RV Khronicles of Kevelyn

Bon Voyage

2012-01-19T18:23:00.000-06:00

Today we drove from Tucson to San Diego. It was a nice day and took us about seven hours. We're spending the night at a Best Western overlooking the bay. The room for the night is $110 which includes leaving our truck parked in their covered parking lot for the duration of our trip. Parking alone at the pier would have been about $150 so this is a pretty good deal.

Tomorrow we board the ship which leaves at 5 pm. We'll be at sea for four days, spend one day each at Hilo, Honolulu, Maui, Kauai, and Kona. Then four days at sea coming back and one night in Mexico. We return on February 4th. I sure hope our ship's captain knows how to steer properly :)

So, I won't be posting any blogs until after the trip. Internet is available on the ship, but it's pretty expensive, and I plan to be busy relaxing and enjoying myself. I may have internet withdrawal, but I think I can handle it.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Tohono Chul Park

2012-01-18T13:47:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we visited Tohono Chul Park. They advertise they are one of the world’s 10 great botanical gardens.

It was a beautiful park with many paths, but everything looked pretty much the same, namely lots of cactus. Of course, we are in the desert and cactus is what grows here. We haven’t visited that many botanical gardens, but I didn’t think it was so great as to be one of the top 10 in the entire world. Maybe if we visited in spring when the cactus are in bloom, it would have been much nicer.

There was a saguaro section at the garden with informational signs explaining how they grow. What an amazing plant. Their root system lies about 3 inches below the surface and stretch as far from the trunk as the plant is tall. These roots can soak up as much as 200 gallons of water in a single rainfall, enough to last the plant for a year.

The saguaro seed is the size of a pinhead. One cactus produces tens of thousands of seeds in a year, as many as 40 million in a lifetime. Out of those millions of seeds, only a few grow to adulthood. Many of the young plants grow under nurse trees to protect them from intense sun, cold and animals. Do you see the young saguaro under the nurse plant?

While the cause is not known, sometimes damage occurs to the top of a saguaro, causing a fanlike growth. This is thought to occur once in every 200,000 plants.

I thought this one had an interesting shape. It looks like an elephant’s trunk and tusks.

There were a number of metal sculptures scattered throughout the park. Supposedly, there are many wild javelina in the Tucson area. This may be the only one I see. I feel like I did last year when I was trying to find the elusive Big Horn Sheep.

We’ve seen these beautiful Azurite and Malachite rocks in several of the places we’ve visited.

Once again, the sunset was beautiful last night.

Our campground has entertainment two or three nights a week. Last night the group Mariachi de Atzlan performed. They’re a high school group that took 2nd place at the National competition last year. What a talented group of young people. They play and sing, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching them.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Titan Missile Museum

2012-01-17T10:39:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we visited the Titan Missile Museum. In the early 1960s there were 54 Titan II missile silos built in Arkansas, Kansas and Arizona. The missiles were active for about 25 years. They protected our country during the Cold War years. In the mid 1980s President Reagan agreed to a treaty with the Russians and ordered the missiles disabled and the silos shut down.

All the silos were destroyed except this one in Tucson which was designated to become a museum. The missile in the silo does not have a warhead or fuel. The site doesn’t look like much from the outside.

Inside, the silo is 15 stories deep. There is a viewing platform at the top so visitors can see the missile inside.

Two of these huge engines were needed to send the missile to its target.

The warheads carried 9 megatons of explosives. That’s the equivalent of 9 million tons of TNT. To put that amount in perspective, you would need a train with boxcars full of TNT that reaches from Tucson to Lexington, Kentucky to equal the explosives in one warhead. A warhead would cause a 3 mile fireball upon impact. The black portion at the top carried the warhead. The rest of the missile was mainly to carry the fuel.

The United States built these missiles as a deterrent to the Soviet Union. Luckily, none of the missiles were ever launched. After the Titan II program was cancelled, the warheads were removed and the missiles were used to send satellites into orbit.

We were taken inside the silo to the Command Center. Our friend Joan was chosen to be the commander for the launch. Two people were required to turn keys that would initiate a launch. There were many safeguards in place to prevent any accidents or sabotage.

This museum was also in our coupon booklet so the cost for both of us was $9.50. It was a very interesting site to visit.

On the way home, we stopped at the Mission San Xavier del Bac. The mission is referred to as the White Dove of the Desert. It is still an active church and is located on the Tohono O’Odham Indian Reservation.

The mission was built by the Jesuits in 1692. It suffered damage from an earthquake and was rebuilt by the Franciscans in 1783.

The inside was quite ornate and beautiful.

We’ve seen plenty of missions, but each is a little different. I always find it amazing to look at buildings that have survived for hundreds of years.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Saguaro National Park West

2012-01-16T09:18:00.001-06:00

All National Parks had free admission this weekend, so we decided to check out Saguaro National Park on Saturday. There are two sections to this park. We chose the West section which is closer to us.

The weather was a bit cool and windy and I wasn’t feeling great. I’m fighting a bit of a cold. So, I stamped my National Park Passport book, we looked around the museum and we watched the 15 minute slide show.

Then we drove the 6 mile loop to see the area with the heaviest cactus growth. It was a dirt road and pretty bumpy. The cactus looked pretty much the same as they do in the desert behind our campground. Here’s one of my pictures.

Here’s the postcard I bought to send to my mother.

Yesterday we joined our friends the Hansens and the Patzers at their rental condo to watch the Packer game. What a disappointing game. The Packers played so poorly. A very lousy end to a great season. After the game we ordered some pizza and played some games. For some reason this picture didn’t turn out well, but it’s the only one I have.

The six of us leave on Thursday for our cruise adventure!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Pima Air and Space Museum

2012-01-14T10:22:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we used our coupon book and visited the Pima Air and Space Museum. The admission price is $15.50, but there are two additional tours that are not included in the price. There is a narrated tram tour that takes you around all of the outside planes. And there is a narrated bus tour that takes you to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, also known as “the boneyard”. We decided to do both tours so the cost for the two of us was $41.50.
The boneyard is where all branches of the military send planes for storage, recycling or destruction. It covers over 2,600 acres. The Tucson area was chosen for three reasons; very little rain, low humidity and the ground under the topsoil is like concrete so they can park the planes right on the ground.
When the planes arrive, all the fuel and oil is removed, they are washed and then the windows and seams are sprayed with a latex coating to keep them from overheating.

Seeing all those planes and helicopters parked in the desert is quite an amazing site.
These are some of the largest cargo planes in the world. They’re currently being stored here. Each plane can carry 200,000 pounds.

We saw a number of interesting planes on the tram tour. This was Air Force One used by Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Jackie Kennedy was responsible for the current paint color scheme of Air Force One.

This was President Eisenhower’s plane. Notice the color is silver.

There were many helicopters on display. This is a crane helicopter. It can lift and carry trucks and other vehicles. It’s also used to drop large amounts of water on fires.

There are several hangers on the museum grounds with some very interesting and unique planes in them. This little plane called “The Bumble Bee” holds the Guinness record for the smallest bi-plane. Notice the man in the background is taller than the plane.

This is a replica of the first Wright Brothers 1903 flying machine.

This Blackbird was a secret CIA reconnaissance plane. It broke a speed record at almost 2,200 MPH and flew from New York to London in three hours.

They have an F-14 Tomcat which is the plane made famous in the movie Top Gun with Tom Cruise.

There were also a number of experimental aircraft. Some of them never made of into production.
I found this contraption very interesting. The inventor tried to sell it to the military to replace parachutes. It had a 20 HP motor. The problem with it came if the soldier didn’t land on his feet. If he fell, the rotors hit the ground and broke into many splinters which were like missiles hitting anything in their path including the person attached to it. Not all inventions are successful.
Kevin and I both agreed that this museum was an okay place to visit. We felt that someone with a keen interest in airplanes would probably have enjoyed it much more than we did. Both narrated tours rambled on with the names of many different aircraft. After a while, they all sounded the same and became rather boring. Even with our coupon, we found it a bit pricey.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Biosphere 2

2012-01-12T19:33:00.001-06:00

Yesterday we drove to the condo that our friends are renting. It’s about 30 miles northeast of where we are in a very nice complex. We’ve definitely found that the northern areas of Tucson are much nicer than the southern areas. We had a nice visit with them spending some time swimming in the pool and hot tub, playing cards and eating dinner.

Today we met them at the Biosphere 2 which is located about 30 miles north of Tucson. Some of you may remember when the Biosphere 2 was in the news in the early 1990s. Eight scientists spent two years sealed into the facility doing experiments. The admission price was $20 per person, but we had the 2 for 1 coupon in the Tucson Attraction coupon book.

As you can see, it was cloudy today. It’s the first cloudy day we’ve had, and I didn’t like it. Tomorrow the sun will be back :)

The Biosphere 2 facility has had several different owners over the years, and is now owned by the University of Arizona. Current experiments revolve around how water affects different climates. There are five distinct climates under the glass domes including a rain forest with a small waterfall.

They’ve even recreated the Pacific Ocean although it doesn’t look like much if you’ve actually seen the ocean.

We were taken on a guided tour. Our guide Bob H. was very knowledgeable and shared lots of information. The science and engineering involved in building the sphere is mindboggling. The complex covers about 3 acres, has 6,500 windows and is 91 feet tall at it’s highest point. It’s called Biosphere 2 because it is modeled on Earth, our first biosphere.

One of the outdoor experiments they are conducting is called “green roofs”. They are growing plants on the tops of these little houses. They’ve found that the rooftop gardens cool the temperature inside the house by about 7 degrees. Very important for conservation in the desert.

Overall, this was a very interesting and educational place to visit.

A few of the mountains north of Tucson have some snow on them. There is one called Mt. Lemmon that has skiing.

Because of the clouds, the sunset tonight was fantastic.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

AIR JORDANS

2012-01-12T09:59:00.001-06:00

Guest Post Authored by Rickey Combs

I got a great deal on a direct tv package over the holidays and “gave” all the new channels to my husband and kids. They absolutely loved them, but of course I had to get everyone something else. The big gift fiasco this year was trying to track down a pair of Nike Air Jordans for my son. I just had absolutely no idea that it was going to be so difficult. I certainly didn’t expect a stampede at Footlocker when they were released. I knew that it was going to be tough to get up early and get in line to get a pair, but I am really good at getting up early. So, I went to the mall and got up at four thirty so that I could be in line at five. If I had been any later, I wouldn’t have gotten him a pair. So many people were already lined up. I was nineteenth in line. Luckily, my son is pretty young and wore a small size that didn’t sell out before someone could help me. I got them for retail and he was so excited to open them on Christmas.

Catalina State Park

2012-01-11T08:32:00.001-06:00

A couple of months ago I signed up to get Groupon emails for the Tucson area. One of them was for a half-price bike tune up. We bought a tune-up for each of our bikes at a cost of $25 per bike.

Once we got here, we realized that the bike shop was actually 30 miles north of where we are staying. It turns out that Catalina State Park is practically across the street from the bike shop. So, today we dropped off our bikes for their tune-ups and drove over to the park to do some hiking.

We’ve also purchased a Tucson Passport coupon book for $18. It has many 2 for 1 or 50% off discount offers. One of them was for 50% off the daily fee at Catalina State Park. So, we only had to pay $3.50 for the day pass.

The trail map showed 3 hikes that were about 1 mile each. The rest of the hikes were 7 to 10 miles one way with pretty steep inclines. For some reason, my joints were aching pretty bad today so we opted for the shorter hikes. Here’s a view of the Catalina Mountains from the Nature Trail. It looks like there is ice flowing down the side. Upon closer inspection, it was just some shiny rock.

I love the auto timer feature on my camera.

These two Saguaro each had over 20 arms. They are so cool.

The second trail that we hiked was called Birding Trail. It’s near the Sutherland Wash so there were actually trees and grassy areas. We didn’t see many birds though.

The third trail was called Romero Ruin Trail. Ruins from a Hohokam village dating back to 500 A.D. have been found in this area. There has been some excavation done, but mainly there are just some piles of rocks to see. I didn’t take any pictures of them. We saw lots of piles of rock just like it last year at some of the sites we visited.

We did notice some interesting plants. I think both of these plants were a type of cactus, and they both had what looked to me like some type of fruit growing on them. One was yellow and the other was red.

It’s hard to see the little red “berries” on this one. If you want to get a better look, click on the picture to enlarge it.

We hiked a total of about 3 miles. Then we headed back to the bike shop. I asked a few questions regarding what was done to our bikes, but the guy was very unfriendly. His demeanor was probably one of the worst customer service experiences I’ve ever had in a retail setting.

I road my bike around the parking lot and it did appear it was shifting better. So, I guess I just have to assume he did a good job and gave our bikes the tune-ups we paid for. I was hoping he could help me with the broken computer device I have that tracks your mileage and stuff like that. When I asked him about it, he didn’t even look at it. He just said he couldn’t do it. Oh well, I’ll find someone else who wants to earn some business from me. I also want to get a little mirror to put on my bike so I can see behind me. There are plenty of other bike shops around.

We had a buy one, get one free coupon for a Dairy Queen Blizzard so we had to stop on the way home and get our DQ fix. We also passed a Trader Joe’s so Kevin stopped and I ran in to stock up on the cranberry oatmeal I love. I did a quick look around, but I’m always overwhelmed in their stores. There’s so much I’m not familiar with. Anyone have any Trader Joe’s recommendations?

Our Wisconsin friends arrived in Tucson today. It turns out that Dick had to have a stent procedure done the day before they left home. These are the 2 couples going on the cruise with us. We’re going over to their rented condo tomorrow and discuss what we’re doing for the next 9 days before we head to San Diego. We certainly don’t want to put any stress on Dick. He needs to rest so he can be in great shape for the cruise.

I’m wondering what the news coverage around the country was this past weekend regarding the Tucson shootings a year ago. Last Sunday was the one year anniversary of that tragic event. As you can imagine, there were a number of vigils and tributes held in Tucson over the weekend. There was a great deal of news coverage with a couple of hour long specials. Congresswoman Gifford was in attendance. It’s good to see her doing so well, but it looks like she still has a long road ahead of her.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

More Desert Hiking

2012-01-10T09:38:00.002-06:00

Most days since we’ve been here, we’ve been hiking for about four or five miles in the desert behind our campground. It feels good to be walking again.

I’ve found all the different types of Saguaro cactus to be very interesting. They seem to be like snowflakes, no two are exactly alike. Some have no arms, some have many arms, some have strange shaped arms. There are also holes in some of them. I think these holes may be made by birds.

This one has a sign by it that says it’s about 200 years old. It’s huge. Kevin was kind enough to pose next to it to give you perspective of it’s size.

There are also some dead Saguaro in the desert. I was so surprised to see how they grow. The inside is actually a group of tall sticks. Then there is some type of covering that wraps around the sticks which is the green part you see on a live plant. Here’s a dead one that is still standing.

Next week we’re planning on going to Saguaro National Park. I’m sure we’ll learn much more about these amazing plants.

Yesterday we drove around Tucson and stopped at two truck dealers. We plan to buy a new truck this year. We thought we’d see what was available. We’re looking to buy a GMC or Chevy 2500HD extended cab diesel with a long box. There was not a single long box at either of the dealers.

Then we stopped at La Mesa RV to look at some RVs. We saw a Heartland Landmark that was very nice. It had some features that we liked better than the one we currently have. But nothing that would make us actually buy.

Kevin told me that unless I’m totally blown away, there’s no reason to buy a new one. He’s right. This is our home, and I’m very happy with the one we have. In order to spend the money to buy a new one, I will have to be blown away and swept off my feet. So far, that hasn’t happened. Good news for our bank account :)

We also stopped at Lazy Days RV. They had some Redwood 5th wheels. These came out in 2010 and are manufactured by Thor. They are called Residential and are being marketed specifically to fulltimers. Again, we saw some things we liked. In some ways they were very nice, but then there were some things that looked kind of cheap.

It was fun looking, and we didn’t spend any money. A good day!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Time For Reflection

2012-01-06T19:44:00.001-06:00

We have been fulltime RVers for about 1-1/2 years now. During that time we have learned a great deal about this lifestyle.

When we were planning our “escape”, we did a lot of research. Of course, one of our concerns was financing. We read a lot of information in blogs and forums and were very appreciative of the honest financial information shared by other fulltimers.

Since we began our journey, we’ve kept a detailed record of our expenses. Before we started, we estimated we’d spend about $2,000 a month. We’ve discovered that we are actually spending about $2,500 a month, some months are higher, some lower. But, that’s our overall average.

We always planned to do some workamping, but these expenses are just confirming that we will work for at least a few years until some of our retirement monies kick in. We have savings, but we are trying to earn enough to cover our expenses so we don’t have to dip into those savings. It just makes us feel better to leave that nest egg alone. Probably our conservative Midwest upbringing.

We know there are fulltimers out there spending much less than that, and those spending more. Could we spend less? Absolutely, but we don’t want to cut anything. We are pretty conservative, but do enjoy certain things. We’re not willing to give up our satellite TV, internet, cell phones, golf, sightseeing, etc.

Another discovery we’ve made is you get what you pay for with regards to campgrounds. We enjoy the county park we camphost at in the summer. It’s a quiet, natural setting. We don’t mind staying at inexpensive Passport American campgrounds while we travel in between destinations. But, I think we’ll be choosing a little more upscale places to stay for the winter. I think paying a little more will be worth it for nicer resort-type places. It’s nice to have a variety throughout the year.

The weather continues to be fantastic with highs in the 70s and sun, sun, sun. We’ve been walking every day. There are a lot of interesting plants in this part of the desert. This cactus looks soft and fuzzy, but don’t touch it!

Here’s our site. As you can see, sites are tight and gravel. The people here seem nice. We’re planning on participating in some of the activities soon.

Tomorrow I plan to pull out my sewing machine and start a new quilting project. I have several projects I’m looking forward to working on.

Next week the two couples we will cruise to Hawaii with are arriving in Tucson. So, we’re holding off on sightseeing until they get here. Two weeks from today we’ll be cruising. Can’t wait!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Gorgeous

2012-01-04T19:07:00.001-06:00

We have been blessed with fantastic weather since we left Wisconsin. All the way through Texas and New Mexico it was sunny and mild.

Yesterday we arrived in Tucson and the high was 79 degrees. Today the high was 76. Wow!! We’re loving it. Lows have been in the mid 40s. That’s the desert for you.

Today we went grocery shopping and then for an hour walk in the desert behind our campground. Both of us are feeling the effects of the sun today. We’re not sunburned, but definitely sun-kissed. We forgot the sunscreen today; we’ll need to be more careful in the future.

We are in what is considered the high desert, and it’s beautiful. Our campground actually is adjacent to Tucson Mountain Park so there is lots of great scenery all around us. Here’s the view out of our back window. The lady behind us has several bird feeders out so we’re enjoying seeing all the birds without any droppings in our area.

We’re staying at Desert Trails RV Park, south of Tucson. The price is $465 a month which includes a 30 amp FHU site with free wi-fi. The wi-fi has been spotty which I’m sure is the case in most places. It works better early in the morning when there aren’t a ton of people trying to access it.

The park is rather old and a bit rundown. It doesn’t appear there is a lot of money spent on upgrades. The sites are pretty tight. It’s not terrible, just a little “tired”. There is a nice pool and a hot tub. There are also quite a few planned activities. We’ll probably join in on some of them. The lady in the office was very nice and helpful.

We saw this fishhook barrel cactus on our walk. They have yellow fruit or flowers on them, very pretty. I never knew they always tilt to the south.

On the tire front, the good news is that Kevin was able to get a replacement tire in Midland, so we had a spare the rest of our trip. It was not a Goodyear store, so we will be contacting Goodyear directly for reimbursement. I definitely will be asking for all of the tires to be replaced. I’ll let you know what happens. I’m sure it will be a lengthy process, but I don’t give up very easily.

We only stayed in Midland for one night. I didn’t know it is the hometown of Laura Bush and that George and Barbara Bush lived there at one time with their family. There was a lot of oil activity around the area. This was the view out of our back window at the campground.

Quite an interesting sunset view.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Another Tire Bites the Dust

2012-01-01T18:12:00.001-06:00

You may recall that last February one of our Goodyear tires on the camper lost its tread and caused some considerable damage. Since then Kevin has been keeping a very close eye on the other three tires.

Today as we were stopped for gas, he noticed that the tread was separating from one of the tires on the opposite side as last year. He put on the spare tire, and we were on our way again.

Thank goodness he has been so vigilant. If that tread would have come off again, we could have had a serious problem. As you can imagine, we are not happy with these Goodyear tires.

After our problem last year, a friend of ours had the same problem with the G rated Goodyear tires on his Carriage. We have also read on some RV Forums that others have experienced the same issue. Apparently, there was a problem with these particular tires. We will definitely be filing a claim with Goodyear to replace all of our tires.

We are in Midland, Texas for the night. Luckily, this is a pretty large town and we should be able to find a replacement tire before we head to Tucson. We don’t want to be traveling hundreds of miles without a spare.

We really enjoyed our stay at Coffee Creek RV Resort in Santo, Texas the last two nights. The park is only about four years old and is in excellent condition. The sites are FHU 50 amp pull-through. All of the buildings are super clean. The entire place was immaculate. I’ve never seen such luxurious bathrooms at an RV park. They are Passport America members, so we only paid $17.50 per night for two nights. Definitely money well spent.

