12-25-10 MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TEXAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS We're going to the park's Christmas dinner today. I skipped breakfast so I'll be hungry ! It  cooled down to 55 today and it's funny to see people walking around with heavy coats, gloves & even ear warmers on. Crazy winter Texans !! The weatherman says it's gonna warm up again tomorrow. Our new little ceramic heater is working so well that the furnace hasn't kicked on at all. It's been nice in this park, it's close enough to town that we've been able to use the bikes to go shopping. Having an American Legion just a little ways down the street has been good too! We've managed to build up to 2 or 3 miles on the bikes just like last year. We've made a resolution to keep this up when we get home, don't know why we let that slip last year, it's a good workout that we hope to maintain. We've managed to get in the pool & hot tub a number of times and it's been terrifically relaxing. Yesterday was interesting. I had a flat tire on my bike and one of our neighbors gave me a patch kit. I patched the tire. A stupid sand burr caused a leak! I was puttinf air in the tire a obviously got carried away with air pressure and BAMMM! Yep, you guessed it. Catastrophic failure. Another neighbor came over and offered a ride to Wally World so we took off, got a new inner tube and completed repairs..Yahoo! On the road again. The explosion, by the way, was quite loud and Heather just about jumped out of her chair,where she was engrossed in her book. A lady from across the street hurried over to see if we were okay. She said she was in her bathroom and the BOOM scared thd shi*** out of her. LOL  We hope everyone has a great Christmas..REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie & Heather

Tue 12-21-10 La Feria TX Kenwood Resort

We checked in Sunday late afternoon..nice looking park..got the rig all connected then went exploring the park..good layout, clean restrooms, and the pool !!!WOW! So we decided to soak in the hot tub and jump into the pool, aaahhhhhh!!!.& it's right next to our site.. it's a balmy 70+ and sunny. I'll take all of this we can get.. we rode our bikes around town and found a  friendly neighborhood American Legion close by and a liquor store..within walking distance are all the little stores you'd need, and a few fast food places. Yessiree, all this is great..they also have a fantastic pool/billiards hall in the park. We tried that out today.   5 Nice tables, new felt and very level with plenty of room. The park sponsors lots of activities. Heather played euchre last night and the agenda for the holidays sounds like fun. It's so nice here that we registered for 2 weeks to get thru the holidays and may stay longer. I see why "Winter Texans" head for this area every year. We talked to a few campers, that have been coming here for years, and they say it seldom gets cold. Everybody waves and smiles and ask you to join the fun, which is pleasant. Hope you all are enjoying winter. REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie&Heather

12-17-10 Mustang Island TX

WOW I can't believe it's been 5 days since last blog !! It's been a fast week for us. After Austin we went to San Antonio and toured the Alamo..it's right in downtown. We were impressed with the cleanliness of this metropolitan city. The Alamo is a real piece of American history. The first thing they do is show a historical movie about it, then a self guided tour is in order. The suprising thing about that place is it's free, unlike other places. Downtown San Antonio is very inviting and pleasant to walk around. There's a river that runs thru it and it has boat rides to see all the sites. It's called the Riverwalk and is a must see.. Then we headed to Corpus Christi and camped a the State Park and toured the Air Craft Carrier "Lexington"..man, it's big !!It took about 3 hrs, and if our legs could take any more could've been 2 more hours, to get  thru it and another piece of history is in our heads. The heroism shown by it's crew is mindboggling!! Now we're on Mustang Island east of Corpus Christi and camped between the dunes..tomorrow is beach walking day.. I called our next destination to make reservations near Brownsville so you probably won't see any new blogs for a couple of days. We may even stay awhile soon, the Holidays are coming. Most Campgrounds have things planned.and we're ready to stop for awhile. Hope y'all are in good health and spirits..REMEMBER...LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie&Heather

