GROUND BREAKING-DEDICATION

we have arrived in dade city and are all set to go...yesterday/saturday we attended a ground breaking of a young lady weho we worked with last year and already has her hours so weh is an anxious to be home owner...

then after that we went to a house dedicaton. which is now know os the vlounteer house...it has 2 baths-3 bedrooms and is going to be used for volunteers that come here to work such as when the college kids come...a grounp from wisconsin just left and there is another group arriving today for next week..the house has buck beds and hopefully all 21 will fit in it...kinda cramoed quarters for for young people it will be just fine for them for a week....

several of the care-a-vanners have pulled in and it is good to see the old faces and catch up on old times...tom and christine even came over..tom had a bowel resection around christmas time so won't be dong any hammering but he can give us lots of support if he is up to bringing his lawn chair and supervise...

watch the weather this monrnig and if appears that we got here at a good tome..ice-snow predicated for georgia and north carolina...rain may arrive here but we won't have to worry about hauling the rig and the traffic in some yucky weather...monday lar has an appointment for the truck that has had a malfunction on the way down..due to a diesel exhasut fuel thing that is new to the diesel trucks a EPA fed thing...hope to get the straigthen out and dosen't cause us any further problems...lar spent lots of time on ON STAR trying to figure this out on the way down and after we got here so off the the chevy dealer it goes...

sun is out right now but the clouds will be coming in soon or so they say...enjoy your day...

ON THE ROAD

yesterday we met up with our team leaders at the north carolina welcome station...we had talked to them while enroute and found out that they were about 1/2 hr ahead of us and so a plan was made to meet up at the welcome area...the nwe went on to south of the border in south carolina and spent the night in thier campground...we had 2 good days of driving but in the night it started to rainso most of yesterday was driving in the rain...just s drizzle most of the time..but we did see some sun..

we were heading to brunswick, ga as there is a build going on here and the leaders of the care-a-vanners was here and we were invited to spend the night...we were also glad to met them as wehave had many e-mails from them regarding signing up for builds etc...of course we got here just about time to set up and met outside for happy hour...interesting to met up with more volunteers who have been places we've been before and hear about all the different builds going on and what might be new...mary is gong to attend an affialite meeting and drum up more care-a-van builds...there are some out there that don't kow about us...so next winter there ought to be more builds to sign up for...she would like to get more in the south as that is where most of us go in the winter...morre that just florida...and we incouraged her to do so as next year we are wanting to go some place diffferent it is time to met more and go other places...oh we like dade city and the people there but we don't want to get in a rut...

today we will be in dade city as it is less than 300 miles from where we are now...on sat there is to be a dedication and ground breaking with a luncheon after that we have been invited too...we would like to be there for that as we have been to dedications but not a ground breaking...not knowing if where the ground breaking takes place will be where we will be building this year...haven't seen any snow in awhile but it is n't warm...hardly got to 50 yesterday but all is well..god bless...

DEPARTURE

the time has come for us to be on the road...spent yesterday doing last minute stuff and trying to remember it all..if we forgot something then we either don't need it or want it...but if it is important then we can always buy what ever...the weather looks good some snow flurries in the forecast but other than that it appears to be clear sailing...now it is time to put the new truck to it's test...we have checked the mileage when we used it to go to watertown and falconer and it figured out better than the old truck but now we will have the rig on and lets hope we get better mileage...especially when the prices keep going up and up....the plan is to be on the raod by 9 and we had ought too..unless something goes amiss..so you all have a great winter and see most of you in the spring...

VISITORS

lar and i had been talking about not seeing any deer in the back yard since opening day..oh we know some ahd been there at night because the fallen apples had been eaten we had just not seen any...yesterday at breakfast i looked out the dining room window and said to lar i think there are a couple deer out back ..sure enough there was a couple of good size does..then in the afternoon i happened to walk into the dining room and there were a couple more that were almost on the back porch...just grazing..so we watched them for awhile but by the time i got the camera they had wonder away up the hill so my pictures was not an up close one..so lar knows that he didn't get them all during the huntings season...

yesterday we started to get the rig ready for travel..i started by packing the clothes i want to hold off on the food till sat or sunday so we don't have to keep the furncas going day and night in ordcer that the canned food dosen't freeze...our plan right now is to pull out of here on tues after all has been done to get the house ready for winter...the water pipes have to be drained and the toilets and sinks filled with antifreeze...there just seems to be a list of last minute things to do..have checked out the weather for several of the cities we know that we go thru and it looks like the weather ought be be ok maybe rain..but didn't hear or see the word snow or ice which is not good...

today last minute clothes packing and non freezing things in the rig..

so you all have a HAPPY NEW YEAR may it be a great one...

CHRISTMAS DAY

it is a couple of days after CHRISTMAS and we have returned back home to a quiet house...lisa's was not so quiet 3 teenagers around sure make it hectic..and we could just sit back and laugh and remember those days... glad i have already been there done that...lar made breakfast with john and mellissa on christmas day and it was a good one...andy and lisa cooked the dinner and we had a turkey and they also cooked a ham all was delicious..

we stayed at the holiday inn where lisa works she got us a deal so we just decided with 3 teenagers in the house it might be nice to get a good nights sleep..besides we weren't invited to stay for a pajama party which they were going to have...stay up all night and watch movies and eat [popcron and what ever else they could find to eat..all in all we had a good visit with the family..

today most of the north east is socked in a blizzard...for us we have some snow but most of it is being blown around as the winds are 30--40 miles per hr and that also makes it cold...so the wood stove is of course on and there is a pot of soup also cooking away..what else on a cold--snowy--windy--wintery day...way to cold to go out and play in it...

later this week it is suppose to warm up a tad so that is when i'll start packing up the rig as we plan on leaving for florida the 3-4-5 of jan..depending on the forecast...not so much here but the route we take sure don't want to get caught in any kinda of unkind weather along the way..but then i guess we can just pull over and be comfy...

SPARE TIME

first what spare time do we have !!! must be some cause now we are volunteering at WONDERFUL WHEELCHAIRS...A friend and a couple of other saw a need to repair wheelchairs for who ever needs one..sso they arrange to use some space in a local nursing home in return WW would repair their wheelchairs for nothing...so right now larry is going every wed from 9-11:30 then they go out to lunch and i have only been a couple of times so far..it happens to be the same day as my exercise class so i may just go every other week so i can still get some exercise ahahah....just can't seem to do everything not enough time in a day or even night...it is a small group that is doing the repairs but what also needs to happen they need to sell some of the repaired ones and maybe once the word gets out about the available wheelchairs more will be sold...medicare pays for those seniors in need so the market has to be other than medicare patients..some dr's offices has bought one or two..most of them seem to have them already..

christmas is creeping upon us but for the most part i think i am ready if not too bad...better luck next year...we will be heading north on friday and returning onsunday the nit will be time to zero in on getting the rig ready for travel...we would like to be on the road before the 5th but of course it also depends on the weather which really is the big factor in all the planning...sure don't want to drive in a blizzard or snow storm...

OUR LITTLE CHRISTMAS TREE

A few years ago our good friends roy and carol gave us this little wooden christmas tree for christmas and we have enjoyed it ever since...we go up to our daughters for the holidays and right after we leave to go south so we haven't gone to the trouble of cutting a real tree to put in the house to decorate...soooo this has been our tree...this is the first year we decided to put some ornaments on it and we think it is just right for us...don't have to water it nor sweep up the needles it drops on the floor...we just hope santa can find it if he decided to comoe our way...

we hope you all are ready for christmas we are...

so we want to wish every one who reads our blog A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR GOD BLESS