June 29th - Still HOT!!!

Yesterday we went to town for a few supplies but I didn't do much beyond that. The news last night reported that yesterday was the hotted June day ever recorded in the area. Temps were reported as being between 106-108 depending on to whom you were listening.

This morning we got up early and did more tree/bush trimming. It was around 10 when I unloaded the truck. The temperature was 90. It is currently 100 and still on its way up.

By the time I unloaded the truck and did a few small odd jobs I was done for the day. I took a shower to cool down and rested until lunch.

After lunch we headed for Kelsey and Andy's. Kathy is helping Kelsey fix food things for the get together after Lydia's dedication on Sunday.

In case you have picked up on it from previous posts, the weather in Missouri SUCKS!!! It has now been over 100 degrees for at least 3 days in a row and the high are forecast to be over 100 degrees on Saturday and Sunday. For Saturday through Thursday there are two days when the high is forecast to only be in the 98 & 99. Every other day is forecast to be over 100. No rain in the forecast.

I am thankful for air conditioning. Without it I would have been headed north and not stopped until I approached the Canadian border.

Hope all who read this are also in an air conditioned space if you are in this heat wave. May God bless you and yours.

June 27th - 103 Degrees!!!!

It was hot today but praise God the humidity was low. It did get down into the 60's last night. No more 60's in the forecast. Highs are forecast to be above 100 degrees for the next two days.

We worked outside this morning. Kathy used the chainsaw to cut down more of the bamboo while I did more weed eating. She didn't cut down as much as she did yesterday but we still had a decent truck load to haul back to the brush pile. I went through another tank of gas in the weed eater.

Kathy went to town to get prescriptions refilled, etc. I mowed the lawn. Boy do I miss my John Deere! The 54" deck would be way to big for here but it was 10 times as good a mower as this Craftsman. We don't actually have that much lawn to mow. My guess is that we will spend twice as much time "weed eating" as we will mowing.

The grounds around the house are starting to look decent. Once we get some type of small trailer we can start picking up all the trash wood that has been thrown on piles here and there. Another couple of mornings, after we get the small trailer, and the area around the house would be done. The area outside, and behind, the circle drive is another story. A couple of weeks and we might get it in shape. The same with the area around the "barn". And then there is the area around the pond, and the area around the lagoon and.....

The next two photos are the "front" yard. I took them while standing on the front porch. There is a circle drive around this section of lawn. April did some watering to keep this grass relatively green.

Left side.

Right side.

The following two photos were taken from the back deck. The first one is of the "upper" back yard. In the distance is the driveway that goes out to the highway, going to the right to get to the highway. The dry weather has taken its toll on this grass.

 Below is a photo of the pond plus part of the "lower" back yard. We know there are still fish in the pond because we occasionally see them "rolling."

Time for supper.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 24th - More Trimming

We got up early, at least early for us, and did more yard work. The "back yard" has lots of bamboo like plants. Kathy wanted to cut them back drastically so she worked on them with our electric chainsaw. They were to big to cut down with the weed eater but almost to small for the chainsaw.
This is a "before" photo of the bamboo patch outside the door out of the downstairs kitchen/dining area.

 This is the after photo of the area. While she was running the chainsaw I ran 2 tanks of gas through the weed eater. I didn't even get completely finished on the lower lawn.

 We then loaded the bamboo in the truck, hauled it back to the brush pile and unloaded it.

After we got the truck unloaded we took showers and Kelsey and Lydia came over at 11:00 to take us to Columbia, it is about 45 miles to Columbia. Kelsey drove so that I didn't have to take the tool box out of my truck. Also, her truck is the MegaCab while mine is only the smaller 4 door cab.

We had a good lunch at Fuddruckers in Columbia. Then we bought an air compressor and a couple of rakes at Lowes before going to Sam's. At Sam's we bought a bed frame and an inexpensive mattress and box spring.

Having Kelsey drive us around is quite nice. It gives Kathy a break <grin>. My nap on the way home from Columbia was refreshing. Lydia napped the entire trip.

Once we arrived home Kelsey helped us unload. I set up the air compressor and got it running. I added air to the mower tires so we think we are now ready to mow. Still LOTS of weed eating to do.

Kathy took a short nap while I was doing that and then went into the house to work on it. She wanted to re-vacuum the bedroom before we put the bed together. I'm not sure what else she is doing.

Tomorrow the carpet cleaners are supposed to come. They are cleaning the downstairs carpet. The master bedroom carpet doesn't look like it needs cleaning and it is the only carpet in the upstairs.

It is a little after 6 right now and the temperature is 93. It is supposed to get down into the low 60's tonight, it better start dropping soon. Tomorrow's high is supposed to be 99. We better get up early if we are going to continue the year work.

Good  night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 25th - Tree Trimming

I did more tree trimming today. This pickup load came from the cedar tree in the foreground. Previous to today I already carted about half this much stuff to the burn pile, from this tree and the area around it. I think one more load from this tree, cutting off the branch/trunk on the right, and I will be done with it. I cut off the branch/trunk on the left with the 14" electric chain saw we bought recently. It worked fine.

