Sunday, December 29, 2013

It just dawned on me that I'll have to start typing 2014 in a few days.  Wonder how many times I'll forget?

No pictures today.  We've spent the last two days doing projects, running for supplies, doing more projects, returning stuff and buying more stuff.   But things are shaping up.

Olga asked me to make chili last night, which meant a run to the grocery store for some spices.  She had bought pork to use so we used Dad's recipe, only with pork.  It was just a little different, but quite good.  So, Dad, try it out and see what you think.

The good news is that we had unpacked all the cooking equipment I needed.  But Olga asked me at noon to make it for dinner and got out the crock pot.  I usually make it in the crock pot and let it cook all day.  But the original recipe says to simmer for 45 minutes, so that's what I did.  Natasha asked why not the crock pot; she was at work when I started.  She said she would have never considered doing it on the stove.  So we learned something.

Natasha, Steve and Maria visited the backdoor neighbors today to get some questions answered.  Trash pick up, etc.  The neighbors were a great help.  They knew how the gas fireplaces worked, what lawn service the previous owner used and even had information on the furnace and hot water heaters. The houses were built around the same time and theirs is a mirror image of Natasha's.  It was a really helpful visit.

Olga raked leaves this morning with the rake we got yesterday.  I think leaf raking is an all winter occupation around here.  There are lots of oak trees that take forever to lose their leaves.  One of the minuses of living in a warmer climate.  But only relatively warmer.  It was 45 when I took Obi for his walk this morning, quite chilly.   However, it was 35 in West Lafayette.  I'll take the 45.

Steve and I went out to the trailer today to check on things and pick up a few things.  I told Steve when we were leaving that when we're ready to leave Dallas, we should just pull the trailer up to Natasha's house.  He replied that he didn't want to navigate the street if there were cars parked on both sides.   It would be tight.

We went to California Pizza Kitchen tonight for supper.  They have a gluten free crust for me, so I could have pizza.  Natasha suggested the BBQ chicken pizza, which was quite good.  It's a different taste, so didn't quite say pizza to my taste buds.  I'll have to go back and try again. :-)

The local Kroger has a "natural" foods section that has a lot of the stuff I can eat, so I've been surviving quite nicely.  Between that and Olga's cooking, I'll probably need to diet when we leave here.

Obi's snoring at the foot of the bed and I'm running out of news, so I'll sign off for now.

Deb

Friday, December 27, 2013

We spent last night back at the trailer, doing some maintenance stuff and seeing what else we needed to pick up.   We started to dump the tanks for the first time and found we needed a few things, so Steve took off to pick up supplies.   We got the job done and packed up things for the rest of our stay at Natasha's.

We'll head out to the trailer every few days to check on it and make sure there's enough propane to keep the trailer from freezing, although the weather today was great.

Natasha is actually living in Plano, Texas, which is north of Dallas.  She works in North Dallas, which is south of Plano, but north of Dallas.  Her neighborhood is very nice and has alleys, which I haven't seen since I was a kid.  The only bad thing about the alleys is I think they took the land for the alleys out of the street.  With parking on both sides of the street, its difficult if not impossible for two cars to go by each other.  Especially since a number of the "cars" are full size trucks like ours.   There seem to be a lot of neighborhoods with alleys, at least those you can see from the highways, but there are also neighborhoods without alleys.  

Most of the homes in the neighborhood are brick.  Kind of reminds me of all the brick buildings at Purdue.  The mailboxes are street side, built into nice brick edifices.  But they are on both sides of the street and randomly spaced.  With on street parking, delivering the mail must be a pain.   Sometimes you have to wonder, just what were they thinking?

Texans take their high school football seriously.  We've passed a number of high school stadiums.  This is one I managed to get a picture of.  Note the press box, which is two stories tall.

 I think one high school had both a stadium and a practice field.

Today's highlight was time spent with Maria.  Maria and I played with her tea set she got for Christmas.

And she helped Grandpa.

And Obi's hanging in there.

He hates the truck.  He mostly acts like a sack of potatoes riding in it.  But he never liked going in the car, either.  He doesn't like going into the trailer, but is OK once inside.   He's being very good about asking to go out.  He wanted to bark at the horses in the pasture behind the trailer, but quieted down when told to.   He sticks close to either me or Steve at Natasha's and isn't much for playing with the other dogs.  He's not sure what to make of Maria.

Steve's been plugging away at his to do list for Natasha.  Light fixtures and locks replaced, closet rods secure and who knows what else.  Daily trips to Home Depot.  I got my sewing machine set up today to work on some projects for her.  I found that I managed not to pack a seam ripper.  And it turns out Natasha doesn't have one.  So tomorrow will be a trip to Jo Ann's.  Life's tough.

The Sunday and Monday lows are supposed to be 25 degrees, but tomorrow's high should be 61.  And they're predicting lots of sun next week.  We'll enjoy that.

Take care, everyone.

Deb

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Christmas in Dallas!  We made it!  The presents have been opened and the turkey eaten.

Maria of course liked the paper and the gift bags as much as anything, but Olga and I had fun playing with her talking teapot.  I don't think we've gotten the hugging Elmo out of the box yet to see how it works.

The major gifts this year were the truck, trailer and the house, so there weren't many gifts to open.  Mike scored big as the gift giver with a day at the spa for Olga and Natasha.  After all their hard work, it will be appreciated.

