Fun With Words......

Hello and welcome back.  Our wishes to you for a great Wednesday.  Just two more days until the weekend!  Oh boy!

Over on the "book" today, Rob found a link to a website where he created the neatest graphic.  You just type in your words and presto a word cloud.

Here's one he created in just a few minutes......

Now you can play with the fonts, colors, or lay-out.  Heck, you can most likely spend a few hours playing around making word clouds.  If you click right here, you will be magically transported to the website and can make your own word cloud.  The only problem Rob had was creating a downloadable file of the finished product.  As you can see, he did figure it out though.

Thanks for dropping by today.  Until next time, stay safe out there....-R,T,&J.

We're F.R.O.G. Bound.....

Happy Monday evening everyone.  We have big news!  We're F.R.O.G. bound!!  Yipee!!  In-case your wondering what exactly a F.R.O.G. is, it's all the owners of Forest River RV's.  While F.R.O.G. has rallies all over the US, once a year they have the International Rally in Elkhart, IN where the r-pods (and a bunch of the other Forest River products) are built.  

F.R.O.G. = Forest River Owner's Group.  Pretty neat huh?  When the rally was announced earlier in the month, we just didn't think we could go.  He have lots of podding friends who are planning on going, so we really wanted to go to this rally.  Over the weekend, we got all the details ironed out.  When Rob got home from  school today, he called Bob at F.R.O.G. and got everything worked out to attend. 

This will be the longest trip we've ever taken the pod on, about 640 miles one way.  We are excited to be going.  We will be staying in the "pod village."  How neat will that be!  All the r-pods all grouped together getting to show off all the things that make our little campers special to us.  

If you want, you can follow this link, to the page where you can download the F.R.O.G. newsletter.  

Finally, I want to thank Bob at F.R.O.G. for getting us all signed up.   I also need to thank (after the fact) Bob and F.R.O.G. for letting me download their graphics and using them to tell you about our up coming adventure.  

Thanks for checking in today.  Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

Gettin' Ready.......

Happy Saturday everyone!  We've been busy getting ready for the 2013 camping season to start.  The weather  here the last two days has been very rainy and cold.  

Don't tell anyone but we had camping reservations for this weekend.  You see, a few weeks ago, South Carolina State Parks posted a weekend deal on Facebook for six of their state park campgrounds for this weekend.  Two nights for the price of none!  That's right two nights of camping for free.  We just had to pay a reservation charge and tax.  A measly $3.48.  But the weather went south, so we didn't!

Instead, we did some shopping today, and scored some pretty good buys on camping items for this coming season.  First stop was Best Buy to buy something called AppleTV.  This was for Trisha.  Rob says it is a little black box that sucked away two hours of his life setting up!

Next stop was Gander Mtn.  We had never been there before, but we do plan to go back.  Rob needed some Coleman Liquid Fuel for his Coleman Stove.  Not too many places carry this item any more, but thankfully Gander Mtn. does.

We have a Coleman Dual Fuel Powerhouse stove Rob bought about 30 years ago.  Rob says he grew up camping with Coleman Liquid Fuel stoves, and they are his favorite to cook on.  This gallon of fuel is a little pricey at $14.99 plus tax!  A gallon generally lasts an entire camping season.  Sometimes into the next season.  So that's not too bad expensive.


While at Gander Mtn., we got to looking at camp chairs.  We have been looking since the beginning of last season.  
We just haven't found any we really liked very much.  Well today we found them.  They were on sale for $49.99 each.  This included a matching footstool.  We had to hunt around the store to find two footstools, because according to the Store Manager, Gander Mtn. does not do rainchecks.  

Rob picked out a camo motif with matching footstool.  Trisha wasn't feeling the love for camo, so she picked the boring green chair with matching footstool.  

The original price for the two chairs and footstools was $180, but the sale price today was $100.00 plus tax.  Not too bad.

After leaving Gander Mtn., we drove over to Camping World.  (This is the third trip in as many weekends!)  Rob had gotten an e-mail coupon for a camping mat.

The coupon was for a 9ft x12ft floral vine pattern mat for 29.99.  Rob had also gotten a $10.00 off coupon for any purchase via email this week also.   

So this mat followed us home for $19.99 plus tax.  Not too bad.

After our Camping World stop, we drove to Longhorn Steak House, where thanks to a gift card from one of Rob's students, we had a great lunch for $5.36 plus tip!  Not too bad again!

The last item is technology related.  Rob has been wanting a small computer just for the pod, so he doesn't have to un-hook and pack up his from his office.  While the iPad we bought for Christmas works great for web browsing, etc.  It didn't do too good for Rob's blogging needs.  

