Mothers Day Week

Well the end of the week was rainy,windy and way below normal temps. So for me it means keeping busy inside. I did some quilting and baking. The day before Mother's Day was really pretty and you could tell with all the people at the campground. Everyone was out and enjoying the great outdoors. Kids biking, people fishing and boating, it nice to see families enjoying this nice park.


We had planned to have a Mother's Day get together at Justin's place. Guess what it's raining on Mother's Day. We brought back fish, shark, and a couple lobster tails. That's what we are cooking. Both my boys were there and my daughter in law. We were joined by Katie's mom and sister. The food was great, we tried some new things... And enjoyed some of our favorite things as well. The weather was lousy that's for sure.

We left to come back home with our grand daughter, her mom has to travel for work so we are her daycare for the next 4 days. The weather was still really cool with rain. We kept ourselves busy inside with movies and watching the birds. We have a couple hummingbird feeders, one is on our window. We also have a couple other feeders. What I learned is that orioles like hummingbird nectar. They would land on the feeder at the window drink and then peck on the window so you would look at them. With all the yucky weather I also finished my quilt I've been working on. Thursday the day we took Hailey back home it rained most of the day. Our power kept going out so Jeff would have to go reset the breaker. It's pretty annoying. It quit for awhile but it went off at 3a.m. When the power goes out the refrigerator beeps. Again out to reset. It went off a couple more times. We called the park manager and she had an electrician come take a look. Kinda annoying but I'm sure we'll get it taken care of. I'm hoping that this weather will change... I'm ready for some sunshine and warmer temps....bring it on...

May is here.....

Thursday May 1, Rain,rain,rain , I'm beginning to think this spring thing is never gonna happen. Not only with the rain but the cooler than normal temperatures. On the other hand I'm getting lots of quilting done. Jeff had to go fill up our propane tank, we've been using it to heat the rig. It's been so cold the heat pump doesn't cut it. I think we've become babies with the cold weather. On a good note Jeff brought me home a plant for May Day.

Friday May 2, Ok I think I see sunshine.....:) I definitely made good use of the good weather and went for a walk. It's just nice to have some sunshine, changes your outlook on everything. With the nice weather we had some ambition to get some things done. I did laundry and Jeff got started on his long list of things to do. He did some cleaning of the vents and tightening down of the air conditioners. When you travel it's amazing how everything gets shaken loose. Had a few campers last night so went to clean the shower house. Just getting a routine started on our duties here. The good thing is we also have help keeping the shower house clean. I went back up to check on them and noticed it had been cleaned again. Good to know we have help when it gets busy. Well we've figured out that Friday evening is a busy night. We watch all the campers pull in and set up. We had someone pull into our site...our grand kids are staying tonight so there parents can go out to celebrate there anniversary. We had a nice dinner and a good evening together.

Saturday May 3, Sunshine again!!! I'm loving this. We all enjoyed a big breakfast. It was nice enough that we could go outside and enjoy it. The guys went a for a walk in the woods, us girls went to the playground and found some dandelions. Headed into town to meet up with everyone for lunch at Red Lobster. I went with my son to get frames for his house. We watched the Kentucky derby and then headed back home. It sure seems quiet after those kids leave....extra quiet.

Sunday May 4, Well, we watch them pull in on Friday now we watch them pull out on Sunday. Went back in to help Justin hang all those frames we got yesterday. Then over to Seth's to watch the Blackhawks win!!!! When we got back to the campground it was empty...only us.

Monday May 5,  Finally a really nice day. Went up to clean the shower house. We decided Mondays would be a good day to do extra cleaning. That's what we did, starting on the shower stalls. It's rewarding getting something done. With good weather I caught up on laundry. Then I noticed the washer was leaking. Had to pull it out and clean up that. Not sure what happened just have to watch it. I also got all the screens out and washed them. They really get dirty quick. What was really good about today... The birds were singing and it felt more like Spring.