I also worked with the house water softener today. There was no salt in the brine tank when we arrived at the house. I got a bag and put it in the brine tank, only put a single bag in because once I'm sure everything is working properly I want to take the brine tank outside and clean it. After about two hours of putzing around with it I finally got the valve out of the bypass position. I called the local Culligan man, it is a Culligan softener, to find out why the valve seemed frozen. He told me it was probably mineral deposits and that I should use the handle end of a hammer to knock it free. It worked.

This was the same guy who gave me a good deal on replacement resin for the softener we use for the RV. I made an appointment to have one of his technicians come out to check the reverse osmosis water filter, and replace filters as necessary. I want to watch someone do it the first time.

I tried compacting the dirt around the hydrant that was repaired yesterday. I succeded in getting it to leak again. Carl and his buddy came over this afternoon and working on it for another 1-2 hours. We left the hole open this time. I will check it tomorrow to see if it still appears to be leak free.

After putting gas in the lawn tractor it started. I had been unable to get the oil filler cap off to check the oil but managed to loosen it today. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that it was full of clean oil. Carl loosened up the brake linkage while he was here today and drove it a short distance. As soon as I get an air compressor, or air tank, to add air to the tires we should be ready to mow.

It only got to 93 today. Right now, 8:30 PM, it is clear down to 87. The highs the next four days are forecast to be 90, 99, 104 & 104. Still no rain in the extended forecast.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.



June 24th - HOT!!! - Plumbing Repairs

It made it to 100 degrees today, according to Weatherbug. At 8:45 it is still 96.

Yesterday when we got here I noticed that the frost proof hydrant by the barn was dripping. I played with it a little but couldn't get it to stop dripping. I noticed that it was loose in the ground and looked like it had been hit. It was only dripping so it wasn't high on my priority list.

This morning I got up early and when I stepped out of the RV I stepped in mud. The hydrant had leaked a lot during the night. I looked for a shut off valve but could not find one. I then looked in the electrical panel to find the breaker for the pump. None of the breakers are marked. Kathy had the idea of standing by with pressure tank while I turned breakers on and off to find the one that started the pump.

After shutting off the pump I dug up the hydrant and then turned the pump back on to see if what else I could find out. By the time I got back out by the barn the hole was full of water. We went to town and bought a new hydrant and pipe wrenches, mine are in Tennessee. After we returned home I enlarged the hole so that it was large enough to detach the existing hydrant. I got the old hydrant off and realized that the guy at the hardware store had given me a fitting that would not fit the new hydrant, so back to Jefferson City for more parts. I also picked up some bags of sand so that I could backfill the hole with sand, instead of the clay and rocks I had removed, in case I had to dig it up again.

I had let my tools lay in the sun and when I returned they were so hot I couldn't hold them. I finally got the new hydrant installed and had Kathy turn the pump back on. Water sprayed out of the fitting where the plastic pipe clamped over the ribbed fitting that screwed into the elbow that attaches to the hydrant. ( I had not taken this fitting apart.) By then I was getting pretty disgusted/discouraged.

Earlier Kathy had called Carl, and left a message, asking if there was a shut off for the outside hydrants that are around the property. Shortly after finding the leaking clamped fitting he called back to and told us that there is no shut off. He also told us that they guy he loaned the skid steer to had backed into the hydrant and damaged it. They thought they had it fixed. He said he would call the guy and have him come fix it. Less than a half hour later the guy and a buddy of his showed up. They took the leaking fitting apart, cut off a few inches of the plastic line and reconnected it. No leaks. The guy was very apologetic about not getting it fixed right after he had hit it. Carl was supposed to tell me that it had been hit and give me this guys phone number so that I could call him if it still leaked, but he forgot.

It was around 3 PM, and hotter than heck, by the time we finished partially refilling the hole. We only filled it part way so that I could pack it more tomorrow before finishing filling it.

Kelsey, Andy and Lydia came for supper. We enjoyed their company for the couple of hours that they were here.

Tomorrows high is only supposed to be 92, 8 degrees cooler than today. On Tuesday the high is supposed to be clear down to 87. After that the highs for the rest of the week are 98, 101, and then 100 on Friday. No rain in sight.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 23rd - Parked at Home

We were parked in the driveway of our new home by 9:30 this morning.

We are connected to 50 amp electrical service. We have a water hydrant is within 15' of our water connection. Dumping the waste tanks, probably won't happen but once, will be a little of a challenge but I think we can back down in front of the house and dump into the lagoon. One of the better wastewater systems in Missouri is a lagoon, so we have been told. They look like a nasty pond. All the wastewater from your house goes directly into the lagoon. They are not supposed to smell, most of the time, and are supposed to be better than septic tank and drain field systems.

We will live in the RV, but shower in the house until we get back from TN with stuff. We also need to get a stove and refrigerator. We will probably order them online since they are so much cheaper. Kathy has been shopping for bedroom furniture but hasn't found anything she likes yet.

She helped me a outside for awhile this morning and then continued house cleaning. I spent about 3 hours cutting weeds, and dragging the weeds and brush that we had previously cut, back to the the burn pile. We have stopped burning because it is so dry.

