VACATION - Starting to Forget What Day It Is

Yup, vacation mode is really setting in now, 19 days into our time away, and we are forgetting what day of the week it even is!  THAT is true vacation brain and you know you are really relaxing!  We forgot it was only Monday, and Steve was thinking it was Tuesday to watch his one and only tv show he likes to watch (Person of Interest).  Oh well, now he can watch it tonight.

You might not think this is relaxing, but Steve is having a great time with Lowell. They are two peas in a pod, and love to have projects to work on.  If they don't have something to do, they are at odds with themselves and can not just sit and twiddle their thumbs.  Here they are washing a truck that Lowell is fixing up to sell.  When they were done washing it, they started working on the body here and there....

While they worked so hard,

here was MY view, from my lawn chair! 

Yup, the sky was THAT blue... ahhhhhh! 

This bug is another project car that Lowell worked on and repainted.  

He likes it so much, he don't want to sell it now.  LOL 

He has a case of  "too many vehicles" 

I count eight vehicles and a travel trailer in the yard at this time.....

Mom and I have been busy, working on crafts and projects, in between cooking meals for the guys and running errands.  It's been great spending a lot of days in a row with Mom.  Usually we have to cram in our visits to a few short days when they stop by as they head up to Michigan.  This has been a wonderfully long visit.  I know we have not been doing a lot touristy things, or items of travel interest to blog about for my RVing friends.  But my fiber and crafting readers will love some of these----

I set up my sewing machine on a folding table in the livingroom.  Working on some quilts and hot pads... 

While Mom is working on her addiction:  doggie critters made from pipe cleaners! 

and these jungle ones:

I even came in yesterday to catch her googling new patterns and animal shapes to make more!  She is getting better and better at the computerizing and using the internet to find out stuff.  I am proud of her!

I have been working on my quilt--- it's all together into two large panels, and now I have been working on the free-motion machine stitching of vines and leaves around on all the dark sections.  I am stitching it in rich shiny red threads on the dark black/brown portions of the quilt, and am about halfway done.  I hope to be handstitching the binding by the weekend.  Once each side is done, I will join them and butt up the battings to each other and seam the back by hand so it doesn't show through to the front. The dogs both approve when I was laying it out flat to check matching something between the blocks.

The dogs are really enjoying this Florida weather.  We leave the door open so they can go in and out at will, but we do keep Finnegan on a rope tied to the deck to keep him around. Duke is reliable and won't leave us, and Finney is getting better about hanging close too.   

A neighbor's dog came into the yard to visit yesterday, and it sure got these guys all excited to have a visitor.  Sniffs all around before the other dog was grabbed by it's collar from it's owner and hauled back home again.  Auntie Lois has come over to visit, and is also spoiling our dogs rotten, finding the cheese puffs!  She's just as bad as my parents!!!

Steve has been doing the outside cooking on the grill we brought along.... while Mom and I have been making goodies like fresh beans from Trader Joes, and Mom's traditional potato salad.  Steve has been grilling up burgers, steaks, chicken and other goodies.

I decided to bake up some apple pies, and Mom had some frozen apples so I used those for a couple pies.  Boy oh boy the house sure smelled good, and I shared a couple pieces over to Auntie Lois and Uncle Sam's when I went to untangle a little something on her computer.  She is doing good too!

Last night we settled in for an evening of crafts and some tv watching.  Lowell was watching his western show "through his eyelids" while Mom and I were working on our things. So Steve decided to help out Mom with another project of his own.  Mom had bought a cuckoo clock while visiting Germany a number of years ago, and somehow during moving households, the chains had jammed up inside of the clock mechanism.  She was quoted $200 from a clock repair shop to fix it.  Steve took it apart, and within the hour he had it working again!

Now we are kinda anxious to see if the little bird popped out on the hour like it's supposed to!  We wandered out and went to bed before the hour for the bird to do it's cuckoo thing.

In our family, we don't use the label "step" although Lowell is my step dad.  He has children from his first marriage.  This weekend, his only daughter and her husband and youngest son are coming to Florida for a quick visit.  So now I will be able to meet my step sister in person! We have sent emails and photos and are friends on Facebook.  Looking forward to extending our family even wider.

