Upper Stamp

So here we are in to our second month at Upper Stamp Creek. A real tough gig. Well, not so much really. The park is open on weekends only and our job, if you could call it that, is to watch the place during the week. So we lock it up Monday afternoon and kind of watch the place until Friday morning. Mostly its walk or drive through and make sure nobody enters the park through the boat ramp which can’t be seen from where we are. Like I said, “tough gig”.

The real work goes to Jim and Glenda. They are the contract folks who do the real work on weekends and staff the gatehouse. But it’s a small park and they’re not complaining. They came from a much larger park and this is only 20 sites so they will be staying and coming back. Real nice folks! We get along well and more often than not have our social and cocktail hour at five or six o’clock to close the day. Sometimes if they are working we just put our chairs in front of the gatehouse so they can continue to work. A couple of days ago Jim got and split a watermelon for us all. Very tough gig!

Just recently Jim (see above) helped me do a ‘service’ on the MH.
Over the past several years, maybe even decades now (Damn!), I have gotten away from doing my own work. It was too easy to go to Jiffy Lube, or cars became more complicated and just more difficult to work on. Even harder to work on because of the need for bifocals. (How do you get your head in that position?) Anyway, I got use to having it done and paying for it. So Jim says “I’d be glad to take care of it for you”. I said “Cool!” Well I couldn’t just let Jim do it all so I got involved and rediscovered how easy it is. Mostly I guess because there is lots of room under these ‘big rigs’ to crawl around; even for an old fat guy! And with all the time I want and lots of time I can even get my head in the right position to see what I’m doing. So I’m genuinely excited. I mean that saved me a couple hundred bucks. And now I can do it myself for the next 15 services and even I can do the math there! Soooo………………… THANK YOU JIM !!!!

So Kat went to get pizza that night for ‘social hour’. A really tough gig!

We’ve seen my old friend and “best man” Doug who lives down the road in Marietta. We took in a ballgame in Gwinnette County. The AAA ‘G’ Braves, a farm club of the Atlanta Braves. And we’re just kind of ‘hanging out’. Catching up on reading, carving and motorhome maintenance. It’s still a lot to keep clean and polished. Kat enjoys her knitting, farming at Farmville, and shopping in Cartersville.

Life is good!

Michigan's first Living brain donor

You can see I needed a cold compress after getting the results or maybe it was just too much reading. It was a very good book. The Quest, Bernard Smith.

Did you happen to watch the Miss America Pageant? For want of something better to watch or do we had it on. Kat was on the ‘net’ and I was doing some reading but then we both got sucked in. My selections never do well and this was not much of an exception. And Miss Oregon was disappointing. Anyway, the girls I liked kept being eliminated until the only one I liked was Oklahoma. I kept saying Miss Maine was entirely too tall at 6’6” and Michigan was trying too hard and thought she had ‘it’ and was using way to much of ‘it’! They came to the ‘question’ and Oklahoma knocked the “Arizona immigration” question out of the park and Maine did real well too but I forget what is was? Michigan’s answer sounded like her I.Q. was a lot lower then her bust size. Not only did she not know the answer, she didn’t even understand the question. So then it was three. I said OK, Oklahoma (no pun intended), maybe Maine (it was a good answer and maybe it made her look a little shorter), but please not Michigan. Maine goes next and I’m thinking OK! (This time you got it right?) And then they picked Michigan. Being from Ohio, that is hard to accept; I mean come on! It’s Michigan! And then she is perhaps Michigan’s first living brain donor! Oh well! It’s 2010! Why should I be surprised?

Send Sugar

Whenever possible when parked we make an effort to feed the birds. Just something we enjoy. I started way back when in Oregon City one winter when it looked like the birds were hungry and the weather was crap. I just looked in my National Geographic Birds of North America and counted 159 different birds that we have checked off. Admittedly we have an advantage in lifestyle. That is never more true when you consider our winter home in the Rio Grande Valley. I think it is said there is a greater variety of birds there than anywhere in the country. Sooo……….. We’re here in Upper Stamp Creek on the banks of Allatoona lake in northwest Georgia and haven’t seen a bird at our feeders yet. And I know they’re here. I can hear them. Cardinals, finches, and all sorts of LBJ’s (little brown jobs). A few weeks into it I have given up on the birds here. Don’t know what is up???