Kathy took a "dip" in the hot tub this afternoon. She has the temperature turned down so she said if felt more like being in a jetted pool.

It was hot and humid today and tomrrow it is going to be HOT. Today it only got to 91. The high is forecast to be 98 tomorrow. Next Thursday it is supposed to be 100 degrees, however next Tuesday the high is only supposed to be 86. I never thought I would look forward to a day with a high of 86 <grin>. It is now after 7 PM and the temp is still 90. PRAISE GOD FOR AIR CONDITIONING!

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 22nd - WORK Day

We worked at the house today. Kathy cleaned and I cut more brush. I burned what I cut today as well as some of the stuff we cut clearing the driveway. I also got the outlet hooked up so that we have full electric when we take the motor home there tomorrow. That doesn't seem like much when I write it, but it was enough to make be dead tired.

We won't have a level place to park the motor home, there aren't any level places on the 5 acres, except those that have been regraded. I had hoped to move a portion of a loose stone retaining wall today, so that I could ask Carl to use his skid steer to level an area large enough for the motor home. I just flat ran out of energy.

Anthony, Doug, Kelsey & Lydia went to the Amish grocery store in the morning. It is about 10 miles from Kelsey's.  The brought us peaches, tomatoes and smoked cheese.

We met them at Moose Brothers, in Russellville for lunch. We totally pigged out! I had a breaded tenderloin and Kathy had the hamburger special. Both came with onion rings but we ended up ordering two baskets of mushrooms for "appetizers." The baskets area huge. Kelsey ordered some type of "wrap". I think she was the only one who ate all of hers. Kathy and I had at least a quarter of our sandwiches left, plus some of the onion rings. We brought our left overs home but we were to tired to eat them when we got here. I ended up eating an orange, part of a peach and a chunk of cheese for supper. I think Kathy ate a peach and some cheese.

I haven't tried the tomatoes but the peaches and cheese are really good. Thanks you guys!

Doug and Anthony are on there way back to Indianapolis. By now they are probably already in Indiana.

Tomorrow we move the motor home to the house.

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

June 21 - Shopping & Home Work

Yesterday we guys (Anthony, Doug, Andy and I) met for breakfast at Scribners, a Mom & Pop, place in Russellville. After breakfast Andy headed off to work and we loaded up. along with Kathy, Kelsey & Lydia, and went to Columbia shopping for appliances and furniture. No luck on appliances but we did buy a used chair at one of the places and a new recliner at Costco. Kathy and Anthony are trying them out.

Doug and Anthony raised the kitchen cabinets along one wall 4" so we now have plenty of height clearance for any refrigerator Kathy might get. They had to take the microwave down, it was a wall mounted unit in the cabinets, to raise the cabinets. We know that there are some problems with the start button on the microwave. Since it is already down we may just give it to Carl & April, it matches their black stove and black refirgerator, and buy a stainless steel model that will match our new refrigerator and stove.

I am writing this Friday morning before heading to the house. Kathy has already left. Doug and Anthony brought my truck here from Indy. We are not used to the luxury of having two vehicle.

Tomorrow is the day we officially take possession of the house. We will move the motorhome their and live in it for awhile, until we get some furniture.

Kelsey and Andy have decided that it isn't a good time for Andy to take off from work so they will not be with us when we make a our trip to visit folks and get our stuff that we have in TN. We will drive our CR-V. Our schedule revolves around an all day gun safety class that I want to take in Crossville, TN on Saturday, July 7th. I need the class to qualify for my Tennessee concealed carry permit. First we will go visit my Mom in Coldwater, Michigan; visit Kathy's sisters in northwest Ohio, pick up her Dad who is in Ohio visiting, and then head to TN. While in TN we will rent a U-Haul truck to haul our stuff back to Missouri. We will make another trip to visit everyone, with Andy, Kelsey & Lydia, in mid-August.

Time to get to work.

Have a great day. May God bless you and yours.

June 20th - Weed Eating - Hot

Yesterday Anthony came from Indianapolis and brought the chairs for the dining room, and some of my tools that he and Doug were storing. We didn't do a lot.

This morning Kathy and I went to the house. She did some cleaning and watered flowers while I ran the weed eater. I tried to cut down the weeds next to the barn, where I eventually want to be able to part the motor home. It took me awhile to get the weed eater going after I had put two cycle gas in the 4 cycle weed eater. (I put all the blame on Doug <grin>. He brought me his multiple head weed eater to use and told me that it was a 4 cycle engine. He also brought be a partial can of gas. The gas was for 2 cycle engines. This morning I dumped out the  2 cycle gas and filled the tank with regular gas. I finally got it started after a lot of cranking.)

I put the head on that has one of the "bump" heads for extending the line. I ran it for maybe 15 minutes and the line quit feeding. I couldn't get the head apart to see why the line wouldn't feed so I switched to a head that had 4 precut lines in it. After maybe 3 minutes with it all four lines had broken off. The extra line that he had given me was to small to use with this head.

We went to Jefferson City and had lunch with Anthony, Kelsey, Andy & Lydia. Lunch was good. We then went to Menards and bought two heavier types of line. I played with one of the Menard weed eaters that had a head similar to Doug's bump head and figured out how to get it apart. Then back to the house.

