Canoe Trip

We moved from the Burley Campground, in Hanover (Marion & Dave, Roger's sister & brother-in-law's driveway) to the Lasich Campground, near Kalamazoo (Mel & Ray, my sister & brother-in-law's driveway) on Thursday. Nice amenities at both!
Roger & I lived in Kalamazoo between the time we were married and when we moved to Texas. We drove around and enjoyed a nostalgic tour the other day but many changes in 30 years!
We took a canoe trip down the Kalamazoo River yesterday afternoon with Mel & Ray, Judy, and Kirt & Kelly. Thought we would have a lazy "float" down the river but it was wide, with little current and the wind was blowing toward us so......we paddled more than anticipated! But, it was a beautiful day and we enjoyed it. Our arms were tired, thought we would have trouble lifting our coffee cups this morning. The trip reminded us of our last canoe trip with Ray & Cindy down the South Llano River - more challenging rapids that time!
Roger is "tackling" a major remodeling job today - laying a new hardwood floor in our "mobile residence." Silly man, thought he was done with that kind of project after we sold the house! When we took the dinnette and bench seats out, to put in the new desk unit and table, there was bare plywood under it. Can't live with that! The bid for $2,600.00 was enough to convince Roger to get his tools out! Know he will do a great job but, so much for retirement. Haven't had our golf clubs out yet!
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
The new desk area has two drawer units - one for each of us - mine being the organized one on the right and Roger's "the other." Originally, he said he did not want to use the large file drawer on his side so I figured it would make a great bread box. Now he has changed his mind and we have been trying to find another place to store bread, chips, etc. Recent conversation:
Roger - How about if we put them in this cabinet above the couch?
Kathy - We can't use that space!
Roger - Why not?
Kathy - It's in the living room!
Roger - It's 2 feet from the "dining room!"
Kathy - Nobody stores bread in their living room!
No decision as yet!

Family & Friends

Randy's funeral was Wednesday. We saw so many family members and friends we have not seen in many years - just wish it had been under different circumstances. Know time and all the good memories will help us all through the grieving process.
A dear friend of my Mother's died last Sunday - her memorial service is tomorrow. Their family lived across the street from us when we were growing up - lots of childhood memories.
I have a poem that helps remind me of the circle of life and death.
"Our family is a circle of strength and love,
With every birth and every union the circle grows,
Every joy shared adds more love,
Every crisis faced together makes the circle stronger."

Sad Day

We knew it could not be good news when Roger's cell phone rang at 6:30 am. Roger's sister-in-law, Sally, was calling to tell us that Roger's oldest brother, Duane's, son Randy, age 47, had a massive heart attack and died last night. Heartbroken, we cancelled all previous plans and are on our way "home." We packed funeral attire "just in case" - never dreaming we would need it this soon and for one of our nephews.
Traveling through the Wisconsin Dells area where massive flooding occurred - many fields of stagnant water remaining - have seen sand hill cranes standing right next to I-94!

Menomoni, Wisconsin

After 7 days at the FMCA Rally we just drove a short distance into Wisconsin today to "re-stock." Groceries & laundry were top priority. We had a great time at the rally - over 3,000 motor homes packed in everywhere at the Minneapolis State Fairgrounds. Met many fun couples camped near us. The venue was huge so we rode our bikes back and forth to all the events - got plenty of exercise. There were 600 vendors and Roger swears I tried to buy something from all of them! Our two big purchases were a braking system for the car and a desk/table unit for the motor home. The desk fits where our dinette and benches used to be and the table slides in between the drawer units on each side. The table has a hidden leaf so it can seat six. We bought it and came home that evening, emptied the drawers and ripped the old table and seats out, loaded them into the Saturn and "clandestinely" threw them in an out of the way dumpster at the fairgrounds! The vendor came and installed the new unit the next morning. We love it! Room for our computers, office stuff and files plus a bigger table. Will be good for playing cards! Two problems, though - there was bare wood under the bench seats, so we need to re-do the floor in the kitchen area and we need to buy 2 nice chairs - have 2 folding Walmart chairs for now!
Could have spent $2,000 on a new satellite dish but it didn't pass the "want vs need" test! On our way to explore Green Bay tomorrow - anyone want a "Cheese head" hat????
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly:
Our Verizon internet card is working great - probably, shouldn't put that in writing!
We can not seem to get the temperature right - Roger is too hot and I'm too cold - not like we can go to another area of the house!
Roger can't get away with anything - I'm always right there to catch him at it!!!
There is a rattle in one of the air conditioning ducts that is driving Roger nuts - he has tried to fix it several times - afraid dynamite is next!

