Destin Army Recreational Area

This month we decided to go south and warm up a bit after being in Indiana and West Virginia the past couple months.

The first place we stayed at was the Destin Army Recreational Area which is part of the Fort Benning Family and Moral, Recreation and Welfare Directorate.  It is located on the Choctawhatchee Bay which is just a short distance from the Gulf of Mexico.

The facility was top quality offering cabins, hotel rooms, and RV lots, along with other activities such as charter fishing.  We were really impressed with its upkeep and security.  

We have been planning on using military recreation facilities a lot more in our travels since they are usually much cheaper, but offer the same quality as private, higher priced resorts.

Courtney, Avery, Ethan, Ian, & Tia posing by the pool at the Destin Army Recreational Area.

As I mentioned earlier, we were really impressed by the quality of the resort.  Just looking at the pool gives you an idea of how nice the place was.

Pool at Destin Army Recreational Area.

We would have been very happy to stay here the entire time while in Destin, Florida, but already had reservations at another resort we were meeting friends at.  

The splash park, which was just added in 2011, was top notch and very well maintained.  

On another note, when we first started to explore the resort, while walking a gentleman standing in the door opening of his room shouted down asking if all of the kids were ours.  We get that a lot.  We answered yes, and after he made over them a bit, we went on down to the pool and splash park.

Next thing you know he walks up to me with his hand cupped so that I was the only one who could see what was in it and asked me to take the kids out for ice cream for a Thanksgiving treat, on him.  When looking down at his hand, I was surprised to catch sight of a $50.00 bill.

I of course told him that was way too much, but he insisted that we take it and buy the kids a Thanksgiving treat for him.

So that evening we went to Longhorn Steakhouse, ate dinner and let the kids order whatever dessert they wanted off of the desert menu.

I thanked the gentleman when he first gave us the money, but did not have a chance to give him one of our cards so he could follow us on the blog.  The next day I did not see him around any longer and it looked like his room was vacated.  Whenever we think about that moment, we will always smile because of his kindness reflected upon our family.  

So if you are reading this and are the gentleman who gave the family of eight the $50.00 for ice cream while they were at the Destin Army Recreation Area, THANK YOU! 

The splash park at the Destin Army Recreation Area.

There was also a 300 foot fishing pier available to fish in the Choctawhatchee Bay or do some crabbing.  As you can tell by Misty's hair, there was a nice breeze coming off of the bay that evening.

Tia, Courtney, Avery, Ethan, Misty, Chloe, & Ian on the fishing pier.

 Although it was a little nippy, due to the wind, we were having a nice time walking around the resort.

Tia, Courtney, Avery, Ethan, Don, Chloe, & Ian on the fishing pier.

One of the first things the kids wanted to do was play on the beach, so the next day, we headed down to the boardwalk and let them get wet.

There were plenty of people swimming in the water, which was not too awful cold, but we decided not to let the kids this evening since neither Misty or I had on bathing suites and did not want to risk having to go in after one of them.  

Ethan, Ian, Courtney, Avery, & Tia playing on the beach.

We actually love the beach this time of the year, since it is not very crowded and the sand does not burn your feet.  The water can be a bit chilly to swim in, but it really is not that bad.

It is funny, because you can tell the northerners from the southerners very easy by the way we dress and things we do.  

I would be willing to bet money that everyone swimming or in swim suites were from a cold climate while anyone dressed up with a jacket or long sleeve shirts and pants, were from the south.

There is always the exception but for the most part, the above statement is true.

Chloe, Misty, Tia, Courtney, Ethan, Avery, & Ian having fun in the sun.

 As with all days, the sun started to set and the kids started to say they were hungry, so we called it a day and went to get something to eat.

The sun getting close to set over the Gulf of Mexico.

 There will be more on what we are doing in Destin in future blogs. Since I only update my blog every week or so, I do not have the time to tell you about everything we do.  I wish I could blog everyday on our activities, but just can not make time for that.

I try to pick something that we have done, which I think will be of the most interest to you.  It is funny as some blogs I feel should be very interesting do not get a lot of traffic, while others I may have just thrown together to get something out, have some of the highest numbers of views.  That is probably why I am not in the paper business or a journalist.

Until next time, God bless.

Thanks!
Don, Misty, & Kids...

