Spending Time with Kayla in Murfreesboro

We made it a point to go to Murfreesboro since our niece's daughter is a majorette with the Middle Tennessee State University band.

We wanted to time it so we could be there for a football game.  It worked out great!

Pam and I arrived in the area early in the week and camped at the Cedars of Lebanon State Park

It was our first cold weather experience of the season.  Though it was 14 degrees one night, we took precautions, had our heaters going and it turned out fine.

We worked out things according to Kayla's school, work and practice schedule and the first thing we did was meet her for breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

Then she took us on a windshield tour of the Middle Tennessee State University campus.  I love the layout and the grounds and the whole campus.  It gives the feeling of a very uncluttered place with a pleasant atmosphere.  (No pictures since I was in the back seat and no good vantage points.)

Later we went to downtown Murfreesboro and again, were very impressed.  Such a nice town with a courthouse on the main square and

lots of active shops and a vibrant downtown section that gives you the feel of the way life was decades ago.

We returned the next day to have dinner in downtown Murfreesboro at Marina's Italian Restaurant down on the square.

Another great meal at a great restaurant with Kayla and we saw her roommate Ansley who works there.

The next day, her parents and brother came over from Maynardville and we all went to the MTSU football game.  First we did a little tailgating with the band

As it approached game time, the girls did some warming up down

And we found some seats in the stadium.  It was military appreciation night and a couple of soldiers from Fort Campbell Kentucky parachuted in.

Kayla and the band and her majorette buddies were in the stands nearby

Then before we knew it, half time was approaching and the band and the majorettes made there way to their positions and then onto the field.

And then the main event (at least from our perspective), Kayla's and the majorettes' routine

Then halftime was coming to a close and it was over all too quickly

We stayed a little longer after the half

Then we left and went back to our campground.  MTSU pulled it out in the last minute to win 35-34 over Florida Atlantic and became Bowl-Eligible so we may see them on TV in a few weeks.

It was great to see Kayla and her family and see her doing so well at MTSU in Murfreesboro.  She is working hard and getting good grades and I admire her for making the team and spending all those hours at practice to toss that baton!  And she works on campus in her spare time, so she is a busy young lady.  We're very proud of her and glad we got to see a snapshot of her and her college life.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are spending time with Pam's sister and brother-in-law in Maynardville, TN.  Though we miss our kids we are very glad to be with family and relatives at this time.  And looking forward to seeing our kids in a few weeks.

We'll have some time around the table and just hang out and watch football and maybe get in a game or two of Monopoly today.

And get going on the turkey for some good eating in the mid afternoon!

We are very grateful for this past year and to be able to be full-timing.  We can't think of anything we'd rather be doing at this time or our lives.  ...And we're thankful for all we have and have to share.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope your holiday is a great one.

HFH Rutherford County Tennessee

As full-timers we have a number of things we make it a point to see in our travels.  Aside from historical museums and National Parks we try to see State Capitols, Presidential Museums, different State Parks, Major League Baseball stadiums, beaches and Habitat for Humanity (HFH) affiliates.

Yes - whenever we are in a new community, we look for the local ReStore or Habitat for Humanity office.  Each affiliate has similarities with other HFH.  Since we were going to spend about a week in the Murfreesboro area, we stopped in to the Rutherford County HFH office.

We walked in and introduced ourselves to Megan who is the Volunteer Coordinator.  After a few minutes we also met Terri the Executive Director and Lamyai who does the Finances.  We shared our story and learned a lot about what they are doing in the local area.

We had a good time meeting them and before we went next door to check out the Restore

We found out they had some construction volunteer work going on in the area on Saturday, so we signed up to help and found our selves on site early Saturday.

As per normal, we formed up, took some pictures, and then gathered around while Jacob explained the work for the day.

They had three main things going on with plenty of volunteer help.  They were
Painting inside,

Cleaning up the yard of rocks and debris so they could make the cement forms for the driveway

And putting up vinyl siding.  In our 6+ years of volunteering with Habitat, I have never put up siding, so I was glad to do that and become familiar with the process.

Larry is a retired guy too that volunteers 2-3 days a week for Habitat.  He and I took the vinyl siding to the top of the window before Pam and I had to leave.  We just worked 1/2 day so we could get over to see Kayla and her family at the MTSU football game.  More on that later.