Rob came across a good deal on a used netbook (free), the previous owner being Trisha who paid (zero) for it.

 Rob had also been researching wireless internet repeaters/signal amplifiers.  He found this one which had good user reviews, wasn't too expensive (under $70 for unit and accessories), worked with the latest generation of wireless protocols, and claims to have a range of 1000 yards.  

Now Rob says he doesn't claim to understand half of what he read about it, but he decided to order it and give it a shot.  It came Friday, and he had it all set up and working in no time.  Here is a picture of the netbook and repeater all set up in the Pod this afternoon.  He says it works great, and he will be reporting on it more after our first camping trip or two.   

He did note that there are at least 10 wireless internet connections the computer can now pick up in our neighborhood alone.  Formally our computers could only pick up our two signals.  Four of the eight new connections are not secured with a password (BAD!). 

Also this week, Truck had it 61,000 mile service which included oil/filter change, new front brakes, and cooling system flush.  We are really, really ready for camping season to start!

Thanks for checking by today.  Only three more weeks until our first camping trip of 2013.  Yipee!  So until next time, stay safe out there...-R,T,&J.

Happy Tuesday.....

Hello to everyone on a rainy, cold, down right dreary Tuesday afternoon here in the Southern Piedmont of North Carolina.  We hope everyone is doing great today!  

This is the time of year when blogging material gets kinda scarce.  It's also a good time for Rob to post some pictures of his favorite signs from this years camping adventures.  Our followers know how Rob loves to take pictures of his signs.  He says they remind him of all the places we visit in the course of our travels.

We hope you not only enjoy our sign pictures, but the rest of your week goes great!  Not much longer until our first camping trip of 2013!

It was fun browsing through all of this years camping pictures to select these.  Maybe Rob will do another sign "post" soon.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

Some New Stickers......

Happy Saturday to everyone.  This is R&T's Pod here today.  Today is a beautiful day here, but to all my camping friends who just got all that snow, I hope you stay warm.  Brrrrr. 

 I was so excited about something Rob ordered for me I just wouldn't quit pestering him until he let me post about it!  They came in the mail this afternoon, and Rob came right out to my pod-port and installed them.

Before I tell you about it though, I just got to tell you about my Cousin Splash's post on Airstream Butts!  It was just too funny.  Click on Splash's name to check it out.  

Now back to my story.  Rob said he got this idea from another blog and when he saw it he just had to have some for me.  I think they are sooooooooooooooo cool!  I've always heard a picture is worth a 1,000 words, so here are several pictures for you.   You do the math.  

A picture of my back window.

A picture of one of my rear side windows.

Now for the awesome part.  Here are the same two pictures after Rob got done with my latest mod.

Did you notice anything different?  Take a closer look......

See I told you this was a way cool mod!  They are custom vinyl graphics Rob had made to tell everyone I see about my blog.  (Shhhh...don't tell my people I said this was my blog, but lets face it, I am the star of the show.)  I also have a new sticker on the other side rear window just like the one above.

I can't hardly wait until my next camping trip in March.  I've been sitting here in my pod port snoozing.  I dream about all my past adventures as well as my future adventures.  Thanks for reading my post today.  I've got to tell you one more thing, Rob was out here measuring some of my outside parts about a week ago.  Rob is sneaky so I am keeping an eye out for a package to be delivered one of these first days.  When it arrives, I'll be sure to tell you all about it.  

Thanks for checking by today.  Until next time, stay safe out there....-R&T's-Pod

10,000 Visitors (and Counting)......

Almost any time now, our visitor meter will hit the magic 10,000 mark.  Oh WOW!  Thanks to all our readers out there.  This calls for a special collage to celebrate this achievement!

This year looks to be full of adventure.  So check back often just to see what's going on.  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

Sign of the Dog......

Well we've made it to February.  The month we spend all hunkered down inside, where it's warm, waiting for Spring.  Thank goodness there is only 28 days of this month to contend with.

As followers of our blog may recall, Rob loves to take pictures of signs.  He has stopped in the middle of the road to take a picture of a sign. He has chased his cap down the road after it was blown off by a passing truck as he was taking a picture of a sign.  He has remembered where signs were so he could go back after un-hooking the pod to take a picture of a sign.  

So today's post is about signs of course.  Signs concerning the faithful camping companion of many of us campers, the family dog(s).  These are dog specific pictures from several seasons of camping adventures.

That's all the signs for today, but not to worry, Rob has plenty more pictures of signs.  

Until next time, stay safe out there....-R,T,&J.