Projects at Mike and Joan's

We left Maynardville, TN on Monday after almost a week there.  It was an easy drive to Red Bay, AL with good roads and average traffic the whole way.

We had plenty to do at Mike and Joan's and spent a couple of days working of some projects around the house.

First was replacing the front door.

Things moved along fine with the first part of it.  We removed the door, and then the frame and trim around it.

The new door went in fairly easy.

The bump in the road happened with the fancy door handle and dead bolt.

The dead bolt went in pretty quickly.  The door handle under it did not.  It was a real head scratcher.  We didn't realize the there is a universal mechanism inside to pull and turn to make a right hand latch into a left hand latch.  Once we got some instruction back at Lowe's showing us that, we went back and finished installing the handle.  It took probably an hour to line every thing up and get the thing secured.

Next, we worked on the bedroom.  First, we pulled old carpet up and removed the carpet tack and form padding.

Then the ceiling was painted, and we tackled the walls.  Pam took down the old border wall paper.

And we started putting the new laminate flooring down.

It took the better part of two days, but the floor got finished after a quite a few breaks...

It turned out well and then we moved all the furniture back into the bedroom.

Besides doing something productive, I think we like helping out and learning things.  Some things I learned:

• Installing doors. There is more than one way to install a door.  In this case, we removed the door from the frame,  plumbed it and then secured it. Other times I have installed doors with the door left in the frame.
• Door handles.  We knew about right hand and left hand doors when we bought the door at Lowe's.  We were surprised by the door handle latch that was for right hand doors.  We learned door handles have a universal piece you pull out and twist to make the latch point the other way.
• Laminate flooring.  I don't know if I have ever installed it but it is very easy.  Especially with the foam, sliding floor backing on each piece.  Once you get a system down, it goes fairly fast.  As long as your knees and back holds out...

That was the crux of our projects at Mike and Joan's.  It was fun, we learned some more things and were happy with the results.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

House Work etc

We worked on Kelly and Jon's house for the last few weeks and it has been fun.  We have chosen some smaller projects that we can get done in a few days.  We tackled a number of things and here are some photos of our progress:

We began with the garage and wood around the door.  On each side of the door there was about a two foot section that was a separate piece down the side.

It was rotted at the bottom so I cut it off, removed it and replaced it with a painted piece.  Then the I painted the whole garage door frame and trim.

Next, we worked on the front porch and painted the inside ceiling, the trim, posts and the soffit and the fascia board.

Next, I painted the fascia and soffit on the front of the house and managed to forget to take a single picture...  

And we got started on the back of the house near back deck. We had to fill in a number of carpenter bees holes.  First we sprayed each hole, then emptied some spray foam into the holes and let them dry.

And Pam caulked the joints and areas that needed it before she painted.

It rained a couple of days so we put the painting on hold.  

I tackled a doggie door insulation that went pretty easily.  

The it took about 10 dog biscuits to lure them through the door and get used to the idea of easy access to the back yard.

Then I got back to it and finished the fascia and soffit along the back side of the house.

While I was finishing up on the back side of the house, Pam was inside at the Master Bathroom shower replacing some tiles.

We got an attachment to our oscillating tool at Home Depot that cleaned out the grout, then she chipped away to make a clean and smooth surface again before she put down new mastic, replaced the tiles, then filled it with new matching grout.

So now the bedroom shower is in good shape again.  We finished up our projects there with one last one.

A shampoo/cleaning of the upholstery on an accent chair that was we were taking to Adam and Melissa.

Kelly and Jon got a chair for a great price but the couldn't make it work in their place so we took it up to Adam to see if he wanted it.  First though, we used an upholstery cleaning vacuum that was really good.  It took a shampoo solution along with hot water and we went over the whole thing a couple of times.  A little while later, and we had almost a new chair!

Theres a quick recap on how we spent some of our time the last couple of weeks.  It worked out well--they had some things for us to do and we love working on the house.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

The Grandbaby Reveal Party

We happened to be here to attend the 'Goldman Baby Reveal Party' over the weekend.

Things have sure changed in the last 30+ years.  It was a lot of fun to see all Jon and Kelly's friends get excited over their baby-to-be born.  Of course we are too, but it is not the same...

For this event, they included the timing for the University of Georgia vs. University of South Caroline football game.

And there was also the annual Cobbler Pie Contest complete with prizes.

So there was lots of exciting things going on at once.

Folks started arriving mid afternoon.  There must have been over 30 people there by the time it was in the early evening.

There was lots of food

And plenty of pie/cobbler ish variations for the multiple judging categories.

While all that was going on, Jon was outside firing up the Egg Grill and getting ready to cook the Tri-Tip.

With Jon's special Red Dirt and Sweet-Smoky Rubs over mesquite charcoal, it turned out really well!

Then on to the reveal--
Everyone had a small cardboard mug box with a balloon in it for the gender of the baby.

