10/05/2021
The sun was shining and it was going to be a beautiful day here at St Ives as we took our morning walk around the park. The mechanical monsters were hard at work moving around the still wet and soggy dirt and as I watched, a tractor trailer came in with a large dump truck on board. This is an onsite dump truck especially for moving the piles of dirt around. I wondered what they were going to do with the huge pile they had excavated and I guess I will soon find out if I stay here long enough. Interesting watching all of these people earning a living doing the same things that I did in the early years of my working career. I loved operating and being around heavy equipment and spent several years of my life working pipeline construction in England, my home country.
I have been thinking about our next move and now that we have located a town nearby with all of the necessities that I need, we will stay here through the 17th of this month. I needed to do laundry anyway and also dispose of a bag full of garbage as I made my way towards the Office where all of those things are located. The laundry room was on a combination lock and was very clean with 4 washers and 4 dryers so I set a wash going and then walked to the dumpster to dispose of my trash. before returning to the Office to make the necessary arrangements to stay longer. I knew it wouldn’t be a problem as the Park is only about half full, many of whom are long term residents working in the area.
Back in the Laundry room, I waited for the wash load to finish and an older lady came in to do her laundry. We started to chat as we waited and I learned a lot of her RV life. She was married to a construction worker who was building a store in the area and she told me that they travel around all over following his work. Another much younger lady came in and joined in the conversation which helped pass the time as we waited for our laundry to do it’s thing. It’s interesting to hear their different stories and their reasons for the RV life.
With the laundry folded and put away for another week and the site reserved, it was time to go walking again. Even though it has cooled off a little, it is still in the mid eighties with enough humidity to be uncomfortable especially as there is not a lot of shade in the park. We made a couple of circuits not seeing anything out of the ordinary before returning to the RV for the night. A Park employee on a mower, stopped to warn me about the ‘Gator but I told him that I had already met the big fellow. He claimed it to be eight feet long which is may well be as I was in a hurry to take the picture and get the hell out of there that I didn’t pay that much attention.
With food for the dogs, food for me and a glass of wine we finished the evening in our usual way watching soccer on the TV.
10/06/2021
Life is settling into a routine as it usually does. In our case it is waking up at whatever time my body decides that it has had enough rest, going through the usual morning ablutions and then walking the dogs for as short or as long as Sandy decides we need to go. Normally, I hate bossy women and she is one of the bossiest… Seriously though, she is the one exception as I don’t hate her. Just the opposite in fact and I really do value both her and Mikey’s devotion and companionship. Following our breakfast routine varied by whatever strikes my fancy, it is time to settle down in front of the computer and go through my emails most of which are just newsy items accompanied by a lot of junk mail. I get very few emails from friends and associates except for the couple of really good friends that I have left. That is what happens when you hit the road as you tend to leave that past life behind you. I noticed the same thing when I quit playing football, soccer to you un-initiated, that I soon lost contact with all of those dozens of friends who I kicked on a regular basis every weekend. Still as long as I stay in touch with the important people in my life, that is really all that matters. With emails out of the way at least for a while as they are a never ending string of information all day long, I turned my attention to my blog to catch up on each days events as I keep track of our adventures. Not sure how many people follow the blog or read my stuff but as I only write for my own satisfaction, it really doesn’t matter that much. I will always write as long as I can and have a story to tell. At least it keeps my brain active and goodness only knows, it is getting more and more forgetful.
From my window, I can see the excavator working on a huge pile of dirt. They have the one dump truck that they brought in a day ago which I mentioned previously so it is a slow process. Somehow, I will be very surprised if they move that small mountain before I leave here on the 17th.. This Park is going through several different expansions and they have very grandiose plans for it. Eventually, it will have room for 137 RV’s plus additional entertainment, things like a swimming pool and spa, a Bar, a bocce ball court, a volleyball court and even an 18 hole golf course. I don’t know why there are not more people here as it is but maybe because it has just reopened and the word hasn’t got out yet. They are always busy around the park with mowing and such goings on all of the time.
We have no major plans for the day except for walkies which Sandy is already bugging me about. I keep telling her that she needs to adjust her interior clock as it doesn’t read the same time as mine and after all, I make the decisions. Well, most of the time. Following our stroll around the park, just as we usually do, we ended the day with dinner for all of us. Maybe not the same food as I didn’t fancy eating a can of dog food although I guess it probably would not harm me but I don’t really want to find out. As it happened, I had cooked up some Pork Chops coupled with green beans making a very satisfying meal followed by a glass of cheap wine, TV and then to bed.
Written 10/06/2021 – Check out my other blog at https://pondblog2011.com