Thursday, May 6, 2010

Finally! Settling in for a Full Week!

Date: Monday, May 5th

Parked at:  Fox Ridge State Park, Charleston, IL

Miles traveled:  192 miles ,  Sikeston, MO to Charleston, IL

Monday we took our time since we did not have a long distance to cover. Once again we had a very comfortable drive, arriving at Fox Ridge State Park at about 3pm.

IMG_0001

 

Ken always enjoys his talks with campground host, Paul, and was really happy to see him after all of these months.

 

 

 

We are here in Charleston for our youngest son, Trevor’s, graduation from Eastern Illinois University.  He will receive his MBA on Saturday.  Meantime, he continues to work at his studies for completing his CPA.  He is under contract to begin work with McGladrey and Pullen , in Springfield, IL in mid-October and through that contract they are paying his courses of study now for the CPA and the costs of the tests.

IMG_0003

 

Since she was going to be leaving to go back home to Palos, IL, for a few days, Trevor and his girlfriend, Leah, came out for a visit in late afternoon.

 

We talked a lot about summer plans.  Leah will be working fulltime at Nordstrum’s in the Chicago area this summer. She has one more year to come back to finish her fashion merchandising degree at EIU in the fall.  Trevor will be coming back to Quincy at the end of May and will be working for the QND football program.  Primarily, during the summer, this will mean running the weight room 3 hours early morning and again 3 hours late afternoon, along with help with camps. Then come season he will work as D-Line Coach and Strength and Conditioning Coach.  Between all of this he’ll need to continue to move forward on his CPA reviews and exams.

IMG_0007 

We get such a kick out of watching the dogs with Trevor.  While Kyle was already out of the house by the time we got Ditka and Sox, they came in to our house as pups having Trevor around everyday and there is no question that his is ‘part of their pack’. As soon as he pulls up the car, they start yodeling and squealing for his attention.  Sox immediately expects to become a lap dog!

 

The team was having a barbeque for the graduating players so Trev and Leah had to leave before dinner.

After a trip in to town for some of Ken’s favorite pizza, at Pagliais, we came back to settle in for a nice long stay in one place.

If asked the biggest lesson learned in this two month full-timing experiment, it would be that the way we planned this trip is NOT how we would full-time.

We moved MUCH to often.  In fact, after we started the trip, we said our planned moving every two days to get to the Carolinas was too much, then every 3 days was too much, then every 4 days was too much.  Now we are settling in for a week and REALLY looking forward to it.  And, this is in an area where we have explored for several years so there really isn’t a lot new to do, so it will definitely be downtime.

There are only 3 other rigs in the entire park and so, at night, we are getting to enjoy listening to the uninterrupted sounds of nature all around us.  There are several types of owls here that make for interesting listening after dark, and we are lucky that the mosquitoes don’t seem to have come out in earnest yet.  This makes long evenings sitting outdoors pure heaven.

IMG_0009

On Tuesday, Ken washed the RV.  He did it with buckets since this is not a place where he can do this with a hose and a lot of water.  While that was going on, I went to town to stock up on groceries and do a few things online using the internet at the boys’ house.  Trev was going out with the guys that night, so Ken and I whipped up some spaghetti for dinner and had a quiet evening at the campsite.

Ken and Trev golfed on Wednesday with roommate Kevin Mahoney, and then Trev came by for dinner at the rig. 

I’m writing this on Thursday.

Ken has been nursing some back problems for several months and has decided to pay a visit to Trevor’s chiropractor here in Charleston, since this doctor has done really good things for Trevor over the last several years of football.   I’ll drive him in to Charleston at 2pm for that appointment.   I plan to use that time to drop in to the local coffee house in Charleston, Jackson Avenue Coffee,   and post this blog, check emails and catch up on blogs.  Unfortunately, while we love the seclusion at Fox Ridge, it is one of the few places that my Kindle doesn’t even consistently get a signal, so I need my internet fix!!

I continue to be thrilled with using LiveWriter and Picassa for blogging since I can have my posts completely written and photos applied while offline, enjoying the lovely weather here under the awning while I do so, without a care of weather I can maintain adequate internet signal.  Then when I have wifi, its simply a matter of hitting publish and I’m posted. 

Ken just came back from a walk to the pond and is totally frustrated with our camera.  We’ve known for sometime that the mechanism for putting out the lense was shooting craps but now it seems that it will actually working only about 1 out of 5 times which is not at all good heading in to graduation weekend.  The picture below, of the spring flowers overlooking the fishing pond, may be one of our last from this 6 year old Canon as it sounds like I may be getting a new camera now for Mother’s Day!!

IMG_0012

Hugs, C

6 comments:

Myrddin said...

Cindy,

We had the same problem with a Cannon. Lens quit working about a month after the warranty expired. Tell Ken to bump the side of the camera with his hand. I was able to use it for a while longer after doing that.

We bought a Nikon and haven't had any problems with it.

Have fun at the graduation.

Jim and Linda

Happytrails said...

Congratulations on all the wonderful accomplishments of your son. I know you and Ken are very proud parents. :)

Enjoy your campground and the great sounds of nature. Also enjoy the lack of mosquitos....here in Georgia we have plenty. Got to light those citronella candles. LOL

Mike & Gerri (happytrails)
http://freedom2roll.blogspot.com

JB said...

Any excuse to get a new camera works for me. Unlike Myrddin I am a die in the wool Canon guy and recommend any of their Digital SLR's. Their lense selection is better than Nikon's and I have never had an issue. Well there is the one that went in the river when I got bucked off ("http://downtheroadfromdogpound.blogspot.com/2009/08/more-yaha-tinda.html")that ultimately went into the recycle bin but I guess they never claimed to be waterproof.

Unknown said...

Hey Jim, you and Ken must think a lot alike. We have been nursing along this lens issue for about 6 months. Bumping it a certain way, taking it in and out several times, even applying a bit of graphite got us through for awhile. We really did love the ability to have one camera that could do so much.
And yes, JB, like you that made us go back to the Canon again. The same exact camera basically but SX20 now.
We brought this new baby home last night. Just totally awesome!
And, Gerri, you'll appreciate the comment Ken made to friends last night. They asked which campgrounds were his favorites and he said any that were free of 'no-see-ums'!!

Hugs, C

Debbie Goode said...

Sounds like you and the furballs are having a grand time. It is hard to break out of the 'vacation mode' mentality....a lot of us start out that way and soon learn.....we have all the time in the world and it is OK to stop and smell those roses!!

Frerx Adventures said...

Hi Debbie, good to hear from you. In reading your blog sounds like you are much further down the road figuring out how to get out 'vacation mode' than we. I love to follow the unique things you do to personalize your decor. We are still in that mode of putting as little out as possible because it takes too much time to pack/unpack....another reason to quit moving so much!!
Hugs, C