Tuesday May 6,Today was a lazy day, sorta. That's what's so good about this life style, you can feel very ambitious and do lots or sit in a chair and read the day away. Nobody gonna care.....The weather was pretty good but very windy. Went for a walk and then pulled out my clippers. First Jeff's haircut then Belles.... Different clippers of course. I did cut Belles ear a bit, I'm blaming it on the wind. Jeff also emailed some fulltime rv friends, wanted to get together and hear about there winter. That's always fun to hear about others adventures. That's one reason we are doing this. Jeff follows lots of blogs and learns many things. So many tips and lessons to learn. My feeders are starting to get some visitors, I spotted some finches today.

Wednesday May 7, It was really nice today it was in the 80's, felt good with the warmer temps and sunshine. Did a little extra cleaning in the shower house. We went into town and ran some errands. Jeff had some things he needed to get to start the maintenance on the rig. With the warm weather I felt springy, so I bought a pretty red geranium, got home and replanted it. Starting to look a little homey here. It was warm enough to give the dogs a bath, neither dog cares for them but sitting in the sun after they enjoy that. It's Wednesday so we went in to watch Ashton's hockey practice.  I think I'm gonna do some changing with my posts. Since we won't be traveling about and most if our adventures will be with family I'm gonna just do a weekly overview.. This is new to me so I'm trying to post some things for me but want to keep it somewhat interesting to others.

Pleasant Creek State Park/Palo,Iowa

April 22, Big moving day, we are heading to our new home for the next 5 months. We lucked out with the weather, it was really pretty. We didn't leave early, no reason to its just about 15 miles. When we arrived we knew where to go and what we needed to do. We are located in the first campground loop. Our site number is 27. All the sites in our loop are pull thrus, but all the sites are 30 amp. That will be the hard part. We've survived 30 amps many times before. Just have to be careful when we turn on things. Since we are hosts we have a water hookup and sewer. The second loop has 50 amp service. Still no water or sewer hookups. Our site is the campground host spot but our sign hasn't been put up yet. Guess we aren't on duty yet. Carl stopped by to welcome us, he is the park ranger. Next we were welcomed by Joan the park manager. It's very pretty out here and our site is located right across from the lake. The feel of all those that work here is super friendly. Really excited about our new position. We had one more visitor, our son Justin brought out his puppy Barkley, he's a miniature dachshund. He's staying with us a couple days while both our boys go to Chicago to watch the Blackhawks.

Wednesday April 23, Oh my gosh.... Note to self, 3 dogs in 1 bed= no sleep. Our dogs are fine in bed but throwing that 3rd one in there was horrible. I couldn't even get him to lay down til after 2. Then he just wouldn't sleep, it was a long night. The weather today cloudy and rainy so I stayed in and quilted. The dogs are starting to get used to each other again. It was a long day with the weather, but it was good for me to get rested up. Watched tv and waited for updates from the boys about the hockey game....they got a lot of excitement for there money and a victory for the Blackhawks.

Thursday April 24, Again today it's very rainy and chilly. Welcome to Iowa spring.

Jeff went to town to get a different wifi hotspot. We had sprint and it just wasn't working. Now we have Verizon and it's way better. My phone is still sprint and it's not working all that great but with a booster I can work with it until our contract is up. The phone parts ok but anything with internet is so slow and sometimes impossible. While Jeff was in town our daughter in law called to say Hailey needs to get picked up from the daycare early. I called Jeff and he went to get her and take her to there house cause Seth was on the way home. I stayed at the rig with 3 dogs. Did have a bit of excitement....had a bird fly into our back window. He hit hard and then feathers were flying everywhere. Never found the bird but lots of feathers. When Jeff came home he had an extra passenger. Looks like we will have a overnight guest, princess Hailey. Justin came and got his puppy, so 1 dog gone but one princess added. We had to play inside cause of the weather. Found out that Sissy is pretty good at playing memory. We didn't use the whole game but she had a great time as long as she won.

Friday April 25, We got a nice day. One thing about it here, there's lots of wind.Hailey wanted pancakes for breakfast, hello kitty pancakes. Joan called us to set up a time to show us what to do at the shower house. It doesn't seem too bad, I think we can handle it. We got the dogs and walked up to the playground. Spent a lot  of the day outside cause it was so nice. We headed into town to watch the Blackhawks, they won in overtime.

