Cold, some lights, moving to repair shop tomorrow....

Our Location: Big Buck Resort

 

(205 Sparks Road, Hornsby, TN)

 

A very cold and blustery day. Wet, damp and windy would describe today. We stayed around the 45F/7.2C mark for the high but with the wind it felt much colder. Tonight the temps are supposed to drop well below the freezing mark.

 

Riley and I walked only once around the park and stopped at the office to chat with Tina (park owner) and pay for the last two days. Tina is a truly wonderful person. The park is a fantastic place and we enjoy it greatly. It's a Passport America park and so we pay only $17.50 US per day. We are a short drive from Memphis, and Jackson, TN as well as Corinth, MS. The small towns of Bolivar and Selmer have a great deal of charm and offer some interesting sights. I think it will be a regular stop for us on our travels through this area. 

 

I chatted with my buddy Ron this morning, catching up on all the gossip and just touching base. Riley and I had hoped to meet up with him and his lovely wife Sharon some time over the winter but that won't be happening. Ron has a few issues that he's taking care of and that will perhaps keep them at home until into the new year. Hopefully they can pull Newwwmar out of his shed and get a few weeks in the sun in Mississippi . Good luck buddy. 

 

Butch from Butch's RV Repair stopped by around 2 pm and managed to get the lights all working again EXCEPT the tail lights of course. Tomorrow morning Riley and I will pack up and head south to Rienzi, MS just outside of Corinth to his shop. If necessary we can spend the night with hook ups there but I'm hoping to be on the road tomorrow night. We shall see how things go and I'll try to keep you updated. I chatted with Dad again tonight just to keep him in the loop and to hopefully ease his mind and make him worry less.

 

The rest of the day we spent indoors as it's just too cold outside for me. This damp cold makes too many things hurt and I'm ready to get out of here. A few days drive to the west is warmth and heat, and it looks like no rain so we're excited to be heading that way. 

 

A sad note tonight, during my chat with Ron this morning I learned that our friend Chuck passed away a few weeks ago. Our hearts go out to his wife Jeanne and son Josh of West Virginia. Chuck was a very quiet man, shy and soft spoken. Jeanne is a fire cracker and full of life. They made a wonderful couple.

 

Again no pictures sorry. Hopefully tomorrow we'll have some for you. Thanks for stopping by, hope you've all had a great day. 

 

Until next time.. take care, be safe, 

 

Deb 

 

 

 

Blood work, park pictures, and a lazy day....

Our Location: Magic River Rv Resort, Long Beach, Mississippi

(all pics taken with my phone yesterday)

Rain last night and a cooler morning today. Others seem to find it warmer than I do and I think it has something to do with the dampness here. I'm either sweating or freezing, I don't seem to have an in between. 

Some palm trees have survived better than others over the years

Up at the fire shortly after 6 a.m. this morning, listening to the BS getting deeper and deeper soon I'm going to need some chest waders, I don't think hipster will cut it. ~laugh~ Although a nice touch today, which actually happened yesterday, Butch took Mr. Budd to the Gulfport airport to see some vintage WWII planes and they ended up going for a ride in a B-24 bomber airplane. Apparently the mechanic that keeps this plane going lives where Mr. Budd was stationed during the war. Mr Budd was at one point leading the group as almost a tour guide since he seemed to know his way around the airplane pretty well.  Mr. Budd was a pilot during that war flying 160 missions. They flew over Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, and campground as well. A good time was had by all!!!!

A shot of the campground from near the roadway.

Riley came to the fire this morning. It was nice to see her interacting with the folks. A big smile graced her pretty face as she seemed to settle in and enjoy the recognition. 

Spring is in the air, water lilies are blooming.

Home around 8:30 a.m. we had breakfast and headed off to 1110 Broad Avenue in Gulfport for my blood work, which I forgot about last week. It took a while and of course my address wouldn't fit in the little boxes on the program and it was a learning experience for everyone. ~laugh~ I did however manage to get it taken and paid for. I doubt I'll get the results but at least Dr. Bobba will get them. 

Looking toward the roadway with the campground on the right of the pond.

We decided against walking today. Truth is I just don't feel like it and I think Riley is happy to just skip it as well. We can always do a few laps around the campground if necessary. 

Some of the trees are setting their pine cones already.

Miss Jeannie and Chuck left today. I am truly sorry to see them go. I enjoyed her company a great deal. Charles and Roberta are also scheduled to leave today. So the campground will be a bit different again with the loss of these people.

Some other Canadians here at the park.

