Free at Last, Thank you Lord, Free at Last

(Just so you know, you can click on any picture to make it larger, you can post comments or questions at the bottom of each post, you can click on any links (in blue & underlined) to learn more, you can click on our “Travel Map” to see our journey, and you can click on “Contact Landyachty” for a direct email to us.)

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Tuesday November 17

We have left Franklin RV Park without major incident.  We both feel like we are out of jail.  We loved the park, we loved the guests, we loved Franklin (didn’t get to see much of it).  The owners are some of the most narcissistic folks we have ever met.  We only got into the first week there before they violated our contract with them. A few weeks ago they said they would not pay us our final check – they did give us the final check. 

We only got to go gem mining 2 hours, got to one event at the Smoky Mountain Performing Arts Center, got to 4 or 5 movies.  We were simply tied to the park.  The highlight of our being in Franklin was the fine folks at Franklin Covenant Church.  We were welcomed with love, taken into two life groups (whenever we could both get away), taken into small groups, and enjoyed worship.  Last Sunday dozens of people surrounded us during the service, prayed over us, and blessed us on our mission journey.

Our near future plans are, today we go to Live Oak, FL; park the fifthwheel at friends land, rent a car and start a two week 2,600 mile trip to see our kids, grandkids, sister, and mom.  Mom was 90 last week!!  We will spend time at each kid’s house and get together with most of the family the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  We have to stop and pickup my custom made shoes on the way back to Florida.

Once in Florida we will have 11 days of R & R, finish a couple of projects on the RV, visit friends, and see our nieces and nephews.

Upon leaving Florida we will work our way out west (slowly) having to be in the southern desert mountains of California for a mission assignment at a Baptist camp.  We will spend February and March another mission assignment in Glendale, AZ.  Early April we will fly back and see the kids, and late April leave for Alaska.

Pray that all goes smoothly for us.  We now are restarting our blog for new adventures lying ahead.  Yesterday we went to the Air Force Museum at Warner – Robbins AFB.  I spent too much time on my injured foot and am feeling that today.

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Peggy (AKA Wild Weasel) in the Wild Weasel Trainer)

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Jim in front of one of the Vietnam displays.

How great is your goodness, which you have stored up for those who fear you, which you bestow in the sight of men on those who take refuge in you.

 – Psalms 31:19

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What? Sunshine in Franklin NC??

(Just so you know, you can click on any picture to make it larger, you can post comments or questions at the bottom of each post, you can click on any links (in blue & underlined) to learn more, you can click on our “Travel Map” to see our journey, and you can click on “Contact Landyachty” for a direct email to us.)

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Tuesday April 21

Well it’s not all sunny today?  Still a few showers, but we mow and mow and mow.

One of Miss Peggy’s projects is to refurbish the two “RV Bus” decorations on the fireplace screen.  They are made of copper, brass, & other metals, and haven’t been cleaned since they were installed 3 years ago.

Looking Nasty.

                                                    Looking Nasty

After working on these about 1 hours a day for three days we are seeing improvement.

After working on these about 1 hours a day for three days we are seeing improvement.

This is all hand work! 

 

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                               The pile of dirt isn’t getting much smaller!

We had a nice campfire tonight even though we only two guests.  Recently retired teachers for a hiking trip leaving the hubbies back in Florida.

We had a nice campfire tonight even though we only two guests. Recently retired teachers for a hiking trip leaving the hubbies back in Florida.

Friday April 24

The last two days flew by as we had sunny weather so it was outside work every day.  Flower beds to weed, weeds to spray, mowing, trimming and don’t forget the bath house and pavilion to keep clean.

You can see me getting the tractor ready to roll.

                          You can see me getting the tractor ready to roll.

Last week I moved two chairs from Glenville to our fifth wheel.  On the left is the leather chair for our office in the fifth wheel, on the right is Miss Peggy’s glider with the mountain print fabric.

