Blog catchup
Blog post have been MIA so here is an attempt to do a bit of catchup over the holidays and into the new year. This update is organized into chapters to keep all the action straight and allow you to segment your reading into coffee cup snippets. Get the coffee pot brewing!Xmas with families
The holidays included several get togethers. Theresa's sister MaryJean, her son Adam and his girl friend arrived in SD from Iowa and joined the expanded Hemet contingency. Everyone came over to enjoy the mid 70 degree temps and the RV park for a buffet lunch. Kevin's cousin Will & his family made a surprise entrance as he and his family were in the area from Kansas City visiting his in-laws for the holidays. There was lots of out door games and a traditional white elephant gift exchange where 'Naughty Nora' made a return appearance. Nora (a wood carved naked woman) has seen quite a bit of the country under Kevin's guidance since she originally became a family icon at the Blaisdell family reunion (white elephant exchange prized possession) in 2007 in Thailand. To Theresa's dismay, no matter who selects Nora in the white elephant gift exchange Nora ends up somehow back in Kevin's care. This year was no different as Nora was selected by Will's youngest and was discovered waiting on Kevin's pillow after all had left for the night! Nora is once again back in her place as a permanent RV dashboard fixture. 
Xmas day was a noon meal with all the trimmings at Carol & Bob's house who were so proud to present their new grandson, Ryder for his first Christmas. After lunch gifts were quickly exchanged as Kiehl and his parents where scheduled for dinner with Madison's Family in the LA area. The dive into LA was uneventful and allowed for some nice one on one with Kiehl. Dinner was at a very nice and very packed Ruth Chris in a shopping center. Flashbacks of the Chinese restaurant from A Christmas Story came to mind but this was far from the Faw lawala in that movie. It was very nice and we enjoyed meeting all the Williams'. 
Geocaching was also on the schedule while MJB and Adam were here. It turned out that Banning (Carol & Bob's town) had a 100th celebration and as part of that there were 100 geocaches hidden in the area. With the geocache app in hand the Blaisdell's expedition took off in the brush behind Carol & Bob's development scouring for some unknown hidden 'treasure'. The description noted something about a ravine and frogs. There was some trail but mostly brush and gullies with lots of debris from the road and construction. The App on Theresa's phone indicated the target was no more than 15 feet away so the team spread out to search every sagebrush and rock. Alas Theresa spied something that was very much out of place, a large ceramic garden frog! Sure enough inside was a paper to sign and date. Hungry for more adventure the explorers quickly honed in one other nearby cache just up the road. It took no more than 10 min to scour the radius with the precision of the App for Jenna (Adams girlfriend) to notice a walkway light placed behind a telephone pole. Opening the casing the team discovered the 'prize'. More pics to commemorate the find were snapped as the sun was setting and the crew returned triumphantly from their quest. Flash back to the past
As part of the SD visit the Iowa visitors took on Pacific Beach in style as they rolled effortlessly on a SEGWAY self-guided tour of the boardwalk. As in a previous post Theresa and Kevin are sold on Segways as the best way to see sights of a city (area). In 60 min the bulk of PB was covered weaving in an out of runners, walkers, skateboards, surfers and other beach goers. Even stopping to see the amazing sunset and green flash! Kevin walked Zin while Theresa led the tour promptly returning just after sunset. 
More adventure awaited the Iowa contingency as Kevin and Theresa took them to San Diego and introduced them to Hashing. Hashing is a Worldwide disorganization that mixes running, drinking and hares and hounds event. It is often described as a drinking club with a running problem. After a 19 year departure from SD, Kevin & Theresa (AKA Rambyte & Mainframe) were surprised that they new the Hare (Deep) for the Friday night run in Encinitas. Even a bigger surprise was the turnout of only about 20-30 folks to do the run/walk. 20 years ago the crowds on a Friday night would be 70-100 people ready to run, drink beer and sing songs. The run was an 'A to A' so MJB and Theresa walked while the others took off jogging following the trail of dollops of baking flour laid by the Hare. HeatSeaker and Tractor where two other familiar faces that were there for the run as well and we were all able to catch up a bit during the ON IN festivities. Jewelry district trip...
As mentioned earlier Kevin and Theresa had lived in the southern California area for 11 years prior to moving to beautiful NC. One of the many adventures they participated in while residing in Southern California included the annual LA Marathon that was held the first Sunday of March each year. After participating in the Marathon Kevin and Theresa would visit the LA Jewelry District to add a commemorative item to celebrate the 26.2 mile event. On their 10th wedding anniversary the pair elected to replace the original engagement and wedding bands with new BLING that they wear to this very day. They elected to return to the LA jewelry district to repair a previously purchased LA District diamond ring that was damaged when the DOG tripped Theresa on a walk. She fell, split the ring, and lost a diamond from the setting. Upon visiting the many vendors at the Jewelry district the couple found a vendor who had no issue in quickly repairing the ring while the team waited. Can't even tell the ring was damaged, sweet!