I cut some lines for the 4 line head, it took the heaviest line I bought, the .105" stuff. In less than one hour I had to change the lines at least 5 times. By that time I was worn out. I was knocking down 5-6' weeds and grass so I can't complain about the performance of the weed eater. It wasn't designed to rip into 1/2" diameter vines and weeds.

The gang came here for supper. They left around 9:45. Doug should be at Kelsey & Andy's no later than 10:30.

Carl and April have done a LOT of clean up. I took some progress photos today. The photos may need to be captions with, "You might be a red neck if...".

Most of the above photos are panorama shots. I stood in one place and took a series of photos.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 18th - Haircut & Softener Repairs

This morning I went to Larry's Barber Shop for a haircut. It is located in downtown Jefferson City, a few blocks from the capitol and a few blocks from the governors mansion. Basically its right in the heart of power. Larry has been a barber for 58 years. He is a really interesting guy. He lives not to far from where we are parked in the RV. He was living here when the park started and actually was able to watch the construction of the dam that caused the 180 acre Binder Lake to form.

After the haircut I came back home and Kathy and I met Kelsey and Lydia for lunch at Dudley's. Kathy and I are really getting hooked on the place. The food is just good old plain food, which is what I like. Kelsey got a hot beef sandwich, Kathy had the chicken fried steak again and I had pork chops. All were good.

After lunch Kelsey, Lydia and Kathy went shopping and I came back to the RV to try and figure out why our water softener had quit working. I had emailed the place we purchased it from and told them about the problem. The guy told me the resin was probably bad. He wanted $75 for replacement resin. I didn't think there was any way that the resin could have gone bad in just a year so I took the softener apart, its design is MUCH simpler than a home softener, to see if I could find something that was broken. In order to take it apart I had to remove the resin. Removing it isn't bad but putting it back in is a real pain. I didn't see anything obvious but thought maybe a tube had been pulled loose. I put it back together, recharged it and found out that it still didn't work. Took me about 3 hours.

I then called the local Culligan place and asked if they would sell me some resin. The guy was nice and said sure. I told him how much I needed, I actually got a little more than I needed, and he said he would have it ready when I got there. The place is on the other side of Jefferson City, maybe 12 miles from here. When I got there the bag was by the front door ready to go. It cost me $54 including sales tax.

I stopped at Walmart to buy more salt for regenning and also bought a funnel to help get the resin in the softener. Putting the resin in was still a pain but by a little after 6 I had it back together, regenned and ready to go. So far so good, it seems to be working fine.

Kathy had went out to Kelsey's after shopping. I went out after getting the softener hooked back up and we had supper with Andy, Kelsey & Lydia. Lydia was asleep most of the time I was there. After supper it was back home.

Doug and Anthony are coming out here. They are supposed to leave either late tonight or early tomorrow morning.

It was hot here again today. The high was 93 and at 11:30 PM it is still 84. I was outside, putzing with the softener most of the day. It didn't feel all that horrible. I think the humidity probably was reasonably low and that coupled with the fact that I was in the shade most of the time and that there was a nice breeze, made it tolerable. The highs the next two days are supposed to be about the same.

Time to get to bed. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

PS. Did I forget to mention that my great-granddaughter is really cute, like her Mom.

June 17th - Hot and Minimal Activity

Not much is going on with us. It has been in the low 90's during the day and low 70's at night. We did get some rain last night. To hot for this old fat guy. Praise God for air conditioning.

We are still waiting to get in our new home. The previous owners are working hard to get all their "stuff" moved from the grounds and out buildings. They have another 6 days.

Today Kelsey, Andy and Lydia had Fathers Day dinner for the family. I think there were 13 adults, a teen, and 4 children.

Tomorrow we will probably get around to doing some more scouting to see what work needs to be done to make a parking space for our RV.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 14th - Lydia Photos

Kathy's Dad told her that there were not enough photos of Lydia on the Internet so  here are some.

This was the night of her first picnic. The excitement wore here out.

 Relaxing at home.

 She wore this outfit, with out the flower, today at the furniture store. Her shirt says GRAM is my BFF (best friend forever).

 With Grammy.

June 14th - Breakfast & Shopping

This morning we walked over to Dudley's for breakfast. It is a half mile over there so we didn't have to feel guilty about eating big breakfasts <grin>.

I had an 8 oz ham steak (it had to be at least 10 oz) with two eggs, hash browns and toast. Kathy had a chicken fried steak, two eggs, hash browns and toast.

On the walk over we noticed people working on the ball fields in the park where our motorhome is parked. On the way back we saw a guy spraying the outfield grass. We watched for awhile to try and figure out what he was doing. He was painting the grass green! He was using a small boom sprayer, maybe 6-8' wide, and he was actually spraying something on the grass to make it look greener. When we left to come out to Kelsey's later in the day you could see a huge difference between where he had sprayed and where he had not. Where he had sprayed looked like fresh, green, healthy grass. Where he had not sprayed it looked like my yard used to during the hot summer months. All of it looked that way before he sprayed.

