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.

Indiana, Markleville - Tuesday, August 16, 2016 - Crappy Indiana Roads

We are back in Indiana after our short trip to Illinois.  We have traveled in 36 of the 48 lower states and I truly believe that Indiana has the worst roads we have been on.  If we didn’t have beloved family and friends here I would vote for avoiding Indiana altogether.  I know there is a lot of traffic on our roads, we are the Crossroads of America.  But, I would think that the poor state of our roads would deter tourists from visiting our wonderful small towns and businesses from moving here.  Once they have experienced Indiana roads I’m almost certain that they would want to just get through the state as quickly as possible and not come back.  As we were coming around Indianapolis on I-70 this happened.  Keep in mind we have air ride suspension and brand new tires on our coach and Greg doesn’t drive fast, but that road was still beating the *&% out of us!!

I know it is kind of hard to see the picture since I am shooting it into the sun.  One of the two motorized blinds that cover our front window shook loose from its fastener and fell diagonally across the windshield.  We were lucky that it didn’t hit the windshield and break it out.  I can’t print Greg’s reaction to this.

There was a happy ending, the blind went back up easily.

Another word to the wise for those of you who travel in an RV.  Make sure the cleaner bottles that have an option of “on” or “off” by turning the nozzle have been turned to “off”.  I missed doing that with one of ours and as we bumped along the bottle was hitting against one of the others and sprayed all over our utility closet – smelled good but was kind of sticky to clean up.

Last Saturday we attended the 50 year reunion of a twirling group I belonged to in high school.  In 1966 we won the National Championships in Grand Rapids, MI.  It was great to see everyone again.  This is when we won the championship, I am the one holding the trophy.

We lined up again (with just 4 of us missing).  I’m in the front row, second from the left.  50 years have changed us but they are still a great bunch of spunky ladies!!

Indiana, Markleville - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - Keeping Busy in Indiana

We are keeping busy with family and friends and getting some of our “to do list” items done.  Of course, it seems like we (translated “I”) always have something to add to the list.  I mentioned to Greg that I would like to have a better way to corral cooking utensils and the paper towel roll.  I envisioned me getting the paper towels into the flame from the gas stove and there just wasn’t a good place to hang a towel holder.  We looked for something when we went to Shipshewana but couldn’t find anything like what I had in mind.  So, Greg took to the garage and put together something that is absolutely perfect.

This is a before picture.

Here is what we have after.  He stained and finished the box after he put it together, we may add some kind of decoration to it later, but for right now I am really pleased with the results.  Another plus is that it travels well.

One of my “to do” list items was to go through all of the travel brochures we had accumulated in the past five years.  Every time we go into a rest stop with state brochures I will pick up a few to browse through while we travel and I don’t always get rid of them as I should so we had a couple of boxes of them (stored in alphabetical order, of course) sitting behind Greg’s recliner.  Once I went through them and selected what I wanted to keep they fit in a nice basket beside the couch.  WooHoo – more space!!  I thought it would be perfect for an indoor window box.  So, Greg went back to the garage and put together a box that matches the first one, this one has divisions big enough to accommodate pots of flowers or plants.  He was working on these right around our anniversary, couldn’t have received a nicer gift.

This step in the bedroom was previously covered in porcelain tile like the floors in the rest of the coach.  It was ok but the tiles had been cut to fit the space and a couple had hairline cracks and the grout was beginning to dry out (this step covers the part of the engine compartment so it gets quite a bit of heat when we travel).  It just didn’t look like we wanted it to.  We decided that since there is a lot of wood in the bedroom we (Greg) would try to cover it in wood to match. Once again his project was a success.

Celebrating July birthdays with dinner and swimming later made for a great day with the grandkids.  Here are Kyle and Maddie showing off their diving skills.

Greg hasn’t been the only one with projects going on.  I made curtains for the door and window of Amanda’s first grade classroom.  She previously had brown paper rolled up which could be unrolled to cover the windows in case an intruder broke into the school and the classrooms had to be shut down – this is what the rest of the classrooms still have.  She showed me a picture she found on Pinterest of what she liked.  Unfortunately, some of the pictures don’t match the information you will find when you open up a site.  This was the case with this one – no directions.  What I was able to put together worked out quite well.

After we redid the valances around our motor coach windows last year we had a lot of material leftover (slight miscalculation on my part).  The material is made for outdoor use so Mike and Amanda’s swing and two chairs got some new cushions from our leftovers.

Speaking of Mike and Amanda, their second driveway is where we are staying until we leave Indiana the middle of September.  50 amp service was put in for us in the garage last year so we have all the comforts of home.

We’ll be here long enough to help Desira and Dan with the Shoot for the Cure.  This is the annual fundraiser they put together at Fall Creek Conservation Club to benefit breast cancer awareness.  Trap shooters from all over Indiana look forward to this fun weekend.  They always decorate the clubhouse in pink, including table decorations.  Decorations this year look like gumball machines and will hold candy for the shooters and visitors to enjoy during the day.  Desira and Dan put together the containers, I was responsible for the “bling”.

