The Pledge

I just got back from dinner here in Dallas and received an email that referred me to Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance.  I hadn't heard it in quite awhile and listened, it is quite moving.  In case you haven't heard this, give it a go.    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo1DYvf0vQc

Sitting in Indianapolis

Jan had an unexpected surprise from the dentist.  She needed a crown, and they had a cancellation so she was able to get it done immediately.  All good.  The weather has been fantastic for the last couple of days in Atlanta.  I'm flying with a guy who lives in Massachusetts, and last night when he called home they already had 12 inches of snow on the ground!  Awful early for that much snow.  Global warming, no doubt.
I end up in Dallas tonight then home on Monday.  Another month complete on our march to Feb!  We get to see Tom next week as he is now back from Vietnam and as far as we know he still has all his limbs and faculties.  We'll make sure when we see him. Jan is gearing up for a craft fair in Florida to sell some of her cards, and of course we are anticipating our Thanksgiving celebration in Louisville.  We are really rooting that our friends Ray and April can make it again this year, but April may have to deal with a bit of surgery.  We'll carry you around if need be, April!

Bike pics

Thought I should at least put in a couple pictures of the bike.

On another note I just met a neighbor of ours in the campground.  here I am trying to retire again and he retired 2 years ago and just couldn't take it, so just got a new job here in the Atlanta area.  And he's happy as a clam!  That's the beautiful thing, different strokes for different folks!

Bike up for sale

With a bunch of heartache we put the bike up for sale on Cycle Trader today.  So if anyone you know wants a 2007 BMW R1200RT, let me know.  The ad is going to run for two weeks and then if it doesn't sell, we'll wait til spring to try it again.
Jan's back and she had no problem getting here, early even!  She inadvertently found out about my surprise for her, as I had to take a phone call in front of her about it.  It's not a big deal, but it will make life easier.  We have a cabinet in the galley that has a sliding drawer on the bottom and a fixed shelf above that is quite deep.  She has been wanting a sliding drawer on the top shelf for quite a while, but it's difficult for me to build with the limited woodworking tools I still have, and I've been having zero luck in finding a drawer slide that mounts on a shelf.  We found a company in California that custom builds sliding drawers to size, shape, and material.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the cabinet is angled so the drawer has to be angled as well.  It's all ordered and we should get it in about 2 weeks!  Out now to enjoy this glorious weather.

Jan's return

Jan's coming back today.  I haven't had much luck picking up a trip while she's been gone.  There is little open time, which are trips that need to be flown because of conflicts, sick calls, etc.  And because they are  a bit overstaffed at this time of the year, there is a lot of demand for flying time, i.e. money.  I did fly out to Phoenix  and back on Sunday, another look at the recession, every seat was full both directions!  Can't figure it out.
I've been working on a surprise for Jan on the motorhome and I think I've got it done.  Don't want to give it away right now, but it's something she's been wanting for awhile.  I'll fill you in later.
The weather has been awesome!  70's in the day and 50's at night and clear as a bell.  Really enjoying it.
Been doing some work on health insurance for my upcoming retirement.  Thankfully, my retirement group has made incredible inroads on somewhat affordable coverage since I lost what was promised.  The market is taking a nice bounce, hope it hangs in there in anticipation of new leadership in a year! :-)

What a change!

In the weather anyway.  It had been beautiful, but warm in the 80's.  A weather system moved through on Tuesday night into Wednesday, and we woke this morning to 38 degrees!  A little too cool, too early.  Happy birthdays to Joyce, Jason, and Vivian.  I flew a long military charter on Wednesday.  Picked up some troops from Hunter in Savannah, GA and flew them way out to El Centro in the middle of nowhere in southern California, a bit west of Yuma, AZ right north of the Mexican border.  From the looks of the area, I hope they won't be there long:)
Spent the day in recurrent training today, another notch, only one more training day left before retirement if all goes well.  There is a lot of talk about SW, everyone seems pretty resigned to the fact there will be a lot of changes, not many for the good.  There will be a lot of turmoil over the next several months.
Jan went out to visit Kelly and the kids for the weekend.  I know she'll have a good time with the grandkids.  I'm hoping to pick up a couple trips in her absence.
Saw the last Republican "debate" the other night, sure is heating up, I hope they remember the real goal as they knock down each other.

Another notch in the plan

Just got back from what hopefully was my last check ride ever, if the plan to retire at the end of Feb transpires.  What a feeling!  The last FAA medical exam already was completed in Aug, now this.  I still have 2 recurrent training days to complete and that's that.  I've never counted up how many check rides I've had over my career, but it has to have been about 45-50, not counting line checks and FAA observances.  Quite a bit of scrutiny goes into this job!
Haven't had a chance to check out the chassis battery issue yet, but I can report the leveling air compressor issue is resolved.  It has only run a few seconds a couple of times since we had it repaired again, but we had been parked in a very level spot.  Now that we have returned to Atlanta we are in a site that is quite tilted, so the system adjusts our level several times a day.  Now the compressor runs every couple days for about 30 seconds exactly as it should.  Yeah!
We were really disappointed a couple days ago.  We went to get a couple of american flags since we now fly one every day.  Bought two flags at Northern Freight, and when we got back we noticed they are MADE IN CHINA!!!  Unbelievable.  Is there nothing sacred anymore.  We will find some MADE IN AMERICA to fly instead.
The weather here has been fantastic!  Fall has arrived.  Highs in the high 70's and lows in the 50's, no humidity, and clear as a bell.
I think we have made up our mind to sell the bike.  Bittersweet, but it seems to take more and more effort and attention riding it anymore, and it's very hard to sightsee while driving as I'm watching the road, any gravel, pot holes, oil, etc ahead, or is that car going to see me or try to kill us?  A lot of the pleasure has gone, and I hate to admit it, but could it actually be my advancing age causing these feelings??

