Merry Christmas!

We are in Topeka and I am watching it snow big fat flakes but it is melting as it comes down...thank goodness.

In preparation of the storm coming last night,we brought the slideout's before we went to bed as last year on Christmas eve it was icy and really snowy which caused our slideout motors to freeze. We want to be prepared this time! It is 35 and not freezing here and should slide by by mid day.

We are meeting Bill's sister and brother-in-law at a Mexican restaurant for lunch along with Jeff and Megan and Erin,Ryan and family. The rest of our day will be spent back here at the RV with Jeff and Megan. We are going to try to go to church but not sure right now. Depends on the weather at the time.

Please say a special prayer of healing for my nephew, Jamie,as his wife passed away from lung cancer on Wed. eve. She really struggled and fought hard to fight the cancer..she is free now....


Bill and I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2011!

Love to all,
Bill and Joyce

We are done!

We finished our job today at Amazon.com! hip hip hurray!!!!

We decided the other day to end our days of working a couple of days early so we could spend some extra time with the kids and grandkids...... can't wait to see them all.

We have been stowing items the past couple of days but this afternoon we were sent to Outbound shipping singles. Which means that we were at a table and had a tote in front of us which held items that were sold. We had to box each item singley and take them to a conveyor belt so the gal could check them in and then send them to another area to be opened up (we only folded the tops in) and then they would fill them with "dunnage"...air bags I call them.... and then on out the door I assume. It was hot and so noisy back there because of all the conveyors and machinery going on. What an afternoon for a final one! They ran out of product to stow this am so everyone was scrambling to find something to do or be told where we were needed. That is what Amazon does.... you finish a job then you are told to go to another area to do a job....sometimes several times per day....it seemed we were chasing each other to an area..... OH well....we are done and we are both very relieved and glad it is over.

We met about 11 of us tonite for dinner at a Mexican restaurant this evening for our "final" dinner together. A group of us had gotten pretty close this season and it was kind of sad to see them go. At break or lunch there was always 6-7 of us eating together. We hope to see them sometime down the road.

So tomorrow morning, we will pack up and head north to Topeka for a few days of family...I'm ready and I hope the week doesn't go fast...but I know it will.

Until next time!
Bj

It is almost time to wind things down here in Coffeyville, Kansas. We are tired and ready to hit the road. I keep hoping they will tell us that they are done with us but no such luck as of right now . We will be finished on Wednesday at the end of our shift.

The work here has been slow and they are sometimes finding things for us to do. Usually we are stowing books or product on shelves. But the other day they had double shifts on Wednesday all day so Bill, I and a couple of other people got sent to "VDF"..we still haven't figured out what that stands for! But we packaged single items to be mailed. Each of the items were in totes that came down on a conveyor belt. We grabbed a tote and entered each item in the computer. Put it in a padded envelope, then added a barcode sticker on the outside of the book "holder" or envelope and sent it on another conveyor to have a mailing address label added then out the door I guess. We did this for 10 hours the other day. The time did go by pretty fast and we both enjoyed it. It was something different anyway.
We were scheduled to have overtime Thursday but they cancelled it so we have had a nice 3 days off.

We plan on leaving Coffeyville Thursday morning for Topeka. We are really looking forward to spending time with the kids. It will be a short time and busy. We are meeting Patty and Cecil for lunch on Friday.

We will have Christmas day dinner with the kids at Erin and Ryan's. They will then to Ryan's family for supper. We will leave Sunday morning to begin our journey to Arizona. Hopefully the weather will remain halfway decent for us to travel without worrying about the weather. The outlook looks fairly good so far.

Do you like our Christmas tree outside made from our satellite stand? Thanks for the great idea Bobbie and Jim! :) I must have left 1 other Christmas tub in Lawrence because I couldn't find some of the things I was looking for...oh well...we had plenty out...

I have been busy making a stuffed monkey doll for Lauren. She loves the story... " Eight Monkey's Jumping on the Bed". This weekend is the first weekend in a few we have had an extra day to get some things done.

We haven't had much moisture since we had the rains several weeks ago. We missed all the ice and such last week...thank goodness as we had our share of frozen water hoses. Our sewer pipe didn't freeze anyway but our hoses did. We are not cut out for the cold weather in our RV's. Everyone at work that we talked to had frozen hoses and some didn't have all season RV's the way ours is. That means no extra insulation for warmth...which means more problems for them.

More RV's are beginning to leave the park. It will be a mass exodus on Thursday morning I'm sure as that is when our contract is done.

So this is what has been happening to us lately.... not much ....just biding our time so we can "get the heck out of Dodge!"....

Until next time!
BJ

We are still alive and well!

I can't believe it has been so long since I have written....the days at work are long and we are so tired at night when we get home we are not online in the evening's very long......

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Megan and Jeff's..... we had the traditional turkey dinner with Megan, Jeff and Jeff's cousin and wife on Thursday. Friday evening Ryan, Erin and kids came over to Megan's for our Thanksgiving dinner...which was an Italian dinner...it was great and we all didn't have to work to hard on it ....we weren't even full of turkey afterward! We did have the desserts they all like though! Pumpkin pie, apple pie and cool whip!

Our hours are long...we get up at 4AM and head to bed about 8PM only to do this again....we started our 5 days last week and maybe will have them this week too.... we have been sent home almost every week so we have not been getting our 40hr. week which has really ticked us off! Something is going on here in Coffeyville and no one is saying much which isn't surprising....we are only trying to just get by with the 14 days to go or when they send us home to say we are finished. Bill and I are looking forward to that time for sure! NO MORE AMAZON.COM!!!! READ MY LIPS!!!!

I told Bill I am getting excited about going to Arizona now and anxious to get there. We still do not have work for next summer and will hopefully soon figure something out...stay tuned!

Well, that is it for this evening..... it is very cold here but we are still wearing short sleeved shirts to work as the plant is very warm inside. We cleaned the other day and put our Christmas stuff up...I guess I left 1 tub in Lawrence as I don't have everything out I had for the RV but that is ok......

Stay warm!
Until next time!
BJ

The wind is really blowing!!!

The wind is really blowing today..... thankfully we do not have alot of dirt and dust flying around here... surprising huh... with all the rock I figured it would be really dusty but it's not here in the RV.

We worked all day on Monday and then Tuesday at lunch they sent us home. We did not have to go back until Sunday as the product just wasn't coming in . We had a nice break but our bodies that were gradually building up didn't stick around to stay!

We worked our short days last week and spent the weekend here. Last Wednesday we figured out we did not have Microsoft Office anymore on our computer. When we bought the laptop last May they told us we would have a 6 mo. free period then we would have to buy a product card to get the 25 digit code... So last Wednesday afternoon we made a quick trip to Joplin, Missouri about 50 miles from here to Best Buy to get one. I installed it when we got home. Joplin is a town that is really growing and their main "drag" has all the stores and restaurants one can want! So they do have a nice shopping area and excellent choice of selection of food. We stopped by a Books -a-Million store and looked around before heading home.

Thursday morning we did some cleaning and laundry so I wouldn't have to do it on Friday!
Friday morning we went to Walmart to get some groceries ...our cupboards looked like mother Hubbard's bare kitchen! I spent the rest of the afternoon cutting out a couple of small projects for our girls' and then sewed them together Friday evening. Saturday afternoon I finished them and quilted them. We went to church Sat. afternoon and then out to eat at the Mexican place we like called "El Pueblito"... it has great Mexican food!

Back to work on Sunday and we were not that busy. Monday I was trained to do stowing at stowing school. Amazon has "updated" their training modules for each department. The area you will work in has a training "school" where they show you the procedures for what you will be doing. It had changed some from last year. No product was coming in at all to receive. Tuesday am was so chaotic... we finished stowing the product and they were literally scrounging for things for us to do instead of sending us home.... then about 10:30 the Receive manager came over and said to send us to receiving! Yea!!! We started receiving and we were busy all day. Wednesday I worked all day in receiving.... product is starting to come and we will be busy from now on I"m sure... Bill is glad he is stowing as he walks around and moves most of the day..not fast but is walking which helps his back and legs. He likes what he is doing..... we see each other at break and lunch... our morning sometimes drags but the afternoon is really broken up with a break and then we go home.... we have lunch from 12:30 to 1PM then 3 is a 15 min. break and then we go home at 4:30...not bad and we like it sooo much better than nights like last year.Our bodies are really handling this so much better..... my feet still hurt.... and my toes that I broke this summer scream at me each night but are quiet in the morning to begin again.... I bought new shoes before we came down here and needed another pr. to change off in so this am we drove to Independence this am so Bill could go to the chiropractor to put his back back in place.... and then we went to Brown's shoes here in Coffeyville to see what they had. I bought a pr. of New Balance that I think I'm really going to like...I have had them on all afternoon and they fill pretty good right now anyway.