FMCA Rally

Can't visit Minneapolis/St.Paul without going to the Mall of the Americas - just to say you've been there. Needless to say it is huge! We walked around for awhile - you can imagine Roger's degree of interest! - saw the amusement park in the center and browsed in the Lake Woebegone Store then ate dinner at Bubbu Gump's Shrimp House. Drove by the State Capital Building in St. Paul on the way home - it is a beautiful old building with gorgeous grounds - befitting for Jesse Ventura!
Finally got some good information on how to cook in the microwave/convection oven at a class today. Since the motor home was pre-owned we never got an owner's manual or any instructions. The hand out the instructor gave us will help tremendously. Roger almost chipped a tooth on the hockey puck I cooked him last time but the chicken tonight was pretty good. Going to another class with recipes on Wed.
Roger talked with a service expert about our generator problems (it doesn't always produce power when it is wet or damp) and he had the answer. They are bringing us a part to fix it tomorrow. Almost worth the trip up here just to get that fixed and learn how to cook!
The motorhome dealership "Open House" started this afternoon - all types of new rigs on display. Saw some beautiful ones (with not so pretty price tags) but actually like our layout and cupboard space the best so far.
The vendor displays open tomorrow. We have a long list of items to look at, hopefully, we will find what we want to buy.

The Good, The Bad & the Ugly:
3 Clorox wipes and the bathroom is clean!
We finally realized why it feels like we are going through toilet paper like crazy - at home the usage was divided by 5 bathrooms and we didn't have to use the cheap stuff!
I broke a string on one of the shades in the bedroom - what a major task to restring them - took us most of an afternoon.
We never have to hurry for anything!
Roger actually slept until 7:00 am - once!

FMCA Rally

We arrived at the Minneapolis State Fairgrounds an hour past our scheduled arrival time because of highway construction delays and the "parkers" didn't know what to do with us. A real organizational nightmare to get 2500 RV's parked in their correct spots. They had us park in a holding area for awhile and just about the time we were beginning to get impatient they came back and led us to a really nice spot - grassy with trees - right in the center of all the activity. Rode our bikes around to get oriented - the place is huge and there are motorhomes everywhere. Never have seen this many high dollar, luxury coaches - not even at an RV show! The list of vendors is huge - many we want to visit - may have found the kind of shopping Roger & I like to do together! Went to Fuddruckers for supper with our neighbors. Weather is great - breezy and in the high 70's.

Owatonna, MN

We drove from Winterset to Owatonna this morning - about 200 miles - I was reading my book and every time I glanced up the view was the same - CORN - miles & miles of flat fields of corn.
Trivia item - we passed by Bob Feller's Museum. If anyone knows who he is it will be Gary LeRow! This is our last stop before the FMCA rally in Minneapolis and we are about 60 miles away. There are so many RV's to park for the rally that they send you an arrival time, ours is Saturday am, and it takes 2 days to get everyone "in." Events don't start until Monday.
Owatonna, named after an Indian princess, is another lovely midwest town. Huge hanging baskets of petuniasall along the main streets and in the parks. We took our bikes this afternoon and rode a trail around a city park, along the Straight River and out to a lake. Gradually getting in shape (Roger says, yah, pear shape!) I made strawberry shortcake this evening!