We had lots of laundry to do. The washers and dryers were large and we were able to get it all done in four loads for a total cost of $10. They also had free wi-fi, although it was rather slow.

Our site was across from the bathhouse and laundry building. The pool and hot tub were next door. Here’s a view of the pool area. You can see our camper across the road. There were only about a dozen other RVs in the entire place.

The weather has been great. Yesterday was in the 70s. We enjoyed sitting outside soaking up the sun and listening to the Wisconsin Badger basketball game on satellite radio.

After dinner we had a soak in the hot tub. We were the only ones in it. What a great New Year’s Eve, soaking in the hot tub with your best friend and watching the moon and stars. I think this may be one of my favorite New Year’s Eve nights ever! The pool was quite cold, but the hot tub was just right!

Today we drove about five hours from Santo to Midland, Texas. This is one very large state. It takes days to cross it. We spent all of today on I-20 which runs through central Texas. There were very few towns along the way, just lots and lots of red dirt, scrubby looking trees and pear cactus. I did not realize that Texas was so dry and desert-like.

We saw an extreme wildfire danger sign at the rest stop. Texas has been suffering from a drought, and it was very obvious. Everything looks very dry and barren. We did see quite a few ranches, cows and oil pumps. In fact, Midland looks like it has a lot of oil activity.

We’re at Midland RV Campground. It seems to be a very basic place, although most of the sites are occupied. I’m wondering if many of the people here are oil workers. It just seems like that kind of place. They do have free wi-fi and cable. We were able to get a discount for being Escapee members, so our cost was $22.95 for the night. We chose it because of the convenient location off the interstate.

I hope everyone had a very Happy New Year. I sure hope our tire problem is not a sign of things to come this year!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T13:23:00.001-06:00

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with family and friends in Wisconsin. The boys cooperated and let me take the annual family pictures.

I was disappointed that there was no snow on the ground for a white Christmas. However, we were lucky to have good driving conditions. The only problem was the day we left. There had been some freezing rain overnight, and we saw several cars in the ditch during about the first hour on our drive back to Kansas. After that, it was smooth sailing. Along the way, we saw quite a few RVs heading south, many of them were from Minnesota.

We arrived back in Kansas at 8:00 pm on Thursday night to find our camper just as we left it. No problems there, great! We spent the night in Coffeyville and were back on the road on Friday morning. It was another long day of driving, about 8 hours. We chose to do one long day and then spend two nights at one spot, rather than break it up. That way we won’t be traveling at all on New Years Eve. Since it’s on a Saturday, we thought there might be a lot of traffic. Yesterday’s traffic wasn’t too bad other than around Ft. Worth, Texas.

So, we’re staying at Coffee Creek RV Resort in Santo, Texas. It’s about 40 miles west of Fort Worth off of I-20. The campground is very nice and clean. They are Passport America members so it’s costing us $17.50 a night for a FHU 50 amp site. We have lots of laundry to do and unpack from our trip. We also had some things we bought from Amazon shipped to Eric’s house. So, now we have to find a place for all of it.

The weather is supposed to be in the low 70s today, so we’ll enjoy a beautiful day while doing our chores.

Happy New Year and stay safe!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T21:04:00.002-06:00

Merry Christmas to all my friends and family in blogger land.

Had a safe and uneventful 12 hour trip to Wisconsin yesterday. We left the RV at the campground in Kansas and are staying at a Super 8 for 6 nights while we visit with our family and friends.

Went to church with our boys and my mom and her friend tonight and then had dinner at my moms. Back to her house tomorrow for more family fun. My brother and his wife will join us for the day.

I’m loving and appreciate this time with my children!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Five More Hours

2011-12-21T16:52:00.001-06:00

We got a very welcome email from Amazon this week. They have released the workampers early so we will not have to work on Friday night!!

We could have actually been done working after last night, but we’ve chosen to work a half shift (five hours) on Thursday night. We’ll sleep Thursday night and then leave early Friday morning for our 12 to 13 hour drive back to Wisconsin. I’m so excited to see our boys again!!

Tonight Janie and John have invited us over for Christmas dinner. I’m sure we’ll have some good laughs before we say good-bye to them. It was sure nice having friends share our working time at Amazon.

The Amazon Coffeyville Distribution Center had a goal of breaking a record by shipping out over 300,000 units last Monday. There were posters throughout the plant advertising the goal. They did not make it. In fact, they missed last year’s record of over 276,000 units by only 36. Amazing that it came down to such a small amount.

The night shift, however, set a record of number of units packed in an hour and the total number of units packed for the night. From what was said by our managers, it sounded like they were blaming the day shift for missing the record. Still, that’s a lot of people buying online. Amazing!

We’re not sure if we’ll come back to Amazon. It’s very hard work! We’re exploring some other options for next year. Time will tell.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Exciting Plans

2011-12-18T12:51:00.001-06:00

In case you haven’t figured it out, we’re going on a cruise!

We’ll celebrate our 35th anniversary in 2012. Our friends, Joan and Al, will celebrate their 40th and friends, Wanda and Dick, will celebrate their 45th. We had all discussed a special trip to celebrate these milestone anniversaries. One of the places we all wanted to see was Australia and New Zealand. After checking into prices, the cost was just too high for us to justify. So, we put the idea on hold.

We all did some checking and our plans have finally all come together. We found a Carnival cruise to Hawaii for a great price. Since we were all planning on meeting up in Arizona in January, the itinerary will fit right into our plans. It’s a 15 day cruise out of San Diego.

We’ll drive from Tucson to San Diego on January 19th and spend a night in San Diego. The hotel price includes parking our truck in their secure lot for the duration of the cruise. We’re leaving our RV at the campground in Tucson.

We cruise for 4 days and then spend the next 5 days touring the Hawaiian Islands. We spend a day each in Hilo, Maui, Honolulu, Kauai and Kona. Then 4 days at sea with a stop in Mexico before returning to San Diego on February 4th.

Kevin and I have been to Hawaii twice before. Once in 1987 for our 10th anniversary and once in 1992 when Kevin earned a trip through work. Both times we didn’t go to the big island. I have always regretted that we didn’t go to Volcano National Park. Now we’ll get the chance. We also haven’t been to Kauai so there will be plenty of new experiences on this trip. I’m hoping to see lava flows and evidence of the active volcano. This picture is from the park’s website.

After 10 weeks at Amazon, I am so thrilled to be going on a trip. Our earnings will be enough to cover the trip plus our living expenses for the winter months. Our hard work will finally pay off!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Santa’s Workshop

2011-12-14T14:12:00.001-06:00

It has been very busy at Amazon the last few days. It kind of feels like what I imagine Santa’s workshop must be like with a lot of elves running around.

There are so many people working, that you have to be careful where you are walking. Fork lifts, bicycles, pallets movers, carts and people are moving around everywhere. They shipped out around a quarter of a millions packages on each of the last two days. Wow!! Supposedly, the last two days were the busiest, but we’ll see.

With all of that volume have come some problems. The conveyors are constantly stopping or breaking down. It’s all they can do to keep things running. Last night was especially difficult. At one point all the conveyors sending boxes to the shipping department were stopped. They actually had a group of workers manually scanning packages, printing shipping labels and carting the boxes off to the shipping docks.

Amazon continues to reward employees during this busy time. On Tuesday night everyone was given a box of three cookies and a bottle of juice during the first break. They are drawing six names every night to win Amazon gift cards. Our department had a power hour last night where the worker with the highest packing rate wins a $300 Walmart gift card.

They are also randomly giving little gifts. We’ve received candy, an ice scraper, a mini-flashlight and a combination tape measure, screwdriver and flashlight gizmo. There will also be a drawing for prizes on Dec. 23rd for those who had perfect attendance between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The good news is we have only seven work days left. I am so looking forward to going home for Christmas and seeing our boys! We’ll spend five days back in Wisconsin for the holidays. We’re leaving our RV at the campground here in Kansas. We’ll pick it up on Dec. 30th and head to Tucson for two months. Can’t wait!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Dubbo Zoo -Hotels and Accommodation

2011-12-13T12:51:00.001-06:00

One of the places I’d really like to visit is Australia. I came across a zoo that looks like a great place.

The Taronga Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo looks like so much fun. It’s an open zoo in Central West NSW, ideal for families.

Find yourself surrounded by magnificent wildlife on wide open plains. Whether you stroll across the grasslands or hire bikes or carts, it’s a fun way to spend time with family and friends, away from it all.

I’d love to go to the Meerkat and Ring-tailed Lemur exhibits and see the giraffes in the wild.

Taronga Western Plains Zoo won the 2011 Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence Award.

There are plenty of Dubbo hotels and accommodation to choose from. So, if you are ever in Australia the Toranga Western Plains Zoo may be a place you want to check out.

Single Digits and Happy Birthday

2011-12-12T13:09:00.001-06:00

We are finally in the single digits. Only 9 days of work at Amazon before we are done!! I am so looking forward to the end. The money is great, but I have had enough of this hard work. Time for some fun and relaxing again.

This week Amazon scheduled each shift for six 10-hour days. Workampers are only required to work 50 hours max per week, so I am working 5 days. Kevin has not decided yet if he will work the extra day. As of now, next week is scheduled for 11 hours on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday; 10 hours on Thursday and 7 hours on Friday. If orders slow down, they may reduce some of those hours.

Last night the backlog was over 130,000. People are still ordering, and we’re still packing those boxes. Tom Clancy must have a new book coming out this week because I sure packed a lot of them last night. Who would have guessed one of the more popular items would be a President Obama Chia head :)

On Saturday was Kevin’s 56th birthday. I cooked his favorite lasagna dinner, and we had Janie and John over to celebrate with us. We enjoyed some cocktails, a nice dinner and then played some Wii games. It was a fun evening; a nice break from the long work hours.

The weather has been pretty decent. We’ve had a few stretches where the lows got below freezing at night. Kevin takes the hose in on those nights, and we use our tanks for water. This week is predicted to be around 50 for the highs, and above freezing at night. So, the hose is back out.

Lots of people here at the RV park have insulated their hoses or purchased heated hoses. Since we aren’t here for that many freezing nights, we just decided to go with the tanks if it gets too cold. So far, that’s been working very well for us.

Our lake has dried up, but never fear; more rain is forecast for this week. I’m sure we’ll be enjoying lake property again soon.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Medical Scrubs

2011-12-07T18:29:00.001-06:00

I know a number of people who work in the medical profession and buy scrubs for their jobs. If you are looking to purchase scrubs, you may want to check out this website: http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/Original-Scrubs/

They have a large selection of cheap medical scrubs to choose from. So, if your looking for scrubs, take a look. Maybe you’ll find exactly what you need!

Lake Property

2011-12-06T14:04:00.001-06:00

When we set up on our site in October, we had no idea that we had been given a prime site. Usually you have to pay more for a lake site, but we have one for free from Amazon.

It’s not just lakefront property, it’s actually in the lake! When it rains, the ground does not absorb the water very well. Added to that is the fact that our site is one of the lowest in the campground. So, the water from the other sites runs into ours.

This area suffered from a drought last summer. When we arrived, they were 10 to 15 inches below average rainfall. So, the rain last week was very welcome. However, we were suddenly parked in a lake.

Our doormat had a couple of inches of water covering it.

Our front jack is sitting on a concrete block and a piece of wood, all under water.

On the Amazon front, we’ve sure been packing a lot of toys. Legos are a hot selling item. Lots of Barbies and other dolls. There’s a new company I never heard of called Melissa and Doug. Their toys appear to be more old fashioned with a lot of wooden toys.

Electronics are also selling like hotcakes. I can’t believe how many different types of ear buds/headphones I have packed. Ear buds from a company called Skull Candy are flying out the door.

Every day brings some strange items. Yesterday I packed a Dr. Who action figure that sold for $40. I had no idea how many different bobble head dolls are available, such as a flying monkey from The Wizard of Oz, or Chewy from Star Wars, or the characters from the movie The Hangover. I’m still seeing plenty of adult rated items. Lately, sexy Santa costumes seem to be a hot item.

Amazon is still scheduling 11 hour work days. We found out that per our contract, the workampers are only required to work 50 hours per week. If they want to work up to 60 hours, they can. But, we are only required to work five 10 hour days at most. That’s enough for me. My back tells me that 10 hours is enough.

Next week, they’ve actually scheduled every shift to work six 10 hour days. We only have to do 5 days. I’m all about that!!! Kevin may work some extra overtime. He is definitely handling the long hours on your feet better than I am. The good news is only 13 days left. And, then the fun begins! Can you tell I’m looking forward to the light at the end of the tunnel?

Amazon has been hosting some events to reward their employees during this peak season. The week before Thanksgiving they fed us all a turkey dinner. Last night we had a Holiday meal consisting of chicken, rice, carrots, salad and apple pie for dessert.

They’re also drawing employee names every night to win Amazon gift cards. Each week they’re providing a snack during one of the breaks. Last night there were managers giving out candy and little prizes like an ice scraper. It’s nice to see the company make a little extra effort to thank their employees during a stressful time of the year.

The weather has turned cold. Lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s. No more riding our bikes to work, time to take the truck!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

The Madness Is Upon Us

2011-12-01T11:37:00.001-06:00

Well, they weren’t kidding when they told us that the “peak” season at Amazon would be crazy. The madness and frenzy are now in full force! Based on the amount of orders, I’m having a hard time believing our economy is in trouble.

When we started our job in mid-October, the backlog each night was around 30,000. The backlog is the number of orders that need to be filled. The last few shifts we’ve worked, the backlog is over 200,000.

With that increased business comes increased work hours. The last 3 out of 4 days were mandatory 11 hour shifts for us. We’re also now on the mandatory 5 shifts per week. That means over 50 hours a week. In addition to all of those hours, there is voluntary overtime available. You are allowed to work a maximum of 60 hours a week.

Kevin worked a voluntary half shift of overtime last night, so he will have a total of 59 hours this week. I said “no thanks” to voluntary overtime, so I’ll ONLY have 54 hours this week.

As you can imagine, we pretty much are just working and sleeping. I have adjusted a little better to working nights. I’m now able to sleep about 6 hours after work. On days off, I’m sleeping 10 or 11 hours in a row. I’m very much looking forward to a regular sleep schedule again!

It’s hard being on your feet for so long. By the end of a shift, my feet and back are quite sore. I can honestly say this is the most physical job I’ve ever had, even more than the waitressing I did in high school and college. And, I was a lot younger then. Kevin spent much more time on his feet in his career, so he is not having as much trouble adjusting.

Last week we were moved from packing on the multi-item lines to the single items section. Now, we’re only packing single item orders. This means even less moving and pretty much standing in one spot. Kevin is sometimes assigned the job of “water spider” which means he brings supplies to the single packing stations to make sure no one runs out of boxes, tape, etc. He likes that job because he gets to move around more.

I’ve been working half of each shift as a “jackpot”. I stand between two conveyors and move the small boxes in the correct position to go through the shipping label machine. It’s boring, but I’m moving back and forth between the conveyors so my back doesn’t get as sore from standing in one spot. It’s good to have a little variety in the work assignment.

The good news is we’ve both lost a little weight. Not as much as we had hoped when we thought we would be “pickers” and walking the whole time, but still a little, which is a good thing.

At most we have 17 days of work left. I’m sure looking forward to the end. As hard as it’s been, the pay-off is excellent, and the income will allow us to take the winter off.

We are seriously considering working for Amazon again next year. Now that we’ve done it, we know better which questions to ask before making the commitment. If they give us day shift and a better job assignment, we’ll probably do it again. Many of the workampers have left or say they will never come back. We’ll have to see what happens.

I sure have had a lot of Blogsvertise ads all of a sudden. Sometimes, they only send me an ad opportunity every couple of months. Now, I’ve had three ads in two weeks. They pay an average of about $10 per ad, so I’m happy to publish them. Every little bit helps. Remember, the ads have a star * at the beginning and end of the title, so you can easily tell if a post is an ad. It’s up to you whether you want to read them or not :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Fiji Vacation

2011-11-30T18:10:00.001-06:00

Recently while doing some research about taking a trip to Australia and New Zealand, I discovered that Fiji is also located in the South Pacific. The island is frequently included as a stop if you choose to book a cruise to Australia or New Zealand.

After looking at some of the information regarding Fiji, I thought it would be a wonderful destination. I discovered some Fiji all inclusive resorts that look fantastic.

There are many Fiji vacation packages available. It looks like an absolute tropical paradise.

Just imagine staying in your romantic villa with five course dinners included in the package. Once you arrive, the biggest decision you'll have to make it which spa treatment you want to do that day.

There are a full range of land and water based activities. Morning yoga, scuba diving, horseback rides in the jungle, and swimming with local dolphins are just a few of the things you can experience on your Fiji vacation.

What could be more romantic than a Fiji honeymoon or anniversary trip where you can enjoy world renowned cuisine al fresco with your partner on your private hanging bed or next to a hidden waterfall in the adjacent rainforest.

As winter gets closer, it sure is fun to dream about a tropical escape!

Miami Airport Parking

2011-11-26T17:19:00.001-06:00

Most of us love to take a trip, whether it’s a vacation or to visit loved ones. But, along with the joy of the trip comes the reality of parking at the airport. Sometimes the fees or inconvenience can be a real turn-off before you ever begin your trip.

If you’re flying out of the Miami airport, you are in luck. Miami airport parking is convenient and reasonably priced. Miami International Airport (MIA) offers a variety of parking options from one day parking to long term parking solutions. Off airport parking is available at the lots surrounding the airport and located within one and a half miles (5-10 min shuttle ride) from the terminals. One of the best options for long term parking would be airport hotel parking. Many of the full service hotels around Miami airport offer long term parking. You do not have to stay at the hotel in order to use their parking lot.

For example, you can park at the Sheraton Miami Airport outdoor lot for $5.50 a day or in their indoor lot for $7.85 per day. Located only half a block from Miami airport, Sheraton MIA airport parking is the closest off-airport parking facility in the area. Their low daily rates give you the best parking services at the most affordable price.

When you park at Sheraton Miami Airport, they help you carry your baggage, there is no waiting in-line, and your car is safe from dust and airplane soot

So, the next time you’re in Miami, check out the very reasonable parking rates at the airport at .http://www.cheapairportparking.org/mia

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T12:55:00.001-06:00

We want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving!

I must admit, I’ve been feeling a bit sorry for myself lately. The work we are doing at Amazon has been more difficult for me than I anticipated. My arthritic joints are complaining.

However, today I am taking the time to remember all the reasons I have to be grateful. I am super grateful for our wonderful sons, a fantastic husband, and all of our family members. I am also especially grateful that we were able to fulfill our dream of fulltime RVing. We are so very blessed.

We are lucky to be in good health. Although my joints hurt sometimes, overall we are both very healthy and we are so thankful. I appreciate the many opportunities we’ve had over the past 19 months to experience first-hand the amazing beauty our country has to offer. Sometimes, the natural beauty has left me breathless.

So, no more complaining. We are two very fortunate people!

Last night we celebrated Thanksgiving with our friends Janie and John. I made a turkey breast with gravy, sweet potato casserole and rolls. Janie brought mashed potatoes, stuffing and an apple pie. We enjoyed a wonderful meal with great friends. After dinner we played the game, Mille Bourne. We discovered that both couples used to play the game with our kids, how fun.

Tonight it’s back to work. We only have to work 5 hours tonight, but it’s 10:30 pm to 3:30 am. We do get overtime because it’s a holiday. After tomorrow, we have 4 weeks left. Believe me, I am counting down.

Next week, the serious overtime kicks in. We’re working on Sunday, normally a day off. Both Sunday and Monday will be 11 hours. If the rest of the week is normal hours, we will have 52 hours for the week. Those checks are going to look so great in our bank account :)

Some of you have left comments wondering if we will pack any of your orders. Some orders get packing slips, some don’t. I have no idea how they decide which orders get a packing slip. But, if your order has a packing slip, there will be a line of small print at the bottom with numbers and letters. If the letters at the end of that line are ebreutz or kbreutz, your order would have been packed by one of us. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if that actually happened!

I’ll leave with you the gorgeous sunset outside of our window last night.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Half Way There

2011-11-20T16:19:00.001-06:00

We’ve survived five weeks of working at Amazon and are half way done. The countdown to the finish line can now begin!

As I have said, the work is hard, but the paychecks will be very nice. My main problem is working the nightshift. I did finally get a definite answer that they won’t move me to the dayshift. So, five more weeks of sleep deprivation. Oh well, this too shall pass.

At least we don’t have mandatory overtime for this week. Since Thursdays are our scheduled night, we have to work on Thanksgiving. However, we don’t have to go in until 7:00 pm (that’s 2 hours later than normal) and we’ll be getting overtime pay because it’s a holiday. Tomorrow Amazon is serving a turkey dinner to the employees during lunch break.

Things this last week were pretty crazy. They were training about 40 new employees in our area, so everything was a bit mixed up. They keep talking about “peak” and how hectic it is. We’ll see.

The weather has been bizarre. We had several days of strong winds between 20 to 30 mph, day and night. All that wind noise didn’t help with sleeping. Then, yesterday it was in the mid 70s and we were wearing shorts. Today it’s cloudy and cooler.

We’ve still been able to ride our bikes to work most nights because lows are hovering in the 40s. We did have a few nights of near freezing temps, but so far haven’t had a need to take in or insulate our water hose. Kevin has bought all the supplies needed to insulate the hose, so when the time comes he’ll be ready.