I took off a day to enjoy some “girl time” with a couple of my friends from high school.  Dinah (Hazel) Oldham and Linda (Noble) West and I had a great day at Stream Cliff nursery.

The flowers were looking gorgeous in spite of the heat and humidity.

We had some great blueberry salads at the restaurant on site.  We were too busy talking to remember to take pictures.  

Before we left we stopped in to enjoy the new stained glass window in the wedding chapel.

I was able to fill my new indoor window box with plants I brought back from the nursery.

This past Saturday we enjoyed meeting up with 20 or 25 of our high school classmates to talk about our 50^th reunion coming up next June.  I can’t say that we got a lot accomplished but we had a great time catching up and enjoying the breaded tenderloins at Anita’s.  I think we made a start with updating addresses and collecting a few more dollars to cover expenses.

Indiana, Markleville - Saturday, August 6, 2016 - Keeping Busy in Indiana

We are keeping busy with family and friends and getting some of our “to do list” items done.  Of course, it seems like we (translated “I”) always have something to add to the list.  I mentioned to Greg that I would like to have a better way to corral cooking utensils and the paper towel roll.  I envisioned me getting the paper towels into the flame from the gas stove and there just wasn’t a good place to hang a towel holder.  We looked for something when we went to Shipshewana but couldn’t find anything like what I had in mind.  So, Greg took to the garage and put together something that is absolutely perfect.

This is a before picture.

Here is what we have after.  He stained and finished the box after he put it together, we may add some kind of decoration to it later, but for right now I am really pleased with the results.  Another plus is that it travels well.

One of my “to do” list items was to go through all of the travel brochures we had accumulated in the past five years.  Every time we go into a rest stop with state brochures I will pick up a few to browse through while we travel and I don’t always get rid of them as I should so we had a couple of boxes of them (stored in alphabetical order, of course) sitting behind Greg’s recliner.  Once I went through them and selected what I wanted to keep they fit in a nice basket beside the couch.  WooHoo – more space!!  I thought it would be perfect for an indoor window box.  So, Greg went back to the garage and put together a box that matches the first one, this one has divisions big enough to accommodate pots of flowers or plants.  He was working on these right around our anniversary, couldn’t have received a nicer gift.

This step in the bedroom was previously covered in porcelain tile like the floors in the rest of the coach.  It was ok but the tiles had been cut to fit the space and a couple had hairline cracks and the grout was beginning to dry out (this step covers the part of the engine compartment so it gets quite a bit of heat when we travel).  It just didn’t look like we wanted it to.  We decided that since there is a lot of wood in the bedroom we (Greg) would try to cover it in wood to match. Once again his project was a success.

Celebrating July birthdays with dinner and swimming later made for a great day with the grandkids.  Here are Kyle and Maddie showing off their diving skills.

Greg hasn’t been the only one with projects going on.  I made curtains for the door and window of Amanda’s first grade classroom.  She previously had brown paper rolled up which could be unrolled to cover the windows in case an intruder broke into the school and the classrooms had to be shut down – this is what the rest of the classrooms still have.  She showed me a picture she found on Pinterest of what she liked.  Unfortunately, some of the pictures don’t match the information you will find when you open up a site.  This was the case with this one – no directions.  What I was able to put together worked out quite well.

After we redid the valances around our motor coach windows last year we had a lot of material leftover (slight miscalculation on my part).  The material is made for outdoor use so Mike and Amanda’s swing and two chairs got some new cushions from our leftovers.

Speaking of Mike and Amanda, their second driveway is where we are staying until we leave Indiana the middle of September.  50 amp service was put in for us in the garage last year so we have all the comforts of home.

We’ll be here long enough to help Desira and Dan with the Shoot for the Cure.  This is the annual fundraiser they put together at Fall Creek Conservation Club to benefit breast cancer awareness.  Trap shooters from all over Indiana look forward to this fun weekend.  They always decorate the clubhouse in pink, including table decorations.  Decorations this year look like gumball machines and will hold candy for the shooters and visitors to enjoy during the day.  Desira and Dan put together the containers, I was responsible for the “bling”.

I took off a day to enjoy some “girl time” with a couple of my friends from high school.  Dinah (Hazel) Oldham and Linda (Noble) West and I had a great day at Stream Cliff nursery.

The flowers were looking gorgeous in spite of the heat and humidity.

We had some great blueberry salads at the restaurant on site.  We were too busy talking to remember to take pictures.  

Before we left we stopped in to enjoy the new stained glass window in the wedding chapel.

I was able to fill my new indoor window box with plants I brought back from the nursery.

This past Saturday we enjoyed meeting up with 20 or 25 of our high school classmates to talk about our 50^th reunion coming up next June.  I can’t say that we got a lot accomplished but we had a great time catching up and enjoying the breaded tenderloins at Anita’s.  I think we made a start with updating addresses and collecting a few more dollars to cover expenses.