After lunch I found myself wandering up to the fire to chat with my buddy Ron who seemed to be as lost as I was. ~laugh~ We chatted for a bit but were soon joined by others and before long the ring around the fire pit (without a fire) grew to include most of the morning crowd. Riley came along a bit later as well. It was 3 pm before we left the fire pit and came back home.

This chain has been secured to the tree by the tree itself.

Reading took up the rest of the afternoon and since we still had sausage soup left over I didn't have to cook dinner tonight. I wasn't hungry and so only Riley had a bowl of soup. Only ONE bowl left and I'll have to start cooking again.

Pretty white single water lily flower.

We stayed home this evening as I've found that night time fires often leave me cold and I wonder if that might be some of the cause of my pain these days as the night air is cool, damp and invading. I'll have to give that some better attention over the next few days.

So there you have it, nothing exciting or life altering but a nice quiet day all the same. Thanks for stopping by, hope you enjoyed your visit. Until next time..be safe, take care. 

Cool morning, warmer afternoon, sight seeing in Ocean Springs....

Our Location: Magic River Rv Resort, Long Beach, Mississippi

This morning was very cool 39F/3.8C at 6:15 a.m. when I headed up to the fire. I can tell you I had my gloves and two heavy sweaters on, one with a hood. I didn't find it as damp as usual this morning and I have no idea why, but I'll take it!!

Gets about 10 miles to the gallon towing...does well except in the mountains

The morning fire was different without Ken this morning, no long slow southern drawl which I always enjoy hearing. Buzz, Mac, Ron and I were all kind of just shooting the breeze and discussing Buzz's big win last night. Lisa wandered up, eventually Pete, then Jeannie, and I think Chuck too. Butch stopped by, Robert also put in an appearance and one of the new guys (passenger in this car) who's name I don't remember. Linda also showed up at some point. It was an interesting fire this morning!

Dogsled in the background...

Home before 8:15 a.m. for breakfast but before eating I grabbed my camera, headed out to take some pictures of a vintage car and trailer which was pulling out today. The car was 1964 Ford Falcon and the trailer was a 1962 but I forget what kind. After eating we read for an hour to let the outdoor temps warm up before we headed out to walk. The walking path is a mile circuit and usually Riley does 2 laps and I do 3 or sometimes we're ambitious and each do 3 laps but this morning she stopped at 3 and I went one more. I had reasons for one more since we didn't walk yesterday and the day ahead promised to be 'filling'. ~laugh~ 

The Vietnam Memorial in Ocean Springs....

From the sports complex we headed out to Ocean Springs to do some sight seeing. Cruising along I-10 we finally reached the exit for the National Sea Shore Park, just past that was our destination The Vietnam Memorial. It is two long three sided pieces of cement that form a 'room' in between them. On the inside of the walls are pictures and names of those that served in the war from Mississippi . There were at least 45 rows on each side and the list of names/pictures was 5 per row.  The statistics say:

649 Killed-in-Action
10 Missing-in-Action
8 Prisoner-of-War
for a total of 667 Mississippi Casualties of the Vietnam War. 

That's a lot of casualties from just one state! It was a very moving tribute that allows you to put names and faces together. Many young men, a few mature men, African-American, Caucasian too but the loss was all male, not a single female in the bunch. The names were southern names such as Willie James, Donny Ray, Bobby Ray, Jimmy Earl, and the list goes on and on. Some of the pictures were taken at various times in the lives of these young hero's from childhood to high school football and on to military service. Flags and flowers were wedged into the cracks that joined the concrete as a simple tribute to a lost loved one. Also on display was a Medivac Helicopter on a pedestal, the mast from a ship and numerous flags. A walking path equaling 1/3 of a mile surrounds the whole park. It is well done and very tasteful. A must see if you are ever in the area. 

Rows and rows of pictures

Rows and rows of names

 From here we headed out to find some lunch. We once visited a Chinese Restaurant with my Dad, and his sister/husband when we were here once a few years ago. We wanted to find that place but couldn't remember the name. I had a rough idea where it was and eventually we found it. It's called Beijing Chinese something. ~laugh~ I still don't know the street and one would think I would have logged it into the GPS right? Well one would have been wrong in such thinking and should have reminded me before we left the area. ~laugh~

Looking into the memorial, pictures above, names below the ledge, benches in the middle. Both walls are covered in row after row...

From there we managed to find our way down some back roads that were heading in the right direction but not exactly where we wanted to be. I will tell you that we eventually found our way to I-10 once more and headed on back to our own neck of the woods. Not home but toward home. We had another stop to make. Can you guess where? I'll wait while you think about it. ~laugh~ You guessed it, Wally World for groceries. We were running low on a few veggies and a couple of other things and figured it would be better to pick them up today than wait until tomorrow when it will be much busier there.