Monday 12-13-10 9AM

Coming at ya this morning from Austin Texas, state capitol of Texas..Stayed at McKinney State Park for 2 days. It's in the SE corner of Austin and only a few miles from Tom's house. Do you all remember Tom from his work at the Back Door about 3 years ago? We all visited yesterday and saw his beautiful home. He's still the go-go guy we all knew. He's got a great Labador called Turbo that's well trained. Had good conversations and shared a pizza at his place. Got back to the park about 9PM and called it a night.  Today we move down to San Antonio to see the Alamo, it's about 1 1/2hrs away. We did get a chance for a bike ride around the park and saw the upper waterfall of Onion Creek here in the park. It's an amazing outcrop of rock forming a natural dam and a waterfall. It's quite a sight to see. This park is very nice with lot's of room between campsites. They've got a pretty good scam going. The rules say no collecting firewood from park grounds but they 'sell' wood. They get $1 a log !! A log is a 20" piece about 4" around !! The way we figured it'd cost about $20 to have a 3hr fire. Jimmy oughta get in on this racket! At that rate we figure our at home bonfires were worth aguzzillion bucks. LOL ...Hope all our friends at home in Mich are surviveing the winter blast. We think of you often. See ya next post...REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY......Charlie&Heather

HEATHERS BLOG

WE R IN AUSTIN TEXAS NOW. WE SOON WILL SEE TOM!!  YEAH I WILL SEE HIM 4 THE FIRST TIME AFTER I CAME TO THE BACK DOOR. HE WAS SOO NICE TO ME THAT FIRST TIME THAT'S WHO KEPT ME COMMING BACK. WELL TONIGHT WE SEE HIM.  WE REALLY R HAVING A WONDERFUL TIME HERE. A BIT WARMER THAN OTHER PLACES, BUT STILL A BIT COOL. WE R IN MCKINNEY STAE PARK. AND PLAN TO GO TO CORPUS CHRITSTI NEXT, AND THEN TO THE SHORE ONCE AGAIN, AS WE LOVETHE OCEAN. WE HAVE KEEP IN CONTACT WITH A FEW OF U, BUT NOONE ELSE, AND U KNOW WHO U R. THE VEGITATION IS LIKE MICHIGAN EXCAEPT 4 THE FLOWERS AND ANIMALS. OH MAN WHAT CAN I SAY. I'M LOVING THIS SOOOOOO.... MUCH I CAN'T WAIT TILL WE DO FULL TIME. I HATE TO LEAVE OUR HOME, AS WE HAVE DONE O MUCH TO IT. BUT ALL GOOD THINGS MUST CHANGE FOR THE FUTURE. WE LOVE ALL OUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY BACK HOME. WE DO GET HOME SICK ONCE IN AWHILE. WE TALK SO MUCH OF U THERE. THINGS THAT REMIND US OF ALL OF U.   HAPPY HOLIDAY'S MARRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. HAVE LOTS OF FUN FOR US. LOVE YOU ALL.

12-07-10 Kinder LA

OKAY, we're done with Louisiana. Recieved our mail from home and enjoyed the stop. Saw what we could, left some to see in the future. Now it's off to Texas in the A.M.. we're going to Crystal Beach, TX on the Boliver Penninsula, East of Houston, about a 3 hour ride from here ( according to Rand McNally...ha ha )...just a small community but only a 1/4ml walk to ocean. I don't know how long we'll stay. Remains to be seen, depends on the campground and the area..that's the fun of our lifestyle, if it's nice, okay..if not, move it on down the road. That's why we only pay for 2 days and if okay we extend it. Saves any argument about checking out early. It's 5:30PM so we're into Happy Hour and cooking Chops for dinner. If I know me I won't sleep well tonite as I get geeked the day before travel thinking about the next day's adventure. You always wonder what the next move will bring. It's part of the fun of it. I'm hoping the closeness of the ocean can be heard and the beaches allow some good beachcombing. We've been watching what the weather back in Michigan is doing and it ain't pretty. The weather down in Texas is only 50 to 60 degrees warmer but that's okay (grin-grin). Last night we tried what was advertised as a Cajun food spot and it turned out to be glorified fried food. It was a letdown but edible.I guess I better flip the chops and open another pop so bye for today and REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie&Heather

