Fire & Water

Gerry and I had Grant stay with us for the weekend and we wound up visiting with Barb & Henry at their house.  Gerry's sister, Darlene and husband Tom drove down from Annapolis, MD to join us in the festivities.  We hadn't seen Darlene and Tom since last September and it was great seeing them again.

Henry prepared some Chicken Speedies on the grill and with the sides, we were more than filled up with great food.  No, that isn't my Mai Tai mix on the bar, it's for Tom. 

 

We ate on their patio and after dinner someone had the bright idea to build a fire in the firepit.  Nice thought, but since it had been rainy for the last week, the firewood was soaked.  Grant wasn't to be deterred and worked on the fire for a long time.  Henry finally went over and helped him and this was their reward.

It was only after the fire was going that Gerry remembered we didn't have any marshmallows or chocolate for S'moors.  It was too late to pick them up so we all had to suffer through not having them. 

It was difficult to get a nice picture around the fire since the smoke kept moving around and covering up people in smoke.  This was the best we could do with the picture and I've included it just so you know they were successful in the fire making skills.

By this time the adult refreshments were flowing freely and someone thought it would be great to get into the hot tub.  Barbara and Grant were prepared since they had their swimming suits, while Gerry wasn't as fortunate.  Do you think that would stop her from jumping in?   No way!  Barb and Gerry found some clothes for her and in she jumped.  Darlene, being less daring decided to opt out of the hot tub.  This is the best shot I could get of shy Gerry in her hot tub outfit.  She looks pretty hot to me.

I don't really like hot tubs and since I wasn't properly dressed, I declined the invitation to join them.  Plus, I wasn't sure Darlene could handle seeing me in there and I know it would be hard for her to resist.  So, I stayed out for Darlene's sake.  No thanks are needed.

We left shortly after that and weren't sure Grant could stay awake long enough to drive back to the motor home, but he made it.  Good thing!  There is no way that I could carry him into the motor home since he is so big now.  

Alaska Trip - 1995

Gerry and I had planned on buying a motorhome and looked for the perfect one for almost 2 years.  We finally figured out the the perfect MH wasn't in our budget, but we did find one that we both liked.  It was a 30ft 1995 Fleetwood Flair with no slideouts and it seemed huge to us.  We picked it  up at a local dealer (who went out of business a year later) and took it home to see if it fit in our driveway.  It did, but was a little tricky parking it.

We took it out for a test run at a local state park and checked everything we could.  It all worked and we were very please with that.  Then we drove home, packed it up and went on a 90 day trip from Maryland to Alaska and back, driving a total of 15,016 miles.  
Why am I writing this you may wonder.  Well, I was reading a blog today and the bloggers were in Fairbanks, AK and looking for the North Pole visitors center.  Here it is in 1995.

 
They found out that the visitors center had moved across the street to the campground that used to be there.  We camped there for a few days while we visited all the sights in the area.  The blogger said the visitors center was in the office of the old campground and the campground was closed for good.  What a shame, since it was a great spot to stay while in the area.

Gerry was on the phone with one of the kids at the campground office in 1995.  I was using Compuserve as my internet provider in those days and we connected to the local Compuserve phone number to check our email  Compuserve is also out of business.  Can I pick winners?

Check out the following blog about their Alaska trip.  Ray & Cindys RV Travels

It was a very muddy trip along the ALCAN Highway and the stuff they put on the road to keep the dust down really cakes up and clings to everything when it got wet.  We had mud about 6-8 thick on the undercarriage and must have added a couple hundred pounds to the unit.  

There are a number of blogs about traveling to Alaska and it's sort of a pilgrimage for RVers to make the trip at least once in their lifetime.  We thoroughly enjoyed the trip, but if you don't like to drive a lot, then I wouldn't advise starting on the adventure.  

We had a quiet, but rainy day around here.  It was time for Grant to spend the night with us.  We drove to Larry Jr. & Jane's to pick him up, but before leaving we had some great homemade pizza prepared by Larry Jr. Then we brought Grant back to the MH with us.  He is zonked out on the couch and we are finally getting ready for bed.

That was our day then and now.  How was yours?

