LIVING THROUGH A PANDEMIC

I decided that I needed to post something during this time just so I would have this period of time recorded somewhere.  During this Coronavirus pandemic, everyone has been trying to keep themselves calmed and busy at the same time.  I can see some good things coming out of this and I can see some bad things coming out of this.  But, this post is about how I have been handling being quarantined.

I LOVE to cook.  Now let me qualify that.  I LOVE to cook when I have time, plenty of room, and I don't have to hand wash everything that I make dirty.  OK.  Living in a RV, I sometimes have the time.  Depending on if Mr. W is hanging around the RV, I may have the room.  Not having a dishwasher in my RV means hand washing is going to be involved. So, I thought what the heck.  I have plenty of time. Mr. W had gone fishing, so I had some room.  And, I can force myself to hand wash. I mean why not? The recipe said, "Easy with little clean-up". It's not like I had a whole lot of other things to do, right?

I had been really craving sweets, so, I decided to make brownies for me.  I have been eating KETO for almost 2 years now.  If you don't know what that is, it is basically I don't eat sugar or regular flour and barely any carbs.  No box mixes for me. If I want "sweets", I have to make from scratch. No problem. After all, I LOVE to cook.

The recipe says preheat my oven and grease an 8x8 pan.  I've been using the "throw away" aluminum pans to do almost all of my baking.  I went to the cabinet where I keep those and what???? I did not have any aluminum "throw away" pans. Man, how did I forget to put those on my Kroger curbside pick up grocery list? Note to self:  Add to Kroger list.  Oh well.  I have an 8x8 pan somewhere.  Let's see, surely it is in the cabinet where I keep the cookie sheets..........nope.  OK, well I know, it must be in the pantry with the mixing bowls.  Huh, not there either.  Surely in 400 sq. feet, I can find 1 stupid pan!  Finally found it tucked away in a bin of things that are headed to storage because I don't use them enough to keep in the RV. I wonder how that happened.

Moving on, I greased the pan and set it aside.  I then started gathering my ingredients for the brownies.  Almond flour - check; Eggs - check; Cocoa - check; Baking powder - ?  Do I have baking powder? Surely I do.  Let's see, the baking soda is in the refrigerator.  Not the same thing. The hunt begins.  When was the last time I used baking powder?  Do I even remember?  After some digging in the pantry, ah-hah! There it is!  I pull it out and ........."Best is used by September 2018 ".  Is that going to make a difference? I tell myself, "who has ever heard of baking powder going bad?" and I open up the can.  Note to self: Put baking powder on Kroger list. I'm secretly hoping that I don't end up with a science experiment for brownies.  Don't they use baking powder in those science experiments?

As I continue on, I have to melt butter (dish 1).  I have to combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl (dish 2).  I have to put in 1/3 cup of this, 1/2 cup of that, 1/4 cup of whatever and different fractions of teaspoons and tablespoons of stuff (dish 3-10).  Liquid ingredients go in another bowl and mix those together first (dish 11-13[mixer beaters]).  Scraper for the bowl (dish 14).  You see where this is going, right?  I think at last count of everything, I was up to about 18 items that were going to have be hand washed.  I swear I thought the recipe said "Easy with little clean-up".

I finally get everything mixed together, poured together and the beeper goes off that the oven is preheated.  So, it is time to put the brownies in the oven and wait for them to bake so I can have something sweet and chocolate-y and warm and fresh and heavenly! I can taste them already.

I open the door to the oven to put in the pan.  Somehow it has escaped me how full this pan really is.  I'm going to have to move the pan really slowly and have a very steady hand not to spill any of the batter.  Not to mention that I am baking in my convection oven which is also the microwave. So, I am having to reach UP to put the brownies in there.  OK, I can do this.  I slowly lift up the pan, get it almost in the oven..........Mr. W opens the door and says, "I'm back"!  This, of course, startles me. I jerk.  Hit my hand against the hot oven.  And you guessed it.  Dropped the entire pan on the counter of  the RV and now had brownie batter running down the cabinets and all over the floor. 

