TWENTY Years?

Twenty years... hmmmmm can you believe that on June 2, 1995 a certain Steve and a certain Karen had their FIRST DATE?????

Yup... we sure did!  A mutual friend exchanged our phone numbers a few months before... we had some nice phone conversations and finally decided to get together for a real DATE! You know, to see each other in person.  I was a busy working single mom, managing the jobs of advertising editor and handling all of the listings at the real estate office, plus selling real estate myself. I was raising two girls ages 10 and 12. I didn't have much time to date, so this was kinda special.

In between real estate house showings, I scheduled in some time for this guy. I had a short time between an open house and later a private home showing.  So I agreed to meet Steve in a public place.  He had an hour and a half to prove his stuff....  or I was gone!

We chose to meet up at a little ice cream shop called Hansen's on Gray St in Green Bay.  I liked what I saw----  a tall handsome guy who was polite but nervous.  He must have liked what he saw, because he stayed. LOL!!!

The ice cream shop had a promotional event going on featuring Stewart's Root Beer and they were serving root beer floats in amber colored mason jars.  I let him order one for me, and we sat and visited for the next hour and a half.  He showed me pics of his boys, ages 11 and 12 and talked about all of the fun stuff he enjoyed doing with them. He was one of those rare guys who didn't regret paying his child support, because he knew the boys needed it.  He didn't mind paying the extra mortgage for the roof over their heads or the taxes on their home so they could feel secure and stay in the same home, and at the same schools after the divorce which happened 2 years prior. He did what was best for the boys,  even if it meant that he didn't have much money to his name afterwards.  His boys were top priority and he was a good dad.

He won me over.

We kept the mason jars......

On our wedding day, two years later, 

(while dressed in our wedding clothes....) 

we took those same jars back to Hansen's

 and had them refill the jars with 

root beer floats. 

and tonight after supper, we refilled them again! 

 (this is our cutting board with our wedding date engraved into it,

a gift from our daughter and her fiance for Christmas) 

We sat out on the front porch this evening, 

sipping our root beer floats 

and talking about the twists and turns that our lives have taken

over the course of twenty years. 

Here is how we looked 

twenty years ago when we first started dating:

As we chatted though the evening, the doggers were NOT impressed and soon dozed off.  I guess that our memories and reminiscing didn't include them, so they didn't care.

 I am not sure if you readers really care either.  

But I thought I would write about it anyhow. 

The best decision I made twenty years ago,

was to go have a root beer float! 

You Scream - I Scream - We all Scream for Ice Cream

Yes... ice scream!   We are at Rosie's in Bethel, MO... and she MADE us eat ice cream for SUPPER!

Let's see...  

handmade caramel topping

triple chocolate ice cream

caramel filled chocolate cups

chocolate sauce

whipped cream

and colored sprinkles! 

MINE                                                     ROSIE'S 

STEVE'S (after he had it half eaten)                   WHAT A SUPPER! 

Now I will back it back up a bit.... On Sunday, we left Sam and Donna in Dardenne Prairie, MO about 10 a.m.  We fueled up at a local station with a good price of $3.75.9 per gallon for diesel, at 48 gallons... so we were set for fuel enough probably all the way to home now.



While we were driving, I got the very sad notice from a dear couple who are our friends from up in Michigan, that their son had his life taken away in an awful incident.  Their grown son, 32, was trying to break up domestic dispute between a man and woman, and he was stabbed with a knife in the process.  The man who did the stabbing took him to the hospital, but was sadly too late.  They could not save him. The man was taken into custody and now my dear friends have to pick up the pieces and try to make sense of the loss of their son.  What a shock!   Prayers are welcome for our dear friends, and Christopher, may you rest in peace.

When the funeral plans are firmed up, we hope to be back into Wisconsin and then drive up to Michigan in time, weather permitting.   As it is, we are only travelling 120 miles today and it's getting worse and worse and the weather is not looking promising.


