Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

Monday, April 13, 2020

Made It To Iowa

Monday March 30- We got up and jumped back on the road. Today we would be driving through St. Louis. This is one of those tricky areas to navigate thru. We had traffic but definitely noticed it wasn't as busy as usual, no complaints here. We have made this trip many times so the roads are familiar to us which is a big help. We arrived in Keokuk, Iowa, our home town around 1 o'clock. we pulled in to site #1 and set up. Its warmer than usual and it felt good to know we would be here for longer than 1 night. They still don't have the water on yet but are suppose to do that tomorrow. Since we are coming from out of state we are going to do a 14 day quarantine. Thinking we will probably stay here for 2 weeks before moving up to Palo. They aren't scheduled to turn the water on until April 15th in Palo.  We managed to make a few calls to the family tonight, catching up and filling them in on our plans.


Tuesday March 31- Today did some cleaning and laundry. It felt so good to be in place somewhere. Not having to worry if we could find a place to stay. They also turned the water on today here. They had to shut it off and fix a few things but we finally had water. So that was good news. We are settled, we have plenty of groceries and fuel so we are set and happy. I got out my sewing machine and started on more blocks. When I get started on a project I have a problem with leaving it alone. I like to finish things up. I only have 5 more blocks to put together.




Wednesday April 1- Woke up to this.... Today was sunny out but still a little cool. The sunshine felt good. It did warm up in the afternoon so Jeff went up on the roof to clean it, removing all the mold. I finished up my blocks making, 5 more for a total of 20. Then I laid them out. Not sure this is going to be big enough. I want to use this one on my bed so it has to be big enough to hang over the sides. Hmmm, what to do? I'll have to do some thinking.



Thursday April 2- Well after some thinking I have decided to make 5 more blocks to make the quilt 70 X 70, without any borders. So it will be bigger when I finish with all that. So I got busy with that. I got the blocks made and laid out, then  put the giant applique on it to see what it will look like.  I think I like. Then I got busy sewing the blocks into rows. Then sewed the rows together. I'm loving this project. Tomorrow I will cut out the fabric for the borders and sew it on.


While I was inside sewing, Jeff was outside. He started applying stuff to the slide to shine it up. When we had the rig cleaned and shined in December we knew when we took off the decals we would have to reapply the product on that slide. That is why Jeff purchased some extra just for this. He said it went on really good and it looks really great. I took pictures but it doesn't show the shine as good as I had hoped. Believe me, it's shiny.



I found a pattern for face masks. I think I will be making some of these. They are saying it wouldn't be a bad idea to wear them when you are out among people. This is new, first they said it wasn't necessary but since then they have changed there minds. I know I have plenty of fabric, not sure how much elastic I have.

Friday April 3- Up and it's chilly out there this morning. I didn't care cause I had a project keeping me busy. I got busy on the borders. Since this project has a lot of color I thought it needed a frame before the border. I got those all finished, cut and sewed on. Now a bit of a break before starting the applique process.


After finishing this I went ahead and made a couple face masks. I just wanted to see if I could do it. They are pretty easy to do. We also had some friends pull in today. Ben and Rhonda made it here safely from Florida. They grew up here in Keokuk too. You could tell it was a relief for them as well to be landed. The temperatures dropped like a rock this afternoon. We had a yummy cold weather supper and called it a night.


Saturday April 4- Well I told myself that I was going to take a day off from the quilting. So I got out my coloring books, did some coloring. We watched a couple movies, I made chocolate chip cookies. I also reached out to some family and friends on the phone. When you can't get together with those you love it feels good to just talk with them. I got the kids Easter cards ready to mail out. Then I had a very pleasant surprise as I was sitting watching some T.V. I heard my phone make a noise. I looked and saw that there was a house party going on. This is a new app on my phone, Justin told me to put it on and I did. Well this wasn't him but a friend from high school. So I visited with Jenny for a while when she got a hold of another friend from high school. Then Tammy joined us. I only see them when we have class reunion, that was a very pleasant way to finish up the evening. Technology really is quite wonderful, especially in these times.

Sunday April 5- I couldn't keep away from that quilt so today I pinned the applique on. Then I decided to defrost the freezer, my ice maker isn't producing so its time. This is not my favorite task.


We also watched church service online. I'm glad it's available but still not the same. I also made 4 more masks today. I ran out of elastic so I'm done with that for a while. Jeff decided to order a new guitar today, a Yamaha Dreadnaught Trans Acoustic We also sent for our mail to be sent.