I'd say there was a 60-40 breakdown who thought the baby was going to be a boy.

BOY!!

And a name:  Brooks Carter Goldman

Kelly made the announcement yesterday in her blog and included a computer generated picture of what their baby will look like:

How do they do this  ???

We continued eating for a while as the judges made it over to the cobbler table to taste and judge.  I think they had 8 or 9 categories, most of which I don't remember.  

Kelly chose the recipe, and Pam put together and baked the ingredients of the Blackberry Peach Cobbler.  It was a bit tangy and won the "Life of the Party Award".

The overall winning cobbler was the Pumpkin Cobbler.  The award winner gets a rotating 'trophy' for a year and then it is award to the next winner.  Can't remember why Jon and Kelly got it last year but they were glad to pass it on.

This random work of  art will continue to make its rounds for years to come I am sure.  

That pretty much concluded the festivities but we hung around and cleaned up while the football game finished up.  Pretty exciting game with South Carolina edging the Georgia Bulldogs 38-35.  It was a great game with both teams having plenty of chances to put it away.  

That's all for this edition of the Roadrunner Chronicles ~ Thanks for joining us!!

In Place at Little Creek...

We have been here at Little Creek MWR Campground for over a week now.  So far so good -- we are again about 3 blocks away from Kelly and Jon's place so that makes for easy access.

We got here in time to enjoy a visit from Jon's parent's who drove up from Augusta, GA for a few days.

 It's always good to spend time with them and we got a photo of our time at Logan's Roadhouse.

As it happened, our friends from New Holland, PA (Mike and Sue) had made reservations months ago for a little R&R in Virginia Beach so we got to meet them for lunch last week too!

Even though we just saw them a couple of weeks ago, we had plenty of things to talk about and had a another great time together.  We had lunch at Tortuga's on the Oceanfront which was about 100 yards from their hotel room.  It was quite nice and we had a long and leisurely lunch.  And we decided to continue next door for a while.  We made it inside before the rains came and finished up our drinks.  It was fun to place the tourist again and act as if we had all afternoon....

Meanwhile, over the last week or so, I have been getting my work done online and had to go where the internet is good.  For some reason, when we arrived the day after Labor Day, I could log on and use our Mifi on base.  But then things changed and I had to split my time between the Starbucks on base and Kelly and Jon's to connect online.

Just a theory, but I think the military base electro magnetic atmosphere is highly charged and doesn't like extraneous internet connections like those coming from vehicles like RV's.  So, we find a different way to connect and get our things done.

We've had fun watching daughter Kelly with her creative DIY mind going.  She was asked to decorate a stage and wanted some simple lights to place about and we went over to Home Depot and picked up the parts that all came together.

Jon made the stands and routered them and Kelly wrote about it here in her blog:  House of Gold VB.

We've been doing a little work on the house.  Today Pam did some wash and is putting another coat of stain on a toy chest.  We also took time out to make some campground reservations in October and November.

We keep our plans on our master calendar which looks a lot like the calendar we used to keep on the side of the refrigerator in our home.  We will be staying in the Murfreesboro at Cedars of Lebanon State Park.  We did some research, picked a site and then found out we qualify for a 'Senior Discount' of 50%.  Yaaaay!  That day will have finally come in mid-November.  We are also looking forward to the Senior Pass / America the Beautiful National Parks.

I also did some more work online and then installed a front-door viewer.

With a little care and a 9/16 " drill bit, there was nothing to it!

That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles.  Thanks for joining us!

What's There to See?

There is always something to see, no matter where we are.  We went for a drive on Sunday morning while still at Kiptopeke State Park and drove a few miles north on Highway 13 to Cape Charles.

Cape Charles is a town with a lot of history and charm and it was a nice day to drive around.

We had took a quick drive around town and decided to go see the marina.  Lots of different boats were there and we strolled along the docks to get a closer look.

One immediately notices the pedestals that provide shore electrical power to the boats.  They are the same kind we find at many RV campgrounds for 50 and 30 amp service.  Another thing you see are number of Garmin units on the boats.

It was fun to walk on the different docks and see all the kinds of boats.  Since we are not seamen, we find it curious and interesting how these people operate these things.  And like RVs, there are a lot different kinds and models.

And many different ways to enjoy the water and boat life.

Over by the boathouse and community building, there were showers  and restroom facilities.  We came upon a morning pot luck and asked what was going on.

The Seaford Yacht Club was having a brunch and what looked a lot like a little RV rally.  

Except it is for the yacht club.  The group of probably 15 boats were all in port for the Labor Day Weekend and were enjoying the beautiful day.

Next, we drove over to the upscale housing development - Bay Creek - with two championship courses.  Apparently this was the first place in the U.S. where a development has both an Arnold Palmer and a Jack Nicklaus Championship Course.  It also has a large and private beach with lots of empty lots.

Then we drove over to Cape Charles about 2 miles away and wandered among the shops and galleries.