February 25, 2024
After working today I worked on the blog and started our taxes. Meanwhile, Nancy took Bree to the beach for one last romp. Bree was exhausted. But she had a good time.
February 24 2024
Nice Saturday morning. We have plans after work to meet Donna, Karen and Bobby (my nephew) and Beth at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom. We had arranged this via text a few days ago and I had set the time at 1:30PM. However, I, for some strange reason, was thinking that the time was 2:30PM. We were just relaxing and then I see a text from Bobby that they were going to be a few minutes late but they were on their way. Ooopppsss! I then double checked and yup, 1:30PM. So we hurried and got ready and took off. I texted everyone to let them know I messed up. Naturally I heard about it once we arrived. Despite being late, we had a great time. I felt sorry for Nancy as all of us except her were from New Egypt. A lot of the conversation was about the people and the way it used to be. We had a great place to grow up at a great time.
February 23, 2024
Another dinner and some games with Chris and Jim. I made the Loaded BBQ Baked potatoes. They were a big hit. Delicious! We ate around 3:30 PM which would leave plenty of time for games. We played a couple of games and then we had dessert. We opted to introduce them to Nothing Bundt Cakes. We bought 4 small cakes and quartered them so we could try four flavors. We had Snickerdoodle, Strawberries and Cream, Red Velvet, and Carrot Cake. Good food, good friends, and a great time. Going to miss these nights.
February 22, 2024
Other than working today we had one small project. We have to repair our door in our bathroom that closes off the washer/dryer. It is a sliding door so the first step is to get the door off. After several minutes of fiddling with it, a couple of the screws fell out and we were successful. Once we had the door off we were able to attempt a fix. The first option was to use toothpicks to fill the holes. That did not work. So we took the screws out and moved them to fresh cardboard. I think one reason for the door failure was that we leave the door open when we do laundry. Through the last couple of years I think the vibration worked everything loose. We put the screws back in and put the door back on the track. Works great.
February 21, 2024
Only a week left here. Today we wanted to go to the Sea Captain’s House one last time for lunch. As usual the food was delicious. We even got to bring some hushpuppies home! After lunch we ran a few errands.
February 20, 2024
This is one of our last days off. We decided that we needed to play tourist today. Our first stop was the Nature Center. We strolled out on the boardwalk as far as we could. It is blocked off. In September 2022, Hurricane Ian struck and destroyed a lot of the boardwalk and other parts of the infrastructure here at the park. They are in the process of rebuilding but it will take time. The Nature Center is small but has a lot of great information. It was very neat to look at the various animals that they had on exhibit as well. After the Nature Center we ventured, via truck, down to Sandpiper Pond. It was a very short walk out to the observation deck. It was very cool to look out over the pond, then just above a sand dune you could see the ocean. Very nice view.
February 18, 2024
Busy day at work today. 57 sites to clean. But Chris and Jim have half and we have half. Not too bad. We stopped at Heather and Israel’s site. They were hooked up and ready to leave. We said our “see you laters” and cleaned the site. By coincidence, the next people in that site is another couple of our friends. They had planned to come down before they knew we were going to be here for this month. We have known Marie and Denis Schoone since we were first married in New Jersey. Nancy and Marie worked together back in 1975/76. We last saw them in Williams, Arizona for lunch last year. They’re coming down from Pennsylvania.
February 17, 2024
Feeling better today but very weak. The alarm went off and we got up. We had no power. Most RVs have 2 power systems. A 12 volt system that powers your slides and most lights and your furnace. And then a 110 volt system that powers a residential fridge, fireplace, TVs, coffee pot, etc. Nancy started work and found one of the guys from Maintenance that just happened to be the electrician. He came over to our site. He tested things and it was determined that we had not thrown a breaker either in or out so he went to the next breaker box in the system. Yup, the breaker was thrown. So he reset that breaker. Meanwhile, I’m sitting in the RV waiting to get power so I can have a cup of coffee. As I’m sitting there I here this loud electrical sound and see a poof of smoke. I immediately grabbed our fire extinguisher and headed to the electrical box. The plug end of our 50 amp service was smoking. John, the electrician, pulled the plug. We blew on the small fire and it went out. We pulled the plug out of the surge protector and noticed that the ground prong was loose. Now this has not been unplugged from the surge protector in over two years. Not sure how it happened. So the main breaker was turned on again. We tested our surge protector. It showed no power. John tested with his multimeter. There was indeed power. So I got dressed and headed out to WalMart to get a replacement plug and a new surge protector. WalMart had neither. My next stop was Camping World. I was able to get the plug but not the surge protector. John was nice enough to come back and he replaced the plug for us. We had power.