12-04-10 KINDER, LA

Well, we took a little trip to Cameron, La and toured the Creole Nature Trail..this trail was one of the first nationally recognized trails..it's a whole lotta swamp to us yankees at first glance..We found out why it's important..it's got birds, lots of birds..endless birds because it's one of the south's most important stopovers for several of the country's migratory routes.. We didn't even know the country had that many migratory routes..the walkways and driving trails take you thru a lot of habitat for not only birds but a lot of other critters important to ecological balance..We could have done the whole tour from our camp in 8 hrs but decided to stopover for the night in Cameron, La. at an RV Park on the ocean and we were able to watch lots of ships come & go and while we were there learned a little about the area from the locals...the town was devestated by hurricane Rita and really has never recovered...for example...we wanted to find a place to eat and there's only 1 restaurant open and it's an outside eatery because if they built a building it'd have to be 14ft in the air, on stilts!! as is anything new in town and it's cost prohibitive..the town lost 70%% of it's population and they don't expect it to ever be the same..We took the Tioga across the river via a ferry that only takes 5 minutes  for a $1 fee. because a bridge would be cost prohibitive..From Cameron we headed North to Lake Charles, ate some lunch and hit Walmart for our weekly supplies and got back at our CG about 4PM..did some laundry and NOW it's HAPPY HOUR ..Actually it's all happy hour when we're on the road :)  Gonna explore to the North tomorrow so stayed tuned til next blog and REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie&Heather

12-2-10 Kinder, LA

Now we're at Quiet Oaks RV Park in Kinder, LA..we'll be here for a week so our mail can catch up with us..gotta do that once a month or so...tomorrow we plan on a tour thru the Creole Nature trail in SW LA..some driving and some walking..it's a 150 mile tour so we'll probably do a 1 nighter, 1/2 way thru, at a camp in Cameron, LA as they have some beachside sites available....that would be interesting, especially if we get to see a sunrise over the Gulf of Mexico...according to internet info the area has some Cajun Food spots that we'll partake..YUM !!!...Gonna have to cross a fiord with a ferry (boat y'all) so we'd like to do that in the daylight..met another camper here that may caravan with us , that'll be something new.. got rather cool out last night, down to 37F, BBRRRR..but it got up to 68F today and was warm enough to clean the windows so we can get some clear pictures during our trip..so all I gotta say is "Wake up alligators, here we come !!" Join us in a day or so when we BLOG again for a full report on the tour...REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie&Heather

11-29-10 Still at Abbeyville.La

IT'S ALWAYS NICE WHEN WE SPEND A FEW DAYS AT AT CAMPGROUND..WE'VE PACKED UP AND TRAVELED AROUND THE AREA AND FOUND A NICE LITTLE NEIGHBORHOOD PUB JUST AROUND THE CORNER FROM THE CAMP...HAD A BIT OF RAIN THIS AM BUT NOTHING ANNOYING..HIT WALMARTS THIS AFTERNOON AND RESTOCKED THE FRIDGE AND THEN STOPPED INTO THE LOCAL PUB FOR HAPPY HOUR...WHEN WE GOT BACK WE MADE UP SOME KICKASS CHILI AND ATE AND SUCKED BEERS FOR OUR OWN PERSONAL HAPPY HOUR...WE'VE BOTH USED THE CG SHOWER FACILITIES AND THEY WERE EXCELLENT..BEEN RESEARCHING OUR NEXT MOVE VIA INTERNET AND ARE PLANNING ON SOME TOURS IN AN AREA CALLED THE CREOLE TRAIL JUST SOUTH OF ST CHARLES ...EVEN THE LOCALS HAVEN'T HEARD OF IT...WILL PROBABLY STAY AT THE NEXT CG FOR AWHILE SO OUR MAIL CAN CATCH UP WITH US...WE HOPE EVERYONE IS IN GOOD SPIRITS AND REMEMBER...FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY....Charlie & Heather

11-27-10 Abbeyville, La

Now we're at Ace RV Park in Abbeyville, LA..a cute little piece of info we gathered while researching this area is that the old classic " THE BLOB " was filmed here..we'll be here til the 1st..got a Pub within walking distance that we'll have to check out..just a little RV park with a 'down home' feel to it..$8/nite with our passport america discount..our site has full hookups ( FHU) and a nice patio..got rather cool last nite but during the day it was a comfortable 70...we both got a craving for pizza so we bought a couple at Walmarts and cooked in...yummee...don't ya just hate the early darkness in the winter? It's nice that the sun is up at 6 AM but it's yuk having it dark at dinnertime..please give me back my summer..LOL...the closer we get to Texas the more excited we get..should get there sometime in the next week or so..we've got 1 more stop to make before Texas in/near St Charles, La where we'll do a road tour of the Creole Nature Trail...it's in the SW corner of Louisiana and is supposed to be quite interesting..it may even take a few days of our time..We hope everyone is enjoying life like we are..REMEMBER..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY......Charlie&Heather