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We have been looking for a ottoman to go with her chair, we have the fabric for it.

We have been looking for an ottoman to go with her chair, we have the fabric for it.

Babies R Us had a special deal that beat out Amazon by 50 bucks so we had to buy it.  Speaking of purchases we had to buy this freezer.  We have a very small location in the garage of the fifth wheel for a freezer.  This one fit and it was on sale $70  off – that is 1/3 off.

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             The only drawback is that we will fill it up with sale items.

 

On Thursday I went to a real nice men’s group at Covenant Community Church and really enjoyed the guys.  

Check out our page on RV Budgeting.

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.-  1 John 3:10  

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Mow, Rain, Mow, Rain, Got the Picture?

Thursday April 16

April showers bring May flowers – Right? – well they also make the grass grow like crazy.  We were told the mow cycle is about every three weeks during the summer, well right now it’s about every 6 days!  We have 6 1/2 acres of lawn, flower beds, trees, roads, and sites to maintain.

Ditches to maintain

                                                        Ditches to maintain.

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                                                Horse shoe pits to refurbish.

After the morning showers were over, we started the mowing, only to the stopped by the afternoon showers.

Friday April 17

Guess what?  Morning showers, mowing, afternoon rain! The object is to get it to look like this each week.

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Peggy cleans the bathrooms at least once a day, everyone wants clean showers and bathroom – it is the mark of a well maintained RV park.

Each bathroom has two showers, today a guest didn’t turn one of the showers off completely, and of course the water hit the handles, splashed out of the shower and not only messed up that bathroom but migrated to the other bathroom.  At first we thought we had another leak (this would be number 7 this month), but after tearing off the finished wood we only found it was migration.

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Tonight we went to see the movie Paul Blart – Mall Cop 2.  

maxresdefaultVery Funny, I don’t know how a guy as big as Kevin James can move so much.

Ruby Cinemas, Franklin NC, has brought back the movie (for a second run) Do You  Believe?  If you haven’t seen this great movie, go out of your way to find it.

Saturday April 18

Guess what we did today? You got it mow between the rain drops.

Look at all the diffent types of fuel we have

Look at all the different types of fuel we have, diesel, mower gas, Lawnboy gas, Stihl gas, blower gas, chain saw gas and oils. Hope we can keep then straight.

We have a tiny office we work out of, but do most of the paper work in our fifth wheel.

The receptionist must be away right now!

The receptionist must be away right now!  More media center than office.

Our main steed, the mighty Kubota Diesel.

Our main steed, the mighty Kubota Diesel.  It mows, grades roads, thatches grass, pull stumps, plows ditches, and spreads chemicals and fertilizers.

If this lawn vac was any bigger we would have to rent it is own RV spot.  You can actually crawl in and sleep in it.

If this lawn vac was any bigger we would have to rent it is own RV spot. You can actually crawl in and sleep in it.

I forgot the 30 ton log splitter, eat your heart out Tanya.  Our fertilizer is on the back shelf.

I forgot the 30 ton log splitter, eat your heart out Tanya. Our fertilizer is on the back shelf.

This is how our sites look.

                                             This is how our sites look.

Sunday April 19

We got up and went to Franklin Covenant Church  this morning.  Friends Jeremy and Julie told us about this church.  She and her friends did worship dance here on Easter Sunday.  This is a very friendly church.   After church we watched it rain most of the day and did paperwork.

This is what the rain is supposed to do, May pictures of Franklin RV Park last year.

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Monday April 20

Guess what we did today?  If you guessed mow between the rains you win the prize.  Peggy got into weedeating.  Because of the rain there are a lot of areas neither the tractor nor mower can get to – so we weedeat.

Lots of weedeating along our streams.

                                         Lots of weedeating along our streams.

Of course we have guests in the park, so the cleaning keeps going on and on.

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                                   Cleaning supplies for everything!

We do enjoy our birds.

