Well, the New Year is here!  And Believe it or not, I am still writing 1997 on dated things.  It must have a been a very long year in my brain.  My fingers are just not that well attached to my brain I guess.  But with this new year, I of course, get a new round of especially bad luck.  IF you follow the channel, you know the trailer had a wheel bearing burn up somewhere on I-95 in SC.  Significant damage to the axle was done.  But I’m hoping I can patch it up and turn it around to be ready for the trip back to Florida in February.  If not much sooner.  That video is in the works of what happened and why and how I’m going to attempt a cheap fix. 

I also somehow got some evil strain of flu or something.  I was swatted down last Saturday & Sunday feeling like I had been hit by a truck.  I had a fever Monday and felt like I had been run over, with a ton of useless coughing and sneezing.  What the hell is with the sneezing.  Did I catch a flu bug that does ballet in my sinuses?  I would sneeze 8-10 times just because my sinuses had a tickle.   Then my Nose would run like a waterfall for 10 minutes.  In a state of utter desperation I had to make an emergency trip to the store to get Puffs Plus with Lotion to be able to not remove my poor nose with my normal Kleenex tissues.  Eight days later I am still hiding in my house, feeling beat up, waiting for the sore throat and ear ache to go away.  The over priced 10min urgent care had no drug they wanted to give me, saying it was probably a virus. And gave me some recipes of various Herbal tea and cider remedies I’m never going to waste my time on.  Another $200 down the drain.

And I’m a firm believer that bad things come in 3’s,  so the other thing was that my boss told me I was going to be fired in March if I didn’t improve.  Since he has no idea what I do, and what I’ve accomplished, I’m going with the possibility I will be free to travel in April.   But in preparation of that possibility, I am putting my entire paycheck into my 401K.  Which results in no Taxes on all that money, and the 401K account will be fuller.  So until April, I am living on my accumulated checking account cash, and a $20 paycheck they could not seem to get into the 401K. The good thing is if I get desperate I can pull it right back out of the 401K with no penalty and it will just be taxed at whatever rate I have at the end of the year.  So no loss.  Just I need to control my spending ALOT!

Akela has also had “New Years Bad Luck”.  There is a minor chance he gave me this wicked disease,  he loves to sleep with his nose against mine until I wake up and swat him away.  But he seems to be a bit “Dragging” for the last few weeks.  And last week while chasing the ball, he zoomed into this patch of leaf covered trash in the woods behind my house and gave out a “YIPE!”.  Of course he returned with the ball and was ready to go again, leaving a rather significant trail of blood.  He had cut off a good chunk of his carpal pad on the upper part of his leg. (Technically I think it is equivalent to our heel since he really walks on his toes).  Anyway, that bleed profusely for a while.  We had a good game of  “What can happen Faster”, wrapping the wound and controlling the blooding, or removing the bandage and getting blood all over the house.  It would appear after 2 weeks now he has either run out of blood or it has heeled up enough to stop bleeding every time he runs. And it did bleed all over again every time a ball appeared!  And he has about 5 balls, hidden in various places.  The pad still looks like someone sliced a rare cooked hamburger in half and threw half away.  It has got to be sensitive!   He don’t care !  He just wants to chase the ball!  Which is another evil arrangement in my life.  I’m home sick trying to get some rest, and he keeps dropping balls on my face. He had no understanding of “Tomorrow”.  There is only “NOW”.

So we did take a few minutes to get the Video of “Ocean Pond National Forest Service Campground” edited and loaded.  That was a really nice campground. One of the big highlights for me is there was a camper there I would really like to own.  It is the Forest River Flagstaff E-Pro.  It has the option of coming with 800watts of solar and 300AH of Lithium batteries.  It is fairly light and within the size range I would like.  Despite it being in the low 20’s those nights, the new owner was trying it out in the no electricity sites to see how it worked.  Luckily the sun was cooperating.  I did not have a chance to ask him how the night went before he left, but I’ll bet it was much more comfortable than the tenters in the same area!  But hey,  you just have to prepare for what you’re getting yourself into.  Its all fun if you know in advance.

We are spreading the camping videos out a little.  I have Fort McAllister State Park set to post January 26.  That is a fantastic place and I’m hoping I didn’t cut too much out of the video.  I was so glad I stopped there on the way home.  I will definitely have to do a blog post about that place as there is just so much I could not squeeze into the video. I’m hoping to get the “Aliner Wheel Repair” out before then, and the “Q&A and Updates” talky video out sometime in there also.  But this “Sick & dying”  can really put a damper on getting stuff done.  So stay with me.  More to come!  We have a lot of video in the vault,  just a matter of editing it all and pushing it out without falling asleep at the computer !  You would be really surprised at how often I fall asleep waiting for edits to render and then forget what I was doing.  I have a very short attention span.

Ok,  better finish this up and import the graphics, ( I can’t believe I forgot the music for the drone footage on “Ocean Pond Campground”).     And remember my Amazon page to buy stuff

Later,  Hope to see you on the road!

Rick & Akela
GoingNoWhereFast