A Day of Firsts

 

Blairsville, GA, (high 82, low 68)

 

Rain was predicted yesterday, but all we got was a lovely nice cool day with some cloudiness. 

We puttered around home yesterday, planting some flowers, blowing the deck and doing laundry.  I’m doing a LOT of laundry lately trying to wash off the poison ivy from Al’s clothing. Every time he wears something,  if I don’t wash the clothing several times, it seems to cause him more problems the next time he wears those clothes. According to the research we’ve done on the internet, poison ivy doesn’t spread from touching or clothing, but we don’t believe it.  Maybe you have to be hyper-sensitive to it like Al is but it sure seems to spread on him.  The patch on his leg is growing despite all the care he has given it.  Last night, I thought he was getting better, but now I’m not so sure.    I’m sure glad we have our big washing machine in the cabin. It would take forever to double and triple wash everything with my little machine in the motorhome.

Our new renters arrived from Maggie Valley, NC yesterday.   I knew they had a Toy Hauler, and I knew it was a large one, but I never knew exactly how large.

We advertise our Rv site to be big rig friendly, but when I saw the size of their rig, I was a tad worried.

It’s a 46 foot 5th wheel toy hauler!   I never knew they made them that big.

Here they are unloading the motorcycle.

Ready to back in.

The only casualty was the new 911 lot signs that the county insisted on putting up for the police and fire departments. 

 

 

Dan did an amazing job backing that monster into the site.  It’s a beauty, isn’t it?

Welcome to Rivers Edge Janice and Dan!  This was the first time we’ve had a rig that large and now we know if they can fit, than no one else should have any problems!  We’ve done well renting the extra site out this year. It’s been booked solid since June and we only have a few weeks vacant in September. 

 

I started my new thru-hiker book yesterday and sat outside under the awning reading.  This true story was written about a hike in 2008 which was the same year the guy in my last book did the AT.  I was sure surprised when I recognized one of the characters (hikers) from the last book! Everybody who hikes these trails gets “trail names” and I remembered hiker “Padre” from the last book.  It was like meeting an old friend!

 

After hanging around home all day, we decided to take our usual evening golf cart ride searching for the elusive bear.  We didn’t see a bear, but we found something almost as good.

Last week we took our other renters Mike and Lisa out on the golf cart.  When we went over this rickety bridge over the stream, she noticed this wood and said it looked like a beaver had chewed it. 

 

After we rounded the corner, inside the farmers garden which was surrounded by an electric fence, sat this handsome guy.

Our first Beaver sighting.   We have never seen a beaver in Florida. Al Googled them and found there are some beaver in Florida, but we sure have never seen one before.

We noticed where he had been making his dam.

We were thrilled, but evidently they are seen around here often, so no one else was too impressed.  :)

 

We continued our ride until it was pitch black outside, but never saw that darn bear.

My Addiction

 

Blairsville, GA (high 82, low 60)

 

I’m sitting here in my recliner with my furry robe on and a blanket on my legs.  It was a nice 60 degrees overnight.  We are loving this cool weather.  Soon, we will need the heat, I’m sure.

Yesterday was a lazy day.  Al is zapped from the poison ivy and the Benadryl he has to take.  He has a big patch of oozing poison ivy on his leg and a few other smaller patches in different spots on his body.  Poor guy.  He’s so sensitive to the stuff and no matter what he does, he seems to get a bad case several times a year.

We did manage a trip to the all you can eat buffet and we wandered around a few shops in town.  We came home and had a nap.

The campground had an ice cream social yesterday and bingo last night. We skipped the ice cream (might have something to do with the fact that we’d been at the all you can eat buffet) but we made it to bingo.  I won a $25 gift certificate at a new seafood restaurant in town.  Al usually wins at bingo, but last night it was my turn.

 

Our previous renters left yesterday.  I had been a little worried their big rig would fit on our site, and still have room for the 4 slides and awning.  It turned out that they fit just fine, don’t you think?

 

We have some new people coming today with a big toyhauler.   Sure hope they fit.  :)

 

I finished my 2nd Appalachian Trail thru-hiker book. I seem to be addicted to these stories. Each one I’ve read is so different and with a totally new perspective.  I really enjoyed  “Hiking Through” by Paul Stutzman and was sad when I finished.  I  would recommend it to anyone who is interested in reading about thru-hiking.  It’s amazing what they go through to do this very difficult hike of roughly 2180 miles that takes months to do. They encounter rain, cold, snow, heat, blisters, near starvation, loneliness, extremely strenuous climbs and still they go on.  I love to read these books, but I have no desire to hike that trail. It’s too tough for me. It seems a common thread is that they have lost a loved one and go to heal.   Sherry told me about a new book about a guy who hiked it with his 8 year old son.  I’m not sure how I think about that.  It seems to me it might be child abuse. I didn’t like the couple Sherry posted about on her blog that had the puppy with them.  Dog abuse!

The library is closed today and I wanted another AT thru-hiking book to read so I bought a Kindle version from Amazon.  It was only $4.99 so I splurged.  I think I am addicted to thru-hiker stories!  Isn’t it nice how you can search Amazon and have the book in seconds?  I don’t buy many books, but once in a while we do.

• Rethinking Life on the Appalachian Trail: The 2008 Thru-hike of "Rethinker"   I read the trailer and it seems like it’s going to be a good book.  I’ll let you know.

 

We were out on a golf cart ride the other night, doing our usual bear search.  No bear so far, but we do see quite a few deer.

It was getting pretty close to dark when we saw this group of about 4 deer.  The picture was  blurry because it was dusk, but I thought this was a great shot anyway.  They were getting a little frisky.

The following are other photos taken from different golf cart rides.

This is Pete and Jean.  Pete is our electrician friend who so kindly helped replace the 50 amp breaker on our rental site.   Their golf cart is a Cricket.  They can be folded up and I’ve seen them fit in the back of a Honda Crv.  He kept up with the rest of us.

We found a cute wall decoration for the cabin. Isn’t this cute?

 

We bought two, the larger one and a baby.  They look pretty cute in the cabin.

 

Years ago, we bought a pair of loppers.  We weren’t sure when or where we bought them, but they took a beating when we owned our 11 acres in south Georgia.  This year, we finally broke them when cutting a large branch.  We figured we’d need to buy another pair, but when we looked at the new ones, Al noticed the tag said they had a lifetime guarantee.  Yay!

They are Fiskars brand.  I went online, filled out a warranty form, sent them a picture of the damaged loppers and a few days later, we had a brand new pair of loppers identical to the old ones (but for the broken handle). 

So, the moral of the story is, if you have any Fiskars products, don’t throw them away if they break!  Great company.  Thanks Fiskars!