Travel Blog

We're getting down to the nitty gritty. Only four more days until we head out for Kansas. I don't know if I remember how to work. I do know Phil and I have some serious weight losing to do. It's been fun here, it really has, but damn. And we still have Thanksgiving day to eat through. Needless to say, there will not be any pictures of us on our site for awhile. We don't have a wide-angle lens.
Not much to report. The curve claimed another victim the other night. Growing up, Gina and I got to watch a lot of such things happen. It's a wicked curve, and people crash even when the weather's nice. So when it's snowy...


The folks weren't hurt too badly, which is good. I can't wait to try to turn left when it's time for us to leave. Let's hope for a nice day.
If you're wondering what we've been doing with our time, here's a couple of pictures from the other night.


Mom knitting:


Yarn Balls:


Yep, while my mom knitted, my dad and I made yarn balls. I looked over to my dad, who happened to be working on a hot pink skein at the time, and at the same time I was thinking it, my dad said, "Who ever thought this is what I'd be doing with my time." Ha! The brown and yellow balls of yarn are two that I did. And doing that is harder than it sounds, let me tell ya.

But when we're not balling yarn, we're out plowing the snow. Well, my dad does that. I just take pictures of it.


Snow Drift:


I'm not sure if I'll be posting anymore this week due to the holiday, going shopping on Black Friday and hitting the road on Saturday. But check in next week so we can tell you all about Coffeyville. Mmmmm, coffey. I mean, coffee.

And since I've been unfair to the cats with all those dog pictures, I'll end this with a picture of the two of them snuggling up in our new fluffy blankie.

On Friday, Phil and I went to State College to get my eyes checked to see if I qualified to laser eye surgery. We got to town early so we went to the HUB at the University to see if we could donate blood for the annual PSU/Michigan State blood drive. We were able to get in pretty quickly, and Phil passed all his pre-screening tests with flying colors. I, however, missed the temperature regulation by 0.2 of a degree (what can I say? I run hot) and my pulse was 4 beats faster per minute than they would have liked. Hmmmm. That was a first. I had been turned away for my hot bloodedness before, but not for a fast pulse. But the good news is my blood pressure was awesome, and my iron level was good. It was like getting a free checkup. Ha!

So while I was waiting for Phil to get siphoned, I went out to the common area and sat amongst the youngies. The HUB has changed a bit since I was there 15 years ago. Big-screen TVs litter the landscape, and the show of choice on Friday morning was Entertainment something-or-other. Egads. The biggest observation I made was that nobody seemed to be talking to one another. I had a lot of sleepers, a lot of TV watchers, and the rest were in their own iPod universes. The main sign of life was when campus tours came through and a couple choruses of "We Are"..."Penn State" broke out. Then the realization that I could have a college-aged kid hit me hard, and I had to flee.

After Phil was finished, we continued the quest for the perfect PSU sweatshirt. I almost found it, but it had a hood and a 60-dollar price tag, so I decided to call it quits. I'll make due with my 15-year old, bleached-stained sweatshirt for a few more years until crew necks come back into vogue.

Then it was time for my eye evaluation. This nice girl named Jasmine did all sorts of things to my eyes, including poking them with a semi-sharp stick. Everything seemed to be going fine; Jasmine told me I was really good with having things stuck in my eyes and all that, so I was feeling pretty confident. But then it was time for the doctor to go over my test results. I knew things may not go as I hoped when he sat down and started the conversation by saying, "Well-ll-ll, it seems you may be a pretty good candidate for surgery." Pretty good? I had expected exceptional. Turns out my corneas are too thin for the regular laser eye surgery that I had read about and was prepared to get. I could still get surgery, but it would be something called PRK, or something like that, and it entails scrubbing off a couple of layers of corneal cells with an alcohol-like substance. Sounds great. The doc was cool and was straight with me, telling me this was just the first step, and if we proceeded to the second step, with more in-depth tests, who knows what would happen. But regular eye surgery would be out of the question, and the one I could get was painful and took more recovery time. I said, "I can handle pain." He said, "Ah, yeah, well...." I like him. He had a bulldog. I'm rambling.

So I was still considering it, especially when I found out that if I went to step 2 and they said I wasn't a good candidate after the more in-depth tests, then I still wouldn't owe them anything. I wanted to schedule my next appointment and get things moving along since I was upfront with these folks that I was a full-time RV'er and wouldn't be in town for much longer. Let me stress that they all knew I was leaving at the end of the month. The receptionist I was talking to needed to consult with Jasmine about when they could get me in for step 2, and Jasmine was with a patient, so I was told Jasmine would give me a call. An hour later, I get the call, and Jasmine then told me that the surgeon comes from Pittsburgh once a month to do surgeries in State College, and the earliest I could get the surgery would be December 18th. Say what? So I guess that's the end of that. Why they didn't tell me that in the beginning when they knew I had limited time, I cannot say. But now I'll have more time to read about the PRK or whatever it's called, and to decide if I want to get an alcohol scrub of the corneas.

