Wednesday , September 16, 2026 started off the final half of our final month in our volunteer position in White, GA. Our time here is growing shorter.
Happy Birthday Cindy!
Cindy turned mumble, mumble years old on this date. I had a beautiful card waiting at her place at the table when she sat down for her morning tea. Then she opened her gifts from me. I tried to get her gifts that reflected her interests; so reading, embroidery, some new jewelry, and a new creamer pot for when she enjoys her tea outdoors on crisp, cool mornings that are coming soon.
Later, I treated her to lunch at a steak restaurant she likes and the meal was excellent; her steak was cooked to perfection and the sides were delicious. We shared a free dessert that came as a birthday extra.
Then we went to see Practical Magic 2 at the theater in Cartersville (skipping the “fancy” one in Canton so this time her feet could reach the floor, lol) and she loved the movie. Me, not so much. But, as I reminded her, she has graciously watched movies with me that she was not particularly interested in, so I could certainly make the effort to return the favor. It was not that it was a bad movie, it’s just that it held no more interest to me than the first Practical Magic movie that we had watched a few days earlier.
Throughout the day she got birthday wishes in the form of calls, texts and social media messages from family and friends; each one bringing a smile to her face.
We didn’t bother with dinner that night as neither of us had an appetite after the large lunch we enjoyed. We watched the previous night’s airing of The Daily Show and the season 4 finale of Reacher. It ended nicely and, as always, Alan Ritchson IS Jack Reacher in spirit, emotionality (is that a word?) and physicality. I will be sorry when this series ends (as they all eventually do). But, good news, they are in production for their 5th season AND have been renewed for a 6th season.
After Cindy went to bed I stayed up and watched The Amatuer with Rami Malek (who was SO good in Mr. Robot, which was the first TV series I remember seeing him in). It was a pretty good espionage story with a nice twist at the end.
That night we watched Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and it was…OK. I used to think that this was a series I would get on DVD when it concluded, but unless they come back strong next year for their final season, I may not bother.
Slow Weekend
Saturday was not very busy at the ramp. Rain started around 2pm and lasted for about 30 minutes, then severe storms came through around 5pm so I’m sure that kept folks away.
We caught up on 6 episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live, but only the monologue portion for almost all of them as we weren’t all that interested in most of the guests he had on. Well, except for the show with Stephen Colbert that we HAD to watch. We still miss his late night show, so it was really nice to see him, even if it was on the other side of the desk. And we were happy to see that his former show received 7 (SEVEN!) Emmy Awards, so stick it CBS, lol!
Then we watched 2 episodes of Fringe.
Sunday was another slow day at the ramp. The highlight of the day was a group of folks who drove in with a charcoal grill strapped down in the bed of one of their trucks that they planned to drag into the nearby woods for a picnic. I explained to them that this was NOT a picnic area, it was a boat ramp. And that there would be no fires in the woods or in the parking lot.
It takes all kinds, and we’ve met most of them during this time here, lol.
Vehicle Maintenance
Monday morning I took Voyager back to the shop at 8am because I’ve had some vibration of the front end at speeds higher than 60 mph. Turned out they had not balanced the tires when they did all that four figures’ worth of work about a month ago. They also found a loose “speed wire” on the right front tire, but that was under warranty from the work they did a month ago. The guy was also nice enough not to charge for the balancing so, after 6 hours of work, I left with no charge. The ride was much smoother.
Then I drove over to a national chain where I always get the oil changed on Voyager and I was in and out of there in 20 minutes. Had a $25 off coupon, so that made it a little easier.
Tear It Down and Pack It Up
Tuesday was another early day for us. I started by draining and flushing the black, gray and galley tanks. Then, after a delicious breakfast prepared by Cindy, I filled the fresh water tank with a bleach solution and ran the water pump so it would flow through all the water lines. Then we left it in overnight so it would sanitize the tank and lines. We have a couple of stops coming up where we’ll be dependent on our onboard fresh water and I want it to be as safe as possible, with no nasty little bacteria inhabiting our tank or water lines.
Next we emptied the bicycle shelter that, while we’ve been here, held our firewood, outdoor rug, drying racks, a tub of Cindy’s crafting materials and the raised doggie bed we bought for Bella shortly before she passed away in March. After getting those items packed in the back of Voyager, we unstaked the shelter from the ground, washed and rinsed the exterior and let it dry while we started emptying the Gazelle screen room.
Most of the things in the screen room were also packed away into the back of Voyager, with just our two chairs and tables left out to be used during our last week at the ramp. Then we took the roll down covers off and treated them with a vinegar and water solution that I scrubbed on with a brush to remove the mildew that built up on them the past 6 months. That was followed by scrubbing them with a soap and water mixture, rinsing them and hanging them back up to dry before folding them up and storing them away.
Now it was time to clean the screen room itself. Being out and up for 6 months meant there was bird poop, tree sap, and just everyday dust and dirt coating it. I started scrubbing the roof with my extendable brush and worked my way down to the screen sides and then to the flaps at the bottom, which were discolored by mildew and grass stains. Then Cindy had the fun job of standing inside and outside the screen room with the water hose and spray nozzle rinsing all the soap off. She had a delightful time and it was like watching a little girl playing, lol.
We won’t be using the screen room for a while, but we wanted it to be packed away nice and clean.
Finally, I took the two wheel covers on the sunny side of the RV that I had left on when I took the other side’s covers off and washed and dried them to be packed away.
After the screen room had dried we took it down, folded it up into its case and packed it away in the back of Voyager. I was exhausted. We had worked all day from 9 to 5 (sing it with me in honor of Dolly), but at least now a very large part of getting ready to leave here in 8 days was done.
