Family Picnic and new La Z Boy Loveseat in the motorhome

On Monday night, our son and daughterinlaw (Dan and Heather) came over with the grandtots for a little family cookout.  It was so good to see little Mason and Allegra again.  She is such a clown, and goofing off for attention from her grandparents. Mason is such a happy little baby and is learning to sit up and topple over, squiggle on the blanket on the ground and grin foolishly when we talk baby-babble to him!   Here he is intently watching his big sister, to figure out this crawling thing.

We grilled out some burgers and hot dogs, enjoying the sunshine and much cooler temps this week in Wisconsin.  I also was able to cook during the day and not roast myself outta the motorhome.  Simmered up some taters for tater salad and a slow cooked a pot of calico beans.  Temps are finally in the "normal" range around here.  (mid 70's days and 50-60 at night)    While the others ate, I hung around with Mason on the blanket.  First I fed him a bottle, then I was having fun feeding him green beans!  Wow... 4 months old and now working on veggies.  What a little man.

The other reason the kids came to visit was that Steve and Dan loaded up our recliners into the back of Dan's pickup truck.  They will match in the kid's livingroom and we are glad they can use them.  The loveseat gets delivered today, so we needed to get the recliners out last night.

After dinner, little Allegra and I walked back down by the water to see the fishies, and the sparkles on the water from the setting sun, and we picked up some acorns from the ground.  Seeing the world through a 2 year old's eyes is FUN!    She posed as a model for us and we plopped little Mason down for a shot.  He was not happy about it.  Guess he wanted the camera for himself?

It is sooo nice to have this cottage to park at for a week.  Located in a quiet location along the shoreline of the Green Bay.  Thanks again to Ernie and MaryEllen for letting us park here to enjoy your wonderful vacation abode.

I am waiting this morning for the loveseat to be delivered by McMahons of Luxemburg... they will carry it right in the motorhome and assemble the backs on it (they come off for transportation) ...

This noon, I am meeting up with daughter Erin and little grandson Clayton.  They have his 4 month old checkup today and then we are going out for lunch.   After that, Erin has a dentist appointment, so I am going to watch little Clayton for a while.  Looking forward to more time with the wee grandtots.  This weekend we will be babysitting both Mason and Allegra on Friday night in the motorhome.  Thank goodness for portacribs!   Allegra is going to sleep on our loveseat --- but I am sure she will end up bouncing around in our big bed too!


I took some of my flowering baskets from the house before we left.  One is a big begonia and the other is a climbing rose vine.  While here at the cottage I have them setting out on this cute wishing well.  Otherwise they can hang from the awning when it is extended.  I also have a windowbox of coleus that is growing well too.  

So I guess when we get to the campground next week, we will start looking like full-timers when we put out flowering garden plants around our rig, eh?

(this portion added now after 9 a.m.) 

The furniture store found us, and delivered our new loveseat! 

Backed in their delivery truck right up in front of the motorhome. 

Quick as a wink, they hauled in the seat base bottom piece

through our narrow 24" motorhome door. 

(we measured in advance)

 They adjusted the bottom screws for the padded carpeting on the feet.

While they went to the truck for the back rests, I snapped a pic of the seat base

They snapped the clips on the backrest sections and pushed it into place! 

There.. no more hitting the wall when we recline!   The seat portions actually scoot forward when you want to recline, and it does not hit the wall behind.  Thus-- called a "Wall-hugger" design by La Z Boy.   We have a lot more room now in front of the loveseat.   With our recliners we need about 12-14" space behind the chairs to recline.  This loveseat is more practical.

The little bench type coffee table with the woven mat in the foreground also doubles as a stand for my table loom.  It can roll up to the seat for me to weave, or roll away on the casters to the other side wall when not in use.  

I am sitting on it right now as I type this.  Pretty comfy, I must say!




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Wonderful Weekend

As we are settling into this full time living thing in the RV, we are making a few changes as we still unpack and sort and arrange things.

One thing we noticed is that the recliners we bought last year are not very practical.  They need to be pulled out sooo far into the room if you want to recline on them.  They waste about 12-14 inches behind each chair.  And if you don't pull them out far enough, they catch on the edge of the window frame when putting them back upright.   Time to make a change....

Sooooo we went shopping for the "wall hugger" style recliners.  We looked at all the big stores in the city.  Ewwww pretty high prices on the La Z Boy brand, but they seemed to have the nicest "wall hugger" design.  We discovered that we liked the loveseat idea instead of 2 separate chairs (like our blogger friends Janna and Mike had in their motorhome)  There is a small mom and pop style furniture store not too far from where we are parked, so we headed over there.  Not only did they have what we wanted, in a nice color, in stock...but on SALE!   For a LOT cheaper than what the big stores in Green Bay had!   They will deliver it for FREE on Tuesday right into the motorhome!   Plus, I feel better supporting a small town store (McMahons of Luxemburg)  and Steve also knew one of the salesmen who had kids the ages of our sons and played ball together.

