Lake Loramie

July 22nd -28th, 2019

We opted to visit a park we have never camped at before, Lake Loramie State Park. We have visited a few times and looked over the campground but before we mainly only had weekends to camp and this campground is slammed on weekends as we are finding out today on Saturday. We originally were going to leave on Friday morning but have enjoyed being in this site with a great view of the lake and canal that we decided to stay till Sunday. We have no one in front of us and our site is plenty large enough to give us space without being cramped. This week has been the most perfect week out of the summer so far and we are entering August next week, weather has been high 70's and low 80's and most of the week was mid 50's at night. To wake up in the morning and look out the windshield and see steam rising from the water was awesome.  Jess and I are getting multiple walks in each day totaling 3 miles at least and Deanna walks in the evening with us. Our neighbor Winona has been a lot of fun to talk with and she just loves Jessie, her parents came friday night for a cookout and her dad Wild Bill (he says Mild Bill) was a blast to talk with, he has traveled a lot of the places we have been or are going.

One day this week a couple friends came up in the morning to go kayaking with me and we spent about 3 hours out on the lake taking a nice leisure paddle for about 4 miles. One side of the lake is all No wake and the other side is the speed zone and it is separated by an island. Actually this campground is on an island. As we went up the north side of the island and crossed under a footbridge there were houses all along the shoreline. Quite a nice community. One thing we have noticed is there is a lot of Red Headed Woodpeckers at this park and a lot of Blue Herons. We have not seen a single mammal yet as in Deer or Racoon or Skunk which is surprising.

Sitting here this morning typing this and all the campers around cooking out the smell of bacon is filling the air and the sound of silence is pretty much not broken by people but by dogs barking. I find that pretty amazing that this many people are congregated in one area and it is so quiet as compared to what it would sound like sitting in a restaurant with the noise level nearing breaking your ear drums!

Friday night Deanna was feeling better than she had all week after suffering through what we are pretty sure was a flair of her lupus so she decided to go out in the inflatable kayak so she could enjoy some of the canal system of the lake. Was a great night and not to hot, we got in about a mile and a half and about an hour on the water.

So today (Saturday) we will just lounge and enjoy the atmosphere, tomorrow will be back home and getting the RV cleaned up for the next excursion where ever that may be too. We want to make a run to Indiana yet before we head west in September.

 Above is a video of the dam here at the lake

 This is the kayak ramp that is handicap accessible.

 A rock I found from a facebook page from people who paint rocks and place them, when you find them you post you found it and then place it in a different spot.

 Red Headed Woodpecker

Kayaking Barkcamp State Park

 About 3.25 miles around the lake, hot hot hot!

Found some beach balls

 Overflow basin at the dam.

Barkcamp State Park

July 7th, 2019

We waited for the park to clear of 4th of July campers and arrived here at Barkcamp at about 3:30. 170 miles and took us about 4 hours. This park is only about 20 miles from Charleston WV. The section we are in has maybe 7 campers. Upon arriving and getting set up it was sweltering heat at almost 90º and 5000% humidity but shortly afterward it began raining and poured down for over an hour. Now at 8:30pm the temp outside is a lovely 70º.

Tomorrow we will do a little driving around and check out the lake, Jess and I will get our morning walk in to the tune of about 2 miles. Tonight we just had a brat for dinner and applesauce.

Last night we had dinner with my Niece and her family from Indiana, was great to see her as it has been about 4-5 years. We will make a trip over to see them sometime this month.

June 3rd

Quick update, at Kiser Lake which is nice because there are only 4 other campers here so we have it all too ourselves basically. Jess was pretty sore last night since the previous 2 days I took her walking with me in the morning and we did 2 miles Saturday and 3 miles Sunday along with her other walks. She was wiped out all evening. Also found 2 ticks so keeping a close eye on her when she comes back in from the walks, they show up pretty easy on her white legs

Temperature got down to 45º last night so the furnace was definitely required! Today is a bright sunny 50º right now and no rain expected till Wednesday. Had a little campfire last night but the cold front was blowing about 15 mph  which didn't make it all that enjoyable :)

Today some errands to run and we will see where it goes from there!

Retirement Day 1

So I finished my working career for a living on May 31st, 2019. My original intentions was to retire on Deanna's birthday but that extra 2 weeks of wages wreaked havoc on qualifying for Social Security so I backed it up to the end of May.  The day before the awesome company I worked for Fluid Quip Inc. had a cookout for me that was catered by a local BBQ business Rudy's. Quite the feast, pulled chicken, pulled pork, baked beans, scalloped potatoes, mac and cheese, chili, chips, cobblers, cookies and plenty of drinks. It was awesome! This is the best I have ever been treated by a Company and not just because of the cookout and that includes when I worked for myself for 13 years!

