Friday, November 27, 2015

HEADLINE: THIS JUST IN— Unplanned Detour For Wayne & Sue

So long Cherokee, North Carolina, and hello Salem, Oregon! What’s that, you say? Let me explain...

Overall it’s been a great year plus a little in Cherokee, NC. 
  • We made some great friends along the way, met some really nice people, and saw more of God’s beautiful creation. 
  • The Great Smoky Mountain National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway are fabulous and, if you haven’t seen them, they should absolutely be on your bucket list.
  • We’ve loved seeing the elk herd in the area, the abundance of wild turkeys, the (extremely) occasional bear from afar and the variety of gorgeous birds that hasn’t been matched anywhere else we’ve traveled. 
  • The Cherokee Great Smokies KOA is a beautiful campground and we highly recommend it if you are looking for a place to camp in the area. It was a lot of fun for us but I have to say, this past summer, the work was pretty intense and the pace was insane! 
  • We also thoroughly enjoyed our several trips to Dollywood; we are going to miss that for sure.

     All of that said, the Lord has made it clear to us that it’s time to take a break from full time RVing. Family comes first, and we are going to move back to Oregon, to Salem specifically, to stay with Wayne’s mother. She was the reason we went to Portland in early 2014. We planned to stay in the area for a few years to be available to help her. When our jobs didn’t work out, we moved to Moab Utah and, when their season ended, then to our current jobs in North Carolina. We’ve learned a lot in the ensuing fifteen months since we were in Oregon, but now it’s time to go back. We will be putting our trailer in storage and staying with Mom at her house, in order to take care of her home, prepare nutritious meals, etc.—things she is having trouble doing.
     We will of course both need full time “real” jobs and have applied to several already. We are just praying that God will provide the best job for each of us where we can be content and successful.
Regardless of how long Wayne’s mother is with us, we would like to stay in Salem until Wayne turns sixty-six in April 2020. He will be able to get Social Security (we hope!) at that time, which will make this lifestyle much easier for us. Obviously if she is still around, we will delay our return to RVing for a while longer.
     This change is bittersweet for us as we have been so happy that our youngest son, Joe, and his family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio this summer—close enough for us to see somewhat regularly. We’ve been up to Cincinnati twice since then—once at the end of September and then just now for Thanksgiving.

We love them so much and are sad to leave with them so close by. However, this does put us back on the West Coast, closer to our other son and daughter and their families. Not as close as Cincinnati but not across the country either.
     Our plan is to leave in one week, on Friday, December 4th. It looks like the weather will be fairly good for our trip across the country. We'll take it slow, watching the weather as we go. If necessary, we'll stay in one place an extra day or two to give us the best chance of avoiding issues.

Change is part of life and we are certainly in the middle of it! Sigh~

Saturday, July 11, 2015

July in Cherokee, North Carolina

It’s been months since I updated this blog. Truth be told, I have just been too busy and too tired. Of course motivation played a part in the colder months as well. This area really isn’t too bad when it comes to winter weather though. It was still pretty nice when we arrived a few days before Halloween 2014. The cool/cold weather really set in for a short, extended stay toward the end of December, although we did have snow at Thanksgiving too. It was pretty chilly for January, February and into March, but by the end of March, the days were beginning to warm up. April was fairly warm, May was a bit more so and then in June we saw daytime temps mostly in the upper 70s and low 80s with a few warmer days sprinkled in. Nighttime temps are usually in the low 60s now, which is actually pretty nice. It’s definitely not too hot to sleep with the windows open and the fresh, cool air is conducive to a good night’s rest.

The campground really hit the busy time toward then end of June. The July 4th weekend was insane – truly! We were packed and it seemed that the crazies were everywhere. Most of the campers were well behaved and seemed to have a nice time, but then there were the others! Wayne and I both worked about fourteen hours on Saturday, the fourth. It never ceases to amaze us seeing the mess people will leave in a campground. It makes you wonder ...

I am enjoying my work as a bookkeeper again, although it is very different than the work I did for years at Cranbrook. Truthfully, I am not really doing bookkeeping in the true sense of the word. No journal entries, no preparation of financial statements. I can’t even print a general ledger. I can see the information in the G/L, such as it is. What I am doing is working with a ton of cash every day, making deposits, keeping the ATM machine stocked with twenties, collecting money from the laundry and vending machines and coding and paying the bills. Plus a bunch of other things too numerous to mention.  I’m very busy.