I promised photos, so here they are.

Natasha's new house:

Four bedrooms, 3 and a half baths, plenty of room for us all.

The kitchen:

where we made Christmas dinner with no measuring cups or spoons.  But since everything mostly disappeared, we did OK.  Turkey breast, Aunt Becky's sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans and pasta.  Apple and pumpkin pie followed.

Here's the family room decorated for Christmas and baby.

And the view from the family room:

The pool is just big enough to get a little exercise and nicely landscaped.  

Here's Maria trying to share a Christmas cookie with Salami.   Our friend Melinda made some baby sized Christmas cookies for her.  Christmas isn't Christmas without Melinda's cookies.

And Maria enjoying a cookie with Mom's help.

Steve and Maria enjoying each other.

Maria opening presents

And family portraits.

And the trailer Christmas decorations:

For those of you who were on the Robison family cruise many years ago, the tree and the creche are from that trip.  Keeping them wasn't the miracle, the miracle was that I remembered them and found them!

We've stayed with Natasha last night and we'll stay again tonight.  Tomorrow we'll run some errands and check on the trailer and spend the night there.  

We temporarily forgot that everyone else was running around getting Christmas done, so there is no such thing as a quick trip to Walmart.   We've been to a grocery store (and went the night before Christmas Eve to avoid some of the crowd), Camping World and Home Depot.  The Home Depot is next to a mall so traffic around it has been bad.  We'll keep our distance from stores tomorrow, but I'm hoping by Friday things will start to return to normal.  

Steve is progressing on his Daddy Do list.  I need to dig out my sewing machine and start on the Debbie do list.  

We'll be in Dallas for awhile and I'll update periodically.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Deb

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Steve had me up and on the road before 8 am again.  We wanted to get to our RV park in plenty of time today as we have to back the trailer in and we don't have much experience.

But today we had sunshine!  After two day of continuous rain, it was a pleasant change.  The temperature started dropping as we headed west and we were traveling in the 30s.

We pulled into a rest area to stop and have lunch.  It's the only rest area I've been in with parallel parking, for all vehicles.  We were lucky enough to be able to pull into a spot without backing up, but it was interesting to watch the semi's parallel park.  They all made it look easy.  Maybe some day we'll be that experienced.

We made it to our RV park near Denton, TX.  It's about a half an hour drive from here to Natasha's house in Plano, TX.  We arrived about 1:30 and by 2:45 were sitting in the trailer watching a football game.  It only took Steve 15 minutes to back the trailer in.  It took us a while to get it level.  We're on a gravel pad and they've had a lot of rain lately.  One side of the pad was a bit soft and there was mud where there wasn't gravel.  Steve had brought his rubber boots and I had been wearing crocs for the last 2 days of rain, so dealing with the mud wasn't a problem.

I never liked crocs much, they're so clunky looking.  But I found a cute pair of sandals this summer and they are super comfortable.  Someone on one of the RV forums suggested wearing crocs when dealing with the sewer line.  If there's an accident, you don't ruin a pair of shoes.  The crocs just wash clean.  So we each have a clunky pair and they have already proved useful (for mud).

The RV park is fairly new and seems well maintained.  The RVs across the road have some trees, but our site doesn't.   Since all the trees are deciduous and don't have any leaves, it doesn't make much difference.   There are some permanent residents here.  Some have built decks.  But the park looks good and has what we need.

Natasha and Olga were at the apartment downtown packing up the last of the stuff there.  It will get moved on Monday.  So Steve and I drove over to the nearest Camping World to pick up a water hose and a few other things and then met them at the new house.  It's gorgeous and large.  I'll take pictures tomorrow and try to get them posted.

Maria is growing and crawling.  Surprisingly, the dogs don't give her quite as wide a berth as they used to, although they still take off if she gets too hands on.

Olga had the Christmas tree up.  I was so glad.  It really hasn't felt much like Christmas this year yet. I do have a few decorations in the trailer, but other than sleeping, we haven't spent much time in it.

I apologize for not having many pictures, but we haven't been sightseeing and rain pretty much looks the same everywhere.  But tomorrow I'll try and post pictures of Natasha's new house and of Maria.

That's all for today.

Deb

Saturday, December 21, 2013

It was a dark and stormy night.   The rain came down hard and steady.  Of course Steve slept through it.  Obi and I woke up periodically and Obi eventually slept under the covers, which he never does.

Steve luckily had packed his rain suit and was able to get us disconnected and on the road before 8 am but it was a dark and stormy day.  Steady rain, fairly hard.  Apparently the ground was already saturated, as most flat areas have standing water and the ditches, streams and rivers are mostly overflowing or at least close to overflowing.    It rained all day.  We pulled into our overnight spot near Benton, Arkansas, just as the sky started to clear.

We saw lots of flooding, but I started noticing that some fields completely flooded were surrounded by fields with some standing water, but were not flooded.  Checking on line I found out that Arkansas produces a lot of rice and rice is grown in water.  So some of the fields are built to be flooded.

Our truck and phones have so many bells and whistles, we don’t know what they all are.  Several times today we got warnings on Steve’s cell that we were in a flash flood area.  And the truck told us twice when there was a construction traffic jam ahead.  We think that was On Star.  Obi suffered through another day of driving, acting like a sack of potatoes, although he didn’t have any trouble sharing my chicken at lunch.  But he didn’t want to go into the trailer, even though it was raining.

