After VACATION - getting home and unpacked ...EWWWW

Sigh, all good things must come to an end... even vacations.

As much as I hate coming home, it's a good idea to plan for the next trip right away!   So this weekend we might be meeting up with Mel and Paula if they are still camping somewhere, or else go to northern Wisconsin or up to the U.P of Micigan.  Time is running out!  There are only so many camping weekends left in the year before the snow flies!  Sometimes we have gotten in camping as last as mid-november---

After unloading the rig on Saturday night, and doing a few loads of laundry, calling the kids to let them know we were home, it was time to hit the rack.  I don't sleep as well in our bed at home (the new mattress Steveio wanted is too hard for my taste)   I sleep much better in the motorhome.   I almost wanted to go sleep in the driveway in the rig tee heeeeee.  Guess I am just meant to be an RVer.

Sunday morning we laid around in our jammies and didn't do much of anything.  About 10 a.m. there was a knock at the door --- wheeeee!   Our daughters Erin and Heather were here with two of our grandkids!!!!   Chelsea and Jameson seemed to grow a foot while we were gone!    Our third grandchild, Allegra, was off camping with her parents and other grandparents till Monday, so we didn't get to see her yet.

It was so much fun to see the grandkids and they thought it was pretty cool to come and surprise us!

Chelsea came in her little Packer Cheerleader outfit (hey--- it's a Game Day)

And Jameson helped me water all the flowers on the deck

The kids kept us entertained and it was a gorgeous day out in the backyard.
(notice all the water on his shirt?)

Chelsea examined the coleus flowers to make sure he watered them well.

The grandkids got their souvenirs and Jameson kept us entertained with his blow bubbles, 

and Chelsea did some acrobatics on mommy's lap to show us how much she had grown in 2 weeks! 

It sure was a nice surprise and a great "Welcome Home"! 

This week, Steveio is working on a few more ideas of upgrades and modifications to the rig.  But now, by Wednesday, he was feeling a little under the weather last night, but a tad bit better this morning so he went to work anyhow. Hope he's feeling better by the weekend! I kinda felt punky on Monday and Tuesday--- but I thought it was just Camping Withdrawals---   but now I am up and at em and feeling better too. 

We got all the camping laundry done up and back into the rig, as we keep it's own towels, bed linens, kitchen items etc. and even camping clothing out in the rig at all times.   This vacation we didn't bother to start up the washer/dryer that we have in the rig.  It had still been winterized from last year, and we didn't see a need to start it up for just a few loads and have to winterize it again in a few weeks.   So we just brought along extra clothing and bedding for 2 weeks worth of vacation.  We could have found a laundromat if necessary, but we did okay with what we brought along.

I went grocery shopping last night to restock some of the canned and dry goods we used up too.  I like to leave it stocked up all summer and into the fall, as long as we don't have a hard freeze.  This morning it was down to 38 degrees here... so that kind of weather is not far behind.   Then we either have to run heat in the rig while it's parked out there, or unload anything that can freeze up and winterize the water lines.

I had a couple of questions from followers in the last few blogs in the comments sections:

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Judy and Emma said...

Last time I camped at Mille Lacs SP was about 12 years ago, when I had a pop up camper. :) You are in the land of the Ojibwa. Back then a section of the campground had been closed since it was determined that it was a sacred Ojibwa site. Some mighty fine walleye and perch fishing on that lake. :)

Yes, Judy... and now they have a portion of the park dedicated to the tribe, with interesting memorials and displays.  There are also featured times they do a ceremonial thing at the natural ceremonial bowl there. 

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Gypsy said...

I love the animal pictures. I think the camp site you have now is the prettiest yet. How do you find them?

We look a couple of ways... sometimes as we get into an area, I google the name of the town +campground in the search box and find some interesting places.  Steve examines the maps and has me look up places that might be nice.  Also I have kept notes from many other folk's blogs and keep track of things, state by state, of places we would like to see or go.   We know the Wisconsin State Parks are a bit more expensive, but we mostly like the National Forest campgrounds first and foremost.  More remote, cheaper, less crowded.  LAST on our list are the privately owned RV parks or resorts.  Thanks but no thanks.  Rows of tin cans like sardines lined up are not our cup of tea.  We like rustic and have outfitted the motorhome to handle the primitive camping with a big bank of batteries, lots of solar panels, conservative water use. Fortunately, our rig came with big holding tanks for fresh 100 gallons, grey and black are both 50 gallons.  We have a large propane tank and also a generator if need be.   We will overnight in a Walmart if we don't find a campground.  We have no problem with doing that, though some RVers don't like to.

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Karen and Al said...

Pretty pictures. I'm sorry you're having to head towards home. That's always the worst! Did I miss something on the little netbook? I thought about getting one after seeing how cheap it was. Too small?

That cute little Android netbook was good, but we wanted to run Streets and Trips with our GPS dongle on it to be able to take it along in the Tracker instead of my bigger Dell Studio 15 laptop.  When we bought it, the Kmart salesclerk said we could load S&T on an SD card and run it from that. But alas, nope, it was not able to do it. You can only run their own little *apps* programs that come with it. So that didn't meet our needs.

It worked well otherwise, but the mouse touch pad was kinda jerky.  We wanted to install a cordless mouse, but it wouldn't let us do that either.  Kmart took it back, no problems after we cleared off our wifi settings. 

I think their geek guy in the electronics wanted to get his hands on it, as only so many were shipped to just so many stores. He was drooling over it. And they said their store didn't get ANY of them in Medford.  So maybe he can use it in the manner it is meant to be used. 

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Sam&Donna Weibel said...

Another great day on vacation, Look's to me like even Duke and Duchess are having a vacation and just relaxing, Why do you call Duchess Dumb Duckey, she is smart enough to lay in the sun and get warm. Hope the weather holds out so far you guys have had pretty good luck, like we did on our vacation, Be safe out there. Sam & Donna.

She has always been a goofy dog, and seems to not be too bright... she don't like to listen, learn or behave. The Sheltie, Duke seems more intelligent and quicker to learn and quicker to obey... he aims to please us.

Plus, she is Steve's dog... and Duke is mine.  Steve let her get away with murder from the first day we brought her home as a pup.  Duke was made to tow the line and was trained, while Ducky was allowed to be a sassy girl....  so it's all Steve's fault.  Right?

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THE BAYFIELD BUNCH said... 

I'm with Steveio on that hitch itch thing. Even 4 days in some spots is 3 days to long. I like to keep on the move. Nice spot you had backed into the trees with the lake in front of you. I wished we had the boondocking areas here in the north like they do in the southwest. Just don't have the patience or tolerance for campgrounds anymore. Boondocking has spoiled us forever:))

Yes, Al... we feel exactly like you do!   The places we look for are out of the way, but we would prefer even more to find them as boondocking places without ANY fees ... or ANY neighbors!   Can't wait till we get out west once we go full-time and come across the places like you find! 

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~~Mike~~ said...

Loved the pictures! You guys live in such a pretty area! I will confirm that us guys do in fact enjoy tormenting our wives with those types of parking maneuvers :) We learn it early and practice it often! Sorry to see your vacation end, but looking forward to hearing about the next one!

-Mike & Heidi
97 RT 170P "Taj Ma Trek"
HTTP://WWW.VanTramps.Com

Yes, he sure got to me with that pump parking maneuver!   ACK!!!!   I was all for unhooking the toad and backing out of there.   But he made it, don't ask me how.  I had my eyes closed!!!!