Getting Fixed Up

Pam and I have been a little bit overdue on physicals and those periodic medical appointments.  One of the specific things we decided a few months ago was that we were going to get caught up and 'fixed up' if necessary on our medical and dental needs.

Six months ago we made appointments for when we expected to be here in Virginia Beach.  And we have systematically checked them off.

• Pam got a mammogram done and then a few days later had a follow up.  We did a different test and they took another look and now issues - everything is as it should be.

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• Next were our physicals - both were scheduled the same day and again we both are healthy 61 year olds.  

• We have missed our dental exam last year and it was time for cleaning and a check on cavities. I am always at a disadvantage when I get my teeth checked.  Pam is diligent, regular and thorough at cleaning and flossing.  It's hard to fake it when your mouth is open and the dentist asks, "Do you floss?".  Well no, not much and it showed.  He said I should do it and that failure to do so causes heart disease...What??... I had no idea and am not sure he is right, but really, I need to step it up and get with the program.  Too many of my friends at my age are losing their teeth.  Enough said - better dental hygiene is underway...
• Next stop was everyone's favorite -- a colonoscopy.  First Pam's then mine.  It was 10 years since her last and 11 years for mine.  We picked up the prep stuff and she soldiered through it with no problems.  They put her under so to speak, but she was talking a bit and semi with it during the whole procedure though she could feel no pain.  I like the way Sentara  has their system set up.  We have Tricare military healthcare were in and out in about 3 hours.  No issues.  Everything looks good. After being on a liquid diet for 24 hours, we celebrated with lunch at Chick-Fil-A.
• I didn't want to miss the fun, so a few days later it was my turn.  The challenge is the prep for the procedure.  How in the world am I going to get down 17 gallons of that stuff?? OK it might have only been one gallon.

•  I drank half the night before my appointment.  The good news is the anti nausea pill that we had in order to get the 'oral solution' down.  No doubt about it, its a challenge.  They say to get it down as fast as you can.  So I did and 6:23 minutes later I got it done.
• I had a 7:30 AM appointment so I was up at 3:30 AM for my pill and then again at 4:30 AM to drink the rest of it.  I almost got it all down. Then over to the appointment and into the procedure room at the hospital.  The last thing I remember the doctor saying was, "I am going to give you some magic juice".  Then the nurses were saying, "Wake up, we're all done." The doctor said, "Do you have any questions for me?"  I thought like---Who am I?, Where am I, etc etc...?
• Good news no issues.  They removed 3 benign polyps. Come back again for this fun in 5 years... To celebrate, we went over to Waffle House.  Bubba Watson, the pro golfer who has won 2 Masters Championships - went to one after he won this year.  

• I thought I'd try it out.  I haven't been to one in 40 years. Ugh - there's a reason I haven't been there in so long... It  got the job done.  I had a cheese omelet which was fine but

So much for our checkups and exams -- probably more than you wanted to know but its a major item on our 'To Do' list while here in Virginia Beach.  We are in good shape and nothing to worry about.  This lifestyle suits us.  Just need to keep up the exercise (and flossing) and eating more of Pam's great food and we should be OK.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Until next time...

Habitat for Kelly and Jon

We are glad to do some projects on Jon and Kelly's house.  They were ready for us and had a few lined up.  One thing we did the first few days we got there was weed a small portion of their back yard and transplant some cuttings we picked up from Joan and Mike's in Tennessee.

We will see how they do.

Another one was to shorten the end of the workbench in the garage that we built last year while we here.  The clothes drying  hanger rack now can accommodate dresses with out sitting on top of the bench.

When shirts and dresses hang there, it hides the TV.  But they only use the TV when they workout in the garage.  That one took about 30 minutes to do.

Then I needed to remove the second shelf on the bottom of the shoe rack/shelf we built last year.

That way boots can fit onto the shelf.  That was about a 10 minute deal.

Along the way Jon borrowed a high pressure wash and we did the house around all the windows and soffit and fascia.  It was a pretty easy job and really cleaned up the windows.

The soffit and fascia and gutters will have to be painted.  But there is some work to do before we can tackle that job.

While he was at it, he cleaned the shed with the vinyl siding.

Pam has been making shelves for the back closet.  She is putting them down each side and above the main coat rack and shelf.

Kelly wanted the washer and dryer raised up on a platform of sorts.  So we built a couple of 'boxes' with some wood they had left over from the deck.

We cut the platform to fit the width and depth of each ones, then put them in place to make sure they fit.  We used OSB board to cover the top of each 'box' so the when the washer and dryer were working their hardest, they would not slide off the platform.

Then we painted them and put them in place.

I think we are just getting started on our projects.  We have more to do, but we are enjoying it!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Toad Brake Light Repair

We hope you and yours are able to have an enjoyable 4th of July weekend!

Looks like we may have a bit of a storm in the area, but after that blows over, we are expecting some pretty good weather.

