Roadrunner Financials - November 2015

Roadrunner Recap
In November, we visited the following locations stretching from Virginia Beach VA to Pensacola FL:

• Oceana NAS Dam Neck Annex, Virginia Beach VA
• Fort Chiswell Campground, Max Meadows (Wytheville) VA
• Roadrunner RV Resort and Campground, Maynardville TN
• Oak Grove NAS Campground, Pensacola FL

We left Virginia Beach after Pam and Kelly's birthdays and had an overnight stay en route to Maynardville TN.  While in TN, we spent time with Joan and Mike other extended family.  On to Florida and the Pensacola beach where we were treated with warm weather and a chance to check in with Linda and Bill who live there.

Good News Areas We Are Under Budget

We had a good month with the budget and noted that costs for diesel fuel, campgrounds and Misc were well under budget.

Biggest Expenses
Our biggest expense for the month was the semi-annual car insurance payment.  

Large One Time Cost Item
Our largest one time item was buying meat at the local Harris Teeter Grocery store.  We had eaten at Jon and Kelly's a number of times.  Though we don't actually keep too close a tabs on how much they spent feeding us, we felt it was our turn to buy some groceries including a large piece ($161) of tenderloin that he subsequently cut into about 12 steaks.

Monthly Average

For the second month in a row, we were significantly below our goal of $4,100 per month.  The monthly average continues to decline after a tough RV maintenance bill in August.

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!

Roadrunner Rewind: Seven Thanksgivings on the Road

It gets to be a challenge remembering where we were for the last 6+ years on the road.  We get some of the years right --- but others don't seem to match up and we get confused...

Anyone else have that problem?  

I decided it might be fun to highlight where we have been for each Thanksgiving since 2009:

2009
Our first Thanksgiving on the road we were with Brad and Sue in Fort Worth, TX.  We stayed at Benbrook Lake at the Army Corps Of Engineers campground nearby. Six months into our new lifestyle and we were loving it.  We were told we'd probably want to see everything the first year and it seems as if we were trying to do just that.

We had been as far west as Santa Fe, down to Mexico border at Nuevo Progresso, up north to Canada and the Bruce Peninsula and Lake Huron and back to Texas for Thanksgiving.

2010
Our second Thanksgiving on the road found us back in Fairfax VA.  We were able to spend time with good friends Jeff and Tiffany.  Adam was back in D.C. from India where he had volunteered for 3 months and  Kelly had landed a new job in the Virginia Beach area.

Jeff and Tiffany were very generous to include our family in theirs along with his brother and wife and son for a big Thanksgiving meal.

We left the Roadrunner in Virginia Beach at the Sea Mist RV Campground and drove up to Jeff and Tiffany's place and stayed with them.

2011
We were back in Virginia Beach for Thanksgiving. We were able to spend it with Adam and Kelly and her friends.  Adam drove down from DC and Kelly was living in the area.

We actually cooked Adam's vegan and took it over to have the Thanksgiving meal with a bunch of Kelly's friends who were all getting together and were nice enough to include us.

2012
This was an unusual Thanksgiving for us.  We were not near family and didn't want to join some of the people who we barely knew with their families.  So we ate turkey TV dinners after leaving our

our Habitat for Humanity Build in Bowling Green FL.  We decided to head toward the Everglades and didn't even take a picture of the meal.  Our first stop in that direction was at the Big Cypress National Preserve.

2013
We were out on the West Coast that year near San Diego.  We got to spend time with nephew Rob and niece Chris.  Marty and Elena were there was were Matt, Sierra, her parents, Elena (Chris' mom) and her sister.  It was a big crowd and lots of fun.

We also got to share a Thanksgiving weekend meal with cousin Kevin and wife Sue which was a real treat.

Two their four boys were home and it was nice to hangout with them and watch the Detroit Lions on TV.

2014
We were in the area after spending some time in Nashville and Murfreesboro and spent Thanksgiving with Mike and Joan.  I did not take any pictures of that event but had a blog post here. 

We stayed on site at their place where we have an RV pad.

2015

One happy bunch here... Don't know why I didn't stay with it to get a photo of everyone smiling and enjoying themselves?

We had already eaten most of our meal and Joey and Angela came by to say hi which was nice.  More on our time there here.

So there is my recap of the places we've enjoyed Thanksgiving as full-time RVers.  Seems like the majority have been in Virginia Beach with Maynardville, TN a close second.