Mon 11-22-10 Gibson, LA Seth's Haven RV Park

We've been here for 2 days and it's movin" time in the AM..It's funny how one's mind works when relaxed and just daydreaming..take today for example...before we left home this year we updated our bathroom, new floor, new toilet...and now, in the motorhome, we put in a new toilet last week..( the year of the toilets ??) I started to giggle when I considered that now we have 2 warranties on 2 new toilets...is that affluence or is is efluents ???  LOL  only in America..I feel like a lucky immigrant....this was a different kinda RV Park, they have an outdoor sunroom, kitchen, sitting room...washers and dryers too...so we were able to do our laundry, watch tv, and have a few drinks, all in the comfort of 1 room..the gal that owns this park, Bonnie, gave us a couple of containers of fresh shrimp, which I'm sure we'll eat soon...Heading to Cypress Bayou Casino, near Charenton LA,  about a hour away , and will stay there thru Thanksgiving...yummee buffet for turkey day and only $10/day for the RV Park with FHU's...oh yeah, free drinks in the casino too !!..Of course we'd never take advantage of that !!(grin..grin :)  ) I hope everyone's plans for the holiday includes someone you love and " HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL...REMEMBER...LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY......Charlie &Heather

Sat Nov 20th 2010 Last nite at Grand Island, La

Wow,  it's hard to believe that a week has gone bye already..Grand Island State Park has a nice layout and will be a lot better once the beach reopens..kinda strange, a mile or so away the beach is open but they're still cleaning up this beach..  We took a few walks out the pier and watched a pod of dolphins, there must have been 20 of them and it's interesting watching their antics. We managed to get some bike rideing in almost every day.  Tomorrow AM we're outa here and on the way to Gibson, La...to a park called Seth's Haven RV Park. Supposed to be 80 DEG's tomorrow and staying warm for most of the week..(AWWW!!!) Cooked on the grill most of the week...starting to get in the mood for a buffet somewhere, maybe Thanksgiving ???  Hope everyone is happy and healthy and REMEMBER, LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie& Heather

11-15-10 Grand Isle, Louisiana State Park

Did we tell you that we saw a lot of Dolphins as we drove out here ? Some of the bridges were amazing. They were so long and complex and new they were unbelieveable..
Didn't get a lot of sleep last nite due to stormy weather, we had the awning out and the wind was terrible, so much that we considered going out in the rain and rolling it up. NOT !! It held up ok  but it kept us awake quite awhile..The rain was on and off all day but considering it's the first heavy rain we've had in a month and a half, and the sun poked out for awhile this afternoon for an hour or so, I guess we shouldn't complain..We can hear the surf from the Gulf of Mexico, just a few hundred feet away and it's kinda peaceful. We took a walk just before sunset and were held in awe by the raw power of the ocean. The sky was cloudy and angry but in all it was beautiful. This evening we rolled the awning up because the forecast is for a repeat performance tonight. Tomorrow it's supposed to go clear and sunny and 74DEG, we'll take that !! Took some movies of the Park ,and if I get off my butt, I should get them posted soon. Looking forward to the week and we'll get some touring in of this town.. You should google Grand Isle, Louisiana to see just how far we are into the Gulf of Mexico. We can see many oil rigs out in the ocean and they really are a long ways out. The town has a very large oil and gas refinery that's as big as the town, if not bigger. We've met a few camper people, and as usual, they're happy people. If the weather gets decent ,we'll have to encourage a 5 o'clock somewhere get together. :)  Our phones have finally quieted down, as they did last year, and the kids are okay so we know everyone has gotten used to us being gone..that doesn't mean we don't miss y'all but it's the rhythm. if you're following the blog it'd be nice if you click on "follower" so we'll know someone is reading it even though we know some of you get this via e mail ....we enjoy your e mail too (HINT HINT) [ cmhl09@passportamerica.com ], hopefully you will fill us in on what's up in your neighborhood. We should post a new blog every few days as our internet connection here is great. I managed to find something to do during the storms this AM, our toilet water valve was leaking ( 28 years old) which fills the holding tank way too fast and the repair kit cost was almost as much as a new toilet, sooo..long story short, it took a half hour to update a stupid problem, and now we have a new "high rise" geezer commode..
we miss all our friends..REMEMBER..FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS, AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie & Heather

