Friday, May 20, 2011

Visit with my oldest daughter

Dodie and I awoke this morning, loaded a few items into the motor home and drove an hour to Mill Creek RV Campground in Kissimmee, Florida. We met Marcene, Dan and Tori for the weekend. They have an Alumalite (by Holiday Rambler) motor home, so we decided it would be fun to meet halfway between our respective homes. They live in Palm Bay, FL. We arrived first, around three o'clock in the afternoon. I went ahead and did the registration for both of our rigs, since they would be arriving after the park office closed. During several phone calls with the park manager, Gordon Dickson, we became old friends. Gordon is one of those persons that you just feel close to after a few conversations. When we arrived at the park, Gordon proved to be all I was expecting him to be. You couldn't ask for a more obliging manager. He assigned our two rigs to adjoining lots, making sure that our space was positioned so Dodie wouldn't miss her satellite TV reception.

As I pulled up to our lots, Dodie suggested that we pull in rather than back in, as we are supposed to do. She stated that that would allow us to have our doors facing each other, and we could set up a common outside lounging area between our two motor homes. Although I understood her reasoning, I quickly let her know that it would be a total pain for me, due to the location of all the hook-ups.

I told her that I would think about it while I unhooked the Hummer, but was not really wanting to go through all the extra work to accomplish her suggestion.

When I finished unhooking the Hummer and returned to the motor home, Dodie brought to my attention that we were spending the week end for the purpose of visiting with my daughter and her family. "Don't you want to be able to make it easier for us all to visit?" Dodie was making a very solid point.

Guess what...... I pulled our motor home into the space rather than backing it in. After an extra half hour in the grueling Florida heat, I had everything set up. I had to fish the sewer hose under the motor home to the sewer outlet using the extension hose, had to get the extra electric extension cord out and had to get the extra water hose out. Well, it did work out, and we ended up with a neat common area when they arrived.

Gordon stopped by while I was getting everything set up to make sure that we were able to lock in on the satellite, which we were. He asked about me being in the space backwards, thinking that I did it to be able to get satellite reception. I explained to him why I had parked the way I did. He thought that it was a great idea, since we were going to have both motor homes there in adjoining sites.

Just as I finished setting everything up, the guy that lives in the house across the street (not a part of the campground) sauntered up to me. I turned toward him and said hello. He looked at me as if I had committed some horrible sin, saying "Do ya realize that you are parked backwards in that space, son?" After explaining my reasoning to him, he shook his head and walked away. Some people just don't understand.

After my ordeal with the set up, I was sweating and somewhat overheated, so I put on my bathing suit and went to the pool. It was great. The water was a perfect temperature, and cooled my overheated body down to a respectable temperature.

The kids arrived around six o'clock, and backed in to their space. After we got both awnings out, and all the chairs, etc., we had a great set-up. Life is good!!!

I threw hamburgers on the grill and we had a very enjoyable evening, and look forward to a great week-end's visit.

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