Having Fun in Lincoln

On Wednesday I drove 8.5 hours from Wisconsin to Lincoln, Nebraska to spend a long weekend with our son Korey. His wife is in Fargo for the summer fulfilling her clinical requirements for her degree. Korey turns thirty tomorrow, and I didn’t want him spending his birthday alone. Besides, I missed him and wanted to see him :)

The drive was long, but pretty uneventful. Just lots of road construction and semi trucks. It’s rained quite a bit since I’ve been here. Just can’t seem to get away from the rain this year. I did notice the corn in the fields is quite a bit taller than in Wisconsin.

Yesterday I spent the day at Korey’s workplace, Carol Joy Holling Camp in Ashland, Nebraska.

The kids that attend summer camp do a service project, and volunteers were needed to help. I signed up to volunteer for one of the days I was in town. The kids are making treasure boxes and bean bags for residents of Mosaic, an organization for people with intellectual disabilities. The kids had fun using mod podge and tissue paper to decorate the boxes. Here are some of the finished products.

The second project was bean bags to put in the boxes to be used for hand therapy. There is also a men’s group making bean bag toss game boards. These games will be sent to Tanzania, Africa.  The kids had a lesson on friendship, advocacy and respect and then made their projects. Most of them really got into it.

It was discovered that I can sew. Therefore, I spent most of the day at the sewing machine making the bean bags and closing the ones the kids filled. Since we are in Nebraska, the bags are being filled with corn, not beans. The corn was donated by local farmers.

I had a great time with the kids and also meeting many of the camp counselors and support staff. I heard over and over again what a great boss Korey is. It makes a mother’s heart swell with pride to see their child succeeding at a meaningful career.

Today while Korey was at work, I visited the International Quilt Study Center and Museum, part of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. This museum was listed in the top 10 things to do in Lincoln on a couple of web sites. Admission was $6, which isn’t that much, but I was a bit disappointed in the amount of quilts on display. They have over 3,000 in the collection, but only about 50 are displayed at a time. There was a cool sculpture out front.

I made a double wedding ring quilt last summer for Korey and Cathryn’s wedding, so I know how much work it is using a sewing machine. This one was done all by hand. I can’t even imagine the time and love put into this beautiful quilt. The lighting was subdued and flash photography was not allowed, so the colors aren’t true.

There were quilts on display from around the world. It definitely seems quilting is an international activity. Many third world countries have quilting co-ops where women can make quilts to sell to tourists and earn some money to help their families. This quilt is from India. All of the design is done by sewing rows and rows of tiny stitches. Amazing.

One of the exhibits was a collection of wall hanging quilts done by Nebraska residents. The theme was trees. I love the one in the middle. The mirrored effect in the water was done by putting tulle over that portion of the quilt. Such talented people.

Tomorrow is Korey’s birthday. We are going to see the new Transformers movie and then out to dinner. Should be another fun day.

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

Rain, Rain and More Rain

We’ve had over seven inches of rain since last Monday. The strange thing about the storms is that they’ve been occurring in the morning. Usually, we get storms in the late afternoon or overnight. Luckily, we haven’t had any severe weather, although there were some tornadoes not too far away.

On Wednesday morning we had three inches of rain in two hours. That caused the ditches at our entrance road to overflow at one point. Those ditches are at least two feet deep. We’ve seen them fill up before, but never overflow across the road.

In the picture above, the water had already started going down. On the very left, you can see the entrance road. The water had been flowing across that road into the ditch on the other side. It was quite a site. Here’s what it looked like after. You can see the debris from the farm field just behind the dumpster.

On Friday morning we had over two more inches in a short period of time. As the ground was already saturated, the water had nowhere to go. Here’s a look out our front door. Lakefront property!

Do you see our fire pit next to the plant. We leave that little table in there when we don’t have a fire to keep people from falling into the pit. It took two days for the standing water to recede from our site.

Four sites in the park had to be closed due to standing water. Luckily, we weren’t fully booked this weekend so we switched some people around to other sites, and everyone was happy.

The weather pattern that has been sitting over us for over a week has been very wet. Even when its not raining, it is very humid, and we’ve had very foggy mornings. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy all day. After that, there is hope that things will dry up. I sure hope so.