Not so with the hummers. There are Ruby Throated hummingbirds here and they are making up for the absence of other birds. I’m filling our little feeders every day. Our big feeder lasts 3 or 4 days but not the small ones. Now I’m sending out a request for sugar to make more nectar. We’ve got some real piglets here. Kat got a couple more little feeders and the hummers found them right away. As a matter of fact when I put out our first feeder the response was almost immediate. I made some nectar, filled the feeder, and hung it on the window awning. I walked around the front of the MH came in and put the rest of the nectar in the frig turned toward the window and there was a hummer at the feeder. No lie! I’m a pretty good cook and even make a fair batch of nectar but that was a real surprise! I don’t figure it was more than a minute. And now we have hummingbirds chasing each other around fighting over the feeders. I store the nectar in the frig and fill feeders as needed. Like I said, the response here is immediate. You would think that the little guys would get ‘brain freeze’ sucking that cold stuff up so quickly? Obviously not here. What a bunch of porkers! …………….SEND SUGAR!!!

Stone Mountain

I/we’ve been to Georgia several times but have not stopped at Stone Mountain. This time we thought we ought to give it a try. So we did! If you’ve not been there or don’t know what it is or maybe even never heard of it, let me ‘splain.

Stone Mountain is a quartz monzonite dome monadnock rising 825 feet above ground level somewhat east of Atlanta. Or a great big piece of granite sticking out of the ground. It has been falsley advertised as the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. When I say falsley the Sierra Nevada mountains of California come to mind. They might be a little bigger. Actually, I read that. Anyway, it is a big rock. It draws most of its fame from being the Worlds largest Bas-relief carving. In 1912 the United Daughters of the Confederacy were involved in the idea and initial efforts to commemerate southern efforts in the Amercian Civil War. By 1923 the last efforts of the UDC were abandoned by Gutzon Borglum, who went on to carve Mt Rushmore. In 1958 Stone Mt was purchased by the state of Georgia and in 1964 work was resumed. In 1972 a carving was completed of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and Generals Robert E Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

For history buffs the Ku Klux Klan has had notable connections with Stone Mt through the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In 1915 the Klan was reincarnated and given permission in perpetuity to conduct meetings at Stone Mt by the UDC.

Now it’s a theme park. And the only theme I could detect was Georgia, Coca-Cola, and golf. Very nice golf courses, a confederate museum, antebellum plantation and farmyard, various shops, attractions, and eating places recreated in the form of an 1872 town. You can ride the Ducks or take the Sky Ride to the top of the mountain. We did most of that except the golf. There is the 732 bell carillon built for the 1964 New York Worlds Fair (pictured) and a bird walk around what used to be the archery venue for the 1996 Summer Olympics. We stayed on site at the RV park. It was just OK. All in all we’re glad we went but feel that once is enough. And the carving itself was a little disappointing. But then we’ve been to Mt Rushmore.

The Corps

That’s corpse if you speak Obamaese. To steal a line, “I don’t care who you are that’s funny there”. We have a president who can’t pronounce ‘corps’. How would Dan Quayle or George Bush be treated if they said corpse for corps?????? Ya’ think!!! But I’ll drop it there. You all probably know where I stand on all of that.

We have spent the last couple of weeks in Alabama and now Georgia at Corps of Engineers parks. Isaac Creek, Six Mile, Holiday. In Alabama it was the Alabama River Lakes system which is 245 miles long with 35000 acres of water 12000 acres of land and now in Georgia its West Point Lake, right on the Georgia/Alabama border. All of it is pretty nice and peaceful and we’ve met some real nice folks. Just another segment of living the RV lifestyle.

We stopped in Montgomery too see Uncle Charlie and Aunt June. Charlie was 96 just a little short of 97 at the time and doing OK. Aunt June requires in home care now but they are managing. We took Charlie out for lunch and had a good visit. Charlie was studying the menu and trying with some difficulty to pick something healthy and I had to think to myself, “Holy Cow Charlie you are 96 years old, does it really matter”. “Eat something totally unhealthy!” But then I had to reflect on my own circumstance regarding smoking. Way back maybe 20 years ago when I quit, I said that when I reach 65 years of age I would start smoking again and have steak and eggs fried in axle grease every morning for breakfast because 65 was old enough, and besides it would probably take another 10-15 years to do me in anyway. That’s plenty old enough! Well I passed that benchmark a couple of years ago and still don’t smoke and eat more granola for breakfast than steak or bacon. Maybe Charlie has the right idea?!

Stitch removal in LA

Got’em out two days ago. But I still get a little squeamish when I pick up the hammer. Kat had the medical duty that day so she took them out. All went well except for that last one in the worst spot in the middle of all the carnage that was my left index finger. She yanked twice on that one because it was stuck and she wanted to make sure that my first scream wasn’t just for practice but the real thing. Then she figured out that last stitch wasn’t cut which, I can tell you, makes them easier to get out. But all is better now, if not peachy. I still get frustrated at being pretty much one handed for anything requiring actual strength and dexterity. Yesterday I got mad at myself when trying to tighten our hose to the motorhome water inlet and let a couple of expletives fly about my finger and its shortcomings. I got in trouble for that because there were kids walking by. I maintain they didn’t hear a thing until I got smacked up side the head with a broom handle by Kat. So if they were offended it was her fault and most likely they were not. I probably don’t cuss near as good as most 3rd graders today.