Our son Dan and Heather will come and take these recliners off our hands, and they match their couch already in their house.  Although they were good recliners for the year we had them in our motorhome, and we bought them at a good price, but we would like the extra space in front of the chairs instead.


Another little helpful thing I learned this week ---  I had seen another RVer with these thin velour hangers at the laundry area in Holtwood campground last weekend.  They are thinner in profile than regular plastic hangers.

 BEFORE                                      HANGERS                                           AFTER            

one white plastic hanger on the right

is as thick as 2 or 3 of the black velour ones

You can get a lot more thin type clothing compacted better in lesser space in the closet.   She said the ones at Walgreens are better and stronger than the ones at Walmart, and they were on sale right now!  Sure nuff---   2 packs for $10 of ten packs of hangers.   I snatched up 40 of them to try them out.   I think I will still keep some plastic hangers for heavier things and hanging jeans on.  What is also an added benefit is they are velour covered, so your things do not slip off.  In a moving motorhome, that is a real plus!

Big storms blew through on Saturday afternoon and evening.  We mostly stayed inside and hunkered down.

Sunday morning, we slept in a bit --- trying out this full timing retirement attitude.  LOL  Then Steveio got up on the roof and removed the shrouds on our AC units to clean the inside coils.  He did a good job on the cleaning by blowing out with his compressed air tool.   He has his big tank air compressor on board to run all of his air tools.  A happy man has his happy tools along.

In the afternoon, our friends Sharon and Fred came for a visit.  They brought along their yellow lab, Brandie, who HAD to hop in the water right away.  Of course.  Would you expect less of a lab?  

Steve tossed some steaks on the grill, and Sharon brought plenty of treats to go with the meal.  We sat and gabbed and marveled at the great day.  Temps in the 70's, low humidity, nice breeze off the bay.  Wow... what a choice for a picnic with good friends. 

 Sharon made a very good dessert with strawberries, kiwi, angelfood pieces and a whipped base of sugarfree vanilla pudding mix and whipped cream.  Yummmmm

The guys wandered on down by the water, and checked out the lift device for the pontoon boat. Steve is going to help Ernie (the cottage owner) to add a different unit to lower and raise the boat easier.  The lowering water levels of Green Bay and Lake Michigan are causing a lot of problems with the owners of docks and boat lifts I guess. 

We gabbed till the sun went down... and wow.. what a great sunset it was!  

 Good friends, good food and good weather.  

What a Wonderful Weekend! 

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FINALLY - the cat is outta the bag - our NEWS!~

Okay.. now it's official and I can post about it!

Please note:  Steveio has worked for the state of Wisconsin for over 34 years.  He has held various jobs at the University of Green Bay, always transferring to better positions over the years.  He started in Grounds, Automotive Mechanic on their fleet vehicles and equipment, then moved to Maintenance Mechanic, Facilities Repair Worker, and most recently as a Journey Locksmith.  Each time he made a move on the campus to a new position, he was usually still doing the old jobs at the same time.  As different workers would retire, they never hire new ones, just combine their work load onto the existing workers.  With all the budget cuts, they now have only 3 guys doing the work of 8.  But he always worked hard, never complained, and took on more and more tasks to his already overflowing job description.  Very flexible, my guy is!

Well, recently he made himself available to transfer anywhere in the state, and the offers started rolling in!  Knowing the house was sold and going to close soon, he was willing to take on a transfer to other state jobs at places within the state, as we are now "mobile".   He got offers from other college campuses, national guard buildings, dept. of corrections maintenance, and other interesting positions around the state.  With his work record and variety of talents, every week he was getting 4 or 5 different offers.

Although he can retire in April 2013, he said that he would consider working longer if a good position came forward.

And one has!

Remember back in early July when we went camping to High Cliff State Park???  Well, it wasn't just a camping trip.  It was an interview!  And yes, he has gotten the job.  His official title is Facilities Maintenance Specialist Advanced.    (plus he gets a raise)   LOL   He will be overseeing the summer workers, the volunteers, and overall maintenance and upkeep of the entire park.  Big projects like an electrical upgrade is scheduled this fall, and he will be assisting the company that is contracted to do the work.

This really hasn't changed our RVing plans.  We are going to live in our RV full time and travel when we can.  But of course, if he likes it there, he will work longer than April 22, 2013.   We are going to stay at the park (which is open year round) and I will do some volunteering too.  We will be considered for camphosting as soon as the present hosts vacate. We had originally been considered to host for the month of August, but another host took the position until we were sure Steve would be hired.

Come the colder winter months, the park supervisor is willing to let Steve take all of his vacation weeks at once during the coldest winter months, because the summer months are the busiest in the park.  So we can head south for that period of time.  Steve has put some vacation time in sabbatical leftover from this year, so we can go away extra long during the winter months.