Just RVing Around

As some of you may know, we were planning on heading south for the winter to Georgia  Florida and then west to Arizona hoping to be in Alaska next spring and summer, but my work has other plans.

Work wants me on-site most of January, which is located in the DC area, which makes going south a little hard.  So if that is what I need to do, then we are debating on heading north now, while the weather is good, and bed down for the winter.  We will make a decision here soon on where we go next.

We are going to have to do something for heat other than the LP furnaces in the RV since they suck the 30lb LP gas tank dry in about one week when the temperature gets cold.

I have been doing some research on electric heaters, but if anyone reading this has a suggestion, please comment or email me at donald.lively@gmail.com with it.

Since we were out of propane we had to break camp and drive into town to get it filled up.  I also wanted to get a new inspection sticker on the RV, so we would be good for a year and it would be in sync with the GMC Yukon, that we just had inspected also.

The problem with moving the RV is that you have to put everything up, strap down the heavy stuff, and pull in the slides whether you are moving a few feet or down the road.  

Our biggest item is the 18" dishwasher that has to be securely strapped down, so that it does not slide around and hurt someone.  Yes, we really need it too.  Well not really, but it is super nice to have and also gives us a little more counter top.

Dishwasher strapped down for moving.

Then you have to get everything that is on the counters and above your head, up and out of the way where it will ride safely and not be slung all over the place.  The bunk beds make a great place to store this stuff while traveling.

Bunks used for storage while we travel.

 You have to also make sure the slide area is clear of anything that could hamper it.  Even little Matchbox cars can play havoc and mess up the slide mechanism if they get caught.

Slide area has to be clear of any obstacles.

 You might think, that is common sense to pull the high stuff down, but you would be surprised at how easy it is to forget about it until you hear a crash while driving down the road.  

That usually happens at the worst moment also, since you are probably traversing an uneven road surface or taking a turn, which caused the items to fall in the first place.  We once forgot to strap the refrigerator doors together and a couple of curves later, the doors flung open and glass jars came flying out.  Luckily, no one was hit and none of the jars broke!

All items up high must be packed away so that they do not fall while driving down the road.

This is what your overhead (temporary) storage areas need to look like before you start to drive down the road.

Now it is safe to drive with the items put away.

You also have to remember to unhook the electric, water, sewer, and anything else such as cable, to move.  So far I have not forgotten to unhook any of the above, but I have forgotten to hook them back up, after returning.  

Once I forgot to hook the electric back up and did not notice until Misty tried to start the dryer.  Our inverters and batteries powered everything for a good five hours before we, and a friend, noticed the lights flickering some and of course the dryer not working.

If we are moving a good ways, then we have to load up the GMC Yukon with all of the bikes, eight in all, and anything else that we can not get into the RV, like the baby buggy that hooks to Misty's bike.  When the Yukon is packed, only the driver's seat is left open.

You then have to make sure you have the tow bar, safety cables, power cable, air hose for the brakes, and safety disconnect cable hooked up properly.

Do not mind the dirty RV, it has been washed since this picture was taken.

10,000 lb Blue Ox tow bar in its folded position at the rear of the RV.

Another very important thing that you have to remember to do is to strap the refrigerator closed.  We have a residential or regular home refrigerator in the RV and if you do not put the strap on the door handles, it will sling open during a turn or bump and dump the contents on the tile floor.  The results would even make a nun mutter a bad word.  I know I sure have.

Strap on refrigerator door.

Once you have all the slides in, the jacks up, and everything unhooked, you need to make sure every compartment door is securely latched.  It does not matter whether or not you locked the doors, you physically have to walk around the entire RV and pull on each one.

If a door does come open while driving down the road, not only will you start pouring your stored items out onto the highway, but there is a chance you can hit the door on the guardrail or even another vehicle.  Plus other drivers do not appreciate having to dodge items being thrown at them, unexpectedly.

It is very embarrassing to have cars beeping at you because your doors are open and sticking out, not that it has happened to us, well maybe only once or twice.  At least we have not lost anything out of the compartments due to the doors being open.

Checking all the compartment doors to make sure they are securely latched.

Probably the worse thing to unhook is the sewer line.  You never leave your sewer line open while hooked up or you will get a mound of waste in your black tank, which will clog it up sooner or later.  So you wait until the tank is at least one third of the way full so there is plenty of liquid to push the waste out.

