Only a few days left in Paradise

Mya in the lake after having been flung off the floaty.

I am sitting here in the RV looking out over the lake and have such mixed feelings about going home.  If it were just Jeff and I, we'd stay until the absolute last minute until I have to go back to work but we were talking last night and we feel badly that the girls are not enjoying the time here as much as us. Yesterday we coaxed them out onto the boat and once they get going they have a blast.

(I was a"good mom" this time and videoed them but just tried to upload it and the file is too big - darn!)This has been an incredibly lazy summer so it's probably good we head back to

Us girls staying cool in the lake.

reality now or I never will make it back to work.

The other day I wandered up to the activity building and they have a book exchange there. Perusing the books, I discovered a copy of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charlie. I've wanted to read that for a long time but never have. It's such a perfect book to go along with our adventure. A true story, Steinbeck travels with his poodle, Charlie, across the United States. Of course, he's not in an RV but something akin to a cab-over camper that he had specially made for the adventure. What a delightful read!! He travels from his place in Sag Harbor, NY up through northern Maine. He mentions a few of the towns we visited last year on our east coast journey. The chapter I laughed out loud at is his attempt to take a "short cut" through Canada on his way to Michigan and the difficulties he has at the Canadian border. Totally reminiscent of our experience last year trying to get to Nova Scotia. Instead of the gun issue, he has a problem because he has no paperwork showing Charlie is vaccinated. This book was published in 1962 and it seems nothing has changed as border crossings go! He had guns and that wasn't even an issue - go figure. He's currently on the west coast and his description of the awe that the redwoods inspires is described perfectly.

The "grieving sky".  Normally, you could see the lake from here.

Steinbeck's description of "The grieving sky turned the little water to a dangerous metal and then the wind got up -" sounds like he's talking about some of the weather we've experienced here.  Last night, we were sitting here watching The Desolation of Smaug and all of a sudden the wind comes screaming out of nowhere and starts blowing everything away. You could see people all over the resort running around outside trying to grab and secure stuff.  It even blew the charcoal grill off the picnic table. Luckily, Jeff got up right before it hit and rolled in the awning, otherwise it would have been a scene right out of the movie RV. We monitor the weather around here all the time but that one snuck up on us. 

"Peeping Tom"

Tomorrow we are going to go into "town" and end our stay here like we started it - buffet at Pizza Hut. Then come back and spend one more afternoon enjoying the lake. Monday is "cleaning day" to get the boat pulled and clean off the slime it's accumulated sitting in the lake. Seeing that makes me really question immersing our bodies in that water - yuk. We just had the outside of the RV cleaned by Brian, our hero. We had a problem with the air conditioning a few days ago and he fixed it lickety split.We didn't know he also did RV cleaning until we saw him at a neighbor's spot cleaning their's. He is an awesome young man. I'm going to assign the girls some indoor cleaning tasks and then maybe we can all spend the last afternoon up at the pool. We are leaving on Tuesday, bright and early and going to try to do the return trip in two days rather than three. We aren't telling the girls though - going to surprise them with day-early return. 

SAD STORY: of this lost baby robin. He must have fallen from
the nest and wandered away. We tried to feed him something
but he didn't take it and I was afraid to touch him in case his
mom did find him. (He's under the RV by the tire).  We let him be
but came out of the RV a few hours later and he was lying on
his side. I picked him up and yelled at Jeff to get some water
but it was too late.  He died in my hands.  This was the same
day I saw the dead deer on the golf course and the dead fish
floating in the lake.  Creeped me out completely. I placed
it under a tree in case it's momma was looking for it but the
next morning all that was left was a pile of feathers.  As Jade
always says, "circle of life".  

Going to enjoy the last few days here though.