Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Oh, what a beatiful day!

Water temperatures dropped 4-6° to 60° over the past 4 days. Didn't bother some people.

I realize a lot of you have had much worse weather than us. However,  living in an RV and expecting if not warm, but at least moderate temperatures and being in an area not prepared for multiple days of freezing temperatures it was not pleasant. Three nights of temperatures 20° and below with tonight, Tuesday, being near 30° and at least 1 or 2 days not much above freezing was enough.

We were fine. We insulated with reflectix everywhere we could, left a couple of cabinet doors with plumbing open, and disconnected our water and sewer to protect our RV. While it is often cheaper and easier to run electric heaters (we don't have to take our RV somewhere to get its propane tank filled), we ran the furnace to keep the underbelly and tanks warm. It ran most of the night a couple of times but they kept everything warm. We heated the RV to 67° which kept the storage and tank areas right around 50°. They say that the underbelly will be about 20° lower than the living area. We used 2-3 gallons of propane each night. The park had us drip water at the outside faucets to try and prevent their pipes from bursting.

Places down here just aren't built to withstand several nights of freezing temperatures. Our park and many cities experienced broken pipes. We had our water tank full fortunately as we had 2 days with no water but water was back here this morning. 

I finished it Dec. 26, almost in time for Christmas! I looked back at a blog on Dec. 18, 2021 and I had 30 stitches done.  I predicted that IF I completed 30 stitches a day it would take me 833 days (almost 3 years) to complete. That thought almost made me quit that day. I did not do 30 stitches a day and sometimes I went weeks inbetween working on it.  In fact, I didn't even touch it July-Sept. 

The bottom half was completed by May 30.

Now on to my stocking. It has a LOT MORE stitches than Pat's. Maybe we'll have an apartment by the time I finish it. 

We went on a road trip today. Actually we drove over an hour to Fort Walton Beach to review our insurance coverage. Vehicle insurance must be purchased in the state where your vehicle is registered so when we became Florida residents I picked an agent based on internet reviews and did everything over the phone and email. We did stop at the beach.   

We drove through Niceville. Pat's brother and his family lived here many years ago. 

The upper Gulf coast is called the Emerald Coast for it's clear, emerald-green waters.


It felt wonderful to be able to eat outside. 

The sand of Fort Walten Beach is so white and the water so clear. 





The sand looked so warm in the sun. It was not!


More sand dunes here than we've seen in other areas of the country. 

The Emerald Grand

Beaches and Golf Clubs


St. Andrew's Presbyterian church is easy to spot with it's gold steeple.


Advent Calendar Day 25: the final chocolate.







Where are the Piepers now? Bonifay FL.

Thursday, December 22, 2022

Merry Christmas!🎄

One final picture from our Texas visit!

We want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Thursday night, the final night of 50° temperatures before the cold tomorrow!
Friday morning the wind hits, drops to around 30°, and then the teens by night.  Friday will be the coldest it's been in several years here. I think, or hope, we're prepared! 

I needed to get out so Thursday we went to Panama City Beach. 55°, cloudy, and a mist made it chilly but beautiful white sand and georgeous water color. Not many on the beach for some reason!


 Not betting on it but I think I finally have a video of my ornaments in action!



One family making vacation memories!


Lunch

Across from our lunch spot was Pier Park. Lots of restaurants and shops, including Margaritaville, Paula Deene's, small chains, local boutiques, and large stores such as Target, WalMart, Dillards, etc. With the rain we didn't stop to shop. 





A 1/3 mile trail past Alligator Pond.



Not a single alligator but tracks.

Advent Calendar Day 21: Warm Friend a red blend Vin de France, Vintage Cheddar, Rondello Lait a milk chocolate Ganache.

Advent Calendar Day 22: Snow Fun a Rosato from Italy, Mediterranean Gouda and Escargot Dark chocolate. Only 2 more days of wine and cheese and 3 more of chocolate. We are soooo ready to be done! 
Where are the Piepers now? Bonifay, FL

Monday, December 19, 2022

This is how we roll! 🚌

An early Christmas present. If you look close the RV is a Palazzo. If not the same model as ours, it's close.

Sometimes "blogger" gets in a mood. It doesn't want to display things properly, won't let me even post the short little video clips (under 20 secs.) it allows, stuff like that. It does allow you to use you tube videos, but I'm  not going there. It might work better on the computer than on my phone, but using my phone is so much easier and familiar (might have to give the computer a try though). The best thing about blogger though is it's FREE so I can't complain too much.

Road trip Monday. We went a half hour west to DeFuniak Springs to run some errands. Then probably another half hour to Crestview, our "home." 

We are residents of Crestwood, FL. Our "residence" is My RV Mail Inc/Good Sam Mail Service. I have no idea how many clients they have, but a lot. They will forward our mail, scan it, shred it, or hold it for us. Same with packages. We do most of our stuff on-line, bills, correspondence, just about everything. To avoid paying for shipping twice we have packages shipped to where we are staying or an Amazon locker. Today we decided to stop in and pick up the few pieces of mail that had accumulated.

My RV Mail Inc/Good Sam Mail Service

A familiar number if you've sent us mail. 

Hub City Smokehouse and Grill in Crestview for lunch.

We returned back through DeFuniak Springs, picked up my meds at Walgreens, and headed to the Circle Drive Historic District in search of a bakery and a piece of chocolate cake. Failed on the latter but we checked out the historic area. The Walton Defuniak library, located on Circle Drive, is the oldest continuously operated library in Florida. 

What does Circle Drive encircle? It and a sidewalk go around the almost perfectly round 40 acre spring-fed Lake DeFuniak. It is one of only two naturally round lakes in the world. Legend says it was created by a meteor, but more likely it is a sink hole lake.

Walton Defuniak Library

Behind the library there is swimming in Lake DeFuniak during the summer months. A sign next to the library tells that the lake was closed to swimming in 1964 to evade desegregation, although officially they claimed it was closed due to pollution. Hard to believe that was during my lifetime. Pat said that worse was that they didn't reopen it for swimming until 2021!

The domestic Muscovy ducks were pretty.

You can't even tell where Lake Defuniak meets the sky. 



Located between DeFuniak Springs and Bonifay. We drove into the park but didn't stop to search for the fountain of youth, but I probably need to do that!

Advent Calendar Day 19: Winter Adventure a white blend from Portugal, Jalapeno and an Almond Sprinkle a Gianduja with salted carmelized almonds. 
Where are the Piepers now? Bonifay, Fl