That's about all that's going on with us right now. It's snowing as I type this, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. My dad has a plow.

Not much to write about at the Baker Homestead unless you want to hear about our ten-course meals five times a day. Seriously, no wonder I was a fat kid. I should enjoy it, I guess, while it lasts. Soon we leave for Kansas to work for Amazon.com. Just think, it you order something from there for the holidays, Phil or I may be the ones packing it up. If we recognize any names, we'll drop a hello note inside.

Speaking of the holidays, look at the Christmas tree we'll have this year.


Isn't it cute? My mommy got it for us. Even though we learned last year selling trees that artificial trees are full of lead and other horrors that will end the universe. You know, the scare-tactic approach to selling Christmas cheer. How delightful.

As for what we've been doing with ourselves, besides eating...We got our back truck window fixed. If you don't remember, we had to break it in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, last year going up to Skagway. It was Easter, and we were fueling up, and for some reason we both got out of the truck, sans keys, and Xander locked us out. And he refused to let us back in. So instead of trying to get a tow truck on Easter, we decided to try to pop the middle window in the back out. Ah, not so much. We ended up breaking it pretty good. Ah well. Live and learn, and get a spare key to always have on your person.

Before:


After:


Now instead of the tri window, we have one big window, which actually makes the inside of the truck seem bigger and brighter. Plus, just the middle piece of our old kind of window would have set us back $500, so again, not so much.

Lately, Phil has been working on the new website that will be launched soon. I hope ya'll will like it and understand why we made the changes we did. We're trying to get more traffic to the site, so the name will change to hopefully one that RV'ers will come across more, and there will be ads, but not too many. And if you love us, you'll be guilted into clicking on some. That would be cool.

While he's doing that, I'm cleaning the RV. And I mean cleaning. Today I'll be ready for the carpet shampooing part of it all. Even though it's raining right now. Gotta get it done, though. There's nowhere to sit.


And, of course, we play with the dogs. Phil said if I keep putting dog pictures on the home page, everyone will think it's a dog site instead of an RV site, but hey, I love 'em.
Xander and Tohbi:


Willough's Got the Ball:


Tomorrow we head to State College to see if I am a candidate for laser eye surgery. Jerry, ya talked me into it. Wish my eyeballs luck.

We had a pretty good Tuesday here. Even us PA "racists and rednecks" pulled through. Our friend in Skagway, AK, sent us a cute picture of her dog, Noah, in front of the voting place with his stuffed donkey in his mouth. I went around all day with my Alaska sweatshirt and my Obama button. I thought that was a nice contrast. And it's all over and done with now, but I have to add that folks around here were calling Palin "Caribou Barbie." Ha.
Since Phil and I were done voting long ago, we spent Election Day doing chores for the folks. Phil was up on the porch roof all day putting back on shingles that had blown off in the last wind storm.


We didn't think the poor old roof could take the weight of two people, so Phil was all by himself. I did climb up and pound a few nails around the perimeter for him, and I noticed that our RV was taller than my folks' house.


My day was spent winterizing the porch, which basically consists of putting up plastic sheeting around the porch so the wind and snow stay away from the front door of the house. I had spent the previous day washing and waxing the Beast. Take a look at that truck. The cleanest its been in three years!


The RV is next, but not today. Today we focus on the filthy inside. It's so bad I haven't even let my mom come in yet. I've let my sister's dog come in, but that's about it.

Speaking of whom, I love this dog. He was a beast dog from hell three years ago, but he's really cool now (after flunking obedience school four times). We hang out a lot. In fact, my dogs are getting jealous.


Today we'll get to cleaning the inside, and Phil's already out there installing the new sink faucet. I hope it's going ok. He's been out there awhile. I haven't heard any yelling and cursing, so...oh, here he is. He has to go to Wal-Mart to get more fittings for it. Poop. Nothing's ever easy.

So I guess I'm going to go shopping now. If any of you are interesting in a South-Central Pennsylvania business opportunity (or two), here you go. The first one is a bar and restaurant going for $149,000. The second one is an ice-cream stand going for $190,000. If you buy 'em, you'll be my family's neighbor. They are both right down the hill from us.

The Old Farm Inn:


The Custard Stand:

We spent the day yesterday in our old stomping ground, State College, PA. And when I say the day, I mean the
whole day. We left Carrolltown at 9:00 a.m. and didn’t get back until 11:30 p.m. But we had some fun.

We started off at Panera’s for coffee, orange scones and cinnamon crunch bagels. I know that may not sound like
a big deal to a lot of you, but we’ve been Panera-less for three years. Think about it. Then Phil went off to get a
massage at his old massage school, and I went to AccuWeather to see some friends I hadn’t seen in a long time.