He’s curled up in his bed now, waiting for Steve to return.  He went to see if he could borrow a water hose.  We thought we had one, but Steve emailed the previous owner to make sure what we were going to use was OK and it wasn’t.  Another item for our Walmart list.

If the weather hadn’t been so bad, we probably would have stopped at Walmart today.  But the rain and construction slowed us down and we just made it to the RV park before sunset.

We had no problems, but others weren’t so lucky.  One bus had caught fire, disabling but apparently not life threatening (no ambulances).  One tractor trailer overturned and another went into the medium and 6 or 7 cars off the side of the road at various places.  Another bus was pulled over to the side of the road and a police vehicle was approaching it.  No ambulances at any of the accidents, luckily.

Natasha texted that her carpets got cleaned and they stayed in their new house last night!  She’s excited and tired.

It takes two of us to make this work.  I tried to light the stove to boil some water, but forgot a step.  Steve remembered.  You have to turn on the burner and then turn the Spark knob.  

Luckily I packed some freezer meals so dinner tonight was homemade chili.  Very nice on a dreary day.  Riding in a truck shouldn’t be so tiring, but all I want to do is go to bed.  But I still have dishes to do.

Tomorrow night we should be having dinner with Natasha and family.  It seems like this has been a long trip, longer than when we drove the UHaul down, but I think that’s because of all the preparation we had to do.  Steve just told me we are 285 miles from the RV park we’ll stay at while we’re visiting Natasha.  We did 365 miles today, leaving just before 8 am and arriving at 5 pm.    

The good news is that they are not predicting rain for tomorrow!

Time to go do the dishes.

Deb

PS.  Apparently Blogger has an old spell checker.  Walmart, texted and UHaul are misspelled words.

Friday, December 20, 2013

We are finally on the road.  Those of you paying attention know we were supposed to leave on Wednesday.  But sanity reigned for a change and we took two more days packing up the RV.

We also managed to get the furniture in the house moved back into the normal places, so it feels like home again.  (Many thanks to our friends Diana and Greg.  We couldn't have done it without them.) There are still one or two items to be done, but the remodeling and repairs are done.  The roof doesn't leak anymore, my new walk in closet is wonderful and the new lighting and ceiling in the family look great.

I'm sitting on the bed in the RV typing this.  We are parked in a campground near Whittington, IL.   There are about 8 RVs parked here, 4 of which are obviously occupied.  It looks like a nice campground, but we'll be pulling out in the morning.

We have two more full days of driving to get to Dallas.  Natasha and Mike closed on their house in Plano, TX (north of Dallas) on Thursday and the movers dropped off their furniture yesterday, too.

Obi is surviving.  He can get quite heavy when he doesn't want to do something and plants all fours.  Luckily I can pick him up.  He wasn't shaking in the truck today as he usually does in the car, but we let him ride on my lap.  For most of the trip it was like having a sack of potatoes on my lap.  But in the late afternoon he started shifting his position around and relaxing a little bit.

We've had him in the RV as we were working on things and he didn't seem to like it.  But tonight as soon as we put him in it, he snuffled around until he found the bag with his food in it and let me know he was hungry.  Then he found his little chair (a foam toddler's chair we rescued from the garage sale years ago) and curled up in it while we were eating.

Right now he's curled up on the bed in Steve's spot, listening to the rain.  I can tell it won't be a thunderstorm, as he's quite calm.

One good thing about not leaving until today is that we did get to see Leigh and Wes for a few minutes last night.  We are lucky that we have Leigh to house sit for us while we are gone.

I'm signing off for tonight.  I'd like to get a good night's sleep so we can put in a lot of miles today.

Deb

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Here's what our weather looked like today:

We stayed in and worked mostly on computer projects, it seems.   Our weather advisory didn't end until 6 pm and I think the snow stopped about then.  It's 26 degrees now, so not too bad.  I looked out at the sky this afternoon and it was solid gray.  Looked like it could dump a lot more snow on us but no more snow is predicted until tomorrow night.  I just hope enough gets cleared away that we can travel on Wednesday.

It looks like we'll encounter rain for most of our trip to Dallas.  We'll just hope that a cold front doesn't move in and change that to snow.

I love seeing the trees with snow on them, but glad I don't have to go out.  Now that the snow has stopped, Steve went out to brush off the truck.  He's going to take the 4 wheel drive vehicle to church tomorrow.

Things arrive daily that one or the other of us has ordered for the trailer.  We have a soap and shampoo dispenser for the shower.  That way we won't have to worry about bottles, etc.  We're still trying to decide how to handle everything else in the bathroom.

Steve's been getting in all kinds of things I don't even know about, but among them is a back up camera that will mount on the back of the trailer with a screen in the truck.  The truck part is installed, but not the trailer part.

And we want to do some experimenting with furniture.  The rocker/recliners in the trailer are nice, but too deep for me.  We're going to pull one of those out and replace it with an Ikea chair and footrest that we both find very comfortable and already have.  If the Ikea chair works, it weighs a lot less than the recliners and would lighten our load.   We're also substituting 2 desk chairs for at least 2 of the dining chairs.  We think they'll be more comfortable for computer work and will function just fine at the table.  We'll see how it goes.