Wonder where we will be next year?

Thanks again for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  As always, we love reading your comments so feel free to leave some...

Roadrunner Wrapup - Maynardville Nov 2015

We left the Roadrunner RV Resort and Campground about 7:30 yesterday morning after a 10 day stay.  It's always great to hang out with Joan and Mike and to see everybody.

The two things that really standout in my mind on this visit are Joan's health and a near miss with the tree we chopped down.  I already mentioned the tree in my last post.

Joan's health though I don't think I have mentioned very much.  She hasn't felt this good or gotten around this good in years!  It was really quite startling to see her get around fine and more like her 'old self'.

I think it was about five years ago she had back surgery to relieve chronic sciatic nerve pain.  It worked for a while but a second surgery was needed six months later.  That did not work and she suffered through years of extreme pain and questionable medication.  Then in August she got up from the sofa was dizzy and fell, breaking her wrist.

After surgery and staying at the hospital overnight, her nurses found out her pain medicine and blood pressure medicine were at odds and should not be taken together.  They got rid of her heavy hitting pain meds and replaced it with Motrin.  Her life changed in an unbelievable way! She is a completely different person.  After a few weeks of the new regimen she is in better health than she has been in the last 10 years!

That is the biggest memory I will carry is how she looks and feels and her quality of life has returned. This is big!

Other memories we tucked away while there were visiting with long time neighbor Helen (and granddaughter Emma.) And grand niece Kayla returned from her studies at Middle Tennessee for Thanksgiving.

I also got to spend time with nephew Joey while playing some golf with him and some of his friends.

We were able to go out to Joan and Pam's dad's place and spend some time with him.

While we were out we made the usual runs to Walmart, Hammer's, Lowes, Dollar Tree etc.  Not to early to get some stocking stuffers.

Before we even got to Joan and Mikes, Pam made it her mission to cook and leave some food behind.  With Joan's broken hand, she has not done much cooking.  And Joan and Mike love Pam's cooking (who doesn't?) and she gladly cooked.  She not only made most of the meals each evening but made extra let at least six casseroles in the freezer for Joan and Mike.

One afternoon I painted the front bathroom.

We found a way to schedule in a couple of games of Monopoly with nephew-in-law Jeremy and his son Noah who played with us.

Over the years we've had some memorable and fun times around the Monopoly board and the evening we played was long overdue.

Mike and I took a drive up to the Kentucky border to see how far along the new bridge near Tazewell.  I always look forward to our back road trips through neighboring counties.  It has been quite interesting to drive around through the hollers and hills.

Pam and I also spent a lot of time on Brooks' stocking.  Kelly gave Pam a stocking sew kit that is one of the most intricate I've seen.  It has taken hours and hours and is almost done.

Pam does all the heavy lifting on that one and I get to thread the needles.  Hopefully it will be a labor of love from his grandmother that he enjoys over the years.

Of course there was the Thanksgiving Day meal at Mike and Joan's.

Pam and Joan and Michelle did all the cooking and we had a feast.  It was good to see Joey and girlfriend Angela, neighbor Willow and Michelle, Jeremy, Kayla, Noah.  It was a great group and we enjoyed hanging out a little bit.

And another afternoon Pam and I drove over to a new Vineyard at Willow Springs which is a couple of miles away.

Over the last 15 years we have watched this property and the surrounding acres get cleared and crops planted.  The owner has cows and a huge garden and a couple of years ago planted a small vineyard.  Then this building went up that serves as a store and office and wine processing plant.  Very interesting and quaint place.

It was another great stay at Joan and Mikes and great to spend Thanksgiving with them.

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles.

Cutting Down the Tree in Maynardville

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been a little nippy here in Maynardville TN at the Roadrunner RV Resort, but otherwise very nice weather.

Some evenings have been spectacular -- especially the sunsets.

While here we have been lining up a couple of projects.  The first one was to cut down the big dead locust tree near Joan and Mike's driveway.  I thought I took some pictures for the 'before' and 'after' shots but apparently I did not.

 This was not the tree but a similar one nearby that also needs to come down.

Probably best that I did not take a lot of photos.  It was a little scary because we didn't really know what we were doing.  We were very lucky the tree fell in an open area and had no problems.  Turns out I had one idea and Mike had another and we didn't realize we were not together until a significant 'notch' had been cut out.  At that point we were committed.  We had a rope on the tree tied to his Kubota tractor and were able to 'help' it along and it fell between things.  One of those 'near misses' in many ways.

