7/27/07 (Friday): Another crazy week! Our laptop died. We think it's just the monitor because it sounds like it's loading up properly. I'm hopeful that my computer wiz, Mark, will be able to hook it up to a monitor and retrieve some of my files/software so I can load it on the new computer. Until I get the software for the digital camera, I can't post pictures, but bear with me and I'll keep posting without pics for now.

We've made settlement on our house--yay! It's kind of sad to give up our home that we treasured for so many years, but we believe it was the right decision for us. We plan to keep enough money to buy or rent another place when (if) we give up this roaming lifestyle. We both love Florida and want to be fairly close to our family and friends, but Orlando has gotten so busy that we probably wouldn't have wanted to go back to that house anyhow. We hope that our buyers will have as happy a life there as we did. It turns out that their previous address was right around the corner from us! We figure that maybe they were renting and wanted to stay in the neighborhood.

I forgot to mention that the day before the computer died and we made settlement, we had a bird day. By that I mean that we were at Lake Michigan and Wiley was fishing while I sat on a bench and crocheted. I was talking on the phone to the title agency about our upcoming settlement, when Wiley started hollering for me to come help him, he'd caught a seagull! I think the title agent thought I was crazy!! We managed to release the poor bird (the hook was in his beak), but he then got tangled in the fishing line when he tried to fly away. We released him a second time and he flew off, apparently none the worse for wear.

As if that wasn't enough birdly contact, we got back to camp to discover that a camper had found a carrier pigeon (it had two bands on its legs) that had crashed into the window of the camp office. We carried it into the camper and put it into a laundry basket, gave it food and water and covered the basket with a towel. The poor thing ate, drank and went promptly to sleep. The next morning, we contacted the bird's owners and returned the bird to them. They said that several birds had escaped a few days previously. They were really happy to have the bird back!

We continue to have a good time here. The weather has been beautiful--although we could use some rain. There are still lots of places we want to visit. I've settled into the routine of the store and feel pretty confident with most of the tasks. Wiley is constantly getting compliments from the boss about the speed and quality of his work. I think we'll be getting a pretty good reference from these folks. We're also enjoying socializing with the other workampers. We have two new workampers, and have already spent an evening with them. The insurance company has had investigators out here looking into the fire damage and they're gradually getting all cleaned up from that. Everything in the store had to be discarded because of smoke damage, but we have new merchandise lined up and waiting in the barn for when the store has been cleaned. The campers are being very understanding about sharing the one remaining restroom. We've got our awning back and really enjoy sitting outside in the evenings.

That's it for now--sorry I don't have pics for you. I have some on the camera that I'll share when I get my software back.