Gypsy departs, Copperfest and Grandtots

Saturday morning we got up early and enjoyed some coffee and muffins with Gypsy (aka Marty) from http://gypsy97.blogspot.com   We sure had a nice morning while it was still cool and pleasant.

We took the doggers all back down by the river, hoping Gypsy's elegant shepherd dog Lady would take a dip in again so we could snap some pics this time. We took our cameras along as we ambled through the woods.  It's been so dry around Wisconsin that even the mosquitoes were not even out.

As the dogs went down to the water, we held our breaths to see if Lady would go in again.  Sure nuff, she went right in and enjoyed wading around, up to her belly.  Lapping water and cooling off.  She even swam a little ways!   The current is very gentle, so no worries about her being carried away.   Duchess came in too for a dip, just to prove she can be a water-collie dog too.

What a great morning for a little dip in the river, and 

Marty was so happy to see her Lady having such a good time! 

I got into the river too... and it was refreshing and cool on the legs. 

Then all three doggies had to have a good romp around on the grass by the shore!

Duchess and Duke sure enjoyed the company of Lady, and both had to take a time out for a good "Lassie pose" for my camera while I was still standing knee deep in the river.

With a smile on her doggy face, and a faraway look in her eye, Lady was remembering some times playing in a stream in her puppyhood.  I am glad she was able to relive her doggy memories in our river!

We walked back up through our cool green woods towards the house up on the ridge.  Whenever I see the house from down here in the woods, I think of that John Denver song "Cool and Green and Shady"   The air was heavy with dampness and humidity, and a scorcher of a day was on the rise.

Lady dried off on the deck for a while, but soon it was time to get loaded up in the SUV to head west, back to California.  We made our promises to meet again on one of our journeys.

Marty has been having a hard time getting Lady into the SUV back seat due to her aging back legs.  We had a plastic step stool that might work, so here is Steve and Marty getting Lady accustomed to the stool and helping her into the SUV.  I think with a few more practices, it might work out well for her.

Once she got in on her mattress, she was all set to ride, and stretched out in her space while we all said our goodbyes with Marty.  Lady did manage to sit up, turn around and let me kiss her on the nose for our own little "Good Bye"  awwwww

   

We waved as Marty and Lady headed on out down the road, going west to find more adventures.  Travel safe, dear Gypsy!

Once Marty was on the road, we met up with our daughters, Erin and Heather, along with three of the grandtots, Jameson, Chelsea and Clayton to watch the Copperfest Parade in town.  The kids made a HAUL of the candy being thrown from the floats, along with some frisbees, beach balls, water bottles, mardi gras beads and even a Beanie Baby TY stuffed turkey toy!     Clayton didn't care so much, but he did march his feet up and down in his stroller to the passing school band as they played music.

After the parade, it was getting hotter and hotter. Instead of making the rounds of the Copperfest kiddie rides and vendors, we headed out to our house with the kids and grandkids to cool off and make some lunch.  Watermelon and hot dogs were the order for the day.

Heather needed new brakes and a muffler on her Saturn.  This car has served us well for a long, long time.  We owned it first, then son-in-law Mark bought it from us and ran it for a few years.  Then we bought it back from him for Heather a few years ago and it's still going strong!   LOVE those Saturns!    She is also going to "inherit" our newer Saturn once we hit the road full-time.  Both have over 200,000 miles on them, but work well and only seem to need routine maintenance.   When I came to snap this pic, Heather grabbed a big screwdriver to make it seem like she is "helping"  hahahaha

Brake pads $15, muffler $38, Thank You hugs from Heather to Steve = PRICELESS!!!

Chelsea and Jameson donned their little swimmy suits, and pranced and splashed around in the kiddie pool I set up on the shady part of the deck.  They had 2 big purple drink containers that were given away in the parade.  They proceeded to empty the kiddie pool, one container at a time, across the deck and over the edge to the patio below!  Delightful splat sounds as the water hit the cement below, fits of giggles, and squeaky clean kids... ahhh summertime!

This is probably the last time they will playing on our deck, and having a family gathering around the house.  We are starting to pack and load up things in both of the girl's cars to take back to their houses.  All our treasures are going to be dispersed now on a weekly basis till the house is cleared out.  We are putting all our "good stuff" in the motorhome and getting rid of the second choice items.