We are leaving in the morning for Topeka to watch our grandson's play basketball tomorrow night. We will come back Saturday afternoon. The workkampers are having a social gathering at the Pizza Hut Sat. night so we will be back for that probably.

So until next time!
BJ

Quick weekend

We left Thursday midmorning to head south to Oklahoma City. My sister's house is the "gathering" place for my other sister and brothers this weekend. It has been probably about 2 years since we have all (5) of us have been together. Since we had the time off for the weekend and my other sister and bro-in-law from Alabama were at Texoma fishing, we made some quick plans to meet at her house for the weekend.

It took us about 3 hours to drive to OKC and the traffic wasn't bad until we got to almost downtown Tulsa where they are doing major construction where I-40 and 244 meet. Then it was a little hectic but sailing through it we got on the turnpike and headed west.

It was great seeing my sister again and about 20 min. later my sister and b/l arrived. We sat around for the rest of the afternoon and evening and just visited.... we really didn't do anything much that morning except more visiting and chatting.... After lunch we went to an Antique mall and then made a quick trip through Kohl's. By that time my brother from KC arrived so we went back home. My sister in law stayed home with their dog who had been sick. He looks great as he has had some major health issues lately and is slowing regaining his health.
So we visited some more and then my nephew called his dad to say he was at the Swift terminal and could come over. We hadn't seen him for 5 years since my mother's funeral. More sitting around and chatting ...... it was relaxing and we had a great time!

Saturday morning we all got up and around and of course sat around the kitchen table and visited some more and around 10:30 my brother from Salina arrived. My sister in law stayed home with their sick fish and a new puppy....
So more visiting and catching up on everyone's lives .... lunch time came quickly.... we left around 1:30 and headed back to Coffeyville..... It was a great weekend and passed all too quickly..... we hope to be able to do it again next Oct. but we just aren't sure of our plans yet. No idea right now! The rest left this am.

This morning Bill and I went to church and a stop at Walmart..... we came home and I started laundry and Bill watched football most of the day.... not very exciting but we need to get things ready for tomorrow... Our friends, Jerry and Rita, who we met last year here at Amazon came by to tell us their schedule. It was nice visiting with them.... but was disappointed to learn they will be on nights and a different shift and in shipping...hopefully we will be able to get together sometime during our days off together..... While they were here we received a phone call from Amazon that Bill is to report at 6 and I am to go in at 9 AM. We work until 4:30 each day this week...so far! Guess the product is going to Phoenix as they are opening a new site and it's going there while Campbellsville, Kentucky and us are waiting to go...... stay tuned!

That's about it for now.....
Take care!
Until next time!
BJ

Survived our first "week"

Last Saturday was the type of day I really really get "stir-crazy".... we didn't do anything all day and it seemed I walked all the floors several times that day! It was cloudy and cool and we really didn't visit with anyone all day.

Sunday, I made a big lunch of chicken and noodles. We had our Meet and Greet Social at the Amazon plant from 2-4PM. It only took us about 7 minutes to get there! Our schedule will be Shift 1- days----YEA !!!! Sunday to Wednesday with Thursday's being our "overtime" day. We were to only work 1/2 days this week and then beginning next Sunday we would go our full 40 hours. We both were relieved that we would be working days as we decided we would rather be on days than nights. Later we ran into Coffeyville for Braum's ice cream! WE LOVE Braum's ice cream! That is one good thing about Coffeyville....

Our day Monday was a long one--we were there from 10:30 to 6PM listening and listening to their" safety speil" that they have to do. We also had a couple of small tours of the area's where we were to work. At that point, Bill and I hadn't decided what area we were going to work. We had a choice of receiving or stowing which we did both last year. I decided to go back to receiving and Bill went to stowing..... When we left the plant the other night we decided to go into town and eat.... one of the Mexican places in town called "El Pueblito" built a new restaurant on the north edge of town... a very nice place and excellent food!

We began Tuesday at 6 AM so I set the alarm for 4 AM but during the evening the elec. went off during a rain storm so it offset the alarm.... it went off at midnight and I never really did go back to sleep afraid we would not be up and around at 4..... but we got up and around and started our day.....
The park was muddy but at that time of day ...who could see???????

We both had our "school's" of training in the morning and then went to our area's..... we only worked until noon yesterday. It seemed all that we did last year came back to me pretty fast...almost as if I hadn't left! Bill said stowing was about the same but they had changed some things in receiving and stowing. The rest of the day we rested and did some laundry around here.

This morning was a small part of training and then we went to our places where we will work... we worked the rest of the time there....we are only working half days this week and was to work Thursday but we were told we didn't have to come in tomorrow or Sunday but to come back on Monday!!!! yea we have a 4 day weekend but no work for 2 days! Going to be a short check in a couple of weeks! We were to have short days this week to "harden" our bodies for standing and doing things we were not used to be doing.

We have been told several others got sent home almost every day this week.... just early yet...people not thinking of Christmas yet and not ordering....

So we get to sleep in tomorrow and then we are heading to my sister's in OKC for a few days .... it will be great as my other brother's and sister will be there!

I'm going to post some pictures of Big Chief RV park and our site..... it is a new park and will be nice when they get the grass growing and things worked out..... they have plans for trees and some more landscaping..... stay tuned!
It is quiet here and we really do not hear the traffic from the highway...which is good.....

So until next time!
BJ

Arrived in Coffeyville

Thursday was a day of running for me it seemed..... I went to Subway and got sandwiches, then took them to our grandson's school and had lunch with them.... When they were finished with lunch their class goes to recess so I waited until Brayden's class came to lunch and then left. When I got home we had to run to Walmart and Bill got some diesel at Dillons. Their diesel is still $2.79 with 2cents off even though most of the stations in Topeka are up to $3.00/gallon. Then we had to go bck to Erin's to meet the boys after school. Their week was over as they didn't have school today and they were tired. Bryson fell asleep and Brayden had football practice so he got ready and then laid on the couch and watched TV until his dad got home to take him to practice. Erin and Lauren arrived a little bit later.... saying goodbye's we left..... it is always hard to say goodbye but we will see them sometime later in the month hopefully!

We decided to treat ourselves and stopped to eat at Texas Roadhouse for dinner! It was great as always! We also made a stop at Home Depot so I could get some potting soil/mix to repot my Christmas cactus.....I overwatered it when I repotted it earlier and it seemed it was dying which I think it was/is.... I have hope it will come out of it..... I put it in a smaller pot and very little water..... I was told this plant likes to be rootbound and dry this time of year...so we will see.....

We were up earlier this am and left around 9. We had to make a stop at Big O tires so they could put some more nitrogen in our RV tires as they lost some of the nitro.... we thought it was going to take awhile to do this so I walked over to HYVEE (grocery store) to get some meat... they have the best meat there at their market and it's always so fresh.... Our freezer is about full but we needed some still. The tires were done by the time I got almost to HyVEE so Bill waited on me!

So about 30min. later we were on the road heading south...what a beautiful day to drive.... the truck did fantastic as this was the first time we had it hooked up and towed. We averaged 11.4 miles per gallon towing. Bill said our 2002 and the Kodiak never got that at all. It was a great ride and handled great Bill said. We love this truck more and more!!!

So we arrived around 1:15 today at the Big Chief RV park north of Coffeyville. It is a new park and it is definitely not finished but our site if rocked and pretty level. They have 6 rows and about 25 sites in each row..... Most of the park now is Amazon.com people and more are to come we were told. I will take pictures tomorrow and share our site..... Nothing like we had at Deer Creek but it will do for what we need for now.....

We set up and I cleaned while Bill piddled around outside doing this and that and talking to people on either side of us.... Sounds like some have gotten sent home early and are off for the weekend.... we have a social/meet/greet on Sunday afternoon from 2-4...we will find out our schedule then.....

Stay tuned!!!
Until next time!
BJ

Wednesday am chatter

Well, the week has slipped by again and our week of staying with the grandkids was such a busy one! We "moved" over there a week ago Friday night and spent the night. Erin/Ryan were leaving for a week going to Cancun for their 10th anniversary. His parents, his sister and friend and another couple went with them. We had a busy and it seemed constantly running week for us! The boys had ballgames on Saturday am so one of us went with one and the other watched the other one.....

Monday morning was a rush rush to get on the bus and then take Lauren to school/daycare. We had our days to ourselves but they were full of running either to dr. appt. or coming to the camper to get things done here.

Each night of the week one of the boys had either football practice or basketball practice and so we were off and running again.... sometimes with only eating a sandwich before the practice..... those little guys are sooo busy...it makes me tired thinking of their daily schedule!

Bill and I were glad when Friday got here as NO ONE had anything to do that evening! The kids were tired from running all week too. But Saturday morning they both had ball games at 8:30that morning so we were still up at 6 or so to get ready for the day. Then they had haircuts and home we go! They were also excited because Mom and Dad were coming home late that evening. So they took naps so they could stay up and be up when they got home....boy were they glad to see them! Lauren had already gone to bed and she woke up to having Mom and Dad home! Bill and I left after they got home Sat. evening.