We do enjoy our birds.  We currently have five feeders in the park and dozens of birdhouses.  The blue jay seems to push everyone out!  This is from our dining room.

Check out our page on RV Budgeting.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

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Back Online in Franklin NC

We have been offline for two weeks and are now back.  We had been using a Jetpack from Verizon for our internet needs.

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Somehow I had something messed up and we ran out of “data” on April 1, also the internet at Franklin RV Park was not running properly  — thus we couldn’t get out.  Both are up and running now so we are back in business.  

As most of what we are doing is boring work stuff we will be posting every 3-4 days. 

Monday April 13, 2015

We still haven’t got our fifth wheel the way we want it as we are too busy getting the park ship-shape.  Today we painted the second coat of paint on the horse shoes (4 sets), and we typed & laminated the rules for the following games:

Horse Shoes

Lawn Croquet

Rules of 9 Croquet

Corn Hole

Ladder Golf

Murbles

We also are getting the Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Frisbee,  Farkle,  LCR (dice game), and Mexican Train (dominoes). We had to get bean bags and balls on rope as some are missing.   We are also getting the supplies for “Playing Card Bingo.”  We plan on having fun this year.  We went off to Dodge Packaging  in Franklin to get some cups, plates and napkins for our events at the park.

I think we didn’t mention that Miss Peggy was the big winner at the Passport America rally in March.  She won the game of Murbles (a $50 value) during a giveaway the last night and the storage bag is signed by the developer of the game!

Playing Murbles

Playing Murbles

Tuesday April 14, 2015

Today is a rainy day, thus inside work was done.  We cleaning, inventoried, and organizing the buildings at Franklin RV Park.  The buildings are the bath/shower & office,  workshop (it is large), tractor barn (also large), and pump house.  We also have a fuel storage shed and a cute (very tiny) unused shed that used to house the phone wiring and internet system.  Everything in this park has been upgraded in the last few years.  Water (which is great tasting), sewer, phone, electricity, cable, and internet are all in great shape and working well.  As it was raining, I drove over to Highlands, NC to take some items to the owners and visit with them for a while. 

We went out to FATZ Cafe tonight,  they have a special for old geezers every Tuesday night. called Classic Tuesdays.  Click on the link to see the menu.  FATZ is a small 45 location restaurant chain in the Southeast.  We have never had anything we didn’t love here.  Miss Peggy had the:

CLASSIC COUNTRY CALABASH
Our signature fresh chicken tenders, marinated 24 hours, hand-breaded to order and perfectly fried, served atop red-skinned mashed potatoes and topped with white pepper gravy and your choice of signature side.
… and I had the:
CLASSIC CALABASH CHICKEN & GOLD RIBS
Baby back ribs basted with our Carolina Gold BBQ sauce and paired with our World Famous Calabash Chicken®.  Served with our all-natural French fries.
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The best part of the whole deal is that it was under 20 bucks with the tip, the portions are very large, and the servers are expertly trained!  Needless to say we will be visiting FATZ again on a Tuesday as it is only 3 miles away.
Wednesday April 15, 2015 – Happy Tax Day
Today is a rainy day, we have used St. Brendan Isle mail forwarding service for years.  Our 680th shipment from them was lost in the mail.  This is the first lost mail since 1997.  They do (for a short time) keep a scan of each envelope that we receive.  They were able to email me a copy of these scans for the lost mail.  I had 2 letters from Social Security so today off I went to the SS office in Franklin.  When I got there my ticket was #23 and they were helping ticket #16.  I don’t know why, but I was called next!  We got everything settled in short time.  After that it was off to the Bi-Lo grocery store.  Bi-Lo has 214 stores in the south and Wednesday is an extra 5% off for old guys.  We had some serious shopping to do, the bill came to $160 but with the specials, coupons, and 5% discount we paid $103.  A good trip!  We spent the rest of the day working on paperwork and reviewing old records from the campground.  We received an email that Sonic sent us about 1/2 price cheeseburgers as it is tax day.  We got cheeseburgers for supper.  Sonic is kinda of an old-fashioned drive in with carhops on roller skates at many locations.  
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They have over 168,894 different drink combinations – I won’t name them all!
We updated our RV Budget page today.

