It’s a new month, and one month closer to moving on. A new month must mean a monthly blog entry. Yes, we are still alive, fattening up on good South Carolina food, and trying to stay awake during our not-so-busy shifts at the visitor center. We have now entered the phase when we start counting down days until our next adventure. It will be on to TX and Big Bend NP in January. We have just accepted an offer for campground hosting at Ridgway State Park in CO, and we will be heading there in May to at least through Labor Day

It’s been a long time; so, let me just tell you in case you have forgotten, the person in the photograph is me. Please note 3 things of significance. First, the Christmas flag. This is the extent of our Christmas decorations. We reflected when putting up the flag on by-gone days in which we dragged many boxes of decorations out of the storage crawl space and spent a full day of freezing fingers to put up outside lights and then many more days of unpacking doodads and placing them strategically and artfully around the interior of the house. Then there was the tree-getting and the tree-decorating. Life sure has become simple. Find flag pole pieces; put up flag; celebrate Christmas.

Second, the bare legs. This was taken on December 1 when the outside temperatures soared into the 70’s. That’s 70’s above freezing. We are not missing MN at all. I thought the short-wearing weather was behind us after the last few weeks when we had freezing temps overnight and highs in the 50’s and 60’s. But temps have rebounded nicely, green shoots are starting to push out of the ground, and flowers can still be seen on some shrubbery. We can tolerate these conditions.

Third, the lack of glasses and no squinting. I had cataract surgery last Monday and now have 20/15 vision in my left eye. It is so good that I am going without glasses even though the other eye is uncorrected and does produce a little blurry smudge. I can’t do mid distances and close up with my new eye, but my bad eye handles close up very nicely. That eye gets cataract surgery on December 15. The new bionic me will likely be sans glasses or just a pair for close up. I’ve worn glasses since 3^rd grade. What a change! Now a little nip and tuck here, liberal doses of Botox there, add hipster jeans, and I’ll be ready for prime time.

Actually there is a fourth item to highlight in the photograph. Alice, this smile is for you. See, I really can smile.

We had a wonderful family gathering for Thanksgiving. My niece, April, and her family hosted us at their home on the outskirts of Charleston. They are such generous hosts and gourmet cooks that we felt guilty being so pampered and treated so royally. But we didn’t let that feeling prevent us from enjoying the gathering immensely. The bonuses were the family members who were also there. My brother and sister-in-law drove down from PA, my other niece from Indiana also drove all night to help celebrate, and Kedric flew in and out under the cover of darkness for a total visit of about 35 hours. Unfortunately Pollen couldn't get off work and had to celebrate Thanksgiving in MN. Anyway, our Thanksgiving was truly a grand gathering.

The photo is of the Jones tradition for Thanksgiving, pig stomach. My sister-in-law, Kathie, takes such good care of me. She brought all the ingredients for making the pig stomach, brought me pretzels (PA is the mecca for pretzels), ring bologna, and I suspect was responsible for one of the pies for Thanksgiving dinner being shoo fly pie. What a trip down my gastronomic memory lane. Burp.

And for all who have shared in our agony and have followed our slide-saga, here is proof that our slide is no longer ailing but is working very smoothly and does not make the crunch and screech noises it once did. We have functioned without full use of the slide since we left KY in June. We have stopped at 4 different places in 4 different states to finally home in on a fix. It required a replacement of major parts in the mechanisms, and some of the parts had to be rebuilt by the company that originally built the slide. It also required a wait of nearly 6 weeks for the parts to be manufactured and shipped to SC to be installed. Fortunately the Camping World that finally fixed our slide was located in Myrtle Beach, 26 miles away. They were close enough that we could visit and call and dog them to make sure they really were following through and getting the job done. Anyway, despite the long and sometimes not too pleasant road we traveled, the slide was fixed, and Winnebago agreed to cover all the costs. Now, hopefully the slide will come back in when we get ready to leave in early January. Ah, the RVing life.