This & That & Mail Service

Almost empty campground

Almost empty campground

The campground is almost empty today.  I guess that all the sane people are home preparing for Christmas.

Today is in the mid sixties with bright sunshine.  Perfect for a long walk without getting overheated.  And nights are chilly–perfect sleeping weather.

Some of you have asked me to review my St. Brendan’s Isle mail service.

We are very happy with it.  The way it works is you fill out a form from the post office — or St. Brendan’s will send you one.  You have that notarized and send it (along with photocopies of ID) to St. Brendans.  You provide a credit card that they will draw $100.00 on to use for the monthly fee and for postage when they send you your mail.  When that $100 is exhausted, they will take out another $100, and so on.

Simply beautiful

Simply beautiful

If you don’t need that address for driver’s licenses and so forth, you can deactivate the account when you are not traveling.  Then you can re-activate it when you need their services again.

When they receive your mail, they will scan each envelope and send you an email telling you that you have mail.  You can view the envelopes online and select scan, hold, send or shred options.  I have them scan things that are time sensitive so I can read them online.  I put the others in Hold until I am someplace I can receive mail.

So far, I have had mail sent to one of my sister’s houses, and to General Delivery at the post office in Chattahoochee, about 5 or 6 miles from the campground.

Every interaction I have had with St. Brendan’s has been positive, including phone calls to ask questions.

When you set up your address forwarding to St. Brendan’s, you use their street address.  You also need to include your personal mail box number (PMB),  You can’t just put a suite or lot number.  The regulations, new this year apparently, specify it needs to be written like PMB 1234

If you don’t put “PMB” on your mail forwarding order, the post office will simply send it to St Brendan’s street address.  If that happens, St. Brendan’s has to enter your box number by hand, and that can delay your mail for a week.

I found that out the hard way.  🙂

Just another pretty shot

Just another pretty shot

Ron and I have both had stomach bugs that left us without much energy.  But today I was feeling great, so was able to take Sheba for a long walk.

And speaking of long walks, the walks with Sheba this trip are doing wonders for my strength and stamina.  When we first started this trip, if I squatted down to take a photo, I could not get up without help.  Now deep knee bends are easy and I am just thrilled with the improvement.

We plan to go out to dinner in one of the nearby towns this evening and will leave the dogs in the trailer.  Yay!  Freedom! 😀

On the downside, I have a leak in my water lines somewhere.  The bag of dog food I keep under my bed had a wet bottom last night.  Today I discovered more water.  It is not coming from the bathroom, so maybe it is from the water line attached to the city water inlet.

So that’s my project now — tracking the source of the leak–and then trying to figure out how to fix it.

P.S.  It’s December 7.  Remember Pearl Harbor.

The Cherokee Rally – Day 2

Our campsite

The Egg Parade today was fantastic!  It is hard to believe how people can take such similar trailer interiors and turn them into unique, creative, living spaces perfectly suited to their way of camping, traveling and living. We ended up having about 30 trailers show up.

The campground’s mountain background

One thing I definitely plan to copy is Jean’s battery drawer mod which allows the battery to slide out to be serviced instead of having to manhandle the battery to the ground — and back — to check the water levels.

And, after sitting at the dinettes in 3 different trailers, I realized how much I miss a dedicated dinette.  I will keep our twin beds, but I will always probably feel a twinge of envy at others who have a place to sit, prop their elbows, and visit over.  My little table works fine for us, but it’s not quite the same.

The legendary Shorty!

Right before dinnertime, a very nice young couple with two small children and two dogs pulled in and parked next to us — with a new Parkliner!  They had picked it up at the factory today and driven directly to the rally.  Needless to say, they were swamped with visitors before they could even set up.  I heard someone say there have only been 15 Parkliners built so far.  I’ll try to get some good photos of them tomorrow morning.

We enjoyed the potluck this evening.  I would have liked to stay for the music afterwards, but today was a big day for me and I was exhausted.  So we walked the dogs and I propped up in bed with my puter by 8:30 this evening.  Feels so good to begin to unwind!

Steve and Jean

We would like to leave for Lake Allatoona early tomorrow morning, but I doubt we will get out as early as we’d like.

The potluck

A couple of cute 13 footers

The fresh-from-the-factory Parkliner

 

 

…..But I Love My Casita

The coffee shelf that Rob built for me that has turned into an indispensable all-purpose shelf.

Dad used to love his tool shed more than any other place on earth.  It was his favorite place to escape to.  He would often say, “I like my house, but I love my shed!”

I feel the same way about my little trailer.  I like my house, but I LOVE my Casita!  Every time I open the door and walk inside, I feel a powerful sense of home.  Like it’s my place to be.  Like I belong there.

My house is comfortable.  It’s a nice place to be.  But in the 14 years we’ve lived here, it’s never felt like home.

I loved our Aliner until it started falling apart faster than I could fix it.  I also felt a sense of home in it.  No matter where we traveled, when we stopped, popped up the top and walked inside, we were home.

But it’s even more pronounced in the Casita.  Maybe because the quality is light years ahead of the Aliner’s.   Maybe because the happiest times of our marriage have been spent traveling and camping in it.

I named it Egg Harbor… obviously because it’s egg-shaped.  But also because I feel so sheltered and safe in it.

We talk sometimes about going fulltime, but we truly aren’t ready to cut ties to a house, garden, and property surrounded by woods yet.  So I don’t know why the Casita is home and the house isn’t!

I spent a couple of hours in it this afternoon, cleaning, rearranging, repacking…. actually just playing house in it!  It will be so much fun to be on the road again soon!

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