We are in Virginia Beach where we have been for almost two weeks.  We've been busy and gotten a lot of things done.

One of the items on our list has been to get our car tail lights fixed so they operate when we tow it behind the Roadrunner.  When we were getting ready to pull out of our last campsite at Charlottesville KOA before coming here, we had a failure on the brake lights test.  Not much we could do about it then, so we drove up here.

Yesterday we stopped by the Honda dealer and had them look at it.  Ugh.  When we had the CRV initially wired for towing, they wired a second light in one of the receptacles in each brake light unit.  The bulbs were too close together and shorted out after melting some of the plastic inside the unit.  Melted light bulbs, melted plastic, shorted wires---a recipe for disaster!

If you look real close in the middle you can see the melted plastic and bulbs.

We were glad we caught it before anything bad happened.  The Honda mechanics said the brake light unit had to be replaced on each side which was no surprise.  $654.55 later and we had two new units ordered.

Then we went over to Tidewater Auto Electric.  They estimated it would be a $250 job to get us fixed up.  We picked up the brake units this morning from the Honda dealer and went over to the Auto Electric shop.  Their technician took a closer look and said we could get LED lights for the two bulbs on each side for replacements and probably could do the work ourselves.

Good enough.  We went over to Auto Zone, paid $42.91 for four LED bulbs and went to work at Kelly and Jon's.

We took the new units out of the boxes and held it up to the old unit.

Next we carefully measured for the additional light in the new unit.

Then cut a hold, carefully put the bulbs in the sockets and then secured the new brake light unit on each side.

The install took less than half and hour and we were glad we could do it ourselves. Figured we saved $250.  It was still a pretty stiff bill to pay for a faulty original install but all things considered we were glad to get it fixed and be done with it.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  And have a happy and safe 4th!

Roadrunner Financials - June 2014

Roadrunner Recap
We began the month getting some work done at Red Bay, then we drove to Memphis to see the St. Jude PGA golf tournament.  Next, we spent time at our spot - Roadrunner RV Campground and Resort in Maynardville TN to see Mike and Joan.  Next we drove on to Charlettesville to see a couple of historical items - Appomattox NP and the presidential homes of Woodrow Wilson, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson.  We ended up the month in Virginia Beach not far from Kelly and Jon's.

• Camp Allegro - Red Bay, AL
• AgriCenter RV Park - Memphis, TN
• Roadrunner Campground and Resort (Joan and Mike's) - Maynardville, TN
• Charlettesville KOA - Charlettesville, VA
• Little Creek Campground (JEB Little Creek) - Virginia Beach, VA

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

During June, we were under budget in many areas including:

• Diesel gas
• Internet use
• Computer accessories
• Cell phones
• Groceries
• Mail
• Misc, and 
• Household items

Because we were over $1200 above the budget after the end of the last 12 months, I adjusted the budget by increasing it $100.

On the other hand, we overspent again on:

• Diesel fuel
• Cell phones
• Groceries, and
• Household items.

(I have often said 'Budget' is a term I use very very loosely.  It in fact is more a record of spending...

Biggest Expenses
The biggest expenses this month were:

• Diesel fuel
• Miscellaneous

I bought a laser golf range finder and also bought a Canon camera which accounted for most of the overage and were among our biggest expenses.

Large One Time Cost Item
The largest one time cost this month we was our Mail Service.  We paid the entire yearly rate $178.08 all at once.  For the rest of the year, we only have to pay postage to get our mail forwarded to us.

Monthly Average

Since our 'fiscal year' begins in June, we don't have any comparisons or an average for the beginning of our sixth year of full timing.  Hopefully the expenses and spending will go down in the coming months though.

As always, if you think this spreadsheet might be useful I'd be glad to pass it along at no cost.  Just let me know.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

Monticello Again

We planned on seeing both James Monroe's Ashlawn and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.

Both were excellent with Monticello being more so.  I think we saw Monticello a couple of times in the 1990's, once on our own and once when my architect brother Brad and his family visited from Texas.

The house and estate at Monticello are the same, but the tourist part of the attraction has changed considerably.

There is now a much larger Visitor's Center, museum, gift shop and cafe near the upgraded and expanded parking lot.

We bought our tickets and had time to catch the introductory video in the theater.  Then we looked around before we boarded the shuttle up to the main attraction.

After the short ride to the top of the hill, we were met by a number of guides who marshaled us under a large shade tree.  Our docent met us there and started her presentation.

She was quite impressive in her knowledge about the history and hundreds of details about the house.

The weathervane on top of the house was connected to the inside of the portico and Jefferson could see the direction of the wind from inside the house in the Entrance Hall, North and South Square Rooms.
The bench on the porch in the background were his design also.

My impression of Monticello is that it was quite a masterpiece.  Jefferson seemed to be a huge mind that was always looking for ways to bring knowledge and culture to the common man.  His home is a museum of invention and laboratory of practical conveniences.  He was a proponent of detail.