After breakfast we went to look at four wheelers. We wanted to get an idea of what kind we might want. We don't know that we actually want one. After that we went to a local hardware store to look around. We then found the Tractor Supply store and visited it. There was a furniture store next to Tractor Supply so we also had to check it out. After all that we met Kelsey and Lydia at another furniture store, it must have covered at least 40 acres <grin> and looked at stuff there. The ladies shopped while I strolled Lydia.

After all that shopping it was off to the grocery store, a fill up at the gas station and then back to the motorhome. I layed down for awhile but Kathy was up doing something.

We are now out at Kelsey and Andy's. We moved the livng room furniture to the other side of the room and then finished shampooing the living room carpet. Kelsey is cooking supper, something on the grill. Andy is putting heated seats in a car and won't be home until late.

Good evening to all. May God bless you and yours.

June 13th - Carpet Cleaning

Today we cleaned carpets. Doug left his "carpet cleaner" out here and we put it to good use. Kathy did Kelsey's dining room carpet and then I did half of her living room carpet. We could only do half of the living room because we didn't want to have to move all the furniture out of the living room.

After practicing at Kelsey's <grin> we come home and cleaned the carpets in our motorhome.

The weather was nice today. High in the mid 80's with lows last night in the mid 50's. Just about perfect. It is supposed to getter into the low 90's by the end of the week. I'm not looking forward to that.

Supper tonight

Pork steaks, fresh sweet corn and watermelon. The restaurant food has been good here, but nothing could beat this meal.

Good night to all. May God bless you and yours.

June 12th AM - Tree Trimming Today

Yesterday we all (Doug, Andy, Kelsey, Lydia and Kathy & I) went to Scribners, a little restaurant in the back of an antique shop in Russellville for breakfast. The place was opened just before we went out to enclose Kelsey's carport, way back. I think that Ed Ott and I were the first ones to check it out, for breakfast.

Kelsey, Andy & Lydia went for Lydia's first checkup (everything was fine) and Doug, Kathy & I did more appliance looking. We had lunch at Freddie's, a place Doug had run across during one if his earlier trips out here. It is a fast food hamburger place. The food was good and we will eat there again.

In the late afternoon Doug headed back to Indy. He arrived home a little after 10 last night.

Kelsey, Andy & Lydia came over to the campground for steaks on the grill. It was Lydia's first picnic.

I bet Kelsey has better photos on Facebook.
After eating we took a walk around the  park. It is such a nice place.

Today we are headed to our house to start tree trimming along the driveway. It is going to take a fair amount of trimming before will be able to get our motorhome back to the house and barn. The good news is that the temps are only supposed to be in the low/mid 80's, instead of the high 80's like they have been. We need to get it done now because by the end of the week the temps will be back up in the high 80's.

Better get my breakfast finished and get at it. Good day to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 10th - Sunday

This morning we went to church at Solid Rock Family Church. It is just down the road from the campground. They have two services on Sunday, one at 9 and another at 11. We went to the 11 AM service. It let out around 12:30. The place was 90-95% full, and it is fairly large. The diversity of the worshippers made it quite an interesting congregation. Before the service started a lady and her husband stopped. She told us that they had helped build the current facility 22 years ago. They were probably in their 80's. They were probably the oldest people we saw but there were people of all ages attending the service. Most were probably less than mid-40's. The contemporary music was LOUD. If we go back I will take ear plugs. With a set of ear plugs I think I might even be able to make out the lyrics. Not my taste in music but it was certainly popular with others, and that is what is important. The meat of the message was good, although the shouting delivery was not my preference.

We had a good lunch at a local restaurant and then made a trip to a grocery store and also stopped at Sears to look at appliances again. The Hyvee grocery may be my favorite store ever. I like Campbell's Beef Noodle soup and we have looked for it all over the country, without success. I also like Popeye spinach, I eat it cold right out of the can, and it is also something that we have been unable to find. Hyvee had both!

This afternoon we went to Andy & Kelseys. Doug arrived from Indy around 5:30 and got to see his granddaughter for the first time. We had brats and Kathy's famous potato salad for supper. Doug stopped on his way through Illinois and bought a couple of pies from Neimergs, for desert.

After supper we went over to our house and unloaded the stuff Doug brought, part of the things we had stored at his house. He alos brough out some yard tools for us to borrow until we get to TN to get the stuff we have stored there.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 9th AM - Not Much Activity

Not a lot going on here right now. We are getting acclimatized to the warm/hot weather. Todays high is supposed to be 90 with a low of 67 tonight. Where we are parked at Binder Lake we have some shade. We haven't had to run the AC at all so far but that is probably going to change today. Fortunately we have a 50 amp electrical connection so we can easily run both AC units, as well as any other electrical appliances.

We have extended our reservation at Binder Lake until June 20th. Hopefully by that time we will be close to being able to move our motorhome to our house. We don't have a sewer connection but should have a good electrical connection so we can run the air and sleep in the motorhome, in case we haven't bought new bedroom funiture by then.

