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!

Beautiful Weekend

The weather this spring has been cold and rainy. Finally, this past week things began to improve. And, we couldn’t have asked for better weather this Memorial Day weekend. It was sunny and in the high 70s each day. Today was actually in the 80s. As I write this post, it is thunder storming outside. That’s a good thing for the garden I planted last week.

Due to the cold spring, flowering of plants was delayed. Lilacs and flowering crabapples usually bloom a few weeks earlier. As you can see from this photo, the crabapples are just in full bloom now. They sure are pretty.

If you look carefully, you can see the tractor in the background. They were planting today; also later than usual. Another latecomer this spring was the lake flies. Normally, they have come and gone by Memorial Day weekend. This year they came out just a few days before the big weekend. They don’t bite, but there are LOTS of them. Keep your mouth closed, or you may be getting some extra protein. Such an annoyance for us humans, but yummy for the birds traveling through!

The last few weeks have been pretty uneventful. I’ve started a new quilting project, planted my garden, took walks and just lived our life. Kevin has been busy with his 24 hour a week job as caretaker of the park and golfing a few times. We did take in a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game with Eric a few weeks ago. We had a great time, and the team won.

All 24 sites in our park were booked for the weekend. There were four groups, and everyone behaved very well. We don’t sell as much firewood when there are groups like that, but that’s okay :)

Two of the sites were occupied by our friends Jim and Wendy and Ralph and Ann. It was so nice to have our friends camping with us. Our son Eric came up Sunday afternoon and stayed overnight. So, lots of good company, great weather, yummy food and delicious beverages. What more can you ask for??

We did have a few odd questions. Two young boys came over with a baby squirrel in their hands. They had found it on the ground, and their parents told them to ask us what to do with it. I told them to put it back where they found it in case the mom squirrel was looking for it.

It amazes me the questions we get. Apparently, we are park rangers, DNR representatives, fishing experts, Chamber of Commerce employees, naturalists, and anything else someone wants to know.

A gentleman who looked to be about in his 60s drove into the park and stopped to talk to us. He will be biking across the state in a few weeks and wanted to know if he could hammock camp for free in the park for a night in some trees in the common area.

I wasn’t sure what to say. I told him to call the park office. I’m guessing anyone who stays overnight in the park has to pay whether they are on a camp site or not.

I asked him what hammock camping was. He explained that it was far more comfortable than sleeping in a tent on the ground and it was covered in case of bad weather. So, I did a little search. Sure enough, there are all kinds of hammocks for camping. Pictures are from the web.

You can get one with a canopy.

Or, you can get one with netting and sleep totally enclosed.

Who knew. In my quick search I found them ranging in price from $150 to $300. If I was biking that far at that age, I think I’d spend that money on a couple of hotel rooms and have some comforts of home. But, that’s me. I’ve never been a fan of roughing it type camping.

So, that’s about it. Not much else to report.

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

Happy Mother’s Day

I hope all the mothers out there in blog land had a wonderful Mother’s Day. I sure did!

We had a very busy weekend. Luckily, we only had six sites occupied in the park for the weekend, so we were able to be away for much of the time. The weather was beautiful both Saturday and Sunday with highs in the upper 70s.

On Friday night we went out for a good old Wisconsin fish fry with a group of friends. It was great to see everyone again!

On Saturday we attended a memorial wake for Kevin’s cousin who passed away at the young age of 60 a few weeks ago. Although it was for a sad reason, it was good to see many of his extended family members. Saturday night Kevin played cards with his card buddies while I headed back to the campground. I only had to sell two bundles of wood, so no problems.

On Sunday I had a nice phone chat with Korey in Nebraska. Then we went out to dinner with my mom, our son Eric, and my brother and his wife. After dinner we went back to my mom’s new condo for dessert. She is making progress getting things organized, and is loving her new home.

Kevin and I have continued to tweak our new home. He borrowed a hole drill from Eric and drilled a few holes in the cabinets by the TVs so the cords weren’t so visible. Looks much better.

Last week we had one hot day, so I had turned on the air conditioning unit in the bedroom to see if it would cool the entire fifth wheel. It worked fine, but when Kevin came in late in the afternoon after mowing all day, he wanted it cooler. He turned on the main air unit in the living area, and it didn’t work.

What’s up with that??? The heat pump has been working fine, so we knew the compressor was good. He fiddled around with it, and called our son Eric who is an HVAC service technician. They figured it had to be the thermostat.

The next day Kevin took the thermostat off the wall and found four wires were not attached to anything. He found the wiring diagram online and was able to figure out that two of the wires were for the high fan speed and the other two were for the air. He hooked it all up, and now everything works great. I’m so glad we didn’t have to take it into the dealer. That is such a pain!

Other than that and a few other minor adjustments, this new RV is great. We are very pleased with the workmanship and quality of all the components.

A few days ago several orioles appeared at the tree on our site. I didn’t have my birdfeeders out yet. I wonder if they remembered there was food here last year. I quickly got out the feeders. Of course, since then I’ve only had a few orioles show up. I was surprised to see this hummingbird.

We’ve also had plenty of finches, sparrows and chick-a-dees visiting the feeder. I sure enjoy watching their antics.

Tomorrow night we’re going to a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game with Eric. The rest of the week should be less busy. We sure have had a lot going on lately. Time to slow down again :)

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

Hawk’s Nest

First, I’d like to say thank you to those of you who sent us congratulations and well wishes for our fourth anniversary of fulltime RVing. I was especially touched by this comment from Merikay.

“Yes, it is hard to believe that it has been four years since you wrote the post "Dreams do come true." I printed it and had it on my wall for most of that time.”

Thanks for the kind words, Merikay. One of the reasons I write this blog is to share our fulltime RVing stories. When Kevin first told me he wanted to be a fulltimer, I did a lot of research and read many blogs. All of that information helped ease my mind as to what it was that Kevin wanted me to do. It feels great to hear that some of what I’ve shared has impacted someone else in a positive way!

The weather has improved ever so slightly over the past few days. We were actually able to get out and walk our three mile route on both Saturday and Sunday. The sun managed to come out once in a while, although it was rather windy.

All but one of our campsites were occupied for the weekend. People sure do knock on our door for some odd reasons. We got the typical people wanting to buy firewood or asking questions about paying or registering. Then we got the guy who wanted us to identify some tree pods and nuts. Another guy wanted to talk about our truck. Someone wanted to know where to buy propane (understandable in this cold weather). Someone else wanted to let us know the water in the bathroom was running. (It does that for a bit and then shuts off automatically.)

But, the most annoying person was a guy who lives across the road from the park. He knocked quite hard on our door. When Kevin answered, he started yelling at Kevin about someone from this park knocking over his mailbox and how it happens all the time. Turns out this was only the second time in many years. Kevin saw a motorhome that is in the park turning around in the guy’s driveway after missing the entrance to the park, but did not see it hit the mailbox.

The guy had already gone around and knocked on the door of all the campers in the park and accused everyone of hitting his mailbox. Kevin got him to calm down and told him to stop harassing our customers and to call the sheriff if he was that upset. In fact, if he didn’t calm down, we would call the sheriff for him! Well, he did calm down and finally left. The next day we saw him repairing his mailbox.

Yesterday Kevin spotted a large nest in one of the hickory trees in the park. It’s probably about 50 or 60 feet off the ground. I think it might be a Red Tailed Hawk because I can see some red feathers on the bird sitting on the nest. It must be pretty cold sitting up that high when the wind is howling. Glad I’m not a bird!

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