Heading North

We had a good farewell breakfast with Ray and April, and a farewell dinner with Mom and Jason yesterday.  Left the kayaks, but took Jan's bike with us.  We'll pick up the kayaks when we come back in March, doubt we'll be doing much paddling on Lake Allatoona over the winter :)
Went to start the motorhome this morning, and it did it's hesitation thing again!  Thought I had it fixed.  We'll have to take a close look when we get a chance in Atlanta, wonder if it's a bad ground or something??
Other than that a good ride up to Perry, GA to spend the night.  This way we'll miss the traffic in Atlanta, and get a chance to stop at Lane's to get some peach salsa, and who knows maybe some peach cobbler for breakfast?  Lanes is a big orchard and pecan grower, that has every derivation of peaches and pecans.  Pretty neat, and of course, delicious.  We'll get back early afternoon, get settled in, then off to work on Sat, Sun, and Mon.

Winding down

We went to IKEA with Jason on Saturday.  We had never been before.  Wow, what a store, huge, innovative, a very varied inventory.  Way more than we had imagined.  About the size of two Home Depots or Lowes stacked on top of each other.  It was very busy and we got there early.  They even have a full cafeteria.  Then we had to stop at the outlet mall on the way back, it was packed to the gills, no parking places, people everywhere.  I'll tell you, this recession or whatever it is sure is different from any I've seen before.  Stores, restaurants, hotels, and shops are packed and busy.  I don't get it.
We had dinner with my mom last night with Ray and Jason, but she wasn't doing too well.  She keeps on her game face, but she is real uncomfortable.  She's on a tough road.
Couple more visits and our time in Florida will be done for now.
Jan and I tackled another little chore Sunday.  We have three AC's on the roof and Monaco installed 2 small cups on each one so the condensate is collected in the cups, drains into a plastic line and allows the water to drain underneath the coach instead of run down the sides.  A couple of the lines were plugged, so we had to lower ceiling panels, get to the lines and try to run a snake through them to clear it out.  After getting tons of water all over our heads, we think we got all but one of the lines clear.  Never ending stuff, huh?

Ramblings

It's been a few days since I posted.  I was feeling under the weather for a few days, so just took it easy.  We've been visiting with my mom quite a bit, she's a bit up and down with her health and the cancer.  It is taking a toll on her body and her emotions.  All things considered she is doing great!
Jason and Jan went to Universal one day, the party pooper stayed back and did a few items on our list.
We had a couple nice evenings with friends, and some great food.
We made reservations for Mar and April of next year, good we did when we did, we got the last site!  Season in Florida, don't you know.
We inquired about putting Vern and Viv's place up for sale and will list it on Monday.  She won't be able to come back to it and it isn't worth keeping.  The market is extremely soft, but time will tell.
Managed to waste a bunch of time yesterday with a nail in one Jeep tire, thankfully we were able to pump it up and then get it repaired.  Has anyone patched a tire recently?  The going price is over $20!!
Our repair on the Aquahot is doing wonderfully.
I was able to alter my work schedule a bit so am planning to take my "last" check ride a week from Monday.
We are going to leave the kayaks here in Florida for the time being, and maybe Jan's bike.
We had a nice evening with Joyce last nite, she is doing great!!
We think the air problem with the motorhome is finally completely fixed.  It finally ran this am, after more than a week for only 10 seconds.  Yippee.
Happy 38th Anniversary to Jan and I!  How she puts up with me is amazing.
Weather has been really great, low temps and humidity, but it looks like it's coming to an end.  Rain and wind for the next few days.
Bye for now.

Kayak Day

Jan and I got together early with Ray and April to go kayaking on the Myakka River.  It was a beautiful day, cool, and amazingly enough with no humidity.  A cold front went through last night drying things out.  We took a leisurely paddle up stream.

Had some visitors, or I guess I should say we visited a few guys along the way.  We got these two pictures, but didn't have time to get a picture of the big alligator that disappeared under water with our approach.

The river is a winding, fairly narrow waterway with lots of overhanging vegetation.  Nice and quiet, it's like you are all alone except for your friends leading the way.

We stayed out about 3 hours, did about 4 miles, upstream first and back downstream to finish, just how we like it.

Except for one little mishap it was a great morning.  Ray was up their little ladder tying one kayak on their car when he lost his balance, fell back off the ladder and unfortunately stepped back and off a banking to come to rest on his back in a bunch of brambles.  Luckily he wasn't hurt, just scratched up and most likely a little stiff by next morning.  We all recovered along with Jason's company with a great New England lunch at Bit of Boston!  Clam chowda, haddock, and fried clams.  Yum, yum.