I can’t truthfully say that Wayne is enjoying his position as the housekeeping supervisor, but he is certainly doing a great job. The general manager is happy with him and his staff gets the job done with the fewest hiccups possible in the difficult system currently in place. We understand that when KOA rolls out their new software (hopefully later this year), things will change in how the software handles the cabins and sites when they are checked out and dirty. If what we hear is true, it will make a world of difference for the housekeeping department. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

Yesterday, our youngest son and his family left the Bay Area and began their move to Cincinnati, Ohio. Our daughter-in-law, Daunielle, was pursued by a theatre company in Cincinnati and accepted a position with them ... we are so proud of her! We know they are excited to embark on this new adventure but also sad to be leaving their friends and family in California behind. We are excited, as this move will bring them close enough to see on a somewhat regular basis. We haven’t seen any of our children or grandchildren in over a year and that is hard for both of us. North Carolina is a long ways from California! The only reasonable way to see our California clan while we are here is to fly and I must say, I am really dreading that. Breathe ... have courage ... breathe ...

We went to Dollywood on one of our days off again this week. It’s our favorite escape. We don’t ride very many of the rides, but the atmosphere is nice and we enjoy the shows. I managed to get Wayne on the tamest rollercoaster a couple of weeks ago ... he was brave but I'm not sure I can ever do that again! I loved it, although it did briefly mess with my balance a bit.


Well, I think that about wraps up my thoughts for now. Until next time, when ever that may be~

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Christmas Letter 2014


I would love to be able to mail Christmas cards and letters to everyone, but since that isn't practical, here is my annual Christmas letter, in case you didn't get one. By the way, you may get one yet. I am mailing them on Tuesday, January 20th! I know, I know … extremely late, but better late than never, right?

Sunday, January 4, 2015

Happy New Year, y'all, from Cherokee, North Carolina!

     We made it safe and sound to the Cherokee / Great Smokies KOA in North Carolina on October 29th as planned. It is so beautiful here. We were sad to leave Moab, Utah as the area is stunning but it is every bit as gorgeous here … just in a different way.
     We are doing well at the campground and both of us are working hard to wrap our minds around our new jobs … mine as bookkeeper and Wayne's as housekeeping supervisor. Since I was in bookkeeping/accounting for over twenty years, it might seem like it would be easy for me to adjust, and in some ways it has been. However, I have never dealt with the volume of cash that we have here and even that is nothing like it will be in the midst of the summer business. I just bought a handy dandy coin counter/wrapper on Ebay though that will make my life a whole lot easier.
     KOA sent Wayne to Virginia Beach KOA mid-December to get some training and ideas about how to function as the housekeeping supervisor. It was a successful trip and he is feeling much more confident. He has already implemented a couple of new processes and is working on several more to make his department run smoothly and efficiently.
     Most of the time up to this point, the temperatures have been in the upper forties to high fifties. However, just like the rest of the country, we are heading for some real cold in the next week. This coming Wednesday it isn't even supposed to make it to thirty degrees and is supposed to be close to zero overnight! This will be a good test of the insulation in our new fifth wheel for sure.
     We were able to go out for a Christmas lunch with the managers and a few coworkers on Christmas day. It wasn't nearly as nice as being with family but we did have a good time. We went to the Chef's Buffet at Harrah's Casino in Cherokee. We don't normally go to buffets because Sue doesn't eat enough to make it pay, but this was not your typical buffet. There were several serving areas, each with a different cuisine and it all was serious food … Peking duck included. It was very expensive for a buffet but at least the food was exceptional for that type of restaurant. We enjoyed it very much. Other than that, we had a nice, quiet Christmas and got to video chat with several grandkids!
     It's hard to believe we have entered a new year … again! We are hoping to be able to stay/work in one campground this year instead of four like 2014. That was a bit much and quite expensive to go from New Mexico to Oregon to Utah and finally to North Carolina. As much as we love to travel, we are both ready to put down some temporarily permanent roots for a while. The fact that our managers are awesome as is the campground makes this a very attractive option!
Of course the leaves are gone now but I just love this picture!