Saturday April 26, It was the first day of our job. We headed up to the shower house to get started. It's not gonna be that bad. We just need to get a routine started. We headed into town, Seth & Katie was cooking out on the grill. I made potato salad. It was another nice day and we played outside with the kids. Went to cold stone for ice cream.  It was yummy but kinda cashy. We came home and spent the night at home, watching TV.

Sunday April 27, Happy Birthday Judy (my best friend). Jeff woke up and didn't feel good. It's suppose to be stormy today. We were suppose to go to Justin's house and watch the  Blackhawks. Since the weather is really suppose to be bad and Jeff's not feeling well we decided to stay home. At the last minute Jeff felt better so we grabbed the dogs and headed in. The weatherman was right and the sirens went off, we were in Justin's basement watching the Blackhawks win the series!! The game was over and the storm looked as though it passed. We headed back, both Carl and Joan called to check on us. We didn't know what to expect, there was a tree that was blown down. Our camper was safe. We went in and it started raining again.  Then our power went off. Jeff went outside to check things out, he couldn't get the 30 amp plug to work. So we used the 20 amp plug and really watched it really close. 

Monday April 28, Rainy again. We are still running with 20 amps. Went to the shower house and did our job. Then we headed to the camper store to get a new plug. The one we had is damaged and can't be used. When the power went out there must have been a surge or something. It was cold and rainy all day do we spent a lot of time inside. I did finish quilting all the rows on my quilt now I just have to quilt the borders.

Tuesday April 29, Rain,rain,rain.....Carl the park ranger came and checked out our electric box, it's melted and needs to be replaced. He worked on that, it was just sprinkling then. We had to have the power off so it got down to 58 inside....brrrr. After it was fixed it took awhile to warm up. Stayed inside most of the day. Where's spring?

Wednesday April 30, Another rainy day, seriously this is crazy....I'm definitely tired of this rainy gloomy weather. Went to town had pizza before watching Ashton's hockey practice. Maybe May will be a little more like spring? We can hope.

Grand Kids Here We Come/Cedar Rapids,IA

Friday April 18, Woke up to a beautiful day. Both Jeff and I were ready to get to Cedar Rapids, the good weather was a bonus. We left around 9:30 and didn't have any issues. We stayed at Morgan Creek, it's a county park in Cedar Rapids. We had some coupons from last year and it's real close to ours kids. We wasn't for sure if the water was on but when we drove in we saw the hoses hooked up so we were in luck. There were a few campers but lots of sites to chose from. We pulled into site #16 which was a pull through. We set up what we had to, grabbed a quick bite and then headed into our oldest sons house. His wife and daughter were at home today. It was good to see the family and wonderful to get hugs and kisses from the kids. School got out early and our grandson came home from school, which is literally right behind there house. He jumped the fence and into my arms....great hugs!!! Our son Seth got home from work and I even got a hug from him. We decided to meet up at the ice rink to watch Ashton and Seth do stick time. Before heading to the rink stopped by our younger sons, Justin's house. He had a few things for me to sew up...( he's training a puppy still ). After watching them skate went to Seth's for a quick dinner. Ashton came home with us. We played some Yahtzee and headed to bed....what a full wonderful day.

Saturday April 19, Ashton ordered waffles for breakfast. I made cupcakes because I promised Hailey we could frost and decorate some. Headed back to Seth's, all of us were going to lunch. It was a new place for us, Emil's Hideaway. Every body's lunch was really good and the prices were good too. Back to frost cupcakes. Went to Justin's to watch the Chicago Blackhawks play. They've started the playoffs and they're playing St Louis Blues. It was a very good game but ended with the wrong results. Back to Seth & Katies to have our Easter egg hunt. That's always a good time. I give each kid a colored bucket with all the same colored eggs. It works well cause everyone gets to find there own eggs. Ashton has a green bucket, green eggs. Hailey our princess has a pink bucket, pink eggs. It was a fun time for sure. When we left to go home we had a couple extra passengers. So the rest of our night was busy, fun but busy.