Bridges of Madison County

July 10, 2008

We traveled through a portion of the "bread basket of America" - huge fields of corn and soy beans - and not much else. Staying at a lovely little city park in Winterset, Iowa - birthplace of John Wayne and home of the Bridges of Madison County. Lush green grass all around us - had to walk barefoot in it! Toured the town on our bikes, many beautiful, big, restored old homes, and had breakfast with the locals at "Expresso Yourself" coffee shop. Drove to see all 5 remaining covered bridges - a step back in time. The townspeople say it was pretty exciting when they filmed the movie here - Clint and Merryl were gracious to the locals. Darn near killed ourselves bicycling to "Clark Tower" last night. We'll get in better shape someday. Ended up staying an extra day here to avoid thunderstorms in Minneapolis. After our scare at Beaver Lake we are not taking any chances! There is a group of FMCA members here that are also going to the rally. They left today to go to the "Spam Museum" - may regret missing that opportunity!

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly:

Missing the garbage disposal more than the dishwasher

Not wearing a watch

"Reconnecting" with each other - we really are good friends!

Cooking (I should say burning) on gas - have had on electric stove all may life

The Beginning

July 8, 2008
We made the decisions to retire, sell the house, move into the motor home and travel several months ago and "it" has finally happened! We sold the house on June 18th, stayed in San Antonio until June 27th, Roger's last day at work and then spent a long week-end at Horsehoe Bay Resort with Heather, Kyle, Samantha, Megan and Carlos. Great family fun! Much easier to leave with many good memories to take with us. Had to capture Roger's "Alarm Clock Smashing Ceremony" on film!
We planned to stay at Dana Peak Park, near Salado, our first night on the road but it was closed for repairs. Ended up at "Lucky RV Park" - looked as if it hadn't had any luck in many years! A major difference from Horseshoe Bay- welcome to our new life!
June 30, 2008
Mom's 85th birthday - Samantha sang the whole "Happy Birthday" song to her over the phone - so glad she was willing to perform on queue. We traveled to Eufaula Springs State Park, OK. They have had a lot of rain and the lake was rusty looking from all the red dirt that had washed into it.
July 1, 2008
We arrived at Beaver Lake Dam Campground, near Eureka Springs, AK and prepared to "veg" for a week. It is one of the most beautiful campgrounds we have ever seen - we found it a couple of years ago when we were vacationing and exploring the area. Vowed to come back sometime.
It is located on an island in Beaver Lake, you drive over a causeway to get to it. Many campsites are so close to the water that they were flooded from recent heavy rains. Our motor home was about 6 ft from the waters edge. Our primary function was to prevent the lawn chairs from blowing away! A great place to unwind and relax over the July 4th holiday.
Our idyllic vacation came to an end on Saturday night when a major storm blew in. We have lived in drought plagued San Antonio for so long we had forgotten how scary a rip-roaring thunderstorm can be! Small hail and wind gusts of 60 mph made living in our "car house" pretty frightening! Luckily, Roger had packed up the campsite because we were leaving on Sunday morning. We put the slides in and sat in the car while the wind buffeted the motor home. When it cleared up a bit we drove to another campground dump site, that was in a valley, and spent the night there.
Add to shopping list: Weather radio!!
July 6, 2008
We are now in Independence, MO - Truman country. Drove through rural America - small homes and farms with gardens in the back yard, picnic tables in the side yard and flags blowing in the breeze. Near the "Trail of Tears" - the route the American Indians traveled to common reservations when the government "stole" their land.
Toured the Truman Library and the Frontier Trail Museum today. Certainly, easier in our motor home than a covered wagon!
July 7, 2008
We are waiting for our mail to be forwarded from Escapees to this RV park before we drive north to Winterset, Iowa. Have to get used to thinking ahead and planning for this so we don't have to pay for overnight delivery.
THE GOOD, BAD AND UGLY (of retirement and living in a motor home)
I don't need to wear my glasses inside - nothing is so far away I can't see it!
How long will it be before we stop feeling like we are on vacation? Problem is, we tend to eat more and drink more when on vacation!
We are riding our bikes daily.
Laundromats suck!