I also run a back flush when I empty the tank so there is plenty of water to help push out the waste and clean any solids that may have built up.  So far I have not had any problems with it clogging up.

One should empty the black tank first and then the grey water tank which will flush out all the waste from the black tank.  When I unhook the sewer line, I then use the outside faucet to rinse it clean, and then roll it up, draining it into the sewer system.  I then put the hose back in the compartment, trying not to touch any of the contaminated areas.

I always have a bottle of soap and hand sanitizer in the compartment, so I can wash and clean up my hands afterwards.

I recently added a water softener and filter to help keep the iron and other minerals out of the RV's water lines since many RV parks have well water and not city water.  I keep the unit in the compartment so it is not exposed to the outside elements.

Water softener and filters in the water and sewer compartment.

Even though we have a panel that shows when the jacks are up, sometimes they stick and are really not up, so you have to physically check them by looking behind all the wheels.  

The below picture is what you want to see, which is the jack in the up position.  The base plate for the jack is in the middle of the picture to the right of the long brass looking bolt.

Rear jack in the up position.  You can see the back half of the base plate in the this picture next to the brass bolt.

Once everything is down, latched, in, stored, unhooked, and up you are ready to hit the road.  In the below picture we were just going into town to fill up with propane and so did not hook up the tow vehicle or toad.

Readied RV in travel mode minus the toad.

When driving the RV you are always going to meet someone or something that gets in the way or stops you.  While running into town we met a vehicle, which was waiting on a mobile home to come down the road.  

It was actually good that we were stopped on the side road and did not meet the mobile home on the county road, or we would of had to back up, which is never fun in an RV.

Meeting a vehicle on a single lane road.

There are many adjustments we have to make to live in the RV and moving it is no different.  It is not as easy as a car to turn but it is very easy to get it into a situation where you are stuck and can not turn it around. 

So far we have been lucky and not gotten stuck where we had to unhook the toad to back up or anything like that.  I did pull into a gas station once with the toad and blocked the pumps for others to use.  Then after filling up, we barley had enough room, inches, to pull back out onto the highway.

Depending upon what type of RV you have, the steps to prepare for moving may be different and by no means is it implied that the above steps are the only way to do it.  That is just how we do it.  We also probably spend more time packing than most, since we have six little ones to pick up after!

Until next time God bless and we hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanks!
Don, Misty, & Kids......

Home For A Visit

This week we went back to West Virginia to take care of some personal business and visit family and friends.

It was a pretty easy drive down from Indiana with Misty doing half of it.  She is getting very comfortable with driving the RV and does a fine job.  I appreciate it especially since I can then set in the passenger seat and work or play on the computer.

Misty driving the RV.

I do not know why, but days we are traveling and I'm getting actual work done, while riding down the road, gives me a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment.  I'm weird, I guess, or just a true geek.

One of the main reasons for coming home was to see our granddaughter Braelynn, who was born on 23 Oct 2012 to my son William and his wife Meghan.

Last night Will came over with Braelynn to visit and have dinner with us at my brother Bill's house.  Meghan could not come due to committing to a previous engagement.

Will and Braelynn at Uncle Bill's.

 As you can tell, he is a proud father and has a beautiful baby girl to be delighted over.  Braelynn also makes Misty and me grandparents too, which is OK, even though we do not feel like we are old enough to be grandparents yet.  Especially Misty since I'm fifteen years her senior!  

Braelynn sleeping in her daddy's arms.

Another important reasons to be back in town was for our five older children to receive awards for completing the first section of Basic Bible Skills (BBS).

BBS is a bible study curriculum that teaches kids the books of the bible, the divisions the books belong in, and how to find scriptures in the bible.

We were lucky enough to have the author, Mrs. Don-Ann Wheeler,  become a member of our church and get introduced to her bible study course.

Avery accepting his BBS award.

Ian accepting his BBS award.

Tia accepting her BBS award.

Courtney accepting her BBS award.

Ethan not only received a certificate for completing the Old Testament portion of BBS but also a medal for having the most points awarded for the course.  

Mrs. Don-Ann said that in her entire time of teaching the course, no one had ever attained the amount of points Ethan did which was 23,527.  Considering there were older kids in the class, Ethan really did well for himself.

Ethan accepting his award and medal for BBS.