Have you seen the commercial where the wife and husband are outside; the wife is carrying a ladder and turns and the ladder goes through a plate glass window in their house. The husband is standing there watching and trying not to laugh; the wife turns and looks at him and he ducks his head and pretends like he had not seen anything?  Well that commercial had just replayed in our RV. 

Somehow, somewhere, I think there is a moral in this story.  I haven't found it yet.  It might have been in all those papertowels used to scoop up batter and thrown in the trash.  I did find out that day that red wine, and plenty of it, is just as good as chocolate.

CAPE COD AND FOREVER FRIEND

My last visit to Cape Cod was 1999.  Son played baseball in the Cape Cod League.  He was assigned to a couple that had never hosted a baseball player before.  He arrived at their home on his 21st birthday and because she wanted to make it special, Lisa (host Mom) made him a special dinner.  Little did she know that the dessert she made, cheesecake, was his favorite and she won his heart that first night.Well, 20 years later, we are back on the Cape.

The Cape is within driving distance of Boston and so it is a great getaway place for Bostonians. Also, there are a lot of Cape residents that work in Boston. The traffic was crowded on weekends 20 years ago.  But, the traffic is now crowded all the time and comes to a grid lock during commuting hours and weekends.  An example, we had to travel 12 miles and it took us 45 minutes and that was going in the opposite direction of the "traffic".

However, the Cape is a very quaint place.  It is divided into several different towns and each town consists of several villages.  A lot of the homes were built in the 1600 and 1700s.  The Cape has many, many rules and laws that require residents to maintain the outside of their homes to keep them looking as original as possible.  Most people have gone in and done remodeling, but the outside has kept it quaintness which is part of what makes Cape Cod what it is. They also have some of the most beautiful flower gardens of anywhere.

They had just closed this beach because of a shark sighting.  Sharks are becoming more and more prevalent because the seal population is growing.

Most of the beaches on Cape Cod are free to certain residents.  If you are not a resident, you must pay around $20 pp to get on their beaches.  They have 1 free public beach that I know of.  I believe it stays pretty crowded during the summer season. They have pretty beaches.  It is just a matter of getting close enough to see them!

Sunday, we met up with Lisa (host Mom) and spent an incredible day with her.  We had lunch and she took us on our own private tour of Hyannis and Hyannis Port.  One thing I learned was that people who were supporting the Crown back in the Revolutionary times would paint a black stripe on their chimneys.  They wanted to symbolize or "brag" that they supported the king.  Of course, that helped the colonialist soldiers know what side people were on.

In 1999, Lisa was 7 months pregnant with her first child.  That child is now a sophomore in college and her younger sister is a freshman.  Lisa had just moved both kids to Boston College and will now experience "empty nest".  She has been a single Mom for 6 years and now is time for her to spend some time on herself.  I think she will be fine. Lisa is one of those people that is easy to love.  She is tenderhearted and has a love for life and others.  I am very fortunate to have met her and have her as a friend. I'm so glad we had the opportunity to spend the day with her.  What a treat for me.

All in all, it was great to be back on the Cape again.  It will always have a special place in my heart.  I've posted some pics below of the ballpark where Son played.  What great memories.

The 1999 team won the championship.  They also won the championship this year.

COUSINS

I started a tradition last year of having all 5 grandkids with us for one week (Monday-Friday) and going somewhere and doing some special things with them.  They really love each other and enjoy each other's company.  But, they don't get to spend much time together. So, I thought I would side-step the busy schedules of each family and get "the cousins" together.  I really wish I would have started this much, much sooner.  Mr. W thought I had lost my mind when I told him that I wanted to do this last year! After it was over, he agreed that it needed to become a yearly trip.

So, the dates for our fun "cousin time" was June 11-June 15.  However, Daughter remarried on June 7th and went on a honeymoon, so we had her 2 starting June 7th.  Of course, they were very anxious for their cousins to be with us and finally, the day before we were to leave, the cousins showed up.