Sunday April 20, Happy Easter!!!! 2 little blessings to start our day, Ashton & Hailey!!  We had Easter baskets for the kids with a few surprises in them. We hid them outside and watched them hunt for them. They left early cause they had to go to there Nanas for lunch. We went to lunch with our other son, Justin. Went to The Road House, it was really good this time. Justin had things to do and we wanted to go to a movie. Went and saw Heaven is for Real. I had read the book, the movie was good but the book was better. The popcorn on the other hand was great. Since we had the kids this morning we decided to watch a church service online from a church we love in Florida, it was even live. Oh boy what a full weekend....we went home and rested up.

Monday April 21, this morning was definitely quieter. It's sprinkling out and suppose to rain on and off most of the day. Originally we planned on moving today, but with the weather, we are going to stay another day. The campground host arrived today and I went up to visit with her awhile. Went into town to fill up the truck and get a few groceries. Funny thing we ran into Joan, the park ranger at Pleasant Creek State Park. That's were we are heading next, also where we will be camp hosts. After supper went to Justin's to watch the Blackhawks play and WIN !!!

Hometown visit/Keokuk,Iowa

Friday April 11, Keokuk here we come...this is where we lived most of our lives. Had never camped here so that's gonna be a new experience for us. The campground is called Hickory Havens and we were pleasantly surprised, it's real nice. We have a full hookup with 50 amp, water, sewer, internet and even nice laundry facilities. We had great weather to travel and set up in. We picked site # 1 because when they turned the water on this year it seems they have a break. They are gonna work on it but sight 1 is good with no water problem here. We got everything set up and my best friend popped out to say hi. It was really nice to see her. She had to go back to work. We didn't really have much planned but knew of people we needed to see and things we needed to take care of. Decided we would go out for supper. Went to an old favorite..Meyers Courtyard all the catfish/chicken plus buffet for $7.50 and it was really good ! Then as we were heading back to our site went by the fire station. Jeff recognized a truck so we stopped there for a visit. Then we needed to get back cause my friend from work and her husband were stopping by. Again another great visit. Well that was a good day.

Saturday April 12, Got up and made our way to the bowling alley to see my older sister Dru and her grand kids. Had some more catching up to do. After we left the bowling alley stopped by Fritz & Shawn's house. That's Jeff's younger brother. His oldest daughter was there so we got to see how big her kids are getting. Came home started the laundry. My best friend Judy came and got me to go to the park and watch all the kids dressed for prom. She was taking pictures of her grand kids. We finished the evening by dining out again. This time we went to The Cellar known for there burgers and onion rings. It wasn't as good as I remember but the company was great. We were there with my best friend Judy and her husband Don. Jeepers another full day.

Sunday April 13, We got up and went to church. It's a new church in town. There were lots of people there we hadn't seen in a long time. We made our way to the sanctuary and a real nice service. After church we came home and made breakfast. Judy came out for awhile. It's raining today. Took the rest of the day off. Before bed we made sure we had our stuff ready for taxes tomorrow.

Monday April 14, We had to set the alarm because Jeff had a Dr. appointment at 7a.m. (Blood work) Out for breakfast, then we took the truck by to see how much to get it fixed. We got a nice surprise there, and they'll do it tomorrow. Our next stop...taxes. Good news there too, a little refund. Back to see my sister. Then it started snowing, that's crazy it was just in the 70's on Saturday. It's so cold out. I went from flip flops to Ugg boots. I called my old neighbor to see when we could get together, also set up a time tomorrow to meet some people here in town that are getting ready to start full time Rving.

Tuesday April 15, Had to get up early again today to take the truck in for repair. While waiting for our truck Jeff decided to make breakfast at my sisters house for her and her husband Jay. We came home to meet our new friends, they want to ask us some questions about full time Rving. It was good to pass on some helpful information. They seem really excited about there knew adventure. It felt nice to share tips with them. Again we went out for supper, the Pizza Hut this time. We have a good one. Stopped again at Jeff's brothers house before heading home.