It was another good day at Habitat and we were glad to be a part of it on Saturday!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Roadrunner Camping in the Cold Weather

We are in very cold weather right now as are many of you.  Three nights ago the temperature got down to 14 degrees.  Right now in the early morning it is 23 degrees.  But the good news is that we are doing fine and are warm in the Roadrunner.

We are currently at Cedars of Lebanon State Park not far from Murfreesboro, TN.  We will be here until Sunday morning and go to Maynardville, TN for Thanksgiving.

But back to how we have handled the cold cold weather and some things we have done to get ready for it.  The issue is freezing weather.  We need to be prepared when it gets below 32 degrees.

Attitude
First thing we did we face the fact we are not going to be in Florida during the winter and get used to it.  We adjusted our mind and accepted it.  And we don't complain about the cold weather.  No one likes whiners and 200 million Americans are in very cold weather right now.  And so are we.

Heaters
One thing we did was to re-evalutate our heaters in the motor home:

• Gas/propane furnace heater.  We made sure we filled up the propane tank last week at the Holiday Trav-L-Park campground outside of Chattanooga.  
  
• Electric ceramic heaters.  We have two space ceramic heaters and put them is use during the day.  We have to monitor things so we don't have them both turned on plus the micro wave etc. We don't want to pop a circuit breaker.
• Space heater.  Not sure what to call this but it also is electric, just not a ceramic heater.
  

We felt we needed to get this Soleil heater heater at Lowe's.  We set  it a certain degree temperature during the night and have some confidence it would go on and off properly.

Water
A major concern is freezing water and broken water lines.  Its not something we want to deal with. To make sure that didn't happen we:

• Filled our water tank to 80+ percent.  The more water in the tank makes it easier to keep it from freezing.
• Reeled in the water hoses and drained the water.  We just keep the water pump turned on.  (Note:  if you are an earlier rise, you may want to fill the coffee pot the night before so you don't wake anyone up.)

• When the tank gets below 50 percent wind out the hose, hook it up and refill refill the clear water tank.  We wait until the middle of the day when it warms up.  It is going to get below freezing most every night, we again empty the hose, drain it and rewind it on the reel.
• We also hooked up two mechanics lights (50 watt) and placed them in the wet bay and keep them turned on all day.  That small amount of extra heat helps keep the pipes and tank from freezing.
  

Sewer Hose

• We don't have hook ups at our site at the State Park, but even if we did, we wouldn't bring out the sewer hose and hook it up when its freezing.  We keep it stowed. We will hook it up and use it to empty the tanks in a few days when we get ready to leave this campground.

Ceiling Fans/Skylights

• We have two ceiling fans that having an outside opening in the roof:  one in the living room and one in the bathroom.  In cold weather we 'plug' the holes with tight fitting foam cushion fillers that are made especially for that purpose.

• The skylight above the shower also gets plugged up with a similar tight fitting cushion.

Clothing

• Layers layers layers.  Inside we both wear an assortment of long sleeve tee shirts, sweat shirts, fleece sweat pants, wool socks etc.  If my neck is warm, I am usually fine, so I wear mock turtle necks or zip up my light fleece jacket.
• Afghans/comforters.  Always nice to have one laying around when we read or watch TV.
• Hats/gloves.  Need to pull out the gloves and baseball cap or stocking cap. Those $1 pair of knit gloves work great so I have a few pairs to those.  A scarf is a good idea too.

Curtains/Shades

• We got the day night and black out shades mainly for the direct sunlight on the windshield.  The currents we had at the time weren't cutting it.  But these two kinds of shades deflect the hot summer sunlight.  They also serve to block some of the cold air off the glass windows in the cold weather.  After the sun goes down, we pull the shades, even though it is not completely dark outside.  It does help keep some of the warm air inside.

Snow

• I really don't want to think about that too much, but in case that happens, we will need to keep our toppers over our slide outs cleaned off so they don't sag from the weight or melt and re-freeze.
• We also want to keep the heater/air conditioner units free from any snow as much as we can.  The main thing here is getting on top of the RV and being very careful so one doesn't slip and fall or worse..