Other than work, we haven’t done too much. Just relaxing. We rented Captain America from Redbox last night and both of us had trouble staying awake to watch it :) The movie was actually pretty good, but we’re just so tired.

I have made a few purchases on Amazon using our 10% employee discount, so that’s been nice. I have several more items on my wish list, but am waiting to see if the price goes down for Black Friday. Yes, Amazon also has Black Friday specials. I ‘m not going to buy too much, though. Can’t be spending all of our earnings shopping :)

In case you were wondering what my last post was about, it was an ad through a site called Blogsvertise. I’ve posted ads for them before. Each ad I post pays between $10 and $15. They only send me ads to post every month or so, but it sure is easy money. The way for you to know it is an ad is that the title will have a star * before and after it. If you see the stars, you’ll know its an ad, and it’s up to you whether you read it or not.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Taking My Daughter To See The Nutcracker

2011-11-18T13:21:00.001-06:00

Guest post written by Dean Cooper

My daughter is a real girly-girl. I guess that I shouldn't be surprised by it because her mom is the same way. I've even learned how to braid hair just so I can help her get ready for school earlier in the mornings. If only my fraternity brothers could see me now! (But I'm sure that some of them are doing the exact same thing, too.) So I thought that it would be fun to buy some tickets for us to go and see The Nutcracker together for Christmas.

We're going to go and see the ballet together just a few nights before Christmas, so I had to go ahead and order tickets to go and see it. While I was online looking up that stuff, I ran across the website http://hearingaids.miracle-ear.com/. I looked through it some and after that I decided to go and get fitted with some hearing aids. I've had the feeling that I need them anyway.

I haven't told her yet and am waiting for a few more weeks before I do that. But I went ahead and secured the tickets and I can't wait to see the look on her face when I tell her we're going to see The Nutcracker!

And The Winner Is…

2011-11-13T11:14:00.002-06:00

Last Wednesday Amazon had an event they called the Holiday Kick-off. We do not work on Wednesdays, but employees were paid to attend the event, so we walked over to see what it was all about, and get an hour of overtime pay.

It was actually a fun event. Members of management were dressed as elves or reindeer. They pulled a sleigh into the warehouse. In the sleigh was the plant manager dressed as Santa. Behind the sleigh was a local high school marching band playing Jingle Bells.

The event lasted for about an hour. There was a skit by some of the managers and some games in which plant employees were chosen to participate. They also drew names for about 20 to 30 prizes including cameras, Kindles, TVs and Xboxes.

Drum roll here…..Kevin won a Kodak Easyshare camera. Cool. We have a camera we like better, so the Kodak will be sold. But, it was nice to win a prize.

It seems Amazon tries to do some nice things for their employees. They announced there will be some meals served during the peak season between Black Friday and Christmas and more prizes given away. A little can go a long way for morale during a busy season.

We finished our fourth week and have received our second paychecks. Tonight we get to work our first mandatory overtime shift. I’m not too excited about that. I wasn’t expecting mandatory overtime until Black Friday. The plant was shut down from midnight Saturday until 5:00 pm today for scheduled maintenance. Therefore, our shift has to work overtime tonight to make up for the lost time. Oh well, the payoff will be nice.

I’m still struggling with the night hours. I don’t think I’ll ever adjust to it. But, only six weeks to go. And, being able to take the winter months off is the carrot at the end of the stick. It’s worth it to us. Quite a few people have left. This work is definitely not for everyone.

We’ve been riding our bikes most days. Highs have been in the 60s lately, with lows in the 40s. It’s beautiful riding to work, but a bit cold coming home. However, it’s only a few blocks, so not that bad. The full moon has been absolutely gorgeous the last few nights.

Last night we went to dinner with Janie and John Dean. They are also fulltime RVers, about our age with two sons. I first met Janie online through our blogs. Last November, we met them in person in Las Vegas. We’ve kept in touch, and when they heard we were working at Amazon, they thought they’d also give it a try.

We went to Jack’s Place in Liberty, Kansas which is just a few miles from the campground. Jack’s is a bar in a very small town. They serve food, and the burgers are quite good.

After dinner, we came back to our camper and taught Janie and John how to play Wizard and Sequence. It was a great evening spent with great people! Lots of laughter, which is always a good thing. It was nice to get out and do something fun. I even forgot how tired I was for a while :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Short Trip to Arkansas

2011-11-07T12:29:00.001-06:00

This weekend we visited our good friends, Dick and Wanda, who live in Bella Vista, Arkansas. They used to live in Wisconsin, and we met them about fifteen years ago when they joined the camping club we belonged to.

Several years ago they sold their home in Wisconsin and spent a year traveling in their motorhome. They found they really liked the Bella Vista area and bought a condo.

Bella Vista is a little over two hours from Coffeyville so we left Saturday early afternoon and came back last night. On Saturday afternoon they took us to Bentonville, Arkansas which is the headquarters of the Wal-Mart Corporation.

There is a Wal-Mart museum in downtown Bentonville located in the first Walton’s five and dime store which opened in 1950. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I only have a few pictures taken on my phone.

It was very interesting to learn about Sam Walton and how he and his brother built the Wal-Mart empire. I know there are a lot of Wal-Mart haters out there, but I must say I got the impression he was a nice guy, with good values and an excellent business sense. Since he opened his first Walton’s store in 1950, Wal-Mart has grown to 8,700 stores worldwide with gross sales of $450 billion in 2010.

Our next stop was the Crystal Bridges Art Museum building site. The museum is set to open on November 11. Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton, had the idea to built a museum of American art in Bentonville. The Wal-Mart Foundation has donated $1.2 billion to make her dream become a reality. It’s really quite something and will made Bentonville a destination for many tourists and art lovers. I read that part of the donation was to ensure admission to the museum will be free.

There is a trail through a beautifully landscaped public garden to get to the viewing deck to see the museum. It’s a very impressive complex with two ponds formed by the Crystal Springs. Barbara Bush was there on Saturday for some type of special function prior to the opening of the museum. There was a police officer stationed at the viewing deck.

The fall colors were spectacular in Bella Vista. What a beautiful part of the country.

Saturday night we all felt a shaking sensation. Turns out there was an earthquake in Oklahoma, and we felt it in Arkansas. I’ll be interested to hear what people around here have to say about it.

On Sunday we played 18 holes of golf with Dick and Wanda. They belong to a couple of golf leagues so we were part of their outing. Kevin won $9 for the lowest net score. The skies were cloudy, but temps were in the 60s, so we had a pleasant day and a great time golfing with good friends.

After golf we went to a local pizza place, enjoyed some delicious pizza and watched the Packers beat the Chargers. We had no idea how many Packer fans there are in Arkansas.

Thanks Dick and Wanda for inviting us to visit. We had a terrific time!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Technical Difficulties

2011-11-02T17:37:00.001-05:00

This has been a week of technical problems. I had some eBooks on hold through the public library. I got an email on Sunday letting me know one of the books was available. That’s great as I has just finished a book.

I downloaded the book to my computer and they hooked up my Sony Reader to transfer the book. When I dragged and dropped the book to the Reader, it didn’t transfer and I got a message the program was not responding. I tried a few times, with the same result each time. As it was time for bed, I gave up and figured I’d deal with it on Monday morning.

When I turned on my computer on Monday morning, it wouldn’t start. I tried a safe mode start and some fixes I knew of, but it wouldn’t start no matter what I did. I have a four your old Toshiba laptop with Vista. I’ve never had a problem with it, but wondered if it would be worth fixing.

Since we’re in an unfamiliar area, I went online on Kevin’s computer and found a few places that do computer repair in the area. No one answered my calls, so I left a few messages. A young man named Mike who owns his own computer repair business in Independence, was the first to call me back. I told him the problem, and he said he would try to fix it. He also told me that Vista is a bear to work with. He even volunteered to pick it up at the RV park as he was driving right by.

He came by Monday afternoon before we left for work and said he’d have an answer for my the next day. We agreed he would call if the cost was over $55. Tuesday afternoon he called and said it was fixed. He offered to bring it back to us. The total cost with tax was $60. Mike sure knows his stuff and gave us great service.

Apparently, some spyware had gotten into my computer. I am pretty good about doing scans and being proactive to prevent this kind of thing, but this time they got me. Mike checked everything else out, and he said it all looked fine.

So, now the computer is working. I hooked up the Reader again, and still couldn’t get the book to transfer. I did a little troubleshooting online, and ended up uninstalling and reinstalling the program. Still no luck.

I emailed Sony and told them my problem. I couldn’t believe I had a response within an hour. They had me reformat the Reader itself. Still not working. I emailed them back and they told me I should call their customer service number because it was too complicated to handle via email.

We had to go to work, so that call had to wait until this morning. By now I’ve had two days with poor sleep, and I must admit I was a bit crabby about the whole thing. Kevin will confirm that :)

I called Sony Technical Support and told them of my problems. Jose had me to go a site where he could access my computer remotely. I could see everything he was doing. He did some checking and thought it was not the Reader, but something in the computer program or the connection. He had me switch the cord to another USB port. Still no luck. He asked me if I was using the cord that came with the Reader. I didn’t know. I found the box, and there was the cord that came with the Reader still in the box.

I had been using a cord that came with my cell phone to tether it to my laptop. It had been working fine, but apparently the cord had gone bad. I changed the cords, and presto! It worked!!!

I am so impressed with Sony’s service. Although my Reader was still under warranty, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get any help figuring out what was wrong with it. The response from Sony was excellent.

So, now all the technical gadgets are working well again. I love technology; but when it’s not working, it can be so frustrating. I’m surprised I didn’t think of the cord as the problem. I knew about cords going bad, just never thought of it. I blame it on being tired.

Things at Amazon have been a little slow this week. They actually asked for volunteers to go home early last night, and were asking for people to not come in tonight. We’re here to earn money, so we don’t volunteer to leave. I think people are waiting for the Black Friday deals to start, and then the shopping frenzy will begin. We did end up getting sent home an hour early last Friday, but that’s not so bad.

The items I’ve been seeing a lot this week are a new book by David Baldacci and CDs by Susan Boyle and Michael Buble. I may be strange, but sometimes I wonder what the story is behind the orders. Is it a teacher ordering multiple copies of a book? Who are these people buying all the gourmet cat food? Is the person who ordered $180 worth of cake decorating books starting a business? Why are so many people buying cereal and peanut butter from Amazon? Is there a baby boom, because I sure am packing lots of baby stuff? I know, I’m strange.

It’s raining today which is a good thing. This area is very dry. It’s the first rain we’ve seen since before we left Wisconsin.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Little House on the Prairie in Kansas

2011-10-30T17:38:00.002-05:00

I remember watching Little House on the Prairie when I was a girl. The TV show took place in Minnesota. I’m sure I read some or all of the books, but I don’t remember much about them.
So, I was surprised to find that there is a site about thirty miles from here where the Ingalls family lived for over a year from 1869 to 1871.

It’s just a little site in a rural area outside of Independence, Kansas. There is a reproduction of the cabin the Ingalls lived in, as well as a historic school and post office that were moved to the site from the surrounding area. The school is on the left, the post office in the middle, and the log cabin on the right.

Can you imagine a family of five living in this little cabin? I think it’s probably less square footage than our RV. And, we don’t have three children living with us.

There’s only one bed, so I’m thinking the children slept on mats on the floor.

Not a very comfortable looking chair.

There was a map that showed the places the Ingalls family lived. I didn’t realize how much they moved around. The lived in Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota. I love finding these little out of the way places. This is someplace we never would have visited if we were living our old life. But, what the heck, since it was only thirty miles away, why not.
On the Amazon front, we finished our second week and have both received our first paychecks. Yeah! I have not gotten any response to my two emails regarding switching to days, so it looks like we are stuck on the night shift. While it’s not ideal, I’m managing and we’ll end us with some extra money for working nights, so it will have to do.
It’s interesting to see the many items people order. According to what we were told at orientation, Amazon’s business is up 60% over last year. So, I guess not everyone is hurting from the bad economy. We packed a lot of the new Steve Jobs and John Grisham books last week, as well as the Captain America DVD.
Last night, Amazon arranged for the party room at the local Pizza Hut, and invited seasonal camper workers to attend at your their expense. Our friends Janie and John are also working at Amazon, and they had just arrived on Thursday. So, the four of us went to the Pizza Hut gathering. There were more people than they had room for in the party room, so we ended up in a booth outside of the room.
We didn’t get to connect much with any of the other workampers, but we had a nice time with Janie and John and enjoyed a good meal together.
Tomorrow we start week three. Time is going fast. Before we know it, we’ll be done working, and have spending money in the bank.

Meeting Fellow Workampers

2011-10-23T13:13:00.001-05:00

We’ve been off of work for four days in a row. I’m actually getting a little bored. I didn’t pull out any of my quilting stuff because we won’t have this kind of downtime again, so we’ve just been taking it easy. That’s a good thing, since tomorrow we start our next work week.

The weather has been fantastic. Highs near 80 degrees every day and mostly sunny. We had a little rain overnight, but nothing severe. We were fortunate that the storms went to our south. About an hour south of us they had baseball sized hail.

We’ve been taking walks around the campground every day to keep our feet in shape. While out walking, we’ve met a few other couples who are working at Amazon. I had read comments from two of them regarding working at Amazon on the RVDreams.com forum. We also met our youngest son’s girlfriend’s aunt and uncle, who are also full-time RVers. They got here two weeks before we did. Small world, isn’t it :)

On Friday night, we sat outside for a few hours and chatted with our next door neighbors. They’ve been fulltiming for about a year and have a toy hauler in which they haul their Harley Davidson motorcycle. Only the husband is working at Amazon. Did I mention that there are quite a few couples where only the husband is working? I was surprised by that.

It’s nice to meet other fulltimers. It’s a good opportunity to share information and learn from others. On Saturday there is a gathering for the Amazon Camperforce workers at the Pizza Hut in Coffeyville. We’re planning on attending.

We watched some Redbox movies this week, the latest Transformer release and Bridesmaids. We were a bit disappointed in Bridesmaids. It had it’s moments, but dragged in quite a few parts. Also, in my opinion, some of the intended humor was more ridiculous than it was funny.

The Green Bay Packers game is not on TV in this part of the country today. Kevin has his satellite radio all set up so he can listen to it. This is exactly why he got the service, can’t be missing those baseball and football games.

I’m cheering for the Texas Rangers to win the World Series. The Cardinals beat our Brewers, so they’re on my **** list!

Go Packers!!!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

One Down, Nine To Go

2011-10-20T15:00:00.001-05:00

We survived our first week, nine to go.

As I said, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. For me, the worst is adjusting to the night shift. I’m able to sleep between five and six hours before waking up. I normally am not one to take naps, but I did nap for about 30 minutes yesterday. We don’t plan on keeping this crazy sleep schedule on our days off. I hope to get a very good night’s sleep tonight :)

The second hardest thing is being on your feet for 10 hours. Packing on the line does give you the opportunity to move around a bit, so you’re not completely standing in one spot all the time. But, after the first 8 hours, my feet are pretty sore. However, the next morning I’m feeling fine again, just tired.

Time does go pretty fast. There’s always another order to pack. Last night we found out that two of the lines are for big orders. That involves preparing larger boxes and filling those orders. A lot of diapers, formula, and bulk food items. These lines seem to have the most problems. Because of the size of the items, they sometimes get stuck in a chute or go down the wrong one. So, you spend a lot of time looking for your items or getting help from the problem solving desk.

Each shift you work the first half of the shift on one line, and then they switch you to another one for the second half. It’s supposed to help keep everyone from doing the same repetitive motions. I definitely like the smaller order lines better. Working the big order lines involves much more bending and lifting.

It’s quite interesting to see some of the products Amazon sells. I’m surprised by the amount of food products, things like boxes of cereal, peanut butter and coffee are popular items. Also, lots of baby and electronic items. Many of the orders are for books. I noticed lots of religious books, maybe it’s a sign of the times. Some of the most unusual items have been some adult rated items. I packed a book called “Tickle His Pickle”. And yes, it’s what you’re thinking :) I also packed a box of adult playing cards. Kevin had an order for powdered peanut butter. We’ve never heard of that.

I’ve had quite a few comments on my last few posts with questions, so I’m going to try to answer them all. Our shifts are ten hours. Amazon is paying the full cost of our site. I was surprised to learn that quite a few of the couples here only have one of them working at the plant. Amazon still pays for the full site.

The first two nights I wore tennis shoes. Last night I wore my Merrell hiking shoes. They were a bit more comfortable because the soles are thicker. You are not allowed to wear toning shoes. They have been deemed to be a trip hazard. I have a pair of Avia toning tennis shoes, and they are the most comfortable shoes I’ve ever had. So, I was bummed that I couldn’t wear them. Kevin says his back and feet have not been hurting.

There are no pads on the floor on the lines because you have to roll your cart up and down the line to the chutes that have orders ready. There is an area called singles where you stand at a station and pack single items. There are mats in that area. We’ll probably have to work there at some point, as well. I think standing in one spot, even with a mat, would be harder. We’ll see.

Amazon has hired some returning workampers to be Seasonal Camper Coaches. There is a lady (I forgot her name) who has come around the last two nights and asked us how things are going. I told her about our problem of not getting the shift and job we thought we had signed up for. She said many people have the same complaint. She heard there was an HR meeting last week where it was decided the only way to get anything changed would be with a doctor’s excuse. So, I’m thinking we’re stuck with this shift. Of course, we could just leave. But, let’s face it. Everyone is here for the same reason, for the money. Between the two of us, we will make about $10,000 in 10 weeks. We feel the pay-off is worth it. So, we’re staying and will deal with it. After all, only 9 weeks to go :)

I’d like to welcome several new followers. It seems this Amazon topic is of interest to quite a few of you. I’ll keep giving you as much information as I can. Keep asking questions, so I know what you want to hear about.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

We Survived Our First Night!

2011-10-18T13:25:00.001-05:00

And, it wasn’t that bad!

We spent the first half of our shift getting trained. There was one other couple getting trained with us. Our trainer, Tammy, took us through a simulator program that showed us how to do the packaging job, and what problems might arise.

We’re in Crisplant where all of the orders get packaged. It’s quite amazing how it all works. I think this is the least favorite area to work because it is quite noisy. There are many different types of conveyors all over the place, creating lots of noise.

After our lunch break (I’ve never had lunch at 10:00 p.m. before), we were assigned to a line and began working for real. There are eight lines that run the length of the warehouse. The lines are split into sections, and you are assigned to a couple of sections. Each section has 24 chutes in it, 12 up and 12 down.

Conveyors are bringing orders to the chutes. You are assigned to a cart for certain sections of the line. The cart is equipped with a computer, boxes, tape, labels and packing materials.

The chutes have lights on them. When two lights are blinking, that’s a priority order and you do those first. When one light is blinking, you fill those orders as you can. So, you’re pushing your cart along your part of the line, stopping at the ones that have the flashing lights, and filling those orders. This allows you to not stand in one spot all of the time.

Each chute has a bar code with it. You scan the code, and the computer tells you what size box to use, and what items are in the order. Most of the time, the correct items are in the chute. If there’s anything missing, it’s usually in a chute nearby, and it’s because the conveyor dropped it down the wrong chute.

The tape machine has buttons coded to match the box codes. You push the button corresponding to the box you’re using, and it spits out the correct size packing tape, already wet. I had the most trouble getting the tape on some of the larger boxes. Kevin and I both wore gloves to keep from getting glue all over our hands.

They provide the gloves, as well as earplugs for the noise. I didn’t find the plant noise that bad. I put in the earphones when they started blasting music. There are a lot of young people working in this area, and they like their music loud :)

I hope this isn’t too confusing. I’m trying to explain it the best I can because many people have expressed an interest in how it works.

My feet and knees were quite tired and sore by the end of the night, but nothing I can’t deal with. I did take some ibuprofen about halfway through the night, and that helped. I went to bed at 4:30 a.m. and slept until 10:30 a.m. I took a Tylenol PM before going to bed because I was very worried I’d be up after only a few hours. Hopefully, after a few nights, my body clock will adjust.

So, while our job and hours are not what we were expecting, it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. We’ll be able to do it, and are making more money by working nights. If they are able to switch us to days, we’ll still take it.

Our normal shift will be M, T, Th, and F from 5:00 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. This week because we had training on Sunday, we’re working M, T, and W. Then we’ll have a four day weekend before our regular shift starts next week.

We met quite a few members of the Camper Force (that’s what we’re called) last night. Most of them are not doing the job they thought they were getting. So, I think the hiring process was a bit misleading. Everyone seems to have a pretty good attitude about it. After all, there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. And, face it, we’re all here for one reason. To make some decent money for a short period of time. Amazon even has a logo for us :)

I think it will be worth it. By working at Amazon, we’ll be able to enjoy the winter without working. We like that trade-off!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Hitch in the Process

2011-10-17T08:27:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was our orientation day at Amazon. We were told it would be from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The first order of business was to take everyone’s picture for the ID tags. Then we walked through part of the warehouse to one of the training rooms.

There the group of 38 was split into two. Our group went on the two hour safety training tour. Everyone was given a radio with an earphone so we could hear our leader. That worked very well. He took us all around the warehouse, and showed us everything we needed to know about safety. He taught us how to be safe around the conveyor belts and fork lift trucks. We learned the correct way to push the carts, lift boxes, move pallets, pick up totes, etc. Most of it was common sense, but we got a good look at the warehouse. It’s huge, over one million square feet. Crisplant, which is the packing area for multi-item orders, was the loudest part of the plant due to a chain conveyor system that goes around overhead.