When we hit the road last spring, we started to video conference with Mrs. Don-Ann on a weekly basis so the kids could keep up their studies with BBS and stay in contact with her too.  If for some reason we did not have the wi-fi to do a video conference, the kids would just do the review over the phone.  So far it has worked out very well.

One other item I would like to mention is that LivelyRV found their  first First to Find (FTF) Geocaching this past week, which we hope happens more often.  A FTF is what it states, first to find a new cache that had just been put out.  

It was hidden on Saturday morning around 7:15AM and we were the first to sign the log around 8:30AM.  As my brother likes to say, "Man, what a rush!"  You know I had to get something about Geocaching into the blog.

Until next time, God bless!

Thanks!

Don, Misty & Kids

Even More Geocaching

I know, I know, you are probably getting pretty tired of hearing about Geocaching. But since that is pretty much all we do anymore, that is all we really have to blog about.

To keep our cache finding streak going, we have to find at least one cache a day. The trouble though is that finding a cache is just like eating Lays potato chips, you can't find (eat) just one.

We bested our best of five finds in a day with ten finds today.  It would have only been nine since we had a "Did not find" and had to take the kids trick or treating this evening, but right at sunset we scored with our tenth one of the day.  

A lot of the caches are in old spooky cemeteries, just like our tenth find this evening, and you always have to be on the look out for ghosts and such.  Tonight we had quite a scare when we were confronted by just such a spirit.

Maybe since it is almost a full moon, he decided to come out tonight.  Luckily we escaped with our lives intact and were only scarred emotionally.

The Scream Ghost We Encountered While At A Cemetery Geocaching.

Usually, we do not run into anything that would harm us while Geocaching. Sometimes you get some strange looks from the  Muggles, but they usually leave us alone.

One of the benefits, again, that come from Geocaching is the exercise you get along with the enjoyment of a beautiful fall day.

The LivelyRV Geocaching Crew.

It was a little brisk this morning when we first started looking for caches, but it warmed up pretty good by the afternoon.  

We only Geocached for about six hours today due to having to come back to Ouabache State Park near Bluffton, IN so the kids could trick or treat at their campground.  

By-the-way, it is pronounced Wabash not O-ba-chee.  Luckily the only person we said the name to was from Alabama and she did not know the proper way to say it either.

LivelyRV Crew Trick or Treating at the Ouabache State Park Campground.

To make this event we had to jump through some hoops to pull it off.  The time for trick or treat was 5 to 6 PM and since we did not get back in town until around 4:45 PM and the RV was a good ten minutes away, one-way, we had to find someplace to buy costumes and new bags for them to trick or treat. 

At the Middlebury KOA we met a lot of really nice individuals and one friend in particular, Kathy, gave all the kids new trick or treat bags, with candy of course.  Well those were the ones we wanted to use, but ran out of time, so had to buy more.  We could have just used Kroger bags, but we did not want to look too backwoods, so spent the extra $1.99 on the new bags.

Some of the decorations at the Ouabache State Park Campground for trick or treating.

Needless to say, we made it there in time and had a good forty five minutes to trick or treat, which was good enough for the kids to get way too much candy anyway.

How did we find out about Ouabache State Park?  Geocaching of course!  There were five caches inside the park to find, which we did find.  We also found an old fire tower that you could climb and some buffalo to look at.

This fire tower is one of fourteen still standing from thirty three total which were built between 1930 and 1952.  By 1970 planes replaced fire towers as the main means to track fires, so now the remaining ones stand as sentinels reminding us of a time gone by.

We were told that this particular fire tower is one hundred feet tall.  We did not measure it, to verify, but as we climbed it while carrying Avery, both up and down, we will say that it is more than tall enough.  And when we say we, we means me.

Fire Tower at Ouabache State Park.

The kids were up it in a flash, stayed long enough for a picture, and then went back down to play on the playground.  Avery and I stayed a little longer to enjoy the view and catch my breath.  By the picture below, you would think Avery carried me up the stairs!

Ethan, Courtney, Ian, Avery, & Tia posing in the Ouabache State Park fire tower.

The view was spectacular and one could only imagine how it would look with the leaves in full fall color.  Well, so not to deprive you of such a sight, you can go here to see just that.  You will have to scroll down through the first ten or so pictures to get them, but they are there.

View of the buffalo enclosure from the fire tower in Ouabache State Park.

 The buffalo in the park are a reminder of how buffalo herds used to roam and graze in Indiana prairies prior to the 1800's.  By the early 1800's all of the buffalo were gone from Indiana.