Rain & Tom Tom GPS

The topic of today is all the rain we've been getting here in the Charlotte, NC area these past few days.  I don't know what the total rainfall has been, but it has been falling on and off all day and night.  Since we just left the desert, the humidity and rain are really getting to us and it looks like it will be getting worse with the tropical storm heading this way.  Thank God the motorhome doesn't leak.

Our Tom Tom car charger quit working on the unit a year or so ago and I've been using the phone charger on it.  One problem has been that the car chargers have quit working after 6 months of use.  When the first one went out I figured it was just old.  Then when it happened again I read the instructions and found out the new ones were not as powerful and most likely burnt out trying to supply the GPS.

Gerry has an Amazon.com gift card and we decided to order a Universal USB Car Charger from them.  It was compatible with our Tom Tom and the price was right.  We tried to use the card to pay for it using Barb & Henry's Amazon account, but it wouldn't accept the gift card numbers.  Finally after finagling with it for a while it went on it's merry way and the unit was charged to their credit card account.  Hummm, I liked that.   They have express shipping for free this month so we took advantage of that also and the charger came in Tuesday.  

I plugged the charger into the car cigarette lighter (why do they call it that when we don't smoke cigarettes?) and off it went.  It was working and charging up the GPS just like it was supposed to.  Ah, the wonders of electronic devices today.  Now I feel able to take the next step and maybe order a new phone.  Maybe!

We've been on the go since we left Red Bay, AL and decided to take a day off.  Just our luck that it's been raining all day and we can't do much anyway, so it worked out fine.

That was our day, how was yours?

Relaxing at Barb & Henry's

Barbara had a day off work on Wednesday and she and Gerry decided to work on some craft projects.  Also, Barbara drove over to Ryan & Dee's and picked up great grandson Griffin to watch him for the day.  That should have been the first clue that not much craft stuff would be accomplished.   Griffin has to be the most held and loved child in the world since he goes from one person's arms to the next on a rotating basis.  Today was no exception.

I'm not too enthused about holding young babies and wait until they are around 2 years old and can walk and talk before I pay much attention to them.  Of course, by then they aren't much interested in talking to me or are running around like a banshee and I can't keep up with them.   Griffin did come over and try to get me up and moving around, but fell a little short of accomplishing this.  Maybe when he is a little older it will work.

Come on old man, get up.

While the girls were ohing and awing over Griffin I took advantage of the fast internet service to download some files and update some programs.  I also brought along my 1T (terrabyte) external disk drive and moved a lot of huge files from my PC to the 1T drive.  That took forever since there was about 200Gig of data being moved back and forth over a USB connection.  Henry just jumped the ante on computer stuff with me since he bought a 3T  drive and I only have the 1T drive.  I wonder if they sell 4T drives now and how much they cost?

Taylor (grand daughter in-law) and Stephanie (grand daughter) came by after work and visited with us for a while.  It's always nice to see them since they are bubbly and cheerful and nice to be around.  They are both RNs and Stephanie works for an invitro clinic while Taylor teaches at a local high school and works part time at a hospital during the summer.

Taylor on left, Stephanie on right.  Beautiful girls (women)

I took time out from all the festivities and went to pick up Grant from his school.  It was a 30 mile drive there and seemed to take forever, but we had a nice chat on the way back and time flew by.  Grant scored a goal in the soccer game at school and also made a sliding tackle to prevent a goal.  The fact that he had on nice khaki slacks and a long sleeve white shirt never entered the thought process.  Looks like some fels naptha will be used in the laundry tonight.  

Jane came by after work and joined us for dinner and then she and Grant headed back to their house.  Barb had prepared a nice spaghetti dinner and we all chowed down on the great food, except for Taylor who had to leave and go home to fix our grandson Sean his dinner.

Once all the kids were gone and it quieted down we visited with Barbara & Henry until late in the evening and then headed back to the motorhome.  Boy, visiting really tires you out.

That was our exciting day, how was yours?

