Sunday in Red Bay

If you have been in Red Bay AL in December on the weekend, you know there is not much going on. It turned colder again yesterday but the sun came out so it was a pretty nice day.

I got up my usual early hour and made a big pot of coffee like I usually do and set down for some reading and quiet contemplation.  I love those hours of the day.  It gets me motivated when I get some things settled in my mind and heart.

By the time Pam got up at 6:30ish I was already into my main task of the day -- getting some work done online.  I have some online end of month reports to compile and write up.  Most of the inputs I need on different projects had come in over the first few days of the month so I spent all day working on them.

It was great to take a break here and there.  We had a great Sunday morning breakfast of blueberry pancakes and eggs and sausage.  Then took some time to download a sermon for a session at the Roadrunner Chapel and set up my blue tooth Bem speaker.

These things are amazing.  And even I can set it up and use it.  It is such a better sound than listening to things off my laptop speakers.  Like many of you, I added an Amazon 'one click shopping button' on the side bar of the blog.  If you start from there when you buy, we get a small commission.  I like to do that with other peoples blogs.  They get a few cents from my purchase, while it doesn't add any cost to me.  A real win-win.

Our friends Kevin and Ruth do it and it makes a difference at the end of the month.  So you might give it a try.

After listening to Lon Solomon for a while, I got back to my work and steadily stayed at it most of the day.  Pam went for a nice walk and then came back to watch the Golf Channel and see how things were shaping up at Tiger's tournament in Florida.  A motorcycle company is the new sponsor.  Ever  heard of Hero motorcycles from India?  Me neither.  The Invitational tournament only had 18 men in the field.

New sensation Jordan Spieth won the tournament by 10 shots for his second win in a row.  Last week he won the Australian Open, flew 9000 miles to Florida to win yesterday.  He is definitely on a roll.  He picked up $1M for the win.  Last place (18th) was worth over $100K.  Nice way to pick up some extra cash before the holidays.

I finished up work in the mid-afternoon and then dumped the tanks on site here.  The sewer dump is about 20 feet away but it only took a few minutes to get out my extra hose, change the fittings to connect two lines together and get it down.  While it was draining I hooked up the water and filled up the clear water tank again.

Pam fixed a fantastic dinner of chili-mac and we watched some football.  I made some phone calls in the early evening and watch some more TV.  Before I new it, it was past 9:30 PM and time to hit the rack.

That's how we spent our Sunday at Red Bay.  Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Quick Visit to Red Bay

We are in Red Bay at the Tiffin Service Center aka the Allegro Campground.  They have plenty of sites and we picked one of favorites at the end of the middle row with our nose facing the office, but at the far end of the campground.

We like it down here because we have more room and it seems to be less noisy.
We called ahead and they advised us the water is turned off and suggested we might want to be in one of the other campgrounds in town that have not turned off the water.  We mulled that over and decided we wanted to use the laundry.  It is no big deal to fill up our tanks and roll and stow the hose up.  It was pretty warm at 72 degrees but the lows are expected to get down below freezing in the next few days.

Then we found out we didn't have to go to the wash rack faucets to fill tank.  While the water faucets down the most of the camp site rows are turned off, for some reason along the back where we are, the water is still on.  It took a few minutes and we were all set up.

We didn't do much on Friday night.  We had a nice dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers Tom gave to us and enjoyed a relaxing evening.  Speaking of Tom, he spent the night in a WalMart parking lot in Dothan AL as planned, making the rest of the way to Fort Myers in reach on the next day.

This has been an unusual year and our third trip here We first arrived in June, then came back in September and now December.   I want to keep things in good repair and when I notice a couple of hairline cracks near the top corners of the rear slide outs, I decided it would be better to get them fixed soonest.

Since we knew we were going to be in Nashville to meet up with Tom, it wasn't all that out of the way.  The main repair item are the hairline cracks.  We will go to Bruce Deaton's for that job.  He thought it would be a fairly quick job.  We are planning for 1/2 day there.

Then we are going over to Brannon Hutcheson's in Vina AL for some electrical work.  We want him to trouble shoot our new rope lights that aren't working and maybe check out our irregular tail lights. Interestingly enough, they now seem to be working fine.  Ever since we went back to regular bulbs instead of LED bulbs, they have worked fine.

While we are at it, we will pick up a couple of items in the Parts Store.  I need a new oblong plastic front dash defroster cover that is cracked.  I also have my eye on a foam squeegee to speed up the drying part my motor home washing.

Yesterday I wrote the blog, did some reading and then we went over to Belmont MS to check out the tool store.  We forgot that it is closed on the weekend.  On the way back we drove around town and checked out those other campgrounds.