Buffalo at Ouabache State Park.

The park usually has around six or eight buffalo in their twenty acre enclosure year round.  Since it is estimated that each buffalo needs a minimum of five acres of pasture to be sustained, the park supplements their diets with hay and grain.

Buffalo grazing in Ouabache State Park.

Before we stop for this blog, we wanted to give you one more glance of the almost full moon just after the sun had set this fine October evening in Indiana.  The iPhone camera does not do it justice compared to being there live.

Moon rising right after sunset in Indiana.

So this past week we had another successful time of Geocaching and seeing other beautiful parts of Indiana before leaving it next week.  We are also glad that the kids got to do their trick or treating for this year too.

Until next time, God bless and be happy that you have what time you do on this Earth.

Thanks!

Don, Misty, & Kids.

More Geocaching

Last time we were telling you about our new hobby of Geocaching.  Well this past weekend Geocaching is about all that we have done.

First off, if you are reading this and Geocaching near our location in Indiana then you may not want to look at some of the below pictures, so as not to spoil any caches that you have not found yet.  

I will try not to give away too many details on where the caches are, but anyone who can put 2+2 together could figure out what caches I am talking about, so be warned.

Geocaching is a lot of fun and you can get some good physical and mental exercise from it.  We visited 11 sites this weekend and out of those we found 9 of the caches and came up empty for the other 2.  At one site we spent a good 3 hours looking, but never did find the cache.  Talk about getting a headache.

Today we worked on simple caches with a difficulty of no more than 2 (out of 5) so as to build up our confidence again.  It was a perfect day for being outside and getting some exercise.  I'm not going to say where we were, but the pictures may give it away.

A beautiful day walking outside today.

 Some of the caches are very tricky and hard to find.  The owners will camouflage their caches in ways you would never think or use containers that blend in perfectly with their surroundings.  One such container is below.  This one took me two days to find and was one of my favorite caches.

Cache camouflaged like a book.

Below is another cache hidden in a common pine tree on a trail near us.  This one took two tries to find due to the  Muggles that were there the first time.  It was raining the next day when I went back and so the Muggles were not as bad.

Geocache Spot.

This happened to be a micro cache which are usually only big enough to hold the cache log that you sign.  This one was not really too hard to find, but if you are dodging Muggles, it does not give you much time to be looking through the limbs of a tree.

Micro cache.

All in all we had a great weekend Geocaching and got plenty of exercise.  We also picked up a Travel Tag or Bug while hunting this weekend, which is also pretty neat.

Each Travel Tag or Bug has its own story and mission.  Some are to travel across America while others want to go overseas.  Some have very specific missions and so it is our responsibility to try and keep it on course.

This one's name is 'Anemone the Clown Fish Travel Tag' and he wants to travel to as many places as possible.  We help it along by taking it with us to all the caches we find and logging it online.  Once we find a suitable home for it, we will let it go so someone else can spend time with it.  Another request of its owner is to take as many pictures as possible of the places it visits. 

Our little pet (Travel But/Tag) that we picked up this weekend.

It was a great weekend to Geocache and I hope we can do it every weekend, even if it is just one.  With us heading south for the winter, we should have many opportunities to do so.

The LivelyRV Geocaching crew.  Ian, Ethan, Tia, Courtney, Avery, Misty, & Chloe.  Don is taking the picture.

The weather was wonderful with a perfect temperature and no wind or rain.  We did not have to worry too much about sunburn and the bugs were not out as bad.  Misty only had one friendly spider land on her arm but she did not receive it well.  All in all I would say it was a perfect day for Geocaching and doing something as a family.

Ethan, Ian, Avery, Courtney, & Tia posing in the sun.

 The below picture was one we had to take to satisfy a find for one of the EarthCaches we went to today.  This type of cache is more for educational purposes than finding a cache of goodies or signature log.  Today, the kids learned how towns know when the rivers are rising to flood stage, so they can plan evacuations properly, and they never even knew they were in class.

Courtney, Tia, Ian, Ethan, & Avery at the gauging station on the Wabash River. 

So, that was our weekend and a good one at that.  We are a little disappointed that we did not find all of the caches we set out to, but there is always tomorrow and with it we will have a new perspective, which should help improve our geosense.

God bless!

Don, Misty, & Kids.