After we were done with the safety tour, we went back to the training room for lunch. They provided us with turkey and beef sandwiches, veggies and dip, and soda or water. It was simple but good. They raffled off a few prizes, tote bags, coffee mugs, shirts. We didn’t win.

After lunch the second group went on the safety tour, and we watched videos on harassment, diversity, business ethics, the usual HR stuff. We sat around for a few hours doing nothing while they got each person set up with passwords and checked documentation. This afternoon session seemed rather disorganized. There was paperwork to complete, and then we finally left at 6:30 p.m. We got paid for all hours we were there, so, although sitting around for a few hours with nothing to do was a bit annoying, it wasn’t all that bad.

We had a chance to talk to some of the other people. A few were returning. I was surprised they had to go through the whole orientation process again.

The hitch came when we were told what our jobs would be. They didn’t tell us until the end of the day after we had already done all of the rest of the process. We were told we would be working as packers in Crisplant on the night shift. WHAT????? That’s not at all what we thought we signed up for!

When we had our phone interview and were hired in April, we were asked what our preferences were. We told Paul, the interviewer, that we did not think we could stand in one place for 10 hours and would prefer walking. He suggested the picker job for us. We also told him we wanted to work days. Kevin and I both got the impression from that interview that we would be given the job of pickers on the day shift.

So, you can imagine that we were pretty shocked to find out that we were given the exact opposite of what we asked for. Paul was doing the training, so we talked to him about it. He said there must have been a mistake, but didn’t know if he could do anything about it at this time. He told us he would try to get us on days.

Those of you who know me, know that I am so not a night person. Working from 5:00 p.m. to 3:30 a.m. is going to be very hard for me. I have a very hard time sleeping during the day. We were also given the doughnut shift which is Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. We would have preferred working four days in a row, so we could have three days off. Oh well, that’s not the worst. We can deal with that.

So, we start our night shift job today. I’m going to give it a try and hope that Paul can get us switched to days. Kevin is much more of a night person, so he thinks he can handle it. Time will tell, but I’m pretty bummed about all of this.

The good news is that the night shift gets paid $11.00 per hour rather than $10.50.

There was one other thing that was different than we were led to believe. When we were hired, we thought we would each get a $500 bonus if we stayed through Dec. 23rd. That’s not the case. You get a bonus of 50 cents per hour you work, if you stay until the end. That’s more like $250 to $300 per person depending on how much overtime there will be.

So, I’m not too thrilled about this turn of events. But, we drove all the way down here, and we are going to do our best to make it work for us. Who knows, maybe it wont’ be as bad as I think.

There are no phones or cameras allowed inside the plant, so I won’t be able to show you any pictures. Just believe me when I tell you it’s massive.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Checking Things Out

2011-10-15T18:02:00.001-05:00

This morning we drove to Coffeyville to check things out. It’s a pretty small town about 7 miles from us, with one main road that has tons of fast food places, but no Dairy Queen :(

There is also a new Wal-Mart in town with a Redbox, so we were able to rent the new X-Men movie for tonight.

Since we had a buy-one, get-one coupon for a Blizzard, we had to also check out the town of Independence, which does have a Dairy Queen, as well as another Wal-Mart. Independence is about twice as far as Coffeyville, so I don’t see a reason why we’ll have to go back there, unless we need a Dairy Queen fix. Both towns are pretty small. We are about an hour from any type of larger city, either Joplin, Missouri or Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Since tomorrow is our official start day at Amazon, it’s also my first day of eating less, especially snacks. So, we may not be visiting Independence again :(

Because we will be doing so much walking at work, I hope to use this as motivation to eat better and lose 10 pounds. We’ll see how that goes. I’m hoping that instead of paying to belong to a health club, I can get paid to lose weight :)

When we got back from shopping, we rode out bikes over to Amazon. Even though our campground is across the street, it’s still a couple of miles to the employee entrance. Amazon is huge.

It took us about 7 minutes on our bikes, and they have bike racks for employees. So, as long as the weather holds out, we’ll be riding our bikes to and from work. Kevin wanted to walk, but that will take too long when our start time is at 6:30 a.m. The bikes are a good compromise.

Quite a few readers have expressed interest in how this Amazon job will work out. So, I will try to give you a good look at exactly what we’ll be doing. Hopefully, I won’t be boring anyone.

Did you know that Kansas is the Sunflower State. I haven’t seen too many of them, but it may be too late in the season. It’s quite dry here. I think this area may have experienced some drought this summer. These are the only sunflowers I’ve seen so far, and they are next to Amazon’s parking lot.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Very Eventful Travel Day

2011-10-14T17:20:00.001-05:00

The day started with a beautiful sunrise.

Today we were only going to travel about 100 miles to Coffeyville, Kansas. We weren’t in any hurry, so we got up, packed up and were on the road at about 10:00, planning to arrive at around noon.

About 15 miles before we were supposed to reach our destination, we saw a huge cloud of smoke ahead of us. At about the same time, I noticed all kinds of loose hay scattered along the side of the highway. Traffic on Highway 169 came to a stop. This is what I saw about 100 yards ahead of us.

I also noticed that the grass along the side of the road next to us was smoking.

Pretty soon I saw actual flames in the grass. The wind was blowing the smoke and ash towards our camper, and the fire was growing. I kept thinking a fire truck would come, but as the fire got bigger, I got scared. So, I called 911 and reported it. The dispatcher connected me to the Sheriff’s Department, and they did not know about this grass fire. They only knew about the truck that was on fire ahead of us.

Within a few minutes, a pumper truck came driving up along the shoulder and began spraying water on the grass fire. I’m sure glad I called. It would have been a really bad day if our RV caught fire!

After waiting for about 1-1/2 hours, a DOT worker came and told us it would be another 30 minutes or so to clear the debris off of the road. We weren’t going anywhere. There was no way to turn around. At one point, there were two semi-trucks stuck across the road while trying to turn around; one on each side of the accident. We were thinking we might never get out of there.

Luckily, both trucks were able to get themselves turned around before traffic started flowing again. Our total wait time was 2-1/2 hours. Here’s what we saw when we finally were able to get past the fire. The driver of that trailer was not having a good day!!!

We’re staying at Big Chief Campground which is across the street from Amazon. Sharon checked us in, and she was very nice. We’re in site E-10. Last season was the first time this campground was open. It’s basically a big field with pull-through sites with full hook-ups. They are in the process of building a new bathhouse which will have laundry facilities. That’s a plus.

But, the location is great, and Amazon is paying for our stay. Sunday the campground is sponsoring a cookout after we get back from orientation. Tomorrow we’ll do a little exploring. Right now it’s time for Happy Hour!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Hillsdale State Park, Kansas

2011-10-13T19:01:00.001-05:00

We left Iowa yesterday morning, and drove for about 7 hours to Hillsdale State Park in Kansas. We encountered some rain a few times, but it wasn’t too bad. We both prefer shorter travel days, but I had checked out this park online, and it looked very nice. So, Kevin drove a few extra hours so we could spend 2 nights here.

I’m so glad he did. This is a great park. I’d say one of the nicest we’ve stayed at. It is situated along the shores of a reservoir that was built as part of a flood control plan in the 1980s. There are 200 campsites in 6 different camping loops, with 3/4 of them having electric and water hook-ups. The fall camping fee was $20.20 per night, which included the daily fee for park entrance.

We’re in the Scott Creek loop. That’s Scott Creek behind our site. We have a fantastic view out of our back window. When the reservoir was built, 70 percent of the standing timber was left to provide fish habitat. That’s why you can see dead trees sticking out of the water.

Each site has a pole cemented into a tire with a hook on the end. It’s to the left of the picnic table in the picture. We can’t figure out what the poles are for.

The park is huge with just under 3,000 acres. In addition to the camping, there are 2 beaches, shelters, hiking and biking trails, boat launches, fishing and a marina. This morning we hiked for 2 hours. After lunch we rode our bikes for an hour. Trying to condition our bodies for those long hours on our feet at Amazon.

Here’s one of the beaches. Today was a beautiful day with highs in the mid 70s, but the beach was empty except for a few geese. The marina is to the right.

I saw this huge wasp or hornet on the sand. It had to be at least 3 inches long. I’ve never seen a wasp or bee this big, it was scary looking.

The hiking trail loops around the water, and so we saw our camper from across the creek. That’s our home in the middle.

There were many trees with these large green balls growing on them. We don’t know what they’re called. However, several years ago when we were in Amana, Iowa, one of the shops was selling these balls. Supposedly, they keep spiders out of your basement. At that time, I bought some and put them in the basement at home. I can’t really say I noticed a difference in the amount of spiders we had down there that year.

We got a kick out of this sign.

It’s for one of the other camping loops. We realize that it’s referring to the fish; but at first glance, it made us think of crappie, as in something is crummy or nasty.

It was a pleasant surprise to discover that one of the camping loops actually has a small laundry room with 2 washers and 2 dryers. I was able to wash all of our dirty clothes, so we won’t have to think about it during our first week at Amazon.

As I said, we really like it here, and definitely would come back again. Tomorrow we head to Coffeyville. It’s only about 100 miles from here, so it will be a short travel day.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Another Fantastic Day

2011-10-11T20:26:00.002-05:00

Today was another gorgeous day, made even better because it was spent with family.

In the morning, we rode our bikes in the opposite direction we traveled on the bike trail yesterday. We ended up in Cedar Falls. Much of the trail is along the banks of the Cedar River, very pretty. I just love these bike trails.

We came upon the Ice House Museum in Cedar Falls. It was closed, but had an information sign. This large icehouse was built in 1921, is 100 feet in diameter, and 30 feet high. In it’s day it stored 6,000 to 8,000 tons of ice harvested from the river. The blocks weighed up to 200 pounds and could last up to 12 months stored in the sawdust. The last ice was harvested in 1934. In 1975, funds were raised and the building was restored.

Our ride also took us through Island Park. I saw this building with the sign that says Island Park Beach House. I was joking with Kevin that it was the smallest beach house I’ve ever seen.

It turns out there was a lovely beach house built along the shores of the Cedar River in 1920. Sadly, it fell victim to the terrible flooding this area experienced in 2008 and was demolished. Here’s a picture of what it looked like in the 1920s.

I saw this huge bird in one of the trees in the park. I thought it was possibly an owl. After zooming in, I think it’s actually some type of hawk. It was really big. Maybe my blogger friend, Judy, will know what it is.

Kevin noticed that all the houses along the river have a unique architectural style. The first level is the garage built out of concrete block. The main living area is built above the garage. Kevin’s brother, Joe, told us that there is frequent flooding along the river, and these homes are built with that in mind. Interesting.

We had made plans to golf with Joe so we met him and his wife, Julie, at their house in Waverly and headed to the golf course. Kevin, Joe and I golfed, and Julie rode along in the cart with Joe. Kevin and Joe haven’t golfed together in many years, and I think they really enjoyed themselves. I didn’t play very well. The course had many rolling hills. I felt like I was always standing on an incline, and my fairway shots were not good. Oh well, it was such a nice day, and we had a good time anyway.

Joe and Julie took us on a tour of their workplace. They both work at Wartburg College.

Julie took a vacation day, and Joe doesn’t have classes on Tuesday, so was able to arrange his schedule to spend the afternoon with us. Julie works in the IT Department, and Joe is a Math and Computer Science professor. Here’s Dr. Breutzmann in his office.

Waverly also has a bike path, so we walked a portion of it along the Cedar River. We spent some time visiting at their home, and then they treated us to dinner at a great Mexican restaurant in town. Their son, Robert, was able to join us for dinner. Thanks for a great day!

A full moon was just coming up as we arrived back home. A beautiful end to a perfect day.

I had to laugh at the comment fellow bloggers, Kevin and Ruth, left yesterday. They wanted to know why we paid an extra $5 a day for a full hook-up site. I had that same question. We’re only here for 2 nights, and I thought an electric only site would be just fine. Kevin had other ideas. He told me he didn’t want to have to spend the time filling up with water when we got here, and he didn’t want to guess how much water to put in, and he didn’t want to tow with the weight of extra water when we left, etc., etc., etc. None of it made sense to me, since he’s done all of that in the past. Well, after a little teasing, he admitted that he’s on vacation this week between his job in Wisconsin and Amazon, and he just didn’t feel like messing with the water. I get it, that’s just fine. We tend to be frugal, too; but sometimes you just want to splurge a little. This was Kevin’s little splurge :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

We’ve Arrived in Iowa

2011-10-11T08:43:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we had an uneventful drive from Beaver Dam, Wisconsin to Cedar Falls, Iowa. It was another beautiful day with highs in the 80s. I love uneventful driving days!

We’re staying at Black Hawk Park. It’s a county campground, and is very nice. We have a full-hook up site with 50 amp service for $22 a night. They also have electric only sites for $17.

We’ve heard that Iowa has lots of bike trails. That’s the case at this park. There are miles of bike trails that go through this park. You can ride to many of the surrounding cities. Yesterday we rode for about an hour. The trails are paved, and it was a great ride. We went to Big Woods Lake Park. There is another county campground there.

I’m loving these bike trails. Today, we’ll ride in the opposite direction we went yesterday and see what we can find.

The main reason we stopped in Iowa on our way to Kansas was to visit Kevin’s brother, Joe, and his family. Last night Joe and his youngest son, Robert, came for a visit. Joe’s wife, Julie, was at a meeting, so we’ll see her today. We cooked hot dogs and smores at the campfire and had a nice visit. Today, we’re driving up to there house in Waverly.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Fabulous Weather and an Interview

2011-10-09T13:28:00.001-05:00

The past seven days have been some of the most beautiful weather ever. Sunny, highs near 80* every day, and no humidity. The sky is that gorgeous crisp blue color you only get in fall. The great weather brought many campers to our park. We only had one vacant site by the time Saturday evening rolled around. The fantastic weather has caused the trees to explode with color.

Unfortunately, the unit camped right next to us this weekend were the most annoying people we’ve encountered during the entire season. We don’t have a problem being friendly, but the woman talked non-stop. As soon as she saw us, she was over here. Then she acted like she was our helper, telling other campers the rules. Their dog was a yappy little barker. Her grandchildren came Saturday afternoon and ran wild through the park without any supervision. They were running around behind our camper. I was afraid they’d knock our satellite dish over. One of them had an accident in the bathroom. They were just a real pain!

Thank goodness we’re leaving tomorrow. We’ve had enough of “customers” for a while. Don’t get me wrong, we loved our summer here. But, after almost six months, it’s time to move on for a while. We’ve agreed to come back next year, and are happy to do so. Kevin will be the caretaker again, and we’ll be camphosting, too. Just need a break :)

On Thursday I went to Eric’s one more time before we leave. He had to replace a few boards while siding his garage. So, I gave them a coat of paint for the winter. I also did our laundry. Now it’ll be back to laundromats for a while.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Shane who hosts a website called NationalRVParks.com. He’s been reading my blog, and wanted to know if we’d be willing to be interviewed for his website. I said sure. So, he sent me some questions, I responded, and here is the result. Isn’t the internet amazing.

Tomorrow we leave for Iowa for a few days to visit Kevin’s brother and family. We’ll make our way to Coffeyville, Kansas where we begin our job at Amazon on October 16th. So, the next adventure begins.

I’ll leave you with a picture from our “yard”. If you haven’t guessed by now, we’re Wisconsin sports fans. Our Milwaukee Brewers won the first round of the play-offs in dramatic fashion in the tenth inning of game five. They begin round two against the St. Louis Cardinals this afternoon. Go Brewers!!! So far this season, the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers are undefeated. How exciting!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Another Bike Ride

2011-10-02T09:07:00.001-05:00

Prior to yesterday we had seven days in a row with rain. We did manage to take some walks during that time, but not much else. Highs last week were in the 50s. Time to be heading south.

Yesterday the sun finally reappeared. Temperatures were still in the high 50s and we had frost the last two nights. However, the forecast for all of the upcoming week is highs in the mid 70s. That’s more like it. With the frosty conditions this morning, the lake was steaming.

Since it was sunny yesterday, we decided to take another bike ride on the Wild Goose State Trail. I thought the leaves would be full of color. We had a nice ten mile ride, but there was very little color. Quite a few brown leaves were on the ground, but the trees were still full of green. I’m thinking the trees along the trail aren’t the colorful type. There was some beautiful red sumac.

The fuzz is coming out of the Milkweed pods, and there’s lots of Goldenrod around. Not good for allergy sufferers. You can see the dry cornstalks in the background of the picture. I’m amazed how many corn fields have not been harvested. I ‘m not positive, but I think they grind up the entire dry cornstalk and use it as silage to feed the cows during the winter.

We got home in time to watch the Milwaukee Brewers win their first playoff game. After that, the Wisconsin Badgers handily beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Today the Brewers play game two, and the Green Bay Packers have a game. Kevin is in sports heaven right now!

Our park has several Shaggy Bark Hickory trees. The last two weeks, there have been a number of people coming by and collecting the nuts. I asked one couple what they do with them. They told me they are very tasty, and they also sell them. After a little online searching, I found out people are selling them for $9 to $12 a pound. I had no idea. I’ve been collecting a pocketful on my walks. So far, I have collected this many.

I understand they are difficult to crack and get out of the shells. I’m letting them dry out for a few weeks, and then I’ll see how it goes. I did crack open a few of them, and they are very tasty; reminded me of pecans.

On Thursday we went back to the dentist. Kevin had his root canal and I had a cavity filled. About $1,100 later, we’re in good dental shape again. Hopefully, other than cleanings, that’s it for several years.

We leave a week from tomorrow. Lots to accomplish this last week!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Comments Problem

2011-09-27T07:02:00.001-05:00

Last week I changed the comments feature on my blog to try and make leaving comments easier. Since then, I haven’t received any comments. Merikay was kind enough to send me an email telling me it wasn’t working. I asked Rick to help, and he responded right away.

For some reason, the post options settings for my 3 most recent posts had the comments settings turned off. I’m not sure why this happened, but at least now I know to check it.

So, I’ve reposted the two most recent entries today with the comments feature enabled. Hopefully, you can now tell me what you think. I love computers and the internet when everything is working great. But, when it’s not, GRRRR!!!

Completed Projects

2011-09-26T06:54:00.000-05:00

I’ve finally finished some of my quilting projects that I purchased last year at Quilt Expo in Madison. I loved these flower panels, and made this lap quilt for myself. The colors are even more vibrant than the picture shows. I love how it turned out. It has found a home hanging over the back of my recliner, ready to keep me warm.

I used some techniques I learned at the free-motion quilting class I attended in June. I used a stencil I had purchased on clearance a few months ago. I drew lines using the stencil for the quilting along the borders. I used a quilt marker where the lines disappear when you iron over them. It worked great. Even though I had lines to follow, I used the free-motion foot on my machine. I wasn’t always able to follow the lines exactly, but I think it turned out pretty good for my first attempt.

The other project I completed are some placemats my mom will be getting for Christmas. She doesn’t use a computer, so my showing you won’t ruin the surprise. I’m very pleased with how they turned out. The pictures are of my mom and her friend, Richard; my brother and his wife; our two boys which are her only grandchildren; and Kevin and myself in the Rocky Mountains.
I used my printer to copy the pictures onto photo fabric. It was a fun project! The sample pictures on the pattern show buttons sewn along some of the edges. I think buttons would not work well for placemats; your plate wouldn’t be flat. So, I’m going to try to find some other trim to embellish the mats. Maybe some ribbon or bric-a-brac kinds of trim.