Smitanic dockage at GVP
With a location of 2 blocks from Theresa's mom, 1 hour from Dorothy (Theresa's sister) in Fallbrook, 20 min from Carol & Bob (Theresa's sister) , 90 min from Kiehl & Madz and 90 min from the beaches of San Diego, Golden Village Palms (GVP) is an ideal temporary address for the Smitanic and as much visiting as the RVers can cram into 2 months. The Smitanic will return.
GVP is not only a perfect location for family/friends visits but has a plethora of activities. The published calendar has no less than 12 activities for each day of the week. The park residents are inspiring as there is a constant stream of walkers and bikers with their dogs pacing the perimeter of the park from 7am to dusk, each giving a friendly Hemet wave and a hearty greeting. Kevin and Theresa have made an effort to join in the stream of walkers and in doing so they are working to log 10 thousands steps as recorded by FITBIT. Kiehl & Madz gave Kevin and Theresa Fitbits for Xmas so at least 5 revolutions of the park need to be made to complete the required 10K steps per day before getting the celebration vibration on their wrist. Zin enjoys each tour and has made all sorts of new friends, she also uses that time to hunt for Rabbits that inhabit the park.
Two of the three pools at GVP have continuous water volley games with the overflow engaging in a game on the sand courts. Inside the 3 club houses are Billiards, Shuffleboard, multipurpose room for Zumba, Yoga, and other classes and a well equipped exercise room. When Kiehl visited he was so impressed that he checked 3 Pickleball paddles out from the front desk so the 3some could give it a try. Pickleball is best described as a cross between tennis and ping-pong. It is played on a badminton sized court and has rules similar to ping-pong. The paddles are a hard solid surface about the size of a racketball racket and the ball is a baseball size hard plastic wiffle ball. See the short video of us playing. Kevin and Theresa readily brought back some racketball skills and sent Kiehl from one side of the court to the other. All were sweating when the match was over. GVP has a very active Pickleball group, with lessons on each Monday for beginners, open play all day everyday as well Tournaments. The novices attended one lesson and are now ready to take on anyone, anytime. Cary, NC needs to adopt this game... perhaps the YMCA or Harrison Place would like to be the first to catch on to this new trend. 
In addition to the regular weekly activities, GVP has special events scheduled throughout the month. Kevin & Theresa danced their way into the New Year to 70's era music of the band Couda, Shuda, Wuda. No Lawrence Welk bubbles for this group, they rocked and got everyone on their feet. Kevin and Theresa guesstimated the mean age for park residents to be early to mid-60s so if you do the math 70's is the right era for their formative years. Good fit! One other stat is that the park residences are 70% from Canada, aye!
Theresa's Mom and her sister Dorothy came over for the Bella Donna, Fleetwood Mac tribute band/dance. Next will be a comedy show called 'Space 9'. Theresa's Mom, Dorothy, Carol & Bob will all come over to see this show!
The weather has been spectacular! Lows in the 50's require the furnace at night and AM to take off the chill while Kevin battles Theresa to turn on the AC around 2PM to tolerate the highs nearing the 80 degree mark.
Support for the Hemet community
The RV park does a great job of supporting the needs of the temporary residence while also supporting the needs of the local Hemet residence and businesses.
One of the focuses of the park is to raise funds for local disabled verterans. The park organized a weekend of activities with all entrance fees going to the local vets. The activities included a 5k run/walk, a Pickel ball tournament, shuffleboard tournament, water volleyball, billiards tournament, poker night, ….
The Hemet weather cooperated by providing clear skies and perfect temps for the events.
The three laps around the park (must be >5K) seemed longer that usual with Kevin walking with Zin and Theresa attempted to run half and walk half in intervals. Ribbons were awarded to all who participated and door prizes to a lucky few. There are several planned events throughout the season (October-March) that raise $ for this charity, then a large check is presented at a ceremony in April.
The 4 letter word – Work
After the new year it was back to work for not only Theresa but Kevin as well! Kevin alternated between his MAC and his old Lenovo getting up to speed on the tools and projects for Asponte. Conveniently some of the projects are the same ones that Theresa is working on as well, so at least he does not have to go to far to get status updates :)
Working remotely has very nice benefits but does come with some frustrations. Connectivity continues to be a challenge. Theresa received a new MiFi that has worked much better but the 10GB per month was rapidly burned thru in a few weeks of emeetings, Google hang outs, up & Downloads and as you know very few blog posts :(. Thankfully the back up 3G MiFi has been used to close the GB gap. GVP is currently installing WiFi throughout the park with an February 2014 completion, too late for this year but it should be ready for the Smitanic return in December 2014.