We checked into Jamaica Beach RV Resort in Galveston, TX on June 11th.  Jamaica Beach RV is a great place to be.  They have 2 swimming pools, a splash pad, 2 hot tubs and have recently completed a Lazy River.  The Lazy River is awesome.  It is long enough to make you feel like you have made a good trek around and it is just deep enough that while in a tube, your feet don't drag the bottom. They have a miniature golf course.  It is literally across the street from a good stretch of beach.  They have 3 laundry rooms, plenty of free DVDs to check out, and an on-site pizza place.  The staff there is very eager to please also. I would highly recommend this park.

We arrived Monday afternoon and the kids, along with me, hit the Lazy River.  The weather has been crazy hot.  The water was very refreshing.  Tuesday morning, we headed to the Pleasure Pier.  This is a pier out over the Gulf with rides and arcade games. None of the kids had been there.  We got there when it opened and until about 2:00, there were very few people there.  We could ride a ride and just stay on it and ride again and again if we wanted.  By about 2:00, there were enough people that we had to get off the rides and get back in line.  We would either get back on because the line was almost non-existent, or we might have to wait through one ride.  It was awesome.

We used the log ride to keep cool!

Wednesday, we headed to Schlitterbahn.  My friend, Terri, and her 2 DILs and 8 grandchildren met us there.  We had a ton of fun.  The kids had a lot of freedom through the park which they totally loved. One nice thing about Schlitterbahn is they let you bring in ice chests, food, drinks, etc.  I didn't get any pics because I couldn't keep up with the kids.  When you get freedom to not be with an adult all day, you make sure you move quick enough to stay away from the adults!  Mr. W and I did run into 2 of the kids and they wanted us to ride a ride with them and of course we did. Everyone was really tired by about 3:00, so we left. 

Thursday was beach day.  Mr. W was in his element.  He brought his surfboard hoping that at least one of his grandchildren would spark an interest in surfing.  Well, we can mark Boy-child off the list, but ALL of his granddaughters wanted to learn how to stand up on the board and ride the wave.

Friday was check-out day.  Daughter's two girls were going to their Dad's for the weekend. So, Son's 3 kids were with us until the following Wednesday.  We decided to take them to "the lake", get the boat out and do a little tubing!

The weather turned ugly, which is not good when you are wanting to tube and ski.  We ended up going to the movies and seeing The Incredibles 2.  Good movie!  By Wednesday, they were ready to go home and I was t-i-r-e-d!

The oldest 2 grandchildren are twins and they turned 13 this year.  Boy-child really didn't want to come with us this year, but he did.  This may have been my last year to have them come with us because they won't want to.  That is why I wish I would have started this earlier.  Maybe I'll get at least one more year.  We will see.  But, I can tell you this, the kids had a GREAT time.  There is nothing better than cousin time.

LIFE

My last post was in June of 2016. A lot of things have happened in my life that has kept me from traveling which in turn has kept me from blogging.  I really didn't think that anyone would really want to hear about what has been going on.  So, I kept silent. However, after much contemplation and several talks with myself, I decided to share some things. WARNING: This is not a normal blog post.

First of all, I am a Christian. I'm not getting ready to preach to you. I'm just letting you know that I have a faith system in my life and I strongly believe in the power of prayer. You will see where I'm going with this a little later on.

Back in July, Daughter found out some very disturbing "things" about her husband, referred to as SIL in some of my previous blogs.  There had been some signs of problems in their marriage but she was very protective and respectful of him and felt that anything wrong should be kept private. She also felt, because of his actions toward her, that the problem must lie with her. Anyway, without going into a lot of detail, they moved back to Texas and decided to separate.

My Daughter was a walking shell of a person.  It was almost like she was walking around on auto-pilot. To this day, I really don't know how she was functioning. It absolutely broke my heart. All of this broke my heart. But, what was really hard, was seeing 2 little girls being very confused about what was going on and being broken hearted that their parents were no longer together. I'm not saying they should stay together, they shouldn't. But kids don't understand or know all the adult reasons for divorce.

Because we live in our RV, there was not room for her to move in with us. Son and DIL very generously allowed her, no insisted, that she and the girls move in with them until she could get a job and get on her feet. Now think about this. Do you know how hard it is to have 2 families living under one roof? They all had their ups and downs, and we tried to be around to help ease the stress as much as possible by giving everyone a break, but I will be forever thankful to Son and DIL for doing this.