Wednesday April 16, This day was a busy Dr. Day. We drove to Ft. Madison and got the day started. It felt good to get that taken care of. We felt like celebrating by lunch out...Mexican today and it was so yummy. On our way home we stopped at the nursing home in Montrose to visit our old neighbor. He used to camp a lot and was really excited about us doing this Rving thing. He was happy to see us and it was good to see him too. While in Montrose we stopped at the meat market and picked up some supplies. We are on a roll with this visiting thing. We drove by our old house and stopped to visit another neighbor. Nice to see them. Well only one more stop to make. We joined our old small group for a bible study. It felt good to join these fine folk. Really miss these people. How's that for a action packed day....I'm exhausted.

Thursday April 17, This is our last day in town. Jeff had one more doctor appointment. It wasn't until noon so we slept in. His appointment went well. He got all his prescriptions filled. We are checking all our to dos off the list. We loaded up the boats and the rest of our stuff. We finished this day with a dinner over at my friends. We brought some fish and shrimp. Jeff prepared that and I did the sides. It was a delicious dinner and a nice way to end this visit, at my best friends house. Tomorrow we head north to see the family.....so excited!!!!!

Ed Babler St Park/Wildwood Missouri

Monday April 7, Well the weather man was right.....rain. We had about 230 miles to go so we didn't want to wait to long to leave. Most of our stuff was packed up but still had to put away the sewer line, hose, electric stuff. We tried waiting but we ended up getting wet. It rained most of our drive which made the trip long and our mileage low. We have really been lucky with the weather on travel days. We drove through St. Louis on opening day of baseball. Jeff and I agree, driving thru St. Louis has just continued to get worse. It quit raining as we got to St. Louis. We took a different route and it seemed a better way to us. The roads were good and traffic light. We pulled into the park and drove to the campground. We had been here before. Jeff had looked online to see which sites were available during the week. People are starting to reserve for the weekend camping already. We backed into site #5 after filling our water tank up. We are parked on a cement pad, have 50 amp, and internet. Surprised how many campers are here. Jeff had to prime our water pump again, we lost the prime again. We got everything set up. They have had lots of rain, if you get off the cement it's muddy. It's still pretty cool out there. I decided to make some chili for supper. The trees are still pretty dead....come on spring.

Tuesday April 8, Jeff and I decided to go to town and a movie because it's suppose to be cloudy with a chance of rain. It's not cloudy or rainy, it turned out to be a really nice day. It was even warmer than they said. We headed to town and looked around at some shops. We even got a few deals. We don't really do much shopping, Jeff says if you bring something in you take something out.  We went to lunch at Bandanas, we love there turkey sandwiches. They were as good as ever. Then we went to the movie "Gods not Dead" it was really good, and the price was right...$4.00 tickets. Came back to the rig and my little brother called. He lives in the area so we made plans to get together tomorrow. Haven't seen him in awhile. It was a really nice day with our lunch, movie and plans to look forward to.

Wednesday April 9, It really got cold last night, it was 39 degrees to start the day. Jeff and I wanted to go to the zoo this morning before meeting up with my brother. We left the camper around 9:30 and it took us about 1/2 hour to get there. When we arrived the temperature had warmed up and the sun was shining. A perfect day for the zoo. We first went to the brand new sea lion exhibit. It was awesome, they've built a underwater viewing area. They are fun to watch swim. Next we moved to the gorillas, they were in there outside area and were plenty entertaining. All the animals we saw were out and moving around. The only thing the giraffes weren't around, oh well next time. We only stayed about 2 hours. As we were walking to the truck my brother called to say he was on his way to the campground. We met at the campsite and did some catching up.  Then we went to supper at the Red Lobster, everything was good and the service was great. A nice afternoon. Tomorrow we have more company coming.