I looked on Amazon and found the exact same surge protector. It served us well for 7 years. I was not about to pay $200 to $300 for one. Nancy thought she remembered seeing one at Camper’s Inn. So we opted to wait until Monday after work and go check it out.
As this is Israel and Heather’s last night here, we decided to have a campfire and cook dinner over the campfire. The Carters were in charge of dinner. We had steak and baked potato. I was able to eat a little bit but was very cautious. It was very good. After dinner and a little campfire time, we went in and played Mexican Train Dominos again. Hate to see our friends leave.
February 16, 2024
Oh what a night. About 2:30 I woke up with horrendous heartburn. I have been trying to wean off of Nexium the last couple of weeks. I thought I was doing okay. I got out of bed and decided to sleep in the recliner as sitting up felt better. I could literally feel the acid in my esophagus. To make a long nasty story shorter and more pleasant, I had a terrible night and felt like garbage. I basically did not sleep and about every hour I was in the bathroom. Needless to say I did not work today. I did not do anything. Nancy handled all the sites today and then she went to Sea Captain’s House for lunch with Israel and Heather.
February 15, 2024
The weather was sunny and chilly this morning but it was very nice. We stopped by to see Israel and Heather and made arrangements for dinner and games for tonight. While working we had to go to Maintenance to put gasoline in our golf cart. Maintenance is toward the front of the park. When you come out of Maintenance, instead of turning left to go back to the main route, we opted to go straight. This path took us straight toward Ayala. Along the way we looked for trash and found only a few pieces. But the best part of our trip was that we were able to see a little bit of wildlife. This path takes you past Mallard Pond. In the pond we spotted some turtles sunning themselves on a log. We saw some birds and the best part, we saw a few baby alligators. Very awesome. The Carters will be coming to our place for lasagne for dinner. The game for this evening is Mexican Train Dominos. We had a lot of fun. To top it off Israel and Heather brought Crumbl Cookies for dessert. Plans were made to go to The Sea Captain’s House tomorrow for lunch.
February 14, 2024
Happy Ash Wednesday and Happy Valentine’s Day everyone. This morning we had plans to go to breakfast with some friends from our church. It worked out the Ruby and Gordon Johnson were on a brief vacation down here at the same time as us. We made arrangements to meet them at the Sea Captain’s House for breakfast. The weather was beautiful. Nancy made sure that we got a window seat to be able to look out over the ocean. Unfortunately, today we did not see any dolphins. This is another of our favorite restaurants. We had a wonderful breakfast and sat and talked to Ruby and Gordon for a couple of hours in the restaurant and then we continued to talk in the parking lot. It was a fabulous morning.
After leaving Ruby and Gordon we came home. Later this afternoon, some more friends of ours, will be arriving at Huntington Beach to camp with us for a few days. Heather and Israel Carter pulled in around 2ish. We jumped on the golf cart and went over to welcome them. This was their first trip in the fifth wheel they just purchased. We assisted with a little of the set up and answered any questions we could about RVs in general. Tonight we opted to hit Highway 55 for a quick dinner with them. They had a couple of items they wanted/needed to go shopping for afterward and we just came home. We would make plans tomorrow morning when we stopped while making our rounds.
February 12, 2024
It was a very rainy day today. We finished work and warmed up a little and dried off. We had some definitive dates so we planned our 4 day trip to the Ozarks. We are working on 2/27 for Chris and Jim and they are working for us on 2/29. This allows us to leave a couple of days earlier. So we are pulling out of here on Wednesday 2/28 and after 4 days on the road we should arrive in Mountain View, Arkansas on March 2 to begin the next leg of our adventure. We had already had plans for dinner tonight. I made a pot of chili and Chris and Jim came over late afternoon for dinner and games. Tonight was a Phase 10 and Mexican Train Dominos kind of night.
February 11, 2024
We worked this morning and finally finished around 12:30 PM. The plan was to go see Karen at here car show. The show was being held at the Cheesesteak Factory. So we decided to eat lunch first then walk around the show. The food was good. We had a chance to see some very cool cars. The car show started to wrap up a little early as the rain was headed in. After we left the car show in Murrells Inlet we got back to the campground in time for Nancy to take Bree out on the beach for a few minutes. All before the rain. To say she was one “tired pup” would be an understatement.
