Is this Iowa??

Monday July, 28- We have been enjoying this weather...it's not typical for Iowa but we aren't complaining. The temps have been lower that normal and the humidity is lower as well. We have been doing some cleaning and maintenance Jeff replaced the rest if the seals on the slides. He's also cleaned and caulked the roof. Besides working around the place we also enjoyed sitting outside, reading, walking and meeting new people. We have friendly folk here in Iowa. As the weekend rolled around we went to the farmers market in downtown Cedar Rapids. They happen on the 1st & 3rd Saturdays of the month. Well good news at the market it's peak sweet corn season and we found some that turned out to be the best we had all summer. We ended this day with a trip over to Squaw Creek park to have dinner with our friends John & Janie, other full time RVers. It was a wonderful evening by the campfire visiting.

Jeff and I decided to do a little remodeling to our rig...besides our new recliners we replaced our wooden refrigerator panels with stainless. We love that. We also put a new backsplash behind the stove. Not a lot but we are pleased with the changes.

Wednesday August 6, we made a trip to Letts,  Iowa to visit a friend from high school. He called a week ago to catch up with Jeff. We decided a trip to talk to him in person was necessary. It was nice to see him and visit about old times.

Thursday we had a special visitor... Our granddaughter came to stay. We took her to the Collins Road Theater. They have free kids movies weekdays at 10 a.m. all  summer. We arrived early and boy was that a good idea. That place was packed. They have 5 theaters and everyone of them were full. They say if the theaters are full that's 900 people. Kids get in free and adults pay $1.00. We had never taken Hailey to the show, she did real good all except when Sparkles the clown showed up. She is not to excited about clowns. The movie was Mr. Peabody and Sherman....Sissy called it Mr. Peepotty....so that was funny.

Friday was Sissy Day. We played outside with bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and frisbee. Painted her toes and walked around the campground. She decided the afternoon would be spent on the beach. Her & I walked down and spent some time in the water and in the sand.

The weekend was spent hanging around the campground. Sunday Seth, Katie, Ashton & Hailey came out to go to the beach. The sun spent most of the time behind the clouds but the kids didn't care they had fun. Ashton stayed with us because he has hockey camp and we are going to take him and pick him up.

Monday August 11, we took Ashton to hockey camp, he was really excited about going. At first there was a problem because the ice wasn't ready but they worked hard to get it ready for the afternoon ice time. We stayed in town while he was at camp. Took advantage of there washer & dryer, washed my sheets. Jeff washed the truck. I went to get some red paint for our grandsons bedroom wall. It's to go with the quilt I'm making for him. It took them 3 trys to get a paint look red.

Tuesday dropped off Ashton at camp and  went to Seth's. I taped off the woodwork so I could start painting. Before painting I went to Morgan Creek Campground to visit with Pat the campground host, that's one thing I miss about staying put....can't visit with those we've met there. It was good to see her and see her great grand kids... They've grown. Came back and started painting. I'm covering stripes so it's going to take lots of coats. We picked up Ashton and he is loving his camp.

Wednesday again with the hockey camp. Then over to continue with the painting. I know I gave that wall at least 8 coats. It looks pretty good though. We collected our hockey player and brought him home. Seth's taking the day off tomorrow to go watch Ashton at camp, it's the last day. 

Thursday we stayed home, we've been running all week so we had things to get done around here. I even got to spend some time at the beach.

Friday our younger son Justin took the day off to work on his basement floor. Jeff went over to help. We had a late lunch, I went to get groceries, pick up Ashton to stay the night. We decided since having such a late lunch we would have popcorn and root beer floats for supper. It's great to be a grown up!

Saturday my best friend came for a visit, she and I went to the outlet mall for a little retail therapy. Jeff & Ashton stayed home for some guy time. It's seems Ashton been playing with this balsa plane they purchased at the hardware store. He loved it and Papa lost it. Judy and I went thru that mall in record time. It wasn't really so much about the shopping, just being together. Had supper here and just hung out.

Sunday August 17, We got up early to go down to the beach. The park is hosting a triathalon. It's 2 different ones, a shorter one and a 1/2 tri.. We wanted to watch the swim. For the 1/2 tri, they swam 1000 meters, biked 56 miles then ran 13 miles...yikes!!! When I first got up it was really foggy but by the time the swim started at 7:30 it cleared some. We watched them take off on there bikes. Then we came back for brunch and headed back down to watch some of the runners cross the finish line. The weather was really pretty good for them until right towards the end when the clouds broke and the sun showed up. Then it was hot. I was really impressed with the whole thing. I could never do that. Again we stayed around here for supper. Then Judy and I walked around the other campground loops. I also showed her the cabins. Another good day... Not doing much but enjoying time with friends. It's always good to have company... Especially my best friend.

Summer Continues....

Monday after the big holiday weekend and the shower house showed it. With all the rain these knats just don't want to go away. When you leave the lights on all night in the shower house that's where those pests like to go...what a mess so many bugs. That's one of our duties as hosts, to take care of the shower house. The park cleared out and it's very quiet again. It was cleaning day. We also had company coming for supper (stir fry) so had to do lots of vegetable cutting. Our friends John & Janie came over for an evening of food, beverage and conversation. It was a great night. That's a benefit of this way of living... Meeting people, making new friends and comparing adventures. It's always good to get together and tonight was no exception.

The fun continues, we headed into town (Cedar Rapids)on Tuesday to get our grandson Ashton. We went to breakfast first, he picked IHOP. We were surprised to learn it was there 56th anniversary so to celebrate they offered a short stack for $.56, well that was a no brainier on what to order we all had short stacks. Then we took Ashton to hockey. They are offering a drop in hockey so the kids can keep up there skills over the summer. Ashton came home with us. We went for a nice bike ride all around the park. The bugs were still horrible so sitting outside was not much fun. We went in and watched a movie....a much better option. 