We were headed up to Bethel, MO.  Bethel is an interesting little town----

Visit Historic Bethel German Colony, Bethel, Missouri -- just 45 miles west of Hannibal, Missouri.  Bethel was the most successful communal colony in the State of Missouri, founded by Dr. Wilhelm Keil in 1844.  Today, this tiny community of 117 residents strives to preserve its rich heritage.  The Colony offers the public an opportunity to step back into a time when colonists lived by the golden rule and shared their crops, clothing, crafts and even their earnings.

Here is a link for the blog post about the town that I made 2 years ago when we visited here: 

A Walk Around Bethel, MO a cute little historical colony

We tried pulling into Rosie's barnyard on a route that loops around behind her home...a German type house in the colony.  We worked out fine parking between her house and her barn last time, but that was in April.... This is still March.   The ground is definitely softer, as their snow just recently melted.

And ooops ... the muddy area of the road to enter her barnyard gate to the north was slllipppeerryyyy  and the dual wheels on one side started spinning. OH OH.... Steve backed out right away before we got stuck!  So instead we are parked next door at her friends, Sue and Joe, who have a pottery business.

http://www.sjpottery.com/

check their stuff out --- it's GREAT! 

I have one of their pots that is going to be my Urn when I pass away!

We are in their business drive that delivery trucks use, so we are in a good firm place.  Plus they let us plug in.... because the skies were very cloudy and our solar would not be working so well.  At least we can keep our batteries topped off. Our furnace runs on propane so we are fine.  But the bonus of having the plugin means we could at run our electric mattress pad overnight!

p.s. did I happen to mention it was ****S*N*O*W*I*N*G****????????

Yup, the temps dropped, the rain turned to big fluffy flakes and we were smack dab back in WINTER!  ARRRGGHGHHHHHHHH!   We had Rosie over to our motorhome for dinner, and I made up a chicken stirfry and rice.  We ate sensibly some sherbet (no fat) and blackberries.  Such a nice healthy meal, fried in a little bit of extra virgin olive oil.   Sharp contrast to the decadent supper I started out this blog with, eh?

Monday morning was somewhat cloudy, and very cold... and blasting winds!   I am sure glad we weren't out on the road today in our motorhome.  The snow stopped but the winds were biting cold and gusting. It would not have been a good day to be driving a big huge box like our motorhome down the road.   Especially when the roads are flat like this:

Rosie was needing a bag of feed from town... for her two sweet fiber babies in the yard...  Moon and Jewel.  She just lost the third fuzzy member of her trio this week, Sasha, who had to go on to the Great Rainbow Bridge of Llamas.  

As I said, Rosie needed feed, and I needed to ship out a few boxes of merchandise I sold over the weekend at a post office, so we did a run to town.  After those chores were done, we picked up a few things at a little consignment shop... and then headed up to Heartland.  Rosie and her friends here in Bethel all go up there.

They patronize it’s restaurants, medical clinic, gas station and other services. There is even a huge dairy herd and an ultra modern milking parlor to tour. They have schools and a college, and provide housing in wonderful stylish brick homes and apartments.  It was started by one man, who built it all in his dream of making a place such as this to be filled with good honest hardworking people and giving those who made mistakes a new chance.  His name is Charlie Sharpe.  This paragraph is from their website and some links to learn more:

Heartland is an intentional community in Northeast Missouri designed to help hurting people get a fresh start in life. We believe Jesus is the answer to every issue we face – including addiction, anger, broken homes, and financial crises. Men, women, and children who commit themselves to the process of restoration find help at Heartland through the power of God and the encouragement of people who have walked a similar path.

http://www.heartland-ministries.org/

http://www.visit-heartland.com/

And here is the blog post about last time we were there, with a lot of cool old Ford car pictures! 

Going to Heartland

Rosie talked us into having lunch there at Heartland in the diner.  We ate from the buffet with a lot of wonderful choices. We also had ice cream.... with toppings!   See what she started?  

The rest of the day was taken up with catching up on all our weaving ideas, projects and new stuff we have been doing.  We had taken care of a few tasks like some computer work, and Rosie had a drill press she had bought that needed assembling. THAT was right up Steve's alley! 