Grand Isle Louisiana State Park 11-14-10

Pulled into Grand Isle about 3PM..Weather is staying nice but there's rain in the forcast for the next 2 days.
We're about as far South in LA as one can go, way out in the Gulf of Mexico. It was quite a ride down here and we had water on both sides of the road for a lot of it. Saw some gators and a lot of birds. The canals enroute had some very big shrimp boats and other fishing boats. Very pretty area. We signed up for a week here so we'll have plenty of time to explore the area. There's a butterfly conservatory to see and many waterfront attractions and we both want to eat some real Cajun food..The beach at this park is closed to the public due to the oil spill but a few miles up the road it's open..the reports in the local news say the beaches are okay to use so I suppose this State Park is a typical government operation which will catch up in a few weeks or months. We managed to get a bike ride in already just to get our bearings around the park..very neatly laid out and clean..not too many campers though due to everyone trying to avoid any oil..we took a look at the beach and it seemed clean, no smell of oil..we saw about 4 dozen guys on the beach for "cleanup" but all they seemed to be doing is just standing around..Another fact we picked up on while talking to some locals is that tarballs have been washing ashore as long as they've been drilling in the Gulf, in other words, it isn't anything new..Usually we don't 'set up' outside like we did today..if we're only staying 1 or 2 days we take it easy. This time we basically set up a 'living room' outside under the awning as we'll be spending a lot of time out there. It's good to sit in one spot for awhile..See ya next blog and REMEMBER--LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY..Charlie&Heather

Thurs 11-11-10 Bay St Louis, MS

12:25AM...What the hell are we up at this hour for.....WINNING $$$$...We're at the Hollywood Casino in Bay St Louis Mississippi and we just got back to the motorhome from the casino floor..Heather had all the luck tonite aand walked away with a real nice chunk of change.... me???no such luck today...But we were smart today and kept away from the buffet and only ate a small lunch...I don't think we could have survived another buffet...( and thay even had the senior discount again today) The casino is a lot less busy than it was last year and the workers say it has a lot to do with "the oil spill" affecting the tourist trade..people just aren't coming to this area due to worrying about it...we've seen a lot of crews working the beach area cleaning oil but we haven't seen any major messes of oil...the seafood industry here is in almost full production...I saw on the news that the seafood has been given a clean report by the gov. but I suppose it'll take awhile to regain confidence in all of this..The weather here has been in the 70's daytime and 50 at nite so it's warmer than last year..we'll be here for a couple days and the head into Louisiana...remember FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...LOVE Y'ALL  Heather&Charlie

See The USA 11-9-10

Wow..I can't believe it's Tuesday already..Last Sunday we went cruising around Biloxi MS and stopped in at the Boom Town Casino, ate lunch at the buffet and as usual ate wayyyy too much..great seafood and almost anything you can imagine...afterwards we hit the casino floor and I donated to the Indians but Heather made up for it at the blackjack table...what a great afternoon...Mon & Tues we just hung out at the RV park, fished a bit, rode bikes and hiked. ( gotta work off the buffets  :)  )..
We'll be here one more day then we move over to Bay St Louis MS...going to stay at the casino CG and catch up on domestics and gamble for a few days..I've been looking at Louisiana for our future move and Grand Isle State Park  is looking interesting...who knows ???  Our cats, Hooter & Melody,are so used to us moving that it doesn't even bother them anymore when we fire it up to move out.  We've met a lot of great people in this camp. It's one of the things we really enjoy about all this travelling..Sat around another nice bonfire tonite with some folks from Ohio and Wyoming and swapped tales of places we've been and are going to and funny things that only campers find hilarious...I hope y'all are enjoyin' life and remember LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...Charlie & Heather