A week or so of glamping is the best way we can think of to start this adventure BUT to get the day started right it has not only been Deanna waiting for me to retire but Jessie Dog, every morning I leave for work she would stand at the gate and watch till she couldn't see me anymore and then hang her head, Deanna would let her in and she would go to her little cubby hole in a closet and pretty much stay till I came home at lunch. SO to get this started we are going to go for a morning walk. This will be a great way to get some exercise for both of us.

So that is the update, stay tuned for upcoming travels!

Approaching Retirement

March 24th, 2019 T minus 68

Well Monday the 25th marks 10 weeks till retirement. Final day will be May 31st, 2019. The company I have been working for the last 13 years after we came off the road for a year has been the most exceptional company one can imagine. Generous beyond belief in sharing their success with employees, although I am sad to leave I may do some occasional work for them in maintenance items, but in general retirement will be our life :) . Social Security has been filed and determined and will begin this summer, this is a whole new chapter in life. When we attempted retirement in 2005 we had many struggles in that we owned and owed on an industrial building, had to supply our own insurance,  and had no notable income. What is different now is building is paid for and rented, we have retirement income from IRA's and of course Social Security Retirement income to rely on. 

Getting back on the road is something we have been longing for, Deanna has had a neck and a back operation since I returned to work in 2006 and in the past year has been diagnosed with Lupus. Fortunately it was caught early and is a mild case and not expected to ramp up now that she is on medication to help control the flares and issues associated with this horrible disease, it is the great imitator they call it as it is almost identical to Rheumatoid Arthritis but left untreated can involve organs. We caught hers in time and no such thing is happening to her fortunately. Her new normal is pains unexplained and sometimes show up for just a few minutes or hours and then gone. On the unfortunate days it may last longer. Joint pain and swelling is a major factor and makes the decision on what she will do during the day.
Fortunately for me I have remained pretty healthy.

We have so many things on our bucket list to start on but the first major trip of our retirement is heading to Utah to visit the 5 National Parks, Arches, Canyon Lands, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Park. Along with those are several State parks and one in particular is Goosenecks State Park where  you can camp along the edge of a 1000' Canyon! Wide open vastness of beauty seeing as far away as Arizona, named because of the way the San Juan river snakes through the canyon. The San Juan river begins in the mountains of Colorado and works it way to meet up with the Colorado River at Lake Powell. The Canyon formed from millions of years of erosion. Our journey west to Utah will be early fall and the plan is to see as much of Utah as we can before the weather chases us out and we then head south past the Grand Canyon into southern Arizona to the Quartzsite area where we will hopefully escape the winters wrath in Ohio. From Quartzite we will travel around the area and explore probably the Salton Sea, Joshua Tree and other numerous destinations. A lot of this is public land where we can camp for free but obviously must provide our own power which will be supplied by the sun through our solar panels. We hope many will travel along with us as we explore and post pictures and videos of our experiences.

Prior to leaving for Utah we will do a lot of the State Parks in Ohio, some we have never been too and who knows where else we will end up at :) After all, we don't have to be any place at all.

Of course our mascot Jessie Dog will be with us the entire time, our motto is if Jessie can't go then we don't go! This will be her first visit to desert area and will be interesting to see how she adapts to not having green grass all the time to do her business! Major had adapted to it but wasn't crazy about it.

Well, this was just a quick update since I haven't posted lately. More to come, hope you can come along!

WOW~ Time flys

December 15th, 2018

Pulled up the blog and saw the last post I made was August 2016!

Biggest news that May 31st 2019 will be my final day of work. I am taking early retirement so Deanna and I can get back to traveling, of course Jessie our fur girl will be going wherever we go. Originally I was going to make my last day on Deanna's birthday which is June 13th but that created a real mess for getting my Social Security check scheduled so I am backdating it to May 31st. I will be 62 and 5 months at that time so it will be a reduced amount for retirement but we will be just fine for traveling as we have other investments to assist.

First travel plans for the winter which is what we want to try to avoid is leaving in the early fall for Utah to visit the 5 National Parks among several State Parks which one of is  Goosenecks. This just sounds awesome to be camping on the edge of a 1000' canyon wall looking down at the San Juan River as it cuts through the canyon. Fully aware of how crowded National Parks are we are going to try to make it a little later than the normal busy season. As the weather begins to cool down we will start our way towards Quartzite and area for the winter season of having at least warmer weather than Ohio has to offer.

Hopes are that with retiring there will be more time to enjoy not only the traveling we want to do and spending time with my awesome wife but some of the hobbies that I enjoy and have ignored due to lack of appropriate time, this would include, Metal Detecting, wood working, Photography and Kayaking.

Since deciding to retire back in December of 2017 it seemed so far away but now it is closing in quickly and leaves me about 24 weeks of working. It all seems to be moving so much quicker as I get closer. A few projects are planned commencing on beginning of retirement, an upgrade to our bath in the house and a reconstruction of a attached shed to the garage to make room for my wood working equipment. Then some State Park visits during the week leaving the parks to the masses of people on the weekends.

Well, at least I have made a post, next year as we progress into our retirement adventures I hope to do a better job of documenting our adventures.