Our area was pretty dry this summer, and we were about 5 inches below average for rainfall. Well, we’ve been catching up. It has been raining off and on for three days. Last night and this morning it rained very hard, so I think we’re definitely getting caught up. It really feels like fall.
I sure wish the weathermen would get their forecasts right more often. Eric was planning on residing his garage this fall. We had offered to help take off the old siding and then Eric and his roommate would put up the new stuff over the weekend. After watching the weather early last week, the forecast was for sunny days all the way through the weekend.
So, on Thursday Kevin and I went to Eric’s house and took off all the old siding. Kevin did most of the work, I was the helper removing lots of nails from the old pieces. Unfortunately, an unexpected front came up from the south, and suddenly the forecast was for rain all weekend. Gosh darn it! They did get most of the siding done on Saturday in between some rain showers. It’ll all be okay, but I wish those forecasters would get it right!
On Thursday on our way to Eric’s, Kevin and I stopped at a lab to get drug tested for our job at Amazon. They sure do a very thorough check on their temporary workers. They require a high school transcript, a background check, and a drug test. It makes me kind of sad that employers have to be so careful when hiring workers. Not a very positive reflection on our society. The good news is we hopefully won’t have to worry about what kind of co-workers we’ll be dealing with.
Two weeks from today we head south!
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Comments

2011-09-20T06:55:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we spent the day at Green Lake Campground with our camping club. Kevin played golf with some of the guys in the morning, and I went shopping with the ladies. We went to the Rippin’ Good cookie outlet store and a craft shop we like in Ripon. The campground has a little 9 hole, par 3 golf course so a bunch of us played a round of golf in the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day chatting, stayed for the pot luck supper, sat around the campfire for a little while, and headed back home.
Due to our camphosting duties, we haven’t actually camped with the club this year, other than in June when they camped at our campground. But, we are very glad we were able to do some “day camping” with them, and spend time with everyone. When they asked for suggestions for next year’s schedule, I lobbied for them to come and camp at our campground again so we can participate in a full weekend with them. Maybe, they should just camp here every month. We’ll see what happens.
While chatting with some of my friends, I was surprised at how many of them told me they were reading my blog regularly. None of them have ever left comments, so I didn’t know most of them read it. Some didn’t know about the comment feature, and others said they had tried leaving comments, but it was too confusing.
Coincidentally, last Sunday Rick, who writes the blog Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels, posted a blog about comments. He made a good point about people wanting to leave a comment without putting in codes or waiting for the blog writer to approve the comment.
So, I have changed the moderation of comments on my blog. All you have to do to leave me a comment is click at the bottom of a post where it says comments. A little window will pop up where you type your comment. If you don’t have a Google account, you can leave it as an anonymous comment. Just tell me who you are in the message, unless you want to remain anonymous :)
I think most blog writers will agree that we really do like to hear from you. Sometimes, it feels like no one is paying attention, so leave me some comments so I know you’re out there in cyberspace! If you have any problems with it, send me an email and let me know what happened. Maybe, it’s something I can fix from my end.
The weather this week has been cool, cloudy and windy. Yesterday was my last day volunteering at the daycare for this year. Other than that, I cleaned our large area rug on Monday and am doing some quilting. Pretty soon I’ll have some projects to show you.
We’re leaving in a little over two weeks and still have a bunch of stuff to get done including another visit to the dentist, haircuts, family visits, and getting the truck in for an oil change. The time sure has gone by quickly! I’m getting excited to be on the move again, but am also a tiny bit nervous about the adventure that lies ahead at Amazon.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Arcadia Park

2011-09-19T19:30:00.001-05:00

The following is a Guest Blogger Post:

The article written by Victor Flowers

We have a small vacation cabin near Arcadia Park, Maine. The area is absolutely beautiful. I feel lucky to be able to have a vacation home in such a natural area of the country. We are looking forward to our grandkids coming to visit this summer. They tend to get bored pretty quickly, so I decided to get direc4U Maine so that they could take a break from playing cards with me in the evening and watch a little television. I always thought that I we should not get television at the cabin. I wanted it to have a rustic feel. Over the last few years without it or the internet, I realized just how disconnected I felt. I had gotten used to watching the news and staying in touch with my friends. I say that I made the technological upgrades to make the children’s stay more comfortable, but I actually really enjoy then myself. I am guessing that the kids will probably want to stay longer this summer than they have before. They always complained about having to play gin rummy in the evenings. They are in for a nice surprise!

An Expensive Dental Visit

2011-09-15T19:04:00.001-05:00

Kevin and I had appointments today to have our teeth cleaned. You may recall that I had my teeth cleaned in Mexico last January. I wasn’t all that pleased with that cleaning, so I had decided I would just go to our regular dental clinic in Wisconsin once a year and pay to have it done here. Kevin was never willing to have his cleaned in Mexico.

We declined the x-rays which saved us a little. After the cleaning, we both ended up having one bite wing x-ray done due to what was discovered during the exam. It turns out Kevin needs a root canal because he has an abscess. Luckily, he hasn’t been feeling any pain and didn’t even know there was a problem. But, it’s just a matter of time.

We’ve been going to the same dentist for years, and she was kind enough to squeeze him in to have the work done before we leave in three weeks. I ended up having a small cavity, so they’ll fix that at the same time Kevin is having his root canal. She also is giving us a 30 percent discount if we pay right away.

When all is said and done, it will cost up about $1,000 for dental work this year. Ouch! I’m not complaining, however. We willingly gave up our dental insurance to pursue our dream of fulltime RVing. We are not in the least bit sorry we did. We had set money aside for these types of emergencies, so we’ll be fine. We will, however, be accepting any extra hours Amazon may offer us while we’re there :)

The Hummingbird is Back

2011-09-14T11:35:00.001-05:00

Last spring I put up my hummingbird feeder, and we had a few visits from some hummingbirds. But, not many visits and then none at all over the summer.

I gave up and took the feeder down. Then, last week this poor little hummingbird was flying around my regular bird feeder. I’m assuming he was looking for food and was a bit confused as my regular feeder is red.

So, I got out the hummingbird feeder again, and there have been at least two of them that have been visiting it regularly. I’m guessing they must migrate through this area. Maybe they remembered where they had found food in spring. I think birds and animals are much smarter than we realize. Here’s one of the most recent visitors.

I’ve also seen several Blue Jays in the neighborhood over the last few days. I wonder if they also migrate, since I saw some in spring, but none over the summer. This guy was in the tree across from our site this morning.

The other evening the sun was just beautiful shining from behind some clouds that were passing through. It’s one of those sights that makes me think of heaven for some reason.

The temperatures have suddenly decided it is fall. On Monday we golfed and the high was 85 degrees. By the way, Kevin and I both had good games. I guess it’s true that the more you play, the better you get :) Today, highs are supposed to be in the 60s and there are frost warnings for the next two nights. The electric heater has made an appearance!

Tonight, we’re going to a Brewers baseball game. They are still in first place, but haven’t been playing too well the last two weeks. I think they will be in the playoffs, but I sure hope they get their mojo back!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Quilt Expo

2011-09-10T14:34:00.001-05:00

Last year I discovered the Quilt Expo in Madison. I purchased three projects last year, and I wasn’t going to attend this year’s expo because I’ve only finished one of those projects :(

However, I got an email from them saying they needed volunteers. In exchange for 3 hours of volunteering, I got free admission to the show and parking. Well, I just had to go. So, yesterday was the day. My volunteer shift was at one of the Presentation Stages. I helped the presenters with handouts and just watched to make sure everything went smoothly. Easy enough!

One of the presenters was a lady who started an organization that collects sewing machines and sends them to places in need like Africa, Haiti and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. Another presenter was a book-signing by author Jennifer Chiaverini who writes novels with quilting as the main theme. Close to 100 people stood in line to get their books signed. Interesting stuff.

There were hundreds of quilts on display in the judging area. This one won the top price. It’s hard to see from the picture, but the detail was amazing. I just marvel at the skill this person has!

There were ballots to vote for your favorite quilt that had not already received a ribbon. I chose this one. What a clever idea this lady had. She used baby clothes her daughter had worn. They were applied in such a way that they can be removed if her daughter ever wants to use them for her own baby. Cool!

I didn’t spend quite as much money as last year, but I wound up buying patterns for 6 more projects. I need to step it up on the quilting front. I’m very excited about some of these projects. I can’t say more because most of them are for gifts. But, here’s a picture of the patterns I bought.

There is a shop in Beaver Dam called Nancy’s Notions. Nancy has a sewing television show, and they have a big display at the expo. The shop was having a big sale this weekend, and I got a coupon for something free. So, today I went and checked that out. I found the cutest camper fabric to make a tote out of using one of the patterns I bought yesterday.

I wasn’t expecting much for the free item, maybe some needles or thread. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it was a DVD showing how to create fusible art projects. It will be perfect for one of the projects I bought last year and didn’t really know how to complete.

I was so excited and full of ideas that I woke up at 1:00 am last night and couldn’t get back to sleep for 2 hours. I should have just gotten up and started sewing :)

On Thursday I was at Eric’s house painting the bathrooms. One more day and they will be done! Around 1:00 in the afternoon my phone rang. It was one of those calls every mother dreads getting. Eric’s first words were “Don’t freak out Mom, but I’m driving myself to the ER.” It seems he got his finger caught in a blower motor and had 3 long cuts on his ring finger.

Eric is an HVAC Technician and gets minor cuts and burns regularly. So, I knew it had to be pretty bad for him to go to the ER. He said it was really bleeding a lot, and that’s what made him decide to go. He ended up getting 18 stitches. About 3 hours later he was home with a large bandage on his finger. He was also happy to show me a picture he took with his cell phone of the injury. It looked like raw meat. Don’t worry, I’m not going to share the picture with you!

He’s doing fine. He had to take the day off on Friday, so enjoyed some extra video game time. I told him that was quite a drastic way to get a day off of work. On Monday, he’ll be back at work. Hopefully, with a little more caution around blower motors.

Our weather has been fantastic this past week. About half of the sites in the campground are occupied for the weekend. A beautiful weekend for those lucky campers.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

It’s Been a Busy Week

2011-09-05T17:35:00.002-05:00

Our son Korey, who lives on the western side of Minnesota, arrived for a week long visit last Wednesday night. On Thursday morning the three of us played disc golf at a park in Beaver Dam. Korey has played before, but Kevin and I were rookies. We played with two discs we had found and one regular Frisbee.

Let me tell you, regular Frisbees don’t work very well. We had a good time, though, along with some laughs. It was a good thing we went early as it got up to 90 degrees and was very humid on Thursday, as well as on Friday.

Thursday night we went to my mom’s house for dinner. She has an 80 acre farm. As we came down the driveway, we saw a lot of Canadian Geese on the pond. Once we got in the house, we saw about 30 wild turkeys off the back deck. Then a couple of deer walked through the yard. I was teasing my mom that she lives on a wildlife preserve. This was the view off of her back deck. Turkeys in the front and geese further back.

We hadn’t taken a family picture since last Christmas, so the guys had to humor me. We’re on the deck. The field right behind us was where all the birds you see above were located.

We enjoyed a great evening with my mom, her friend, Richard, and my brother and his wife. And, of course, no one ever leaves my mom’s without eating too much!

Korey gets a week off at the end of the summer camping season to compensate for all the extra hours he works during the summer. I so appreciate that he has come home and spent that week with us every summer since he moved to Minnesota. And, now that our schedule is more flexible, we don’t have to go to work every day. We can enjoy all of his time with us!

Five couples that belong to the camping club we belong to came and camped at our park for the weekend. We’ve all gotten to be good friends over the years, and had a fun weekend. There was lots of laughter, eating, and game playing all weekend long.

On Saturday seven of us went golfing at a course we haven’t been to yet. Korey and I shared a cart. I had my best game of the season. My son must have brought me luck! This morning six of the guys went back and played again. Korey and Kevin shared a cart and had a very good time. Korey has his best game of the season!

The weather could have been better for the weekend. All but two of our sites were full. Thursday and Friday were very hot and humid with some scattered rain. Saturday was a bit cooler, but it rained a few times and was very windy. Sunday was cool and windy with some more showers and temperatures Sunday night dropped to the low 40s. It definitely felt like fall this morning. As is often the case, today when everyone was leaving was the nicest day.

While we were in New Mexico last spring, a piece of metal on our step broke. Kevin fixed it temporarily. This weekend our friend Jim brought his portable welder and a better piece of metal. He had the new piece welded in place in no time, and now we have a solid and secure step. I’ll sand it a bit and spray paint it, and it will look good as new. Better, in fact, since it’s sturdier. Thanks for the help, Jim!

It’s the piece along the bottom that has the rust on it. It keeps the steps from swaying and makes them solid when you step on them.

The other day I got up and looked out our back window. The field was full of geese. Another sign that fall is here. Five weeks from today we will be leaving Wisconsin. I have a couple weeks worth of work left at Eric’s house, and then I’ll be ready for the next adventure.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A New Discovery

2011-08-30T18:50:00.001-05:00

As we drive to and from Beaver Dam, we’ve noticed a sign for the Wild Goose State Trail along Hwy. 33. We are camphosts for the Dodge County Parks System. The section of the Wild Goose State Trail that runs through Dodge County is maintained by the Parks Department. We’ve seen information about the trail on some of the brochures at our park. So, we’ve been curious about the trail.

It is free of charge and is accessible for hiking, biking and horseback riding. During the winter months, ATVs and snowmobiles are allowed. On Sunday, we were finally able to ride our bikes on the trail. Spring was cool and wet, summer has been very hot and humid. Sunday was finally a perfect bike riding day. Highs were in the 70s and the humidity was low.

The trail runs along an abandoned railroad corridor, so it is pretty flat. It’s not paved, but most of it has crushed stone to ride on. Much of the trail has a separate trail alongside the main trail for the horses. It was so nice not to have to dodge horse droppings as we were riding. We rode about 11 miles, and really enjoyed ourselves. We’ll definitely do it again. I’m thinking it will be very beautiful once the leaves start changing color.

We have a 3 mile route we walk a few days a week. There are several cornfields along the way. It’s been fun watching the corn grow since we first got here in April. My guess is it’s now about 10 feet tall. I’m 5’ 4”, and it looks like the corn is almost twice as tall as I am. I’m thinking it was a good year for the farmers.

There’s some kind of tall weed growing behind us. Birds just love to sit on it. I’m thinking there are seeds attracting the birds. Sometimes, there are 4 or 5 of these small birds sitting all along the plant.

Today was overcast and a bit cool. It’s actually raining right now. There is definitely a touch of fall in the air. However, Thursday and Friday is predicted to be in the 90s with high humidity. Maybe it will be summer’s last hoorah! School starts for most districts in Wisconsin on Thursday. Won’t those kids be happy to be back in school with such hot temperatures.

Yesterday I spent the day working at Eric’s house. I was able to finish applying the texture paint to the walls in both bathrooms. So, next week I’ll actually be painting the final color coat on the walls. Yippee, the job is almost done.

Our park is almost booked solid for the weekend. We have 5 families from our camping club coming to camp with us. And, our son, Korey, will be home for 5 days. So, we should have some fun and busy days coming up. I’m looking forward to it!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Bit of a Milestone

2011-08-26T19:29:00.001-05:00

I originally started this blog about a year and a half ago for three reasons. The first was to let our family and friends know what we were up to. The second was to share our experiences in pursuing the fulltime RV lifestyle. And, the third was to have a journal record of our travels.

I did a lot of research as we were contemplating and dreaming of this new life. I learned so much from other blogs and RV forums. I wanted to possibly help others who were thinking about going fulltime by sharing our experiences.

Today my page view counter hit 20,000 and I have 60 followers. Most of the followers are not family members. I am blown away by that. I know there are blogs out there with hundreds of followers and many more page views, but I never expected so many people to be interested in what I had to say. It is a humbling and exciting feeling for me!

Another unexpected bonus from blogging has been the “virtual” friends we have made. We’ve actually met three couples in person who started out as blogger friends. And, we’ll be working at Amazon this fall with one of those couples. It truly is a small world.

So, thank you to all of you who have signed up as followers or who just stop in once in a while to see what we’re up to.

The weather has been nice enough lately to sleep with some of our windows open. This morning was a sure sign that the fall season is close. About 6 am a large flock of Canadian Geese flew over the campground, honking like crazy. Soon after that, two large birds, some type of crane, were in the field behind us making an incredible racket. I had no idea cranes were so loud!

So, it looks like the birds are on the move. That means we will also be on our way pretty soon. Only six weeks until we are back on the road. It doesn’t seem that long ago that we arrived here to find snow on the ground!

Today two of my friends came out for a visit. I used to work with these two ladies about ten years ago. It was great to see them. Thanks, Sue and Judy, for making the drive out to see me!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Trifecta, Hat Trick, or Turkey?

2011-08-22T17:53:00.001-05:00

Call it whatever you want, but Kevin had three pars in a row during our golf round today! And, on the first three holes, no less. Usually the first hole or two aren’t that great until you get into the groove. He also had his best score of the season, a 46!! He thinks it might be the best score he’s had on the front nine at Kestrel Ridge Golf Course, which is where we played today.

I had some great shots and some lousy shots, so what else is new. I did have some very good holes and then two really bad holes. Overall, I can see that I’m improving. It’s amazing how the more you play, the better you get. I guess it’s true that practice makes perfect.

It was a beautiful day. Columbus High School is near the golf course, and I could hear the marching band practicing on the football field. It brought back some very fond memories of when our boys were in the high school marching band.

Last week was the Dodge County Fair, and we had several sites occupied by people who told us they were going to the fair. Yesterday was Demo Derby day at the fair. Late in the afternoon, this vehicle came into the park. I didn’t ask how they placed, but it sure looks like they were involved in the demolition part of the derby!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Fabulous Weekend

2011-08-21T18:19:00.001-05:00

We had a very enjoyable weekend. First of all, the humidity has finally dropped, and we had beautiful, sunny days which allowed us to take some comfortable walks again.

On Friday Kevin went to the pre-season Green Bay Packers football game in Green Bay with a friend. They had a great time, and the Packers won.

This was the weekend the camping club we belong to had their August outing. They were only about 40 minutes from us, so I drove to the campground and visited with everyone yesterday.

Kevin stayed behind to man the campground. Only about half of the sites were occupied this weekend. However, the Quonset hut was rented on Saturday for a family reunion, so Kevin stayed in case those people needed anything.

Today, we took out one of the rental paddle boats we have here at the campground. It’s been so hot this summer, we hadn’t wanted to take one out on the lake until now. We paddled around for a little less than an hour, and it was great. I definitely want to go again. Here we are before we pushed off from shore.

It was interesting to see the lake houses from the lake side. We’ve been walking past many of the houses on the road for months now. Most of them are nicer looking on the lake side. Here’s our home as seen from the lake.

Here’s part of the campground as seen from the lake. If you look closely, you can see a few of the campers that were still here. We sure have a beautiful location.

Much of the lake has homes along it. Here’s a view of the north side of the lake. For some reason, there is no development on that end.

As you can see, the water is not very clear. We’ve been told that’s because it’s a very shallow lake. Three different times I saw a fish jump up out of the water. Cool! Kevin said they were carp. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a jumping fish before.

Near the pier was a cluster of lily pads. They are so pretty.

That’s the end of a wonderful weekend. We feel so fortunate to be living this life!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Birthday Win!

2011-08-18T18:55:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was my 54th birthday. Only one year to go before I can start collecting my pension :)

Kevin worked for a few hours while I spent some time on the phone with my mom and a few other birthday well wishers. We left around 3:00 pm to go to Dairy Queen and have a birthday Blizzard. Yum!!

We ran a few errands and arrived at Eric’s house at about 5:00 to head over to Miller Park for a Milwaukee Brewer’s baseball game. For quite a few years, Kevin and Eric used to have a 20 game season ticket package. I’d usually go to about 3 or 4 games a year. This year we are about 1-1/2 hours away from the stadium, so this was our first game. We’ve been in a bit of baseball withdrawal.

The Brewer’s are in first place in their division, and have been playing very well. Brewer Fever is rampant. They were nice enough to win for my birthday visit.

We had gotten four free tickets through a BP gas promotion. I guess all that gas we’ve been buying paid off! Eric invited his friend, Adam, to go with us. You may remember that Adam is the friend that did the drywall skim coat on Eric’s bathroom walls. Eric is also godfather to Adam and Kristen’s baby boy. I enjoyed spending my birthday at the game with these three wonderful guys.

Too bad Korey couldn’t join us. I think every mother would agree that the best birthday present would be to have her entire family with her. But, Korey is coming to spend a week with us around Labor Day. So, only 2 more weeks until I have my family together again :)

Today I went into Beaver Dam to do some laundry. I haven’t had to do laundry at the laundromat since May. Eric and Adam haven’t finished sanding the bathroom walls, so no work for me at Eric’s house this week. Eric has been kind enough to let me do my laundry at his house while I work on the bathrooms. The nice thing about the laundromat is that you’re done in no time.

After that job was done, I stopped at Nancy’s Notions Quilt Shop. They are a drop-off site to donate quilts for the Linus Project. I had made 4 baby quilts over the winter with scrap fabric I kept when we got rid of all of our stuff. The Linus Project distributes blankets to children in need all across the country. Since 1995, over 3 million blankets have been distributed. Wow!

I refrained from buying anything, although I spent some time just browsing. Fun! I have a couple of projects I want to finish before I buy any more. Also, I’m signed up to volunteer at the Quilt Expo in Madison in September. I know I’ll find some projects there that I won’t be able to resist.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Busy Week

2011-08-14T17:14:00.001-05:00

This past week was quite busy for me. On Monday I worked at Eric’s house and went to his softball game, Tuesday volunteered at the daycare, Thursday went to lunch and Jersey Boys with two of my friends, and Friday I ran some errands. Whew!

Jersey Boys was a wonderful show, and we had a great time. I didn’t recognize all of the songs, as The Four Seasons were a little before my time, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the show. I did a little research on Frankie Valli. He’s 77 years old and is still performing a full schedule of shows all across the country. Wow!

We had another full weekend in the park. About half of the sites were occupied by members of a family reunion that had our Quonset hut shelter rented on Saturday. Although we didn’t have any real problems, the group seemed a bit “rougher” than the clientele we normally have. There seemed to be quite a bit of drinking going on.

The only real issues we had revolved around the bathrooms. Someone stole two rolls of toilet paper from the men’s bathroom. And, an adult female thought it was an okay idea to let five little girls play in the women’s shower and get the floor all wet.

That really annoyed me. If I would have seen it earlier, I would have said something. But, I came upon it when it was all done. I went into the women’s bathroom to check on supplies. I walked in as a woman with five little girls between the ages of about four and seven were coming out. The girls were fully dressed, soaking wet and complaining how cold they were. The woman said, “Well, you wanted to get wet.” I found a plastic cup in one of the shower stalls. They must have been playing in there for quite a while because the floor of both showers and both toilet stalls were soaking wet which caused the entire floor of the women’s bathroom to be slippery.

