Friday, May 29, 2009

I had a great evening last night, gathering with my "bestest" girlfriends.....we were working on a project for choral club. I didn't get back home til around midnight---quite late for an "old" lady like myself.

I'm afraid you won't be hearing from me again til Monday. DH and I have some projects at the river we want to get done and we are supposed to be having decent weather so now is the time. I'll be sure and get some photos of all our accomplishments. I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend.......where ever you might be.......

Thursday, May 28, 2009

It has been pretty quiet around here last few days. Yesterday, was a Mom and daughter's day out. We went to Indianapolis for a day of shopping. My Mom is a clothes nut. I'm not.....these days my life style lends itself to jeans and a t-shirt almost every day and that is just 'dandy fine' with me. We had a great day together though and the two of us spending time together is what counts not the activity. Mom came home with a new jacket and two new outfits. Me......I bought a great smelling candle.

Mike...I wish we could make a trip to the Black Hills, but I'm afraid we are stuck here for the summer. We are going to call Direct Tv again. This time we won't mention we are rv'ers. We will have our tripod all set so when the installer arrives---well, won't he get a big surprise.......

Monday, May 25, 2009

Chores and a Movie

Sunday, May 24, we awoke to sunshine peaking out from behind the clouds. There were puddles everywhere, but at least the rain was gone. I saw a beautiful young doe this morning, she was standing in our drive looking back at our fiver. It really took me by surprise. The deer just stood there and watched me and the furballs for awhile and then ‘poof’ she turned and was gone. I have seen deer before, of course, but their beauty and grace, their gentleness---it just never ceases to amaze me:-)

DH left for town to run some errands, while I stayed behind with the furballs. I decided today was a good day to give the fiver a good cleaning--that ended up taking most of the day.

By afternoon, DH had returned home with his supplies for tomorrow’s project. We are quite comfortable here at the river site, with one exception. Our fiver is about 150 feet away from the sewer drop and it is an uphill run. DH has used a hose and our macerater in the past. The problem was the small size diameter of the hose. This year he has decided to use 1 inch pvc pipe to reach the drop. I let you know how it all goes.....hopefully the rain that is coming tomorrow will hold off till evening.

After dinner we settled in for the night, watching a DVD “The Thin Man”. I have the box set of the movies with William Powell and Myrna Loy and of course Asta, the wired haired fox terrier. I just love these old black and white mysteries......in fact, Asta is why we now have two wired haired fox terriers of our own. I just can’t imagine life with out those two lovable furballs in my life.....their faces just melt my heart.....spoiled?.....I think you already know the answer to that one......

Lastly, I thought I’d bring you up to date on our Direct TV project. DH called to order the setup and was told repeatedly that since we were “rvers” we would have to purchase the dish and buy our own tripod. What they were pushing us to buy was the roof top mount, which we know will not work at the river location. Now, while we were in Yuma our next door neighbor had Direct TV installed and she received her dish and tripod and even a special antenna for local channels ‘free of charge’. DH related this story to them and they still didn’t have a clue--needless to say he is very frustrated by the whole mess. I think we have a plan to get around this and I’ll let you know if we are successful. In the meantime; anybody with any suggestions, please let us know. We are currently in Indiana with Delphi being the closest city to us.

Furballs Bath Day

Saturday, May 23, was furball washing day! The furballs truly look like shaggy doggies these days, between the bad weather and being in travel mode, their grooming day was long overdue. I have always done this job myself, neither pup has ever been to a groomer. It is really not a difficult job and both dogs are fairly well behaved during the process. Normally I can accomplish this task in about 2 hours, but today it took about 4 hours from start to finish. I rotate the dogs, so they do get a break between the combing and clipping. They both really seemed to enjoy their bath, but then I always try to make it an enjoyable experience. Lots of “what a good puppy” and always a nice massage to top things off......what a life these two have....LOL! After the grooming, I was “POOPED!”--no pun intended........so it was nap time for us all.

It was a short nap, I needed to get the campfire started for our ‘one bag’ dinner. I take potatoes, onion, carrots, hamburger, and add a little seasoning......bundle it all in aluminum foil and place it over hot coals on the campfire. You need to turn it about every 15 minutes and it is usually done in about 45 minutes to an hour. It is very good and cleanup is a breeze. I was about 30 minutes into the cooking time when the skies began to darken and I heard the rumble of distant thunder. I quickly secured all our outdoor gear, closed up the shed, made sure all the ‘hatches were battened down’ in the event the weather turned really nasty. I had just pulled dinner off the fire when the rain started it’s gentle pitter patter. I put the dinner in the oven to keep it warm--DH was at the stick house changing the oil in the truck and had not arrived home yet. The rain really started to pour, but no wind and the thunder stayed in the distance. DH arrived home and I could tell he was really tired and hungry. He was sure glad when I pulled dinner out of the oven ready to eat!

