Living Our Dream

Christmas in Pittsburgh 2011

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, Dec. 16 to Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2011

We made our trek from Florida to Pittsburgh for Christmas again this year. We go in the car and stay with our daughter, Lora, and "son," J. Michael, since the weather this time of year is too unpredictable to take the motor home north. As we have done in the past, we drove straight through, a trip that takes 15 to 16 hours. We drive straight through because we're spoiled by having an RV and don't like motels. It's a looong drive, and we're not sure how many more years we'll be able to do it, but it works for now.

The weather was fairly warm most of the way this year. We left Florida at 3:00 AM with the temperature around 60º. It dropped to the lower 50s as we drove north, but then began to climb again as the sun came up. It was 69º by the time we got to Charlotte. The temperature began to drop again after we hit clouds around Charlotte, especially after it started to rain a little north of there. The temperature was down to the upper 30s by the time we drove through the western part of virginia. Fortunately, it didn't get any colder so we didn't get any snow. The reason we leave so early is so we can arrive in Pittsburgh in the early evening to have time to visit before we both fall into bed.

Our trip to Pittsburgh usually doesn't take place until around December 20th or 21st, but Margery wanted to attend the wedding of the daughter of a former coworker the weekend before Christmas, so we left a few days earlier than usual so we would be there in time for the Saturday wedding. Fortunately for Paul, Lora also knows Margery's co-worker, so she went in Paul's place giving Paul a chance to stay home to relax and read. Margery and Lora had a wonderful time visiting with friends from the church where Margery worked. Here are the three beautiful Reamer 'girls' with the groom.

On Monday, Paul met some of his former coworkers for lunch, and on Tuesday and Wednesday evening, Margery did the same. On Wednesday afternoon, we took Paul's step mom to lunch at Bella Frutetto, which is an upscale, Italian restaurant located in a strip mall in Pittsburgh's North Hills area. Lunches range from $8 to $13 for paninis and sandwiches to $12 to $15 for entrées. We had a nice visit and a delicious lunch.

Having lunch out several times and the temptations of special treats of the holiday season made it hard to stick to our diet. We have had occasional cheat days in the past, but this is going to be a cheat week. Fortunately, Lora and J. Michael are following the same diet, and we are continuing to watch our carbs at least part of the time.

We spent the rest of the week cooking, wrapping, and preparing for Christmas. Then we went to church on Christmas Eve eve. The church Lora and J. Michael attend has grown so large, they can't accommodate everyone on Christmas Eve even though they have several services. They have a new building under construction, but it is not expected to be ready until early next summer. In the meantime, they have added a couple of services the evening before Christmas Eve (Friday). We decided to attend church on Friday hoping it would be less crowded. The service was filled, but not to overflowing.

J. Michael's family gathers at his brother's house on Christmas Eve. They are a great bunch, and we are so blessed to be included in the festivities. There is always plenty of good food (more temptations) and lots of laughter.

On Christmas morning, we opened gifts with Lora and J. Michael. The next photo shows J. Michael with his Christmas hat and their new, 7-month old boxer puppy, Fiona.

Fiona and Gunnar, Lora and J. Michael's two-year old male boxer, get along very well. We enjoyed watching them open and play with their gifts. The next photo shows them anxiously awaiting their first gift...

...and they had a great time with it.

J. Michael got Lora a Kindle Fire...

...and, among other things, a very cute set of PJs with a boxer that looks just like Fiona.

Lora got J. Michael a golf bag. He loved it so much, he just had to give it a big hug.

We got the puppies "bully sticks," which are dog treats recommended by Cesar Milan, the Dog Whisperer. They are supposed to be easy to digest and less messy than rawhide bones. J. Michael was shocked to find out that they are made from the part of the bull that makes it a bull.