This is going to be a 3 month shake down cruise.  Steve's already located the Camper's World near where we'll be staying and Natasha has located Home Depot and Walmart.  I found the JoAnn's Fabric.  I'm sure we'll find lots of things we didn't pack.

More next time!

Deb

Friday, December 13, 2013

My goal for this winter was to go south before the cold weather hit.

Blew that one.  I swear WBAA (local NPR station) said the wind chill was -17 a few days ago.  Leigh said it was 5 degrees when she went to her final Thursday morning.

On Tuesday, we headed for Chicago in the car to help Natasha pack, move and close on her townhouse there.  The drive up was uneventful and we got checked into a hotel near Natasha.  The hotel architecture has always intrigued us, but this is the first time we had stayed there.  It's a Hilton hotel, called Indian Lakes.  It's a resort, although we didn't indulge in any activities.

It was designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright's and is based on a series of octagons, resulting in unusual shapes.  It was built in the 50's or 60's and as a result has some maintenance issues.  Our room was 75 degrees when we checked in and went up to 78 degrees.  The maintenance guy said the compressor was going out and they moved us to another room for our second night.

But they allowed dogs and Obi was remarkably well behaved for us.  I think he is a bit deaf and doesn't hear as much as Scrappy did.  Scrappy would frequently just bark once or twice and then Obi would start and not stop.  So we have a quieter (and lonelier) house.

Olga and Natasha had packed almost everything except what they used on the last day.  So there were bits and pieces to get packed.  Steve and I did some on Tuesday and we finished when Natasha flew in on Wednesday.

The truck was supposed to arrive Wednesday afternoon, but due to the weather, did not get there until after 9 am on Thursday.  Since closing was at 2:30, the buyer wasn't exactly happy, but luckily did not have a moving truck waiting to unload.  The movers worked their tails off and pulled out about 5:30 pm.  Natasha's flight was due to leave a 6, so one of the neighbors took her to the airport for us.  Luckily her flight was delayed, as it took them an hour and a half to get to Midway.

We pulled out just after the moving truck, loaded up with the plants Natasha wanted to keep and the friendship bread starter she wanted.  I figured if Charley's cousin Diane could travel in a motor home for 2 years with a lemon tree, we might manage 3 days with 2 plants.  Traffic was bad, although the weather was just cold, no precipitation.  We got home just before 10.

So now we have to pack the trailer with whatever we think we might need for the next 3 months.  We hope to leave next Wednesday, Dec. 18, assuming the weather allows.  We're currently hunkered down under a winter storm warning that will last until 6 pm Saturday, with an accumulation of up to 4" of snow.  Ouch!  We may not be leaving the house until Sunday!

Leigh, our housemate, left this morning for California for some time in her new/old home with her hubby, Wes.  They'll be arriving back for Christmas after we leave, so we'll miss them.  Wes stayed for a few extra days at Thanksgiving, so we were able to spend some time with them then.  Diana and Greg McKinney will be arriving Sunday to spend the holidays with their families, so the house will be full, even if we're gone!  It's nice to have a home we can share with others and have others help us watch over it.

No pictures with this post.  Pictures don't really show the cold.

I'm hoping to get our furniture moved back into the family room before we leave.  The room would be done except they didn't measure right for the bar counter and it has to be remade.  That and the mirror in the pool bath are all that is left, I think.   It's been a 5 month project and I'll be very glad to have it done.

Steve told me today that there was a lot on his list that wasn't going to get done before we left.  Me, too!   I'm considering this a long shakedown cruise.  We'll never be that far from a Walmart or a Camping World and there is very little we can't live without for awhile if we already have it at home.  It will be an adventure!

Keep warm!
Deb

Friday, December 6, 2013

December? Already?  If anything, time flies faster in retirement than it did before.

I last updated in October when we drove the Uhaul to Dallas for Natasha and Mike.  Steve had ordered our truck and we were waiting for it to arrive before we could go get the trailer from Grand Rapids.

We picked up our shiny, new, blue Silverado on October 31.  It's a one ton diesel Chevy quad cab.  It has 4 doors and seats 5.  It has running boards so I can climb into the thing and adjustable pedals and steering wheel so I can drive it.  And, independent heat and cooling for the passenger and driver so I don't freeze Steve out.  I sometimes call it Big Blue.

Now, Big Blue needed to have 500 miles on it before we could go pick up the trailer, so we started to drive it everywhere, including over to the Beef House in Covington, IN one night for dinner.  We had 300 miles on it when Steve realized that the temperatures in Grand Rapids were starting to drop below freezing  and the trailer isn't winterized.  So a rush trip to Grand Rapids was planned.  Since it's 200 miles to Grand Rapids, the mileage would be okay - barely.  We took off on Thursday, November 7, drove to Grand Rapids and picked up the trailer the next morning.

Now, other than towing Natasha's car behind the Uhaul, we are novices at towing.  The trailer had been stored at the dealer who did an inspection for us and one of their employees helped us get hooked up and ready for the road.

But the truck isn't supposed to pull at high speeds for the first 500 miles of towing, so no interstates on the way home.  We made it in one day (a long one) and I even drove part of the way.  ( I also did the backing up when we were getting the truck and trailer hitched together.)  Here's our rig.