We got up and around and went to church at 11 that morning..... Sunday was Brayden's 9th birthday so we fixed breakfast and then went to church. When we got home Ifixed the salad I was going to take and then forgot...I also sewed 2 Kansas State pillowcases for Brayden's birthday....then we went to the birthday party.....

Monday, was a kind of catch up day for us and we met our friends, Bob/Jackie for dinner at Jose' Peppers ! It is a good Mexican place to eat and has newly opened in Topeka. They came over here and we played Joker for the evening....the girls won of course! :)

Tuesday, the DISH guy came and brought our new receiver..... we have had the old receiver for almost 10 years we thougtht so it was about time to come up into the world! WE can now DVR our programs we will miss when working! Yea!!!! I had a hair appt. at noon and then a pedicure so I am set now for another month!

Tuesday afternoon we went back to meet the boys when they got off the bus and stayed with them until their parents got home . They had to get ready for their practices last night..... football for Brayden and basketball for Bryson.

We only have a couple more days here until we head south to our job in Coffeyville with Amazon.com again and then the PAIN begins!!!! Ok...then you can get the cheese out because it will be a BIG whine!!!

Until next time!
BJ

Here it is... Thursday already!

Good morning!

It is Thursday already and our week is about over! Tuesday found us working around here...isn't there always SOMETHING that needs to be done????? I began washing windows on the passenger side of the rig while the sun was visiting the other side.... now why did it take me 2 days to do this small job???? I worked all morning washing and cleaning the windows and screens. Had one side done by noon..... Bill was outside cleaning out the big underneath storage bay.

The last time we were in Great Bend they had some "mice deterrant" "stuff" sitting on the counter that was mice proof so they said. They told us the farmers just love these bags and they couldn't keep them in stock. So we decided to try them. They are called Fresh Cab. They are small packets filled with a balsam smelling granules. The guys said the mice do not like the smell. They really smell pretty good to me! So we put them under the bays and in the underbay back elec. compartment. Anything we can do to keep the mice away when we are in Coffeyville. Stay tuned!

After lunch we had a couple of errands to run and then decided to visit our friends, Bob and Jackie, to see how their kitchen remodeling was coming along. It is progressing nicely. Their cabinets look great that they have repainted! I made them some new placemats for their kitchen and they will fit great with her colors she has chosen! This is what I made for her! I am thinking a Halloween placemat would look great!.... here comes another project to get done!




Wednesday am we had to get up and around early to be over to Erin's to get the boys on the bus for school. When we got there we found out Bryson was not feeling good and was going to spend the day with us. So after Brayden got on the bus, we came home. He was warm all day and not really running a fever but just looked tired. Cartoons were ON ALL DAY long!--- much to Bill's happiness!!!! haha!!! Yesterday afternoon I finished the other side of the rig washing windows. They are done for awhile. It isn't supposed to rain soon so maybe they will stay clean. Why is it I still like to have clean windows.... even when we were in our house...I washed windows at least twice a year and some more often! Hhahaha!!! When it was time for Brayden to be home from school we were back over to their house waiting for him to come home. He had a football game at 6 so I stayed with Bryson and Lauren while the other went to the game. They all came home a little after 7 and we came home....our job done for the day.....

Today, Bill had to be at the dr. office early this am for a blood draw and then take the truck to the dealership as the chrome was coming off one of the tailpipes and they ordered a new one for him. He is on his way home now.....
Not sure what the rest of the day will bring for us...it is beautiful out again today so hopefully we can spend some time outside!

Until next time!
BJ

Monday evening

I think fall is defintely here in Kansas! This morning when we got up it was 46 degrees!!! A little chilly...we even ran the heat pump last night.

Backtracking to Saturday we went to both our grandson's football games..... Then we went to Erin/Ryan's for his "famous" ribs.....they were delicious! Late afternoon on our way home it began to rain and boy did it rain! It was coming down in sheets! We tucked ourselves in and spent the rest of the evening watching TV. Fixed one of my favorite dinners! Potato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches! Yummy!!!!

Sunday morning, we got around and went to church, then came home for breakfast---pancakes! I then cleaned our closet and changed "clothing out"..... from summer to what we will need to get by until we get to Arizona.... so now we have almost 4 seasons of clothes with us!!!! Who says anything about weight in the camper??????

Midafternoon, we drove to Megan's as she and I had planned on making bierocks that I could freeze.... I just do not have counterspace and/or breadmachine to make the dough! Bless her heart doing most of that for me! Thanks, Megan!!! Bill likes cabbage in his and I like mine with cheese....so we made some of each...... We ate dinner with her and Jeff...homemade spaghetti and meatballs... it was very good!

This morning we got around and went to the west edge of KC to do our "pee test" for Amazon.... we could only go to certain Lab places to do this test that Amazon sets up..... so doing that we came back to Topeka and came home for lunch. After lunch, we took a bag of "stuff" to Goodwill and then made another errand.

When we got home Bill wanted to try to hook up the camper to the truck and make sure the hitch was the right level..... so we played with that for awhile then it was time for dinner......

Our day this week will be mostly free and we have some cleaning here we want to get done while the days are still so nice.....

Stay tuned!
Until next time!
BJ

We are still here!

The past few weeks have really flown by and we have had ups and downs! After the weekend of the garage sale we all survived it in good shape! Not much money in our pockets but Erin/Ryan did well.... at least I got rid of some things I haven't missed! Isn't that the idea????

I went to the Podiatrist to find out why the ball of my foot has been killing me all summer! He suggested wearing the foot pads which kind of worked but I ran out of the samples he gave me. So going back he recommended an MRI of my foot. I'm seeing dollar signs rolling here...... but I had it done and went back yesterday to find out the results. I have what is called a Morton's Neuroma, which is an inflamed nerve which binds itself with tissue/fat and that is what causes the pain. So he recommended a cortisone shot which I did. We talked at length about what kind of shoes are best for me and he gave me several brands which give good support. I think the highest on his "list" was New Balance in the higher numbers.... so back to New Balance I will go.... the Spira's I bought last year before we went to Coffeyville really killed my feet last weekend when I wore them. I see why now....

Our Newmar camping rally was here at Deer Creek Valley Park so we were here to greet everyone who came. There were 13 rigs here for the weekend. It was fun to visit and see everyone. We may not see some of them until next Spring. One morning a few of us gals went shopping and just spent the day visiting. On Friday morning we took a tour of the State Capital. It was very interesting. They are doing a major renovation $285 million to be exact..... so we couldn't see all but what we saw was really beautiful. The House and Senate Chambers have been redone and they are gorgeous! We went to a small Mom and Pop restaurant in North Topeka called Perubsky's. They only serve cold meat sandwiches with potato salad, beans etc. They are attached to a small old grocery store. All the sandwich meat is sliced as you order it. It is in an area called" Little Russia". I didn't even know that area was there!

Saturday morning, Bill and I went to our grandson's football games. Boy was it hot!!! It wasn't even a high of 90 but the sun was stiffling! Saturday evening, our evening meal was catered by a grocery store, called HyVee, here in Topeka that caters. They had a great meal of roast beef, turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, rolls, salad and cheesecake for dessert. It was a great meal!

Sunday, we went to church and then Erin/Ryan and kids came out for dinner. We grilled London Broil's for us. They were great!

Bill got a tonneau cover for the back of the truck.... he put that on one afternoon this past week. It is a little different than what we had on the other one. He has been dealing with a sore hip.... so chiropractor appt.'s for him to work that out. He is walking and doing much better.

I have been doing some sewing and completed a couple of things this week:






Here is the table runner I made for Megan as a surprise for her and a "late" birthday present. This year for birthday's everyone is getting a homemade gift of some sort.... they may be late but they are getting something!
Also is a picture of the quilt I have made for our bed. I started it last winter in Texas and had it quilted by someone here in Topeka. It is shorter on the side and I didn't realize it would be that short... should have added more borders but too late now. Always learn a lesson!


Monday morning I had a dental appt. to do some tissue grafting for one of my front bottom teeth that didn't take when I had them done a couple of years ago. She clipped a small cord at the bottom of my tooth which she thought might be the cause of the tissue not covering the tooth. So I have 3 stitches in the bottom of my gum area for 2 weeks! I can't bite off anything until the stitches come out.... how will I eat chips and salsa... Bill told me we will really have Mexican food withdrawals before then! I can cut tthings up and chew in the back but not bite off food.

I have had a problem also with the muscles in my back between my shoulder blades...so a trip to the chiropractor and it is somewhat better, finally! I knew I needed an adjustment but these muscles are not letting go or relaxing! But,...I have hope now with my feet getting better, Bill's back getting better and slowly my back getting better we will make it afterall! Stay tuned!!!