Yesterday we did some appliance shopping and I started checking out metal roofs. Our shingle roof is on its last legs, which we knew when we bought the place. Kathy thinks she would like the looks of a metal roof and with our setting back in the woods, I also think it would look nice. Andy told me that Butch, his brother, just put a metal roof on his home. I will have to check with him (Butch) to find out where he got the material, and maybe get some installation tips. We don't have to do it until next year, or maybe even the year after, but we might as well just get it done.

We are probably going to have to do some countertop and cabinet modifications for the stove. It appears that Carl had their range in place and built the cabinets and countertop to fit TIGHT against the range. The opening is as much as a half inch narrower than some of the ranges we looked at. Fortunately there is plenty of room between the cabinet units. The problem is where the countertop overhangs the edge of the cabinet, which was done to make a nice tight fit with their stove. I'm sure I can figure out a reasonable way to trim the cabinet fascia piece but am not sure how to trim the countertop and backsplash. The countertop is one piece around a corner and has the sink in it. Removing it, for trimming, does not appear to be an option.

We met the neighbors who live in one of the houses out by the road where we turn back to go back to our house. Carl and Diane Cary (not sure of the spelling). Carl works part time at Lowes. We stopped and visited with them for a while yesterday evening. They seem like a nice couple, about our age.

There are things that we could be doing at our home, while Carl and April continue moving out (they are not living there now) but most of my "stuff" is in Tennessee. I need to do some substantial trimming to be able to get the motorhome down the driveway. Some small trees need to be removed and a lot of branches need to be trimmed back. Since my chain saw is in TN I may try using my recip saw to cut down the small trees. I bought a pole saw at Lowe's but think it is going to be a piece of junk that I will take back. I tried it out at the campground and it wouldn't even cut through a 3/4" limb, even though it claims to be good for limbs up to 1". The one we bought from OSH (Orchard Supply and Hardware) to use at Drew's place was far, far better. The one from OSH was only a few dollars more. The one I have in TN is also far, far better.

After my second trip down the drive to look at the house I think we can get the motorhome down the drive, after the trimming, without having to do a bunch of fill and re-grading. The drive goes down a steep hill, then levels off for a very short distance, and then goes back up a very steep hill. During my first trip back to the house I  thought we might have to have three or four tandem axle dump truck loads of fill brought in to make the "flat spot" longer so we didn't drag bottom in the back when we made the downhill/uphill transitions. Once we get back to the house/barn I'm still not sure where we are going to park it. I will probably have to do some regrading to make a reasonably level place to park it near enough to the barn for an electrical connection.

Doug is coming out today and bringing with him some of the stuff we have been storing at his house in Indy. He and Anthony are going to make another trip out here on the 18th. On the 18th they will drive both my pickup, loaded with the rest of the stuff they were storing for us, and their car. They will leave my truck.

Our tentative plans are to pack Andy, Kelsey & Lydia into the motorhome with us the first week of July and head for Indy. (We will also follow the motorhome with my pickup) Plans are to go up to Coldwater to see my Mom and whatever family is available. Then we will head for TN to see Kathy's Dad and her brother and his family. We will rent a couple of U-Haul trailers in TN and put one behind the motorhome and one behind my pickup. Hopefully with two U-Haul trailers and my truck we will be able to get all our stuff from TN in one trip.

We are at Andy & Kelsey's this morning. Kathy is doing (helping) Kelsey with some cleaning. Andy is painting some exterior trim and I'm loafing on the computer.

It is REALLY dry here. Andy & Kelsey's grass is crunchy when you walk on it.

That is enough of a book for now.

Good day to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 7th - LYDIA ARRIVES!

Our great-granddaughter arrived around noon today. Baby Lydia, Mom Kelsey and Dad Andy are all fine.

We went out to our new home today. This is the first time I've seen it. It has the potential to be a beautiful place, but it is going to take a LOT of sweat before the grounds get close to their potential.

This is the largest of the outbuildings. Carl's, the previous owner, woodworking business was located in this building.

We planted the rhubarb we brought from Elaine's. It looks pretty sad right now.

This rabbit watched us while we planted the rhubarb. Carl & April used to raise rabbits. Some of them escaped. They think this is the last one still around. It was no more than 10' from us while we planted the rhubarb. Carl walked up to within about 3' from it before it took off.

We have closed on the house but we don't take possession until June 23rd. Carl and April have already moved to their new house but they, especially Carl, have a lot of moving to do. I feel a little sorry for Carl. He has to be worn out. He has already done a lot of moving and still has a long ways to go.

We went back to the hospital tonight and visited more with Kelsey, Andy and Lydia. Everyone is still doing fine.

God has been so good to us.
First - Kelsey and Lydia are healthy.
Second - Lydia was due June 16th. When we left Twin Rocks camp in Oregon we planned on not arriving here until then. We didn't make an effort to hurry, but ended up arriving here last night. Lydia arrived around noon.
Third - We did not make reservations at the only convenient local campground. (In our 11 months of travelling we have never had a problem staying at the first place we tried.) When we checked in last night we were told that the campground was sold out Thursday through Saturday and that we would have to move out by 11 AM. It would be a bother, but we figured we could move to Kelsey and Andy's driveway for those three nights and then return here for Sunday night. Early this morning the campground host came and told us that one of the campers left (actually he was ejected) during the night so we no longer needed to move.