Submarines were built on Pascagoula, Mississippi, a few miles from this memorial

We crossed paths with a person that was very .....fragrant ...but not in a good way. Truly thought the Chinese food may come back to haunt me. ~laugh~ We hurried out of the area only to have this same person come up behind us in the check out line. The cashier wrinkled her nose and looked around saying," Oh it must be the rabbit food." The guy in the next aisle was checking out with a bag of rabbit pellets or something, but it wasn't the rabbit stuff.  I was glad to get out of the store and felt sorry for the nice cashier that was left behind to handle this customer.

Do you think it's looking like spring?

From there we headed home and managed to get the groceries put away. The cat was kind of happy to see us but wasn't interested in any contact, she just looked down her nose with a look that said," Big deal, so you're home, I have sleeping to do, so go away." ~laugh~  She is a diva!!!

Everywhere you look there are Azalea's blooming...

For the past number of days we've seen so many flowers blooming and the blooms are reddish/pink/pinky/white and a few other colours. Like Canadians have hedges of cedar's or such things down here in the deep south they have hedges of Azalea bushes. They grow in the wild as well. Such a riot of colour in random spots. The green grass is an excellent backdrop to show off the bright colours. The leaves are also coming out which is adding more green to the picture as well. 

Such vivid colours...

Since we had a large lunch we opted to miss dinner which meant we were able to head up to the fire earlier than usual. Cool tonight but not too bad plus the fire was nice. Lots of folks up there, lots of laughter and good humour. The party broke up slowly but by about 9 pm everyone was heading inside.

Such abundant blooms....

So that was our day, much busier than yesterday, still not earth shattering but fun, entertaining and educational. We consider that a great day! Hope you had a great day as well.

So on that note, thanks for stopping by. Until next time...be safe, take care.... 

Lazy Day, Cold, and Friends.....

Our Location: Magic River Rv Resort, Long Beach, Mississippi

(pics taken with my phone)

Last night's short but heavy downpours served to cool things off here as the temps dipped overnight and this morning leaving us around the 50F/10C mark with a cold wind today. Truly it didn't seem to warm up much throughout the day with the wind seeming to take any of the sun's heat and blow it away. 

Mardi Gras Giraffe in Gulfport

Morning fire visit started around 6 a.m. this morning with Buzz, Mac and Ken, with Ron following along not much later. Then of course the others staggered along at various times. Swilly came by with a fistful of pictures to share with us all and was ever gracious in his explanations and our kidding him about his head of dark wild hair. Before long Robert showed up with Butch following shortly afterward. So a full compliment around the morning fire even though it wasn't the warmest morning. Lisa, Jeannie, Chuck, Charles, Pete, Linda and a new guy also managed to put in an appearance. 

Ken and Faye pulled out this morning heading to the area in which we recently left, Gulf Shores, Alabama while we were a few miles up the road at Foley, Alabama. That left two empty spots in the campground which were filled by 5 pm this evening. So once again all the regular spots are full but a few more folks will be leaving within the next week. It's that time of the year when folks start heading home and with the mild winter I'm willing to bet more folks go sooner than later. 

Her Royal Highness appears to be dead but isn't....~laugh~

It was a very lazy day today in which we basically did nothing but keep warm. ~laugh~ Yes I know, us being Canadians we should be used to the cold weather but it's not the same down here as it is back in Ontario. There its cold for long periods of time and not only the occasional day here and there like it is down here in the deep south. Honestly I think the occasional day here and there might be harder to take! Part of it is a mental thing I'm certain as we assume it will be much warmer here and while it is still much warmer than back home, it's not 'warm' like we expect so it seems colder. Did you follow all that? If not, go back and read it again, it'll come to you. ~laugh~ 

A surprise visit this afternoon from our good friends Ron & Sharon was very nice and quite enjoyable. We had a number of laughs and a few more serious moments as well. Ron replaced a light bulb for me in the bathroom that I just couldn't get to fit for some reason. It took two of us to get it though and I won't go into detail except to say Ron and I both ended up in the shower at the same time. A good time was had by all, I think!  ~laugh~  I always enjoy time spent with either or both of them, such nice people. 

A phone call from Linda at Bluegrass with an update on my mail situation kind of filled out the rest of the afternoon between pages in  my book.  I finished John Grisham's book The Brethren. It was a good read. I'm currently working on John Saul's novel Sleep Walking. 

Good stuff...