It is such a gorgeous day here today... we really had quite a bit of rain yesterday and that cooler front is here! We both went for a walk this am ...it was so nice!
Going to lunch with some friends in a short while and then I"m not sure what else the day will bring!

Have a good weekend!
Until next time!
BJ

Garage sale and babysitting

Thursday morning found us making a trip in the rain over to Lawrence to Megan's to go through our "stuff" in storage for the garage sale on Friday and Saturday. The truck did great and we like it more and more! Thursday afternoon, we stayed around here and I got my fabric cut out of the project I'm making....I'm not saying what it is because I want to surprise who it is for!

Thursday evening we went over to Erin's to begin the monumental task of setting up for their garage sale.... they had tons and tons of kids clothes and toys!!!! I was beginning to think ....she will never sell all these clothes! They only advertised on Craig's list and signs at the end of the major streets! We worked until almost 9 to get things ready to go with 4 of us working and she even had some friends come by early!

Friday morning, we picked the boys up at their house and took them to school as their school was having "Grandparents breakfast"..... it was fun seeing their classrooms and having them show us where their rooms were. After that we spent the rest of the day at the garage sale ...well, the bigger share of the day.... we had to run out to North Topeka Walmart which was on the opposite side of town but only a few miles from our park. So getting the meds and things we needed we went home for lunch and a rest..... we went back over to their house until the garage sale was over for the day. They sold alot of clothes..the piles were dwindling!!!
Late that afternoon, when the boys got home, we packed the kids up and came to our "house" as Erin/Ryan were going to KC for the evening. So the kids spent the night with us....it was fun although Lauren had a hard time settling down to go to sleep. She is usually asleep early in the evening but I think she was the last one to sleep at 10PM!!!!

Up and around early Saturday morning, we took Bryson to his first football game. Bill and Brayden stayed with Ryan to watch Bryson and I took Lauren home and to see how the garage sale was going..... the customer stream was slow but steady. About noon we left and then went back to help clean up. It was over and the stuff that was left was either going to Goodwill, Mommy and Me or Christ the King church Daycare that Lauren is going to. We came home after that as we were all tired and it was time for them to get some rest!

This morning, we went to church and then grilled some steaks for lunch.... A nap was needed after lunch! Then I began to sew..... have been sewing most of the afternoon and my project is ready to finish tomorrow! I will post a picture when I'm done !

So after a busy weekend we have a full week ahead of us too..... dr.appt.in the morning"Monday" for me about my foot again and then on Wednesday our camping rally friends begin arriving for our rally for the month! Looking forward to seeing all of them before we split for our winter fun! ---us we.... "get to work" before our fun begins!

Until next time!
BJ

Has it been that long???

Where in the H*(( has the time gone? Wow! Our days are really flying by and I"m not getting near the things done that we wanted to get done....guess that is the way things are ...huh??????

We did go to Great Bend Aug. 24th for our appt. on our slideout and steps issues. They finally got the slideout motor out after taking 2 more hours than the 4 alotted that our extended warranty allowed. The steps brace bar broke that Bill had welded on and they put new steps on but they were so high it just wasn't going to work so they put our old one back on and then welded a stronger iron bar as a brace. We had a great time with our friends, Larry/Earlene and Mike/Jeannie. I think our Joker status for us girls was good!

We got back to Topeka mid Thursday afternoon in time to go to Big O and get tires for the trailer. We spent from about 2:30 to almost 6:45 at Big O...Bill decided he wanted Nitrogen in the tires this time so it took alot longer to put them in. Finally get to Deer Creek about 7 we got settled in. Friday was spent just cleaning and rearranging our "home" again. Doing laundry and all that stuff I hadn't had sewer to do.

Saturday we went to Brayden's football game.... He is a quarterback this year so it will be fun to watch him.

A dental appt. and pedicure was on my "to do" list for Tuesday and my feet were glad for it! The next day a hair cut was in order for the day.

We have had some deep cleaning and rearranging we have been doing so it seems we have been very busy during the days.

Saturday, Sept. 4th we watched our granddaughter for the day while her parents and brothers went to K-State to the opening game...it was a great day and we had fun keeping her here with us. We took her home late afternoon so she could get her bath and bedtime at a decent time.. they came home later that evening. We brought the boys home with us to spend the night as they wanted to spend "2" nights with us so we brought them home to sleep and then we got up and went to church. Erin met us there this time. The boys came back home with us and we fixed breakfast and they got to play for a while and napped before we went over to their other grandparents to swim and have dinner. They like to have us watch them swim and their funny diving "stuff" they do.... So after dinner we brought them back home with us for another night at the camper. The next morning, Labor Day, we met Erin at the hair salon as she had a hair appt. and they were to get their hair cut. So we met them at the hair salon and got their hair cut and then took them home......

We came home and did some cleaning and finished laundry. Late afternoon our friends, Bob and Jackie came over for supper and we spent the evening playing Joker...the girls were victorous! Yea!!!!

Tuesday, we finished the work we had started on Monday and Bill has cleaned out underneath storage area. He also got a new truck "tool box" for the truck so he has been loading that.....

After many discussions we decided to take our lumps and trade trucks.... the huge truck we had was great for on the road but driving that big thing in Topeka was the pits! We went to the Chevy dealer to see if they knew when their 2011's were coming out as they and Ford have the new heavier pulling suspension's. Chevy told us they didn't even know when they were going to come out. So we stopped at the Ford dealership.... they found something we could live with and also found an RV dealer that would take our truck.... so we traded last Tuesday for a 2011 Ford F350....we have not had a Ford but this truck is so nice and quiet---it doesn't even sound like a diesel at all. It has lots of bells and whistles and we are still figuring out what everything is. We really like this truck and are very happy with it. The dealership really lucked out and sold the big truck to someone locally who was going to use it to tow car transport..... so it was meant to be.



Here is a picture of our new truck!


So that about catches us up with what we have been doing....like I said...I'm not sure where our time has gone to...the days are really zipping by...I did get my sewing machine out and have a couple of projects I really want to get done before we leave.... keep your fingers crossed I get them done! I know I will not be sewing once we leave here until we get to Arizona in January!

So until next time!
BJ

Back in Topeka

We left around 7 on Friday morning amid final hugs and goodbye's from our friends before heading out the fairgrounds to begin our trek back to Kansas. There were 8 couples from Kansas and we were the first one to leave on Friday. The rally officially ended on Friday evening. The rest of the group began to leave or move to another campground yesterday morning.

We drove from Goshen, Indiana to Mulberry Grove, Illinois arriving there around 2:30PM. This is a nice park about 1 mile from Interstate 57. We had a nice long pullthru and didn't even have to unhook. Bill and really just relaxed the rest of the day since we left so early in the morning. I fixed our dinner and we watched an evening of TV and did some reading.

A thunderstorm came through about 1:30AM and it must have rained quite a bit as there was quite a bit of rain standing around in the morning. Having put our slideouts in the night before we were pretty high and dry! We got around and left before 7 on Saturday morning heading west..... we drove through the northern route of St. Louis ..... it was a breeze! Going from Interstate 70 to I-270 then 370 and connecting back on I-70. That is the easiest route we have been on in St. Louis ever! But Kansas City was a different story!!! They have construction and going through downtown still... they call it 670 bypass..... after we got past the racetrack and shopping mall the trafffic really cleared out.

We arrived in Topeka around 2 and got parked and set up...our friends, Steve and Melissa from Topeka were here....we didn't know they were going to be here! That has happpened a couple of times either here at Lake Shawnee or at Deer Creek RV Park!

We had a "light" lunch of cheese and crackers and then Bill drove over to Big O to check on RV tires. Our tires have begun to wear really bad due to the suspension problem so we decided to go ahead and put tires on the camper. I made a potato salad while he was gone. When we got home and my salad was done we went over to a local Mexican restaurant, El Mezcal, for dinner. This is one of our favorites here in Topeka. After dinner, we drove over to Ryan's parents house as they were hosting Brayden's baseball team's swimming party. So many kids and so much fun!!! The kids were really glad to see us and the wet hugs we received,.... our clothes dried quickly as it was hot out! They all had grown in the past 2 months and they loved showing us their swimming/diving tricks they had learned over the summer.

This morning we went to church and came home to get things ready for the big birthday party this afternoon. We went over to Erin's and they were still getting ready so we helped do what we could for that. It is hard to think that our little miss is 2 today! She was so cute opening her presents and after she got the hang of opening them it was fun to watch!

Bill is out washing the truck now as we can do that here at Lake Shawnee. We will be staying here until Tuesday am when we will go over to Big O and get tires put on the camper then head to Great Bend to have our small slide out motor fixed!!! I can't wait to get it fixed! It has really made a difference in our coach and closed the living room area immensely! We have been spoiled with the 4 slides!!!!

We will stay in Great Bend until Thursday am and then head back to Topeka for about 6-7 weeks!

