Happinessfrom a DVD collection provided by a Beth Page staff member and so I had something to keep me entertained for a couple of hours at least. I let Teddy out of prison, (it's not that bad), and he sat on my lap most of the time the movie was playing. Every now and then he would move over to the co-pilot's seat and look out the door window like he was hoping to see someone, who; I cannot imagine. The movie really got to me. Of course it did, because I am such a softy. It got to me the first time I watched it too, still I enjoyed it a lot. It is a movie that a lot of people should see. Around ten thirty Diane came back through the door. Teddy was very glad too see her. We sat together on the couch for awhile, and then I took him out for his last walk of the day. At eleven we hit the hay. Teddy, after providing us both with lots of good night kisses, curled up at our feet and in just a few seconds was asleep. We were up around six the next morning. I think I actually slept through the night. The fist time that had happened in quite some time. The hard cider I drank the night before must have had something to do with that, or maybe it was all the shrimp. We got dressed, took the pup out for a long cold walk and at about eight thirty we put him back in his crate and drove over for breakfast. It turned out to be a great one with eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits and gravy, pancakes and good coffee. That last item is very important to Diane. Me, I am a hot tea drinker in the mornings when it is available and it was. After this great breakfast, the Colonials had their annual big business meeting. This one was important because we had a new president, along with other officers, and we were setting up our rally schedule for the next calendar year. After all the business yada, yada, yada, we were reminded about the coming evening's dinner, and gift "exchange". We all looked forward to it very much. The room was decorated really great, the tables looked nice and I was beginning to feel a bit Christmassy. We returned to the coach and I gave Teddy some eggs and bacon that I smuggled out in a napkin. Then I piddled around making some minor repairs to various things that needed repairing, fastening down some molding, tightening a screw, gluing down a floor tile, that kind of thing. Diane ran the vacuum while Teddy barked at it. I wasted my time trying to scan for TV channels. There was nothing close enough worth watching so the TV remained off. We sat and talked which was a good thing. We talked about what we would do for Christmas where we would go and how long we would stay there. We planned to go to St Augustine for New Years with our daughter Jeri, Tom and Dylan, then over to Fort Wilderness for five nights. (I may extend that if I can) and then back home. We would be back in the office, so to speak, on the 8th of January. We thought this would make a good trip and I am sure that it will. The big event for the day started at five, with a social hour, then dinner at six. Dinner was really good. We had a roasted pork loin, gravy, creamed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, long green beans with bacon, salads first, and then apple crisp for dessert. As I said it was really good. Then it was time for the gift giving/stealing exchange. It was a hoot. I got to go first, that meant that there was nothing for me to steal but I had my choice of all the unopened presents and then after all others had gotten their gifts, either by crook or hook, I could look em all over and steal any gift that had not already been stolen twice before. I opened a big box with a large elf in it. Diane liked it and no one stole it although there was a lot of stealing going on. Micky had to make four trips up to the gift table; she couldn't hang on to anything she got until she stole one herself. That steal was number two so her gift was now safe. At the end of the evening I exchanged gifts with Andy, a friend who liked elves and Diane collects snowmen, which is what he had, so the trade was good for both parties. The snowman is now sitting on our entertainment center and will most likely go with us to Florida next week. Lots of our friends expressed their sadness at hearing about the loss of our Nickolas. They also shared our joy in knowing that we had a new pup who was adjusting great. Lots of people, who saw us walking him, commented on how handsome he is. He is handsome in a long legged cute kind of way. The evening was over at around ten thirty. We made a quick getaway to our coach to let out the pup. We called it a day, retired to the bedroom to watch a Walton's Christmas special about two kids from England who came to America to escape the blitz. We both watched the whole thing without falling asleep. In the morning it was back to the meeting room for a continental breakfast, more good conversation, a round of goodbyes and Merry Christmases and then we returned to the coach. We did not want to leave right away. We choose to walk around some, clean the coach a bit more and around two we left for home. It was a good time. This past Saturday we attended my mother's eightieth birthday party. We also decided to make it our family Christmas party as well. We also had a nasty Santa gift exchange that went pretty well. I stole a set of electronic key finders that don't work so hot , but it doesn't matter, the evening was fun. We met at the Surf Rider, a local seafood place that has the best crab cakes you ever ate. Diane and I had ours on top of a Cesar Salad, along with Calamari, She Crab soup and hush puppies. There was Birthday cake for dessert. It was nice seeing my two sisters, my brother and all our extended families. My daughters could not be there but my grandsons did attend. We kept them for the weekend. I looked around the room and was surprised at just how large the family had grown from just two people who met so many years before. I was glad to be there. I will also be glad to see my daughter, her husband and our little grandson in just a few days. I think they will take to Teddy and he to them quite easily. Well I need to get to work. I am still sitting here in my pjs. I need to get to the bank and make a deposit and I have not done any Christmas shopping yet. There is no sense in putting it off to the very last minute. I also need to get the tree down from the attic. That should have been done days ago but my business has been, well, just busy lately. So to all my readers and that includes you too Todd..please have a very Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and my God bless all of you. Derrick "Gramps"

