Meeting RV Friends for the First Time and some Motorhome Jobs

Well, it's back to blogging again. I FINALLY have some RV stuff to blog about.  First off, Steveio decided that he needed to replace the back shocks from Bilsteins to Konis , then he lubed all the grease zerks, (even the elusive one on our fan shaft) and also changed out all of the brake fluid with new fresh fluid.

Note- he worked soooo fast on all of these things, I didn't even know he started on them until he was all done! That means I didn't get any pics either. arrggghhh! 

On Thursday we had the opportunity to meet up with fellow RV bloggers Merikay and Craig of the blog  http://merika-merika.blogspot.com   This link will lead you to her post about our visit, so you can read each of our accounts of the last five days.

We have read each other's blogs for many years now, and encouraged each other through the process of  downsizing, packing, selling and moving out of our large homes and into an RV to live full time.  They are now travelling full time in their Alfa See Ya Diesel motorhome and tow a Jeep around America.  (we took a slight detour after living in our rig for 5 months when Steve took another state position with the DNR to work at High Cliff State Park)

After all these years of comments, support, and emails of the journey each of us has taken, we finally got to meet IN PERSON~!   They were coming into the area after visiting relatives in Milwaukee. We guided them to a local campground about 15 miles from our home.  We offered our driveway but with only 20amp service, it might not be enough to run the air conditioners if the weather gets hot and humid.  So they pulled in to the campgrounds and got settled on Thursday.  They called us just in time to meet us in town for the free City Concert at the Fairgrounds in Chilton.  Featured was the Chilton City Band for the evening, complete with brass, woodwinds, tubas and percussion.

Last year, both Merikay and I had our eyes on a sweatshirt available from the https://theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com  so we both ordered it. We knew we each had our matching sweatshirts, so it was decided, like a "blind date", that we would both wear our sweatshirts to the concert to easily identify each other!   LOL

We settled in our lawn chairs to enjoy the music, the companionship, and enjoy watching the little children dancing and prancing around to the tunes.  In between every few songs, they had door prize drawings for locally sponsored prizes.  Craig won a certificate from the local bank to come in and redeem for $5.00!   He passed it on to me later to donate to a charity, which I chose the Wisconsin Shetland Sheepdog Rescue (without them I would never have gotten Finney!)   

We stayed late past the end of the concert and headed home after dark.  They had a short drive back to the campground and we headed on home in Chilton.  I suppose we could have tried to get reservations to the same campground for the weekend, but we had some other special plans for Saturday that needed us elsewhere---- more about that later! 

On Friday, they came over to our house for our "grand tour" of the home to see it all in person.  They had followed along on our blog each step by step of the things we had done, but now they got to come and see for themselves.  haha.  We shared a glass of wine and waited for Steveio to get home from work.  Friday nights are famous for Fish Fry's in Wisconsin... and we had a treat in store for our guests.  

Many small towns dotting along the lakeshore of Lake Winnebago have residents who form "fishing clubs" which do various fundraising events throughout the year.  The proceeds are used for many things which you can read about on this link http://www.quinneyfishingclub.com/   Fishing Clubs usually have a building and grounds to hold events, fishing tournaments and places to store some boats and gear.  We drove on over to Quinney, a small burg not much more than a crossroads on Hwy 55 west of here.   

We had little coupons that were handed out in the parade in June to give us $1 off our perch frys which were $12.  Our neighbor even gave us her coupon too.  We stood in a line for a short time, then zoomed through the food process as each of our containers was filled with our choices.  Oh my.... besides the four generous pieces of big perch, coleslaw, and rye bread --- the german potato salad I chose was wonderful!   Steve chose baby red potatoes, while Merikay and Craig had french fries.

The beers were a DOLLAR a cup, and the desserts were a DOLLAR each... homemade by the best of the best wives in the fishing club, each one outdoing the next on how much goodness they could cram into each of the little boxes.  We sat down to enjoy our Wisconsin Perch Fish Fry!

With full bellies, we wandered on back to our house for a glass of wine and relax a bit on the front porch.  Soon it was dark and time for Merikay and Craig to head back to the campground. We had a BIG DAY planned for Saturday-----

I AM GOING TO DO A SEPARATE BLOG POST ABOUT SATURDAY

AND IT WILL FOLLOW THIS ONE.... 

THERE ARE JUST WAYYYYY TOO MANY PHOTOS TO PUT IN ONE BLOG 

PLUS I WANT TO GIVE THIS SPECIAL EVENT IT'S OWN BLOG PAGE.

Saturday night we were treated with a fantastic sunset over Lake Winnebago, and I was able to capture it by making Steve stop in the middle of the road to take the shot!  LOL

Let's pretend now Saturday is over....  and now it's the final day of Merikay and Craig's visit.  In the morning, Steveio decided to finish up the motorhome roof with a good scrubbing... he uses the pressure washer, but with a special wand that is a swirling scrubbing spray, NOT the pressure spray nozzle.  He hooks up the hose to the outside faucet on our house and turns a valve in the basement over to HOT instead of COLD  (we plumbed our last house this way and really appreciated the surprise of seeing this house was also plumbed with hot water accessibility to the outdoor faucet too)

Sunday afternoon, we headed on over to Columbia park to site number 9 where Merikay and Craig had their Alfa SeeYa motorhome situated.  