Stay tuned!
BJ

A fast week in Goshen, Indiana

WE have had a very quick busy week in Goshen. Sunday morning Bill and I went to church and met our friends, Bob and Jackie, there. After church, Bill and I had a couple of errands to run and we also found a "Dunkin' Donuts" and a Target. After that we came back to the rig and relaxed for most of the afternoon. Our opening ceremonies were that evening so we joined the others in our group at the grandstand here at the fairgrounds.

Monday morning at 9 is when all the seminars, the "store" the vendors open so Bill stayed here waiting on repair people to come and I went to the store to see what apparel was new this year. He had walked down to the Atwood stove place to see if they would come look at our stove as only 1 burner would light automatically. He didn't get anywhere with one of the guys so I walked down and another guy was there. He brought me back and fixed our stove and told us he would bring new grates for us.... we had originally ordered some through Newmar.... but we wouldn't have to pay for these! Yea!!!!

After that we hung around and sat outside and visited with others who would walk by or some of our group here. Monday evening, Bob and Jackie and us, grilled some chicken and ate together and then played Joker for the evening.

Tuesday am, we (the women) had to "work" at entering the crafts for the craft contest held at each International. There were 83 entries ranging from quilting, knitting to glass, woodwork, beading...... very neat stuff and everyone was hopeful! I told the ladies afterward I felt like the Antique roadshow host inspecting each item as they entered it!

So after that it was lunch time..... Bill went to a couple of seminars and I stayed here getting some things done here. When we are here at these rallies... usually we just lay stuff down and they don't get put where they belong....

Tuesday evening, John/Patsy, Ron/Nancy and us drove to Middlebury to eat at the Das Essenhaus.... a huge restaurant that serves homestyle meals..... we had chicken again! It was delicious!!! They are also very well-known for their homemade pies! YUMMY!!!!

Wednesday morning we drove to Shipshewanna again for the flea market..... we drove across country and saw how more of the Amish live..... so interesting is this area with the whitewashed houses and barns, neat and clean acreages. We stayed at the flea market for a little while and ran across an "auction" going on..... inside a huge building were about 8-10 "auction rings" auctioning antiques!!!! It was amazing ....it was so loud and noisy that Bill and I decided it wasn't for us so we left..... but what an amazing thing to see..... we left the flea market shortly after that and drove to a couple of places in Shipshewanna and then to Middlebury for lunch. After lunch we drove to a cheese factory and got some cheese. They had all kinds and varieties. Then back to the fairgrounds we came. We had a potluck with our Kansas group that evening hosted by our State Directors, Larry and Sherry. Guess what we had.... KFC chicken!!!! I'm beginning to cluck!

This morning, 4 other gals and I, did our own quilting shop hop! It was fun and we had a great day.. we started out at an Amish quilt shop that was mostly handsewn quilts....they were so gorgeous and so many different patterns! The shop was at someone's home in a seperate building. They had wall clocks...I'm drawing a blank here.... like cuckoo clocks. They had jams, jellies, pie fillings, quilt patterns and many types of placemats, potholders, etc. handmade. Such a neat place. They did not have elec. lighting but gas and many windows. The man who came to open the store was Amish. The quilts were varied sizes and hung for you to see. Their prices were very reasonable for such exquisite hand work....

Our next stop was a huge outdoor patio equipement store....they had adirondack chairs, porch swings,...any type of ornament you could ask for from lighthouses to plant sticks.
Inside was more neat stuff...... Thomas Kinkeade paintings, gas appliances, wood stoves, general store type things, kerosene lamps, kitchen items and some clothing.
One stop shopping!

Next we went to Yoder's Deparment store .... I finally found some backing for a 30's fabric quilt I had been working on. Bill and I had been there last week so I kind of knew what they had.

Then onto a store called Davis Merchantile. Actually it was a huge building that had 4 floors...... quite a lot of boutiques.... but they had a gigantic quilt store called Lolly's! What a store.... Yoder's Dept. Store boasts 12,000 bolts of fabric and they have all kinds of fabric..clothing type and quilting. Lolly's is just quilting...... and I'm sure they have at least that much! Such a nice store. They also have a bargain store in the basement that had a wooden "boat" in it filled with fatquarters.....
We ate lunch on the 4th floor at a small restaurant. Outside the restaurant is a large carosel.... it was very pretty. We looked out and there were some Amish kids riding the carosel barefooted! 2 little girls and a boy..... Most of the Amish do go barefoot at home or we have seen them wearing Crocs!

We drove back to the fairgrounds and one of our ladies had a meeting to go to so we took a break before venturing out again. Midafternoon, we drove west to a couple of quilting stores we found listed. They were different and someone usually found something that came home with them.....
Bill spent the day here with the guys and got my list of things done he neeed to do...like pickup the parts he wanted and go to a farmhouse we saw that had fresh produce.

We had another potluck tonite with our Region 3 group and guess what we had ...... yep....more chicken!!! I know I'm beginning to cluck!

We came home and began getting things gathered around so we can leave early in the morning. We hope to make it to almost St. Louis before stopping tomorrow..... We have had such a good week...I really hate to see it end. If you ever get a chance to explore this area you will be amazed at this area!

So until next time on the road!
BJ

Saturday evening in Goshen

So let's continue on our daily chat.....


We did go to the RV Museum Hall of Fame in Elkhart. It was very interesting with many many RV's of different sizes, shapes and ages of RV's. Some of the earliest ones were made in 1935 on to the present day luxury coaches. We all enjoyed seeing the different RV's and the companies that made them.

After that the group of 8 of us went to lunch in Elkhart at a bar/grill called Heinnes....it was very good and we all had a great lunch. On our way home we stopped by a roadside stand that was advertising blueberries and other fresh produce. We bought some fresh Michigan blueberries, a cantelope, and peaches....they have all been so good and fresh! I put the blueberries in the freezer for later!

Friday we spent mostly at the park not doing much except just relaxing and getting caught up on our laundry for the next week. I did some sewing as we will be celebrating Lauren's birthday next Sunday when we get back to Topeka so I needed to get the things done I made for her. And they are finished! Yea!!!!

Friday evening we had a Amish meal at an Amish farmhouse..... the farmhouse was huge and this family does this kind of a as a "sideline"..... they serve meals to groups or individuals. We had a group of 16 and in the other room was another group. Their farm was so neat and clean and their flowers and garden was just beautiful!
Our meal was served by a young man maybe the husband of the house..... We were served water first then he brought tossed salads in and served family style. A little bit later he brought a cart in laden with bowls of mashed potatoes, gravy, a type of dressing that had chicken, noodles,rice and carrots. It was very good. There were also green beans, chicken and noodles, roast beef and fried chicken and rolls. We were served family style and we passed our food up and down the table. A little bit later he came back with ANOTHER cart of the same food for second helpings if we wanted more! OMG!!!! Not many of us ate much more!!!! He left and then brought in a strawberry jello mold of strawberry jello, sourcream and coolwhip....to cleanse our palate!--- In a little bit then he brought in another cart of homemade pie---- cherry, peach, banana cream, and pecan...... We were all so stuffed but it was such a fun experience and so interesting and neat to do.

We left very early this am (6:30 AM) to bring our caravan to Goshen to our week of Newmar rally which begins on Monday morning. It was very early but we also learned that another group of 11 RV's from Illinois were leaving at 7AM and another group from NOrth Carolina were leaving at 7 also...so we left as the sun was coming up..... it was nice driving and we didn't have much traffic at all on our 25 mile journey. We got here a little after 8 and had an easy time setting up and soon after arriving we were set up and settled in..... we ate breakfast then Bill went to help set some tables up for the craft show. Each region has duties to do and ours this year is the craft show... which items are brought and then judged during the week. We will work on Tuesday morning entering the items people brought.
Later that morning Jackie and I walked to the registration building to register and receive our packet of information for the week. We walked back and looked through our bag. Bill came back by then and Bob arrived. So we decided to go eat lunch and make a trip to Walmart. When we got back I set outside for a while and Lynne came over and we sat outside and visited for a long time until Jackie came over to ask if we wanted to go to a old "Bag factory"...this factory was one that made flour sacks and bags of all types. They even made the strips that are in Hershey kisses until 1982!!!! They had divided it into different "electic" shops and many things to see in it besides the old equipment.... pretty neat!

When we returned home several people of our group were sitting outside so we sat outside for awhile and then decided to go eat at a restaurant called "Lux Cafe"....it was delicious! very good! We were told they have great breakfast's!

When we got home Bob and Jackie came over and played Joker with us.... our streak is tied 2 and 2..... stay tuned!

Well, that is about it for now...... We will be busy beginning Monday as we will only be here until Friday morning when we leave to head back to KS!

Until next time!
BJ

Thursday am chatter

Good morning!

We have been on the go since we got up Monday morning! But Tuesday am instead of having to drive back to Elkhart to have the truck worked on we got to sleep in a little bit.... our bodies' natural alarm doesn't let us sleep late like we used to...now my daughters would tell you we NEVER slept late when they were home but we thought we did..isn't 8AM sleeping late???????

