Retired and Happy (Ken)

Our son had never eaten a sandwich before trying a PB&J his older sister brought for her kids.  Now he eats them almost every day, and we always carry plenty of jars of the mix when we travel.

You got a special recipe for the beef tips and rice?

Is there no end to the smilies you guys find and post?  KUMBAYAH!  :rofl2:

Dang!  I'm getting hungry just reading this thread, and it's not even lunch time.  I gotta see what's in the freezer for supper.  I like the L&P, but I gotta have it gray throughout.  FIRE UP THE GRILL!  (but it's propane)

Spaghetti and meat sauce, or home made vegetable-beef soup in the crock pot,. or grilled burgers or steak and a baked potato.  We used to get salads from TE, but they stopped that last year.  Sauerkraut with country cut pork ribs in the crock pot.  I guess we eat out more if it's just us, but cook in more if we have guests.  TE pizza  or  Meadows Southern Smothered.

We have a 12 ' cargo trailer and cannot move it loaded.  After we empty the GC and Christmas decorations at the Fort, we can push it to the back of a premium site.  I have a two wheel dolly that helps if it gets off concrete, but I want to add a ball to my GC.  I hadn't thought about my lawn tractor...  But I'd hate to try anything bigger without motorized help.

Has anyone camped at the Dauphin Island Campground near the Bird Sanctuary?  I've read mixed reviews of a pleasant family surrounding to fear of a choke hold on the playground, and watch for alligators in the nearby Sanctuary.

I can't resist a political comment...probably out of place....Add Wisconsin and invite all the area Democrat Senators.  :parrot: :banana:  Sort of a Meet and greet and Hide Out?

Am I confused or just slow?  If I have GoogleEarth on my desktop and access the .kmz file, is there anything else I need to access?  I tried to access Site Data, but it said I needed Adobe Flash.  When I installed that, it still said it was not installed.

Our travel consists of a couple of trips to the Fort and a couple of family-visit trips.  None of those can be sacrificed, but maybe a family visit will be in the van instead of the MH.  But then we have to contend with moving everything we need into and out of the trailer, house, etc.  I'd rather use the MH and cut corners elsewhere.  I can wait 'til April to eat again.

Don't forget the Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets.  They are also available in an allergy free variety, if needed.  Either is a LOT easier than lugging boxes or bottles of laundry products, and a lot cheaper than buying the little boxes out of the machines.  And there is a closer WalMart than Turkey Lake...just down 535.  And the other way off 535 the closest store is a Winn Dixie.

I hold my breath on every launch.  We have been very fortunate not to have had more space disasters, or maybe some we had could have been avoided if more precautions had been taken.  I don't know.  I just pray that as we come to rely on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft for the foreseeable future, that their program is as reliable as ours has been.  I hope the politicians don't make this a budget saver, saying we can just use theirs and not build our own.

In the post-launch news conference one panel member said there would be two more launches.  I thought there would just be one more.  Maybe he slipped when he said two, or maybe he let out info not intended for the public.

Anyone seeing the shuttle launch in a couple of hours?  Pictures?

I don't know if some of you have seen ours, but we have a chair lift on our MH.  It is basically a screw gear in a tube mounted to the sidewall next to the door, with a double hinged bracket that supports a chair (with seat belts).  It is powered by a 12 vdc motor mounted at the top of the tube and direct-wired to the battery below the step.  The chair swings into the coach so the user can step or be helped to the floor level without having to climb any steps.  It came complete except for the lower mount which must be locally fabricated to fit an individual RV, welded or bolted to the frame.  The bracket at the top of the tube is bolted through the sidewall, in our case just above the sink, next to the door.

Our chair is capable of lifting 400 pounds, although I hope none of us tests it to that extent.  It has become invaluable for lifting our "little ones" as their sizes and weights (and our ages) have increased and our lifting powers have decreased.  It could be a valuable aid for a disabled traveler or travel partner.  During travel, the chair and hinged bracket are removed, with only the tube and motor left in place.  The unit, except for the fabricated lower bracket, can be moved to a replacement RV when the time comes.  It has been a great investment for us.

Hey Doug (datgrt@fw),  I love the Blue Roof Inn.  What did you do to accommadate the air conditioner..just cut a hole, or is it fitted somehow to avoid trapping rain water under the blue roof?

Hey Tim.  Welcome to the quirkiest board around.  Intelligent, but quirky.  Look around, ask questions, post about your rig, your family, your camping, pictures, comment about other posts, etc.  Have fun.

Driving my gear from home in my truck would take about a full day, and about $600 in gas.  It would definitely be cheaper and quicker to fly, but don't know if it would cost so much in shipping charges to make this prohibitive.  I may just give up and "camp" at Pop again. (Love camping, would rather camp than stay at Pop, btw).

Where is home?

And what kind of truck do you have that would burn $600 in a day?  Even for a round trip, at $3 per gallon, we use less than that in our MH that only gets 5-5 1/2 mpg.  I don't know where you are coming from, but we are about one day away from the Fort and easily get there and back for less than $600.  And we don't have to contend with invasive TSA.  :bday:  I can't speak for sure about shipping costs, but for the amount of stuff you want to send, I'm betting you could drive it cheaper and have your vehice available for your use.

In most loops there are five washers and six dryers.  There are change machines, laundry product dispensers and a Coke machine, all for a price.  We use the Purex 3-in-1 sheets too.  500 does not have parking in front, but some people slip in from the rear off the main drag.  Most machines work regularly, but some folks don't clean the dryer lint screen, so be sure and check before you dry and clean when you finish.  Someone will silently thank you.

Just curious.  I wonder how the percentages in the survey above compares to the percentages of campsites/cabins available at the Fort.  For instance: are cabins 16% of the spaces the Fort has built?  Surely some of you long time loopers know how many of each type there are. 

Hey TJ,  I was responding to Just Beachy about why FW is so restrictive on fire regs.  I like your idea to modify the mesh top fire pits.  I wonder if a metal trash can lit would work...  Or do they even still make metal trash cans...  So much to ponder.  I think I will go to bed.

We have recently re-acquired a Jazzy power chair which we are rehabbing (batteries and maybe the charger) and hope to interest our Shawnee in driving.  It sure would be easier to only push two wheelchairs.  I post this here because Shawnee is adult size.  Heck, I may use it myself...

We've taken our family to Dollywood many times and usually have annual passes.  it is only partially wheelchair friendly.  It is MUCH hillier than is WDW, so "friendly" depends on your strength on hills.  To be fair, there are level or near level areas, but from area to area, there are usually hills.  Since our kids don't ride the rides, I can't speak to accessibility for rides.  But we all enjoy the place, the shows, food, exhibits, outdoor concerts.  Our grandkids enjoy most of the rides, including the kiddie area.  It usually seems to be cooler there in the mountains, and the usual summer rains.  There is much to do outside of Dollywood in the Sieverville to Cherokee corridor and over toward Maggie Valley....lots of touristy stuff...shows, go carts, helicotper rides, the Park, the Indian exhibits and performance, Santa Land, Ghost Town...I could go on and on.  Try it, you'll like it.

There is great fear of fire in such a close camping scene.  There is also a lot of vegetation surrounding each site that could be subject to sparks in the dry seasons, so they don't take any chances.  I favor the restrictions for safety sake.  There are also a lot of idiots, er..., uninformed campers that might not be as careful as a seasoned camper as ourselves would be.

Does D&K do windshield rock repairs too?