The new campground over at McKinney's is 100% empty.  In September it was full.  The Red Bay Self Service Campground along 4th St has a few takers:

 One of the newer ones (like McKinney's) is downtown on what looks like an old concrete slab where a number of buildings once stood.

They also had a few takers but were mostly empty.

We check out the new Dollar General grocery store picked up a few items and had a quick evening of some TV which included some golf and college football.

That was it for us on the first day back to Red Bay...

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Leaving Nashville Area and Saying Adios to Tom!

Our main reason for being in the Nashville area was to hook up with our friend Tom and we were able to do that.  After getting together for pizza the night he and son Vic arrived, we spent quite a bit of time together.

Since his coach was right next to ours at the campground, morning coffee and dinner together were special times.  We did that Wednesday and again on Thursday.  Later Thurdsay afternoon we did some grocery shopping and then went out to a park that Tom knew about.

We spent a few minutes at Mansker's Fort:

Mansker's Fort is a reproduction of the fort that was first build in 1779.  It looked quite interesting and reminded me a little bit of Fort Kent in Maine at the end of U.S. Highway 1 in Maine.

Next, we went back to the campground. Tom and I loaded his kayak back on top of his car and then got all hitched up for his departure the next day.

He has to line up the ball hitch and position under the Harley and rack on the back of his motor home. With two of us it was pretty easy.  Now without Cathy, he has to develop a new process.

Tom got under there after I attached it and hooked up the cables just to double check.

Next, we all were off to Victor's for dinner.

Vic has been in Nashville a few years and two years ago bought this nice place.  Over the past couple of years, Cathy and Tom and been down here and took on some fairly extensive rehab projects.
The first thing they did was knock down a wall to open up the kitchen, dining room and living room.

And they completely redid the kitchen with new cupboards, granite counter tops, appliances and an island.

Cathy's last project was getting the long curtains done for the living room.  They did other things like build storage shelves in basement along with a workbench area and Vic had a nice-sized covered deck built.  It was all very well done.

We enjoyed the evening with friends Derrick and Danielle.  Derrick and Vic are sound engineers with Sound-Image and are often on the road with some bands.  Danielle is a cosmetology  person and has done make up for lots of folks including the San Diego Chargers. She is about to launch her own line of lip stick.

Lots of music/entertainer lines of business in Nashville.

We had a wonderful meal of brots, sauerkraut, corn, baked beans, asparagus, pumpkin pie and apple crisp.  We didn't stay too long since we were heading out in the morning.

Tom was up and at 'em and packing up about 8:00 ish.  We did the same and ended up leaving the same time.

I thought the Grand Ole Opry Resort and Market was a pretty good campground.  On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd give it a 7.  Since it was where Tom and Cathy were staying while she was getting her treatment, it was a no brainer to stay here.  Tom knew the area and property well and was going back there.   The owner, Tommy Cunningham, was out there to meet us when we arrived and there when we left.

We got into a new site and had no issues.  They had recently added a lot of gravel throughout the sites and roads so the pot holes were gone.  I really appreciate that.  He also built a new office, clubhouse, market and common area.  Very nice.

We pulled out, drove down the highway about 90 minutes, successfully navigating through morning rain and Nashville traffic.

We followed him until we got to the rest stop just inside of Alabama.  We were going west over to Red Bay and he made it to Dothan AL.  He is going to spend the winter in Fort Myers, FL with good friends Bonar and Christa.

Seeing Tom was a priority for us and it worked out very well.  He is working through these days and into the chapter of his life without Cathy.  He says it is hard but it gets a little better each day.  I appreciate how he is dealing with it all and am learning all I can.  I don't know who is 'going first' but the reality is unavoidable if it's Pam, I want to go through it well.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Roadrunner Financials - November 2014

I like to keep track of where we are with our finite funds and this has also become a hobby for me during the past 5+ years of full-timing. Though it is not an exact science, I try to keep tabs on all of our spending.

When we first began considering this adventure back in 2007, it took me a long time to find out how much people were spending to live on the road.  Thankfully there were a few sites out there that were generous enough to open that part of their personal lives to help those of us that needed that information.

So I have done this for two primary reasons:

1. So we know where we stand with things financially, 
2. To have a basic recap of where we have been for the month; and
3. To offer some information to those of you out there who are just curious and/or may find it helpful.

Here are a summary and our numbers for November 2014:

Roadrunner Recap

During the month of November  we were in the following locations:

• Macon Area Habitat for Humanity - Macon, GA
• Holiday Trav-L-Camp - Chattanooga, TN
• Cedars of Lebanon State Park - Lebanon, TN
• Roadrunner RV Resort and Campground :) - Maynardville, TN

We two weeks at a Care-A-Vanner (with other RVers) Habitat for Humanity build in Macon GA.  From there, we spent a couple of days in Chattanooga before relocating to Cedars of Lebanon State Park.  We stayed there almost a week to see friends and especially our niece's daughter (who is a majorette) at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.  Next we spent a week at our RV pad (Roadrunner RV Resort and Campground) at Joan and Mike's to round out the month.