It continued to rain late into the evening, but no matter we were all warm and dry. Snuggled into our easy chairs watching a little tv before bed.........

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Internet headaches....

I'm sure you have all noticed that I am not posting as regularly as I used to......that is because we do not have internet at the river site. We tried, unsuccessfully, this morning to set up our satellite system. There are just two many trees in our way. DH had me look into some alternatives. Currently we would have to go with an ATT aircard and then boost our cell phone signal with a wireless antenna. I have to go wireless on the cell phone antenna because I use an Iphone and it does not give you direct access to the internal antenna. We did find out that ATT and Apple are working on this problem. Apparently there is an "Ibooster" in the works for an external antenna that will boost Iphone's signal and an application to be released so one could "teather" the Iphone directly to the laptop to receive internet. All this is supposed to be upcoming this summer. In the meantime, we will continue to use the internet at the stick house, so my blog postings may not be as frequent as before.

I will tell you it feels good to be back at the river. It is so quiet and peaceful there. Last night we cooked steaks over the campfire and later I had my first s'more of the season........mmmm good!

This morning I looked out my kitchen window and what did I spy? A mama ground hog taking her two babies out for a stroll. DH and I were both enjoying the sight when "Blue" unexpectedly arrived. Now, "Blue" is the neighboor's dog. He lives about 3 lots down from us and usually always comes by at least once a day to say hello. He is some kind of hunting dog and has the most beautiful blue eyes, hence the name "Blue". Normally I welcome Blue with open arms, but not today. I knew if he caught sight of the ground hog family---the hunt would be on! So, out the door I flew nightgown and all, clapping my hands and telling "Blue" to go home. Fortunately the ground hogs took cover and Blue, after a little barking protest, headed back home. So much for my peace and quiet! LOL! I sure hope the ground hog family comes back to visit another day. So cute!!

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Nothing but blue skies.......

I can’t tell you how good it feels to finally see the sun. The weather person is forecasting clear skies and warmer temps for the next few days. I guess Lafayette has not seen a week of dry weather since last October. Yippee!

Monday night was a reunion of sorts with my very bestest friends---the bitches. Yes, I said ‘bitches’ and I am proud to be a member. We all got to know each other through Choral Club some 17 years ago. There is nothing we would not do for one another. They are still singing with chorus on a regular basis, I sing when I’m here in Lafayette. We had a great time visiting and sharing stories at our local Irish Pub! Chorus has a big performance coming up in a couple of weeks and they passed along the music and a cd so I could get it memorized for the big show. I’m looking forward to the performance. Those 3 woman have had a huge impact on my adult life and I treasure every moment I have with them.

Currently I’m cleaning out the stick house’s garage. What a mess! DH is mowing the yard. What a chore! I sure hope this is our last summer dealing with this house.

Tomorrow we plan on moving the fiver to the family river site. It will be good to be settled. The weekend is supposed to be spectacular weather wise and we plan on taking full advantage. Enjoying the great outdoors. Campfires, s’mores, hotdogs, and starry skies.........who knows, we might even work in a little romance......but then, I don’t kiss and tell....

Sunday, May 17, 2009

More Bad Weather

It seems the nasty weather just wasn’t through we us yet. Friday night, a huge storm system moved through our area. There was lots of thunder and lighting and rain, rain, rain! Thankfully no wind and no tornadoes, although we did have a brief moment of small hail. Come Saturday morning, we noticed the campground folks helping a couple of the campers move to “higher” ground. The Wabash river is behind us and it is really high now. We are fine where we are at, but one camper was a little to close to the river for comfort. The other trailer just had a very wet site and decided to move to one with more gravel less soggy grass and mud.

We didn’t do a whole lot on Saturday. DH went up to the river site to pick up sticks and get ready to mow---once things dry out a little. I took the time to clean up the fiver. Once DH was back, we decided to try and set up our satellite internet. We tried several positions and just could not find an open enough area. Just two many trees in the way for us to lock on to our satellite. We have been talking about getting an air-card for just these types of occasions.......looks like we need to do that sooner rather than later. DH wants me to investigate using my Iphone for our internet connection for the computers. I’m not sure how that all works, but I guess I will be finding out. He has left this all up to me! LOL! Sure hope I do it right......

Friday, May 15, 2009

Back In Lafayette

Finally made it back into Lafayette Wednesday evening. We decided to stay at the Leisure Time Campground until we could check on conditions at the family river site. It seems the weather here has been wet for most of the last month. The campground has full hook up sites and we ended up in a large pull through. We have a fairly level gravel site with some grass and lots of mature trees. Just out our back window you can get a glimpse of the river. We decided to just stay the week here.