It should be soon, we look forward to it too.

Or is it Whom? Never mind. I can't remember the exact quote, but at the end of the movie Seabiscuit, there is a line something like this: We may have saved a banged up life, but the truth is we found each other and he saved us. The truth is we may have saved each other. The words printed above are most likely very misquoted, but still, that line describes what has been going on around my house for the last three weeks. Diane and I took a simple trip in the coach, found a dog who has been moved from place to place, took him in and our lives have gotten better, so much better since. So the question is: who is rescuing who? Mr. Beasley formerly named Bailey, now known officially as Theodore Beasley Parker but lovingly called and answers to "Teddy Bear"; is now a wonderful member of our little family. Teddy loves the cat, can't wait for Joel to get home each day, loves flushing birds out of the bushes in the back yard, likes to front paw counter surf (we are working on that), can't stand going into his crate, but settles down quickly, loves yogurt (don't tell Diane that I share it with him), loves to go on walks, needs to be groomed, loves Diane's heart shaped home made dog biscuits, and is fascinated by all her Christmas snowmen. According to his paper work, he is three years old, almost. He seems more like two. He has high energy, runs around the house, zooms around the yard, watches the Dog Whisperer and when a dog on the TV goes off screen, Teddy runs and looks behind the set trying to see where it went. He makes us laugh. He is medicine for our souls. Teddy has separation anxiety. He howls when one of us leaves the house. We are working on that as well. He doesn't like being groomed but Diane, with a handful of liver treats, is successfully helping him overcome his dislike of that activity. It is so obvious that the two of them are developing a very close relationship. There have been a few rough moments in the last three weeks but nothing all that dramatic. He snapped at the lady vet who was checking him out the day before we decided to adopt him. A trainer at the vet's office thought he might have some aggressive tendencies, but I disagree. I think Teddy is just simply afraid. He was boarded for long periods of time at a vet clinic while his owners traveled for days to football games and such. He has been left for weeks at Doggie Day Care facilities. I think he thought he was about to be left behind..again. We have no intentions of ever leaving him with anybody until he knows that we will be coming back to get him. The day after Christmas we are heading to St Augustine. The three of us are looking forward to that long coach trip. We will be celebrating the arrival of the New Year while walking the beach. The next day, we are off to Fort Wilderness for five days. Nickolas loved that place. I am sure that Teddy will too. Teddy had no idea how his life was about to change that Saturday after Thanksgiving when we saw this long legged dog for the first time. We had no idea how our lives would improve when we took him in to live with us. So the answer to the question is obvious. We are rescuing each other.

The four of us who blog here the most write about: A couple beginning their full time life. A couple who have been on the road for a lot of time. A couple ending the full time life on the road. A couple who wish to be somewhere in between hoping to spend extensive time on the road. Between all of us we have some interesting stories about the motorhoming life written from different "angles". That is a good thing don't you think? Gramps.