Cancelled Camping Trip

Weather has been beautiful here the past several days. Our yard is still soft from all the rain but it is drying out.

Several months ago I watched a TV show that featured Lebanon, MO. It looked like an interesting place to spend a few day. It is about a 2 hour drive from here, pulling the travel trailer. Last Friday I made reservations for a campsite at the state park very near Lebanon for Tuesday & Wednesday nights this week. We have the trailer ready to go except for hauling out some food and clothes.

Early last we I received an email, part of a mass emailing to all people who are certified in at least one of the Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief disciplines. It mentioned 4 sites across southern Missouri and 2 in St Louis where DR (Disaster Relief) would be sending work teams. One of the requests was for "runners" to haul supplies down to the teams. I replied that I would be willing to do that, before making the camping reservations. I didn't get a reply so I figured they had all the "runners" they needed. This morning as I was finishing readying the trailer I received an email saying they needed "runners" as soon as possible. If some could come this morning it would be great.

I took a shower, put on clean clothes and about noon I called them to see if they still needed help. They did so I told them I would take a load somewhere. I ended up taking a load to Van Buren, Missouri. I hauling bottled water, Gatorade, throw away coveralls, gloves and ShockWave (after places are "mudded out" and the wet wallboard, carpet, etc. is removed, they spray the area with ShockWave to kill any mold). It was a 390 mile round trip.

Kathy and I volunteered at a camp in southeast Missouri in Nov 2011. We did some sightseeing while we were down there and Van Buren was one of the places we visited. We had lunch their and got an ice cream cone from a small ice cream shop. Most of the outside mud had been cleanup up but from what I was told it was almost impossible to believe that the river had flooded so much of the town. The Disaster Relief guy I visited with while we were unloading said that many of the owners of small businesses in the little town had said they would not reopen their business. Sad.

It was a nice day for a drive, and the scenery was beautiful. Hwy 19 between Salem & Eminence is a 45 mile BEAST!  The two lane pavement is not bad but I don't think there is one 1 mile stretch in the entire 45 miles that doesn't have a curve. Quite a few with posted speeds of 30 mph and MANY with posted speeds of 40 mph. There is even a bridge, maybe 150 yards long, that is only one lane. Not because of construction, it is just to narrow for two modern day vehicles. No flashing lights, no stop lights, just a sign that says one lane bridge ahead. You come around a corner and you hardly have time to stop if there is a car/truck already on the bridge coming toward you.

Kathy had Nolan today or she would have went with me. We decided to cancel our camping trip (30% chance of rain Wed & 60% chance Thru) and do some more "running". We pick up another load between 7:30 & 8:00 tomorrow morning. We won't know the destination until we are loading. We could get sent to Neosho, MO which is over 210 miles from here, down in the southwest corner of MO, almost to Oklahoma and Arkansas. Or we might get sent to Doniphan, MO, which is about the same distance but down in the southeast corner of the state. Or maybe West Plains, MO which is straight south of us about 180 miles, just a few miles from Arkansas.

Nolan checking out the kitchen.

The Hollywood Starlet having breakfast with Papa last Saturday. She had a cheeseburger & fries for breakfast.

Then is was on to the park. California has a wonderful city park with asphalt walking paths and lots of playground equipment around the perimeter of the lake. (It was a little muddy, but we had a good time.) Lydia checked out the lion.

She tried her hand at the balance table. The squares that cover the ground look like concrete but they are thick rubber.

Then it was on to the stepping stones. The first time she stepped from one to the other then she decided to crawl from one to the other.

And finally she climbed the wall.

She made it to the top OK but then got a little scared and called for me to come get her down. I "talked her down" and she did just fine. But I could see it was really hard for her to see where she could find places for her feet on the way down.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

More Rain

Over 2" more rain today and it is still raining. We are far past the point of this rain doing us any good. The ground is saturated and it is all of it is running into waterways.

Yesterday I mowed our lawn. It was to wet to mow but it was the driest it will be until maybe Saturday.

I purged the "cherry juice" (RV antifreeze) from the water lines in our travel trailer and "sanitized" the water system by filling it with water containing 50 ppm chlorine, leaving the solution in the lines for 4 hours and then flushing the system with fresh water. I still need to check the tires (1 may be low), and make sure the hot water heater, furnace/AC, stove, etc. are all OK after the winter.

Lydia & Nolan got a kick out of a small squirrel that came up on the deck eating bird seed. The squirrels are a real nuisance. So far I've killed 4 and Andy has killed one shooting them with my pellet gun, standing in the house and shooting out the door in the photo.

Yesterday evening I fired up our wood fired boiler. The overnight "low" was 58 and it has now dropped to 50. Tonight's low is supposed to be 45 with tomorrow's high/low forecast at 60/51. The boiler also preheats our hot water. Our heat pump is very efficient at these temperatures but no matter how efficient it is it can't compete with the dollars worth of gas I burned cutting the wood that will fuel the boiler for several days.

This morning was our Men's Fellowship breakfast and Bible study. One of the guys told about a dairy farmer in southwest Missouri who had 32 cows killed by lightening. The story is at:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lightning-kills-32-dairy-cows/
I don't remember ever hearing about cows being killed by lightening but I guess it isn't all that uncommon.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.

I'm Still Alive

Though some of you might think I had kicked the bucket because I haven't posted anything for a long time. We have been traveling.

On Thursday, April 20th we drove to my Mom's in Coldwater, Michigan. Sunday, April 23rd we drove to our place in Crossville, Tennessee. Then on Thursday, April 27th we drove back to Centertown, Missouri.