Tuesday am we got around and headed over to Shipshewanna to the HUGE flea market they have on Tuesday and Wednesday am. On the way over we stopped by the Chevy truck dealership right down the highway from the park to see if they could get the truck in for a checkup. Bill kept thinking something on the brake "thing" wasn't working quite right and he wanted the computer set on it to check it out..... This is a Medium truck dealership so they would have all the "stuff" this truck needs. He was able to get it in today at 8 AM.

Then motoring on to Shipshewanna we drove through the countryside via GPS..why she took us that way we don't know but we saw many nice clean organized farm houses with beautiful flowers and beautiful horses grazing in the pastures. What pretty views....and of course many of them were Amish homes. Many horse and buggies on the roads heading here and there all the time.

When we got to the Flea market we were able to park in a fairly good spot as this place was becoming packed! Many horse/buggies lined up and and the cars were lined up even farther! It was hot, humid, muggy morning with not much wind at all..... My foot was hurting again..the pad under my toes as it was gravel and every rock seemed to find my sore spot so we only walked a few rows and decided it was time to leave....maybe next week when we are closer and hopefully the weather will cooperate also. So we went down the street to a small but very busy cafe called "Wanna Cup".... we walked in and it is an Amish cafe.... people were lined up to eat lunch.... we had good food but the wait was a little long. After lunch and across the street was a HUGE, GIGANTIC department store called "Yoder's Department Store"..... they had everything in that store from name brand clothing to John Deere part to fabric! .....like over 12,000 bolts of fabric but not all quilting fabric. Many of it was for clothing....We looked and explored the one side with groceries and the department stuff and then headed to the clothing and fabric side. I was on that side for over an hour just looking. Bill looked around and then decided to find his book and a rocking chair in the lobby....he said he about fell asleep! I can't imagine that!

So we left there and decided to head home via Elkhart.... we wanted to find the RV surplus place in Elkhart.... and we did but was very disappointed....finding nothing that we were looking for we left and came back to the park. By that time 3 couples of our friends had just arrived and were setting up. We visited with them and then decided to go out to eat of course! John/Patsy said they knew of a restaurant in Bremen, a few miles west of here, so we left to go there ....it has become a Mexican restaurant along with a pancake house! The food was good and we had a nice visit.

Wednesday am we went into the small town north of here called Wakarusa for breakfast. We decided to take our own truck so we could go to the RV museum in Elkhart later, so we followed them there. The restaurant was small and the food was good again! But the restaurant was called "Short Stop cafe"..... Gayle Sayers was from this town or used to live there and the walls were covered with baseball memorabilia and football "stuff'...... across the street is the Wakarusa Jelly Bean factory..... they are known for the large jelly beans the size of a small egg! We all found something's we had to have and I know the grandkids will love the sugar I bought for them! Not sure if Mom and Dad will! :)

After we left there we were on our way to Elkhart and had also made plans to go to the flea market again..... but we figured we would go next week so we had a change of iternerary..... We made a right hand turn to go to a Farmer's Market type building and the truck instantly died but Bill was able to start it right away..... NOW WHAT???????
So went in and walked around and the 3 other couples decided to go there also....little did they and we know we would meet again! So John/Patsy rode home with us.... we wanted to stop by Newmar Customer service to make sure that the slide out work was still a go for next week....

Good thing we did because we found out that they could work on it next week but we wanted this to be covered under our extended warranty service and they were not going to do extended warranty service next week due to being so busy at the rally.... so we came home and began making phone calls. The head of the customer service office called and told Bill they just didn't have time to work us in. But he did recommend Duncan RV REpair in Elkhart... so frantic phone calls to them were made..... the gal finally called back and said they could get us in after the rally.... well, that wouldn't work as we are leaving next Friday OF the rally to go home. So we are going to have to make a trip to Great Bend the week after next to get the slide out worked on..... hopefully they can get the motor in in one day and nothing else is wrong with it.... we sure have had alot go wrong on this trip and we are usually very anal about getting things looked over and taken care of before a trip..... guess the things that cropped up were unexpected and that is what we deal with traveling, right??????

So after all that we went over to visit with John/Patsy for alittle bit and our other friends Bob and Jackie from Topeka arrived! We were so glad to see them! We all visited with them for alittle bit and it was getting dinner time! Time to eat again! So we went out to eat dinner and came home! A short time later Bob/Jackie came by to visit and we were able to catch up with them since we hadn't seen them since we left Topeka in June.....

Well, we are off now to Elkhart to the RV museum...... oh yes... Bill just got home and said the truck's starter had a loose wire! The computer part of it checked out good and everything else is ok..... the loose wire was connected to lots of other things like the batteries, the check engine light etc.... so now I guess we can make a sigh of relief that it is ok .....

So that is it until next time!
BJ

We did make it safely to Bremen, Indiana! WHEW!!!

A few days ago Bill called and talked to one of our Topeka friends, Bob, who had spoken with our friend, Gary, who is spending the summer in Rapid City, SD. They have a unit just like ours,....a Torrey Pine. Gary told Bob that his suspension was completely shot and worn out...meaning the bolts were worn and the suspension wasn't doing its job.
So Bill stewed on this for a couple of days and so after lunch Saturday afternoon Bill checked underneath our coach....finding the exact same thing! YIKES!!!! He said our shocks were just hanging there and the bolts were almost worn through..... I usually don't get too upset and really "scared" about things like that but this is our home and we are not sitting in one place all the time...... and we were not "close to home"....

So after a sleepless night and worrying about everything and even if we were going to be able to get to Indiana safelya we made the decision to cancel dinner with my nephew and come to Bremen instead. I hated doing that as I really wanted to see them and spend some time visiting ..... so sorry again Jon! But we wanted to get on top of this and try to schedule repairs as soon as we could...

The company that makes our suspension system is in ELkhart, Indiana maybe about 20 miles from here.... so we drove straight through from Vassar to Bremen Sunday afternoon.... we made it AND safely! Bill called right at 8 AM this am and talked to the service manager who said they would be able to replace the system we needed and the best news ...they could get it done around 12:30 today!!!! So we got around,hooked up and headed to Elkhart...... they began about 12:30....we waited around for a little bit. We had already made an appt. for Tuesday morning for the Chariot place who made the bed of our truck. There was a bracket loose or something and he wanted them to look at it and see if they could fix it..... So we decided to find the place and they were able to work on it and found that a bolt had fallen out and someone had put a bracket there to replace that bolt. They were able to put the bolt back in and we were good to go. Saved us a trip in the morning! So we drove back to the Mor-ryde place and they had just finished our coach.... 2 hours !!! So we hooked up and went back to the park in Bremen. It was so nice driving back with the coach now.... we both could definitely tell a huge difference in our truck and RV..... Wow!!! what a difference!

We came back and we had an offer for Happy Hour at a coach across the street so we went over there after 5. They were all from Illinois. Before that I was able to SKYPE with our grandsons at their other grandparents house! It was fun doing that although our sound didn't work quite right and I'm not sure where the problem was. We will keep working on it .... it was fun talking to the kids.... our granddaughter came in with Erin during that time and she couldn't quite figure out what was going on...we could see her say granma and pappa!

After that we came home and then went into Nappanee for some dinner at a small restaurant..... more of our group will be here tomorrow and Wednesday. We are going to a huge flea market tomorrow in Shipshewanna, Indiana......

Many of the homes of this area are of course Amish and we have seen many horse and buggies.... this am on our way to Elkhart we saw a young mother mowing with a riding lawn mower holding her young one but she was barefoot!!! The Amish women do not wear shoes alot of the time at home.

Well, that about sums up our exciting day... I am so glad that our suspension has been taken care of ..... not sure what we would have done if we were out on the road someplace.

Until next time!
Bj

Saturday evening in Vassar, Michigan

Time to update from the past few days.......

We had a great time traveling over the "bridge" to Mackinaw City on Friday morning. We drove over and checked out several places around the town. The bridge is about 5 miles long and the skies were crystal clear and the sun shone on the water....it was very pretty. We drove around and started at the Chamber office and then onto a lighthouse.... Bill and I had decided we would go into it but the closer I got I remembered in Florida how about at the 3rd set of steps in a lighthouse my legs were shaking and I had to go back down...He said he didn't need to walk all the way up if I didn't so we chose not to go up....we looked around the bay area and watched some ships pass by.

We found out we were about 15 miles from Cheyboygan so we drove there and stopped at a Walmart and got a few groceries! We seem to have to stop at a Walmart anymore! YIKES>>>>are we becoming "one of those" people?????? :)

We then drove back to Mackinaw City and decided to have a "pastie"..... For all of our "southern" friends and relatives...a "pasties"...(pronounced "PAST-e) is a type of potpie which is shaped I take it like a calzone. It was very filling and good although I don't think I could make a steady diet of them....I had a beef w/gravy and Bill had a chicken. 'Must be a Northern thing"....... haha!!!