Last Monday I spent the day at Eric’s house painting ceilings. I’m working on his living room, kitchen and dining area this summer. After he got home from work, we went out to dinner and had a very enjoyable visit.

This Wednesday I’m driving to Lincoln, Nebraska to visit our son Korey. It will be his 30th birthday on June 28th, and I didn’t want him to spend it alone. I can’t believe my baby will be 30 years old. I sure don’t feel old enough for that to be happening.

His wife is working in Fargo, North Dakota this summer as part of her field work experience for her doctorate in occupational therapy. I’ll be in Lincoln for five days, and am very much looking forward to a visit with Korey.

Yesterday was the first official day of summer, so happy summer everyone!

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

Happy Father’s Day

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there. Kevin and I have both lost our dads. In fact, Kevin’s dad has been gone for 37 years. I lost my dad 8 years ago.

Our wedding pictures are the last photos we have of Kevin’s dad. He died three months after our wedding at the very young age of 58. My dad died at the age of 70. In fact, his death was one of the reasons we decided to being our full time RVing journey. You never know what lies around the corner, and we wanted to make the most of our life. We’ve been loving every moment. So, to those of you who still have your dads, treasure your time with them. We are lucky to be the parents of two wonderful young men. Time marches on.

Speaking of our wedding, we celebrated our 37th wedding anniversary last Wednesday. We sure were young back then. I’m so lucky to be married to such a wonderful man!

The park has been quite busy. We’ve been near full the last few weekends, and our enclosed shelter has been rented as well. That means lots of cars and people all over the place. Overall, people behave quite well. My biggest annoyance is the people who don’t have their dogs on a leash. The fine is $175 if someone calls the sheriff on them. Hardly seems worth the risk. I just keep reminding them.

I also don’t understand why it is so hard to get the hand towels in the women’s bathroom into the garbage can. I’m constantly having to pick up the wet hand towels off the floor and put them in the can. The men don’t seem to have nearly the trouble with this as the women do.

I guess if these are the worst of our troubles, things are really not so bad. I know there are other campgrounds with far worse problems. Our little campground is truly a gem.

The Canadian Geese were very busy reproducing this year. The boat launch area has several families of geese. Kevin counted between 40 and 50 babies one day. The paths around that area are mine fields of goose poop. There’s really nothing we can do about it. Just one of the joys of living in nature.

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

Winter in June?

Doesn’t it look like there is snow on the ground in this picture??

I took this picture on my walk in the neighboring subdivision. All of the white on the grass is the fuzz from a cottonwood tree. The ground was completely covered. We have several large cottonwood trees in the park, but they have not begun dropping their presents yet. If this is any indication, we will soon have snow on the ground in the park as well.

Another natural phenomenon I witnessed last week was blue algae. This is our fourth summer in this park, and I have not seen the blue algae before. We get plenty of green stuff, but the colors of the blue algae were so vivid. It would have been pretty if it didn’t smell so bad. This picture is not enhanced. It really was that blue. The next day it was gone. I read online that it can cause symptoms of illness if humans or their pets come into contact with it.

Luckily, our campsite is across the road from the lake. We have a nice view, but are far enough away so that we don’t have to smell the algae or dead fish that wash up sometimes. Beaver Dam Lake is very shallow, and is not a very clear lake. We hear the fishing is good, but I would never swim in it.

The weather has been really nice the last few weeks. There has been some occasional rain, which I’m sure the farmers appreciate. Last night a cool front came through and today was a gorgeous day with low dew points and clear sunny skies. We transported our bikes to the Wild Goose Bike Trail and biked fifteen miles in two hours. It was a great workout, but now I’m pooped!

Last week I spent a day painting at our son Eric’s house. I’ve been doing a little work for him each summer. This year I’m going to paint the kitchen, dinette, living room and bedroom hallway. That will pretty much finish all the painting. What a nice mom :)

On Friday Kevin and I played nine holes of golf. It was only my second time out this year, and I had an okay round. It was a beautiful day, and we had a good time. That’s the important part.

I’ve been working on a few craft projects. One of them is almost done, so I’ll have a picture soon. It would have been done already, but I ran out of thread. I hate it when that happens. I never seem to judge correctly how much thread I will need. Luckily, Joann Fabrics is not too far away.

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