Long Beach Ms 11-06-10

It's a sunny and beautiful Sat 'morning..a bit cool last night but great for sleeping, didn't blink an eye 'til after 8AM..We went exploring the area yesterday afternoon, checked out Gulfport. It's a small city and not much happening except a great beach area and the oceansine road, Hwy 90, has some local artist's great carvings on the boulevard carved out of the trees that were destroyed by hurricanes. They're really quite large and are depictions of whales, dolphins and pelicans. Quite an accomplishment and very eyecatching. Then we cruised back West to Bay St Louis and stopped at the Hollywood Casino and ate lunch at their buffet. YUMMEEE!! I even get the SENIOR discount and the total bill with drinks et all was $16..of course we couldn't leave without testing our luck on the gambling floor :) Walked outa there with +$300 !!! We really like that place, it's where we had such good luck last year..gonna stopover there next Wed and stay in their CG & use thier money to pay for it :)..We built up some comps too so we'll get a discount too. We are gonna fish in this parks lake today and see if we can't have some bass for dinner. When we got back last nite we saw that someone had been bonfireing during the day and the coals were still hot so I wandered over and they have a big pile of firewood so I started loading up the firepit and before you could say Alakazam there was a Hooter Brown Bonfire going. attracked another camper's attention and "Mike" joined us. He's from Wyoming and a newbee. As luck would have it he's just been thru New Mexico & Texas and filled us in on some good Camps they found on their travels so we swapped stories and enjoyed the warmth of the fire..Sure makes the libations taste good !! We'll probably drive over to Biloxi tomorrow or Mon and hit the Hard Rock Casino... Biloxi has several casinos, some with campgrounds so who knows how long we'll be in that area, probably has a lot to do with how much of their $$ we can round up. Hope everyone is ok and remember FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY.......CHARLIE &  HEATHER

Long Beach Mississippi 10-04-10

We finally moved from Hattiesburg Ms to Long Beach Ms, about 1 1/2 hrs south near the gulf..
We're now at Magic River Campground ( named so because the river here magically floods the camp after heavy rains)..isn't that special !!! It's the 1st Passportamerica campground and is owned by the guy that started PA...it's really beautiful and has a couple of really good sized ponds for fishing...the weather report doesn't sound too promising, down in the lo 40's at nite and only 65 in the daytime...we were going to go to the Hollywood Casino CG but they jacked their rates up to $35 per nite from $20 last year and we found this CG for $12 and we're only a 10min drive West to the Casino and have another Casino 10mins East.. We'll probably go explore the area in the AM and orient ourselves to the area as we usually do when we hit a new area..we stocked up enroute today and cheated by eating a fast food lunch (YUK)..we've watched the news and see some ares up north are gettin snow ( another YUK)..had a great time at our last CG, Okatoma, and are hopeing this one will be as enjoyable...guess we'll get the fishing gear out tomorrow and try our luck late afternoon.. 

HEATHER'S BLOG.

HELLO ALL, CHARLIE ALREADY DID A BLOG. BUT I LIKE TO DO THE TWO CENTS OF MINE. SO HERE WE GO. TODAY WAS ANOTHER BEAUTIFUL DAY. THE MORNING WAS CHILLY, BUT EVENTUALLY IT DID WARM UP ENOUGH FOR ME TO GET IN SHORT'S AND SUN FOR ABIT. MMMMM... LOVE SUNBATHING. MY NAIL COLOR FOR HALLOWEEN  IS THIS AWESOME ORANGE. I HAD A YOUNG MAN FLIRT WITH ME TODAY AT THE LIQUOR STORE. IT'S NICE TO KNOW THAT I STILL HAVE IT! :) HEEHEE. WEL THEN WE WENT TO A REALLY NICE SPAGHETTI DINNER. HOSTED BY SOME WORK CAMPERS AND THE OWNERS OF OKATOMA PARK. MMM IT WAS REALLY GOOD. DON'T GET ME WRONG CHARLIE IS THE LOVE OF MY LIFE AND ALWAYS WILL BE.  WELL TTFN LOVE 2 ALL.

Hattiesburg, Mississippi 10-30-10

Well hello there !! We were up early today and cooked a breafast using farm fresh eggs that are produced right here at the campground. They've got Rhode Island Reds out back in a coop and sell them 'by the honor system' out of the fridge at the clubhouse. Man those are good !! The rest of the morning was filled with workamping and we quit early and made a run to the store..all of us are getting together at 5PM for a spaghetti dinner. Sure is a friendly place. We made a big error in judgement today when we ran into town this afternoon...Hattiesburg is home to Southern Mississippi University and their football game was just getting out as we passed the colliseum, it was a wave of people coming from every direction...OH what fun !!! When we got back to camp after escapeing the madness it was definately beer time :) After dinner we sat outside and just stargazed..( what a different mode than in town !!) The old mouse for our computer crapped out so we bought a new wireless mouse, it works much better and is a lot faster. ( I love technology) We think we may pull outa here on Wed or Thurs so we'll be making up a plan and will be watching the weather too. Hope you all are doing fine and remember ..LIVE YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY QUICKLY...
........CHARLIE & HEATHER

