Fall in the South

“When did we last update the blog?  Let’s look.”  Wow, time got away from us.  Here are the highlights:

The end of September, we took a Disaster Relief Incident Commander Training Course near Rockville, VA.  We have been taking the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) on-line courses to better understand how the government and non-governmental agencies coordinate disaster relief efforts.  This formal training will prepare us to lead relief efforts in the future. 

From Virginia, we headed south knowing we had a family wedding in Mobile, AL mid-Oct.  We came in from the north and went to Red Bay, AL to the Tiffin Service Center to get a few issues addressed.  It was just some small stuff, but we figured we would see if they could squeeze us in.  They did and we were able to get the generator serviced at Bay Diesel while in town.  We did take time to find the Coondog Cemetery and pay our respects.  

From Red Bay, we decided to go straight to Auburn, AL and paid for two weeks at Auburn RV Park (You must check the college football schedule when camping near a college in the fall.  Auburn had an away game followed by an off week, so it worked out. Home game weekends are booked a year in advance.).  They are really nice people there and they put us right on the creek.  We did fall cleanup and maintenance on the mobile home our sons live in there as well as feeding them and their friends, as is our custom. 

We left The Bus hooked-up at Auburn RV Park for the wedding weekend and left our old cat Katy with our sons. We drove the Jeep to my mother’s house in Tuscaloosa, AL so we could pick her up and drive her Cadillac to the wedding in Mobile. For the first time in over a year, we did not sleep in our own bed. We also discussed how uncomfortable the Jeep Wrangler was to drive long distances as compared to mom’s Cadillac. 

We passed through Greenville, AL (where I grew up) to visit my Father’s grave and do some advanced funeral planning for my Mom.  In Mobile, we stayed a couple nights in a nice hotel and enjoyed celebrating my first cousin’s wedding.  We spent another night back at Mom’s house before returning to Auburn to retrieve the cat and take care of some doctor’s appointments. 

 Late October found us at the Ft Benning FAMCAMP for their annual Oktoberfest.  It was pretty fun and I was able to get some rifle range time to try out a new two-stage trigger.  From there, we headed to Atlanta, GA to help Pattie’s Mom with some surgery.  We spent a week in Stone Mountain Heights RV Park.  It is a private park about 2 miles from the Stone Mountain State Park.  Since we are usually visiting family in the area and not utilizing the State Park Resort activities, we decided to stay here and save some money.  It was a quiet park with a mix of RVs and mobile homes. 

While Pattie tended to her Mom, I did some maintenance items around her house.  I got bored and decided to look at alternatives to the Jeep Wrangler we tow (TOAD).  After full-timing for a year with a two door Wrangler, we learned that we drive the TOAD quite a bit exploring with only occasional off-roading.  The two door Wranglers have limited space so we have removed the back seat.  This prevents us from giving other people a ride, which we need occasionally.  In addition, the Wrangler is 7 years old with almost 100,000 miles on it.  Well, guess what?  If you go looking for cars to buy, you find them.  We found a loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee 4X4 Overland edition on 31 Oct.  Yes, the last day of the month and the dealer REALLY wanted to sell it that day.  They made us a good offer on the Wrangler and agreed to install all the equipment needed to make the Grand Cherokee tow (TOAD) ready.  It was sad to see the Wrangler go, but it is time to move on to something more comfortable even if it is less capable off-road.  Hmmm, well maybe if I add a winch, some skid plates, and bigger tires…

Thanks for keepingupwiththejonesrv!