It was actually a nice drive home.  Because Steve is red green color blind, we don't typically go looking at leaves in the fall.  While it was late in the season, there were still some brilliant colors and a bit of snow!

After an entertaining half hour, we even managed to get the trailer backed into the driveway.  Leigh was there to help and several of the neighbors really did come out to watch!  I am impressed with my hubby - he can get a trailer, truck and two prius' in the driveway if he tries hard.

After a whirlwind trip to Michigan, we had a whirlwind weekend before we flew to North Carolina for my niece's wedding.  Saturday was a home football game and even with all the construction going on, we're still "tailgating" at our house before and after the games.

We also lost our black dog, Scrappy, that weekend.  The front door was open and he saw something to chase and took off, into the path of a car.  When Scrappy was focused on the chase, there was no stopping him.  Scrappy had some problems, but he could be loving and funny, too and we miss him.  This is our last picture of him.  He had crawled into Steve's lap and asked for some loving.

The next week my niece, Jessie, was married.  The wedding took place in Ahoskie, North Carolina, not far from Virginia.  It's about 2 hours away from New Bern where my mom and dad live.  Our job was to get them to and from the wedding.  Mom's 85 and Dad's 86, so it wasn't as easy as it sounds.  We stayed at a terrific bed and breakfast in Ahoskie and they took great care of us.

We hadn't expected the weather to get as cold as it has, so the trailer has remained mostly in the driveway, plugged into electricity and running it's furnace to keep from freezing.  We both head out there daily to work on getting it set up.  Steve drove it to Plainfield, IN (I think) to have some antenna work done and Dish Network was here this week to install the satellite.

We had hoped to take the trailer to the family Thanksgiving at the Dickerson's, but that would have meant having to back it into the driveway in the dark when we got home and we thought better of that idea.

We'll be driving up to Bloomingdale (without the trailer) next week to help Natasha supervise movers and close on her house there.  Then on the 18th we plan to leave for Dallas.  Natasha takes possession of her Dallas house on the 18th, so by the time we get there on the 20th, Olga will probably have everything unpacked!  But Natasha has a long Daddy Do list, so we'll be busy through the holiday.

I'll be updating on an irregular basis, so if you want to follow along, you might want to sign up to follow me by email.  If you have trouble, let me know and I'll help you get set up.

Deb

Thursday, October 18, 2013

I was too tired to blog last night (Thursday) so here's yesterday's blog.

We were on the road by 7:45 am.  We only had a few miles left in Missouri and then headed into Oklahoma.  This early in the morning there is some ground fog and I see a deer on the roadside.  As we move into Oklahoma, the ground is flatter than Missouri.  We are in Indian country and there are signs for the different tribes and their casinos.

At one of the rest stops in Missouri, the lady gave us tips for driving to Dallas.  She suggested we turn off I44 at Big Cabin and head south on state roads.  Big Cabin is a relatively small town and my imagination decides that back in the wagon train days the directions were "take the trail until you come to the BIG CABIN and turn south for Texas."  I haven't taken the time to look it up.

I'm glad we have Satellite radio, as we listen to it all day.  The trip is bringing back the years we used to drive the 14  hours to DC several times a year.  I remember now why we stopped doing that!

As we approach Texas, the terrain gets hillier.  Not quite as hilly as Missouri, but hillier than southern Illinois.  Traffic hasn't been bad, but we hit Dallas around 4, so we're in rush hour traffic.  We do manage to find the right Uhaul place and they help us get the car off the trailer.  Looks like everything made it OK.  We've heard from Natasha - they have landed and are waiting for their luggage.  Mike is there to pick them up.  I love it when a plan works!

For now, we're headed to the hotel to check in and park the truck.  There is no place at the apartment to park it overnight.  So, back into rush hour traffic.  I'm driving the car and Steve the truck.  We get there with no major incidents.

Here are some pictures from Thursday:

 

 

More tonight!

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

We were on the road by 8:30 am, which is good for me.  We headed for Joplin, MO, which is about halfway between Springfield, IL and Dallas.  Google estimated 5 hours drive time, so we hoped to make it to the Drury Inn there in time for the evening free food.

As we approached St. Louis, the flat farmland changed to gently rolling farmland.  Still lots of fields of corn and cows, with lots of color in the trees - gold, orange and red among the green.  Occasionally, we see horses, sheep and even llamas.

Then the road signs indicate an intersection with I70.  Surely we're farther from home than that?  A bit depressing, even if we know we've made good progress. 

Then we spot the Arch in the distance.  We're almost to St. Louis.  I wanted to take a picture of the arch as we crossed the Mississippi, but we needed to concentrate on getting on I44.  It takes two of us to make sure we don't miss a sign!

But we made it and headed across Missouri.  Once again, we are mostly following the route of old route 66.  Missouri seems to be making it more of a tourist thing.  We see more signs and the tourist information centers (of which there are a number) highlight route 66. 

The terrain has gotten hillier.  At points, the highway has been cut through the hills, exposing stone walls which remind me of Pennsylvania.  And occasionally we get glimpses of views which stretch for miles.  The Lake of the Ozarks and Branson are both in Missouri, rightly attracting lots of tourists.

We notice more RVs, although still not a lot.  Some motor homes, some fifth wheels and a few trailers.