I only expected to be at AccuWeather for an hour or so, but I ended up staying for close to four hours. It was really
fun to catch up with my pals, but it was even more fun to run into the people who didn’t know me too well three
years ago, but who did the triple-take of near recognition when they saw me walking down the hall. I just said hi to
those folks and kept on walking. I almost got busted by the owner, though, because visitors aren’t really supposed
to be roaming through the halls unescorted, but since I had three floors of people to visit and my first and second
escorts had jobs to do, I was pretty much left on my own. I was rounding a corner to go see someone and Joel
Myers was standing right there staring at me. He couldn’t remember who I was three years ago, so I knew I was
okay on that front, but I had a big, shiny Steelers shirt on, and logo apparel is a no-no in AccuWeather because of
the TV cameras. So he stared at me, I smiled at him, and just walked past him into Marshall’s office. He didn’t
follow me in to bust me, so I think I’m safe. Who knows who’s taking flak today for letting their employee wear a
Steelers shirt to work though. Hee hee.

But it was a really good visit. I got to see everyone I had wanted to see except for my old boss, Jim. He was on a
business trip to Philly. Oh well. Jim, if you’re reading this, I’m sorry I missed you, and I’ll catch you in another
three years.

After AccuWeather, I met back up with Phil and we walked around Penn State campus for awhile. We laughed at
all the college girls wearing either Ugs or flip-flops. I’m sorry, but neither are a good look. We wanted to take my
picture at the Nittany Lion Shrine, but when we got there, all these little kids were using it as a slide, and we
couldn’t wait them out. So we went to Old Main instead.


And watched the fat PSU squirrels.


Then we went on the perfect Sue PSU sweatshirt quest. It wasn’t a success, but I’m still hopeful. We didn’t hit all
the bookstores yesterday because our meter was running out, so we’ll have to come back and finish up later.
Then we ate at the restaurant where Phil proposed to me, even though I wasn’t supposed to eat because we were
going to Damon’s to watch the Steelers game with friends that evening. But we were starving, so we went and had
our favorite appetizers and some hot tea. And we got the server all excited about full-time RV’ing, even though he
said he should finish college first.

Then we went to our friends Nick and Becky’s house to catch up with them and re-introduce ourselves to their kid.

The last time we saw him he was about ten months old. We let him warm up to us slowly, but by the end of the
evening, we were flinging a monkey around with him, so that was cool. And now I want a Fling Monkey in the worst
way. That thing was fun!

And then it was off to Damon’s for the Steelers game with Brian, Lori and Dave. The start of the game was
abysmal, and I thought my jinx was continuing (the only two Steelers games I saw any part of this season were
the only two they lost), but they pulled it out in the end. Yay, Steelers! Plus the guys got to see the Girls Gone
Wild bus out in the Damon’s parking lot (see front page pic), so I think they were pretty happy about that. All in all,
a super good day in PA.

As many of you know, Halloween is our favorite holiday. So when we were invited to a Halloween party by some of our old State College friends, we went into high costume-planning mode.

The theme of the party was dead celebrities. Sue quickly narrowed the field down to two choices. Her first inclination was Lucille Ball, but she could not find an outfit she liked and when her hair dye-job came out darker than she hoped for, she decided to try a different tack. So say hello to Anna Nicole Smith.


Everyone wanted to know where she got the boobs from and she told them the truth, "My mommy made them." She also had help from her sister, Gina, who made fake drug labels for the pseudo-pharmaceutical cornucopia that was Anna's purse.


As one girl at the party said, "I'm pretty sure those are just tic-tacs in there...right?"

I was trying to come up with a bald dead celebrity because I wanted to see what I looked like if I shaved it all off. Hence Telly Savalas as Kojak.


My costume also got a big boost from Gina who made a badge and ID that could probably have faked out the real NYPD.

We went to the party with our friends Brian and Lori who made a good showing as Lucy and Bob Denver as Gilligan.


The party was hosted by a friend of Sue's from AccuWeather. He put on a good show with a graveyard out back, huge spread of food, a macabre bar downstairs, and a bloody awful sitting room.


Along with the drinking and food there was a horror movie quiz and costume prizes. Sue showed she was not just a pretty face by pulling out a win with a near flawless quiz. Then she won the prize for funniest costume and I won for looking most like my character. The other prize went to a convincing "Dave Thomas" for most original costume. We felt a little bad about taking three of the four prizes, but when you are good, you're good.

And what is Halloween without a few devilish tricks? We crashed at Brian and Lori's house after the party, so it wasn't until the next morning that we found out that the joke was on us. Sue's mom had lent us her car for the drive to State College and while it was in the driveway someone mustard-ed the back.