Check out our page on RV Budgeting.

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome  the world. 

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Bad Travel Day To Franklin RV Park

We started out bright. and early on our trip north.  We had a quick breakfast  and headed north.  We had only gone 2 miles when we ran into a six miles stretch of 15 MPH speed travel due to construction.  Signs of things to come.  We saw a bus on the side of the road with a flat.  When we stopped for lunch the bus pulled next to us at the Flying J fuel station.  He had some damage (minor) from the blow out.  The driver told me he has had three blow outs on his fifth wheel in the last three years.

We are driving a lot more miles than we want to today – but we need to get from Florida to Indiana to North Carolina by April 1  –  and in that order!

We were cruising along at 3:30 on I-85 about 40 miles south of Atlanta and BAM, the front left tire on the fifth wheel blew!  Now the tire is a good tire so I figure it must have been something on the road.  We were very lucky as there was a sizable area to pull over on the right side.  Of course I was passing a slow guy (55 MPH) and was in the left lane.  We started the slow process of calling the extended warranty folks and it looked like 2+ hours of wait.  I got on the phone (it was 5:01 PM  by now) and 2 referrals later we found a small family owned outfit that does road service.  Our guy showed up at 5:30, and had the tire on by 6:00.  We had minor body damage which I will repair later.

8 year old spare mounted on trailer.

                                      8-year-old spare mounted on trailer.

That is one messed up tire, but the tread is still top rate.

                         That is one messed up tire, but the tread is still top rate.

By the time we hit Atlanta slow traffic, we didn’t get north of the city until 7:15 PM, we planned on parking in the Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club lot in Gainesville, GA, get something to eat, and do some serious shopping.  Guess what – NO RVS ALLOWED signs everywhere!  This isn’t a national Wal-Mart policy, so it must be something local.  They lost our business for food, groceries, and gifts!

I was running very low on fuel and it was dark by now, we drove east a little and saw a very big lot shared by Goodwill and Rent-A-Center.  Miss Peggy went up to the Rent-A-Center store and begged help from the manager.  He called the local police and told them he okayed us to spend the night. It always pays to be married to a good-looking Redhead!  We walked to KFC for supper at 9 PM, we unhooked, and Miss Peggy guarded our home while I went for fuel.  After fueling we settled in for the night with no slides out and 31 degrees outside.

We started out early, got a breakfast sandwich with a walk to Burger King and hit the road.  We finally pulled into Franklin RV Park  at 10:30 AM.  It took us 1 hour to get into the tight site for the host, but we did it.  We arrived at Enterprise Rental Car 15 minutes before they closed and our car was still out on rental!  All worked out okay.  We went to lunch, grocery shopping, and to K-Mart (still mad at Wal-Mart).  Back at the RV Park we moved the fifth wheel over about 14 inches to the left and started to settled in.  Miss Peggy went to do laundry.  BTW it will be 17 tonight, and there was snow on the ground when we opened the gate at the RV park!  So we had to drain the RV of all water before bed tonight.  (and we were in Florida yesterday???)

The old sailor is ready for business.

                                         The old sailor is ready for business.

Hung out the "Camp Host" sign.

                                         Hung out the “Camp Host” sign.

Yes the back of the trailer is about five feet off the ground - welcome to the mountains,

Yes the back of the trailer is about five feet off the ground – welcome to the mountains.

This will be our home until November 15.  We are getting up early in the morning (before the sun is up) and off to Indiana.  When we get back I will be shopping for a tire replacement amoung other things.  The RV park will open up the day we get back.  It looks great, but there still is lots of work to do.

Check out our page on RV Budgeting.

Let marriage be held in honor among all…”

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