Hattiesburg, Mississippi 10-29-10

I know this kinda gets redundant but we're still here...we put up paneling and various other stuff today and basically breezed thru a couple hours of work..then we decided to have a powerhouse 5 o'clock somewhere hour or 2 or 3....ha-ha  ....we will talk to the owners tomorrow to see if they want us to do anymore workamper days...if we can, we'll "bank" a couple days of free camping for our return trip in the spring. We plan on moving further south soon as the nights are getting in that 45 DEG mode at night..Yesterday we  took a tour of the zoo in Hattiesburg, small but entertaining and at $3 it was worth it.  Hope the next few posts are more exciteing but for now...REMEMBER, TIME GOES BY QUICKLY SO FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

Hattiesburg Mississippi 10-27-10

We're still work camping at Okatoma RV & Resort, wrapping up our 1st week of this new kind  of adventure.
Actually, if it wasn't for the 90Deg weather, this could be a lot of fun. We're helping to build 2 bathrooms in a resort cottage. It started out with nothing and now we're about 80% done. Not bad for a week!! No work tomorrow while the floor guy does his thing then we'll finish it up in a day or two. We're only working about 4 hrs a day and then we do our usual things at 5 o'clock :).. It's been fun cooking outside with shorts on and watching beautiful sunsets every evening...Tonight we watched a lightning storm right after sunset and had a spot of rain but it was great watching it..it actually cooled it down to about 80Deg so, campared to 90 today, it was a break..We haven't even thought about moving this week and the other workcampers we're with are very nice, knowledgeable people. We all click as we work..We might take a tour of the zoo, in Hattiesburg, tomorrow, if the weather will let us. I haven't mentioned that last night and the night before, about 9PM,during our star gazing hour, we thought we saw a 'gator in the pond. The owners of this place said  " no 'gators"  but we saw what we think is a 4 ft 'gator, maybe 2, swimming and when it started our way the yard lights showed it's silver eyes and we've never seen turtle eyes like that !! I thought I might take a swim in the pond but not now..nosiree !! The old Tioga motorhome has been behaveing so far and other than our new exhaust coming apart ( I was able to fix it) nothing alse has been a headache..Hope everyone is happy and stress free and remember........FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS AS TIME GOES BY TOO QUICKLY.....CHARLIE & HEATHER

Heathers blog

Hello all, I'am haveing a great time in hattiesburg. We r workcamping, and I love it. It's great to be busy again. We are working on a house here. Tools, Saws and Wood, plumbing, electrical, and maybe painting. Yeehaw.!!! The weather has kept up well. The satelitte is no good here. But really who needs tv.

OCT 24 2010 HATTIESBURG MISSISSIPPI

IF YOU CONSIDER THAT THE OBJECTIVE OF TRAVELING IS TO RELAX AND HAVE A GOOD TIME THEN WE'RE DOING GREAT!!THE WEATHER HAS JUST BEEN WAYYYY  BETTER THAN LAST YEAR. 75 TO 85 AND SUNNNYYY!!We decided to stay here at Okatoma RV Campground in Hattiesburg, Mississippi and do a work camper gig...20hrs of light work for a free week of rent..the place is in the country, no noise or trains, nice ponds and nice people. We've been kicking around the idea of fulltimeing next year and part of the overall plan is to workcamp and eliminate any rent fees, that definitely is attractive..if we gave up our Houghton Lake domicile and camped for free it'd save a lot of bucks per year, not to mention no utility bills either!!! We can see why so many thousands of people are doing this..The choices are immense at State Parks, Corp of Engineer parks, National Parks and private parks. We joined Workampers a year ago and from what we've seen and the campers we've talked to, it's a great way to SEE THE USA..One of the adjustments to our Normal way of life is being able to come up with a different plan anytime we want to...kind of a "OK, let's just do it" way of life..We got caught up today on all the domestic chores (YUK) but it's gotta get done..We're getting real good at eliminating extra trips to town for shopping like we did last year and manage to keep it down to once a week. Got a few things planned for touring this week and we'll report on that as it happens..Would love to hear from ya..comment here or email us at cmhl09@passportamerica.com  Remember  FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS AS TIME PASSES QUICKLY  ....Charlie & Heather

Oct 21,2010 Okatoma Resort Hattiesburg Miss.

