Where the heck are we?

Ahhh, busy, busy, busy bees! We had a great month in the northeast, visiting family and friends. We almost had to move to Pennsylvania for a bit but Hurricane Joaquin changed direction. Phew!

All medical stuff is done - no major issues, even with a few extra tests. My internist told me my liver was unremarkable and my dermatologist said my skin was boring (both are good things). Stu may be getting his cataracts done this June, so we will be back in Maryland then to see how that goes. Mine are at least another year away.

The cold moved into the NE quickly and we made our escape on Sunday after a night of near freezing temps in Delaware. Our first night was spent in a nice campground,  RV Resort at Carolina Crossroads. They offer 13 nice, long, level pull-throughs set up for one night stayovers for a $30 rate. It was perfect since the temps were back down into the 30's. Brrrrr.....

The next two nights were spent Wally-docking and the same at Flying-J. Today we arrived in Wildwood, FL where Alliance Coach will be installing our new washer and dryer tomorrow. We've been here before and love the service. We are parked in their campground and they have extended their wifi out there! So we have 50 amp electric which means we can run both A/C units, water and wifi. We dumped as we came in and they are going to do the install without us moving. Ahhh.....

Now on to our connectivity. When we made the move to Ecuador, we knew we'd be gone long enough that it made no sense to keep our Verizon aircard, even though it was unlimited data. Reluctantly, we let it go and cancelled our plan. Now that we are back, things have changed a LOT. No more 90 go plans at AT&T for my cell phone, no more standalone data plans for aircards, etc, etc, etc. So we asked around and finally settled on getting Stu a new iPhone and my taking over his, buying a monthly data plan giving us 12GB. This is addition to our Karma broadband device for which we pay $14/GB.

We had no idea how much that would provide us so we've been monitoring our usage. We had 15 days left in our billing cycle and we started using my iPhone 4S as a broadband hotspot. It works quite well and has the added advantage of being a 3G device which uses less data than Stu's iPhone 6 which is 4G/LTE.

Now that we are paying per GB, we are more careful about watching videos and updating apps. We try to do that at free wifi spots (like now). This also means in the future, there may be less blogs and less photos uploaded. Time will tell..

That said, I have photos from our last couple of weeks, but haven't uploaded them from our phones and iPads. We have been SO busy, barely a spare moment to deal with the little things. And once we leave here on Friday to move to our winter spot at Bee's RV Resort, there won't be much spare time. We have a couple of days to pack for our 2 week cruise as well as our trip back to Ecuador.

We will have good Internet access while in Ecuador but will also be busy liquidating all our household goods before our return here the end of December. Oh, and seeing all our friends before we go...LOL!

Ciao!

   

Rolling right along....

No, the RV isn't rolling along but our daily life. We have:

• enjoyed visiting family & friends
• seen a couple of good movies movies (No Escape & The Martian)
• eaten out less than usual (a good thing)
• completed 80-85% of our doctor/dentist/ophthalmologist appointments
• escaped the wrath of hurricane Joaquin
• done some rehab on the inside of the RV and the outside of our pickup
• made some RVing plans for 2015 (including going to the 56th Escapade in Essex Junction, VT at the end of July)

We haven't done much motorcycle riding due to the amount of rain and wind the last week. So much, in fact, that the annual Red Helmet ride was cancelled. A disappointment for sure but a huge safety issue for the riders.

This week we take care of Stu's feet, both our epidermis, hopefully get the carpet in the RV shampooed and take delivery on a new loveseat, have a couple more meals with family and then move the RV to Greenwood, DE.

We are definitely enjoying the fall colors starting to show, the Halloween decorations popping up everywhere and the familiarity of the familiar. (Yes, that is exactly what I meant to say!)

All in all, it's been quite a satisfying visit.

   

VELCRO®, Ziploc® Bags and Post-it® Notes

For some reason, this topic popped into my head - how did we get along without these everyday products? Well, we did, and I remember a time before they existed. Do you?

I was the data processing manager (does that title even exist now?) for a small company just outside Orlando, FL when Post-it® Notes came out. They were so useful that I bought my own to use in my department. What did we do before then? You used paper clips and hoped the note didn't slip off, or you stapled it to the original (if allowed). Now sticky notes come in all sizes, colors, shapes and are used in many different ways than the original. I used to have a collection of funny notes, funny shapes and different colors - I loved (and still do love) them.

VELCRO®? I have love-hate relationship with VELCRO®. Sometimes it doesn't work well enough, other times it works too well. But it is handy...well, except for that burr side. You know, the one that sticks to everything except what you want it to stick to, just like the sand burrs in Florida! And shoes? Kidlets and the elderly, right? Okay, maybe not, but that's what I think of (I won't mention the great sandals I have that use it...)

Hello, my name is Donna and I am a Ziploc® Bag addict. I love them - all sizes, all weights, all fastener types. Before Stu and I got together, I had them all. Freezer and storage weight, traditional squeeze zipper as well as the slide zipper, gallon/quart/mini capacities. Now we only have freezer weight but I still get both fastener styles, to Stu's constant aggravation (hey, the slide zipper isn't as airtight or liquid containing as the traditional). I use them for everything! We even have the XL size for traveling by motorcycle (and now storage). Great products, no matter the use.

So what are you favorite small inventions that you would hate to live without (and remember when you had to)?

Have you tried the new Kindle Fire? Here is a hard to resist price!