Daughter had not worked in 10 years because SIL did not want her to work and she was content to be a stay at home mom. Well, don't be fooled girls. You can't be out of the work force for 10 years and expect to get a job paying decent money, even if you have a college degree.  Heck, you can't be out of the work force for 10 years and expect to get an interview! It took her from August to November to even get an interview and finally get a job.

After some counseling and much thought and prayers on her part, she decided to file for divorce. They have been married 13 years. There has been custody threats, there has been child support threats, there has been switching of schools for the girls again, there has been residence changes, there has been attorneys, there has been dividing of material goods and right after New Year's, Daughter's employer told her that her business was not doing enough business to keep her on.  So, now, she is again looking for a job. We have tried to encourage, give sound advice, physically be there when needed, emotionally be there when needed, monetarily be there when needed, and pray. We are doing everything we can, but when one of your children is hurting and their life has been turned upside down, it doesn't seem like much.

Just a few days ago, a long time friend passed away. Jim Larson was a great guy. He had a great influence on many young men. We use to go to church with him and his wife, Kathy. They had one son, Eric.  We met them when Eric was in middle school and Eric is now 40 years old.  Time has a way of flying by. 

I started thinking about all the things we had done with Jim and Kathy. Jim had some great stories. After all of our kids were grown, they moved to Splendora, TX. Splendora is in the sticks and Jim and Kathy lived on acreage even further in the sticks.  During deer season one year, Jim was sitting in their hot tub on their deck. A deer walked up; Jim had his rifle nearby.  So, while still sitting in his hot tub, Jim takes aim and kills a buck. Deer meat was one of his favorite foods. Life was good for Jim.

Jim was diagnosed with a fast growing cancer at the first of last year. He had surgery and doctors were hopeful. He found out in October that the cancer had returned and treatment was not an option. He had been in hospice the last 3 weeks.

I've told you all about Daughter and about Jim to say that life can take such sudden turns and then it can quickly disappear. Nothing in life is certain.  I am one of those people who always has a plan. I set goals. I check off goals as I reach them. I like to be in control of my life. I want things to go as I have planned. My plan was for my children to get married, have children, and live happily ever after.  However, what has happened to Daughter and Jim, I have no control over. They have lost control over it too.  However, as a Christian, God should be the one that I let be in control of everything. So, this has been a real lesson to me in trusting God to take control of our lives and following His plan. There is a verse in the Bible that has been a mantra for me since coming to this realization through all of this.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

So, I'm working everyday to let God be in control of all of this.  He knows what the plans are He has for me and Mr. W.  He knows if we will be able to travel again soon, someday in the future, or not anymore. He knows what job Daughter needs and what will make her future more secure and hopeful. He knows what will make her trust and love someone again. He knows that there are 2 little girls still hurting and angry. He knows everything. He is in control of everything. He has a plan.

As I said before, I believe in the power of prayer. If you believe in prayer, please pray for our family and please pray for Kathy and Eric as they say goodbye to Jim this next Tuesday. But, especially pray for those 2 little girls. Talk about feeling like you have lost control, try being 9 and 7 years old. I wish I could "kiss it and make it better". But again, I can't. But I do believe God has a plan.

JELLYSTONE PARK

While we were here, we wanted to take the 2 granddaughters for a weekend of fun.  So, we scheduled a stay at the Jellystone Park that is about 30 miles from Columbia, SC close to the town of Swansea, SC.  There is a Jellystone Park close to H-town that is the haven of campgrounds for kids.  It is expensive, but kids absolutely love it.  All of the Jellystone Parks have facilities and activities geared around kids so the kids are entertained and parents absolutely love that!

The girls came out on Friday after school.  The first thing they wanted to do was run over to the playground and swing.  The playground and most all of the facilities are in the middle of a very big rectangle piece of land.  The campsites are all along the perimeter of that rectangle.  Basically, you can sit outside your RV, let the kids run and play, and keep them in your sights without having to get up out of your lawn chair.  See why parents love this place?