We may rent a place nearby to get through the winter temps, not sure yet.  There are a lot of nearby private seasonal cottages that are rented out in the summer months and are vacant in the winter months. that I am sure we could find one to get during the winter.  We will cross that bridge when we get to it this fall.   Last winter was so mild in Wisconsin, that we could have made it all season in the motorhome.  But we won't bank on that.

Back to the park itself----

The park is lovely, well kept and in a great location... it has 112 campsites, 8 group campsites, a marina with 100 rented boat slips, and lots of trails.   It is only 30 miles south of where most of our kids and grandkids live.

Here is a link to the park: 

http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/parks/name/highcliff/

Here is the link from our visit in late June early July: 

 camping-high-cliff-state-park-wisconsin   

It starts on this link and goes on for 5 more blog posts after that one. 

Here are some shots I took around the park while 

Steve was accepting his position during his second interview. 

We will move down to the campground on Aug. 12th.  He starts his new position on August 13th.   This is an exciting new chapter of our lives, and Steve is going to be so happy with interesting, varied and enjoyable employment with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.



And.. might I mention that we LOVE the Wisconsin State Parks SOOO MUCH  that we were MARRIED IN ONE!    Yes, we rented the Moravian Church at Heritage Hill State Park in Green Bay, WI as our wedding site....  

"So there you have it, folks" 

(as Steve is fond of saying)

that is our newest news of our ever-changing lives....   

P.S. Yes, Steve's new boss is aware of his workman's comp knee situation, which will be operated on Aug. 17th.  He will recoup and do light duty and administrative stuff at a desk for the beginning of the job, as well as learning their computer systems and routines and staff positions.   He had the same surgery on his other knee in 1996 and knows what to expect.  And of course, right afterwards he was up and at em and go go go.  That is my Steveio! 

Still feels like we are on VACATION???

Yup, although we have been living in the motorhome for a couple weeks while parked in the driveway, I am still feeling like we are on VACATION and I am dreading going home and having to take care of the house.

But the joke is on me, because there is NO house to go back to and take care of!  LOL

After the successful house closing on Tuesday, (which took a mere 15 minutes)  we had a few more things to finish up in the Oconto area.  Steve has now seen the arthroscopic surgeon and is set for surgery on  August 17th. The surgeon seems upbeat and positive and it is an easy fix on Steve's knee.  So we will be looking forward to that.

We hung out at Holtwood City Campground in Oconto for four days. One evening Erin and Mark with the two grandtots came to visit.  They live mere blocks from the campground.  This is a small city run campground and after living in the area for 15 years, we FINALLY camped here!

Holtwood Campground Link

We cooked out and had a great meal... and of course enjoyed the antics of little Clayton and Chelsea.

Good thing we parked close to the playground equipment! 

By Thursday afternoon, it was time to shove off.  We had the rig ready to roll and I drove it over to meet up with Steve for his doc appt.   Soon we were heading on down the highway, to loop around the bay of Green Bay and up towards Dykesville in Southern Door County. 

Our friends have a cottage that is only 12 miles from where Steve works (more on THAT in the next blog!)   and have generously offered that we can pull in and park and enjoy their property for the next 10 days.   

The cottage is located on the waters of Green Bay, across the bay from our old home-town of Oconto.  We are facing the west, and there was an awesome sunset last night... but I forgot to take the camera down to the shoreline to snap a pic.  Oh well, we will be here 9 more nights, so I will be sure to snap a few.

See why this still feels like VACATION to me? 

Today it is somewhat warm, but not nearly as hot and humid as it had been all week.  I took the doggers down to the beach to wander around a bit in the water.  They went right in and enjoyed the coolness.  Ducky tried to roll on a dead fish on shore, so I will go down later with a shovel and bury it.

It was a great way to spend part of the day...

after all, cleaning and housekeeping in the rig goes quite quickly ... 

so I guess I can splurge a little time to be a beach bum, eh?

I have four or five more boxes of "stuff" to go through yet that are sitting in our livingroom area of the motorhome.  They are things we didn't quite want to part with, that we could still use.  We just don't have a "place" for them yet in the rig.  I am working on finding locations that make sense and don't take up space that is for something else.  Steve noticed the rig seems to ride better now with more weight on board.  Our available CCC  (cargo carrying capacity) is rated quite high, and we have never fully loaded ourselves up before.  I will do a blog post later on CCC, UVH, GVWR, and GCWR.

Plus we decided to get wall-hugger style LaZboy recliners instead of the ones we have now.  Our present ones are much wider and need to set too far away from the wall to recline.  We looked at a few the other day with a narrower profile that are wall-hugger types, and we might make a decision by the weekend.

In the meantime, we will enjoy this location for the next ten days, and then I will write about our next exciting news as to what the future will hold for us!!!!

Oh, by the way, the doggers think this VACATION state of mind 

is just fine and dandy with them too! 

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