On the day after Christmas (Monday), we went to J. Michael's mom's house for the family gift exchange. Rather than get everyone a small gift, they each draw a name and buy gifts only for that one person. Of course, the names are all kept secret, and they have a lot of fun guessing who has what name. There was a lot more good food and fun. The next photo shows us with Lora and J. Michael and J. Michael's mom.

And here is a photo of the whole gang sans J. Michael's brother-in-law who was the one taking the picture and having a great time with his new camera.

J. Michael had to go back to work on Tuesday. Margery and Lora went shopping to pick up some post-Christmas bargains and to re-stock the pantry. We went to see "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" in the early evening after J. Michael got off work. It's been quite a while since any of us had been to the movies, and we really enjoyed seeing an action movie on the big screen. Nothing like movie popcorn for our last off-diet dinner!

On Wednesday, we were on our way back to Florida. We left Pittsburgh a little before 8:00 AM and got into Bushnell shortly after 11:00 PM . Traffic on the way south after Christmas is always worse than on the way north because many Florida residents are trying to get back home before New Years, and a good many snowbirds start to head south right after Christmas is over. However, this year was the lightest traffic we have seen in the 4 years we have been going back to Pittsburgh for Christmas. There was one tie-up in South Carolina on I-26 right before it meets I-95, and a few slow-downs on I-95, but it only took us about 15 minutes longer going south than it did going north. We're not sure what the reason was, but we're not complaining.

We'll take a few days to relax, but we'll have another report on our activities soon, so stay tuned.

Merry Christmas

Market of Marion

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, Dec. 9, 2011

Last January, we went to a flea market called the Market of Marion located in Belleview, FL a little to the north of The Villages. The market is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, so we decided to take a drive to Belleview to check out the market on the Friday after we arrived in Bushnell. Like last time, we were able to get a parking spot right near the main entrance.

It was cool and a little overcast in the morning, so the market wasn't too crowded when we arrived around 10:00 AM, but it started filling up by the time we were getting ready to leave. The next photo is a view looking down the main aisle shortly after we arrived.

We remember seeing a vendor last year who had a large selection of knock-off sunglasses. In fact, we had photos of both of us trying on sunglasses in last year's blog post. The same vendor also has good quality reading glasses, and Paul needed a new pair because his old ones had gotten bent somewhere along the way, and the lenses also were speckled with paint from his project of repainting the roof edges a few weeks ago.

After picking out a pair of reading glasses, we continued on our way around the flea market. Being a woodworker, Paul was really impressed with the wooden airplanes and the train in the next photo that one vendor had for sale. The prices for the F-16 Fighting Falcon (left foreground) and F-18 Hornet (right foreground) were only $59.95, which Paul thought was reasonable given the number of hours that probably went into creating the models. They were accurate representations of the real thing with great detail and an amazingly smooth, glossy finish.

Last January, we went to the market looking for produce, but they didn't have much when we were there then. This time it was different. There was an entire row of fruits and vegetables of all types. We bought fresh asparagus, leaf lettuce, a green pepper and a cucumber. The prices were very reasonable.

After visiting the Market of Marion, we headed back to the motor home by way of The Villages so we could stop at Walmart to pick up a few items that the Walmart next to Blueberry Hill was out of when we stopped there the day before. After Walmart, it was lunch time, so we stopped at the OakWood Grill near The Villages. We discovered OakWood last year, and it quickly became one of our favorite restaurants because of their delicious smoked meats and barbecued ribs.

Barbecue doesn't fit with our low carb/low sugar diet very well because of all the sugar that is usually used in the sauce; but, fortunately, the yummy smoked beef we fell in love with last year at OakWood is so good it needs little or no sauce. Margery opted for the smoked beef sandwich, and Paul had a smoked beef platter to save more carbs by eliminating the bun. The platter came with garlic toast, but Paul only tried a bite or two of that. Lunches range in price from about $7 to $9 and include one or two sides, and some also include a beverage.

With our bellies full, we made our way back to the motor home. As we said, our posts may be a little shorter and a little less frequent now that we're in Florida for the winter, but we won't be napping the entire time, so look for our updates.