On Friday night we went to the Moose Lodge in Fremont, Indiana for fish. It is always good but that night it was awesome. People in the photo are Kathy (my brothers wife), my Mom, Kathy, Cindy and Nancy (Kathy's sisters), Ed (Cindy's husband), Doug (our son), Anthony (Doug's husband) & David (my brother).

Before leaving the Moose Cindy handed out a bunch of her famous cookies and I got a bunch of her tomato juice hootch.

Chasen & Colton, David's grandsons, certainly enjoy Cindy's cookies. So does Ashton, his other grandson, but I didn't manage to get a photo of him.

 

After setting in Mom's barn for 17 years David got his Chevelle out last fall and now has it back on the road.

We enjoyed having a chance to catch up with Tom (Kathy's brother) and Mary Lou (his wife) while in Tennessee. Kathy took the photo below out one of our cabin windows.

On the way back from Tennessee we stopped for lunch at a Southwest Grill. I don't think I had eaten at one before. Lunch was excellent, and while not cheap it was a good value. Dinner/supper prices looked a little high (I'm cheap) but the prices on their lunch menu were reasonable.

Friday through Sunday we got 6.75" of rain at our place in Missouri. We needed rain, but not that much that fast. Our pond needed water it was at least a foot below the bottom of the overflow pipe Friday morning but it was overflowing by Sunday PM.

Water flowing through the overflow pipe and over the spillway/path.

And running down to a pond on a neighbors property. When its full this pond comes almost to our property line.

Water flowing under our driveway feeding our pond. The pond also gets fed from runoff from the other side of the house.

Happy Easter

Hope you all had a good Easter Sunday service this morning.

I said I would add some photos once I got back to MO. Here they are.

It was Lydia's turn to pick where we she had breakfast with Papa Bert on April 1. She picked McDonalds. She did eat most of her breakfast but she was much more interested in the play area.

Stopped for a quick bite to eat on the way to Gulf Shores.

We stayed in a nice, fully furnished, 3 bedroom, 2 bath beachhouse about 14 miles west of Gulf Shores. All you had to bring with you was your clothes and food. The living room and every bedroom had a wall mounted TV.

The kids in the pool. I don't think there were ever more than 5 other people in the pool. There are probably a LOT more there once the weather warms up. Daytime highs were low to high 70's. We might have hit 80 on 2 days. It was mostly sunny every day.

 

The beach was withing walking distance but we drove to it more often than we walked. I took this one of the nights the kids were "crabbing". The lights are 17 oil platforms out in the Gulf. The bright lights on the left are a platform that is so close to shore that you can almost count the different floor levels.

This was the line waiting to get into the seating along the airfield so that we could watch the Blue Angels practice. There were a lot of people in line behind us. Once the gate was opened the line moved fast.

Once we got back to Gulf Shores we had a late lunch at a seafood place then walked down the "boardwalk" for ice cream. Lydia is in the Batmobile, down the Boardwalk on the left.

She had to drive with one had because she was still eating her ice cream cone.

Nolan thought it looked like fun.

 

So he climbed in.

They also did some alligator riding.

Breakfast with Papa Bert yesterday.

And then some time at the park in California, MO.

God is good, may He bless you & yours.

Leaving Gulf Shores in the Morning

Tomorrow we head back to Missouri. The weather has been great, a little to hot for me but just warm enough for Kathy & the kids to be able to enjoy the pool.
Sunday night & tonight we went "crabbing" on the beach. The first night  the largest one they caught was about the size of a silver dollar, tonight Andy netted several that were almost plam size. They chased them across the sand, catching them in small hooped nets with handles. The crabs were amazingly fast. Watching Lydia chase & net one was a riot. I was the keeper of the crab bucket. All crabs were released before we left the beach.
Today we went to Pennsacola, Florida to the Naval Aircraft Museum. We spent a brief amout of time in the museum because we wanted to see the Blue Angels practice, We got a bonus because today the French Aircrat Aerobatic team was at thr airbase & they also did a show.
I will post some photos once we are back in Missouri, it is a pain to do it using my tablet instead of a computer.
God is good, may He bless you & yours,

Arrived Safe & Reasonably Sound, after 900 miles in day & half

We got to the rental office about 4:45 yesterday, to pick up keys. Then it was on to the beach house. It is about 15 miles west of Gulf Shores, on Fort Morgan road. We are prob as only only about 5 miles from Fort Morgan.
The beach house is in a rental complex. We are in a nice 3 bedroom 2 bath unit. The units are fully furnished.

After a breakfast of eggs, sausage, toast, juice & coffee everyone one but me is down at the pool. I walked down with them & stayed for a few minutes before heading back to the house.

This is the first time I've done a blog post using my phone. It's not as easy as with my laptop but it appears doable. Didn't want to bother with laptop. God is good, may He bless you & yours.

April 6th - Leaving for Alabama

This afternoon, after Lydia gets out of dance class we (Kelsey, Andy, Lydia, Nolan, Kathy & I) leave for a week at Gulf Shores Alabama.

We have finally received enough rain that we are starting to get some runoff, at least at our house. The water level in our pond is raising faster than the amount of rainfall we are receiving. The level is still nearly a foot below the overflow pipe. With only a 50% chance of rain one day out of the next ten there isn't much danger of it overflowing in the near future.

Temperature was in the low 40's last night and is supposed to be in the high 30's tonight. After than only 2 nights out of the next 10 with overnight lows as low as the high 40's. It is time to finally retire the outdoor wood boiler for the season. I will leave a fire in it when we leave this afternoon but unplug the forced draft combustion fan. It will simmer for awhile but eventually go out because it won't get enough oxygen to support continued combustion.

Anthony was here Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning. He taught a class in the St. Louis area on Wednesday so he took the opportunity to come for a visit. It was good to see him.

Not much news from here.

God is good, may He bless you and yours.