The weather on Saturday was drizzly and cloudy with a high of about 71 degrees. Absolutely no reason for anyone to need to get wet. And, in what world did this woman think it was okay to let kids play in the showers of a public restroom. I am just amazed by the unthinking, rude, inconsiderate, disrespectful behavior of some adults. And, what a lesson to be teaching those kids. Do whatever you want, no matter how it inconveniences everyone else who uses the PUBLIC restroom. Okay, enough of my rant. But, come on now, really??

Otherwise, the rest of the weekend was fine. Just a bit more activity than normal. I think we’ve just become spoiled by how quiet and peaceful this park is, even when there are lots of people camping here.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Another Family Visit

2011-08-09T18:38:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday it was my turn to have a family visit. My mom and her friend, Richard, along with my brother, Ron, and his wife, Laura all came for an afternoon visit.

We had a nice day. It was still a bit hot and humid, but not as bad as it had been. We sat outside and chatted for a few hours. This was the first time my family had visited us at our site in Beaver Dam. They really liked our “backyard” and were amazed at how few bugs there are.

Kevin grilled some brats and burgers. I had made beans and tortellini salad, and my mom brought a carrot cake for desert. Plenty of good food! We ate inside our screen tent, just in case a few flies wanted to bother us. Kevin was happy to take the picture and sacrifice being photographed :)

On Sunday evening, we went to the Must-Skies Waterski Club’s show on Beaver Dam Lake. They put on a very nice show. Next week they’ll be competing at the National Competition in Janesville, Wisconsin.

We’ve never been to an amateur waterski show. The lady behind us was telling me that Wisconsin has more teams than any other state, and the national competition is almost always in Wisconsin. I had no idea. Here are some pictures from the show.

The jumpers were pretty awesome!

This doubles pair won at Nationals last year in their category. Hopefully, they’ll win again this year!

Yesterday I spent another day working at Eric’s house. I painted the ceilings in both bathrooms and put a primer coat on the door trim of both outside doors. Eric and his friend, Adam, put a coat of mud on the walls last week, but they still have to sand it before I can paint the walls. The end is in sight!

I went to watch Eric’s softball game before I headed back home. I must be good luck since Eric had three hits and three RBIs. I forgot my camera so here’s a picture of him playing in the outfield using my cell phone camera. He’s the guy in the back. Great game, Eric!

Today the heat and humidity have finally left town. It was the first day in many weeks we didn’t have to run the air all day!!! The windows are open, and there’s a nice refreshing breeze out of the northeast. Ah, what a beautiful day. I went for a nice long walk this morning.

In my last blog, I posted a picture of a strange mud patch on the side of our shower building. Blog reader, heyduke50, sent a comment letting us know it was a mud dauber wasp nest. I did a little research to find out how to remove it. Turns out it is a nest built by one female wasp. She stings spiders and grubs and paralyzes them and encases them in the nest for her babies.

Kevin took a screwdriver and pried it off. We thought it would come off in one piece, but he had to scrape it off in chunks. There were all kinds of grubs inside of it. We’ve never seen or heard of this before. Very interesting. I didn’t take a picture, because I thought it would come off in one piece. It really was amazing seeing all of those grubs inside of the nest. Cool!

The summer sure is flying by. In two months we’ll be leaving for Kansas to work at Amazon. I hope we have some nice weather in the meantime!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

More Golf

2011-08-04T16:36:00.001-05:00

The weather was a bit cooler today so Kevin and I went out and played nine holes at Fox Lake Golf Club. Our tee time was 9:00 a.m. and they sent us out on the back nine. We had a nice relaxed game with no one in front of or behind us the entire round.

It’s still pretty warm, but not unbearable. I think I had my best round of the summer. I had two bad holes, but the rest were pretty good. If I could only figure out why my drives keep going to the right, I’d be quite happy with how I’m playing. Kevin did not have such a good round. We spent a lot of time looking for his balls in the long grass :(

On Monday, the farmer finished harvesting the wheat field behind our camper. I was a little concerned that he would create a lot of dust when he got right behind us. But, the wind was blowing away, and there was very little dust.

Here he is out our back window. The edge of the field is only about 25 feet from us.

Something unusual has appeared on the side of our bath building. I think it’s some kind of hornet or wasp nest. It’s hard as a rock.

And, this moth was also on the bath building. It’s the biggest moth I’ve ever seen. It was just a little smaller than the size of my hand. Wow!

I’ll end today with the beautiful sunset we had a few days ago.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Another Peaceful Weekend

2011-07-31T12:47:00.001-05:00

Our campground was almost full again this weekend. We only had one open site. There was a little bit more activity than last weekend, but overall another very peaceful weekend. Have I told you we love this place!

Kevin golfed with a friend on Friday morning and that afternoon we went out for a fish fry at a place in Beaver Dam called Game On. They had a coupon for an all you can eat cod fish fry for $9.99 with a second one for half price. Well, the price was good, but the food not so much. The fish was heavily breaded and quite greasy. We won’t be going back. Wisconsin is pretty well known for Fish Fry Friday. Most every restaurant and bar has it on their menu. We don’t eat out often, but we do enjoy a good fish fry. We’ll keep trying new places until we find one we like.

We haven’t been doing very much. It’s just been too hot and humid to really get out and be active. We have two rental paddle boats available at the park. We’ve only rented them three times so far this season. I guess no one wants to put forth the effort in this heat. We have plans to go out in one of them ourselves, but not until it cools off. The same goes for bike riding. There’s a bike trail not too far from us called the Wild Goose State Trail that we’d like to explore, but not until it’s cooler. I guess we’ll be busy once this heat breaks.

I have been walking early some mornings or doing my Wii exercise program. The new EA Sports Active 2 gives me quite a workout. Much more than the Wii Fit does. I’m trying to stay fit for our job at Amazon.

I’ve been seeing signs for a Farmer’s Market in Beaver Dam so yesterday morning Kevin and I drove into town and checked it out. I bought some delicious pecan rolls from the Amish vender. They make the best bakery and it’s so reasonable. As you can see, there were several vendors, but nothing else caught our fancy.

Kevin needed a new golf glove so we stopped at Dunham’s Sporting Goods. They had some great sale prices, so we both ended up with a new glove and Kevin got some covers for his irons. I forgot my head covers in the golf cart the last time we golfed. Hopefully, someone turned them in. If not, I’ll be back at Dunham’s. You get a 10% discount with your AARP card. Being old has it’s advantages :)

The farmer has started cutting the wheat in the field behind our camper. Even though we’ve lived in a somewhat rural area, it was mostly corn that was grown around our house. This is the first time I’m seeing a combine in action. So far, he’s been on the far end away from us. I’m thinking there will be quite a lot of dust and noise when he gets directly behind us.

Here he is shooting the wheat onto the tractor carts to be pulled away. Cool!

The beginning of this week is predicted to be hot again. It’s supposed to cool off later in the week, but we’ve heard that before. Maybe we’ll get in some golf late in the week, maybe not. I’ll do my two hours rocking the babies and spend a day painting at Eric’s house. Not much else going on.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Canadian Online Shopping

2011-07-27T16:30:00.001-05:00

This post is for my Canadian friends out there. I came across a website that you might find helpful. It’s an online shopping site called Canada Post.

I did a little looking around on the site, and it looks pretty cool. You can search for all kinds of items including electronics, clothing, outdoor items, etc. You can discover deals, compare stores, and check out pricing trends.

I did a search for utility trailers, and found all kinds of choices. You can narrow down your search by the amount of money you are willing to spend or by the brand you are interested in.

So, check it out. It looks like a great site.

Peaceful Weekend

2011-07-25T19:17:00.001-05:00

Even though the park campground was fully booked this past weekend, it was so quiet and peaceful. Many of the people told us they were stopping here for the weekend on their way to the EAA Fly-In in Oshkosh this week.

It was still quite hot and there just weren’t many people outside. I think some people left for the day and others were fishing. We only sold $34 worth of wood. The last time we were fully booked for a weekend, we sold $198 worth of wood. I think it was too hot for campfires.

I’m not complaining, it was sure a nice and peaceful weekend. Just kind of strange to be outside and not hear anything.

Last week we didn’t golf at all. It was just too darn hot. So, this morning Kevin an I went back to Fox Lake Golf Club. I was doing really well through the first six holes, on track to have my best score of the year. You guessed it, I fell apart on the last three holes. I still had an okay score, but it could have been so much better. Kevin also had an up and down day. Oh well, we still had a great time together. Sure beats going to work on a Monday morning :)

There are four parks with campgrounds in Dodge County (that’s the county we’re in.) Each park has until August 1st to submit a budget proposal for next year. They are having a contest between the parks to see which park submits the best money saving, revenue generating ideas. The winning park gets an extra $500 for a project in the park.

We talked to our boss, Mike, and told him some of the ideas we have for improving the park. He told us to email our ideas to the Parks Director. We’re hoping the budget for next year will include full hook-ups for our host site. If we win, maybe the extra money can help us get those hook-ups. I’ll let you know what happens.

I don’t have any pictures again today. So, I’m showing you a picture of the hard work Kevin did today. The park has some teeter-totters and there were some tires laying on the ground under each seat. The Parks Director wanted them buried in the ground. So, here’s what Kevin did for a few hours today. Dug some pretty deep holes and buried the tires. Looks good, doesn’t it?

I tried to get a picture of a plane landing on the lake today, but I was too late. We’ve had quite a few planes fly over this weekend, I’m guessing on their way to the EAA. I was looking out the window and all of a sudden a sea plane was landing on the lake. Cool! By the time I got out there, it was around the corner, so no picture.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

We’re Having a Heat Wave!

2011-07-19T19:37:00.001-05:00

Much of the country is in the midst of a heat wave. I wanted summer, and now I’ve got it!

It’s been oppressively hot and humid this week, and the rest of the week is predicted to be more of the same. You know it’s pretty bad when the weather guy tells you the heat index is 105* at 10 pm.

Thank goodness our air conditioning is working great. It’s been running non-stop from morning until about midnight. Then it shuts down for a few hours, and the next morning we start again.

I feel bad for both of our boys working in this heat. Eric, who is a HVAC Service Technician, is working tons of overtime, often on top of hot roofs. Korey lives in a cabin at camp during the summer, and it doesn’t have air. He’s actually been sleeping in the basement of the retreat center which doesn’t have air either, but does have a heat pump that pulls out the humidity. Hang in there boys!

Last night we were under a thunderstorm watch. The clouds looked pretty scary, but all we got was a little rain.

I’ve really enjoyed watching the fireflies at night the last few weeks. When they are blinking in between the trees, it looks like an enchanted forest. I tried to get a picture, but no luck. Some things just have to be seen in person to be appreciated.

Today was my day to volunteer at the daycare. I’m really enjoying this volunteer assignment. I rock babies for two hours a week. They’re so cute!

It’s been too hot to walk outside, so I’ve been using my new disc for the Wii. It’s EA Sports Active 2. I enjoy the Wii Fit, but you really don’t get much of a workout with it. This new program is more of a workout. I’m actually working up a sweat when I do it. I still like the Wii Fit for the yoga, so I’m switching off between the two. We’ll see how it goes.

The campground is booked solid for this coming weekend. We’ve even got more people here during the week than we normally do. Next week is the EAA Fly-In in Oshkosh which is about an hour from us. The fly-in is an annual event in Wisconsin and draws tons of people. Campgrounds and hotels are booked for miles around. Apparently, some are staying with us.

Last weekend we were almost full. The park has an enclosed shelter that can be rented. A group had it rented on Saturday for a family reunion. Lots of people and lots of activity. So, it was a busy weekend.

By the way, my last post was a guest post from Blogsvertise. I’ve mentioned before that they pay me if I post blogs for them. That post earned me $10. There hasn’t been much opportunity to earn extra money with them, but when they send me one, I put it out there. The title will always have *asterisks* around it so you know it’s an ad. Feel free to read them or not.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Grilling out on our deck

2011-07-15T14:14:00.001-05:00

Guest post written by Michelle Lewis

One of my favorite things for my family and I to do during the summer is to grill out in our backyard. It just makes fixing dinner seem so much more fun and it makes convincing little ones to eat their food a little bit easier too. Plus, we have that extra family time added in there. We just finished building a new deck this summer and have moved most of our grilling out and some of our backyard activities to the deck.

I was online looking up safety precautions to take when you're grilling out on a deck when I ran across the site HomeproIMPROVEMENT.com. I looked through it and after that I decided that we should use it to replace our siding, which I noticed was looking pretty worn up against our brand new deck.

I did find some extra safety tips for barbecue grilling on our back deck though and have been enforcing them with my husband and the kids. I always remind them that it's better to be careful and have fun instead of careless and have to clean up the mess from an accident.

The Wallpaper Stripping is Done!

2011-07-14T16:41:00.001-05:00

I’m blogging from our son Eric’s house today. I don’t have my camera with me, so no pictures for this entry.

I’ve been spending one day a week at Eric’s house helping him with some home improvement projects. The main goal for the summer was to strip the wallpaper in both bathrooms and paint. Two weeks ago I finished stripping the wallpaper. What a relieve. The wallpaper had been put up directly over the drywall, so it was a bear to remove.

For the past two weeks I’ve worked on painting both bathrooms with a primer/sealer. I finished that today. I’m also painting the woodwork as I go. About half of the house has white woodwork and the rest is brown. Apparently, the previous owners didn’t finish painting all of the woodwork.

The next step is for Eric’s friend, Adam, who used to work in construction, to do a skim coat of drywall mud. You may be wondering why I painted primer before the drywall mud. Adam told me that by painting the primer first, it will seal any wallpaper paste and will keep the finish paint from possible bubbling due to paste residue.

After Adam is done with the mudding, I have to paint a coat of texture paint and then finally the actual colored paint. Hopefully, I’ll be done before we leave in October. Adam and his wife have a new baby boy, so I guess the finish date will depend on when Adam finds time.

Right now I’m waiting for Eric to get home from work, so I thought I’d take advantage of his fast internet to write a quick blog. I brought my computer today to download an audio book from the library and to download Microsoft updates. It helps keep our data usage down on the Mi-Fi.

Eric is an HVAC service technician. With the heat and humidity we’ve been having the last few weeks, he’s been working a lot of hours. The last few days we’ve had a break from the heat. But, next week is predicted to be brutally hot and humid again. I hope it’s not too awful for him!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

What a Difference

2011-07-10T15:03:00.001-05:00

We’ve been back in Wisconsin just shy of three months. What a difference a few months make. Spring and early summer were cold and rainy. When the weather finally warmed up, it did so with a vengeance. We’ve had quite a few hot and muggy days. Our air conditioning is sure getting a workout! I’m not complaining, I’ll take warm over cold anytime.

Here are a few before and after pictures. When we arrived at our campsite on April 20th, there was snow on the field behind our site. Now, less than three months later, the wheat is turning a beautiful golden brown.

In early May we planted a garden. It’s doing pretty well. We’ve been enjoying the lettuce for weeks. I’m hoping to have beans soon.

We’ve had another new visitor at our birdfeeder. I believe it is a brown headed cowbird. I’ve never seen one before. I’m not sure what the little light brown bird is next to the cowbird. There are lots of these little guys around all the time.

Last Tuesday, July 5th, we visited some friends in Waupaca, Wisconsin. It’s about an 1-1/2 hour drive from here. The last several years, we’ve been part of a group of 5 couples that have camped together over the 4th of July weekend. This year we weren’t able to join them for the weekend due to our camphost duties. However, they were all staying until July 6th, so at least we were able to join them for a day. We had a great day visiting with everyone!

It’s been pretty quiet for us. About half of our campsites were occupied this weekend. Overall, a well-behaved and quiet group. We really like this park.

This weekend is Beaver Dam Lake Days. There were a number of activities scheduled in town all weekend. Today we were going to go to a waterski show and a craft fair in the park. A line of thunderstorms rolled through around noon. Now it’s hot and really humid again and the ground is all wet. So, we decided to skip it; maybe next year.

Instead we’re watching Steve Stricker of Wisconsin as he leads the field on the final day of the PGA golf tournament. Another relaxing day!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy July 4th!

2011-07-04T18:24:00.001-05:00

Happy 4th of July everyone! This holiday has special meaning for me. As I have mentioned in the past, I was born in Germany. My parents immigrated when I was 11 months old. They arrived in New York Harbor on July 3, 1958. My mom has told me often how she held me up as we passed the Statue of Liberty so I would be sure to see it. She grew up in communist East Germany so understood what it was to look upon that symbol of freedom!

My parents became citizens when I was in 8th grade which automatically qualified me for citizenship as well. I am very proud to be an American citizen!!!

Here’s a picture of my mom holding me shortly after we arrived in the United States. Their first years were much harder than they had expected. The streets were not paved with gold as advertised. However, they worked hard and made a good life for us.

On Wednesday, Kevin and I went golfing at a nearby course I had not been to. It’s called Fox Lake Golf Club and a couple of the holes have a view of Fox Lake.

It was a nice course. Not too long which I like, and they have a weekday special of $14 for nine holes with a cart. I actually had a decent round. We’ll definitely be going back.

Surprisingly, our campground was not full for the holiday weekend. About two-thirds of the sites were reserved. We ended up with some people without reservations for some of the nights. Overall, it was a nice weekend. Everyone behaved. The weather was pretty hot. The only thing that would make this campground better would be a swimming beach. We have a boat launch and a fishing pier, but the water looks too dirty to swim in. I think the boats churn up all the gunk from the bottom of the lake. All but two of the sites are again vacant. Back to peace and quiet.

For the past several years we have camped with four other couples over the 4th of July weekend. This year we couldn’t go because of our camphosting duties. They are about 1-1/2 hours away from us and are all staying through tomorrow night. So, tomorrow we’re driving up to visit with them for the day. It should be a good time.

I wanted to show you my little garden. It has certainly grown since the last picture I showed you. The beans, lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers are doing very well. I planted peas twice and only had three plants come up. The green peppers aren’t looking too healthy either. We’ve had several meals using the lettuce. So, all in all, I’m happy with how it’s doing. Next year, I think I’ll start the peas indoors instead of starting with seeds outside.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Great Weekend!

2011-06-28T17:12:00.002-05:00

As you can imagine, I had a wonderful weekend spending time with our youngest son, Korey, in Minnesota. My 7-1/2 hour drive on Friday was uneventful. I arrived around 3:30 pm and got settled into my very nice room in the retreat center. There are eight rooms that are similar to hotel rooms, each with a private bath. The room was nicer than I expected at “camp”.

On Friday night, I took Korey to supper at the Good Life Café in Park Rapids to celebrate his birthday. We enjoyed a good dinner and then went back to camp and enjoyed the beauty of Lake Morgan. The camp owns the lake so no one else uses it. It’s a beautiful lake where campers enjoy swimming, canoeing, fishing and relaxing.

This muskrat was swimming around near the shore eating some type of flower that was growing in the water.

A pair of loons have built a nest on the lake. It was fun watching them swim around the lake and hear their cry.

Here’s the view looking back towards camp from the dock. On the left is the chapel with a rec area underneath. On the right up the hill in the trees is the retreat center. The dining hall is upstairs, and the sleeping rooms are below. The camp also has quite a few cabins where the campers and staff stay.

Korey’s cabin for the summer is called “Peace”. What a fitting name as this is one of the most peaceful places I have been (when there aren’t campers running around).

Saturday was staff family day. There were quite a few people that came to visit their staff family members. Many of the staff live in the area, so their family members came for the day. I think I traveled the farthest. The beautiful sunny day started out with a pancake breakfast. I had no idea my son has become a gourmet cook.

The next two hours were spent at the challenge course. Korey is the High Adventure/Retreat Program Director and the challenge course is his domain. Here he is on top of the 32 foot wall waiting for a climber to make it to the top so he can secure them.

Lots of young adult family members climbed the wall. Even a few parents made it to the top. I had tried to climb the wall two years ago, but gave up rather quickly. This year I thought I would try climbing the telephone pole side. I made it about halfway up and then got scared. I wish I wasn’t such a chicken! I haven’t given up yet. Maybe next year I’ll make it to the top!

After a delicious taco in the bag lunch, it was time for arts and crafts. We made spray paint tie dye t-shirts. You just bunch of the shirt and spray it with different colors of spray paint. It was much easier than the convention tie dye method. Here are all of our masterpieces drying in the sun.

Later in the day Korey and I went canoeing.

Everyone enjoyed dinner together in the dining hall and a worship service in the chapel. What a great day!

Sunday was back to work for the camp staff. There were meetings and then campers started arriving. The weather was cool and overcast so I spent some time reading in my room and online using Korey’s computer. In the afternoon, we took a walk around the lake. This deer was standing in the path in front of us.

The wood ticks are pretty bad right now. I picked many of them off my shoes and socks. This one is a female because she has a necklace on her back. Male wood ticks have two stripes or suspenders running down their back.

Korey and I had dinner in the dining hall with all of the campers. A dining hall full of junior high students is quite noisy :) After dinner they began playing an all camp outdoor game.

It began to thunder so the game was moved indoors for Speed Pictionary. I couldn’t believe how these junior high students got into game playing. It was refreshing to see they weren’t too cool to play games. It poured buckets outside for about an hour.

Monday’s weather was still cool. I sat outside and watched as Korey got the Wet and Wilderness campers and their counselors ready for their adventure. Food, gear, 8 canoes, 16 kids and 4 counselors were loaded into vans and off they went to the drop-off point. I hope they have a wonderful week.

