4,000 miles and almost home!

Yup.. our whole trip is putting just over 4,000 miles on the odometer.  We are in the last 100 miles as I type this.  Winging our way through frozen farm fields and salty roads.... sigh.   It looks pretty....  but....

The temps are still in the single digits, and the wind chills are below zero! 

We left Bethel, Missouri yesterday (Wednesday) in the morning after saying our "see you laters" to Rosie.  As we drove, it was SNOWING on us!  Nothing much accumulating anywhere on the ground, but it was coming down pretty good. The clouds were thick and heavy with snow, but the weather reports into central and northern Illinois looked good.  We pushed onwards. 

We stopped at a fuel station off I39 at Winoma that advertised RV hookups.  We paid $5 to dump our holding tanks there, so we were completely winterized now to head into Wisconsin.  We had a couple gallons of drinking water and a five gallon jug of water for washing up.  We heat in a teakettle on the stove, because Steve had all the water blown out of the lines and our fresh water tank drained out too. 

We were okay for the last 24 hours with limited water resources.  As we drove north, the temps kept dropping, but at least the snow flakes quit!   We made it to our friend's driveway in Beloit, WI ...we were finally back in Wisconsin!  And look at that danged snow...arggghhhhhhh!!!!

Parking in our friends' driveway, --- 

Jim and Norma of Pa and Ma's rugs, 

http://www.paandmasrugs.com/

Soon, we joined up with more weaving friends---

 Juanita and Norm Hofstrom of Vavning Studio   

http://www.vavningstudio.com/

We all went out to a nice dinner at a place called Damenico's in Beloit.

After much gabbing and laughing (and eating!)    it was  time to head out.  It had been a long long day for us, because we had travelled 376 miles!  whew..... 

Outside by the parking area, Juanita got out her new creation for me.  Juanita is an art major and retired art teacher with her studio in Shopiere, WI.  Her husband, Norm, is a photographer.  A while back, Juanita made me a sign for the Loom-A-Tic Workshop. Seeing as I don't do many events any more with the whole group, I consigned her to redo the other side of the sign for me when I do sales with just myself as the sole vendor.  This is the result! 

Normie helped us unwrap it ... outside in the bitter cold!  Brrrrrr but it was worth it! 

 I was soon warmed up by all of the LOVE 

from this dear friend and her lovely sign!!!!

What a gal! 

We went back over to Jim and Norma's for the night.  Steve was tormenting sassy little Taffy.... and the stinker was checking out my camera up close with a sniff sniff sniff so I let her have it... right in the eye!   I guess that is really giving me the ole' stink eye, eh? 

Taffy rules the roost at Jim and Norma's house. 

 We get such a kick out of her each time we visit. 

 So we sat around inside for a while, chewing the fat and catching up and making future plans.  I will be seeing Jim at the Jason Collingwood workshop coming up in May at Juanita's studio... and we have a few other plans for over the summer and fall too for getting together.

Steve and I were getting pretty tired and headed out into the cold frosty night to bed.  The motorhome was nice and warm with both propane heaters running, and we kicked on an electric heater to warm it up a bit in the back before bed.  Plus our electric mattress pad heater was on HIGH to keep us cozy and warm.

We woke up to 7 degrees, and wind chills below zero... ack!  Our side windows are all dual thermopanes, but the front windshield is like any car windshield and is single pane.  This frost build up was on the INSIDE!   Yup.. Jack Frost left his mark!

   

Jim took off the morning from work, and we all went out for breakfast.  We tried to treat them for the overnight parking space in their driveway, but they threatened the waitress to give the slip to them.... and she complied because they come in there all of the time and we are strangers to her!  LOL.. she knows which side of the bread is buttered for her.

Thanks Jim and Norma! 

As I type this, we are about 20 miles from home.  Our plan is to swing around the block and park on the sidestreet. We can unhook there and bring the Tracker into the driveway to survey the conditions.  Our neighbors were going to keep the driveway cleared while we were gone, but in no way did we expect them to have kept the entire parking space for the motorhome plowed too.  We may be facing some snow shoveling  snow blowing and ice chipping this afternoon.  It will be a cold one, because the temps only came up to a mere 21 degrees.   The high MIGHT get to 28....

WHY OH WHY 

DID WE COME BACK TO THIS??????