February 10, 2024
After we finished work today, we had lunch with our South Carolina friends. I went to school with Donna and Karen and we graduated together. Every time we come to the area we meet up with them. Today we dined at El Cerro Grande. The food was very good but the fellowship was even better. We sat and talked for a couple of hours or more. It was great to see them and tentative plans were made to see them again before we leave.
February 6 -9, 2024
We have two days off now, Tuesday and Wednesday. Tuesday, 2/6, we just chilled out and Chris and Jim came over and we played some Euchre and Five Crowns. It was a lot of fun. On Wednesday we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and we opted to go to a couple of RV dealers in the area. They are plentiful and very close. We can see just about any make and model we would like. It was like our own private RV show. However, the first order of business was to have breakfast at Johnny D’s Waffles. This is one of our must eat at restaurants when we come down to the area. My favorite is the Red Velvet Waffle. It is absolutely the best.
Thursday it was back to work. While waiting on some campers to leave, I did the dishes. Once I had finished I noticed a large amount of water on the floor. We soaked up the water and left towels down and went back to finish up. Once we were done for the day, I checked under the kitchen sink and noticed a very small amount of water on the floor. Actually it was on a paper towel I had put down to determine leak. I had Nancy run some water and I checked some fittings. Nothing. I had here plug the sink and let it fill part way. Then when the plug was pulled I found the leak. The drain pipe was loose at the “S” trap. I tightened it up and no more leak.
Friday 2/9 we had plans to go to Chris and Jim’s for dinner and games. We opted to bring a salad. They were fixing a Parmesan Meatloaf, made from ground chicken and some steak fajitas. I am not a big fan of ground chicken or turkey but the meatloaf was good. I wanted to do a fancy salad, so I decided to do one I remembered from when I worked at DeValleta, a poached pear salad. The salad is a combination of 50/50 mix of spring greens and spinach, halved cherry tomatoes, crushed walnuts, sweet diced onion, and bleu cheese and the poached pears. The pears were poached in a port wine. It turned out very good. After dinner we played Rummy Cube.
February 5, 2024
Cold and rainy today. The rain stopped early morning but it was still cold and windy. We had a total of 8 departures today. Nancy made a round first while I enjoyed my second cup of coffee. She also made contact with the Rangers. I went out around 11:00 AM and caught a couple of the sites. One left. Went back out at 12:00 noon and finished the last site. Shortly after I returned home, the Ranger arrived. Nancy got up on the roof and tossed the limbs down. She saw no obvious damage. I guess time will tell. This is the second time in our last two visits that we had tree limbs come down on our roof.
February 4, 2024
It is Sunday. That means that we will be busy today. Last Friday we had 40 arrive. We have 48 departures today. Our portion is 25. It is just the way it works sometimes. No big deal. Since the weekend is over, most people head home on Sunday. We finished up by 12:45. The weather is supposed to turn a little ugly tonight. Nancy and I were watching TV around 10:30 PM when we heard a loud thump. We checked the entire RV and found nothing. Then Nancy decided to check outside. Apparently a limb fell on to the roof. So tomorrow we will contact a Ranger so we can get a ladder and remove the limb and check for any damages.
February 3, 2024
Both hosts are on duty today. We have a total of 7 departures. Very easy day. Since there were so many empty sites, we started doing our Site Safety Inspections. We talked to Chris and Jim and opted to have dinner tonight and play some games. Before our departure from home, I had made and froze three lasagnas. We had one for dinner tonight with some garlic bread and a very nice salad that Chris and Jim brought. After dinner we decided to play Mexican Train Dominos. This was their first time. We had a great time.
February 2, 2024
Our first official day of work. The Mays were off today. We have new golf carts this year. They are gas powered and a lot nicer than the electric ones we have had in the past. The job is to get to the office around 08:00 hours to get our list of departures/moves. We picked up our list and toured the parking lots for trash detail. After we did that we made our first round. No one was moving so we went home for another cup of coffee and just wait. We only have 16 sites to do today. People slowly trickled out and by noonish, we were done. Day 1 done.
February 1, 2024
To our surprise we are not on the work schedule today. So we decided to run a couple of errands. We were just finishing up dinner when Chris and Jim Mays dropped in. They arrived today and our co hosts. We met them two years ago and had a great time together. We would have dinner and play cards or other games. We have kept in touch ever since. Such is the life of RVers. They also had an RV friend with them, Faye. She was very nice and we had a short but nice visit. One of the topics of discussion was the increase in camping fees here at Huntington Beach as well as the apparent lack of campers. The park seems less full than we remember.