Still at Fairgrounds, Not Quite as Hot

 It is cooling down a little. Yesterday's high was 90 and todays was only 89. Lows are still above 70.

Yesterday Kathy and I had lunch at the Ponderosa in Coldwater. She liked her food, mine was edible. In the afternoon I picked up Mom. We drove around for several hours and then stopped at the RV for supper.

This morning Kathy picked Mom up and took her to her weekly hair appointment. I picked Mom up and we did another several hours of driving around. Mom and I had lunch at a local restaurant I normally like but today both our meals weren't good. I took Mom back home after lunch and came back to the RV for a nap. Kathy was busy doing Mom's and our laundry. In the late afternoon I got Mom and we had supper in the RV.

We had entertainment both of the last two evenings as the 4H girls were out in the arena with their horses. They arrive at 6PM and leave about 7:30PM.

I took the photos below through the windshield of our RV.

After the show ended I took Mom home.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.

Still at the Fairgrounds and Still HOT!

 The "feels like" temperature hit 104 degrees both Saturday and Sunday. The actual highs/lows were 91/76 and 92/73.  Monday the "feels like" temperature hit 101 degrees, while the actuals were 92/75. Today (Tuesday) I didn't check the "feels like" temperature, the actual high was 91 degrees. Last nights low was 77 degrees. The average high/lows for Coldwater this time of year are 80/58. The rest of our stay here the highs are supposed to be in the high 80's and the lows in the low 70's. There is also a significant chance of rain every day.

In order to distract Mom from her constant rounds of repeated questions we drive her around some to distract her. Yesterday we drove through a huge solar farm that is under construction near where her brother used to live. Where complete the "farm" is supposed to encompass 1,500 acres. Close to 1,000 acres of it look like it could be in service. 

Mom has had a Culligan water dispenser for at least 3 years, one that uses 5 gallon jugs for a supply and dispenses both hot and cold water. Mom, and my  grandmother before her, drink a lot of coffee. (I think to get around the nasty taste of the well water.) Kathy had shown Mom how to use the hot water dispenser to make instant coffee, after we realized that Mom could no longer remember how to use a standard coffee maker. A lady from the Senior Center, she comes out and spends several hours with Mom one day a week, mentioned to me that the hot water heating part of the dispenser had failed. Mom rents it from Culligan. I called them and they said they would swap it out when they next came out (they also keep her water softener filled with salt) or I could bring it in and swap it. I put a full bottle on the new one and plugged it in yesterday morning. Later in the day I checked it. The cold water dispenser was fine the second tap only dispensed room temperature, not hot, water. I called Culligan and they tried to tell me that Mom's old unit never dispensed hot water. They needed to charge more for one that dispensed hot water. I will talk to my brother when he gets back and we will probably just buy a unit that dispenses both hot and cold water.

Kathy took Mom to Edon, Ohio this afternoon for a fund raising dinner at a church one of her sisters attends. Two of Kathy's sisters put on a monthly(?) dinner and the proceeds go for Missions. I think I have a touch of food poisoning and I'm staying home.

With the high temperatures staying in the upper 80's and the lows staying in the 70's we will stay at the Fairgrounds and not move the coach back to Mom's. Hopefully we will head back to Missouri Sunday.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He had blessed me.

In Michigan for a couple of Weeks

 If you drove down Route 50 and saw that our coach is missing, and are checking my blog….

My brother, who lives just down the road from our mother, in rural Michigan, watches over her. He goes to her house: puts drops in her eyes morning and evening, gives her the few meds that she takes, and takes her meals. He, his wife and their youngest grandson wanted to take a two week vacation to see the sights around Yellowstone. We volunteered to “Mom sit” while they were gone.

At 9AM Tuesday, June 10^th we left home and started making our way to Michigan. We planned on taking 3 days to drive the 570 miles. We decided to go “cross country”, thru Louisiana, MO, Springfield, IL, Lafayette, IN. I drove the first 200 miles, which was unusual because Kathy normally does the driving. Kathy took over driving and I started searching for a campground with a pull-thru spot for the night, I couldn’t find one. At 9PM, after 445 miles, we pulled into a Walmart parking lot in Wabash, IN and spent the night. It was a surprise that we couldn’t find one campground we could fit in along that many miles. On Wednesday we continued on the Branch County Fairgrounds in Coldwater, MI. Mom, and my brother live 7 miles south of the Fairgrounds. We stayed at the Fairgrounds overnight so that we could dump our waste tanks and fill up our fresh water tank.

Below is a photo of us parked at the Fairgrounds last year. $30/night for a full hook up. Other than fair time, the first two weeks of August, it is pretty empty.

On Thursday we drove out to Mom’s and parked out back, by the pond. Her parents lived on this farmstead when Mom was born in 1928, it has been in the family a long time. My brother David lives a quarter mile down the road, on the farmstead where my paternal great-grandmother lived most of her adult life, she was born in 1889. David moved into the farm house in 1987, shortly after our great-grandmother died.

Below is a photo of us parked at Mom’s pond last year. 

The water from Mom’s old well is full of iron and tastes NASTY. We used to fill our fresh water tank at Davids but some of his trees have gotten so big that we can’t get down his driveway with our coach. Now we stay the first night at the Fairgrounds, service our tanks and when we get to Mom’s our black tank is empty and our fresh water tank is full. We don’t worry about the grey water tank. I just run a hose over to the field and dump gray water into the field. After 3-4 days I fill a 25 gallon bladder with fresh water, at Davids, and pump it into our fresh water tank. After 5-7 days we go back to the Fairgrounds for an overnight stay and repeat the dumping and filling of tanks.

This year it is really HOT here and today, Saturday, June 21^st, we moved to the Fairgrounds for at least several days. Mom has minimal electricity back at the pond, not even close to enough to run our AC. In the past we have started our generator in the evening so that we could run the AC and cool the coach down for sleeping. This year it is supposed to be HOT for several days. Right now, 3PM Saturday, it is sunny and 89 degrees. The “feels like” temperature is 98 and the dew point in 74. Sunday, Monday & Tuesday are supposed to be just as hot, or even hotter.

One nice thing about parking at Mom’s pond is the wild life. One evening the bean field next to us had 17 deer, multiple turkeys and a couple of sand hill cranes feasting on the soy beans. I took the photo below this morning, thru the coach windshield.

David and family are to return next Saturday. We plan on heading back home on Sunday.

God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.