It's been a while...

Hey there out there… you, yeah you…

How are things going for you? Seems all I do on here is talk about myself. Pretty selfish. Are you healthy? Are your family, extended families, and friends all healthy? How are you holding up through the shelter-in-place orders? Are you back to work yet? Drop us a line and let us know how you and your household are faring. Even we are feeling the social-distancing is taking a toll… We look forward to hearing from you and getting your news from home.

You can leave us a comment, respond through the “chat” feature on the Wix app, or email us… rollinwiththerhodes@gmail.com

We are all healthy here. I’ve been experiencing some writer’s block, so I haven’t given you an update in a while. I can see when you all log into the blog to check for updates, so we’re aware we’ve left you hanging after Mike’s last video. Sorry about that. Things got a bit hectic.

We’ve covered some ground since I last updated you. Let me try to recap with the highlights…

We left Padre Island after spending 6 nights on the beach. It was an amazing experience. We are so glad we did it. It was not, however, free. I would caution anyone who is considering such an adventure. You will acquire beach sand and salt in ever nook and cranny, to the point of damage.

• The plug that connects the truck power to the camper power (so the running lights and break lights work while driving down the road, and recharges the camper battery as you drive) became so corroded in 6 nights that we have been having issues with something new each time we hook up to drive.

• The stairs into the camper froze and needed a thorough greasing.

• The generator was not ok as we had hoped and required an hour of maintenance on a 100+ degree day, in a Walmart parking lot, as the interior camper temperature topped out at 104 degrees. (Scary heat for the pups…)

• The grill no longer works, assumedly because there is sand somewhere in the propane hookup.

• The jack that cranks up and down on the hitch (necessary to unhook the truck from the camper so we can go places and do things) is so tight (no, even the “White Lithium Grease” Mike relies on isn’t helping) that Mike is worried it is going to break. (We are mapping in a trip to Camping World to get a replacement ASAP).

So, while there was no fee to camp, there was and still is a lot of repairing to do. (Still TOTALLY worth it!)

After Padre Island, we found a little rinky-dink campground for 3 nights in Corpus Christi (same town as the beach) where we spent two full days cleaning the beach out of everything we could. That included spit shining the exterior of the camper (now it’s SUPER shiny), greasing everything, addressing the repairs necessary to the best of our ability and knowledge at the time (noted above), vacuuming the truck, the living quarters, and the storage bay (aka “the basement”), sweeping, washing down every wall and surface inside, window washing inside and out, and laundry (soooo much laundry). Busy busy.

We were able to enjoy a dinner out (our FIRST meal out since leaving Maine on February 15th, actually) at Chili’s while we were there. Much deserved, as all three of us had been working our tails off and no one wanted to cook. (THANK YOU Louisa!) We had an awesome server who was so attentive, and proud that he had just that week been called back into work. His wife works at the “Chick-a-fil” nearby ( I know, it’s Chick-Fil-A, although I just learned that recently and I'm having trouble giving up the wrong name I’ve been using for years… really irks the teenager), so the loss of one income was devastating to his family. He even showed us pictures of his children.

So, to re-cap, we’ve beached (which is not the same as being beached), we’ve cleaned, and we’ve eaten out… 6 nights + 3 nights = 9 more nights spent in Texas...

You know about us staying at the Walmart through Mike’s videos, but I’ll give you my perspective in my next update. I am working on keeping these posts a little shorter. Sorry, no pictures this time. we were busy.

Until later… Stay tuned!

Don't forget to send us a message! We miss you all!

Happy Memorial Day!