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

This is very good news, so I had to do a few cross checks on this to see what I had missed.  No mail charges this month since I accounted for the yearly $178 fee in June.

Biggest Expenses
I see that I did not include Propane in the budget and we filled up for the first time in a long time in Chattanooga to make sure we had plenty to run our gas furnace.

Large One Time Cost Item
We really didn't have any large items to pay for in November.

Monthly Average

There is plenty of room for improvement as you can see from the red numbers.  But overall for the first 6 months of our fiscal year, we are several hundred dollars under our estimates.  Pretty happy about that.

That's a recap of our November spending.

**As always, if you'd find a copy of my spreadsheet helpful, I'd be glad to send it to you.  Feel freed to modify and use as you wish.  Just let me know.

Niece Heidi and her creative way to raise money for a great cause: Dressember:

She is well on her way to raising $1000.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Wednesday in Goodlettsville

I got up my usual time which is early--like before 5:00 AM.  I love that part of the day because I can get some reading and personal time and plan my day.  After a big pot of coffee I sat down and read for about an hour and then worked some more on the blog.

I have forgotten what a commitment it is to jot down a few thoughts and put something together.  But its a challenge I am enjoying.  Shortly after 7:00 AM I noticed Tom was up and he joined us for some good conversation and chit chat.  We are going to take advantage of the few days we have together because we probably won't see him for a while.

And its fun to spend time with friends reminiscing and just hanging out.  Next I logged some time doing some real work online and then about 10:00 AM or so he and I went over to the $5 car wash.

His car hadn't had a bath in months and it had a lot of that Wisconsin road salt on it.  Plus the car gets pretty dirty when it is towed behind the motor home.

Next, we ran over to Home Depot.  We are trying to design an iPad stand to put on the Roadrunner coffee/drawer console that is simple, inexpensive and functional.  This may take a while and so far we are just assembling some pieces and parts for a mockup.

Tom dropped me off at the Grand Ole Opry Resort and Marketplace where we have camp sites next to each other.

He grabbed some lunch and went to a doctor's appointment, then spent the rest of the afternoon at his son Vic's house.

Pam and I had lunch, then made some phone calls to confirm our reservations back in Virginia Beach.  We are due to arrive there on December 12 which will be in time for a baby shower on the 14th.  We also call the Tiffin Parts Store in Red Bay, then Bruce Deaton's Paint and Body shop where we are going to have some work done next week.  Another call to Brannon Hutchinson went unanswered so I left a message.  We have an appointment to see him to trouble shoot some electrical items next Tuesday.

Pam and I both did some reading and I did some more work and then we ran some errands.  After our return it was more of the same until Tom arrived for dinner.  Pam made  some lasagna a couple of days ago and heated that up.  It was delicious also with a salad and some toasted french bread.

We had another good time with Tom for the evening and enjoyed some of his sister Cindy's apple crisp.

Tom left a little after  8:00 and we watched a little TV and went to bed.

That's how we spent our day here in Goodlettsville yesterday...

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Niece Heidi in Day 4 of Dressember:

Thanks for joining up on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Rendezvous' With Tom

We are back in the Nashville area (Goodlettsville TN to be exact) to meet up with Tom.  We knew we were going to be in Tennessee when he was passing through en route to Florida and were glad it worked out.

He left Reedsburg, WI where it was 9 degrees on Monday and arrived here with son Victor.

They broke the trip up into two days and arrived here about 3:30 PM yesterday.

We had leisurely morning.  After breakfast and a shower, we drove about 70 miles north to Fort Campbell KY.  We had never been there and wanted to get some groceries at the commissary.  We didn't have time to stay and take in a lot before we grabbed some lunch and returned to our campsite at the Grand Ole Opry Resort and Market.

It is a campground that is in the process of being upgraded and the owners are putting a lot of work into it with a new office, clubhouse, shower and laundry area.  They are also adding some sites to the campground with full hookups, W/S/E.

I got some work done online and Pam did some reading when Tom and Vic arrived.  You may remember Tom lost his wife Cathy back in March.  We haven't seen Tom or Vic since the funeral and decided we would try to 'intercept' him on his trip south to Fort Myers, FL where he is spending the winter.

His son Vic is a sound engineer in the music industry and is based here in Nashville.  After they got Tom's RV set up, Vic took off and went over to his house to see his roommate.  Tom came over and we caught up on things for a while.  Before we knew it, a couple of hours had passed and it was time to get cleaned up and meet Vic for dinner downtown.

