September RUSH...and our 1st RV trip.

First weeks in September
Central NY, Verona NY

So much has happened so fast these last few weeks, I haven't had the opportunity to sit down and reflect.
I started back to school. WOW! I am in college again. As I head into my fourth week. I still don't feel entirely comfortable about doing this again. I am trying to keep myself focused on course work, reading, homework and the like, but I will admit it is difficult.
Also back in school are two of my son's. Ben started his freshmen year in a college in Florida and Gavin started his freshmen year of High School.  (I got one picture with his friend Kameron.)

Work has been on the bottom of my list of things to think about. Its easy to become less engaged when your focus has shifted from this will be my last employment ever...(as I once had said to myself) to.... this position will be like oh so many before it, simply a stepping stone to the next place. Unfortunately with this thought process comes a less dedicated employee. I do have to work on that, as I am still there for now.
One thing about my current position that I would miss should I leave is the friends I have made while working there. These women have become (although some I have known for years before) quite important to me. We have begun a Birthday evening celebration and this month we celebrated Stefanie.

 We have started a Birthday tradition, where each person picks a place to eat for dinner for their Birthday. Stefanie picked Borio's restaurant.

 Borio's is right on the lake. Oneida lake was so beautiful for our dining experience.

 Renee wore a wig tonight just to be different. As the evening progressed each of us got a turn in the wig.

Happy Birthday Stefanie. 

 Now for the wig,

Here was our clan for the evening. From left to right...Barb, Annemarie, Renee, Becky, The Birthday Girl Stefanie, her friend Nicole, Me, Amiee, and Caitlyn.

We had an amazing meal and great fun!


We have been pretty busy around the house with end of the summer stuff, but a few weekends ago we went to the Jewish Festival with Mark's mother.

 We had some "Jewish" food.

 and listened to some music.

My mother in law won $25- in the raffle.

Along with school, work, kids off to school, closing the pool for the summer and taking care of end of the season activities. Mark and I purchased an RV.
This process has been easy, although anxiety provoking. We booked and took our very first trip this past weekend.

We stayed at The Villages at Turing Stone RV resort site 311.

The selection of this RV park for our very first trip was a no brainier. Mark and I are well versed in casino life and we had heard that the Turning Stone RV resort was one of the nicest. Add to this a fairly easy drive from the RV dealer (where she will be stored and winterized for the season.), a concrete slab to park on and SCORE a pull through. We were all set.

Once we got her hitched, which we were able to do fairly easily, we were soon on the Road. I get nervous just driving the truck,,,,so the idea of me driving with a tow was out of the question. Mark admitted he was a little nervous as well. We went slow and soon Mark was feeling pretty confident.

Now for getting set up at the park....we'll that was a little more difficult. Mark has never backed the RV up. For those who have not done this....just because you are in a pull through site, does not guarantee you will not have to back up. I am not a good director either. It took a few tries and some guidance from a fellow RVer to get her straight and lined up nicely.  But there she was.

Getting the rest of the set up was also a little nerve wracking. We had to stabilize, get the power, water and sewer hooked up. Open the slide out and make sure everything was just the way we remembered from RV school.

I was successful in hooking up the electric while Mark stabilized. I ran into some problems with the water hook up. There was a extra piece that was suppose to be added to the hose that I found after I had hooked up. I undid the hose, added this blue piece and re-hooked. Water was leaking out everywhere. Well that didn't seem to work. So I had Mark try. He couldn't seem to get it not to leak either. Well shucks...We went back to the straight hose connector and no leaks.

Hooking the sewer line was a hole different story. There was nothing we were going to be able to do with that. Our sewer hose is simply to short to reach. We decided we were NOT going to use the bathroom under any circumstance. Although this was an inconvenience we made due.
Next was opening the slide outs. I don't know about anyone else, but when these things open and close it sounds like they are going to break. Well they didn't. Whew!

I made the bed, set up chairs, turned on the fridge, started the air conditioner (it got HOT this weekend) had a beer and voila!

Once we had her all set up. We took the pups for a few walks around the park. I generally have tried to stay away from review of places I visit (although I occasionally do) but  I can ONLY GIVE thumbs up and 5 stars for this place.

 This RV  park is beautiful.

We walked almost every inch of the park with the dogs. The grounds are well kept, the paths were very nice. I don't know much about sizes of sites, but these all seemed to be big enough for larger RVS and everyone seemed to have paved sites with a picnic table and fire ring.

One loop had several vintage tin-can's. When we walked by I asked about them and was told these travels are part of an air stream group.

There were about six of them in total.

The geese and ducks were enjoying the little pond.

There was even a small man made waterfall.

My daughter, her boyfriend and his twin boys arrived for a visit of our new house on wheels. The little guys thought it was pretty neat. After a tour, we took them to dinner at the Turing Stone casino buffet. It was Pirate weekend at the casino.

We all got pirate beads before heading into the buffet for dinner.

Jeremy gets a hello from Jack Sparrow, and his boys were NOT ready to meet with these "Are they real Pirates?"  They were both so cute and not sure what to make of these swashbuckling characters.

Alexis was willing to pose with these guys.

After dinner Alexis, Jeremy and the twins headed off and Mark and I played some slot games. After some gaming we made our way back to the RV park for our very first evening in our new home away from home. It didn't take long and Mark was out.

The following day, we took some more walks with the pups.

 I didn't have my walk app on for the whole weekend, but when I did for one short walk it was over a mile that we walked. I am guessing we walked over 4-5 miles in total taking the puppy's around. We also made several hikes to the restrooms, as we had decided not to use our own facilities.

 The bathhouse was clean and the showers were amazing. More thumbs up!

 Mark's mother made a trip out to see us, and we returned to the Casino for brunch. I just loved this ice sculpture.

 We played some games before I found my co-workers Aimee and Stefanie. I was up and down and up again most of the day. (in my casino winnings.) We all returned to the RV where each of us had our favorite wines.

 These lovey ladies ended up staying the night. We hung out at the RV for a bit before heading back to the casino for dinner and some more games. I should have stopped while I was a head, but we had fun. I also had one of the most tasty burgers at the casino's new food court. YUMMY! The place was crazy busy as Barry Manilow was playing. Back at the RV park we finished off the wine and had some fun by the camp fire.

It was an enjoyable 1st RV experience. On Sunday, we packed her up and got ready to return to home and where she will be stored for the winter. We did have some trouble hitching and unhitching, but finally got her free of the truck and said our goodbyes until next year. Mark and I are already discussing where we will head out for our next RV adventure.