Thursday, October 23, 2014

Different house, different yard!

One of the favorite sayings of full-time RVers is "same house, different yard." It's a lot of fun to travel around to new areas but still literally have all the comforts of home.
Well, our home changed this time too. On Tuesday, we traded in our 2005 38' Keystone Montana fifth wheel for a 2015 35' Grand Design Solitude fifth wheel. Although it will take weeks to sort everything out and truly get settled, little by little that is happening. We are exhausted what with moving to a new trailer on top of traveling to our new job. That said, we love it!










The season is ending at Archview RV Resort near Moab, Utah, so we have moved on. We have accepted positions at the Cherokee/Great Smokies KOA in North Carolina. Lord willing, we will be there on Wednesday, October 29th. More about that later~

Saturday, September 20, 2014

What is ten miles north of Moab, Utah? We are!

It has been three months since I updated my blog. At that time we were in Fairview, Oregon. We loved Oregon—we wanted to stay in Oregon—it's beautiful and we have family there. However, two weeks after the last post, Wayne was back to being "just" a maintenance worker in the RV park in Oregon and four weeks after that, we left. For the sake of my sanity, I am not going to elaborate. Just suffice it to say that we are in Utah and much happier and more relaxed. Movin' on!

Life is busy as usual. Sue continues to copy edit and proofread and we are now working at the Archview RV Resort north of Moab, Utah and oh, what a gorgeous area. Who would have thought that the State of Utah had so much to offer. Until a couple of years ago when we visited Bryce and Zion National Parks in the southwest corner, my "vision" of Utah was strictly Salt Lake City and the surrounding area. We have since learned that Utah encompasses far more than SLC, just like the State of New York is far more than NYC. We arrived here on the eighth of August and at this point, plan on leaving November 1st, and there is no way we will see all this area has to offer within a day's drive. The beauty of the surrounding area is stunning…there is no other appropriate word.

We have already been to several beautiful spots. Here are some of the highlights for your viewing pleasure:
Wayne @ Spruce Tree House

Mesa Verde National Park
Spruce Tree House


Spruce Tree House


The Cliff Palace































Four Corners Monument




















Dead Horse Point State Park







Canyonlands National Park - Needles


























Colorado National Monument
Colorado National Monument



Arches National Park


The Spectacles













Canyonlands National Park - Islands in the Sky

















Monday, June 16, 2014

Life as we know it in Oregon~

It has been almost three months since I updated our blog. Life has been busy here in Oregon and truthfully, I just haven't had the time. On top of that, there just isn't much that is news worthy to report.

Things have settled down to a dull roar here at the RV Park. Wayne officially took over as the maintenance supervisor about three weeks ago. It took time to for him to learn the park well enough to step into the position for which he was hired. He works hard, and I mean hard, Monday through Friday and is pretty exhausted at the end of each day. By the end of the week, he is toast.

I am now working in the office full time, Monday through Friday. For the most part, I do what I have been doing at each place we have worked—I answer phones to make reservations as well as register guests when they arrive. However my duties expanded about a month ago to include the bookkeeping here at the park. I stumbled upon a serious embezzlement problem and when that employee was summarily fired, I took over those duties. Happy girl! One thing I don't have to do here that I had to do at every other campground is clean bathrooms. None of that at this RV park as there are specific people hired for janitorial. Happy girl again!

On top of all this, my publisher Lou has been keeping me busy with manuscripts to copyedit and proofread. I have had very little time for "fun" reading, although any reading is fun in my book (no pun intended). I work forty hours a week in the park office and the books, eating and sleeping take up most of the rest of my time. Of course we do take time to go to church on Sunday and I make sure to have at least a little down time but this is where life is right now and I'm not complaining. It's all pretty darn good. Naturally there are stressors at work, but there are few jobs out there that are free from stress. It sort of comes with the territory!

I'll end with a few pictures of some of the beauty here in Oregon: a hydrangea, a huge, dinner-plate size leaf from a tree and a rose blossom. All of the rain we get produces some gorgeous scenery. I love it!