Ahhhhhhh .... after a very busy week, we are relaxing on a quiet, drizzly Saturday. So nice to have the luxury to just stay at home and read email ... browse the Internet, visit other people's blogs, read RV newsletters. How can any family survive with only one computer?!?!

Last week we spent a few days at another local campground - Markham Park. We want to get some experience with a variety of parks in the area - but it's hard to get reservations anywhere this time of year. Markham Park said they could get us in for 3 days in the middle of a week if we did not need sewer hookups, so we took it. It's a great place - real woodsy - but the trees prevented our Satellite Dish from connecting to the Satellite, so we were out of communication for a few days. I tried to think of it as a little break from email and web work, but, I couldn't enjoy it. It was too frustrating to get calls from clients and not be able to log on and help them. I'm glad to be back at 'Donna's Backyard RV Park' and be connected to the Internet again. And, she's happy to be sharing our high-speed connection! Here is a photo of our site at Markham Park.

New Car

We bought a new car! Well, a new car for us anyway. Actually, it's 4 years old - a Honda CRV 4 wheel drive. We got it from CarMax and traded in my Ford Taurus. We can't tow either the Taurus or Jim's van behind the RV. It takes a special transmission to allow the wheels to be moving without the engine running. We kept referring to the 'Dinghy Towing Guide' to see which vehicles are capable of being towed. A car that is towed behind a motorhome is called a 'Dinghy'. Even though some cars are on the list as being 'towable' with all 4 wheels down - they still had some restrictions. Like, don't tow it over 55 miles/hr. While we certainly don't plan to race our RV, we do usually drive it about 60mph, so we didn't like that limitation. The best option seemed to be the Honda CRV - no limitations, not too heavy, not too big, yet big enough to put a rack on top and carry 2 kayaks. So, we found one, and bought it! Here it is - isn't it cute?!: 

If we put a blue stripe down the sides - it will be a 'mini-me' of the motorhome! This morning, Jim cooked our breakfast outside. We ran out of propane in the motorhome's propane tank, so our stove doesn't work at the moment! Before packing up to go out to breakfast, Jim suggested we use our portable butane burner. You see, back in 1999, when we thought the world was going to end when the clock ticked past midnight on December 31st, we stocked up on a few emergency supplies! This little burner was a find of my Mom's and it's one of the best purchases we made. Of course, we didn't need it for the end of the world, but it has come in VERY handy in our new world! Jim likes cooking outside ... he says it's a 'guy thing.' .

We are nicely settled in Donna's backyard now and it is a stunningly beautiful day! We're leaving the door open and Odie can come and go as he pleases. Here are a couple photos: Odie visited the groomer the other day and got the shortest cut yet. Take a look, I'm not at all sure it's the same dog! We're probably giving him a complex laughing at his skinny legs.

We are in a new place for a few days. Donna has a huge tree over her driveway. I had to back nearly to her back fence to give the dish a shot at the satellite. After we finally locked on to the satellite, I couldn't get the Wireless in the router to work. Turns out, the unit went bad. I replaced it with another router and reconfigured. Somewhere in all this, the dish software wanted to recalibrate the dish. Now, all is well. When Donna gets home, I'll set her up with a wireless adapter. I learn more about this stuff all the time.