1. Planning the trip – I like sitting around making up lists, then crossing off items as

they get done.

2. Getting away from home and into the fresh air – a change of scenery is always nice.

3. Husband does most of the cooking since grilling is man’s work – besides I’m afraid of the grill and getting burned. My husband handles pain better than I do.

4. Being with our friends and playing cards every night – maybe this’ll be the night the girls win. It’s not that the guys are better players – they’re not – it’s just that they get all the right cards. That’s called luck!

5. Biking and walking around looking at other people’s campers and sites- let’s face it, I’m a bit of a voyeur.

Cute, but hazardous!

1. Cleaning the camper before heading out – you know, vacuuming, dusting and

helping husband with the power washing. He washes and I hose it off.

2. Loading the camper – Going up and down the damn steps a countless number of times with full loads. Good exercise, though. Builds up those arm and leg muscles.

3. Being in a cramped space with a husband, cat and dog. The cat sleeps all day so he’s not in the way, but trying to move without bumping into a husband or tripping over the dog can be tricky. Okay, I know I’m supposed to be outside enjoying nature, but that brings me to the next item.

4. Mosquitoes and other biting things – if there’s anything I hate, it’s itchy welts. Listening to whining insects around my head is a close second.

5. Unloading the camper – yup, here we go again. Up and down those steps again.

6. Cleaning the camper after getting home – and yes, we go through this whole procedure again.

Can’t wait till the next trip!

Actually, I had written up a list of things to blog about and as soon as I find the list I’ll start writing about some of those things. In the meantime, however, we did go camping with Al and Dee this past weekend. They had just bought a new trailer after a very bad accident they had with their other trailer about two years ago. So this was their maiden voyage in the new one.

Since the campground (W.P. Franklin, a Corps of Engineers Campground – and they keep these campgrounds immaculate) wasn’t too far from home, Bill and Al went back to Al’s house to get his boat since we were right on the river. So we got some boating in. In the next few days I’ll tell you what I like about camping and what I hate about it. So if anyone out there plans on going camping check this out first.

Below are a few pictures taken at the campground:

Our camp site

Our camper

Smoochie Cat's favorite spot

Look who came for dinner!

So . . . Last weekend Bill and I, along with our menagerie of one cat and one dog, took our RV over to the east coast of Florida. I have a girlfriend (dating back to the 1970s when we worked together) who lives over in Boca Raton and she invited us over for a barbecue. Also at the barbecue was another gal we worked with at the time and who I haven’t seen in about 20 years. (It’s amazing how we never seem to age!)

We left the west coast on a beautiful sunny morning. Pistol, our Shi Tzu, was a very good traveler. He lay down in one spot and hardly moved. Smoochie Cat, on the other hand, is not the best of travelers. We can’t put him in a pet carrier because his yowling would be enough for Bill to either dump him alongside the road or run the RV into a tree. Therefore the only way to get him to shut up is to put him on my lap where he’ll stay for awhile, at least until my circulation stops and my legs get numb. After that he lay on the floor near the dog for awhile or slept on the couch. So the trip east wasn’t as eventful as it could have been.

By the time we got to the other side the sun was gone and in its place were heavy gray rain clouds. We picked up the rental car (we don’t have a tow bar yet) and headed over to the campground. We pulled in and I looked around.

This is it? I thought. Kinda small and all the RVs seemed pretty close together. One of them had a cage outside of it with two very big dogs. Oh no, don’t put us next to that one.

No one was in the office and a sign on the door stated they’d be back at 1:00. Great. That gave us a half hour in which to wait around. We walked the dog and explored the club house which had sort of an indoor pool, a laundry room and even a kitchen. Okay, it looked clean enough. Eventually the manager returned and placed us on a site that was actually pretty decent. We could look out the windows without anyone staring back at us and had nothing behind us except a fence. However, behind that fence was a daycare center. Nothing like the sound of laughter and shrieking of little kids.

During the night it poured and the wind kicked up. Of course, the barbecue was scheduled for later that afternoon. We hung out in the RV until it was time to leave because Bill wasn’t feeling all that well. This meant tripping over or stepping on the dog all day. At least the cat slept on the bed most of the time so he wasn’t underfoot. Before we left, I asked Bill to take down the awning because of the high wind gusts.

Naturally, it rained on the trip to my girlfriend’s condo and also after we got there (and when we left). Actually, this was reminiscent of the Fourth of July BBQ she had the year before last. It poured then, too.

But in spite of the weather we had a great time talking about old times, the people we knew and catching up with each others‘ lives. And, no, we haven’t aged a bit.