Rain Rain Rain

Saturday June 20-Jeff and I got up early to get our work done before we left for town. Since the campground is so full I figured my shower house would be a mess, but that wasn't the case....yeah. We wanted to be on our way by 7:45. We were heading to Seth and Katie's. They plus Ashton are running in a 5K inflatable run. We were going along to watch Hailey. She is to young to run. We followed them to there friends house to park and walk to the race. Well the weather looked a bit sketchy. They were to run at 9:30. We kept watching the sky. It was gonna be close. They all finished before the rain showed up. We watched Hailey and was ready to get a few pictures.

After everyone was through Jeff, Ashton, Hailey and me started heading for the truck. It started to rain but we got back before the rain really cut loose. We made our way back to the campground. It had already poured here with some hail. Now it was just raining.....sometimes hard sometimes not. It stopped for just a bit so we took advantage and went for a walk with the dogs. We met a giant schnauzer named Cloey. We almost made it back when the rain started again. We stayed inside the rest of the afternoon watching movies. As we were sitting down for supper I saw a flash of lightning followed by a big thunder. Then a few minutes later I saw emergency vehicles rushing to the second campground loop. There was 2 ambulance, 2 fire rescue vehicles and 2 sheriff cars. We had a terrible felling in our stomach thinking it couldn't be good. Well come to find out a 42 year old woman was walking between campers and was struck by lightning. It was a fatal strike. We did not go up there. We found out later what had happened. What was weird was we only saw the one lightning flash. You need to be aware of your weather but that was just a very unusual event. We had there family in our thoughts and prayers. When the rain finally quit the clouds were really cool to look at.

Sunday June 21- Happy Fathers Day!..... After our usual tasks to do we went into town to meet Justin and Molly for brunch. Jeff splurged and we shared a short stack of pancakes. We ate at Perkins and the food and company was great. We got to see Molly's new car. The restaurant was really close to a T J Maxx. I wanted to go look and so did Molly. Jeff went to the book store. We found a couple things we liked so we went to the dressing room to try them on. When we came out Molly wonders were her keys are? She asked Justin if he had them and we could tell by the look on his face the answer was no. So the hunt begins. She looked back in the dressing room. We back tracked of where we had looked. She, Justin and I all walked out to the car to look. We asked the cashiers if anyone had turned in some keys?...no. Well I could see that she was getting upset so I went into detective mode. I tried to remember where she had been looking. I went through every rack shaking clothes. I remembered she looked at some dresses so I was shaking them and I heard a jingle...eureka!!! I found them and I yelled across the store.... She needs to carry a purse from now on. We went back to the campground to let the dogs out. Then we gathered some stuff to take to Seth and Katie's. We are going there for supper. He got fish and even some king crab legs for Jeff. We got everything fixed and it was very good eatin....

After eating we came back home and took the dogs for a walk. The campground is almost empty...everyone's gone home.


Monday June 22- Well the weather looked really bad. We spent some time in the shower house this morning and we weren't cleaning. The weather was really bad all around us but we lucked out. We had some rain and wind but nothing like they were calling for. We had some things we wanted to get done today. The first thing was paying some of these doctor bills. That's pretty stressful for sure. I made out a couple checks for my bills. Jeff had to make some phone calls on his. He pays his with a health savings account. Jeff was hoping that they would negotiate on his bill if he paid it all. Well that was a big no. He had 2 bills he was trying to pay at the hospital. The first went thru but the 2nd one was declined. Well after some more phone calls he found out there is a limit of how much you can pay in one day. So more phone calls to get that lifted for the day.  While Jeff was taking care of that I started to feel dizzy. It just kept getting worse so I decided to go lay down. Well that didn't help either. I ended up being sick. So weird cause I don't ever get sick. Jeff calculated that its been about 20 years since that had happened. I laid down after that and took a 3 hour nap...another thing I never do. When I got up I felt better but laid around the rest of the day.


Tuesday June 23- Today I felt a lot better. The weather was way better too. It was cool and sunny. I got a nice walk in today. We decided to do some maintenence on the rig. We hooked up the camper to see if the back big foot would work right since we cleaned it....The first time no. We gave it a second try and it worked. Then we moved the rig up a bit to get the wheels moved. We also wanted to put some plastic cutting boards under the wheels. Someone told us about that. After we got it all set back up Jeff worked on the slides. He wanted to clean and lubricate them. We really felt like we accomplished something today. Then I decided to get my quilt laid out and pinned together for the quilting process. I have to do it outside because there isn't enough room in here. With all the rain I had to wait for the rug to dry. So now I can start the quilting...yeah.