Suncoast Designers Part Deux

Bushnell, FL - Events of Friday, Dec. 2 to Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2011

Last year we stopped at Suncoast Designers in Hudson, FL to have four of our dual pane windows repaired. Fogging of dual pane windows is a fairly common problem for RVs because bouncing down the highway tends to break the seal between the panes of glass. Once the seal is broken, moisture can get in between the panes. As the glass heats and cools, the moisture condenses on the inside surfaces creating a foggy appearance. The presence of moisture not only is unsightly, but it reduces the insulating value of the window. If left unrepaired, the moisture can also eventually etch the glass making the repair even more expensive because you will then have to replace the glass or possibly the whole window.

Over the past year, we noticed that three additional windows had shown a little bit of fogging at one time or another, so we decided to stop at Suncoast again to have them repaired before settling in at our winter roost at Blueberry Hill in Bushnell.

Last year, we made the trek from Summerdale to Suncoast in two days, a drive of a total of about 10 hours. That is certainly doable, but we usually like to keep our travel days to four hours or less. We have also been spoiled this year with so many short travel days, so we decided to break the drive to Suncoast into three days.

The first night, we stopped in Fountain, FL at Pine Lake RV, which is located about 15 miles south of the interstate and to the north of Panama City, FL. We stopped there in March, 2010 on our way from Bushnell to Summerdale. Pine Lake RV is a Passport America campground with half price camping. Even with the discount, however, our site was still almost $20 even before tax because there is an extra $5 charge for 50 amp that isn't subject to the discount.

The roads at Pine Lakes RV are paved, but the pavement is quite narrow. It doesn't look too bad in the view down the road past our site in the photo below, but there are some tight turns where it is hard to keep your rig on the pavement. Fortunately, the ground is firm so there's no chance of getting stuck, but you do have to be careful of several trees close to the road and a couple of rigs that were parked with their back ends sticking out.

The sites are a combination of grass and sand, and most are long pull-throughs. The sites are a little close together, but the width isn't too bad for a private campground.

Some sites have 30-amp electric and some have 50 amp. Pine Lake has full hook-ups with free Wi-Fi. The Wi-Fi signal was fairly strong, but the connection was way slower than our Verizon 3G and way, waaay slower than the 4G we had gotten used to in Summerdale.

There is some highway noise from four-lane U. S. Highway 231 that passes by the campground on the way to Panama City. There is also a railroad track a few hundred feet on the other side of the highway. Fortunately, there weren't many trains because the one or two that did pass rumbled by very loudly. Fortunately, there aren't any crossings near the campground, so we didn't hear any train horns.

We headed out the next morning and had a drive of about four hours to our next stop at Palm RV in Worthington Springs, FL. Palm RV is another Passport America campground, and the price was $18 a night with the discount. Palm RV consists of about a dozen RV sites in the large side yard of the owner's home.

Palm RV has full hookups, and at least some of the sites have 50 amps. Although the entrance driveway is paved, it is quite narrow; however, there are no obstructions to worry about once you get through the entrance gate, and the gate is plenty wide enough. The rest of the campground is grass except for a few sites that have a small, concrete RV pad. Most of the RVs there were older, and some looked like they were permanent.

The two-lane road that passes by the campground is surprisingly busy (including quite a few 18-wheelers) during the day, so there is some traffic noise. Traffic diminished to almost nothing later at night, and the campground was pretty quiet except for the rooster somewhere in the neighborhood that started crowing about 4:45 AM. Since we had crossed into the Eastern Time Zone, it didn't even start to get light until after 6:00 AM. How do roosters know morning is coming that far in advance?