Tomorrow he might look at her industrial sewing machine, 

and maybe help with a shelf she wants to make for her kitchen! 

Well, we ate so much at lunch in Heartland, that we were so full, none of us wanted supper.  So when ice cream was mentioned, Rosie thought that would make a marvelous supper!

And it was! 

We will see what tomorrow holds in the way of weather, it does not look too good in Wisconsin, with snowing, blowing, ice and sleet.  We might hole up down here in Missouri till Wednesday morning and try to head as far as Beloit, WI, visiting with more friends there.  We can park there overnight and have a safe spot to hang if the weather is bad.  Remember, RVers, there aren't any campgrounds open in Illinois or Wisconsin this time of year.  We need to travel from place to place, or hang out in a Wal-mart or just drive drive drive like we did when we came south one month ago.

Just checked our weather back home in Chilton. 

 It's snowing Today--- and Tomorrow--- and the day after!

Maybe Thursday will give us a chance to make the final jaunt to home?

CAMPING - winery tour and drenching dodge to the motorhome

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Sunday was a crazy weather day in Wisconsin.  We had bright sunshine and heat and humidity, then scattered storms rolling through from time to time.   When it was nice out, we had taken a scooter ride and snapped these pics of nearby McCombs lake.  The water levels are wayyy down, over 4 feet at least.  We are having a severe shortage of rainfall in this part of Wisconsin.

This is the boat landing area to launch boats... good thing we didn't bring ours, because I think the truck would have gotten stuck backing down this channel to get to deep enough water! 

We sat around the morning at our camping spot, up in the woods.  But then in the afternoon it looked a bit hazy, but rainy, on and off.  So for fun we decided to brave the crowds and go up to Lakewood and tour the winery and get some ice cream.  

We tasted some wines and came home with a bottle of Northern Ice, a white wine that is semi-dry but sweet

We hit a little tourist trap and looked around.... yup, that was enough for us.  Didn't spend any money there.  but these cute ladybugs made from old bowling balls were a hoot!   The icecream was good too.

We got back to the cabin and our rigs in the mid-afternoon.  A few rain showers here and there, but it cleared up in time for cooking supper.  We had bratwurst and potatoe salad,  some grilled vegggies and baked some cookies in my Easy Bake Oven for dessert.... 

The guys gathered some more firewood for our campfire, and just got it going ...

I got in a little bit of knitting .... 

until the heavens just opened up with a huge downpour!  

Sharon and Fred starting flinging chairs under the fifthwheel and they headed inside.  By the time we gathered up a few things, and the dogs, it was TOO LATE!   We were getting drenched!  We were trapped and could not make it over to our motorhome. We ducked under a pine tree, huddled up tight.  Two adults, two dogs, a knitting bag with video camera safely tucked away under the cookie pan for protection.  I took off my watch and  hid that deep inside the knitting basket too.  It's not waterproof and I love that watch!   The more we stood there, the more it poured!   

We laughed....  we were soaked to the skin.  

We kissed...  there wasn't anything we could do but get wet!   

Suddenly it dawned on Steve.. all of our windows in the motorhome were OPEN!  OH NO!!  And I knew I left the laptop sitting near one!   So off we went through the pouring rain over to where our rig was parked.  There was no sense in running, we were soaked to the bones by now.  We got ourselves and the dogs inside, herded them into the bathroom to keep the water damage to a minimum.  No need to have wet dogs shaking off all over the motorhome, even where it was dry. 

We got the windows all shut, though the couch and the side of the bed were pretty wet.   We used just about every towel in the rig to dry off.  It was hilarious and we kept laughing all the while.   After we were all dried off and cozy, we curled up with a movie and went to sleep... as it kept raining all night long!   Most of the fireworks displays in the areas around us were cancelled too.  

Now it's Monday morning, the sun is out and things are drying off.... 

today we have to go HOME 

(dangnabbit!)

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