Soon all of our events here at the house will be "the last time...."  but we are excited about moving on to the future too.   Here are the girls and grandtots, on the last deck picnic under the canopy!

RV readers, I promise you the next blog will be about RV modification stuff! 

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Gypsy with a Lady

Our RVing blog community is great to share information, stories, photos and places to go.  But it's even greater when we can meet up in person!   http://gypsy97.blogspot.com

I have been following Gypsy (a.k.a. Marty) for many years now on her blog, back when she was a single gal in a big fifth wheel doing camp hosting at Lassen campground in California.  Since then she has tried apartment living, pickup campering, then to living now in a mobile home park in California.  She is currently journeying in an SUV with a tent and sleeping bag--- all the way across the United States to visit family.   Accompanying her is a wonderful lovable shepherd named Lady.

On her way back to California from out East, she managed to swing north yesterday after visiting with her brother in Milwaukee.  Instead of finding a hotel or campground, I offered her a "moochdocking" overnight here in our driveway, where she can rest her head in the quiet countryside instead of the big city.

As I type this, she and Lady are snoozing away in our guest house, (the motorhome) and soon she will be in for fresh baked muffins and coffee!

Yesterday we had a great visit out on our deck, with all three doggers sniffing and checking each other out.  Soon they were all plopped on the floor, snoozing away the afternoon.  Lady is truly a lady, and well behaved with social skills of a well-mannered dogger.

We shared stories and dreams, places and parks...  with those wonderful tips and tricks that only RVers know about at this place or that.  Later we walked down along the river, and much to Marty's surprise, her dog Lady jumped right into the river!   She waded along, with her tail trailing behind her on the surface of the river, lapping water as she walked.  She went up and down a few times, just wading along belly deep, and enjoying her cool dip in the river.  When she got out, she was loping around in the grass like a youngster!   Marty said she hadn't done THAT in years!   There clearly was joy on the elderly dogger's face, and a bit of youthful puppy exuberance in her gait. We didn't take along a camera at the time, but perhaps this morning we will walk back down there again to let her dip in?

We drove into town to show Marty the sights, leaving her wet dogger enclosed on our deck to dry. We drove over to Copper Culture State Park for a little look see.  It's only about 4 miles down the river from our house.

 The remains of the village and people that are buried here in mounds 

date back before the Native Americans! 

We strolled around the grounds a bit, past a big beehive in a hollowed out tree.  The bees were swarming around the honey hole, and we expected to see Winnie The Pooh come ambling along.  Nope, all we saw was the flash of a deer, and a fisherman coming up from the river. 

From there we drove through our tiny town of Oconto, once a bustling lumbering town with sawmills and rivermen all over the place.  Now it's a sleepy little town on the shore of the waters of Green Bay, where it flows into Lake Michigan.   We took Gypsy out along the Breakwater Park to see the views.  The tip of the breakwater is driveable with a car to go out to the end.   We snapped a few shots.....

Gypsy  &  KarenInTheWoods

Just as we were ready to head back in, we saw a nearby fisherman skillfully work his catch into the shore.  It was a Northern Pike, and a nice size too!

As we were pulling off the breakwater, I managed to snap a few sunset shots from the moving car...

We came back to the house to enjoy a snack of ice cream... and freshly picked strawberries that had just been growing in the fields that morning. The Mennonites up the highway grown wonderful strawberries and sell them not too far from our house.  How could we resist? Yummmmm

The doggers all relaxed together on the floor .....

And we yacked the night away until 11p.m. before we all turned in for the night.....  

What a wonderful visit!   Today she will head on up to the U.P. of Michigan and head over on U.S. 2 towards Duluth, her next destination.   This morning we will start her out with some coffee and muffins.... if I ever get off this danged computer and get them in the oven!


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Gonna meet a fellow RV Blogger tomorrow

Looking forward to meeting with a fellow RV blogger tomorrow. It's GYPSY!   (actually Martha) from http://gypsy97.blogspot.com   I have been following her blog for years.  Admiring her get up an go power.. maneuvering a big fifth wheel and pickup truck, then later a pickup camper.  Now she did a hop skip and jump across the United States to visit with family in her SUV with her dog, Lady.  On her way back, she is going to stop by here and visit with us on Friday! 