Running More Errands
Wednesday morning after breakfast I drained the bleach solution from the fresh water tank and lines. After filling and rinsing a couple of times we had water running through the lines with no bleach smell. Mission accomplished!
Afterward we drove over to Canton so Cindy could get something from Michaels that she needed for a gift she’s creating. Then we went to Costco in Woodstock to pick up a few things. When we were there a couple of weeks earlier I found a pair of pants on sale. I bought one pair in khaki to see how I liked them. It turned out that I liked them very much, so while we were back there I wanted to pick up two more pair; one in navy blue and one in gray. But, they only had the navy blue in my size.
I took a photo of the pants, label and all, and sent it to Ann to see if the Costco she works at in Virginia at had them so I could possibly pick them up when we are there in about 10 days. Turns out she knew exactly what I was talking about as she had just had some returned! She wouldn’t be back in the store until Friday, but she’ll look then to see if they have gray in my size.
Then we went grocery shopping and picked up a couple of items we had ordered from Amazon from one of their lockers. By the time we made it back to Nomad I was pretty tuckered out, especially after the previous day’s activities.
We’ve been enjoying watching Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Daily Show each night since they both returned from their Summer hiatus and are back to regular airings. We also began watching the Reacher spinoff, Neagley, and continued watching Fringe.
R & R
Thursday was mostly a day of resting and recuperating. Plus, the weather turned cooler which thrilled Cindy and sent me looking for my long-sleeved shirts and sweat pants. That night we watched the usual Kimmel and Daily Show airings, as well as the season finale of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds which was a time travel story focusing on Uhura. It gave us a little preview of what an Original Series “early years” Enterprise might have been like. I know the writers pitched such a series to Paramount, but the studio seems to be clear that it will concentrate on Star Trek movies instead of any further TV series.
And it’s THAT time of year again! Stink Bugs are starting to make their appearance. The last time we had to deal with these smelly nuisances was 2 years ago when we stayed near Mammoth Cave, Kentucky. We hate those things because they work their way into EVERYTHING and then you find them, still alive, months later. Little bastards!
On Friday we did a little more cleaning up inside Nomad, but mostly we both relaxed again. I did some reading and photo editing inside while Cindy sat outside tatting and enjoying the cooler weather.
Our Last Weekend At The Ramp
Saturday, September 26, 2026 was busy early in the day, but not so much the rest of the day. Mornings are always fishermen and afternoons are usually pleasure boaters, canoeists, kayakers, jet skiers, and paddle boarders. Late afternoons and early evenings are typically those who like to fish at night, with the occasional party boat crowd staying out late.
But the “end of Summer” cuts back on all of those. I imagine when Winter arrives, our replacements will go days without seeing anyone.
Sunday was the same as Saturday, except it was even less busy. It will be a little weird when we leave Wednesday to not be tied to one place for a while and not have to be “on duty” during the weekends. But this has been a learning experience and was great timing for taking care of some medical issues. We might still try actual camp hosting and we’ll probably look back on these days that were not as much work as camp hosting pretty fondly, lol.
Watched the season finale of Stuart Fails To Save The Universe. I’m sure Cindy won’t watch the next season and I probably won’t either…but we’ll see. Also enjoyed a couple of episodes of Fringe before we called it a night.
Countdown Three, Two, One…
Monday I drove into town to do laundry and fill an almost empty propane tank. It might be cold where we’re going for the next month and I wanted to make sure we had a more than sufficient supply of fuel to run the furnace. Not that Cindy will let me get the temperature TOO warm in Nomad…
We also packed away a few more things into Voyager that we won’t need in Nomad for the next couple of days. It’s not like there is a lot of room in Nomad, but when you’re not moving every few days or couple of weeks it becomes pretty effortless to just let things stack up so you can get to them easily. But when moving day is approaching it’s time to pay the piper.
After dinner it was time to watch the latest John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight show from Sunday night as well as the latest episode of Lanterns, also from Sunday night. One more episode and that series closes out its first season. I sure hope they wrap things up in a way that makes sense.
On Tuesday, September 29th, we returned all of our equipment, shirts, hat and forms to the Project Management Office, and said “Goodbye” to the ranger who supervised us. He was gracious in saying that we were welcome back at anytime and had already provided a good reference for us to another possible position in another park/state. We then enjoyed lunch at Culver’s, ran Voyager through the car wash, did some last-minute grocery shopping and topped off Voyager’s gas tank so she’d be full for the next day’s trip.
Wednesday morning after breakfast and Cindy had washed dishes, I dumped and flushed the black, gray and galley tanks. During our stay all of our drain hoses had remained attached to Nomad so I only had to pull drain handles when it came time to dump and flush. Since they had been hooked up for 6 months straight, I also thoroughly rinsed all the drain hoses and laid them out to dry before packing them away.
I disconnected the fresh water hose and the flushing water hose, then wiped them both down with a wet rag since they had been lying outside on the ground through the entire stay and were covered in mud and dirt. Same with the power cord. Then I cleaned dead leaves and twigs off the top of our main slide-out and removed our Starlink dish from the roof. By this time Cindy was done cleaning and putting things away inside Nomad, so we pulled the slide-out partially in and fed the Starlink cable into Nomad through the opening before moving the slide-out all the way in, as well as the kitchen slide-out.
Cindy and I were constantly double-checking each other as we proceeded, because after not having to do any of this for 6 months, our memories (OK, my memories) were not always clear on what to do and in what order. But we finally got Nomad hitched to Voyager, removed all the chocks and were ready to pull out of our site at 11am, right on schedule.
So ended our first Volunteer Position in White, GA as we, like Clark Kent in a phone booth, once again became…The Wandering Wetheringtons!