Its been a fun week and my mom and I have been busy.  Brutus and I usually head over to see Mom and Mammaw (my beautiful 92 year young grandmother) sometime in the morning.  We've hit all the restaurants with in a 10 mile radius.  At CiCis' we ate pizza all afternoon while watching the Whitney Houston funeral.  I had to take a nap after that one.  We went to the mall where I got lunch to go at my most favorite California Pizza Kitchen and met Mom and Mammaw at the food court.  I got to chat with the nicest man while waiting for my chopped BBQ chicken salad.  I understand they serve other food, but this is all I've ever eaten there.  We had ice cream for desert.  OK I had a nap that day too.  On Wednesday Mom and I went on an air boat ride and saw alligators, snakes, and lots of birds.  Mammaw decided to sit this one out for some reason, apparently she doesn't like snakes....  Anyone visiting...

I've been here for a few days now. We haven't done much in the way of adventure yet, but have gotten in some good visiting, shopping and eating!  Brutus has been getting spoiled, when my mom and I go out, he gets to stay with my grandmother and his uncle Max.  Max is a sweet little West Highland Terrier and they get along great.  Of course Brutus spends all his time sitting in my grandmother's lap.  I think that arrangement is mutually agreeable! I spent Friday at the DMV getting my tags and license switched over.  I've never seen a more difficult process, I was talking to the clerk for about 45 minutes.  They have to write to my lien holder to see if its OK to register my truck in Florida.  They want two forms of government issued ID to prove I am who I say I am, but a military ID (issued by the federal government) doesn't count.   I had to produce every piece of paperwork connected to buying the truck and RV....

After a long, boring 8 hour drive I made it to Kissimmee Fla.  Sammie kicked Brutus out of his bed, and spent the few minutes she wasn't asleep, watching the world go by. She is a very good traveler, for a cat.   Brutus had to find someplace else to sleep since my lap and his bed were unavailable.  He decided the top of the cat carrier was just fine by him.  I got to my campground, Orange Grove RV Park http://www.ogcrvpark.com/home.html  at about 5:30 PM.  When I got to my site, it looked too small for my RV, which is 34 feet.  There were trailers on either side of me and a huge Class A behind me.  They knew how big my rig was, so I was a bit surprised thay put me in such a small space.   A very nice couple helped me back in, but because it was so small, I had to back in at a weird angle, and my truck was partially in the road.  Hmmm, nothing I could do now, the office was closed.  I went to hook up my utilitie...

OK, so the rest area wasn't the best choice, it was really loud.  I didn't think the sound of the traffic would bother me, but it was soooo loud I couldn't sleep. Also keeping me up, Sammie the cat didn't appreciate one tiny bit being locked in the bathroom all night.  With all the slides pulled in, she could have gotten up under them and I couldn't reach her.  So I had to lock her in the bathroom. OK, now that I'm up, what to do about breakfast?  I have some (battery) power, but not enough for the microwave or toaster oven.  There goes my bagel and oatmeal.  Wait, can't I boil water on the (propane) stove?  Oh right, that's how it was done before the microwave came along.  No bagel though, I do like that toasted.  As I was eating breakfast and typing on the computer, trucks were pulling into the rest area, going right by me.  Now in case you don't know, little Brutus Beefcake is deaf. Yup, he can't hear a thin...

OK, so you know what the say about making plans.  I PLANNED to be at Raines RV at 0930 to have my satellite dish fixed.  It was installed before I knew if I would get Dish or Direct TV.  Of course it was programmed for the one I didn't get.  I got up early and puttered around because I thought, how long can it take me to unhook and drive away?  MUCH longer than I thought! To begin with, my water hose had heat coils on it to keep from freezing.  I swear it took me longer to take it off than to put it on.  I had about 50 feet of heat coil wrapped around the hose with electrical tape, then covered with insulation.  It took FOREVER to unwrap it all.  The night before I had flushed out my black and gray water tanks, but left the gray water open. I was going to take a shower before I went to bed and I figured the water from that would clean the hose that much more.  Well, in the morning, it was clean all right, clean and fro...

So the adventure begins tomorrow.  I've said good bye to all my friends, taken care of all my business, and I'm ready to go.  I'll spend my first night at Warriors Path State Park in Kingsport Tn.  Its 6 hours from here, a nice easy drive.  Considering how cold it is here, tomorrow is none too soon.  The temps are below freezing, like its winter or something!  By weeks end I'll by laying on the beach in sunny Florida! I'll really miss my neighbors and fellow campers here at the RV park I've been in for the past few months.  My neighbor on one side Ronnie has been great, always helpful and fun to talk to.  On the other side I have Shelia and Larry, also very helpful and also fun to talk to.  I was really looking forward to spending the summer here, I could see  lots of block parties! OK, time to get everything stowed away and get ready for bed.  I'm so excited!!!

So I'm getting ready to leave Va.  I went around to all my doctors this week to collect my medial records.  I gotta say, the one I'll miss the most is my dentist Dr. Moffitt.  http://drmoffittdental.com/ .  He is a great dentist, and easy on the eyes too, but I'd go to him for his staff alone.  Katie and Connie have to be the absolute best office staff around!! The hygienists and assistants rock as well.  I went to my neurologist one last time, only to find out that she's misdiagnosed me all along.  She said an EEG done last year showed small brain seizures.  In fact, its perfectly normal and now she says my memory problems are due to a sleep disorder, that I told her about!!  OK, long past time for new doctor there! I also stopped by Reines RV to have my satellite dish hooked up.  I didn't buy my RV from them, but I wish I had, they have exceptional service.  http://www.reinesrv.com/ .  I have an appoin...

So what's it like to live in a 34 ft RV you may wonder.  Well, its not for everyone, that's for sure.  Like most people, I was pretty attached to all my stuff, especially my clothes and shoes.  OK, I'm still attached to clothes and shoes!  When my apartment flooded, I lost all of my furniture.  Once that was gone, it was easy to look at the rest of my belonging and decide just how much of it I didn't need.  I ended up giving most of it to Good Will, but some went for a yard sale next summer and the good stuff to a local consignment store.   It is surprisingly freeing to only have 'stuff' you need. My RV is big enough to be quite comfortable for one person to live in.  I have tons of storage in the form of cabinets, drawers and a large storage space underneath.  In fact, I have a few empty cabinets still.  I have a full size closet in my bedroom so all my clothes fit.  Shoes were a problem, so I h...