The above things are only the ones of which we are aware.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 6th - Missouri

Today we drove from Elaine's in Collins, Iowa to Binder Lake Park in Jefferson City, Missouri. It was about a 280 mile drive. The roads were good, with a few minor exceptions, and traffic was light. We arrived here around 5:30 PM. We filled up with fuel at a BP station in Macon, Missouri, $3.599/gallon. With the exception of one place that was the cheapest price we saw for diesel. Later we saw what we think was diesel advertised for $3.469. Most stations had diesel priced between $3.649 and $3.759/gallon.

We had checked this park/campground out when we were previously in the area. It is a nice little campground and a good deal for only $15/night. The good news is that we are here. The bad news is that every camp site is reserved starting tomorrow, so we won't be able to stay here as we had planned, unless someone cancels. The reservations people had already gone home for the day before we arrived so we will call them in the morning to better determine our options. I'm sure we can always park in Andy & Kelsey's driveway, as we did the entire month of November. The nice thing about staying here is that we are connected to "sewer" and don't have to worry about filling/emptying our grey/black water tanks.

We are "tucked" in with trees on all sides. Down the hill behind us, through the trees, is the main entry road and beyond the road is a large recreation area. When we were out sitting behind the RV earlier we could hear the crack of bats and cheering at a ball game that was occurring in the recreation area. Listening to the kids hollering was quite enjoyable.

Today's high we in the mid 80's and the low tonight is forecast to be 57.

Tomorrow we plant the rhubarb we dug up at Elaine's and we will probably do some tree trimming along the drive back to our property. Doug and Kathy both thought we would need to do some significant trimming before tying to drive the motorhome back to the house. It is late to be planting tomatoes but I bet, if we can still find some plants, that Kathy will also want to get at least a couple of tomato plants in the ground at the new house.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 5th - Iowa

This morning, after breakfasting on some really good egg casserole at Elaine's, we headed out for the day.
First stop was to see Marvin Senter, another good friend from our days in Maxwell. We had a good time renewing acquaintances. We had not seen Marvin for 32 years.
After our visit with Marvin we drove by what had been our home in Maxwell. We had 29 acres, all inside the town limits. It was interesting to see that parts of the 29 acres had been sold off and to see the newer homes on what had been alfalfa fields while we lived their.
We then went to West Des Moines to shop at a Costco. Once we get to Centertown, Missouri the closest Costco will be in St. Louis, a two and one half hour drive. It was interesting to see all the growth around Des Moines.
We headed to downtown Des Moines for lunch. I remembered eating at the Spaghetti Works while working in Des Moines, and it is still there. We had a delightful, and inexpensive, lunch.

Des Moines is a beautiful and interesting city. I had forgotten about the Living History Farm, the Botanical Garden, the downtown skywalks, etc. The restaurant was blocks away from the capitol. I took a photo of it on our way back out of town.

 Kathy and Elaine are off visiting Elaine's Mom and another friend. I am on my own for the evening.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 4th - Parked at Elaine's in Collins

Yesterday we "veg'd" at the park in Adrian, MN. It was a beautiful day and we just sat around and enjoyed the day. Actually we did do some "people watching" as many of the groups packed up and headed out. By then end of the day there were very few left in the area where we were parked.

Today we drove to Collins, Iowa. It is only a few miles from where we lived in Maxwell, Iowa; from 1977-80. We are parked at Elaine Anderson's house. She was one of our good friends while we were out here (that doesn't sound quite right, she is, and always will be, one of our good friends). She and her husband Max came to visit us when we lived in Niantic, Illinois, around 20 years ago and that was the last time we saw one another. It is so good to renew acquaintances with friends.

Current plans are to stay here a few days and to then head for central Missouri.

We drove around 280 miles today. It is about another 300 miles to our new home in Missouri.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 2nd - Adrian, Minnesota

We got up this morning and went to the Mitchell Corn Palace. It was worth seeing. It is amazing what people will do to drum up some tourism. According to the story the reason for starting the Corn Palace was to lure people to the area by showing them that corn was a viable crop in South Dakota. By the way, we never saw any corn west of the Missouri River, in South Dakota. As soon as we crossed the river we started seeing corn fields.
http://www.cornpalace.org/

All the ornamentation that you see is an agri-product, mostly corn although rye grass was one of the other things mentioned. The "balls" and towers appear to be of standard construction. The building exterior is completely redone in a new scene every fall. It takes about 200 acres of local crop land to grow the materials used.

 One of the murals on the inside of the auditorium.

 Zoomed in on the cowboy. You can begin to see the different colored ears of corn.

Zoomed in on the horses head.

 The above mural is at the far left of the auditorium.

 Kathy posing.