We told Mom that fish and company start to stink after three days, and we should be moving on soon... she won't hear of it and wants us to stay even longer.  I admit that I do enjoy the sunshine, warmth and ability to wear shorts and tshirts each day.  Kicking off the sandals as I walk into the house is nice too.  Far cry from bundling up in snow boots, heavy wool socks, sweaters and parkas.  Ahhhhhhh  Record cold temps up in Wisconsin make it hard to imagine leaving here.

But------ I think we will start to head north early next week.  Hope the ice and snow are held at bay, so we can have dry roads to travel on.

VACATION - Sunny Florida WARMTH

We finally found it... WARMTH!  

We got up in Georgia yesterday (Wednesday) about 7 a.m. at the quiet Walmart lot we slept in at Madison, GA.  We perked some coffee and headed out early.  The roads were nice, for smaller state highway roads and we cruised along enjoying the countryside.   When we got closer to Macon, we stopped and fueled up.  75 gallons at $3.87 a gallon diesel.   We are averaging 8.4 mpg which is pretty good for us.  No winds and towing a Tracker, that is good mileage for our size of rig.

At Macon we hopped on the interstate to head down into Florida.... crossed the state line and managed to grab a quick pic.

Started to see a few palmetto shrubs here and there... and spanish moss hanging down.  The temps were up in the 80's and soon our motorhome was getting TOO hot inside. We actually turned on the dash AC as we drove!

Whew....  the heat felt good, but the cooler air as we were driving felt even better.   The dogs moved up closer to the dash to be near the vents too.  LOL The termometer in the middle of the rig was reading 86, no wonder they moved up close!

As we were driving south on I-75, we saw a large motorhome that had blown a front driver's side tire, entered the median strip of soft grass that dipped down in the middle, and managed to stay upright and end up on the other side, in the northbound lane, with it's Jeep toad still attached!   All in one piece and upright and never flipped or tipped on it's side!!! Oh my !!!  The RVing Gods were smiling down on them for sure, as well as all the travelers in the northbound lane who were able to avoid the motorhome as it came into their lanes of traffic.

That sure shook us up as well.....   we need to replace some of our tire pressure sensors that are not emitting a signal, so we made sure at least our toad in back is sensored up, and the two front tires on the rig.  I think I have to order three more sensors this week to finish all four of the dualie wheels on the motorhome so we have complete coverage again.

We have another little glitch, the RV fridge is only working on electric, not propane.  It was fine at the RV park in Tennessee, but started to warm up while we were boondocking in Georgia.  Steve went out and cleared up some debris and blew out a bit of rusty gunk.. but the orifice might be clogged preventing the propane burner from working.  We kept it closed as much as possible to keep the cold in.  We knew once we would reach Florida later that day, we would be plugged into power at my parent's house so our food would be okay.  But that is another task to take care of.

We stopped at a wayside for a potty break for the dogs, and they got out into GREEN GRASS!  Oh my they were so happy.... old Duke laid down and rolled over and scritched scratched back and forth with his back on the soft green grass.... it was an "AHHHHH" moment for him.  So we got Finney to roll over too, and he was just perplexed at what that green soft stuff was???    I suppose his baby puppy mind don't remember the grass so much, since we had him in Dec it's been all snow snow snow for most of his puppy life.

We got off the interstate at Gainesville, FL and took back roads over to my folks .. thru Archer and then down to where they live just outside of Williston.  With a big blast of the air horns as we passed my Aunt Lois and Uncle Sam's place, we drove around the corner and up in front of my parent's home.

They were out the door toot sweet, hugs all around and doggies barking and happy oh joy oh joy!  Soon the guys had the motorhome backed in and plugged in.... (the fridge worked on electric just fine)  and we ladies sat on the side deck.  Auntie Lois came down the road, to come for hugs and visits and her Sheboygan Summer Sausage!  (a favorite from our Grandma Kafehl anytime anyone visited)   Also I brought both mom and Lois a clump of coleus to root into plants.... sharing the wealth ya know.

Ya think we are related? 

Auntie Lois                      Me                              Mom

We sat out for hours gabbing.... and then mom had a nice roast beef dinner waiting for us.  How nice was that after a long day of travel?