They gave us the grand tour and we picked out the five best things we liked that they had in their rig....

• two BIG windows almost floor to ceiling in the bedroom that really let in the outdoors.
• a cool hole in the countertop to toss things in the trash, and empty it from outside of the rig
• a clothes changing area by the closets that opens up with their full wall slide on the drivers side
• a well thought out bathroom with good storage, fixtures and space 
• adapted some deep shelving areas with pull out bins on drawer glides for easier access

Many of the other things we like are also on our rig too... but it was fun to compare and explore and see what other motorhomes have to make living comfortable.

One item I noticed Merikay using in her kitchen was a roll of plastic saran type wrap.... and it had the great plastic sliding cutting device that Glad Wrap had on their packages for a few short years.  Glad Wrap is no longer making those, and Steveio happened to accidentally throw out my last box, so I could not reuse the slider cutting device on newer rolls that didn't have one.  Well, well, well, Merikay said she got her Kirkland brand plastic wrap with cutting device at Costco!  We don't have a Costco close by, but my mind was planning on joining one or ordering on line just to get that cutter!  Ahhhhhh sweet Merikay had an EXTRA ONE saved off one of her previous boxes tucked away.   And she GAVE IT TO ME!  Oooooh I hugged her and giggled like she gave me a million dollars.  Tee heeeee

(when I got home, I wrote a warning in permanent marker on it....

and slid it onto my current box of plastic wrap

think he will heed my warning????)

Merikay served up a lovely meal on the picnic table for us while Craig manned the grill with our steaks.  After a wonderful meal, we sat around the campfire until late.  

It was so good to talk about places we have been, places we want to go, and laughing all the while.  So totally at ease with people we knew but we had never met yet. With big hugs and "see ya laters" instead of "goodbyes" we headed on home in the dark. 

As they drove past my house this morning, I heard the HONK HONK and saw them both waving as they drove on north, on to another adventure on the road.  

If you want, you can follow their blog:

http://merika-merika.blogspot.com

After the snow.... and some dog stuff

We were supposed to get a huge storm, but lucky us, it blew to the north and missed most of us!   We only got about 4-5 inches I think, and some blowing and drifting.  But nothing that was treacherous or awful.  Today we are just getting minor snow flurries, here and there.

Here is Winter in Wisconsin... now that all of the holiday festivities are over, it is going to be dreary months of snow snow and more snow:

(this goose ain't cooked, he's more like frozen?)            our view out the front windows

Not sure if this rig is gonna be able to roll south this winter???

We will see if Steve is able to take the time off or not.

But---- the house is warm, the dogs are happy, I am feeling better, and Steveio was able to make it through the snow to work each day.... so what more can we ask for?  

I have been doing some quilting, and got 20 blocks done of this pattern....  now I just have to find some coordinating fabric for the sashings (like picture frames around each to sew them all together)  and find some good backing.  I am going to a quilting class with friend Paula Stuplich at the end of the month over to Wausau.  Wish me good travelling weather?

A while back I ordered this great new sweatshirt from The Animal Rescue Site   All of their items are either made in America or from fair trade countries, and purchasing through them helps feed animals.  Each item you select to buy, it tells you how many bowls of food are available from your purchase!

 I funded 28 bowls of food from my purchase of this sweatshirt

and the doggies both approved of it.

On to puppy news.... things are going great!   There is a stuffed puppy that lives up in our grandtot's bedroom in our home, and Finney recently met him.  He was very skeptical at first, and would growl, pounce, and run away each time he peeked in the room.   Soon the curiosity overcame him and they are now buddies.  Can you tell which is which?

Now each time Finney goes up the stairs, he has to stop and visit his buddy that lives in the Grandtot Bedroom!  LOL


Duke enjoys playing with the pup, but it wears him out quickly.  We only let Duke do 4 or 5 fetches with the soft toys indoors, then make him lay down and watch the pup do the rest of the retrieving....  I bought a couple of these these soft cloth balls that don't hurt anything when thrown indoors.  By having two balls, it's teaching Finney how to bring one ball back at the same time when Duke brings one to me.  Good indoor fun when it's too cold to go outside.

Of course, next is rest time where they have to lay close to each other. 

In the livingroom, we have a doubled up sheepskin that they lay on together.  At bedtime, both were huddling up on the mat we bought from Stockbridge Critter Sitters Daycare for Finney's crate when we first got him.   They both crowd up on the one small mat to sleep together, and many times by morning, Duke is mostly off the mat.  He doesn't even want to go lay on the blue rug folded up that was his before.

I decided Duke should have his own padded soft mat even if he never liked sleeping on one before.   The other day when running errands, we stopped by Critter Sitters and bought a mat for Duke too.  While there, we dropped off some Purina weight circles with Lisa Martin, because she can turn them in to help with neutering/spay bills ---- so if you have Purina pet foods in your house, please cut off the weight circles and send them to me?  Last year Purina helped with almost $2,000 of vet neuter/spay bills at the Appenasha Clinic for the Wisconsin Sheltie Rescue Group.

Here is the mat we bought for Duke... 

as soon as we brought it in the house,

 and plopped it on the floor, 

he laid right down on it and claimed it as his own! 

Well, that is about all I can think of to write about for now.... maybe the next blog I will do some more "Before" and "After" shots of projects around the house.  Hard to believe we have had it for a whole year already???