Here is a photo of the tree after it had mostly been cut up.  We had not yet cut the stump down to ground level.

That little chainsaw really was awesome.

 Once the tree was down, Mike cut it up into small sections and we loaded it all onto his trailer.

Next, we took the trailer around back and unloaded the small branches to burn.

 Once that was done, we got the trailer ready to take the wood across town.

 The Union County Humane Society burns wood to heat their facility so, we took it over there for their use.

 After we unloaded it, Mike filled out some paperwork in the office and their Recipe Book caught his attention...

It took us a few hours to cut down the tree, hack it up, burn the small branches and then deliver the logs over at the Humane Society but it was time well spent.

We are very thankful it turned out OK and will log it up to Lessons Learned and be more careful and safe next time.

Thanks for joining us on the Roadrunner Chronicles!
And hope you and yours have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Brooks Update

Little grandson Brooks is doing great and just turned 9 months old.  Thought it was about time to share some thoughts about him and some pictures.

He's an amazing little guy and has won our hearts quickly.  We are thoroughly enjoying our time as grandparents and love being able to spend some large amounts of time with him.

Back in February, we were there in the hospital when he arrived.

In fact, we parked the Roadrunner in Virginia Beach there in Dec and stayed until the first part of April.  We got to spend time with the expectant mother and father and help out once he arrived.

Wow - He's a game changer!  Over the years it has been fun watching our friends turn into grandparents.  It has been a time of growth and lots of fun.  I remember 'older people' changing into grandparents and 'catch it'.  You know -- talk lots and lots about him, go shopping for him, coddle and hold him, change the diapers, go for walks, talk with him, etc etc.

Over time we had forgotten what it was like to be around the little ones.  Often times it is a mystery exactly what he needs/wants and how to make him comfortable or quit crying.  And it is a lot of hard work.  --- All the obvious things you'd expect to hear.

On top of that - it is pure JOY being a grandparent.

The wonder of this little creature and he grows and changes.  I think he is on a 3 day growth cycle.  I stare and him and swear he has changed right before my eyes in the last 3 days.  And it happens again and again.  What a WONDER.

It strikes me how universal this idea of a grandchild is.  No matter where you live (assuming the basics are taken care of) it doesn't matter about titles or socio/economic status -- these babies bring JOY!

In the early days of Brooks arrival, we got to spend time over at his place but he slept a lot. We went with Kelly on walks around the neighborhood and held him and enjoyed that stage during his first six weeks.

We left him in April and saw him again in August.

From 6 weeks to 6 months is huge! Despite seeing him on FaceTime now and then, we were surprised how much he had changed.

He was learning to crawl in August and now is almost walking.  He has the bumps and bruises to show for his efforts.  And he eats well.  Don't think I have ever seen one that loves to eat like him.  He doesn't care for the diaper change because he sometime has diaper rash.

I think it is from all the different kinds of food he is eating these days.  Here he is working on the finger food.  After he chows down on the spoon fed stuff he loves to feed himself.

Right now he is the friendliest little guy I've seen.  He doesn't cling, is fine around people and has a knack for music.  It is awesome to watch him be mesmerized by Rockabye Lullabies on Pandora.

He has his own pan and wooden spoon that he keeps the beat with.  And he has a little piano he bangs away on.

But mostly he stands by the padded coffee table in front of the TV watching and listening to Pandora as he jumps and down to the beat of the music.  He holds on with one had and raises the other when he's really cooking...  too cute!

He also likes his jumping seat.  It has a few things for him to grab and play with but mostly he gets to jump up and down.

 Here he is in the garage helping mom get the laundry done.

And he still likes to go on walks.  Here he and I had a long walk around the block a few times.  He was supposed to go down for his late afternoon nap but decided against it.

 So I opted to take him out and get some exercise and finally he nodded off for about 30 minutes.

A big highlight of the day for him is when daddy comes home from work and he gets to hang out some before dinner.

One of his favorite toys is his little car that grandma is pushing.  He really feels like a big boy when he gets on this thing.

I could show you about 900 more pictures, but will close for now.  Brooks is one amazing little guy and it is a JOY to be around him.

This is a family shot of Jon and Kelly and Brooks in a hammock while on a weekend trip to the Shenandoahs recently.  Nice family.  We LOVE them!

Thanks for joining us today on the Roadrunner Chronicles!