While the guys discussed motorhomes, cars, trucks, campers and what not, Mom and I went into her office room to see about her laptop.  Six months ago, Mom's beloved WEBTV unit was discontinued support or access by MSN.  She has had that as her source of internet for the last 15 years!   In September, I mailed mom a laptop from Wisconsin all set up to get her on the internet.  All she had to do was plug it into her dialup service and turn it on.  She did pretty well, but soon her email would not load up.  She has been able to access Skype and the Internet, but not her Outlook for email.   

I took a look, and in a bit we figured out her problem, and got her email open again.   While I am here, I am going to set up a larger desktop computer she bought.  For now she has very slow dialup, but we are going to look at her phone company Centurylink about getting her on a bundle deal to get better connections for her.  They have some special offers and we will see what is best for her. 

Also my Auntie Lois got a computer from her kids for Christmas, so I am going to get over there and set it up and she will see about the same deal from Centurylink for her access.  

And THEN I will get both of them on Facebook!   Their cousin Nancy in Duluth is on it, and we know they will enjoy catching up and sending recipes and silly sayings and seeing what all of us kids and grandkids are up to.  

Steve and I were tired and headed to bed last night about 9ish, so the folks could go to sleep.  It was down in the 60s as we went out to our motorhome.  A nice shower and fresh air and taking the wool blanket off the bed!  Yes, it's Florida!!!   Then crawling between crisp cotton sheets, with the window cracked open a bit for fresh air.  AHHHHHHHHHH

Woke up about 4 am to ROOSTERS CROWING!   My folks live in a rural area out of town, and the danged roosters down the road would NOT shut up!   So much for open windows, eh?  

Oh well, I perked the coffee and typed this blog, let the dogs out for a potty break.  (Duke and Finney didn't like that rooster noise either) .... and now I am waiting for Steve and the folks to get up.  Auntie Lois baked banana bread to go with our coffee this morning.  I will bring in my carafe of coffee and join them as soon as I see movement from the house......

344 miles today

1307 miles traveled total

The folks are on the road to Florida!

(posted this on Thursday, and they called from Florida, safe and sound on Friday night) 

Well, my mom and stepdad, Rita and Lowell, decided to bag this icky wintery mix weather and hit the road to get to their other home in Florida.  They closed up the house in Michigan and loaded the motorhome up to hit the road.  Poor mom was in such a tizzy, trying to remember what is packed, what is going, what is to be left in this house, what to take to that house, and what to use in between in the motorhome!   She made lists to her lists, and still isn’t too sure what is packed where.  
The last thing to be packed was her precious WebTv unit.  My sister Linda helped her pack it up so she knows which cords to hook where when she gets it to her little pink office room in Florida.  It’s her only internet communication.  She won’t touch a laptop and is comfortable with her little WebTV and we use MSN messenger to communicate daily.  Each morning about 8:30 am, Mom, Linda and I meet up in our own little private chat room and talk to each other.  Linda is busy at work, so she has to come and go and glance in between projects, but enough to keep up with what we are gabbing about.
The weather is turning fast up this way, and snowy weather coming on Saturday and again on Monday.   So they had the Holiday Endeavor diesel pusher ready with all their stuff.. then loaded the big Harley in the back of the toad pickup truck, (under a raised cap  that my brother helped him with before they left).  So the Beverly Hillbillies are headed south!  LOL





They just stopped by some relatives in the Champaign, Ill area and all is going good.  Aunt Charlene snapped this pic of them in their rig, just before they hit the road again tonight at 6pm.  Lowell is a retired truck driver, so nightime driving and racking up the miles is second nature to him.
Mom just rides along in her seat, working on crafts, making snacks, and being his co-pilot.  They crank up the country western and bluegrass music and mom sings along to the tunes…  They might rest for a few hours at a Wal-mart and hit the road again.  Knowing Lowell, the 1,500 miles to Florida will be flying by, and they will be there by Friday night or Saturday morning.
What a lovely life for them both.  Meeting just within the last ten years, they fell in love, got married and are living happily ever after!   They are wonderful, kind loving people who deserved to find each other and share the sunset years together.
All of us children are so happy for them.  They are like a couple of honeymooners and we all enjoy seeing them happy!

Oh… on another note… our little granddaughter to be is destined to be a Tom Boy.  (Erin was!)   So when shopping the other day, the girls found this little hunting outfit.  Mommy Erin dressed it up for their upcoming bundle of joy with a few pink bows.  Shhh this is a present for bow-hunting Daddy Mark at the baby shower.  Tee heeeee