Phone connectivity also presents a challenge as several hour long conference calls each day eats away at the 1400 minutes in the current plan. May need to rethink which plan is best for keeping the cost down. May have to look into some VOIP providers or other ATT plan.
The only other remote challenge is the time zone difference of 3 hours earlier than ET. 8AM calls require a very early 4:30 AM alarm to be ready by 5AM... a few of those a week and the eyes start drooping by early afternoon. There were many days where Kevin & Theresa had to cancel evening activities to finish what needed to be completed for the day. This part time working is a challenge!
Kevin has also been frequently scheduling US mail delivery from the Good Sams Mail service of our mail to the park address so that we keep up with the homefront action.
RV challenges
The Smitanic feels like she has made it to the Emerald City and has undergone a major spa overhaul with a wash and wax from stem to stern as well as her propane tank filled, carpets and tile cleaned. (singing “Merry ol' land of OZ”).
A full hook up does require some planning and regular maintenance items one would not worry about in non-mobile abode. First if you need hot water for anything (dishwasher, shower, washer dryer or cleaning) the hot water heater needs to be turned on at least 1 hour prior to when it is needed. Leaving it on as it does have a thermostat is not a Kevin RV Best Practice (KRVBP). Normally the holding tank (AKA toilet sewage, black water) as well as the Grey water (Sink, shower and other water drainage) are closed and tanks are monitored for levels then emptied and flushed when full (also a KRVBP). Other nuances such as the need to vent the RV whenever anything is being cooked on the stove otherwise the smoke alarm will sound. Changing shoes as well as wiping the dogs paws before entry into the RV to avoid blacktop dust from turning the carpet black are just some things that one must adhere to when living the RV life (yet another KRVBP).
New purchases for the RV include Tire covers since the wheels will be exposed to sun for 2 months, a Blower to make roof cleaning as well as campsite leaf removal painless, Carpet and floor steam cleaner to get rid of Blacktop dust, and leveling pads to keep the jacks from sinking into the gravel. All these items are making the RV life smooth, however Kevin is wanting an upgrade! Yes he was caught serving WEB for newer models of the Allegro Bus. He is looking to upgrade mainly all the electronics and Theresa would like a more maintenance free flooring (all standard on newer models). Strolls around the park always lead to RV envy you know.
One frustration is that the washer / dryer combo unit in the RV cleans but leaves everything very, very wrinkled to the point is it unwearable (Kevin has no issue with the wrinkles and wares them proudly), so when visiting Theresa's family multiple loads are simultaneously laundered. GVP also has a Laundromat that is co-located with the Exercise room so both can be done at once ... how productive is that!
The condition of the woodwork in the RV is mostly great with the exception of the bathroom and drivers console area which have lots of water spot damage. Theresa Googlewikipediaidioted it (yes that is her word) and found a nice YouTube video that used Salt and Olive Oil mixture to coat the damaged spots, WHAT can this real work? Theresa was so excited that an immediate attempt at this solution was in order. Indeed it worked, so now this will be applied to the rest of the troubled spots in the RV as well as the dining room table at home! What a find and so simple!
Hash Reunion
After the holidays a sort of Hash reunion with all the old SD friends was organized by Bed Post (Hash nick name). Some folks could not make the main event so separate meetings were arranged with Sticky Quicky in Rancho Bernardo the night before and Beaver for breakfast before she flew out to Peru! Before the party there was time for a long walk with Kiehl and Madz down to La Jolla shores and up the cliffs of Torrey Pines. The beach was spectacular and brought back all of the reasons people put up with crowds and high cost of living just to live here. It was wonderful to be able to experience that again and share it with Kiehl & Madz. It was great to see everyone at the party and amazing how no one has aged a bit over the 20 years we have been gone! Rap was kind enough to host the party and let Rambyte & Mainframe stay in her above the garage studio. Much thanks to Rap for all her hospitality! A follow on get together may happen (Jan 25) if the Bytes can get it arranged! Everyone is missed so much! Plans for Vegas
For Kiehl's B-day he suggested a trip to Las Vegas the weekend of Feb 1. Theresa's Mom and Dorothy will join in for the extended weekend with plans for 2 shows and the usual Vegas exploitations which may just remain in Vegas. A spot for the Smitanic has been reserved at Sam's Town RV Resort just far enough from the strip. Should be a good time!Trip home
Our fellow hashers have convinced the Bytes to stay for the AGM on Feb 16 so departure is now scheduled for Feb 17 to head back to FL for more service items and time with Kevin's Mom & Sister. There may be a short and quick trip via car for a wedding on March 9th in Cary, then back down to FL for some mid-March birthday celebrations! After that the Smitanic will go back into dry dock until the NCBC Spring bicycle ride in Oriental in April.