They have a very nice playground with a rock climbing wall, slide, fort type structure, monkey bars, and swings.  There is a sand volleyball court, horseshoe area, pavilion, and pool.  All of the campsites are grass but level and all of the ones around the perimeter are pull thru sites.  They do have laundry facilities but they aren't the best.  They have 2 washers and 2 dryers.  One of the washers and one of the dryers works really well.  But, they are only $1 to use, so I can't complain too much.

Saturday was a fun filled day.  The girls made their own "sand candy" in a glow tube.  If you know what a pixie stick is, this is like a pixie stick but the lady said this candy had less sugar.  OK, whatever.

They then went to paint a ceramic piece of their choice (at a cost) as a souvenir.  The girls chose an owl jewelry box to sit on their dresser at home.  Once each child chose their ceramic piece, they got to pick 6 colors of paint that they wanted to use on their piece.  There were brushes on each table and some water.  Everyone immediately got busy painting their souvenirs.

The girls painting their souvenir

Curly's finished product

Popcorn's finished product

The weather had changed Friday night and it became cold and windy.  Of course, when has cold and wind stopped a kid from playing outside?  We even decided to have our lunch outside on Saturday.  It was beautiful but definitely fighting the wind was the order of the day.

The park has a jumping pillow.  It is sort of like a floor in a bouncing house but it is a large rectangle on the ground.  It is made out of a trampoline type of material.  It blows up and becomes like a hill with sloping sides.  Kids get on it a jump to their heart's desire.  They opened the jumping pillow twice a day for an hour.  This happened from 11:00-12:00 in the morning and 5:00-6:00 in the evening.  About 5 minutes before they opened it, kids started lining up and the line could get long. Every kid, no matter their age, wanted to jump.  One of the times, they had to let one group jump for 10 minutes, then the next group jump for 10 minutes and they traded back and forth because there were so many kids.

Curly jumping in her tutu.  You mean everyone doesn't jump in a tutu? :)

One nice thing about there being so many kids is they meet other kids and make friends.  The girls met another girl named Abigail and her "annoying" brother.  They played and played and had a blast.  Saturday night the park had a "glow" hayride.  The kids put on glow in the dark stuff and got on a hayride that took them around the park singing songs and doing yells. 

Waiting for the hayride

 Each morning Booboo Bear would meet the kids at the front of the park and would lead the kids in saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag.  Then he would kind of hang around to take pictures with the kids.  Of course, my girls had no idea who Yogi and Booboo were.  I guess I need to find some old episodes of Yogi Bear cartoons for them to watch.

Booboo Bear

This park isn't cheap but it is not nearly as expensive as some of the other Jellystone parks.  We did get a discount because we stayed for a week.  We got here on a Thursday and the park was already about 1/3 full.  Over the weekend, it was full.  Most everyone left Sunday and we have been about 1 of 4 other RVs here other than those that work here and stay here all the time.  We are leaving tomorrow to go back to the state park close to Daughter's house.  It will be interesting to see how many people start showing up before we leave. One of the workers here said they were booked solid on weekends for the rest of the year already.  The park is nicer than any other one we have found in the Columbia area.  It has full hook-ups, level sites, and very good wi-fi throughout the park. It is very peaceful and quiet since the crowd left.  It is a little bit of a drive to get to a grocery store or gas station but not bad.  I would definitely come back.

All in all in was an awesome weekend. 

KAYAKING

When we first started full-timing, Mr. W wanted a kayak to take along with us everywhere.  However, how to carry it and what to do with it when we arrived somewhere was the problem.  At the rally we attended, they featured an inflatable kayak and Mr. W really liked it.  He did not want to spend the money for it, but he had a birthday coming up, so he got an inflatable kayak!  Happy birthday to him!

Granted, we have not used it as much as he would like to.  There have been places that we wanted to kayak but there wasn't any good place to put in.  It's hard to kayak when you only have 1 vehicle and no one is coming to pick you up when we get out to take you back to your vehicle and Mr. W doesn't like taking the time to inflate it.  When it is an inflatable kayak, well, inflating it is pretty essential!