When Korey got back from dropping off the canoers, we went to lunch at Subway. I left camp at 12:30 pm and arrived home at 8 pm. I feel so lucky to have had no problems on either of my long drives.

I appreciate that Kevin volunteered to stay at the campground and perform all of the camphosting duties so I could make the trip. I’m also grateful to the camp executive director for allowing families to visit their staff members working at camp. What an awesome gift to give the families. And, I’m grateful to Korey and the camp staff for allowing me to stay a few extra days and see camp in action. How lucky the kids are to experience the amazing program the staff has created for them!

I must say I’m very proud of my son for the work he’s doing. And Happy 27th Birthday to him today!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Road Trip

2011-06-24T07:21:00.001-05:00

Today I’m driving to Menagha, Minnesota to visit our son, Korey. He’s working at Camp Emmaus for the summer, and it is staff family weekend. Korey is the High Adventure and Retreat Director for Pathways Ministries in Minnesota. They have three camps, but Emmaus is the biggest and that’s where he spends the majority of his summer. Much of the time he is supervising the ropes challenge course.

Kevin will stay in Wisconsin and take care of the camphosting duties. I appreciate him taking care of our duties so I can spend time with Korey. I’m coming back on Monday. Korey’s birthday is next Tuesday, so we’ll celebrate while I’m there. I can’t believe my baby will be 27 years old. I’ll take pictures and update next week.

On Tuesday Kevin and I both had our annual medical check-ups. We’re waiting to get the blood test results. Hopefully, everything is fine. I’m interested to see what the cholesterol numbers will be.

We had some good news on Wednesday. Our tax preparer filed an extension for us in April because we weren’t going to be back by April 15th. We met with him on Wednesday and found out we’re getting about $1,500 back. We thought we were going to have to pay. Bonus!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

An Enjoyable Weekend With Friends

2011-06-19T08:47:00.001-05:00

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we’ve been members of the Milwaukee Jaybirds Camping Club since 1981. Since we are the only camphosts at our park, we didn’t feel it was appropriate to ask if we could leave some weekends to go camping with the club.

We were able to join them at the April and May campouts on Saturday just for the day, which was a good alternative. It allowed us to see our friends and not shirk our camphost duties.

This weekend the club came to us. There are ten families camping at our park. We had a wonderful time. Two families came on Thursday so Kevin and I went golfing with Dave and Judy on Friday morning. Then a group of the guys golfed on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

We played a game called Gonzo Golf involving tennis balls and hula hoops. It’s really a fun game. Unfortunately, I was so busy having fun this weekend, I forgot to take any pictures :(

Yesterday, our son, Eric, came out for the day to visit for Father’s Day. Since he grew up camping in the club, he knows many of the people. We had a delicious pot-luck supper of bar-b-que ribs. Each month two families act as the food committee. They provide the main meat part of the meal, everyone brings a dish to pass, and split the cost of the meat. You are guaranteed to never leave hungry!

The weekend weather has been fantastic. It’s raining this morning, but should stop soon. It should be a nice day for all of the fathers to celebrate their day.

There has been lots of activity around our bird feeder. We had a new visitor the other day. I don’t know what kind of bird this was. Maybe Judy or someone else out there can help me identify it. I think it might be some type of Thrush.

Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers out there!

Family Visit

2011-06-13T18:44:00.001-05:00

We had a wonderful visit with Kevin’s family yesterday. And, the weather finally cooperated. It was sunny and in the low 70s with no bugs. Perfect.

Kevin’s brother and his wife who live in Iowa were planning to be in town this weekend so we had planned a family get together. His sister, her son, and her daughter and son-in-law and their four children also came out to visit us for an afternoon picnic.

We haven’t taken a siblings picture in several years so it was time. That’s Kevin on the left, his sister Mary and brother Josef.

Mary has two children, Richard and Terri. Terri’s married to Rick and they have four children, Gregory, Vanessa, Amanda and Alisha. The kids were sure well behaved. I think they all had a good time.

Here’s Kevin with our three year old great-niece Alisha. She is such a cutie and really took to Kevin and his brother for some reason.

We sat around and chatted and caught up on everyone’s news. We had a picnic lunch and just enjoyed the day.

Today, Kevin went golfing with some friends. He really enjoys golf. He actually had to set the alarm and got up at 5:45 am in order to drive for over an hour to meet up with the guys. Now, that’s a golf lover. I spent a quiet day, a little on-line work, a nice walk, some sitting in the sun reading. I know, tough life!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Thirty-Four Years!

2011-06-11T14:06:00.001-05:00

Today is our 34th wedding anniversary. I remember my uncle saying our marriage wouldn’t last for more than six months because I’m Lutheran and Kevin is Catholic. I guess he was wrong!

Wow, were we young or what! Of course, every relationship has it’s ups and downs. Then, you throw two children into the mix, and things happen. But, all in all, those thirty-four years have been very happy. I wouldn’t trade any of them. Thanks, Kevin, for being such a wonderful husband!

Last night we went to the Beaver Dam Country Club for fish fry. They have an all you can eat special with baked and fried fish and broasted chicken. The regular price is $9.95, but it’s only $8.95 between 4:30 and 5:30 pm. That was perfect since we didn’t want to be gone too late in case anyone wanted to buy firewood.

Unfortunately, the food was mediocre at best. Also, once our waitress brought us our order, she never checked back. When we were done, she brought the check. She never asked if we wanted more. Kevin asked her if it was, in fact, all you can eat. She said it was, and did we want any more. We said yes, she took away our plates, and then only brought one plate with the fish on it. She did go back and get me another plate, but she had taken my fork so I ate my last piece of fish with a spoon. Mediocre food and poor service; we won’t be going back.

The weather continues to be ridiculous. Last week we had two days of records highs near 100 degrees. On Wednesday evening a storm came through and our temperatures have plunged into the 60s during the day and 40s at night. We had the air on non-stop for two days, and are back to the furnace at night. As I said, ridiculous!!!!

I had an interesting jewelry experience this week. Four years ago when we were in Italy, Kevin bought me a beautiful bracelet in Florence. It was for my 50th birthday. I absolutely love it, and wear it all the time. Unfortunately, one of the links broke, and it needed to be repaired.

I took it to Ferber’s Jewelers, the only jewelry store in Beaver Dam. They quoted $50 to $100 to fix it. I left it there and got a call a few days later saying it was too broken to fix, but they offered me $125 in gold value if I wanted to sell it to them. I said no and picked it up.

On my way to Eric’s house last week, I dropped it off at Robert M Jewelers in Menomonee Falls. They quoted me $35 to fix it and said it would not be a problem to make the repair. I asked the guy how much he thought it was worth. Kevin had paid $500 American, but I always wondered if we had overpaid because the dollar was worth less than the euro. The jeweler said his estimate was it was worth $1,100. Good thing I didn’t sell it for $125, not that I ever would.

When I picked it up, they only charged me $25 for the repairs and they had cleaned it. It looks like new again! I’m so glad the first jeweler said they couldn’t fix it. I certainly would never go back there!

We watched a pretty funny movie last night. It was called “You Again” with Jamie Lee Curtis, Betty White and Sigourney Weaver. A bit over the top at times, but overall a funny movie.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Spic and Span Clean

2011-06-08T11:56:00.001-05:00

We have been wanting to wash the trailer ever since we returned to Wisconsin. Until now, it was too cold and rainy. Last weekend, however, was incredibly gorgeous. Sunny and highs in the 80s. On Sunday, Kevin washed the roof.

And, I washed our car.

The front of the car was covered with dead bugs. A few weeks ago we were coming home at night. As we got near the campground, we heard a noise that sounded like rain hitting the car. It wasn’t rain, it was bugs. Yuck!

We have experienced a couple of weeks of visiting lake flies. This is a new one for us. I guess we’ve never been near a lake in late May. They look like big mosquitoes. Then don’t bite, but there were swarms of them as soon as you got near the lake. Since we’re right across the road, they visited us, too. You had to make sure and keep your mouth closed outside or you were very likely eating one of them! They’re gone now, so time for a car wash.

On Monday we washed the rest of the trailer. Kevin used to do it by himself, and it would take him most of the day. This time, I was the hose holder and go-fer. Together, we finished in 4 hours. It was really dirty because of the dust storms we experienced in New Mexico and Texas on our way home. The dirt in that area is quite red, so our trailer was covered in red dust. It is so nice and clean again!

Our weather is still crazy. A few weeks ago we had frost warnings and they were giving wind chill temperatures. The last two days we have set records highs in the mid 90s with very high dew points, and they are issuing heat advisories and giving heat index temperatures. Talk about extremes.

Last night brought another beautiful sunset.

Our vehicle and trailer insurance was up for renewal at the end of May. Last year we insured them through the Miller Insurance Agency in Oregon on the advise of some RVDreams.com forum members. There are only a handful of agencies that will write full-time RV insurance policies. As a full-timer, you want to make sure to have the correct coverage, in particular, regarding liability and replacement coverage.

After reading more forum posts regarding insurance, I saw that many fulltimers are insuring through National Interstate. I found the Thum Insurance Agency in Michigan on National Interstate’s website and gave them a call. Lori was great to work with. She quoted me fulltime RV insurance for the camper as well as coverage for both of our vehicles through GMAC. She was able to save us $360 a year for the same coverage. Yippee!! And, I made sure that GMAC will allow us to insure the car for comp only during the winter months when we store it in my mom’s garage. That will save us a few hundred dollars more. I guess it pays to shop around.

Welcome Brian and Doyle and Terri as new followers to the blog!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Beautiful Weekend

2011-06-05T08:37:00.001-05:00

Summer seems to have finally arrived in Wisconsin. It is very typical to have ugly spring weather, and this year was one of the ugliest. It was cold and rainy all spring. The good thing about that was that the cold temperatures kept the severe weather much of the country was experiencing away from us. So, I’m not complaining.

Some of the worst weather seemed to have been on weekends, definitely not good camping weather. However, this weekend was just beautiful. Temperatures in the high 80s and sun, sun and more sun. Friday’s high was actually 91 degrees.

We had only three sites reserved, but on Friday people just kept coming. We ended up with fifteen of our twenty-five sites occupied.

The state had declared this weekend as a free fishing weekend, so the boat launch was also very busy. Many people were fishing along the shore. I saw quite a few sunburned faces last night.

To top off a fantastic day, we had a gorgeous sunset last night.

There’s been quite a bit of activity around the birdfeeders, as well. Although, it seems the red-winged blackbirds are keeping other birds away. They are quite aggressive.

The finches have found us. They are so pretty. I’ve had the hummingbird feeder out for a few weeks. So far, I’ve only seen two hummingbirds, and both times they left very quickly. Hopefully, now that it’s warmer, we’ll see more.

Yesterday I went to a quilting class in Beaver Dam at Nancy’s Notions Quit Shop. It’s a large store with a huge warehouse. They do quite a bit of internet and catalog business. In fact, Nancy even has her own sewing show on public television.

I’ve made a few quilts, but have just used straight lines to do the quilting. This class was called “Free Motion Quilting”. I learned a lot of new ways to quilt. It was fun, although some of the designs will definitely require more practice. Here’s the sampler I worked on.

I have a quilt top almost finished, and I’m excited to try out some of what I learned when I start quilting it. I’m sure it will take me some time, but when it’s done I’ll post a picture.

Nothing too eventful during the week. I did go to Eric’s on Wednesday and finished stripping the wallpaper in his half bath, except for the little area behind the toilet. I have to wait for Eric to remove the toilet tank to do that little spot. This week I plan to start on the main bath.

I also attended a safety training meeting at Beaver Dam Hospital to complete my volunteer training. I’m supposed to do my volunteering at the hospital’s day care. Hopefully, that will start soon. It’s taken over a month to get approved, but I’m finally good to go. Lots of paperwork and hoops, but I guess that’s a good thing. In today’s climate, you can’t be too careful.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Interesting Weekend

2011-05-31T08:32:00.001-05:00

Memorial Day Weekend was the first time since we’ve been here that all of the sites were occupied. Although we observed some interesting people, overall things went quite well.

Since we are located on a large lake, most of the people who camp here seem to be all about the fishing. Many have boats. We had a few families with young children, some older couples, some groups with several sites together.

The people in the two sites right next to us has some unusual tents. They looked like tents used at fairs or encampments.

This same group of people had reserved our indoor shelter for Saturday. There had to be about 25 cars filling the parking lot and overflowing onto the grass. I’m guessing they had at least 50 people.

It looked like they had a great time, and they did a wonderful job cleaning up the building before they left. However, some of them stayed and continued to party well into the night at their campsites next to us. Thank goodness for earplugs. We could have gone out and told them to be quiet, but since they hadn’t caused a problem the rest of the weekend, we let it go. I don’t think people realize how far sounds carry at night.

The only other complaint I have is about payment. Most of the sites had been reserved and paid for in advance. However, two of them came a day earlier than their reservations indicated. Lucky for them, the sites were available. That’s not always the case as we have had a number of people come during the week and stay for a few nights without a reservation.

Anyway, these people came a day early and then didn’t pay the day they arrived. I had to remind them a couple of times that they still owed money. We have a self-registration system where they fill out an envelope and put the money in a slot in the office door. They don’t pay us directly. I’m going to have to start demanding payment while I wait.

In the 30 plus years we’ve camped, we’ve never expected not to pay the day we arrive. Can you imagine checking into a hotel and telling them you’ll pay in a day or two. Unbelievable!

There’s a new bird in town. We’ve seen many red-winged blackbirds, robins, orioles and blackbirds. Last week, we had a cardinal visit us. He sure is beautiful.

So, we survived the busy weekend. The weather was okay. Saturday and Sunday were a bit cool, overcast with a little rain. Monday the heat came. It was 89 degrees and very humid. We literally went from running the heater one night to the air conditioning the next day. Today is supposed to be in the 80s, as well. That’s crazy Wisconsin for you. I’m not complaining, though. We’ve had a very cold and wet spring so bring on summer!

Kevin and I marvel at the mass exodus of people on the last day of the weekend. Monday was by far the nicest day of the weekend, yet 75% of the people had left by 10 a.m. What’s the hurry? Check-out isn’t until 1 p.m. In our many years of weekend camping, it seemed the last day was often the nicest. We would try to stay and enjoy as much of that last day as we could. That work at home could wait a few more hours :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Golf and Wildflowers

2011-05-26T15:36:00.001-05:00

On Monday Kevin and I played nine holes of golf at Kestrel Ridge Golf Course. It’s in Columbus, which is about twenty minutes from us. We played there several times last summer. They have a Monday special of $12 for nine holes with a cart. It was pretty windy, but with the weather we’re having this year, we’d be waiting forever if we wanted great weather.

I haven’t played since last summer, and it was obvious on the first few holes. I did improve as we went along. Here’s Kevin teeing off.

There were lots of ducks in the ponds on the course. I don’t know what they eat, but they kept dunking their heads under the water. It was funny watching them.

The weather has been quite cool, windy and rainy all week. Things are supposed to start improving tomorrow. All of our campsites are booked for the long weekend, so I sure hope they have nice camping weather.

Yesterday I went back to Eric’s house to do some more wallpaper stripping. I should be able to finish the small bathroom with one more day’s work. He was kind enough to let me do laundry while I was there. Saving on laundry expenses will help defray some of the gas costs of driving to and from his house. I thought gas was supposed to be coming down in price. It’s still $3.75 around here. Ridiculous!

I have managed to take a few walks despite the crummy weather. There are several of these gorgeous flowering trees in the park.

These wildflowers are blooming along the edge of the park.

So, that’s what we’ve been up to this week. I’m sure we’ll be busy this weekend selling firewood and answering questions. It’s been very quiet in the park so far this year. I’m sure it’s been due to the weather. Hopefully, everyone will have a good time and behave!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Fun Day With Friends

2011-05-22T09:20:00.001-05:00

This weekend was the May outing for the Milwaukee Jaybirds Camping Club that we have belonged to since 1981. Since we are camphosting this summer, we can’t leave for an entire weekend to camp with the club. But, we can visit for the day if they’re close enough to us.

This month they were near Madison which is only about 40 minutes away. We had 8 sites occupied in our park for the weekend. We informed everyone on Friday that we would be gone all day Saturday. If they wanted to buy firewood, they would have to buy it Friday night. No problem, everyone cooperated.

So, we were able to spend the day with good friends. In the morning a group of the ladies went to the Madison Farmer’s Market. It’s held every Saturday from spring through fall on the four blocks surrounding the State Capitol. It’s really a nice event and has been crowded both times I’ve been there.

At this time of year, there were many flower and plant vendors along with the usual items including bakery products, cheeses and organic vegetables. There were so many beautiful flowers for sale, but the prices were a bit high for my liking. However, many other people were buying. The Capitol has some beautiful flower beds on display.

My big purchases were a delicious Bismarck doughnut and a cookie :) One of the bakeries was selling cookies shaped like cows; very fitting for Wisconsin. Our license plates say “America’s Dairyland”.

The weather forecast had been for scattered rain throughout the day. The morning was cloudy, but we managed to see all of the Farmer’s Market without getting rained on. When we got back to the campground, it rained for a few hours. By mid-afternoon, the rain stopped and the sun actually made an appearance.

We had a fun cocktail hour and a delicious potluck supper with the group. There were lots of jokes about the world coming to an end while we were eating supper. Luckily, no earth-shattering events occurred, so we took a walk and enjoyed spending time visiting with everyone. We played a new game called Qwirkle. It was an easy, but fun game.

We got home around 9:30 pm. The campground was nice and quiet. Our clocks were flashing, so power must have gone out at some point during the day. That’s the second time we’ve had a power outage since we’ve been here. I’m going to ask if that’s typical. We’ve been debating whether we should buy a generator. If this campground keeps losing power, we may be buying that generator sooner than later.

There is a line of trees at the border of our park with beautiful blooms. We think they are some type of fruit trees, possibly wild plums. Maybe, we’ll be enjoying some delicious fruit in August and September.

Today is sunny with highs predicted to be around 80 degrees. I think we’ll be going for a bike ride.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Wallpaper Stripping

2011-05-20T14:31:00.001-05:00

I thought I was done with home remodeling projects when we sold our house. But, I have volunteered to do some more projects.

Our son, Eric, bought a house about 2-1/2 years ago. Both of the bathrooms were wallpapered in floral patterns which is not at all his style. Since I have time to help him, and he has been so very helpful by allowing us to use his address as our mailing address, I offered to strip the wallpaper and paint those rooms for him.

What was I thinking. Just kidding, Eric!

I began yesterday in the half bath. Here’s a before picture. I started peeling the wallpaper, and was pleasantly surprised how easily it came off. Until I noticed, there was another layer underneath. So, I pulled off the top layer in no time.

Then I started on the second layer. It had been glued directly onto the drywall. It wasn’t coming off easily at all.

I decided to drive to Home Depot and buy a wallpaper scraper. I had seen a cool tool on HGTV for removing wallpaper so I wanted to see what I could find to make the job easier. I found the Paper Tiger Scoring Tool for $8. What a great tool. It has sharp little wheels that score the paper. Then you wet it thoroughly, and the top layer peels off. Wet it again and the bottom paper layer comes off.

Of course, spraying water on it is getting the drywall wet, and some of the drywall paper is coming off, too. Luckily, Eric has a good friend who used to be in construction work. He will put a layer of drywall mud over the walls after I’m done and then we can prime and paint. Then, I can start the process all over again in the other bathroom.

We’re about an hour away from Eric’s house so my plan is to drive in once a week and spend a day working. These bathrooms may take me the whole summer.

The weather has been improving. It’s still been pretty rainy, but we’ve also had a few nice days. Kevin was actually able to go out with friends and golf on Tuesday and today. The rest of the week he was getting his lawn mowing duties done between rain showers. All of this rain sure is making the grass grow!

I hung a bird feeder on my shepherd's hook and have been enjoying watching the birds. It’s pretty low to the ground. I’m going to get a taller hook. The red-winged blackbirds just sit on the ground and eat the bird food.

Some seeds are starting to sprout in my garden. I’ve seen some robins pecking around in there. I think they’ve broken off some of the sprouts so I’m going to put some netting over it. No rabbits so far, but now it’s robins.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Yo-Yo Days

2011-05-14T17:01:00.001-05:00

It seems like I’m always talking about the weather, but it has been so unusual. We’ve been back in Wisconsin for almost a month, and the weather has been just plain crummy!

The temperatures have been below normal, and it has been cloudy and rainy. There have been a few nice days, but overall it’s been just yucky! Then, last week the temps suddenly spiked to near 90 degrees with very high dew points. Our bodies really struggled with adjusting to the high humidity. This yo-yo weather stinks!

For the weekend we’re back to rain, clouds, and highs around 50 degrees. We only have two other 5th wheels in the park this weekend. I don’t blame people for not wanting to camp in this kind of weather.

I’ve seen some boats out on the lake today. The wind is from the north, and there are actually whitecaps on the water. Burr. I feel bad for people who can only get out on the weekend, and then have to put up with this kind of weather. These people were out on the lake most of the day. As you can see, they’re wearing winter coats and have their hoods up. I’m happy to be inside with the heater on :)

On Thursday, I worked my first volunteer shift at Beaver Dam Community Hospital. I’ve signed up to volunteer at their daycare facility. In order to be accepted, I needed two references who would complete a form about me, a blood test to check for rubella immunity, a TB test, and a background check. They’re not taking any chances.

