Kansas City, MO - Wednesday, September 27, 2017 - Trailside RV Park

We are spending the night at Trailside RV Park just outside of Kansas City, MO.  This is a Good Sam Park and may have gotten a good recommendation from them, but I’m not going out on that limb.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s ok for an overnight stop.  We are off the road, safe and have the amenities that are necessary.  It’s just not a destination I would look forward to visiting again

Monday and Tuesday nights we were at our favorite location coming through St. Louis, the RV Park at the Casino Queen casino.  On Monday night we went to the casino, had supper and made a small deposit in the penny slots before walking back home.

The Cubs were playing the Cardinals last night in St. Louis and we were able to get some pretty good seats at the last minute (for much cheaper than we could have gotten them in Chicago).  The Casino Queen has a free shuttle that takes you to the ballpark and picks you up when the game is over so we took advantage of that.

This is the first blog post I have made since May and I find I’ve almost forgotten how to do it.  Hopefully, I can summarize our busy summer in just a few paragraphs.

Our home for most of the summer was in our daughter Amanda’s second driveway.  Since we have two daughters in Markleville, this is just perfect.  I have to admit my first mistake in writing this post was to delete some really great pictures Greg took of our rig and jeep at this site.  So, I’ll have to use one I took just before a storm a month or so ago.

One of the big events while home in Indiana was our 50^th high school graduation reunion.  It was great fun catching up with some old (no, strike that let’s just call them “friends from the past”).  This is just a few of us getting ready to go celebrate the 2017 class graduation ceremony.

We enjoyed meals with lots of friends and family members.  Desira treated Mom and I to lunch.

There were several breakfasts with the “girls”, always a good time!!

We were disappointed that we weren’t able to work in a visit with all of our friends in Rolling Thunder Indiana Chapter One.  You guys are still in our hearts and minds, we talk about your mission wherever we go.  God bless, ride safe and we will catch up next time.

Since everyone else was busy traveling or coming back from vacation, Greg and I volunteered to feed 27 family members for a get together.  25 years ago Greg and his family hosted a Japanese exchange student for a year.  This year she came to the United States to visit again and brought her two children with her, we spent a great week catching up with their lives.  We were glad that Robyn, Jason and Maddie could be home for this week.

We also celebrated the 70^th wedding anniversary of Jack and Carol Crosley.  All of the grandkids were there except for Maddie and, surprise, none of them were making faces in this picture.

We spent two long weeks without our motor coach after we took it in to see why the check engine light was coming on.  We took it in to be checked before we left Mesa but the Cummins facility there didn’t have the necessary equipment to do a complete diagnosis.  It was a long and frustrating two weeks staying in a hotel and going back and forth to Indianapolis, mostly struggling to get our after-market warranty to pay for the over $13,000 repair that was eventually deemed to be necessary.    I’ll make it short and say that they eventually paid most of the bill through a “goodwill” settlement which required us to surrender the remaining two years of our 3 year policy which cost $5,000.

We had another small repair done that we were really pleased with – a ding in the windshield.  Safelite came to where our coach was located in Markleville, fixed the chip and it isn’t even noticeable now.

Greg swears he isn’t coming back to Indiana.  Seems every time we come back we need a major fix to the RV or to him.  This year he was in the hospital three times dealing with kidney stones that had to be “blasted”.  We found out that the diet we were following to try to promote heart heath wasn’t exactly right for people who are susceptible to kidney stones.  So, now we are working on a combination heart/kidney-healthy diet.  Right before we left he had cataract surgery on both eyes – he says it was the easiest surgery he has ever had.  I had about a three week bout of vertigo, seems to be good now.  I think most of the time we are in pretty good shape, but other times, I wonder.

The annual Shoot for a Cure was a big success again this year.  This is such a fun weekend that raises money for The Pink Ribbon Foundation.  They provide support, wigs and other items needed by people dealing with breast cancer.  This was the 7^th year for this event which has raised just over $30,000 for the cause.  We are so proud of Desira and Dan for all of the hard work they do to make this come together.  Trap shooters from all over the state came together to enjoy a “pinked out” Fall Creek Valley Conservation Club.

We volunteer in the office keeping track of registration and scores.

While we were home we had some clean up/repair type chores to complete also.  We still have a 5x8 storage unit where we have a few things we just weren’t ready to part with and yet didn’t want to have them with us all the time.  I went through the unit this year and reduced again what was in there.  Greg and son-in-law Michael had to spend some time fixing the roof on our rental house.  The early spring rains caused damage to some shingles and a small leak damaged some wallboard inside.  We certainly appreciate Michael helping out with these DIY projects that always seem to come up.

Grandson Jackson played baseball this summer and we were able to catch a few of his games.  Here he is throwing out the first pitch at a Purdue game.

Desira and I spent one afternoon freezing peaches and corn.  Some of those peaches made a mighty tasty pie.

Last weekend we moved the motorcoach north to stay with AJ, Kim and the kids for a couple of days.  A spot in the side yard worked out just fine.  Jackson spent every free minute grilling papaw and I about the workings of the motor coach.  Love his curiosity.

Jackson and papaw had a serious talk about all of the bells and whistles in the Jeep.

We’ve had a great summer visiting Indiana.  We are now headed to Kansas to spend a while with David and the kids.  We need to be in Mesa, AZ by November 1 to start our workamping commitment there.