Wednesday we planned to get Ashton back out in the kayaks, this time we were gonna get the sails out and Papa was gonna give him a sailing lesson. We both were impressed with how good he listened and understood. He had a blast. We met Seth, Katie & Hailey at Brogans in Palo for supper..good pizza.

Thursday I met a good friend from my work for lunch. She brought her boys up for football camp. So while they worked on there football skills we got to catch up on each other's life's. It was really good to see her. She was the best part of my job.

Friday my friend Teri, was back, this time she came to the campground with her husband and youngest son. More visiting. I wish that was a career option (visiting) cause I would do really good in that job. We had supper at our sons (Justin's), we ate and watched a movie before heading back home.

The weekend...Saturday Hailey called to ask us to join her and Seth for lunch at Red Lobster, well Jeff doesn't refuse that offer ever. Ashton and his mom Katie were in Des Moines at a color run. So Seth was getting to spend some time alone time with Sissy. The weather the rest of the day was rainy, we made it a movie day. Sunday was still cloudy we watched everyone pull out. We decided to rearrange our furniture. When we ordered our 5th wheel we ordered it  without furniture and purchased our own. Our recliners are super comfy but extremely large. Since we have landed here for so long we decided to change things up. Since our chairs are so large we had to put away a couple of the dinette chairs to make it work. We like the new set up but think we need smaller recliners.

New week, new plan. Gonna try to get back to walking everyday, I haven't been doing that since I broke my toe but I think that excuse is no longer valid. It felt good to get out and walk. This is a beautiful park so my scenery is awesome.

Tuesday, a day of running. Not like jogging or anything but to get some groceries, etc.  We stopped at Menards to look for some stain or polish to help hide some of the gigs on our furniture. I got some little samples to take home. We really don't want to sand and re stain it just want to restore some of the shine. Next we spotted a furniture store...we decided to look inside just to see if they had any recliners that would work. Well my husband had already done some pricing research on line so he kinda knew what prices would be. Well guess what...we walked out of there with 2 new lazy boy recliners. That didn't take long. Now to sell our big chairs. We had an interesting thing happen this evening. Jeff noticed that someone was outside taking pictures of our camper. He went out to investigate...we had some people from India checking out our rig. The one fellow was living in Cedar Rapids and his brother came from India for a visit. He was trying to explain about camping. We let them come in to see our happy home. That doesn't happen everyday.. Never know what will happen next. By the looks on there faces I'm not sure they totally got it.

Wednesday Jeff started replacing the seals on the slides, it was easier to replace then we anticipated. Our maintenance list is getting smaller. The day was a pretty one. We had unexpected visitors tonight....Lenny & Dawn a couple from Palo stopped by to visit. He's a retired firefighter so they have a lot to talk about.  Another fine couple we would have never met if not for this wacky lifestyle.

Thursday another beauty of a day. Jeff and Ashton had a date for a movie...the newest of the Planet of the Apes.... In 3-D. They loved it

Friday we decided to finally get the kayaks out. We really haven't had a day on the water. It was a perfect day, warm, calm, and not to hot. We took a tour around the whole lake.... It was really nice. We walked the dogs and stopped to visit with yet another wonderful camping couple , Katie & John, there are sure a lot of nice people out there.

Saturday we loaded up our old recliners to deliver to our son (Justin ) he wanted them for his basement. Then we decided to try a new restaurant in Cedar Rapids. Cheddars, it was busy and neither of us were impressed. Then we went to pick up our new recliners. Both of us were hoping we would like them. They definitely are smaller, they match fine but the best thing is the amount of space they save. It seems so much more roomy. 

Sunday we visited a new church....CR Family Church. We felt very welcome and the worship was great and so was the message. I think we found  church that will work for us. Stopped by Morgan Creek Campground to see John & Janie. They were there so we visited a bit before heading home.

Monday we had a repair guy from Ketelsons  to look at our A.C. Unit in the bedroom. What a great experience was that. He was friendly, knowledgeable and quick. He new what was wrong and had it fixed in no time. It's good to know there is a RV place that does good work so close. 

The rest of the week it went from blazing hot & humid to awesome summer weather. It's been in the upper 70's and lower 80's with hardly any humidity... Who likes this weather?....we do! We took advantage of the weather and cut Belle's hair, gave dogs baths and enjoyed sitting outside.

Friday July 25th our son Seth's 35th birthday. We took him and his family to Red Lobster for a birthday extravaganza. The he bought new furniture so we picked it up and delivered to there house. First we had to remove the old and then replace with the new...everyone was happy. We finished the night with another trip to uptown Friday nights. We went with Justin and Molly. After we had seen enough music we went to get a bite to eat. The kids had to have a running race... We watched. Went to a bar and had appetizers. The best part was watching Justin and Molly ride the bull, kinda funny!

Sissy Saturday, she came out cause the kids are renting a boat on Coralville lake. We let her be in charge of our day. First breakfast, Minnie Mouse pancakes, then a walk around the campground. After lunch we went into Palo to a splash pad. She played there for about 15 minutes. Into town to get her bike and let there dog Noodles out. While in Cedar Rapids we decided,(she decided ) to go to Orange Leaf for some frozen yogurt....yum from everyone. We came home and she helped me make chocolate chip cookies. We had supper she picked a movie to watch and the day was gone.

Sunday we went back to church and this time we took Hailey with us. We really liked it again. So happy that we found a church that fits. We took Hailey home came back home and enjoyed the rest of the day. During our walk this evening I had to wear a sweatshirt and it rained on us a bit... We wanted to go see the new dock they put in. The place is pretty empty but I'm sure it won't last long.