After lunch, I take a turn at driving.  I've never towed anything before and this truck is the biggest thing I've ever driven.  But with a few tips from Steve (make very wide turns) I'm on the highway and Steve gets a break.  Salami has gotten comfortable enough to crawl into his lap and they both fall asleep.

Traveling straight down the highway doesn't take a great deal of skill.  I manage fine until the next rest area when I pull over.  Steve had his nap and my leg was tired.  Steve asked if I've learned anything.  Oh, yes!  I definitely will use the adjustable pedals and cruise control in our new truck and I want a rear view camera on the trailer!

The truck parking at this rest stop is far away from the building, but they've marked the sidewalk like a road and the picnic shelters like building along Route 66.

It made me smile.  The floor in the visitor center had a map of the whole Route 66 from Chicago to California embedded in the floor.  Some day maybe Steve and I will drive the whole route.  I think tomorrow we leave Route 66 when we turn south to head for Dallas.

Salami started getting comfortable after lunch, but didn't want to lay down on her seat.  She wanted a lap.  So she rode on the lap of whoever was sitting in the passenger seat.  She's also comfortable enough to bark at noises in the hotel room.  We only had two barks last night and she's already barked more than that.

We did make it to Joplin, MO tonight in time for free food.  But 5 hours of driving should have gotten us here before 5 pm, even allowing for stops.  But we didn't arrive until 6.  Since we have about the same number of miles to cover tomorrow, we're going to try to leave earlier in the morning.  We'd like to get to Uhaul in time for them to help us unload the Prius and they close at 7 pm.

Keep your fingers crossed for us!

Deb

Tuesday, October 15, 2014

Steve and Natasha got up early and went and got the Uhaul truck.  The loading took a few hours, but we beat the heavy rain. 

 I should say they got the truck loaded, as Steve, Natasha and Olga did almost all the work.  Salami and Sonia quietly stayed out of the way in their crate.  Quietly, but not happily! 

 

Maria slept and entertained herself. She jabbers away and plays quietly.

 

 

Olga made us an early lunch and then we headed out in the pouring rain.  We were headed for Uhaul to pick up the trailer for Natasha's car.  We got lost on the way and ended up in an older neighborhood with lovely houses. Tudors, cape cods, salt boxes, colonials, even a Swiss chalet. Made me wonder when we stopped building houses like that. I know in the building boom after WWII ranch houses spring up everywhere and at some point split levels were in every development. But I don't think Steve appreciated the unexpected tour.  We finally found Uhaul and they helped us get hooked up and loaded, in the rain.  We finally headed out about 2 pm.

 

Because of the directions of the roads, we hit I80 and I74 much later than we expected.  They made us feel as if we hadn't made much progress.  Our goal for today was Springfield, IL.  We had reservations at a Drury Inn that allows pets.

 

We took 355 out of Chicago and then I55 toward Springfield.  Unfortunately, construction on a bridge held us up so we didn't get into Springfield until 7 pm.  Just in time to miss the free appetizers!

  

But in spite of the rain, it was an interesting drive.  We drove through a bird refuge/sanctuary and saw lots of Canadian geese flying in formation.  I want to come back this way sometime, as I55 seems to follow the old Route 66 (and if you're young enough that you don't know what that is, google it) and passes by the Route 66 information center.

  

Salami is with us and is terribly confused.  She has been sitting quietly between us in the truck, staring at Steve.  And I mean sitting, not lying down.  At about 5:30 she crawled into my lap for all of 5 minutes.  At six, she finally lay down, but didn't take her eyes off Steve.  Here in the hotel, she makes sure she has at least one of us in her sight.  Steve ran next door to Steak and Shake and brought back dinner so we wouldn't have to leave her alone

  

Now we're settled in for the evening and hope for a reasonably early departure tomorrow.  And that we find another pet friendly hotel for tomorrow night!

 

Deb

 

 



October 14, 2013

We're on the road again!  We left Lafayette on the 7:33 am train to Chicago.  You can imagine what time Steve had to pry me out of bed.  I had to change my planned attire from shorts to jeans, as it was 37 degrees out.  Since we're headed for Dallas, I had to plan for both fall and summer weather, but I wasn't ready for it to be that cold.

We both love train travel and enjoyed the early morning scenery.  Softened by a patchy ground fog and the pale light of dawn, the fields and trees showed off their autumn colors.  Soon the train was speeding north.  We had never seen the windmills north of Lafayette from the train, or this early in the morning.  The only way you could tell which ones were turning was by the shadow of the blade from the rising sun.

We are fairly familiar with the scenery north of Lafayette, as the train follows 43 N for quite awhile.  But you notice other things from the train.  In one small town (Chalmers?), there's a church that we usually see from the road.  But we'd never noticed that the real front of the church faced the railroad.  Maybe the railroad used to run down Main Street.

We saw quite a few houses decorated for Halloween, some quite elaborately.

Soon the train rocked me to sleep and I slept until we hit the Chicago suburbs.  We had some delays as we waited for freight trains to clear the tracks, but mostly the trip went smoothly.  We made it to Union Station, where we were going to catch the Metra to Schaumburg, where Natasha would pick us up.  Since we had just missed the 10:30 train, we took our time getting tickets and some lunch while we waited for the 11:30 train.