After lunch we drove downtown and did some shopping and then we drove back across the bridge home. Spending the afternoon doing laundry and all that good stuff......
Later that afternoon we drove back across the bridge to go to a Lumberjack show. We had never been to one before and it was a competition and a "slight" comedy show...... there were 2 lumberjacks....one was a young man who just graduated from high school and trying to become a lumberjack and and older man who was the 9 time Lumberjack champion. They did several types of competitions and earned "points" at the end ..... it was good and we enjoyed it.

Friday morning we left around 9ish to come to Vassar, Michigan....this time crossing the "bridge" with our RV's...... not much traffic and I kept telling myself if logging trucks can get across this bridge we can..... and WE DID!!! Whew! Back on "solid ground".....

We got to Vassar around 1 and got our selves set up for the next couple of days. We had heard about Frankenmuth from one of our friends that they had a huge Christmas store.... huge is NOT the word for this store!!!! Gigantic is the word!!!! 1 1/2 football fields large is the size of this building! We drove over late afternoon and Nancy and I shopped in the store and the guys sat in the truck and people watched I guess...... This store had everything Christmas....it was neat to go and I'm glad we took the time to come. It was hard not shopping more but with only our little space we have I couldn't rationalize getting more! I already have about 3 Christmas RV tubs as it is! Haha!!!!

We drove through downtown Frankenmuth and was amazed at the architecture of the stores there....all Bavarian designed and it was a pretty crowded place with tourists...we didn't realize it was such a tourist place. We finally found a restaurant for dinner... Mexican! haah!!!

Saturday morning we drove back to Frankenmuth as we are at a campground that is about 15 miles from Frankenmuth to do some shopping.....of course Nancy found a quilt shop....it was a neat little shop..... we found a couple of other shops we had interest in and then decided to let the guys find the brewery for lunch today...... it was a great place to eat and we liked the food we had...too bad we didn't find it last night!

So we ate lunch and then stopped at a clock shop and checked out all the clocks.... that is another possession that is on my someday list when we have a larger space to put one.
They had so many cuckoo clocks and chime clocks they are neat to look at.

We headed home after that and relaxed this afternoon.... Bill found out that one of our friends who has a Torrey Pine like ours is having some shocks, suspension problems..so he checked ours out and it is the same as their's!!!! The bolts are about shot and the shocks are shot....so hopefully we will make it to Indiana and get it serviced while we are there.... wish us luck traveling the next 2 days! We will call Mor-ryde on Monday morning first thing and make an appt. Their company is based in Elkhart, Indiana. We will be maybe 20 miles from there. We know we have put alot of miles and many big bumps on this coach traveling from Florida to Alaska and Arizona and Alabama and back all over we have gone..... we hope we will be safe for another 200 miles!

Well, that about does it for now... we leave here in the morning for Grass Lake, Michigan and our plans for the day are to get there and then go to Ann Arbor to visit my nephew and family..... looking forward to that!

One word about this park...we are at a campground called Berg-wag-a-na ...it is a family campground and they have had lots of activities this weekend.... so many families mosing around on bicycles and golf carts. Kids are all over the place and they looked like they were having a great time. Tents, RV's and parkmodels in this park..... we have a nice large site and have enjoyed it here. WE have full hookups and only 30amp's..... but it has been very cool and we sat outside most of the afternoon after we got home..... very relaxing and enjoying watching the kids and people going by.
This is our last night with Ron/Nancy as they are going to Charlotte( Shar-lot) MI to have some service work done on their motorhome. We will see them next week in Bremen, Indiana.

So until next time!
BJ

Spending the day on Mackinaw Island

I"m going to keep you updated so my days do not get away from me as they have before!

Since last week we stayed in Spring Green, Wisconsin from Wednesday to Friday am. Thursday am, we drove around to check the area out. We discovered that Lands End was having a huge warehouse sale so we stopped there. Dodgeville, Wisconsin is the headquarters for Lands End. Dodgeville was only about 12 miles from Spring Green. We decided not to go to the House on the Rock but drove to a scenic route and found it ...... the point of the building hangs out over a cliff.

Friday am we left early and drove to Kewaunee, Wisconsin. The drive was nice and along part way of Lake Michigan. We came across some information about Barn Quilts on Friday afternoon. So Saturday morning we decided to head out and check out several "Barn Quilts"..... more pictures to follow. The story behind barn quilts are that different quilt blocks are painted on a board and attached to the different barns. This area is not the only area of the country that has them but we found over 10 of 18 in that area.It was like a scavenger hunt finding them! They were on different old old barns so it was interesting seeing the barns and then finding the treasure of the quilt blocks.

Saturday morning beside driving the countryside looking for the barn quilts we also found several cherry orchards and a couple of cheese factories. It was a long day but we had fun finding our treasures! --- cheese and cherries! We also headed up to Door County..... Door County is a northern tip of the Penninsula of Wisconsin. The lake side of the penn. is mostly small towns and houses..... we drove clear up to the tip and then headed back home along the other side of the penninsula. This side has lots of shops along the way in the small towns. We stopped at a few stores and also found a great quilt shop!

Sunday we hardly peeked our heads outside. I stayed inside and cleaned and Bill worked on getting things done on the coach..... like the fun stuff of cleaning and doing laundry. Bill rinsed off the front of the coach and straightened up the bay underneath....things that have been put off since we have been on the road so much.

Monday morning we left early to head to spend our week at Mackinaw/ St. Ignace. Right now we are at St. Ignace which is on the north side of the Mackinaw Bridge.
Today was a very very humid, wet, foggy day. We made arrangments for a van to pick us up here at the RV park and they drove us to the ferry to go to the Island. So we took a ferry over to the Island in the fog! We could hardly see the Bridge from the boat.

Mackinaw Island is built on a limestone rock and the only way to get there is the ferry. Motorized vehicles are not allowed on it.... only firetrucks which they have. The mode of transportation is horse, horse and buggy, bicycles or by foot. We chose horse and buggy! We took a hour and half tour of the island and got to see the Grand hotel, the Fort and various places on the island before returning back to the main tourist area. One thing this area is noted for is "Fudge!"..... it is yummy! There are over 500 horses on the island...most Percheron..... so there are people cleaning up after the horses constantly..... they hire kids from all over to drive the horses for the summer. The 2 kids we talked to said they work 15-16 hours a day and no overtime pay/ 6 days per week. All the supplies for the stores must be brought over by ferry and picked up or it is put on a flat bed cart drawn by horse and dropped off. Mail is brought to a post office but no delivery service..you have to go to the post office yourself and get it. Several houses were for sale and they began from 3$million on up! There are about 500 that live on the island all year round. I have never seen so many bicycles in one place in my life! All ages were riding bicycles....you can rent them in a couple of places. Also you can rent horses to ride by yourself for $38/hr. The island was filled with people walking, riding, or enjoying the horse buggy rides. The 2 main streets were filled with shops and shops and more shops..... it was becoming very crowded by late afternoon.
When we were ready to leave we got back on the ferry and rode back across the lake to the dock. Someone was there to take us back to the RV park and we came home and relaxed for while! ..... in the AC.... aka..... naptime!!! It was a fun day but very hot and humid! I didn't expect that from this are....no wind at all so the humidity was the worst part of the day!

Tomorrow we are heading across the bridge to Mackinaw City and see what is there!
Stay tuned! I will post pictures in the next couple of days because I took so many today!

Until next time!
BJ

Spring Green, Wisconsin

We made it to Spring Green, Wisconsin this afternoon around 2:30..... today was a good day to drive and we didn't encounter any problems.

We sure enjoyed the views today...across Iowa and this part of Wisconsin ...lots and lots of rolling hills and even more "lots" of cornfields! We have really been amazed at the number of large farms and the fields and fields of corn that is growing. Everything is so green and looks just like a picture! Of course I left the camera in the rig today while traveling.

We got here and set up and have just relaxed today. I fixed leftovers for dinner tonite and Ron/Nancy came over to eat with us....

Tomorrow we are going to find some cheese factories and who knows what else!
We have talked ourselves out of traveling to the Dells as we realized it was almost like Branson in that it is waterparks, amusement "stuff"...... so we are going to go search for some cheese factories!

We will be staying here 2 nights at the RV park....we are right on the Wisconsin River and it looks pretty full... tomorrow I will take some pictures and share.

So that is about it for tonite!
Until next time!
BJ

Winterset, Iowa

Good evening!

We are in Winterset, Iowa arriving yesterday late afternoon. The weather is warm, humid and muggy!

Winterset is nationally known as John Wayne's birthplace and also to all my quilter friends, Fons and Porter's "hometown".....