The drive for the last leg of our journey to Suncoast was a little less than 3 hours, and we pulled into Suncoast shortly after noon on Sunday. Since Suncoast has a limited number of RV spaces and since we were arriving on Sunday when Suncoast was closed with no one there to direct the parking, we wanted to keep our last travel day short so we could arrive fairly early in the day. That was another reason for breaking our trip into three days instead of just two. Some of the spaces face the building. Not only is backing into those spaces a little tight, the sites facing the building are pretty noisy during the work day. Fortunately, we arrived early enough to not only get a space facing away from the building, we also got one on the end so we had a little extra room to open our slides.

Suncoast is an architectural window manufacturer that has also built a niche business repairing RV windows. You can remove the window yourself and drop it off if you are local, you can ship the window to them for repair, or you can stop by and they will remove the window for you and repair it. The price is the same - $250 for large windows (like the ones in the cockpit area of motor homes) and $200 for smaller windows.

Suncoast has about 15 RV sites with water and electric (50 amp only - 30-amp adapters are for sale in the office if you need one). There is also a dump station.

There is plenty of hustle and bustle during the day with workmen removing and re-installing windows, with machinery humming inside the Suncoast building and with delivery trucks coming and going; but that is to be expected because it is a repair/manufacturing facility not an RV resort. Fortunately, it quiets down after 3:00 PM when the workers go home.

On Monday morning, someone came to our door at 7:00 AM to see which windows needed to be repaired, then Paul went to the office to sign the work order to get us into the queue. Workmen came back around 8:00 and removed the three windows that needed repairing and covered the openings with cardboard.

When we were at Suncoast last year, we reported on the process they use to repair the dual pane windows. Click here to read our post from last year and to see pictures of the process.

We planned on spending two nights at Suncoast Designers because they tend to be busy this time of year. Although they can sometimes repair and replace windows in one day, there is no guarantee all of your windows will get done that quickly.

As expected, none of our windows were finished on Monday. The first window didn't show up until about 10:30 Tuesday morning. By the time the guys got the last window in, and by the time we paid our bill, got packed up, and hooked up the toad, we didn't get on the road until almost 2:00 PM. Fortunately, it was only a little over an hour to Bushnell.

Last year, we had a problem with streaks and smudges between the panes of glass in 3 of the 4 windows we had repaired, and Suncoast had to do them over. This year, we are pleased to report there were no streaks and that Suncoast appears to have solved whatever it was that caused that problem last year.

After stopping at Flying J to gas up and to top off our propane tank, we arrived at Blueberry Hill RV Resort in Bushnell, FL a little after 3:00 and got registered and set up on our usual site.

Blueberry Hill has two sections. The front section has paved, pull-through sites that are fairly close together. They usually use the front section for rallies and for people who are staying less than a month. The back section where our site is located has extra-large back-ins that are all grass. The next photo is another view of some of the sites in the rear section.

Blueberry Hill has full hookups with 30/50-amp electric, cable and Wi-Fi. There used to be a fee for Wi-Fi, but now it's free. The campground Wi-Fi seems pretty fast, and there are numerous transmitters around the campground so the signal is strong. We do like to supplement our Verizon usage with campground Wi-Fi when possible because we have a tendency to go over our 5GB limit. Unfortunately, the connection at Blueberry Hill is spotty. It's sometimes hard to get online and we occasionally get dumped off. It will probably get worse once the campground fills up and there are more people trying to use the Wi-Fi, so we'll probably stick to our Verizon Broadband, which we have been very pleased with since we switched from satellite internet back in October.

Blueberry Hill also has a heated pool, a large club house, showers, a laundry, shuffleboard, horseshoes, and a rec center with pool tables, a library and a card room. There is a new activity director this year, and there are already numerous activities on the schedule.

We'll be hanging out here at Blueberry Hill for at least the next three months. We'll be doing a little sightseeing, we'll be working on some projects, and we'll be eating out a few times. Our life will be a little more laid back than it is in summer when we're traveling and doing a lot of sightseeing, so our posts may be a little less frequent; but there will be periodic updates on what we're up to so stay tuned.