The trip to Schaumburg had some drama.  About two thirds of the way there, an announcement was made that we were having mechanical problems, which was why we were moving at a crawl.  A technician was on his way to meet the train and try to fix it, so we could stay on or get off at the next stop and try to find alternate transport.

Since we weren't in a hurry, we opted to stay on for at least one more stop.   Shortly after that, speed picked up and an announcement was made that the engineer had managed to fix the problem.  So we made it to Schaumburg and let Natasha know we were ready to be picked up.  We went to Natasha's house, where she had lunch and then Steve dropped her at her clinic.  Olga, Maria, Steve and I then went shopping, first to the Apple Store, so Steve could show me what he has picked out to replace this computer (which keeps dieing) and then on to Ikea.

We were checking on items for the fifth wheel.  We are now officially owners of a fifth wheel travel trailer which is currently in storage in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  As soon as our truck (Chevy 1 ton diesel with adjustable pedals, blue) comes in, we'll go pick it up.

But in the meantime, we're doing some dreaming.  Desk chairs, tables, lighting and a head board were all looked at.  But so far, we haven't bought anything for the fifth wheel.  (Steve has purchased some shorts and jeans.  He didn't have much of a casual wardrobe.)  It's coming fully furnished and we won't know what we need until we get into it.

The plan is to pick up the Uhaul truck in the morning and load the stuff Natasha and Mike need "immediately" into it.  A lot of that stuff is Maria's.  They have a two bedroom furnished apartment in Dallas at the moment and will wait to move the rest of the stuff until the condo sells or they find a house. 

After the truck is loaded, Steve, I and Salami (Natasha's dog) will head out, pulling Natasha's car.  We hope to get in several hours of driving before landing in a pet friendly hotel.

Natasha, Maria, Olga and Sonia (Olga's dog) will fly to Dallas on Thursday.   Hopefully, we'll arrive in Dallas on Thursday, too!

No pictures today.  Hopefully we'll have some tomorrow.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

I've had a request to contiue my blog, so here goes!

We really enjoyed our time on the road and weren't prepared to get back to reality.

We got home on a Saturday night and surveyed the construction progress.  The roof on our house wasn't done right when it was remodeled 25 years ago, so we had part of it torn off and rebuilt.  Of course it rained while the roof was open, damaging the ceiling in the familyroom.  So we will be pulling that down and redesigning the lighting in that room.

Rebuilding the roof also meant replacing skylights with light tubes and repairing the ceilings in the guest room and master baths.  And building a walk in closet over an unused balcony.  So there is lots of construction all over the house.

Sunday morning, August 18, I woke up and couldn't move.  Stiff as a board.  I manage to get out of bed, finally, as Steve comes in and announces that the refrigerator isn't working.

Can we go back on the road?

By Monday, I've decided we needed a new mattress, but don't want to mess with one until we get some of the construction out of the way, so I buy a mattress topper, which helps.

Tuesday, the refrigerator repairman comes and fixes the frig.  We empty the four ice chests back into the refrigerator.

Diana and Leigh (who are both staying with us through all this) help us decide where lights should go in the family room.  Steve and I pick out recessed lights and indirect lighting for the family room and flourescents for my new closet.  The new closet is in the hallway to the bedroom, so Steve says it's MINE!  (He wants more space in the master closet.)

Through all this we have construction workers traipsing through.  The dogs are confused.  They can't use their doggy door as construction litter is all over the back yard.  Our lovely neighbor has offered to let them run around her backyard.  It's a stitch.  I take them over there and they sniff around a bit and then lie down.  Don't want to misbehave at someone else's house!

Meanwhile, I'm watching the ads for rvs.  We really like the HitchHiker RVs we've seen.  They are very well built.  After looking at a couple, I check their web site.  They have a wonderful archive of past models and it looks like their 29.5 model will fit us best.  Of course we've never seen one.  So I'm looking for one close enough to go see.

About the time they actually finish the roof (but nothing else) I find an ad for a 29.5 HitchHiker in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  In between picking out cabinets for the family room (an old broken built in grill is being removed) and managing the dogs, I remember to tell Steve about it.  The ad is on Craig's list and I found a way to search more than just locally, so I go search again to show Steve.  Two ads now pop up.  They are Hitchhiker 29.5 triple glides, 2006 models.  Both in Grand Rapids.  Both look good in the pictures.  Time for a road trip!

We call and make appointments for September 4 and 5.

In the meantime, the aunts are planning a bridal shower for the last unmarried niece.  Just the two nephews are left and neither of them has a steady at the moment.  So meetings and projects for that take up time, along with Steve's activities.

We drive to Grand Rapids Wednesday, September 4.   On the way, we find a riverboat  restaurant in South Haven Michigan.  Good food, great casual atmosphere.

We stop at a Camping World on the south side of Grand Rapids and confirm that they can do an inspection for us.  Then it's on to see the first Hitchhiker.

 

We are impressed.  It's very clean and I can only find one small piece of damaged trim. This is the kitchen:

 

 

This is the living area:

 

Dining area and entertainment center:

 

 

 

It's tough to get a good shot of either the bedroom or the bath, but this is half the closet (with a light):

 

Here's the dresser (two drawers each):

 

Steve thoroughly examined everything underneath and on top.  Everything looks good, so we thank the owners and head for the hotel.  We agreed that this unit is well cared for and priced right.  The one we see on Thursday will have to be perfect to top it.