We had a 7:00 PM dinner date and arrived a couple of minutes early.

 We met Vic and roommate Derrick and girlfriend Danielle.  We had a table to ourselves and had some great appetizers, beer and gourmet pizza.

Plus it was fun to get to know these guys a little bit.  As I've often said, "Everyone has a story".  We began with, "How did you end up in Nashville?" and "How did you meet?" and got sidetracked a lot with some interesting stories of their lives.

It was a fun evening and its great to see Tom again.

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On a different note:
Here is niece Heidi with Day 3 of Dressember:

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

The Auction at Powder Springs

We had been in Maynardville for about a week and we noticed signs announcing an auction for two small farms in Powder Springs, TN.  Saturday morning 9:30 AM.  Hmm...

Mike and I haven't been to one of these so we thought we'd check it out.  The day before the auction we found the property and looked around to see if there was any interesting stuff.  We were not disappointed.

Besides the property and buildings on the properties, all the equipment in the building was going to auctioned too.

Mike and I talked with one of the employees of the Stone Realty Co that was on the property and getting things ready for the next day.

We were about as ready as we could be for the auction the next day.  We found the place, checked out the things that were up for auction and that completed our pre-auction site survey.

Saturday we wanted to get there about 8:30 AM.  Powder Springs is not a big town.  Actual more like a village up in the holler.

It seemed as if there were a lot of people headed to the same auction.  Maybe it was my imagination.  I was hoping three people would show up.  But I wouldn't have been surprised if there had been 300.

We found a place to park but there weren't a lot of options.

There were about 50-60 people milling around and checking out things including the two trucks and one car for sale.

 We had enough time to register and get a number in case we wanted to bid on anything.

I asked where the coffee has half kidding and they said it was inside the double garage.  Sure enough a local church (Clinch Valley American Christian Church) was there with all kinds of food.

Mike and I had a cup of coffee and a home made cinnamon roll while we waited for things to start.

One thing we did look over was a pickup truck camper that was on the edge of the property.  I don't know how much it was worth or what it went for but I thought it was the perfect item to get at an auction.  

It was dirty, had lots of green scum buildup on the outside.  On the inside it was cluttered and dirty. But it looked like a very good camper.  With some elbow grease and a little TLC, someone could really do well with this one.  But I wasn't in the market.  Just curious.

The auctioneer got his truck and speakers into place and promptly at 9:35 AM we got under way.

I think about 10 items were sold before I was interested in bidding on anything.  They brought things out on the two tables that were set up and held them up and started going at it.

My first item of interest was a tub of electrical cords.  I think I may have left one at the last Habitat Build so I was thinking I'd spend $30 and see what happens.  It all went for $45.  The next item(s) that caught my interest was two bottle hydraulic jacks.  Again, I was hoping to get them somewhere under $40.  No dice.  Two went for $50.  But at least I was getting into the process raising my number, nodding my head and getting into the action.

But I didn't want to get carried away.  So I didn't bid on anything that I couldn't use.  I also bid on a drill press.  It went for $100.  Mike wasn't bidding on anything yet.  After about an hour, they brought out a tool box full of what looked like a dozen types of vise grips.  I stuck with this one and got it $42.

That was cool.  I looked through them and figured they each cost $5 - $10 a piece so I made out OK.  Plus I could give 2-3 in sets to my kids for Christmas gifts since they each have houses and need tools.  You can see my justification/rationalization gear kicking in here.

When I got home, I found that I actually had a total of 20 tools.

Plus a sturdy hard plastic tool box I can use.

Back at the auction, they moved their attention over to the trucks, the car and some equipment on the property.  They sold a lawn mower, a riding lawn mower and came to a wood chipper.

To my surprise Mike jumped into the bidding and stuck with it.  $200 later, he owned a wood chipper on its on trailer.  He called Joan and she didn't seem to be as excited as we were...We drove home and picked up a towing trailer and loaded it on to take it back to his place.

We towed it home and that was our day at the auction.

They did sell both trucks and the car.  The 1998 Dodge Ram went for $3100.  The 2003 Chevrolet went for $3700 and the 2011 Volkswagon Passat went for $13,000.

The first farm was auctioned for $35,000 and the second one was at $45,000.  Those prices were too low for the owner, so he did not sell them.

Meanwhile back at Mikes, we looked up the price of a new Dr. Chipper and found it is priced at $4,999.

We also found one on Craigslist for $1800.  Mike rebuilds and sells riding lawn mowers and could get this thing in top condition.  Even if he sells it for  $1000, he will make a big return on investment.

It was quite an entertaining day at the auction and we will look for another one to go to when we return to Maynardville.

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Niece Heidi is on Day 2 of 'Dressember.

Check it out here

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!