How We Have Done So Far:

So far so good.  The gas furnace heater in the front worked great the first night but stopped mid morning the day after we got here.  We left it alone for a day and tried turning it on again when it wasn't so completely cold and it has worked fine ever since then.

No freezing pipes or clear water tank.  We find ourselves adjusting a little bit with a sweat shirt or a blanket if we are sitting around watching TV but we would be doing that at our old house too, even by the fire place.

That's about how it's going at the moment and really its not bad at all.  There are thousands and thousands of people living in mobile homes and RVs in the winter time, I've just never met them.  So I don't know exactly what they do to keep warm.

But this is what we are doing.  Hope you are enjoying your weather, wherever you are and are warm!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Mary Was Determined to Be Here

We were part of a team of 10 people who showed up for the Care-A-Vanner Build in Macon.  It was a good group and everyone got along well.  All were retired like us, all had RVs and the photo below shows us all set up at the Habitat For Humanity facility at their RV sites specially made for Care-A-Vanners.

Mary's RV is parked 3rd from the left next to us.

Mary is a retired firefighter from the Tallahassee area eand quite adventurous.  She had been reading about Habitat for Humanity and the RVers who travel to different places in their RVs (otherwise known as Care-A-Vanners). The thought of participating in a build interested her so she signed up to join us.

She was not concerned about the fact that she had never volunteered before with Habitat.  And she shouldn't be.  The whole volunteer concept with Habitat is for people with all levels of experience and ability.  From my perspective the main criteria is being willing to learn and able to get along with others.  That was certainly not a problem for Mary.  She is one of the most affable, friendly and personable people we've met.  And a firefighter!

But there was a small issue -- she had no RV!

But she did have a trailer with a ramp and a truck.  And she had the desire and determination and ingenuity and courage and resourcefulness to find a way to get here.

She built her own RV.

At first glance, I thought it was one of those Land Rover jeep with a camper on top jobs, without the jeep part.  The shade of paint and the matching tarp fooled me a little.

Upon closer inspection, I realized she had built it on the trailer frame.  Very ingenious.  I believe she said she had the wood she needed so she just built it with that.

She even has a couple of locking tool/storage compartments she mounted on each side.  And the frame rail across the top around the sides is the perfect support for the main body of the living area.

Then to top-it-off so to speak, she bought a very nice breathable but weatherproof  canvas coverin with grommets around the edges.  Bungee cords hold it securely in place.

Fascinating!  Who builds their own RV.  Mary.  Why--she decided she wanted to be here and found a way to make it happen.  It took he three weeks and she finished the project within budget.  (I'm not sure what it cost her overall, but the most expensive piece that she had to purchase was the tarp ~$60.)

Most other people would go out and buy a small trailer on credit and pay it off over the next ten years.  I like Mary's way better.  Its unique, shows her resourcefulness determination in joining us.  She really wanted to be here! 

Now for a tour of the inside.  With her permission, I took a few pictures of that also.

With the front door open you can see the platform bed, recliner, sofa on the left side.  There is storage underneath the platform.  It is hinged about 1/3 of the way on the platform so it becomes a lounge/recliner to do some reading etc.

Inside, you can see some shelving and windows on each side.

The frame from the outside comes through at a handy place so she can attach a clip on light.

Looking out from the front of the RV, her rear door has a latch from the inside, more shelves and easy access for an electrical cord.

We arrived on Saturday and the weather was pretty nice.  The temperatures were in high 60's for a few days then dropped into the 50's.  The nights started out being in the 40's but by the end of the first week, the temperature dropped into the 30's.

Mary had an electric blanket and an air mattress and was mostly warm.  But then when it got real cold she made other arrangements.  She built this in three weeks.  I can't wait until next year's model to see what upgrades she comes up with.

Mary also brought the campfire and we had some around the campfire sessions with her Weber pot bellied grill that also served as our campfire.

The HFH facility in Macon is awesome with showers, washer/dryers, full kitchen and a dump station for our use.  Her RV is perfect for the warm fall and spring weather, but without insulation and good heat -- it can be a challenge.

We were so impressed with her that she conceived, designed and built this and made the trip there to join us.  

She is one of the nicest and friendliest people we've met.  And determined. 

I have often said, "There is more than one way to do this".   And Mary proved that again.  It was fun meeting her and working with her and see her RV.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!