"The Kayak"

We have been staying in Sesquicentennial State Park (aka Sesqui by the locals) in Columbia, SC because it is close to Daughter's house. Sesqui has a lake and they rent paddle boats, canoes, kayaks, and paddleboards.  The lake is small but big enough to do some kayaking.

We waited until Monday morning to go.  We figured there would not be as many people in rentals on the lake and not as many people walking/sitting around the lake.  Mr. W and I have not gotten the "getting in" and "getting out" of the kayak down to a science yet and we didn't want too many people see us fall in the water if that were to happen!

Fortunately, that did not happen and it was a beautiful day to be on the lake.  It was very peaceful and was a great feeling that I can't really describe just observing everything from that view point. There is an island in the middle of the lake. There are ducks that must have nests on the island.  We got a little too close to the island and about 20 ducks came squawking and swimming out at us to try to "scare" us away.  I guess it must have worked because we abruptly paddled away from the island.

Looking at the boat rentals from across the lake.

Mr. W sitting in the kayak

We probably were only out on the lake about an hour.  Mr. W may not think it was worth inflating the kayak, but I sure did.

CAROLINA FIREFLIES

I bet you think this post is going to be about fireflies.  You know, the cute little flying bugs that light up, blink and when in groups look awesome at dusk.  Well, it's not.

The Columbia Fireflies are a minor league baseball team based in Columbia, South Carolina. The team plays in the Class Single-A South Atlantic League and are an affiliate of the New York Mets. Their home stadium is at Spirit Communications Park. The team is the relocating Savannah Sand Gnats from Savannah, Georgia. The team is the first minor league baseball team in Columbia since the Capital City Bombers back in 2004. The team is the only professional baseball team in the Columbia area but will be the second baseball team in the Columbia area; they will share the market with the Lexington County Blowfish collegiate baseball team of the Coastal Plain League.

Yesterday, was Fan Fest for the Columbia Fireflies.  The public got its first peek at the brand new stadium, meet the team, watch the first official practice and catch baseball fever.  It did not disappoint.  Spirit Communications got the naming rights for the new stadium. One aspect that will make Spirit Communications Park unique from so many others around the country is that it will play host to far more than just baseball. The facility will serve as a public gathering place for hundreds of indoor and outdoor non-baseball events each year. From concerts to community events, Spirit Communications Park will welcome thousands. The park will host approximately 8,000 fans for baseball games and 14,000 for concerts.

The outside of the stadium

Batting practice happening on the field

A look at some of the seating areas down one side of the field

The store at the stadium where you can buy official t-shirts and hats is called the Mason Jar.  I think that's pretty catchy since you catch fireflies in mason jars.  The Mason Jar was jammed packed with fans purchasing all their fan-ware before opening night.  The line to pay for your purchase was really, really long but fans were happy to stand in the line to get their gear.  One of the cool things is the fireflies on the hats will glow in the dark.  So, when the sun goes down at the ballpark, it will be littered with glowing fireflies in the stands.  Pretty cool don't you think?

Any minor league stadium worth its weight has a "kids corner".  This area is not completed yet.  They still have a few more electrical outlets that need to be installed and they will put down a cushioned "rug" for the activities and kids to run around on.  They did have a few inflatables there to keep the kids entertained.  So, of course, we had to try those out.

Race down the slide

Each girl tried her skills in batting

Each girl got a couple of hits



Trying out her pitching skills

The Fan Fest was free and the first 2,000 fans got a free hotdog and drink.  We were not one of the first 2,000. 

Each fan got to walk around and sit in any seat to determine which seat they thought was the best to view games from.  After you made that determination, you could walk over to the ticket office and purchase home game tickets or hopefully season tickets.

At 4:00, all of the team members lined up and were giving autographs and taking pictures for the fans.  The line was crazy long for this too.  So, we decided to leave but as we were leaving there were a few team members that were sitting there waiting for the beginning of the line to reach them.  So, I snapped a picture.  Who knows, one of these guys might be the star player for the Mets one of these days and I will have his picture!  We got our tickets for opening night, April 14th and I can wait to watch some baseball.  Play ball!