Week of July 21 – 27, 2024
Debra is a full-time RVer who has traveled coast to coast looking for the cutest bookstores and the perfect cup of chai. She and her husband enjoy creating community on the road by meeting up with friends or finding new ones enroute. They love sharing their adventures and making friends here at The Virtual Campground and sharing Barry’s great photography.
Every week brings a new adventure and a new focus as we move around the country. Sometimes I find something on our travels that helps me so much that I want to share it. Sometimes something old becomes new or at least, newly appreciated. And of course, there is are always books to read and things to see. Here are my favorites for this week, July 21 – 27, 2024.
Helping Me this Week
Water Bottle
Why is it so hard to get in the right amount of water sometimes? I do really well if I get to spend a lot of time outside. On days when I am in air conditioning a lot like this week, it is harder. So when I lost my beloved pink water bottle (it broke after I dropped it), I decided to try a new type. I got a new bottle that helped me drink water on an hourly basis and had a good strap for carrying on walks. It has helped. I still forget, but now can “catch” up in a more visible way.
We do have a filter on the rig so the water is usually good enough. The one exception was in Two Rivers last month. While I have heard of hard water and experienced how it doesn’t soap up as much, I had never had water like this. Not only did soap barely suds, but the taste was even heavy. Not bad exactly, just thickish and odd. Hard to explain. Our friends have a water softener device in their rig. Something I didn’t even know existed! The water was so hard that the softener had to be charged every three days instead of the normal seven!
But this week, water has been great out of the tap so back to getting in my 75 ounces as a minimum. I think I have only missed one day and not by much!
RV Trip Wizard
My big task for this week was to work out our camping reservations for the rest of the year. We had planned a long, slow return to Texas. However, between a photography workshop in the Smokies that Barry is leading and my needing to be back in Dallas by late October, our plans changed. So I needed to rework our travel plans.
As usual, RV Trip Wizard was a big help! I love how it shows me the cities and campgrounds within our travel time limits. We like to travel no more than five hours per day when possible. It also estimates the time it will take us to make the next stop which helps me as I plan interim stops. Typically, I play on it for the vicinity that we will stop in and look at the campgrounds listed. I use Campendium to look up reviews on campgrounds but go back to Trip Wizard to put in the exact spots to get a travel estimate.
For more on how we plan our travel, check out this blog.
Bug Zapper
In the past month or so, we seem to have an influx of flying bugs in the rig. We thought they were fruit flies but according to Google, it is Delphinia Picta. I really don’t care what they are, I just want them to go away. I did a VERY thorough scrub of all surfaces. Put all the veggies that usually sit on the counter into the frig. I also did a sink cleanse with baking soda, vinegar and boiling water. Yet, they persist. I can’t find where they are coming from.
So time to get out the guns. I already had a couple of small plastic “tomatoes” sitting on the counter. The apple cider vinegar inside is supposed to attract them, then they are trapped. That didn’t seem to be doing the job so we added two plug ins. These have a blue light to attract the bug and sticky paper that traps them. I have to say that I did have some guilt when a very large fly got trapped and it took him a while to give up the ghost, buzzing loudly for a while. While they have not gotten rid of the bugs, I am holding out hope. I just wish I could figure out the source. Please let me know in comments if you have a similar problem and solution.
This Week’s Reading
One of my reading goals was to read all the Agatha Christie books. I decided to start with Hercule Poirot series and do them in written order. I am up to the 24th book, but decided to go off goal and read A Crooked House this week. A stand alone, it is reported to be one of the author’s favorites. And I have to say that I did not see the murderer on this one at all! Who would? Now, I’m going to add the 2017 film starring Glenn Close to my watch list.
I listened to the Rom-Commers, a fun book by Houston writer, Katherine Center. And yes, I do like that she often sets books in Texas or mentions it at least. Since it is a rom-com, you can count on a happy ending. However, I think Center is a better writer than most in this genre and makes romantic comedy more than its tropes. She writes strong women who have doubt about themselves, as all of us do and men who are not all too handsome but often just normal guys.
I have enjoyed her other books like Happiness for Beginners (which you can watch on Netflix if you aren’t a reader) and What You Wish For. Rom-Commers shows how being yourself is always the right policy and how great love is often founded on friendship. A very successful screenwriter writes a very awful rom-com and our heroine, an unsuccessful writer who has put her family before herself, is sent in to save his screenplay. Comedic happenings and fun ensues! I am excited that she will be coming to my virtual bookclub soon to discuss another of her books, The Bodyguard.
And I found a classic to read for Vermont as part of my state challenge to read a book set in each state we visit. Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter is that book that started the term for an overly optimistic person. So two birds with one stone – state and classic.
Picture of My Week
What is it about hardware stores that men find irresistible? Barry loves stopping to visit hardware stores, especially the local ones. I guess I can’t say anything since I can’t pass up local bookstores. I did enjoy this one in Brattleboro. Brown & Roberts is on the Main Street and has three stories of hardware goodies. I loved this old card catalog case used for screws and bolts. So very cool!
So maybe it isn’t so hard to understand why he likes to explore these shops!
Let me know in the comments what you are finding this week make your days easier or happier. I would love to know.
Bug Zapper for the win! No more irritating early morning zzzzzz-induced slaps to the ear… Best thing we have added this season.
I resorted to the sticky fly paper that you pull out of the center of the roll. I finally put one up and left it up all the time so they wouldn’t get out of control!