Dinner was cooked inside as I wasn't going outside to cook in this cold with a cold wind blowing. Honey Pecan Chicken breast with stuffing and garden rice was all very good and we enjoyed it. Cooked much faster inside than on the BBQ dinner was a very fast event this evening. ~laugh~ 

A quick clean up, some more reading and it was off to various parts of the Igloo as another day comes to an end. We already have decided our plans for tomorrow and we will be getting out doing some things for certain. So stay tuned....

Thanks for visiting, hope you enjoyed your stay, feel free to leave a comment. Until next time...be safe, take care...

A busy Monday....

Our Location: Magic River Rv Resort, Long Beach, Mississippi

(more pics of the parade at Pass Christian yesterday)

The overnight temps remained warm, leave the windows and vents open kind of warm but the day wasn't quite as warm as we'd like. Not complaining but well...a bit warmer would be nice. ~laugh~ Tonight's temps are about 67F/19.4C at 9 pm. The rain they forecast for today didn't arrive but it certainly clouded over a few times to make us believe it might start dripping. 

Interesting Police Vehicle, don't ya think?

Morning fire with the regular folks, Ron, Ken, Mac, Buzz and myself soon followed by a few other folks, even Riley came along for a while. 

Not the friendliest fellow I seen on the floats yesterday.....

Home to shower, clean the Igloo and have breakfast which we managed to do all before 10 a.m., fast aren't we? From cleaning we hopped in the Dogsled, headed out to the office to pay for another week. Butch (park owner) happened by as we were paying, we chit chatted for a bit, and we walked off with a Yeti mug cutesy of Butch for being a 'long' time regular here at Magic. 

 

He was a friendly fella though....

 

Back at the Igloo we read for a bit before climbing back into the Dogsled once again, this time bringing with us  our friends Ron & Sharon, we headed off to the Rusty Pelican for the Monday special of Red Beans and Rice, or whatever tickled your fancy. We managed to rearrange the restaurant as we had a large number from the campground all there for lunch. Chuck & Jeannie, Mac, Billy & Charlene, Ken & Faye, Buzz (Paul) & Lisa, Ron & Sharon, Riley & I. So that was 13, I don't think I forgot anyone but it's possible. Oh yes, I forgot Flat Stanley, Lisa & Buzz's school project for a granddaughter. Of course we all know Flat Stanley is a project given at school in which a flat, paper person cutout is sent to a relative, this relative is charged with taking pictures of Stanley visiting, doing, seeing, enjoying his surroundings all while it is being documented. At the end of Stanley's visit, he is returned to his home STUDENT and presented to the class. It makes for an interesting, educational lesson for both the sender and the receiver. 

 

All decked out in his finery.....

 

After the Rusty Pelican we came back to the park, dropped Sharon and Riley off at home, after which Ron and I headed out to one of my favourite stores, Harbor Freight. Ron bought a number of things while I managed to only buy 3 strings of solar powered rope lights. I'm still thinking about an Inverter, and what size I want or perhaps need would be a better way to look at it. 

Flying beads and nice hair....

Back home I dropped Ron at home, thanked Miss Sharon for letting Ron come out to play and then headed home myself. Riley was outside at the picnic table cracking some pecans that we've brought from Georgia and so I mostly picked some nut pieces out of the 'discard' bag and enjoyed a bit of a chat with her. After that it was inside to read and instead of my book I decided I should read some of the literature about the Solar set up. The book is small and the print is tiny, can't read much at a time, gives me a headache. 

Concentration.....

Before I knew it the afternoon was over and we hadn't gone for our walk today. Lazy aren't we? ~laugh~ Oh well, maybe tomorrow. Read for a bit, a book called The First Horsemen, not at all what I expected but an okay read so far. 

Cool hat....

Around 5:45 p.m. I prepped some veggies and by shortly after 6 p.m. I was BBQing dinner. Tonight we had Garden Herb Rice, Italian Veggies and JD BBQ chicken breasts. It was good stuff, even had me licking my fingers. 

The Super Hero Crowd......

After dinner a quick clean up inside and out, walk to the dumpster and a stop at the fire. Riley stayed home tonight. A big crowd around the fire included Ken & Faye, Charles & Roberta, Jeannie and eventually Chuck, Ron & Sharon, Charlene & Billy, eventually Lisa and then eventually Buzz, some new guy as well, plus myself. Oh and Pete was there as well. So a good crowd, lots of laughs, some very witty people in the crowd. 

Look at all the beads waiting to be tossed....

Home shortly before 9 p.m., Riley was already off doing her thing and I cleaned myself up a bit as I smelled like Smokey the Bear, then settled down to write my blog.

Not an exciting but I truly enjoyed my day. I look forward to more like it! Thanks for stopping by, I hope your day has been as good as mine. Until next time..be safe, take care...