Wednesday June 24-When we got up it was only sprinkling. That system moved out and we both got our walks in. We went to town, first to Ketelsen's  the camping place that fixed our A.C. in the bedroom. We needed to get them paid. We ran to get groceries after that. On the way home the sprinkling started again. The afternoon brought more rain so we stayed in...Jeff practiced his guitar and I quilted. As evening approached so did the bad weather. When we were heading to bed you could hear the thunder in the distance. We're hoping we miss the storms again.


Thursday June 25- Well guess what? It was cloudy and threatening rain most of the day. I did get my walk in. The 3 campers that were here left today. They said they gave up....too much rain. They did leave behind a lot of fire wood that we brought back to our site. I gave Belle a haircut today. With it being so cloudy it wasn't to hot for her. After hanging around here all day we couldn't wait to get out of the rig. We went to Ashton's hockey. He really showed some hustle tonight. Katie and Hailey was there so we walked around the upper level of the arena. It's perfect cause you can still see him playing. They are playing 3 on 3 and they do get a lot of ice time.

Friday June 26- Hey guess what.....its rainy again. Man this is getting old. Did some cleaning and stayed in. Hailey has swimming lessons tonight so we hope it clears up...its test night to see if she passes. We couldn't hang around here all day so we decided to go to a movie. Jeff has been wanting to see that Beach Boys movie..."Love and Mercy" We went to the movie and it was a new experience for us. We didn't get any popcorn or soda. Boy that was strange. The movie was pretty strange too.  The good news is the weather is clearing up. So Hailey's swim lessons will be better. We parked at Seth and Katie's and walked to the pool. Its pretty close. We got to watch her do her new tricks and take pictures. She still is a little afraid of putting her face in the water but she'll get used to that.






















We finished the night with a late supper, I had made baked spaghetti ahead of time so we just had to heat it up...tasted yummy.



Saturday June 27- It's not raining! We have a big day planned today. We got up early and went in to pick up the kids. We got to the kids house around 9a.m. Then we headed towards Boone Iowa. First we stopped in Ames for lunch. The restaurant was called Hickory Park. This place was really good we got there around 11 and so we beat the rush. Its unusual, clean, inexpensive and the food and service is great.

Everybody loved there lunch and the dessert was even better. After eating we got back in the truck and made our way to Boone Iowa and the Scenic Valley Railroad. First we picked up our tickets. We rode coach. Adult tickets were $20 and kids $7. There is also a museum to look at. All kinds of railroad stuff to enjoy. Our ride started at 1:30 and lasted until 3:15. The ride takes you from the depot through the Des Moines River Valley, and to the old mining community of Fraser, where the railroad got its start. Enroute, you will cross the 156' tall Bass Point Creek High Bridge. The train is powered by our steam locomotive on Saturdays and one of the diesel locomotives the rest of the week.

We loaded up, found us a seat and opened up the windows.....thats the air conditionig. The train travels around 14 mph and slows down when going over the bridges. The kids were excited and it really was a great outing for all of us.

On the trip back we moved out to the open air car. We wanted to stay out there when we crossed the tall bridge. The fun part was the view.... the bad part was the ash that was all over us. That's ok we can shower later. We pulled back into the depot right on time. Unloaded and watched as the train filled up with water, just like on petticoat junction.






















Well we had all the fun we could find here so we headed towards home or at least thats what we thought. We got stuck at a railroad crossing for 45 minutes. Finally made it home and we ate and had a campfire. When kids are here and you have a campfire you better have marshmallows. I did. We roasted them..yummy.

Had one more funny thing happen. Hailey is very picky and she told me she doesn't take showers only baths. Well that's a problem because we have no bath tub. Well I talked her into a shower. I had to keep the door open and hold on to the shower head. I got her all soaped up and she was trying to sit on the seat but she was so slick she kept sliding off. It was pretty comical. I had one hand with the shower head and the other I was trying to keep her on her feet. Never a dull moment around here when the kids are around. Boy are we lucky to have them. I made a bed up on the floor downstairs and Hailey and I slept there. The boys got the bed, what's up with that. What a great day we had.


Sunday June 28-Well we woke up to rain. What a bummer we had planned to take them fishing before they went home. That didn't happen. I made breakfast for every one. Seth called and we decided to meet them at Freddy's Frozen Custard & Steakburgers for lunch. The place was packed when we arrived. We found us a booth and enjoyed our lunch. Everything was great. When we left it sure was quiet in our truck. Time to rest up for next time.