So now we're signed up for a week and we were asked if we'd like a week for free..all we gotta do is give a little labor helping to fix up a rental cabin..hhmmmm!!..well, ok..the owners use workampers & thru some talk we seem to have talked ourselves into our first "job"..let's see, free rent for a few hours work...well, sure..more money for a casino next week or so..we really don't have anywhere we gotta be at any certain time..we'vr been thinking about doing this sort of thing anyway so what the heck, go for it..so, we'll be here for awhile and the temps haven't been getting anywhere near 45F so .........now we gotta settle out early tonite cause we go to work at the early hour of 9AM tomorrow til 2PM with 1 1/2 hour lunch hour..aawwww geee..got a great bike ride in today and a nap...didn't feel like cooking so we chowed on leftovers..hope y'all have a great day and remember LIVE YOUR DREAMS CAUSE TIME GOES BY TOO FAST..........CHARLIE&HEATHER

Wed Oct 20,2010 Ocotoma RV Park Hattiesburg, Miss.

WOW..were we suprised when we pulled into this RV park,,it's beautiful..the gal that answered the phone had a tremendous down south drawl, friendly and inviting...this park is so awesome from the minute you pull in..the pond has signs that say "catch. kiss, and release"...Mary Ellen, one of the owners, said they've on;y been here a year, you'da thought forever !!...we'll be here for a week so we can get our mail and just to take a break...had a great personal Happy Hour and will be exploring the area this week..Afternoon temps were about 80 and had to run the AC again (dangit)...we decided to eat leftovers tonite so NO COOKING (awww geee)...hope y'all are enjoying the posts and REMEMBER.......FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS CAUSE TIME GOES BY TOO FAST......CHARLIE&HEATHER

TUES 10-19-10 PLANNING

It's evening here in Philidelphia ( Mississippi ) Now that laundry and all the domestic stuff is caught up we're planning on making a move further South..Lot's of things to check..free camping, Passport America campgrounds, State Parks, then we have park reviews, and call ahead..We like to NOT do reservations and just show up so we can drive around a camp before checking in, checking out bathrooms and general character of the camp..We usually have an alternative or two nearby in case the camp doesn't meet our standards. Normally we only drive 2 or 3 hours max, about 120 to 150 miles, sometimes less..if we stay 2 days and still have stuff to see we'll extend for a few days..we stay longer, about once a month ,to let our mail catch up with us. So as you follow our plans don't be suprised if we change plans sporadically. It's a tough life :) Remember FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS AS TIME PASSES TOO QUICKLY.love y'all..
CHARLIE AND HEATHER

HEATHERS THOUGHTS

Hello, This is me. heehee, I hope this finds all of you well.  We are having a great time here in mississippi. The BB. King museum, was spectacular. Lot's of info. And u all know how we like info. :)  We saw our first gator in Hollandale SP. He was huge!!  I have pics.    Hey Shannon I hope your doing good.  Well I;m sure Charley can explain more. So i will go for now. Love to u.

THURSDAY OCT 14, 2010

Hi all..We're in Memphis, TN for a few days just about 2 miles from Graceland..at the T.O. Fuller State Park..got beautiful weather all week in the high 70's..the trees are big here and we've noticed the fauna change at this Latitude..starting to see a bit of Spanish Moss in the trees too..as usual, this far south, the ranger station has "snake info" notices...lots of dogs walking their people every morning and night..met a lot of fulltimers so far, very interesting to talk to them..We're discussing doing that, so we listen to them intently to see if we can learn anything ( don't tell me you can't teach an old dog new tricks)..we've stuck to small roads for the most part and have seen some great country..hope everyone is well and we miss y'all..til next time..SEE THE USA

Heather's Blog

Hello all. we r in kentucky visiting my son josh. i haven't seen him since july.  The scenery is beautiful here. Pretty much like michigan.  Just alot warmer.  Next stop, tennesse. Then off to mississippi to see the B.B. King museum.  It's been a very easy ride so far. Dry counties suck!!!!  Lot's of religion down here.  K gotta go. TTFN

10-10-10 Paducha, Kentucky

I'm going to experiment with this blog site for awhile to see all it's features..lets see how it works..the directions seem simple enough...lots of tools...