Until all of that is in place, they asked if I would help by taking pictures for their annual Kindergarten tours. The kids come and have a tour, and then get their picture taken wearing either a doctor or nurse hat. I took pictures of each child wearing their hat.

I wasn’t surprised at the number of girls who chose to wear a doctor hat, but I was a little surprised at the number of boys who chose the nurse hat. I’m glad to see boys overcoming the stereotype that nursing is just for girls.

Last week I also took my mom to the car dealer Kevin used to work at to pick up the conversion van she purchased. She has decided that she wants to travel with her friend, Richard. They plan to take some trips in the van. They are in their mid 70s, and I think it’s great they want to do this.

Yesterday Kevin and I made the four hour round-trip to Burlington RV to pick up the fenders they had sent out to the paint shop when we were there last month. We didn’t want to wait around four extra days while we were there waiting for the fenders to get painted, so we said we’d pick them up later and Kevin would attach them. These are the fenders that were damaged when our tire lost it’s tread in Arizona.

We stopped at another RV dealer on the way to look at some Big Horn and Jayco Pinnacle 5th wheels, but we didn’t see anything that blew us away. We like to look at what’s available, it’s fun. But, for now we’ll stick with what we have.

So, that’s our exciting week. We’re adjusting to our camphosting position, and Kevin is happy with his park caretaker position. I’m looking forward to some summer weather so we can enjoy being outside.

I found this picture on the web several months ago. I don’t remember where, but I thought I would share it with you.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

We Have Mi-Fi

2011-05-10T12:49:00.001-05:00

We finally have Mi-Fi. It turns out the unit we purchased two weeks ago was defective. So, after waiting nearly two weeks for a new sim card and then driving to Eric’s house to get it, it still didn’t work.

Yesterday I had to drive the 40 miles back to West Bend to the Verizon store where we purchased the unit, and they replaced it. For whatever reason, Verizon was having problems authenticating sim cards, so it still wasn’t working when I left the store. They assured me it would be up and running within an hour.

I plugged it in when I got home, and success! Both computers were able to connect and it’s still working today. We absolutely seem to have the worst luck with electronics type of stuff. I’m just so glad it finally works.

I’m going to wait a few days just to make sure it continues to work well. Then, I will get major satisfaction out of cancelling our aircard through Coast 2 Coast Cellular. I didn’t appreciate getting ripped off by them!!

A couple of days ago, I saw some Baltimore Orioles while we were out taking a walk. When we got home, I put an orange in a tree on our site. Yesterday we had two Orioles chomping away at our orange. They’ve even tried feeding at our hummingbird feeder. I don’t recall ever seeing a Baltimore Oriole in Wisconsin. I guess the orange did the trick!

Some of you may be thinking I’ve lost my mind after reading my previous post. What in the world is she doing posting a guest blog about vampires??? Let me explain.

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you may recall that I mentioned a website called Blosgvertise back in February. This site pays you to put ads in your blog. When I first signed up in February, they sent me several ads which I posted to my blog. So far, I’ve earned $85.15 through the site, and they have paid the money to my Paypal account. It takes about a month to get the money, but it’s sure an easy way to earn a little extra.

In the beginning they sent me several ads, but then things dropped off. The only ads they’ve had available lately were the type where people have to click on them and you get paid per click or action. I like the ads where you get a flat fee for posting it. This latest one pays $10. I think it’s an easy way to make a few bucks without cluttering up the blog with a bunch of advertising. So, anytime you see a post that has stars (*) around the title, you will know it’s an ad. Feel free to read it or not. Just don’t think I’m going crazy :)

Just so you know, I’ve never watched the True Blood series on HBO. I’m not endorsing it, just posting a guest blog to earn a little advertising revenue. I did like the Twilight movies, though, so I just might see if I can find the DVD at the library. We don’t subscribe to any movie channels through DirecTV.

Speaking of the library, I’m so excited to be back in one area for a while to have access to a library. I’ve already checked out several movies and books. We watched the first two Harry Potter movies again. We plan to watch all of them again before getting the newest one. We also watched Contact with Jodie Foster. Part of that movie took place at the VLA we visited in New Mexico. I just love public libraries!!!

The weather is fantastic today. I went for a nice long walk. Kevin’s out mowing. As I sit here with the windows open, I can smell the fresh cut grass. It smells and feels like summer!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Guest Post: Watching True Blood

2011-05-10T10:31:00.001-05:00

The following is a guest post:

Thanks to Ricardo Mullins

One of my favorite shows to watch has to be True Blood. I was introduced to this television show about two years ago by a friend who told me I could catch it on HBO on my satellite television from ExpertSatellite.com. I began watching it from its first season and was completely hooked right after. I absolutely fell in love with the storyline and enjoyed the fact that the entire show is set in the south and all of the characters live in the swamps. The show itself has an extensive story that truly outmatches Twilight, in my own opinion. It's about vampires, but the vampires are so much more sinister than ones that people may be used to seeing now that other films and books are coming out on them.

After watching the first season, I was somewhat annoyed to find out that the next season would not air until a year later. It was a summer tradition for True Blood to come out and I can't help but admit that I was always looking forward to the summer just because another season would start. I actually got the series for a birthday present last year and I'm eagerly awaiting the fourth season of it to come out this coming summer. I'm sure it'll be just as wonderful and breathtaking than the other seasons were when I watched them.

Putting Down Roots–Literally

2011-05-07T14:35:00.001-05:00

When we owned a house, we had a garden for many years. Every year we fought with the deer and rabbits to get some bounty from that garden. Once the kids left home, we gave up the fight and planted grass where the garden had been.

I decided I would like to try growing some fresh produce again. I haven’t seen any deer or rabbits in the park, so I’m going to give it a try. Yesterday Kevin built a 4’ x 8’ frame for me and he dug up the grass inside of the frame. We’ve placed it next to the wood shed.

Today I added some topsoil and compost we bought and planted lettuce, beans, peas, cucumbers and acorn squash.

In a few weeks when the weather gets a little warmer, I’ll buy some tomato and pepper plants. Since we’re putting down roots at this park until late September, I’m hoping for some yummy home-grown vegetables. We’ll see if the critters leave it alone.

Kevin has already worked two weeks and submitted his first timesheet. It was rather cold and windy this past week (again), but he managed to get the grass cut.

The county is buying a new mower for this park. They had it narrowed down to two different models. Kevin got to go and try both of them out and give his input. They’re buying the one he liked best! He should have it around June 1st.

There are 24 sites in our campground. We have 7 occupied sites this weekend. It’s opening day of fishing season today so there is lots of activity at the boat launch across the street. Some of the people in the campground have boats and are fishing.

The weather has actually been pretty nice the last few days, partly sunny and highs in the mid 60s. They’re predicting possible highs in the 70s for mid week. A heat wave! Of course, there’s plenty of rain in the forecast as well.

We have been members of the Milwaukee Area Jaybirds Camping Club since 1981. Last summer when we were co-hosts at Atsico Park, we were able to leave a few weekends and camp with the club. Since we are camphosting by ourselves at this park, we didn’t want to ask if we could leave. However, we hope to go to some of the club campouts at least for the day on Saturdays.

Last Saturday was the club’s first campout of the year, and they were only about 30 miles from us. Since there wasn’t anyone camped in our park for the weekend, we drove up for the day on Saturday. It was great to see our camping friends again. I went shopping with some of the ladies to an Amish bakery and grocery store. That Amish bakery makes the best pecan rolls!

During the afternoon some of the ladies participated in a basket-making session.

Here are some of the nearly finished baskets.

I didn’t make one because I didn’t really have a need for one, and space is limited, you know!

We stayed for the potluck supper and Kevin had a chance to play Sheepshead (cards) with the guys. If you aren’t from Wisconsin, you probably haven’t heard of it. We had a nice campfire until the rains came around 10 pm. Time to go home :)

I spent the week doing Spring cleaning inside our home. Dust and sand had gotten into everything while we were in the desert. It has now been thoroughly cleaned from top to bottom. As soon as we have some decent weather outside, it will be getting a bath on the outside, too.

Another project I plan to do this summer is to go through every cabinet and reevaluate whether we need everything we have with us. Now that we’ve lived in it a year, I think there may be some things we kept that we don’t need. Maybe, one cabinet a week. No need to rush these things. I have all summer.

The new sim card for our Mi-Fi was finally delivered to Eric’s house yesterday. We’ll be seeing him tomorrow for Mother’s Day so he’ll bring it with. Hopefully, that will solve the problem. We’ve had the Mi-Fi for almost two weeks and were able to use it for a total of two hours. Bummer!

Since we haven’t had the best weather since we’ve been back in Wisconsin, I especially liked this sunset on Thursday night.

Happy Mother’s Day tomorrow. My mom is treating the family to a restaurant dinner. Thanks, Mom!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Happy Anniversary To Us

2011-05-03T09:02:00.001-05:00

Sunday, May 1st, was our one year anniversary of being fulltime RVers. The first year certainly has flown by!

We had a fantastic first year. We saw so many awesome sites, enjoyed time with family and friends, appreciated the time we had to relax, and treasured the time we were able to spend together.

Of course, we had some problems as well. A step-stool on the interstate that put a hole in our trailer, a tire that lost it’s tread and put a dent in the trailer, and hassles with DirecTV. However, life brings problems no matter where you are. And, none of them were earth shattering. Mostly, just annoying.

We learned some things about our preferences, as well. We discovered that we prefer staying at a mix of places. RV resorts with activities and pools are fine for a month or two. But, then we are ready for some quiet time again. We enjoyed seeing the sites, but we plan to slow down the pace this next year. After all, we have lots of time to enjoy all the regions of this beautiful country.

Our second year will bring some new adventures. Kevin has just started his part-time job as park caretaker. He’s out mowing grass at this very moment. I think he’s happy to have something to do and earn some income.

I’ve signed up to volunteer at the Kid’s Zone through Beaver Dam Hospital. I’ll continue to work online as a virtual assistant. I’ve actually developed a network of jobs that will bring me as much work as I want. I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve turned some work down.

We’ll be working at Amazon in Kansas this fall. That will definitely be an adventure. We’ll have to see if our bodies can take it. The income will allow us to take the winter off and explore and enjoy.

So, overall it’s been a fantastic first year. We’re looking forward to many more years of this life. Neither one of us can imagine going back to the old life!

The weather has still been cold and dreary. The sun shines for a day or so, and then back to clouds and rain. Oh well, it is what it is.

Our DirecTV is finally working again. After numerous calls and frustration, I was finally contacted by a manager. He sent out a repair guy this past Sunday morning. The repair guy had things fixed in no time at all. We needed a new part outside. And, they’re covering it under our service plan. If they would have just sent someone in the first place, we wouldn’t have been without service for eleven days.

As the repair guy told me, the company is such a massive beast, customers are constantly falling through the cracks. Once you get a manager, things happen. But, getting to that point is a frustrating process. We were given a phone number to call for the manager with a pin number. After five days, your pin number expires and you can’t call the management center again. What a joke!

Our Mi-Fi is still not working. It turns out our SIM card was bad. They’ve sent out a new one, but it hasn’t arrived yet. Since our mailing address is Eric’s house, we have to drive over an hour to his house to pick it up. We’re planning on driving into town on Thursday to take him out to dinner, so we’ll pick up the SIM card at that time. Hopefully, it will solve the Mi-Fi problem.

Eric has been so wonderful taking care of our mail this winter. We were able to take care of most of our business using the internet, but there were a few times where he needed to send us some mail. He never complains that our mail is a pain. What a guy! We’re planning on helping him with some home repairs this summer. It’s great when family members can help each other out.

No pictures today. I didn’t think you wanted to see more gray skies :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Here Comes The Sun

2011-04-29T08:52:00.001-05:00

It was so wonderful to see the sun this morning. I woke up at 4:30 am and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I was able to witness this beautiful sunrise.

Kevin will say I couldn’t sleep because of “the” wedding that was being broadcast this morning. But, that’s not it. Although, I have been watching the whole thing. Just saw “the kiss”.

I’ve been a bit grumpy the last few days because of problems we’re having again with electronics/technology. We still don’t have our DirecTV working. We’re waiting for the receivers they’re supposed to be sending us.

On Tuesday we purchased a new Mi-Fi from Verizon. We’ve been using an aircard since last summer, but we couldn’t both be online at the same time. We had tried a program called Connectify that is supposed to turn Windows 7 into a hotspot. We had some success with it, but the program kept shutting down, and it just wasn’t working well for us.

Also, we were not satisfied with the company we’ve been using for internet service. Last August I contacted the 3Gstore.com for help in setting up our internet service. They were offering Verizon aircard service for $10 less than Verizon was charging. I was under the assumption that this plan would be through the 3Gstore. There would be a one-time charge of $99 to lease the aircard.

I didn’t realize the service was through a third party company called Group Access. We were limited to 5GB of data per month and were able to check our usage online. Unfortunately, Group Access sold our account to Coast to Coast Cellular a few months after we signed up. It took weeks to get a new aircard from them and many phone calls to actually get it working. Also, we were no longer able to check our usage online.

When I asked Coast to Coast about that, they said they were “working on it”. We were never given any information on how to view our account online or find out what our usage was. In January we ended up going over our 5GB limit by about 1/2 of a GB. That cost us an extra $125.

When I called to complain, I was given a user ID and login to view our account online and was told I could email them anytime for usage info. That was the first we were ever told any of that. Due to the fact that we were never informed of how to check our usage, I asked for a one-time credit for the overage charges. Of course, they said no. I have filed a dispute with our credit card company, and we’ll see what happens.

The lesson learned is don’t sign up with a third party internet provider. Their overage charges are ridiculous. I must also say that the 3Gstore has not provided any help with this, and basically told me “tough luck”.

So, back to Tuesday and the purchase of a Verizon Mi-Fi. It worked for a few hours and then stopped working. I called and found out their 4G network was down nationwide. As of this morning, their network is back up, but our Mi-Fi is still not working. So, I’ll have to call them again. Luckily, I hadn’t cancelled the aircard yet so I still have internet.

The Mi-Fi is $50 per month with a 5GB limit. Overage charges are $10 per each GB over the 5GB limit. That’s a much more reasonable price for the overage fees. We did have to buy the MI-Fi for $99 and a two year contract commitment.

Also, yesterday we had to spend another $800 on truck repairs. One of the wheel hubs had to be replaced; something to do with the anti-lock brakes.

So, with gloomy weather and all of these problems, I’ve been in a bit of a funk, and couldn’t fall back asleep this morning. Hopefully, the sun will cheer me up.

Now, I know full well that these are little problems, and I should not be complaining. When I see what devastation the tornados in the south have done, I know I am a very lucky person.

Unfortunately, I’m a worrier. I truly believe I’ve learned to let things bother me less in this last year, but I still have a ways to go. I’m working on it, but it’s hard to change who you are :)

Kevin just got up to go chase ducks off the roof. Apparently, two ducks were walking around on the roof above the bed and quacking. Too funny! I needed a laugh :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Great Visits

2011-04-26T08:21:00.001-05:00

It has been so wonderful to see my family again. Korey has been here for almost a week. He has to leave today, but we’ve so enjoyed spending this time with him.

On Sunday, we went to my mom’s for dinner. We haven’t seen her since September, and Korey hasn’t seen her since August. She was so excited! We had a great dinner and so enjoyed catching up with my brother and his wife. Both my boys were there. I cherish every moment with them. We had a great Easter. I hope all of you did, too.

We attended church in Beaver Dam on Easter morning. Something the pastor said in his sermon really hit home for me. He was talking about the rock being rolled away from the tomb, and how God sometimes will roll away the rock of our sorrows or pain.

It made me think of how much Kevin and I had disliked our jobs and wanted desperately to get out and start our new fulltime RVing dream. It felt at times like it would never happen. But, now almost a year later, I feel as if God moved that rock for us. We are so much happier in this simpler life! We now have the freedom to do what makes us happy.

Yesterday the sun finally came out. It was 64 degrees, and we spent some time outside. The three of us took a walk and then played some bean bag toss. Last night the rains came back. It’s been raining hard all night. The sun isn’t supposed to return until Friday. Yuck! All this rain certainly has turned the grass green.

Korey and I sampled the wine I bought in New Mexico. Good stuff!

After Korey leaves this morning, it’s time for some errands. We hope to be able to get haircut appointments, go to the bank and get a Mi-Fi air card from Verizon. Right now, we have a regular air card so only one of us can be online at a time. We’ve been very dissatisfied with our internet provider, Coast 2 Coast Cellular. But, that’s a story for another day.

Also, we still do not have satellite TV. The local service guy couldn’t figure out what was wrong with it. He said he thought both of our receivers had gone bad at the same time. The odds of that are so slim. We don’t think that could be the problem.

But, DirecTV is now sending us two new receivers. They should be here in a few days. We’ll see if that solves the problem, but we doubt it. So frustrating!!!! At least we’re in an area where we can receive local channels through our antenna. So, we are now having to watch commercials, and Kevin is missing ESPN. Such a rough life we lead :)

One more event that has happened since we’ve been back in Wisconsin, is that we’ve been hired by Amazon to work at their Coffeyville, Kansas distribution center this fall. We understand that it will be hard work, but the income we will earn will allow us to take the winter months off and enjoy. I’ll write more about the hiring process in another post.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

A Visit With Old Friends

2011-04-23T15:20:00.001-05:00

Last night we went out for a fish fry with some very good friends. Sue and I became friends in 7th grade. We remained the best of friends all the way through high school. In fact, Sue and her husband, Jim, were responsible for setting up my first date with Kevin.

The two of them were our maid of honor and best man and godparents to our oldest son. They had two boys close in age to our two boys. Every summer we would take our boys to Great America and the boys attended church camp together for a number of years.

As is often the case in life, interests change and sometimes you don’t spend as much time with good friends as you would like. So, over the years we saw less and less of them.

It was so good to see them again! Their son David, his wife, Liz, and their one year old son, Harper, joined us along with our two boys. What a cute family David has. Little Harper is just adorable.

We had a wonderful evening catching up. We have made plans to golf together this summer, and I’m hoping they will come out and visit us at our campground. Since I forgot my camera and don’t have a current picture, I’ll share a picture of the four of us at our wedding in 1977. What children we were.

The weather sure has been crummy since we returned to Wisconsin. We’ve had rain and clouds on seven out of nine days since we’ve been back. I’m thinking I got spoiled by all the sunshine we enjoyed this winter in the southwest.

What I have been enjoying is being with my family again. Korey has been staying with us since Wednesday, and it has been so wonderful to have him with us again for a few days. We saw Eric at dinner last night and will be with the boys, my mom and my brother and his wife tomorrow. Seeing all of them is worth a few rainy and cloudy days. But, I wouldn’t mind some sun and warm weather sooner than later :)

We have taken a few walks in-between the raindrops. There are a number of white pelicans on the lake. When they are swimming on the water, they appear to be completely white.

Yet, when they’re flying, their wings are black. I’m not sure what kind of pelicans they are, but they sure are pretty.

There are also many robins and some red-winged blackbirds in the park. Certainly, all of these birds mean spring is just around the corner.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

RV Khronicles of Kevelyn

Bon Voyage

Tohono Chul Park

Titan Missile Museum

Saguaro National Park West

Pima Air and Space Museum

Biosphere 2

*AIR JORDANS*

Catalina State Park

More Desert Hiking

A Time For Reflection

Gorgeous

Another Tire Bites the Dust

Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Five More Hours

Exciting Plans

Santa’s Workshop

*Dubbo Zoo -Hotels and Accommodation*

Single Digits and Happy Birthday

*Medical Scrubs*

Lake Property

The Madness Is Upon Us

*A Fiji Vacation*

*Miami Airport Parking*

Happy Thanksgiving!

Half Way There

*Taking My Daughter To See The Nutcracker*

And The Winner Is…

Short Trip to Arkansas

Technical Difficulties

Little House on the Prairie in Kansas

Meeting Fellow Workampers

One Down, Nine To Go

We Survived Our First Night!

A Hitch in the Process

Checking Things Out

A Very Eventful Travel Day

Hillsdale State Park, Kansas

Another Fantastic Day

We’ve Arrived in Iowa

Fabulous Weather and an Interview

Another Bike Ride

Comments Problem

Completed Projects

Comments

*Arcadia Park*

An Expensive Dental Visit

The Hummingbird is Back

Quilt Expo

It’s Been a Busy Week

A New Discovery

A Bit of a Milestone

Trifecta, Hat Trick, or Turkey?

A Fabulous Weekend

A Birthday Win!

Busy Week

Another Family Visit

More Golf

Another Peaceful Weekend

*Canadian Online Shopping*

Peaceful Weekend

We’re Having a Heat Wave!

*Grilling out on our deck*

The Wallpaper Stripping is Done!

What a Difference

Happy July 4th!

Great Weekend!

Road Trip

An Enjoyable Weekend With Friends

Family Visit

Thirty-Four Years!

Spic and Span Clean

Beautiful Weekend

Interesting Weekend

Golf and Wildflowers

A Fun Day With Friends

Wallpaper Stripping

Yo-Yo Days

We Have Mi-Fi

AIR JORDANS

Dubbo Zoo -Hotels and Accommodation

Medical Scrubs

A Fiji Vacation

Miami Airport Parking

Taking My Daughter To See The Nutcracker

Arcadia Park

Canadian Online Shopping

Grilling out on our deck

Guest Post: Watching True Blood