Monday April 6- Up early and wanted to get started on my to do list. I pulled all the screens out and hosed them off, they were pretty dusty. Then I cleaned all the window panes. I also did some more laundry. I love having water. Jeff had ordered some stuff from O'Reilly's and he went to pick it up and drive around town. Since he already paid for the stuff they  they brought it out and sat it on the curb for him. While Jeff was still out the neighbors came by to tell me that the governor is on T.V. and they are closing campgrounds. Yikes, now what do we do? Well we called the state park that we volunteer at here in Iowa to see what was going on. After he did some research he told us we could come up and stay, finishing up our quarantine. Well now we have some things to take care of here before we take off. We had requested are mail to be forwarded here, Jeff had ordered a guitar to be shipped here, and we had just wrote a check for another week. Well we managed to get all that changed. So first thing in the morning we will be heading up to Palo. The rest of the day was spent packing up stuff. We also dropped off our tax stuff to the office I used to work at. Teri is going to get it done today and bring it by. Oh my what a day.




Tuesday April 7- We got on the road today a little before 8. It was a perfect day to travel and we know this part of the trip very well. We arrived around 10 a.m. The road to the campground was barricaded, we managed to roll in and set up. Carl came by and welcomed us from a distance. We set up and settled in.


They do not have the water on here. We put some water in our tank to hold us over. Hopefully it will be on sooner than later. It warmed up a bit and the sun did come out. We walked around the  park so the dogs could get some much needed exercise. We love this park, but boy is it quiet.



Wednesday April 8- Woke up this morning to lots of fog and a giant moon still out.  It looked rather eerie out there. The fog lifted and it cleared up some but that wasn't to last to long. We have big wind coming. We fixed our big meal on the grill at lunch to avoid that weather. We got a short walk and a bike ride in today too. Carl brought the keys and our paperwork to fill out.



 Then I decided to go ahead and get started on the applique'. I have never done that before and this one is huge. I watched videos but most of them were on little bitty applique'. So we will see, I only have to please me.


 I got started and couldn't stop, I spent the rest of the day, on and off sewing. I finished it about 8 o'clock. I was happy with the way it turned out. I worried about it and it wasn't that difficult.


Thursday April 9- This morning when I got up and looked outside I spotted a couple pheasants out there. They were to far away to take pictures with my phone so I got out my camera. They are beautiful birds.


Today the temps kept dropping. Next thing I know I see a few snow flurries out there. Oh boy, I don't like that. My next project was to cut away all that quilted fabric from behind the applique'. Again I have never done that. It felt really weird cutting that fabric after all the work it took to put together. I wanted to be extra careful, not cutting through the snowman. Then I took that fabric I just removed and squared it up. Then I put the small snowman applique' on that and made it into a Christmas couch pillow. So I didn't waste any of that quilted fabric after all. I won't stuff it until closer to Christmas. It's much easier to store this way.


Well what to do next? I had a friend loan me a puzzle to do. I used to love doing them. I got out a big piece of cardboard to put the puzzle on. I will have to hide it under the couch when I'm not sitting right by it because I know Miss Ruby, she will get the pieces. I got the outside frame put together today. Oh yeah and Ruby managed to eat one piece all ready. With the weather getting so cold Carl told us that the water wouldn't be turned on until next week some time. Well that's a problem because even with us conserving it we are running low. Carl filled up a portable water tank and brought it over. Jeff has a pump so he can pump the water into our tank. So that was a load off my mind. Also Jeff got a call from Justin saying his new guitar arrived. Jeff had to go pick it up but Justin just put it outside so he could get it without getting too close. So I guess you can figure out what Jeff spent the evening doing.



Friday April 10- Brrrrrrr it's really cold today. The wind has died down so that's a blessing. Since we had water and there is a bit of sunshine today I went ahead and did a load of laundry. Then I jumped back on to my puzzling. It's very addicting. I spent a lot of the day working on it. I finished it by about 8 o'clock. Ruby did manage to eat another piece. When I finished the puzzle there was a lot more than 2 pieces missing. There was a total of 13 pieces missing. Oh well if they were here I'm sure I could of figured out were they went. It was fun doing. It kept me busy for a day at least. I could get used to doing this puzzle thing.



Saturday April 11- Another chilly day but the sun was out. There are no campers here but we see plenty of day users. Lots of people running, walking there dogs, and riding there bikes. I gave myself a haircut. I also figured out the fabric I have for the back of the quilt isn't big enough. So with the extra fabric I made a panel to expand the backing. Now I have to wash that red fabric before pinning it all together. I don't want that red fabric bleeding onto my snowman. I made a few phone calls today to family. We also called a friend from high school and left a message. As we were getting ready for bed we got a phone back from him. So we had a fun conversation with him before bed.

Sunday April 12- It's Easter everyone!!! It's just so different this year. We will be watching our church online. We will also be staying in. Well Jeff went to pick up groceries this morning. Something new for us. So grateful that this is an option. We are having homemade chicken noodles for our Easter dinner. With all this craziness going on in the world today it's good to know that Jesus is alive and loving us....Happy Easter everyone....




















































































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