I need to clarify a point that may have some of you confused. Or it would if anybody read this, but I’ll mention it anyway. I have written somewhere I think in this Blog of Kat’s medical ability. Specifically, that she can reattach a thumb with two Band-Aids and some wood glue. Ah ha! You say. Then why did you have to run to the doctor for your finger. Well, that is simply the difference between smashing and making a clean cut of something. Kat has only been medically qualified to deal with woodcarving wounds, the clean cut variety and stitch removal. So there it is.

We had a good visit at cousin Shirley’s. Kat learned a few more things about her family and Shirley’s Grandson Jarred fixed us a nice Tequila chicken meal. We went out for some good Florida Barbecue which really was pretty good and actually was in Florida, unlike the Hawaiian place that we went to in Gulf Breeze that I maintain was either in or awful close to Mississippi. Shirley says it wasn’t that far, but I’m pretty good at direction, time and distance, or maybe I was just hungry. Mostly it was just a good relaxing visit with Shirley, Jarred and three pretty spoiled pups. Bo, Sugar and Toto. (Poodle-poodle-silky in that order) At times there may have been a couple more running around. Shirley loves animals and she’d be the first to admit that hers might be just a little on the spoiled side. Bo is not sure if he has legs he gets picked up so much. But it was a good visit and the only one really ready to leave was Jade. I think she was thinking cats didn’t fit in real well.

I titled this segment Stitches In ‘LA’ probably giving most of you pause as to where we really are? You thought we were in Florida not Los Angeles. Well some of the folks in the Pan-Handle of Florida prefer to think of themselves as more like Alabamans than Floridians, I suppose justifiably so. Sooo…. Here ‘LA’ refers affectionately to Lower Alabama. Ya’see! How ya’ gonna’ learn all this stuff if you don’t read my Blog.
At Shirley’s we were right next to Eglin Air Force Base and near Hurlbert Field, home of Air Force Special Operations. Her property line borders the woods that extend almost to Alabama and is Air Force property. They were conducting some kind of exercise and we were privileged to listen to it a couple of nights. It was aircraft, ordinance, and ammunition. What I affectionately refer to as the sound of peace. Those on the left might think it the sound of war, I beg to differ.

We didn’t get to see Shirley’s black bear. She has had one coming through the fence recently and causing some damage. Yes they do have bears in Florida! Maybe they think it’s really Alabama. Must be that ‘LA’ thing.

And we got the frig fixed.

The Gulf Coast 2010 Edition

We skipped some of the Gulf Coast to go to Livingston and pick up our mail. Mostly we wanted to get my mail order VA meds. We were thinking we’d just get the mail on Monday and be on our way. But the mail room was open on Saturday when we got there so we got our mail and left early Monday. It was about 200 miles down the road we realized that we got no meds in the mail. Crap! You’ll remember our intent was to especially get my meds. I don’t know, CRS, oldtimers, just impatience, whatever, it seems to happen more these days. So Kat called to find out they had come in that afternoon and had them sent on to our next mail stop.

Because they were in our line of travel we chose to stay at a couple of casinos, one of which was pretty good and one I don’t know that we’d go back to. Unless the reefer was working properly, which it is not, and we could just use the parking lot for free. Lots of folks do. But the frig is not working real well on LP right now. We have maintenance scheduled tomorrow so we should be ‘good to go’ for a little boondocking as necessary and appropriate down the road.

We bypassed New Orleans this time and didn’t get back to the coast until Mississippi at Bay St Louis. I think it is safe to say that Katrina is mostly cleaned up but the coastal area is still a shadow of its former self. Lots and lots of vacant lots and naked pilings. There were a few areas where more homes than not had been rebuilt but my impression is that they were the more affluent areas. The less well to do areas are still very sparsely populated and there are many ‘for sale’ signs. We looked at one large lot right next to the beach in a nice area. But the 1.4 million price tag kind of scared us away. We did wonder what the other places were going for? But it was ‘just’ wondering. And how long will it be before the area fully recovers and what’s keeping everybody? I’m told a lot of the problem is insurance. Many insurers went broke and it’s just not doable. Still sort of depressing. But the roads and beaches are good and Waffle House, Lowes, and Home Depot seem to be doing well. Time will heal things I reckon.

Our mail, and my meds even, beat us to Mary Esther, Florida, and cousin Shirley’s. She is well and we are enjoying our stay.