Thursday morning we drove up to the family river site. Everything looks good and the ground didn't seem to saturated---yet. We need to do the usual clean up of sticks and fallen branches and the grassy area towards the front of the lot needs mowed---if it ever stops raining! LOL! The weather man seems to think that we might get 7 days in a row of dry weather starting on Sunday---sure hope he is right. It would be nice to have everything cleaned up and dried out before we move the fiver up there next Thursday.

Today, Friday May 15th, we are at the stick house. We are making preparations to put the house on the market June 1. There are a few small projects we will continue to work on while the house is on the market---who knows we might get lucky and have someone take it just as it is! I think the two main projects are replacing counter tops in the kitchen and finishing the trim in the dining room. We will see how it goes. This year we made the decision not to move back into the house, but to stay in our fiver. It will be much easier to keep the stick house in "show house" condition if we and the furballs are not mucking it up everyday. We are currently using the cable internet at the house, but we will have that disconnected at the end of the month. We will go back to our satellite system at the river. Boy oh boy, I will sure miss the cable internet. I feel like I'm traveling at the 'speed of light' these days.

Good to be back in Indiana? Yes, this is the place I was born and raised in and there are lots of good memories, family and friends here.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Repairs

Thanks for all the comments and well wishes on the storm post. It is so nice to know folks are out there thinking about us! We arrived in Elkhart safely and set up camp in the repair shop's parking area. The photo above is of our large slide. It was sagging in the center section, so they removed all the trim and decided that it had not been framed correctly to begin with at the factory. They removed all the old framing and replaced it with new. We also had our bathroom door frame re-done as our door had been sticking. Our biggest relief was the replacement of our convection/microwave oven. It had stopped working while we were out in AZ and I sure missed using it. Americana did, however, refuse to replace our bathroom facet. It has a defect in the satin finish--which I'll admit might seem trivial to some, but to us it is unacceptable. We had tried to get this issue resolved once before, but the owner of Americana had taken some steel wool and polished the blemish--which removed the rust, but not the defect. We made the mistake of letting it go at that time. Now that we were back at the repair shop and while our warranty was still valid, we decided to address the issue once again. The repair man put in an email to Russ Anderson ( one of Americana's owners) and he was quick to deny the claim. Unfortunately, short of taking him to small claims court, we don't seem to have any recourse. All we can do is let others know how we were treated. Needless to say, we no longer feel comfortable recommending Americana. It is sad that our relationship had to end on such a sour note.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

We are OK....BUT

Been without internet, so got some catching up to do.....Let's start with the morning we were leaving "Big Red Barn" in MO. Around 7am, a terrible storm blew through the rv park. The tornado sirens were going and the wind was blowing hard. We pulled in the slides and hoped for the best. There was really nothing else to do--no other shelter near by and nothing but flat ground around us....so we decided, like everyone else, to just stay put and hope for the best. We were very lucky and came through unharmed. Unfortunately, the photo above shows that not everyone was as lucky. I did not get to personally speak to the occupants of that motorhome, but I was told no one was injured. Thank goodness for that! I think the whole storm lasted about 45 minutes and it did not take us long to hitch up the trailer and get moving down the road. We were careful to keep track of the storm, which was moving east in front of us. We were headed to Hazlet State Park in IL.

We did ok and arrived at the park about an hour behind the storm. I don't think it was as strong when it hit there---didn't see much if any damage, just a lot of standing water. That is a photo of our site. It is a very nice park, we only had electric at the site, but water was nearby. We ended up staying here two nights, before heading to Elkhart. More later.......

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Big Red Barn

Here we are at the Big Red Barn in Carthage, MO. Pretty nice park, although the sites are pretty close together. Ok for an overnight or two. We also got to use our Campsite USA pass for a 50% discount---that translated to $15.00 per night.

Lake Thunderbird State Park Oklahoma

This one's for you, Speedyboy---as per your request...photos of Lake Thunderbird. Here you can see our campsite.
Photo of the lake
View out our back window--that is our site's table and grill.

It is a nice park, sorry I could not get more photos. As you can see, it was very wet. In fact, by the time DH and I had the fiver set up---we were soggy indeed.

There are two loops in the park. One has electric at the site and water close by--the other loop has some with full hook ups. Both loops are wooded and have a least a partial cement or asphalt pad with some gravel. We stayed in the electric only site and paid $18.00. There is a marina for the boaters and lots of fishing areas. The campsites have lots of trees and are not exactly big rig friendly, but it can be done. The park is in need of some TLC, but everything works and is clean. We actually showered in the bath house and had great water pressure and plenty of hot water.
We would come back and stay here again---looks like there are some nice hiking trails around the lake. I bet this place is really busy in the summer. I would definitely recommend reservations especially if you have a large rv.