 

So the next morning, we're off to see the second trailer.  It too is in very good shape and we spend a lot of time looking at this one.  In the end, it comes down to small things.  The upholstery in the second unit is not as neutral:

 

 

 

And there was no fan in the bedroom.  The first trailer also had a compartment and wiring for a generator.  This one didn't.

 

But they were both in good shape and had been well cared for.

 

 

So we went back and talked to the first owners and set up an appointment at Camping World for an inspection of all the systems and mechanicals.  That won't happen until September 16, so we had a while to wait.

 

But while we were waiting, Steve went to work on finding a truck.  After lots of research and back and forth, he ordered a truck last week.  Of course, it won't be in until the end of October.

 

And now the inspection is done.  By the end of this week, we'll be the owners of  a fifth wheel, which will remain in storage in Grand Rapids until the truck comes in.

 

Construction meanwhile, continues.  Rumor has it that the drywallers finished today, so everything is covered in dust.  It's lucky that we have a lot of bathrooms.  Only one can be used without cleaning it first.  And the pool bath is out of commission entirely, as it's getting a makeover.

 

So now we only have trim and painting to do.  Plus the cabinets and counters in the family room and most of the work in the pool bath.  Maybe in another month?

 

But next week we get to go play grandparents for a few days!  Yeah!

 

 



Friday, August 16, 2013 Bloomingdale, IL

Thursday was a  very long day.  11 hours of driving to Bloomingdale.  We got in late and I crashed (after playing with Maria a bit)

Thursday we got up and had breakfast at the hotel.  This was the first night we stayed in a chain motel the whole trip.  When we got out to the car, a plane appeared to be buzzing the parking lot.

Turns out he was crop dusting the field across the road.  We were definitely back in the Midwest.

The scenery was corn fields, rolling hills and wind turbines.  Made me think we were in Benton county, but we had a long way to go.

We stopped for lunch in the same town as the Spam museum, so we did a drive by shot.

I was amazed at how much the traffic picked up the farther east we got.  Even Minnesota was fairly sparse, but Wisconsin was crowded and it just got worse as the day progressed.  We had gotten used to empty highways in Wyoming and South Dakota.

Lots of RVs on the road the whole trip.  I was surprised at the number of older (1980's and 1990's and earlier) motor homes I saw.  You could tell because of the graphics, colors and shapes, but it was close to 50-50.  We also saw a lot of fifth wheels and trailers, some truck campers and a fair number of pop up campers.  And lots of motor cycles.  We still think our choice is a fifth wheel.

We also ran into a lot of foreigners.  There was a German family on our float trip.  This was their second trip over to see national parks.  I know I heard some Scandinavian sounding language and Slavic and one of the last restaurants had a French group.   If there were people around, pretty soon you heard a different language.  I think it's great that they want to see our country.

So far, Leigh's car has survived the trip.  Only one more leg to go.

Friday -

We visit with Natasha, Olga and Maria.  Here's pics.

Tomorrow night I blog from home.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

We got up early and checked out of the Rocket Motel.  Here's a pic of the motel.  It was a pleasant place to stay.

Every August there is a HUGE motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, early in August.  I think this is the week after Sturgis.  Most of the rest of the hotel was filled with motorcyclists.

We're headed for the Badlands.  I don't  know what to expect, but hear its worth seeing.  So off we go.  We head for I-90 and take the Wall exit but head south.  We skipped Wall Drugs this trip.  We have at least a 7 hour drive today.

The landscape is slightly rolling and dry.  Any farming is done with irrigation.  This is prairie.  We drive through the park gates and notice people pulled off on a side road.  Since the key to animal spotting is to look for the crowd, we head that way.  No animals, but our first glimpse of the Badlands.  The prairie just drops off.

The guide book said that if you drive across the state just north of the Badlands, you might never see them, as you just see the prairie.  If you drive on the south, you see a wall.

The topography changes from steep pinnacles to prairie at the bottom.  Some of the valleys seem to have rounded mounds. 

 

Steve and I thought it would make a good landscape for a star wars scene.  It seemed like a stage set, a bit unreal.

 

We were lucky enough to finally see some big horn sheep.  I think this one is a ewe.

 

There were two and they were both peering down looking at all the funny tourists taking their picture.  We passed another prairie dog town.  I'd take more pictures, but they are too hard to catch with the camera.

 

We stop at the park lodge for lunch, but a bus has just stopped and they are swamped.  No problem.  We head for I-90 and start trucking across the state.  Turns out lunch places are few and far between.  We decided we'd stop at an 1880's village tourist trap that had a restaurant.  But just outside the old village is a 1950's diner train.  Right up Steve's alley.

 

We have lunch there and then we're back on the road.  We're now seeing cornfields without irrigation.  Seems like the Midwest.  Steve's goal is to spend the night in Minnesota.  I want to swing by and see the corn palace.  We decide to do both.

They are not finished with this years design.  Not all the crops are in.

 

We eat dinner just east of Sioux Falls, still in South Dakota, so Steve finds a hotel 15 miles away in Minnesota.  Goals for the day are met!

 

Steve thinks we're getting into Chicago tomorrow.  That means driving all the way through Minnesota and most of Wisconsin and heading south.  I may scour the AAA guide for something interesting to take a break at.

 

That's all for today!