We left North Platte yesterday around 6:45 AM and traveled most of the day..... going through Omaha to Winterset. Omaha's highway's overpasses where the road connects from the overpass are to be desired! We hit big bumps and more bumps, one time even causing the elec. system to do "something"...... so this am Bill checked the batteries and found that a wire had shorted out on one of the corroded battery cables....so off to town to buy 2 new batteries. We were lucky nothing completely shorted out and stopped right on the interstate. So he was busy with that all morning and early afternoon.

Nancy and I went to Fons and Porter this am and also some other stores.... Fons and Porter had all of their fabric and of course all the "gadgets" they sell. It was a small store and in the back was the customer service dept. of the company. We visited with the clerk for awhile and enjoyed that. She told us that Liz is retiring and moving to Texas but keeping her house in Winterset. Her daughter is joining or going to join the company now. This is a really neat town of about 5,000 and the town has a town square with a huge courthouse in the center. They have a huge Ben Franklin store that has just about a little of everything in it. They have a huge fabric dept. which has great fabric!

We mapped out our route this afternoon in the cool of our rig... the humidity is really great here. Bill said the park supervisor stopped by this am and told him that this is very unusual with the humidity being so high. A lady downtown said they had 7" of rain last week and it rained daily last week so everything is really water saturated. Iowa is really pretty and has many rolling hills full of cornfields which are really really green! The farms are so nice and very neat looking.

Tomorrow we head to Spring Green, Wisconsin for a couple of days to scout around there!
Stay tuned!
Until next time!
BJ

Back to the heat of the Midwest

We left Buena Vista around 6:45 this morning and watched 2 hot air balloons gently gliding up to the mountains..... what a pretty view!

We made really good time this morning and most of the day..... arriving at North Platte, Nebraska around 4 this afternoon...... It seemed really strange leaving the mountains behind and seeing the open skies and no mountains in the front view arriving in Denver!

It is warm here in North Platte and of course the gnats and bugs have greeted us..... haven't missed those little buggers at all!

We went to Whiskey Creek for supper and it was just as good as the one in Kearney that we used to go to when we went to Kearney shopping.

So our goal tomorrow is Winterset,Iowa, home of John Wayne and of Fons and Porter of quilting fame! Can't wait to go the their store!

Until next time!
BJ

Pictures and our blog post!

I have added a long post of our last month and also some pictures ! So go back to the archives on the right and check out our blog and pictures!

We are alive and well !!!!

Boy, it has been so long since I've last written I"m embarassed again about writing! (Haven't I said that before??) Anyway..... we have been up in the cool Colorado mountains and have enjoyed the nice beautiful cooler weather here and also the spectacular views of the mountains!

So let's backtrack some of this past month!

We left our rally on Sunday morning June 20th and headed to Great Bend. We were traveling with 3 of our friends. We needed to go to Great Bend for some minor work before heading on our trip. Ron/Nancy were ahead one rig from us and as we topped a hill we saw smoke coming from someplace and as we got closer we realized it was their rig billowing white smoke out! They had stopped and smoke was rolling out of the back of their coach. To make a long story short, their turbo went out of the engine and they had to be towed to Lenexa to a dealer to be fixed. They spent the week in KC waiting for parts and repairs. The rest of us headed to Great Bend. We got our awning fixed and drag bars fixed and headed out to Stockton.

We spent 3 days in Stockton or at Webster Lake with our friends, Don and Connie. We got to visit with Patty and Cecil and saw other's while there. It was nice catching up with them and seeing the "old town" once again.

Thursday morning, Bill and I left early to begin our trek to Pueblo. We had orginally planned to meet Ron/Nancy on the road and travel together to Pueblo to meet Andy and Charlotte but they were still getting their rig fixed. So we arrived in Pueblo around 4ish and then they showed us how to get to the lake where we were staying overnight. They decided to join us out there and so we set up for the evening at the Pueblo Lake. Early the next morning, we began our travels up to Gunnison. We were only about 1 mile from the summit and the truck began to get warm and a warning light came on. We were thankfully able to pull over and then the truck stopped. We found out the truck has an automatic engine turn off after 25 seconds so it was a good thing we were pulled off the side of the road as the road was winding and narrow. We were able to get towed to the summit gift shop and there Bill waited for 6 hours to get a tow into Gunnison. I came into Gunnison with Charlotte and Andy and waited for him to call he was on the way. They towed the truck and camper into Gunnison and dropped the camper off on the sidestreet. Andy then hooked the camper up to take it onto the RV park where we were 12 miles outside of town. We found out the it was the Antifreeze coolant reservoir sensor that went bad in it. We had them order a new one and replaced it.
The truck is doing great so far!

We got settled in at Gunnison Lakeside Resort and the guys began fishing. Andy and Bill fished every morning for a week and didn't catch that many. Charlotte and I just relaxed and solved all the problems in the world! :) We really didn't do much scouting around or traveling too much while we were there....we did have lots of wonderful company while there though! We arrived on June 25th and on July 1st Megan and Jeff came. They spent 6 days with us and we had a great time with them. They were heading on to Las Vegas to spend some time with Jeff's parents. On Sunday afternoon, we took a river raft trip down the Gunnison River which was a blast! The water was pretty chilly and we all got wet but we had so much fun!

Charlotte and Andy's daughter, son-in-law, and their 2 granddaughters arrived on July 5th for 5 days... We had a great visit with them and enjoyed seeing them again. The last time we saw them was 3 years ago at Estes Park when we worked there. Also joining us were some friends of Andy and Charlotte's from Pueblo. Georgeann and her son stayed for about 5 days in a cabin.

July 4th was the big fireworks display in town. Years before when we were there we went to the Western State College and watched the fireworks....they have since moved them to the town park. The fireworks was not near as long or many as before. The weather was chilly and cold.... I wimped out and watched them all in the car and the rest sat outside and watched them .....it was freezing that night!!!! Of course we forgot blankets but I did bring my heavy coat!

Gunnison Lakeside RV Resort is located on a hill and it was a very dusty dry park. The roads were all dirty and dusty and our coaches looked terrible from the fine dust not to mention the inside! It was constant cleaning and wiping things down......
The workkampers and the owners were really nice people and we enjoyed visiting with them...... there were several people there who come every year for fishing.. They were able to load the boat right across the hiway for the lake which was very nice and convenient. Fishing picked up some mornings...of course when we got ready to leave the fish started to bite even more!

One of the first things I did after getting set up was to get the hummingbird feeder out....boy did we have the hummingbirds! We counted 9 little feisty guys all trying to eat at the same time! It was so fun to watch them from outside the coach and also inside at the table.

We took a couple of drives up the Black Canyon of the Gunnison.... it is so pretty and so awe inpiring seeing the river and the canyon..... the views of the mountains in that area were just beautiful!

Ron/Nancy arrived on July 5th and so we set our "camp" up with the 2 canopy tents joined together..... and a tarp to block the road because it was so dusty. We were able to smoke fish and can what fish they got. Memories of Alaska were running around at that time! We ate our meals outside almost each night out there and visited in the evening.

So now it is July 20th and we are ready to leave...... Charlotte and Andy decided to join us for our rally in Buena Vista.... so we began our trip back over the "hill" aka..... Monarch Pass! (11,000 feet!) We were hoping and keeping our fingers crossed about our coach and Ron/Nancy's coach being able to make it over the pass....but slowly we did and no problems at all..... we pulled into Arrowhead Point RV park on Tuesday of this week. A couple of our club members were already here and it was nice to see them again.

Wednesday morning we (Ron/Nancy/Larry/Sherry/Andy/Charlotte and us ) drove to Fairplay to check out the town. It was a small mining town and not much left there.... we will take that road heading to Denver on Sunday.

This week in Buena Vista has been relaxing and we have been doing some sightseeing but also just sitting around the rigs and visiting which has been very nice also......
we have 12 couples from Kansas here this week.

We had a surprise visit from some friends we met in Arizona that we worked with on Thursday afternoon. Art/Connie worked with us at El Mirage and have since became fulltimers and are out seeing the "country"..... they had been in the Pagosa Springs area and saw where we were in Buena Vista so they decided to come to Buena Vista for a few days...... We were able to spend a couple of hours with them catching up ....it was great to see them again. We follow their blog too....so Art and Connie I have finally written on ours! :) It was wonderful seeing you again! We hope our paths cross again sometime!

Well, that about catches us up this time on our adventures...... we will leave here early, early in the morning with Ron/Nancy and head to North Platte, Nebraska for the night....back to the "flatter country" and of course we rejoin the heat! Michigan and Mackinaw Island is our goal !!!

Now that I have gotten caught up on this past month... I hope to be able to stay in touch! The cell phone service and internet service we have had this past month has been horrible to say the least..... we are using the park's wi-fi right now and so far it has gotten faster as the week has gone by. We have had to go out to the truck and use the phone enhancer to be able to call out and my Blackberry hasn't worked hardly at all.... so we will be glad to get out of the mountains to get in "touch with the world" again!

So that is about it until next time!
BJ