Thursday April 10, It was way warmer today compared to yesterday. I got up and started cutting veggies for omelets. We have friends stopping by before heading to the airport and going home. They had been in our home town visiting family. This way we could catch up before they had to leave. They weren't gonna be able to stay long so I didn't want to be busy while they were here. It was so nice we were sitting outside enjoying the weather. I happen to see this big motor home trying to back up and boy did he come close to hitting another campers car. Then he pulled up a bit and the next thing I see him backing up and this time he did hit the car. He didn't even get out of the rig he left his wife there to deal with it. She was behind him yelling for him to stop but he didn't. The next thing I know the campground host is walking down to our site...she tells me that the man in the motor home hit our truck. See with the company we were having we parked our truck up in the overflow parking area so our visitors could park at our site. The campground host said there's no damage. Jeff walked up to take a look....well he came walking down and said there's damage. The damage was on the back bumper on the drivers side. There's  a dent on the bumper and it scuffed up the plastic on top the bumper. Jeff walked up to talk to the man, he was very pleasant. Jeff went back to look again and realized when the truck was hit it moved the bumper in and so when you open the tailgate it rubs. The man that hit us was prepared to pay for all damages so at least we were lucky in that aspect. It could have been a lot worse. Well on a better note our company arrived and we had a really nice time catching up, the omelets were good too. After our company left we picked up our stuff outside, filled up the truck for take off tomorrow. Next stop our hometown, Keokuk, Iowa.

Exit 31 RV Park/Grand Rivers Kentucky

Saturday April 5, Brrrr it's cold this morning. We left around 9:30 and started our day off with a missed turn. Well we didn't really miss the turn, the road changed and to get to the turn you needed to exit then make the turn. Lucky for us it wasn't too long before a perfect turn around appeared. On the way back we were able to make that turn. We can definitely tell that were heading north by the lack of life in the trees and the condition of the roads....bumpy. We traveled around 230 miles. It seemed like a lot longer. I think it's because we are ready to get back and see the kids. We landed in Kentucky at Exit 31 RV park. It was easy to find, we checked in at the restaurant there. They gave us no rules and told us to take any spot. We picked site #8. We had a cement pad, 50 amp, water, sewer and cable. You could tell that there's been a lot of rain. The gravel roads at the campground were a bit sketchy. You could see where the water had run and made some pretty good ruts. Had to go really slow and dodge them. We had leftovers for supper and went to bed early.

Sunday April 6, Really cool to start the day but it warmed up fast. Jeff decided to take a walk. There was a trail right by the campground that he took. He said it was a really nice path that took you to an Indian burial ground. I decided to get some cleaning done. I got the microwave/convection cleaned out. Then I decided to do the laundry since it was perfect drying conditions outside. We had made reservations at Pattis 1880 Settlement. We had been there before and wanted to come back. It's a very unusual place that has shops, gardens, animals and the restaurant. The restaurant is broke up in rooms, like in a house. Ours was the family room. The restaurant opened in 1977, the waitress's wear long dresses with long aprons. They also explain a little bit about the place how it started. A funny story, the waitress was explaining about the restaurant and how when they opened that the only soda company that would deliver out to them was RC, so they've stuck with them all this time. So then the waitress proceeds to ask what we want to drink and Jeff replies Coke or Pepsi. I guess he wasn't listening too well, too busy reading the menu. They have lots of different things they are famous for, 2 inch pork chops, flower pot bread with strawberry butter and there pies. I ordered a pork chop but the smaller version, only 1 inch. Jeff ordered a fried chicken sandwich which he said was the best chicken sandwich he's ever had. It came with homemade potato chips which were really good and not greasy. All my sides were really good as well. The service was excellent. When we finished with our lunch we were both stuffed. Still we really wanted a piece of pie so we got one to go. We decided on chocolate cream pie with mile high meringue. We filled up the truck with fuel and headed back. Jeff felt like he needed to work off some of that lunch so he decided to wash the roof of the rig. Since we had no rules we thought we should take advantage, so many parks don't allow washing vehicles. With our lunch being so big we just had the pie for supper, it was as good as it looked. Tomorrow its St Louis or bust................

One of the many animals at Patti's