 After the Corn Palace we went back out to the Interstate. I had never been to a Cabela's sporting goods store and there was one at the exit we used so Kathy dropped me off and she went to a Walmart in the same area to buy some groceries. The Cabela's was nice but after seeing all the wildlife at the museums we have been at recently it was a little of a let down. The certainly do a have a LOT of stuff. It was interesting. $3,000 for a 9.9 hp boat motor. I was stunned. $16,000 sale price for a place old used fishing boat out front. It had a 115 hp motor and another much smaller one. People must be nuts! Tell me again how many people are not keeping up with their mortgage payments.

After Cabela's/Walmart we went back to the campground, packed up and headed for Minnesota. We stopped at a rest area and Kathy heated up some hot dogs and we finished off the potato salad she made the other day.

We arrived in Adrian during the mid-afternoon. We would have went further but this campground looked like the best deal around, by far. The campground is in the city park. There is room for over one hundred units here. They have anything from tent space to full hook ups with 50 amp electric. I think our site with full hook up, WiFi, cable TV and 50 amp service is $26/night, including tax. There is also a very nice pool. It has water in it and looks inviting but they are still balancing the chemicals. It probably won't be open tomorrow.

At supper time we walked a couple of blocks to a steakhouse Kathy had spotted on the way in. This place is really big inside and can seat hundreds.

 Yes, my prime rib was as good as it looked. A trip to the soup/salad bar was part of the meal. This was only supposed to be a 12 oz piece of meat but it had to be larger. I brought the yeast roll and a piece of the prime rib home with me for a snack. Three hours later and I'm still far to full to want a snack.

Kathy had a fish platter with broiled walleye and some other types of fish/seafood. She said it was excellent. She also had a bowl of soup which she said was also quite good.

We walked back to the campground and spent over an hour sitting outside. There are quite a few people here. It reminds me of one of my favorite movies, Doc Hollywood. There are numerous kids, of all ages, walking, or riding bikes, up and down the gravel drives around the campground. Diagonally across from us a guy is playing a bean bag game, Kathy said it is called cornhole, with his son while another guy is cooking something for all of them on a grill. Next to us, opposite the side we set on, is another family. It appears that Grandpa and Gramma rode their Harley to the campground to spend the day with them. The Harley fired up about a half hour ago and the older couple left on it.

This is a nice place. We plan on staying here two nights and heading for central Iowa Monday morning.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.

June 1st - Out of the Badlands

Today we left the Badlands National Park. It was so nice again today that we almost stayed another day/night. This was the edge of the road on the way out of the park. I almost didn't get this photo snapped. Over the edge of the road is at least a 50' drop. The road has started to "slide" down the hill.

We stopped at the 1880 Town near mile marker 170 on I-90. I was apprehensive about it being a tourist trap but I wanted to check it out. Look at the beautiful sky. I could have taken dozens of photos of just the sky today.

 The 14 sided barn is the entry to the "town". It also contains many artifacts on two different levels. Note the train cars to the left.

 Before actually paying to go into the town we decided to try out the diner. It is actually the kitchen car and a string of dining cars. You get to walk through the kitchen car on your way back into the dining cars. Today's special was hot beef sandwiches (Beef Manhattans). We both had one. They were excellent!

 This is the view of the town from the other side of the barn. I actually took the photo below on the way out. But note the sky in all the photos. After we had entered we were not in the town 15 minutes before it started raining, HARD. The was parked on the other side of the highway, which was over a good, long block from the entry "barn". I wanted to see the rest of the town so I ran out to the RV and got raincoats. I was WET by the time I got to the door of the RV. As I was fumbling in my pocket for the keys the rain stopped. By the time I returned, back through the entry barn (I walked back <grin>) the sky had cleared and was beautiful again. I wished I had a video showing a fat old guy (me) running through the rain.

Below is the 1880 farmstead. It is about a quarter mile from the back of the church that you see in the above photo.

 This is the first windmill I ever saw with this type of wood vanes.

 Kathy only walked part of the way up to the  homestead. This was a swing. It was not attached to the wheels. Above the wheels was the axle, between two support posts. The swing was hung from the axle.

 Looking back down at the town from the swing area.

 The south side of the street.

 The north side of the street.

 The school.

There was far to much to photograph. It was well worth the $8/person entry.
As we continued on east we drove back into the rain.

 Kathy was getting tired of driving, especially with all the hard rain and we stopped at the rest area on the east side of the Missouri River. We no more than got the RV stopped and the rain stopped. You are supposed to be able to see 7.5 miles from this point.

 It rained some more after we left the rest area, but never as hard as it did prior to stopping. We were blessed to be able to see this rainbow for miles. Sometimes only parts of it were visible, sometimes we could see parts of a second rainbow.

Tonight we are at a campground in Mitchell, SD. Mitchell is the home of the Corn Palace. We don't know exactly what that is but tomorrow we will find out.

We had read about the broasted chicken served at one of the restaurants at this exit. It isn't really a restaurant but more like a fast food place in a gas station. It is very close to where we are parked and so we walked up and bought 4 chicken breast. We had no idea how large they might be or even if we would like them. They cooked us four fresh ones while we waited, in some type of pressure cooker, deep fryer. It cost less than $6 for four large breasts. We brought them back to the RV so that we could eat them with some of the potato salad Kathy made the other day. I liked them (and I don't usually like chicken) and Kathy thought they were very good.

Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.