 

Lazy Days of Almost Summer

Gerry and I both spent our school years in Central Illinois during the 50s.  Earlier than that also, but I won't address that in this blog.  Summer was defined as when we weren't in school and that time period was from Memorial Day to after Labor Day.  I always looked forward to the freedom of summer and those days at Gillespie Lake swimming and hanging out at the beach.  Never mind that once you go into the water it was a mud beach, but it was a beach.  As the summer wore on the water temperature really started to rise but it was still refreshing due to the long hot summers we had then.

Those were the days before watching tv, cellphones, X-Boxes, the internet and all the computer games that children play today.  Basketball, baseball and football occupied most of my time.  We even could play cork ball with only three players.  We learned how to deal with issues one on one and worked out our differences.  Sometimes it may have degraded to fisticuffs, but an hour later we were fast friends again.  No gangs, but neighboring towns didn't like for you to scout out the girls there, but it worked out for me since I met and married Gerry who lived in a neighboring town.

Those days are long gone and I don't think kids could go back to them with all the outside influences on the youth of today.  It is their great loss, but I don't think they would think of it that way.  Even small towns away from big cities are prone to drug use and the problems associated with that.  Drugs when we were kids meant prescription drugs and there were few of them in our lives, unless you counted mercurochrome.  We were a rambunctious bunch and were quite familiar with mercurochrome.  It stung when applied.

What Is Mercurochrome™?

A

A bottle of Mercurochrome™.

Mercurochrome™ is a product which was once widely marketed for use as a topical antiseptic. Thanks to changes in the way the US Food and Drug Administration regards Mercurochrome™, the product is not readily available in the United States today, although it can be found in many other regions of the world. This antiseptic is part of a family of products made with a base of merbromin, a chemical which must be suspended in an alcohol or water solution before it can be used as an antiseptic.

This product was marketed for use on minor cuts and scrapes during the 20th century. It typically had a reddish to brown color which would stain the skin when it was applied, and if it was suspended in alcohol, it might sting slightly. Mercurochrome™ was recommended for use on people of all ages, and many people in the middle of the 20th century had a bottle in the bathroom cabinet for household use.

There are two issues with Mercurochrome™ and other merbromin products. The first is that they contain mercury, a metal which is known to be poisonous. Although no one has definitively linked Mercurochrome™ to mercury poisoning, presumably because the metal is only present in trace amounts, many people prefer to err on the side of caution when it comes to mercury. The FDA originally grandfathered the drug in, and later decided that it should be banned until additional research could prove that it was safe for use
.

The second issue with Mercurochrome™ is the color. The dark reddish to brown stain covers up the natural color of the skin around the wound, making it hard to detect the early signs of infection. Skin which is red and irritated will be difficult to see under a coating of Mercurochrome™, which means that the infection could be missed until it grows much larger. Clear topical antiseptics or antiseptics which do not stain are preferred so that wounds can be clearly visualized.

Although this drug is not in wide use any more, it has an iconic status. Mercurochrome™ often appears in books and stories set in the mid-20th century, and people who lived during this era may have fond memories of it. For people who are not familiar with the drug, the references to it in various media from the era when it was used can be confusing, and people who refer to  merbromin products when they talk about wound care are obviously thinking of an earlier era.


Sunday we went to Barb & Henry's to watch the NASCAR race with them, visit for a while and to try to get a free meal out of them.  The real purpose of the visit was to drop off a baby blanket for Barbara that Gerry had started in March and been crocheting since then.  She finished it on Sunday and felt it was time to drop it off.  She had earlier crocheted a baby blanket for Dee for Griffin and Barbara liked it so much she almost kept it.  Now she has one of her own.  

Oh, a gift for me?

I love it!

 They ran us out of the house around 9pm and we headed back to the motorhome and stayed up until after midnight.  It rained hard all night and we didn't get a lot of sleep, so Monday we were walking zombies.

Larry Jr & Jane invited us over for dinner on Monday and Jr used us as guinea pigs for a new pasta meal.  It turned out really good and I had two helpings of it.  He has turned out to be a real chef and isn't afraid to try out new dishes.  I think he may be in competition with his mother who is an excellent chef.  We visited after dinner and kept them up until 11pm, then  gave them a break by hitting the road.  

That's how we spent the last few days, what have you been up to?