It made my head spin at every turn.  The sun dial on the ceiling of the porch.  The block work around the door which were made to look like stone.  Each area and room of the house was a tribute to his thinking.  Although it was an eclectic collection of structure and purpose -- it was very beautiful and fit together.

Sometimes architect's works make you scratch your head and 'form over function' doesn't fit with my brain.  You either like the art form or you don't.  Here -- each room we moved through was a bit of a stunner.  If there were 10 items to show and discuss, it would have been impressive.  But there seemed to be hundreds of details and artifacts in each room we saw.  It was almost too much to absorb.
A few facts:
- The house is over 11,000 sq ft of living space
- It has 3 skylights
- There are over 43 rooms
- The highest room (Entrance Hall) is 18'6"

Part of the impact of the tour was the enthusiasm and command of the facts that the docent displayed.  She brought a level of excitement and knowledge that was noteworthy.  She enjoyed going through each room and was very well versed on lots more information and detail than we had time for.

The tour moved like clock work. Every few minutes our group would slide into another hallway or room just as another group was making there way out of the room and on to the next.  It was very well choreographed and though there might have been 100 people in the house at the some time, all the groups moved through quietly and efficiently.

Again, no pictures were allowed inside but I found these and more online @www.monticello.org

Entrance Hall

The hall was filled with artifacts of the American West and Indian lore, maps of what the world looked like at that time and hundreds of other items.

South Square Room

This was the family hub of the house and where Martha Jefferson spent much of her day.

Library Room/Book Room

Jefferson had over 7000 volumes in his collection.  After the British burned down Washington D. C. in the War of 1812, he donated much of his library to what became the Library of Congress.

Jefferson's Cabinet

This was his office and place for reading, writing, calculating, drafting and scientific observation.

Bed Chamber

He used space well in his home and his bed was tucked away between rooms.  The area above his bed was accessed by a staircase to a closet.  Nearby holes in the wall and ceiling were for ventilation and a skylight.

Dining Room

Parlor

Here is where he had over 50 paintings of people he admired and used for historical conversation.  Included among them were Isaac Newton, Christopher Columbus, John Locke, Ferdinand Magellan,  La Fayette, James Madison, George Washington and John Adams.

The tour ended outside on the North Terrace.

And we walked around the beautiful grounds and gardens.

And we found an archaeological dig going on where the joinery used to stand.

Next, we walked down the cemetery

And then we walked back to the museum area and parking lot.

While at Monticello, we met a friendly couple and spoke with them for a few minutes before we left.

Mark and Dreama 

It was a great day at Monticello!  We enjoyed it thoroughly and could go back again anytime.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!

James Monroe's Ashlawn

Sometimes I take some pictures and think about a blog post I want to do.  And then days and or weeks go by and I still want to capture some thoughts and post it in my blog.

This is one of those -- a post about our visit to Highland (also known as Ashlawn) - the farm and home of our fifth U. S. President James Monroe.

We bought a combo ticket meaning we bought tickets for a tour of Ashlawn and also tickets for Monticello which is a few miles away.  Once we had the tickets we waited for our tour time and had a few minutes to wander around some of the buildings on the property.

On the grounds behind the main home I saw a tour group learning about the finer details of bricks and brick making and the history of such.  The docent indicated he and a fellow guide had researched a found hundreds of different styles of bricks and brick patterns on homes dating back to the early 1800's.
Next, we wandered over to a group of buildings.  Some were visitor's quarters.

Others were slave quarters that were a lot more sparse.

In the mid 1990's we visited this place.  I left with the impression that James Monroe's property was very very modest compared to Thomas Jefferson's.  But I don't think we ever got in to see the house.  My impression of Monroe's house was actually the slave or guest quarters out back.

This is another reason Pam and I will have to stay on the road another 20 years.  We will have to retrace our steps and see if we have the story right.  Each time we visit a place for the second or third time we get some impressions corrected in addition to learning new things.

We also had time to check out the peacock and chickens on site.

After about 25 minutes, it was time for our group to get a tour of the home.  

We had a very knowledgeable and friendly guide.  We began the tour in the old section of the house before exiting through the new section and Victorian-style addition to it which was added in the 1880's.

No pictures were allowed inside the house.  And I could not even find some internet photos of the inside to show.  But here are some takeaways I had:

• Monroe was public servant for a long time - 40+ years
• He was wounded in the Revolutionary War, Ambassador to France, served at one time as both Secretary of War and Secretary of State, twice elected President
• He was heavily in debt after he left the Presidency and sold the farm
• He was responsible for the Monroe Doctrine which I remember from school (the U.S. policy that we support Latin American independence and freedom from outside colonization)

I love U. S. history and learned more about our Presidents after our time here.  It was mid day and time for another favorite past time:  a picnic lunch under a good shade tree.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!