Now for the rest of the story, we traveled I-40 and just outside of Oklahoma City we hit 75 to 100 miles of the worst road we have traveled in a long time. It was like continuously crossing rail road tracks.......bumpity, bump, bump! I kid you not, our teeth were clanking together. I think the furballs thought the world was coming to an end! They were sure happy to be out of the truck when we stopped for the night. Let's face it, we were all happy to finally stop bouncing down the highway. LOL!

Next stop........Carthage, MO
By the by--I'm a little behind in my posting--no internet at the park. We stayed there Tuesday night the 5th of May. We are currently in Carthage, MO---more on that in my next post.

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Free At Last


Free At Last, FREE AT LAST!! It was so good to be out and about yesterday. We went out to dinner and then picked up some much needed groceries.

The photo above is of the shaft which some how managed to twist itself in two. The repair person said he saw no signs of abuse on our part and feels the shaft was probably defective from the get go.......as I have said before......if it ain't broke, give it to the Goode's and it soon will be.....LOL

Today is travel day--another rainy, gloomy day. We are heading east to Lake Thunderbird near Oklahoma City about 280 some miles----probably just spend one night and then off again.......

Monday, May 4, 2009

Waiting, Waiting, and Waiting

I’m sure tired of being here.....being gloomy, damp, and chilly! All we have done the last two days is wait and watch tv (thank goodness they have free cable here). I spent the entire day yesterday watching one of my favorite channels.....SCI FI. They were running some Stephen King movies. DH and I did take a break and ride our bikes over to the nearby truck stop so we could get some milk. I won’t tell you how much THAT COST!! But we are rather limited on our choices at this point. My Indiana brother, Chris, called checking on our progress towards home. I asked him how the river site was holding up during all this rain. He said it was a muddy mess. I sure hope it dries out some before we get there. We will probably have him check it out right before we arrive---if it is too muddy we will have to stay at an rv park till it dries out some.

Today our new part for the landing gear is supposed to arrive and be installed by this afternoon. So, keep your fingers crossed and we may be outta here by tomorrow. If all goes well, we will be able to “unhitch” this afternoon and make a much needed trip to the grocery......although if you have seen either one of us, then you know we are in no danger of starving to death....LOL!

Saturday, May 2, 2009

May 1, 2009

Repair or Replace? The verdict is in---repair. We are now waiting on a part for the landing gear leg to be repaired. Apparently, the shaft was twisted. Now, that is all I can say at this point. We have asked for the broken part to be returned to us so we can pursue a warranty claim. Once I have the part back, hopefully I can take a photo. The needed repair part is supposed to arrive here on Monday and the repair person hopes to have it installed for us that same day. If all goes according to plan, we will be heading toward Elkhart on Tuesday.

It is a another wet and gloomy day here in Amarillo.

DH fixed spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner---he is such a good cook! The furballs had some too---I should have taken a photo of their orange faces before I cleaned them up...LOL!

That is about all the excitement I have to report today.

Friday, May 1, 2009

April 30, 2009

Today we awoke to some heavy fog, but the sun finally broke through.......so good to see the sun shine once again. After my coffee and breakfast, I went out and ‘tweaked’ the satellite signal and in about 10 minutes our internet was up and running. What a difference a day can make! I think most of our problem yesterday was the storm front--our dish was pointed right at it and it just could not lock on to a signal.

The remainder of the day was pretty quiet. DH did go out and wash the truck and the front of the fiver. I, on the other hand, remained in my comfy recliner and surfed the net.

We did make arrangements to dine at the ‘Big Texan Steak Ranch’. They have a free limo service for nearby hotels and rv parks. We called and set up a 5pm pick up time. The limo comes complete with those big Texan Longhorns attached to the grill. LOL! It was a fun evening and a great meal. Nice to be ‘out and about’!

When we returned to our fiver, we noticed the repair folks had come by and removed our broken landing gear. DH had spoke with them earlier and the repair person had said they were going to come by and take the leg. We will find out what the verdict is tomorrow--repair or replace. So, I guess we are stuck here through the weekend. I think DH has decided we will head for Elkhart on Monday--even if the landing gear is still broken. Elkhart is our “repair shop” headquarters and we have some other issues besides the landing leg which need repaired---all under warranty--thank goodness.

Almost forgot! Our old mac airport (internet router) died and we decided to replace it with the new Apple Time Capsule. The Time Capsule not only serves as our router, but also has 500GB of ‘back up’ storage. The other cool thing--we could plug in our printer to the router and it now is wireless. I can print wirelessly now--way cool!! Have I told you lately that “I LOVE MY MAC”!! :>