Otherwise, news update on the home selling front.... 

We are doing the two required state tests: our well water and having our septic/mound system inspected.   The septic inspection was done yesterday and passed with flying  colors (we knew it would)   and I send off the sanitized bottle of well water sample to the lab next Monday.  They want it sent on a Monday to prevent it getting "stale" if setting in a post office all weekend.  That should come back just fine too, as nobody in our area ever had well water troubles of any kind. 

The kids are coming on Saturday and we are going to start loading up the smaller things that they are taking home with them... then as we get closer to the DDD-Day  (Delicious Delightful De-Mortgaging Day.... is that a word?)    the kids will load up all the larger things that are going out the door too.  

In the meantime, I am sorting and packing up yarns.. cones... balls... skeins... and wool roving waiting to be spun into yarn~   I am making packages and clearly marking each one as to it's contents.  Then when stashed at our kids houses, I know what I have squirreled away where when I want it. 

I have a few rugs that need to be woven over the next few weeks, and then I can dismantle the last rug loom for stowing away.  The table loom rides right in the livingroom of the motorhome, or can sit out under our awning when camped somewhere, and be stashed into the back of our toad for easy storage too.  My spinning wheel and sock machine are always in the closet of the motorhome.

Next step is that we rented a P.O. Box in Oconto.  Soon I will start changing over all our mail and billing addresses and accounts to the P.O address.  Most of our bill-paying is done on line, but things like vehicle registrations and insurance renewals will come in the regular mail.  Erin will check our mail box once a week while we are on the road, and she can open anything that looks important or scan it in for us... and the last resort is to actually mail it to us wherever we are at c/o General Delivery so we can pick up. 

Sunday or early next week sometime my parents are coming down from Michigan.  Lowell (my step dad but we don't use the word "step" in my family) is going to do some body work to our Tracker!   He loves to piddle with that stuff, and I will take lots of pics as he does the job.  It has some rusted spots around the wheel wells that could be filling in and touched up.  I ordered the matching paint already from Carquest.  Did you know they can put auto paint they mix into spray cans?   And make primer paint to match the car too?   And of course I ordered a can of clear coat for topping it off.  Should be fun to see him do his "thing" 

That will give me and Mom a few days to catch up, do crafts, go shopping or just hang out and be together.  They have been down in Florida all winter, and just came back up to Michigan in their RV for the summer. 

As you blog readers know, last weekend we took our motorhome up north for a wedding.  It was very comfortable to have the rig nearby for our family to come and hang out in between the meal and the dancing.  Plus, we kept the three grandkids overnight so their parents (and Steve) could party well into the night.  I was the Chief Babysitter in Charge. .. Like I really minded that, eh? 

Here are some pics from the kids in the motorhome and how cozy and comfortable it was.  At one point we had 9 people and 2 dogs inside to hang out in our Rolling Home! 

Jameson in my co-pilot seat                 Chelsea in Granfaddah's recliner

 Clayton (only 2 months old )          Jameson and Chelsea playing with my Tablet

Everyone hanging out in our motorhome! 

Chelsea getting the giggles with her Auntie Heather     

Jameson taking care of his face without a washcloth while Great Grandma Rita watches

 Me and my Mom... sharing my grandtots! 

Portable cribs are fantastic for RV's  -  Just ask Clayton!

(I made that quilt 30 years ago before Erin was born and now her children are using it) 

The next morning after we put away the blowup queen mattress, both Jameson and Chelsea were enjoying their treat of those little snack size cereal boxes!  That has become a tradition for us to stock up with them for the grandtots sleep over.

They love playing with the flash cards and alphabet games on my Galaxy Tablet, while they ate their breakfast fruit from Granmuddah.  See?  I don't give them ALL suger all of the time, do I ???

Granfaddah Pfun took the two off for a nice long walk around the fair grounds, and to wear them out a bit before their parents came to pick them up.  They are both looking tired and each needed another nap on the long ride home again (120-150 miles for them)

So our rolling home will be more than adequate for visits from grandtots over the upcoming years.  We are soooo looking forward to living in our motorhome full-time.  It's just a matter of 2 months or so and we will be starting our dream!   It will be a bit before Steve can retire, (May 2013) but we have some vacation time coming up and long weekends too.  

RVing in our BIG Backyard is coming TRUE! 

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